farfan wrote:Ronaldo is a douche ,that's nothing new .

Thank God he is.

Can't stand these Teletubby fans.

that's right...let's all man up and paint our nail like big C

More power to him.

Fake humble and modesty sucks.

If you're arrogant and prideful and have a huge ego? Show it off.

Bernie Mac sums it up nicely:

He can be the scarface of football for all I care if Madrid looses like yesterday. Let him calma - celebrate all he wants. It genuinely satisfies me when he pulls off such such behavior and still looses the game

I agree with Izzy, sports in general have gotten soft these days and there's not enough "arrogance".

Although it's difficult for me to call it personality as most footballers these days don't seem to have one or at least they don't show it publicly.

About those fans attacking players, UB has announced that they have been identified and they will open legal proceedings against them. They are deeply fcked

So is the Suarez goal actually more a Casillas mistake then a lovely taken goal by Bitey himself?!
I personally loved the goal. Great first time control and great shot into the far post. Standard Suarez.

El Gunner wrote:So is the Suarez goal actually more a Casillas mistake then a lovely taken goal by Bitey himself?!
I personally loved the goal. Great first time control and great shot into the far post. Standard Suarez.

It's a great touch and finish but Casillas positioning was horrendous.

Yeah I don't see how you really blame Casillas. Perfect first touch down, very tight angle shot where Pepe was right beside him, and Casillas was moving with Suarez's movement. It just so happened that Suarez shot as Casillas was moving his feet (you could see Casillas was moving and planting so he could make a reflex stop if he had to). It's incredibly difficult to shift positions after that, and that was the hardest angle Suarez had to shoot from.

Ask any keeper and that is a very difficult save and a very well placed shot.

jibers wrote:The talent here is not the issue. Xavi Ini and Busquets were more talented than Martinez and Basti pivote where they not? The tactics dictated that match, 0 runners from Barcelona forwards, lack of pressing, losing second balls etc Rakitc wasn't even acting like a CM and Even Pique hoofs the ball now, Enrique doesn't care about ball retention, he cares about penetration (No homo). Modric and Kroos have been there when Atletico raped Madrid multiple times this season, it's all about the set up and what the team wants to achieve. They had more control because there were more mfers when Busquets came on and of course his ability.

I feel you're missing my point. Martínez and Schweinsteiger weren't there to dominate possession. In fact they never did. They were there to bully Barcelona's midfield as soon as they entered the half way line. However Ancelotti had sent his team to dictate the play and they did dominate possession in the first half. Dictating the play at Camp Nou is not an easy task and had Ancelotti played with Khedira in the middle that wouldn't have happened in a hundred years. You mention the Atlético match but Madrid also dominated midfield in that match they just could not penetrate and were blatantly exposed by rojiblanco's counter attacks.

I'm not claiming if one system is more efficient than the other. My only comment is about Madrid having the players to dictate the midfield while Barcelona simply don't have that any more. I can't really blame Luis Enrique too much because given the players he has that is how his team has to play. Simply put he cannot play like Barcelona did a few years ago, period. Would he have played differently with a prime Xavi or with someone like Thiago and Pogba in midfield? I'd think/hope so.

One thing we would always succeed in back in the day, was tiring out the other teams midfield from trying to chase the ball all game. By the 70th min on forward it would be easier to just mow them down.

I almost wonder if even though Madrid managed to keep up the tempo and take the midfield away from us the first half, that if it somehow had a backwards effect and they ended up getting tired out of it and we just kept pushing for it.

Idk, just trying to make sense as to why they were so tired in the 2nd half...not like they had a Champions League match mid week

Why they were tired?????

Carlo doesn't have the word "rotation" in his dictionary. The dude has played the likes of Pepe, Carvajal, Isco, Kroos, Benzema, Marcelo and Ronaldo/Bale to the grounds. The only time they get a breather is when they get injured or suspended. Dude barely even subs them. I mean look at Jese getting 1 min of playingtime the other game. I can't fathom why in gods name he doesn't rotate.

This is a huge contrast with Pep, Enrique and all the other coaches who have constantly rotated their teams. There was a time we could really destroy a team till the end but after that Suarez goal there was no energy left to fight back, one week of rest will not make up for 7 months of nonstop football

danyjr wrote:

jibers wrote:The talent here is not the issue. Xavi Ini and Busquets were more talented than Martinez and Basti pivote where they not? The tactics dictated that match, 0 runners from Barcelona forwards, lack of pressing, losing second balls etc Rakitc wasn't even acting like a CM and Even Pique hoofs the ball now, Enrique doesn't care about ball retention, he cares about penetration (No homo). Modric and Kroos have been there when Atletico raped Madrid multiple times this season, it's all about the set up and what the team wants to achieve. They had more control because there were more mfers when Busquets came on and of course his ability.

I feel you're missing my point. Martínez and Schweinsteiger weren't there to dominate possession. In fact they never did. They were there to bully Barcelona's midfield as soon as they entered the half way line. However Ancelotti had sent his team to dictate the play and they did dominate possession in the first half. Dictating the play at Camp Nou is not an easy task and had Ancelotti played with Khedira in the middle that wouldn't have happened in a hundred years. You mention the Atlético match but Madrid also dominated midfield in that match they just could not penetrate and were blatantly exposed by rojiblanco's counter attacks.

I'm not claiming if one system is more efficient than the other. My only comment is about Madrid having the players to dictate the midfield while Barcelona simply don't have that any more. I can't really blame Luis Enrique too much because given the players he has that is how his team has to play. Simply put he cannot play like Barcelona did a few years ago, period. Would he have played differently with a prime Xavi or with someone like Thiago and Pogba in midfield? I'd think/hope so.

If Rijkaard could put van Bommel, Edmilson and Deco and still control games, then Xavi, Rakitic, Iniesta and Busquets have the ability to do so. Enrique gave the team to the forwards, which is fair enough. If Alonso and Scweinsteiger mf can dominate teams what stoprs a rakitic Ini and Busi mf from doing the same? It's all down to coaching. Enrique just wants quick counters and fast transitions.

I think they can if the team is set up right. They have enough talent for sure.

Don't see how talent comes into it anyway, the only difference between the sextuple midfield and this one is Rakitic for Xavi.

Quite the sizable difference true but still 2/3rds of it remains, the issue is the role and tactics deployed has led Iniesta to looking rather pointless to the extent he might as well not be there.

So you are basically only left with Busquets, the midfield if Enrique wants to play this way will need a significant overhaul but not because of talent but because of the vast philosophical difference between playing staff and manager ethos.

jibers wrote:Dnmac you are either trolling or you know less about football than I suspected. Bale has been called out from the start even last year people criticised him. The guy was one of the worst players in any Classico I have ever seen. I didn't even realise he was on the pitch in the second half till he fouled a Barca player.

Bizarre rant.

Yea, I said he was terrible yesterday multiple times.  Don't know what you're getting at, I will say it again, Bale was bad yesterday.

He also completely destroyed us in one of the best showings in a Classico I have ever seen last year and outplayed Ronaldo in a CL final.

He had a nice goal return last year, stepped up in huge games and gave it to Barcelona.  

Most players can live off of that alone for a couple years Bale barely gets a couple months.  The guy didn't forget how to play football.  He is still a top class player.

If his tap in goal was not offside yesterday would he have been excused for his poor performance?  That's basically what's happening with Ronaldo, he was basically useless outside of Benz setting up a tap in for him with some beautiful foot work.

I'm telling all of you, I watched this same thing happen to Ibra at Barca and numerous other players at big clubs.  Blame the new expensive signing for all the teams failures sell him on the cheap and watch him go somewhere else and return to being awesome again.  

It will happen with Bale too.  The guy is a really good player, and I'm not really in the habit of defending EPL / Brit players.

Yeah Bale is still top class.

Can't tell if El Gunner is being saracastic or not

Bale hasn't changed, Madrid fans just have higher standards than Spurs fans, and Madrid in general demands more than just a FIFA pace abuser. Look at his Spurs games and he plays the same way: beats his man with pace and either takes a long shot or crosses it. Only at Madrid the shot/cross is usually off and sometimes he can't even beat his man.

sorry to say this but bale sucks on the left or the right, his technique is too shit for la liga and madrid in general, adding that his footy IQ is awful fact.

that why I always say some posters are too in love with youtube clips, that they forget the game is 90 mins, and said player played 89 mins of shit other than that highlight.

@cujo suarez shot was good but very savable, iker was horrible period, again look past the name on the jersey and analyze what going on in detail, but i know you won't...

izzy wrote:More power to him.

Fake humble and modesty sucks.

If you're arrogant and prideful and have a huge ego? Show it off.

Bernie Mac sums it up nicely:

as much as i agree that cristiano can seem like an ass at times (i used the term 'seemed' on purpose, as i don't think i've heard former teammates of his have any problems with him or call him an ass), i have to agree with this point. i prefer being brash to fake humility....these days almost every sports interview sounds so cliche and like they were written by some public relations analyst....its why guys like ibra are good for the sport (as an aside, i still found that cristiano celebration after the ucl final pk to be quite cheesy and ridiculous)

If you re a pro-athlete, your body needs anywhere between 2 to 5 days of recovery time. In most cases, rotation shouldn't be an excuse as to why players under-perform.

Please! Let's not talk about this anymore.

Cruijf wrote:Can't tell if El Gunner is being saracastic or not

lol nah, no sarcasm.
He is one-dimensional, but class in that dimension. Always said he would fit in more at United (EPL) then at Madrid (La Liga)

Pique: "Cristiano was attacking and Mateu (referee) asked me about my kids. I told him: what is this, you want to distract me?" [ser]



Refdrid confirmed.

Lahoz is the G