hjperdeath

really? Seems to be working fine here. You could have trouble with three of them that are well over 6mb.

Atletico Madrid beat Barcelona at home by 1 goal to nil (2-1 on aggregate) to confirm a semi-final match-up against Chelsea in the Champions League. Everyone knows what Atletico are all about. They work very hard and incredibly well organized. Moreover their team is very well balanced, from the man between the sticks to the prolific scorer up front. Let's try dissecting how Diego Simeone master-minded an important European victory using the effective method of aggressive pressing. Like previously, the points I mention here are open for discussion. They can be quite wrong as well. Atletico since the start of this season, have used a number of tactical variations. This has aided them in different phases of this rather successful year for a club that hails from Madrid and doesn't have it's name starting with Real. However now they seem to have stuck up with one rather successful on paper formation. The classic 4-2-3-1. Atletico are a perfect blend of reactive and stabilized tactical evolution through 90 minutes. They have a set of core principles to which they add finer points depending upon their opponents. This makes them harder to read before a game. A stable back 4 with full-backs that are disciplined but very attack minded. Most crosses come from them or Villa on the other side ( Atletico's first goal an example) . In the middle we have BTB kind off player and a defensive connector who can get forward. He's the marker for others to look at and organize themselves. In the middle three, we have two play-makers on the side. The left one mostly acting like a pure winger while the other prefers to cut inside and dictate play with the deep midfielders. In the #10 area we have a player who links up well with the poacher up front. His aim is to be physical and let his presence be known to help the other players rather than create chances. While transitioning into defense, Atletico move into a 4-4-2 overdrive. This helps them set up springboards for counter-attack while making sure that possession based teams will struggle to open them up. Their pressing depends on various factors. Open. Spoiler 1. The closer you get, the more aggressive the pressing gets. Not-so-welcome pressing. 2. If Atletico have just lost the ball, there's a period of time in which they press high to recover quickly before their opponent organizes themselves. Once they're organized, they fall back deep. We-want-our-ball-back pressing. 3. If the opponent is not well organized they'll suddenly press aggressively after being quiet for a long period time. Intelligent pressing. They also press players onto the wings and then have multiple players jump on them to scavenge the ball out. Very effective when the remaining midfield players block out passing options. Open . Spoiler Here we can have a look at how Atletico react to a situation. Their midfield adjusts itself while their pressing system is spearheaded by two players . The encircled player is the one about to be picked out. The Atleti players have to be careful in ensuring that they don't open up gaps as you can see a player moving behind the two strikers dropping deep. If that pass is made, Atletico will instantly press high. Open. Spoiler Here we can clearly see the midfield adjusting itself and also how intelligent their organization is. This is the perfect example of a gutter system. The two players who previously spearheaded the pressing , separate from each other. One of them follows the ball and a midfielder joins them. To compensate the midfielder's absence , the second member of the spear head drops deep, as the remaining three members of the packed midfield adjust themselves again to accommodate him more centrally. That way they can also quickly counter-attack from their natural positions. Open. Spoiler Now we have a different kind of instance that glorifies the previous principle. From a very structured and deep defensive organization, Atletico suddenly push towards the side that the ball is played, once again just to isolate the ball-playing full-back. This closes down clear cut opportunities for the opposition player to combine. Even while pushing, notice how only one midfielder is running right at the ball along with the Atleti full-back dropping a bit deep. This would help Atletico make sure that no clear cut gaps are open to be exploited. Open. Spoiler Here we have an example of Atletico just loosing the ball. The first player who is pressing on the ball when the gif starts is the proverbial first phase. The next player who presses is called the third phase. Notice how the player , who is a few yards behind the second presser , instinctively runs towards the ball and then hesitates. He is the proverbial third phase. The midfield's aim is to shut down and block lanes while one of their members press aggressively. If the ball isn't won, it's forced sideways and the strategy changes. Open. Spoiler This will help us find out how quick Atletico are to react when a mistake is made. After a phase of pressing, Atletico are highly unorganized. This is Barcelona's best chance to hit them hard, but they make a stupid mistake of lobbing it up. Atletico know that with their structure, they can't always win back and combine with short passes. But when the ball is up, there is always a 50% chance of winning it back. The chances increase if they press higher. In the gif, they are in a structure reminiscent to a 4-2-4. More open than Liverpool's defense on a rainy Friday evening at Stoke. To make sure it doesn't become a huge problem, the full-back presses. A midfielder also helps out at the same time. With this they win the ball back and have an opportunity at creating a counter-attack with 4 upfront. Open. Spoiler Another fine example of Atletico in the not-so-welcome pressing phase. Notice how it's man-to-man. At the start of the gif we see an Atletico player pressing a Barcelona player. Right after the ball is passed away, he follows and sticks on to the player.The two other press high on their own men, forcing Barcelona to play back or place a risky pass through the middle. In the orange section, we can see how Xavi tries to create a passing option and in turn an Atletico player moves closer to him. In short, Atletico are very organized. What separates them from the rest is that they know what they're doing in highly pressurized situations. They do make errors, but make sure they don't turn into a complete mistakes. Though what they haven't faced yet is a team that plays in a quite similar fashion to them. Expect fire-works, and hope they are blue. I'll leave you with this fantastic gif of a slide-tackel on the backdrop of a brilliant structure being held. Open. Spoiler Click here to view the article

Will be missing a complete match for the first time this season.

From February 13th to March 5th 2013, Jose's Real side faced Barcelona and Manchester United 4 times. He drew once (Barcelona) and won thrice. If anyone can, it's Jose.

That's exactly what I told him. Instead he thinks he is some kind of footballing god and calls opinions wrong. All he has to do is just disagree instead of calling me out.

I was talking about who should win the POTY, not about importance.

And I say you're wrong. The defense is as much as important as the attack is. Said it before too, Hazard can have a hat-trick every game, wouldn't make a difference if we're letting in 4 goals every game either.

Well keep the sentence to yourself. What you're saying is not an opinion either, it's utter bullshit mixed into one sentence that is 110% wrong. Like how that feels?

Our team is built on a solid defense. Learn to respect opinions instead of calling it bullshit. If you disagree you are welcome to. I'm not forcing it down your throat.

How has he not been banned, is beyond me...

And I'm counting Azpilicueta and Cahill's renaissance as a huge factor as to why we improved. He has been magical, I haven't denied it. All I'm saying is that if you remove Azpilicueta we would be losing a lot more games than if we removed Hazard. A big if, yes. I'm not a fan of POTY awards going to just attackers because they create and score more. If they've been out of this world and an entire team is depending just on them, then maybe yes.

so you copy pasted your posts from before? You sure know how to make things obvious.

And that's what I replied with. When Cole did start our defense crumbled, an obvious notion.

More irony when you accuse others of ignoring comments. Both Cahill and Terry did not have to fight their way into the team. Both Cahill and Terry are not playing in their un-natural position. Both Cahill and Terry haven't had to be tactically flexible cause their partner keeps making runs. Only Cahill and Azpilicueta showed up at Palace. Somewhere on this planet, Cannavoro is smiling with happiness due to him being the only player in the recent era to actually receive an award cause for some of us attack isn't everything.

Replace Hazard with Azpi's name in that paragraph. Azpilicueta is the synonym of being under-appreciated .

The same Cole who also forgot the basics of defending at Newcastle. Its ironic how you say that when constantly bringing up the fact that Azpilicueta didn't start until November.

So according to you, goals and creativity are the one and only benchmark towards winning a POTY. Hazard can score, but what's the use if he's scoring one while we concede two? Just because he was a starter doesn't mean that he can't win the POTY. The main thing is while Juan and Kevin failed to fight their way into the team, Azpilicueta did through sheer determination. It doesn't seem like you do. Tactically, JT and Azpilicueta have been by far our most consistent players. Cahill had a rough start to this season but is now one of our best defenders.

Ashley Cole isn't our most solid option. We all know what happened at Newcastle. This is what I don't like. To bring one player up, you bring another player down. Outright stupidity. The offense will crumble without Hazard is also a huge exaggeration. We overcame a 3-1 deficit without him too. But that is not my point as I won't stoop so low. Hazard's had a terrific season, but so has Azpilicueta. He's put his heart and soul onto the pitch when others have failed to. The defense will crumble. You might not realize his tactical duty cause it is quite a funny one to understand. Playing in an un-natural position, with your fellow full-back bombing forward and spending most of the time in the other half, you have to realize what you can do to help the team defensively. That's exactly what he's done. I want him to be the POTY for his sheer hard work in ensuring that other players in the team have a proper foundation to step up on. He's out best players in terms of talent, best player this season maybe not .

You can't get a match-winner if you're conceding goals at the back. Remove Azpi , and everything crumbles. He's fought his way into the team and deserves it. Hazard is the best player in the team by a country mile, but for what Azpilicueta did this season, he deserves it more.

Said it there, said it here too. Azpilicueta deserves it.

At the end of the day, I'm hoping he doesn't play.

Azpilicueta cause of fighting his way into the team and playing in a position that he isn't familiar with at all against some of the biggest sides in European football. Also he's an integral part of our defense. Take either him, Cahill or JT out and Hazard scoring will not make a huge difference if we concede goals faster than the speed of light. Don't get me wrong but m Hazard's had a very good season however he still lacks a bit of consistency here and there. Azpi trumps it for me.

You're not slightly negative. You choose not to celebrate a historic win by belittling the master-mind behind it. Letting us know that what happened on Wednesday isn't special cause there's another manager who's done the same. That is called trolling, sorry to say it. He isn't God. Too many people he's probably more than god, I can vouch for that. However there has been more of an objective criticism of him lately, justified enough. What you're doing however, is not that. Success is making transition and developing your ideology after a few dismal seasons. Baby steps. If you want silverware right away and fuel negativity when it doesn't happen, then people could call you a glory hunter too.

It's all rumors. You can't just find out contract details like that. Not a single Atletico official has come up with an official answer. Purely made up figures. Whether its 3 , 5 , 6 or 8, for a team like Atletico, it's not economically feasible to pay money over two legs. Even though they will receive 4.5m just from taking part in the semi-final.