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Barcelona (h) CL 18/19 ratings

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MOTM

  • Total voters
    83
Fidel Castro said:
When we come up against better teams such as tonight , Liverpool a few weeks back , City last season we seem to play into their hands.
A disaster playing out from the back , kamikaze tactics .
A midfield of 2 always will be outclassed .
You could see it coming .
Granted injuries and lack of depth didn't help but lessons aren't learnt
First half was piss poor , second half , they still were better but we should have scored one more .
Overall a disjointed but a spirited 30mins that had it's moments but honestly deserved nothing.
Lamela was the best player in a white shirt.
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Last night was a perfect example of Poch's "we don't adapt against the opposition" philosophy running into a road block. Against some teams it will only take us so far. As you said the injuries didn't help but I think we would have struggled even with a fully fit team.
 
Stopspot said:
Last night was a perfect example of Poch's "we don't adapt against the opposition" philosophy running into a road block. Against some teams it will only take us so far. As you said the injuries didn't help but I think we would have struggled even with a fully fit team.
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You're right , a full team would have made little difference against this level.
Central midfield is weak and in general decline with no obvious solutions.
 
Fidel Castro said:
You're right , a full team would have made little difference against this level.
Central midfield is weak and in general decline with no obvious solutions.
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Maybe a switch of tactics and formation could have made it somewhat more even. But with our squad as thin as it is right now there was no one available to implement that.

And Poch doesn't seem to like switching tactics. If there is one obvious flaw to his game that has to be it. He is a tactical puritan, which is commendable when it works obviously.

We were going to lose this 6 days out of 7 but at least we pulled up our pants and made a game out of it.
 
Lloris - gave us the worst possible start and didnt get much better - 1/10

Trippier -not too many mistakes but nothing great either 5/10

Davies - less useful than Trippier 4.5/10

Sanchez - never in control but nothing glaringly stupid like Lloris - 5/10

Toby - full of errors, didnt get much protection from midfield - 4.5/10

Winks - absolutely horrid performance, dispossesed more than any player on the pitch while not really registering any successful dribbles , Ryan Masons twin in defensive awareness , improved in the second half slightly - 3/10

Wanyama - more composed than Winks but both gave far too much space to opposition midfield - 3.1/10

Son - one of his worst days , nothing he did came off- 2/10

Lucas - Lively throughout the match, has terrible ball control though - 6/10

Kane - very well taken goal, good targetman, looked a bit slower than usual but hes scoring again - 7.5/10

Lamela - Fucking superstar of a player, didnt give up from start to finish, didnt think he had it in him but he will change everyones opinion this season - 8.99/10

Sissoko - had 90% successful passes
Llorente - was a sub
Dier - had 96.4% successful passes

Could have given 8 goals away . Goal post was our best defensive player. Still with so many players injured, cant expect much more against fooking Barcelona.
 
Cravenspurs said:
Watched the game in bursts as The Man had me by the balls with meetings and such.

In American football they say the battle is won in the trenches. In real football the trenches for me is the midfield and we once again fail to impress.

Winks and Wanyama are my preferred partnership when playing a 4231 against opposition we know we can control and press. Unfortunately we attempted to press the hell out of one of the most gifted midfields in Europe and we paid for it. No matter the partnership, we would have failed with our out of sync press.

I have watched a lot of Klopp and what I love about him is how he identifies weak points to exploit with his press. I also love Poch, but for me it the press is always the same and since his first year it has been much less intense and thus hasn’t worked as well—against the big boys especially.

Throw in a keeper that just can’t seem to handle the pressure and we were destined to lose. I like the fight, I dislike the application.

Lloris - could never kick and that is still the case

Trips - Coutinho and Alba put him under pressure. He struggled imo.

Sanchez - rusty and does have the occasional brain fart. Still stoked for his future.

Toby - didn’t see much to blame since he was always under threat.

Davies - I have never been a huge fan and when we need a threat he is rarely there.

Wanyama - struggled, but also showed what Dier lacks—the ability to turn and start a break. He is still in recovery mode and I hope his knees hold up.

Winks - he is our best CM imo. He just needs to be in a CM3 when playing against a talented team like Barca.

Lamela - love the kid and want 11 of him.

Lucas - a couple nice runs, but i think we need to use him more on the right in a Sane type role. Stretch them at all times.

Son - really poor showing

Kane - I like what I see and I only see him improving
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With the personnel available last night, who would you have had as the 3rd CM?
 
Lloris - 4 - an awful gaffe that ruined our gameplan
Trips - 4 - Struggled defensively but got forward well second half
Toby - 5 - Did what he could
Sanchez - 3 - One of the worst passing displays I've ever seen, Barca's best attacking player
Davies - 6 - didn't let anything past him and Messi only found room to hurt us by coming through the centre
Wanyama - 3 - Looks finished at this level, nothing else to say
Winks - 6 - brainless first half but drove forward well in the second
Son - 4 - tried but simply knackered
Lucas - 5 - some good moments although he is a bit lazy defensively
Lamela - 7- played with aggression and quality
Kane - 8 - showed he belongs at this level

Dier - 6 - vastly better than Wanyama and gave us a big boost in midfield
Llorente - 5 - he tried and helped sniff out some half-chances on corners
Sissoko - 3 - not a footballer
 
Start with the players who did well I suppose, Lamela was different class again so nice to have him back and firing, after so long out.

Kane looks back to his old self going forward although the whole him dropping deep thing is pissing me off, he’s a 35+ goal a season striker he should be leading the line. Although I understand we was short in midfield so perhaps he felt he had to, but in general it needs to stop.

The players who where ok next, Wanyama was thrown in the deep end after so long out by Poch, and he struggled badly as a result couldn’t get close to them and had to commit a few silly fouls. Although he had a few glimpses of the Vic of seasons past when he turned and ran with it, showing us just how limited Dier is in that regard.

Winks was poor first half but immense second half ran his bollocks off and again showed us why he where all exited by him before the injury hope he continues in that form.

Moura had a few nice runs poor but his end product can be a bit off it seems although this is something that will improve, when he gets used to the team.

Toby and Sanchez where decent and thrown under the bus second half as we had to push forward. Davies was pretty solid I thought defence wise but did nothing offensively but was probably scared off leaving space behind him.

Now the players who let them themselves down. I’ll start with Son who was poor did nothing all game literally, but we know we blows hot and cold and he will hit a hot spell soon, just a shame we had so many injuries so we couldn’t take him off for an actual footballer.

Suppose that leads to Sissoko who as far as I’m concerned is a fraud, what can he actually do other then run a lot? Can’t pass can’t shoot can’t tackle flog him to China and get rid.

Dier was also poor when he came on can’t remember a single forward pass he did, good utility player, but it’s comfirmed he’s a better CB then CDM just a shame he’s also our 4th best CB.

Llorente didn’t do much when he came on but we never play to his strengths when ever he does anyway so hard to judge.

Tripper was caught out a lot defensively on the night, both there first goals he was out of position for as he left far to much space. Ok going forward but poor coming back again probably not helped by the midfield being so open.

Worst until last Lloris again falls apart in a big game 1 shocking mistake 1 really poor one both costing goals. It’s time he’s dropped IMO he’s getting too complacent for both club and country, he never used to make these mistakes only the last couple of years it’s started happening. So he needs to be shown he’s not above getting dropped. Gazza has been better last 3 games then Lloris has been the last 2 years.

Poch also was poor sure we had injuries but why he started a 2 man midfield then told us to press is a mystery. If any game was calling for a solid back line and hitting them on the break it was this one, they might to have Iniesta and Xavi but Rakatic and Coutinho and Messi are not bums are they....

Overall players showed heart and I’m proud of all bar a few and it’s a good sign that even with all these players still playing so poor we almost still did Barca in and would have got a point without Lloris.
 
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YorkshireYid said:
Poch also was poor sure we had injuries but why he started a 2 man midfield then told us to press is a mystery. If any game was calling for a solid back line and hitting them on the break it was this one, they might to have Iniesta and Xavi but Rakatic and Coutinho and Messi are not bums are they....
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We were losing the game after 90 seconds, whatever the game plan was went out the window with the first goal. No doubt we were planning to repeat our performances from last season against Real and Dortmund, where we sat deep and played on the break, but you can't do that if you are losing the game.

Worst until last Lloris again falls apart in a big game 1 shocking mistake 1 really poor one both costing goals. It’s time he’s dropped IMO he’s getting too complacent for both club and country, he never used to make these mistakes only the last couple of years it’s started happening. So he needs to be shown he’s not above getting dropped. Gazza has been better last 3 games then Lloris has been the last 2 years.
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Lloris has always made these mistakes. Remember that goal against City after 13 seconds? I think that was 4 years ago.
 
StripiestPilot said:
We were losing the game after 90 seconds, whatever the game plan was went out the window with the first goal. No doubt we were planning to repeat our performances from last season against Real and Dortmund, where we sat deep and played on the break, but you can't do that if you are losing the game.



Lloris has always made these mistakes. Remember that goal against City after 13 seconds? I think that was 4 years ago.
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Fair point I suppose but 4-2-3-1 wasn’t going to be as effective doing that as 3-5-2 as we did last season.
 
Trippier seems to have become the new Jenas.

He wasn't out of position for the first goal (or second), or anywhere he wasn't supposed to be last night. He didn't do anything stupid or rash. He didn't defend anything as badly as Alderweireld did for the fourth goal, where he can see what's unfolding and instead of moving toward play, just stands there watching Messi in 8 yards of space.

Many seem to be rating Davies higher, despite the fact that he offered fuck all going forward and also got caught out by Messi about 18 times.

iz futbal iz futbal
Your demolition of Winks is pretty daft. I agree, he's not defensively brilliant, have always said so, and I don't think he'll ever be Modric either, but defending has never been his strength, he's not a DM, he's not a 6, he's not even a hybrid, he's pretty much a pure 8. And for Poch to put him into a CM2 in 4231 against Coutinho, Rakatic, Artur, Busquettes and Messi behind a front 4 that don't press properly was plain stupid. You flagged up that Sissoko completed 90% - of his 11 passes. You didn't mention that Winks completed 94.6% of his 56 passes. The best passing figures from anyone in our side, under intense press as well. Dembele is averaging 37 passes a game in the PL and 89%. Nobody was dispossessed more, but that's partly because ahead of the CB's nobody saw anywhere near as much of the ball as him. And Kane lost the ball more than him (dispossessed and miss-controlled) 7 times in total (Winks 6).

Winks should be played in a CM3, and he took a while to adjust to what was a very tough test, but he still was probably our most influential player last night.
 
bus-conductor said:
Fair point. Still a big test to be chucked into last night.
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I'm not too sure.

He's pretty experienced for his age and a full Brazilian international. Being partnered by the excellent Rakitic and Coutinho all whilst going up against a midfield 2 of Wanyama and Winks would have been a piece of piss for him (or anyone else they decided to play there). Comparison with Skipp was so wide off the mark considering Skipp is nearly 5 years younger without a single appearance against a mens team let alone Barcelona.

I agree he was excellent though. He was the one who absolutely BOSSED us in pre-season.
 
Mrs Perryman said:
Can't believe anyone voted for Hugo.. ....
And although Harry had a good game, Erik was our MOTM by a country mile.
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Might have helped if the OP hadn't named Hugo "Coco the Clown" without maybe considering that Coco is Lamela's nickname. I accidentally selected it at first.

Quite apart from that, it's a stupid name to give to Lloris, who has been a key feature of our rise from mid-table to CL regulars. He had a bad game, sure.
 
LLB Part Deux said:
Might have helped if the OP hadn't named Hugo "Coco the Clown" without maybe considering that Coco is Lamela's nickname. I accidentally selected it at first.

Quite apart from that, it's a stupid name to give to Lloris, who has been a key feature of our rise from mid-table to CL regulars. He had a bad game, sure.
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Actually, I just realised that.

I voted Hugo.

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