- We won without Yaya, Iniesta, Henry, Messi, and Abidal for most of the game. Sporting is not the best team in the league, but it's in the same category with half the liga teams and copa del rey opponents.
- We won with two youth players on the wings.
- Maxwell did some funny stuff, but he showed he is starting to gel well.
- Pique, Puyol and Alves were up to their standards.
- Busquets had lot of ups and downs. Contributed perfectly in offensive built-up (though he lost possession in dangerous places), defensively he still lacks positioning discipline.
- Keita showed again he is a reliable option in the midfield. Covering behind his team-mates when they go forward, being an outlet for Xavi and making himself available all the time to exchange passes positively. Earned back possession, scored, almost assisted another. Man of the match for me. Not a flashy player, but he know his job and do it perfectly.
- Xavi: brilliance.
- Pedro was good as well. His transition were interesting so as his contribution in possession. Again, no need for Mata.
- Bojan's moral was high tonight. One of the reasons could be that the transfer period ended without buying a new winger. He feels he is valued and is carrying his responsibilities. For the first time, he showed a "tough guy" mentality, not a childish fragility. Impressive. He is the winger that we signed for free.
- Ibra scored, kind of. He was much better than in his previous game. In general, he had a very good game. This goal is a very important one. More to come.
International break now. I hate it. Especially that Messi will have a butchers’ game against Brazil.
3 points in the pocket. Won in style.
Ramzi Tanani
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
My Five Cents (Sporting)
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20 comments:
even though its brief, the depth is there
i really admire ur writings, & i missed them in the 2nd half of la liga last year .. so pls Ramzi continue post match analysis even for few lines
regards
I have a feeling that in a few years time Bojan will be Henry's successor on our left wing.
very nice :) looking forward to more of this. i like how you did it bullet style.
have always like the non flashy but performing guys. keita is defo MOTM. as he always says pep likes/trusts him, that gives him the quiet confidence to do his job. gijon was weak so it wasnt an impressive win imo but good game nevertheless mostly cos we kind of saw how the rest of the guys could carry on without the others.
*liked
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The sooner, the better, Henry's time is out! Although we shouldn't forget this was Sporting at home, which is in theory one of the easiest games in the season. Bojan still has to prove himself against a decent team in a game where it matters. But like Guardiola said, he again made a step forward.
Some one yesterday wrote we need a new LW to face teams like Arsenal or ManUtd., I think it was buj
I think, by the time we face a European team like Arsenal or MU, we would get an assessment of whether Henry has still got what it needs to be a Barca starter at high level or not & whether Bojan & Pedro do step up as every one is wishing for or not. If one of them does indeed happen then we are good without a new LW signing and if not we still have winter transfer window by the time we face those clubs :)
I hope Bojan & Pedro do step up this season, or else we would be facing a lot of trouble in the Liga, at least during the first half since there is a possibility of us to endure a lot of injuries this time around with every other team parking buses all around & not having second thoughts about being as physical as they possibly can against us.
For January, when Toure & Keita go for their national duties I hope we buy Gojko Kačar. Like we bought Yaya Toure, a CM & developed him into one of the best CDM's we could indeed make Kačar the best for that position and play Yaya as CAM. Moreover we don't have utilities in the squad except for Iniesta & I don't like the idea of playing Iniesta at different positions because for one Xavi-Iniesta combination is like God's gift for Footballing world and want to watch as much of them together in mid-field as possible & secondly Xavi looks a bit lost against buses some times without Iniesta along his side.
Gojko Kačar is one beast, a very good box-to-box mid-fielder and would be the best signing that we can make in winter transfer window :)
I think we would be having hell of a lot of wealth in mid-field that way; Gojko Kačar, Yaya Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Keita & the youngsters coming up. By the time Xavi and Keita gets too old to start regularly at least one of JDS & Thiago would become world-class. Bringing back Marc Crosas would only benefit and boost the squad depth :)
What do you say?
We should support our players. Henry clearly is not finished or too old. He has shown that he still is class, and he will be important to us, scoring lots of goals.
Is Gojko Kacar good enough? We already have Dos Santos and Thiago for midfield, with Marquez and Pique as cover for DM. Is Gojko Kacar better than these players?
Gojko Kačar started as a defender, capable of playing on all 4 positions of the last line. Considering his excellent tackling and his lively & robust performances he was shifted to CDM. Then again last year at Hertha BSC he was played up front to utilize his powerful, bus-breaking long range shots and he just lived up to the expectations and faith showed in him by his manager. Lately he's been playing at CDM, CAM & as SECOND STRIKER depending upon the teams they are playing against and the strategy used by Hertha manager. This season he played 5 matches, scored 2 goals and provided 3 assists already. And that's quite a lot for a player who started as defender :)
An excellent utility in the likes of Luis Enrique, with an extremely strong left-foot and he plays every position on the field except may be the goal-keeper :P
Have a look at these scouting reports :
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={83A644F4-1A7E-48B9-AF95-4605613A9A18}&newsid=6635097
http://www.soccerpie.com/premier_league/manchester-united-keeping-tabs-on-gojko-kacar/
http://translate.google.co.in/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/gen/20090823/53770693250/noticia/gojko-kasar-bueno-bonito-y-barato.html&ei=4AedSp2dNYiQkAXFoeCzBg&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.elmundodeportivo.es/gen/20090823/53770693250/noticia/gojko-kasar-bueno-bonito-y-barato.html%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DYnm%26sa%3DG
I hope Txiki does value the scouting report of El Mundo Deportivo, since there seemed to be a move for Vincent Kompany after there was a similar article on him in Sport
somebody has messed up fabregas article on wiki, it says he play for barcelona....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesc_Fabregas
sorry for double posting, but the cesc site was just corrected
When there is some one called Alcantara in our squad how did they even think Fabregas would have a place here :P
I was also very impressed by Bojan yesterday, MOM imo (and he hasn't really impressed me much before tbh). But this was also the best game I've seen Bojan play and Henry has played on top level for 10 years - so we should maybe wait before we push replace Henry with Bojan? Henry has one more season in him, than we buy a new left winger and Bojan could be either backup or first choice - it depends on how he develops this season.
keirrison didn´t play for benfica against setubal. benfica won 8:1....
But the happy part from that news is Javior saviola didn't seem to have done any thing noteworthy for Benfica till now, also since Di maria is a li'l shy on goals for them hopefully keirrison would indeed get his chances eventually :)
Cool stuff Ramzi.
Please continue this work after every game.
Thank You
thank you for your wonderful articles and the work youve done
but,
i disagree with your evaluation of pique, dont get me wrong, im one of his biggest fans, and love the way he plays, but i thought he was especially wasteful with the ball, something that usually never happens. It was obvious that guardiola told the team that they could use long balls to ibra, because to often, pique would just send the ball long, this was frustrating, and it was destroying our possession, not that we didnt have enough of it, but i thought it ruined our style. I dont want to single out pique on this, but what happened definately stuck in my mind
"Sporting is not the best team in the league, but it's in the same category with half the liga teams"
Actually, if we want to be objective, Sporting is one of the 2-3 worst teams of the league. Last season they had the worst defence of the league by far. And they spent very little in the summer and there were some starters missing yesterday.
Bojan really impressed me,it seems that he really has become a man...IMO we don't need another LW
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