Premiership 2005

[sayjann]

'I'm very curious about Liverpool. If Benitez keeps it fairly close he could nick whoever is 3rd. Hell, he may even be in the top 3 himself'

 

come on Steve.

if that is what you think then have a go at my PL Prediction Game.

you think Liverpool will finish in the top3?,then enter.

i think you are too scared to have a go.......

 

Davids bottled it.

for the last 2 Weeks in the UK Media it has been talk of him going to Liverpool or Tottenham.

he knew that he could not play in the PL because he is too slow and old.

he lost his bottle.........he was scared that he would have looked foolish.

[frogpatrol]

greg said:

Did anyone see Fooball Focus. Paul Masefield was trying to build up the return of Ferdinand against Liverpool. (his 1st game back)

He clains Arsenal won the title last year because of Ferdinand's ban. Apparantly it had nothing to do with Arsenal's breathtaking football or going through the league season unbeaten.

 

I saw it and thought the same as you.

 

Masefield is an idiot. On many occasions he seems to read notes he has just received and says little more than what is common knowledge. On other occasions, like the one mentioned above, he speaks his opinion, which more often than not seems to have little connection with reality.

 

Okay, I am biased, but the Gunners WON the Premiership, and though Rio's departure may have been the difference between 2nd and 3rd, I feel it had littel to do with losing the title.

 

 

froggo

[sayjann]

as a Utd supporter i have my view on this subject.

we will never know what effect the Ferdinand ban had on the title race.

we will never know if Utd would have won the PL or wether Arsenal would have still romped away with it.

 

all i know is that at the time of the Ban starting Utd were top of the table with the best Defensive record at the time.

would that have continued if Rio was not banned?,who knows?.

but the fact that as soon as he was banned Utd lost members of the Defence because of injury for long periods and a settled defence was rarely put out.

 

not making excuses,Arsenal won because they were the outstanding team in last seasons PL.

they had the fortune to play the same Players each game with a slight change every now and then and that was the basis of their success.

a settled team will always play better as they get into the groove week in,week out.

[Zaad]

I agree with you Sayjann...who knows had he not been banned.

 

HOWEVER... I don't think Man U want to give the Rio affaire as an excuse though. Which big club would want to blame their title miss on a single player? The team should be strong enough and have good substitutes lined up, if not then club management / trainer is at fault and they don't usually enjoy being at fault, thus is the title lost due to Arsenal's splendid performance.

[sayjann]

' I don't think Man U want to give the Rio affaire as an excuse though '

 

you must not have seen the English Press this week.

both Fergie and Gill(chief Executive)have gone on record with comments that if Rio had not be banned ,then Utd would have won the PL.

 

i distance myself from those comments as you all know from my previous post.

[Zaad]

"you must not have seen the English Press this week."

 

No, I haven't.

Surprising to say at least that they gave the Rio excuse.

 

Obviously a team must consist of more than 11 players. 11 players only don't win anything, the whole team does...20+ players do. Maybe not all 20 participate in the matches but the subs certainly are the ones who keep the key players sharp at trainings in order to avoid being left on the bench.

 

A very poor excuse and they're the ones to blame for not having a good substitute or tactical solution at hand for his missing.

 

I find their behavior non-professional.

[greg]

Jesus christ.

 

in terms of excuses this is up there with losing at Southampton because they wore grey.

 

I agree Football is a squad game now however Aresenal went the whole season unbeaten. How could having Fedinand in the defence have made that much difference. It would have made A difference for sure. But not a big enough one. If Arsenal just about won the title after a clocking up a few defeats I may have sympathy for there view.

However Arsenal had a record breaking season and Utd didn't. Simlpe as that.

[Steve]

Sayjann, at least you separated yourself from those comments. I separated myself from Wenger's comments last summer when he sounded bitter about losing the title. We lost it end of. What I do object to is the reason that is given for our loss in '03. We had massive injuries and suspensions to the one part of our team that was the most vulnerable: the defense. Down the stretch we lost Vieira, Sol, Keown, Ljundberg, and to play Luzhny and Cygan in defense. It was a patchwork defense. Man Utd had a phenominal April and May. I said before April '03 that if they can take get all points from Liverpool, Newcastle and Us, they deserved it and they almost did, drawing against us. Plus beating Real Madrid in the 2nd leg. That alone is deserving and they were unbeaten the 2nd half of the season. I just didn't like our loss of the title attributed to bottle. If we lost our bottle so did Man Utd. We suffered far more in injuries.

 

Anyway, I didn't say Liverpool would finish 3rd, I say they could if the gel. Its possible. Benitez took Valencia to la liga champs in one season. Liverpool have a great nucleus to work with. Its not like he's taking over Blackburn and trying to get a CL spot. Its already a CL qualifying team he's got. Wenger in his 2nd full year won the title and had a great '97 season.

 

The toon are the only club that seems to be able to even come close to challenging them for 4th spot and the toon are not strengthening their club like Liverpool has. Cisse is a great player, Baros had a great euro 20o4. Benitez, hell, even me or you could manage Liverpool better than Houllier did. I don't think its far fetched that if one of the top 3 have a bad 2nd half of the season that Liverpool couldn't nick that club.

[sayjann]

excuses?.

i made no excuses,i just stated that MU were top with the best Defensive record before Rio was banned.

i just thought out aloud that no-one will ever know what would have happened if he had not been banned.

i stated quite clearly that i distanced myself from the official MU view that the ban cost MU the title.

i do not believe that,but some people do.

 

i agree with what Steve said.

last Season MU did have injury problems and i think that is a factor as to why they lost the Title.

but more importantly Arsenal were the best team and that is why they won and i acknowledged that.

the previous Season is as Steve says,Arsenal also had their injury and suspension problems and that was a big factor as to why they did not win the title.

MU had a good finish and maintained the lead to win.

 

but what might have happened during the last 2 Seasons if both Teams had had no problems with injuries etc?.

another case of we will never know.

[Zaad]

Sayjann,

i made no excuses,i just stated that MU were top with the best Defensive record before Rio was banned.

 

You're right about that. His ban must have had an impact on the defense, on the team.

OTOH, it takes more than 1 player to cause a serious crack in a well performing team IMO..

All part of the sport.

 

CS,

I agree that Liverpool do have the quality to disturb the top teams. And things are looking quite good with a good trainer and better team. (yes, selling junk like Heskey does improve the quality)

The whole team might get a moral boost from the new and positive outlook and that's very much needed for most players to get in their best form and attack the top-3.

 

I'm pretty sure a quality trainer like Benitez has no other plan in his mind than making it as difficult as possible for the top-3 with his current team.