re: 2012/2013 Bayern Munchen Season Long Thread - Treble Edition

Strategy against Barca: With Mandzo banned the first match and Kroos out for both games this could be a very tricky tie. Even if we were at full strength this wouldn't be straight forward at all.

The first question is who starts up top in the first game (at home)?
At first glance I said Mario. He's played in these big games many times before, he is a natural scorer and is big and strong enough to exploit the shite out of whoever Barca decide to trot out there.
At second glance it seems like Pizza could be our best option. His hold up play is a lot better than Mario's and I think his understanding with player's like Robben and Ribery could be very beneficial. Pizza is more similar to Mandzo than Mario is and he is obviously our best option for the style we have been trying to play.

After consideration, I think Gomez has to be the starter. If he can't take advantage of that back line prior to 60 min. then he comes off. Pizza would be motivated to come on and show his stuff. Mario tends to be a pretty lackluster sub.

The next question is how the midfield looks with Kroos out ( ). I think our wingers should be Ribery and Robben. Some may not agree with Robben, but the fact is he could easily destroy Alba. Muller is more of a toss up. The middle is interesting. I could see us playing Shaq in the playmaker role, with Bastian and Javi underneath. I really doubt that happens though. I also think a better solution is to move Bastian up to the playmaker and play Luiz and Javi underneath. That midfield gives us the best chance of controlling the ball AND giving Xavi/Iniesta/Messi a really hard time. Plus Bastian is no joke going forward. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

The back line is a delicate situation. If Jupp gets this wrong, we don't advance. Obviously Lahm and Alaba will be outside. The question is who is in the middle. I have no idea how fit Badstuber is so I'm just gonna assume he is out. That leaves Dante, DvB, and Boateng. I'll take Dante and Boateng. I know Boa can be really boneheaded sometimes, but DvB is entirely to slow to deal with Barca.

That leaves my line up for the first tie as such:

----------------Neuer--------------------
Lahm--------Boateng----Dante-----------Alaba
------------Javi--------Luiz--------------
---Robben--------Jesus---------------Ribery
-----------------Mario--------------------

Don't see how Tommy can be left off.

He is too good at all of the little things and puts himself in perfect positions.

He'll nutmeg a defender and score a goal in the first leg. Guarantee.

I'd rather him in Robben's position.

Robben missed about 8 chances that could have been goals against Juve.

Tommy also works great with Lahm - but Lahm is so good he works well with any RW that drifts inside a lot.

Well, I guess we had both Robben and Tommy on the pitch and it seemed to work

Watched the game last night after the kid went to sleep.

Excellent performance - I can't think of any of our players that didn't play well.

Javi dominated in the midfield. Enough so that Bastian was higher than normal a lot - even defensively at times. Everyone else harrassed and closed down really well. Even Robben seemed into it defensively (or at least, more than he usually does).

Robben did create a lot of havoc - but again he missed several opportunities to score that should have been put away. 2nd or so minute he either has to put that away or pass to the two wide open Bayern players in front of the net - may have been a hard pass due to angle of defender. I guess you have to leave him out there, but you don't see the other guys wasing that many opportunities.

Ribery was a machine - so far forward and yet sprinting back over and over to catch up and stop a Barca attack.

As the game went on, we stopped marking Messi so closely until he got about 25 or so yards in. We obviously realized that he wasn't going to make a 40 yard run with the ball. His health will essentially determine if Barca has any shot on the return leg. No way they score 4 without Messi as his best.

But you can see how much he means to our possession game

Just dropping in to say I officially have you all approaching Manchester United/Yankees levels of dislike/hidden jealousy. I just sympathize (empathize? I always use the wrong one) with BvB fans too much as a gooner.

Hey, stop that.

I already said I have hidden jealousy there's no need to make it a full blown give me a newspaper to hide the bulge in my pants envrection.

So it's kind of a hollow victory I know but I found this image on /r/gunners and thought it was pretty funny...

quote:

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But both clubs are profitable

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Not really. Last season Arsenal were only profitable because they sold assets. That's concerning because #1 it isn't good for future performance and #2 it means their costs are too high and revenue is too low. They also have huge debts, but have made up a ton of room in terms of match day revenue.

I sound smart, don't I?

No, actually a really intelligent banker had a great thread on /r/soccer (which of course went unnoticed for the most part, probably because it actually had good information and wasn't just a huge circle-jerk) where he dissected the financials based off of the Swiss Ramble's figures. He basically just did a Q&A with whoever was interested.

quote:

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Not really. Last season Arsenal were only profitable because they sold assets. That's concerning because #1 it isn't good for future performance and #2 it means their costs are too high and revenue is too low. They also have huge debts, but have made up a ton of room in terms of match day revenue.

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Arsenal also operate under a false economy. The stadium deal looks more and more foolish, financed in the way it was so the shareholders could keep the value of their shares, which they did. It would have been better to invite foreign investment first, then build the stadium. Bayern did everything the right way, because they thought of themselves as a big club, rather than Arsenal trying to become a big club. Bayern have a better youth system, built a better stadium, and have better executives. I'm jealous of the way they are run.