₦airaland Forum

SkimpleD:
Vidal for me would match the madness and gengen press of Liverpool.

True. For all of Arthur's press resistance and short passes, off the ball, he puts in less work than any of busquets, Vidal or rakitic. But when on the ball, he does almost as much as busquets, just as much as rakitic and loads more than Vidal.

Liverpool will try not to let us hold the ball, they will press the hell out of us and force mistakes. I have seen Vidal when pressed, trust me, you don't want him in that situation. One time he was pressed close to the middle of the pitch and was forced to play a rocket pass all the way to ter stegen. Had ter stegen not been a sweeper with good close control, that pass would have led to a grave mistake.

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/ada1nm/ter_stegen_controls_a_risky_backpass_from_vidal/
You can see the video here

There is no xavi there to split the defence with one world class pass so what we do mostly these days is to pass the ball around and try to wait for an opening. Control is very important to the way we play. Take this away and you'll make life a whole lot difficult.

SkimpleD:
Arthur would definitely falter and make mistakes. Busquets experience will stand for him over Arthur that’s why I’d rather go for Vidal to complete the middle.

Keita and Henderson should be careful tho not to pick unnecessary cards

Unlimited22:
Arthur is a player in the mould of Jorginho and Busquets. Liverpool's pressing might be too much for him.

raumdeuter:
Busquets is experienced, Arthur not sure about how composed he can be

Liverpool also need to control their pressure else na red card

Lol.. Arthur is as press resistant as they come. This is his key strength. If we are to beat the Liverpool press, Arthur would be instrumental

andrew444:
Meanwhile kelvin prince boateng just won him self a laliga tittle

Without playing up to 5 liga games.

I remember when the news came up that barca wanted to sign ighalo, i said it here that he would only be a stop-gap rotation piece to rest key players and wouldn't see up to 10games. At the time, I knew that was what barca where in the market for.

On here, I was labelled a hater.
Well, the ighalo deal didn't materialize and kpb was the alternative. News flash: he hasn't and won't play up to 10games. Colour me surprised!

Nobody is talking about coutinho's performance. I'm surprised!

thorrvik55:
The rest does not mean they won't lose but it will sha help them cos fatigue won't really be an issue. That tells us a lot about their FA over there, there is no way such can happen in england.

The tin is I like rooting for d underdogs, dats why I'm hoping dat ajax shocks d whole world.

What are you saying? Man u had a whole week of rest before their first leg against barca. A lot of good that did them.

airmark:
You have the right to deceive yourself. That's how some said Laporte was better than Van Dijk, they even mentioned Bamba, so not new.

Nobody is saying lenglet is better than VVD. I said in the UCL this season, VVD has not been overwhelmingly better than lenglet and i'll repeat that anywhere.

You can check the numbers. Lenglet edges VVD in tackles and blocks while VVD edges him in clearances. They have the same number of interceptions.
Defensively, in the UCL this season, VVD doesn't sh¡t on lenglet. In fact, one would be forgiven for saying lenglet has been slightly better. It becomes a whole different ball game when you start considering their offensive contributions.

VVD hasn't even been overwhelmingly better than lenglet in the UCL. People just overstate his influence because of his goal contributions. That's modern day football for you, where defenders are judged by their offensive contributions.

Kingsley1000:
it's a typographic error"had"
in that dream,messi got injured in the first leg at armfield after scoring a goal(manages to finish the game)...the match ended 2-1 in favour of liverpool

At Camp nou (messi)Limps off after first half due to the injury he had in the first leg,match ended 1-1

Liverpool qualifies

Correct me if i'm wrong. You also had a dream that barca wouldn't make it out of their group, no?

Hehe

snrman:
I think we signed prince to b our photographer i guess he will see more match time now that la liga is in the bag

He takes very good pictures

Money heist returns July 19

biomustry:
Check his twitter account, he quoted one journalist "you don't know anything"
After he claims he's injured out for weeks

The journalist was trying to blame his injury woes on his diet, attributing it to the firing of his chef. It was to that assertion that dembele replied 'you don't know anything'

tesppidd:
you think city can handle juve?

I wouldn't be too sure. But atm, i'll do anything to knockout 3 English teams.

In 2009, xavi taught Carrick how to be a midfielder.

In 2019, Arthur shall extend the same courtesy to pogba

I have seen the future.

Barca will easily see off man u.

Liverpool will be tricky but we shall prevail in the end.

The real battle shall be in the final versus man city. I see a slim barca victory.

I swear nothing will give me greater joy than seeing barca beat all 4 epl contingents in one campaign, knocking out 3 in the process.

Adiwana:
Lol.Am not talking about 1 or 2 instances.Of course he came out on a couple of occasions.Am talking about the match in a whole.I could show you plenty of screenshots of Pique just sitting in that his role and just clearing the ball.Roberto did his home work very well most of the match as he was not really found wanting.Hence no need of Pique coming out to help him.Again remember that did he come out to help him as you are tying to say,he wouldn't have made that much clearances he made in the match

He helped Roberto doesn't mean he was permanently camped at right back so don't make it sound like pique helping Roberto and him making clearances are mutually exclusive.

Again look at this screenshot, the writer supported what i've been saying all day that pique played an immense role in keeping vinicius quiet and it wasn't just a Roberto affair as y'all are painting it.

Adiwana:
Pique came out more?? How did he come out more when he was busy blocking shots in the first half and dude made 14 clearances the whole game.Rakitic didn't when cover Roberto that much in the whole game.What he did very well was not to allow that 2 v 1 from Vinicus and Ruggilion against Roberto. Pique got his position very right.Yes Roberto didn't do very well in that Rakitic position in the second leg but he made Vin play crosses this time around.All in all it was a very solid game

Look at this screenshot and tell me pique didn't come out to assist roberto

Adiwana:
Pique came out more?? How did he come out more when he was busy blocking shots in the first half and dude made 14 clearances the whole game.Rakitic didn't when cover Roberto that much in the whole game.What he did very well was not to allow that 2 v 1 from Vinicus and Ruggilion against Roberto. Pique got his position very right.Yes Roberto didn't do very well in that Rakitic position in the second leg but he made Vin play crosses this time around.All in all it was a very solid game

I honestly do not know what to say to you if you did not see pique coming out to make clearances. I remember pointing this out to the guy seated next to me and telling him that any decent tactical coach would attack those spaces.

Adiwana:
Yes,he's decision making was poor but to say that credit is not to be given to Roberto is really unfair to Roberto. The thing most people don't understand about defending is that it's not all about making tackles or clearing balls or committing fouls but to make the attackers make mistakes which what was Roberto did.Whenever Vinicus had the ball yesterday,Roberto tracked back as a make shift CB instead of charging towards him as a RB.This allowed Pique to be at his CB position instead of coming out to help Roberto which is if you noticed was what Pique did for Semedo in the 2nd leg.There was this chance Vinicus had in the game in which both Semedo and Pique were marking him at the same time.That never happened in this game. When Roberto had taken that make shift CB role,he then charged towards Vinicus who had no other option but to go for the crosses which was then cleared by Pique.Some of the times he wanted to cut in,he met Rakitic.It was a really good defensive outing by Roberto

First off, i didn't say not to give credit to Roberto, my point is that the whole defensive unit put in a collective shift, Roberto was just a piece in a much larger puzzle, a small piece even.

Also, it seems you're getting your timeline mixed up. Pique came out more in this game than he did in the first leg. The few times pique had anything to do with vinicius in the first leg were times when he had wanted to cut in and go directly at goal. Yesterday we saw pique come out alot to keep vini at bay. Now pique is slow AF but he has an excellent gift of timing. His well timed sliding tackles provided several clearances yesterday(he made 14 of those to be precise).

Also, for much of the first leg it was semedo against reguilon and Vini. Remember, Roberto was supposed to support semedo but semedo got very little help. I don't know a lot of right backs that can successful keep a team of double-tagging, young, energetic wingers at bay. Heck! Even Dani alves was taken to the cleaners by effing onyekuru.
For all the fuss being made against semedo's 1st leg performance, he reduced vinicius' attempts to just a shot on target. For all the times he was dribbled past, he almost always recovered to make timely blocks. He made 2 blocks to prevent a goal. For comparisons sake, Roberto made 0 blocks yesterday, lenglet made four and pique made 3.

Although Roberto made some good interceptions yesterday, his job was made much more easier with help from pique, rakitic and a very industrious Vidal. This is not to sleep on Roberto, he was massive yesterday, easily one of the best players on the night.

Vinicius wasn't much of a threat yesterday but I wouldn't completely allude it to roberto. Vinicius' decision making is terrible as was evident in the first leg so solari tried to reduce the shooting burden on him. He was instructed to find benzema and bale in space, both of whom have better accuracy or At least are supposed to.

So unlike the first game where vinicius was constantly burning semedo with pace and was always looking to cut in, in yesterday's game we saw more of crosses and lay offs from him. And the fact that pique and rakitic all teamed up to support Roberto was also a masterstroke, semedo didn't get that much support in the first leg, he was often left isolated against not just vinicius but regulion.

Roberto offers loads more in attack as can be seen in his assist and goal numbers but semedo is better defensively. At the end of the day, it all boils down to finding the right balance.

nani667:
Finally ✔️✔️


Years of Konji about to be released

Dafuq?.. aarggghhh!! Seems like I need to revisit suits

As easy as 1 2 3

Lana1:
What in the name was that Manifest Finale

Mad. Wait, that's the season finale?

tesppidd:
The first classico classic is 23rd.

APC is Barca.

PDP is Madrid.

Lol.. now I get

tesppidd:
Wow!

We in for a treat the last week in February.

Three (3) 2 consecutive El Classicos;

1. Saturday 23rd February.
2. Wednesday 26th February.
3. Saturday 2nd March.

We play sevilla on 23rd

Who's ready for some Rhodes-axel combo? Billions returns march 17th

hensben:
I know but it’s same meaning with registra

Whatever man.. Just having my fun

hensben:
Registar/registrar same meaning. Keep shut

It's regista oga.

hensben:
When will u have sense. Mou never used pogba as DMF but box to box. Jorginho Na DMF/registrar. Mou tactics doesn’t require registrar but combative DM who sit with back 4 to defend.

jorginho the jamb registrar

Nicolars:
The game doesn't seem like it's away lol but travelling up and down like that ?

I read somewhere the team would stay and train in Madrid from 27th of Feb to 2nd of march

Nicolars:
Four straight away games, that's the only issue here

Are we still counting matches at the bernaleo as away games?