Portuguese futebol

[Faliro]

What you guys think of Andre Gomes of Barcelona?

[Covenant]

What you guys think of Andre Gomes of Barcelona?

A good player but his style isn't good for his team.

[Cloughie]

What you guys think of Andre Gomes of Barcelona?

Top class player.
Ridiculously used by Jorje in Benfica.

[Faliro]

You think he fits the Barcelona style?

[Covenant]

You think he fits the Barcelona style?

Nop... O think Juventus was a better choice for his Style.

[Cloughie]

You think he fits the Barcelona style?

Yes.

[MightyEagle]

You think he fits the Barcelona style?

Not at all. The typical Barça midfielder is short, quick, good at short dribbles, and can pull out brilliant passes from any distance. Being none of these, André is totally out of his depth there.

He's a got some good attributes - most of them offensive - but his decision making is slow-ish and very far from Barça standard. His main virtues serve Barça nothing. I'm sure he could do well in other clubs though.

They'll probably get rid in the summer or soon after, and imo it would be for the best for both sides.

[Faliro]

My feelings are that Barcelona's glory period is coming to an end.
Paco, Gomes, Arda, Digne, Roberto etc are not Barcelona quality and these mistakes were not only expensive - they were fatal. I would not have sold Pedro on his breakthrough season either.

Poor management and Messi is starting to fade - an Iniesta who is older.. no more Xavi etc.. too many losses - and all signings are mostly garbage. 

[Cloughie]

It's more of a lack of manager's problem than a player's problem.

[MightyEagle]

My feelings are that Barcelona's glory period is coming to an end.
Paco, Gomes, Arda, Digne, Roberto etc are not Barcelona quality and these mistakes were not only expensive - they were fatal. I would not have sold Pedro on his breakthrough season either.

Poor management and Messi is starting to fade - an Iniesta who is older.. no more Xavi etc.. too many losses - and all signings are mostly garbage.

So much for being football gods and producing the best talents, but as you said, the truth is that they've had a golden generation built around Messi, that is starting to weaken, and players of the same calibre are not showing up.

The Spanish national team will (and already is) suffer from this lack of new talent. Catalonia's setup is watering down and Spain need to find a solution.

Spain never exactly had the best individual talents in world football anyway. Most of the biggest stars in their league were foreign, which is one of the reasons for their international irrelevance pre-2008.

[Faliro]

My feelings are that Barcelona's glory period is coming to an end.
Paco, Gomes, Arda, Digne, Roberto etc are not Barcelona quality and these mistakes were not only expensive - they were fatal. I would not have sold Pedro on his breakthrough season either.

Poor management and Messi is starting to fade - an Iniesta who is older.. no more Xavi etc.. too many losses - and all signings are mostly garbage.

So much for being football gods and producing the best talents, but as you said, the truth is that they've had a golden generation built around Messi, that is starting to weaken, and players of the same calibre are not showing up.

The Spanish national team will (and already is) suffer from this lack of new talent. Catalonia's setup is watering down and Spain need to find a solution.

Spain never exactly had the best individual talents in world football anyway. Most of the biggest stars in their league were foreign, which is one of the reasons for their international irrelevance pre-2008.

I agree. It also seems Marcos Sena helped them go to the next level by stabilising their always weak midfield - although he rarely got the plaudits for helping transform Spain. Once they broke through - they have been strong up until recently. The Catalans are still producing a huge amount of footballers - but as you said - there is simply not that quality anymore - just tonnes of average footballers (Tello, Roberto, Bojan, Munir, Bartra, Montoya..)

[Faliro]

Ronaldo has kids with another surrogate? Seems a little weird.. I mean I get it - but still - reminds me a bit of Michael Jackson's technique for furthering his DNA.

[RodriE]

Ronaldo has kids with another surrogate? Seems a little weird.. I mean I get it - but still - reminds me a bit of Michael Jackson's technique for furthering his DNA.

Search for Espaço Pink in this forum. You might get surprised, or not.

[Faliro]

Got a question for everyone here. Greece plays Croatia on Thurs to get into the WC.

Manolas picked up a deliberate yellow card vs cyprus in the last minutes as you do when you are on too many cards and want to bring an early ban so you are available for the following big game. He simply time wasted to get the yellow. He missed the final qual as planned and is ready for Croatia.

However last week FIFA banned him from playing in the Croatia game!  They said him picking up a yellow card in the last minutes vs Cyprus so he was free for the play offs went against fair play!

Have you ever heard if FIFA doing this before? Seems they want Croatia in the WC badly.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5047531/FIFA-hand-Greece-s-Kostas-Manolas-World-Cup-play-ban.html

[StellaRojas]

Got a question for everyone here. Greece plays Croatia on Thurs to get into the WC.

Manolas picked up a deliberate yellow card vs cyprus in the last minutes as you do when you are on too many cards and want to bring an early ban so you are available for the following big game. He simply time wasted to get the yellow. He missed the final qual as planned and is ready for Croatia.

However last week FIFA banned him from playing in the Croatia game!  They said him picking up a yellow card in the last minutes vs Cyprus so he was free for the play offs went against fair play!

Have you ever heard if FIFA doing this before? Seems they want Croatia in the WC badly.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5047531/FIFA-hand-Greece-s-Kostas-Manolas-World-Cup-play-ban.html

I could not believe it when I read it. How did they determine that he was time wasting on purpose ( in order to clear his yellow cards record)? I'm pretty sure there is nothing in FIFA rules allowing them to do that, even if he was time wasting on purpose ( or something general about sportsmanship). This will definitely be a heavy blow for Greece, but I believe that you can still knock Croatia out if you play your clever ( though not so exciting) game.