[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

It was a terrible debut. Besides the poor handling, he could've easily been sent off at one point. but then, DeGea started terribly when he joined the Prem and look at him now, so we'll have to see. It was shocking though.

But for all Pep's eccentricities, I like what he's done at MC so far. They'll win a helluva lot more games than they'll lose, playing that way, and when they're in full flow they are great to watch.

i read about that red card etc.

when pep makes his team fly it's a magnificent sight. like quantum football-- there/not there and yet the ball moves as if by magic

when the chopper blades break or get stuck and the thing comes crashing down though it's a fucking disaster. it's like... he can't build in resilience. a fantastically quick and skilled boxer with a glass jaw.

so, with neuer, it was a match made in heaven. neuer already had the qualities and pep pushed him farther-- i think he made him a better keeper. in the sense that he exploited another set of abilities that were already there.

with bravo i've mostly seen him play with chile and he plays far out of his area but not as sweeper. i don't follow la liga so i got ter stegen at the champions. so i don't know bravo's abilities in a barca setting. on his goal with chile he's tremendous though. but a national team can't build the same sort of sophistication as a professional team. and the cognitive processing required to simultaneously be the last defender AND keep his mind on where his goalposts are-- that would overwhelm most people's CPUs. it's a massive feat. i've seen neuer skip a bit on occassion but he sort of snaps back.

how was valdés back in the day? i know you were a fan of that team. i read somewhere that pep wanted him back and chose bravo in the end. if you look at news, pep was already saying back in april that neuer would never leave bayern. so i'm sure he tried to play footsie under the table with him somehow... as a bayern fan, i'm glad that was quickly shut down.

ps- missed the bayern match on friday (work) so i can't report on ancelotti's evolution. champions begin tuesday, right? so you can see for yourself soon enough, and i'll keep an eye on this fabled man city. silva playing great football? i almost couldn't believe the accounts.