End of year party at Disneyland

Luis Enrique said on Friday in his pre-match press conference that everything was “fucking great” for Barça in 2014 and that coaching Barça was like returning to Disneyland. Clinging to this argument, Córdoba should today prove to be the unwelcome guest at an end-of-year party at a theme park where everyone is happy.

There are known problems affecting Barcelona away from and therefore their home matches are a special celebration for a team like Luis Enrique’s. If, away from home, their matches are treated as punishments, those at home are used to show off the glory of Messi and co. Well, rather, of Messi & Messi.

Córdoba present themselves at the Camp Nou as that little lamb that has everything to lose and seemingly are supposed to be the ideal team to help end the year with a good taste in the mouth, hours before watching how Real Madrid fare at the Club World Cup.

But Djukic’s Córdoba have already paid for enough bullying in La Liga. Or rather, Chapi Ferrer paid for it prior to his dismissal. Luis Enrique acknowledged yesterday that Córdoba deserve more points than they have and that inexperience on their return to the top flight has cost them many points in matches in which their merits were more than enough to win.

That bad run finished with the sacking of Chapi. Now with Djukic, Córdoba have improved in terms of effectiveness. It is a team that covers more at the back, that looks to counter and has already won at San Mamés, for example.

Barcelona have changed their system according to the opponent that they have faced. Within a basic shape that starts with a 4-3-3, Luis Enrique has experimented with several variations. The more complicated the opponent, the riskier the system was. The more he invented, the better it went.

Therefore, it is a mystery to decipher Barcelona’s line-up today. Neymar returns to the squad after recovering from injury while his Brazilian compatriot Dani Alves will be sidelined.

There are suggestions from the dressing room, who find out the game-plan one hour before the match, that Barcelona could once again play with three defenders, leaving Adriano and Alba as interiors.

from Últimas noticias | Diario AS http://ift.tt/1zHzNaF

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