UCL QF 2019/20 | Bayern Munich Vs Barcelona

Since Setien has taken over the team didn't have a single good performance IMO. The win yesterday was 100 % individual effort. Corner header Lenglet and then Messi doing stuff on his own. Lost possession to Gattuso led Napoli at home. I'm convinced Setien is the worst coach in the club's history, way below Tata even. There is no system, neither possession, pressing nor defending. Yesterday looked like an amateur street match. In fact I actually stopped watching the Barca games since after the Corona break. Corona already killed football somewhat with the empty stadiums and 0 atmosphere, Setien did the rest.

Barça have almost no chance. Not because I rate a team with Gnabry in their starting line up, but because this team has been shit all season, what are the chances that they suddenly conjure some magic out of a hat. Even if Barça qualify by some sort of luck or Godlike Messi performance, they'll get eliminated next round by City.

Since I don't want Arab teams to win CL, Bayern's qualification is for the greater good as they will be favourites against both City and PSG.

An Atlético vs Bayern final would be my dream final, with Cholo Simeone haunting Mr Hans's dreams once again. It would make my season tbh.

Also would be funny if Coutinho scores against Barça

after all this analysis from GL, cant wait for the actual game

danyjr wrote:Barça have almost no chance. Not because I rate a team with Gnabry in their starting line up, but because this team has been shit all season, what are the chances that they suddenly conjure some magic out of a hat. Even if Barça qualify by some sort of luck or Godlike Messi performance, they'll get eliminated next round by City.

ahh of course, and i could safely presume the Gnabry hate stems from him being a former Arsenal player

I'd like to remind people that while now all of a sudden everyone seems to think we're so strong and amazing, we are still talking about a team who's starting wide attackers on Friday were Gnabry and Perisic

Gnabry and Perisic here
Messi and Griezmann there

so yeah I don't want to hear it

fuck off people

pls Hans

https://i.servimg.com/u/f69/18/75/76/10/gnabry10.png

El Gunner wrote:

danyjr wrote:Barça have almost no chance. Not because I rate a team with Gnabry in their starting line up, but because this team has been shit all season, what are the chances that they suddenly conjure some magic out of a hat. Even if Barça qualify by some sort of luck or Godlike Messi performance, they'll get eliminated next round by City.

ahh of course, and i could safely presume the Gnabry hate stems from him being a former Arsenal player

No, it's cause he's meh.

Why are people acting like this is a pre-final? PSG and City are both better than Barca atm

When's the last time Barca looked dominant in the CL knock-offs?

If Barca take it, it will be down to luck. Put the house on Bayern going through.

@hapless_hans

As you know i haven't watched in a long time, but in previous seasons Bayern seemed they needed a lot of work but from what i read now they seem one of the favourites.

Enlighten me on what changed

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:@hapless_hans

As you know i haven't watched in a long time, but in previous seasons Bayern seemed they needed a lot of work but from what i read now they seem one of the favourites.

Enlighten me on what changed

I haven't watched them much, but my impression is that football as a whole is relatively underwhelming these days, and the general standard is lower than it has been in the past. Every club I can think of "needs work" in one way or another.

seems fair enough.

Juve, Madrid, Barca, Liverpool, Atletico are worse this season. Bayern has a clear path.

Dembele travels with the team

Prepare to get your butt kicked by your golden boy Ousmane, Hans Kloss.

It would be amongst one of the most hilarious scenes in GL history if Dembélé scores a brace against Bayern tbh

ffs

but tbh chances are he gets injured again until Friday

Please. The tie is done. Messi will toy with you in the 1st half and Dembele in the 2nd as a super-sub.

I'm about to place my bets.

Would be funnier if Coutinho scores a brace too and oblige Hoeneß to pay up the full fee to employ him permanently. I know that's what Hans wants.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:@hapless_hans

As you know i haven't watched in a long time, but in previous seasons Bayern seemed they needed a lot of work but from what i read now they seem one of the favourites.

Enlighten me on what changed

We did need a lot of work, and certainly that work is not finished

If we take as starting point 2013 (and really teams are always in flux, always works in progress, that year is only always taken as the definitive point as we won the CL that year and people consider it a complete team - would they call it the same if we hadn't won the CL for a reason or other?), there have been 3 main areas of deficit going on IMO

-  sustained underinvestment
Pep came in and our board basically considered that enough, first two years of his reign we basically did not invest at all, sold Kroos too to replace him with old man Alonso, basically lived off the notion that the team was complete, all the while Götze was injured and flopped, Thiago was 2 years straight injured and so was Ribéry basically, see below, and the big issue of Robbery having to be replaced eventually hovering above it all, then Douglas Costa and a 19 year old perma-injured Coman, yeah well


- this reluctant investment further hampered and complicated by injury problems
people have forgotten, but there was huge trouble between Pep's coaching team and our long-running medical department, prompting Müller-Wohlfahrt to resign in anger
players from Badstuber, Thiago, Ribéry, Martinez were all long term injured and even repeated the same injuries at times
now that's a problem for squad planning, do you buy replacement when the players you trust and rate are only injured? What happens when all are fit? etc
our management/DoF team has always erred on the side of small squad size to enforce better team harmony, but with the rampant injuries that became a problem - semi finals vs Barcelona 2015 we had no fit wide attackers ffs

- changes in management and board, underwhelming coaching
following Jupp was a tough act, following Pep an even tougher one. Ancelotti's laid back approach worked well for the most part but then didn't manage to produce neither nor the intensity nor the consistent dominance the players, and us fans, were used to
Then came Kovac who was just not up to it, the players didn't rate him and he wasn't able to implement the football Bayern demands at all. Almost all players got unhappy and became worse.

Now, around the time of Carlo's second season, the board finally started to invest, but it was questionary and clumsy investments. Tolisso for 42m was our record buy, ok, then Sanches who couldn't cope with the expectations.
Then Lucas Hernandez was bought for 80m to signal 'Brazzo' Salihamidzic', our newfound and initially shaky DoF's, ambitions. But he has basically been injured since he came and now finds himself behind Alaba and Davies at LCB and LB.
In attack, Robben and Ribéry have finally left but are not really replaced yet - Perisic is a stop gap (as is Coutinho) as we couldn't get the Sané transfer over the line last summer with the ACL.
Coman is ok, good player, but between his injury problems and his inconsistent end product he's never going to be really good enough to be permanent starter, Gnabry I have often hated on him, but he's been a good performer, consistent, reliable, with some highights, so I have absolutely no complaints about him. He's been a very pleasant surprise. But yeah, ultimately he's still not an elite attacker, his technique is not good enough, so he's a depth player ultimately.
That's why we fans place so much hope on Sané - but he can't help us yet.

Now, Flick has been the one big positive change.
He's brought back the football of Jupp and Pep - possession, dominance, forward pressing - he's executing it well, adding vertical passing pattern to an interesting and variable degree, he seems to really be able to get us to create chances (something Carlo struggled at), Müller and even Boateng have blossomed again (Müller was amazing in 2020).
The players seem to like and rate him, he's settled on a team (which Kovac couldn't manage for 15 months), and his demeanour is very pleasant and humble.
We play great football, we have our team back, in the sense of the word, playing well together, it's actually pretty fucking amazing, however:
We have not faced a single elite team all season.

So I'm still somewhat sceptical whether we can keep Messi etc in check.
Because if there's one thing I am doubtbul about Flick, it's that I fear our transition from attack to defense isn't as good as it was under Jupp and Pep. And his in-game management.

Dembele vs. Hans. I'll accept this even with referees handing the game for Bayern.

I've been reading around and I've been sensing a lot of arrogance from Bayern and their fans. Apparently Lewandowski is the best in the world and they are guaranteed to win the CL.

Well, it's another opportunity for Lewandowski to show up against a top Spanish team which he hasn't really done in like 7 years. I trust him to do the job this time because you know Barca is awful these days. If after all this talk and Bayern fails to beat them...

Well, anything can happen in one odd game, but ultimately I think that Bayern's intensity will be too much to handle for this crippling and senile Barca side. The only way we win is if Ter Stegen miraculously intercepts all the shots and Messi dances around like a ballerina again, but the chances of that are rather slim. It's quite easy to isolate Messi these days since he doesn't run nearly as much as he used to (Suarez too, he's like a child in the fog these days) and the midfield setup behind him is so average that they offer almost no real support. Probably even worse than PSG's Herrera-Gueye-Marquinhos.

All these years of supporting Milan alongside Lasciavit and he mistakes me as a Bayern supporter

That being said they have a reason to be arrogant here.

Bayern genuinely are very good now and Lewandowski somehow forgot how not to score.

And Barça are just plain ass. All their original fear factor long since has left. No other way about it.

jibers wrote:Bayern should win this. This is the best side they've had since Pep left in 2016. But all it takes is one Messi moment.

Even 2 or 3 goals by Messi won't save them. Bayern have become too powerful to be defeated.