Village Idiot

Xavi is currently battling Raúl as the best Spanish player of all time, in my opinion. Even the pro-Madrid press acknowledge that nowadays. Alonso is still great, but he doesn't have Xavi's easeness in tight areas. He works best sitting back and spraying those passes around, and doing the odd run forward to relieve pressure of the forwards/AMC and giving them a passing option with the guarantee that possession will be recycled with a purpose. Real Madrid is full of direct players that are always looking to finish a play (and are great at that), and he's the only one with the football brain to start one. That's why he's so important for them and his importance so apparent, but he's not as good as our Xavi in my opinion.

Alonso isn't that much of a "last pass" kind of guy, though. He's brilliant and Madrid completely depend on him to give some purpose to their attack.

And Torres starting against Benfica.

Sahin starting against APOEL, big surprise there. (Xabi Alonso is banned for this match) It'll end up 0-4 or 0-5.

They had an excellent core, coming from their CL wins in the late 90s. The Galáctico policy worked at the beginning when people like Figo or Zidane were icing on that cake. It's when Pérez started dismantling the side he inherited (Makelelé sale, for example) in order to add more glamour signings when things went to pot. To this day the memory of Beckham being deployed as DM in order to find him a place in the side still brings a smile to my face.

The Galáctico era was actually relatively underwhelming, trophy-wise, given the players they assembled and the hype around it. 2 leagues and one CL in 6 years. They won more in the mid-late 90s Lorenzo Sanz era actually.

It was actually Ballack who took control of the midfield in that game. He should have won the wpoty that year after that amazing year with Leverkusen and getting Germany to the WC final too, but like you said Ronaldo won it for being Ronaldo and having one good tournament. Yh i should have explained myself, Zidane didnt do this often enough but his wonderful goal was enough to lead Madrid to the treble. As for Ballack he was wonderful player in his prime, iam 22 and i still havent seen a more complete midfielder. Only thing they won that year.

Aye, I really give little stock to WPOTY awards. Michael Owen has one FFS. It's fun to see Messi collecting them (long may it continue), but you have to take them for what they are; just look at how they are voted. Michael Ballack was immense that season, but he was victim of Leverkusen coming in second in everything.

Could have happened. We were heavily linked with him while at Bordeaux, ended up with Dugarry instead...

Hope that Dortmund manage to keep that core. Not too optimistic, though. It's a pity they had such dismal form at the beginning of the season, would have loved to eventually play them in the CL knockouts.

The Bernabéu is rotten, they just have a distortion field around it that makes it look lush to everybody. Only us Barça fans and people of good spirit see the truth Regarding the Marsellaise chant, is pretty popular down there but I don't know the origins of it. They just say something like "sing all together, let's raise our voices, so we sing all again come on Sevilla, come on, the Giralda will see only one team win (reference to Betis), the art and the "salero" of the team in the Sánchez Pizjuán"

Got one of his yellows rescinded from last game.

Real Madrid go one up after 5 minutes. Real Sociedad are going to pay for the last two draws I think.

Mallorca defended very well, Caparrós teams are great at that. He still could have easily bagged a couple more.

Still can't believe ManCity can very well throw this league. Honestly thought they would run away with it.

Really can't see Real Madrid dropping points three games in a row, but at least we kept the pace one more week. Next week Osasuna away can be a tough fixture for them. But we'll also face Athletic who are in a rather bad run and will need those points if they want to keep contact with 4th place. I'm relatively confident in beating them, though, they are coping very badly with their midweek European games (short squad).

Liverpool are weird this season, I will agree that generally they do look good (I think they are a bit flat going forward but they have a good platform to build from, regarding their possession and shape). However, they are getting some puzzlingly dire results, and will finish miles off their target. It will be interesting how they do next season though, if they get some stability. Such a mental place, though.

That should seal it,

Thiago sent off, fantastic. Why can't we have a pleasant away game for once. No way this should be a second yellow.

Referee has given the Barça goal to Messi, for those interested.

I know, they said it during the Mallorca - Barça broadcast like it was Earth-shattering news. Can only benefit us if he misses the first leg, mind.

I wrote to my local senator asking for them to be denied entry into Spanish soil when they drew Valencia in the EL. Fucking European Union.

Hierro was the best of both worlds, a dirty ugly b****** that moved the ball around like a ballerina. Think he was better in the DM role though, don't think he was good enough positionally as a CB.

It's far too much, but he'd do well there. Aye I agree. There aren't any defenders more comfortable on the ball than he is and that's imperative for Barça. I think we are looking mostly at a more athleticism-based kind of defender though, more Puyol than Piqué.

To be frank I'd not give much credit to the Luiz link. We are in the market for the CB and I the rags are just cycling through every defender we have been linked the past two years. There's no way we would (or could) pay so much for him.