₦airaland Forum

medjai: I don't trust Llorente. He does not really fit Spain's style of play, albeit generally being a good striker. Villa's biggest asset for Spain was his flexibility. He could drift from central positions to the wings, drop deep, pass and participate in the build up play. Llorente is more of a target man who needs to get the ball delivered at his feet. Villa is creator-executor. Llorente is executor. Did you the first half of the friendly against Venezuela? With Llorente upfront the only plan was to feed him with long balls and hope for a header. That's okay as a plan B at some point but not as the plan A. It's similar to the Klose vs. Gomez situation. Klose still being prefered over Gomez, despite Gomez having the third highest goal ratio in Europe for 2 seasons now, after only Messi and Ronaldo. Klose is just the better overall player who links up better with his teammates. Gomez is a poacher who doesn't have more to his game.

Same goes for Soldado. He poached 3 goals from like 2 yards when Spain was basically passing it inside Venezuela's box most of the time. Won't happen against any half decent-team like Italy, Germany, Netherlands, France, Portugal etc. in the Euros.

To be honest I don't think any other spanish striker fits perfectly into spain's Tiki Taka style of play. Possibly a case could be made for Torres in his pomp but he still wasn't as complete as Villa who I consider Spain's greatest ever striker was.

Also Frankly Del Bosque does not have that many options to choose from so he has to make do with what he's got. Ofcourse unless Torres suddenly hits top form.

Now whilst loosing Villa would undoubedtly be a massive blow, I think it is a bit hasty to say that without him they won't make much of an impact. If they Fail It would be because the other players underperformed not cuz of Villa. Tbh I don't see how any half decent striker would not score goals in this spanish set up however the problem as your highlighted might arise in those tightly contested battles when ingenuity is needed.

medjai: I don't trust Llorente. He does not really fit Spain's style of play, albeit generally being a good striker. Villa's biggest asset for Spain was his flexibility. He could drift from central positions to the wings, drop deep, pass and participate in the build up play. Llorente is more of a target man who needs to get the ball delivered at his feet. Villa is creator-executor. Llorente is executor. Did you the first half of the friendly against Venezuela? With Llorente upfront the only plan was to feed him with long balls and hope for a header. That's okay as a plan B at some point but not as the plan A. It's similar to the Klose vs. Gomez situation. Klose still being prefered over Gomez, despite Gomez having the third highest goal ratio in Europe for 2 seasons now, after only Messi and Ronaldo. Klose is just the better overall player who links up better with his teammates. Gomez is a poacher who doesn't have more to his game.

Same goes for Soldado. He poached 3 goals from like 2 yards when Spain was basically passing it inside Venezuela's box most of the time. Won't happen against any half decent-team like Italy, Germany, Netherlands, France, Portugal etc. in the Euros.

To be honest I don't think any other spanish striker fits perfectly into spain's Tiki Taka style of play. Possibly a case could be made for Torres in his pomp but he still wasn't as complete as Villa who I consider Spain's greatest ever striker was.
Frankly Del Bosque does not have that many options to choose from so he has to make do with what he's got. Ofcourse unless Torres suddenly hits top form.

Now whilst loosing Villa would undoubedtly be a massive blow, I think it is a bit hasty to say that without him they won't make much of an impact. If they Fail It would be because the other players underperformed not cuz of Villa. Tbh I don't see how any half decent would not score goals in this spanish set up however the problem as your highlighted might arise in those tightly contested battle when ingenuity is needed.

AjanleKoko: Without Villa, Spain may not make much of an impact. He's the first out-and-out striker, with aggression and pace, that Spain have produced in years.

I doubt that. Spain are a still a great team with or without Villa but I do see where u are coming from.
He brings something different that no other Spanish Striker brings to the table. He is complete. None of the others can say that(Bar Torres in the Pomp).
Having said that, Llorente would do a good job if given a nod to start. His Height most especially would be a massive plus.

My Heart felt sympathies to Florentino Perez and his Family during this sad times.
It's at times like this you realise footy is not the be all and end all.


R.I.P MRS PEREZ

Oh Man Very Unfortunate. Massive blow indeed.
Spain Might have other options but none as good as Villa IMO.
Great Individual striker(has been in Top 2-3 strikers in europe for a while now) in his own right whilst also complementing the side perfectly

1025: @baslone,
how market? who is better now? song has less or no trophy at all. he earns less than mikel. song never reach champions league finals before but mikel has done twice and won once. how about that?
ur partners in this crime have all gone deaf and dumb but i will like to see ur reaction now that mikel has done it again.
with his champions league experience, he will captain an arsenal side if he goes to emirates tomorrow.

Chei Gaynners don suffer ooo.

I bless His holy name for He is the King Of Kings and Lord Of Lords.

He is the I am that I am. He Is the Unchangeable Father. The Lion Of The tribe of Judah. The Omnipotent and Omnipresent.

I Give you all Glory, Praise and Adoration.

coogar: ohh please, john terry is a cunt.
he has been warned that if andy murray wins the wimbledon open, john
terry will not be allowed to lift the trophy. if drogba wins the next
nations cup, terry won't be allowed to hoist the trophy!

he's a sourpuss! taking someone else's glory.
gary neville was united's captain when man utd won the champs league in
moscow. he was injured and couldn't play in the final. when united won, i didn't
see neville in a united shirt dragging the trophy with rio(the captain on the night).

Neither in 99 Did I see Roy drag the trophy with Schmeichel

solomon111: That is what i am talking about.
None of them were sharp enough to convert their chances,which made them undeserving of the UCL.

Never said Chelsea were undeserving winners. Any one that wins a game of footy deserves it IMHO.
However to say the other teams were not sharp enough to convert those chances is absolutely tripe.
Footy is defined by very small margins and the Game vs Barca most especially happened to be one of them.

solomon111: That is what i am talking about.
You can call it luck,destiny,but i know it wasn't any of those.

I choose not to call it luck because I believe in football you make your own luck. However I choose to call it Destiny because I believe some things are just meant to be.

solomon111: .
Chelsea,came with a game plan,utilized their strengths,converted their few chances.
THAT IS WHAT CHAMPIONS ARE MADE OF.
Football is not just about tiki-taka possession,it is about converting your chances,without conceeding much.
Football is as much about defending,as it about attacking.

What are you saying that I haven't already dealt with beforehand?
If you had read my previous posts, you would notice I am Anti anyone who calls Chelsea's win a victory for Anti Football because I don't believe there is anything as such. And If I did I probably won't as big a fan of Serie A as I am now.
IMO if football was meant to be all about attack,they would be no need for Goalkeepers, Defenders and Defensive Midfielders in the game.

toba: dont be silly. u can do better by providing evidence. goal.com is still arguably the most followed football news site in the world and arent known for posting the BS u are talking about.

U spend too much time reading Bild hence u are mistaking bild for goal.com. Mst of the news u ve lifted and posted here are from bild. not so?

They most definitely are.
The amount of bull crap stories I have read on that site is enough to last me a life time.

Hehehe Hahaha Hohohoh......... Pandemonium on the Bayern Thread

solomon111: Stop blaming destiny!
That is an excuse for loosers.
Bayern never deserved it,not after wasting those chances.
It would have been unfair if bayern had won.

Will you shut up dia!!!
What else can explain the amount of chances of Napoli, Barcelona and Bayern missed during chelses's run in to the final which ultimately ended up in them winning it?

mukina2: fear fear Juve should sign him

Fear ke? Mba nu!!!
Abeg Nah precaution I go call am jor

The Gerrard vs Lampard Debacle would never die down would it?

So Much for the both of them being the Most Complete Midfielders In The World Football

Abeg wetin calciopoli Juve play?

Abeg Galliani must not let Juve sign Cavani. Tha dude is deadly.
I'd rather he went abroad tbh or preferably we sign him up.

coogar: evra vs walcott has always been a mismatch unless ashley young plays
on the right. sagna is out - maybe the highly rated mapou yanga mbiwa
would play as their right full back with koscielny and mexes as centre-halves.

the more i look at the french squad, the more i am convinced england are screwed.
ben arfa, benzema, nasri, m'vila, ribery, valbuena, etc
fee fi fo fum, i smell the blood of an englishman.

Abeg is this not he same Evra who has had a quite torrid season?
Evra of old probably but this one would be given the round around by Theo. And If not can always switch flanks with the other Winger.

The more I see of France the more I am convinced England have nothing to fear tbh.
They have all those star names but hardly do you see them dominate teams offensively. You would have thought they would have done that a bit more often.

coogar: even with a fit squad, england have never beaten sweden.
france is well-equipped. laurent blanc knows english players
like the back of his hand. france should win that one with mr evra
giving walcott a mare!!!

the ukraine game is the dicey one. it can go either way or end in a draw.
so england might need others to drop points to qualify.
their chance of qualifying is about 40%.

The difference between then and now is that the FA has made the wise decision in appointing roy.
Roy Unlike Harry knows England players are far from being world beaters and would therefore bring a new mentality which I think might actually be benefitial.
It's team would be set up to counter attack the likes of France and knick it one on a break. Don't be shocked to see England defeat France.
If England can't beat Ukraine they should withdraw from the tourney.

StarBoard: When both Played in a friendly last November, England laboured to a win via an own goal at Wembley.
Prior to that, England hadn't beaten the Swedes since 1968. In the Euros , Sweden has won 2and drawn once of the three ties they've had so far.
The Swedes know how to play the English at full tilt.So when Hidgson carries this muppet-like side, I wonder how he's going to win.

True that I can't argue with the fact Sweden now how to play England. May be it's because the Scandanavian countries play similar brand of footy and so know what to expect.
Although I still say unlike previous England sides who felt they had the Gawd given right to beat the likes of Sweden, this side would be different.
Don't think Roy would stand for that superiority bull crap.

Ibime: ^^^I am here!!! I've been offline all weekend. Travelled to Mancunia.

Where is that boy Ritchboy who claimed that RVP has been more prominent than Drogba in this era?

Is he mad?

11 goals in 10 Cup finals.

No one will remember RVP's hattricks against Wolves but they will remember DROGBA!!!

Don't mind PoorBoy.
I'm already dealing with him on the Gaynners thread

StarBoard: England will always struggle to beat Sweden.Im not so sure they'll come out from that group.
Without Rooney leading the attack they will not get the goals required to ensure passage in the first two games.
It's an already hamstrung case even before they begin.

England should have more enough fire power to defeat Sweden.
C'mon it's sweden not the Argies or the Samba Boyz we are talking about here.
If Roy has them set up properly and playing well, they should at the very least(worst scenario) get a draw.

coogar: with that joke of a midfield that hodgson is taking to the euros,
france and sweden would be silly if england qualifies from that group.
the only hope this time around is joe hart. for the first time since seaman,
england has a decent player between the sticks.

Whilst the Midfiels id far from being world beaters they should be able to do the job Roy requires of them.
I mean If any of Gerrard,Lampard, Barry, Parker and co can't exert their influence over the Swedish Midfield then they might as well never put on a three lions jersey.
I duly expect France and England to Qualify from that group.
Hart is potentially even better than Seaman

ritchboy: So it's ok to play crap for 65-90% of the season like Drogba does on the regular, as long as you score in "the final" or semi final? Why should the final take significant precedence over other games, do you know of a team that got to a final without negotiating the other rounds?

You are big Arrow.
Drogba has had stop start season due to various reasons which anyways is to be expected of a dude entering the autumn of his career.
How many 34 year old striker are starters in their club side in the Top 5 European League?
Mind you his performance of the last few weeks would almost certainly be greater than whatever Van Persie achievies in his career.

ritchboy: You must be suffering from AIDS(Acquired Intelligence Deficiency Syndrome). RvP is 28, in 7 seasons time he'd be 35/36(common age for retirement), players with supreme tekkers like RvP who rely less on physical attributes even have a better chance on playing longer. What makes you think he won't play the next seven seasons?

Your daftness knows no boundary. You shouldn't have stopped taking those medications you were on.
Are we talking about the same Van Persie the Sick note here?
All he needs is for somebody to breathe on him and he'll be on another 4 months sabbatical.
Abeg give him 3 seasons and he'll be done playing proper footie and probably playing at Hackney Marshes.

ritchboy: Yea, I'm sure Drogba gave Roman Abramovic all the billions he used to transform Chelsea's fortunes, what a mo[color=#000000]r[/color]on!

Mr Mumu, I've already murked people with twice your intelligence(i.e Ibime) on RvP vs Drogba/Gomez debate on Bayern thread, you can peruse it if you wish. I'm not going to waste more of my time debating with nonentities

I'm also sure Roman was the one performing and knocking them in under pressure. Infact I just saw Roman score a hatrick in the Semis and a brace in Finals. What a Daft sod!!!

Uncle Ode, we can continue debating from today til 2moro and your intellegence still would not measure to the size of my pinky finger .

coogar: bayern would always dominate. they are a possession team. half of their squad
are regulars in their national team too. so their team chemistry is like barcelona....
they dominated jose mourinho in 2010 final as well but the reactive teams this season
all won the big prizes.

athletico madrid mauled bilbao and it was bilbao that did all the playing.
dortmund mauled bayern munich in the cup final, chelsea ran away as the winners
when it was bayern that did the playing. maybe it was written like you said but
bayern have themselves to blame.

waiting for euros now. if germany fails to win that competition then this present generation are a waste of time!

It's quite simple Attack wins Hearts and Minds and on the odd occasions trophies but Defence ultimately wins games and ultimately championships.
Look at Inter,Greece,Porto I could go on and on.
Defence solidity is the foundation those titles won by those teams was built on.
Ofcourse Bayern have only themselves to blame. So do Barca really.

I see them going quite far but don't see them winning it.
Word on the street is that Hodgson is going to play the exact same way come euro 2012 and I can't say I blame him.

dayokanu: Simple when you aint destined to win nothing more you could do

Look at Barca vs Chelsea if chelsea had lost both legs 8:0 aggregates there wouldnt have been any complaints

Bayern had 20 corners Chelsea had one and scored. Cech that isnt known for his penalty prowess now turned to Kahn.

A German team losing on penalties isnt what happens often
Even in 1999 Man Utd game was balanced

Even most Chelsea fans and players cant understand what went on. Dont think i have seen a more lopsided final and still lost.

Most of,our players even lost faith either due to age or pressure

Some even declined to take penalties.

Exactly there is absolutely nothing you could have done. Bayern could still be playin til this very minute and still won't have won.

I thought Milan vs Liverpool would be as close as it got to one team dominating and then ending up loosing but this surpasses it.

coogar: the most intelligent thing you have said since i have known you.
so you get sense like this. pls do this often.

Ofcourse it would make sense to an Olodo like you after all it heaps on Mn united

coogar: sitters(robben's penalty miss and gomez trying to set himself and getting caught).
cech didn't make enough saves to even say bayern really caused chelsea any harm.

half of their shots were blocked by chelsea's defence.

Bayern dominated and IMO had enough opportunities to win that Game. They were never really going to create much clear cut opportunities with an Ultra Defensive 4-5-1 formation.
Credit to Chelsea though this was be the best Defensive performance in yrs. A.Cole, Cahill and Luiz blocked everything in sight.

coogar: destined? a club that finished 6th in the premier league?
any of the top 3 teams in england would have taken that chelsea side to the cleaners.
they had no terry, ramirez and ivanovic and cech hardly made any save in the 90.

Ofcourse they were destined to win it. The amount of chances Napoli alone missed in Naples says they were.
On the face it the top two would but as Man United found out in the 2005 FA CUP finals there is nothing u can do if it isn't your day.

coogar: i think bayern were tired and they lacked depth.
their first 11 was better but beneath those, the bench lacked quality.
yes, gomez and robben missed some sitters but how many clear-cut chances did they get?

There is no doubt about that beyond the first 11 bayern are very weak.
You said it yourself they missed sitters. What else could be more clear cut than sitters?
Swap Drogba for GO-MISS and bayern woulda won that game

coogar: dayokanu, let's discuss like true football pundits here.
forget the jibes and jeers from the no-marks.

where did it go wrong last night? you had all the advantage,
by far you had the better team and yet your strikers choked.

Chelsea were destined to win the European Cup. That's it really.
Count the amount of chances Barca,Bayern and Napoli could not convert and you'll see there was absolutely nothing any other team could have done.

AjanleKoko: I don't think Robben is overrated. Rather he strikes me as a flawed genius, and his achilles heel is rooted in him wanting to do things his way.

Him and Ribery looked like they were competing with each other last night. Like they were trying to see which of them would win the game for Bayern.

Could not have said it any better really

ritchboy: Doing what for years? Are you aware Drogba has only scored 20+ goals TWICE in EIGHT years at Chelsea? Maybe you're trying to say he's been pants for years.

I'm sure it must have skipped your pea sized brain but Drogba has been banging them in Finals for years now. Something I suspect Van Persie knows nothing of .

ritchboy: Oh, so you've realized your comment was idiotic and changed it to "doubt", soon you will change it to "suspect" then "envisage"

If mine was Idiotic then yours must be the most stupid and foolish comment ever posted on this pages. Ain't it pure daftness to think a sick note like Van Persie would play 7-9 seasons more in the league?

ritchboy: You are a big foooooool! This season alone, RvP scored 3 goals vs Dortmund in the CL, 3 goals vs Chelsea, 2 goals vs Liverpool, 2 goals vs Man Utd, scored against Tottenham, AC Milan, Newcastle, Udinese etc. Marseille, Fulham and Man City are the only three teams he started and failed to score against, Mr Olodo.

Ding Dong NL Fattest Arrow strikes again.
And what trophies did he end up winning? Pls remind me again .
May be if he had drogba's ability to rise to the occasion when it actually mattered Arsenal won't be entering into their 9th trophyless season.
As I said he earlier should stick to what he knows and does best. Fluffing his lines and Missing open goals when the pressure is on.

ritchboy: Based on the fact he scored one goal and got owned the rest of the game by a makeshift center half, then gave away the stupidest penalty in history?

Not in your wildest dream would your IQ be a positive integer!

I'd also like to know how you arrived at this asinine conclusion considering the fact RvP still has 7-9 years left to play. If he scores the winning goal of the Euros' final this summer do we then conclude your crystal ball is faulty or you're reta[color=#000000]r[/color]ded beyond recognition?

Nah not based on the fact he scored one goal. It's based on the fact he's been doing it for years now. Coming up trumps when it really mattered.

So says a dude whose Brain cells is worth less than a Zimbabwean dollar. I life in okrika .

Look at this twerp, With that brittle bone of his I'd be surprised if he played more than 3-4 years at the top level and I doubt what he'll ever achieve during that period would surpass Didier's. Abeg Van persie should stick to his day Job of scoring vs the likes of Wolves and then fluffing his Lines in the CL.

"I defo don't feel sorry for the Germans! They have done the English enough times"


JACK WILSHERE

Well after this Fianl I think we all can safely say not in Van Persie's wildest dream would he be viewed as the better player come the end of their respective careers.

medjai: Of course, there's anti - football.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-football

Ten bricklayers could have duplicated Chelsea's drudgery - no much football skills required.

You know there's that part of football that actually requires you to come out and attack. Do you think Bayern or Barca don't know how to park the bus too? Of course, they can pack their box with all their players, sit back and defend with two rows of 5. It doesn't require any skill.

I doubt Bayern or Barcelona could have duplicated Chelsea's tactics.
You simply don't have the defensive players and discipline to carry it out and see it through. That IMO is a skill set in itself.
If all teams did was attack we probably end up having cricket scores every game which i'm sure no one wants.

If you hate "Anti Football" you are better off not watching Euro 2012 because you will it them in abundance.
I know as a neutral is not fun to watch. But that is football, teams have to make do with the limited resources they have at their disposal.

Didn't you say when all said and done,Van Persie would be seen as the better player as far as this Era is concrned?