‘No wonder Karius looks scared with that back four…’

Ian Watson

Our readers are satisfied Manchester United are heading in the right direction under Jose Mourinho – while John Terry’s role at Chelsea and Loris Karius’ at Liverpool are also discussed.

No distractions for Chelsea

Not having to European games is a blessing.

I feel our team needed a break to reconfigure the structure of our team. This has been the opportunity to put in place a new system and a way of playing we would have found difficult to implement being in Europe.

Conte gets full weeks to work with his players and get them so well drilled. I can see this European break benefitting us for the next few seasons.

I remember a few of us saying before season’s beginning that Conte didn’t have the longest time to prepare after the Euros but it was key that he had the weeks off between games through the season to work to make up for that lost time. I remember us saying we will start the season solid but shaky until Conte had worked out what needed to be tailored and come November/December time we would start seeing us playing like a real team.

Well here we are and predictions are coming through nicely lets hope we continue strong.

bort

 

Antonio Conte: Chelsea job not under threat

Crucial December

I would say early days yet but there is no escaping the fact that we are the most improved team to date from last season

Just do not want to jinx our progress and I think the next 5 games are going to be exceptionally important to our season. With no disrespect intended, the teams we play in December are teams that you would normally expect to beat if you had visions of winning the league

But teams like Albion and Sunderland have hit a vein of form that could easily frustrate us if we do not go out and do a professional job on them. If we play as we have been then we will be very unfortunate not to take all three points in every game but we must remain focussed, do not get over confident and assume the game is won before we kick off and ensure that we do not get ahead of ourselves. This is for where I feel that the experience of JT still plays a significant role. KTBFFH

CFC1905

 

jose-mourinho-man-utd-2

Another satisfied United fan

Mourinho has definitely given us more vertical passing, Man  in the final third. We also have sacrificed possession and long may that continue.

We do, however, lack the killer instinct which will see us gathering points as we should. I think this is a mixture of our team and manager lacking the confidence to be more aggressive in matches. This has to fall more to the manager than anything.

Mourinho must abolish the negative tactics that he often employs in the last 10-20mins. Especially when we only have a 1 goal lead. He must understand that we do not have a defence to rely on with a tactical decision to drop back.

Anyways, I am generally happy with Mourinho because he has expunged that disgusting, turgid football we had last season. We now need the Premier League results and the turnaround will be complete.

hatters

 

Lorius Karius: Seen as a weakness by Liverpool's opponents

Carry on, Karius

Klopp clearly wants Sakho out which is why he prefers a 32 yr old midfielder at centre half. He also knows Moreno is tripe which is why we have a 31 yr old midfielder playing left back. We are in the black with regard to spending this year so if we don’t see a CB and LB come in next month it is time to get worried. I used to be a keeper in a p*ss-poor league and even at that level I fared better if I knew the back four were fit for purpose. It’s little wonder Karius looks like he is sh*tting himself every time the ball crosses into our half.

shanksy

 

John W Henry: Liverpool owner

FSG must cough up

Lallana is playing well and I got no complaints about him so far this season but playing every game will take its toll on him, the season is far too long to rely on him playing every game. Same goes for the rest of the squad and I neither have I am problem with rotating Jordan with Lallana in the position Adam has been playing this season.

FSG have raised expectations, the official site is still feeding us the transfer rumors the media is procuding, they are claiming the club can make a sustained challenge. That we are ready to capitalize on our success.

Klopp has expressed his worries about the lack of depth we have, I expect FSG to back up their intentions, invest in the squad where needed.

NotoriousBingo

 

Premier League: Announce April and May's live games

FIFA finally catching on

Replays for game changing decisions will be used by assistant referees for the first time in a Fifa competition – at this year’s Club World Cup – and can be looked at additionally by the match referee.

Funny how things are getting moving now that ‘line-your-pockets’ Blatter has been deposed, I hope and imagine that this decision will be shown to be as obvious as the use of goaline technology or marking out free kick distances. It won’t make football stop-start as it will take <5 seconds to review the three or four decisions per game… less time than an opposing team’s goalkeeper takes over a single goalkick at the Etihad!

mcfc-psychology