La Liga 2020/21

scudetto_boy

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I think Barca players need to pull their finger out, stop throwing tantrums & play their best game-all of them.
 

giorno

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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.
Yeah, by all means keep him involved, but it's time to accept that he's at the same stage as Modric - good in small doses against tired legs, or in easy games at home

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.
Defensive transition is an issue and likely will keep being so because of the personnel. Same thing that happens with us. The best thing Koeman can do for that is to play Dest on the right and bring Sergi Roberto back into midfield

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.
Personally think for big games Koeman should go with De Jong in defence in a back 3, Sergi Roberto and Pjanic in midfield and Messi-Ansu Fati-Griezmann in attack
 

FootballHQ

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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
Of course, I've said many times Barca were carrying too many over 30s who simply aren't that great anymore. Vidal was a relatively easy one to let go of but you had Pique pretty much saying after Bayern game he wouldn't have an issue if Barca decided he wasn't what theye needed any longer, got a new 4 year deal the other week.

Busquets another who would've been under threat, he's being rotated in and out of the team more regularly this season at least.
 

Cait Sith

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:lol:

Barcelona could have scored 10 in the second half. 5 in the last 10 minutes alone :lol:
Bit of an exaggeration. xGoals were 2-1 for Barca. 1-1 until the red card in the 64th minute. And this is Alaves, a team that fought relegation last season. Going gung-ho in the final minutes against 10 men that are forced to defend does by no means mean that Barca dominated and were unlucky.
 

Cait Sith

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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
Where do you see a great team there? Fati is the only player where you could say: "That's Barca potential right there." The rest of the players are either over the hill (Messi, Pique, Busquets, Alba, Griezmann, Roberto) or you have to pray really really hard that they get a whole lot better in the future (De Jong, Démbélé) because as of now they are disappointing week in week out.
 

Daysleeper

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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?
Koeman has been fine, they’re going to need some time. We’ve been quite unlucky so far but we’ll figure out.It’s a rebuilding year for Barca
 

Daysleeper

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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.
we do have a game in hand over Madrid but I don’t think anyone was expecting us to win the league this year.
 

paraguayo

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Absoltely pathetic penalty given by VAR to Elche.

Even with the terrible handball rule, this is even more harsh than the rule itself. What a joke!
 

FootballHQ

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Just read in the paper today that Atletico Madrid got special permission to sign Kondogbia now than in January.

Are one of their CMs injured as they've got Saul, Koke, Lucas Torreira, Llorente and Hector Herrera as options for the two CM positions so hardly lacking.

Think Kondo is fantastic player so he'll give them that extra box to box quality they've been missing from Partey leaving.
 

Inter Yer Nan

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Just read in the paper today that Atletico Madrid got special permission to sign Kondogbia now than in January.

Are one of their CMs injured as they've got Saul, Koke, Lucas Torreira, Llorente and Hector Herrera as options for the two CM positions so hardly lacking.

Think Kondo is fantastic player so he'll give them that extra box to box quality they've been missing from Partey leaving.
Saul has just got back from injury. The others are fit. Great signing yes. Bit strange they got special permission. Have no idea what made the case special but as an Atletico follower I am happy they did!!
 

FootballHQ

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Barca-Betis will be interesting. Betis won at Camp Nou two years ago I think and got plenty of good players in midfield although Fekir is missing.

Messi on bench so front 3 of Fati-Griezmann-Dembele.
 

giorno

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Special dispensation was because of Thomas
 

wr8_utd

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Griezmann is the worst footballer I've seen this season. He's genuinely managed to get even worse than last season which is quite astonishing.
 

FootballHQ

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Sanabria scores again, having a good season for Betis. Career that hasn't quite fulfilled its potential but he's still pretty young.
 

Idxomer

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Nice dummy from Messi, Griezmann scores into an empty net.
 

Peyroteo

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This is an hilarious game to watch from a defensive perspective, both teams are so bad. The amount of space players get is ridiculous and both midfields are so soft
 

RashyForPM

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Thank God Fernandes and Messi played as they have today. No more Penandes or Pessi.
 

Hoof the ball

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Messi's influence when he came on :lol: Even the goal that was Alba's assist was really Messi's assist because of the insane dummy. Who else would pull that off in that position? Ballsy as hell.
 

Daysleeper

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When dembele is healthy he is so so good. Griezmann needs to be benched ASAP. Love Pedri so far, what a fantastic talent. Shame teams won’t play a high line against us every week, that was a fun game, even if the defense was woeful from both sides haha
 

FootballHQ

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Really good result for Atletico Madrid tonight considering how good Cadiz have been so far. No excuses, they seriously have to challenge for title this season and I'd back them to finish above Barcelona.
 

appleman

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Even though I'm a fan of defensively focused play as well, it's so much easier to consistently like watching Atleti this season haha.
I love that my boy Correa is finally hitting form way more consistently, if you paid attention he had the most talent in the squad (before João Félix though) for a while but mentally he could almost never get it out. I'm so happy to see so much of him now and that he clicks well with Félix who hit magical form this year. He's so so good.

I think the new approach helps Savic too, I never trusted him against quality strikers but he seems a bit more composed now at least.

These first minutes of Kondogbia were all right too, the (offside) hollywood pass to Joao was amazing.

I hated Suarez before him joining, but his runs really do make things better for João and Correa, so I'll glady embrace him with my hypocritical arms.

Cádiz probably my second or third favorite team, so breaking their insane away record so far was sad, but oh welp, Atleti first. :)

Good times for an Atleti fan, hopefully the Bayern return won't get us back to our senses...
 

appleman

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Just read in the paper today that Atletico Madrid got special permission to sign Kondogbia now than in January.

Are one of their CMs injured as they've got Saul, Koke, Lucas Torreira, Llorente and Hector Herrera as options for the two CM positions so hardly lacking.

Think Kondo is fantastic player so he'll give them that extra box to box quality they've been missing from Partey leaving.
With all the transfer rumors going on around Atleti it seemed they wanted to use Torreira to replace Herrera, who ended up staying. Kondogbia was allowed to come because of Thomas leaving to Arsenal at the last minute, out of their control (release clause activation is controlled by LaLiga, not Atleti), so that gave them the special permission to get a replacement (at 25% of the transfer income because of the COVID financial support rules - explaining the insanely low costs for Kondogbia, probably some future, easy, clauses in that deal, or a very financially desperate Valencia). Plus Llorente is more of a winger/supporting striker at Atleti, and somehow a really good one at that.
 

Lay

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Hoping Atletico can win the league this season. Is Lemar playing much at all?
 

FootballHQ

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Looks like Fati might be out for 5 months, huge blow that.
 

Lay

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Villarreal top of the table but played more games. Not that I think they’d be champions but if they did, would they be the smallest city to be champions of Spain?
 

appleman

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Hoping Atletico can win the league this season. Is Lemar playing much at all?
He's been playing a little more frequently recently. It's partly due to Saul, Carrasco and Vitolo injuries, though.
But at least it seems that he's been struggling less than the past two seasons. He assisted the Felix winner against Salzburg.

Sometimes he goes on these weird dribbles seemingly with no use, but against Cádiz I was glad to see he didn't lose the ball while during so and he works hard whenever he plays.
 

FootballHQ

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Granada stats today:

Shots on target: 0

Shots off target: 0

Corners: 0

But just seen their team and half of it are youth team players so this is the lopsided nature of covid e.g. playing a team when it's got half its regulars in isolation. They're usually a very tricky team to play home and away and started well in europa league (beat PSV away).
 

giorno

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VAR needs to work faster on such straightforward situations

And Soler scores this time. 1-1
 

giorno

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Looks goal and it is

It's a joke that spain goes to VAR for this instead of using the goal line tech

And I am officially tired of Varane. Sell him off please
 

FootballHQ

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This is a bit of a poor show from Madrid no? Losing to Valencia with half a youth team playing for them.

Looking at stats and Valencia had much better of game aswell but I guess Madrid always have tough games at Mestella.
 

JuriM

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Are Real Madrid players drunk or what's going on. 4-1 and Carlos Soler 3 pens scored.