hjperdeath

I explained that to the other guy. It was bound to be expected with the strike force we have. We brought in a stop gap with Eto'o and it's bloody remarkable how decent that worked out. but I disagree with the first part. If things are going blatantly against you, then it's something to worry about. It's hard enough already with us screwing up chances, but they make it worse.

I was talking about the Matic and Terry incident. hence why I didn't say 3-1. Not really considering our defense is one of the best at home when it comes to tight situations such as this.

I'm not saying we have to praise ourselves either. This was bound to be expected as we weren't able to pick out a proper striker for this season. But we would actually have had atleast a close 2-1 win if the referee had his mind set right. We would have grinded out a result just like against Swansea (where we also missed a bucket load of chances) .

People confusing officiating with a poor game. Just cause we had a poor game infront of goal doesn't mean officiating needs to be done by someone who's suffering with autism. Guaranteed we made things worse for ourselves but that does NOT justify the pathetic state of refereeing.

exactly. they need a good public image and so on. Chelsea doesn't. We're kinda like the exact opposite.

I didn't imply that the sacking had anything to do with it though. Sorry if it came out that way. He's like an irrational fan. For him, there is no point in being objective. I like it that way tbh.

Jose said what we all wanted to say.. He literally does symbolify what the club is all about. Us against the world if you want me to make it cheesy. If we wanted someone who could speak well in PC's, then Carlo would have been here. He's literally the lovechild of a PR maniac and an idealist.

aah, completely missed the joke there. thanks though.

I have no idea how to use flash however. :/

I put bothm of them at the same level, Arsenal a bit above. So we forget who Jose bought then? Sorry, that's not the same analogy I made. No competition in Europe either? I feel the same about yours.

Ranieri didn't make it easier for him. Weren't United still going very strong? Mancini might have done decent too but Jose did the treble, so that's nullified too, I've said that Carlo's done decent and not that it's completely because of Mourinho that Real are still being rather successful ( wouldn't be if they lost the title and got knocked out off Europe). That would be stupid of me. I've not discredited him off his work. I've just said that it is much easier for him. The truth. Jose had to face Pep Guardiola and a rising Atletico Madrid.

Jose brought out Varane. He also gave Casemiro his debut. For all we know he could be playing this season if Jose was the manager and was facing injury problems that Carlo has faced. Are we forgetting that? In his own words about Jese : "We play with a different system, they have another model. There are Castilla players that play in positions that do not exist in the first team, like Jese Rodriguez, who plays as a ‘nine and a half’. " Jese would have struggled anyway to make it through, but eventually would have. Carlo's also having it easy not because he's done an immense job. He's been decent but its also due to Barcelona's failing, largely due to Mourinho's prescence in Madrid.

hmm definitely the big ones. took me a while too. i'll make sure to keep it below 4 next time. Sorry for the inconvenience to everyone !

Does opening in a new tab help?

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

Atletico scouting report done. Better publish soon.

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.