magnifico bilbao!!

anyone else watch their demolition of moan utd last night?
was enjoying at first, simply because they were beating them, but by the end i was just purring over their performance.
should have had 6 ,but llorente's 20 yard volley from a50 metre cross field pass was sublime.
the 2 full backs Iraola and aurtenetxe (who's only 20) were awesome whilst martinez (23) who was nominally a center back but who also found time to play like a marauding toure type midfielder
they swarmed all over moan u, swamping them with challenges, a bit like barca do. the usual superb passing and techincal skills and some brilliant bits of skill, as we've come to expect from la liga sides .
if they can keep hold of those players they may well be able to challenge the big 2 next season. hope to god that channel 5 are able to show them in the next round coz they are a treat to watch

Fantastic performance. Frightening to see how way ahead of the English Premier they are. When you see the tv pundits here saying how great Scholes and Giggs are for playing at their age in 'the best League in the world', then you see Giggs looking some some old Grandad in a game down at the local park, barely able to keep up with the pace until eventually subbed you realise how far the game has fallen here. Bilbao could almost have played in Barca shirts and you'd not notice.

Didnt see much of last nights game Forza, but saw most of the first leg and about 20 minutes last night.

Bilbao looked a much better side than their league position, maybe with having so many young players they struggle with a bit of inconsistency or make the odd daft mistake.

If I remember rightly though Martinez was/is a midfielder highly rated as a good passer of the ball. He's been moved into defence by their new manager to give a deeper passing base - similarly to Busquets and Mascherano at Barca when they're played at CB.

But we are the best league in the world and Man United are sitting at the top of it. its simpley not fair cos we gave the world footie

I watched both the home and away legs of this tie and was mightily impressed with Bilbao.They totally outplayed United and swarmed all over them with speed,skill and lots of passion.The aggregate score flattered United.

I also knew there would be a few people who took delight in watching Man U getting their ar$es handed to them but i take a different view.It makes me sad to watch a team currently lying 7th in La Liga totally take apart our current champions,as it shows how far behind the rest of Europe we are and seemingly getting further.

When Man U got ripped apart by Barca in the final,Fergie admitted that we couldn't live with them and set about bringing younger players into his squad.Last night, those youngsters like Smalling,Cleverley,Young and Wellbeck were so far behind the Spaniards as to be embarrassing.

The coaching of young players in this country is a joke.The F.A. and the Premier league just keep banging on about how good the standard is in this country,when it is anything but.Man City also went out last night to a mediocre Sporting Lisbon,who are not even in the top four in an average Portuguese league.

Chelsea just managed to scrape through in the CL and the two Manchester clubs never even made it out the group stages.Man U couldn't beat Basel,a team who were smashed 7-0 by Bayern the other night.Let's not forget either how much better the Dutch were at Wembley recently.

When France won theEuros and the World Cup,there was yet another round of hot air from the powers that be in our game stating that we needed to follow their example in bringing players through from an early age.Of course this all takes time and money and again nothing was done as usual.

All the while,those perennial underachievers Spain,invested money in coaching and are now making us look not just second rate,but third.

Someone posted an article on here a while back about the parlous state of coaching in this country and the fact that despite having the largest number of professional players,we have by far the least amount of qualified coaches.The powers that be ought to be ashamed.Our game is awash with money.

It doesn't matter as we have the "best league in the world" and the most expensive flagship national stadium for the national team to parade their poor first touch and vision in.

Bilbao were good though,weren't they?

Quoted from ginnywings

I watched both the home and away legs of this tie and was mightily impressed with Bilbao.They totally outplayed United and swarmed all over them with speed,skill and lots of passion.The aggregate score flattered United.

I also knew there would be a few people who took delight in watching Man U getting their ar$es handed to them but i take a different view.It makes me sad to watch a team currently lying 7th in La Liga totally take apart our current champions,as it shows how far behind the rest of Europe we are and seemingly getting further.

When Man U got ripped apart by Barca in the final,Fergie admitted that we couldn't live with them and set about bringing younger players into his squad.Last night, those youngsters like Smalling,Cleverley,Young and Wellbeck were so far behind the Spaniards as to be embarrassing.

The coaching of young players in this country is a joke.The F.A. and the Premier league just keep banging on about how good the standard is in this country,when it is anything but.Man City also went out last night to a mediocre Sporting Lisbon,who are not even in the top four in an average Portuguese league.

Chelsea just managed to scrape through in the CL and the two Manchester clubs never even made it out the group stages.Man U couldn't beat Basel,a team who were smashed 7-0 by Bayern the other night.Let's not forget either how much better the Dutch were at Wembley recently.

When France won theEuros and the World Cup,there was yet another round of hot air from the powers that be in our game stating that we needed to follow their example in bringing players through from an early age.Of course this all takes time and money and again nothing was done as usual.

All the while,those perennial underachievers Spain,invested money in coaching and are now making us look not just second rate,but third.

Someone posted an article on here a while back about the parlous state of coaching in this country and the fact that despite having the largest number of professional players,we have by far the least amount of qualified coaches.The powers that be ought to be ashamed.Our game is awash with money.

It doesn't matter as we have the "best league in the world" and the most expensive flagship national stadium for the national team to parade their poor first touch and vision in.

Bilbao were good though,weren't they?

couldn't agree with you more ginny, although i take huge delight whenever our premiership teams are beaten or out played by these inferior johnny foreigner teams. the delight is listening to these myopic,xenophobic commentators and experts having to admit through clenched teeth that these little foreign teams are superior to their premiership darlings.
btw biggles bielsa only took over in the summer so they had a slow start as it took time for them to get to his preferred levels of fitness and for him to get them playing exactly the way he wanted. bielsa is avery interesting character

http://www.independent.co.uk/s.....madness-7544610.html

Bilbao played brilliantly over the two legs, but United struggled because no team domestically attacks them like that. Bilbao's work rate was incredible, they gave United no time on the ball and United's defence couldn't handle the pressure. I've seen no other team close down the opposition in their own box like Bilbao did. Used the ball cleverly as well.

Inconsistent team though. Only 7th domestically, and only been able to string together 2 consecutive wins in the league twice so far.

Quoted from codhead91

Bilbao played brilliantly over the two legs, but United struggled because no team domestically attacks them like that. Bilbao's work rate was incredible, they gave United no time on the ball and United's defence couldn't handle the pressure. I've seen no other team close down the opposition in their own box like Bilbao did. Used the ball cleverly as well.

Inconsistent team though. Only 7th domestically, and only been able to string together 2 consecutive wins in the league twice so far.

you've not watched barca over the last couple of years then??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYnYwMocQ2w

just one other thing to add -  the reason we were soooo good at cambridge was that we played a similar type of game (albeit at a much lower level)

Quoted from forza ivano

you've not watched barca over the last couple of years then??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYnYwMocQ2w

There was a point in the game last night when Bilbao had 3 players pressing United in their box. Never seen Barca press to that extent.

Bilbao's team consists of 28 spanish players and one Venezuelan but he was brought up within the Basque area of Spain, this is what I find most interesting about Athletic Bilbao.

Quoted Text

Athletic Bilbao

The club is known for its cantera policy of bringing young Basque players through the ranks, as well as recruiting top Basque players from other clubs (like Joseba Etxeberria or Javi Martínez).

Athletic official policy is signing professional players native to the greater Basque Country, including Biscay, Guipúzcoa, Álava and Navarre (in Spain); and Labourd, Soule and Lower Navarre (in France). Still, in recent times, this policy has been somewhat relaxed and players with direct Basque ancestry or with no Basque ancestry but formed in Basque clubs have played for the team.

This has gained Athletic both admirers and critics. The club has been praised for promoting home grown players and club loyalty.

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletic_Bilbao]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletic_Bilbao[/url]
[img]http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/4628/bilbaok.jpg[/img]

Anyone who watched a lot of the last World Cup will remember that that is exactly how Bielsa had his Chile team playing. Albeit probably not with as much quality in every position. Same quick, pressing, attacking style. Probably the most entertaining team to watch at the last world cup.

Quoted from 470

Bilbao's team consists of 28 spanish players and one Venezuelan but he was brought up within the Basque area of Spain, this is what I find most interesting about Athletic Bilbao.
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletic_Bilbao]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletic_Bilbao[/url]
[img]http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/4628/bilbaok.jpg[/img]

Perhaps Town should insist only players brought up in Lincolnshire can play for GTFC. Can't do much worse than what we have at present.

Quoted from NorthLeedsMariner

Perhaps Town should insist only players brought up in Lincolnshire can play for GTFC. Can't do much worse than what we have at present.

would that mean we'd have to re-sign danny north and peter bore???

More teams should start using the Barca/Bilbao style in the way that they press. That is what the difference was yesterday. United couldn't handle being forced to play the ball around quickly because in the Premiership, they're so used to being allowed to keep the ball and move it around at will.

Quoted from forza ivano

hope to god that channel 5 are able to show them in the next round coz they are a treat to watch

I think Channel 5 get first pick of the ties so you'd hope they'd go with Bilbao. Unless the controller's a big Metalist Kharkiv fan!

We are miles behind, simple as. The 'experts' in this country won't admit it and the prima Donna league won't admit it either. The clubs and pundits are just burying their heads in the sand and not waking up to the fact the standard of playing and coaching is poor in this country...

If you speak to people in the game they'll tell you, too many coaches with mediocre coaching badges are involved and too many young kids in this country get a sniff of interest from a pro club and think theyve made it and they just toss it off and assume that's them made...

Bilbao proved that a team that is miles away from their top teams in their country are better than the apparent best team in England.
The fact is, if you take away liverpools European success and the few trophies manure have won in Europe It doesn't equate to many. We've hardly been consistent regarding success in Europe unlike European teams. I think it sums up an English mentality too, finishing second/third/fourth is hailed a success which it isn't...spurs prove that theory too.

Quoted from forza ivano

anyone else watch their demolition of moan utd last night?
was enjoying at first, simply because they were beating them, but by the end i was just purring over their performance.
should have had 6 ,but llorente's 20 yard volley from a50 metre cross field pass was sublime.
the 2 full backs Iraola and aurtenetxe (who's only 20) were awesome whilst martinez (23) who was nominally a center back but who also found time to play like a marauding toure type midfielder
they swarmed all over moan u, swamping them with challenges, a bit like barca do. the usual superb passing and techincal skills and some brilliant bits of skill, as we've come to expect from la liga sides .
if they can keep hold of those players they may well be able to challenge the big 2 next season. hope to god that channel 5 are able to show them in the next round coz they are a treat to watch

great win and even more so when you consider most of their players come from a radius roughly the size of Wales.Just shows what you can do if good foundations are in place

Quoted from aldi_01

...if you take away liverpools European success and the few trophies manure have won in Europe It doesn't equate to many.

Could you not do the same with Real Madrid and Barcelona?

Bilbao are now my second team,

Behind Town.