No they weren't Jibers. Every time Barca attacked, the looked like they were going to score. City? Not so much.

Mascherano was playing fullback and Mathieu was at CB... so really, City should have raped that defense. Busquets has been crap to start the season too.

City were tactical and toothless. Not starting Aguero against that defense was beyond ridiculous by Pep. Him and his stupid false 9. Hasn't worked for him since Messi.

Pep hasn't worked since Messi*

sportsczy wrote:No they weren't Jibers. Every time Barca attacked, the looked like they were going to score. City? Not so much.

Mascherano was playing fullback and Mathieu was at CB... so really, City should have raped that defense. Busquets has been crap to start the season too.

City were tactical and toothless. Not starting Aguero against that defense was beyond ridiculous by Pep. Him and his stupid false 9. Hasn't worked for him since Messi.

Drivel and hyberbole. Barcelona did nothing in the first half bar that messi goal from dinhos slip. City created 2 clear chances. Start of the second half city pinned barca back and were better before bravos brain fart. Pep's tactics were spot on.

Even the commentators said Messi did nothing in the first half bar the goal. City blunted them effectively. No need to make stuff up. Saying barcelona looked that they would score in every attack is just pure nonsense.

ok whatever.  Pep has now lost 3-0 and 4-0 against Barca at the Camp Nou with Bayern and City.

Spot on tactics

Without Messi, he doesn't win big games.

Shrewd decision to go to EPL though. Only needs to worry about Klopp now that Mou has lost his touch. His schemes are akin to the caveman discovering fire for the EPL.

It makes me laugh when I hear positional football was exposed when Barca play guess what? Positional football. This is why I said lots here think positional football equates to heavy possession football and have no clue what they are talking about. I mean you have a clue you are just far off.

Both teams play the same concepts pep is just a possession terrorist while LE leverages counters a lot more.

Besides MSN are hard to stop, they can be devastating and that Messi destroyed city should not come as a surprise.

Positional play in football means exactly.... nothing.  Every tactic has it's own positional play.  So I don't even understand the term in the way it's used.

However, it seems that some refer to a specific type of positional play in the context how Pep executes it... and then say it has nothing to do with it when it's no longer convenient to their argument

So what positional play are you guys talking about?  What's the tactical context?

To me, positional play under any tactic, what’s important is that the formation have balance in terms of logical spacing and support options, width, depth, etc... and all the players have an understanding that their position is relative.  It's not an anchor that ties them to a particular patch of grass.  It's about everyone understanding the overall shape and their role within the shape and in terms of each other.  So players move to execute the tactic and compensate for each other when one of them unbalances the shape.

sportsczy wrote:Atleti is the best team in La Liga this season imo... I don't think you can require any team, including Barca and Madrid, to beat them.

I'm looking for competitive rivalry games.  The result comes down to the realism of the player and the manager can do nothing about that.  If we get completely outclasses, it's another story.

And the reason Morata is finding success coming off the bench is that his speed makes a difference against tired defenses. When he was starting, he was really poor. He has 2 goals and 2 assists in 7 substitute appearances... 1 goal and no assists in 5 starts.

What absolute nonsense. If Morata was so bad everyone wouldn't like him so much Morata's performance against LaReal was the best individual performance out of any attacker this season. Get outta here with "the reason he is not starting is because he is used against tired defences" bs. The real reason he is not starting is because ZZ does not want to hurt a certain no name player's feelings and that has cost us dearly in both the league and the CL

Also Atleti is not the best team in the league and ZZ has no excuses if we don't beat them

The only reason Barca are winning is because of their front 3. Nothing to do with their playing style. Goals/assists always by a MSN member. You get the occasional long range goal by Rakitic but that's about that. Positional style of play is one range of football that may or may not work. I wonder where Barca's positional play was when Celta scored 4 on them. Oh yeah it's our brand that is bad gotcha......

He's spanish Hala...  we went through the same thing with Canales, Callejon, Jese, Isco, Morata version 1, Vasquez and now Morata version 2.  I'm sure the Asensio hype train will start soon too.

It's normal.  I don't blame them.  Same thing happens for PSG and I'm sure in other countries.  But it doesn't mean that hype = reality.

The only team that came with tactics and purpose yesterday was City albeit some weird ones like benching Aguero. Barca has only one tactics, only one strategy that is to pass the ball to MSN asap and yet we failed to do that single thing for the most of first half leaving MSN stranded in final third. That's how bad we are nowadays.

Lucifer wrote:The only team that came with tactics and purpose yesterday was City albeit some weird ones like benching Aguero. Barca has only one  tactics, only one strategy that is to pass the ball  to MSN asap and yet we failed to do that single thing for the most of first half leaving MSN stranded in final third. That's how bad we are nowadays.

But according to sportsczy barcelona looked like scoring in every attack. Watch him back track from that drivel like he usually does when called out.

@Lucifer he dropped Aguero because he wanted muddied sueriority which is why they were able to construct moves very swiftly. Messi drops into barcas mf and with Kun there they would have been over run.

Bar the building from the back Barcelona don't use position play in the final 3rd. It's a free for all.

No.  I said that every time the ball got to the attacking zone, Barca looked a threat to score.  Man City did not look like a great threat when they got it into Barca's attacking zone.

And you see how much better Barca uses fullbacks compared to City.  Barca's fullbacks fly forward to create width so that Messi and Neymar can use them as a decoy to cut in or pass them the ball.  City doesn't do that.  Also, the rotation of Iniesta and Rakitic to cover when the fullbacks are very high is top notch.  The issue Barca has is that Busquets has been subpar and the defense is also very shaky (injuries mostly).  So they're positionaly more conservative than usual... forcing them to rely on MSN to do more on the attack.

With Pep, I saw a manager who was trying too hard to prove he's a genius in a big game once again.  You MUST... and I mean MUST... put Aguero in there to terrorize that back line.  As it was, all of City's play was in front of them.  They didn't need to worry about a CF making runs behind them.  That's far easier to defend. The few times City got behind Barca in the wide areas... there was nobody for them to pass the ball to in the box. No runs were being made at all.

In any case, let's agree to disagree lol.

Agree with Sportszy on Aguero tbh. Pep did came across somewhat adamant there. If ur tactics include benching ur best player and one of the best strikers in Europe against elite side then I think you should rethink ur tactics. Had Aguero need playing our time bomb defence would have been more cautious and maybe Sterling and co would have exploited that. Look how many chance Nolito squandered.

sportsczy wrote:No.  I said that every time the ball got to the attacking zone, Barca looked a threat to score.  Man City did not look like a great threat when they got it into Barca's attacking zone.

And you see how much better Barca uses fullbacks compared to City.  Barca's fullbacks fly forward to create width so that Messi and Neymar can use them as a decoy to cut in or pass them the ball.  City doesn't do that.  Also, the rotation of Iniesta and Rakitic to cover when the fullbacks are very high is top notch.  The issue Barca has is that Busquets has been subpar and the defense is also very shaky (injuries mostly).  So they're positionaly more conservative than usual... forcing them to rely on MSN to do more on the attack.

With Pep, I saw a manager who was trying too hard to prove he's a genius in a big game once again.  You MUST... and I mean MUST... put Aguero in there to terrorize that back line.  As it was, all of City's play was in front of them.  They didn't need to worry about a CF making runs behind them.  That's far easier to defend.

In any case, let's agree to disagree lol.

My day's rewriting history. It's there above for all to see I quoted you. So you then dent what you posted. Your EXACT words were

Every time Barca attacked the looked like they were going to score.

Word for word. Adress that and don't back track and make stuff up. Now I'll wait for you to ignore it,  post a whatever or just ignore my post all together.

Well can we agree you just lied? Your actual quote is above.

halamadrid2 wrote:Goals/assists always by a MSN member. You get the occasional long range goal by Rakitic but that's about that.

Rafinha and Turan don't exist then? Why is so bad to be dependent on players like Suarez or Messi anyway? They are the best at what they do and play upfront so that's no suprise they take the last touch before the ball goes into the back of the net.

Every time they attacked...  how do you define that?  Having the ball in your half or middle of the pitch?  You attack when you're in an attacking zone.  And yes, whenever Barca was in the attacking zone, they looked a threat to score. City didn't because they didn't have a scorer on the pitch.

Just so happened that the midfield was very dense with players so that neither team spent as much time on the attacking end as they wanted to.

sportsczy wrote:Every time they attacked...  how do you define that?  Having the ball in your half or middle of the pitch?  You attack when you're in an attacking zone.  And yes, whenever Barca was in the attacking zone, they looked a threat to score.

Just so happened that the midfield was very dense with players so that neither team spent as much time on the attacking end as they wanted to.

Ah so you denied what I said now you are changing the narrative. Never change sportsczy

You've changed the definition of attacking in a single page. Unbelievable.

Myesyats wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:Goals/assists always by a MSN member. You get the occasional long range goal by Rakitic but that's about that.

Rafinha and Turan don't exist then? Why is so bad to be dependent on players like Suarez or Messi anyway? They are the best at what they do and play upfront so that's no suprise they take the last touch before the ball goes into the back of the net.

Rafinha has scored what 3 goals? And all in the same game or something. Arda has been a good servant for when one in the front 3 was missing, in the midfield he's been poor agree?

Absolutely nothing wrong with the front 3 doing all the goals and assists. I was just addressing some laughable claim that positional play is why you win games and not because of the front 3

Our front 2 (/3) also used to score all our goals and there were criticism of how little our midfield does. Now that every single player contributes we should be playing positional play Damned if you do damned if you don't kind of whinging going on with some people

jibers wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Every time they attacked...  how do you define that?  Having the ball in your half or middle of the pitch?  You attack when you're in an attacking zone.  And yes, whenever Barca was in the attacking zone, they looked a threat to score.

Just so happened that the midfield was very dense with players so that neither team spent as much time on the attacking end as they wanted to.

Ah so you denied what I said now you are changing the narrative. Never change sportsczy

You've changed the definition of attacking in a single page. Unbelievable.

No. You're projecting your definition of attacking to me. Because my definition doesn't match yours, you're saying that I'm changing it. Please quote one place where I contradicted myself.

sportsczy wrote:He's spanish Hala...  we went through the same thing with Canales, Callejon, Jese, Isco, Morata version 1, Vasquez and now Morata version 2.  I'm sure the Asensio hype train will start soon too.

It's normal.  I don't blame them.  Same thing happens for PSG and I'm sure in other countries.  But it doesn't mean that hype = reality.

Yes because everyone shed a tear when Jese left.....If you're good you get praised if you aren't you get forgotten about pretty quick. Modric gets cheered every game, Kroos gets cheered, Casemiro gets cheered. It's not about ethnicity. Maybe they are given more leeway when they play poor but Madrid fans recognise hardwork in the team. It's a bit ignorant to claim otherwise

Is the hype around Lucas misplaced? Nope, is the hype around Asensio misplaced? Nope.

hala...  their definition of positional play is wrong.  They mean positional play as it relates to specific tactic they have in mind.  Positional play is applicable to every tactic.  

Zidane's tactic is very reliant on positional play in fact.  The tactic itself is something they don't approve of.

Come on... Jese was hyped to the stars before his injury.  He was even hyped when he returned.  The hype stopped because he was extremely poor in his sub appearances.  If he was half-decent, the hype would still be there.

Lucas = Callejon.  Nothing more, nothing less in terms of talent.  I like him a lot but he is a role player (an important one).  Asensio?  Jury is out for me.  In fact, i think he has a long long ways to go.  Talent is there though.

Your exact words

sportsczy wrote:No they weren't Jibers.  Every time Barca attacked, the looked like they were going to score.  City?  Not so much.  

Mascherano was playing fullback and Mathieu was at CB...  so really, City should have raped that defense.  Busquets has been crap to start the season too.

City were tactical and toothless.  Not starting Aguero against that defense was beyond ridiculous by Pep.  Him and his stupid false 9.  Hasn't worked for him since Messi.

Me calling you out for your exact words

jibers wrote:

Lucifer wrote:The only team that came with tactics and purpose yesterday was City albeit some weird ones like benching Aguero. Barca has only one  tactics, only one strategy that is to pass the ball  to MSN asap and yet we failed to do that single thing for the most of first half leaving MSN stranded in final third. That's how bad we are nowadays.

But according to sportsczy barcelona looked like scoring in every attack. Watch him back track from that drivel like he usually does when called out.

@Lucifer he dropped Aguero because he wanted muddied sueriority which is why they were able to construct moves very swiftly. Messi drops into barcas mf and with Kun there they would have been over run.

Bar the building from the back Barcelona don't use position play in the final 3rd. It's a free for all.

You denying ever using that and lying straight out

sportsczy wrote:No.  I said that every time the ball got to the attacking zone, Barca looked a threat to score.  Man City did not look like a great threat when they got it into Barca's attacking zone.

And you see how much better Barca uses fullbacks compared to City.  Barca's fullbacks fly forward to create width so that Messi and Neymar can use them as a decoy to cut in or pass them the ball.  City doesn't do that.  Also, the rotation of Iniesta and Rakitic to cover when the fullbacks are very high is top notch.  The issue Barca has is that Busquets has been subpar and the defense is also very shaky (injuries mostly).  So they're positionaly more conservative than usual... forcing them to rely on MSN to do more on the attack.

With Pep, I saw a manager who was trying too hard to prove he's a genius in a big game once again.  You MUST... and I mean MUST... put Aguero in there to terrorize that back line.  As it was, all of City's play was in front of them.  They didn't need to worry about a CF making runs behind them.  That's far easier to defend.  The few times City got behind Barca in the wide areas... there was nobody for them to pass the ball to in the box.  No runs were being made at all.

In any case, let's agree to disagree lol.

After being caugh out you proceed to become a philosopher

sportsczy wrote:Every time they attacked...  how do you define that?  Having the ball in your half or middle of the pitch?  You attack when you're in an attacking zone.  And yes, whenever Barca was in the attacking zone, they looked a threat to score.  City didn't because they didn't have a scorer on the pitch.

Just so happened that the midfield was very dense with players so that neither team spent as much time on the attacking end as they wanted to.

Lets see you houdini your way out of this

not sure i like how this has all been filled with pep talk on a madrid forum. i think you all have different definitions for the concepts or ideas that you have, and unless there's some type of dictionary or explanation by what some of these concepts mean it'll just be a back and forth of cup half full vs cup half empty

actually jese was hyped before that injury (not that he didn't earn it cos he was playing very very well), cos i remember one of the spanish dailys carrying out their poll on whether jese should start benching bale, cos bale i believe was having injury problems as per usual. after the injury, and when ancelotti started bringing him on 22 seconds before the end of games (which was ridiculous), he seemed to have lost a step or two

but yeah he got his share of hype, but i don't think it was out of place, i mean the guy was actually playing well before that tackle

jibers wrote:

Doc wrote:That positional football under Pep sure went well for City today.

Yes because Dinho slipping, stones staring into space and bravo making a poor decision renders Peps whole game useless. I mean at least try and use some damn common sense. City were the better team before Bravo had that brain fart. I suppose SAF losing 6-2 at home to city makes him clueless as well.

Too many clowns on this forum.

Let's not forget what Pep is trying to implement is much harder to coach than what pretry much most managers are doing.

Ancelotti getting walloped 4-0 by Atleti also makes him a scrub

Never called Pep a fraud, was never even the intent. Never called Ancelloti a fraud and he too was made fun of losing 4-0 to a rival. Sure I can find excuses as to why we got walloped by Atleti as well.

Take your sensitivity elsewhere old man. City got beat 4-0 and I'm taking the God damn piss in a thread where it literally says Zidane's Real Madrid is the worst footballing side I've seen. The same Pep that was given some lavish praised right in this thread, lost 4-0 and I'm gonna let that slide? Shit, I thought Sports would have updated it at 3-0.

Doc wrote:

jibers wrote:

Doc wrote:That positional football under Pep sure went well for City today.

Yes because Dinho slipping, stones staring into space and bravo making a poor decision renders Peps whole game useless. I mean at least try and use some damn common sense. City were the better team before Bravo had that brain fart. I suppose SAF losing 6-2 at home to city makes him clueless as well.

Too many clowns on this forum.

Let's not forget what Pep is trying to implement is much harder to coach than what pretry much most managers are doing.

Ancelotti getting walloped 4-0 by Atleti also makes him a scrub

Never called Pep a fraud, was never even the intent. Never called Ancelloti a fraud and he too was made fun of losing 4-0 to a rival. Sure I can find excuses as to why we got walloped by Atleti as well.

Take your sensitivity elsewhere old man. City got beat 4-0 and I'm taking the God damn piss in a thread where it literally says Zidane's Real Madrid is the worst footballing side I've seen. The same Pep that was given some lavish praised right in this thread, lost 4-0 and I'm gonna let that slide? Shit, I thought Sports would have updated it at 3-0.

Forgot to quote valk he's the one that said he was a fraud.

Lol I've defended Zidane. I think people want too many things. Madrids strength lay in countering. As long as the results are there...