Village Idiot

Very strong. Ribery is underrated on these shores, quality player. I used to underrate him, and have become a convert this season.

Suspended if booked. Thanks, was curious.

They are starting a fairly strong team.

Stronger XI from Villarreal than I expected (given the crapload injuries they have)

What does the little star besides Balotelli's name mean?

Wasn't Llambias quoted bragging that they only accepted after taking the whole fee in one whack, with interest the longer Liverpool delayed it? Wouldn't believe a word that c*** says tbh. Just seem to remember reading it was £30m and then another £5m for goals and appearances and the like, only reason I ask is that I was thinking that £5m may well not be forthcoming if that's the case. http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Liverpool-Andy-Carroll-cost-a-highly-unusual-30million-up-front-plus-25-of-any-sell-on-fee-as-Newcastle-played-hardball-on-transfer-deadline-day-article700813.html Hmm. Wait? You even have a 25% sell-on fee? Utterly mental

Heh, Mallorca have went and equalized Granada in the "umbrella match" (it was suspended with 30 minutes to go when one of the officials got hit by an umbrella from the stands, and it's being restarted today). Granada tried to get the FA to consider the match finished, so this will p*ss them off.

Fair enough. We (Barça) used to have more strategy plays, but we don't seem to nowadays. One of the coaches said that the time employed rehearsing them was too much given that you can use them a limited amount of times before you get sussed (although apparently we still have a few for crunch times).

It's the media's fault for making out Beckham scored with every attempt. Does get on my tits how predictable it is though, it seems a rare event these days for teams to try and work something clever from such good positions. I guess the egos on the players don't help, all thinking they're going to score. Is the conversion rate of trying to build up play from a FK that much better though? At least you're guaranteed a shot on goal under controlled conditions, which isn't a bad thing to do.

Are you writing it, brummie?

They weren't bothered what it cost as it got passed on to Chelsea, if they'd paid £5m Torres would have cost Chelsea £20m, or if Carrol was £50m, Torres would have cost Chelsea £65m, it's only been common knowledge for almost a year. This is complete nonsense man. If Ashley had accepted £20million for Carroll, then by this logic they would have sold Torres for £35million, even though Chelsea were prepared to part with £50million, thus screwing themselves out of £15million for absolutely no logical reason. It's a nonsense excuse designed to justify a ridiculous transfer fee. I thought only Liverpool fans would be thick enough to swallow it. Indeed it is. Regardless of what Chelsea paid for Torres, at some point Liverpool were faced with this conundrum: "keep this 35 million pounds, or give it to Newcastle for Carroll" I was a bit worried when their new owners came in that they'd start to get things right. That lasted right up until they spent 75m on Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson. mind bogglingly stupid waste of money. As a fun comparison Silva, Mata and Villa were adquired for a grand total of 85m pounds by their new clubs.

Somebody in this forum (can't remember who), said at the time of the sale that he'd flop and NUFC would buy him back for single figures in a couple years' time. Given how things are going for him, he may be right. Incidentally, I do think he's a much better player than he's showing right now (although probably not as good as people fantasized after that first half of last season). It strikes me as one of those players that need things to go their way in order to perform, but there's still a good striker in there.

Can see Real beating Ajax 2,3-0 and Lyon going berserk and trashing Zagreb 5-0. I don't have doubts about Madrid winning comfortably, but can't really see Lyon putting away enough given how rachitic they have looked in front of goal so far. Rachitic, what an unexpected word to use. It's a pretty common Spanish expression, I like to mix them up with my English from time to time. It just means something is weak.

Honestly I'd love it if City dropped to the EL, and got Atlético in the knockout rounds. Agüero's "welcome" at the Calderón would certainly be a sight.

Apparently according to a German journo(Honigstein) Bayern arent taking a particularly strong team, Mentioned 3 or 4 that definately wouldnt start. Citeh, as funny as it would be to see them go out, will no doubt win comfortably. But they need Villarreal to get a result, and they won't. They have nothing to play for, are in dire form, have enough worries in the league and they won't be too thrilled with making Agüero any favors (Villarreal and Agüero go a long way).

Can see Real beating Ajax 2,3-0 and Lyon going berserk and trashing Zagreb 5-0. I don't have doubts about Madrid winning comfortably, but can't really see Lyon putting away enough given how rachitic they have looked in front of goal so far.

You're right, except on the pitch where he works his arse off and is class. Except when he doesn't want to come on.

When he played at CDM for Depor, he always said he felt uncomfortable there.

So what about tonight? ManCity to win but still miss out as Napoli defeat Villarreal (which will be cheered by most Villarreal fans I know). ManU to get their act together and finish first Benfica, Lille, Ajax (despite losing) to qualify elsewhere. Are my bets

I guess it's just using these tools to support your game plan. Pep is very heavy on analysis, although doesn't rely on it completely. One of his "innovations" was instructing players not to dive into tackles since analysis showed that if the tackle was missed the player was effectively taken out of play as he needed too much time to get up and run back, etc... our "six second rule" comes from statistical analysis too, the window of time after a turnover where the team that has got the ball still hasn't transitioned out of defensive positioning and thus their players are vulnerable to isolation. Again, those are tools, ultimately it's the 11 brains on the pitch the ones that take the decisions in an ever-changing environment. Barcelona are great at recovering the ball, precisely because they don't lunge into tackles, they crowd players - most of whom will crumble under the pressure and make a seemingly unenforced error because of their perceived lack of options. As you say, the tackling style is more to lever opponents off the ball rather than to commit to an outright lunge to retrieve/dispossess. Aye, that's the idea behind playing such a shortpassing system too. If Xavi misplaces a 8 yard pass to Iniesta, and the opposition gets the ball, *both* Xavi and Iniesta are close to the opposition player and immediately available to pressure him. Of course, every system has its counters. Strong technical players can get out of the pressure, and use it to create an imbalance somewhere else in the pitch since we just commited 2-3 players against a single one of the opposition. Arsenal used that brilliantly at the Emirates last season in the CL.

I guess it's just using these tools to support your game plan. Pep is very heavy on analysis, although doesn't rely on it completely. One of his "innovations" was instructing players not to dive into tackles since analysis showed that if the tackle was missed the player was effectively taken out of play as he needed too much time to get up and run back, etc... our "six second rule" comes from statistical analysis too, the window of time after a turnover where the team that has got the ball still hasn't transitioned out of defensive positioning and thus their players are vulnerable to isolation. Again, those are tools, ultimately it's the 11 brains on the pitch the ones that take the decisions in an ever-changing environment.

I suppose he's linked with Wigan because of Martínez, dunno about the other two although Swansea already fished in our youth setup under Martínez too. Club Brugge and Benfica are also reportedly interested. He's come a long way as a player, one of those late bloomers. I think it's a player worth of a gamble, and the prices quoted are pretty low (0-€2m).

Jonathan Soriano has recently come back from injury. He scored 32 last season in Liga Adelante and we are looking to offload him since he's finishing contract this summer and is way too old for our youth team. Very mobile, canny ability to get into positions, would fit like a glove with the midfield you have right now. He's being linked with a move to England this January (QPR/Swansea/Wigan the clubs being named).

Wouldn't it be quicker to hop to Madrid? Several flights to BA from there. And Atlético's new stadium is right by the airport!