Europe’s elite struggling to perform in lockdown
THE Premier League, over the last few years, has been dominated by two clubs, Manchester City and Liverpool. With the exception of Leicester in 2015/16, the last few years have almost resembled Formula One.
One or two totally dominant teams that have the monopoly over the rest of the field. Much better off the field, or track, and certainly much better on it.
Watching Liverpool and Man City at times has had a certain assuredness attached, that whoever they play will eventually be beaten whatever resistance is given.
This season, however, whether it be the nightmare stop-start nature of lockdown, we genuinely have four, five, even six clubs all with a realistic chance of winning the title.
This has to be good for the fans. Now, I’m not a Manchester United fan, but I did admire the Ferguson era, and I don’t think anyone can argue that the Premier League is more exciting if the Red Devils have a competitive team and pose a threat to everyone.
Then we have Spurs. Jose Mourinho will not rest until Tottenham achieve something and so they have to be considered challengers at this stage.
Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester side are excellent and on their day, they can beat anyone, this is before we even get to Liverpool or Man City.
I would even include my former youth team Everton in this title contender mix. They have a top manager in Carlo Ancelotti, and top players to boot, maybe just not the squad depth at this point to go all of the way.
I really hope that it does go to the wire for the good of the game. It will give everyone a huge boost to see the league open right until the end of the season - whenever that may be in the current climate.
Maybe I am a bit of a football geek, a stat man, or just football obsessed, but I like to keep a beady eye across all of the leagues in Europe and we also have a few anomalies in those leagues.
Real Madrid and Barcelona are not having it their own way in La Liga, Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid are setting the pace with only one loss so far in the first 16 games.
In Serie A, Juventus, the powerhouse of the last umpteen years, are way off the pace, ten points behind AC Milan. There’s no surprise that a certain Cristiano Ronaldo is still the league’s top scorer, though, so don’t write Juve off just yet.
Even in France and Germany respectively, with PSG and Bayern Munich, other teams are still within touching distance. Their leagues are super tight, other teams have a genuine chance of upsetting the apple cart. Is it through lockdown? Or is it coincidence? I’m not sure, but whatever the reason, it makes for a more intriguing and exciting finish to the season.
Closer to home, the Championship down to the National League is always competitive and, as is the norm, survival and promotion will go all the way to the end of the season.
I just hope and pray that we can all stay disciplined and stay safe, and that these leagues can actually finish.
Seeing the news surrounding the financial package, or lack of it, for the National League and leagues below, I really do worry for the future of some of our clubs.
I genuinely hope that all of the governing bodies, organisations and leagues above can see the importance of helping keep these clubs in existence, because that is what we are talking about here, no doubt about it.