La liga 2021-2022
- Thread starter Duchene2MacKinnon
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KlausJopling
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Savi
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Savi
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Brunkmeister
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- Sep 4, 2021
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That’s good. People will probably think Arsenal was stupid to let go of him but we are doing much better without him and sometimes players just need a new environment to get back to their game. This really seems like one of the cases where actually everyone is a winner.
KlausJopling
Registered User
Pedri showing off and then luuk scores. The difference between last fall and now is astonishing.
KlausJopling
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Savi
Registered User
Can't wait to get home and watch the match. Great result and getting a little bit of the revenge against Bilbao that I mentioned the other day. Looks like Dembele had a big impact (did he remember his shirt today?) and it's great to see everyone making important contributions. Great to see the team scoring that many goals too. They put 4 past Atleti, Valencia, Napoli and now Bilbao all in February alone. I think I said weeks ago, but I'm getting 03-04 vibes when they had that great turnaround to the season and got up to 2nd place. More importantly though was what came after that season.
Live in the Now
Registered User
I'm glad to see the Auba signing work out because it validates a lot of my preconceived opinions about why he wasn't scoring that much.
TheLeastOfTheBunch
Franchise Centre
Pedri is an absolute baller, Xavi had some high praise for him after the game. Can't stress enough about how good of a job Xavi is doing, he's putting players in the best positions to succeed. De Jong and Dembele especially look great as well, I really hope they can find a way to bring back the latter.
If you want to compare a performance to those of the past I think the match against Bilbao is the one to look at thus far. I thought the passing was much more crisp, the team dominated more and they just had that pomp throughout most of the team. And what I’ll make some comments on a few players, it really has to be said this is such a team performance right now. The players that are contributing up and down the roster so one as they’re getting the minutes. Just one point of context I’ll put out there about Bilbao is that I believe they were saving some of the players for the Copa on top of a few guys coming back from injury. That said they were still well organized.
—Pedri has to be the most valuable central midfield player in the entire world right now. You could see he would eventually be a top two, top three midfielder last season (hence my taking him so early in the draft), but he’s easily there already. Can I just look so effortless and natural. When they were chanting his name it’s not a louder than when they would chant Messi’s. And last I forget look at the build up to that final goal. The way Pedri plays out of trouble and then the ball that he played to Dembele that you just thought was an errant pass.
—To be fair to Bilbao Pique should’ve been sent off. That said it was only 88 minutes and we had a 2-0 lead so I don’t think it would’ve affected the match. So his two shirt tugs aside, I thought he again was the dominant force in the back. And then you had his excellent, thundering header off the crossbar that lead to Aubameyang‘s goal ( and it was a nice reaction and good agility from Aubameyang to score that rebound). And to think, people think he should be out of the team entirely.
—I wouldn’t say it was a full 90 minutes of outstanding play, but Dest had a couple of excellent moments we’re at first I didn’t even think it was him making the play. Not as effective getting forward since he was playing on the left, but he clearly has the managers confidence. And make no mistake, i’m not some guy who cares about players from the US as they can be Martians for all I care, but Dest has been somewhat unfairly much-maligned this season including on this forum.
— Torres set up Gavi nicely in the first half and it should’ve given him an assist. He also made a really nice place to break free and put himself in an excellent scoring position but he completely flubbed the finish by putting it straight to the keeper well it was probably easier to score.
— I thought Traore had another nice performance. Once again he had one of those crazy bull runs right up the middle or even one of the Bilbao players tried pulling him back with two hands and he just ran through it. I think that’s at least the third one of those he’s done recently in a match. He even was starting when a second time back in our own half but he was needlessly fouled right away probably because they were afraid he’d go all the way up the park. And while his usual move is to cut the byline, which he does so quickly, so that he can get off a cross, which he does pretty much every time, but in this one there was a place where he had at least 2 to 3 players in front of him and he put a really nice cross him from basically a standstill. And it has to be said, and Xavi said this as well before this match, a lot of the balls he puts another box are dangerous.
— Dembele was Man of the match for me despite it only being a substitute’s appearance. His goal was fantastic. Of course if you’ve watched him enough you know it’s something he’s capable of. First he creates the space for himself, but then the really incredible part is how quickly he gets the shot off and how much power is behind it. He also had two really nice assists including that second one.
—On a weird sort of final note, there really seems to be an excellent spirit in the team. YouTube is always forwarding to me highlights of each days training, and I tend to watch a fair amount of those, and they’re always doing something fun and there seems to be a great atmosphere. I was a bit taken aback tonight seen some of the goal celebration though. You know you see these training sessions in certain players tend to hang out with one another. So I was a bit surprised tonight to see Aubameyang‘s goal celebration and the biggest reaction he had was when Gavi came over. Then what really threw me for a loop was when Dembele was celebrating his goal and his reaction when Pique came over. Just not the guys I expected to be celebrating more with one another than with other players.
Also, can someone outside of La Liga buy Nico Williams please? He looks like The Flash out there he accelerates so damn quickly.
—Pedri has to be the most valuable central midfield player in the entire world right now. You could see he would eventually be a top two, top three midfielder last season (hence my taking him so early in the draft), but he’s easily there already. Can I just look so effortless and natural. When they were chanting his name it’s not a louder than when they would chant Messi’s. And last I forget look at the build up to that final goal. The way Pedri plays out of trouble and then the ball that he played to Dembele that you just thought was an errant pass.
—To be fair to Bilbao Pique should’ve been sent off. That said it was only 88 minutes and we had a 2-0 lead so I don’t think it would’ve affected the match. So his two shirt tugs aside, I thought he again was the dominant force in the back. And then you had his excellent, thundering header off the crossbar that lead to Aubameyang‘s goal ( and it was a nice reaction and good agility from Aubameyang to score that rebound). And to think, people think he should be out of the team entirely.
—I wouldn’t say it was a full 90 minutes of outstanding play, but Dest had a couple of excellent moments we’re at first I didn’t even think it was him making the play. Not as effective getting forward since he was playing on the left, but he clearly has the managers confidence. And make no mistake, i’m not some guy who cares about players from the US as they can be Martians for all I care, but Dest has been somewhat unfairly much-maligned this season including on this forum.
— Torres set up Gavi nicely in the first half and it should’ve given him an assist. He also made a really nice place to break free and put himself in an excellent scoring position but he completely flubbed the finish by putting it straight to the keeper well it was probably easier to score.
— I thought Traore had another nice performance. Once again he had one of those crazy bull runs right up the middle or even one of the Bilbao players tried pulling him back with two hands and he just ran through it. I think that’s at least the third one of those he’s done recently in a match. He even was starting when a second time back in our own half but he was needlessly fouled right away probably because they were afraid he’d go all the way up the park. And while his usual move is to cut the byline, which he does so quickly, so that he can get off a cross, which he does pretty much every time, but in this one there was a place where he had at least 2 to 3 players in front of him and he put a really nice cross him from basically a standstill. And it has to be said, and Xavi said this as well before this match, a lot of the balls he puts another box are dangerous.
— Dembele was Man of the match for me despite it only being a substitute’s appearance. His goal was fantastic. Of course if you’ve watched him enough you know it’s something he’s capable of. First he creates the space for himself, but then the really incredible part is how quickly he gets the shot off and how much power is behind it. He also had two really nice assists including that second one.
—On a weird sort of final note, there really seems to be an excellent spirit in the team. YouTube is always forwarding to me highlights of each days training, and I tend to watch a fair amount of those, and they’re always doing something fun and there seems to be a great atmosphere. I was a bit taken aback tonight seen some of the goal celebration though. You know you see these training sessions in certain players tend to hang out with one another. So I was a bit surprised tonight to see Aubameyang‘s goal celebration and the biggest reaction he had was when Gavi came over. Then what really threw me for a loop was when Dembele was celebrating his goal and his reaction when Pique came over. Just not the guys I expected to be celebrating more with one another than with other players.
Also, can someone outside of La Liga buy Nico Williams please? He looks like The Flash out there he accelerates so damn quickly.
So does that balance out any preconceived notions you had when we signed Luuk Skywalker?
Oh, I think there’s so much more to it than that. First though, he had amazing praise for Pedri he just last week too. Anyway, I don’t even think it’s so much putting players in the right position as it is getting the best out of them. I think a big part of that is getting them to understand what he’s looking for from them tactically. He said it just this last week that at first De Jong didn’t understand what they wanted from him. Now he does though and look at how great he looks out there. I think Dest is another example. And with regards to Dembele I think to a degree it’s why he doesn’t play more because I’m guessing what Xavi is looking for he might be seeing more from other players. At the end of the day I think you can really see Xavi’s fingerprints all over this team. It looks like the peak Barcelona that he himself used to be a part of. And while it’s early days and we’ve won nothing yet, I honestly could care less right now because I’m so damned entertained watching this team play. Like I just posted about today’s match, it’s great to see players up and down the team contribute. Again, we’ve won nothing yet, but I wonder where everyone is who said that Xavi wasn’t proven enough or he didn’t wanna see him get a shot.
Savi
Registered User
Meanwhile Yeremi Pino (same year of birth as Pedri) scored 4 goals against Espanyol yesterday
Spain's 2002 crop looks really good so far with Pedri, Fati, Pino, Nico Williams, Nico Gonzalez
Spain's 2002 crop looks really good so far with Pedri, Fati, Pino, Nico Williams, Nico Gonzalez
Power Man
Grrrr
Scandale du Jour
JordanStaal#1Fan
Power Man
Grrrr
Valencia qualify for the final of the Copa del Rey. Watched the last 30 minutes of their clash with Bilbao (a team I dislike for their rabid nationalism) but there was very little football to see, just some good defending and Valencia players going down and staying down at every contact.
- Oct 3, 2013
- 36,888
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Valencia seem a train wreck but also seem to do well in the cup competitions. They are weird
Barça and Madrid need to put their money where their mouth is and drop their Russian sponsors.
Savi
Registered User
I commented on this in the Transfers thread yesterday. Really excited about this signing. Much better than wasting money on Kessie.
gary69
Registered User
Nice shot by Camavinga to draw Real Madrid level, and right after that Benzema's goal is ruled out for a small offside.
Edit: But it doesn't matter as Modric blasts a goal soon after.
Edit: But it doesn't matter as Modric blasts a goal soon after.
gary69
Registered User
Real Madrid are trashing Sociedad tonight with good attacking movement and long range shooting threats. Much bigger threat that what Nice are offering PSG this matchday.
Parisians probably aren't feeling too confident after today.
Parisians probably aren't feeling too confident after today.
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