Yeah they are a team that operates on the whole being greater than the sum of the parts but after the first 15mins you could see they were a bit disjointed. They've come a long way and I can't knock them as they dragged themselves back into contention where many teams would've folded but they were undermined by some of their key players, Torres being the chief culprit. Another false dawn at Real too. They've had a relatively easier route and tip toed their way into winners
Yeah, where was he????
I think the PL is far too tough on a squad of 25 these days without the added distraction of the CL. Juggling both competitions is now an impossibility and you have to sacrifice one for the other. February to April is when it really bites the English teams. To be honest with the money coming into the league now, CL is becoming less and less important apart from brand image.
I was thinking they could've done with a finisher like him coming on. The absolutely huge amount of openings they created despite Torres being utter **** would have been ideal for a striker like Vietto. I imagine he was injured or did not make the bench even. Carrasco made some impact, obviously and may be someone like Vietto would've relished an opportunity like that.
It's huge brand image though and amongst the players & managers alike they know that the CL is the holy grail of club football.
Thanks! Total credit goes to @Nyctophobia for his skills and @Gooner416, @MutableEarth and @Lancelot as the inspirations!
Torres couldn't have held up traffic yesterday. Surely, anything or anyone would have been better than "El nino".
It's a combination of factors why English teams aren't doing as well as they did in the past. United and Chelsea certainly aren't as good as they were when they dominated a few years ago but remember also that one of the worst Chelsea teams won it with Roberto Di Matteo and a poor City side made it to the semis this season. We've produced better teams than the one that made it to the final in 2006. I think Real, Barca and Bayern will always feature heavily in the closing stages because of the long running monopoly they hold in their leagues and the fact that overall the local competition is a little bit easier. I still find it strange how Real have emerged as eventual winners but it's the luck of the draw.
Of course, I'm just saying this is probably what Simeone's reasoning was and Torres has had some great performances this season to be fair to him. Picked the worst game of course to have an absolute stinker in
