La Liga Week 26

Dolph Starbeam

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Espanyol v Mallorca
Getafe v Atletico Madrid
Osasuna v Deportivo La Coruna
Real Sociedad v Levante
Real Zaragoza v Athletic Bilbao
Sevilla v Sporting Gijon
Valencia v Barcelona
Villarreal v Hercules

Thursday, 3 March 2011

Real Madrid v Malaga
Almeria v Racing Santander

Glico Man

3rd vs 1st at the Mestalla where Barça have only won once in 5 visits, against a resurgent Valencia makes for a great game for neutrals and a worry for the Blaugrana.

Delighted Xavi and Alves return after missing the Mallorca game, and Pep travels despite some back trouble.

dfx-

Any word on Villa?

Warper

dfx- wrote: »

Any word on Villa?

Losing 1-0

No team news yet but he's part of the squad so he should play.

Glico Man

dfx- wrote: »

Any word on Villa?

Trying to find any news on the team, but he should start.

He hasn't scored in the last 5 games between these two for either side, so I wouldn't be putting money on him

redout

Lineups here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=70959823&postcount=3243

Didnt see thread!

redout

Seriously, Sky need to drop this co-commentator.

He has been wrecking my head since last season.

LuckyGent88

Macherano is playing WTF!!!!!!!

redout

Ok it looks like Adriano LM, Mascherano DMF, Abidal LB and Busquets CB.

Headshot

Valencia have been the better team so far

dreamers75

Valencia the better side but Messi should have scored at least one of the 3 chances he had.

redout

dreamers75 wrote: »

Valencia the better side but Messi should have scored at least one of the 3 chances he had.

In fairness Costa got jammy with the second attempt. He knew nothing about it and was just fortunate it hit his leg. Messi should have done better though.

Headshot

banega having a great game

dreamers75

hmmmm offside?

LuckyGent88

unlucky from hernandez there but Messi needs to find his shooting boots again

LuckyGent88

MESSI

JPA

Go go Messi. Good from Adriano.

redout

Said it a couple of weeks ago will say it again - no better time to be playing Barca.

Last 4 weeks they have been nothing but poor/average.

43 now for God - Taking Busquets from midfield is pointless.

Masch has no creativity - he can defend but not much else.

LuckyGent88

Massive win from Barca there.

elefant

Ah, kick in the nads. :mad:

Banega is an animal. Best midfielder in Spain after Xavi and Iniesta imo. Hope he's back to his best again now after his fat period.
Alba was also class. Flatters to deceive at times, but showed his potential today. Jonas looks very promising aswell, he could be an absolute bargain.

No shame in losing to Barca, but as usual Valencia are so close yet so far.

(Also, a team with Stankevicius and Dealbert in the starting line-up is doing well to only let in one against any team, never mind FCB!:D)

eZe^

Banega was an animal tonight, dominated Barca's midfield with Costa for most the game really. He's still not as good as our Busqi though.

MASSIVE win there. Let's hope Pellegrini can show Mourinho how much better he was at Madrid tomorrow night.

dfx-

Poor enough from Barca, but a monstrously big win that. Massive three points.

Again, the basis of the poorness is having Busquets at centre half. I wish Guardiola would stop it. :mad:

Changing him to midfield changed the game at home to Bilbao and again tonight. Pep is not that clever to make him a centre-half. Keep him in midfield and use Mascherano when needed as sub. Hopefully the return of Puyol will end this nonsense.

Abidal had another great game and Xavi controlling the ball after slipping late on

redout

dfx- wrote: »

Poor enough from Barca, but a monstrously big win that. Massive three points.

Again, the basis of the poorness is having Busquets at centre half. I wish Guardiola would stop it. :mad:

Changing him to midfield changed the game at home to Bilbao and again tonight. Pep is not that clever to make him a centre-half. Keep him in midfield and use Mascherano when needed as sub. Hopefully the return of Puyol will end this nonsense.

Abidal had another great game and Xavi controlling the ball after slipping late on

Agree ^ and that Xavi control was Jizz - Need a gif of that so we do.

Dolph Starbeam

Will Barca be signing a centre back this summer at all? Any sort of injury to either centre back and we are really struggling, Abidal is a fine cover but i would only trust him as short term cover, do Bartra or Muniesa or any of the other B Team players look like they will be able to make the step up when Puyol decides to hang up his boots?

Talking of that piece of control by Xavi i seen this one earlier of the game against Athletic when Iniesta slipped and kept it under control.




edit; oops i thought this was the Barca thread for a minute, maybe that question is more suited over there

Warper

I think Pep is remembering YaYa back there as a central defender 2 seasons ago in the C.L. Toure was brilliant so maybe he thinks he can do the same with Sergio but it is not working out primarily because we are losing his attacking instincts and Masch is doing nothing.

eZe^

Warper wrote: »

I think Pep is remembering YaYa back there as a central defender 2 seasons ago in the C.L. Toure was brilliant so maybe he thinks he can do the same with Sergio but it is not working out primarily because we are losing his attacking instincts and Masch is doing nothing.

I don't think it's that, I think it's more to do with the fact that he is playing a 3-5-2, Messi and Villa were well marshalled tonight by Valencia, as soon as Pedro came on the game changed, not because Busquets was playing further forward (imo anyway), but because the extra attacker made it easier for Adriano to isolate Stankevicius. Adriano beat him a few times in the first half, but he was isolated thereafter, once Pedro was on, the extra attacker gave him more options, so instead of shooting wildly, he layed it off beautifully to Messi.

If we play 3 at the back, we HAVE to coincide it with 3 up top, a 3-5-2 doesn't work. A 3-4-3 does as it is basically just a manipulated version of a 4-3-3, something which Barca seem to employ when attacking anyway.

dfx-

I do simply think it's because the team is out of sync with Busquets at the back. What you can get away with with a back four behind you and as a centre-half is different.

At half time, Bilbao brought on Toquero to hassle the back two of Pique and Busquets and he did indeed terrorise them. Busquets gave away the penalty by trying to do one of his blind turns on the edge of the box and then went to ground catching Llorente. Pique should've been sent off. That's not to do with Mascherano. As soon as the change was made and Abidal & Pique were there, you barely saw either Toquero or Llorente.

It was the same again last night. Yaya Toure could do the job..but it hasn't worked with Busquets. Valencia and Bilbao are very dodgy games to pick to be messing around in.

Barcelona's staple should be 4-3-3 with Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta as the middle three with a combination of Abidal/Pique/Puyol/Milito if absolutely necessary at the back. There is the squad to handle a few injuries to this set-up. Why reinvent the wheel against two of the toughest sides to face?

RandolphEsq

Willy hoping to keep a clean sheet tonight for Malaga :pac:

RandolphEsq

GOAL FOR REAL! Manolo makes a horror mistake and Di Maria dashes forward to slide the ball under Willy *snigger*. Fine finish. 2-0

RandolphEsq

3-0. Well I'm enjoying this game even if no one else is!

Bodhisopha

A lot of empty seats...

CR 7

On this weeks Ronaldowatch: Ronaldo scores!!!:eek:

That one he missed would have been some goal too.

Peyton Manning

Ronaldo scored? Wahey, back aboard the bandwagon!

CR 7

Next stop Hattricksville, the way he's playing.:pac:

flahavaj

Did someone say bandwagon?

Get in.

LuckyGent88

This game is a joke. Malaga are brutal. This could end up in double digits for Madrid. Ref should just blow it up now

CR 7

2-0 to Ronaldo now.

CR 7

Willy obviously didn't get the memo. StopsDelays Ronaldo's hat trick goal.

RandolphEsq

Sex

Headshot

this could be very bad for Madrid, Ronaldo is injured

Peyton Manning

Park Ji Sung wrote: »

Willy obviously didn't get the memo.

Believe me, three shirtless pictures in a row.....willy definitely got the memo!

CR 7

GGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!!

Ronaldo 3-0

RandolphEsq

¡RONALDO! ¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL A MADRID!

CR 7

I call this one 'An Ode to Willy'

What He did tonight was heroic
At times His control was poetic
He played through the pain
And stayed in the game
Until He completed His hat-trick

flahavaj

Park Ji Sung wrote: »

I call this one 'An Ode to Willy'

What He did tonight was heroic
At times His control was poetic
He played through the pain
And stayed in the game
Until He completed His hat-trick

So selfless. A real man.

CR 7

flahavaj wrote: »

So selfless. A real man.

So real that even his team pays homage to him Real M 7 -0Malaga

redout

Park Ji Sung wrote: »

So real that even his team pays homage to him Real M 7 -0Malaga

Fitting indeed :pac:

Dolph Starbeam

^ Sadly it took me a while to get that, I like it though.