5 Headlines from Barcelona’s 1-1 Draw vs. Granada | Luuk de Jong strikes again and Gavi sees red

Strategy guys help me out here….

Why didn't Xavi start Memphis on the left over Jutgla? He had 8 goals in 15 league matches, the highest on the squad by far. (Meanwhile Vini and Benz have 29 between them in 21). Coming off the bench cold, soon a man down, and playing with 2 noobs yet again. Barca just 1 shot on target with 65% possession. If Memphis had been ineffectual he could sub him out later like he did with Dembele, keeping in mind Jutgla recently came up with a late winner. A win would have temporarily seen them in 3rd place.

Dropped points is to be expected and this is no surprise even though disappointing. Barca is still on the right track. A number of young players without experience will also count. Nico and Gavi two debutant are anchoring Barclay's midfield. Ferron Jutla on the left wing attack is another debutant, so my point is that Barca has a lot players coming through who will not always deliver. My disappointment is with Memphis and Dembele they both had a terrible game. These things matter. Am still optimistic of a top four, hopefully the players will stay healthy.

Don't like to blame it on the officials but that was the worst VAR decision I've ever seen and I've seen some bad ones. Why not rewind 10 minutes to find an offside somewhere? Even with that, I still don't believe it was offside. It's like the VAR officials in Spain and afraid to overturn a decision on the field.

Has the goal stood, it would have totally changed the game as Granada would have to go for it much earlier.

I see one major thing still missing during most matches at the moment, and its the “Barca” tempo, the best teams move in unison and they have a particular tempo in which the players are promted to move the ball, make runs and do positional play, unfortunately I see a lot of players being out of sync with each other right now and it causes frustrations on the field, that’s why I think some players look like they have outbursts of frustration from time to time regarding their success in moving the ball forward and making plays.

The mentality has definitely improved under Xavi, but it’s a major component to successful games, so we need to be fully in sync for El Classico, I can only hope to see this become better with time, with exits & with incoming players.

Puig drops a poor performance in a small Copa match and you spent a quarter of the video talking about him and made a point about it. But Gavi drops a Disasterclass and costs us a big La Liga match and you mention him twice lol (and one of the points was about how good he played before the Red lol wtf)

There are only two differences thus far, in my opinion, between Xavi's Barca and Koeman's Barca, that stand out. The glaring one is the positional play. Now, that doesn't always equate to 'Better'. One thing Koeman seemed to understand was that certain players thrived on freedom and the ability to express themselves on the pitch (De Jong, Depay, Dest). Xavi is a stickler for positional discipline, which doesn't suit those type of players (Though, De Jong is versatile enough to still be effective). As for De Jong, I think the broad assumption is that since he played at Ajax, he fits Xavi's style. Yet, in reality, Ten Hag's style of play is different from Xavi's. Ten Hag is much closer to a somewhat less pragmatic Koeman, than a Xavi.

The other is that while Koeman's squad didn't have many leads, they closed out matches this year. Whereas, under Barjuan first and now Xavi, they’ve gained more leads, but they don't know how to see out a match for the three points. Koeman's idea was to go pragmatic. Xavi's idea is to send on attackers, while also defending with the ball. The problem for him is that he doesn't have the guys to efficiently maintain possession like that, without giving up significant chances. To add, Koeman faced Sociedad, Madrid, and Atleti. Xavi hasn't yet.

Xavi lost this match. Inexplicable substitutions. Although the players were making ridiculous lunges and attempts at the ball and small kicks, it was again more atrocious officiating from La Liga. Too much rolling on ground, too many falls, too many whistles, too many cards. La Liga is losing the plot. Their matches have little to no entertainment value. No flow. Happy to see a reminiscent signature Alves perfect pass into the box. The Memphis entry was dumbfounding. Dembele demonstrating why he is not deserving of elite contract: no consistency and inability to dribble when not at pace. Ter Stegen making strange decisions. The squad needs to think more. Time wasting in extra time when they are on a draw. Players passing back and around to defenders with a minute left. It is confounding.

What on earth is going on with Memphis .

and VAR evens out? lol I challenge you to rewatch every controversial VAR decision of the season (or play where VAR should have intervened but did not) and do some stats before throwing out this nice feeling unsupported by any evidence. Separately from VAR, can you agree that Refs are trigger happy to give Barça yellows and relatively much more shy about giving our opponents yellows?

We concede when Lenglet is on the pitch.
We don't score when Memphis is on the pitch.
Dembele should not play consecutive games.
Nico and FDJ will shore up our pivot section in the future.
Keep LDJ if Umtiti and Demir leave in two days.