Arena "The Beautiful Game" - The Official JCC Football (Soccer) Thread.

Ba's goals largely dried up last season once Cisse came along and he went out wide. When he played alongside Cisse up front this season his goals started coming back.

He can play up front with Torres too I'm sure, but Chelsea seem to prefer the one-stirker system.

 

Chelsea won't get rid of Torres unless Abramovich says so, he was Roman's big pet buy and to lose him so soon would make him feel he made a big £50million mistake (which he did) and he can't be made to look bad (which he does anyway).

 

I saw quite a bit of Ba in Germany, Stuttgart almost signed him as a replacement for Gomez. Aside from serious questions about his health (knees, iirc) he's never really struck me as a particularly consistent perfomer.

 

He's been pretty consistent the last couple of seasons for Newcastle (apart from when he moved out wide when Cisse turned up as I mentioned). Harder to perform so well at a higher level with a bigger team like Chelsea, especially if you don't start every game

 

so, Bale eh.

shame he isn't English.

 

£55m for Ronaldo. £50m for Bale.

WE RULE THE WOOOOORLD

 

If he doesn't come to United (which I doubt, obviously), I hope he stays at Tottenham. It'd be a shame if he went overseas, particularly Spain.

 

He should stay with Spurs. Chance to play at the highest level. Chance to be the man. Young enough that this wouldn't be his last chance to move, should he want to in the future.

 

I'd definitely think twice about moving to Madrid, unless he thinks it would be pleasant to chew the fat on the bench with Modric.

And lol@Barca. Not the best 7 days for them, eh?

 

Indeed, although they have a rematch on Saturday.

As for Bale, if an English top club doesn't want him how about a German top club. I think Bale could easily replace Robben or Ribery at Bayern.

 

Robben has already been supplanted by Müller on the right, and Ribery has been tremendous, was voted best player of the first half of the season. He and Alaba combine very well on the left. Of course, Pep may decide to make a change, but Bayern have been incredibly loyal to Franck. And Bayern's pretty much the only German side I can see splashing that kind of money.

What about Barca? They could certainly use more width, though they really need to start shoring up their defense. Did anyone see the highlights from last night? love DiMaria totally embarrassing Puyol on the second goal.

Back to Germany, easily the biggest domestic match of the year tonight, Bayern-Dortmund in Munich in the QFs of the German Cup. Bayern have been incredibly dominant in the league this year, but one still gets the impression that Dortmund have their number. Given Bayern's insurmountable lead in the league (17 points), this is Dormtund's best chance of collecting silverware this year.

 

Likely starting lineups for tonight's match:



How big is this match? Stuttgart plays tonight as well and I am not even remotely interested.

 

two great starting line ups. they look like they start with the same kind of formation and type of player (lone striker, clever playmakers behind, supported by two stronger midfielders -- kind of what Chelsea are trying to emulate i guess) - is their play similar in fashion to eachother?

 

Definitely similar. Dortmund are a bit more aggressive in pressing and quicker on the counter-attack, not as obsessed with possession as Bayern. I think one of the reasons Bayern picked up Mandzukic was to have someone who could emulate Lewandowski's skills holding up the ball up front. Both are very strong in the holding positions, Gündogan has been world class all season (Dortmund have yet to win a match he's missed), while Martinez is starting to show why Bayern paid € 40 mil., great job reading plays and intercepting opponents' diagonal passes.

 

If United are going to put effort in the summer into getting a good defensive midfielder and Vidal proves too expensive then Gündogan would be a good choice.

 

Lineups weren't quite right, Hummels is out due to injury, plus Grosskreuz instead of Kuba.

Rather intensely fought in midfield so far, both sides trying to get forward quickly but without success so far.

 

Dortmund ended up playing more of a 4-3-3, which Klopp has been doing quite a bit of late. Regradless, Bayern won deservedly, absolutely dominated a big chunk of the first half, should have led by more. Dortmund rallied a bit in the second half, but alot of that had to do with Bayern falling back. Game was decided by the play of the "6"s, Schweini and Martinez were tremendous, the Dortmund threesome (Gündogan, Grosskreutz and Bender) not able to impose their will on the match. Reuss may have had the worst match I've ever seen him play.

 

Good news! Rafa has confirmed that he will be going after this season. Apparently, he confirmed it in some sort of rant. That I will listen to with absolute glee at some point.

 

I had assumed you had it playing on an endless loop.

 

Rafa? They're just not interim.

 

Wasn't this always the case?

He was never likely to do well given Chelsea were slipping up even before he came in. Plus he has next to no authority which doesn't give the team any confidence or interest in playing for someone who used to play for a major rival and was rude about them plus he isn't sticking around.
But, ditching him before the end of the season would be a bad move IMO, it would further dirupt the team when they are trying to maintain their hold on the top 4 and have to play United soon in the FA Cup.

Frankly it would have been better to keep Di Matteo in for the whole season, he had the trust and confidence of the players and they seemed to want to put effort in for him.

 

More good news! Grant may replace Rafa after this weekend but much more importantly, The Special One is being lined up for a return to Chelsea this summer!

 

Honestly, he'd be a fool to go back. The club is a mess and will take some time to fix. Not sure TSO has the patience for that, or, more importantly, believes that Roman has the patience for it.

 

Indeed, Mourinho left because he hated being undermined by Abramovich. There seems to be little evidence to suggest that Mourinho will have greater control than before or be allowed time to rebuild the team the right way, none of the other managers were afforded that opportunity.

But then, if Jose wants to come back to England which other team is he going to manage? I can't see him being that keen on Man City and Ferguson is still managing United.