I get the feeling that Basel will go pretty far in the tournament this year.

Mother Fucker Jones wrote:

Y va you watch loads of footy

Mmm, I'd say a moderate amount 🙂
I get distracted fairy easily when Arsenal aren't playing.
Didn't catch any of the games yesterday.

Enjoy it when big teams get beaten like Bayern did tonight though.
Impressed by the way Basel were not intimidated in the slightest.

14 days later

It pains me watching Barcelona, they're just too good.

Brings our failings into even sharper focus.

Messi's first goal. :drool:

His third wasn't so bad either.
He's unstoppable.

there's no way that goal is possible.

Stat attack:Lionel Messi also the first player in Champions League history to register TWO hat-tricks in the same CL season.

I know I'll get a lot of scowls for this, but they play football the best way it's possible to play. Every single thing they do makes sense, and is as simple and efficient as it can be.

The system they have developed over the last 20 years is so far ahead of anything else around right now. Beautiful in it's simplicity and logic. Everything makes sense.

so, 5-0 now.. Messi with a 4th.. wtf

Messi scores four. 8 away from being Barcelona's all time top scorer at the age of 24.

shit, he'll pass that before the end of the season

They've spawned another gremlin in Tello.

kid comes on and scores twice already..

Leverkusen.. LOL.. feel bad for them

You don't even have to be that good, that's the beauty of Barca's system. Just some technical quality and the ability to run and you'll slot right into a role in their system, a role that fits in with the role of the other 10 players and makes your life very, very easy.

The way these players are coached makes practically every other coach out there look like lazy bums, lazy bums that don't prepare their players properly or build a working system.

Bollcks Ricky, you have to be extremely good to play for barca. They just make it look easy

They're all brilliant, I was just talking about that Tello kid. But their system does maximise everything everyone of their players has - and that just makes them an even better team to me.

I just can't believe every other coach wouldn't go away and try to copy what they do. I suppose it's because it's a system and a style of play that has been 30 years in the making.

Ricky1985 wrote:

You don't even have to be that good, that's the beauty of Barca's system. Just some technical quality and the ability to run and you'll slot right into a role in their system, a role that fits in with the role of the other 10 players and makes your life very, very easy.

The way these players are coached makes practically every other coach out there look like lazy bums, lazy bums that don't prepare their players properly or build a working system.

Not sure I'd go that far! When you have 10 of the best players in the world supplying you with passes it's easy to find space and the technical level of the players that are even allowed near the first team is very, very high indeed.

And the system is obviously extremely arduous to build and requires a certain monopoly over the league/youth market.

And they have Lionel Messi. I have not seen anyone make finishing look this easy at any level.

Brendan Rodgers deserves a medal for what he's achieved at Swansea, using Barcelona's ethos. If he can do it on Swansea's budget, why can't Fergie on United's or Arsene on ours?

Messi has scored 5!