₦airaland Forum

thegoodjoehunt: My friend I am tired of showing you links. You know too much. You even know that Garcia a player Mancini brought to cover Yaya's departure for the AFCON is plank.

you are tired because you have nothing to show........
how many big teams have city played since yaya left? when yaya was in england sef, cleverley destroyed yaya so what are we talking about? cleverley have met yaya twice in the midfield and yaya was destroyed on both occasions! forget garcia, he's a witless apprentice!

You know every formation Guardiola used. When he was know to switch formation many times during a game. So I can't argue with someone who thinks Javi Garcia, a player who was regular in the Portuguese dominating league is plank.

yes i do cos i am a big fan of guardiola.
i followed guardiola at barca - he stuck to 4-3-3 for a long time and then experimented with 3-4-3. the only time he played the 3-4-3(diamond) formation was against milan - that had a semblance of 3-3-4 but fabregas is an attacking midfielder in that game operating at the tip of the other 3 midfielders. the formation did not work as barca nearly lost and guardiola never repeated the formation again till he resigned!

As soon as you said that I knew your type.
I thought you believe Scholes didn't say that Spain are years ahead of England. Even when Barca were trying to beat Chelsea and Chelsea packed the bus, he was playing 3-4-3. Thanks man Goodnight.

then english comprehension is your biggest challenge.
asking you to provide a link of what scholes said is not equivalent to not believing scholes said so - show me proof is different from blatantly calling you a liar. what scholes said does not matter - he's only being a hypocrite especially when he's a master of long passes himself. it's just his opinion - scholes is not a manager in england, he's just airing his opinion which everyone else also has a right to.

growing up in real madrid academy? buhahahaha - you must be a joker!
so anyone that grew from madrid academy must be a world class player? gbenga okunowo and haruna babangida grew up @ la masia, see how many african footballer of the year awards they won between themselves. they won 12, didn't they? that he couldn't make it in real madrid is a testament to what i said about him. he's a plank!!!!

Andre Uweh: That Torres goal assisted by Ba has shown to the manager that Ba and Torres should play together.

chelsea can't risk that......
they are scared to play 2 strikers at the same time unless it's very important to get a goal.

Andre Uweh: PDP was a national party and Ndigbo had bitter experiences of being in the minority party during the second republic. Ndigbo only supported the party at the centre, not just OBJ.

of which if they have thrown all their support behind AD, the outcome would have been loads different. letting PDP steal that march on their rivals is the reason we are here today. there's not going to be an end to their dominance. they would rule for the next 100 yrs. ndigbos have nothing to moan about - their wish has been granted!

Andre Uweh: Very simple. Ekwueme, immediately he lost congratulated OBJ and requested Ndigbo and his followers to support his PDP. During the fight agains military regime, the formation of G32 and up to the formation of PDP, Ekwueme had emerged as the sole recognised Igbo leader. He had won a lot of people's heart not just Ndigbo.

there you go......
so why are the ndigbos moaning then? if they had kowtowed the yorubas in supporting falae, maybe things would have been better. however, to support a prodigal son like obasanjo who his people did not even want is like shooting one's foot in the foot!

thegoodjoehunt:
You believe those reports covered every game Guardiola coached. I said the most attacking formation he used.

Α̲̅я̩̥̊ε̲̣̣̣̥ you comparing Cleverly †☺ Garcia?.

cleverley is far better than garcia - he's better than him in every way!

and i am telling you guardiola never used 3-3-4 formation......
show me one link where guardiola used 3-3-4, surely something must have been written about it cos it's a ground-breaking formation that has never been used before.

icon aus: What happened when Ekwueme was at the verge of clinching PDP ticket and OBJ was released from prison to stop him with the support of the ruling class Abubakar, Babangida and the likes? Just tell yourself the truth

why did the igbos vote for obj then if your claim is true that obj was let out of prison to stop ekwueme's presidential dreams? one thing i can tell you though - the yorubas did not vote for obj. he lost even on his street in 1999 so what's the fuss about? falae was the preferred candidate in the south west but the ndigbos colluded with the northerners as usual to put pdp in power!

thegoodjoehunt:
I think I am done talking with you. For you to call Javi Garcia a plank, I stopped reading your stuff. Anyone who calls Javi Garcia a plank is knows nothing about soccer. If Barry and De Jong were playing the defensive role, what role was Toure playing. Stop ranting.

You are saying Guardiola never played 3-3-4. How do you know. You didn't even know that your hero said that English teams should learn from Spain and that Spain are years ahead of England. Yet you know the formations Guardiola plays.

garcia is a super plank. i can mention 20 midfielders in the premier league that are heads and shoulders better than garcia. only man city can have that kind of player in their first team. cleverley literally destroyed him!

as per guardiola, i followed his career in barcelona more than i did ferguson @ man utd. pep never ever deployed 3-3-4 formation at barcelona unless you have been watching imaginary games! there are over a million articles on guardiola's experiment on the 3-4-3 formation when he used it to destroy villareal 5-0. there were thousands of articles hailing his bravery for trying the cryuff formation in the modern age of football......

go and learn more about tactical formations instead of throwing conjectures or beer parlour analysis - this is nairaland not larry izamoje's lounge so pay attention and take lessons!

http://objectivebarcelona.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Chapter-5-Guardiola-Tactical-System-Free-Sample-Chapter.pdf

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/08/29/barcelona-5-0-villarreal-tactics/

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/jonathan_wilson/09/05/barcelona.343/index.html?mobile=no

thegoodjoehunt: At the moment you are just dragging. I am talking about the formation and you are talking about the players and just ranting. You said 4-4-2 is a most attacking formation which is a bloody lie. I have shown you why the formation isn't. Yet you are talking De Jong and Barry.

you don't understand your football at all - the only reason any manager would play 3 central midfielders is because he wants to defend. it even sucks when 2 of these defenders are dedicated defensive midfielders. if de jong/toure are not defenders to you then stop watching football. toure only gets to play behind the strikers when it's imperative for city to get an equaliser or a winner but since we are talking about starting positions, then toure is basically a destroyer!

Please earlier when Mancini started, he was playing a defensive formation. As the team stuck together, he started changing the team into an attacking formation. That was why he let De Jong go. That is why he bought Garcia to slowly replace Barry and Yaya will play more like an attacking player.

this is a big lie......barry stopped playing because he was injured. garcia is just a plank. milner is neither an out n out winger nor a central midfielder. he is just there to make up numbers or do the hatchet job in the midfield. yaya toure don't play as an attacking midfielder until it's important for city to get a goal!

De Jong spent most of last season on the bench because we left the defensive side and tilted towards the attacking side. That is why we thrashed Man Utd 6-1.
I am tired of bringing facts while you just argue. Prove to me why you said the 4-4-2 is the most attacking formation. Is it more attacking than the Guardiola's 3-3-4?

this is another lie because de jong played in that 6-1 game. united were down to 10 men for the last 40 mins and 3 of his city's goals came in the last 3 mins of the game after united threw all caution to the wind and was attacking hoping to equalise. the fletcher goal was the turning point. united thought a come back was on and they left the back exposed. you see? you don't even know jack about the team you claim to support!

guardiola never played 3-3-4. he played 3-4-3.....
another lie has been uncovered. do you watch football with your nose? how can a manager start with 3-3-4? not even if he's playing against a secondary school team.

From you reply above, you will say were is Dani Alves.

dani alves = rafael da silva!

Please with respect to the formation, I have giving you my reason why I think 4-4-2 is more defensive. Man Utd never plays high line. That is a bloody lie. Manchester United defends deep. That is why when an attacker is coming with the ball, instead of you central to go in for the tackle, the drift back waiting for the ball to leave the feet of the opposing attacking player. [/color]

4-4-2 with out n out wingers is more attacking than 3-5-2, 3-4-3 and even 4-3-3 in that - the 4-4-2 with 2 touch line wingers is basically 4-2-4. united wingers don't drift inwards like silva and nasri. they take the ball to the bye line before delivering a cross. they are always in line with the united's 2 strikers and this is one reason united are the most vulnerable to attack in all the big teams in europe! united play that formation without a dedicated destroyer acting like the 3rd central defender and you are claiming mancini is more attacking - attacking what?

thegoodjoehunt: Another thing you should know about the 3-5-2 formation is that the team plays a high line when attacking and the defenders turn into defensive midfielders, while the other players attack. Ferguson never takes this kind of risk.

which team does not play a high line when attacking? the amount of false information you dish out here would sink the titanic. when a team is attacking, the last defender is in the half of the opposition and the goalkeeper is at the edge of the box. every team pushes forward when attacking as you don't want to leave a massive gap between the defenders and the midfielders.

the formation you drew is also irrelevant - it's not the position that matters but the players filling that role. wes brown and oshea were man utd right backs but you can never compare their attacking instinct to rafael da silva or compare silvestre to evra. rafael/evra are more attack minded than zabaleta/clichy. what mancini plays is 5-3-2 and not 3-5-2 like you are making it to look. zabaleta/clichy are defenders! in the central midfield, city have toure/barry/de jong as destroyers. how does that formation pose any risk in comparison to man utd who have no designated defensive midfielder like de jong/barry.

dyabman: what really matters in today's match was Torres scores sublime fashion..

torres is finished!
that wasn't torres that scored - it was demba ba(he just had a plastic surgery)

ehie: digression;in in 1994,within a period of three months,a million tutsis were killed,by their neighbours,tutsis ran to churches and the priests would welcome them,lock them up and bring in bulldozers to crush them up,government ministers talked about how to kill them,hiv positive men were recruited just to rape the women,twenty percent of that population was destroyed,america was informed about the genocide before it was to take place but clinton was playing politics then and us etc would veto or ignore the motion when it was in the un,france had a hand in supporting the hutus so they played the fool,help came only from the rebel tutsis who took kigali after defeating the govt,tutsis came into power and formed a coalition government and banned any refernce to ethnicity,eg quota system etc,why cant we do the same

nigeria is more complex........
the population is staggering thus what happened in rwanda will not work in nigeria. there are some few members of a powerful cabal who are happy with the way things are and they would do everything possible to keep things the way they currently are. clinton did not make any move in 94 because america just got their arsës handed to them on a plate in mogadishu. he couldn't risk going into another african country barely months later.

as for the igbos who are still moaning and groaning about the casualties of the biafran war - what exactly happen during wars? sharing of bread and eggs? why did ojukwu go to war knowing he's putting his own people at risk? he should have put the lives and properties of his people into consideration before going to war. what happened in 1967 was entirely ojukwu's fault! too bad innocent women and children died but that is what happens when you have an egotistical spoilt brat as a warlord!

lifesabeach: What can I say. Even the dumbest of idiots don't fail to try to prove they are super intelligent at the slightest opportunity, blowing another's mistake out of proportion. Enjoy your naija TV series or whatever you call it

shut your filthy mouth, you gutter rat....
you made a monumental goof, you were called out on it and you still had the chutzpah to defend your stupidity. do you people reason with the soles of your feet? lekki-wives is a reality tv show? wives would compete with each other in the art of whöring and the a winner would emerge? arghhhhhhh - your dumbness is peerless!

thegoodjoehunt:

You didn't understand me. When the match starts, the formation played by the manager is what I am talking about. Beginning of this season, Manchester City played a 3-5-2 formation. That is the kind of formation you play when you are down a goal with 10 minutes to go. Alex Ferguson will start all ways with his 4 backline. So what is a lie about what I said?

Manchester City lost a lot of games with that formation and he changed it and now uses it more towards the end of the match. He wants the team to slowly transform into the 3-5-2 formation.

Against Stoke yesterday, when Kompany injured, Mancini played with only one central defender and two overlapping full backs. Lescott in defense and Zabaleta and Clichy overlapping. Zabaleta scored the goal.

There is a coach who used to coach Genoa and Inter, Gasperini always plays 3-4-3 formation with 3 Strikers, 2 wingers and 2 deep lying midfielders, 3 center backs.

Ferguson always maintains his 4-4-2 formation which is less risky to lose. That is why I said that he leans towards Team A but isn't exactly in team A.

THAT IS A BIG LIE. You are funny.

4-4-2 is the most attacking formation ever.
any manager playing 3-5-2 is being defensive - you really think it's the number of defenders that determines what is offensive from being defensive? you really need to go learn about tactical formations. man city play 7 defenders. what are barry, milner, toure? attackers?

you said fergie always play 4-4-2.....forgetting 2 of those back four are basically wing-backs. rafael and evra spend more time attacking than defending - then you have 2 out n out wingers who stretch the play and the 2 strikers......only 3 players defend in man utd(the centre-halves and carrick).

thegoodjoehunt:

Let me give you a scenario and gives a clear division of the kind of strategy we like and the kind we hate.

Imagine the time left for a match is 10 mins. Team A is a goal down and Team B is a goal up. If you look at the set up and approach both teams will take, you will see that team A will play an Attacking formation (Poyet, Mancini, Bielsa, Wenger, Guardiola, Villanova, Hynckes etc). Team B will take a defensive approach ( Allardyce, Tony Pulis, Mourinho against an attacking side, Di Matteo against Bayern and Barca).

Some coaches are in between, some lean towards Team A (Ferguson, Benitez, Paul Lambert, Boas, Simeone etc) and some lean towards Team B (Pardew, Martin O'Neal etc).
So coaches like Boas and Simeone lean towards team A than Alex Ferguson.

this is a big lie........
no team plays an attacking formation more than ferguson in the whole of europe - he's still the only manager playing 4-4-2 in europe. one of the reasons he lost 2 champions league finals to barcelona. if he had been more cautious in his approach like mourinho, he would have won at least one of them!

if united are down 1-0 in a match, the opposition should start praying for the last 10 min seige. go and watch the last 5 mins of the 1999 champions league final against bayern. after the equaliser, the assistant manager(steve mclaren) was about to inform beckham n co to defend for the remaining minutes and play for the extra time.....fergie told him no that there's still another goal in the game and he's confident his team would grab it and united got it. united never ever stops attacking when they are losing - they just run out of time!

another premier league side in the fa cup draw...
united are cursed!

uruguay?
belgium is the team to fear within the next 3 yrs!

thegoodjoehunt:
I just hope Mancini cuts the Busquets chase and gets young Oliver Torres of Athletico Madrid and allow us have a Spanish Trio midfield of Garcia, Silva and Torres. With Spanish Dennis Suarez as a reserve. Then we will be ready to battle with the top European teams.

you would still get murdered -
it's not about buying players here and there - there's no chemistry in the city squad and a lot of your players don't play for the badge - they play for the cash!

thegoodjoehunt:

With the talents Man Utd have, Man Utd should have whooped Bilbao instead of learning from the Aston Villa of La Liga.

Also we might have good attacking talents but that isn't the truth behind real strength. Omar22 talked about the brilliance of a deep lying midfielder. That is why Mancini signed Garcia and is fighting for Busquets. Our attacking talents need a World Class midfield to reach our true target and we will get there.

Let us see again next season. For now we have a big task to try and win the double.
I love my CITIZENS.

united clearly underestimated bilbao like fergie always does in games like these....
he left quite a good number of his best players on the bench against bilbao cos he didn't see the need to keep pursuing europa cup dreams. it's a lose-lose situation in england. if he wins it, then united's rivals would say it's a milk cup achievement. if he loses it, they would still say he got whooped by an inferior team. english teams play more domestic competitions more than any league in europe. fergie was in a title race with city - he felt no need to commit players into the europa league cause!

thegoodjoehunt:
Yes we were knocked out twice but we have twice been grouped in the group of death. Last season, Man Utd was in an easier group and they got knocked out too and thought a lesson on possession football by Bilbao in the Europa League.

I also read Xavi's interview when Scholes retired. Either way everyone coach has its strategy and Every fan has a choice to support which strategy they like.
See ya later.

group of death or not - city are clueless in europe!
with the attacking talents you pack, you should have seen off dortmund and ajax easily but you got ploughed and you finished with the lowest points ever with world class talents like silva, aguero, tevez, dzeko, etc. that's a crying shame!

ujchief: I share your opinion, but the ish may not be unconnected to the fact that since jarus has resigned as a mod, it might be difficult or impossible for him to hide posts and collate judges scores since its an exclusive ability for mods to hide posts and ban offenders.
The beauty of this debate lies in its coordination, and only a mod can have that exclusive ability to keep things moving. Otherwise, jarus would have been the best to keep the flames of his project running.
Anyway, whatever is the way forward, I'm all in!

jarus' name is a brand!
people are excited when they see him coordinating stuff like this. in the sports section, he's doing something similar with the player rating in the cup of nations - he posts his opinion and people either argue for/against his prognosis!

i agree it's become difficult as he's no longer a mod but he can always be in contact with afam/oam4j through the private message and ask them to remove/add posts! how is this difficult. that afam is now the mod does not mean he can do this better - he can also be better than jarus at other stuff jarus is completely clueless about!

thegoodjoehunt: I hope this won't make you feel I am a stark Illiterate. Hence it is difficult for you to use google to confirm opinion of others.
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3270/england-national-team/2011/06/13/2530596/paul-scholes-calls-on-england-to-learn-from-spain-they-are

then you should have sent this earlier instead of sending the other obscure sports site. now that it's been cleared scholes mentioned this, it's just his opinion and scholes himself is a direct football specialist! he has the widest range of passing in england in the last 15 yrs at least so what does this say about him - hypocrisy?

As for My CITIZENS I told you it takes time and they are going the right route.
I hope you don't think Scholes is a stark Illiterate.

of course - they are getting there after being eliminated from europe in the group stage twice in a row. they even got beat by united who got stuck in and hit them on a counter. i admire what the spaniards do but that style is only suited to them. asking others to copy what's not their ethos is the beginning of failure! english players can never ever play like the spaniards. the football education is different - the criteria of what scouts look for are different and more importantly, the culture is different! go and read the xavi interview!!!

another tribal bashing thread....
nigerians committed crimes abroad and some people still want to make this about tribe instead of using their common sense. the whites don't know yoruba or hausa or biafra - all they see is the green passport which says ojukwu, awolowo and abacha are all nigerians.

bilms: STUDENTS AND CULTISM, WHO SHOULD BE BLAMED? After the matriculation ceremony of the kwara state polytechnic yesterday,a student was shot dead by some cultists in the school. According to the report, the cult group that shoot the student aimed a different target,but after killing this victim,they discover he his not their target,meaning he his innocent. In recent time,several students have been killed in kwara state by cultist. My concern is that, who should be blamed for students cultism? Why would students be killing each other in the name of cultism? This is unacceptable.

parents should take the blame cos charity begins at home.
however, you find out that most of these cult boys come from a broken/dysfunctional homes. the ones who have regular parents have been abused or have seen one or both parents abusing each other. some are not even shown enough love and attention at home - thus they go to school and join any association that offers them protection and care. the acute poverty plus the crippling economy have also made it difficult for parents to spend more time with their children.....

ujchief: What's up guys? What's the way forward? I guess we will have to postponed this month's own like we did that of last month.
Helloooo! Can anyone hear me

jarus should be left alone to perfect his craft otherwise this dream would soon become a nightmare. for 2 months running now, there's been no real move made to continue the debate. i doubt afam has the chutzpah to organise this ish. let the pioneer continue his work and afam can observe or mediate from a distance.

thegoodjoehunt: http://worldinsport.com/2011/06/paul-scholes-england-need-to-adopt-the-spanish-way-html/

I hope you still don't think Scholes does not know what he is saying because as you pointed out, he is one of the brain boxes in this direct football.

No one is saying every club or National team should deviate from their pattern. We are saying that teams should promote more players that can keep the ball and pass well.
Like Coach Keshi dropping a player like Raheem Lawal and now we have no creative player to complement Mikel.

are you an illiterate? are you a stark illiterate?
i didn't see any direct quote of paul scholes regarding what you claimed apart from where he said alex ferguson wants him to play 10-15 games in the following season! please, don't embarrass yourself any further. learn to separate a blogger's opinion and the direct quote from the players they mention!

thegoodjoehunt:
This was said after Manchester City beat Stoke in December 2011. An astonishing 924 completed passes by City is the highest recorded by any Premier League side since 2003.

I am glad my CITIZENS are doing it the Barca way. Now it is just patience left for us to become one of the elites in Football history.

doing it the barca way and finishing 2 points in their champions league group! the barca way is really helping them, ain't it? stoke ceded possession knowing the kind of fearsome attack they are coming against.......this is more to do with stoke packing their box with bodies than city playing like barcelona!

thegoodjoehunt: Whether you like it or not, Man City are a very possessive side and keep the ball. They are the Champions of England. Barca are a very possessive dominating side and they are dominating club football. Ajax are a possessive side, they are the dutch Champions. Borrusia Dortmund, ,other grat passing side are the Champions of Germany.

every quality side keep the ball more - that's pretty much given! they have the money to buy quality players...the more the quality, the more they are feared and the smaller teams are defeated even before the game so they sit back and cede possession to the bigger sides! so you are hardly scratching the surface with the points above.

Guardiola plays a more possessive game than Rijkaard. Can you compare the speed at which Rijkaard's Barca play to the way Guardiola's Barca play?

rijkaard had more foreign players to work with. his attack to start with were all foreigners. henry, dinho, guily, larsson, gudjohnsen, maxi lopez and etoo were all spaniards - it's different from having villa, pedro, tello and messi that was trained and drilled the spanish way since a very young age! you expect etoo to play tiki-taka in the box? larsson? get out of here........

The second Champions League won by Guardiola didn't have Giovanni Van Bronkhurst, Eto'o, Ronaldhino, Larsson, Beletti, Marquez, Edmilson, Deco, Oleguer, Sylvinho, Henry, Gudjohnson. Yet you are saying that it is the same team.

he still had puyol, xavi, iniesta, messi, abidal, valdez, etc plus he spent mad cheddarz in that transitional season to put barcelona on the map.

Even Scholes has told you that the possession route is better and that is why the English national team is failing. Yet you are still arguing.

show me this link where scholes advised anyone to abandon their philosophy and start playing tiki-taka. you probably don't know what you are talking about. the attributes any local english coach is looking for in youngsters are size, strength, power and pace. in spain, they are about technique, vision and agility. pace is secondary to them! it's a cultural thing.....so what you claimed scholes said is rubbish, he couldn't have said so cos scholes himself is a master of direct football. pinging passes from 70 yards is not tiki-taka.

You are saying how far Swansea. They are clearly the best side among the teams promoted since last season.

stoke have survived the storm since 08/09 season and they have beaten more big teams in the premier league than any newly promoted side since the start of the premier league. their results @ the britannia is peerless!

Are you not impressed with their success? Didn't you see Brighton outplay Newcastle and knock Newcastle from the FA Cup playing lovely possessive football. The evidence is clear, that is why you needed the blackbelt Camerounian team of 1990 to make your point.

germany also did blackbelt karate football to beat argentina @ the world cup? whilst messi was busy playing passes, ozil and muller were doing counter attacking football to destroy maradona's possessive football! i am impressed with swansea but i did the same with blackpool and hull and they got relegated that same season!

Are you trying to say Scholes doesn't know what his saying when he said English football needs reorientation from the Grassroot?

he does not!
it's a cultural thing - england don't just produce technical players like spain. it's an innate ability. go and read the xavi interview again, he said there was a time he feared for his future cos if a player is not 6ft in the midfield then he won't be considered good enough for football! there's no orientation you can give english players that would make them play like xavi or busquets! that's just a pipe dream.........there's no orientation you can give nigerians and make them swim better than caucasians - it's a cultural thing!

debosky: You dey mind them? They are sounding the same way coogar was sounding when Anderson was paying his school fees.

But in that case, at least coogar was a Utd supporter - dunno why alleged fans of another club are more concerned about 'promoting' a player more than the supporters of the club the player features for. . . .voyeurism and all that.

PS - I told y'all Gervinho wasn't messing around - two games and two goals and an assist. . . .what a player!

anderson paid my fees? debosky, may the gods shrivel your phallus!

[quote author=Mr_TA]Thanks guys, mother and child are doing fine. Zaha ko haha ni . Unfortunately the mrs is not listening to my oluwavanpersie suggestion. [/quote]what about de gea, bebe or nani?

thegoodjoehunt:
England conceding 4 goals against Germany, Barcelona beating Manchester United in two Champions League finals, Manchester United aka Kings of England being outplayed by the whooping boys Athletico Bilbao of La Liga, makes you wonder why the whole World isn't playing direct football.

argentina conceding 4 goals against germany, barcelona losing to chelsea(6th position) in a 2-legged tie, barcelona losing scandalously to celtic, cameroon beating maradona's argentina, senegal murdering france, usa beating spain in a tournament and italy winning the world cup in 2006 have told me direct football works better than sëxy football!

thegoodjoehunt:
First of all, Man City is a possessive side, they play more possessively than direct football. A lot of people criticize Manchester City of holding the ball too long. I am a Manchester City fan and I know this.

Secondly, where did you get: no manager or tactics instructs the players to give the ball away carelessly. you can argue the present german team is more talented than the 2006 but to argue one team deliberately gives the ball away is criminal!

Rijkaard's Barcelona were a good possessive side but Guardiola's team played more possessively and kept the ball longer. Does that mean that Rijkaard tells his to give the ball away carelessly?

that's a lie.....
guardiola's side had a fully-mature messi to finish off those passing triangles. the difference between rijkaard's barcelona and guardiola's barcelona is messi's development!

Also Note this stat:
Passing accuracy table
Manchester United 86.9%
Arsenal 86.5%
Manchester City 86.2%
Swansea City 85.4%
Liverpool 85.2%
Chelsea 84.4%
Spurs 83.5%

Average possession
Liverpool 59%
Manchester City 59%
Manchester United 58%
Arsenal 58%
Chelsea 56%
Swansea City 55%
Spurs 50%

yet more nonsense as usual - it's becoming a habit with you!
the stats you have reeled out is based on the quality of the players in these clubs. swansea play a more possession hugging football than united and yet united's direct football approach gives them a better passing stats/possession stats than swansea. the quality of players here is the difference!

The best clubs among the direct playing teams in England are the most possessive ones except Liverpool. That is because they are rebuilding and don't have lots of talents like their conterparts.

stop contradicting yourself, my friend!
swansea are a possession side - tell me why united have more passing stats than swansea!

Finally, you said,"possession football with a purpose is the key! hugging possession without hurting your opponents is just a waste of time".
That is what everyone thought till Guardiola came and proved everyone wrong. [/color]

guardiola inherited a world class team - it's not surprising he achieved that much in the short period he was at barcelona. any manager who spends as much as him and blessed with 4 of the best 5 players in the world should win titles - i would have won more than guardiola in his shoes!

denzel2009: You mean they don't accept feckin oyster cards?

only t-mobile top-up cards or your fücking gas card!

denzel2009: don't worry I'm buying

how?
denzel, it's a "no credit" policy......this is not iya bashirat's canteen where you eat for 26 days on credit without paying.

thegoodjoehunt:
That is the problem with direct football fans. They believe football is a walk in the park. That is why most direct teams are filled with players with no technical touch or skills.

You expect a park bus team to transform into a possessive/attacking wonder over night. Barcelona and Spain have horned their skill for years before achieving what they are enjoying now.

Luis Aragonés lost to France in 2006 at the World Cup. 2 years later he took the same team to Euro Glory in 2008. The German side were not brave enough to battle Spain at the 2010 World Cup. At the Euros they played better, even though Spain still won. Later they will achieve tremendous result.

That is the best route and I hope the Nigerian National team takes that route. Most African teams are still playing the Kick and Hush football. This would be a good opportunity to take a lead.

story.......
until you get it that some fans get bored with endless passing of the ball, you would continue to beat about the bush. some football fans(many of them) don't particularly like the way spain/barca play. i don't blame those fans cos most of the games spain won at the world cup were by the margin of the skin of their teeth. a header from a corner won it against germany(that's not a tiki-taka goal), holland could have beaten them if only robben wasn't such an idiotic püssy! the goal that undid holland wasn't exactly a tiki-taka goal too plus they lost their opening game scandalously against hitzfeld's switzerland. it makes you begin to question the relevance of tiki-taka!