HUGE win for United, Valencia has stepped up this season, Mancini's recent prediction was foolish. This win should Make him and Vieira focus on City's own form.
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SING UPPPPPPP FOR THE CHAMPIONS!!! The fat lady is in full voice for Man. City thanks to the princely spaniard. That beauty known as Mikel Arteta!
Congrats Man Utd. Took advantage of an extremely average epl season, united were consistently above average.
Huge game coming up on Wednesday in the Bundesliga. The German "Clasico", so to speak. Dortmund (1st with 66 pts) against Bayern (2nd with 63 pts). Both teams have been unbeaten for a while now. I predict you will see better football than when Barca plays Real.
I'm sure of that seeing as "The Special One" won't be on the touchline for either team trying to clog up the match with his tactics and dirty play. When did Dortmund creep up into 1st??? Come on Bayern.
Extremely average by means that Man Utd couldn't even beat Benfica and lost in the Europa league yet are the champions of england. Yeah I'd call that a testament to how average the domestic affairs of the rest of the table was.
Then that's pretty silly and misguided as to Football in Europe on your part. How United performed in Europe has little bearing on the difficulty of the league itself and their fitness to be Champions of their league. When you want to evaluate a league, don't merely use the form of the team in Europe as your test.
how else would you compare leagues if you are not using competition against other leagues? By your logic, I can say MLS is the best league in the world and you couldn't disprove my point in any way. Why can't I use european play? Isn't that the most coveted trophy in all of football? Isn't that the MAIN goal of every big time club? When you have your champion of the league fail at their main goal that means nothing? Not like they lost to a similar ranked club such as barcelona or milan either, they couldn't get out of a group stage by beating out Benfica (2nd in Portugal) and FC Basel (1st in Switzerland league). When your team lost out on your most coveted trophy by being unable to defeat Benfica and Basel in a group stage then that raises questions on how good your team really is. Confounding that, they lost to Athletic Bilbao on aggregate in the Europa league, a team that is currently TWELFTH in La Liga?? How does that NOT raise questions?
Here's how it doesn't raise questions and I'll start with the last statement which I chose not to get into initially. 1. Do you really think certain teams after a disappointing CLeague campaign give two sh!ts about the Europa League? United knew one way or another they'd be back in the CLeague next season. Bilbao on the other hand are/were clawing their way to compete in the CLeague next season. They needed to win. They needed the Europa League money. For a club like United, the money gained from victory in certain rounds of the Europa league is basically meaningless because they have a variety of other revenue streams not named European competition in which they can bring in similar amounts of money. Plus you add in a desire to focus on winning the league and stopping their main rivals from across town from winning the league title and yeah, that's how you lose to a team like Bilbao. (not like Bilbao didn't outclass them in the two leagues, Bilbao were FANTASTIC on the pitch but if one actually thinks United really gave a f#ck then one is mistaken). 2. The MAIN goal of the league champion is not to win an external competition BUT TO WIN THE LEAGUE and become the League Champion! The European Cup is the most coveted Club trophy but by your logic, if Bayern Munich win the Bundesliga and lose to Real Madrid in the semi-final of the CLeague then because they've failed at their main goal of winning the European Cup(much less in their own stadium), then apparently that would devalue their Bundesliga title? Or is that only when they lose to a non G-14 club? 3.I could actually disprove your point re. MLS because it's not just competition against other leagues BY THE CHAMPION of one league but competition against other leagues ACROSS THE BOARD that determines the status of one league, and in Europe, the amount of places in European competition and specifically the Champions League. That is why Italy lost their fourth Champions League spot and Germany gained that spot. Some may contest that Germany don't deserve that spot but it's not based on how the champions of the league fared in Europe but rather how all of the teams from the league that competed in Europe fared. With regard to MLS, you'd have to compare how MLS teams fare/fared in the CONCACAF Champions League to how Mexican, Costa Rican, El-Salvadorean, etc teams fared. As opposed to just how the L.A. Galaxy performed. Then you'd move on to how they perform in the Club World Cup. Plus there is also a subjective element to the strength of a league. One can tell by the quality of play the difference between the EPL, Bundesliga, MLS, Cypriot League, etc. United are not the first league champions to underperform in Europe. Whether it's to a smaller side like Basel or a bigger team, IT HAPPENS! It's not going to affect the standing of the EPL in how UEFA determines Champions League spots or determine which league is the strongest(either in the front half of the table or from top to bottom).
Appears ManU has won the premier league again with ManCity choking at the end. IMO Mancini drove his squad into the ground. David Silva was done by December, the guy has looked like a shell of his first half self. Same could be said of a number of the other players as well. I expect Dzeko, Tevez, and Balotelli to be gone this summer. Dzeko is too slow for the premier league and can't dribble if his life depended on it. Balotelli is such a headcase, damn talented but probably the biggest dumba$$ I've ever witnessed on the football field. He reminds me of Ron Artest. I'd probably fire Mancini and I expect it to happen, the guy didn't even bother to change up tactics when playing in the CL, you can't play the Premier league style against those other European teams. Anyway I think next year ManCity should win it quite easily, they should continue to improve their squad, I don't think ManU is quite as good as they've shown to be....
I had low expectations this year for Man U. I saw this year a chance for the new kids to gain experience as Scholes, VDS, n soon Giggs to retire. Took them abit to recover losing Vidic. I'm curious to see who will SAF bring in during the summer as Berbatov should be gone n the need for a CM.
Absolute truth. Mancini had three problems (1) Tactically he never had a plan B. Still better than Dalglish in that he at least had a plan A but once other prem. teams figured City, he never seemed to be able to adjust. (2) He couldn't motivate his lads in the manner that SAF, Mourinho, Pep, even Arsene could. That little bit of push or motivation to get them through the rough period in a season and continue the challenge. (3)Balotelli! He made his bed with Balo and must now lie in it(or leave with him). He couldn't change Balo while he was the Inter manager. Mourinho tried to work with Balo and gave up on him YET Mancini in all his wisdom thought it would be wise to bring him to City and "depend" on him. All that did was drive a wedge in his team at a crucial time in the season. When championship teams are coming together to compete you have the City players furious with Mancini for babying Balo to an extent. You have Balo arguing over free kicks (at least he didn't go all Kieron Dyer-Lee Bowyer/LeSaux-Batty) and then Balo allegedly getting into it with teammates-Yaya Toure the latest. Mancini is as good as gone. Word is Mourinho has a contract set for City that is being kept relatively on the hush. (I hope City don't sign him). I don't know if I would blame Dzeko's speed or dribbling ability as the reason for his poor second half of the season. I mean, Emile Heskey and a number of others have carved out a career in the prem. with lesser ability. Then again, Heskey wasn't playing for a Championship winning side. I'd lay the blame squarely at Mancini. This is the second season in a row I've thought United weren't necessarily the best team but they had the best manager. These last two titles were all SAF.
Agreed. Mancini having his LB and RB running up front and getting caught in the counter attack over and over again was laughable. There is no reason for his squad to have not gone further in the EC. Terrible tactics. I think this is a little harsh, how are we to really judge how motivated these players are? Based on wins and losses? IMO to a certain extent players are where they are because they are competitive by nature. Then again we are all humans and tend to lose interest once in a while, but still I find this a difficult area to judge a coach on because different people are motivated in different ways. I guess a coach has to figure out what that is... Yeah I saw the bust up Balotelli had for that free kick, everyone was pushing him out of the way, it was cringe worthy moment as a fan of ManCity. I think because of the Tevez situation Mancini really got stuck with depending on Balotelli.... Why don't you like Mourinho? In regards to Dzeko you hit the nail on the head, he's not the player you need on a championship side. But they paid for him like he was and that's the problem (but then again they've overpaid for almost everyone they got). I would keep Adebayor as a guy coming off the bench than Dzeko....
The motivation thing or lack there of on the part of Mancini comes from the Italian journo's that covered him at Inter and now do the same with City or talk to the City journo's. It's more along the lines of how one motivates an NBA team. Like Phil Jackson for instance. He was a good x&o's guy but he knew how to push buttons like SAF does or Mourinho does. In the right way sometimes. You're so right on the coach having to figure out the way to motivate different people and certain coaches and managers know how to do it right. I guess we'll find out more as players exit after the season. Figure some like Kolo and Tevez may enlighten us about Mancini's methods. Haha! I've actually come around to love Mourinho. I mentioned not wanting him to take the City job because I don't want to dislike him in the way I feel for City. I hope another big club comes in with an offer for him or he stays with Madrid.(Doubtful though). The Barcelona fans on here must also be over the moon. Madrid dropping points while Barca get ready for the final stretch run. The end of the La Liga season looks set to be an exciting one.
you wrote all that for nothing. I said that man utd were consistently above average but nothing special. Special epl winning clubs on the whole dominate the domestic league and european league, and don't fail to pass the group stage. If you are arguing that the EPL isn't weaker this year over years past then I don't know what to say to you. Man Utd winning in a weak EPL = devalues the championship. Just look at the european performances of all the english clubs, only Chelsea managed to get through, 5 years ago English clubs were HEAVILY represented in the late stages of the champions league.
Just passing by to LOL at Madrid. Here's to hoping they lose more points in the derby on Wednesday!! Forca Barca.
Madrid looked totally impotent today. It's really hard to root for them when they look like this. Also, I'm completely sick of Pepe's crap. The guy has completely lost it. Di Maria played like a p***** today. The whole game can be summed up with Casillas' clearance gone for a corner set to a cartoon blooper sound effect.
