La Liga - 2012/2013

Mou will sort it out. He always does. Sadly La Liga is one of these leagues where a slow start can't usually be recovered.
 
FCBarca said:
Mou at the end of his pressy, 'Right now, I don't have a team'

Just an affirmation of the sort of team Pep built and the one Mou cannot
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If you replace "Pep" with "Barcelona" and "Mourinho" with "Real Madrid" you will (probably) end all the arguments here.
 
Ronnie shite hasn't helped, but they just aren't playing well. They will turn it round, and I expect that they will still be right with Barca come January.
 
Danny1982 said:
If you replace "Pep" with "Barcelona" and "Mourinho" with "Real Madrid" you will (probably) end all the arguments here.
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I was thinking of responding to that partisan post to express the same thing, but I couldn't come up with a pithy way of saying it.

Good job.
 
I don't know what's up with Madrid, except whatever it is, it was already wrong when they played Valencia and only temporarily lifted when they played Barcelona at home. Mourinho's been talking about concentration and commitment and it would be ironic if Barcelona who truly have won it (almost) all over the last 4 years are actually more focused than Madrid.

Mou's been saying the priority's always the league because that's about how you work every week. The club on the other hand are obsessed with the Decima, the tenth Champions League/European Cup, and maybe that's devalued last year's trophy (and this year's fight) for some of the players. In the past few years that obsession has paralysed some very good (mostly now ex) Madrid players and coaches, I must admit I thought Mourinho had helped them grow out of it - but maybe not.

Mourinho's basically got until Tuesday night to get them looking like a team or else the Bernabeu could be a very hostile place and not towards City.
 
Only the start of the season but these days in La Liga you can't afford to ever be 8 points behind Barca or Real, so I'd be surprised if Real managed to come back from this and win the title. Both teams are usually so incredibly consistent and it's not like the premier league where you know that all the teams will still drop points in silly games no matter what stage of the season it is.
 
FCBarca said:
Must've been at Hamburg then, who was the wide player that supplanted him there? Remarkable acceleration he has and we never got to see how deadly he can be taking set pieces
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Van der Vaart got him off the no. 10 position at Hamburg. But later on Marcell Janssen somehow got him onto the bench.
 
Didnt realize Madrid were 8 points behind already.. after just 4 games...
Thats a lot to do considering those two usually only drop 15-20 points a season.
 
Yeah its really weird what's happening with Madrid.

There's seems to be no reason to it also.Maybe its a fitness issue within the whole squad with Jose slowly building up fitness rather than maxing it out as early as possible though even if that's the case the results should be better.
 
We threw away an 8 point lead, it's only 4 games in and they play each other twice. Far too early to call. Barca looking good so far though, and much improved away from home.
 
Spanish referees... just what the feck. :wenger:

Espanyol go into HT 2-nil up, second half Aduriz pulls one back and Llorente comes on as a sub and scores after 2 minutes. Then on the break Samuele Longo, an Inter youth player on loan at Espanyol in maybe only his 2nd professional start ever, scores and gets a second yellow for celebrating with the fans...

Edit: wow, what a game, Aduriz with an amazing volley equalizes for Athletic! 3-3 and Espanyol a man down.
 
fergieisold said:
"Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has questioned his side's commitment just two days before they meet Manchester City in the Champions League."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19616693

What's up at Madrid then?
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Nothing special, just covering his own ass despite making poor selection choices (Higuain and di Maria starters after the Peru game, really?? Villanova was smart enough to use Messi as a sub) and not being able to weed out an obvious flaw in RM's game: defending set-pieces.

Think the Man City game is the best thing for them right now, they should be up for it.
 
Skorenzy said:
Nothing special, just covering his own ass despite making poor selection choices (Higuain and di Maria starters after the Peru game, really?? Villanova was smart enough to use Messi as a sub) and not being able to weed out an obvious flaw in RM's game: defending set-pieces.

Think the Man City game is the best thing for them right now, they should be up for it.
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Thats one thing city will test them on.
 
Sevilla played well also so some credit should be given to them for an excellent game. Too many pulling and tugging for my taste it was like a full contact sport the first half. I think Sevilla shocked them with that brilliant first goal and it was all downhill from there.
 
The key to hurting them and controlling Ronaldo was hitting them on the break with Navas and Cicinho on the right. Marcelo was isolated one on one perhaps more than any other la liga match and Ronaldo was forced to run well away from goal and try to help out, although with little effect.

I remember us doing the same thing successfully against Barcelona's Messi and Alves combination many years ago now, where we had Evra and Ronaldo forcing them back all the time and having a good amount of control of that flank
 
Sad for Madrid, not sure what's going on there but I hope they resolve it. Last season they were brilliantly entertaining to watch.

Really hope they rise to the occasion against City and play to their best. They seemed to perk up a bit in the Supercopa match so the pressure might suit them.
 
Red_devil_ said:
Sevilla played well also so some credit should be given to them for an excellent game. Too many pulling and tugging for my taste it was like a full contact sport the first half. I think Sevilla shocked them with that brilliant first goal and it was all downhill from there.
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Sevilla definitely deserve credit. It was a deserved win. They were very dirty in the first half but played more proper defensive football with Navas, Rakitic and Piotr counter-attacking (Negredo wasn't very good) and ultimately had the better chances in the game. Real didn't create much at all.
 
Ekeke said:
The key to hurting them and controlling Ronaldo was hitting them on the break with Navas and Cicinho on the right. Marcelo was isolated one on one perhaps more than any other la liga match and Ronaldo was forced to run well away from goal and try to help out, although with little effect.

I remember us doing the same thing successfully against Barcelona's Messi and Alves combination many years ago now, where we had Evra and Ronaldo forcing them back all the time and having a good amount of control of that flank
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Is it possible this happened in your mind? Dani Alves wasn't at Barça for the 2008 semi and suspended for the 2009 final, so... :confused:
 
Weren't there rumors last year that there were some groups within the Madrid squad that were a bit hostile to each other?

Portuguese speaking players against the Spanish speaking or something like that?

Still kinda strange what happens in Madrid especially after it looked like they were finally getting back to dominating the Spanish league again.
 
The divisions are along nationality & agent fault lines. There's building momentum on the theory that Mou & CR are preparing to jettison to City next season
 
Danny1982 said:
The only two managers who can build a team at the moment are SAF and Arsene Wenger. But Pep has definitely been closer to building a team than Mourinho. The only team Mourinho "built" was Porto.
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And not Chelsea? That team was a machine. Even grant was able to take them to the CL final
 
Atletico leading Rayo 1-0 at half time, should have made it 2 but Arda wasted a good chance trying to do a Messi. Decent game
 
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