Manchester United Flatter To Deceive

Posted: January 2, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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The transfer window has been open for two whole days and Manchester United still haven’t bought a striker! Is it not obvious to van Gaal that goals win games and decent strikers score goals?

So to the home game against Swansea where Laborious Louis had the chance to improve upon the Chelsea performance by winning.

Yet again United’s team selection was a sign of things to come.

Inexplicably, Wayne Rooney had been named as the man-of-the-match in the previous game against Chelsea. He hadn’t scored, as usual, so I guess he got it because he managed to raise his game from rubbish to average.

Van Gaal must have been sufficiently impressed because he decided his misfiring captain should remain at centre forward despite lacking the obvious requirement of goals.

As is the norm nowadays, van Gaal put his top scorer on the wing thereby limiting any chances he would have of increasing his tally. He played Ashley Young as a wing back, again. He played Daley Blind as a wing back, again. I get the impression that, if he got the chance to manage Barcelona again, he would play Messi, Neymar and Suarez as the back three. Read the rest of this entry »

What Next For Jose Mourinho?

Posted: January 1, 2016 in Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Opinion, Premier League
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(Jose tells the team how many players he wants on the bus!)

If it is true that Jose Mourinho wants to stay in England as a manager, he may have to set his sights a little lower than he is used to.

It would appear that his first choice of club would be Manchester United, but the noises coming from Old Trafford are not encouraging for him. If we are to believe the press then Louis van Gaal had to win one of his last two games to keep his job. He failed to do so but remains in situ at United. This says one of two things. Either the press were wrong, (perish the thought!), or United don’t have a successor lined up. If the latter is the case, then Mourinho is not in the running for the job.

Further, more recent rumblings, supposedly emanating from Old Trafford, suggest that the players would like Diego Simeone from Atletico Madrid. I am not aware that Simeone has been consulted on this matter but I suggest it may be a job he could summon up some interest in, despite his lack of English. In actual fact, having no command of English never appeared to be a problem for the likes of Mauricio Pochettino or Harry Redknapp. Read the rest of this entry »

What Do Arsenal, Leicester, City, United, Tottenham, Liverpool, Palace & Jose Mourinho Want For The New Year?

Posted: December 31, 2015 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Liverpool, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Arsene Wenger

A new striker because, although Giroud is doing the business, Arsene never seems to be 100% convinced. So much so that there have been games when he has preferred Walcott in the striking role. So far this season both have done reasonably well in the position but Giroud is more consistent. It is reported that Edinson Cavani of PSG is on the radar.

Danny Welbeck to get fit so he can take his place on the bench. The same wish for Jack Wilshere, but he would get on the teamsheet rather than the bench.

Finally, an injury free second half of the season and the Premier League title.

Claudio Ranieri

Maybe a new signing or two depending on how many packets of crisps have been sold!

The success and money to be able to hold onto Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez and also an injury free second half of the season which would enable Leicester to maintain a top four challenge. Read the rest of this entry »

Is The Real Liverpool FC About To Re-appear?

Posted: December 30, 2015 in Football, Liverpool, Managers, Opinion, Premier League
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When I think back to the great Liverpool teams of the past, I think of Ian St. John, Ian Callaghan, Emlyn Hughes, Tommy Smith, Ron Yeats, Roger Hunt, Kevin Keegan and John Toshack, Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish, Ray Clemence, Graeme Souness, Alan Hansen and even Bruce Grobbelaar. As you will notice I have recorded these as I remember them rather than in any chronological order.

When I think back to the recent Liverpool teams, the players that spring to mind are Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and maybe Robbie Fowler. Of all the ones mentioned, Suarez showed absolutely no loyalty to the cause whatsoever. It can be argued that, as a Uruguayan, he would always feel more at home in Spain and he already had connections with the city of Barcelona if not the club, so it was rather ordained that he would end up there.

The point being that over a thirty year period from the late sixties until the late nineties, all the memorable players were around in the sixties and seventies. What has happened since?

No other team in England was as successful as Liverpool. In Europe, Liverpool are still the most successful English team but have failed to qualify for the top European competition in eight of the last ten years since winning it in 2005. Read the rest of this entry »

Arsenal Implosion Still Pending!

Posted: December 30, 2015 in Arsenal, Football, Opinion, Premier League
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And what’s more folks, it may not happen at all!

Alright, one or two little sticks of dynamite have been set off lately, but they have barely caused a ripple on the perfect surface of The Emirates. A 4-0 defeat to a Southampton team, who can’t beat anybody else, can be laughed off particularly when it is followed by a 2-0 win in the very next game, over a Bournemouth team who aren’t losing at present. Wait a minute! Isn’t that the topsy-turvy Arsenal of old?

Usually, when Arsenal lost a game in the past, particularly by an embarrassing scoreline, it signalled the end of any title challenge. This season they seem to be getting it more right than wrong.

To begin with, they had a good start to the campaign, apart from losing their first home game, which is becoming an annual occurrence.

At one stage, Arsenal were saving their worst form for the cup competitions. Read the rest of this entry »

2015 in review

Posted: December 30, 2015 in Opinion
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WordPress.com prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog, which only started in July of this year.

Madison Square Garden can seat 20,000 people for a concert. This blog was viewed about 67,000 times in the last six months of 2015. If it were a concert at Madison Square Garden, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

A Tale Of Two Cities, Leicester & Manchester

Posted: December 29, 2015 in Football, Manchester City, Opinion, Premier League
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(Now there’s a headline the press won’t think of using, much!)

PRE-MATCH

Time for Manchester City to step up to the plate and see if they can beat the best team in the Premier League thus far.

Whatever the result, there will be a handshake and a friendly word between two of the nicest managers in the Division.

Up to now City have remained fairly true to their standard description, inconsistent and poor, when missing some of the bigger players.

They certainly have to try and overcome this mental blockage they seem to have whenever Vincent Kompany is injured. With players such as Otamendi, Demichelis and Mangala to fill the two central defensive positions and Denayer, a full Belgian international, waiting in the wings, it is ridiculous that they struggle so much without their captain. Denayer, for example, can’t even get on the bench so goes out on loan, and he is a fully fledged member of the world’s best international team!

So, with Kompany missing again, it is up to the others to show how little his absence should affect the team.

Sergio Aguero returns again, probably to the annoyance of Wilfried Bony again, who will watch the game from the bench again, probably coming on around the hour mark so Aguero can put his feet up again. In fact the term “deja vu” could have been invented with Bony in mind! Read the rest of this entry »

United Play Well & Still Can’t Score!

Posted: December 28, 2015 in Chelsea, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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PRE-MATCH

This is it! This is the “must win” game that will mean that Louis van Gaal is really quite a good manager and didn’t mean to lose all those games. Alternatively, it is the “must win” game that will spell the end for Louis, meaning that he was never really very good and should have gone directly from Holland to the Algarve, giving Manchester a very wide berth in the process.

Which will it be? As I mentioned in an earlier post, I think he is going whatever the score, win or lose. The only remaining item on the agenda is how he departs. Does he jump or does he get pushed? We will see.

The team he has picked for this game saw recalls for Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin and Darmian giving a massive vote of no-confidence to three of the team who played against Stoke, (in fairness he could have given a massive vote of no-confidence to all of them after that game). He then proceeded to pick his top scorer out wide and the one who can’t score to save his life at centre forward. His tinpot logic also sees Ashley Young as a left winger but a right wing back, meaning that Matteo Darmian, who is a right full back, played on the left. No wonder van Gaal can’t work out what is going wrong!

From what I could see there was no reason why any of these players had to be played much out of position but, that’s van Gaal for you. Read the rest of this entry »

Louis Van Gaal At The Last Chance Saloon?

Posted: December 28, 2015 in Football, Louis van Gaal, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(Louis isn’t too sure about the hangover cure given to him by Jose Mourinho!)

Rumour has it that, if Manchester United do not beat Chelsea, then Louis van Gaal will be fired. “Rumour,” of course, being a pseudonym of the press.

To put this into perspective. The team in sixth position in the Premier League is at home and need to beat the team in fifteenth position in the Premier League in order for the manager to keep his job. So if United win, van Gaal is suddenly brilliant and can stay in charge. If United lose, van Gaal is rubbish and has to do one.

What a totally ridiculous state of affairs! Is Ed Woodward trying to make it easy for van Gaal to stay, by picking a lowly placed team in a home game and telling him he has to beat that team? Or is he trying to make it easier to sack him by saying, “if you can’t beat them then there is no hope?”

I have never been a believer in heaping pressure on a manager by giving ultimatums. How can that help? Most managers will tell you they are not bothered by pressure and that they thrive on it. Well, they are and they don’t! Read the rest of this entry »

Christmas Humbug With Louis Van Gaal & Ed Woodward

Posted: December 27, 2015 in Football, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion
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Was this the period which was going to show us how van Gaal had managed to turn things around at Manchester United?

Or, was this the period which was going to show us what a petulant, supercilious and arrogant man he really is?

Unfortunately for him, it was the latter. He is proving, with every game that passes, how tactically naive he is nowadays. This can only be put down to one of two things. He is either getting older and the inevitable loss of talent, ability and tactical nous is affecting him, or he was underestimating the quality of the Premier League.

For me it is a mixture of the two. He has won the league in Spain and Germany. The problem in those countries is that the only real preparation required is when you play the other top teams which, in Spain and Germany was only ever one. Now he is having to prepare fully for EVERY game and is failing abysmally so to do. This demonstrates both an under-estimation of the job at hand and a failing of mental faculties for not appreciating the differences in leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

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