Barcelona 2011 vs AC Milan 1990 - By Jonathan Wilson

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...90s/index.html

Ask anybody who's done it, and they'll tell you that sustaining success is much harder than achieving it in the first place. The great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann refused ever to spend longer than three years at a club because he felt that after that he could no longer motivate players. It may be that in the modern world of soccer in which money begets money, success is easier to sustain than previously, at least on a domestic level. On a European scale what that means is a cluster of perhaps eight or so super powers constantly battling for the Champions League, which is surely the main reason no side has successfully defended the title since the AC Milan of Arrigo Sacchi in 1990.

Should Barcelona win the Champions League this year, though, it would have good claim to be the best side since Sacchi's. It won the competition in 2009, and may have done so again last year had the prohibition on flights after the eruption of the Icelandic volcano not forced the squad to travel by bus to Milan to face Internazionale in the semifinal. Even after a 3-1 defeat, it took a defensive performance of extraordinary resilience -- and good fortune -- from Inter to withhold Pep Guardiola's team in the second leg.

Sacchi's Milan fell apart soon after its second European triumph, the demands of his pressing game and the difficulty of retaining the hunger necessary to enact it eventually becoming too great. Given Guardiola's transition over a mere three seasons from sprightly ex-player to haggard coach, and his cryptic pronouncements about leaving the Barca job and moving to Italy, it's tempting to wonder if he is finding the maintenance of a great side, constantly stoking its desire, just as taxing as Sacchi did. With their insistence on pressing, both sides play a peculiarly demanding form of football, and one to which outsiders find it difficult to adjust. Neither coach could freshen up a squad by simply going out and signing a new player and expect them immediately to settle.

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edit 1-3 misleading title to text

Originally Posted by ReligiousRed

perfect gif

Originally Posted by I_Am_Paul_Parker

perfect gif

Got me some bad rep from Coracao for my troubles too :shakehead:

what an utterly pointless article, never got this kind of thing. people do it with boxing, great long articles explaining why marciano got off the floor to stopp ali in the last round

i suppose it's easier to talk about these kind of fantasy matches because you know you're never going to be proven wrong.

i £#%&!ing hate jonathan wilson and that other boring @#%&! michael cox from that tactics website.

pseudo-intellectual, over-complicated analysis of what in essence is a very simple game. you can tell the pair of them have never kicked a ball in their life.

@#%&!s.

Originally Posted by Jack Duckworth

pseudo-intellectual, over-complicated analysis of what in essence is a very simple game. you can tell the pair of them have never kicked a ball in their life.

Have you read the match threads on here after we lose....

Jesus.

Originally Posted by Jack Duckworth

i £#%&!ing hate jonathan wilson and that other boring @#%&! michael cox from that tactics website.

pseudo-intellectual, over-complicated analysis of what in essence is a very simple game. you can tell the pair of them have never kicked a ball in their life.

@#%&!s.

Incorrect.

What sort of simpleton thinks it's just 22 blokes kicking a ball about & the more talented wins every time ?

This shit is chess, not checkers.

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

Incorrect.

What sort of simpleton thinks it's just 22 blokes kicking a ball about & the more talented wins every time ?

This shit is chess, not checkers.

how can it be incorrect to find them boring @#%&!s?

of course there's more to it than that, but that sort of pseudo-intellectual analysis usually comes from people who think arsenal should be league champions because they invented the passing game a few years ago.

I much prefer the tactical analysis journalism like that from zonal marking that the newspaper (broadsheet and tabloid) sensationalism and gossip talk.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy Dunlop

I much prefer the tactical analysis journalism like that from zonal marking that the newspaper (broadsheet and tabloid) sensationalism and gossip talk.

fair play, i just like watching and playing football. bores the arse off me to talk and read about it, tbh.

Originally Posted by Jack Duckworth

how can it be incorrect to find them boring @#%&!s?

of course there's more to it than that, but that sort of pseudo-intellectual analysis usually comes from people who think arsenal should be league champions because they invented the passing game a few years ago.

Horses for courses, people like insightful analysis from people like Cox & Wilson as the current trend in the mainstream media - as anyone who has the mis-fortune to dial into £#%&!ing ITV in the last........... forever knows - is just bantz & @#%&!s.

If you don't like that the tactical in depth stuff it's easy to avoid. Just continue to watch every televised game & read the red tops.

I think both Wilson & Cox offer opinions worth 10 of anyone who's sat on the MoTD sofa in the last decade.

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

Horses for courses, people like insightful analysis from people like Cox & Wilson as the current trend in the mainstream media - as anyone who has the mis-fortune to dial into £#%&!ing ITV in the last........... forever knows - is just bantz & @#%&!s.

If you don't like that the tactical in depth stuff it's easy to avoid. Just continue to watch every televised game & read the red tops.

I think both Wilson & Cox offer opinions worth 10 of anyone who's sat on the MoTD sofa in the last decade.

agreed that motd and tabloids is worse, i just find the in-depth stuff a bore, tbh. like i say, i rarely read about or listen to stuff about football anyway.

Originally Posted by Jack Duckworth

pseudo-intellectual, over-complicated analysis of what in essence is a very simple game. you can tell the pair of them have never kicked a ball in their life.

Throb and ???

Originally Posted by Jack Duckworth

agreed that motd and tabloids is worse, i just find the in-depth stuff a bore, tbh. like i say, i rarely read about or listen to stuff about football anyway.

it can go too far the other way, but ZonalMarking especially nails the level I'd happily read about a match report imo.

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

Horses for courses, people like insightful analysis from people like Cox & Wilson as the current trend in the mainstream media - as anyone who has the mis-fortune to dial into £#%&!ing ITV in the last........... forever knows - is just bantz & @#%&!s.

If you don't like that the tactical in depth stuff it's easy to avoid. Just continue to watch every televised game & read the red tops.

I think both Wilson & Cox offer opinions worth 10 of anyone who's sat on the MoTD sofa in the last decade.

agreed. enjoy reading both of them in the main. they are a right pair of dorks though

Barcelona 2011 = ridiculously overrated.

Their defence is shit and they have zero physical presence.

United 1999 would have beat them convincingly IMO.

Originally Posted by Neo

Barcelona 2011 = ridiculously overrated.

Their defence is shit and they have zero physical presence.

United 1999 would have beat them convincingly IMO.

Are they £#%&! overrated.

Great side. Can't remember the last time anyone comprehensively outplayed them.

Originally Posted by carlosartorial

Are they £#%&! overrated.

Great side. Can't remember the last time anyone comprehensively outplayed them.

They are a great side, but people are already calling them the greatest side of all time; that is overrating them IMO.

They were comprehensively beaten by Inter at the San Siro last season, and in the second leg they failed to break Inter down despite cheating their way to getting Thiago Motta sent off early in the first half.

There's a good argument that they shouldn't even have even been in Rome to play us after that 'strange' refereeing display at Stamford Bridge.

Great side, but they haven't got enough trophies to be called the best ever. Not yet anyway.