I am not sure why you are trying to draw parallels with two completely different situations in footballing terms. One was a set piece and the other was ball in regular play. Even if you disagree on the quality of defending, surely you can see that both situations are incomparable.
I said I'm not a regular watcher of the league, it doesn't mean I don't follow. It's a league I've followed sparingly for over a decade and a half when it was actually an exciting league and the small teams were not scared of competing. I'm talking about the original Denilson and Ronaldo eras and I vividly remember the rembrandt Denilson posters we had in England around the 1998 World Cup. You'd be hard pressed to find many people to support your view that defending is a lot better in Spain than in England. Most La Liga defenders who have made the transition to England have found it tough and needed a lot of time to acclimatise. Historically the best and most expensive defenders have come from the PL or Italy and La Liga has always been behind these two. Pique couldn't get a game at United and Real had to resort to Jonathan Woodgate. Also think of where Nacho Monreal was when we signed him to where he is now. Go on and compare the quality of keepers in the respective leagues and the point is magically clear.
Let me ask -?Who in Barca's back 5 would get into ours?
Agree 100% with this, don't get what all this respect towards them is about (not talking specifically from this forum, but just in general). I don't care how well they play, so many cheats have played at that club, past and present, hated them since the 06 final, hated them even more when they bought Henry from us. F*** em!! Hope Sanchez scores the goal to knock them out and celebrates in their faces.
Seriously?I am not sure why you are trying to draw parallels with two completely different situations in footballing terms. One was a set piece and the other was ball in regular play. Even if you disagree on the quality of defending, surely you can see that both situations are incomparable.
I said I'm not a regular watcher of the league, it doesn't mean I don't follow. It's a league I've followed sparingly for over a decade and a half when it was actually an exciting league and the small teams were not scared of competing. I'm talking about the original Denilson and Ronaldo eras and I vividly remember the rembrandt Denilson posters we had in England around the 1998 World Cup. You'd be hard pressed to find many people to support your view that defending is a lot better in Spain than in England. Most La Liga defenders who have made the transition to England have found it tough and needed a lot of time to acclimatise. Historically the best and most expensive defenders have come from the PL or Italy and La Liga has always been behind these two. Pique couldn't get a game at United and Real had to resort to Jonathan Woodgate. Also think of where Nacho Monreal was when we signed him to where he is now. Go on and compare the quality of keepers in the respective leagues and the point is magically clear.
Let me ask -?Who in Barca's back 5 would get into ours?
No Flamini. Was a cheeky test if anybody paying attention ;-)No Flamini please.
Seriously?
Pique couldn't get into United's side because he was a young lad who had one of the best CB pairings in PL history ahead of him.
Alba, Alves and Pique would stroll into our defence let's take the red tinted specs off. There's not even much of a difference between Mashcerano and Kos. And the former is also a World class defensive midfielder.
If we want to have any hope of winning this tie then we'd better find ourselves a chef who can knock up a dodgyLasagnepaella, I'm pretty sure Arsène kept the number of the last guy.
Vidic and Rio at their prime are better than Pique. It doesn't make him a bad defender is what I'm saying.The point was about the quality ahead of him at United and in the PL. His age didn't stop him joining Barca and holding down a starting spot, but no doubt some will invoke the boyhood club argument.
I'll leave the debate on preferences to somebody else.
I fear this might be the match which may make Özil rethink his position at the club...players of his calibre want to win everything....hopefully we atleast win the title this season.
You're a cheerful bark. I always say it before these type of matches/ties. Let's wait until we've actually lost first. You never know what might happen. Sending offs (Mascherano), they play **** and we play brilliantly etc.