francozola

well either one would be good. but Milan possibly have more chance of beating them.

As JT is probably out of this game, I guess we'll see one of the following defenses: Ivanovic - Cahill - Luiz - Cole Or Bosingwa - ivanovic - Luiz - cole Hope it will be the first one. Don't even want to imagine how Bosingwa will deal with Napoli's counters

I think he means that with that midfield which is totally devoid of any creativity whatsoever, Guardiola wouldn't be able to implement his style of football either

By the way, our board really needs to start putting performance bonuses in the players' contracts. Have a base salary of maybe 50-70% of what they earn atm and the rest should all be performance related. The likes of Lampard and Cole who are both probably on 150k atm (?) need to get these bonuses inserted into their contracts for next season (assuming they both improve their attitudes and support the manager, or else they can fuck off). Put both on around 50-60k a week base salary and the remainder will be based on how many appearances they make, assists, goals, clean-sheets, etc etc. Of course, this probably won't be possible as they already have existing contracts and will see no reason to accept the new one. Basically for players that we sign from now on, the board really has to think about doing this. I'm sure there already are such clauses in some of our players' contracts but they're not severe enough and with our board, those bonuses are probably on top of their already ridiculous 100-150k a week salaries. You think most of the current players actually give a shit about the results when they're taking home half a million pounds a month? Performances would improve when the players know that they're not going to earn their full paycheck until they do everything they can to get wins.

lol

Don't bother listening when your manager (i.e. your superior) is giving you instructions

It's great to see him doing well. If he keeps it up and shows consistent ability we can have him as a squad/rotation player next season and hence can save money and spend it in another area!

Delighted he's scored :D

To be honest Birmingham didn't attack on our left side very much. It was mainly Redmond v ivanovic on the right. Was a little disappointed with Bertrand's attacking. He didn't get forward as much as I would have liked. But still a decent appearance and needs to get more game-time

Yep do that Tomo Ahhh didn't manage to beat super_frank's Baselona so that means wont get promoted oh well! Had a 93rd min fk that hit the post grrrr

What did you guys think about his attitude? The commentator mentioned his body language when AVB was giving him instructions as he waited to get subbed on and I agree his body language was rubbish. Didn't even acknowledge that he was being spoken to. Fits my impression that he's one of the players causing the most damage in that dressing room atm Also it's funny how people suddenly think he's brilliant and it was scandalous to leave him out of the team today. Yes, he should have started over Meireles but lamps has been poor for a long time now and while he probably would have been better than Raul, I doubt whether he would have made much difference to that performance. That fk at the end was rubbish, too. Drogba would have been the better candidate. Drogba can get them wrong too but lamps has been consistently shit at freekicks for a while now. Anyway, not the best cameo but not the worst either. My point was - I'm not impressed by his body language.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Cahill. Thought he would be an average player but in both appearances so far he's been calm, assured on the ball and made very few mistakes.

Okay agree on most points. Torres probably played as its gonna be his last game for a while. Drogba understandably 'rested' for Napoli. Lukaku was injured I heard??? Meireles is a complete joke I don't get it either. He is awful. Either lampard or Essien should have started in his place. Glad to see he's dumped Bosingwa, now it's time to drop Raul as well.

Thought his substitutions were okay today. Drogba for Torres - no explanation needed. Kalou for mikel also a good change because mikel was shit and Kalou is a better option than Malouda. Mata going off surprised me but I guess he was being rested for Napoli. Anyway I couldn't really see us getting a winner tbh so while controversial I understand why he was taken off

Yeah with Meireles you always feel that he has some ideas but his execution is really poor.

thanks for that. Glad to hear it. But wouldn't be surprised if some plastics had joined in as well.

Alex, don't you agree that these types of woeful performances have been happening since last season under Carlo? Personally I think the AVB hate for this game is harsh. I'm not saying he's faultless, don't get me wrong.

Yeah Drogba was awful as well but at least he got the goalkeeper to reduce that ridiculous time wasting.

Yep that's our biggest problem. Our midfield takes way too many passes. Apart from his bursts and energy, Ramires isn't good with the ball and with a pass. Mikel lol. Meireles poor. Lampard poor. We just haven't got anyone there ATM.

And let's not kid ourselves, we've been playing this way even when Carlo was the manager. AVB didn't just enter into a wonderful team playing attacking football and MAKE them play this way. They've been like this for quite some time. AVB has quite a few flaws, but I still support him.

Oh yeah! Forgot about the Jose mourinho chanting. What a disgrace. Was completely embarrassed that they were actually singing that.

Not too bothered by this one surprisingly. I guess I'm already on hibernation mode til the summer. Wasn't nearly as bad as the commentators made it out to be. Yes, we were AWFUL, but it's basically the same performance that has been going on for 18 months, since Carlo. Defensively apart from the goal I thought we were okay. Cahill did a good job. Luiz was pretty solid too. Ivanovic did a great job against redmond, didn't even give him a sniff of the ball Midfield was very poor. Torres was atrocious, glad he was taken off. Sturridge was poor til the goal. Mata good in the first half, disappeared in the second. Understand why he was taken off. Drogba, lampard and Kalou all shit No creativity, no ideas.

Hopefully Barca will get Milan in the next round

I don't know if @feruz10 is his official twitter (probably is because there are quite a few pics of him) but he seems to be quite arrogant??? He just tweeted that he won't play for the Scotland u17s because he passed that stage a couple of years ago and refuses to step down a few levels. That's a pretty crappy attitude lol

This is a really stupid topic. I think a language barrier if there even is one is the least of our problems. I dont know about Bosingwa but Luiz speaks pretty good English now, considering he's only been here a year and didn't know any when he moved.