Village Idiot

Wow Henry is such a shadow of the player he was. When he gets the ball of his feet you know that nothing will come out of it, nothing. He just fannies around, loses the ball, falls on his arse or ends up fouling someone.

FFS, I go to take a wee during half time and I miss Barça scoring. 0-1, Henry.

71% possession for us, although we have done fuck all with it on the last third.

Aren't they riding on a lot of debt because of their stadium? It's strange though, Arsenal just look 2-3 buys away from a title challenge, and they never do. For example not replacing Adebayor this season. Surely Van Persie stepped up his game, but his injury record is there for everybody to see, and Eduardo and Bendtner are well... not very good. Also one injury to one of their CBs and they are fucked.

You haven't got anyone to bring on either, shame. 0-0 HT, and a pretty boring game to watch. Unleash Messi and Zlatan, please.

Damn, we are wearing the draw shirt. Every time we wear that mango shit we end up dropping points.

Can I say it? Tino Asprilla. And no, it's not sour grapes

Hasn't really settled in that well at all so far imo. Obviously it's still very early days, but thus far hasn't looked anywhere near a £20+ million defender. I'm still cutting him slack. Márquez was woeful in his first season, yet he became a brilliant player for us later. Ridiculous pricetag for a semi-unkown defender, though, but it was Guardiola's pet wish.

Chygrynsky and Márquez at the back have the combined pace of an ice glacier. Hopefully Xerez are as shit as they look.

Did you sign a chick named Elena Marcelino? Surely she must have been a waste of money, don't think women can play in men's football.

Sorry, was just copy-pasting from Marca.

Barça's XI coming in: VALDÉS; ALVES, MÁRQUEZ, CHYGRYNSKIY, MAXWELL; TOURÉ, KEITA, XAVI; PEDRO, BOJAN, HENRY

Wenger really taking the piss off the Carling Cup with that Arsenal lineup. Rosicky and Song the only theoretical first choice of that lot? No first teamers on the bench? Would be mint if the won against ManCity first XI, though.

Defender, midfielder and forward. Is that a perfect injury hattrick?

I'm not betting expert. What does the -1.5 handicap mean? What's the difference with a -1 one?

What if they miss? They could have missed the one on one against the keeper, too. I'm fine with the sending off if it's really cynical (like the Taylor sniping incident), but regular fouling inside the box should just be a penalty.

Word is that Henry, Messi, Ibrahimovic and Piqué will be rested (Ibrahimovic and Messi just came off injuries to play in el Clásico). Busquets is banned.

I agree on limiting sending off players when a penalty is involved. A penalty is usually a good enough punishment, and getting a goal down and losing a player in the same play just kills a game.

Niel, I read in another forum that Pienaar is not willing to extend his contract and might leave Everton at the end of the season. Is that true or is it internet bollocking? Of course, he might want to play the World Cup card (SA is probably going to progress, face it) to aim for a bigger contract elsewhere.

My current contract runs out in May, if I don't get an extension I'll take solace in watching the World Cup at home.

Personally, I think every team should be forced to play with at least 5 strikers and no more than two defenders, including the goal keeper. Then there'd be loads of goals and extremely entertaining. If goals is the only entertaining part you can see in football, maybe you should try another sport? I hear they score loads of points in basketball. I believe there might be a village somewhere missing an idiot! I'm booked already.

Could have some legs this - too often do teams go 2 or 3 goals up with a good chunk of the game to go, and just sit on that and slip back into 2nd gear. Getting your money's worth and all that jazz. That said the team in front would argue they can do what they want with that lead and if they think the opposition has goals in them, playing more conservatively would suit them better. Put yourself in the 2-0 situation - if you're 2-0 up, and you're playing a pretty decent side who score regularly, what do you do? Need to recognise the defensive element of the game as well, I guess. In conclusion, I don't know. The old yank footie league (NASL) had some ludicrous rules like this. I think a team could get upwards to 9 points from a game depending on how much they scored. Personally, I have nothing against hard-fought 1-0 or similar results, and a good defensive performance against a big team should reap the similar reward as getting five past some shit opposition. I'm fine with the current point system.

Incidentally USA got lumped in the shit pot. Unless they get incredibly lucky with the draw, it's going to be very though for them to advance.

Teams and clubs have been named. Nobody in the first division (Zaragoza was in the second when this happened). Several of them are GKs, Grobelaar-tastic. Rayo Vallecano, UD Las Palmas López Vallejo (Zaragoza) Mario (Córdoba and Alcorcón) Ceballos (Córdoba) Piti (Rayo) Monty (Gramanet) Lucha (Amposta) J. Suárez (Ejea y Granada) No word on possible punishments yet.

Hopefully we won't drop a bollock like with Numancia last year. Xerez have looked truly hopeless so far.