Frank Rijkaard’s decision to leave out Toure Yaya and Leo Messi for Saturday’s game at Atletico Madrid confounded many fans and raised the question of whether players should be rotated. Many quite rightly feel that important players such as Messi and Toure should always play in the big games. In a television interview yesterday Txiki Begiristain claimed that Tuesday’s game with Celtic is more important than the game with Atletico; I couldn’t agree more, but one thing is more important whereas more difficult is another thing altogether.
As fans we can only judge the players on their performances in the matches, and from this we form our opinions as to who is in the best form to be picked each week. From this it is quite logical that most of us arrive to the conclusion that both Messi and Toure should always start, and if they must be rested then it should only be for home games against weaker opponents who we are expected to beat whichever players are in our team.
However, we do not see the players in training, or hear the opinions of the medical experts employed by the club. Only Rijkaard and his assistants have the day to day contact with the players to know exactly what their physical condition is. Earlier in the season Deco was injured after playing on after noticing a muscle twinge and ended up missing nearly two months. Thierry Henry played several games with back problems before eventually being forced to rest.
Messi and Toure both supposedly had slight physical problems on Saturday. As fans we would be the first to criticise if one of them had been risked and then got injured. Messi played the last 30 minutes and seemed fine but we really cannot say whether there was any risk involved. Only Rijkaard with the collaboration of the players and the doctors can weigh up the factors and decide before a match whether it is worth taking a risk. Of course, with hindsight, we can all say that for this game the risk was worth taking.
Whether or not the decision was a bad one, the positioning of our forwards on Saturday was highly questionable. It was always going to be difficult to decide which of Henry, Eto’o and Ronaldinho should play on the right as it is not the natural position for any of them. I wonder what people would have said if Rijkaard had left one of them out and chosen Giovani dos Santos instead to play there. Whatever the case, I feel Samuel Eto’o should always be played in the centre as he is by far our most lethal goalscorer and therefore should be deployed as close to goal as possible.
Having said that Barça did manage to score two goals away from home which would normally be an acceptable balance; we cannot blame Rijkaard for the mistakes made by our favourite pair of central defenders Carles Puyol and Gabi Milito. At the end of the day it was their inability to control the excellent Kun Agüero that cost us the game.
14 responses so far ↓
Varughese // Mar 3, 2008 at 14:16
agree with you
wrote some thing about same see http://vkr-fcbarcelona.blogspot.com/2008/03/frank-rijkaard-rafael-benitez-of-spain.html
pep // Mar 3, 2008 at 14:35
“In a television interview yesterday Txiki Begiristain claimed that Tuesday’s game with Celtic is more important than the game with Atletico”
I really don’t agree with that statement. Theoretically it’s more important (it’s a tie, you’re in or you’re out, can’t afford a slip), but the qualification is almost in our pocket, so that made the Atletico game more important. Now we lost the momentum that is so important.
Like I said last week, I would have prefered Messi and Touré to rest in the Celtic game rather then in the Atletico game. With Villareal coming up next weekend, that would also have been better. Bad decision by Rijkaard.
Nic // Mar 3, 2008 at 15:26
Pep - that’s why I make the distinction between important and difficult. If Barça were to go out to Celtic it would certainly be more important than losing to Atletico. We can recover from Saturday, going out tomorrow would be a catastrophe
Taras // Mar 3, 2008 at 15:52
I agree with Nic that Eto’o should always play as centre forward but despite him playing on the right he had some great chances and 1 on 1 situations but missed them.
pep // Mar 3, 2008 at 15:56
Winning the CL is so difficult, there’s only one team who will. So you can’t just drop the Liga for that, then you risk being left with nothing in the end. And that would be the real catastophe.
You have to agree that Celtic needs a miracle to pass, having to win 0-2 in the Nou Camp. If Messi and/or Touré play or not, that won’t make the difference in my opinion. While we really did need those two players against Atletico and we will need them against Villareal. You have enough games to rotate, Atletico away is just not one of them (unless you have a really though CL game coming in midweek).
Blaugrana // Mar 3, 2008 at 15:58
Hey mayb eto,mesi,T14 & yaya al hav a headache 2day,& wil be restd against celtic cos we hav an important game vs vilareal who knws.
voonte // Mar 3, 2008 at 16:05
Nic, I agree with you about the fact that we can’t judge if a player is fit to play or not, only based on previous matches. There are a lot more factors involved that we don’t have access to.
However, playing Eto’o, who really has been playing well the past few matches, anywhere but center is beyond my understanding. Ronaldinho has also improved a lot the last matches (and his goal was amazing!) should play where he’s most comfortable at.
Anyway, thanks for a great blog Nic. Been following a few weeks now.
Taras // Mar 3, 2008 at 16:09
pep- If we lose to Celtic than ALL Madrid fans and media will make fun of us. Celtic will be very motivated after everyone said that they showed great football against us at Celtic Park.
Lonny-Barca // Mar 3, 2008 at 17:05
I hope that Rijkaard will not do the same mistake like with A.Madrid !!!
Jay // Mar 3, 2008 at 17:26
I can’t imagine a Messi-less Barcelona going down to Celtic at home. I am not underestimating Celtic, but we go into this game with a 3-2 lead, away from home. That should be sufficient to see them off.
Messi should’ve played. It would have made a lot of difference.
ulizinho // Mar 3, 2008 at 18:03
The question behind all this rotation stuff is: how can we play all four superstars in the offense? The fans demand them and I would really like to see them too, but yet there is no answer. Ronaldinho can’t play center midfield, the examples for that are legion. Therefore one always has to rest at least for most of the match. That’s what Frank Rijkaard is doing, next time hopefully with more luck, but the team in the Calderón could have won though.
FCB - Canada // Mar 3, 2008 at 19:20
Sorry but I don’t like this whole resting for other games one bit unless they are genuinely physically hurt. Come on these guys get paid big money to play this game! If they don’t perform just simply substitute and leave it at that. In my mind the Atletico game was far more important. I think Frank took that game for granted in thinking Celtic was more important by resting Messi and Toure. History this year has shown we are far worse on the road. We come into the Celtic game where all the pressure is on them not on Barca and where the game will be at the Nou camp.
Maybe people want to comment on whether the team really has enough good players to make two quality sides every time Frank feels it’s ok to rest players. Is this the real question? Maybe this is what Frank believes. When I say “good” I don’t mean calibre but more of the way how Ronnie and Messi work together. How they click. I have to go back to Henry because a lot of the time I think he’s just stuck in no mans land waiting for the ball.
It has to be said that Barca really let their game go downhill after the first goal. I wonder what Frank was telling Eto after Ronnie’s goal. He should have told the players not to get complacent and be firm with it!
Anyways Barca will own Celtic tomorrow! Hehe.
ulizinho // Mar 3, 2008 at 21:24
And here the cartoonist view on rotations
http://www.sport.es/vivo/recursos/fotos/foto_273/foto_273049_CAS.jpg
layi // Mar 3, 2008 at 21:40
he should have started messi….i would hav even preferred iniesta rather than edmilson as the holding midfielder…..but the most frustrating one was the positioning of ronaldinho and eto’o. at least he should have noticed it.
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