Champions League semi finals
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Great goal. They started very brightly.
I remember mentioning this kid a while ago ... we have no chance at him but we should be looking at their youth set up constantly - they are producing great midfielders every year it seems ... I'm only amazed Oscar hasn't peaked yet.
Comes with attitude.
Linked with him ... but doubt it was close.
Wow
Fucking hell. Boss goal that, cheers for sharing Markeh.
Who was it scored (hard to see on small screen).
Who was it scored (hard to see on small screen).
Great goal but the puns are shit. "Better call Saul, eh Pep" etc.
As I said during the Barca game. Atletico deserve all the praise they get for what they have achieved, but my God its boring to watch.
Time wasting, play acting and defence defence defence. Its working so Simeone is a genius but fucking hell..
Oblak has 32 clean sheets in 51 games this season. Thats such a fantasticly good defensive record its out of this World.
As I said during the Barca game. Atletico deserve all the praise they get for what they have achieved, but my God its boring to watch.
Time wasting, play acting and defence defence defence. Its working so Simeone is a genius but fucking hell..
Oblak has 32 clean sheets in 51 games this season. Thats such a fantasticly good defensive record its out of this World.
Guardiola is such a weird manager. It's hard to criticize someone who's won so much (although he had Messi and Xavi in his prime), but sometimes he just overcomplicates things so, so much. Many people criticized him for turning Masher from a world-class DM to just a decent CB, but at least you can see how it made sense for Barca, if not for Masher himself (World Cup showed how good he still is as a DM – shame that we don't see the same player at Barca).
But now at Bayern this overthinking reached epic proportions. Central defense is definitely a blind spot for Guardiola – he seems to do everything to avoid using specialist CBs. For a while his preferred CB pairing was Alaba (LB)-Kimmich (young CM), which was badly exposed by Juventus, but in the end Bayern had just enough quality in attack to squeak through. So his solution for next round is to replace Kimmich with another CM – Javi Martinez. I could never understand his treatment of Alaba – here is possibly the best LB in the world and instead he has to shuffle without a permanent position somewhere between CM and CB. Atletico's goal just now exposed once again how uncomfortable he is in this position: he gave Saul Niguez way too much space in the box and then turned the wrong way, trying to block the shot with the trailing leg. He is a great player, who's being played in the wrong position.
There are issues on the other flank too. Guardiola spent 2 seasons molding Philippe Lahm into a central midfielder – now in the decisive game he is at RB again. And the team overall doesn't seem to play any kind of pass-and-move, just relying on the speed of Douglas and Koman to deliver crosses in the box for Lewandowski. The rest is just shots from outside the box. You don't need the most expensive coach in the world to devise this kind of tactic.
P.S. As I'm writing this, Benatia replaces Bernat and Alaba switches, belatedly, to LB. This is just a couple of minutes after Torres almost almost put Bayern out of their misery by turning Alaba the wrong way again and hitting the post. Grrr... if you can see the problem now, why not play the right way from the start?
But now at Bayern this overthinking reached epic proportions. Central defense is definitely a blind spot for Guardiola – he seems to do everything to avoid using specialist CBs. For a while his preferred CB pairing was Alaba (LB)-Kimmich (young CM), which was badly exposed by Juventus, but in the end Bayern had just enough quality in attack to squeak through. So his solution for next round is to replace Kimmich with another CM – Javi Martinez. I could never understand his treatment of Alaba – here is possibly the best LB in the world and instead he has to shuffle without a permanent position somewhere between CM and CB. Atletico's goal just now exposed once again how uncomfortable he is in this position: he gave Saul Niguez way too much space in the box and then turned the wrong way, trying to block the shot with the trailing leg. He is a great player, who's being played in the wrong position.
There are issues on the other flank too. Guardiola spent 2 seasons molding Philippe Lahm into a central midfielder – now in the decisive game he is at RB again. And the team overall doesn't seem to play any kind of pass-and-move, just relying on the speed of Douglas and Koman to deliver crosses in the box for Lewandowski. The rest is just shots from outside the box. You don't need the most expensive coach in the world to devise this kind of tactic.
P.S. As I'm writing this, Benatia replaces Bernat and Alaba switches, belatedly, to LB. This is just a couple of minutes after Torres almost almost put Bayern out of their misery by turning Alaba the wrong way again and hitting the post. Grrr... if you can see the problem now, why not play the right way from the start?
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No probs, definitely worth sharing.
Saul Niguez, we were talking about him looking great in the last round against Barcelona also.
In Guardiola's defence, Benatia and Boating have both been injured a lot this season.
I was talking to a mate about this. Can see him turning Fernandinho into a CB.
I know, and Badstuber had horrible luck too. But there can't be any excuses for a manager who's in his 3rd year at a club where he had complete control of the transfers AND the medical team (didn't he fire Bayern's legendary head of medical department last year?) and presiding over one of the most expensively assembled squads in the world. Yet for the 3rd year running they enter the decisive phase of Champions League with make-shift defense.
Hansern is right , the puns have been shite.
I can't believe nobody has pointed out the irony of Niguez dumping Suarez out of the CL
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