Espanyol 1 Barça 2

This was a clear win as far far I am concerned!

Man it was "funny" watching Laporta go off on the executive committee of Espanyol and I am not a lip reader but I could certainly tell you that when he turned to talk to the guy who was tugging at him, he was clearly telling saying "don't touch me...this, would never have happened in my house"...it was good to see him show so much passion...funny stuff!!

The ref almost threw the game by allowing that goal.It was a clear foul since Valdes was pushed. I do think that he could have been a bit stronger on the ball but there is "justice" in football. Our penalty was not a foul at all since the espanyol defender actually played the ball and it was a great tackle. So, when it's all said and done Henry's goal won it for us, although Messi was really cool under pressure.

I continue to like Pep's way of thinking and Busquet is very very very impressive.I like his demeanor on the ball a lot. It seems as though Keita is "lost" in our shuffle and he seems to struggle to find his place. He used to be a bit quicker on the ball.I guess we shall see what becomes of him.

Two weeks ago I told this forum that in the not too distant future we might see Eto'o come off the bench, well I was glad to see Pep truly go for it today.Although, I do not think that he (Eto'o) was too happy about that. Bojan is struggling a little bit but hey I can't wait to see him back to his poaching ways again.

Hey Nic, I "might" be in Spain to see Barcelona play Valladolid on November 9th. I have to move a few things around first but I will let you know if I can make it maybe you can show me around a little bit.

yo nic, me thinks you are a bit too harsh on pique. Granted that clearance was really horrible and a major reason why espanyol still had a chance to score but he seems to be a very strong and skill-full player. He snuffed out quite a few attacks and made some decent runs towards the opponent's side of the half. Also he was a major aerial threat in corners.

In all honesty, till milito returns Pep should play Puyol and Pique in the heart of the defence.

Abidal was astonishingly good defensively.

Pep has guts and makes tactical decisions. He knew Espanyol were playing anti-football by packing everyone in their box so he added extra strikers to accommodate for that dirty move. His decision to remove abidal for eto'o shocked me but it paid dividends so its all good. Pep knows what he is doing.

Henry has me a bit on the fence today. He had some nice attempts at goal ( one hit the post and quite a few were saved including the bicycle kick) and scored the vital equaliser, he still seems a bit unsteady.

I do not like how he doesnt even try chasing long balls, takes two steps, stops and shows a thumbs up to a passer.................whats the point of that?! I remember Pique switching the ball all the way towards espanyol's left corner for messi to chase it down full speed, recover it and keep it in play............with a defender still breathing down his neck. Henry on the other hand will give you a thumbs up and thats it.

I wished to stab the ref in the eyes, its not like he uses them but then again that worked out in our favour.

It was sad to see 10 people inside the box and Barca being forced to go from right to left. Espanyol made the mistake of leaving the box to attack in the dying minutes and that was the chance Messi needed to make them suffer.

Messi definitely deserved to be man of the match. For his defence shattering runs and penetrating passes. And wow, he took the penalty like a true professional. Cool as a fan.

first and foremost, why do the LFP continue to use this idiotic referee who is constantly in games jus like this full of stupid calls and crazy bad decisions. he is seriously awful. i would have been dying with frustration being one of the players and dealing with his retardation.

overall im reasonably good with this game. we tried damn hard and got two scrappy goals but a win is a win, which is what he often could not do last year. and this is far from an easy match.

ive decided, and sorry, henry is no longer good enough for this team. titi will come to his defense but u wrote on a previous post "he tried his best", and i actually believe you. today he showed us his best and well, its pretty dismal. he is so predictable and is constantly on the floor. PLUS, and most importantly, he was given the start in his favorite position for about 60 minutes and pretty much did nothing. he also said the other day "physically i am here, but my life is in england" (another refrence to his daughter), he then recovered to say he was not unhappy though. i dont buy it. when jan comes and citeh put money, laporta take it!

again very unhappy with not using yaya, hopefully he just wants to test others out and knows yaya is the best. this is a perfect match for him, a tough and physical away game. busquets is good but im sorry yaya has merrited his place in this team and frankly is our best defensive player. i am FAR from convinced with keita.

alves is also not up to scratch. i always thought he was overrated, even when we bought him, ppl can check posts. i REALLY hope he gets better.

gudi does not EVER merit a start, he is a backup squad player, thats it. he did nothign today.

abidal looked good for like 20 minutes but overall again showed he is unreliable.

messi and xavi were the best by far, and both so magnificent!

this win should be good for spirits, so i take it happily. and its still the building/gelling part of our season.

@Blaugranaboy

You are being too harsh Blau.Henry had a good game considering the fact that he was surrounded the whole time. He hussled very hard and got really scrappy. You should cut him a slack today.

I agree with you on Guddy but you are wrong on Yaya. This was an attacking game in our favor. Without De La Pena, espanyol can't create "zilch" from midfield and Busquet, rather than Yaya or Keita, fits better in this system and he proved it. Danni Alves had a good game I thought but he is being limited to staying outside the box it seems!

your being way too optimistic with the frenchman. messi, xavi, iniesta, all these guys are surrounded non stop, they manage to play. how can u say henry is good because he "hussles and got scrappy", thats what you usually say about the worst players on a team, the guy with no talent, that all he can do is run hard. henry is not suppose to be that. last year i was ruthless with him, said mean things. this year i dont call him the most usefull fool around, just comment on his play, which is bad. im just pretty damn sure he will never come right, just what i feel. his forward play was wasteful and predictable. even his goal came from a piece of luck, when he actually should have taken it down himself and scored, but his touch was poor. there is too much going on in his head: his kid, his unfavored positoin, the press on his back, his bruised ego, and his failed move from arsenal. i think.

maybe with yaya u have a pt. i just hate seeing him on the bench. i really fear him leaving. i find it disrespectful to bench a guy that played brilliant and then got injured but still played through intesne pain for months (and played pretty well considering) when other players like dinho/deco/henry gave up on the team and were horrendous. obviously nobody knows the internal talk, maybe pep has told him he is well aware of his abilites and wants to see others first, maybe yaya isnt upset at all. but i know if i was him, and i was being benched for only tactical reasons, i would feel rather upset. but its early days, lets see how the season continues.

Link to goals

LINK

first of all I am very happy that we managed a third consecutive win , and i hope we could achieve what we failed in last year in winning five consecutive matches . I would like to state my anger and disappointment in Victor valdes , the goal could be a foul but heyy the guy didn't push that hard , besides why would vlades push the ball back ?? in similar situation he should just hit the ball out for a corner .. its SAFER !! , again and a again it started by very very poor defending by abidal , i was watching him today and i concluded that all what abidal do is running after the guy who has the ball .. he is just a ball follower very poor and him and valdes performed an amature level not professional at all .. blaugranaboy i think ur a bit too harsh on henry . YES HE IS BAD but remember one thing he has been playing out of position for long time and today when he played on position he was dangerous sometimes although he needs to maintain his first touches but its only his first game on position for long time we need to be patient . OH about Pique i think he was great and the goal wasn't really his fault .

one thing i said before and i know it could be shocking for all barca fans . POYOL is becoming our weakest link . I am not happy with his performance at all . In my opinion he is responsible for the goal as much as abidal cuz he wasn't well focused not only tonight but in many previous games , so our center defense problem continues and a clean sheet is becoming more like a dream.

I haven't seen the rest of the game (after the incident) i thought the game will be suspended but its good to have three points which were deserved

do u guys know raul?? the captain of real madrid?? do u?? hes not at his best right now but the fans still love and support him, he is the captain! barca fans should learn, maybe puyol isnt at his best right now but he has the BEST attitude out of all the barca players.....if he breaks his leg, he gets up and starts running like crazy to defend, none of the other barca players would do that....so respect the captain, hes not like any of the others....hes always motivating the other players

Hey!
First of all, I'd like to pay my respects to Nic!!! Long time, have been too busy of late. Anyways, back to being the critical myself.
I guess today's game was a good game, Barca deserved to win. For sure. Henry played well, not messi well, but his kind of well. It was a scrappy win, and as someone pointed out earlier, the game was definitely not a good one. The referee should be suspended for his arrogant behavior and rather, blind-no-sense-decisions. Come on, Valdes getting a yellow for being fouled upon, a no sense making penalty, lots of fouls not given for Espanyol once the extra time started, (the 90+ mins ie, not the 3 extra mins), lets face it, that is simply not right. The referee was far too errant to continue doing his job in top flight football in Spain. I personally hate him cos he has been responsible for Madrid losing a lot of games!
Anyways, to be honest, in all ways, Barca definitely deserved to win tonight. Their game was brilliant and Pep has been more impressive than our manager has been in 2 seasons. (man, schuster's subs are below crap, and its pretty sad, his subs today were lousy) and today I see Pep having the balls to bring in a forward in place of a defender. Its simply phenomenal, how he has the confidence to do that, Shuster has been there for 2 seasons, and he brings in 2 defenders as subs where we had to be in a win-win situation. But, as I said, hats off to Pep, he has barca blood all over him.
I wish Barca could have converted more of their chances, and made this victory look better. They actually do deserve to win better, and though I am a madrid fan, I feel that Barca will be invincible once it becomes Jan-Feb.

i view the match as another lesson for pep. i hope he's compiling his notes as we are getting this late wins....hope we are still ascending the upwards curve

Blau, we all know that Henry is no "Maradona" or "Messi" for that matter. He is a kick it forward, chase it and score kind of forward and that is the very reason he did so well in England. If you followed him during his Arsenal days, maybe you wouldn't think as little of him as you do. Your expectations are skewed on his ability to play to your liking. That fact is obvious because of the fact that you are comparing him to Iniesta, Xavi and players who are great moving around with the ball at their feet. Henry plays differently. He will never be the player who is able to run with ball and make artistic plays. He initiates with a simple pass and runs into open space for himself or for another player by drawing a defender. Until you are able to step back and rethink your expectations, you will always be disappointed with his performance. I think that all this stuff being talked about (life in England, Daughter, positioning) is simply irrelevant. The truth about Henry is that the ways he plays is simply not the way our system is set up to function. I have critized him before too but I stepped back and I am realizing that it is not entirely his fault. Be objective and rethink the player not the man!!!

my other points
- eto'o is far more resourceful than henry
- and about the penalty, its possible the referee could not have seen the tackle clearly from where he was positioned, c.ronaldo's dive today was terrible though the red was bad

@FCB88

Very good point about Raul Gonzalez!!!

@Morzzan

You are a wise RM fan...while you're at it, we do have space for one more blaugrana. You are absolutely right, we will be hard to compete against once we finish "forming"!!!

Hey Diatus - drop me an email if you do come to Barcelona. No promises but I'll see what I can do.

diatus, are u sure u watched henry in england, i watched him continuously for about 10yrs and believe me, henry could run with the ball and make artistic plays, i have 2dvds to prove it....he has CLEARLY depreciated, the pace, the touch, that dosent mean he is not capable of playin some beautiful football with barca but he has clearly depreciated

aside from their negative actions flares and such to me personally

Boixos noise > than the white hanker chief throwing idiots who attend the stadium now adays, they chant till their lungs come out and that clearly transmitted into the players u saw how they fought till the very last second and when we scored they all went celebrating to that same section of fans that was shouting, it's simple logic camp nou used to be a fortress that scared opponents just like anifield but now adays it's full of winers who barely even try supporting the team when we go a goal down

Guys, I think Henry really needs to leave Barca this January. With all my respect to him, he just can't play in this system at this age. I wouldn't like to see Etoo on the bench, while Henry is trying to show that he is good on that position. OK, maybe one more game.. but I don't think it will show his excellency.

Regarding Valdes - I always say that he is our weakest player. He just can't handle himself in nervous situations. Abidal was poor in few moments.. Bojan seems to need more practice, because I see that his perfomance begins to be not good.

Busquet played good. I absolutely agree with Blaugranoboy regarding Yaya. It looks frustrating to see him on the bench. I also hope that is just for experiments..

As for overall - congrats, it was big drama with deserved end

Layibiyi,

Point taken about some of his exploits but that does not put him in the same league as the Xavis, Iniestas and Messis of this world. I have followed his ENTIRE arsenal career and believe me, Thierry Henry is not a magical player with the ball at his feet. You might find a few great plays that he's had over the years but even a blind squirrel can find a nut every once in a while. My take on it is this:Let's keep the player!
Although, I agree with El that it is hard to watch Eto'o on the bench while Henry tries to prove himself.

I do agree to the fact that there was a case of Valdes being fouled in the first goal. But what was he thinking trying to hold on to the ball in such a difficult position. He should have tipped the ball over the cross bar. There is a high chance that the Referee will not see these fouls in such crowded place. Then why to take risk? I always consider Valdes as a good GK, whatever everyone says his mistakes are minimal; but the problem is that his mistakes are of enormous proportion that everytime he will concede the goal.

It was surely not a pretty win but a win nontheless. Clubs like Madrid would scrape, cheat and bribe their way to glory on a regular basis. They are never going to be accused of playing beautiful football, most of the time. Thank God, Barca is better than that !! As far as Henry, Abidal and Valdes... When is the next trading/signing period ?!

diatus, i watched henry in arsenal as much as any. ive had full premiership coverage growing up my entire life and i watched him MANY MANY weekends. that is in fact why so many people here, like u, are bias towards him! you want him to be the henry of the past, you hang onto his glory days. THEY ARE OVER. HE ISNT THE SAME. look objectively. and trut me, catalan ppl who didnt watch him do NOT like him, why? because they are just judging him on his performances! like layibi said, he has deteroriated in everything. his pace is like 60% of its old self. and im SOOO sick of this position excuse. last night he had most the game in his spot and was below average, did like 2 good things. and at arsneal his favorite move, the typical henry goal was, drift left, run the touch line, cut in, goal.

look, im sick of this artgument. honestly, think about henry and his time at barca, what could u rate the success of his transfer??? after his great success in england, his reputation, etc? no more than a 3. he is deadweight, aging, and we could do much better with someone else. plain and simple.

and it doesnt matter that i compare him to xavi or inieta or them, if he wants to start on this team i will criticize him as much as i want. we cant just bring a standard of expectation for his performnace to some shitty low level. he was once a candidate for world player of the year, he was phenomeonal, he could dribble damn well and do artestry. time passes, things happen, and players get worse. he is just one of them. and i actually was far from harsh on him in my first post, i just said "he isnt good enough for this team" and he was "dismal". can u really argue against that? you would start him as manager?

on valdes, i agree he should have tipped it over to be safe. but he was clearly fouled. luis garcia had his eyes planted on valdes and elbowed him, he didnt try to get the ball at all. we dont know, it could have been enough to mess up his catch

For those of you Barca fans that are happy for the win, keep living in your box. You guys played more then half of the game with an extra player and didn't create any clear chances. Without the fan's distraction, who knows what the outcome will be? Henry's goal is pure luck, he can't even score a clear goal on a 1 vs 1 situation, and Eto'o's foul doesn't even exist. It takes a diving Eto'o to win, and kudos to him, but you should get my point.
And why does teams likes to park the bus against you guys? Because they are afraid of your attacking power? I think not... they are doing it because they don't think you guys can score against a tight defense and if they can hold you guys to a draw in the first half, your dumb coach will start to panic and start substituting defensive backs with attacking mid-fielders /forwards. So you can only blame yourself for smaller teams playing counter-attack football because it seems very reasonable for them to do so.... and clearly Espanyol wasn't playing as tight until their player was send off. The match against Athletico is the moment of truth to you Barca fans. Augero will break your defense apart with ease and I won't be surprised that Barca will be the AC Milan of la Liga this year--UEFA CUP.

Barca!!! Sergio Busquets is a great playa he'll be the next new thing at Barca!!!!

This is my opinion of Henry: He "was" known for his speed and strength. His technical skills are average at best . He can NOT dribble the ball ! He was the go to man while at Arsenal. Everything went through him. He took almost all the penalties and free kicks although he was never good at converting them. In the hectick pace of the EPL numerous scoring opportunities are always there. However, Henry would fail far too many times to score on easy opprtunities. He could NOT beat a goalkeeper, one on one , even if his life depended on it. He tends to shoot straight at the goalkeeper almost everytime.While he was first option at Arsenal, he is at Barca perhaps fourth of fifth option. His style does NOT fit into Barca's system. The best option for Barca and Henry is to trade him somewher where he can fit in better. Perhaps he can go back to the EPL where there is LESS emphasis on technical ability !!

blaugrana boy, you are wrong, I am not going to spend te next paragraph defending Thierry Henry. I couldnt care less if Henry got a 2 or a 9 rating by anyone to be honest because as I have said before, I care about this team not just one player. If Barca loses, Henry loses, an so does Messi and Eto and everyone else wether some of you like it or not. Henry is a barca player untill Pep see's fit. He was key to both goals, he scored an oppertunistic chance and played one the two key passes for Eto's penalty, if Pep plays him or not next game is up to Pep. If he plays, get behind him, if not then get behind whoever plays. Its about time we all stop this argueing over players and celebrate this hard-fought victory.

WHY DO ONLY BARCA FANS FIGHT EACH OTHER WHEN THEIR TEAM WINS!!

Henry got lucky who cares? Eto's foul maybe was harsh, who cares? Bojan isnt exactly lighting up the world, who cares? Puyol isnt as solid as usual, who cares? We WON against one of our BITTER rivals. E N J O Y it!!

I hope this result kick starts us. If we did not win today we would be 5 points behind Madrid. We will need a lot more of these type of victorys to win La Liga. Did any of you see the smile on Messi's face as he ran down the tunnel? Do you think he went into the dressing room and started moaning at everyone about this and that? Thought not. Be happy barca fans if thats possible for some of you!!

Really people! We could have just gone out with a tie! We Won! Should we not be happy about that! Sure you are free to criticize but come on........we have something to scream about! and for this to be what is probably the last match in Montjuic?! What a way to go out!

Cheers to you Titi186!

if u dont have anything good to say after a win, just go to sleep and never wake up again, nobody needs u.

haha RMNY "ac milan of la liga"

i wonder what rmny stands for. Good point about atletico being more of an attacking threat than espanyol. They will be a real test for Barcelona because atleast they will play football and attack instead of nailing their feet in to their penalty box. I personally think them attacking and leaving the box will allow Barcelona better chances at goal........i mean isnt that how messi dribbled down the middle and found eto'o in the box in the dying minutes of the game? Furthermore Atletico has the talent to attack in maniche, aguero, maxi, simao and pongolle ( forlan if he is back from injury)

regardless, Henry really confuses me. Near the 3rd minute when iniesta starts dribbling from the left midfield, Henry drifts to the left flank and Iniesta quickly drove in to the middle............that just made me think "uhh Henry my good man, if you are going to drift to left flank anyway, why would you complain about being on the left wing?!"

I was just like "whaaa?!"

oh my word, titi, why do we keep having this argument. honestly, if you think henry has been a successful player at this team then i cant say anymore. if u REALLY think he has, im quite shocked.

and its not like im not getting behind him. im not saying before matches, damn henry is playing again, damn pep!. last night i was actually quite interested to see him in, i thought, "great, time to prove yourself, time to put up or shut up". and after the game all i said was that i dont think he is good enough to play in this team and that his performance was not good and if i could id sell him in jan. thats it.

ive only been going on about it because frankly it annoys me when people irrationally claim he has been a success at this clunb. if u JUST look at his performances in our colors, not his position issues, injuries, blah blah blah, just as his play on the ptich, you know thats a lie.

and its only natural for fans to comment on the game. it just doesnt come down to win or lose, the happenings in the game are just as important.
i said from the get go i was happy with the result, and i agre it was lovely seeing teh look onthe players faces, been a while seeing that joy.
still does not mean i have to lie and say each player was good.

and u cant just say "i care about the team". what kind of arguemnt is that. henry is part of the team, every player is part of the team, so how players perform result in how the team performs. the fact is top teams are under this type of scrutiny. no matter what.

but about others i agree totally . it shocks me people even dare to insult puyol, and even saying anything about bojan is silly.

and frankly i dont see what you said im "wrong about". you really think im "wrong" saying henry has been a failure at barcelona? yes or no?

RMNY:
You must be confusing Etoó with the REAL divers of La Liga: Raul and van Nistelrooy !! Just typical low class Madrid fans !!

@Blaugrana,

You are losing the crowd buddy...simmer down and take a chill pill. You are entitled to your opinion but do not expect to convince everybody every time out. You've made pretty convincing arguments in the past and I always tell you when I agree with you but on this one I just think you're wrong about Thierry Henry. No one said that he was a success but you've shown a great deal of impatience and animosity towards this one player in particular that I wonder what YOUR RATIONAL really is about Thierry Henry. How do you think he should play (please no comparisons-simply illustrate with substance)?Who should he be paired with up front and why? and of course do not tell me that he is so incompetent that he should simply leave because that will be disappointing coming from you. It is really easy to say get rid of so and so but can we make player perform to our standards: THAT IS THE MARK OF GREAT CLUBS!!!
So, we will simply agree to disagree.

cool cool, i actually wasnt upset, or trying to be aggressive. i dont see how u can say im wrong about henry. all ive said is he has played badly at barcelona compared to what he should be able to do. thats what it all comes down to. and im sorry u cant say im wrong there. u can feel for him and his sitution, but its a lie to say he has been a good player for us.

and sorry to disappoint but really ive never liked the transfer, never thought it made sense, and i still dont. and if i was in charge i would have sold him in the summer, and now i would bench him every game and just sub him if need be, then sell him in january. thats the dead truth. i would not care at all about hurting his feelings or ego. he is old and unable to adapt, im my eyes he has no place now or in the future at this club. seriously, thats the dead honest truth.

but, id like him to prove me wrong and play well. honestly, if he can be a useful squad member that would make me happy. if he can be a part of our success and not just a bystander, id be happy. i just dont think it will happen.

titi, are u even reading the arguments, they are about henry, nobody said they were unhappy with d result, if there was no argument in football, it wouldnt be the no 1 game and i wont see any use of nic's blog...and as fans of the same club, its always good to see the views of your fellow fans....or do u want it to be like, after the match everybody just says good victory, thank God...arguments are good

about henry, my view is already known just as i know most peoples view here, so i'm no more arguing, its all about pep's view

but i have to continue my argument with diatus on henry's past....hw can u say henry just made a few great plays over the years and u said u have followed his entire career, bet u was following it as a man utd fan or one extreme critic
titi, even if we are not on the same path regarding henry, please can u drift into this argument about your man....just read diatus previous post

What a nervevrakking game this was. We have to be the most inefficient team in the world.. That worries me quite a lot.

On the positive side: Descent game from Henry. Great currage from Pep, who knows when to take action!

Wow, what a game!!!! The boys worked their asses off from start to finish and they earned a very hard fought win. Credit to Espanyol as well who defended incredibly well and to Kameni who we clearly should have bought! He made at least 3 crucial saves. In fact had it not been for Kameni and some great defending and well plain old luck we could have won this game 1-4. That being said I think it is actually better for the team and the players to win it the hard way. It builds character, self-belief and most importantly team spirit. When a team has to give everything they have to win, when they know that every teammate on the pitch is going to give 110% like them....well thats when you have a really great team. Kudos to Pep for more balsy decisions, tactical changes and just pure hunger to win. I love it!

Blau and Titi you both have your points and you both believe in what you are saying....can we not just leave it at that. Henry is a Barca player.....like it or not....and he will contribute to this team, whether or not he does as much as some would like is another story, but he will get goals and assists and he is a very useful player to have. He is not the Henry of old and never will be at Barca, if you are expecting to see the old Henry again then you are setting yourself up for disappointment. As long as he works hard for the team and gives his all when he is called upon then I will be happy. He may not have had the best night yesterday but he sure did work his ass off like everybody else. Whether or not we sell him in January, this will most likely be his last season at Barca. Let us support him and hope we see the best of Henry at Barca before he leaves.

P.S Its a great sign that we have scared Real MAdrid fans coming over to our blog to make absolutely ridiculous statements. Shows how scared they truly are watching us play. LOL....I wonder if RMNY watched his team get completely out played by Betis earlier in the day. Such a shame cos I think had Betis settled for the draw then they would have gotten it, but they sensed such weakness in RM that they wanted the win and got hurt on the counter....talk about a fortunate win!! To be honest I am not worried about RM this season, Athletico Madrid and Valencia look like far greater threats.

@ A cat on a hot tin roof
"You must be confusing Etoó with the REAL divers of La Liga: Raul and van Nistelrooy !! Just typical low class Madrid fans !!"
Please please name one game where the 2 players you have mentioned above has dived.
Earlier in this comments section, someone said that Raul is loved by all madridistas. Its for a reason, you won't find another more hard working, more sincere, more passionate, more loyal a player in La Liga. You cannot accuse him of diving, no scandals, this is why, even if he doesn't score as many as he used to anymore, we still stand 100% behind him at all times.

Yes Hilal, I agree with you. I also don't believe that RM can make something this year. They will loose too many points before they can sign some great player in january. Nistelrooy won't always save theirs assess

i fear also for Villareal.

@ RMNY.. "your dumb coach will substitute defenders for midfielders/forwards wen teams park the bus" .... thats exactly what happened last night and we scored 2 after that and conceded 0 .. the coach made that decision and we WON... please explain to all of us here how that makes him dumb ???

Layibiyi,

look man we can sit here all day and argue about what represents an artistic exploit to you and me and get nowhere...I think that A CAT ON A HOT...says it best, so tell us all that we don't know what we're talking about...read on...read on... "This is my opinion of Henry: He "was" known for his speed and strength. His technical skills are average at best . He can NOT dribble the ball ! He was the go to man while at Arsenal. Everything went through him. He took almost all the penalties and free kicks although he was never good at converting them. In the hectick pace of the EPL numerous scoring opportunities are always there. However, Henry would fail far too many times to score on easy opprtunities. He could NOT beat a goalkeeper, one on one , even if his life depended on it. He tends to shoot straight at the goalkeeper almost everytime.While he was first option at Arsenal, he is at Barca perhaps fourth of fifth option. His style does NOT fit into Barca's system. The best option for Barca and Henry is to trade him somewher where he can fit in better. Perhaps he can go back to the EPL where there is LESS emphasis on technical ability !! "....

I will have to die and go to hell first before I support MAN U. (lol) I have always liked Arsenal in England, although I am a Barcelona fan in all countries and yes I have followed Henry from day 1 to his departure.

@ Hilal,
Just because one madridista says something stupid does not make our team any less competent or scared of Barcelona. I say genuine things, I did say that Barca will be stronger than last year, but lets not forget that, we have had worse teams in the past and have still won leagues. eg: last year! We did not have as good a team as Barca, and still don't but that does not take away the fact that a super galactic team is not necessary to win titles, we proved this last year. So, please stop making comments like madridistas are scared of Barca, we really aren't, like someone else pointed out, we are more concerned about Atleti and Villareal.
The funniest thing is that, we are actually winning without our best play maker Sneijder and our best DM Gago. btw, De La Red..... kicks ass. He is the Xavi of Real Madrid, now all we need is an Iniesta.
Making a side by side comparison:
Strikers: Henry, Eto'o, Bojan, Guddy, Messi
RM Strikers: Raul, Van Nistelrooy, Higuain, Saviola,
Barca wins
Midfielders: Iniesta, Xavi, Toure, Basquets, Keita, Hleb,
RM Midfielders: Guti, Sneijder, Gago, Van Der Vaart, De La Red, Diarra, Robben, Javi Garcia,
RM wins
Barca defense: Puyol, Pique, Caceres, Alves, abidal, Marquez, Milito, Valdes.
RM Defense: Cannavaro, Sergio Ramos, pepe, heinze, Marcelo, Torres, Casillas
RM wins again



So, looking team wise, except for the forwards, Madrid do have a stronger squad, so, lets stop thinking that we are scared of Barca. We respect barca, but being scared of you is a totally different issue altogether.

@ blaugranaboy

I never said Henry has been a complete success at Futbol Club de Barcelona. In his 1st season he was top goal scorer and top 3 assist maker. However,
his transfer never made sense and hes never played in his correct position so like other people said as long as he tries hard for team, continues to try his best then I for one am happy. The only point Im making was Pep is not Rikjard, he is argueably not as weak. When Henry plays bad Im sure he expects to be dropped now. If he plays well, then he merits a place. Yesterday no one bar Messi stood out in a positive way but they all tired, they all came together and they got their reward - each and every one of them. I do not wish to "argue" with anyone on here or become desliked on here, I have opinions and views like everyone else and just like to provoke everyone into a nice discussion

Chill blaugrana, when we beat Madrid to La Liga, I will share a ornage juice with you... wearing a Henry shirt

To quote FCB88

"if u dont have anything good to say after a win, just go to sleep and never wake up again, nobody needs u."

LOL (not directed at anyone btw), sorry I just had to show it again it made me laugh.

its all good....what an 'henry' thread!!!!!!lol

@diatus, why u hate man u so much?
i prefer them to arsenal cos arsenal fans are the noisiest in my country upon d fact that they dont win anything

this was a good but nerve-wrecking much, but its good to see that the players are all committed and striving to win the games, even when we are behind. (something that didn't happen last year).

btw, Barca's midfield will destroy RM midfield, any day, as we have better quality in our midfield than madrid...

i have to agree with morzzan, which i dont remember doing yet. people here way way way underestimate madrid. their squad is amazing and this year have played some seriously potent attacking football. ill prob be slandered for saying this, but i think position by positoin they overall actually have a better team.

not a hugely better team, but i think if you look at the entire squads player by player they have the edge. doesnt mean we are a worse "team" than them. my main pt is that people underestimate them.

I cannot really agree with that Blau.....they may have more depth than we do, but in terms of quality we beat them eveywhere, except maybe defence (def goal keeper). Up front you cant even compare....in the midfield they have more players but we have better players (Xavi/Iniesta/Yaya/Keita/Hleb and now Busquets) would take any of them over Madrids players to be honest. Who would you swap for a Madrid player? In defence i suppose you could argue they are slightly stronger on paper, but they certainly dont show it on the pitch and both our defence and theirs are poor. Overall I would take our team any day.....like i said all they have is more depth

hey come on madrid fans....this blog is for barca fans not for madrid fans! but i respect morzzan because he is a wise madrid fan.. but in the same time there will be some madrid fans like to make barca fans angry in here.. just ignore this kind of commentator..

yeah kinda agreed hilal, been thinkin a lot about it. so lets see.

keeper they got us.

defense: ramos is much better than alves, marcelo is better than abidal (not by miles, but attackign he kills him and he isnt too bad defensively), the center i feel we are very equal. i think puyol is better than all theirs and honestly despite cannavaro's big name he has been pretty disappointing in spain, pepe i think is overrated and metzelder hasnt had a chance. torres isnt a bad player, he is better to bring on than sylviho. but our center backs are as good at least.

midfield is interesting. i think yaya is the best defenisve player (easily over diarra), but id much rahter have gago than keita. otherwise of course xavi and iniesta are too amazing, but guti and van der vaart are far from bad options. de la red is impressing too. so you gotta admit its quite tight there. gudi is worse than anyone of their players.

robben is fantastic i think, the most dangerous winger around when fit. sneijder isnt my favorite but many rate him highly. ruud scores goals, thats a fact. and raul is a legendary player in my opinion. even higuain has been playing really well.

honestly, from our up front only messi and etoo stand out. bojan is still way too young (and ive said i dont ever think he will become a great prolific striker, dont think he has the physical attributes) and truth be told even the young higuain is more influential and productive in games. id swop henry for both ruud or raul in an instant.

honestly i think the quality of the squads are a lot tighter than most barca fans wish to acknowledge.

so if i could make direct swaps. defintely alves for ramos, gago for keita, and robben for henry. then id swoop abidal for just about anyone. lol

Come one Blau......really? You are willing to make judgements on players who have had less than 1/4 of a season to adapt to our team?? Seriously how can you say you would swap Alves for Ramos? Sure right now Ramos looks better but he has played for Madrid for years....you cannot possibly make that comparison when Alves has just barely started to find his place in our team. He needs at least a year before you can make a fair judgement. Same with Keita, so quick to judge its a little surprising.....I watched Gago when he first arrived at Real and he was no revelation. I would take Busquetz over Gago any day, he is younger, stronger, taller and looks to have a much brighter future ahead. Robben for Henry is the only swap i would consider, and I say consider because i can gurantee Robben would spend most of the season injured.

As for Abidal, he gets a bad rep unfairly......the last 3 games he has been our most solid defender (along with Pique), while Puyol has looked the most out of sorts. Last season he was dismal, but so was pretty much everybody. He deserves a blank slate like everybody else and he has improved a lot from last season. Go watch the Espanyol game again, he wins countless balls, is always covering the other defenders and gets forward as well. Sure he makes mistakes, but no more than any of our other defenders so its unfair to single him out. Their goal came from a pile up of mistakes from all our defenders and GK. I certainly wouldnt value him as little as you do....

Sure its a tight comparison, but i still think we take it. The only player of theirs i would take is Ruud (for Henry not Eto'o) cos he is just a gangsta!!

P.S You missed Hleb in your side-by-side comparison. Would take him over VDV or Sneijder. Both are inconsistent and tend to drift in and out of games. Hleb may not be as spectacular but he is far more consistent and will work much harder for the team.

Wow, lots of comments! Yeah, it was a derby, weren't it? Heh. Anyway, one 'disputable' goal deserves another. Take the two away and what do you have? FCB wins. But make no mistake the Yokel Boys suck and Laporta is right, for once. Espanyol should've had the presence of mind not to let those hooligans in, much less with frickin' flares. Espanyol, drama queens. I never did like that ref either, whathisname (can't be bothered to look it up, since he's not worth the effort).

hey hilal, you've misread me again a bit. im not saying that id swap alves or keita because of their season so far at barca. im judging over their entire career. i have always thought alves was overrated at sevilla, he never really blew me away. while the first time i saw ramos at sevilla (at 17) i was like, wow, this kid is going to be good. i rate him the best right back in the world currently. even keita at sevilla i didnt find that special at all. when we signed him i thought he would be a good squad player, i never expected him to start. so yeah id rather play yaya every game and have gago as a replacement.

im a fan of gago, but busquets is awesome looking. i wouldnt switch them. robben for henry no doubt, but like we both said, injury issues with him are awful. and ruud would be better too.

abdial was semi-good last few games, but only for moments at a time i thought. last game he was good the first 30 minutes, i even thought "wow, he looks really good today", then i thought he kinda faded away. maybe he will improve, i just see him always being inconsitent, like titus bramble too, always has a mistake in him and often lacks concentration.

i did miss hleb. also not my favorite signing. im not a fan of sneijder so i wouldnt trade him. and VDVaart i havent seen for many yrs since he has been in germany. he has been quite good at madrid so far, but they are quite different in their styles to compare. but i dont think u can say hleb is much better than either one or visa versa.

anyhow, good to have a friendly exchange of views. barca are my boys, i love them, so im always going to have the teams back. the main pt of all this was is that i feel people are unfairly underestimating madrid, i reckon they are still easily are toughest competitors in the league.

Nice post Blau.....i always seem to misunderstand you a bit for some reason. Anyways u bring up some good points. All round i would have to say that I agree Ramos is prob better than Alves, but going forward I would say Alves is a lot better. That being said he is much more suited to our style of play (attack, attack, attack). Keita I think the jury is still out with him, I liked him a lot at Sevilla and I think he will get better with time.

Hleb is prob one of my fav signings.....its strange that a lot of ppl dont seem to like him. He is such a useful, versatile, consistent and hard working player. He may not be spectacular so he may not get as much notice but what he does truly is remarkable. Arsenal REALLY miss him. They are def missing something without him. Also for our style of play he is much better suited than either Sneijder or VDV who are both great players but who thrive on space and are much better suited to counter-attacking teams like Madrid. Hleb is the type of player who can dribble his way past two, suck in defenders and make an inch perfect pass, which is what we need against 90% of the teams we play who just park the bus.....neither of the dutch boys can do that. What they can do though is shoot.

Anyways.....you are right, on paper they definitely represent the biggest threat, but we both know that just cos a team looks good on paper doesnt mean they will produce. They dont convince me at all when they play, they got lucky to win against Betis in the last game. The other teams fighting for the title look far more convincing when they play! Then again Real never really looked that convincing last season and they won....

Hilal....
I do agree with a lot of stuff you said, but the fact that you rated Hleb over Sneijder was simply not right. I remember someone mentioning that Hleb is versatile, how versatile do you think Sneijder is? He is ambidextrous, can play on both wings, runs back to defend, amazing vision, one of the Euro's and La Liga's best players this year and last season respectively, free kick specialist, hard working, and quiet frankly, Madrid's best player last season. What kind of player recovers a month in advance of the due date? Let me tell you something that not a lot of people know, but Sneijder is the man we are missing the most. We do have Vaart, but madridistas treat Sneijder with the same respect and passion they have for Raul, we know that Sneijder is in a class of his own. Once our entire team is up and running, I doubt if there will be many teams who can underestimate us.
I don't understand the logic in saying that a defensive mid having to have a super strong built. I mean, Keane, Vieira, Redondo, none of these players have an out of the world built, but something that fans seem to ignore is that though Yaya is a better CDM than Gago (for now) but Gago has vision to deliver those defense splitting passes. I know the RM squad does not look super great but the youngsters that are coming in, are soo good. Due to this fact I feel that Spain has an amazing amazing future, one super kid after another (damn Basquets is goohood!!!!!)
But seriously, this is not the best Madrid team there ever has been, but this team has a future, and except for Xavi and Iniesta, I am not a big fan of the rest of Barca's midfielders. I accept that the Madrid strike force is much inferior than Atleti, Barca, and Villareal, but once November kicks in and the defense sorts out their compatibility problems, the Madrid midfield and Defense will be 'one' of the best in the world.....

Morzan.....first off i want you to know that comment I made earlier was directly aimed at RMNY and not you. I was in fact going to mention that in the original post but forgot. For a Madrid fan you are quite unbiased in your comments which is something i can definitely respect and I realize cannot be easy.

Now to your post.....with regards to Hleb vs Sneijder/VDV, I never meant to say that Hleb was a better player than either of them. Nor that they are not versatile, hard working players. What i meant was the Hleb is quite simply better suited to our team and our style of football. Personally i think both Sneijder and VDV are amazing players but they are more suited to a counter attacking team like Real than a keep ball team like Barca. Players like VDV (who i think could be one of the best attacking mids one day) thrive on space.... space they will never get playing at Barca. It would almost be a waste of talent. Hleb on the other hand, like most of our players, is adept at creating space for himself and his team and that is what WE need. For us, Hleb is the better choice, so i would not swap him for VDV or Sneijder. That is not to say he is a better player, just better suited to our style. On the other hand VDV and Sneijder are much better at exploiting space (e.g shots) so im sure you wouldnt swap either of them for Hleb

Football is not black and white so its hard to say this player is better than that one and which team is better, etc. On paper it is hard to make a call, but watching them play......right now, even you must admit, Real do not look as convincing as the other sides. They do not tend to dominate teams when they play....at least not so far.

honestly the only time madrid looked convincing to me was when Guti is having his A-game. The rest of the times they had to grind out results with determination and perserverence........which is what won them la liga twice and which is how Barcelona came from behind to win this game.

I also believe Madrid made a good decision getting van der vaart instead of christina. They dont even need cronaldo. Once sneijder is back, he will be on the left wing, robben on the right wing and van der vaart in the middle. That dutch contingent in midfield is one to be reckoned with. Also lets not forget ruud is still a clinical finisher

Also a few wise words from el pep:

"I would like to be a basketball coach.
Then I would be able to ask for timeouts and to change players every two minutes."

hahaha so true, yet still considering the lack of timeouts and no such thing as infinite substitutions in the beautiful game, he has made some genius decisions.

madrid dont usually look convincing but thats their style and they are excellent in it....we need to perfect our own style

Hilal,
I totally agree with your assessment of Barca and the Evil Empire ! One definite advantage that Madrid has is: friendly referees !! It is appalling the number of penalties awarded Madrid as a result of obvious " dives" by either Raul or Ruud van Nistelrooy and the total disregard for the "offside" rule when the same two players are involved !!

Barca-Rotterdam, we madridistas feel the same about you guys. Funny because you won this game because of a referee "favor." If you want to make accusive statement, I would happily take my words back if you could suggest a game when the above said 2 players did 'dive.' I mean, if we were to make accusative statements about each other, then even I can say that Eto'o dived which resulted in Barca getting the penalty! Am I not right? There is a difference between an error in judgement by the ref and 'friendly referees'. As far as I can remember, the Madrid fan base says that Barca has more of a Barca fan base. The red card last week against Betis I think, this week's penalty, Messi's hand ball goal given... I can go on all day. So, please, there is a difference between a ref error and ref favors.