Archive for the ‘Liverpool’ Category

england

According to the headline of an article in The Guardian, Gareth Southgate wants “young, hungry England to dream of winning the World Cup”

Well, we have news for you Gareth, they do! The problem is that dreams, particularly that one, rarely come true!

In fairness, the reporter actually quotes Southgate as saying he has no problem with the players believing they can win the World Cup, which is slightly different and just goes to show that members of the press often submit articles which then have the headline added or edited by somebody else. (more…)

wb

At last! The Premier League is getting a winter break! Starting in 2019 there will be a ten day hiatus in proceedings in February.

The idea is that this break will help England to better compete in future World Cups and European Championships, (better players would be a much bigger help).

Without wishing to be killjoys on this subject we recently noted that the English players in Russia for this World Cup will have spent less minutes on a football pitch than ANY other nation, including the ones who had a break! (more…)

ewc

So that’s the end of the meaningless friendlies for the time being. There now follows what, for England at least, will probably be a meaningless tournament. Having beaten Nigeria and Costa Rica both by a scoreline of 2-0 England still haven’t quite grasped the point of these friendly/warm-up matches.

The Germans have them down to a fine art. They spend most of their time outside of tournaments being rubbish. Joachim Löw has drilled it into his players that they must give the impression, to every other coach, that they are now reasonably easy to beat. They must play as though the days when they used to win everything are long gone and the team is now going through a transition which they may or may not come out of positively. (more…)

av

Manchester United have bought Diogo Dalot from Porto. He is a 19 year-old right wing back who is also comfortable on the left and in midfield so, on this basis and unless he is exceptional, he is one for the future.

It is expected that he will be used to provide cover for the wing back position. He has been at the club for around two minutes and speaks fluent English.

Antonio Valencia is 33. He used to be a half decent winger until he broke his leg and became nervous about taking on defenders. He was, consequently, shifted back into the right wing back position at which he isn’t very good. (more…)

fred

(Fred, having spotted the cameras, sticks out his tongue and starts doing those keepy-uppy thingummyjigs)

What did we tell you in yesterday’s tittle-tattle? Those of you who actually read it will remember that we pointed out that it was approaching the time when players were going to have to start making the headlines for moving from one club to another instead of managers.

With only Chelsea to decide upon who should occupy their hot seat next season, the news on coaches was always going to become rather thin on the ground eventually and the attention must now, inevitably, turn to the real entertainers.

So here’s what we know so far. (more…)

ue

It started, more or less, with Unai Emery getting the Arsenal gig. The club wanted somebody who could match, or better, Arséne Wenger’s achievements during his last few years in the job. They certainly got that. Emery is adept at getting his clubs into the top four and has been known to actually win the Europa League on more than one occasion.

Hold on to your hats you Gooners, it’s going to be a roller-coaster ride full of “been there, done that” and dĂ©jĂ  vu. Unai Emery will deliver one of the trophies Wenger failed to deliver but which will it be? Our money’s on Big Vase. (more…)

rh

(Raheem works on the theory that, if he goes down BEFORE he is tackled, he will reduce the chances of injury!)

Having had a downwards pointing gun tattooed on his leg which, understandably, raised some questions about his sanity, especially before he gave his reasons, Raheem Sterling then proceeded to shoot himself, metaphorically, in the foot.

The gun, he explained, was in memory of his father who had been shot dead when Raheem was just a child. Now we may be missing something here or it may be that Sterling, as he has intimated, hasn’t yet finished his memorial to his late father but, to our way of thinking, a tattoo of his late parent might have made more sense than one of a gun which is the weapon which killed him. Still, each to his own. (more…)

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Manchester United…..

José Mourinho has to go all out to win either the Premier League title or the Champion’s League or, best case scenario, both! The impression is that another trophy-less season might very well be the end of him and even a Carabao or FA Cup win, in isolation, wouldn’t be enough to save him.

One of his well documented problems is that, if he is not winning trophies, then his style of football alone is not enough to keep him in a job. As everybody is aware, he was sacked by Chelsea when five months into his third season back with them.

His demons begin to surface when he starts losing football matches and he tends to blame the players, physios, scouts and anybody else who isn’t him! (more…)

jm

Why was José Mourinho attending the international friendly game between Austria and Russia?

Well, obviously, he was there to watch Marko Arnautovic! How do we know? Easy, we read it in the paper, so it must be true.

It did cross our mind that he may have been there swotting up on the Russian team as he has agreed to be a pundit on a Russian TV station for the duration of the World Cup. (more…)

w

How can selling Wembley be described as a betrayal? The idiots who massively overspent in building a stadium nobody outside of London really wanted cannot be accused of selling the soul of football, as some people have put it.

Wembley never was and never will be the “soul of football”. That title belongs to grounds such as Old Trafford, Anfield, Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge. In the past it would have included Highbury, Main Road, Roker Park and others too numerous to mention. (more…)