Pogba can't win it on his own, They don't have a CF coming through, and Ribery will be 86 by then, and he ain't no Pavel Nedved able to play amazingly well into his mid thirties

How poor was Pique today? Ramos made mistakes, but Pique was just total cráp.

Giroud will still be there, though.

comment by Mex (U6687)
posted less than a minute ago
Pogba can't win it on his own, They don't have a CF coming through, and Ribery will be 86 by then, and he ain't no Pavel Nedved able to play amazingly well into his mid thirties
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They have Griezman who could be a wonderful player.

Brilliant

Griezmann is another player I watch and he does fack all for 89 minutes and then scores a brilliant goal, he's like Rooney

IOAG, PIque polarises opinion. But when it comes to defending, mano-mano, Pique is not your man. He is also very poor positionally.

With Puyol, he was formidable but i was one of the few United fans who was not too fussed when he went back to Barca. In the PL, he'd be exposed badly.

France without Ribery in this world cup will be interesting to see.

I don't think him and Benzema work together. If Griezman plays I think Benzema could perform better for France as he'd have a proper runner off the wing like he does for Madrid.

However, Pique is cultured. On the ball, he is better than most team's midfielders.

comment by itsonlyagame - Jose are you watching, are you watching Jose? (U6426)
posted 1 minute ago
How poor was Pique today? Ramos made mistakes, but Pique was just total cráp.
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I blamed Ramos for the first goal at first thinking that he went to sleep and let RVP run in behind him then the replays showed Pique playing everyone onside. He was really poor then.

comment by Darren The King Fletcher (U10026)
posted 3 minutes ago
Giroud will still be there, though.
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feck off!!

The Dutch had clearly studied that Wump. They hammered us by playing the same relatively simple ball again and again.

Has anyone seen much of Thauvin for Marseille? I've not seen a great deal but he looks a really talented young player from what I've seen.

RC, I agree - CBs are all about working in tandem imo. Puyol's messy style meant a lot of people never took him seriously, but he was immense for Barça and Spain for many, many years.

Going back to what Wump said about Barça's demise being linked to Xavi's, it's something I always said as well, but adding Puyol's too.

I actually thought it worked well in the beginning of the game but I have always thought playing with an offside trap when the team is rattled is always going to end badly. Once they went ahead, the whole team just lost their nerve really!

I thought Puyol would last a bit longer though. Such a shame his knee's ended his career a few years too soon.

Yeah Puyol has been a massive miss for Barca and Spain.

comment by itsonlyagame - Jose are you watching, are you watching Jose? (U6426)
posted 1 minute ago
RC, I agree - CBs are all about working in tandem imo. Puyol's messy style meant a lot of people never took him seriously, but he was immense for Barça and Spain for many, many years.

Going back to what Wump said about Barça's demise being linked to Xavi's, it's something I always said as well, but adding Puyol's too.
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They do look leaderless nowadays without Puyol don't they? I always found the rumours of them wanting to sign David Luiz to be hilarious!!! Puyol was immense! One of my favorite players of his generation. A great person too!

Apropos of nothing, the Rakitic to Barca transfer is a surprising one to be honest. Fine player, he is. But i don't see him as a Barca player at all - especially if the canards are true that Koke is Barca-bound.

Is he just a vanity purchase? Where will he play?

I tell you what, I can see Cahill causing Spain problems.

chile are poor in defence

So are Spain.

Here's a question: do you think Spain would employ a foreign manager?

they have done so in the past

Don't think there's any truth in the Koke-Barça rumours. Don't think Koke will be going anywhere, and if he does, it won't be in Spain imo.

Rakitic, yeah, does he fit? We'll see. Also interested to see how much responsibility Luis Enrique gives Rafinha.

Rafinha will get a lot of game time imo. Question though is, how good is he really? Any good like his bro?