AKU DAH CAKAP DAH, not even the death of ALves' role, he isn't even in starting line up



3-3-4 it seems. I expect Cesc to bombard forward more this time around. And please players, finish off your chances efficiently!!

Força Barça!!!!!!

This post has been edited by matyrze: Apr 25 2012, 02:35 AM

Bayern or Real. Anyone will do.

Congratz to Chelsea then. Though I can't give much credit too bus-parking tactic which conceded 2 goals

And hats off to our players. They must be dissappointed but the crowd know they've given their best. Nice to see they cheered up the players in the end. You see that's the thin line for ya. If Messi scored his penalty, Chelsea performance will have become of poor and lacking substance, instead of being hailed as brilliant right now.

Time for renewing Pep's contract and rebuilding with players like Thiago, Tello and Cuenca. Cuenca especially did well against the bus Tello's speed didn't help much.

Don't be sure yet. If Iniesta or Xavi get to score in the EURO final the Ballon will go to them

For Messi, yeah he is having a bit of a rough patch now. But flop of the match? Drogba did nothing up front, and conceded a penalty too. But he is no flop?

Again no, there's no one mistake. Especially Pep, not his. I don't agree that we abandoned our defence completely. Except in the last part which was understandable though, we needed to throw bodies upfront.

3 at the back or 4, both are not going to make any difference when our backline was so high. Myabe our backline was at fault for losing a bit concentration, but IMO little else could be done. There's risk to playing high back line, and that was exactly happened.

Come to think of it, probably all 3 goals we conceded was as a result of poor concentration. Hardly tactical error to me. Maybe we just need Pique badly as the calmer head.

THIS!!

I've been saying this all along. People say we need CB, but honestly no current CBs are in tiki taka mould. There are world class like Hummels, Silva, Chiellini etc etc, but ask this to yourself; what if they are left stranded 20 meters away from Valdes, and some speedy bloke is going through one on one with him. The truth is, many CB are comfortable defending nearer to their goal.

I think we should get another goal poacher though. So far Sanchez is our prominent front man, which obviously is not that type of player. Should get another Villa me think. But please no Neymar, I prefer someone who like to pick mushroom. Just like him

How I wish we had an open game like the one going on now. Both teams have initiatives going forward, with some true qualities too. Our match on the other hand, one didn't have sharpness to attack, the other, well, they parked the friggin Airbus.

Interesting choice he is. But he isn't a goalscorer either. I'd rather we continue our grooming from La Masia. Rafinha have been knocking on the first team doors with his performance with B team this season.

Yes they they are controlling the game better. Well either one of these teams deserve to be the win the cup though. Really hope a team that played like Greece, but assembled with hunderds of millions euros, fell in the final. Although I'm a Barca fan, and supposed to be anti merda through and through, I hope for the sake of football RM will win it if they get through. Nvm, you can win your decima. Madrdistas have been waiting like 10 years after all.

Well Madrid also have struggled against bus parking in La Liga this season. So they may also struggle against Chelsea. But really if Chelsea want their defensive tactic working again they better improve it, because as I said earlier, I can't say I would give much credit to an ultra defensive tactic that conceded 2 goals, and conceded a penalty too. If they employ same defensive style but with the same level of tactical awareness, they may not get lucky for the 2nd time, regardless of who their opponent is.

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Added on April 26, 2012, 5:25 amLOLOL where's your decimaaaaaaa???

This post has been edited by matyrze: Apr 26 2012, 05:25 AM

That's how a UCL semi should be played out Worth sacrificing my sleeping time, although I think both teams ran out of gas in 2nd half onwards.

No Spanish team? No problem, I'll root for Bayern to win

This post has been edited by matyrze: Apr 26 2012, 05:39 AM

Nothing has been finalized yet, but things are really not looking good atm

If my calculation is correct, Rosell, Zubi and Pep will all appear in a press conference at 7.30 pm Malaysia time. Based on reports in Catalunya he is not going to continue, and many sources also said about the sabbatical thing. Apparently though Rosell has left the contract offer on Pep's desk, in case Pep changed his mind.....

Ohhh..

Nooo...

This gotta be a nightmare....

Yeah I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Honestly I was close to crying when I heard the official statements. Hard to explain why. Probably because this team has Pep's name all over it. Once the man leave it's like we are lost. Yeah we have candidates like Bielsa and Blanc who are also good footballing minds in their own rights, but no one is similar to Pep's. One of my concerns is about the continuity of our policy to promote more youth players into the squad.

Surprisingly this club made another great decision when very few people could think about it. I really think with Tito in charge, we are still in the 'appropriate' hands.

I'm sad with Pep leaving, but I'm excited to continue the journey under Tito. So yeah, its actually a happy ending for everybody

He has actually notified the club that he could not go on since October last year. Nothing to do with Chelsea game.

Because of this, I highly doubt that Pep will take on another managerial job at other club. The talks that he will go to England are just rumors.

This post has been edited by matyrze: Apr 28 2012, 12:18 AM

I think Bielsa was everyone's favorite. You can see it in the poll in sport.es. I didn't even see Tito's name in the poll.

Till end of June iinm.

Pep Guardiola Leaves Barcelona As The Biggest Legend In Our History

Pep Guardiola has decided to leave FC Barcelona after 4 glorious years in which our club has achieved sporting excellence and matured into a much stronger, respected and well-organised institution.

Pep Guardiola's highly anticipated press conference did not turn out as I expected. While I was fairly sure the most successful coach in Barcelona history would leave, I must admit my heart was in denial and refused to believe the obvious truth even minutes after the dreaded announcement was made.

Pep Guardiola explained: “Four years is an eternity as Barcelona manager. The next person will be able to offer things that I wasn’t able to offer. It has been very demanding and a coach has to be strong and be able to get that energy across to the players. I have to recover it and I’ll do that by resting. I am leaving with the sensation of having done a good job and I’m proud of what I’ve done here, I am leaving at peace with myself”

Devastating news. In my mind, I had pictured Guardiola becoming Barcelona's version of the job Sir Alex Ferguson has been doing at Manchester United for decades: A man who knows the ins and outs of the club, someone who Culés can refer to when times turn ugly, an authoritative father figure who flies our Blaugrana flag with pride.

I was wrong - Guardiola decided to leave after giving Barcelona the best years of our over 110 years of history.

While many thoughts keep wandering around my mind at this stage, all I can say is: Thank you.

Thank you for the two Champions Leagues, three Ligas, two Clubs World Cups, two European Supercups, one Copa del Rey and three Spanish Supercups - Let's hope we can add another Copa del Rey next month and end on an even higher note!

Thank you for leading Barcelona to a 72% win rate under your management, scoring over 2.5 goals and only conceding 0.73 per match. Achieving such statistics while practising the most attractive football in the planet took Johan Cruyff's revolutionary attacking model into a whole new level.

Thank you for promoting Barcelona B to the Segunda Division and giving our youngsters a chance to compete at the highest level. Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Victor Valdes and many others wouldn't be where they are today without your guidance.

Thank you for making us Catalans proud by always promoting our name around the world, defending our values of hard work and determination, continuously searching for ways to build on our success. The Gold Medal that you were awarded by the Parliament of Catalonia is fully deserved.

Thank you for being honest with our players, fans and yourself. I can think of many managers who would have happily held to their privileged position and continued to collect their wages at the end of every month while doing the job half-heartedly. The fact you walked away the very second you realised you didn't feel fully committed to the job honours you.

I could go on signing Guardiola's praises for hours but, honestly, words can not explain how much admiration and respect El Noi De Santpedor has earned since he joined our La Masia academy as a skinny youngster back in 1984.

I am proud to say Guardiola will remain in Barcelona hearts forever, a legendary reference for future generations.

Gràcies Pep.

http://blogs.soccernet.com/barcelona/archi...s_as_the_bi.php

What is the point of this park the bus vs defensive tactic argument? What are you guys trying to achieve?

IMO park-the-bus is just another term of defensive tactic, it just carries more derogative term. That's why the term is a bit sensitive towards fans of clubs who employ the tactic, but ultimately there are more or less the same. Oh, there is also positive term for ultra-defensive tactic being coined around too nowadays. Remember the word 'pragmatic'? All these are just word play la.

It is certainly not about formation. For me, no matter if they employ 10-0-0, 4-6-0 or 4-5-1, as long as their system is set up just to stop opponents from playing, that can be considered ultra defensive, or bus/titanic/airbus parking tactics. Hence that was exactly what Chelsea employed.

Cant you guys just agree with that? That Chelsea was on the pitch just to stop Barca from playing? That they were ultra defensive? That they were being pragmatic? That they have the moon to be their GK?

Like neohardcore said, no matter what we say, in the end Chelsea won. So why bother arguing?

Finally people need to stop with this definition thing la. I've seen many such discussion here in Football Lounge. Definition of this and that la. Criteria on how to determine batter manager/player la. People need to understand that the criteria being put up are also OPINIONS i.e however correct that opinion may look, it is still an opinion, hence it can be both correct and false, until some empirical study is done on the issue. People need to accept that people have different opinions. Respect it, if you don't want to accept it!

Ooo so it was for fun? OK go on. You get TS's approval. As long as no personal remark ok?

So, neo elok2 sikit pakai 'lahanat' ni, aku piap kang baru tau

This post has been edited by matyrze: Apr 29 2012, 04:51 PM

Or "Thank you Captain Obvious". Pep's ing.

Of all transfers you suggested there the most unlikely one is a world class goalkeeper. Valdes confirmed here to stay.



This post has been edited by matyrze: May 1 2012, 03:47 PM