Paris Saint-Germain (A) - CL | Post-Match Thread

[Fordyboy46]

Pep blowing messi trumpet. He was anonymous last night until the goal.

As were Mbappe and Neymar on the whole

 

[waspish]

Used love Messi can’t stand the little fucker anymore

 

[SWP's back]

Geovanni?

Ah yes. Thanks for correcting me.

 

[SWP's back]

I will say this. We regularly see that the team that wins the CL is not necessarily the best team in Europe. Hell, they're not even the best team in their own country. Who could argue with a straight face that Chelsea were the best team in England on the two occasions that they won it?
But where we get away with creating a cartload of chances, missing most of them, putting say two or three of them away, and walking away with the three points, domestically, I think that in the CL that just doesn't work nearly as well. Pep's virtually said as much. In the CL, clinical is everything. You can be pretty mediocre in all other aspects of the game, but you get two chances, or even one, you put one of them in. You do that on a regular basis, and you've got a good chance of winning that competition, even against superior opposition.
It's one of the reasons why the CL will never count – for me personally – on any kind of level comparable to the Premier League. Every year, the best team in the land wins it. There are no mistakes, no jammy title holders: not over thirty-eight hard fought games, in a league where even a “minnow” can pull off a shock.
That said, our owners want the CL, the manager wants the CL, the players now want the CL, and I dare say plenty of supporters want the CL. So who am I to object. Let's win the thing and get it out the way.

I’ve liked this but I’m not sure I agree with the last few sentences. I believe both our management team and manager have said many many times that whilst the want CL, the PL is the true yardstick they measure themselves against as no team wins the league through luck.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I’ve liked this but I’m not sure I agree with the last few sentences. I believe both our management team and manager have said many many times that whilst the want CL, the PL is the true yardstick they measure themselves against as no team wins the league through luck.

They say that to manage expectations but there can be no doubt that in reality if you offered them either for this season every single one of them would want the Champions League for profile, growth and PR and also to get the monkey off our back. I would without a second thought.

 

[Manc in London]

Thought we played well, overall.

It's hard to be beat parked buses when you are facing defenders like Ben Mee, Martin Kelly and Phil Bardsley. So it was always going to be difficult to beat the most expensively put together bus with a defensively minded midfeld. We learn.

The commentators were very keen on Gueye and Veratti. Personally, I thought Rodri was much better than both whilst he had a more difficult job.

As for PSG, yes they won, but first thoughts are they are not a great team. They lack balance and the set-up is dependent on individual brilliance, not the team.

In my opinion, I also thought this game was further evidence that Mbappe is not the player he is hyped up to be. Can be a very good player but people talking about him being at the head of the next wave of great players....not a chance unless he significantly improves.

Not sure if it is because he is not fit but it appeared Messi looked a lot slower than previous years (I haven't watched La Liga for a few years). At one point, Rodri caught up with him and dispossessed him.

 

[khoitnm]

Used love Messi can’t stand the little fucker anymore

Why, because he scored against us? Common, he has done it for years, why hate now?!

 

[BlueAnorak]

Lost. Should have won.
Need a top striker to win games like this.

 

[paulchapo]

Pep blowing messi trumpet. He was anonymous last night until the goal.

That's the difference though. We had loads of possession and chances but couldn't score. They had much less and scored twice and won the game. That's all that matters

 

[Chippy_boy]

Do you remember the home Derby well over a decade ago where we got absolutely battered and one 1-0 with (deflected?) Petrov strike from 40 yards?

It’s was our only shot that I can remember and we were gash. By your reckoning, we were the better team.

No, I can't say I do remember that one. (I remember his similar goal against RM but that's another story) But you're over-simplifying. I am not saying *necessarily* or automatically that the team which scores the most goals is the best side. Merely that it's not an irrelevance. Our general standard of play was better than theirs (probably, although the defended pretty well I thought) but they scored and we didn't.

Perhaps the acid test (thought experiment) is, if that game was replayed again 10 times in a parallel universe, what would be the outcome. If a side is genuinely better, then you'd expect that side to win the game more times than not. Do you think we would? I think if we replayed that game, with those players, playing as we did, we'd lose it more times than not. Of course we will never know and your opinion may differ. And to be clear, I am not saying we are "broken" - clearly we are a very, very, very good side. I just wish we'd take our bloody chances!!!