No BPL threads recently, fans of the top-of-the-table favorites a bit disjointed about what Ranieri quips is a "strange league"?
Saturday morning's match was thoroughly enjoyable unless one is a MC fan, but fans of Arsenal, Gunners, and MU have to be happy.
To me several aspects of the match stood out:
- LC is akin to the KC Royals, small ball, do all the right things, and their work rates are phenomenal, across the board
- small ball aside, they have three very effective attacking options
- after Mahrez's goal (absolutely stunning finish after the fortunate bounce over the sliding MC player--Mahrez skipped over him and never skipped a beat), Pellegrini looked, if not disinterested, then resigned, as it were
- MC's timing on the decision on Pep, could it have been worse, coming right before this match? One could speculate the players were a bit distracted.
- MC/Pellegrini insisted on focusing attack on its left flank and did not waver, but it was ultimately ineffective, and this could be questioned
- officiating:
...the non penalty call: commentators were quite certain that the ref missed it, but not only was the contact marginally on or outside the line (not the ball), but the contact was glancing, to my mind, a very defensible
no-call
...the award of the corner that led to Huth's 2nd, I could look at that five times in slo-mo and still not bet the ranch that Kolarov's (deMichaelis?) boot did not touch last
...offsetting these, appeared to me that Aguero was in offside position before taking his goal scoring header
I think MC now has a steep road, as much for the distraction of the huge change ahead, and that Arsenal may the primary beneficiary going forward. LC, just a fabulous story.
[BHE'pad: picked up some Route of All Evil: gonna try some bottles starting at about 6:30, or probably well before (: ]
Yes, Everton seems to be jelling, should have mentioned them. Last year's first half of BPL, I believed Lukaku was an imposter, much hype, not worthy of it, and effective only in spurts, but he began to round into better form, and this year has been stout and a leader. Meanwhile, much of the crowd at Anfield was walking out, as much in protest against their team's lackluster play as vs. Fenway Sports. And at Etihad yesterday morning, the predominant sound was groans of exasperation and frustration at their team's play and grudging admiration for LC's.
Everton let Martinez spend in January. You could look at that as they plan to keep him, or maybe they strengthened for the FA Cup. I'm unconvinced he keeps his job. Watch Eddie Howe from Bournemouth for that job. Rumored to have one non-termination clause in his contract...for his boyhood team, Everton. It sounds like Klopp wants the Fenway Group to give him $100 million to spend in the summer. Doubtful. They own LFC to make money, and expand their business into western and central Europe. I don't anticipate them agreeing with a budget that large.
Everton might be able to salvage something from this season. They just made a big signing before the transfer deadline. Big win over Stoke City.
Good point, and insistence on the overlap, on the left flank in particular (I guess MC thought it saw weakness on that side), and bringing in a midfielder in deep on same side to overload, just didn't work, and on the counters, there was so much space in the middle of the field with no outside support. Vardy could have had one or two, but Hart played him stout twice. Kanté on the other hand was very good checking back and countering numbers.
Dyer, on the other hand, scares me; he's a bit like Jonny Evans, about whom one commentator famously said, "trouble seems to have a habit of finding him". I don't think that this latest positive run by LC, after a goal challenged period of several games three weeks ago and back, coincides with Dyer coming out of the first 11.
Essex, thanks, and I meant to say Spurs, not Gunners (which of course was redundant in that usage)
In my opinion, Pochettino is the best manager in the league. He runs a unique press and ball retention system that uses multiple pivots. I don't think many of the Premier League teams have the pace to keep up with the way the Spurs midfield moves in the center and switches from flank to flank on diagonal passes. This season this system has destroyed Premier League opposition in midfield. Opposition midfield hasn't even been competitive in some of the matches.
I hope he stays at Spurs because he can win big there and win big often. Spurs have spent big money on their youth system and they're molding and developing 17 and 18 year olds in the precise way Pochettino wants to play. His system with the correct players could compete big time in Europe as well in my opinion.
That said, the team I want to catch is Napoli. I keep hearing great things about them and hope I can catch a broadcast to see what all the hype is about.
An a walk out at Anfield? Wow!
Not so good news for LFC, though...after the walkout of fans after the 77th minute (to protest the leap in ticket prices). The Liverpool Fenway Group owenership group not making friends with that.
I was drinking quite a bit of Lagunitas IPA on tap at Tigin's, good local soccer pub in Stamford, UConn knows it, but haven't been in a few months, got to get to back in the mojo, so that's another one I'll have to look out for.
Provided they have enough money, they could stick around as a formidable team for a while
UConn, enjoy Valentine's Day at the Tap Room, I'll get there the next time daughter is back home, now that's she's 21
nyjuggernaut, may it be so, makes the League more interesting with more of a mix at the top...