Man City V Barcelona: Live Champions League Football On Itv 7.45

[Portland Bill]

Barca were a class above before the goal. The way they keep possession and dominate it is a class above.

World cups,Euros and Champions leagues are won by teams that keep the ball.

Something that English players struggle with.

[Super]

No it's not, you have been listening to to many so called experts!

Any team in the last 16 would take a 0-0 away when they are at home in the 2nd leg.

 

Why is it? Any score draw away from home and you are through with possibly 120 mins to score. You offer Arsenal 0-0 now and I guarantee they would take it.

[sodburyred]

I find watching Barca play quite boring.....  clearly if you have the ball then the oppo cant score but to me there is no passion in their game ... 

 

This. It annoys me how a lot of English teams, even the national team try and play LIKE Barca. We have a way of playing in this country which is what fans love to watch quick, high energy, direct( not hoofball) attacking football. I dont see why some fans and pundits seem ashamed of that.

[North London Red]

World cups,Euros and Champions leagues are won by teams that keep the ball.

Something that English players struggle with.

 

Chelsea won the Champions League two seasons ago despite having significantly less than 50% of possession in their semi final against Barcelona, and in the final against Bayern.

Last season Bayern beat Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate despite Barcelona dominating possession in both legs.

Having possession is all well and good, but it's what you do with it that counts.

[You Do The Dziekanowski]

Barcelona were superb, but one thing that stood out in that game for me was there was only ONE Englishman on the pitch in that game and he was stood between the posts, until of course the legendary Lescott came on for a while.

I watched the 'big' clash of the English sides last week Man City v Chelsea where I think there were three or four English players in OUR big game (Lescott, Cahill, Milner struggling now). No wonder the national side are second rate thesedays.

Man City's best players against the Spaniards last night were Silva, Negredo and maybe Navas.................. all Spanish!

Sad really!

You named the fourth at the start of your post

Count the Spanish players in Real Madrid and Barca squad and it hurts to see two world class sides with Home grown players where our top 4 have about 30 between them (at a push with Liverpool having about 15 of them!!)

The ENGLISH premier league is a joke. We need to have a rule where you can only sign on 10 foreign players unless they have come through the youth system. No wonder the national team is getting worse and worse.

[Real Red]

You named the fourth at the start of your post

Count the Spanish players in Real Madrid and Barca squad and it hurts to see two world class sides with Home grown players where our top 4 have about 30 between them (at a push with Liverpool having about 15 of them!!)

The ENGLISH premier league is a joke. We need to have a rule where you can only sign on 10 foreign players unless they have come through the youth system. No wonder the national team is getting worse and worse.

Doh      short attention span! 

[Portland Bill]

Why is it? Any score draw away from home and you are through with possibly 120 mins to score. You offer Arsenal 0-0 now and I guarantee they would take it.

So would Bayern, a 0-0 away is far far better than losing.The likes of Bayern and Barcelona are 100% confident that they can score at home.

It's two separate 90 mins ( possibly 120) any team going into a 2nd leg at home with a 0-0 would be happy.

Anyway, Barcelona won 2-0 without raising a sweat, they know how to play in these big games, Man City don't yet!

[HoldenBall]

It would be great if this club could sign up some of the Barcelona coaching staff to teach our team how to keep possession and dominate.

We do keep possession don't we?

 

I mean, Flint to Williams to Cunnigham to El abd back to Flint, to Moore back to Flint is keeping possession right??

 

 

 

[Portland Bill]

Chelsea won the Champions League two seasons ago despite having significantly less than 50% of possession in their semi final against Barcelona, and in the final against Bayern.

Last season Bayern beat Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate despite Barcelona dominating possession in both legs.

Having possession is all well and good, but it's what you do with it that counts.

I agree re those two games, but I also said that English players can't keep the ball Chelsea had possibly 3? English players the rest being top class foreign players.

For every two games you mention there are probably 50 where the team with the most ball ,wins.

[Portland Bill]

You named the fourth at the start of your post

Count the Spanish players in Real Madrid and Barca squad and it hurts to see two world class sides with Home grown players where our top 4 have about 30 between them (at a push with Liverpool having about 15 of them!!)

The ENGLISH premier league is a joke. We need to have a rule where you can only sign on 10 foreign players unless they have come through the youth system. No wonder the national team is getting worse and worse.

I thought a rule was being bought in along those lines? But the English teams are getting around it by signing foreign talent at 15-16 and getting them into there acadamys.

[Super]

 

We do keep possession don't we?

 

I mean, Flint to Williams to Cunnigham to El abd back to Flint, to Moore back to Flint is keeping possession right??

 

 

 

 

 

We had more possession in most games under SOD, just proves it counts for little.

[Portland Bill]

This. It annoys me how a lot of English teams, even the national team try and play LIKE Barca. We have a way of playing in this country which is what fans love to watch quick, high energy, direct( not hoofball) attacking football. I dont see why some fans and pundits seem ashamed of that.

Because every 2 years we enter a Euro or World Cup and get totally shown up by not being able to compete with teams that play Football on the ground to feet.

Look at the Euros 2 years ago.

Stats showed that the 2 English players who passed to each other the most were Joe Hart to Andy Carroll,embarrassing.

[Portland Bill]

Barcelona are riding of the crest of the wave that came with winning the UCL 2 years running.

I thought Man City didn't look too bad and looked stronger in the first half - Messi did nothing in the first half, he was completely annonymous.

Both look like world class teams and one slip-up is going to be capitalised on, unfortunately for City, Barcelona's experience taught them how to avoid said slip up and the sending off really hurt City.

Penalty or no penalty, Di Machelis should have let Messi through and tried to cover the goal.

Second goal was a very well taken goal and came as a result of City not having enough men to sit as close as they'd like to the Barca players

Rudd Gullit said 20 years ago that his great AC Milan teams tactics were to to play the first half by just keeping the ball and frustrating ( and tiring) the opposition. Then in the 2nd half would "go for it", the great Liverpool side would pass the ball amongst the back 4 for 10 minutes if they could, again to frustrate.

Messi just played the game simple last night, then in the second half they started to raise it.

They are a great side with great players, I can't get my head round any Football fan not just enjoying how good they are!

[Super]

Rudd Gullit said 20 years ago that his great AC Milan teams tactics were to to play the first half by just keeping the ball and frustrating ( and tiring) the opposition. Then in the 2nd half would "go for it", the great Liverpool side would pass the ball amongst the back 4 for 10 minutes if they could, again to frustrate.

Messi just played the game simple last night, then in the second half they started to raise it.

They are a great side with great players, I can't get my head round any Football fan not just enjoying how good they are!

 

They are a good team but I have become slightly bored of watching them tbh.

[Always Believesham]

Rudd Gullit said 20 years ago that his great AC Milan teams tactics were to to play the first half by just keeping the ball and frustrating ( and tiring) the opposition. Then in the 2nd half would "go for it", the great Liverpool side would pass the ball amongst the back 4 for 10 minutes if they could, again to frustrate.

Messi just played the game simple last night, then in the second half they started to raise it.

They are a great side with great players, I can't get my head round any Football fan not just enjoying how good they are!

 

I appreciate how good these great players can be but I felt they were kept quite by 11 man city players as opposed to not getting into a higher gear

 

Fair point it may have been easier to keep them quiet if Barcelona were indeed luring Man City into a false sense of security!

[sodburyred]

Because every 2 years we enter a Euro or World Cup and get totally shown up by not being able to compete with teams that play Football on the ground to feet.

Look at the Euros 2 years ago.

Stats showed that the 2 English players who passed to each other the most were Joe Hart to Andy Carroll,embarrassing.

 

Yes and every year we try and play more and more like the Spanish. Which we arn't. The last time we played the English way was probably around 2002. Have got steadily worse and more boring to watch ever since. Having English players trying to out pass continental teams gets you no where. Germany don't play like Spain, same for the Dutch and the Italians. they all play there own way. We seem to be the only country who tries to copy other countries ways of playing.

I was never in support of Harry Rednap but if he had set England up like his Spurs, that would of suited us so much more than trying to be something we are not.  

Sorry that seems like a bit of rant. Just my thoughts.

[Real Red]

Trouble is if you hump it up English style you more often than not lose possession.................then you can't get it back!!

[MichaelRobartes]

Barcelona were playing away last night, there was no reason for them to go for it. They looked comfortable throughout and would no doubt have been pleased enough with a draw had they not been gifted the game (and probably the tie) by Demichelis' horrendous error. Brainfarts like that seem to be a big part of his game.

[You Do The Dziekanowski]

I thought a rule was being bought in along those lines? But the English teams are getting around it by signing foreign talent at 15-16 and getting them into there acadamys.

I know you have to have at least 12 Home grown players in your team. Clubs get around that by signing on English players from there academy. But there is no limit to foreign players I don't think

I reckon you should have at least 5 home grown players in your match day squad

[One Team In Keynsham]

Barcelona are riding of the crest of the wave that came with winning the UCL 2 years running.

 

I thought Man City didn't look too bad and looked stronger in the first half - Messi did nothing in the first half, he was completely annonymous.

 

Both look like world class teams and one slip-up is going to be capitalised on, unfortunately for City, Barcelona's experience taught them how to avoid said slip up and the sending off really hurt City.

 

Penalty or no penalty, Di Machelis should have let Messi through and tried to cover the goal.

 

Second goal was a very well taken goal and came as a result of City not having enough men to sit as close as they'd like to the Barca players

Point of order there, Milan are the last team to win the European Cup back to back, Barcelona did it twice in 3 years.

[Portland Bill]

Yes and every year we try and play more and more like the Spanish. Which we arn't. The last time we played the English way was probably around 2002. Have got steadily worse and more boring to watch ever since. Having English players trying to out pass continental teams gets you no where. Germany don't play like Spain, same for the Dutch and the Italians. they all play there own way. We seem to be the only country who tries to copy other countries ways of playing.

I was never in support of Harry Rednap but if he had set England up like his Spurs, that would of suited us so much more than trying to be something we are not.

Sorry that seems like a bit of rant. Just my thoughts.

We have a premier league which is 75-80% ?foreign players and coaches.

So I'm confused now to know what the "English way" is.

The English players in the Prem should all be comfortable playing a pass and move game, as it's what the majority of teams try to play in that league now.

So, why did we just lump balls up to Andy Caroll in the Euros 2 years ago. I just don't get it.

As someone else said on here, if you knock it long you lose possession, then we spend 5 minutes trying to get the ball back.

I'm hopeful that the next generation ( 10-16 year olds at academy's) are now being coached on possession football,Ive watched a lot of it and there is talent out there.

[Glyn Rileys Mullet]

Have England suffered from how intelligent players are? The Spanish et al read the game like a chess board and have learnt to manoeuvre the ball into areas that exploit the other teams weakness. For that see Dani Alves up against Gael Clichy and Joleon Lescott. The whole team seems wise to these areas of opposition weakness and work collectively.

Linking to city......

One of the major positives from this year has been seeing Reid, Burns etc not only get game time but to see how they don't seem phased by different formations or systems. They seem to understand how they fit into any given formation and are disciplined. You don't get this from players link Flint (as important as he is) and El Abd who have only been schooled in one or two formations.

[Mr Mosquito]

Barcelona are riding of the crest of the wave that came with winning the UCL 2 years running.

 

I thought Man City didn't look too bad and looked stronger in the first half - Messi did nothing in the first half, he was completely annonymous.

 

Both look like world class teams and one slip-up is going to be capitalised on, unfortunately for City, Barcelona's experience taught them how to avoid said slip up and the sending off really hurt City.

 

Penalty or no penalty, Di Machelis should have let Messi through and tried to cover the goal.

 

Second goal was a very well taken goal and came as a result of City not having enough men to sit as close as they'd like to the Barca players

 

The other world class English side is Chelsea and they only lost to Bayern Munich in the Europa League v Champion's League winners' final due to having Ramires sent off. Like Man Citeh, they needed 11 men to win and with Ramires off they couldn't hold Bayern at bay.

[Red Bill]

You named the fourth at the start of your post

Count the Spanish players in Real Madrid and Barca squad and it hurts to see two world class sides with Home grown players where our top 4 have about 30 between them (at a push with Liverpool having about 15 of them!!)

The ENGLISH premier league is a joke. We need to have a rule where you can only sign on 10 foreign players unless they have come through the youth system. No wonder the national team is getting worse and worse.

 

Hear Hear!!!

[Mr Mosquito]

I know you have to have at least 12 Home grown players in your team. Clubs get around that by signing on English players from there academy. But there is no limit to foreign players I don't think

I reckon you should have at least 5 home grown players in your match day squad

 

Conversely, our national side should be getting better with our Premier League players gaining knowledge and skills in playing alongside and against some of the best players in the world.

[22A]

So Barca were awarded a penalty because the same ref didn't give them one last season.

By that reckoning City should be gifted pens and free kicks for the reminder of this season and all next when refs make amends to City for previous errors.

[Mr Mosquito]

 

We do keep possession don't we?

 

I mean, Flint to Williams to Cunnigham to El abd back to Flint, to Moore back to Flint is keeping possession right??

 

 

 

 

 

.......   keep possession, dominate, and press forward - you know rather like Barcelona.

[You Do The Dziekanowski]

Conversely, our national side should be getting better with our Premier League players gaining knowledge and skills in playing alongside and against some of the best players in the world.

It's hard to learn playing for mediocre top half team when these players are playing you off the park

[HoldenBall]

Ozils been called lazy, a liability, needs to be dropped, sold..

 

Remind you of anyone??

[You Do The Dziekanowski]

Ozils been called lazy, a liability, needs to be dropped, sold..

Remind you of anyone??

Kevin Betsy all over again!!