Association Football LXXIII - someone got José'd

[Night's_King]

A thought: why would Bayern try to revive tiki-taka when it was they themselves who killed it last year?

I mean, I know they'd already hired Pep by the time they humiliated Barca, but still. They're essentially getting the exact same treatment here. Last year's Bayern would have bludgeoned this year's.

Well, Heynckes didn't want to go on, so they needed a new coach. And guardiola is one of the best. Guess they wanted to try something new.

[Castel]

A thought: why would Bayern try to revive tiki-taka when it was they themselves who killed it last year?

I mean, I know they'd already hired Pep by the time they humiliated Barca, but still. They're essentially getting the exact same treatment here. Last year's Bayern would have bludgeoned this year's.

That's just Pep. He's just one of those types of people. And it seems to work domestically so you only find out when someone mauls you in Europe.

EDIT: Real are now just trolling Bayern.

[Grand Moff Mithrandir]

Mandzukic being on the scene of every single scrap is making me dislike him slightly more.

[Slick Mongoose]

That's just Pep. He's just one of those types of people. And it seems to work domestically so you only find out when someone mauls you in Europe.

EDIT: Real are now just trolling Bayern.

I think "buying all your rivals best players" is what works domestically, rather than tiki taka itself.

[Gronzag]

I think "buying all your rivals best players" is what works domestically, rather than tiki taka itself.

This. Also, i hate that boring tiki taka shit

[Castel]

I think "buying all your rivals best players" is what works domestically, rather than tiki taka itself.

That and "being the historic powerhouse". Great tactic, not sure why more people don't try it out.

(I don't think that they bought that many players from their rivals last season?)

EDIT: I also hope that this "favourites/strong team of the day get destroyed" thing becomes a trend.

[ljkeane]

That's just Pep. He's just one of those types of people. And it seems to work domestically so you only find out when someone mauls you in Europe.

EDIT: Real are now just trolling Bayern.

Well Barca won the Champions League twice under Guardiola so it seems to have worked in Europe too. It's like any other tactic, it's not perfect but just because teams have lost using it doesn't suddenly mean it can never work either.

[Castel]

Well Barca won the Champions League twice under Guardiola so it seems to have worked in Europe too. It's like any other tactic, it's not perfect but just because teams have lost using it doesn't suddenly mean it can never work either.

It's not that they lost,it's that,after a while, the other giants have come around and started to dismantle these teams (or at least try to neuter them like Chelsea).

[Consigliere]

Ribery lucky to still be on the field after that slap. Uefa will surely take retrospective action.

[polishgenius]

This. Also, i hate that boring tiki taka shit

There's nothing wrong with tiki-taka itself- Bayern in their pomp, under Pep, were quite magnificent. However a lot of the teams which play it, including Barca and this Bayern, have got into a possession-for-possessions-sake mindset that is very dull.

Well Barca won the Champions League twice under Guardiola so it seems to have worked in Europe too. It's like any other tactic, it's not perfect but just because teams have lost using it doesn't suddenly mean it can never work either.

It's not that it's a useless tactic, it's that teams have spent the last few years evolving their own tactics to counter it and so it's not as effective. Last year's Bayern were also designed to do a similar thing in neutralising one particular passing team, albeit against the far less possession-based one-touch play of Dortmund. I find it interesting that Atletico are looking good to win the league, and could conceivably win the CL too, playing essentially similar tactics to Bayern last year.

[SerFelixCulpa]

A thought: why would Bayern try to revive tiki-taka when it was they themselves who killed it last year?

In order to save tiki-taka, they had to destroy it. ;)

[ser piggy of horn hill]

pathetic from pep and bayern. he is totally ruined that team. even taking short corners when your 4-0 down. bs.

bayern proved last year how they could easily destroy possession football, and pep turns them into a possession team. idiot

[ser piggy of horn hill]

cant see this ending 11 vs 11. someone will walk surely

[Castel]

cant see this ending 11 vs 11. someone will walk surely

So is Ramos still on the pitch? Why?

[ljkeane]

It's not that it's a useless tactic, it's that teams have spent the last few years evolving their own tactics to counter it and so it's not as effective. Last year's Bayern were also designed to do a similar thing in neutralising one particular passing team, albeit against the far less possession-based one-touch play of Dortmund. I find it interesting that Atletico are looking good to win the league, and could conceivably win the CL too, playing essentially similar tactics to Bayern last year.

Perhaps, Real in particular have obviously been built to try and combat Barca's style of play. Still it's hard to separate out how much is down to that and how much is down to Barca just declining as key players age and pick up injuries, they clearly aren't the team they were a few years ago. Bayern at the moment just look to be a step down from that Barca team as well, they clearly don't have the same incision in the final third and their defence is weaker.

[ser piggy of horn hill]

So is Ramos still on the pitch? Why?

so he can keep xabi company in lisbon

[baxus]

50th goal in his 50th game, I think.

He must have played more games and scored more goals, surely.

This was his 15th Champions' League goal of the season, that's what his stupid celebration was about.

And he's been playing in Champions' League for 10-ish years now, he must have had more matches and goals.

I just checked here, he's played 105 matches and scored 65 goals ;)

Mandzukic being on the scene of every single scrap is making me dislike him slightly more.

Smart of Pep to take him off.

He'd either get sent off or slapped off the pitch had he stayed for the full 90 minutes.

Ribery lucky to still be on the field after that slap. Uefa will surely take retrospective action.

Ribery lucky not to get stomped. He is 3'nothing and weighs more than 100lbs only when holding a sack full of rocks.

[Consigliere]

50th goal in his 50th game, I think.

Had a look at the stats. He has scored a total of 65 goals from 102 appearances in the CL. 50 from 50 games for Madrid and 15 from 52 games for United.

[Night's_King]

pathetic from pep and bayern. he is totally ruined that team. even taking short corners when your 4-0 down. bs.

bayern proved last year how they could easily destroy possession football, and pep turns them into a possession team. idiot

He didn't ruin the team. They broke one record after another this Bundesliga-season. I think one of his biggest mistakes was, that he said about 4 weeks ago that the Bundesliga is over for Bayern. After that, they won their first two games in the Bundesliga (They lost ONLY TWO GAMES in the Bundesliga) and they lost their will to fight. Winning became natural for them. And they didn't win their games 1:0 or 2:0. They won a lot games with 5:1, 6:0 and something like that. That's pretty unusual for the Bundesliga. They shot 89 goals and only received 22 in 32 games.

[Night's_King]

Had a look at the stats. He has scored a total of 65 goals from 102 appearances in the CL. 50 from 50 games for Madrid and 15 from 52 games for United.

Ah, okay.