Football

I bring you the Barcelona drama!!! Get in.

The deal will see the DR Congo tourism board promote the country on the sleeve of Barcelona’s shirt, with the slogan ‘RD Congo – Coeur d’Afrique’ [DR Congo – Heart of Africa]. It follows on from similar campaigns by Rwanda and Bostwana in recent years looking to sponsor football teams, while AS Monaco and AC Milan have signed similar agreements with DR Congo.

Meanwhile Swedish Government Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade of Sweden, Benjamin Dousa, has spoken about the matter, as one of the sides that sends aid to DR Congo.

“I want to emphasize that not a single Swedish cent should be spent on these priorities. Our aid goes toward food packages, vaccines, and books. We hope that Swedish money won’t be used to pay for priorities like the partnership with Barcelona,” Dousa was quoted by Diario AS.

Ivan Rakitic has been forced to issue an apology to Juventus fans after he accidentally used an insulting chant against them when celebrating Luka Modric’s move to Milan.

Croatia international Rakitic retired in July after a career spent with FC Basel, Schalke 04, Sevilla, Barcelona, Al-Shabab and Hajduk Split.

He is good friends with fellow Croatian Modric and posted on Instagram to celebrate this new experience of joining Milan as a free agent.

I posted this a while back. Things have changed since.

Defense:

Kiko (rb), Bailly (cb), Albiol (cb) all left. I had assumed atleast one or even 2 of them might stay. Meanwhile Logan Costa has a long term injury now.

Now long term target Rafa Marin has been bought in on loan but who knows what his level will be after not playing for a year.

• Zeze was being targeted at cb but he's gone to Saudi. Would've loved to see this move.

• Theres talks of Dissasi being signed/ loaned but Chelsea are tough negotiators.

• Loic Bade rumor strikes me as untrue. Also quite expensive.

• Djiku and Toloi look like they might be options, if wither of those happen I will be disgusted.

• Noone being tracked at rb at all?? Molina has been mentioned but not very serious runors.

• There's an 8m buyback on Ratiu. Amazing right back, I wish they just go for him atleast. THE TEAM HASBNO RIGHT BACKS. If you play Foyth as rb you have no cb. Navaro is a decent backup rb from the academy.

Midfield:

• Lost Baena, bound to happen.
• Signed Moleiro, expected that too. Love him.
• Buchanan is a waste of money.
• Thiago Fernandez is expected to join in the winter (when the Argentine league ends), highly rated Argentinean attacking mid.

Attack:

• Lost Barry for very little money. Bad move.
• Targeted Franjo Ivanovich and he goes to Portugal.
• Looking at Matias Fernandez of Lille but they lost Jonathon David and are looking to sell Zhergova so won't wanna sell him.
• Kalimuendo is another player being looked at. I like him and hope it happens.

Overall:

Some weak depth imo. Honestly still need like 5 more signings, 3 in defense and 2 in attack. Its still possible a player or two leaves anyways.

Need to get down to business.

This is pure speculation. I have no good reason to believe this. Xabi did not play this way in the CWC. OK there was one game where he used 3 men up front instead of his usual 2. But that game crucially had fede play rb.

To clarify, what xabi will do noone knows. My initial assumption was he would adapt to Madrid and the teams squad depth and be the club man as Carlo was. Shockingly (to me at the very least) he has been strong willed.

In the CWC we saw several experimental shapesbin different situations. A back 3 when the opposition pressed with 2 forwards at, a back 2 when they used 1. Even a back 3 with 1 presser at times. So it's unclear what his plan is exactly, or if there is 1 grand plan at all.

But it appears more and more likely that it will be a back 3 with Tchoumeni having a situational role.

Now why do I introduce a front 3 as an option?

The reason, simply put, is TAA. Madrid build from the left, long have, even as our personnel has evolved oue left bias has remained. From the days of kroos, ronaldo, benzema, Marcelo and Ramos to now part of it is the fact that players like vini and other overlappers in this incredible transitioned team picked up automatons of the past team.

Now at present Trent is the most clinical player in the squad with his distribution, whether that ve crosses from out wide or throughballs and passes from the half spaces.

So why have would you want to have him stuck and isolated on the right hand side when the team has possession, his ideal position in these situations would be in the kroos area ofc, but that is impracrical for a right back, but what is practical is inverting into one of the midfield zones. This allows him more touches on the ball, puts him closer to the action and allows a better passing range for him to exploit. It also means he doesn't have to dribble past defenders and doesn't need to be involved in 1v1s.

But what does the team lose? A man out wide, a player to provide width to the team. Now to accommodate for that you play a winger instead of forcing a midfielder to move wide. Luckily Rodrygo is right footed, has the ability to take his man 1v1 and can link up with the team from this position.

Ofcourse this also implies he doesn't leave this window and I never saw that happening anyways.

Ofcourse we could just see the same 3-5-2 setup with brahim (my pick), camavinga or even rodrygo directly replacing Jude. But that would leave the midfield in a very weak spot. None of these players can provide everything that Jude did. Especially with guler in midfield, 2 players with little defensive physicality would be suicidal.

[FC Barcelona] First-team player Marc ter Stegen has successfully undergone further surgery for his lower back problems. He is unavailable for selection, and his recovery will determine when he can return

Non-paywalled link: https://archive.is/6Tjhv

What I always wanted. Inspired by crickets drs system.

Each coach will have two requests per match. If the request is correct, the coach will retain the right to make another appeal.