I thought Owen gave the team good shape. He hangs off the shoulders of the back 4, rather like Morientes used to, threatening to make a run, and ties them up. Ronaldo is more gifted obviously but he is much less disciplined in his movement and distribution. Raul is playing more in midfield these days.
I completely agree. With all the newbies who have been posting just for the sake of posting, trolls from the Barca board and people getting into personal attacks for no reason over the last couple of months, it was very refreshing to read a well thought out post with substance.
Sure, that we are going to miss Owen, he is a great player, that played very good with us. In a long and very hard season, it is better to have 3-4 great forwards than 2-3. But Owen wanted to have garanties to play regulary in the starting 11, he wanted to play the next world cup, and with the arrive of Robinho and Baptista, he knew that he would have very difficult to play regulary in the starting-11. Luxemburgo wanted him, but Florentino didn't want to pay a big money for a CB after Samuel and Woodgate "fiascos". The only way to convince him was having fresh money, selling Owen. The situation was very complex: - Owen wanted to leave the team, but it wasn't very convinced about sign for Newcastle. - Luxemburgo/Sacchi/Butragueño wanted Owen, maybe not as 1st or 2nd forward, but as a forward very important for the team during the season. - Luxemburgo/Sacchi/Butragueño wanted a solid centerback, becuase they only had Helguera-Pavon, and Woodgate that still was a mistery. - Florentino didn't want to pay a big money for the CB that wanted the tecnichall stuff, Sergio Ramos. And the result probably was a solution good for everyone, but not perfect: - Luxemburgo/Sacchi/Butragueño, would have prefered to have Owen and Sergio Ramos. But having to choose only one, they decided that it was more important for the team sign a CB. - Owen would have prefered to sign for Liverpool, but he signed for Newcastle when he will have much more chances to play regularly in the starting 11 than with Real Madrid, to achieve his objetive to play the next world cup.
A striker only scored a goal a game, mostly with only half an hour in which to do it? Heaven forbid he would come back and defend corners, yeah? Revelian
I don't blindly defend any brazilians. Check the Barca forum and you will see a thread created by me to criticize (sp?) Belletti. Robinho didn't play well against Spanyol. His style of play requires 100% physical fitness. He plays on both sides and always try to steal the ball. He is not yet giving everything he has the potential to give because his attacking team mates are not moving like he expect them too. On Santos and Brazil NT everybody is on constant movement to fool the defense. Raul and Ronaldo are just standing there with their backs turned to the goal. So Robinho receives the ball, stops, looks and passes it back to the middle. There are no options. Ronaldo is more static and that is ok. Raul should be benched and Baptista should play on his position. That should solve the problem. Brazilian attacking trio is the way for RM.
You realize the quote you are referencing is not from yesterday's game, right? Robinho was not very good yesterday. I like the idea of the Robinho, Baptista and Ronaldo being our attacking trio. I've mentioned that before.