JosĂ© Mourinho’s Plan B Is His New Plan A. His Original Plan A Is Now Consigned To The Trash And He Never Had A Plan C. That’s Manchester United At Present

Posted: May 17, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion
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Counting chickens before they are hatched is easy when all of your eggs are in the same basket. José Mourinho has already counted the chickens and has decided that he will gamble on them all hatching.

Just to prove how confident he is in this he is also trying his hand at juggling with them! He doesn’t have another basket to hand, just in case a fox comes to steal the first one. He has decided that guarding the basket by concentrating all his efforts on it’s safety is the way forward. Read the rest of this entry »

Wayne Rooney Changes Tactics But Is Still Long Overstaying His Welcome At Manchester United

Posted: May 11, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Wayne Rooney
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If we were an average Premier League footballer, coming to the end of our playing career but pocketing a massive ÂŁ250-300k per week, depending upon who you believe, we would probably want to stay where we are as well.

Emitting the occasional “we would like to play more games“, and, “we do everything we can to help the team, on and off the pitch“, we just hope that we are making the right noises in order not to be sold to a club where we will have to take a very large pay cut, particularly if that club is one we supposedly love and support. A clear example of how greed is a much more powerful emotion than love. Read the rest of this entry »

Does JosĂ© Mourinho Have The Right To Select A “Weakened” Team For Certain Manchester United Games?

Posted: May 7, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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In all fairness, ANY manager at ANY club has the right to select whichever team he feels is appropriate for the game ahead.

Sure, there will be “first choice” elevens which, in the manager’s opinion is his “best” combination of players. This combination will not always be the right one for different opponents. Therefore, the manager has to have the right to make changes.

The question only becomes inflammatory when wholesale changes are made in order to “protect” some players for games further down the line which are deemed to be more important. Read the rest of this entry »

Manchester City And Manchester United Are Already Looking To Next Season

Posted: April 30, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Pep Guardiola
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The result was fitting, if not entirely fair. City, to be honest, were the better team on the night and certainly looked the more likely winners. However theirs is a problem similar to that of Manchester United in that they don’t turn enough chances into goals.

It could be argued that Manchester United deserved the point if only for their stout defending, no mean achievement given that three of their four first choice centre backs are out injured. Read the rest of this entry »

The Manchester Derby Only City Can Afford To Lose And An FA Cup Final Of No Interest To Anybody Outside London

Posted: April 26, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The FA Cup
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It is now Wednesday, 26th May. Manchester City are two points behind Liverpool with two games in hand and an inferior goal difference.

Manchester United are three points behind Liverpool with two games in hand and a vastly inferior goal difference.

The upshot of all this is the following: If Thursday’s derby game is a draw, both Manchester clubs gain a point on Liverpool and both will overtake Liverpool should they win their other game in hand. Read the rest of this entry »

Why The Europa League Is JosĂ© Mourinho’s New Best Friend And Why Manchester United Need To Win It

Posted: April 20, 2017 in Chelsea, Europa League, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion
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(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. Read the rest of this entry »

JosĂ© Mourinho Should Forget His Messy Divorce From Chelsea And Concentrate On His New Relationship With Manchester United

Posted: April 16, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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As egos go, there are none much bigger than that of José Mourinho. Little is said of his time flirting with Inter Milan and Real Madrid even though he continued winning trophies with both clubs.

No, it is his two “marriages” to Chelsea for which, at present anyway, he is being remembered.

The second break-up was far more noteworthy than the first as it was brought about by a perceived breakdown in relationships with certain players and with the club outside the top ten for the first time in years. Mourinho was unceremoniously kicked out and Chelsea were soon to be in a new relationship with Antonio Conte. Read the rest of this entry »

Manchester United Manage Yet Another 1-1 Draw, This Time In The Europa League

Posted: April 13, 2017 in Europa League, European Football, Manchester United, Opinion
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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“. Read the rest of this entry »

Mourinho, Guardiola, Conte, Klopp, Wenger And Pochettino. Why None Of These Should Have Been Contenders For Manager Of The Season

Posted: April 9, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Liverpool, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Watching “The Sunday Supplement” on, believe it or not, Sunday, we here at WSA were dismayed, if not surprised, to hear that all of the journalists on the programme were going to vote for Antonio Conte as their “manager of the season“.

Now we have never thought that football journalists were ever recognised authorities on the machinations of the modern football club or it’s manager, but to vote for Conte shows a staggering lack of knowledge and totally flies in the face of the true definition of the award. Let’s look at the contenders as they were when the season started. This, in itself, got everything off on the wrong foot as the wrong managers were being scrutinised. Read the rest of this entry »

JosĂ© Mourinho Has To Be As Fed Up With This Team As The Fans Are

Posted: April 4, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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The game against Everton was the chance to put some pressure on Manchester City before their game with Chelsea. It was also a chance to show the Old Trafford faithful that they hadn’t completely forgotten how to win a game of football.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic returned to add a goal threat up front and Ander Herrera returned to add a threat to the opposing midfieders. Read the rest of this entry »

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