[...]ction for between six and eight weeks. It's a great shame because Eric has been in such fantastic form recently and we will miss his speed at the back. It's been a bad week for injuries as we already have Dani Alves out for three weeks and Toure Yaya for ten days. Added to this we will be without Piqué and Marquez on Sunday due to the red cards in Saturday's victory over Getafe which means we only have four first team defenders available. The logical back four will see a Milito and Chygrynskiy partnership in the centre with Puyol at right back and Maxwell on the left. Marc Bartra and[...]Read Post »

[...]é attempted to dribble the ball out but he let the ball run too far and he jumped in to try and recover the ball, unfortunately he committed a nasty looking foul and the ref didn't hesitate to show him the red card. I don't think there was any malicious intent on Piqué's part and many players escape without punishment for deliberate fouls but Piqué paid for his mistake and suddenly things were not nearly as comfortable as they had been. Toure moved into defence but for a few minutes we looked disorganised, Valdés twice had to save efforts from Miku, but as we approache[...]Read Post »

[...] have to make do without the injured Gavilan, Celestini and Adrian, and the suspended Pedro Leon. However, Getafe have a decent team and are currently 7th in the table on 31 points while they have also reached the Copa del Rey semi finals. Due to their cup run we may have a slight advantage as they played the first leg of the semi final on Wednesday night, losing 2-0 at Sevilla, so we are in the uncommon position of having had more time than our opponent to prepare tomorrow's game. We have struggled in the last two home games against Getafe and both games in April 2008 and November 2008 ended in d[...]Read Post »

[...]or whoever. Unfortunately, at the end of the day I do not hold out any hope of the new incumbent turning out to be a nice guy or a football genius. These guys are businessmen who generally use Barça to further their own importance within the elite of Catalan society. Until we get an ex-player, whether it be Cruyff or Guardiola or whoever one day, it is unlikely that we will have a likeable person as president who truly puts the club first. However, I tend to separate what I think about these people as people from whether I believe they can do a good job or not. I didn't like Nu&n[...]Read Post »

[...]en games with a goal difference of sixteen goals for and only three against which can hardly be looked at badly, especially if we consider we were only two points above Real Madrid at the start of the month and we have now extended our lead to five points. I had a list of eight players who I thought might make it into the top five for January but having now checked through my player ratings for the month and worked out the averages I can inform you that the winner is Leo Messi for the third time this season. It is great to see that Messi has continued to be[...]Read Post »

[...]s enough to earn the three points, but the failure to convert our dominance into more goals meant we had to suffer a couple of nervous moments in the final minutes. There was not a lot of action in the first ten minutes but we did not take long to take control of the game. In the 12th minute Messi played a fantastic nutmeg before slipping the ball forward to Xavi who flicked it on for Iniesta who got into the area but his shot hit Sporting's keeper Juan Pablo on the shoulder and flew over the bar. A minute later Pedro put the ball in the net but the goal was disallowed for an offside on Ibrahimov[...]Read Post »

[...]ut Dani Alves who has a slight calf strain and Seydou Keita who is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in last week's win at Valladolid. However, Sergio Busquets is fit again and Toure Yaya is back after the African Cup, and the big question tomorrow is which of these two players will get the job of the defensive midfield role. There was talk before the African Cup that Busquets was getting more minutes to give him the match practice to have him ready to cover for Toure during his absense during the African Cup. Tomorrow there will be no such excuse and we should see who[...]Read Post »

[...]n the game. The early exchanges were fairly even as Valladolid came out to pressurize us up the field. However, Seydou Keita had the first good chance of the game in the 8th minute but he misdirected his header from Xavi's corner, sending the ball well over the crossbar. Soon after Messi played a ball into the area to Alves who played a neat little flick back to Messi whose curling shot was well saved by Valladolid's keeper Villar. however, the pressure from Valladolid was causing us to lose the ball sloppily and in the 18th minute Pîqué gave a poor ball out [...]Read Post »

Pep Guardiola has named a list of 19 players for tomorrow evening's game at Valladolid (kick off 8pm) but with Toure Yaya still at the African Cup and Sergio Busquets out with a kidney injury the big question is who will play in the defensive midfield role. There are various possibilities: Rafa Marquez, Dmytro Chygrynskiy or even Gerard Pi[...]Read Post »

[...]tonight at Camp Nou. An own goal from Escude early in the second half put Barça on the road to victory and Pedro and Messi twice put the result beyond doubt. Messi's first goal was his 100th official goal for Barça which at the age of 22 makes him the youngest player in the club's history to achieve this feat.  Pep Guardiola put out the same team that played in Seville on Wednesday with the exception of Victor Valdés who came into the team in place of Pinto, while Sevilla put out a weaker team with an eye on the Copa del Rey quarter finals. [...]Read Post »