Can Liverpool go any lower?

Well, they could be relegated, but that's not going to happen - let's not go crazy. The chances are they probably will finish inside the top 4, and Rafa will make a statement in some kind of mixed up Spanglish about how he feels vindicated and always said they would finish in the top four.

He says that now, but at the start of the season he was confident, as were many, that Liverpool were going to win the Premier League, and do pretty darn well in the Champions League. He seems to be consistently making new statements and implementing new targets to suit his new requirements after each new setback - maybe he thinks that by making new rules we'll all forget about the old promises he made?

There's been a lot written about Liverpool recently and why they're doing so badly, and I can't really add anything new to the debate. Everyone knows what the problem is, and surely the Liverpool hierarchy must also be able to see the problem - Benitez promises the world, and delivers very little. The facts of the matter are that he has bought poorly over 5 years (with the exceptions of Torres and Reina), his tactical 'genius' is based on a false premise - he is no more of a tactical genius than Gordon Brown is a legitimate Prime Minister, voted for by the people.

He has no plan B - it's been said so many times, and this was no more apparent than at the weekend when he played his usual hand of two holding midfeild players, at Anfield. This is not the football Liverpool fans want to see, and as for the apparent successor to Alonso's thrown, Aquilani - Liverpool fans are yet to see much of him at all! Is it going to be worth bringing a £20m player into a season that's pretty much over? He'll get used to playing with his new team mates, but how many of them are going to be there next season? Surely Rafa will need to cut off the infected limbs and start again as he can't continue to rely so wholeheartedly on two players to drag the team along.

It's great to see Avram Grant back in English football. The droopy jawed, toad faced Israeli managed to endear himself to Premier League fans despite being in charge of a team that most supporters love to hate. It is probably more to do with the way he was treated by Chelsea, than the actual charisma of the man himself - although he did have a twinkle in his eye on occasion in post-match interviews and tried a bit of humour every now and again.

He did a good job with Chelsea after being thrust into the limelight once Mourinho's ego, and let's face it - failure to win the Champions League with the millions of £ he was given, finally got the better of him. He led Chelsea to the Champions League final, a League Cup final and contended the Premier League right up until the final day, eventually succumbing to Man Utd. For anyone else this would be seen as a successful stint, but the overpaid, under educated and overly vocal Chelsea players consistently criticised Grant and his "outdated training methods" - Was it outdated training methods that made you miss THAT penalty John? You only have yourself to blame. In Chelsea minds no one comes close to Mourinho, although I could have won the Premier League with the money he had to spend and out of his first 59 matches in Italian football he's already lost 10, where as in 185 at Chelsea he only lost 18 times. Maybe he isn't that special?

Grant would have been well within his rights to afford himself a little chuckle when his replacement at Chelsea, an appointment the club made no bones about discussing whilst Grant was still in the job - Big Phil Scolari was seen as a failure and given his marching orders. Although, I think that Grant probably had a little too much dignity and humility to do such a thing.

So, he's back in the Premier League, and back at Portsmouth. The players seem happy with his appointement. David James is quoted as saying "I love Avram, he's a great guy" adding "When I first joined the club he was there and he was very active in preparation for matches. He's a very wise man and his football knowledge is immense. It's a very good move." - So he's worked with him before and doesn't feel that his training methods and knowledge are outdated? How Bizarre...

The good thing about this appointment is that he comes in as Director of Football, not the manager where the pressure is so high, but a place where he can give guidance and assurance to Paul Hart - who, frankly, needs all the help he can get. Now the buy out is complete Pompey will no doubt have some cash to spend, and Avram will be involved in that process, but they won't be doing a Chelsea or Man City and flexing their fiscal muscles too much in the transfer window. Let's hope he can help pick Pompey up from the foot of the table and put them back where they belong (floating around mid table challenging for a cup every 30 years) and best of all - Mourinho is still in a different country where we can't hear him whine - although I'm sure he'll have something to say about the appointment along the lines of "They wanted me, everyone wants me because I am the saviour, but there cannot be ten Mourinhos, there is just one so I cannot be everywhere and manage every club, so they have to settle for other people, but they will not do well because they are not me, and they will not beat me because I am me..." 

After a great weekend of derby action more questions have been raised than answered -

• Are City going to challenge for the league?
• Do United look as strong as last season?
• Are any of the other teams good enough to stop an assured and confident Chelsea side?
• Can referees win?
• Do spurs lack the strength in depth to even finish in the top 6?

The Manchester derby was an enthralling affair. There were occasional glimpses of real quality from Bellamy and Giggs, but these were massively outweighed by huge swathes of complete incompetence that cut into the game.

A lot is being made of the total lack of spacial awareness by City's £40m partnership at the back and, not only, their inability to deal with any balls coming in from the wings, but also the way they failed to pick up Michael Owen on the final goal as he somehow found himself in massive of space in the City box, despite all of City's players being back behind the ball. But, let's not forget that these two players have only been playing together for 6-7 games and are yet to build complete infallible lines of communication - yes, positional play was bad by them at times throughout the game, but an improvement in this kind of thing between a partnership comes with games under the belt and time together to know each others game. It may be worrying for England fans that Lescott is so far not living up to his £22m tag (although let's not forget that was City's first loss of the season) but, what I think is of far more concern is that Rio Ferdinand is currently incapable of commanding the United defence in front of a less than capable, Foster, in the United goal - and he cost £30m...

Craig Bellamy's first goal was beautifully struck, but with the amount of time he was given, he could have sat down, got his O level maths and science text books out, and figured out the exact angle and velocity to strike the ball in order for it to dip into the corner like it did. (I'm in no way suggesting that he would have even 10% of the intelligence needed to do this, as he proved his neanderthol qualities towards the end of the game) but nevertheless, he should never have been given so much space. Ferdinand then lazily and arrogantly flicked the ball directly into Martin Petrov and was completely out-stripped on the way back. If Ferdinand really isn't fit and is struggling, then stop playing him and give him some reserve matches - Jonny Evans or John O'Shea have proved themselves to be more than adequate replacements for him whenever they've been asked to step in.

The only real positives that can be taken for England fans from the Manchester derby and Chelsea v Spurs this weekend are that Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole seem to be mining rich veins of form and the latter has even found his goalscoring touch. 

So, to answer my initial questions - I don't think City are good enough to win the league. Their players are all out to prove a little too much to their previous employers and seem to get a little carried away in the fact that they're playing for a club with so much money, and as Adebayor and Bellamy have shown - they may be great footballers, but they lack that little bit of class that allows them to let the torrents of abuse and distractions wash over them so they can concentrate on the match.

Chelsea brushed aside Tottenham with consummate ease on Sunday afternoon, and although the match did not live up to the excitement of the match previously in the day, that was purely because Spurs failed to challenge them in any way and the Kings of the Kings Road never had to step into top gear. The real questions will be answered when Chelsea play United, but as things stand they look strong going forward and defensively sound, without creating too much of a song and dance about it like their equivalently rich Manchester City counterparts. Spurs went from winning ways to two straight, and comfortable defeats against the real title challengers. They may have beaten Arsenal, but I believe Arsenal will be the more consistent throughout the season and have much much more class within the squad, where as Spurs seem reliant on Jermain Defoe playing well and are seriously missing Modric in the team to pull the strings - a job that players like Tom Huddlestone and Jermain Jenas are not capable of because they lack the same touch and vision of a player in Modrics class. They also seem not to have noticed Villa creeping up the rails, just as they did in the early part of last season, although at that time Spurs were concentrating more on getting away from the relegation zone.

Finally, a word for referees. I've often bashed them in the past, but it would appear that they can't actually win. When they play poorly they are rightly criticised, but when they play well they are still criticised. Martin Atkinson kept control of a feisty game at Old Trafford admirably, and I fail to remember any point where his decision was not correct and he did, by the letter of the law, follow the time keeping rules towards the end of the game - whether the rules are correct is a bone of contention, but we cannot chastise the referee for simply doing his job to the required standard the 1 time in 10 that they do actually perform well.

Recently I've been having an "email discussion" with a former colleague (He doesn't appreciate that whilst I'm at work I actually have some work to do, as opposed to his slack job...)

I'll put his initial post on here, and follow it up in the comments box with the rest of the discussion. Some of you might find it interesting. Most of you won't -

From: Ben McEwen [mailto:ben.mcewen@xxxxx.com]
Sent: 03 July 2009 10:28
To: 'KingLuke'
Subject:

Michael Owen, United's new super striker!

Discuss...

When you sell the World's best footballer you are never going to be a stronger team. The key when such a transfer takes place is not too become too much weaker, or if possible stay on the same level. There is no doubt that Cristiano Ronaldo will be sorely missed in a footballing context around Old Trafford, but his arrogance and lack of humility, although sometimes what defined him as such a brilliant player and made him play the way he does, will not be.

As a Man Utd fan I'm obviously sad to see him go, but I'd be more disappointed to see Tevez finally step off the turf at the theatre of dreams (I hope this now allows him to stay), or see Wayne Rooney slip on the Real Madrid colours. In his absence these players can get back to playing their usual game, without having to play in a way that allows Ronaldo all the freedom he has come accustom to whilst they work tirelessly out of position. I think Ronaldo may soon come to realise that he's never had it so good - Real aren't going to play the same way, he's not going to be the King of the club and when massive ego's collide on the pitch it could well be a catastophic collision amongst the galaxy of superstars. If anything, the one saving grace for Ronaldo is that in the same week Real splashed out £56m on Brazillian superstar Kaka - he may be the one player that keeps his head down, and works for the good of the team and pulls them together whilst the others posture and pose and fly forward exposing the frailties of defence that Perez seems intent on simply covering over by trying to out-score any team they come up against.

Looking to the future for United there have been several names thrown about as possible "replacements" for CR. He can't be replaced like for like, there's no one in the world that can play in the way he plays and has his attributes, but there are several players that are capable of pulling the strings in a game and bringing more of the surrounding players into the action - lets not forget that United do have a World class squad even without Ronaldo. Frank Ribery would be my choice. He is quick, he sticks to his wing, allowing Rooney to come inside into a central position that he plays so well for England. Owen Hargreaves should be back into action, and barring any major setback to his wellbeing that is the equivalent of an £18m signing. Valencia has proved his quality at Wigan, but is he simply a big fish in a small pond as Robbie Keane was at Spurs? and if he were to step up to the next level would he sink or swim? Obviously there's only one way to find out.

For all of his ability, no one really seems to be too upset that Ronaldo is on his way. Many analysts and pundits seem to think that it's all down hill from here for him. I don't know, he may do well at Madrid, or conflicting personalities may drag him down. One thing is for sure though - Fergie has lost his best players before and he'll lose them in the future, but he never panicks and always seems to come up with something - no one player is bigger than the club, and as soon as attitudes begin to swing that way then it's not long before everyone agrees they're better off playing else where.

We here at The Pundits are pleased to announce the creation of a new partnership.

We're joining forces with Myfootballkits.co.uk to offer a unique shopping experience

- They're going to put a little shop right here on the site, allowing the pundits audience to buy the very latest football shirts at the best prices whilst still being able to view the best (I know it sounds big headed, but we think it's true) articles about football without having to navigate away from this magical, mystical site...

This might take a couple of weeks to implement, but whilst the process is taking place, don't forgot to visit the My Football Kits website at www.myfootballkits.co.uk and then in the future you can get everything you could ever want right here.

Cheers Guys and Gals,

KingLuke

The Pundits

To the delight of just about every football fan in the country (except the Newcastle fans obviously) the Toon Army were relegated from the top flight of English football last weekend, and it must have been especially galling for former boss Kevin Keegan seeing Man Utd take the league crown for the third season running.

For a few years now Newcastle fans have been insistent that they are a "big club" despite their inability to win any competition since the second tier of English football in 1993. Yes, the second tier. For the last three seasons they've failed to even finish in the top half of the Premier League table. The club has fallen into ownership of a man that isn't even a Newcastle fan - he's a spurs fan, but they were a bit more pricey. A succession of managers have failed to really establish themselves as figures of authority and have often encountered opposition to their plans from the owner.

If you really want to prove that Newcastle aren't a big club, you just need to look at their squad - Nicky Butt, Mark Viduka, Alan Smith, Michael Owen, Kevin Nolan, Geremi, Peter Løvenkrands and Joey Barton; quality players, if you're building a team in 2002. The club seem to have stocked up on "experience" - from players that weren't wanted at big clubs any longer because they couldn't make the grade. Then there's the other members of the squad like Andy Carroll - a local hero, a true Gateshead boy, a man that has black and white coursing through his veins and would live, breathe, sleep and eat Newcastle United - that's all very well and good, but he's not actually particularly talented, he's just quite tall.

I hope that being in the Championship will force them to rebuild and focus on getting good, solid players in the team, that are a good age for the future rather than a mix of ageing misfits and tall local lads that can't really play.

Barcelona clinched a unique Spanish treble on Wednesday night when they beat Manchester United 2-0 in Rome. Barca were well worth the victory, against a United side that will be disappointed that they ultimately failed to turn up and show exactly what they were capable of.

In truth, Barca controlled the game after an initial shaky ten minutes, and the early Eto'o goal seemed to just destroy all of United's confidence. Congratulation to Barca - even the most die hard of United fans finds it hard to begrudge them their success as they're such a good footballing side, and usually so fantastically entertaining to watch.

The game on Wednesday was by no means a classic and neither side really produced what they're capable of - Man Utd just didn't really get going again after the early set back, and Barca had no reason to click into their exhilarating top gear. (Although, if you read Phil McNulty's match analysis he'll have you believe that Barca gave United a footballing masterclass - They didn't need to) Xavi and Iniesta were doing there usual back and forth, but with no real pressure on them it was more walking rings round the United midfield than running rings round them. United seemed to miss Darren Fletcher's presence more than many people thought and this just goes to show what an integral part of the United team he's become over the recent seasons.

The doom mongerers came out in force after the final whistle and, predictably, it's the end of the world for United, and the end of the line for Ferguson who is now "past it" and a "stupid old man that doesn't know what he's doing" - Ridiculous.

Let's take a look at the bigger picture here - Winning the Champions League would have made a very good season into a great season; winning the Premier League, Carling Cup, World Club Cup, getting to the semi-final of the FA Cup and the final of the Champions League isn't really a bad season. United fans should be more disappointed about the FA Cup defeat, than losing to the Spanish league and cup winners. At the end of the day there's no shame in Losing to Barcelona, and on a different day things might have been different, but that's why football is such a fantastic game.