La Liga 2020/21

giorno

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I see Pjanic still gets screwed out of taking free kicks :lol:
 

FootballHQ

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Koeman knows he's finished dosen't he, slumped on the touchline.

Mad how Barca haven't scored in last 10 minutes, playing a 1-1-8 formation.
 

FootballHQ

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Messi is hating every second of this aswell. Sad end for him unless Barca actually peak for once in CL later stages.
 

Cloud7

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Is there scope for Koeman to return to the Netherlands job, where he was doing a good job, after he left them? I can’t imagine his Barcelona adventure lasting longer than this season.
 

Morty_

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Fati substitution made no sense to me, but beyond that, its difficult to blame Koeman for this result, they had so many chances to end this game, really unlucky.
 

Giggs' right foot

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Is Braithwaite at Barca some kind of wind up?
The post match studio on the danish channel I’m watching it on just said that he did not have one single touch in the 18 minutes he was on the pitch. That is genuinely impressive, when your team is Barça and they’re basically playing 1-1-8.
 

VBI

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What an intensely frustrating game to watch. They finally figured out how to get pockets of space but took until like the 85th minute to realise you actually need to shoot to score. I don't know if some of the players are actively on a don't shoot bonus or something, because it was getting ridiculous until that last period where they should have scored like 4 times.:wenger:
 

Lay

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The post match studio on the danish channel I’m watching it on just said that he did not have one single touch in the 18 minutes he was on the pitch. That is genuinely impressive, when your team is Barça and they’re basically playing 1-1-8.
No way!
 

carvajal

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I feel a little sorry for Koeman. He leaves a job to come and do the dirty work kicking players out, he attacks the referees, bets on young people like Ansu or Pedri (I don't know if out of conviction or necessity) and he finds a bored Messi with a very uncertain future where it seems that nobody takes him too seriously.
 

Pretzels81

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It would be curious to witness, for once, a great UCL run + mediocre Liga campaign by Barcelona (it's usually Liga champions + UCL debacle); it's shocking that they dropped 5 points against Getafe and Alaves yet defeated Juve 0-2. Anyway, can't see them winning the UCL with current Bayern, or facing Liverpool or City in the QFs or semis.
 

Hansinity

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Never understood why they forced Suarez to leave. Was it planned before to not plan with Suarenz anymore before Koeman came ? or completely Koeman´s decision ? Imo it is a huge mistake.
 

FootballHQ

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Suarez would have won them this game.
Of all the old boys they could've/should've got rid of he was probably the last that made sense. All round game declined but he still scored a decent amount last year and with all the crosses flying in at the end he'd have likely poached a winner.

Koeman should've seen sense and kept him as 20 minute supersub as it's not like he was that desperate to leave.
 

carvajal

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Regarding Suárez, sometimes an exit is not exactly motivated for a sporting reason but to change the face a bit.
Suárez and Messi evoke a lot of power in the dressing room, skipping the 8-2 consequences. The image of the veterans ignoring Setién's explanations
He was not the only culprit but he is Uruguayan, not Catalan like Alba.

Or maybe they just needed to get rid of the higher salary after Messi. Now they are negotiating a 30% pay cut
 
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giorno

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Suarez was set to cost them €30m this season minus whatever wage cut he would agree. They couldn't keep him even if they wanted to.(unless they let Messi walk)
 

Pep's Suit

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Messi's still seven goals from Pele's record. Was expecting him to already broke it by now. Ugh.
 

RashyForPM

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This is Atletico’s time, again. I’ve watched most of their games and they’re defensively sound as usual (not in the Champions League though) and this time attacking well and scoring goals too. Meanwhile, Real looks uninspiring and Barca awful, with Messi looking nothing more than ordinary at this moment in time.
 

Daysleeper

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:lol:

Barcelona could have scored 10 in the second half. 5 in the last 10 minutes alone :lol:
Exactly, we actually played a pretty good second half, alaves keeper turned into prime Neuer today. Pjanic needs to replace Busquets ASAP. We have already lost the league but this was a rebuilding season anyway. Koeman has been figuring it out.
 

Daysleeper

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Never understood why they forced Suarez to leave. Was it planned before to not plan with Suarenz anymore before Koeman came ? or completely Koeman´s decision ? Imo it is a huge mistake.
suarez doesn’t track back at all, him
And Messi both not tracking back has been suicide for us. On top of insane wages it was time for Suarez to leave although I wish the club handled it better. We need a younger striker though, playing without one (ask man city) is tough at times
 

Maciej

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So what's going to happen now at Barca?

Is Koeman going to be sacked? What's the background in this story? It's not just the Bartomeu thing, is it?
 

Bole Top

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they were without cover for Suarez for the last few seasons, now they're without him as well. you can't really compete without a single striker in your squad and it doesn't really have to be prime Suarez. it's a bit strange situation since I don't think Koeman is doing bad job and they don't look bad overall, yet their is position in La Liga is already bad enough given they're 8 points behind the worst Madrid side in recent years.
 

Pep's Suit

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Barca don't have anyone they could sell for decent money and can't even afford Eric Garcia. This is gonna be a long, long rebuild and keeping lethargic Messi doesn't help. Though Allegri was the right guy for them right now but Koeman probably earns only 1/3 of what he would ask.
 

giorno

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It's a young and relatively new team, with little preseason, playing every 3 days

These are growing pains for them. There is a great team in there, but they need time and a bit of luck. Koeman has got the right ideas in terms of strategy and tactics, but he seems to still be figuring out the personnel(one thing that should be clear by now: Busquets *cannot* start difficult or away games. Period). His ability to make in game adjustments though looks poor
 

Ishdalar

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It's a young and relatively new team, with little preseason, playing every 3 days

These are growing pains for them. There is a great team in there, but they need time and a bit of luck. Koeman has got the right ideas in terms of strategy and tactics, but he seems to still be figuring out the personnel(one thing that should be clear by now: Busquets *cannot* start difficult or away games. Period). His ability to make in game adjustments though looks poor
Him fielding Busquets seems like trying to gain a player for the cause, obviously if you've been watching him for the last 12 years you don't really take the reins of a team and think "I shouldn't even try to bring this guy back to form", but so far, it seems clear that Busquets doesn't have a role in this team, at least not an important one.

What worries me is his total lack of faith on Firpo, Alba looks good when the team dominates but, as usual, he shows his huge flaws when our left wing is asked to defend better, he can't rely on Dest playing LB all year because that leaves Sergi Roberto as our only RB option, that's not good either.

And then there's Messi, I think we have a huge problem, 100M/year big when you look at your star player and start questioning wether he's actually improving the team or blocking it from reaching its fullest potential, which would mean Griezmann as the 9, Coutinho as the 10 and Fati, Dembele or Trincao on the wings. Since he's played every single minute so far, it doesn't seem like Koeman wants to try that team anytime soon.