₦airaland Forum

SmooshCHN:
If every superstar gets the calls James Harden gets, they'll have an added 8-10+ on their average if they can make their free throws. I watched Anthony Davis, LeBron, Kyrie, Curry, Derozan get shoved around all season long (no problem if refs didn't call a foul) but no one can even breath on Harden. Even when he initiate contact, locks his arm on yours, etc.. He just flails his arms for no fuckíng reason and get calls.. Players don't even seem to try stop him anymore cos he'll go to the line 1 million times.. MVP no doubt however, its unfair.

I am never bothered about him because in the playoffs the FT numbers shrink and the 3pt line is more defended. It is the issue they had against SAS last time out. In the regular season, they try to create every narrative to make it watchable because people generally do not care so much about the regular seasons any more.

I tried to watch the Jazz game for a bit and when the game was shifting away from Houston, the FTs started piling up. At some point, the commentators said the refs would need to balance it out a bit to make the game look fair. Rudy Robert was being gobsmacked by Harden and the refs were unlooking. Funny stuff.

It is on NL I heard first that Curry gets superstar treatment. Nobody raised any outrage that Russell shoved Swaggy P for shimmying. Russell has no history that precedes him. Oh the day Draymond does it...or Zaza. Humanright hacktivists would turn up.

Donlittle:
The guy na dirty player men

Please watch that thing again. Swaggy’s leg hooked Zazas and it was still entangled when they were on the ground. Meanwhile, RWs leg is what tripped Swaggy and Zaza needed to rest to get himself untangled.

Zaza’s reputation is preceding him here.

Donlittle:
Has any one seen the replay of zaza fall on westbrook? That should prove the kwahi incident was no accident. A very dirty player that should be thrown out of the league.

Una don come o.

SmooshCHN:
He's just that brilliant student we all know that submits so early but keeps forgetting the exam paper had more questions at the back page. Only Curry is stopping Curry..

You have said it all.

Just happy with the defensive intensity. This is who we are. I recognized this team and would have taken an L playing this way.

Problem is, we never lose playing this way.

SmooshCHN:
Klay Thompson and Javale. These two have the same mindset today.

Why is Steph so freaking hesitant?

SmooshCHN:
Draymond was telling the crowd "Let's fuckíng go" and then gets hit with a tech.. But OK

I already shouted the refs out. The last 5 mins they have been garbage.

SmooshCHN:
If Klay bricks on more shot with his only FG and nothing else contributing aśs..

He is bricking them fam. Wide open shots and he is bricking them.

We have no solution for Adams for now.

S/Oto the refs

SmooshCHN:
I don't even know what to say..

We are looking serious in defense but missing open looks. Especially Klay.

We need to make them pay because they are in this game due to Steven Adams and his rebounds.

Get a rebound somebody.

Dembouz is playing rubbish fam.

Yea, that is Steph when he is aggressive not running off ball and screens getting pulled and mauled.

We are still so careless with the ball.

Jesus Curry getting man-handled again.

This is getting pathetic.

cobhampolice:
Whose fault is it, that kante has a low centre of gravity? When you lose possession, a dm defends, not standing like an electric pole. Rakitic expected busquets to stop willian in the first half and was forced to collect that yellow.

Willian played for us more than 10 times this season and he never got that amount of space to shoot in a match this season. Thanks to your dm who wasn't closing him down well.

Kante intercepted key passes going to barca's key man, messi.

Busquets was dribbled 4 times, you failed to add that bro. One of which forced rakitic to collect a card. He was also dribbled by hazard, another yellow there. You didn't give us these details and more.

Busi did not stand. First you asked why he still chased Kante and now claim he stood like an electric pole.

Willian did not have "space" to shoot. The only reason we are talking about the chances today is because he hit the bar. Paulinho's chance was better than the 3 Willian chances (including the goal).

Iniesta and Rakitic caused his own yellow not Busquets. Busquets almost played no role there.

He systemically fouled Hazard at the centre of the pitch when the game was almost done. LOL

Where was Kante during Barca's goal? Tell us about it.

phaamsaam:
Now you are going back to say the samething I have said, you are trying to modernize it, if Kante was playing for fcb instead, he would be in that zone because he is short and won't win any aerial battle from a corner, we have pique, umtiti, Busi n Paulinho for our zonal marking from set pieces, Busi n pique are taller than the other two.

I am agreeing with you: That the way they outsmarted us was to pull Busi away during that corner. Christensen who is above 6" was the distraction.

phaamsaam:
Tactical foul.. I blame the whole team.. Come and kill me, Paulinho has one, can't remember the first willian shot, the willian goal, d whole team for being outsmarted , all waiting for a cross

They used Christensen to pull Sergio into the box while Willian stayed out. As soon as Sergio realised it he ran out to stay infront of Willian who only needed a tenth of a second to release his shot.

cobhampolice:
Not stand still, he should learn how to block channels with responsive positioning. He went to where no one sent him, allowing kante to cash in on his stupid decision and put his defence under avoidable pressure.

When hazard was putting Roberto, paulinho and rakitic under pressure, willian ensured that he went to that same spot where busquets shoud be manning. Umtiti had to come out in one of those moments he exposed them, luckily for Sergio, the ball hit the post. I don't need to expain this with gifs.

Fact is, busquets is a sluggish dm and he couldn't catch up with fleet footed players, he would be exposed. But messi and co are always there to ensure not many people notice he is defensively weak.

So it was kante who asked Christensen to pass to fabregas? Wehdonsir, you can defend a stray bullet.

You don't get brownie points for telling us Kante runs faster than Sergio. Kante's low centre of gravity has made that possible. But blocking channels is what you do when your team is defending. Barca was not defending in that gif.

I repeat Willian did not move to any position. He tilted his body right and curled his shot the 2 times Sergio marked him. It is the same reason defenders have a hard time blocking KDBs crosses: Their technique helps them so that even if you know what they will do, you cannot really stop it.

Do you know how many times Kante won the ball off Messi? NONE. ZILCH. ZERO times.
Do you know how many times Kante was dispossessed? 3 times. Sergio 0 times.
Do you know how many passes Kante tried to make? 25 and only 18 met its target (80%). Sergio made 128 passes and attempted 138 of them (92%).

sebod:
Eruditor, stop arguing with Airmark over Busi. It's an exercise in futility.

Just ask him where Krychiowack, his once upon a time best DM is today

I thought his new handle will mean new behavior.

cobhampolice:
I know you are brilliant to know all those things are stories for the gods.

You said busquets covered the right side because he knew messi was in the center to cover for him. Why was he running after he saw kante probing into his primary area, since he knew messi was there?

There are stuffs you don't need to defend. Busquets made a fool of himself by that senseless decision, which nearly caused another goal. I expected you to accept it was a mistake that anybody could make.

If you say there's nothing special in putting men behind the ball, you are right, but not every team that put men behind the ball gets a result from such effort. You think wilian always moving to that area busquets failed to protect and shooting, was by luck? Get real.

I don't understand. So he should have stood still after his team lost the ball?

Willian did not move into any area that Busquets failed to cover. Willian's technique of hitting the ball gave him an advantage for the first shot and his goal (after all Rakitic was also behind Sergio when the shot was taken). The second shot that hit the bar was Umtiti and still he too could not stop the Willian shot. Is he also poor defensively?

Meanwhile, Chris passed to Kante who returned the ball quickly for fear of being pressed. Chris wanted to return it again and Kante signalled for the pass to go to Cesc. Chris miss-passes it and the rest is history.

cobhampolice:
Your defensive skill on busquets is even poorer than busquets'.

Why not said kante was motivated because he is a quick player and busquets is a sluggish one?

So busquets did the right thing to cover the right side and leave the engine room to messi to do his job, despite being the one to fall deep, receive and run with the ball to make things happen upfront? What kinda fuckery was that?

It's just a matter of time.

When defending Sergio stays centrally. In attack it is different.

You don't expect him to be static in a fluid attack like ours. Players take different positions while attacking to cause issues to defensively naive teams.

There is nothing special about putting all men behind the ball like CFC did. If Busquets was central during that attack he would have stifled Messi's run had the ball gotten to him some how from Suarez.

Coaches like Conte who like counter-attacking football do so because it helps catch the opposing team out of position.

While Barca forces teams to be out of position by slick passing and movement, Chelsea hopes to CATCH teams out of position.

One is planned and conscientious. The other is based on luck...chance...happenstance. That is the difference between Sergio and Kante.

cobhampolice:
Watch the gif again. What gave kante that greenlight to run with the ball was busquets' defensive stupidity. He went to the right thinking kante wanted to pass to the right, leaving the important area (midfield), he was supposed to give preference to. It's just like your gateman leaving the main building to go and be watching over the boy's quarters at the back, while the main gate is opened with robbers approaching.

All these defensive frailties are not highlighted because barca got a good result. A defensive midfielder gives priority to the key area to protect.

What gave him the impetus to run was 1) it was a counter-attack 2)he is a quick player and all quick players feel like they can run to gain an advantage.

Sergio was not wrongly positioned. He had to cover the right since Messi was in the centre during the attack.

cobhampolice:
You lie a lot. Messi couldn't chew kante, he was on him like a rash. The gif below is enough to tell you how reckless busquets could be in games. Kante didn't lose this ball to any fkin busquets, in fact messi also tried to stop him. That should have been the 2nd goal, courtesy of busquets poor positional play, if well executed.

The midfield was empty, no dm.

Kante did not win the ball off Messi. Christensen won the ball off Suarez and passed it to Kante.

Since Messi had occupied Sergio's position (whilst attacking) Sergio was on the right where Messi would have been.

Kante sped passed Messi who thought it rash to close him down and give an easy foul because it was 3 V 3.

All the gif shows is Kante's pace.

cobhampolice:
Who was marking towards messi's left between the two? Kante did his job by blocking the space messi wanted and intercepting most of the passes meant for messi.

Put busquets against messi, he will be chewed raw.

Put anyone against Messi, he will chew them raw.

Put Kante in Barca and Sergio in CFC in that same game, and Sergio's control of the ball and unique passing would have led to one or 2 more counter-attacks whereas Kante may have lost the ball when pressed which may have exposed Barca.

ClumsyFlimsy:
As a barca fan i won't lie kante is really good
at what he does. Personally I had pick him over a DM like casemiro. in fact over most dm even though kante no be barca kind of player

Although as u mentioned him and oga busquet no be mate.

No dm compares to busquest

Kante is good no doubts but each time they pressed him, he gave the ball away. He probably won't do well in a game where his team is hugging possession and the other team are pressing high to win the ball back.

Slow Fabregas won the ball off Messi than Kante in that game.

calculator123:
i took time to read trailer loads of bullcrap some people have been posting.We need to make constructive criticisms while giving the players thumbs up.....here are my observations
1) the players should learn to make corrections asap.Examples, not closing down willian runs and most painful part was giving him space on 3 occasions to shoot,one of which lead to the goal..How can you play corner kick twice and upon realizing courtois was taller,sense no fall on you to change am?
2) with all the pass pass we did, we need to start training to shoot from outside the box,those pass can't work against a team playing 9-1-0 formation..
3) we should also learn counter attack na,i can't count number of opportunities we had to take them on the counter but we killed it....
I will end by saying,"only a fool expects a different result while doing the same thing over and over again"
#calculator123

1. Willian has a unique way of hitting the ball. It curls and his foot-to-ball speed is blinding. In basketball, it is called quick release. He can generate alot of power even with little distance between his foot and the ball.

2. If your strategy to win a game is to shoot sporadically from outside. You have no business being a coach.

3. You cannot counter-attack a team that does not ATTACK. A team has to ATTACK for you to COUNTER it.

Linkfield:
Pls don't disrespect Kante. Don't lie.
No one is saying he is better than Busquet, but Kante worth the hype abeg

Show me where I disrespected him.

You people will use hype to finish Kante. He was ok against us but I would pick Busquet's performance over his in that game easy.

Kante uses his speed and anticipation to make up for his positional mal-awareness. So many times he is caught in the wrong position and makes last ditch efforts to cover up.

Kante always looks like he is doing hard work (which he is most times) but that guy was getting dispossessed easily whereas Sergio was not.

Hype on sha. Short men tell need tall tales.

Let me just drop this here.

Ibime:
Listen you uptight prick. Stay off my mentions.

How else is Fabregas supposed to help Christensen except by getting to that ball. By dancing maracena?

Next time you come here accusing me of lying, you better make sure there is quotation mark attached since every discussion is legal argument to you. This is an informal chatroom so take that permanent díldo out of your arse, you uptight prick.

You are welcome.

Ibime:
In other words, your father is a liar. Don't phucking quote me accusing me of lies again. I am not about to twist semantics with you on an informal forum, or did you see quotation marks on my statement? There is no other way to help Christensen except by getting to that ball. If you cannot respect yourself, stay off my mentions.

Feigned anger to hide the exposed obvious lie.

Once you use the phrase "should have" even while paraphrashing this is what it implies:

used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness, typically when criticizing someone's actions.
"he should have been careful".

You were deceptively trying to use Gerrard to support your anti-Fabregas crusade and I exposed it. End of.

Ibime:
Your father is a liar. Something I watched on BT Sport live.

My father is a rich man.

On BTSports I heard Gerrard say "Fabregas did not help [him - Christiensen]" not that Fabregas should have got the ball.

Help because Christiensen had made a mistake. Not only did he give a wrong pass, he passed it wrongly.

Ibime:
Gerrard said on BT Sport last night that Fabregas should have got to that ball.

Lies on Wednesdays as well.