Shak

Agreed, which says anyone saying Barcelona is a one man team is absolutely f***ing daft. (although I do feel the debate whether who is better between him and Zidane is interesting) As I like to say, Messi sits on the throne that Xavi builds for him. In my opinion, even if Messi is clearly the focus of our team, we need both. But if you had to lose one of them for a season or so, there's no doubt who you'd choose surely? Fabregas could do a very serviceable job filling in for Xavi I would have thought, but I can't think of a single player (and not just in Barca's squad, take any player in the world) that could even come close to filling in Messi's role in the team.

They're the same type of player, Xavi is just that bit better at everything than Alonso. No way Alonso is as good man.

Aren't Liverpool irrelevant to us in terms of the league? If they finish 6th and we finish 7th don't we still make the Europa League as long as Everton don't make the cup final?

http://media.hof.wemakemedia.co.uk/cache/8594_display.jpg

I'm sure we had a similar debate (Zizou vs whoever) last summer, where it was proclaimed that Xavi is better than Zidane ever was What, me and you? Far as I'm aware this is the first time we've ever spoken to each other outside the NFL thread.

Huh?

Unless they offer to double his wages like.

You do have to take into account just how good this Barcelona team is on the whole when rating the likes of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta against the other best players of our time IMO. Their style of football allows them so many chances to showcase what they can do on the ball, I've never seen a team quite like them. Xavi is a marvelous player but to say that Zidane wasn't in his league is silly, he was a wonderful player and was the best in the world for a few years there. That said Messi is definitely the best I've ever seen by a mile, neither Ronaldo is/was as good as him and I don't think it's at all close tbh. Xavi and Iniesta are fantastic but take one of them away and Barca would still keep going along at something close to the same level. Those two can be replaced, not to quite the same level but enough to keep being this Barca team going along the way it is. Take Messi out and they go from being possibly the greatest club side ever to just another very good one IMO. There's just nobody who can even touch him.

Just read the last 20 pages or so, class.

Was comfortably wide tbf, people just thought it was class because nobody expected him to shoot nevermind make a respectable attempt at it.

My FM formation is what it's all about folks! Krul Santon Colo Taylor Ferguson Tiote Jonas Cabaye Ben Arfa Ba Cisse I do start Vertonghen, Tremoulinas and Neymar instead or Taylor, Ferguson and Ba like, but the idea is the same.

All sounds very encouraging, cheers lads.

Didn't get to see the game yesterday but is this pretty much what we went with, in terms of midfield and attack at least? Was Jonas the most advanced of the midfield trio? Had doubts that he would be a good fit in the middle in the long term but just looking at the highlights he looked heavily involved and picked out some quality passes playing central. How did the front three line up? Ben Arfa in the hole or was he out wide mostly? Tiote in for Guthrie and a couple of new defenders and this could be looking very tasty.

You missed out, bro. Hopefully he does it against Swansea. You better have somewhere good lined up for that shit.

Delighted to see we played such good stuff yesterday, I've thought this 4-3-3 might be his long term vision for a while now and it certainly is producing our best football. Agree fully that some of the criticism has been over the top and those who would like to see him sacked are off their heads, prior to yesterday our football had been very poor for a while though and he deserved some criticism for that. Looking forward to seeing us hopefully add a few quality players to the squad in the summer and hopefully producing football like this on a more consistent basis next season.

Missed the game, was in some small ass town in the exact middle of nowhere, poor bastards didn't have TV's. Just watched that compilation though, fuck me.

Some people are thick. I guess the players were just so motivated under Keegan that they magically played such great pass and move football?

Gonna be great until Pardew decides he's earned a start with his good sub performances. Because we all know what will happen then.

He's not very good. Not signing a CB in January could cost us our Euro spot, this lad is not good enough for the Premiership and it's having a knock-on affect on the rest of the team. We have to play a deep line because he's slow as fuck, meaning the midfield has to sit deeper (in Pardew's head at least) which in turn leads to so much of our hoofball because the strikers are so isolated. Not his fault really, but I hope he'll be gone in the summer. Not good enough even as a squad player.

Aye, Perch was quality in CM so Pardew deserves credit there. Easy choice would have been Cabaye and Guthrie. He's going to deserve the criticism some people give him for our second half too though, I unfortunately only got to see bits and pieces of it but we looked completely abysmal on the ball. It's worrying. We just need to get over the line for a European spot now and hope to fuck that a couple of new signings and the return of Taylor at the back will get us attempting to play some sort of football again.

Will take it, I suppose Just trying to get into Europe and hope Pardew sorts his shit out over the summer at this point, so disjointed on the ball it's frightening at the moment.

Jameck Perchiote tbh.

Really needs the three points here. I'm losing faith with every game mind, our football just gets worse and worse.