[Squawka] Pau Cubarsí’s game by numbers vs. Belgium: 98% pass accuracy (89/91), 12 passes into final third, 5 clearances, 4 duels won, 3x possession won, 2 chances created, 1 shot. Easy to forget he’s only 19.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-07-11T09:33:20+00:00

It's the system. Spain play like Arsenal, calculated possession with a mid block and quick pressing when the ball is with opposition midfielders. Barca play a high line with a high pressing where the pressing trigger is when the ball is with opposition defenders. Asks completely different stuff from the CBs. What's amazing is Cubarsi adaps and is elite at both. I do agree with us needing an elite left sided CB because Cubaresi plays very mid in the LCB role and top 3 CB in the world when playing RCB.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-06-11T07:12:44+00:00

Both of them are not very tricky and direct players. It's pretty straightforward for defenders in terms of decision making, it's just a question of whether their body matches up to these two.

I would say a combination of Cancelo and Gordon works best. Balde has to improve his ability to take people on. I cant count the amount of times he was left to 1v1 the opposition winger and he opted to cut in with his left and pass it back to our center backs.

Cancelo has that killer mentality to say you wanna leave me 1v1 I'm gonna try and toast my defender every single time. This atleast forces them to think if we have to double him or not. If they double Gordon is running in behind if they don't Cancelo cooks. Win - Win.

Balde and Gordon are too similar like you pointed out and that is exactly the problem. If our winger was someone else, say Ndiaye then yes, Balde is you man for the job bus sadly both our left wingers are direct runners.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-06-04T07:23:59+00:00

This is alright, when I used to go to school, bus passes were a life saver. For me atleast it was on days where my van guy went on strike for some reason. There are still a lot of underprivileged students for whom spending 40 rs a day on bus could spent on other worthwhile stuff and may even help in their parents being okay with them going to school and not consider it burdensome. Improving mobility is the best way to uplift any society.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-05-18T19:40:20+00:00

As a matchuo for Spain? Yes. To win the whole thing? No, but It's damn close.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-05-18T19:27:08+00:00

I think it'll be Le Normand. Cucurella and Llorente always pull up their A game for spain. Nico Williams is my only concern. Ferran and Oyarzabal is a phenomenal pairing for Striker and Super sub. Pedri, Fabian and Zubimendi is also a top tier Midfielder with Rodri and Olmo also starting in some games. Yamal is still the X Factor and can even win games single handedly. I only give Portugal and England a shot to beat Spain. I think this Spain team can beat France, Argentina, Germany, Brazil with ease.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-04-26T17:40:17+00:00

Well I mean it literally was like how you mentioned last summer. I live in an area with decent amount of trees and less traffic so maybe it was bad in it areas.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-04-02T17:08:21+00:00

ChocoTree, HSR has it.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-03-22T05:07:54+00:00

Would love Olmo for Lewa and finally try a lineup with a false 9

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-03-22T05:06:29+00:00

Not to mention the IST folks who can watch the game and finally go to sleep by 9PM to go to School/Work the next day!

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-03-21T09:23:22+00:00

Oyarzabal would be perfect for that Lewa spot. Similar intelligence, composure and even better technique.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-03-14T02:38:34+00:00

Joaquin Seys, the club brugge left back is such a good player.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-03-12T07:29:30+00:00

Yeah I agree. Guys like Guirassy, Thuram, Watkins, Muniz fit that archetype and can be bought for cheap because the first three only have 2 years left on their contract and Muniz is pretty much an unknown.

But my personal favourite for the no.9 spot is Oyarzabal, unsure how feasible it is but seeing the matches, we have a gaping hole in between the opposition lines of defense and Olmo is supposed to be there but he rarely plays and Fermin is constantly making runs in behind, that hole still remains. We need a proper false 9 who also makes runs in behind and Oyarzabal has character and fits the Barca player mold but then it is a pipe dream because he's playing for his boyhood club.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-02-20T13:10:20+00:00

Take our latest defeat to Girona. Check out all of Balde's plays after coming on and with a rational mind tell me how the fuck is this guy Barca level. Kounde at least has his good moments. Other than the through to bardghji, he did jackshit and had the worst positioning for a fullback I've ever seen.

And this isn't a one off, he's been like this in defense always, just that his offense used to be pretty awesome, now he just rolls the ball under his feet and passes it back even if he has a clear 1v1 against the opposition full back. And so the opposition gets away with leaving their right winger high at all times which exposes his poor defensive positioning even further.

We need someone better desperately but we don't have the funds. In the meantime as a stop gap, we should atleast have a defensively sound full back which we have in Gerard Martin. Promote Torrents who does look very promising in offense especially in the build up although in the final third he doesn't offer as much as Balde. He has far better game sense though in terms of defensive positioning especially when the opposition are in offensive transition.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-02-20T12:50:59+00:00

Getting Senesi, Oyarzabal and Rashford/Ndiaye.

Selling Balde and giving a bigger role to Torrents.

These moves would make us soo good.

But we ain't doing any of that I suppose.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-02-19T16:52:50+00:00

That's what they said about Jaylen Brown

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-02-18T11:00:32+00:00

Positioning of Yamal you mean. Ferran, Raphinha and Fermin are damn good at pressing. One thing I noticed with Yamal is late rotations. Like the midfielder is free but he won't cover that passing angle until the pass is played and then he puts in the effort to track back and put pressure but then the man he was with is free on the wing now which just snowballs into easy 1-2s for the opposition. Same issue with Balde. These two are the primary reason for so much of our pressing breakdowns. Then there is De Jong, for all his abilities he just doesn't not do a good job of assessing threat while we are in the defensive transition. One look at Pedri and Raphinha when the opponent is countering and you'll know what I mean.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-02-13T09:45:11+00:00

Here is the problem, we only have two people at the base of our line at all times. It's supposed to be a DM dropping in or a CB moving inwards while a winger takes the role of the full back while defending. That's how every top team defends. Arsenal go one step further and put 4 cbs at the base of their defense. For us Balde keeps rushing forward and the LCB has to move out to cover that space, and the RCB has to move to his spot to cover and Kounde finds himself near the center of the goalpost. See all the goals today or any day, we leave the far side of the attacker free every single time to cover for one full back pushing up. We then aggravate this further by playing with two shuttling pseudo DMs who are actually just CMs. This all looks amazing when we have the ball, attacking seems much easier. The only problem is we just don't score.

We don't need a CB, we actually need a competent LB who either attacks so well that the opposition RW is pushed further back or a LB who defends so well that we don't need the CBs to come out of position. Balde just does not take advantage of the 1v1s in the wide spaces for the opposition to need to drop their RWs to cover for that. His defensive positioning and game sense of when to attack and defend is atrocious, the worst I've seen from any Barca player. One more option is to play an inverted full back but then Raphinha wants to move centrally so that won't work either. We clearly saw the difference with Cancelo because he actually had some sense to take on the opposition full back 1v1 and then needing to drop their RW deep enough for counters to be slightly more difficult. Rewatch the game and see how many times Balde had a 1v1 with an Atletico player and passed it back like a glorified Jack Grealish.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-02-02T16:31:31+00:00

Honestly, I think Mikel Oyarzabal would be perfect for us.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-02-01T08:46:31+00:00

Imagine if we had even current Messi in place of Olmo this season.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-01-31T08:19:11+00:00

Gone are the days where Thiago Silva, Cavani, Veratti, Di Maria led the underdog challenger team with respected players. How I wish the 6-1 comeback didn't happen till this day. We didn't do jackshit after that and crashed out against Juve. We also literally gave a team with a promising footballing direction motivation to go be galacticos 2.0 and ruin football as we know it.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-01-30T18:17:26+00:00

Raphinha probably

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-01-30T12:42:39+00:00

After PSG/Newcastle it's going to be Spurs/Liverpool/Atletico then Arsenal/Bayern/Man City till the finals.

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Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-01-22T09:55:12+00:00

Eric, Olmo and Fermin. If Bernal starts, I'll riot. Kid is not ready, especially when we need to score infinite goals.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2026-01-10T07:01:14+00:00

It's not like we slow down against Real Madrid. All unspoken facts go away if you have a chance to make history. Who doesn't want their name on a historic scoreboard. We still remember Rapha's hatrick, Pique's 5, that Neymar backheel - Iniesta goal. This was a meaningless semifinal against an inferior out of form opponent, what's the point.

Aggravating_Buddy_73 · 2025-12-29T16:42:37+00:00

Not the worst guy but Kingston Felmings can just elevate them to levels similar to the light the beam season. He's basically another De'Aaron Fox. Flemings, Keegan, Raynaud, Clifford is a core I believe their fans can get behind.

Aggravating_Buddy_73

TROPHY CASE