United & Van Gaal Do Nothing To Convince

Posted: December 26, 2015 in Football, Louis van Gaal, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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PRE-MATCH

So Louis gets another chance against Stoke. Judging by the team he has picked he has been listening to the supporters, which he will obviously deny. A manager listening to the supporters! What is the world coming to?

It actually might not have been a bad ploy to mention that he was bowing to incessant fan requests to drop Rooney and play Herrera. At least that way, the fans are less likely to have a go at him, whatever the result.

On Soccer Saturday, the pundits couldn’t quite believe why Rooney had been dropped for what they saw as a “must win” game. Well guys, I’ll tell you. Rooney has been the standout worst United player this season. I have watched every minute of every game and, apart from the game against Bruges, where he had three goals laid on a plate for him, he has been awful. Every time he has played it has been like United started with ten men. Why is it considered such a “big decision” to leave out your worst player? I would have thought it was one of the easiest decisions of the season.

Van Gaal appears to have realised that, in a must win game, he has more chance of winning WITHOUT Rooney and WITH Herrera. Let’s hope so anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

Louis Van Gaal’s Family Values

Posted: December 24, 2015 in Football, Louis van Gaal, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Does Louis van Gaal deserve any sympathy for his plight at Manchester United or for his treatment in the press?

Maybe, maybe not. Some of the media can be harsh, some can be petty and some can be pathetic.

I have watched interviews on Sky TV, on MUTV and on BT Sport and probably others too numerous to mention over the years. The questions never improve, they never change and they are as stupid now as they were fifty years ago. It would seem that the only qualification needed for a job as a sports interviewer on TV is an almost photographic memory for stupid questions.

Asking a manager what he needs to do to win the next game is a stupid question. His team needs to score more than the opponents, obviously. Asking a manager if injuries have forced him to make changes is a stupid question. He cannot play injured players so he will make changes, obviously.

Pathetic questions are no excuse however, for the way some managers behave when faced by the cameras or just by a collection of ne’er-do-wells from Fleet street. Read the rest of this entry »

Is Jose Mourinho The Right Fit For Manchester United?

Posted: December 23, 2015 in Chelsea, Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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A lot of people, when Sir Alex Ferguson retired, were under the impression that Jose Mourinho would be the next United manager.

At that time, people involved in the decision making process would have included Ferguson, Bobby Charlton, Ed Woodward, one or more of the Glazers, another director or two and probably David Gill.

My guess is that Ferguson favoured Mourinho and he would probably have had the support of his friend, David Gill. That the vote obviously went against the “Special One” is probably due to Bobby Charlton and the other directors. This would be particularly true if any of them, like Charlton, were there during the Busby era.

Back in the seventies when Tommy Docherty had an affair with Mary Brown, the wife of United’s physiotherapist Laurie Brown, the club waited for Busby to return from holiday for a decision on Docherty. Within hours of Busby’s return, “The Doc” was fired, even though he later went on to marry her. This way of thinking, whereby nothing can be done to tarnish the image of the club, stays with Charlton, but he appears to be the last of a dying breed. Read the rest of this entry »

How Manchester United Can Still Challenge For The Title

Posted: December 22, 2015 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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If United are to turn their slight improvement from Moyes to van Gaal, domestically anyway, into a title challenging season there is still a way this can be achieved. However, a few things need to be done.

Louis van Gaal needs to go. It is fairly obvious that the players, whilst denying any problems with him, don’t like what he asks them to do on the pitch. It would be a different story if they were winning games and scoring goals, but they are not.

Playing Anthony Martial on the wing, for example, is bad enough, but ordering him to stay there, without the freedom to join the attack in the middle is ridiculous.

Continuously selecting a well below par Wayne Rooney because, “he is my captain and deserves special privileges”, has got to the stage where other teams are hoping this continues because they then play a United side already down to ten men.

These two situations alone prove to me that van Gaal should be in his villa in Portugal. Read the rest of this entry »

Arsenal Scrape Past City

Posted: December 21, 2015 in Arsenal, Football, Manchester City, Opinion, Premier League
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If you were to believe the hype on Sky Sports, this was going to be the game of the century, as usual. The fact that a win for either team would not take them above Leicester City and would only really create a larger gap between the two was not something that was made much of.

Sky has become a mixture of Opta and Football Manager. Every clip is followed by in-depth statistics about how many games are lost when certain players are missing, how many shots there are per game, how many goals per minute. All fascinating stuff if you are Arsene Wenger or Manuel Pellegrini. I suspect the fans only really care about the next game, who is playing, who wins and who scores.

Tonight’s game was variously described as a “title decider”, “title eliminator” and a “winner-takes-all match. All the usual hyperbole that goes along with Sky trying to make sure that the maximum number of viewers tune in to watch it. They would be better served reducing their prices now that people have to pay BT Sport to watch the Champion’s League. They may find more people prepared to subscribe by being magnanimous in their pricing rather than munificent in their match descriptions! Read the rest of this entry »

United, City: Which Manager Is Going Where?

Posted: December 20, 2015 in Football, Managers, Opinion
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Carlo Ancelotti is going to Bayern Munich where, after succeeding as usual, he will be fired as usual. He will probably win the treble but, because he is cursed, he will still be fired.

At two of his previous clubs he has a record which most managers would be proud to have. He was fired from his job as Chelsea manager having won the League and FA Cup double and, at Real Madrid, he was fired having won the Champion’s League. So he could be considered either a trifle unlucky or a loser for only winning the top trophies and none of the lesser ones.

Sympathy is not a feeling too much in evidence when it comes to highly paid football managers losing their job. Particularly when you consider that the top ones will almost certainly walk straight into another one.

So what will be the chain of events this time, I don’t hear you ask? Read the rest of this entry »

Open Letter To Louis Van Gaal

Posted: December 19, 2015 in Football, Louis van Gaal, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(Louis answers truthfully when asked about his chances of keeping the United job!)

Dear Mr van Gaal,

I have some questions for you regarding your team selection and overall philosophy.

Firstly, would you please explain to me why Wayne Rooney was given the captaincy? He rarely shouts, doesn’t lead by example and is far from being United’s best player. When compared with the likes of Bryan Robson or Roy Keane, as a captain, he isn’t even on the same planet! So this is the first strange decision I would like to know the reason behind.

Secondly, on the same player. He has been, by a long way, United’s worst player this season, irrespective of whether he is played up front or in midfield. Do you still feel that, as captain, he should enjoy the special privilege of being picked for every game even though his form has been nothing short of abysmal?

You had the perfect opportunity, when he was injured, to allow him an extended rest period. Instead, as soon as he had recovered, he was back in the team and just as bad as ever. Has he donated an organ to you to deserve all this special treatment? Read the rest of this entry »

Manchester United Are Dismal Again

Posted: December 19, 2015 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Manchester United proved yet again that they are absolutely toothless as an attacking force.

The return of Wayne Rooney only proved what everybody already knew, he is past his sell-by date. It was as though he had never been away. He got straight back into his stride by giving the ball away, shooting very wide and generally contributing nothing to the cause.

The scary sight for United fans was the sight of the three players furthest forward on occasions. For Messi, Neymar and Suarez read Fellaini, Smalling and Rooney. That may give you an idea of what at least one of the problems is at Old Trafford.

Of course the fact that Fellaini was playing meant that the ball was being sent wide to be crossed in. The problem was twofold. Firstly, the crosses were never of sufficient quality to cause any problems to the defence. Secondly, any headers Fellaini actually managed to connect with were never of sufficient quality to cause any problems to the defence. Read the rest of this entry »

Jose Mourinho & Chelsea: The Odd Couple

Posted: December 17, 2015 in Chelsea, Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Opinion, Premier League
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(Jose waves goodbye to Chelsea again, probably for the last time, but who really knows?)

For a while it was a match made in heaven. Jose and Chelsea had a passionate marriage which lasted three years and only ended in divorce when the bubble appeared to have burst and the passion went out of it.

After a short separation, Mourinho and Chelsea realised that they could no longer live without each other and decided to give it another go. The passion returned for a short while and everything was fine for a short while. The problem is that “short while” has come to define the marriages between Mourinho and Chelsea.

Now he has gone, probably for good, because of the vow “for better or worse” in the wedding ceremony. To Jose’s way of thinking this meant that the “better” bit was for him and the “worse” bit was for Chelsea and everybody else. In other words he was quite happy to take all the praise when winning, but turned into a spoiled brat when losing.

The final straw, in my humble opinion, was when he turned on his own players after the Leicester City game, which Chelsea lost 2-1. Read the rest of this entry »

Arsenal’s Waiting Game

Posted: December 16, 2015 in Arsenal, Football, Opinion, Premier League
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Arsenal sit near the top of the Premier League waiting. Waiting for other teams. Waiting and watching to see if the other teams will do something positive or negative, or will things stay as they are until the end of the season?

The first thing that they need to happen is for Leicester City to start flagging. To sell a player or two in January, and pick up an injury or two anytime. The fact that Leicester don’t have a big squad full of quality players could be their undoing. If it is, Arsenal are ready and waiting.

Another positive for Arsenal would be Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany remaining injured. That isn’t going to happen as they are both nearing fitness, but that is a state of affairs which is usually very temporary. It would also appear that City will have more Champions League games to manoeuvre as they should expect to beat Dynamo Kyiv. Arsenal will surely be free of any European hindrances after two games against Barcelona.

So, from these two clubs who would be seen as direct competitors, Arsenal are looking for some failings and, in the case of Leicester, a loss of form. City just need to carry on being inconsistent. If they do, Arsenal are waiting. Read the rest of this entry »

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