Monthly Archives: October 2016

The first few games of the new season for Manchester United were quite successful, as The Red Devils won the Community Shield and the first 3 matches of The Premier League. But, now Manchester United have shown they haven’t changed a lot since the end of the previous season. They only won twice in the last 5 matches (both victories were in the Europa League).

Jose Mourinho has clearly shown he is not going to rely on the most experienced United’s player Wayne Rooney, who is 4 goals away from Bobby Charlton’s goal-scoring record. It’s obvious that when the 31-year-old player is on the pitch, Manchester United look better. However, Mourinho has his own vision for the game and Rooney is no more part of his plan at Old Trafford.

The other players who are maybe not in the Special One’s plan are Morgan Schneiderlin, Memphis Depay, Matteo Darmian and Bastian Schweinsteiger. The former German international player has been told before the start of the season that he is not going to play regularly, but the midfielder refused to leave. To continue with, Schneiderlin has only been among the starting line-up twice since the beginning of the season. Depay and Darmian has also played rarely since the arrival of Jose Mourinho.

The things don’t look very different from the time van Gaal was a head coach of the team. Even though The Red Devils started very well, they are now lying on 7th position of the standings after 9 rounds, which is far away from United’s ambitions. Jose Mourinho knows that he must change something, but is this the right decision?
At both ends, Jose Mourinho has proven he is among the best managers in the world and 1 unsuccessful season can’t delete the trophies he has won! So, when he says a player isn’t good enough for the team, he is probably right!

Tonight is the most interesting game of the 8th round in The Premiership. The game is between Liverpool and Manchester United and will be held at Anfield. It will be the 197th match between these two teams and will be even more interesting with the rivalry between two of the best football managers – Klopp and Mourinho. So, here are some very interesting statistical fact, prior to the big clash.

The Stats

1. This year’s edition of the clash will be the 49th game in the Premier League between these two teams at Anfield. Only one of these matches finished with a goalless draw – in September 2005.
2. Only one of the last 21 league matches between The Reds and The Red Devils ended with a draw. This happened in October 2011 at Anfield, when Steven Gerrard opened the score for The Merseysiders, before Javier Hernandez equalized later in the match.
3. Only six Liverpool players have scored a hat-trick against Man United. The only people who have done it after 1936 are Peter Beardsley (1990) and Dirk Kuyt (2011). In 2010, the Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov has become the first player of The Red Devils to score three goals in one match against The Reds for 64 years. Stan Pearson has bagged a hat-trick in 1946.
4. Daniel Sturridge made his first appearance for Liverpool against Manchester United in January 2013. If the forward plays today, he will record his game № 100 for Liverpool. In his previous 99 games Sturridge scored 55 goals.
5. Only three times in the history of the Premier League Liverpool have had more points than Manchester United after the first seven rounds of the competition, including the current season. To date, Liverpool have a total of 16 points (13 points for Man United). In 1996/97 and in 2008/09 Liverpool have collected 17 points after the first seven rounds.
6. Liverpool have finished in front of Manchester United in the standings of The Premier League on only 3 occasions since 1992. However, The Reds haven’t won the trophy since 1990.

Russia opened a new stadium in Krasnodar, which is going to be used at the World Cup in 2018. However, the Russian team recorded a defeat in their first match (friendly game) at the stadium to Costa Rica 3-4. The attendance at the match was more than 33,500 people (the stadium’s capacity is 34,291). And the defeat was the first for the new coach of the team – Stanislav Cherchesov.

Randall Azofeifa opened the score for Costa Rica after 22 minutes. He scored after a great shot from about 18 metres, but before his attempt the Russian goalkeeper made a terrible mistake passing the ball to Bryan Ruiz. Just 7 minutes later, Ruiz doubled the score after a shot from a long distance (Berezutski could have tried to intercept).

Alexander Samedov managed to score with a great diving header in the 31st minute of the match. 1-2! But, Vasili Berezutski found his own net in the stoppage time of the first half. And do you know why I am mentioning the name of the defender all the time. Because, he would have been awarded for his 100th match for the Russian national team. But because of his errors during the match (his 101st) he wasn’t given the award after the game.

To continue with, Russia put Costa Rica under pressure after the break and managed to equalize with two goals, scored by Artem Dzyuba. And it looked like the match will finish with a draw, before the clumsy challenge, made by Berezutski against Campbell inside the box in the added time of the match. The penalty kick was converted into a goal by Joel Campbel and Russia lost to Costa Rica 3-4.

In conclusion, Berezutski will have to wait people to forget his performance against Costa Rica before receiving his prestigious award. However, we mustn’t underestimate him only because of one single match. He is one of the best Russian defenders and if you remember he scored the goal against England in the stoppage time of the game at the Euro 2016.