Nice game yesterday...

I thought Barcelona were much better under Pep Guardiola. Sometimes sacking manager is not the best option.

I can understand losing championship to rival Real Madrid but still getting rid of Guardiola is a bit too harsh...

Really hope Guardiola will become United manager in the future.

Messi and Ronaldo again. Sakit jantung aku!

very sad to hear the news suddenly, wish tito a speedy recovery, it is a regrets not able to c him lead barca till at least the end of this season especially after the best start ever, but most importantly his recovery is a top priority. hope pep wil resume his duty.

Lucky that Valdes' leaving for good.

Valdes couldn't do better. It was poor defensive performance by Mascherano and Alves. They can't stop the source of the attack.

Only a few names come to mind:

Ter Stegen (Moenchengladbach)
Guaita (Valencia)

There's the De Gea rumour, but it doesn't looks likely that SAF will let him go that soon.

No offense to valdes fan, i respected valdes as he is our main goal keeper, he is a good goalkeeper but not a great goalkeeper. Yes cassilas, buffon are also makes mistake but most of the tym they guard their goal well. Valdes is kinda like barthez, he can be great one match, but terrible in d another.

This season tito playstyle make alot of goals for us but also leave rooms for opponent to counter attack. Judging how many goals we conceded this season, it is clear that valdes wasnt that great. Previous season under pep, we played much more tiki taka n hold the possesion of the ball better than this year, n during that tym valdes really dont need to do anything, but wit tito play style, he is exposed to more attack from the opponent strikers. N he proved himself by just being a good keeper but not great.

Btw i kinda frustrated with this lost as i was hoping we win the la liga title undefeated like juve did lst season. But past is past, hope we perform better nex match, this match luck wasnt on our side. We could hav score at least 4 goals during the first half n win the match. But too bad, n with pique red card, i knew we will lost n we did.

If his 1 on 1 is so good, why couldn't he bail Barcelona out of defeat last year when Ramires and Torres both ran wild at Camp Nou?

I can barely keep count of the mistakes he made in big games - most recent El Classico games come to mind immediately.

In last year's Spanish cup, he failed to recognize the danger and received the ball with a very poor control, leading to the dispossession by Angel Di Maria and conceded a goal. In the next Classico that ended 2-2, he was beaten near post by Cristiano Ronaldo, which was not even a fast ball to begin with, terrible reflex.

An even older El Classico game, he passed the ball to Angel Di Maria (yet again) and let Benzema score within a minute, then there's the Espanyol game some time ago where the same thing happened. What keeper in the right mind will commit these mistakes in a game of such dimension? His distribution is piss poor and his failure to maintain composure when pressured has failed him from time to time.

He was massively overrated or was he overrated to begin with? Nowhere near good enough for Barca as he was only made good by the 10 men in front of him.

Nowhere near good enough for Barca as he was only made good by the 10 men in front of him.

Already signed.

Pep's reason for the 1 year rolling contract during his Barca days were so that he can quit when he feels he is no longer able to lead / motivate his players. I think it was an admirable act. Most managers would want stability of a long contract, and the possibility of a huge payoff if the club decide to sack them before their contract expire.

Yeah, since then, Adriano has came out to say he wants to continue playing in Barca. But it's hard to resist the big money of PSG. We'll have to wait and see.

Lucky that Valdes' leaving for good.

Yah, we already had Busquets, Mascherano, Thiago as backup. Buying Song doesnt make sense.

Funny how everybody seem to say that we were lucky to progress for niang had hit the post for if it skewed a little to the right it'd be 1-1, while so conveniently forgetting that iniesta drew a magnificent reflex save from abbiati which then hit the cross bar before sailing out about 15 minutes before that. That could have also made it 2 to the good. Conveniently selective memory. Besides, that was the only clear cut chance they had all game, while pique and alba did pull some magnificent last ditch tackles. We were (required to) playing an offensive game, precisely how good would you expect us to defend? While Masch heading into each challenge at the first chance may have backfired in that instance, but at the same time it was how the third goal was initiated.

Good to see Villa finally smiling like he did when he scored that goal. That is pure joy. Not to mention that he's picked for the NT. If he does play, that should do no harm to his confidence?

El capitan is out again. Fitness seems to be a recurrent issue for him, maybe it is really time for him to call it quits. He's already a legend. It breaks my heart to see him play these days, his feet seem too heavy. But his organising of the defence line, communication, leadership and morale boosting effect is second to none. Usually I would say his top class reading of the game is what still makes him relevant even though he has lost the physical and agility edge, but in the last few matches I've seen him played, that doesn't seem to be the case any more. Positioning is somewhat awful, he looks heavy legged and anybody with moderately quick feet can whizz past puyi with little difficulty. What he still has is the judgement to quickly react to the opponent's flicks/turns/feints and interfere, that is sheer class and cannot be taken away. But I have to say, it breaks my heart to see him play lately. Varane stepped up at Real.. Shouldn't we give Bartra a chance? What do fellow cules think?

The managers after the Pep Era:

Tito
Tata
Next one's gonna be Titi Henry! Or some guy named Tutu.

Let's see what Tata can do, starting with the purchase of a CB.

Welcome Gerardo "Tata" Martino!

Serial diver. He's gonna be good friends with Pedro and Busquets

Agree. But fans will still be worried at first with Tata's lack of track record, and will be more confident as Tata win more games. Last time,  I was so doubtful when Pep lost his first league game. But it turned out to be the only few games they would lose that season. As for Tito, he inherited a great team with all the systems in place. Take no credit away from him, but his job is easier than Pep who rebuilt the whole team.

I never hated Busquets. He is a key player and silent worker who doesnt get as much recognition as other attacking players. Agree that he has dived less than before