Goonersworld

Mesüt wrote:no busquets or rakitic actually, they were benched.

n by almost drew you mean lead from 39th minute and won 2-1 right? Guess we 'almost drew' v Burnley with our big boys too so

By almost drew i mean referee f***ked over Las Palmas and they had a few chances to equalise but choked.
Barca was terrible by their own standards. We are terrible every week if you compare us to Barca so i don't see why you're mentioning our games, as if i said we were the better team. Just saying they might not be in top form on Tuesday.

Also Barca had like 53% possesion and less attempts (more on target)

Barca fan here from our den at http://www.barcaforum.com/
Would be great if we had fan exchange.

I think Arsenal has a chance (obviously everyone has). Barca have been playing non stop since December and barely rested MSN. And now just had a flight from Barcelona to Canary Islands and back.
Arsenal will be fresh in comparison.

Cripps wrote:Going to this.

Cripps on suicide watch after Messi scored the 0:1

cech to lose his 'never conceded to messi' record within 35 mins.

Mesüt wrote:cech to lose his 'never conceded to messi' record within 35 mins.

Meh, Cech could concede 2 Messi goals and still have a fantastic record against him.

Current record Cech 8-0 Messi

Messi has been awful at Las Palmas yesterday.

Cech
Bellerin Mertesacker Koscielny Monreal
Ramsey Coquelin El nenny
Sanchez Giroud Welbeck

That would be my team. We really have to beef up the midfield. I know wenger has one formation with ramsey and a DM in the middle no matter who we play home or away. But he really has to adapt here. Dont make the errors we made against Monaco and even olympiacos and leave us open straight away. Start the match catious and focus on clean sheet first 20 mins. As the match goes on depending on how the match goes, take out elnenny or even coquelin to bring in more attacking player. I have a fear he will start with an attacking team and concede within the first 10 mins and rom then we will be chasing the match with being too open

We need to be smart for this first leg. Considering we are at home first, we can try and blitz them early for about 10-15 minutes while staying cautious at the back. If nothing comes of it then we should conserve our energy and focus on not conceding for the rest of the game. There’s no point thinking there’s a chance we can beat Barcelona over two legs if we lose the home leg by 3+ goals. If we lose 1-nil or 2-1, then so be it. It will still give us a slim chance of qualifying.

Home Leg Tactic:
*Play like we did against Leicester
*Barcelona hunt in packs so our key to victory will come down to how well we keep the ball/not losing it in dangerous positions

Away Leg Tactic:
*Play like Leicester
*Congest and counter

Default Home Leg Formation:

*If fit, starting Gabriel will give us the pace at the back to recover in case Chamberlain or Ramsey gives away possession
*Also considering the form Sánchez is in, I would not be against starting Welbeck on the left...

Home Leg Formation 1:

*…Assuming Gabriel’s not fit and Mertesacker starts then Ramsey and Bellerin should be instructed to prioritize defending in this match. They can alternate who goes forward but Chamberlain should be left to do the brunt of the work down that right side. Mertesacker’s going to need all the help he can get against Neymar because Neymar will not need to do much to get past Mertesacker…

Home Leg Formation 2:

*…If Ramsey and Bellerin cannot resist going forward, then it would be safer for us to start Ramsey out wide and Elneny and Coquelin in the center. This way Ramsey and Bellerin can get forward, but we’ll still have Elneny and Coquelin to cover.

Away Leg – Defensive Formation:

*Elneny and Coquelin = Kante
*Ozil = Drinkwater
*Sanchez = Mahrez
*Ramsey = Okazaki
*Walcott = Vardy
*Every man behind the ball except Walcott and maybe Sanchez…

Away Leg – Offensive Formation:

*…Once we win the ball, give the ball to Ozil and let him find Walcott, Sanchez, or Ramsey

Whenever we play Barca we forget how to retain possession, get pressured and lose the ball far to easily. This isn't a game for Ox, I think Walcott must start he does well vs Barca. Wouldn't risk elneny either starting but a good bench option for legs in midfield.

Giroud up front we gonna struggle to break but we have no other options and I think we need him for set pieces both ways.

I wouldn't be surprised if Giroud grabs a goal

Watched the last two Barca games closely yesterday and all I can say is if they continue to make defensive errors the way they have been then we will win this. They've been rotating but yesterday their only change defensively was Mathieu in for Pique but still they were all over the place at times, especially in the last 20 minutes of the game.

This game won't be a drumming nor will MSN run riot over us. Im confident in saying that because we tend to turn up in these big games where we are the underdogs despite the iffy form we are in.

I hope we take the game to them instead of sitting back, playing on the counter and letting them play. They are very good at keeping the ball but in my opinion they're not what they use to be in terms of not letting opponents have a touch of the ball. At the same time we need to be extremely cautious of pushing up because we know if that happens then Suarez is going to ruin Mertesacker a new arsehole. Coquelin will need to be right on his game Tuesday and protect the back four more than ever.

Our starting front three is going to be key. We should be starting Sanchez, Theo and Campbell so we can push Barca's defence as far back as possible to make gaps between their Defence, midfield and attack. That way we will stop them playing short little passes that tear teams apart.

Deep Tech G wrote:Whenever we play Barca we forget how to retain possession, get pressured and lose the ball far to easily. This isn't a game for Ox, I think Walcott must start he does well vs Barca. Wouldn't risk elneny either starting but a good bench option for legs in midfield.

Giroud up front we gonna struggle to break but we have no other options and I think we need him for set pieces both ways.

I wouldn't be surprised if Giroud grabs a goal

Yeah, I wouldn't be against starting Walcott considering how often Chamberlain gives away possession. The only reason I have Ox starting is because he was rested against Hull. Just need to make sure we have bodies at the back if Ox starts

SchlandGooner wrote:

Cripps wrote:Going to this.

Cripps on suicide watch after Messi scored the 0:1

Messi to finally score at an English club ground?

Zenith wrote:

Mesüt wrote:cech to lose his 'never conceded to messi' record within 35 mins.

Meh, Cech could concede 2 Messi goals and still have a fantastic record against him.

Current record Cech 8-0 Messi

Chelsea defence 8-0 Messi *

Arsenal defence shit-100 Messi

Funny thing is we did actually keep him relatively quiet until 1 cock up allowed him in and destroyed our confidence.

I just hope we don't get so battered there's a hangover when we go to Old Trafford next weekend.