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The Spanish Football/la Liga Thread


Troglodyte

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He's back! Scored yesterday as Atletico beat Seville 4-0. It's crazy that Atletico arent top of the table either, 34 points from 13 games would see them four points clear in England, two points clear with a game in hand in Italy, four points clear with a game in hand in France, and joint top with Bayern (who are making big news with how good their start to the season has been) in Germany. But in Spain? Nope. Not top. I know people are running out of superlatives for Barcelona but they dont appear to be missing Pep at all. They have made the best start to a season in their history, P13, W12, D1, and the game the drew was a "good" point at home to Real Madrid. They are on for a 100 point season, which is ridiculous.

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Just looking at his stats, he is now up to 237 goals in his last 239 games for Barcelona.

I think the opening day of the 2008/09 season is a clear turning point in Messi's career, and that was 239 games ago now. Why is it a turning point? Well, it's the first game after Barcelona sold Ronaldinho, gave Messi the number 10 shirt and made him the focal point of the team. Before that he was used in a deeper role, almost as an orthodox midfielder at times and stuck out wide on other occasions and he still managed 42 in 110, which I think is an acceptable ratio for an experienced centre forward, let alone a midfielder who had played most of those games as a teenager.

It's mental that we accept these stats as normal too. Six or seven years ago people would have laughed if somebody had said a player would be so prolific over such a long period of time.

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Just looking at his stats, he is now up to 237 goals in his last 239 games for Barcelona.

I think the opening day of the 2008/09 season is a clear turning point in Messi's career, and that was 239 games ago now. Why is it a turning point? Well, it's the first game after Barcelona sold Ronaldinho, gave Messi the number 10 shirt and made him the focal point of the team. Before that he was used in a deeper role, almost as an orthodox midfielder at times and stuck out wide on other occasions and he still managed 42 in 110, which I think is an acceptable ratio for an experienced centre forward, let alone a midfielder who had played most of those games as a teenager.

It's mental that we accept these stats as normal too. Six or seven years ago people would have laughed if somebody had said a player would be so prolific over such a long period of time.

Yeah, I remember a while back seeing Brian Clough's stats as a striker (251 goals in 274 games IIRC) and thinking you just wouldn't see that happening at the top level these days.

And lo an behold, we are seeing that happen.

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V. Impressive

Barcelona's fabled La Masia academy scored another triumph on Sunday when the Liga giants fielded an entirely homegrown team during their 4-0 Liga victory against Levante.

History was made in the 14th minute when coach Tito Vilanova sent on Martin Montoya to replace the injured Dani Alves - completing a team full of La Masia products for the first time in the modern era.

Not even Vilanova's predecessor Pep Guardiola managed the feat, fielding a maximum of nine homegrown players at any time.

Brazilian substitute Adriano Correia broke the monopoly in the 75th minute, by which time Barca were four goals to the good.

Although every player was an academy product, that's not to say all were born within a stepover or two of the Camp Nou.

Lionel Messi hails, of course, from Argentina but moved to Barcelona aged 12. Pedro Rodriguez is from Tenerife, while Andres Iniesta's childhood home of Fuentealbilla is closer to Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium than to Barcelona.

And three of last night's players flew the nest - costing Barca a fortune to re-sign them.

Gerard Pique (Manchester United), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal) and Jordi Alba (Valencia) all spent time away from Barcelona, who paid a combined £40 million to bring them back under their wing.

Nevertheless, it is a remarkable feat in an increasingly cosmopolitan game. By contrast, the Chelsea team that played Manchester City on Sunday contained just one Englishman (Ashley Cole) and no products of the club's youth academy.

[url="http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/pitchside-europe/barcelona-field-entirely-homegrown-team-093237514.html

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He's scored 2 in a game 11 times this season I think, I bet he's annoyed not to have more then 1 hat trick.

I'd be interested to see the stats on how many games Messi scores in per season

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V. Impressive

[quote[

Barcelona's fabled La Masia academy scored another triumph on Sunday when the Liga giants fielded an entirely homegrown team during their 4-0 Liga victory against Levante.

History was made in the 14th minute when coach Tito Vilanova sent on Martin Montoya to replace the injured Dani Alves - completing a team full of La Masia products for the first time in the modern era.

Not even Vilanova's predecessor Pep Guardiola managed the feat, fielding a maximum of nine homegrown players at any time.

Brazilian substitute Adriano Correia broke the monopoly in the 75th minute, by which time Barca were four goals to the good.

Although every player was an academy product, that's not to say all were born within a stepover or two of the Camp Nou.

Lionel Messi hails, of course, from Argentina but moved to Barcelona aged 12. Pedro Rodriguez is from Tenerife, while Andres Iniesta's childhood home of Fuentealbilla is closer to Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium than to Barcelona.

And three of last night's players flew the nest - costing Barca a fortune to re-sign them.

Gerard Pique (Manchester United), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal) and Jordi Alba (Valencia) all spent time away from Barcelona, who paid a combined £40 million to bring them back under their wing.

Nevertheless, it is a remarkable feat in an increasingly cosmopolitan game. By contrast, the Chelsea team that played Manchester City on Sunday contained just one Englishman (Ashley Cole) and no products of the club's youth academy.

http://uk.eurosport....7514.html

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Yeah, It's on The Guardian too. Wouldnt surprise me if he leaves, Mourinho has a track record of doing three or four years and moving on. I think he will end up in Manchester next, but whether it is M11 or M16 is anbodies guess.

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