Barca always lacked depth in their squad, even in their best years, but now Xavi is 34, Alves is 31, Mascherano and Iniesta are 30 yo and the problem is even bigger. The fact that Luis Enrique had to play Sergi Roberto in El Classico is indicative of that. Not that I'm worried... As far as I'm concerned they can play with La Masia guys all year long, just beating them wont be the same.

Mensol

14536 Posts

October 26 2014 02:25 GMT

#6327

Balotelli's 90+4 miss against Hull City: https://vine.co/v/OhF2hQuvrAF

David Silva's incredibly goal against West Ham: https://vine.co/v/OhtItavZurp

Faruko

Chile34173 Posts

October 26 2014 02:35 GMT

#6328

Barcelona has 2 problems imo, a defense that can not even stop a taxi and a manager that respect way too much its players, i know Iniesta and Xavi are of such class that they deserve it, but they werent in the starting XI in the lastest matches, why now ? why against the best team nowadays ? they dont have the stamina anymore, especially in this matches. ç

Luis Suarez was CLEARLY not ready, he was the best player in Barcelona but after the first 35 minutes you can see he wasnt ready for a full match

Rakitic should have started the match, Suarez on second half, Xavi/iniesta too depending on how the match was going, pique and alves just doesnt cut it anymore, they lose every single 1v1 they have (and Pique does some seriously stupid penalties)

(And this barcelona doesnt knwo how to play without the ball, they show it here and against PSG)

Ferrose

United States11378 Posts

October 26 2014 03:04 GMT

#6329

On October 26 2014 11:25 Mensol wrote:
Balotelli's 90+4 miss against Hull City: https://vine.co/v/OhF2hQuvrAF

David Silva's incredibly goal against West Ham: https://vine.co/v/OhtItavZurp

Did Balotelli even touch the ball? It looks like it came off the keeper or defender and bounced away.

On October 26 2014 11:35 Faruko wrote:
Barcelona has 2 problems imo, a defense that can not even stop a taxi and a manager that respect way too much its players, i know Iniesta and Xavi are of such class that they deserve it, but they werent in the starting XI in the lastest matches, why now ? why against the best team nowadays ? they dont have the stamina anymore, especially in this matches. ç

Luis Suarez was CLEARLY not ready, he was the best player in Barcelona but after the first 35 minutes you can see he wasnt ready for a full match

Rakitic should have started the match, Suarez on second half, Xavi/iniesta too depending on how the match was going, pique and alves just doesnt cut it anymore, they lose every single 1v1 they have (and Pique does some seriously stupid penalties)

(And this barcelona doesnt knwo how to play without the ball, they show it here and against PSG)

It appears that they don't know how to play with the ball, either. They had 57% of the ball, but lost 3-1. Real Madrid played much more intelligently when they had the ball, and it won the game. Luka Modric completed all 41 of his passes, and Toni Kroos completed 55 of 58.

Meanwhile Dani Alves continues to be wasteful, he completed 0 of his 8 crosses (and only 1 of 9 in the game against Ajax midweek). Though it might not be fair to blame him, as Barca as a team only completed 4 of 27 (14%).

Ferrose

United States11378 Posts

October 26 2014 03:19 GMT

#6330

Double post sorry

Dante08

Singapore4202 Posts

October 26 2014 06:43 GMT

#6331

Guess the only bright spot for barca yesterday was mascherano. Guy is so underrated.

Maenander

Germany4927 Posts

October 26 2014 08:28 GMT

#6332

On October 26 2014 06:12 Ferrose wrote:
http://gfycat.com/SecondGargantuanFlies

Hakan's Leverkusen-sational free kick to earn a victory against Schalke. This guy is such a game-changer.

Already when he was with Karlsruhe in the third division he converted a lot of freekicks, his shooting technique is just awesome.

TerransHill

Germany572 Posts

October 26 2014 10:48 GMT

#6333

I wonder why Kroos never did corners like that at Bayern.

sharkie

Austria18764 Posts

October 26 2014 11:09 GMT

#6334

On October 26 2014 19:48 TerransHill wrote:
I wonder why Kroos never did corners like that at Bayern.

probably coach told him not to, you know current meta in football wants corners to get close to the gk

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

October 26 2014 11:30 GMT

#6335

Reports in English press is that Costa is fit enough to start today :D
Would be pretty cool if true but i am not holding my breath just yet.....

Will it be as entertaining as El Classico tonight? I doubt it but one can hope.

zeo

Serbia6343 Posts

October 26 2014 12:08 GMT

#6336

On October 26 2014 20:30 Pandemona wrote:
Reports in English press is that Costa is fit enough to start today :D
Would be pretty cool if true but i am not holding my breath just yet.....

Will it be as entertaining as El Classico tonight? I doubt it but one can hope.

It will be more entertaining for me at least

edit: 3 more hours till title deciding game hype! \o/