He was a menace this whole match, he’s catching form and is looking scary

Kinda ironic that his son is complaining, pointing fingers and starting the mess, he gets shit back and he’s crying.

His father is just a typical father who’s defending his son, but come on now.

Also this whining from football players these days, how did this generation become so soft, sensitive…

Where is their fighting spirit, winning mentality, that black mamba, MJ mentality…

Pathetic

Isak struggled to get called up and get minutes once he did, Sweden is not really very open to giving young players chances.

They do love their “legends” so it will take a bit until they trust him, but I can see him getting a call up for next international break if he puts this up.

First of all, when you set up your team, you do it so you can give them the best possible chance to win the match, you don’t plan if its early, mid or late game. There’s no such thing in football.

Also squad depth due to injuries was going to come into the play if Barca weren’t leading by 2 goals come 60-65th minute, it would just happen.
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Ferran coming out was the momentum shift Madrid needed.

I’m not a big Ferran Torres fan, but his mobility and link up play with Fermin was crucial for Barca’s build ups, both of them moved between the lines so well and it opened up space as they were not static in their positioning.

So once Camavinga got it, things started getting bit harder for Barca as he’s different galaxy defensively and offensively compared to Mendy + he is also very capable on the ball, can carry + adds to the possession which would eventually lead to more control for Real anyway.

Now if we’re going to lose the control (it would happen anyway since we didn’t have depth off the bench in terms of midfielders yesterday, starters would get worn out), Xavi thought we’re gonna lose control so lets get Lewy there who’s deadlier in front of the goal and can probably hold up the ball a bit better which allows Barca to skip past midfield with some long balls from the back. Unfortunately for Barca and Xavi, Ferran was crucial to making Real Madrid spread out as they couldn’t focus on him as a single focal point of the attack + he was first phase of press, him, Gavi and Fermin were all over Real in build up and as soon as we lost the ball.

So with Ferran gone, we lost the ability to press, ability to stretch Real and we lost the control, Carlo noticed it straight away, called upon Modric and Joselu in next attack (Modric means more fluid control, more creativity and Joselu is a guy who will take focus from at least 1CB + he has aerial ability which would be useful with more control and more crosses there were gonna happen with RM taking over the control).

Barca moved back, sat bit deeper as we lost control and couldn’t really compete for it, Valverde, Tchouameni, Jude all capable from long range started looking for opportunities the second Barca sat deep and thats how that marvelous goal from Bellingham happened, minute after MATS saved that shot from Tchouameni.

Xavi tries to get more defensive solidity with Romeu over Fermin and Raphinha+Lamine to get back the ability to stretch Real defense + maybe do something on the counter.

Control was lost, Lamine doesn’t have the sprinting power just yet to outdo Camavinga or Carvajal anyway, Raphinha is recovering from the injury + even when he was fit he couldn’t touch Camavinga.

Romeu being awfully slow and fragile under press, Real Madrid were all over us and the goal was bound to happen and it obviously came where Romeu’s flaws (slow and kinda lazy) were on the display and Bellingham’s pure feel for the game, for the goal and the will to charge forward in hope to get at the end of a cross or a dead ball.

Real scored, Bellingham won the El Clasico with another goal and yea, in my bit biased but also objective opinion, Barca were the better side throughout 90mins, couldn’t get it done, not because Real did something great but because they couldn’t finish their chances.

Tactically speaking, Xavi prepared the match perfectly, neutralized Real, ate them alive in first 45, 2nd half Real comes out bit more energized and Xavi gets afraid Barca won’t be able to recover and in hopes for 2nd goal before we completely lose control subs out the guy who really allowed us to control the match in so many different aspects of the game.

This single move by Xavi was recognized by Don Carlo and he pulled all the right moves to get the most out of it.

I do think Xavi could’ve went with different approach here but I don’t blame him. Injuries and squad depth due to the injuries would come into the play if you don’t kill of Real Madrid before the tiredness kicks in.

This was bound to happen with such short rotation of players and not that much experience in such matches for majority of players. If Barca could bring in FDJ, Pedri from the bench yesterday. Barca would regain the control and FDJ’s ability to carry the ball would hurt Real so badly.

Once match started slowly going out of control, Xavi just had no other options, it was either risk going for another goal or sub out offensive players, bring on Alonso and Kounde and try to defend the lead for last 15-20mins. Ferran going out was just a trigger that accelerated the momentum switch for both teams. If Xavi didn’t go for Lewa, Carlo wouldn’t do his subs very next minute but would wait a bit longer and Barca clearly wouldn’t have dropped so deep.

Either way, Bellingham didn’t play that well throughout 90mins, but he won the match, Carlo won the match with his adjustments and Barca’s only alternative was to hold on to 1-0 lead while suffering for last 30mins even more than they did yesterday.

It was not realistic to expect Barca to compete against Real Madrid without 5 starters. Football is played for 90mins, Barca finishes off 1 more chance and this never happens, story of the season - not very effective offensively and major defensive issues due to DM/RB holes in transitions (Barca is very slow to set up in defensive shape because their midfield lacks that proper athletic ability and with how offensive Cancelo and Balde are).