Tello set to sign a new contract

ddippset: I don't know why alex song wouldnt do no right to you guys. Why do you guys love to criticize him? He rarely loses any balls and he picks up loose balls all day long. Talking about disasters, villa and pedro were. Pedro wouldn't score a tap in to save his life and villa can't even trap a ball no more. I think song was alright.madrid will make it tru, I just wish they didn't get that late away goal.

Me? I have never criticised Song. The post you quoted is the only time I've criticised him.

I watched Song very closely last night and like I said earlier, he had a diaster of a game. Handful of times he got us in trouble by either a) Holding on to the ball too long and losing it b) Not going forward with the ball and turning backwards and passing back to put our defense under pressure c) Losing 50/50 duels and passing to Xavi or Thiago when they were already swarmed by defenders causing them to lose the ball. He could even have been sent off.

At one point in the second half Xavi, Masche and Pique were all doing long passes to avoid him.

I'm going to have nothing but patience for someone who is still learning the language, style and culture. Just saying not a good game.

AjanleKoko:

Actually you are taking some credit away from Betis. They are a very solid team, good in possession as well, and very quick on the counter. They take two passes in the buildup and send the ball out upfront. They also brought in Molina for Campbell, which was quite a positive change. Molina moved to the left, and occupied Adriano, who had been enjoying a free passage in the first half. That took some bite away.

Part of the problem was the introduction of Mascherano, which meant the center backs were a little withdrawn, as opposed to the first half where Pique and Puyol pushed up to the center circle at times. Busquets also had to stay back and provide extra cover, because Mascherano is rather slow.

Yes, we are direct these days. Tito prefers the direct approach obviously. He also seems to favour a more open game, as the pressing has reduced somewhat. Now we do more man-marking and try to recover the ball in our half, almost allow the opposing team some space to buildup. I think the idea is that it will draw them out more.

In Pep's era, we always tended to crowd out the opposition. Now it is more shots, long passes, and expansive use of width. Dunno about you, but I like the new Barca.

We also started to feel the pinch due to Cesc's absence. Alexis was way out up front, and didn't provide much by way of midfield interchange and balls recovery.

Though we were really lucky, saved by the upright on three occasions. It's like we're getting back all the luck we lost last season

I was actually giving Betis credit. If we didn't have Messi we probably would have drawn or lost. That's the best any side have looked against us in a very long time

A tough cup tie with a team playing the game of their lives against us.

Defensively, I liked the fact we got a clean sheet. Pique led the charge playing at a very high standard.

Our midfield could have been better. Xavi was good but Thiago was on and off. Song was a disaster.

Attack wise MVP worked magic for the 1st goal. Pedro snake bitten again! This guy can't buy a goal. Villa was decent but also lost some easy balls due to the pitch mostly.

Celta beat Madrid 2-1. I hope Madrid gets k/o.

A win is a win, but this game(2nd half) might be almost as bad as that first half against RM a while ago. We were incredibly lucky.

By the way, what the hell is our team thinking? During every single opposing counterattack, our entire attack and midfield just stay where they are and rest, leaving our very few defenders to take care of 4-5 incoming attackers.

Pepe Mel is just a tactical genius. He kept true to his words on pressing us high up the pitch. He just showed that it's not only by parking the bus that you have a chance vs Barca.

Betis made a tactical change at the half, to press us up the field. Normally, when teams press us, it's from the beginning of the game, and they can only keep it up for awhile until we break through around 60th minute.

By starting their press in the second half, Betis took us by surprise, and we didn't adapt well. Because they hadn't pressed in the first half, Betis were able to maintain pressure for the entire second half. Surprisingly, none of our players tried to slow the game down in possession, when we had the ball on Betis' half of the field. Instead, we were almost always direct, which made for a lot more turnovers, and a frantic scrambling counterattacking game. Even Xavi was direct. Messi, Busquets, and Iniesta seemed the most calm.

Granted, each side had their chances in the second half, but we are much better when playing a buildup game instead of exchanging counterattacks, so it played to Betis' advantage.

Held on for the win, but credit to Betis for a great tactical change. Better finishing, and Betis may have well earned a draw or a win.

Congrats to Messi. God's gift to football

sweetguy10:


Nigerians with their Jump-to-conclusion-attitudes , he does not combine well with Messi like alves . He doesn't contribute more to our attack and defensively I will give him a 6 out of ten . He lacks the tenacity , never-dieing energy - characters attributed to ONLY alves . Not arguing anyway we all are entitled to our views whatsoever .

Mcleo007:

I disagree, with due respect. Sounds like a fallacy

Alves has been far from his best this season, in part due to the recurring injuries he keeps sufferring - his latest injury, his fourth this season - but then he didn't finish last season on a high. He has cost us many goals this season - vs Sevilla, vs Madrid, own goal vs Spartak. . . His defensive play has been nothing to write home about.

Montoya has 2 assits from 4 starts in the league. Alves has 0 from 8 starts. . . . So much for Montoya not contributing to the attack.

Montoya has been better than Alves this season

AjanleKoko:

Thought it was the second. They only lost to Real Madrid, as far as I remember.

We won there 2-1 towards the end of last season.

Deulofeu's golazo vs Racing. He's top scorer in the segunda with 9 goals in 12 games. This kid's unbelievable.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZgEIkcdS8A

Fantastic performance last night. Ciutat de Valencia is one of the toughest grounds in La Liga. This was only Levante's third loss at home this year. . . .Puts the result in perspective.

What a performance from The Don. Totally bossed the game. I was delighted he capped his performance with a golazo - his first league goal of the season - he has been unlucky in front of goal lately.

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned. When Alves went off and Montoya came on we had 11 home grown players on the pitch. 11 canteranos, unbelievable!

Another clean sheet. Valdes was unreal. That was triple save was fantastic. Trust culés to forget that one when he makes one mistake.

And they would still come and bash Valdes

Who's watching Barca B vs Racing. Deulofeu is ripping them apart. He has scored a brace already. The 2nd - a goal Messi would be proud of.

FBS: A spirited display by Betis. One chance 1 goal. Football sha!
Khedira should go for scoring lessons. missing sitters like say him be Fernando.
Don't know why but Ronldo has been poo. Did nada for 93 mins.
Shall we conclude that the La Liga is over for Real?

Them no give am free penalty na. 1 goal in his last 6 games.

Hughes makes more money from pay offs than real work

Overall an amazing showing. The first half was the best I've seen us play all season. We were seriously on fire. Second half was definitely lackluster in comparison, but it's understandable. No use expending a lot of energy, the game was in the bag.

Glad we kept a clean sheet. I'm sure Culés had forgotten what that meant.

Good to see Deulofeu get a run out. Hope he gets more chances with the 1st team.

Trolls used to be pretty subtle in their act

AjanleKoko: ^^
Marc Bartra out for 3 weeks with a foot injury.
Now how did that happen?

Another injury? What the f%* are our physios doing?

The worry for me is how we can't keep a clean sheet even with Puyi and Pique back.

The highpoint of the game for me was finishing with 10 canteranos on the pitch.

www.fcbarcelona.com

11/16/2012 14:00
[center] [/center]

The contract signed by Qatar Sports Investment and FC Barcelona foresaw the possibility of including a new sponsor on the team shirt from the third season of the agreement

Sandro Rosell has welcomed Qatar Airways, “an ambitious brand with global aspirations, always commitment to the utmost excellence in its field”

The Qatar Foundation now becomes FC Barcelona’s Official Human Development Partner, which will allow them to continue promoting their shared values

FC Barcelona and Qatar Sports Investments announce that they have agreed, under the terms of their contract, that Qatar Airways will appear on the Club shirt from the 2013-2014 season as the new Main Global Sponsor.

Meanwhile, Qatar Sports Investments, in agreement with FC Barcelona, has designated Qatar Foundation as the Official Human Development Partner of FC Barcelona, which will allow the promotion of initiatives based on their shared values to continue.

Sandro Rosell, president of FC Barcelona, has welcomed Qatar Airways as, “an ambitious brand with global aspirations, always committed to achieving the utmost excellence in its field. These are objectives with which FC Barcelona fully identifies.”

The contract signed with QSI permits the possibility of including a new logo on the shirt from the third season of the agreement, as we reported to the Assembly of Representatives in September 2011. The inclusion of sponsorship on the shirt was agreed at the Assembly of Representatives in August 2003.

Rosell also stressed that “after sharing two fantastic years with Qatar Foundation, we are delighted to be continuing our relationship by welcoming them as our official Human Development Partner.”

Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, said, “We are delighted to form this alliance with FC Barcelona, the biggest football club in the world. Qatar Airways has been voted Best Airline in the World for two consecutive years (2011 and 2012) and will work with FC Barcelona on activities of benefit both to fans and passengers, offering tangible rewards to both organisations.”

A Qatar Foundation spokesperson added that “when we started this fantastic journey with FC Barcelona, our objective was to work closely with the club, the team and the supporters to promote awareness of Qatar Foundation on an international scale. This has been a huge success. In fact, the first two years of the collaboration have surpassed our expectations and we are looking to deepen and strengthen our relationship with FC Barcelona and its supporters around the world in our continued role as a proud partner of the club.”

Qatar Sports Investments, Qatar Airways and Qatar Foundation are united in their commitment to the success of FC Barcelona.

----------------------
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Predictable and probably planned from the get go. They put a non-profit organisation first to limit the outcry and get the nod of the socios and when no one cares anymore they put the commercial brand. The key word has always been "Qatar" and not "Foundation".

It might not be very acceptable for the conservative fanbase but it would be hard to compete without the revenues generated by these kind of deals.

On the downside, we lose our €3m/pa sponsorship with Turkish Airlines which expires in 2015. That's €6m we're losing.

What's with all the subs flying around the thread

Alexis is out for four weeks. We really aren't finding any joy on the injury front.

Isn't it ironic that with 'Canteragate' reaching its crescendo, a certain canterano pops up and bags Madrid 3 points? You would hardly find a better script.

usbcable:

Viewing this topic: medjai(m), FBS, ddippset, Johnpaul88(m) and 1 guest(s)


Oya now dont be shy like Alexis.
Say your mind and put the devil to shame

usbcable: Up Celtic

Europa league is staring at you

Thankfully this wasn't that important of a game. . . like, say, a CL semi final. We can take this loss as a positive and learn from it.

The thing is. . . I really hope we do learn from it. Because apparently we haven't learned enough from our lesson against Chelsea last season. We need to shoot from further out more often, forcing deflections and rebounds. We need to look for more direct runs and passes, and stop passing it around all the time. Our forwards like Pedro need to stop passing back to Iniesta and Xavi, and have inter-play with the other forwards moving towards the goal.

Also, we really do need to come out with intensity from the get go. We look way too casual.

Celtic score from a corner. . . I'm so surprised

Finally, he decided to leave the freekick to someone else and guess what? Golazo

3 points clear Atletico lost to Valencia

Well if there was any match to try a dodgy looking 3 at the back it was probably this, thankfully Tito realized rather quickly that it didnt work and swapped back to normal.

Got lucky with the third goal, as it was clearly offside.

Bit of a blow losing Adriano, we are having no luck defensively with injuries at the moment but at least Alves is back

Don't know what to make of this match as it's only Alaves but I'll take the positives: More minutes with the big boys for Bartra, Roberto and Jds, Villa continuing his poacher streak and that beauty from Iniesta.

2nd leg at home and hoping for Deulofeu and Rafinha.

Golazo Villa. What a shot! Great pass from The Don

Here's a stream for anyone interested:

http://www.rojadirecta.me/goto/tribu.....com

Line up vs Alaves: Pinto, Alves, Bartra, Mascherano, Montoya, Sergio, Sergi Roberto, Iniesta, Villa, Cesc, Alexis.

Cesc as false 9. I'd rather Villa played as a CF. Surprised Tello isn't starting.

Great result. We didn't control the game as much as we usually would and we lost a lot of balls. . .but still a fantastic result.

Another masterclass performance by Fabregras. He was involved in everything. He's really beginning to click. Hope he keeps it up.

Poor performance, particularly in the 1st half. In the end, we were clearly better but it took a lucky goal to win the 3 points. Alexis, Mascherano and Pedro were the worst IMO.
Alba was a beast and would have been a MOM even if he hadn't scored the winner. Villa clearly should have come on earlier but I understand Tito. He needs to rotate those wing-forwards.


Bartra looked solid.

Stealthy: Soldado got a hattrick against Bate Boriso (away match) to take his team to the top of the group. Wish them the best.

Typical Soldado. He is very streaky. He scores in sets. Before last weekend he had gone 8 games without scoring now he has scored 4 in his last 2. He does seem to post good numbers in the CL. His stats in the CL the past 2 seasons are quite impressive.

Great performance by Valencia. Great result for them away at Belarus. BATE beat Bayern in the last matchday so they are no pushovers. Pellegrino's project coming together. Under Emery they most likely would have lost this game. . . Gago really looking like an inspired signing.