Up the Arse! Goons Thread

Remove this Banner Ad

Status
Not open for further replies.
HODGEYROAD said:
Leno by all reports had a really poor season.
Click to expand...

He'd still come in behind Cech for a year... would replace Ospina. Plenty of upside with Leno and he would be learning further from one of the greats.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

(Log in to remove this ad.)

PendlePie said:
http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.co...ces-real-masterpieces-and-making-them-my-own/

Very very good interview with Emery. Can’t help but feel excited.
Click to expand...

Let’s talk about the defensive midfielder, an essential element to a team. Why has this position been a weak spot for PSG this season? You have tried playing with Motta, Lo Celso, Rabiot, Verratti, Lassana Diarra…

It depends… I remember when I would analyse Real Madrid, I thought that Xabi Alonso suffered from not having to run track back and that he was the weak link. When I would analysed Barcelona and saw Busquets, I thought that Sergio suffered from the space left behind him. I thought the same with Thiago Motta. All the great defensive midfielders suffer from a lack of space behind them, and when they are required to track back. But when a team has the ball 70% of the time, that is more important than knowing if you’ll struggle when tracking back. You are the one dominating the matches. That’s why your defensive midfielder’s output during moments where you don’t have the ball is less important.

Because those periods don’t last as long. If I were to put a destroyer at defensive midfielder, there’s a significant trade off between what I can do during build-up play, rather than what I can do in defensive situations. Of course, Thiago Motta needs to better without the ball. But if you analyse Xabi Alonso or Sergio Busquets, the same could be said for them. They struggle during those periods, but they contribute so much more while on the ball. I don’t think this position was a weakness for PSG.

Motta is an incredible defensive midfielder. His injuries were the problem this year. Motta brought a lot to the team and his contribution on the ball was significant. He had difficult tracking back? Fine, but so do two other European champions Xabi and Busquets, who possess the same characteristics as Thiago. I don’t think PSG’s problem was the defensive midfielder.

Let’s talk about Rabiot. He’s a central midfielder, who is more comfortable playing as a defensive midfielder rather than a creative one. Even if he remains more of box-to-box, rather than a defensive midfielder. When you want to play with a defensive, creative and box-to-box-midfielders in fixed positions, Rabiot finds himself confronted to a problem. He has to run, run, run and not play in a fixed position statically. And even less so with his back turned on the action.

Rabiot doesn’t really like playing as a defensive midfielder, he likes playing as a box-to-box, but I prefer him as a defensive midfielder. That’s why after the elimination against Real Madrid, I told him he would play as a defensive midfielder.

In that position, he can be faced with play and switch around with Verratti. He is more competitive in these conditions. With certain players, you can’t impose a strict idea. You have to adapt yourself to their characteristics in order to win in individual and collective competitiveness. Lassana Diarra? He arrived in early January, after having played for six months in a low level league, and he needed time to accustom himself to the high level.

Pep told me something fundamental last year. To win the Champions’ League, Barca had to go through two crucial moments in their history. Bakero’s goal against Kaiserslautern (goal in 1991 which prevented Barcelona’s Champions League elimination which they would win a few months later) and Iniesta’s goal against Chelsea. PSG are missing a goal like that!

This goal could have maybe come about last year when we lost 6-1 to Barcelona. Maybe that was the moment to hit the ceiling and reach the next stage. Or this year, with Real Madrid. PSG is missing that match, that moment to build upon. Having a “Bakero goal.” Even if the opposition were inferior or didn’t deserve to win. But that “bam!” moment, where you score your goal and change your destiny.

To become a great team, everyone has to go through this. The only team who doesn’t need it because they’ve lived enough experiences like this is Real Madrid. This year, we went through a moment where everything could shift. It was at the Bernabeu where Real struggled. We could see it. We even spoke before the match, “Real has to struggle to lose.” Our objective was to make them struggle and for them to not come out alive from that moment. Giving them a fatal hit at the time when they were in most difficulty. We had the opportunity to so in the second half at 1-1. At that point in time, I was calm, because the victory seemed feasible.

Yet, and we spoke about this before, you have to be careful about the beginning and end of the halves with Real, because that’s when the time where they wake up. And for the match, what we hoped wouldn’t happen, did happen. At the end of the first half we conceded a penalty and they equalised. During the second half, we didn’t take advantage of our best period. At the end of the match, they took advantage of that and doubled the score-line. We weren’t able to finish our chances when they were available and we didn’t suffer properly when we should have. If they score the goal for 2-1, you have to suffer until the end, hang in there, grasping, suffering, suffering, resisting and doing your best to make sure the score remains the same.

Of course, the second leg was a whole story because Real came to our stadium in very favourable conditions. We needed the match to be crazy, but we didn’t manage. Maybe because I started players who would help us control play, instead of accelerate the rhythm of the match. At that point, I didn’t have control of the team. I put players to control those tense moments, but the match required something else.

As early as the 15th minute, I told my assistant Carcedo that it wouldn’t be enough. For that match against Real, we needed the same excitement as last year – we needed to break everything. And with that excitement, Real would get scared. We managed to get that feeling at times in the Bernabeu, but not for the second leg."


Very interesting.
 
Shoei said:
Let’s talk about the defensive midfielder, an essential element to a team. Why has this position been a weak spot for PSG this season? You have tried playing with Motta, Lo Celso, Rabiot, Verratti, Lassana Diarra…

It depends… I remember when I would analyse Real Madrid, I thought that Xabi Alonso suffered from not having to run track back and that he was the weak link. When I would analysed Barcelona and saw Busquets, I thought that Sergio suffered from the space left behind him. I thought the same with Thiago Motta. All the great defensive midfielders suffer from a lack of space behind them, and when they are required to track back. But when a team has the ball 70% of the time, that is more important than knowing if you’ll struggle when tracking back. You are the one dominating the matches. That’s why your defensive midfielder’s output during moments where you don’t have the ball is less important.

Because those periods don’t last as long. If I were to put a destroyer at defensive midfielder, there’s a significant trade off between what I can do during build-up play, rather than what I can do in defensive situations. Of course, Thiago Motta needs to better without the ball. But if you analyse Xabi Alonso or Sergio Busquets, the same could be said for them. They struggle during those periods, but they contribute so much more while on the ball. I don’t think this position was a weakness for PSG.

Motta is an incredible defensive midfielder. His injuries were the problem this year. Motta brought a lot to the team and his contribution on the ball was significant. He had difficult tracking back? Fine, but so do two other European champions Xabi and Busquets, who possess the same characteristics as Thiago. I don’t think PSG’s problem was the defensive midfielder.

Let’s talk about Rabiot. He’s a central midfielder, who is more comfortable playing as a defensive midfielder rather than a creative one. Even if he remains more of box-to-box, rather than a defensive midfielder. When you want to play with a defensive, creative and box-to-box-midfielders in fixed positions, Rabiot finds himself confronted to a problem. He has to run, run, run and not play in a fixed position statically. And even less so with his back turned on the action.

Rabiot doesn’t really like playing as a defensive midfielder, he likes playing as a box-to-box, but I prefer him as a defensive midfielder. That’s why after the elimination against Real Madrid, I told him he would play as a defensive midfielder.

In that position, he can be faced with play and switch around with Verratti. He is more competitive in these conditions. With certain players, you can’t impose a strict idea. You have to adapt yourself to their characteristics in order to win in individual and collective competitiveness. Lassana Diarra? He arrived in early January, after having played for six months in a low level league, and he needed time to accustom himself to the high level.

Pep told me something fundamental last year. To win the Champions’ League, Barca had to go through two crucial moments in their history. Bakero’s goal against Kaiserslautern (goal in 1991 which prevented Barcelona’s Champions League elimination which they would win a few months later) and Iniesta’s goal against Chelsea. PSG are missing a goal like that!

This goal could have maybe come about last year when we lost 6-1 to Barcelona. Maybe that was the moment to hit the ceiling and reach the next stage. Or this year, with Real Madrid. PSG is missing that match, that moment to build upon. Having a “Bakero goal.” Even if the opposition were inferior or didn’t deserve to win. But that “bam!” moment, where you score your goal and change your destiny.

To become a great team, everyone has to go through this. The only team who doesn’t need it because they’ve lived enough experiences like this is Real Madrid. This year, we went through a moment where everything could shift. It was at the Bernabeu where Real struggled. We could see it. We even spoke before the match, “Real has to struggle to lose.” Our objective was to make them struggle and for them to not come out alive from that moment. Giving them a fatal hit at the time when they were in most difficulty. We had the opportunity to so in the second half at 1-1. At that point in time, I was calm, because the victory seemed feasible.

Yet, and we spoke about this before, you have to be careful about the beginning and end of the halves with Real, because that’s when the time where they wake up. And for the match, what we hoped wouldn’t happen, did happen. At the end of the first half we conceded a penalty and they equalised. During the second half, we didn’t take advantage of our best period. At the end of the match, they took advantage of that and doubled the score-line. We weren’t able to finish our chances when they were available and we didn’t suffer properly when we should have. If they score the goal for 2-1, you have to suffer until the end, hang in there, grasping, suffering, suffering, resisting and doing your best to make sure the score remains the same.

Of course, the second leg was a whole story because Real came to our stadium in very favourable conditions. We needed the match to be crazy, but we didn’t manage. Maybe because I started players who would help us control play, instead of accelerate the rhythm of the match. At that point, I didn’t have control of the team. I put players to control those tense moments, but the match required something else.

As early as the 15th minute, I told my assistant Carcedo that it wouldn’t be enough. For that match against Real, we needed the same excitement as last year – we needed to break everything. And with that excitement, Real would get scared. We managed to get that feeling at times in the Bernabeu, but not for the second leg."


Very interesting.
Click to expand...

Well you would think he would persist with Xhaka then.
 
windyhill said:
He'll be good the new boy, no doubt. But to compete you need the Russian who has stated he is willing to spend up big to take on chels/man city. Otherwise we'll just plod along.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go Russian any time soon. Abramovich's UK visa expired April 1, and so far the UK government hasn't issued him a new one, and don't look like doing so in any medium term future. Usmanov is going to get the same treatment, for the exact same reason. Taking Russian money at this point is just asking for interference and investigation by the Home Office.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

bok_party
Up the Arse! Goons Thread
198 199 200 201 202
Replies
5K
Views
219K
glenferry23
glenferry23
JeffreyCC
Celtic FC - Follow the Bhoys Thread
Replies
9
Views
649
JeffreyCC
JeffreyCC
ADL9798
The Bigfooty Liverpool Thread
292 293 294 295 296
Replies
7K
Views
178K
Sippa
S
Titch3Votes0MooreAA
Manchester United Thread
123 124 125 126 127
Replies
3K
Views
114K
Punchy Bassett
Punchy Bassett
RU_
  • Poll
MEGA Tipping - Who will finish on top of the BPL ladder?
Replies
0
Views
626
RU_
RU_

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top