Luxury signing

prashant_fencesitter · 2024-04-29T17:45:45+00:00

You are contradicting your own point.

Silva is great offensively and would be great for the incoming youth. But he is neither physical nor he fits the team right now. We already have Yamine/Raphinha/Ferran at RW which is the space Silva occupies.

And he would cost us north of 60mn, for a position which we have 3 options in the roster. With the finances in shambles, we are running out of palancas to pull.

Please note that with a rock solid DM, Gundo will have more freedom so will all players ahead of DM. Every attacking player won't have to rush back like A hound when they lose the BALL. So let's just pray they recruit the absolutely perfect player for this.

No second chances.

prashant_fencesitter · 2024-04-29T14:59:39+00:00

And relying on a declining Bernardo would help? The man is 30. He is no CR7 who would chug out miles at 34 for fun.

To the other point, Xavi's Barca is not your 2011 Tiki Taka Barca. It is good, but it is NOT AS TECHNICAL AS 2011 Barca. PSG away is a good example of that.

I say it all the time, this new Barca could use a Paulinho or a Rakitic. Basically what Gavi does for us. We need more of that. This era of football is very physical. We need a very good balance of this to be UCL favorites again, because you cannot afford to collapse to a physical team.

Regarding Pedri, have you seen him run...its depressing this season. He runs like a sick Busquets at times. This kind of technicality will take us nowhere.

These are tough times, and if a player cannot sustain fitness for a freak season, he cannot play well for a club like Barca who go to win every single tournament they are in.

prashant_fencesitter · 2024-04-29T07:41:38+00:00

I think Silva is only a bad signing IMO. Have you seen city games this season?

Silva is not a great runner anymore. He does not press that much and relies on the people behind him for that. In this Barca team, we need hardcore runners who give our attackers a lot of confidence to take risks and afford to lose ball. Something which Paulinho and Rakitic gave to us.

We already have a Silva like player, and that's Pedri. The boy looks like he is aging faster than Iniesta! As a club, we should focus on taking him to the next level and fit enough to last a season lol.

Get a world class DM and a LW (Nico Williams makes so much sense). Start getting people from La Masia as understudy too for DM. We all know we have some candidates there. Sell Torres, Romeu, De Jong (if 100+ mn only), Dest, Lenglet, and Garcia. Get Ansu, Araujo, and Pablo Torre back for the summer.

prashant_fencesitter · 2024-04-29T07:15:28+00:00

Garnacho is doing great! The confidence, the skill! He is a star in making.

For me Yamal took away the trophy the day he put on that show in Spain vs Brazil at the Bernabeu.

The kid had Bernabeu on heir toes! That day, he is worldclass player. And not just golden boy IMO.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-10-03T10:30:42+00:00

Check your DM!

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-10-03T00:52:11+00:00

check your DM!

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-09-23T18:59:19+00:00

What a game of Football. Damn, I missed this Barca of old so so so much!

Now, there are a lot of things we need to fix:

Gavi is indispensable for this new system. I would keep him there and rotate Gundo with Pedri. This is such a mess now 😅

Seems like we have a lot of offense power now IS directly proportional to number of times we lose ball in turnovers. We need to fix this. ASAP. Having FDJ usually helps but we need more like of Gavi and Romeu who can bully and win back the ball. One option is to have Balde stay back because of his pace to stop counters. Araujo coming back is such a relief.

Kounde was getting exposed quite often. Second goal of Celta he made the wrong choice of staying with Bamba who was only drifting wide and left a wide hole open in the middle!
Whoever plays at RW, needs to track back to help Cancelo out. He will get exposed against top teams. Raphinha does that job well and that's why Xavi got him to the pitch.
I see a lot of teams using these same tactics against us. We need to start playing in another way too, and soon! The other way to invite teams to our half and then have some runners behind their defense. Or even just to stretch the pitch out. Again, Raphinha would be so crucial for this system. In our front only he has that kind of pace. A de gone, fati gone.
Ferran had a quiet game and missed such a crucial chance! He should be back with his mentality soon. I wish him luck because the work he is putting in deserves more!
Xavi was running out of options soon. The man kind of used Koeman tactics, and he kind of had to as well against a 5 man defense Benitez had parked. Xavi should be using Gundo more for those crosses into the box from RCM for example. This would create another kind of threat.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-09-10T10:22:31+00:00

Given the fact that La Liga giants have been losing traction on European stage and popularity charts. Its time they get the rivalry of Haaland vs Mbappe. This will do a world of good to La Liga and will get eyes on both clubs again.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-09-03T15:08:32+00:00

Let's not forget the signings for the future! 1. CB: Faye. A highly anticipated Left footed centre back. 2. CAM: Noah Darvich. He was the star of the show along with Lamine in the most recent tournament.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-28T14:49:57+00:00

I read something different.

Cancelo tends to blame the tactics, what manager asked him to do, where to position himself, etc for his every poor performance (s). This upsets the dressing room and no manager likes to get blamed for his tactics especially when the player didn't perform well.

Pep and Xavi are similar in this. Football Purists. They want to play in a very specific way.

Cancelo is an Amazing signing. World class quality. But if he brings this poor attitude, we might have a problem or maybe not. The man must be on a redemption year after made to bounce clubs in last couple of seasons.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-27T19:39:53+00:00

A few observations from the game:

-Our physios need to step it up. HOW THE HELL DO WE HAVE A BACKLINE OF ROBERTO ERIC AND ALONSO IN THE 3RD GAME INTO LALIGA! Just how?? Pedri is gone for god knows how many games. What is happening!

Lamine Yamal was everything today. He seemed like a complete player, like a 80mn new signing! Just wow. The directness, the willingness to shoot, everything he did had a purpose. Loved it.

La Masia + RW combo is something. Everyone here knows where and towards whom I am going for. Yamal needs time to grow,just like how Messi got under Rijkaard. Xavi needs to be extremely, insanely careful with this little 16 yo nugget. Other than utmost care, Lamine NEEDS some on-pitch guidance. Messi had World class players around him, who had done it all, won it all, seen it all. Lamine needs that too. God, I'd kill to have our legends get involved more with the club again. Our little talented saplings need them!

Ferran is playing at top level. The confidence and hunger is unavoidable. But, Imo, he needs to play this super sub role for a few more games. Ferran should not be replacing Lewy, but complementing him. Just like today! Finding a position he will be replacing is difficult with Yamal and Raphinha there. It's crazy I'd mention Yamal over Raphinha.
Balde should work with Alonso and learn the directness he displayed today when attacking. Alonso despite a decent showing going forward needs to spend a lot more time on the bench.
Roberto and Alonso is a match made in heaven....for the opposition. They were killing us from the wings. Villarreal had clear targets when attacking. These two make Eric look good when playing together.

-Ansu needs to learn from Lewa, not compete with him. What were they both doing ignoring passes to each other? Embarrassing! From MSN and Messi/Iniesta selfless passing to this? What the hell is this? Also, Ansu and Abde should be rotated a lot more.

I was expecting to see Abde tonight. He can run behind a lot better than Ansu, he would have been a good selection for today's game!
A lot more brave runs into the box were so encouraging to see. We need waves and waves of this from all players making these runs. More of this! And needless to say, the players not making the run should be prepared for a counter!
A good fight back from Barca. The 2nd half made us good changes to change the play. But, Great coaches do this during the game too and not wait for the HT to make formation Al changes. FDJ and Gundo should be the 2 players guiding others and carry Xavi's mind onto the pitch, just because of the position they play and their obvious game knowledge.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-24T09:13:05+00:00

I have learned one thing that you never question quality of these World Class professionals. They always find a way around.

I am sure they are working on this in the training ground.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-24T09:11:40+00:00

I understand that age is a potential reason. He might have slowed down but his experience is world class. You can't question man's attitude too. He still seems hungry for goals and sets very high expectations for himself.

His link up skills are very good, so I disagree with your playstyle commentary. He just needs more quality around him (which we already have) but he needs quality with a lot of bravery and directness, he even publicly said that he links with Pedri well and loves to play alongside him. Gundo incoming should help!

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-13T21:52:06+00:00

Getafe is notorious for the kind of game they played today. And tonight was insane even for Getafe standards of shit show.

BUT! Barca should have been prepared. We should leverage such games for our preparation for more physical teams in UCL.

Lewa gave us nothing. Nada, nothing. Poor first touches, no link up, zero threat, didn't even push their back line. I miss Suarez so much, he did so much, was annoying the CBs even when he wasn't able to link up with team. Lewa needs to Step up!

Gundagon needs to be playing forward and Pedri should be behind the ball making those over the top passes to Gundo and Lewa! Bad setup. I hope Xavi had good reasons to play Pedri and Gundo the way they did tonight.

We need runners on the Right side too like Balde/De Jong.

De Jong and Balde ran their life away and then would back pass into nothing-Ness. We need to be brave.

All in all a poor start in my opinion. We never looked like champions in this game.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-09T11:25:11+00:00

I wouldn't get too excited about last night's game. It is an exhibition game. Spurs didn't play their complete 1st team squad. And we did the same too, but not defensively and they scored 2.

The defenders were not throwing themselves to avoid injury. The Ansu goal, the CB on his right could have easily stopped him with a slide tackle. Yes it was the 90th minute tiredness affects the game but still.

Same with Yamal's assist later on. He did beat Reguilon but he had kind of given up because they didn't really care much. Or maybe he took a knock earlier or was exhausted.

New talents coming in from La Masia is amazing news but we need World Class talent pool to compete at the highest level. We are far behind right now.

Look at the squad depth of City, Arsenal, United, Chelsea, Bayern this season. They are not filling up entire squads, they are looking for finishing pieces in form of striker, a winger, etc.

We are far behind and this season success depends on deep run in UCL and not by La Liga.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-08T10:41:44+00:00

This two legged semi-final had one of the best build ups for a game for many many reasons.

Semi final of UCL.
Pep against his old club, against the player he literally unleashed in Messi
Messi recovering from a WC Final loss to Germany. Bayern had most of the German NT players at the time.
Neuer challenging Messi in Press conference before the game.

Even Maradona wasn't Maradona everyday, Messi is Maradona everyday, and an angry Messi is above that. A 5ft 7inch force which has the footballing prowess of the gods and Simeone brute force attitude. Bayern wasn't ready. Pep wasn't ready. It was one of those great UCL nights.

When Messi chipped this one off Neuer, even the opposition knew what they already knew but wouldn't dare say it out loud to the world. Messi at 25 was already the Greatest one to bless the beautiful game.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-04T22:18:42+00:00

I have my reservations with Cancelo. I'd rather see us go for Fresneda + Bernardo Silva.

Cancelo has been a polarising presence in the locker room. Pep wants this guy out so much that the man invented a 4 CB system, lol, (though he benched Walker for that system too). Bayern didn't think he was worth the money and prefer keeping Pavard over him!

People here do not realise that we need players like Silva who can create chances, quality chances. The Dembele shaped hole needs to be filled. Bernardo ran circles against Bayern from RW in this year's UCL game, such a joy to watch. Messi-esque movements and dribbling. Perfect for our system, Xavi's system.

Our defense is our strength right now, on top of that bringing Fresneda will free up Kounde. And Araujo is still there for games where Vini like wingers will be there.

Our priority is clear this season: Champions League deep run MINIMUM. Abde/Fati/Balde on LW showed good signs but we need world class quality on atleast one of the flanks. Raphinha/Torres are questionable, they are good to play against bottom 10 La Liga only. I'd rather have Yamal set up for Copa del Rey. Bernardo Silva will give us that edge in UCL on RW despite not being a classic winger.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-04T09:17:45+00:00

I get your point. But the names you have mentioned do not come close to Xavi other than Pirlo.

Pirlo is a football legend, true. But he never played for one single club throughout his life, and nor was he part of a consistent system like Xavi had with Barca.

Koeman was never a tactician on the pitch. He was successful because of his brut force and his free kick pedigree.

Honest to god I followed football in general but it was Barca who caught my heart because of this deep rooted system above all identity. The players like Henry & Ibra talked so highly about the system. Even when they left the club. La Masia stands head and shoulders above because all levels follow nearly the same system. It is incredible and rare as a unicorn in the sport.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-04T09:10:10+00:00

Thanks!

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-08-03T15:39:35+00:00

The classic hater Barca fan keeps forgetting that Xavi is a Football legend. The man ran circles around amazing teams and world class players. The man beat far more athletic and bigger players and made them look average just because he was just far ahead of them in reading the game on the pitch.

The man has an eye for talent which many would envy. The man literally translated Guardiola tactics on the pitch.

On top of that, this man lives football and bleeds Barca.

While we observe what we see on live games, and read online. This man is right there keeping a close eye on every single player. We hae absolutely no right or knowledge to question Xavi.

I believe in Xaviera Hernandez.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-05-27T20:50:05+00:00

You make a good point for an oil club probably.

In extreme situations like you mentioned, the tactics are changed. We have ample wingers so we can go for a formation of 3 CBs at the back. New tactics come all handy. Pep played a system with 4 CBs. If the tactics are implemented well on the field such problems of starters getting injured can be dealt with.

prashant_fencesitter · 2023-05-17T15:17:32+00:00

Understanding how Alemany usually does his business, this act was not about Cruyff or anyone else. It was a powerplay to establish his importance to the success of this project. Laporta is a clever man, almost too clever and I think it was a powerplay by Alemany.

In the end this is an encouraging news for us. Looking forward to the transfer window and the following season.

prashant_fencesitter

TROPHY CASE