Daniel1980

Asian? I'm in Asia right now. Let's see... there are too damn many, though.The country would be helpful. Asia is too big. Chinese? Japanese? South Korean? Or maybe from Central Asia? Just to narrow it down a bit.

At this point, I just want a win. 2:0 will do. 2 goals from midfielders.

Sad to hear that, but all the best, mate.

This. He's a City player. We should cheer our own players. If was fucking embarrassing enough how instead of cheering our own players, our away fans cheered Frank. IMO, it threw our players off and they seemed to lose their concentration when Frank came out.

Not saying that he's coming, but: 1) the £200m "we could have spent on Pogba, Varane, Reus," we most certainly wouldn't spent on Pogba, Varane, and Reus. Spending £200m on Messi, arguably the greatest player ever, is different from deciding to spend £200m on a bunch of great talented players -- no club in their right mind would do it in one transfer window(well, unless you're Real or United, but we aren't them). You can't compare Pogba, Varane, Reus's marketing appeals to Messi's. 2) he wouldn't necessarily cost £200m. If Messi says he wants to leave, Barcelona can't keep him. You don't keep an unhappy player who doesn't want to play for the club anymore. So they'd be forced to sell. It all depends on Messi. If he says he wants to go just to a certain club, that would lower the price, because Barca would lose the leverage. Example: Cesc's transfer to Barcelona. Arsenal really didn't want to sell, Arsenal fans didn't want the club to sell, but Cesc wanted to leave, and he wanted to go just to Barcelona, so Arsenal were forced to sell him and sell him far cheaper than he would have normally cost. So if Messi really wants to leave after this season, he'll leave, and not necessarily for £200m. That said, I would have preferred if we signed Pogba, Varane, and Reus, but it would never happen.

Tbh, it might mean nothing. He'd hardly admit on the Spanish radio that he is trying to convince Messi to leave Barcelona even if he was trying to convince Messi to leave Barcelona.

Yeah, right, Frank. Doesn't make a sense at all to extend his stay at the club he joined only to "keep myself in the best shape." BS. A liar and a coward.

Yeah. It's the same with Hazard, but Hazard is younger than Matic and Fabregas, so he should be able to recover faster than the pivot lads. Fabregas and Matic are also in Top 3 in the entire PL when it comes to the distance covered (Fabregas is second -213.2km; Matic is third with 210.2km). It is kind of worrying, considering that we don't have adequate substitutes for them.

Hmm...The company is very random? Pepsi.

If our fans cheer him at the Bridge instead of cheering our own players, I'd be so fucking mad.

Riight. I think it's pretty clear where Frank's loyalties lie.

LOL isn't this the third game in a row Real Madrid are losing? Milan, Valencia, and now Atletico. So much for them being unbeatable.

It's not fair to expect miracles from him. Atletico aren't exactly the most creative or scoring side around. They scored measly 12 goals from open play this season.

Don't get me wrong: I think Koke is a very promising talented midfielder, but if we are to replace Oscar, I would prefer to have someone a bit more decisive creatively at CAM. We already have Willian who is not decisive enough. Though I think using Koke in 4-3-3 with Matic and Fabregas would work, but IMO, Koke cannot be the leading midfielder and the playmaker to dictate the play. We could also play him in the pivot next to Matic and move Fabregas to the hole to do the playmaking from higher up the pitch, but Koke should not be a direct replacement for Oscar - creatively it wouldn't be much of an upgrade if he plays #10.

Yeah, Spanish NT is a mess at the moment, but still, he doesn't seem to do all that well when he has a lot of possession. Actually, according to WhoScored, we and Atletico have practically identical "Action Zones": 31% in the attacking third. I know that Koke creates the majority of Atletico's goals from set pieces, but that doesn't make Koke a creative playmaker - it makes him a great set piece taker, is all. We aren't doing too bad in that regard either, but unlike Atletico, we score a lot more goals from open play too. And in open play Koke doesn't bring that much to the team. The fact that Atletico scored 12 goals from open play in half a season is very poor, regardless of their set pieces - we scored 30, with about the same amount of possession as Atletico. It says nothing good about Atletico players' creativity. Look, I know where you're coming from - Oscar isn't the most creative player around and I'd be happy if we get someone who could offer more in attack, but Koke isn't the answer. Oscar has his flaws, but he created 27 chances from open play this season. Koke created just a bit over 10. Regardless of Koke's superiority in set pieces, he should do more in open play to be called a playmaker. Cesc has created over 40 chances from open play in addition to the set piece chances. That's what a playmaker is supposed to do.

Koke isn't exactly a creative force when he plays for Spain and Spain completely dominate possession. In the games I watched him play in 4-3-3 midfield with Busquets and Cesc, Koke looked out of place and seemed to be struggling. He's a talented lad, but I've seen nothing from him that suggests he's particularly creative or can dictate play. He's not a playmaker. He's a very good midfielder, but he's not a creative playmaker. We actually don't have a lot more possession than Atletico do. Atletico have the average possession of 52%. We have the average possession of 56%. The difference is negligible to explain Koke's little creativity from open play. Hell, even Matic creates 0.6 chances per game playing a DM, which is almost the same amount of chances Koke creates from open play. I'm not a big fan of Oscar, but he's not less creative than Koke. Koke's set pieces boost his stats a lot. And he's more hyped than Oscar.

Either way, thanks Leo for plenty of free positive publicity. It distracted everyone from our less than stellar results lately.

It's pretty mind-boggling that Messi is only ~3.5 years older than Hazard. Seems like he's been around forever. Same with Fabregas.

Yeah, many people have the misconception that Koke is a creative playmaker. He isn't. Most of the chances he creates are from set pieces. Oscar actually creates more chances than him from open play. Koke creates 0.7 chances per game from open play. Oscar creates 1.6 chances per game from open play. In comparison, Eden creates 2.4 chances per game and Cesc creates 2.3 chances per game from open play. Koke is not what many people think he is. He wouldn't add more creativity than Oscar.

Messi is a closet Chelsea fan. And he's holding Cesc's daughter to boot! Clearly he's coming.

What I don't get why Courtois and Luis followed him out of the blue. I can get why Cesc's gf would help out her friend and Messi put pressure on Barca, but why would TC and Luis do it? It looks like Messi followed Chelsea, then TC and Luis followed him, and he followed them back, right? Pretty damn weird. I doubt TC and Luis are the only footballers following him and I've seen no evidence that he's friends with TC and Luis. Weird.

Not really. Sometimes he just seems very unmotivated. The current Barca team is very average. There is no midfield and Messi often has to drop very deep and play as a midfielder and create chances for others because no one in the midfield does it.

Are Messi and Cesc's girlfriends trolling everyone?

More importantly, can he play in the pivot??

The only reason I don't completely disregard these rumors as BS is Messi's girlfriend, Antonella. She and Cesc's girlfriend are best friends, and Antonella seems to spend a lot of time in London with her. Never underestimate the power of a woman.