Scared of a humiliation? Yes. We’ve been humiliated even from weaker teams, and often from the ‘big clubs’ that were the weakest in their history on paper. Even the one vs. Atletico was somewhat of a humiliation and I always fear that against them, because no matter if they’re shit on paper, Simeone has installed a pragmatic mentality where they make use of any weakness of the opponent. It is instilled in their philosophy a long time ago, so they don’t have mercy like sharks when they find some ‘blood’.
I’m afraid Barca is also in that category. We have a saying in Albanian: “When you can’t do anything to the donkey, hit his pack saddle”
So Barca will try to use our transitioning situation and we’re the perfect victims for that. We’ve fallen for that many times because whenever we have faced ‘big’ clubs, except for some rare seasons when we were in phenomenal form, we have just waved the white flag and that’s it.
It’s a mentality thing. So if the coach can’t get the players’ mindsets right for this one, we are going to lose 100% and even get humiliated most likely.
Barca is in a very good form, but they have one of the weakest defenses (with names, on paper) in the league. You can’t expect me to take anyone but Kounde and Cubarsi in their defense seriously. Xavi fucking Espart? Iglesias and Suazo eat him for breakfast.
Eric Garcia, Gerard Martin? Even Marcao is better than them, if he plays with 1 leg.
Plus they 99% won’t have their main goalie, Sczesny will play.
Barca are in great form but literally nothing special about them, and they will find out their weaknesses against a serious, solid team. So far no real tests, all walkovers.
Will we prove to be the tough nut to crack for them?
I guess we’ll find out on Saturday night… but I’m skeptical, only because of the mindset and nothing else.
If LGP can change the team’s mindset, we are in for awesome things. The players are decent, no excuses. The only real absence for us will be Sangante, and I fear mistakes from Castrin / Salas… but let’s hope for the best!
