I think most of us can agree that this Barca side has etched themselves into history as one of the great club sides. I had discussion with my workmates about how they'd fare against some of the more recent super sides in a one-off cross generational encounter. We were talking about:

Real Madrid 02 - Zidane, Raul, Figo, Hierro, Makalele, Carlos. Light on defense, but Zizou against the current Xavi would be a battle for the ages

AC Milan 03-06 - Kaka, Schevchenko, Pirlo, Maldini, Stam, Cafu, Nesta, Gattuso. . They had one of the best defenses of all time and a superbly balanced midfield. My favourite to compete in a shootout with the current Barca

Chelsea 04-06 - When Robben, Lampard, and Drogba were all on fire. Excellent counter-attacking

Arsenal 03-04 - They'd probably struggle. Paddy never liked little nimble players like Messi buzzing about. I remember him struggling to collar players like Valeron and Aimar.

United 99 - For their tenacity if nothing else

Barca 04-06 - Dinho-inspired, arguably more exciting than the current crop, but much weaker defensively

The current Barca team is the best I've seen since Milan in the early 90s.

I think this current Barcelona team is better than that Milan team.

Honestly, the only team that I can think of that would give them a genuine game-i.e not just end up with 10 men behind the ball defending for their lives-would be the Brazil team from 2002.

Machete wrote:

I think the great inter team of 2009/10 could beat them

cheeky bastard😆

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

The current Barca team is the best I've seen since Milan in the early 90s.

I thought that Arsenal team of 04 were better myself.

They're showing the game again on ITV4, caught 20 minutes of the second half - they're just too good. How do they do it? What is their secret? Is it more the quality of player that give them the control they always have, or the system, a bit of both, I suppose, is the answer.

Something they have massively in their favour is that they have a fixed core of technically excellent players who've played this system together year in year out while largely being uninterrupted by injury or key players forcing a move elsewhere .

Ricky1985 wrote:

They're showing the game again on ITV4, caught 20 minutes of the second half - they're just too good. How do they do it? What is their secret? Is it more the quality of player that give them the control they always have, or the system, a bit of both, I suppose, is the answer.

Thought that they were sub-par myself and ManU weren't good enough on the day.

Meh. We did them once, we can do 'em again.

Captain wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:

They're showing the game again on ITV4, caught 20 minutes of the second half - they're just too good. How do they do it? What is their secret? Is it more the quality of player that give them the control they always have, or the system, a bit of both, I suppose, is the answer.

Thought that they were sub-par myself and ManU weren't good enough on the day.

The second part was more a general question, just how do they dominate every game they play in? I think Y va's point is the crux of it. They just have a telepathic, almost automatic, understanding between the core 4 or 5 players in the team. They are all so well connected, and there are very few weak-links. The way they outnumber their opponents in every area of one half the pitch is so clever.

They have some of the best passers of the ball on the planet and Messi.

The reason Barca are so good at moving the ball is simple
1) excellent passers, and
2) they practice. the way players always seem to move into space and know where the others are at all times is clear indication of a team that spends a lot of time practicing varous passing drills and focusing on movement during their scrimmages.

Biggus wrote:

😆 Yeah....

People are happily posting away about Barca mate.

😆

Just so we don't forget...

So how do they do it? 😆

The way they pass and move both on and off the ball. The talent is just flowing out of La Masia.

Truly mes que un club.

And what of the wonderful separatist catalans?

All this Barcephilia shit is getting out of control.
Lets see if you lot are still crawling up their arses in a few weeks time.
Truly cringeworthy.

Mes que un club my fucking hole.

They have a truly exceptional team, one of the best I've ever seen, but that phrase drives me kaka. The amount of times I see people posting it when they win a match in style is ridiculous. It has nothing to do with their football.

The AC Milan team with Baresi, Rijkaard, Gullit and van Basten was about as dominant as the current Barcelona side is. Destroyed Real Madrid in a CL final as well which is always a good thing! Personally, I enjoyed watching them a lot more than I enjoy Barcelona of today.

They destroyed Barcelona dude, and the Dutch trio were gone by then. The Milan team with those guys won the EC back-to-back in 88 & 89. The 94 side had the likes of Desailly, Savicevic, Boban, and of course Baresi et al.