Roiling football blather

IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Frank Sinclair getting transferred to Leciester and scoring late own goals in both his first two games- a winner for Arsenal and injury time equaliser for Chelsea if I recall- is my favourite own goal story."
Click to expand...
I liked Woodgate's career at Real Madrid. If my memory serves me correctly he signed for them, got injured in training, lay-up for a year learning the language and then joined the side to massive cheers, scored an own goal in each of his first two games and got sent off in one of them. Then went out the door at the first possible opportunity.

Anyway, United showed Barcelona too much respect in my opinion last night. They got the 0-0 which was obviously the result that they went for but I'm not sure 0-0 away is as good a result as people think. You've seen it often enough where the team celebrates that and then concedes a goal at home and suddenly they're on the ropes. On the other hand, United have won their last ten games at home (in Europe) and the Barcelona defence looked pretty suspect last night - every time United had the ball (which wasn't often) it looked as though one decent pass could split them open. Barcelona's best defence is keeping the ball and attacking and if they can't do that at Old Trafford they will have problems. Also positive for United is the amount of possession that Barcelona had without being able to really create any great chances, Eto'o had a couple of sniffsat the start of the second half but he looked a bit tentative, not sure why he pulled that first one back when you would have expected a striker of his calibre to show some killer instinct. Messi was the one who always looked likely to make something happen, he's so slippery but luckily most of his best moments and quick one-twos took place in areas where they couldn't do too much damage. I thought that the threat receded a lot when he went off.
 
hucks

hucks

Your Message Here
Ferguson got what he deserved there. Terrible team selection for the second time in a week. Still think they'll win the title tho, on goal difference.
 
mos dan

mos dan

fact music
i rather resent the fact that what has become the rolling football thread has such a gross and inappropriate title.. but nonetheless:

i'm going to see the mighty afc wimbledon take on hornchurch in the ryman premier league play-off semi-final tonight!!

how's that for big-boy football? lol. wish us luck anyway.
 
STN

STN

sou'wester
mos dan said:
i rather resent the fact that what has become the rolling football thread has such a gross and inappropriate title.. but nonetheless:

i'm going to see the mighty afc wimbledon take on hornchurch in the ryman premier league play-off semi-final tonight!!

how's that for big-boy football? lol. wish us luck anyway.
Click to expand...

One of my colleagues has been waxing lyrical about this clash! Good luck.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I think United showed too much respect to Barcelona again. The Barca defence is still so bad they look in trouble every time the ball is in their half (even when they have it - they created what should have been a penalty for Ronaldo in the first leg out of nothing) and United should have exploited that by doing more attacking instead of sitting back so much. Still, it's hard to say that Ferguson has got the tactics too badly wrong, they're in the final, they're unbeaten and they're extending the longest ever run of home wins in the competition to next season.
Anyway, I feel fairly vindicated in this old argument now

http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=6513&page=4

Originally posted by me
"Barcelona, awesome strike force, terrible defence and who do they buy? Henry, at eighteen million or something. Then they wonder why they don't win stuff, absolutely moronic. Football is a game of so many parts and a good team has to have them all."
Click to expand...
Bet they wish now they had a decent defence (like United) instead of a bit-part playing show pony who looks half-interested.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
I think United showed too much respect to Barcelona again. The Barca defence is still so bad they look in trouble every time the ball is in their half (even when they have it - they created what should have been a penalty for Ronaldo in the first leg out of nothing) and United should have exploited that by doing more attacking instead of sitting back so much. Still, it's hard to say that Ferguson has got the tactics too badly wrong, they're in the final, they're unbeaten and they're extending the longest ever run of home wins in the competition to next season.
Anyway, I feel fairly vindicated in this old argument now

http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=6513&page=4


Bet they wish now they had a decent defence (like United) instead of a bit-part playing show pony who looks half-interested.
Click to expand...

One goal conceded in two matches against the most effective strike force in Europe isn't that bad. barcelona, weirdly, just seemed to lack a cutting edge last night - they were bossing it when Messi and Deco were ticking, but Eto'o looks like a stranger.

Edit: not sure how much Utd were sitting back in the first half, especially - they were just outpassed.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"One goal conceded in two matches against the most effective strike force in Europe isn't that bad. barcelona, weirdly, just seemed to lack a cutting edge last night - they were bossing it when Messi and Deco were ticking, but Eto'o looks like a stranger."
Click to expand...
I don't think that United were playing like the most effective strike force in Europe in this tie though. Barcelona protect their defence by attacking as much as possible because when the defence have the ball they always look likely to give it away. In the first game they gave it to Ronaldo and only a bodycheck in the box prevented a goal, in the second game Zambrotta weakly rolled it to the middle of the pitch in front of the exposed back four instead of hoiking it - a terrible error from such an experienced defender at that stage in the game, then they gave it away a few seconds later (when Ronaldo caught Puyol). In the second half Toure (who was good in the first leg) did a potentially suicidal turn in his own box and there were several other times where they did similar things. United really create anything and yet they had all the best chances, there's something going wrong with the defence there.
Barcelona did also lack a cutting edge in both games I agree. Their passing was great but United had drawn a line on the edge of the box and they simply couldn't get through it. Messi was slippery as expected but whenever he reached the line of defence Evra stopped him. They had a number of half-chances but I can't think of one chance over the whole tie where you would actually say that the striker would be expected to score.

"Fucking hell -- that put about ten years on me! Great stuff though..."
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know what you mean, even though they hadn't fashioned a chance in 180 minutes there is always this nagging feeling that it only takes a second to score a goal.
 
vimothy

vimothy

yurp
IdleRich said:
Yeah, I know what you mean, even though they hadn't fashioned a chance in 180 minutes there is always this nagging feeling that it only takes a second to score a goal.
Click to expand...

And the closer the match got to finishing, the more worried I became. "If they score now..." :eek:
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Worth mentioning how utterly dominant the premiership has been this time I think with the the last three clubs in the tournament being from the prem and also no premiership team having been knocked out except by another premiership side. Also seven out of the last eight Champions League semi-finalists have been from the premiership and it has had (at least) a team in the final for four years in a row (I think) - there is no absolutely no doubt about which league is the strongest in the world at the moment.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"There's certainly no doubt which league produces teams best equipped to deal with the CL. Strength in depth is another matter."
Click to expand...
Strength in depth is another matter of course but I don't think that it's just that United or Chelsea are equipped to deal with the CL - they have produced incredible consistency as well over the last few years while competing on several fronts. I'm sure that they would walk any of the other leagues.
Whether a strong league based on money and foreign talent and in which you can guess who the top four will be (if not the order) is something to be valued over a weaker league with more teams having a chance of winning and nurturing home grown talent is a different question though....
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
Strength in depth is another matter of course but I don't think that it's just that United or Chelsea are equipped to deal with the CL - they have produced incredible consistency as well over the last few years while competing on several fronts. I'm sure that they would walk any of the other leagues.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I purely meant the Premiership has the strongest 'top four' in Europe, as proven by them winning everything at home year after year after year (until this one).
 
D

don_quixote

Trent End
more premiership teams in the last 4 of the champions league than the last 4 of the fa cup

england has provided 9 of the last 16 champions league semi-finalists

oh and it's STILL harsh, considering spurs and middlesbrough have provided a lot of fight in previous uefa cup seasons, competing against champions league losers and champions of other countries. seville are/were cup specialists.

also, england has more strength in depth in the league as a whole providing saturation amongst the top two divisions.

5th champions league place?

(european super league?)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top