Luis Suarez 9 Game International & 4 Month Football Ban

[O Fenomeno]

TBT>>>>

[O Fenomeno]

Luis Suarez is confident that everything is beginning to click into place between Barcelona’s all-star front three ahead of Sunday’sEl Clasico clash at the Camp Nou.

 

The Uruguayan had to wait until the end of October to make his debut for the Catalan club and initially seemed to struggle to build up an understanding with team-mates Lionel Messi and Neymar.

However, a few months on and the trio’s recent performances have ensured any doubts have been long forgotten with an incredible 82 goals and 47 assists between them so far this campaign.

Suarez has also been credited with helping create space for Messi to rediscover his best form of late and the former Liverpool striker unsurprisingly is loving every minute of playing with the Argentine phenomenon.

"For most people, he is the best player in the world by a long way for everything that he does on the field. He does things other players can't do," Suarez told Gol TV.

"There are times when he passes you the ball which you weren't expecting because there are so many legs in between.

"All you can do is enjoy it and take advantage of having the opportunity to play with this class of player."

Suarez was also full of praise for Neymar despite the Brazilian’s recent struggles in front of goal, insisting that the Barcelona No 11 is destined to become the world’s best.

"He will be the best player in the world because he has it all," he said. "He has a lot of quality, scores goals and is a great team-mate, which some people sometimes doubt."

Barca boss Luis Enrique as also leapt to Neymar’s defence after he missed a hatful of chances in Wednesday’s win over Manchester City.

He argued that those expecting all three of his forwards to be firing every game are watching the wrong sport and praised their contribution over the course of the season.

"I think all three have shone throughout the whole season: in goals, assists, defensive work, movement,” he added.

"It is impossible for all three to score a hat-trick every game. This is football not water polo or basketball."

 

 

From playing with fodder to playing with the elite

 

Levels

[The Infamous]

Luis Suarez's 'last resort' approach to goal lifts Barcelona to big win in Paris

Luis Suarez didn't plan to nutmeg David Luiz, not the first time and not the second time either, but that's what he did and deliberately so. From the right, from the middle and right through the middle; of the Brazilian's legs, that is. The neatest of touches and he was out on the other side, defender left behind and left looking pretty daft, too. Then came the finish: Suarez scored Barcelona's 1,000th and 1,001st goals in European football, his fifth and sixth in six Champions League games this season, to put them on course for the semifinal.

The first goal was squeezed in low, the second smashed in high, an unstoppable finish. Suarez's focus was the goal both times but to those watching at home, it was what came before that connected them, and there was something striking about what he chose to call it. Asked about the nutmegs afterwards, Suarez described them as the ultimo recurso. Not the ultimate humiliation; the ultimo recurso. Sticking the ball through a player's legs is often seen as an act of fun or frivolity, an expression of skill and superiority, like the perfect put-down. Not for Suarez. Ultimo recurso roughly translates as the "last resort."

The last resort? A nutmeg? It may appear an odd choice of words but when it comes to Suarez, it was an accurate one. The skill may be artistic -- one Catalan newspaper this morning led with the words "oh, la, la" -- but the art is not the aim. A recurso is a skill; sure, it's an impressive one but it is a solution you turn to at a given moment, not a preconceived idea you have, nor an end in itself. The ultimo recurso is something you do because you have to, when there's no other way out. Or, in this case, no other way through.

Suarez didn't plan to nutmeg David Luiz; he didn't really plan to do anything, just get there. "There" being the goal, or just the other side of the man in his way. It wasn't intended to be flash, at least in part because it wasn't intended to be anything, really, except a route towards goal. Ask Suarez how or why and he probably couldn't tell you. In his autobiography "Crossing the Line," he explains. "I've scored goals and later struggled to understand how exactly I managed to score them. There is something about the way I play that is unconscious, for better and for worse."

There is intelligence, understanding and consideration in Suarez's game; thought, too. Playing at Ajax means learning another way, particularly for a Uruguayan: in the Netherlands, he found that every decision was discussed and dissected. Playing at Liverpool represented another shift, and Barcelona is a different idea again. Last night Suarez mentioned the freedom that he, Neymar and Lionel Messi have. When his words were conveyed to Luis Enrique, the coach replied: "they have the freedom we consider opportune; if they all go to the same wing, then I'm not interested in freedom. But they are intelligent."

Yet Suarez's qualities are often seen less in technical or tactical terms than temperamental ones, not least by Suarez himself. In Barcelona's front three, he is arguably the least gifted and certainly the least aesthetic. For a player whose ability is clear, the Premier League's Player of the Year last season, Suarez tends not to define himself in terms of pure or natural talent.

"In Uruguay we know that technically we're not the best, but we also know that for desire and b---s no one can beat us," he says in his book. "We may not be the best in terms of skill but ... we always get there first."

Note the "we" -- it is an exaggeration belying his touch, vision and movement, but there is something in it. Always getting there first is a key concept. "It is not that I want to win, it is that I need to win."

When it comes to Suarez, some words get repeated endlessly: bite and hunger, for a start. But one that doesn't despite being among those that best describes him is "momentum." It can look like he is not in control, like he is going to fall over. He can even appear clumsy sometimes. The first time, at least. But it cannot be fortune alone when it keeps working.

It is working for Barcelona now. Speaking on Sky, Thierry Henry last night described him as a "proper No. 9," noting something that has been semi-forgotten: "we had that too." For Messi-Samuel Eto'o-Henry, read Messi-Suarez-Neymar. Much has been made of how he creates space for others as well as the assists he provides and, particularly, the personality he brings. Now he is getting goals himself. And although Suarez is a player who misses chances (against Sevilla he wasted three clear opportunities), he is also a player who scores a lot of goals: 31 last season, 18 this season, 11 in his last 11.

They have been big goals too. He scored away at Atletico, he scored the goal that won the Clasico and he has now scored twice in both away legs in the Champions League knockout phase: two in Manchester, two in Paris.

The first goal in particular was a portrait of him. Suarez fought his way through but it was not thought through. When he runs, his body leans forward, chest in front of his feet. Suarez came in from the right, body inclined forwards. The footwork was fast, fancy even, but the typical dancer metaphor is rarely applied to him. There is something about the phrase "last resort" that sounds like desperation and there can be a touch of desperation in watching Suarez run at people: he is desperate to get ahead of them, utterly determined.

As Henry noted, Suarez always wants to get his body in front of you. His momentum and his skill carried him past one man then another, tumbling past him or rebounding off him. He was heading straight to goal but not just in a straight line, pulling the ball away from challenges as he pushed his body towards them. There was something almost comic about it. "It was as if they were recording a film of him, set up so he could score," said the former coach Angel Cappa.

On he went, not plotting a course but reacting to each barrier placed in his way. If the best way past was through their legs, then through their legs he'll go. Ultimo recurso. Suarez knows beforehand where he wants to end up but probably not exactly how he's going to get there. He has thought about how he plays and he has been taught too but he talks about his game being "instinctive" and "intuitive," about how at times he could play "blindfolded" because he "feels" the game.

In the Netherlands, Suarez says, players are taught to be two steps ahead; in Uruguay, it was more a case of being taught to beat the man in front of you. "That happened to me playing in the back streets against kids that were much bigger than me. I didn't care. I went for them; I took them on. I wouldn't let them beat me," he wrote.

You could imagine that goal on the strip of rough concrete behind his home in Montevideo, with the women's prison at one end. There, the goals are painted on walls or they're the shutters of the workshops on either side. At the Parc des Princes, there is a net. Through David Luiz's legs and out the other side.

Good article. Sid Lowe is a good journalist

https://vine.co/v/ezzl9mEDUWb

Call it ezultimo recurso

[The Infamous]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suIc74Zlwas#t=102

Suarez surprises young uruguayan cancer patient

 

[Seth Rollins]

In the grand scheme of things he needs to thank his lucky stars John W. Henry didn't let him join Arsenal.

[TF S4DK]

Yeah cos the road from Arsenal to Barcelona is so hard...

[Seth Rollins]

After 1 season?

 

And we don't need to sell?

 

Nah mate it'd be Messi, Neymar and Alexis/Pedro.

[JOHN DOE]

3 goals for Lambert next season

Eee it was written