FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid|La Liga|13-12-08 [R]

No we didn't, we played a 4-4-2 with salgado at left back, marcelo at left wing and metzelda at right back.
Its going to be a tough match considering the obvious defensive woes we are going through. with only salgado, canna, ramos and metz available the defence kinda picks itself. the mid is where my concerns are. gago, guti and VDV are the only recognised midfielders left fit. sneijder has been reported as unable to make the game, robben is suspended and drenthe is injured. Diarra & DLR are the long term absentees. this leaves us with Javi Garcia. wonder who will take up the last midfiend berth.
like i said this will be a tough one but for some reason I'm confident we will come out with our heads held high. Best of luck to the boys

 

Salgado at LB is a huge risk ... a less risky would be playing 5 at the back ...

-------Ramos-Canna-Metz--------
Salgado-------------------Drenthe

One can say its too defensive but its safer than playing 4 at the back with:

Metz-Ramos-Canna-Salgado

This could give us nightmares, I m hoping to snatch a point, but what I really dont want is to lose this game by more than a 2 goal margin ...

 

Drenthe had to quit a training session before the champions league game, but he did manage to make the bench against Zenit. However, he was not used.



This is the picture from the traning session he had to quit in the middle.

The training session yesterday was reported at RM website:

I believe Drenthe will be among those 15 as the report doesn't say he has any problems left. I m hoping he has recovered well and will be able to play against barcelona.

 

I hope he is fit. His energy will be needed on the pitch. I here that JR has called up 4 reserve players. I don't think he will use them or play 5 at the back but I hope thats a sign of things to come. you attract the best youth into the academy if they have hope that they will make it into the first team.

 

Salgado is going to be MoTM. I called it first.

 

Fresh off the Press:

Zapatero: "5-1 para el Barça, la Cultural tiene mejor defensa que el Madrid"

Well you can no longer say that we are somehow favored by the government. Of course our success with the Galacticos can be attributed to Jose Maria Aznar... we miss your mustached hilarity!

 

Same here, but I'm praying my flight lands on time, and the luggage doesn't come out late, if that happens i should be able to make the match JUST in time.

Considering how often this happens at my airport, i'm pretty sure im going to miss a good chunk of the first half leaving me waiting for the replay.

 

No it isn't, though obviously it depends on the player.

 

You don't see left- footed players playing on the right very often(Rb), but right-footed players(Rb's) generally look comfortable as Lb's ( not offensively though, the only right footed lb that does well offensively is Phillip Lahm because of hes excellent dribbiling skills and hes quickness)

 

I'm not saying it is always ideal, and again it depends on the player, but it is certainly not one of the "hardest things in football"

 

"hardest thing in football", keeping your manager post at RM for more than a season

 

Sneijder rejoined the squad in training today. There are possibilities that he might be able to play at Camp Nou. If he does, he would start on the bench I guess but it would be a huge plus anyway ...

 

Like someone saying earlier it somewhat makes sense against a left-footed RW. Normally right wingers are right-footed and a left-footed LB makes the most sense for blocking a cross. However with Messi, he is always pushing the ball inside with his left.

The other advantage to a left-footed LB of course is his offensive contribution, crossing it himself, but perhaps we don't want Salgado to come forward much this match. I imagine we might focus on counterattacking at the Camp Nou.

OT: I was just realizing yesterday, do we not have a crazily high number of left-footed players? Casillas, Marcelo, Heinze, Guti, vdV, Drenthe, Robben, Raul?

 

The Squad list:

Casillas, Dudek ; Salgado, Cannavaro, Metzelder, Sergio Ramos, Chema Antón ,Agus; Drenthe, Gago, Guti, Van der Vaart, Javi García, Sneijder; Raúl, Higuaín, Saviola, Palanca y Alberto Bueno.

Sneijder made the list, and so did four canteranos.

 

Whos is this guy Palanca, i thought he was a right back. Am i wrong?

 

Palanca is a striker.

 

He plays right bench

p.s. Sneijder is a Manimal

 

You are thinking of Palencia who used to play in Castilla.

 

It's a pity we will be without Robben... he was an absolute beast against Zenit. With him in the squad, I would have fancied our chances to get a point... or maybe even nick the game. Now, without Sneijder and possibly even Drenthe we are going to really need a herculean effort from the rest of the squad. Not a single one of our players is going to be able to provide width (with the exception of the fullbacks, which we don't want to do, lest we get burned on counters).

I know form goes out the window with these sorts of matches... but to overcome our injuries we are going to need a combination of tactical genius and herculean effort.

 

We're also going to need to close down Xavi Hernandez in the midfield.

 

Holla atcha Dutchie....things keep getting better