Has Klopp got it right now…..?
Pep Guardiola has built a successful team at Manchester City. In the eyes of many football followers he has to win the Champion’s League to put the icing on the cake but that doesn’t take anything away from last season’s achievement of winning the Premier League with a record number of points amongst other things.
That is the big one and relies on a consistently good campaign where, at the end of a long season, it is the best team who are crowned champions.
The Champion’s League is a knockout competition despite it’s name. It comes alive when the group stages are over but it also becomes a lottery at the same stage. Luck now begins to play a big part. Bad refereeing decisions, injuries and suspensions can see a team eliminated who may previously have been the favourites to win it.
The European champions are not necessarily the best team in Europe as Chelsea once famously proved when they beat Bayern Münich in the final having beaten Barcelona in the semi-final, both matches they should have lost but ended up winning through pure luck.
Liverpool, or more probably, Jürgen Klopp has built a team which can reach finals. They haven’t been consistent/good enough to win the Premier League and, as yet, they haven’t been good enough to win a trophy despite reaching three finals.
Klopp has now addressed problem areas within his team, one of which certainly contributed massively to his recent loss in the Champion’s League final.
In doing so he has had to go back on his principles and contradict his own comments about how he would never spend big money to achieve success because that is exactly what he is now doing!
Does this make his team good enough to finally walk down the aisle as the number one or is it still a bridesmaid’s role for him? Time will tell but this team finally has a look about it that promises a title challenge and at least one cup win during the season.
As we said, time will tell.
Mourinho appears to be safe, for now…..
José Mourinho – Wearing his usual happy, smiling face
Ed Woodward, contrary to the belief of many Manchester United “supporters”, does want the club to win it’s 21st league title and still believes that José Mourinho is the man to deliver it.
Despite Mourinho going off the deep end recently, a trait which has followed him to most clubs and usually rears it’s head around this time in his tenure, the board still has faith in him.
He is a serial winner and there is no reason to suspect that the current mood is going to derail him for too long. He has had his moan, realised that it hasn’t achieved anything positive at all, and will now get on with the more important work of getting his team back onside and ready for a top four challenge.
Even if United were to lose to Tottenham and then to Burnley, his future would only be “discussed” during the international break without anything more sinister being done about it.
So, for now, it would appear that Mourinho really does have the full backing of the board which, nowadays, is Ed Woodward and he will only be in any danger of losing his job should things go drastically wrong.
Watch this space because, with José in charge, things COULD go drastically wrong at any given moment!
And finally…..
The Guardian report on how Steve McClaren and QPR are “dazed and confused” as to their shambolic start to the season.
The club have lost all four games and their latest defeat, 0-3 at home to Bristol City followed quickly on the heels of a 7-1 defeat away to West Brom.
In fact it is McClaren himself who is “dazed and confused” but this isn’t an affliction which has suddenly materialised. He has always been a waste of space as a manager. He was reasonably OK when assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United but is another one of those who found the gap from number two to number one far too big to bridge.
He was the only England manager in living memory who could be said to be totally unqualified for the job in every way having experienced no success whatsoever as a club manager unless one counts a lucky season in the Dutch league, (yes folks, that WAS the year when he decided he could be understood in interviews if he talked slowly as if addressing a two-year-old).
A perfect example of what happens when you entrust control of your circus to a clown
This man inflicts pain on others as well as himself by remaining in football management. Maybe it is no coincidence that his intials are the same as “sado-masochism“.
Basically, the man is hopeless but, as is always the case, there is always somebody prepared to pay him lots of money to prove it. He may, however, struggle to find a job after this one!
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 
Why is everyone so obsessed about the amount of money clubs spend on players? I wouldn’t have a clue about how much City, United, Liverpool et al spend. So long as they are getting value for money and playing attractive football and winning a decent number of games. It’s not my money, but nonetheless one would like to see the money well spent. So far United have spent poorly compared to the abovementioned clubs and this fact is what is getting the fans offside. Since SAF retired the football has been nothing short of cr*p. Now in addition we have the “Sulking One” adding to the pain. Although a United fan since 1963 I would much rather watch City or Liverpool than United today, as sacrilegious as that sounds. I feel I’m not alone if the truth be known.
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