So I was at the game. Messi is obviously an amazing player (so is Neymar, and Neymar is also a cool dude). But to me, this loss, once again, is 100 % on Pep. As I said before, Pep's system works great against weaker teams, but he makes terrible mistakes against the really good teams and his record against those, even the good German teams, is abysmal. - once again starting Rafinha on the left wing - playing favorites, protecting his favorites no matter what (e.g. Lahm, Thiago) - having the two best wing defenders in the world in Alaba and Lahm, but insisting on playing them in midfield - insisting on playing Alonso at the 6, when he is clearly more than a step slow at this point - not playing Schweinsteiger at the 6, but wasting him at a position he is not best at - not doubling Messi at least at times - taking out Müller again - you just don't farking do that. He already did that against Dortmund. Müller was taken out when we lost to Chelsea. You simply DON'T take out Müller. Should have taken out Alonso, should have taken out Bernat. - Letting Alonso take the free kicks instead of having Basti take them. Any ape would have achieved at least the same results as Pep with this team. But a real coach could have avoided that embarrassment, even with the injuries. Pep is an egomaniac who puts his interests above those of the club. By the way, did the cameras catch him secretly celebrating when Barca scored or did he hide it better this time? Pep has wasted two years of a golden generation (yeah, he won the German championship, but again, with these players, that would have happened with any coach). The window might be closed now. And I am pretty sure that they are going to draw the wrong conclusions from this. Lahm is so far up Pep's ass, he will stay (and fudge around in midfield), and they will want to get rid of Basti. Exactly the wrong way around. I am looking forward to when Favre finally takes over.
He will get rid of some players who make up Bayern's identity after this season (after already having gotten rid of the team doctor). He will still stay for next year. Then he will leave, will take Thiago with him a season later when he goes somewhere else, and will have accomplished nothing, and will leave a club in crisis. They will never fire him, though.
ATW, you got any inside info on Favre taking over? Read online that him taking over in 2016 or 2017 is kinda an open secret in Munich, I'm praying it's true.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-Guardiola-taken-Bayern-Munich-backwards.html Redknapp is right.
I always have to laugh when people applaud Pep for his ingame-decisions and changing the formation and positions of players. 99% of the time he has to do it because his starting strategy and formation were incredibly stupid and he has to make up for his experiments. Starts a game vs great world-class offenses with three defenders and midfielders in their wrong position, every fan cries out loud when seeing the starting XI and says how it should be. Then Pep mid-game realizes how moronic his strategy was and completely changes it to a way where it resembles to the one every knowledgable fan would've started with. Yea... making up for stupid mistakes is not brilliant ingame-coaching. And I won't even begin to talk about his moronic substitution patterns. Think this guy is incredibly overrated because he had a team with prime Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Busquets, Alves, Pique etc. Every decent coach would've killed it with those players, Pep didn't even invent tiki-taka, the likes of van Gaal and Cruyff already implemented that system at Barca.
Tl;dr - Pep tries too hard and Luis Enrique doesn't try at all. Was thinking of typing a way longer response in regards to my comments above that clearly drew some criticism but won't as obviously you guys have made up your mind. I will say that perhaps I worded it wrongly... I should have said Luis Enrique continues to disappoint me in his line-ups/formations or tactical activities. For me Luis Enrique just puts the team out there and hopes for a brilliance from Messi or even Neymar. Suazez isn't a playmaker so he's out of the question here. This is exactly what happened yesterday. Bayern looked vulnerable the first 15 minutes or so when Pep had 3 CBs in the back but after that was corrected the game became pretty even. During the first 15 minutes in second half Bayern even looked better. I mean Bayern didn't really seem to be close to scoring (minus that Lewa miss in the first half) but they seem to be controlling the game. All that changed when a few Bayern players became more interested in trying to get the ref to give Neymar a second yellow for simulating a penalty (Which, tbh it looked like he was reaching for that second yellow.) This was in the 76th minute, Messi's brilliance came immediately after this. All I was saying is that this game could have easily ended 0-0 or 1:0 Barca which wouldn't have been a terrible result for Bayern. So, my comments were more towards Luis Enrique.. we were playing a banged-up Bayern, in the first leg of ECL semis, at home with 90k plus fans in our favor, and it's 0-0 in the last 15 minutes of the match and you do nothing, absolutely nothing to try and change the outcome of the game? This game was won by the GOAT. Simple as that.
You have lost sight of the fire Lucho has brought to the team rox1. Our CBs have started playing their best football maybe ever. Pique, Alba and Alves. Last season those guys looked like **** except for maybe Alves. Luis made that happen. He is a manager that demands 110% of players effort. Messi is Messi but this defense is what has set the team apart. Yesterday granted the gameplan to beat Bayern was easy, counter and swam them. Pep wanted as many midfielders on the pitch as possible to control the ball and he did. Pique and Alves saved our asses a few times close to the box. If Neuer doesn't foolishly (his team was too busy arguing and not paying attention) try to quick strike after the Neymar dive/fall the Messi first goal doesn't happen and if it doesn't happen Pep doesn't try to force an away goal and its 0:0 going to Allianz and ATW is mad either way. This game is what you call a snowball. Messi made the improbable happen. No team had scored a goal against Bayern from outside the box this Champions and that goal forced Pep to unpark the mini bus and that bus crashed downhill.
I will grant you somewhat that he has brought fire to the defensive line-up an the team overall... but a lot of it also has to do with the addition of Mathieu, Rakitic, and Even Suarez. Mathieu/Bartra obviously compete directly with Pique and Masche for minutes at CB. Suarez is a warrior out there and presses high up top. Rakitic is also more defensive than Xavi. Alba last season was injured a lot. It's Alves "last" season with us, so he's trying to get that one last lucrative contract. Having said that, Lucho is pretty strict which I believe we truly lacked in the past but if you recall that was the reason why Messi had issues with him in October and beginning of this year. I mean in January, people (myself included) were calling for his head. I'm glad, things are working out for us though.
Mess is spectacular. In 50 years people will look back on the Messi era and will tell stories to their grandchildren about how good he was, and he's still only 27. Not sure if his records will ever be broken when he is ready to hang'em up.
Well.... unfortunately what most Bayern fans were afraid would happen happened. For 78 minutes we managed to keep it at 0-0, but let's face it, we only had one real chance and were lucky Barca didn't score earlier. Having said that, though a 0-2 certainly wouldn't have been the best result, it would have at least left a glimpse of hope for the 2nd leg. But Neymar's goal was the dagger. I don't understand why we tried so hard to score in injury time, at that point you have to accept the result and not risk conceding another goal - which is exactly what happened. Now it's pretty much over, unless Bayern comes up with a miracle performance next Tuesday. So who's to blame for the loss? I'm a little torn on that. I do agree that some of Pep's decisions were questionable, to say the least. Why is Lahm still playing at the 6 and not at right back? I'm not saying he's a terrible midfielder, but he is not world class there. He IS at right back though, has been for years. I feel like his talents and skills are more or less wasted there, but that discussion has been going on ever since Pep put him there. Then there's Müller's substitution. I, too, didn't understand that. He didn't have a great game, but him and Lewandowski were pretty much left alone and had to attack on their own, what can you expect? Thiago, Bernat and Xabi were a lot worse in my opinion, but what's done is done. I don't put the loss on Pep alone though. We all know how many injured players we have, it's extremely tough without Robben, Ribery, Alaba and the other guys. It would have been interesting to see Barca and Bayern going at each other at full strength, but that's football. Next week, I would like to see a 4-2-3-1 like this: Neuer Rafinha--Benatia--Boateng--Bernat Lahm------Schweinsteiger Müller---------Thiago----------Götze Lewandowski Maybe put Lahm at right back and Javi in next to Schweinsteiger (I mean, what do you have to lose?). Knowing Pep though, that's probably not going to happen.
JW, are you on good terms personally with Lahm like you are with Basti, Muller etc? I know you dislike his insistence(and Pep's insistence) on playing him in midfield but it sounds like you also might not like him personally. Would that be a wrong assumption? (Not saying it's a bad thing, just wondering, maybe Lahm is a @#!* in person). This made me wonder, does Rijkaard get enough credit? Was he unappreciated while Pep being Barcelona through and through AND overseeing Messi's early 20's, gets too much credit?
I don't know why people are going off at Pep. Sure, the first 15 minutes were stupid as hell, but he adjusted and Bayern actually controlled play after that until Messi started going off. Possession was pretty much even despite Barca's heavy dominance of the first 15 minutes. What Messi did there's nothing anyone can do. Nothing. He's the GOAT. GOATs do things that simply can't be stopped. Messi simply changed the dynamic of the game simply with his brilliance. You replace Messi with another other world class player and the game will be 0-0. And you can feel the tension b/c the game was going that way. But Messi happened.
It's not like he is an evil person or something. It's just that he has always tried so hard to be teacher's pet. He is always brown-nosing. And he is a bit of a politician.
