Champions League Round of 16 (16th Feb - 17th Mar)

Mb194dc

Full Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2015
Messages
4,687
Supports
Chelsea
Barcelona been conceding loads of goals recently, 3 to Granada, 2 v Seville, 2 v Betis etc. Not to mention last year in CL...

They're a poor team defensively and no real surprise PSG put 4 past them.
 

wr8_utd

:'(
Joined
Apr 22, 2008
Messages
38,262
Don’t know much about these guys Puig, Mingeza, Trincao and Pedri, any of them considered big talents?
Pedri has been brilliant, Puig has not been given the minutes he deserves (Koeman has a weird dislike of of him) and Trincao has only recently started showing promise. Araujo has been pretty decent in defense but he was out injured.
 

Cheech Wizard

Liverpool fan
Joined
Jul 2, 2013
Messages
6,809
Location
Lé Fylde Coast
Supports
Liverpool
Linekar sounds so depressed there talking about his precious Barca and Messi being smashed. Could barely hear him. Shit night for him, can't go tweeting tonight trying to stir up shit speculation about Klopp either. Dickhead.
 

Okey

Full Member
Joined
May 11, 2017
Messages
2,437
Gosh how poor are Barca?! Totally dominated. Messi anonymous. Sergino Dest is a laugh and a half.
 

wr8_utd

:'(
Joined
Apr 22, 2008
Messages
38,262
Gosh how poor are Barca?! Totally dominated. Messi anonymous. Sergino Dest is a laugh and a half.
Dest has been fairly decent this season. But there will be lots of knee jerk reactions around today :lol:
 

Deery

Dreary
Joined
May 21, 2019
Messages
18,590
Linekar sounds so depressed there talking about his precious Barca and Messi being smashed. Could barely hear him. Shit night for him, can't go tweeting tonight trying to stir up shit speculation about Klopp either. Dickhead.
His man-crush on Messi is really quite vomit inducing.
 

RashyForPM

New Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
3,183
This. Leipzig actually had the better chances. They lack some proper quality in that side though
I agree. I’m actually more convinced by Nagelsmann now than before the game, that he should be our next manager. Not just tonight, save for PSG in the CL semi, they never look like they are inferior to another team despite not having a single player anyone would consider top class bar the CBs. Under Nagelsmann, when they play Bayern, they are never outclassed despite Bayern being an amazing team. They got beat 1-3 by Dortmund and 5-0 by us, but I still didn’t think they anywhere near deserved those results, although I was delighted we hammered them.

Also, Nagelsmann is a front foot, quick-passing, counter-pressing manager. That is his primary tactic, not the counter attack. Bring him over here and let him implement his style with better players, and we’ll rip up the PL. Bruno will become a top 5 player in the world under him, and I don’t even know how to put into words how much I think Marcus will improve.
 

VorZakone

What would Kenny G do?
Joined
May 9, 2013
Messages
33,058
Messi has won 2 CL's in the last decade. While not bad (20%), you could argue it's too little for him. Ronaldo won 4!
 

UNITED ACADEMY

New Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2018
Messages
13,127
Supports
Erik ten Hag
To be fair he deserves some credit for still playing at this level, neither Rio nor Vida were exactly pretty in their twilight years. Its the clubs fault for failing to replace them properly
Vidic career was over as soon as he had injury while Rio was still regular for us in 34, 35 won the PL. Either way, the point is not about discredit Pique anyway.
 

FattyFooty

Full Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
898
Take a good look at Messi in a Barcelona shirt while you. Pray to the gods he goes to PSG and not City. He's past peak, but his peak was so high he's still in the top 2-3 footballers on the planet.
He's still good, but not top 2-3 anymore.
Not for me atleast.
 

awop

Odds winner of 'Odds or Evens 2022/2023'
Newbie
Joined
Sep 28, 2010
Messages
4,257
Location
Paris
Supports
Arsenal
What a performance from Mbappé, his first goal is a copy of the one he scored in the WC. Such quick movement and power with his left foot.
Curious to see if he'll go straight to Real, wait it out or come to Arsenal :angel:
 

Okey

Full Member
Joined
May 11, 2017
Messages
2,437
Dest has been fairly decent this season. But there will be lots of knee jerk reactions around today :lol:
Fair enough, my comment relates to just this game. I haven't really watched him much. Horrible display.
 

amolbhatia50k

Sneaky bum time - Vaccination status: dozed off
Joined
Nov 8, 2002
Messages
95,798
Location
india
An expected win for PSG. Barcelona are rubbish. Surprised they actually managed to go a goal up.
 

Cait Sith

Full Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2014
Messages
1,379
Barca without Messi would be only slightly above the relegation zone. You think I'm kidding but Ansu Fati is the top 3 scorer of the squad and he got injured in November after playing 6 games total.

Barca were slightly above the relegation zone before Messi picked up form again recently. Without his influence they will be back there with the current players and coach no doubt. Likes of Pique, Busquets, Alba, Griezmann are completely done and Pedri, Dest etc. don't even get into Sevilla's squad.
 

Eddy_JukeZ

Full Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
Messages
17,160
Barca without Messi would be only slightly above the relegation zone. You think I'm kidding but Ansu Fati is the top 3 scorer of the squad and he got injured in November after playing 6 games total.

Barca were slightly above the relegation zone before Messi picked up form again recently. Without his influence they will be back there with the current players and coach no doubt. Likes of Pique, Busquets, Alba, Griezmann are completely done and Pedri, Dest etc. don't even get into Sevilla's squad.
True, but Messi isn't blameless for their impotence in big UCL games the past few years.

Should have kept Valverde after all. Will admit he's a much better manager than I gave him credit for.
 

Bole Top

Full Member
Joined
May 2, 2014
Messages
3,549
I bet even in Barca they aren't really shocked by yesterday's humilation because it will happen again, it's simply where they are at the moment. I actually predicted Barca win, some kind of last hurrah for them, but around 40th minute it was already obvious what's going to happen, when Pique and Griezmann were telling each other to feck off. their current first 11 literally can't play against any decent team because they lack fundamentals. there's no physicality, desire, drive, nothing. they're disfunctional as they can be and there's simply nothing left in them to offer resistance when they face any decent team. they already lost to Sevilla, Madrid, Atletico in la liga/copa and Juve and PSG in CL. their only focus in current state should be future & finances, and ending the season in top 4 while beating minnows. it's not like they have any choice.
 

Bole Top

Full Member
Joined
May 2, 2014
Messages
3,549
Should have kept Valverde after all. Will admit he's a much better manager than I gave him credit for.
while it may be true, it's easy to say that now. Chelsea fans could also say the same for Morata given how poor Werner is, or Juve fans for Allegri if they knew they would end up with Pirlo.

the thing is, when their fans criticized Valverde, they did it while believing things will get better with their next manager. they certainly weren't expecting disaster that happened under Setien. it was the same when they criticized Suarez. obviously they wouldn't have wanted him out it if that only meant Suarez going to their league rival without Barca buying anyone. in both cases their board fecked up big time.
 

PoTMS

Full Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
16,436
Do people really think if we would have rocked up against Barcelona, we would have won? We could be playing Messi plus 10 randoms from La Masia and I wouldn't be confident against these Spanish cnuts! They are our bogey team.
 

Offside

Euro 2016 sweepstake winner
Joined
Jun 9, 2012
Messages
26,770
Location
London
Do people really think if we would have rocked up against Barcelona, we would have won? We could be playing Messi plus 10 randoms from La Masia and I wouldn't be confident against these Spanish cnuts! They are our bogey team.
You can’t really say they’re our bogey team because we lost 2 finals against their best, and possibly the best team of all time. We had a great record against them before. 1984, 1991, 2008...

We could definitely have beaten them they’re shite.
 

PoTMS

Full Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
16,436
You can’t really say they’re our bogey team because we lost 2 finals against their best, and possibly the best team of all time. We had a great record against them before. 1984, 1991, 2008...

We could definitely have beaten them they’re shite.
We lost to them twice recently when they were still pretty shit. We drew against them twice in 1998 despite being the better team. In 2008, we were very lucky to get away with a 1-0 aggregate win.
 

lex talionis

Full Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
14,178
Something like that maybe yes, I also find it very hard ranking him now. The current situation at Barcelona seems to me a mess.
I’ll take that. Messi has a mediocre squad around him now so it’s a bit easier to defend him but he’s still a deadly threat.
 

Daysleeper

New Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2014
Messages
4,790
Supports
Barcelona
You can’t really say they’re our bogey team because we lost 2 finals against their best, and possibly the best team of all time. We had a great record against them before. 1984, 1991, 2008...

We could definitely have beaten them they’re shite.
we beat you in 2019. We aren’t good but united have been losing to Sheffield and dropping points against west brom. PSG would’ve beaten united as well.
 

united_99

Takes pleasure in other people's pain
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,569
Do people really think if we would have rocked up against Barcelona, we would have won? We could be playing Messi plus 10 randoms from La Masia and I wouldn't be confident against these Spanish cnuts! They are our bogey team.
We generally have a terrible record against Spanish teams and our record against RM is worse than against Barca. At least we won a few relevant games against Barca, whereas against RM we only knocked them out once in 1967/68.
 

cyberman

Full Member
Joined
May 26, 2010
Messages
37,331
we beat you in 2019. We aren’t good but united have been losing to Sheffield and dropping points against west brom. PSG would’ve beaten united as well.
Na, we beat them when we were a lower ebb than now. We literally got outplayed by Brighton a game week earlier.
We have the pace to handle PSG, Barca don't.
 

RashyForPM

New Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
3,183
Given our current state, PSG would have destroyed us. No debate whatsoever.
Common knowledge. PSG in this form would smash Pool and Mbappe in that mood would even tear through this excellent City defence. My concern is that I genuinely feel Barca would have romped us yesterday. AWB and Lindelof have made Messi look like the Messi who played us in 2009 and 2011.