Arse Barca

[Arjan Van Schotte]

absolutely superb game start to finish. fantastic stuff.

also, pep guardiola is cool as fuck.

[Ted Hughes]

Barca suffered from the same thing I've been pointing out about YayaToure; they do all their defensive running in short bursts. Yaya looked like superman defensively at Barca, when he got a five minuite rest between chasing the ball. For us he only gets 20-30 seconds off & has to run again; he can't. Neither can Barca.

All this bullshit about their wonderful workrate/ ability to close sides down; it's their passing that's womderful, not their closing down. Without the possession, they wouldn't have the legs to close down for long spells. It's not that difficult to run like fuck for about for 5 to 10 seconds every five minutes after passing the ball at your own pace against a tiring oppo. Barca should have scored five but they didn't & they finished with a defence that would have struggled against most of the Prem, not just Arsenal; they were fucked & they were wide open.

It shows the importance of keeping the ball as a defensive as well as an attacking tactic. Bob knows that, but the players haven't fully got it yet. We were playing exactly like Barca at Stoke until Toure leathered the ball to their keeper & fucked it up.

Roberto,will never allow the freedom Barca have, Xavi Iniesta Messi were not at full throttle last night, At times in the 1st half Arsenal looked lost despite winning the game they were a level below a gear short and they are the best footballing tean we have. I still expect Barca 4 Arsenal 1 in the 2ns leg. Compared to our Euro night we play anti-football at times and as blue I sit in East Level 2 bored at times. To much of hold what we have, IMO if we do that until the end of the season Tears will be flowing and Roberto will be gone.

No team plays exactly like Barca & it's unfair to expect Mancini to do so after a year in charge. Barca used to try & do what they're doing now & then get fucking hammered. Our fans would never have the patience to allow someone to build something like that. They would start spitting their dummys out after a few months if it didn't work immediately.

Hughes tried to build an attitude into the team where the priority was that we always tried to play on the front foot; people whinged about it & called him clueless because it didn't always work. They wanted more accent on defence. Mancini is trying to do it the other way & people are starting to get on his case. What the fuck did they expect? Completely change the whole philosophy of the team overnight? Flick a switch & we're Barca going forward but Juve from the 70's at the back?

There are a lot of similarities in the passing game & interchangeable forward positions that Mancini is TRYING to put together & the way Barca play. We'll probably sack him before he even gets half way to building the 1st stage of it.

I never thought I would say this about Roberto, but as a repected coach with a pedigree higher than Hughes, he is not that much more savvy, It appears to me he is samey, he has dissapointed me in not Keeping Bellamy and man managing the welsh loon, he is a massive miss and a mistake which we will regret.

Imo the only coaches with 'pedigree' in the Prem, are Wenger & Ferguson. Every now & then a coach can come in & instantly do ok but it's usually after other managers have done all the spadework. If Mancini had been around since Frank took over, half the players he bought during that period would now have been sold & replaced & some of the players he replaced them with would then themselves be replaced until, through a mixture of good planning & learning from mistakes, he assembled a side he was happy with. That's where we are now; he's keeping some of Hughes players & replacing others, as Hughes would have done. It takes time.

The only current PL manager who has assembled a trophy winning side from scratch is Ferguson. Every other manager, including Wenger (& Mourinho for that matter) had someone else do the groundwork & added their style to it.

If Mourinho took over next season, Hughes & Mancini would have done most of the hard work. Even if he won the title & the Champ's Lg it would still take him 10 years to get a side playing like Barca, as it would Guardiola if he took over.

I repeat, the only manager so far to build a PL title winning side from scratch is Ferguson.

[Beeks]

I'm getting sick of this praising of other teams whilst slagging off our own

We used to have a bit of fucking humility...now we are just turning into spoilt Chelsea fans

[Hazy2]

As we know Ted is not given to managers and as we have a revolving door !!, Mancini has/HAD the tools he needs to use them IMO.
Failure is a big fat cheque wheel in the next one. For me Roberto can be given time, but for the love of god do not play the keep it tight bollocks it aint working.

[Hazy2]

I'm getting sick of this praising of other teams whilst slagging off our own

We used to have a bit of fucking humility...now we are just turning into spoilt Chelsea fans

Bound to happen mate and we do resemble Chelsea, one paced. Knowing MCFC and you know it is coming Torres will burst into life the day we turn up. I have no issue with supporting the manager, in fact I like him, I just wish we would Smash lesser sides with the quality we have, Notts County should be a stroll in the park a bit of huff and puff 6,000 away fans screaming. OK fINE we win 4-0 all the best. One of my mates said Aris are unbeaten at home in 40 yrs in Europe, FACTOID, 16 of which they were not in. League of Wales teams can claim 10 defeaats in 40yrs, until you take a look and see 10 x qualified in 40 yrs, Aris were shite 0-4 should have been a given for MCFC.

[Ted Hughes]

I don't think Mancini has been over cautious recently, we've just not clicked going forward for some reason, it happens. It happened under Hughes sometimes & he was a very attacking manager. It fell apart completely under Sven, almost fell apart under Hughes & has almost almost fell apart at times under Bob. At this stage of development things can go wrong & usually do.

There are lots of things I think Bob could be doing better & I strongly disagree with some things he does, but I feel the same about Wenger & Ferguson too. They're ahead of us but they still make mistakes, some real stinkers. Are rags really better than us away from home? Would we have been happy with Arsenal's performance at the swamp? Do we know for sure Arsenal won't play like that again in a few weeks when the pressure is on? If they do fuck up their coming big games, are the people who are praising Arsenal now, going to come on here & give Wenger the same criticism Bob is getting? If not, why not?

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

It was a great game last night and Arsenal were really impressive in their resilience and persistance in playing the way they want. However you'd have to still think Barca will have enough to get through. Only time will tell if they have indeed become so entraped in their own football.

As for us playing the same way? Forget it. These are teams that play together for years and keep a manager for more than 18 months. It takes time to perfect this style of play.

[CityFanFromRome]

Aris were shite 0-4 should have been a given for MCFC.

This is the kind of attitude that irks me. a 4-0 win is not guaranteed for anyone, against anyone. You cna be Barcelona and go play at a third tier team's place, and you're still not guaranteed you'll win easily. It's highly probable, yes, but not a given.

[Ted Hughes]

Aris were shite 0-4 should have been a given for MCFC.

This is the kind of attitude that irks me. a 4-0 win is not guaranteed for anyone, against anyone. You cna be Barcelona and go play at a third tier team's place, and you're still not guaranteed you'll win easily. It's highly probable, yes, but not a given.

Barca haven't won any of their away games in the Chump's lg this season as far as I know.

Correction: they beat Parafiinitihoskos. Drew at Copenhagen & Rubin.

[Hazy2]

For me the issue is grabbing 3rd and if we have to 4th not limping and being fucked over in April when Spurs complete the annual 3 points haul at COMS, sorry for the pesimcfcist it comes and goes.