There you go fellas, one of the best squads in the world plus the greatest manager ever and still humiliation. It's not as easy as we all think.

...at times.

Captain wrote:

There you go fellas, one of the best squads in the world plus the greatest manager ever and still humiliation. It's not as easy as we all think.

Barca probably has THE best squad in the world with one of the meanest coaches.

It's not like Mourinho didn't beat Barca a few months ago when Barca had pretty much the same line up.

He's not a God but he's not a shit coach all of a sudden. Barca humiliated Wenger and our boys last season but for some on here there's no other coach who could improve us so there you go.

fucking barca. best team on the planet. by a mile.

so impressed with their passing game. we're very good at it, they're miles ahead of us.

Kel Varnsen wrote:

fucking barca. best team on the planet. by a mile.

so impressed with their passing game. we're very good at it, they're miles ahead of us.

Yep. It's the difference between having Messi, Iniesta, Dani Alves, and Villa instead of Arshavin, Nasri, Sagna and Chamakh. I think Fabregas and Xavi are at a similar level, but the others are just much better than our personnel on offense

Tony Montana wrote:

Captain wrote:

There you go fellas, one of the best squads in the world plus the greatest manager ever and still humiliation. It's not as easy as we all think.

Barca probably has THE best squad in the world with one of the meanest coaches.

It's not like Mourinho didn't beat Barca a few months ago when Barca had pretty much the same line up.

He's not a God but he's not a shit coach all of a sudden. Barca humiliated Wenger and our boys last season but for some on here there's no other coach who could improve us so there you go.

Who said that Mourinho was shit all of a sudden?

Tony Montana wrote:

He's not a God but he's not a shit coach all of a sudden. Barca humiliated Wenger and our boys last season but for some on here there's no other coach who could improve us so there you go.

No one is saying he's shit, plenty did build him up to be a god.

He was used as a stick to beat Wenger by many last season after Barca beat us. It was suggested over and over again that Wenger was too tactically inept to beat Barcelona, and that it simply too a tactical genius such as Mourinho to beat Barca.

And then theres is the media. Mourinho probably got more credit, praise and plain old jerking off for beating Barca than Gaurdiola's gotten for everything he's done with Barcelona.

Captain wrote:

Tony Montana wrote:

Captain wrote:

There you go fellas, one of the best squads in the world plus the greatest manager ever and still humiliation. It's not as easy as we all think.

Barca probably has THE best squad in the world with one of the meanest coaches.

It's not like Mourinho didn't beat Barca a few months ago when Barca had pretty much the same line up.

He's not a God but he's not a shit coach all of a sudden. Barca humiliated Wenger and our boys last season but for some on here there's no other coach who could improve us so there you go.

Who said that Mourinho was shit all of a sudden?

Well i thought that's what you meant, especially as it's obvious no one thinks it's easy to manage a team to beat Barca or win the CL or whatever.

I mean who said it was easy?

Plenty of people throwing out the usual platitudes about tactical naivety and whatever else not when we got romped by Barca; you know that it happened so why pretend to be ignorant to my point?

otfgoon wrote:

Tony Montana wrote:

He's not a God but he's not a shit coach all of a sudden. Barca humiliated Wenger and our boys last season but for some on here there's no other coach who could improve us so there you go.

No one is saying he's shit, plenty did build him up to be a god.

He was used as a stick to beat Wenger by many last season after Barca beat us. It was suggested over and over again that Wenger was too tactically inept to beat Barcelona, and that it simply too a tactical genius such as Mourinho to beat Barca.

And then theres is the media. Mourinho probably got more credit, praise and plain old jerking off for beating Barca than Gaurdiola's gotten for everything he's done with Barcelona.

Mourinho has managed in England and is therefore more famous. I would like Pep to manage us though.

And Wenger is tactically inept for the CL which is why he hasn't won it.

Just because you are gifted tactically does not mean you will win every single game this side of heaven. I mean Guardiola lost 2-0 at home to flamin Hercules and 2-1 to Rubin Kazan but we don't say the Barca myth has been destroyed. Having said that Mourinho has had his rep dented. Real took a battering.

Captain wrote:

Plenty of people throwing out the usual platitudes about tactical naivety and whatever else not when we got romped by Barca; you know that it happened so why pretend to be ignorant to my point?

They don't say it is easy, they say Wenger lacks tactical awareness.

implication being that it is easy if only we spent the money (that was a 200m+ team) and if Wenger was more tactically astute (mourinho is widely considered as the most tactically adept coach in the game). I could paint you a picture but my photoshp skills are shit.

'Tactics' are always considered to be defensive tactics for some reason. Mourinho is a great motivator and people manager who can get his teams to defend well. Nothing more.

Tony Montana wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

And here endeth the myth of Jose Mourinho.

I'm not saying managers can't greatly affect games tactically, and generally with their man-management, but, ultimately, quality wins the day 99 times out of 100.

Mourinho didn't have a defence tonight, and no amount of tactical genius was going to overcome that problem - especially when Barcelona had the better players all around the rest of the pitch, too.

I wonder what Wenger made of tonight?

Didn't the myth end in 2009 when his Inter lost 2-0 to Utd in the CL?

Inter improved considerably in 2009/10 to the team they had in 2008/09 (Lucio, Sneijder, Pandev, Eto'o, Milito), and that's my point. I'm not saying Mourinho isn't a fantastic manager, because he is, perhaps, the best there is, but no amount of tactical brilliance will overcome superior quality in key areas of the pitch.

Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo are joke defenders - Mourinho didn't have a chance, no matter what he did, not when Barca had the players to match, and in truth, comfortably better Madrid's midfield and attacking quality.

I firmly believe that the quality of the players you have is the be all and end all, or damn close.

Captain wrote:

implication being that it is easy if only we spent the money (that was a 200m+ team) and if Wenger was more tactically astute (mourinho is widely considered as the most tactically adept coach in the game). I could paint you a picture but my photoshp skills are shit.

But realistically no one has been demanding 200m quid for players save for TheGame and he loves Wenger.

And many were asking Wenger to change it up quicker, better and/or get in a fresh head of an assistant.

Gees Wenger can improve as well even if we are the poorest team in Europe.

Tony Montana wrote:

Mourinho has managed in England and is therefore more famous. I would like Pep to manage us though.

And Wenger is tactically inept for the CL which is why he hasn't won it.

Just because you are gifted tactically does not mean you will win every single game this side of heaven. I mean Guardiola lost 2-0 at home to flamin Hercules and 2-1 to Rubin Kazan but we don't say the Barca myth has been destroyed. Having said that Mourinho has had his rep dented. Real took a battering.

1 game certainly doesn't turn the world upside down, but I've not changed my mind after this game, it just supports my argument that his tactical genius is significantly hyped up.

Someone tactically gifted is someone like Ferguson, who can adapt their playing style based on the opposition or players in the side, or someone like Guardiola, who can get his team playing attacking and effective football and yet be equally good at stopping the opposition from playing.

Putting 9 men behind the ball and relying quality attacking talent to win you the game everytime you come up against another quality team shows to me that Mourinho is actually quite limited tactically. It's no different than what you get from lesser sides in the league. The fact that he has a side like Madrid, full of attacking talent and still sticks to the same old defensive tactic says it all.

Mourinho's best qualities for me has always been the spirit and togetherness he brings to a team, as well as discipline. His tactics leave me underwhelmed.

No Real got battered Otfgoon.

We don't know if they came out for a defensive strategy. If anything, they had a high line most of the time. The possession in favour of Barca was ridiculous. Real couldn't get a hold of it and you can't really say Real have been defensive in other games this season.

Fair point, they did the same to us.

As for Real, it's specifically the bigger games I'm talking about, though even in the smaller games you can see they're far more defensively disciplined than Real teams of the past. Not really a bad thing, but it definitely has his trademark philosophy all over them.

Captain wrote:

implication being that it is easy if only we spent the money (that was a 200m+ team) and if Wenger was more tactically astute (mourinho is widely considered as the most tactically adept coach in the game). I could paint you a picture but my photoshp skills are shit.

whats your point, that we should just pack it in and concede every trophy to barca?

btw, what makes some people think guardiola would be a good arsenal manager? he didnt assemble barcelona's squad. you could easily argue he walked into an incredible team and his persona and history with barcelona did the rest.