Author: footballphilosophy.net

Round up of the FA Cup fourth round

The importance of the FA Cup for Premier League teams is getting increasingly lower, but lower league sides are showing how much they take the FA Cup seriously: Sutton- a National League team beat Leeds via a penalty taken by Jamie Collins. Lincoln- also a national league side came back from being one goal down to beat Brighton 3-1.

So if you’re a Lincoln or Sutton fan comment about what the FA Cup means to you and what stage you think your club will finish in the competition.

Another big upset in the cup was Wolves’s 2-1 win over Liverpool where Wolves defender Richard Stearman scored in only the 53rd second from some awful set piece defending by Liverpool. Andreas Weimann also got on scoresheet, but it wasn’t just any goal; it was his first for the club since he signed on loan from Derby. There was hope for Liverpool that they could get a draw out of the game when Divock Origi’s shot hit the back of the net in the 86th minute, but Wolves managed to hang on to their slender lead.

Probably the most exciting game of the weekend happened when Tottenham played Wycombe. It was looking like Wycombe where heading for the next round as they went 3-2 up in the 83rd minute. However, Alli and Son popped up with goals to break Wycombe hearts.

Arsenal showed their attacking quality as they beat Southampton 5-0 with Welbeck scoring twice and Walcott scoring a hat-rick. Welbeck’s goals must have given him a confidence boost as he has struggled at Arsenal since he joined, due to some major injuries. It showed largely in the game that Wenger not being on the touchline is not that much of a big loss as his side performed wonderfully at St Mary’s.

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Welbeck and Walcott starred in the game against Southampton scoring Arsenal’s goals.

Moving on, Oxford caused an upset as they beat Newcastle 3-0. The goals came from Kane Hemmings, Curtis Nelson and Toni Martinez. Newcastle may have a small sense of relief as now they can fully focus on getting promotion to the Premier League.

Previews for some of the FA Cup games coming up this weekend

This Friday, starting the FA Cup fourth round, we’ve got a tasty fixture of Derby vs Leicester. Derby are a much improved side since the managerial appointment of Steve McClaren. But will his main priority be the FA Cup as his club sit two points off the play-offs, so he may need to rest his star players – because any injuries would be fatal to their promotion challenge.

On Saturday, there’s a late FA Cup fixture as Southampton play Arsenal. The big news for Arsenal is that Arsene Wenger will be facing a touchline ban. There’s bad news for Southampton too as Jay Rodriguez, James Ward-Prowse and Virgil van Dijk will be missing the game due to injuries.

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Arsenal’s game against Southampton will be Arsene Wenger’s first game of his touchline ban.

Also on Saturday, Manchester City take on Crystal Palace. The fixture is the only one where both teams are playing against each other and are in the  Premier League. Manchester City’s form isn’t the greatest as they’ve only won five of their past eleven games.

The big game on Sunday is Manchester United play Wigan Athletic. With Wigan struggling in the Championship and are only not in the relegation zone because of goal difference.

Football Podcast with Jack- Wednesday 25th January 2017

On this podcast Jack and I talk about Philippe Coutinho signing his new contract at Liverpool and what it means for him and the club, we talk about Leicester’s troubles in the Premier League this season and about the Premier League’s games which happened last weekend.

Why I think football needs computer replays for referees

Week in week out I see mistakes that referees make and it’s getting a bit ridiculous. I don’t see why football shouldn’t have computer replays, because poor refereeing decisions effects the game hugely, for example when Feghouli got sent off against Manchester United, which if it hadn’t been given it could have changed the result of the game.

The way I would format my idea would be that the there was a referee to keep order and make decisions that are not that massively important,for example an obvious free kick in a team’s own half. With the ref on the pitch, I would put a person who had studied the full rules off the game and making the important decisions, for instance if he thought it was a penalty he would talk to the ref through a microphone and the ref would give the penalty.

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Mark Clattenburg is one of the best referees in the game, but he would be refereeing in a slightly different way if I could decide football’s officiating.

 

Premier League Round up of the past two days

The first game of the weekend was an excellent one for Swansea as they beat Liverpool 3-2, the game was a very exciting one with Liverpool coming back from two goals down- when that happened it looked like Liverpool could hang on or get a winner. However, it was Swansea who got the winner from Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Also on Saturday Manchester City drew to Spurs, Lloris had an awful game as he spilled Sterling’s cross to allow De Bruyne to tap the ball into an open goal. He also was hesitant to come out for De Bruyne’s pass, his decision resulted in Sane scoring City’s first goal in the game.

With Swansea winning in the weekend the relegation fighters had to win their games, but none of them could, as Hull lost to Chelsea, Sunderland lost to West Brom and Crystal Palace lost to Everton.

On Sunday Burnley played Arsenal, the game was a one with lots of contentious decisions for referee Jon Moss as he gave two penalties. The end result in the game was 2-1 to Arsenal.

I apologize that there’s no podcast this Sunday something went wrong uploading it onto the website.

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Swansea boss Paul Clement led his team to a 3-2 win over Liverpool.

Some Premier League previews of the fixtures coming up this weekend

We’ve got another entertaining weekend of the Premier League coming up, and starting it off Paul Clement’s Swansea team take on Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Swansea are hoping to bounce back from their defeat at Arsenal last week, but it may be hard as they’re playing Liverpool- who are third in the league.

There’s an exciting game on Saturday, where Spurs play Manchester City at the Etihad stadium. Pep Guardiola has been very negative in his comments saying that City are not in the title race anymore. City fans, do you agree with your manager or not, comment either way.

There’s triple fixtures on Sunday as Southampton play Leicester, Arsenal play Burnley and Chelsea take on Hull. Chelsea have got a boost coming into the game as Costa will almost definitely be returning.

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Pep Guardiola has said been very negative with his comments.

What Southampton should do in this transfer market to finish in the top ten

Current Southampton line up

Keeper: Forster

Defence: Bertrand, Yoshida, Van Dijk, Soares

Midfield: Hojberg, Romeu, Claise or Ward- Prowse

Attack: Redmond, Long, Tadic

Backup: Davis, Sims, McQueen, Rodriguez, Davis, McCarthy, Martina, Pied

With Southampton struggling after losing lots of their best players they need to do lots of business in the market, so here are some things that I think Southampton need to do in the market.

Keep their centre backs- Fonte and van Dijk.

With Fonte handing in a transfer request and van Dijk a main transfer priority for top clubs it may be hard to keep them both. However, Southampton have to convince them to stay because otherwise they will be conceding lots of goals for the rest of the season.

Buy Leonardo Ulloa from Leicester.

With Saints striker Charlie Austin expected to be out for still a few months Southampton need a temporary striker, so with Ulloa being unhappy at Leicester it’s a perfect fit.

Buy a new right back.

Soares had a wonderful Euros but I don’t think he’s good enough to be Southampton’s first choice right back. If Southampton agree with me then I’m sure they’ll be looking for a new right back.

Don’t buy in positions where players like Sims, McQueen and Targett play at.

Southampton have to develop their youngsters like the ones I’ve mentioned, so buying players who play in their positions will mean they won’t play very much and won’t develop.

Josh Sims
Sims has got to develop into his full potential, but he can’t if he doesn’t play many games.

Premier League Round up of the games this weekend

This weekend was a big one for Manchester United and Liverpool as they took each other on, the game is a famous one for the rivalry between these two clubs. The outcome of the fixture was 1-1, with Ibrahimovic scoring with a header and Milner scoring a penalty.

Also on Sunday Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City lost to Everton 4-0. City now find themselves ten points of the top. The game was a special one for youngsters Lookman and Davies as Lookman scored on his debut and Davies scored his first goal for Everton ever.

The main game on Saturday was Leicester vs Chelsea, where full back Marcos Alonso scored twice in the game. The other goal was from Pedro, where in the build up to the goal he did an incredible no look backheel.

It was an important 4-0 win for Tottenham against West Brom which gets Spurs into second position in the league. Spurs have now won seven games in a row.

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Kane and Spurs have been excellent for Spurs in the past few games.