Village Idiot

Yay, no clean sheet points for all my FF rivals touting Manyoo defences Plus I have Bent on my team

Fair enough, more chances of oogling hot brazilian women in skimpy outfits while watching reputed sport competitions

Rescue Frank Rijkaard from Turkey, give him an Assistant Manager that lays down the law like Hen Ten Cate in his first Barça years. Enjoy the show.

Pay up Pompey, pay up?

And Villa's on 7 before tomorrow's match. Happy goalscoring times in Spain.

As a Marseille supporter, I'm conflicted about that result. It means that we are only three points behind second with Zurich up next. However, it also means that third place is by no means a guarantee. I just hope we can take care of business about the Swiss team, because I don't see Milan getting that lucky against us twice. We were rubbish in the second half of this game, but the first half performance leads me to believe we would have a chance of getting at them in the Velodrome. Madrid is very like that so far. Poor most of the game and then they just come up and pound on the opposition in 10-15 minutes.

Just watching the Atlético highlights and I see that they lost their keeper at min. 28 That means Atlético is without their first, second, and third choice keepers at the moment...

Milan This really opens up second place on that group though. Also Atlético keeps being shit.

Jimmy Nail is a fan, isn't he?

Peter Beardsley http://www.ligafutbol.net/wp-content/2009/08/leo_messi.jpg Leo Messi http://cahyana.info/wp-content/uploads/peter_beardsley_gallery_460x340.jpg

Wahey, came back to see we won 2-0 and Inter dropped points. That's very nice. Chuffed about Sevilla strolling over Rangers, they should be a shoe-in for a playoff spot.

Also, I have just been called to a meeting which means I'm missing the Barça game. Quite pissed off at the moment.

What has he done?

Poor Eto'o.

Russian teams are hard to beat in their turfs, particularly when the cold months approach. We are playing them in November, with an expected temp of around -5º minus.

What are SJP's and SoL's UEFA ratings? 4-star for both?

Nice article there. I always despised Laporta, but I have to grant him his success on the field despite his antics. However, his most valuable directors and aidés have progressively abandoned him over the years because of his arseholic ways and Napoleon complex, so I don't think he's the reason for it anymore and can't wait to get rid (and hope the replacement is decent). This guy would be my choice, but I'm not 100% sure mind, former director under Laporta and the man that brought Ronaldinho and lobbied the deals with Nike: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandro_Rosell Fuck, just realized I care more about this election than the real ones,

He should puts his boots on and take those set pieces, some awful delivery there.

How did Faubert ever become a Real Madrid player, he's embarassing Shows what kind of a mess was Real last year.

Has had knee problems iirc.

Pedro Rodríguez is a decent cover, but not good enough for being the main starter on that position if you ask me. He has, however, improved massively in the last couple years so he might be a late bloomer and still surprise me. Chygrynsky has so far been slow and often caught out of position. Looks comfortable on the ball but still overall disappoiting. He's just landed and doesn't speak the language though, so I'm cutting him slack until he settles. Piqué's been... awesome. I'm the first surprised by his performance. He is indeed not quite fast, which makes him and Chygrynsky not the best pairing, particularly when they both like to go forward. He is very strong (for a Spanish defender) and great at positioning as you've said. His "clumsiness" I think it's more rashness, which experience will solve. He sometimes just doesn't take the best decision. He and Bojan are a bit alike on that regard, young and with loads of ability, but they need to learn when to do what. Piqué's best asset though is how ridiculously confident he is on the ball. Sometimes he just works as more a holding mid than a central defender, bringing the ball forward and scoring quite often. Milito I can't really comment. Liked him lots before coming to us, but he's hardly featured and I'm afraid of what kind of fitness he can muster. Overall, we have the ball so much (and our attack-minded defenders have helped in that) than the defense hasn't been really tested. But we have looked very very fragile to counterattacks. We'll see when we face decent opposition (Valencia away coming up soon). Márquez is going to be a backup this season with the emergence of Piqué. He has also been losing his fitness due to age, and he never was the quickest player to begin with. They are similar, good footballing defenders that rely on positioning more than pace, and able to build play from the back.

Looks like Sheva might miss the Barça - Dinamo game due to his face needing stitches after an Ucranian league game. He still wants to play since the game is on his 33rd birthday though. I know he is waaaay past it, but that 0-4 he and Rebrov inflicted on us still haunts my dreams

Ronaldinho still looked it would be capable of doing all his canny stuff if he got arsed about it during his last season with Barça, but guess he just doesn't care anymore. And what happened to the Kaká money? I recall Huntelaar being their only big name signing, and that was for a mere €15m IIRC. Are they having financial problems?

Sounds like idiotic tough-guy grandstanding that's only going to make things worse. All players should take his word for it and fuck off in January.

Shit, looks like I'll need to find footage of that save, somehow. Maybe I can get the match highlights...