Jase

Steve McClaren on Bamford... http://www.teamtalk.com/championship/9173079/Sky-Bet-Championship-Steve-McClaren-praises-Patrick-Bamford-after-Wednesday-win

Until City went down to 10 men, I don't even think they exerted lots of energy to begin with. They only started pressing Barcelona once they got about 25-30 yards of their goal. About their style always make their opponents get carded a lot especially the red ones, let's not even make as if all the red cards were warranted and not helped by the referee or players. Not sure playing Kolarov on the wings equated to Pellegrini being defensive. He was used on the LW to track Alves while provide the width when going forward especially his final ball in the attacking third is usually pretty good though with Barca's FBs didn't bomb forward a lot, it meant he didn't get much space to wreak havoc. As for playing 2 STs, that is true what you said but they also got outplayed and lost when Pellegrini used 2 STs against us and Bayern.

I know. Just wanted to clarify the point because TOPTB sidetracked a little bit from the main point made then. Apologies for any misunderstanding.

Agreed that they probably a tad conservative in the first half but what you said subsequently is pretty much logical stuff and it's not like it doesn't happen with other teams. Even we, for instance, had those situations against Barcelona or even Guardiola's Bayern in the Super Cup. Get your point about tiredness but using that scenario as an example to illustrate the point is poor when they played with 10 men for nearly 40 minutes. Bound to happen if anything. But on the other hand, rather than looking at tiredness, perhaps one could argue it's just poor defending...

Erm, lets just make sure we get past Galatasaray first before jumping the gun...

On that (ghost) penalty incident, from another angle just before Messi went down...

Peach of a strike that! Hope to see Bamford maybe getting a chance this summer's pre-season with the first team. Deserves a chance for how he has performed.

Ha. Fabregas fired a jibe at Mourinho after the game on ITV. Said some people talk too much about Barcelona being worst than last few years and this result will shut them up for awhile (paraphrased).

Regardless, watch the replay and you'll see Kompany was sitting way too deep behind his other defenders. He eventually kept Messi, who was coming back from offside position, onside. City hardly did much wrong TBF. They kept Barcelona out well and Barca hardly had any chances of note. They didn't play well and only started doing something because the other side went down to 10 men.

Postage stamp rocket that. Brilliant goal.

Aaah, you couldn't be more wrong. I'm not a mod. Are we having the same thought for 'cherry' there?

You're boring...

Define 'freshest'. :eyebrows:

Yes and if you get it wrong, your current name goes out of the window.

They did. City sat back to make sure there's no space for us to play and break into like we did in the league game 2 weeks ago. Keep it tight and compact. They only started pressing when we got into their half, when we passed the ball to any of our front attacking players.

He's on the bench for Sheffield Wednesday as they take on Derby County in the league tonight and oh, Bamford starts for his side.

Oh dear. Happened in Austria over the weekend.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/9172278/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter Roberto Martinez has said Lukaku will be back for Everton on 1st March to face West Ham.

Mata on his departure... http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/366003/REVEALED-Chelsea-boss-Jose-Mourinho-told-Juan-Mata-to-make-himself-a-success-at-Man-Utd

"Defence or midfield? I'll play as a striker for the team!" David Luiz on Chelsea, Brazil and where he plays

Mourinho on Salah... http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2014/2/18/5421016/jose-mourinho-urges-patience-with-mohamed-salah

Point taken but don't think they will be THAT useless off the ball and defending against someone like Barcelona like you're alluding to there. They might not be experts if the setup and application is right, then I don't see why they can't defend properly and do the necessary job on this Barcelona team, similar to how others have done it before. Going back to the game on Saturday, think it's a bit silly to say they did well then because we didn't expect that approach from City. They did well because their application was right and we didn't and really, forget all those nonsense excuses. Should not use it to completely disregard how both teams did then. And mind you, they did not just press, tackle etc us mindlessly without any system and organization in place.

If that really happens, it would hilariously amazing and his first words to Pardew will be...

Revised FA Cup QF draw: Arsenal v Everton Brighton/Hull v Sunderland Sheffield United v Sheffield Wednesday/Charlton Manchester City v Wigan

Said this the other day, not doubting Terry's influence and leadership in this team for one moment (it's probably a bigger concern that no one seems to be stepping up in his place to take leadership when he's not playing) but do find it funny that when Terry isn't playing and we win a game, nobody mention a word on missing him. The minute we don't win a game without Terry, suddenly the reason of "we missed his leadership, influence etc" comes out from all direction.