Monday 7 July 2008

DEBATE: Next season's defense


With some minor changes never to be excluded (like Oleguer leaving or Henrique arriving and not being loaned out or some Barcelona B player getting promoted), it seems that we have pretty much all defenders on who we will be able to count next season in place. So what's your idea about our next season's back line? Who are the four guys who should take out those counter attacks and launch the attack?

You can pick from the following nine names:

Eric Abidal
Daniel Alves
Martín Cáceres
Rafael Márquez
Sylvinho Mendes
Gabriel Milito
Gerard Piqué
Oleguer Presas
Carles Puyol

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Guess to start with it will be Alves-Marquez-Puyol-Abidal

Anonymous said...

Alves - Puyol - Caceres - Abidal


I guess we should worry about what could happen if Alves gets injured. Then you only have Puyol and Oleguer and that's really a serious quality drop back for that spot...

Anonymous said...

i think it will be like that

dani alves,puyol,caceres,abidal

if alves is out puyol will play right back..we see thios sometimes last season and is good

Anonymous said...

this*

Anonymous said...

FIRST PUYOL SHOULD AND ALVES SHOULD NOT GET OUT OF THE TEAM NO MATTER WHAT EXEPT FOR BEING RESTED.. NEXT PIQUE HOME IF HE CAN CONNECT WITH PUYOL AND THE HOME GAMES SILVINHO AND THE AWAY ABIDAL. CACERES CAN PLAY ALSO IN PIQUES POSITION (HI IS FASTER THAN PIQUE AND CAN WORK BETTER DEFENDING IN THE COUNTER ATACTS) WITH PUYOL OR EVEN IN THE FLANGS.. SO ALVES CAN GET SAME BREATHS. I DO NOT WHANT PUYOL IN THE FLANGS BECOUSE WE LOSE THAT EXTRA THING IN THE CENTER IF HE IS NOT THERE.. EVENTHOU I LIKE WACTHING HIM GOING UP AND DOWN AND DRIBLING THE OPOSITION.. PIQUE CAN ALSO PLAY AS A DEFENCIVE MEDFILDER SO AS MARQUES.. MARQUES SHOULD HAVE GONE PROPAPLY TO ATHLETIKO ALONG WITH MONEY FOR AGUERO.. KEMPE CYPRUS.. NICE WORK PEP... AND MILITO SHOULD STAY FOR BACKUP..

Anonymous said...

Alves - Puyol - Caceres - Silvinho

I think that pique and caceres have been brought in because of their height, and therefor i cant see the milto/puyol partnership continuing, it will either been one of each, puyol/milito and pique/caceres, with marquez being used mosty as a DM. Alves is a no brainer for the right back slot and i would be happier with silvinho on the left, abidal should be dropped permanently! If for any reason we need to be super defensive, caceres can play left back and puyol, pique and marquez all have plenty experience at right back. I think we are well covered this season at the back and it offeres a number of variations, we even have suitable players to switch to three at the back with alves and silvinho playing as wing backs, if needed.

cbr_boss said...

Daniel Alves,Puyol!!,Marquez,Sylvyhno

Anonymous said...

alves-puyol-caceres-abidal(Silvinho).

I think Milito didnt play well last season,maybe becos of the injury.caceres is better.when the fullbacks go on counter,we should have go centerbacks and Defensive Midfielders as back up.my biggest problem is VALDES.I dont like him at all.sometimes,he is good but definitely not the best.we need world class keeper like buffon etc.

Anonymous said...

i think we need the best backs so alves and abidal

in the centre we need a beast like puyol/ milito or caceres and a player with build up quality's like marquez or pique so i think in a game were the visitors are very defensive i would opt for puyol pique or marquez militio

Anonymous said...

Alves-Marquez-Puyol-Abidal

The best possible lineup.

Anonymous said...

alves puyol caceres marques

Anonymous said...

Alves Caceres Puyol Abidal.

Julian said...

Great work pep, you're getting some quality discussion happening.

I haven't seen some of these guys play enough yet to be sure, so offer some general observations instead. I know it's not really Barca style to care about height, but I think there's a vulnerability in the air in the whole team (especially playing in Europe). It's no secret that all our best players are around 170cm (Messi, Iniseta, Xavi, Bojan, you can now add Alves), Toure is there to look after the midfield and our best wing-backs are also short (Alves, Sylvinho (who is underrated and gets good crosses in for the imminent and messianic tall striker)) and Abidal seems weak in the air to me despite his height.

Therefore, as someone has already pointed out, the Puyol-Milito combination is doomed. Piqué (who is 193cm) or Caceres (who seems strong in the air) should be tried there alongside Puyol OR Milito. If both of the afore-mentioned seem too raw still, then Marquez would be called in to add some steel.

So for me:
Alves - Puyol/Milito - Caceres/Piqué(Marquez) - Sylvinho(Abidal)

Julian said...

I realise my post lists most of the options and is therefore a bit of a cop-out -- I will make a real call after I've seen some of these guys play a bit more. Here's the height data (from Wikipedia) in case you're interested:

Abidal: 186 cm
Alves: 171 cm
Caceres: 183 cm
Marquez: 182 cm
Sylvinho: 173 cm
Milito: 179 cm
Piqué: 193 cm
Puyol: 178 cm
Oleguer: 187 cm

Anonymous said...

I would like to think Caceres as a possibility, but being so young and new to the team I would be suprised to see him make the first XI. I also don't think Pep keeps Marquez unless he views him as a starter. Marquez likes to play long balls from the back and he links well with the midfielders. The only question is his durability. To that end I would have Caceres as his backup and understudy for now. So I guess my back four would look like this:

Alves - Puyol - Marquez - Abidal

Backups:

Oleguer - Pique - Caceres- Sylvinho

Anonymous said...

Oleguer can be the water boy for the other defenders.

Alves-Puyol--Caceres/Marquez--*

*Sylvinho at home and Abidal for away matches.

Anonymous said...

alves-markes-milito-abidal
alves very attacking player
abidal stay at home all the time
so when alves running away, e have 3 central midfielder, and keyta or toure with them.

Jnice said...

Guys, Marquez has fallen off. Why should he start over Caceres when Caceres had a better season than him last yr? I don't know why people continue to have faith in him.

Alves - Puyol - Caceres - Abidal

Anonymous said...

Only thing I am sure about is Puyol, Alves, and Sylvinho. Abidal sucked for us and he gave up way too many penalties. He sucked for France aswell.

Anonymous said...

I think a lot will be decided in the pre-season games where we will see how all the the players perform. It's good that we have many class players in the back, competition is good for the team. No one should feel safe of their place. If i was the coach i think i would play these four backs in the first games:

Alves-Puyi-Marquez-Abidal.

Last year we did great job in the first half of leauge, then in the spring sumthing happened and we started to lack. I hope we can find more balance this year with the new arrivals. Visca Barça!

Anonymous said...

As a Man Utd fan I can tell you that Pique will give you something you seem to be lacking which is dominace in the air, he's something like 6 ft 4 and is very good at long diagonal crosses. He will also scores goals from corners, but he is slow and flat footed so would have to be paired with someone fast.

Anonymous said...

alves-puyol-milito-sylvinho

Anonymous said...

Alves-Puyol-Pique-Caceres

Anonymous said...

i agree with a comment i think i t was FanBarca or anyway it doesnt seem as a bad idea starting with sylvinho at home and with abidal away. for sure as everybody sad alves on the right then puyol i would try caceras as milito was not as excepted, so:

Alves Puyol Caceras Sylvinho/Abidal
Toure Keita

Shit it looks terrible for the oppsostion if anyone brakes this defence they must be aliens.

eventhough it depends from the coach as it is very defensive team to start with both toure and keita lets see. :d

granche
Republic of Kosova

Anonymous said...

Alves - Puyol - Marquez - Abidal/Sylvinho.

Abidal and Sylvinho can switch places.

Anonymous said...

Alves-Puyi-Caceras-Abidal
Yaya Toure-Keita

Imagine that in a game..all these players are bad sumamabitches, if they work good together they will be a nightmare for every attacker in the world. Not to mention our attack with Messi as the main leader. ; )

Unknown said...

I think this would be a good solution:


alves - pujol - pique -canceres


I think abildal´s qualities are not good enough for the first squad this year (last year abidal was not acceptable: to mutch faults, not a good option fo wing)

memo said...

Brandon got it right. Abidal sucked bad for us last year and nobody remembers that. not only is he weak on defence, but when he moves up to attack he doesnt know what to do with the ball and ends up giving possession to the other team and his dumb ass has to scramble back to play defence. Sylvinho is a way better option here for defence and offence.

Alves - Puyol - *Milito - Sylvinho

* i only say Milito in that spot because i dont know Careses or Pique. and yeah Marquez is most def a backup at this point in his carreer.

Anonymous said...

Abidal-Marquez-Puyol-Abidal

Anonymous said...

common sense says:
Alves - Poyol - Caceres - Abidal
but I still think that the central defenders will have a difficult work to do with Alves and Abidal participating in the attacks most of the times !!
many think that our problem last season was in the mid feild and the attack but i think that a weak defence will tie the hands of the midfielders and prevent them to conduct a proper attacks. and that is exactly what happened last season with this new back line the squad will feel more scure to push forward ,
FORCA BARCA!!

Anonymous said...

Hi everybody,
I don't agree that abidal sucks all the last season. He was very good at the begining & we were happy with him, but afterawhile his peformance dropped & he was realy sucks.

He slames fitness team in Barca, & I think this is right. Pep also know that one measure problem in the team is the technical team & he signed new team to emphasize fitness.

Milito also was good at start then he fell down. We had the best defense in la liga, but that was not the case in the second half of the season. I don't think the reason is the players, it was Raijkard & his bad team.

So, I could say:
Alves - Puyol - Milito - Abidal
Puyol - Marqueze - Caceres - Sylvinho

At the moment, Milito is injured, so Caceres could play in his place. & when we play against team which depend on tall attackers, Pique is my choice.
Many said Sylvinho home Abidal away, will Guardiola do that?

Anonymous said...

----------------Bojan--------------
-Dinho-----------------------Messi-
-Iniesta------------------Hernanes-
----------------Xavi---------------
-Sylvinho------------------D.Alves-
-------Caceres-------Puyol---------
---------------Valdes--------------

sell fucking abidal
mayby buy aguero

Anonymous said...

Buy this and buy that...delusions of grandeur my friends. If, and only if, barca sells dinho AND eto'o we can begin to think of another centre...If this happen i sincerely think we should go for Adebayor as replacement. Maybe Crespo as super-sub?!

Ulague said...

Difficult...

Alves has to play, Puyol should be the backup for the rightback position.
In central defense, we need one who plays as a "Kaiser", that should be between first choice Marquez and second Piqué.
Next to him should be a fighter type, first Puyol, second right now Caceres, and Milito.
Then leftback..if Caceres can play there good, it's even between him and Abidal. for size reasons Abidal, but Caceres has a good future.

Anonymous said...

First of all... GET RID OF OLEGUER!!!! then

Sylninho-Should start. He is very underrated and is great at crosses

Abidal- Sub. Weak offensively

Alves-Start. He has proved to be a good atting defender

Caceres-Don't know.

Marquez-Sub. Good but not great

Milito-Start or Sub
Trade between both
Pique-Start or sub

Puyol-START

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