Posts Tagged ‘Willian’

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As the International Champion’s Cup draws to a close we can only wonder at the “expert’s” comments that a team, travelling half way round the world to play another team located 30 miles away in England, can benefit from such a trip.

Other than money, for example, is there any reason why Manchester United and Liverpool would fly reserve teams to Michigan for a game of football!?

The tournament is played over three continents with some of the clubs never playing each other despite the fact that it isn’t a knockout competition. (more…)

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So Gareth Southgate is up for a gong. Having taken his mediocre team, which would struggle in the Premier League, to a World Cup semi-final he is now being tipped to be given the FIFA Coach of the Year award.

So what are the qualifications for this nomination? Well, apparently, not very many. He only beat teams who are ranked below his team except one. It was, unfortunately for Gawpy Gareth, the important one which prevented England undeservedly reaching their first World Cup final for 52 years. He didn’t beat a nation ranked above his team even after having been given two bites at the cherry, one of which was against their reserves.

So naturally, he should be given an award for his achievement. (more…)

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It doesn’t really matter whether England finish third or fourth. For them, the World Cup is over. FIFA prolonging their stay in Russia is more like a punishment rather than any prestigious ending to the competition.

On the positive side, the game on Saturday gives England’s reserves a chance for some revenge on Belgium’s reserves for the 1-0 beating they handed out in the group stage. On the negative side, nobody cares.

The result of that game, which decided who won the group and who finished second, was the biggest mistake made by the two teams. Had they contrived to let England win the group then the team would probably have lost in the quarter-final to Brazil. (more…)

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Win one more game and England are there! They will be participating in their first World Cup final since 1966.

Why is that? Do they suddenly have a team better than the one which included Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne? Are they a notch up from the Alan Shearer generation which included the likes of Paul Scholes and David Beckham? How about the team of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard? (more…)

EW

The early game this time out was the one between Sweden and Switzerland and was always going to be a close run thing due to the two sides being of similar quality.

Sweden, post-Zlatan, look more of a team now than when the big striker was insisting on being the star man but, on the other hand, they don’t appear to have anybody with a magical touch who can turn a game for them.

That necessity didn’t arise during their match with Switzerland, who were over-reliant on Xherdan Shaqiri who, in turn, didn’t have one of his better days. (more…)

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Brazil against Costa Rica was the stand-out game of the day, particularly as the setial winners of the trophy had only managed to pick up a point against Switzerland in a 1-1 draw. Costa Rica had lost narrowly by 1-0 to Serbia so it was all to play for here.

The final score of 2-0 to Brazil would have people who didn’t see the game thinking that this was a reasonably easy victory for them but the truth of the matter is very different. The fact that both goals came AFTER the 90 minute mark should give readers a reasonable idea how hard fought this win was. (more…)

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Apparently Manchester United are going to buy almost every player who is rumoured to be for sale. In an attempt to separate the “possibly true” from the “absolutely not” we look at deals which could happen.

Dastardly Daniel Levy decided, a while ago, that Toby Alderweireld was surplus to requirements at Tottenham Hotspur because he had the audacity to think he should be paid more than the minimum wage.

This alerted Manchester United manager José Mourinho and had Ed Woodward reaching for the nail-biting repellant at the very thought of having to negotiate with London football’s answer to Shylock. (more…)

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Alexis Sánchez – Hoping to move to a much nicer place

If Alexis Sánchez makes his protracted move from Arsenal to Manchester United in time for Saturday’s match, and if he is selected, then he will kick off his new career in an away game at Turf Moor.

This, coincidentally, is the same game which saw United introduce Angel Di Maria to the Premier League and we all know how that one turned out.

As our long-standing readers will know, we were never advocates of the Argentinian being signed and always claimed he would be a problem and that he would fail. Ed Woodward, bless him, decided to act against our advice and purchased him anyway. (more…)

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As regular readers of these chronicles will be aware we are not the biggest fan of Chris Smalling. Louis van Gaal called him Mike because he wasn’t an important enough player for the manager to be aware of his first name.

We have consistently referred to him as “Bambi-on-ice”, “Donkey Smalling” and other such less-than-flattering names.

He has never helped himself off the field by his constant claims of how good he is and how much he has helped the team, particularly when overlooked for the last England squad. The problem was that his claims of being a rock in the heart of the United defence came at a time when he couldn’t actually get in the team! (He is a long way from being the sharpest tool in the shed is our Chris)! (more…)

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Jesse Lingard back in the United team at the expense of Ashley Young. Talk about bitter sweet. On the one hand, Young being dropped is good news but, on the other, Lingard playing is not good news.

Having finally managed to make the Manchester United management see the error of their ways when continually selecting Wayne Rooney, it is now time for them to see who is Manchester United quality and who isn’t. Neither Young nor Lingard would get into a fully fit Manchester United team and it would not be too disappointing if they were both sold in January. (more…)