Watching Udinese struggle to break down the Atalanta defence, it struck me that maybe we should try to poach the Atalanta coach. They've only conceded three goals this season - none of them away from home. Mind you, he'd probably take one look at our defenders and run a mile.
I don;t know if it's the same guy but they used to score loads too and be really exciting and entertaining a season or two ago. It is a wonder why we don't have Italian defenders or players in general. Maybe the Pozzos don't want to be seen as Italy B or something?
I also watched this game. Atalanta play with three at the back, but five in midfield who are fairly close to the defenders. The midfield drops back to defend, so there are often seven or eight, making it difficult to find a route through.
Udinese recovered from being two goals behind and drew 2-2 with Atalanta. Deulofeu scored and Pereyra provided an assist for the other goal.
I wonder if a manager like Bruce who keeps getting employed, uses the argument at his interviews that he wasn't given the players he needed? If that is the case he would not apply to join Watford. 1998–1999 Sheffield United 1999–2000 Huddersfield Town 2001 Wigan Athletic 2001 Crystal Palace 2001–2007 Birmingham City 2007–2009 Wigan Athletic 2009–2011 Sunderland 2012–2016 Hull City 2016–2018 Aston Villa 2019 Sheffield Wednesday 2019–2021 Newcastle United 2022 West Bromwich Albion
Even other sports headlines involve making joke of us now ! https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/other-sports/emma-raducanu-watford-dmitry-tursunov-28217368
Well that put Rangers firmly in their place - an embarrassing 1-7 home defeat by Liverpool, with a five minute hat trick by Salah.
There is a large gulf in financial resources as well Mark. Rangers did brilliantly last season to get to the Europa League final but have lost key players since then, as always happens when clubs from the minor leagues have a flash of success.
Rangers actually found the perfect formula for dealing with finances - they went into administration owing £134m, were liquidated, their assets were then (rumoured to have been) sold to crook for £1, then they somehow managed to avoid the minor leagues by being allowed to enter the Scottish Third Division. They now somehow manage to survive on paltry average attendances of around 50k. I think the rest of Scotland is eagerly looking forward to next week when VAR is used for the first time - in anticipation of the number of penalties awarded to them dropping and the number awarded against them increasing, as well as the number of red cards they receive increasing. There's little doubt that they have been receiving favourable treatment from Scotland's referees.
I was speaking more generally about teams from the minor leagues BB. I have no particular love for the Huns but they had a good team last year which would have put up a much better show than they have in this years champions league. We see this time and again when sides from the so called 'minor' leagues have a good couple of seasons ( I mean from leagues other than England, Italy, Spain, Germany and France) they have a couple of good seasons before the team is gutted - we have seen this with Ajax, Anderlecht, Benfica etc. Ajax also get regular crowds of 50,000+ but only get 7% of the TV money that a Premiership club would get (and I imagine this is the same for Rangers) so they can't afford to pay the same salaries. So players leave too soon and can't be replaced by players of the same quality. As an example Ajax got 100 million for Antony but can't replace him with an equally valued player because players of that class don't want to play in the Eredivisie. So in the end all clubs outside of the major leagues are either selling clubs or development clubs - may be good for a couple of years but can't hold onto teams for long enough to really break through. I don't know what the solution is to this - maybe combined leagues (such as Holland and Belgium ?). At any rate a result like Rangers against Liverpool wasn't good for football. I'd love to go back to the old days of a level playing field when sides like FC Porto or Feyenoord won major European titles but fear those days have gone. I certainly prefered the old European Cup where only champions played in it to the present situation - it was much more open. At any rate the result from Ibrox was bad for Scottish football and I would hope even Celtic fans would see it that way.
They are when compared to Scottish referees though - the supposed #1 Willie Collum should never be allowed near a flag or a whistle.
