Our football for the entire 07/08 European campaign was essentially defensive and cagey.
FC Barcelona in 2007/08 season....
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
From what I remember :
- Eto'o was hurt for half the season.
- Ronaldinho and Deco went full party mode. Dinho didn't play since the month of March and was already announced to Milan and Deco had a lot of muscular injuries due to a terrible lifestyle.
- I think players in defense like Marquez was a joke.
- People started to say that Xavi wasn't all that.
- Thuram and Zambrotta were mega done.
- The Henry transfer was not needed and actually I think Wenger knew his best years were past him (even though he had a good last dance in the 2009 season).
- Rijkaard wasn't a tactical astute (or more like a one trick pony) but more of "big brother" type of coach and he lost the dressing room and I think his very important assistant Ten Cate went to Ajax.
- Iniesta, Messi and Yaya were the only bright spots this season (and the one before).
- Barcelona went to UCL semis by hardly beating Celtic Glasgow and Schalke 04 (who miraculously eliminated Porto thanks to Neuer channeling his inner Genzo Wakabayashi against Porto in round of 16).
- Eto'o was hurt for half the season.
- Ronaldinho and Deco went full party mode. Dinho didn't play since the month of March and was already announced to Milan and Deco had a lot of muscular injuries due to a terrible lifestyle.
- I think players in defense like Marquez was a joke.
- People started to say that Xavi wasn't all that.
- Thuram and Zambrotta were mega done.
- The Henry transfer was not needed and actually I think Wenger knew his best years were past him (even though he had a good last dance in the 2009 season).
- Rijkaard wasn't a tactical astute (or more like a one trick pony) but more of "big brother" type of coach and he lost the dressing room and I think his very important assistant Ten Cate went to Ajax.
- Iniesta, Messi and Yaya were the only bright spots this season (and the one before).
- Barcelona went to UCL semis by hardly beating Celtic Glasgow and Schalke 04 (who miraculously eliminated Porto thanks to Neuer channeling his inner Genzo Wakabayashi against Porto in round of 16).
Guardiola said himself Rafa Marquez was not only the best defender he ever trained and he is probably one of the best defenders ever in the sport.
I like Rafa Marquez. It's just that he was not very good during the end of Rijkaard era from what I remember. Like we all know Xavi is one of the best ever, but people after 2 poor seasons in 2008 people were doubting.
Anyway let's be clear all the players I talked about are some of the greatest player ever. It's just what I remember what I felt or people were saying at that time.
Ah memories of Neuer deciding to be a brick wall against Porto. Remember watching that match with friends and being in awe of how he saved everything thrown at him.
Also surprised Quaresma didn’t take a penalty in the shoutout
Also surprised Quaresma didn’t take a penalty in the shoutout
From memory he was pretty influential around 2003/04 but didn't kick on in the years since to become the world class midfield maestro he's now known as. Having a superb euro 2008 really improved his mentality and then Guardiola coming in was exactly the manager he needed.
I always think Xavi's career was like Pirlos. People think they were putting in world class seasons from their early 20s but really it was later in their career when everything came together and winning an international trophy helped things along.
Every single Porto fan is still traumatized over that Neuer performance, that's how good he was.
Add Messi's injuries
In the second leg, everytime Messi had the ball I was shitting myself. Solid defensive work bailed us out.Really? Why did it feel like I was sitting on pins the entire game
Yes it's true that at that time he was heavily injury prone and it was really a main concern. It's funny how 10 years later we don't talk about it anymore but the slightest tackle where Messi was holding his leg, Barca fans were on life support.
I think Quaresma thought he could be the 5th penalty taker and "saviour" like Cristiano.
I remember also thinking Tarik Sektioui (who scored a great goal against Marseille IIRC) was wasteful that game. He did like 3 differents header, and 2 just on Neuer that made him look "great" (a striker like let's say Trezeguet would have buried them easily) and then actually one where Neuer did an improbable manga goalkeeping mawashi geri kick.
Then there was the luck of the goalkeeper where Neuer did an atrocious tackle that went straight to a Porto player (Sektioui again ??) only for the ball to hit him abruptly and going straight out of bound
That's some of those weird game (as a neutral) that will forever live in my memory
Thank you for saying that.
Xavi started nicely and was a good player then when Rijkaard came in like you said he became pretty influential but I remember people still rated Deco more (and actually he was arguably a top 5 midfielder in the world around this time). He was hurt for most of the 2006 season, wasn't very good during 2 seasons then there's the 2008 summer and you just explained the whole process.
Just like people like to act like Pirlo was some uncontestable top level midfielder 15 years straight (he's one of the greatest of all time but his time in Milan had clearly ups and down from what I remember).
I guess that's just people and somewhat memory revisionism when the results/outcomes are set and done. In 2020, not a lot of people (and their ego) want to be remembered to have say that Xavi wasn't a world class midfield
