La Liga

[Village Idiot]

So far first week is definitely off. The strike is supposed to hit the second week too, but talks are ongoing.

 

It's going to be almost impossible to cram the missed games throughout the season, since with the EC there's little space left.

[mattypnufc]

That's what I was thinking.  Mental that it's ended up like that though. 

 

Hopefully (from a selfish POV) it gets put back so that Valencia are at home when I'm over.  Every single time I've been over they have played away.

[Village Idiot]

Well, seems we are dialling up the nasty. La Liga's vice-president Javier Tebas has accused the Spanish Footballers Association of covering up players involved in match fixing.

 

Not good if things are going like this.

[Village Idiot]

The strike is off. Everybody rejoice.

 

 

[Neil]

Barca-Villarreal this weekend isn't it?

[Village Idiot]

Yep, Monday though (due to the European Supercup game tomorrow).

 

The La Liga - AFE joint press release is a bit vague regarding what they have agreed to, though. I suspect the can has been kicked down the road.

[Ketsbaia]

A nice piece on how Barcelona's choice to play 6 central midfielders in the Super Cup might indicate a new tactical revolution:

 

Usually ZM looks at sides’ starting line-ups for matches, before assessing how the shape changed as the game went on.

 

This is slightly different, however, because the interesting thing about Barcelona’s Super Cup win over Porto on Friday was the way they finished the game, with six central midfielders amongst the ten outfield players.

 

The arrival of Cesc Fabregas has prompted various questions about where he’ll fit into the side. The real answer to that question is rotation – with Andres Iniesta a little injury-prone, Fabregas only averaging around 60% of league minutes over the past three seasons and Xavi Hernandez needing an increasing amount of rest these days, it’s not as big an issue as some have suggested.

 

Nevertheless, it is interesting that Pep Guardiola has tried to strengthen his side in midfield (and further forward, with the arrival of Alexis Sanchez). It’s hardly as if Barcelona need improvement in those zones – epitomised by the fact that when they won the European Cup final last season with a 3-1 win over Manchester United, their three forwards all scored a goal, and their three midfielders all recorded assists.

 

What Guardiola really needed was a centre-back. At a crucial stage last season he had a severe shortage in that position, meaning Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano had to deputise. Eric Abidal’s return from illness gives Guardiola another option there, but with Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique both out for a couple of weeks, Abidal is the only established fit centre-back at the club. Gabriel Milito has left the club, although with his lack of pace, he was completely unsuited to Barca’s high line. 21-year-old Andreu Fontas has been promoted to the first team, although at this point there’s nothing to suggest that Guardiola sees Fontas as anything like a regular this season.

 

So, whilst Busquets and Mascherano may have ‘filled in’ at centre-back last season, this campaign they might do so on a more regular basis. Pique, Puyol and Abidal will still be the first three choices, but Guardiola’s decision to prioritise spending €50m+ on a winger and another central midfielder suggests that he’s more than happy to play holding midfielders at the back.

 

In many ways, it makes perfect sense. Barcelona have the ball for the majority of every game they play, and therefore passing skills become more vital for the centre-backs. Guardiola wants good ball circulation from his side, and  having two midfielders at the back will simply increase his side’s ability to pass effectively.

 

With the side playing so high up the pitch, Barcelona’s centre-backs will probably be playing in a similar zone of the pitch to holding midfielders in post sides, as mentioned with Bruno Soriano of Villarreal in midweek. Marcelo Bielsa, a good friend of Guardiola and another who favours a high defensive line, happily played central midfielders at the back with Chile – with Gary Medel and Arturo Vidal featuring there. He looks to be doing the same thing now at Athletic Bilbao with Javi Martinez and Carlos Gurpegi.

 

It’s along the same lines as something ZM has mentioned on many occasions – particularly the idea of a ‘modern centre-half’ who would start in midfield but drop into the backline as play develops. Busquets has done that many times before, of course, and did it on a permanent basis at Atletico last season.

 

It points to the gradual homogenisation of the centre-back and holding midfield roles, and a further development might be to play three players – two centre-backs and a holder – who can all play in each of the three positions. A trio of Mascherano, Busquets and Pique would be able to do that – Pique has the ability to play as a holding midfielder.

 

In this match, in addition to three central midfielders, Guardiola used Andres Iniesta on the left for the final minutes – nothing unusual about that, since he’s played that position quite often. He was the sixth nominal central midfielder in Barca’s system 4-3-3.

 

Can it go any further? Quite possibly. Messi, after all, is playing deeper and deeper – having gone from a high right-winger, to a central forward, to a false nine, and arguably now to a number ten in some games. Interestingly, in pre-season Guardiola tried both Fabregas and Thiago Alcantara in the Messi role, suggesting that a midfielder could sometimes play that role, too.

 

For Guardiola, he is taking his ideology a step further. His impact upon football has been significant in his short time in charge of Barca – having been forced into early retirement as a player because clubs didn’t want passing midfielders, as a manager he set about trying to build a midfield comprised entirely of passers.

 

The next step is to try and get as many passing midfielders into the side as possible.

 

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/08/28/guardian-team-of-midfielders/

[Village Idiot]

I think they are looking way too much into it, to be frank. For starters, Iniesta started his senior career as left winger, the only reason we ended up with 2 CMs at CB is because of injuries (although Pep wants to have at least one CB that can play it out of the defence), and when Cesc/Thiago play "in the Messi role" we are just switching to a narrow diamond 4-4-2 which is rather common (Pellegrini and Ancelotti used that for RM and Chelsea, from the top of my mind).

 

Ultimately, the DM role is a modernisation of the sweeper (imho), so it just makes sense that he drops in and out of the defence.

[KaKa]

Fabregas - Xavi - Iniesta

 

Messi - Villa - Sanchez

 

Do away with the Busquets!

 

No midfield defending needed!

[Village Idiot]

Sahin ruled out for further two months, has only trained two days since he joined Real Madrid.

 

Was he injury prone before?

[Tooj]

http://equaliserfootball.com/2011/09/05/guide-to-galacticos/

 

For almost a century, money and soccer lived an uneasy relationship. Teams scraped by on modest sponsorships and reliable but not cosmic TV deals. They competed for players, but dollars and cents arms races were rare. Then came the Galácticos.

 

If the Bosman ruling allowed the snake of commerce into Football’s Garden of Eden, then Florentino Perez swallowed an entire barrel of apples without thought. Looking back, a Madrid fan doesn’t feel vindicated by the trophies. Rather, he or she wonders how they won anything at all.

 

First, the money. Where did it come from? Yes, Real Madrid is a juggernaut of profit by soccer standards, but when one major club buys star players from another major club, they need a quick cash injection. Enter shady real estate dealings. Recently elected Florentino Perez decided to sell Real Madrid’s training ground, Ciudad Deportiva, to the local Madrid government. A few eyebrows were raised for various reasons. First, Perez claimed to sell the ground for a €480m profit. This led Bayern Munich and Manchester United to file a formal complaint and demand an investigation.

 

The European Commission considered the transaction so opaque, that they sent a formal letter to Spanish authorities requesting more information. However, as with most letter-writing campaigns, it amounted to little and was not worth the postage. Madrid kept the cash and began to buy star players in the hope of a glorious centenary season in 2002.

 

Who was bought with all that cash?. The first and most controversial Galáctico was Luis Figo. Why? Well, he was a star player for Real’s eternal rival, FC Barcelona. Much gossip still surrounds this move, including unsupported claims by Luis’ agent that a dubious “pre-agreement agreement” with a “penalty clause” forced Figo into moving. Nobody has ever seen one of these pre-agreement agreements, but every time a club snatches a prized asset, they materialise into thin air, like the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot. Regardless, Barcelona fans did not take kindly to Figo’s betrayal. At his first game in the Nou Camp as a merengue, fans tossed a severed pigs head at him while he prepared to take a corner kick.

 

Each year, Perez bought another big player. In 2001, he bought Zinedine Zidane, fresh off a European Championships triumph with France, from Juventus. A year later, Real acquired the rejuvenated Brazilian wonder Ronaldo. Lastly, in 2003, he purchased Miss Spice – David Beckham, from Manchester United. In total, Perez managed to spend over £139.7m on those four players. From a business perspective, Perez has always claimed that “name players” pay for their own transfers in endorsement deals and jersey sales, but, from a playing perspective, would there be too many chefs in the kitchen?

 

Enter the perpetually under-appreciated Vicente Del Bosque. Perez was a master of creative finance with a nose for commercially viable products err players, but Del Bosque had the demeanour, calm, and subtly strong hand to forge a team from disparate parts. Del Bosque could be categorized as a “players’ coach”, if that term wasn’t so maligned. On paper, his side played a simple 4-4-2 with a diamond in midfield. However, Solari often played centrally to help out Makélélé, allowing Roberto Carlos to overlap and add width on the left. On the right of the field, Luis Figo provided trickery and pace. The Galácticos of Del Bosque won two La Liga titles and the 2002 Champions League trophy with the sweetest of volleys by Zidane.

 

Eventually, though, profiteering trumped sporting considerations. In a dispute over wages, Del Bosque sided with defensive player such as Hierro and Makélélé. It was suicide. Perez sacked the coach and eventually sold quality “no-name” players like Makélélé and Esteban Cambiasso to other teams. He bought Beckham from under Barcelona’s nose, but this proved the beginning of the end. Becks’ declining abilities clogged the right of the midfield, angering Luis Figo, And the carousel of inexperienced coaches couldn’t keep a handle on the locker room. There were too many chefs and not enough spices, or talent.

 

The great irony is that Perez’s capture of Beckham inadvertently led Barcelona to sign Ronaldinho. The bucktoothed Brazilian’s talent won the Catalan’s many trophies and also earned a few endorsements, proving a crucial counterpoint to the Perez philosophy. Sometimes, sporting considerations drive profit, not vice versa.

[Village Idiot]

Sevilla president José María del Nido has summoned all La Liga club presidents except Barça and Real Madrid to a meeting this thursday to discuss, among other things, the distribution of the TV money and measures to force a change.

 

He has called it "a revolution", in the French sense of it.

 

[mrmojorisin75]

 

He has called it "a revolution", in the French sense of it.

 

 

what other sense is there, other than a wheel?

[Village Idiot]

The beheading part is usually optional.

[Wullie]

http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/sep/07/la-liga-barcelona-real-madrid?cat=football&type=article

[Village Idiot]

People are really putting way too much stock on the TV money thing. If Barça and Madrid gave up - say - €50m each and distributed it evenly across the league every team would get €5m which would hardly solve their woes while Barça and RM would still have thrice the budget of Valencia and Atlético. It's an easy scapegoat for the fact they have failed to expand and have no appeal outside their regions.

[Dinho lad]

imo, the PL and Bundesliga are the 2 most exciting leagues in the world now, with the PL being the best in quality.

[Village Idiot]

The Spanish senate has approved the modification to our bankruptcy law to close the loophole that allowed clubs in administration to dodge punishment by sports' governing bodies.

 

That will really help cleaning up the slate in La Liga, with clubs like Zaragoza, Rayo, Racing etc... staying up despite owing money left, right and centre while clubs like Depor who went through a rough financial adjustment period get relegated because they follow the rules.

[Neil]

Sounds fair on the face of it.

[Neil]

Barca at home to Osasuna in 50 minutes. After the last 2 games I have a feeling they'll want to send out a message tonight.

[Neil]

1-0. Guess who. Great pass from Busquets and then from Alves.

[Village Idiot]

1-0. Guess who. Great pass from Busquets and then from Alves.

 

1-0 close win, then?

[Neil]

Huh?

[mattypnufc]

Valencia v Barca tonight isnt it?

[Fugazi]

Valencia v Barca tonight isnt it?

 

9pm

 

Racing-Real starting now.