The Skipper

Just your average Azpi performance, that's why. Always puts in a terrific shift.

Koke is not a creative player man... Come on. If he's a proper number 10 then so is Oscar.

You know I'm no Torres supporter of any sort pal, but I find the fact that people are blasting him quite absurd considering he did okay. He wasn't great or even good he was merely decent, wasn't bad as some are trying to make it out to be... Doesn't mean I or others are trying to praise him!

I don't believe his hands were tied at all, he had good options in Oscar and Schurrle who everyone knows are more than capable of effectively contributing to the defensive part of our game but could do something going forward. We basically played with 4 defensive minded central midfielders, and our most attacking option in midfield, Willian, was practically back defending as well, it was way too conservative. Even if he did start the game conservatively, once it was pretty obvious that Atletico did not really have the finesse at all to break us down he should've perhaps brought on a more attacking option in Oscar or Schurrle for Ramires - he was only forced to because JT got injured and then still the approach was to sit back very deep, can't really remember seeing Schurrle joining the attack once. As I said before IMO we gave Atletico way too much respect. We could've easily stolen an away goal if Mou allowed more men to be committed forward on the counter in the second half. He's too conservative in CL semis in general, but we'll hopefully beat these at the Bridge.

I agree with you in a sense that it isn't traditional Barcelona/Cruijf tiki taka, but IMO the essence of the tiki taka is still there. It's not Barcelona tiki taka but it's a variant - Pep has played people like Muller or Gotze as a false nine for Bayern before so the essence of the system is still there to be found in some variance. When Mandzukic is on it obviously changes to a more aerial game for them - but the idea is still there - defending with the ball and attacking with it via short patient passing, possession play however as you said they're more direct in a sense that Robben and Ribery carry the ball more thus making it a slightly more direct version. Apart from that the rest of your post is spot on.

There's no harm in that, especially if we somehow manage to beat them at their own game and win the PL.

We beat Liverpool and they're only 2pts ahead of us. Title race is only over if we allow it to be over.

No, it isn't the same. Real did that against a possession based, tiki-taka side in Bayern Munich, everyone knows that you sit deep and counter against a Pep side. Real were brilliant on the counter, committing 4/5 men forward. Us on the other hand whenever we did get the chance to counter only committed about 2 men forward. Plus, Atletico Madrid don't even play a possession based game. IMO (which I know I might get blasted for by some on here) we showed AM a bit too much respect. The line up we sent out there was okay, the defensive strategy we employed was impressive but we were horrible going forward on the counter. There's no denying that we could've been a lot more adventurous going forward on Tuesday night. We didn't need to play "attractive football" (whatever your definition of that is) but we were far too conservative I think.

According to The Guardian, the £30m, £100,000 p/week to United deal is almost done.

He is. He's scored 35 goals in 45 appearances this season. As mentioned above, Suarez hasn't done anything against us either, does that mean he's not a goal scoring machine either? Falcao faced a rubbish Chelsea with an inexperienced manager. You can't seriously compare our team now to the team it was 2 years ago.

Pass it to who exactly? He had no support, he had to dribble and try and create something. He won us two free kicks in decent areas but because we were just poor with our set pieces yesterday we failed to capitalise.

RR is definitely a good alternative but he's not 'miles' ahead of Shaw. Shaw is one of the best fullbacks in the PL already.

People are slating Torres but he's done decent tonight considering he's completely isolated up front...

It's parking the bus.

I don't mind the line up, I'm not disputing that. I'm disputing that (so far) whenever we have the ball we just seemed to be content at keeping it in front of our defence instead of actually trying to move it forward.

I don't mind the line up, I'm not disputing that. I'm disputing that (so far) whenever we have the ball we just seemed to be content at keeping it in front of our defence instead of actually trying to move it forward.

We're so negative ugh. Line up is good but we're respecting Atletico a bit too much.

Van Ginkel coming back next season is like signing another new midfielder anyway, so no, we don't need to sign two new central midfielders.

Good line up IMO. Happy Cole is playing and that Luiz is in midfield - if we need to go for a more offensive look just take off one of Ramires or Mikel, simple.

He'd 100% be first choice LB as soon as he joined up IMO.

Read it wrong thought you said you "want" him to start instead of wanted. Apologies.

They're too classy for that.

Eto'o's injured.

To be fair, Mata did not play as a number 10 in any of those games (IIRC).

You can also look back earlier this season and look at his performance against Southampton (who we beat 3-0 in their backyard) where he was absolutely impervious. He still has some good performances left in him but he's been completely under utilised by Mourinho this season, which is quite a shame.