Today, people who are still interested in this year's English Premier League can watch Manchester United - Manchester City.
This match is certainly not a big thing, however, because even if City ridiculed United today they would still be twelve points behind Ferguson's team. And the title would still be virtually decided.
So, this fixture will certainly be somewhat boring and unexciting, no matter what the outcome.
But what's interesting on this day is what City's Roberto Mancini said, prior to the game.
He said too many teams roll over for United.
Good! Somebody from an important position sees it, too, and is talking about it.
Teams lose too easily to Manchester United. Yeah! That's exactly what I've been saying.
Mancini, though, going into more details about his affirmation, said he thinks most teams are just afraid of Alex Ferguson's United.
I believe, however, that Ferguson and his people succeeded, not only in creating fear of his team, but basically a system whereby United gets the wins it needs no matter what the means. Most likely, intimidation and money are involved, outside of the strict legalities of the Man. U. footballing payroll.
And I'm quite sure Ferguson is a master at these kind of things. Because he's certainly not a master when it comes to actual coaching, and how could a so-so coach have stayed where Ferguson is for so long?
Really, one has to look at United's record in the other competitions, the ones United was not expected to win (or did not desperately need to win) this year, to see that there's something weird about their performance in the league.
They have 25 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses, from 30 matches, in the EPL. That's the kind of record that teams like Barcelona get. (But Barcelona has roughly the same record in all competitions in which they take part, not just the one.)
However, United's records in the Champions League and the FA Cup are: 4 wins 1 draw and 3 losses, and 3 wins 2 draws and 1 loss, respectively.
How come a team that wins only about half of their fair matches, against honest opponents, and no more, can pull off five times more wins than draws or losses in the PL?
I say the fix is in. Quite often.
If Manchester United was to play opponents they found out about just 2 weeks to 2 months prior, like they do in the elimination competitions, would they win trophies anymore?
So, I believe Mancini is not far from the truth, indeed, but his is still a naive view. Either that, or he knows he can't say more, so has to do with exposing the bare minimum.
Showing posts with label Alex Ferguson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alex Ferguson. Show all posts
Monday, 8 April 2013
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Cut the Bitching, Sore Losers!
Living in an English-speaking country, I heard a lot of sports programs after the Man. U. - Real Madrid match condemning the referee for giving a red card to Nani. -- "It should have been a yellow...", "His eyes were on the ball the whole time...", "It was reckless, not malicious...", "What was the referee thinking?!...", and so on.
That's all bullshit! Enough with the sympathy for this huge conglomerate called "United", from Manchester! The only thing this club is innocent of is paying the referee who made that call.
Alright, so the decision could have gone either way. God forbid, for once, the referee takes the road that doesn't give a break to this giant of football, Manchester United!...
Also, it's not a decision that was match-altering. Not at all. You see players sent off in other matches, for lesser offenses, and their teams don't make such a big fuss. They just play, 10 versus 11. (It wasn't 8 versus 11. It wasn't a clear penalty, not given. And may I remind you that Real lost a crucial piece of their puzzle, di Maria, in the first half? Mourinho did some shuffling around, and he fixed it. I'm sure he could have fixed having his team play 10 versus 11, too.)
So, these people who are condemning the Turkish referee should save their bitching for real crucial decisions. Like Lampard's unseen goal in that match against Germany, at World Cup 2010. That was a match-altering bad call. Nani's red card is small potatoes. United was still one goal up, at that point. And the incident did not lead to conceding a dangerous free kick, or anything of the sort, either. And I've seen so many teams playing 10 against 11, from worse positions, and winning. So, saying that the elimination of Nani - who's not always in the starting eleven (!!!) - was the main factor in Man. U.'s elimination is nothing more than trying to find an easy scapegoat.
What, the English team could not have played with 10 players, and without Nani, and won?
As a matter of fact, looking at the last twenty minutes independently, they seemed to do quite well, especially in attack. Where Nani would have had most of his contribution. They just didn't score (but it's not like Nani is a born goalscorer or had scored a lot of goals recently).
And what did Ferguson do, to help his team? Instead of doing any good switches and changes, he started bellowing at the referees, like he always does when things don't go his way.
(Maybe in the English league United players don't get sent off for those high challenges, but in international competitions you don't always get the favouritism you think you're entitled to, Ferg!)
So, yeah, basically I'm saying ferguson is not a very good coach. Apparently he built a team that seemed to crumble like a house of cards, in three minutes, for a reason so banal as having to play 10 versus 11.
But it wasn't the red card that changed the match. I don't think so. For me, the match-changing moment was Mourinho's genius move in substituting Luka Modric for Arbeloa. Not Nani's elimination. It was Modric's insertion. And his brilliant shot, in the 66th minute, that came out of nowhere.
If Modric had not scored then, who knows what the final score would have been. So, there!
Also, if you want to talk about unfair, how about Ramos' stupid own goal, three minutes after the interval?
Don't you think the mentality of the Real players could have been shattered at that point? But they came back.
Really, that's where I think a great coach makes the difference. Real had one, United didn't.
The Champions League is better with Real in it, now, than it had been had the English progressed.
I mean, really, this is a so-called contender that was beaten/humiliated by the likes of Galatasaray, Basel and CFR Cluj, in the Champions League over the past two years. (And they keep getting results in the English league way too easily.)
Maybe they didn't deserve to lose the match, but they deserved to go out.
Highlights:
That's all bullshit! Enough with the sympathy for this huge conglomerate called "United", from Manchester! The only thing this club is innocent of is paying the referee who made that call.
Alright, so the decision could have gone either way. God forbid, for once, the referee takes the road that doesn't give a break to this giant of football, Manchester United!...
Also, it's not a decision that was match-altering. Not at all. You see players sent off in other matches, for lesser offenses, and their teams don't make such a big fuss. They just play, 10 versus 11. (It wasn't 8 versus 11. It wasn't a clear penalty, not given. And may I remind you that Real lost a crucial piece of their puzzle, di Maria, in the first half? Mourinho did some shuffling around, and he fixed it. I'm sure he could have fixed having his team play 10 versus 11, too.)
So, these people who are condemning the Turkish referee should save their bitching for real crucial decisions. Like Lampard's unseen goal in that match against Germany, at World Cup 2010. That was a match-altering bad call. Nani's red card is small potatoes. United was still one goal up, at that point. And the incident did not lead to conceding a dangerous free kick, or anything of the sort, either. And I've seen so many teams playing 10 against 11, from worse positions, and winning. So, saying that the elimination of Nani - who's not always in the starting eleven (!!!) - was the main factor in Man. U.'s elimination is nothing more than trying to find an easy scapegoat.
What, the English team could not have played with 10 players, and without Nani, and won?
As a matter of fact, looking at the last twenty minutes independently, they seemed to do quite well, especially in attack. Where Nani would have had most of his contribution. They just didn't score (but it's not like Nani is a born goalscorer or had scored a lot of goals recently).
And what did Ferguson do, to help his team? Instead of doing any good switches and changes, he started bellowing at the referees, like he always does when things don't go his way.
(Maybe in the English league United players don't get sent off for those high challenges, but in international competitions you don't always get the favouritism you think you're entitled to, Ferg!)
So, yeah, basically I'm saying ferguson is not a very good coach. Apparently he built a team that seemed to crumble like a house of cards, in three minutes, for a reason so banal as having to play 10 versus 11.
But it wasn't the red card that changed the match. I don't think so. For me, the match-changing moment was Mourinho's genius move in substituting Luka Modric for Arbeloa. Not Nani's elimination. It was Modric's insertion. And his brilliant shot, in the 66th minute, that came out of nowhere.
If Modric had not scored then, who knows what the final score would have been. So, there!
Also, if you want to talk about unfair, how about Ramos' stupid own goal, three minutes after the interval?
Don't you think the mentality of the Real players could have been shattered at that point? But they came back.
Really, that's where I think a great coach makes the difference. Real had one, United didn't.
The Champions League is better with Real in it, now, than it had been had the English progressed.
I mean, really, this is a so-called contender that was beaten/humiliated by the likes of Galatasaray, Basel and CFR Cluj, in the Champions League over the past two years. (And they keep getting results in the English league way too easily.)
Maybe they didn't deserve to lose the match, but they deserved to go out.
Highlights:
Sunday, 1 April 2012
That's It for the EPL This Year
It has to be completely over now in England. (Sunderland's draw at Manchester City convinced me fully.)
There's no more point in following the Premier League this year anymore, because those pathetic incompetents at Manchester City just cannot come up with a good win nowadays, no matter what they do.
I don't even know why they play anymore, because they would probably be assured of a Champions League berth even if they lose all of their remaining matches. And they're not going to win the Premier League, so that's that.
How does one team go from dropping only 4 points, and not losing any matches, in almost four months, at the beginning of the season, from going 20 home matches without giving up a single point, and from crushing Manshitty united 6-1 at Old Trafford, to not coming close to winning the title?
It's simple. I believe that these three things were major factors:
1) Bad organization at the top: Roberto Mancini is somewhat of a loser coach. He cannot motivate a team, to save his life. He's been receiving warnings about the lack of quality and depth of his squad for more than three months now and he could do nothing about it. He didn't get good new players, and he could not get the old players to remain at the same level as in the fall, when they were worth their money. And, also, the owners apparently do not know that he's a very mediocre coach, either.
2) Amateurish players: There is at least one team, every year, in every league, that plays way better for a short while than their actual value. Manchester City was that team this year, in the Premier League. In the first half of the current season, it was definitely them, yes. The fact that Manchester United has also been a sucky team this football year, led City to believe that their players were good enough to sustain the rhythm shown in the first 13-14 matches, against United. But, in actuality, the players that Mancini brought to Etihad, thinking that they're good enough to get the title, are second-rate players who are simply not capable of playing a full season at the same intensity. Mancini got way too much out of them in the first half of the season, and now there's way too little left to squeeze out when the going gets tough. With such easily-withered players, City should have actually bought two squads, one to play the first half of the competition, and one to play the second half.
3) Manchester United 's obsession with winning: They always seem to pay to get their way, and they just could not possibly have accepted to see Manchester City winning this year without doing everything to see another conclusion. So, one of the shittiest Manchester United teams ever - eliminated from the Champions League at the hands of Basel, ha, ha, and not going more than two rounds in the Europa League either - keeps beating everybody in the league, for six matches now, and nine out of the last ten, courtesy of either unbelievably weak performances from the teams they face or referee mistakes that everybody overlooks as "[honest] errors that even out over the course of a season"
That was actually said by Alex Ferguson, by the way.
And, since this guy is over 70, I would be very interested to hear, given his life experience of over 70 decades, how he could formulate the explanation to the following inquiry, to make it sound that his team is totally honest: Why, at crucial times in so many seasons, and I'm not talking just about this season, so many teams suddenly play so well against the title contenders that are going up against Man. U., while United always seems to have much easier times against most of the same teams? I'm talking about the likes of: tottenham, Sunderland, Everton, Wigan, Fulham (when they got paid, 'cause they apparently got a little upset that they didn't get paid for the match on Monday, when the referee saved United's asses, and they actually played a good match), Wolverhampton (when they got paid), Stoke, Bolton, and so on.
(As a related fact, in other leagues, which don't make a big point of pretending to be completely fair, it's common knowledge that some teams with money pay smaller teams to play well against their rivals. Could that also happen in England? Well, I don't know. What do you think?)
Here's the simple conclusion I think is accurate, based on what I see:
When you're trying to win a Premier League title at the same time as Manchester United, which, because of the connections they have everywhere in English football, is every year in this day and age, you're going against most of the English Premier League, too. You better be prepared to beat everybody, including Man. U., because Man. U. is definitely going to beat almost everybody that they need to beat, through whatever means necessary, on and off the pitch, to make you lose.
I can't believe Mancini and the owners of Manchester City are too stupid to understand this. I wouldn't expect the players to understand this, because some of them are too young to accept the fact that results do not only come through the team's effort on the pitch, but some people with experience should understand this and prepare for it. If you want to win the league in England, you better make your team get way better results in the second half of the season than in the first half (which should also be very good, too).
That's why, clearly, the title race in England is over, and I would bet on it. Manchester united is not going to lose this title. And manchester City is clearly substandard as a top team at this point, too, which is why there is no hope left, either.
So, there's no reason to watch this year 's Premier League any more (unless you're betting on it).
There's no more point in following the Premier League this year anymore, because those pathetic incompetents at Manchester City just cannot come up with a good win nowadays, no matter what they do.
I don't even know why they play anymore, because they would probably be assured of a Champions League berth even if they lose all of their remaining matches. And they're not going to win the Premier League, so that's that.
How does one team go from dropping only 4 points, and not losing any matches, in almost four months, at the beginning of the season, from going 20 home matches without giving up a single point, and from crushing Manshitty united 6-1 at Old Trafford, to not coming close to winning the title?
It's simple. I believe that these three things were major factors:
1) Bad organization at the top: Roberto Mancini is somewhat of a loser coach. He cannot motivate a team, to save his life. He's been receiving warnings about the lack of quality and depth of his squad for more than three months now and he could do nothing about it. He didn't get good new players, and he could not get the old players to remain at the same level as in the fall, when they were worth their money. And, also, the owners apparently do not know that he's a very mediocre coach, either.
2) Amateurish players: There is at least one team, every year, in every league, that plays way better for a short while than their actual value. Manchester City was that team this year, in the Premier League. In the first half of the current season, it was definitely them, yes. The fact that Manchester United has also been a sucky team this football year, led City to believe that their players were good enough to sustain the rhythm shown in the first 13-14 matches, against United. But, in actuality, the players that Mancini brought to Etihad, thinking that they're good enough to get the title, are second-rate players who are simply not capable of playing a full season at the same intensity. Mancini got way too much out of them in the first half of the season, and now there's way too little left to squeeze out when the going gets tough. With such easily-withered players, City should have actually bought two squads, one to play the first half of the competition, and one to play the second half.
3) Manchester United 's obsession with winning: They always seem to pay to get their way, and they just could not possibly have accepted to see Manchester City winning this year without doing everything to see another conclusion. So, one of the shittiest Manchester United teams ever - eliminated from the Champions League at the hands of Basel, ha, ha, and not going more than two rounds in the Europa League either - keeps beating everybody in the league, for six matches now, and nine out of the last ten, courtesy of either unbelievably weak performances from the teams they face or referee mistakes that everybody overlooks as "[honest] errors that even out over the course of a season"
That was actually said by Alex Ferguson, by the way.
And, since this guy is over 70, I would be very interested to hear, given his life experience of over 70 decades, how he could formulate the explanation to the following inquiry, to make it sound that his team is totally honest: Why, at crucial times in so many seasons, and I'm not talking just about this season, so many teams suddenly play so well against the title contenders that are going up against Man. U., while United always seems to have much easier times against most of the same teams? I'm talking about the likes of: tottenham, Sunderland, Everton, Wigan, Fulham (when they got paid, 'cause they apparently got a little upset that they didn't get paid for the match on Monday, when the referee saved United's asses, and they actually played a good match), Wolverhampton (when they got paid), Stoke, Bolton, and so on.
(As a related fact, in other leagues, which don't make a big point of pretending to be completely fair, it's common knowledge that some teams with money pay smaller teams to play well against their rivals. Could that also happen in England? Well, I don't know. What do you think?)
Here's the simple conclusion I think is accurate, based on what I see:
When you're trying to win a Premier League title at the same time as Manchester United, which, because of the connections they have everywhere in English football, is every year in this day and age, you're going against most of the English Premier League, too. You better be prepared to beat everybody, including Man. U., because Man. U. is definitely going to beat almost everybody that they need to beat, through whatever means necessary, on and off the pitch, to make you lose.
I can't believe Mancini and the owners of Manchester City are too stupid to understand this. I wouldn't expect the players to understand this, because some of them are too young to accept the fact that results do not only come through the team's effort on the pitch, but some people with experience should understand this and prepare for it. If you want to win the league in England, you better make your team get way better results in the second half of the season than in the first half (which should also be very good, too).
That's why, clearly, the title race in England is over, and I would bet on it. Manchester united is not going to lose this title. And manchester City is clearly substandard as a top team at this point, too, which is why there is no hope left, either.
So, there's no reason to watch this year 's Premier League any more (unless you're betting on it).
Thursday, 8 March 2012
How Much Better is Bilbao than Spurs?
Athletic Bilbao is no Tottenham Hotspur. (It can't be. Bilbao managed to beat Man. U. this millennium.)
I'm talking here, of course, about Manchester United - Athletic Bilbao 2-3 (1-1), in the first leg of the Europa League 1/8-Finals.
I guess Manchester United got so used to beating teams that make it a habit of not trying to challenge them too much, that they have serious problems against a team that actually comes on the field to play.
That explains the results against Basel, Benfica, Ajax, Bilbao...
Of course, the even funnier aspect of this humiliating defeat for United is that Bilbao is not Barcelona or Real Madrid. Bilbao is not trying to win the title in Spain. They're not even actively challenging Valencia for third. No. Athletic Bilbao is in fifth, in Primera Division, ladies and gentlemen.
...Whereas Man. U. still has big chances to win their domestic competition. (But we know all about the opponents they face, and how surprisingly easily they beat some of them.)
And, on top of that, Athletic led 3-1 towards the end of the game, and they would have probably won 3-1 if they hadn't conceded that stupid penalty in added-on time.
I hope that won't trouble the Spanish too much, and that they will go through to the quarters, next week, like they deserve.
Highlights:
Manchester United v Athletic Bilbao by loopibtch
On the other hand, all United has to do to go through now is win 2-0 away, like they did against Ajax Amsterdam...
To conclude on a loosely-related funny note, check out the end of the clip to see Alex Ferguson in some real physical pain...
I'm talking here, of course, about Manchester United - Athletic Bilbao 2-3 (1-1), in the first leg of the Europa League 1/8-Finals.
I guess Manchester United got so used to beating teams that make it a habit of not trying to challenge them too much, that they have serious problems against a team that actually comes on the field to play.
That explains the results against Basel, Benfica, Ajax, Bilbao...
Of course, the even funnier aspect of this humiliating defeat for United is that Bilbao is not Barcelona or Real Madrid. Bilbao is not trying to win the title in Spain. They're not even actively challenging Valencia for third. No. Athletic Bilbao is in fifth, in Primera Division, ladies and gentlemen.
...Whereas Man. U. still has big chances to win their domestic competition. (But we know all about the opponents they face, and how surprisingly easily they beat some of them.)
And, on top of that, Athletic led 3-1 towards the end of the game, and they would have probably won 3-1 if they hadn't conceded that stupid penalty in added-on time.
I hope that won't trouble the Spanish too much, and that they will go through to the quarters, next week, like they deserve.
Highlights:
Manchester United v Athletic Bilbao by loopibtch
On the other hand, all United has to do to go through now is win 2-0 away, like they did against Ajax Amsterdam...
To conclude on a loosely-related funny note, check out the end of the clip to see Alex Ferguson in some real physical pain...
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Not Happy with Europa League
Supposedly, Alex Ferguson, the coach of Manchester United, referred to playing in the Europa League, after being ousted from the Champions League by Basel, as "a punishment".
Well, maybe they should have the option of withdrawing from the tournament.
I wouldn't mind being 100% sure that Man. U. is not going to win that trophy. (And I'm sure many others think the same way.)
If big teams like United, and maybe Porto, and Ajax, based on their performances, and so on, do not give a crap about playing in the second European competition, they should be allowed to give up their places. Why not?...
Pay attention, Platini!
Well, maybe they should have the option of withdrawing from the tournament.
I wouldn't mind being 100% sure that Man. U. is not going to win that trophy. (And I'm sure many others think the same way.)
If big teams like United, and maybe Porto, and Ajax, based on their performances, and so on, do not give a crap about playing in the second European competition, they should be allowed to give up their places. Why not?...
Pay attention, Platini!
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