Barca players undergo brain freeze in turns
FC Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao – Laliga Game Review
– Sep 29, 2018
It was ridiculous stuff from Barcelona as they were
held to a 1-1 draw by a rather pathetic Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou.
Everything went from confused to disastrous as each Barca player went through a
dumb period creating unnecessary tensions and mistakes.
It started with the coach having a brain freeze as
he rested Messi and Busquets. Messi definitely needs to be rested on a regular
basis. But after a draw and loss in La Liga, not starting with Messi was a huge
disadvantage. But the logic of resting Busquets along with Messi was bewildering.
Umtiti missed out due to an injury (which might see a long layoff) as Lenglet
came in for him. Arturo Vidal got a much-deserved start.
Rather than getting angry it was funny to watch as
everyone gave away the ball easily, because after watching them for the past
few weeks, everyone have started expecting it. Pique was running out of gas and
was overrun regularly. Alba was trying to link up with Suarez and Coutinhio,
but had to defend more. Lenglet was solid in his tackles. Arturo Vidal looked
and played confidently. He had a hand in defense as well. His last ditch tackle
saved Barca from further blushes (reminded me of Masche). Ter Stegen almost gave a horrible back pass
which could have ended in another goal.
Coutinho and Suarez worked incessantly and looked to
bring in some kind of control. But Suarez was as usual horrible with his
finishes. Coutinho was physically wrestled out by the Athletic defenders and
sadly he is finding more of the woodwork than the net. Let’s not talk about
Dembele because it’s the same script since the start of the season. Sergi
Roberto took the place of Busquets as the holding midfielder and was not too
bad. But Raktiic miserably failed to take the lead up front. Semedo was better in
defense with his pace, but he was poor in attacks.
Using the loopholes in the Barca defense, Athletic Club attacked a number of times and managed to
score from one such move. If not for the misfiring Inaki Williams they could
have got a couple of goals more. In the meantime, despite all the confusion, Barca
did thread a number of attacks but as usual messed up easy opportunities. A frustrated
Messi and Busquets looked on from the bench.
Barca players also were at the receiving
end of some very physical tackles and Roberto took a very heavy knock. In the 2nd half Busquets came in for the
injured Roberto while Messi was brought in for Vidal. Just wonder why Valverde substituted
the effective Vidal because he was one of the few who had a good game. Later the
bumbling Dembele was replaced by Munir (He and Alena certainly needs more time in the La Liga games apart from Malcom ).
With Messi in the centre and Busquets behind him
Barcelona launched a number of attacks. Messi hit the goal post (there is becoming a
frustrating regularity) as he kept attacking and sending in perfect cross after cross
of which one was finally put into the goal by Munir.
Just wondering the effect that Messi would have had
if he had started. He could have easily had a hattrick in the time he was on
the field. Valverde could have started with Messi and rested him in the 2nd
half, once the game was secured. But this coach thinks very differently. The team
seems far from settled and the heavy dependence on Messi is not a healthy sign.
Again luck seems to be on the side of FC Barcelona
as of now as Real Madrid and Atletico played out a 0-0 draw and the league
table ranking remains the same.
The substitutes came good for Barcelona to salvage a
1-1 draw which was poor result looking at the way they dominated Athletic club,
despite not being at their best. The frustration was obvious from the fact that a number of Barcelona players got booked for argument, which included Messi. Dropping points against lesser teams could
prove very costly in the end.
It’s going to be testing times in La Liga as they
face the likes of Sevilla, Valencia, & Real Madrid in the upcoming weeks. In between they also
face Tottenham and Inter Milan in the Champions League.If this slump is a September phenomenon then it is
fine because September is over. But if this is how the 2018=19 season is going
to unfold, then it’s time to stop expecting any title wins from FC Barcelona. The fans have to stop dreaming and become realistic even with the
little wizard in the team.
This picture of Messi getting booked after the game, as he vented out his frustration tells the story. Hope the captain has a serious talk with Valverde instead.
FC Barcelona needs to come up with much-improved performances and Valverde needs to change his tactics and thinking, drastically.
Image Credits - Google Images
Comments
Post a Comment