Stuart Robson
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
They didn't adjust, but Craig's absolutely right.
We've talked about their defensive, how poor they are defensively, and so nothing surprises you what we saw tonight.
What did surprise me when they were 11 versus 11...
They didn't really create anything.
The midfield players, Frankie de Jong, usually controls the pace of the game.
Of course, there's no Pedri in the side.
But even the front, Lewandowski was hardly involved.
Ferran Torres was taken off at half-time, maybe because they were down to 10 men, but he didn't make enough runs.
And Lamin Yamal was almost non-existent.
That's the worst I've seen him play since he's almost had a Barcelona shirt on.
Kukerea did a great job against him.
There are some major issues and we all know where they are in this Barcelona team.
And what worried me today about Barcelona's performance, the game was played maybe another 15% in terms of intensity, the pace of the game, to what they're used to sometimes playing in La Liga.
So the likes of Frenkie de Jong, the likes of Fermin Lopez, who have been absolutely magnificent in recent weeks going forward, had no impact on the game whatsoever because the game was being played at too quick a pace for them and they didn't like it at all.
But they're not a difficult team to play against.
We say every week, they're getting away with this against this sort of side.
When they come up against the very best teams in Europe, and Chelsea at the moment are a very good team, their defensive strategy is going to be caught out.