The Weekend’s Other Games 01/01/21

[southernboy]

Crap second half.

[Insidious]

Lampard’s situation right now is the fear a lot of us would have if Stevie was the successor to Klopp. Expectations are intense and who wants to fire a club legend? Been there done that with the King.

And Lampard arguably (and it IS arguable, can appreciate both sides of the argument) had a "trickier" route in terms of taking a Championship side (notoriously several sides compete) versus joining a League typically associated with a two-Horse race.

I think Frank needed a job in-between those two levels rather than making a direct jump - in just the same way I'd like to see Stevie do well with somebody like Newcastle or a promoted Nottingham Forest or whatever if he is to ever get the Liverpool job, rather than straight from Rangers to Liverpool.

[faridtoxteth]

For all the talk of Utd's title challenge, you've never seen them play at the level city are playing at today. Not since ferguson era anyway. Which is why i was hoping Chelsea would get something from this game.

[Steveo]

Chelsea - at home and just 1 shot on goal - when the game was at 90 mins

1:3 FT

[Insidious]

TiTlE cHaLlEnGeRs

[southernboy]

I still wouldn’t right off Lampard at Chelsea. It’s a strange season for so many reasons, it’s hard to put together a full picture. He’s got the players, he just needs more time. I’m not sure what their ambitions are for this season, but I would imagine a top four finish would be adequate.

We are all very critical of clubs that chop and change their managers all the time. I suspect even Roman will be patient for this season at least.

[Crimson Dynasty]

And Lampard arguably (and it IS arguable, can appreciate both sides of the argument) had a "trickier" route in terms of taking a Championship side (notoriously several sides compete) versus joining a League typically associated with a two-Horse race.

I think Frank needed a job in-between those two levels rather than making a direct jump - in just the same way I'd like to see Stevie do well with somebody like Newcastle or a promoted Nottingham Forest or whatever if he is to ever get the Liverpool job, rather than straight from Rangers to Liverpool.

The Scottish league wasn't a two Horse race when Stevie joined them.

Rangers had just barely been re-promoted back from their forced demotion to the second tier, and Celtic had been dominating that league for effectively a decade (they'll likely fall short of 10 consecutive titles this year).

So in essence, it really was a one team league, and Stevie had to rebuild Rangers to not just be a contender again, but to back to where they were a perennial challenger to Celtic's dominance.

And it seems like this year they will win it with the sort of margin that we had at times last year - with no games lost and only 5 goals conceded. (even we weren't that good in the league last year before the shutdown).

I still believe Stevie's real test will be how far he can take them in the Europa league.
If he can take them to the latter stages (semi-finals or finals, minimum) or possibly even win it (which even Celtic never managed to do in their decade of dominance) then maybe we can have a conversation about whether he's ready for the next step).

If he can even pad that by taking them out of the group stages in the Champions' League, then I'll argue he's more than ready to take over for Klopp, if Klopp decides he doesn't want to go beyond 2024.
If nothing else, there's the fact that his Rangers team plays in a very......how shall we say?....."Klopp-esque" style of football (without the defensive steel, which I feel he still needs to develop a solid defensive philosophy for his team), which would fit right well for someone taking over a Klopp team.

I'd be convinced in Lampard's case if he'd actually brought Derby up.

[Balinkay]

H/T
Bayern 0-2 Mainz

Er.... it's 5-2 now. Fucking Bayern.

[fagin]

Because i hear so much on the site how every other team buys at will and basically fans on hear think of us as the poor team under FSG.I googled the top 10 most expensive squads in prem league at present:
It gives the top 10 clubs with
ManCity #1 @ 1.014billion
ManUtd #2 @ 751million
LFC #3 @ 639million
Chelsea #4 @ 561million
Arsenal #5 @498milliom
Everton #6 @486million
Spurs #7 @465million
Leicester #8 @312million
West Ham #9 @259million
Newcastle #10 @227million
Cost is in Euros not Pounds. These were the costs to put each team together as of up to date

[Crimson Dynasty]

Er.... it's 5-2 now. Fucking Bayern.

Speaking of One-team leagues........