"The Barcelona directors never knew why the team won, so how would they know now why they’re losing?” Johan Cruyff
Barca is a shadow of their former self, and it has to be down to mismanagement. I never liked Manure, but one thing I did admire about Ferguson was his ability to know when to start changing a team ready for the next phase. He sometimes got rid of players before their game dropped off, as he knew he needed to freshen up the squad. Barca seemed to have failed to do this.
Never replaced the likes of Iniesta & Xavi. Has to be said though, a lot of teams never replace key players, which is why the power in teams change every few years. Also Messi is a great player, but they are too reliant on him, he also doesn’t help things by believing the hype. I used to think he was the best between him & Ronaldo, but haven’t for a while now.
Lyon have just gone 1-0 up against Man City. This could be interesting, they look equal to Man City so far.
You have to question managers. The best defender on the pitch was Denayer- an Ex Man City player. Man City are **** in defence.
At the same time, had he just stayed stagnating at City, would he be as good as he is now? Similar to Salah and De Bruyne at Chelsea - hardly played, left, played regularly, became superb players. If they'd stayed at Chelsea they wouldn't be as good as they are.
Guardiola didn't use all his subs and never brought on Bernardo Silva or Foden. Absolute madman. Hoping anyone but PSG win it. Imagine a Lyon-Leipzig final? Would love to see two new sides in the final.
Never know if they aren’t given a chance. Like Coutinho last night. He was the best Barcelona player by a mile. Unfortunately Barcelona had loaned him to Bayern.
He was apparently one of their worst performers when he actually played for Barca though, so it's understandable why he wasn't at the club.
That’s down to other Barcelona players having too much say on proceedings and piss poor management. He’s comfortably better than ‘most’ of that Barcelona squad. I mean Vidal?
Vidal is a defensive mid, Coutinho an attacking mid/winger. They aren't comparable players. **** knows why Vidal was playing attacking yesterday when they had De Jong, an attacking mid, playing in defensive mid... Barcelona, honestly, need to let Messi go. They need him so much that they're too dependent on him. They need to start from the ground up and build a new side.
