BBC Blog Network

User Profile

jopabemu

Listed below are comments made by jopabemu between Thursday, 6th November 2008 and Wednesday, 28th January 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Rafa's Red Missed 12:48pm on 28 Jan 2009 Before Rafa was in charge Liverpool were satisfied finishing 4th. Now we're complaining if we don't win the title. From winning the champions league he is the victim of his own success. Clearly Rafa is doing something right if Gerrard is a much better player for Liverpool rather than England.
Everyone manager makes mistakes. You name one manager who has never made a poor signing and I'll tell you your a liar. Ferguson signed massimo taibi, kleberson, diego forlan, juan veron, alan smith, mark bosnich, poborsky, jordi cruyff, laurent blanc, david bellion, andy goram. i'm not going to go on but i think you see my point. the trick is, if your a good manager is to identify quickly that you've made a mistake and to change no matter how much money you've spent on him. rafa knows he's spent £20 million on keane but that shouldn't influence him who to put in the starting line-up. the decision on who to pick should be based on their current form. If Robbo Robson took over took over Rafa and won the champions league in his first season I would eat my hat. You need a fantastic tactical brain and Rafa has this.
Big four toil as Celtic show spirit 5:04pm on 06 Nov 2008 message to #132.

"ain't seen the mid table English teams excel in that competition recently."

Middlesbrough qualified for the Uefa Cup in 2006. which was a lot more recent than Celtic in 2003. Also, a lot of the mid-table teams focus on the league because that is the bread and butter. Also, the premiership takes a lot out of teams physically and mentally- different teams qualify for the Uefa Cup every season because it is so competitive- you have Man City, Porstmouth and Aston Villa. Unlike the SPL where Celtic and Rangers always finish in the top 2 with the exception of when Hearts finished 2nd a couple of seasons ago. So there is less pressure when competing in Europe to rest players for the league.

I am not a Man Utd fan by any stretch of the imagination but how many Celtic players would get into the Man Utd starting team even if they were all fit? Not even Mcgeady would get there in my opinion when there is Berbatov, Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez, Giggs and Scholes to choose from. So, I don't think it would be a different game had Celtic had their 1st choice team out. Maybe Arthur Boruc could get in there instead of Van Der Sar although he was playing last night. You cannot use injuries as an excuse. Celtic played to their strenths which was effort, determination and encouraging the crowd to be that 12th man. when you play the top teams you have to know how to defend whether you have your first choice team or not. Some of Celtic's finest results in Europe have come when they have played 10 man behind the ball- notably the 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp and the Uefa Cup tie in the 2002/2003 season. If anything, playing in a more attacking style would have left Celtic more vulnerable at the back because Man Utd love to play counter-attack. So I don't think Celtic would have won the game had they had all their best attacking players in the team.
Big four toil as Celtic show spirit 00:17am on 06 Nov 2008 It does seem a bit surreal to have a win-less week for the Premier League giants- however I wouldn't read too much into it. It shows the premier league isn't invincible but let's remember no Spanish representative scored three points either. There have been a few interesting scores this week- notably the stern test Cypriots Anorthosis Famagusta gave Inter Milan in a 3-3 draw. You also have a demolition from Panathinaikos in a 3-0 away win against Werder Bremen of Germany.
But it's all very well having these one-off shock results but the grim reading from a Champions League neutral's perspective is that 11 of the 12 teams from the 3 big leagues are very likely to qualify for the last 16. so that's 11 of 16 representatives coming from one of three countries when there are 49 in total in europe. Man Utd and Liverpool look certain, Arsenal seem to suited to a European Style when they know how to put the ball in the net and Chelsea will have too much to stop Bordeaux spoiling the party. Elsewhere Barcelona, Athletic Madrid and Real should have too much. Villarreal will have to suffer a dramatic slip if they find themselves 3rd in the group at the end of December. Celtic need to get their first away win in their Champions league history and hope Man Utd don't just settle for the point in Villareal. Then, if the group is still open Celtic must score 3 points in what would probably be a very defensive Villareal starting line-up. So it looks 4 from 4 from La Liga safely into the knock-out stages. Then from Serie A- Inter Milan and Juventus will almost certainly qualify. Roma are not a foregone conclusion but you would fancy them with the fact they have got their tough Chelsea games out of the way. Fiorentina are unlikely to make it a clean sweep with Lyon and Bayern Munich both 5 points clear of the Italians.
So, how can Michel Platini stop this "big three" monopoly? With the powers and finances of some of these clubs it is difficult to see what can be done.

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

jopabemu