Barcelona v Real Madrid

crackerman said:
No to all of the above. Although Scholes in his hay day is as good as Xavi is now.
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Scholes can and still does show flashes of brilliance though. Giggs the same. As for Stevie/Cesc, they're both talismanic figures in their team, and as a result bring that much more than just their talent.
 
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The reason Xavi is one of the best is simply ball retention; to quote a SAF soundbite, Xavi has "never given the ball away in his life". I've seen him get over 90% pass completion before which is almost unheard of, and that's from a high volume of passing all over the pitch, not just tapping it along the back line (see http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/04/06/barcelona-4-1-arsenal-xavi-passing-statistics/ )

The real shame is that it is only over the past couple of years (since Euro2008) that it has become trendy to bum Xavi, the reality it even as far back as 2003 it was obvious he was a special talent, when I saw him completely boss a friendly against England. Ball retention doesn't necessarily get as much glamour and attention as dazzling dribbles or 30 yard screamers, but it makes such a difference in terms of maximising the potential of the team. Take Gerrard for example, arguably a more 'explosive' player than Xavi, but a hollywood ball straight to the opposition fullback isn't going to win anything.

The good news of course is that he plays for the best club side and the best international side in the world, so he gets the recognition he deserves now. If he was, say, a Scot playing for some midtable side he's the type of player that might get overlooked.
 
And the great thing from Barca's perspective is he could probably play into his mid to late 30's with ease.
He aint got any pace to start with, so no worry there.
Never really had any injury problems.
Cant see any reason why not.

As for the game, after watching it again its pretty clear Maureen set Madrid up the same way he set Inter up to play Barca.
Problem is, Madrid lack a lot of the physical presence and hard-working players that Inter had, so it was bound to failure.
 
Alpherah said:
And the great thing from Barca's perspective is he could probably play into his mid to late 30's with ease.
He aint got any pace to start with, so no worry there.
Never really had any injury problems.
Cant see any reason why not.

As for the game, after watching it again its pretty clear Maureen set Madrid up the same way he set Inter up to play Barca.
Problem is, Madrid lack a lot of the physical presence and hard-working players that Inter had, so it was bound to failure.
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The big problem is, Inter had two very good CB's, a left back and a right back when told to stay back and defend who has the pace to do so, and a well drilled right/left winger who worked tirelessly all game to defend.

Real Madrid have Ramos, even told to stay back, he can't defend, and Marcelo, who literally can't defend to save his life. How many times did he throw himself to the ground in a ridiculous tackle that never got close to winning the ball, he rarely stayed on his feet and he didn't track any runs into the box, out of position just woeful.

Then you've got Di Maria/Ozil who defensively did nothing, and two defensive midfielders who did quite literally every single thing wrong they could have. Running directly into the back four, stepping off, zero pressure, poor strength shown when it was required.

Inter played the "lets pack the box, not get out of our half" strategy, with a solid drilled defensive unit who all knew their jobs and had defensive ability i MOST positions, Real did it with perhaps Carvalho and Pepe as the ONLY remotely capable defenders, mercilessly exposed by midfield runs that no one on the team covered.

I might try that tactic with Chelsea's squad(with a fit Terry/back four, and Essien) but would I try that tactic with Arsenal's squad, not in a million years would that work, horrific choice by Mourinho to do that.

He sent out a fully attacking line up, but didn't have the balls to tell them to attack, there were FAR better first 11's he could have put out for that sit behind the ball type formation, Marcelo, Di Maria, Benzema shouldn't have been near the pitch for a game like that.

The back four also continually played a quite high line throughout, which Alonso just backed the midfield into, it was a disaster start to finish. THe back four had to leave less space in behind for the simple throughball and any of a half dozen players to run onto, and the midfield had to push up and put pressure on the ball. As I said before, the dm's being so close to the defense meant instead of a 25-40yard "throughball" for players to run onto, they were being allowed to make that pass 5 yards from the CB, so it was a 10yard throughball, much easier, more angles more options and no time for the defense to react.


As for Xavi having no pace, he does, simple ball retention, not really, he battles hard, he runs like crazy, he puts pressure on when the other team has the ball, he has the "hollywood" pass in him, the point Fergie was making is he has a high pass completion rate WITH the hollywood ball being used, not only doing simple passing, ridiculously good player and his game is nothing about retaining posession, thats just incidental, a side effect of brilliant passing and quick thinking. Denilson/Song play "posession football" and it has smeg all to do with brilliant passing or quick thinking, they'll pass it sideways all night, Xavi will moved around one player, play a perfect throughball, create a goal and have completed the same amount of passes as Denilson whose only passed to his defence with Barca/Arsenal both ending up with 70% posession. Anyone suggesting posession or simplicity, or lack of running into the box, lack of pace has anything to do with Xavi, doesn't watch Barca.
 
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Barca got beat by Hercucles as I think it was a bit of a WC hangover, some of those guys had a really long season and looked a little lack luster but last few weeks they seemed to have got it back a little.

Also Xavi has tendentious he's missed a few games because of it
 
drunkenmaster said:
The big problem is, Inter had two very good CB's, a left back and a right back when told to stay back and defend who has the pace to do so, and a well drilled right/left winger who worked tirelessly all game to defend.

Real Madrid have Ramos, even told to stay back, he can't defend, and Marcelo, who literally can't defend to save his life. How many times did he throw himself to the ground in a ridiculous tackle that never got close to winning the ball, he rarely stayed on his feet and he didn't track any runs into the box, out of position just woeful.

Then you've got Di Maria/Ozil who defensively did nothing, and two defensive midfielders who did quite literally every single thing wrong they could have. Running directly into the back four, stepping off, zero pressure, poor strength shown when it was required.

Inter played the "lets pack the box, not get out of our half" strategy, with a solid drilled defensive unit who all knew their jobs and had defensive ability i MOST positions, Real did it with perhaps Carvalho and Pepe as the ONLY remotely capable defenders, mercilessly exposed by midfield runs that no one on the team covered.

I might try that tactic with Chelsea's squad(with a fit Terry/back four, and Essien) but would I try that tactic with Arsenal's squad, not in a million years would that work, horrific choice by Mourinho to do that.

He sent out a fully attacking line up, but didn't have the balls to tell them to attack, there were FAR better first 11's he could have put out for that sit behind the ball type formation, Marcelo, Di Maria, Benzema shouldn't have been near the pitch for a game like that.

The back four also continually played a quite high line throughout, which Alonso just backed the midfield into, it was a disaster start to finish. THe back four had to leave less space in behind for the simple throughball and any of a half dozen players to run onto, and the midfield had to push up and put pressure on the ball. As I said before, the dm's being so close to the defense meant instead of a 25-40yard "throughball" for players to run onto, they were being allowed to make that pass 5 yards from the CB, so it was a 10yard throughball, much easier, more angles more options and no time for the defense to react.
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With all of your tactical and coaching insight, it's a wonder you're not doing this professionally.
 
A2Z said:
Also I would love for Man Utd to play Barca in the Champions League, im sure we would give them a much better game then Real last night!
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so long as chelsea get their act together. essien and mikel basically ruined barca's performance against us in the champions league
until they got that jammy goal at the end
 
R5Rich said:
Barca got beat by Hercucles as I think it was a bit of a WC hangover, some of those guys had a really long season and looked a little lack luster but last few weeks they seemed to have got it back a little.

Also Xavi has tendentious he's missed a few games because of it
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Also I think nearly all of the Barca squad travelled to and from Argentina in the days before that game. They looked dead
 
I have said this for the past 3 years ronaldo most over rated player ever he scores a hat-trick against a low mid table team and he's the best player in the world I've never seen him produce the goods in the biggest matches if u ask me xavi messi and shneijder are the 3 best players so please ronaldo lovers stop saying he's the best
 
Sneijder over Ronaldo?

:/

I know he was good last season but surely everyone's manlove for him is over by now?
 
lucarocks92 said:
I have said this for the past 3 years ronaldo most over rated player ever he scores a hat-trick against a low mid table team and he's the best player in the world I've never seen him produce the goods in the biggest matches if u ask me xavi messi and shneijder are the 3 best players so please ronaldo lovers stop saying he's the best
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Clueless.
 
lucarocks92 said:
I have said this for the past 3 years ronaldo most over rated player ever he scores a hat-trick against a low mid table team and he's the best player in the world I've never seen him produce the goods in the biggest matches if u ask me xavi messi and shneijder are the 3 best players so please ronaldo lovers stop saying he's the best
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Have you seen his goal record in La Liga? He doesn't score tap ins. He is currently the top goal scorer in that league.. actually he is the top goal scorer in Europe as well.
 
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