I said the same thing because it was true too. Last season you vastly underperformed in the Champions League in relation to the quality you have. If you struggled against Chelsea and Roma it wasn’t because you didn’t clearly have a better squad than them.
Pique and the NT... I don’t think that needs an explanation really and it has nothing to do with how good he is. Alba is the second best left back in the world by a mile, he had a bad game today but even if he played a whole season like this he’d have been better than Gaya or Sandro last season.
Pique is a double edged sword, today he costed us a goal and scored another, sometimes he might cost us and don't give anything back (remember his hand vs Russia for example), other times he adds... he's too inconsistent if you compare him to Puyol, Marquez or even Umtiti right now, I liked Vermaelen over Pique last year for example.
Alba, you can tell me what he offers as a player, he's fast, has a lot of gas in the tank but that's barely it, he leaves a hole in our left side too many times, he's not a great associative player like Alves or even Adriano was and he surely lacks skill to create something on his own, he doesn't dribble, doesn't have a good shot on him or is he good at crosses (Sergi Roberto isn't Becks second coming, but at least his crosses carry threat potential, they aren't put to random spots of the area). Saying that Alba is a top 2, to me, it's like saying Sergi was a top 10 LB through the nineties, they might get the job done for us when we're firing on all cilinders, but when we struggle they usually are a big part of the reason of our problems.
Suarez is easily a top 5 striker in the world too and nitpicking some stats to make it seem otherwise won’t change that. Saying you’d prefer to start Paco alcacer ahead of him is mental. Suarez scores 1 goal every 2 games for both club and country, even now he outperforms Cavani for Uruguay ffs... I 100% guarantee you that next season Luis Suarez will still be your starting striker, there’s noone you can buy that’s better. He’s definitely declined but he’s still one hell of a player and he’d start for pretty much every team in the world. He’s being made into a scapegoat every time you don’t win a game regardless of how he plays.
You might say it's mental but that's just the way it is, same way Eto'o or Villa worked better for us when I think we all agree Ibra was a better player than both of them, it's about what the club needs and how we're set to play, with Uruguay his hustle and positioning are better used in a long ball style, were Cavani brings a lot of work and positional playing too.
We're too static for him to make such a difference, and the less he scores, the more we want him to score, and the more he comes deeper to get in touch with the ball, that hurts us even more, when he gains confidence, like past January, he plays more as a "matador", and the qualities he hasn't lost yet (strength, finishing in one/two touches, creating havoc in the defense) come to shine, only for him to hit bad form again and fall back to playing the way he did 4 years ago, something he's not able to do.
And I don't think in a world with Kane, Lukaku, Ronaldo, Neymar, Mbappe, Cavani, Icardi, Salah or Lewa it's a fair thing to say he's top 5 undoubtedly, for the past season in a half I don't think he was better than Higuain at club level for example, and...
sigh... Benzema
Barcelona have the best squad in the world, the constant need of the media and plenty of fans to find scapegoats and downplay the quality of the team is unique to your club. If you don’t play like the best team in the world, it’s because your way of playing isn’t getting the best out of those players, it’s not because the players lack quality.
Can you explain me why a team with players like Coutinho, Dembele, Malcom and Suarez apparently is dependent on Messi to create chances and score goals? It doesn’t make sense to me.
Well, for starters we come from one of the best (if not the best) squads in history, so it's always easy to find less than that a downgrade, but going deeper, you can see this team has a lot of flaws.
But well, even tho we can concur that, name by name, we have one of the best squads in the world (don't want to get into this technicality, let's say that there's 4/5 teams at the same level) our chemistry and the game plan vastly reduces the quality of this team when they're on the pitch.
1) Our defense is weak, since we have only two pure defensive options, from Alba, Semedo and Roberto we lack one of those coveted "defensive Wingbacks" that let's us turn from a 2-5-3 in attack to a 3-4-3 when defending counters, so we're frail at the back, especially when we don't have the ball. Busquets it's the best DM in the world, but once you're able to send the ball over his head you don't have to deal with him as a factor and you actually attack only two players,
Xavi talked about it already 4 years ago for example and Lucho in his last season tried to work around it with 3 at the back using Mascherano, but he didn't have all the right pieces for a 3-4-3 and they let him go before he could complete it. Valverde's 442 only helps us reduce the amount of instances that happens by making it easier for the team to get dull possesion in midfield with an extra midfielder, but doesn't solve the problem.
2) Our midfield lacks an idea, by names (this season) we have great players, but together they don't fit that well, I already talked about how teams "ignore" Busquets in a way, Rakitic is a hard worker and a great player, but he isn't a creative force in the manner Kroos, Modric, Pirlo, Pogba, Isco, Thiago, KDB, Silva or Pjanic (who we were interested in years ago) are, he's either a direct player (Sevilla vs Real years ago highlight that style) or a box-to-box, but not a field marshal. Coutinho... we'll see if he can adapt to that role of moving the team around with Messi, we missed a player like him vs Roma for example. Beyond that we have doubts, I doubt Arturo Vidal will show his best version, but I'm happy he's here, I doubt about Arthur or Suarez being good enough to claim a spot from Rakitic/Coutinho and that could hurt their development and future performances.
3) Our attack... IF we played a 343 to overcome the problems of our defensive frailty, we could use a more direct approach and play our front 3 at a faster pace, Suarez and Dembele would benefit from that, Malcom too, Messi would feel liberated if he faced defenses in panic instead of 5 men dealing with a static attack... but if we start playing faster, cutting inside aggresively, crossing more (even tho we lack aerial prowess, we have 3 great 2nd line finishers in Leo, Cou and Rakitic) or dribbling more, we risk gifting the ball away just for them to mount a counter against our two CB's.
Why does everything work around Leo? Because, as with Argentina, he's not only a great goalscorer, he's the best player in the world at hiding the ball away (Modric rivals him at this). You can balance a poor built squad with many downsides just by putting him around the 10 spot and let him help you have the ball, if there's no option to try a forward pass or open to the wings he comes back, dribbles a player, pass to Masche/Busquets/Rakitic or whoever, moves around and tries it again. When Messi isn't in the field the team has to attack more directly, gives the ball away and everything crumbles from not only players that aren't fit to be together in the same 11 at the top level, but haven't properly trained those mechanism because they got a football "bug" named Messi that let's them get away with team flaws in the midfield zone.
Examples of that?. You have plenty in the last 6 months, vs Sevilla away, vs Levante, Argentina vs Spain or the way Roma "ignored" Messi by hoofing the ball above the midfield and Dzeko won his duels, this happened back in the 90's when Valencia showed everyone how weak our style was to counter attacks, our midfield dream trio + Messi and Guardiola's work helped us bring that legacy back but Real started nailing us the same way Valencia did (Ronaldo's goal in the Super cup, for example), we're stuck at the same turning point that had us not win a single title for 5 years before, but now we have Messi to keep us clawing at trophies.
