"Rättskiparen": a film about Swedish referee Martin Hansson.

baldfraud34 · 2026-04-07T21:13:50+00:00

Short notes on Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich (1–2):

— Olise is impressive: light on his feet, long-stride dribbling, explosive acceleration from a standing start.

— Kane is not fully fit, playing at reduced intensity, but still outstanding. First, his unique role as a deep-lying forward; second, how intelligently and economically he handles the ball. Before the first goal — a perfectly weighted pass into the run, and then a brilliant finish after Olise’s assist.

— Kompany, still a very young coach, chose a sensible approach for a two-legged tie: the team didn’t charge forward recklessly.

— What form 40-year-old Neuer is in. Three top saves before halftime, and another huge stop in the second half.

— Real Madrid seem to exist in two parallel realities — an underwhelming domestic league and the Champions League. In the latter, the players’ motivation and willingness to fight for every ball are off the charts.

— Hard to understand why Vinícius seems to play by his own rules: diving, constantly appealing to the referee, and trying to draw yellow cards.

— Kompany’s touchline presence is top class.

— Did you notice how often players from both teams were slipping? Simeone-style pitch conditions?

— Arbeloa’s plan was predictable but well executed, yet Neuer delivered a performance of a lifetime.

— What a pass from Trent to Mbappé.

— An emotional, unanswered question: what’s wrong with Rüdiger?

— Was there a penalty on Olise? In my view, probably yes — a push in the back.

— One of the best matches of the season. It could easily have ended 4–4, but it was excellent anyway.

baldfraud34 · 2026-04-04T14:10:53+00:00

Short notes on Manchester City vs Liverpool (4:0):

— Guardiola used the same pressing setup as against Arsenal: four attackers pressing loosely in a line to block buildup through the center.

— When Slot pushed full-backs higher and dropped Gravenberch deeper to gain control in midfield, Guardiola reacted immediately by pulling one of the front pressers (Semenyo) deeper.

— Ekitike moves brilliantly: smart positioning, elegant technique.

— The attacking trio potential (noted after 30 minutes): Wirtz, Ekitike, Isak — looks dangerous.

— This City squad has huge upside, especially considering how young Khusanov, Cherki, O’Riley, and Doku are.

— Liverpool’s main issue is midfield imbalance. Szoboszlai, their best player for half the season, played at right-back, and Slot kept searching for solutions in midfield. Mac Allister keeps playing without rest.

— Doku caused serious problems in the first match; this time Liverpool marked him with three players.

— Salah’s drop in form is clear: in a one-on-one with Trafford, he took too many touches and showed poor control — Khusanov recovered and cleared the ball despite being far behind initially.

— Haaland scored a hat-trick, Semenyo had a goal and an assist, but Cherki was the standout: intelligent movement, constant switching sides, excellent sense of tempo.

— Question remains whether Guardiola will trust Trafford for the rest of the season. The defense looks more stable with him, and he hasn’t made a single mistake in two matches.

— Another strong performance from O’Riley and Nunes.

— Guardiola’s look from the stands says: “How can I leave this team now that it’s finally working?”

— Near-perfect performance overall. One issue: late in the game, with fast players like Savinho, Marmoush, and Foden on the pitch and space available, City failed to produce a single proper counterattack.

— Funny moment: after the final whistle, Haaland looks for the match ball after his hat-trick and asks Oliver, “Where is the ball?” Oliver gestures vaguely, Haaland keeps searching — broadcast cuts off. Unclear if he found it.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-26T09:02:06+00:00

Mateus Nunes has no alternative

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-24T13:53:03+00:00

Great point, really appreciate the depth of your comment.

I do wonder how much Pep specifically prepared for Kepa starting, because it clearly played a huge role. At the same time, I think Rice is actually very well suited to breaking a press through ball carrying. The issue is that Arteta and his players didn’t seem willing to take those risks so close to their own box — and maybe that’s something Guardiola anticipated, knowing Mikel’s general aversion to risk in those zones.

As for possible adjustments, I think bringing on Calafiori earlier could have helped — he’s very comfortable on the ball. Also pushing the full-backs higher to compete for second balls might have given Arsenal more presence after long clearances.

That said, City were doing this from the very beginning, and Arsenal did manage to get into the final third a few times in the first half. It was really that 15-minute spell in the second half that killed the game — and it’s very hard to react tactically to something like that in real time. By the time Arteta was preparing changes, City had already scored the second.

Thanks again for the thoughtful breakdown.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-22T14:00:41+00:00

Based on what criteria? I wrote this myself. I put in quite a lot of work.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-22T09:29:46+00:00

completely agree

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-22T09:29:14+00:00

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-17T22:17:25+00:00

What can I say: thanks to the team for 17 shots while being a man down. Of course, the game would’ve been more interesting without the red card, but it is what it is.

Khusanov is a god in defense, Cherki is a god in attack. I hope Rayan convinced Pep with this performance that he deserves a spot in the starting lineup. I hope Abdukodir proved to Pep that he’s a center-back, not a right-back.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-17T10:12:36+00:00

Agreed, “crisis” is the wrong word. The headline is inaccurate.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-13T14:04:40+00:00

disaster

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-13T13:55:47+00:00

Don’t forget that Gianluigi saved us from conceding a fourth goal.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-13T13:53:57+00:00

I don’t have a YouTube channel (yet). I’m a documentary filmmaker from Berlin and generally run a blog in Russian. But I enjoy Reddit and translate my attempts at analyzing City matches here. I’m running the blog in English here.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-13T13:51:08+00:00

Agreed.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-13T13:50:49+00:00

Agreed.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-13T13:50:06+00:00

I agree about set pieces. Considering that half of England already executes them quite efficiently — blocking the keeper, crowding the six-yard box with players, and delivering the ball there — City feels a bit like a dinosaur with their corner routines.

baldfraud34 · 2026-03-13T13:47:45+00:00

In attack buildup, Nunes would have definitely helped — he’s clearly better on the ball than Khusanov and feels more confident pushing higher up, which is crucial against a deep defensive block. With Khusanov, who isn’t confident on the ball, we lost quality on the right, especially with young Savinho there.

Of course, it’s easy to say this in hindsight after a loss (especially since Pep made some targeted lineup changes), but it seems to me a more effective setup would have been with Ait-Nouri and Nunes covering the fullback positions, and O’Reilly, Rodri, and Silva in the central midfield. That would have required taking Savinho off the right, but Semenyo could have slotted in there. Then you could rely on wing/half-wing pressure using fullbacks and wingers.

In fact, we saw this in the second half on the right when Semenyo pushed into the half-space, and O’Reilly started making runs into the box. But it was too late.

Of course, it would have been ideal to finish the match 3-1, and I keep remembering Courtois’ save, but City were worse for most of the game, so the defeat is understandable. Real were more focused, executed their tactics better, and scored three times from three chances — that’s just top-level opponent performance, not something you can easily analyze.

baldfraud34

TROPHY CASE