Frank Rijkaard - Rafael Benitez of Spain?

There are too many similarities with the men in charge of Liverpool and Barcelona. Both have been able to taste the success of Champions League, were very successful in Spain and both are also placed in the elite group of Managers. But is that all which unites them? Not at all! Both of them head a bunch of highly talented players available in Europe. Both of them have a highly functional brain, which works overtime to find the most stupid solutions for the most simplest of problems. They both have an addiction to the concept called "Rotation Policy", which both claims are due to their "Problem of Plenty".

Benitez was able to convince me much early that he is a "Masterpiece in Operation". But with the last Saturday’s stunning blunders Rijkaard gave me the pleasure to announce that he is not afraid of any Benitez. Actually he showed us that he can get better of Benitez. Benitez has got lost in the EPL title race much faster than the Concord, at least at this moment he can only try to get back to Champions League contention. But Rijkaard's case is much different. After Christmas even the most optimistic Barcelona supporter had serious doubt about our title contention. Then with huge piece of luck at Sevilla and Zaragoza, combined with Madrid's problem while traveling, we were able to crawl back to contention. The only thing he needed to do was to continue with his best side and make sure that the title can be settled at the worst at Barnebeu. But then Rijkaard is following a quest to stupidity, you can't stop him. He decided to use Eto in the right, Ronaldinho (he is coming back to form) in the centre. He decided to rest Yaya as the season will be very busy. These all were done to surprise Athletico Madrid at their home, the result - Barcelona surprised themselves. Edmilson made a mockery of himself in Yaya's shoes, Ronaldinho apart from that great goal looked totally confused - he was desperately trying to feed Eto, but according to formation it was Eto who was supposed to feed him and Iniesta and Xavi had no idea to whom they should pass. In all these turmoil happening ahead of them the defense lost it completely and conceded four stupid goals to say. The most ironic fact is that Athletico, who started the game totally confused, looked the brighter of the two sides.

What makes Rijkaard a much more stupid is the fact that he decided to experiment at the most critical juncture of the season. We need to win at Valencia and have to be on our toes to prevent Madrid from repeating last season success. It would have been great for the team to go to Valencia with a good result in their bag, but instead their defense now has conceded four in a tough away match. The core to Rijkaard's problem for me lies in an apparent disrespect for his opponents. He would have never tried these things against Madrid, Chelsea etc. Athletico has always a difficult ground for Barcelona to travel and I thought with his strategy - Rijkaard was trying to say that "Without Torres, Athletico is a piece of Cake". Funny that Aguera just showed him the size of the piece he was trying to mouth. Hope sense prevails him and he takes some sensible actions.

Always remember “Arrogance diminishes wisdom”.

Awaited Disaster; Athletico-4, Barcelona-2

Last time when Barcelona visited Athletico, they thrashed the host by a whooping six goals. How ironic was the fact that yesterday's match also produced six goals; more ironic would be that Barcelona found at the receiving end of four of them. Athletico has done their city rivals a big favour by extending their lead to five points. The entire match was a case of Barcelona surprising themselves with the stupid rotation policy, anyway i will come back to that later. Barcelona started the match with Eto on the right, Ronnie on centre and Henry on left. Edmillson miserably tried to fill in the foot of Yaya.

Barcelona started the game as clear favourite, they were in total control and Athletico looked like a completely confused outfit. They controlled the first hjalf but could not create any clear chances. Eto found the net after ten minutes only to be judged offside. There was no understanding between the forwards and it was majorly due to the facts that Eto was playing out of his position. It took an unbelievable effort from Ronaldinho to break the deadlock. In the 29th minute Ronaldinho produced a beauty of an overhead kick from a Xavi cross to take Barcelona into the lead. Athletico could not mustrer a decent effort in reply of this till a harmless Aguera shot which would have gone wide was deflected into the goal by Puyol. That was the stroke of luck Athletico needed. Then in the 42nd minute Aguera produced a good ball to Maxi past Abidal and Milito, which Maxi put into the far corner to take the lead. Victor Valdes should have comfortably saved that.

The second half started with Aguera leading the Athletico charge. They should have gone 3-1 earlier but Aguera hit the sidenetting. In the 61st minute Puyol gave away a cheap penalty and Forlan took his side 3-1 up. In between Eto failed to pull one back when he failed to turn in a corner into the goal. Barcelona paid for it when Aguera curved one back past Valdes to take the lead to 4-1. Barcelona shortly pulled one back with Eto scoring after a Iniesta picking Gudjonsen's run and the rebound fell into Eto. Barcelona had chances to equalise both Gudjonsen and Eto missed on easy chances towards the end.

As I mentioned in the preview of this match, the decision to rest Yaya would be the major factor. For me that along with one more decision was responsible for the defeat. Yaya's replacement Edmilson had a crap game and that did not help, he was majorly responsible for the second goal when he failed to close in Maxi. But the major stupid decision would be using Eto at right. Rijkaard like Benitez looks like has a complete disregard to the basics of the game. Football still remains a simple game, You use specialist people at specialist position. Eto is the only centre forward in the team and not using him at his favourite position destroyed the team. That confused the entire team as Ronaldinho played a little back in the pocket for most time and Iniesta and Xavi had no idea to whom they should pass. Its time Rijkaard stop using this stupid rotation policy and stick to a tried eleven. Yaya is a must in most of important game, and the combination of forwards is simple. Eto always should start as centre forward , either henry or Ronnie plays at the left and Messi , bojan or Giovanni plays in the right.

Ronaldinho Goal

Scissors Kick Goal RONALDINHO Atlético de Madrid gol ...
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Toure Rested

Frank Rijkaard decided to rest the prolific defensive midfielder, Yaya Toure for the match against Athletico Madrid. Athletico have never been an easy place for Barcelona to travel. Eventhough their chief tormentor of previous years, Torres have left; still Athletico ia a very formidable side. This is where the decision to leave out Yaya Toure from such a crucial encounter might come back to haunt Rijkaard. After Yaya's return from the African nations cup there was a serious change in the way Barcelona played. Like many I also believe it was majorly because of the way Ronaldinho played in recent match. But Yaya's contribution to this sudden surge of form by Barcelona cannot be negated.

Gudjonsen along with ronaldinho comes back to the side. Edmilson is expected to fill in Yaya's boots ; and god forbids if he have a bad game then Forlan and Kun Agüero will take the game away from us. Real Madrid will be travelling to Recretivo and will play the game at the same time. So may be we will have a new leader by the end of the match. Rijkaard may be right in giving his players rest, rotating them; but he should also remember that all the competition are at such crucial juncture that requires you to play the best eleven. Hope Edmilson will have a great game.

Tie Tantalisingly Poised; Barcelona-1,Valencia-1

Xavi's last gasp equaliser gave Barcelona a very well deserving equaliser in the first leg of the Copa Del Rey semi final tie. Valencia went ahead against the run of play with a free flowing counter attack which was well finished by David Villa. For almost all the 90 minutes it looked like a match where Barcelona will never find a way past the Goal Keeper. But Xavi found the equaliser in the dying moments when he found the net after a wonderful run by Eto. Barcelona would have been hard done if they were to be condemned to defeat after having almost all the chances in the match. Any other season Valencia escaping from Nou Camp with a away goal would mean the end of the story for Barcelona, but then this season Valencia is nowhere near the best and the way they played at Nou Camp gives ample hope for Barcelona to beat them at Valencia.

The match began in the expected fashion with Barcelona having a tremendous triple chance in the seventh minute. He denied Xavi from a close range, the rebound was struck fiercely by Eto at the defense and Lionel Messi effort from the resulting rebound was chested away. Soon Joaquin's goal was disallowed for offside. In the 15th minute Milito saw his shot go high after a wonderful free kick from Deco. In the 28th minute Henry had a powerful shot saved by Hildebrand. Just before half time, Abidal's effort from over 25 yards was saved by Hildebrand. Hildebrand was the busiest man in the pitch and he was not going to have any reprieve in the second half also.

After the restart it was Messi who tested Hildebrand for the first time, his low shot would have found the net any day but not today. Then in the 58th minute Hildebrand denied Messi again with a wonderful save. In the 67th minute, Rijkaard opted to bring on Andres Iniesta and Bojan Krkic in place of Henry and Deco. That soon produced the result but at the wrong end. David Villa played a neat exchange before passing to Javier Arizmendi to the right; David Villa again made sure that he reached the end of Javier's excellent low cross. Barcelona then pushed forward for an equaliser. In the 81st minute Messi's another effort was saved by Hildebrand , Messi tried to be a little too smart there after his wonderful run past defenders from the left. In the end Hildebrand had all of Messi's effort under control. In the 84th minute an excellent long range effort from Milito was well saved by guess who Hildebrand. Then in the 89th minute Toure saw his wonderful curving kick from outside box parried away by Hildebrand . Then in the injury time about to finish Eto made a wonderful run in to the box (there were doubts whether he has handled the ball) his shot was blocked by Hildebrand but only to see Xavi finishing off from the rebound.

Barcelona did play well and was denied by Hildebrand for most of the time. Barcelona's defense in recent match has been caught sleeping at some times. There is no doubt that we can finish the game off at Valencia with a little more clinical finishing.

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