Two years ago, Barcelona were competing to be the greatest club team of all time. Cruel fate’s intervention means they have been forced to seek a new direction. …Gerardo Martino, a coach whose experience of European football extends to a single season spent as a player at Tenerife over two decades ago, has been given […]
Tag Archives: Barcelona
How ‘Tata’ Martino sees football
Playing spectacular football and valuing the importance of the players themselves are key aspects of the new Barça manager’s mind-set Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino has imposed a very specific style of football in Argentina and Paraguay, the only two countries where he has managed until now. Here we present a series of quotes from interviews in the […]
Barcelona coach Martino’s ideology shaped by Old Boys’ network
… Newell’s had won the Apertura championship in 1990-91, playing brilliant, vibrant football but, exhausted, they had stuttered badly in the Clausurachampionship and were even worse in the Apertura in 1991-92. In the whole of 1991 they had won only nine of 38 league games. The Clausura had, at least, begun with a 2-0 win over Quilmes but the humiliation against San […]
Football and the obsession with attacking
Whether a team leads the hunt for trophies or languishes at the foot of the league table, it seems as though every club has come to demand an attractive brand of football from their coaches and players. Is it feasible? Well not always, yet despite living in a result-oriented age where even the slightest […]
Guardiola attacks Barcelona to hide Thiago’s signing ?
Read a summary of how Barca supporter Francesc Tomas feels about the recent war of words between Pep Guardiola and FC Barcelona. . …In what many initially considered a surprising move, he decided to join the Bundesliga champions at the Allianz Arena. Recently, Bayern Munich directors Hoeness and Rummenigge explained that their first contact with Guardiola took […]
The Unknown Transfer Targets – Who are they?
Thanks to the newspapers, TV channels and countless websites, we have all been kept updated on the major transfers and (mostly) rumours of the summer transfer window. Superstars such as Falcao, Neymar, Suarez, Rooney, Gotze and Cavani have captured our attention over the past few weeks and, in some cases, even months. There is […]
Neymar cost 57 million euros
FC Barcelona vice-presidnet Josep Maria Bartomeu reveals financial details of the deal between Barça and Santos for Neymar, who now has a buyout clause of 190 million euros Zubizarreta, who admits the Club received a scouting report on Neymar in 2011, is clear that “we will experience many magical nights of football at the Camp […]
Thoughts on the Premiership and La Liga
About the author: Back Of The Net is a newly set up by an aspiring football writer Josh Lawless. The Blog is a source where I will be unravelling my views on the latest topics in the beautiful game as well as submitting articles such as scout reports, match reports, statisicial articles, tactics, previews and much more! […]
Has Messi’s Goal-Scoring Obsession Hurt Rather Than Helped?
It was the cruelest of blows. Lionel Messi’s recent muscle injury has left Barcelona hamstrung at the worst possible time and seemingly contributed to the Catalans downfall in the Champions League semi-finals after a half-fit Leo failed to help his team in the Blaugrana’s brutal battering at Bayern Munich on Tuesday night. It looked like extremely […]
Dante confident about Bayern Munich’s chances against Barcelona
…Dante’s team had just won the Bundesliga title with six games to spare but celebrations were disappointingly muted. With the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Juventus three days away, the club had decided this was not the time for festivities. Ritual Bavarian “beer showers” and the donning of naff T-shirts were ruled out. However, Dante, […]
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