Looks like the "random method" was leaked....But seriously, I don't want to have a lesser tie, I hope we get a good one. If it goes well, we go through and it shows we are the real deal, if we don't then we can concentrate domestically.
I wouldn't mind Real Madrid. It would show just how good we are. They come to attack and so do we, so I can see plenty of goals. It could potentially be game of the tournament. For some reason we always seem to miss them.
Yep, would take them over Barca or Bayern anyday, It's sort of a new opossistion because last time we played them it was way back in 2006. Bayern would be ****ing tedious.
its to do with the rules of who can't play who. you can't play another team from the same country at this stage, and you can't play the team who was in your group. from that they can calculate percentages. I just hope we don't get Bayern again. we always seem to get them or Barca and its seriously getting boring.
Yes but that's just the 0% equations surely. From the pot of teams we can play, surely there is equal chance of being drawn against any of them ?
Not sure why people say they want to face the "lesser" teams. It's a knockout competition so you'll face the best in the next round anyway. At least we'll see some exciting match ups early than the boring league and early rounds.
Because to have any chance of beating the likes of Bayern or Madrid we need two things . 1. A full strength side. 2. High confidence - this means a good run of form. At the moment I think we would get trounced by either of those sides. If we can keep winning, build some momentum by getting to the next stage THEN I would say we stand a chance.
i think its the way they do the draw, with about 6 balls (possible exaggeration) pulled out for each fixture. it's a stupid system, but that makes it long and drawn out, leading to longer tv showing and therefore more money for fifa.
I know we don't want it, but out of all the big teams, Bayern would be the most suitable. This will be the third time we are facing them in 3 seasons, the 2nd under Guardiola, and as Wenger has faced Guardiola before, it allows us to know their playing style quite good, thus we can adapt accordingly, basically our players and coach know what to expect from Munich, i.e. the devil you know than the devil you don't. Also at their ground we haven't done too bad, for some reason they can't get it done against us at home, and this also could be down to us using tactics accordingly....at our ground though they have beaten us twice, though the second time was in large part due to the red card, I think if there was no red card we could have won that game, but definitely don't think we would have lost. I don't think anyone has yet to rattle Munich as bad as we did in those first 20 minutes last season, we completely took it to them and they could not live with us, then they got the penalty and that f**ing red card and it was game over.
You have clearly not watched much of Bayern this season, then. They have changed things around again and Pep has brought in a few new tactical additions to an already great side. This season for example, David Alba is no longer a left back. Juan Bernat is the guy playing from that posistion, Alba basically has a sort of free role and playing this way, he tore Roma new one because nobody had a clue where he was playing and who had to pick him up. This tactic alone will confuse Wenger. Alonso has replaced Kroos, and has probably been their player of the season, he is more quicker on the ball and has got them playing at a better tempo, also defensively he is better than Kroos. Neur has taken the sweeper keeper role to a new extreme this season and continues to be the best in the world. And lastly they now have a proper CF in Robert Lewandoski. When he gets a chance he normally scores and he is also very good with the link up play. Wenger has played Chelsea and Jose a s**t load of times, he has played Man Utd loads of times, but season in season out, he makes the same tactical mistakes against these teams. Why is he going to anything different against Bayern? Pep changes stuff all the time, from game to game, half to half, the guy tactically is on a different planet to Wenger.
Oh and they also brought Mehdi Benatia and he is a significant upgrade on Dante, who we exposed at the Emirates last season.
Out of the so called big teams, Barca would be the most suitable. We need Kos, to deal with that front three, but we can hurt their piss poor defence on the counter with our pace. Alves and Pique are past it, and Puyol is retired. Xavi can no longer control a big game, so they won't have the sort of possession they had against us in the past. They still offer huge spaces for teams to counter into. And we have Ozil to find the passes that can open them up, like he did for Madrid in his final season against Barca.
I'd much rather we avoided any of those big three. I know we'll have to face top quality opposition at some stage, but I'd like to see us progress beyond the last 16 this time as a win in the next round could really fire the team up for a proper attempt at this trophy. Like in 2006, we built an almost unstoppable head of steam in the KO phases - and until the last 16mins of that final
Monaco or Porto would be my choice for the draw, then A. Madrid, Barca, Bayern, Madrid. That's purely down to how difficult I think the fixtures would be at this point in time. I think it'd be very good for the team if we managed to get further in the competition and the semi final would be a good time to play one of the very big teams. I think we need far closer to a full strength squad and some confidence before playing any of the harder fixtures. Getting past one of the smaller teams and building from there and who knows what could happen. But I think it's too soon for us as we are to play bayern on Madrid. I really hope we don't get barca or bayern though, we've played them too often in recent years. I'd rather see us against any of the other teams!
