.1) QPR see what they could have won
West
Brom and QPR lost their managers around a month apart, with the surreal Alan
Irvine experiment being cut short just after Christmas, and Harry Redknapp’s
seemingly inevitable resignation following an unsuccessful January transfer
window. Obviously the circumstances were slightly different and Rangers were in
a much more perilous position but the past few months have shown exactly how
and how not to arrange a managerial succession. West Brom spotted the way
things were going early, moved on their underperforming manager and brought in
a proven relegation firefighter, whereas QPR dithered, let their own flailing
boss decide his own fate and then gave the job to a coach with no previous
managerial experience. Chris Ramsey seems like a decent man and under the right
circumstances could probably be a good manager, but these are very much not the
right circumstances. The two squads are of comparable quality, so imagine what
difference they could have made if Tony Fernandes (who, admittedly, was understandably and rightly
preoccupied with other matters at the time relating to the missing AirAsia
plane) or Philip Beard recognised their side was only going one way
and brought in Pulis, before West Brom or anyone else had got there. As it is
QPR have somehow managed to get worse after Redknapp’s departure, losing six of
the seven games since Ramsey took the helm, while the Baggies have sauntered
clear of trouble with only three league defeats in Pulis’s time. QPR were
actually one place above West Brom on the day Irvine was shown the door; a win
for the Baggies on Saturday will put them 14 points clear. Coulda, woulda,
shoulda. NM
2) What kind of reception will Sterling get from Liverpool fans?
It’s difficult to have sympathy with a
rich 20-year-old talking about money, but one of the biggest things
to be taken from Raheem Sterling’s recent comments is how badly advised he has
been. Sterling’s management team have a lot to answer for; their decision to
organise a self-serving interview, that wasn’t sanctioned by Liverpool, is
baffling. But Sterling is by no means a victim here – and he has learned the
hard way that contract particulars should not be Ayre-ed in public. He simply
said he wants to earn lots of money and win lots of trophies. So what? He’d
probably even prefer to do it at Liverpool, if the club are willing to match
his ambitions. That said, it is the timing that hurts for the fans and at the
business end of the season, Liverpool supporters want to know Sterling and co
are completely focused on the job at hand – reaching the Champions League – not
what kind of contract or transfer their players may or may not receive. The
England international has been heavily criticised for his comments, but with
Daniel Sturridge again sidelined, Sterling is arguably Liverpool’s chief
attacking threat for their match at Arsenal, where the Merseyside club have won
only once in the last 19 matches. Sterling made a mistake, but he remains a
young player that thrives on confidence. One would hope he doesn’t shy away
from playing his natural game, which can be so devastating when he takes risks
in the final third. Receiving criticism from one’s own fans can dent any
player’s confidence, so it will be interesting to see if Liverpool supporters
cheer or jeer their man at the Emirates, perhaps at a time when they need him
most.
3) Only Chelsea can stop Chelsea winning the league
This Premier League
season has been odd in many ways, not least in that even the team who have
basically won the league don’t seem terribly keen to win the league. Chelsea
are six points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand, but should
arguably be even further ahead, such is the quality in their squad and the
inconsistency of everyone else. Sure, they have lost only two games all season
and not at all since New Year’s Day, but they have limply exited from the
Champions League and FA Cup, dropped points against Burnley and Southampton and looked decidedly wobbly at Hull last time out. As the old
cliché has it, the only team that can stop Chelsea winning the title is Chelsea
themselves, but it sounds like José Mourinho is doing his utmost to ensure his
players do not make a frightful mess of things. “Like the great manager he is,
he has told us what we need to do now, which is just to stay calm,” said Diego
Costa this week. “He’s right because everything depends on us now. We know that
the Premier League is complicated. It’s not easy so we know we have to improve.
We all need to dig in and give something extra because we have this title in
our hands and we can’t let it slip away.” Of course they shouldn’t slip up
against Stoke this weekend – the Potters are coasting towards the end of the
season, have not won at Stamford Bridge since earning promotion to the top
flight in 2008, and indeed have only scored one goal there in that time (Rory Delap,
if you’re interested). The remainder of the season should be a procession to
the title, but given the way things have gone this season, do not be too
surprised if that doesn’t go to plan.
4) City dropping points at Palace would no longer be a shock
One of the main
reasons Chelsea are sashaying clear of the rest is Manchester City’s dreadfully
limp season. City were the only realistic candidates to challenge Mourinho’s
men at the start of the campaign but have put up such a half-hearted defence of
their title that Chelsea haven’t needed to be especially good to basically have
it wrapped up before Easter. It’s reached the point now where Manuel
Pellegrini’s men look more likely to finish fourth than they do first, withManchester United looking good and Arsenal also in fine form. Recent
performances at Burnley and to a lesser extent Liverpool were desperate, and
they face another potential problem at Selhurst Park on Monday night. Crystal
Palace are now firmly snuggled in the warm safety of mid-table, the turnaround
in form after Alan Pardew replaced Neil Warnock remarkable, and they’re in fine
recent form too, winning three of their last four. Glenn Murray is scoring
goals, Wilfried Zaha finally looks like a Premier League player after being
just too good for the Championship in his first spell at the club, while Jason
Puncheon is quietly emerging as a pretty excellent No10. It’s reached the point
now where the reigning champions dropping points against a side who were in the
relegation zone over Christmas wouldn’t really be much of a surprise.
5) Falcao’s pleas are likely to fall upon deaf ears
Radamel Falcao has got his mojo back!
Sort of. Colombia’s talisman equalled his country’s goals record over the
international break (scoring
twice against the not-so-sturdy Bahrain backline, and netting a
penalty against Kuwait) and wasted no time in
reminding Manchester United of his desire to “play more minutes” before the end of the season is up.
Louis van Gaal isn’t likely to take any notice in selecting his XI for Aston
Villa this Saturday. Falcao has started just one of the last six matches for
United, and with Wayne Rooney combining well with Marouane Fellaini and Juan
Mata at the sharp end in the recent wins over Tottenham and Liverpool, Falcao
should be set for another stint on the Old Trafford bench. Early in the season,
Van Gaal may have afforded the No9 a chance in the starting lineup in order to
jump-start his United career, as he did in this weekend’s reverse fixture at
Villa Park. But as United enter the home straight, with Falcao almost certain
to leave the club at the end of his loan this summer, these chances will be
scant. Van Gaal’s first objective is to ensure United finish at least fourth.
If United do this with games to spare, his second will be to formulate his
long-term plans for next season. For all his international form, Falcao is not
likely to play a part in either.
6) Hull’s attacking intent could be their undoing
Hull City’s 3-5-2 formation continues to
be a double-edged sword: in attack their wing backs are a constant menace: no
other Premier League player has delivered more crosses from open play than
Ahmed Elmohamady since the start of last season. But it is this attacking verve
that exposes the three-man defence of Paul McShane, Alex Bruce and Michael
Dawson, who are often unable to deal with genuine pace on the counterattack.
Hull’s opponents this weekend are Swansea, whose lightning-quick wingers
include Nathan Dyer, Wayne Routledge and Jefferson Montero – all of whom will
relish the chance to exploit Hull’s wide areas on the break. Indeed, it was
exactly this scenario which led to Swansea’s
winner against Aston Villa last time out: Montero breaking into
space down the left flank before crossing for the unmarked Bafétimbi Gomis. The
Hull manager, Steve Bruce, will need to exercise caution before encouraging
Elmohamady and the left wing-back Andrew Robertson to go forward if his side are
to earn their eighth clean sheet of the season at the Liberty Stadium.
7) The most curious Tyne-Wear derby of all
This promises to be
perhaps the strangest Tyne-Wear derby of recent times, if only because the two
managers in question are temporary appointments. John Carver was always going
to be a stop-gap, a willing and passionate stand-in for the club he supported
as a lad, but unless he did something extraordinary then he would be pushed
back into the shadows come the summer. Equally Dick Advocaat, who was brought
in as a firefighter after Gus Poyet set the club ablaze and looks absolutely
delighted just to be there, but the chances are Sunderland will move for either Steve McClaren or Sam Allardyce in the
summer, rather than the avuncular Dutchman. Will that make a difference? Will
it ramp things up given that both men will perhaps want to make a point?
Strange as it might be to say, given Sunderland’s rotten form (they haven’t won
in the league since the end of January), they could well be favourites for
this. Advocaat has had a couple of weeks to work with his squad and imbue any
fancy ideas he has, while Newcastle will be without a number of key men, with
Fabricio Coloccini and Papiss Cissé suspended, and the likes of Steven Taylor
and Cheick Tioté injured. Of course, what good a win will do for Advocaat’s
long-term employment prospects is debatable, but it would certainly turn some
frowns upside down on Wearside.
8) Reid is back, and West Ham are all the stronger for it
Sam Allardyce will be ruddy delighted
that Winston Reid has recovered from injury, not least because it will allow
the West Ham manager to move Cheikhou Kouyaté back into his favoured midfield
role, where he has arguably been the club’s stand-out performer this season.
With the east London club suffering a spate of injuries in defence, Kouyaté has
recently been used as a makeshift centre-back but his return to the middle of
the pitch is long overdue. The 6ft 4in Senegalese has adapted superbly to the
Premier League since his £7m move from Anderlecht last summer, and in an age
where central midfielders are increasingly assigned specific roles, his
all-action, box-to-box mentality has been refreshing to watch.
Having now recovered from his hamstring
strain, Reid has been given somewhat of a soft introduction back into Premier
League life this weekend, facing a Leicester City attack that haven’t scored in
front of their own fans in over five hours, although Allardyce has admitted
that the New Zealander is “a little bit rusty on match practice.” This is the
first match for Reid since he
signed a new six-and-a-half year contract last month and West Ham fans will be eager to see
the best of the 26-year-old, now that the rumours of him moving away have died
a death.
9) Townsend should, believe it or not, pay attention to Merson
It’s weird being on the same side of an
argument as Paul Merson. The former Arsenal man is not, perhaps, the first
person to call if you are bringing together a debating team, but he has got a
point about Andros Townsend. “I think he should concentrate on playing
football, to be honest, and don’t worry about me,” Merson wrote in
his Daily Star column, after Townsend, following his goal for England
in Italy, had given it the Twitter big one in response to Merson doubting his
place in the international side. “I’d also say win some medals first before you
call it on. I have got no vendetta against him but I am not going to sit here
and say he is top drawer … he’s just got back at Tottenham for the last seven
or eight games. Where has he been all season?” Where has he been indeed?
Townsend has only been in the Spurs side for the last five league games (six of
the last seven in all competitions) and has been doing reasonably well, but
Tottenham fans would be forgiven for wondering where all these international
goals have been coming from. Townsend now has three in seven England
appearances, exactly the same tally as in 44 league games for his club. “As
soon as the goal went in, I was just desperate to get that tweet out,” said
Townsend. A few more goals and some better performances might be a bigger
priority than giving a pundit what-for on Twitter.
10) Southampton set to be the victims of their own success …
again
This weekend marks
exactly a year since Jay Rodriguez last played professional football. The
25-year-old has returned to first-team training but the only positive to come
out of his horrific knee injury, as far as Southampton are concerned, is that
he will not be leaving at the end of the season. That will not be the case for
many of the club’s stars this season and the manager, Ronald Koeman, is
resigned to losing some of his key players. “It’s always good to have some
changes in the team,” the Dutchman said on Thursday. “Maybe, we will lose some
players. We will do everything to keep everyone at the club, but we know the
situation will be difficult. It will not be [as bad as] last season, but, of
course, the risk is that we will lose some players. That’s normal. That means
we have to be prepared to bring in new players, new focus and we will see what
position we are talking.” Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne are the
favourites to depart, while Atlético Madrid have already confirmed that they
are “counting on” their on-loan defender Toby Alderweireld next season. Who
Koeman will have left remains to be seen, and though he has thankfully declined
to describe the returning Rodriguez as ‘like a new signing’, it looks as though
there will need to be many new faces on the south coast come August.
No comments:
Post a Comment