OneMoSalah

Not long ago he was saying we don't need another CF because we had Michy and he can play as a striker and now hes complaining because he played as a striker v Barca after saying all that stuff in the run up to the game about wanting to shine v them? Ridiculous. Or False 9 position or striker or whatever his position was. I agree with him he was better on the wing but unfortunately Eden Hazard is not manager and quite frankly the game plan of him as a false 9/striker worked excellently although he was restricted in his involvement. Willian for example excelled and played arguably his best game for us.

Sanchez, kinda glad he went to United and not City, because he was useless in Mourinho's system, imagine him in Pep's team. United should receive a lot more criticism though for cash they've spent and playing that poorly against Sevilla, who in all fairness have been pretty shite this year.

Really starting to fuck me off is Courtois, hes had that offer for a while now, if he doesn't sign it soon enough the club should retract it and just sell him. Hes a brilliant goalkeeper but we can't wait forever, it looks even worse having been offered a contract and not signing it until another 2-3 months after receiving it. Fair enough if hes overly keen on a move to Madrid, sign the new deal, make some sort of gentleman's agreement with the club, get us a huge fee in return.... won't happen but. I think he'll end up signing it eventually anyway.

Very good performance bar first 20 mins where Barca absolutely piled the pressure on. Top class player.

Some impressive long diagonals last night. Cahill take note.

IF we attack them we will have every chance. Wait and see though that little prick Sanchez will have a belter against us...

Was our best player by a mile. On second thoughts quite disappointed with Eden he talked the talk pre game about wanting to shine against Barca but he didn’t really walk the walk (wasn’t easy Busquets kept him in check when he dropped deeper pretty excellently). If we can get Eden and Willian both playing at that level that Willian did tonight we have every chance to qualify imo.

Feel for him but it was obvious he'd do something like this one game, hes taken chances before playing with the ball in those sort of situations or other ones, unfortunately for the type of player he is willing to trust his ability to pass it out of danger as opposed to clear it, was bound to happen. No doubt he'll learn from it just a pity it goes against him after another good performance and in general a very good team performance in spells against an excellent opponent. If that was Cahill he'd be getting slaughtered though...

Short freekicks man. Get them to fucking fuck. What a waste

Wouldn’t say that. He takes risks with passes, they’ve paid off up to now but that was a howler yeah. Potentially cost us as now they’ve got an away goal.

I’m sorry Christensen but why? Why would you pass that inside? why why why why why why? Huge error against him although he’s been pretty good.

Was sceptical of game plan before hand but I thought the last 15-20 mins of first half was good, pressing was excellent in bursts and Willian was desperately unlucky not to score. I think we could get something out of this if we keep playing like this. Rakitic is walking a tightrope hes been booked and had 2 little fouls, if he continues like that he'll definitely go.

Why are we trying to play long passes to three 5ft 6/7 players. Bold decision to press at times but also silly to try play out from the back. Willian has to get that pass off to Alonso earlier also.

2 man MF is a bold move. Anyway lets get into this Barca team and give them a real game.

If we lose Hazard to Real him or Isco is a must get in the deal. Asensio is younger and can just be as good as Isco if not better. Was outstanding the other night for Real v Betis in what was a pretty exciting match for a neutral.

I get you know pal, yeah maybe but Costa (this is going to sound odd) still when he was anonymous and not scoring he wasn't entirely ineffective (sometimes, not all the time, perhaps his fitness played a big part too he always seemed to have wee niggling injuries during the winter and second half of the season). He had a big effect at times even when he wasn't playing great, still occupied defenders, the more aggressive and physical side of his game was a bonus for us as we hadn't had somebody like that since Drogba (although they really were totally different players). Its a real pity Costa and Conte fell out because he has been excellent for Atletico since going back, hes been a huge miss for us although I'm a massive fan of Morata. Hazard false 9 I agree with, its pointless, Hazard and the team suffers. Plus when Hazard said we don't need another striker because he can play there I was quite shocked because his goal ouput could be better. hes got like 15 for the season in all comps but still think it can be better, not convinced either that hes got that ruthlessness (or maybe you could call it selfishness) that good strikers have. I'm not entirely sure Batshuayi ever did enough to convince Conte though, hes doing good things for BVB but I still think he may struggle to get back in if Conte is still here next year. Maybe he deserved more chances but like manpe said ultimately that first season where Michy rarely played at all until the second half of the season, we went on to win it with Costa having been pivotal, Conte's decisions seemed to work. I think at Dortmund Michy will get plenty of minutes, if a new coach comes in here at the summer and we don't potentially pursue a deal for Pulisic from them then odds are maybe he gets a second chance but still slim in my eyes. Giroud for me is a perfect second option (despite him being in his 30s) his game isn't based on pace, he holds it very well and links nicely with attacking midfield players. Morata will be better next season for having struggled during the last 2 months here too, he'll know that he needs to be fitter perhaps because there is no stopping period like Spain and Italy.

Not relative to what the other guy said but I am keen to hear what you mean by 'Conte misused Michy'? Because he did play him and in his right position to which he didn't do anything spectacular. Fair enough hes got something like 20 goals in over 50 appearances in 1 and a half seasons but considering only 7 of those were goals in the PL says a lot.

I think pace will give Pique more issues than strength. Although its an interesting one to see who starts, Giroud or Morata.

We will play counter attacking football against Barca without a doubt. Not quite like the 2012 games vs Barca but it will be quite nasty at times again for us I think, Barca have been excellent this season after many people questioning them signing Paulinho, selling Neymar, not signing Inigo Martinez as well as the likes of Iniesta, Messi, Suarez getting older etc (age doesn't make a difference for those guys imo still world class players). Emerson has more pace than Alonso so he might be a better option for us, as well as having greater recovery speed if he gets beaten. Yes pace isn't everything and yes Alonso offers height, a threat from set pieces and maybe hes a bit better defensively (honestly not sure haven't seen a lot of Emerson) but we are going to need quick transitions to get up the park, players like Emerson, Moses, Kante, Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Morata... these guys will be crucial over the two legs for us going forward and getting chances. I'm a huge fan of Alonso and finally he has got a reasonable level of player for competition, so it will push him as well as give us the chance to rotate him but I think purely from how we are going to get chances created and goals from the game, Emerson could be in contention to start purely for how quick he is and how comfortable he is taking players on 1v1. Probably won't start but that is what I think. Barca full backs maybe don't go as high as they did under Pep but they still like to go forward and leave spaces in behind.

Your right. Old post but yeah selling De Bruyne for profit as well as Mata (although at the time I hated the fact he'd sold him as he was our best player in the previous seasons since arriving) while resigning Matic was a masterstroke in the short term imo. Matic was needed more than any of those two at that point considering the likes of Oscar, Hazard, Schurrle and Willian were playing more regularly and consistently than those two. Salah came in, didn't get a huge chance (as we've seen now with him scoring goals for fun at Liveprool) but at the time nobody complained. In the short term, when we won the title the next season, nobody cared.

Tbf I can see Michy going to Dortmund in the summer if Conte stays or not. Just don't see him ever starting ahead of Morata or Giroud who offer so much more in general play and playing with the likes of Eden, Willian, Pedro and Cesc. Morata is on a dry run goal wise yes but Giroud is PL proven and will get a good few goals before the seasons over. Morata will probably get some goals again before the season ends, just think a lack of fitness and fatigue from playing every week was perhaps hampering him but now we have 2 good options.

Honestly I think his career will go the way of being a box to box midfielder, hes not exactly brilliant tactically, I reckon he'd struggle to play a fixed role as a holding midfielder. He can break the lines pretty well, did that for Monaco, but honestly unless he improves drastically he won't be a long term feature here and rightly so, 40m should get you so much more. People complained about Rami and lack of technical ability for a box to box midfielder at times but in all honesty he was 10 times the player Baka is and technically on another level (which says alot because Ramires was also infuriating when it came to how he would use the ball).

Make it happen. Batshuayi, who has been quite frankly poor here, and cash in return for Pulisic who has the world at his feet? Would be idiotic not to.

Looks like a man with a point to prove, which bodes extremely well for us. Impressed with him against Hull and also quite happy with what I seen of Emerson. Hopefully Barkley can have a positive impact when he comes back too, would be a nice wee boost going into the latter stage of the season.

I think we might see them both together but not starting, can't see Conte sacrificing Hazard to play with 2 upfront because there is no way we will play Barcelona with a 2 man MF, not a chance in hell. Hazard off Morata or Giroud is a must with Kante, Cesc/Barkley and Drinkwater/Bakayoko in MF regardless, playing Barca with a 2 man MF is suicide.