The championship has been an average division this season, but Bournemouth have been a breath of fresh air with their attractive brand of football. They fully deserve to be champions and Eddie Howe deserves every credit that comes his way.
I For all the stick Wenger gets, and at times it has been justified, van Gaal really has made a hash out of the United job so far. And I don't even just mean results, but tactics and team selection, too. You've performed pretty well against the big sides, but your consistency against the mid table/lower tier sides in the division has left a lot to be desired. Having spent around £150m, as well as bringing in Falcao on loan with astronomical wages, van Gaal hasn't done as well as he should have done. The fact that Liverpool are 4 points behind you despite being woefully average does not reflect well on your mob, in my opinion. My own personal view is you will scrape 4th or if you're fortunate, maybe even 3rd, but it's not been impressive.
It's even worse than this, as I've seen Liverpool not conceding a penalty for doing exactly the same thing.
GD is irrelevant, unless head to head is identical. RM have the better record against Barca so they will win if level on points
Utd suffer from having good technical midfielders who want to pass through teams but don't inject enough pace into their game, allowing teams to get men behind the ball. Space is at a premium and wide players don't get a chance to run at and past defenders. Carrick is a big loss. Not only does his presence mean everyone can play in their best position, he receives the ball deeper and makes quicker and more expansive passes. Utd are not the only team guilty of playing in front of teams - most of the top sides do it too often.
Carver really lets rip at his players and accuses Wikliamson of deliberately getting himself sent off! Clearly,there is major disharmony between manager and many of the players. Ultimately, of course, the blame lies with Fat Mike. He hired Carver, who's clearly not up to the job, because he thought he could see the season out on the cheap..
Hull getting torn apart. 3-0 down at half time and looking clueless all over the pitch. Tommy looking far too casual, Jake looking a poor player and Dawson getting pulled all over the pitch. This is not good viewing.
Predictably, we got hit with all the "St Torringham Day" jibes from the less mature among the Gooner ranks. No mention, of course, that St Assholes' Day was celebtrated a good month ago (the day, each year, when Arsenal bomb out of the CL in humiliaing style). I danced a jig that night. I do hate it when poster try to score such pathetic wum-points. You'll never catch me doing that.
Well I think a fair few saw that coming. No Modric and Real Madrid seem unbalanced and just drift in games. They have far too much negativity at that club too, the big players all have appalling body language, moaning, shouting at each other and never really looking a team. The ones that aren't the biggest games just seem beaten into fear, they're good players yet they wilt in the pressure from their teammates. Probably shouldn't be so critical of a side that's clearly still very good but for a team with such quality and creative players they look very rigid in some of their build up. Too many players thinking of themselves, perhaps. Poor showing from Bale too, starting to get worried we'll be seeing him playing for another PL side this season. Great game though, particularly the first half and well done to Allegri, it's a very brave man that starts 2 strikers against Real but he had them play in the system they're comfortable in and it worked excellently. Tevez and Morata made short work of Real's defence, I've never been sold on Morata but he had an impressive night.
If Real get rid of Bale, his confidence will be shot to pieces, and United will have another Di Maria on their hands.
As if it couldn't get any worse for Barren Dent, after his loan spell at Derby coincided with them plummeting from 1st to 8th in the Championship, he's been told not to bother returning to Villa from his loan spell and instead book himself a long holiday: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-darren-bent-told-9188291
Bent is a weird player. Scored lots for ipswich but they were relegated. Scored lots for charlton but they were relegated. Scored a decent amount for us but his 2 seasons were the worst league finishes we had between 2006 and now. Scored lots for sunderland and they did well...for them Scored well for villa...they went to ****e and he was frozen out. scored a lot for derby and their season died. He is definite proof that being a great scorer is not enough!
Bent doesn't do anything like enough for the team. He scores goals, but it's basically like having 10 men and being awarded the odd free penalty. I swear half of the shots he gets off are because the centre-halves have forgotten he's playing.
