Massimiliano Allegri
“‘Chaos in Milan. It’s never this bad!’ cried the front page of Corriere dello Sport last Monday, reacting to seeing the city’s two clubs both lose the previous weekend. Indeed, before Milan’s midweek win over Cagliari, the pair had combined to take just three points from seven home matches following three draws and four losses, with Milan themselves having already lost three league games this term.” ESPN
“Bayern Munich has long prided itself on its youth development, and with some justification: half of the first-team regulars that made it to the Champions League final in May came through the club’s academy system. But they don’t always get it right in Bavaria.” SI
“Edinson Cavani hit a hattrick – and missed a penalty – as Napoli stormed to victory. Walter Mazzarri started Alessandro Gamberini rather than Salvatore Aronica in defence and Valon Behrami ahead of Blerim Dzemaili in midfield. Vladimir Petkovic moved back to his 4-1-4-1 / 4-3-3 after an unsuccessful experimentation with 4-4-2 against Genoa, with Miroslav Klose returning upfront, Stefano Mauri moved inside and Senad Lulic out on the left. Despite Klose’s early disallowed goal (struck off because he admitted punching the ball into the net), this was a fairly simple game. Napoli were more forceful, energetic and direct than Lazio – they won the battle in the midfield and counter-attacked swiftly.” Zonal Marking
“Luis Suarez scored his second hat trick at Carrow Road in the space of five months as Liverpool crushed a sorry Norwich 5-2 to record its first Barclays Premier League win under Brendan Rodgers. Suarez scored a memorable treble on his last visit to Carrow in April and he took just 67 seconds to open his account in Norfolk this season, scoring from the edge of the box to make it 1-0. He then capitalized on a terrible mistake by Michael Turner to make it 2-0 before laying on Nuri Sahin, who made it 3-0 just after the break.” ESPN
Charlie Adam
“At Stamford Bridge last season, Charlie Adam appeared to have become a proper Liverpool player, as Kenny Dalglish’s side recorded a fine 2-1 victory over the eventual European Champions. The Scot played a crucial role in both goals. First, he energetically closed down Jon Obi Mikel as AVB-led Chelsea tried to pass out from defence, won the ball, and prompted a rapid Liverpool passing sequence leading to Maxi Rodriguez’s cool finish. His contribution for the winner was even better — a 50-yard pass out to Glen Johnson, who had stormed forward from right back to slide in a late winner.” ESPN – Michael Cox
“Everton goes into this weekend in third place in the Premier League (ahead of West Bromwich Albion on goal difference!) and playing some of the nicest soccer around. Does David Moyes not know it is still only September? It’s been five years since his side had 10 points from the opening five games, with Everton renowned for split seasons that start badly and end well since at least 2005-06, when the Toffees lost the first three European fixtures and the domestic ties that followed them. It took an injury-time winner from Tim Cahill against Sunderland (and against the run of play) on New Year’s Eve to turn a tide that threatened to carry the club to the second tier.” SI
“Modern football, has it’s foundations laid upon the ‘false’ tactics – so to say the ‘False 10′ and the more popular and widely accepted ‘False 9.’ The present era is a period of sustained innovation, where new formations, different chalkboards and novel setups come up to the fore every day. But the setup which I am going to talk about is the 1-2-3-4. Yes, you don’t need to rub your eyes and read again. It’s called ‘Inverting the Pyramid’ – Why?” The False 9
Scissors Kick 