Barça

Sevilla’s legendary sporting director Monchi has ruled out switching to Barcelona despite rumours he might be coming to Camp Nou. Speaking to Estadio Deportivo, he unlinked himself from speculation.

“I don’t give too much importance to these things, I’m much more worried about the present. I read it, I read it and little else.

“I am where I want to be, where I feel complete. My family are too, and that’s the important thing. Sometimes that doesn’t have a price.

“You just have to see these images (of Monchi congratulating the players after beating Getafe), when you see them you’ll see me happy and content and that for me is important.”

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It was sung. After the 1 to 4 of last week before PSG the physicist’s argument came back. It is the usual wild card. And it is that before some chosen by nature as Kurzawa, Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Kean, Gueyé, Icardi o Mbappé Barcelona had nothing to do. Too high. Too strong. Too fast. When Pep Guardiola left the Barça in the summer of 2012 he warned of what was going to happen when the results did not arrive. In short, he said that criticism would attack the Barça method to give value to those footballing looks that prioritize muscle. Today, nine years later, this is the Barça, dreaming of athletes and surviving after mistreating the idea that has given the club the five European Cups it has in its showcases and the one that made it, not long ago, in the world reference.

After Guardiola Tito arrived, but his work was skewed by misfortune. President Sandro Rosell, to discredit Pep and Cruyffismo, believed that with that template any coach would make champion Barça and brought Tata Martino. And he did not win. But as for Josep Maria BartomeuRosell is one of the five people who know the most about soccer in the world, he continued on his way. And until today, Guardiola’s inertia has been exhausted and using the physicist’s wild card to explain the current hardships and the needs for the future. The vaunted evolution consisted of improving performance under the umbrella of the idea. Luis Enrique, for example, collaborated by making Neymar the fourth midfielder when the Barça fumbled, with the pieces unfolding to the right so that Rakitic protected Messi. Little more to tactical demotion and talent reduction.

Could it be that the problem is not physical but soccer; that the pressure does not depend on the muscle but on the placement; what Pedri always beat Arturo Vidal because soccer is played with the head and the feet are used, or that Mbappé scored a hat-trick at the Camp Nou with a first skill goal; a second, of intuition, and a third, of quality?

One day, a team of children lost 3 to 2 in the dying moments. A father, very angry, told his son’s coach that it was the physical fault because in training they did everything with the ball and barely took the historic laps on the field. The coach asked him if his son was swimming at school. “Yes,” replied the father. “And have you ever seen him with his swimming cap on and running around the pool? No right? Well, that ”. Don’t you realize that Barça will never win by running and jumping? The ball, please. Forgive me. There is no other way.

The kick from afar

It was the 66th minute of the match against Cádiz when Koeman He got off the bench to scream and release tension. The scoreboard indicated a Pyrrhic 1 to 0 and the Dutch coach, scared by experience, complained about the lack of success in front of Ledesma’s goal. It is not necessary to delve into what happened next. Statistics say that Barça He shot 22 times although he has only six great goal options. That is one occasion every 15 minutes. Let each one assess whether it is a lot or a little. What did surprise (for rare) in the face of Álvaro Cervera’s ultra-defensive approach is the repetition of the launch from long distance -nine-. Write down: Dembele (19’, 27’, 55’), Messi (19’, 29’, 79’), Alba (16’), Pjanic (78 ‘) and Puig (85’). Yes, only Messi Y Riqui they were about to score in two of their cannon shots.

How attacking is much more difficult than defending the Barça you must take advantage of all the options. Against Cádiz he insisted from afar because he hardly worked the depth, because he could not overcome the forest of legs that was in the front of the area and because he did not have success in the overflow, on the outside. And as the Andalusian team barely attacked, they could not run against it either. In fact, the only goal came after a post-loss pressure that caused the penalty to Pedri. To create doubts in the rivals it is important that the team is able to combine the end of the plays, because to get inside it needs success in creating danger on the wings, in kicks from far or in deep plays assaulting the baseline . While everything is predictable the goal will be further away.

Guardiola and his City

18 wins in a row and 25 matches without losing, with real chances of success in all competitions. The world of football, one more year, surrendered at the feet of Pep. We’ll see how the season ends, but during it Manchester City fans have fun and take pride in what they see.

Future, from now on

He knows Koeman that he must classify the team among the first four, because not being in the next Champions League would mean ruin for the club and his dismissal. Now, are you sure that the current level of Àlex Collado in the subsidiary it is worse than that of any of its forwards -except Messi-?

Results aside, Barcelona’s season must serve to consolidate some of the pieces that will be key to the club in the next decade. One of them is, without a doubt, Pedri. The Canary Islander has been an unexpected surprise this season with his performances wowing the world despite being just 18 years old. From now until the end of the season, whatever happens in the three competitions Barça are still in, Koeman’s mission is to create an ecosystem so that the young talent continues to progress. Not just Pedri, but also Araujo, Dest, Riqui Puig, Ansu, Ilaix, Trincao and Co.

The reality is that the great news surrounding Pedri’s premature eruption contrasts with some disappointment: Miralem Pjanic. In fact, at the start of the summer, when it was still in the air if Pedri would feature for the first team, the normal line of thinking would have suggested that Pjanic would have a bigger role. But what is actually true is that if Pedri’s the good news story, then Pjanic is the bad news.

Pedri has played 34 of Barça’s 35 matches this season, only sitting out the Champions League match in Hungary against Ferencvaros. The teenager has not been injured at all and has played 2,200 minutes, just 600 fewer — around seven complete games — than he registered last season when he was the most used outfield player by Pepe Mel at Las Palmas.

Only Frenkie de Jong, with 2,875 minutes, has played more than the Spain U21 international. In fact, Pedri has played more than Sergio Busquets (2,070) and double Pjanic (1,180).

Pedri has taken his place in the midfielder with an overwhelming forcefulness and, in the coming weeks, it’s likely that he’s called up for Spain’s senior squad by Luis Enrique for the March internationals. His presence at the European Championships this summer is still unknown but everything suggests he will be among those called up for the delayed tournament.

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The Champions League begins with its most decisive phases this week. Thus, the most prestigious club championship in the world continues to advance to settle which is the best team in Europe. On this occasion, teams of considerable rank have passed, such as the Juventus, the Bavaria de Münich or the PSG. Of course, the Spanish teams with the best results last season are also in the competition: Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Seville. This time they will face the Barcelona and the PSG at Camp Nou.

This first game will be played with great anticipation. Among other things due to the ambivalent relationship that exists between the Parisian team and the Blaugrana. Many rumors suggest that Messi’s future is at PSG. While for quite some time the return of Neymar with the whole of Barcelona has been defended.

In any case, the match will be played on Tuesday, February 16 at 9:00 p.m.. The channels that will broadcast it are Miteles Plus and Movistar Champions League. Therefore, a subscription to one of these platforms will be necessary to enjoy the meeting.