Spanish Football 2011-2012

Firstly, DM got it spot on with his post above and the world just imploded because jonneymendoza disagreed with it.

Real started brilliantly with their pressing high up the pitch but just couldn't keep it going, in large part due to Benzema who was blowing out his arse by about 20 minutes in. The guy makes Berbatov look like an absolute dynamo.

I also absolutely agree with you DM about Alonso. Diarra is a limited player but he did a brilliant job on the Barca midfield, far better than Pepe did in that role last year. Alonso, on the other hand, contributed next to nothing in the Real engine room and was completely anonymous for the whole game really. Mourinho still hasn't got the midfield working properly and they struggle to retain the ball, which is always going to be ruthlessly exposed against Barca. With Diarra and Alonso in there together there is a real lack of mobility, finesse and, ultimately, ability on the ball.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
D'oh springs to mind.
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double-facepalm.jpg


Springs to my mind
 
One More Solo said:
Firstly, DM got it spot on with his post above and the world just imploded because jonneymendoza disagreed with it.

Real started brilliantly with their pressing high up the pitch but just couldn't keep it going, in large part due to Benzema who was blowing out his arse by about 20 minutes in. The guy makes Berbatov look like an absolute dynamo.

I also absolutely agree with you DM about Alonso. Diarra is a limited player but he did a brilliant job on the Barca midfield, far better than Pepe did in that role last year. Alonso, on the other hand, contributed next to nothing in the Real engine room and was completely anonymous for the whole game really. Mourinho still hasn't got the midfield working properly and they struggle to retain the ball, which is always going to be ruthlessly exposed against Barca. With Diarra and Alonso in there together there is a real lack of mobility, finesse and, ultimately, ability on the ball.
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So was it a boring game then as many other people laughed off this game?
 
Alexis Sanchez really is a greasy little toad, I thought Busquets and Dani Alves were bad, but he takes the busquet. Constantly whining at the ref all game about the leg-breakers he was subjected to.
 
jonneymendoza said:
They cant insult the game that has not even been played yet either!:rolleyes:
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What on earth are you on about?


Anyway, one solo, the only thing I'd disagree with is Diarra being limited, he's an excellent left back, right back, and central midfielder, his distribution was FAR better than Alonso's tonight, and defensively kept Messi in his pocket whenever he was near him, someone will point out the goal but Diarra was playing the right central midfield slot, Messi went past Alonso(again, as everyone did, well got past or went down under a bad tackle) and Diarra still almost caught him and got a touch on the ball.

The thing with Diarra is, you ask him to play a role, and he'll play THAT role not randomly go around doing whatever he wants, he was very clearly asked to keep an eye on Messi and give Alonso a hand when he needed it.

Alonso has been rubbish, that is the kind of performance he puts in every game, from the 50 yard pass into the corner than no one caught up with, to fouling or being caught out for basically every single attack. He only really got close enough to Barca plays to foul twice, and one certainly deserve a yellow(the second iirc) the first was borderline. Mourinho made a few mistakes, Di Maria is a passenger in these games, every single big game he's basically been utter turd, how many times did he miskick a basic pass, fall over, or just dive. Yes he helped set up the goal, only because Valdes passed it to him, the rest of his delivery/play was meh, though he worked harder than usual to defend.

Ozil, great great vision, the fitness of.... I dunno, Joe Brand, also tends to disappear in all the big games. Khedira should have started, he's been far more effective than Alonso, defensively they are still a shambles, Ramos still just runs out and slams into people and his two footed challenge was both lucky that Messi jumped so his feet weren't planted, saw it coming and that he at least hit the ground at Messi's feet rather than being a few inches higher.

Iniesta seemed to cut out the diving from what I saw today, Sanchez is as bad as Alves at his worst(which he wasn't today) and Alves's crossing was freaking awesome today. I'm not entirely sure but Messi seems to lose his rag more this season, has dived quite a bit, which not surprisingly seems to coincide with Barca not playing very well at that particular moment.

Ronaldo was a shadow of himself, but he runs himself ragged every single game and unlike Ozil who gets taken off most games, he runs hard till the final whistle, which probably means he went in overly tired, with the weight of the team/fans/club on his back. They need more big game players, Ozil, Di Maria, kaka, Alonso have all disappeared in FAR more big games than Ronaldo has.

Don't forget, the most overlooked thing that most people haven't really mentioned is, no one really gave him the ball tonight at all, hell he barely got a pass in the first 25 minutes, and they only started to give him the ball a little more when the game had long since turned.
 
I really don't know what game you were watching. Diarra did not keep Messi quiet and the reason Barcelona improved so much in the second half was down to Iniesta being moved inside for Fabregas :o
 
drunkenmaster said:
Ronaldo was a shadow of himself, but he runs himself ragged every single game
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Granted I only saw the second half but Cristiano running himself into the ground doesn't sound likely to me nor was what I saw in the second half or the impression Sky's awful commentators were giving

If anything from what I've seen of Ronaldo in the classico's is that the occasion just seems to big for him, he definitely does a disappearing act when Real play Barca a prime example being the header he missed before it went 1-2, against any other team in the world he'd of buried that but against Barca he fluffs it (it's almost like the praise Messi gets gives him an inferiority complex or something)

One last thing on that missed header.... great cross from Alonso ;)
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
I really don't know what game you were watching. Diarra did not keep Messi quiet and the reason Barcelona improved so much in the second half was down to Iniesta being moved inside for Fabregas :o
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Don't know what game you were watching, Barca improved LONG before the second half, Fabregas was drifting all over the place, as the Barca team does in general. Likewise Real being almost entirely crap had nothing to do with Barca improving, it was all Iniesta moving inside :p

Di Maria did nothing past the first 10 minutes, Ozil did nothing past 25-30 minutes in, Alonso did nothing, Ronaldo did nothing, Benzema got a tap in, then did nothing. The biggest problem was Barca's insistence on holding onto the ball rather than playing one touch football, as the game progressed they held on to it less, and passed more quickly. Alves would be a key example, they really weren't countering fast enough to get Alves in behind on the right, yet second half this had changed, they simply played faster.

Also Diarra didn't keep Messi quiet, so Messi started mouthing off at the ref over a Sanchez dive, kept throwing his arms up every time Diarra tackled him pleading for a freekick, Diarra didn't tackle him 4-5 times, no, Messi before the goal created chance after chance, he didn't lose possession on almost every run at all(and after the goal and into the second half).
 
One More Solo said:
Perhaps, but a player of Alonso's experience should really have offered much more than he did.
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It's worth noting that Xavi misplaced more passes and lost the ball more than I've ever seen him do(still a ridiculously small amount :p ), so did Messi, so did Iniesta........ and none of that was down to Alonso. So clearly both, Barca midfield can be rattled, they can be pressured, and Real did it, just not Alonso.
 
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