The Curious Case of Dimitar Berbatov

Love him or hate him, Dimitar Berbatov is the closest thing Manchester United fans have seen don the famous club colours since the great Eric Cantona.

The enigmatic striker swaggered confidently through the gates at Old Trafford for a cool £30.75million fee back in 2008, which is perhaps one of the reasons why the Bulgarian hitman has been forced to endure the wrath of so many critics. Berbatov has delivered 56 goals in 144 appearances for Manchester United - a ratio better than a goal every three games, so he has not been a disaster since joining the club by any stretch of the imagination.

Those that idolise him, will point to last season's return of 22 Barclays Premier League goals as a reason to stand by Berbatov - a feat that helped him to the 2010-11 Golden Boot, despite only playing a bit-part role for United in the second-half of the previous campaign. The same fans will also reminisce fondly about the hat-trick scored against Liverpool back in September 2010 — one of four occasions where Berbatov has finished up with the Manchester United match ball.

But despite his impressive goalscoring record, the talismanic striker has been forced to settle for a fringe role on the periphery of Sir Alex Ferguson's first-team this year, as he continues to feature primarily from the bench. The fact that Berbatov was omitted from Manchester United's UEFA Champions League final squad to face Barcelona at Wembley back in May, in favour of the much maligned Michael Owen, whose best days are surely behind him, speaks volumes about the player's current Old Trafford standing.

At best, Berbatov can be regarded as the reigning Barclays Premier League champions' fourth-choice striker - behind Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez, and Danny...

Read story →    0 comments   

A day in the life of a Liverpool Fan: Liverpool...

As some of you may know already, I went to watch the game against City yesterday, so I thought I'd make a short article of the day and my view on the game.

I woke up at about 8.45 AM with some excitement for the day ahead in Liverpool and the game that night. So I had no problem getting myself ready for the day even though I didnt have much sleep the night before because of excitement. We were off for Liverpool at about 11.30 AM once everyone had finished getting ready. The car was cramped it was an alright journey; good weather for a long drive and some decent music on the radio, we finally arrived in Liverpool City centre at about 2.30PM once we figured out where we were meeting some family of 2 of the friends I went with.

Once we had parked up we split up for a few hours, 3 of us went to look at shops while the other 2 went to meet their family. We headed into Liverpool One which is the main shopping area in the City centre. It is pretty funny actually, LFC shop is there and nearly direct opposite is Everton club shop. We looked round shops for a while and I bought a new Jacket for the night ahead. After a while we decided to go track down everyone else.

We found them a short time later in an Irish pub in the City centre; there was a good atmosphere in the pub (full of Liverpool fans) and we stopped there for a few drinks soaking up the atmosphere until we decided we wanted some food. We got some food then we decided we thought we best head to near the ground before traffic on the road got too busy.

We parked up about ten minutes walk from the ground at 6.15 giving us an hour and half to spare. We got directed to a pub on the way to the ground by people who live there who we had met up with and I will say this, the atmosphere was buzzing, everyone was up for the game and the closer it came to Kick off the more we started chanting Liverpool songs. We headed to the ground at about 7.30 giving us 15 minutes...

Read story →    0 comments   

Five Conclusions From Matchday 18

Marco Reus finds all the right answers to Bayern’s trash talk. Reus’ announcement to move to Dortmund in the summer, triggered a series of trademark taunts from down south during the winter break. Reus supposedly demanded a guaranteed starting spot at Bayern. He chickened from trying to fight for his place in the team. These kind of things. Marco Reus was reasonably annoyed by the taunts and promised to give his answer on the pitch. And so he did, scoring an opportunistic goal and providing a lovely assist in Friday’s Rückrunde curtain raiser. He had some helping hands and feet of course. He benefitted from Manuel Neuer’s black out, Lucien Favre’s overall football genius and a team mate like Patrick Hermann, who is quietly having his break out season in Reus’ shadow. But still, what a player.

Bayern are hard to beat, but easy to outcoach. Bayern still have the highest quantity of top quality players in the league. That fact alone makes sure they remain top favorites for the title. Yet, looking at their five defeats in the league so far, you realize that they’ve all come against coaches with a reputation for their tactical nouse. Lucien Favre (2x), Jürgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Mirko Slomka all devised match plans, with various degrees of clever forechecking, defending and counter attacks, that undid Bayern’s surplus in quality. And you could argue that some other coaches had the same ideas and just not the right mix of players and quality to achieve similar results. This fact is encouraging for those hoping for a close title race. At least for as long, as Jupp Heynckes doesn’t care to adapt to the other teams’ tactics for a change.

Maybe Dortmund are back in title winning form.
Read story →    0 comments