HODGSON HAS A LOT ON HIS PLATE
Roy Hodgson walked into his new role at Crystal Palace with a lot of optimism, but it has not been a bed of roses or a match made in heaven thus far. A football lesson for forty five minutes at the Etihad on Saturday, shows the hurdle that he has to cross, if he is to deliver Palace from the tag of perennial relegation battlers.
It would be tough, there were positives, but Alan Pardew, Sam Allardyce, Frank DeBoer (With Allardyce quitting almost immediately he managed to escape relegation with them) the challenge could be with the heirarchy and the crop of players.
Same players, same board but different coaches, I wouldn’t bet on Hodgson staying long as well. Manchester United, Chelsea and Newcastle are not the type of opposition you want as well when you’re swimming for survival in the waters of relegation.
BILIC UNDER FIRE
From 0-3 down on Saturday, the final scoreline looks respectable and dignifying against a Tottenham side that has been billed as one of the top six this year. But when you look closely and recall the manner the goals were conceded against Spurs, Bilic and his coaches have cause for concern. Shambolic defending at worst or naive defending at least, have your pick and whichever way you look at it, WestHam just gave the game away easily to Spurs, even with Spurs playing the last twenty minutes wth a man down.
How long Bilic would be at the job? I wouldn’t know, – the club bought nine players in this summer, including the England no 1 goalkeeper, Joe Hart – but the fans are calling for his head already at this minute. I wish him good luck as Swansea, Burnley and Brighton are a welcome reprise in his next three games, but he has to take some points off those teams otherwise he might be saying goodbye to WestHam.
KOEMAN WALKING ON FIRE
Burnley, Brighton, Lyon, Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester, Lyon and Watford are not easy fixtures by any standard and that is exactly what Ronald Koeman has to deal with in the next few weeks of Thursday night games and weekend games.
Everton have had a rocky start to their premiership campaign, especially after spending about £140 million on new arrivals. Oumar Nisse was theskaviour on Saturday, after Bournemouth threatened to walk away with the points at Goodison park – and the celebrations from the bench after the equaliser told you how important the game meant to the coaching crew – a player who did not even have a squad number last season, forced to train with the reserves and who Koeman said had no chance of playing football ever at Everton.
It wasnt Rooney or Klaessen or Sigurdsson, but Oumar Nisse. Can Koeman build on Saturday? I still feel he has too many cooks – players – which can be a headache for the manager during match day selection. I hope he survives the next few weeks, as football unfortunately is a results oriented business and if you don’t get the points, you are out of the door in no time.
NOTHING NEW AT THE TOP
at the top of the tree, there is nothing new other than everybody is firing on all cyclinders. By week thirteen, hopefully we would have developed a pattern that would tilt the pendulum a little bit towards knowing where the title would end up. As for now, I can’t even say its any team’s to win.