Barca question

[HowardKennitby]

Hello all

I have just come back from pub where I watched the Barca A- team thrash Rayo Vallecano 0-7.
I accept that the pressure is off but it does occur to me that, perhaps, Pep did not trust his younger players enough earlier in the season.
How say you?

[nungate]

I think he has had a few worries about some of the youngsters particularly those who play in the back four. He might not have had a choice as to who to pick as Piqué was injured against Chelsea and Valdes got a knock at the same time. Think of all the players who have had major injuries this season, Villa, Affelay, Alexis (more than once) Xavi hasn't really shaken off that calf injury, same with Puyol it all adds up - there isn't enough depth in the squad to cover injuries that we've had. You could also throw that fact the the squad is just plain tired! Think about it, the majority of Spain's national side play for Barca, and since they won the Euros in 08 they've hardly had a break - Barca have won just about everything possible for a club side and Spain have done just about the same except for that Confederation cup (is that it?) held in S. Africa the year before the World Cup. Any thoughts?

[HowardKennitby]

I don't really agree.

The problem this season was too many silly drawn matches against teams they should have played off the park.
I don't mean to disregard the effect of Villa, Abidal, Afellay, Pedro etc but I really don't think Keita, Cuenca, Thiago etc can claim to be tired.

[nungate]

I agree that we drew too many matches that we should have won - I still get a pain when I think of the Osasuna game! I'd forgotten about Pedro, he hasn't shown anything of his previous form since he was injured. Keita was away during the African cup of nations as well so he wasn't available to play for a while earlier this year. Cuenca and Tello have only just come up from Barca B this season, Thiago came last season, there is a promising back in the form of Muniesa, who debuted for the A team a couple of years back when he was just 17, he came on as a sub near the end of a match and got himself sent off within 10 minutes! So, I think you're right in that Pep does have a few trust issues with some of the youngsters. There's a rumour that it was one of the youngsters who leaked the line up for last week's debacle against Real, something that wouldn't have happened with the more senior players. You could tune into Revista La Liga on a Tuesday at 6.00 on Sky sports (usually Sports 1 but can change) there's a lot of interesting discussion on that programme which might be of interest