And the bastard scores

Griezmann scores

Barcelona spend so much money and get such awful value. If they didn't have Messi they wouldn't have won much post Xavi and Iniesta.

Edit: Not even watching the game and I see that Griezmann scores , but my post is more generally speaking. A forward for a big club is bound to score goals whether they're a good fit or not.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Barcelona spend so much money and get such awful value. If they didn't have Messi they wouldn't have won much post Xavi and Iniesta.

Edit: Not even watching the game and I see that Griezmann scores , but my post is more generally speaking. A forward for a big club is bound to score goals whether they're a good fit or not.

They have some of the worst scouting in Europe. Lot of it was during Raul’s reign. But it looks like he had help given his decent record here

Lovely goal, Griezmann

They’re stirring the pots now. Betis are outclassed. Perez with a quality finish.

I wouldn't complain about relying on messi, whatever the context or situation. He provides great entertainment by himself. I'd sacrifice watching overall team playing nice to accommodate him. ....from a spectator's point of view.

That first touch from Perez was high quality.

Barca fans have high hopes for him. Apparently the new Denis Suarez

That's like being crowned the new Ward-Prowse

Speaking of Suarez, he played exceptionally well yesterday. Clearly the standout player, playing mainly from the left. Looked like a peak Hleb. Missed a late penalty but was still a level above everyone else. Was heartwarming to see after his tough London spell.

I actually thought he looked ok when he played for us, technically good and injected pace into the game. Just didn’t get any chances. Not really his fault.

Yeah he's become a meme with no fault of his own. He's clearly talented, not world class but good enough

This 16yr old looks decent.

goon wrote:

This 16yr old looks decent.

Loving his confidence.

Claudius wrote:

Lovely goal, Griezmann

that LeBron James celebration with the giltter though  

You say it wasn't linear progression with Ter Stegen, but my view is that he has simply reached his peak performance level. He was an elite footballer at every age level in youth football and once he gained enough experience, he became an elite professional. I don't see the need for a more complicated analysis than that. Sure, Barca probably have good GK coaches, most top clubs do, and I'm sure they added to his game and improved him in certain areas, but I'm sure Gladbach and Germany have good coaches as well.

Similarly with Xavi, it's not a surprise that he took until he was 27 before he started to reach his best level because his advantage over other midfielders was his exceptional awareness of space/team mates. I would have bet money that a player with lower than average athletic ability would have to spend  years playing, learning and improving his tactical understanding before being able to bring what he's exceptional at to bear at the top level.

And with Leno, it's a game of opinions, and when I watched videos galore of him in Germany, I saw a guy that was very good with his feet and said as much when we signed him because that was one of the cirticisms that was going around at that time. So I'm not shocked and didn't see a huge improvement. I also don't see how you think it's possible for a keeper to come in for pre-season in July and then radically alter his ability control and pass a football by August? In fact, from the first pre-season game he played you could see his class with the ball at his feet. Perhaps he, too, just improved with age and whilst the technical ability was always there, started making better decisions with when and when not to take a touch and in his pass selection?

And that brings me on to what a good coach can do. A good GK coach can help a little with what Leno improved on, in the same way, Arteta has worked with Sterling to improve his goalscoring. Sterling still has terrible ball striking and unreliable finishing; it's too late for much, if any, improvement to the technical aspect of goalscoring, but he can be shown what sorts of runs to make and when to make them. He can imrpove his composure in front of goal by repeated practice in training.

Joao Felix just scored to make it 1-2 vs Eibar.
VAR decision took about 2 minutes. You guys would love that. Good goal though. Costa showed great power and strength to set up the kid

They're extremely slow. Took almost 5 minutes to disallow a goal last week in the Sociedad match. It is definitely possible to make decisions much quicker.

Class finish from Vitolo