Football in Five

5 hot takes in football this week

1. Sack Race Season

Its that time of year when club owners get nervous and pull the trigger. This week, saw Thomas Frank and Sean Dyche bite the bullet and leave Tottenham and Nottingham Forest respectively. Both dismissals seemed inevitable and were on the cards for over a month. Last year it was January with Juric at Southampton and Dyche again at Everton losing their jobs this year it’s February and as teams are picking up more points then we’re needed last year to stay up. Will we see Palace, Brighton or Burnley hit the panic button and decide to twist for the final 12 games of the season.

Let’s take the Frank dismissal first. As early as November 8th Spurs fans were booing some of Frank’s substitutions against Man Utd. From the off the Dane and Spurs seem a bizarre mix – Frank favoured a pragmatic style at Brentford and Spurs prefer an expansive free flowing attacking style. It was never going to work. I do think injuries effected his team badly, no Maddison, Kulusevski, Solanke ( for large parts) & lately Kudos, Porro, Bergvall , Bentancur and fighting on two fronts hurt his chance of success this season. I believe in a sliding doors moment of Man Utd winning Europe League and Spurs being able to maintain a top 6 charge this season. But hey ho it’s not to be and Spurs roll on with their search for their 6th manager since Pochettino departure in 2019.

Dyche, Dyche, Dyche where do we start?! 2nd sacking in 2 seasons. Forest move onto their 4th manager of the season. This simply was never going to work. Maybe if you were appointing him with 10 games to go or at this stage I could see the sense but Forest have flip flopped between Nuno to Ange to Dyche – all contrasting styles of play. Dyche tried to play to the Forest are my club, I walked Clough’s dog shtick and unfortunately his style of play would never carry favoured with Marinakis unless the results were amazing. This is the best group of players Dyche has worked with yet his style of play restricted many of them. For the team who finished 7th last year to flirt with relegation all year and have a bang average crusade in Europe is poor and ultimately cost him his job. 8 points in the last 6 games isnt relegation form but Marinakis couldn’t resist to twist again.

So the manager merry go round starts again. My money is on one more Glasner poor result and he is the next to go. Wolves next weekend is in the diary. I believe the only reason he hasn’t despite his best attempts to be pushed is because Steve Parish  is waiting for the World Cup to shake out its managers and then we go again.

This summer will be a massive one for Manager moves.

2. We have a bonafide Title Race.

Just 1 week ago Arsenal went 9 points clear with Man City due to play Liverpool at Anfield, a ground where they had only won once since 2003. Yet 1 week later there are now only 4 points separating them with Arsenal still to have to go Man City.

Man City completed the double over Liverpool for the first time since the 1936-37 season a whooping 89 years. City are back baby or are they?! For me they still look very fragile at the back and before this week they were on a stinking run of results – January was very poor for them, they only beat Wolves. Yet January is a turning point for City with Pep spending big on Semanyo and Guehl. For me both are elite signings and if they were at City at the beginning of the season, I believe City would be streets ahead of Arsenal. Pep’s defenders are starting to come back at the business end of the season with Dias, Stones and Gvardial all on the mend or back already. Game by game Rodri will be getting back to his old form. Pep has found a gem in centre midfield with Nico O’Reilly so is starting to hone in on a first eleven and an impressive spine.

Arsenal on the other hand are struggling to get into gear 3, 4 or 5 but are maintaining a lead over the rest. Defensively and in Midfield Arsenal are as solid as a rock and are grinding out results left, right and centre. Going forward though they are relying on set pieces and little bits of magic. They are a bit boring but very efficient. Injuries and Arteta’s controlling tactics are starting to hold Arsenal back coupled with teams finding ways to hold them at bay with compact low blocks. Havertz, Merino, Saka, Odegaard & Trossard all struggling for fitness. I still, however think Arsenal will see this out , the defence, Timber, Gabriel, Salibu are outstanding and Rice and Zubimendi in Centre Midfield are a World Class pairing. Going forward is the concern but Gyokeres has started to hit a bit of form.

I feel Arsenal will start to drop a few points however will Man City finally find some consistency and close down that lead. Exciting times ahead.

3. We have a bonafide Relegation Race

Similar to the title race, the relegation battle is heating up nicely. I believe from West Ham 18th all the way up to Palace in 13th are all in the mix.

West Ham in 18th are almost ahead of Leicester’s final points total after just 26 games. West Ham had after Man City the best January transfer window and Nuno is starting to get a tune out of his team. If Bowen, Summerville & Taty stay fit i believe they get out of the bottom 3. They are in good form  and if they continue this momentum they reach around the 40 point mark.

Forest and Spurs have fired their managers as the owners have had squeaky bums. Forest have been in reasonable form but can’t seem to get free whereas Spurs are in freefall. Both will now hope for the new manager bounce in the league and continue their European journeys. I have a hunch Forest pull clear as they have quality throughout the team whereas Spurs will get dragged in with the previously mentioned injury crisis. I also believe Palace if they lose (and it is a big IF) to Wolves next weekend will get dragged in.

Burnley and Wolves are obviously down but it is intriguing to see who else’s gets dragged down as well. Could Spurs be the next too good to go down team to actually well go down?!

4. Liverpool are in transition.

Liverpool have despite the Man City been in some good form. I believe Liverpool will finish in the top four however as the weeks ( & months) roll on it is becoming more apparent that this Liverpool team are trying to forge out a Slot style whilst ushering out the old regime. Last orders have been called for Robertson and Salah who have both been pale imitations of their former self’s. Van Dijk and Allison have been error prone in recent times as father time catches up on everyone. Liverpool have soooo much individual quality that they will pick up points easily but when facing top top quality I believe they will struggle 9 times out of 10. The likes of Wirtz, Ekitike, Frimpong will all get better next season but and it is a big but Liverpools old guard will have left or be in their last knockings. They will need to be replaced with World Class players or face another year of transition. When Liverpool bought Van Dijk and Alisson they were both arguably the best in their positions so I feel they need to go big again and buy best in class or otherwise face another season of simply chasing Champions league qualification rather then be title challengers.

5. Striker signings are coming good

I love love love Centre Forwards. The boys who put it in the onion bag – the hardest part of the game. Last summer the Top 6 went big on strikers see Gyokeres, Sesko, Pedro, Delap, Isak, Ekitike, Woltemade costing in excess of £450 million.

I think it is fair to say that by the turn of the year the only our and out success of these has been Ekitike as the rest have been finding their feet. However in the last 5 games , Gyokeres, Sesko and Pedro have all scored 4 goals and this is all more impressive considering none of them are nailed on starters for their teams with Sesko barely starting at all. As we enter the final third I think these Strikers will all push on and continue their wave of good form. Going into the next season upto speed and smashing goals left right and centre.

My note of caution being Delap and Woltemade. I believe they will both struggle for goals at the back end of this season as Chelsea and Newcastle struggle to get the best out of these genuinely talented youngsters.