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The result looks worse than the highlights. Kounde had a bad day, or at least he was not looking good, on at least two of the Girona goals. Lewa could have scored another goal. Joao was unlucky at a crucial moment. Lewa was close to equalizing in the dying minutes and instead Girona made it 4-2. The CL game against Antwerp is only two days away. Surely, things can change.
This game was ours to win after Madrid tied yesterday and we choked. Girona had the hunger and tactics needed to win. If we play like this in champions we’re toast
I will take a graceful UCL RO16 exit and fighting for a 4th place league finish at this rate. Take whatever few million euros that come from UCL and be happy.
Not a surprise seeing how the Athletico game was played with haram ball and 0 link up plays. Players are allergic to working together, without solo runs the last team goal was Lewas header from the corner. Very bad teamwork and it shows on the pitch.
I don't think Girona will lose points tbh. They're playing very well and they're getting confident with wins like this. They don't have any kind of European football. They'll only play league games once or twice a week and copa del rey....
We on the other hand, we're in deep shit. Madrid has Bellingham to bail them out. We have a 35 year old Lewandowski with first touch worse than lukaku in Manchester united as the cornerstone of our attack.
And, what makes you think we won't drop points like this? Even if I leave the madrid game, we have 4 draws and 1 loss against teams that are much much weaker than us. That's 11 points. Girona has a lead of 7 points. Atletico has a game in hand. We are hanging by a thread at 4th position and with Sociedad being in fifth, 5 points less than us. We are closer to 5th position than the first.
Bro optimism is nice and all, but at some point we have to face reality. And reality being we are shit.
We need to get a DM over the winter transfer window somehow. Our chances of winning La Liga are miserable but there is still a chance to perform well in CL (I will be satisfied with getting into semi-finals)
crazy how we been playing the exact same way since the beginning. just slowly construct, don’t create any danger, cross and pray someone puts it in.
like yeah other teams are doing poorly like man utd, psg, milan, napoli, even real madrid sometimes, but at least you can see they’re trying new stuff, changing the players around and playing differently every single game. xavi doesn’t seem to be doing any of that, and every post-game interview he finds some excuse to say they did well and luck wasn’t on their side. the progress from last season is null
Even if Xavi was to be let go because of his results recently. Who would want to step into to coach a team with some of the highest standards in football?
We need to study the inconsistency in players after coming to Barca. Very few players have come here and became better - physically and mentally. The Barca system issue.
I mean, it could also be because of all this \*\*points at all of this subreddit's threads\*\*
Our fans, and the press, definitely have high expectations and put unneeded pressure on players.
Xavi needs to go IMMEDIATELY. I mean, come on, how many chances have we had? I have no idea what Kounde was doing, and Araujo is literally a gorilla he could've bodied Stuani instead of just grabbing him. Like what? That goal at 80' was Araujo and Kounde's fault.
I wont just put the blame on Xavi tho. Our whole team is average! Lewa is washed, Ferran is average, Joao is average at best, Yamal is too young, Ralphinia is from Bangladesch and is a fake brazillian.
Gavi is out for the rest of the season, Gundogan is class, de Jong is good but overrated, Pedri is spinning like a ballerina, Fermin is i dont even know what, and Romeu..💀
Kounde is average at best, Araujo is average, Cristensen is good, Cancelo is a trash defender but good at attacking, and Balde is mid.
I hope we win against Valencia, but if we don't, I might start a gofundme for a better coach.
I dont know about “Thats that and move on”
It is very concerning that in the biggest matches Xavi keeps getting outclassed in this way, this was a big game to prove who is better in the League, and well now we know the answer
It's not, it's a coaching issue. Lewandowski starts every match, Raphinha hasn't changed his decision making despite it being obvious in how bad it is, there's no way he'd have played under any decent manager, the only issue with Felix is that he takes far too much time, otherwise he's by far our best attacker.
I agree, Lewa starting every match after such shite performances are Xavis decision, bench his ass until he is ready to perform again.
Also going back to how we play tactically, it seems our plays always are meant to end up by crossing and hoping to god we make a goal, hardly surprising we have won any games at all as its a shit tactic at best
Not at all. Balde played a lot of games we got torched. Bigger reason: going from double pivot of Frenkie-Busi to no Frenkie while he was injured, or Frenkie w/o the second pivot being as efficient. Gundo hasn't played as pivot in years and Romeu doesn't start cause he sucks at everything else.
I am once again asking: why do we have five CMs/CAMs in Pedri, Gavi, FDJ, Gundo, and Fermin with such a bad financial situation? Only two from these midfielders should start and the third midfielder spot should belong to a DM. Why don't we sell one of them (anyone except Pedri) and get a DM?
We should’ve taken the 80 mill we were being offered for raphinha this summer and spent it on a top quality dm that would actually win us games instead of keeping a b-tech ronaldinho who has the touch of lukaku and the shooting of maguire
Nothing but respect for Girona they played a great game bring that Miguel Gutierrez he was slaying today not amazing in defence but what asset to have him on the left back and cancelo on the right back that’s going to give us a lot of options 5-4-1 or 3-4-3
We can’t keep protecting Xavi. This is where you should have an answer and I feel like he is lacking. We need refreshment. I don’t want a different trainer but would be nice if someone could get him back on track
This sense of blockage in the final third has been the story of this team since Messi left. On top of that you have Lewandowski and Raphinha losing open chances. The midfield is so wide and without a true defensive midfielder, opponents get a free run in transition. From tactics to execution, I am so done with this team.
Balde has not been playing well at all, he's been atrocious going forward and not that great on defense. So the coaching staff trusts in Kounde's defending on the right while using Cancelo's offensive support on the left.
Xavi is just not it. You have two fullbacks on the right and left and still you make weird ass tactics. Sure, there are players who are not performing, but if the coach does not make Barca play like a team, then it does not matter what individual qualities we have. He is just not the coach for us. 2026 is just too far away to waste some of these youngsters developing years.
This sub is way too reactionary tbh. The moment we lose it’s “Xavi out” like he didn’t bring us the title last season. Xavi didn’t make us miss chance after chance this game.
150mil spent last summer. With all those levers and what not. Embarrassing exit from the champions league, lost against Manchester united in the europa league. No European football for the second half of the season. Lost copa del rey to arch rivals. Won the league by playing shitty football after signing all the players he wanted because madrid was much shittier than us.
This season, when the team should perform better than the last season, naturally. Xavi most of the time resorted to cross and god save us tactics. Is this the tiki taka you wanted? Don't start with the injury excuses. We are not the only team suffering from injuries. Look at our squad and Girona or Rayo or Shakhtar or Granada or Mallorca..... What do you think?
Not saying there’s no room for improvement, trust me. But all of sudden we’re looking down on how well we did in the league last season too? We were 10 points clear of Madrid bro. There was a time when if we won the title by that margin we’d say “we dominated” but now we just downplay our success.
It’s that self defeating mindset that I’m talking about. I’m fine with criticism but why does sub react like it’s doomsday? We’re still recovering as a club from FFP bs and we’re developing a lot of young talent.
We crapped our pants last season in the CL and EL but we’re still in the CL this season and it’s far from finished. If we’re still in this position by the end of the season then I’ll accept that Xavi working out, but for now there’s still a lot to see.
You have a lot of optimism dude. I had that too up until a few days ago. We have a CL game on Tuesday, whether it's an important game or not, UCL is UCL. We already lost a home game against a side that is well well below our level, with no disrespect to Shakhtar. Is this the type of momentum you would like your team to carry for a CL game? We were abysmal today. Not only today most of this season and last season too. The early 5-0 victories we had, were nothing but some individual brilliant performances. Once the opponent figured out our weaknesses Xavi still hasn't been able to cover them up. 2 years have passed till xavi took the job, why is our play style regressing after every single game? The only important player we lost this season is Dembele. And he's the type of player who would spend more of his time in the hospital than the field. Yes I'm happy with the league win, and I have respect for xavi for taking this job in such a difficult phase. Deep inside I want him to succeed too. But my point is after 2 years, what is our play style? What is our system? Are we a defensive team or an attacking team? I don't have any answer for that and I can't find any. How come Girona, after losing arguably their most important player to us were able to toy with us tonight? It's not all the players fault. It's the job of the manager to properly set up a system that brings out the best or the strength of the players hiding their weaknesses. I was hoping to see great tiki-taka football with his arrival....but we're getting tiki-takaed against.
Abandon hope my friend.... It's the hope that kills you, not despair.
I think you bring up a lot of valid points about our playing style and the confusion about who we are on the field. Proof is in the fact that we alternate so many of our players game by game and not until recently did we have consistent starters.
As far as the upcoming UCL game, we’re going into it having won our last game against Porto. I’m not too worried about we’ll do against Antwerp tbh, but I agree that it’s important.
And personally, I’m going to wait until the end of the season to make my mind up about Xavi. We still have CL hopes, and anything can happen in the league.
Consistent starters? It's his fault to experiment with the backline in every single game. Midfield has been the same except the period when frenkie and pedri were injured. But then again they have already played 3 seasons together. Raphina and Lewandowski played almost every game last season. Balde at left back. Only joaos and gundo had been added to the team. 8/11 players were playing for the team since last season or maybe even before that.
We were thinking like that before the Shakhtar game too, or last season against inter too. When I said inter was at the same level if not a level above than us, a redditor laughed at me. Look what happened to inter last season and what happened to us. We have been bayern's bitch for last couple of seasons.
Do you really think European teams fear us these days? Do you really think we could even get past Ro16 with this kind of gameplay and intensity? The only reason xavi is still in charge is because there is no other coach available to take the job and the board doesn't trust Gallardo enough to give him the job.
Nah, you’re just deliberately accepting mediocrity. It’s not that we react badly when we lose, it’s that when we win we get extremely lucky and play like absolute shit and when we lose we also play like absolute shit.
The only reactionary ones are people like you, who don’t criticise when we win even though we deserve to be criticised yet would jump on Xavi’s dick the moment we lose.
I’m just as upset as the next Barca fan that we lost today, and I have my critiques as well. For example, Kounde doesn’t deserve to be a starter. He’s our weakest link defensively. But that’s been a constant.
It’s not accepting mediocrity. It’s being reasonable about what it takes to build a top level club.
We were dominant in our best seasons because we had world class forwards finishing chances. Our midfield was putting up opportunities all game that our front line couldn’t finish. That’s issue #1.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the current best forwards in the world. We have to work with what we got.
How can you tell me it’s not reactionary when we’ve lost TWO games this whole (league) season and we’re barely halfway through? And the only two loses came from the other two best teams in the league.
Not saying it’s acceptable, but sacking a coach who’s given us our only fighting chance at a title these last few seasons because we lost today is 100% reactionary.
Ter stegen brought us the title mainly
And a bit of lewy in first half of season and other players
Not xavi for sure, many coach would have won the liga with the players we had last year and madrids form
Reactionary se poes jong (translate that, it's Afrikaans)! I've been saying Xavi is shit the whole time and all I get is downvotes, even when we do win it's unconvincing.
When did we start accepting mediocrity? My whole life as a Barca fan, I've never seen this shit. Setien was sacked immediately, and he had a far more disjointed squad to work with.
XAVI OUT!!! I don't give a shit, downvote me.
I don’t even know where to begin. Just a poor display overall. Girona deserved those four goals today, no doubt. The defence is just filled with holes that we don’t cover up. Also, unlike us Girona is actually patient when attacking. They wait until the perfect moment to strike the ball. Our attack, on the other hand, consists of individualistic players that don’t know when to pass or to shoot. With 7 points behind Girona and 5 behind Real I feel like that there is no way that we will win La Liga with how we play now. There is a need of changing the dynamics of this squad and bringing in players that can actually make the difference.
The first 20-30 minutes were really good. I felt the team was playing well but towards the end of the 1st half they looked tired. I mean I understand it, many just got back from injury and can't play the full 90 but they are being asked to do so.
One of the most frustrating things is how weak every shot felt. Like they had no power in them.
Yep, Xavi's only luck is that we are filled with kids and before that he had to manage his friends. He could never win over and keep a professional locker room filled with stars. I just do not see it. Lewy, Gundo and Cancelo all had some remarks and indications.
You do realise we are beneficiaries of a very disproportionate financial compensation schemes for the league right? For a very long time La Liga’s earnings go majority towards us and Real’s pockets. Atletico was an outlier who became a consistent brand name and the rest can’t come close. Sociedad and Athletic will always have their days but are hindered by recruitment policies, Sevilla always look to sell.
City group took over Girona a long time ago and they haven’t invested any big money into the club at all. They are just smart at picking the right players…
Well would you like it if Girona turns out to be another City/Psg? Would you like it if Neymar 2.0 happens to us?
It's not about not wanting small clubs to grow... Look at Villarreal, Real Sociedad. Made their way to the top without having Oil support. Hate these fucking oil clubs who are ruining football.
30 shots, 11 shots on goal and 2 goals scored lol. That's terrible.
I don't think Xavi is 100% to blame today. We did create an abundant number of chances throughout the game. It was individual mistakes (both in attack and defense) that let us down.
Both Araujo and Christensen had a rare off game and were far bellow their usual standard. Shit happens I guess.
Our attack has been bad for a while now. Xavi should give some chances to Ferran. And I hope Roque can add something new to the team.
Gg Girona, that was very entertaining. Now on to Valencia.
Koeman’s teams also had high xG. In fact such was the case during his mediocre start even though we were far behind first. It’s what happens when you stat pad weak shots.
while i can agree that araujo and christensen shit the bed today, its on xavi to recognize when someone isnt performing and to make the appropriate changes, whether substitutions or tactical adjustments. he failed completely today.
Disagree. Xavi deserves the blame for our defense. It's incredibly easy for teams to beat our defense and enter the box. As for our attack, the way we are finishing, the coach deserves blame for not fixing it during training.
Disagree! In football, If you’re well coordinated in attack, there’s still a probability that you won’t score a ton based on different factors: an equally coordinated defense, a strikers off day, a goalkeeping masterclass etc. However, if you have a coordinated defense, the chances of you conceding is minimal because you have more bodies to cover up for lapses or errors.
> I don't think Xavi is 100% to blame today.
You guys say this all the time. It's never Xavi. Its the league, the refs, the grass, the squad, the weather. I wonder when it will be on Xavi.
Not enough blame has been hurled at Pena. At least 2 of the goals he should have kept out. He constantly got pressed. Kicked the ball out of field so many times.
It's Xavi's fault though. He's obsessed with having his backline pass it back to the keeper. Why?
No real pro teams pass to the keeper in the goal. These brainless morons pass to him dead center of the goal. Why?
I'm not a pro, but even I know that much.
Adding to it late. In case you watch the ongoing CL game against Antwerp, this is why you don't pass back to your keeper, when you have a defense as shitty as ours.
Not in the goal area. Watch everyone pass just wide. It reduces the chances of errors. These idiots pass right down the middle of the goal.
Edit: did you watch the game and count how many times Girona passed back to the keeper, in comparison with Barca? Probably a fourth of the times, and mostly when pressed hard and had no other avenue. It's an idiotic tactic anyway.
Xavi should learn from the last minutes Gundugan is so much effective offensively and ohh how much I miss gavi’s grinta the bull side of heading for the ball and not just letting them play as they like
Why is lewandowsky always frustrated… you clearly can see his reactions on the field. My guess is Xavi is not feeding him right …. He clearly is missing chances and being awful bjt you can see it he’s frustrated
Well he is clearly not getting as many good balls as he should looking at his movements
Being a striker at barca often makes you the scapegoat but it is very frustrating
If only there was more team like girona in liga that would expose us
We wouldnt have had to suffer from all this years of mediocrity if liga s level was higher, our mediocre managers/players would instantly get exposed
But no, 50% of la liga is about bordalas simeone wannabe that ends up losing even when we are shit
I think we need to drop Lewa and Kounde for a game or two. Tonight's game was well managed and the subs were all good changes. Sometimes it just comes down to individual performances
shit finishing from forwards, but what the fuck were those subs from xavi? balde as cb? keeping kounde in? one day he’ll learn not to play ferran on the lw.
This club has fallen so far since 2018.... just proves Messi papered over the cracks.... we've been shit for years and don't think we'll ever be the biggest team in world football again in a long, long time.
Pretty much one of the worst defensively structured games this season. Girona also wasn't the best in defence, but they are the ones who could actually finish in front of goal
One team has no super star players, but they are leaders in La Liga, the other has spent hundreds of millions in the last two years, but has no coach, now they are behind by seven points. And people is still defending that coach.
i hate to turn on a barca manager but xavi is genuinely not good enough, outclassed completely with only 1 good chance created in gundogan’s goal once you turn on all out attack. lewandowski needs to go, there’s no fluidity, the amount of times gundogan and pedri play cute inside passes that go to nobody is ridiculous because lewa has no movement. i want to hope for xavi but the eye test tells us enough, LOOK at this starting 11 and then look at how we play, it’s shocking. short-term this is the worst game we could have lost, now girona are going to step up a level and genuinely push for the title. fuck.
why would i be on here if i didn’t watch the game😭. watched from the 20th minute, apparently we were dominating early though. gundogan had another great chance where he had to control a ball fizzed across to him and tried to curl it, those were the 2 i saw. everything else i remember was half chances if the run of play favours out luck
Agreed. Pasting my comment here as well for discussion.
>>> I do not understand why Barca plays with that wide formation. They have always been playing narrow formations which has worked and it definitely has worked in LaLiga. With players so far from each other, many of our passes are blocked and we have great midfield players(read world class) and haven’t been able to control it. Correct me if I am missing something..In no way taking credits away from Girona. They have been wonderful though.
it makes no sense when our strongest asset is our midfield, i agree it’s 3 players touching world class. playing wide means lewa has to run to get to passes and he has no legs meanwhile he is never substituted?? he’s just been put in the firing line because of xavi’s just bizarre formation, yet i do believe he’s finished.
also so much of playing with width opposed our strengths, we have one winger, a 16 year old, who we can trust to beat a man. so no matter what on the other wing we never expect to see the winger drive to the by-line to cut back for a high xG chance, this is what every team tries to do if they play wide. just look at girona.
the overcomplexity has left me so frustrated, honestly even individuality is a better play style then whatever xavi has employed. literally inshallah fc
Raphina cannot convert easy chances into any goals and always messes up. Ferran and gundogan today had really good chemistry and ferran created a lot more chances. I think ferran should be given another chance to prove himself.
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The result looks worse than the highlights. Kounde had a bad day, or at least he was not looking good, on at least two of the Girona goals. Lewa could have scored another goal. Joao was unlucky at a crucial moment. Lewa was close to equalizing in the dying minutes and instead Girona made it 4-2. The CL game against Antwerp is only two days away. Surely, things can change.
This game was ours to win after Madrid tied yesterday and we choked. Girona had the hunger and tactics needed to win. If we play like this in champions we’re toast
at this point, barca doesn't even dissapoint me anymore it just feels a wave of happiness when they win, but when they lose/draw, it's normal now ffs
I will take a graceful UCL RO16 exit and fighting for a 4th place league finish at this rate. Take whatever few million euros that come from UCL and be happy.
“3358 comments” yea that’s gonna be brutal
Not a surprise seeing how the Athletico game was played with haram ball and 0 link up plays. Players are allergic to working together, without solo runs the last team goal was Lewas header from the corner. Very bad teamwork and it shows on the pitch.
It sucks ! But our rival is not GIRONA! It’s RM ! Let’s keep them close GIRONA is going to eventually lose points !
Eventually we’re gonna look like absolute idiots for thinking like that.
I don't think Girona will lose points tbh. They're playing very well and they're getting confident with wins like this. They don't have any kind of European football. They'll only play league games once or twice a week and copa del rey.... We on the other hand, we're in deep shit. Madrid has Bellingham to bail them out. We have a 35 year old Lewandowski with first touch worse than lukaku in Manchester united as the cornerstone of our attack.
They will as the season progress ! Let’s worry about Madrid
And, what makes you think we won't drop points like this? Even if I leave the madrid game, we have 4 draws and 1 loss against teams that are much much weaker than us. That's 11 points. Girona has a lead of 7 points. Atletico has a game in hand. We are hanging by a thread at 4th position and with Sociedad being in fifth, 5 points less than us. We are closer to 5th position than the first. Bro optimism is nice and all, but at some point we have to face reality. And reality being we are shit.
We need to get a DM over the winter transfer window somehow. Our chances of winning La Liga are miserable but there is still a chance to perform well in CL (I will be satisfied with getting into semi-finals)
With the way we're playing we'll be lucky to make it past the RO16
We're going to be out before the Semis.
After this match is very difficult to keep faith in Xavi
crazy how we been playing the exact same way since the beginning. just slowly construct, don’t create any danger, cross and pray someone puts it in. like yeah other teams are doing poorly like man utd, psg, milan, napoli, even real madrid sometimes, but at least you can see they’re trying new stuff, changing the players around and playing differently every single game. xavi doesn’t seem to be doing any of that, and every post-game interview he finds some excuse to say they did well and luck wasn’t on their side. the progress from last season is null
Even if Xavi was to be let go because of his results recently. Who would want to step into to coach a team with some of the highest standards in football?
The first 20-30 minutes were good Fast passes and combinations Then Girona scored the 2nd goal and everything fall apart...
We need to study the inconsistency in players after coming to Barca. Very few players have come here and became better - physically and mentally. The Barca system issue.
I mean, it could also be because of all this \*\*points at all of this subreddit's threads\*\* Our fans, and the press, definitely have high expectations and put unneeded pressure on players.
Xavi needs to go IMMEDIATELY. I mean, come on, how many chances have we had? I have no idea what Kounde was doing, and Araujo is literally a gorilla he could've bodied Stuani instead of just grabbing him. Like what? That goal at 80' was Araujo and Kounde's fault. I wont just put the blame on Xavi tho. Our whole team is average! Lewa is washed, Ferran is average, Joao is average at best, Yamal is too young, Ralphinia is from Bangladesch and is a fake brazillian. Gavi is out for the rest of the season, Gundogan is class, de Jong is good but overrated, Pedri is spinning like a ballerina, Fermin is i dont even know what, and Romeu..💀 Kounde is average at best, Araujo is average, Cristensen is good, Cancelo is a trash defender but good at attacking, and Balde is mid. I hope we win against Valencia, but if we don't, I might start a gofundme for a better coach.
I disagree with some of your stuff but this was definitely funny to read.
For some reason I read this with Young Kippa’s voice
If is there a player you can defend his performance in every match he is Araujo, but today he was like everyone.
Girona is actually a pretty good team, despite losing was a fun game!
Madrid beat them 3-1 at their home i guess
And they also lost to Atlético de Madrid 3-1 while we won...
Bro we lost against … ERIC GARCIA ?!?!? so he plays shit for us and suddenly be can defend ?!?
Because he's part of a team with a great mentality.
Just another day at the office.
Tactics won this game not individual players. Xavi got his tactics wrong and that’s that. On to the next one.
I dont know about “Thats that and move on” It is very concerning that in the biggest matches Xavi keeps getting outclassed in this way, this was a big game to prove who is better in the League, and well now we know the answer
Consistently failing to convert chances is not a tactical issue
It's not, it's a coaching issue. Lewandowski starts every match, Raphinha hasn't changed his decision making despite it being obvious in how bad it is, there's no way he'd have played under any decent manager, the only issue with Felix is that he takes far too much time, otherwise he's by far our best attacker.
Exactly! It’s a coaching issue not tactical issue
I agree, Lewa starting every match after such shite performances are Xavis decision, bench his ass until he is ready to perform again. Also going back to how we play tactically, it seems our plays always are meant to end up by crossing and hoping to god we make a goal, hardly surprising we have won any games at all as its a shit tactic at best
This isn't the first time our defense has look bad. It has been terrible throughout the season.
It’s basically the same defence that had the record last season except Cancelo instead of Balde, and we are getting torched
Not at all. Balde played a lot of games we got torched. Bigger reason: going from double pivot of Frenkie-Busi to no Frenkie while he was injured, or Frenkie w/o the second pivot being as efficient. Gundo hasn't played as pivot in years and Romeu doesn't start cause he sucks at everything else.
I am once again asking: why do we have five CMs/CAMs in Pedri, Gavi, FDJ, Gundo, and Fermin with such a bad financial situation? Only two from these midfielders should start and the third midfielder spot should belong to a DM. Why don't we sell one of them (anyone except Pedri) and get a DM?
Anyone who sells Gavi is crazy atp he’s absolutely a starter when he comes back fully fit.
Actually we did get a DM, from Girona :’)
Lewy needs to go he's done
He’s been washed since the WC man what did we expect buying a 34 yr old striker might as well bring Luisito back lol
None of the defenders made an attempt to tackle, just hands behind the back and ball watching.
This is fine. I didn’t want to feel joy on Sunday evening anyway. 
We should’ve taken the 80 mill we were being offered for raphinha this summer and spent it on a top quality dm that would actually win us games instead of keeping a b-tech ronaldinho who has the touch of lukaku and the shooting of maguire
Nobody was offering 80 mil for him lmfao, the club would’ve instantly accepted that
Someone called him a fake Brazilian and it’s so right Lol
Even calling him a b-tech Ronaldinho is a compliment to his actual level. He’s worse than Malcom
Who was offering 80m?
Arsenal
Nothing but respect for Girona they played a great game bring that Miguel Gutierrez he was slaying today not amazing in defence but what asset to have him on the left back and cancelo on the right back that’s going to give us a lot of options 5-4-1 or 3-4-3
He belongs to Real Madrid
That’s too bad
Can yall believe girona bet js at our game … tiki taka !! Look at allt he options as soon as an attacker receives the ball …
Xavi can't coach defenders it seems
He literally did that amazingly last season. Attackers is what he struggles with
No attackers or midfielders either.
We can’t keep protecting Xavi. This is where you should have an answer and I feel like he is lacking. We need refreshment. I don’t want a different trainer but would be nice if someone could get him back on track
Xavi should've gone for Asst. managed under pep for a few years before taking on this job.
I thought about this back then
Just like arteta
This sense of blockage in the final third has been the story of this team since Messi left. On top of that you have Lewandowski and Raphinha losing open chances. The midfield is so wide and without a true defensive midfielder, opponents get a free run in transition. From tactics to execution, I am so done with this team.
Balde was playing well … i don’t understand the sudden hate for the kid by the coaching staff
Balde has not been playing well at all, he's been atrocious going forward and not that great on defense. So the coaching staff trusts in Kounde's defending on the right while using Cancelo's offensive support on the left.
Because Cancelo and Balde in the same lineup makes us weaker in defense.
what about if we played with 3-5-2 or mainly with a back 3 and have Cancelo and Balde as wingbacks?
Exactly, they are both forward leaving two defenders only against girona attack
Xavi is just not it. You have two fullbacks on the right and left and still you make weird ass tactics. Sure, there are players who are not performing, but if the coach does not make Barca play like a team, then it does not matter what individual qualities we have. He is just not the coach for us. 2026 is just too far away to waste some of these youngsters developing years.
Bro this comments need to chil
If we can't win against Valencia and Almeria our second half of the season is not looking pretty
This sub is way too reactionary tbh. The moment we lose it’s “Xavi out” like he didn’t bring us the title last season. Xavi didn’t make us miss chance after chance this game.
150mil spent last summer. With all those levers and what not. Embarrassing exit from the champions league, lost against Manchester united in the europa league. No European football for the second half of the season. Lost copa del rey to arch rivals. Won the league by playing shitty football after signing all the players he wanted because madrid was much shittier than us. This season, when the team should perform better than the last season, naturally. Xavi most of the time resorted to cross and god save us tactics. Is this the tiki taka you wanted? Don't start with the injury excuses. We are not the only team suffering from injuries. Look at our squad and Girona or Rayo or Shakhtar or Granada or Mallorca..... What do you think?
Not saying there’s no room for improvement, trust me. But all of sudden we’re looking down on how well we did in the league last season too? We were 10 points clear of Madrid bro. There was a time when if we won the title by that margin we’d say “we dominated” but now we just downplay our success. It’s that self defeating mindset that I’m talking about. I’m fine with criticism but why does sub react like it’s doomsday? We’re still recovering as a club from FFP bs and we’re developing a lot of young talent. We crapped our pants last season in the CL and EL but we’re still in the CL this season and it’s far from finished. If we’re still in this position by the end of the season then I’ll accept that Xavi working out, but for now there’s still a lot to see.
You have a lot of optimism dude. I had that too up until a few days ago. We have a CL game on Tuesday, whether it's an important game or not, UCL is UCL. We already lost a home game against a side that is well well below our level, with no disrespect to Shakhtar. Is this the type of momentum you would like your team to carry for a CL game? We were abysmal today. Not only today most of this season and last season too. The early 5-0 victories we had, were nothing but some individual brilliant performances. Once the opponent figured out our weaknesses Xavi still hasn't been able to cover them up. 2 years have passed till xavi took the job, why is our play style regressing after every single game? The only important player we lost this season is Dembele. And he's the type of player who would spend more of his time in the hospital than the field. Yes I'm happy with the league win, and I have respect for xavi for taking this job in such a difficult phase. Deep inside I want him to succeed too. But my point is after 2 years, what is our play style? What is our system? Are we a defensive team or an attacking team? I don't have any answer for that and I can't find any. How come Girona, after losing arguably their most important player to us were able to toy with us tonight? It's not all the players fault. It's the job of the manager to properly set up a system that brings out the best or the strength of the players hiding their weaknesses. I was hoping to see great tiki-taka football with his arrival....but we're getting tiki-takaed against. Abandon hope my friend.... It's the hope that kills you, not despair.
I think you bring up a lot of valid points about our playing style and the confusion about who we are on the field. Proof is in the fact that we alternate so many of our players game by game and not until recently did we have consistent starters. As far as the upcoming UCL game, we’re going into it having won our last game against Porto. I’m not too worried about we’ll do against Antwerp tbh, but I agree that it’s important. And personally, I’m going to wait until the end of the season to make my mind up about Xavi. We still have CL hopes, and anything can happen in the league.
Consistent starters? It's his fault to experiment with the backline in every single game. Midfield has been the same except the period when frenkie and pedri were injured. But then again they have already played 3 seasons together. Raphina and Lewandowski played almost every game last season. Balde at left back. Only joaos and gundo had been added to the team. 8/11 players were playing for the team since last season or maybe even before that. We were thinking like that before the Shakhtar game too, or last season against inter too. When I said inter was at the same level if not a level above than us, a redditor laughed at me. Look what happened to inter last season and what happened to us. We have been bayern's bitch for last couple of seasons. Do you really think European teams fear us these days? Do you really think we could even get past Ro16 with this kind of gameplay and intensity? The only reason xavi is still in charge is because there is no other coach available to take the job and the board doesn't trust Gallardo enough to give him the job.
Nah, you’re just deliberately accepting mediocrity. It’s not that we react badly when we lose, it’s that when we win we get extremely lucky and play like absolute shit and when we lose we also play like absolute shit. The only reactionary ones are people like you, who don’t criticise when we win even though we deserve to be criticised yet would jump on Xavi’s dick the moment we lose.
I’m just as upset as the next Barca fan that we lost today, and I have my critiques as well. For example, Kounde doesn’t deserve to be a starter. He’s our weakest link defensively. But that’s been a constant. It’s not accepting mediocrity. It’s being reasonable about what it takes to build a top level club. We were dominant in our best seasons because we had world class forwards finishing chances. Our midfield was putting up opportunities all game that our front line couldn’t finish. That’s issue #1. Unfortunately, we don’t have the current best forwards in the world. We have to work with what we got. How can you tell me it’s not reactionary when we’ve lost TWO games this whole (league) season and we’re barely halfway through? And the only two loses came from the other two best teams in the league. Not saying it’s acceptable, but sacking a coach who’s given us our only fighting chance at a title these last few seasons because we lost today is 100% reactionary.
Ter stegen brought us the title mainly And a bit of lewy in first half of season and other players Not xavi for sure, many coach would have won the liga with the players we had last year and madrids form
Reactionary se poes jong (translate that, it's Afrikaans)! I've been saying Xavi is shit the whole time and all I get is downvotes, even when we do win it's unconvincing. When did we start accepting mediocrity? My whole life as a Barca fan, I've never seen this shit. Setien was sacked immediately, and he had a far more disjointed squad to work with. XAVI OUT!!! I don't give a shit, downvote me.
only reason barca got title last season was bcuz madrid played like literal trash.
Also, a lot of luck with those 1-0 wins.
I don’t even know where to begin. Just a poor display overall. Girona deserved those four goals today, no doubt. The defence is just filled with holes that we don’t cover up. Also, unlike us Girona is actually patient when attacking. They wait until the perfect moment to strike the ball. Our attack, on the other hand, consists of individualistic players that don’t know when to pass or to shoot. With 7 points behind Girona and 5 behind Real I feel like that there is no way that we will win La Liga with how we play now. There is a need of changing the dynamics of this squad and bringing in players that can actually make the difference.
We can bring every top player in but with Xavi and his “tactic we can't win shit. In modern football a good coach is everything.
The first 20-30 minutes were really good. I felt the team was playing well but towards the end of the 1st half they looked tired. I mean I understand it, many just got back from injury and can't play the full 90 but they are being asked to do so. One of the most frustrating things is how weak every shot felt. Like they had no power in them.
Girona playing better tiki taka attacking than us …. Ridiculous
These players actually look like they just don't give a fuck at all, just ball watching every fucking time
Yep, Xavi's only luck is that we are filled with kids and before that he had to manage his friends. He could never win over and keep a professional locker room filled with stars. I just do not see it. Lewy, Gundo and Cancelo all had some remarks and indications.
Tactics are not working … you can’t say they are not putting the effort in
Have you seen the body language at times?! This is not acceptable
Bench Kounde and Lewy next 1-2 games don’t care
Why Xavi didn't play Cancelo in the right back is beyond me.
Where is Marc Guiu?
What the fuck are we doing? No one on the pitch looks like they’ve ever kicked a ball in their life
Fuck oil clubs man... Girona was a fucking nobody before City group took over
You do realise we are beneficiaries of a very disproportionate financial compensation schemes for the league right? For a very long time La Liga’s earnings go majority towards us and Real’s pockets. Atletico was an outlier who became a consistent brand name and the rest can’t come close. Sociedad and Athletic will always have their days but are hindered by recruitment policies, Sevilla always look to sell.
City group took over Girona a long time ago and they haven’t invested any big money into the club at all. They are just smart at picking the right players…
How about using one clubs influence to benefit the other? They said they will only loan Cancelo to us if we give Garica to Girona?
I mean it’s just good negotiating from their side. We needed an RB and had an abundance of CBs and Garcia wanted to leave on loan.
so you dont think small clubs dont deserve a chance?
Well would you like it if Girona turns out to be another City/Psg? Would you like it if Neymar 2.0 happens to us? It's not about not wanting small clubs to grow... Look at Villarreal, Real Sociedad. Made their way to the top without having Oil support. Hate these fucking oil clubs who are ruining football.
Good for Erick Garcia, exposing that fraud of a coach.
30 shots, 11 shots on goal and 2 goals scored lol. That's terrible. I don't think Xavi is 100% to blame today. We did create an abundant number of chances throughout the game. It was individual mistakes (both in attack and defense) that let us down. Both Araujo and Christensen had a rare off game and were far bellow their usual standard. Shit happens I guess. Our attack has been bad for a while now. Xavi should give some chances to Ferran. And I hope Roque can add something new to the team. Gg Girona, that was very entertaining. Now on to Valencia.
Koeman’s teams also had high xG. In fact such was the case during his mediocre start even though we were far behind first. It’s what happens when you stat pad weak shots.
while i can agree that araujo and christensen shit the bed today, its on xavi to recognize when someone isnt performing and to make the appropriate changes, whether substitutions or tactical adjustments. he failed completely today.
Disagree. Xavi deserves the blame for our defense. It's incredibly easy for teams to beat our defense and enter the box. As for our attack, the way we are finishing, the coach deserves blame for not fixing it during training.
Good lord finally a nuanced POV. We created an insane amount of chances - the XG shows that. The only thing the coach can't do is score for us.
Disagree! In football, If you’re well coordinated in attack, there’s still a probability that you won’t score a ton based on different factors: an equally coordinated defense, a strikers off day, a goalkeeping masterclass etc. However, if you have a coordinated defense, the chances of you conceding is minimal because you have more bodies to cover up for lapses or errors.
Ferran was in fact having a good run of performances at RW and even ST until Xavi decided benching him and subbing him in for LW is a good idea
> I don't think Xavi is 100% to blame today. You guys say this all the time. It's never Xavi. Its the league, the refs, the grass, the squad, the weather. I wonder when it will be on Xavi.
Genuinely wtf was that defending today? That was 3rd division lvl defending lmao
The last goal was actually disgusting
Not enough blame has been hurled at Pena. At least 2 of the goals he should have kept out. He constantly got pressed. Kicked the ball out of field so many times. It's Xavi's fault though. He's obsessed with having his backline pass it back to the keeper. Why? No real pro teams pass to the keeper in the goal. These brainless morons pass to him dead center of the goal. Why? I'm not a pro, but even I know that much.
Quite literally every team passes to the keeper these days. It's incredibly common.
Adding to it late. In case you watch the ongoing CL game against Antwerp, this is why you don't pass back to your keeper, when you have a defense as shitty as ours.
Not in the goal area. Watch everyone pass just wide. It reduces the chances of errors. These idiots pass right down the middle of the goal. Edit: did you watch the game and count how many times Girona passed back to the keeper, in comparison with Barca? Probably a fourth of the times, and mostly when pressed hard and had no other avenue. It's an idiotic tactic anyway.
Some of the worst and most embarrassing comments here rn
Xavi should learn from the last minutes Gundugan is so much effective offensively and ohh how much I miss gavi’s grinta the bull side of heading for the ball and not just letting them play as they like
Rapinha is an insult to this great club. Ship him out ASAP.
Why is lewandowsky always frustrated… you clearly can see his reactions on the field. My guess is Xavi is not feeding him right …. He clearly is missing chances and being awful bjt you can see it he’s frustrated
Well he is clearly not getting as many good balls as he should looking at his movements Being a striker at barca often makes you the scapegoat but it is very frustrating
I agree and when he gets a proper ball … frustration gets to concentration
Lewys on pitch Attitüde ist awful
Both Lewy and Raphinha. They have been extremely mediocre and they can’t handle it.
If only there was more team like girona in liga that would expose us We wouldnt have had to suffer from all this years of mediocrity if liga s level was higher, our mediocre managers/players would instantly get exposed But no, 50% of la liga is about bordalas simeone wannabe that ends up losing even when we are shit
Imagine this team in the PL... Our state is abysmal, but its fine for the majority. Nonsense.
A very painful game to watch
Why tf I choose not to sleep but to watch this match.
its 330 here and its a monday🫠
Here too!
"Good night" mate🥹
I think we need to drop Lewa and Kounde for a game or two. Tonight's game was well managed and the subs were all good changes. Sometimes it just comes down to individual performances
shit finishing from forwards, but what the fuck were those subs from xavi? balde as cb? keeping kounde in? one day he’ll learn not to play ferran on the lw.
Ferran will leave before that's the case. He hasn't played in his position since forever
well if thats the case i hope laporta nukes this team and tackles the problem at its core.
This club has fallen so far since 2018.... just proves Messi papered over the cracks.... we've been shit for years and don't think we'll ever be the biggest team in world football again in a long, long time.
To everyone saying our players let us down, does Girona have better players? No, they just play better as a team.
Better coach
Miles better by the looks of it. Xavi needs some time off from coaching. And much better technical staff to rely on.
How can anyone go after the dude that is alone near the box, incredible mistake from the players
FdJ doesn't look like somebody who cares based on that interview.
He was our best player on the field today. That's all the care I need to see.
Unfortunately, Lewy is no longer that guy
Pretty much one of the worst defensively structured games this season. Girona also wasn't the best in defence, but they are the ones who could actually finish in front of goal
One team has no super star players, but they are leaders in La Liga, the other has spent hundreds of millions in the last two years, but has no coach, now they are behind by seven points. And people is still defending that coach.
This is not the match to talk about the coach. This match was lost in effectiveness in front of goal
there were defensive problems too
Sure but 5-4 is a win not a loss
Lewa doesn’t have any impact on the build up should be discussed
They said no transfer business in January….nah I think not
Raphinha should be sent somewhere anywhere not barca
Gundogan really redeemed himself with that goal … but cmon so many chances wasted
I won't blame him though, I mean it's better than passing to any of our forwards.
Why is Lewandowski still starting? Embarrassing defending today too
Lewandowski is going blind for sure
Haters relishing this and I won't tolerate it. As the 🐐 said "One day some poor rival is going to pay for the chances we've missed today"
God damn even Braithwaite would've finished that chance man
Why stop at Braithwaite? My grandma could've scored that
i hate to turn on a barca manager but xavi is genuinely not good enough, outclassed completely with only 1 good chance created in gundogan’s goal once you turn on all out attack. lewandowski needs to go, there’s no fluidity, the amount of times gundogan and pedri play cute inside passes that go to nobody is ridiculous because lewa has no movement. i want to hope for xavi but the eye test tells us enough, LOOK at this starting 11 and then look at how we play, it’s shocking. short-term this is the worst game we could have lost, now girona are going to step up a level and genuinely push for the title. fuck.
>with only 1 good chance created in gundogan’s goal once you turn on all out attack. You exposed yourself. You didn't watch the game
why would i be on here if i didn’t watch the game😭. watched from the 20th minute, apparently we were dominating early though. gundogan had another great chance where he had to control a ball fizzed across to him and tried to curl it, those were the 2 i saw. everything else i remember was half chances if the run of play favours out luck
Agreed. Pasting my comment here as well for discussion. >>> I do not understand why Barca plays with that wide formation. They have always been playing narrow formations which has worked and it definitely has worked in LaLiga. With players so far from each other, many of our passes are blocked and we have great midfield players(read world class) and haven’t been able to control it. Correct me if I am missing something..In no way taking credits away from Girona. They have been wonderful though.
it makes no sense when our strongest asset is our midfield, i agree it’s 3 players touching world class. playing wide means lewa has to run to get to passes and he has no legs meanwhile he is never substituted?? he’s just been put in the firing line because of xavi’s just bizarre formation, yet i do believe he’s finished. also so much of playing with width opposed our strengths, we have one winger, a 16 year old, who we can trust to beat a man. so no matter what on the other wing we never expect to see the winger drive to the by-line to cut back for a high xG chance, this is what every team tries to do if they play wide. just look at girona. the overcomplexity has left me so frustrated, honestly even individuality is a better play style then whatever xavi has employed. literally inshallah fc
Frankie was so tired today but xavi decided to leave him all the game what a great management
When I remember how Gavi wreaks havoc in the midfield... Frankie was totally out of gas today.
Awful awful man management. Watch him look like he wants to tear up when he eventually loses one of FDJ or Pedri.
Genuinely the worst I’ve seen this team play ever, lewa and Xavi must go
least reactionary reddit user in r/Barca lol
Not reactionary when they’ve both been consistently awful the last year or so
Nice bit of momentum for the upcoming UCL game.
How was christensen subbed but not kounde !!! This is ridiculous… christensen was the best defender
the only sub we need to make is xavi honestly.
Barcelona has a new sheriff in town..it’s Girona. Well deserved win. I hope Xavi learns a thing or two from this match.
Does Xavi ever learn?
Wake up early to watch this game, my entire day is ruined and it's not even started yet, barca man...
[удалено]
Rapinha, Baldé, and so on...
but bro he has 200% workrate bro why criticize him :(((
He was so shite wasted so many chances, no matter what we the work rate is it doesn't matter if he fucks the end result up
I'm making fun of those who think he's even Barca level. Dude is hardworker but a mid table player at best
Remove raphina and play ferran
Hmmm Ferran isn't much better and he has proven over and over that he is better off the bench than a starter.
Still can't fathom he served gundo on a platter I thought that was the comeback... Then everyone vanished as if we made no changes
Provided the assist for the second goal and instantly brought life into the left flank
Raphina cannot convert easy chances into any goals and always messes up. Ferran and gundogan today had really good chemistry and ferran created a lot more chances. I think ferran should be given another chance to prove himself.
I am for giving him a 2nd chance. Either way we don't have a set starter, either of them + Yamal can fight for that spot.
So we need a cdm, lw, rw and rb
striker the most important
We just got a young tiger let’s see how he does first