Stoke has got this voodoo over us as I posted earlier Anyway it is now confirmed that the manager of the RS is a new convert to the long ball game despite his previous criticism of it. He was willing to throw Matip at the front and launch long balls towards him. Allardyce has got a new apprentice
That is the second game in a few weeks that we have failed to capitalise with a win on a weekend when our competitors have drawn. That's four points lost - a loss that would see us in 4th already. Still, I keep saying - there are 48 points left up for grabs.
Of course all is not lost. There is still a lot to play for in terms of CL place. It was laughable that in December the RS fans had already dismissed the 5th and 6th placed teams on their board and assumed that they had CL sewn up. However, in any other season, United on that run would firmly be in the top 4. This year, all the top teams are consistent when playing the non top sides (apart from the current RS slide). Good runs in the cups and a top 4 should be achievable objectives for JM this season.
It's the second game inside a week. If we stop looking at games individually and actually look at the impact a series of games has had on our season, then it gives a much clearer picture. Instead of 8 draws I think we'd all have preferred 4 wins and 4 losses. I don't see much merit from draws. Look at it another way, we need to be averaging 2 pts per game. Right now we're below that (and have been for 3 seasons) and the single biggest factor this season is the games we've drawn. To maximise the points from the next 48 and/or average 2 points per game I'd much rather win one lose one compared with drawing continuously.
It can't continue, that's for certain. Our next three home games are Hull, Bournemouth and Watford. Anything less than nine points and we will not get top four. A draw is always better than loss though. it just is, especially away and put in the context of over the season or taken as one game or in a run of three games, a draw is better than a loss.
Especially when you consider City, Liverpool and Spurs all dropped points. Whilst a draw isn't great, it does at least help us keep pace with the three clubs it will probably be easiest to overhaul if we are to get top four. A win would obviously have been preferable, and is definitely vital for the next three home games and away at Leicester, with a draw at City in between not being the end of the world. But if you are going to drop points, I've always thought it best to do so on a weekend when all your main rivals also drop points - would have been a killer to our season if we'd failed to win and Liverpool and Spurs both had. Liverpool are playing Chelsea and Spurs over the next month and City are leaking like a sieve. We should be able to manage fairly easy EL and FAC ties, and have a strong position in the LC so can focus on the league. If we can pick up 10 points in the next four games then we will have a great chance of ending the month in fourth spot and setting our sights on Spurs in third.
Surely not! Surely it's not vital for the next 3 games? If we draw them all there'll still be another... hold on let me work it out... 39 points to play for. A point is a point after all
Is the RS manager losing it ? His post match interviews are now becoming more entertaining by the week...the reason for his side's deserved EFL defeat was...."the wind". Hahaha. He is getting even better than Brenda as an entertainer after each defeat. Anyone else noticed that his smiles are getting more and more forced as he really wants to scream and cry? http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/25/jurgen-klopp-blames-the-wind-after-liverpools-efl-cup-exit-6406438/ #kloppyflop keep it up
That Barca team was trophyless for two seasons and had a peak Ronaldinho who though had started sliding off,pep built a new team,stamped a style and began a great era of dominance,the empire is yet to fall..they could not maintain it to his high standards by buying some stars but always invplving la masia greatly while being successful and easy on the eye. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Not so hard in a league where you have one rival though is it. You essentially have a 50-50 chance of winning the league every season. I wont sit here and say the team Pep built werent awesome, but he had everything going for him, including endless cash, the template of a great team plus the best player in the world coming through their youth academy. Not really success through adversity is it?
Seriously that one team is Real Madrid the biggest club in the world at that time on the back of two consecutive league triumphs so that makes the going a lot more difficult and i believed you wouldnt make much of those odds for didnt fergie always have a 50 percent chance with just one serious challenger all the tine except maybe a select one or two seasons. Most leagues have been just two challengers in the past decade,for a short time there was 2 madrid and a barca and currently chelsea are running away with it or it was United and arsenal or arsenal chelsea or united chelsea or united city.So the worst possible outcome is to have real madrid as the challenger. Pep also made the false 9 and he built the tiki taka which tye spanish national team welcomed,he didnt continue rijkaards tenplate which didnt even have i iesta starting,it was a totally different style with new rules at the club in terms of discipline on and off the field,once henry didnt follow peps instructions ajd scored the opener after which he was hauled off immediately and thierry admitted in the long run sticking to the strict tactical discipline that is the attackers can only go free form in the final third when in possession until which they are to maintain shape at all time. Bayern fans do miss him,they do win the bundesliga all the time but no one dominated it like him to this extent apparently winning so much in advance and he has made the squad much much more tactically educated and many far better players like Phillip Lahm,he is not a flash in the fan,he wad the best manager in the world,the most desirable one and he will be again if he gets the title next season. Pep has given a lot a ****ing lot to football,i hope people will stop dissing him so easily,his only black mark is not getting into a cl final in 3 seasons with Bayern.
Pep is a good manager, but he is no god. He was given Bayern on the back of a CL win, when they were the best team in Europe, so again, not exactly success through adversity. Winning the Bundesliga with Bayern is akin to winning the SPL with Celtic in terms of accomplishments. City have their issues, and this is the true test of Pep's talent. He may prove me wrong, but right now he is in a much more competitive league, with a team that is no where near the finished article. But with the endless money City have, i cannot think he will not win at least one league title if he stays for say, 3 seasons. Its an inevitability. I just found it pathetic how the media talked him up as some managerial god and pretty much handed City the title before a ball was kicked. The smaller clubs in the PL do not roll over for the big boys like they do in La Liga or the Bundesliga.
Check the edit.Mourinho and Carlo have won these leagues and he is atleast as good as them. If the buli is indeed as easy as you claim then why didnt Dortmund have as many points as bayern besides those two games where they played them?
Because Dortmund have no where near the resources or pedigree of Bayern. They have lost so many of their best players to Bayern in the last decade its ridiculous. Whether Pep is as good as Carlo or Jose, in the PL especially, remains to be seen. Not sure what you mean by "he has given a ****ing lot to football" either, what has he given that the other two managers you mentioned haven't. He built an awesome Barca side, that remains his crowning achievement, and even then he did it with the help of being handed probably the best player in football history, for free. As well as a bunch of other awesome players like Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta etc. I dont diss his talents as a youth coach, he helped those players become the stars they became, its his tactical nous and football philosophy that i question.
Well in your opinion the lesser lights of buli still do roll over eh?Then with the team at Dortmunds disposal they should have still run them far far closer. He gave a new way of playing football,a new radical style and he is one last martyr who never starts out to play on the defence or on the counter ever. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Lets see how well that tactic does in England then shall we? Hasn't exactly kept Wenger's trophy cabinet well stocked with league titles this last 13 years has it? Dont see what admirable about that at all, to never play defence or on the counter. Its just plain ****ing stupid. Defending is half of football, and to come out with **** like "Oh we dont train how to tackle!" You play to your strengths, but the best coaches also exploit their opposition's weaknesses. If you rush forward and attack, especially against a team with a superior attacking line up, you play straight in to their hands, and you get battered. Or you can defend and hit on the counter....and win.
