FC Barcelona Thread

Redondo was the most famous of this bunch, but had his career truly blighted by injuries. That was such a shame. One of the classiest DMF we will ever see.
 
I used to admire defenders as a kid/teen. For every great player there had to be some genius to stop him/them. Someone who could read their minds and outsmart them. Anticipate their next move and outplay them.
 
Lami said:
I used to admire defenders as a kid/teen. For every great player there had to be some genius to stop him/them. Someone who could read their minds and outsmart them. Anticipate their next move and outplay them.
Click to expand...

Yes, sometimes people forget defenders. That's sad because a good defender is sometimes more important than the forward who scores. You can't forget fantastic players like Beckenbauer, Canavaro or Maldini!
 
Franco Baresi, Roberto Ayala, Fabio Cannavaro, Oscar Ruggeri, Walter Samuel, Aldair (and a bunch of other Brazilians I've since forgotten the names of) etc.

Oh yeah, I can appreciate a skilled defender most definitely. I like them small, quick and smart for the most part.
 
Talking about defenders, Koeman wasn't small or quick, but he played for years in a 3-man suicidal deffense at Barcelona and was the real key to the team. And he was the best long passer, penalty kicker and free-kick taker I've ever seen (yes, even better than Mihajlovic).
 
Rentboy said:
Redondo was the most famous of this bunch, but had his career truly blighted by injuries. That was such a shame. One of the classiest DMF we will ever see.
Click to expand...

Still one of my favourite madridstas. Pity the injuries killed his career especially his international one with Argentina

Talking about all these legendary defenders they all had similar traits. Tackle like defenders with ball skills like midfielders.

That's what barca keep hunting for and why we haven't signed a defender in years.

Day what you want about mascherano the guy can place a ball on a dime from 40 yards out. Pity he is so erratic defence.
 
Last edited:
It was also his long hair that killed Redondo's international carreer.
At the time former captain Passarella was national team coach and he only selected players if they cut their long hair. Redondo refused....
 
That's a truth with modifications. Batistuta had his Conan hair in that period so it suggests that it was more than a simple hairdo that hampered Redondo's international career.
 
as far as I know redondo always had disputes with his coaches at the national team whether it's political issues or their approach to the game or regarding his position on the field. the hair thing was the weakest of excuses, or let's say just a very small part of the problems. and the main reason he played for real madrid must be valdano. I guess they share similar mindsets on and off the pitch.

it's a shame argentina nt wasted some great generations because of the never ending conflicts between players and coaches off the field.
 
Just noticed that Maradona scored 22 league goals in 36 matches for Barcelona. That's hardly a "flop", Drekkard. Maradona was an attacking midfielder after all... but I guess when you guys call Zlatan a flop as well you can't really expect that kind of crowd to have any grasp of reality :)

Just DL'ed 1983 El Clasico (Barca @home) just to see with my own eyes how much of a flop Maradona really was.

http://www.4dfoot.com/2012/01/23/1983-la-liga-fc-barcelona-vs-real-madrid-full-classic-match/


Kanouté said:
it's a shame argentina nt wasted some great generations because of the never ending conflicts between players and coaches off the field.
Click to expand...

Well, there's always controversy around the Argie WC squads. There was in '74, '78, '82 and '86 and the 90+ we all know fairly well.
 
Last edited:
ZeroTheHero said:
Just noticed that Maradona scored 22 league goals in 36 matches for Barcelona. That's hardly a "flop", Drekkard. Maradona was an attacking midfielder after all... but I guess when you guys call Zlatan a flop as well you can't really expect that kind of crowd to have any grasp of reality :)

Just DL'ed 1983 El Clasico (Barca @home) just to see with my own eyes how much of a flop Maradona really was.

http://www.4dfoot.com/2012/01/23/1983-la-liga-fc-barcelona-vs-real-madrid-full-classic-match/




Well, there's always controversy around the Argie WC squads. There was in '74, '78, '82 and '86 and the 90+ we all know fairly well.
Click to expand...

It was considered a flop because he didn't behave at all. He played a couple of great matches, mainly against Madrid and weak european teams but he had terrible performances in other matches. His attitude was terrible, he refused to train by the morning and the team had to change timetables for him. He started taking drugs, going out at night, misbehaving and played 36 matches in 2 seasons.

He had moments of brilliance but a lot of time he seemed uninterested with the play or didn't seem to take responsability seriously. Other times the defenders were just violent with him and back thensthe referees were shocking. And he also had an illness and an injury.

And above all that, he didn't get along with anyone, had arguments with the managers and practically fired himself when he did an aggression that brought a 3 month suspension. So yes, for the average person who watched him live, knowing the talent he had and what he achieved with it, Maradona was a flop. If you pretend to know better than the people who watched him play week in week out then good luck.

By the way Zlatan was a flop at Barcelona. This doesn't mean he isn't a genius and a player I always liked. It's just that it didn't work as expected for whatever reason, and while Ibra stats were good, his performance wasn't. He needs a team for himself and didn't gel under Messi, it simply was a clash of styles and visions. Football history is full of this. Laudrup was a complete flop at Juventus and then a genius at Barcelona, for example.
 
Last edited:
I've watched five matches featuring Maradona lately (yesterday, last night and this morning actually), two of which I downloaded from the link above and three from my own VHS archive. I was an avid video archiver in the 80's and 90's.

My impressions are a little changed from what I remembered him to be. Firstly, my impression seems to have highlighted his skill on the ball while in reality the whole match evolved around Maradona whether he played well or not. He wanders almost all over the pitch to receive the ball. Whenever he gets the ball in advanced position defenders are on him like flies on fresh cow shit.

One of the matches I watched was the famous Arg-Eng (1986) which I chose because I remember Maradona saying after the match that he appreciated the English team and commended them for not playing quite as dirty against him like everybody else did at the time. Look what that got England in the end... and by the way it clearly shows during the match as Maradona doesn't seem to fear for his health like he sometimes do in the other matches.

In all the four other matches Maradona gets a treatment worse than what Messi gets on a regular basis against Real Madrid today (maybe not the friendly), which I think is just ghastly to be honest. Referee's should be even more protective of such purely skilled players but I understand how difficult it is and the nastiness is often quite well hidden until the replays. Almost all matches involving Maradona is riddled with free kicks and I noticed about 5 red cards that weren't given. So, Maradona managed to completely unbalance opposition defenses on a regular basis with two or three rabies-like defenders constantly looking to hack his legs to pieces. Just by being on the field and receiving the ball in advanced positions he created a lot of space for team mates to operate in. The last match I watched was vs. Austria in 1980, which I believe was a friendly match, Maradona was again given a little more space than usual and he scored a hat-trick.
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/austria_argentina/index/spielbericht_2258543.html Austria were no pushovers in 1980 with Krankl leading the force.


PS. There is nothing but rumors supporting that Maradona did recreational drugs prior to his injury at the hands of the Bilbao Butcher. It was, according to Maradona himself, that injury that introduced him to the effect of drugs because of the amount he got prescribed in the aftermath of that awful injury. It was no well kept secret that he was a party-boy, which Barcelona knew well before they bought him.

Matches watched:
Austria vs Argentina 1980 Friendly (age 20)
Barcelona vs Real Madrid 1983 La Liga (age 23)
Argentina vs England 1986 WC (age 26)
***Napoli vs Bayern Munchen 1989 EC (age 29) ***Not watched yet
Argentina vs Brazil 1990 WC (age 30)
Sevilla vs Real Madrid 1992 La Liga (age 32)



Impression after watching; I've never seen any better and I've never seen worse behavior from defenders on a general level either. None of the matches were great and they're in general poor because of Maradona but that's not his fault. It's the referee's and defenders fault. I would need a batch of cocaine to recover from that on pitch treatment as well... (almost seriously) His most overlooked feature has to be his vision and passing accuracy, comparable to Pirlo.

PPS: It might also be that Barcelona didn't properly utilize the players mentioned, Maradona and Zlatan. Possibly two difficult individuals, I agree, but I'm not so sure Barcelona is completely without blame.
 
Last edited:
Just watched the Napoli vs Bayern match. It's obviously easy to have an opinion of Maradona but I don't think everyone here who have an opinion has actually seen much of this guy.

Outstanding, a genius if I ever saw one. Some players are close but there's still none above and none aside. At least judging from these six matches from age 20 to 32. It seems that whatever intelligence he lacks off the pitch, he takes back tenfold on the pitch. He's probably the worst conditioned player on the pitch in the majority of the matches and that is the only reason anybody ever has a chance to get the ball from him. If Messi had his talent he would have scored 4-5 individual goals whenever he wanted to. Messi's professionalism + Maradona's vision and smartness = Football-God, Allah and Brahman in one.
 
Last edited:
Dudes, El Classico is today and you are still talking about Maradona! Today's match is one of the most important games of the season to Barcelona, talk about that! ;)
 
zeemeister said:
Agree with anti modern footballers are very well protected. Defenders were phsychotic back then
Click to expand...

Claudio Gentile. Catenaccio! :LOL:
Two words for Maradona in 82. Very true! If England had some 'catenaccio' mentality, they could have at least forced extra time or won that match.

Come to think of it, Maradona and his peers had a much harder time than Messi, Ronaldo and all other modern players.
 
You start talking...

Not much to be said, really. Barcelona must win, it's as simple as that. Let's just hope Real Madrid isn't quite as dirty as they usually are in the El Clasico's. Not implying that Barcelona are saints, but in all fairness Real Madrid has been by far the dirtier side the last 8-10 clashes I've seen.
 
Last edited:
I think barcelona defence is too weak to handle losing the midfield battle. if madrid can break barça's midfield connection(esp. w/ messi), they can win it rather comfortably.
 
Are they using Pique+Mascherano?

If I were Barcelona coach I'd use a different strategy than usual today, more counter attacking and utilize the pace in the front men. 4-1-3-2 to make sure the midfield is theirs. I understand they want to stand and fall by their vision of football, but I say everything goes in warfare. Let's hope the new guy is a little less rigid than Guardiola.
 
ZeroTheHero said:
Are they using Pique+Mascherano?

If I were Barcelona coach I'd use a different strategy than usual today, more counter attacking and utilize the pace in the front men. 4-1-3-2 to make sure the midfield is theirs. I understand they want to stand and fall by their vision of football, but I say everything goes in warfare. Let's hope the new guy is a little less rigid than Guardiola.
Click to expand...

yes it's their main duo at central defence this season. bartra also had some significant playing time.
 
Had Barca had another proper central defender, they would've avoided at least one of those goals.

Pure class by Messi for the equalizer by the way. Neymar should've buried it but Messi came to the rescue anyway.
 
Last edited:
Missed the match. Heard Messi bossed the game and the ref was a disgrace. Best La
Liga title race in years!
 
Exactly, when will they learn and sign some Centre Backs to play there instead of Mascherano? Both Benzema goals could be avoided by proper CB defending and positioning.

It's a pity that el classico was down to who had the best diver. Ronaldo started it, but in the end you can't outdive Neymar.
 
Mascherano's position was perfect on the second goal. There were two Barcelona players just behind Masherano that were ball watching but at least one of them should've taken out Benzema. On the first goal Mascherano should never had marked Benzema, he's simply too short. If he had been 8-10 cm taller he would've been one of the best CD's ever. Then again Ayala was 1.76 (?) and didn't feel small due to his athletic jumping.
 
Last edited:
I wanted that too, not because I like Barcelona particularly but I want an even race for the title. I'll admit that I think Real Madrid stands for what is wrong with football today with their limitless rent free loan account that's the size of a medium country, so anyone who punches them in the mouth is OK in my book. They're not entirely alone being a tumor in the football world though, and I'm not wasting many calories being annoyed about it so I wouldn't call it anything in the vicinity of hatred.

When I was young and naive I quite liked them. Any fair result would've pleased me today, be it 3-2, 3-3 or 3-4.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom