Think if he let go he wouldn't have given itNot many refs giving a penalty for that.
1-0 Sociedad
Messi has done nothing this match. I honestly forgot he was playing about 30 minutes in.I don't get Valverde. He has a great selection of players and yet against the slightest quality opposition it reverts back to, "Please bail me out, Messi".
Think if he let go he wouldn't have given it
I don't get Valverde. He has a great selection of players and yet against the slightest quality opposition it reverts back to, "Please bail me out, Messi".
It is a foul. That it happens a lot and often doesn't get called doesn't change thatYou might be right. But still.
It is a foul. That it happens a lot and often doesn't get called doesn't change that
Messi has done nothing this match. I honestly forgot he was playing about 30 minutes in.
When the opposition is playing football and the Barca midfield isn't working overtime they're gonna have a tough time defending since they don't exactly get big defensive contributions from the front 3.
They have one loss, one draw(at home to slavia prague) and all wins since October. Basically once they got healthy and fit and the new guys settled in, they had two bad results in more than two monthsBarca to me simply can't impose their game on opposition away from Camp Nou much these days.
All those CL big defeats in last few seasons and in league this year they've already lost in Bilbao, Granada, Valencia (Levante) and drawn at Osasuna. Could easily draw/lose today and were pretty lucky to win at Atletico Madrid.
Ultimately the aura they have at Camp Nou means they'll always win 90% of league games there to give them a great chance of winning the league.
Suarez is a good presser but with age he's not as good as it and there's also a gap between midfield and front 3 so the pressing isn't really there. Last season the pressing was higher but not good enough and it left the defense exposed quite often.Suarez is a monster pressing, and Griezmann has been criticized because he spends more time helping at defense than at attack, at worst, only Suarez and Messi get a pass defending without the ball, but Suarez still likes to press.
Our problem in days like this is that Busquets legs are long gone, if he gets overloaded he's a liability since he can only scrape by thanks to positional defense, and Alba gets bullied and beaten by any player that wants to take him on, his only good defensive trait are his back runs, and as he gets older, he becomes worse at it.
Defensively we're a better team with Semedo/Firpo as LB, De Jong and Rakitic/Vidal, everything beyond that is not at the level this team requires.
Pogba, Rashford, Martial and Maguire for Odegaard, thank youOdegaard is a serious player. Wish we weren’t so obsessed with Sancho and bagged him.
Pen for them was clearcut. This one i'm not sure. Looked like they held each other. If not it should have been penaltySoft pen for Real, no pen for us for an even worse action.
Thanks VAR, seems we're not allowed to lead the table before facing Real Madrid
Odegaard is a serious player. Wish we weren’t so obsessed with Sancho and bagged him.
Soft pen for Real, no pen for us for an even worse action.
Thanks VAR, seems we're not allowed to lead the table before facing Real Madrid
Pen for them was clearcut. This one i'm not sure. Looked like they held each other. If not it should have been penalty
Busquets was only the shirt for around 5 seconds, he hasn't stopped, you clearly can give this pen.
now before the end, Pique was holding the opponent down, so something completely different.
Ole effectWe didn't have a chance with Ødegaard, unfortunately. Madrid nicked him at 16 and it's not as if they'd be willing to part with him.
They have one loss, one draw(at home to slavia prague) and all wins since October. Basically once they got healthy and fit and the new guys settled in, they had two bad results in more than two months