0-2 to Leicester. Good on them.
CL match day 1
- Thread starter willby
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Status
I must say, playing at Wembley is a bit daft. It is like playing at Lords for foreign players, and the home advantage thing is diluted too.
Shite. Spurs score.
I thought it was something to do with stadium work?
Ahh, I thought it was greed like with the last time they relocated?
Sensational start for Leicester.
What about Aguero. Surely up their with Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez.
Great to see Spurs loss
What about Aguero. Surely up their with Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez.
Great to see Spurs loss
This was the starting line-up of Borussia Dortmund tonight, in an away game against Legia Warszawa that they won 6:0. This is another illustration of the new tactical revolution that's happening right before our eyes, as I wrote about yesterday. The balance is shifting decisively towards attacking players, particularly attacking midfielders; where teams used to have 1 playmaker/#10 type (or sometimes none at all), now the "progressive" teams manage to squeeze 2 or even 3 playmakers in the same starting 11.
In today's game Dortmund started with 1 centre-forward, 2 wing-forwards and the "inverted triangle" consisting of one holding midfielder (the young Weigl, who's more of a Pirlo type than a Macherano) and two diminutive playmaker types (one of which – Guerreiro – is a nominal attacking full-back/winger). This is very similar to what Guardiola is doing at City right now – just upgrade Guerreiro and Gotze for Silva and De Bruyne. And also to what Klopp is doing with playing Lallana and Wijnaldum together as CMs. So if that's becoming almost the norm (at least in some games), is it so hard to imagine a midfield triangle of Coutinho-Lallana-Can or let's say Wijnaldum-Ejaria-Henderson? I have to admit that as much as I try to follow the tactical trends, it still feels like the game is changing too fast for me to catch up right away – just a couple of weeks ago I was completely bemused by Klopp's new system, but now I think I'm starting to understand a little bit...
To illustrate how much the balance has shifted towards offense in the last 10 years, I want to post the lineups from Liverpool-Chelsea CL semi-final from 2005 (the one where Luis Garcia scored his "ghost goal"):
Where are all the playmakers? Instead, in that Liverpool team there are not one, but two full-time holding midfielders and another powerful CM (Gerrard) is playing as #10. Garcia is the only really creative player on the pitch alongside Gerrard, Baros is really a "defensive striker" and Riise is a "defensive winger." In those days a player with Garcia's (or Benayoun's) physique could only play on the wing in Rafa's system – even the #10 role was deemed too defensively important to allow physically slight players to occupy it. Central midfield – forget it!
We can also remember that Traore and Finnan as a rule stayed much closer to their defensive line than it's customary now for full-backs and Carra and Hyypia – both not exactly blessed with pace – used to hold a rather deep defensive line and rarely made the kind of forward bursts to break up attacks that modern CBs now make regularly (it would be pointless to do so anyway, since they would just get in the way of the holding midfielders doing their job). Chelsea that day were playing with 3 CMs (two of which were very much of a defensive variety), 1 AM, 1 winger and 1 striker. No wonder those games produced mostly zeros on the scoresheet, whereas now scoring 4 goals seems like a very normal occurrence for us and teams like Dortmund or Man City. For better or worse, it's a new world and we as fans also need to shift our thinking from the way football was played in 2005.
I'll leave you with the image of Liverpool's players' average positions and passing networks in the Leicester game, taken from one pretty awesome LFC blog. Notice how far upfield the full-backs (particularly Clyne) are stationed, how the 3 CMs are close to each other in the middle and most importantly how this doesn't look like anything remotely resembling the classic "two defensive lines" formation that was employed at LFC as recently as the tenures of Hodgson and Kenny. Rodgers has to be credited with starting this transition and it's a very different team now, once again on the cutting edge of the tactical trends of the times.
Last edited:
With Celtic losing by 7 goals I am so glad that Rodgers was removed. Many of us on here argue about not being in the CL and how desperate we should be to get there but European competition is a core part of our clubs history and in many ways it defines us and gives us purpose. I would rather that we NEVER play in the CL than play in it and fuck it up big style. It is the one occasion where you can guarantee that the world is watching us - and doing well in that competition becomes a major priority to attract the top players and those young talented ones with potential. I loved both GH, and Rafa for this because they set us up right for Europe, but I just knew with Rodgers it was going to be fucking pointless going into Europe - that made losing the title that season more upsetting because you knew he was going to do the square root of fuck all in Europe.
Klopp on the other hand will take us places if we qualify for it. I am watching the CL highlights supporting every non-English team but hoping they do well enough to keep the 4 teams in - coefficient in place but ultimately losing in the competition - that CL trophy has to just wait for us. So piss off Pep and Co - hope you get knocked out in the group stages anyway. Feel much better now.
MORON
Klopp on the other hand will take us places if we qualify for it. I am watching the CL highlights supporting every non-English team but hoping they do well enough to keep the 4 teams in - coefficient in place but ultimately losing in the competition - that CL trophy has to just wait for us. So piss off Pep and Co - hope you get knocked out in the group stages anyway. Feel much better now.
MORON
Move on.
He should be demanding that the City fans turn up and fill the stadium.
That dude Cardiff bought for £9M a few years back only to bench him for six months before selling him back to the same club with a £4M loss was MOTM in Copenhagen's rather impressive away draw at FC Porto. Andreas Cornelius.
Good news for Leicester of course, but it could still end up being a rather fierce battle for the two spots in that group - I don't think I have ever seen such a strong team from Denmark before as this current lot so I guess they'll be tough to beat for anyone.
Good news for Leicester of course, but it could still end up being a rather fierce battle for the two spots in that group - I don't think I have ever seen such a strong team from Denmark before as this current lot so I guess they'll be tough to beat for anyone.
Without knowing the current shape of FC Porto they are indeed what you'd call a good side aren't they? And FC Copenhagen were at least on par with them if not the better side throughout, despite having to play with ten men for the last half hour or so.
But yeah they'll probably struggle a bit more against the Barca I guess.. but they won't lose 7-nil.
Its insane isnt it? 30,000 or something last night. Shocking.
Apparently ticket prices are massive though.
http://www1.mcfc.co.uk/News/Tickets-and-Travel/2016/August/Champions-League-group-stage/1472296032
Ticket prices are excellent if you have a season ticket. Even if you don't, the CL 'bundle' of all 3 home games is not unreasonable even on general sale, ranging from £90-150 for all 3 games. That doesn't look massive to me.
Think that was what he was trying to get across
Fair enough. I got that all wrong!!
He should shut up about the booing, though. There's a good political point to it and the fact that it was prompted by issues that pre-date his arrival is irrelevant.
Last edited:
I think he was a bit rusty with his passing, usually it's one of the stronger parts of his game. Has excellent long-range shot as well.
Surprised how deep he was asked to play – pretty much where Xhaka was playing last season. Man City player position map is on the left; you can see clear division between the attacking 5 and the defensive 5. Borussia is laughably all over the place like a bunch of goats in a stable. They were such a neat team to watch last season, not sure what's happening to them.
Surprised how deep he was asked to play – pretty much where Xhaka was playing last season. Man City player position map is on the left; you can see clear division between the attacking 5 and the defensive 5. Borussia is laughably all over the place like a bunch of goats in a stable. They were such a neat team to watch last season, not sure what's happening to them.
Last edited:
- Status
Similar threads
