Date: Wednesday, 01/30/2013 21:00

Competition: Copa del Rey

Stadium: Santiago Bernabéu

City: Madrid

Capacity: 80000

Television: C+1 - C+1 HD

Referee: Clos Gómez

------------Pinto-----------
--Alves--Pique--Puyol--Alba-
----------Busquests--------
-----Xavi---------Fabregas-
---Pedro----Messi-----Iniesta

This is probably the most probable of lineups. Even though I want Iniesta in the middle, we all know that Fab will play there forcing Iniesta to go out wide and come inside...
I reckon with the weak Madrid side and playing at Madrid, we can definately win but I placing definate bets till the start of the whistle.
Should be a great game though I'm sensing an early red card though.

Dude, don't remember mentioning form...

Hope we see another 6-2 beating in Santiago Bernabeu preferably 6-0 but eh

Alexis should start instead of Pedro I feel. He does not finish or take his chances but at least he gets more chances in the 20 minutes he plays than Pedro in the previous 70 minutes. One of those will be bound to go in, hopefully.

Also think Puyol won't start considering his age and that he started in the cup game, so I think we'll see Masche instead.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Alexis should start instead of Pedro I feel. He does not finish or take his chances but at least he gets more chances in the 20 minutes he plays than Pedro in the previous 70 minutes. One of those will be bound to go in, hopefully.

Also think Puyol won't start considering his age and that he started in the cup game, so I think we'll see Masche instead.

One lacks pace, one lacks positioning. I hate the centerback situation. We need a good centerback to pair with Pique, and have puyol/masch as the backups.

I think we'll be fine though, we can outscore Madrid, but we may also concede a few. Should be a high scoring affair, with both teams having in-form forwards but not good defenses.

You should probably change the title to Super Copa Del Rey: First Leg

given there will be 3 Clasico's coming up soon, it would be easier to distinguish which game we are discussing

Question, what players for are either injured or red carded for Madrid?

Casillas, Di Maria , Pepe, Coentrao, and Ramos I think

Pepe is not playing? Was not aware of that. Not a chance of standing their own without him.

apparently Varane is better than Pepe according to Madrid camp these days.... oh well... we'll see

Varane would be our best CB I heard.

Well, you know, Puyol is a “has been” while Pique is not a defender and other insightful comments

i heard Varane is better than any of our CBs.

source : general discussion forum

So we are going to play vs a great madrid wall in defense.

Hope Villa starts,sick of seeing the best Spanish striker ever who is still in his prime sitting on the bench.

worms wrote:Hope Villa starts,sick of seeing the best Spanish striker ever who is still in his prime sitting on the bench.

agreed!

+2

I hope you guys are kidding with calling Villa the best Spanish striker ever... Telmo Zarra and Raul would beg to differ.

As far as NT performances are concerned it's quite undisputed.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:As far as NT performances are concerned it's quite undisputed.

For NT, of course. But Raul and Zarra did perform very well with NT (Raul has 44 Nt goals and Zarra scored 20 in 20 games) and had far better club careers. Zarra was a beast.

But it's all debatable. Villa was well on his way to being undisputed... and then decided to join Barca with Messi there. That basically brought everyone back into the fold.

Raul would only be there based on his club form, Villa tops him for the NT pretty convincingly while his club goalscoring speaks for itself.

Zarra's prime was mid 40's....lets not go there.

Villa moving to Barca? That has surely only reinforced it as a winner and not just a guy who scores goals but cant win.

I would agree with you Dani if he was a key contributor and a regular despite not scoring as much... but it's hard to be considered a winner by getting mostly benched. Raul, for example, sacrificed his scoring when R9 and RVN came to Madrid... but remained a regular and important player.

Other than his first 6 months at Barca, Villa pretty much has been wasted imo. Not a criticism. You're never going to push Messi out of the center spot and the club has better wing players than Villa.

Not really, I'm pretty sure just about everybody here would prefer to see Villa on the LW and Iniesta pushed back into midfield and become Xaviestquets again.

And I can understand you saying he doesn't start much in reference to this season, but in the context of any other time while Villa has been with Barca and that's just not true.

he was injured and didn't play otherwise last season either. Really, he's only been effective 6 months in his almost 3 years at Barca.

It's pretty clear that there is no room for a cf next to messi unless they are unique. Benzema would be fine for example since he's really more of a 10 that can score. You need a guy that is just as effective passing as in scoring.

Neymar seems to have that profile too.

The alternative is to make Messi a SS behind the CF like Argentina does.

in any case, no doubt villa is an all time great. But he lost his chance at being goat in spain as a result of his past 3 years.

I think Villa fits fine personally....

In his first season his movement and link up was fantastic and set up many Messi goals and Messi set up many for him.

If he was a little bit more clinical he would have scored 30-40 goals.

As for this season i think he's played very well when picked, his shot to goal and goals to minute ratios say enough.

The problem is that Tito has preferred Cesc and Xavi in the middle and Iniesta on the left and Villa can't play wide right if he could he would be a starter IMO.

He's been effective this season and was effective in his first season.... first season could have been better for him personally if he was a little more clinical but he still was effective.

And this season he has been effective when he's played the problem has been a lack of play time which isn't really his fault.

Raul was a better player, way better IMO. If he would have been in his prime in this generation Spain would have won their trophies much easier.