1. Olivier Giroud proved why he should never don an Arsenal kit again, by picking up two ridiculously silly yellows in the first half, which led to a red, and Arsenal playing the majority of the match against a weaker opponent with 10 men. When's the last time you saw a striker get 2 yellows in the first half and sent off? His job isn't to make challenges, it's to score goals.
2. Hector Moreno A.K.A. Mexico's finest possibly finished Luke Shaw's career for a two footed studs up tackle, in the PSV/United match. United was clearly shaken after the Mexican broke 2 bones in Shaw's leg and PSV went on to win.
3. Citeh and United both showed why it's pertinent in UCL play to have multiple strikers, as without Aguero they lost to a Juventus squad, that is winless in Serie A. They blew a lead in a game they really needed at home. Citeh dropped Dzeko, Alvarado, and Jovetic within the last year and Bony is out of depth to replace Aguero, when he is injured. Aguero is injured quite often, which makes it even stranger that they got rid of Dzeko.
4. Chelsea beat Tel-Aviv 4-0, but don't be fooled. Tel-Aviv won the Israeli league and is by far the worst team in the UCL. They wouldn't compete in the BPL. Mourinho made a slew of changes. Oscar came back, but Hazard and Costa still are playing awful. Hazard missed a penalty over the crossbar and Costa whiffed with his foot and shinned in his goal. Matic, Terry, and Ivanovic were dropped, while Cahill, Raman, Zouman, and Loftus-Cheek were brought in. They looked better, but the back 4 still look really bad. Raman had to cover for Cahill's errors quite a bit. Zouman was obviously better than Ivanovic, but still sloppy in defense.
5. Paul Scholes brought up an excellent point and heavily criticized United for selling RvP and Chicharito. You can't sell those two, buy a $55 million dollar 19 year old French kid and expect him to immediately supply goals. Rooney was hurt, so there's basically Depay and Martial to score goals. Martial looks like a good signing in time, but he's not physically ready to play in the #9 role. Even with Rooney, United will not be pouring in goals like they did under SAF. You can't get rid of Di Maria, Januzaj, RvP, Chicharito, and Falcao without having a Muller, Lewandowski, Cavani, type waiting in the wings. Depay was a great signing, but after that is a mess. De Gea should have been sold much earlier, with Keylor Navas and the $29 million extra coming in. They could have used that money on a proven goalscorer. I'm sure they'll have someone in January, but it might be too late.
It's quite apparent, for the first time in a long time, that the BPL is extremely short on strikers. Proven goal scorers are the hardest player to find. USA hasn't had a proper striker in it's history, except Brian McBride. It's the problem for many of the countries in the world and mostly what separates them from the better sides. Aging Clint Dempsey has been the USMNT's only dependable/consistent goalscorer for the past 4 years. That has to change. I haven't seen anyone on the current USMNT player pool that looks like he can score goals in the big competitions. Maybe Jordan Morris, but it's too early to tell.
I had a very good conversation with the head journalist for Southampton/Tottenham about the many problems in American football. He coached over here, coming from England and was shocked at how bad the referees are and how all the American coaches value physical stature over skill. He said that most referees in the US consider soccer to be a non-contact sport and any of his players that went in for a typical English tackle were shown yellow or straight red. We're still the only country in the world to make kids pay to play. We also have the lowest paid refs in the world by a large margin. MLS referee Mark Geiger was the first American to ref a WC match and you saw how awful he was in the Gold Cup. He handed Mexico the game over Panama.
In the past few years the BPL has lost amazing attackers like Bale, Drogba, RvP, Suarez, Tevez, Dzeko, Berbatov, Chicharito, Negredo, Eto'o, Schurrle, Di Maria, Torres, Jovetic, etc. There have been some massively successful signings, like Alexis and Depay, but not nearly enough.
Ligue 1, Serie A, Eredirvisie should be getting raided by the BPL for attacking players, because most all of the ones from the top-half clubs are BPL ready and those 3 leagues are really hurting financially compared to BPL Clubs. Every club gets $90 million in TV money, just for being in the BPL. Andre Ayew for example is still only 25 and did very well for Marseille, before being BPL player of the month in August for Swansea. Christian Eriksen is also another great example. Spuds got him from Ajax for a measly $12 million. He's one of the best CAM's in the league.
2. Hector Moreno A.K.A. Mexico's finest possibly finished Luke Shaw's career for a two footed studs up tackle, in the PSV/United match. United was clearly shaken after the Mexican broke 2 bones in Shaw's leg and PSV went on to win.
3. Citeh and United both showed why it's pertinent in UCL play to have multiple strikers, as without Aguero they lost to a Juventus squad, that is winless in Serie A. They blew a lead in a game they really needed at home. Citeh dropped Dzeko, Alvarado, and Jovetic within the last year and Bony is out of depth to replace Aguero, when he is injured. Aguero is injured quite often, which makes it even stranger that they got rid of Dzeko.
4. Chelsea beat Tel-Aviv 4-0, but don't be fooled. Tel-Aviv won the Israeli league and is by far the worst team in the UCL. They wouldn't compete in the BPL. Mourinho made a slew of changes. Oscar came back, but Hazard and Costa still are playing awful. Hazard missed a penalty over the crossbar and Costa whiffed with his foot and shinned in his goal. Matic, Terry, and Ivanovic were dropped, while Cahill, Raman, Zouman, and Loftus-Cheek were brought in. They looked better, but the back 4 still look really bad. Raman had to cover for Cahill's errors quite a bit. Zouman was obviously better than Ivanovic, but still sloppy in defense.
5. Paul Scholes brought up an excellent point and heavily criticized United for selling RvP and Chicharito. You can't sell those two, buy a $55 million dollar 19 year old French kid and expect him to immediately supply goals. Rooney was hurt, so there's basically Depay and Martial to score goals. Martial looks like a good signing in time, but he's not physically ready to play in the #9 role. Even with Rooney, United will not be pouring in goals like they did under SAF. You can't get rid of Di Maria, Januzaj, RvP, Chicharito, and Falcao without having a Muller, Lewandowski, Cavani, type waiting in the wings. Depay was a great signing, but after that is a mess. De Gea should have been sold much earlier, with Keylor Navas and the $29 million extra coming in. They could have used that money on a proven goalscorer. I'm sure they'll have someone in January, but it might be too late.
It's quite apparent, for the first time in a long time, that the BPL is extremely short on strikers. Proven goal scorers are the hardest player to find. USA hasn't had a proper striker in it's history, except Brian McBride. It's the problem for many of the countries in the world and mostly what separates them from the better sides. Aging Clint Dempsey has been the USMNT's only dependable/consistent goalscorer for the past 4 years. That has to change. I haven't seen anyone on the current USMNT player pool that looks like he can score goals in the big competitions. Maybe Jordan Morris, but it's too early to tell.
I had a very good conversation with the head journalist for Southampton/Tottenham about the many problems in American football. He coached over here, coming from England and was shocked at how bad the referees are and how all the American coaches value physical stature over skill. He said that most referees in the US consider soccer to be a non-contact sport and any of his players that went in for a typical English tackle were shown yellow or straight red. We're still the only country in the world to make kids pay to play. We also have the lowest paid refs in the world by a large margin. MLS referee Mark Geiger was the first American to ref a WC match and you saw how awful he was in the Gold Cup. He handed Mexico the game over Panama.
In the past few years the BPL has lost amazing attackers like Bale, Drogba, RvP, Suarez, Tevez, Dzeko, Berbatov, Chicharito, Negredo, Eto'o, Schurrle, Di Maria, Torres, Jovetic, etc. There have been some massively successful signings, like Alexis and Depay, but not nearly enough.
Ligue 1, Serie A, Eredirvisie should be getting raided by the BPL for attacking players, because most all of the ones from the top-half clubs are BPL ready and those 3 leagues are really hurting financially compared to BPL Clubs. Every club gets $90 million in TV money, just for being in the BPL. Andre Ayew for example is still only 25 and did very well for Marseille, before being BPL player of the month in August for Swansea. Christian Eriksen is also another great example. Spuds got him from Ajax for a measly $12 million. He's one of the best CAM's in the league.
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