Spanish Football 2011-2012

Real strangled that game to death and hit them on the break when needed. Maureen got his tactics spot on and I wouldn't be surprised to see him win the double now. Barcelona looked incredibly flat.
 
Moses said:
The old guard? Lampard/Cole/Terry/Drogba are the only 'old' players. The former two being regarded as pretty damn fit, Terry who's a CB so should be fine, and Drogba who lasted the entire match vs Barca and who didn't play today. I think they'll be fine, in that regard. It's not as though they still play Carvalho/Ferreira/et al.
Click to expand...

It'll be a different game completely away from Stamford Bridge though, the pitch is a lot bigger for starters.
 
Jose's tactics have been good in past games against Barca (bar their first league encounter), the problem he's had is the team not adhering to them and also their inability to avoid someone getting sent off.

Over the last few games, the amount of time Madrid have fallen asleep has kept dropping and their composure has gone up. It was only a matter of time before it all fell in place, IMO.

Chelsea will get a chance - even with 10 men at the Nou we had a chance (thanks for fluffing it, Bender)... and they'll be seeds of doubt in Barca's minds now. Great chance for the underdog next week, and it would be kinda lulzy if it was a Chelsea v Bayern final (down to how well Madrid recover, you feel, although being on cloud 9 vs despair might help).
 
Why didn't Ronaldo get booked for playing on after the whistle, same end Van Persie got a red card? :mad:

Also why at every Barca match is there always some **** with a green laser pen?
 
Don't know why everyone thinks Real got the tactics spot on, they were certainly not bad though as per usual Alonso got away with studding Alves in the ankle and several other tackles, though Alves got away with, a rugby tackle on Ronaldo and possibly a stud/stamp thing, hard to tell from the one replay how intentional it was).

Overall Barca's problem was the same as many games recently, the "Rooney" effect, Messi was played as the striker, but wanted the ball and wanted it 15 yards deeper than the defence.

Literally the second they put someone on to play as striker, he made a run at the cb's, which the cb's matched and created a gap for Messi to run into. They only managed to do that a few times as their then brilliant tactic seemed to be, "we've just worked out how to create space infront of the defence...... so now lets start with the long ball" .

They did it against Chelsea too often as well, Barca at their best, think back to smashing 5 past Real Madrid, and you had 2 or three players running along the back four, then darting in behind as Xavi/Iniesta/Messi(from out wide) passed on the diagonal in behind. That was the strongest part of their game for years basically, today and against Chelsea you had Messi standing WAY deeper than the CB's, no striker pushing the cb's, Tello/Alves basically as the wingers both with no targets as no one ran at the back four, so couldn't cross nor pass in behind anyone.

All season they've lacked that same run in behind mentality and its started to effect their passing as they aren't looking for that pass as often.

Barca's daft tactics threw that game away, Real, or Ronaldo in particular certainly did brilliantly and all they could but, considering how much posession they had again and how in the only really truly effective minute or two they played all match they scored... had they played like that all game I think they'd have won comfortably.

Messi doesn't like playing as a striker, shouldn't play as a striker and desperately needs a striker to help create space for him to run into. He didn't look happy today or against Chelsea, he's being asked to, for no reason, do something that limits his game far too much. It also means he's basically the only threat and can be marked fairly easily.

The last couple games as well with Alves basically on the right, Messi as a very withdrawn striker, no actual striker and 3 central midfielders, they've had too many central mid's sitting in the same area getting in each others way.

Defensively, pretty much wrong line up, wrong tactics, wrong substitutions(Xavi shouldn't have gone off, nor should Tello, or Adriano) and FAR too late in the game.
 
Tello was alright at the start but so poor in the second half. His experience really started to show. Numerous occasions he decided to shoot rather than pass and lost the ball resulting in the second RM goal.

Certainly should have gone off.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Defensively, pretty much wrong line up, wrong tactics, wrong substitutions(Xavi shouldn't have gone off, nor should Tello, or Adriano) and FAR too late in the game.
Click to expand...

Someone as good at passing as Xavi is going to be a key figure if Barca are going to break Chelsea down, so not too surprising to see him not complete the game.

Real were very good today but you have to wonder if Barca had hammered Chelsea(and therefore not left it all to do at the Nou Camp) if the result would have been the same..

Was nice to see less of the pathetic, childish behavior from Barca trying to get Real players sent off like what they do in every other El Classico..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom