buzza

If the league was more competitive there would be far more interest and pride in who wins it, until then it stays a two horse race in which both Barca and Madrid are not too worried about losing it one year as the next year they have another 50% chance of getting it, neither will be a year or so from winning it. May be the most technically excellent league in the world but it's blooody boring with regard to who wins it every year. It's actually nice that Atletico are up there challenging, but we all know they will sell off their star player(s) in the summer to be able to sustain themselves, therefore leavng the two heavyweights to slug it out the following year. That is probably why the CL trumps it, it is also a much more competitive and tense competition for them both as they are not guaranteed to even reach the finals suchg is the level of the teams there.

I can't remember Villa having any clear cut chances, we had three gaping misses. Whole team plays better with Colo back, allows us to play it out of defence much better. Felt sorry for Cisse, there were two or three occasions when the midfield could have given him the ball end he would be straight through, and that miss, will do no good to his already shot confidence. Anita and Tiote working well together as the two covering the defense, just don't offer much going forward. Anita made some nice passes at the end of the game when he got further forward. NB:- Pardew is a complete tw*t! Why the hell we didn't have any attacking options on the bench? He needs shot with poison darts (season ticket holders take note)

Looking at the global picture, and as much as it pains me to say it, I would like a loss this weekend, if anything just to increase the pressure on percy smarm chops. We aren't getting relegated, we aren't going anywhere, we aren't signing anyone and we haven't got anything to aspire to... So at least we can reverse the results into thinking something positive might come from them???

He does seem good in the air and yesterday nearly got a headed assist . No physical strength to hold up the ball but with his good leap could be vital in our set pieces Floated set penis to De Jong at the back post. Willo to smash in a volley from the knockdown. Still better than Cisse Hven't seen a thing yet that should convince me he is better than league 1 level... Still willing him to come good but jesus the intial signs ain't too promising.

Anybody know why he took Sammy off? Was one of the few players actually contributing something...

I'm going for a supa doopa offensive structure so that we can at least offer De Jong some sort of chance to get on the end of something. Staying with 4231: Santon----------Taylor---------Willo----------Haidara -----------------Anita------------MYM------------------- Benarfa----------------Sissoko--------------Sammy ------------------------De Jong--------------------

You could kind of say that...

Die hard fanboy? lol... But for a decent perpsective, I can argue that living here for 16 years helps undrstand Spanish football, the press and culture a little better. I do think he was given an extremely hard time over here in Spain by the press. I also think that the press over here don't concentrate on football enough but more the whole glamour and gossip side of these "celebrities". Prefer the english sports press any day of the week....!

Cisse still alive?

"They didn't indulge him", that's exactly what they did do as it made great headlines and the more they poked the bigger they came. "Attacks on Barcelona as an attack on Spain", in the current climate I don't think you will find many people backing that statement as Barcelona are making large noises regards separation via a referendum not unlike our Scots neighbours.... Yeh, I agree he fell out with a few of his squad but I think that is due to the fact that the players thought they were more powerful than him, always has been the case in the Madrid dressing room, notoriously difficult to handle. He does talk twaddle but a hell of a lot of it is very sincere and often touches a nerve. I actually think it's quite refreshing from the regurgitated cliche ridden soundbites that 95% of managers spit out. We will have to agree to disagree on Jose... P.S. Bet you would take him in an instant over Percy???

He did exactly the opposite at Real Madrid, particularly in his last year there. Always deflecting blame. Exactly. Wait till stuff doesn't go his way, it'll all be 'players who betrayed me etc' like last time he left Chelsea. Ummm, no. Chelsea 1.0 was all Jose vs Roman and his cronies. Oh yeah, Jose battling that c*** who give him hundreds of millions to build a dream team. May have had something to do with appointing Avram Grant (lol) and Frank Arnesen (at least that kind of made sense if they could've worked together) over his head and spunking 30 million on Shevchenko when he wanted Eto'o. And Madrid's just a clusterfuck no matter who's there, rumors are popping up already that they are ready to rumble Ancelotti if he doesn't win the La Liga or the Champions League. Whole situation was weird, Ronaldo has said he'd work with him again and despite being the cause of it all, Ancelotti still has Lopez as his number one over Iker. He did have a fall out with the Chelsea players according to Makelele. He was being an idiot in Spain and they didn't like it. That's the cause of his issues there. The media here love him and feed into his BS. They don't think he's a genius in Spain and they don't find his antics charming or funny. That's why when he came back he was talking about being loved and being happy. Mourinho loves to create an us vs. them mentality but it didn't work at Madrid. Half his players have won multiple trophies with the Barca guys and they all felt the rivalry and gotten over the top and personal/vindictive e.g. sticking his finger in Vilanova's eye. By the end of his reign his was talking nonsense on a weekly basis. I don't think that's right to be fair. The Spanish football press are worse than our red-tops, it's all gossip and sensationalism to sell their daily sports editions. As each sports daily has it's favourite (Barca or madrid) the objectivity goes straight out the window. Because of the above, it was generally accepted that Mourinho had cottoned on quite quickly that press conferences were laughable and he treated them with quite a bit of contempt, this was part of the reason why there was a real dislike of him, virtually all of the press, including the pro-Madrid turned against him. As for Ramos and Casillas, Ramos is the equivalent of our own Steven Taylor except that he plays for Madrid and he is a decent footballer, this guy has pigshiit for brains ...honest! casillas... there has to be something Mourinho saw that he was doing wrong or diego was doing right as Ancelloti has followed the same template...

I thought the podcast on True faith was pretty poor, apart from cauñkin the other apport absdolutely nothing. Michael martin and company seem not to have any idea about football and formations and the basic concepts within the game. All they can do is harp on about what is anita's role? What does neat and tidy mean? Such and such was shiite etct etc... Really shallow and crap imo... Like the webpage but the podcasts are sooooooo bad

Agree with the first bit, but the second is that Mata does not fit into a mourinho style team. Mou likes very fast counter attacking forwards and a powerful/fast striker backed with some stoic midfielders and marauding wing backs. Mata is much more elaborative in his play and likes to take his time which is the anti-system to Mourinhos. I love the guy, all his ridiculous bullshilt he comes out with to divert the attention and his circus antics, really makes for good entertainment. Whilst his teams impress me they aren't normally great on the eye...

Folks, if you have any doubts about Carr's ability just have a look at how Aubeayang or whatver his name is who we were supposedly after lkast summer. From what I can read he's the next french superstar...

And we are stuck in this circle forever as Fashley and co can always use the "stepping stone" line to up and coming talents to convince them to come here (and to the EPL), because as it stands who would aspire to mid table mediocrity if they had anything about them... Aaarrrggh!

Again, Percy swapping him to the left when we all know he is far more effective on the right cutting inside and having a go...

Well said that man! No heart whatsoever on Saturday. If my beer addled memery serves me correctly he was looking over to the bench a lot trying to signal his lack of intent and to get subbed (or is it just me?)...

Felt much the same, he was willing to try but everyone else around him went back to previous form i.e. stand and watch and do not, whatever you do, make a run into space!!!

great introduction, would've been better if we were two up at half time...

what a funkin shambles... embarrassing

Shola, santon, chieck all having poor games. Taylor looks like he is going to do some fnuck up at any minute... Everybody slower and with less will to win that scumderland...unreal!

Surreal

I think everyone had just about forgotten that we do have another "striker" on our books. Poor Barsteward eh? from where he was to what we consider him now.... Wouldn't even think about having him in the squad never mind leading the line...

His best games are always against this shower of ++++, haway shola one last time for the boys!!

Their front three shouldn't pose us problems, Taylor and willo seem appropriate for the oversizede american cousin of carlton cole!