No Ibra but Ronaldo and Ribery r there.

[Killerbee]

I agree even I don't like him as a person. He is too arrogant and too much of attitude. He is a great player but a pathetic person.
He said in his interview yesterday that the WC will not be worth waiting for and watching as he is not there and also said that he will not watch the WC himef. That is so unsportsmanlike. I hated him anyways since he used to speak crap about Guardiola and was hungry for money.

Eh...

He clearly said that the WC is not worth watching as a joke.. His arrogant attitude is said in a sense of humor.

He is hungry for money? He talked crap about Guardiola? What nonsense is that. Did you even read his book?

If you did, you'd 100% understand why he said what he did about Guardiola. Seeing how other players and staff talk behind the scenes at Bayern now proves this. Guardiola is a nutcase who is constantly in every player's face. If it was up to him, he'd be laying in bed with players telling them how they should be having sex with their wives. He consistently made Ibra feel left out at Barca, thus making Ibra extremely insecure at that stage of his life.

People are talking as if Guardiola achieved something. That's just silly. You really think it was cause of Guardiola that Barcelona was extremely succesful during that period? Try Messi, Xavi and Iniesta maybe.

Zlatan is an amazing personality and hungry for money is a term that is as out of place as it is irrelevant to people who earn a living with it.

It is a true shame he won't be at the world cup, because even his performance against Portugal was better than Ronaldo's performance against Sweden. Sweden is a terrible terrible team with an even worse defense, whereas Portugal's assists were even better than the goals that Ronaldo made.

They should have both been there, and not countries like Greece that won't add anything to the entertainment or quality of the world cup. But they performed poorly in the qualifications, so Sweden has no right to complain and Portugal has no right to brag as they lost a ton of points against countries that don't have any players in a top team.

[Saransh Vatsa]

@Killer bee
Zlata said that "Guardiola is a spineless coward" He said that Pep was scared of him and treated him like an outsider. And that treatment was because of Ibra's own arrogant behaviour. I feel there is no difference b/w Balotelli and Ibra, except the fact that IBRA is better.
As for Guardiola's success, u got to be joking!!!! Did u just wake up in the morning and wrote this???? Coz be4 the 'Guardiola Revolution' Barca was nowhere close to what it is now. The current Barca players have themselves said that they will never be able to match up to the Barca under Guardiola. He made a strong team invincible and I bet everyone here will agree. Look at Munich now, since Pep went there their style of play has changes considerably. They r crushing all their opponents and the team is the same as last season. What is the difference? Guardiola. Bayern have the highest avg possession across all teams over all matches played in all leagues, a thing Guardiola is known for. This clearly proves Pep's effectiveness and also probes that after Sir Alex he is one of the best managers ever.
As far about Pep treating Ibra badly, why does no other Brca player ever complain or has ever complained about Guardiola's behaviour anywhere???? Why only Zlata????? One man can be wrong, not the whole world.............
I agree WC will be a bit boring without him, but speaking from the perspective of a Barca fan, if I had to choose b/w Ronaldo and IBRA for this WC, I would have chased Ronaldo.

[Saransh Vatsa]

It is a true shame he won't be at the world cup, because even his performance against Portugal was better than Ronaldo's performance against Sweden.

Are u joking??? The heat maps over both legs showed Ronaldo was far more active than Ibramovic. Ronaldo even had contributions to his own team defence while Ibra was just standing in the attacking half, marked by Pepe.

[Killerbee]

@Killer bee
Zlata said that "Guardiola is a spineless coward" He said that Pep was scared of him and treated him like an outsider. And that treatment was because of Ibra's own arrogant behaviour. I feel there is no difference b/w Balotelli and Ibra, except the fact that IBRA is better.

Eh, Balotelli is just a kid who does dumb things every now and then. Balotelli is extremely generous and his teammates always adore him for his big heart. It's only the officials and coaches who get driven crazy cause he is unpredictable and does things without thinking some times. But calling Balotelli arrogant is also silly. He's just naive and does dumb things.

Putting that aside, there is a gigantic difference between Zlatan and Balotelli. Zlatan is always extremely present in leading his team to success. Do you think it's a coincidence that Zlatan won 10 league titles in 6 different countries? He makes everyone around him play better football, you definitely can't say the same for Balotelli.

As for Guardiola's success, u got to be joking!!!! Did u just wake up in the morning and wrote this???? Coz be4 the 'Guardiola Revolution' Barca was nowhere close to what it is now. The current Barca players have themselves said that they will never be able to match up to the Barca under Guardiola. He made a strong team invincible and I bet everyone here will agree. Look at Munich now, since Pep went there their style of play has changes considerably. They r crushing all their opponents and the team is the same as last season. What is the difference? Guardiola. Bayern have the highest avg possession across all teams over all matches played in all leagues, a thing Guardiola is known for. This clearly proves Pep's effectiveness and also probes that after Sir Alex he is one of the best managers ever.

You are talking complete nonsense. I have been following Barca my entire life. I'm not sure if you just follow the hype that started, but to say that the 'revolution' had anything to do with Guardiola is complete drivel. A coach's influence is extremely overrated.
The reason that the players will never be able to match the Barca under Guardiola is the fact that Xavi is 33, Iniesta is going on 30 and the opposition has adjusted. Have you even seen the Barcelona with Ronaldinho? Messi was just a kid then and Xavi and Iniesta weren't nearly as refined then. You don't think any other coach would have led Barca to success with the top of the top players of the world?

You are clearly just a Guardiola fan based on air. Bayern is not playing ANY better than last year or even the year before that under Van Gaal. Guardiola has not proven anything at all. He has taken over as coach at Barca when Rijkaard laid down a perfect base for him to continue on and has now taken over a Bayern that has been immensely fit and good for 2-3 years. When Guardiola takes over a mediocre team and turns it into a good team, then he will earn credits and respect. Like Mourinho has done with Porto and Inter.
To even compare him to Ferguson is another weird comparison. Ferguson has built ManU up for decades from a mediocre club to an absolute top of the world club. What has Guardiola done? Get real...

As far about Pep treating Ibra badly, why does no other Brca player ever complain or has ever complained about Guardiola's behaviour anywhere???? Why only Zlata????? One man can be wrong, not the whole world.............
I agree WC will be a bit boring without him, but speaking from the perspective of a Barca fan, if I had to choose b/w Ronaldo and IBRA for this WC, I would have chased Ronaldo.

Just cause Guardiola treats one player bad, does it mean he treats them all bad? What a nonsense assumption again. It was clear from the start that Guardiola didn't like Zlatan. He didn't even talk to him at some point. Also a good coach brings out the best from DIFFERENT personalities! It's part of being a good coach.

Are u joking??? The heat maps over both legs showed Ronaldo was far more active than Ibramovic. Ronaldo even had contributions to his own team defence while Ibra was just standing in the attacking half, marked by Pepe.

Jeez.. Another nonsense comparison.. How can you be comparing the activity from a Central Striker Zlatan to Ronaldo who has a completely FREE role coming from the wings, middle or wherever he pleases?
If Zlatan leaves the Striker position, who do you think will take over? That's right, nobody. Sweden had a complete rubbish team and especially a rubbish defense. Youtube the 3 goals made by Ronaldo and see how pathetic the Swedish defense was. The Portuguese passes completely demolished the terrible Swedish defense whereas Zlatan was constantly faced with double or triple man-marking. Even so every single chance Sweden got was created by Zlatan and he even managed to score twice against all odds.

Please. Ronaldo is a fantastic player, pretty much the most effective in the world at this time. But he simply did what he HAD to do, score out of 3 one-on-one situations created by great passing and terrible Swedish defenders.

[Saransh Vatsa]

Jeez.. Another nonsense comparison.. How can you be comparing the activity from a Central Striker Zlatan to Ronaldo who has a completely FREE role coming from the wings, middle or wherever he pleases?
If Zlatan leaves the Striker position, who do you think will take over? That's right, nobody. Sweden had a complete rubbish team and especially a rubbish defense. Youtube the 3 goals made by Ronaldo and see how pathetic the Swedish defense was. The Portuguese passes completely demolished the terrible Swedish defense whereas Zlatan was constantly faced with double or triple man-marking. Even so every single chance Sweden got was created by Zlatan and he even managed to score twice against all odds.

Please. Ronaldo is a fantastic player, pretty much the most effective in the world at this time. But he simply did what he HAD to do, score out of 3 one-on-one situations created by great passing and terrible Swedish defenders.

He did score non two occasions but in the 1st leg he was never able to get over the ddouble man marking. And I agree Sweden had a rubbish defence. But why has the discussion gone to the match??? Wwe were taking about Zlatan as a person.
One last thing.As u said Sweden is a rubbish team with only Ibra then what fun wud have been there in watching a one man army take on teams like Spain and Germany????? They were not able to overcome Portugal then it wud have been a total misfit for them to play against teams like Spain as u said it were the "Potugal's passes that destroyed Sweden and when it comes to perfect passing, Spain wud have crushed them. And so wud have any team with a strong attack like Argentina.

[Saransh Vatsa]

@Kilerbee As for the Guardiola- Ibra fight, did u not read what Sir Alex said about Beckham???? That is his personal opinion. U can't term that as wrong. Someone doesn't start did liking others just like that. Zlatan's continuous arrogant behaviour caused Pep to refrain from talking to him.
And we'll, that press conference about Zlatan, he said that he won't watch the WC in a very irritated tone. That was not a joke.

[Killerbee]

He did score non two occasions but in the 1st leg he was never able to get over the ddouble man marking. And I agree Sweden had a rubbish defence. But why has the discussion gone to the match??? Wwe were taking about Zlatan as a person.
One last thing.As u said Sweden is a rubbish team with only Ibra then what fun wud have been there in watching a one man army take on teams like Spain and Germany????? They were not able to overcome Portugal then it wud have been a total misfit for them to play against teams like Spain as u said it were the "Potugal's passes that destroyed Sweden and when it comes to perfect passing, Spain wud have crushed them. And so wud have any team with a strong attack like Argentina.

The first leg can't be compared to a situation where it *has* to happen. Playing away, you can't expect a poor Swedish team to create anything whereas Portugal gets even stronger when the other team tries to attack.

Sweden is especially weak when playing with space behind their defense. But there are not that many teams who have the players to create counters out of that as Portugal did. So Zlatan could do okay as a one-man army and still create great moments and goals for us to enjoy.
Also keep in mind that there isn't only Spain and Germany at the world cup. Sweden has a good chance against:

* Algeria * Cameroon * Australia * Iran * Korea
* Ivory Coast * Ghana * Croatia * Greece * Switzerland
* Nigeria * Bosnia-Herzegovina * Costa Rica * Mexico * Honduras
* USA * Chile * Ecuador

Don't you agree?

@Kilerbee As for the Guardiola- Ibra fight, did u not read what Sir Alex said about Beckham???? That is his personal opinion. U can't term that as wrong. Someone doesn't start did liking others just like that. Zlatan's continuous arrogant behaviour caused Pep to refrain from talking to him.
And we'll, that press conference about Zlatan, he said that he won't watch the WC in a very irritated tone. That was not a joke.

Beckham was at ManU for 10 years. Ferguson worked with him for so long and they had a lot of success together. Guardiola started his behavior towards Zlatan within a month. It had *nothing* at all to do with Zlatan's behavior because Zlatan went to Barcelona and turned into a little kid, eager to learn and following whatever they told him to do. That was Zlatan's mistake. He should have stayed the same as he always was and not give a damn about what others say.

Have you seen what Guardiola did when Robben tried to take the penalty at Bayern a few weeks ago? What coach in his right mind would humiliate one of his star players like that by yelling at him that he can't take the penalty? On the pitch there are many things happening that can lead to a player taking a penalty instead of the number 1 on the list. It's up to the players and captain to decide, not up to the coach to control and humiliate players that scored the winning goal in the Champion's League final.
A good coach would let it go and talk about it after the game. Guardiola is nutcase and controlfreak who gets all his credit based on being at the right place at the right time. He has plenty to prove and if all goes well he has a lot of years left to prove it.

[Saransh Vatsa]

Have you seen what Guardiola did when Robben tried to take the penalty at Bayern a few weeks ago? What coach in his right mind would humiliate one of his star players like that by yelling at him that he can't take the penalty? On the pitch there are many things happening that can lead to a player taking a penalty instead of the number 1 on the list. It's up to the players and captain to decide, not up to the coach to control and humiliate players that scored the winning goal in the Champion's League final.

He probably did not allow Robben to take the penalty as Robben is an expert when it comes to missing them LOLs