The Spanish Football Thread

Realistically need to beat Real at the Bernebeu for the title.

I like Martino but if he can't motivate the team against the smaller teams he's not the guy for the job.

I don't think so. Regardless of how this season ends, I think Martino should be given time.

We're not any more inconsistent than in the 2008/9 season, which has been unfairly glorified because of the treble. So far, we've drawn 3 games and lost 4. In that season, we drew 6 and lost 5. The difference was that we had a bit of luck here and there, our players were younger and not used to winning title after title.

It took Pep two years & a lot experiments and squad changes until he got use to dominate every team we faced in 2011. To really see what Martino can do we should give him time and the chance to execute his ideas on the transfer market/squad planning. Of course there's no guarantee that he will turn out to be the right man, but from what I've seen from his work at Uruguay and also this season at Barça (alternating the style of play, introducing direct elements, man management, rotation, tactics in big games (!)), I think he looks promising.

Imo the board needs to go though. Rosell has let the club go down the drains, Bartomeu is not any different and Zubi is just incompetent. The problems have been there and ignored for years and there's no suggestion that they'd change anything about it in the future.

Bale scores Hatrick vs Valladolid

Barca fans : ' They're a **** team'

Messi scores 0 goals vs Valladolid.

Barca fans: 'They're a strong team, its hard to score against them'.

Iirc in 08-09 we just gave up once the title was over and won something like 1 in the last 6, so I dont think you can really compare tbh.

Maybe he'll be the right man, maybe not. Theres been a lot of off field bs this season that I think has affected the team but id like to see Martino be a bit firmer sometimes. Show the players who the boss sort of thing.

True about the board though, you know its bad when Laporta would be a step up on what is currently in place.

Apparently Tata is trying to implement a slightly different (faster tempo and more direct) style of play and some of the players don't want to do it

Tata played much more direct in the first half of the season and that wasn't a problem. In fact I think many players approved of it because the old tactics had become too rigid (cf. 2012/13). Now he's using defensive possession again (which is why Barça struggle against parked buses) and all of a sudden, say since the beginning of the year, the players have stopped performing. There must be a different reason.

I really think the whole Neymar case has disrupted the team. Ironically, the Barça member who made that public did it to benefit the club & its members. Which in itself, it does, because it means that perhaps the board will have to go and corruption will stop. But with that timing he just managed to break the season, I'm afraid. Players that have grown up with the club and its "values" losing trust in it can never be a good thing.

Watching Barca's loss was glorious, they were ridiculously bad.

Where are the fans saying Barca "are coming for Madrid"? Laughable.

After Madrid sweep the Catalan whiners aside we will be 7 points clear of them, Atleti will valiantly finish second and Barca can take the last Champions League place as consolation.

I can already taste the water of Cibeles.

I really think the whole Neymar case has disrupted the team. Ironically, the Barça member who made that public did it to benefit the club & its members. Which in itself, it does, because it means that perhaps the board will have to go and corruption will stop. But with that timing he just managed to break the season, I'm afraid. Players that have grown up with the club and its "values" losing trust in it can never be a good thing.

Is there going to be anymore to come from this? Last I heard, he's dropped it.

Yeah, he said he'd drop it, but the tax authorities have opened a case against the whole club regardless of that. So there will be a trial or at least legal action of some sort. FCB have published a statement after that denying any wrongdoing, but also announcing that they would pay additional €13.5m in taxes "given the existence of a possible divergent interpretation of the exact amount of tax responsibility arising from the signing and to defend the Club’s reputation and good name". So there was nothing wrong. But they pay out of good will. ... Make of that what you want. That certainly wasn't the end of it.

Cases (the socio who started it) said he'd drop it because "there could be people who have nothing to do with Barca who take advantage of the situation and get involved in the complaint to try to harm the club", but of course that damage has already been done. Regardless of whether or not the club is cleared of the allegations (which could happen), the reputation of the club suffers a lot and makes all the més que un club myths even more of a farce than they have been in recent years.

Wrt the club, Laporta (the former president) and some other socios have said they'd start a vote of no confidence. So there's a good chance the board will go in the summer. Which could open doors for a reconciliation with Cruijff, Pep and other club legends who have turned their back bc of the the current board.

What's funny is that if you looked into the other big money deals, you'd probably find similar inconsistencies in most of them. Bale most notably. RM say he cost 90m, Spurs they he cost 105, whereas the Spanish press say he cost between 100 and 130. Some Dutch RM member tried to launch a campaign to look into the deal back in September, but the whole story disappeared as soon as it became public. So hopefully this whole Neymargate affair will contribute to making Spanish football as a whole less corrupt, and not just harm FCB.

Wouldn't surprise me to see Cruijff and Frank De Boer ride into town to 'save' Barcelona. Nobody really cares about Dutch football but they took Ajax from a really low point and are set to win an unparalleled 4 consecutive Eredivisie titles this year. They play a traditional Barca style too naturally! 4-3-3 with not so much focus on possession, would freshen things up.

Thing with Cruijff is that he will want totaal control and will try to force out anyone he doesn't like from the board, that's what he did at Ajax anyway. Barca probably won't want that.