The positive thread.

Haven't posted any thing since the game as much of the forum was doom and gloom. Everything and anything, including Manager, Bravo, Kolarov, Zabaleta, Away Kit, Aguero's non inclusion, No Yaya & Hart was blamed. I watched the game again last night and till bravo's red card we were right there. Did Bravo make a mistake and that changed the game, Absolutely , there is no denying that. The score might sound we got a hiding but the bigger picture indicates otherwise.

The tactics used last night were spot on. We all know Barcelona play out of back every time and our pressing was good. Umtiti was identified as the weak link in barca's defense and we could see Gundogan pressing up to him every time when he received the ball. Their passing play was disrupted and that's why we were in the game for most of the time. Much of barca's offense flows through busquests- iniesta nexus and we shut that off completely. Silva did a good job of pushing up to Busquests and he was basically anonymous for most of the game. we deprived MSN the usual service and that allowed us to be in context. SImilar thing aganist Everton, Most people said Everton parked the bus , but it was our wingers Sterling and Sane, that pinned their fullbacks Coleman and Oviedo and much of everton's play stems from their fullbacks.

Our defence is still a work in progress, we let them run behind us too easily a couple of times. Otamendi had a good game yesterday and stones never sighed away from recieving the ball even with 10 men. You can't make three mistake ( one a bit of unforunate slip) and not get punished with MSN around. Like pep said, we were in their box a couple of times and should have finished those chances. You dont win many unless you score.

Am i disappointed , with the score yes, with all the bollocks the media is spitting out yes, but not with our performance. Very few team come to Nou Camp and go toe to toe with Barca. We were able to do that till the red card. Plenty of positives to take from the game at the same time a lot of hard work required.
 
We out Barcelonad Barcelona for the best part of an hour.
That has to be a good sign.
Cut out the mistakes and we are almost there.
Those idiots saying Barca were not at their best last night completely miss the fact that they were not allowed to be so by our team.
We will beat them at home.
 
Haven't posted any thing since the game as much of the forum was doom and gloom. Everything and anything, including Manager, Bravo, Kolarov, Zabaleta, Away Kit, Aguero's non inclusion, No Yaya & Hart was blamed. I watched the game again last night and till bravo's red card we were right there. Did Bravo make a mistake and that changed the game, Absolutely , there is no denying that. The score might sound we got a hiding but the bigger picture indicates otherwise.

The tactics used last night were spot on. We all know Barcelona play out of back every time and our pressing was good. Umtiti was identified as the weak link in barca's defense and we could see Gundogan pressing up to him every time when he received the ball. Their passing play was disrupted and that's why we were in the game for most of the time. Much of barca's offense flows through busquests- iniesta nexus and we shut that off completely. Silva did a good job of pushing up to Busquests and he was basically anonymous for most of the game. we deprived MSN the usual service and that allowed us to be in context. SImilar thing aganist Everton, Most people said Everton parked the bus , but it was our wingers Sterling and Sane, that pinned their fullbacks Coleman and Oviedo and much of everton's play stems from their fullbacks.

Our defence is still a work in progress, we let them run behind us too easily a couple of times. Otamendi had a good game yesterday and stones never sighed away from recieving the ball even with 10 men. You can't make three mistake ( one a bit of unforunate slip) and not get punished with MSN around. Like pep said, we were in their box a couple of times and should have finished those chances. You dont win many unless you score.

Am i disappointed , with the score yes, with all the bollocks the media is spitting out yes, but not with our performance. Very few team come to Nou Camp and go toe to toe with Barca. We were able to do that till the red card. Plenty of positives to take from the game at the same time a lot of hard work required.

I'd agree with most of the above. What frustrated me most last night though was the amount of bad decisions and finishes we had. I wonder do we have a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to Barca.
 
Haven't posted any thing since the game as much of the forum was doom and gloom. Everything and anything, including Manager, Bravo, Kolarov, Zabaleta, Away Kit, Aguero's non inclusion, No Yaya & Hart was blamed. I watched the game again last night and till bravo's red card we were right there. Did Bravo make a mistake and that changed the game, Absolutely , there is no denying that. The score might sound we got a hiding but the bigger picture indicates otherwise.

The tactics used last night were spot on. We all know Barcelona play out of back every time and our pressing was good. Umtiti was identified as the weak link in barca's defense and we could see Gundogan pressing up to him every time when he received the ball. Their passing play was disrupted and that's why we were in the game for most of the time. Much of barca's offense flows through busquests- iniesta nexus and we shut that off completely. Silva did a good job of pushing up to Busquests and he was basically anonymous for most of the game. we deprived MSN the usual service and that allowed us to be in context. SImilar thing aganist Everton, Most people said Everton parked the bus , but it was our wingers Sterling and Sane, that pinned their fullbacks Coleman and Oviedo and much of everton's play stems from their fullbacks.

Our defence is still a work in progress, we let them run behind us too easily a couple of times. Otamendi had a good game yesterday and stones never sighed away from recieving the ball even with 10 men. You can't make three mistake ( one a bit of unforunate slip) and not get punished with MSN around. Like pep said, we were in their box a couple of times and should have finished those chances. You dont win many unless you score.

Am i disappointed , with the score yes, with all the bollocks the media is spitting out yes, but not with our performance. Very few team come to Nou Camp and go toe to toe with Barca. We were able to do that till the red card. Plenty of positives to take from the game at the same time a lot of hard work required.

Great analysis. Horribly frustrating for those individual errors and slips but you can't fault the tactics.
 
Haven't posted any thing since the game as much of the forum was doom and gloom. Everything and anything, including Manager, Bravo, Kolarov, Zabaleta, Away Kit, Aguero's non inclusion, No Yaya & Hart was blamed. I watched the game again last night and till bravo's red card we were right there. Did Bravo make a mistake and that changed the game, Absolutely , there is no denying that. The score might sound we got a hiding but the bigger picture indicates otherwise.

The tactics used last night were spot on. We all know Barcelona play out of back every time and our pressing was good. Umtiti was identified as the weak link in barca's defense and we could see Gundogan pressing up to him every time when he received the ball. Their passing play was disrupted and that's why we were in the game for most of the time. Much of barca's offense flows through busquests- iniesta nexus and we shut that off completely. Silva did a good job of pushing up to Busquests and he was basically anonymous for most of the game. we deprived MSN the usual service and that allowed us to be in context. SImilar thing aganist Everton, Most people said Everton parked the bus , but it was our wingers Sterling and Sane, that pinned their fullbacks Coleman and Oviedo and much of everton's play stems from their fullbacks.

Our defence is still a work in progress, we let them run behind us too easily a couple of times. Otamendi had a good game yesterday and stones never sighed away from recieving the ball even with 10 men. You can't make three mistake ( one a bit of unforunate slip) and not get punished with MSN around. Like pep said, we were in their box a couple of times and should have finished those chances. You dont win many unless you score.

Am i disappointed , with the score yes, with all the bollocks the media is spitting out yes, but not with our performance. Very few team come to Nou Camp and go toe to toe with Barca. We were able to do that till the red card. Plenty of positives to take from the game at the same time a lot of hard work required.

I agree with all of this, the margin between us both has never been smaller. The mistakes cost us indeed but we did everything to bounce back from the 1st goal but we just never found the goal, we should of been level at HT. The red for Bravo changed a lot but still had we taken our chances and ironed out those errors we would definitely of beaten them. Remember Stones has never played in the Nou Camp and is 22, you forget that sometimes and he looked pretty solid until we went to pieces a bit following the red. I couldn't name a single bad performance, just a string of individual errors which were punished heavily.

Despite the score I think it was our best ever performance against a top side and we are definitely improving. I feel sorry for Bravo most because he has been made into a scapegoat by the same people, the same people who have ignored the other matches he has played where he played a key part in the result. He is part of a system which has virtually no degree of error and unfortunately if you make one error in that system against a team like Barcelona of course you will get punished. That is nothing against Pep of course, he has his way and if he thinks that way is right then we should support him and believe in him as fans should.

Lets not forget though that they too made errors defensively but we didn't punish them, that was the only difference on the night between the sides for me. It really shows how far we have come and how quickly we are progressing under Pep.
 
This thread is a breath of fresh air - a much needed breath fresh air - Sterling is growing into his role as a top player on the world stage, as is Stones - we matched Barca on their own ground - a number of errors which we got annihilated for - they made errors too which went unpunished - the style of play we now adopt will be followed by everyone, it's the future of the beautiful game - neanderthals in the media, ex players and fans actually advocating the long punt is laughable - I hope they keep this thread going - it's the first one I'll be visiting in this forum - I know we have ALWAYS had whingers in our ranks - but come on guys - we are now in dreamland - CTID.
 
I agree with all of this, the margin between us both has never been smaller. The mistakes cost us indeed but we did everything to bounce back from the 1st goal but we just never found the goal, we should of been level at HT. The red for Bravo changed a lot but still had we taken our chances and ironed out those errors we would definitely of beaten them. Remember Stones has never played in the Nou Camp and is 22, you forget that sometimes and he looked pretty solid until we went to pieces a bit following the red. I couldn't name a single bad performance, just a string of individual errors which were punished heavily.

Despite the score I think it was our best ever performance against a top side and we are definitely improving. I feel sorry for Bravo most because he has been made into a scapegoat by the same people, the same people who have ignored the other matches he has played where he played a key part in the result. He is part of a system which has virtually no degree of error and unfortunately if you make one error in that system against a team like Barcelona of course you will get punished. That is nothing against Pep of course, he has his way and if he thinks that way is right then we should support him and believe in him as fans should.

Lets not forget though that they too made errors defensively but we didn't punish them, that was the only difference on the night between the sides for me. It really shows how far we have come and how quickly we are progressing under Pep.
Hear, hear
 

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