No I can't see us ever signing him. Was just adding some stats. He's obviously a very reliable goalscorer. RED!
Spain have been trying to get the tika-taka going but they are getting caught by the classic counter attack. They push up and get caught for pace. Brazil are actually making them look ordinary.
Spain were sensational against Uruguay. Abject against Italy in the heat. Fair play to Brazil as they got in their faces from the start and bagged an early goal. Reminds me slightly of our performance against Man City. You press with intensity and as a group and you'll make even the best passers rush and hit a low % ball. Unlike Brazil with Neymar, Spain have had no out ball.
Well we learned how you play against Spain and beat them. You press with intelligence and skill and they get flustered and unsettled. The thing with Brazil is that each player can fairly go up against his opposite number and not be intimidated. Not every team can do that, and Spain often win their games before even a ball is kicked. In Europe, they don't have much competition, save for Italy and Germany, both of whom could win against them if they get their tactics right, in my opinion. Death of tika-taka..? I doubt it. Mind you, I wouldn't be disappointed by that, because it can be sooo boring, if you are the opposition. On the other hand, counter attacking football, like Brazil played occasionally this evening, to beat Spain, and that Germany play so brilliantly also, can be so exciting.
Nice tribute to Charles W. Miller, the Father of Brazilian football. So what, you say..? Well he was only schooled in Southampton and played for St Mary's, didn't he: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_William_Miller
So nice to see Spain lose, Brazil played much more exciting football this tornament. Would Spain have been able to win if they had scored that pen?
Must say I was beginning to think tika-taka was going to dominate football for the foreseeable future, but with Bayern beating Barcelona and Brazil beating Spain, there's a chink of light for other types of football. Tika-taka may be highly impressive, but at its worst, i.e. passing around at the back and midfield with endless patience and no pace, it is for the pleasure of the football purist and the home fans alone. Brazil showed that by pressing Spain intelligently and fairly high, they could unsettle even such technically gifted players, who felt unable to perform their usual triangle of passes up the pitch. In contrast, when in possession, Brazil varied their game from tika-taka to counter-attacking and were very entertaining about it too.
What is this Confederations Cup?? Have I missed something?? Is this what has replaced the InterToto Cup in the summer??
Yep. Saw him play for Santos far more times than I did in that tournament, so that's still my overriding opinion - of course, it depends how exactly you quantify overrated. Do I think he's overrated in the tabloid sense of sticking him among the best in the world right now? Definitely. Do I think he's overrated in the angry twitter fan "not worth 5 million let alone 50" sense? Definitely not.
Certainly do, but only because some people rate him stupidly high, and I include some commentators in that group. Getting a bit sick of every televised Brazil game becoming "the Neymar show" to be honest. What I saw yesterday was very impressive, but it could just as easily be described as "The Paulinho show" or "The David Luiz show".
Not the Fred show then? Now there's a player who couldn't be described as overrated, except by Lawrenson of course...
