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from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Time for UEFA to revert to goal difference in Champions League
My head is hurting after all the mathematics that has been needed to work out qualification chances in the Champions League.
It is all because UEFA believes head-to-heads rather than goal difference in all group games should be the first deciding factor.
Many don't see the logic of this. Using goal difference as the first determining factor, like many domestic leagues, encourages attacking play for a start which is surely a laudable aim. Head-to-heads don't especially.
The reason head-to-heads is preferred seems to be because one team could have scored many more goals against the group whipping boys than their rivals and this is deemed an unfair advantage. Why?
If Team A batter Team C 7-0 and Team B only beats Team C 1-0, why should Team A be penalised if their head-to-head with Team B is worse. The head-to-head could be 0-0 and 1-1 and Team A would go out on one away goal.
It would be so much more accessible and understandable for the average fan if it was just goal difference (and then goals scored and then perhaps a playoff on a neutral ground) rather than the sometimes mindboggling head-to-heads which can get very tricky when three teams are involved.
Most of the media organisations in Europe got it wrong when trying to work out what Chelsea needed to do in the final round of matches because the rules were so complex. That can't be right.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Why Chelsea should keep Andre Villas-Boas
Three Premier League defeats in four games and Champions League last 16 qualification compromised. The last few weeks have been very tough for Chelsea coach Andre Villas-Boas.
Previous managers Jose Mourinho, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Avram Grant and Carlo Ancelotti were dismissed seemingly for less by ruthless owner Roman Abramovich.
Ancelotti won a league and cup double but was axed after the following season while Grant moved on despite being a John Terry penalty slip away from winning the Champions League.
However, there are several reasons to believe Villas-Boas may stay in his post long-term despite Wednesday's 2-1 loss at Bayer Leverkusen.
The first is the 13 million pounds Abramovich shelled out to Porto so the Portuguese could move back to Stamford Bridge in the close season. It may seem like peanuts to the Russian billionaire but he also has business sense. Then again, Villas-Boas mentioning this as a reason to be kept on probably isn't so wise.
Another factor is the merry-go-round of managers at Chelsea has to stop at some point. Alex Ferguson's success at Manchester United and Arsene Wenger's achievements at Arsenal, including pulling them out of their recent rut, demonstrate the pluses of longevity.
Chelsea invested in AVB for a reason and that reason can not have been completely destroyed by a bad patch of form less than halfway through the season.
he isn’t good enough for Chelsea, and Abramovich too.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Does anybody actually care who captains England?
Last week, when Chelsea held a news conference to preview their Champions League match against FC Copenhagen, manager Carlo Ancelotti spent the first 20 minutes fielding questions about John Terry's re-instatement as England captain.
The Chelsea press officer finally stepped in in an attempt to steer the subject back to club football by asking if there were any questions about the forthcoming match or for fellow guest, defender Branislav Ivanovic.
"Yes," came the first reply. "Branislav, what do you think of John Terry as a captain?"
The feeding frenzy continued through the weekend and into England's preparations for Saturday's Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales. Rio Ferdinand was "understood" to be furious. "Sources" said he had considered retiring from international football. Capello was widely attacked, ironically, for releasing the news through the media and then for not acting quickly enough to "clarify" the situation when that self-same media cut loose on the matter.
Finally, on Tuesday, Terry was wheeled out by England to face the press.
The defender duly said all the right things. He was "very delighted" of course and yes, Rio had been in contact to say congratulations, proving "what a great man" he was.
Terry decided that the players saying nothing when Capello asked them if they had any questions on the issue was proof that they were all behind him, though he did admit that he was probably "not everybody's cup of tea".
yes, Europeans put hardly any importance at all on the captain. The armband is flung around from person to person based on appearances. In Italy if the player with the most caps is on the bench and comes on, the captain has to give him the armband. But if he forgets no one cares
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Torres is a one-goal striker and a steal for Chelsea
Will Fernando Torres ever recapture that heady mix of fearlessness, ruthlessness and irresistible skill he showed in his first 24-goal season at Anfield?
Is £50 million enough to buy you a strike rate of a goal every 1.375 games?
You know what? It doesn't matter.
Liverpool needed a 24-goals-a-season striker but Chelsea don't. Chelsea have spent so much money for a player who can score one goal rather than 24, or to put it another way, the goal.
Chelsea would love to win a Premier League and FA Cup double every season, I'm sure, but domestic dominance is not the target for Roman Abramovich and hasn't been for a while. It is no secret that the trophy Abramovich and everyone else at the club really want is the Champions League and in Torres they have acquired a player to take them over the line.
Forget the forlorn figure who limped his way around the World Cup in South Africa and recall the man whose pace and touch left Germany's Philipp Lahm for dead and produced the winning goal for Spain in the final of Euro 2008.
If Torres scores one Chelsea goal all season he will be judged a success, as long as that goal is the one that edges his new club past Barcelona in the semi-finals, say, or clatters past Edwin van der Sar and in off the post in the final at Wembley.
The best striker in the world may be stretching it a little but certainly one of the best and with a fantastic track trcord compared to, say, Andy Carroll.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Liverpool sign Suarez but will he play with Torres?
UPDATE: Liverpool have confirmed that Torres put in a written transfer request on Friday night. The club have rejected it. Read the statement here.
Liverpool and Ajax have just announced that Luis Suarez is joining the Premier League club in a deal worth up to 26.5 million euros.
The question is, will he play alongside Fernando Torres in the Liverpool side or in place of him?
Many will wonder if the decision of the new Liverpool owners to pay such a large fee has anything to do with the bid for Torres from Chelsea. Liverpool flatly rejected the offer when Chelsea approached them with 35 million quid but could another, improved offer tempt them before the closure of the transfer window?
Alternatively, could this signing be the sort of statement of intent Torres needs to convince him to stay?
One of the outstanding players at the 2010 World Cup, Suarez will now undergo a medical and assuming he can reach agreement on personal terms he will become a Liverpool player pretty quickly.
When he will actually play for them, I'm not quite sure, as picked up a seven-match banned for biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal back in November. How's that for hunger?
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Fergie’s smile spells trouble for Premier League title rivals
When Alex Ferguson declares he is happy with his squad for the season remainder, it is time for Manchester United’s Premier League title rivals to start worrying.
The busy Christmas and New Year period is often important in the Premier League, as fringe players are called upon to help negotiate a sea of fixtures which put managers under increasing pressure.
With the worst of it now over, United are beginning to emerge from the pack.
Their recent wins over West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City might not have oozed confidence or screamed ‘champions’ but the results will have worried Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea.
Ferguson rested some key players in both victories, instead letting the likes of Tomasz Kuszczak, Gabriel Obertan, Darron Gibson and Javier Hernandez stretch their legs.
After having his faith repaid with United top after 20 games, he has no doubt raised a smile at fifth-placed Chelsea’s stuttering form and Arsene Wenger’s attempt at squad rotation resulting in third-placed Arsenal coming unstuck with a draw at Wigan Athletic.
Wenger’s decision to make eight changes to the side that beat Chelsea proved fruitless and raised questions as to their strength in depth. They remain a force, but when Wenger tries to tinker, the cracks in his squad can still be seen.
how Dzeko fits in will be very very interesting Josh, especially with combustible characters like Tevez and Balotelli
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Lucas hints at brighter Anfield future
Lucas Leiva has often been dismissed as a mediocre battler with little or no star quality, but the much-maligned midfielder’s performance against Chelsea marked him out as an influential part of Liverpool’s recent recovery.
Few players have attracted as much ire as the combative Brazilian who was reportedly close to strolling out the Anfield exit door during the summer with a host of European also-rans touted as a possible destination.
But his performance in the 2-0 victory, for which he would have been a certainty for man-of-the-match unless a certain Fernando Torres had not bagged both goals, would have underlined his importance to manager Roy Hodgson.
He was everything that Liverpool fans expected when he first arrived from Brazilian side Gremio with a burgeoning reputation as an all-action, box-to-box player.
He was aggressive, snapping into tackles and driving menacingly forward, while guarding possession with a string of accurate passes.
It was all the more impressive for the contrast it presented with the player who was the focal point for so much of the antipathy directed at former manager Rafael Benitez’s team.
The Spaniard, who paid seven million pounds for Lucas’s services, persistently defended his under-performing player, but never escaped the accusations that he had signed a dud.
If anyone wnats a giggle, check out Lucas on twitter, he’s a cracker. More than makes up for any shortcomings on the field
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Deja vu all over again? Soccer romantics will hope so
‘Plus ca change’ was the defining refrain of the Premier League’s opening weekend, but football fans tired of the established order will hope déjà vu is lurking round the corner for Manchester United and Chelsea.
Neither the champions nor the runners-up broke sweat as they strolled to opening victories that pointed ominously to another two-horse race for the Premier League title.
But romantics, who no doubt jollied in Blackpool’s opening day success, will be praying for the footballing equivalent of lightning striking twice to prevent the ‘big two’, as it seems to have become, from putting an early marker down in the title race.
United face Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, the scene of a 3-0 defeat for Alex Ferguson’s side last season, while Chelsea travel to the JJB Stadium on Saturday to play Wigan where they also came a cropper in a 3-1 reverse in 2009.
The chances of these two results being repeated are slim to non-existent. United’s old guard, led by indefatigable Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, looked as fresh as spring daisies as they tore into Newcastle on Monday. Meanwhile, Didier Drogba, another one who should be sliding down the slippery over-30 slope, scored a hat-trick as Chelsea dished out a 6-0 walloping of West Bromwich Albion.
There was little on show last weekend to suggest last season’s also-rans will be able to sustain a title tilt.
Manchester City, despite spending money like it is going out of fashion, still played three holding midfielders, Yaya Toure, Nigel de Jong and Gareth Barry, as they held on for a draw at Tottenham Hotspur who themselves could not find the net despite innumerable chances.
All the Euro 2012 qualifying Games will be streamed live at http://www.WorldCupTV.org 12:26
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
What if “ludicrous” Premier League ends with same top four?
We've had some knockabout fun in the Premier League this season, no question, but for all those eager for a change to the established order the table is taking on an all too familiar look.
Best Premier league season ever? It looked like we were heading that way, thanks to Liverpool's flabbergastingly bad form, United's post-Portuguese predicament, Chelsea's baffling inconsistency and Arsenal's eerie ability to conjure defeats and draws from matches they should have walked. William Hill even announced that the series of upsets involving the Big Four had helped them restore their profit margins at the expense of punters.
But with 16 or 17 matches left to go, look at the table now. For all their ragged performances, Arsenal, Chelsea and United have pulled away at the top, and even Liverpool, desperate, woeful Liverpool, are a point off fourth place having won three and drawn one of their last four. Arsene Wenger says it's ludicrous that his team are back at the top, but really it's anything but.
The problem, I think, is that in their eagerness to sell the story of financial woe at Manchester United and Liverpool, the media have exaggerated the decline of the two teams on the field.
Liverpool have had a terrible season so far, everyone agrees, yet they are only three points down from where they were after 22 games in both the 2006-07 and 2007-08 campaigns. The domestic blip, in fact, was last season's abnormally strong challenge for the title.
Meanwhile, the Guardian screams in a headline of Manchester United's decline, yet third place, a point off the top, and easy qualification for the Champions League knock-out phase shows the situation is not so dire.
So will it matter if the top four at the end of the season is, say, Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool? Will the few heady months of surprises have been enough for those desperate for a new twist to the all too familiar tale?
it would be great to see another team in the top 4 for once. I agree with essthree, liverpool does seem to be the team that is really aiming for the fourth spot. It seems like liverpool has the most to lose if they do not make it in the top four compared to teams like tottenham, and villa. I just dont want to see Manchester city take the fourth spot, which would support the fact that money can get a team into the top spots.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Score predictions come out of the freezer
Last week's snow-show in all but three of the games means there's been very little movement on the scores front, at least here at Reuters Soccer Blog Towers.
Premier League grounds may be as sludgy as Dutch pea soup but at least they're fit for purpose once more and as long as the thaw continues we should get a full programme again this weekend. About time too. Here are the weekend's games:
Stoke City v Liverpool Chelsea v Sunderland Manchester United v Burnley Portsmouth v Birmingham City Tottenham Hotspur v Hull City Wolverhampton Wanderers v Wigan Athletic Everton v Manchester City Playing on Sunday Aston Villa v West Ham United Blackburn Rovers v Fulham Bolton Wanderers v Arsenal
Remember, it's five points for getting the score spot on; or one point if you get the right result but the wrong scoreline. The beauty is that with bonus points available for style, plus double points for new starters for the first month, you can catch us up very quickly. Honestly, turns out we're rubbish at this...
Anyway, give us your attempts in the comments section and see if you can beat the panel. Here are the current RSB scores:
Reuters Soccer blog panel: Patrick Johnston 194, Mitch Phillips 182, Paul Radford 181, Neil Maidment 166, Kevin Fylan 148, Mark Meadows 142, Simon Evans 142, Julien Pretot 137, Mike Collett 132, Asia Sports Desk 115, Martyn Herman 109, Miles Evans 107, Sonia Oxley 71, Justin Palmer 41
And here are our weekend predictions:
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The Wall
