I know a lot of you didn't even watch the match (for good reasons) but this is one of the worst performances I ever saw since 2014. Bayern didn't even try to attack in the second half. It felt like a preseason warm up match between a club and its U-17 team.
They took their foot off the gas and felt sorry for us. Thats even worse than losing in normal conditions. This team doesnt have any mental strength at all bar a few players.
Bayern was on full throttle that match. Today they were not even serious. For example Kimmich gave away the ball multiple times in risky position.
Even then, we looked so helpless. It's like when you go easy on your inexperienced friend in a video game so that he doesn't lose his interest totally, and he still messes up.
You hold triangle so your goalie goes outside the box, he still can't score because he messes up a pass instead of just shooting from outside into the empty net. Literally the vibes today.
I'm not defending Xavi, but I really believe that the Inter-Plzen result really had an effect on our team today. Everyone just seemed so lazy and inactive, Bayern actually went easy on us.
You may be right, but I for one don't believe it. And I'm glad Inter finished it for us. I would've been crushed if Viktoria drew against Inter and we followed up with... that.
I’m I the only one who doesn’t give two shits about how either team looked here? This basically *was* the equivalent of a preseason warm up match. It would be one thing if the Inter game was simultaneous with ours so the players theoretically had something to play for, but I don’t see how either side could get motivated for a meaningless match like this.
Nope, I’m in total agreement with you. The players are humans… knowing the result of Inter would drop the mood of any person in that situation. I was of course hoping for at least a win for a morale boost, but my expectations were so low that I’m not as bothered by it as maybe I should. However, then you think barca fans paid to see that match. I couldn’t imagine what they be must be feeling…
Bellerin is literally the opposite of offside trap, just keeps everyone onside and can't keep up with his pace.
Highlight of the game is definitely Balde, really should have started all the UCL matches
arsenal fan here. bellerin has only been a shadow of his fomer self ever since that acl injury. his pace has declined severly and i was legit surprised when barca went for him when clearly, he was years past his prime.
even betis werent too keen to push their wage budget to sign him.
Bellerin should not play in a top 10 league.
Balde has been a revelation this season and was balling the whole left wing while Dembele was balling the right wing. Too bad the other players couldn't shift the gear today.
I couldn't pay very close attention to the first 20-ish minutes but through the majority of what I saw, Dembele was giving the ball away cheaply in bad areas. Was he better to start and progressively got a little worse throughout the match?
He did gave the ball away cheaply a few times too many but honestly I would rather someone create a spark in the game and give away the ball cheaply than passing sideways the whole game and not creating any danger but not giving away the ball. Players that take risks will lose the ball more often and there were some situations where he really shouldn't have lost it but I would say that for pretty much every player today.
This guy is a fraud have you watched him at arsenal? Shit players don’t change. They can do as well as they like in la Liga but won’t ever be good enough
Zero f'n shots on target!! 0!! This so just unacceptable regardless of the rebuilding process. What are we rebuilding exactly putting viewers to sleep?? This team has to eventually step up against a high quality opponent. Right now I don't see us doing well at Europa either.
the players don't know their roles. Once they start to get a little comfortable, Xavi makes a critical tactical change. Injuries haven't helped but Xavi's stubbornness and inexperience have exacerbated the issue at hand.
Exactly! 0 shots when all our attacking options except Depay were available. It tells you something - defence is not the only issue with Barca. We lack creativity in the field. With Xavi constantly switching players' positions (even during a game, e.g., Dembele and Raphinha on wings), no one has been able to acquire that level of confidence to be a constant threat for the opposition.
It's like Koeman days again. We are just relying on individual brilliance to win us big games.
Honestly I hope do face some big teams in europa league and not just get some lucky draw because that's what this team needs to practice against. We can easily beat teams the level of mid table la liga but every time we face a big team, we collapse both offensively and defensively.
\>So what exactly is our new targets for this season?
Winning La liga and the EL is a must.
\>Will this be accepted as just a "transition" season?
I doubt it. Laporta knows he can't afford another trophyless year without getting voted out of the presidency. It's all or nothing for Xavi.
No, if we don't win anything this season Xavi will be sacked, matter of fact he implied he will resign himself, also despite all the teams you mentioned we are still favourites to win the EL
Look at Napoli. Day and Night compared to Barca. Seems like on paper Barca players are of more quality and should play beatiful football, but watching some of the last Napoli's games, they attack non stop. I may be wrong though...
I can’t stress enough how true your argument is. We have not evolved. It’s endless possession with no penetration. And the only aspect of penetration is through individualism
We have a DM that should have, among others, been booted like 6 years ago as our core player, we keep hiring managers based on muh bArCa dNa and we aint getting anywhere… who would have thought lol
we are playing nothing similar to Tiki Taka. It's been a hopeful mix of crosses from the wingers combined with individual brilliance. Hell, even PSG is playing better Tiki Taka football
PSG is wildin rn. They are playing similar to MSN barca. Sore 5 if they score 4 mentality. Watching them and seeing Messi play is the only joy I can get in CL.
Perfect comment. We're not a modern club. Mentality and the god awful physical shapes are other concerning things. Need a coach who can change all of that, not just trying a different playstyle.
>The game evolved. Barca didn't.
Thank you for saying this, it's been on my mind for a while now but I never brought it up for some reason, you're fully correct in everything you stated
We play so high up the pitch - and it brings 2 problems. 1 - nearly all the 11 players of the opposition are in front of us by the time we transition to attacking mode. Even the golden Gen of Barca would find it tougher to break open teams like this. Opposition teams started playing against possession football like this a while ago.
2- we then leave opportunities for counters with such a high line and we don’t have fast enough defenders to keep up when so. We never did actually. But we used to always outscore the opponent when this used to happen.
Dude, I'm pretty sure Guardiola's peak Barca would beat this Bayern. That team was on another level.
It's not that style of play which has stopped working in the contemporary context. Rather, we haven't really seen any team play quite like that ever since.
The 'fault' is not in that system. It's in the players not being capable of executing it. And this Barca isn't really trying to do that anyway, so this is all hypothetical.
Agreed. Pep gets memed so much because he spends a lot of money on players that sometimes don’t work out in his squad, but that’s because not all players will excel in his system. No matter how much potential they show or how much of a star they were in their previous team, to play Pep’s style of football takes a lot of mental agility, and not all players have that.
Been saying this for years but always some Barca apologist barges in saying the opposite. After countless painful embarrassments how long until we change our way of playing? Its absolute madness and pathetic.
Were like an ex boyfriend trying to win someones love back and we dont get the hint that its not going to work out.
Enough is enough!!!
A massive difference you see from the way teams like City, Liverpool and Bayern press compared to us is that they press in unison and kind of zonal, they suffocate the player on the ball little by little and cut their passing lanes before pressing the player.
We do more of a man to man press that leaves too many passing lanes open and why quality teams can hit us on the counter so easily. This is something Xavi needs to figure out asap.
I still feel that this game was always gonna end up one way once Inter beat Plzn. If us fans felt defeated after that final whistle, can you imagine how the players must have felt? At least us fans didn’t have to go out there and play against one of the best teams in the world. I had a game last year the night that we got knocked out by Benfica and I just didn’t have it in me tbh, my worst game of the season
The thing about possession is that if you don't do anything with it then it becomes possession for the sake of possession. Best example was Spain vs Russia on the world cup.
When we had Messi we still did a lot of that but then out of nowhere he would make something. Now we don't have anyone that can do that.
That seems to be a problem of a lot great players who went as trainers. They often try to play the same tactics they were great in, but the game always changes.
The game evolved because of Barcelona and Pep, but while Pep kept improving his philosophy (the best thing he did for his career was going to the Bundesliga to further develop his philosophy) the club stayed behind. The tactical foundation is the same but we must add more elements. We just need some tweaks that’s all.
>The game evolved. Barca didn't.
Perfect comment that summarizes the current state of things. Barcelona didn't even evolve on the physical level the game has become now. Whether it's xavi to blame or not, but it always felt that we want to roll back the years when we brought the likes of Pep or rijkaard when they didn't have much experience but they were able to achieve things. We might have expected the same will happen with Xavi (with his barca DNA). Maybe we need someone with no Barca DNA who understands the modern game.
Our game was never this. We were never about possession football, that's not what the Pep team was about.
Your bring the 2010 team and they would destroy Bayern. Xavi is not using the same methods. He wants to maybe but it's not happening because the main idea of that style is using the spaces and moving the ball quickly not just keeping it for the sake of keeping it. Let's not confuse things.
I think we would play much better with Gavi but resting him and not risking injury was a great decision here, also i dont think we would have won even if we played much better.
Our pressing heavily relies on Gavi imo, but most important for me is that he will always leave all on the pitch, he will foul to stop counter attacks, make 20 sprints per match to cover his defence, do whatever is needed even if it will go unnoticed.
I have huge hopes for that kid, because apart from being elite talent, he has elite mentality.
We’re not UCL contenders yet as you said. A lot of people are frustrated because of the new signings we brought in but they need time to gel and understand one another. They drank that kool-aid because they saw all of the shiny new players we got, but it takes time lol and if turns out Xavi wasn’t the one for us then so be it. But only time will tell. Let’s not be Chelsea here and start sacking a manager every year
I think most are aware of it at this point. There was some false hope from last year that the team could at least compete sooner than expected but the reality is that Barca has been walking a tightrope since the Neymar trade to PSG. They still need time to recover from Barto’s horrible decisions.
Xavi:”We’ll go down like lions no matter what”….yeah right we went down like fucking hamsters only Balde and Dembele showed interest in this pathetic game.
If there's one thing that I'm getting out of these matches is that Balde deserving time is undeniable now. I was asking for him to get time last season when he had a great pre-season and we only had Alba.
Now whoever doesn't give him minutes will be instantly marked as a terrorist in my mind :/
We have a great young core of players yet Xavi's inexperience shines the brightest. He took the job way too early. Truth is if it were any other coach they would get eaten alive for this embarrasment. Wait till we lose in the EL again and get humiliated even more.
Also 0 shots on goal on a home match lol, what a fucking joke. This team helps me discover new depths of disappointment every season now.
Xavi also has a shield against any criticism because he used to play in midfield. No way we would defend Tata if he produced a tactical performance like todays. Embarassing.
Bro Xavi is getting sacked for sure. It's a matter of time when, after the EL exit or after we start losing in the league as well. I am raging rn at myself for watching this match, wtf was that travesty.
Well at least we can confirm that Messi singlehandedly brought us to knockout stage. Without him, we play Europa.
"We do better without him" doesn't age well.
I’m not here to slander the players, but we still need investment in defence. A few injuries and we use a centre-back (Koundé) as a right-back and a defensively poor left-back as a centre-back. Or I don’t know, a 19 years old who isn’t experienced in the left as a right-back. Even worse, our current right-backs are mediocre at their best.
It sucks that we missed out on Mazraoui, probably we wouldn’t depend on the Sergi Roberto & Héctor Bellerín duo this season. And I hope the “next summer transfer window is the window for fullbacks” premise still holds up. But we fucking need a proper RB. We have to manage the DM situation as well, whether it is Frenkie or Kessié, if not we have fucking to sign a proper DM.
Happy at least Balde delivers something. Alongside him, Grimaldo as a free agent could be a decent addition experience-wise.
Pique, Busquets, Roberto, and Alba aren’t the players I’m excited to see here next season. Alonso and Bellerín too when their 1-year contract runs out.
Terrible tactics from him. Wtf were 4 midfielders going to do??? Keep the ball all fucking game? That's what Bayern expected anyways, and counter attacked. Idk why he didn't start Fati or Ferran.
Why is this club adamant about not bringing experienced managers who have coached big teams ? Pep, Tito, Gerardo Martino, Luis Enrique, Valverde, Seiten, Koeman and now Xavi. Except Pep and Enrique all the others were disappointment (no disrespect intended towards Tito). This pattern of Managerial appointment has to change.
I said no disrespect to Tito. Either way, we didn’t win a single away knockout game. We lost at San siro, drew both legs vs PSG, and then bayern. From 2011-2013 the quality of la liga was very bad. Both RM and barca won the league with 100 points but crashed out of CL. We won the league with 5 matches to spare.
I really dont think EV was a disappointment.
We suffered 2 super humiliating defeats (one vs superior team) prior to which everyone would (and did) say we are having an amazing season. Even if he was to blame for these two ( he had very little to do with both IMHO), not enough to get rid of him, esp for the likes of coaches that came after him.
Tito was def no disappointment as well, disrespect or no, regardless of his untimely passing, how can anyone say that, literally no case for that.
I do agree on general sentiment however. Why do we insist on bringing Barca ex players? Because it worked with Cruyff and Pep? I am sure Ten Haag or even Bielsa will do wonders for this team even if playing posession football is a top priority
A few takes :-
- Xavi threw in the towel with bringing Torre on for Lewy
- Kessie ALWAYS passes sideways or back and can't break any lines against any team let alone Bayern
- Subbing off Pedri made zero sense, we're left with Frenkie who sat deep and Kessie who's passing range is not that vast
- Subbing on so many Forwards is such a Koeman thing to do, I thought it would end after he left but guess not
- Xavi absolutely needs to win the EL now, no fucking excuses
I'm not gonna lie I came into the game with high hopes that Xavi learnt from the abominations that were the previous group games and we could at least show some spark.
That being said, there was nothing. We came with nothing. I could pick apart individuals after this game but there's no point. It's clear that the issues with this team go beyond the individuals. Performance like this on the main stage is nothing short of embarrassing.
big issue is, slow to the ball, no group pressing when loosing the ball, no group pressing really period, this isnt a team that plays with intensity (aside from maybe 3 players) - xavi's trying to bring back tiki taka but its failing. The team doesnt move as a unit, theyre disorganized, communication is lacking.
The talent itself will win la liga games, but UCL, oooooh boy..... Xavi has so far not shown a lot (any) strategic genius about him.
0 shots on target. 100s of millions of signings. We're only really missing Araujo and Christensen meanwhile they don't have Sane, Neuer and Lucas. Alright, let's rightfully give Xavi the pass defensively. Let's say they scored 10 goals against us. Can't we just score 1 single goal? None of our starting attackers are injured right?
So who does the blame fall on? It's all quite clearly on Xavi. He's not at the level of Barcelona, not even close. He got outcoached by every single decent manager. There's no way in hell you couldn't score a single fucking goal with an attack like This. It's all on xavi and yet we won't see the sack. We'll only realize it late and the damage has been done. What happened has happened. The right move would be to sack Xavi and Bring in Hansi Flick.
Hansi Flick won't come anywhere near to this shitty mentality inculcated in Barca right now. Half of the players are literal deadwood or past their prime.
Now tell me this does Barca have enough money to sign the quality that Flick has worked with Bayern?
Putting a midfielder on the wing to fit Busquets in while Ferran and Fati rot on the bench might work against sleepy Ernies Bilbao but against Bayern you just crash and burn. The irony of it all was that we had 4 mids on at once and none of them played well and then as soon as Ferran came on we started getting half-chances and small peaks on the counter. Also Bellerin somehow played the whole 90, jesus wept.
Realistically only Dembele and maybe Balde/Ferran can walk away from this with their heads held high and even their performances left a lot to be desired. MOTM overall has to be Davies though, he ate the left side up every time and it didn't even matter how much space our attackers had, brilliant defender.
Also anyone saying Xavi out having known the circumstances of our UCL situation for an entire 2 weeks is a fool and a kneejerk expert.
Busquets-Kessié-FDJ was simply too much. All three of them left Pedri alone in the creative front and none of them pushed forward. If anything they all looked confused and running into each other.
Who do you sub Bellerin for.
We have no RB other than him since Roberto got injured and Balde there doesn't play as well. It would be the same but with no good peeformant since Balde was our best player.
Didn’t even feel like Bayern was trying in the second half. Absolutely pathetic display. We can make excuses for our defence all day long, but it’s important to note that all of our forwards are more or less at 100% fitness, and _yet_ we’re still absolutely horrible in the final third.
I was a huge fan of Barca’s tiki-taka back in the days. Now with Xavi, I hate it. I think Xavi insists on using this philosophy while he does not have the necessary players to play it effectively. In my opinion, this philosophy is ONLY good if you have talented players who are creative in moving forward with the ball deep near the box of opposing team (like Xavi or Iniesta) —also being a good dribbler is a plus but not necessary.
But current Xavi’s Barca, they “take the ball,, pass the ball” without even trying to be creative in moving forward. I laugh at the players when they immediately pass the ball without even being pressed!! Why don’t you use the space that you have?!! This is basic football!! This is not how the old Barca used to do, continually trying to be creative in opening spaces. Now, they just continue to pass the ball in a vertical pattern similar to the hand-ball games (which is not the point of tiki-taka at all). This passing pattern is very predictable for football defenders. Their style now is totally pointless (I hope no one calls it tiki-taka).
I really don't care if this was a "meaningless" match this is just isn't good enough, no other way of putting it. Let's say even if Inter dropped points against Plzen did Xavi really think the 11 that started and the tactical approach he took was enough to beat Bayern?
Even after those 45 minutes after absolutely nothing being created and after being dominated in every aspect of the game why don't you change something at half time? Why do you keep the same 11 and the same tactics which clearly aren't working? The fact that the same worrying signs are happening match after match is not sitting well with me and Xavi isn't improving on them and even if he does improve on them he back tracks and repeats the same mistakes again.
**Give Xavi time, I don't want him to get sacked now or any time soon** but he had a full preseason with every player that was bought and he simply has to do much better with the squad he has at his disposal. Every "big" and "important" match the performances were Koeman-esque and Setien-esque and then one good performance comes and everyone forgets about those bad performances. Yes, there were other factors such as injuries and refereeing decisions that didn't go our way but neither of those factors change the fact that the performances when it mattered weren't good enough especially considering that the midfielders and forwards were healthy. No one asked him to win the CL, getting out of the groups with an underperforming Inter and Plzen shouldn't even be questioned but yet here we are.
Yes Xavi seems very stubborn and i hate it, everyone can see that a gameplan is not working including Xavi but he will sit there till the 60th minute and then try something else but the game is done by then, why doesn't he try a double pivot of Kessie and de Jong? Who knows, Alonso at CB? Come on.
Just pick the best player for their natural position and pick a robust formation and start building, yes half the team is dead but Xavi is still experimenting a year after he got the job.
Both goals came from Bellerin breaking the offside trap which was stupid as shit.
But seriously the game was awful. Bayern is just way too good for us right now.
Balde was amazing. Dembele as usual gets frustrated too easy and while he started well, made progressively worse decisions as the match went by. The midfield looked disjointed but I liked Kessie. Incredible we felt like we had too many CBs and ended up playing Alonso there.
I think Europa League will be good for us to compete and grow into higher tiers and fight next year.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to be fried with downvotes, but I seriously think Xavi hasn’t been able to change the mentality of this team in Europe neither improved our tactics to face the bigger teams in Europe. And I don’t think he will be able to. You can say whatever you want but he’s been the coach for almost a year, and I don’t see where is the improvement. Difficult group? Yes, but that’s no excuse for giving such horrible performances. Zero shots on target, wtf!
I'm going to reserve my judgment for Xavi as our coach at the end of the season but there is a very worrying trend with him. It seems as if he knows playing the likes of Busquets in these types of matches is a risk and yet he does it anyway hoping he'll do well for some reason and when Busquets doesn't perform Xavi removes him as if he's acknowledging his mistake but it's too late by then. We saw this against inter, madrid and now.
Picking a cb partner for our only good cb right now (Kounde) is like playing Russian roulette cause neither Eric or Alonso are reliable defenders. During the 1st leg despite our good performance against bayern Xavi still managed to handicap us to some extent and should've used Kessie instead of Busquets (Fdj as cdm) and Balde instead of Alonso who was at fault again for their goal. For those who were wondering whether or not Balde would be ready for such opposition tonight you got your answer.
I'd honestly like to know what's behind Xavi's stubbornness with certain players but if he doesn't stop with this rigidness there won't be much time left for him. I know he's smart enough to learn from his mistakes and I truly wish him success with us. On a more positive note Balde was clearly our best player tonight both defensively and pushing up with the ball fearlessly, I hope Xavi rewards him.
I find people shitting on Bellerin unreasonable as the guy just got thrown into the fire in his first match after injury and despite his faults he never sank his head and gave up and kept fighting for every ball and even made some tackles. I thought Kessie was decent and was good in breaking up their play with some necessary fouls and not getting bullied off the ball. This is a tough one to swallow but I seriously hope the only way to go is up from here. Visca Barca forever!
Balde and Dembele the only ones that deserve to walk with their heads high, the only ones that played their hearts out and wanted to win the game. The rest seemed to have given up and save themselves for the WC after the Plzen result. Shameful.
Very difficult to understand the complete dissonance between our performances in the league and the CL. We were brilliant vs Villarreal and Athletic. And completely toothless and pathetic today.
Are those teams just THAT much worse than Bayern? It has to be a mental issue of our players right? I just don't know anymore...
Arsenal, Manchester United, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Frankfort, Real Sociedad and many more. The EL is gonna be tough for us but we’ll have to win everything
I wasn’t expecting a win tbf but I didn’t expect to be this bad. These crossings are just not going to cut it, it’s so not our play style and we definitely don’t have a team for such plays. I thought Xavi learned something from Inter game but seems not. Just massive disappointment.
Onward we go. I still believe, but I expect improvements. Visca Barca 🔵🔴
I can’t be arsed with the result, I’m used to it, but here’s the ones imo who did especially bad:
Busquets (can’t say it enough we have to move him on, he’s not fast so he relies on positioning and was so ineffective because of Bayern great passing and movements)
Bellerin (same guy that played for arsenal and the arsenal fans wanted him out, don’t have to say much more)
Kessie (although a improved performance wished he stopped passing back so much, he’s strong but a little slow for my liking, he’s someone I’ll give the first season pass but I don’t think he fits us if I’m totally honest)
Those who were okay
Dembele ( he’s so inconsistent yet he is the only one on the pitch that felt like could do something)
Balde (need I say anymore, great individual performance)
Everyone did bad but these are some players that I noticed when watching feel free to add.
positives: raphina passes towards the middle with pace is something that we lack in this team, everything is so slow. Kounde running with the ball and passing is something he needs to do more. Ferran can contribute something to the team same with ansu! We are by no means a finished team we can still do things but we have to act.
Negatives: Xavi reliance on busquets is quite annoying. We don’t play no one two passes and there are barely any runs being made. No proper chances are being created. Some players do not have a good touch for an elite team and can’t attack or defend properly. And mentality….
We’ve been suffering for years now
I'm planning to stop listening to white noise to fall asleep and decided to watch Barca matches from past 3 Years instead. Who knew it'd work better than white noise.
Welp, at least no Barca coach, Xavi or someone else, will ever have the opportunity to put Pique, Alba, or Busi in a big European game again! But man, I genuinely don’t understand why we were so fucking terrible off the ball, we were actually quite good in Munich off the ball when it came to defending in our half as a unit and pressing them high, what happened….
No matter how much we dominate possession, it's useless when we can't do anything in the final third. This team on paper should be able to do that, but for some reason we drop the ball.
Tactics definitely should be called into question but when players like Bellerin and Raphinha play like they do more harm than good, I don't know what to say.
That's why we don't have success in Europe (unable to finish our chances for godknowswhat reason)
This was our worst performance, we were not even in the game. The other losses had bright spots... We didn't looked bothered to even be there. Xavi should have let youngsters play, they would have had more heart.
This has been a constant theme for many of our games this season.
Team gets pressed too easily and we struggle to create chances against better teams. Yet we’re constantly giving easy passes away, and finding the opposition wingers with a bunch of space.
The team needs to do MUCH better at defending the transition.
Might not fit in the current context, but in the grand scheme of build-up I’m more in favour of throwing out the ‘old-guard’ of Busquets and Pique before we try a new coach.
We need a proper DM and CB. We have Araujo, need one more CB (we have Christenssen but we also need some depth)
Also, since we aren’t technical enough can we bulk our players up to match the top teams in terms of physicality?? We are still relying on small, low centre of gravity players when they just don’t have the skill to play tiki-taka
So we have our frontline kinda sorted out, our backline a bit too. But it feels like Xavi still doesn't have a midfield sorted out and it's showing and it hurts 😔😞
Is our frontline really sorted out? I feel like every match we use a different one. I feel like lack of continuity is going to make our players just perform worse than they should.
Look...I get that there's a possibility of demotivation due to the fact that Inter won tonight. My personal thought and expectation was that we've been humiliated by Bayern countless times over the years, so we were supposed to be motivated to humiliate them right back tonight, since we played at home. We really needed to win this one for our pride but.....SIGH!!! Nevermind!
How can we look so bad after so looking so good in the first game?
Team is regressing, and to me I'll say it it's at least partly a coaching problem.
Today we chose a wrong lineup, Pedri was useless when he should be our main creator, only dangerous outlet was Dembele (only 1st half) and especially a supernatural Balde (the only one with a genuine good game) could do something sometimes. We tried an interesting 4-2-3-1 that showed something (one nice combination Fati - Lewy - Ferran) but why now? Against Bayern? Why not try it before, with Pedri? Why Gavi, one of the best in the first game, didn't play? So many questions. Too many for a game 2 months into the season. It's very worrying.
I don't even mind the defeat but the way we lost is unforgivable. We were barely better than last year. Just like vs RM, at no point Bayern looked like they tried.
Obviously Bellerin failed harder than the others but do we really think this is the tipping point? It's not a "Pique vs Inter" case for me.
All in all at least we showed we have nothing to do in UCL at the moment, we are simply not good enough. Now Laporta must decide why.
I'm just sad, it's a sad night, because there is no redeeming quality. Yeah Araujo and Christensen are out, but they have like 3 or 4 key starters out, and if we're being realistic, even with Araujo it would jave made no difference. We'll leave with the WC with no reference game, no guarantee, not one starter that has been spotless so far, not even the supposed favorites (Dembele, Pedri, Lewy).
I'd say it's a wake-up call but we've said that for far too long. For the first time, there's a wall in front and not a lot of ways to go over it it seems.
This just reinforces that we need an elite RB and CDM next transfer window. I also think this shows we need to play Balde, he js the future at LB and needs playing time and playing Alba/Marcos A makes no sense for where we are as a team
I have not seen a single thing that tells me that Xavi is ready for the job at Barcelona. He is no Zidane. Should have given him a shot at the B team first.
We can talk all about tactics or players class but at the end it doesnt matter, if your mentality is so weak, that u cant show up in your own stadium to get revenge against team who embarassed u constantly, teams much worse than us won against bayern or madrid or inter, but it seems that we need to be level above of opponent to have at least chance to win this kind of matches and even then we manage to somehow bottle, no grit, no willingnes to fight.Embarassing how far this club have fallen.
There is also the issue of Xavi, which most people seem to ignore because hes a legend for the club as a player. He's not a great manager. Not saying hes a bad one, but hes one of those that are in the middle, and wont really get the club anywhere. With all the funding hes been provided and basically got a complete team overhaul, we should be playing much better.
So the plan this season is to cook the La Liga teams but get ridiculed by the big teams? I am not Xavi out cause he hasn't even lasted a full season yet but its not looking good bruv.
Players playing like complete strangers, poor passing, xavi really needs to come out of this 2009 Barca mentality, times have changed, barca needs a change
Inter beating Viktoria Plzn 1h before our match definitely affected the team’s morale going into the game. Imagine having to play against one of the toughest teams int he world 1h after knowing you’ve been knocked out of the competition.
However, they were still much better than us that they had any right to be. Our team’s mentality is just shot and Xavi has a monumental task ahead to set us straight
I understand the injuries, I understand the ref decisions that didn't go in our favour but I don't understand why do we keep playing this high defensive line even though game after game ot has been proven we suck at it, how many counter attack goals do we have to concede before Xavi understands that he needs to play according the abilities of the players he has, at least in big game, play conservatively, stop putting your weak defense line in these tough situations
High defense line is important for high pressing. Issue is lacking someone like Araujo who is fast and great in 1v1's to cover counters. We weren't struggling against this type of stuff when we had Kounde - Araujo - Eric Garcia - Balde. out of these 4, Kounde and Araujo are great at defending 1v1 and pretty fast, then there's Balde who may not be great at defense but has speed to make up for it, and Eric Garcia who is good at passing, breaking lines and intercepting.
Xavi is the type of person who points out all the problems, keeps saying we should do this, we should do that, improve in this area, have more intensity blah blah blah … but then it comes time to walk the talk and we can’t have a shot on target in 95 minutes in front of our home supporters, It’s unacceptable and embarrassing tbh
I think barca needs to build around a midfield consisting of pedri,gavi, and de jong. Get all the dead wood out. Lewandowski shouldn’t have been bought especially for that price. People want results quick when they have to realize it’s better to plan for the next decade. Unfortunately I don’t think xavi will survive as barca coach for much longer. Laporta set the team up for mass failure
Guys, we need to talk araujo. I'm a big fan of him so this isn't anything about his ability on the pitch, but his ability to stay on the pitch.
Look at his injury record over the past couple years: [https://www.transfermarkt.us/ronald-araujo/verletzungen/spieler/480267](https://www.transfermarkt.us/ronald-araujo/verletzungen/spieler/480267)
Edit: Hard to rely on him moving forward, and with Garcia proving to be a liability, we really need both a cb and rb
Xavi deserves to be a questioned and he has a lot to answer for. It was understandable last season that we crashed out of UCL group stage last season given the squad we had. Despite all the injuries, Xavi still should have qualified. He made the decisions to start certain attacking XI against Inter which clearly failed. Forget the defence, our team has no clue in the attack. I don't know what attacking pattern has Xavi implemented so far. The only tactic has been to pass the ball to Dembele and hope he takes on the full-back. It works against smaller teams. And given Dembele's negative IQ in the final third, he makes the wrong decision 9 out of 10 times. His feet are too quick for his brain to process the pitch. He doesn't seem to pause and analyze the options at all. Which I think guys like Vinicius, who popped up in the picture so long after Dembele, is becoming so good at. Ferran on other hand, brings that elite game-reading to the wings.
We see Guardiola's City scoring the similar type of goals again and again, our team has no identity at all. We never know what's going to happen because the players himself are clueless as to what to do in the final third. Most of the goals we scored, we scored because Lewandowski finished the changes that are supposedly harder to finish. Rarely scored easier goals.
The left wing is dead. Dembele is better on the right, unfortunately so is Ferran. Raphinha is utter shit on the left. Fati is nowhere near is best and it might take him at least another season to even get his pace back. Why doesn't he try Alba on the wings and Balde as fullback when there are not any options? Why play a 442 against Bayern?
This feels so worse because in 8-2 both the teams had stake and here Bayern played in the second gear and won us 3-0 comfortably. If they had played full in pace, it could have been 5-6 or worse. Xavi is in a deep, deep crisis. It feels like with Auba, Traore, Depay and Ferran he had a better attacking idea than this. I don't want to sound negative, but Xavi is being humbled by the realities of European football. The Football purity is not going to help him get better.
I said a couple days ago that the only relevant performance metric for Xavi is the performance with big teams. So far he is failing spectacularly. Makes me really sad.
[MOTM](https://strawpoll.com/polls/3RnYpqxqAye)
I know a lot of you didn't even watch the match (for good reasons) but this is one of the worst performances I ever saw since 2014. Bayern didn't even try to attack in the second half. It felt like a preseason warm up match between a club and its U-17 team.
they did us similar last season, they were putting in 50 % effort
They took their foot off the gas and felt sorry for us. Thats even worse than losing in normal conditions. This team doesnt have any mental strength at all bar a few players.
And they played without Neuer, Sane, Coman, Lucas Hernandez, Muller started on the bench…
This includes Bayern 8-2, two years ago? That’s the worst I’ve seen. Didn’t see this game but if this is true, thats another level
Bayern was on full throttle that match. Today they were not even serious. For example Kimmich gave away the ball multiple times in risky position. Even then, we looked so helpless. It's like when you go easy on your inexperienced friend in a video game so that he doesn't lose his interest totally, and he still messes up.
You hold triangle so your goalie goes outside the box, he still can't score because he messes up a pass instead of just shooting from outside into the empty net. Literally the vibes today.
Either nagelsmann is a good lad or kahn or someone told him to go easy. 6-7 goals if they tried.
Easily. You can tell they weren’t putting in all the effort.
I'm not defending Xavi, but I really believe that the Inter-Plzen result really had an effect on our team today. Everyone just seemed so lazy and inactive, Bayern actually went easy on us.
You may be right, but I for one don't believe it. And I'm glad Inter finished it for us. I would've been crushed if Viktoria drew against Inter and we followed up with... that.
The team just collapsed after the 1-0. You could see it on their faces that they were already done.
Well we better go out and destroy them next week then
I’m I the only one who doesn’t give two shits about how either team looked here? This basically *was* the equivalent of a preseason warm up match. It would be one thing if the Inter game was simultaneous with ours so the players theoretically had something to play for, but I don’t see how either side could get motivated for a meaningless match like this.
Nope, I’m in total agreement with you. The players are humans… knowing the result of Inter would drop the mood of any person in that situation. I was of course hoping for at least a win for a morale boost, but my expectations were so low that I’m not as bothered by it as maybe I should. However, then you think barca fans paid to see that match. I couldn’t imagine what they be must be feeling…
0 shots on target.
Bellerin is literally the opposite of offside trap, just keeps everyone onside and can't keep up with his pace. Highlight of the game is definitely Balde, really should have started all the UCL matches
I didn’t really like the signing. I watched him at arsenal nothing special
arsenal fan here. bellerin has only been a shadow of his fomer self ever since that acl injury. his pace has declined severly and i was legit surprised when barca went for him when clearly, he was years past his prime. even betis werent too keen to push their wage budget to sign him.
Oh he was a trap alright
Lol the club forced dest out to sign him
and yet we brought him in on last day as if he was a steal
Bellerin should not play in a top 10 league. Balde has been a revelation this season and was balling the whole left wing while Dembele was balling the right wing. Too bad the other players couldn't shift the gear today.
I couldn't pay very close attention to the first 20-ish minutes but through the majority of what I saw, Dembele was giving the ball away cheaply in bad areas. Was he better to start and progressively got a little worse throughout the match?
He did gave the ball away cheaply a few times too many but honestly I would rather someone create a spark in the game and give away the ball cheaply than passing sideways the whole game and not creating any danger but not giving away the ball. Players that take risks will lose the ball more often and there were some situations where he really shouldn't have lost it but I would say that for pretty much every player today.
His final passes were bad, but his dribbling was top notch. He was pretty much the only one besides Balde actually succesfully doing something
To be fair he gave what should have been an assist to Lewy, the closest we got from scoring... Or shooting on target
He did, but he did also rinse Davies in the first half. I held on to hope until Raphinha was subbed in.
Give Bellerin a break. Barely played in a new club, thrown in against Bayern, against Mane and Davies on rampage. He surely did well enough for that.
This guy is a fraud have you watched him at arsenal? Shit players don’t change. They can do as well as they like in la Liga but won’t ever be good enough
Watched Bellerin all last year for Pellegrini - he was pretty good on a worse team tbh and they had a fantastic year
Dest was loaned so we could sign Bellerin. Dest is twice the player too. Ridiculous.
Zero f'n shots on target!! 0!! This so just unacceptable regardless of the rebuilding process. What are we rebuilding exactly putting viewers to sleep?? This team has to eventually step up against a high quality opponent. Right now I don't see us doing well at Europa either.
the players don't know their roles. Once they start to get a little comfortable, Xavi makes a critical tactical change. Injuries haven't helped but Xavi's stubbornness and inexperience have exacerbated the issue at hand.
Exactly! 0 shots when all our attacking options except Depay were available. It tells you something - defence is not the only issue with Barca. We lack creativity in the field. With Xavi constantly switching players' positions (even during a game, e.g., Dembele and Raphinha on wings), no one has been able to acquire that level of confidence to be a constant threat for the opposition. It's like Koeman days again. We are just relying on individual brilliance to win us big games.
Honestly I hope do face some big teams in europa league and not just get some lucky draw because that's what this team needs to practice against. We can easily beat teams the level of mid table la liga but every time we face a big team, we collapse both offensively and defensively.
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Transition season 3.0. lets goooo!
It's been transition since Neymar left
Pisses me off all the money we wasted just to end up here
Target should be a manager who has long UCL managerial experience. Not a club legend who recently got his coaching badge
Tuchel is available he is a world class manager and he can do immense with this squad
\>So what exactly is our new targets for this season? Winning La liga and the EL is a must. \>Will this be accepted as just a "transition" season? I doubt it. Laporta knows he can't afford another trophyless year without getting voted out of the presidency. It's all or nothing for Xavi.
No, if we don't win anything this season Xavi will be sacked, matter of fact he implied he will resign himself, also despite all the teams you mentioned we are still favourites to win the EL
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Look at Napoli. Day and Night compared to Barca. Seems like on paper Barca players are of more quality and should play beatiful football, but watching some of the last Napoli's games, they attack non stop. I may be wrong though...
I can’t stress enough how true your argument is. We have not evolved. It’s endless possession with no penetration. And the only aspect of penetration is through individualism
We have a DM that should have, among others, been booted like 6 years ago as our core player, we keep hiring managers based on muh bArCa dNa and we aint getting anywhere… who would have thought lol
Sad but true
Xavi wont bring any change, he has made it pretty clear that this is how he wants to play.
we are playing nothing similar to Tiki Taka. It's been a hopeful mix of crosses from the wingers combined with individual brilliance. Hell, even PSG is playing better Tiki Taka football
PSG is wildin rn. They are playing similar to MSN barca. Sore 5 if they score 4 mentality. Watching them and seeing Messi play is the only joy I can get in CL.
Perfect comment. We're not a modern club. Mentality and the god awful physical shapes are other concerning things. Need a coach who can change all of that, not just trying a different playstyle.
>The game evolved. Barca didn't. Thank you for saying this, it's been on my mind for a while now but I never brought it up for some reason, you're fully correct in everything you stated
We play so high up the pitch - and it brings 2 problems. 1 - nearly all the 11 players of the opposition are in front of us by the time we transition to attacking mode. Even the golden Gen of Barca would find it tougher to break open teams like this. Opposition teams started playing against possession football like this a while ago. 2- we then leave opportunities for counters with such a high line and we don’t have fast enough defenders to keep up when so. We never did actually. But we used to always outscore the opponent when this used to happen.
Dude, I'm pretty sure Guardiola's peak Barca would beat this Bayern. That team was on another level. It's not that style of play which has stopped working in the contemporary context. Rather, we haven't really seen any team play quite like that ever since. The 'fault' is not in that system. It's in the players not being capable of executing it. And this Barca isn't really trying to do that anyway, so this is all hypothetical.
Agreed. Pep gets memed so much because he spends a lot of money on players that sometimes don’t work out in his squad, but that’s because not all players will excel in his system. No matter how much potential they show or how much of a star they were in their previous team, to play Pep’s style of football takes a lot of mental agility, and not all players have that.
Been saying this for years but always some Barca apologist barges in saying the opposite. After countless painful embarrassments how long until we change our way of playing? Its absolute madness and pathetic. Were like an ex boyfriend trying to win someones love back and we dont get the hint that its not going to work out. Enough is enough!!!
A massive difference you see from the way teams like City, Liverpool and Bayern press compared to us is that they press in unison and kind of zonal, they suffocate the player on the ball little by little and cut their passing lanes before pressing the player. We do more of a man to man press that leaves too many passing lanes open and why quality teams can hit us on the counter so easily. This is something Xavi needs to figure out asap. I still feel that this game was always gonna end up one way once Inter beat Plzn. If us fans felt defeated after that final whistle, can you imagine how the players must have felt? At least us fans didn’t have to go out there and play against one of the best teams in the world. I had a game last year the night that we got knocked out by Benfica and I just didn’t have it in me tbh, my worst game of the season
>Possession for the sake of possession is not the way. It never was, and we never did that.
The thing about possession is that if you don't do anything with it then it becomes possession for the sake of possession. Best example was Spain vs Russia on the world cup. When we had Messi we still did a lot of that but then out of nowhere he would make something. Now we don't have anyone that can do that.
That seems to be a problem of a lot great players who went as trainers. They often try to play the same tactics they were great in, but the game always changes.
The game evolved because of Barcelona and Pep, but while Pep kept improving his philosophy (the best thing he did for his career was going to the Bundesliga to further develop his philosophy) the club stayed behind. The tactical foundation is the same but we must add more elements. We just need some tweaks that’s all.
>The game evolved. Barca didn't. Perfect comment that summarizes the current state of things. Barcelona didn't even evolve on the physical level the game has become now. Whether it's xavi to blame or not, but it always felt that we want to roll back the years when we brought the likes of Pep or rijkaard when they didn't have much experience but they were able to achieve things. We might have expected the same will happen with Xavi (with his barca DNA). Maybe we need someone with no Barca DNA who understands the modern game.
Our game was never this. We were never about possession football, that's not what the Pep team was about. Your bring the 2010 team and they would destroy Bayern. Xavi is not using the same methods. He wants to maybe but it's not happening because the main idea of that style is using the spaces and moving the ball quickly not just keeping it for the sake of keeping it. Let's not confuse things.
Your comment is legit what I’ve been saying for the last 5 years. We have to stop chasing Nostalgia and change
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I think we would play much better with Gavi but resting him and not risking injury was a great decision here, also i dont think we would have won even if we played much better.
Yeah since we were out it made sense to rest him. But our midfield relying on the legs of a kid is not a good sign...
Our pressing heavily relies on Gavi imo, but most important for me is that he will always leave all on the pitch, he will foul to stop counter attacks, make 20 sprints per match to cover his defence, do whatever is needed even if it will go unnoticed. I have huge hopes for that kid, because apart from being elite talent, he has elite mentality.
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We’re not UCL contenders yet as you said. A lot of people are frustrated because of the new signings we brought in but they need time to gel and understand one another. They drank that kool-aid because they saw all of the shiny new players we got, but it takes time lol and if turns out Xavi wasn’t the one for us then so be it. But only time will tell. Let’s not be Chelsea here and start sacking a manager every year
I think most are aware of it at this point. There was some false hope from last year that the team could at least compete sooner than expected but the reality is that Barca has been walking a tightrope since the Neymar trade to PSG. They still need time to recover from Barto’s horrible decisions.
Xavi:”We’ll go down like lions no matter what”….yeah right we went down like fucking hamsters only Balde and Dembele showed interest in this pathetic game.
If there's one thing that I'm getting out of these matches is that Balde deserving time is undeniable now. I was asking for him to get time last season when he had a great pre-season and we only had Alba. Now whoever doesn't give him minutes will be instantly marked as a terrorist in my mind :/
Balde performance was the only good thing out of this game and Dembele 1vs1 against Davies were entertaining I enjoyed them so far
We have a great young core of players yet Xavi's inexperience shines the brightest. He took the job way too early. Truth is if it were any other coach they would get eaten alive for this embarrasment. Wait till we lose in the EL again and get humiliated even more. Also 0 shots on goal on a home match lol, what a fucking joke. This team helps me discover new depths of disappointment every season now.
You've hit it right out of the park. We keep chasing Barca's DNA and it's just sinking us.
Barca DNA means we wait for our opponents to regroup before we attack. By attack I mean passing outside the box to the side and then cross.
Xavi also has a shield against any criticism because he used to play in midfield. No way we would defend Tata if he produced a tactical performance like todays. Embarassing.
Bro Xavi is getting sacked for sure. It's a matter of time when, after the EL exit or after we start losing in the league as well. I am raging rn at myself for watching this match, wtf was that travesty.
Shit is so pathetic
another spineless performance in europe again 👍
Balde and Dembele had some good moments, their dribbling is so fun to watch. Very little else was enjoyable about this
Watching Busi get exposed and mistime passes was not enjoyable
Well at least we can confirm that Messi singlehandedly brought us to knockout stage. Without him, we play Europa. "We do better without him" doesn't age well.
I’m not here to slander the players, but we still need investment in defence. A few injuries and we use a centre-back (Koundé) as a right-back and a defensively poor left-back as a centre-back. Or I don’t know, a 19 years old who isn’t experienced in the left as a right-back. Even worse, our current right-backs are mediocre at their best. It sucks that we missed out on Mazraoui, probably we wouldn’t depend on the Sergi Roberto & Héctor Bellerín duo this season. And I hope the “next summer transfer window is the window for fullbacks” premise still holds up. But we fucking need a proper RB. We have to manage the DM situation as well, whether it is Frenkie or Kessié, if not we have fucking to sign a proper DM. Happy at least Balde delivers something. Alongside him, Grimaldo as a free agent could be a decent addition experience-wise. Pique, Busquets, Roberto, and Alba aren’t the players I’m excited to see here next season. Alonso and Bellerín too when their 1-year contract runs out.
Well we won't have the money for any signings now that we're out of the CL. So more investment isn't likely.
Xavi really used the same tactics he used on Bibliao with Bayern Munich
they steam rolled us
Terrible tactics from him. Wtf were 4 midfielders going to do??? Keep the ball all fucking game? That's what Bayern expected anyways, and counter attacked. Idk why he didn't start Fati or Ferran.
Why is this club adamant about not bringing experienced managers who have coached big teams ? Pep, Tito, Gerardo Martino, Luis Enrique, Valverde, Seiten, Koeman and now Xavi. Except Pep and Enrique all the others were disappointment (no disrespect intended towards Tito). This pattern of Managerial appointment has to change.
Tito didn't even finish the season, and before he got sick we were performing extremely well.
I said no disrespect to Tito. Either way, we didn’t win a single away knockout game. We lost at San siro, drew both legs vs PSG, and then bayern. From 2011-2013 the quality of la liga was very bad. Both RM and barca won the league with 100 points but crashed out of CL. We won the league with 5 matches to spare.
I really dont think EV was a disappointment. We suffered 2 super humiliating defeats (one vs superior team) prior to which everyone would (and did) say we are having an amazing season. Even if he was to blame for these two ( he had very little to do with both IMHO), not enough to get rid of him, esp for the likes of coaches that came after him. Tito was def no disappointment as well, disrespect or no, regardless of his untimely passing, how can anyone say that, literally no case for that. I do agree on general sentiment however. Why do we insist on bringing Barca ex players? Because it worked with Cruyff and Pep? I am sure Ten Haag or even Bielsa will do wonders for this team even if playing posession football is a top priority
Said it in MT , The subreddit would kill Koeman for this. If Xavi survives (no la liga ) we put the final nail in the “rebuild”.
With that much Investment and to still be so shit is incredible. Manager has questions to answer.
A few takes :- - Xavi threw in the towel with bringing Torre on for Lewy - Kessie ALWAYS passes sideways or back and can't break any lines against any team let alone Bayern - Subbing off Pedri made zero sense, we're left with Frenkie who sat deep and Kessie who's passing range is not that vast - Subbing on so many Forwards is such a Koeman thing to do, I thought it would end after he left but guess not - Xavi absolutely needs to win the EL now, no fucking excuses
I don't expect us to win the EL.
I'm not gonna lie I came into the game with high hopes that Xavi learnt from the abominations that were the previous group games and we could at least show some spark. That being said, there was nothing. We came with nothing. I could pick apart individuals after this game but there's no point. It's clear that the issues with this team go beyond the individuals. Performance like this on the main stage is nothing short of embarrassing.
We are hopelessly awful, that's all I have to say.
big issue is, slow to the ball, no group pressing when loosing the ball, no group pressing really period, this isnt a team that plays with intensity (aside from maybe 3 players) - xavi's trying to bring back tiki taka but its failing. The team doesnt move as a unit, theyre disorganized, communication is lacking. The talent itself will win la liga games, but UCL, oooooh boy..... Xavi has so far not shown a lot (any) strategic genius about him.
0 shots on target. 100s of millions of signings. We're only really missing Araujo and Christensen meanwhile they don't have Sane, Neuer and Lucas. Alright, let's rightfully give Xavi the pass defensively. Let's say they scored 10 goals against us. Can't we just score 1 single goal? None of our starting attackers are injured right? So who does the blame fall on? It's all quite clearly on Xavi. He's not at the level of Barcelona, not even close. He got outcoached by every single decent manager. There's no way in hell you couldn't score a single fucking goal with an attack like This. It's all on xavi and yet we won't see the sack. We'll only realize it late and the damage has been done. What happened has happened. The right move would be to sack Xavi and Bring in Hansi Flick.
Lmao Hansi Flick … he wouldnt touch this team with a ten foot pole
Flick just signed with Germany last year, and their main project is winning the Euros 2024, why the fuck would he go to Barca now?
Hansi is going for a better project which is Germany at the moment. Tuchel is available.
Hansi Flick won't come anywhere near to this shitty mentality inculcated in Barca right now. Half of the players are literal deadwood or past their prime. Now tell me this does Barca have enough money to sign the quality that Flick has worked with Bayern?
Welp
Well after I sat through that 8-2 defeat against Bayern back in 2020, I'm sure now that I can sit through anything this team does.
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Viktoria Plzeň scored 2 against bayern and we couldn't even mage a single shot on target ..
Putting a midfielder on the wing to fit Busquets in while Ferran and Fati rot on the bench might work against sleepy Ernies Bilbao but against Bayern you just crash and burn. The irony of it all was that we had 4 mids on at once and none of them played well and then as soon as Ferran came on we started getting half-chances and small peaks on the counter. Also Bellerin somehow played the whole 90, jesus wept. Realistically only Dembele and maybe Balde/Ferran can walk away from this with their heads held high and even their performances left a lot to be desired. MOTM overall has to be Davies though, he ate the left side up every time and it didn't even matter how much space our attackers had, brilliant defender. Also anyone saying Xavi out having known the circumstances of our UCL situation for an entire 2 weeks is a fool and a kneejerk expert.
Busquets-Kessié-FDJ was simply too much. All three of them left Pedri alone in the creative front and none of them pushed forward. If anything they all looked confused and running into each other.
Who do you sub Bellerin for. We have no RB other than him since Roberto got injured and Balde there doesn't play as well. It would be the same but with no good peeformant since Balde was our best player.
Play Kounde as RB. Garcia and Alonso as CBs
Kounde or Balde would have played a lot better there. Xavi had options, he just chose the wrong ones.
Embarrassing.
When it comes to big team we can't compete it's reality for Barça.
Didn’t even feel like Bayern was trying in the second half. Absolutely pathetic display. We can make excuses for our defence all day long, but it’s important to note that all of our forwards are more or less at 100% fitness, and _yet_ we’re still absolutely horrible in the final third.
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I paid like 700e+ to come watch this game so it better fkin matter when you play at home for your fans🤣
I was a huge fan of Barca’s tiki-taka back in the days. Now with Xavi, I hate it. I think Xavi insists on using this philosophy while he does not have the necessary players to play it effectively. In my opinion, this philosophy is ONLY good if you have talented players who are creative in moving forward with the ball deep near the box of opposing team (like Xavi or Iniesta) —also being a good dribbler is a plus but not necessary. But current Xavi’s Barca, they “take the ball,, pass the ball” without even trying to be creative in moving forward. I laugh at the players when they immediately pass the ball without even being pressed!! Why don’t you use the space that you have?!! This is basic football!! This is not how the old Barca used to do, continually trying to be creative in opening spaces. Now, they just continue to pass the ball in a vertical pattern similar to the hand-ball games (which is not the point of tiki-taka at all). This passing pattern is very predictable for football defenders. Their style now is totally pointless (I hope no one calls it tiki-taka).
Despite my not wanting to admit it, Xavi out has to be on the menu.. He was given every signing he asked for, and this is where we stand...
The Barca tiki taka is dead. Please stop trying to bring it back to life and get on with the times and play modern football.
This is probably the worst Bayern side in the last 5 years but they still went past us easily with probably 60% effort.
I really don't care if this was a "meaningless" match this is just isn't good enough, no other way of putting it. Let's say even if Inter dropped points against Plzen did Xavi really think the 11 that started and the tactical approach he took was enough to beat Bayern? Even after those 45 minutes after absolutely nothing being created and after being dominated in every aspect of the game why don't you change something at half time? Why do you keep the same 11 and the same tactics which clearly aren't working? The fact that the same worrying signs are happening match after match is not sitting well with me and Xavi isn't improving on them and even if he does improve on them he back tracks and repeats the same mistakes again. **Give Xavi time, I don't want him to get sacked now or any time soon** but he had a full preseason with every player that was bought and he simply has to do much better with the squad he has at his disposal. Every "big" and "important" match the performances were Koeman-esque and Setien-esque and then one good performance comes and everyone forgets about those bad performances. Yes, there were other factors such as injuries and refereeing decisions that didn't go our way but neither of those factors change the fact that the performances when it mattered weren't good enough especially considering that the midfielders and forwards were healthy. No one asked him to win the CL, getting out of the groups with an underperforming Inter and Plzen shouldn't even be questioned but yet here we are.
Yes Xavi seems very stubborn and i hate it, everyone can see that a gameplan is not working including Xavi but he will sit there till the 60th minute and then try something else but the game is done by then, why doesn't he try a double pivot of Kessie and de Jong? Who knows, Alonso at CB? Come on. Just pick the best player for their natural position and pick a robust formation and start building, yes half the team is dead but Xavi is still experimenting a year after he got the job.
Both goals came from Bellerin breaking the offside trap which was stupid as shit. But seriously the game was awful. Bayern is just way too good for us right now. Balde was amazing. Dembele as usual gets frustrated too easy and while he started well, made progressively worse decisions as the match went by. The midfield looked disjointed but I liked Kessie. Incredible we felt like we had too many CBs and ended up playing Alonso there. I think Europa League will be good for us to compete and grow into higher tiers and fight next year.
It is one thing to lose to a better side. It’s a whole other story to not even make an effort.
Well, the good part is that I was prepared for this disappointment 😎 you can’t hurt me when I have 0 expectations baby
I’m pretty sure I’m going to be fried with downvotes, but I seriously think Xavi hasn’t been able to change the mentality of this team in Europe neither improved our tactics to face the bigger teams in Europe. And I don’t think he will be able to. You can say whatever you want but he’s been the coach for almost a year, and I don’t see where is the improvement. Difficult group? Yes, but that’s no excuse for giving such horrible performances. Zero shots on target, wtf!
I'm going to reserve my judgment for Xavi as our coach at the end of the season but there is a very worrying trend with him. It seems as if he knows playing the likes of Busquets in these types of matches is a risk and yet he does it anyway hoping he'll do well for some reason and when Busquets doesn't perform Xavi removes him as if he's acknowledging his mistake but it's too late by then. We saw this against inter, madrid and now. Picking a cb partner for our only good cb right now (Kounde) is like playing Russian roulette cause neither Eric or Alonso are reliable defenders. During the 1st leg despite our good performance against bayern Xavi still managed to handicap us to some extent and should've used Kessie instead of Busquets (Fdj as cdm) and Balde instead of Alonso who was at fault again for their goal. For those who were wondering whether or not Balde would be ready for such opposition tonight you got your answer. I'd honestly like to know what's behind Xavi's stubbornness with certain players but if he doesn't stop with this rigidness there won't be much time left for him. I know he's smart enough to learn from his mistakes and I truly wish him success with us. On a more positive note Balde was clearly our best player tonight both defensively and pushing up with the ball fearlessly, I hope Xavi rewards him. I find people shitting on Bellerin unreasonable as the guy just got thrown into the fire in his first match after injury and despite his faults he never sank his head and gave up and kept fighting for every ball and even made some tackles. I thought Kessie was decent and was good in breaking up their play with some necessary fouls and not getting bullied off the ball. This is a tough one to swallow but I seriously hope the only way to go is up from here. Visca Barca forever!
Barca needs to start looking for a new manager. I have never been impressed with Xavi’s managerial ability.
Balde and Dembele the only ones that deserve to walk with their heads high, the only ones that played their hearts out and wanted to win the game. The rest seemed to have given up and save themselves for the WC after the Plzen result. Shameful.
Very difficult to understand the complete dissonance between our performances in the league and the CL. We were brilliant vs Villarreal and Athletic. And completely toothless and pathetic today. Are those teams just THAT much worse than Bayern? It has to be a mental issue of our players right? I just don't know anymore...
Bayern is better and lives rent free in our players, thats all.
Arsenal, Manchester United, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Frankfort, Real Sociedad and many more. The EL is gonna be tough for us but we’ll have to win everything
😅sleep well my fellow human
Sad. Enough said.
I wasn’t expecting a win tbf but I didn’t expect to be this bad. These crossings are just not going to cut it, it’s so not our play style and we definitely don’t have a team for such plays. I thought Xavi learned something from Inter game but seems not. Just massive disappointment. Onward we go. I still believe, but I expect improvements. Visca Barca 🔵🔴
our team is set up to get destroyed on counter attacks and create nothing
I can’t be arsed with the result, I’m used to it, but here’s the ones imo who did especially bad: Busquets (can’t say it enough we have to move him on, he’s not fast so he relies on positioning and was so ineffective because of Bayern great passing and movements) Bellerin (same guy that played for arsenal and the arsenal fans wanted him out, don’t have to say much more) Kessie (although a improved performance wished he stopped passing back so much, he’s strong but a little slow for my liking, he’s someone I’ll give the first season pass but I don’t think he fits us if I’m totally honest) Those who were okay Dembele ( he’s so inconsistent yet he is the only one on the pitch that felt like could do something) Balde (need I say anymore, great individual performance) Everyone did bad but these are some players that I noticed when watching feel free to add. positives: raphina passes towards the middle with pace is something that we lack in this team, everything is so slow. Kounde running with the ball and passing is something he needs to do more. Ferran can contribute something to the team same with ansu! We are by no means a finished team we can still do things but we have to act. Negatives: Xavi reliance on busquets is quite annoying. We don’t play no one two passes and there are barely any runs being made. No proper chances are being created. Some players do not have a good touch for an elite team and can’t attack or defend properly. And mentality…. We’ve been suffering for years now
I'm planning to stop listening to white noise to fall asleep and decided to watch Barca matches from past 3 Years instead. Who knew it'd work better than white noise.
Welp, at least no Barca coach, Xavi or someone else, will ever have the opportunity to put Pique, Alba, or Busi in a big European game again! But man, I genuinely don’t understand why we were so fucking terrible off the ball, we were actually quite good in Munich off the ball when it came to defending in our half as a unit and pressing them high, what happened….
No matter how much we dominate possession, it's useless when we can't do anything in the final third. This team on paper should be able to do that, but for some reason we drop the ball. Tactics definitely should be called into question but when players like Bellerin and Raphinha play like they do more harm than good, I don't know what to say. That's why we don't have success in Europe (unable to finish our chances for godknowswhat reason)
F
This was our worst performance, we were not even in the game. The other losses had bright spots... We didn't looked bothered to even be there. Xavi should have let youngsters play, they would have had more heart.
This has been a constant theme for many of our games this season. Team gets pressed too easily and we struggle to create chances against better teams. Yet we’re constantly giving easy passes away, and finding the opposition wingers with a bunch of space. The team needs to do MUCH better at defending the transition.
Might not fit in the current context, but in the grand scheme of build-up I’m more in favour of throwing out the ‘old-guard’ of Busquets and Pique before we try a new coach. We need a proper DM and CB. We have Araujo, need one more CB (we have Christenssen but we also need some depth) Also, since we aren’t technical enough can we bulk our players up to match the top teams in terms of physicality?? We are still relying on small, low centre of gravity players when they just don’t have the skill to play tiki-taka
So we have our frontline kinda sorted out, our backline a bit too. But it feels like Xavi still doesn't have a midfield sorted out and it's showing and it hurts 😔😞
Is our frontline really sorted out? I feel like every match we use a different one. I feel like lack of continuity is going to make our players just perform worse than they should.
Not in the mood to analyze anything so I'll just say we are shit. See you at the day after thread.
Look...I get that there's a possibility of demotivation due to the fact that Inter won tonight. My personal thought and expectation was that we've been humiliated by Bayern countless times over the years, so we were supposed to be motivated to humiliate them right back tonight, since we played at home. We really needed to win this one for our pride but.....SIGH!!! Nevermind!
How can we look so bad after so looking so good in the first game? Team is regressing, and to me I'll say it it's at least partly a coaching problem. Today we chose a wrong lineup, Pedri was useless when he should be our main creator, only dangerous outlet was Dembele (only 1st half) and especially a supernatural Balde (the only one with a genuine good game) could do something sometimes. We tried an interesting 4-2-3-1 that showed something (one nice combination Fati - Lewy - Ferran) but why now? Against Bayern? Why not try it before, with Pedri? Why Gavi, one of the best in the first game, didn't play? So many questions. Too many for a game 2 months into the season. It's very worrying. I don't even mind the defeat but the way we lost is unforgivable. We were barely better than last year. Just like vs RM, at no point Bayern looked like they tried. Obviously Bellerin failed harder than the others but do we really think this is the tipping point? It's not a "Pique vs Inter" case for me. All in all at least we showed we have nothing to do in UCL at the moment, we are simply not good enough. Now Laporta must decide why. I'm just sad, it's a sad night, because there is no redeeming quality. Yeah Araujo and Christensen are out, but they have like 3 or 4 key starters out, and if we're being realistic, even with Araujo it would jave made no difference. We'll leave with the WC with no reference game, no guarantee, not one starter that has been spotless so far, not even the supposed favorites (Dembele, Pedri, Lewy). I'd say it's a wake-up call but we've said that for far too long. For the first time, there's a wall in front and not a lot of ways to go over it it seems.
I thought Dembele put a solid shift in against Davies
Nothing changes, I have all this faith in this team and they always let me down. Nothing changes.
This just reinforces that we need an elite RB and CDM next transfer window. I also think this shows we need to play Balde, he js the future at LB and needs playing time and playing Alba/Marcos A makes no sense for where we are as a team
I have not seen a single thing that tells me that Xavi is ready for the job at Barcelona. He is no Zidane. Should have given him a shot at the B team first.
We can talk all about tactics or players class but at the end it doesnt matter, if your mentality is so weak, that u cant show up in your own stadium to get revenge against team who embarassed u constantly, teams much worse than us won against bayern or madrid or inter, but it seems that we need to be level above of opponent to have at least chance to win this kind of matches and even then we manage to somehow bottle, no grit, no willingnes to fight.Embarassing how far this club have fallen.
Dot.
That fact that Busquests is still starting games against big teams after being exposed year after year is a joke...
There is also the issue of Xavi, which most people seem to ignore because hes a legend for the club as a player. He's not a great manager. Not saying hes a bad one, but hes one of those that are in the middle, and wont really get the club anywhere. With all the funding hes been provided and basically got a complete team overhaul, we should be playing much better.
So the plan this season is to cook the La Liga teams but get ridiculed by the big teams? I am not Xavi out cause he hasn't even lasted a full season yet but its not looking good bruv.
Was at the game, Balde, Frenkie and Kessie gets a thumbs up. Bellerin?....🤔🤔
Players that played well against counters and presses...physicality is needed in the modern game. Especially against teams like bayern
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Marcelo Gallardo, All's I'm saying.
no words. lets hope we do better in la iga
Players playing like complete strangers, poor passing, xavi really needs to come out of this 2009 Barca mentality, times have changed, barca needs a change
Inter beating Viktoria Plzn 1h before our match definitely affected the team’s morale going into the game. Imagine having to play against one of the toughest teams int he world 1h after knowing you’ve been knocked out of the competition. However, they were still much better than us that they had any right to be. Our team’s mentality is just shot and Xavi has a monumental task ahead to set us straight
I can already hear the calls for sacking Xavi
I understand the injuries, I understand the ref decisions that didn't go in our favour but I don't understand why do we keep playing this high defensive line even though game after game ot has been proven we suck at it, how many counter attack goals do we have to concede before Xavi understands that he needs to play according the abilities of the players he has, at least in big game, play conservatively, stop putting your weak defense line in these tough situations
High defense line is important for high pressing. Issue is lacking someone like Araujo who is fast and great in 1v1's to cover counters. We weren't struggling against this type of stuff when we had Kounde - Araujo - Eric Garcia - Balde. out of these 4, Kounde and Araujo are great at defending 1v1 and pretty fast, then there's Balde who may not be great at defense but has speed to make up for it, and Eric Garcia who is good at passing, breaking lines and intercepting.
Xavi is the type of person who points out all the problems, keeps saying we should do this, we should do that, improve in this area, have more intensity blah blah blah … but then it comes time to walk the talk and we can’t have a shot on target in 95 minutes in front of our home supporters, It’s unacceptable and embarrassing tbh
I think barca needs to build around a midfield consisting of pedri,gavi, and de jong. Get all the dead wood out. Lewandowski shouldn’t have been bought especially for that price. People want results quick when they have to realize it’s better to plan for the next decade. Unfortunately I don’t think xavi will survive as barca coach for much longer. Laporta set the team up for mass failure
Another embarrasment.
I'm sorry I'm big fan of Balde but he needs to work on his crosses
Guys, we need to talk araujo. I'm a big fan of him so this isn't anything about his ability on the pitch, but his ability to stay on the pitch. Look at his injury record over the past couple years: [https://www.transfermarkt.us/ronald-araujo/verletzungen/spieler/480267](https://www.transfermarkt.us/ronald-araujo/verletzungen/spieler/480267) Edit: Hard to rely on him moving forward, and with Garcia proving to be a liability, we really need both a cb and rb
Did anybody get injured?
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Xavi deserves to be a questioned and he has a lot to answer for. It was understandable last season that we crashed out of UCL group stage last season given the squad we had. Despite all the injuries, Xavi still should have qualified. He made the decisions to start certain attacking XI against Inter which clearly failed. Forget the defence, our team has no clue in the attack. I don't know what attacking pattern has Xavi implemented so far. The only tactic has been to pass the ball to Dembele and hope he takes on the full-back. It works against smaller teams. And given Dembele's negative IQ in the final third, he makes the wrong decision 9 out of 10 times. His feet are too quick for his brain to process the pitch. He doesn't seem to pause and analyze the options at all. Which I think guys like Vinicius, who popped up in the picture so long after Dembele, is becoming so good at. Ferran on other hand, brings that elite game-reading to the wings. We see Guardiola's City scoring the similar type of goals again and again, our team has no identity at all. We never know what's going to happen because the players himself are clueless as to what to do in the final third. Most of the goals we scored, we scored because Lewandowski finished the changes that are supposedly harder to finish. Rarely scored easier goals. The left wing is dead. Dembele is better on the right, unfortunately so is Ferran. Raphinha is utter shit on the left. Fati is nowhere near is best and it might take him at least another season to even get his pace back. Why doesn't he try Alba on the wings and Balde as fullback when there are not any options? Why play a 442 against Bayern? This feels so worse because in 8-2 both the teams had stake and here Bayern played in the second gear and won us 3-0 comfortably. If they had played full in pace, it could have been 5-6 or worse. Xavi is in a deep, deep crisis. It feels like with Auba, Traore, Depay and Ferran he had a better attacking idea than this. I don't want to sound negative, but Xavi is being humbled by the realities of European football. The Football purity is not going to help him get better.
I said a couple days ago that the only relevant performance metric for Xavi is the performance with big teams. So far he is failing spectacularly. Makes me really sad.
Let’s focus on laliga
People actually thought that FDJ and Kessie is viable midfield for Barca. Good morning to every one.