Champions League | Matchday 6

Not sure how much you can blame Xavi, Barca’s squad is so poor. A few peak players, none world class apart from De Jong, veterans and youth players. Within that, really unbalanced. Their best player wants to play where their 2nd/3rd best player wants to play. A player gets injured and it’s teenagers on. A shambles of a squad. The teenagers will no doubt end up good eventually, but they’re well off the best players in the world yet.
This is expected though. That whole financial debacle, having to get rid of Messi on such short notice... they'll need years to rebuild the team into something. Maybe one of the youngsters will explode and be the next Messi. But this year is pure damage control.
 
It obviously helps having a easier League but how good are Bayern ? They have been immense for the last 3 seasons.
They are ruthless in Europe
We're not consistent enough yet. We lost 0:5 to Gladbach in the cup and in the league to Frankfurt and fecking Augsburg.

I wouldn't trust our defense against Liverpool or City.
 
We're not consistent enough yet. We lost 0:5 to Gladbach in the cup and in the league to Frankfurt and fecking Augsburg.

I wouldn't trust our defense against Liverpool or City.
In Europe uses are ruthless. Obviously Liverpool and city would cause problem but their some of the best sides in the world
 
Sevilla going to EL right now

Sevilla, Leipzig, Dortmund, Porto, Atalanta/Villarreal - then some of the teams that are in it already like Leverkusen, Betis… would you be that surprised if West Ham on current form beat Barca? I wouldn’t.
 
Barcelona started with this: Ter Stegen-Araujo-Pique-Lenglet-Alba-Busquets-De Jong-Gavi-Dest-Memphis-Dembele

They could have stuck Gavi in the front 3 and started Nico in midfield and drop Lenglet

I don't care how they look right now and how easy it is to claim these are crap players. They are not. Busquets is still routinely the best player for Spain, even starting ahead of Rodri and the choice is more than justified. De Jong is one of the best DMs in the world too. Memphis is the netherlands star, and coming off several great seasons in france. Pique and Alba are still good and Araujo is the one player who always looks good for them. Dembele is going to have a lot of suitors come next month. Dest was wanted by Bayern

This team really should not be this bad. Not now, not with Memphis and Dembele on the pitch
 
Sevilla, Leipzig, Dortmund, Porto, Atalanta/Villarreal - then some of the teams that are in it already like Leverkusen, Betis… would you be that surprised if West Ham on current form beat Barca? I wouldn’t.
It's EL. Only team that matters is Sevilla
 
Barcelona in the Europa League, never thought I'd see the day.
 
Barcelona started with this: Ter Stegen-Araujo-Pique-Lenglet-Alba-Busquets-De Jong-Gavi-Dest-Memphis-Dembele

They could have stuck Gavi in the front 3 and started Nico in midfield and drop Lenglet

I don't care how they look right now and how easy it is to claim these are crap players. They are not. Busquets is still routinely the best player for Spain, even starting ahead of Rodri and the choice is more than justified. De Jong is one of the best DMs in the world too. Memphis is the netherlands star, and coming off several great seasons in france. Pique and Alba are still good and Araujo is the one player who always looks good for them. Dembele is going to have a lot of suitors come next month. Dest was wanted by Bayern

This team really should not be this bad. Not now, not with Memphis and Dembele on the pitch

Coman, Sane and Gnabry I’d all have over Depay. And you said it yourself De Jong is one of the best DMs in the world. Busquets is the DM. So not even playing their best player in his best position.
 
Lewandowski is such a ridiculous player, that pass to Davies from inside his own half was so precise it landed on his feet.
 
Looks like Bayern is to become the first team who wins all six group games two seasons in a row.

They drew Atletico on the 6th matchday last year, playing their B-Team.
But they are on 25 wins from the 27 games in the last 3 seasons (1 draw vs Atletico and the loss vs PSG last year) with a GD of +70 (91 for vs 21 against)
Edit: +71 now
 
Coman, Sane and Gnabry I’d all have over Depay. And you said it yourself De Jong is one of the best DMs in the world. Busquets is the DM. So not even playing their best player in his best position.
They are all better than Depay for me but the big difference is them 3 have Lewandowski, Muller and other top class experienced talent around them while Barca rely on the likes of Depay
 
3-0 and it's not even a good Bayern. The first half of the game was pretty poor from a technical standpoint (Kimmich and Goretzka would make a big difference). How low the Barça has fallen.
 
The scary part for other teams is this Bayern haven’t been great yet still score loads. The even scarier part for Barca is that even a poor Bayern performance is mailing them
 
Chelsea runners up - still half expect them to somehow get drawn at home to Bradford City in the round of 16
Careful … Chelsea fans will be here in no time again reminding us of their incredibly harsh draws in the last 60+ years while at the same time reminding us that we drew Olympiacos and Sevilla in the last 16 (conveniently leaving out that we also drew RM and PSG).
 
Coman, Sane and Gnabry I’d all have over Depay. And you said it yourself De Jong is one of the best DMs in the world. Busquets is the DM. So not even playing their best player in his best position.
So play them in a double pivot. It's not rocket science! De Jong's best quality is his ball carrying...

They have other youngsters like Demir, they have Coutinho...feck sake

Tell me true: ter stegen;dest-araujo-pique-alba;De Jong-Busquets;Coutinho-Dembele;Memphis-De Jong

I'm not pretending this would be some great side or anything. But it would be at least a CL caliber side
 
3-0 and it's not even a good Bayern. The first half of the game was pretty poor from a technical standpoint (Kimmich and Goretzka would make a big difference). How low the Barça has fallen.
Kimmich, Goretzka, Sabitzer, Cuisance - that's four CMs not available today, so they started with a double pivot of their fourth choice (Tolisso) and a makeshift solution (Musiala, usually an AM). Bayern are fielding a 3241 system without any real DM. No wonder this doesn't look great.
 
Careful … Chelsea fans will be here in no time again reminding us of their incredibly harsh draws in the last 60+ years while at the same time reminding us that we drew Olympiacos and Sevilla in the last 16 (conveniently leaving out that we also drew RM and PSG).

But it's true, the first part at least :lol:
 
Some high profile teams in the EL this year. Good for the competition you would say. When was the last time Barcelona were in there?