Fat Ronaldo and Messi have their own strength and advantages. However based on how he has exerted his influence all over the world just by his performances on the field, I think Messi at 24 is already catching Ronaldo up That's why we hear pundits and footballing legends alike are comparing him with Maradona and Pele already.

Nowadays if you follow Skysport's review on each UCL match days, you would seldom fail to see Graeme Souness' jaw drop in awe. Just love the expression

Official line up:

Pinto, Puyol, Piqué, Fontàs, Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Thiago, Iniesta, Pedro, Cesc and Cuenca

Bench:
Valdés, Muniesa, Tello, Sergi Roberto and Dos Santos.

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Added on December 23, 2011, 4:41 amOnly Pinto isn't ex-Masia

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Added on December 23, 2011, 5:00 amWorking link for me http://realsportz101.blogspot.com/2011/10/channel-2.html

This post has been edited by matyrze: Dec 23 2011, 05:00 AM

I think it was because of some local sentiment. There was some scare that the game may have had poor attendance. L'Hospitalet is located just several miles from Camp Nou, so it is some sorta a 'derby', but with a poor turn up, that would really put a dent on local pride.

But the game received much better response than everybody expected. So what a local manager like Pep can reward the fans? By fielding local World Cup winning players of course. And it will be some sort of respect towards the neightbours. Many of their players even have Camp Nou season ticket. Surely it was their dream to play against Iniesta and Xavi? So yeah, its all about feeling and sentiment. Too bad for Iniesta's injury, but I think Pep has done the right thing.

BTW, Iniesta is out for 2 weeks IINM. That'd be covered up by Christmas holidays then

I understand your sentiment.

Well, for me this is what set the Spanish game apart from football in other countries. The Spanish game is anything but business. There's a lot of sentiment in the game, both for good and bad.

I do think that accusing Pep of being irresponsible is a bit unfair. This is not Iniesta's first injury. We had gone through with various injuries we encountered in the past 3 1/2 years under Pep. And I'm pretty sure we've gone through most of them fairly successfully. And I would attribute our success solely to Pep

LOL epicness is full in t6his video

Start watching from 2:30

I've even downloaded it

Quite honestly it was a bit boring. The most interesting part is only when they talk with Cesc's family at Camp Nou. I guess if Skypsort appointed a male reporter to cover the story it could be funnier and more humor. It was such a waste for not covering Pique-Cesc jokes. I think Informe Robinson show (Robinson's an English guy but speak perfect Spanish) has done much better interview with our players. Much more natural. And I think Skysport asked like 3 or 4 questions, all about his feeling when he left Arsenal. So yeah, perhaps it was a show targeted for Arsenal fans in England.

No lah, he is obviously happy here. But when the Skysport reporter ask him questions regarding AW and Arsenal of course he had to answer nicely. Hmm just download it yourself better

I think you'll be disappointed. Right now it has been a stuff of legend in Catalunya that Messi has started training merely 1 hour after his plane from Argentina touched down on Monday. So no its not Pep who think our players are like robots and don't need rest, its the players themselves But yeah the decision will be all down to Pep. Hopefully everything will turn out well whatever his decision will be.

I don't expect Astro to deliver tonight. I do expect however that my frigging screamyx will be up to the task to deliver the best quality of streaming.

Oh just realized barcastuff posted it an hour ago. So Messi will not play then

LOL at one of barcastuff quiz:

Messi played 57 games with Barcelona in 2011. In how many of those 57 games was he subbed off: 1, 4, 7, or 10?

Answer: 1

And IINM he was never brought on as substituted, except for Cultural Leonesa CDR match last season. So that would make it full 90 minutes appearance in 55 matches? Whatever the number is, Messi surely is a beast, literally

Messi just had to come on and score goals even though he has flu

The best action Guardiola Barca 2-4 at Arsenal played in the group stage of Champions League 1999-2000 with Van Gaal as coach. The Barcelona formed with a 4-3-3 composed: Arnau, Reiziger, Abelardo, Bogarde, Sergi, Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Cocu, Figo, Kluivert y Rivaldo.

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Added on January 6, 2012, 2:16 amPep going forward was like Xavi, Pep when staying back and controlling tempo was just like Busquets Talking about inherited philosophy of the team

This post has been edited by matyrze: Jan 6 2012, 02:16 AM

Oh f*** not this shit again. Just got spammed by my friends with that shit in facebook

Well if the team gonna come here, the host stadium should make sure the pitch will be in top condition. Tiki-taka is not gonna work on some potato patch.

Relax guys, I'm pretty sure there are better, lower tones to response to 99killer's post.

Flop is a harsh word to describe Messi's performance. Argentina's failures in international tournements is not Messi's fault alone. Football is a game of 11 players. To succeed in a tourney all 11 players on the pitch have to play their part. The questioned for you the skeptic, have Messi played his part with Argentina?

Head to Goal.com, they have stats showing that he's scored 4 goals and assisted another 10 goals in 13 matches last year. Isn't that good enough?

There are several factors why Messi hasn't won anything with Argentina yet IMO:

1) Argentina has no coach with the caliber of Pep/Mou/SAF. Good tactician is important to create a winning football team.

2) Its not because Messi doesn't have Xaviesta behind to support him. With Argentina instead of being the goalscorer, he has become their Xaviesta. Copa America highlights would show you what is the current role of Messi in Argentina team.



As you see, Messi has hardly had any shot attempts.

Messi however needs Argentina to have sturdier back line. That is Argentina's weakest area. I dunno of any upcoming new defender from Argentina. But I really hope they find somebody to replace Burdisso, and most importantly, the ever horrible snail-paced Demichelis.

@tzxsean,

tl:dr dude

But I think the question is about how La Liga teams play differently against RM and Barca right?

My opinion is yes, I think LL teams this season has put up better fights against us than against Madrid. Especially away from home, Barca have been made to work doubly hard to gain even a draw, even harder than how RM and MU made us.

But I don't think that's because the opponents tried harder against us, and laid dead against RM. I think that's kinda too simplistic.

IMO LL teams are generally too slow against a fast counterattacking teams. Take Valencia, so called the best of the rest, for example. They've done brilliantly against us. But when they played Chelsea at SB, they couldn't replicate that performance. That's because Chelsea was set out to play defensively, completely isolated Soldado upfront, and hit on the counterattack through Drogba. Valencia also struggled against RM at Mestalla. Well RM didn't exactly play counterattacking, as Valencia themselves tried to play contain football at the back, but RM's pacey players really unsettled them.

However, because they play at slower pace, they have better tactical nous. So when they are up against us, they tend to play better because firstly they've learnt pretty well from experience, and secondly because we also used to play at slow pace, which fit our opponents rather well. As a result, not only LL opponents can contain our tactics, they even get to play their own possession football against ours.

So why a fast RM team still find it difficult to contain Barca's slow paced style? Its because Barca's tactical nous is so much superior than other LL teams, that pace alone is not sufficient to beat Barca. Current RM team need better tactical skills in their squad in order to compete with Barca on the pitch. RM hasn't really learned from experience as good as other LL teams. The same can be said about MU and Arsenal.

So yeah, it is a case of the ball being round. A tactic may defeat this team easily, but may struggle against other. The same can be said about tiki-taka. But I still prefer tiki-taka much more than other tactics. So far it has serve us really well by completely conquering sides like RM and Man Utd, both are among the best club sides in recent years.

My RM0.02

Mourinho's problem is not because his team is newly assembled. 2 years is long enough for a manger to transmit his ideas to his team, especially for a coach as bright as him.

His problem is the kind of players he has in his disposal. There is no defensive players with great tactical mind who can anticipate our movements 1 or 2 steps earlier. I must say, this players: Pepe, Khedira, Lass, Marcelo, their defensive abilities are hugely overrated. Expecially Diarra. Quite honestly the reason we managed to control the midfield in Clasicos is because of Diarra's flaws. Pepe is thug, who solely depends on his aggresiveness. No brain, no, absolutely none.

Ramos is their best defensive player, but IMHO he too has sooo much too learn. And I've watch him a lot while playing for RM and Spain.

I don't believe squad depth is that important to build title winning teams. Evidence? Our team lah We are halfway into Pep's 4th season, and no season did we have such so-called strength in depth. But how many titles we won again? We won those titles with exactly the same player-repositioning system you mentioned. That's Pep's way of rotatiing system.

In LL alone there are 38 matches played. Include UCL and CDR and Super Cups. With that amount of matches, everybody know how RM play. Its just that RM players can be too pacey for LL teams.

One question, who played as CB for us against Man Utd last season?

In Rome final, what was our backline again?

Rotating position will not hurt the system, if it is implemented correctly.

This post has been edited by matyrze: Jan 12 2012, 02:15 AM

I'm still not convinced. Having a large group of players will compromise the quality of the team too, in the sense that, the fringe players almost always are not of the same quality of the main players. What's the difference with Pep's reposition policy? You know, its not like FIFA, that is, if you reposition a 90 points rated DM to CB, his rating will drop to 60-70. The system dictate how well they play.

The only risk of Pep's system is the fitness of our players. But if you reflect further, you'll realize no matter how big your squad is, if you are unlucky with injuries, it can hit your the depth of your team hard too.

There's risk if you take either way. Its Pep's job to find the balance. So far, despite we being 5 points behind, I think we are still doing a great job. We are still in contention for everything. Oh and not to forget what we've won this season.

And about the quality of our youngsters, you may ask any Cule around, were they not impressed with Sergi Roberto and Cuenca this season? I'm pretty sure the answer will be emphatic 'YES'.