Premier League Ponderings – Week 16
The Dog & Duck vs The Red Lion
Look, I’m not gonna pretend that this result didn’t leave me giggling. Manchester United 3-0 Liverpool. I mean, I’d have liked it to be a little more convincing. It’d have been nice if there hadn’t been a couple reasons for LFC to feel hard done by. Or if we hadn’t had to rely on our goalkeeper either (not that that’s a bad thing – it’s playing to strengths!). But after last season I’ll take a win over these buggers by any means necessary and despite being 100% confident of the win leading in to it, well I was pretty confident before plenty other games too (like the Manchester Derby that Chris Smalling ruined then semi-made up for since before re-joining the injury list). Anyway, time to put the impartial punditry hat on.
Lineups. Van Gaal welcomed back Phil Jones to start in a back three alongside Johnny Evans and Michael Carrick. Mata, Fellaini and Rooney playing in the middle, with Juan Mata being the guy pushing further forward. Ma boy James Wilson started up front alongside RVP. Valencia and Young stayed in as wing-backs.
Meanwhile Brendan Rodgers supposedly tried to follow LVG’s example by picking three at the back. He had Glen Johnson alongside Skrtel and Lovren, but also Alberto Moreno in there so it was a 3-4-3 and a hybrid 4-3-3 all at once. Gerrard and Allen in the middle, Henderson further out on the right (which was a problem) and a front three without a single recognised striker: Coutinho/Sterling/Lallana. But mostly they were all kind of everywhere/nowhere. Coutinho played deeper and Rooney was picking him up. Sterling went looking for the ball, while Henderson got sucked too deep and Stevie G disappeared.
Oh, and did I mention that Brad Jones started a goalkeeper? Yep, the Aussie looks like he’s got that gig for a while too, Simon Mignolet’s been dropped ‘indefinitely’. He’s clearly a guy that’ll dive indiscriminately and perhaps that’s not what this team want in a keeper. They want solidarity. Look out for that in January.
Liverpool had the first decent chance of the game. Bubba Sterling is a terrific player and impresses every time he plays. You can count on him to create 3-4 chances a game but you can’t trust him to finish any of them. Seriously, his finishing is awful. That’s the sort of thing you can expect him to improve on as he develops but that’s not a luxury that Liverpool have in their current situation. Anyway, De Gea saves Sterling’s effort, and United go up the other end and make them pay. Valencia slips the ball through Joe Allen’s legs and cuts it back intelligently (I know!) to Wayne Rooney on the edge of the box. Wazza’s pretty ruthless from that range. Brad Jones gambles and dives one way, Rooney double bluffs him. 1-0.
A shout out to internet stupidity too, which meant that the first 15 minutes of this game for me were a stuttering mess of network connectivity issues and The Dreaded Lag. But then Wayne Rooney scored and all was well in every regard.
The second goal was offside. It took a couple replays to be sure but my initial thoughts were that Robin Van Persie had flicked on Ashley Young’s cross before Juan Mata turned it in. Mata was onside from the cross, but off from the touch. Obviously the linesman ruled that RVP didn’t touch it, which was a tough one to gauge even with replays, so spare the death threats maybe.
Juan Mata’s scored 5 goals from 6 shots on target this season. That’s a team-wide trend, too. United led 2-0 against Arsenal with one shot on target. They beat Southampton 2-1 with only two. And here they scored their first two shots on target once more. And if you want a great indication of where Liverpool’s defence is at, look at how they don’t even protest the second goal. It’s as if they just assumed it was their fault once again. The Body Language Doctor would have plenty to say.
Ooh, but at half time Brendan Rodgers made a rare move of tactical cunning… he introduced Mario Balotelli.
Full disclosure: I’m an avowed member of the Mario Balotelli Defence Fund. The guy’s copped undeserved flak for things that aren’t even his fault. So maybe take this with a grain of salt, but I thought he was close to brilliant in his 45 minutes. There were petty fouls, an air of grandiosity, a yellow card, a little laziness and the odd moment of near-wonderment. Like that shot that fizzed past the post. Or the two or three outstanding saves that he drew from David De Gea. Prime Balotelli. He took the focal point of the attack from Raheem Sterling (who faded) and he made things happen. On another day, at a different time, in a different stadium and against a lesser goalkeeper, Mario may just have had a memorable hat-trick.
As the Balotelli-infused Liverpool offensive kicked into gear, Louis Van Gaal switched things up. On comes Ander Herrera for James Wilson for some extra hustle in the midfield. United won the midfield battle hands down, though it wasn’t dominant. Fellaini especially was wasteful, as were the wingbacks on occasion – although Wayne Rooney was typically great at rolling on the ball and offloading it to a free man (Rooney’s goals are obviously his main selling point, but his vision is incredible). Juan Mata is short and small and not very fast, but he barely ever misses a pass. On the other side, Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson were each sucked far too wide and Steven Gerrard was anonymous. If he hadn’t picked up a yellow in the second half for getting tangled with Carrick you wouldn’t have known he was playing.
Almost immediately after that substitution United sealed the deal. A lovely ball from Mata to Rooney, Wayne’s low cross was picked off by Lovren but his clearance was a disaster – right into the path of Juan Mata. Mata to Van Persie, Brad Jones once more left diving the wrong way.
As Robin Van Persie said in the post-matchers, it’s not often a team wins 3-0 and their goalkeeper is the man of the match. But David De Gea is something else. I like me some Thibaut Cortois, however DDG makes saves that no mortal man should be able to make. Cortois probably has the safest hands in the EPL but De Gea is the better keeper. Cortois saves what he should just like Diego Costa scores what he should. The best saves are every bit as valuable as goals, and so in that regard David De Gea is worth more goals to Man Utd than any one of their striking options.
And to say they rely on their keeper to get the defence out of trouble is a bit of a rough deal. He’s a part of the defence! I don’t like the way that goalies get excluded from the team like that. As if they’re playing a different game because they get different rules. The modern keeper is more integrated than ever before. Ask Manuel Neuer.
Despite the chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” from the Old Trafford crowd, Brendan Rodgers’ side should actually have some positives to take from that 3-0 defeat. Weird to say, that. Yet for long stretches of the second half, anchored by Mario Balotelli, they dominated. If they can get that Super Mario more often, then Sterling’s freed up and Gerrard has a target. What they really need is a front three of Sturridge/Balotelli with Sterling behind them but that’ll have to wait. They showed that they can create chances, now they have to show they can finish them. What’s no so pretty is that they join a not-so-elite group of QPR, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Hull as the only sides Manchester United have kept clean sheets against.
Interesting that the first goal came via Antonio Valencia beating a man and crossing from the right, the second via Ashley Young doing the same on the left. Both times it was a ‘central’ midfielder that they beat and both have reasons to be embarrassed. For one thing, Valencia hasn’t nutmegged a player in three years. I might need to double check that but that’s how it feels. He used to have one move: kick it past with the outside of the right boot and beat the defender to the ball before it reached the touchline. Then he’d drive it in low. Those low driven crosses are still a weapon, he just doesn’t take players on enough anymore. While Ashley Young’s delivery (from a dead or live ball) has never been his problem. In fact it’s always been his biggest strength. But just like Valencia he has one move: cut back onto his right boot and cross. Ok, he’s got a stepover and a decent stumble dribble too, but they tend to end in him cutting back to cross. Both Allen and Henderson got skinned by these one-dimensional moves and each ended in a goal.
A word for Michael Carrick, who is continually outstanding. Playing in the heart of defence, he was no less composed or effective. Seriously, he might even be United’s best defender. Phil Jones made a couple big tackles too – and he didn’t even get injured or sent off!
Another not-quite-convincing win for Manchester United and it’s six in a row. Don’t expect a title challenge yet or anything.
Other Ponderings From Week 16
Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher are certified geniuses on Sky Sports UK’s footy coverage. Seriously, every week I see a video of them analysing some point of some football game in the most perceptive way. Most ‘expert’ coverage across sports these days you feel like they’re just telling you what happened verbatim, or worse… stating the goddamn obvious.
But those two explain something and you feel like you’ve learned something new about the game. This week it was Carra’s bit about Dejan Lovren’s positioning – how he’s too focussed on strikers, plays too centrally and leaves his fullbacks exposed by not filling space behind them. Look it up. If anyone has a decent way to watch their stuff, other than fuzzy screen-captures on dailymotion, hit our grateful arses up on twitter (@thenichecache)!
Arsenal did some nice things in their win on the weekend. Most notably scoring goals and winning. But for all the Giroud/Cazorla chatter we could have, I just wanna single out the guy I though was comfortably the best player on the park: Alexis Sanchez. What a player.
It’s not really shocking that Newcastle would get pumped after beating Chelsea. That game was a massive statement, the next (even against Arsenal) was always gonna be hard to replicate it in. No Moussa Sissoko was a huge issue with Arsenal’s midfielders’ propensity to run towards the box, and guys like Colback and Coloccini simple didn’t play as well as last week.
Curious that Mathieu Debuchy (against his old team) found himself at centre-back. This team’s done great things at recruiting attacking players but the defensive side of things, that struggle is real. No Chambers, no Monreal, no Koscielny and Vermaelen was sold in the offseason. By the way, there’s a good chance Vermaelen doesn’t play a single game for Barcelona this season with his latest injury to keep him out until at least the start of April.
Frank Lampard. That is all.
Losing to City, Arsenal and United is one thing. Losing to Burnley and then Sheffield Utd in the League Cup means that Southampton may have a real problem on their hands. The League Cup thing is odd, coz there were a few changes and it was a midweek thing anyway. It’s a good example of a dismissible loss looking way worse in the wake of a bad streak. Take note, Liverpool, when y’all play tomorrow.
Chelsea are in the League Cup semis. Quadruple alert?
Ross Barkley and Christian Eriksen were superb Fantasy Premier League buys. Just a shame I left Barkley on the bench… (The Niche Cache Invitational - 943531-225693)
And this to finish.