That’s Murphy’s Law, however it’s the variation of it which suits us more – “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.”
In the pursuit of title, we didn’t need a mid-week game. We played Sporting at home and lost. Now, most of us would have shrugged it off, looking at the bigger picture where title is on the line having been almost qualified for Champions League but everything went wrong for us. Tomiyasu picked up an injury in the 9th minute and by the looks of it, it was serious. If that was not enough, Saliba was subbed in 20th minute because he felt discomfort in his back. We scored first, but gave a goal away from half line. Match went into the extra time, likes of Martinelli, White, Gabriel and Zinchenko had to play another 30 minutes when we have game tomorrow the 19th. Of all, Martinelli’s kick was saved by Sporting goalkeeper and we lost.
Played for 2 hrs, lost 2 players to injuries, have another game in 3 days and went out of Europa against Sporting at Home. And if this was not enough, someone on Twitter added one more to the list – roof leaking.
Our CBs – Gabriel and Saliba have been immense this season, and losing one of them even for couple of matches could be devastating. Holding is no match, and Kiwior is not ready (yet). We could have hoped White to replace Saliba with Tomiyasu on the right, but Tomi is out injured now and for a long time.
Fortunately, our midfield is still safe. We need Partey the most for these 11 games.
Martinelli would be devasted. Over played, missed a penalty which lost the game for us, hopefully it don’t dent his confidence. We need everyone at their best for the rest of this season.
Anyways, all we can do is forget about it, concentrate on the league and Crystal Palace tomorrow. They have sacked Patrick Vieira, haven’t appointed a manager yet and have not won a game in the year 2023. That’s sort of game where we give a lifeline to the teams. I am worried, and hopefully Arteta and Co. will break that curse. We are still on top, if we win, we go into international break with 8-points lead over City even if they have played a game less, it gives a huge mental advantage. They are in Champions League, they too will tire out and chasing 8 points gap will cause problems for them.
Short one today, I will be back before the game against Crystal Palace. You have a nice weekend.
Bayern paid +20mill to get JN early than they signed him to a 5 year contract only to make a snap decision in firing him. Rapha Hoenigstein who covers the Bundesliga for the Athletic came up with this theory.
In 2018 Bayern wanted to hire Tuchel but they lost out on him as he went to PSG. Rapha thinks that Tuchel put pressure on the Bayern hierarchy by threatening to join another club and they were forced into the change now rather than waiting till the summer what they had in mind. Bayern didn’t want a 2018 repeat. Hard to believe, but I can imagine it, as Tuchel took up residence in Munich.
For me personally I hope that Bayern aka FC-Hollywood would end up empty handed this season as Kahn and Salihamidzic deserve this humiliation for the way they handled the dismissal of JN. I also would love to see JN in the EPL just to give some competition to MA for being the best young manager.
Killroy—by the sounds of it, Tuchel was already in advanced talks with the Spurs, which appears to be the reason why Munich terminated Nags in such an amateur hour manner…of course, in 2018 it appeared as if Tuchel would land in Munich, only to be back burnereed by then club president, Hoeness, while he tried to convince treble winner Heynckes to stay on for another season…by the time it was determined that Heynckes had no interest in running things back, Tuchel had already reached a deal with PSG
how weird would it be for a manager to win two Champions League titles after being hired in January or later, first with Chelsea and now with a team that many feel are the presumptive favourites…to my recollection this has never occured before
the whole thing is rather peculiar, as Nags was Tuchel’s protege, but now he’s replacing him in Munich, under some exceedingly unusual circumstances, meanwhile I wouldn’t be surprised if Nags ended up managing the Spurs, the very team that looked to be on the precipice of hiring Tuchel…go figure
back burnered—not sure why I’m correcting this as I’m not even convinced it’s a legit word LOL
It’s always educating reading LIR. Thanks for breaking the PL boredom during Internationals.
Looks like we’ve come through unscathed although there was a very vicious tackle on Ode by City’s Rodri. Adds to the City game spice. Saka will likely play in the next game, so fingers crossed for the lad’s stamina and be injury free. Tired legs get injured easily.
Not much else to report on.
maybe it’s just because I generally despise later season international breaks, but I feel like this could make our run-up far more problematic…the only tangible benefit to our early Europa exit was that it should have afforded us a considerably less condensed schedule, thus making it more and more likely that we could field our “best” 11 for each and every remaining League fixture…if there were no break, I can’t imagine that we would be playing 4 matches in 13 days between April 16 & 29th…I guess the one saving grace, so long as no further setbacks occur during the break,(knock on wood) is that this might allow those with nagging injuries or worse, like Saliba, extra time to mend, as we can’t be relying on Holding to get the job done, regardless of the fact he performed rather admirably in Slaiba’s absence
of course, I wouldn’t be quite so rattled if it weren’t for the fact that I’m totally convinced that if we look this gift horse in the mouth, we might not be in a similar position again…this certainly doesn’t mean that we won’t be playing meaningful late season matches in the foreseeable future, but to think we could have another sizeable lead so late in the season seems at best wishful thinking or at worst rather delusional…the planets have aligned for us in a way few have ever previously encountered, minus LC, and as such if we don’t stake our claim now I believe we will forever regret it
ManCity—will always be in the hunt, if not the presumptive favourites, so long as the ownership and Pep remain fully commited, unless they’re severely punished for their laundry list of transgressions, which I very much doubt
Pool—with Klopp at the helm and attractive football on offer, they will remain a constant threat for trophies…they’ve made some long-game acquisitions over the last 18 months, who should come good next year and beyond, so if they can shore up their midfield and find a consistent CB partner for DVD, the future looks bright
Chelsea—regardless of the coach in charge, as I’m not convinced Potter will survive the off-season, they will invaribaly return to prominence, as they have the financial wherewithal to compete with any and all comers…although the results have not been forthcoming this season, they have done exactly what I had hoped we had done when Arteta was hired, invest heavily in young blue chippers, then allow them to grow with the bevy of talented in-house up-and-comers…they might be two years away from competing for the title, but with the right tactician they should eventually present serious problems for everyone in the PL for years to come
United—I’m a big proponent of what ten Hag’s brings to the managerial table and I find it difficult to not see his squad make strides every season, so long as they continue to find creative ways to score goals, which means they can’t afford to lose Rashford unless they find a like-for-like replacement…if they’re able to raise some funds through the selling off of some players in the summer, like Harry, Elanga, McTominay, among others, and a new ownership group emerges, who spends anything like Chelsea, I think Hag will be able to acquire his most preferred targets…if these things transpires, they will undoubtedly complete their transition from pretender to contender
Newcastle—they’re a rather interesting experiment, in that they have the resources, but not the requisite cachet to lure top, top talent, at least not quite yet…I don’t mind Howe, but they might have to make a big splash in the managerial market in order to change this narrative…in the meantime though, they will continue to play good enough defence to challenge for the top 4-6, but they will struggle to find the required amount of goals to turn the proverbial corner, unless Isak continues to stay healthy and score with the kind of frequency he’s displayed since his return from injury
Spurs—they could be on the outside looking in, especially if they decide to hold a fire sale and offload the likes of Kane and Son…that said, if they do hire the aforementioned Nagelsmann, their downturn could be relatively short-lived, as he’s proven his ability to turn things around in short order, regardless of whatever transpired prior to his arrival
furthermore, every season a team or two emerges who vastly overachieves and negatively impacts the aspirations of those who were considered early season favourites…for a perfect example one needs to look no further than the likes of BHA, who not only survived a managerial change, they actually have thrived in it’s wake…if there isn’t a mass exodus of sorts at Brighton, they could be a real thorn in the sides of those mentioned above
so we better make hay before this incredibly fortuitous window closes…not to mention, if we find a way to hold off the likes of City, it just might allow us to shake our almost two decade long medicocrity-laced narrative thereby allowing us to attract the kind of players needed for us to remain relevant over the long haul…Cheers
Cool post TRVL – it should have been todays LIR post, Ambarish? Can’t disagree with anything you said.
More than happy to make it an independent post under TRVL name if he allows me .
TRVL – Cryto-nomicoin arrived today and looks very interesting.
A well written and crafted disaster movie Book is Rogue Wave US version or The Tsunami Count Down by Boyd Morrison .https://boydmorrison.com/books/standalones/#1 By the look of it a pale imitation of the genre compared to Neal Stephenson.
Tony–Neal doesn’t mess around, he goes to lengths others simply wouldn’t dare…hope you enjoy
Ambarish–sorry about the delayed response but as I’m situated overseas I rarely get on LIR until at least 10am EST…as for my post, it’s really up to you bud…Cheers
Thank you, TRVL. It’s live now – https://londonisred.com/grab-a-chance-when-you-see-one/