Beren

Bayern Munich: Neuer, Lahm, Boateng, Dante, Alaba, Javi Martinez, Schweinsteiger, Robben, Muller, Ribery, Gomez. Subs: Starke, Van Buyten, Shaqiri, Rafinha, Pizarro, Gustavo, Tymoschuk. Barcelona: Valdes, Dani Alves, Pique, Bartra, Jordi Alba, Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta, Sanchez, Messi, Pedro. Subs: Pinto, Fabregas, Villa, Thiago, Montoya, Abidal, Song.

Been waiting for this tie for a long time.

Spine Rip. F, D, F, LP.

Too close to bet on, for me.

So this is Bird's supporting argument for pardew? :lol: gutted myself at that, what a fool :lol: First half

That isn't good value.

Going to be a cracking tie. Hope they both show up.

I think so this signing smacks of Guardiola. Not so bizarre, I suppose, but very strange with them possibly set to play in a CL final - and I think they will!

MOAR DEFENCE. Wonder if he goes over the scene of the crime in his head, back to the week leading up to the final and regrets not spending the full-five days working on defending, so maybe they could have kept it to 3-2.

"Do a racism"

Maybe something like this? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/4756045.stm Aye! I was going to mention this the other day when I heard a Pardew interview. Think the match properly scarred him Explains so much

That Simon Bird article is thoroughly depressing. Many will completely buy it too. The defence? Journalist cliché bingo and plausible deniability. - "Stability" - as though that ever, in and of itself, helped any club - "Manager of the year" - a largely meaningless accolade - "Ruling himself out of the England job 12 months ago" - meaningless attribute for a manager - Last season - a commendable finish for the club, but not down to Pardew exclusively or even significantly* but most importantly he didn't demonstrate any attributes which will help us progress going forwards - which is the only factor which matters when you're looking at whether to keep him for next season * - argument done to death/won't revisit! - The David Moyes example - just plain irrelevant tripe He has no outstanding managerial attributes, and you'd struggle to argue he has even average attributes in important areas. There is no good reason to keep him or be patient with him based on the evidence available IMO. You may not have faith in who Ashley would appoint next, but I'd rather gamble on an unknown than slowly circle the drain as we will continue with our known quantity of Pardew. [Could you even imagine what would happen if he we were ever to reach a cup final (our only vaguely realistic hope of winning something)? Could you imagine how conservatively he'd play it? How much he'd concentrate on the opposition in advance of the final? How little he'd give them to worry about us? Cisse would be revising the attacking threat of their centre-backs for four out of the five days leading up to the final ] He's not even close to being good enough to match the ambitions of the club,... but then again maybe he does meet the ambitions of the decision-makers and certain fans who will endure and pay for anything they are served up.

Not happy Papiss is (possibly) out, but looking forward to see Gouffran up front if it comes to it.

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/276949_117161815059525_28650058_n.jpg

Blimey. Is Guardiola pulling the transfer budget strings in advance of taking over then?

You guys are the best. Sewelly, the difference between a postseason and the FA cup is that every team would take the post season seriously. We support a team that doesn't give a shit about that cup. They openly don't give a shit. You can't compare a few motivated teams cutting through teams that barely care to a postseason where every team would be going for it. Sorry I do like the idea of having the cream of the crop battle it out in high-pressure win-take-all games in a "post-season" with no other distractions/commitments. A wildcard like an Everton could really do some damage, but there's just a very basic iniquity if Man Utd get knocked out by someone who got 30 fewer points than them during the season. I think, as Sewelly says, cup competitions sufficiently cover what play-offs bring to the table. I'm still pushing for scrapping the Euros, and having a league-wide Premiership vs Bundesliga vs La Liga tournament, but the Premiership would get fucking mullered right now IMO.

Mike I haven't even read the OP yet.

GW35: Man City v West Ham Everton v Fulham Southampton v West Brom Stoke City v Norwich Wigan v Tottenham Newcastle v Liverpool Reading v QPR Chelsea v Swansea Arsenal v Man Utd Aston Villa v Sunderland

75,000 need a clue Front row throwing out some shapes. ah- kna i was reading the pardew thread. got me thinking if others are watching footy on line, do they switch betwwen tabs to here? i tend to listen to comentary til something happens and switch- but is there a way to have forum and footy on at same time? Dual-screen monitors or the low-tech version is to arrange the tabs into separate windows, then resize them so they're both simultaneously visible

Their midfield is miles behind Barca, Bayern etc and it will continue to cost them in Europe until they address it. Yeah, Ferguson does proportional praise. Begrudging and deserved well done for their twentieth title, but Man Utd are very much the default champions in the absence of an actual decent/consistent team this year. The real credit for their twentieth title should go to the groundwork they've laid in days gone by - the psychological advantage they have over most teams in the league is staggering. Oodles of cheap goals against defences scared shitless of Cronaldo, Scholes, Van Nistelrooy and Cole - when they're up against the likes of Carrick, Cleverley and Young (I'm not saying the latter are outright shit, but they're nothing to be shit-your-pants scared of). I don't like Spurs usually, but I like how fearless they've been about going up against the bigger sides. They more than anyone else probably should have the biggest complex about facing Man Utd but their 3-2 win earlier in the season was fantastic. Very envious. The majority of the rest of the league have been so gutless when facing Man Utd. Even in this season of comebacks for Man Utd, teams have taken the lead against an ageing Rio Ferdinand and various Vidic stand-ins who aren't up to scratch, but ceded the momentum back to Man Utd from kick off. Impressive groundwork from Ferguson. The berating of referees, angry interviews etc all make a difference. Teams often play well below their level when they face Man Utd. Something you don't see as often in Europe, where teams often maintain their regular composure. This Man Utd side is comparatively weak, unable to compete in any real sense of the world with Europe's elite.

It would be is SAF was our manager.

Wish Cisse's conversion rate was as good as RvP's

Man Utd's tackle:

What gives you the right?

Oh, what the hell: How hard do you need to be slapped to realise that a gameplan based on physically out-working the opposition is unsustainable over the course of the season and the team should learn how to play football too to cope with the demands of playing football (yes, sometimes even twice a week!)?