Category Archives: FC Liverpool

Tactical fouling is spoiling football – time for the rulemakers to stamp it out

“Football is often considered conservative with its rule changes, but in recent decades there have been various subtle but crucial alterations to the Laws of the Game, which are often overlooked. The back-pass law in the early 1990s, for example, forced goalkeepers and defenders to become more technically skilled, encouraging passing football. Stricter tackling laws, meanwhile, protected attackers from brutal challenges. …” ESPN – Michael Cox

Pochettino puts team before individuals in Tottenham’s tenacious attack

“‘It is an art in itself to compose a starting team,’ the legendary pioneer of Total Football, Rinus Michels, once said. ‘Finding the balance between creative players and those with destructive powers — and between defence, construction and attack.’ Michels mastered the art and the process of building a great team rather than simply gathering great individuals. It remains the most fundamental test of managerial quality. …” ESPN – Michael Cox (Video), Spurs have done everything right: if they cannot succeed, who can? Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Check their DMs: Fernandinho, Matic, and others key to a manager’s tactics

“Throughout the Premier League era, English football has never entirely embraced the defensive midfielder. In fact, the very concept has routinely prompted dissent from English fans. Traditionally, the English game has produced plenty of box-to-box midfielders and the natural urge was therefore to field two players in that mould together. David Batty’s outstanding performances for Leeds, Blackburn and Newcastle sides were often overlooked, as was Michael Carrick’s excellent work for Manchester United. Those two represented what managers wanted from defensive midfielders in the late 1990s, and late 2000s respectively. But how about the late 2010s? …” ESPN – Michael Cox (Video)

Raheem Sterling Proves That Everything You Know About Goal-Scoring Is Wrong

“Raheem Sterling has scored 14 goals in the Premier League this season for Manchester City, putting him right in the thick of the competition’s Golden Boot race, along with the likes of Tottenham’s Harry Kane, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, and his teammate, Sergio Aguero. Of the 23-year-old Englishman’s haul, 13 have come inside the box, five of which were inside the 6-yard area. Five goals have come after the 80th minute of a match, helping Pep Guardiola’s side secure vital points on their journey to utter domination in his second season in England. And yet, there is a conundrum about Sterling’s reputation as a goal scorer: A popular opinion persists that he’s, well, just bad at shooting. …” The Ringer (Video)

Spontaneity and excitement are being eroded in increasingly Big Six-dominated Premier League

“When Leicester City won the Premier League two years ago it felt like a watershed moment. In a division where the gulf between the haves and have-nots had never been greater, the 5,000/1 outsiders Leicester had pulled off arguably the greatest ever upset in English football history. …” Telegraph

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Huddersfield Town’s Terence Kongolo, left, gets stuck in during the Terriers’ Third Round FA Cup match against Bolton Wanderers.
“… 10) A happy Monday for post-Hughes Stoke? Like the revolution, the first match of Stoke’s post-Mark Hughes era will be televised, as they travel to Manchester United on Monday night. At the time of writing, the identity of Hughes’ replacement is yet to be confirmed, but whoever is in charge for this match, it constitutes something of a free swing for a team in the relegation zone but far from doomed. Given the likelihood of a new manager bounce (or perhaps more pertinently, the old manager’s absence) and the fact Stoke are unbeaten in eight Monday night Premier League matches, it would not be a huge surprise to see the Potters emerge with a point. …” Guardian

Measuring Changes In Attacking Style In The Premier League

“Back in November we applied a clustering algorithm to find out which Premier League clubs had similar attacking styles. We wanted to see what we could find using match summary stats that anyone with an internet connection could get hold of. Our main rule was that we wanted to avoid using pure outcome stats, e.g. shots on target, completed passes, completed crosses, goals, assists etc. We thought we’d run the risk of just clustering teams together on how good/lucky they’d been so far. We didn’t use anything too fancy, just per game stats based on the way teams attempt to attack; shots from outside the box, inside the box, open play, set pieces, short passes, long passes, dribbles, crosses and how much they use the wide areas when they attack. …” StatsBomb

In a Top-Heavy Premier League, More Teams Rush to the Bunker

“LIVERPOOL, England — There was a moment, a few minutes into the second half, that encapsulated it all. Not just this game and these teams, but what the Premier League has been this season, and what it might become. A Manchester United attack had just broken down, and Everton’s defense had cleared the ball. Phil Jones, United’s central defender, collected the ball deep inside his own half. Oumar Niasse, Everton’s hardworking forward, chased him down. Jones hurried a pass to his teammate Marcos Rojo, whose touch was not entirely clean. The boisterous Goodison Park crowd, scenting weakness, stirred. …” NY Times

Arsène Wenger’s efforts to counter the counter cause Arsenal confusion

“Three weeks ago, before Arsenal lost to Manchester United, Arsène Wenger suggested playing a back three had helped his side combat the counterattack which, of all their many weaknesses over the past decade, has probably been their biggest. It was a claim that prodded interest at the time and has become more intriguing only in the days since. The truth of it will be severely tested on Friday as Arsenal face Liverpool who at the moment are one of the most dangerous counterattacking sides in the world. …” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

The Three Epic, Early Champions League Showdowns

“The draw for the Champions League round of 16 is set, and even though the first games will not be played for two months, we already know that at least one true European power will be eliminated before the quarterfinals kick off, and a couple more elite clubs could be in trouble. This is because the Champions League draw pitted some of the best teams in the world against each other in early clashes. According to Soccer Power Index, six of the nine best teams to make the knockouts have been drawn against each other. These three matchups — each of which consists of two games, one at each club’s home grounds — should give the Round of 16 a new level of drama. … ” fivethirtyeight, NY Times: Real-P.S.G. and Barcelona-Chelsea in the Champions League, YouTube: The Three Epic, Early Champions League Showdowns

Liverpool 0 West Brom 0: Jurgen Klopp’s side fire blanks after Dominic Solanke ‘goal’ is cancelled out

“The full-time march from the touchline to referee is becoming frustratingly familiar to Jurgen Klopp. If a contentious penalty decision irked him after Sunday’s Merseyside derby, a handball ruling to deny Dominic Solanke his first Liverpool goal left him cursing another home draw. It is difficult to know who had most trepidation at the final whistle at Anfield: referee Paul Tierney as the Liverpool manager sought his attention; or TV interviewers seeking Klopp’s assessment. In fairness to West Bromwich Albion, they were deserving of their point and would have been considered unlucky had Solanke’s 83rd- minute strike stood. …” Telegraph

Is José Mourinho’s negativity a product of his failure to make it as a player?

“It is a sad indication of the recent state of Liverpool that over the past couple of weeks they have seemed more significant as a test case for others than in and of themselves. José Mourinho took his Manchester United side to Anfield and, as he waited and waited and waited for the game “to break”, the watching world waited and waited and waited for something vaguely resembling action to break out. It didn’t and the game finished 0-0. Given Liverpool’s vulnerabilities and given Manchester City’s remarkable form, that felt even at the time like two points needlessly squandered. …” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Tottenham show José Mourinho how counter-attacking game should work

“Mauricio Pochettino had promised further surprises after his deployment of a 5-3-2 against Real Madrid, but perhaps the biggest surprise was that he kept the shape the same. There were other unusual aspects to the win – Tottenham Hotspur had not been ahead against Liverpool since March 2013, Harry Kane had not previously scored a league goal at Wembley and Spurs, at last, looked at ease in their new home – but none of those particularly came as a shock. Neither, in truth, did Liverpool’s defending. Two goals were conceded to simple balls in behind them, at least two more could have been, and two other goals came from the thoroughly predictable source of half-cleared set-plays. …” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Jürgen Klopp eases Liverpool’s pressing game in the search for solidity

“It is not something you often have to consider but what if José Mourinho was right? What if, on Saturday, there was for once no bluff or manipulation, no attempt to provoke or deflect attention: what if the analysis he gave of Manchester United’s 0-0 draw at Liverpool was straightforward and correct? …” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Tactical Analysis: Spartak Moscow 1-1 Liverpool | Klopp’s fluid side held

“Spartak Moscow headed into the match with a lot of injury trouble. Quincy Promes – arguably their best attacker – was confirmed to be unavailable just days before the match. Before the Dutch, Roman Zobnin, Denis Glushakov – the captain -, and Ze Luis had been also confirmed to be out. The injury record and the fact that Spartak are currently ranked 8th, raised the pressure bar on Massimo Carrera. So, the match against Liverpool, for sure, was a real test for Carrera and his troops. …” Outside of the Boot

Parking The Coach: Liverpool & The Anfield Boot Room

“For more than a quarter of the Twentieth Century, English football was dominated by a new way of thinking. A Socialist revolution that inspired dedication, simplicity and some of the most breathtakingly brilliant, instinctive and organic football that Europe had ever seen. This side were not halted by changes in playing staff, nor managerial switches. On four occasions the reins would change hands without so much as a blip or interruption to their accumulation of titles, accolades and awards. It was a system so holistic, so deceptively simple and enduring, that every rival club studiously ignored it with flying colours. Eventually, the club that had incubated this philosophy also disavowed it. They haven’t won a league title since. …” twohundredpercent

Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ fail in first attempt to increase their TV share

There has been a plot by Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Man City to grab more of the Premier League’s television billions
“The row over a plot by Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City to grab more of the Premier League’s television billions intensified after their rivals rejected an offer to resolve the dispute. A secret meeting of the other 14 top-flight clubs discussed a proposal put forward by the league to change how its overseas rights revenue is allocated following mounting pressure from the so-called ‘Big Six’ for them to be awarded a larger share of the cash. …” Telegraph

A Banquet Without Wine by Anthony Stanley

“… If you thought there was enough material there for a book, well we did too. And quite a few subscribers also suggested it would be a good idea. So we decided to turn it into one. A Banquet Without Wine traces a quarter of a century of an almost unremitting series of highs and lows for Liverpool FC. It encompasses the people – players, managers and owners – the games, the trophies and agonising near-misses, a court case and near-administration, a miracle in Istanbul and much more. …” Tomkins Times, amazon

Leeds United: Are Championship leaders finally set for Premier League return?

“As Leeds United’s supporters celebrated at the traditional gathering place of The Old Peacock just a short walk from Elland Road, one of English football’s institutions had taken another small step on the long road to recovery. A 3-2 win over Ipswich – a game almost designed to play on nerves frayed by 15 years of trauma – kept Leeds top of the Championship on goal difference going into Tuesday’s game at third-placed Cardiff.” BBC

Pressing is the Premier League’s big trend, but it’s not without its problems

“If Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool win the Premier League title this season, we might look back upon Monday’s 1-0 victory over Everton as among their most significant triumphs. It was a classic ‘the mark of champions’ win: an away trip to local rivals, a poor game, a below-par performance and a late winner. Liverpool supporters haven’t celebrated so hard for years. For neutrals who anticipated a good game at Goodison Park, however, Monday was a damp squib.” ESPN – Michael Cox

Global Series | Top 10 European Players of 2015: Busquets, Kane and De Bruyne feature

“… 2. IVAN RAKITIC Rakitic 2016The Croatian superstar has had a super debut season at the Camp Nou. During his initial days, there was a bit of disbelief that confronted the notion that either Xavi or Iniesta would have to sit out matches to accommodate Rakitic. All of this died down very soon, as Rakitic let his feet do the talking. While he isn’t the most prolific in front of goal, he doesn’t really need to be, and he does the job of keeping the likes of Messi, Neymar and Suarez well fed very efficiently.” Outside of the Boot

Manchester City bounce back to leave Wenger fuming – Football Weekly

“It must be (nearly) Christmas, because on today’s Football Weekly, my true love sent to me AC Jimbo, Barry Glendenning, Paolo Bandini, and Barney Bloody Ronay! … We then brush aside the Premier League and turn our attention to Italy, where Juventus saw off Roma in a top o’ the table Serie A clash. Finally, we hear from our long lost pal Sid Lowe about Real Madrid’s victory in the World Club Cup final and the state of play in La Liga, which has downed tools until the new year. Rafa Honigstein will be with us for Thursday’s show, so if you have a question for the World’s Greatest Bavarian, post it on the blog below.” Guardian (Video)

Tactical Analysis: Liverpool 2-0 Sunderland | Liverpool’s gegenpressing and its importance

“Klopp’s Liverpool faced Moyes’ Sunderland in a game where Liverpool really needed the three points, partly to get up on their feet again after the dropped points against Southampton, but above all to stay close to City and Chelsea at the top. Sunderland on the other hand, wanted to continue their upturn in form after their last two wins, and get out of the relegation zone.” Outside of the Boot

Team Comparisons: Good (and Bad) in the Premier League

“Twelve games have passed in the Premier League and there’s value in looking at comparative historical numbers at various points. It’s a good time to take stock because a) it’s starting to become a vaguely decent sample and b) I have a load of numbers stored at twelve games because i’ve written this before. This is the eighth season of Opta data that has been published publicly around the place and with every season that passes, the more interesting the outliers become.” Stats Bomb

Brendan Rodgers, the beauty of 3-4-2-1 and its potency as a tactical weapon

“In a modern world in which style so often matters more than substance – and at times neither seems to matter much at all – moments of significance can be lost amid the swirl. It’s easy to dismiss Brendan Rodgers’ last full season at Liverpool: the ineffectiveness of Mario Balotelli, the falling out with Raheem Sterling, the final-day humiliation at Stoke … and yet it also included a nugget of genuine tactical innovation. It’s not to say that Antonio Conte, Pep Guardiola or Serbia’s Slavoljub Muslin have copied Rodgers or have in any way learned directly from him to point out that all have, this season, employed some of his model with success – and Rodgers, it might also be pointed out, was inspired by Paulo Sousa.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

The Question: what is a centre-forward?

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“hat is a centre-forward? It is a question that is far harder to answer now than it used to be. The suggestion that Pep Guardiola may not be entirely happy with Sergio Agüero seemed at first bizarre. How, realistically, could a player of his ability, his goalscoring capacity – 109 league goals in five seasons at City, despite injuries – be doubted? For a modern striker, though, goals are only part of it.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Flashbacks To Vietnam and Bad LSD, Via Selhurst Park

“The first half of Liverpool’s latest stirring victory was like a bad acid trip I took after returning from Vietnam in 1969, two years before I was even born. Everything went fuzzy and there was some Doors music playing, possibly at half-speed. Every time Palace went forward it was like someone else’s life – indeed, the lives of lots of people – flashed before my eyes, all amidst vague shouts of ‘Tomkins, you fucked up there! You lost your man…’.” Tomkins Times

Jürgen Klopp teaches Liverpool the art of filling space dynamically

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“Liverpool remain a work in progress but it’s coming together promisingly. During Jürgen Klopp’s first campaign at Anfield the players adapted quickly to his high-energy, heavy-pressing system and regularly disrupted the opposition’s passing but they only sporadically formulated quick, incisive attacking moves themselves.” Guardian – Michael Cox, Michael Cox

Change Is Coming at Arsenal, but Is It Enough to Make the Difference?

“Five teams at the top of the Premier League, divided by a single point. Even their goal difference varies by only two. Yet it’s impossible not to view all five teams differently, in part because of the fixture list and in part because past performance inevitably affects how we view the present.” bleacher report

Tactical Analysis: Liverpool 0-0 Manchester United | Mourinho successfully stifles Klopp

“In one of the most anticipated Monday Night Football games in years, José Mourinho reminded his critics of his managerial capabilities with an outstanding, if ugly, defensive performance at Anfield. Limiting a Liverpool side that had scored 28 goals in their last 11 home league matches to just three shots on target was no easy task, even if there was arguably justifiable criticism over Mourinho’s unwillingness to play a more expansive, attacking game.” Outside of the Boot

Premier League stats: Which player has gone 1,241 days without starting in a win?

“One player’s unwanted record of failing to win a game when in the starting XI now stands at 1,241 days, while Nathan Redmond and Gary Cahill prevented an unwanted first for English players in the Premier League. Here, we take a look at some of the most interesting stats from the weekend.” BBC

Why the Premier League is the reason for England’s international struggles

“The mere appointment of an Eddie Howe, Jurgen Klinsmann or anyone else as the England manager would never be enough to seek solutions for the state of the English national side. The problems are more deeply rooted than some conceive. Selecting Michael Keane or bringing in a fresh approach to the side and changing the way the team plays won’t transform the whole scenario of the situation.” backpagefootball

Jürgen Klopp, José Mourinho and the cultivation of liderazgo

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“José Mourinho is only four years older than Jürgen Klopp but in football terms it can feel as though there is a lifetime between them. In part it is an issue of tactics: the hard, high press of which Klopp is such a devotee is modish. When Liverpool and Manchester City went to Tottenham this season and engaged in breathless, percussive styles, it felt like the football of today, the freshest ideas being pitched against each other. Mourinho’s style is more conventional.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Klopp and Liverpool – Sowing the Seeds of Something Special?

“During the summer I noted on this site that, excluding the first couple of months of following his arrival, almost every time Jürgen Klopp fielded a strong team in his partial debut season he got a performance (and usually a win). The immediate form after he took over was very mixed – in part due to fitness issues, and tactical misunderstandings – but the later form was almost always excellent, except when he had to resort to weaker line-ups to balance the insane number of games.” Tomkins Times

StatsBomb: Premier League Round Up, Week 4

“We’re four games in and have a little more to chew on. Statistical categories are a fair way off providing strong answers and schedules are masking plenty of truths but the hints are getting stronger and even at this early juncture the new order is starting to look a hell of a lot like the old order, or at least the order we used to know before all the cards got thrown up in the air last season. Let’s have a quick spin around the league and see what we can pick up.” Stats Bomb

Klopp’s less is more gamble could leave Liverpool struggling for goals

“The first three fixtures of this season’s Premier League exist almost in a form of purgatory. Interrupted by the international break they fail to build any momentum, whilst at the same time are subjected to the pressure cooker atmosphere that comes with the transfer window and fans’ heightened – and often – unrealistic preseason expectations.” backpagefootball

Anchors and Wankers: the Psychology and Reality of Transfer Prices

“While the price of a Premier League footballer does indeed get further and further away from the financial realities of the average fan, it’s not necessarily ‘insane’, as it still only rises at a fairly predictable rate of inflation. Based on our Transfer Price Index model, Graeme Riley and I could have told you at the start of the summer that the going rate (if there is such a thing) for an elite but not ‘top three in world’ player – at a good age – was £90m.” Tomkins Times

The Question: How long will Liverpool keep faith with Jürgen Klopp?

“How long should it be before it’s reasonable to lose faith with a manager? How soon should improvement be seen? It’s not a question that has any easy answer – and it’s one to which the answer seems to be very dependent on context. Take Liverpool. On Saturday, Jürgen Klopp returns to White Hart Lane, the ground at which, last October, he managed his first Premier League game. The sense then was that Liverpool had pulled off a major coup to land one of the most exciting managers in Europe.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Burnley 2 Liverpool 0: Andre Gray terrorises Klopp’s defence as hosts show they’re not prepared to be relegation fodder

“Jürgen Klopp may have a vision for heavy metal football, but his defence is currently more like Spinal Tap. The deficiencies so glaring at Arsenal a week ago were more embarrassingly exposed as Burnley deservedly secured their first win since returning to the Premier League. For Sean Dyche, who argued English football is beguiled by overseas coaches to the detriment of home grown talent, there could have been no more satisfying scalp. Tactically and physically his side was superior to the visitors.” Telegraph

Liverpool’s lack of leaders cause for concern

“Take, for example, Sevilla’s 3-1 win over Liverpool in the recent final of the Europa League. While they were in the first half ascendancy, Liverpool could have been awarded one, or even two penalties. To this extent, luck was against them. There is no doubt, though, that they were over-run in the second half. Here it is arguable that tactical and technical issues were important. Liverpool lined up with Daniel Sturridge, Phillippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino. The attacking trio combined to give the English club a first half lead.” The World Game – Tim Vickery (Video)

Pep, Mourinho, Simeone and more: Ranking world’s top 10 club managers

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“Just as the Champions League format has allowed an elite group of clubs to dominate in recent years, the coaching landscape, too, is overshadowed by the personalities of a revered few who are hired at a huge expense with the guarantee of trophies. The perfect example of that is in the Premier League, where all the attention is going to be on Manchester’s clubs City and United when next season kicks off, despite their recent fourth and fifth respective finishes in the league. City will have Pep Guardiola in charge, while United looks set to have Jose Mourinho. It’s a personal rivalry that dominated Spanish football when the pair locked horns during two controversy-laden years at Barcelona and Real Madrid, respectively.” SI (Video)

Sakho, Psychos, Kings and Princes

“While there has been clear progress made under Jürgen Klopp, the recent ride has not been without its moments of worry – and that’s before the issue of centre-backs and their ‘slimming’ pills. I think we can all agree that the squad he inherited now looks a lot better than any of us thought back in October; almost every player has improved, or flourished, under him (some of it will be him improving them, and some of it them finding form), and the Reds are just two games away from a second final of the season. So this bodes well. My optimism remains undimmed, when a few games into this season it was very dim indeed.” Tomkins Times

Anfield effect can be overstated but there’s no denying it is also spectacular

“Football supporters are tribal creatures at heart, and remarkable as it may seem there were a few who professed not to enjoy Liverpool’s stupendous comeback against Borussia Dortmund on Thursday, the latest and arguably greatest drama yet in the long-running series of sublime-going-on-surreal European nights at Anfield. Messages appeared on social networks almost straight away, quite possibly from people with Manchester postcodes or Goodison Park season tickets, complaining that the way the media were (over)reacting anyone would think Liverpool had won the Champions League.” Guardian

Around Europe: Barcelona burnout; Ben Arfa makes his Euro case

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“There were decisive moments in the title race in England and Germany, as respective leaders Leicester City and Bayern Munich came closer to the finishing line, though a shock result in Spain has opened the door to the pack chasing defending champion Barcelona. A new coach with a familiar name enjoyed a successful start at Lazio, while in France, a new hat trick hero has given national team boss Didier Deschamps a selection dilemma leading into Euro 2016. Here is what caught our eye this week from Around Europe.” SI (Video)

Can Southampton Become A Force In The Premier League?

“In a more normal Premier League season, the wider media would probably be spending more time rehashing the same clichés they’ve used for Southampton over the past couple of years. They’re hanging around the top eight having survived another summer of key departures (Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne) and there’s no real signs of danger as they’re once again above average in controlling shot numbers for and against. Perhaps the quality of attacking football hasn’t quite been to the standard of the previous two seasons but it’s still been satisfactory. Their goal difference is fine enough at +11 and in a year of chaos and turbulence, Southampton are being their steady selves.” Stats Bomb (Video)

Tactical Analysis: Liverpool 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur | Effective pressing denies Spurs vic

“Harry Kane’s 22nd league goal of the season earned Tottenham a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Anfield on Saturday, but their failure to secure a victory allowed Leicester to stretch their lead at the top of the table to seven points the following day with a narrow 1-0 triumph over Southampton. Spurs will be disappointed to have lost ground on the league leaders, but their performance on a difficult day at Anfield against a resolute Liverpool side didn’t really warrant anything more than a point.” Outside of the Boot

Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool remind English football what it is good at

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“Two games in five days, both 1-1 draws, both of the highest quality and played out with a ferocious intensity. There are plenty of reasons to believe Liverpool are moving forward under Jürgen Klopp. What he has also done is make Liverpool fun and, more than that, has demonstrated just how enjoyable, how good, English football – and an English style of football – can be. When Klopp arrived at Anfield, amid a cloud of excited chatter about gegenpressing, there were cynics who sniffed and asked just how new this great theory really was.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson (Video)

Klopp and Liverpool’s 39th Step of Progress

“Despite dropping points in the past two games from leading positions, Liverpool showed enough against Southampton – in a near-perfect first half – and Spurs (for the whole game) to suggest a team heading in the right direction. Progress is rarely linear. There will be downs as well as ups; form comes and goes. But the overriding impression is what counts, and right now that is of a side coming together nicely, if not yet perfectly.” Tomkins Times

Is British football ‘winded’?

“Excuse the pun, but it’s a pun worth pursuing so please bear with me… I remember reading an excellent book by Gabrielle Marcotti and Gianluca Vialli a couple of years ago entitled ‘The Italian Job’, it was an insightful and intelligent read, very different to the usual football literature I had accumulated over the years. One thing from that book that has stuck with me all this time was the idea that the weather in the UK was detrimental to the development of great technical players, and playing great football.” Outside of the Boot

Consolidation and Cup Finals

“How does one top arguably the greatest night in the history of the club? The answer was twofold for many Liverpool fans: keep Steven Gerrard and mount another genuine title challenge. The former would be ultimately successful; although it looked for a spell as if it would end with the captain jumping ship to Chelsea, Gerrard’s genuine love for the club overcame his demons of self-doubt. The latter – attempting to wrest the Premier League from the Londoners and Manchester United – would be infinitely more challenging and it would take a few years of tweaking and consolidation before a genuine title tilt would become a reality.” Tomkins Times

Liverpool – Over The Wall

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“It’s been a bit of a mixed bag for Liverpool supporters in recent times. Last season the Reds finished sixth in the Premier League, while they also reached the semi-finals of both domestic cup competitions, before being eliminated by Aston Villa in the FA Cup and Chelsea in the Capital One Cup. This season looks like it might be another case of Liverpool being the nearly men, having been narrowly beaten by Manchester City in the Capital One Cup on penalties, while they currently lie just outside the European places in the Premier League. They still have hopes of success in the Europa League, having just put bitter rivals Manchester United to the sword at Anfield, but there’s still a long way to go in that competition.” The Swiss Ramble

Football Weekly: Watford end Arsenal’s hold on the FA Cup

“On today’s Football Weekly, AC Jimbo welcomes Jonathan Wilson, Nick Ames and Gregg Bakowski to near-earth orbit to look back on a weekend of thrills and spills in the FA Cup, Premier League and beyond. We start in the FA Cup. Watford piled on the misery for Arsenal by ending their chances of winning the trophy for the third year in a row. The Hornets will be joined in the semi-finals by Everton – who saw off Chelsea in a game full of Diego Costa naughtiness – as well as Crystal Palace and one of West Ham or Manchester United, if they can ever find a date for a replay. Romance.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson (Video)

If Klopp is the Future, How Long Will It Last?

“This article follows on from last week’s free piece, written in the aftermath of the 2-0 victory over Man United, which in turn took its inspiration from Jonathan Wilson’s quote (and here I merely paraphrase) about Louis van Gaal representing the past, and Jürgen Klopp the future. Football has its fashions – not merely superficial changes, but in terms of what’s effective – and yet not everyone keeps up with progress. And success doesn’t always belong to the team with the most radical style.” Tomkins Times

English game lacks Champions League quality – but at least it is unpredictable

“Two down, two to go. Chelsea’s exit from the Champions League means half of the Premier League’s four entrants have gone and, barring something miraculous in the Camp Nou next week, Arsenal will join them, leaving only Manchester City, assuming they finish the job against Dynamo Kyiv. Had it not been for a tough knockout draw for Italian sides this season, the Premier League’s fourth Champions League slot might have come under serious threat from Serie A for 2017-18. As it is, England has picked up half a point more than Italy so far this season and, with only two Italian sides left in European competition one of them Juventus, who must go to Bayern Munich after a 2-2 draw in the home leg, that advantage should be increased. Given the Premier League’s wealth – it has 17 of the 30 clubs with the highest revenue in the world, according to the latest Deloitte report – the fact that the coefficient is even an issue is faintly embarrassing.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Liverpool, Manchester United appear to be rivals heading on opposite paths

“The only good news for Manchester United is that it was not worse. It wasn’t just that Louis van Gaal’s streak of four straight wins over his club’s bitterest rivals came to an end, it was the manner of the defeat. United was thoroughly outplayed in the 2-0 loss to Liverpool in their Europa League last-16 first leg. United was grateful to David De Gea for keeping the score down, and, while it’s not inconceivable that the deficit–the result of a Daniel Sturridge penalty and another goal from Roberto Firmino–can be made up at Old Trafford next week, it would take a radically improved performance even to be possible.” SI – Jonathan Wilson

Arsenal are finding fresh ways to fail in pursuit of Premier League title

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“Last season it was August, the season before that it was March, the season before that it was January and the season before that it was March and April and bit of May. This season it’s now. Every year Arsenal have a spell in which they undo the good work that has made them look potential title challengers. That was perhaps the most striking aspect of the defeats by Manchester United and Swansea: that this lack of edge, this failure to seize an opportunity, felt so familiar.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson (Video)

Five Bundesliga youngsters that Premier League teams will be looking to sign

“In an era, where the total net worth of squads in the BPL (4.4billion Euros) is double that of the Bundesliga teams (2.38 billion), and the third richest/most valuable clubs in Germany (Leverkusen and Schalke are around 200 million Euros) would barely crack the top 10 in England (West Ham and Newcastle are tied for 9th at 182 mil each) moving to the Premier League after one or two great seasons has increasingly become the norm for Bundesliga talents.” Bundesliga Fanatic

Tactical Analysis – Aston Villa 0 Liverpool 6

“Neither manager had any major selection dilemmas before the game. Garde was without several players but only a couple of them were genuinely missed – his only natural holding midfielder Sanchez and the target man Gestede. Interestingly though, the French manager changed the shape from his usual narrow 4-1-2-3/4-3-2-1 to a 4-4-1-1 here despite naming the same starting XI as in the last game against Norwich.” Tomkins Times

Super Sunday, Predictions And Palace: Premier League Round Up

“Super Sunday came and went as a thrilling spectacle for the non-partisan bystander. The two games featuring the top four contenders–who by any reasonable estimation have all but sealed their places–were full of contentious decisions, tension, storylines and thrills. Even the most stone-hearted fan could surely not have been slightly warmed by the returning Danny Welbeck and his winning contribution and significantly, Arsenal’s late winner kept the four teams within a six point range. Everything about Arsenal’s title challenge is reliant on squad fitness so from that perspective a deep bench for the first time since around November was a huge bonus.” Stats Bomb

Liverpool put six past sorry Aston Villa as home fans turn ire on Lerner

“Liverpool performed to a backdrop of fans walking out en masse for a second weekend in succession though it was not inflated ticket prices that sparked the exodus this time but the sheer ineptitude of Aston Villa. No easy games in the Premier League? Nonsense. This was a surrender and Liverpool inflicted a St Valentine’s Day massacre from which the division’s bottom club may not recover.” Guardian