Barcelona vs. Chelsea, 2-2

[flywoman]

Clusterfuck photo is all too appropriate



Sort of a match review, more of a general analysis

A very quick recap of the game against Chelsea: Valdes started a poor night by rushing off his line to crash into his own defender instead of trusting him to hold off Drogba's attack. Pique's head hit the ground hard, he had to come off, and he's being hospitalized overnight for observation. Granted we were able to score two goals after that - Cuenca passed to Busquets who tapped the ball into the net, and Messi passed to Iniesta for a great goal - but in the last minute of the half, Ramires outran our defense, Valdes again left his line, and it was an easy chip over him for an away goal. At that point I knew deep down that it was all over. In the second half, Messi missed his penalty shot, we failed to get past the ten men blocking Chelsea's goal (even after John Terry had been tossed out for tackling Alexis in the box for no reason), and in extra time, Fernando Torres celebrated his recent return of form by scoring another goal for good measure. As we had already lost in the aggregate based on away goal rules, this was just adding insult to injury.

So what a terrible week for Barcelona. Not only did we lose to Real Madrid at home on Saturday, putting an end once and for all to our chances in La Liga, we just drew Chelsea at home after last week's loss to them away and dropped out of the Champions League. Never mind winning the Triplete this year - we'll be lucky to walk away with the Copa del Rey.

There's been a lot of whining about bad luck and shameful defensive strategies in the wake of these losses, but the way I see it, our flaws have been there all along and were just waiting for competition against high enough quality teams to be exposed.

1) No reliable strikers this year except for Messi. Our midfielders (Xavi and Cesc) scored more goals than any of our other forwards except Alexis (and then just barely). Some of our freaking DEFENDERS scored more goals than any of our other forwards. Pedro is still off form. Cuenca is shaping up to be a fine winger, but he's not a striker. Tello is hungry for the goal but not very intelligent in his tactics, I'm sorry to say. Either Villa needs to be back better than ever (and what is he now, 30???) or we need to buy a new center forward to work with and/or sub for Messi.

2) Messi has been dropping deep to be a playmaker because Xavi hasn't been doing his job. I hate to say this because I love Xavi, he's my favorite Barcelona player in fact, but whether because of age or injury or something else, he has been much too conservative and unimaginative lately. He passes the ball with great accuracy, but what's the point if it's always going sideways or backwards? That's why Messi has the most assists by far for Barcelona and not Xavi.

3) As a result of 1) and 2), we have been far too reliant on Messi this season. If he has an off day or two (or three), we're screwed. Yesterday he missed training because he had stomach problems. He could get injured. It's very dangerous to pin all our hopes on one little guy, even if he is the greatest player in the world.

4) We ABSOLUTELY need to develop new tactics against teams like Chelsea that park 10 men in front of their goal and then wait for the counterattack and run like hell. It's the obvious way to beat our playing style, and our coaching staff need to face up to that and adapt accordingly.

5) Our defense needs to be shored up with new blood. Puyol is all heart, but he's 34 years old - he's slow, and he gets tired. Pique has had his head somewhere else for most of the season. Mascherano came to us as a midfielder and in my opinion is shaping up to be a great defender, but he's still learning, and he can't do it alone. Dani Alves and Adriano are not true defenders, more like wingers who run the entire length of the pitch and then get caught with their pants down. And Valdes... well, every keeper has his bad days, but he has been making serious tactical errors in terms of when to come off his line, and my god, that episode today that put Pique in the hospital, what the hell was he thinking???

I still love and support this team - their playing style, their philosophy, their individual personalities - but some dramatic changes are in order if we are going to return to our recent greatness in the coming season. And given that Pep still hasn't announced whether he will renew, I'm starting to think that the changes will be dramatic indeed.

Comments

[elizaberglund.livejournal.com]

I think it was the way he spoke after Clasico when he mentioned next season he was saying "we" and ... I don't know, I have a gutt feeling he will stay. I have nothing to base it on, simply wishful thinking and a strong gutt feeling that he will stay.