rekt

What did I say - they lost their thunder. :timeout: I saw it coming, told my father "3:0 or 4:1 for Real". He laughed. Now no more. :-?

The Spaniards must have had razorblades for breakfast, that sharp they were. A deserved win. :salute: Just their pathetic intermezzi when another one of their team sank down and played the dying swan, was a bit rich at times.

Well: Heynckes - Gardiola stands 1 : 0. The old man remains to be Munich's most successful trainer.

Gotta ask the Germans here, what do you guys think about Felix Magath?


He is probably one of the most controversial managers out there, and right now I am seriously rooting for him to succeed with Fulham.

http://i58.tinypic.com/15xpn4j.gif
Sure you did.:har:

I was very surprised at how ordinary they were made to look....must be some deep rooted problem within the squad that has yet to be disclosed.

The deep rooted problem is easy to explain, I think. After they secured the league championship, with so many new records, they felt overconfident (that includes the trainer) and thought they could afford to mentally switch back a gear or two in league games to save power for the remaining counting matches: national cup and CL. Result: they lost the next league match, and the second next, and then against Real.

Switching back one gear while the competition still goes on, is like slamming in the brake while having full forward momentum. You save some fuel that way, yes, but you lose pace and said momentum. And military commanders knows that when you have the initiative and the momentum and your offensive is rolling, you just do not suddenly stop to have a break, but you run on and on as long as you can - stopping and then starting again simply does not work. With every defeat, that came unexpectedly, their psyche suffered an unsettledness. Until nothing worked together anymore.

Maybe Guardiola indeed started this downward spiral himself. After the championship, he sent a B-team into the next match, and they lost. That defeat, although "achieved" by an almost completely different team, nevertheless imapcts on the team moral and general mental atmosphere. Guardiola admitted indirectly that his team selection in that first loosing match was a mistake. One that send shockwaves even into the CL matches.

Against a team like Real, that is lethal. Top defence and a razorsharp offence running its counterattacks with a precision and speed that should turn any other team coach white with envy. Superb.

The Bavarians - I did not recognize them in yesterday's match.

German national coach Löw will have some work to do to boost the moral of the Bavarian players in his team. I do not have the Germans as one of the top favourites on my list for Brazil anymore, they have troubles since quite some matches now. They have an outside chance at best.

And two more reasons I just read in a good analysis in German newspapers: first, the unflexibility of Guardiola who never seem to have a plan B if his primary plan A does not work or is successfully "decyphred" by the opponent, he then just insists on the team realsing his masterplan better, but he does not adapt it or changes it. And second, two of the best players with record sums of money being paid for their transfer and with a huge potential in creativity and agility (two players Guardiola adamantly demanded to get when he came to Munich), have been left out of the team all too often in past weeks: Götze (from BVB Dortmund for 40 million!) and Martinez.

Guardiola is a good coach, no doubt, and for most everyday opponents his tactics are working overdoses of plowing them under. But he is niot without faults. His inability to adapt and to chnage his plans, to even develop a plan B, has already been complained about in his time in Spain. To have a plan B would mean that Guardiola's plan A did not work - and I think he takes some narcissistic offence from that. So he refuses any changes on plan A.