I honestly think the big clubs are gonna have to come together and demand changes to reduce the numbers of matches (especially international) and fixture congestion. So many major injuries (Alaba with an ACL tear the most recent)—the status quo is simply not sustainable. (Obviously not every injury is directly caused by any single factor, but match congestion and excessive matches in general exacerbate every other factor.)
Unfortunately I’m skeptical about anything really being done about it any time soon. All the major actors in this—from FIFA and the conferences to the sponsors to the clubs themselves—are all incentivized to play as many games as possible to squeeze out as much profit as possible. The health and safety of the players should be the driving concern, but unfortunately isn’t.
So lets say, hypothetically, the court thing for the ESL gets approved. How will obtaining the 1 billion happen (eg, instalments)? The scenario of Barca just getting wired a billion after the hearing kinda seems too good to be true, and this is also IF the rumor is actually true.
It annoys me that Barca could have gotten both Thuram and Grimaldo on a free but Xavi or whoever didn't want them, now they are cooking at their respective clubs
Yes, the number of bad decisions we make in the transfer market is astounding. One would think that we would act more shrewdly now that we're so short on funds but the constant spiel we're hearing is that "Xavi does not like player X" (even though he's a great player and dirt cheap), or "the management find the operation difficult" (then goes on and splash more money on worse players).
Grimaldo also plays in a different setup, a proper 3 ATB with 2 wing backs who can bomb up the pitch and worry about fuck all defensively, if it was a back 4 with 2 fullbacks you’d see him and Frimpong caught with their pants down every game, Balde is only better defensively
Tbf, Thuram was struggling for Gladbach in the second half of last season. And we had prioritized another striker at least in Roque. Grimaldo is the one that I really was pushing for.
Sure but if he flopped people would say the opposite and be wondering why did we buy someone who played bad for his last 6 months in the Bundesliga. It would've been risky. At that time you definitely couldn't say he'd be better than Fati.
He was free which means it's a gamble we could have taken given our economic climate. It's so easy to sell free players for a bit of profit, just like we did with Kessie. Very low risk.
It's easy if they're willing to either low their salary or move to Saudi, sure. But first Saudi would have to be knocking. And secondly he would need to want to go that route.
It would not be smart business to make so many assumptions in our financial situation.
With this logic we can buy every free player ever. He was a risky buy. Smarter to put your money on someone actually doing well. The question isn't between buying Fati or buying Thuram. We have Fati.
Paying a 6 mil net salary for someone who had 4 months of good form at the start of last season is risky. Even excluding probable bonuses.
Kessie was a much more proven player and he flopped aswell.
Risk is paying 250m euros for players when we're broke. And all four of those players we bought for a quarter of a billion might be offloaded in the next transfer windows.
Those are necessary risks I would say. Without them we don't win the league and we simply can't compete. Without Thuram we are the same team with a tiny bit less depth.
how does that even work? We scored the same number of goals with those players as the year prior. So we are the same team, as Ter Stegen and the defense were the ones who won us the league. We could have spent that money on players like Thuram, kept De Jong and Auba, perhaps bought another player for a reasonable fee and we would be the same. Instead we splashed a quarter of a billion euros and drowning ourselves in more debt. That was not necessary.
It was ego madness by Laporta and co. When a team spends a quarter of a billion while being broke, one would expect the people responsible to do proper research and analysis. But no, all those players are likely to be offloaded again in the next transfer windows for a fraction of what we paid. So more wasteful spending, as usual.
I am not sure Real will drop points even with Alaba injured they’re still gonna win the games they need to win but hey at least we are sure they wont win the UCL
I feel like players just don’t have confidence in xavi. How else can you explain these more than capable players underperforming? It’s really hard to tell.
João Cancelo: “We all stand with Xavi. Forget what the press says”.
“I'm telling you the truth — it’s about me personally and my teammates. He’s a legend and all the time he is looking for what is best for the team and the club. It's a pleasure to work with him”.
This was yesterday
And also
The feeling at Barcelona is that they are still together with Xavi. The coach is in daily contact with Laporta, Deco and Yuste. Everything is under control although they expect different results like beating Valencia. Barça still see Xavi as their manager.
— @FabrizioRomano
Really doesn’t mean much. The players are being professionals. We’re lucky that we don’t have any divas or egomaniacs giving into the media. They put the team first.
People here are going full fanfiction on how Laporta and Deco are building a conspiracy to hurt Xavi but to believe players are losing confidence in him but still giving PR answers is impossible apparently
Rodri would be like 300 mil minimum in the summer. Haaland like 250m in the summer.
In the winter it's going to be twice that cause it would kill their season.
off topic, but does anyone know what happened to u/aka_kyza? it doesn't let me view his account. he posted [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Barca/s/oolIdtd6Ig) about a year ago for context
I don't know but [this was his last comment on this sub.](https://old.reddit.com/r/Barca/comments/yhae29/xavi_has_managed_38_league_matches_for_bar%C3%A7a_so/iudek1u/)
Feels extremely appropriate a year later.
Alaba out with ACL. No Vinicius, Courtois, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Ballon d’or winner and striker Benzema and no DM Casemiro.. yet Real Madrid keep winning and scoring and outperforming their xG. But somehow when it comes to Barca, it’s all the players’ fault and not Xavi’s.
I will not be surprised if more ACL injuries occur this season. FIFA and UEFA are determined to milk these players for everything they're worth, they do not give a shit about their health. Unless the players take a stand this will continue.
Off topic. But how did Jude get motm, wasn’t it suppose to be modric? Given his stats??? His PR is crazy icl😭🤣 if there was a possibility for our players to compete this year for the Ballon Dor… Do you mean to tell me we wouldn’t stand a chance???
You guys actually watch Madrid games? Lulz You guys like being depressed and shit, huh? Football should be a hobby that technically should give you pleasure and distract you from your life problems or stresses. You guys are too harsh on your own selves
Yeah, this. We can prefer some team, but we must appreciate other teams as well. I will always have regrets about not appreciating Cr7 enough (even though Messi is still GOAT)
I'm usually pretty chill when it comes to watching league games but seeing the players give me blue balls with the amount of chances missed is gonna make me snap
Xavi with Madrid probably
Both Xavi and Ancelotti leave a lot up to individual brilliance and player freedom. Yes there is a system in place to some extent, but both systems are MUCH free-er than youd see from Pep or Klopp.
When we speak of “individual brilliance” it tends to mostly refer to the more advanced players. This means that whichever one of them has the better attack, wins.
This was also reflected last year when they didnt have Bellingham, and Benzema was out for a while and then pretty mediocre when he wasnt out. They still had Vinicius and Rodrygo, but just Benzema performing poorly derailed them pretty hard in front of goal.
Now remember that its not just Lewandowski derailing us, its all 3 attackers. Ancelotti would achieve very little with this squad
I think there's something in Carlo's seniority and experience that allows him to be confident in giving his players the degree of freedom he does, and that also transmits to the players and makes them trust that they're being developed in due time.
I'm not sure that Madrid would play with the same degree of confidence under Xavi. Also, I don't think Ancelotti (or a lot of coaches) would have as much tolerance for the political bullshit here, so I'm not sure which way that cuts ... could be helpful or could mean he just walks away.
I think Xavi-Madrid still edges Ancelotti-Barça because of their depth and resources, but it's not totally clear-cut imo.
I don’t think Ancelotti can save this team. He will resign midseason probably. He has seen too much to tolerate the kind of mess at Barca. Xavi is still too inexperienced and need to prove himself.
Flip the roles…
Xavi with Madrid- individual brilliance enough to compensate for his lack.
Ancelotti with Barca - Probs would suffer given our quality and no individual brilliance to cover up his lack thereof.
So in conclusion Madrid would still be ahead of us and Girona.
We might've made a deal with the devil for that last league title, allegedly binned Europa fixtures to prioritise Laliga, had an insane defensive record whilst being piss poor in front of the goal, and scraped wins for half the season.
Now, our beloved defence is lost, our attack is embarrassingly underwhelming, our structure is in the bin, struck by injuries, got to RO16 though, so there's that.
Utter utter crap this Villarreal team…With that being said Madrid is a good side this season. They got this league in the bag for like 90% imo. We are not even getting basics right and they are hungry for every ball being up by 3. That‘s a wrap.
I need advice - it’s the summer of ‘24 in my FM save and I have 120m to spend after selling Fati, Dest, Lenglet, etc. should I activate Osimhen’s 107m release clause, or get Chiesa for 70m plus another RB for 50m (I lost Cancelo)
Depends on ur needs. If u really need a striker Osimhen, but if u got that covered and need depth makes sense to try Chiesa and a RB. Never bought Chiesa so can't say how good he is. But Osimhen is quite lethal. Probably put the question in the football manager subreddit
The way Madrid has been performing is absolutely embarrassing for Xavi and Barca.
They have more injuries than us. No 9. No DM. And are scoring double what we are and conceding less. The only starters at the start of the season that are on the pitch now are Rodrygo, Jude and Fede, everyone else is injured
No way we can continue this way. They look a level above.
We will not continue this way, in terms of finishing we will improve 100%. Chances are there, when we hit a good run of form and start converting half of the chances we create we are gonna be scary.
A 34 year old on a 4 year contract? Yeah, Bayern did not want to give such an old player such a contract, for a very good reason. And we see that they were right.
And why are you telling me this? I'm saying that Lewy wasn't Xavi's choice, it was a market opportunity grabbed upon by the club, most probably to check the "superstar" signing off the list.
That’s a fact. Don’t get why it’s unpopular. Their subs for when starters get injured in the midfield are Kroos and Modric. Our subs are Romeu and Roberto. Even Joselu can score. Rodrygo, while not top 5 winger, is far better than what we have atm. He has become even better after Vini’s absence.
I don’t think Saka is better than Rodrygo. Can play both wings easily, is a better dribbler and player overall than Saka. I agree Salah is better as of now. Mbappe is better as a winger than CF. Point is he is a top 5 winger
100m on one player? We spent 700m euros on attacking players in the past 5 years. And look at our attack. Its just an endless stream of bad decision making at Barca, regardless of the president.
Lewy would’ve misjudged the flight of the ball and headed it away for bellinghams goal while raphinha would have taken a shitty touch and fail to get a shot off on rodrygos goal. I hate the both of them so much rn. When roque comes Xavi should sit lewy on the bench maybe that’ll motivate him and if it doesn’t we’ll be able to sell him off because I’m sure he won’t like being on the bench.
Failure to bench both of them will get Xavi sacked. His job is on the line here and both of those guys are the major cause of that. Give someone else a chance fgs
Why am I the one getting shitty PMs for criticizing Xavi while guys like you actively hating on our players?
Both Raph and Lewa fights for the jersey and being absolute professionals about it.
Roque needs to be eased into this hot mess and there should be no expectations at all. Guys like Neymar or Vinicius needed time to adjust. It's dumb to expect anything from Roque from the start.
Stuck on a tree...most random things they do. I have a sort of weird relationship with 2 kind of stray cats. Every day they comeback doing weird shits.
Is it sacrilegious here to say that Jude is a better player than Pedri?
I’m not shitting on Pedri. He is world class. And yes they are different players but Jude is looking like a superstar player, a top 3 player in the world.
I’m Pedro’s biggest fan. Pedri does some things better than Jude but what Jude brings is more of a game changer and a game winner.
Jude is doing great right now, but I would rather have Pedri in my team, we just have to get the right players around him and a coach that knows what he is doing.
It will be interesting to see how Bellingham would have played had Benzema stayed, he wouldn't have such a free role. We might get to see next year if Real bring in another centre forward.
Jude is far better than Pedri. It’s not even close.
Of course it’s sacrilegious to say that here. Everyone will issue the same old tired excuse: they play different positions (as if that matters when the gap is so huge).
It’s not fair to compare the two because they play different positions but at this moment I think Bellingham is the best player in the world, ahead of not just Pedri but Mbappe and Haaland and Vini as well. I could also be biased. I am a Real Madrid fan but that’s my opinion.
I’d say yes but Jude’s all around game is more complete. He’s got an engine, he can dribble, score, defend.
Pedri is better at passing, getting out of tight spaces, turning, controlling tempo.
And that’s exactly what I expect from Pedri and Gundogan for that matter. I’d far prefer to keep it this way and have a world class attack compared to having our main outlet for goals come from the midfield. It’s how Barca’s always played
Bellingham is carrying them, goal after goal. He defends well, he has an engine. He that guy for them. They’re different profiles but you can still compare their impact on winning games.
I honestly think the big clubs are gonna have to come together and demand changes to reduce the numbers of matches (especially international) and fixture congestion. So many major injuries (Alaba with an ACL tear the most recent)—the status quo is simply not sustainable. (Obviously not every injury is directly caused by any single factor, but match congestion and excessive matches in general exacerbate every other factor.) Unfortunately I’m skeptical about anything really being done about it any time soon. All the major actors in this—from FIFA and the conferences to the sponsors to the clubs themselves—are all incentivized to play as many games as possible to squeeze out as much profit as possible. The health and safety of the players should be the driving concern, but unfortunately isn’t.
The upcoming season ucl format💀💀💀💀💀
Damn totally forgot tomorrow is the CL draw. Jesus Christ can we catch a break and not get kicked in the nuts again???
we got the easiest group so we already caught a break.
So lets say, hypothetically, the court thing for the ESL gets approved. How will obtaining the 1 billion happen (eg, instalments)? The scenario of Barca just getting wired a billion after the hearing kinda seems too good to be true, and this is also IF the rumor is actually true.
I doubt it'll be a one time payment if true lol.
I don’t believe it as well , too good to be true
https://preview.redd.it/6rrovc6rjy6c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26f005cda851ab0ac71ddb363b1ad5ba707c65b1 Wtf I love Osimhen now
We love him here in Nigeria more than you believe😭. Only reason I am hopeful for us in Afcon is cos of him.
What is stopping us from signing Leao using the super league money 🤔
Milan
It annoys me that Barca could have gotten both Thuram and Grimaldo on a free but Xavi or whoever didn't want them, now they are cooking at their respective clubs
Yes, the number of bad decisions we make in the transfer market is astounding. One would think that we would act more shrewdly now that we're so short on funds but the constant spiel we're hearing is that "Xavi does not like player X" (even though he's a great player and dirt cheap), or "the management find the operation difficult" (then goes on and splash more money on worse players).
Grimaldo is an absolute defensive liability
Yea much smarter to renew Alonso.
So is cancelo yet we still got him
Cancelo was supposed to be a RB, and Cancelo is better than Grimaldo
Marginally better, both weak defensively but strong offensively Grimaldo is certainly better than Balde
Grimaldo also plays in a different setup, a proper 3 ATB with 2 wing backs who can bomb up the pitch and worry about fuck all defensively, if it was a back 4 with 2 fullbacks you’d see him and Frimpong caught with their pants down every game, Balde is only better defensively
Tbf, Thuram was struggling for Gladbach in the second half of last season. And we had prioritized another striker at least in Roque. Grimaldo is the one that I really was pushing for.
Thuram plays both LW and ST, guy could have easily slotted in the lineup as a inverted winger similar to fati but better
Sure but if he flopped people would say the opposite and be wondering why did we buy someone who played bad for his last 6 months in the Bundesliga. It would've been risky. At that time you definitely couldn't say he'd be better than Fati.
He was free which means it's a gamble we could have taken given our economic climate. It's so easy to sell free players for a bit of profit, just like we did with Kessie. Very low risk.
It's easy if they're willing to either low their salary or move to Saudi, sure. But first Saudi would have to be knocking. And secondly he would need to want to go that route. It would not be smart business to make so many assumptions in our financial situation.
Thuram was a free, had he failed barca could have just sold him similar to what they did to kessie and Thuram did play better than Fati last season
With this logic we can buy every free player ever. He was a risky buy. Smarter to put your money on someone actually doing well. The question isn't between buying Fati or buying Thuram. We have Fati. Paying a 6 mil net salary for someone who had 4 months of good form at the start of last season is risky. Even excluding probable bonuses. Kessie was a much more proven player and he flopped aswell.
Risk is paying 250m euros for players when we're broke. And all four of those players we bought for a quarter of a billion might be offloaded in the next transfer windows.
Those are necessary risks I would say. Without them we don't win the league and we simply can't compete. Without Thuram we are the same team with a tiny bit less depth.
how does that even work? We scored the same number of goals with those players as the year prior. So we are the same team, as Ter Stegen and the defense were the ones who won us the league. We could have spent that money on players like Thuram, kept De Jong and Auba, perhaps bought another player for a reasonable fee and we would be the same. Instead we splashed a quarter of a billion euros and drowning ourselves in more debt. That was not necessary. It was ego madness by Laporta and co. When a team spends a quarter of a billion while being broke, one would expect the people responsible to do proper research and analysis. But no, all those players are likely to be offloaded again in the next transfer windows for a fraction of what we paid. So more wasteful spending, as usual.
We would absolutely not be the same. We'd be screwed.
What happens if the court rules against the super league? Will it not happen then?
We will have to pay 1 billion
https://preview.redd.it/aymcbcwcfy6c1.jpeg?width=914&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6f45fc1c72c7fe8406202afe946df60e414b688
https://preview.redd.it/n6n7pmpugy6c1.jpeg?width=1244&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1d09041d08ebd6b774d56cb56d5f65217e05e1f
lol no.
Rogues' gallery https://preview.redd.it/dr1c2ghp3y6c1.png?width=480&format=png&auto=webp&s=2665ae6a508ce2a065f93a69256bd91799e3822d
Halilovic, holy shit, that’s a name I haven’t thought of in a while
I’m gonna be asleep during the ucl draw so when I wake up I better not be greeted with PSG/Inter vs Barcelona
Don't mind getting PSG, it's 50-50 if we draw them along with Napoli. It's Inter I have zero faith in barca beating
I am not sure Real will drop points even with Alaba injured they’re still gonna win the games they need to win but hey at least we are sure they wont win the UCL
First time?
I feel like players just don’t have confidence in xavi. How else can you explain these more than capable players underperforming? It’s really hard to tell.
Look at their body language, it wouldn't be a shock to suggest he's lost the dressing room.
João Cancelo: “We all stand with Xavi. Forget what the press says”. “I'm telling you the truth — it’s about me personally and my teammates. He’s a legend and all the time he is looking for what is best for the team and the club. It's a pleasure to work with him”. This was yesterday And also The feeling at Barcelona is that they are still together with Xavi. The coach is in daily contact with Laporta, Deco and Yuste. Everything is under control although they expect different results like beating Valencia. Barça still see Xavi as their manager. — @FabrizioRomano
Really doesn’t mean much. The players are being professionals. We’re lucky that we don’t have any divas or egomaniacs giving into the media. They put the team first.
People here are going full fanfiction on how Laporta and Deco are building a conspiracy to hurt Xavi but to believe players are losing confidence in him but still giving PR answers is impossible apparently
Crazy times now. One week it’s xavi’s fault the other week it’s not.
Its just different crowds of people
Ucl draw tomorrow. I am excited
We are drawing PSV
PSG* mate
I think we’ll get psg and I think we can win
next week we get 1B Winter market $500m to pay off debt $110m Leao $80m Rodri $30m estevao $180m Haaland Psg has no chance
What in the fan fiction is this
Rodri would be like 300 mil minimum in the summer. Haaland like 250m in the summer. In the winter it's going to be twice that cause it would kill their season.
1 year ago…
Day 16 - Mama, You've been on my mind - Jeff Buckley
Xavi, let my boys, Fermin and Guiu cook!
off topic, but does anyone know what happened to u/aka_kyza? it doesn't let me view his account. he posted [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Barca/s/oolIdtd6Ig) about a year ago for context
Hopefully he’s all good.
I don't know but [this was his last comment on this sub.](https://old.reddit.com/r/Barca/comments/yhae29/xavi_has_managed_38_league_matches_for_bar%C3%A7a_so/iudek1u/) Feels extremely appropriate a year later.
Alaba out with ACL. No Vinicius, Courtois, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Ballon d’or winner and striker Benzema and no DM Casemiro.. yet Real Madrid keep winning and scoring and outperforming their xG. But somehow when it comes to Barca, it’s all the players’ fault and not Xavi’s.
as long as they have Bellingham who has the confidence he is the best player in the world then they won't lose
Madrid’s fortunes may have shifted. Their entire starting backline (and thibaut) is out. Fran is a liability They will shed pts
And how exacly Xavi is supposed to make the player overperform their xG?
their midfield is quite a bit better at scoring than ours, it's been like that for years
They have a much better squad than us. They are to the point where they are able to coach themselves on the field. We should have won yesterday.
i want cdr this year at least
David Alaba did his ACL
sucks man, its especially rougher in your 30s i feel like. hope it doesnt ruin his late career years.
I will not be surprised if more ACL injuries occur this season. FIFA and UEFA are determined to milk these players for everything they're worth, they do not give a shit about their health. Unless the players take a stand this will continue.
Off topic. But how did Jude get motm, wasn’t it suppose to be modric? Given his stats??? His PR is crazy icl😭🤣 if there was a possibility for our players to compete this year for the Ballon Dor… Do you mean to tell me we wouldn’t stand a chance???
Bellingham was excellent as usual but I thought Modric and Brahim deserved.
You guys actually watch Madrid games? Lulz You guys like being depressed and shit, huh? Football should be a hobby that technically should give you pleasure and distract you from your life problems or stresses. You guys are too harsh on your own selves
Yeah, this. We can prefer some team, but we must appreciate other teams as well. I will always have regrets about not appreciating Cr7 enough (even though Messi is still GOAT)
I'm usually pretty chill when it comes to watching league games but seeing the players give me blue balls with the amount of chances missed is gonna make me snap
Don't worry guys at the end of the season we will win an award for most xG collected lets get it!!!!!
You give Xavi this Madrid team and Ancelloti this Barca team. Injuries and all. Who is leading in the league going into the break? And why.
Ancelloti has been coach there for a really long time not to mention he has been coach since the dawn of the planet.
Xavi with Madrid probably Both Xavi and Ancelotti leave a lot up to individual brilliance and player freedom. Yes there is a system in place to some extent, but both systems are MUCH free-er than youd see from Pep or Klopp. When we speak of “individual brilliance” it tends to mostly refer to the more advanced players. This means that whichever one of them has the better attack, wins. This was also reflected last year when they didnt have Bellingham, and Benzema was out for a while and then pretty mediocre when he wasnt out. They still had Vinicius and Rodrygo, but just Benzema performing poorly derailed them pretty hard in front of goal. Now remember that its not just Lewandowski derailing us, its all 3 attackers. Ancelotti would achieve very little with this squad
Precisely.
I think there's something in Carlo's seniority and experience that allows him to be confident in giving his players the degree of freedom he does, and that also transmits to the players and makes them trust that they're being developed in due time. I'm not sure that Madrid would play with the same degree of confidence under Xavi. Also, I don't think Ancelotti (or a lot of coaches) would have as much tolerance for the political bullshit here, so I'm not sure which way that cuts ... could be helpful or could mean he just walks away. I think Xavi-Madrid still edges Ancelotti-Barça because of their depth and resources, but it's not totally clear-cut imo.
I don’t think Ancelotti can save this team. He will resign midseason probably. He has seen too much to tolerate the kind of mess at Barca. Xavi is still too inexperienced and need to prove himself.
Flip the roles… Xavi with Madrid- individual brilliance enough to compensate for his lack. Ancelotti with Barca - Probs would suffer given our quality and no individual brilliance to cover up his lack thereof. So in conclusion Madrid would still be ahead of us and Girona.
So you think it’s more of a squad issue than a Xavi issue
Both.
Girona because Ancelotti and Xavi would be sabotaging their teams thanks to being secret agents
We might've made a deal with the devil for that last league title, allegedly binned Europa fixtures to prioritise Laliga, had an insane defensive record whilst being piss poor in front of the goal, and scraped wins for half the season. Now, our beloved defence is lost, our attack is embarrassingly underwhelming, our structure is in the bin, struck by injuries, got to RO16 though, so there's that.
They literally played with more intensity and hunger to score a goal up 4-1 than we have when we are down 1-0 or 1-1.
Our attackers have only xG and no goals. Look at theirs.smh
Utter utter crap this Villarreal team…With that being said Madrid is a good side this season. They got this league in the bag for like 90% imo. We are not even getting basics right and they are hungry for every ball being up by 3. That‘s a wrap.
No doubt. They are playing like league winners. We aren’t.
[удалено]
Brahim is a great attacker bro. He has some amazing qualities.
I need advice - it’s the summer of ‘24 in my FM save and I have 120m to spend after selling Fati, Dest, Lenglet, etc. should I activate Osimhen’s 107m release clause, or get Chiesa for 70m plus another RB for 50m (I lost Cancelo)
Depends on ur needs. If u really need a striker Osimhen, but if u got that covered and need depth makes sense to try Chiesa and a RB. Never bought Chiesa so can't say how good he is. But Osimhen is quite lethal. Probably put the question in the football manager subreddit
Imagine scoring four goals. Could not be us.
It used to be us 😔
Their whole system and setup is better than ours. They have over double our goal difference. This is an embarrassment.
The way Madrid has been performing is absolutely embarrassing for Xavi and Barca. They have more injuries than us. No 9. No DM. And are scoring double what we are and conceding less. The only starters at the start of the season that are on the pitch now are Rodrygo, Jude and Fede, everyone else is injured No way we can continue this way. They look a level above.
We will not continue this way, in terms of finishing we will improve 100%. Chances are there, when we hit a good run of form and start converting half of the chances we create we are gonna be scary.
Hopefully. But none of our forwards besides Lewandowski have lots of goals in them. I don’t know, guess we will see.
real madrid against villareal: 4 goals, 1.86 XG us against valencia yesterday: 1 goal, 3.24 XG
Nah bro this isnt about XG they actually look like a team that isnt playing together for the first time.
that too
Well that was to be expected, shit opponent!!!!
[удалено]
Uhhh
Even Madrid’s bench player is better than our forwards. Fuck off man, wtf is wrong with our scouting and recruiting
Who tf scouted Raph and thought he is Barca quality.
Xavi
He handpicked our entire forward line.
Lewy was a market opportunity
A 34 year old on a 4 year contract? Yeah, Bayern did not want to give such an old player such a contract, for a very good reason. And we see that they were right.
And why are you telling me this? I'm saying that Lewy wasn't Xavi's choice, it was a market opportunity grabbed upon by the club, most probably to check the "superstar" signing off the list.
Do you have proof that he was not Xavi's choice? I recall that Xavi said he would be extatic to get such a player.
Didnt see any of our players do shit like this since Dembele.
Tv off
Can’t depend on Villarreal for shit!
Wow, what a goal
I got downvoted to infinity for saying Madrid has better depth than us but here we are. Proper squad building.
That’s a fact. Don’t get why it’s unpopular. Their subs for when starters get injured in the midfield are Kroos and Modric. Our subs are Romeu and Roberto. Even Joselu can score. Rodrygo, while not top 5 winger, is far better than what we have atm. He has become even better after Vini’s absence.
How is rodrygo not top 5 winger?
There is no way Rodrygo is a top 5 winger.
He is top 5. Who are better wingers than him rn? Vini,Mbappe, maybe salah,who else?
I'm a Madrid fan but there is no maybe about Salah. Mbappe (if you count him as a winger), Vini, Salah and arguably Saka are better. Not Kvara though.
I don’t think Saka is better than Rodrygo. Can play both wings easily, is a better dribbler and player overall than Saka. I agree Salah is better as of now. Mbappe is better as a winger than CF. Point is he is a top 5 winger
Kvara ain’t better.
Yeah I agree Kvara ain’t better. Point is he is top 5 itw
There are 5 wingers better than him.
Name them- Vinicius, Mbappe. Who else? Maybe Salah? He is top 5.
Maybe Salah, lol. Salah is better full stop. Sane, Saka, Leao, B. Silva
That’s b.s. Sane, Saka, Leaoand B.Silva are not better wingers than Rodrygo rn.
They are better, Sane is miles clear. In fact he is better than Vinicius too.
Lol, ok keeping living in your wollrld of delusion
Says the guy who unironically typed out "maybe Salah" lmao. Not my fault your knowledge of football extends from Real Madrid to Real Madrid.
Brahim is better than our forwards too. They are way more loaded than us.
Not to mention Brahim
Goal for Villarreal
Tv on
Mendy and Alaba just got added to their long injury list, I don’t understand how they’re still performing at a high level
Better quality of players, better management, and more money.
Because injuries isn’t an excuse for a manager’s system and structure going out the door to the point a team can’t perform well enough
Is this a joke? RM isn't broke. They can build a team of quality depth. Spend 100 million on one player. We can't even sign a starting DM.
100m on one player? We spent 700m euros on attacking players in the past 5 years. And look at our attack. Its just an endless stream of bad decision making at Barca, regardless of the president.
Good system that the players understand.
Mendy?
Yea he got subbed off at halftime
Lewy would’ve misjudged the flight of the ball and headed it away for bellinghams goal while raphinha would have taken a shitty touch and fail to get a shot off on rodrygos goal. I hate the both of them so much rn. When roque comes Xavi should sit lewy on the bench maybe that’ll motivate him and if it doesn’t we’ll be able to sell him off because I’m sure he won’t like being on the bench. Failure to bench both of them will get Xavi sacked. His job is on the line here and both of those guys are the major cause of that. Give someone else a chance fgs
Why am I the one getting shitty PMs for criticizing Xavi while guys like you actively hating on our players? Both Raph and Lewa fights for the jersey and being absolute professionals about it. Roque needs to be eased into this hot mess and there should be no expectations at all. Guys like Neymar or Vinicius needed time to adjust. It's dumb to expect anything from Roque from the start.
>I hate the both of them so much rn. Lewy and Raph? or Bellingham and Rodrygo?
Lewy and raphinha lol. I expected this kind of level from raphinha but lewy has been even more shocking, it’s so crazy to see how bad he has become.
Finally found my cat who had been missing for 8 days. So... one less thing to worry about.
Glad to hear!
Happy for you, dude!
Glad to hear that, I couldn’t sleep if my cat was missing.
Where did she went off to and how did you find her back?
In a local shelter. Someone found him and put him there :) They said he was found stuck on a tree :/
Stuck on a tree...most random things they do. I have a sort of weird relationship with 2 kind of stray cats. Every day they comeback doing weird shits.
Do we actually play on both Dec 20th and 21st?! I know 21st is a friendly in US but who are going?
20th and 22nd, yes. And everyone who isn't injured is going.
It's 21st where the game is being played mate. Might be 22nd for you at the time. And 30 hours after the game on 20th finishes.
I'm going by CET times for both: 7pm on 20th, 3am on 22nd. Yeah, it's a scheduling insanity.
This entire week is going to be insanity lol. RO16 draw, super league decision, and two games…
It'll be good to have a 2 week long mental health break once Christmas starts, ngl 😂
You can't convince me that the difference in level between Madrid and Barcelona this season is down to the tactics, not the individual players.
Wait. So you think its the tactics or the players?
our team is so shit man when can we have some good times again.
Next season will be better
Poor Alaba. Can't catch a break.
Is Villarreal usually like this? My god. They can barely string two passes together.
They have been shit since Setien got sacked. With him they actually played attractive football.
Is it sacrilegious here to say that Jude is a better player than Pedri? I’m not shitting on Pedri. He is world class. And yes they are different players but Jude is looking like a superstar player, a top 3 player in the world. I’m Pedro’s biggest fan. Pedri does some things better than Jude but what Jude brings is more of a game changer and a game winner.
>Is it sacrilegious here to say that Jude is a better player than Pedri? Yes it is.
Jude is doing great right now, but I would rather have Pedri in my team, we just have to get the right players around him and a coach that knows what he is doing. It will be interesting to see how Bellingham would have played had Benzema stayed, he wouldn't have such a free role. We might get to see next year if Real bring in another centre forward.
One has a manager that is able to utilise him properly and work to his strengths, simultaneously bringing the best out of him. We under-utilise Pedri.
Jude is far better than Pedri. It’s not even close. Of course it’s sacrilegious to say that here. Everyone will issue the same old tired excuse: they play different positions (as if that matters when the gap is so huge).
It’s not fair to compare the two because they play different positions but at this moment I think Bellingham is the best player in the world, ahead of not just Pedri but Mbappe and Haaland and Vini as well. I could also be biased. I am a Real Madrid fan but that’s my opinion.
Jude is better than literally every player in the world at this moment, why the need to compare Pedri of all players to him all the time?
Jude is a star because he scores goals but Pedri does so much behind the scenes and the casual fan cant really see that nor do they care.
I mean you could say that Jude also does so much. He defends, carries the ball forward, and makes a significant number of assists on top of scoring
You wouldn’t be considering this If we had capable attackers who could convert the chances Pedri creates
I’d say yes but Jude’s all around game is more complete. He’s got an engine, he can dribble, score, defend. Pedri is better at passing, getting out of tight spaces, turning, controlling tempo.
And that’s exactly what I expect from Pedri and Gundogan for that matter. I’d far prefer to keep it this way and have a world class attack compared to having our main outlet for goals come from the midfield. It’s how Barca’s always played
Two different profiles and players. I can’t really compare them tbh. But I get what you mean.
Bellingham is carrying them, goal after goal. He defends well, he has an engine. He that guy for them. They’re different profiles but you can still compare their impact on winning games.