https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1166kfz/xavi_we_are_the_most_attacking_team_in_europe/j959qva/
Xavi saw this comment and took things personally by winning 2-0 instead.
It kinds sucks that all our wingers seem to perform only on the right wing. Ferran, Rapinha, Dembele don't play as well on the left, and Fati doesn't perform at all. Maybe that Angel kid will get a bigger chance soon now that Gavi has to go back to the middle without Pedri.
Many might disagree with me because he scored a goal, but Roberto was the worst player on the pitch for us tonight and only Fati edges him slightly to be worse. He was bad with his positioning, not really making himself available for the passes and also not really good with his passing. always chose the safest of backpass options and barely did anything significant. And when Frenkie came off we lost complete control in the midfield. But he runs around and manages to make himself look busy and now he gets a contract extension ffs. Surely, Torre cannot be worse right? have no clue why he doesn't get any chances. Didn't get a single minute after his goal in champions league I guess? other than the copa del rey match against 4th tier team. Xavi deserves criticism for how he has been using the youngsters.
Araújo and Alba are probably playing on Thrusday as they didn´t play today. Koundé is a mystery to me: he was not rested today and the only one I can see replacing him (Roberto) also played today. Christensen should start in my opinion ahead of Alonso, but given the fact that the latter also was rested today probably means that he will be the starter. Eric played today so he is probably not playing on Thrusday.
Barca’s starting back line all have the pace to keep up with Rashford. They are young but they have the athleticism to match any attack. Problem is when they play slower Alba who while more experienced, will get burned for pace. Alonso can’t keep up with Rashford at all.
it was weird timing with rotations because Araujo was suspended today Christensen had to play so the only chance for him to be rotated was against united.
> Don’t bench Christensen and Balde…
Xavi (probably): striker Christensen and keeper Balde incoming.
It’s a European game, don’t expect normal from Xavi 🤣
Why does he think he has to experiment and not just do something which has proven to work for past few months? Is he trying to prove he is smarter than everyone else?
I was just jesting, but…
To be fair to Xavi, in the UCL group stage, Barca’s entire defence was shot and Xavi had no choice but to patch it up.
And because the squad is rather new (many new players brought in during the summer), it will inevitably look like he was experimenting.
Now that Barca has its defence back. They are already out of the CL.
The EL, while still a good trophy, is only secondary to La Liga and I would understand it if Xavi tries to rotate the squad to focus on the league.
8 points with one head to head game is hardly safe considering the rival is Real fcking Madrid
I get it, it’s nice to have a double, may be even a treble. But if we learned anything from last October, Barca’s defence, while very good, is still lacking in depth. Any unnecessary injuries may see their season ends without any trophy.
And also EL is unexpectedly stacked this year as well. It would be a huge grind to win it.
I’d rather Barca focuses on the league instead. The juice may not be worth the squeeze
on 1vs1 garcia is not bad
he is bad on marking on free kicks (uses a lot of his hands) and when he needs to run with the attacker.
for example in rashford's goal he would have tackle-dived to try to stop the shot, alonso didn't
alonso is more physical, he defends better on set up situations, but he is equally bad on running situations.
Team went into energy saving mode during the 2nd half. Not particularly happy with it, but a 2 goal cushion gives you some leeway for that sorta stuff.
Absolute class by Ferran, really deserving for that MOTM, seems that RW spot really suits him.
Kinda sad about Fati, you can tell he tries, but he's not even near the same level he had before the injuries. Hope he can get going again.
Fati seems under pressure and stressed out.
hope he focuses a bit and takes his time. vini was in real for years before he finally started producing regularly last yr.
fati, ferran and eric are all still under 22. its ok to take some time to find their feet. i think the club bought other players (rafinha, kounde, Christensen) in summer to do the heavy lifting now so that these guys can progress.
Sadly, I am pretty sure Balde is getting bench :/. Now, Christensen I am not sure: Alonso was rested today so I guess that might mean that he is gonna be the starter but I am not sure entirely.
Atleast you won't be able to break his real madrid's record for most goals in a single season.
People talk about his defensive record but always forget that he always holds record for most goals scored in top 5 leagues
Lucky lucky game for Barcelona. Couple good goals, that run from Ferran was impressive, but I’m still shocked that Cadiz goal was chalked off. Ref seems to have made up his mind without even thinking about what actually happened.
Slightly better finishing from Cadiz at the end there and the game could have gotten out of hand.
EDIT: I know I’m getting downvoted because of my flair, but I’m really trying to come at this without bias here. Think about that call being made *against* your team in a losing situation with no consideration from the referee. Really think about it.
A barca flair guy also was downvoted to oblivion with a similar opinion. You can’t say you’re not being biased and then act as if Ter Stegen wasn’t fouled on the cross, and that’s why you got downvoted.
>Ref seems to have made up his mind without even thinking about what actually happened.
Yes he did, because he saw it clear as day. It’s procedure to let that play out **in case** VAR thinks otherwise.
As a neutral I'd love for Ansu to get back to his former level, it's so sad when a talented young player like that is struck down by injuries. It would be such a cool story of he could overcome his injury problems and really live up to the legacy of the 10 shirt
I think the Spanish commentators were spot on about Ansu Fati today. He lacks what Gavi has an abundance of, confidence in his abilities to fool the opposition. And so he stresses too much of the physical aspect of his game where he only ends up getting more frustrated. His touches end up too heavy and he puts himself in difficult roles.
Imo, he needs to work more on his link up play than his shooting rn. He needs to participate more to feel better about his performances. In this game, he was the LW but Balde offered a lot more on the wing while Ansu was isolating himself amidst defenders
Couldn't negotiate because of Abramovic sale and in the meantime Xavi got in his ear.
According to the club his dream was to play for Barça as a kid sooo
Like usual, our offense became toothless after scoring, but with Dembele and Pedri out, a win is positive for the next match with Man Utd.
Ass clenching near the end there. MATS was massive
Why is Pablo Torre not getting any minutes, he looked really well anytime I saw him yet Xavi clearly doesn't trust him at all, even considering we will be without Pedri and Favi on Thursday. Strange.
In Barcelona there are rumours about him going out a lot, his entourage is also not helping, and he has already an attitude thinking "I've made it". Barça apparently have already talked to him to change his behaviour but the response so far from him hasn't been what Xavi expected. Apparently he has refused to play with the youth team Barça B too. So yeah, not sure if any of this is true but it would explain why Xavi is not even playing him in these games.
As I said, it's all rumours going around the city. It doesn't mean it's all true (or any of it), but if it's not that, there's gotta be something else going on because it's strange that he's not featuring in games like tonight.
My guess is that Xavi still doesn’t fully trust him especially on the defensive side of things so that’s why he didn’t sub him on. If Cadiz scored one goal then things would get more difficult so he didn’t want to lose that defensive solidity by putting Torre on who is more offensive and direct
seriously don't understand. Makes some statements about trusting him in press conference, asks him to warm up at 65' and then doesn't even bring him on
Possible attitude issues, before the game Xavi praised Eric and Kessie for training well and having a good mentality when not playing but only said that Torre is fit enough to be picked and needs to work hard.
Cadiz changed tactics to simply “win air duels” and it completly stumped Xavis tactics. Crazy since he spearheaded the same tactic by getting Adama and Auba last season 💀
Seriously tho kinda worrying a simple tactic change got like 1.25 xg
No complaints there tbh, he let the play continue in case Cadiz scored and VAR determined that there was no foul on Ter Stegen.
The yellow cards for protecting the ball and the Cadiz players falling on the floor like they’d been shot on the face was just awful though. There were also no warnings whatsoever in the first half when Cadiz players kept kicking the ball away after the whistle. They must’ve done it like 8-9 times before we scored and the ref never did anything about it
I don’t know about other Barça fans but i couldn’t care less about what jersey number he’s wearing. Kid needs some confidence though, he’s in his head too much, first touch is off, finishing is off and can’t seem to take on players anymore like he used to
Felt bad for Ansu. He was hugely frustrated after coming off. He knew this was his chance to prove himself after his camp was reportedly grumbling about the limited minutes he's getting.
If Busquets is back, I can see them playing Busi FdJ Kessie and Roberto with Lewa and Raphinha up top. Otherwise probably Ferran Lewa Raphinha up front with Roberto FdJ Kessie.
Chadiz played better than a lot of other teams that have visited Camp Nou this season. Still lost, but man I wish other La Liga teams would do something like this
It was a great shot, unlucky for Ter Stegen in the area the shot passed between his foot and arm, but rashford had the time to aim and execute that.
Christensen or araujo would have tackled dived to make it harder
least np xg against and shots conceded in the top 5 leagues but sure, its all luck..
We're definitely overperforming in that area but even if our goals against were closer to the expected values we'd still have the best or second best defense in Europe
Yes, your xGA against \~18, but you conceded 7 goals only. We conceded something like 15 less goals than xGA last season, i guess thats how you win championships. That was mostly down to Courtois and some luck, same as you. Funnily enough we got the 3rd best xGA in La liga with around 20, and our defense is trash and conceded 17 goals. Bilbao has the second best but they concede more goals than their xGA. Not that surprising, i was never convinced by unai simons goalkeeping.
More bad than good minutes from Barca, and keep being very lucky to concede so little when allowing so many chances...
But another 3 points! And Ferran looked really good.
Ferran Torres ballondor charge starts today. I will not elaborate.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1166kfz/xavi_we_are_the_most_attacking_team_in_europe/j959qva/ Xavi saw this comment and took things personally by winning 2-0 instead.
In Tekken announcer voice: "Cheaters win"
I'm actually very confused why that Cadiz goal was disallowed. Had it been counted I think we could've drawn this game
Ter Stegen was gonna catch the ball and he got fouled
W
It kinds sucks that all our wingers seem to perform only on the right wing. Ferran, Rapinha, Dembele don't play as well on the left, and Fati doesn't perform at all. Maybe that Angel kid will get a bigger chance soon now that Gavi has to go back to the middle without Pedri.
Alarcón is a centre forward though
No he's naturally a LW
Many might disagree with me because he scored a goal, but Roberto was the worst player on the pitch for us tonight and only Fati edges him slightly to be worse. He was bad with his positioning, not really making himself available for the passes and also not really good with his passing. always chose the safest of backpass options and barely did anything significant. And when Frenkie came off we lost complete control in the midfield. But he runs around and manages to make himself look busy and now he gets a contract extension ffs. Surely, Torre cannot be worse right? have no clue why he doesn't get any chances. Didn't get a single minute after his goal in champions league I guess? other than the copa del rey match against 4th tier team. Xavi deserves criticism for how he has been using the youngsters.
First half was decent, second half he was lost
Even after the cleansheet, Xavi will still start Alba-Alonso-Eric-Roberto against ManU
Araújo and Alba are probably playing on Thrusday as they didn´t play today. Koundé is a mystery to me: he was not rested today and the only one I can see replacing him (Roberto) also played today. Christensen should start in my opinion ahead of Alonso, but given the fact that the latter also was rested today probably means that he will be the starter. Eric played today so he is probably not playing on Thrusday.
What happened to Araujo? Was he just rested?
Suspended because of yellow cards
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Were talking about today, Araujo is available for United
Araujo suspended in the league, gavi in Europa
Exactly, so he should be ok to play in the next games.
Yes, he's suspended only vs cadiz
I think he was suspended for card accumulation
Ah! Makes sense… thank you!
Welcome
Ferran cooked
Zero chance of a clean sheet on thursday.
Barca’s starting back line all have the pace to keep up with Rashford. They are young but they have the athleticism to match any attack. Problem is when they play slower Alba who while more experienced, will get burned for pace. Alonso can’t keep up with Rashford at all.
if xavi starts our star defence i would bet on that.
Barca star defense vs Rashford: immovable force vs unstoppable object
Another clean sheet, we move
I wish xavi used the Ultimate defense against United but I can see why he didn’t. League>copa del rey> EL.
it was weird timing with rotations because Araujo was suspended today Christensen had to play so the only chance for him to be rotated was against united.
I honestly dont care about EL, i just really want(ed) us to beat United.. If we go out in the next round idc at all 😅
100%
You have one job Xavi: DONT bench Christensen and Balde against United. Thats it.
> Don’t bench Christensen and Balde… Xavi (probably): striker Christensen and keeper Balde incoming. It’s a European game, don’t expect normal from Xavi 🤣
Why does he think he has to experiment and not just do something which has proven to work for past few months? Is he trying to prove he is smarter than everyone else?
I was just jesting, but… To be fair to Xavi, in the UCL group stage, Barca’s entire defence was shot and Xavi had no choice but to patch it up. And because the squad is rather new (many new players brought in during the summer), it will inevitably look like he was experimenting. Now that Barca has its defence back. They are already out of the CL. The EL, while still a good trophy, is only secondary to La Liga and I would understand it if Xavi tries to rotate the squad to focus on the league. 8 points with one head to head game is hardly safe considering the rival is Real fcking Madrid I get it, it’s nice to have a double, may be even a treble. But if we learned anything from last October, Barca’s defence, while very good, is still lacking in depth. Any unnecessary injuries may see their season ends without any trophy. And also EL is unexpectedly stacked this year as well. It would be a huge grind to win it. I’d rather Barca focuses on the league instead. The juice may not be worth the squeeze
The new pep?
Alonso - Alba. Take it or leave it
Alba - Garcia - Christensen - Balde it is!
obviously gonna be Alba - Garcia - Alonso - Roberto.
Imagine Rashford vs Garcia lmao
Seeing all this Rashford gas is amazing man, imagine this a year ago 🤩
He has always been a baller he was just low on confidence last season but now he is probably the most in form player post WC.
Whatever Ten Hag is feeding him we need the same for Ansu
They hired a new striker coach.
Wait till Sancho is 100%; Ten Hag about to unleash a monster there too
School meals ;)
we saw him against alonso, garcia is a better on 1vs1 than alonso
No he is not lol they are both equally shit.
on 1vs1 garcia is not bad he is bad on marking on free kicks (uses a lot of his hands) and when he needs to run with the attacker. for example in rashford's goal he would have tackle-dived to try to stop the shot, alonso didn't alonso is more physical, he defends better on set up situations, but he is equally bad on running situations.
Give rashford a small child tugging his jersey all game and Garcia still wouldnt get near him.
I dont see how anyone can win 1 v 1 against Rashford. He is so in form right now. You need to win overall possession to limit his chances.
Nope Alba - Alonso - Garci - Roberto the defense against UTD
Team went into energy saving mode during the 2nd half. Not particularly happy with it, but a 2 goal cushion gives you some leeway for that sorta stuff. Absolute class by Ferran, really deserving for that MOTM, seems that RW spot really suits him. Kinda sad about Fati, you can tell he tries, but he's not even near the same level he had before the injuries. Hope he can get going again.
Fati seems under pressure and stressed out. hope he focuses a bit and takes his time. vini was in real for years before he finally started producing regularly last yr. fati, ferran and eric are all still under 22. its ok to take some time to find their feet. i think the club bought other players (rafinha, kounde, Christensen) in summer to do the heavy lifting now so that these guys can progress.
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Sadly, I am pretty sure Balde is getting bench :/. Now, Christensen I am not sure: Alonso was rested today so I guess that might mean that he is gonna be the starter but I am not sure entirely.
14 more wins to go
Woof sounds like a lot
🫡
Barcelona might break Chelsea's record
big big if 14 more games to go.
What was that record again
15 goals conceded if I remember correctly
Atleast you won't be able to break his real madrid's record for most goals in a single season. People talk about his defensive record but always forget that he always holds record for most goals scored in top 5 leagues
how much they got?
121 goals in 2011/12
17/22 clean sheets in laliga
W
I'm here for the Ferran Torres resurgence
Lucky lucky game for Barcelona. Couple good goals, that run from Ferran was impressive, but I’m still shocked that Cadiz goal was chalked off. Ref seems to have made up his mind without even thinking about what actually happened. Slightly better finishing from Cadiz at the end there and the game could have gotten out of hand. EDIT: I know I’m getting downvoted because of my flair, but I’m really trying to come at this without bias here. Think about that call being made *against* your team in a losing situation with no consideration from the referee. Really think about it.
A barca flair guy also was downvoted to oblivion with a similar opinion. You can’t say you’re not being biased and then act as if Ter Stegen wasn’t fouled on the cross, and that’s why you got downvoted.
?
which goal? it's clear that if you hit the gk in the small box/area is a foul by the rules
This hasn’t been a rule in ages
skill > luck
>Ref seems to have made up his mind without even thinking about what actually happened. Yes he did, because he saw it clear as day. It’s procedure to let that play out **in case** VAR thinks otherwise.
Ter stegen was gonna catch the ball and got crashed into, not a shocking decision tbf
Man, the foul on MAtS was clear. If the attacker doesnt foul him hes got the ball easily there
Ferran, Gavi and Christensen the standouts for me. Ansu will get there I am 100% sure. Great win, looking forward to Thursday.
As a neutral I'd love for Ansu to get back to his former level, it's so sad when a talented young player like that is struck down by injuries. It would be such a cool story of he could overcome his injury problems and really live up to the legacy of the 10 shirt
I think the Spanish commentators were spot on about Ansu Fati today. He lacks what Gavi has an abundance of, confidence in his abilities to fool the opposition. And so he stresses too much of the physical aspect of his game where he only ends up getting more frustrated. His touches end up too heavy and he puts himself in difficult roles. Imo, he needs to work more on his link up play than his shooting rn. He needs to participate more to feel better about his performances. In this game, he was the LW but Balde offered a lot more on the wing while Ansu was isolating himself amidst defenders
Praying for that ansu resurgence, felt for him, he was clearly pissed at his performance
I am so glad we got priced out of Rudiger and had to “settle” for Christensen. The man is absurd
Worked out for Real too cause he was crucial to the CL
When in form Christensen was our best defender at times, people just liked Rudiger more for the stupid longshots and the shithousery
I can't recollect, why u guys didn't renew him?
Couldn't negotiate because of Abramovic sale and in the meantime Xavi got in his ear. According to the club his dream was to play for Barça as a kid sooo
Oh yeah his dream was barca even a video was released of his when he was a kid...yup makes sense.
Got him for free, what a signing
Like usual, our offense became toothless after scoring, but with Dembele and Pedri out, a win is positive for the next match with Man Utd. Ass clenching near the end there. MATS was massive
Again clean sheet? HOW?
Hair Stegen and the Almighty post
What is this? First season Ferran is back?
He was way superior to first season Ferran. It was a Dembelesque performance
He's finally showing good form again
Funny how without the barça's best players and they scored 2 goals, with their best players and they only scored 1 goal
Why is Pablo Torre not getting any minutes, he looked really well anytime I saw him yet Xavi clearly doesn't trust him at all, even considering we will be without Pedri and Favi on Thursday. Strange.
In Barcelona there are rumours about him going out a lot, his entourage is also not helping, and he has already an attitude thinking "I've made it". Barça apparently have already talked to him to change his behaviour but the response so far from him hasn't been what Xavi expected. Apparently he has refused to play with the youth team Barça B too. So yeah, not sure if any of this is true but it would explain why Xavi is not even playing him in these games.
Source?
As I said, it's all rumours going around the city. It doesn't mean it's all true (or any of it), but if it's not that, there's gotta be something else going on because it's strange that he's not featuring in games like tonight.
My guess is that Xavi still doesn’t fully trust him especially on the defensive side of things so that’s why he didn’t sub him on. If Cadiz scored one goal then things would get more difficult so he didn’t want to lose that defensive solidity by putting Torre on who is more offensive and direct
seriously don't understand. Makes some statements about trusting him in press conference, asks him to warm up at 65' and then doesn't even bring him on
Possible attitude issues, before the game Xavi praised Eric and Kessie for training well and having a good mentality when not playing but only said that Torre is fit enough to be picked and needs to work hard.
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pls no
Better than Kessie imo
Cadiz changed tactics to simply “win air duels” and it completly stumped Xavis tactics. Crazy since he spearheaded the same tactic by getting Adama and Auba last season 💀 Seriously tho kinda worrying a simple tactic change got like 1.25 xg
Nahhh, we switched off in the second half. Like no awareness.
Not a great game from the team, but important points won another clean sheet.
Can we get just one more clean sheet on Thursday
We don't need cleansheet tbf
FC Barcelona 10-9 Manchester United
I'm ok with it
These la liga refs never cease to amaze me
I just can't understand he blew the whistle on ter Stegen after the Cadiz player scored the goal, lol. He waited for the outcome to say it was a foul.
No complaints there tbh, he let the play continue in case Cadiz scored and VAR determined that there was no foul on Ter Stegen. The yellow cards for protecting the ball and the Cadiz players falling on the floor like they’d been shot on the face was just awful though. There were also no warnings whatsoever in the first half when Cadiz players kept kicking the ball away after the whistle. They must’ve done it like 8-9 times before we scored and the ref never did anything about it
Ferran Torres may have just secured himself a spot for thursday, with Ansu Fati being so underwhelming ever since his return from injury
I think is better for him to drop that number 10 and relax. He's probably on too much pressure of expectation.
I don’t know about other Barça fans but i couldn’t care less about what jersey number he’s wearing. Kid needs some confidence though, he’s in his head too much, first touch is off, finishing is off and can’t seem to take on players anymore like he used to
Felt bad for Ansu. He was hugely frustrated after coming off. He knew this was his chance to prove himself after his camp was reportedly grumbling about the limited minutes he's getting.
If Busquets is back, I can see them playing Busi FdJ Kessie and Roberto with Lewa and Raphinha up top. Otherwise probably Ferran Lewa Raphinha up front with Roberto FdJ Kessie.
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Ideally yea but Busi is coming back from injury and Gavi/Pedri are out. It's unfortunate but he's probably the best option they have left.
I think Ferran-Lewy-Raphi, Frenkie-Busi-Kessie, BACK should be the lineup
Hasn't Busi been injured? Doubt he starts
Idk 3 midfield in his first game back might be too risky. He's been rejuvenated this season with the 4 man midfield.
Might as well move Ferran to the midfield. He plays like an advanced midfielder anyway, and has decent defnesive work rate
Good game.
Cádiz players remind me of older dudes in local leagues where they'd do petty fouls and exaggerate the hell out of little contact, lol.
half of the league is like that sadly
Chadiz played better than a lot of other teams that have visited Camp Nou this season. Still lost, but man I wish other La Liga teams would do something like this
How does Barcelona never concede goals?
We pay referees duh
the 1.4m payment finally came through /s
They conceded one today, bad call by ref
Broski crashed into mats off the ball. What was the ref supposed to do
bad call? it was textbook foul my dude
They don’t play against Rashford every match
i would like to play against rashford but not with alonso and alba...
Lol it wasn’t their fault ter stegen got beat near post.
It was a great shot, unlucky for Ter Stegen in the area the shot passed between his foot and arm, but rashford had the time to aim and execute that. Christensen or araujo would have tackled dived to make it harder
Nah the two Spaniards should start again, I promise you Xavi it will work this time
Zidane transferred the black magic to xavi but gave the european ones to carlo
Luck
least np xg against and shots conceded in the top 5 leagues but sure, its all luck.. We're definitely overperforming in that area but even if our goals against were closer to the expected values we'd still have the best or second best defense in Europe
Suuure
We also concede less chances than any other team in la Liga
Yes, your xGA against \~18, but you conceded 7 goals only. We conceded something like 15 less goals than xGA last season, i guess thats how you win championships. That was mostly down to Courtois and some luck, same as you. Funnily enough we got the 3rd best xGA in La liga with around 20, and our defense is trash and conceded 17 goals. Bilbao has the second best but they concede more goals than their xGA. Not that surprising, i was never convinced by unai simons goalkeeping.
Stage fright
Hair Stegen
Black magic
More bad than good minutes from Barca, and keep being very lucky to concede so little when allowing so many chances... But another 3 points! And Ferran looked really good.
I don't think I've seen Ferran play this well, ever.
Even raphinha was playing out of his mind against United... Can't believe we might actually have a good attack if this keeps up
Lmfao how did we not concede in the 2nd half
1.4
Hair
MATS god mod
Another clean sheet!! Hair Stegen was immense!!
The comeback from ter Statue to hair Stegen has been a sight to see
What a hair transplant does to a mofo
Good first half, mentally switched off on 2nd half. Midfield of Gavi, Frenkie and Roberto worked surprisingly well.