How competitive will next seasons CL be?

I was trying to make fun of someone.

The dutch.

I was trying to make fun of the dutch.

Because I'm German.
And it gives me joy.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Zealous wrote:Juventus are just horrible in Final situations. The Germany of clubs :vagi:

Would'nt that be the Holland of clubs lol?

No Juve at least won it. Chelsea would be the Holland of clubs

Zealous wrote:

I don't know man I'm just not buying it tbh.

Who is in a decline?

Valdes was always crap so not him.

Xavi slowly but surely imo, Iniesta as well simply since they depend on one another. Biscuits will regress as well since he is not being carried and will have to do some carrying.

Villa is done as an elite striker imo, Pedro too (Bojan's situation).

Again these are just what I think might happen. I could be wrong but I've seen enough to suggest this.

Zealous wrote:Valdes was always crap so not him.

Xavi slowly but surely imo, Iniesta as well simply since they depend on one another. Biscuits will regress as well since he is not being carried and will have to do some carrying.

Villa is done as an elite striker imo, Pedro too (Bojan's situation).

Again these are just what I think might happen. I could be wrong but I've seen enough to suggest this.

I completely disagree on Iniesta....... Xavi has struggled on quite a few occasions without Iniesta while Iniesta seems to perform who ever he plays with( except when he plays outwide which is just )

I do agree Barca cant rely on Pedro or Villa..... but i think most Barca fans agree with this.

Will ignore the comments on Busquets and Valdes because i know you will never ever give them any credit what so ever no matter how well they do, so there is no point discussing it.

I do worry about Xavi tho, i think he might be coming to an end, might just be fatigued but in the last few weeks he has looked like Denilson with better vision.

When I say Iniesta I don't mean he will get much worse or anything like that. I just mean that he won't play at his best because he's at his best with Xavi. He is still class and will be for a long time.

Biscuits can't carry a midfield. I can't wait for the day people will realise that he is just a role player, a great role player, but not truly elite.

Alex once said that "Xavi is the system" I think this will prove true soon

Zealous wrote:
Alex once said that "Xavi is the system" I think this will prove true soon

Which is why i think " the system " will/should be tinkered with as no one can do what Xavi does also quite frankly no fullback can do what Alves does ( ok he has a few years left still)

Meh put Alves in a side that has less possession and he'll struggle imo. Not because he's bad but because he'll be so used to playing a side that has the ball most of the time that he'll forget how to time his runs like he did at Sevilla.

Zealous wrote:Meh put Alves in a side that has less possession and he'll struggle imo. Not because he's bad but because he'll be so used to playing a side that has the ball most of the time that he'll forget how to time his runs like he did at Sevilla.

I meant for Barca's system........ no fullback can replace what Alves provides.

Alves was great at Sevilla no? we should have signed both Alves and Luis Filipe back in the days

Seeing as how Alves is a giant asshole I'm kind of happy we didn't sign him for 40 million.

Zealous wrote:Seeing as how Alves is a giant asshole I'm kind of happy we didn't sign him for 40 million.

Knowing you Z, you would call him Legend even more than you do Epep

Zealous wrote:Seeing as how Alves is a giant asshole I'm kind of happy we didn't sign him for 40 million.

yeah, you went with the luxury asshole package that is pepe, only for 25 mil

great job

Zealous wrote:Valdes was always crap so not him.

Xavi slowly but surely imo, Iniesta as well simply since they depend on one another. Biscuits will regress as well since he is not being carried and will have to do some carrying.

Villa is done as an elite striker imo, Pedro too (Bojan's situation).

Again these are just what I think might happen. I could be wrong but I've seen enough to suggest this.

Oh dear, the circular dependency argument again. I thought we had moved past this.

Since, you believe in this, there is no point making my points now. We will just watch next season.

Zealous wrote:When I say Iniesta I don't mean he will get much worse or anything like that. I just mean that he won't play at his best because he's at his best with Xavi. He is still class and will be for a long time.

Biscuits can't carry a midfield. I can't wait for the day people will realise that he is just a role player, a great role player, but not truly elite.

Alex once said that "Xavi is the system" I think this will prove true soon

Busquets or Thiago is completely capable of doing the Xavi role, albeit in their own way. They are still so young and already doing great.

I got no doubts about the midfield of this team. Barcelona has great talents to control the midfield in the present generation and the future generation too.

Pedram wrote:Other than that whatever Pep stays or someone else takes his place, he should scrap the idea of 3-4-3, it's just isn't balanced and will not work against elite teams.

The 3-4-3 works perfectly for Barca against teams like Chelsea etc, it's just that Barca don't have the personnel necessary to implement such a formation. I mean, how do you expect slow coaches like Puyol and Busquets to keep up with Ramires or Drogba? How can you even have a high line with Puyol and Mascherano in defense?

It's a no-brainer really, any smart coach going against Barca will look to exploit their number one weakness: that is, lack of speed in midfield and defense (coupled with Valdes ineptness).

Zealous wrote:Barca are physically out of it. They need a complete re-haul at the back imo. Old guard are reaching their end as well form/injuries will hurt Barca now more than ever.

New guard will be expected to step up and carry Messi's towel better but I just don't see that happening. Thiagod is too young and Cex is well lol. Also we must now assume the scenario of Messi getting some injuries as well, balance of probabilities means he will get one at some point and Barca have to assume the worst and buy some back up goalscorers to avoid what happened to them this season but given their financial situation that might not happen. As for their current strike force Mexican Pedro is just a Bojan upgrade and Villa is practically finished imo. Tello and Cwanka are still kids.

On the flip side you have Madrid who will have the same young core and will be hungry for next season. Not to mention Jose will add some new players here and there to round things off.

Wow, some Madrid fans really need to take a step back and come back into reality. You won the league this year and deserved it, but have you guys and especially this poster forgotten that Barca got the better of you pretty much all season long?

We played you guys in 2, two game series with Barca advancing in both and we beat you soundly at your place where your fans on here were calling for Ronaldo to be shipped out of town.

You beat us once this whole year in a game where you totally deserved to win but Pep was obviously concentrating on the CL because he though we already lost the league subbed Xavi out with 25 minutes left in the game and started Tello instead of Cuenca and Pedro and Thiago instead of Cesc. All things that were not normal.

I'm sure Mou and Madrid tinkered with there lineup as well with the CL on there mind too.

I'm not making excuses as again you totally deserved to win but please, you guys have beaten us twice in the last two years and we have played about 13-14 different times.

A little perspective is needed here.

You guys won the league, congrats you deserved it and deserve to brag about it.

But don't sit here and act like you have been dominating us or that we are in trouble moving forward and you are just ready to take over.

The results say anything but that, I know you guys like to ignore when you lose and only point out the positives but the fact is that head to head and in the trophy cabinet we have dominated you for the past 3 years and again this year head to head we have dominated you again, so please use a little bit of perspective.

Again, take all the shots you want for winning the league you deserve it but come back to reality a little bit.

I hope Juventus get real madrid. They're normally entertaining matches. I also want to watch Juventus vs any premier league team to see if Gary Neville rips into Juventus because they're not in the Prem.

This is interesting because he blindly hates other teams in the champions league but he has a good deal of respect for Juventus and he chose to have his testimonial match vs Juve.

Mr Nick09 wrote:

Zealous wrote:Seeing as how Alves is a giant asshole I'm kind of happy we didn't sign him for 40 million.

Knowing you Z, you would call him Legend even more than you do Epep

Nah Epep is crazy which is fun, Alves is just not likeable :S

che wrote:

Zealous wrote:Seeing as how Alves is a giant asshole I'm kind of happy we didn't sign him for 40 million.

yeah, you went with the luxury asshole package that is pepe, only for 25 mil

great job

Thanks

Now get back to b*tching about Emery

How do you guys rate Manchester City's chances honestly?

We're looking to improve even more this summer after we sell our deadwood.

Who, exactly, are deadwood at City?

Zealous wrote:

che wrote:

Zealous wrote:Seeing as how Alves is a giant asshole I'm kind of happy we didn't sign him for 40 million.

yeah, you went with the luxury asshole package that is pepe, only for 25 mil

great job

Thanks

Now get back to b*tching about Emery

Epep is actually a nice fellow outside of football, while Alves is just a c*nt all around

animal.crackers wrote:How do you guys rate Manchester City's chances honestly?

We're looking to improve even more this summer after we sell our deadwood.

If City get past the group stages I can see them reaching the quarterfinals, or even further. The amount of talent City has is ridiculous, so it won't be a surprise.

animal.crackers wrote:I think one of these 5 will win.

Barcelona
Real Madrid
Bayern Munich
Manchester City
Milan

where is ManU ?

sorry, i almost forgot you are a city fan