₦airaland Forum

Mourinholic:
Madrid aren't into counter?? Lol.
There is a difference between a defensive side and a counter attacking side......
Counter attack-You press,You get the ball and immediately attack a disorganized defence.....

The reasons we have been conceding isn't solely because of the style,we played the same way last year....Hazard haven't neglected his defensive duties, the reasons we are conceding is because of a lot of reasons....Matic isn't Matic,Iva is dying, Fabregas is week.......
I know of a team that has ozil,play Ramsey as RW ,Carzola as CM and still keep clean sheets...
Kdb and Silva must have been helping Kolarov and Sagna out.....
If we can't keep clean sheets at home against Villa,Palace and Soton unless we go ultra defensive, you might as well sell Hazard and buy Bertrand back and play him as a LW......


The game against United at the bridge,will you call that a counter attacking style??
The 6-0 against Arsenal,now that's a counter attacking style
Dortmund under Klopp......Madrid under Mourinho and Ancelloti, Pochettino currently with Tottenham.......

Simeone at Madrid? Now that's defensive

Pal which Real are you talking about? PES or EASports?

You're even shooting yourself on the foot by claiming that a team that counter-attacks have to press, that's a bold lie. When you see a team throwing too many bodies behind the ball, surrendering possession to only absorb the opposition's pressure, then switching from a defensive position to an attacking position, they are simply counter-attacking. Real don't do that.

Thus far, Real has scored 14 goals from open play, 2 from set-plays and just 1 goal from counter-attack. Is that a team into counters?

They've completed an amazing 521 short passes and 59 long passes. Is that a team into counters?

Their 88% pass success simply means they're into possession football, a message I've been trying to deliver to you since morning.

Here's what Rafa had to say on the day he got unveiled:

Our style of play will be based on playing attacking football, having possession of the ball whenever we can, attacking by moving the ball quickly, looking not to lose balance between attack and defence, showing a positive sort of aggression and adapting to a range of formations if necessary. We'll try to impose our brand of football, but we have to be able to deal with other alternatives if required. That's the difference between style of play, basically an attacking one in our case, and formation, which will be the players' position on the pitch.

Mourinholic this might help you understand the concept better.

See where the wingers are?

It's a strategy that demands tremendous individual and team discipline because you're expected to cover large amount of space in little time.

Mourinholic:
You don't need your wingers to defend in a counter attack system.....There is a diff between the bus and counter......
Madrid,Dortmund, Tottenham..... Those are counter attacking teams,you don't see Bale playing 'stand-in Right back',do u?

Wrong thinking mate. You need every breathing human in your team to defend in a counter-attacking setup and please Madrid aren't into counter-attacking, don't express that view off NL.

Defining the concept, It is simply a direct transition out of defense into attack. A system that is reliant on a solid defensive foundation that is meant to sit back, absorb pressure and attack the opposition when they least expect it.

Most of the time, that transition is carried out by the wingers who are also heavily involved in the defending and this is where Eden comes in.

One of the reasons our defense have been exposed beyond limits this term is because the backline isn't getting overloaded like before. The CMs and wingers failure to track back and reject space in our own half has really been one of our major undoing.

So Jose has a point.

Mourinholic:
I think Mourinho was just looking for an excuse to deal with hazard.... That guy doesn't really have a winner's mentality.... He resumes for pre season overweight every year......
The last time he criticized him,he stood up and won us the league.....
Forget all these pre season,Oscar,fabregas and Matic talks...... If Hazard has been hazard,we would be top 4 by now....

Now this is just a conjecture.

Greatihex:
are u 4 real? He does nt criticise hm 4 his drop in attack, bt in defence nd u support it? Nawao

Depends on what the manager prioritizes most. For a team like Chelsea who have adopted the counter-attacking style of footie, you'd always expect a lot of emphasis to be placed on the defence.

This is Jose we're talking about brah. He aint a proponent of tiki-taka bullcrap, it has always been about the backline.

Ibime:
We were a lot more solid in the 2nd half with Fabregas out the pivot and in the AM position.

2nd half team against West Ham please if not them go disgrace us.

I wouldn't mind having Zouma in that pivot against the Hammers.

A beast like Kurt although not a natural Dm can always complement an out of form Matic.

If the going gets tough, i wouldn't mind going all turbo -> Zouma-Ramires.

Payet hates comedy.

Bimffo:
Awon Ode!

Just say Guzan threw the ball into the Net himself.

We lose, they complain. We Win, they cry.

What are they afraid of? We are 20th on the table and they are 1st. Lol. chaii.

It's an absolute disgrace how far people can go to disturb us

- Jose Mourinho

And yeah, i don't think it's entirely wrong for Jose to drop Hazard for not being defensively astute.

We're not new to this sort of thing. He [Jose] did it with Loftus-Cheek last season.

He's the manager, if he thinks you have to buy into his work ethics, it's left for you to help yourself out.

The man is under pressure, and would do about anything to save his job, even if it means to bench the fans' favorite.

airmark:
We got the 3 points but the game was nt impressive. As i said in the past, azpi was shaky in the early part of his game as RB. Baba rahman was nt that strong as expected in top-flight soccer. I just hope mou will work on the negs and complement the positives. Not yet uhuru.

Well said. Our next fixture promises to deliver a bloodbath, i've seen enough of the hammers this season, brah those chaps seem to be on steroids.

Aggression and tenacity are just what we need in our game, this isn't the period to feel 'relaxed'.

I worry about Matic, his loss of form has seen us lose some steel in the midfield. I cant help but think the lad's holiday were spent in Belgrade brotels.

It wasn't pretty, but then who cares.

We need to start closing up the gap between us and the guys at the top, that freaking gap that could comfortably swallow Africa.

Mourinho has likened Abdul Rahman Baba's situation to Ricardo Carvalho.

"I go back to one of the best defenders the Premier League has ever had, Ricardo Carvalho,".

"He was in big trouble for three, four, five months. He said he couldn't adapt to the change from the Portuguese League and the Champions League to the Premier League: the way attacking players were playing, the way he had to adapt and learn how to use his position and his body.

"He was a super player but it was hard for him for three or four months. It's a problem of experience and being adapted to the Premier League. It's depends on the characteristics of the player.

"Baba is really good with the ball, he's very fast, but he's learning how we play and how we defend. The fact he came to us in the last days of the market took from him the possibility to work in pre-season, but he's a good player for sure and we trust him."

So does this mean Azpi would retain his place at the LB whilst Zouma replaces the injured Ivanovic?

Something like this:

Mrphilia:
Today is my birthday wish me well my fellow blues

HBD hombre. LLNP!

Mourinholic:
Hazard- 5 goals in his last 6 games for Belgium

Albeit his performances haven't been convincing for Belgium, he somehow keeps scoring.

He was amazing lastnite though.

Ibime:
Simeone does not speak a single word of English. I don't know why Griffon abi Lacers is bothering himself.

Translators no go chop again?

Mourinholic:
Simeone isn't even close to Mourinho.... Not at all.....
Abramovic better use his sense.....

How is Simeone not close to Jose?

For many, number of titles won would always be first considered, unfortunately, it doesn't work that way for me. You'll agree with me that JM who has won more titles than Diego Simeone have over the years enjoyed the luxury of managing top sides and top players hence the massive haul of silverware.

Man management and the ability to achieve success with the little resources at your disposal is what makes you a manager. Atleti as a franchise are not debt free and they just have to swim with the ugly tide. The sponsorship deals haven't been impressive neither have Vincent Calderon been generating a healthy revenue for them, certainly the funds aren't there to be splashed, yet somehow, Simeone remains a winner.

Globalization has created a winner-takes-all dynamic in which teams with the most money buy the best players, who produce success on the field, which produces more money, and so on. In Spain, the gulf between the rich and the not so rich is especially pronounced, and has been further deepened by the recent debt crisis and recession: Atlético’s revenues are just a quarter of Real Madrid’s and Barcelona’s, yet somehow, Simeone remains a winner.

His approach isn't far-off from what Jose presents, both men have got a pragmatic outlook on football management, and knows how to get the best out of their players.

If Simeone could shatter the near-insuperable dominance of the country’s two football giants, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona by winning the La liga with a team he assembled by himself, don't you think he'd do even far better at Chelsea were ''spend the cash'' is the every day mantra?

We need not get into the prickly thicket of diagnosing the reasons for this comparisons, but if relieving Jose of his job gets to be considered as an option by Chelsea, then bring on Diego Simeone I say.

I'm a fan.

Diego Simeone?

There`s no doubting that the Ballon d`Or is a prestigious award to win.

Its significance in deciding who the top player in the world is universally accepted, but sometimes the nominations can prove to be a little puzzling.

On the list is one Christian Atsu, yes that`s correct the same Atsu who spent an anonymous season on loan at Everton and is currently spending his career sat on the bench at AFC Bournemouth.

What a strange world we all live in!

Any news on Pedro?

chelseabmw:
GOOD NEWS


Eva Caneiro has been called back into work today and is expected to be on the bench tomorrow against Arsenal

Good morale boost.

Help unban my Airbornelacer moniker though. I'm currently enslaved by the antispambot.

Presser:

''A lot has been said about us coming out to stake a claim, I think that's wrong, we are coming out to do what we know best - play good football and win comfortably.

Ipukulubiye are a good side, one of the best in the country, but you gotta look at what we have in stock this time around. It promises to be an explosive game and we're quite ready.

Unfortunately, I don't discuss my tactics with the media. We've been doing great with our 3-5-2 formation and I might just stick to it. If there's a need to revert to a three-man front line formation, that's for me and my crew to ascertain not for you the media to know.

I feel confident moving into this game, we have no injury worries and the morale in camp is high. If taking a point hit would fetch us the 3 maximum points against Ibime's men, then watch me take the hit with all pleasure''

- Sam Footie-meister (Saturn Cavaliers).

[size=15pt]Ipukulubiye FC Vs Saturn Cavaliers[/size]

Managers: Mpakaboari Orubebe Ebieberi-JackDaniel - Sam Footie-meister

FA Cup Position: 3rd - 2nd

Form: WWWL - WLWW

A sublime start to the season has resulted in Saturn Cavaliers FC occupying a position not too far from crowning them champions of the FA Cup. Twelve points accumulated from a possible fifteen available, sees Cavaliers three points behind the FA Cup leaders and surprise package, Dreamteam FC.

It has been an impressive start for Manager Sam and his boys, but with Ipukulubiye FC opponents this weekend, does history bode well for Sam or is it about to see him receive a kick in the nether regions?

Ipukulubiye are household name in the country having won the FA Cup and the League titles in the past. Their fine form to the season only hit a snag last week when they narrowly lost to Ayew Ghana Dance in Kumasi. This would be the first time ever the Cavaliers would be squaring up against the former Champions in a Cup game and Ipukulubiye's manager Mpakaboari Orubebe Ebieberi-JackDaniel a.k.a Ibime enters this match knowing that during his reigns at Ipukulubiye he has never lost an FA Cup game to Sam Footie-meister a.k.a Airbornelacer.

Term it David against Goliath, but this fixture promises to deliver enough bloodshed, the like which have not been seen since WW2. Both teams are certainly out to make a point and the managers out to stake a claim of who is better.