Village Idiot

Guangzhou are very well drilled, it looks like Scolari has done a good job with them.

Ugh, poor Chinese lad. Horrific injury. Suárez goal.

He would never leave, but the only way I could see it happening is if Guardiola comes calling.

Not liking the prospect of Guardiola managing City re: a Messi bid.

Neymar makes the bench for the CWC semi-final. We're putting out a decently strong team, I hope we don't regret it this Sunday since River will have one more day of rest (and will give several more f***s).

Marca are claiming that Ancelotti is heading to Bayern at the end of the season, and that it will be announced in a few days.

I want Leicester to lose, if somebody does it big in the Premier League, I want it to be NUFC.

I think it's a problem when Sissoko is your most creative player. But that's no reason to drop him, certainly!

Espanyol sack Sergio González, after a Carver-esque run of 1 win and 7 defeats in their last 8.

Meh, Arsenal. Seems we always play an English team in the first knockout.

Those 3 months were Real Madrid looked great were bookended by 12 months were they looked unassuming except the occasional game (let's not forget that they had given up on the league when they won La Décima the year prior). At some point you have to accept that Real Madrid's level is not the one displayed during those 3 months, but probably closer to the other 12. They have a collection of great players that can carry them, but there's no team in there. For example our midfield looks poorer on paper, but we have players with the different profiles and skillsets required to build a balanced midfield. Meanwhile they have Kross, James and Modric - great players but not a balanced midfield. People yell at Rafa playing Casemiro, but at the end of the day he's their only midfielder with any kind of defensive nous. Pérez has mangled the team like he mangled the Galácticos during his first stint. Long may it continue.

You must be loving that appointment I just hope he sort of hangs in there, if he does too badly he might get sacked before it's too late.

Well, once again Rafa bails us out. Pity that Simeone isn't obliging too.

So, we hit a bad run and you suddenly hit a winning streak. Related?

In Europe? I don't think so, but I would have been too young back then. Given the bad run of Spain in the EC in the 70s and 80s, it didn't get much coverage over here either.

Yeah, over here it's the EL of tinpot cups. Most people here are arguing whether it will hurt our league chances like Real Madrid seemed to crash and burn right after winning it last season. It would be a bit of an embarrassment if we lost, mind. Meanwhile Neymar is crazy about playing in the final, even if that means doing it while nursing an injury.

We need those January signings (I'm including Turan and Vidal in here), like there's no tomorrow. The team can't cope in the last 15-20 minutes.

He was pretty good in the first half, but our whole midfield got overran during the second.

Leverkusen Sorry I'm having a bad headache tonight.

Ter Stegen had a great game today, he needed that. We played with the kids+Messi so Stuttgart were on top of us for long stretches of the game.

I have no idea who this Kaptoum lad we are playing is.

The award is merely two years old. And yes quite funnily it has never gone to a Barça player, which has been cause of derision.

Heh, just came back from having a few beers with friends. I even had NUFC notifications turned off from my phone as I was expecting the worst. Congratulations What a fucking weird club though.

All in all, we've played all the top teams in La Liga at their place (Madrid, Atlético, Valencia, Sevilla) and managed to emerge from that run being top. Given that we'll be at home against them in the second half of the league, I'm cautiously optimistic. Arda and Vidal will add much needed depth.

Yesterday's game shows why we need Arda and Vidal so badly. We controlled the game and deserved more goals, but in the last 20 minutes or so we looked jaded and there wasn't any decent sub in the bench (granted, there are some injured players too), that's when Valencia was able to break the game.