Now that José Mourinho, obviously emboldened by his win at The Etihad, has decided that everybody is undervaluing both him and his team, can we expect him to keep the chequebook closed this summer?
After all, according to him we don’t give his team enough credit for the way they have managed to hang on to second place in the Premier League and, by a simple process of logic, we also don’t give him enough credit for the same.
Should we strike up an award now for runners-up in the title race? Maybe we should have an Olympics-style ceremony and give out gold, silver and bronze medals to the top three.
But hang on a minute! Wasn’t it Mourinho who said that he never keeps his loser’s medals? Isn’t he the one who gives them away. He has, in fact, been known to give away his winner’s medal when the tournament in question has been one he has deemed to be insignificant.
So now we should be lauding his team because they are second! Wethinks that the white man speak with forked tongue!
He also made no mention of the pathetic performance against Sevilla which saw his team exit the Champion’s League with a whimper. Perhaps we should be praising his team for their foresightedness! After all, had they beaten Sevilla they would now be about to be knocked out by Bayern Münich!
The difference is that being beaten by a team like Bayern would be a lot more acceptable to the United supporters than was the defeat to the Spaniards.
Paul Pogba – Scoring the first United goal to ensure that Mourinho’s week ended on a high
The week has certainly been a pretty good one for United and José seems quite happy with the way things are going. The emphasis here has to be on the word “seems” because, at the end of the season the chequebook, we can assure you, will not stay closed and then we will see exactly which players he is happy with and which he is not!
Meanwhile, at The Etihad…..
Pep Guardiola was asked if he thought he had defensive problems. He doesn’t appear to think so despite the fact that, in the previous 180 minutes of football, his team had conceded SIX goals.
His explanation was that Liverpool and United had scored with three of the four or five chances they had whereas his own team had failed to score from several chances.
He is right about his own team and their failure to score but he does have defensive problems whether he wants to admit to it or not.
As we have said on many occasions, City’s game is based on possession. In many games they will have the ball for 80% of the match so the opposition has to have some very good players in order to take full advantage of the 20% they are going to get.
In the case of Liverpool and United, their possession against City was nearer to 40% and, with the players at their disposal, they were always likely to cause some problems to the City defence.
City and United players argue over who has the worst defence and, eventually, Martin Atkinson has to tell them!
The City boss also pointed out that his defence can’t be that bad because they have coceded the fewest goals. True, but again, we harp back to the fact that, in most games, the defence comes under little or no pressure. When they do, they concede, that is the problem which he needs to address.
Over in Merseyside…..
Jürgen Klopp appears to have a much better defence now than at this time last season and he has only done two things. He has added Virgil van Dijk, which has given an immediate air of authority to that area of their game and he has officially made Loris Karius his number one goalkeeper, which has boosted his confidence and improved his perfomance.
Simple really so why hasn’t it worked for Pep with the return of Kompany and the purchase of Ederson?
And finally…..
With the exception of Tottenham Hotspur, who beat Stoke City and who will finish fourth, the London challenge appears to be over.
Arsenal struggled unconvincingly to beat Southampton at The Emirates and Stubborn Old Man is now relying totally on the Europa League to ensure that the new manager will be competing in the Champion’s League next season. The fans appear to agree with him and are giving the Premier League games a miss in order to attend the Thursday night spectaculars.
Chicharito celebrates scoring the equaliser in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea were, at one stage, competing with Spurs for a top four place but are now ten points behind them and have given up on that particular challenge.
Antonio Conte looks as though he couldn’t care less whether or not the manager replacing him is in Europe next season although, given that they could still win the FA Cup and a fifth place finish is probable, either of which will ensure that Thursday nights are no longer boring, the chances are that he will be.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 