2021-22 UEFA Champions League Discussion Thread

SgtPepper · Post #101 » by **SgtPepper** » Tue Apr 12, 2022 10:14 pm

^^Definitely, tie 2 was from a neutral's perspective one of the best games of football ever. Tuchel prepped an excellent starting formation and Chelsea seemed dominant till the Rodrygo goal. My Madrid friends and I were bemoaning Ancelotti playing for ET but they ended up nailing the final 2 phases. It's clear these ending formations are actually Madrid's most attacking ones too, with the combos between LV and Vinicius and Camavinga to Rodrygo driving a lot of horizontal switches. I can't believe short Carva was played at CB and that Marcelo was successfully introduced into such a competitive match. Ultimately I don't think Chelsea could have done much tactically more aside from pressing Benzema more aggressively at the start of the halves. They should have done something strategically, perhaps start Werner since Lukaku's injury, to have a more stable and collectively threatening frontline.

Chelsea's backline is so envious. For a decade Chelsea' backline had this reputation as great athletes, but the version under Tuchel has had both the best athletes and best ballplayers.

@Foye-A good bit of this is on the Bayern coach and his fetish for this 4 attacking midfield combo which almost got them ko'ed last round.

Young Stapler · Post #102 » by **Young Stapler** » Tue Apr 12, 2022 11:22 pm

Bayern out :clap:

LDNMagic90 · Post #103 » by **LDNMagic90** » Wed Apr 13, 2022 11:51 am

Very good game yesterday between Real and Chelsea! Tuchel is a top quality coach!

I feel like Chelsea need proper creative players and a clinical striker. They should cash in on Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi and spend big on better wingers/attacking mids. Bring back Gallagher from Palace for their midfield to add some athleticism and try to get a top striker. Then they'll be back amongst Liverpool/City.

Baseline81 · Post #104 » by **Baseline81** » Wed Apr 13, 2022 12:28 pm

Young Stapler wrote:Bayern out

Watch on YouTube

The_Brecht · Post #105 » by **The_Brecht** » Wed Apr 13, 2022 12:50 pm

LDNMagic90 wrote:Very good game yesterday between Real and Chelsea! Tuchel is a top quality coach!

I feel like Chelsea need proper creative players and a clinical striker. They should cash in on Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi and spend big on better wingers/attacking mids. Bring back Gallagher from Palace for their midfield to add some athleticism and try to get a top striker. Then they'll be back amongst Liverpool/City.

Tuchel should always play this way. He has the attacking players for it, but he's far more comfortable defending.
Creating that much chances, it would even benefit Lukaku.

Baseline81 · Post #106 » by **Baseline81** » Wed Apr 13, 2022 1:07 pm

LDNMagic90 wrote:Very good game yesterday between Real and Chelsea! Tuchel is a top quality coach!

I feel like Chelsea need proper creative players and a clinical striker. They should cash in on Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi and spend big on better wingers/attacking mids. Bring back Gallagher from Palace for their midfield to add some athleticism and try to get a top striker. Then they'll be back amongst Liverpool/City.

It's not just the underline. It appears as Chelsea will be losing Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen. Rüdiger especially will be difficult to replace.

LDNMagic90 · Post #107 » by **LDNMagic90** » Wed Apr 13, 2022 1:52 pm

Baseline81 wrote:
LDNMagic90 wrote:Very good game yesterday between Real and Chelsea! Tuchel is a top quality coach!

I feel like Chelsea need proper creative players and a clinical striker. They should cash in on Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi and spend big on better wingers/attacking mids. Bring back Gallagher from Palace for their midfield to add some athleticism and try to get a top striker. Then they'll be back amongst Liverpool/City.

It's not just the underline. It appears as Chelsea will be losing Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen. Rüdiger especially will be difficult to replace.

That is true, depending on who takes over Chelsea I'd be wondering if they replace Rudiger with Kounde. Chelsea have wanted Kounde for years now and I think it'd be a smart signing for them. They also have some very good defenders out on loan that have come from their academy. There's also players like Bastoni, Pau Torres and Bremer that could be decent replacements for Rudiger and Christensen.

LDNMagic90 · Post #108 » by **LDNMagic90** » Wed Apr 13, 2022 9:05 pm

I feel sick for Atletico, the last few minutes was a complete joke. Foden was wasting time and the tackle Felipe put on him was an amazing tackle, but he got sent off for it? Lol these refs don’t hide who they want to go through.

Edit - I will say though, Atletico done themselves no favours in both legs. They should’ve created more chances to score their xG over both legs is shocking.

Sedale Threatt · Post #109 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:03 pm

They definitely played better and probably deserved at least an equalizer, but I never understand complaints about time wasting. That’s just part of the game, and everyone does it. Frankly, they seemed a lot more interested in trying to start a brawl there at the end than getting the match going again.

SgtPepper · Post #110 » by **SgtPepper** » Fri Apr 15, 2022 1:58 am

Atleti fiery takedown was very predictable. My Madrid friends were joking that this looked like a la liga tie between Olde Pep Barca and the least talented Simeone Atleti side given there was just 1 goal scored over 190 mins (because lol 9+ minutes of ET thanks to Simeone clapping) and the normal divey shithousing from a Pep team. Atleti could have just used the same approach from the last 20 minutes of the tie for the whole match, and that was probably actually necessary due to decline in finishing quality by their forwards this season. If there was a talent gap between the 2 sides, it's mostly because Atleti made bad season transfers in De Paul and loaning in a cooked Griezman instead of getting 1 more competent left winger. Their most threatening forwards this CL campaign were Carrasco and Lodi, hence why I don't think they could have won leg 1 with Carrasco out.

The_Brecht wrote:Tuchel should always play this way. He has the attacking players for it, but he's far more comfortable defending.
Creating that much chances, it would even benefit Lukaku.

I think so too. Last season Tuchel had the 2nd most creative midfield with the same starting personnel minus Werner. The main change is a shift in tactics.

LDNMagic90 wrote: I'd be wondering if they replace Rudiger with Kounde. Chelsea have wanted Kounde for years now and I think it'd be a smart signing for them. They also have some very good defenders out on loan that have come from their academy. There's also players like Bastoni, Pau Torres and Bremer that could be decent replacements for Rudiger and Christensen.

Kounde's ballplaying (as with most cb's) isn't Rudiger level. Pau Torres also isn't leaving Villareal in a world cup year. The World cup in 6 months is going to skew a lot of the usual transfer activity this summer.

LDNMagic90 · Post #111 » by **LDNMagic90** » Fri Apr 15, 2022 1:49 pm

I mean time wasting is fine and all but for most people it’s annoying when you are faking an injury to do so. What also grinds my gears is here in England whenever an English team does it, it’s amazing but when a team plays a foreign team it’s a complete disgrace to them lol

Post #112 » by **Baphomet** » Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:54 pm

Absolute masterpiece of a football match between City and Real. 4-3 to City FT.

Fantastic goals and football all around, Benzema scoring a panenka penalty when 4-2 down in the CL semi-final. You can't write thie stuff. Unbelievable, I'm in shock after watching that. Bring on the second leg.

Man, I want to be back in this competition so badly.

SgtPepper · Post #113 » by **SgtPepper** » Wed Apr 27, 2022 1:56 am

Madrid's CL run this season has been a true gift - the most entertaining and unpredictable fixtures of the competition. In preseason I thought they might get ko'ed in the groups based on the state of the d line and RW, but both the youngsters and oldies have performed well over expectations.

That being said I think this loss is what will kill them - Madrid really probably needed to win this leg to have reasonable odds of going thru. City had their 2nd choice wingbacks and therefore weren't as dangerous and generally dominant as usual, so Madrid missed the chance to abuse the Vini/Fernandinho and Zinchenko/Rodrygo matchups especially after the latter got substituted and the formation changed. Madrid lost the momentum after that substitution because City mids were then free to play their natural game between the lines and attack goal directly, which is really bad since City's mids are more composed than their forwards. Madrid were also 2v2 in both the defensive buildup and in the attacking phase, so they ended up in deeper positions further from goal since City pressed intensely for pretty much the whole game and now they lacked the spare man to connect the lines. In the return City have their wingbacks back and have a goal advantage, which Pep can use to shithouse the whole game like the 2nd leg of Atletico if he wants to. I think it will be better than that given Madrid needs to attack and City will have better personnel available.

okboomer · Post #114 » by **okboomer** » Wed Apr 27, 2022 6:29 pm

Liverpool haven't lost a match by more than a goal since Madrid over a year ago. Have to think if they win by 2 goals today they are through.

Post #115 » by **Baphomet** » Wed Apr 27, 2022 8:17 pm

Had to switch it off when the commentators creamed their undies after a deflected Henderson cross went in.

Post #116 » by **Baphomet** » Wed Apr 27, 2022 8:23 pm

SgtPepper wrote:Madrid's CL run this season has been a true gift - the most entertaining and unpredictable fixtures of the competition. In preseason I thought they might get ko'ed in the groups based on the state of the d line and RW, but both the youngsters and oldies have performed well over expectations.

That being said I think this loss is what will kill them - Madrid really probably needed to win this leg to have reasonable odds of going thru. City had their 2nd choice wingbacks and therefore weren't as dangerous and generally dominant as usual, so Madrid missed the chance to abuse the Vini/Fernandinho and Zinchenko/Rodrygo matchups especially after the latter got substituted and the formation changed. Madrid lost the momentum after that substitution because City mids were then free to play their natural game between the lines and attack goal directly, which is really bad since City's mids are more composed than their forwards. Madrid were also 2v2 in both the defensive buildup and in the attacking phase, so they ended up in deeper positions further from goal since City pressed intensely for pretty much the whole game and now they lacked the spare man to connect the lines. In the return City have their wingbacks back and have a goal advantage, which Pep can use to shithouse the whole game like the 2nd leg of Atletico if he wants to. I think it will be better than that given Madrid needs to attack and City will have better personnel available.

I think City are at their most vulnerable when they're in that mental crossroads between whether to attack to expand the lead or to defend it. Of course, that can quickly change depending on how the game shakes out, but if Real can keep the aggregate lead to just one they will get opportunities eventually. I can't see them being able to shithouse it against Real personally, you have far more attacking threat and CL winning experience than Atletico, and even their first choice wingbacks have mistakes in them.

HIF · Post #117 » by **HIF** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 6:37 am

okboomer wrote:Liverpool haven't lost a match by more than a goal since Madrid over a year ago. Have to think if they win by 2 goals today they are through.

It's Villareal. Any decent team should be beating them.

wco81 · Post #118 » by **wco81** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 7:58 am

HIF wrote:
okboomer wrote:Liverpool haven't lost a match by more than a goal since Madrid over a year ago. Have to think if they win by 2 goals today they are through.

It's Villareal. Any decent team should be beating them.

They must have had a big season last year.

Because this year they're #7, 9 points behind #4 Atletico.

Did they sell some good players between last season and this season?

But then how did they get this far in the UCL this year?

SgtPepper · Post #119 » by **SgtPepper** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:20 pm

Up to here. Villareal has a balanced squad and great coach but Pool is too talented and cohesive to get past. Within la liga I rate their talent in the 2nd tier after Real (in same rung as Sevilla and Atleti and probably better than Atleti). This version of Pool is better than the one which won the CL, and on top of that have had the easiest fixture path to the final featuring illustrious contenders like Inter, Benfica.

League races across Europe are about depth rather than 1st squad potential. Tottenham made it into the CL final a few years ago under similar circumstance, and I suspect a lot of 'midtablers' can compete really well in continental cups if they weren't simultaneously on the hook for domestic league positions. It's one of the reasons I prefer the Brazilian cup model where they are staggered 1 at a time so midtablers there can prioritize winning Copa Lib over competing in the league.

okboomer · Post #120 » by **okboomer** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 7:14 pm

HIF wrote:
okboomer wrote:Liverpool haven't lost a match by more than a goal since Madrid over a year ago. Have to think if they win by 2 goals today they are through.

It's Villareal. Any decent team should be beating them.

Guess that means Bayern and the the German league are crap. Cause they were outplayed by Villareal over those two legs.