The curious case of Borussia Dortmund! Underperforming in the league and punching above their weight in the Champions League?

I for one don’t think so. It is rare managers come out and say, this season we don’t care about the league and are considering winning the Champions League, a feat that is very much possible. Dortmund have been working miracles over the past few seasons under the leadership of Jurgen Klopp. They won the Champions league way back in ’97 and their last title before Klopp took over was in 2008. He took a couple of years to get things going. They won the Bundesliga in 2010-2011 and won the double in 2011-2012. Bayern Munich, who looked unstoppable before then, were tamed very well by Klopp. Perhaps, it is time to get the cup with long ears back to Dortmund. They have already lost twice in the league this season, whereas Bayern have been in sensational form.

I remember on the night when the Champions League draw was done, we could see many critics writing them off and saying City and Real will go through. We have seen a lot of quality in this side and their performances suggest the same. A gritty 1-0 victory, which came courtesy their sensational striker Lewandowski. An 88th minute winner, which showed us the champions mentality – to win in spite of their performance.

They have already beaten Madrid at home and drawn away. A match in which Real will be thanking their stars for that late draw thanks to a beauty from Ozil. They showed a lot of character in the draw against City which City barely deserved and with home ties against City and Ajax still to come, they look like a good bet to finish the group on top and potentially avoid big European teams like Barca, United, Bayern etc. It would be wonderful if they pull it off, but don’t be surprised if they do.

Before United played The Toffees in the first match of this season, there was some optimism. They signed five players in Robin van Persie, Shinji Kagawa, Nick Powell, Alex Buttner and Abel Henriquez.

After a trophy-less season last year, Sir Alex decided to splash the cash on the biggest name in the Arsenal line-up. A dejected RVP pushed the exit door as he was reportedly making around 70,000 pounds a week, which is less than what Wayne Bridge made at City.

Ferguson threw in a 24 million pound offer and offered a salary of 220,000 pounds a week to lure the Dutchman and succeeded- for which Persie was bashed by many Arsenal legends for being money minded; despite recent reports that say City offered him 300,000 pounds a week at the time. Well, so much for it.

August 20th finally came and United didn’t exactly start well after Rafael’s undoing with the ball led to Fellaini powering home the winner.

And since then, United were given some stick for their defensive performances. Both Jones and Smalling were out and were soon joined by sensational Serb Nemanja Vidic.

But the picture looks different now as they are standing on the top with 8 wins and 2 draws- knocked out of the League Cup but have have a success rate of 100% in Europe.

RVP has already scored 8 league goals and 3 in the Champions League. He is firing on all cylinders and Rooney has been equally fantastic himself, even after having compromised to play in a deeper role.

There are plenty of positives, but there are also defeats to show against The Toffees and The Spurs. However, Rafael has improved a lot and the Spurs defeat was largely because of Fergie’s poor tactics. The midfield was overrun by a pacy Spurs midfield.

But United compesated with important victories over Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool- however controversial the circumstances were.

Another positive is that Valencia and Rafael look like they have turned into the best right side pairing in the Premier League. To add to that, the sensational Rooney-RVP combo is making other teams tremble with fear. The defense is little jittery at the moment, but time will heal the problem(and their defenders).

The three things that United could do to almost ensure the winning of the title and- possibly- the treble are:

1) If Ferguson stopped messing with the team’s tactics ahead of important games like the one against Spurs,

2) If they stopped conceding early on in the game and,

3) If some of the younger players like Wooton and Keane were given some more playing time in the inconsequential fixtures that remain in the Champions League group stage, as they need some insurance on their reserves bench.

Part-1 and Part-2 can be found here.

Well, now it is time to assess the performance of the Citizens. In the recent seasons, they have been synonymous with the two s’, success and signings. The Sheikhs have spent ridiculous amounts of cash and have put a lot of faith in Mancini. The money spent put them on the map. This inevitably has brought glory to City and their fans have finally been able to get one over their cross town neighbours, who themselves have claimed 12 Premier League titles since the introduction of the Premier League. Initially, winning the FA Cup and then the Premier League in two consecutive seasons was no easy feat. Now, let us look at their performances in the Premier League this season.

They started the season as ‘the champions’. They have so far won six and drawn four of their 10 matches this season, but are yet to play both Chelsea and Manchester United, the two other title contenders. They are the only undefeated side in the league, just like United were a couple of years ago at this stage. United won the league that season due to the fact that they had consistency all throughout the season, which amazingly every other team lacked. But this season, United and Chelsea are firing on all cylinders, so will just being consistent with results be enough? They also share a negative trait with United from that season, which is that they just cannot win away from home. They have been unconvincing with their game play.

Last season, Kompany and Lescott were stunning and marshalled their troops to the title, but this season, the defence is not looking as good as last season. They just can’t score goals, as they have 18 to their name compared to last year’s 36, which is just 1.8 goals a game. Even Everton have scored more and I don’t mean any disrespect to Moyes’ men, but compare their spending to City’s and you will understand the comparison. The manner in which they have won a couple of times has been described as ‘champions’ style’, but scoring late so many times in the season should be a cause of concern for Mancini. Sometimes the goals may never come and the occasion come back to haunt you. Winning when you play badly is different from playing bad every other week, and their Champions League performances are not helping either.

The goalless draw at Upton Park is a sign that Mancini should try something and make it work for them, or else City could be in for some trouble.The problem is that every team has bettered their performances when up against the champions, but City, instead of taking it to the next level, have instead lowered their standards. The fact is they are not playing badly, but we expect a stronger performance every time City step on the field.

Things to do to a crisis:

1) Sign a creative player, as they struggle without Silva. Nasri hasn’t quite been able to play to his highest levels, and Yaya Toure is exceptional but can find it difficult to fly solo when the opposition crowd out the centre and City don’t cross much.

2) STOP TINKERING SO MUCH!! Mancini seems to be doing too much of it. He needs to change only a couple of players and try to achieve a stable formation for the team, which will in turn help them.

3) Stop trying the 3-5-2. The players are not used to it and it is hurting the team. This formation is one in which there is a lot of running involved, and brings a lot of fatigue to the players.

Man CIty have a genuine chance of defending their title, but I don’t see any coming back from the dead in the Champions League.

]]> http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/11/06/what-we-learnt-from-first-10-games-of-epl-part-23/feed/ 0 087510 http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/11/06/what-weve-learnt-from-the-first-10-games-of-the-epl-part-13/ http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/11/06/what-weve-learnt-from-the-first-10-games-of-the-epl-part-13/#comments Tue, 06 Nov 2012 09:24:19 +0000 Sai Kumar http://www.sportskeeda.com/?p=924534

SWANSEA, WALES – NOVEMBER 03: Cesar Azpilicueta of Chelsea applauds the fans during the Barclays Premier League match between Swansea City and Chelsea at Liberty Stadium on November 3, 2012 in Swansea, Wales.

It started with a cracker, which included jaw dropping results like Liverpool recovering from a 3-0 drubbing to draw City, which I think they should have won and the Chelsea‘s 4-2 victory over Spurs. Mata made Spurs look like a bunch of headless chickens and there were those two exceptional goals.Well, looking at the table, we know it is going to be a three way title fight between the Manchester clubs and the Blues, unless one of them is going to suffer a severe dip in form to make it like last year. I will discuss one team in each segment, what they more likely to suffer from and what they will have to do to avoid such a crisis?

Chelsea:

Seven wins, two draws and a sole defeat to United. A fine start to the season, and they look great under the leadership of RDM (He is reportedly suffering from “Pep” blues). They have recorded some impressive victories over Stoke and Arsenal and the two draws came from matches against QPR and Swansea.

The real problem has come from the draw with the latter, RDM fielded a fairly different team and they took the lead through Victor Moses from a set-piece and then concede a late goal from Hernandez (Pablo, this time) and succumbed to a draw.The problem is that RDM has used his best players in the start of the season and now that the fixture list is tightening up, he is unable to field the same 11 all the time and an additional problem to this are the second string players (Marko Marin and Victor Moses can hardly be called so but, this is Chelsea we are talking about) who have lacked game time and look like they lack match sharpness.

Even Hazard and Oscar looked tired and fatigue could take over the squad. The problem is the lack of rotation and the absence of need another centre-back. They can’t rely on John Terry forever. Cahill is good but Luiz is really error prone with his defending and if Ivanovic is moved central, then they have to put Azpilicueta at right-back, something RDM is not looking to do.

They need another striker as well, as Torres is flying solo with Sturridge not finishing his chances as was illustrated in his performance against United in the league cup. But I think he can do well if given a consistent run of games.

Need to do:

1) Rotate his squad and give a break for players like Mata, Hazard and Torres.

2) Buy a centre-back.

3) Buy a striker or start pushing Sturridge into first-team before he calls it a day at Chelsea.

Thomas Vermaelen recently spoke about the Arsenal squad, their ambition and their summer business. They have so far signed Giroud and Podolski. But their talisman, Robin van Persie, looks set to leave the club for trophies and of course better pay. Anybody who watches the Premier League knows how they pulled off a miracle by going from 17^th(on the verge of relegation) at the start of season to 3^rd at the end of the season. Now with him all set to leave , it gives a message to the fans that Arsenal can longer compete with the money power of teams like Manchester City nor do they have the kind of attraction Manchester United and Juventus hold , who are reportedly the teams in line to sign the mercurial striker.

Arsenal were once among the best in Europe, they fell off the pace after the ‘Invincibles’ era and were content to be among the best in England, but now even that looks to be under threat. Arsenal have now turned into a feeder club. They have lost a number of talented players like Fabregas and Nasri to top teams and now look content to make profits instead of competing for the EPL title.

Arsene Wenger’s philosophy of believing in youngsters is back-firing because of the lack of ambition shown in their quest for trophies. They have failed to win a trophy for a very long time and the fans are absolutely clueless on when the title-less streak is going to end. They nurture players into world class players only to lose them to top teams.

Arsenal need to invest in buying some centre backs as they have no proper back up for Vermaelen and Koscielny. They  have a self-sustainable model but if they don’t win they’ll lose their fans and the income produced from match days will slowly go down. They have to break the income cap and pay the money which other teams are paying to keep their star players. The owners should let Arsene spend good money to get quality players like Hamsik and Hummels who can make the team more solid and perform on a weekly basis, which is not the case with players like Ramsey or Gibbs.

Arsenal fans pay a huge amount to watch matches at their coveted Emirates stadium, however, if the team continue to perform abysmally, they will slowly lose some of these fans. Hopefully, the owners will support the manager in his pursuit to bring back the Arsenal that once we know, a team which had a plethora of great players such as  Thierry Henry, Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira to name a few.