Messi, Suarez and Neymar - Best strike force in history?

Alves is a fantastic player. He lets himself down by his antics. Busquets - I just can't stand him.

 

Absolutely, when Messi had the hamstring injury and subsequent loss of form, Barcelona struggled (as would any team, of course). Messi is irreplaceable, when he retires maybe then Barcelona will stop dominating Europe? <grrrrrrrrrrrr>

 

Barca do bore me to death. Great side, so much talent in their ranks.

Those 3 are a great strikeforce. In history? Not sure about that, difficult to judge.

Puskas, Di Stefano, Gento? Cruyff, Rep, Rensenbrink? Giordano, Careca, Maradona? Pele, Jairzinho, Tostao? Fat Ronaldo, Raul, Zidane? George, Overmars, Kluivert? Puskas, Kocsis, Hidegkuti?

There have been some great partnerships, not just on individual talent but how they gelled. That dutch one was dreamy. That Hungarian one telepathic and lethal (Puskas 84 in 85, Kocsis 75 in 68, Hidegkuti 39 in 69) Even allowing for mediocre oppo etc, that is ridiculous. There is reason Puskas and Kocsis were at Barca and Real.

 

And while we are at it, that cheesy aeroplane advert "starring" the Barcelona players ought to be banned. It's one of the most irritating commercials ever and has partially sullied my liking of the Beach Boys ffs.

Stick to the football lads, none of you can act.

 

They should be shot for that alone.

 

Nooooooooooo! I like the Beach Boys

 

So do I haha. I meant they should be shot for sullying your liking of them!

 

I thought I might have got hold of the wrong end of the stick there

Can you believe, I've been playing Football Chairman on my IPad (a game where you spend all your spare time building up a team from non-league) and I've won all the divisions and ended up in the Champions League final where yes, you've guessed it, I lost 2-0 to ****ing Barcelona

The ****ers

 

Should be a book written - The Barcelona myth.

 

I think quite a few of us are now looking for them to fail. I'm going to Catalonia in August and I think I might buy a Madrid top just to piss a few of the locals off.

 

The daft thing is, I used to like Barca. In the days of Cruyff and SBR. Even during the Van Gaal era they are a good side to watch. Ever since Guardiola took charge and turned them into a bunch of whining diving cheats I have disliked them.

Then again, I used to love watching Real when they had the likes of Zidane and Ronaldo [the original.] The current Barca side bore me to death. As did Spain when they dominated international football. Don't get me wrong, I like to see good attacking football. The problem is, Barcelona are just......like a machine. They are predictable and do the same things over and over.

 

Barcelona really?

 

Well, they try to walk it into the net practically every match.

 

I loved watching Barca when Ronaldinho was playing for them, that guy was the bollocks. Messi was starting to come through the ranks, but it was all about Ronaldinho at the time, everything he touched was solid gold, he was far better to watch than Messi and Ronaldo for me.

 

Aye - I loved it when Ronaldinho played for them. You never knew what to expect. Messi, you know what you get but you can't stop him.

 

Less now than under Guardiola, but keeping the ball playing 5 yard passes to keep the ball and going no where for me isn't attacking football. Its defensive. If you have the ball the opposition can't score. One of the biggest cons in football that possession football is 'playing the correct way'. People confuse that with attacking football all too often. As I said in my comment before, Pep ruined Bayern in the sense that they had their own style, stronger and more powerful than Barcelona were under him. They really should have gone on to dominate Europe like Barcelona did. Heynkes was replaced by Pep and has them playing 'Barca lite' They were/are always going to dominate the Bundesliga, and will do well in Europe because they have good players.

 

I am actually agreeing. They play ultra defensive football by keeping the ball. People call Chelsea boring, but for me they aren't. I find Arsenal to be boring at times also. Teams that play the ball around and keep possession for 25 minutes are plain boring to watch.

 

They were great to watch at one stage. All sides who win will always put it down to jealousy. Its not jealousy, its enjoying the beauty of the game. People slate us or West Ham for believing in some club ethos to play attacking football. "living in the past" "Keegan days are gone" "Sam Allardyce was the right man, you were just too demanding" Its all bollocks. Of course fans want to win, winning is great. But winning and attacking don't have to be mutually exclusive. We have always had that ethos where we love a winger, we love attacking football. Keegan was good not because he was Keegan but because he understood the paying public. He knew what they wanted. It just so happened there was another great attacking manager and side in the North West or he would have won with that style too.

Arsenal are always good to watch, they just aren't tough enough. He has become obsessed with 5ft something midfielders. He has forgotten how to build a side. A brute in the middle of the park or centre back can be attacking too. Attacking is not just about chucking men forward, its the attitude to the game when you haven't got the ball. Barca have this side, their pressing is immense. However once they get the ball this whole tiki taka is a bit of a bore. Yes now and again there will a move that makes anyone swoon, but you may have switched over half the time when it finally arrives.

That rare combination of attack and pressing, usually with a conductor in the middle is a great thing. Jose can bore me a bit. He knows exactly how to build a side however, he just struggles to take the reins away. They were better at the beginning of the season though.

I thought Colombia were great to watch in the world cup. Germany were too and the Dutch. That blend of power, pace and attacking mentality is great to watch.

 

Going back to Barca hating, does anybody else notice that incessant whistling their fans do when their team don't have the ball? What the **** is that all about? It's like they're crying because another team has the ball for 30 seconds.

The most boring bunch of foreign fans I've ever had in my city.

 

Most of their fans are tourists anyway.
The Nou Camp is a lovely stadium, just a shame the team that plays there aren't fit for it.