Year Round The Football/Soccer Thread v2

[Imperium]

Haha, Joe Cole left london. Who'd have thought it? xD

 

[L0ki]

Now he's going to show all his class injuries at Liverpool?

 

[goldb]

Arsenal have shifted injury prone Eduardo; thank god.

 

[Imperium]

^I feel slightly conflicted, i hoped he would return to his pre-injury form. But it seems thats not going to happen (and you cant blame him)

Now he's going to show all his class injuries at Liverpool?

He's the brazilian englishman dontcha know? hahaha. Anyway on twitter i saw a stat that said he has only played 44% of matches since he joined chelsea!

 

[goldb]

44%?! That's despicable, he's been injured too much; its ruined his career cos I reckon he couldve been one of the best midfielders in the world because skillswise not many english players can compare.

 

[L0ki]

Yeah, I remember back when he played, many years ago, that the guy had some skills with the ball.

And Barsa keeps getting stronger. They have the best from Spain reinforced with the best players from all around the world. And most of those players play very well toghether. I see them winning 2 or 3 titles this season unless an injury disaster happens.

 

[Pirulito]

Let me share with you guys:
Best celebration ever in football

It's really great and funny.

 

[goldb]

That is so awesome XD. At first I was wondering "hmmm where are the going with this?" But simply the best!

In other news Raul has finally left Real Madrid, but if I were him I'd jus retire straight after cos he's already won all he can win at his age now, so he should leave on a high.

 

[kkck]

FINALLY! A shred of evidence someone in argentina has common sense, maradona is no longer the coach of the national team! Dunno who they are going but if he is a coach with some decent backstory the possibility of doing worst than maradona does not exist... who knows, messi might even get his world cup in brazil lol.

 

[thsv]

FINALLY! A shred of evidence someone in argentina has common sense, maradona is no longer the coach of the national team! Dunno who they are going but if he is a coach with some decent backstory the possibility of doing worst than maradona does not exist... who knows, messi might even get his world cup in brazil lol.

Yeah, but the only reason they 'sacked' him was because he wouldn't accept changes to his coaching staff. Otherwise....

 

[kkck]

^Close enough though. I do kinda get the impression they wanted some form or excuse to get rid of him though.

 

[L0ki]

Do you actually believe the big boss woke up one day and thought "Oh my god, what the fuck have we done? Did we actually hire Maradona as a coach? I must have been stoned dude!". Don't think so...

I could write and write about the political intrigue behind the scenes of our football association, but I loathe making walloftextlike posts. Besides I doubt anyone here would care much about the story and you got the main idea right, so...

 

[kkck]

^It should be about as like as the big boos waking up and deciding to fire maradona's assistants (people who were supposed to be professionals) and keep maradona (evidently "the brain" behind everything). Maradona had his own team of guys. It's it strange they would fire every one of them and keep maradona? Either they wanted to piss of maradona so that he would leave or they wanted to keep maradona as a brainless functionless leader and hire a bunch of people who would do stuff instead of him. Actually, either of them would be about as plausible lol.

Truthfully though, I really don't know exacly what is going on in AFA. It is hard enough to keep up with the football association in my own country lol...

 

[goldb]

Who did they get to replace him??

 

[kkck]

^No one has been picked as of now... I heard the coach from estudiantes de la plata was an option though.

 

[L0ki]

They're saying that Sabella, Simeone and Russo are the main candidates. I don't particularly like any of them.

 

[destiny4ever]

A bit off topic, but since this is the football/soccer thread...

I have been watching Giant Killing (a football anime) and for a few games the coach has been using a formation with only one forward so I was wondering and curious about why would someone do that, since it seems to me it would be better to use more forwards to increase your chances of scoring a goal. So could someone please explain to me what the benefits of using a formation with only one forward are? Why a coach will decide to go with a formation like that? Thank you in advance for the help.

Moderator Notice:
GK -> lol Not spam~~ Charlie-San

 

[Imperium]

I saw that on crunchyroll, i was wondering if i should watch it. Is it any good? xD

Anyway im no expert but there are a lot of advantages when its 4-5-1. Firstly the most important thing to consider is the midfield battle, with more people in central midfield (3 compared to 2 in your normal 442) it becomes much easier to control possession of the ball and through that control the tempo of the match. Having 3 midfielders also give you the luxury of having on of them focus exclusively on defending. The deep runs from midfield by one of the three midfielders is also an advantage. Its much harder to mark or defend against a player running late into the box, someone who is an expert at that for example is Frank Lampard. He times his runs into the box perfectly and from there picks up loose balls, deflections etc and from that, scoring.

Also the positioning of a lone foward can be advantageous. If the striker drops deeper into midfield it creates space in the position he was occupying so one of the wingers can cut inside and attack that area. Barcelona do this amazingly, Ibrahimovic would drop off and messi & co will drive into the empty space. A striker dropping off also poses a dilemma for the defenders. Should the defender follow him and mark him but leave the space behind him open? Or should they stay in position and face the danger of the striker getting possession in front of them?

There is more like having that midfield player focusing on defence helps the fullbacks go foward much more easily, and it also is a good strategy to use against counter-attacks. These runs are helpful in getting the wingers to cut in and overlapping with the fullback. In fact, just watch Barcelona everything they do is what im basically saying. They have one foward but are one of the highest scoring teams in world football. In fact they broke countless records in goalscoring two seasons ago. So if its played correctly one fowards can be better than playing with two.

Though that formation can also be played negatively. Like having all 9 players simply focus on defending and leave that lone foward up front to do nothing but bother the defence. This is mostly used when a team believes they will lose. It had a bad reputation because of that over here in england. Anyway in club football in Europe most top teams have started to play with one lone foward. It getting more harder to see teams that play with two fowards in the latter stages of the champions league. The formation helps the team stay more solid defensively (1 extra midfielder focussed exclusively on defence) while at the same time helping them keep possession easier and if played well it doesnt take anything away from their attacking. So its becoming more common. In fact in the world cup final both teams played with one foward. Im not sure if i explained that well Anyway here's a link by a football writer discussing it.

 

[kkck]

I believe korea used a formation like that against brasil in the past world cup.... Surprisingly they scored a goal, although I do kinda recall it was a mistake on brazils part mostly... IMHO the formation itself is kinda of a desperate move though.

 

[Imperium]

It depends though Barca, Chelsea etc use it and they do it quite well. But it could be used very defensively and kill the enjoyment of the game.