La Liga 2013-2014

Expecting loads of Mendes player to turn up at Valencia next season.
 
KM said:
Expecting loads of Mendes player to turn up at Valencia next season.
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Just as significantly (for them and us) it might mean they can hang onto players like Bernat.
At least for a couple of years until his transfer fee is bigger.
 
Beyond belief that Ancelotti is playing so many big players today. Suspect they(Cristiano, at least) demanded to play, but he's just left the warm-up early. Isco possibly taking his place.
 
Yeah he's out of the game. Only has himself to blame I reckon, it's about time he and Messi realised they can't keep risking their fitness, especially for nothing games.
 
jojojo said:
There's no minimum % set.

It's not usually a big issue because there's not much tradition of travelling away fans outside a few Copa and European matches and some of the derby games. Travel times tend to be quite long, the teams fly to almost all their aways. Worst still La Liga schedules matches as early as 12 noon and as late as 10pm (even the odd one later) Friday night to Monday. Sometimes they don't fix a day/time until a week before the match.

Of course for a game like this, it's in the home team's favour not to do the away club any favours...

I wouldn't be surprised to see a minimum % come into force next year though.
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Cheers.
It would be good to see it change.
 
Fortitude said:
I wonder if anyone will give stick to Ancelotti for Ronaldo's foolhardiness.
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I think he deserves some for the team today, why rest so many players when the league was still possible only to risk them when there's nothing to play for? :wenger:

Cristiano almost definitely made it hard for Ancelotti to bench him but he's the manager so they should share the blame.
 
So possibly going into the CL half fit and out of match practice
 
KM said:
Expecting loads of Mendes player to turn up at Valencia next season.
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Rodrigo and André Gomes from Benfica will move there. A fund backed by Lim and Mendes bought their rights in January.
 
Bob Loblaw said:
I think he deserves some for the team today, why rest so many players when the league was still possible only to risk them when there's nothing to play for? :wenger:

Cristiano almost definitely made it hard for Ancelotti to bench him but he's the manager so they should share the blame.
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I'm never sure the manager of a RM side gets to veto anything when it comes to the superstar players. If he didn't play Ronaldo and he then had one of his legendary strops, it could cause them massive disharmony before the CL final. They're already a soap opera club, I should imagine part of Ancelotti's job description is just in keeping harmony.

Seems he'd be damned if he did and damned if he didn't. A real lose-lose situation.
 
Fortitude said:
I'm never sure the manager of a RM side gets to veto anything when it comes to the superstar players. If he didn't play Ronaldo and he then had one of his legendary strops, it could cause them massive disharmony before the CL final. They're already a soap opera club, I should imagine part of Ancelotti's job description is just in keeping harmony.

Seems he'd be damned if he did and damned if he didn't. A real lose-lose situation.
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Yeah, definitely agree with that. Although I don't think playing Cristiano was the only questionable choice, he could have rested a lot more than he did.

I don't like Cristiano but I hope he makes the game next week just so it's a better spectacle.
 
Also, it looks like Xavi might be on the bench today. Big, big call from Martino in his last team selection. I think it's the wrong one, but we'll see...
 
Bob Loblaw said:
Yeah, definitely agree with that. Although I don't think playing Cristiano was the only questionable choice, he could have rested a lot more than he did.

I don't like Cristiano but I hope he makes the game next week just so it's a better spectacle.
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Did he reveal the method to his madness for resting the players he did last round?

Pretty obvious that he has to play them this time out because otherwise they'd not be match-sharp for the final with over three weeks rest since their last game should they not have played today.
 
Ronaldo's been training this week and he's not the kind of player who hits the ground running after an injury layoff. So, pointless match or not, I don't think it's unreasonable for him to want to play, nor for Ancelotti to agree to it.

Better he drops out during the warm-up than tries to ignore it though.
 
Fortitude said:
Did he reveal the method to his madness for resting the players he did last round?

Pretty obvious that he has to play them this time out because otherwise they'd not be match-sharp for the final with over three weeks rest since their last game should they not have played today.
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I don't think it crossed his mind that neither Barca nor Atletico would get a win. He'd already switched to planning a lineup for the CL final and resting players with niggles.

Incidentally the Spanish commentator's just said Pepe's "not ruled out, but unlikely" to be ready for the final.
 
I think biggest question mark over Ancelotti is his lack of squad rotation, I don't think he knows how to do it(but who am I to say that though).
I like him as a person, I think he is an excellent manager, and I would like him here(altough now it's quite clear we are getting van Gaal who is also excellent manager), but it would be interesting to see how would he do in the league for us. I don't know if anyone mentioned that, but as a manager he has won domestic league title just three times, with Milan, with Chelsea(by one point), and the last one coming with PSG in his second season, and that team was miles better than any other team in France.
 
United22 said:
Tbh he's been pretty poor and pedestrian in the last 2 or 3 games until Cesc comes on and improves the team
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Cesc only improved the team as a sub though against tiring legs, he started last week and was abysmal. He hasn't had a good game against Atlético this season, has started most of them and has mostly been subbed each time.

That said, I do think it's a positive step that only one of him and Xavi are playing.
 
Do we think this will be a decent game or is it likely to be about 10 minutes of football squeezed in around 85 minutes of niggly fouls, diving, shouting at the ref and shouting at each other presided over by commentators who neglect to actually commentate and instead spend the match ovulating over Messi?

I want it to be a good game.
 
Marca loves their random stats and facts. My favourites so far:
- One year ago today, Atletico beat Real Madrid in the final of the Copa del Rey
- Eight of the nine Liga titles Atletico have won, have been won on the last game of the season
- Barca drew (at home) with Sevilla on the last day of the 45/6 season to give the title to Sevilla (a win would have made Barca the champions)
- Sevilla lost to Atletico on the last day of the 50/51 season to give the title to Atletico over Sevilla

And for anyone who didn't know
- Simeone won the Liga and Copa double with Atletico in 95/96, that's Atletico's last Liga title.
 
Ryan's Beard said:
Do we think this will be a decent game or is it likely to be about 10 minutes of football squeezed in around 85 minutes of niggly fouls, diving, shouting at the ref and shouting at each other presided over by commentators who neglect to actually commentate and instead spend the match ovulating over Messi?

I want it to be a good game.
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A chess match.
But with more violence than most chess matches.
 
Amar__ said:
I think biggest question mark over Ancelotti is his lack of squad rotation, I don't think he knows how to do it(but who am I to say that though).
I like him as a person, I think he is an excellent manager, and I would like him here(altough now it's quite clear we are getting van Gaal who is also excellent manager), but it would be interesting to see how would he do in the league for us. I don't know if anyone mentioned that, but as a manager he has won domestic league title just three times, with Milan, with Chelsea(by one point), and the last one coming with PSG in his second season, and that team was miles better than any other team in France.
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I remember reading before that when ancelloti was at Milan that Berlusconi had very little interest in the seria a title and wanted the main focus to be on the cl. That probably explains their great record in the cl while he was there (3 finals) and only one league. Every interview I see with berlusconi he always talks about the cl and how milan have a great history in it and that Milan are the biggest club in the world because they have more European titles than every club.
 
God I hate the way Ballbag speaks. Always does an impression of how somebody has spoken.
 
Benzema came off injured today too by the way, another player who was carrying a knock going into the game.

Don't know if it's serious but it's shocking that Ancelotti took so many risks.
 
Bob Loblaw said:
Benzema came off injured today too by the way, another player who was carrying a knock going into the game.

Don't know if it's serious but it's shocking that Ancelotti took so many risks.
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This. Especially considering he didn't take any in the Celta game which was the logical game to do so considering the league was still up for grabs and it was 2 weeks before the final.
 
Come on Atletico. Don't feck this up....
 
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