Real Mallorca 1, Barca 1, a.k.a. “Peeeeennntoooo!”

tomatutomate: "haya" dude... "haya" not haga :-)

Sorry for the previous comment Name ID, i was teasing someone on another offside page before, and forgot to change it again to my name.
"@MKU" that was my comment. Apologies Isaiah for inconvenience. Its ok to delete that one then I repost it in my own name if needed.

@MKU, when I said I am not sure how old are you, it obviously meant "have you watched the games when Valencia won the liga?" if you are 21 years old for example- its not something to be ashame of_ but it means you were not following the games back then. or at least not been aware of tactical things. So there is no insult in what I said.

As for the rest, its your own opinion.

Pep scored 6 goals in the league for FCB according to Wikipedia! Woohoo!

These are certainly interesting points and should be considered by all. I am of the opinion that Pep took what was right about Rijkaard's system and injected quite a bit of steel and high octane fuel. I am also of the opinion that this is a good thing.

Another thing of which I am of the opinion (how's that for an awkward English sentence?) is that Benitez is a good coach. Tactically, he uses what he has to win games without creativity. It doesn't seem hard to put 10 defenders out there and have them play worse opposition. However, he is good, there's no doubt about that. Whether or not he's better than others is not a question I feel I'm qualified to answer, having only seen a handful of Liverpool's and Valencia's games under his charge. What I've seen of his Liverpool sides, they've been boring as hell.

I have to imagine that Pep is as good, if not better than, Benitez in Benitez's first year of coaching a full club. Sure, Pep has better players than Real Valladolid, but I think that Pep is doing pretty well since no one has ever earned more points in half a season (though yes, full seasons matter a bit more). So Pep has room to grow. That's all.

MKU: no creo que alguein jamás haga "pateado la pelota con la cabeza"- no te creas. Bienvevido!

1- iniesta is a midfielder, one of the best I've ever seen. It's a waste of game vision to put him up front... although he plays well in every position ( I've seen him playing left defender once) but he is an INTERIOR (spanish, sorry). His passes are far from Xavi's, Xavi is really good but to me DON ANDRES is divine. I would put Iniesta as 10, but in Barça there is no 10. As iniesta is a midfielder, ribery in the upper left corner ( I don't know the position names in english) with him in the back would be really nice.

2- I haven't insulted anybody (only Germany's team because it sucks) so I don't get the "your age" thing ... my age is 52 or 62 I don't remember.

3- I've seen every game of FCB for decades and I love the team, I am a cule, but I am from Valencia and "real football" refers to teams that play more agressively, like everyone else man!! Some peole call Barça "Farça" (fake) and you should know why.

4- keita and busquets can perfectly play where yaya does. specially Sergi Busquets who was born for that position. Bred in "la masia" and 1'90 tall. yaya is a fantastic offensive player, if you like wasting talent putting yaya in the back and iniesta attacking you must be crazy, like PEP.

5- Your coach is my coach too. I just want him to wake up. PEP has not tried shit, he just benefits from Rijkaards's inertia. It's the same team without DECO and RONNIE and with ALVES. For instance: we can even play some games with two "9's" (etoo-henry, some killer 9's) and messi as "10", with a whole lot of midfielders in the back. He does not try anything, Barça tactically is pure boredom. Some 2nd halves he puts messi as 9 and Etoo in the side?????? Really stupid, good luck SAMU one day contradicted him and stayed as 9 to score a goal, do you remember? It's just that there are sooo many tactical variations he could try and actually hasn't that I'm starting to not trust him. I just wanted to see people's opinion about those possible tactical variations. I could write for hours about the different variations.

7- rafa benitez is a tactical god. PEP was just a very good player that scored 3 or 4 goals in his career, couldn't run faster that 10 km/h, has not ever kicked a ball with the head and was a "4" and couldn't defend. He even left FCB when the things were not fine. He just had an incredible game vision. Nodoby is untouchable, only FCB matters. And we are starting to be very predictable with the 4-3-3 fundamentalism. Or more accurately the 4-1-2-3 fundamentalism.

8- valdes is a jerk

With this whole Ribery thing you are all assuming that we will keep Henry, which i dont think is the case. Look i love the guy, I really do and I have pretty much always defended him, BUT he is getting older and i feel this will be his last truly great season and I think he knows it. Maybe he will stay and be happy with a bench role but he would be too expensive for a sub. If we can replace him the quality of somebody like Ribery or Aguero then i say go for it.

That being said I still dont think this is the most important position for us to worry about, like a lot of you said, as it stands right now we have sufficient cover for the left. What we need is a backup LB for Abidal, that is without fail IMO. I would love to see Lahm, but he would be v expensive. Maybe the Zhirkov is a more viable option (P.S He can also play as a left winger). We also need a target man in the box, something we missed out on last summer and something i think is crucial to remaining unpredictable and crushing the bus. I would love to see Llorente for several reasons; he is quality, he would not cost the world and he would probably not be too unhappy coming off the bench in some games.

I think once we deal with those two positions we can look at the left wing. If some sort of deal with Ribery or Aguero looks viable and is not verging on extortion then i would make sense. Henry at the very best has one season left in him, so we should cash in now while we still can.

I'm not sure if having Alonso there would stunt Busquets growth (no pun intended to Giant2)
Having great players to learn from is never a problem. Pep likes rotating his XI and Busquets would get a lot of games. We have always had a very strong Basque influence during our most successful eras and at the minute we have none at the minute, unless Txiki puts on his shorts.
Basque players have a strong connection with Catalunya historically and many of their best talents find their way to our academy. They have a never say die attitude which is very beneficial to many teams in La Liga and abroad (Alonso, Arteta etc.).

On the Tevez thing, he has the attributes but would be a very very expensive squad player. He does a job certainly but I can't imagine him playing the amount of games his massive price tag would require.

If I could pick the squad for next season, with reasonable budgets and the predicted comings and goings it would look like...

Valdes & Asenjo (Valdes for La Liga and Asenjo in cups at the start)

Alves, Caceres, Abidal & Juan Manuel Vargas (Fiorentina) to cover the fullback areas considering that Puyol & Henrique can also fill in
Puyol, Pique, Marquez, Henrique to rotate as centrebacks with the sale of Milito (he would still command a reasonable fee and he is injury prone)

Yaya, Busquets and Keita to rotate the defensive responsibilites
(Xabi Alonso or Miguel Veloso would be more than adequate replacements should a decent offer come in for Keita)
Xavi, Iniesta and a replacement for Gudjohnsen (Marek Hamsik would be the dream but Javi Martinez of Athletic has a lot of dynamism in midfield)

Messi, Bojan, Ribery and Gai Assulin should provide plenty of options in the wide positions for next season (even with Iniesta getting games further back if needed)

Eto'o can decide his own future. If he re-signs then work away. If he holds us to ransom and a decent bid comes then only a Benzema, Villa or Aguero would do to replace him.
I would love to see Keirrison of Palmeiras in our shirt. He has all the potential to be a true star and is a goal scoring machine.
Bojan may need to spend more time in slightly wider positions until we have a coach playing 2 up top

com on guys,bayern will not gona sell ribery,and if they will believe me he will end up at chelsea or madrid or manu(if they sell ronaldo),because we will never spend crazy money,and u must be stupid if u think bayern will sell him for just 35 milion,he will leave for atleast 50 milion or more,same goes for benzema ,i realy dont think barca will go any further than 45 milion,and if lyon want to play it hard he will end up in madrid,and i think we will go for benz if we dont renew eto and benz stay at lyon for another year,but it seems barca will not take the risk and renew eto (just as tixi and laporta saying) so no ribery and benz transfer, and i agree with those guys who saying its meaningless to spend that big money for ribery while we have andres to play that traditional winger role,and com on he is just realy good when he plays there ,sometimes even better than messi(and ribery).
so we must decide for the summer if we want to play iniesta on LW or in midfield,if he gona play LW we must sign a midfield,and otherwise sign a LW in henry style.
henry wil have bench roll for eto and LW and when eto go for african cup we wil use henry as no.9.
and if i had to chose i wil go for a henry style LW like tevez,van persie .(benzema!). and my favorit option is tevez who is realy good at pressing,and is hard working.and he wil be available for 35 milion, can play cf if needed.
no need to say we can sometimes use iniesta in his place ,and sometimes use tevez in messi position.

You had me, BA, until you advocated Samuel "Touch of Stone" Eto'o at forward over Eto'o, who dreams of having the first touch and control of Henry. Yes, both are very good forwards, but play Henry at the center, give both an even-steven shot, then we can know.

And don't forget that whenever Eto'o migrates to the wing, he vanishes without a trace.

With Iniesta and Ribery on the pitch, not to mention Alves, there are going to be balls coming at a forward that are going to demand size, strength and a great first touch to convert. Eto'o has one of the three, the second. Villa has one of the three, the last. Does Henry still have all three? Dunno. We've seen flashes of all three this season.

I just can't believe, given what he's done and continues to do for the side, that he still doesn't get the respect he deserves. And it isn't even as much the HFC as acknowledging that he's given us 18 goals and countless good plays from a position that isn't his natural one, and one at which he's heretofore been a failure. He was part of all three goals at Atletico, scoring two and setting up Messi for the third.

I know that everyone has players they like and dislike, but I confess to not getting the Henry thing.

Another up side of Ribery is that we will have someone who can run with Henry, which will keep him from having to stop and wait which, admittedly, holds up the attack. :D

But Ribery is just another rumor. Bayern are determined to keep him, which means he's going to be very, very expensive, coming at a price that demands that he start, which means juggling things to get him into the lineup.

Feeling a bit depressed? Use this is to pump you a bit :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

@andrew M: there is a funny picture/comic about pinto on peps blog. In essence it says. "I told the guy if he made the penalty i would make him an album. Then he got all nervous"- something like that i cant remember. ill post the link later.

oh yeah, and we should have bought this guy: http://www.101greatgoals.com/v...

why would we want Henry on the field with Iniesta and (Ribery)? i see Henry's role as a backup for the central striker or left wing should Ribery come to Barca. let me preface by saying again (so i don't find the HFC in my driveway with torches in the morning) that i love Thierry Henry, and that yes he's been good for us this season and scored some great goals; but there is still the problem of him slowing our attack and losing possession in forward areas.

by contrast, Ribery's athleticism and pace in attack gives us the quickest-playing forward line in Europe. he can make space and find the pass FAR faster than Henry on the left (as well as actually being able to beat his man flat-out), and with Pep liking Messi to drift into the center more that gives us a lot more threat on the break (teams not being able to play 2 men on both Ribery and Messi when they're getting back, which would be a necessity). plus, the ugly Frenchman can play on the right or in midfield, something the handsome Frenchman cannot. the simple fact is that Ribery excels as a TRUE winger, while Henry for all his majesty at Arsenal was not going to be more than an exceptional converted winger. note that his involvement still leaves Iniesta in the squad, and a left side of Abidal/Iniesta/Ribery sounds pretty damn good to me. and as a final note, remember again that Ribery can also just as easily play in Iniesta OR Messi's position should they go out injured.

i see the squad as looking like this:

Alves/Puyol/Rafa(Henrique)/Abidal
Yaya
Xavi/Iniesta
Messi/Eto'o(Villa)/Ribery

like everyone i love Xabi Alonso, but he'll never come and i don't think he'd accept the kind of rotation that he'd get. David Silva is a decent option, and is a versatile sort of player who i think could fit into a rotation. but i think his arrival is contingent upon whether or not we end up going for Villa; i can't see us taking both of them at once.

@Colin the thing is there was a Benitez fan who was teasing us by underestimating our own coach, so we had to make him pay back, even through adding some spices to the evaluation. The guy asked for it :)

Benitez is a good tactical Coach, but compared to Man Utd he is defensive coach to death. May be he is practical considering the type of players he have (the best defensive midfielder in the world, and one of the best deep medfielders beside him. No skillfully attacking Midfielder and no skillful forward to partner Torres), yet he had the chance to sign those who can push him forward when he started the project. in brief, he is smart, but defense oriented. When he score once he substitute to lock the game and finish it 1-0, when man Utd score they push for more.

Hector...you and your Tevez comment...Do you have a copy of my notebook? or you read minds? because some phrases you mentioned are almost exactly the same as I wrote it there on my notes. So I only have to say: Spot on.

Regarding shooting from distance, I think Yaya is playing too far for being able to take as many shots as we hope him to take. And as a lonely DM in our tactical structure I dont want him to move forward more often (You hear me Yaya? I don't need your shots). regarding Keita, i think he is still not settled/adapted enough to our playing style and the team in general. He is still finding his way in, so there are some other things he is focused on now to master in his new club/role before he start to take things on his own responsibility, such as picking his shots rather than passing the ball to his team mates , the old guards of the squad.

Alonso is good, but now that we have Busquets, I think he will only stand in his way. I believe This young boy can do the Alonso job, just need some more time to mature, so Paying the millions to get an older (quality) player is not a priority.

A very funny bit from Tim Stannard over at La Liga Loca:

Barcelona (1st) vs Athletic (11th)

Brain-dead Spanish football busy bodies have now got a difficult dilemma on their dilettante hands. And that’s never a good thing, considering their current inability to handle kick-off times, competent referees, TV deals and child-proof bottles.

The Athletic vs Barça Copa del Rey final, set to be played on the May 13, has thrown up some incredibly inconvenient issues.

Plan A - arranged before the finalists were known - had the tie taking place in Valencia’s Mestalla stadium.

But as Athletic plan to bring the entire population of Bilbao to the game, while Barça can count on their solid 27-strong away support, the Basque club has asked for the match to be moved to the Bernabeu which can seat a good 85,000 as opposed to Mestalla’s less than formidable 49,000.

The other troubling in-tray bulging issue for FA bigwigs - and one which will probably take up most time in pre-match planning - is how to drown out the inevitable boos and jeers from both sets of supporters when the Spanish national anthem is played and the King is wheeled out to meet the players.

LLL Prediction - Home win

Paralelamente a su carrera futbolística José Manuel Pinto, bajo el nombre artístico de Wahin, se ha destacado como productor y compositor de música hip hop. En 2006 fundó su propia compañía discográfica, Wahin Makinaciones.

that is from wikipedia; and for those of you who dont speak spanish, it is saying how pinto, in his free time, is a producer and composer of hip hop music and has his own record label called Wahin Makinaciones.

thats pretty fuunny stuff

Interesting news out of Valencia, that fiscal dire straits might force the sale of anybody sellable, as in Villa AND Silva. Craziness. 15 million in unpaid back wages and other madness.

As for our lads, as I see it the biggest differences between then and now is that now there is no ball pressure on the opponents, and none of the one-touch passing that so unhinged defenses. Both are easy fixes, but require energy. Rest will help. Xavi looked about as sprightly as I have seen him of late in the Copa match.

The problem with every potential transfer mentioned is that we have somebody who is arguably better. Yes, Tevez coming in means that we can play Henry in position, but that means, thanks to the allegiance to Eto'o, that he's a 20-million benchwarmer. Or does Guardiola do a 1st half/2nd half thing?

I love Ribery as a player, but I also wonder what happens to Iniesta and/or Henry if he comes. Ideally, you want all 3 on the pitch at the same time. So Ribery off Xavi, Iniesta on the left wing and Henry at the 9? Then what about Eto'o?

This summer is going to be interesting.

Isaiah I think you're right that it's a tactical choice not to take many long shots. Maybe Pep doesn't like the counters that result when a long shot is blocked. Personally I'd like to see the Yaya let rip, and if any defenders want a Looney Toons style hole in their chest let them try to stand in front of the Yaya.

Danny seems not to have gotten this particular tactical wrinkle from Pep.

Colin, the problem with bring in Alonso for his long-range shooting is that we already have 2 long-range shooters with freakin' Big Berthas. But we don't use either Keita or The Yaya for that particular purpose because it's not our style. We're not goal-crashers like Liverpool (with Torres) or ManU (with Berbatov). We do like to pass the ball into the net more than anything, so I think that our team is asked not to shoot from distance. Seems the only logical reason that we've had what 3 or 4 shots all year from more than 30 yards?

LOL here's the answer to the Pinto vs Valdes stuff:
http://goal.com/en/news/12/spa...

:D

It's a little unfair to call Benitez defensive when he plays essentially the same 4-2-3-1 as Sir Alex. Maybe his selection is more defensive because he plas Gerrard in the hole rather than a true SS, and he doesn't play forwards as wingers. Still his system is pretty standard for the PL these days, Martin O'Neill is another who has used it to better his club. If you want to talk defensive football, the conversation still starts in Milan.

I like Alonso very much because Barca still needs a midfielder who can cannon in a long range shot. We talked about that at the end of last season as a way to break up the bus parking. Alonso will fit in seamlessly with Xavi and allow Xavi to push up for those "dagger" passes. Pep seems to prefer the third midfielder to push forward between the CF and left WF though, not sure he's interested in Alonso.

I've never seen Tevez play left forward, only SS or 9, so I'm all for him based on what Hector says. He works very hard and is very dangerous at forcing defenders into mistakes, which is a big part of Barca's pressing style. The all Argie front would wear defenses out.

Finally, I'm not sold on the Pique - Marquez - Puyol back three because there's not enough pace there. Pace on counters was a big problem down the stretch last season, I think Caceras is the only player on the team list with the pace to fill in for Abidal. That means living with his inexperience, and probably lots of Puyol - Marquez in the middle.

Wow, I'm deeply impressed by his magic skills ;)

I just released a comment by Liva (spam filter fun!). The text is:

Helge, if you think Benitez is not a magician, you haven’t seen this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
But to be serious - I agree what you said about him. He really knows how to play at Champions league. Somehow it doesn’t work that well in Premier League. The possibility of losing to Liverpool at home most probably never entered Real Madrid’s mind, but…

I'm not so sure about Ribéry. He's playing pretty much the same position as Iniesta does, they are both very offensive LMs. Ribéry seldom played as a true outside forward as many of you suggest him to do if he joins us. Plus they are too similar in their way of playing, they are both brilliant technicians who can dribble the ball like no other in their respective teams. Ribéry does have a better goal-per-game-ratio, that's the only big difference between them. Though they are still too much two of a kind and I would advise against the deal...

You don't need Ribéry if you got Iniesta, you don't need CR7 if you got Messi BUT we could need David Villa although we got Eto'o.

Goal.com is reporting that we already have sealed the Ribery move for the summer. That would be great news. I have mentioned him as my prime summer target in http://www.allaboutfcbarcelona...

I love Xabi Alonso. I think he is currently among the very few players in the world that can control the tempo of a whole game from a true deep lying center mid position. He would be awesome to have but he's not going anywhere to sit on a bench while he is in his prime and so many teams of the likes of Juventus and Real Madrid badly need a playmaker like him.

I'm thinking of Tevez as a successor to Henry at the left forward spot. This will allow Thierry to move to his natural 9 position and rotate back to left forward depending on the situation. I actually think Messi is the ideal winger/forward for our system so I precisely want another Messi for the left. Tevez has much better dribbling and one on one skills than Henry (at this point in his career) and also has the stamina and will to defend and pressure all game long but can also score goals around the box. He's an ideal winger/forward for our system and he plays his best on the left which is perfect. If Ribery is not an option and Eto leaves, I vote for Tevez to left forward, Henry to the 9, and buy Negredo or Llorente to be Henry's understudy and after he retires setttle on a Bojan/Big Striker rotation at the 9.

Speculation is fun.

that copa one, should have Yaya-Alonso-Xavi, not Keita, but who really payed that much attention anyways?

I like the sound of purchasing a combinations of Ribery, Alonso and Reina.

The Reina one is obvious, so no need for explination.

Alonso and Ribery would add great depth to us, especially during the Liga-Copa-Liga-CL-Liga periods. With Pep's wonder rotations, no one should be starved for game time.

Liga: Busi-Xavi-Iniesta, Ribery-Eto'o-Messi
Copa: Keita-Alonso-Xavi, Iniesta-Henry-Pedro!
Liga: Busi-Keita-Alonso, Henry-Eto'o-Bojan
CL: Yaya-Xavi-Iniesta, Ribery-Eto'o-Messi

i think that obviously the first choice starters would be Yaya-Xavi-Iniesta, Ribery-Eto'o-Messi, but look at how many times Henry, Alonso, and Keira are used, there's even room for Bojan and Pedro! to get in the mix. And the game's where they are not listed, imagine having Eto'o, Messi, Iniesta, Ribery, or Xavi as super-subs. hell, Alonso's right foor might go a long ways to discourage bus-parking.

Obviously these are premature hypotheticals, and it would really depend on who we are playing in those games. But i like the sound of it.

Hector, you forgot the olympics. i think he won right? thats when i first heard of him. If my memory serves me correctly, Teves played on top with Mauro Rosales and Cesar Delgado, and Teves dribbled past defenders as if they were training cones, in almost messi-like fashion, except that it was more direct, and he put them in the back of the net, not at his team mate's feet.

Teves, again would be for depth. What Teves needs, is a team that needs him, and he needs a team with a very good striker. What teves does, Messi has covered. And Eto'o is a better 9 than teves, while Iniesta is better attacking workhorse than him.

I am a HUGE Tevez fan and have been on record here advocating him as a left forward. Reasons?

1) He meets the trademark Barca versatility requirement. He can play as a left forward (some in Argentina argue this is his best position - hint hint!), as a 9 or as a supporting striker.

2) He meets our hybrid forward/winger profile. He has dribbling skills and can break down defenders in the one on one but is also a natural goal scorer who can score with either foot or his head. He is also a vastly underrated passer of the ball/playmaker. Ask Cristiano Ronaldo how many tap ins he put in last season were thanks to Tevez.

3) What did Henry cite as the factor that made it the hardest for him to adapt to his new position? Defense and work rate. He had to spend much more energy defending and pressuring than he did before which sapped his energy for attacking. Tevez has arguably the best work rate in the defending Champions League winners (the other choice would be Park). That's quite an accomplishment. He is not selfish, is able to defer to super stars , and has the same "barrio", "never back down or give up" mentality as other Argies that grew up in the slums. The guy is a bad ass who will play his heart out and is loved by the fans at every single team he's played for. I would argue that Tevez is still more beloved by quite a few Boca fans than even Riquelme or Palermo. My best friend's fiance is Brazilian and they are rabid Corinthians fans. Tevez is the ONLY Argy they ever liked.

4) He's a winner. He won EVERY single competition when he was at Boca including Copa Libertadores, Copa Intercontinental, Clausura, and Apertura. He won the Brazilian league with Corinthians as a captain at 21, and he won the EPL and the UCL with ManU. West Ham is the only team in which he has not won and that was for a single season. The guys is just the common denominator in way too many championship teams to be a coincidence.

5) He can dance. (Check youtube "Carlitos Tevez cumbia") .... and he's beautiful.

Yeah, I LOVE Tevez. Is he worth 35 Mill when we may be able to get Ribery for the same money? I would consider it but would have to think long and hard about it. They both bring different qualities and you KNOW Tevez can coexist with Xavi, Iniesta, Eto, and Messi. We still dont know that about Ribery who is used to being the top dog.

Ribery > Hleb. I've been thinking about a Hleb + 15m deal for Ribery. That sounds fair to me...

ribery for hleb? yes thanks!, i heard hleb said that he is in the best years of his career and doesnt want to spend them on the bench. does he expect to walk into the 1st 11 ?

Hearing a lot of speculation about Bojan going out at least on loan next season...I'd hate to see that because I'm such a loyalist to the Barca academy...

hmmmm i was thinking about Tevez the other day in our team but idk what position do he actually plays.
I was also wondering how an all Argentina forward line might be with Messi-Tevez-Agüero.Also with the rumors these days all is likely and would yall agree to swap Hleb for Ribery in a transfer deal or keep him for 1 more season???

jordi has the "Pinto" vs "Peeentoooo" business right. :D

Tevez? Dunno 'bout that one. I think that he brings a lot to the table, most notably a tenacious attacking spirit. But I always wonder who would I replace in the current starting XI to get him in, and I can't find anyone. This would make him a very spendy benchwarmer/platoon player, right?

Not to draw the conversation away from the previous millions of comments about tactics, but what do you guys think of Tevez in our squad?

A good fit or no?

Actually, that might be a tactical question after all, so it's not truly a non-sequitor, just tangential. Sweet.

Xabi Alonso's father played for Barcelona, by the way. As did Pepe Reina's. Just thought that might be an interesting bit of information for some of you.

Holy crap it's a busy place today. Everyone give themselves a round of applause for adding to the most interesting place in cyberspace.

As has been said, Valdes is our no.1 and will be for the foreseeable future. Valdes' contract runs out in 2010, and keeper's rarely command very high transfer fees, so I suggest keeping him on our books until his contract runs out if he does not want to re-sign.
Sergio Asenjo is a bargain at his 7million buyout, with the potential he has and with Spain's proven track record for producing the some of best keeper's in the world (Zubi, Canizares, Casillas, Reina), we surely are on to a winner.
Get Asenjo, give him the no.2 spot and let that pressure help Valdes decide to improve or move in a season.

I love tactical analysis more than any other part of our little game.
The final stretch of the season is going to give Pep plenty of chance to prove his worth as a coach. The starting XI will become a little more predictable as every game is of the utmost importance and he has a more clear idea of exactly what he can expect from his players. In reality, Pep has only had 8months to get to know his players and their strengths.
I expect Alves-Marquez-Pique-Puyol to be our backline in every important match until Abidal returns.
Pique, whether you like him or not, seems to be the perfect partner for Marquez in games they have played together this season. Puyol at fullback makes us very solid and gives an added energy to our midfield with his constant 110% effort.
I hope Abidal is back for the business end of the Champions League as we will need him for the best of attacks.

We still haven't found out what our best 3 in midfield is. Gudjohnsen, Keita, Busquets and Iniesta have all played as the 3rd cog in our engine but Iniesta is proving unplayable at times from the left attacking role and the other three have been as consistent as a commentator with tourettes.
At the minute my preference is Busquets, Gudjohnsen and a distant 3rd Keita.
Keita has been mostly terrible this season with just his couple of headed goals saving him from the Hleb-like lynching.

Iniesta and Henry obviously provide different things to the team and I'm looking forward to seeing Pep's take on when to use Iniesta on the left and when in the centre.

With all the talk about Liverpool, I do have one thing to mention... I'd love to make Xabi Alonso our third midfielder for next season. He would add so much to our system, tactically, that we don't have with any of our midfielders, Xavi and Yaya included.

FYI...Saturday's Barca match will be shown on Sunday as a tape-delay on GolTV @ 7:00 PM EST.

BA- EXACTLY. As the cliche goes, "it is what it is". That's my point. It sucks but at the moment its our best option to keep him. Why should we bitch about something that can't be reasonably expect to have immediately fixed? I STRONGLY think we should grab Asenjo this summer though and make him a back up to see if it lights a fire under VV's butt. If Benitez can't get his Liverpool contract sorted out then Reina MAY come into play but everybody and their grandmother (from Citeh to Altetico to Milan to Zenit St. Petersburg) will want him.

Reina played in 49 games for our first team...I didn't realize it was so many...

His transfer went like this: Villarreal signed him on a five-year deal, but FCB retained the right to buy him back; after two years, Villarreal bought out the full contract for 6m euros plus Juliano Belletti (unless we paid Reina + 6m for Belletti, my Spanish fails me).

So we got the guy who won us the CL for Reina...interesting.

I could never understand why Núñez wouldnt pay the top players like ronaldo, maradona, , laudrup, even judas, the list is on and on, atleast now we pay our players better so now we dont have to worry about losing them.

i agree about Reina. he's as far better keeper than Valdes in my opinion if only because he commands his area so much better. i don't know much about the circumstances of his transfer, but getting him back would be a huge improvement. he's quite a character too, i'd love to be a fly on the post when he and Pique were "communicating" over the previous play. as you said though, he's unlikely to come.

i'm at a loss as to our options. Asenjo would be a great start, but as you noted is still much too young. truly world-class keepers of the kind this team deserves are in very short supply, and most that are around have very strong ties to their current club. it looks as though despite his inadequacies, Valdes is our only real option for the present. and that sucks.

Expanding on and re-enforcing some of Ramzi's points:

- VV is NOT world class, we all know that. Hell, besides losing Cesc (imagine our depth with him still around), losing Pepe Reina is in retrospect our biggest recent mistake not associated with Nuñez's Mr. Scrooge syndrome (we only lost Maradona, Ronaldo, Laudrup.... because of his tight pockets). BUT consider losing him. WHO will we get? Casillas and Buffon are obviously out of the picture, van der Sar is old and isn't moving, Cesar isn't going any place, Reina will not move unless Benitez goes (possible) but a bidding war with Atletico would take place, and Cech has lots of issues and will also be a hard get. Diego Lopez? Maybe but is he really that much of an upgrade? We MUST grab Asenjo while he is affordable but we cannot put a team of this potential in the hands of such an inexperienced keeper. Buy him and let him develop but somtimes its better to go with a known quantity than an unknown one.

- In regards to the Bojan issue. The ONE tactical flaw (execution wise there were quite a few) I did not like in Pep's gameplan was Bojan. Why? Our 4-3-3 with Henry and Messi on the flanks is a special 4-3-3, its unique. Why? Henry and Messi aren't real traditional wingers. They are forwards with winger like skills. Hybrids. The can unbalance a backline through dribbling and one-on-ones and cross decently but they must also be able to shift into the box and score goals. This allows us to shift our whole front line all over the place (everybody plays multiple positions), confusing the hell out of the defense.

Hleb and Iniesta are NOT forwards. In either case they are traditional wingers. I LOVE Iniesta. His versatility is amazing BUT he can't score worth a damn. He's a playmaker. How is a traditional 4-3-3? think vintage Mourinho Chelsea with Robben and Duff bombing down the flanks and Drogba as a lone striker. Drogba was the best lone striker in the world at that point and worked essentially alone. Duff and Robben would unbalance the line with darting runs into the flanks with the primary responsibility of serving Drogba crosses or passes.

We were trying to play our 4-3-3 with two traditional wingers. Even if we played the normal 4-3-3 (Chelsea's), think about Drogba, not the tallest guy but much taller than Bojan and one of the strongest most physical strikers in the world. To play a lone striker you need certain physical and technical qualities that Bojan does not possess. He NEEDS another striker to play off of and on that game he didn't have that. That's why he was ineffective. Sure he had individual mistakes but he was not put into a position to succeed in this particular game. Messi or Henry IMO would have been better because they have a great first touch (Yeah, I'm looking at you, foot of rock Samu) and are strong enough to either hold the ball up or defeat two strong CB's be it with pace (Henry) or dribbling or both (Messi). That's why I was happy to see Pep not waste too much time into the second half to make the adjustment.

PS if Hleb plays a winger role, tell him that its okay to cross. He always seems to look for the pass on the ground. Its like the human expression of Arsenal/Barca "we HAVE to walk the ball into the net" syndrome. Headers work too buddy.

Wow. Welcome to all the new posters.

LOL mku certainly made quite a first impact here in the sparking debate department :D . That's always fun.

Unfortunately, Spanish football has been prevented from reaching all the heights it might have by fans' irrational fickleness and demands. The fans (with Nuñez's contribution) put in the pressure to fire JOHAN fircking CRUIJFF, Mr. Total Football himself after ONE bad season and a half. So yeah, no football legend is untouchable but that doesn't make it right. That firing was genius, wasn't it? Louis van Gaal did SO well compared to Cruijff. That really started the glory years, right? It didn't allow Valencia, Super Depor, and the Galacticos to rule La Liga for almost 10 years, did it? It was OBVIOUSLY the right move over patience and understanding with somebody who had built up his credit as much as anybody could. (PS this is sarcasm, just in case). I'm proud to demand excellence and beauty in our game but I also have to realize past mistakes. EASY on the fickleness because its the same one that booted Cruijff and brought in van Gaal and the first RM glory days since La Quinta del Buitre.

Another example (scarier), imagine if RM had kept del Bosque? *shivers* Now THAT's scary.

Helge, if you think Benitez is not a magician, you haven't seen this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
But to be serious - I agree what you said about him. He really knows how to play at Champions league. Somehow it doesn't work that well in Premier League. The possibility of losing to Liverpool at home most probably never entered Real Madrid's mind, but...

Liva, my computer shows me half of the people are from Germany... thanks for letting me know about yours. So, as this flag thing is not working perfectly for everybody, I think it would be great if everyone writes down in the comments where he comes from to see how multinational this community truly is :)

Germany here.

eklavya, I didn't think that your comment was directed exactly at me, no problems there. :)
Just some boring facts: :D
-Latvia is a small country - one of the Baltic states. We are most definitely NOT a part of Russia, btw. :)
-In football our greatest achievement was playing in Euro 2004 in Portugal. We lost to Netherlands and Czech Republic, but played 0-0 with Germany, if I remember correctly.

My sincere apologies for the off-topic.

my lord! isnt this a busy blog today?

mku, are you serious? If Pep simply followed Rijkaard's system, why has Rijkaard been sacked, ended up 3rd in la Liga and we have played the best first half of a season ever? Don't you think if Pep didn't have any effect on the team and copied Rijkaard, we would now be in 5th position or something like that? Give credit where credit is due!
I've not always been a friend of his decisions either, but c'mon, you cannot repudiate Pep's achievements even if there is no silverware (yet).

Pep was the best thing that could happen to us, for example look what he has turned Henry into: He has gained confidence and passion for the game under Pep and finally scores goals almost like in the good old times @ Arsenal - not to mention his assists. Under Rijkaard, he has been labeled as "mispurchase".

About Rafa Benitez: Yeah, he is a great tactician (I wonder why he's not Italian...) but I prefer magicians. Nevertheless (or simply because of that) I have to admit that he is the perfect manager for winning CL titles. I don't like his boring, destructive style but there is no other man on earth who masters it nearly as good as he does. Real Madrid was on a killing spree before they faced Liverpool with 9 (or was it 10?) consecutive wins, 10 goals in the last 2 games and Liverpool kind a messed up the league during the weeks before the CL encounter which made Real clear favourites imo - but Liverpool surprised. So I gotta give credit to Benitez in the same way as you should give some to Pep. Benitez' tactical masterpiece of work denied Real Madrid rising to even higher spheres, the 2 games before Liverpool saw them play nearly like "Galacticos". The loss certainly affected their run as they were not superior in the game against Espanyol and a draw would have been a fair result. If Benitez beats Real next week, I hope for a bigger negative impact^^

Allow me for some more cents before going to bed, so i don't type them again and again in my dreams...
1) Pinto was good last night, but he is not as good as Valdes. His performance will not make him number one, but I think it will be fair to give him some more games in the Liga in case we needed him if Valdes got injured or decided to strike for not being treated fairly(thats who HE will feel not ME).

2) Valdes is not a first class Keeper, no doubt. But who are the alternatives that we have in the squad or in the market, and I am really scouting for an option to defend. The two world class keepers are not an option, Cech is not the same keeper he was before his skull got kicked (as if he is an option to buy in the first place). We will sign a keeper this summer, but I think we need to live with Valdes for one more season at least.

3) Yaya can play more forward if both Keita and Busquets covered behind him. they can even cover more space than he can do alone (hate me Isaiah). I think it would have worked last night.

4) Tactical game doesnt mean it has to be boring. but if a team play about 60 games per season. and if playing Less exciting in 10 games out of 60 can decide the season success (winning titles) then i will go for it any day. Beside, when you win you qualify to play more games in the competition, so more time to entertain.

5) Henry cant dribble as good as Iniesta, Iniesta cant score as many goals. Henry is not as good dropping back to help in building up the game, while he is better pressuring the opponents defense. Each game require a different player on the left. And its not bad to have a good guy on the bench as a winning card.

6) Kevin I understand your point about Bojan performance. but we need to keep in mind the player role on the field, he is not a play maker, he was the striker in the game, so you judge him based on how often he received balls in the box or around it. We were playing for counters, and he was receiving the ball deep in our own field or in the middle, either he keep the passing...passing...then...passing...habit (Hector explained it well saying we were locked between our typical possession style and the methods needed for this game) or to get the ball and try to take it forward. I am not saying he was brilliant but he wasn't worse than others who played their own roles while he dropped back to cover the role they failed to achieve. I actually see it as a sign of needed courage from a young boy, with time his maturity will make him smarter deciding how to go. But as Isaiah said he will never be a striker in the box, but a Messi-light on the wing.

Oh I didn't know Lavita was a place ;) my bad soorry. And that comment before was just a general comment and by no means directed to anyone, so please don't think that!

Thanks for welcoming! :)
Isaiah, weirdly enough my computer shows me that half of the posters are from Latvia. I am from there, but I really doubt that almost everyone else is from here too. :D
eklavya, don't worry, I can promise that I won't cause any trouble or pointless disputes.

Nah i think he meant like peento, like how you pronounce been , which is the right pronounciation, if he was pronouncing it that way, i think he'd hae used 1 e and many n's, or atleast that's what i was thinking.

Im sorry Isaiah but I just understood 50% of what you said.lol just kidding :D

Who is Latvia?I only noticed Liva...I just hope this place stays what is it and has been since a long time and doesn't start to degenerate bit by bit like at pep's place a bit...

Pronouncing it like an American, Kevin. Pehn-to. Ha.

eklavya, it's not that the jokes are over you're head, it's that they're usually under your feet. We maybe be brilliant sophists, but I don't think Last Comic Standing would have a place for me...(or The Second City, if you're all Chicagoan n stuff n whatnot)

I'm enjoying this debate about Pep because all the tactical nuances are coming out...

Līva, indeed, welcome. And to mku and whoever else is new here that I have failed to welcome over the last few days/weeks/years. Yay for Barça bringing together a wider and wider community. Latvia just got added to the mix!

See what I meant about Pintp/pento thing.I never catch those kind of things :)

And mku, if you are talking about our possession when we play football then you need know that we NEED those RUNS from the midfield (a la iniesta) and from the attack (a la messi-ah)!Without those we are stuck, you can see past examples of those in some earlier matches!

@Mku.....dood did u just start watching Barca play like 3 weeks ago or something? Football without running? Are you kidding me?!?!? in the first 3 months our players ran more than any other team in the world, bar none. I think we ran a bit too much and we burnt ourselves out a bit and that is why we are suffering now. Perhaps a bit of inexperience on Peps part, nevertheless nobody has the right to call for the mans head. I wouldnt even call for his head if we ended the season without winning anything. It takes time to build a team and the fact that he has managed to do well so fast is beyond astonishing.

Also Lyon are not a crap team my friend. We got the same result Man UTd got last season when they played Lyon away and they could have lost that game too. They ended up winning the whole thing. Do not underestimate Lyon. On their day they can be a very very hard team to beat.

Ok after reading all the comments I have a few things to say, but 1st things 1st:
-As I no one has done it yet: Liva hello and welcome, your 2 cents of thoughts are always welcome.I think there have been many of us who have followed this blog for a few months before actually commenting on it (like me :) ).

-MKU: just what the hell are you saying?Let me tell you this, we thought we had bought 2 midfielders this summer who we thought depth but turned out to be crap.The yaya (all hail) is better in our system when he plays as a defensive mid because he is just better there, just like other strikers who are better as supporting strikers.
Now did you see our earlier games this season, did you see almost all the games we played, we played REAl FOOTBALL as you call it.We are in a bad streak didn't you notice? So please stop calling for pep's head because he and only he made La liga's new records.He helped us become the best team in the planet from the crappy team of last season!
Don't you know that xavi needs rest? The guy has played almost all the games this season!
We played boring footy during this match and it was boring, so was the RM-liverpool match.Rafa is booooring!Period as kxevin says.
Henry doesn't have much dribbling skill but neither did he have much of them at arsenal when he was at his best.It never stopped him from being arsenal's all time top scorer!
Maruquez and Pique are too similar thats why we have Caceres or Puyol, they complete each other!
And stop putting capitals everywhere it breaks the peace we have here!

-And about the pinto/pento thing , I noticied it but I though it was one of those crazy blog-admin's jokes which I never understand lol(no offense kxevin/Isaiah, I dont want to get booted out!):D

Good day to all!

It's "peeeeeennnnnto," because I'm phonetically spelling it, smarty-pants! Neener, neener.

mku, Sylvinho doesn't play more often because he's slow and old. Every now and again he pulls one out, but mostly he just doesn't have it.

The loss of Abidal has, simply put, wrecked the way the defense plays. Should Guardiola alter defensive tactics in light of this, so that the old men aren't covering as much ground? Certainly. When he brought in Marquez yesterday, that was the first sign that he's figured out that sometimes, you need to just win, baby. If you can win by tying, so much the better.

Lyon in the Camp Nou is going down like a whore when the fleet's in town. Mark these words.

Yes, we're playing bad right now. But it isn't entirely Guardiola's fault. The lads are punking out. Nobody is manning up. Look at that goal yesterday. All somebody had to do was dive and give up the body to stop the shot. Nobody did.

@mku I am not sure how old are you, but I was following the Liga when Valencia won the titles. It wasn't all about Benitez brilliance. He may not be as lucky as Mourinho, but he is close.

- How many points were Man Utd behind this season just few weeks ago?
Pep is in his first year with the team. Will that mean anything?
Benitez is a cup coach same as Ramos, no one can argue that. He one the UEFA CL when it was the only thing for him to focus on as well.
When a football legend take a team after being in a big mess and take the hard decisions of selling key members and switch the cycle from being a big mess to a team that earned songs of praise all around the world. when he break all the records even without having his team perfectly Gelled. And when he perform without key players the way pep did in December. When in two months he can offer the clubs' fans what Sir Alex needed 4 years to deliver. Then he (Pep) is UNTOUCHABLE.

"PEP stand for football without running" When you say so, I get a message that you are not really following this team. They are the team run most -and with the ball. So No need to go for more debate about it.

But its a joy to have you around :)

RAMZI:

PEP stands for "football without running" and football IS running, you have to look for the partner's pass, he is a legend but nobody is untouchable. Not even Cruiff.

To call for his head is an exageration you're right but I am always critical as I guess you know we Spanish supporters are, Germany has not won anything in a while and still plays with Ballack doesn't it? Spain kicked out raul, then won the european championship and Luis Aragones is in Turkey now :-)

We have been playing really bad, I mean Barça and it is only PEP's fault. 8 points man!! we almost lost vs LYON!! are you blind?

One day pep did something incledible... keita played 40 minutes as left defender instead of abidal... I don't remember why, someone saw the red card I think...
Silvinho hardly plays, nobody knows why, abidal doesn't know what a ball is... so keita as left defender to me was like watching directly into the light :-)

When Johan Cruiff was the coach, those things were called "cruiffadas", meaning that they were creative, extravagant line-ups. PEP should try more of those Cruiffadas. Not now but before in la liga or la copa, right now the team is too weak. It's so easy to follow Rijkaard's system and play excellent football with those kind of players (specially Xavi-Iniesta-Messi and Etoo the black panther running after every ball), I give him no credit at all.

It was really nice hearing you opinions

p.d.- please respect Rafa Benitez he started taking teams to higher leagues ( Extremadura and Tenerife) won TWO LEAGUES and a UEFA CUP with VALENCIA, has won the champions league with the shitty liverpool :-) and is going to kick Real Madrid's ass. Psichologically mostly, they won't be able to get one attacking play right, he is gonna frustate them so much they'll start to loose points.

@mku, Now you nagged enough about pep Vs Benitez, let me clarify few things for you:

1) Benitez after years of coaching experience is not even close to what pep and his staff had shown during few months in business, let me tell you why:

a) The easiest approach tactically is to play a defensive game, the hardest approach is the offense tactic with total football dynamic. It looks easy but if you were a coach or coached how to apply it, u will know...

b) One of the coach quality definer is the transfers he make, do you want us to revue Benitez Shopping list "Iwant this!" ..."Nah...I dont want him anymore..."

c) Pep is approaching toward winning his first league the first year of coaching, Benitez will NEVER win a premier league, you know why? because his defensive game earn him points against strong teams but because he is a tactical chicken he take no offense risks even against small teams. So against weaker teams 75% of the teams he meet he will camp his players in his box and the opponents will park their bus the other end of the field and it will end as a draw. while teams like Man Utd win these 75% of games and get crowned as champions.

d) Regarding Scouting thing...Is it true we had no hint about LYON and Benitez is the guy who know all the answers. Then how do you analyze his game against Midlesbourg? sorry if I wrote the name wrong, they haven't won 7 consecutive league titles or something so I remember their name.

Lot of opinions go thru the discussion form and various opinions. But the tone is important as well. Pep is our club legend and he is UNTOUCHABLE. so No calls for his head.
Its also normal to question Coaches decisions but I just hate it when some people talk as if the coach is stupid. and start lecture him .whether it comes from a fan or a board member or a journalist(and most of the time saying things they dont even know what it means).
He do mistakes as any coach, but he is not Naive. his mistakes can happen during a game but he is not so stupid to keep pedro (for example) out for ther whole season even though he is better than Henry. And by the way, how long did pedro play up till now? Its just I didnt have enough time to see how good he really is. but may be I am one of the minorities who are not visiting the team during the training sessions so I have no info about that.

I am one of the people who question some decisions. But we all know Pep know it best. And he is the best for this team.

We definitly play some suicidal tactics sometimes, we need to modify that and we will. but there is a lot of options between suiciding and playing benitez way. and if there are no options then suiciding is better.

LOL.....nice catch Isaiah. I actually noticed it but i thought maybe there was a reason......

So no one has mentioned that the title of this article should be Piiiiiiiinnnntooo...

MKU...Rafa does nothing special, all he does is play VERY defensively which suits a two legged cup competition like the CL. Why do you think it is he has never won, or even come close to winning the EPL. Like i said he just gets his players to play like a team fighting relegation; everybody behind the ball, lots of physical aggressive play and try and counter quickly. It doesnt take a genious to beat the best using those tactics, it just takes a bit of luck. Pep on the other hand, with very little experience, has broken records in less than half a season and has produced some of the most breathtaking football you are likely to see. I wouldnt swap Pep for Benitez if you threw Torres and Gerrard in for free...

@Kxevin. I can see your point re Valdez but i still think there is a huge diff between him and a world class keeper. Casillas, Buffon, Cech.... none of them make huge mistakes in the really important games, when you need your keeper at his best. Of course they make the occasional blunder, they are only human, but not when it matters most; like in a CL semi final or when you are down to 10 men chasing a game. A world class keeper is on point in these games, he doesn't pass the ball straight to the feet of the striker. He doesnt drop the ball behind the line. No way, no how. He is just not good enough, but who is there available that is better? World class GKs are v hard to come buy, there are only a handful of them and they are not for sale. We are stuck with VV for a while so we have to learn to live with him and his tendencies. My hope is that we buy a player like Asenjo who can hopefully reach world class status in 2-3 years.

I agree we need to put VV on the hot seat a bit more but I am still amazed at the thanklessness of being a GK. Pinto had a HORRIBLE Atletico series and was blundering in the Espanyol series but now he saves our skins in one game and suddenly its "off with Valdes' head, let Pinto have the job!!!". Hell, if you doubt the thanklessness of that job, remember when Casillas was benched and the RM fans wanted his head on a pike back in the day? Yeah, it happened. Valdes ain't no Casillas but just remember that the GK will ALWAYS be questioned.

ribery would be definitive!!! yes

mku, you really do like you some Liverpool...I agree that Iniesta is very versatile and that's what makes him so good. He's our number one left-sided midfielder and can play in any position over there with equal value and contribution. I think he can play fairly well on the right as well, but we haven't seen that much out of him there (I remember being occasionally underwhelmed by him in the Spanish NT when he plays on the right so David Silva can play on the left, but perhaps that is only because I have such high expectations).

I like the idea of a rotation of 3 players on the left side (Iniesta, Henry, maybe Ribery?) that provides both substitutions and cover for injuries while also opening the door to various tactical changes. You're right, mku, that we've become somewhat stagnant tactically, but I think that's just Pep learning the trade; this is his first club as manager, so he's facing teams that learn a lot better from their previous mistakes than the Tercera teams he coached against last year did.

I think he just has to realize that force of personality sometimes doesn't win you games. He will learn that and I think we'll do well throughout the rest of the season because of these lessons.

hilal:
do you know madrid's president said before the game: "los vamos a chorrear" (we're gonna kick their asses)? Long life to Rafe Benitez (I'm from Valencia)

Rafa studies the opponent and dries him. we didn't even know who OLIMPIQUE DE LYON was!!! they could have scored 5 goals agains us!! every counterattack was a suffering... PEP said: "I've learned a lot from this game" and then we lost very single game after. :-)

barcelona's midfield without iniesta-xavi is lost, PEP has done nothing about it. even with only one of them and keita we are lost. one of them and Guddy lost also. One of them and Busquets the same. You just have to put YAYA up front. As simple as that.

bojan doesn't play, pedrito the same and we have to see Henry walking through the field everyday!! Ýaya has never played offensive midfielder. there are sooo many things man!! the defense!!! pique and marquez can't play together. do you see the games? I've been a supporter since I was born and I watch every single game.

Let's see what happens in the future, but we already lost 8 points in la liga and suffered for a 1-1 against LYON.

teams have to be solid, and not just depend on messi. that's one thing Rijkaard teached us.

Oh. Henry might be "awful," but he's nabbed just a couple of goals this season, right? And Pedro has how many? Just asking. :D

First off, I would never, ever score when a side scores against Barca. Never. Period, the end.

Now. Having Yaya as an attacking midfielder means that we have who as DM? Keita? Nope. Can't be Busquets, since you have him up front with Yaya, pressing the attack.

And Iniesta is excellent right where he is, since Xavi is the best midfield general that we have, and Iniesta is learning to work well with Henry, who (no offense meant to Iniesta and his jinx) can actually put the ball in the net.

In an ideal world, Iniesta and Henry would work in much the same way as Alves and Messi, but without the necessity of having the playmaker need to get back on defense. Henry is out there, out of position, because he's too good and creative to have on the bench. Think we have a player aside from Henry who could have scored that first goal against Atletico? Let me help with that one. No.

As for Guardiola's head, he's only led this side to the best first half in Liga history. Yes, there's been a string of bad matches. That Other Spanish team had a longer string. They fired their coach, and are winning matches, right? So it must be the coach.

Or do players just play their way out of these sorts of funks?

--And Isaiah, when Henry is forced to hold up the ball, it's often because he's outrun our attackers, and has to stop to wait for support. :D Not his fault that he's fast. I do wish he weren't so predictable with that drag/dash move, however.

--OhYes, I still say that if we are going to rip Valdes for the shots that he's screwed up and not accept the excellence of the ones that he's stopped, we do him a disservice. If his good play doesn't matter in the present, the same is true of the entire back line. Pinto is not as good as Valdes. That's why he's the No. 2 keeper.

Yes, the keeper's job is to stop shots. Like players, they have bad stretches. Casillas has let in some clunkers this season, as well. It happens to every keeper. The odds of it happening increase when the defense lets offensive players take shots. In the first part of the season, we weren't letting teams play their game. If they had the ball, we took it. A lot of the play never even reached our back line.

That has changed. So I repeat: If we're going to bench Valdes for plays he hasn't made, we need to bench the entire back line, because they aren't making the plays, either.

Just as Valdes' play affects the defense, the defense's play affects Valdes. So as they're saying "What's he going to screw up now," he's thinking "Three guys running toward me, and these jackasses are dashing about like the Keystone Kops. I have to commit to stop a sure goal. Oops. Guessed wrong."

It's just like that sometimes.

ISAIAH,

I am his biggest fan and the problem with him is that he is sooo good it's hard to choose between putting him in the corner or in the midfield. I personally think his game vision (vision de juego in spanish, sorry if not accurate) is his most prominent skill. And his weakest point is scoring, I guess you agree.

He carries the ball like nobody else with both feet and never looking at it, he always sees the right pass. with him and xavi in the midfield the games are always monologues.

Yes, Henry is ended like we say in Barcelona, he never dribbles his defender, i think he's shameless or either he thinks we don't realize that. DON ANDRES has more dribbling (panoramic dribbling as I like to call it, against 1, 2, 3, 4, all of them) but that's only one of his skills; he is definetively a midfielder. Only STEVEN GERRARD is more complete than him.

Henry is awful, but we don't have anything else. I would put PEDRITO in the corner, he has more motivation and dribbling than the french guy. WAKE UP PEP!

Hello, guys (I believe most of you are guys)!
This is the first time I'm posting, but I've been following this awesome website for a few months.
I just wanted to get into the Valdes vs Pinto debate a little bit. I really think that Valdes should keep playing as Number One goalkeeper. He has been great for most of the season. OK, in the last games he made some mistakes (some of them really bad), but the entire team hasn't been playing great either.
Although Pinto played incredible yesterday (penalty save - incredible, loved his mind tricks), I don't think he would be able to do it all the time. But his performance definitely showed to Valdes that he has some competition. Hopefully, it will make Valdes to pull himself together and prove to everyone that it's him who deserves to be Number One goalkeeper.
Like when you're running in a race, you'll run faster if your rivals are fast. If they're slow, you'll end up running slower as well, because you don't need to put much effort in it. :) Good competition makes you get better.

MKU.....are you really trying to compare Barca to Liverpool? You do realise that you are trying to compare one of the worlds most attacking teams with one of the worlds most defensive teams right? You cannot have it both ways my friend. Barca attack, that is what we do, we will never play like Liverpool and I am so thankful for that. As far as i am concerned their brand of football is ruining the game and the CL. If every team in the CL played like Liverpool, well it wouldnt be worth watching anymore.

"liverpool vs rm pure excitement!!" That must be a joke right? You cannot be serious? He can't be serious can he? I cant get over that comment. That was prob one of the most boring, anti climatic games i have seen this year. IT had so much potential to be one of the games of the season and it ended up a waste of 90 mins because Liverpool play like a relegation threatened side whenever they come up against any half decent team....shameful.

And calling for Peps head? Really? Are you sure your a Barca fan because up until a few weeks ago we were playing the best football the world has seen in a long long time. A few poor results and its time to go? Come on, thats just silly.

in my own defence about pinto vs VV:

I am not necessarily saying pinto should play because he is better than VV. this is a matter of opinion. but it is the psychological effect it will have on VV that i want. It is because i think VV thinks he is secure in his role as first keeper and that he can play like shit and keep his spot. he needs to kow he is not infallible. it doesnt matter that much who replaces him. it is more the fact that he sees that he is replaceable.

and to all of you who are saying that VV has a few bad games and then we call for his head. seriously? a few bad games? i have been watching barca for years and I have always wanted VV out. i always thought he was the weakest link in our chain. this season was the sirst time that i thought that he might actually be growing and improving, but lo and behold when the pressure comes he goes back to his same old ways. ans yes he did have good games here and there. but like ciaran said, he is not a world class keeper. barca is a world class team and deserves to have a world class keeper.

VV has never been good. he is not even in contention to be the Spanish NT reserve keeper. spain puts out awesome keepers but VV is just not one of them and for some reason he thinks he has a monopoly on that position and i think it would make him eat some humble pie to realise that he doesnt.

sorry to go against the grain here. or maybe the grain is going in both ways at the moment, but seriously, if valdes cant cope with confidence issues, if he reacts like a child then he isnt cut out for pro sports. he needs to get with it, stop making stupid errors, learn from pinto and improve.

About Benitez: boring. Boringboringboring. I didn't see the RM-Liverpool game, but I have seen several Liverpool games and they were so boring I almost fell asleep. Paying attention to them is hard. "Tactical" is one way that people describe "boring" when they like it. Fair enough, if you like that style, then, sure, Benitez is your man. But if RM get Benitez, whatever, they'll be boring like the Capello team and they'll be boring like Juande's team. Maybe they'll get results, but whatever, I'll have more fun watching Barça just once than RM fans will have in an entire year.

mku, I actually really like Iniesta up front on the left. I think he's versatile and brilliant, much like Messi on the right. He can take on defenders and forces them to defend him, freeing up space for others on the other side and also creating chances in the box.

I love the concept of a front line of Iniesta-Eto'o-Messi. It has verve and intelligence and it allows us to bring Henry off the bench, which I think is a good idea. That would mean that a midfield of The Yaya-Xavi-Busi/Keita/Guddy/Hleb could be used. And behind them, the usual suspects in defense.

Iniesta creates so much when he plays up front in many ways that I've asked for Henry to do. Of course, Henry has much better shooting, so it's hard to deny that he should be out there, especially this year since he's scored 14 to Iniesta's 2 (Henry has played in 22 matches, Iniesta in 16) -- but I also think that Henry holds the ball up too much whereas Iniesta can squirm his cheeky way through defenses and really open them up.

That said, Iniesta can always drop back into midfield to pair up with Xavi whenever Henry is on the field. That's fine with me, too.

I don't know why my comments are followed by an american flag, I'm spanish writing from barcelona :-(

benitez, mascherano and xavi alonso LOS AMOS!! it was sooo funny to watch madrid not knowing what to do against such a strong defense, and BENAYOUN scored with the head in the 80th minute or so. PRICELESS.

WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HLEB AND RAFA BENITEZ TAKES ALL THE JUICE OUT OF BENAYOUN. IF BENITEZ EVER GOES TO MADRID (HE WANTS TO DO SO) WE ARE LOST.

Regarding Valdez i have to say that while i agree he is not a good enough keeper for Barca I still dont think there is a better keeper available out there. Pinto is certainly not a better keeper, he is more experienced and therefore he can deal with pressure better as he showed yesterday. No way VV makes that save. All the pressure was on one man yesterday and he stepped up big time. So maybe in this tough spell it might be worth giving him a chance. I dont think he would do any worse than VV and i also dont buy the argument that if we play him more it will make VV worse. If it does then he is def not the right keeper for us.

Nobody is untouchable, especially not a player who is prone to mistakes and game changing or even season changing mistakes. Honestly if he doesnt make that quite ridiculous mistake against Espanyol i think we win the game, even with 10 men. That defeat made everything worse and he has looked shaky ever since. Its not that he makes mistakes, every keeper in the world makes mistakes, Buffon, Cech, Casillas, they have all made serious blunders.....its that he makes these mistakes at crucial moments in crucial games. That is when you need ur keeper on point, 100%, thats when he needs to make the diff and not when your 4-0 up cruising.. It seems VV choses the really important games or the games where we are already fighting the odds to make one of his blunders. Also a world class keeper makes a mistake, deals with it and returns to his best almost immediately. VV makes a mistake, which dents his confidence, which leads to more mistakes. This can go on for any number of games. A goal keeper who is making mistakes leads to a defense which make mistakes because there is no confidence in their keeper; they have to judge everything differently because who knows what VV will or will not save right? Who knows what cross he will spill or what ludicrous pass he will make.

All that being said name one keeper who is currently available who we would be confident could take VV's place in the starting lineup tomorrow....

liverpool vs rm pure excitement!!

what a tight game. this is not nba it's champions league.

just saw the Bayer Leverkusen and Munich game. What a freaking game!!!Henrique played well, although he does look out of position at times. Like in the 83rd min, his team is leading by one goal, and he's playing striker :)

THE most boring game you ever saw? I take it you didn't see the Espanyol game or Liverpool v. RM?

Shit, the Madrid derbi is overshadowing Barça-Bilbao on Saturday...so it's only possible to watch it online. Damn you, GolTV.

Hello to all critical “culès” (the rest can go to hell)

How can a team that’s supposed the best team in Europe play with two guys in the midfield that can’t score!!
I want Guardiola’s head right now, before it’s too late. And besides Iniesta in the left corner? Come on, Mallorca almost kept 50 percent of ball possession. I think we didn’t shoot in the whole first half.
Keita and Busquets as offensive midfielders? You gotta be kidding me. Yaya in the back and them up front is suicide. The only player in the midfield that can score is LA YAYA!!!!!!!! We played against one of the worst teams in the league and only after a big mistake of them messi could score. THE MOST BORING GAME I EVER SAW, I EVEN CELEBRATED MALLORCA’S GOAL. WE DESERVED TO LOOSE, IT’S LIKE WE PLAY SOME OTHER SPORT…SOFTBALL. ANYONE WATCHED ATHLETIC BILBAO VS. SEVILLA? NOW THAT IS FOOTBALL. INSTEAD WE JUST PASS THE BALL TO THE NEXT GUY.

I hope that PEP will wake up someday and see that DON ANDRES INIESTA is totally indispensable in the midfield and not in the upper left corner. We need people that can actually attack, not just pass the ball to the next guy.
Something else, I saw Liverpool’s game against Madrid and I loved how Liverpool played defense with Mascherano and Xavi Alonso, two guys in the back midfield.
Barcelona and specially Pep Guardiola should try to play the hard games (when you can’t be scored against) with two in the back and the other offensive midlfielder more free. YAYA-BUSQUETS and XAVI up front. Or YAYA-XAVI with INIESTA up front. We should be able to change our tactic in order to surprise other teams, it’s almost the same tactic as 4 or 5 years ago with Rijkaard. We can still play the beloved 4-3-3 but in a different way, instead of 4 - (1-2) - 3 , 4 - (2-1) - 3
We must face our problems which are not few. I want Guardiola’s head!!!!
Long life to Rafa Benitez, with half of the skill in his staff Liverpool plays twice as much football.

After an initial bout of disappointment that we did not have more oompf in this game i have calmed down and realised that this was not the game to really push for a win. Get to the final with the least amount of effort and without conceding too many goals. I guess in a sense it is job well done. It was far from pretty but it worked. What still worries me though is that even though we played with essentially 3 defensively minded midfield players we STILL looked very shaky under pressure. That should not have been the case, with those 3 in the middle plus the back four who played we should have had our defense on lock down. The goal we conceded imo was completely unacceptable. Yes it was a fantastic effort but no way he should he have had a free shot at goal, and with 3 defenders a few steps away from him. Soft, soft defending.

With defending like that an EPL team tears us apart cos they will be very hard to break down and they will counter with speed and precision. Our boys need to shape up and they need to do it fast. I am expecting a turnaround in the next game....i hope i am not expecting too much!

Things happen and shots get past the defense and head towards the goal. That's why keepers are there in the first place.

The problem is that Valdes has not dealt with a lot of the balls that keepers of quality would have easily dealt with.

Having said that, there are a lot of goals that became goals only because of the defenders. But that does not give Valdes the freedom to screw up.

Another thing that does not matter is his earlier performance. It was good, certainly not amazing but good. However, all of that is useless when it's HE who is screwing up the league AND the CL. He's not the only one that has not been playing well, but he's one of the most important players on the field and it does not help things when he screws up.

Does it help the defense? No, if they don't have confidence in the keeper, it adds pressure to them and they tend to do things like dive straight into an opposing player inside the box.

And it does not help the midfield or the attackers again because of the added pressure. Going down by one goal in the first few minutes of the game due to a HUGE error by the keeper does not instill confidence in the players. It changes the game for Barca in a very unique way that other players on the field could not. Remember when Caceres had a terrible first half? That did not have a universal impact on the team.

And fatigue is not an argument because keepers don't have the luxury of wasting energy like a midfielder or fullback does.

So he must be having some type of mental issue. If you look at a great keeper, like Casillas or Cesar, they are almost ALWAYS mentally fit, even if the rest of the team is playing crappy football.

So if he lacks that quality, he's NOT Barca material. What Pinto showed that Valdes has not is mental strength. If you don't have that, reflexes don't matter. And please don't tell me that Pinto's save did not add an extra bit of energy to the team. Additionally, don't tell me that his save did not take away from the efficiency of Mallorca's attack.

At this rate, Pinto WOULD be a better option. On a good day, sure, I'd say that Valdes>Pinto but not in these weeks when Valdes is having a brain fart.

I'd like to end this by saying that neither of those two keepers are Barca material.

I'm with Hawk and Josh. Valdes is our No. 1 keeper. When he was playing great, he didn't get a shard of love. Now that he and the side are having a rough patch, people want him out.

But there's a reason that Pinto is the backup keeper. It's like with NFL teams. The best quarterback on the team is always the backup, because he represents potential rather than reality. I had the chance to watch Pinto live against Shakhtar, and he wasn't all that hot, including letting a cross dribble right past him, that Valdes comes out and grabs. All day.

Pinto had a very good match, and the penalty save was fab-o-licious. Let's not make that cause us to elevate him to a place that he shouldn't be. As Hawk said, if you start Pinto in a Liga match, be ready to start him some more. I don't think that Valdes deserves to be benched. If he does, then so do Puyol, and Marquez, and Pique, and particularly Alves, because all of them allowed plays to happen that placed Valdes in direct danger.

--If Yaya doesn't allow Forlan to take that shot, Valdes doesn't get beaten.

--If Yaya and Alves don't give up a silly foul when the attacker had nowhere to go against Lyon, the Juninho free kick never happens.

--If Alves, Pique and Keita aren't standing around yesterday, watching Webo take that lazy pass, control it and dish, that goal doesn't happen, either.

--If Yaya doesn't stop marking his man vs Espanyol, Valdes doesn't get beaten.

I could go on and on, but you all get it. A keeper is as good as his defense, and vice versa. Valdes has made some world-class saves this season. He's only made a few gaffes. Just as those gaffes have helped to lose matches, his good saves have helped to win matches. Any talk of throwing him out is premature in the extreme.

--Thanks, Messa. They're fun to write, even if they're sometimes painful to write, as it was on Sunday.

--My personal jury is still out on Hleb. I can see the potential. That guy retains possession better than anybody on the side except for Messi. And he'll uncork a pass like that one to Alves yesterday that is just staggering. Then he becomes completely ineffective to the point where you want to club him. I'd want to give him until next season, but if he's part of the Ribery deal....sorry, Alex. Nice knowing you.

--Krkic wasn't just a victim of bad service. When he had the ball, he had no idea what to do with it, and would run himself into wide positions where he had no options, not even to pass the ball because he was surrounded by defenders. And yet he kept dribbling. It's one thing if he's making the runs and not getting served. But he was getting passes. He was just sucking it up.

cmon guys, valdes is still our number 1 goalie. Are u really thinking valdes should be benched cause of 1 penalty save by pinto? Im confident guardiola will continue to start valdes and thats how it should be, even casillas went through a bad spell earlier in the season...

So let's trademark Pinto's little "mindtrick", call it The Pinto, as in saying "he got Pinto-ed!" whenever someone is tricked by a keeper like that, just like we say "he got Yaya-ed!" when someone is dominated by Yaya.

Pinto was awesome and this R-E-A-L-L-Y doesn't put Vic in a very favorable place. Poor dude. But good to see what Pinto is capable of and to feel that we have some good backup for Valdes...

So our cycle of draw-lose-draw-lose-draw continues. Hopefully the cycle ends here, becuase we really can't afford to lose against Bilbao. At this point we should be more concerned about the defense and play more defensively, and the carded/injured players don't help that, but let's hope things go well on Saturday.

@ Kevin: I love the match reports you write, they're the only ones I ever read for Barca's matches and though this one was a bit shorter than usual, still enjoyed it alot!! Though I think you're generally kinda harsh on Bojan :P but whatever.

Viva Barca and hoping for a win soon...

i dont know why we are being so soft with VV. he is not a child. he surely is aware of his bad performances and if he gets benched, as a professional sportsman, he should not go on the sulk and get sad like a child but use this as motivation to come back and rip it up at training and work harder and harder. do you know what i mean? we shouldnt treat him like a child. i remember last season, i think it was eto;o who got benched for a few games and it just fired him up. he is a pro and he has to be treated liek one. we cant walk on ice around him because we are scared he will be sad. he needs to man up and take a lesson from pinto.

I would not mind if Valdes wanted out of the team. In fact, I'd love it.

And everyone agrees with this--Cule or not--Valdes is not a world class keeper and does not belong in Barca.

Also, that's a killer pic, Kevin.

Remember after the Lyon game when people were saying "why don't we play ugly? At least we'll win or go through" -- well this game exemplifies why: it's ugly. And boring. And not the Barça way.

Bojan was better than a 1, I thought, but was played alongside a non-existent winger, and isn't a physical #9 like an Eto'o. It's just not ever going to be his way because of how little he is. Unless he suddenly grows big and strong (doubtful), he'll remain a good winger, but not a 9.

It was just a bad performance with a decent result.

Pinto saved a bad penalty but thats something that Valdes never does. Valdes never even gets a hand on penalties. Pinto still isn't our no.1. I'll back up Valdes by saying that he is clearly our best keeper, he's just not world class which I think we deserve.
For the record, we will not buy a world class goalkeeper but rather a keeper that may turn out to be world class like Asenjo.

Caceres was really impressive and 9 times out of 10, he wins those superman tackles. It was a pity that he didn't win that one. I still think that he is our second best left back.

Keita and Busquets had sucking down to a science in the match. Keita's 2 out of 10 was generous, at least Bojan tried to do something.
Yaya was dominant, well at least in his area of the pitch, without any midfield support.

Hleb finds a way of making those around him ineffective which is not a good thing. Alves never plays well when he's down that wing. He just never go walkabout, like Messi, probably because he doesn't have enough confidence to.

Bojan gets props for the effort. He put more effort into the match than anyone else and gets a '1'... that disappoints me. I'd say a 4 because nothing really came off for him but he had absolutely no support.

By the by, Hleb has pretty much issued a come and get me plea to Bayern by saying that he is in his best years and can't spend them on the bench. Goodbye and good luck

Gotta agree with Ramzi on this one. A lot of people and media are complaining about this being an ugly game and us not having any true proper attacking midfielders. However, seeing as to how leaky our defense had been lately (proven once again today), our tired starters, and our 2-0 result in the first leg, I believe Pep did the right thing. Playing for the counter attack was the right thing to do. Except we didn't exactly do that and got caught up somewhere between playing the counter and our usual possession attack. However, the Yaya, Busi, Keita midfield did do a damn good job of making a muddled mess out of things not just for us but for them too. The strategy was backfired by a proper golazo that wal perfectly preventable by the defense. It was an individual error, not a tactical one IMO.

- Messi for Bojan was a great move. Playing as a lone striker in a scenario where the other team HAD to score, gave Messi something he hadn't seen is a long time: open space. That's how he drew the yellows. Messi crowded between 5 defenders is stoppable but Messi in the open field is almost downright unplayable hence the kicks. I realize the significance of the Pinto PK save but we were still a man down and one goal from going to penalties until Messi provoked the red. That was the true game changer IMO. When playing a single striker with almost no service you need a guy like Messi who can destroy 2 or 3 defenders by himself in the open field or Henry who can outrun them. Bojan is not there yet.

- Remember how Pep has pointed out that arguably the biggest tactical cause of our slump is that the lines are playing too far apart with our front line not pressuring and tracking back as relentlessly as they were earlier? Well, Bilbao better get ready because Eto and Henry are rested while Messi, Bojan, Xavi, and Iniesta only played parts of the game. Our front line will have no excuses. They have to pressure and put in the work rate that got us over the top before this slump.

- I want Pique, Marquez, and Puyol on the line against Bilbao. Llorente is a beast but he's more of a threat in the air than he is on the ground and he's not the paciest of 9's. We need maximum aerial protection which IMO means Pique playing.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Hawk :) Not only do we lose him for this season, but it would most likely lead to him wanting out of Barcelona. Then we would be forced to buy a new goalkeeper, which is not a position I want to be in.

I don't think its a good idea to bench Valdes at any point in the near future. He has had some bad luck of late but what he lacks most right now is confidence. Benching him will only make the problem worse and will hurt his performance for the rest of the season. I do think that he should be given a rest at some point over the next few months because Pinto played well enough to deserve a start or two. So let Valdes recover some form, get a few clean sheets in a row, then throw Pinto in for a league game against a weaker foe.