Everyone, no LiveBlog for this one, sorry. Your humble admins are, admittedly, being derelict in their duty. Hopefully, this match comments post will serve everyone’s needs.
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Categorized | La Liga, Match comments post
Barca v Atletico Match Comments post
By: Kxevin | 19 September 2009 | 298 Comments »
298 Responses to “Barca v Atletico Match Comments post”
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team:
valdesi
alvesi txigyrinki piqui maxwelli
keiti busqi
xavi
messi ibri henri
are the “i”s on purpose?
So the Liveblog was a prank?
Damnit!
stop playing w/our emotions barcelona football blog
i thought i saw the live blog, then it disappeared. haha
wow, maxwell and dani at the same time. i want to watch the match, but i have to sleep! crap!
ME TOO!!!
sleep? for what?
it’s 4am here. i have a house warming party to go to later. arg!
i stood up shamu & you’re gonna miss this for a house warming party???
I meant Yes,I saw a liveblog…sleep? what sleep?
actually, i do think it’s stupid for me to sleep now. i stayed awake for this long, i’ll just have to stay awake for 2 more hours.
Oh the ol’ style comments are fun too
Yes, you did see a LiveBlog pop up. It wasn’t a prank, everyone. I thought that I could run it via my mobile device (headed for the opera), but I can’t. Someone has to approve/disapprove commenters, etc, and that can’t be done via mobile device, at least not while listening to the fat lady sing (Tosca).
So it will be old-school for this match, and we’ll work out a way not to let everyone down the next time out.
Thanks for the understanding.
Its all fun and games until….well the fun never ends!!
aw i could have ran it
pero bueno we’ll do it the old fashioned way
summary of streams gentlemen
//http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=49012&part=sports
thank god i don’t need these today
Sorry I couldn’t run it today, guys.
Trying to get some business done and will have people distracting me the entire time.
I’m stuck at work, trying to watch this on a little-ish screen. Too bads about the LiveBlog.
¡Vamos Barça!
all these streams are running smoothly:
http://www.justin.tv/luchito80986/popout
http://www.justin.tv/deportesgalveztv12/popout
http://www.justin.tv/fenixtv2/popout
http://www.justin.tv/psnhd_/popout
damn comment moderation, i keep forgetting
all these streams are running smoothly:
/http://www.justin.tv/luchito80986/popout
/http://www.justin.tv/deportesgalveztv12/popout
/http://www.justin.tv/fenixtv2/popout
/http://www.justin.tv/psnhd_/popout
lol fantasy football is eating my life!
fabiano was injured today, GRRR
and i thought maxwell was still injured so i bought abidal in place of chyggy!
darnit
Staying up till 6am here and hoping it will be a great game! Hoping for another goal fest or all will be in vain. Well.. I just want a win, that would be enough. Please football gods…
//http://www.justin.tv/yojopo5_x/popout
Quality not the greatest.
//http://www.justin.tv/psnhd_/popout
Better quality, but annoying GolTV announcers.
what’s our bench looking like?
goal.com says asenjo’s playing. isn’t he away for the under-20 wc?
*http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=49012&part=sports*
so happy i don’t need these
this one too. it’s in english.
*http://atdhe.net/9360/watch-barcelona-vs-atletico-madrid
i keep posting links the cheatsy way (//) & they don’t go through
kick off bitches!
BANgfs ahhhhhh
wooooooooooooooooooooooow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
GOOOOOL! IBRA!
holy shit
gooooooooooooooooooooooooolllllllll!!!!!!! ibra
THAT WAS SEXY AS HALE
wtf? he link i posted isn’t showing barca atleti! dammit!
what a pass! busi breaker
IBRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
already…
best stream?… the justin streams are freezing!
HOLY SHIT@@@!!#! I missed the Henry shot but did not miss THAT!! Ohhh my that was mmmhmmmm Messi-like I’d marry that goal if I wasn’t vehemently against marraige
are we going to have a scoring fiesta tonight?
slaughter rule is gonna be in effect by the half
bullshit! so not offside…ok maybe a little
dammit, i didn’t see it! damn my internet!
that goal was worth 65 million to me
bahaha
I just missed the damn goal!!! Why do they keep on replaying Henry’s post, not the goal!
UGHH
ibra’s taking shots god damn!!!!
he looks hella confident right now..an the team is playing so cohesively it’s beautiful
nice save by Valdes
i think maxwell and maxi rodriguez kinda look similar
what a dummy by ibra
fuck yeah!!!!!!!!!
heres our 10.5 million euros
GOL!
you see resino’s face…he was like “shit. oh well”
TIKI TAKA TIKI TAKA TIKI TAKA
MESSI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
god, the we’re scoring goals faster than my net can stream them!
Has anyone found a good english stream yet? So far, I’ve only seen the adthe one, and it pauses every 10 seconds.
Xavi is the best midfielder, hands down.
But what the hell are “chameleon eyes” (as said by Rayray)
RayRay bugs. He should take a page from the Spanish announcers and call him Bogart.
rayray just compared messi to a leprechaun: “rainbow pass with the pot of gold at the end” haha
//http://www.veetle.com/viewChannel.php?cid=4ab086963f27c
Amazing stream.
Thank you so much!
http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=49012&part=sports
Pick one from that. You need either Sopcast, TVU, flash, or mediaplayer.
Amazing.
Now seriously guys, what time does the match start cuz clearly I’m dreaming
he’s got bug eyes…his passes are like a frog catching flies
Dammit, I missed the second goal, people came in asking questions! (I work at a library.)
pique
Is he gonna be subbed?
henry deserves a goal
fucking xavi! who was suppose to be serving as cover for him?
hey, ibra’s pressuring ball handlers!
nice try aguero
oh my. never liked maxi. especially after he scored vs mexico to knock them out of the world cup :^/
Maxwell is getting TOASTED
they’re turning up the heat
that’s too close
Hello everyone!
whatup!
Dear oh dear! is that Maxwell making all of those mistakes at the back? I’ve counted 2 now!
Wow Chigy! Good tackles and precise passes. I’m really impressed.
Holy shit that was an awesome goal!
hahahahahahahhahahhahah!!!!!
dani!
nice freaking goal!!!!
Dani boy. and fuck you roberto: 3-0
OMG!
DANI DANI DANI DANI DANI!!!!
i’m getting all maniacal…told you. slaughter rule by the half.
daniel alves
holy shit!!!!!!!!!! ALves finally scores one!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can just tell from their keeper’s face during the preparation for the freekick.
“C’mon guys! Fix the wall! C’mon mark your man! I can feel something’s going wrong….ah.. Shit…”
i’m crying happy tears
BTW, do Real play tomorrow or today?
Moar goals please!
busi with the full court pressure
madrid play xerez tomorrow
I knew something was missing – where’s the Messi|Kun split screen? Did they learn their lesson last time around?
Maxwell is killing us! how many times is he going to get beat?
our defense has been incredible!
aguero just swan laked busi…oh my
what the fuck vicky the robot???
too freaking close!!!!
D’oh! O_o
finally a freaking card
I missed the first goal, how was it?
worth every penny of ibra’s transfer
i missed i too, but i suppos this excites me
thank god atleti didn’t score there because that was a foul on titi :@
dani’s all pumped!!! wooooh!!!
“It’s how to live, Phil, man!” Hahahaha. Classic.
that was not a cool pass by the nasty!!! NO chyggy! NO!! that doesn’t happen in this house
I think Titi needs to score before the end of the 1st half.
I’m glad Ibra scored, but even more glad that he is pressuring the ball.
That was the goal of the century. I’m not even fucking kidding.
no way!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOW!
ok thats a mistake from Txignasty
nice set up for that, nice finish!!!!
keita gets a shot on target, and a goal! oh yeah!
keita’s been playing way high. i’m talking front three vs inter high. so weird to see.
Ill jujst say- this half was for the haters
Okay, I wanna see THAT goal in 390. Fantastic!
nothing can go wrong with my day
HOLY SHIT!!!!!! those were the most F’n awesome passes EVER
I meant 360, clearly.
OMG This is beautiful. This is beautiful. OMG I can stay up till 9 am just watching this game. This is so beautiful.
Ibra Magic, Messi Miracle, Keita-no-choice-but goal
Messi is “this Archimedes of football”. haha rayray is foaming at the mouth
are you kidding??
look at that Ibra chip..it looked EFFORTLESS it looks aHHAHAHShd holy cow man how does that not break physics
And did anyone catch that Xavi move like 3-4 minutes ago?
this feels like 08-09
better
iniesta hasn’t even been subbed in
yea that was AMAZING
ew what the fuck was that
sht!
Nice one Busquets.
ok that was not what i wanted
Jesus Christ I cannot contain myself. With all due respect to Eto’o’s abilities but that was what Ibra offers to the table. He switches to the left wing and he has the capacity to play well there.
uh oh…the nasty’s pace exposed. too happy to trip.
:/spoilt
lol Busi you so crazy
the back line there
What a half.
DAMN BUSI. u f’n suck. stop turning over the ball
Well, can’t say that wasn’t coming. But still. This isn’t even our most offensive-minded line up. And its BEAUTIFUL.
What was the thing with Ibra and the ref just after the half?
ibra felt there should have been a penalty. i do believe it’s a penalty too. though i haven’t seen the replay,
Also how wasnt that a penalty on Ibra?
Penalty FOR Ibra?
pee break before the highlights!
Wow. Just Wow at all those goals. Unforgiving.
And was that the first time we’ve conceded in Liga/CL/Copa?
Silly mistake, and Valdes knows it.
tat breaks victor’s run of clean sheets. it’s a personal record, i do believe,
yes…..other than the SuperCopa first leg goal.
who’s got a good english stream?
brilliant half and shows how good we are playing. all of our front three are on fire today.
cannot grudge goal to atletico. and chrygnasty was not slow but just that aguero had good start. they deserved the goal as they still try to play open. well, i guess thats the only way atletico can play. lol
I think Justin, he’s asking them the question Jordi is posing, how was that not a penalty????
cant believe keita scored with his feet for once. im so pissed at Busi. i mean WTF? there was no one back there. Did anybody else notice him losing the ball a few other times this half?
Is it terrible of me that I still wanna see Yaya and Iniesta subbed in?
Some Pedro! would be good too.
Yes I did
Brilliant Half! Disappointed at Busi though..
Oh ok thanks
Reagan,
http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=49012&part=sports
just choose the ones from GolTV. You need TVU or sopcast, I think.
good stream please.. the veetle stream freezes
I do not understand why but I’ve been trying to give away good links from myp2p but it won’t show in the comments section.
meant to reply on yours
fuck yeah caught the highlights…you know i didn’t see busi’s fumbling just chygnasty running back through the bottom of my beer bottle.
ibra’s goal! so sick!
i tried too. don’t know what’s up
look at what goal.com is aying now. ronnie thinking about retirement.
*http://goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2009/09/19/1511381/ac-milan-star-ronaldinho-considering-retirement-report
check out myp2p.eu for streams. also the tvu streams usually work well.
Iniesta for Xavi in the second half. Maybe Marquez for Pique. Pedro for one of the front three? If yes, which one? Probably Henry or Messi, since Ibra needs all the time he can get.
What a guess!
attempt #3
just connect the spaces
http:// myp2p. eu/broadcast.php? matchid=49012&part=sports
choose GolTV, you need a TVU player.
It’s the moderation system that keeps your post with links out ’til an Admin approves them..
You can just pop two forward slashes before the http so it wont go into the moderation queue. Like so: //http://www.google.com/
marquez is definitely coming in
I think it’s a good time to start the counter
15 goals: 5 goals in Super Copa, 1 in UEFA Super Cup, 9 in La Liga (recent up to Atletico Madrid, half time)
Pedro! for Titi, but only if Titi scores. Otherwise, I think Pep will leave him in the match.
//http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/futbolarg9
kick off bitches!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who is playing down the middle? Henry?
is busquets absolutely screwing us or what?
let busi play & get all his kinks out
I think so.
ibra + henry switching it up on the left flank
@ henry get up ya bum!
Finally calling something. I worry about the team when we’re up like this, the Refs take pity on the losing team and allow for too many hacks.
Iniesta!!!!
iniesta warming up @ waving to the fans as if he were a beauty queen in a parade on a float or something
Shut the hell up Dani, you didn’t even get hit. You could have kept going.
dani got hacked w/a meat cleaver
ibra’s goal!
/http://i36.tinypic.com/azhwgk.gif
thanks! up already huh?
ARGH! So close.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.
messi you bum!!!!!
Ahhhh
AHHHHH! damn
shit i gotta pee again
got back just in time to see that Messi play! So unlucky.. Iniesta warming up??
yep
nice D messi
Busquets needs to leave NOW
toure’s been playing a lot & picked up a slight knock i think, remember? we’re up 4-1.
Just heard Phil saying Ibra and Nistelrooy are similar players. WTF?
lets see Iniesta in for Xavi and Marquez in for Pique
you called it. hope the rest of your prophecy comes true.
Come on Leo. Give up the ball. Three guys could’ve scored there.
Messi shoulda passed to someone there. 5-1 easy.
WTF! come on! moves like that deserve the penalty haha
How do you just defend Messi?
Who’s captain right now?
chygnasty & aguero were line dancing there
I can’t tell on this little screen, but I’m guessing Titi has got his frustrated face on.
This ref sucks
Chiggy: Can I have your shirt?
Aguero: You first!
Chiggy: No you first!
a YELLOW!? WHAT!!!???!!!
Yay Rafa!
marquez doing calisthenics!!!!!!!!!!!!
That made me LOL so much.
rofl
Nice seeing Ibra and Henry having fun.
aguero off??? hahahahahahahaha. you’re fired resino! no wonder atleti’s fans hate the club’s owners.
Beautiful futbol. Txignasty with a PERFECT cross
el kaizer!!!!
what a pass to messi’s chest
Wow that should have been a goal by forlan
and I am glad it wasn’t
how’s life on mars luna? :^)
Come ON! I want moar goals. No Atleti goals tho.
that’s why we didn’t buy you motherfucker! sorry. these heineken’s are ice cold.
MOAR GOALS!!!
Wow what a miss by Forlan!
henry’s fallen & he can’t get up
Pedro!
wuv you marquez
how can it be allowed for them to kick us without fouls being called
fuck you forlan!!!!
Fuck it
damn
Damn. That was lazy. Why did Txigyrinsky pause?
wtf sloppy and careless
Puyol would NEVER let that happen.
Damn that dude was basking in the sun completely alone..was hoping for a second miss
Haha well at least we know Henry can count in Spanish.
hahaha, ref got tripped
HAHA. The ref fell. SUCKA.
WTF we are sucking this half…everybody is being lazy
We shouldnt have conceded wither goal >:{
I was hoping Henry would be the one to be subbed out..he’s getting beat up out there..not very nice
Not very happy with Txygnasty’s performance… It is just his first match, though.
2nd
too much sloppy play
How many saves has Valdes Had to make. Like 2?
Oops, random capitalization.
Nervous.
When are we going to realize that if we don’t step back up our offense, they are going to keep scoring on our defense
You’d think that with all of those defenders, someone would try very hard to not be sloppy and lazy!
I HATE CONCEDIING
Also evidently, maxwell and alves playing together with 2 slow defenders and busi is a BAD IDEA
that was a freakign red
Yes.
It totally was. Crap ref.
Messi VISIBLY pissed off.
Just a yellow? FUCK THAT! If that’s not a red i don’t know what that is…
finally
HAHA YES!
SOBENSE. Don’t make Messi angry.
JAJAJA fuck you atleti
Messi’s finishing with 40 goals this season. No question. Esp. if he takes the penalties (which I think he will).
They made Messi very angry & u don’t want Messi to be angry.
TAKE IT! Take your yellow with a side of GOOOAAAL punk
YES!!!! MESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
swift justice
Tooooooooooot el Camp…
I like it when Messi gets pissed. This ref really did suck tho. Let Atleti kick the team around and didn’t call the obvious red.
AMAZING team goal
iniesta is baaaaaack tiki taka tiki taka
messi with the RIGHT foot!
I’ve got to say…game sucked once Busi gave them their first goal, but I think Messi’s last goal will silence some critics.
CHygrynsky is a tad too slow to play behind quite error prone busquets, If Busi keeps this shit up its gonna be worrying in the ACN.. Good Hustle by all the rest though, especially Messi, was all over the place even defending.. Congrats
He had quite a terrific game..I was also quite surprised to see Henry bring in the same level of play he gave last season. Honestly I thought he would start tapering off but today showed that’s not the case.
Yeah, i thought Henry might get a notch lower, but he seems keen on not letting that happen, he’s trying real hard and giving it his all, can’t wait till he scores and starts rolling again..
tot el camp *clap clap clap*
Image of Messi after he scored the last goal:
//http://estaticos.marca.com/marcador/futbol/2009_10/primera/jornada_3/bar_atm/img/08_300×469.jpg
I’m hoping he was looking at the ref, he looks slightly disgusted.
excellent win. though i did feel that we took it easy in second half. messi was excellent. henry too who sadly missed on a goal.
score????
5-2 with goals from messi(2), ibra, keita and dani…for atletico, the usual suspects forlan, aguero
Just started watching, and I have to ask if everyone is aware of how staggering that Ibra goal was? Holy crap, now we have three attackers who can conrrol and shoot in the same motion?
It was indeed staggering…especially when you see it from behind. Pure class.
It was sublime!!!
It was oozing with artistry
LOLL http://goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2009/09/19/1511625/marouane-chamakh-to-arsenal-for-15-million
I want to keep this short. I thought Atleti played relatively well against us, exploiting the defensive pressing that we subject teams to, and keeping us away from the ball. As Hector would say, we’re crap without the ball. But as Kevin would say, if you attack us, we will kill you; it’s only a matter of time.
I’m seeing a lot of Henry love here…that our front three is on fire…but frankly I’ve seen much better from him. His age really showed in this match. He got that early shot off, which probably sparked us for that second-minute goal, but though he got more time on the ball than usual most of the time he was getting manned by that young boy he was up against (fair or foul). Which brings up the question…is this the year you play him down the middle more? Can’t say he looked great in the middle but he looked much less frustrated.
I can’t defend Keita this time, his giveaways, always from passes into space, came to be ridiculous. Great D for awhile, then petered out. Goal or not, he was culpable for much of the times when Atleti bossed things (and yes, Atleti did indeed boss some respectable stretches of the game). But as bad as he was, he wasn’t nearly as craptastic as Busquets, who simply did not look good enough for the team. Very disappointing. Both goals…the first certainly, and the second perhaps he should’ve been marking Forlan with the CBs wide…were partly his fault. Fantastic assist, though.
Maxwell got better throughout the game, but he gives up corners too easily, and he’s far too prepared to backpass. Some of the sort of “you pull the strings” passes he made could’ve been dangerous. And boy did he ever get ripped apart in the first half.
There’s something not quite right about the Txigi/Pique pairing. I don’t know exactly what it is. But Kun had quite a few half-chances, balls were coming over the top too much, and too many people were left onside. Txigi made some good passes, but if his job is to make the best defensive plays the most consistently, he did not do it. Pique was strong, however.
Iniesta isn’t quite back yet. Last year he would’ve never let that dude jump over him to head for the second goal. Height is no excuse. But he will be fantastic, we’re all sure, and his offense was very gratifying.
Alves was an absolute stud, offensively and defensively, just confident as hell (MOTM, just maybe). Ibra played his best game yet, what a beauty of a goal. Xavi played the part of the captain to excellence, never giving the ball up. Messi? Between scoring a goal, setting up one for Alves, and ripping that ass up for the fourth, was as good as we can expect (MOTM…just maybe). Though he really should’ve had another assist or two…really. Way too put the knife in the heart at the end, because if the game ended with Atleti at the end of the highlight reel, I don’t know. Too many questions about this game.
Massive goals, outstanding. But Pep’s going to be on the team because the defending has been much, much better in the past. And the two goals were totally unnecessary, for me, quite soft. The scoreline didn’t tell the real story, I think, and the negatives outweigh the positives today.
Did I say short? F me…
I thought Keita had a good game. He got himself a goal (nice box breaking and run) and did what he always does; silently having a good game and letting the likes of Xavi and Messi the space to operate and do their thing. In fact, I’d say he’s like Gilberto Silva when he was on Arsenal; the “Invisible Wall”, the man that’s always there when you double up on Aguero and/or Forlan.
Can’t say the same for Busi though. Ugh, he was killing me with some of the giveaways and overall sloppy play. It’s good that he played this game and (hopefully) played of his rust. Can you imagine seeing Busi’s play against Valencia or Inter (if he played)? With the pace they have, Eto’o and Villa’d have a field day!
Busquets is definitely a worry. I wasn’t convinced when Kevin started saying it but this was just awful. He looked like he just got called up from the youth ranks. He has the talent…I would go far as to say that the pass he made for Ibra was better than any pass Xavi made all day…but he just has to do better.
Invisible wall. Keita had some good defense at the beginning but I thought he lost the thread quickly. His through passes just killed me.
In retrospect, maybe I should be more optimistic. If we have an “okay, not great, not quite good” day as far as total play goes and we still score five goals, others should worry (and they will). But those two concessions…could’ve been more…were dreadful.
Oh, Atletico. We thrash you in our home and then…
*off
I’d like a little overview of our strategies on goal kicks, because it seemed to me that the middle of the field in front of goal is quite open and as we saw today can easily be exploited if we do not win the header around midfield. Is it on the CBs to close down the center once the ball is away? Or was it on Busi for not closing down the center? I’m still trying to grasp everything that is going on within our system.
I was wondering the same thing on that second goal. But overall, balls over the top really gave Kun(! Kun! Kun!) a lot of opportunities. Perhaps Txigi and Pique are a bit too like-for-like?
if I’m reading Sport correctly, seems like Guardiola was angry at how the team played. can understand given the 2 goals conceded and the sloppy 2nd half, but maybe playing Busquets with Maxwell and Txigrinski still adapting to the system wasn’t a good idea. Busi had better improved by the time ACN comes along
Atletico are a special team. Even when they are 4 goals down, they will still have Aguero and Forlan up front. This means when ever there is a counter and one of either Aguero or Forlan gets the ball, it looks like they have a lot of space in the midfield. Add one more player like Maxi Rodriguez, or Simao to the middle and they have tonnes of space. This is the reason why Atletico Madrid and Barca games are spectacular and have lots of goals. I love these games. In practice though, most of the times they were not able to convert their opportunities and it took only a moment for the Barca players to form a 4 by 4 defensive wall, retrieve the ball, and get back to attacking.
Now, I see that Sergi Busquets and Seydou Keita have come under some criticism for their display.
Firstly, regarding Busquets, the holding midfielder role is very difficult, especially so in a tactical formation adopted by Barcelona. In my opinion he did very well. Considering he had players like Maxi, Simao, Forlan and Aguero hounding him.
Regarding, Keita, he had a spectacular game. He was fouled a lot. Still he kept working till the end and made play after play.
Regarding the goals conceded – from my experience as a holding midfielder and after watching the match: First goal: I believe Busquets intended for the ball to fall on the wing and not behind Chigrinsky as it did, the play and the intention was right, but the execution let him down.
The second goal: It was a brilliant interception(nothing Iniesta could do about that), the ball went straight to Forlan in acres of space, and what do you expect form the golden boot winner from last year.
Er. Well if you have playing experience than you have more than I have. But Maxi, Forlan, and Aguero shouldn’t be hounding Busquets, it should be Busquets hounding them. I’ll accept your calls on the goals, except that Iniesta could do nothing about the assist on the second. Come on, he looked like he was crossing his fingers for the whistle. All it took to keep that from happening was awareness.
If I could watch the match again I might be open to re-evaluate Keita. Though Messi did the hard (and creative) work, Keita did get the fourth goal and two possessions on the buildup (pass to Ibra, goal), and I will say that he worked the whole 90 minutes. What stuck with me was those terrible passes, those moments when he miscommunicated (do I get the ball or does Henry get it…anyone remember that one? Then he threw up his arms), and seeing little else, save some good stops in the beginning (when Henry got owned, only for Keita to sweep it up and put it in the box for Ibra? Brilliant). If I watched again and only watched him, perhaps I’d get a different impression.
Yeah, Guardiola was not happy. Here are the cliff notes from the press conference:
- He did not like the game at all. We did not control it.
- There were many errors that took place when it came time to take decisions.
- We ran too much and were too hasty in some actions.
- Our lines were too far apart, leading to many counterattacking opportunities for Atletico.
- We won on the basis of being direct and efficient but it could have gone either way. Settling on an up and down game is a tossup. We won today because we got “heads” but any other day we could have gotten “tails”.
- We won because of our intensity but we have to learn to control that intensity because we rushed too many plays.
- He praised the three forwards for their defensive work. “If we won, its thanks to them. Their defensive effort, especially Ibra and Titi, was barbarous (i.e. great)”.
- He also had special words for Ibra: “Ibra’s movement was scandalously good but the team did not find him. However, this is a process and every game he and the team understand each other better.”
Some of my takes:
Regarding Keita, did you guys wonder where Maxi Rodriguez’s ghost was? He was in Keita’s pocket. That said, he needs to be more decisive in the possession game.
Defensive Mid for us is such a vital and complicated position and we have a 21 year old kid playing it. Its very unforgiving.
Our CB’s did not push up enough at all therefore leaving Busi on a bit of an island at times. Our whole backline gave away too many long balls instead of patiently building up play.
CBs not pushing up. Perhaps that’s the “something” that I was wondering about with Txigi/Pique.
Great to read Pep’s analysis. He’s being a little hard on the team. They controlled the match throughout and only the defensive lapses brought Atletico back in.
Some encouraging signs up front, none more so than the sight of Ibra pressing his socks off. Problem at the back is going to be resisting the urge to swap every game. The top teams all have a settled defence. I certainly don’t know what our best back four is yet.
Can’t finish without a word about Xavi. We’re privileged to be watching the best midfielder in the world at his peak and its a blast