115 years of football throughout Catalonia have produced some of the greatest ever players that football has ever seen, from world cup winners to South American magicians, Barcelona Football Club is one of the greats in world football. From the hundreds of players to embrace the maroon and blue jersey of this iconic club, I will try and establish the best ever 11 players to represent the Catalans on the football pitch over the last 14 seasons. This will be a selection of the best players in each position who I feel made the greatest contributions towards the team, in recent years, when they … [Read more...]
Barcelona v Sevilla preview
Barcelona play host to Sevilla on Saturday following a league hiatus that saw ten of its regulars clad in national colours, rather than the blue and red of Barca. The Catalan club entered the international break off the back of a win, albeit over a lowly Almeria side. It was hardly a performance to instil confidence into fans and players alike. Though they began their league campaign impressively under new coach Luis Enrique, October's 3-1 defeat in El Clasico at the Bernabeu and the subsequent 1-0 home loss to Celta Vigo have led to questions being asked. … [Read more...]
Suarez: his Barca career so far
Seeing Luis Suarez sitting on the bench for Barcelona on Saturday would have made any Liverpool - or indeed Almeria fan - want to weep. That the Reds' best player of last season couldn't even make Barca's starting 11 was surely a worrying prospect for their opposition. … [Read more...]
Villareal v Barcelona preview
This Sunday sees Villareal welcome Barcelona to El Madrigal, in what is undoubtedly the game of the weekend. Despite the absence of several key men, Barca have enjoyed a straightforward start to their La Liga campaign, with a 3-0 win over Elche last week thanks to the reliable shooting boots of Lionel Messi. Villarreal, by contrast, were less convincing in their 2-0 victory over Levante. … [Read more...]
GUEST POST: FC Barcelona – what went wrong this season
Despite the current media and pundit narrative, this season isn’t Barcelona’s Waterloo. Yes, the team lost the Copa Del Rey to Real Madrid, crashed out of the Champion’s League, and barring a miracle won’t win the league. However, taking a realistic view of this season, Barca’s results seem appropriate. Last year the team effectively had two managers as Tito fought his battle with cancer and before that, they lost arguably the best coach of the modern era after a historic four year run. With the hiring of Gerardo Martino this past summer, Barcelona is on its fourth coach in the last three … [Read more...]
Neymar ready for Barcelona challenge
Whilst it has been two years in the making, Brazilian starlet Neymar has finally become a Barcelona player this week and left native club Santos for an undisclosed fee. His new side Barca have been licking their wounds recently after finding themselves caught in the middle of a wave of German footballing dominance but the Catalonian giants will be hoping the 21 year old Samba star can lead their quest to reclaim past glories and take the pressure off the heavily relied upon Leo Messi. … [Read more...]
Transfer Speculation: Is Victor Valdes on his way to a Premier League club?
Victor Valdés could well have played his last clásico for the blaugrana at the Bernabeu today in the 2-1 defeat at the hands of Real Madrid, The sending off of the Catalan keeper at the end of the match was a clear sign of his frustration at the non-award of a penalty on Adriano in the whites box and Barça’s inability to take anything from a match which lacked the usual intensity of recent clásicos. In the referee’s official match report, the decision was made as Valdés repeatedly told him “you have no shame, you have no shame”. In truth Barça were pedestrian and looked as if they lacked any … [Read more...]
Stat Attack: Barca goals from outside the box double since Tito’s takeover
Today we bring you an interesting statistic discovered by Spanish newspaper Marca. Whilst Barcelona have quite rightly been known to score the bulk of their goals from close range after a dazzling passing move, it seems the manner in which goals are scored has changed somewhat since new manager Tito Vilanova has come to town. … [Read more...]