Tag: Vermaelen

Vermaelen talks about what makes Barcelona so dominant

Thomas Vermaelen underwent surgery in December of 2014 as he wanted to resolve his repetitive hamstring injuries and the Belgian appears to be fully fit with no injuries but even after managing to recover from his string of physical problems, he is struggling to land a spot in the starting lineup of Barcelona’s Luis Enrique.

The Belgian is mostly being utilized as a substitute player with limited playing time. Even though Vermaelen is clearly not one of the main stars of Barcelona, the experienced defender has played and trained enough with the Spanish club that he knows what are a few of the things that makes his team so strong and dominant in the world of football and Vermaelen said: ‘’The first thing I noticed here was the intensity of the pressing. The pressure is on straight away when we lose the ball. We do a lot of positioning games, focusing on getting the ball back. The pressure the players put on you is incredible, you have no time on the ball. We always do it at the start of training, it doesn’t only warm you up but it’s a training session in itself, you try to keep the ball in possession and make the guys in the middle do the pressing.’’ Continue reading Vermaelen talks about what makes Barcelona so dominant

ENRIQUE RELIES ON VERMAELEN

Rumours about an immediate departure from the Camp Nou for defender Thomas Vermaelen may be put on hold for the time being after manager Luis Enrique praised the player for his professional attitude. The former Arsenal defender has been a major disappointment for Barcelona since his £ 16 million move from the Premier League.

Nicolas Anelka

He was expected to be the replacement for Carlos Puyol when he moved to Barcelona, but Vermaelen has been blighted by numerous injuries the last two years. He has been able to make less than 20 appearances during this period. Even though Barcelona have lifted quite a lot of trophies in these two years, Vermaelen has never been a clear part of any. Continue reading ENRIQUE RELIES ON VERMAELEN

Thomas Vermaelen says that he is very much looking forward to be part of major competitions

After going through an injury hell in the last 24 months, Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen says that he is very much looking forward to be part of major competitions.

Immediately after joining for £ 16 million from Arsenal, the Belgian international found himself consistently on the sidelines due to recurrences of various injury problems. It has been only in the last few months that he has been featuring regularly for club and country. The defender has easily lost two years of his productive footballing career and he intends to make the best out of the extended absence from the pitch.

Due to the continued absence, manager Luis Enrique has gone for other options on the pitch. It will be up to Vermaelen to convince the manager that he is the right man to partner with Gerard Pique. The injury record of the defender has to improve a lot as well as his form. The impressive form of the Catalan club will make it doubly hard forVermaelen to return to the first-team, but he remains confident of doing so. At the moment, the 30-year-old is just happy to be part of the squad for the Club World Cup. Barcelona are overwhelming favourites to lift yet another title but it will beVermaelen’s first proper success with the Spanish club. Continue reading Thomas Vermaelen says that he is very much looking forward to be part of major competitions

Thierry Henry is of the opinion that the club still needs to bring can as much as for top players

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry is of the opinion that the club still needs to bring can as much as for top players in order to compete with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City.

Arsenal have brought in Petr Cech for £ 11 million as their only major signing of the summer. Goalkeeper position was seen as an important area of concern during the summer transfer window and many fans have been happy with this new signing.Cech has been the first choice at Chelsea for more than a decade and he is still a world-class goalkeeper.

However, Henry has recalled that Chelsea finished last season a whopping 12 points ahead of Arsenal and this gap is unlikely to be closed anytime soon if Cech remains the only major signing for the gunners in this transfer window. Olivier Giroud had a major role to play in Arsenal finishing third in the table, but the Frenchman missed a good portion of the first half due to injury.

In his absence, the club was not able to find any replacement goal scorer, in spite of being linked with plenty by the Transfer Rumours website. After they have sold Lukas Podolski, the situation has only worsened. Henry has identified a striker – amongst other positions – that need strengthening almost immediately. Continue reading Thierry Henry is of the opinion that the club still needs to bring can as much as for top players

Michael Platini plays a cruel joke on Barcelona’s Thomas Vermaelen

Even though Thomas Vermaelen did not play a single match or a single minute of European football in the previous season, the Belgium defender was still awarded with a Champions League medal.

Vermaelen was signed by Barcelona for a transfer fee of €15 million on August of 2014 but the defender still hasn’t proved his worth to the Spanish club as Vermaelen has been plagued with a number of injuries that have forced him to stay out of action for the majority of the season.

It doesn’t look like Barcelona has needed Vermaelen to be in form as the Spanish club has still managed to win all the major trophies that they competed on including: La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League.

Vermaelen did not an important role in Barcelona’s treble but the Belgium player was still given a taste of success as he received medals of the Copa del Rey, La Liga and Champions League and after searching around football websites, Vermaelen is recognized as a holder of these pieces of silverware despite being absent from almost all of them. Continue reading Michael Platini plays a cruel joke on Barcelona’s Thomas Vermaelen

Vermaelen’s career at Barcelona is getting demolished due to injuries

Thomas Vermalen signed a 5 year long contract with Barcelona on August of 2014 but the Belgium defender has not managed to make a single league appearance for his new club due to a recurring hamstring injury.

A few weeks ago, Vermaelen was seen in the training grounds with the rest of his teammates of Barcelona and it was rumored that the player was going to be featured for the remaining matches of the season but the 29 year old defender still has not made a league appearance for the team of Luis Enrique.

This isn’t the first time that Vermalen has had to sit on the sidelines of a club for a significantly long period of time as this has occurred in the past when he was a player of Arsenal and was not able to play for a large amount of matches due to consistent injuries.

€15 million is the price that Barcelona had to pay in order to sign Thomas Vermaelen from Arsenal and this is a very high amount of money for a player who still has not performed in a competitive match since having been signed. Continue reading Vermaelen’s career at Barcelona is getting demolished due to injuries

Barcelona not concerned about Thomas Signing

Barcelona have stated that they are not worried about the fact that summer signing Thomas Vermaelen has not been able to feature in a single match for the club so far. The Belgian international was seen as the popular replacement for Carlos Puyol, who retired at the end of last season.

Vermaelen may not have been an Arsenal first-team regular for the last 12 months, but he has undeniable quality that propelled him to the position of being one of the top defenders in the Premier League upon his £ 10 million arrival from Ajax.

The 29-year-old has not been able to make a start for his new club, Barcelona. However, this does not put him in a difficult mental state. This is largely because Barcelona appear to have convinced Vermaelen that he remains an integral part of the team despite his continued absence. The club’s sporting director Andoni Zubizaretta has revealed that Barcelona were aware that the player had a fair bit of injury problems even before signing for the club. Hence, he is confident that the Belgian international will be ready to play top-level football sooner rather than later. Continue reading Barcelona not concerned about Thomas Signing

Luis Enrique wont criticize for his Players

Barcelona manager Luis Enrique says that he cannot criticise the performance put in by his players in the recent 3-1 win over Atletico Madrid. This was a must win match for his team given that they needed to recover from the 1-0 defeat against Real Sociedad in the previous league match.

The victory was an essential in order to keep in touch with Real Madrid. Barcelona failed to take advantage of Madrid losing their last league match, but there were no repeats this time around. Despite playing against a very confident Atletico Madrid team who are defending the title, Barcelona dominated the match from start to finish.

The mouth-watering combination of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar were once again paired up front. Continue reading Luis Enrique wont criticize for his Players

VERMALEN PROUD OF STYLE

Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen has said that he is extremely happy that Arsenal did not deviate from their passing style of football when they played Stoke city last weekend.

Thomas Vermaelen is regarded as one of the best players at Arsenal. He was instrumental in helping Arsenal to a 1-1 draw at the hands of Stoke last weekend. It has almost saved the season for Arsenal, as they now have surely wrapped up the Champions League spots. Only two matches remain in the Premier league season, with Arsenal set to face Norwich and West Brom. These are matches where Arsenal are expected to get all three points without too much of a trouble.

Despite facing a physical team in the form of Stoke, Arsenal never pumped the ball long up to Robin van Persie. The striker has scored a remarkable 35 goals in all competitions for Arsenal this season, but it is even more impressive considering the fact that Arsenal have been playing the ball along the ground throughout the season. It is very much similar to the way Barcelona play their football and Thomas Vermaelen has praised Arsenal for this reason. He says that it is very important for a club to have a philosophy and stick by it.

“The whole team showed a good spirit and we fought hard – we deserved a point. Defensively the shape was good, with [Alex] Song in front of us and he helped us a lot. If you [play] their game you would be second best. The main thing is to keep focused on your own game, with quick passing, and that is how we scored our goal. We didn’t give away too many chances in the whole game and that is a good thing,” said Thomas Vermaelen after the 1-1 draw with Stoke city.

VERMAELEN WANTS TO STAY

Arsenal’s Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen has said that he is looking to repay the faith Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has had him in to sign him for the Premier league club. Thomas Vermaelen has been one of the best defenders for Arsenal ever since arriving at the club a few seasons ago.

Despite the lack of height, the Belgian defender has been able to compensate by some excellent defending. Now, he has said that he wants to stay with Arsenal for the rest of his career, and is also in debt to Arsene Wenger for allowing him the chance to play in one of the best leagues in the world.

Thomas Vermaelen was a £ 7.5 million signing from Dutch club Ajax. He was initially expected to be the backup for William Gallas, who was ageing. However, he not only managed to play alongside William Gallas, but is also proving to be more than suitable replacement for the Frenchman.

He recently extended his contract up until 2015, and is one of the important players at the club. He has also said that he feels that Arsenal should be considered as one of the top clubs in Europe, despite the fact that they have not won the Champions League.

Continue reading VERMAELEN WANTS TO STAY