Author: Ballcirculation

I’ve talked with Josep Capdevila about Juvenil A, Barcelona B, Luis Enrique, Bartomeu’s Espai Barça and more. A big thanks to @Basedgrimaldo for the translation. Without you, it would have been much more difficult.

Mert: Josep, who impressed you the most for Juvenil A and Barça B? Who improved the most?

Capdevila: Enric Franquesa ended the season well in Juvenil A. I also liked seeing that Lee, even though he is far from his best (normal since he didn’t play for three years) is not for himself, but knows how to play for the team. I’d like to point out Ferrán Sarsanedas’s consistency. I hope he gets promoted to Barça B next season. And in the squad I’d like to point out the good things Dani Romera has shown until he got injured. Samper is a player that I always loved. Carles Aleña has adapted exceptionally.

Mert: Who do you think will join the first team during pre-season?

Capdevila: There are few players in Barça B that can get promoted to the first team. I think that Ortolà or José Suárez can if, which I think, Jordi Masip leaves the club. I also think it’s time to promote Samper. Any other player that get promoted will be, for me, a big surprise.

Mert: What do you think of Bartra? Do you think he will leave after this season?

Capdevila: I always liked Bartra. And I think that in the Deportivo match he made it clear that Luis Enrique had been very injust with him. I’m not saying that he should start. I think that Piqué-Mascherano is the starting pair, but I’m telling you that, at the minimum, he’s on the same level as Mathieu and is better than Vermaelan, even though the manager has puts him as the 5th choice center back. I wish for him to not leave in the summer, but if he does it then I will understand him perfectly and I will consider it an error from the club, not his.

Mert: Out of Lee and Paik, who progressed better, what are their chances with the Barça B?

Capdevila: I think Lee is better and Paik is more consistent. It costing them alot to return to their competitive rythymn, and for sure that they won’t achieve that rythymn until next season. These last few matches I liked Lee more but, strangely, I think it’ll be easier for Paik to get promoted to Barça B than Lee.

Mert: How do you think the club’s future looks with Bartomeu’s plans like the Espai Barça for example?

Capdevila: I am not optimistic about Barça’s future. I believe that everytime it is becoming more like business and less like a football club. Each time the club is more like a purse than a training academy. That’s just my opinion but I don’t like it. Espai Barça gives me one important doubt: in order to finish the project the club has to significantly reduce it’s debt in only a year and the truth is I don’t know how they think about going about this.
Mert: Do you believe that Luis Enrique doesn’t see La Masia as a resource for first team players, but a resource for back up options?

Capdevila: I believe that Luis Enrique thinks a lot in the present but not much in the future. Coaches depend on results and not by the work they do, sadly, if you care about your work you are nicknamed “crazy” like Cruyff or Guardiola. Also if there is something one must have with the academy it is patience, a lot of patience.

Thanks for answering my questions, Josep!

Mert: ¿Quién te impresionó lo más en el Juvenil A y el Barça B? ¿Quién mejoró lo más?

Capdevila: En el juvenil A, muy buen final de temporada de Enric Franquesa. También me ha gustado ver que Lee, aunque está lejos de su mejor nivel (normal tras tres años sin jugar) no peca de individualismo, sino que sabe jugar para el equipo. Y destacaría la gran regularidad de Ferran Sarsanedas, de quien espero que suba al Barça B la próxima temporada. Y en el filial destacaría las buenas cosas demostradas por Dani Romera hasta que se lesionó, a Samper, un jugador que siempre me ha encantado, y la excelente adaptación de Carles Aleñá.

Mert: ¿Quién piendas que va a entrenar con el primer equipo en el verano?

Capdevila: Hay pocos jugadores, desgraciadamente, del Barça B, con opciones de subir al primer equipo. Creo que lo puede hacer o Ortolà o José Aurelio Suárez si, como creo, Jordi Masip deja el club. Y también creo que ha llegado la hora de subir de Samper. Cualquier otro jugador que suba de manera definitiva al primer equipo sería para mi una gran sorpresa.

Mert: ¿Qué te parece Bartra? ¿Piensas que se va despues de esta temporada?

Capdevila: Siempre me ha gustado mucho Bartra. Y creo que el partido en el campo del Deportivo deja muy claro que Luis Enrique ha sido muy injusto con él. No digo que tenga que ser titular. Pienso que Piqué-Mascherano es la pareja de centrales titular, pero te diría que, como mínimo, está al mismo nivel que Mathieu y mejor que Vermaelen, aunque el técnico le haya relegado como quinto central de la plantilla. Deseo que no se vaya en verano, pero si lo hace le entenderé perfectamente y lo consideraré un error del club, no suyo.

Mert: Entre Lee y Paik, ¿quién progreso mejor? ¿Qué son sus chances para el Barça B y el primer equipo?

Capdevila: Creo que Lee es mejor y Paik es más regular. A los dos les ha costado volver a tener el ritmo de competiciòn y, de hecho, pienso que ya no lo tendrán hasta la próxima temporada. Estos últimos partidos me ha gustado más Lee pero, curiosamente, pienso que tiene más fácil subir ya al Barça B Paik que Lee.

Mert: ¿Cómo vez el futuro del club con los planes de Bartomeu? por ejemplo el Espai Barça.

Capdevila: No soy optimista sobre el futuro del Barça. Creo que cada vez es más una empresa y cada vez menos un club de fútbol. Cada vez es un club más de cartera que no de cantera. Y, es solo mi opinión, pero no me gusta. Y el Espai Barça me plantea una duda muy importante: para llevarlo a cabo el club debe reducir notablemente su deuda en solo un año y, la verdad, no sé como piensan hacerlo para conseguirlo.

Mert: ¿Crees que Luis Enrique no ve La Masia como un recurso para jugadores del primer equipo pero un recurso para la banca?

Capdevila: Yo creo que Luis Enrique piensa mucho en el presente, pero no tanto en el futuro. Los entrenadores dependen de los resultados y no del trabajo que hacen, tristemente, y por ello o eres un “loco” enamorado como Cruyff o Guardiola, o vas a buscar el rendimiento inmediato. Y si algo hay que tener con la cantera es paciencia, mucha paciencia.

¡Gracias por responder mis preguntas, Josep!

Follow Josep Capdevila on Twitter: @JosepCapdevila

Follow me on Twitter: @BallCirculation

Born in 1995, Alejandro ,,Álex´´ Grimaldo started his football career in 2006 at his hometown club Valencia CF and joined FC Barcelona’s youth 2 years later, aged 13. 2 Years, 11 months and 15 days later, aged 15, he played and started his first professional game of his career for Barcelona B while still playing for Juvenil A.

In the 2012-2013 he got promoted to Barcelona B, alongside Banuz, Ayala, Patric, Miguel Angel, Quintillà (Jordi, Xavi Quintillà’s brother) and Dongou. All of them, except Dongou, left Barcelona B to other clubs. Exactly 2 months later, Grimaldo fulfilled another dream others can only dream of, his debut in the Camp Nou.

Tito Vilanova saw his special talent already at the early stage of his coaching career and started him on the bench in the Joan Gamper Trophy against Sampdoria in 2012. In the late stage of the game number 28 was ready to come on, replacing Carles Planas.

After this huge motivation Grimaldo started his 2012-13 season, his first full season for Barcelona B before his injury, playing 24 games and getting 1957 minutes out of 2160. He missed the game against Alcorcón because of a knee injury and 9 games later he suffered his first huge step down while climbing up to the first team as he teared his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on 23 February 2013 missing the rest of the campaign plus the next season until February. While still being injured, Grimaldo renewed his contract on the 10th of January 2014 until 2016 with an option for another year.

On the 2nd of February 2014, more than a year later he gave his comeback against Zaragoza after replacing ,,Man Of The Match´´ Adama Traoré in the 90th minute. 3 days later after his come back with Barcelona B he debuted with Spain U21 against Barcelona, at the age of only 17.

Barcelona B finished the campaign at the third place with 66 points (Eibar, who were 1st had 71 points) and after a good display, Grimaldo started the preseason with the first team under new coach Luis Enrique, alongside Patric, Bagnack, Diagne, Samper, Halilovic, Munir, Sandro, Nieto, Joan Román, Dongou and Adama.

During Preseason, Grimaldo started the first game against Recreativo (0-1 win), then against Nice, he started on the bench and got subbed in for Alba in the 61th minute. Against Napoli he again started on the bench for the first team, and got subbed in for Alba in the 60th minute, as well against HJK Helsinki.

On the 18th of August 2014 he got another game at the Camp Nou, after replacing Alba in the 76th minute against Club Leon.

After a full preseason with the first team, Grimaldo was also registered for the Champions League ‘B’ list, but did not play or even get called up.

During the 2014-15 campaign Eusebio started to struggle as his individual tactics didn’t work anymore and after 4 years at Barcelona B, he got replaced by Jordi Vinyals after the demanding of Josep Maria Bartomeu. La Masia director Jordi Roura wanted youth coach García Pimienta to overtake as the coach until the end of the season. However, Jordi Vinyals was appointed and he won 2 games out of 18 (12 losses, 4 draws) and Barcelona B got relegated. A horror season for the reserve team and during that horror season, Grimaldo was the point of light and the most consistent Barcelona B player, who deserved promotion the most, alongside Sergi Samper and Adama Traoré.

And while everyone was sure, that Samper and Grimaldo are going to get promoted, Luis Enrique did not count on both wonderkids and promoted no-one to the first team.

After the season ended, Gabri, the assistant of Vinyals started the preseason until Gerard López was appointed, after Bartomeu demanded it, the same thing that happened with Vinyals earlier.

Grimaldo, on eof the most experienced players in the team, was appointed as the first captain.

“My role as a captain? Together with coaches, I have to support the younger players who haven’t experienced certain situations yet.” [vavel]

During Barcelona B’s preseason, the team was unbeaten but struggled against higher teams (Llagostera, Manlleu (4th division)) to score goals. And during the first stage of season, the same struggle continues. (8 goals in 12 games, 1 of them an own goal). The defence this season is good, when the opponent has chances then Ortolá mostly saves them and the team several times a game. Gerard López and his assistant coach García Pimienta also fixed the problem with the corners as last year the corners were like penalties for the opponent.

So far Barcelona B is 15th in the Segunda Division B, with 13 points in 12 games.

After the 1-0 home win against Alcoyano, Grimaldo was asked about the contact with Luis Enrique, as he said that he has no contact with the first team coach. Adama, who was sold to Aston Villa with a buyback option and Halilovic, who is on loan to Gijon said the same thing about Luis Enrique, but no one said about them that he has “attitude problems”, like Grimaldo has them apparently, which is not true.

Grimaldo justifies himself on Twitter: “I feel that you have misunderstood my words, I just want to work hard to grow in the club that helps me grow as a footballer and as a person. As always I will give my all to help #FCB in everything. Visca el Barça!”

Last summer, Barcelona wanted to loan out Grimaldo on the last day of the transfer period, without talking to the player about the move (Gerard Romero).

Grimaldo’s dream was always to succeed at Barcelona, but he sees that he has no future at the club, as Luis Enrique clearly prefers Mathieu (32) and Adriano (31) over him. Adriano, who’s not helping the team anymore since 2012-13, who is injury prone and not on Barcelona standard and Mathieu, a player who’s shaky with the ball on his feet and is already 32 years old. Jordi Alba, who is not the fittest, could always get injured and those two are his replacements.

Since October 2014 Grimaldo wasn’t called up for the first team training anymore, which is why he refused to go on loan to Levante, I think, alongside the fact that the club did not talked with him about their last-minute idea. Grimaldo and everyone who’s watching Barcelona B and following them, clearly knows that under Luis Enrique he won’t have a future at Barcelona. Benfica is chasing for the wonderkid, who can play as a winger and as a central-midfielder too, for the last 2 seasons and they may up snatching him for free this summer.

Grimaldo is the Dani Alves on the left side. A playmaking full-back who is a good dribbler, with a good shooting and passing technique, who can combine very well with his team-mates, a threat in the final third and he’s far from the end-product and will only get better with a good coach, and a team that cares about developing.

If he leaves, which is more than likely, then we won’t have a similiar full-back type like him. Dani Alves is 32 years old and won’t stay for long at Barcelona anymore, Mathieu and Alba are not playmaking full-backs and are not a threat in the final third, Aleix Vidal is a winger converted into a FB and only played as a RB for 6 games, also not a playmaking FB, Sergi Roberto isn’t either. Adriano is deadwood.

Marc Cucurella (Juvenil A, will get promoted next season) is more an Alba-type of full-back. His departure will weaken our team a lot and we will continue our way – acting when it’s too late – Puyol Xavi Adriano Alves.

UPDATE: Grimaldo on RAC1: “I hope that my situation will change and I can continue here for more years. I don’t have a deal with another club. I want to stay here. The club can extend my contract for one more year, but they haven’t told me anything yet.”

In this article I’ll introduce you the three players Luis Enrique called up until yet this season and also players who may deserve it more.

Everyone who follows La Masia & Barça B closely was sure that Sergi Samper, Grimaldo and Adama will escape hell that is the Segunda Division B. Luis Enrique counted on Sandro and Munir and did not explained Adama personally why he doesn’t count on him, which is why he left to Aston Villa. Adama played 2 games for Aston Villa so far and scored 1 goal in the League Cup and caused an own goal in the Premier League. He currently is injured and he was the driving force in the attack in 13/14 as well as 14/15, assisting his team-mates 18 times and scoring 8 times. Despite playing only 16 minutes in the Copa Del Rey against Huesca, he netted in 1 goal and completed 7 out of 7 dribbles.

Luis Enrique also doesn’t count on the left back Álex Grimaldo, who is on the edge of leaving to Benfica, since his contract expires after this season. He hasn’t been called up under Luis Enrique and did not train once with the first team under Luis Enrique so far. Grimaldo is a special type of left back who is rare. He has brilliant build-up play, like Dani Alves for example, good vision and a great shooting and passing technique. Luis Enrique however, trusts Adriano who is past his prime and plays questionably since 3 years now. Jeremy Mathieu is currently Jordi Alba’s main back-up. A player who can’t be more average than an average player. OK final ball, but lacks intelligence in the build-up play and can’t combine either.

And now to Sergi Samper, a player where everyone was sure, that he’ll make it at the first team, but now playing in the 3rd division of Spain, on bad pitches and against players who basically play football for fun and not for their career. Most of them lack intelligence, tactical understanding, technique and fouling like theres no tomorrow. It’s hard for the whole team to adapt to such a league, and Samper did not play on his standards in the first games, but played a great game against L’Hospitalet and he looks like the player we appreciate is back.He was – unlike Adama and Grimaldo – part of the preseason tour and he played an amazing game against L.A. Galaxy. And as a reward he did not got any minutes anymore and Luis Enrique choose Gumbau over him.

But who is that guy who played 3 years ago in the fifth tier of spain and now gave his debut in the Camp Nou?

Born in Campllong, Girona, Gumbau started his senior career at Girona ‘B’, debuting in the fifth league. He played 32 games for the Gironaistas, scoring 7 goals. After 2 years at Girona ‘B’ FC Barcelona has signed the young catalan for 3 years and the B team. In 2014/15 he played a disastrous season for the Barcelona ‘B’ and was one of a few players, alongside the two coaches (Eusebio and Vinyals) who have been “key” to the relegation of Barcelona ‘B’ to the Segunda Division – Grup III.

I wanted to name a few positives about Gumbau’s play but he honestely has no positives in his game. I watched him for over 40 games now and his performances is even to bad for the 3rd division. Luis Enrique said he is an interesting player, an he can play as a pivot, which would be suicide as he loses possession several times a game, most of the time in dangerous areas, he gets caught out of position constantly, he has bad decision making, as well as bad passing and vision. Lucho also added that he can play as an attacking player, which is also a very questionable statement, since Gumbau has no agility or dribbling ability, as well as already said bad decision making, bad dribbling and bad passing. His shooting from distance is also bad.

Juan Cámara:

Born in Jaén, Andalusia, he started his career at Villarreal C and after a year he played for Villarreal B, where he stayed for two years until he was signed by Barcelona in the 2014/15 season. Cámara was used as a central midfielder, as well as a left winger. He is OK as a midfielder, but nothing more than average, same goes for him as a left winger. He has a strong, powerful shot, but his accuracy is bad, as well as his decision making. In 80% of the time, where another player is in a better position he tries to shoot from a tight or impossible angle and either skies it, or shoots directly at the goalkeeper. OK squad player for Barcelona ‘B’, but far away from being called up for the first team.

José Aurelio Suárez:

The goalkeeper from Gijón, Luis Enrique’s home-town, played for his hometown club CD Roces until he moved to La Masia in 2011. After several years he gave his debut in January 2015, after Jordi Vinyals has suprisingly dropped Adrían Ortolá. He played 17 games for Barcelona ‘B’ and is now again the second-choice goalkeeper behind Ortolá under Gerard López. José Suárez is a good goalkeeper, even though I prefer Ortolá over him, since Suárez has beyond average ball distribution. Ortolá is not a perfect keeper-sweeper, but has better footwork than the 19 year young asturian and is in my opinion also better on the line, saving some impossible shots from distance as well as from short-range, but both of them are great goalkeepers.

Who should have been directly promoted to the first team at the start of the season?

• Sergi Samper: Samper’s natural position is the defensive midfield, a position that will be blocked for the next 5-6 years by Sergio Busquets, but Samper has something what Busquets does not have: the mobility, which is why Luis Enrique should have tried Samper in the pre-season as a central-midfielder but Lucho prefers a runner like Rakitic there, who can cover a lot of space. Even though Busquets blocks the position, Samper still could get minutes and can be called up since Luis Enrique currently uses Gumbau as a Busquets-replacement.

• Álex Grimaldo: Dani Alves on the left side. Has everything to succeed at the first team, apart from the trust of the first team coach and even though I’m very mad at the situation he’ll most likely leave after this season.

• Adama Traoré: An insane winger, physically miles above a lot of wingers in La Liga, miles above a lot of wingers in La Liga in terms of dribbling and he was Eusebio’s/Vinyals game-changer and was highly responsible of the success of Barcelona ‘B’ in the 2013/14 season. Why I was not happy how Eusebio used Adama can be read here: http://bit.ly/1yQL1bT

Players who deserve to train with the first team and should be tried out in Copa del Rey games / next season:

• David Babunski: David Babunski was benched for 2 years under Eusebio and Vinyals, despite being a very talented midfielder, with great dribbling, passing and vision. Now, under Gerard López he finally got the trust of a coach and the trust of the coach gets rewarded with great perfomances of the macedonian.

• Rodrigo Tarín: A bit too early to train with the first team regulary, but the first team coach next season should have an eye on the young centre-back. Despite not having the great passing technique of Robert Costa, he is reponsible to break up attacks of the opponent team several times a game, great positioning and intelligent when he drives forward.

• Godswill Ekpolo: The nigerian right-back came back after a horrific injury and is now fully fit and plays such a good season so far, that he made Gerard López to use Palencia as a LB, so Godswill can play his favorite position. Godswill, who can also play as a centre-back, is a special-type of full-back as he can defend very good and can be used as a defensive full-back or in a 3 at the back like his idol Eric Abidal. But only because he is a great defender it doesn’t mean he can’t go forward. His crosses are very accurate and he makes great runs. He also has a very powerful shot and he is very strong.

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BallCirculation

Recently I see a lot of hate on the second choice Goalkeeper of Barcelona, Marc-André Ter Stegen. Most of the criticism is very questionable and simply makes – no sense at all.

But what happened? For those, who don’t know it already, Florenzi scored a wonder goal against Barcelona in the Champions League Group Stages. He saw that Ter Stegen was off the line, and he decided to try his luck from 53 metres.

Many of those, who criticise Ter Stegen said, he shouldn’t should be off the line, but this is how Barcelona and almost every club in modern football plays. Every elite club has a Keeper-Sweeper as a Goalkeeper. And many Top 4 or 5 clubs are playing with a Sweeper-Keeper or atleast with some sorts of sweeping.

But why?

Coaches more and more want to keep possession, playing it out of the back-four savely and build up the play from the defence. A Sweeper-Keeper helps the back-four and the team in general a lot more. When you play with a high-line like Barcelona, Rayo Vallecano or Bayern for example does, you have to play with a fifth defender and that defender is also a Goalkeeper: The Sweeper-Keeper. With a high defensive line you make the pitch smaller for the opponent and it helps regaining possesion and force the opponent to make mistakes/losing possession. If they, and that is really hard to do, can calmly build up an attack while being under huge pressure the Sweeper-Keeper in his role is extremely important, as it’s their duty to break up the (counter)-attack by intercepting the ball. Ter Stegen is the definition of a Sweeper-Keeper, Bravo is not, but he still has to play this role. He is also off the line, like Ter Stegen and he also tries to build-up the play from the defence, even tho it’s not as contributing as when it Ter-Stegen does.

The Barcelona coach said the following about Florenzi’s goal: “Roma’s goal is my fault, we tell our keepers to play like that. I guess they won’t score another one like this against us.”

Let’s for example analyze an opportunity from Málaga, while Claudio Bravo herded the goal:

Juankar shot only goes inches over the bar. Bravo’s reaction says it all, he was relieved that this shot did not went in.

Players often look up if the goalkeeper is off his line and are trying their luck from long-range. Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn’t. Iñigo Martínez could celebrate these kind of goals twice in his career:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arEDWgSDLvM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15IT1jC3rWg

You, as a goalkeeper simply can’t do anything against it. And also have in mind, that the coach demands this from his goalkeeper.

Ter Stegen recently conceded two longe-range strikes, and one of them was a wonder goal. For the other one you can criticise him for it, because he tried to clear the ball via a heading interception, but it landed in San José’s foot who didn’t took long to try his luck – and he scored. The best goalkeeper in the world, and the third place in the Ballon d’Or, Manuel Neuer conceded in his Schalke 04 days the exact same goal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz1tdIvntmw

Trying to intercepting the ball with your head is always a hard matter, simply because you can’t clear it good to the left or to the right, which means it often goes just centrally straight and you have to take the risk that It could end up by an opponent’s player who only waits to blast it into the net. A clearance with the foot is too risky as you could easily receive the red card.

Just to name another goalkeeper, not because he played and captained Real Madrid for over a decade, but because he is the definiton of a reactive GK: Iker Casillas. He simply does not come off his line and that caused a lot of dodgy goals. His decision making isn’t modern either, best example is probably the goal he conceded in the Champions league final: Goes out, doesn’t know if it was a good idea, wants to go on the line again – and concedes.

I did not write the article to aimlessy praise Ter Stegen. I only want to show some of the people that you can’t nail on the goal on Ter Stegen, because thats what the coach requires from him.

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BallCirculation

A lot of People wanting Marco Reus at Barça but the first question I have is:

Where should he fit in? I saw a lot of people putting him into the RW spot, and some of them even as a attacking midfielder, which was pure cringe for me.

When people thinking about Marco Reus they think about his great pace, his amazing dribbling abilities and his accurate passes through the opponents defence and his fancy hair. It is true that he can lure the defenders out of position with his skillful feets, he is well known for how he is putting the ball putting the ball besides the defender and then simply outpacing him. Sounds great, eh? Yes, it does, but Reus is not perfect.

Even tho he has genius moments, his ball contact and especially how he is controlling the ball is extremely inconsistent. Even tho he may can controll the pass more than well, but at the other moment even easy passes causes him trouble and bouncing away and the attack ends fast because he firstly has to controll the ball correctly.

In that time the defenders already organized themselfs again. His technical mistakes mostly getting ignored.

One of the thing which is even more a problem is that he can’t play in tight spaces. Whether with combination play or else. One of his biggest problems is that he is trying to constantly getting forward, but Barça is a team, who needs to wait for the moment, something Reus don’t know well. He tries to finish his actions fast, he also cant’ fall deep to help in the build up play. Again something which is extremely important for our game. He mostly only plays vertical passes and he has no patience and calmness to use the spaces defenders left. Reus is a good combination player, especially for fast one-two passes, but only if he does have space which he will not get in our team. We need players, who are good in a collective and in tight spaces, like Iniesta does for example easily.

If we would sign Reus we only would sign a good individual player with no bond to our team.
I already wrote a little bit about Pjanic (here: https://twitter.com/CatalanBaller/status/530524247220051969), who should be our transfer target no 1, if the ban ends.

Adama Traore came in 04/05 at the age of 8 from CE L’Hospitalet to La Masia. At the Age Of 17 years 8 months and 11 days he debuted for Barça B. He came in for Frank Bagnack in the 78. Minute. Only 1 month later he had his debut in La Liga, playing for the first team 7 minutes and in these minutes he came through 2 Granada defenders and shoots, but the shot was not accurate enough to beat Granada’s Roberto Fernandez. Another month later Adama Traore was used UEFA Champions League against Ajax (8 minutes played). In his first season he wasn’t a starter under Eusebio, which a lot of people who knew Adama’s huge talent criticized because a player like Dani Nieto (now SD Eibar) was more than limited in his game, while Adama Traore is a game changer with his extremely physical, pacy game. During the season Adama was used quite more often (played 6 time as a starter and wasn’t changed) than at the beginning, but at the end of the season he wasn’t used as a starter a lot again.

He had 26 games in his first season for Barça B (1.462 minutes (16,2 full matches)) and scored 5 goals and assisted 4 and was highly praised by La Masia & Barça B follower due to his way to break through the opponent’s defence with his phyiscal, pace and ability of dribble runs.

He still lacks a few things like vision, passing and sometimes also the ball control because of his astronomical speed.

In the 14/15 season he was 2 times not in the squad, but apart from that he played all other 9 games over the full 90. minutes while assisting his team-mates 6 times and netting in a goal by himself one time.

Everything sounds great, but when you follow La Masia and our second team you know that Eusebio is a rather worse coach who doesn’t even follow our philosophy and he is hated by everyone – Everyone apart from our board.

You may ask yourself now, why? Because Adama has 6 assist and 1 goal in 9 games, surely it must be good but the problem is that Eusebio leaves him completely alone on the right wing. Basically if he gets the ball, 3-4 other players trying to regain the ball because if Adama starts sprinting you only can help yourself with a foul, otherwise it is mostly impossible for the opponent’s defence to stop him.

Eusebio isolates Adama on the wing. The other teams know how dangerous he is and constantly mark him by 3 or 4 players. The Midfield of Barça B and the attack making runs into the box when Adama beats several defenders to get a goal scoring opportunity. Eusebio basically counts on Adama to dribble through 3-4 defenders but with that kind of play he doesn’t grow in a collective team. The only combination play he has is with the RB. No Midfield, nothing.

Eusebio want to see an individual play by all our players, but mostly by Adama. It may be good for winning, but at the end it’s a huge problem for Adama’s development who gets forced to depend on his individual play rather than playing as a team.

In a few weeks he’ll probably renew his contract and will get promoted to the first Team. The best winger in the Liga Adelante, and better than most of the wingers in La Liga. But in the first squad he has to grow in a collective, because under Eusebio he don’t get that.

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Thanks to: @euleri

Barca, in yellow and red won against Athletic in Green-white and red. Neymar scored both after Messi assisting both goals of the young brazilian. Both goals were initiated by Sergio Busquets after winning the ball against Laporte twice. Laporte is one of the best CB in the league defendingwise and holding on the ball.

The first half was good, but not perfect. Former Juvenil A Striker Munir El Haddadi had plenty of chances. He did score a goal, but he was called back by the ref David Fernández Borbalán (who was horrible the whole game), even tho it was not offside. However, Munir was pretty nervous but he showed Enrique again why he should count on him. Great runs, great at tracking back.

The only thing about the game that wasn’t perfect was finishing the chances. Montoya ran down the wing and passed it great into the back of the defence (which Dani Alves rarely does even tho it’s the most effective way to score goals), Pedro shoots but then again he doesn’t score. Sadly something which he doesn’t do anymore, finishing his chances, but this is almost normal for the Barcelona Jugadors. Last year under Tata Martino it was even worse.

However it seems like the Defenders Of the Blaugrana colours are getting a wake up in the last 30 minutes. Plenty of chances and again it was the best Player in the world who made defenders struggle who assisted Neymar.

Neymar (who scored 2 with 3 shots) linked up well with Neymar. Always when Neymar comes in Barca transform themself into something different. Neymar is with only 22 years old Brazil. This team would’ve struggled a lot both in friendlies and in the World Cup (qualifies) if they would’ve playing without Neymar. He looks very, very sprightly this season, same goes for Messi obviously, something Barcelona have missed last season a lot.

But lets face something which suprises me a lot. We have played 3 games this season and we have THREE clean sheets. Athletic Club is the first team to shoot on target with only 2 shots. As reference: Barcelona had 8 shots on target in this game. Mathieu is crucial for our defence. He is extremeley fast, knows how to clear the ball and is SUPERB on the ball. His vision and his long passes pleased me A LOT. Second guy who I have to praise is La Masia student Martin Montoya. He kept one of the best dribblers in the league Iker Muniain almost the whole game quiet. Muniain had 60 touches, which seems much but he did almost nothing in this game, apart the run in Min 1′ and his run where Mathieu did a brilliant tackling but that was not the business of Montoya since Muniain came from the middle. Montoya was great defensivewise and smart in attack. A lot of people critizing him which I can’t understand, but if you want to see crosses the whole time Dani Alves might be the more enjoyable player for you. The other fullback, Jordi Alba was also very good. Also good defendingwise and even better in attack. He outpaced De Marcos (Who is extremely fast too) the whole time and created some good chances. Bravo needed to save 2 shots, but they weren’t that hard to save. He did a good job tho, but I feel sad about Ter-Stegen because he is better than Bravo in everything.

Rakitic was again crucial for our game, won 3 tackles, played some very good through balls to Munir. Pique also played a good game after he needed to replace Javier Mascherano in the late first half.

Overall I am happy about this game, Athletic is an unpleasant opponent.

Things I didn’t liked:

finishing the chances
(Even tho I don’t like it to write) Pedro.

Hello guys and welcome to my first blog entry.

Today I’ll begin my blog with a game between my favourite Clubs in Football:
The small Rayo Vallecano and the mighty FC Barcelona.

Many of you may not even know Rayo Vallecano. It is one of the four clubs in La Liga who are from Madrid, it is the club with the least budget (7 mio) and they are still successful under one of the most underrated Coaches in the world: Paco Jémez.

But who is he? He played in his career as a centre back for clubs like Depor, Zaragoza, Córdoba, Murcia, Lugo and of course Rayo Vallecano (55 games). He played 297 La Liga games and retired 2006. One year later he became a manager for RSD Alcalá, another small club of Madrid.

He later moved on to his old club Córdoba, Cartagena, Las Palmas, then came back
to Córdoba again and now since 2012 he is the coach of Rayo Vallecano.

What people mostly appraise about him is the fact that he don’t care who he trains. Normally coaches who coaching a small club with such a small budget like Rayo would rather play defensively-minded because they don’t want to go back to the Segunda Division so easily.

But Paco Jeméz is not like that. He plays very attacking-minded with a superb pressing. In his first season he marched through La Liga and Rayo got the 8. Place, which means that Rayo would play in the Europa League, but the UEFA didn’t gave them a license which is a shame. For them the 9. Place will get qualified which was FC Sevilla who won the Europa League afterwards.

When people watching Rayo they see more than a small club, it is a club full of passion. When you watch Rayo you’ll see a lot of similarities to Barca. Both playing aggressive pressing, both want possession, both playing very attacking minded. But what happens when both teams meet each other?

I analyzed the game between them (21/09/2013)

The begining of the game was very fast and Rayo directly began with their typical high pressing.

Barcelona didn’t know exactly what to do since their midfield is to far away and Rayo covering their players. They decided to play it to the right side where Piqué is. Piqué is playing a non-accurat pass because of the high pressing and they ended up losing possesion. Viera conquers the ball with his speed but
played a bad cross despite there were better options.

One difference between Barca and Rayo is that Rayo feel actually comfortable on the wings, while Barca doesn’t and attacking through the middle.

2 Minutes later the same attack was built by Rayo. Cross from the wing, Piqué misestimate it and Rayo has their chance with a header. Valdes must clear it and he is noticeably angry which is more than understandable.

Barcelona is trying hard to built an attack but it is hard since Rayo man-marking everytime.

Almost everytime when Rayo has the ball as many as players are coming to the player who has the Ball. They combine in a tight area to bring up as many as Barca players in that area and then trying to play it fast to the other side.

Barcelona didn’t came the whole first half into the game. Individually Barca has the stronger players but the first half was a tactial disaster. Bad passes everywhere, losing posession to quick. Not interegating Messi. But when they do it will be dangerous.

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The first half of Barca was full of errors. If they didn’t have the individual class that would have ended not well. Rayo got a penalty in the 36. Minute and Victor Valdes is the one who saves Barca again.

After the Half Time Barca came back and they played that game which was criticised a lot of Tata Martino. Their Counter playing. Barca wins the ball, Cesc runs (well, okay, more than faster walking) Pedro starts running into the six yard box and he scores again.

And 20 minutes later the same attack goes on and Rayo conceding again.

What is my résumé of this game?

Rayo could have get here at least one point but made too much errors in the defensive and not using their chances in the finish. They played well, tactical great, attacking-minded like they always do. But at the end they were got counter-attacked 4 times to much. They needed to switch their game faster after losing possession and they would have done more great. But at the end they also won a bit. You may ask why? Because this was the second time in 6 years where Barca had less possession than their opponent (Rayo: 54%, Barca 46%).

If you just watch at the result you’d have thing Barcelona crushed Rayo Vallecano but at the end the small Barcelona had made it for the mighty FC Barcelona extremely hard to score and this game was only decided by individually class.

Thank you for reading and sorry for the typos.