Some thoughts about Napoli vs Barcelona
04:03
Barcelona have reasonably less games in the pre-season compared to other clubs, which in fact is a good thing. These games particularly act as a platform to all those youth players who want to make a point or two about their potential. On the other hand, the manager will try to experiment with various formations and tactics.Alen Halilovic, Montoya, Munir, Rafinha and Sergi Roberto all had fair bit of playing time and some of them showed the world as, "why they are regarded as the future stars of Barcelona". Out of these games, Napoli was the only decent opposition and here are some of my thoughts about Napoli 1- Barcelona 0 match.
1) Napoli were playing 4-2-3-1 formation which was more of 4-4-2 without the ball. Just like any other opposition, Napoli sat back and were trying to hit Barca on a break. Barcelona's back line consisted of Jordi Alba, Marc Bartra, Gerard Pique and Martin Montoya. Both the full backs were in attack mode, which made sense as both Pique and Bartra had to deal with Napoli's front two. Callejon and Insigne were the the part of first line of defense. One thing I noticed in this match was : Pique's long passes to Rafinha whenever we dispossessed Napoli in our half(Directness in attack).
2) Sergio Busquets, Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic played in the midfield. Rakitic had a very good match and looked like he really fits in the system which we believe. One key aspect about Rakitic is, he strives for ball and tries everything to get the ball back
However, it was Sergio Busquets, who stole the show in the midfield. There were some moments in the match which made me remember the 2011 CL final. Busquets key passes are vital for Barcelona to break the bus. He breaks the whole midfield and front two (6 Players) with single pass. This season, at some point we will see Neymar, Messi and Suarez who punish opposition with half chance. So it's very important to have player with a vision who can provide that chance. Busquets is surely one among them and I hope he receives the adulation of people instead of criticism for his out of the world quality.
3) Pedro is a smiling, indefatigable player in the team. Pedro is a team player. The amount of work he does for the team is exceptional. Just like Jordi Alba, he covers whole flank at times. He doesn't care about being a star player, creating magic or blah-blah. All Pedro wants to do is help the team. As always, Pedro was decent. Nobody will ever blame Pedro about his of the ball moments. My only wish is that, Pedro should start scoring consistently. If he does, in my eyes he will be ' A Consummate Forward'. Munir and Rafinha were other two in the front three. Munir in particular was very very poor. He missed couple of sitters and looked very nervous throughout the match. Rafinha had a decent match and can be happy about his performance. All the three forwards had decent number of chances and all bottled it.
Bravo had some great moments and some bad moments. One bad moment led to the lone goal of the match and Bravo's mistake was the highlight of the match. No person will make much out of that error.( Except Dailymail, of course). Barcelona will improvise the tiki-taka football and will go for all major trophies this season. As cules, we can only hope. So, I hope that Luis Enrique will make the team cohesive, strong and invincible this season.
Moment of the match
Journalist to Luis Enrique : What you will tell Claudio Bravo after that Horrific mistake?
Luis Enrique : I will show him this photo and ask him, "Hey Bravo, why did you ask the forwards to miss hell lotta chances"? #Chuckles
1) Napoli were playing 4-2-3-1 formation which was more of 4-4-2 without the ball. Just like any other opposition, Napoli sat back and were trying to hit Barca on a break. Barcelona's back line consisted of Jordi Alba, Marc Bartra, Gerard Pique and Martin Montoya. Both the full backs were in attack mode, which made sense as both Pique and Bartra had to deal with Napoli's front two. Callejon and Insigne were the the part of first line of defense. One thing I noticed in this match was : Pique's long passes to Rafinha whenever we dispossessed Napoli in our half(Directness in attack).
2) Sergio Busquets, Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic played in the midfield. Rakitic had a very good match and looked like he really fits in the system which we believe. One key aspect about Rakitic is, he strives for ball and tries everything to get the ball back
However, it was Sergio Busquets, who stole the show in the midfield. There were some moments in the match which made me remember the 2011 CL final. Busquets key passes are vital for Barcelona to break the bus. He breaks the whole midfield and front two (6 Players) with single pass. This season, at some point we will see Neymar, Messi and Suarez who punish opposition with half chance. So it's very important to have player with a vision who can provide that chance. Busquets is surely one among them and I hope he receives the adulation of people instead of criticism for his out of the world quality.
Bravo had some great moments and some bad moments. One bad moment led to the lone goal of the match and Bravo's mistake was the highlight of the match. No person will make much out of that error.( Except Dailymail, of course). Barcelona will improvise the tiki-taka football and will go for all major trophies this season. As cules, we can only hope. So, I hope that Luis Enrique will make the team cohesive, strong and invincible this season.
Moment of the match
Journalist to Luis Enrique : What you will tell Claudio Bravo after that Horrific mistake?
Luis Enrique : I will show him this photo and ask him, "Hey Bravo, why did you ask the forwards to miss hell lotta chances"? #Chuckles
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