2011-2012 football (soccer) thread - Page 217

On March 16 2012 05:01 Timurid wrote:

Why do la liga funboys always start up shit?
Aside from that Athletic just trashed Utd. I don't understand why park was in the lineup after getting demolish in the first leg? Llorente strike was a beauty and that strike was on his weak foot i believed not to sure tho. Muniain is a beast on the side. Can't wait for the Copa Del Rey Final Athletic vs Barca what a good match. I saw the previous Athletic vs Barca match a few months ago in San Mamés. Messi was lackluster in that game tho and it was raining so the pitch was flying all over the place. Nevertheless, it was a close game! I want Athletic to win the europa to show their cantera policy is awesome!

On March 16 2012 20:08 Pandemona wrote:
APOEL vs Real Madrid

Marsielle vs Bayern Munchen

Benfica vs Chelsea

Milan vs Barcelona


APOEL/Real Madrid vs Marsielle/Bayern Munchen (semi final 1)

Benfica/Chelsea vs Milan/Barcelona (semi final 2)

Semi final 1 vs Semi final 2 (Final)

Biggest news for me, Bayern have chance to play as the HOME team at HOME in the champions league final...niceeee

On March 16 2012 20:29 Steveling wrote:
We can just hand out the cup to Barca already. Noone can stop them.

On March 16 2012 04:43 haitike wrote:
I still cant believe that Bilbao have 23 basque players without any player from other spain province or country. Bilbao "cantera" is awesome.

On March 16 2012 20:24 antas wrote:


I think there are some merit to SPL > BPL sentiment at the moment, at least in term of off the ball movement and workrate, it seems to me that SPL (at least Bilbao) is couple of light years away than average BPL teams. I'm following BPL most of the time, but I do watch SPL in some occassion, and I'm pretty much sure that SPL is much more entertaining for me. Most of the team in SPL do have decent, quick, and more accurate passing than average BPL game. Sometime I feel that most of BPL game is much more frantic, and perhaps a bit harsh to say this, but I think it seems that they are sometime clueless with the ball. And here I'm not talking about Barca and Madrid, I rarely watch them for some reason.

I must admit though, that when it comes to like and dislike, people do have their own preferences of what they love or not. For me, I love quick pass and move football (mostly short and intended pass), some people love long and direct football (kick & rush) etc. But I'm quite confident to say, in regards to off the ball movement, Bilbao are some degree better than average BPL team.

Regarding Sir Alex decission to start Park, I believe that he didn't want Bilbao to control the midfield area, like what they did in the first leg. Park arguably still the best defensive attacking midfield, with the highest workrate, that MU have. And with Giggs playing in front of the midfield center, MU need Park to provide some cover for that. Giggs is good, but certainly can't keep up with sheer energy and workrate of Bilbao midfields, this something that Park can offer. While I can justify the inclusion of Park, I can't see the reason why Hernandez or Chicarito not playing. Both Hernandez and Chicarito love to exploit the space behind the defense line, and with high defense line that Bilbao played, both of them will almost guaranteed to create something, or the very least they can push Bilbao defense back to their own goal. Perhaps Sir Alex didn't think that Bilbao will play with high defense line after the precious away win at Old Trafford. (or perhaps it was just simply that Sir Alex doesn't want to lose concentration in the EPL).

On March 16 2012 20:47 Tommylew wrote:

you do know Hernandez and Chicorato is the same person? haha

Anyway yeh, Alex fergusons has shocked me in all of his team selections in Europe this year no wonder man utd got knocked out of champions league and now the uefa cup! GIGGS IS NOT A CENTRE MIDFIELDER AND WILL NEVER BE ONE.... sorry they need to buy two centre midfielders untill pogba comes along... as carrick is too inconsistent, Jones is out of his depth playing there and park while he has workrate cant do the job of 2-3 people...Scholes cant play in mroe then two games in a row, Cleverley is ok but not brilliant, his passing last night was shcoking.... Then thats how bad it is.. I cant think of any other centre midfielder... and that is bad... playing people outof their natural position is not the way to play and nowonder that they are losing so much in europe and the league(and yes i know their top but the EPL has been shocking this year)