₦airaland Forum

A40:
I no too crazy about Pep but iro o da. Barca were not favorites going to that Final at all.

You were not here in the days of the 'holy trinity' Rooney-Ronaldo-Tevez

I have told that guy to log off.He's having too much internet.How was Barca the favorite when Puyol was playing as RB,Sylvinho as LB,yaya as CB,Busquet that I dont know if I ever watched him play was a DM against Man utd that were defending champions and a Ronaldo that scored a 30-35 yard screamer against Arsenal.

Eruditor:
It is the same way CFC lost 4-0 to Ole's united

Same way Tottenham lost 2-7 to Kovac.

The scoreline did not tell the real story.

Tottenham were abysmal in that game.They were a little decent in the first half and totally fell apart in the 2nd half.Bayern should've at least had an extra goal because they were denied a clear penalty.The scoreline really spoke about that match

A40:
And yet they won La Liga on a canter. What tactical input would Villanova had done that would save them from defeat?

The question is why did Pep lead essentially the same Bayern to disgrace in the subsequent season? Since we are discrediting coaches.

Explain how an 11 vs 11 Bayern suffered it's worst loss in CL history a year after winning treble. Maybe we would have been better off without a head coach

So you want to compare winning La liga that streches over a span of 38 games to a champions league knockout game of 2 legs?? Playing a high flying Bayern side without a headcoach and a very inexperienced assistant manger that was yet to spend 1 season in top flight football was a time bomb that was always going to explode.Not even going to give the excuse of the fact that Barca were playing with an unfit Messi.This was during the period the manager was diagnosed with cancer and psychologically the team were defeated before the ball was kicked.Bayern were clear favorites going into that tie despite the fact that Barca were the team to beat at during that period.

You can't possibly be asking what a coach would've done vs what his assistant would've done in the same scenario.He is the head coach for a reason.Experience has always mattered in the competition.Even if Barca were to lose,the damage would've been minimal.It could've been a close tie,it could've been a case of winning at alianz arena and losing/drawing at Camp Nou

Pochettino a very experienced head coach was handed 7 goals at home.Imagine what that game would've been with his assistant at the dug out of that match

And on your question,how did he lead them to disgrace??the league was pretty much a 1 horse race.Got them playing almost the same football.Brought Lahm back playing football as an u19 wonder kid.Players flourished under him.Led them to 2 Champions league semi finals.Could fault him for not beating Athletico Madrid but can't absolve the team for ball watching Saul dance through the midfiled to score and Alaba forgetting that he was a defender inside his own penalty area.Also theres no shame in losing to MSN.Bayern dominated the first leg but Lewandoski forgot how to score

Lack of winning the champions league was his only fault at Bayern

Nothing dey pain Epl fans more than what Pep is doing to the high and mighty league.Turning the league into a circus football theatre.Winning the league with almost 100 points is a fact most of them cannot stomach.They said he only had Real Madrid and Dortmund to contend with.Right now the two potential league winners are now pre determined before the first ball of the season is kicked and the whole Anybody can win the league,Leicester did it bs is now flying out of the window.Most of them can't live to face that Pep wants to turn Man City to Barcelona where he makes sure FA Cup is won every season.They are now coming with the excuse of "he needs to win the champions league with Man city,He spends to much" but their bias will not let them see how much Klopp has spent since he can to England without smelling any trophy if not that Barca dashed him one.By the time Pep is finished with England,you clowns will mold his statue and bow down to worship him

spillo1:
LMFAO Bayern who raped and demolished Barca on their way to winning the treble was not the best team in Europe. I just keep reading dumb things here all day.

No glorification in beating a team with no head coach that were psychologically won before the game even started.The Barca team then was a mess and Bayern took full advantage of that.

popizaino:
Yimu


Pep guardiola bayern Munich squad of 2015/2016 was more dreadful than the squad under jupp heyckens ask raumdeuter.

Jupp heyckens should thank his lucky star that the Barcelona side he faced was more or less without a coach.

Thank you.People want to talk trash that Barca lost 7 - 0 but also forgot that the Tito Vilanova was at the hospital at the time of that match and that game was spearheaded by the assistant coach.

De Ligt made a mistake moving to Juventus.Dude has been terrible so far and is so prone to mistake.Looks highly uncomfortable when he is under pressure.Cost Netherlands a goal tonight like has done all season at Juve.

Bonucci doesn't look like a defender that will teach him the ropes on how to have the calmness of a CB.This is what he could've learnt under a proper system at Barca and under a player like Pique.Under a fitting system,he will grow as he has the potential to be a Pique/VVD kind of player,but premature and poor development may ruin him as Juve doesn't even have a structure to develop young players.smh

Meanwhile De Jong is proving to be an iniesta kind of player.Totally bossed the midfield this evening and got an assist.Watching him is like watching iniesta.Dude plays with so much confidence and he turns exactly like our magical No 8.Only fouls tactically and is so composed.So much love that guy

IKON360:
Yup, you don't watch Barcelona matches.
And even the Enrique you want to praise left Barcelona with his tail between his legs, we won only Copa Del Rey in his last season, and Enrique had a better team than Valverde, in fact he had a more fearsome attack than even Guardiola, Rijkaard or even Cruyff, yet he won UCL only once... Enrique under achieved with what he had at his disposal. Look the match that Juventus beat us 3 - 0, after the miracle against PSG, we were basically clueless and 2nd leg ended in a draw. And how is winning La Liga twice now a sign that a coach has flopped? In which country did you hear that one? So as Guardiola is winning only Premier league and domestic trophies in England, he has flopped? As Klopp won two Bundesliga titles with Dortmund he had flopped? As Diego Simeon won just one league title with Athletic Madrid and reached UCL final twice he has flopped?

Winning la liga is like bragging we beat Madrid at Santiago Bernaleo.That's how the standards are right now.We will hate to lose there but you won't see us making noise that we beat Madrid at their own stadium.The same thing with La liga.Its something we would all love to have at the end of each season but its nothing to tag 'great' for a barca manager

IKON360:
Benchmark for Barca coaches is winning treble? Since when? Na you write that one for club portfolio lmao. Only 2 coaches in the history of Barcelona have won the treble, Guardiola and Enrique, these fans sef will just be creating job profile for who they didn't employ nor who they are paying

I said it SHOULD be.We have done twice in the past 10 years.We have pretty much La liga and copa del rey wrapped up before the season even begins as Madrid have prioritised UCL over the league title and we play and win very well irrespective of how tight both competitions are.No need of speaking of the copa del rey.The "only" competition we really should be gunning for is the champions league.

We can't taste the treble success twice,know we can achieve it and still settle for less

SoNature:
Mind what you wish others because nobody is immune to bad leadership

Hes just an internet keyboard warrior

hardeycute:
Wetin Marc do different?

Not his fault when he has a shiity defence and useless team that can't defend.Last time I checked,Neuer conceded 4 against Netherlands.So your point is??

Some clown already quoted me that is just a friendly that's why Marc played ahead of Neuer. What an excuse .

I already said Germany should call his bluff by playing Marc and now let's see if that Bayern president get two heads not to send his players when they are called

kendrick93:
bad influence on the dressing room too. Pep thought he had too much influence,also they were worried about how negative he would have influenced a young Messi then

Pep kicked him out mainly because of his lifestyle outside the field and his showboating inside the field.While the influence on Messi off the field could be one of the reasons,that was not the main reason cause Ronaldinho had already taken Messi under his wings and had postively influenced him greatly on the field.So the whole negative influence was an excuse to kick him out especially since Rijkaard had already complained of his behaviour.

His main reason was he knew he couldn't control Ronaldinho.Its not coincidence that he had same relationship with Eto'o then Ibra and they all say the same thing about him.Ibra has complained on Pep dictating the kind of cars his players drove.He also said that Xavi,Messi and Co didn't complain about all those stuffs but him being who he is couldn't take that kind of stuff.That his lifestyle off the pitch has never impacted that of his on the field

kendrick93:
academy players indeed.... You talk as if xavi iniesta Messi pique are just run of the mill players,dude barca won the lottery with those guys....imagine having greatest player alongside two GOAT midfielders coming up from your academy....pep of course did his best but don't act like he wasn't lucky to have that kind of quality players coming up at the same time... Any competent coach would have won the Champions league with those guys

Which lottery?? Where were this two players before he took over?? Where were there the previous season before he took over that team??Were they GOAT midfileders before he took over??Who gave Iniesta his debut??Why didnt Rijkaard win with those two??Didnt he have them.What then happened after Pep left the club.How many times did the two win it after he left??He's lucky cause he won it with them but other coaches that had same players didn't win it because they were not so lucky.Dude log off.You have had too much internet

kendrick93:
I'm not saying pep didn't do anything, of course he did well playing the kind of football and winning trophies but what I'm saying is he had a quality team,a solid base to build on.. A team that contains iniesta,puyol,abidal,alves,xavi,iniesta, henry,eto'o and a 23yr old Messi isn't a dud team.... They massively underperformed in previous seasons. The moment pep sold Ronaldinho who was at the time a bad influence and gave Messi the keys,half of his job was Already done...
My main gripe with you is you saying man united were favourites going into that final, they weren't....

Ronaldinho was deemed a bad influence because of his lifestyle off the field not because he was actually a bad one.Guardiola has always like having control over what his player does on and off the field.Why do you think he fell out with Ibrahimovic??

Eruditor:
I am losing my patience with how dull you are.

You are using what that team achieved that season to argue how good they were before the season. Is everything okay upstairs?

Going into the final? Who managed them when they had to play qualifiers before getting into the UCL let alone finals?

Have you ever seen favorites playing qualifiers for the actual competition?

Xavi had over 35 assists that season? Who coached him into having 35 assists?

You don't see that you are making my argument for me.

That Kendrick guy is something else..Don't know whether he actually thinks before he types.lol

popizaino:
The man City having the best squad in Europe becomes a mantra today only because pep guardiola is at the helm of affairs. Give that same man City to their favourite manager and you will hear all manners of excuses starting from Aguero is not his type of striker. He is too short t to connect with crosses from the wing. David silva can't track back to defend. Sané loves to have the ball at his feet he is not suitable for this kind of ball. Benardo silva isn't strong enough. The next team guardiola will be managing will be reference to as having the best team again.

Ours is to continue to debunk their fallacy, whether they choose to believe or not, is entirely their headache.

There are lot of clowns on this thread.Airmark is excusing SAF for winning twice in 26 years but wants to eat Guardiola raw for not winning with another team apart from Barca.Isn't that madness

ubcandid:
I do agree to an extent that the standar of football has fallen in Italy. But juventus have been top contender in the champions league, the past decade. Making it into the semi finals/quarters in those occasions. Only the Spanish and English clubs have bettered that. The German clubs themselves are mostly represented by Bayern.

Saying Italian coaches are trash is one I wouldn't agree with, no coach is perfect no they all have their downtime curve. It takes faith and belief to see a coach being given the confidence in continuity by the board. We've seen how sacking/changing coaches have affected the likes Madrid, Chelsea, Bayern, Barca e.t.c ancelloti, conte, Allegri, are among the top 15 best coaches in the world right now at club level and any top club looking for a new coach across the major legume in Europe wouldn't take their eyes off them. I we look at the top coaches across Europe, they would make a mix of coaches from different nations which include, Dutch, Spanish, German, Portugal, Brazil, France e..t.c and I doubt if any nation would produce four elites as Italy in the coaching line.

Milans decision to go with pioli is one no true an is happy about, given the fiasco that ensued over the 1st choice (Luciano Spalleti), I think the club had to rush over this decision but it's still not convincing. Across the Italian league today, there are so many players who had come through the Milan academy and are starters for other clubs and putting in good performance. The club abandoned bringing in olayers rom their youth team to salvage a dip in form that was seriously affecting them, as we all know, it takes time for these olayers to gel.

Italian players are performing well. How many German players are playing for top teams outside Germany? The defensive back line of Juve barring one is made up Italians, bernandeschi is a fantastic attacking player at Juve for his age. Juve has close to 10 Italian players in that team. Balotelli was fantastic or Marseille last season, just his character made top clubs put their eyes away from him, veratti is producing a commanding performance for PSG. The French league is not rated among the elite in Europe but they have players across every top team in the elite across Europe. But how many champions league have a franch team won? They produce the players but their league is not rated. Also note that finance has a lot to do with this.

Juve hasn't had competition since they came up from serial B.The last team to win seria A before them was AC Milan.Napoli are the only people to give them competition in the past how many years and Napoli themselves are the Tottenham of Italy.Shows you the overall decline in quality of the league

Juve's lack of competition in the league gives them the luxury to compete in Europe and even at that they have completely struggled when it mattered the most

Italian players at Juve right now are the backline as you rightly mentioned are mainly down to experience than capability.Buffon being there as an Italian player is not because he's adding anything to the team in terms of squad improvement on the field but giving them that psychological boost off the field.Juve will not win the champions league with Chiellini and Bonucci as centre backs against a pacy side like Liverpool.The current team right now has only the two CBs I mentioned in their starting 11 and once De Ligt improves,one of them must go.Its a shame that the only outfield Italian player they have in bernandeschi is bang average and its not even first team.Other players they have are not products of modern football

So out of all Italian players,you are mentioning Mario and Verratti?? Well Balotteli is Balotteli and Veratti is playing in the worst league in the top 5 leagues with a PSG side that we all know their story in Europe.Nothing fancy to see here.bernandeschi that plays for Juve is not even a world class material and only looks good because of the team he is in.He doesn't score often and doesn't impact the game as Dybala does.

I follow Italian football and Immobile that has been blazing the league for a couple of seasons was an utter flop outside Italy and only ran back to Lazio after highlighting the problems of Italian players.Dude was also shooting blank for Italy and only got his goal for the national team in the last international break after most months of not scoring


Now in terms of Italian coaches,Ancelotti is the only Italian coach that has held it down for Italy in recent years and he's not even a product of modern day italian football.If Allegri and Conte were so fantastic, why did they leave their previous jobs?? Allegri doesn't get a pass just because he wins a league where Atlanta that have been abysmal in the champions league made it into the competition in the first place.

Now AC Milan are talking about Spaletti who is equally bad.Icardi bailed him countless times.Now the option is between a Sevilla reject and Inter reject.How can the club and Italian football in general progress if a top team like AC are choosing between this two failures who is to pilot the affairs of the team.smh

airmark:
So that's the feat Fraudiola is targeting, but Ferguson didn't leave for another team.

Let Fraudiola win without those 3 midgets that carried him beyond his ability at Barca. Without him those guys won UCL.

You can't be spending money on AK 47 just because you want to kill rats. He should win UCL.

So its now an excuse to win twice in 26 years just because you didn't leave for another team??You modern day football fans really amaze me.lol

jpmoriarti:
Valverde earning a back to back league win is not a good result?? If he wins another league title this season, you cannot say he's flopped. If the club becomes obsessed with UCL, then it would be long before they win it.

So winning La liga is now a highlight of a Barcelona coach?? Let's stop thinking the club is some Chelsea or Manchester United that should be satisfied winning a league match.The club is not what it is now for the past 10 years by winning the championship

The bench mark for any barca coach should be winning the treble not even the champions league.Real Madrid won the champions league 3 times in a row because the club is obsessed with being on top of the food chain.Our players cannot continue to be the best in world football and not get recognised just because the UCL is missing from our cabinet.

kendrick93:
What are you talking about..Fergie couldn't field two starting 11 teams of nearly the same quality as man city do now... Most of those players you lsted there were unearthed gems,some came from the academy......the resources pep has had is night and day to anything fergie ever had.....
For example pep has spent over quarter a billion just to upgrade his fullbacks...that's insane

Dude you are really sounding ridiculous.Only Aguero and Kevin De Bryune are the only two players in this current Man City squad quality wise that can make that team that I listed and you said Fergie couldn't field the same quality team as Pep?? Prime Berbatov that was EPL highest goal scorer didn't even make a champions league final squad list.Prime Tevez left because he was dropped from the champions league final against Barca.what are you talking about??

If you want to call some of those players unearthed gems from the academy,then what do you call the team Pep played with at Barca??Pique that i only saw once in a Man united shirt was playing in a champions league final.Dude assembled the greatest team ever seen in world football with academy players.

Again,Fergie had the resources.He was only a firm believer on not spending ridiculous amount of money on players.

SerVik:
Kluivert's role is to make sure our cadet teams play the barca way, he is bound to clash with cadet team coaches.
The issue is, kluivert wanted Valdes to play 433 in a game where he had no wingers available. Valdes disobeyed and played a 4312 with the two attackers playing as wide forwards and the midfielder behind them playing as a false 9. He won that game 5-0.

My question is, can barcelona's pattern only be played with 433?
Valverde plays his boring 442 when he likes, why wasn't anybody bothering him?

I have been following Valdez since his appointment and he's been doing well, which is what saddens me.

Theres a big problem at the club rn.This goes to show there's clearly a lack of leadership among the ranks at the club.What's exactly the job of the director of football and club president if there are no clearly defined roles on how the affairs of the club are piloted.Should the club be firing Valdes or trying to resolve the issue in other to find a common ground between him and Kluivert.This kind of highlights the reason why Valverde is still our coach.Results don't get a coach fired anymore.Be in the good books of those above and you are keeping your position.smfh

popizaino:
The same jupp heyckens finished trophyless with a pre tournament favourite team like bayern Munich let that one sink in. Pep guardiola never had to finish trophyless with bayern Munich


Mancini competed against good team, but pep guardiola who had to beat a sir Alex Frauduson team with Ronaldo competed against a bad team I guess.

Which of your favourite coaches will ever come out victorious if they had to face a fergie side including Ronaldo, Rooney,even if they were given the trio of Messi, xavi and Iniesta? Pep guardiola is not your ordinary coach take a bow for the greatest of all time.



You might want to argue he had the trio of Messi, xavi and Iniesta pls why didn't the trio show up against bayern Munich when they were scoring seven goals past them without Pep guardiola?


Where were the trio of xavi, Iniesta Messi when El-classico was one sided in favour of real Madrid before pep guardiola took over and turned it to an easy ride for Barcelona?


For most of the time pep guardiola never made the finals it was either his player missing a spot kick of missing clearcut chances.

Pep is the only coach to give Fergie partial Parkinson at the 2011 final .Outclassed him on the two occasions they met (Champions league final) playing Yaya at CB and Sylvinho against a team with prime Rooney,Vidic etc.Turned El Clasico into a circus beating almighty Mourinho fresh from inter milan with a record scoreline, won 6 trophies in a season and each country he goes to apart from England,they coincidentally win the WC.Dude won the EPL last season with a record point and has again turned the almighty premier league into a two horse race.But a lot of clowns still thinks he has the win the champions league with another club when Fergie the greatest EPL manager of all time won it only twice in 26 years.lol

.

kendrick93:
Ferguson didn't have the kind of resources/squads pep has had

This is the dumbest Shiit I have read today.

What resources has Ferguson not have access to?? Funds?? players?? Dude had a Ronaldo, Rooney, Giggs,Van Der Saar,Vidic,Scholes in his starting 11.All world class players.How much are this players in today's evaluations??No football Club in the world can assemble this team so far as today's market is concerned and dude lost a champions league final to a Yaya Toure at CB and Busquet who had barely kicked a ball at the highest level of football

Not taking anything away from Fergie but just because the transfer market is over bloated doesn't mean the resources was not there for Fergie.That again Fergie decided to pilot his own affairs without necessarily signing some Ronaldinho or Raul to win doesn't mean the funds wasn't the. Smh

.

ubcandid:
There are so many Italian players doing so well in the league and Europe. The players you mentioned are not Italians. Italian coaches are good too. It's a factor of the individual not nationality. How many spaniards have coached Real Madrid? I think the management are the problem the team is facing. I wonder why Maldini, who was making much noise when not in the frame of things, will go with this blunder of coaching decision.

Italy has been garbage for years now.Jorginho is the only decent export they have had for years now. Their exports have continued to decline and underperform.

Italian coaches have been bad also. When last did an Italian coach win the UCL?? AC Milan is about appointing a Sevilla failure that has no track record of winning anything.How do you win as AC Milan with a coach that hasn't won anything tangible before. What sort of winning mentality does he instill in a club that wins if he hasn't won yet

Chelsea only has 1 Italian. How many are at Liverpool,Madrid,Barcelona,Man City??Juve the defending champions of Italy has how many Italian players?? You can't claim Italian players are doing so well if they are not at top level clubs.

The problem with AC Milan is not management at the Coach level but at the top level of football.And that top level managers are not ready to stir the ship in a different direction.No philosophy,no direction of play..No Witt like AC Milan of old. Below average players like Suso and Chanalogu making first team.Chanalogu and Chiesa of Fiorentina had more shots to miss ratio all over the top 5 leagues of Europe.1 plays for AC Milan, the other is an Italian player. Shows you how bad Italian football is

You can't promote a rubbish player like Cutrone and hand that player over to a coach like Ancelloti and complain of poor management.But that same Cutrone was a regular starter for AC Milan until he was shipped off.

They need to go back to basics.Bring in a foreign coach.Do away with anything Italy and build up from there.Look deep into Brazilian kids. They have good relationship with Brazilian players. Appoint a sporting director from Brazil.Mix them with hot Netherlands,spanish and Germany players and this team will be competing for the serie A title in at least 5 years time

Marc plays ahead of Neuer. Let's see what that fat cow of Bayern president does about it

StrikeBack:
Sinisa Mihajlovic
Clearance seedorf
Christain brochi
Philipp Inzaghi
Vincenzo Montella
Gattuso
Marco Giampaolo



See names. In just 4 years


I been think say na only me be Milan fan oo.

I don tire

Problem is the board and their infatuation with Italian based coaches and players

Rebuild the team and do what Liverpool and Ajax did.Forget about title or champions league football and get foreign coaches either from Spain or Netherlands.Bring in players from those two countries and do away with useless players like Suso,Changlogu etc.Bring in young bloods,do away with italian players and coaches.Allow the manager to implement their ideas backed by AC Milan philosophies and get this team comepting in 4 years time

Chrisus:
My own LaLiga team of the decade
Oblak
Marcelo
Pique
Ramos
Alves
Iniesta
Busquets
Xavi
Messi
Ronaldo
Suarez

I think I will go with this. May replace Suarez with Godin tho and go with a 5-3-2

Roland17:
The plug was going to be pulled if we lost to Genoa but Reina saved Giampaolo that day. L. Spalletti is the number one choice but he would have to figure out his settlement issue with Inter before he can sign with anyone. Spalletti is a very experienced Serie A coach especially with top Serie A sides but, to be honest, he is not my preference because I have watched his sides. His sides did not score much but they were very good defensively and compact in the middle. If you consider our current roster, I don't think he can be worse than Giampaolo. Hopefully, he can stabilize our defense and provide some balance to our midfield. @Chic2pimp, remember I told you I would rather we let Giampaolo go especially if there are no assurances he will remain with us after this season. I am not a fan of R. Garcia, he was not impressive at Marseille and his sides leaked ton of goals. Ranieri would be too conservative for me, the same as Pioli. The club is looking to stabilize and steady the ship with this hire, nothing long term. I would be shocked if anyone is offered more than 2 years.

Spalletti is bang average.He relies on individual performances over collective team effort. Struggles against bottom teams at home. Icardi bailed him a lot and almost missed out of the champions league if not for a black player (forgotten his name) that bailed him out again last season

What AC Milan needs is new ownership that will go back to the very much needed basics of rebuilding. Spend heavy money bringing in players and a very top level coach not someone I can barely spell his name. Do the same thing Liverpool did and in 5 years, they will be competing for both Seria A and champions league

Branzy:
Mumu man go use same formation and players play arsenal and spurs every time. We just turned their customer. Apart from 343 352
. Weten he Sabi 424 who use such formation

So formation is now the problem instead of results?? This new age football fans never fail to amaze me