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BIG GAME ROBBEN

352K views 9K replies 237 participants last post by  steamed hams 
#1 ·
Since Liverpool are starting their Europa League campaign tonight, may as well start this thread now.

This will be rodgers first season in Europe, so I expect he'll look to have a solid competition. I reckon AVB will take this competition more seriously than Redknapp and Newcastle will want to do well for sure. Hopefully these three teams will do well and help England's co-efficient points.

As for the CL, we're retaining it :jordan2

 
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#1,447 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

brazilians can't leave brazil unti they're 18

however they buy them at 18 and after 3 years they are classified as home grown under cl rules.

plus fun fact. you can't obtain ukranian nationality as a foreigner.
 
#1,450 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

As they should have. LULK is overrated.
 
#1,458 · (Edited)
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

Valencia got destroyed by a weak Chelsea(AVB was in charge at that time). Teams like Osasuna, Getafe, Levante,etc get destroyed by Barcelona\Real Madrid most of the time.

The premier league is much more entertaining than La Liga imo. It is much more competitive and exciting. Look at the end of last season for example. It is unpredictable. I do agree with you that La liga has a better standard of football though.
 
#1,459 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

Valencia got destroyed by a weak Chelsea(AVB was in charge at that time). Teams like Osasuna, Getafe, Levante,etc get destroyed by Barcelona\Real Madrid most of the time.

The premier league is much more entertaining than La Liga imo. It is much more competitive and exciting. Look at the end of last season for example. It is unpredictable. I do agree with you that La liga has a better standard of football though.
Man United got destroyed by Bilbao. Chelsea got destroyed by Atletico. It works both ways.

Like i've said before though, i see the argument for the premier league and it's a good one. But i don't think it's by far and away the best league in the world like many make out thats all.
 
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#1,460 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

I don't think it is by far the best league either. I just can't see how La Liga is better, but it your opinion and I respect it.

As for Chelsea losing to Atletico Madrid, fair enough. But as for Man Utd losing to Bilbao, I doubt Man Utd took the Europa league seriously tbh. English teams don't really give a shit about Europa league while Spanish teams do take it seriously.
 
#1,462 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

On our result:

Lol. Typical. Wenger plays Ramsey... F'kin Ramsey over and over and over and over again--when we've only won THREE f'kin league games with him starting in 2012. What the heck?

Why is Gervinho playing as a striker? Why is Ramsey--a CM--playing as a RF? Heck, why is he playing at ALL? Why isn't Wenger playing Podolski up top?

I'm not surprised by the result because the tactics have been so ridiculous.

I don't care for the CL honestly because we're awful in the CL. I'd hope we get knocked out instead, so that we could focus on the League. I wouldn't even mind EL because at least--we'd have a chance.

Onto City, sacking Mancini is the worst thing City could do now. So what if City aren't doing well in the CL! It took Chelsea 9 years after Papa Ramon came, so let's give City some time. Unless the replacement's name is Pep, Mancini is the right man for City.
 
#1,464 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

On our result:

Lol. Typical. Wenger plays Ramsey... F'kin Ramsey over and over and over and over again--when we've only won THREE f'kin league games with him starting in 2012. What the heck?

Why is Gervinho playing as a striker? Why is Ramsey--a CM--playing as a RF? Heck, why is he playing at ALL? Why isn't Wenger playing Podolski up top?

I'm not surprised by the result because the tactics have been so ridiculous.

I don't care for the CL honestly because we're awful in the CL. I'd hope we get knocked out instead, so that we could focus on the League. I wouldn't even mind EL because at least--we'd have a chance.

Onto City, sacking Mancini is the worst thing City could do now. So what if City aren't doing well in the CL! It took Chelsea 9 years after Papa Ramon came, so let's give City some time. Unless the replacement's name is Pep, Mancini is the right man for City.
no no no! obviously the only way is to sack the manager in only their 2nd champions league campaign! it only took fergusion 6 years, but we should be doing it all now now now!
 
#1,471 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

Mancini is a proven flop in Europe. I think that's the point you are missing, Kiz. It maybe the club's only second time in Europe, but players like Aguero, Dzeko, Nasri, Kompany, Clichy, Silva, Balotelli, Garcia, Maicon, Kolo have tasted Champions League before they moved to City. Yaya and Tevez have actually won it. So it's not this completely new experience.

Problem is Mancini's tactics in Europe are terrible. Unlike in the Premier League, teams in Europe keep possession a lot. You can't just expect to turn up and blast them out of the water from the start. Especially teams with pedigree like Ajax. Mancini keep underestimating these teams. Don't even get me started on him switching to a back 3 with Clichy as a centre back and then just throwing on all his strikers and hoping for the best. How the hell is that managing a team? I'm sorry, but he's fucking awful and City need someone better.

His Serie A accomplishments came because Inter were the only big team that did not get busted therefore they could buy all the strong players and create an unrivalled squad in that league. And last year he nearly lost the Premier League with by far the best squad in the league. I get that City fans will always hold him dear to their heart, as he did deliver them their first league title in yonks. But he isn't any good. He's tactically inept.

You can blame the players all you want, but it's the manager's job to find out the issue and sort it. It's his job to motivate them and get them playing well. If you have all these superstars and they aren't playing well, then the manager is not doing his job.

If no miracle happens, City need to start looking for someone new for next season.
 
#1,473 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

the fact is these things take time and we gain nothing by sacking bobby 5 months after signing him to a 5 year deal. unless pep comes in then it doesn't matter. this is a gradual process. it doesn't happen overnight.

and bullshit it's up to the manager to get the players to play well. if a player can't get up for a champions league match then maybe they should be looking at their career more closely and deciding what they want to be in the future. it's the easy way out to blame the manager every single time. bobby made a couple of tactical errors, but to just dish up pure crap on the field, no matter how you're playing, what can he do about that? tell the players to play better? i'm sure he did that.

yes he's made mistakes, yes he should be held accountable for said mistakes, but to be 100% his fault for his players not showing up in such a vital game? that reflects so much more on the players than him.
 
#1,474 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

Well after scraping the league on the last day, that 5 years extension wasn't all that smart.

These players won the league last season and they went to the Bernabeu and put in a courageous performance, so they obviously are good players and ability isn't the problem. Should they need to be motivated for these games? No. But if it's not going right, the manager has to find a way to change this. You're telling me that things have gone wrong for the majoirty of City's Champions League games and Mancini has not found a way to change this yet?

Against Dortmund, you got played off the park in the first half, you thought half time would have changed this, but no. The match continued as it was. Same thing with Napoli last year. These two teams have been in the Champions League as long as you. So experience isn't the issue. In fact, your manager has more CL experience then both of them put together. The issue is two teams were doing the business tactically and one team was not.

You have Gael Clichy looking stunned when asked to play centre back. You have four strikers on the pitch at the same time as if this is Football Manager. You have Micah Richards (wrongly) coming out and saying the team don't really understand 3-5-2. And you have Mancini saying it was his fault. It's a embarrassing. You're the Premier League champions, ffs.

It's never fully one side's fault. So yeah, the players are to be blamed too. But when you look at the history of Mancini's Champipns League record, it's not hard to find out what the big issue it.
 
#1,476 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

Just watched a post-match interview with Mancini. He says he didn't prepare the team well, he didn't look at the Ajax players well enough beforehand, which I thought meant that he basically thought Ajax was going to be a walk over and didn't feel the need to even look at the Ajax players for threats. But then he got asked if he underestimated Ajax and he said no, they prepared wrong because they prepared for a different tactic by Ajax. To sum up; De Boer tactically surprised Mancini, and he couldn't prepare the damage. Baffling for such a big club with loads of scouts/coaches.
 
#1,477 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

It's ridiculous to compare Mancini and Ferguson's champion's league exploits even when you consider relative experience. Mancini can buy pretty much any player he wants, if the players aren't playing well then either he's not motivating them correctly or they're just bad signings and need to be moved on or replaced. There's nothing stopping him from doing this. Fergie spent the best part of the 90's developing a good group of youth players mixed with some shrewed signings into a top class team, of course he wasn't going to be able to win the top club prize straight away.

If you want to make a fair comparison then use managers who have had the same amount of time (or even less) and availability of resources as Mancini. Roberto Di Matteo would be that person.

As for sacking Mancini, I don't think that's the right road to go down at this moment in time, he deserves at least the rest of this season after winning two trophies. I still think that he falls woefully short of the tactical requirements needed for Europe, so there will come a point where Citeh start to outgrow him. That may not be too far in the future.
 
#1,478 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

As I said, I think you need to start looking for another manager who can come in next season and progress the club. Inter did it regardless of all the leagues Mancini won and they went on and won the Champions League. Financially, you won't be fucked like Inter as well.
 
#1,480 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

yeah they only replaced him with some mug named jose mourinho :lol. the only way that this works is if we bring in someone better than mancini. how many of these guys exist, and furthermore, can we plausibly get them into the club? personally, i think any manager would love it here, great resources, a great board willing to invest both money and time into a plan. whether we're setting up a move for pep with serrano and possibly txiki, im not sure. but if that happens, so be it.
 
#1,481 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

I think some people are forgetting the fact that Chelsea were a top-4 or thereabouts club before their Papa came home. When the Arsenal fan came calling, City were a mid-table club.

So a mid-table club comes in and wins the PL title within three seasons, and is still undefeated at home for more than a season--and undefeated in the league, thus far. Sacking Mancini would be horrific.

Mancini's spell as Inter manager proved amazing in the league, and yes, I do understand the form of Inter in the CL, but the question of the CL only comes into play once City go on to win the Prem again. What works against Mancini is the difficulty of the group too. As long as City performs in the League, the alarms can be turned off. Not every owner/fan is as restless as Ramon or some Chelsea fans.

I'd reserve my final judgment against Mancini for next season (in the CL). This is Mancini's second-high profiled job as a Manager, and he has won with both clubs--one club was an established one and the other was a growing force. Time is there.
 
#1,484 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

He done it with a shite squad on his first attempt, so who knows? It's not about winning it right now though. It's about getting out of the group and showing everyone who Man City is. You may have England afraid of you, but Europe aren't shaking one bit.

But whatever, give Mancini more chances. I'm sure he'll get it right on his 10th attempt or so.
 
#1,487 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

we still can get out of the group fyi
You can, but chances are you won't. You'll probs have to win all 3 remaining games, and hope that Real or Dortmund both slip up against Ajax. And none of those remaining games will be easy.

Ajax at home you should win, but if it's anything like last night, then you won't. Dortmund away will be a really tough fixture, which i fancy Dortmund winning. And Real Madrid at home will be tough, and i fancy a draw there.

TBH, your lucky to have 1 point, because Dortmund should have won that game at the Ethiad. City need a miracle to get out of this group now.
 
#1,486 ·
Re: UEFA Champions/Europa League 2012-13 Thread

That's a bit of strange question to ask considering he won the Champion's league with liverpool in his first season at Anfield and also had previous European success with Valencia.

Also it's not so much about him getting Citeh to win the competition, it's more about him proving that he has the gumption and nous to steer the club through the group stages.
 
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