Barca v City Post Match Thread

[Newman Noggs]

I suggest anyone who is calling us shit and the tactics were all wrong rewatch the match now. And if you still think, individual errors aside, we were shit, i.e. the tactics were wrong, mentality, overall play etc then I'd suggest you know sweet FA about football.

This is true but I do think that we are all, according to our own patience-threshold, looking forward to the day when we aren't reflecting on a 4-0 defeat and considering it an improvement.

 

[citytill1die84]

Ter Stegan and the officials kept Barcelona in the game 1st half.

That handball at 45mins was 100% a pen and no mention of it.

 

[FCBarca]

Refreshing if not the most accurate take from Alex Truica over at Grup14

It was in many ways a very strange game, because Manchester City - until Claudio Bravo got sent off - looked competitive and at times even the better side”. This might sound a bit strange after a 4-0-thrashing, but it was the summary of BT Sport presenter and former Barcelona forward Gary Lineker right after the final whistle, and frankly you couldn’t really disagree with him.

City caused Barça several problems, especially in the end of the first half, when they had at least three good if not great chances to score the equaliser. Their early pressing from the very beginning put Barça on their back foot, playing long balls to their three forwards at times because they couldn’t service MSN in their usual way, causing a rather frantic first half of the Spanish champions. After 45 minutes, Neymar, Messi and Suarez had completed only 20 passes between them. Proof enough that Guardiola’s tactics worked.

ManCity destroyed by Messi and their own mistakes
But Manchester City’s biggest problem was, besides their finishing, that they destroyed what they build by themselves. Not only with Bravo’s blunder, who killed the game, but already when they let Lionel Messi score his first goal. Fernandinho slipped, and everybody in the City defense just stood there ball watching. Only Messi reacted to the sudden opportunity and fooled his former teammate Bravo by rounding the keeper and slotting it home.

As good as City looked in attack, as overchallenged and thoughtless they looked in defense. John Stones, Aleksandar Kolarov and Nicolas Otamendi didn’t have their finest day to say the least. Three of four goals were served to Barcelona on a silver plate, the third of the hattrick of individual mistakes was Gündogan’s unnecessary back pass to Stones, who didn’t show any real interest in getting the ball - unlike Suárez, who went after it and squared it to Messi who completed his hattrick.

"We've given a lot to our opponents”, stated a disappointed Pep Guardiola, meaning not only against Barça but in the recent games, “Starting in Glasgow, the own goal against Tottenham, and missing penalties (against Everton)". Pep’s overall game plan was pretty good, and bold - considering he left out City’s best striker, Kun Aguero. But when the team collapses under the (mental) pressure, there’s not much a coach can do on the sideline.

Guardiola: "The more these Barça players have the ball, the more damage they do"
“There were two ways to approach the game. We could have sat back, and we could have won or lost doing that - but I don't know how to play that way and I don't want to play that way," Guardiola explained in his post-match press conference. So he went out attacking, leaving out Aguero to have an extra man on the midfield, more players against and on the ball. And it worked, until Fernandinho slipped and Bravo blundered. "The more these Barça players have the ball, the more damage they do. It's difficult to play against these players when you have 11 men. With 10, it was over.”

Some would say as long as Barça has Messi, it’s over for you pretty much every time you visit the Camp Nou anyway, but that’s a different story. Although he didn’t have one of his finest days and yet managed to score three goals. Something that is more scary than the fact he marked his 41st hattrick of his career (needless to say it’s more than any other player in activity has).

In Barcelona, the newspapers - as usual sounding more like fan opinions than like independent journalist views - went crazy with their headlines. Sport showed Messi in his well-known ‘thanking higher powers’ goal scoring pose and titled “My god!”, while Mundo Deportivo went a step further, shouting down from their cover “El Puto Amo”, something like “The f*cking boss”. He was the boss again, if only by his sheer goal tally - although one should note the exquisite performances by Samuel Umtiti and Marc-André ter Stegen, probably Barça’s best players. Messi certainly made the difference again, he and the wobbly nerves of Manchester City’s players. Süddeutsche Zeitung put it in nice fashion: “Soulmates have faced each other, two teams who like to play in the opposition half. But only one half has Messi - the other doesn’t.”

"Guardiola got it badly wrong over key decisions"
The English media will now debate if Guardiola’s new team is ready enough to challenge the big teams in the Champions League and if it was the right decision to leave Kun Aguero out. The Guardian said "Guardiola paid the price for keeping Sergio Aguero from the reunion" with his friend Messi. And The Mirror criticised City’s coach by saying: “Some of the damage was self-inflicted as this defeat will perhaps strip away some of Guardiola’s aura. Guardiola must take responsibility for the tactics which ultimately undermined City as the former Barcelona boss got it badly wrong over key decisions.” Kevin De Bruyne playing as a false nine and “did not get the best out of their brilliant Belgian either”. Then the newspaper added what many will think after the harsh trashing at the Camp Nou: “Guardiola discovered that City are a long way off being able to compete with a European superpower like Barcelona.”

Guardiola might agree, since he didn’t get tired pointing out before the game that his new team is lacking history and experience in the Champions League - something Barcelona clearly doesn’t. This game was proof again. But to be fair, not only Gary Lineker reckoned the result was somewhat weird, Guardiola had the same opinion. The Catalan said: “I feel we weren't as bad as the result says.”

 

[Blueband Brother]

4-0 is a very harsh and unfair result that does not look good for optics or inference on progress.Our tactics in a mechanical sense was very good and worked against Barcelona. The problem was the mentality of the players. They played without conviction, without belief, scared and tentative. So when the tactics allowed us to get into good positions, especially in behind their defense, the players were too tight and mentally switched off to make the most of those situations. Our midfield dominated their midfield but the players were also tight and tentative, and that played out and led to the first goal- Fernandinho nervously slipping and not getting up and then Otamendi allowing Messi to get on the loose ball. The tentativeness, tightness and poor mentality also led to the goal keeper's scared attempt to pass the ball, which led to the misplaced pass, his red card and this consequently finished the football match.

This may be due to the constant subliminal innuendos from the manager about how Barcelona are the ''best'' ever since the draw was made, or the manager did not instill genuine belief in the players that the match could be won or the players just did not believe themselves. Whatever it was, it is very disappointing that the players could not embrace the stage and freely express themselves and their talents. The only player that had the ''Ill take this on'' mentality was Sterling. I suppose Gundugan played well enough but for the others, especially when we created chances like the Stones header, he was too mentality switched off to actually head and direct the ball. De Bruyne (whose mental inconsistency has to be at least noted) and Nolito got in good positions but were too hasty and not composed to make the final ball count.We played like robots most of the match.

The mentality of the Barcelona players was not that great as well, for whatever reason. Their midfield was poor- Iniesta, Rakitic and Bosquets, as I have already said, lost the battle against our midfield. But due to individual errors on our part and some luck.. and some composed play from Messi and Neymar and co, they punished us in the final third. So Barcelona did not play that well either. Luckily for our team, the bad mentality did not lead to injuries like some of the Barcelona players. (when the mind suffers, the body cries out and so on..) So at least there were no injuries.

It was a strange tactical match without any real energy and freedom of expression (Messi is expression personified so you will always get some form of expression from him)- and the game was essentially decided by mistakes and bad incidents. It was fairly even and we looked even more dangerous and created more openings until the red card ofcourse.

This game showed that we have the footballing quality to match any team in the world if we have the belief and the right mentality, ask Athletic Madrid,.... and this has to be installed on the players..again.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

4-0 is a very harsh and unfair result that does not look good for optics or inference on progress.Our tactics in a mechanical sense was very good and worked against Barcelona. The problem was the mentality of the players. They played without conviction, without belief, scared and tentative. So when the tactics allowed us to get into good positions, especially in behind their defense, the players were too tight and mentally switched off to make the most of those situations. Our midfield dominated their midfield but the players were also tight and tentative, and that played out and led to the first goal- Fernandinho nervously slipping and not getting up and then Otamendi allowing Messi to get on the loose ball. The tentativeness, tightness and poor mentality also led to the goal keeper's scared attempt to pass the ball, which led to the misplaced pass, his red card and this consequently finished the football match.

This may be due to the constant subliminal innuendos from the manager about how Barcelona are the ''best'' ever since the draw was made, or the manager did not instill genuine belief in the players that the match could be won or the players just did not believe themselves. Whatever it was, it is very disappointing that the players could not embrace the stage and freely express themselves and their talents. The only player that had the ''Ill take this on'' mentality was Sterling. I suppose Gundugan played well enough but for the others, especially when we created chances like the Stones header, he was too mentality switched off to actually head and direct the ball. De Bruyne (whose mental inconsistency has to be at least noted) and Nolito got in good positions but were too hasty and not composed to make the final ball count.We played like robots most of the match.

The mentality of the Barcelona players was not that great as well, for whatever reason. Their midfield was poor- Iniesta, Rakitic and Bosquets, as I have already said, lost the battle against our midfield. But due to individual errors on our part and some luck.. and some composed play from Messi and Neymar and co, they punished us in the final third. So Barcelona did not play that well either. Luckily for our team, the bad mentality did not lead to injuries like some of the Barcelona players. (when the mind suffers, the body cries out and so on..) So at least there were no injuries.

It was a strange tactical match without any real energy and freedom of expression (Messi is expression personified so you will always get some form of expression from him)- and the game was essentially decided by mistakes and bad incidents. It was fairly even and we looked even more dangerous and created more openings until the red card ofcourse.

This game showed that we have the footballing quality to match any team in the world if we have the belief and the right mentality, ask Athletic Madrid,.... and this has to be installed on the players..again.

Excellent post. The tactics were perfect, the instruments to carry them out, flawed, due to a variety of issues, whether due to a lack of technical capacity, or simply not fully switched into the game.

I will say this, Barcelona are like Mike Tyson was in his heyday, they get in the head of the opponent.

It's only when someone has that belief, inspiration and capacity to stand toe-to-toe, that opportunities can arise.

Barca are heading for a real fall in the coming years, regardless of whether Neymar is signed-up long term.

The eventual departures of Messi, Suarez and Iniesta will impact them more heavily than those of Keane, Scholes and Ferdinand ever did for United.

The higher you rise, the further the fall.

 

[domalino]

4-0 is a very harsh and unfair result that does not look good for optics or inference on progress.Our tactics in a mechanical sense was very good and worked against Barcelona. The problem was the mentality of the players. They played without conviction, without belief, scared and tentative. So when the tactics allowed us to get into good positions, especially in behind their defense, the players were too tight and mentally switched off to make the most of those situations. Our midfield dominated their midfield but the players were also tight and tentative, and that played out and led to the first goal- Fernandinho nervously slipping and not getting up and then Otamendi allowing Messi to get on the loose ball. The tentativeness, tightness and poor mentality also led to the goal keeper's scared attempt to pass the ball, which led to the misplaced pass, his red card and this consequently finished the football match.

This may be due to the constant subliminal innuendos from the manager about how Barcelona are the ''best'' ever since the draw was made, or the manager did not instill genuine belief in the players that the match could be won or the players just did not believe themselves. Whatever it was, it is very disappointing that the players could not embrace the stage and freely express themselves and their talents. The only player that had the ''Ill take this on'' mentality was Sterling. I suppose Gundugan played well enough but for the others, especially when we created chances like the Stones header, he was too mentality switched off to actually head and direct the ball. De Bruyne (whose mental inconsistency has to be at least noted) and Nolito got in good positions but were too hasty and not composed to make the final ball count.We played like robots most of the match.

The mentality of the Barcelona players was not that great as well, for whatever reason. Their midfield was poor- Iniesta, Rakitic and Bosquets, as I have already said, lost the battle against our midfield. But due to individual errors on our part and some luck.. and some composed play from Messi and Neymar and co, they punished us in the final third. So Barcelona did not play that well either. Luckily for our team, the bad mentality did not lead to injuries like some of the Barcelona players. (when the mind suffers, the body cries out and so on..) So at least there were no injuries.

It was a strange tactical match without any real energy and freedom of expression (Messi is expression personified so you will always get some form of expression from him)- and the game was essentially decided by mistakes and bad incidents. It was fairly even and we looked even more dangerous and created more openings until the red card ofcourse.

This game showed that we have the footballing quality to match any team in the world if we have the belief and the right mentality, ask Athletic Madrid,.... and this has to be installed on the players..again.

I agree with 99% of this and think it's a great comment - except I think Sterling still suffered from the same lack of conviction you've described in the others. I say that because there were a few times he failed to make back post runs in the box which would have resulted in goals. We had Silva arriving in the box for cutbacks, but no Aguero making those runs to the near and far post which is what we needed Sterling to bring as he's the one in the front 3 we played who's got the pace to get across the defenders like a striker does.

On Wednesday night I think he needed to really embrace those runs, but instead he too often went for his other option, pulling off to the penalty spot for a cut back and we saw a good few crosses go wasted because of it.

He did make them a few times to be fair to him and he didn't get the cross - Nolito had one glorious opportunity in particular.

He was the standout player on the night but I do think if he'd really been 10/10 we would have gotten something from all the opportunites we created.

 

[Blueband Brother]

Excellent post. The tactics were perfect, the instruments to carry them out, flawed, due to a variety of issues, whether due to a lack of technical capacity, or simply not fully switched into the game.

I will say this, Barcelona are like Mike Tyson was in his heyday, they get in the head of the opponent.

It's only when someone has that belief, inspiration and capacity to stand toe-to-toe, that opportunities can arise.

Barca are heading for a real fall in the coming years, regardless of whether Neymar is signed-up long term.

The eventual departures of Messi, Suarez and Iniesta will impact them more heavily than those of Keane, Scholes and Ferdinand ever did for United.

The higher you rise, the further the fall.

To be honest , I don't think they will fall anytime soon. There will certainly be a transition for them but they have some very good players coming through. But when Messi finally leaves, it will be a major earthquake that is for sure.

As for the game, we missed the opportunity to take it the extra level and get a good result because of the mentality issue and is something that will needs to change for the second leg.

 

[Blueband Brother]

I agree with 99% of this and think it's a great comment - except I think Sterling still suffered from the same lack of conviction you've described in the others. I say that because there were a few times he failed to make back post runs in the box which would have resulted in goals. We had Silva arriving in the box for cutbacks, but no Aguero making those runs to the near and far post which is what we needed Sterling to bring as he's the one in the front 3 we played who's got the pace to get across the defenders like a striker does.

On Wednesday night I think he needed to really embrace those runs, but instead he too often went for his other option, pulling off to the penalty spot for a cut back and we saw a good few crosses go wasted because of it.

He did make them a few times to be fair to him and he didn't get the cross - Nolito had one glorious opportunity in particular.

He was the standout player on the night but I do think if he'd really been 10/10 we would have gotten something from all the opportunites we created.

No player was 10/10 against Barcelona, that is for sure and Sterling could have done more (maybe) but that will be really splitting hairs in the context of the overall performance of the team. He stood out above the rest and I believe he did play with freedom and expressed himself well. He also did his reputation a lot of good as the whole world was watching.

 

[christened at st marks]

We were the better team until the red card after that we could no longer press end of story

 

[OB1]

I agree with 99% of this and think it's a great comment - except I think Sterling still suffered from the same lack of conviction you've described in the others. I say that because there were a few times he failed to make back post runs in the box which would have resulted in goals. We had Silva arriving in the box for cutbacks, but no Aguero making those runs to the near and far post which is what we needed Sterling to bring as he's the one in the front 3 we played who's got the pace to get across the defenders like a striker does.

On Wednesday night I think he needed to really embrace those runs, but instead he too often went for his other option, pulling off to the penalty spot for a cut back and we saw a good few crosses go wasted because of it.

He did make them a few times to be fair to him and he didn't get the cross - Nolito had one glorious opportunity in particular.

He was the standout player on the night but I do think if he'd really been 10/10 we would have gotten something from all the opportunites we created.

For all Sterling's good work, he still had zero end product on the night.