I think that's the trick to dealing with them. They rely on drawing you into their twattery, maybe retaliating, getting rattled and maybe booked.
As hard as it might be to do so, rising above it and doing your own thing leaves them looking rather pathetic and stupid. For a team with such obvious talent, they come over as quite pathetic.
Yep
Agree so much with what you said in the match thread too. The Everton of Madrid. Except they seem to have used that sour bitterness against other teams and actually built some sort of 'philosophy' out of it. Maybe thats why the bitters are so obsessed with getting Simeone as manager. They've seen an example of someone actually harnessing the bitterness and creating something successful out of it, rather than inviting Barcelona for some tapas and a siesta with their wives when El Classico rolls around.
They're a hard one to evaluate for me. I hate playing them, I hate what they stand for, they're a horrible side and not just in a 'they make it difficult' way, but in a 'why the fuck are you playing like Burnley when you've got some immense players?' way......but then under Simeone they've won two La Ligas, two Europas, one Copa Del Rey, two Super Cups and runner up twice in the CL (and so close to winning both of them) so it obviously works in a very successful way.
They're the sort of team that you almost want to 'out shithouse' just because it seems almost more satisfactory, but then I just don't want us to play that way. The two games this season for me have been perfect. We've outplayed them, outclassed them but their shithousery has twice been punished and hasn't worked. Hopefully it sees them knocked into the Europa and causes some sort of a re-think but I suspect they'll still qualify.
