No this is not a true story, before too many of you smile knowingly at the mystery of when and how I was hit on the head during my childhood finally solved. Although for the record, it was a door that opened inwards too fast....and I was 7..and 8, and 9...and yesterday... sigh stupid doors. Barca Che game tomorrow and an unfortunate tilting of emotional scales from Anticipatory drooling to Doomsday prophesizing. If you don't recall their first meeting this season, then I hope it's because you were hit by a boomerang, the other explanation is far more alarming and predates more pressing questions of "did you remember to wear pants this morning" or "what is your name" or "who let the dogs out..."
The problem with that 2-2 brilliancathon was Che had Banega who put in one of the performances of the season, Canales who was making their 4-3-3 extremely dynamic, and Pablo continuing where he left off last season. Fast forward to now where they have...none of those things, noone who's stepped up, and ManU/Barca vultures circling around Rami's still warm body (and I don't mean that in an amorous way...although....) making Che fans actually hope he has a poor second half of the season now... Any forceful attack by Barca that game was just met by an even forcerfuller boomerang by Che, made for a wonderful game, and a depressing thought since us fans knew they would probably go out the next game and lose to Gijon or Granada, which they didn't but nevertheless find themselves 18 points off the top, makes you wonder why they bother boomeranging with such ferocity.
Stoke game was very annoying. Took till 17 minutes for Tino Costa to gather his wits, he then put in the best half I've seen from him in these long Banega-less months. Topal was abysmal in his positioning, unfair given he was the Albelda replacement and not addition in the line up, completely neglecting his composed touch and quick short passing. His wonder-goal was more a result of his finally venturing into the other half on the back of brilliant possession spell driven by Costa, than any tactical justification of his inclusion in that position. Will be interesting to see how much distance Costa covered in the first half, seemed like complete possession responsibility in MF was his, and he finally did away with his long balls which admittedly have an air of frustration about them anyway, lot of credit for which should go to positioning of Jonas, who had the kind of game to silence his critics...ok critic...me. Topal on the other hand was quite useless with being available for the short pass in MF, and with Costa completely waning in the second half they really struggled in possession.
Which brings us to tomorrow. Emery doesn't look likely to play Ever and Costa together like he did with Canales, which is sad. What chances of me getting to see them play with Cambiasso in the Argentine MF, if they don't even feature together in the club XI. The Matheiu-Alba force that battered Barca is never going to happen without Ever policing the left of MF and controlling passes. Without him, Mathieu loses his head and just keeps bumping it upfield irritatingly. Add to this a Barca who in the first meeting had Masch at CB, Alexis and Iniesta injured, and no real need to prove anything - all of which are fixed for this game, and I see a 2-0 che loss in the making. If Banega plays and Feghouli dies, then 1-1.
The problem with that 2-2 brilliancathon was Che had Banega who put in one of the performances of the season, Canales who was making their 4-3-3 extremely dynamic, and Pablo continuing where he left off last season. Fast forward to now where they have...none of those things, noone who's stepped up, and ManU/Barca vultures circling around Rami's still warm body (and I don't mean that in an amorous way...although....) making Che fans actually hope he has a poor second half of the season now... Any forceful attack by Barca that game was just met by an even forcerfuller boomerang by Che, made for a wonderful game, and a depressing thought since us fans knew they would probably go out the next game and lose to Gijon or Granada, which they didn't but nevertheless find themselves 18 points off the top, makes you wonder why they bother boomeranging with such ferocity.
Stoke game was very annoying. Took till 17 minutes for Tino Costa to gather his wits, he then put in the best half I've seen from him in these long Banega-less months. Topal was abysmal in his positioning, unfair given he was the Albelda replacement and not addition in the line up, completely neglecting his composed touch and quick short passing. His wonder-goal was more a result of his finally venturing into the other half on the back of brilliant possession spell driven by Costa, than any tactical justification of his inclusion in that position. Will be interesting to see how much distance Costa covered in the first half, seemed like complete possession responsibility in MF was his, and he finally did away with his long balls which admittedly have an air of frustration about them anyway, lot of credit for which should go to positioning of Jonas, who had the kind of game to silence his critics...ok critic...me. Topal on the other hand was quite useless with being available for the short pass in MF, and with Costa completely waning in the second half they really struggled in possession.
Which brings us to tomorrow. Emery doesn't look likely to play Ever and Costa together like he did with Canales, which is sad. What chances of me getting to see them play with Cambiasso in the Argentine MF, if they don't even feature together in the club XI. The Matheiu-Alba force that battered Barca is never going to happen without Ever policing the left of MF and controlling passes. Without him, Mathieu loses his head and just keeps bumping it upfield irritatingly. Add to this a Barca who in the first meeting had Masch at CB, Alexis and Iniesta injured, and no real need to prove anything - all of which are fixed for this game, and I see a 2-0 che loss in the making. If Banega plays and Feghouli dies, then 1-1.
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