UEFA Champions League 2019/20

[Arjen Robben]

Honestly, I think most of these signings Barca make are basically made out of pride by the time they finally complete the transfer, in some "we always get our man" type way. Like there seems like there's been absolutely no plan in place for any of these players for when the actually signed, but they were so determined to sign them that they couldn't be seen to not get what they wanted and flex their muscles a bit.

There was absolutely no point in signing Griezmann, like Gazz said, they barely seem to even want him once they got him. Overspent on Dembele who has done basically nothing but get injured. Coutinho, similarly to Griezmann, is a player that basically had no natural position to fit in to that wasn't already taken, and absolutely was not a priority signing for them. Years of making signings in positions that aren't a priority, and still even getting those wrong every time has left them absolutely fucked.

Still trying to play that style of football with players like Pique, Busquets, Vidal in the team, and no pace, when every other top team basically plays an aggressive, counter pressing, full of pace at this point is just nonsense.

[DavidMarrio]

Since selling Neymar, Barca have really shot themselves in the foot with the people they have brought in. Like they've got such an aging squad in certain areas and they've not adequately brought in players  who they have stuck with and who will be able to help shape the next generation of Barca team. 

The majority of their midfield/forwards are players on the wrong side of 30, they have a winger in Dembele who is always constantly linked with moves away and doesn't stay fit for a sustained period of time, they've got Griezmann who pretty much felt like what Fergie would do in signing a player from a rival...except when Fergie did it ala Van Persie it helped them whereas Barca just don't know what they want to do with him. 

Coutinho when he left for me as a Liverpool fan it was like thank god it was him and not any of our current front three as he was the one who didn't really fit and if you was to sell someone it was him. We robbed Barca and it's basically made our squad. Whereas for them they've got a player who has the ability but they just didn't either have a role for him or didn't want to give him any sort of time. It's part of that typical Barca tapping up someone they wanted with their players going Oh I love him come here...then he got there and it's like now what? 

Doesn't help that Barca is an absolute mess behind the scenes with player power and bickering a key feature, it must be hard having the best player in the world but at the same time has such power behind the scenes as well. Like Setien getting appointed came out of nowhere and was so random, who do they go for now? Koeman has been linked for a while, Poch is available like where do they go now? That's not even taking into account the whole situation with the president and the financial situation at the club. 

Basically in a nutshell you've got a club who have brought players with no clear plan in place, kept resigning aging players on stupid contracts that has subsequently impacted upon them financially along with said buying of players with no plan in place, recent chopping and changing of managers and player power. Barca just needs gutting and rebuilding again 

[Adam]

I don't watch tonnes of European football I will admit, but how much of that Barcelona squad do you look at and say "he would improve any team in the world"?

Messi is a given, but I'm genuinely not sure I think anyone else is from looking at their squad, and that's unusual for a team of their supposed calibre. Several players are on the wrong side of 30 with their best days behind them and the rest are all "good, but not great" individual players.

[Tigerstyle]

So what we’re saying is, that Barcelona is the one true test for Pep?

[TCO]

33 minutes ago, Adam said:

I don't watch tonnes of European football I will admit, but how much of that Barcelona squad do you look at and say "he would improve any team in the world"?

Messi is a given, but I'm genuinely not sure I think anyone else is from looking at their squad, and that's unusual for a team of their supposed calibre. Several players are on the wrong side of 30 with their best days behind them and the rest are all "good, but not great" individual players.

Ter Stegen, Busquets and Frenkie would be taken by any team in the world and Griezmann too even though he hasn't settled particularly well.  Argument to be made for Jordi Alba too given the shortage of top class left backs. Very few teams would say no to Lenglet too.

The whole Barcelona situation is a bit hyperbolic at the minute. Yes they're aging and a bit of a shambles behind the scene at the moment and they should be ridiculed after last night. I know they got demolished by Bayern but lets not act like they're not a team full with world class players. They've bought very poorly and have never fully recovered since selling Neymar but a lot of that is not having the right manager and the board being incompetent. It's not as big a job to fix them IMO.

 

[Arjen Robben]

• Ter Stegen probably would, even after his nonsense performance yesterday. I still think he's a very good goalkeeper. Think only a handful of clubs have a better one.
• Semedo, probably good enough for teams below the best of the best where he really isn't good enough I think.
• Pique is slow and I'm not sure that even in his prime years he wasn't still a bit of a liability at times.
• Lenglet seems okay, not really totally sure how good he is.
• Umtiti is good but seems to be perpetually injured with knee issues and it seems to have kinda ruined him?
• Alba maybe? For his attacking ability mostly, but not sure now he's on the wrong side of 30.
• Firpo, shrug. Probably fine, not seen enough of him.
• Busquets and Vidal are finished.
• Sergi Roberto I actually really like a lot, but I'm not sure what his best position is, he seems to be used at right back a lot but he's not actually a right back. Bit of a jack of all trades I think? He's a good engine in the centre midfield.
• Rakitic is probably done, but to be fair I'm not sure he was ever that physically gifted in the first place so can probably get by if he had more dynamism around him.
• Frenkie de Jong. Really don't know? Were him and de Ligt really overhyped to the point they were never gonna live up to it or not? I dunno if de Jong has just not fully had the chance to lock down a position in the starting lineup at Barca or not. He seemed like the type of signing they should have been making when he signed but I dunno.
• Messi is Messi.
• Griezmann would improve basically any team. Unfortunate that the one team he signed for was the one that actually seemed to have no need for him and barely seemed to actually want him in the first place .
• Suarez I think still has something to offer.
• Dembele, I dunno, I can't really get a read on whether he's very good but just not a good fit for Barcelona, or if he's just not very good, or has been ruined already by injuries. Leaning towards the former cause this Barcelona team is just a mess and doesn't really seem set up for players to come in and thrive at all.

The only other players I can think of beyond those are Neto, Puig and Fati which is telling in and of itself of that team. Squad is paper thin, ageing and slow. Basically let themselves become AC Milan when they had an average age of about 80 in their team.

[Malenko]

I disagree about Pique. He was great at his peak in Barcelona and the vast majority of Barcelona fans wouldn't have traded him for anyone at the time. His ability to start plays from behind was great. There was never any need of an ugly kick ahead and both teams fighting to get possession of headed balls. Obviously at the moment it's risky to have him there but it wasn't always like that. You may not like his style, which is perfectly ok.

Also, answering a previous post I don't think player's speed was ever really mandatory in Barça's style of play. You had to play it fast but while the ball's moving there's time to reach the place you need to be. There's no need to be Usain Bolt. Obviously Messi isn't slow and at his peak he was usually able to break those few ties when Iniesta and Xavi just didn't manage to get them chances through their passing, first touch and technique but for the most part it really wasn't needed much. I actually think the biggest problem with their current team is they aren't able to keep possession as they did before because their midfield just isn't that good. And even at their peak they were kinda slow getting it back when Busquets wasn't playing anyway, but since it didn't happen much they still won with relative ease. Opponents get a lot more possession these days and therefore more chances. Some of those, end up being goals (a lot of them if the opposing team is really good as it was the case yesterday).

I understand their style isn't very popular n these boards from some posts I've read, but they do have many fans elsewhere. Most of them are really disappointed with how the last couple of seasons went and they've been really vocal about it. Most of them want a new chairman and a new coach. Bartomeu has been criticised for years and most fans weren't happy with Quique Setien's appointment. However, Barça's fans, for the most part, will hope their team is able to win playing that style. I can't see them ever being that happy winning the way Cristiano Ronaldo's Madrid won. Obviously I'm not saying they don't want to win - of course they do - but it just wouldn't be the same thing. Ugly wins, or rather what they consider ugly wins, are met with complaints from the fans. That rarely happens with Real Madrid's fans, mostly because they haven't really watched their matches anyway.  I kid... but really...

[Benjamin]

I still can't believe they let Arthur go for Pjanic. 

[Benjamin]

God I hope this goal stands.

[METALMAN]

Ederson’s neck tattoo is very unpleasant to look at

[Arjen Robben]

1 hour ago, Malenko said:

I disagree about Pique. He was great at his peak in Barcelona and the vast majority of Barcelona fans wouldn't have traded him for anyone at the time. His ability to start plays from behind was great. There was never any need of an ugly kick ahead and both teams fighting to get possession of headed balls. Obviously at the moment it's risky to have him there but it wasn't always like that. You may not like his style, which is perfectly ok.

Also, answering a previous post I don't think player's speed was ever really mandatory in Barça's style of play. You had to play it fast but while the ball's moving there's time to reach the place you need to be. There's no need to be Usain Bolt. Obviously Messi isn't slow and at his peak he was usually able to break those few ties when Iniesta and Xavi just didn't manage to get them chances through their passing, first touch and technique but for the most part it really wasn't needed much. I actually think the biggest problem with their current team is they aren't able to keep possession as they did before because their midfield just isn't that good. And even at their peak they were kinda slow getting it back when Busquets wasn't playing anyway, but since it didn't happen much they still won with relative ease. Opponents get a lot more possession these days and therefore more chances. Some of those, end up being goals (a lot of them if the opposing team is really good as it was the case yesterday).

I understand their style isn't very popular n these boards from some posts I've read, but they do have many fans elsewhere. Most of them are really disappointed with how the last couple of seasons went and they've been really vocal about it. Most of them want a new chairman and a new coach. Bartomeu has been criticised for years and most fans weren't happy with Quique Setien's appointment. However, Barça's fans, for the most part, will hope their team is able to win playing that style. I can't see them ever being that happy winning the way Cristiano Ronaldo's Madrid won. Obviously I'm not saying they don't want to win - of course they do - but it just wouldn't be the same thing. Ugly wins, or rather what they consider ugly wins, are met with complaints from the fans. That rarely happens with Real Madrid's fans, mostly because they haven't really watched their matches anyway.  I kid... but really...

At their peak though, their counter pressing was relentless, the pressure they put teams under when they didn't have the ball and forcing errors was off the charts, and they had pace and energy everywhere, those players have now largely either left or retired, and what's left are ageing and slow and don't have the physicality anymore, the younger players either aren't integrated properly or are quickly given up on and moved on in favour of older players. So now teams like Bayern are doing to them what they used to do to other teams and they've just let it happen through years of mismanagement, and terrible transfers with seemingly no plan or structure in place. Their youth system isn't churning out players like Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Puyol, Messi, Busquets, Pedro, Alba anymore, certainly not in such abundance anyway, Fati might be something, and Puig looks decent but I'm not sure he's ever going to be a Xavi or an Iniesta. They need to start getting it right in the transfer market and they need to have a proper plan in place, Guardiola reshaped that team on the field from top to bottom and gradually it's just gotten worse and worse and stagnated. Even their choices of manager have gotten stranger and stranger. 

[Benjamin]

Well, it's been coming for a long time  

[TCO]

Sterling just had one of the worst misses I've ever seen. Fucking hell, just side foot it in!

Now it's 3-1. Fantastic!

[DavidMarrio]

Get fucked City!

Pep out. Bald fraud...

[Benjamin]

That was fantastic. Congrats to Lyon, they've got one more giant to slay!

I know it's just one season and under weird circumstances, but put some respect on Ligue 1's name.

[gunnar hendershow]

Germany restarts early and finishes first, France doesn't even resume its league. The final four being composed of 2 German clubs and 2 French clubs shows that, yes, not having an absurdly grinding schedule actually helps teams.

[Tigerstyle]

Yeah Pep should pack up and take over Barca again. It’s the logical point in the story.

At least I haven’t got to tell the few City fans I know that their potential CL win came with an asterisk

[Kyle]

There were probably better ways I could spend five minutes. However:

 

[METALMAN]

I think not having two legs has helped make this champions league a bit more interesting than usual

[The Lusophone]

That Sterling miss is why Kane didn't square it. *nods*