Monday, May 14, 2007,
11:56 PM
WARNING: LONG POST - DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU ARE A FOOTBALL FAN!!!
K, so anyways... the last games of the EPL season was played yesterday... crucial matches were in store for relegated-battling teams, namely, Sheffield United (SU), Wigan Athletic (WA) and West Ham United (WHU)... Meanwhile, there was also the fight for the final UEFA Cup Spot... Reading, Portsmouth and Bolton were fighting to secure the last place after the 1st 2 have been taken by Tottenham and Everton... in the end, Wigan and WHU survived while SU got sent back down together with Watford and Charlton... further up the table, Bolton snatched the remaining place in Europe as Reading were held 3-3 by Blackburn and Portsmouth had a stroke of bad luck against Arsenal, having a goal (which was NOT offside) disallowed for offside... As I look ahead, I shall access the certain teams in the EPL for next season starting with:
1. Liverpool
2. Liverpool's contenders for the title
3. Promoted teams
4. Interesting teams
1. Liverpool
OK, sad to say, Liverpool haven't improved on their 3rd place finish, though I strongly believed they missed the chance to go 2nd earlier in the year when Chelsea were slipping up time and again... To be honest, I don't think Liverpool have the squad to challenge for the title next season... They do not have squad depth and they lack a quality winger and striker... Pennant, Gonzalez, Zenden, all have worked hard, make no mistake about that... but these aren't the players that can put on consistent performances week in, week out and win you games... Kewell might, but he's too injury-prone...
In terms of the line upfront, Kuyt has worked hard in every game he played, but still, it seems hard to see him as our prolific striker, getting us 20 goals a season... Bellamy, on the other hand, is more of a supporting striker, making runs and opening up defenses... while Crouch has been good everytime he starts, we can only wonder why Benitez doesn't put him up as a regular striker... looking ahead, the signing of Andriy Voronin is going to add more sharpness upfront, at least, from what I've observed... he would seem good enough to score goals for us... in terms of wingers, on the right we need like, 1 more to back up Luis Garcia and Pennant so Gerrard can focus on the centre of the park... while on the left, we definitely need another one, if not, at least get a left back so that Riise can take the LM position and make runs as well as firing his popular thunderbolts that he so often does...
For the defense, if they can stop making errors they'll be fine... they have been awful lucky to get away with the opposition hitting the woodwork, but they won't get away for long... tighten up behind!!!
As a whole, to seriously challenge for the title, we need to win games that we ought to win and increase squad depth so as to chase other trophies at the same time...
2. Liverpool's contenders
MAN UTD - They will be a force to be reckon with... but Benitez has got it right in terms of their last match against them... with the backfour keeping an eye on Ronaldo while Gerrard win the battles in the centre, their attack can be easily neutralised... just hope they don't concede unnecessary free kicks in dangerous areas...
CHELSEA - Seriously, I dunno why I put them here... they're so overrated, they think they're the best team in England when they clearly aren't... they have been getting away with sneaking in late goals this season, we all know they won't get away for long...
ARSENAL - Don't see a threat here... they still lack that maturity and physical strength to get them through as seen this season... Yeah, some may argue that the absence of Henry has done that... that just makes Arsy here a 1-man team... and if the defense can handle Henry the same way they handled Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Messi and all those individually skilled players as I've seen this season, then it shouldn't really be a problem...
3. Promoted teams
SUNDERLAND - Oh how great is this!!! I love SUNDERLAND!!! To see Keano return to the Premiership as a manager is gonna be interesting, especially when they've only lost twice under his leadership... Really SUNDERLAND is a transformed team with him in it... almost like a mini-Man Utd... it'll be interesting to see how they do in the Premiership... I'll keep my high expectations in-check until further notice...
BIRMINGHAM - Blek!!! Who cares about this team??? (except Thiam Jin... lolz!)
4. Interesting teams
READING - Their form this season has been totally impressive!!! Sitting just outside the UEFA Cup spots, Steve Coppell could not have asked for a better start... whether they'll end up like Wigan next season remains to be seen, but seeing as how they've played extremely impressive attacking football combined with amazing build-ups, it'll be interesting to watch them as Coppell plans to expand the squad to keep Reading in the top-flight...
WEST HAM UNITED - Great Houdini act performed this season!!! Credits to Alan Curbishley for that... seriously, I have always esteemed him as an amazing manager during his time at Charlton... and this proves it... coupled with the amazing skills of Carlos Tevez, it'll be an eyebrow-raiser to watch this team play next season... Tevez came in late in their season to secure them top-flight football next season... imagine if he came in earlier...
Well, that's it... to most teams in the EPL, the season is over... however, for a particular few, there's 1 more match to be played before they call it a day and take a break... May 19th, MU will be taking on Chelsea at the new Wembley Stadium for the Champions League 3rd place playoff, aka FA Cup Final... ;) while Liverpool have a date with AC Milan in the Olympique Stadium in Athens 4 days later in the Champions League final...
Who will win? Who will lose?? And who will lift the trophies??? Tune in next time on ESPN to find out!!!
Falcon, OUT!
YWNA!!! - You'll Never Walk Alone!!!
