Posts Tagged ‘Leicester City’

Manchester United And Manchester City Wins Keep Them At 100%, Mourinho And Guardiola Are Pleased

Posted: August 28, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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In driving rain at the KC stadium in Kingston-upon-Hull, Zlatan Ibrahimović discovered, if he didn’t already know, what the Premier League is all about.

Hull City who, against all the odds, had won their opening two games at home to Leicester City and away to Swansea City gave it everything and came very close to taking a point from this game.

Ravaged by injuries, surrounded by confusion over a supposed takeover and with a caretaker manager with no previous experience in the role, they almost deserved a draw. The only reason they didn’t fully deserve it was because Manchester United deserved to win. (more…)

The Main Competition, (Probably), To Pep Guardiola At Manchester City And Jose Mourinho At Manchester United

Posted: August 27, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Of the manager’s pictured above, one will probably be crowned Premier League champion at the end of the season. At least another one of the five will miss out on the top four. So who will be the winner and who will be the loser(s)?

Although it is certainly not a foregone conclusion it is widely expected that the title will end up in Manchester. There are some bets being laid on the unknown quantity that is Antonio Conte at Chelsea but many think his lack of Premier League experience will mean that he falls just short this time out. (more…)

Wayne Rooney Is The Weakest Link YET AGAIN For Manchester United

Posted: August 7, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion
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(Wayne Rooney finds lots of space as the opposition players know that he will give them the ball back very soon)

How much longer can this be tolerated? At present Rooney seems to be selected because he was, a few years ago, a half decent player. Nothing special, he would come up with the occasional spectacular goal and contribute a little to the team but, as I said, never anything special. He never lived up to the publicity he was given when he joined United as an eighteen-year-old.

He was made captain by Louis van Gaal who was another one who failed to cover himself in glory whilst at United. Van Gaal, apparently, wanted a leader and obviously couldn’t find one otherwise he wouldn’t have selected Rooney.

Fortunately, none of the other players follow Rooney’s example on the pitch as, if they did, they would give the ball away frequently either by poor control or mis-directed passing. (more…)

Manchester United And Chelsea Prove That Not All Players Crave The Champion’s League, (Not Immediately Anyway)

Posted: July 30, 2016 in Arsenal, Champions League, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Tottenham Hotspur
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So, failing to qualify for the Champion’s League is not the disaster that all the “experts” predicted it would be. In fact it appears to have had little or no impact on the two main “failures” in England. These are the two teams who contested the final only eight years ago in Moscow! The ability of Manchester United and Chelsea to sign top players and managers does not appear to have been diminished at all.

It is probably true to say that a prolonged absence from the competition would begin to have a negative effect at some stage as a considerable amount of money can be made by appearing in Europe’s top competition. The loss of this money over a sustained period would prove harmful to the clubs trying to attract the best players and, by doing so, make qualifying again the following year a more difficult proposition. In this respect it is a vicious circle. (more…)

Europe’s Top Table Is A Lot Bigger Than It Used To Be!

Posted: July 29, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Everton, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Tottenham Hotspur
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In the not too distant past the top clubs in Europe were the ones with the most money. This, to an extent, is still true today but the main difference is that a lot more clubs have the most money than previously.

Thinking back fifteen or twenty years ago there were the usual suspects in Real Madrid and Barcelona from Spain. Bayern Munich, at the time, were usually Germany’s sole representatives in the latter stages of any competition. Arsenal and Manchester United used to fight for the Premier League in England and the Milan clubs and Juventus usually offered Italian resistance. (more…)

Mourinho And Guardiola Will Start The New Season At United And City With Little Match Preparation

Posted: July 28, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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This should not come as a major surprise to supporters of the two clubs. If they both stick to their original schedule Manchester United will have played five “warm-up” games and City three.

United will have faced Wigan Athletic, Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray, Everton and Leicester City.

City will have played Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal.

In the past United have been known to organise another friendly prior to the start of the season, usually in the week leading up to the Community Shield. Given that their derby in China was cancelled they may still choose to fit in another game before the big kick off. It seems that United’s players have not yet reached the required level of fitness demanded by a Premier League title contender. (more…)

Can Anybody Stop Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United Or Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City From Winning The Title?

Posted: July 23, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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The answer to the above question has to be “yes”. If not then we may as well award the trophy now and just play the season for fun, which wouldn’t be much fun. Here’s a quick look at the contenders.

CHELSEA:

Their best signing could turn out to be Antonio Conte. Having taken an unfancied Italy to a penalty shoot-out defeat to the very much fancied Germans in the Euros, he has already proven that he can get the best out of a team considered no more than slightly better than average. He has also experienced winning the title in Italy so, the only real question is, can he do it in England? (more…)

Manchester United Or City? Jose Mourinho Or Pep Guardiola? Who Will Reign Supreme In Manchester?

Posted: July 21, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Next season there will be almost as much interest in who wins the battle of Manchester as there will be in who eventually wins the Premier League. Mainly in Manchester of course, but the battle will still be watched with a certain amount of interest from all places outside of the “M” postal code area.

It is unfortunate that the teams cannot be compared in the Champion’s League due to the shortcomings of each of the previous managers, both of whom underachieved in their final season.

Louis van Gaal underachieved by so much that United haven’t even qualified for the tournament and City will have to play a pre-qualifier, (which they should win), having finished in a lowly fourth position last time out. (more…)

Will Pep Guardiola Be A Success At Manchester City?

Posted: June 28, 2016 in Managers, Manchester City, Opinion
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The jury is out on this one!

There are obvious reasons to expect that Pep will be successful at City, not
least given that he is working with people he knows well at the club. This is an obvious advantage from when he took over at Bayern Munich where he knew nobody really well in the beginning.

He also doesn’t have to win much next season to be rated a success. Manuel Pellegrini left having won only the Capital One Cup in his final year.

At Bayern the odds were against him even replicating what Jupp Heynckes had achieved, never mind bettering it. A treble of the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champion’s League was always going to be a tall order. As it turned out he found winning the Bundesliga and German Cup relatively easy and only the Champion’s League proved elusive. (more…)

Manchester United Should Recruit Leicester’s Recruiter!

Posted: May 1, 2016 in Football, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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The last time I was present at a Manchester United versus Leicester City game at Old Trafford was on March 18th, 1967. I have been to Old Trafford many, many times before and since but only ever once when they played Leicester. The game sticks in the mind for two reasons. The first is David Herd scoring the first goal and breaking his leg in the process when falling over Gordon Banks whilst in the act of shooting. The second is the scoreline of 5-2 to United.

Back then, Leicester didn’t have a bad team, it just wasn’t very good. Now the situations have been completely reversed. At the moment United don’t have a bad team, it just isn’t very good. An example of how far down in the estimation of even ex-players the club has gone was typified recently by Denis Law. He was asked if he thought his team of the sixties would beat the current one. He thought for a moment and replied, “yes, I think so, 1-0.” When the interviewer wondered why such a low score Law replied, “well, we’re all in our seventies now!”

The difficulty for the majority of the United fans, particularly those who comment on popular social networking sites, is that they do not possess a sense of humour. It is also true that many of them have never even been to Old Trafford.   (more…)

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