Barcelona XI: Ter Stegen, Araujo, Kounde, Garcia, Balde, Romeu, De Jong, Pedri, Gavi, Raphinha, Lewandowski
My stream keeps killing my mobile! The bits I have seen are generally positive, we have had a few chances, but reinforce the defensive deficiencies. Thank **** we have some incoming options!
Yes my stream was very stop start. Yes agreed the defensive problems are obvious. Bissouma is busy and Richarlison has contributed very little, unless he did things when my stream broke.
I'm a man of simple tastes. I see Dier and Sanchez in the starting line up. I paint a wall and watch it dry instead. In the rain.
Went a bit tits up at the end but from what I saw on my very poor stream was more football in 15 mins than the last 3 years ,I'm going to enjoy Ange ball
Very enjoyable. Our pressing causes mistakes and we are onto it quickly. It was our 2nd team that started and played and were leading until we brought on our subs. Spence, Devine, Dane. And then we lost. We could see in this system why VdV is so important. We are not afraid to commit those niggly fouls which create uncertainty.
Was out so missed the match but heard it was an enjoyable game. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of results similar to this though, especially the first 6 or so months, both in our favour and not. We’ll be like a Bielsa Leeds side but a level or two higher due to our personnel. Edit: Though apparently Richarlison was Richarlison. We really cannot lose Kane until a proper replacement is in place (well, we just can’t lose Kane simple as). Reject that final Bayern bid if/ when it arrives, £95m does nothing really for us for us anyway, besides we probably lose about £300m in value once Kane goes. Keep Kane, worst case we get one more year, best case we get a few, let Veliz learn from him and offer Richarlison back to Everton or something.
I'll confess I only have the highlights to go on in forming a judgement, but defensively we are actually worse than we were under Conte - which is to be expected, as Ange is effectively demanding an awful lot more from a group that struggles to do even the basics. Porro is an absolute liability back there. He has zero positional awareness of the threats around him and the runs attackers are likely to make. It's actually scary how bad he looks, especially when partnered with the likes of Dier and Sanchez.
I don't think we are worse because one can't compare as the system is sooooo different. Players find themselves out of position because they are pressing and pushing forward. They are on the halfway line when the opposition break. It's why Ange wants quick players. The first goal we conceded yesterday was a race involving Sanchez. VdV would have won the race. Conte system, There's no break because Sanchez is already in position at the back.
One thing that Ange probably deserves to be called out for is keeping Reggie on when he clearly picked up a knock after yet another clattering, which saw his hamstring cramp up and, by complete coincidence, Barca target him when it was obvious it was hampering him. Really should've brought on Davies at that point, given he was on the bench In a competitive match he likely would have made the call, which makes it all the more odd that he didn't
