"Estoy Tri-tranquilo"...aka the '09 summer transfer thread Part 3

I wouldn't. One seemingly bad decision doesn't negate all the good work that came before it. I'd say his only real other mistake up until this season was holding onto Ronnie for one season too long. But that only became a clear mistake in hindsight.

 

I can't imagine Benitez to agree to a Masch deal that wouldn't involve Yaya.

 

True. Our goal for next year's CL should be to make it to the QFs. After that, we'll see.

 

Someone is going out on loan or getting sold if we do sign him. We have Puyol, Marquez, Pique, Caceres, and Henrique right now. I think having 6 CBs may be a couple too many.

 

Caceres can/could play at RB, because Pique is not going anywhere, Puyol is our Captain, Marquez this will probably be his last season at Barca, he's aging and is not getting much better. Milito may/may not ever come back, but he's a bonus. SO its really 4 for 2 w/out Chygrynskiy, I then Chygrynskiy is loaned and then brought in as Marquez's replacement, OR, Marquez sees time at DM w/ Yaya & Keita are gone in Jan-Feb.

 

Exactly right.

Only the insane would vote out Laporta right now.

 

Am I in the Real Madrid forum?

 

We are the title holders of Champions League. How can we have any other goal than to win it again?

Like, Hamilton won last season's F1 - surely he isn't gonna get in the top eight this season.. ok, bad example but you got it.

Having said that, it wouldn't be an unbearable catastrophe if we didn't win. It's an exception to win and regularity to do "well, but not quite enough well to win it" for all the very best teams.

 

Our main priority should be to retain La Liga and make LPB look like a bunch of asses

 

Another league title would make 20 (and 10 in 20 years), which would be nice.

 

Agreed. It's always like that.

1. Liga
2. Champions League
3. Others
*In all the competitions there are two things we go for: to win, but if not, then at least win RMadrid.

 

The Goal for this season should be 114 points in La Liga! Copa Del Rey and CL Winners.

 

Treble Shmeble. We already got one

 

The CL is a crapshoot. No matter how good you are, there are no guarantees of winning. With our level of talent and quality, anything less than the QFs would be a failure, but there are no more guarantees once you reach that stage. If we just win La Liga next season then it's mission accomplished as far as I am concerned. I think people are also underestimating the effects of having to fit Ibra into our attack. Even if it does end up working, all involved parties will take some time to get used to each other.

It's for the exact same reason that I'm not too worried LPB will run away with the league. Regardless of talent, teams need time to gel.

 

You cannot "expect" to win a cup competition for the simple reason that one off-day can put you out once you reach the knock-out stages. We will certainly have the quality to retain La Liga next season, but no one can know for sure we won't play one stinker in the CL knock-out rounds, and if we do, it won't mean we're a bad team, or even a worse team than last season.

 

I don't know. I mean sure, league and cup are different by nature, BUT in CL one has 180 minutes (a straight cup like WC is again way different to 180 minutes cup) to deliver to deserve a place in the next round. It's not about luck. It's about how good you are. You prepare yourself, get ready and perform. Having an off-day means you play badly because it's you who makes you have an off-day. Usually the winner of a cup has played the best football throught the whole tournament more or less. Ok, sometimes less but still.

You can't expect to win a cup like a league, but you can smell early on if there's a good, realistical chance or not.

 

Totally disagree, and we need look no further than last season's semifinal against Chelsea.
If Chelsea had decided to go for the jugular against ten men more than they did, they could've finished off the tie.
Had Abidal not been sent off, Chelsea would've bunkered even more, if that was possible.
If the ref had given one of those penalties that Chelsea fans believed was theirs, we may have been the ones up in arms claiming it wasn't a penalty.

Knock on wood, but if you were told that Messi would definately 2-3 months in the season through injury, would you rather it be in September-November during the CL group stage, or March-May during the knockout rounds? Where you decide could make all the difference between Barcelona lifting the cup and not, wouldn't you agree? The timing of the injury, is that not some form of luck taking place?

Winning the CL is not 100% pure luck, but the percentage of luck is significantly higher in winning a knockout cup competition than it is winning a nine-month long league campaign.

 

Could've, if, would've - there were also things Barca could've done better...

...agreed though that in cups it's more about luck than in league, but still: cups too are football and football is about how good you are. In all sports you need luck, but luck doesn't decide. It's endless debate though how much luck and how much goodness is in a performance, say, Barca's goal in Stamford (or in Chelsea's goal as well..).

Timing of the injuries is remarkable matter in cups of course, as well as suspensions - yet no top teams are dependant on any one or even two players. Say, take Messi and Iniesta away from Barca and we'd still have a competitive team against anyone. Of course, if you don't have depth, then maybe not, but, well, too bad - you ought to have depth. Having said that: of course injuries matter.

 

€a$i€r $aid than don€.
Unless you're LPB.

 

Easier said than done - agreed. But whoever doesn't have depth has no chance of winning CL. Not everyone/anyone can build their team like LPB is doing, but then again depth doesn't mean buying the biggest players out there. Depth means that teams level of on-pitch performance doesn't dramatically change for worse even if you take couple of starters away and replace them. Barca can field a killer team even if both Messi and Iniesta were out.

 

The one injury combination that would probably kill us is having Xavi and Iniesta out at the same time, which is why I've been surprised at the lack of rumors concerning us approaching any creative midfielders outside of Cesc who, while great, is almost defnitely unattainable right now.

Hleb should have been our third option at CM, but Pep for some reason used him as winger and now he's gone.

 

I agree with the good quality of our youngsters and also that the hardest two-man injury would be Iniesta-Xavi. A midfield trio of Hleb-Yaya-Keita is still good enough, combined with our attack and defence, to be able to compete with any team.

But yeah - we should get an attacking midfielder. It would also be good for the quality of attacking line-up since Iniesta can play there too. It might be hard though since in a WC year every one wants to play to earn a place in national team and Barca's midfield isn't exactly the easiest place to get enough minutes.

 

Are we still looking at Hernanes from Sao Paulo? He would be able to cover all three positions in midfield.

 

Indeed, he sort of like a Zidane playing further back. Quality player and should honestly be in Europe.