Facts of the manu massacre....

[Muadib]

Of the Starters Xavi, Abidal, Alves are the old men and even they have 2 good years left..minimum..

Ress a dem can easily be around for 5 more years..

Dynasty shall continue... suh unnuh try and solve di riggle.. nuh try and wait till old age set in..

[Paul Marin]

Paul in light of your observations of the match...what do you think of my earliest words on TEAM as it relates to - man-marking being only achieved with the assistance of the man being marked or my exact words: No defender knows if the player being marked is going to go 'right' or 'left' until the player is already going in the chosen direction. The defender when playing against an intelligent player is always 'late' as he responds to movement already commenced.

Those guys...and just about the entire Bacra team cannot be marked. The movement and passing is too sure and swift. The GUNNERS came nearest to providing real competition, yet the GUNNERS are like tortoise to Barcelona's hare.

*Not Real Madrid as Real provided "kick-down" tactics. Yup! Real won one game....but it was playing more "kick-dun" than football.

Karl, man-marking does not mean tracking a players move left/right etc. It is about preventing the player from gaining strategic positioning and neutralizing the attackers strength. In zonal marking, that task is a team effort, but it is harder to pull off because the time required for two or more players to effectively communicate is its downside but zonal marking works because you can clog up space with many players - typically requiring at least 6, but most effectively 8. With attacking players of lesser skill than Barca, that is effective.

In man-marking Xavi, you'd have to keep him to the outside, forcing him as much as possible to release the ball early and not positioning himself in that ten yard square area outside the penalty box. That's where he will destroy you. This is where Hernandez and Rooney would come into play as they would have been the extra pressure to make such a tactic succeed. But, once Xavi gets inside that 10 yard area, you're in deep sh8.

Now who could have done that from Manu**? I don't think anybody, except *maybe* Fletcher, possibly Scholes (but him would have jus' kick man down). Busquets and Pique can play that role, but they play for Barca. There are few players who can pull it off, that's why they are so hard to beat.

For the avoidance of doubt, man-marking is more about being a single constant presence for an attacker with an eye to taking away space, not matching their every move. That would be a fool's errand, especially against Barca.

[Muadib]

man-marking.?. try ghost-marking...

[Peter R]

I'm no mathematician but based on the post it was 31%...

[Paul Marin]

'long mout' ??

Ah nuh mout' play football...

Final score coulda been 6-1 and nuhbaddy coulda argue wid dat result...

My signature box show's a good example of what long mout' can do. So watch it. You don't want to end up like this fellow:

[Jangle]

My signature box show's a good example of what long mout' can do. So watch it. You don't want to end up like this fellow:

[Muadib]

31% Possession against Barca is nothing to sneeze at !

[Muadib]

ah wheh di ?!

Barca innah di kick and run league ??

[myYout]

Di ting is wi si dat English League style against di bounx kyaan win. Short one two ah guh kill dem. Plus Messi inna di mix wid enterprise an creativity dance dun.

[Mosiah]

one statistic that we did not mention - Barca is one of the shortest teams in all of Europe! Don't take this lightly. Because of that fact, they don't waste time going down wings and crossing. Instead, they perfect the art of passing in midfield and threading the needle in attack.

[Karl]

Karl, man-marking does not mean tracking a players move left/right etc. It is about preventing the player from gaining strategic positioning and neutralizing the attackers strength. In zonal marking, that task is a team effort, but it is harder to pull off because the time required for two or more players to effectively communicate is its downside but zonal marking works because you can clog up space with many players - typically requiring at least 6, but most effectively 8. With attacking players of lesser skill than Barca, that is effective.

In man-marking Xavi, you'd have to keep him to the outside, forcing him as much as possible to release the ball early and not positioning himself in that ten yard square area outside the penalty box. That's where he will destroy you. This is where Hernandez and Rooney would come into play as they would have been the extra pressure to make such a tactic succeed. But, once Xavi gets inside that 10 yard area, you're in deep sh8.

Now who could have done that from Manu**? I don't think anybody, except *maybe* Fletcher, possibly Scholes (but him would have jus' kick man down). Busquets and Pique can play that role, but they play for Barca. There are few players who can pull it off, that's why they are so hard to beat.

For the avoidance of doubt, man-marking is more about being a single constant presence for an attacker with an eye to taking away space, not matching their every move. That would be a fool's errand, especially against Barca.

Well...I think we are on differnt wave lengths...so all I can say is teams can try.

The solution is, I think, getting quality players with skill levels, physical endurance, quickness of mind and 'speed across ground' to reverse the role on Barca...make them be the ones to defend...try to keep up. GUNNERS have a leg up in such a race to grow to match Barcelona. Hey look no further than the 'concept of play'...and how close my GUNNERS came to knocking out Barca. (Of course it would have been in one sense a tragic result as I believe my GUNNERS would then be promptly knocked out in the next round...in any case, would not have won the Champions league).

RT @JenChang88: Deserving champions, but it's amazing this Barcelona team was a mere Bendtner scuff from elimination in quarterfinals.

Wenger needs to get rid of those players I previously had on my 'out' wish list...and we need to bring in faster highly skilled and more disciplined TEAM players....such that we can outrun, outplay and outgun Bracelona.

[Jangle]

Mosiah!!!!! Keep it clean!!!!!

"threading the needle-yeye"

[Mosiah]

yuh see whey your mind gone?

[Karl]

They do not go down the wings?
...boss, they are not dificient in any area.

I give you only Daniel "Dani" Alves -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkJ8eUY2DQ

[Gamma]

it's all about height for you isn't it? you need to get that pine tree forest off your shoulder little guy!