Bielsa's probably too mainstream now for full hipster kudos. I'm switching to Zdenek Zeman.

http://backpagefootball.com/zdenek-z...ns-roma/83988/




He's described as a 'tactical fundamentalist' and chainsmokes in the dugout. Probably plays dubstep in the changing room at half time, too.

What's going on at bayern/Roma right now is bananas. 4-0 at 30'!!!!!

--

Pardon me, 5-0 at 35'

And this IN ROME.

Some crazy scores tonight. Chelsea beating Maribor 6-0, Shakhtar beating Bate 7-0 but yeah, Bayern putting 7 past Roma is the biggie.

which one did you watch? i wanted to see ajax-barcelona too but obviously i'll have to wait for the replay-- which should be up soon.

i'm starting to see guardiolo's magick finally--- the way they played the first half was a sort of hallucination.

a chelsea-bayern final would be epic in so many ways-- pep vs mourinho, a chance for a bayern revenge after 2012, schurrle vs. the rest of the german squad (ha ha), etc.

I watched Chelsea, who are looking stronger and stronger. And tonight they were even without Costa!

You're right, a Bayern - Chelsea final would be amazing.

Some great looking games tonight. Arsenal v Anderlecht, Dortmund v Galatasaray, Atletico v Malmo, Juve v Olympiakos. but Real v Liverpool looks like a must. My first proper chance to see James Rodriguez play alongside Ronaldo. Balotelli v Pepe. Already excited.

Aww man am I looking forward to the Madrid game tonight. I wanna see Ronaldo dick Lovren. Slowly at first though.

i think you missed start time. they've been playing for an hour i think (1/2 hour when you wrote). having said that, also missed the start of dortmund-galatasaray but i'm watching now (curious about madrid too but too anxious about dortmund to ignore). REUS IS PLAYING. so are hummels and subotic.

Liverpool-Real started 15 mins ago. Great game so far.

Edit: Ew. Could be a long night for Liverpool tonight.

ohhh… my listings had it starting 45 min earlier than the rest-- i'll watchit in replay. so far dortmund very good. prandelli is now coaching gala.

Watched Bayern v Roma on replay. My God. Roma weren't even that bad but Bayern looked literally unbeatable. What is their system? It's not just a repeat of Barca-style tiki taka. They seem to shift between styles at will.

If they do meet Chelsea in the final that'll be a major problem for Mourinho. He's shown he's the master at neutralising systems, but how will he counter one that seems so fluid and undefined?

I don't know how Mourinho would deal with Pep dominating him with another team.

Let's cancel all CL qualifiers, quarters and semis and jump straight to a Bayern Chelsea final. It's a game that almost needs to happen, on so many different levels ... and probably the only time I'll ever support Bayern.


Bring it (back) on

yes ha ha ha. told you it would induce altered states. roma are 2nd in serie a, only having been beaten (closely) by juventus. so that shit was totally unprecedented. i have never seen bayern play like this. i couldn't figure what was going on. i wish zonal marking was still functioning so i could read an explanation. when gervinho's goal came i could see it coming. but a lot of bayern goals i was like "huh?? was that a goal??". maybe i should go check those 442 stats & see if they can help me decipher.

https://twitter.com/Zonal_Marking/st...39090835484673

--
eta: the pass diagrams for bayern are hilarious:

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone...wrapper-anchor

I'm so lost sure glad its NFL midseason with NBA starting up next week.. I tried to watch some pf these.matches and do some reading and I just couldnt get into it.. futbol is a summer sport for me

I did see some Bayern games and yeah, those guys are playing a multisystem style seemlessly like they were the 2012 miami heat with their positionless style of play

Filthy casual.

Just started downloading the Bayern game. I'll watch in the next coupla days and give highly anticipated thoughts.

618 passes completed out of 689

689

that's almost 8 per minute of the game. but considering they had possession 66.3% of the time (59.67 minutes) that's about 12 passes (11.54) per minute they had the ball--or one every 5 seconds

1, 2, 3, 4, PASS; 1, 2, 3, 4, PASS… for one hour straight (of course, on average).

The dream

Just seen this idea. Now THIS is could get behind.

Pfft give me REAL long ball. Not of this ballet shit.

i fixed/clarified the numbers. please requote/edit

i'm just listing the number of passes because when i went to see the stats it was a solid blue with arrows. more insane was to watch them move on the pitch though. you don't need to download the whole thing, just the first 35 minutes.

i swear i did not understand what i was seeing.

Yeah, stats in this case don't say much. Bayern just clicked, massively. Maybe there was something about the way Roma set up that played into their hands but they made made a very good side look stupid. It sort of reminded me of Barca against Man U in the 2011 final.

Just listening to Michael Cox on the radio saying much the same thing about Bayern's undefinable tactics. He mentioned Holland in the 70s but wouldn't reduce it to that. Seems the consensus is that Bayern were brilliant and Pep might be the genius we all hope he is.

And if you wanna see what Michael Cox looks and sounds like ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeOi_nVxYZA

Quite fun to listen to in its own right.