Author Archives: 1960s: Days of Rage

About 1960s: Days of Rage

Bill Davis - 1960s: Days of Rage

Spain’s Liga, a Perilous Cauldron for Managers

“Outside of the glamour and the riches of both clubs in Madrid and F.C. Barcelona, managing in the Spanish league is about the struggle to survive. Late Saturday, after Valencia eked out a nervous 2-1 victory over Espanyol, the two head coaches — Valencia’s Gary Neville and Espanyol’s Constantin Galca — found one another on the sidelines. Their handshake turned briefly into a sympathetic embrace between opponents who are both fighting to keep their jobs — and to keep their teams in La Liga. As players, Neville, 40, and Galca, 43, appeared in over a thousand top-level games. They know what it is like to step out into Mestalla Stadium in Valencia, where little more than a decade ago, the roar of the home crowd could make the cavernous concrete bowl throb with excitement as fans cheered on a team that was among the best in Europe. The old stadium still is one of Spain’s most evocative venues, and the crowd still numbers about 50,000 per game.” NY Times

Youngest Bundesliga coach checks-in at Hoffenheim

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“Julian Nagelsmann, who has yet to pass his coaching qualifications, has become the youngest Bundesliga head coach in history, after the 28-year old replaced Huub Stevens at struggling Hoffenheim. Previously, the youngest coach in league history was Klaus-Dieter Ochs, who took over the coaching reins at Hamburger SV in 1970 at the age of 30. Nagelsmann, a youth coach at Hoffenheim, had agreed in October last year to take over the club next season, signing a three-year contract.” Bundesliga Fanatic

Mainz’s magical mystery ride continues against disappointing Schalke

“November 28th 2015. It was the last time the duo of Yoshinori Muto or Yunus Malli have scored for 7th place Mainz 05, which one would think would be a problem, seeing that they had combined for 15 of the teams 20 goals up to that point. Since then, Mainz have won 4 games and taken 13 points from 7 matches, scoring 7 goals while conceding 5. Five of those goals came courtesy of wingers Jairo Samperio and Christian Clemens (2 from the Spaniard and 1 from the German was enough to see off HSV in early December). The other two: Julian Baumgartlinger and Gaetan Bussmann both scored their first career Bundesliga goals this Friday night to defeat Schalke 04 2-1 in a wild game at the Coface Arena.” Bundesliga Fanatic (Video)

Piast Gliwice – Poland’s version of Leicester City, hoping to become unlikely champions

“We all love a good underdog story. It’s probably why we are all so encapsulated by Leicester City’s brilliant form in the Premiership. Things aren’t too dissimilar in the Ekstraklasa, Poland’s top flight division. An unsatisfactory start to the season by some of the big teams – namely Wisła Kraków & Lech Poznań – combined with an exuberant push from the smaller teams has paved the way for an unlikely leader at the top of the table during the Winter break – Piast Gliwice, who sit five points clear of 2nd placed Legia Warsaw.It all seems hard to believe for the minnows from Gliwice who have spent so many years in the depths of the Polish footballing pyramid.” backpagefootball

Arsenal must show they are not prisoners of Arsène Wenger’s stubbornness

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“Arsène Wenger is 66. He cannot go on forever. He has not won a league title for 12 years and while a championship would offer redemption of a kind, the second half of his reign is in danger of being regarded by history as a time of drift. Deep down, he must know, as everybody else does, that Arsenal may never get a better chance to win a league title than they have this season as rivals falter. Sunday could be decisive.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Crystal Palace – Mind Over Money

“Despite a fair degree of managerial upheaval, the 2014/15 season turned out just fine for Crystal Palace, as they finished in 10th place in the Premier League, an improvement from 11th the previous year. Tony Pulis unexpectedly resigned just two days before the first game and was replaced by Neil Warnock who returned to the club for a second spell as manager. This didn’t work out very well, so in early January the Eagles brought in former Palace player Alan Pardew, who guided the club to the upper half of the table.” The Swiss Ramble

Leicester City – the New Romantics?

“Romance died in the Premier League on Sunday 27th April 2014. That was the afternoon Liverpool rested on top of the division, needing only a point at home to Chelsea to keep the advances of Manchester City at bay. Fuelled by the passion of Steven Gerrard and the brilliance of Luis Suarez, Liverpool had surged ahead of the pack on the back of eleven straight victories. The Gods of Football had decided that Stevie G, Anfield legend, would have the fairytale ending to a career that had so far been missing a Premier League medal. Significantly too, this would come in the year and months of Hillsborough’s 25th anniversary. After two decades, the natural order of British football was to be restored. The pretenders to the throne had been swept aside one by one.” Football Pink

Leicester City keep getting better as Premier League title race heats up

“We should no longer be surprised by Leicester’s continued excellent form, but the manner with which they defeated previous title favourites Manchester City on Saturday was quite staggering. Having taken the lead following the game’s first significant incident, Leicester continued to counter-attack dangerously and only looked under serious pressure in the final 10 minutes, perhaps when they thought the game was already won. Is complacency really going to be the factor that allows other sides back into the title race?” ESPN – Michael Cox

Familiar Story for Thai Soccer as an Election Prompts ‘a Civil War’

“Surawut Maharom was looking stressed. His job had seemed simple when he had first arrived: to oversee an election on Thursday to choose a new president of the Football Association of Thailand. But nothing is simple when it comes to soccer in Thailand. ‘This is a civil war,’ Surawut said. ‘It’s the most difficult case that I’ve dealt with.’ In October, FIFA, global soccer’s governing body, dismissed the executive committee of the Thai soccer association after its president, Worawi Makudi, was suspended pending an ethics investigation.” NT Times

Scout Report: Moussa Dembele | French Striker lighting up the Championship

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“The last two seasons haven’t been very memorable for Fulham FC. They first got relegated from the Premier League after a 19th place finish, and their 13 year stay in the top flight was suddenly over. For a London based club like Fulham that has a fair amount of resources, relegation was an embarrassment. But then came last season, where they went from favorites to return to the Premier League, to being in the bottom half of the Championship all while losing wonder kid Patrick Roberts to Manchester City. Clearly Fulham haven’t had many positives in the last two years but there is positive that does surface from the pool of negativity: his name is Moussa Dembele and he is lighting up the Championship this season.” Outside of the Boot

Atlético Madrid Without the Ball

“The famous analyst Leo Tolstoy once eloquently stated ‘Every great attacking team is pretty much the same; every team that isn’t great at attacking is not-great in their own, unique way.’ Powerful and flowing words. Why is this? Mainly because our statistical understanding of soccer is mainly shaped by the team with the ball. We can measure most of what teams do with the ball and while 10 years from now we will look back on the rudimentary stats and conclusions we are reaching with amusement, we are least on a track that will lead us to a robust understanding of the game. When teams don’t have the ball we are still generally foraging in the dark. It’s not easy to get stats that correlate at even a .4 level while attacking stats correlate at .7 or more routinely. This makes not-great attacking teams often fuzzily look somewhat similar.” Stats Bomb

How will Pep Guardiola assess Manchester City’s current squad?

“Predicting Pep Guardiola’s assessment of Manchester City’s current squad is a trickier task than might be expected. Across his time in charge at Barcelona and Bayern Munich there are common themes and obvious concepts he insists upon — the simple concept of possession football being the most obvious example — but his favoured type of player has varied dramatically. It’s worth remembering, for example, that when Guardiola took charge of Bayern three years ago, the consensus was that he’d struggle to find a place for Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben — wingers rather than the wide forwards with whom he’d worked at Barcelona.” ESPN – Michael Cox

Leicester 2 Liverpool 0: In-Depth Tactical Analysis

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“With Leicester not having any major injuries and Liverpool rotating heavily for their FA Cup game, both teams’ starting XIs were predictable. There were no surprises in Ranieri’s or Klopp’s selection decisions. The Foxes continued with their regular starting XI with Okazaki once again preferred as Vardy’s support up front in their usual 4-4-2 formation. Meanwhile, the Reds welcomed back every player that was rested in the West Ham game on Saturday with Lovren keeping his place at centre-back to resume his partnership with Sakho. Interestingly, Klopp decided to go 4-2-3-1 but with Henderson on the right flank.” Tomkins Times

Jürgen Klopp – A cup final achieved, but how is he really doing?

“The arrival of Jürgen Klopp at Anfield sparked a frenzy of optimism amongst Liverpool fans with some even believing they could claim the title. A promising 0-0 draw in his first game in charge and impressive away wins against Manchester City, Chelsea and Southampton might have given reds fans fuel for the fire. Despite those impressive away wins, Liverpool have also registered some abysmal performances in the losses against Crystal Palace, West Ham and Watford and were second best against high-flying Leicester City on Tuesday night. All things considered, it is fair to say Liverpool still have a long way to go before being considered genuine title contenders.” backpagefootball

Foreign Players Rule: Discrimination in football?

“The club versus country debate has become a major discussion in modern football, and at the heart of the debate is foreign player rules. Foreign players generally increase the standard of clubs and the league as a whole, but reduce the number of domestic players receiving first-team football, potentially decreasing the quality of the national team. The vast majority of football leagues across the world limit the amount of foreign players allowed per club, with various rules from simple restrictions on numbers of non-domestic players to the Premier League’s home grown rule. But are these rules fair on the players? Are they even legal? Using my area of expertise, Mexico, as a base, I evaluate foreign player restrictions.” Outside of the Boot

Why FIFA should hit Mexico with harsher penalties for ‘puto’ chants

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“Two years later, FIFA has finally fined Mexico for fans chanting puto at games. I already explained back in 2014 why this term is offensive and heterosexist. Yes, lots of Mexico fans say they don’t mean it “that way,” but recall the early 1990s when Americans used the word ‘gay’ to mean ‘stupid’? Yeah, that was offensive. It still is. Puto is no different. The LGBTQ community in Mexico finds the term offensive, has made that point well known, and the so-called ‘tradition’ is less than two decades old. It needs to go and the time is ripe to make it happen. Still, one problem remains: FIFA’s impotency.” Fusion

Player Ratings: Chelsea 1-1 Man Utd: Diego Costa snatches a point in injury time

“It was a fixture that neither side could, in reality, afford to lose. Manchester United headed to Chelsea knowing a win was necessary if they were to keep touch with the top four in the Premier League. For the Blues losing this match could go far in undoing all the good work that had see last season’s league champions pull away from the relegation zone.” Squawka

Tactical Analysis: Napoli 5-1 Empoli | Pressing resistance and half space switches

“Sarri’s table-topping Napoli met his former side Empoli and throughout the match Sarri’s influence/signature was evident on both sides. Right from the kick off routine to the way they invited and manipulated pressure before using it to their advantage. This made for a highly intriguing encounter with Napoli eventually making their superiority count with a 5-1 win, as they restored their 2-point lead over Juventus in the process.” Outside of the Boot

Champions League title, or failure – Guardiola under pressure

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“Pep Guardiola has won the Bundesliga twice and the DFB-Pokal once. From Bayern’s point of view, it possible to think of the Bundesliga and the Pokal as useless. If you win the Bundesliga eight times in ten years, you would not be celebrating either. We all know what ambitions Pep Guardiola had when he came to Bayern. He wanted to infect Bayern with his football ideas, building his second Barcelona. Did he succeed? Partially, yes!” Bundesliga Fanatic

Pep Guardiola must realise Manchester City’s dream of joining the European elite
“For Manchester City, it feels as though the announcement that Pep Guardiola will take charge in the summer is the culmination of a four-year process. From the moment Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano arrived as director of football and chief executive respectively, their aim was to appoint the man with whom they had achieved such success at Barcelona.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Money League – Oh! You Pretty Things

“A couple of weeks ago Deloitte published the 19th edition of their annual Football Money League, which ranks leading clubs by revenue, this time for the 2014/15 season. On the face of it, little has changed compared to the previous year, as Real Madrid once again top the table for the 11th year in a row with annual revenue of €577 million (£439 million), and there are no new entrants in the top 10. However, there has been some movement with Barcelona (€561 million) overtaking both Manchester United (€520 million) and Bayern Munich (€474 million) to reclaim second place, as they became only the third club to break the €500 million revenue barrier.” The Swiss Ramble

The roots of Russian football racism – Part Two

“Slurping – the sound that suck calves make when you’re weaning them, or pigs at the trough, or Russians drinking hot tea. It isn’t racism from me, they don’t want to let the tea cool, or be ‘civilized’ and add milk. I was on a platzkart train from Voronezh to Moscow and my neighbours were all having breakfast and slurping tea. I’d fallen asleep just before midnight cheesed off. In the four bunk kupe next to mine a group of relatively well-heeled men and women in their mid-20’s were drinking tea and talking politics. They were liberal and very anti-Putin. Any other time I’d have an interest in their conversation, though when they kept commenting about a family from Tajikistan in the next kupe, I spoke out.” backpagefootball

Gary Neville: A Brit abroad in Valencia

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“It is fair to assume that a few eyebrows were raised when England coach Gary Neville was appointed Valencia manager until the end of the season. Yet there are many links that helped the joint Salford City owner and former Manchester United right-back seal his position. His brother, Phil, had been working as Assistant Manager for the Spanish giants since the summer and fellow Salford City owner, billionaire Peter Lim, also has a stake in Los Che. Gary Neville certainly knows his football.” Outside of the Boot

Tactical Analysis: Barcelona 2-1 Atletico Madrid | Red cards ruin epic tactical battle

“Barcelona took on Atletico Madrid at the Nou Camp in arguably one of the most important matches in La Liga this season. Heading into the match tied on points, both teams were looking to strengthen their title credentials.” Outside of the Boot

The Old School manager’s memoirs

“The era of the ‘celebrity gaffer’ is upon us. Mourinho out, Guardiola leaving, Simeone interested, Klopp on Merseyside, and football critics and fans following their every gesture. There’s a reason those four have won, or in Klopp’s case been minutes away from, the top prizes on the continent in the last ten years: they galvanise their players, create a winning mentality and attract the best talent to work under them.” Football Pink

Smaller clubs toppling Premier League elite – we may have to get used to it

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“It may simply be that this season is a freak. Leicester have 47 points after 23 games; not since 2002-03 have the leaders had fewer than 50 points at this stage. If teams keep winning points at the same rate as they have up till now, they will end up with 78, the lowest tally to win the title since Manchester United did it with 75 in 1996-97 when they effectively had the league sown up by the beginning of May and drew three games on the run-in, still finishing seven clear of Newcastle United in second.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Tactical Analysis: Monchengladbach 1-3 Dortmund | Effective counter attacks work for Dortmund

“In the return of the Bundesliga, Tuchel´s BVB gave dealt a severe blow to Borussia Mönchengladbach beating them as they did in the first round of the league, when they won 4-0. Although in this case the tactics and the circumstances were very different from that encounter.” Outside of the Boot

Fans’ Patience With Louis van Gaal at a Nadir

“By any measure, Manchester United is one of the four biggest soccer clubs in the world. Its wealth, tradition, stadium and future earning potential are all up there with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. But on the field, United is massively underachieving. Its team is out of the Champions League and drifting out of contention in the Premier League, where Leicester City, a low-budget club, still leads the standings with more than half the season gone. Bravo to Leicester, and shame on United.” NY Times

Tactical Analysis: Lyon 1-1 Marseille | Both teams can draw positives from stalemate

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“Billed in France as the “Olimpico” a meeting between Ligue 1’s best-supported team and its most successful over the last fifteen years would normally be a top-of-the-table clash. However, Sunday’s encounter between Marseille and Lyon was anything but. At the start of play, (and at the end of it) both teams were firmly ensconced in undistinguished seasons that, through a combination of injury and flawed transfer policies, had seen them fail to reach the heights that saw each spend long stretches of last season in first place. Both had already changed managers since the start of the campaign, and failed to impress either domestically or in Europe, even if Marseille had advanced from a weak group in the Europa League.” Outside of the Boot

Bob Bradley Climbs the Global Soccer Ladder With an Impediment: He’s American

“LE HAVRE, France — In the conference room of a smart hotel in the center of this port city, four Frenchmen were talking loudly over one another and gesticulating toward a flip chart in front of a row of empty chairs. Bob Bradley, the recently appointed coach of the city’s second-tier soccer team, Havre A.C. — more commonly known as Le HAC — sat nearby. Bradley was awaiting the arrival of his players for a team meeting before that evening’s league match against Paris F.C., the French capital’s second team. As the voices of his four assistant coaches rose, Bradley drew half a soccer field onto the flip chart — free hand, but with perfectly straight lines — before writing the names and numbers of his players and their possible opponents in different colored pens. He quietly checked the names and spellings with a translator.” NY Times

Tactical Analysis: Athletic Bilbao 5-2 Eibar | Bilbao blow away the 4-4-2

“Bilbao’s quest for the all important 4th spot had hit a brick wall over the past couple of weeks. While they suffered defeats to Sevilla and champions Barcelona, their opponents on the day – Eibar had impressively leapfrogged them and mounting their own charge for the final Champions league spot. Despite being relegated the last time they were in this division, Eibar have been impressive this season. Solid would be the more appropriate word. Borja Baston, the young striker on loan from Atletico has 14 Liga goals just two short of Cristiano Ronaldo while Escalante and Dani Garcia have formed a solid midfield base. Playing a 4-4-2 more often than not (due to the form of Borja Baston), they have excelled against similar opposition but struggled against top quality sides. Against Bilbao it proved no different.” Outside of the Boot

Technology in Football: Should a change be made?

“With another weekend of controversy surrounding refereeing performances, certain decisions made, mistakes by linesmen, mistakes that change a game, the question of what should be done about this lingers. More importantly the question of ‘Should a change be made?’ Now mistakes are part and parcel in football. Players, managers, officials, they all make mistakes regularly. But in this day and age, where the technology is available to aid officials, that question is always going to be raised. You only have to pick up a newspaper where it will show what the Premier League table would look like if you corrected officials’ mistakes.” Outside of the Boot

Bust and boom, Russian football style

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“This morning I grabbed a coffee with a friend who works with a national championship club here in Russia. In the luxurious surrounds of the McCafe near Kievskaya Station we discussed the impending doom in his club. We’d soldiered together in 2010/11 and, then, at just 25, he was ready for greater things. I recommended him to a position with a Moscow-based club and after only four months he was brought away to a National Championship club to work his magic there. As we drank our cappuccinos he began to tell about a coming bust.” backpagefootball

Tactical Analysis – Norwich City 4 Liverpool 5

“In what proved to be the craziest game of the season up to now, Norwich’s selection contributed with high level of peculiarity. Neil made four changes from the team that started their last game against Bournemouth, which looked nothing major, especially ast two of the players who started here were regulars (Dorrans and Redmond). Naismith starting this game also wasn’t a surprise given he’s already well accustomed to the demands of the league following his period at Everton. It was only the inclusion of new right-back Pinto that raised eyebrows, more so given Neil’s pre-game comments that he wouldn’t rush to play his overseas signings so soon after joining the club.” Tomkins Times

Italy’s Latast Golden Boy

“The province of Varese is far to the north of Italy, almost a part of Switzerland, a narrow corridor of land sandwiched between Lake Como and Lake Maggiore. In the small town of Leggiuno on November 7, 1944, there was born in this district Italy’s current footballing idol, Luigi Riva. You don’t get close to appreciating Riva’s personality unless you see it in this context – the context of a country boy, one orphaned at an early age, who still prefers to spend a part of each summer close-season in the province of Varese indulging in a spot of quiet fishing, and visiting friends made in his youthful years on a thoroughly informal basis.” In Bed With Maradona

Top South American clubs launch Liga Sudamericana to challenge disgraced CONMEBOL

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“Last week, 15 of South America’s top soccer clubs got together in Montevideo, Uruguay, and decided to create an organization named Liga Sudamericana, or the ‘South American League’ (as in ‘League of Nations,’ not ‘Premier League’). And even though the organization has no clear leadership yet, it does have a clear purpose: to shift the power balance from CONMEBOL, the South American confederation, to clubs looking to depend less and less on the discredited continental confederation for their earnings.” Fusion

Ciao! Italia 90

“The coordinated effort to develop of a coherent visual identity for the Italian World Cup. ‘A three-dimensionally accessible idea, future technological games, televised images, consumerism’. These are the words of Lucio Boscardin – author of the lanky Ciao! mascot – which appear on the pages of Epoca in November 1986, the day following the unveiling of the visual identity of the Italia 90 football World Cup, crystallising the visionary spirit of his project. After all, concepts such as ‘future’ and ‘technology’ would become recurring themes in the artistic project behind a tournament which aimed to renovate Italy’s image, distancing the ‘bel paese’ from its inalienable provincialisms and stereotypes.” Copa90

Around Europe: Mourinho looms over Man United; Argentine attackers star

“As the transfer window gets set to shut and teams in Europe’s top leagues take stock of where they stand, significant developments continued to unfold around the continent. Arsenal, down to 10 men, lost ground in the title race after a London derby defeat, while Manchester United also slipped again at home in the Premier League. Real Madrid dropped its first points under Zinedine Zidane, while Pep Guardiola is facing another injury-induced challenge at Bayern Munich. Two Argentine strikers are fighting it out for top honors in Italy, while in France, the title race is over already. Here is what caught our eye Around Europe this week.” SI

Garth Crooks’ team of the week: Alli, Firmino, Payet

“Behind them, heavyweights Manchester City and Arsenal both slipped up in their pursuit, with Tottenham gaining ground on the duo with a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace. Manchester United are now five points shy of fourth spot following their home defeat by Southampton. But who were the outstanding performers? Here are my selections…” BBC

Analysis: The genius of Lionel Messi | Offensive Pressing Traps, La Pausa and more

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“The 2014/15 season was one with many fine performances, some examples worth mentioning are: Juventus, Sampaoli’s Chile who won the Copa America for the first time ever and of course the ’tripleta’ season of FC Barcelona. If there is someone to praise except the fantastic attacking-trio of Barcelona, it is coach Luis Enrique. He has fine-tuned the system of Barcelona, especially the way the midfielders now work in order to open up space for the talented strikers to work in, compared to Guardiola’s system, where the wingers were much more wing-oriented, which was even mentioned by Thierry Henry here.” Outside of the Boot

Sharing a Name With Barcelona, if Not Its Fortunes

“In his sparsely decorated corner office overlooking the field at Estadio Monumental, Juan Alfredo Cuentas sought to explain the power of the brand he has inherited as Barcelona Sporting Club’s new vice president for finance. Outside, the once-manicured grass lay vacant for the off-season, slowly spoiling in the January heat. … For most soccer fans around the globe, the name Barcelona is synonymous with the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez; huge financial resources; and Champions League triumphs that have often made Spain the king of the sport. But in Ecuador, the name Barcelona is usually associated with the 90-year-old soccer club founded here in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city. The two teams are very different, of course, but in at least a few ways they are alike.” NY Times

Tactical Analysis – Liverpool 0 Man Utd 1

“Neither manager made any selection surprises. Van Gaal fielded an unchanged starting XI, the only tweak being that Martial and Lingard swapped places down the flanks with the former now on the left and the latter back to the right (against Newcastle it was the other way around). Klopp made one change to his line up but it was hugely influential, as it brought about several other changes to how Liverpool played. With Lucas coming in for Ibe from the previous striker-less 4-2-3-1 formation, the Reds were now in a striker-less 4-1-2-3; instead of having both the wide men high and narrow, here Lallana and Milner were deeper and narrower.” Tomkins Times

Even after José Mourinho’s exit Chelsea’s numbers are not looking good

“The good news for Chelsea is that they are unbeaten since Guus Hiddink replaced José Mourinho as manager in December. The bad news is that 10 points from six league games is probably not a start that is going to close the gap on the top four – which stands at 14 points. The FA Cup remains a possibility but, unless Chelsea somehow win the Champions League, a change of manager alone will not have been enough to salvage the season.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Chelsea – Accidents Will Happen

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“After such a successful 2014/15 when they won the Premier League and Capital One Cup, very few people would have expected Chelsea to fall off the rails so spectacularly this season. However, a combination of key players losing form and manager José Mourinho struggling to find a solution, not to mention the distasteful Eva Carneiro episode, led to a string of defeats and ultimately the departure of the ‘Special One’.” The Swiss Ramble

Tactical Analysis: Chelsea 3-3 Everton | Poor defensive structure and offside trap

“Chelsea and Everton met on Saturday at Stamford Bridge, both needing a win. Since Guus Hiddink replaced Jose Mourinho in December, Chelsea hadn’t lost a game, but had only picked up 1 win in 4. Everton, meanwhile, had also failed to win in that period, drawing with both Tottenham and City. Both Hiddink and Roberto Martinez wanted a win to placate fans and get their top four challenges back on track.” Outside of the Boot

Everton: Where Is The Luck?

“With plenty of attacking thrills in the shape of Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley and Gerard Deulofeu, it is easy to see why people have warmed to Everton this season. However, this bed of attacking roses has found its beauty tempered by a proliferation of defensive brambles. For every sublime Deulofeu cross bouncing invitingly onto the fringe of the six yard box, we find John Stones mysteriously alongside Barkley somewhere in central midfield with the team out of possession. We see Lukaku arriving a yard from goal with the trajectory and velocity expected from a turnbuckle dismount while Gareth Barry attempts to direct the chaos around him from the age-enforced position of a sentry.” Stats Bomb

Norwich City: Will the Canaries be flying above the relegation zone in May?

“If you had offered Alex Neil 15th place and a spot six points above the relegation zone at the midway point in the season back in August, I am sure he would have grateful received it. The Scotsman rejuvenated the Canaries when he arrived in January, leading the East Anglia side to promotion from the Championship with an unbeaten record on the road. He looked to continue with the same attacking and creative brand of football in the Premier League, but the former Hamilton Academical manager has realised the need to adapt to the unforgiving nature of the English top flight.” Outside of the Boot

BFC Berlin at 50: The Team Everyone Loved To Hate

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“The 50th birthday of any football club is an occasion to celebrate, but the festivities on Friday 15th January of the former East Germany’s most successful club side will stir up mixed emotions for fans from a bygone era. Formed in 1966, Berliner FC Dynamo became the GDR’s premier club side racking up ten successive league titles between 1979 and 1988. Their coach during that period, Jürgen Bogs, can point to a record which under most normal circumstances would place him as one of the most successful coaches in European football with a CV that would stand up against more recognisable names.” Bundesliga Fanatic

CONMEBOL’s ills curtailed Pele’s global appeal

“It can surely be seen as a consequence of the FIFA-Gate scandal, of which South America was the epicentre. The arrest or indictment of so many football fat cats has obviously weakened the power structure – which in turn has emboldened the clubs. In Ecuador, for example, the clubs look set to take over the running of the local championship from the federation – a project that long-term FA president Luis Chiriboga said he would bury. Instead, with Chiriboga one of the names on the list of those indicted, there has been a change of power at the top and the clubs have come out fighting. The meeting of the 15 clubs, with talk of setting up an association, is a similar thing happening on a continental scale.” The World Game – Tim Vickery

The Question: Klopp v Van Gaal … has Manchester United’s manager been left behind?

“Jürgen Klopp had warned us what we should expect. As he charged down the touchline on Wednesday evening punching the air and shouting amid the snowflakes after Joe Allen’s late equaliser against Arsenal, he was perhaps not merely saluting a hard-earned point but relishing a game that fulfilled his ideal of what football – and specifically English football – should be.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

The grass isn’t always greener on the other pitch

“Why do football fans wish to ground-hop and tick experiences and stadiums off their bucket list? Some people just wish to experience as much as possible whilst they are physically and financially able, or whilst the credit card still has some life in it. Others may be looking elsewhere upon becoming disillusioned with the state of football in their country. For me, it was a little of both. What I found in South America, and Argentina in particular, was that whilst there are fascinating aspects to their game, it is not the utopia it appears to be and is not without its problems. A little like in England. What makes the game great in one country may also be the source of its problems, and vice-versa.” Football Pink

Five players who could leave Manchester City in the summer

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“Manchester City’s squad is expected to undergo an overhaul this coming offseason if Pep Guardiola succeeds Manual Pellegrini as manager. There has already been talk around who the Spaniard would bring to the Premier League with him and that will of course lead to exits from the Etihad Stadium.” backpagefootball

Tactical Analysis: Sevilla 2-0 Athletic Bilbao | Athletic dealt knockout blow by hardworking Sevilla

“Sevilla took on an impressive Athletic side in a potential six pointer in La Liga. With just 2 points between them and fourth place up for grabs, a tense encounter awaited. Athletic came into the game on an impressive run of form having just lost 2 in the last 10 games, one of which was against current leaders Atletico. Having defeated Villarreal (currently 5 points clear in 4th place) in the Copa del Rey, facing a team like Sevilla who are considered in the same bracket as them came at the right time.” Outside of the Boot

Wayne Rooney to Pele: Weird & wonderful goal records

“Wayne Rooney has set so many landmarks that he could almost have an entire episode of Record Breakers dedicated to him. The Manchester United striker passed another one by scoring Sunday’s winner at Liverpool, overtaking Arsenal’s Thierry Henry as the scorer of the most goals for a single club in Premier League history. Rooney, 30, rifled in his 176th league goal for the Red Devils since arriving from Everton in 2004. Here, we take a look at some other weird and wonderful goalscoring records.” BBC

World Cup 2018 – peace at last

“Amid the dying embers of 2015 there was a spark which spoke volumes about the nature of football and politics, which are always one and the same. And it all revolved around the fallout from the bids for World Cup 2018. In Russia, as we know, all football clubs are political vehicles. They are backed by local cities/regions, or by politicians/businessmen, bar one exception.” backpagefootball

Ratings – Liverpool 3-3 Arsenal: Giroud & Firmino shine in Anfield thriller

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“Liverpool and Arsenal shared the spoils in a six-goal thriller that saw Joe Allen as the unlikely hero behind his side’s late equaliser. The hosts were six points off the top four going into this fixture and while they may not have made the head-way they would have liked by sharing the points on the night, they did at least help to produce a game worthy of being played under the famous mid-week floodlights of Anfield.” Squawka

FA Cup’s declining status to continue in modern Premier League world

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“As the cliché goes, the third round of the FA Cup is the most romantic weekend of the season; but it’s some time since the cliché has been true. Instead, a new tradition has sprung up, that of bemoaning the FA Cup’s declining status. The first week of January is now when English football gets together and makes some half-baked suggestions about how to restore the competition’s relevance. It seems bizarre now that the FA Cup was until the late 1980s the premier competition of English football.” SI – Jonathan Wilson

Real Madrid looks rejuvenated as Zidane wins first game in charge

“Zinedine Zidane wore the number five shirt during his time as an iconic player at Real Madrid, so it was somehow fitting that Real Madrid beat Deportivo La Coruna 5-0 on his coaching debut Saturday night. This was a first game that even the Frenchman could not have imagined, with two early goals settling the nerves and a last-minute Karim Benzema strike that underlined a huge improvement in performance, attitude and atmosphere.” SI

Tactical Analysis: Sevilla 2-0 Athletic Bilbao| Athletic dealt knockout blow by hardworking Sevilla

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“Sevilla took on an impressive Athletic side in a potential six pointer in La Liga. With just 2 points between them and fourth place up for grabs, a tense encounter awaited. Athletic came into the game on an impressive run of form having just lost 2 in the last 10 games, one of which was against current leaders Atletico. Having defeated Villarreal (currently 5 points clear in 4th place) in the Copa del Rey, facing a team like Sevilla who are considered in the same bracket as them came at the right time.” Outside of the Boot

How Bad Are Aston Villa?

“Coming into this season I was somewhat bullish on Aston Villa. Okay that’s not quite true but I thought they’d at least be semi-competent. Admittedly, some of this was colored by the fact that Villa bought four Ligue 1 players in the summer and I liked three and a half of them (the half being Jordan Ayew). I loved the Jordan Amavi signing and thought that he’d do good things at LB, Idrissa Gueye knows who he is as a CM and Veretout produced interesting playmaking numbers at a young age even though he mixed it up between playing CM and as a #10. I had my issues with Ayew because I thought he was inefficient when on the ball, but overall I thought Villa did well with their French recruitment.” Stats Bomb

The Argument: Is There Too Much Football on TV?

“When did being a football fan start to feel like such hard work? It’s not that there’s more football in the world than there used to be. What’s changed is the availability and exposure of it all. Anybody with the right sort of television package, mobile phone contract or internet connection should never go more than 24 hours without a game to watch. Live football dominates the sports channels’ schedules throughout the weekend, from Friday evening to Sunday night and into Monday. Then the Champions League and Europa League pick up the slack between Tuesday and Thursday along with cup ties, replays, and seemingly endless midweek rounds in the Championship.” thetwounfortunates