Bris Vegas

Think we win that comfortably with Roos and proper centre backs. Stretton doesn’t look ready, but still rather him than signing Baldock. Jozwiak not impressing in a game like that. Hutchinson, Watson and Sibley all very good. Morrison will be a good addition. Ebosele and Williams also impressive. Allsop pretty terrible.
On a side note, not sure what it is about Watson but he’s an odd looking boy. He looks like he wore black nail polish and probably tried out his mums heels and make up as a kid. Ah well, can do what he wants if he keeps impressing. 

The officiating in this game has been awful. A yellow card now for an attempted bicycle kick. Wow.

First 30 minutes were poor. Even by our incredibly low standards, players like Watson, Stretton and Hutch were sloppy on the ball while Sibley and Joz struggled to get into the game. 
Last 15 minutes it was better.
 

It’s ironic that our former youth coach now managing a League Two club is more qualified than our own Wayne Rooney.
 

Salford are the biggest bunch of cheating Rick's I have ever seen.

It’s ironic that our former youth coach now managing a League Two club is more qualified than our own Wayne Rooney.
 

It’s ironic that our former youth coach now managing a League Two club is more qualified than our own Wayne Rooney.
 

It’s ironic that our former youth coach now managing a League Two club is more qualified than our own Wayne Rooney.
 

It’s ironic that our former youth coach now managing a League Two club is more qualified than our own Wayne Rooney.
 

It’s ironic that our former youth coach now managing a League Two club is more qualified than our own Wayne Rooney.
 

It’s ironic that our former youth coach now managing a League Two club is more qualified than our own Wayne Rooney.
 

He looked our best player when we were winning games. How good was he in the 1-0 win over Bournemouth? Brilliant in the win against Luton and Boro too. Mopped up everything when we had our backs to the wall fighting to hold the lead.
But he was mostly poor in the games we lost. He is the type of player every club needs when they’re holding on to something. But when we’re instead chasing or needing creativity from deep, he’s largely ineffective.
He stands out like a sore thumb when we’re defending a lead as he launches into crunching tackles, harries the opposition and breaks up attacks. Fans love to see that determination. But aside from a couple of penalties, you’d struggle to name any instances where he has been effective on the ball. 
 

Without knowing what LR’s role is here it seems a bit strange to ‘rate’ him.
He may have a job title but I doubt anyone here actually knows what his exact roles are. 
Is it his job to relay messages from Rooney to the first-team? Is he the person who sets out first-team coaching and actually works directly with the players on systems and style? Or does he monitor the opposition and identify their strengths and weaknesses before relaying that info to our players?
Maybe he is excellent in analysis and tactical set-ups but is a poor communicator? Maybe he’s not.
So many variables.

What you can take away from these highlights are exactly what we have witnessed in a Derby shirt. Excellent close control, decent sprints and pace, brilliant dribbling ability and a reliable player in close spaces.
But in these highlights I see not shots of any power. I also barely see any crosses from outside the box. Interstingly, there are about 6 or 7 clips of him beating the defender with skill before cutting to another highlight. Where is the cross or killer pass? It was probably scuffed or failed to beat the first man.
These highlights leave out a key ingredient for an atacking player. An end product! And that's exactly what has been missing from Joz's game while at Derby. I maintain, technically, he is superb. But strikes the ball like a fairy.

Without knowing what LR’s role is here it seems a bit strange to ‘rate’ him.
He may have a job title but I doubt anyone here actually knows what his exact roles are. 
Is it his job to relay messages from Rooney to the first-team? Is he the person who sets out first-team coaching and actually works directly with the players on systems and style? Or does he monitor the opposition and identify their strengths and weaknesses before relaying that info to our players?
Maybe he is excellent in analysis and tactical set-ups but is a poor communicator? Maybe he’s not.
So many variables.

What you can take away from these highlights are exactly what we have witnessed in a Derby shirt. Excellent close control, decent sprints and pace, brilliant dribbling ability and a reliable player in close spaces.
But in these highlights I see not shots of any power. I also barely see any crosses from outside the box. Interstingly, there are about 6 or 7 clips of him beating the defender with skill before cutting to another highlight. Where is the cross or killer pass? It was probably scuffed or failed to beat the first man.
These highlights leave out a key ingredient for an atacking player. An end product! And that's exactly what has been missing from Joz's game while at Derby. I maintain, technically, he is superb. But strikes the ball like a fairy.

What you can take away from these highlights are exactly what we have witnessed in a Derby shirt. Excellent close control, decent sprints and pace, brilliant dribbling ability and a reliable player in close spaces.
But in these highlights I see not shots of any power. I also barely see any crosses from outside the box. Interstingly, there are about 6 or 7 clips of him beating the defender with skill before cutting to another highlight. Where is the cross or killer pass? It was probably scuffed or failed to beat the first man.
These highlights leave out a key ingredient for an atacking player. An end product! And that's exactly what has been missing from Joz's game while at Derby. I maintain, technically, he is superb. But strikes the ball like a fairy.

He wanted to leave last year because of the presidency of Bartomeu, arguably the most incompetent president/chairman of any football club ever.  He's no longer in charge so the situation is now entirely different, and Messi was now happy to stay, like he explained earlier.  However, Bartomeu's ridiculously expensive signings (Dembele, Coutinho...Griezmann) are still clogging up the squad and nobody wants to take them off Barca's hands.  So effectively, Messi's forced departure is still a legacy of Bartomeu's historic mismanagement.
The reset could have ideally occurred with Messi and without those expensive flops previously mentioned and without Pjanic and a few others.  There is already the bones of a very good young squad there... Fati, Pedri, De Jong, Moriba, Puig, Araujo...all of whom would have benefited from Messi's presence and guidance.  I don't see how Messi leaving, while Dembele and Coutinho remain can be regarded as anything but an unmitigated disaster for Barcelona.

What you can take away from these highlights are exactly what we have witnessed in a Derby shirt. Excellent close control, decent sprints and pace, brilliant dribbling ability and a reliable player in close spaces.
But in these highlights I see not shots of any power. I also barely see any crosses from outside the box. Interstingly, there are about 6 or 7 clips of him beating the defender with skill before cutting to another highlight. Where is the cross or killer pass? It was probably scuffed or failed to beat the first man.
These highlights leave out a key ingredient for an atacking player. An end product! And that's exactly what has been missing from Joz's game while at Derby. I maintain, technically, he is superb. But strikes the ball like a fairy.

Messi said he wanted to stay. But last year he wanted to leave.
He's probaby caught in two minds. On the one hand Bacelona is his home and has been for the majority of his life. But on the flip side, he probably knows deep down they aren't going to compete and he still has trophies to win left in him.
The 2018-19 Champions League was Barca's last hope of a European title for many years, even had Messi stayed. The club needs a complete reset and this now will be the first step towards that.
 

They're in this mess because of the Neymar deal. They sold a worldwide superstar who brought in huge revenues through his own following and made a right hash of replacing him.
If Neymar had stayed at Barca, they wouldn't have shelled out for Dembele, Griezmann or Coutinho. That's over £350m right there.
The Neymar deal left them both weaker from a sporting perspective and from a financial perspective. 
Lionel Messi's wages weren't ever the problem. I mean, it's not a problem for PSG or Juventus to accomodate their equally well-paid superstars, but Barca are the ones who have hit the brick wall despite having a bigger following than the other two. The reason for that is not Lionel Messi.

What you can take away from these highlights are exactly what we have witnessed in a Derby shirt. Excellent close control, decent sprints and pace, brilliant dribbling ability and a reliable player in close spaces.
But in these highlights I see not shots of any power. I also barely see any crosses from outside the box. Interstingly, there are about 6 or 7 clips of him beating the defender with skill before cutting to another highlight. Where is the cross or killer pass? It was probably scuffed or failed to beat the first man.
These highlights leave out a key ingredient for an atacking player. An end product! And that's exactly what has been missing from Joz's game while at Derby. I maintain, technically, he is superb. But strikes the ball like a fairy.

Yep. He's a fraud. I've seen more talent in a Stoke nightclub. 

He can't stay even if he played for free. Barcelona's wage to turnover ratio is still way too high even without Messi and they cannot register new players, which includes Messi, until they get the wages down to 70% of their turnover.
He also isn't legally allowed to take more than a 50% pay cut as per Spanish law. Not sure what else you expect him to do.
He wanted to stay at the club he has been at for his entire life, but was not allowed to thanks to circumstances outside of his control. If a man can't cry after leaving a place that has been home for almost 30 years what the hell can he cry at.
 

Wouldn't be tested enough domestically to win the Champions League.
Messi should do something very left field. He doesn't need the money. Why not come to Derby and play for free and make himself a total hero? I did meet him one time and he actually seemed a pretty decent bloke. Maybe he remembers? ;)