In the group its all about getting through. Sometimes thats harder than others, thats just the nature of the game and competition. I think the club knows they need to raise their game in the knockout stages. We could end up playing Madrid in the R16 which would be a real wakeup call.
what dude? I think the Premier League and la liga are overrated as much as the next guy, but those are literally the worst two examples to use in terms of winning titles, since Chelsea and City just won the CL and PL titles respectively. I think part of the reason la liga is so terrible is that any team besides Real and Barca gets raided of quality players (like Mata/DSilva) by the EPL, which at this point is a plastic race of whose owner can spend the most money. That's part of the reason why so many Spanish players receive hype, because it's been profitable for big English clubs to buy them and as we know according to the English media these clubs are the pinnacle of football. Regarding Martinez I think Fernando is right in being cautious in judging him at this point. 40 mil is a steep price and when it's not on a player who is scoring goals or out-dribbling defenders every game you have to wait for them to integrate into the squad to see the benefits.
I hope by the time R16 comes Bayern up their game for away fixtures.. We definitely cannot afford a poor away peformance, it will knock you out.. But that's not until February anyway, so hopefully we are well rested and clear cut on points domestically
Valencia v. Bayern Munich _________________________________________________ Broadcast : JSC Sports HD Language : English Source : DVBRIP Encoding : video 1.5 Mbps h.264 mkv 25fps - audio mp3 128kbps Duration : 01:40:00 Size : ~1,2GB Release Type : SD 400p Full Match _________________________________________________ 1st Half http://hotfile.com/dl/180274668/9f24d67/20121120-VAL-BAY-UCL_1S.mkv.html 2nd Half http://hotfile.com/dl/180275777/81ff9ca/20121120-VAL-BAY-UCL_2S.mkv.html
Everyone needs to calm down. I think the team is managing this group really well. We are rotating players, keeping everyone fresh and dealing with a host of injuries. We have a huge lead in the BL, are through to the next round of the DFB and are well positioned to win the group in the CL. Sure we didn't play champagne football against Valencia, but we basically put in a training ground level of effort and managed a draw at the Mestalla where Valencia was putting in an amazing effort.
I rewatched the game and I think we were pretty good. Ribery was the one who should have been subbed out early imo as he was ruining every attack.
See it like this. He is allowed to do so... There is a new book in the stores in the next days from the right defender behind him in the U23 team - Timo Heinze. He started to play in the Bayern youth with 12, played in the German U-teams, was captain of the Bayern U23 - but did not make the jump to the professionals and stopped football after a journey to Bali. Müller has written the preamble to his book and he, Hummels, Niedermeier and Rensing seem to help to promote it. It tries to find out why some make it and some do not... The Spiegel introduced it with some articles today. http://www.spiegel.de/karriere/beru...aehes-ende-einer-kickerkarriere-a-868379.html For the ones that can read German. I do not know how good google translator will be with the text. He characterizes Müller in this book as the schizophrenic type of footballer - the one that does not think on the football pitch who is chaotic - does stupid stuff - but then does turn the match with one single action. ----------------- Actually - at Bayern it does not matter to me anymore if Müller plays good or bad. He is the only one that scores when we lay back, he scores and makes the assist when the match is a 0:0 a very long time and especially he scored 7 of his ten goals in away matches. If he does not - nobody does. We need Ribery for the normal matches - or to make the matches being normal ones - but we need Müller when it is going to get tough. And when Ribery plays good it makes the match for Müller easier, too - and he usually plays at least decent in this. But Müller and everybody can play bad - and he can still score - and that makes him even more valuable. In this season we probably see how valuable he really is - he scored the first goals or assists in the first seven Bundesliga matches (and this first goal is so important for that team) and after the last season it was so important for the mentality of that team to start like this. And he did that penalty at Lille and the goal yesterday. About the goal - he called Mario before the goal and told him to let through. So I guess it was planned. (he was asked in an interview)
This is so far the only season he has scored the way you explain him. He really is not as reliable as people overrate him imo. I hope he can be, but not yet.
No - actually not. He was very important last year, too. But it is easier to explain it to people if he scores on his own - and not makes the goals of the others possible. He was in so many goals last year without being the assistant or goal scorer - just with all his movements and actions. It is difficult to tell people that he has the ability to draw defenders away or get the attention of Gomez so he can score - that he draws holes for the others. You can explain it when you analyze goal scenes but the most just look for the ones that have the ball. He was not that bad that everybody made him last year - he only did not score - or in some parts of the season did not even try to score on his own. But without him on the pitch the others did not really function very well. He e.g. only played 48 per cent of the playing time in the CL in the second part of the season - but only 3 goals fell when he was not on the pitch. A 7:0 against Basel, a penalty and a goal after a set-piece. That says it all... But even in the last season - with his shooting crisis - he still was the one in the team that had the most scorerpoints (goals and assists) in away matches. At home - where we did not have any problemes - the others especially Gomez and Ribery made goal festivals in which he did not participate. Even if you take results up to a 2 goal difference he was as good as Ribery. And that in a season which did not really run well for him.
Lots of navel gazing going on here about Bayern's midfield. Javi Martinez is not the problem. Fans need to wake up to the fact that Schweinsteiger and Kroos are not championship-calibre winning players. People on this forum overrate Schweini and Kroos. The more Bayern relies on these players, especially now that Gustavo is out, the harder it will be for them to have an impact in the Champions League. Schweini and Kroos lack pace, are too static in midfield, and can't hold up the ball the way superior players at their position might, like a Juan Mata or David Da Silva. Prediction time: Bayern fails to reach the semis and could even get knocked out in R of 16 if they face a mildly decent opponent. Maybe after a failed Champions League campaign, the Bayern brass will finally come to their senses and realize you don't win with these players. Although, Loew hasn't figured it out either. Slow learners, these Germans.
Rigggghhhhtttt ^^^ Are you a troll or a Bayern fan?? Not sure if its you or someone else that keeps mentioning how sucky kroos and piggy are and how great mata and da silva are...
Chealsea didn't win the champions league because of Mata....Ramirez, Drogba, Lady Luck were way ahead of him. And look at what happened this year to them. And look how far has Silva taken MC in champions league. They barely won their title last year, even though MU had one of their worst teams in the recent history. They are actually the best examples out there.... I won't even mention torres.
I just meant that they've won titles, so it's wrong to say that City and Chelsea haven't won titles by spending big on players like these (which I now see is not exactly what you were saying LOL ) . In the end though I think we are saying the same thing, in that this spending ends up 1) overrating spanish players, to the point where midfielders like Javi Martinez sell for 40mil instead of a probably more realistic 20mil price tag 2) overrating the English league and their ridiculous spending simply by absorbing talent from other leagues and placing them into disjointed, overcrowded systems (see F. Torres), for their media to have an orgy with 3) depreciating the competitiveness of other European leagues, especially Spain, since any quality players who aren't signed by Real and Barca inevitably head for England
I actually feel Man United had a great team, just a somewhat mediocre squad. They played like lions last season, just as they do every year. Yes, some horrible displays in europe, but ferguson got complacent with his purchases. Do not expect them to do the same this year, very solid squad.