Bookies still make United favourites:
<http://www.givemefootball.com/premier-league/bookies-still-make-united-favourites>
United are 7/4 to retain the title, Chelsea very close 2nd favourites at 2/1 followed by Liverpool at 11/4 and Arsenal at 8/1
I know this will annoy the Liverpool fans but I have a feeling that their great form last season particularly towards the end of the season, will be pretty hard for them to replicate next time around even assuming they hold on to Alonso and Mascherano
Bookies still make United favourites:
<http://www.givemefootball.com/premier-league/bookies-still-make-united-favourites>
United are 7/4 to retain the title, Chelsea very close 2nd favourites at 2/1 followed by Liverpool at 11/4 and Arsenal at 8/1
I know this will annoy the Liverpool fans but I have a feeling that their great form last season particularly towards the end of the season, will be pretty hard for them to replicate next time around even assuming they hold on to Alonso and Mascherano
i'd love to hear your rational for that one Frank...
think you should be worried about what Utd's form will be like to be honest....
The rationale is simple: form is temporary, class is permanent. Ronaldo scored 42 goals in 07/08. That was an incredible feat for him but it was achieved on the back of class plus form. In 08/09 he still ended up being United's top scorer and 2nd in the league but got nowhere near the previous year's haul. The class was the same but the form wasn't as good. Likewise, Liverpool's end of season run was title-winning form but it will be hard to replicate that. Their class (assuming the central midfielders stay) will be the same, but I can't see them sustaining the level of form over the whole season. Thing is, if you try and analyse why they did so well, all of the same factors are there from the previous run of not so good form which would lead to the conclusion that a good chunk of that good form was temporary.
Liverpool's present first team has a solid keeper, a few decent central defenders in Skrtel, Carragher and Agger a good right back (now) in Johnson and if Alonso and Mascherano stay a top quality central midfield, Torres, Gerrard and two from Riera, Benayoun, Kuyt etc. and all you are short is a decent left back and Aurelio's not even that bad. But the squad, though large, is pretty poor and I haven't seen anything from the likes of Ngog, El Zhar & co. to suggest they're going to give Rafa too many good rotating options.
Re United's form - I think we're pretty well covered in most areas. We probably have more quantity than quality when it comes to wingers and if Owen Hargreaves doesn't come back soon, we could probably do with a bit more bite in midfield but there are decent players all the way through the first to third choice 11s. As for Ronaldo's goals, we've been here before - Ruud Van Nistelrooy was also a prolific scorer and every thought we would struggle for goals in the season after he left but somehow or other everyone else chipped in instead and we won the league.
Frank, Liverpool could have signed Villa, Ribery and Benzema during the summer and you'd still be saying the same thing.
It's a moot point because there's no way Liverpool were ever going to sign those guys, but in any case I wouldn't. The reason I'm saying it is because there's very little change in their squad so it's reasonable to draw conclusions about the current squad from last season's form. If Alonso and Mascherano are sold and adequate reinforcements aren't brought it, it's a completely different story
Latest Content A Week in the Life of...Chymera• Straight to the Point: Neil Landstrumm• Label Mates - 4AD Records• Straight to the Point: Piemont• Fresh Up Records• Straight to the Point: Rivet
You mean Liverpool aren't signing Villa, Ribery and Benzema? But Magoo told me they were, it's not like him to be wrong!
Could finally be Liverpools's year, of course I hope I'm wrong, Fergies midfield was destroyed in Rome, he needs a quality creative midfielder like Stephen Ireland. If Liverpool can stop losing points to shite teams like Stoke they have a great chance.
RSS
