CHOULO19

Opposition Views Here

Our own S3ra has been kind enough to answer a few questions ahead of our clash with Steaua in the EL. Here is what he had to say: -First, how long have you been a Steaua Bucharest fan? Football is huge in Romania and I practically grew up with Steaua. I was raised by my grandparents and my granddad was in the army. Since Steaua was traditionally the Army Team, this almost always meant that an army man was also a Steaua fan. The first game I went to was sometime in 2001, a league game away against Sportul Studentesc. We lost that game 3-1. The first European game I attended was a 1-1 draw at home against Liverpool in the 2003 Uefa cup. -Steaua are doing great in the league. What have been your strengths and weaknesses this season? Our physical preparation is definitely our biggest strength this season. We got a new coach last summer (Laurentiu Reghecampf) and he's implemented German training techniques used by many of the big teams in Europe. We already had quality players who were good technically and 7-8 players from our starting line-up have been together as a team for a while now and they have all benefited from the physical training sessions. The coach has also managed to improve the mood of the squad and the team spirit. The thing is that Steaua is a very volatile environment because of the crazy owner, Gigi Becali, who has managed to destabilize everything and sabotage his own investment with his statements and team interference almost every year since he took over the club. This season he has been unexpectedly tame (so far) and the results have improved. In terms of weaknesses, we lack a proper centre forward and we're exposed at right-back with the first 2 in the pecking order recovering from long term injuries. Our goalkeeper Tatarusanu's poor decision making when it comes to crosses is also a worry. -You knocked out Ajax, against the odds, in the last round after loosing 2-0 in the first match. Do you think coming into this match as the underdogs again gives you an advantage? I think some of the underdog status may have washed off after we eliminated Ajax. We definitely start the game as second favorite but if Chelsea don't take this seriously they may be in for a surprise. We finished top of a group with Stuttgart, Fc Copenhagen and Molde, for the players these European games are always a good chance to show their worth on a bigger stage. -Do you follow the EPL closely? How famous are Chelsea in Romania? The Premier League is the only one I follow closely apart from the Romanian First League. I support Arsenal, I am a fan of the offensive football they play and the way the club is managed financially, even if this policy has meant that in recent years they have not been able to keep up. Every club has its ups and downs though. Chelsea have been pretty popular here ever since Dan Petrescu played for the Blues in the 90's and I followed their games back then and remember a lot of quality players from that side like Wise, Gus Poyet, di Matteo or Zola. -There has been debate between Chelsea fans of whether or not the club should take the Europa League seriously. How important is it for Steaua Bucharest? I think there's definitely a difference between the way we approach the Europa League and how Chelsea see it. Of course we are aware of the fact that this competition lacks all the glamour and attention of the Champions League but it always beats an average league game in terms of excitement and expectations. We have a good European tradition and even though the coach stresses that the Romanian League is the priority, as we haven't won it for 7-8 years, the player's are always highly motivated on European nights. -Who has been your best player this season and who could be a threat for us on Thursday? It's hard to single out a single best player this season, it has been very much a team effort. The most efficient player would have to be Raul Rusescu. He has scored over 20 goals in all competitions this season, his finishing and his goal instinct are very good and he will definitely be a threat. Another essential player is Chiriches, a quick central defender with good positioning who has also scored some fantastic goals (an overhead kick against Molde in the group stage and a half-volley into the top corner from outside the box against Ajax). However, 7 or 8 of our starting line up were called up for the national squad and 5 started the game so there is more than one threat. -If you could have one player from Chelsea at Steaua, who would it be and why? Torres, he will surely regain his scoring touch and Chelsea fans don't like him much anyway, I imagine, and would probably want to get rid of him and Rafa at the same time I am kidding, I would prefer Oscar, there's always something exciting about a very technical Brazilian playmaker. -What formation are you likely to play? It will almost certainly be 4-2-3-1. We have experimented with 3-4-3 until it backfired miserably against Stuttgart in the group stage and we played 4-1-4-1 in the return leg against Ajax because of suspensions but I imagine with 2 legs and eveything still to play for, our coach will not want to take any unnecessary risks. -Finally, please predict the result. 2-1 to Steaua. Click here to view the article

I thought it was a red card. I even said so on twitter before the ref sent him off. You just can't jump towards an opponent with your foot that high. Had he caught him on the head he could have cause some serious injury.

United goal really doesn't change much. Madrid still need a goal if they want to stay in the tie.

Remember last time Kaka played at old toilet?

Red nose shot himself in the foot by not starting Rooney. Fully expect madrid to go through tonight.

Poll is up (since Steve probably forgot to do it ) Vote!

He's been unlucky with injuries the past couple of years, but I don't remember him getting injured much before that, so you can't really call him "injury prone".

It's just amazing how much Benteke has improved throughout this season with Villa. Shows what happens when you actually give a young player a proper chance.

Yes I do. Cahill is a better athlete, but Dawson is a better defender, imo.

Typical case of a player (usually British) getting hyped after a couple of good performances. This is why I's saying that we should monitor Shaw for at least one more season before deciding to buy him. On Cahill, I actually wanted Dawson instead. Still think he's better, tbh.

It's amazing how our managers insist on playing 4-2-3-1 when 4-3-3- would solve so many of our problems.

Or that that school has some issues we don't know about..

Exactly. Roman was forced to hire RDM. Our season was always going to get screwed when the owner doesn't trust the manager.

You're probably right about the second part of the statement but I still think it is fairly objective. We appear to have different definitions of the word objective. It does not mean fact, to me. There are three types of opinions: Faith, subjective opinion, and objective opinion and neither is a fact. An objective opinion is one that has enough reason to get most people to accept it. I refer you to Kant's critique of pure reason.

Not saying it was our board's fault. In fact, I agree with everything in your post. But perhaps we can only say we had to sack him with the gift of hindsight after winning the CL and FA cup. At the moment of sacking him it was still a bit more debatable. That's different. I didn't say he played to the players' strengths (which he should have and that was actually my biggest criticism to him) but that he picked players based on skill and not names. But the problem is RDM was (in my opinion rightly) never considered as a long term solution unlike AVB who had Roman's trust. Once we sacked Boas, we were doomed to go back to the managerial merry-go-round.

Your post actually proves that it is actually an objective observation except that you insist on seeing any kind of praise for Kagawa as criticism for Hazard which made you miss the point that me and Peace were trying to make: Both players have showed they can be very good. We, or at least I, were not trying to say who is better than who (for me it's Hazard) or even that they are on the same level, just that no one is currently miles ahead of the other.

Exactly. We wouldn't have done either of those things had some players not gotten AVB fired because Roman believed his project and philosophy and was willing to give him time and allow him to have a chance to prove that he can be the solution for our managerial stability issues.

I don't know. How is choosing who starts and who doesn't considered bad man-management skills. Of course he made mistakes and was partly responsible for the club's position, but choosing what he thought was the best team and playing people based on their skills not names were not part of those mistakes, in my opinion, at least. If some multimillionaires threw a tantrum for not getting what they want and tried to undermine his work, that is not his fault.

@S3ra, @vendetta17, @ivasca.romica, Hello friends. Opposition fans are always welcomed at TC. I'm glad you decided to join the discussion. Hopefully we'll have a good game on our hands What can you tell us about Steaua's likely formation and style of play?

sarcasm [ˈsɑːkæzəm]n1. mocking, contemptuous, or ironic language intended to convey scorn or insult2. the use or tone of such language http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sarcasm

If tomorrow I go to work but refuse to put in any effort because my boss didn't give me the promotion I want and I start trying to sabotage the company, shockingly, I will be the one to get fired and not my boss for having bad man-management skills..

Should be fun, right?!

Actually what he said is that you wouldn't say Hazard is miles ahead if you saw how brilliant Kagawa was at Dortmund which is just an objective observation. I actually wasn't expressing that as my opinion just saying that Peace said it. But I actually agree with him because, in this particular case, it just seems like a case of "my father can beat up your father". I would agree 100% with you if the discussion took any depth in analysis and comparing attributes and abilities but sadly that is not the case atm.

He showed that he was learning while he was still here and the fact that he modified his high-line, which was a big part of his philosophy, is the biggest evidence. I'm just saying that it's laughable to think that he could turn from Grant to Ferguson in 6 months and that the whole "bad man-management skills" issue was just media bullshit.