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The Spanish Football Thread

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The ref was an absolute joke again. Barca were excellent though in both attack and defence. Enrique's teams have always been good in defence so if they can sustain the attacking performances we have a great team on our hands. The midfield was balanced with Rakitic and Iniesta. Xavi or Rakitic have to play with Iniesta or Rafinha to get the right balance. Busquets back to his best tonight as well. So many positives for Barca and literally no negatives.


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The refereeing was horrendous. How there wasn't a red card this game is bewildering. Really liked what I saw from the trio up front.

They really took it to Atletico.
Scary thing is Messi, Neymar and Suarez are still just getting used to each other. Imagine them in another years time? Potential to be the greatest trio ever
Neymar, Suarez and Messi all on the scoresheet is very intimidating. Things beginning to click for the offensive trio.
No one watching the Real Sociedad v Villarreal match? Cracking stuff going on.
Original post by Lyrical Prodigy
No one watching the Real Sociedad v Villarreal match? Cracking stuff going on.


Nah all I seen was the video of moyes getting sent to the stands and eating some fans' cheesy puffs :lol:
Bless Moyes: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2330272-david-moyes-eats-crisps-after-being-sent-to-the-stands-during-sociedads-loss
Reply 6847
Avatar for Vae
Vae
15
Bar for the Moyes incident the other games were much better (Sociedad would've needed 2 more to go through anyway), e.g. 14th-minute red card for Mustafi and Espanyol knocking Valencia out, then Athletic losing to Celta :lol: Athletic are looking unexcusably bad atm, of course the copa always has surprise results but this loss happened just after their loss to Elche, at home.

Original post by little_wizard123
Carles Gil gone to Villa. Can you guys tell me much about him? From what I've heard he's the kind of player we need!


He's not a talent in the Isco-bracket, but definitely one of the better la liga prospects with obvious potential, despite still being a little raw. He's very skilled technically, possibly more than anyone else in Valencia's mf, has an elegant first touch & passing, good vision and decision-making and reads and understands the game well. Not the most hard-working of players though and offers little defensively. He keeps being played out wide but I think he's better through the middle, seems to feel more comfortable and his lack of defensive contribution isn't such a problem there.

Bit surprising that Valencia let him go as he's really their most promising canterano, but the playing time he gets is just too little for him to develop, something which wasn't really predictable during his time at Elche given Valencia's relatively poor squad back then. I do think he's one of the most gifted mf players in their squad and I prefer him over both Piatti and Feghouli, especially tactically, but he hasn't been taking his chances as well as he could, and their superior defensive contribution and physical presence is probably what keeps them in the starting line ups over him now that Valencia have really something to challenge for and have brushed up their style a bit. André Gomes and de Paul have both been performing well too, so the CAM spot wasn't for the taking for him either.

As I said, he's still raw and has his flaws, but is definitely capable of offering something to your play & squad immediately, and provided that he doesn't suffer majorly from changing the leagues, you've got a good prospect for the future, and a decent player for the present.
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 6848
Avatar for Vae
Vae
15
About the Atléti/Barça game: It wasn't the best Atlético performance ever perhaps, but they still were completely outsmarted and cracked open by Lucho's approach to the game and failed to react or find answers to that, which is quite impressive. Cholo set the team up as usual, which means clogging the middle, trying to suffocate Barça's play from there and stopping service for Messi, but this time Barça actually used their width with Messi and Neymar staying on the wings a lot more, thus getting loads of free space, and Rakitic/Alves & Iniesta/Alba helping out to overcrowd Atléti's mf, drag their formation apart and thus open up their lines. Cholo playing Gámez on the left where Messi would play didn't help Atléti of course, but the way both teams were set up, any defender would have had trouble to contain Messi there. Another thing is that this time Barça actually put into practice the faster and more direct transition play that everybody was asking for, with Busquets and Rakitic passing a lot more and a lot more quickly to the forwards than normally. Add to that the increased aggression and collective pressing and Atléti couldn't really do anything, even when Cholo went all out with his subs.

Think this looked a lot more like in Rijkaard's time than a post-Pep Barça, with the midfield supporting and providing service for the creative front 3 instead of being the main creative part of the team. That's probably the way to go against tougher opponents, especially those that are as good off the ball and defensively as Atlético, but is not something that can be done week in week out considering how demanding it is physically. In that light, Lucho's constant rotations suddenly seem to make sense and can perhaps be the key for Barça to put in performances like this one in games where it matters - provided that he really did plan it and it wasn't just him getting lucky with a random lineup :erm:

Also since we were discussing the "is Suárez the forward to solve Barça's attacking problems" question earlier, I think this game has shown that he is - his role in the attack, his movement, passing, aggression, was crucial to break Atléti's defensive structure in that game; with a 'big fat' no. 9 the game would probably have been as frustrating as ever from Barça's POV, with Alves trying out even more crosses than usual.
Fernando Torres. :coma:
the Torres revival is real
Torres!
Real looking good.

At this rate Atlético might lose this tie. The intensity and the quickness of Reals passing is so much more than the previous game. Thought fwiw there was no point having Khedira in for this type of game. They're going to struggle to match the work rate of the Atlético Madrid players but just going all out will make them struggle. Isco usually has a good game against Atlético anyway.

Also don't get why he doesn't just start Carvajal against Atlético all the time.
Also Toni Kroos is completely dominating this game. The guys passing is unreal and he does it with so little effort. Honestly think he has the passing ability of Xavi at his prime. Great crosser of the ball too.
Original post by jam277
Real looking good.

At this rate Atlético might lose this tie. The intensity and the quickness of Reals passing is so much more than the previous game. Thought fwiw there was no point having Khedira in for this type of game. They're going to struggle to match the work rate of the Atlético Madrid players but just going all out will make them struggle. Isco usually has a good game against Atlético anyway.

Also don't get why he doesn't just start Carvajal against Atlético all the time.


Have you changed your keyboard settings to put accents over letters when you press shift & the apostrophe or are you pasting accented letters from Google?
Original post by Wilfred Little
Have you changed your keyboard settings to put accents over letters when you press shift & the apostrophe or are you pasting accented letters from Google?

Alt+Gr allows you to do accent grave. Just hold that on top of the e.

Doing it with German characters is long so I avoid that.
Original post by jam277
Also Toni Kroos is completely dominating this game. The guys passing is unreal and he does it with so little effort. Honestly think he has the passing ability of Xavi at his prime. Great crosser of the ball too.


The guy is magic right now. Remarkable how he's turned from a #10 into a regista, didn't think he'd be able to pull it off.

Real are a horrible team to park the bus against. Too many power players.

Real are ****ing crossing the ball with their heads.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by jam277
Alt+Gr allows you to do accent grave. Just hold that on top of the e.

Doing it with German characters is long so I avoid that.


Big. Didn't know this. I changed my keyboard settings to type with Spanish format and you press the apostrophe before whatever letter you want accented. Bit quicker, but I resetted my PC so now it's back in English.

Real need another before HT.
Original post by Kenan and Kel
The guy is magic right now. Remarkable how he's turned from a #10 into a regista, didn't think he'd be able to pull it off.

Real are a horrible team to park the bus against. Too many power players.

I thought he'd be a good regista. Guardiola spent last season refining his passing. He initially was a box to box player playing at 10. Was a complete midfielder just like Schweinsteigger.

Definitely, you try attack them they just counter you better than you can you park bus they will use the wingers and the fullbacks. The defence are so fast you can't counter them either.
Original post by jam277
I thought he'd be a good regista. Guardiola spent last season refining his passing. He initially was a box to box player playing at 10. Was a complete midfielder just like Schweinsteigger.

Definitely, you try attack them they just counter you better than you can you park bus they will use the wingers and the fullbacks. The defence are so fast you can't counter them either.


Should just bring on Arda for Torres and stick Griezmann up front. Torres is too ineffective when Atletico are this deep.

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