Shak

Look, man: teams lose yearly in the CL and no one complains. The only reason people are complaining about Barca is because they have achieved so much - they have done what no team has done before. So whenever they lose, it's a big deal. But the only reason they win so much is because they play with this style, which is unmatched. They're not going to abandon the whole reason they've achieved so much in their greatest hour of need. They're going to do what they've done for four years because for four years, they were the best club team on Earth and did what no club team has ever done before. For you to suggest that they abandon that is just unbelievable. They missed Villa a lot today but they still had a ton of chances to kill the game off earlier on. The penalty miss just seemed to have such a big psychological effect on them. I do think a different option would help them though, namely a striker with a bit of physical presence. I agree that changing the entire philosophy would be silly, but against the top defensive sides it's just too hard to play your way through like they try to do with any success. It's not even about the personnel primarily though. So many times tonight they got it in decent spots out wide and there was only a couple of players in the box, with three or four of them standing outside the box waiting for the ball to be cleared. They need to commit more men forward and sling some crosses in if teams are gonna park the bus, just to change things up a bit.

Hadn't seen that Neville thing. Wish that were still the case.

Gonna be some seriously retarded posts over the next few hours. Rubbish tonight, but his legacy won't be defined by this or any other single game. Certainly didn't help himself this evening though.

They'll pox the final, no doubt IMO. 2-0 behind and down to ten men at one point and they ended up strolling it.

They'll obviously win the final, have you lot not being paying attention. It's Liverpool all over again. They could start me up front and somehow they'd still win the final.

Messi has been awful tbh. This is where it was such a shame for Barca that Zlatan didn't work out for them, they just can't pass it through a well organised defense like this. They really don't look like scoring, I'll be surprised if they do.

Actually did the Doctor Hibbert laugh.

We can't all post on every football forum on earth man, so kiss the back of my balls. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to try and find a stream that'll work on this miserable attempt at a Wi-Fi while I wait for the MOTD highlights of the Stoke game to buffer. Something to do at half time if I'm lucky.

Btw, I think we should have a thread dedicate to all the players he nutmegs in his time here. Must be nearly ten of them by now. Photoshop all their heads onto plaques on a wall with Ben Arfa sitting in front of it on a big leather chair in a dressing gown, smoking a pipe and looking suave.

Dat control against Stoke from Tiote's long pass.

We might just do this like.

Can't believe I'm missing out on this whole thing, typical that I choose our best season in years to go pissing around Asia. Sounds like we raped the shit out of them from the match report and comments on here. Fantastic, and Spurs losing is the icing on the cake.

Agreed. Maybe he'll have a clause in his contract. What sort of player is Sigurdsson anyway? Aside from Newcastle games I've seen fuck all football these last few months, only time I've seen Sigurdsson was when we bummed them.

Be great if he could get over his problems and contribute next season, we'll need the squad depth. As others have said though anything we do get from him will be a bonus in my eyes, he's played so little the last two years that it's hard to be confident.

We should go for Iniesta IMO.

Mag in India alert! Spanish guy I met yesterday works for Rolls Royce, lives in England. When he first went over they sent him to the factory in Sunderland, within a month he'd threatened to quit unless they relocated him to a different town. He lives in Derby now, and is very happy. I nicknamed him "Sess".

First time I've been online since the Bolton game. What a goal, what a player. Gonna have to get to a game early next season while I'm home, feel like I have to see this guy play for us.

The first goal was a cracking finish, the second goal was absolutely magical. Thought it was going over when he first hit it, was only on the replay where you see just how fantastic a bit of finishing it was. We've got an absolute beast on our hands here.

They still happy they dodged the Cisse bullet?

As if Ronaldo didn't found the club himself.

Must have missed all those finals England played in.

Aye, group stages are gonna be a bit pointless in the new system. As for Ireland, still never seen us lose to England in my lifetime, shite as we are. If we do somehow come up against each other in the final this summer try not to tear the stadium apart in a defeated rage if you can Ash, I know it's in your blood but try to do the right thing.

It's a couple of weeks FFS Ash, not liking you're committing six months of your life to it or anything. Got tickets for the games against Croatia and Italy, hoping we can give at least one of them a good game. Heading over in a campervan with five of the lads, gonna be a messy couple of weeks. Thank fuck we got drawn to play in Poland, much cheaper and more manageable than Ukraine by all accounts.

I've been calling it Lao (as in Yao) all the time I've been here.