The European Leagues & Competitions Thread V2

[Special Juan 27,103]

This is brilliant.

[Laylabelle 9,296]

There is no way Man U arent beating this lot! Unless they do a miracle performance 

[Fulham Broadway 16,393]

Mourinho has that third season scowl already  -bit early

[Vesper 27,324]

I really think, for some bizarre reason

that Pep is a SHIT coach of fullbacks at Shitty

he brings in players who were superb or at least solid as hell before

and most go to pot at Shitty

then they leave and go back to really good

Angeliño in this game is good example

maybe it is just his system atm

it is not just the EPL, no way do I believe that at all

[Magic Lamps 11,450]

Just now, Vesper said:

I really think, for some bizarre reason

that Pep is a SHIT coach of fullbacks at Shitty

he brings in players who were superb or at least solid as hell before

and most go to pot at Shitty

then they leave and go back to really good

Angeliño in this game is good example

maybe it is just his system atm

it is not just the EPL, no way do I believe that at all

And at Bayern he wanted to turn all the fullbacksmidfielders (succeeded with Lahm and Kimmich) and then indeed bought new fullbacks who all sucked.

He is absolutely awesome for midfielders tho, Gündogan, Fernandinho, KDB all hit a new level under him.

Mourinho at the same time seems to be shit for all positions, even CBs right now^^ So funny that clubs keep hiring him and not noticing they are beating a dead horse.

[Vesper 27,324]

Nordi Mukiele has developed into a badass RB, been on him for years

[Jase 43,479]

[Pizy 17,860]

Man United are going to get a free 3 points from this sorry lot this weekend. 

 

[Vesper 27,324]

Atalanta scored again

6 2 on aggregate

can't believe we lost top to shit Valencia

[Vesper 27,324]

2 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Man United are going to get a free 3 points from this sorry lot this weekend. 

 

I am so afraid you are right

[Vesper 27,324]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

Mou needs to go to MLS

not joking

the yanks will lap up his bollocks and hate

[Vesper 27,324]

How Thierry Henry is trying to resurrect his coaching career in MLS

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/major-league-soccer/story/4071276/how-thierry-henry-is-trying-to-resurrect-his-coaching-career-in-mls

[Vesper 27,324]

CIES Football Observatory

n°286 - 09/03/2020

Demography

Most precocious players: Donnarumma and Hazard at the top

https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2019/wp286/en/

The 286th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks current big-5 league players according to the age at which they have reached 50, 100, 200 and 300 caps in these competitions. The Milan AC goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma leads the 50 and 100-match tables, while the Real Madrid forward Eden Hazard is at the top for the 200 and 300-match rankings.

Gianluigi Donnarumma played his 50th game in the big-5 even before his 18th birthday, and the 100th at 19.2 years of age only! In both cases, he outranks another goalkeeper, the French Alban Lafont (FC Nantes). The Basque Iker Muniain (Athletic Club) is the outfield footballer having reached the earliest the 50 and 100 caps in the big-5: at 18.2 and 19.8 years of age respectively.

Eden Hazard holds the records of precocity for both the 200 and 300 big-5 league matches. The Belgian was only 23 years old when he played his 200th game in the five major European championships. He is the only player currently in the big-5 who reached his 300th cap before 26 years of age. Five additional footballers played 300 games before their 27th birthday: James Milner, Moussa Sissoko, Iker Muniain, Miralem Pjanić and Cesc Fàbregas.

Age of the player at the time of the 50th, 100th, 200th or 300th match in the big-5

Big-5 leagues players, 02/03/2020

 

 

more at the link

[11Drogba 2,000]

The Italian football federation (FIGC) have officially announced that they will try to postpone the end of Serie A until the end of May.

[Vesper 27,324]

The making of Julian Nagelsmann

https://theathletic.com/1664189/2020/03/09/julian-nagelsmann-leipzig-tottenham-hotspur-bundesliga/

It wasn’t the first time Julian Nagelsmann received bad news from the doctor. As a teenage defender at TSV 1860 Munich, he had been struggling with a congenital back problem for months. But that day, the prognosis was worse than usual. “Julian was told that he probably would not make it as a professional,” his then team-mate Christian Traesch tells The Athletic. “I remember he looked at me and said, ‘If I can’t make it as a player, I will become a Bundesliga coach instead.’”

Nine years later, he did. Nagelsmann’s incredibly rapid career progression and his success as the youngest permanent coach in German top-division history has been well-documented. What’s far less well-known, however, is just how good a player he had been before a botched knee operation extinguished the last lingering hopes of pursuing an active career at the age of 20, and that many of his coaching principles were informed by his personal experiences. The key to understanding the RB Leipzig coach’s extraordinary ability to hit a chord with players lies in the maturity and empathy he had already shown as an adolescent.

Nagelsmann was born in Bavaria and scouted by 1860 at the age of 15 in 2002. Munich’s second-biggest club were known as one of the best developers a talent at the time, a real hotbed of up-and-coming pros. Nagelsmann, a tall, elegant centre-back, shared a dressing room with top players like the future United States and Borussia Monchengladbach winger Fabian Johnson, the Bender twins (Lars and Sven) and Julian Baumgartlinger (now all at Bayer 04 Leverkusen).

Traesch recalls Nagelsmann helping him to settle when he joined as a 16-year-old from his hometown club MTV Ingolstadt. “He was this incredibly funny, outgoing guy, with a wicked sense of humour,” he says. “He welcomed me to the team with real warmth. We immediately clicked.”

The pressure to succeed can make for a pressurised, egocentric environment in academies but 1860’s ethos was different, says Benjamin Kauffmann, another of the club’s former youth players who would become a close friend of Nagelsmann. “The club put a huge emphasis on signing youngsters who had the right attitude and character. There were no divas and no troublemakers. We were a really tight-knit unit, a super-cool band of brothers.”

Traesch (nicknamed “Trashy”), “Nagel” and Kaufmann, now a midfielder at fourth-division SV Pipinsried, all went to to the same class in the Rainer-Werner-Fassbinder-Fachoberschule, a comprehensive secondary school in nearby Giesing. Nagelsmann excelled, but not by virtue of hard work.

“He had the knack of achieving maximum success with minimal effort because he could listen in class and take it all in,” Traesch says “He was a super bright guy.”

Nagelsmann’s keen perception allowed him to take things easy and entertain the classroom with an endless array of jokes. “The whole class couldn’t help but laugh about his quips, and even the teachers didn’t mind when he was making fun of them — he did it in such a charming way that they never got angry with him,” Kauffmann remembers. “He could really win people over.”

As they got older, the three of them often shared a ride in Nagelsmann’s banged-up black Opel Astra, singing along to Westlife at the top of their voice. “In town, the car was fine but as soon you got onto the Autobahn and pushed 150 km/h, the wheel would start shaking violently,” Traesch laughs.

On nights off, they frequented Kunstpark Ost, a now defunct collection of clubs in an industrial area of Munich that catered to wide variety of musical tastes. “It was a different time then,” Traesch says, “you could do these things — within reason.”

In the dressing room, too, Nagelsmann understood things more quickly than most. “He was a real joker but he knew to cut it all out when things got serious before games,” Kaufmann says. “He hung on the lips of the coach and took it all in. Because he was so switched on and focused, he solved problems before they truly arose. I hardly ever saw him make a tackle. He was always in the right position, with plenty of time to win the ball. His confidence enabled him to marshal his team-mates, shouting out orders from the back.”

At a time when German football was weaning itself off its age-old dependency on the sweeper system, Nagelsmann was looking like the perfect modern centre-back. “His build-up play was outstanding,” says Traesch. “He played these fine vertical balls to the midfielders and oozed class. Most of all, he was incredibly solid and reliable. He never had a really bad day and was often brilliant. I remember him gliding through midfield against VfB Stuttgart once and scoring a fine goal with his head. That was him.”

While Traesch tried to emulate Arsenal’s Patrick Viera, Nagelsmann modelled himself on John Terry. “Those were the players we most looked up to. One day in training, we called each other ‘Patrick’ and ‘Johnny’, and were cracking up. Our team-mates had no idea what was going on but it was one of those perfect sessions when everything seems to come off.”

Traesch, who now plays for Al-Wasl in Dubai, and Kauffmann were convinced their friend was destined for a career in the Bundesliga but a persistent back problem kept him out of the side for extended spells. “He was a real leader but sadly, also a prisoner of his injuries,” Kauffmann says. Having been promoted to the under-23s at the age of 19, Nagelsmann never managed to play a competitive match again. “He would join in for the odd game on one of the artificial pitches at the academy but it was basically over for him,” Kauffmann continues. “He tried to deal with it as best as possible, keeping up his spirits, but when he was away from the group, the tears would flow. Juli is a very emotional person.”

Shortly after his career was officially over, fate delivered an even worse blow. His father Erwin passed away, aged 56, following a short illness. Traesch says: “We tried to help him as best as we could, being there for him, but we were essentially out of our depth. How do you deal with such an event? You can’t, really.”

Nagelsmann’s two friends believe the tragic loss of his father forced him to grow up quicker than his peers. “He was always more mature than most but the extra responsibility he had to take on on behalf of his family had a huge impact on his development,” says Kauffmann. “It’s little surprise to me that he was able to get ahead in coaching so quickly. Coaching is dealing with people. Due to the disappointments and pain he had suffered, he had the ability to relate to players’ feelings in a way that few could — especially at such an age.”

The combination of his keen intellect, a larger-than-life persona and his strong emotional connection with players was unique, TSG Hoffenheim’s sporting director Alexander Rosen tells The Athletic. After a spell as an opposition scout for FC Augsburg’s second team under the auspices of Thomas Tuchel, now the Paris Saint-Germain coach, Nagelsmann had become part of Hoffenheim’s academy coaching staff in 2010. He was quickly made the under-16s coach and then kept steadily progressing, winning the club’s first under-19 championship in 2014.

“The under-19s championship reinforced our belief in him but it wasn’t that important,” says Rosen. “We were already sure that he was excellent by then. We had seen from the outset that he was very special. He’s loud, extrovert and very funny. Infectious. Rhetorically, he’s fantastic. He gets the team and the whole staff to buy into his ideas. The moment he enters the room, you know he’s around. Whether it’s on the training pitch, during dinner with the team, or in the changing room — he has a huge effect on people, thanks to his tall frame (6ft 3in) and his aura.”

Rosen describes Nagelsmann as a fastidious worker who is “obsessed with details” and sports an “incredible knowledge of the game”. While some felt that his appointment as head coach in 2016 in the midst of a relegation battle smacked of desperation or a PR campaign, the club claim they were assured of his suitability. “You can never quite know if something works out in football. There are no guarantees,” Rosen concedes. “But having seen him at work at the club for six years, we were totally convinced that Julian was a highly talented coach with a great personality. His way of working — a focus on developing teams and players — was a perfect fit for our club. A newspaper wrote (appointing him in 2016) was a ‘marketing gag’ but it had been our plan to promote him all along. It just happened more quickly than anticipated.

“Some felt we were crazy to appoint a coach with no first-team experience and said there was a danger his career prospects would be hurt. The opposite was true. Julian went into the relegation battle in a very relaxed and happy mood, telling his players that the point was not ‘to fight more’ but to play football.”

Hoffenheim survived and shot up to fourth spot in his first full season the year after.

Nagelsmann, Rosen adds, is “brutally” ambitious. “He always wants to do better and to win. That sets the tone for his team. I remember when he said that he wanted to be a contender for the championship with Hoffenheim. Some thought he was being unrealistic but he wanted to push his players.”

Making players play well, the very essence of coaching, is a theme that comes up frequently when you talk to those who know him best. Nagelsmann is a tactics buff and an enthusiastic early adopter of new technology, such as giant video screens and drones in training. But when it comes down to it, his work is rather old-fashioned, closer to teaching.

“Julian is able to explain to players what they do right and what they do wrong — and he always gives them concrete solutions. They respond to that,” says RB Leipzig sporting director Markus Kroesche. “The key thing is: every player knows exactly what they’re supposed to do on the pitch. Julian issues very clear, effective instructions in a very concise manner that’s easily understood.”

Serge Gnabry, the Bayern Munich and Germany forward, credits Nagelsmann with fine-tuning both his mentality and the technical aspects of his game when they worked together at Hoffenheim in 2017-18.

“I had heard that he improves players and that’s what happened to me,” says Gnabry. “He kept pushing me. All the time. He said, ‘Serge, you have to do more. You have so much potential. You need to take control of the game more. You need to force it more’. There was an enormous amount of feedback and the training was great. He showed me many situations on video, telling me that I should make runs between and behind the lines rather than come deep that often, for example. He really changed the way I saw the game and he taught me to analyse myself much more.”

Kroesche adds: “Football teams have a good feel as to whether a coach can help them perform and overcome their problems. With Julian, nothing is put on. He’s very straight and honest with his players. Authentic. And it comes down to four things: he has a tremendous amount of social capital, he can recognise and maximise a player’s potential, he can make players better and he can effectively intervene during games. His changes at half-time against Bayern Munich (in the 1-1 draw at Leipzig last September) were a good example of that.”

Having been outplayed in the first half, Nagelsmann took off wing-back Lukas Klostermann for defensive midfielder Diego Demme and changed to a back four. Leipzig were able to defend higher and put more pressure on the ball. By the end of the game, they were unlucky not to have won it.

Rosen homes in on the same point. “One of his greatest qualities is the ability to read a game. It doesn’t take him long to recognise patterns of play and the spaces that appear — and more importantly, he’s able to change things, implementing ideas that his team will have prepared for during the week. He’s the complete package.”

Paul Mitchell, Red Bull group’s technical director of international soccer, is also sold. “I just think he’s a highly, highly talented coach,” the former head of recruitment at Southampton and Tottenham told The Athletic last month. “He’s got great charisma, very relatable, very open, and he’s got a really high ceiling in terms of where he could go in his coaching career.

“I think he’s a natural fit to Red Bull. We like to invest in talent. Julian is as talented as they come in terms of coaching. He knows that he has learning to achieve. The (Spurs) game and the knockout stages will be great for his own personal development. We are just as excited about his talent here as we are about our young squad.”

A first Bundesliga title might just be beyond him in light of Bayern Munich’s strong form this spring but Rosen is certain that Nagelsmann’s managerial career is inevitably heading towards the kind of glory that was so cruelly denied to him as a player.

“Julian once said that he wants to coach one of Europe’s best clubs and win big trophies,” says Rosen. “There’s not a shred of doubt in my mind that he’ll achieve that.”

[Vesper 27,324]

3 4 Atalanta

Illicic with a golden sombrero

[Vesper 27,324]

weeeeeeee

3 nil

Forsberg

Swedish power 

[Vesper 27,324]

oh my oh my

Dier

simply DREADFUL effort