If I were Pep I'd discard possession and play Real Madrid like we played Borussia Dortmund last autumn. Play a lot of long balls towards Mandzukic and Müller, give them opportunities to create something with the ball, but in areas which we control. Potentially giving us the opportunity to hit Real Madrid in transition.
If we play possession style 4-1-4-1 with a highline and rafhina as our RB. I won't even bother watching this game because I know how ugly it's going to turn out.. We don't stand a chance with bale/Ronaldo standing around the halfway line waiting to sprint from mistake or giveaway.. You know BBC aren't going to put a solid defensive shift, all they'll do is wait by the halfway line with hands on hips
Nothing's guaranteed. We played Oliver freaking Kirch and Durm and out-of-form Piszczek and got a result. If you honestly think your team is doomed because you have Rafinha starting, you need to calm down and look at the talent on the rest of your team, then evaluate "are we really significantly weaker than Real Madrid in any faucet of the game or am I just freaking out for no apparent reason?" Then you need to conclude the latter option and enjoy your team. Do you really want to spend Bayern's dominant era worrying about everything? Or do you want to spend it enjoying the ride while it lasts?
I'll leave you with this, then; is Rafinha really so bad that he's significantly worse than a guy who was playing striker for the youth teams a year ago?
I love your narrative of Rafinha being a hot head with his two red cards the last two years coming in two meaningless games against Dortmund
He had two meaningless red card against Dortmund the last two years, one yellow/red in 2011-12 against AS Roma, and one red in 2005-2006. I hardly see how this guy is a hot head. 4 red cards in 9 seasons(two of which were meaningless games). In comparison, Ribéry has had 3 red cards in the last 5 years, and 5 in the last 9, but why not bench Ribéry because he's a hot head too now?
And those 2 reds were against Dortmund, a team he is supposed to despise considering he was a former Schalke player. If Neuer had these sort of transgressions against Dortmund, fans would be on his dick praising his passion. People seriously love to hate this Rafinha, especially fans of his own team. Haters have had literally no reason to shit on him all season so they got excited to vent their frustrations after one bad incident. We have lost 3 times this entire season with Rafinha playing 75% of games and none of those losses came as a result of his mistakes. This fanbase gets more and more retarded each month.
Just saw a bunch of promos Madrid vs Bayern. It feels like 80% consist of kids who downloaded AfterEffects and know absolutely nothing about design. The effect where the edges get darker is the best yet
Rafinha isn't good enough to mark Ronaldo or Bale. If there's any games this season that he shouldn't start, it's these two. He's had a solid season otherwise in a pretty successful team season (so far).
I like the last of the 3 the most This one is pretty solid too. I'm hoping I can leave work several hours early for this, or I will have to wait and download it later on at night.
well, i am giving my 2 weeks notice next week. so i will take couple hours to watch the game... what the hell are they going to do? fire me?
I told you man. Kiddies with AE using one or two presets and this is what we get. Last two are allright though.
I don't like the idea of discarding possession. Dortmund are able to controll and win the game with such shitty players but we aren't? Screw that! Only weak sides would do that, because they have no oppurtunity like ManU. We can play long balls, but preferentially short ones to create chances. Our back has to stay defensive (Unlike usually), so we need to build-up from the back like Dortmund in the second leg. Luckily we'll have Neuer. If there's no oppurtunity we can still look for fast counters and pacy long balls. I don't really fear their wingers, because we are the best team in the world when it comes to flank with Alaba, Ribery, Robben and Lahm or even Rafinha. I shouldn't dazzle because a slow Barcelona failed to beat them with possession once.
To be fair they were completely outplayed in the return leg of La Liga winning only with the help of two penalties and a red card.
Yeah, I noticed that they got lucky in that one. But they scored 4 and most of the time they had possession, also in the Copa Del Rey. But as I said, this doesn't dazzle me. RM is curently the toughest side of La Liga with the best attackers in the world but their defense struggles. However, I don't want us to play completly different for the upcoming 'Klassiker'. We have respect, but we shouldn't fear anyone so we need to come out and play like usually.
- 2009 Champions League, Quarter Final, Barca played first-leg away at Arsenal, Pep's midfield was Busquets-Xavi-Keita. He kept the same midfield trio for the Semi-Final first leg, away at Inter. - 2010 Champions League, Semi Final, first leg away at Madrid, still Busquets-Xavi-Keita - 2011, away at Milan, same. - This year, away at Arsenal first leg, we surprisingly saw Martinez in midfield along side Thiago & Kroos. Some of the line-up above were due to injuries, but in general, I think Pep tends to be conservative when his team has to play away first with a big opponent. Away at Dortmund last year in the Bundesliga, Martinez also started in midfield for a surprise. Pep have also rotated and experiment a lot recently (maybe to give Ancelotti a wrong clue?). I think we may get another surprise with Martinez-Schweinsteiger-Kroos (or Muller) this Wednesday. Which makes sense to me because maybe Pep, just like me, is not fully convinced with our attack (considering our recent from, too slow pace, a lot of bad passes ...). He may want to keep it safe before observing what will happen before going all out attack like usual. If our mindset is playing it safe first, not going attack at all cost, starting Muller alongside Mandzukic also makes sense, because with Mandzu occupying and disrupting their CB pairing, Muller will find space to exploit and cause some havoc to their defense. We also need someone energetic and hard-working in midfield to press Xabi Alonso, and Muller-Mandzu is perfect for that (like what they did with Pirlo last year). With all being said, I'm a bit nervous ahead of this tie
One option could also be Martinez, Kroos, Muller midfield might work with Schweini going to the bench. I don't want to bench him, but he looks lazy and not dominant like he was last season. He was a machine and all over everyone on top of having incredible passing... A tough decision. Not saying we should go for it, but it is an option.
My lineup: Müller/Götze Ribéry Schweinsteiger Kroos Robben Martinez Alaba Dante Boateng Lahm Neuer My preferred lineup. Make it a 4-2-3-1 with Javi and Schweini in the double if you want. I don't think we need Mandzukic this time, since I doubt Real will park the bus and we don't need to go to a plan B where we put crosses into the box and hope he does something with it. Torn between Götze and Müller for the F9. I'm leaning towards Götze, because I think he's playing better lately, and I like the idea of Müller coming in as a super sub to take advantage of any mistakes Reals players make with a little fatigue. Would be happy with a draw, or even a 3-2 defeat. Would prefer not to lose 2-1, I think 2 goals are important here. Just like we are good for a goal per game, Real are too so we can't be satisfied with only 1 away goal. I want to say Real win this one 3-2, but we've only conceded 3 once with Neuer(vs. Man City) and 2 once (vs. Hertha). Otherwise no more than 1. Last season too, we didn't concede much. 3 in the last game against Gladbach and the game against Bate, and two goals against on 5 occasions. Knowing that, I'm going to say 2-2, maybe if we're very fortunate, 2-1 win, but don't think it happens. Then again, wtf am I talking about. Easy win. Bayern 5-0 Real