Champions League 2018/19: A Visca Wanda

[Lang Spoon]

Fuckin hell. Best league in the world

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

More to the point, why did Man Utd buy him? ('Because they could', I imagine.)

Man utd bought him because it
a) enabled Ed Woodward to sign a star player. A big name. Show that he can deliver the big names.
b) enabled mourinho to get rid of Mkhtaryan, who was a high speed dribbling central attacking midfielder, and an ideal central playmaker in an attacking, pressing 4-2-3-1, like the one man utd were using between 2010-13. Mourinho has no use for a player like that, and lacks the coaching ability to help him change his game, or provide a framework in which he could succeed.
c) Enabled Mourinho to shit on Anthony martial and push him closer to the door. Martial scored four goals in five games before Sanchez was signed, and after he didn't score in the first hour in the next game, he was out of the starting team for months, even as sanchez produced performances that defied belief.
d) provided the manager with the sort of 29 year old established star that didn't require coaching, and would reliably pull something magic out of his arse, which would enable the team to sit deep and hit on the counter attack.

the problem here is that it's a nightmare to be the wide player in a jose mourinho team. Everyone winds up looking like a cunt, because the extremely limited tactical role you are given, and because of the ad hoc, incredibly ponderous way that they play in possession, largely because the centre halves aren't allowed pass the ball to a central midfielder, except passes to matic under very particular circumstances, and because the full backs are slow to join in the attack, because they know that if they go up the pitch, and the other team scores on the counter attack, they will get the blame.

Essentially you only train for when you don't have the ball, in which case the wide player stands ten yards in front of the full back, and allows the full back play narrower. When the ball is won back, your job is to tear into the opposition half like Andrei Kanchelskis on a good day and attack the space behind the opposition, but when your team has the ball, your job is to stay out wide, as the centre half passes the ball out to the full back, who will either play down the line to you with as you come short, in which case you will be receiving the ball at the time that the defender clatters into you, or the full back will play it ponderously into the central midfielder, which allows the opposition keep their defensive shape, which means yet again that you will be marked if you get the ball. And when you do get the ball, your job is to get it in to the big man at the back stick, which is a job that flatters no-one.

Look at Arjen Robben's career. In his first season he came in halfway through the season, scored a burst of goals that broadly fitted into that kanchelskis model. But the following season, people started to get a better idea of what kind of player he was so he played more games, but scored fewer goals. And then by his third season he scored in one of his 21 league matches. Moved to Real madrid where it was unstructured nonsense, then he moved to Bayern, and in van gaal's system and with the organizesd support of his teammates, over the next three seasons he scored 3 goals in every five games from the right wing, and became one of the best players in europe. He looked like Ryan fucking Babel by the time mourinho was finished with him.

What usually happens is that when the position was between Martial and Rashford, one of them would play for an hour, and then whoever came on as a sub would have a much better chance to score as the opponent tired, and also that's the way man utd play, and how their goals are distributed. Then that player would start the next game, not score, be whipped off after an hour, and then the other would come in and do something. Alexis sanchez is just demonstrating how incredibly difficult that job is, and really only serves to demonstrate just how amazing it is that martial scored a goal every 180 minutes of league football last season.

People have to start judging the performances of players based on the tactical constraints they are under, and how the team is organised, rather than comparing them to players who played in past teams which had clear and well defined plans for what to do when they had the ball, and were encouraged to retain the ball and play out from the back.

If Alexis sanchez had signed for Man City, Spurs, chelsea or Liverpool, where the team around him had a clear plan for what to do when they have the ball, (or even Emery eventually at arsenal) people would still think he was a really good player. but he is asked to play a role so utterly different to the one where he made his name, that it's basically unfair to judge him. He j. ust makes it look as hard as it actually is. Garcia was telling me about a statistic about sprints from the weekend. A sprint is defined as every time a player goes above 25 kph. Liverpool were top with 150, huddersfield were secoond with 132, chelsea were third with 130. burnley were third last with 90, West Ham players broke into a sprint 82 times, and man utd players made 58 sprints. It's an utter fucking nightmare.

[johnr]

Sorry to not respond with your depth TAB, but, blimey, how do you keep all of this in your head?

I'm in awe, no snark.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

God that first messi goal was so beautiful. That kane goal was amazing as well. Pity Lloris messed things up so badly for spurs.

[Jah Womble]

I think it's United/Mourinho being judged here rather than Sanchez - who has already proven himself a decent PL player.

(And, uh, Man City won their match last night...)

[EIM]

I think it's United/Mourinho being judged here rather than Sanchez - who has already proven himself a decent PL player.

(And, uh, Man City won their match last night...)

But they lost their first.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

All the stuff about the way that mourinho teams play, and the tactical role of the wingers is visible in every single game that they play. Mourinho's behaviour is ultimately very predictable. Everything he's doing now at Man utd, he did at chelsea, and Real Madrid. Literally all of it. If you can actually remember how Arjen Robben's career actually went, it's easy to find the necessary statistics on his wiki page. And it's not hard to google how many minutes someone played. Oh and Garcia literally told me that yesterday. it was really easy to remember. Romelu Lukaku made four sprints in 90 minutes. Which is kind of fair enough if you were paying attention to how little support he got, or how rarely he saw the ball.

[matt j]

I am currently in love with Rakitic's goal. Can I get an IKEA diagram?

[Jah Womble]

But they lost their first.

Ah, I see. Utd's brave home draw on Tuesday earns them that privilege, then. Fair dos.

[EIM]

Barcelona showed the strength of the Spanish league last night. A creditable home draw against Spanish opponents.

[Jah Womble]

Well, 'the strength of the Spanish league' is pretty much exclusive to Barça, Real and perhaps Atletico.

But they schooled us, I'll willingly concede that. As I knew they would.

[Satchmo Distel]

Although Man City lost "first", they must be better equipped to go further than Man U here.

Man U v Man City QF would be fun for the meltdowns, provided the winner loses the SF, but I don't see how Man U can get that far.

[Gangster Octopus]

Although Man City lost "first", they must be better equipped to go further than Man U here.

Are you assuming that EIM is using some sort of logic?

[Ray de Galles]

WUM, NQAT.

[Lobachevsky]

On Spurs fans leaving early - evening games are a real and significant nightmare to get away from. I'm pretty hard core about staying to the end but even when I lived in Ealing 5 miles from the stadium I didn't get home till 12.30 after one of the evening games last year.

Last night was meant to be my first game of the season but for various reasons I didn't go. Bit gutted to have missed seeing Messi even if he destroyed us.

Like many Spurs fans I loath Wembley and don't intent to go until we move back, hopefully on 15th December. This is the most games I've missed since 2003/4 season.

[EIM]

WUM, NQAT.

LOL TBH

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The PSG - Red Star game is under investigation for match fixing after a Red Star official allegedly bet on his team to lose by 5 goals. Not an unreasonable bet, I'd have thought, but he put €5m on it.

[G-Man]

Man Utd will get absolutely slaughtered by Juventus tonight. It's October 23. The last three United games on October 23:

1999: vs Tottenham 1-3
2011: vs Manchester City 1-6
2016: vs Chelsea 0-4

[Wouter D]

Cracking start to Ajax - Benfica. Great chances on both ends within three minutes.

[Wouter D]

Benfica play out a wonderful team effort in the fifth minute, but Ajax' goalkeeper Onana has eight arms, so it's still scoreless.

[Satchmo Distel]

Eight arms to hold you?

[Gerontophile]

Man City started quite slowly, but, you know...

[Wouter D]

Seriously, who is this Ruddy Buquet clown, and why does he get to referee Champions League matches? Some of these bookings are ludicrous.

[anton pulisov]

Ajax 9 shots on target. No goals.

Might want to bring on Klaas-Jan.

[Wouter D]

Oh yeah!

Under normal circumstances, a Dutch team never beats a Portuguese team. That injury time goal was soooooo sweat.