"FC Barcelona" by Juanedc is licensed under CC BY 2.0
By now it is clear that Bartomeu and his team never had the mettle to bring about a change. And to be honest, the writing was on the wall. Anyways, let us move ahead and hope yet again that FC Barcelona does better than it looks like they will do this season. All I want to present here is few of my observations from the friendly matches against Girona and Nastic, and present what I think should be starting team for us.
Firstly a big shout out to Araujo. He did not put a single step wrong. Indeed, he actually bailed Pique out couple of times. And he also bombed forward with aplomb and fell back to his position with equal ease. He was top quality and if it was not for the alien that we have kept in our prison, he would have been the clear man of the match. He is fast, good on the ball, physical, positionally aware and tackles cleanly. Pique was not bad, but he comes short quite a few times. Araujo and Lenglet are the ones to persist with. Lenglet is doing well for France as well. They should start from game 1 in La Liga and build up a partnership to get stronger as season progresses.
Griezmann gets a lot of criticism no matter what he does. I think in the match against Girona in particular, he did really well with his movements. Floating around the front as well as coming back to relieve pressure from our defenders and midfielders. So many times, he was the player who took us out of murky situations. And almost always he found a player in front of him. And let me not even get started at the lack of appreciation he has received for the dazzling inch perfect perfectly weighted pass that he made to Messi which was led to the first goal. Any player not named Griezmann, Dembele or Semedo would have got so much applause for that.
While there were so many positives, Griezmann did show one distressing negative. Many times, he does not stay up in a goal scoring position when he should. One instance in particular, Alba makes a rare quick run for a counter attack, and Griez should have easily made a run ahead to receive the ball from him beating the defenders. Rather, he chose to fall back and help him Alba with a back pass, instantly killing the counter.
The other issue for the entire attacking play of Barcelona is that many times, our defenders and mid fielders have an opportunity to scoop a long ball over the opposition defence for our front line to have a scoring chance. But most times, frustratingly, these options are never exercised. Even in our Xavi-Iniesta-Dani prime tiki-taka era, our players used to do that contrary to what is generally believed. Only players who try to make this happen from back are Lenglet, Ter Stegen and Messi when he is in the middle of the field. Even De Jong surprisingly does not do it well. In many cases, our players don't have the skill set of accurate long range balls. For example Alba has failed even if he has tried, to his credit. This option needs to be inculcated. Been saying this for few seasons now.
Overall front line looks very dynamic. We have the right mix of experience and youth players to pull off the kind of dynamic front line Koeman seems to be setting up. This kind of inter play and position switch will definitely keep opposition busy even if they might struggle to create goals aplenty to begin with. With or without a pure striker, we might be able to get the goals. Griezmann has scored almost 20 goals in every season in Athletico. Coutinho, Dembele and Trincao are clearly capable of sharing the responsibility of putting the boal at the back of the net.
Busquets is so done that it is not even funny that he gets to start for Barcelona. Is it the two generation of Barcelona history that makes it difficult for him to be relegated to the bench? He should never start against any good team or even against an team. He can surely get some minutes to give rest to the starters. Examples of his failures were - There was a clear chance for him to send a through ball to Trincao and he could not even spot it. And it is now a given that in every game, he has one or two dangerous mistakes. These teams just did not have the ammunition to leave him embarrassed. Frankie did a howler as well. But, he is the player we purchased. We will have to let them mature now. He will definitely come good. He will never be peak Busi, but he won't be a dead wood like Busi is now.
Frankie also missed quite a few through ball opportunities to open up the defence. One in partuclar was for a great run Coutinho made. Also, De Jong seems to be developing this known self-defeating syndrome of only looking for Messi runs and passing to Messi even if others are in better positions. Maybe because he is still not used to Coutinho and a more freely roaming Griezmann.
What's with Sergi Roberto starting at the right back position? I really fail to get what does he bring to the table that Semedo does not. Semedo does probably everything better than Sergi except play in the midfield which is irrelevant. Put one or two players pressing against both of them and Roberto will always turn around and pass the ball back to our defenders putting them in one of the worst positions - always. Semedo on the other hand, almost always is aware when to pass it back and when not to. And he has the dribbling skill to either get through the press or at worst just kick the ball ahead. Semedo should start always. Our starting defence line has to have Semedo, Araujo and Lenglet. Alba still does not have any competition or replacement. But Junior has to be thrown in to the mix more often.
Pedri has probably one of the best ball control in the team. He is so good in getting away from press. He does lose out the odd ball, but he will of course improve with age. Hope, he gets to stay and play with Barcelona this season. His confidence in that attempt also shows he will go for goals, and not overdo when not necessary.
Also, the young team which played the last 22 minutes in the game against Girona - not only they played well, but they actually came very close to scoring. They would have definitely scored if they had few more minutes there. Pedri came close to scoring twice. Konrad made an amazing run leaving everyone for the dead and passed right in to the way of Alena for a good chance. Dembele also weaved his way through a bunch of players inside the penalty area and came so close to scoring. Braithwate showed his striker like ability once retaining the ball through pressure, sending a very powerful strike goal bound which rebounded off the defenders.
Based on these two matches and last couple of seasons, I think this is the starting XI, I would like to see.
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Griezmann/ Fati
Dembele/ Fati Messi/ Coutinho Trincao
De Jong Pjanic
Alba Lenglet Araujo Semedo
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For all the above changes, Koeman needs to grow a pair- something most of the Barca coaches seem to lose as soon as they set their foot inside Camp Nou. The boss has to manage the board and players with big egos and unmatched achievements with some real aptitude and panache. Also, many of the players might make mistakes and might take time before they become better than the players they are replacing. But, it needs to be done. It is the only bet which can work.
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