La Liga 2011/12 Season Thread

Ronaldo simply shouldn't take every friggin' free kick. Brute force isn't always the best solution.

Ronaldo scores again, 4-0. Good football.

Callejon looks a lot like Hamsik. Could be his twin brother.

Ozil backtracking


Pipita comes on!

Ramos close, nice header after a corner.

Kaka for Özil.

Callejon misses a great chance.

Kaka scores a great goal, nice shot. 5-0.

Man of Glass scores!

Wonder who'll score more goals this season. I can see Real Madrid outscoring Barcelona.

Ronaldo hattrick. 6-0.

0-6 FT

Real cruised this match. Zaragoza simply were no challenge whatsoever, almost like a training match in the second half in particular.

i prefered to watch "17 again" instead of this

i just feel no tension, its 100 % clear that madrid will win every game without problems

i just wait for the next clasico

LA LIGA

blutgraetsche wrote:Wonder who'll score more goals this season. I can see Real Madrid outscoring Barcelona.

A bit pointless though we've done that two of the last three seasons I think. And for what?

Negredo's miss to complete his hat trick

fcb wrote:Atletico-Osasuna kicked off at 12pm today, in La Liga's attempt to do an England and attract the Asian TV market.

Unfortunately, it looks like the experiment has started off with a massive FAIL, because the game finished 0-0

Second 0:0 in this kind of games, last season Mallorca vs Villarreal didn't score as well, with a game being the most boring Villarreal match I ever saw.

Kroos wrote:i prefered to watch "17 again" instead of this

i just feel no tension, its 100 % clear that madrid will win every game without problems

i just wait for the next clasico

LA LIGA

Valdés
Mascherano, Busquets, Abidal, Keita
Cesc, Thiago, Iniesta
Pedro, Messi, Alexis


No Xavi.
Mascherano RB.
Keita LB.
No DM.
A team with 6 midfielders, 1 defender, and 3 forwards.

I know Villarreal are a team close to us in style and all, but What. The. Fuck. Is. This. Pep?

If this is what total football looks like, I'm not sure I'm ready for it yet. This is either going to crash and burn miserably, or Pep is a genuine genius.

It's probably more of a 3-4-3 with Busquets in the 'holding' role.

Villarreal's coach has not been sniffing the funny stuff:

Diego Lopez
Zapata, Gonzalo, Musacchio, Oriol
Marchena, Bruno, Borja, Cani
Nilmar, Rossi

blutgraetsche wrote:It's probably more of a 3-4-3 with Busquets in the 'holding' role.

I think you might be right, that seems like the only plausible explanation. But if it's a 3-4-3, then it would be Keita as the DM.

----------Valdes----------
Mascherano-Busquets-Abidal
----------Keita-----------
----Thiago------Iniesta---
-----------Cesc-----------
Pedro-----Messi-----Alexis


I guess we'll find out in 15 mins.

I think that having in mind what he achieved during these years that it's ok if he wants to try some new things no matter how impossible or ridiculous they look.
We forgive him.

Bit of a lethargic start to the game, no real intensity from Barça. Playing very patiently. Formation seems to be holding up ok, but the possession is so dominant that Villarreal's forwards have hardly touched the ball.

Poor refereeing - Pedro was guilty of a deliberate handball, and he only called a foul. Later Zapata also committed a deliberate handball, and got a yellow.

Thiago scores

Poor work from Villarreal, but to be fair, there were very good runs from Cesc and Messi - both of them made deep runs in diagonally opposite directions, forcing Villarreal's defenders to drop deeper and deeper back towards goal, trying to cover the through ball. But all the backing off gave Thiago enough space to shoot from the edge of the box.

Barcelona's movement. Noncahlant from Thiago, but he had so much time. Good finish still

Is the formation working, or are Barcelona just too good? It's a bit difficult to tell.

Nice (almost) assist by the 'best (footballing) goal keeper in the world'. For Villareal.

Hlebagone wrote:Is the formation working, or are Barcelona just too good? It's a bit difficult to tell.

I don't think it's making too much of a difference compared to a 4-3-3.


Good save from Valdes a few mins ago.

Brillaint through ball by Messi. Fabregas scores!

Messi-->Fabregas-->Goal. Again.

Looks like we found a new no. 9. This tactic is going to work brilliantly this season - Cesc's ability to run from deep is perfect for Messi/Xavi/Iniesta's through balls.

That's the one area in which Messi has actually improved considerably over the years. His vision is up there with the very best now. Awesome.