Tiresias

final score discussing how when chelsea beat barca how can abramovich not give di matteo the job permanently

Bit harsh, it's not all he's got! he's got a robbery conviction too

great goal from Wednesday there

Kenny Dagliesh as a baby there

I'd steer clear...

Suarez is just going to give our posts a good beating anyway, I'm mainly worried about Gerrards regular actually bothering against us performances

he smells!

not even close to subtle

Most skillful - Obertan Lovernkrands "very thick"

now that'll be to blame for Man City losing the title

Anyway this thread does seem to be forgetting joe cole is better than messi according to the mighty Gerrard

I know he does, but he does make it all seem more normal, may just be about how often he does it, but sometimes it's the mad failed stuff that charms, whereas with messi think very little of what he does is showboating or not actually helping him score.

He's a ridiculously good player, think a lot of the problems people have was identified think on football weekly, he doesn't have that wild fantasy element, like perhaps ronaldinho had or whatever where they'd do or try completely bonkers ridiculous feats and it wouldn't quite make sense. Messi is different, he just routinely is brilliant, but without flair I suppose. Arguably makes him better but also makes him a touch more boring. These players also tend to be characters, and while everything I hear about Messi is that he's a lovely humble guy...erm that's oddly disappointing, like discovering david bowie drinks tea or something.

Haven't wanted so desperately to hammer a team for a while (excluding sunderland, but was just worried about that game more than anything)...already getting nervous.

someone put that in Perchs thread title

aah well yeah, lee ryder is rubbish...I've been in the chrons offices loads of late (trainee journo below it) yet to see him though...ok wouldn't actually piss him off lol

Maybe I was imagining things but it was hardly a straight up 4-4-2, ben arfa didn't stick to the right at all.

i doubt he'll play again

Lee Ryder described our team as playing its traditional 4-4-2 against west brom on monday, completely failing to notice Jonas in the middle and ben arfa relieved of too much covering duties... I had a dream last night where we lost 4-3 to chelsea, Torres scoring a hat trick. I woke up incredibly relieved...

I suspect he will start with the three up front, what worries me is a slow start or a goal and he'll pull ben arfa off to try and bolster the defence, but i'm not sure how we can. Liverpool don't strike me as having too much pace so going at them seems the best defence we have left.

You don't need to do so in the premier league, maybe you need to in the champions league though, they're defense wasn't up to it so far, and Ferguson isn't dogmatic. Though not sure tiote is the answer for that anyway.

It's not necessarily about pure aesthetics though, you can only get points against the teams that are in the league, and when these teams have been tested outside the league in europe they both catastrophically failed to impress. How many points a team has accumulated only matters to a point in the long run. Again can't see anyone looking back at this man u side as a classic one, they're gritty, and it is totally impressive how they've ground out the season so effectively but it is just a little a brawl between has-been pensioners. Apart from City who are some young kid with no brain or something.

eeerm I agree...

City aren't operating great as a team, and have been less impressive to watch than Spurs for most the season. I agree entirely they've operated very well as a team etc, but in 10 years time is anyone going to be enthusing about the 11-12 man united squad? no.