Re: Rest of the Football World Thread

by futbol Sat Feb 07, 2015 7:33 pm

You are talking as if Costa was Messi or something. Laughing

Griezmann and Mandzukic is a more dynamic attacking duo than Costa and Villa/Adrian. Griezmann alone has 12 goals in 15 La Liga starts and Mandzukic has 11 in 19, both new players that needed adapting and can improve even more, don't see what they are missing upfront compared to last season. Defensively they are all about collective team work, a leftback will never make a difference to call them "not the same anymore". They didn't lose Maldini. Laughing

by BarrileteCosmico Sat Feb 07, 2015 8:01 pm

To be honest I agree they have replaced Costa rather well (although Mandz had something of a dry spell until the past few weeks) but Oblak has been a very poor substitute for Courtois. Atleti was rumored to have wanted to return him to Benfica before the season started ffs and Goya, the 2nd choice keeper, has replaced him. Laughing

I actually think they could be top of the table had they replaced him with someone better.

by Katy Perry Sat Feb 07, 2015 8:04 pm

Pretty sure Messi played as a RW against Atleti in the CL when there was still Luis but did nada, now that he's gone he's played there again abd he's is the main reason you won thrice in a row, is uncontainable etc. Definitely not a coincidence. Plus Courtois would've saved at least half of the goals Atleti conceded against Barca.

by Donuts Sat Feb 07, 2015 8:21 pm

yeah no.
atletico was messi's favorite team to score on with or without felipe luis.

atletico is shining because of simeone.

by neuro11 Sun Feb 08, 2015 2:04 am

Its funny how people think Felip Luis is the main reason them loosing to Barca this time. There are many variables that worked for our success vs athletico. a team like Athletico cant just loose 3 times in few weeks to one team and win 6 times vs other if only one luis factor is so decisive.
About last night's game, even though madrid did not look for any execuse, midweek game clearly took a toll on them. athletico though have the ability to win but from this particular game no conclusion should be drawn.

by free_cat Mon Feb 09, 2015 5:03 pm

Katy Perry wrote:Pretty sure Messi played as a RW against Atleti in the CL when there was still Luis but did nada, now that he's gone he's played there again abd he's is the main reason you won thrice in a row, is uncontainable etc. Definitely not a coincidence. Plus Courtois would've saved at least half of the goals Atleti conceded against Barca.

I would say that Luis Suarez, Neymar in great form and Xavi not playing are much bigger reasons than Filipe Luis not being there.

by The Franchise Tue Feb 10, 2015 2:06 pm

Van Gaal

I dont understand how its possible with all these changes and signings Man Utd have made, they STILL dont have a midfield.

Blind (half leftback, half midfield), Rooney (forward), Di Maria (playing like a striker Laughing

) and Januzaj (dont know what he is, but not a midfielder) all playing in a "diamond" and not one of them an actual midfielder as far as I can tell.

by windkick Mon Feb 16, 2015 7:20 pm

Btw, as long as I've been watching La Liga, and as much as I've tried to pay attention to which clubs belong to what community etc....I just barely realized Mallorca are a Catalan club. Don't know why but I always figured they were a Basque team. Which means there are quite a few Catalan clubs in Liga Adelante (Llagoestera, Girona, Sabadell, Mallorca, and Barcelona B + Barcelona and Espanyol int he first division). If only Gimnastic would get back in La Liga Adelante, always liked that club

by jibers Mon Feb 16, 2015 7:50 pm

The Franchise wrote:Van Gaal

I dont understand how its possible with all these changes and signings Man Utd have made, they STILL dont have a midfield.

Blind (half leftback, half midfield), Rooney (forward), Di Maria (playing like a striker ) and Januzaj (dont know what he is, but not a midfielder) all playing in a "diamond" and not one of them an actual midfielder as far as I can tell.

I have no idea as well. It's as if our club has mf-phobia.

by CBarca Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:49 am

I haven't watched Man U much, but doesn't LvG have an actual midfielder in Ander and isn't using him?

by free_cat Tue Feb 17, 2015 9:41 am

windkick wrote:Btw, as long as I've been watching La Liga, and as much as I've tried to pay attention to which clubs belong to what community etc....I just barely realized Mallorca are a Catalan club. Don't know why but I always figured they were a Basque team. Which means there are quite a few Catalan clubs in Liga Adelante (Llagoestera, Girona, Sabadell, Mallorca, and Barcelona B + Barcelona and Espanyol int he first division). If only Gimnastic would get back in La Liga Adelante, always liked that club

Mallorca is from Mallorca, which is an island east of Valencia, south of Catalonia. They are part of the Balear Islands, and legally they are not catalonia. Catalan is the original language in the Balear Islands though, aswell as in Valencia, and some of their inhabitants advocate for the independence and/or union with Catalonia.

by Winter is Coming Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:00 pm

CL round of 16:

Chelsea 1-1 PSG

PSG should've done better with the chances they had might haunt them in the return leg. Typically Mou game tho.

Bayern 0-0 Shakhtar

Pep still struggling to beat park the bus teams and doesn't help he plays both Alonso/Schweni together who are very similar.

by futbol Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:06 pm

Pep has become a coward. Alonso-Schweinsteiger against Shakhtar. Laughing

by BarrileteCosmico Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:07 pm

Pep has learnt from experience not to screw around in Eastern Europe, his Achilles' heel.

by Hapless_Hans Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:15 pm

Fußball wrote:Pep has become a coward. Alonso-Schweinsteiger against Shakhtar.

smh at these unqualified comments. A three man defense consisting of Rafinha, Boateng and Alaba away in the CL, but Pep is a coward. Aha aha.
And Schweini features as attacking midfielder when Alonso is playing.

by futbol Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:17 pm

He didn't play a 3 man defense. Maybe on paper, but not in reality.

by Hapless_Hans Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:22 pm

so a 4 man defense Rafinah-Boateng-Alaba-Bernat lol, with one of Alaba/Bernat always running around in front. That cowardice.

Oh well. haters gonna hate.

by futbol Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:25 pm

Hapless_Hans wrote:That cowardice.

Yes. Pep is a coward. Deal with it.

by Winter is Coming Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:51 pm

Pep after seeing Alonso get the red

Rest of the Football World Thread - Page 9 B-FVmI0CUAAVW59

"You're going to be seeing the bench now son" Laughing

by The Franchise Tue Mar 03, 2015 1:23 pm

I have to say how awful the PL standards are.

Man Utd haven't had 5 good performances all season, sit in the top 4.

Arsenal are all over the place, begging to finish outside the top 4...but they wont.

Look at Man City when they play us, or Bayern last year...the gap is so big. Man City looked not much better than your average La Liga side vs us.

Chelsea people consider a strong team, and for good reason, they are. However, vs Spurs this did nothing...their best players like Hazard, Cesc and Costa totally invisible or giving balls away easily and often. Nothing interesting about their performance. Obviously, they win via 2 deflected goals. And generally I have watched them alot this season and seldom do they give a good performance. They will get results, even against the best teams in the world...and its no surprise they look how they look with Mourinho as their coach, but man, the "gold standard" of the PL never looked so bad.

by Kick Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:02 pm

The Franchise wrote:I have to say how awful the PL standards are.

Man Utd haven't had 5 good performances all season, sit in the top 4.

Arsenal are all over the place, begging to finish outside the top 4...but they wont.

Look at Man City when they play us, or Bayern last year...the gap is so big. Man City looked not much better than your average La Liga side vs us.

Chelsea people consider a strong team, and for good reason, they are. However, vs Spurs this did nothing...their best players like Hazard, Cesc and Costa totally invisible or giving balls away easily and often. Nothing interesting about their performance. Obviously, they win via 2 deflected goals. And generally I have watched them alot this season and seldom do they give a good performance. They will get results, even against the best teams in the world...and its no surprise they look how they look with Mourinho as their coach, but man, the "gold standard" of the PL never looked so bad.

I would agree with that, But Barca, Bayern and Madrid tend to buy up all the super stars, making it somewhat difficult to achieve that status.

Also, City has always been a team which romps the EPL but does terribly in Europe. They just don't have the team to compete there.

by neuro11 Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:38 am

Kick wrote:
The Franchise wrote:I have to say how awful the PL standards are.

Man Utd haven't had 5 good performances all season, sit in the top 4.

Arsenal are all over the place, begging to finish outside the top 4...but they wont.

Look at Man City when they play us, or Bayern last year...the gap is so big. Man City looked not much better than your average La Liga side vs us.

Chelsea people consider a strong team, and for good reason, they are. However, vs Spurs this did nothing...their best players like Hazard, Cesc and Costa totally invisible or giving balls away easily and often. Nothing interesting about their performance. Obviously, they win via 2 deflected goals. And generally I have watched them alot this season and seldom do they give a good performance. They will get results, even against the best teams in the world...and its no surprise they look how they look with Mourinho as their coach, but man, the "gold standard" of the PL never looked so bad.

I would agree with that, But Barca, Bayern and Madrid tend to buy up all the super stars, making it somewhat difficult to achieve that status.

Also, City has always been a team which romps the EPL but does terribly in Europe. They just don't have the team to compete there.

coming from a Chelsea fan Very Happy

. Chesea was reformed in 2003 while M.City was reformed in 2008. they are gaining experience every year. they are also a bit unlucky to play constantly vs top teams in the group stages, yet qualifying and then again are facing top teams in early stage of knockout rounds every year.

by Winter is Coming Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:37 pm

^What does that have to do with anything? Chelsea before Roman were in the semi-final and since then they have been quite good in Europe regardless of how they get the result, a long with United they are the team they keep the English flag up in Europe for the past few years. there is no excuse for City been 4-5 years and have flopped hard the only thing they've done is make it out of the group stages as an achievement in the last 2-3 years.

I agree with Franchise, I've said this for the past 2-3 years as it seem like that. Competition wise its good, because they stay close to one another on the table, but from an entertainment and quality perspective of the games it's quite dull.

I do disagree with Kick as its not like PL teams don't buy talents or their share of superstar neither.

by windkick Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:16 pm

Yea I disagree with Kick as well. Bayern, Madrid and Barca buy up allot of players, but they usually rotate the door and big name players go out (James in > Di Maria out, Bale in > Ozil out, Suarez in > Sanchez out, Cesc in > Toure out...and when Cesc was replaced by Rakitic he went to Chelsea etc). And notice those big name guys went to the EPL, so while you have 3 clubs buying up big names, you have an entire league with solid well known internationals up and down the table yet the over game is horrible on a tactical level. Not only that, coming from a Chelsea fan thats a ridiculous comment considering they are usually way more active in the market than those 3 clubs, or just as active. Same goes for Utd and City. So I don't agree at all.

by DeletedUser#1 Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:19 pm

It's that in PL and CL you need different elements to succeed. Between 04-09, Premier League had outstanding individuals who covered for that fact and allowed teams to be effective in both competitions. Since Madrid's Ronaldo transfer and emergence of Pep's Barca and change in dynamics of the market, there has been a turn-around.

In order to succeed in PL, you need Pace over possession, tempo over over team shape. PL teams build their teams based on that, and in Europe (a completely different ball game), their style gets found out.

Ferguson's team were all about pace and tempo and it cleaned out the PL but were often disappointing in Europe up until the last few seasons. Benitez' Liverpool were more European team, but struggled to make the same impact in the league (because of lack of pace and tempo).

Finding the right balance isn't easy. Mourinho is the closest to that at this moment, because they are a mixture of two styles, and their outstanding individual quality in 1 vs 1 battles see them nick PL wins, that a team with lesser financial ability wouldn't be able to match.

by Hapless_Hans Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:36 pm

Natalie Portman wrote:
In order to succeed in PL, you need Pace over possession, tempo over over team shape. PL teams build their teams based on that, and in Europe (a completely different ball game), their style gets found out.

That's the part I don't get. It's the same discussion we had in General Section regarding different league's "styles", or the preconceptions about them.

If a game based on pace at the expense of other elements gets "found out in Europe", why would you NEED that style in order to succeed in the PL?
Why couldn't a good 'possession' team just as easily 'find out' those teams in the Prem?

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