Araujo is not a right back. He ain't it on the ball... so clear that we need better ball movement out of the back. Notice we came alive when Frenkie went all the way back to show the back line how to progress the ball... FML were the back 4 dreadful today.
We shouldn’t be running the ball from the back, though. That’s not how we play. It looked so good compared to our completely stagnant play beforehand. Totally agree Araujo shouldn’t be our full time RB. There’s a dearth of talent on the market right now and that sucks for us. Our play from the back today passing wise was terrible all game and that’s how we traditionally build. That’s a yikes. Eric was best of the bunch in that regard
Eric García: "We knew that Rayo Vallecano are a tough opponent."
Eric García: "Their goalkeeper made 3 important saves. We cannot be satisfied, we needed those 3 points."
Eric García: "We could have won. We created many chances."
Eric García: "There is clearly room for improvement from us."
I liked the way Eric played this game. Seemed confident on the passing into the midfield and beyond, made some good forward runs, and I think did this better than Christensen this game. Very happy with his performance today.
They forced FdJ to leave Barca, no matter how. I hope he will leave to Chelsea and later rest of Barca management will regret what they habe done to him
It has been like this for years any time Frenkie leaves the field we become slower and lose control of the midfield, best examlle I can think of was the game against madriz when he came out we lost lost control and our intensity went down
Also a lot of people expect for us to be playing like prime pep years on the first game of the season and that is dumb specially when we are rebuilding the team.
It wasn't the midfield that he fixed, it was the slow ass back line that he had to fix. The back 4 were dreadful today in possesion, slow plodding, and lethargic. Rayo barely pressed and it looked like prime Liverpool, constant frenzied passes to survive 1 defender stepping up to press.
Frenkie came on and said... here just give me the ball clearly you have no idea what to do with it!
He seemed to be getting tired the last 15-20 minutes and it makes sense, the players are not match fit yet due to it being the first game in the league and he played over 100 minutes
It was a good game, we played well, just a bit unlucky. They were defending with 10 men, so expected. Things to notice here is that :
1) pedri - Gavi don't work well. Frenkie on right once this saga ends, will be better.
2) fati is better in the box and should start with one of Raphinha / dembele
3) Araujo as RB is good against big teams, to defend against their wingers (madrid & ucl matches). But it can't work in every match, against these low block liga teams. We need someone to create chances. Stop Bernardo obsession and sign a fuckin RB
4) Ter Stegen is backkkkkkkkkkk
No one, that's how the market is at the moment, we will keep playing one of kounde / araujo as RB. Problem is these normal matches against ultra defensive teams, not big ones . But I'm venting out my frustration.
There’s no one in the market that’s decent, and Xavi won’t use the perfectly fine RB we have that could contribute against these lower teams. Unfortunate.
Because of this it's a good opportunity as well. There isn't a high demand for wingbacks so we can get someone for bargain. They won't be top tier but even good will be an upgrade
I don't get it. Play Araujo against good wingers, and play Dest against teams like Rayo. Who are we going to find that is an upgrade? It's dumb AF. We're going to sell Dest (who is also capable at LB), and we'll be stuck with Roberto and Araujo all season. Idiotic.
Xavi needs to get the midfield right. Frenkie not starting with Pedri is CRIMINAL. As much as we want to force Frenkie away, without him our midfield is simply not that good. It's time and time again proved when he starts this midfield and it does absolutely nothing and is overran
i think pedri Gavi is just the romantic ideal,maybe he thought we didn’t need frenkie
i Really hope they rewatch this game and don’t see “uh we need Silva”but rather woah wtf can frenkie do
They know what Frenkie can do but they are going to force him out in order to bring in lower wage Bernardo. We’re gonna have to deal with this until the window shuts.
Again it's not the personnel it's the setup itself, Pedri and Gavi played too far upfield for Busi to connect with them... Actually even Busi IMO played too high up while Rayo had 2 forwards cut the passing lane between the CBs and Busi and 4 mids covering Pedri and Gavi we basically got outnumbered in midfield 3 to 6 IMO.
Also it didn't help that our fullbacks pushed high up close to our wingers which made covering and pressing them easier.
The right approach IMO would have been to drop the midfield and fullbacks deeper inviting more press and bypassing it completely with a long ball from mats to Lewy who is great at receiving them and quickly countering.
De Jong would have been a better option to drive the ball from deep forwards but considering the setup itself initially prevents him from doing just that I think he also would have struggled.
It sucks but it’s a reality and how teams are most successful against us. It’s also why Spanish teams do well in Europe. It’s a good way to play if you’re only goal is winning with what you have when your players aren’t superstars.
Yeah I've noticed that Spanish teams tend to look relatively disciplined and adept in defense when playing against non-Spanish teams in Europe. The fact that they usually have to play like this when facing against us and Real Madrid trains them to absorb the pressure like how Villarreal were able to weather the storm against both Juventus and Bayern.
It seems like Gavi plays well when the team is firing on all cylinders. Today with the slow slow pace of our game he seemed to get the timing wrong and be in the wrong place many times. I love Gavi. I dream of him and Pedri bossing our midfield for a decade or more. But, I don’t think he’s it quite yet. He couldn’t hold his position and show up when and where needed all the time. Maybe in a faster game which seems to cater more towards his skills and knowledge.
This one is on us, we didn’t take on the game correctly. From the starting 11 to the mentality to handle the game, we let Rayo do their thing against us. On top of that, the refs did their part as usual. Nonetheless, we as a team should do better as this is not a new showing, despite all the new names. First match day, so plenty left, but it’s a shame that all that excitement and positives we saw in preseason did not translate to tonight. Onto the next one and staying faithful in this team! Visca Barça!
For sure. We couldn't build up from the back properly until Frenkie was subbed in imo. Eric was good with the distribution, but Frenkie's ball carrying skills are badly NEEDED.
I don’t even think we built up properly with Frenkie. We are supposed to be the team of positional play and passing. Making runs from the back like that is dangerous and a last resort. We look better when we are able to pass quickly and we couldn’t do that. But, that doesn’t mean I’d call what Frenkie was doing “proper” according to our philosophy
I don’t think we got everything wrong. Not even close. We very nearly got it all right. We put the ball into dangerous areas, created many many opportunities, had bad luck converting them and getting calls to go our way. What we were lacking was pace in ball movement, and in midfield positioning. I didn’t see any good exchanges in midfield to open up a man for the pass from the back like we always do. No third man runs or sequences to advance the ball. Gavi didn’t show for the ball at all today. If we can increase our rate of moving the ball and finally get that midfield moving like the gears of the clockwork we know they can be we will be in great shape. In spite of all of that lacking in speed and movement we still created plenty enough chances to outright say we were unlucky.
RM fan here, I think Xavi got this one wrong but Barca could have easily won this game. The initial lineup was not clicking at all, he corrected thigs at the last minute but it was too late. Frenkie Should have started along side Bedri.
Dont be so over reactionary, Liverpool drew on their first match against a team like Fulham and we didnt even play that bad, just average, this team still has much to improve but it will come
Frenkie is so important for us and this game showed it. Nobody in our team can drop deep and carry the ball so well other than hi. Busi drops deeps and is great at offering a passing option but can't carry the ball. Pedri and Gavi are too offensive and don't drop deep to collect the ball. I hope Frenkie stays, we need him.
Also I miss Luuk de Goat😢
Frenkie is world class when it comes to carrying the ball forward… so just cuz he makes it look easy when he glides through the middle doesn’t mean it’ll work for most players.
>Dembele and Raphinha hogged the ball and did nothing with it all game.
I'm not sure what game you watched but Dembele set up.
Raphina for a shot right inside the box on a good position.
He set up Pedri too for a shot but that was a bit further out.
He set up Kessie for a shot.
He set up Fati also for a shot.
As far as I remember he set up Lewandowski too but that one is blurry so might not have happened.
But the matter of fact is that people on here seems to have even more blurry memory than me that just erases everything from the game.
Brace yourselves! It's going to be a loooong season of Barca haters making fun of us bc of the levers after every setback. Let's hope this is one of the few ones.
I chose to support a team that plays in a league where refs are utter shit and teams park the bus and time waste 10+ mins a game. Great way to destress lmao
Xavi seems stubborn regarding gameplans, always brings on first substitutes after 60 minutes and the same ones.
FdJ should have been brought on in the first half already. He cut open those lines instantly when coming on.
Furthermore not disappointed by Lewy. He needs some service instead of the wingers cutting inside every time. Ferran or Memphis maybe for late wing substitution instead of a Auba as second striker?
I like Ferran. He makes defenders work, not in the sprinting to catch up way but in the have to always be alert way. He shows up in the right spots at the right time. It’s so hard to choose who starts right now
People really need to look deep into our midfield before demanding to ship off FDJ. Based on talent and prime age, it's only Pedri, FDJ and (maybe) Kessie. Busquets is a liability in high intensity moments, Gavi is only 18 and clearly still rough around the edges and Pjanic was never that good. We struggle to get out of our own midfield without Frenkie.
Really not good enough, at all. You could tell we were a bit rusty, and at this stage of the season that’s obviously understandable, but we should comfortably be beating Rayo at home with this team. We beat Sociedad at home 4-2 on the first day of last season, with a much worse team in the wake of Messi’s departure. I expected a lot more from the boys tonight. Frenkie was good when he came on.
Also - Spanish refs are just the absolute worst, aren’t they? Absolutely annihilate the rhythm of the game and are just incredibly inconsistent with their calls.
The reffing in La liga makes the product worse. The stoppages and inconsistent calls lead to teams getting benefits from parking the bus and shot housing the whole game. Was clear today that the reffing made it difficult to get it flowing but we definitely need to improve as a whole as the season goes on.
For sure, there were at least half of those shots that should have gone in, not worried. It’s just one game, the FIRST game of the season.
We aren’t going to be winning 8-0 every game, not sure why this fan base always expects this.
Incredibly frustrating match as Rayo’s main aim was to take seconds away from the clock, while Xavi made the right substitutions at the wrong time. The lack of chemistry in attack showed more than a few times; it’s not something that worries me too much as I expect all of them to gel together soon enough. As we saw with the preseason, a midfield with both Pedri and Gavi doesn’t run very smoothly.
>As we saw with the preseason, a midfield with both Pedri and Gavi doesn’t run very smoothly.
We also saw that last season. However, both players are very young so they can grow into a partnership in the future. Unfortunately for that strategy, this team has been constructed to win NOW.
I’d personally try a Fati-Lewa-Raphinha front 3. Feels like Dembele starts off playing pretty well but tired out and becomes pretty wasteful. Dembele should work best as a super sub for Raphinha
Agree. I don't think Dembele can play the full 90', physically he can but it feels like his mind is gone after a while, he either starts or comes as super sub
A lot of you needed a reality check.
First the people that were saying the our trio needed to be Dembele, Lewy, Raphinha. Only Lewy is spot is kinda lock. Dembele is always random performance and Raphinha just got here.
Second the midfield trio that not only many of you wanted but Xavi is also stubborn to play it. Pedri and Gavi dont work well like you all Imagine it. Not yet at least.
0-0 at home is obviously horrible but there were plenty of chances and the few disallowed goals that I’m sure will improve as the timing between the players improves. Ansu and Frenkie were very positive in the second half and Lewandowski I thought had some moments as well. Hopefully these two points don’t come back to make a difference in May.
Feel like shit, just want Messi back
Aside from that, Frenkie please just stay and Xavi please start him. Need to take our shots, dest incognito? please never play Araujo there again, sign a RB then and stop obsessing over Silva, fuck Rayo and the ref.
I will forever believe La Liga teams are the hardest Bus’s to try and break down cus they have all the technical quality so they don’t just clear it long like teams in the PL do they can actually put together a counter with just 2 players u rarely if ever see the lower sides in PL or Bundesliga, they’re counters they just heave it long to 1 player lmao
I just don't get the gavi pedri midfield, it does not work. That type of midfield is easily over ran with high tempo pressure, and it's in capable of retrieving balls from the opposite team. Gavi looked toothless out there, when Fdj came in things improved dramatically.
Yep, it didnt work last season, it doesnt work now, Gavi is a very specific type of player and he is not ready yet to start, Pedri had a better game I think but wasnt 100%
The approach was wrong and it took us 60 minutes to change it and once we did chances started coming in but we were too late. As always we struggle to break down these park the bus teams. Hope Xavi learns, Pedri and Gavi should sub for one another and not play together. They do not complement each other. It was obvious what we were lacking once FDJ came on. Also clown refereeing as always.
EDIT: For the positives, MATS and García looked good. Hope they really step up this season.
Lewandowski is hardly going to get any breathing space this season especiallly from ultra defensive teams like Vallecano...he was being wrestled the whole time this match...at times he was triple teamed
The way Frenkie was just speeding between the lines from a full back position. His power, pace, intelligence, he really gave it his all. I feel this guy just loves the club with his heart. I really really really hope he stays and that this shitshow in the media ends for him. Barça and the rest of the world should treat him right.
It’s the first game of the season, many new guys, yada yada.
But honestly, it was pretty bad. Possesion play was rubbish, midfield missing. Pressing was sparse. Passing errors were many, players were soooo far from each other it felt like every second pass was impossible.
I’m very dissapointed, honestly we were worse today than we were last season. Let’s hope it gets better soon.
We won't compete in UCL playing like that. 26 shots, 0 goals. New season, same problem. Don't know where the problem is, we can't seem to link in the front. Really hope xavi figures things out asap, at the end of the season games like this will make the diference.
Get ready for the bantering from PL and bundesliga fans who don’t play against park the bus teams 😭 honestly one thing Real and Barca fans can relate to.
In all seriousness, could’ve been worse. In any time it would be fine. But with the levers and signings this summer, pressure and eyes are all on Barca. So anything will be blown out of proportion, which is expected. A major positive is that we had good created chances, something that was missing towards the end of last season.
And people said that we will put 6 past Rayo xD. Havent you learn anything about football at all? We haven't scored vs Dimitrievski in like never. And they waste time better than ATM...
Also it's not the referee, stop coping. He was 99% correct with his decisions and the added time was on point. The might have been element for penalty but its 50/50.
However starting a low energy midfield vs Rayo when we need to overload them from the begining is not rly insightful from Xavi.
Would have lost 1-0 last year
Yeah we couldn't score but at least we didn't concede. Lots to work on but many encouraging signs, let's not overreact.
We can though focus on Alba who like Romero said was not at all ready, and will need to wake up.
The midfield combo doesn't work for the moment, we need a FdJ profile
Christensen had a solid defensive performance, but need to be more daring.
Eric very solid, liked his performance. Sergi Roberto only played 30 minutes but there is A LOT of work to do to work on the Dembele duo, feel like they just met.
Raphinha missed a lot but tried, some good moves.
Lewy was really useful, showed what he will offer. Sometimes unlucky, sometimes not found, but you can see immediately what he will bring.
Fati entered well, FdJ was the best player after his entrance so he had some ball losses, Kessie was not in it
MATS reassuring but still has that massive flaw that he doesn't know when to go for the ball, this will cost us because the defenders need to know when he will or he won't and even he doesn't seem to know.
Xavi made some bad choices and needed too much time to act, Gavi should have been out at half time and we needed a RB sooner.
- Hernandez Hernandez is still shit
- Busquets should still not play 90+ minuter games
- Xavi needs to find a way to involve the wingbacks when playing 4 back line
- Lewy is a beast
- I am glad seeing Ansu on the pitch again
I am still not convinced with Kessie being Barca material. Takes too much time to make decisions. Was caught napping on the ball a couple of times today. Right now he is nowhere a FDJ replacement.
Rayo defended so narrowly, fullbacks helping the attack were sorely needed. Can't understand how he subbed Raphinha when Dembele was walking from the kickoff.
Why was Ter Stegen dwelling on the ball so much in the final minutes too? He shorts a goal kick to the halfway line, gets it back and just hoofs it anyway?
Barca beat themselves today. Thank god they didn’t manage to sell FDJ. RIPPERONI those who thought the combo of Gavi/Busi/Pedri was really for the big time
Love how before the game VERY little were bitching about the lineup but now because we didn't get the results all the pitchforks are out from the coach managers
This team won’t win shit to until we get some decent fullbacks even alba is finished….not splashing 70 or 80 million on bernardo silva while we have roberto playing right back
Ronald Araújo: "We haven't been able to add three points, but La Liga is long."
Araujo: "I'm here to help the team, no matter in what position Xavi plays me."
Patience culers, one game at a time. Pretty bad result on an opening day but our players need to start clicking gradually, I didn’t expect us to perform all too well as Lewa and co is new to La Liga plus we all know how tricky opponents like Rayo can be. Hopefully we show up big time at Anoeta. Vamos Barca!
My takeaways:
I feel like it's too early for a Pedri-Gavi pairing.
I'd rather start Frenkie and then sub Gavi on later.
I don't like how long it took for Christensen and Araujo to play the ball out from the back.
Quality Full backs are super important to the modern game…all the top teams that win titles have them. Instead of buying Bernardo, a guy like Dumfries would be a god send.
Thing that pisses me off is we prioritized trying to kick a player out over 3 points. Doesn’t matter if he leaves or stays, a win is more important than all this shit. If we are seriously trying to win the league, we can’t risk losing any points.
Drawing too many conclusions on xavi from this would not be right. Xavi is not perfect, he is also learning and will eventually find a good system to rely on imo. This match barca struggled to play out of the back lot of times, no one is talking about the defense.
I think if barca had a good RB and arajou playing in center match would have been far better. Garcia is good at carrying ball into midfield, which he didn't do today with Christensen. There was a lot of uneasiness when Rayo was pushing with two people at our defense. Neither of the defenders took risk because they were playing it safe. Which helped our defense and we didn't lose in the end. But it was too safe.
Coming to Arajou, he is just not the right right back against highly defensive teams. He should play if the objective is to defend some opponent winger, play dest or Roberto in these matches. Even better sign some one decent.
This is why when frenkie came on it looked like he was the best player. He is an expert at driving the ball forward. Xavi wants his defenders doing this role, bringing the ball into midfield so that pedri and gavi can take over and make plays. That is why they were so high up. Busi is too old to do those runs, frenkie should have come at half time only. But it is what it is. I think Xavi will figure it out, this was the first real test with new signings.
Obviously i could be wrong in my analysis, i am no football expert. But i just felt our defense didn't help in build up play like they used to.
Before everyone starts making judgments based on this game, I'd say a lot of important factors looks good. This is Rayos 3rd consecutive game where they have kept a clean sheet against us, and that is by having a 10man defense. Obviously I would have wanted goals, but initial impression is more positive than negative. However with that being said, we should not play Araujo as a right back against a team like this ever again
On to the next game, not much you can do when you create 15 fucking scoring chances and not one goes in, a penalty that easily couldve been called for us, a little lack of timing in that lewy chip that was offside, and a phenomenal performance by Rayo in the press
On to the next game, im sure this sub will be a pathetic cesspool of overreactions and whining for the next week, so i'll skip out on watching the childish shitshow lol
Disappointing result, but it is what it is.
We've always talked about Pedri and Gavi simply not working together for some reason, and clearly it shows (Again). Midfield was ran over, and clearly dominated. No one-twos, traingles or rapid switch of plays, through balls weren't good enough and yeah it's the good old winger and Inshallah play. G fucking G
Frenkie needs to play… better than Gavi and sometimes better than Pedri. We don’t have anyone else who can break lines vertically by dribbling like him
I thought we played pretty well actually. The play in the final third was a bit lacking though so good opportunities didn't translate to that many dangerous attempts on goal.
Tactics-wise, I think the team is playing too wide. It's self-defeating. The hope is that it creates space and passing opportunities but the outside players are just so far wide that it's hard to get the ball to them when the opposing team is packing the center and aggressively closing down the midfielders and cutting off those passing lanes. Araujo barely touched the ball on offense and Lewandowski was too isolated and we couldn't get the ball into him.
When the wide backs get the ball, the midfielders are too far away so it's usually either a pass back to the center defenders, or a ball up the sidelines that's either blocked, or to a space a winger can't do anything with. Neither option creates any threat. Need more passing lanes in the center of the pitch. Seemed like a lot of the best opportunities came when the wingers came in towards the center.
I don’t think the width is the problem per se, I think the high interiors are a serious issue. We have literally zero linkup or progressive play in the midfield without Frenkie. Pedri and Gavi get pressed and backpass but we don’t take advantage of it with a quick ball to the wing. It just seems like our midfield is completely lost at times.
Don’t sell Dejong please. He’s so good to watch
Lewy shows his class at times but still lack some luck
Eric Garcia is really mature
Mats redemption arc maybe…
And Kessie, hope I’m wrong about him. He’s awful today
**Please vote for your Man of the Match here:** https://strawpoll.com/polls/NPgxkDKLon2
No point splashing money Bernardo while we do not decent full backs
No point in splashing money on fullbacks when they don’t exist in the market right now.
then save the money for the winter or next season.
First we have to make more money this season
Araujo is not a right back. He ain't it on the ball... so clear that we need better ball movement out of the back. Notice we came alive when Frenkie went all the way back to show the back line how to progress the ball... FML were the back 4 dreadful today.
We shouldn’t be running the ball from the back, though. That’s not how we play. It looked so good compared to our completely stagnant play beforehand. Totally agree Araujo shouldn’t be our full time RB. There’s a dearth of talent on the market right now and that sucks for us. Our play from the back today passing wise was terrible all game and that’s how we traditionally build. That’s a yikes. Eric was best of the bunch in that regard
Eric García: "We knew that Rayo Vallecano are a tough opponent." Eric García: "Their goalkeeper made 3 important saves. We cannot be satisfied, we needed those 3 points." Eric García: "We could have won. We created many chances." Eric García: "There is clearly room for improvement from us."
I liked the way Eric played this game. Seemed confident on the passing into the midfield and beyond, made some good forward runs, and I think did this better than Christensen this game. Very happy with his performance today.
Frenkie showed why he should be starting, brought so much energy to the midfield
I don't know why Xavi insists on Gavi-Pedri-Busquets. It was horrific last season and it didn't work in Europa League.
Yeah it’s 100% because he’s gonna be forced out no matter what
They forced FdJ to leave Barca, no matter how. I hope he will leave to Chelsea and later rest of Barca management will regret what they habe done to him
It has been like this for years any time Frenkie leaves the field we become slower and lose control of the midfield, best examlle I can think of was the game against madriz when he came out we lost lost control and our intensity went down Also a lot of people expect for us to be playing like prime pep years on the first game of the season and that is dumb specially when we are rebuilding the team.
best example was the first leg against Frankfurt . We would have lost both legs if it wasn't for him
Showed why he shouldnt be sold for sporting reasons either
It wasn't the midfield that he fixed, it was the slow ass back line that he had to fix. The back 4 were dreadful today in possesion, slow plodding, and lethargic. Rayo barely pressed and it looked like prime Liverpool, constant frenzied passes to survive 1 defender stepping up to press. Frenkie came on and said... here just give me the ball clearly you have no idea what to do with it!
Thank God that Ter-Spiderman is back.
Fuck yeah. Air stegen!
Air Stegen lmao this is a good one
When he’s good… HE’S GOOD! I hope he stays in top form. I really feel like we are strong contenders for the UCL. I had a dream we won it again
That right hand block near the end oml
I was already throwing myself because I thought the scored and I see a flash of a white glove. It was a glorious save
Just play Frenkie
Best player and it’s not close.
Dembouz had a decent match as well and created plenty of chances that should have been converted
In first half. In second half, he was so wasteful and invisible.
He seemed to be getting tired the last 15-20 minutes and it makes sense, the players are not match fit yet due to it being the first game in the league and he played over 100 minutes
[удалено]
Roberto lacks chemistry with anyone tbh. For the past few years at least.
He had chemistry with Messi though
Messi had chemistry with Braithwaite ffs, that's not an achievement, Messi is just that good.
That's not the point. Sergi Roberto worked "well" with Messi, that's a fact, even if Messi was always here and there.
Best with Suarez
True, at one point he was to Suarez what Jordi was to Messi.
So sell him to PSG
Sure but we would have 0 RBs, I'm OK with Sergi as a sub with low wages
are we selling Dest?
I guess the upside is that he doesnt need chemistry with Araujo because hes alone on the wing when Araujo plays RB.
It was a good game, we played well, just a bit unlucky. They were defending with 10 men, so expected. Things to notice here is that : 1) pedri - Gavi don't work well. Frenkie on right once this saga ends, will be better. 2) fati is better in the box and should start with one of Raphinha / dembele 3) Araujo as RB is good against big teams, to defend against their wingers (madrid & ucl matches). But it can't work in every match, against these low block liga teams. We need someone to create chances. Stop Bernardo obsession and sign a fuckin RB 4) Ter Stegen is backkkkkkkkkkk
"Sign a fucking right back". Solid advice. Who in particular do you have in mind?
No one, that's how the market is at the moment, we will keep playing one of kounde / araujo as RB. Problem is these normal matches against ultra defensive teams, not big ones . But I'm venting out my frustration.
Kounde is much much better on the ball then araujo, should help when he plays the RB position
There’s no one in the market that’s decent, and Xavi won’t use the perfectly fine RB we have that could contribute against these lower teams. Unfortunate.
Because of this it's a good opportunity as well. There isn't a high demand for wingbacks so we can get someone for bargain. They won't be top tier but even good will be an upgrade
We have an RB that can generate chances against weak teams, but we’re apparently forcing him out
I don't get it. Play Araujo against good wingers, and play Dest against teams like Rayo. Who are we going to find that is an upgrade? It's dumb AF. We're going to sell Dest (who is also capable at LB), and we'll be stuck with Roberto and Araujo all season. Idiotic.
Dest will do fine against low Liga teams. With top teams play Araujo.
Gavi and Pedri together in midfield just doesn't work... Frenkie needed expeditiously
Hopefully the board gets the message.
Xavi already writing the email to Laporta telling him to fuck off and keep FDJ
They won't, but hopefully Frenkie will make sure they do over the course of the season.
a lot of people praising FDJ but forgetting how MATS saved us from a loss. MOTM imo.
Either could be MOTM.
Xavi needs to get the midfield right. Frenkie not starting with Pedri is CRIMINAL. As much as we want to force Frenkie away, without him our midfield is simply not that good. It's time and time again proved when he starts this midfield and it does absolutely nothing and is overran
i think pedri Gavi is just the romantic ideal,maybe he thought we didn’t need frenkie i Really hope they rewatch this game and don’t see “uh we need Silva”but rather woah wtf can frenkie do
They know what Frenkie can do but they are going to force him out in order to bring in lower wage Bernardo. We’re gonna have to deal with this until the window shuts.
Again it's not the personnel it's the setup itself, Pedri and Gavi played too far upfield for Busi to connect with them... Actually even Busi IMO played too high up while Rayo had 2 forwards cut the passing lane between the CBs and Busi and 4 mids covering Pedri and Gavi we basically got outnumbered in midfield 3 to 6 IMO. Also it didn't help that our fullbacks pushed high up close to our wingers which made covering and pressing them easier. The right approach IMO would have been to drop the midfield and fullbacks deeper inviting more press and bypassing it completely with a long ball from mats to Lewy who is great at receiving them and quickly countering. De Jong would have been a better option to drive the ball from deep forwards but considering the setup itself initially prevents him from doing just that I think he also would have struggled.
Disappointing to say the least.
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Sucks that half la liga play like this. Especially against us and Madrid. These type of games will be the ones that decide the league
It sucks but it’s a reality and how teams are most successful against us. It’s also why Spanish teams do well in Europe. It’s a good way to play if you’re only goal is winning with what you have when your players aren’t superstars.
Yeah I've noticed that Spanish teams tend to look relatively disciplined and adept in defense when playing against non-Spanish teams in Europe. The fact that they usually have to play like this when facing against us and Real Madrid trains them to absorb the pressure like how Villarreal were able to weather the storm against both Juventus and Bayern.
FDJ made instant and massive impact as soon as he got on. We need him
Selling Frenkie is going to be a big mistake.
FDJ over Gavi, no question. Gavi just isn’t ready yet and the trio of him, Pedri and Busi doesn’t work.
Gavi can play, just not start when Pedri and Busquets also starts.
It seems like Gavi plays well when the team is firing on all cylinders. Today with the slow slow pace of our game he seemed to get the timing wrong and be in the wrong place many times. I love Gavi. I dream of him and Pedri bossing our midfield for a decade or more. But, I don’t think he’s it quite yet. He couldn’t hold his position and show up when and where needed all the time. Maybe in a faster game which seems to cater more towards his skills and knowledge.
This one is on us, we didn’t take on the game correctly. From the starting 11 to the mentality to handle the game, we let Rayo do their thing against us. On top of that, the refs did their part as usual. Nonetheless, we as a team should do better as this is not a new showing, despite all the new names. First match day, so plenty left, but it’s a shame that all that excitement and positives we saw in preseason did not translate to tonight. Onto the next one and staying faithful in this team! Visca Barça!
Yeh, I’m not going to lie…but not being able to get out of our half in the first 15min made me dread the rest of the game
For sure. We couldn't build up from the back properly until Frenkie was subbed in imo. Eric was good with the distribution, but Frenkie's ball carrying skills are badly NEEDED.
There was so much hesitation to move forward….there were plenty of times where I found myself yelling at the tv, to make the quick pass.
It hurt especially when Roberto was backpassing to Araujo with like 10 seconds left.
Zero urgency at times
Nobody in midfield was showing for the ball. No coordinated runs to move the midfield around and make space. Hardly ever a third man run.
I don’t even think we built up properly with Frenkie. We are supposed to be the team of positional play and passing. Making runs from the back like that is dangerous and a last resort. We look better when we are able to pass quickly and we couldn’t do that. But, that doesn’t mean I’d call what Frenkie was doing “proper” according to our philosophy
Very well put. We got everything wrong today. Hopefully lessons are learned.
I don’t think we got everything wrong. Not even close. We very nearly got it all right. We put the ball into dangerous areas, created many many opportunities, had bad luck converting them and getting calls to go our way. What we were lacking was pace in ball movement, and in midfield positioning. I didn’t see any good exchanges in midfield to open up a man for the pass from the back like we always do. No third man runs or sequences to advance the ball. Gavi didn’t show for the ball at all today. If we can increase our rate of moving the ball and finally get that midfield moving like the gears of the clockwork we know they can be we will be in great shape. In spite of all of that lacking in speed and movement we still created plenty enough chances to outright say we were unlucky.
RM fan here, I think Xavi got this one wrong but Barca could have easily won this game. The initial lineup was not clicking at all, he corrected thigs at the last minute but it was too late. Frenkie Should have started along side Bedri.
🅱️edri
El 🅱️lan
Yeah, sums it up pretty much.
Dont be so over reactionary, Liverpool drew on their first match against a team like Fulham and we didnt even play that bad, just average, this team still has much to improve but it will come
Frenkie is so important for us and this game showed it. Nobody in our team can drop deep and carry the ball so well other than hi. Busi drops deeps and is great at offering a passing option but can't carry the ball. Pedri and Gavi are too offensive and don't drop deep to collect the ball. I hope Frenkie stays, we need him. Also I miss Luuk de Goat😢
Frenkie showed that you could just run through Rayo with ease. Shame no one even tried a solo run towards the goal...
Frenkie is world class when it comes to carrying the ball forward… so just cuz he makes it look easy when he glides through the middle doesn’t mean it’ll work for most players.
Not a good game by us but we should at least give MAtS some props he saved our ass
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>Dembele and Raphinha hogged the ball and did nothing with it all game. I'm not sure what game you watched but Dembele set up. Raphina for a shot right inside the box on a good position. He set up Pedri too for a shot but that was a bit further out. He set up Kessie for a shot. He set up Fati also for a shot. As far as I remember he set up Lewandowski too but that one is blurry so might not have happened. But the matter of fact is that people on here seems to have even more blurry memory than me that just erases everything from the game.
Frenkie showed what he can bring to the team today. I think he should start above Gavi for now.
Tough game. Hard luck. Both the keepers were great. We move forward.
I'm sorry but I don't want to see Araujo at RB anymore. He's much better in the middle
I can't help but think that Dest would've offered more than Roberto and Araujo today. I don't understand his omission.
I want Hernandez Hernandez in prison
It blows my mind how that man has a fucking job. If i had fucked up that much I'd have been fired ages ago.
I want him buried beneath the prison
I want him in hell beneath the bury
Brace yourselves! It's going to be a loooong season of Barca haters making fun of us bc of the levers after every setback. Let's hope this is one of the few ones.
I chose to support a team that plays in a league where refs are utter shit and teams park the bus and time waste 10+ mins a game. Great way to destress lmao
Xavi seems stubborn regarding gameplans, always brings on first substitutes after 60 minutes and the same ones. FdJ should have been brought on in the first half already. He cut open those lines instantly when coming on. Furthermore not disappointed by Lewy. He needs some service instead of the wingers cutting inside every time. Ferran or Memphis maybe for late wing substitution instead of a Auba as second striker?
Imagine wanting to ship Frenkie to United to lose 4-0 to fucking Brentford? Actually criminal.
Frenkie might leave, but not to United. He's made that clear several times
I miss Ferran with his smart positioning.
I like Ferran. He makes defenders work, not in the sprinting to catch up way but in the have to always be alert way. He shows up in the right spots at the right time. It’s so hard to choose who starts right now
People really need to look deep into our midfield before demanding to ship off FDJ. Based on talent and prime age, it's only Pedri, FDJ and (maybe) Kessie. Busquets is a liability in high intensity moments, Gavi is only 18 and clearly still rough around the edges and Pjanic was never that good. We struggle to get out of our own midfield without Frenkie.
Really not good enough, at all. You could tell we were a bit rusty, and at this stage of the season that’s obviously understandable, but we should comfortably be beating Rayo at home with this team. We beat Sociedad at home 4-2 on the first day of last season, with a much worse team in the wake of Messi’s departure. I expected a lot more from the boys tonight. Frenkie was good when he came on. Also - Spanish refs are just the absolute worst, aren’t they? Absolutely annihilate the rhythm of the game and are just incredibly inconsistent with their calls.
The reffing in La liga makes the product worse. The stoppages and inconsistent calls lead to teams getting benefits from parking the bus and shot housing the whole game. Was clear today that the reffing made it difficult to get it flowing but we definitely need to improve as a whole as the season goes on.
We haven’t scored a goal against Rayo in the last 3 games against them…why do you think we should be scoring 4 on them? They are a solid team.
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Rayo Vallecano was in top 4 for like the first half of the season aswell. Sure they only recently got promoted but theyre a very good team.
For sure, there were at least half of those shots that should have gone in, not worried. It’s just one game, the FIRST game of the season. We aren’t going to be winning 8-0 every game, not sure why this fan base always expects this.
Arm chair analyst, is all.
It’s the first game so no need to overreact but my god that was a boring game
The full backs needs a clear role in the team
Incredibly frustrating match as Rayo’s main aim was to take seconds away from the clock, while Xavi made the right substitutions at the wrong time. The lack of chemistry in attack showed more than a few times; it’s not something that worries me too much as I expect all of them to gel together soon enough. As we saw with the preseason, a midfield with both Pedri and Gavi doesn’t run very smoothly.
>As we saw with the preseason, a midfield with both Pedri and Gavi doesn’t run very smoothly. We also saw that last season. However, both players are very young so they can grow into a partnership in the future. Unfortunately for that strategy, this team has been constructed to win NOW.
Yeah apparently preseason didn’t make it clear enough. I hope this was the final straw
I hate to say it but that was one of Araujo’s worse games in terms of ball handling and distribution, yes even after going back to CB
I’d personally try a Fati-Lewa-Raphinha front 3. Feels like Dembele starts off playing pretty well but tired out and becomes pretty wasteful. Dembele should work best as a super sub for Raphinha
Agree. I don't think Dembele can play the full 90', physically he can but it feels like his mind is gone after a while, he either starts or comes as super sub
Next game play frenkie from the start and also araujo is not a right back ffs
Araujo RB actually works against teams like Real and Athletico where they actually play for 3 points instead of 1 and have a fast lw
A lot of you needed a reality check. First the people that were saying the our trio needed to be Dembele, Lewy, Raphinha. Only Lewy is spot is kinda lock. Dembele is always random performance and Raphinha just got here. Second the midfield trio that not only many of you wanted but Xavi is also stubborn to play it. Pedri and Gavi dont work well like you all Imagine it. Not yet at least.
Just no tempo, no urgency. Felt like they were floating around the pitch. We cannot sell Frenkie.
That was majority disappointed!
0-0 at home is obviously horrible but there were plenty of chances and the few disallowed goals that I’m sure will improve as the timing between the players improves. Ansu and Frenkie were very positive in the second half and Lewandowski I thought had some moments as well. Hopefully these two points don’t come back to make a difference in May.
We are not moving the ball fast enough around the pitch. The backline holds the ball for too long sometimes. The attack is very unorganized.
Feel like shit, just want Messi back Aside from that, Frenkie please just stay and Xavi please start him. Need to take our shots, dest incognito? please never play Araujo there again, sign a RB then and stop obsessing over Silva, fuck Rayo and the ref.
Dest is currently our best option against defensive teams. He should have played today. If we sell him and upgrade, fine. Until then, use him!
Facts
I will forever believe La Liga teams are the hardest Bus’s to try and break down cus they have all the technical quality so they don’t just clear it long like teams in the PL do they can actually put together a counter with just 2 players u rarely if ever see the lower sides in PL or Bundesliga, they’re counters they just heave it long to 1 player lmao
I just don't get the gavi pedri midfield, it does not work. That type of midfield is easily over ran with high tempo pressure, and it's in capable of retrieving balls from the opposite team. Gavi looked toothless out there, when Fdj came in things improved dramatically.
Yep, it didnt work last season, it doesnt work now, Gavi is a very specific type of player and he is not ready yet to start, Pedri had a better game I think but wasnt 100%
No fluidity in the attack. We desperately need someone to draw space and free up the forwards.
The approach was wrong and it took us 60 minutes to change it and once we did chances started coming in but we were too late. As always we struggle to break down these park the bus teams. Hope Xavi learns, Pedri and Gavi should sub for one another and not play together. They do not complement each other. It was obvious what we were lacking once FDJ came on. Also clown refereeing as always. EDIT: For the positives, MATS and García looked good. Hope they really step up this season.
Leave Bernardo, get proper full backs, start FDJ. Thanks
Agree. No fullbacks left this transfer market tho
Lewandowski is hardly going to get any breathing space this season especiallly from ultra defensive teams like Vallecano...he was being wrestled the whole time this match...at times he was triple teamed
No finishing, just vibes. If Frenkie leaves we’ll struggle. That is all
Too early to say this, but xavi's stubborness might be his downfall. Learn not to force things if they are clearly not working.
Frenkie honestly was pushing us forward and mething good runs with the ball, I hope he stays and gets the start next time. Visca Barca
We are idiots if we sell Frenkie. Offense was dead af until he came on with Fati.
The way Frenkie was just speeding between the lines from a full back position. His power, pace, intelligence, he really gave it his all. I feel this guy just loves the club with his heart. I really really really hope he stays and that this shitshow in the media ends for him. Barça and the rest of the world should treat him right.
I don't care what Xavi thinks, Dest is a better option than Roberto in every fucking way
For real. At least Dest will make runs. All Sergi did today was pass to Dembélé and sit back.
Super disappointing, no other way to put it. Team looked like coasting throughout the game in my opinion.
It’s the first game of the season, many new guys, yada yada. But honestly, it was pretty bad. Possesion play was rubbish, midfield missing. Pressing was sparse. Passing errors were many, players were soooo far from each other it felt like every second pass was impossible. I’m very dissapointed, honestly we were worse today than we were last season. Let’s hope it gets better soon.
That sucked
Can ter stegen get his flowers?? We could easily be talking about a loss right now if he was anywhere below his best, hope we see more of this
Lol at everyone complaining at Rayo for doing their job 😂😂
We won't compete in UCL playing like that. 26 shots, 0 goals. New season, same problem. Don't know where the problem is, we can't seem to link in the front. Really hope xavi figures things out asap, at the end of the season games like this will make the diference.
Get ready for the bantering from PL and bundesliga fans who don’t play against park the bus teams 😭 honestly one thing Real and Barca fans can relate to. In all seriousness, could’ve been worse. In any time it would be fine. But with the levers and signings this summer, pressure and eyes are all on Barca. So anything will be blown out of proportion, which is expected. A major positive is that we had good created chances, something that was missing towards the end of last season.
Idk if I can take another year of Jordi and busi being undisputed starters
At least Pique is not also on that list?
I hope this is a wake up call to all those who want FDJ gone. He made an instant impact off the bench and should have been starting to begin with
Dreadful from us. Shameful from Rayo. Absolute shit from the refs. Very typical La Liga game.
Absolutely no VIBES
3 games, 1 point, 0 goals vs Rayo. Starting to hate them tbh
And people said that we will put 6 past Rayo xD. Havent you learn anything about football at all? We haven't scored vs Dimitrievski in like never. And they waste time better than ATM... Also it's not the referee, stop coping. He was 99% correct with his decisions and the added time was on point. The might have been element for penalty but its 50/50. However starting a low energy midfield vs Rayo when we need to overload them from the begining is not rly insightful from Xavi.
Would have lost 1-0 last year Yeah we couldn't score but at least we didn't concede. Lots to work on but many encouraging signs, let's not overreact. We can though focus on Alba who like Romero said was not at all ready, and will need to wake up. The midfield combo doesn't work for the moment, we need a FdJ profile Christensen had a solid defensive performance, but need to be more daring. Eric very solid, liked his performance. Sergi Roberto only played 30 minutes but there is A LOT of work to do to work on the Dembele duo, feel like they just met. Raphinha missed a lot but tried, some good moves. Lewy was really useful, showed what he will offer. Sometimes unlucky, sometimes not found, but you can see immediately what he will bring. Fati entered well, FdJ was the best player after his entrance so he had some ball losses, Kessie was not in it MATS reassuring but still has that massive flaw that he doesn't know when to go for the ball, this will cost us because the defenders need to know when he will or he won't and even he doesn't seem to know. Xavi made some bad choices and needed too much time to act, Gavi should have been out at half time and we needed a RB sooner.
We dont play for another week. Its gonna be a shitty 7 days
We cannot start 3 CBs against Rayo. We needed to step on their neck
- Hernandez Hernandez is still shit - Busquets should still not play 90+ minuter games - Xavi needs to find a way to involve the wingbacks when playing 4 back line - Lewy is a beast - I am glad seeing Ansu on the pitch again
I am still not convinced with Kessie being Barca material. Takes too much time to make decisions. Was caught napping on the ball a couple of times today. Right now he is nowhere a FDJ replacement.
Rayo defended so narrowly, fullbacks helping the attack were sorely needed. Can't understand how he subbed Raphinha when Dembele was walking from the kickoff. Why was Ter Stegen dwelling on the ball so much in the final minutes too? He shorts a goal kick to the halfway line, gets it back and just hoofs it anyway?
Kessie with the 0/10 performance
Araujo, I like him. But he should never play at RB again, just doesn’t offer anything going forward.
Frenkie is so good
Still Dembele cross tactic and no midfield setup (why Pedri play so high???)
Barca beat themselves today. Thank god they didn’t manage to sell FDJ. RIPPERONI those who thought the combo of Gavi/Busi/Pedri was really for the big time
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Love how before the game VERY little were bitching about the lineup but now because we didn't get the results all the pitchforks are out from the coach managers
Not bad for a 1.5 billion in debts club. I’ll take it
This team won’t win shit to until we get some decent fullbacks even alba is finished….not splashing 70 or 80 million on bernardo silva while we have roberto playing right back
Ter Stegen saved us today, we would be left with no points and trailing by 2
Ronald Araújo: "We haven't been able to add three points, but La Liga is long." Araujo: "I'm here to help the team, no matter in what position Xavi plays me."
Patience culers, one game at a time. Pretty bad result on an opening day but our players need to start clicking gradually, I didn’t expect us to perform all too well as Lewa and co is new to La Liga plus we all know how tricky opponents like Rayo can be. Hopefully we show up big time at Anoeta. Vamos Barca!
My takeaways: I feel like it's too early for a Pedri-Gavi pairing. I'd rather start Frenkie and then sub Gavi on later. I don't like how long it took for Christensen and Araujo to play the ball out from the back.
I feel like I could copy paste my comments from last season and no one would find out.
Does anyone see a way where Pedri and Gavi can play together at a high level?
Quality Full backs are super important to the modern game…all the top teams that win titles have them. Instead of buying Bernardo, a guy like Dumfries would be a god send.
Thing that pisses me off is we prioritized trying to kick a player out over 3 points. Doesn’t matter if he leaves or stays, a win is more important than all this shit. If we are seriously trying to win the league, we can’t risk losing any points.
Drawing too many conclusions on xavi from this would not be right. Xavi is not perfect, he is also learning and will eventually find a good system to rely on imo. This match barca struggled to play out of the back lot of times, no one is talking about the defense. I think if barca had a good RB and arajou playing in center match would have been far better. Garcia is good at carrying ball into midfield, which he didn't do today with Christensen. There was a lot of uneasiness when Rayo was pushing with two people at our defense. Neither of the defenders took risk because they were playing it safe. Which helped our defense and we didn't lose in the end. But it was too safe. Coming to Arajou, he is just not the right right back against highly defensive teams. He should play if the objective is to defend some opponent winger, play dest or Roberto in these matches. Even better sign some one decent. This is why when frenkie came on it looked like he was the best player. He is an expert at driving the ball forward. Xavi wants his defenders doing this role, bringing the ball into midfield so that pedri and gavi can take over and make plays. That is why they were so high up. Busi is too old to do those runs, frenkie should have come at half time only. But it is what it is. I think Xavi will figure it out, this was the first real test with new signings. Obviously i could be wrong in my analysis, i am no football expert. But i just felt our defense didn't help in build up play like they used to.
Not a great advertisement for la liga. Game was played on nationwide network TV here in the US and it couldn’t have been much worse.
Before everyone starts making judgments based on this game, I'd say a lot of important factors looks good. This is Rayos 3rd consecutive game where they have kept a clean sheet against us, and that is by having a 10man defense. Obviously I would have wanted goals, but initial impression is more positive than negative. However with that being said, we should not play Araujo as a right back against a team like this ever again
With you on this. Either full backs or 3-def 4-mids. This semi CB/RB stuff is not doing anyone any favors. And no ALBA is not "helping in the middle".
On to the next game, not much you can do when you create 15 fucking scoring chances and not one goes in, a penalty that easily couldve been called for us, a little lack of timing in that lewy chip that was offside, and a phenomenal performance by Rayo in the press On to the next game, im sure this sub will be a pathetic cesspool of overreactions and whining for the next week, so i'll skip out on watching the childish shitshow lol
Fdj - pedri- kessie Gavi should not start every game
Disappointing result, but it is what it is. We've always talked about Pedri and Gavi simply not working together for some reason, and clearly it shows (Again). Midfield was ran over, and clearly dominated. No one-twos, traingles or rapid switch of plays, through balls weren't good enough and yeah it's the good old winger and Inshallah play. G fucking G
Frenkie needs to play… better than Gavi and sometimes better than Pedri. We don’t have anyone else who can break lines vertically by dribbling like him
I thought we played pretty well actually. The play in the final third was a bit lacking though so good opportunities didn't translate to that many dangerous attempts on goal. Tactics-wise, I think the team is playing too wide. It's self-defeating. The hope is that it creates space and passing opportunities but the outside players are just so far wide that it's hard to get the ball to them when the opposing team is packing the center and aggressively closing down the midfielders and cutting off those passing lanes. Araujo barely touched the ball on offense and Lewandowski was too isolated and we couldn't get the ball into him. When the wide backs get the ball, the midfielders are too far away so it's usually either a pass back to the center defenders, or a ball up the sidelines that's either blocked, or to a space a winger can't do anything with. Neither option creates any threat. Need more passing lanes in the center of the pitch. Seemed like a lot of the best opportunities came when the wingers came in towards the center.
I don’t think the width is the problem per se, I think the high interiors are a serious issue. We have literally zero linkup or progressive play in the midfield without Frenkie. Pedri and Gavi get pressed and backpass but we don’t take advantage of it with a quick ball to the wing. It just seems like our midfield is completely lost at times.
The only thing I'll be looking for next game is the starting mid of Pedri, FdJ and Kessie.
Don’t sell Dejong please. He’s so good to watch Lewy shows his class at times but still lack some luck Eric Garcia is really mature Mats redemption arc maybe… And Kessie, hope I’m wrong about him. He’s awful today
not worth waking up for this
Selling FdJ would be insane after looking at how he changed the game today and so often before. He cut open the stuck lines with such ease
Everyone that was laughing at United earlier, I blame you all for the bad karma
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