Village Idiot

Mathieu had a good game imho. Xavi shouldn't play in this kind of big games unless he's part of a four-man midfield. I would have started Rakitic instead of Suárez and thrown in Suárez in the second half.

Well, that was about what I expected to be honest. But this is a marathon, not a sprint, and I expect us to improve quite a bit throughout the season.

Knew it, knew he would opt with Xavi. Ridiculous decision, but I think it's down to experience at Bernabeu. Suarez, Ney and Messi though Really strange though; all this talk about Xavi being pushed to the wayside (he's played little), and now he starts in the biggest game so far in the season. Good to see Suárez starting though, you don't leave such a player in the bench. Here's hoping he doesn't bite anyone before HT at least.

No Rakitic?

Worked for me last week! This is shaping up to be a quite shambolic week, anyway.

I was surprised no decent clubs went in for Song. He didn't look bad when playing for us, Lucho just preferred to reinstate Mascherano as DM and he had to go.

Would you rather have me play Mannone? Keepers are overrated anyway, as bad a season you are having, Krul is only 3 points behind Courtois. I always get the two cheapest starting keepers and rotate them depending on fixtures, I don't lose too much points vs getting a top goalie and get more money to spend in outfield players.

Dunno, the only outfit with good attacking players we've played so far (PSG) showed us up quite easily. If we were more solid at the back I'd be more confident. I think we'll lose but I hope to be proved wrong!

Talk is that he'll come on during the second half. Luís Enrique confirmed that "he'll play", but didn't say anything else.

http://s16.postimg.org/5a4phw1bp/Captura.jpg Yeah my defensive unit is pants

Busquets isn't nearly the cunt he was 3-4 years ago; he has matured a lot. He might not play today, anyway, he's been carrying a knock.

Gonna bench Chadli then; should he have a blinder against you I will take solace in the fact it should be another step towards Pardew's demise.

Gonna have a paella with some Madrid people for el Clásico. My record watching El Clásico with Madrid fans is awful; not a single win. Ready to get abused to death today

It's either benching him, Chadli (who has "playing against NUFC" bonus), or Berahino, who's on fire and has a good fixture too. I'm just afraid that if I play him, he'll be benched, come in the second half, get a yellow as usual and score a big fat 0. Of course, if I bench him he'll score a hat trick.

Biggest priority will be to get the new stadium finished - infrastructure investments don't count against FFP and it will help their revenues. So far they've been using third-party ownership to prop up Valencia's squad. dunno if that's going to be their way of squirting FFP or that was only temporary since Lim didn't actually own the club yet. Just achieving financial stability should be enough to improve their fortunes quite a bit, though.

Benched for now (all my other starters have very easy fixtures). I'm going to regret it.

Peter Lim's purchase of Valencia being finalised as of now, apparently. EDIT: Official now. No, Lim isn't doing drag; she's one of his representatives.

Valdés to train with ManU. Nice from Van Gaal, particularly given the fallout they had when he managed Barça.

So Hernández's roster name is officially "Chicharito"?

Even I'm livid

Gotta love that "lololol those idiots are attacking" mentality.

You've got not one but two Copa América in the interim!

Ayoze's full name is Ayozé Pérez Gutiérrez - damn cheaters. Also no Jonás.

Does Neymar have 23 assists in 58 games for Brazil? That's impressive. Should easily surpass Pelé in the Brazil scoring tables unless something goes massively wrong.

Man, I love watching CL games. That fucking anthem still gives me the goosebumps. I really hope you lot get back in there sometime, somehow. We had a great first half, and switched to second gear in the second. Messi seems obsessed with having 22452 assists this season, he made so many passes where he would previously have gone for goal, I wonder what's provoked this change in his playing style.