Hans-Dieter Flick

serghei said:

Ah, your eye test. That told me Klopp Liverpool would have beaten Pep Barca? Or what was it lately? Aston Villa would have beaten mid 00s Milan? That eye test?

That told me Ange is a great manager?

Why don't you direct me to some of your hidden sources that shows me our expected goals against would be anything else except the best in the league in 2022-2023. Or expected points. Even in your own backyard with your own x-stats you don't have a leg to stand on.

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It's funny you are so ignorant of football that you think Xavi is better manager than Ange.

Imagine Xavi at Celtic and Spurs. That would have been hilarious

jamrock said:

Or that inter will have a chance against PSG.

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Almost all serious analysts before the final said it's 50%-50%, one of the most hard to predict finals ever, etc.
Same with betting companies and the odds they gave

But you knew better than them

Birdy said:

It's funny you are so ignorant of football that you think Xavi is better manager than Ange.

Imagine Xavi at Celtic and Spurs. That would have been hilarious

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Ange is a great manager and Simeone and Ancelotti are bums.

You are so ignorant at football, you think going to attack and being swiss cheese at the back as a result is some kind of reward in itself. Wow, great feat, it's just great seeing every decent team have fun with your defense. It doesn't even matter you finish near relegation zone.

Football is both phases mate.

serghei said:

Ange is a great manager and Simeone and Ancelotti are bums.

You are so ignorant at football, you think going to attack and being swiss cheese at the back as a result is some kind of reward in itself. Wow, great feat, it's just great seeing every decent team have fun with your defense. It doesn't even matter you finish near relegation zone.

Football is both phases mate.

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Simeone has been great, even though unlikeable, until circa 2016. Since then, he has turned into a big fraud.
Highest paid coach in the world that constantly underachieves in both league and Europe

Fraudcelotti once was a great coach (when he was at Milan) with ideas about football. After that he gradually become a personality balancer manager that gives his team 0 tactical identity in general and in specific games.
Madrid players themselves said so after their Arsenal elimination last season.

The fact that he won 2 CLs with Madrid is pretty much irrelevant, since he would have been totally unable to do it with any other top club and others with not better tactical nous, like Zidane, have also done the same with Madrid. It's the club and not the manager.
Look at his stints at Bayern Napoli and Everton to get an idea where he stands in club football

I am gonna tell you one more time something until you hammer it inside your narrow-minded head:
it's much more difficult to do what Ange did at Celtic and at Spurs than what Ancelotti did with Madrid the last 3 years.

I am gonna also give you another secret insight that might be useful to you from now on: I know that you, and all the others that express similar views, are real losers in real life that want to compensate that with the 'big titles' your team wins in football. You underestimate and undervalue the success of small clubs, because being small reminds you of your petty little life, where of course you are never going to achieve something 'big'.

Unfortunately for you and the rest, football industry (with the exception of obsolette decision makers) does not work like that and values very much the small club success

Looks like Hansi had seen enough from Lewy and Ferran and now wants to use Rashy as striker, with Raphi on left and Yamal on right and Fermin as attacking midfielder!

If pressing is the issue Torres does that better & more than rashford

jamrock said:

If pressing is the issue Torres does that better & more than rashford

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I'll try to find it again, but I saw that statistically both Ferran and Lewandowski are bottom 10 strikers in top european leagues in pressing.
With Rashford we're more likely to have all three of them in that stat, but I want to see him as the striker with Raphinha and Lamine on the wings regardless.

DonAK said:

I'll try to find it again, but I saw that statistically both Ferran and Lewandowski are bottom 10 strikers in top european leagues in pressing.
With Rashford we're more likely to have all three of them in that stat, but I want to see him as the striker with Raphinha and Lamine on the wings regardless.

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Really wouldn't have thought that with Torres, that's interesting.

I want to see raphinha at 9, that's been my dream for this season, but if rashford starts as 9 and they rotate that could also work

Wingers have to be responsible with cutting the passes to the other teams' fullbacks. Not midfielders and certainly not fullbacks.

If you're not positioned to do that, then don't bother pressing and keep shape, while having the backline drop 15-20m. That's how the best teams who use pressing play.

Of course I don't have to mention that pressing the keeper as much as we do is unheard of. Pressing for the sake of pressing is just bad vs good teams, potentially disastrous vs great ones.

The stupidest thing this team does is press when you are not in a situation to cut off simple passes. The entire purpose of pressing is voided, putting pressure on the ball carrier and force him to take more risk. If he has simple passes open, you should not press. You waste energy for nothing and this is how you end up gassed after min. 65-70.

Rashford failed every time he played 9 for United, though it could work in a different environnment, but I doubt it. The constant comments that come up on this site about 'playing him as a 9' are a bit silly, and show plenty here didn't watch him extensively at United. Same goes for the Raphinha at false 9 claims. This idea that you can take any winger and try to play them as a makeshift 9 just becuase they press a bit and to get more natural wide players into the team needs to die. You need a VERY specific type of winger to be successful as a false 9 - it takes a lot more than just pressing - and Rashford and Raphinha aren't it. They don't have anywhere near the technical ability or cuteness in tight spaces and link up play, and to play as a more traditional 9 they'd be fish out of water with back to goal.

If that report is true it adds to the doubts I have over Flick's ability to win the Champions League and retain la Liga now that Real Madrid look a credible threat again (I am not as much of a critic as the likes of Messi983 or IniestaGoat, but think Temptation, Fati, Birdy, delancey etc go over the top about his abilities, so I am somewhere in the middle, I did vote neutral after all). No top manager would try to play Rashford as a 9. His skillset is so obviously geared to playing out wide. He doesn't even press that well, and then you think about all the other things a number 9 does that he's poor at (back to goal, hold up play, flick ons). Might as well just stick with the corpse of Lewandowski there as at least he can sniff out chances in the box.

Barca will just have to accept they have no very good natural strikers (Lewa is finished and Torres is average by top level standards, let's be honest) and no Messis who can fill in as a false 9. That's the club's fault for bending over too much for Robert. It will likely cost them later in the season but that's life.

What do you think @Messi983

He will fail here at 9 very fast. He doesn't have the tactical IQ to press well.

Before winning CL we should reapeat the last season's CL performance. We can get much tougher path than 2nd place in Portugal and 4th place in Germany in the Last 16 and QF.

serghei said:

He will fail here at 9 very fast. He doesn't have the tactical IQ to press well.

Before winning CL we should reapeat the last season's CL performance. We can get much tougher path than 2nd place in Portugal and 4th place in Germany in the Last 16 and QF.

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Exactly. It's not just the pressing either, it's all the ability in tight spaces too - the central areas tend to be more congested than the wide areas, and that is bad news for a player like Rashford who needs space and is better facing goal fronting defenders up. So many attacks would break down if he played there. If Flick is seriously considering that just because he thinks Rashford 'presses well', then Flick is going down in my estimation. But the reports could be nonsense.

I still think Barca can win one or both of the big trophies, but there's no doubt it is harder without a top number 9 in the team, or even an excellent false 9. You don't need to be Messi but maybe a David Silva or a Fabregas who could have filled that role.

As it is Barca don't have any adequate 9s or fake 9s.