2008/2009 La Liga Thread

[Bourky23]

looking through the goals again now, i don't see any glaring mistakes from Deportivo's defenders. what else could they have done?

 

[Kompany]

I sort of see what you mean re Messi's goal, but tell me what defender exactly should have done what. His run was ideal, he could cut to the right at any given time and he also had Eto'o free on the left. Usually Messi waits for defenders to try to tackle him anyway - he like no other player can anticipate their tackles and pass them.

Re Depor not defending well on the goals... That's football, teams create the situations that occur in matches themselves. In many of our matches this season we've had 4-5 players appearing in front of goal from open play, just like you under Schuster would allow teams to appear in similar numbers in front of Casillas quite regularly.

We scored 3 in Sevilla who, apart from a 4-3 goalfest against the mighty Sporting, has only conceded 2 goals at home all season. In our 3 matches against Atletico so far we've outscored them 10-2 or something. We've also had a fair few matches that were over at HT with us taking it easy in the 2nd. Of course we haven't played the likes of Utd and Liverpool yet, but it's just so obvious this Barcelona team is rolling like crazy.

 

[apollo_creed]

one thing I've noticed about the defending from Spanish sides is their lack of discipline.

lesser sides defend stupidly. some even arrogantly.

makes it very easy for sides like barca to put numbers past them.

 

[mr.11]

[youtube]9jAkCr4S2EY[/youtube]

5-0 against Depor this morning, putting up our points average to 87.71% with now midway through the season 50 points from 19 matches.

Guardiola only needed 31 matches this season to get to 25 wins. Cruijff needed 38, Van Gaal 41, Robson 42 and Rijkaard 45.

2 goals for Eto'o keep him sitting around his goal per game average, 19 goals in 19 matches (18 in 17 in la liga). Messi's got 21, Henry 12.

Etoó has 18 goals in 18 games

 

[belfast_bomber]

one thing I've noticed about the defending from Spanish sides is their lack of discipline.

lesser sides defend stupidly. some even arrogantly.

makes it very easy for sides like barca to put numbers past them.

Or alternatively, they don't indulge in bus-parking exercises like the Stokes and Boltons of the English league.

We got beat 2-0 at Recre. Bah.

 

[mr.11]

Not doing the anti barca thing because i go for madrid but none of those goals seemed to be brought about from excellent play rather from defensive incapabilities... The plague is going to have to go through your side for you guys to lose the title this year.

Look at the lead up to the goals burro!

 

[belfast_bomber]

All the results:

Barcelona 5-0 Deportivo La Coruña
Sevilla 1-0 Numancia
Almería 1-1 Atlético Madrid
Athletic Bilbao 3-2 Valencia
Getafe 0-1 Racing Santander
Málaga 4-0 Espanyol
Real Madrid 3-1 Osasuna
Real Valladolid 1-3 Real Betis
Recreativo Huelva 2-0 Sporting Gijón
Villarreal 2-0 Real Mallorca

Big controversy in the Bernabeu, with Juanfran of Osasuna being red-carded for two "dives" which were clear penalties, while Osasuna were leading 0-1. Such dreadful decisions that the referee (Perez Burrull, is that Catalan for Rob Styles?) has been suspended for the Espanyol-Barcelona cup tie he was due to be officiating.

 

[Kompany]

And not to forget of course, Real president Ramon Calderon has resigned a few days ago. A sad ending of a very weird man and unthanks the 2 titles, a very average chapter in Real's history.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/jan/16/ramon-calderon-resigns-as-real-madrid-president

 

[mr.11]

Calderon has no idea what futbol is if u ask him lol


Barça vs Espanyol(estadio Montjiuc) Copa del Rey

 

[ashley12]

LOL at this from Boluda, the new president of Real

New Real Madrid president Vicente Boluda has heaped praise on in-form winger Arjen Robben, insisting he would not even swap the Dutchman for Barcelona ace Lionel Messi.


Messi, who recently finished runner-up to Cristiano Ronaldo in the FIFA World Player of the Year awards, is enjoying a fairytale campaign at Barca and his performances have seen him showered with praise from all corners.
However, Boluda, who took over as interim Madrid president following last week's resignation of Ramon Calderon, admits he prefers Robben to the Argentinian.
"Robben is the more entertaining and I would not change him for Messi. He is the more electric player," Boluda told Spanish radio station Cadena SER.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=611332&sec=europe&cc=3436

Robben is a great player when fit but come on...

 

[belfast_bomber]

Give me Luis Morán any day

Nah, it's like Wenger said, everyone thinks their missus is the prettiest.

 

[ashley12]

True, but surely somethings just dont have to be said, because one way or the other, that statement will get you in trouble.

Say Messi <<<< Robben and your putting a lot of pressure on Robben, plus having fears for your sanity

Say Messi >>>> Robben and your undermining the squad and causing disharmony in the ranks.

Why say anything at all?

 

[mr.11]

I dont think Messi will leave Barça ever unless if its to go back to Argentina!

As for Robben he has shown some really good form under the new coach i must admit but still very silly comment from the new president.

 

[mr.11]

Villarreal 1 - 1 Osasuna
Barcelona 4 - 1 C.D Numancia
Almeria 2 - 1 Athletic Bilbao
Málaga 1 - 1 Atletico Madrid
Valladolid 1 - 1 Espanyol
Recreativo Huelva 1 - 0 Real Betis Balompié
Getafe C.F 5 - 1 Sporting de Gijón
Mallorca 3 - 1 Valencia
Sevilla 0 - 2 Racing Santander
Real Madrid 1 - 0 Deportivo La Coruna


Etoó 19 Goals
Messi 14 Goals
Henry 12 Goals

 

[Big Kitty]

Top 3 scorers from Barca?

 

[mr.11]

Yep

Etoó missed one could of had 1 more,Messi wow great game from him.
Henry already has 12 goals the same amount he had last season.

No one speaks of Dani Alves here lol,runs and runs i think his nickname is MOTO GP..well it is for the journalist here

 

[belfast_bomber]

Gah.

 

[mr.11]

1 Barcelona =53
2 Real Madrid =41
3 Sevilla =38
4 Valencia =34
5 Villarreal =34
6 Atl. Madrid =32
7 Málaga =32
8 Dep. Coruña =30
9 Santander =28
10 Athl. Bilbao =26
11 Getafe =24
12 Valladolid =24
13 Almeria =24
14 Sp. Gijón =24
15 Recreativo =23
16 Real Betis =21
17 Numancia =20
18 Mallorca =17
19 Espanyol =16
20 Osasuna =14

 

[Kompany]

Have you read anything about the finances in Spain, BB? I had no idea things were that bad - 13.9% of unemployment currently. Crowd numbers are visibly down in some places (especially Valencia imo) and even though Barcelona's average is up, this weekend they only had 45.000, which is about 10.000 under their lowest number last season.

 

[Bourky23]

No one speaks of Dani Alves here lol,runs and runs i think his nickname is MOTO GP..well it is for the journalist here

you must miss alot of my posts then

i love the boy.

(almost as much as messi)

 

[mr.11]

you must miss alot of my posts then

i love the boy.

(almost as much as messi)

My bad
I meant more in the press dude.
Funny character from what ive seen on the training track

 

[davey_magik]

On those Barca goals, sure, the marking could be a bit tighter and the defending a bit more urgent, but really only teams with a good defence would be able to stop that. Just very good buildup play.

 

[belfast_bomber]

Have you read anything about the finances in Spain, BB? I had no idea things were that bad - 13.9% of unemployment currently. Crowd numbers are visibly down in some places (especially Valencia imo) and even though Barcelona's average is up, this weekend they only had 45.000, which is about 10.000 under their lowest number last season.

Oh yeah, when I was there in Christmas it was all anyone was talking about. Same problem as here in Ireland... too much of the country's money was tied up in a ridiculously overvalued property market, meaning people were basically trading money that didn't exist.

 

[mr.11]

On those Barca goals, sure, the marking could be a bit tighter and the defending a bit more urgent, but really only teams with a good defence would be able to stop that. Just very good buildup play.

I dont know man...barça plays very well and have alot of pace in there team..look at the real madrid game for example,real madrid mainly defended and pushed players bak so there wasnt much space for the players to move

 

[Kompany]

On those Barca goals, sure, the marking could be a bit tighter and the defending a bit more urgent

You mean like West Brom against Utd last night or Hull against Arsenal the other week? Of course Numancia aren't Liverpool or Chelsea (we'll obviously never put 4 past them) but they must've been doing something right as they went into HT with the score still being 0-0.

This season our strenght has been that the whole team never gives up and keeps working hard. That has resulted into late late wins (Shakhtar away, Real home, Osasuna away the other way...), which in its turn has resulted into lots of confidence leading into several matches that were over at HT.

This season we tend to break down teams with our possession - eventually they get tired and once they go behind they either start taking risks or just crack it, while last season we were boring the shit out of friends and enemies with our soulless passing around.