EPL
So Man Utd were in a crisis, 30 minutes in Wigan seemed to stop that talk, Berbatov seems to have remembered that he is quite fast when he tries, Nice finish from Owen could be the kick start he needs, and Rooney is just getting better and better, This could be his world class season, the leader of United.
Mark Hughes needs to get his City boys on the training field putting the ball into net, or remove the force field from the Eastlands goals, so much good football, lovely link ups , but no end product, eventually someone is gonna get turned over. Lescott will join in a matter of days, I wonder who gets dropped Bridge or Dunne?
So far this season everyones spoke about Arsenal, Man U and Liverpool, Chelsea however are quitely doing their thing, maximum points, 7 goals, my dark horses for the league.
SERIE A
Inter everyones favourite got a bit of a wake up call, Kutozov's 75th minute equaliser meant Bari left the San Siro with an unexpected point, neighbours Milan travelled to Siena and came away with all 3 points in what could have been a banana skin.
Inter have a new central defensive pairing and a new strikeforce, and this could take time to gel, can Eto'o and Milito co-exist and score as many goals as their used to, Mourinho said he needed an attacking midfielder, but so far noone has come in, and Deco is getting a game for Chelsea, can Inter lift the title again without this piece of the jigsaw, and despite the numerous departures, Milan still have a steady ship and a strong spine, all eyes will be on the Brazilianas Leonardo, Ronaldinho and Pato.
My Serie A knowledge is limited just now with a lack of Uk coverage in the past few years however I hope this will increase this season, so bear with me, Good wins for Genoa and Palermo teams I have been told to look out for.
BUNDESLIGA
Starting to get annoyed with ESPN's coverage, great opening weekend, 2 live games, then nothing, too many leagues not enough channels.
I worry for Louis van Gaal and Bayern, 2 points from 9, a defeat against Mainz, the new signings haven't shown their worth, are the Bavarian fans getting a glimpse of life without Ribery, it doesn't look a good one. How long will the Bayern hierarchy put up with such mediocre results, If Bayern aren't top 3 by Christmas van Gaal will be shown the door.
Leverkusen went top of the league with a 5-0 victory of Freiburg, 2 goal from new boy Derdiyok, signed from FC Basel, he impressed me at Euro 2008, I hope to see more of him if Levekusen ever get on TV over here, also top of the league are Schalke and Hamburg who on Sunday defeated Wolfsburg 4-2 in the Wolves backyard, Unbeaten at home since the 2007/08 season the Wolves may have thought the game was theirs after coming back from 2-0 to 2-2, Hamburg had different ideas, Mladen Petric and Romeo Castelen scoring the goals to led Hamburg to the 4-2 victory, When Martin Jol left to manage Ajax I thought that Hamburg would struggle to recreate the form of last season, Ivica Olic leaving solidified my thinking, however so far they are doing very well, 7 points from 9, and a 5-1 victory in the Europa League see Bruno Labbadia's men riding high in the Bundesliga.
LIGUE 1
It's nice to see Lyon getting back onto form, a fantastic 5-1 victory over Anderlecht and now a 3-0 win away at Auxerre, Puel has been going between a 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 formation, personally I think the 4-3-3 works better, the 3 in midfield gives Makoun more freedom, and Toulalan can sit in, and either Pjanic or Ederson can play more advanced, with the 4-4-2 with the players they have a gap would appear between the midfield and forward line. The 4-3-3 can also turn into a 4-5-1 when defending, Bastos is good at covering back on the left, If Lyon can maintain their run it'll be hard to bet against them.
Champions Bordeaux maintained their 100% record a 4-0 win over Nice. Yoann Gourcuff scoring 2 goals makes his €15 million look like a bargin. The "New Zidane" tags that are flying about are looking more and more justified, A very graceful player, can pass score, beat people off the dribble, the scary thing is, he is only going to get better.
Still no UK coverage of Ligue 1, I'm limited to live feeds with poor quality, highlights packages and the odd downloaded game if I can find time during the week to watch it, hopefullt someone will buy the rights so I can see some live Ligue 1 action.
SPL
Another weekend over in Scotland, Celtic warmed up for their 2nd leg against Arsenal with a 5-2 victory over St. Johnstone, not sure what to take from this, good to score 5 goals before a match when you need to score, but losing 2 goals against a newly promoted side before going to one of the most attacking teams in Europe is not ideal, Shaun Maloney has started this season fantastically looking very sharpe, he scored 2 goals and also set up Fortune's first, Mowbary seems to have given Shaun the freedom to hang on the left and cause Havoc, a Scotland recall should be coming soon.
Rangers ended the weekend somehow managing to collect all 3 points from their trip to Tynecastle, Hearts took the lead after Kevin Thomson got sent off for a harsh challenge, a yellow would have been more fitting for the crime, especially so early in the match, new Hearts striker David Witteveen scoring after a nice 1-2 with Nade but McGregor should have kept it out.
Rangers were terrible in the first half, Miller up on his own and with only 10 men they couldn't make more than 3 passes together, Hearts hussled very well and done a great job and deserved the 1-0 lead, It was a different Rangers team in the 2nd half, moving Steven Naismith upfront, and a compact 3 man midfield, they looked a much better side, and they deserved to equalise, Lee McCulloch flicking a header past Balogh. Hearts did not deserve though to get nothing from the game. Naismith was recklessly brought down by Bouzid, and Kris Boyd who had just come on, with his first touch guarenteed Rangers all 3 points.
Hibs had the early game live on ESPN and after going behind to a great solo goal by Falkirks Ryan Flynn on loan from Liverpool. The commentators had been criticising Sol Bamba for the player self linking himself with a move to Liverpool, who else was going to pop up with header to bring Hibs Level, I like Bamba, he reminds me of a young Bobo Balde who graced Celtic's defense for a few years, Big strong lad, great in the air, a bit quick to jump in, and very tempremental, but he does have ability, if John Hughes can nurture this, he could be a force to be reckoned with.
Hibs played a strong 3 man attack, big man Colin Nish, the quick and skillful Derek Riordan and new signing from Sunderland Anthony Stokes, Stokes played under Hughes at Falkirk and was the SPL top scorer that season, Riordan trying to resurrect his career after the top wasted years at Celtic, and it was Derek that scored the two winning goals, popping up to flick a free kick past Olenjik and then with 10 minutes to go, curled a wonderful free kick past the helpless keeper, a great comeback and win for the Hibees.
With those 3 upfront as long as they all play to their potential I think Hibs will challenge for a Europa league place, Stokes has now had a few years in the Premiership this will have made his a better player from his Falkirk days, Nish and Riordan are also capable of scoring 10+ goals a season with the same from Stokes, the sun could be shining on Leith this year.
GOOD WEEK
So Man Utd were in a crisis, 30 minutes in Wigan seemed to stop that talk, Berbatov seems to have remembered that he is quite fast when he tries, Nice finish from Owen could be the kick start he needs, and Rooney is just getting better and better, This could be his world class season, the leader of United.Mark Hughes needs to get his City boys on the training field putting the ball into net, or remove the force field from the Eastlands goals, so much good football, lovely link ups , but no end product, eventually someone is gonna get turned over. Lescott will join in a matter of days, I wonder who gets dropped Bridge or Dunne?
So far this season everyones spoke about Arsenal, Man U and Liverpool, Chelsea however are quitely doing their thing, maximum points, 7 goals, my dark horses for the league.
SERIE A
Inter everyones favourite got a bit of a wake up call, Kutozov's 75th minute equaliser meant Bari left the San Siro with an unexpected point, neighbours Milan travelled to Siena and came away with all 3 points in what could have been a banana skin.
Inter have a new central defensive pairing and a new strikeforce, and this could take time to gel, can Eto'o and Milito co-exist and score as many goals as their used to, Mourinho said he needed an attacking midfielder, but so far noone has come in, and Deco is getting a game for Chelsea, can Inter lift the title again without this piece of the jigsaw, and despite the numerous departures, Milan still have a steady ship and a strong spine, all eyes will be on the Brazilianas Leonardo, Ronaldinho and Pato.
My Serie A knowledge is limited just now with a lack of Uk coverage in the past few years however I hope this will increase this season, so bear with me, Good wins for Genoa and Palermo teams I have been told to look out for.
BUNDESLIGA
Starting to get annoyed with ESPN's coverage, great opening weekend, 2 live games, then nothing, too many leagues not enough channels.
I worry for Louis van Gaal and Bayern, 2 points from 9, a defeat against Mainz, the new signings haven't shown their worth, are the Bavarian fans getting a glimpse of life without Ribery, it doesn't look a good one. How long will the Bayern hierarchy put up with such mediocre results, If Bayern aren't top 3 by Christmas van Gaal will be shown the door.Leverkusen went top of the league with a 5-0 victory of Freiburg, 2 goal from new boy Derdiyok, signed from FC Basel, he impressed me at Euro 2008, I hope to see more of him if Levekusen ever get on TV over here, also top of the league are Schalke and Hamburg who on Sunday defeated Wolfsburg 4-2 in the Wolves backyard, Unbeaten at home since the 2007/08 season the Wolves may have thought the game was theirs after coming back from 2-0 to 2-2, Hamburg had different ideas, Mladen Petric and Romeo Castelen scoring the goals to led Hamburg to the 4-2 victory, When Martin Jol left to manage Ajax I thought that Hamburg would struggle to recreate the form of last season, Ivica Olic leaving solidified my thinking, however so far they are doing very well, 7 points from 9, and a 5-1 victory in the Europa League see Bruno Labbadia's men riding high in the Bundesliga.
LIGUE 1
It's nice to see Lyon getting back onto form, a fantastic 5-1 victory over Anderlecht and now a 3-0 win away at Auxerre, Puel has been going between a 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 formation, personally I think the 4-3-3 works better, the 3 in midfield gives Makoun more freedom, and Toulalan can sit in, and either Pjanic or Ederson can play more advanced, with the 4-4-2 with the players they have a gap would appear between the midfield and forward line. The 4-3-3 can also turn into a 4-5-1 when defending, Bastos is good at covering back on the left, If Lyon can maintain their run it'll be hard to bet against them.
Champions Bordeaux maintained their 100% record a 4-0 win over Nice. Yoann Gourcuff scoring 2 goals makes his €15 million look like a bargin. The "New Zidane" tags that are flying about are looking more and more justified, A very graceful player, can pass score, beat people off the dribble, the scary thing is, he is only going to get better.
Still no UK coverage of Ligue 1, I'm limited to live feeds with poor quality, highlights packages and the odd downloaded game if I can find time during the week to watch it, hopefullt someone will buy the rights so I can see some live Ligue 1 action.
SPL
Another weekend over in Scotland, Celtic warmed up for their 2nd leg against Arsenal with a 5-2 victory over St. Johnstone, not sure what to take from this, good to score 5 goals before a match when you need to score, but losing 2 goals against a newly promoted side before going to one of the most attacking teams in Europe is not ideal, Shaun Maloney has started this season fantastically looking very sharpe, he scored 2 goals and also set up Fortune's first, Mowbary seems to have given Shaun the freedom to hang on the left and cause Havoc, a Scotland recall should be coming soon.Rangers ended the weekend somehow managing to collect all 3 points from their trip to Tynecastle, Hearts took the lead after Kevin Thomson got sent off for a harsh challenge, a yellow would have been more fitting for the crime, especially so early in the match, new Hearts striker David Witteveen scoring after a nice 1-2 with Nade but McGregor should have kept it out.
Rangers were terrible in the first half, Miller up on his own and with only 10 men they couldn't make more than 3 passes together, Hearts hussled very well and done a great job and deserved the 1-0 lead, It was a different Rangers team in the 2nd half, moving Steven Naismith upfront, and a compact 3 man midfield, they looked a much better side, and they deserved to equalise, Lee McCulloch flicking a header past Balogh. Hearts did not deserve though to get nothing from the game. Naismith was recklessly brought down by Bouzid, and Kris Boyd who had just come on, with his first touch guarenteed Rangers all 3 points.
Hibs had the early game live on ESPN and after going behind to a great solo goal by Falkirks Ryan Flynn on loan from Liverpool. The commentators had been criticising Sol Bamba for the player self linking himself with a move to Liverpool, who else was going to pop up with header to bring Hibs Level, I like Bamba, he reminds me of a young Bobo Balde who graced Celtic's defense for a few years, Big strong lad, great in the air, a bit quick to jump in, and very tempremental, but he does have ability, if John Hughes can nurture this, he could be a force to be reckoned with.
Hibs played a strong 3 man attack, big man Colin Nish, the quick and skillful Derek Riordan and new signing from Sunderland Anthony Stokes, Stokes played under Hughes at Falkirk and was the SPL top scorer that season, Riordan trying to resurrect his career after the top wasted years at Celtic, and it was Derek that scored the two winning goals, popping up to flick a free kick past Olenjik and then with 10 minutes to go, curled a wonderful free kick past the helpless keeper, a great comeback and win for the Hibees.
With those 3 upfront as long as they all play to their potential I think Hibs will challenge for a Europa league place, Stokes has now had a few years in the Premiership this will have made his a better player from his Falkirk days, Nish and Riordan are also capable of scoring 10+ goals a season with the same from Stokes, the sun could be shining on Leith this year.
GOOD WEEK
- Marc-Antoine Fortune - opened his account for Celtic with 2 goals
- Jozy Altidore - Exciting debut for Hull setting up the winning goal
- Ronaldinho - sets up both goals in Milan's win
- Feyenoord - Top of the league with a 4-0 win over Roda
- Burnley - Proving the Man U victory was not a fluke 1-0 win over Everton
BAD WEEK
- Jose Mourinho - Only managing a draw in first home game against Bari
- Everton - Lescott about to leave and another defeat in the league
- Wolfsburg - Losing their unbeaten home record
- Hearts - 2 games 0 points bad start the Lazslo's men
- Alain Perrin - Bottom of Ligue 1, no points, pressure is on.
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