Re: The Rivals Official Thread

by halamadrid2 Mon Jan 12, 2015 8:03 am

He is away for another month. So yeah he should be available

by Valkyrja Thu Jan 22, 2015 6:41 pm

Barca are improving, hopefully we also regain form because the tough matches are coming very soon

by halamadrid2 Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:52 am

Barca can play like shite and still beat Pathetico. Its funny how we easily beat Atleti when they had the toughest defence and cant now that they have become worse.

Too many mistakes, too many players bottling it and too many players losing their cool

Carlo really needs to grow balls if we are to beat them. Even that poverty player Neymar has good game against them. Bale has played them what 5/6 times and still cant find a way to get past Luis/Suquiera or Gamez. I remember Jese in that copa tie toying with that right side

We really need to improve the way we play them. No more DiMaria to cover for cracks in offense and defence

by The Demon of Carthage Thu Jan 29, 2015 7:05 pm

We lost against Atlético because our defenders can easily be duped into making fouls for no reason. The only level-headed defender we have is Varane. Ramos and Pepe can go God Mode for a long time but when it matters most in big games they usually screw things up, especially Ramos.

Atlético are wc when they're defending. They are below-average when they're attacking. Watched them against Barça, I almost laughed my head off.

by halamadrid2 Fri Jan 30, 2015 7:33 am

Its not even that. Those Barca defenders make many mistakes too but their attackers have good off the ball movements. Ours dont so if a team defends with 10 against us we cant find a way to break them

I have always believed having two Ronaldo's is an over kill. We dont rely on one assist maker anymore, everyone has to step up for us to play good

The sooner we can get back to the line up we started against Barca the better

by The Demon of Carthage Fri Jan 30, 2015 11:34 am

I suppose we all agree the 4-4-2 Bale-less system with James on the right wing, Isco on the left wing and Kross-Modric in the middle is our best combo. Our players do know how to position themselves when they're tying to win the ball back. We did it against Barça.

I'm pretty sure the recent results against Atlético would've been different had we used Modric and benched Bale. Too bad the former was injured and we couldn't try it out against Simeone's men.

But even then, even when we couldn't and didn't use our best formation, we still managed to dominate them. Everything went down when Ramos made an unnecessary foul which resulted in a penalty. From that point, Atlético switched to defending and the game was pretty much over.

See how they reacted when they conceded an early goal against Barça. They attacked...and my god they were laughable. All of their flaws were exposed and they became an above-average team.

by Valkyrja Sat Feb 21, 2015 3:41 pm

Barca is losing to Malaga 0-1 at HT. Hopefully we can increase our lead this round. cheers

by halamadrid2 Sat Feb 21, 2015 3:56 pm

Oi talk after the game ffs

by halamadrid2 Sat Feb 21, 2015 4:59 pm

They did it!!!!

Kameni is fecking awesome. Where other goalies would spill the ball he holds on to it and is great in the air. I still remember him in the game against us he was unbeatable nearly. He was just unlucky we were in such a good form then

I have to say though Suarez was wrongfully ruled for offside on at least 3 occassions but there is no guarantee he would've score anyways. He was very poor today and so was Neymar who was very lucky to be on the pitch after that lunge at that Malaga player from behind

When I first saw Messi play level with Busquets I knew it'd be one of those games. Barca nearly never win when he plays that deep

Now lets do our job tomorrow to get some breathing spacd between ourselves and them.

We have some very tough away games coming up like against Sevilla, Bilbao and Granada etc not to mention the clasico

by Valkyrja Sat Feb 21, 2015 5:07 pm

by Pedram Sat Feb 21, 2015 7:46 pm

Bahahahaha Barca handing over the league to us.

Hopefully City will trash them aswell.

by titosantill Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:43 pm

does anyone have any news on modric? i hope when he returns the injury hasn't taken too much off him. however on a personal level the injury might have helped rather than hurt him. at some point i began to have the feeling that florentino perez may go the 'di maria' route to get a new toy and modric looked like the likely scapegoat (considering he is actually good and can rack in no less than 40 million euros for the club). his absence is making many appreciate him even more , and it shouldn't necessarily be so, the guy is a top notch and quality footballer.....if anyone has any info on his progress and when he can be expected back, please share...

by Valkyrja Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:28 am

On a positive note, the injury allowed him to rest and probably (and hopefully) be at maximum fitness around end of march-april when the big moment comes. Most of our players will probably be exhausted (Kroos, Marcelo, Benzema being the 'favorites') so some fresh air from James and Modric will do only good.

by halamadrid2 Wed Feb 25, 2015 9:00 am

Watching Barca steamroll City yesterday has made me realize if we start a 433 the same will happen to us. Barca will pass the ball between our players like they didn't exist (although City played a 442). We really need to play a 442 if we are to win. So happy Modric will be back for the game because we will have 3 midfielders who are good at getting out of pressing. Bale can do his thing of running vertical with the ball out of bounds as long as he defends like James. Keeping a cleansheet is the most important thing because we can score goals in many different ways against them

Messi and Alves vs Isco and Marcelo we got dis. Neymar and Alba vs Bale and Carvajal has me shaking a little. Carvajal did render Neymar useless last time we played but he had James tracking Alba imagine with getting no help from his winger, he will get toasted

Benzema in great form will pose many problems for their defenders with his strength and close control. Varane and Pepe will be a great partnership but thats provided calamity Ramos does not make it back in time

All in all Barca have me shitting my pants right now. We are going to need to be on our toes to beat them

by sportsczy Wed Feb 25, 2015 12:17 pm

It can't happen to us Hala because Carlo isn't an idiot... he plays zonal with a base shape in 442. Because you have CR and Bale (or James) wide and playing up, Barca fullbacks can't jump in the attack without consequences... they're forced to hold back. So our defense rarely gets stretched and we outnumber the Barca attack... not to mention our CBs and CMs are 100000000000000x better than City's.

My only concern was Modric being rusty and having no alternative. After watching Lucas Silva for a couple of games, those concerns are fading... the kid can play.

As with any clasico, it just comes down to efficiency on the attack... whoever makes better use of their chances, wins. It's that simple.

Carlo and Mourinho use similar base tactics against Barca, although Carlo is more aggressive on the attack... the shape is the same at its core though. So you can take the clasicos of the last 4-5 years and it will be similar... not much mystery as to how each team will play.

by halamadrid2 Wed Feb 25, 2015 6:23 pm

I really hope so sport because we won't be able to afford anyone slacking off in defence especially our wingers. Because we will be sorry if they manage to outnumber us in attack.

Funnily enough I dont think there will be a problem with Modric, he has plenty of time to get his fittness level up I am more concerned about Ronaldo reacting badly to abuse from the crowd and Bale flopping than anything else

by Doc Wed Feb 25, 2015 11:39 pm

I don't think tactics would be an issue as much as the players would. As Sport mentioned, Carlo ain't no idiot and he certainly is a much better student of the game than Pellets. However, you can never really predict with certainty how the boys in white react in these big games.

Once the guys don't wet their pants, I think we'll be more fine than Man City would ever be. I really wish James were available for the Clasico. Definitely would be an enormously better option than Bale.

by halamadrid2 Thu Feb 26, 2015 6:35 am

Nobody had foreseen getting thumped by Atleti either. There is only so much the coach can do, the players are the ones on the pitch and however much Carlo trains them up ultimately his faith lies in the players hands. And atm we have a couple of players off form and are back to only 7 players defending as opposed to 8. If we can't get our team to defend as a unit Barca will embarrass us like Atleti did