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***Official Soccer Discussion Thread*** (5 Viewers)

Nice work by Atletico today. :hifive:
Yeah, not the prettiest display of football, buey again they played tactically sound against technically superior competition. Combined with a bit of luck and poor defending and you can get 3 points away. It's games like these that you'll see Raúl Garcia make a difference. The dude simply gets under people's skin, and knows the value of picking up a yellow. But that dummy he had to let Arda take the winning shot... that takes something else. Obviously he puts the team's success over his own, something that I rarely see out of Real Madrid's players.Finally, this type of play is exactly what I was saying about playing against clubs like Barça, Real, Bayern, Chelsea, Man city. You simply can't make mistakes (Atlético made one in giving up a penalty kick) and expect to get results. You need a cohesive, drilled game plan that everyone can execute for 90+. Atlético might be the best on the planet at that.

 
Costa with seven goals in only four games. Took Torres more than a season (43 games) to reach the same tally. Incredible to think of the difference that he and Fabregas have made. When you throw in Matic, whi joined in January and added mettle to the center of the pitch, this team is night and day from 12 months ago. Chelsea firing on all cylanders right now. They are winning with possession, movement, passing and power. The bus is most definitely not parked anymore.

 
my takeaway from yesterday after watching Chels and City vs Arsenal.

Despite the color guy lamentng Arsenal's defensive "issues", I actually thought they looked solid defensively from a tactical point of view. Yeah- they gave up a counter goal with a handful of guys disappointing individually (in spite of doing a good job getting numbers back) and then :wall: zonal marking on that late corner. But otherwise, I thought they defended well, getting numbers back quickly and putting good pressure on the ball. I don't remember City getting that many opportunities.

And they looked more than capable obviously of going forward... gotta say, I never "got" Sanchez before this season- but damn was he zippy and has looked like a terror each game he's played in. Ozil apologists... please step forward- he's hurt/aids/tired/always-something-to excuse the 88minutes of nothing while highlighting the 2 minutes of fancy-pants. But Wilshire and Ramsay looked great (knock on wood for their health) and even Welbeck... as weird as it was seeing him in that shade of red... put in a good shift. Weirder still- Lampard in that shade of blue... bizarre. Can't wait for him to start in NY.

Chelsea looked and have looked awfully good. Costa in beast mode, Hazard doing whatever the hell he wants. Fernadinho everywhere. Scary team.

I didn't get to see any of Liverpool's loss, but they're prior two games makes it easy for me to include them with Chelsea, City and Arsenal in the clear top 4. After that... :shrug: ... Spurs and Everton should have the depth to fight for those next two spots.

And it's the first time in years that I've been interested in seeing United play with all these new guys. Will be interesting to see how long it takes for them to gel... if they do. Their first two games don't have me thinking they're in contention for Europe... but we'll see with this new team.

 
Costa with seven goals in only four games. Took Torres more than a season (43 games) to reach the same tally. Incredible to think of the difference that he and Fabregas have made. When you throw in Matic, whi joined in January and added mettle to the center of the pitch, this team is night and day from 12 months ago. Chelsea firing on all cylanders right now. They are winning with possession, movement, passing and power. The bus is most definitely not parked anymore.
:doh:

forgot all about Fabregas... fantastic from him. MUCH better player now than when he left for Spain, IMO.

 
Costa with seven goals in only four games. Took Torres more than a season (43 games) to reach the same tally. Incredible to think of the difference that he and Fabregas have made. When you throw in Matic, whi joined in January and added mettle to the center of the pitch, this team is night and day from 12 months ago. Chelsea firing on all cylanders right now. They are winning with possession, movement, passing and power. The bus is most definitely not parked anymore.
At least not when they are playing Swansea :drive:

 
How much was this QPR sucking vs. United playing better?
Considering their recent 4-0 loss to MK Dons, I'm going to go with playing better. Change in formation helped immensely.
Tactical shape change really helped. Blind was everywhere and made a huge difference keeping the team's shape, especially defensively. With the guys going forward that they have (RVP, Rooney, ADM, Mata, etc) it almost doesn't matter what their shape is going forward- those guys will create regardless. But the 4-4-2 just fits so much better with the players out there- and especially with Blind.

Anders Herrera etc also really filled in as a guy moving the ball around in the MF that was lacking for United. And of course, ADM was just electric every time he touched the ball. The perfectly weighted and directed ball he gave to Rooney after sprinting 75 yards was ridiculous- and he was trying to hit Mata for the 20 minutes prior to the inch-perfect pass to set up Mata's goal- one diagonal ball after another that each either just missed or got picked off- but all great vision and decisions, IMO.

But QPR was terrible. Poor shape, poor pressure, and very little by way of ideas or abilities in the attack. It was the perfect team for United to play against- not much pressure up high to threaten their weakness in the back and previously through the middle (although again, BLind really helped) and not enough pressure on those fantastic playmakers up front to force them into mistakes. I think possession was almost 70-30, and it wasn't even as close as that on the field.

 
Obviously Man U's win doesn't mean too much in the grand scheme of things, but it was pretty obvious how the new guys (mainly Blind and DiMaria) change the team. I didn't know much about Herrera but had seen a lot of people speculate that he might need a year to get used to the speed and physicality of the league. That may very well be true, but he looked pretty smooth on the ball today.

All that being said, they still aren't going to do much of Tyler Blackett and Jonny Evans are starting at CB. Rojo looked ok out on the left, I guess, but you can't start him there full time once Shaw loses his beer belly.

 
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How much was this QPR sucking vs. United playing better?
Considering their recent 4-0 loss to MK Dons, I'm going to go with playing better. Change in formation helped immensely.
Tactical shape change really helped. Blind was everywhere and made a huge difference keeping the team's shape, especially defensively. With the guys going forward that they have (RVP, Rooney, ADM, Mata, etc) it almost doesn't matter what their shape is going forward- those guys will create regardless. But the 4-4-2 just fits so much better with the players out there- and especially with Blind.

Anders Herrera etc also really filled in as a guy moving the ball around in the MF that was lacking for United. And of course, ADM was just electric every time he touched the ball. The perfectly weighted and directed ball he gave to Rooney after sprinting 75 yards was ridiculous- and he was trying to hit Mata for the 20 minutes prior to the inch-perfect pass to set up Mata's goal- one diagonal ball after another that each either just missed or got picked off- but all great vision and decisions, IMO.

But QPR was terrible. Poor shape, poor pressure, and very little by way of ideas or abilities in the attack. It was the perfect team for United to play against- not much pressure up high to threaten their weakness in the back and previously through the middle (although again, BLind really helped) and not enough pressure on those fantastic playmakers up front to force them into mistakes. I think possession was almost 70-30, and it wasn't even as close as that on the field.
Where do you think Cole Slaw fits into the line-up when he is done eating? It looked like Rojo played well in the LB slot today.

 
How much was this QPR sucking vs. United playing better?
Considering their recent 4-0 loss to MK Dons, I'm going to go with playing better. Change in formation helped immensely.
Tactical shape change really helped. Blind was everywhere and made a huge difference keeping the team's shape, especially defensively. With the guys going forward that they have (RVP, Rooney, ADM, Mata, etc) it almost doesn't matter what their shape is going forward- those guys will create regardless. But the 4-4-2 just fits so much better with the players out there- and especially with Blind.

Anders Herrera etc also really filled in as a guy moving the ball around in the MF that was lacking for United. And of course, ADM was just electric every time he touched the ball. The perfectly weighted and directed ball he gave to Rooney after sprinting 75 yards was ridiculous- and he was trying to hit Mata for the 20 minutes prior to the inch-perfect pass to set up Mata's goal- one diagonal ball after another that each either just missed or got picked off- but all great vision and decisions, IMO.

But QPR was terrible. Poor shape, poor pressure, and very little by way of ideas or abilities in the attack. It was the perfect team for United to play against- not much pressure up high to threaten their weakness in the back and previously through the middle (although again, BLind really helped) and not enough pressure on those fantastic playmakers up front to force them into mistakes. I think possession was almost 70-30, and it wasn't even as close as that on the field.
Where do you think Cole Slaw fits into the line-up when he is done eating? It looked like Rojo played well in the LB slot today.
Rojo and Rafael had nothing to do all game, so hard to really say about them or shaw.

Does Rojo have a history playing more centrally? Allowing Shaw to slot in on the Left? dunno.

 
How much was this QPR sucking vs. United playing better?
Considering their recent 4-0 loss to MK Dons, I'm going to go with playing better. Change in formation helped immensely.
Tactical shape change really helped. Blind was everywhere and made a huge difference keeping the team's shape, especially defensively. With the guys going forward that they have (RVP, Rooney, ADM, Mata, etc) it almost doesn't matter what their shape is going forward- those guys will create regardless. But the 4-4-2 just fits so much better with the players out there- and especially with Blind.

Anders Herrera etc also really filled in as a guy moving the ball around in the MF that was lacking for United. And of course, ADM was just electric every time he touched the ball. The perfectly weighted and directed ball he gave to Rooney after sprinting 75 yards was ridiculous- and he was trying to hit Mata for the 20 minutes prior to the inch-perfect pass to set up Mata's goal- one diagonal ball after another that each either just missed or got picked off- but all great vision and decisions, IMO.

But QPR was terrible. Poor shape, poor pressure, and very little by way of ideas or abilities in the attack. It was the perfect team for United to play against- not much pressure up high to threaten their weakness in the back and previously through the middle (although again, BLind really helped) and not enough pressure on those fantastic playmakers up front to force them into mistakes. I think possession was almost 70-30, and it wasn't even as close as that on the field.
Where do you think Cole Slaw fits into the line-up when he is done eating? It looked like Rojo played well in the LB slot today.
Rojo and Rafael had nothing to do all game, so hard to really say about them or shaw.

Does Rojo have a history playing more centrally? Allowing Shaw to slot in on the Left? dunno.
Yeah - my understanding was that Rojo has been playing CB for his club - and slid out to LB for the world cup.

I just thought it was interesting that Shaw was fit enough for the bench, but Rojo still played LB, instead of LCB, which is where I was expecting him.

 
Finally caught up, busy weekend and tried avoiding spoilers...

Villa is a real pain in the ### the last few seasons for Liverpool. :hot: Liked what I saw from a rusty Lallana, he'll fit right in. This can be forgotten easily with CL on Tuesday :excited:

Real> oof

 

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