Barcelona have a lot of wingers. From Pedro to Afellay to Sanchez & even Iniesta can play at LW. The problem is that they missed up a lot of chances. Also Messi although he scores a lot of goals & is the best player in the world sometimes against great teams makes them a bit predictable. Which is why I think it will be interesting to see Barca OCCASIONALLY play a tall Strong CF like Zlatan & play Messi in a wide position & let them mix & interchange positions. I confess I dont like Tiki Taka. I think it is boring & ugly as Real's thug like Football. The only one who makes it interesting for me is Iniesta. Big fan of his,he adds that final ball,penetration. Without him I dont like too many ridiculous directionless Ultra Safe Horizontal & Diagonal Passes. Also I am big fan of Sanchez. Would love to see him dribble more. I guess with dribbling there is also a chance of loosing possession & Alves can barely defend so I guess Messi is the only regularly allowed to try risky dribbles.
I disagree on 2 accounts. I can exclude Ramos but Coentrao should had a 2nd Yellow. Arbeloa had 3-4 horrible kicks & should had 1 Yellow atleast & Marcelo should not only receive 1 Red Car but ideally should be banned for 2-3 games. By far the Worst Challenge I have seen in CHL knock-outs. If that does not deserve a Red card nothing does. The other thing is Distribution from the back. You are completely wrong because Badstuber is ONE OF THE BEST passing CB's in the world. I would rate him only second to Jan. He has ridiculous good techical skills. The other 1 Boateng is SHIT as passer & cant do jack shit with the ball. Lahm & Alaba are good passers as well. That apart I agree with the rest. Ronaldo is horrible in big games. Ozil was nice but I though Benzema was their best man & created a lot of space for the others. The problem with Alonso-Khediera is it is WAY to slow & Khediera cant pass & Alonso has to come down too dip. Ozil is Ultra Attacking CAM & does not come down. But Bayern had Gustavo-Schweinsteiger-Kroos all of whom can defend & attack & which resulted in a numerical advantage for them(3 vs 2). Also Gustavo is Ridiculously quick & a good passer for a DM something with Khediera lacks. Should be a cracker of a game next week although I think if Gomez does not mess a lot of chances Bayern should go through because of their superior mid-field & possibly dominationg possession.
Doesn't make sense to me to try and give in crosses vs a team like Chelsea who have 10 guys on the pitch taller than 1,90m. Like you all already said, the space is on the sides. Not in the center. I'm all for Messi moving to the sides (at least way more often) in games such as this. Versus Chelsea Barça played practically without wingers, Iniesta was playing on the left side, which is a waste and practically nullifies him. And on the right side were Alexis (who practically plays as a center striker 50% of the time) and Pedro (who has limited creativity and control). Besides, Messi is not even a bad header although he's just 1,70m. First there needs to be someone to give the cross though. I hate to say it btw, but this Fabregas transfer seems to be backfiring. Guardiola seems to insist to have him play and imo it hurts both the attractiveness and the effectiveness of the play.
Afellay is going to tear them apart in Barcelona. Chelsea played a De Graafschap against Feyenoord tactic with one exception. They had Drogba as a lone attacker in front of a 9 men defense. You poke in almost a billion in a soccer team and all they can do is this?
I wouldn't say that. Fabregas is a very good and versatile player. But imo they're simply playing with too many midfielders and too few attackers.
We all love Ibrahim, but he's really not that important a player for Barca. Wouldn't surprise me if he stayed on the bench for the entire game again. Had he not have only 6 months left on his contract I don't think they would've been in for him tbh. They needed speed on the wings that's why they paid big bucks for Alexis Sanchez, although I'm not really impressed with him so far. I miss seeing David Villa upfront for them.
yes, they need speed on the wings, but that's exactly why Afellay should get time. He IS fast. The problem with Barca is that they don't launch wingers properly, so they never have a chance to properly exploit the space on the edges. They prefer wingers who can take on defenders from a standstill [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LZ3cWlWpaw"]Afellay Is Fast Enough - YouTube[/ame] yes, I realize it's sped up a bit, but the defenders are sped up by the same amount so it doesn't really change anything
Yes we know, but did you see Ribery coming on for Bayern today in the 65th minute? I thought he was starting? Dat was vaag.. I sorry.
barca's lineup vs RM: Puyol - Mascherano - Adriano Busquetts Thiago - Xavi - Iniesta Dani Alves - Messi - Tellois Barca purposefully handing real madrid the tittle?
Same defensive tactic against Barca and the same exact result. Madrid hardly threatens and gets one goal on a set peice that is poorly dealt with and a real nice goal on a wonderful pass from Mesut Ozil (who I think is their best player and only is limited by the stupid pairing of Alonso and Khedeira behind him) to CR7. The right wing was a disaster all night long as Alves played like an Ajax winger dribbling into two men constantly and refusing to take the ball to the touch line. The team was also exposed again by not having any height so that even if they could cross a pass there was no one to deal with it. I don't know what Guardiola will do on Tuesday. Chelsea rested a bunch of players today and will likely be the fresher team. They are also going to play pack it in football just like on Wednesday and today. I think Pedro has to start on the right to give two wide players out there. Tello didn't have a bad match from a ball handling perspective but nerves took away his shot completely, you could see from the first minute that this was too big a match for him. Kudos to Madrid (much as I hate to give anything to them); they executed their plan well but really could be a much better team than they are.
Hmmm, is the Dutch forum aware of Montpelier pushing for French championship for the first time in their history and pretty much coming out of nowhere? The petro club has one game in hand, but Montpelier are still in good position.
Looks like the Aron Winter era is close to ending at TFC 0-7 so far. they are not as bad as last year although the record says they are worse and actually entertaining but still far too leaky at the back
0-6 actually. IMO the bad record mostly comes down to poor player selection in the midfield. Picking attackers to play in the midfield like Johnson, Lambe and Silva, and constantly playing that useless piece of crap Terry Dunfield in the holding mid role. We have midfielders who are more than capable of playing a possession based attacking game (Burgos, Avila, JDG), but he chooses to bench them and play Frings in the back line, which wasn't even that bad in the last game before he returned.
IMO-DeGuzman has no talent or speed and cannot play any sort of midfield--so him on the bench is fine with me--but I agree the midfield is weak and where the other teams pile into the TFC zone too easily Frings will bring the talent level up again like he did last year--Saturday was his first one back its crazy because 6 weeks ago they tie and beat LA in CONCAF and look quite good and equal in talent and now its fallen off again--it was losing Frings who holds them together for 5 weeks that did them in and they have all lost confidence
It seems fitting that the quote of the day comes on his birthday! "Playing against 10 is harder than playing against 11 players. You know why? The team with 11 will think “ok, we can take it easy now”, while the team with 10 will think “we really have to work hard now”…" said Johan Cruijff. Barcelona never had a plan B to break someone free to get a shot on goal and there was no way they would win anything in the air. I'm just astounded that they left Alves out on the right wing all alone with out anyone to cut behind him and then in along the goal line. Sometimes the football gods just don't want you to win the game. It will be interesting to see what kind of lineup Chelsea can patch together for the final as they have 4-5 players suspended.
They have only 2 Players Suspended. Terry & Mereiles. Should not be a huge problem. Other bit is Barcelona overall have huge areas of mediocrity. Today exposed it. Their 5 star mid-field shielded all those weaknesses. They have no Proper Fullbacks. Abidal is out,Maxwell is sold. Alves & Adriano cant defend. Today they have no Wing-Backs. Against a team like Bayern which has wingers like Robben & Ribery & Wingbacks like Lahm & Alaba they will get ***** by the wings. Then their best CB is a 35 year old past his prime Puyol or a Make-Shift DM Masch both of whom are SUPER SLOW. Pique has fallen horribly in 2 years. Its no secret that Busquets is not good enough to be a DM in most teams other than a tiki taka Barca as he is physically,tackling wise and offensively not strong enough. They have no Wide Players. And I mean World Class Wingers. They had Tello & Cuenca something who are kids in a man's game. I have no idea why Pedro was not used. The whole attack is based on Messi performing. Guardiola bought it upon himself. IF Messi flops the whole Team Will. EDIT SORRY - Ivanonic,Ramires,Terry & Mereiles would be missing. Cech Bosignwa Cahill Luiz Cole Mikel Essien Lampard Mata Drogba Kalou/Torres I think they will be going with something of this sort. Or Romeu if he is available??? Or play Lampard in a holding role. Luiz Cahill will work well. Or Boswinga Cahill/Luiz with Ferrera at RB. Yes on paper they should loose. But Never Under-estimate the will to win. That is the most Important THING in the world & it can overshadow everything as the match today showed.
I thought Bayern were dead and buried after the two quick goals but they managed to keep their wits and pull the tie even. Away goals are now cancelled out and it wouldn't surprise me to see this one go to extra time. Interesting match but in a different way from yesterday. Both teams are attacking and doing very little defending.
I am very sad that both Robben & Gomez missed 2 absolute sitters. Absolute sitters someone should score 9 out of 10 times. Could have killed the game. The Alaba penalty was a bit harsh but if that was a penalty then Pepe had a clear handball from the Robben free-kick. Another PK goal would have killed the game & ended the competiton for Real. I think Real will go through(Sad to say). Both teams defense look horrible but Bayern's look more horrible & their whole squad is a step away from suspension.
Extra time and Madrid really look bad. Too bad Bayern were not clinical in finishing. It's anyone's game now and a lot of tired players.