Cillessen’s Questionable move to Barça.

Many were surprised when Barça decided to sign Jasper Cillessen from Ajax Amsterdam this most recent summer transfer window. The Oranje keeper went from a team that recently struggled to achieve success both on the domestic and European stage, to a team that is expected to win every possible trophy. Although Cillessen is upgrading the quality of his team, is this move a downgrade for his career?

• By Ibrahim Ayyub
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When FC Barcelona was forced to decide between keeping the Chilean Claudio Bravo or the German Marc-André ter Stegen, the club decided to bank on the German as their keeper for the future. Bravo was in his thirties while ter Stegen is still a young pup in his early twenties. It was the right move for the club to cash in on Bravo by selling him to Manchester City since they had their goalkeeper of the future. However, eyebrows were raised when Jasper Cillessen was rumored to be Bravo’s replacement instead of some aging veteran.

Barça have a history of signing Dutch players from the days of Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens back in the mid 70’s to the vast number of players in the 90’s and this century. One of the players signed during the 90’s was Dutch goalkeeper Ruud Hesp. He was the starting goalkeeper when Louis van Gaal was in charge as Barça captured back to back league titles. So it is not unchartered territory for Cillessen as he begins a new chapter in his career as a Barça goalkeeper.

Sadly, the contrast of quality between Ajax Amsterdam and FC Barcelona is not debatable. Cillessen leaves a club that is going through tough times as they usher in a new era now that Frank de Boer is no longer the manager. Furthermore, Cillessen also endured two disappointing years for both club and country where his performances left a lot to be desired. Of course, an argument could be made that the supporting players in front of him were not blameless either.

Nonetheless, when Cillessen joins his new Barça teammates for a training session at Ciutat Esportiva, he will undoubtedly be surrounded by a better supporting class consisting of world-class players. Unlike Ajax, he will have better defenders playing in front of him and other players that are game changers. His usual training session will consist of facing superb players such as Iniesta, Rakitic, Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez that will no doubt test him and, hopefully, help him become a better player.

However, this move seems puzzling since Cillessen is signed to be ter Stegen’s backup. In Spain, the backup mainly features in the Spanish cup, Copa del Rey. The only way the backup goalkeeper will play in the league or the Champions League will be if the starter is injured or is performing poorly. Right now, ter Stegen is the starting goalkeeper for Barça in both the Spanish league and the Champions League. Therefore, Cillessen is expected to start the Copa del Rey matches, which amounts to 9 matches a year if Barça reach the final.

It is doubtful that Barça manager Luis Enrique will repeat what he did the last two seasons when Bravo featured strictly in the Spanish league while ter Stegen featured in Copa del Rey and Champions League. This time around, the manager plans on using ter Stegen for the Spanish league and Champions League, which is why Bravo asked to be sold. Both goalkeepers wanted to be the league starters, and the club opted for youth.

Cillessen was the starting goalkeeper for the Oranje during World Cup 2014, but it is hard to believe that this move to Barcelona will ensure he remains first choice. Oranje manager Danny Blind recently relegated Cillessen to the bench and started Jeroen Zoet in Holland’s most recent matches against Greece and Sweden. Was the decision made because of Cillessen’s recent poor form or with an eye to the future? Ultimately, Cillessen’s chances of being the Oranje starting goalkeeper seem slim if he is going to be sitting on the Barça bench for the majority of the season.

The last three seasons, Cillessen made 33, 42, and 44 appearances for Ajax in the Eredivisie and in European Competition. He will be lucky if he manages to make 10-15 appearances for Barça this season. Perhaps Luis Enrique will surprise us and use Cillessen more but for the moment, Cillessen is there in case of an emergency. As this is being published, ter Stegen has suffered a knee injury that will see him miss two weeks. Thus, Cillessen will now get to start in two league matches and one Champions League match.

Barça did the right thing in signing Cillessen as a security blanket for ter Stegen. He has the right pedigree for the position. However, Cillessen is too young to be a security blanket when he can be a starter elsewhere. Time will tell how this move works for Cillessen and his future. He should make the most of this recent opportunity, and also his time with Barça. Yet, he should also keep his options open for his future and seek an exit if a better opportunity presents itself.

Redemption for Barça.

FC Barcelona got to exact revenge on Real Madrid for their loss earlier in the season and in the process, increased their lead atop of the standings to four points. The victory was a boost to the confidence of the Blaugrana and redemption for some.

When Barça lost in the Spanish capital to Real Madrid during week 9, Barça had a one point lead atop of the standings. They would soon lose the top spot to Madrid and struggle the rest of the 2014. They started 2015 off horribly when they lost away to Real Sociedad. Things changed from then on but there was still some doubt about Barça heading into this weekend’s Clásico.

This match was redemption for Luis Enrique and for some of his players. For the manager, many, including myself, criticized his unpredictable approach to coaching this team following that loss. He opted to keep his starting eleven a secret till right before kickoff and his tactics were all wrong after Real Madrid simply had their way against Barça. Fortunately, he got it right this time, now that he has settled on a starting eleven, following the urging from some of the players to stick with a consistent lineup after the fallout from that Real Sociedad loss. Since then, the team has played better than before and even a recent loss to Malaga at the Camp Nou did not create a sense of panic among the fans. Bad days happen and the Malaga loss was seen as a minor hiccup. Real Madrid sputtering at the same time probably helped keep the mood calm in Barcelona.

Credit is due to Luis Enrique and his assistant, Juan Carlos Unzué, for improving this team from last season’s team in terms of fitness and how to attack/defend set pieces. There’s no doubt that the level of intensity that Lucho brought to this team’ training sessions has been significant compared to the light training sessions under Martino last season. The opening goal from Mathieu was a set piece designed by Unzué who could not hide his happiness during the goal celebrations. It was reminiscent of the Guardiola times where the late Tito Vilanova designed set pieces and Puyol scored one of his trademark header goals against Real Madrid after Xavi recommended a minor change to Tito in the plans. The communication between manager and players have improved and the payoff has been on full display ever since.

Another player who gained some redemption from El Clásico was Jeremy Mathieu. In the first Clásico, Luis Enrique started the Frenchman as a left back in place of Jordi Alba. His performance was poor that day and he raised some eyebrows when he stated that he was surprised that the manager picked him as a left back on game day. That suggested that Luis Enrique did not train the team to play with Mathieu as the left back nor give him ample time to mentally prepare for the role. Fortunately, Mathieu got to start the second Clásico, this time as a center back, and not only did he play well on defense; he even got to score! I can’t think of a better way for someone to redeem themselves in such situation.

This match was also redemption of some sorts for Pique, Rakitic, Claudio Bravo and Luis Suarez. Pique has taken abuse over the past few years for his inconsistent form but he was bossing the back four during Barça’s win against their arch rivals. Although he did not score, Rakitic put in a superb performance to make up for that poor appearance as a substitute in the first Clásico where his awful corner kick, also his first touch in the game, resulted in a counter attack goal for Los Blancos. For Claudio Bravo, this was his first taste of victory against Real Madrid during his time in the Spanish league and made some key saves too.

Finally, the other star seeking redemption was Luis Suarez. His signing created some controversy and discontent amongst fans following his World Cup biting incident. His first competitive Barça appearance was in the first Clásico where he assisted on a Neymar goal early into the match before he was subbed off later because he lacked match fitness. It took him some time but the Uruguayan has found his scoring boots and has played a key role in the Barça transformation. After a difficult summer, scoring a game winner in a game of this magnitude goes a long way over winning over the hearts of the doubtful Blaugrana faithful.

Ultimately, we cannot conclude this without mentioning Messi. He was somewhat silent in the first half as he played wide. Yet, it was his free kick that Mathieu nodded in for the opening goal. In the second half, he playing in the center of the pitch which helped the midfield out and after Luis Suarez’s goal, he along with Neymar and Luis terrorized Madrid’s tired team with dangerous counter attacks. He has been amazing in 2015 and we hope he can keep it up down the stretch.

The fact they squandered so many golden chances in the final 20 minutes of the match will give Luis Enrique something to discuss at the next team meeting. They cannot afford to squander these types of chances, especially one such as the Neymar missed opportunity that saw Madrid score moments later. There is room for improvement and a result like this will keep the players’ egos grounded which might not be the case if the score ended 4-1. Ten games left in the league but at least Barça control their own destiny even with Madrid, Valencia and Atlético in pursuit.

Lucho’s First Test for Barca Reveals More Questions.

September has bid us farewell and October is now upon us. Nevertheless, this new month begins with more questions than answers being provided by FC Barcelona and their manager Luis Enrique. These past few weeks were the manager’s first big test and although he passed his first big test, he still has much work to do.

Back in September, I discussed Luis Enrique’s first big test of the season that awaited him that month. I asked if he would be able to have his players perform well in both competitions and can he keep his players well rested? Will he rotate players and perhaps drop Messi from the odd game and continue to rely on Barça B players? The answers were a mixed bag of yes and no. Overall, this test, which culminated in the PSG loss, was to show us if Luis Enrique can handle the demands of this job. Unfortunately, we are left with more questions than answers after this first test.

The first issue Luis Enrique has to address is his goal keeping situation. Claudio Bravo has performed well in the league without conceding a single goal. I expected Bravo to start yesterday seeing as you should always go with the player who is in hot form. Marc-André ter Stegen has only featured once this season, and that was in the first Champions League match against APOEL two weeks ago.  I had some concern that perhaps he would be a bit rusty for PSG and I would have opted for Claudio Bravo instead. Unfortunately, ter Stegen did not perform well, and neither did those in front of him, and now Luis Enrique has to decide what to do about that position. Should he rotate both more often so both feature at least once a week or just go with Claudio Bravo as his number one and let ter Stegen be the backup and feature in Copa del Rey? Obviously this does not leave third choice Masip with not many minutes at all but Lucho needs to make sure all his keepers are not rusty and in form.

The second issue is the back four. Lucho wants his fullbacks to attack and be part of the offensive juggernaut of this team. Sadly, it’s not working that well. Dani Alves and Jordi Alba both lost the ball a combined 23 times against PSG, with the Brazilian guilty of losing it 15 times. To see Dani Alves still start is alarming seeing his work rate has dropped defensively and he still resorts to countless crosses which result in more turnovers than scoring chances. I have been a big proponent of letting Montoya start where he defends well and will not turn the ball over when he attacks. New signing Douglas had an average debut against Malaga followed by a case of the fever and a bruised foot that saw him miss some action. I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays as often as Dmytro Chygrynskiy did. Meanwhile, Adriano is a decent backup who has come up clutch at times but he is not good enough to replace Alba.

Furthermore, I thought this was the season we would see Mascherano play in the midfield but here we are, yet again, watching him playing center back and although he has great last ditch efforts, he was beaten by David Luiz on the first goal during a set piece. His partner, Mathieu had a subpar performance and has been shaky of late. One wonders why Pique is not starting more often and what does Bartra need to do to get more minutes? Moreover, Vermaelen is now deemed fit so how is Lucho going to handle the center of the defense. Lucho has his work cut out for him in how to keep these guys organized and focused. The clean sheet run in the league is impressive but not whole heartedly convincing. In other words, those clean sheets have been rather fortunate and not the work of a team that is shutting down teams with authority.

The midfield also poses some issues. Lucho wasted Rakitic on the flanks against PSG and didn’t play him in the middle of the pitch where he strives. Iniesta seems to be off to a slow start with some flashes of genius here and there. Busquets is paying the price with some sloppy play because of this new style mixed in with some Xavi-esque moments when it comes to superb passes. Speaking of Xavi, we have not seen enough of him and perhaps we should adjust the lineup to have him feature in a 4 man midfield, or as some would like, with Busquets and Mascherano instead. I never rated Sergi Roberto and if Rafinha is 100% fit, then he should be featuring more than Sergi Roberto.

Up front, Messi is back to his old self again and I am enjoying him pressure high and cause some turn overs after watching a more subdued version of him last season. The problem is that Messi still has to carry everyone on his back and none of the guys up front are doing that for him. Neymar is thriving because of Messi but he is not doing enough for Messi’s sake. Pedro, Munir and Sandro all have gotten to play and all have shown that this is Luis Suarez’s job to lose when he returns later this month.  The problem is the inconsistent ineffective play by the fullbacks in the attack, which probably explains why Lucho wanted to sign Cuadrado this summer, and there is no guarantee that Luis Suarez’s inclusion will solve these problems. These players cannot rely on Messi to bail them out and hopefully Suarez’s inclusion will do that and not become another player reliant on Messi.

The loss to PSG does not mean the sky is falling; Far from it. I expect this team to challenge for both the league title and the Copa del Rey. Champions League football is another story altogether. Lucho got outcoached in this loss and the team’s performance this past month showed that there is an issue of a lack of structure and organization by the players on the pitch. Furthermore, Lucho’s usual tactics leave much to desire when his plan B is to replace one player with another without changing positions or tactics. Perhaps it is a sign of things to come when he did throw us a surprise after he took off Dani Alves and put on Sandro with Mascherano attacking as a full back. That though didn’t seem like a well calculated plan but more of a gamble. This team went through two seasons of poor coaching on the pitch and can ill afford a third straight season of such.  Real Madrid can solve whatever issues they have by buying in the winter; Barça does not have that luxury. These issues have to be resolved by the manager and the players.

An additional element of concern for Lucho will be how he handles players returning from international duty. He was fortunate that many of his big stars missed out on September international duty. I can’t see Messi missing out on playing for Argentina in early October and mid-November; circle your calendars for November 18 when Argentina and Portugal face one another at Old Trafford. Will he be fortunate to have a well-rested squad for those two months like he did for September?

I will end this on a positive note. September was a harsh month that saw the team play 6 matches in 3 weeks with a combined result of four wins, a draw and a loss. That is still a great result and the team is still are league leaders. Also, October with only consist of three league matches, with El Clásico being one of them, and one Champions League match against Ajax Amsterdam at the Camp Nou.  I don’t consider Copa Catalunya Final as a serious fixture and let’s see if it even takes place. Hopefully Lucho and the team will get their act together this month because there is still much to do.

Conundrum in goal for Luis Enrique?

UEFA Champions League action is upon us again as our beloved club kicks off another campaign to win their fifth Champions League title. Luis Enrique dropped some starters for today’s encounter against APOEL FC. However, the big question on the Blaugrana faithful’s minds is who will start in goal today and whether Luis Enrique will pull a Carlos Ancelotti and have two goalkeepers start in different competitions?

When Victor Valdés announced he would be leaving the club more than a year ago, we braced ourselves for a new goalkeeper signing. After it was decided that the club would no longer need the services of veteran backup keeper Pinto, Barça B keeper Masip was promoted but the idea was the club was going to sign a new keeperMarc-André ter Stegen’s signing was one of the worst kept summer transfer secrets of the summer but we were all caught off guard when the club also signed Claudio Bravo. Suddenly we had two keepers who should be starting and a young keeper who probably would not be seeing many minutes.

Clearly, Ter Stegen was Zubizaretta’s signing, and I have no problem giving credit where it’s due since I have been giving him hell for the past three seasons, but this was a superb signing. Ter Stegen is a young up and coming talent from Germany who many believe will eventually be the starting German keeper. Besides preseason, we have not seen much of the German player because of a back injury he suffered in training from Alex Song. His injury though presented Claudio Bravo with the opportunity to shine and that he has.

Perhaps it was a good idea to sign both Ter Stegen and Bravo after Ter Stegen had to miss action because of an injury; Déjà vu to last season. Claudio Bravo has started all three league matches for Barça this season and he has kept three clean sheets. Quite a start for the Chilean international keeper, although he did not have to make a save in the two first matches against Elche and Villarreal but in the end, he was victorious against the likes of Villarreal and Athletic and that’s not too shabby. Claudio Bravo was a Luis Enrique signing, who was requested by his assistant, former Barça keeper, Juan Carlos Unzué. So suddenly we have two players who are both good enough to start in goal for this club.

Which brings us to today and the Blaugrana faithful will be wondering who will start in goal today. Ter Stegen has been declared fit to play in today’s game. Will he finally get the start and play today or will he find himself on the bench watching Claudio Bravo? Will Luis Enrique decide to use Claudio Bravo for the Spanish League and rely on Ter Stegen for European nights? Real Madrid’s manager Carlos Ancelotti did just that last season when Diego Lopez was his starting goalkeeper for the Spanish league but preferred Iker Casillas for the Champions League.

I am sure many managers would love to have this sort of problem where they too much talent to pick from. We will see what Luis Enrique has in store for tonight and perhaps the rest of the season. It is tough to please everybody so unless he plans of rotating keepers, I expect one keeper to be upset. Nevertheless, we learned last season what happens when you don’t have a suitable replacement if your starting keeper is injured. In the end, it’s good to have more than less.

Champions League: Group F preview ~ Barça’s Quest for Fifth Title Begins.

FC Barcelona kick off a new UEFA Champions League campaign which sees them facing familiar foes and a new competitor. New manager Luis Enrique will get his first ever taste in Champions League football as a manager. Will he able to duplicate the success of Guardiola in getting the Blaugrana back to the Promised Land?

FC Barcelona’s foes in this season’s Champions League group stages are Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Ajax Amsterdam, and APOEL FC. Luis Enrique will kick off his managerial debut in the Champions League with his side hosting the Cypriot side APEOL FC at the Camp Nou in Match Day 1. This is APOEL’s third appearance in the group stages with their last visit seeing the club from the small island in the Mediterranean Sea reaching all the way to the Quarter-Finals before falling to Real Madrid. Their other experience against La Liga teams in this competition came in 2009-2010 season where they were grouped with Atlético Madrid and finished fourth behind Chelsea, Porto and Atlético respectively. Current APOEL players John Arne Riise, with Liverpool, and Tiago Gomes, with Hercules CF, both tasted victories with their respective teams at the Camp Nou against FC Barcelona.  APEOL’s Urko Pardo is also a former member of La Masia and was a member of the 2004-2005 Barça B team. Meanwhile, Ivan Rakitić, with FC Schalke 04, faced APOEL in the 2008-2009 UEFA Cup first round and scored a goal against them.

FC Barcelona also renew acquaintances with Ajax Amsterdam and Paris Saint-Germain F.C this season. Despite both club’s long history in European football, last season was the first time Barça and Ajax faced one another in European competition. Both sides tasted victory on home soil with Barça enjoying a 4-0 victory at the Camp Nou while Ajax won 2-1 in Amsterdam. Both APOEL and Ajax are expected to fight each other for third and fourth place in this group. Ajax’s domestic campaign is off to a poor start while APOEL has two heavy weights to deal with which might be a tall order for the small club. Upsets however do occur so don’t write them off just yet.

PSG are considered Barça’s rivals for the top spot of the group. Barça will once again face former players, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Maxwell and Thiago Motta. Ibra and Maxwell also represented Ajax and Barça together in the past so this will be a reunion tour of some sort. This is the first time both teams meet in the group stages. Their recent encounter took place in the 2012-2013 Quarter-Finals where Barça eliminated PSG on away goals following a 3-3 aggregate result. Barça and PSG faced each other in the 1994-1995 Champions League Quarter-Finals stage where PSG upset Cruyff’s Dream Team by winning 3-2 on aggregate. Barça did however defeat PSG 1-0 a few years later in the 1997 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup final. The final group match will feature Barça hosting PSG in what could be a pivotal match for qualification to the knock out stages as group winners or a lack luster affair where the top two spots have been decided and will feature role and youth players.

Luis Enrique’s last encounter as a manager in European competition came with Roma when they were upset in the 2011-2012 Europa League playoffs by Slovan Bratislava. Luis Enrique suffered criticism for his handling of that tie and he will now get a second chance to improve his record in European competition. Nevertheless, there are lingering questions for Barça for this upcoming Champions League campaign.

Will Lucho pull an Ancelotti and go with a different starting keeper for Champions League action and one for league action? Claudio Bravo has been his starter in all 3 league matches but with Ter Stegen deemed fit, will Luis Enrique give the young German keeper his first competitive debut or will the manager stick with Claudio Bravo. With Luis Suarez set to miss the first three matches of the group stage, will Lucho go with experience in Neymar and Pedro or trust his young starlets Munir and Sandro to start up front with Messi or mix it up?

Champions League never gets dull regardless of what group your club is in. Barça kick off their campaign in a group that has a bit history in terms of rivalry, influence, and underdog elements to it. Tomorrow will see Barça begin a new quest and for the Blaugrana faithful, one can hope it ends in success on June 6^th in Berlin.