Armchair

Jim White's voice goes right through me. Less than 2 hours of this rubbish left, hallelujah!

I imagine Rafa thought Skrtel would take over the dominant centre half mantle but it just hasn't happened. For a big lad he gets bullied far too often in the box on set pieces. Carra can head a ball too but he looks to be struggling with his game at the moment and his reaction time has suffered.

The point is he was utilised in an offensive way, whether that's on the edge of the box or 18 yard line, and not assigned a zone and expected to go up against some meat head centre half to clear our lines. I can see why Rafa wants Torres in there because he's tall and good in the air, but we're just letting the opposition off the hook by limiting our best, and quickest, attacking option. The frustrating thing for me about the Zonal system is we bring everyone back and give them a job/space to mark even when we massively out-number the opposition, and yet we still concede easy, sloppy goals. I'd like to see a combination of both man/zonal, with our forwards primed for the counter.

Redknapp is horrid. I hate the way everyone calls him 'Harry' as though he's their mate, ignoring the fact that's he dodgy as f***. If it was a foreign manager they'd be calling him rotten.

To be fair though, should we be relying on Torres to constantly clear our lines at set pieces? He should be up front and taking up the attention of the opposition centre backs. Zonal marking is an effective system - as the stats show - but it's very easy to manipulate. Its theory is based on defending your space, which can often leave players rooted to the spot and unwilling to take the initiative and attack the ball.

He looked out of his depth last night. Barca will have to change their style into a more direct one if they want to get the best out of him.

I thought he had a good game. Few misplaced passes but other than that looked our most composed defender and won numerous headers.

He's never been the most composed of players but lately he's looked even more flustered than usual. As the most experienced defender he has to bring that calm assuarance to the defence. I know zonal marking is an easy target but I do think it has major flaws, and we need a plan b when we're out of sorts or bedding in new players.

And signing rubbish like Zaki and Krancar would disprove that theory?

Carra looks goosed to me. Time to sit him out of a few games until he gets his focus back.

What would be the point of that exactly? Some of our fans go round the bend at this time of year. Hopefully they release some funds for Rafa in January to bring in cover for Torres, but as it stands we stick with what we've got. We'll have 3 big players back soon, and the bar the lack of quality striking options, the squad will be as good as anyones.