Football : The end of the year as we know it

[Mexal]

Courtinho injured. Hamstring. Probably out next week against Arsenal. Also Lovren too.

[Raja]

Joe Allen with a sensational assist - Soylent should eat his words. 

[Mark Antony]

Kolo was actually pretty solid and while Lucas has been really poor in midfield of late imo, I thought he played well at the back when called upon. Not the most impressive showing but nice result. Shame about the injuries, may force Liverpools hand in having to make a CB purchase this month? 

[Iskaral Pust]

It's incredible that Liverpool are playing on a Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, plus two games against Utd and Arsenal shortly afterward.

Well done by the team to win away against in-form Stoke.  A CB pairing of Kolo and Lucas kept a clean sheet.  I think Klopp got the formation right tonight: 4-3-3 with Benteke dropped and Allen providing more coverage in midfield.  The team looks very short on goals, but the 4-2-3-1 is useless with Benteke as the target.

Our injury list is Sturridge, Henderson, Coutinho, Lovren (who is now playing so well that we'll actually miss him), Skrtel, Sakho, Flanagan, Origi, Ings -- that's nearly an entire team and most of them would be starters.  In fact, if any one of them was fit for Friday they would start.

I'm tempted to just play the kids against Exeter on Friday.  I do hope that Joe Allen steps up a bit.  He has done decently in recent games and needs to grasp this chance or surely must be sold soon.

[Spockydog]

Has there been an indication at all that Wenger will be reading to move upstairs? Also, as good as Guardiola might be for the club - he seems pretty short term. 3 years and out. 

Just some spurious looking pieces in a couple of the nastier tabloids, so probably just bollocks.

Like you, I suspect Pep might be somewhat flighty. I said as much to my brother this morning, but it would still be great to get him. If nothing else, it would annoy the hell out of the Manchester clubs. 

I can only see this happening if Arsenal wins the league this year and Wenger goes out like a boss. I doubt he makes the move upstairs otherwise.

I'd rather he buggered off completely. If he's given any kind of power at boardroom level, it's unlikely we'll abandon the fiscal timidity that has suffocated our title ambitions for the past decade.

[Grand Moff Mithrandir]

I'm sorry but that Joe Allen "assist" was no assist at all. It was clearly a botched attempt at goal.

[Iskaral Pust]

GMM - that's harsh.  I thought he meant it.  The way he looked at Ibe twice as he ran into the box and his body shape as he kicked made me think me meant it.  Allen is terrible at shooting but generally very good awareness of players and space.

[polishgenius]

Man, you guys raving about Besic earlier in the week aren't wrong. He's the business.

[Rorshach]

It's a wonder to watch what a player like Besic can do for a team. He's fast, he's got good ball control, and he's an excellent tackler. Having him in defensive mid means teams can't just walk up on us, like they can with Cleverly. 

I hope he doesn't get injured soon. 

Also, we win (yay!). But .. could we be a bit better at set pieces, please? Ours are as dangerous for us as they are for the opposition.

[Swordofmorning]

Demichilis' position couldn't have been more wrong for that 2nd goal. A stunning cross by Barry.

Surprisingly, Everton defended well. The away goal was very important for us. The tie is very much open going into the 2nd leg.

[polishgenius]

Demichilis' position couldn't have been more wrong for that 2nd goal. A stunning cross by Barry.

It was Barkley wasn't it? But yeah it was brilliant. 

Also, you say they defended well, but they did let Navas score- that's a bit embarrassing.

[Nas!]

Wait....Navas did what???

[Swordofmorning]

It was Barkley wasn't it? But yeah it was brilliant. 

Also, you say they defended well, but they did let Navas score- that's a bit embarrssing.

Yeah, Everton have got no excuses!! After all, He hadn't scored in like, more than 60 games.

[Rorshach]

It was Barkley wasn't it? But yeah it was brilliant. 

Also, you say they defended well, but they did let Navas score- that's a bit embarrassing.

It was Barry. But it's easy to lose sight of that with all the Ba-players involved: Baines to Barkley to Barry, and then the cross. Demichelis was not well placed, but then again: he was not correctly placed at all during the match. I've never seen him worse.

[Philokles]

First time my team (Gillingham) are on TV in a year tonight and we lose 3-2 after being 2-0 up, conceding the winner in the 96th minute. Typical...

[Jeor]

No way Benitez ever finds his way to United - Ferguson and him hate each other.

In some ways Arsenal should be a tempting job for Guardiola - while I might be biased, I would say out of the two Manchesters and Chelsea, Arsenal is the team best set up for the long-term. Most of our core players are still pretty young and in their mid 20s, and they're starting to play well together - Ozil, Walcott, Ramsey, Bellerin etc. Even Sanchez is only 27 and Cech would have another five years in him. In the next couple of years the only people who would be moving on due to age would be the CBs, maybe Giroud, Cazorla.

And the board might be persuaded to spend money, especially if it's for someone like Guardiola. Arsenal definitely has money - if not the same as the other three, at least no laggard. And in terms of manager longevity, Arsenal might be the safest and least trigger happy (although Moyes probably thought the same with United).

The massive sticking point is Wenger himself. I really do wonder whether he would retire if he won the title this year. Even if he won it, he may still want another crack at the Champions League. He's set up this team well and this particular team of his still has a number of good years left in it - you'd hardly blame him for wanting to stay on.

[Raja]

The only thing working against him in my opinion is how short his stays are at a club. He seems a restless manager, and I wouldn't want him for 3 years and then start looking again. Unless we have someone in mind who could take over after that but who isn't quite ready yet.  

[mormont]

That's twice I've seen someone refer to Guardiola as 'seeming restless'. His managerial history consists of three jobs, two of which were for the same club, at which he'd been a player and which accounted for five years in total - not a bad stint. So the evidence for him being 'flighty', 'restless' etc. appears to rest solely on the fact that he's 'only' done three years at Bayern - still fairly reasonable length for a job in modern football management - and that he's left both jobs he's had of his own free will, rather than being sacked. It's not the most convincing case.

Anyway, would you rather your club had three years of Guardiola or five years of, say, Benitez?

ETA - I see Michel Platini has 'decided' to 'withdraw' from an election in which he was barred from standing. Apparently 'the timing was not good for me'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35257953

Warning - link contains large amounts of self-pity.

[Rorshach]

That's twice I've seen someone refer to Guardiola as 'seeming restless'. His managerial history consists of three jobs, two of which were for the same club, at which he'd been a player and which accounted for five years in total - not a bad stint. So the evidence for him being 'flighty', 'restless' etc. appears to rest solely on the fact that he's 'only' done three years at Bayern - still fairly reasonable length for a job in modern football management - and that he's left both jobs he's had of his own free will, rather than being sacked. It's not the most convincing case.

Anyway, would you rather your club had three years of Guardiola or five years of, say, Benitez?

ETA - I see Michel Platini has 'decided' to 'withdraw' from an election in which he was barred from standing. Apparently 'the timing was not good for me'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35257953

Warning - link contains large amounts of self-pity.

Well, given that he was barred from standing, the timing was obviously not right. I see no problems with that.

I also see no problems with him being barred. 

[Raja]

That's twice I've seen someone refer to Guardiola as 'seeming restless'.

It might have been me the last time too. I don't know why my choice between Benitez or Guardiola? -

Re:  him being restless - Based on the Guardian interview he gave a few days ago, his primary reason for moving on seems to be that he needs a 'new challenge' - Say he joins Arsenal and wins as much as he can in 3 years ( which he's pretty much done with Bayern already, except the CL), I wouldn't put it past him to look for another 'new challenge' after that. Okay, 3 years might be decent according to most standards right and perhaps we're past the time where we can except managers to stay 5 6 or even 7 years, but a personal preference would be have a manager for the long term - I don't see Guardiola staying for that at Chelsea/ City/ United or whichever club he signs for in the summer.