Watching Manchester United currently is like a breath of fresh air compared with the dark days of Ole Gunnar Solskjær and the one-hand-tied-behind-his-back management of Ralf Ragnick.
Whilst Eric ten Hag has brought in a couple of experienced midfielders, a young left back and a centre back in the same mould as Roy Keane the major changes he has made have been those of discipline and mentality.
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The only one who’s pretty balloon has been well and truly burst is Ole Gunnar Solskjær. They haven’t yet taken the moon away but don’t hold your breath, this incarnation of a once great club is certainly capable of anything.
Talking of moons, Manchester City seem to be winning trophies more than once in a blue one nowadays so maybe their signature song should relate to the colour of the moon over Manchester at present. (more…)
Well, in the main, pretty darn good. Unless, of course, you happen to hail from the European capital of football.
On Tuesday there were two “English” sides in action. The one with the Norwegian manager came to a predictably sticky end by losing to Lionel Messi, (and maybe a few team mates although they were somewhat irrelevant and almost unnecessary).
They also managed to fail to score in both legs meaning that the £££millions spent on a Belgian and a couple of French “superstars” is yet to provide much in the way of value for money. (more…)
Arsenal, yet again, stand on the brink of exiting a European competition. They need to beat Atlético Madrid in Spain, (or draw by a score of 2-2 or greater), to progress to the final of the Europa League.
For a club which likes to think of itself as one of Europe’s biggest, their record in the European trophy department is absolutely pathetic. In all of Arséne Wenger’s 22 years at the club they have made it to the final of the Champion’s League ONCE, in 2006 when they were beaten by Barcelona.
In 2009 they got to the final of the UEFA Cup but were beaten by Galatasaray. (more…)
Wednesday night went off with a bit of a whimper in the Champion’s League. Over in Azerbaijan, Chelsea did what was expected of them by comfortably beating Qarabag by four goals to nil.
This stroll in the park meant that Antonio Conte could spend the overnight flight home plotting Liverpool’s downfall in the weekend’s “big” game.
This exercise probably only required about five minutes as the tactics are relatively straightforward. Providing you can stop Liverpool scoring at your end, they will likely allow you to score some at their end!
So he had a good sleep for the rest of the flight dreaming, no doubt, of reaching the Champion’s League final and beating Juventus to collect the trophy. Dream on, Antonio! (more…)
The first thing to point out is that Paul Pogba’s injury, which may keep him out for a month or even six weeks depending upon your daily rag of choice, is not the end of the world.
Yes, he is one of the first names on the teamsheet and has been in good form recently, even scoring a couple of goals in the opening games, and yes, he will be missed.
He will probably be replaced, however, by Ander Herrera in some games and Marouane Fellaini in others and, occasionally, by both. The way the pair have been playing recently means that the loss of Pogba will not be felt quite as much as it might have been at a different time of the season. (more…)
The main reason Manchester United have never won the Europa League before is because it is a competition in which they have rarely been involved and, when they have been, they haven’t taken it particularly seriously.
Even under it’s previous incarnation as the UEFA Cup, it was a trophy only flirted with on four occasions since Sir Alex Ferguson took over in 1986. On those four occasions they lost to what can only be described as mediocre opponents. (more…)
(Top four or Europa League? Why not both? José ponders the obvious!)
José Mourinho loves the Europa League. Not that he has much choice as it is the only European competition in which Manchester United are competing this season.
He didn’t appear to love it at the start of the season and it was only when he was reminded that it offered automatic Champion’s League qualification that his feelings towards it grew in a dramatic fashion. (more…)
Manchester United controlled a largely dull first half in which they took the lead through Henrikh Mkhitaryan when the Anderlecht goalkeeper parried a shot from Marcus Rashford straight to him.
Still quite adept at mis-controlling the ball and giving possession away very cheaply, they never looked in any danger of conceding and Anderlecht were left with a half-time team talk which would have included the words “must do better“. (more…)
Yet again that mediocre La Liga has three teams through to the quarter finals of the Champion’s League, while that brilliant, exciting, competitive and just all-round good egg Premier League has one.
The good thing is that to prove it’s massive superiority over La Liga, it was a Premier League club which knocked out Sevilla. Yes, little old Leicester did what Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur couldn’t do, they made it through to the quarter finals. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 