Champions League 12/13

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PhilS

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United has being developing very well this year, I expect them to pull away in the Premier League. But for them to win CL, they would have to get by teams like Barca or Dortmund, who defend the entire field. United will not be able to advance the ball up to Rooney and Van Persie against those teams, so they will have no chance. You can get by in the Premier League without a midfield and without a backfield that can handle the ball, but that is not possible in CL.

RM has clearly improved their roster from last year. They lost no regulars, brought in Modric as a new regular, and upgraded their bench. I can't figure out why the team is nowhere near as good as last year's.

Barca's attack is plenty diversified. Alba and Adriano are the best attacking fullbacks anywhere, Cesc and Iniesta have been fantastic creating goals. Barca just specializes most of the shooting in one player. That has been working pretty well.
 
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Malappapper

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Azzido Da Bass said:
I watched Alexis with Udinese alot & he had phenomenal dribbling ability drifting past 2-3 players with ease, you don't just lose that i'm afraid, he isn't been given the freedom, he's there to stretch the play & give Messi as much freedom in the middle as possible, likewise he's still great with Chile. Alexis would always take on his man but now it seems he's afraid to lose the ball & takes the safe option.

When Eto'o & Henry were around Messi played on the wing & it was alot more balanced/team effort with everybody chipping in goals & it was a joy to watch, there is no way that will happen again as Messi wont be moved back to the wing because he wants to score goals. He strikes me as a very jealous type with a big ego as much as he likes to hide it, he likes the spotlight no question.

There is no way i'm buying that Xavi is slowing down at 33 he's one of the fittest out there who constantly covers the most ground without breaking a sweat, a great proffesional, the problem is there are no forward runs & the play is extremely narrow with no proper CF & Messi dropping almost as deep as him to collect the ball, what's he supposed to do? Reminds me of Pirlo in his last few years at Milan when Ronaldinho came & was a ball hog & demanded it, swiftly after Ibrahimovic, not allowing the team to be built round him rather a forward, always performed for Italy & with his move to Juventus, well look at him now.

Everything right now in this Barcelona side is to get the best out of Messi & get him goals. hence why it's a one man team, everything has to go through him.

Buy hey if it wins you games then why the hell not! but not for me, it hurts my eyes.
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1. What you say about Alexis sounds absurd to me. He can dribble past 2-3 defenders with ease but he is held back? By whom exactly?

2. Are you really suggesting that Messi is to blame for Alexis/Pedro failures? That is even more absurd.

3. Xavi is not the player he was 5 years ago, or even 2 years ago. He is still pretty darn good, but not as good as he was. Only natural due to his age. He covers less ground than before and most importantly at a lower intensity.

4. Messi performs so well, because he is the best player that there ever was, this urban legend, that Barca somehow magically makes Messi look so awesome is quite obscene. If anything, I would say that our current team, at times is a hindrance to Messi. He creates so much space for Pedro/Alexis and Villa by drawing so many defenders onto him, but they usually fail to capitalize on that. The onus is on the rest of our team, especially the defenders and the wingers to step it up, because in my book, they are failing both Messi, and our brilliant midfield.
 
Tembbi

Tembbi

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SEvolution said:
Berba was shit?

Hargreaves? United miss that guy badly now.

Der Sar better than De Gea = Fact

imho young and jones are just another lot of overrated english talents add Welback and Clev too. (minus young's professional simulation skills)

Non-existent midfield of now and defence i hope Evans and Rafael stay on form as i don't see Vidic getting his super-form back anytime soon.

Kagawa is not proven to be a threat yet.
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Berba was on bench half of his career in ManU, so I wouldn't rate him so highly.
Miss Hargreaves? Are you serious? He appeared in 27 matches in 4 years... He has been horrible ever since he left Munich.

Ahh yea, I forgot about Van der Sar. He for sure was carrying Manure, but that's about it. He's the only player out of those who was clearly a starter.

Basically Manure has replaced one of their starters with 2-3 starters. I don't get how could that be worse.
 
MrXavi_The_Midfield_King

MrXavi_The_Midfield_King

Member
Tembbi said:
Berba was on bench half of his career in ManU, so I wouldn't rate him so highly.
Miss Hargreaves? Are you serious? He appeared in 27 matches in 4 years... He has been horrible ever since he left Munich.

Ahh yea, I forgot about Van der Sar. He for sure was carrying Manure, but that's about it. He's the only player out of those who was clearly a starter.

Basically Manure has replaced one of their starters with 2-3 starters. I don't get how could that be worse.
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Hargreaves is way better than any of Man Utds current midfield not a single one of them can hold a candle to him to be honest he was a possible heir to Scholes plus he could defend, the reason he has such a low 27 appearance stat is because apart from the 07-08 season he was was injured for the other 2/3 years. During the 07/08 season he was a key player in Man Utds European and Domestic success that season
 
Tembbi

Tembbi

New member
You don't call someone who has 27 apps even in one season a key player. 27 out of like 60... Not to mention the 27 includes the matches he came in as a substitute.
 
M

Malappapper

Guest
Originally Posted by ItsEssexRob
Both Inter and Chelsea deserved their wins, they were both a better team than Barcelona on the day and to deny that is logically impossible (unless Chelsea or Inter had help from the referee or outside influences). No team in La Liga seems to be able to recreate this though.
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This from a Chavski fan at another forum.

The level of stupidity of some people is heroic!
 
Paganinisrvnge

Paganinisrvnge

New member
The draw is just a couple days away. Barcelona's possible opponents are: Porto, Arsenal, Milan, Shakhtar, and Galatasaray.

The only team that really could pose a threat from that group is Shakhtar, I think. Meanwhile, Real Madrid's possible opponents are: PSG, Schalke, Juventus, Bayern, or Man U.

I will not be surprised at all when they get Schalke.
 
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