La Liga 23/24

Mbappe struggling to get off the mark

 

Harsh penalty man, left his leg in intentionally.

 

The rangers of Spain. Vini Jr is an odious, cheating wee *. With all their incredible talent they still rely on cheating and dodgy refs all the time. Visca Barca!

 

This is a fecking horrific thing to bring to football. * Valencia

 

Isn’t this what most clubs do now though outside of season ticket holders or membership tickets. Most public tickets have varied prices

 

Nah this is the crap they do for concerts, as the number of tickets left gets smaller the price goes up. It's why some folks ended up paying 350 quid for Oasis ticks even though they were listed at 150 when they joined the queue.

 

Once upon a time a trio of 9 year olds - Cubarsi, Yamal & Bernal

 

Just watched the Barca highlights. That Yamal is 100% a future Balon d'Or winner.

 

Have watched and enjoyed Spanish football for years, and always thought Seville were the worst team I'd ever seen for cheating and playacting etc, but Getafe are much worse.

Should have had a penalty there but they really are unreal for diving and trying to con the ref.

 

Some atmosphere in the Sociedad stadium man, would love to get to game there.

 

Been a quality game as well..

How they've no scored is mental..

 

No their day, post 3 times. Can see Madrid winning 3-0.

 

Las Palmas v Athletic Bilbao. McKenna and Mcburnie both lining up for Las Palmas.

 

Flick has noticeably lifted the conditioning, intensity and mentality of the team - it was wave after wave of attack vs the Catalan rivals who they had lost three in a row to under Xavi. Haven't seen a Barca side this dangerous since MSN and they still have so much room to improve. Can't wait for Gavi to storm into the locker room and tear that captain's armband from Frenkie and lift this team more

The hype train has left the station, Lamine Yamal will define an era in football

 

Olmo's goal was a peach too

 

Something special is brewing in Catalunya under Flick

 

Brilliant player, but injury prone. Picked up an injury yesterday. Will be out for 4 to 5 weeks.

 

For me he is second only to Pep and you are incredibly lucky to have him seen as Barca seem on their knees financially

 

There are critics around the club that it is a departure from our style which I recognize has some merit - even some saying he's simply a glorified gym teacher who gets players more fit

I liked him despite his brief spell with the German NT, the way Barca were punished years ago reminds me of how they play today under Flick - wave after wave of attack, very high pressure & defensive line. Flooding the middle of the pitch and denying time to even think much less play out of pressure

I don't know what sort of tactical genius he is yet but I see no weaknesses in this Barca so far. I see areas that can better but no one who is not a key cog in this juggernaut, just littered with some WC protagonists in Raphinha, Cubarsi, Lamine, Pedri & Olmo. I can't wait until Gavi gets into this team.

The key will be how deals with adversity (Hansi). He doesn't speak Spanish so perhaps that is an advantage atm, especially with everything going so well but the entorno at Barca has roasted legends of the game with ease - Xavi can attest. But Flick looks like he has both the right mentality & character to be a coach for a pressure position, like Pep. Tactically, I'd like to see more before I go so far as to put him up against Guardiola but I do know that when I was adamantly wanting Koeman fired, the two best options for me were Xavi & Flick

It has worked quite effectively, especially with Lamine & Raphinha - Olmo playing as a #10, #9 and #8 with Pedri as the fulcrum

What I noticed the most, since pre-season is the intensity which was what Flick was advertised to be able to generate quickly at Barca. I won't bash Xavi's tenure but it was the absence of the appropriate mentality to start much less finish matches. That is not the case now, far from it...and they will only get better

I also think the Nico pursuit is not over