The promising youngsters that had been cultivated in the Bordeaux set-up left that summer, leaving us to wonder what could have been had they managed to keep the likes of Bixente Lizarazu, Christophe Dugarry, and Zinedine Zidane together and into their prime.
Lorient went down to nine men in the 77th minute after an absolutely bizarre passage of play. Majeed Waris, who had been playing well for Lorient as number 9, had turned well in the area and was shaping to shoot before getting hauled down. The referee was no more than five yards away and inexplicably signalled play on, eliciting howls of frustration from the Lorient players, none more so than Benjamin Jeannot. In his rush to get to the loose ball the Lorient midfielder, who had been subbed on only 15 minutes earlier, shoved the referee out of the way, earning himself a straight red.
Pep is already doing his best to become a true Manchester lad, choosing his Willy over his Hart on a Saturday night out in town. Joe Hart was dropped due to the fact he is not very good at passing the ball, as opposed to not very good at keeping the ball out of the net which would have been far more obvious.
Last season Angers SCO finished 9th in the table, but that doesn’t really tell the whole story of their campaign. Back in the top division after over two decades, the expectation was for the team to largely act as fodder for their bigger rivals, with relegation certainly not out of the equation. Instead, based on a solid defensive set-up devised by coach Stéphane Moulin, Angers spent much of the season in contention for European competition…
Get ready for the upcoming season and subscribe to the Coshcast on Itunes. Chris: Before we crack on and you wonder what all this is about, I need to let you in on a few things first. If you are expecting in-depth football analysis from this column, you […]
The idea is to take a closer look at French football, choosing not to scale the PSG monolith, but instead searching for stories in the tattered remains of the clubs that have crashed into it. I’m looking forward to this as there’s always been a hint of Francophilia in my veins; I liked Amelie, I own several stripy sweaters and my favourite skater is Lucas Puig.
The next few years are going to be bristling with change. The old stadium is going, a new one is being built. Hopefully there won’t be as much coming and going with the playing staff, and certainly not the manager. There is a combination of rigidity and flare in this current squad which, if it continues to be nurtured and improved in key places, quite frankly means it could take on the world.
The 2015-16 Manchester United season truly had it all. There were some great goals and results and some baffling substitutions. We had some exciting young players breaking through and an evacuation at Old Trafford. Hell, even ‘sex masochism’ and an FA Cup triumph.
Rahul Kalvapalle is a Madridista and football writer who has contributed to Four Four Two, Bleacher Report the Real Madrid podcast, Merengue Bites. In this review he recounts one of Real’s strangest seasons in recent years, from Benitez beginnings to a Zidane grandstand.
Welcome to Episode 43! Thank you for listening to the Coshcast. If you enjoy it, subscribe right here on Itunes. Bonjour! Today on the Coshcast we have conversation about les Euros – the tournament, not the currency – including a semi-informed preview of just about everything. Elsewhere there […]
There’s no sugar coating it, this season was atrocious. As a Valencia CF fan you get used to a rollercoaster ride every season, but I have experienced few with quite so many drops as this one. The only comparison I can make would be the 2007/2008 season – a season where Valencia was almost relegated, our most iconic players were ousted from the club and our own captain even sued the club’s ownership…
If you want to understand the club that FC Barcelona is you should probably start by knowing that there was, and still is, a sense of disappointment all around (players, club, fans) about not achieving the seemingly impossible and never-before-seen task of winning two trebles in a row. And while this might sound insane for people on the outside looking in, the thing is that this feeling is based on the belief that this Barça team is the best team in Europe.
Mario Rivas hosts the Full90Gooner podcast. In this piece he tries to sum up Arsenal’s disappointing season, and asks the two big questions.’ Why?’ and ‘what next?’. Well here we are. The Premier League season is over. It feels like so long ago that August 9, 2015 came […]
Coutinho, Lallana and Henderson have become hot topics this season. Although they’ve all had bouts of brilliance, I am not sure that they can carry on being great contributors to the team. Personally, I think that these three players should be more consistent at this stage in their careers, but nothing tells me that it is happening anytime soon.
It’s been another turbulent season for Norwich City. At times looking dead and buried, at times looking sure to avoid relegation, the fans have been through the mill. Here to tell the tale of a season that ended in yet another relegation is James Stangroom of Canadian Canaries. […]
What’s the point in having all that cash in the first place if you’re just going to spend it on Gael Clichy?
After an intense and relatively successful 2014/2015 campaign under Marcelo Bielsa, Marseille had a tense summer. Top players left, their replacements came in on the cheap, and their combustible Argentine manager walked out on the club after the first game of the new season. How would the club react? Here to tell us is French football expert Mohamed Mohamed.
by Ciarán Breen – @keep_score Arsenal and Leicester recently served up one of the most dramatic games of the Premier League season but Arsene Wenger is wrong to decry ticket price protests and present football as escapism. At his pre-match press conference before his team played table […]
When Chelsea were in free-fall in the late, dark days of Jose Mourinho’s second reign, we asked the biggest Chelsea fan we know to tell us what on earth was going on. Part 1 of Faisal Pasha’s answer dealt with the misery that has been Chelsea’s defense and midfield this season. Here is part 2. Let’s see who else is to blame…
When Chelsea were in free-fall in the late, dark days of Jose Mourinho’s second reign, we asked the biggest Chelsea fan we know to tell us what on earth was going on. Here is his answer. Part 1, at least. Get a cup of tea and settle in. Faisal Pasha goes deep.
“Thanks for coming in, Louis. I’m sure you know why I’ve asked you here. Things just aren’t progressing as they should. It appears you’ve lost the players and now you’ve lost the supporters, too. We appreciate some of the good work you’ve done – like turning Mike Smalling into a proper centre-half and getting rid of some of the deadwood around here. But this is Manchester United…
I get up when I want, except on Saturdays, when I get rudely awakened by Martin Tyler. I put my sweatpants on, have a cup of coffee and I think about not leaving the house till all games are finished. I feed myself – I sometimes feed myself twice. It gives me a sense of enormous well-being. And then I’m happy for the rest of the day safe in the knowledge that even if we lose there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it.
On our latest podcast we discussed Liverpool’s absolute battering of Manchester City. Here, @Real_LFC_Fan gives us a sense of how Liverpool fans are feeling as we reach the end of Klopp’s second month in charge. Christmas is quickly approaching and Liverpool have already gifted their fans the two of […]
What’s in a collection? How and why does a collection start? Those are things people who don’t want to be called a hoarder ponder when others ask about their collection.
A rapid rise to the pinnacle of the Premier League, an array of midfield talent and a receding need for a diminutive playmaker have all but left Jack Wilshere redundant for the North London club.
Having just started playing the game myself I was glad to find there is a short chapter called ‘Lessons From Football Management For Football Managers’, while throughout the book I found myself thinking “oh, that could come in handy”. Knowing the different types of pressing is certainly key when trying to implement the Barcelona style at Dundalk FC, you see.
While I believe a title challenge is obviously within our grasp in what can only be classed as an ‘unusual’ top flight season, the new focus on keeping goals out is something not seen in these parts for some time. United have usually been the sexy, gallivanting team in years past – not the one who puts steely defence above all.
At the start of the 2015 Major League Soccer season, making the playoffs was the goal for expansion side New York City FC. While admirable, the reality is that first-year teams in U.S.-based sports leagues rarely make the postseason. But this lofty target, and the failure to reach it, ultimately cost NYCFC head coach Jason Kreis his job.
This season is going to be a tough one for Remi Garde. He will experience a bulk of criticism, little praise, a tiny cheque- book and an expectant fan base. He needs to implement his policies and impose his personality upon Aston Villa, and he
needs to do it sooner rather than later. No pressure.
Based on the reaction among fans on Twitter, it is quite humorous to find people judging Klopp of his first few weeks, when in reality it has been the players’ performance and individual errors that have lead to the frustration with losing leads, missing crucial goal-scoring opportunities and defensive errors.
By Cameron Dhaliwal As David Moyes was the eventual executioner of Lucas Alcaraz’s ill-fated tenure at Levante, one would be right in finding the whole state ironic. It could have easily been the other way round, had Levante not looked like a sorry bunch when Agirretxe scored in […]
The famous high-pressing passion-fueled team of 2013-14 had been disbanded. Diego Costa, Filipe Luis and Thibaut Cortouis embarked for Chelsea, winger Adrian Lopez for Porto and young fullback Javi Manquillo to Liverpool. Many people saw the mainstays of the team leaving and panicked.
“Loss of face” can mean not only personal shame but shame on one’s family if an objective is not met. Asian players might be more reluctant to try their hand (or foot) in Europe if they feel that they might not succeed, or if the comforts of home outweigh the desire to dig deep and face a constant fight for a career.
Louis van Gaal’s first season at Manchester United has been fun to watch from a neutral point of view. Big signings failing to make an impact, players who were once thrown on the scrap-heap coming back to prove their worth, a philosophical battle between 3-5-2 and 4-3-3…we’ve seen it all. Here to give us a United perspective on the whole season, is Ken Frampton. Follow Ken on Twitter at @kframpton
There has been a lot written about the state of English football. We know that England have failed to play with any type of attacking verve in the last 3 major tournaments. It’s a shame really. Amongst other factors, its no surprise when you know that only 36% […]
Manchester United Season Review 2012/2013 Spurred on by an uncharacteristic late season capitulation in the 2011/2012 season, Sir Alex Ferguson pledged that Manchester United would never lose the Premier League title on goal difference again. The ol’ timer’s response to this disappointment was to lure the best player […]
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