Two things stand out from this first weekend of the Premier League season. Firstly, neither Manchester City nor Manchester United featured due to extended, if still shorter than intended, involvement in European competition.
Secondly, by Monday evening, three London clubs had played at home and lost and none of them were beaten by a top six team from last season!
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So Pep can’t win the Champion’s League without Lionel and Lionel, despite years of trying, just can’t seem to find a manager for his once-beloved Barcelona and has decided it is time to leave.
Where on earth could he go? Wait a minute, there will be a vacancy created at Manchester City just as soon as his old boss realises that he really means it this time. Honest injun, no joking, this time it’s for real!
Some of the reasons Manchester United score so many goals, (73 between Martial, Rashford and Greenwood this season), are because the front three are young, hungry and will shoot on sight. They all have a tendency, occasionally, to try and beat too many defenders and all can be greedy, choosing to shoot from near-impossible angles rather than try and find a better placed team mate.
Some of the reasons Manchester United don’t score as many goals as they should are because the front three are young, hungry and will shoot on sight. This “shoot on sight” attitude is fine providing there are no opposition players in the way but, again probably due to youth, the blinkers tend to go on when the goal is sighted. Read the rest of this entry »
Ole welcomes back an important player…..
Chris Smalling has returned to Manchester United after his loan spell at Roma ended. He was loved in the Italian capital, had apparently found his niche there and would have liked to make the move permanent.
Olé Gunnar Solskjær, still at the wheel, looked a tad embarrassed when asked about his defender’s return. He obviously wanted him out of the club as part of his “new broom” policy and was convinced that Smalling would be sold either whilst on loan or at the end of it. Read the rest of this entry »
Ed Woodward, as usual, is looking to sign a big name player for big money. Never mind that his dithering means it will probably require the whole of the transfer window to make that one signing! In his eyes it will improve the team and that’s all that matters.
After all look at how his other big money signings have markedly upped United’s stature as a club. Read the rest of this entry »
Not only do Manchester United have the already big disadvantage of having to play an FA Cup semi-final in London, against a team from London, they also have 48 hours less recovery time from their previous game.
Chelsea played, at home, against an already relegated Norwich side, (and actually struggled to beat them 1-0), on Tuesday, whilst United had to wait until Thursday to travel to London and play Crystal Palace. Read the rest of this entry »
Ole Gunnar Solskjær is trying to assemble a big jigsaw at Manchester United. He doesn’t yet have all the pieces but he is beginning to get a clearer idea of what is needed.
The bigger problem would appear to be that he doesn’t have the box lid! You know, the bit with the picture on it so you have an idea what the finished article is supposed to look like. So he is trying to put pieces in here and there without really knowing if they fit and this becomes evident during matches where his substitutions, in particular, remain questionable. Read the rest of this entry »
With the long awaited return of football comes the even longer awaited crowning of Liverpool as champions. For all those who don’t support Liverpool it brings to an end the forlorn hope that the season would be declared null and void and the Merseysiders would have to continue their wait for at least another season.
Liverpool took a very small step nearer to getting their hands on the trophy by drawing with Everton at Goodison Park and Jürgen Klopp will be confident of becoming the first Liverpool manager to win the title since Kenny Dalglish in 1990. In fact, it ‘s difficult to see anything stopping them now except maybe a global virus pandemic, oh wait…we already tried that one! Read the rest of this entry »
With football’s return imminent one of the few questions raised is; are the FA, ( the governing body of the Premier League), about to do a better job of protecting their charges than the Conservative Party, (the governing body of the UK)?
Well, in truth, it would be very difficult for them to do a worse job and, in fairness, there is quite a difference in the scale of the two tasks. Read the rest of this entry »
When asked, in a cynical manner, if football was a matter of life and death Bill Shankly once famously answered, also quite cynically, “no, it’s much more important than that!”
Now, some 50+ years after he made this statement there are people who are doing their utmost to prove him right.
Never mind the thousands of deaths from Corona Virus which are still occurring daily the big topic on a vast number of people’s mind is; when will football be back? There is a smaller clamor for the return of sport in general but football, as usual, is the biggie! Read the rest of this entry »
