Barcelona vs Juventus
(UEFA Champions League April 20, 2017 – )
I will not write it as a blog post and I will not write it as an article where you can read, learn and understand what went wrong. I will just shout it out for you.
They lost (0-3 on aggregate) because they do not have a plan B and they do not have the bench strength.
Plain and simple. Every team in the world has a plan B but Barca don’t seem to have one. Even Real Madrid has BBC (Benzema, Bale and Cristiano) but when things do not work out they bring on Morata or Isco. Barca rely too much on Msn and hence do not generally think of a plan B.
Note: Letting your central defender play as forward is not considered as plan B (unless of course if that man is Sergio Ramos). Pique is a good option but he looks more like a Plan C.
Ranieri has said that Barcelona’s dominance has come to an end but I have to disagree on that. The failure of Barcelona is mainly because of the coach.
No offence but playing Mathieu in the first leg killed it for them. Also bringing on Gomes was not a smart move either. This is why I say Barca lack bench strength. When your team is down and need a goal scorer you need someone who is confident and in form. Sorry but Gomes is not that guy for them right now.
Another mistake made by Luis Enrique was to bring in Mascherano with 3 goals needed and 12 minutes to play. I am sorry but when your team needs goals you simply bring in a players who will score goals for you and not someone who has never scored a goal for your team in his entire life. No offence to Javier (one of my favorite players) and maybe the coach is going for a new formation but that move just felt so wrong. Mathieu here would have been more helpful because Barca had started to put long balls and cross ins. Unfortunately he was not available.
What do they have to do now?
They just have to pick themselves up and prepare to beat Real Madrid in the El Clasico that is coming up in a couple of days’ time. They will have to do this without Neymar.
They also have to look towards the future. What do they need to change? Which players to bring in.
They have to address these issues as they cannot rely on Iniesta and MSN (Messi Suarez and Neymar) all the time – They have to understand that they have not been able to replace players like Xavi, Puyol and Dani Alves and they need to do it before it is too late.
Just my 2 cents on the match and Barcelona FC. What are your views on it? Put in your views and thoughts in the comments section below.
—-
Barcelona vs Juventus
(UEFA Champions League Dec 09, 2020 – )
Déjà vu
Here we are again. This loss of 0-3 will put them 2nd in the table behind Juventus.
It’s strange to see how the team has changed and unfortunately the score remains the same. Barca are trying to build a new team and only Messi remains(Pique out injured and Busquets on the bench). No Suarez now, no Neymar and no Inesta; at times it feels like Messi has to do it alone but even he was not able to beat Buffon. In all these years I have never seen Messi hit so many shots with his left and not score a goal (combining this match with the laliga match against Cadiz).
Whats improved for Barcelona is the bench and they can look at other options if the things are not working out for them- Coutinho was available but it seems like Dembele is out again with injury. Dembele is the type of player Barcelona needed in this match as he could have turned things around with his pace.
What remains the same is the defense and they are struggling with it the way they have been struggling for the past so many years. Lenglet looks solid but they need one more. I am going to finish this post by updating it with player ratings:
Messi: 8
Griezmann: 6
Pedri:6
Trincao: 6
de Jong: 7
Pjanic: 6
Dest: 7
Alba: 7
Araujo: 6
Lenglet: 6
ter Stegen: 6
Some players from Barcelona will have to step up and start performing if they are to achieve anything this season. Griezmann is getting there and his all round games looks sharp as ever he needs to put in more goals, Coutinho needs more play time + goals and Pjanic will have to provide more service. Puig needs more time on the field as he has the legs and the hunger which goes there in the midfield of any footballing team that needs to win matches.
—
About Me (Jimmy Thakkar)
When I am not designing websites and building ecommerce sites, I pretend that I am a football expert.
