Who's been a bigger let down - Dembele or Pepe?

Dembele has a looooooooooooong way back to that Dortmund form. Hopefully, he gets there

Wait Pjanic plays for Barca? I'm getting confused. Doesn't help that they design these stupid kits, got no idea what's what.

Coombs wrote:

Wait Pjanic plays for Barca? I'm getting confused. Doesn't help that they design these stupid kits, got no idea what's what.

We are the only team without a hot pink kit. I’d really love to sit in those marketing meetings where the guys explain why the teams need a hot pink kit.

A win tonight and United take control of a group we expected them to struggle in.

I have a feeling we can suck Man Utd in, in a way that we couldn't against Leicester, and that we'll get chances. Have to take them. Leipzig playing a possession game pushed high up is suicidal.

I think we will get smashed. But I would like to be surprised for once

We shit on United but we are a million miles away from being able to do what they did tonight.

Coombs wrote:

Leipzig playing a possession game pushed high up is suicidal.

It's basically the only way not to play against this United team. Really arrogant from Nagelsmann, but it what you should expect I guess.

Tambourine Man wrote:

We shit on United but we are a million miles away from being able to do what they did tonight.

This, I'm sure you understand, makes no sense.

What is worrying is that all of Chelsea, United and Spurs are imperfect teams. But they have the ability to score lots of goals. What it means is these will lose a lot but they have the capacity to win a lot. A king premier league season will reward volatile teams like this over more stable teams like ours. We saw this over the last two year when draws really killed us. And it will happen again this year unless we learn to score. The only reason we have two losses against a city and Leicester is because we don’t attack enough. We should have at least one draw or more from those games. We can’t afford that attack in the league. It will bury us

mentalvortex wrote:

Claudius wrote:

A win tonight and United take control of a group we expected them to struggle in.

Maybe they are not as bad and incompetently managed as we make them out to be?

they're not that bad, they're just flakey as fuck

Coombs wrote:

Tambourine Man wrote:

We shit on United but we are a million miles away from being able to do what they did tonight.

This, I'm sure you understand, makes no sense.

Makes sense to me. We're far away from battering teams by 5 goals in any fixture, let alone in the champions league. RB helped them and theyre fairly 1 note with pace abuse on the break, but at least they have that 1 note they can play against middling teams

Man Utd doing their usual trick of remembering they play us soon and getting good again. Flakey feckers.

Gazza M wrote:

Coombs wrote:

This, I'm sure you understand, makes no sense.

Makes sense to me. We're far away from battering teams by 5 goals in any fixture, let alone in the champions league. RB helped them and theyre fairly 1 note with pace abuse on the break, but at least they have that 1 note they can play against middling teams

It doesn't make sense because the way to compare quality is not to take a look at a team's best result in God knows how long and say "we can't do that". I also don't see Arteta's Arsenal losing by five at home to Spurs in a million years, but ultimately it's how you play on average that decides which team is the best one and not these freak results.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Gazza M wrote:

Makes sense to me. We're far away from battering teams by 5 goals in any fixture, let alone in the champions league. RB helped them and theyre fairly 1 note with pace abuse on the break, but at least they have that 1 note they can play against middling teams

It doesn't make sense because the way to compare quality is not to take a look at a team's best result in God knows how long and say "we can't do that". I also don't see Arteta's Arsenal losing by five at home to Spurs in a million years, but ultimately it's how you play on average that decides which team is the best one and not these freak results.

We aren't comparing quality. We're saying we're incapable of putting 5 past an opponent

That Pedri kid for Barca looks like another gem. He was masterful against Juventus. Cuadrado is still having nightmares.

Damn, that's a great video. Koeman is such a weird manager. Evidently no problems giving minutes to youth when you see how much playtime Fati and Pedri are getting, but at the same time he announced very publicly that Puig, from what I've heard a huge talent, wasn't in his plans at all.

I think some degree of caution has to be exercised when judging these things from the outside though. Could be that Puig is another Ravel Morrison or Mario Balotelli. Or maybe he's just hideously overrated based on a few individual abilities and doesn't work well in a team setting. Huge talent alone has never carried anyone, and it's probably less likely to impress someone like Koeman who himself was a top player for years.

I've heard for years that Puig is supposed to be the next big thing but Koeman is not the only one who's been reluctant to use him. There seems to be a diskrepancy between how he's rated by the fans and how he's rated by the coaches, and I can't help but feel that it's a bit similar to Giovani Dos Santos and Bojan in the past, or even Sergi Samper. If there's one thing Barca are great at it's pretending that their talents are better than they actually are.

Gazza M wrote:

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

It doesn't make sense because the way to compare quality is not to take a look at a team's best result in God knows how long and say "we can't do that". I also don't see Arteta's Arsenal losing by five at home to Spurs in a million years, but ultimately it's how you play on average that decides which team is the best one and not these freak results.

We aren't comparing quality. We're saying we're incapable of putting 5 past an opponent

But the part that didn't make sense was saying that we "shit on United" in tandem with our inability to score 5 against Leipzig. United have quality all over the pitch, loads of money, massive youth prospects, and some of the world's best players. They are our direct competition right now.

Fair on all those talents. Pedri has looked the business each time I’ve seen him play. He and and Fati are very exciting.
It must be frustrating to see them do so well while the likes of Griezmann are so inconsistent.

LOL. Hakimi gives his former teammate Benzema an absolute gift. Backpass that looks like the perfect through ball. 1-0.

Felix looked like he had another game.

Probably should have two assists from it, and hit the cross bar.

Jota looks good

Jota vs Pepe? Both goals were quality
Pool aren't going away even though two players who would walk into our squad are injured. Fuck them.

Jota looks like he'll bench Firmino for good. Brilliant signing for them ffs

jones wrote:

Atlético have signed Diogo Jota, 19 year old Portuguese winger at Paços with 9 goals and 8 assists in ₂₀ league games. I've seen him tear apart Benfica couple weeks back before the ref fucked them over and gifted the latter team the game but he still scored this great equaliser for his team

Atlético, who have one of the most impressive collection of young talents in Europe anyway, blew us and everyone else out of the water though with their OTT €3m bid. No chance to compete with this financial power really

I think Clrnc mentioned him even before, I know I noticed him before Atletico nabbed him. Fuck our scouting department and their predecessors

Also that Barella assist. Reminder why I still watch this garbage sport

3-0
Atalanta are seeing their asses. Great counter by Pool.

jones wrote:

Jota looks like he'll bench Firmino for good. Brilliant signing for them ffs

jones wrote:

Atlético have signed Diogo Jota, 19 year old Portuguese winger at Paços with 9 goals and 8 assists in ₂₀ league games. I've seen him tear apart Benfica couple weeks back before the ref fucked them over and gifted the latter team the game but he still scored this great equaliser for his team

Atlético, who have one of the most impressive collection of young talents in Europe anyway, blew us and everyone else out of the water though with their OTT €3m bid. No chance to compete with this financial power really

I think Clrnc mentioned him even before, I know I noticed him before Atletico nabbed him. Fuck our scouting department and their predecessors

You really think our scouting department missed a guy that you saw? 

4-0 Liverpool.

Fucking hell Jota replacing Firmino in their attacks bring it up another level

Mane with a beautiful 4th. Wow. Just running into a great through ball from Salah.

Saw the score and come here to catch Flobs and Klaus having it out about Serie A. Disappointed .

What a goal. The pass to Jota was so delightful. 5-0. Hat trick