Mid Season Review and Future Predictions

Loki

Loki

Loki

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Having quick look at the table and most of the Football league divisions as well as the Prem. is fast approaching the midway point. So what’s your thoughts on your club, players and football in general. Maybe even a few predictions for the future.

I'll kick off my team, Utd. I’m pretty impressed with our progress to date and good to see Utd sitting pretty at the top of the premiership. More so in a sick kind of way to see where Liverpool and Arsenal to be so many points behind us. Were back to playing some really attacking football the Utd way. Even better that our supposed flops from last season in Vidic and Evra ramming those words right back at the press. Not to mention Fergie doing the same when a lot of the so-called professional pundits predicted we would struggle to hold onto 4th place.

Players of the Season so far Drogba, Gallas and Ronaldo so far. In the case of Ronaldo and Drogba its good to see them stay on their feet and actually do what they are actually good at and entertaining the crowd and playing good football.

Disappointment's of the Season

  • The House of Scouse. Every year the press-sponsored bandwagon is predicted to take the premiership by storm, return Liverpool to its former glories and restore order to the force. Another year and were still waiting. As much as I love the rivalry between the two clubs I think Steve Gerrard is being wasted by how he is played at the moment
  • Chelsea. Forget the money issue for a minute as Chelsea and their money is here to stay. However as a footballing spectacle they are Dull and boring. They grind out results in the most uninspiring fashion. Arsene Wenger was bang on the money when he said Football teams are obliged to go out and entertain the supporters in a proper way. It was a real compliment to hear some of the Bolton fan's this week on the phone ins say that Chelsea were the worst footballing spectacle they had seen in a number of years this week.
  • Neil Carrick. He didn’t ask for the price tag that brought about his transfer from Spurs to Utd but at the moment he is not playing to his full potential. He is an absolute no risk footballer. If there is a ball to be played up front that may not come off he would always pass it sideways. Even on Weds when Scholes was out, he had the opportunity to stamp his authority on the game and he failed to realise that.

Predictions

Utd for the league, Chelsea to be runners up in the Champions League, Arsenal FA Cup. Usual suspects in the top 4. Reading being the surprise top half of the table package if they get one or two more players in.

Relegation, Watford, Sheff Utd & Man City

So how's your season been so far?
 
agree with op - Vidic has been excellent for united this season.

Drogba and Ronaldo are the best 2 so far this season.

Watched Tevez yesterday and was impressed with him, he will come good and if he stays then i think he will score 12 plus goals the rest of the season.

Reading playing some excellent football and lots of clean sheets are doing a great job.

Wasted players - Gerrard and Henry - both look half interested and i think they are both regreting not moving on when they had the chance.

Sheva looks very very average

Some cracking goals already this season so that will be a tough choice at the end of the season!!

Man Utd for the league - Chelsea for FA cup and Champions league. Arsenal for the duffers cup.
 
Aberdeen

Season so far - It has been a nice surprise to see us doing well this season. However maybe some of that has been down to other teams not doing so well (look at Hearts & Rangers). Got a couple of tricky games coming up which could define the rest of the season.

Predictions - Unfortunately I think we will finish in 4th. Could be a close finish between Aberdeen, Hearts & Hibs for 3rd place.
 
Neil Carrick, come on what you playing at :p

Carrick hasn't been a disapointment in my eyes anyway, we've looked far more stable as a team with him in the midfield than without him.
 
Loki said:
Disappointment's of the Season

  • The House of Scouse. Every year the press-sponsored bandwagon is predicted to take the premiership by storm, return Liverpool to its former glories and restore order to the force. Another year and were still waiting. As much as I love the rivalry between the two clubs I think Steve Gerrard is being wasted by how he is played at the moment
  • Chelsea. Forget the money issue for a minute as Chelsea and their money is here to stay. However as a footballing spectacle they are Dull and boring. They grind out results in the most uninspiring fashion. Arsene Wenger was bang on the money when he said Football teams are obliged to go out and entertain the supporters in a proper way. It was a real compliment to hear some of the Bolton fan's this week on the phone ins say that Chelsea were the worst footballing spectacle they had seen in a number of years this week.
  • Neil Carrick. He didn’t ask for the price tag that brought about his transfer from Spurs to Utd but at the moment he is not playing to his full potential. He is an absolute no risk footballer. If there is a ball to be played up front that may not come off he would always pass it sideways. Even on Weds when Scholes was out, he had the opportunity to stamp his authority on the game and he failed to realise that.

Click to expand...

As a Liverpool fan I totally agree we've been a disappointment - well away from home at least. Although we've actually played some pretty good football at home - and have had the hardest fixture list so far - top 3 all away + everton and bolton is always gonna be tough. Five clean sheets in a row now and excellent European results is a positive. Can't see us getting within any less than 10 points of the top two come May. Disagree about Gerrard - the man has extremely high standards to live up to. Any other player doing what he's done this season would be very pleased. He's also improving his own form game by game -along with the whole team's.

With regards Bolton fans calling Chelsea boring - well its pretty ironic - about the two worst football playing teams in the league.

Carrick - totally agree - not sure why Mclaren see's him as England player - he's just not good enough - needs far to much time on the ball.

Predictions wise.
Chelsea have the strength in depth - unless Man U buy in January - or go out of the cups comps very soon, they will tire and fall away come Easter - espically as they have to go to Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.

Can see the usual top four - Probably Chelsea from Man U by 3-5 points. Going down - no one is worse than Shef U, Watford and Charlton. Most of the other teams have too much going for them to stay up - Man City have their home form, West Ham probably just good enough, Newcastle constant under archievers that they are a class above the two promoted sides.

Prediciting whose gonna come up from the Championship is pretty hard - I'd go for Brum and Cardiff in the automatic spots - the third place - who knows!
 
Man Utd - Without doubt the best start I've seen us have, we've grinded out some hard results that this time last year would have resulted in draws or petty losses. Our first team plays football the way it should, attacking, free flowing, entertaining football. I'm very very happy to see Ferguson to take the reigns and stick with the 4-4-2 for the majority of the time. Long may it continue. It's also good to see the mind games starting between Ferguson and Mourinho, it's been a while since I've seen Ferguson this competitive.

Players of the Season so far Drogba, Vidic and Ronaldo. Brilliant to see them not resorting to unfair tactics by using their actual ability to score and set up chances for other players. Drogba is making Schevchenko look decidedly average. Ronaldo has grown up and responded better than I thought he would to the taunts in every away ground. He has matured and is enjoying playing football for us. Vidic has been a rock at the back and most of the clean sheets can be attributed to his solid partnership with Rio.

Disappointment's of the Season

  • Neil Carrick. Don't worry Loki, I get the joke. ;) I think he has been quite poor so far, with only one game that I seen him play well, ideally he should not be partnered with another passing midfielder, and maybe this is the reason why he is underperforming. I think he lacks confidence, you just have to watch 90% of his passing to realise this. I hope he fulfills his potential but I feel that would be in a midfield with a partner other than Scholes. He didn't demand his price tag, but he hasn't risen to prove us all he should be worth that.

Predictions

I can see Man Utd going for the league, Chelsea to be very close runners up, Liverpool or Arsenal winning the FA Cup, Chelsea and Liverpool getting far in the Champions League, possibly to the semi finals, maybe even Chelsea getting to the final.

Relegation, Watford, Charlton, Middlesborough
 
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