Midweek Review : Two Struggling Friends

For a neutral person with little knowledge or keen interest in football, Tuesday's match between Chelsea and Liverpool was entertaining. The game was played at a fast tempo with a lot of tackles and hard running. For someone like me though, that game epitomized why these two giants of English football are currently occupying some scarcely believable positions on the table. Chelsea as expected were all smoke without fire. Liverpool? They played a scarcely recognizable style of counter-pressing that was annoying, limp and silly.

The positives
Was there any positive in that drab goalless draw? I think the only noticeable one was N'golo Kante's performance before he got hooked. At some point, one of the guys running the match commentary boldly claimed that a Chelsea manager who has a fit and firing Kante to call upon will be a successful Chelsea manager. That wasn't far from the truth as Kante was everywhere on the pitch. He was either winning tackles close to his own box or running hard with the ball towards the opposition area. One minute he was protecting his back four, the next minute he was creating spaces for wonderful passage of play upfront. Asides being the major midfield drive, his presence allowed the annoyingly wasteful Kovacic the license to stray towards the opposition goal on multiple occasions. Kante was simply Kante - a one man midfield force that plays like two men at the same time.

The negatives?
Oh my word, I can list about five. Just like I said earlier, a neutral will enjoy the match because of the amount of chances created. For me, those wasted opportunities did not excite me. In fact, I was left with a feeling of anger and disgust as I watched well paid professionals squandering unbelievable amounts of goal scoring opportunities. Havertz played as expected, making intelligent runs and all but wasting chances to put Liverpool out of their misery. Joao Felix? Will talk a little about that dude later.

As for Liverpool, I've run out of excuses for defending them. It's easy to point at injury problems as the reason for their woeful season. The fact remains that every single Premier League team has experienced an injury problem of their own. The hallmark of a brilliant team is building one that can stand the test of time. The last time Liverpool had injury struggles, they were equally bad. It makes me wonder why Klopp will fall into this pit for the second time in just about four years.

Asides the injury, that team is littered with players that looked past their best. Henderson has always been more of energetic displays and less technical ones. So far this season, he's looked like one whose energy has been sucked out. Thiago has been injured; Arthur Melo failed to live up to expectations. As things stand, Liverpool won't be in the Champions League next season. In hindsight, that's good for them. They've gotten so comfortable being the second best team in England. Knowing that they are no longer the fourth best team should lead to drastic, positive changes.

Back To Winning Ways
Man United struggled to an important 1-0 win over Brentford last night. It looked like an improvement considering the fact they were well bullied by the same opponent just a couple of months back. However, it was another limp display lacking conviction. Aside from the goal, they never looked totally convincing. Lucky enough for them, Spurs don't look like a team that will make the top 4 this season. So I'd expect United to play in the Champions League next season. If they want to compete for the league though, there is still an awful lot of work to do.

Newcastle Is Coming
After watching Newcastle obliterate West Ham last night one question rang repeatedly through my mind: Can Newcastle compete for the title next season? It sounds silly, right? But these guys are playing so well it's hard to ignore. They have less glamorous but highly effective players who know exactly what their boss wants. If they get themselves two or three very good signings, I won't count them out.

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