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Anyway any idea on whether Atlético actually fancy Toby Alderwerield who's having a good season at Soton but is there on loan? Also on whether Gimenez is going to naturally replace Godin/Miranda in the future? Feels weird having one 19 year old replacement for two very experienced CBs.

Feel like Atlético have focused a little too much on squad depth in some areas than replacing quality with quality, but the downgrades isn't as bad as Liverpool wrt Suarez or United wrt Ronaldo. Costa for Mandzukic or Filipe for Siquera isn't something that would cost a title win if you have other good players around you. I do feel that Atlético lack pace, which they have sorted a little with Griezmann and pressing high up the pitch.
Ronaldo's 10th penalty of the season. :rolleyes:
Bale and ronaldo were especially poor today
The winning run ends. Still a phenomenal achievement but wonder whether that friendly in Dubai played its part.
Valencia> Brock Lesnar
Neither messi or neymar starting tonight...
Why did Messi and Neymar arrive back in Barca so late?

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Real get a penalty for an obvious non-handball. Barca dont get a penalty for a (more) obvious handball. Sigh

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I'm not even going to act like I'm surprised with these results.

Real usually have trouble at the Mestalia and Barca ain't won at Anoeta since 2007. There's still some time to salvage something for them but it's never going to be easy at that place. Bogey team and a half.

Great week for Atlético though Griezmann is looking a handful. Scored a hattrick last game and got two headers this game.
Woop. Amazing win for Real Sociedad. Very happy today. They've beat Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and now Barcelona at the Anoeta. They need to just find some consistency but there are some very good players in that team. Also find it weird how Finnbogason hasn't been doing so well there with his record at Holland. He hasn't been a first choice starter I guess but he had a great record at Holland. Guess Agirretxe gets chosen due to his all round game being better and being a youth product of Real Sociedad.
Brilliant win for Moyes - at 1-0 I left the game, I thought it'd be inevitable Barca would grab a draw or even a win.

It seems it was a very organised performance but surely, the previous Sociedad incumbents could have conjured up such a result, considering their good record v Barca? But anyways, a big win to build on and intrigued by what players he signs.

Luis Enrique is going to have a tough few days..
Tbh it was a stupid decision leaving Messi and Neymar against Sociedad away.

Sociedad are a bit too far from a challenge for top 4 due to consistency of the top 4 contenders. Europa is just about manageable but unlikely too. Probably best off not making it though because of the fixture congestion. They have a good squad to build on and the Vela clause has been paid off. They have players they can build a team around which is great.

Obviously finances aren't great to really challenge for something I guess although they got good money for Griezmann and Illaramendi. Griezmann a little underpaid but Real definitely overpaid for Illarramendi.
La Real did well to win the game, 1 shot on target from Canales in which he took Montoya to the cleaners but didn't make chances on the counter. The winner was scored by a Barca player!

Lucho gambled on his line-up, knowing that if he didn't win then he would be lambasted. Barca haven't won at the Anoeta since 2007 and haven't comeback from a goal down there donce the 1930's. La Real have beaten Real, Atleti and Barca at home so are strong.

I thought Rakatic should have played. His long range shooting would have been useful in the rain against a parkes bus, which had a young inexperienced goalkeeper.
Title race opening up. I think Madrid will suffer in absence of Modric and will drop some points. Hopefully Atléti can capitalise and get ahead.

Would be a dream for Torres to score against Madrid on Wednesday...
There's still only a 9 points difference between the top 7 teams...

People said atletico simply had a fortunate year last year but I can see them challenging for the league all the way to the end
Barcelona have also just sacked their Director of football, Andoni Zubizarreta...

Good one Moyes
Apparently Zubi criticised Bartomeu who in turn sacked Zubi then Puyol left and the conspiracy theorists say Messi not training due to gastonitis is part of that but tbh, Andoni should have been sacked ages ago for not sorting the defence out.

Not ideal time for change for Luis Enrique, makes his position uncertain if it wasn't before.
Original post by Aky786UK

Not ideal time for change for Luis Enrique, makes his position uncertain if it wasn't before.


There's presidential elections at the end of the seasons and he'll be gone then anyway. Don't think his results make a difference. Barça is a strange job really if you think about it, managers only ever leave due to politics and it's not really down to results on the pitch.
Moyes has single-handedly ****ed over Barcelona. What a man.
Reply 6759
Original post by Aky786UK
Brilliant win for Moyes - at 1-0 I left the game, I thought it'd be inevitable Barca would grab a draw or even a win.

It seems it was a very organised performance but surely, the previous Sociedad incumbents could have conjured up such a result, considering their good record v Barca? But anyways, a big win to build on and intrigued by what players he signs.

Luis Enrique is going to have a tough few days..


It wasn't at all, really. Sociedad weren't doing well or better in this game at all, they were neither particularly well-organised in defence, with huge holes in their formation and dangerously much space between their lines for the majority of the game, nor noteworthily good in attack (Alba scoring their goal sums it up). That's why it is so inexcusably poor from Barcelona not to make more of it. They were the worse of two poor sides, really.

None of LE's decisions in this game made a lot of sense. Benching Messi and Neymar (supposedly for returning too late - irrational vacation schedule then), playing Montoya, who didn't get any game time until December, playing Munir, who has recently only shown that he needs some consistent game time with the B team, playing Pedro who offers little in a direct attacking sense against this type of opposition, playing a midfield three of Busquets - Xavi - Iniesta that ****ed up badly last time it was used, subbing in Alves for Mathieu and on top of that the irrational tactical approach to the game was quite a mix of terrible decisions that imo was more influenctial to the game than anything Sociedad or Moyes did.

I think the sense in which this game was to be considered a 'tough game' is the history of the fixture in recent years and perhaps Sociedad's traditional standing; otherwise - form-wise, performance-wise, squad-wise - this Sociedad isn't really close to the Sociedad teams of the past, and although it is traditionally a tough ground to go to for Barcelona, they could and should have won. This was the best chance to date to break this Anoeta 'curse', and the way I've seen the game, the reasons for not making it are almost exclusively on Barcelona/Enrique.


Original post by IceJJFish(II)
Yeah Atléti can play wonderful football, they have creative players like Arda and Griezmann to do it.



Original post by jam277
While I'm also at it I think Atlético's style of play gets too much flak. I think they play some wonderful football. Just because they can go to park bus mode and get a bit dirty doesn't mean that they don't play good football. The pressing is part of the football, as well as the sitting back. They can play through midfield and use the wings very well. Turan and Koke play great football.

Was watching the highlights of Atlético vs Malmo and one of the goals they scored was just a classic team goal great passing with pin point accuracy. People just watch the Madrid derbies or Atlético vs Barcelona and think Atlético just put 10 men behind the ball and try to hoof it up to a target man every game.


Would have understood this last season, but this season, I think the only period of time where Atléti have played as watchable and creative football as they did in some parts of last season was - bar some moments in other games- after the stronger introduction of Griezmann. Before that, Atléti did struggle to recreate the same creative spark and inspiration in attack from open play as last season and mostly focused on defensive organisation and set pieces (goal tallies and statistics can be misleading if you don't watch the team in question, but in this case, theirs - 21 from set pieces, including 2 penalties, out of 34 - really isn't). This is what the 'flak' they get refers to, their development since last season, which simply doesn't correspond with their strengthening in the attacking positions at all. Of course they are still capable of creating some really great goals as has been mentioned, but in the majority of games they rely even less on those types of situations and goals than last season. With Griezmann, this has improved; he just offers a lot more than, has better understanding with Arda and Koke than and is, both tactically and skill-wise, a better option in the Villa role than García, who's often just a detrimental factor for their attacking game - hence why Cholo's preference for him over Griezmann was a bit baffling. He immediately improves the attack, even more in a tactical sense than regarding immediate output, although his goal tally compared with the amounts of minute he's played speaks for itself.

About that Athletic game, I don't think it was as convincing or as good an example of their attacking abilities or whatever as the score line suggested. It was a veryend-to-end game with both sides showing good effort and intensity, and up until that equaliser and wrong penalty for Tiago's dive Athletic could just as easily have grabbed the win. Their collapse after that, especially from Gurpegi (as usual), was probably even more impressive than Atléti's (deserved) comeback.

No doubt that Atléti are well prepared to grab the title again and beat the big 2 in direct battles, but talking about the 'quality' of football based on the examples you mentioned, I think they were better last season, and other sides - Valencia, Rayo, Athletic, Eibar, sometimes Celta, to name a few - are just as nice' to watch in a purely entertainment or aesthetic sense.
(edited 9 years ago)

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