Kaizero Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Also, Barcelona have conceded 13 goals in the league this season compared to scoring 73. Where are the defensive weaknesses? They've had a couple of minor accidents over 24 matches proving that the players are still human, they don't have a glaring weakness in defense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beren Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I must say Barcelona in midweek looked very vulnerable to some of Arsenal's more archetypal Premiership-style counter-attacking play. It was a perfect example of the confidence they show in the Premiership week-in, week-out but seem diffident about trying on such a sophisticated stage. Oddly enough, of all people, Theo Walcott (again!) had Maxwell shitting his pants a few times. Really can't wait for the second leg. If Wilshere and a few other star performers play like they can (and the Arsenal backline can remain fairly disciplined), I really think we'd have a cracker of a match and the best of clinical breakneck speed Premiership play triumphing over Barcelona football. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaizero Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I think Barcelona won't suffer from complacency like they appeared to do towards the end of the first leg and shit all over Arsenal, tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Don't really think we were complacent, we were tired. Arsenal only broke us down in the last 15, although we looked shattered by then. Still going to be a very hard tie. I don't think Arsenal won't score to be frank, so I expect that we'll need at least 3 goals to get through. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishmael Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 i expect arsenal to have a mental collapse at some point and gift the tie to barca Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beren Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Could very well happen, yup. If Arsenal don't settle quickly enough, I can see it being like that Man Utd match they had a few years ago where they lost two early goals and never looked like coming back into it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beren Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Oh and aye, looked far more like fatigue than complacency IMO. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beren Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Don't really think we were complacent, we were tired. Arsenal only broke us down in the last 15, although we looked shattered by then. Still going to be a very hard tie. I don't think Arsenal won't score to be frank, so I expect that we'll need at least 3 goals to get through. They fashioned decent openings before then too, tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaizero Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 My bad, I was going for that but for some reason wrote complacency. I'll blame that on English not being my first language and confusing the two, even if that's a lie. They did appear happy with an away goal and a win, though. But aye, not really complacency. :-[ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishmael Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 remember song having an absolute nightmare at the nou camp last season. just letting messi wonder around the arsenal half with the ball - sure he strolled past him for one of the goals? imo, arsenal need to target barcelona's right side to counter - if they opt to sit back and soak up pressure. walcott needs to play from the left hand side to get behind alves. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 He'll get way more mileage off Maxwell than Alves. Maxwell gets forward as much and doesn't have Alves' pace or stamina to retrack. Alves is not poor defensively at all. A bit of a myth really. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdckelly Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 nice goal by o'hara Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Snrub Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 but they should have the flexibility in their approach to counter such issues. less so the motivational issues, more so the tendency for teams to put two lines of players out and camp in their own half. as a result imo, they definitely need to stop overplaying their possession when in the final third and they definitely need to address the weaknesses they have at the back / dealing with counter attacks. points like this which incline me to describe guardiola as being tactically limited as you would expect/want him to deal with such issues. yet, we've been here before. Other than Arshavin's goal name me one other occasion this season where Barcelona have conceded after being cut part on the counter attack. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Snrub Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Thought as much. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishmael Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 It's not really a requirement for me in order to acknowledge that they are susceptible to the counter attack. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 We are susceptible to counterattack. Every tactical setup does have a weakness. Spain played the "not vulnerable to counters" version of our tactic (two deep lying mids, less overloading of the final third) and it was considerably less effective going forward. Give some, get some. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaizero Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 39 matches so far this season, 23 goals conceded. Ca. 0.5 a match. Where's the supposed blatant defensive weakness? For good measure, let's just compare to Real Madrid (supposedly better defensively than Barcelona) who have played 38 matches. They have conceded 24 goals, 19 if you take out the 5-0 loss, but still. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmk Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 i expect arsenal to have a mental collapse at some point and gift the tie to barca You don't think the best team in the world might just outplay them at somepoint? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 i expect arsenal to have a mental collapse at some point and gift the tie to barca You don't think the best team in the world might just outplay them at somepoint? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flip Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 He'll get way more mileage off Maxwell than Alves. Maxwell gets forward as much and doesn't have Alves' pace or stamina to retrack. Alves is not poor defensively at all. A bit of a myth really. I have to say that I always liked Maicon more than Alves, but after this season I cannot stop loving Alves. Although he's a thick cunt he's such a good player and against France he was running up and down the field like he would never get tired. And also I've seen that it seems like he's learned from Messi a bit as the ball is glued to his feet when dribbling. Very underrated player and the best fullback in the world by a mile. People talk about his defensive errors, but I rarely see them even if he did make some mistakes against Arsenal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Lol Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 nice goal by o'hara Surprised that Jamie is so keen on joining Wolves on a permanent basis. I can understand his desire to play regularly but I would have thought there were better teams than Wolves who want want to sign him. It's not as though Spurs are asking for a ridiculous fee, which is surprising in itself. Jamie's got decent skill levels and I'd personally prefer that he'd stay, there are always matches where you need the players to roll up their sleeves and scrap. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I really rate O'Hara, good little signing for a lot of clubs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Lol Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I really rate O'Hara, good little signing for a lot of clubs. Apparently Wolves can buy him for £4m which could rise with add-ons to £6m. I can't imagine any club quibbling over that fee. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I love the completely polar-opposite views held by football fans. Build to West Ham - Burnley on ESPN, they were out asking West Ham fans what they thought of the Olympic Stadium move. Two of the first opinions were: "Yeah. It's a great move, positive, ambitious - the club should benefit greatly from it" "Terrible. It'll bankrupt us" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishmael Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 i expect arsenal to have a mental collapse at some point and gift the tie to barca You don't think the best team in the world might just outplay them at somepoint? I don't think Barcelona will have to play to their full potential in order to win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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