Farewell to Thiago Motta

It always pains me to be writing about the departure of a canterano, a player who came up through the youth system of the club. Thiago (pictured above with fellow canterano Messi and good friend Ronaldinho) appeared more than 100 times for Barca B before he was promoted to the first team in 2001.

The fact that during 6 seasons in the first team he only managed 138 appearances tells its own story about his misfortunes. It wasn't that he lacked talent. Far from it. In fact, Rijkaard has repeatedly said that he sees himself in the characteristics of the young Brazilian, which is high praise indeed. If you're reading my blog, you probably don't need reminding of Rijkaard's excellence as a player.

In retrospect, the comparison takes on a sort of tragicomic quality. Poor old Thiago was the Barca player most often slated for a bad performance by the fans, along with Oleguer (although they appreciated his fighting spirit). That was when he managed to get on the pitch, and stay there. The last qualification is necessary because he has an impressive habit of picking up red cards, often through little fault of his own, although he does have a formidable temper. The two occasions I remember best were both plain old bad luck - one featured a swan dive and a great acting performance from Diego Milito, and the other resulted from two bookings, both of which originated from fouls committed by other players:

(From another article by Sid Lowe): He got the first yellow for a foul on Valeron, which was actually committed by Cocu. And Motta, the No. 23, got his second and a red for another foul on Valeron, committed by Oleguer, who ever-so-confusingly wears 32.

Make no mistake, he is a very talented player. Ironically enough, he was probably closest to the ideal holding midfielder who could both pass and tackle that Barca have been looking for until Yaya Toure came along. Thiago has turned in some great performances for the team in the past, including significant contributions towards Barca's Champions League win in 05-06. However, I believe the club eventually lost confidence in him due to his far too frequent injury spells. In the Rijkaard era, no matter how much Frank liked him, he was simply unavailable for selection far too many times.

Thiago Motta will be missed at Barca, especially by the Central and South American faction of the Barca dressing room, to whom he was a great friend. I will borrow the words of his most earnest champion while he was at the club - Frank Rijkaard himself - to wish him luck for the future:

Motta "can be a success in any team", the coach said. "He is a player with a lot of talent and great possibilities. I hope that this change will do him good."

La Liga: deadline day deals

A few surprising deals did go through, but I'm sure some clubs lamented the (to them, untimely) end of the transfer window, most notably Deportivo who were looking to get 3 more players and as far as I know didn't succeed.

Frankly, based on their opening day performance, I can't blame Miguel Angel Lotina, but surely somebody at that club realized the malaise there during the long months of the transfer window? They are apparently broke, but so are the promoted clubs and the likes of Racing.

Speaking of other non-transfers, Barcelona did manage to offload Thiago Motta, which brings their summer departures up to six (Saviola, Gio, Giuly, Maxi Lopez, Belletti, Motta), although only Gio was a regular starter, with Giuly having lost his place to Messi, Belletti to Zambrotta, and Motta to injury. However, they didn't manage to offload Ezquerro, who has now been reincorporated into the squad, or Gudjohnsen, which looks like a stroke of good fortune now that Eto'o is injured again.

Anyway, here's the list, with some comments:

Almeria: Michel (Xerez)

Atletico: Motta (Barcelona) - more on this one in a later post

Betis: Lima (Atletico Mineiro), Jose Mari (Villarreal)

Very surprised by Jose Mari leaving the Submarines, but at least it means that he can return to his native Seville, and as I've written about before, they do have a lot of strikers. (More on Villarreal later also, oh yes.)

Getafe: De la Red (Real Madrid), Esteban Granero (Real Madrid Castilla, loan)

Interesting moves, both for what it says about Bernd Schuster and what it says about the relationship between Getafe and Real. Firstly, the sale of De la Red (albeit with a buyback clause) and Javi Garcia means that Schuster has decided against heavily utilising cantera players this season. It's a bit of a surprise considering the pre-season. At least Balboa is still there and Miguel Torres is well established.

Second, Getafe have tried to loan players from Real before without huge success, so perhaps this heralds an improved relationship between the two clubs? If so, lord knows it's about time, since Getafe president Angel Torres is a card-carrying Madridista anyway.

Levante: Miguel Angel (Betis)

Murcia: Movilla (Zaragoza)

Osasuna: Javi Garcia (Real Madrid Castilla)

Racing: Szetela (Columbus Crew), Tichte (Anderlecht)

It's good to see that Racing have moved to add some more attacking fire power to their existing defensive solidarity. Szetela is apparently a promising US U20 midfielder, and Tichte is a forward, which when added to their signing of the Polish forward Smolarek a few days before goes some way towards plugging the sizeable gap left by the departure of Nikola Zigic, amongst others.

Recreativo: Javi Guerrero (Celta), Zahinos (Atletico), Gerard Lopez (Monaco), Martin (Trabzonspor)

Sevilla: Kone (PSV)

That's Ivory Coast forward Arouna Kone, who I was impressed by at the World Cup in 2006. Unusually, they spent quite a bit on him, around 12 million euros in fact.

Zaragoza: Luccin (Atletico)

Atletico fans seem pleased to finally offload the frustrating Luccin to Zaragoza, where he joins fellow former Atletico player, Gabi.

Barca news round-up: from the sublime to the slightly ridiculous

It has gotten to a certain point in both my study semester and the season that my workload means I'm no longer able to keep up with all that goes on in La Liga. So no more general news round-up posts until I get the time again. There will be a couple of posts about transfers in general before the season starts, but I'm reverting to mostly talking about Barca, Argentina and sometimes Villarreal. Well, and Real. It is an interesting season from their perspective. So, onto the Barca news.

The first item is unfortunately an unhappy one, as a good man central to the history and development of Barca for many, many years has died. Honorary Vice President Nicolau Casaus, who was vice president of the club in the time of Nunez's long reign at the club, led an extraordinary life, much of it dedicated to the club he loved. He worked tirelessly to expand the network of supporters clubs exponentially in his time, and was the man who bought one Diego Maradona to the Camp Nou. His life story is well worth reading if you're at all interested in Barca. His time at the club was before I became a supporter and I was amazed and very impressed at the kind of life he'd led.

A great man by all accounts, and (as the Spanish King wrote in his telegram) a great ambassandor for the club, since he was a 'gentleman' who aptyl demonstrated the ideal face of the relationship Barca would like to have with wider society.

a few words on the tour

The positives and negatives of touring have been discussed to death by now, and I won't rehash all the arguments here. My own position is that I broadly agree with Lilian Thuram: commerical tours - let's not mince words here, that's their major function - are a necessary evil. They also serve a more positive function, with the charity work done by the club while on tour (yes, all the song and dance is a bit much, but at least it's doing some good) and the Catalunya tourism board apparently making use of the occasions to promote the region.

(Sidenote: I understand when people say that our conceit and self-righteous posturing annoys them. That's fair enough. But is it actually better to do nothing at all or to at least try to do something good, even if it's done in an obnoxious way, and perhaps not always with the purest of intentions? Reasonable people can disagree on this one. Sure, sometimes it can go too far, especially when Laporta opens his mouth, and seem like a parody of itself, but I personally find it difficult to cope with the idea that it's somehow bad to aspire to something. Anyway, rant over.)

Now, let me detach that chip from my shoulder. Ahem. Back to the original point: I can tolerate the idea of a tour this time around, because only a few of our players had an international tournament during the summer, but what I hear about next season does not make me happy, given that Euro 08 will affect almost as many of our players as the World Cup did. We'll see what happens, but my patience with the board is quickly running out over this issue, and I'm not the only one.

By the way, the Chinese press reports that none of the boys were caught out clubbing in Hong Kong, even with the extra time granted to them by the rescheduling of the game. If true, good for them.

Further positives, this time relating to the mini-tour of Scotland: according to at least 2 articles I read, our PR staff are excellent, and our players (Zambrotta and Thuram in this case) were courteous interviewees. These may seem trivial to you, but as I've said before, these things are important to clubs like Barca and Real, and it's always reassuring when I read that the club is run in an organised and sane manner, which is the memory of the chaos of the Gaspart years haunting me as much as anything else.

On the football front, the most widely-reported aspect of the tour has to be the emergence of Gio Dos Santos, who is so far top scorer of the pre-season with 4 and has impressed everytime he came on. He's undoubtedly talented, and I for one have been convinced that he's ready for rationed appearances in La Liga and perhaps starting roles in Cup games. It's funny how having Gio and the even younger Krkic on the first team has changed the role of Messi, who was used to being the youngest. He's now a role model and something to aspire to at the age of 20, which is a bit bizarre. About as bizarre as every up and coming young Argentinian player being labelled the 'next Messi', in fact. By the way, I hear that Gio's younger brother Jonathan is a pretty promising midfielder himself.

Besides the fact that the new legislation UEFA have bought in will increasingly force clubs to use more home-grown players (not a regulation Barca will have trouble with, given the number of canteranos in our current squad), it's nice to see players come through the system and succeed at the club. Barca has long been a proven source of midfield talent of a particular type - in fact, we produce so many that we end up 'exporting' some of our best, and we've had a few excellent defenders come through, but only now has La Masia really started producing world-class forwards.

Speaking of youth, our new 3rd choice goalkeeper Oier Olazabal was handed his debut in Beijing. The 17-year-old Basque player, who will spend the season with the B team, was surprised to be told that he would be playing against Guoan, and giving instructions to veteran defender Lilian Thuram, who is twice his age, which apparently prompted some good-natured teasing of the venerable Frenchman by the other players.

squad news

First, a quick tour-related comment: I feel quite bad for Henry, who is still coming back from injury and hasn't really hit form. The press have already started criticising him for not being sharp enough - no amount of reputation is going to protect him here. But guess who's coming to his defence and talking up his contributions so far? That's right, his longtime friend Sammy Eto'o. Not quite what the more cynical amongst us expected when the transfer went through.

With the conclusion of the tour, Rijkaard finally has all his players in the same place, including the 3 Ms (Messi, Marquez and Milito) who were in the Copa America and therefore came back from holiday later, and Deco, who has returned from the extra holiday the club gave him to go to Brazil and see his newborn son.

This is the squad of 25 that Rijkaard has at his disposal right now:

Valdes, Jorquera, Belletti, Zambrotta, Oleguer, Milito, Marquez, Olmo, Thuram, Sylvinho, Abidal, Motta, Toure, Xavi, Deco, Iniesta, Crosas, Dos Santos, Messi, Gudjohnsen, Ezquerro, Maxi, Henry, Eto'o and Ronaldinho.

That list excludes long-term injury victims Edmilson and Puyol, not to mention Bojan Krkic, off on international duty for the Spanish U17s, and includes short-term injury victims Sylvinho and Gudjohnsen. It also includes two youth team players who will go back to Pep Guardiola's B side when the season starts in Marc Crosas (reportedly a target for Liverpool) and frequent backup defender Jesus Olmo. The club are trying to offload 4 of the players on the list (Gudjohnsen, Maxi, Ezquerro and Motta), 3 of which are forwards, which is perhaps understandable given that we currently have 9 of them. That's a ridiculous number, even for a team that plays 4-3-3, especially given the fact that Rijkaard doesn't like big squads.

For interests' sake, this was the line-up for the 11-a-side game in training:

Valdes; Zambrotta, Oleguer, Thuram, Abidal; Toure, Xavi, Iniesta; Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry

vs

Jorquera; Belletti, Marquez, Milito, Crosas; Motta, Deco, Ezquerro; Messi, Maxi, Gio.

The hilarious thing is that the second rag-tag side with no leftback and some players played completely out of position won the game 1-0, via a penalty converted by Messi from Oleguer - who else, bless him - tripping Gio.

transfers

Given Txiki's previous statements, this week is vital in terms of the 4 aftementioned players who the club are trying to usher out the door. The Spanish press reckons that deals for Motta (with AC Milan) and Gudjohnsen (with West Ham) aren't too far off, and Ezquerro has a couple of suitors himself, but although Maxi's agent assures us he is actually trying to find a team for his client, that is seen as the most difficult transfer.

This might be illustrative of the limbo the 3 forwards find themselves in.

Current list of forwards: Henry, Eto'o, Gudjohnsen, Maxi, Ronaldinho, Ezquerro, Messi, Dos Santos, Krkic

Current order of preference for center forward (1): Henry --> Eto'o --> Ronaldinho --> Gudjohnsen --> Messi --> Krkic --> Dos Santos --> Ezquerro --> Maxi

Current order of preference for wing forward (2): Ronaldinho --> Messi --> Eto'o --> Dos Santos --> Henry --> Ezquerro --> Krkic --> Gudjohnsen --> Maxi

The reason Henry is so high on that first list and so low on the second is that he's proven to be - how shall I put this - not very good when played as a wing forward. His performances as center forward have been much more convincing. On the other hand, Eto'o is pretty good on the wing, even if I personally prefer him in a more central position.

Gudjohnsen might not be too far down the pecking order when Rijkaard needs a big target man, but he's really not suited to the wing positions. Krkic is more of a center forward than Dos Santos, who is more suited to the wing. Ezquerro is also better played on the wing, although he can play in the center. Maxi just had an unimpressive season on loan and is unbelievably out of favour.

(I once saw someone on a Barca forum do a list like the above during our double-winning season in order to (jokingly) demonstrate how far down the pecking order Maxi was. It had Valdes and Jorquera (our two 'keepers, for those who don't know) ahead of him in the 'wing-forward' list. Says it all, really.)

Krkic is 16, and Dos Santos is 18. Understandably, nobody likes being stuck behind kids ten years younger. Just ask Ludovic Giuly, who spoke out about the 'unhealthy competition' at Barca from the safety of Rome. (I sympathized with your plight, Ludo, I really did, but did you expect any coach in the world to play you ahead of Messi when he was on the sort of form he had in the last couple of months of last season?)


Lastly, I'd like to draw your attention to this photo. That's Rijkaard's son Michele in the Abidal shirt. As El Mundo Deportivo wrote jokingly, we're not too sure what kind of line-up Frankie will put out, but we know who his son would have starting at left-back.

Posts forthcoming within the next week or so: a word about Barca's new boys, and more about how we're going to line up this season. My full squad preview for the season ahead is still in the works.

Edited: for starting line-up of the practise game and a photo.

La Liga news round-up

Oh boy, now that Real Madrid finally have a coach the amount of transfer news is just going to increase, isn't it? On the plus side, we can all stop talking about the soup opera that was the hiring process - or at least I will after this post.

Barcelona

The Joan Gamper Trophy, which is Barca's traditional season opener in which we play a friendly against a big team, preferably from abroad isn't going to be a season opener this time around, which kind of defeats the purpose of the exercise. But that's exactly the way our genius club management operates, having managed to clog up the pre-season schedule yet again.

Nevermind. The opponents will be Inter Milan this time, which brings with it the slightly scary prospect of Luis Figo stepping onto the Camp Nou turf again. I'm asking nicely, Mancini, please don't bring him. Not because I really hate Figo - that kind of thing fades with the years, and all I've ever managed is a vague distaste anyway - but because I dread the prospect of what's traditionally a day of warm fuzzy glows and celebration turning really, really unpleasant.

Apparently the revoluntary concept of having a code of conduct for the dressing room has caught on, and Joan Laporta handed down his Ten Commandments (as Sport is calling it) this week, including crazy ideas such as turning up to training on time, and, um, turning up to training, period.

I think it's especially interesting to read this in depth Rijkaard interview and this (brutally honest as ever) Samuel Eto'o interview in light of Laporta's statements. Frankie's attempt to take the blame for everything that's gone wrong is admirable, and that combined with his coaching style which emphasises respect and communication means that he's still regarded well by the players. But it's clear that some things will change.

Note this passage from the Eto'o interview:

I was the first person to make a mistake; because we could have sorted everything out internally. This is what I will be careful of next year and I will make sure that everything is kept inside and that there is no chance of things leaking out.

I was quite surprised to read that. Good on him for the mea culpa, and hopefully - given his forthright nature - he'll be able to stick to that.

Also reassuring, Eto'o on his alleged conflict with Rijkaard:

What really did hurt quite a bit was when they tried to say things were bad between me and the coach. It was partly my fault because there are times when you want to use a word and you put in another one instead and everyone is ready to pounce. But have absolutely no problem with the coach. I am delighted that he is the coach because I think that he is the best there is.

Deco on the other hand believes that an (unholy) combination of Mourinho's tactical nous and Rijkaard's man-management would make the perfect coach. He also says that good pal Ronaldinho's happy at Barca. I'm glad he is and I really hope he comes back from holiday fit and ready to play.

On to transfers:

Out: Saviola (free agent), Gio (free transfer to Feyenoord), Toni Calvo (B Team, sold to Aris Salonica), other B team players

In: Henry (24 million euros from Arsenal), Abidal (15 million euros from Lyon), Toure (9 million euros from Monaco), Dos Santos and Krkic (graduating from the B team)

Likely to go: Motta, Giuly, Ezquerro, Belletti

Motta's still demanding a free transfer, but Barca have (somewhat delusional) hopes of getting up to 8 million euros for him. He does have quite a few caps for Brazil, but based on form for the past few seasons, I can't see anyone paying more than 5 million for him at the very, very most. If we're very, very lucky.

Giuly's turned down quite a few offers and is going to report back to training for pre-season despite the club having made it clear to him at the end of the season that he was surplus to requirements, all because he wants a free transfer as well. Oh dear.

Real Madrid

First the big news: Real have finally concluded one of the sagas of the transfer window by appointing Bernard Schuster as their new coach. This after Schuster was forced to pay for his release fee from Getafe out of his own pocket. The former Barca and Real player, not to mention FC Barcelona club member - No. 115088, to be precise - also has some interesting things to say about the impact of Fabio Capello and the way his team will play in that article.

President Ramon Calderon has been singing Schuster's praises and promising entertaining football to the press, which is fine except for the claim that the fans wanted Schuster instead of Capello when polls indicated that the majority were opposed to Capello's sacking. Oh yeah, he also wants you to know that selling Ronaldo won Real the title. Alright, maybe that's true - I wouldn't presume to know - but it does sound just a teeny bit ungrateful given the seasons in which Ronaldo's goals won Real games even when they didn't play well.

In other Madrid related transfer news, Jose Antonio Reyes will most likely be joining Real if a deal can be worked out with Arsenal (and if the Londoners aren't too angry about the whole Cesc business to talk). Emerson's agent also wants you to know that he's not leaving - cue groaning from the Bernabeu's faithful.

Real's first transfer window signing - sort of - defender Christopher Metzelder finally arrives in Spain.

Some bloke named David Beckham puts forward his own reason on why the club suffered the trophy draught that ended recently.

Sevilla

Whatever you can say about Sevilla's president Del Nido - and there's certainly a lot to say - I quite like his club's policy when it comes to interest from other clubs in their players. Which is to slap a price tag on them and wait for the suitors to either meet it or go away. They've now done so for star striker Freddie Kanoute (15 million euros, if anyone's interested, which seems reasonable to me), who by the sound of things of things doesn't so much want to leave as he wants a pay rise. I'd say let him have one, as he is hard working, dedicated and one of the stars of that side. But then I don't own a football club.

Sevilla have also got their first signing of this transfer window in the form of 30 year old Italian 'keeper Morgan de Sanctis, who invoked a recent FIFA ruling to terminate his contract with Udinese. Looks like the Italian club aren't going to let him go (for free) without a fight, though.

Other

The president of Atletico speaks about Torres, the disappointments of the 06-07 season, and his desire to leave the club in a better state than when he started when he does go.

Jon Dahl Tomasson is making his loan move from Stuttgart to Villarreal permanent, signing a one year deal.

New Depor coach Lotina has a lot on his plate. Despite the funds from the (already done) sales of Jorge Andrade and Joan Capdevila and the (pending) sale of Fabricio Coloccini, his club aren't exactly rolling in funds, and he's got to do something to improve what this article terms 'the worst strike force in La Liga'. I was going to protest at that, but statistically Depor did score the least goals last season along with (relegated) Real Sociedad. To make matters worse, they've sold Javier Arizmendi, their top scorer last season with a whopping 5 goals to Valencia. Luckily their young striker Adrian Lopez looks to be coming of age at the U20 World Cup, but surely that won't be enough.

Newly promoted Almeria have been quite busy in the transfer window. It's interesting to see them raiding Real Sociedad for players - I would have thought Athletic would have been eager to snap up any decent Basque players that wanted to leave La Real, despite the rivalry. (Lord knows Athletic need the help, since they've lost a few important players in the transfer windo themselves.)

Barca 06-07 wrap-up: player by player (2)

Continuing on from my last post, in which I covered Barca's goalkeepers and defenders.

Midfielders

Name: Xavier 'Xavi' Hernández Creus
Age: 27
Evaluation: Xavi is one of the leaders of the team and the player who has been in the first team the longest in the current squad despite his relative youth.

Having lost most of the 05-06 season to injury, he was once again hampered by injury problems this season, although they were thankfully mostly minor compared to what he went through before. He's had better seasons, which is reflected in the period that saw him sometimes dropped in favour of Iniesta, but having said that, there's no faulting the effort he puts in and even when his form isn't the best, his essential quality of accurate, incisive passing remains. His form improved markedly towards the end of the season. Scored a couple of nice goals.
Probability of transfer: none. Xavi's been with us for his entire career, and long may it continue. (Although I recently heard a rumour that he supported Espanyol as a child, which is a bit disturbing.) He'll only leave if he doesn't get any games, which is a bit of a worry with Iniesta's rise, but that issue shouldn't need to be forced for a while yet.

Name: Anderson 'Deco' Luis de Souza
Age: 30
Evaluation: A lot of Barca supporters were disgruntled with Deco's antics. The most valuable attribute that he brings to the team is a winning mentality, and that seemed to go missing at times this season. Not to mention the alleged off-field adventures which have landed him in several notorious English tabloids. He's had a largely sub-par season, but improved towards the end. Impressive contribution to Barca's European campaign as usual. The thing about Deco is that even when he's not at his best, Barca benefit from having his particular brand of flair and bite in midfield.
Probability of transfer: low. There was a lot of speculation surrounding him and I was afraid the club were tempted to sell, which would be a serious misjudgement in my opinion. Thankfully they've come out and said outright that he's not for sale.

Name: Andrés Iniesta Luján
Age: 23
Evaluation: The only worthy candidate for Barca's player of the season along with Victor Valdes and one other player I haven't mentioned yet. I had a moment of disbelief when I worked out his age, because he's appeared for the first team 165 times already and captained Barca on a couple of occasions. Iniesta has always had a mature air about him, but I think it can be said that this is the season in which he came of age as a footballer. He's not particularly fast or strong as a player, but he can do everything that you could ask of a midfielder: marking, tackling, incisive, precise passing, blistering runs from midfield and goals from distance. This season, while all around him floundered, he did all of those things, consistently and well.
Probability of transfer: none. A La Masia product like Xavi, he's instrumental to the club's plans for the future.

Name: José Gomes Edmílson Morais
Age: 30
Evaluation: Edmilson has been plagued by injuries even since he joined Barca. In fact, in his 3 seasons at the club the 05-06 season is the only one in which he came close to having a full season on optimal form. This season he has had his playing time cut by both injuries and indifferent form. Mostly unimpressive when he did play.
Probability of transfer: high. Edmilson has expressed his desire to leave due to the lack of playing time. Unfortunately, he had to have a knee operation which will keep him out for six months, which may deter most suitors. There have also been some rumours that Barca will try to keep him for the whole of next season as a backup option once he gets fit.

Name: Thiago Motta
Age: 24
Evaluation: Motta is an odd case, as Frank Rijkaard is very fond of him despite his time in the Barca first team being mostly marked by endless injuries, unfortunately timed red cards and wildly inconsistent form. This season was no different, although the sending off incidents were few and the single notable instance wasn't his fault. He was often injured again, which is the probable cause of his form problems and led to the club not being able to rely on him even when he was fit. Motta actually had a couple of good games this season, which is the frustrating thing about him - there's potential, but no one knows if it will ever be realized.
Probability of transfer: already done. Or at least the club have told him he's surplus to requirements after Toure joined. It's a sad state of affairs when a La Masia graduate is forced to leave for a foreign signing, but it was inevitable.

La Liga news round-up

It almost seems like there's more news in the off-season than during the actual season itself. Maybe it's just everybody going transfer crazy, plus all the sacking and hiring going on. Whatever it is, here's another news round-up, and as usual - no baseless rumours.

Starting at Real Madrid, where despite the lack of an annoucement everyone and their dog knows that Bernard Schuster of Getafe is going to be unveilled as the next coach soon. There's an interesting article from the Times discussing the fate of Capello and other Real coaches in the last 10 years or so. They're certainly not alone in having a rapid turnover of coaching staff - in fact, I'd say that most Spanish clubs have similar tendencies. It's just the fact that they've famously sacked winning coaches twice since the beginning of the new century.

Whether the decision was the right one or not - and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot of what I've read from Madridistas sugges they're not that impressed - it's a done deal, and now the priority must be to have Schuster appointed so that they can get started in the transfer market. Robinho, for one, welcomes his new German overlord (sorry). More on him later in my Copa America post.

Not much Barca news today after the initial flurry of transfer activity. Having been designated surplus to requirements, Thiago Motta is eager to get a decent move abroad, and has demanded that Barca let him go on a free transfer. For once, I'm sympathetic to this argument. I think I'd like to get some cash for everybody else (Belletti, Edmilson, Giuly, possibly Gudjohnsen and Ezquerro), but Motta came up through the youth system, so he didn't cost the club a lot of money, and he's lost what seems like the majority of his playing career to injuries. When he's played in the last 2 seasons, his ratio of good games to disastrous ones has been about 50:50. (You may think I'm being harsh, but a look around any Barca fan forum will tell you that I'm being kind compared to some of the vitriol that's directed at him and Oleguer when they have hapless games.) He's not going to get a good deal if we slap a large price tag on him.

Still on the topic of Barca and transfers, I don't usually touch transfer speculation, but this article about how Barca must sign Frank Lampard seems so misguided that I feel the need to respond to it. My personal nightmare scenario for this transfer window is the Deco-Lampard swap. I've already written about why Deco should stay, but I thought the 'why Lampard should not be signed' part was kind of obvious. Apparently not.

This article made me laugh, which is possibly a bit mean spirited, but the comment from an unnamed Barca executive pretty much sums it up:

There is no other option. He has been offered to us, Milan, Inter and Real Madrid. Basically all of the big clubs. But none are interested. We are the same as those clubs are, we're looking for a player who is more creative and has a greater technique than Lampard. So it looks like he will go nowhere.

Don't get me wrong, his statistics speak for themselves, but contrary to what is claimed by the article championing Lampard, Deco, Xavi and Andres Iniesta can and do score goals. Maybe not as many as Lampard, but neither do they take as many potshots that go nowhere instead of passing to someone in a better position. The type of midfielder preferred by Barca is best exemplified by the ones steadily produced by the youth system: the likes of Pep Guardiola, Ivan De La Pena, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Fran Merida and Marc Crosas. People who have a sound mind for tactics, a team mentality and a killer pass off the first or second touch. Not Frank Lampard.

On to Valencia, who've finally off-loaded Tavano, the Italian striker signed by former sporting director Carboni against coach Quique Sanchez Flores' will. His destination is Livorno, having had a season of largely being left on the bench in Spain. Valencia have done some sensible business post-Carboni and moved fast in erasing all signs of his overt influence. I'm impressed.

The big transfer saga of the last few days has been the Torres to Liverpool deal, which at the time of writing is still rumbling on. Atletico have signed Diego Forlan from Villarreal for (allegedly) 21 million euros , which has been seen by many as a sign that Torres is definitely leaving. I'm a bit puzzled by why Forlan left a club who have consistently been playing in European competition in the last few seasons for one which, well, hasn't. It's a good bit of business for Villarreal, who paid only 2 million pounds for him, got quite a lot of goals in return, and now a large profit from his sale. The question for them will be how to replace him. On the Atletico side, they as always seem to have cash to spend, and at least it's being spent on a player who has proven that he can score goals in La Liga.

Staying with Atletico, it appears that while the Torres deal isn't done yet, the semi-attached deal for Luis Garcia to move the other way is. Garcia has repeatedly expressed his desire to play for Atletico again, having had a good spell there on loan from Barcelona before he went to England. I don't know if Liverpool fans are happy about this move, but he's surely repaid his transfer fee with all those goals on important occasions. He'll probably do well for Atletico, actually. They've got themselves a very nice squad on paper for next season, but then I said that at the beginning of this season too, and look how that turned out.

The last two items both involve two very different Argentinean defenders. Real Zaragoza have indicated that Gabriel Milito will definitely be leaving the club, and that Juventus are the only club to have submitted a bid, which they found to be unsatisfactory. They're basically inviting Barca to start a bidding war for his services. I have a feeling that he'd be too expensive for what we're looking for, given the prices we've been quoted as offering for Chivu. We'll see, but my early guess is that he ends up at Juve in the end, given the above and his previous run-in with Real Madrid when he nearly signed for them but for a failed medical that he's disputed ever since.

The second Argentinean defender under discussion is the former West Ham, Deportivo La Coruna and Racing Santander defender/winger Lionel Scaloni, who has been signed by Lazio. Apparently he'll be their first choice full-back. I can imagine the expressions of surprise on the faces of any West Ham faithful who witnessed his performances for them, and it's the same expression I had on my face when I read about this transfer, having seen him play for Argentina and Depor. Easy as it is to make fun, for the few times I saw him play for Racing he actually looked decent as a right winger. Maybe Italy will suit him.

To wrap this up, here are some interesting numbers: how much each club collected out of the marketing pool for this season's Champions League.

(I'll start referring to 07-08 as 'this season' when Primera clubs begin their pre-season.)

Welcome Toure Yaya and associated news

No, that's not a typo. The younger Toure has announced that he would like to be known as Toure Yaya while at Barca, and that's what's going on his no.17 shirt as well. The 24 year old was presented today after finalizing his 9 million euro move from AS Monaco.

I've only ever watched him play at the World Cup, but have heard very good things about his ability, and it's good to see the management aren't blind to our needs in the defensive midfield position. Hopefully he'll prove to be a success for us.

The club have apparently told youth academy product Thiago Motta he is surplus to requirements with the capture of Toure. Motta was a very promising young player when he 'graduated' into the first team (he's actually been capped for Brazil a couple of times), but horrible luck with long-term injuries have derailed his development and his inconsistency when not injured has been frustrating the fans for the last few seasons. It's sad to see a youth system product pushed out in favour of a big-money signing, but in this case it was inevitable, despite Motta being a particular favourite of Rijkaard's.

The same announcement would seem to indicate that Rafael Marquez and Edmilson will both be staying at the club, the latter largely because he's going to be out injured for six months following a knee operation. Otherwise he would probably have been offloaded for criticising the board's call for greater discipline within the squad and general loss of form, not to mention frequent injuries. On the subject of Marquez, the club would seem to be holding out hope of his eventual return to form after a horrible season from the Mexican.

Barca round-up

I've been having a crazy time lately with my holiday job, hence the lack of posts. Some thoughts below on all matters Barca recently.

La Liga

Good to keep the winning form going, especially away to the most defensively solid team in the league in Mallorca - well, not anymore. It's still looking very tight in the top 8, so Barca are going to have to hang on through our injury problems and grind out results when necessary.

Having said that, I've already discarded the 3 points against Atletico Madrid. We almost never win against them. A club is only allowed one 'black beast' club in my book, and ours is Atletico - and, by implication, Torres. (He'd be a great buy if all that your club needed to do was beat Barcelona every week.) But that's okay, because a lot of the other top 8 teams are playing each other in the next few rounds, and will probably take points off each other in the process.

Champions League

I was so relieved we won in Sofia - 'without playing', as Sport claimed - which keeps the club's qualification chances in its own hands. By the way, I've been very impressed with the way Levski have approached the Champions League - with positive football and sensible responses to defeat. Fair play to them.

Chelsea of course lost to Bremen 0-1, a result which ensures that they will qualify and places Barca in the position of having to win against Bremen in the last game to get through. I'm not blaming Mourinho - he fielded a strong side and no doubt went out to at least get some sort of result. Hell, he even complained to the press later that Frings went down too easily in winning the freekick that led to the Bremen goal, so you know he took it seriously. In fact, I wouldn't have blamed him if he'd rested some players with the Manchester United match coming up, so his behaviour has been above what I expected.

As for Bremen, they need any result they can get. A good win for them, and they now have everything to play for - and pretty much nothing to lose, unlike Barca. Fair enough.

As both Motta and Deco have insisted - neither of them fans of Chelsea, kind of like yours truly - Barca should not hope for favours from Mourinho's team. It's their business what they do, after having gotten such good results from their first 4 games, and they have every right to do whatever makes them happy.

On the other hand, it's up to Barca to make sure that qualification does happen. A team with aspirations of defending their title shouldn't have to - or want to - rely on anyone else's sportsmanship or results. It's all down to a single game, at the Camp Nou, in which we have to win. There's nothing wrong with that.

Food for thought

Here's Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf on what his team is going to do at the Camp Nou:

"We set ourselves ambitious aims and so far we have reached them all in excellent fashion, but we shouldn’t travel to Barcelona thinking that all we have to do is defend.

"If you allow them to play their game, they’re going to hammer us. We have to take the game to them instead."

I don't know if we're in the kind of form (or have the kind of players fit) to 'hammer' a side like Bremen, but if they do take the game to Barca (and judging by past record, they will), with the way Barca almost always play at home it could make for a good encounter. Like against Chelsea, Barca cannot afford to give away cheap set pieces, since Bremen have some - to quote a Mourinhoism - 'giants' who are very good at capitalising.

Medical problems

Something's not right here. Poor Belletti keeps getting injured again right after 'recovering' from a short-term injury, and they keep screwing up the recovery times for other players. Please tell me Messi's not going to be out for double the time he's actually supposed to be (again). Or, God forbid, the same happening to Eto'o.

More immediately, Ronaldinho, Marquez and Motta all picked up knocks in the game against Levski. This is very, very bad. Marquez - who has admittedly been a bit out of sorts lately - can be replaced by either Oleguer (competent, but unable to make up for Puyol's lack of speed) or Thuram (again, same thing - awesomely skilled but not the fastest player around, and not quite on the same wavelength as Puyol a lot of the time). Hopefully Edmilson will be available in place of Motta if necessary. It's a shame since Motta's finally hit a good patch of form and to return to his eternal injury hell would set him back once again.

Ronaldinho, though. If Barca lose him, we're in deep trouble. That would be our 4th forward injured, not to mention our entire first choice forward line - enough to send any club into a deep spiral of despair. In this case, the prospect of Ezquerro-Gudjohnsen-Giuly taking on Bremen on the 5th does not fill me with confidence, even if the match is at home.

First impressions are that all three are just knocks, although knowing the Barca medical staff I'm waiting for them to be examined properly first - which will probably happen today.

Player status

To finish on a cheerful note, how good is Iniesta right now? And it's looking like a productive season in terms of goals for him too. Much as I like Xavi - and I like Xavi a lot - it's hard to see Iniesta not starting in this form. Not only that, but he has shown repeatedly that while quiet, he is a leadership figure on the pitch already at the tender age of 22. I was especially impressed when he was the one going around rallying the troops, calming people down and communicating with the referee when necessary against Depor, in a match where Barca desperately needed a leader after what happened against Chelsea and Puyol's tragic absence. He stepped up, even more so than our actual captain on the day - first vice-captain Ronaldinho.

While him and Xavi are both the quiet type, Iniesta seems to me to be even more of a leader figure. Xavi, bless him, is almost too easy-going. I've said this before, but Barca need to hold on to Iniesta. It's hard to see him not being pelted with offers for teams where he'll start every match, but it should be possible for the club to retain him as very possibly a future captain if they play their cards right. There the precedent of Xavi - who has turned down Chelsea, amongst others, to stay at Barca even through the bad old years - may come in useful.

Back to the selection headache, there's also the option of playing both Xavi and Iniesta, which has been used successfully before. The problem with that is that Deco is working his ass off right now, and getting a lot of constructive, if unglamorous work done. I don't think playing all 3 of them is a good idea unless we're at home and the opposition are playing with 10 men behind the ball - and that applies whether Xavi or Iniesta plays in the holding role. Then again, since Messi's out, all 3 might play with more regularity - with Iniesta in Giuly's usual position, instead of further back in midfield.

It's nice to see Gudjohnsen, Ezquerro and now Giuly getting on the scoresheet, when the team needed them to produce. Especially Guddy - I really like the attitude he has shown so far this season, despite all my criticisms of his technique. It's great that he's finally starting to answer back to all the naysayers. I'd gladly eat my words if he'd score more. As for poor Santi Ezquerro, the forgotten man now has a chance to get some games for Barca and prove his worth.

I've long admired Giuly's ability to suffer in silence given how frustrating it must be to be stuck behind a kid 10 years younger for a starting spot, especially given what he is capable of, and his glittering record so far. Much as I hate the fact that Messi is injured yet again, I like Giuly and would love for him to go on a run of form that will see him challenge Messi even when the Argentine is fit. More goals would also be nice.

Finally, as I mentioned before, congratulations are due to Motta, who is 'benefitting' from Edmilson's various injury problems and after a couple of games seems to be hitting some form. This is great news as he is Barca's best at linking attack and defence when his elusive good form comes about. Long may it continue.

If it ain't broke...my take on Barca's transfer needs

There will always be transfer speculation surrounding a club such as Barcelona, and even more so now, with so many players out injured. This is my opinion on the team's short term and long term needs and how they may best be fulfilled.

short term

Most obviously, with the current injury list, we seem to need some striking cover. Reportedly the club are considering their options on this front. As the technical staff have pointed out, however, signing a player in January would leave the unlikely result of the squad being far too overloaded with strikers once the injured players return to fitness. So that leaves out the likes of Albert Luque, especially since he wants more playing time. As much as I love the idea of having another Catalan player in the squad, it doesn't seem practical. We already have a winger who doesn't get nearly enough playing time in Santi Ezquerro.

Moving on, I have to say, regardless of the credibility of the reports, I'm attracted by the idea of getting Henrik Larsson back on loan for 3 months. It appeals to the sentiments of Barca fans who love him, and works in a practical sense because he knows the club and the system. Besides, the Swedish season has just finished, and doesn't start back up in another 4 months. That said, as his current club have said, while a loan deal would appeal to them financially, at the age of 35 Larsson could probably use a long break between seasons, instead of spending it playing, especially since he essentially hasn't stopped playing since the beginning of the 05-06 season, going straight from Barca to the World Cup, and then from that straight back into club football in Sweden. In the end, though, much of it will depend on what Henke thinks about it. I wouldn't be surprised if he refused, even if the club decides to ask. After all, he'd left in the perfect way. No need to risk changing that.

Whatever happens, I hope the club proceed with caution, since our last couple of emergency signings in January haven't exactly worked out. While I'll always be grateful to Maxi Lopez for that Chelsea game, and Albertini for answering our distress call at no great gain to himself, their impact hasn't been that great. In our last majorly injury-ridden season, it was actually the players we already had who really dug deep and pulled through together. Maybe there's a lesson in there.

long term

I'm a firm believer in evolution rather than revolution when it comes to improving the squad. As far as I can see, there are two positions that might prove problematic in the next couple of seasons - left-back, holding midfield and the right wing.

Left-back first. This is an obvious one, given that both our left-backs are over 30 and have their share of critics. Sylvinho is a wonderful wing-back, but has his defensive problems and I don't know how many more years his legs can take of running up and down the left flank all game. Gio is better balanced, but still easily exposed by fast, nimble wingers, and at 31 the second oldest member of the squad. Again, the physical demands placed upon the full-backs in the 4-3-3 system could take its toll.

I'd prefer the coach promoting a young left-back from the youth system to gain some experience with the senior players with a view to taking over, if a suitable candidate exists. If not, it would be nice if we could sign someone young. The current technical staff seem to prefer players who are already used to a European league, especially those from the 'smaller' leagues like Holland, Portugal and France, which seems like a good approach to take. In any case, there's no hurry, so any decision should be taken with caution, which means hopefully no splashing out of large amounts of cash on a 'star' player (by which I am indeed alluding to the Abidal rumours).

Moving on to holding midfield. Barca have had problems in this position for years. Our holding midfielders - Edmilson, Gerard and Motta - seem to be desperately unlucky with injuries. We spent most of 04-05 with all 3 unavailable. Motta missed at least half of 05-06 with various niggling injuries, when not in danger of getting sent off. Edmilson has been somewhat lacking in form this season when not injured. Motta has had one good game. With 2 players covering one position, you don't except to have to draft in less defensive midfielders (Xavi, Iniesta) or a center-back (Marquez) to fill the position effectively.

Furthermore, Edmilson isn't getting any younger at 30. He's been plagued by injury for the last couple of seasons, an alarming trend that doesn't look like going away. Motta, 23, is one of the youngest players in the squad, so he has a lot of room to grow. It's interesting to note that he's been in the first team on and off from 2002, and yet he's still got the same problems with clumsy tackling and more importantly his unstable temperament. I think a lot of this is due to the many lengthy injury lay-offs that have stunted his development as a player - he's never played more than 20 games in a single season. 2005 was almost a complete write-off. Rijkaard really likes Motta because he thinks the Brazilian is a player in his own image, and I sure hope that is the case. When he has a good game, one can see what Rijkaard means. He's better going forward than Edmilson, holds possession well and takes a great freekick too. And of course even a team like Barca need a physical player.

Having said all that, even if Motta does develop into a player who can do the job, I think there's a case for reinforcements in this position. Not necessarily by buying from other clubs, since it's not quite an urgent problem. As always, my preference is for a youth team player to get a chance to come up and establish himself. If that's not possible, then perhaps signing a young player used to European football who won't cost insane amounts of money. Sadly, that last bit rules out players such as Argentinean Javier Mascherano, languishing at West Ham. Someone like, say, fellow Argentinean Lucas Biglia, now of Anderlecht - just as an example - would fit the description. He's just as good as the far more lauded Fernando Gago - who is now seemingly headed to Real Madrid - and would come far cheaper.

Lastly, there's the right wing. I know this sounds a little crazy, given that Barca have Leo Messi in that position, but given how injury-prone he's proven to be, and the fact that Ludovic Giuly, while excellent, is not getting any younger, we should be looking at future prospects - leisurely browsing, really, given the lack of urgency, but still browsing. Giuly is 30 right now, and given both the demands of the position and his physical condition can hardly play 75 minutes without running out of gas. He's still working his ass off and putting in vital performances for now, but what about 2 or 3 years down the line?

Encouragingly, there are quite a few impressive youngsters coming through from the youth teams who can play in the forward positions. 2005 U17 World Cup Silver Ball winner Giovani Dos Santos looks like a good prospect, if only Barca can hold on to him. Unfortunately one of the methods Barca are employing to ensure that Dos Santos doesn't leave involves not pushing to get him Spanish nationality, as an EU passport would make it much easier for other clubs to snatch him. I say unfortunately because this lack of an EU passport works both ways - he can't play for the first team, at least not this season, even if one of the non-EU slots on the team is freed up by his Mexican compatriot Marquez finally getting Spanish citizenship. Even so, this position looks alright for the future, unless - going by track record - Arsenal suddenly take an interest.

In conclusion, I don't think big spending is the answer to any problems the team may have right now. Barca already did that 2 season ago, when we bought in 7 players in the transfer window and made the current squad what it is. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. At least not yet.

Barca v Chelsea: my take

This report is less objective than my usual - I criticize Chelsea, especially Mourinho strongly, alongside some criticisms of Barca. So if you're likely to take offence, please avert your eyes.

I must first say, just to start with, how pleased I am with Barca's performance, with the exception of some unedifying behaviour (come on, guys, we're supposed to be better than that.) The team fought hard, worked their asses off, produced one of the best performances so far this season and deserved more than they got. But that's football.

Rijkaard's post-match comments are as always worth looking at, although in this case I thought he was actually quite mad at the referee at the end, contrary to his claims. In any case, he's back to being sensible Frank again, thank god.

I'll start with the things that really made me angry about this match and go on to the good things. My report of the game at Stamford Bridge reflected the way that game went - without controversy, foul play or much incident. I accepted our defeat as due to us, and praised the Chelsea players because they'd proven to be better. This time, it was a little different. First, a roll-call of shame.

The divers

On the Barca side, Marquez and Deco were both guilty of going down far too easily. Not to be out done, Drogba replied for Chelsea, having 3 rolls on the Camp Nou pitch (perhaps it was comfortable?) in the first 5 minutes. Robben made a few abortive attempts, but he was hardly the worst offender.

The thugs

Messi should not have pushed Boulahrouz. His booking was fully deserved. I don't care what the circumstances were. As hilarious as his Mister Innocent act after the fact was, it's not what people want to see from a young, emerging talent. Happily he's usually much more sedate, and will hopefully go back to being so after this.

Marquez's stamp on Essien's crown jewels, whether deliberate or not, was too much. Even if he didn't mean it, he should have tried harder to avoid it.

Motta grows older but not wiser. I remember him getting into a fight with some Celtic players 3 seasons ago in the UEFA Cup. Sadly, he hasn't changed. Far too rough with his tackling, and far too eager to square up to Chelsea players. That sneaky trip of Drogba was disgraceful.

Carvolho wasn't the worst of the Chelsea players, but the tackle that injured Gudjohnsen was very untidy and his behaviour in kicking Messi in the chest and then gesturing at him to get up was breath-taking. Not in a good way. He then went one better by kicking international teammate Deco in the crown jewels.

Drogba had me seething for long periods in this match with the way he just charged into anything in ruby and blue that moved. Stamping, shoving, kicking out...Drogba does it all. Disappointing, given his recent (apparent) rehabilitation.

Lastly, John Terry - but only because he's captain and supposed to impose discipline instead of doing stupid things himself. Other than kicking the ball into Deco's midriff, he was fine.

other unsporting behaviour

Both teams were guilty of trying to referee the match, surrounding official after and before every potential call. Barca doesn't even behave like this against Real Madrid. Certainly neither team were like this in the last game at Stamford Bridge. Disgraceful stuff.

On a related note, Mourinho claims that Chelsea players only got booked because the Barca players were putting pressure on the ref. I thought they got booked for trying to maim the opposition. The articles I'm coming across blaming all the ugly aspects of the game on Barca are simply inexplicable to me. Although they are from mostly English, Premiership-following sources...hmm, maybe not so inexplicable. Different standards and all. I'll expand on this later.

the ref

Poor guy. I saw him referee the Milan derby and thought he was fine. Sending off Materazzi was stupid, but he had to follow the letter of the law. This time, both teams are complaining about his decisions afterwards, so according to the clique he's either done everything or nothing right. Personally, I thought he did the best he could. Probably shouldn't have booked so many players for dissent, but that's his call.

the game

There was no real rhythm to it because of all the stoppages, but it was still exciting stuff. Deco's opening goal created the perfect start for Barca. That's the way we need to start games, by rocking opponents back on their heels, catching them off-guard and scoring quickly. Then the team can relax and play their attacking game.

Lampard's equaliser was really bizarre. If he meant it then it was absolutely brilliant, but he's going to have his work cut out making the case for that because of his initial fumble with the ball.

I was so damn pleased for Gudjohnsen, scoring his first goal in Camp Nou. What a rebuke it would have been to Mourinho if the scoreline had stayed at 2-1, with the way he used Guddy - a loyal servant of Chelsea for six seasons - to stir up cheap controversy before the game. To be fair, though, a lot of the credit goes to Marquez's amazing long-range pass, and then Ronaldinho leaving Boulahrouz for dead to thread the perfect ball through for Guddy at the near post. He celebrated - oh, how he celebrated. I think there was even some club badge smacking going on.

Drogba's late goal hurt. It hurt because we were far more effective going forward in the second half, created more chances, and couldn't finish enough of them. Because in between the stops and starts for various bits of foul play, we played some lovely football. But credit to Chelsea, they never give up, and Mourinho's substitutes were very astute.

Barca fell apart after Drogba's equaliser. Even if the ref had allowed us to play out the full 6 minutes of stoppage time we wouldn't have scored. Understandable, but also rather worrying.

If this were any other team, I'd say that we should have closed up shop after going ahead and attempted to cling on to our lead. But this is Barcelona, so the mere suggestion of 10 men behind the ball is insulting. Nevermind.

Barca

I'm not going to do my usual person-by-person comments. Only some random observations. I was greatly heartened by our display in general. We went back to basics - everyone attacks, and everyone defends. When an opponent has the ball, 3 or 4 players close him down. When a teammate has the ball, there's always support. I was worried about losing again, based on our sedate performance in Stamford Bridge. But if Barca play like this then we shouldn't be afraid of anyone.

The defence is getting flack for giving up 2 goals, both of which could arguably have been prevented. (Did you know when Barca last let in 2 goals at home in European competition? Well, it's been a while.) Zambrotta should have covered Lampard better for the first, although given the freakishness of the goal he can't take that much blame. In the second both Edmilson and Marquez went to sleep to let Drogba through. However, as Rijkaard likes to say, when we let in goals it's the whole team's fault.

I actually thought we defended very well in general. When he wasn't going down easily or roughening opponents up, Marquez had a pretty good game. Zambrotta's finally looking like clicking with Messi in attack. Puyol was regular old Puyol, enough said. Gio left gaps at the back when going forward but was solid overall.

Edmilson looked good - better than Motta, in any case. Xavi was fine (and perhaps shouldn't have been bought off), and Deco was man of the match, for me. He scored one of his typical goals from outside the box just when we needed it most, and ran the match from midfield with Xavi. Eager to defend, as well, which is always nice to see. Of the big names who were lacking form, Deco at least seems to be back.

Poor Gudjohnsen looked crushed at having to go off injured. He worked hard as always, tracking back and making runs, although he still doesn't look that threatening. We can't ask for more than a goal against Chelsea, though. Here's hoping he gets better soon.

Messi matched up against Ashley Cole much better than he did last time. He has something that even Ronnie has been lacking recently - the confidence that he will go past his marker. In this game, he failed to dominate, just like against Real, but did enough to make his marker look silly, just like against Real. That cutback to Ronnie early in the first half was perfect; Ronnie really should have done better with it. I was pleased with his display, just coming back from an ankle injury.

Ronaldinho was great in more than one sense. Sure, he's still not back to his best, but we saw more of the skill and audacity that made him so wonderful this time around. His pass for Guddy's goal was perfect. There were more inch-perfect passes, too, especially one into Gudjohnsen that was very similar to his effort in Milan last season. Guddy really should have done better with it. Welcome back, Ronnie.

More than that, though, he worked alongside Puyol, calming other players down and preventing confrontations. He wasn't wearing the captain's armband today, but he acted like one.

fallout

This result, while not disastrous in terms of qualification, is nevertheless a setback. I'm not expecting any favours from Mourinho. He isn't obligated to play a strong team in either of Chelsea's next fixtures. After all, they're pretty much through. So that's fair enough. Our fate is in our own hands, and if we manage to somehow screw it up, well, we'll only have ourselves to blame. The next 2 CL games are must wins.

In this game, Rijkaard opted to bring on Giuly and play Ronaldinho at center-forward rather than make a straight swap for Saviola. This combined with other recent behaviour has led me to conclude that club suits have been pressuring him not to cup-tie Saviola so that they can sell him in January. This is clearly madness. I will go insane if Rijkaard doesn't play Saviola while Gudjohnsen's injured. There's simply no other bearable or viable option. If Saviola doesn't start against Depor, he's never going to.

Speaking of that game, my biggest worry coming out of this one is the demoralising effect conceding a late equaliser will have had on the team. They battled so hard, only to come away with meager rewards. Hopefully they'll pick themselves up for the next Liga game, because Depor aren't going to be easy opponents.

commentary

I watched it with Chinese commentary from two guys who obviously spend a lot of time watching Chelsea matches in the Premiership and not a lot watching La Liga. (I gather this from their extensive comments regarding Ashley Cole's performances so far this season and from being told that Motta has been in good form. Take it from someone who watches all the Barca matches - he hasn't. Also, Giuly is not a center forward.)

It was interesting to hear their views on what was a foul, what should be or shouldn't be a penalty and Chelsea's game-winning methods. It's probably belabouring the point a bit to point out yet again that a foul in Spain isn't necessarily a foul in England. While exaggerating contact is seen as more acceptable in Spain, violent conduct is more acceptable in England. (It is my personal opinion that had the Stephen Hunt challenge on Petr Cech happened in Spain everyone would have blamed Hunt.

Mourinho

If I start, I'll be here all day. So briefly: the man is brilliant. But he'll do anything to win, and if he believes half of the stuff he says, then he lives in an alternate reality.

I'll let Edmilson speak for me (although it's from the Sun, so you'll never know if it's made up, but if it isn't, the quiet man has more wit than I thought):

“The worst thing about playing Chelsea is having to listen to Mourinho afterwards.”

I'm exhausted, but proud. I hope the Barca team feel the same. I know Chelsea will.

Barca miscellany

Sorry for the lack of posts. I promise it's not because Barca lost El Gran Classico. As I've mentioned before on the sidebar, I do have an academic life to tend to. That means exams around this time, and that combined with being sick as a...well, something really sick - led to the lack of posting.

I did have half a post about the Real v Barca game all written, but it's been a week and the whole thing is outdated now. Some thoughts on all matters Barca below. There's also another post in the works about a couple of Argentina-related matters.

Thomas at Forca Barca has a little round-up which contains a great assessment of Rijkaard's style as manager. This is why I like the Dutchman so much. He's a breath of fresh air that way. It's also why he's the man I'd put most faith in to lead the team out of any bad patches.

Moving on, I'm getting slightly frustrated with the lack of significant playing time for Saviola. I know that he fell out of favour with our sporting director in his last season at the club before being farmed out, but that shouldn't matter when one can clearly see that he links better with the other strikers and with the midfield than Gudjohnsen does. Saviola has a superb understanding with Ronaldinho and Xavi, in particular. Obviously I'm not unbiased, since I'm quite fond of El Conejo, but surely letting go of the past and giving him more chances is better for the team as a whole?

Finally, on a lighter note, I'd like to voice my approval of young Thiago Motta's new hair this season - much improved upon the monstrosity that was last season's mop. Now, if only he could do the same with his tackling...

Spanish League Round-up: week 6

An interesting round with some great games and a couple of surprise results, leaving Barcelona alone at the top, 3 clear of Valencia and Atletico Madrid, 4 ahead of Sevilla and 5 clear of Real Madrid - a very good place to be heading into next week's El Clasico.

Barcelona 3-1 Sevilla

Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes; Belletti (28' Zambrotta), Marquez, Thuram, Sylvinho; Motta, Xavi, Iniesta; Messi, Gudjohnsen (83' Saviola), Ronaldinho (73' Giuly)

Sevilla (4-4-2): Palop; Puerta (46' Dragutinovic), Escude, Navarro, Alves; Adriano, Renato (85' Kepa), Poulsen, Navas; Fabiano (46' Marti), Kanoute

Like most Barca fans, I was really pleased and more than a little relieved at this result. Less pleased about being unable to watch what was from all reports a cracking game because of Sevilla's TV contract problems, but that's only a minor complaint in the scheme of things. The win has really put us in a good position heading into two more tough games this week, especially with almost all Barca's rivals dropping points. Shorter analysis this week, since I only got to see highlights.

the game

The general consensus seems to be that Barca are finally finding some semblance of the form that saw them going on that 18-match winning streak last season, and of course Sevilla have been on fire since before the start of the season. Apparently played at a furious pace with both teams really going for it, especially in the first half. Barca attacked with abandon, as usual, but were also careful to not give away possession cheaply in the middle of the park. Things died down a little in the second, but there was still no lack of desire for more goals. The scoreline is fair if one looks at the possession enjoyed by Barca, but a bit harsh on Sevilla if chances are compared instead. It was really a very close game that both sides could have won.

Sevilla

They are a very well organised team who defend brilliantly and are lethal on the break. Kanoute's goal was a brilliant piece of teamwork. Most teams come to Camp Nou to play in the same way they do, but few succeed at it. The reason Valencia, Atletico and Sevilla are able to employ a counterattacking strategy effectively against Barca is that they have real quality and pace in the attacking third. Sounds obvious, but it's not easy to achieve. Excellent pacy wingers like Navas, Vicente, Maxi (or, say, Robben and Joe Cole) combined with strong fast full-backs like Miguel and Alves will always give the Barca defence trouble. The likes of Gio and Puyol have real trouble coping with speedy opponents.

I agree with some newspaper reports that Mourinho will probably have been heartened by Barca's inability to contain Sevilla down the left, but that has to be tempered with the realization that Rijkaard will no doubt ring the changes for that game. This starting XI was designed to suit the opponent, and it worked brilliantly, proving that the coach isn't nearly as tactically inept as his detractors suggest. Chelsea will require a different response. For starters, Gio will probably play on that wing instead of the attacking Sylvinho. The midfield will probably also be beefed up from the comparatively light-weight one put out against Sevilla. I would also suggest that Chelsea need to get their own defensive house in order first, since Ferreira isn't likely to contain Ronaldinho and who knows how Wayne Bridge would do against Leo Messi?

the ref

I thought Sevilla coach Juande Ramos made some very fair comments about the referee, despite being sent off for dissent during the match. He basically said that common mistakes had been made, and it was just unlucky that Sevilla were on the end of those mistakes, which is an attitude I wish more coachs would take. The referee in question has never impressed me. This is the man who insisted on booking Messi for diving inside the box last season in the game against Osasuna at the Camp Nou despite there being a clear trip from the opposing defender. After the match, said defender admitted to the trip and declared that it should have been a penalty. Sevilla fans may feel less aggrieved if they know that this guy isn't a Barca fan intent on robbing them of the game - he's simply a bit incompetent and clearly in need of an eyesight check-up.

While the call disallowing Sevilla's goal was very dodgy indeed, I find claims that Belletti dived to win the penalty questionable at least, given the circumstances. Firstly, the challenge was laughably crass, and second, Belletti sustained a dislocated shoulder from the incident, meaning he has to miss at least the Chelsea and Real games. Maybe not a clear-cut penalty, but certainly not a dive.

In the end, at least this ref wasn't as bad as the man who 'refereed' Atletico vs Recre. More on that below.

Barca

defence

A good game overall, despite the aftementioned defensive problems of Sylvinho. The new boys are finally being integrated properly into what can actually be a very stubborn and well-organised defensive unit. Thuram was by all reports a rock as usual, Marquez's tackling crucial and his passing still insanely accurate - he was involved in the build-up to Messi's goal - and Zambrotta is settling in better as time goes on. Here's hoping Belletti's injury isn't too serious, though, because he offers a potent attacking option either starting or coming in from the bench.

midfield

All credit to Rijkaard here, even though he insisted on heaping praise on the midfield trio themselves after the match. Many thought he would go with the Deco-Xavi-Iniesta combination, but he surprised everyone by starting Xavi and Iniesta together for the first time (!) with Motta providing the steel. It worked like a charm. Rijkaard rightly gave credit to the disciplined performance by all three, both offensively and in defence. This young midfield trio - average age of 24 - managed to control the game without being muscled out of proceedings by a physically strong Sevilla side.

Iniesta linked frighteningly well with Messi, the 22 year old and the 19 year old setting each other up numerous times. Now there's a partnership for Barca's future. (Memo to Laporta: can we renew Iniesta's contract now, please? You know other clubs will start fighting over him soon. Memo to Iniesta: please stop going down so easily. You're getting a reputation, and it's stopping you from getting legit penalty calls.) Xavi was Xavi - Barca's beating heart, the most efficient midfielder around, never wasting a pass, always managing to move the ball with great pace and precision. A great assist as well for Messi's goal.

But Motta deserves special mention here. He gets a lot of flack from Barca fans, many of whom cannot understand why Rijkaard likes him so much. I've wondered the same thing myself sometimes. However, when he has a game like this, all doubts are dispelled, at least temporarily. Defensively it was a very effective performance, with the young Brazilian popping up everywhere he was needed at the right time. Offensively too he contributed with aplomb. He still makes the odd clumsy tackle, like the one that got him booked this time, but that was the only blemish on a great performance. Good news for Barca at a time when Edmilson perhaps isn't in the best of form. More of the same, please.

forward line

I did say that people were being ridiculous about Ronaldinho. 'He's back' is the cry, yet to me he returned before the international break. Still, a great performance, universally hailed, has got to be good for his confidence. Finally getting the Spanish press off his back is a big bonus as well. Good to see his free kicks, threaded passes and crazy runs back to their most threatening. The best part for him personally, though, must be the vindication of winning his battle against fellow Brazilian Alves on the left wing, a battle he lost spectacularly last time around. I hope he didn't throw a tantrum at being substituted as some reports have suggested, because as one of the captains and an example to the younger players he really shouldn't be doing that. Plus, Rijkaard was simply resting him for the next game.

Not sure how his substitute Giuly played as part of an unfamiliar frontline. I think I'm right in saying that an attacking axis of Messi-Gudjohnsen-Giuly have never played together before. Looking at the attributes of the players, I can't see it working. Messi and Giuly rely on pace and penetration, two things Gudjohnsen is comparatively lacking in.

Speaking of the Icelandic international, I'm still not convinced by him. His strengths are obvious, and they should probably ensure that he starts against old club Chelsea, but he just seems to fit less comfortably into the Barca frontline's mode of attack. Maybe as he plays more with Ronaldinho and Messi they'll click together better.

His substitute Saviola only got about 10 minutes against his old club, but made the best of them, threading a great pass through to Giuly, who was unfortunately caught offside. Those two have a good understanding already, which could come in very useful. To me, although he offers less strength and ability to hold up the ball, Saviola's pace and skill, not to mention his familarity with the Barca system means that he could start ahead of Gudjohnsen in league games to good effect. Hopefully he will get more minutes to reflect his great form.

Pride of place goes to Messi, who scored a superb goal. Readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of the youngster who will vehemently defend him from unfounded accusations. Thankfully I can take a break now. His goal was astonishing, gliding through the entire Sevilla defence as if it didn't exist and finishing well into the top corner. Even before that, though, he was directly responsible for both of Ronaldinho's goals. The penalty came about after he threaded a perfect pass through to Belletti, who was bought down inside the box. Similarly, he was brought down for the free kick which Ronaldinho converted - a common combination last season, and one I hope to see more of, although it would also be nice if defenders hacked at Messi less. But, of course, that's not going to happen.

Throughout the entire game he gifted threatening balls to team mates as well as running at the Sevilla defence himself. The Argentine was a surprise inclusion after most people expected Giuly to start. Frankly, I was hoping for the same after Messi's miserable showing against Sevilla in Camp Nou last season and in the Super Cup this season. But no, he played the entire game and did very well.

Atlético de Madrid 2-1 Recreativo de Huelva

What a hilarious game, although not so much if you're a Recre fan. First, though, the not at all funny news is that Atletico will be without both of their first choice wingers for six months after Martin Petrov also fell victim to a knee injury. The signs from this match are that the very capable young Argentine Sergio Aguero will step into the role. Even so, Atletico are sure to miss someone who has been one of their best players so far this season.

Moving on to the hilarity, most of it courtesy of a truly poor referee. New boys Recre will no doubt feel robbed after yet another fine performance, but the lousy penalty calls, at least, hurt both sides. Recre's opener was a very soft call, to say the least. I'm not saying that Viqueira dived, but he went down very easily. Galletti did a good job replacing compatriot Maxi Rodriguez, marring his performance with a dive for Atletico's equalizer. Not content with just those lousy calls, the ref proceeded to wave away better cases for penalty calls on both ends of the pitch.

But the controversy wasn't complete just yet. Aguero proved that he perhaps deserved the pressure of the New Maradona tag by scoring Atletico's winner...with his hand. At least Maradona used his hand because he couldn't reach the ball with his head. Aguero all but jabbed the ball home with a punch at about chest height. It was an incredibly comical sight - in fact, I laughed myself silly watching it, but Recre are right to feel aggrieved about that one. Some sign of contrition from Aguero would also be nice.

Getafe 1-0 Real Madrid

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. The result itself isn't disastrous for Real, since I'm right in saying that they've never won away at Getafe. It was more the manner of defeat which concerned Real fans - 0 shots on goal says it all, really. Ronaldo got 45 mins and showed that his suspension for the Barca match might not be a bad thing for Real. However, let's put things in perspective.

Real had an almost entirely make-shift backline, with Sergio Ramos suspended, and Cannavaro, Salgado and Cicinho injured. Roberto Carlos was the only first-choice defender left. In attack, they were deprived of their best performer so far this season in the form of Reyes, who was also injured. So that's 5 injuries to key players. Given the patched together defence, one would expect them to have problems in that area. It's the offensive woes that I don't understand. Van Nistelrooy is a classy finisher, Beckham can still send in the crosses, Guti is underrated as a creative force, and Cassano has shown signs of revival since the beginning of the season. So what's going wrong?

My own theory about Real's problems - beyond Capello's tactics - is that the squad is too small. Yes, you read that right. I know they had one of the most bloated squads in the league last season. But how many of those were good enough to start for Real? If we break down Capello's version of the team, defensively they lack cover in almost every position. Helguera is alright, but Raul Bravo was never good enough for the Real first team. They face a crisis at left-back with Salgado injured.

The two holding midfielders have no back-ups should either of them be injured. Van Nistelrooy is irreplaceable right now. I'd say the same thing about Guti. Real have lacked the options that would allow proper rotations for the past 2 seasons, and the problem hasn't been fixed this time round. Much as I admire Capello for his relative honesty about Real's performances - 'horrifying' was the word this time - there's not much he can do about this particular problem.

Getafe, on the other hand, must be very pleased indeed. They're a formidably organised team. Perhaps no real star players, but they defend as a unit and break very quickly. Schuster would probably have been a great choice as Real coach, if only for the entertainment value to be derived from his utterances. But what he's done with few resources at Getafe - which started as a bit of a Real fan club - has been nothing short of amazing.

Betis 1-1 Deportivo

Both teams finished with ten men, and Betis continue their run of poor results, but the signs are at least encouraging this time against a fairly good Depor side. Betis' late equaliser was richly deserved, and hopefully it will spur the team on. Maybe Rafael Sobis will start scoring again. After a brace against Sevilla, he seems to have forgotten how.

Villarreal 0-0 Espanyol

Yet another frustrating result for Villarreal after it looked like they were finally getting back on track. To be fair, the Espanyol keeper Kameni played a blinder, letting nothing past him as the Yellow Submarines peppered the goal. Still, file under 'need to do better' for a team with European ambitions facing a side in supposed disarray.

Levante 0-1 Mallorca

A huge result for Mallorca. This is exactly the type of match they should be winning, against a side on a similar level. They were a bit lucky, scoring with their only shot of the match, but deserve credit for holding on for the win. I thought they'd be in relegation danger this season, but if they continue to grind out results like this, that obviously won't happen.

Real Sociedad 1-3 Zaragoza

Poor Sociedad. They've had rotten luck with injuries, but 1 point out of a possible 18 is just dire. Zaragoza aren't an easy side to play when they're clicking, which they definitely were here, the two Argentine playmakers Pablo Aimar and Andres D'Alessandro gradually coming into their own. Real Madrid reject Diogo was outstanding in defence, scoring the second, while striker Diego Milito continues to make his case for a place on the Argentina squad with a classy brace that leaves him joint top scorer in La Liga.

Nástic Tarragona 2-3 Athletic Bilbao

Athletic badly needed this result, their first win of the season. Nastic were probably the perfect opponents to get it against, since the newly-promoted Catalan team aren't exactly striking fear into the hearts of their enemies. Still, Athletic had to work for it. Yeste, who is a fantastic player, at least from what I saw against Barca, got a brace to carry his side through.

Celta 3-2 Valencia

A great win for Celta, who haven't had the best start to their season but performed brilliantly to overcome Valencia. It was an exciting game, full of incident and some lovely football. Baiano was very impressive for the home side, while Fernando Morientes cannot stop scoring for Valencia at the moment. Before the match Celta's coach was busy talking up Valencia, and maybe that did get to them, because they performed below their best - as pointed out by Valencia coach Flores, who was scathing in his post-match assessment.

That said, Celta have two blunders from opposition keeper Canizares to thank for their victory, and Flores has no one but himself to blame for fielding an unfit David Villa. The worst news for Valencia fans must be the ankle injury suffered by winger Vicente, who is so crucial to the team. Valencia don't play nearly as well without him, and what seems like a recurrence of the injury that ruled him out of the World Cup, not to mention a big chunk of last season will no doubt be worrying Flores.

Osasuna 0-1 Racing Santander

Osasuna won't be too pleased to lose the points to a dodgy penalty, but this is a huge result for Racing. Their first win of the season, and about time too. The most notable thing about this fixture, for me, was the surprisingly excellent performance of former comedy Argentine defender Lionel Scaloni. He performed very well starting out wide on the right wing. Perhaps Scaloni just wasn't cut out to be a defender and never found his real calling all this time. I know I've written scathingly about his qualities as a right-back before, but this is definitely great to hear. Good for him.


Coming up, a Champions League preview.