Taylor Swift

No motivation, innit? Valencia are fighting for the CL while Real know that the title is Barca's.

But those sports exist in a relatively 'closed' system. In the NFL, you have around 30 teams. In the NBA, 30 teams. In baseball, even if the salary cap is a joke, they've still only got around 30 teams. It's easier to implement a cap system when every team is under the jurisdiction of one institution. With football, you've not only got all the different national football associations, but then you have different continental associations - even more bereaucracy to sort through. Then you've got to actually be able to get all the players together, form a proper union and sign a collective bargaining agreement. It'll be impossible to get all the players in Europe, especially because the income disparity between the leagues is already huge, to agree on a suitable cap as well as other conditions. The PFA is already a major joke. But anyway, even if you can get a salary cap, the highest-paid earners will still earn the same amount. Think of a probability distribution. Because they're still in the highest percentile in terms of their skill/quality, they'll still earn the highest wages in terms of percentile. The players who will lose out are the players around the mean i.e. about 85% of footballers. So those players earning obscene amounts of money will still earn relatively the same amount. The wage around the mean (in terms of quality) will be depressed and that's how clubs will save money - dumping the average players. The only thing a salary cap is useful for is to help clubs be financially responsible. But I think if a club wants to gamble its future and spend 70% of its revenue on wages, then so be it. It's unlikely for them to reap the rewards but if the gamble pays off, then fair play to them.

If I'm Barca, the only midfielder I don't want to see playing is Anderson. He's the only one who's got the engine to catch up with Iniesta and help Man Utd in attack. Fletcher helps with dictating the game, but Carrick can do that already. Anderson's the guy that Barca would prefer to see on the bench. The rest of the Man Utd's midfielders won't be able to dominate the game.

Dump the League Cup. No one gives a shit about it. Every league in Europe has one domestic cup. Why does England have two?

Yeah, it's worthless playing in the CL semis for the second year in a row and dominating their domestic league in a fashion that's not been seen for a long, long time.

mixed up Sunderland's fixtures.

More money the better position iirc. £250k/position. Or was it £500k? I don't think it makes that much of a difference, anyway. A more likely reason that O'Neill will play the starters and look to win is because it's their last match of the season - winning is a good way to send the fans into the summer after a pretty successful season.

how is our fate in our own hands. we cpould win all 3 remaining and still go down ? nope if we win our 3 games we will stay up, unless hull claw back 5 goals on us so it's like i said then ? Technically, yes. But do you think the Hull fans are saying that their fate is in their own hands? I doubt it. If we win all 3 matches, we're safe. Hull would have win their matches by 8 goals to relegate us on goal difference. That's hardly having fate in your own hands.

What do Villa have to play for? They're guaranteed 5th/6th = automatic entry into Europe.

If we beat Boro, the confidence will be there against Fulham. A draw is still technically ok against Boro, but then we'd have to beat Fulham. Actually, a lot hinges on Portsmouth beating Hull at Fratton Park. If they do, then a draw against Fulham will be enough. We just have to better what Hull get there. But firstly, win.

It's still at a 9 because so much hinges on us actually winning a game. If we beat Boro, then I think we're favourites to survive and this instantly drops to a 4.

We're shit. They're shit. We're playing at home. That's all I've got.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=644604&sec=uefachampionsleague&cc=5739 Henry struggling to be fit for the final. Not good news.

HAHA! If we don't survive now...

It allows the top 4 to stack up on players and benefit in the long-run when these guys come back with first-team experience. If you're not going to play them, sell them. If your youngsters are happy playing reserve team football, waiting for the gaffer to drop Ronaldo or Rooney to play them when they're still raw, then that's their choice. The way the system's set up now just means that the talent is too concentrated, meaning the system is just self-perpetuating because the more the top teams have money, the more they're going to stock up on young talent and the more they're going to strengthen their position at the top. It's radical but the poorer teams will benefit because top teams won't stock up on talent, and the Championship teams should have a bigger pool of players to pick from as well. In the long-run, these poorer teams will also benefit because they're not losing 17 year old prodigies for a few hundred k. They'll lose them when they become older and much better, and thus much, much more expensive.

Kill the loan system. That should be considered.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/is-it-time-to-change-the-game-1681747.html

Drogba had two 1v1s, Bojan missed a header, and Eto'o and Hleb missed 1v1s. Only 5 chances that I would classify as sitters over 180 minutes. I know, but I'm talking about statistically likely. Of course, in 90 minutes, it's possible that Barca won't score. But, maybe you can attribute the lapse by Chelsea at the end to how much Barca exerted on them over 180 minutes. I'm just saying that if Barca plays against in the team in the world right now, I'd bet on them scoring more goals and winning because their style of play just makes it highly likely that they score and win. That's all I'm saying. In yesterday's match, they looked like they couldn't score but they should have scored two or three over the 180 minutes and that's a bigger sample size so fuck you And if you take into account their whole season so far, with a significant sample size, Barca are definitely the most likely of any teams in the world to score.

You're right that a centre forward in that role would give them an extra dimension, but isn't it a bit premature to say their style isn't effective? They're on course to win La Liga and are in the final of the Champions League. Should they beat Man Utd, you'd have to hold your hands up and say it is indeed effective. You could say this is their true test, but the same could be said of Man Utd. On paper, it's a great matchup, a clash of the titans. I just hope they don't show each other too much respect, as Man Utd and Chelsea did last May. I think it's too close to call, but I'm surprised why people have Man Utd down as such strong favourites. To be fair, they were incredibly lucky to get through last night. Didn't create one clear cut chance the entire game, as it was their goal came from a bit of brilliance from Iniesta that was a half-chance at best. For all their possession, Chelsea were so comfortable and Barca never looked like creating a chance. Was similiar against Man U last year as far as I recall, plenty of the ball but no penetration as you simply can't pass the ball through a side as good defensively as Man U or Chelsea when they set their stall out to defend. In La Liga it's fine because teams can't defend to anywhere near the quality a Chelsea can, but against the top English sides I think they'll struggle unless they adapt their game when they need to. Unfortunately when the game itself comes around I see no reason why Man U won't just set out their stall to defend and play Barca on the counter. It'll still be an intriguing fixture but anyone expecting an end-to-end thriller will be disappointed I'm afraid, unless Barca get in front then I see Man U playing it very cautiously. I know what you're saying but people are making these judgments based on 360 minutes of football. It's simply not enough time conclude that Barca's style isn't effective. I know a lot of people, especially my mates, have said that what they did at the Nou Camp was beneficial to them but I disagree. Even though both Man Utd and Chelsea scored goals in their home legs and won (or went close to winning, in Chelsea's case) the tie, both of their goals were once-in-a-season hits that no goalkeeper in the world could have saved. These strikes aren't goals that you can bank on and say 'you know, I think we can try for the 0-0 there because I've got a hunch that Scholesy will hit a half-volley from 30 yards to win the match'. It's just statistically very unlikely for any team to be able to repeat this tactic with consistent success whereas Barca play a style of football that makes it highly probable that they will score goals, home and away. The fact that Man Utd won last season shouldn't have been a signal for Chelsea to try the same tactic because Man Utd's success was dependent on such an unlikely event. Chelsea played the same way and actually got the unlikely event to occur again but they couldn't stop what was always going to happen from happening - Barca scoring. I'm of the opinion that barring two awesome unrepeatable goals (this is my key premise), Barca would have won last season's tie and this season's in a much easier way. I know hypotheticals like this might be frowned upon but if you are going to speak about the effectiveness of a style of play, then the most important factor is how likely you are to win with that style of play. I think the style that Man Utd and Chelsea adopted for their ties is unlikely to produce consistently good results because it's so dependent on something miraculous happening, whereas Barca's style of play makes it more likely that they will score goals against any team (which is why they've scored the most goals out of any team in Europe this season). I know they got shut out for 360 minutes but not only is it an issue of small sample size, there's also the fact that the two ties occurred a year apart from each other with a Barca team much more motivated and willing to play. People are being too hasty to conclude that Barca can't play against defensive teams.

Which is why it's great to see them knocked-out. I would have loved it if Man Utd got knocked out last season for the same reason too. Scholes' goal and Man Utd's performance at Old Trafford last season int he semi were worthy of winning any tournament. His goal was magnificent but all I remember from that match was how awesome Messi's technique was. Man Utd weren't at their best in that match but did what they had to do: defend.

Which is why it's great to see them knocked-out. I would have loved it if Man Utd got knocked out last season for the same reason too.

Guardiola now has his sights on United after Iniesta sent them to Rome. ''Manchester are the champions, an unbelievable team and a coach with experience,'' he said. ''We are going to prepare well. I expect us to have the ball, them to stay back and to counter-attack. ''I'm sure it will be a nice final because we will attack, we know that. I know they are a huge team but we are Barcelona.'' Ha, what a cool thing to say.

Barca have conceded 28 league goals this season, Man Utd 23. The difference isn't a lot. The reason people say Man Utd have a great defence is because they've grounded out a ton of results this year (especially during that 10 match clean sheet streak) whereas Barca haven't needed an awesome defense because their attack is of a quality that has rarely been seen in football.

Spot on! I hate to say it, but I love watching Man U at their best. Far far better than watching Barcelona and Arsenal. I agree. i guess you didn't see barca thump real at the weekend I did, and it was exceptional. Except for me, it's more fun watching a Man Utd. outfit firing on all cylinders. Rooney in particular has that explosiveness that makes him look like an entire team at times. At 2-0 up last night, he was at left back defending for a chunk of the match when he could have been lazily waiting up front for a counter. For me, the high energy. high quality laced with blood and thunder played by Man Utd is breathtaking. You say this as if the concept of high quality, high paced football is something that Barca are incapable of producing. Man Utd are a great football side and I must admit that this is probably the dream CL final match-up ever since these two teams kicked into gear in December. But Barcelona can produce football of equal quality to Man Utd's, and in my opinion, can consistently produce football of a higher quality with the devastating counter-attacking that Man Utd are reknowned for. The fact that they don't do it that often is not because they can't, but because they don't need to. Why defend and look to counter-attack when you can totally dominate the ball and pass your way around the other team effortlessly? Ask any Man Utd fan whether they prefer the way Barca play or the way they've been playing and you'll get a pretty conclusive answer. Both teams have been equally successful this season so the difference between the teams is how pleasing their football is.