Pre-season friendlies

I'm watching Manchester City vs Bayern Munich. Mané's really looking like a shadow of his former self right now. It's just a single match in pre-season, and I haven't watched him play for Bayern Munich before, but his explosiveness seems to have really taken a nosedive.

Isnt Mane negotiating with a Saudi club? Doubt he cares anymore

It's only a friendly etc etc but Tuchelball is so goddam awful I'm not surprised Hans been afk for months.

Real Madrid actually doing the diamond

Casemiro, Kroos y Luka Modric. 🥹🤍pic.twitter.com/9DsYbMGegW

— REAL MADRID (@AdriRM33) July 27, 2023

Vibe wrote:

Real Madrid actually doing the diamond

Zidane is salivating somewhere as we speak. When Carlo leaves for Brazil it'd be stupid not to bring back Zidane. This is his favourite formation.

Not sure what the real formation will be after the end of this silly season but man having a marauding LB/RB makes it so much easier to get a formation like this to work. Also Bellingham has been superb in the past 2 games, not sure he'll have the energy he puts in now by the end of the season though. He's running alot.

Curious to see Modric-Cama-Valverde midfield with Bellingham infront of them. So much of everything in thay midfield.

Lmao Xavi was complaining to Arteta that they were playing agressive like it were a CL Final

Arsenal are so far ahead in their preseason preparations it'd been a disgrace if Barca had beat them.

Arsenal have a lot of pressure on them with how many players they've bought. They recently lost to Utd so what better way to create hype than by beating Barca.

Clasico Sunday. Can't wait! Bellingham will be like a coat hanger for the midgets like Pedri and Gavi.

Really encouraging performance that was albeit we lost. That midfield Madrid started imo is probably the best in the world right now and we more than held our own against that. Last year(s) such a midfield would have toyed with us and ran right through us. We ended up with more possession. Dont remember the last time we achieved that when playing against a big team.

Mount and Onana have already made a difference. Especially Mount, I mean lot of our fans are utter fools, deriding him and already labelling him a flop. Him replacing a legless Eriksen is night and day really. Now if we get Amrabat too thats a nice upgrade from the days of McFred.
Also such a shame young Mainoo got injured so early. Was salivating at the prospect of seeing him against a midfield like Madrid's. Sigh. And I think had that not happened and Eriksen hadnt come on, the result could have even been different.

Anyway the big takeaway is obviously the urgent need for a CF. Hojlund I dont know though. The guy considers Chris Smalling the biggest test he has faced. Imagine him against the likes Ruben Dias or Van Dijk in the prem.

Myesyats wrote:Lmao Xavi was complaining to Arteta that they were playing agressive like it were a CL Final

what a beta cuck reaction... and then it was one of your players who almost broke Trossard's ankle

I would never have imagined that Bellingham would be playing for us one day when I saw him make his debut for Dortmund as a 17 year old, but I love seeing it. He looked incredibly mature for his age when he got his first few matches for Dortmund, and he didn't need any time to look comfortable in his new surroundings.

He's looked very comfortable with so much positional freedom in these pre-season matches as well. I hope it's a sign of things to come from him. It may only be pre-season, but at least he doesn't look like he's struggling to adapt to the team. Things may change for better or worse throughout the season, but I have high expectations of him.

Bellingham has come to the team humble to learn despite being able to pick from the best clubs in the world who all wanted him. He has also settled in well with the young players and shown willingness to integrate just like Camavinga. Have to give credit to Lucas who is becoming our new Marcelo.

In other news, Al Nassr flopping against all European clubs they've played. What was it Ronaldo said about the Saudi league again

Benzema's team are currently struggling against a CAF team in the Arab Champions league

As I checked to see what the stats say about Benz I noticed that Jota has gone over there too. Didn't he like cry after he scored against RM in the CL. What's he doing Oscar(ing) his career like that.

So Real got Joselu with that nice overhead kick goal... hes 33, real late bloomer? Been mid to low table teams n even Stoke? Wtf are Real doing He did look decent late season though with Espanyol...

Just saw the highlights but seems Arsenal outplayed us basically... not looking forward to the classico this weekend, we suck

Is there a chance we can get grouped together in the CL? Can't wait to get revenge for that tragic 2006 final, all the times Messi fooled around with Silvestre and Almunia and the refcelona fckovers. It's high time.

| Xavi and Arteta spoke before the game. People at Arsenal even questioned whether to play, because of the risk of injury. They decided yes, but carefully, without maximum intensity. Arsenal came out strong and that’s why Xavi was surprised. [@AdriaAlbets] #fcblive pic.twitter.com/d86AGpfIUB

— BarçaTimes (@BarcaTimes) July 28, 2023

Our players had gastroenteritis before the game and trained very little post-vacation

So Xavi is expecting his and Arsenal players to just pass the ball back and forth for 90 minutes before thousands of fans who paid top dollars to watch a game between top clubs! How insensitive and naive!

I think we all know these preseason friendlies are not meaningful and used as a warm up for teams, but the fans going to these games expect to be entertained!

El Gunner wrote:Is there a chance we can get grouped together in the CL? Can't wait to get revenge for that tragic 2006 final, all the times Messi fooled around with Silvestre and Almunia and the refcelona fckovers. It's high time.

It definitely won't be as easy and rarely do I see fanbases jubilating over friendly game wins, but I've already seen rounds of celebrations on twitter from Arsenal fans after their preseason championship  so congrats I guess

Feels like bizarro world with Romeu starting in el clasico

Romeu will be in haunting RM in their nightmares ffs

20 more minutes and we'll have no players left lmao

Barca players can't handle the tempo. Everyone dropping like flies.

Xavi has turned Barca into the new Mourinho team, yuck.

Tchouaméni and Camavinga bossing the midfield. We could been 4 goals ahead if Vini didn't turn into a meme.

halamadrid2 wrote:We could been 4 goals ahead

Dembele missed a 1v1 and you are spamming long shots

I think we're watching different games

The tempo is crazy for a friendly game in July tbf

Eric Garcia should be playing for the womens team. Grade A ballerina