What happened to Busquets. Seems like success has gotten into his head or something. A few years back he was every football hipsters favourite player. Now he looks like he can't be arsed anymore.
Lionel Messi
- Thread starter cesc's_mullet
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I was just thinking the same. What the feck happened to Busquets? From the best defensive midfielder in the world into a joke. Maybe he lost his motivation and needs a change?
Sometime you need managers like Sir Alex, Mou to make tough decisions. You simply can't take players based on name and reputation. Whatever it is, both him and Pedro have regressed significantly.
It isn't just Busquets, the entire MF core of Barça 2008-11 has waned... Xavi understandably due to his age, though whenever he plays they noticeably keep possession a lot easier; Iniesta and Busquets because as specialists they are too reliant on Xavi's influence -- or to put it more bluntly, they're too limited to maintain their level against better opposition when they don't have Xavi conducting the flow of the game.
Neymar's problem has nothing to do with being "lazy", it's his decision-making that's lacking... so often he doesn't know when to release the ball and he ends up turning it over. That should improve with age and experience.
I think it's just the type of player he is though. I mean he constantly hogs the ball, he rarely ever releases it when he should. He's just a greedy player.
You could see Messi getting frustrated with Neymar repeatedly cutting in and trying to unleash a shot which ultimately ended in him gifting possession to the opposition. It is not like he is a pure inside forward with limited passing ability and vision as well. He is actually a very good passer with the ability to link-up well if he wanted to. Tbf he is still just 22 and can improve his decision making aspect in the future. Or he could let the hype and stardom go to his head and end up as a selfish maverick who clearly won't fit in well at Barcelona.
Iniesta really has been phoning it in for more than 2 years.
He was excellent at the World Cup imo and probably the best Spanish player out of that disastrous campaign.
He was not excellent by any means. He was Spain's best player, but for all his quality he was outshone by a platoon of players at the World Cup.
I think 2 years is a bit extreme but he's definitely not performing well. The longer it goes on the harder it is to expect him to come out of the slump. Maybe all his injuries have caught up on him? He doesn't seem to have that same rapid burst over 3 or 4 yards that got him away from players in the past.
I think he played well, some of his ball retention is just ridiculous.
Clarion is right. Barca's away record in knockout ties even under Pep was poor for what is hailed as one of the best teams of all time.
Damn you're spoiled. Pedro worthless? Alves shit at crossing? Busquets lazy and a liability? The fact of the matter is that Barcelona doesn't have a plan B and are bad at defending counters when they are trailing. That's their problem. It's way more tactical than individual.
I have never thought Busquets was as great defensively as people make out. Fantastic player though. Why don't Barca attempt a midfield duo of Busquets and Mascherano in the tough away games for the extra solidarity that is clearly needed ?
Dunno why they don't (or even if they should) but I think they should try and adapt a bit more. I don't think they can reasonably expect to dominate away from home against everyone any more, need to be a bit more pragmatic.
As far as I remember, even under Pep their away European record record wasn't great...but at least he tried different things, like playing Keita in centre midfield for his athleticism and moving Iniesta out to the left. Plus back then they didn't have the ultra attacking Alba and Alves in the same team which helped.
I agree. Maybe not 2 years but he's certainly not been near to his best for a while now. Obviously Xavi's been declining for ages now too.
I'm still baffled by the sales of Thiago and especially Cesc given the above.
Fabregas I can understand a little bit because they wanted him to be Xavi's heir, even though that wasn't his style, so they never really played to his strengths and got the best out of him. Thiago looks like he would be perfect for them now though, IMO.
This. I don't get why they can't see that teams like Real Madrid or PSG yesterday have hit them hard on counters more often than not. That didn't usually happen with Abidal on the left. Now that Alves is declining, they should really consider this aspect. I doubt they will do it though, since it seems like Luis Enrique wants to play with attacking wingbacks due to the wingers being placed more centrally.
Another thing they should revise is their midfielders playing more out wide than centrally, though that started this season under Lucho. I read somewhere that Rakitic played about 30 passes to Alves and only two or three times to Iniesta. The same thing happened against Malaga with Rakitic passing to Douglas instead. I think Iniesta and Busquets suffer from this as this tactic limits their passing options centrally, leaving Busquets more exposed.
To counter this, they should try a double pivot with Busquets and Mascherano, as someone mentioned earlier. Not only can they play a proper CB in the defence, they also get some added physicality in midfield. Rakitic or Iniesta can play in front of them. As for the backs, either Mathieu or Vermaelen should be on the left to make the team more balanced. It seems unlikely that they will change their approach to away games in Europe, but if it's true that Luis Enrique is more pragmatic than Pep, I can see him mixing it up a bit.
Why have they stopped pressing like psychos? It helped make them the most unplayable football team I've ever seen.
Probably too hard to keep up year in year out. They abandoned it years ago though...whether it was intentional or just through exhaustion is another matter.
I've come to this thread to see the latest Messi worship party line yet it's all about Barca's poor away record?
Messi thread
People were getting wish to their steroids and blood doping.
fixed
Neymar is usually lazy. this is what worries and irritates me. Our build up for attacks in general is slow and i find this the main problem with us this season.
Pedro should have been sold in the summer.
I don't find neymar lazy. He's just not got a great at footballing brain.Neymar is usually lazy. this is what worries and irritates me. Our build up for attacks in general is slow and i find this the main problem with us this season.
Pedro should have been sold in the summer.
I reckon things will be better when suarez comes in. Messi has been brilliant and just needs more support. Suarez is an intelligent footballer so that should make the unit more cohesive and give messi another team player to link up with.
I am not spoiled, just beacuse some of the players are home-grown, I will not defend them without a reason.
I don't know how much you watch Barca, here's a simple question - when was last time these 3 players had a "cracker" in a tough, important game? Through last year, when did these players gave a match winning (or match saving) performance in a crucial/tough game? More importantly, out of how many games do they come-up with such a 'good' performance?
As for Alves's crossing, his stats this season in the league are 8/44. That's less than 20% success rate. Yea, he sucks at crossing, nobody needs a telescope to know this. The fact that he thinks crossing the ball is a good idea when we players like Messi/Neymar in the penalty box shows his lack of IQ.
Edit: Shit, it's Messi thread..getting derailed unfortunately.
Such a poor form of argument. Putting someone on the spot fishing for specifics. I can name a game and you will disagree. My memory isn't exactly storing specific Barcelona performances from last season. If you're not a supporter it just blends together.
I've watched enough Barcelona to know that Pedro and Busquets are far from poor players. Pedro is winger and will drift in and out of games. That's normal. Alves might be finished now but he's definitely not shit at crossing. He's been your plan B for years, if you could call it that. Only one that can cross. 20% isn't bad. If you think that's bad you should check out the average. The absolute best have about 1 in 3 success rate. Usually the last minutes of game where your side isn't winning it knocks down the percentage. This season isn't a benchmark for anything anyways. What about all the other seasons. How many game winners have there been from a Dani Alves assist? He has over 100 assists for Barcelona. How many of those do you think have been from crosses?
I was also not aware that a player has to have a match winning performance in order to be not considered shit. It's also impossible in that side because no matter how well you perform Messi will pretty much always have a better game. That puts the bar pretty high which brings me back to the original point, that you're spoiled. It's hard going from the best side in the world for some years to having more than one challenge for the title.
I also think other teams have found a way to deal with that a lot better than 4 years ago. That's also why Spain is not as dominant as before
How can you say that about me? I explained my views well. You explained your views which I was arguing against but you also used a hasty generalization. That's what I was saying was a poor.
The long-time brewing tax fraud case has rolled another step forward.
The legal argument over whether fraud charges against Messi himself could be dropped in favour of pinning all the blame on Messi's dad has been decided today with the Judge insisting that Messi is still accused of fraud.
Over the past year there have been a series of negotiations between Messi and the tax office over unpaid tax from 2010-2012 and it looks like this has been resolved with payment of the backtax and a fine.
However the fraud case that relates to 2007-2009 has not gone away. The likeliest outcome remains a big fine for Messi and a non-custodial (probably) sentence for his dad.
http://as.com/diarioas/2014/10/03/english/1412339827_799169.html
The legal argument over whether fraud charges against Messi himself could be dropped in favour of pinning all the blame on Messi's dad has been decided today with the Judge insisting that Messi is still accused of fraud.
Over the past year there have been a series of negotiations between Messi and the tax office over unpaid tax from 2010-2012 and it looks like this has been resolved with payment of the backtax and a fine.
However the fraud case that relates to 2007-2009 has not gone away. The likeliest outcome remains a big fine for Messi and a non-custodial (probably) sentence for his dad.
http://as.com/diarioas/2014/10/03/english/1412339827_799169.html
Still having a ball on the field. This could be a big distraction, the sooner it ends, better for Messi.
Tax trial... Humm time for a cheeky bid?
Though in truth the only club I could see him going to is bayern to play for pep again
Still even if there is only a tiny possibility of him considering the move let's chuck all the money we have at it
Though in truth the only club I could see him going to is bayern to play for pep again
Still even if there is only a tiny possibility of him considering the move let's chuck all the money we have at it
signs a shirt for a pitch invader
Hilariously, there was another pitch invader directly after that one who couldn't spot Messi and ended up settling for Higuain
Even though it was a kick about, there's definitely something missing from the Messi of a few years ago.
I think his role is starting to change, tbh. Maybe it's because his lost a yard of that explosiveness or whatever, but he's dropping deeper and acting more of a playmaker, as opposed to mainly a goalscorer.Hilariously, there was another pitch invader directly after that one who couldn't spot Messi and ended up settling for Higuain
Even though it was a kick about, there's definitely something missing from the Messi of a few years ago.
If it clicks, might make Barca a lot more dangerous, as teams used to only focus on snuffing out the goal threat from Messi, especially over the last season or 2.
Hilariously, there was another pitch invader directly after that one who couldn't spot Messi and ended up settling for Higuain
Even though it was a kick about, there's definitely something missing from the Messi of a few years ago.
He's had an excellent start to the season in a deeper role. Barcelona aren't looking to pass it to him at every given opportunity either, and he's playing behind two selfish gits in Pedro and Neymar.
What an arrogant prick, how could anybody like him?
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