Posts Tagged ‘Barcelona’

Manchester United Are Nearly There

Posted: January 4, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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It always seems to me, nowadays anyway, that Manchester United are never far away from having a team to challenge for trophies.

Never mind who is manager, as long as it is somebody with experience of a big club, who knows what he is doing, the manager shouldn’t be the deciding factor on whether or not the club wins trophies, the players should.

When you consider the players they have and the money they have spent the only surprise is that it is taking so long to get things right on the pitch.

Louis van Gaal and the United fans don’t need me to tell them that more goals are required but at least the signs were promising against Swansea, when Martial and Rooney both scored.

I am still not a lover of playing too many people out of position and think that the great teams of the past, not just at United, have usually had specialists in each position.

It does appear though, that United are looking at strikers, centre backs and full backs during this transfer window. That is not to say they will buy all three, but at least they seem to be looking which is an acknowledgement that they know where they can improve. (more…)

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. (more…)

Manchester City Rely On Sevilla

Posted: December 7, 2015 in Champions League, Football, Manchester City, Opinion
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Manchester City have a European tie on Tuesday night that may allow them to achieve what would be a “first” for them.

If they beat Borussia Moenchengladbach and Juventus fail to beat Sevilla, then City will qualify for the next round as group winners. This will be the first time they have achieved that in their Champions League history, following a failure to qualify and two second placed qualifications.

The more likely scenario is that Juventus will beat Sevilla, THEY will qualify as group winners and City will finish second again. All of which means that, in the first knockout round, City could face Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich. They could be lucky and get a team which won one of the lesser groups but that would still potentially put them up against the likes of Zenit St. Petersburg, Porto or Atletico Madrid.

At the moment it is all rather immaterial as City can’t even take a point from a team like Stoke City so, even if they were to qualify as group winners, it is unlikely that they would then progress. (more…)

Barcelona Have No Answer To The Combined Might Of Gary & Phil Neville

Posted: December 6, 2015 in European Football, Football, Managers, Opinion, Spain
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(Gary picks up his first “Manager of the Month” award in Valencia and wonders if this is an example of what is to follow)

I watched Gary Neville’s first game when not officially in charge of Valencia. He sat in the stands jumping at every header, moving sideways every time the ball did. He was doing what all passionate managers do, he was living the game, kicking every ball and feeling every tackle.

In fairness, he was right to wait until after this game to take charge. Anything could have happened against Barcelona. Messi was fit again and was alongside the other two musketeers in Suarez and Neymar. If Barcelona scored five, Gary could always say that it “wasn’t on his watch”. He had also had very little time to get to know the players, so it was right that he allowed little brother and Voro to remain in charge for this game.

As it happened, Barcelona had “one of those days”, where they just couldn’t finish off any of their moves, except one, created, perpetuated and finished by Suarez which made us ask, at the time, how many would Barcelona score? The answer was a very simple, “one!” Despite having the majority of possession, hardly an unusual trait for a Barcelona team, they failed to convert the chances they created, and they created a few. (more…)

Manchester United, Gary Neville, Cristiano Ronaldo & Gareth Bale

Posted: November 30, 2015 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Good old Gary. You have to admire his optimism, don’t you? He was a dopey defender, as Rodney Marsh used to say, who has turned into football’s answer to ‘The Man Who Knew Everything.” Very likeable and speaking a lot of common sense he is a refreshing addition to the world of punditry which previously boasted Paul Merson and his twenty words vocabulary as one of the leading lights, (and still does, to be honest).

According to Neville the elder, Manchester United are just TWO, yes TWO players short of being like Barcelona, whatever that means.

I suppose if Messi and Neymar were to sign for United tomorrow they would then be more like Barcelona. Only they wouldn’t be, because Barca would no longer have Messi and Neymar. They would still have Luis Suarez, which would make them more like Manchester City who also have only one world class striker in Sir Joe Aguero.

Trying to be more logical than Neville isn’t particularly difficult. All we need to do is work out which two players he means then, obviously, whoever is left would get into the Barcelona team. So let’s start up top. (more…)

Manchester United Need Pep

Posted: November 29, 2015 in Football, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Pep Guardiola during Barcelona's elimination from the Champions League by Chelsea

(Pep on hearing the news that Louis Van Gaal had been appointed Manchester United manager!)

So if reports are to be believed Pep Guardiola would rather move to England as manager of Manchester United than Manchester City. Understandable, really.

Without wishing to offend any City fans, United are the size of club that Guardiola has become accustomed to managing. After Barcelona and Bayern, City would be a bit of a downwards step at this stage in their evolution.

In fairness though, City are the kind of challenge which should appeal to many managers. Almost limitless funds with the opportunity to create history at a club who crave the attention afforded to the likes of United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

Bear in mind also that Pellegrini, like van Gaal, has a contract running until 2017, although I doubt City would suffer from any pangs of loyalty if Guardiola gave them the slightest indication that his immediate future lay at the Etihad. (more…)

Manchester United According To Paul Scholes

Posted: November 27, 2015 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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After a very successful playing career spanning twenty years with Manchester United, during which time Paul Scholes said, ‘good morning’ in the morning and, ‘goodbye’ at the end of the day, and very little else, he has now decided that he has more to say.

The shy, ginger haired one who shunned interviews stating that he was a very private person who just wanted to be with his family, is now one of the most public people in football.

He appears on BT Sport regularly, he appears on ITV when they have anything to show. He comments on the Premier League, the Champions League and England internationals. In fact, for someone who spent twenty years avoiding the TV, he is now like a Cistercian monk released from his vow of silence and is determined to take advantage of the platform he denied himself for all those years. (more…)

Cristiano Ronaldo To Manchester United?

Posted: November 22, 2015 in European Football, Football, Managers, Opinion
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Cristiano Ronaldo decided, at the age of 24, that he wanted to go to Real Madrid. The reasons for this decision are reasonably well documented. It wasn’t for the money. Even at 24 United would have matched anything Madrid offered if they had been given any encouragement that he would stay at Old Trafford.

Being Portuguese and having already played in Portugal, the biggest clubs for those players are usually Real Madrid and Barcelona. It is a return to Iberia, the culture they are used to, the weather, the food, everything that is, to them, home.

Luis Figo was another world famous Portuguese who actually had the distinction of playing for both Barcelona and Real Madrid. So it is certainly not an uncommon desire for these players to want to ply their trade in Spain at some stage. (more…)

Scholes Versus Van Gaal, Round One

Posted: October 30, 2015 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion
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Paul Scholes wants the best for Manchester United, the fans, himself and probably even Louis van Gaal.

He virtually said as much when praising the quality of coaching which has enabled United to have one of the best defences in the Premier League, without necessarily having many of the best defenders in the Premier League.

What he also said was that he wouldn’t like to play in this particular formation, which is fair comment. Whilst it is set up to retain possession, it often does nothing with it so that at some time, inevitably, the ball either goes back to the opposition or out of play.

Scholes played in United teams that were all about going forward at every available opportunity. He himself was renowned for arriving late into the penalty area to score some crucial goals over the years. That was the football loved by the United fans. It was what won them all the titles, some FA Cups and a couple of Champions League titles. (more…)

Capital Nonsense

Posted: October 8, 2015 in Football, Opinion
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At the risk of appearing as though this is becoming my pet project I want to write, for the last time, about the attraction, (or otherwise), of capital cities to football players.

In England, at the moment, there is a feeling that players coming into our game from abroad would rather play for a London team because they would rather live in London.

I don’t think it is the feeling of the majority, but there are certainly some who think this way. I have covered the reasons as to why this isn’t true, specifically about London, in another post, which you can access here.

What I would like to look at now is whether the capital cities in other countries hold any more attraction than the other large cities when a player is making a move. (more…)

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