The Official Football Thread

[Kokukirin]

Originally Posted by Bri

Sitting tight in the 16 and hoping for that one goal is a tactic that will lose you the game against Barca 9 out of 10 times. It has worked this week twice simply because Barca is out of form at converting their opportunities. If any, the tactic that has worked best against the tiki-taka style has been a steady forward press that forces Barca to play their passing game away from your 16. Forcing a loss of possession and catching Barca on the break will give a team a better ratio of chances, like AC Milan did away and Real did in the Copa del Rey last year.

As I said, Barca is so good that no tactic can truly counter them. The best you can do is to limit their chances to the minimum and hope they cannot take the few chances.

Heavy pressing works to an extent. The team can disrupt their passing rhythm and force errors. Real Madrid did it in first El Clasico and scored an early goal. But eventually the team could keep up and Barca dominated and won the game. In the last Copa del Rey final, Barca also dominated for an extended period, but RM's defence held on using a tight defense in the middle. We will see how Bilbao's pressing work against Barca in the CdR final.

But fact remains that the sit-deep-and-counter approach has been the most successful. It was the tactic that sent Barca out of CL twice. It gave Real the first El Clasico win in the league against Guardiola's Barca.

A single big target man in a team of players that averages well below 1.80 is going to be fairly easy to defend against. It would only mess up the fluidity of attack. Ibrahimovic did not fail at Barca without reason. It's a mistake Guardiola learned from.

Having a target man does not necessarily mess up fluidity of play. Whether Ibra really failed at Barca is debatable - his stats were respectable. He was deemed a failure mostly because his transfer was so expensive and he played two poor games against Inter.

Guardiola certainly saw the value of physical presence. He often moved his big players forward when the team was behind (Pique against Inter in 2010, Keita on for Fabregas against Chelsea). For the Spanish national team, Fernando Llorente was often the first sub to come on when they need a goal. He provides a more direct route of attack, a plan B.

Barca's issues this year have been mainly the injury of Villa, forcing the team to rely more and more on Messi as the goal scorer. Secondly is Guardiola's obsession with fitting in Fabregas as the 3-4-3 formation negatively affects build up play and their passing game. Also Iniesta is not as good as a winger as he is on midfield, reducing the teams natural width. The team has been too narrow at times.

David Villa scored 5 goals in 15 games this season in La Liga before he was injured. He hadn't been on form for half a year by then. For a squad so expensive, one injured striker is not a valid reason for underperforming.

The 3-4-3 is certainly an issue. It seems they default to this formation too often even when it is not a good choice. Barca has Tello and Cuenca as wingers to stretch play. But they aren't exactly top class players and have no target man in the box to put crosses at.

[germanturkey]

goal.com posted a nice editorial about why Barca is being beat easier. they're easily the most admired team, so as a result, they're the most studied. the easiest way to beat them is to hit them on the counter, which is what Chelsea did, what Real did, and what Inter did. Chelsea had like what, 4 chances on goal over 2 legs, but they scored 3 of them.

plus they have players like Cesc and Sanchez that adjusted their playing style to fit Barca's, and as a result it made them weaker overall players.

[Kizoku Keenan]

only just seen the highlights of the madrid vs munich game, what a tense penalty shoot out, brilliant football, brilliant TV, brilliant sport.

[Mentar]

I don't understand why Madrid didn't try harder to avoid penalties. Did they really expect to win the penalty shootout against a German team? And particularly against Neuer??

[Blaat]

^Real was too afraid to concede a goal (if Bayern scored they would have needed to score two more goals in order to progress) that's the downside of the away goal rule.

[Saturn Beaver]

Originally Posted by Blaat

^Real was too afraid to concede a goal (if Bayern scored they would have needed to score two more goals in order to progress) that's the downside of the away goal rule.

Still, they could do much better. Bayern is really in control of the game after the halftime, Real is being overly cautious.

[Blaat]

While true, I think by the second half exhaustion was kicking in for the Real players most obviously seen in Ronaldo who got really sloppy and poor the longer the match went on.

[Elo the Blue]

It's a real shame the Brazilians Ramires and Gustavo will the final for their clubs. It would have been awesome watching them battle in the middle of the pitch.

[monsta666]

Looks like Guardiola is seriously considering his resignation as Barcelona manager. I am surprised by this news considering the success he has had at the club:

BBC Sport - Barcelona's Pep Guardiola 'on brink of leaving club'

[Kizoku Keenan]

Originally Posted by monsta666

Looks like Guardiola is seriously considering his resignation as Barcelona manager. I am surprised by this news considering the success he has had at the club:

BBC Sport - Barcelona's Pep Guardiola 'on brink of leaving club'

Even if he leaves for a year from the world of football where would he go after? back to Barca more than likely...it just seems so silly and over dramatic to leave because you had one bad week it could be worse he could be ally mc coist

[monsta666]

Originally Posted by Kizoku Keenan

Even if he leaves for a year from the world of football where would he go after? back to Barca more than likely...it just seems so silly and over dramatic to leave because you had one bad week it could be worse he could be ally mc coist

He could go anywhere due to his history of success. Man City have expressed interest in signing him in the past and I am sure many clubs would be more than happy to take him on as a manager. He will have no problems finding a post but where ever it is I doubt he would make a immediate return to Barcelona. I don't think Barcelona would be so disrespectful of their next manager that they drop him immediately just because Guardiola changed his mind. That is unless Guardiola puts it into writing he is just taking a sabbatical and will immediately comeback to Barcelona.

[Kokukirin]

Guardiola has won everything at Barca and is still a young manager. It is only natural that he wants to look for challenges elsewhere, most likely in England or Italy.

[Blaat]

Or he goes to Qatar to get his pension.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Kizoku Keenan

Even if he leaves for a year from the world of football where would he go after? back to Barca more than likely...it just seems so silly and over dramatic to leave because you had one bad week it could be worse he could be ally mc coist

He has always been signing only one year of contract, so it's not as sudden. I guess the pressure at Barcelona was too much for a young manager like him to handle. I don't think any manager have ever in a position where the club were so success in such a short time right after their promotion. Afterall he's young and fairly (comparing to others) inexperienced, but now he have to start every season being expected to win both the CL and the national tittle (and dominate every team along the way)

[Kizoku Keenan]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

He has always been signing only one year of contract, so it's not as sudden. I guess the pressure at Barcelona was too much for a young manager like him to handle. I don't think any manager have ever in a position where the club were so success in such a short time right after their promotion. Afterall he's young and fairly (comparing to others) inexperienced, but now he have to start every season being expected to win both the CL and the national tittle (and dominate every team along the way)

True I'm sure he will split to England, Germany or even Italy for a good haul but I think years down the line he will still return to Barcelona because thats his home so to speak. Question is though if he leaves who would you guys like to see take over the reigns are barca?

[Ak3mi]

Originally Posted by Mentar

I don't understand why Madrid didn't try harder to avoid penalties. Did they really expect to win the penalty shootout against a German team? And particularly against Neuer??

So true, when I was watching the game I thinking it will be over for Madrid if it goes to penalties. Though Casillas did really well against Bayern.

[Mentar]

Originally Posted by Ak3mi

So true, when I was watching the game I thinking it will be over for Madrid if it goes to penalties. Though Casillas did really well against Bayern.

Casillas is a great keeper and made two great penalty saves. But Neuer is a veritable monster. You don't want to go into penalties against him.

Strange enough that Kroos and Lahm failed. Quite rare.

[Ak3mi]

Yeah thats true. He is a beast.

[Kizoku Keenan]

I'm rooting for Newcastle to win today I think it would be refreshing to see them in the Champions league next year and they deserve it...sad thing is players like Ba and even ben arfa could be gone in the summer as they have been noticed by the "bigger" teams now.

[Kizoku Keenan]