At the beginning of the season, I had great hopes for my two favourite football teams, Bayern Munich & Liverpool. I predicted Liverpool would win their first EPL title and their first since 1989. I had even higher hopes for my beloved Bayern predicting they would recapture the Bundesliga title and would even get to the CL final!
And what disastrous campaigns both are having! Both are suffering from similar problems:
Injuries to Gerrard & Ribery respectively (although good to see Gerrard back in the second half against Birmingham)
Inability to score to win against packed defenses even with the lion share of possession in many crucial matches
Injury to the likes of Torres & Toni
And most crucially, players' inability to adapt to Rafa & Van Gaal's ever revolving tactical variations & player rotation systems (although Van Gaal has only been around this year whilst Rafa is notorious for doing this)
Both teams are now in serious danger of missing qualification to the second round of the CL, and losing too much ground to the leading teams in their respective domestic leagues. (both are quite a few points behind already)
Liverpool fans love Rafa & so far have stood by him, whilst Bayern fans have already started booing their team and murmurs of demands of retribution against the coach are beginning to spread.
In case of Bayern, whilst I was never a fan of Van Gaal & thought Frank Rijkaard was the best man for the job, I believe the legendary management team of Rumminegge & Hoeness got their transfer strategy badly wrong last summer and miscalculated some great opportunities in the process and as a result they should reappraise their strategy going forward.
As for Liverpool, I am not sure what the immediate solution is but Rafa has now had one win out of nine (6 losses) and surely the good will towrds him has its limitations.
And as a die hard fan of both clubs, I am still hoping for a major turn around in form & results by Christmas!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Florention Perez's Real Madrid sequal "Galacticos 2" has so far fared no better than most Hollywood sequals! Big budget & poor results compared to the original!
President Perez's sequal to "Galacticos I" is so far turning out like most sequals in the real Hollywood style! Lots of razamataz, big names, big budget......and poor quality & returns compared to the original!
Yes! I know! It's still early days & a star studded team of so called champion players needs time to mould into a champion team......like Barcelona! (sorry! couldn't help the jibe!)
Real lost 4-0 in a Cup tie to a lower division team this morning. It seems even after the arrival of the new galacticos, Real continue to suffer from the psychological inferiority complex that started during Barcelona's CL win 3 years ago & made them into the panick $400 plus shopping spree last summer after Barcelona's convincing CL final win over Manchester United.
And to makes matters even more strange, Real seems to be simply an ordinary team without Ronaldo! This in fact annoys me! Because the likes of Kaka, Benzema, Raul & co are every invh as good if not better than the pretty boy!
What is going to happen if AC Milan win the return CL match in Milan next week? Will "Berlosconi wannabe" aka PEREZ & his galacticos take the blame? Or will the coach Pellegrini be sacked as a scapegoat?..and then Perez will admit he should have listened earlier & sacked the coach much sooner???
At any case, let's hope for the good of the game Real's sequal to "Galacticos I" at least doesn't succeed on the pitch! They can have the box office in order to pay their stars!
But on the pitch, it's great team spirit, clever tactics, inspirational coaching & a combination of talent, blood, sweat & tears that surely deserve success. Afterall, they are the ingredients of what makes football the "Beautiful Game"!
Yes! I know! It's still early days & a star studded team of so called champion players needs time to mould into a champion team......like Barcelona! (sorry! couldn't help the jibe!)
Real lost 4-0 in a Cup tie to a lower division team this morning. It seems even after the arrival of the new galacticos, Real continue to suffer from the psychological inferiority complex that started during Barcelona's CL win 3 years ago & made them into the panick $400 plus shopping spree last summer after Barcelona's convincing CL final win over Manchester United.
And to makes matters even more strange, Real seems to be simply an ordinary team without Ronaldo! This in fact annoys me! Because the likes of Kaka, Benzema, Raul & co are every invh as good if not better than the pretty boy!
What is going to happen if AC Milan win the return CL match in Milan next week? Will "Berlosconi wannabe" aka PEREZ & his galacticos take the blame? Or will the coach Pellegrini be sacked as a scapegoat?..and then Perez will admit he should have listened earlier & sacked the coach much sooner???
At any case, let's hope for the good of the game Real's sequal to "Galacticos I" at least doesn't succeed on the pitch! They can have the box office in order to pay their stars!
But on the pitch, it's great team spirit, clever tactics, inspirational coaching & a combination of talent, blood, sweat & tears that surely deserve success. Afterall, they are the ingredients of what makes football the "Beautiful Game"!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
What is holding Bayern Munich back from being a serious contender to win the Champions League again?
Bayern Munich are statistically amongst the Top 5 most successful football Clubs in Europe. Only Real Madrid, Liverpool & AC Milan have won the European/CL Trophy more than Bayern. Bayern are also regularly amongst the Top 5 or 10 top clubs in the world in terms of turnover as well as one of the Top 5 best supported Clubs in Europe.
However, unlike the financially reckless owners of some of the big Clubs in England, Italy & Spain who have always been willing to grab trophies & glory at any expense, and in attempting to do so have put their clubs under immense financial pressure and huge debt burden, Bayern Munich have always been too conservative & at times seem to have sacrificied trophies & glory for the sake of remaining financially sound.
This has of course at times irked their demanding supporters who at the very least expect parity with other top clubs in Europe, and made some of their highly sought after players to demand a move to the "glamour clubs" mentioned above.
Bayern have in fact in occasions splashed huge sums in recent years on the likes of Klose, Toni, Ribery and very recently Robben. But these have always been in a much more measured way compared to for e.g. Real Madrid's Galactico mark 2 by Perez & co.
This has meant that Bayern have once again finishedd the decade with only one single European final appearance to show for, the CL final win against valencia in 2001, a life time ago in footballing terms in the eyes of denmanding & passionate supporters.
But in my opinion, the conservative transfer policy has overall been for the long term good of the club and most of the decions have been sound (The poor deciosn to let Lucio & Ze Roberto leave last summer was a major exception. A few more top players and the team is as good or at least as competative as any of the top clubs in Europe.
I believe the major factor that is holding Bayern's progress is its frequent change of Managers & coaching staff & not allowing the head coaches enough time to implement their tactical vision. Just look at what Hitzfeld achieved with Bayern by having the luxury of time! I am talking about employing a world class tactician on a FIVE year contract as a minimum & giving him flexibility, time & space to develop & implement his system, i.e. emulating what the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool & Arsenal have allowed their Managers.
Magath & Klinsman did not have that luxury. Let's hope Van Gaal (although I am not a big fan & personally preferred Rijkaard)gets the support & patience from Rumminegge & Hoeness to develop & implement his ideas.
Bayern have the money, influence, players, support & prestige to be back on top. All they need is patience with their managers!
However, unlike the financially reckless owners of some of the big Clubs in England, Italy & Spain who have always been willing to grab trophies & glory at any expense, and in attempting to do so have put their clubs under immense financial pressure and huge debt burden, Bayern Munich have always been too conservative & at times seem to have sacrificied trophies & glory for the sake of remaining financially sound.
This has of course at times irked their demanding supporters who at the very least expect parity with other top clubs in Europe, and made some of their highly sought after players to demand a move to the "glamour clubs" mentioned above.
Bayern have in fact in occasions splashed huge sums in recent years on the likes of Klose, Toni, Ribery and very recently Robben. But these have always been in a much more measured way compared to for e.g. Real Madrid's Galactico mark 2 by Perez & co.
This has meant that Bayern have once again finishedd the decade with only one single European final appearance to show for, the CL final win against valencia in 2001, a life time ago in footballing terms in the eyes of denmanding & passionate supporters.
But in my opinion, the conservative transfer policy has overall been for the long term good of the club and most of the decions have been sound (The poor deciosn to let Lucio & Ze Roberto leave last summer was a major exception. A few more top players and the team is as good or at least as competative as any of the top clubs in Europe.
I believe the major factor that is holding Bayern's progress is its frequent change of Managers & coaching staff & not allowing the head coaches enough time to implement their tactical vision. Just look at what Hitzfeld achieved with Bayern by having the luxury of time! I am talking about employing a world class tactician on a FIVE year contract as a minimum & giving him flexibility, time & space to develop & implement his system, i.e. emulating what the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool & Arsenal have allowed their Managers.
Magath & Klinsman did not have that luxury. Let's hope Van Gaal (although I am not a big fan & personally preferred Rijkaard)gets the support & patience from Rumminegge & Hoeness to develop & implement his ideas.
Bayern have the money, influence, players, support & prestige to be back on top. All they need is patience with their managers!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
My predictions for the major European Leagues for the new Season
Well, so far, albeit at this early stage, my predictions in my extended review of the new EPL season have not worked out too well! But it's only the early days!
Here are my predictions for the winners of other major leagues in Europe for the 2009-2010 season:
Bundesliga (Germany): Bayern Munchen (who else!)but competition will be stiff
Serie A (Italy): Inter Milan
Juventus have not bought sufficient quality players, and Milan have lost Kaka on top of that, to be able to challenge Inter Milan,s supremacy of recent seasons.
Inter on the other hand, as evident by their demolition of Milan on the opening the of the season, have bought the Brazilian Captain Lucio from Bayern, and swapped the over rated Ibrahimovic for the brilliant E'to, making them even more dominant, although European glory will continue to be out of their reach.
Primera Division (Spain): barcelona: As I have stated in my previous postings, Barcelona should be able to AND will embarrass Real Madrid's Perez and his extravagant money wasting shopping spree of "Galacticos" by winning the Primera Division again!
Here are my predictions for the winners of other major leagues in Europe for the 2009-2010 season:
Bundesliga (Germany): Bayern Munchen (who else!)but competition will be stiff
Serie A (Italy): Inter Milan
Juventus have not bought sufficient quality players, and Milan have lost Kaka on top of that, to be able to challenge Inter Milan,s supremacy of recent seasons.
Inter on the other hand, as evident by their demolition of Milan on the opening the of the season, have bought the Brazilian Captain Lucio from Bayern, and swapped the over rated Ibrahimovic for the brilliant E'to, making them even more dominant, although European glory will continue to be out of their reach.
Primera Division (Spain): barcelona: As I have stated in my previous postings, Barcelona should be able to AND will embarrass Real Madrid's Perez and his extravagant money wasting shopping spree of "Galacticos" by winning the Primera Division again!
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