Jonathan David

[costarg]

7 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I don't dislike Inter, just think that Milan has longer term value and, as they build themselves back, should go further in the next few years. 

I wouldn't mind David at either, and oddly, would prefer him to not be with another Canadian. I prefer to see our guys in different places. Not sure why.

Hey @Unnamed Trialist - a little off topic, but curious....

Generally speaking, who do most Barca fans prefer to win in a match like today's Man City v Real Madrid?  Does love of country/Liga win over dislike of rival (Premier League/RM)?  And how does Guardiola factor into that?

Thanks!     

[Kadenge]

19 minutes ago, costarg said:

Hey @Unnamed Trialist - a little off topic, but curious....

Generally speaking, who do most Barca fans prefer to win in a match like today's Man City v Real Madrid?  Does love of country/Liga win over dislike of rival (Premier League/RM)?  And how does Guardiola factor into that?

Thanks!     

The first half has been incredible.

[El Diego]

2 hours ago, InglewoodJack said:

Didn't Porto with Taremi reach the champions league quarter finals during Eustaquio's first full season? He is older now and has had a pretty weak system.

I have a soft spot for Thuram. He seems like such a nice guy. Would love for him to stay and become best friends with Tajon or something, but if he leaves and David comes in, obviously that's better, and if they want to go big game hunting, I think he's a better option than any name you mention.

I don't mind Taremi actually, always been impressed when I watch Porto. But for a Serie A champ who wants to win CL, he's a squad player imo. Better than Arnautovic and Sanchez, but not Thuram.

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I don't dislike Inter, just think that Milan has longer term value and, as they build themselves back, should go further in the next few years. 

I wouldn't mind David at either, and oddly, would prefer him to not be with another Canadian. I prefer to see our guys in different places. Not sure why.

That makes sense and I do get that about wanting to spread the Canadians out, although I tend to fluctuate between liking multiple guys at a club and disliking it.

I guess the advantage of having two or three guys at the same club, aside from chemistry, is that it's easier to watch/monitor their progress throughout the season.

The downside (perhaps) is that on paper the squad looks less interesting, or more boring.

Davies (Bayern), Buchanan (Inter), David (AC Milan), Eustaquio (Porto) is somehow more appealing than Davies (Bayern), Buchanan (Bayern), David (Bayern), Eustaquio (Bayern) - at least to me. 

Edited April 9 by Obinna

[costarg]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

That makes sense and I do get that about wanting to spread the Canadians out, although I tend to fluctuate between liking multiple guys at a club and disliking it.

I guess the advantage of having two or three guys at the same club, aside from chemistry, is that it's easier to watch/monitor their progress throughout the season.

The downside (perhaps) is that on paper the squad looks less interesting, or more boring.

Davies (Bayern), Buchanan (Inter), David (AC Milan), Eustaquio (Porto) is somehow more appealing than Davies (Bayern), Buchanan (Bayern), David (Bayern), Eustaquio (Bayern) - at least to me. 

Same here.  Only place I make an exception is for a CB pairing.  It's so valuable to have two OR THREE play together regularly.

Edited to add the bold - before some people here lose their shit!

Edited April 9 by costarg

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, costarg said:

Hey @Unnamed Trialist - a little off topic, but curious....

Generally speaking, who do most Barca fans prefer to win in a match like today's Man City v Real Madrid?  Does love of country/Liga win over dislike of rival (Premier League/RM)?  And how does Guardiola factor into that?

Thanks!     

We want Real Madrid to lose even in training. 

We tend to support any other Spanish team in Europe though, and the modest clubs more. Maybe excepting Valencia, being such dickhead fans.

Many Catalans pretend to not care about the Spanish national team, then you look at tv ratings and they're all watching. 

That said, there's a bit of pride in Guardiola (think, half the coaches in the Champions League quarter finals played at Barça in the 90s) but noone is really a Man City fan here. I am pretty sure the EPL team most supported in Catalonia is Liverpool, so I feel quite at home. 

Noone here likes PSG, though there's no preferred French team. In Italy we tend to support AC Milan, in Portugal, Porto as they have that same counterpoint position to the teams from the capital. Celtic being the traditional Catholic team. 

Many Catalans like Mallorca, the Basque teams, then Betis has a large following because of so much working class immigration from Andalusia.

I'm an exception here and like Espanyol, because I follow the academies and kids coming up and they do a great job. And young players could end up at one or the other and it's not because of personal preferences.

[Obinna]

8 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

We want Real Madrid to lose even in training. 

We tend to support any other Spanish team in Europe though, and the modest clubs more. Maybe excepting Valencia, being such dickhead fans.

Many Catalans pretend to not care about the Spanish national team, then you look at tv ratings and they're all watching. 

That said, there's a bit of pride in Guardiola (think, half the coaches in the Champions League quarter finals played at Barça in the 90s) but noone is really a Man City fan here. I am pretty sure the EPL team most supported in Catalonia is Liverpool, so I feel quite at home. 

Noone here likes PSG, though there's no preferred French team. In Italy we tend to support AC Milan, in Portugal, Porto as they have that same counterpoint position to the teams from the capital. Celtic being the traditional Catholic team. 

Many Catalans like Mallorca, the Basque teams, then Betis has a large following because of so much working class immigration from Andalusia.

I'm an exception here and like Espanyol, because I follow the academies and kids coming up and they do a great job. And young players could end up at one or the other and it's not because of personal preferences.

This is interesting. What about Germany? Does that fall into the France category as in there's no preference except a dislike of Bayern?

[costarg]

1 minute ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

We want Real Madrid to lose even in training. 

We tend to support any other Spanish team in Europe though, and the modest clubs more. Maybe excepting Valencia, being such dickhead fans.

Many Catalans pretend to not care about the Spanish national team, then you look at tv ratings and they're all watching. 

That said, there's a bit of pride in Guardiola (think, half the coaches in the Champions League quarter finals played at Barça in the 90s) but noone is really a Man City fan here. I am pretty sure the EPL team most supported in Catalonia is Liverpool, so I feel quite at home. 

Noone here likes PSG, though there's no preferred French team. In Italy we tend to support AC Milan, in Portugal, Porto as they have that same counterpoint position to the teams from the capital. Celtic being the traditional Catholic team. 

Many Catalans like Mallorca, the Basque teams, then Betis has a large following because of so much working class immigration from Andalusia.

I'm an exception here and like Espanyol, because I follow the academies and kids coming up and they do a great job. And young players could end up at one or the other and it's not because of personal preferences.

Thanks, I kinda assumed so. 

I find it fascinating how that works, especially like you mentioned about the national team.  I know guys that only want their teams guys to do well, I just can't wrap my head around it.  Almost feels like hate is more powerful than love when it comes to sports fans.  I guess I'm an outlier there. 

I don't hate any teams, but I do make exceptions for some special players, Joey Barton, Diego Costa, Pepe & Neymar certainly top that list.

[Unnamed Trialist]

56 minutes ago, Obinna said:

This is interesting. What about Germany? Does that fall into the France category as in there's no preference except a dislike of Bayern?

I am not sure but I think Barça fans don't mind Bayern, being from Bavaria, which has similarities to Catalonia, as a well-off counterpoint to the capital, and culturally potent; and even politically (the liberal Christian Democrat tradition). And that despite the fact we have a very poor record against Bayern, probably our worst in Europe. There is no other team in Germany fans in Catalonia, or even Spain, are remotely attached to. 

Barça fans are more fans of Boca than River because of Maradona. We support Ajax, for Cruyff. Basel, because they say that our founder, the Swiss Gamper, was a Basel supporter and that our colours came from Basel (but it seems that is not really true).

The point about France: the fact that no team in the south-west of France in the historical Catalan-speaking areas, is ever in top flight, is a factor (Perpignan, Narbonne, Beziers). I used to like Marseille, also the anti-capital team, but I think after their financial scandals in the 90s a lot of people turned off them. 

[frmr]

Big game for David today against Villa. I was watching Sky Sports Backpage last night and apparently Fonseca is the top target to replace Moyes at West Ham. If he moves there I wonder if he would want to bring his star striker with him.

I hope David has a big game today. One of the criticisms of him is that he has gone missing in some of his biggest games when all eyes are on him.

[sebdeserio]

2 minutes ago, frmr said:

I hope David has a big game today. One of the criticisms of him is that he has gone missing in some of his biggest games when all eyes are on him.

By who? He scores against all the big french teams and had 4 goals in 8 in the CL year (I'm including the one that got disallowed since no one on the pitch knew the ball was out). Maybe for Canada he's a bit more hit and miss but he always shows up for Lille.

[Kadenge]

6 minutes ago, sebdeserio said:

By who? He scores against all the big french teams and had 4 goals in 8 in the CL year (I'm including the one that got disallowed since no one on the pitch knew the ball was out). Maybe for Canada he's a bit more hit and miss but he always shows up for Lille.

Agree. He basically won the Ligue 1 title for Lille by scoring in both games v PSG, one on an injured ankle.

[frmr]

6 minutes ago, sebdeserio said:

By who? He scores against all the big french teams and had 4 goals in 8 in the CL year (I'm including the one that got disallowed since no one on the pitch knew the ball was out). Maybe for Canada he's a bit more hit and miss but he always shows up for Lille.

With Lille he's been better in big matches but he still has gone missing in some big games for Lille also. But it's mostly when he's been in his barren stretches. With Lille he's just streaky period, when he's on, he's on. When he's off, he's off. With Canada he's been pretty invisible in our biggest matches.

[Stryker911]

7 minutes ago, frmr said:

With Lille he's been better in big matches but he still has gone missing in some big games for Lille also. But it's mostly when he's been in his barren stretches. With Lille he's just streaky period, when he's on, he's on. When he's off, he's off. With Canada he's been pretty invisible in our biggest matches.

He was our most visible player on our recent big match.

[InglewoodJack]

22 minutes ago, sebdeserio said:

By who? He scores against all the big french teams and had 4 goals in 8 in the CL year (I'm including the one that got disallowed since no one on the pitch knew the ball was out). Maybe for Canada he's a bit more hit and miss but he always shows up for Lille.

One of the biggest complaints about our World Cup performance is he was completely invisible. Which, watching the games definitely wasn’t his fault, but those were his biggest games and he did nothing.

Biggest game for him in a long time. A goal here and a Lille result could change a lot for him. 
 

edit: lineup is out. He is, unsurprisingly, starting. 

Edited April 11 by InglewoodJack

[frmr]

3 minutes ago, Stryker911 said:

He was our most visible player on our recent big match.

Big to us, do you think the rest of the world cared about us playing T&T? I said when eyes are on him. Namely the World Cup. Also, last time he played Premier League competition in Chelsea he was invisible and any links to the Premier League went pretty quiet after that.

[Kadenge]

Very active early on, jumped on a weak pass and then almost got in alone but called offside. He looks quick and pacey vs a strong EPL side

[Unnamed Trialist]

He's already had a steal in close and passed for a goal, they missed; then a break down the right, but his angle got closed down before he could shoot. 

They are playing well, lively, and David is very present.

[Kadenge]

Watkins makes it 1-0. Nice header from a corner

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

3 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

Watkins makes it 1-0. Nice header from a corner

trying to watch 2 games but how do you leave a top striker that open on a corner. 

Edited April 11 by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[Kadenge]

David doing really well on both sides of the ball. Won the ball deep in his own end and then blocked a clearance in the other end

[sebdeserio]

6 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

trying to watch 2 games but how do you leave a top striker that open on a corner. 

By obstructing the Lille defender.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Both teams seem to be able to get fairly easily through the opposing midfield, Lille has found the Villa box quite a few times. I think either Aston Villa will kill it off, because Lille seems loose at the back, or they'll have a tough evening.

Martínez just saved a nice break through 1-on-1, I am a bit surprised they are not staying more compact a goal up.

Edited April 11 by Unnamed Trialist

[frmr]

Ismaily was the big brain play of waiting until David had checked his run and was two yards offside before making the pass. It's stuff like that that will be nice not to see when David moves to a better team.

[Kadenge]

Had a chance, but angle was a bit tight. Lille making a game of it.

Edited April 11 by Kadenge