Neymar tries Isco Busquets: La Liga 13/14

copa de ray final between you know who and you know who else at 830, please may tata obey reason and not play messi or neymar on the right

del

looking frwd to seeing a alex song/mascerano CB pairing tonight seeing as the rest of Barca's CB's are injured. Pedro better fucking start and maybe Alexis too.

Ho hum it's the team that played last Weds vs Atleti I think.

nothing but scorn for whichever wastemen bought alex song play in order to play at least some of the time at cb

he played there occasionally for arsenal only because he was the only other > 6' tall outfield player they had at the time but it was obvious that his best qualities were never defensive ones, even as a defensive midfielder his most obvious assets were more to do with his playmaking ability than conventional defensive skills

Only Barca would buy a DM that didn't like playing DM and wanted to play further frwd and turn him into a CB

they underestimated how good seydou keita was, if they wanted to buy a player to do replace everything he brought to the side then they needed to spend more than £15m, and they needed to buy a dedicated centre back as well rather than attempt to buy one good but not great player to do both

not hugely enthused with the prospect of another attempt to buy david luiz in the summer

barc bought a dungeon master?

thought that was offside? shit from pinto

is modric now better than the current versions of xavi and iniesta?

pinto is a disgrace

fulham can have david stockdale as a reserve goalkeeper, west ham have jussi jaaskelainen and barcelona have that shithead

iniesta left neymar right is sort of painful to watch

1-1

excellent header from bartra

HANDBAGS

The Welshman Abroad

that goal probably establishes him as a real madrid player

it's been quite noticeable this season how reticent the rest of the players (not just the queeny 'cr7') are when bale scores a goal, he is one of only three non-latin players in the squad in addition to whatever resentments his record fee created

it wasn't really refined but good technique and sangfroid in the penalty area aligned with lightning quickness makes him a great player, maybe not a €100m player but enough to show the fee had some basis in reality

the way that neymar shot bounced off the post and into the arms of casillas was comical

kinda hate neymar now. hope he has a shite world cup tbh.

a lot more criticism of messi (and to a lesser extent neymar) from the worthless fans

anything other than robotic brilliance every single week and these wastemen congregate at airports etc and harangue him as a parasite and freeloader

there is something seriously & grotesquely sick in the mind & heart of anyone other than lionel messi who wears a barcelona shirt with 'messi' on the back. it is this sickness you describe

still think tata has fucked up but trying to avoid making a decision out of which 2 to play from the iniesta/xavi/cesc trio. Trying to shoehorn iniesta in wide left and neymar wide right clearly hasn't worked yet stil he persists. Messi central, Neymar left, pedro or alexis right. busquets at the base then pick 2 of the others. Maybe barca would still have lost the last 3 games but i'm p sure they'd have played better at least.

cesc has worked at times as a pseudo forward who bulks out the midfield but neymar on the right and iniesta on the left is an almost moyesian level of deliberate self-limiting

i never thought barca needed him, i said here years ago that modric would have been a better choice, and thiago is as good a like-for-like successor to xavi as one could hope for but the next manager needs to work on a post-xavi barcelona with cesc, iniesta and busquets together

that means they will have to adapt to something less than a pure retention style, and i can see why tata as such a belated essential caretaker appointee doesn't want to try to upset the ship

yup letting tiago go thru not giving him the required number of starts last season is 1000x more damaging than anything tata has done this season.

when you add in the neymar transfer shenanigans then you have the 2 most crippling blows to Barca's season. Kinda think they'll let tata go and try to consign this season's probable failure to his door.

thiago

tata is gone, rumours months ago that he didn't like the goldfish bowl lunacy of barcelona and would leave anyway

lot of shit about klopp in the barca press but i) did they read his comments the barcelona style (he would rather watch tennis) and ii) he doesn't seem any more likely to desert his self-made project than wenger was in the mid 2000s when he was linked constantly with madrid and barcelona

valverde is a possibility

http://www.marca.com/2014/04/17/en/football/barcelona/1397732354.html

lol

http://www.marca.com/2014/04/24/en/football/barcelona/1398371676.html

so farewell tito, a lot of dignity and a good manager who may well have become a great one
a lot of guts too, to manage barcelona in the midst of a hideous illness

i worry for atletico
away to valencia on sunday then chelsea three days later with the possibility of extra time

sevilla in 2006/07 were in an analogous situation where they tried for both the europa league and la liga and they couldn't manage it, they played a high intensity rapid sort of football and they didn't have great squad depth

i'd rather they won the league than the champions league but since it's chelsea, they have to at least reach the final

at least valencia had a game on Thurs night and may be more concerned with their 2nd leg vs Sevilla.

Think Atleti are good for a draw on Weds, hopefully a scoring one.

superb finish for raul garcia 0-1

oof costa fails to score one on one with the keeper

jesus christ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fV2K0b38Jc

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l1iLrEeeTOQ/SjdYcYKe7VI/AAAAAAAABBM/EeKW37EvVYI/s400/mendieta.jpg

"I don't know who threw the banana, but I'd want to thank him," Alves said later. "It gave me energy to give two more crosses that ended up in a goal."

Aah great they've bottled it.

Barca have the most reason to despair from this weekend. Although it leaves things tricky for them in that they probably need to win vs Atleti to overtake them while at the same time possibly handing the league to Real.

Madrid minutes away from another draw.

o my word, is atleti-barca now a championship playoff?

also, gerrinthere you fuckboys

they were playing pulis shit for the last five minutes, long throws and lofted passes into the box

if atleti and barca win their penultimate games then atleti have to draw and barcelona need to win the last game

absurd that barca could still win this after fucking up so many games recently

elche and malaga, both p pissweak. but you never know eh

atleti have to win won of these fucking things, no cups after this season would be so shit

it's no doubt happened before but it seems weird that 90pts would be enough for Atleti to win the league but 91pts might not be. Need both Barca and Atleti to win tmrw cos I'd quite like to watch a title showdown even if the last time they played was p convincingly won by Atleti.

Reading an article about Conte and had no idea that Ancelotti has 'only' won 3 championships as a manager, one with Milan, one with Chelsea, one with PSG. Don't know why that surprised me but it did.

Real Madrid losing, Barca and Atleti both drawing matches they were 1/5 on to win with ten minutes to go.

"USELESS. " --Pierre Boulez, 1952