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If build up was truly centered on Mascherano, this would be reflected in his passing stats. The last three seasons he had roughly the same amount of passes per 90 mins as Pique and a similar pass completion ratio. During the days of Pique and Puyol, the former always had a lot more of the ball...

He has a lot of interception stats beacuse of his tendency to rush into challenges much more often. Whereas Pique takes more of a covering position. The matches against City have pretty much shown that. For me Pique is the better passer as well.

Much better reader of the game? If he truly was he wouldn't look so average in the few matches he had at DM. Can't really agree with him being better in CB. Let's just hope he has a good match tonight. Nah, Pique is better at reading the game. A lot.

Mascherano faster than Mathieu? Not really. Better tackler yeah but doesn't mean much with his tendency to rush into challenges too quickly, which is something you should avoid as CB. Against City he was exposed time and time again only for Pique to save his ass.

Blessing in disguise then... Just like with Paris missing Ibra. Maybe harsh but true. With Mascherano we wouldn't have won against RM and Celta. You forgot bolding the big match part. Either way, Mathieu is the better of the two and adds a goal + aerial threat that can be crucial, whereas...

Özil and Mata are called "world class players" despite both being more inconsistent than Coutinho in the past two seasons. I don't see a problem.

Well, ideally you'd want your best players to start, hence the outrage. Although Montoya and Adriano are equally good/bad in my eyes. Mathieu wins us two vital matches against Real and Celta and gets benched for a big match underperformer CB. Certainly a logical decision. :rolleyes:

Mascherano starting, what a joke :facepalm:

Definitely the best player of all time. Won an impressive amount of one league title and one Champions League in his 5 years with the best team of all time, the Galacticos. That team and their star player were truly special. In other words: How is this even a discussion?

No

You can see it that way, yeah.

Doesn't sound too much different from Arsenal, except for not getting 4th place trophy. Mainly their first half of the season has been a disaster really. They've been fairly solid in the second half, being the fifth best team and having fairly good chances to qualify for Europa League as well...

No it didn't. One bad year and he has to go? Arsenal nearly had 10 in a row and no one cared.

Strange quote. Then again, in the same interview, he said "When I watch Arsenal in the last 10 years, it is nearly perfect football" when everyone knows that Arsenal were a shit copycat version of Barca for a long time.

Klopp to Barca in 2016 then. Yes please.

:cry:

Of course not.

Varane saved him a lot, otherwise his performance would be a lot worse. Second half he was more interested in elbowing people than actually defending.

Yeah, hopefully. Pepe needs to play, otherwise Atletico don't have much of a chance. Give him the consistent play time that Mourinho gave him in his last season and he'll be a monster again. Marquinhos has been better this season compared to him, but I still believe that Varane has more...

Nah, needs more Mandzukic for winding up people.