FC Barcelona Fans

[Gubbi]

Similarly, Torres gets tons of space in england, which leads to him scoring a lot of goals. Torres was average at best in spain, goes to england, scores lots of goals.

Quite a bit above average, IMO.

He managed to score make 82 goals in 214 appearances for an absolutely mediocre Athletico. To see how a good teams affects a striker look at Samuel Eto'o: 59 goals in 164 appearences for Mallorca, but 77 goals in 108 appearances for Barca.

Torres makes his own space. He has terrific pace. Mark him closely and he will outrun you over the first 5-15 meters. Only choice is to double-team him or back off.

If he'd only stop diving I'd consider him among the best three strikers in the world.

Cheers

 

[Gerry]

Well as a player myself I think friendlies are important and any decent manager will tell you the same thing, but I was only having a little stab at the Man U fan. haha

Secondly I dont think Ronaldo will be the same player in Spain as he is in England. I will keep this short where was Ronaldo in Euro 2008 ????????? cause he didnt impress me at whilst the likes of Arshavin did

Friendlies generally fall into two categories:
1) Money making exercises. See the current Man U and Chelsea tours as an example, and
2) Preparation exercises. Building your team's fitness up in preparation of competitive fixtures.

As an indication of how good a team is they're pretty much worthless. I'd be amazed if any professional manager thought otherwise.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

As an indication of how good a team is they're pretty much worthless. I'd be amazed if any professional manager thought otherwise.

Totally agreed, but its fun to read fotball forums and listening to Major League Soccer fans trying to argue that MLS is just as good as european fotball since chelsea or whatever lost 2-0 on some irrelevant friendly game.

 

[Need 2 Know]

Friendlies generally fall into two categories:
1) Money making exercises. See the current Man U and Chelsea tours as an example, and
2) Preparation exercises. Building your team's fitness up in preparation of competitive fixtures.

As an indication of how good a team is they're pretty much worthless. I'd be amazed if any professional manager thought otherwise.

Ok thanks for that breakdown but i was only having a liitle stab at the Man U fans out there cause I am still upset that we lost to them in that Semi Final of the CL in which if i really had to say - we should have beat them at the Nou Camp.

Oh well there is always next season and by that we are already starting to see a Brand NEW Barca with a new line up and a new style of play.

 

[Gerry]

Ok thanks for that breakdown but i was only having a liitle stab at the Man U fans out there cause I am still upset that we lost to them in that Semi Final of the CL in which if i really had to say - we should have beat them at the Nou Camp.

There's nothing wrong, and will never be anything wrong, with teasing a Man U fan. Carry on.

 

[Need 2 Know]

There's nothing wrong, and will never be anything wrong, with teasing a Man U fan. Carry on.

You are now my friend. haha

No serious Man U are a good team but it would nice if the like of Chelsea or Arsenal could take the league title of them this Season.

My top 4 -

1. Chelsea
2. Man U
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool

 

[Gubbi]

My top 4 -

1. Chelsea
2. Man U
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool

There's only one team in London

Spoiler

Millwall!!

Cheers

 

[Need 2 Know]

Sorry how could I forgot the mighty Millwall

East London Senior Cup Champs - 1887, 1888 and 1889.

haha

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Oh well there is always next season and by that we are already starting to see a Brand NEW Barca with a new line up and a new style of play.

I still dont know what happend to barca the last two seasons. you had some unlucky injuries in the 07 season but no more than real madrid had this season (madrid had 6 or 7 first team players out vs rome in the champions league games, and four of these where out for more than 3 months. ).

When i looked at Barca's squads in the 07 and 08 season i was certain Barca where going to win. On paper, your squad looked unbeatable, aspecially when the capello real madrid team.

Real Madrid 07 under capello looked like some kind of oldschool italian thing, with a bit to many old people. They where effective, but god they where boring a lot of the time. Aspecially for those of us who have been following RM for over a decade we had been blessed with some of the absolutely most wonderful football in the world. Capello did manage to create a lot of team spirit i think. Most hard working Real Madrid i have seen in years.

Then comes the 08 season. We got a lot of good and needed reinforcements (Sneijder,Robben) as well as alot of youngster starting to get good, and we got rid of alot of old players. But still, looking at the barca team, was even more scary, you now had Henry!! And in the 06\07 season, Real Madrid was very very lucky with all of barca's injuries. I figured the leage throphy would be lost. I dunno why RM won as many games as we did last season, with the amounts of injuried players we had. The backups really shined, Raul had his best season in years (20 league goals). Barcelona, for some reason where really underperforming a lot of the time, even with their unbeatable on paper squad.

Anyways, i really hope RM gets their ass in gear and buys a good player or two, because i think we will need it depending on what more you buy. Dani alves was a very good buy, and depending on who will replace Eto, real madrid will need a world class winger\attacking midfielder and a world class striker..

I sure hope you go ahead and waste 25€ mill on trezeguet (spelling?) and RM buys a world class player to rotate with robben, as robben has waaaaaaaaay to many injuries.

 

[Mariner]

Regarding Hleb, he's a hugely underrated player - one of the players who made Arsenal really tick over the last couple of seasons and I think he'll be an excellent signing for Barca. His dribbling skills mean he is rarely tackled and he'll set up many a goal this season with his passing. The only downside is that he is very shot-shy and therefore doesn't score anywhere near as many goals as he should. He always looks for the pass to such an extent he often chooses the wrong option when a shot on goal is available.

Assuming Ronaldo finds his way to Madrid, I imagine he'll do quite well. However, will he do as well as he has at Manyoo without Rooney doing all that hard work for him? I tend to doubt it. Still, at least his diving histrionics won't be as out of place if he goes to Spain as they are in England.

Torres is a very good striker with great pace and strength and a good ability to take his chances so it stands to reason that he'll score more goals in a decent Liverpool team than he did in a mediocre Atletico team.

 

[catisfit]

As an Arsenal fan, I've had the privilege to watch and support Hleb both on TV and in person every game for the past three years:

He rarely if ever takes a shot at goal, and for an attacking midfielder who even spent quite a bit of last season playing as a second striker (his favoured position), his return of 11 goals in 3 seasons and 129 appearances is little more than dismal. In fact Gilberto has a higher goals per game ratio as a defensive midfielder.

He pretty much always passes when in a decent position. Despite that, his 3 years brought him only 14 assists. Fabregas has more than that in each of the last two seasons. Incidentally Fabregas also scored more goals last season that Hleb did in his Arsenal career.

Hleb's close control is phenomenal though, even when running with the ball. He isn't a showpony like Cristiano Ronaldo, you won't see him doing needless stepovers when players are a couple of yards away from him just to look good on TV, in fact Hleb is deceptive in that his close control and maintaining the ball looks a lot less spectacular than it should.

In short, I'd sum up Hleb as a player who will rarely be tackled or give the ball away, but will just as rarely shoot or create a goalscoring chance. After 3 years I'm happy to see him go as his lack of end product was clear to see and frustrating.

He may open up in Barcelona, he never really settled in London and perhaps a different league and different group of players and coaches will get more out of him, but also he's getting a bit old to fundamentally change his footballing mentality.

 

[Need 2 Know]

I know that some of you on here dont think Friendly Pre Season matches really count but what about the mighty Barca last night against Hibs, a NEW manager and a NEW team that have never really played together and yes I know its a team from the SPL, haha but 6 nil. Thats what I like to see good start lads.

 

[Need 2 Know]

So what about the mighty Barca last night, first competitive game for Pep and the new boys and they proved that they are world class,

I am liking the new formation and style of play

 

[Need 2 Know]

Hello

Have not been on in a while, so straight to my point

What about this Barcelona team, can they win the La Liga and the Champions League or is Teams like Real Madrid and Chelsea going to be a major hurdle for them ?

Opinions please

 

[Mariner]

I've not actually seen any of their games this season but I understand Barcelona's forwards are scoring a hatful of goals this year. Real weren't at all impressive against Liverpool so I'd have to assume Barcelona will win La Liga.

As for the Champions League, Barcelona obviously have some very skilful players but do they also have the strength and power to stand up against Chelsea? One point in Barca's favour is that Chelsea's defence is nothing like as formidable as it was some more recent seasons, not to mention the fact that Cech looks very vulnerable in goal these days. However, Barca's own defence and keeper are hardly the strongest combination either.

Personally, I'd guess that Barcelona will manage to overcome Chelsea over the two games to reach the Final.

I couldn't pick who will win out of Arsenal and ManYoo but anticipate some good games there and, hopefully, an open and free-scoring Final!

 

[Need 2 Know]

I've not actually seen any of their games this season but I understand Barcelona's forwards are scoring a hatful of goals this year. Real weren't at all impressive against Liverpool so I'd have to assume Barcelona will win La Liga.

As for the Champions League, Barcelona obviously have some very skilful players but do they also have the strength and power to stand up against Chelsea? One point in Barca's favour is that Chelsea's defence is nothing like as formidable as it was some more recent seasons, not to mention the fact that Cech looks very vulnerable in goal these days. However, Barca's own defence and keeper are hardly the strongest combination either.

Personally, I'd guess that Barcelona will manage to overcome Chelsea over the two games to reach the Final.

I couldn't pick who will win out of Arsenal and ManYoo but anticipate some good games there and, hopefully, an open and free-scoring Final!

I agree, both Barca and Chelsea are good at attacking but have a weakness in defence. I dont think there will be loads of goals like what we seen last night Liverpool v Arsenal but think Barca will edge thru. As for Arsenal v Man Who, I am hoping Arsenal can do them as I am sick of hearing how Man Who are the greatest team in the world when Teams like Everton say different, haha

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I am hoping Arsenal can do them as I am sick of hearing how Man Who are the greatest team in the world when Teams like Everton say different, haha

Yeah Everton beat Manu's C team on penalties... Yippee. BTW Manu is the greatest.

 

[Need 2 Know]

Yeah Everton beat Manu's C team on penalties... Yippee. BTW Manu is the greatest.

So whats they are called then, Man Utd 'C' Team. Oh remind me again who missed the penalty's for Man U - was that 2 30million players

Oh looking at the team that day,

Ben Foster, Rio Ferdinand, Da Silva Rafael, Da Silva Fabio (Patrice Evra, 63), Nemanja Vidic, Luis de Abreu Anderson, Darron Gibson, Ji-Sung Park (Paul Scholes, 67), Carlos Tevez, Federico Macheda (Dimitar Berbatov, 91), Danny Welbeck

how many C team players is that again

 

[DuckThor Evil]

So whats they are called then, Man Utd 'C' Team. Oh remind me again who missed the penalty's for Man U - was that 2 30million players

Oh looking at the team that day,

Ben Foster, Rio Ferdinand, Da Silva Rafael, Da Silva Fabio (Patrice Evra, 63), Nemanja Vidic, Luis de Abreu Anderson, Darron Gibson, Ji-Sung Park (Paul Scholes, 67), Carlos Tevez, Federico Macheda (Dimitar Berbatov, 91), Danny Welbeck

how many C team players is that again

If Ronaldo, Rooney and Van Der sar aren't playing and the starting lineup has guys like Macheda, who is 17 and Welbeck who is 18 then it shows that Manu has more important things to worry about than FA cup...Like defending their Premier AND Champions league titles. Those substitutions also came pretty late. Manu still had the better scoring chances. The team had eight chances in lineup compared to the more important champions league game in Portugal.

 

[Gerry]

If Ronaldo, Rooney and Van Der sar aren't playing and the starting lineup has guys like Macheda, who is 17 and Welbeck who is 18 then it shows that Manu has more important things to worry about than FA cup...Like defending their Premier AND Champions league titles. Those substitutions also came pretty late. Manu still had the better scoring chances. The team had eight chances in lineup compared to the more important champions league game in Portugal.

It's shocking that Ferguson would disrespect such a big team as Everton by making so many changes. Incredibly arrogant.