Segun Oluwaniyi

Terry, Zouma, and Cahill all start for Chelsea in the final. It will be interesting to see how they line up. With Matic and Mikel both unavailable, there is not enough steel in the team to play Fabregas in his normal deep position against a team with a style like Spurs. Still think they win because Spurs' defence (Walker, Dier, Rose) is quite poor.

Colback, if still here and around the first team, will be captain when Coloccini leaves, retires, or expires.

Have you only watched NUFC for 8 weeks or what? Ridiculous statement. Can I have your username and password to this (secret?) database that contains these thoughts about who is interested in who? Tiote has been garbage this season but there really is no need to rewrite history. Oh great, Tiotefan99 returns. He's s***, he's been utterly useless for the best part of 3 seasons and has hopefully played his last game in the Premier League. History suggests had any manager shown genuine interest in him he'd be long gone. One day I sincerely hope you retrieve the username and password to common sense. The majority of teams in this league would still probably buy him. He is an player established in England and is seemingly decently rated everywhere outside of this forum. The top sides will definitely not have interest, but looking at some of the poorer players and money that is cycled throughout the lower Premiership sides, do people really think he cannot be bought for 5 million or more?

West Ham have been rubbish. I don't think they have come close breaking down Palace once from open play. CPFC look more likely to score...................and they have.

Palace have had the better chances and should have had more if not for Puncheon's continual poor decisions.

I have my apparatus set up to watch this London derby, but I cannot see it being anything other than atrocious and a waste of time.

Another change is that the 2023 African Cup of Nations will apparently be in June now, because the World Cup is now one month apart from when it was originally scheduled. I have no problem whatsoever with either of the two locations for the next two World Cups, but the haphazard and obviously corrupt nature of this whole process is fairly ridiculous.

How can you give the ball away in that position, and not even have the desire to chase it? He wouldn't have been tired, either, as he was only on ~10-15 minutes. Lad he was chasing was too quick, Ox tried. He was too quick because Chamberlain was stood still staring at the ball instead of chasing back, following runners after giving the ball away in deep midfield. It was terrible. Tbf, the likes of Kondogbia and Moutinho are top class players that could be at bigger clubs and came from very big clubs. Martial and Wallace were very impressive, but I was most surprised by Monaco's defensive effort. The likes of Uwa Echiejile, Toure, and Abdennour are not young starlets or top talents left over from ASM's spending spree. They are simply experienced, average professionals who stood up to Arsenal all match.

How can you give the ball away in that position, and not even have the desire to chase it? He wouldn't have been tired, either, as he was only on ~10-15 minutes.

:lol: Arsenal are an embarrassment, here. Such simple goals.

I was just about to recommend NUFC signing him, but that was awful from Kondogbia for the goal. The guy clearly never played basketball. You never leave your feet running towards a shooter. Never. Arsenal will go through now.

I'm stunned by this result, tbh. Monaco are a good side and very difficult to beat, but Arsenal just have more quality. Arsenal look beaten mentally. Still, if Arsenal can score a goal here to make it 2-1, I think they will win the tie. If a goal is to come, it will probably be from Walcott. Uwa has struggled with his pace throughout the match.

I really do not believe there was any reason to dive like that for the header. He made it unnecessarily difficult.

I don't understand that substitution at all. Basketball is my favourite sport, it comes from there, tbh.

Got Villareal to within inches of a champions league final and Malaga to within seconds of a semi final It's City who can't do Champions League footy, like. Rolling over sides in the league with mercenary players every week probably isn't the best preparation for facing Europe's most prestigious teams. Their squad is pretty poor for the money they've spent They've got lots of quality players and lots of pretty mediocre ones. For what they've spent players like James Milner should've been off years ago. Milner has a role to play, especially in the league, it doesn't need to be an All-Star team. The defense is absolutely terrible, though. Only Zabaleta is truly great, Kompany overrated, Mangala not ready, Demichelis physically limited, no real quality at leftback.

There were rumours of him going to West Brom. Navas hasn't done anything in a City shirt. Amazed he's still there, let alone getting the odd game. I thought he was very good against Chelsea, tbf. He gave Azpilicueta many problems throughout the match and was involved in the goal. Regardless, if Navas isn't good enough, they should sign a wifeplayer with a bit of pace, giving they have unlimited funds. They are too pedestrian, especially when Toure is out.

Very surprised Jesus Navas wasn't picked for this match. Despite the match being in Manchester, Barcelona have 10 players in City's half at times, yet they have no one to exploit this because their is no pace outside of Ageuro, who has been consistently isolated.

Agree. Was hoping to see a good match tonight. Oh well. at the same time I do enjoy watching the mighty PL gettin well and truly bummed. Surely no one really thinks the PL are mighty on the European stage though. Even Sky etc can't, they just bill them as such for the mula. The three best sides in the world are quite clear, imo, and none of them are in England. It is still the best league, imo, though.

Messi is perfect. The only downsides to his game relate to his physical deficiencies.

Check on this in seven years time. People went to scary South Africa, they went to backwards Brazil. They will go to rogue Russia. They will go to questionable Qatar. It will be fine.

It will continue being the most watched event regardless if 2022 is held in Qatar or on the ISS. The only thing they are jeopardising in any way is attendance, but I am very sure this will still be very high. The World Cup is an unbreakable institution. The matches will surely be on in the US morning, and those sports only have a full docket of games once per week. It shouldn't be an issue.

They should just loan him to a lower league club, maybe Brighton where he has a friend. He has no future and should be given a showcase to try and continue his career.

Garcia is very attacking as well What is wrong with playing reactive football, anyway? When done well and not implemented by a fearful incompetent, it is probably the easiest way for a club of our financial strata to succeed in this league. The recent trends in international football have also seen successful unfancied teams playing compact counter-attacking ball. The forums been saying for years how we just want some decent attacking football. Being reactive is inherently fearful. I don't think being reactive is the natural way for a NUFC side to play. We have a big stadium and a big pitch. We are an isolated club with a lot of support. We need to be "up and at them" to get the blood flowing through the veins. Our most successful sides in living memory where exactly that. It's our identity. Look at our stadium, pitch and fans. Tight and compact counter-attacking isn't going to work. The crowd gets edgy quickly. And we aren't an unfancied team ffs. Even now, of the 19 other teams in the division. We should EXPECT to get a draw or win against at least 13 of the teams at SJP. We should get a minimum of 30-35 points at SJP every season. The main determinant of success in football is money, and as things stand, there are several other teams willing to spend significantly more. As long as this is the case, NUFC will be a team that is unfancied to finish in the upper echelon of the league. I understand your points about the history of the club's style, but I don't believe sentiment is as important as you think. The team has finished higher than 7th one time in the ten years since SBR was sacked. I believe the important thing is success and competitiveness. I think people are criticising Galtier too harshly here. When he took over at ASSE, they were in the relegation places, and he has built the team up very well. His side's attacking play has not been very good this season, but this is mostly because they lack quality in the attacking third. They were a greater attacking force with better players at the club. Players like Gradel, Mollo, Erdinc, Ricky van Wolf, etc, are just not very good and there is not a real creative force in midfield, either. This is a club that sells big players every season and have lost the likes of Aubameyang, Payet, Matuidi, Zouma, etc in recent years. He has done well with what he is given, frankly.

Garcia is very attacking as well What is wrong with playing reactive football, anyway? When done well and not implemented by a fearful incompetent, it is probably the easiest way for a club of our financial strata to succeed in this league. The recent trends in international football have also seen successful unfancied teams playing compact counter-attacking ball.

This is one of my biggest annoyances with football. It is not exaggeration to say that Barnes put Matic's career and livelihood at risk by coming in that way, you are expecting his leg to snap when you watch the replay for the first time. Yet, nothing is done about it during the match, and it is not unlikely that he gets away with no punishment. In the same incident, one grown adult male pushes the another grown adult male in the shoulder, and it is an automatic red card that sees him banned for an entire month. Stupidity. Barcelona were awful yesterday, btw. Alves' error for the goal was amateur and they were flat throughout.