OneMoSalah

Yeah our academy is decent, its had a lot of money invested into it but what Barca had was at least 30 years of work with a philosophy put in place so players would be able to make the jump easily as the teams set up the same (same formation, 4-3-3 and tiki taka style of play) We don't have that instilled. We have good youngsters who could make the jump under good coaching (McEachran, Chalobah, Ake, Feruz, Piazon) but Barca have literally promoted at least 5 players from their youth team each season. Barca had a full homegrown XI out the other night, an impressive stat for you haha, in modern football thats quite rare.

The probability stats of us changing managers shouldn't matter, we always end up with silverware after doing it, like Roman or not for sacking good managers it always provokes a reaction from the team. Like when Hiddink won the FA cup and probably should of had a chance to win the CL after Scolari got sacked, Robbie winning the CL and FA cup after AVB got sacked... surely history can only repeat itself... especially when we are in the Club World Cup and last 8 of the Capital One Cup with Arsenal being the only other top 4 team.

True but could he recreate such a thing with a team whose academy is nothing compared to Barcas? Wouldn't bank on it. He'd probably go on a massive spending spree and sign half the Barca B team...

True but I think if Roman signs a player with an ego/or a player develops an ego then Pep will struggle to deal with it. If Guardiola was such a classy coach he'd have kept Ronaldinho, Henry, Eto'o, Deco etc and explained he wanted to fade them out rather than sell them as they were "big stars with egos", they were more than useful in my eyes. Look at his transfers too... 60 odd million including Eto'o (better player) for Zlatan, the cunt wouldn't even play him in his normal position. Bought Sanchez for nearly 40 million, ripped off as hes not even worthy of a nearly 40 million price tag. Fabergas for 30 odd million, frequently used him, when he did use his used him in a position he'd rarely played. If hes in charge of transfers at the Bridge if we appoint him I honestly think he will get us continuously ripped off or buy players and use them in positions they can't even play like AVB with Lukaku on RW...

I think you forgot to mention that Lampard will always leave whoever hes next to in the pivot exposed as he did in pre-season which is the reason why he doesn't play.... Robbie changed that by started Ramires there and Mikels not been as exposed as much as Ramires has the engine to get back and tackle (like he did vs Juve at one point, such a brilliant work rate). Mike is our best holding player though, he gives the team balance, fills the gaps when Luiz/Cahill goes up and always shows for the ball marked or not. Still can't believe people are trying to say we need a player to replace Mikel, hes having the best season of his career so far wish people would look at that and stop saying we need to drop him for whoever bla bla bla. We have a team with 3 creative players (Mata, Hazard and Oscar) and quite frankly they have all looked shite in the last few games, blaming Mikel for not offering anything when the three have been terrible and the striker doesn't move is beyond absurd. Also Ramires and Lampard played in the pivot vs Nordsjaelland and looked averagef together, Lampard wants to be a box to box player still but thats what Ramires is better at being as he proved under AVB and so far in the pivot. We weren't convincing in that game, just lucky we eventually opened them up due to the three behind Torres and Luiz's screamer. We do lack penetration sometimes but with Hazard, Mata and Oscar we should be able to open teams up with their vision and with Ramires' drive and powerful runs he should be able to give defenders something to think about freeing space for others.

Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry..

Obviously Roman wants Pep to do it. He won 6 trophies in one season at Barca.. imo we need Mourinho again, Pep can't handle big egos.

Lmfao hes not Ryan Giggs, stealing his brothers wife....

So who thought this guy was signed for a back up? Miles better than Branna at RB.

Heres a major issue: We should get a coach who is experienced and can please Roman with trophies and philosophy. If Roman's not happy, then a manager won't last, simple as fucking that.

Inter should beat Parma as should Napoli beat Cagliari.

I don't think thats the problem, Roman wants a stellar name to produce good football and win trophies (Guardiola), Robbie was a mere option C or D. If it was Pep in the slump but he had us going towards the football Roman wanted, he'd get as much time as he wants.

As soon as Robbie accepted that full time contract, after 3 weeks of waiting for Roman to give him it, I had a hunch he wouldn't last the season. I'm sure plenty of yous on here had the same gut feeling.

Who do Inter play?

I honestly hope we are scouting Juan Fernando Quintero from Pescara... looks a very good player in the making. 19 year old, full Colombian international, being scouted by Napoli, Inter Milan, both Manchester clubs and Juve apparently. Big talent, playing in Marco Veratti's old role at Pescara in midfield as a deep lying playmaker. Not seen too much of him but read a lot, I'm going to watch a few Pescara games if I get a chance to see if the hypes justified.

Will win this. They don't have Dempsey to score fucking headers. Bebratov is a big problem though. If we defend as well as today we'll be fine. The attack needs to improve but I'm sure it will happen.

Lets be honest, going back to the stats Leif posted about Benitez's Liverpool teams, they were very good at keeping clean sheets and conceding a low amount of goals. Jose's Chelsea was brilliant at keeping clean sheets. Imo to improve offensively we needed to improve defensively, Rafa said he wasn't satisfied with the offensive side of our game, he will improve that eventually, give the man time, that performance is the result of three training sessions. Our defence looked so much better so imagine after 6-8 more training sessions and more games, that back 4 could be brilliant together especially with the wingers dropping back to help out too.

Here comes the wankfest...

Best position at CB. Said this numerous times before, hes showing it now.

Sign him already...

So yeah, we got a clean sheet, first since September 22nd. Major defensive improvement, great work rate from the wingers to get up and down and help the FBs. Better shape than under Robbie by far. If we'd have gotten a few more shots on target or even a goal everyone would be fucking raving about Rafa. Good signs, if we get a win at Fulham and another one against West Ham then half of the people against Rafa will easily be turned within 3 games. Can't believe how embarrassing the chants about Rafa were, give the bloke a chance. Makes some of the fans look like bellends, we sacked a manager last year and won 2 trophies... makes me wonder are our fans spoiled brats? We will win at least one trophy this year under Rafa for sure. Either the Club world cup or Capital one cup.

Calm down, were still in this despite playing shit. Thats the biggest plus we have right now.

All this Anti Rafa chanting is very embarrassing.

Good night motherfuckers. Hope its not pissing fucking rain tomorrow..

Anyone else have a funny feeling Rafa might move for Mascherano and Agger/Skrtel having previously worked with them? Mascherano and one of the two Liverpool CBs would be very very good additions imo. A striker is also a definite tbh. Also talk Rafa wants Paulinho but unsure whether its true or not.