About overplaying young players, the lack of trust around La Masia players, how I like squad building, what is my suggested plan for the next season.
Enjoy reading my waffling:
Fermín López is a goalscorer, and you need to respect him for that. Midfielders who can score are rare in this team.
His box-crushing ability is so good.
Don't let them make you normalize it, you are witnessing a 17-year-old kid as our center-back on a big UCL stage playing calmly and winning headers over who? over fucking Victor Osimhen.
God protect this kid.
By the way, İlkay Gündoğan is having a ballon d'or season. But Twitter is busy hyping 2 months' performances from other players.
No one is bossing consistently like İlkay this season, I hope Nagelsmann can help him to get that Euro since trophies are only what awaken people.
It's still Jules RB for me, Keep Ronald as CB.
The answer to Mbappé is not just moving your best center back to the right back position, let's not act like Mbappé will stick to one position.
The plan must be smarter than that.
"Patience, extra pass, not rushing the situations, wait for the right moment, make them tired, make them run, keep the ball and at one point the space will open up.
We gave them counterattacks, we have to control this kind of situation better."
Those Pep Guardiola quotes might be about football in general, but they are also about life, about how you should not be relaxed, how you should push yourself beyond your comfort zone, never let yourself too comfortable, always giving 100%...
[Quick Thread]
Coaches are not overrated.
Coaches are not overrated.
Coaches are not overrated.
This is such an ass lineup, and yet he is pushing them to their best potential.
Criticize his final ball as much as you can (still 19yo), but defensively he is one of the best left-backs in the world if not the best.
happy for Alejandro.
If we are a serious team and without any bias or exaggeration, Barcelona's midfield can make PSG chase the ball for 90 minutes.
They are scared of Kylian.
I am laughing at Fabián, Manuel, Vitinha, and Carlos. Don't even let me speak about their defense.
Bad habit = Guardiola mentioning it to the player = work on it and stop doing it.
"Managers simply don’t have time for that [removing bad habits] at the highest level."
They criticized Jordi Alba for being a bozo defender, and now when they got a big balls fullback who will be there to protect you + escape 3 players pressing with his progressive carries, they now switched to criticizing his end product.
The '20yo'.
Watching again the Elche game, Ferran Torres dropped a great performance but a few noticed that.
The synergy between him and Koundé, also how he was dealing with the ball under pressure, how he kept escaping the passing
If you survived vs Napoli with losing the ball every 1 minute, you won't survive vs the PSG frontline when you make it easy for them like that.
Winable game if only the team controls with and without the ball, AND fixes this tracking runner's problem in our defense.
Any Barcelona fan who has a Twitter account and gassed this Rodri fella and didn't defend the legacy of Busi needs to find shame as soon as possible imo.
The new generation has no shame to forget how great our legends are, starting from Piqué and now Busi.
Some Barca fans watch Pedri get rid of 5 players pressing us with a magical touch, and they blame me for praising him.
Appreciate this genius for fuck's sake.
TL makes it look like Gavira is only good in defending and vibes, but no one mentioned how Pedri is also good in defending.
You can feel his presence when we are out of possession, unlike the mailman.
Frenkie-Ilkay-Pedri is not a balanced midfield.
Good quality maybe, but not the midfield that you will trust against top opponents that will challenge your defense and your midfield.
Gavi was bringing that balance. still he wasn't enough, we still need more for the balance.
It makes more sense to stop spending and let the club recover financially, bring back Anosu Fati, and bring with him De Zerbi who is the best option who can identify where your talents play the best and help them improve their game.
Ferran Torres is not a 1v1 winger, he can beat his man sometimes, but it is not his main strength at all.
He is only an inside forward or a striker.
Quick notes on Ferran Torres 👇
Real Madrid conceded 0 shots on target until now vs Girona with this backline and no DM.
Barca fans told me that our defensive problems are because we need better players + spamming "We don't have DM".
Xavi knows that Bilbao is dangerous in corners and set pieces.
We conceded vs Bilbao from a set piece in Copa game, and from a corner in La Liga game in San Mames.
Honestly, if Real Madrid add Mbappe & Davies (and Endrick too) to this superteam, I don't know how Barcelona can respond.
We're lagging so far behind it's actually funny. And to top it all off, we're selling assets like De Jong & Dembele and are scrambling for a coach.
Tough.
There is still a good player in Raphinha, give him clear ideas in the final third, don't force him to 1v1 gimmick, employ him in a system that uses his strong strengths and he will win you games.
João Félix tho, was a bozo, and will always be a bozo in my eyes.
They ignored all the successful build-ups in the game and focused on one mistake, shame.
Just appreciate how brave they are under the pressure, a lot of men team here will hoof the ball for a small amount of pressure.
It took García Pimienta one year and 7 months to promote Las Palmas with playing better football than FC Barcelona, and dominate vs a highly technical team like Real Sociedad.
A proper coach is a proper coach, no matter the quality of the squad he has.
For me, Girona game is the biggest test if Girona plays their usual football, Atlético yesterday made it look easier than what I expected from Diego.
While enjoying yesterday's performance, don't forget that we were 'allowed' to play like that, like what happened vs Bayern.
"Best players never rest", get your bullshit off the road and stop overplaying 'kids', it's almost 2024 and you still can't learn from Olmo and Pedri's injuries who YOU COACHED both of them in that shitty Olympics.
FC Shakhtar Donetsk is coached better than FC Barcelona in every phase, this is not an exaggeration, this is the reality.
AND, they showed that in both legs.
🇪🇸📺 Gerard Piqué: "Football competes with Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, TikTok. Everyone has limited time. Football for 90 minutes is not as exciting."
"Do I watch matches for 90 minutes? Not really. I watch some Barça, but not 90 minutes. Maybe 30 or 40 minutes."
"The other day…
I have the lowest expectations about Vitor, but man I don't think he will miss what Lewandowski missed today.
Can't wait to see him in Blaugrana colors.
"And now there is Stones, he’s one of the new generation who understand football not just as a defender."
- Gerard Piqué on 11 November 2015 - The Telegraph.
How does he pause time and slow everything around him whenever he touches the ball. Pedri I fucking miss you watching you, my boy.
Keeping my love for the game alive.
A capable coach who can give you solidity in defense and clear ideas in attack = dominate La Liga for many years and it's not even an exaggeration. Barca squad can win multiple La Liga titles in a row if they get a serious coach. This Madrid side can only scare the cowards.
Since Raphinha is not an isolation 1v1 winger who can beat his man, and since Alejandro is a better dribbler and I think that he has some goalscoring in him.
What about Alejandro RW, Raphinha LW to use him as a cutbacks machine?
João LB, Jules as the right back.
Part of the Barca fanbase think that Barcelona is no longer a big club just because of the failure in recent years.
Might be time to get educated and read more about the history of Barca before 2009 because surprise: Barca was a big club even before 2009 (and it will always be)
This club inspired a lot of kids. Guess why?
Beautiful football and dominating the teams they faced + titles.
That's our identity. Respect it and don't erase it from your mind defending shit performances.
Irankunda: "I used to want to be a centre-back. Watching Barcelona, that’s my team I support. Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué – I used to watch them a lot. Things changed once I got the call to trial at Croatia Raiders. I got moved to attacker, striker. Banged a couple of goals.…
Playing with this freak most likely shaped the way Xaxi sees the game as a coach.
Let the ballers ball, give them freedom, and they will find solutions.
But it does apply only to the type of attackers Xavi played with, not to the type of attackers Xavi is coaching.
Pedri injuries vs Olmo injuries. Both started after the Euro and the Olympics overload.
In that year:
Pedri: 3526 minutes for his club, 559 minutes in Olympics, 629 minutes in Euro. 4714.
Olmo: 3266 minutes for his club, 565 minutes in Olympics, 377 minutes in Euro. 4208.
Since Raphinha is not an isolation 1v1 winger who can beat his man, and since Alejandro is a better dribbler and I think that he has some goalscoring in him.
What about Alejandro RW, Raphinha LW to use him as a cutbacks machine?
João LB, Jules as the right back.
- 3-2-2-3's Arteta is formed by inverting Zinchenko.
- 3-2-2-3's Pep is formed by inverting Rico/Silva/Stones.
- 3-2-2-3's Klopp was formed yesterday by inverting TAA.
The common thing is inverting the fullback, and not making the attack weak just to form a box midfield.
"My love for Spanish football certainly increased around the time when Pep was managing Barcelona, for me it was a magical time for football."
- Eddie Howe
Keep doubting La Masia, and it will keep proving you wrong.
Fellas have the best academy and yet they ask to "spend for that shiny new hyped player or we riot".
Ousmane Dembélé over Coman is the selection that should haunt Deschamps. OD had a poor WC & Coman’s big game catalogue is the opposite of Dembélé’s big game disappointments. Coman would have helped defend Di María much better on that side & made an instant impact when he came on.
Ronald Araujo on how he prepares before games:
- He analyses every forward player: which foot do they use? if they cut back a lot? and how do they play in general?
- The club already knows about sending him those videos.
- Araujo really does his homework before every game.
How does he pause time and slow everything around him whenever he touches the ball. Pedri I fucking miss you watching you, my boy.
Keeping my love for the game alive.
Pep Guardiola believes that fatigue is only a mental issue:
- Wins help players to recover quickly.
- Humans have incredible resources to move forward/keep going, and an incredible mental energy that you don't believe you have, but you really have.
@nonewthing
Do that and do that and you win UCL. This is not career mode, you can have a perfect squad and yet one small detail in the KO games won't let you win the UCL.
The hype around Fedrico Redondo already started, but what's more interesting about him is his life, his relationship with his father, his coaches, his dreams...
Some interesting quotes from Fedrico Redondo's interview with
@TyCSports
👇🧵
İlkay is obsessed with the idea of:
- Every player needs to know what his teammates are doing at every second.
- Consequently, there will be no rush because every player knows exactly what will happen.
I think, I just think, that maybe FC Barcelona needs some goalscorers, someone who doesn't have a fanbase who cheer for him just because "he tries", someone who you give him the confidence and the chances and he just scores them.
Ansu Fati is that.
The most disgraceful part of Barcelona fanbase is the one that is underrating their squad because it is underperforming, and at the same time overrating this Madrid squad.
Gavi can play as a low 8 without any problem, my boy is orchestrating the game alone, this guy has a bigger potential but we didn't unlock that yet.
It's one of the reasons i am calling for 4-3-3 with low 8s.
It's sad to say, hard to swallow, but I witnessed yesterday Real Madrid playing exactly what I want from FC Barcelona to play.
Sustaining pressure, crashing the box, cutbacks, stability in defense...
Hard to believe maybe, but Carlo yesterday impressed me vs Granada.
The main man in this team is Pedri, not Félix, not Lewy, not Cancelo, it is Pedri. and he is not fully fit yet.
He is the only one who should give you hope in this team. No one else, don't lie to yourself please.
The thing about Vitor Roque is that the fans need to set the expectations in the right way.
He might score some goals, better runs than Lewy maybe, but he might also take his time to perform and adapt to one of the hardest leagues defensively.
Some players thrive when you give them freedom, but at the same time, not every player deserves to be given full extreme freedom.
Freedom should only be given to deference makers, elite decision-makers, game deciders, high-IQ footballers.
and they are becoming rare.
Only in Barcelona, they have a stacked midfield and limited resources for I don't know how many years, and they still get hyped because Barca Universal translated a report about a player that they didn't know days ago.
And they bring that logic "for 10mil, it's no brainer".