Too Early For Conclusions?

We're only five games into the new English Premier League season and a lot of people are already drawing conclusions to what they've seen. As predicted, Manchester City have had a pretty good start with flawless victories so far. Pep has them playing a brand of football we've haven't seen a City team play before and it is quite pleasing to watch, they certainly are the team to beat. Surprisingly we find Everton at second position, most of their fans are quite happy but one has to realise they've haven't had the most difficult fixture list to contend with seeing that only Spurs were their real tough game from the lot. Speaking of Spurs, they're not doing too badly but the surprise package so far has to be Liverpool.

As a supporter of the team, seeing that fixture list before the season started, I would have been happy with 8 points after the first five games but after three trips to London and remaining unbeaten from them with an emphatic victory against the current league champions at home, one has to start wondering if this team can maintain their form throughout the season. We know Liverpool are prone to blow hot and cold, as shown against Burnley which saw them lose 2-0 away from home but the games thereafter showed some promise. 

The team that was making all the noise preseason seemed to have quietened down after three straight defeats, which one might that be? Manchester United of course, now this post isn't meant to poke fun at the rivals but merely state observations of what could be going wrong in the team. Now as much as we mock them for spending so much money on Paul Pogba, secretly we all wished our teams could splash some cash on a world class player like that and cause mass hysteria in the football transfer window. It's what makes the game more exciting, unfortunately it does add pressure to the player, with such a high price tag he will be doing his utmost to prove his price but that can cost them dearly as we saw with Andy Carroll when he made the switch to Liverpool, granted the price was no where near Pogba's, it was a record for a British player and he always tried to do more than what he was capable of during games which subsequently saw him reduced to sitting on the bench. I think Jose needs to sit him down and tell him to just relax and play his normal game, and not expect him to go out there and score hattricks every game. 

Now for the elephant in the room, well troll in the room, aka Shrek. As much as most of us love to hate Wayne Rooney, he is a quality player. After Scholes, Giggs and Ferdinand left the fray, it was up to Rooney to be the English stalwart of the team and credit to him he has done a fantastic job but the thing we all need to realise is that players get old and while they do remain fit, aspects of their game gets affected. They're not as a sharp as they once were, not as quick and their radar goes a bit off every now and then. When Gerrard left Liverpool it was a bittersweet moment because we knew we were losing an asset to the team but he knew he wasn't good enough to make the first eleven any more and he didn't see himself as a player who came off the bench to help the team. I feel the same is happening to Wayne at United. He wants to start every game but can he? Jose wanted Rooney for his Chelsea team 4 years ago and now that he finally has him, he wants to play him in the role he envisaged for him but Jose needs to realise Wayne isn't that same player anymore. The defeat against Watford saw Rooney making some dreadful passes, the last thing he will want is the Old Trafford faithful turning against him for playing badly. I think it's time Wayne realised he isn't that same player and either leave the club or settle for a place on the bench before he damages his good reputation with the supporters. 

Maybe I'm wrong though? Maybe Jose has a plan and he's just waiting for the whole team to click into gear. As I said, we're only five games in so to draw conclusions now would be premature and stupid but from what I've seen so far, this what it seems like but we still have 33 games to go and it's going to be an interesting few months leading up to the December period and we're surely in for a treat. 

Why do they hate us?

On Sunday the 9th of January 2011, was my mothers birthday, apart from this important occasion it also marked yet another meeting of English footballs two greats, Manchester United vs Liverpool FC (the most successful club in England) in the FA Cup. Now like you already know, my team is the red one... the real REDS, we're going through a tough patch as my previous post stated. The reason for this blog post is, on the morning of that Sunday, a good twitter friend of mine that hails from the Cape and who supports Manchester United tweeted and I quote: " I have a question... Why is it that nuetrals always support the team Man Utd is playing? "


Now, where do I start?

[please note I will refer to them as "fan" instead of "supporter", yes there is a difference]

Arrogance- Now dont get me wrong, when your team is winning left right and center, the fan has every right to be be arrogant, but some fans tend to take it to the next level. How you may ask? well for one, if things are not going right for them, the world is against them. Secondly they always have to be right, no number of facts proving otherwise is factual besides what they believe. They'll then turn to pesky name calling (fine there is a fair bit of name calling in footy but these guys just get pathetic at it) then digging up past info to hurl at you for not agreeing with them then insist you are jealous. I could go on about the arrogance level of the fan, but that would just amount to a series of paragraphs explaining the low mentality of these of people.

How do they come about? Well ever since 1999 ( the year of the Devil as some call it ) when Manchester United famously clenched the treble by beating Bayern Munich in a thrilling final which saw them win it in the dying seconds of the game, its almost as if a heavy cloud carrying thousands if not millions of United supporters burst over the earth. Littering countries (and especially ours) with these "Glory Hunters". Strong word to call someone, but thats essentially what they are, couldnt name a starting 11 if their life depended on it. Only thing that was important to them was: Fergie, Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Solskjaer and the most annoying chant you ever heard in your life "Glory Glory Man United"  *wipes away puke*. They'd get up on a Sunday morning (as most games in the league are played on Saturday) see if United have won, whip out that Jersey (real or fake) wear it with pride through out the day, pointing out to anyone that "their team won". Fine some do watch the games, they did so halfheartedly, get annoyed if they didnt see a goal being scored by their team in the ages that they've been sitting in front of the TV (15 minutes) then get excited when one of the few players they do know get the ball but confused as to why they passed it to another lesser known player on the pitch. Now as they years went on from 99, United kept a steady form going by winning the league and various other Cup competitions, so these glory hunters were fed with success, favourtie players changed from Beckham to Ronaldo but that old crock Fergie still remained, good thing too as most of them would be left baffled if he ever left or died.

"OMG! Justin Timberlake is wearing a ManU beanie, Im like sooo supporting that team"

If you ever confronted a glory hunter and told them there are that, they claim they are "passionate", right, refer to the paragraph on arrogant, theres a fine line between passion and being a dimwit. for example, shortly after the game on Sunday, a friend posted something on my facebook wall and by no instigation by myself, so after trying to explain a point a small argument followed.

click to enlargen

Now you see what I said, stubborn, arrogant and resorted to name calling. I wonder if he even read what I typed? I eventually lost hope in trying to educate him so I left it, but of course they always have to have the last say. Its the United way.

Now you see the bad thing with these glory hunters, is that them seem to infect the other true supporters of the said team with the vile they seem is right, hence we tend to get this mixture of arrogant fools all over the place now-a-days. Sure like I said they have a reason to be so but they divulging into the ways of filth that flood us.

Apart from being a supporter of Liverpool football club, I am a fan of the game, so I'll watch any football that is on, especially if its English. So it grates me when these fans of United claim to have knowledge of abundance but in actual fact know diddly squat, but as you can see from that insert, you try to explain that to them. So hence when another team thats playing United defeats them, the footballing world rejoices because most glory hunters go into hiding and we dont need to hear from them till the next time United win, not when they play because they know they are vulnerable to defeat, so its best to come out of hiding once victory is achieved, then they can come out and educate the world on the greatness that is "Sir Alex Ferguson and his team of men"

There are other points I'd like to raise but Im saving them for my next post as this one served just to answer the question that was tweeted. So look out for part 2.