FA Cup Replay’s Effect for Liverpool

The oldest football competition in the world, FA Cup, has been begun for EPL team on the last weekend. Most PL team got a draw against lower division team, unless Man City v West Ham and Everton v Leicester City. Overall, the stronger teams won the 5^th round FA Cup preliminary round although there were some surprising results.

Jurgen Klopp has to think hard of his squad due to extra fixture on January. http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/first-team/249857-jurgen-klopp-on-fifa-fan-award-fans-of-lfc-and-bvb-should-be-proud

Man City started the FA Cup campaign with a big 5-0 win against West Ham away. Different with most PL team who rotated their squad, Guardiola only made a few changes in his squad and kept his strong starting line up on the game. At the end of the game, The Citizen had a tremendous victory, gave a revival signal to title contenders that they are back. A day later, the defending champion, Man United, also had a party at home against lower division team. Subsequently, three of top 6 PL London team also won the FA Cup match in different way. Chelsea had a convincing victory 4-1 at home against Peterborough despite the skipper, John Terry received red card at 65 minutes. Spurs found their win at second half by 2 goals scored after being held 0-0 by Aston Villa at first half. Meanwhile Arsenal must work hard to get their win after left behind 1-0 at first half before turned the situation into 2-1 at second half. The biggest surprising result was Liverpool, who got 0-0 draw against Plymouth at home.

Liverpool played with the youngest squad ever in their FA Cup history. Jurgen Klopp had to rotate his squad due to busy fixture before and after the match. Before FA Cup 5^th round match, most PL team played in hectic fixtures on December and new year period. After that, they will play League Cup (EFL) semifinal on the midweek and super big match away against rival, Man United three days later. In addition, they have to lose their key players. Sadio Mane leaves the squad to play in African Cup for at least three weeks, could be worse if his country goes to knockout phase. Meanwhile Phillipe Coutinho is still in recovery on his injury. He is estimated back to the pitch next week or could be on the bench in Man United game. For that reason, the German manager did a lot of changes in his squad at FA Cup match.

Consequently, The Reds still has to play vs Plymouth again on FA Cup replay match after United game, but this time at the Championship team’s home. If they want to win, of course Jurgen Klopp has not to play the same young squad again, at least he must add some key players to play with young players. Unfortunately, after replay match, another busy fixture is waiting Liverpool. The Merseyside Red will play at PL then EFL Cup 2^nd leg semifinal. Klopp has to be smart on his squad choices to play this month. If not, he might get the worst result plus injured player(s). The best option is keep rotating the squad and mixing the experience players with young and energetic players on his starting line-up.

Another option for Jurgen Klopp is arriving new player(s) in January transfer window. According to the news and gossip, Liverpool try to sign new attackers, Jese Rodriguez, Julian Brandt, and Quincy Promes plus a new goalkeeper, Joe hart. The attackers are young and talented players that can make Liverpool’s attack become more dangerous, besides Joe Hart is an experience goalkeeper that can solve Klopp’s GK problem. If The Reds can sign one of attackers and the England goalkeeper, it will be a great addition for them to compete either in PL title contenders track or League Cup and FA Cup campaign because they will have a strong team with a good depth squad. 

Tight December

December, a month has been waited by everyone especially Premier League fans. December means no more international football but a busy football fixture, even on Christmas and new year period. After predicted the table leader on the previous article, this article will discuss what has happened on the December game-week and the impact of that result to the table particularly at top.

Begin with GW14, the first game on December, was opened by a big clash Man City v Chelsea. It was an interesting game due to the battle between two genius coach. Both team played high-pressing game since the first minute, created chances, but at the last minute of first half, the Citizen scored the first goal. At the beginning of second half, Guardiola side was enjoying the game, and they should have scored the second goal from brilliant opportunities by Aguero and De Bruyne, unfortunately they can’t. After an hour of the match, the game change, especially after Chelsea could levelled the game by Costa. The West London killed the game by 2 counter attack goal then.

At the other games, GW 14 looked like a good match-day for London top 6 team. Arsenal had a party at West Ham by winning 5-1 and Spurs won 5-0 against Swansea at home. Meanwhile, another top 6 team rivals, had trouble. A day after Man City defeat at home, Liverpool surprisingly got beaten by Bournemouth after leading 3-1 at minute 70’. The match reflected their defensive problem (goalkeeper and central defender in particular). Subsequently, Man United failed to win at Everton because of penalty leveler at the last minute of the game. The result made Chelsea went top of the league by 3 points different with Arsenal at second, meanwhile Spurs closed the gap to top four.

On the following week, Premier League had a tight schedule because all teams had to play 3 games in a week, GW 15,16, and 17. At GW 15, Chelsea and Arsenal continued their winning, meanwhile Man City and Liverpool were surprisingly failed to get 3 points. Man City got beaten at away game by the defending champions Leicester City by 4-2, moreover they left 4-0 behind until last minute. On the other hand, Liverpool had a draw 2-2 against West Ham at home. The only big game at GW 15 was Man United v Spurs, ended 1-0 win for The Red Devils. The result of Old Trafford game reflected Man United has improved as a team, more solid and could handle the opponent’s pressure to hold their lead until the end of the game.

Next to GW 16, every team at top 6 won the game, except Arsenal. The Gunners had a tough away match at Merseyside, got defeated 2-1 by Everton although they already lead 1-0 at first half. Moving to GW 17, the trend was still the same. Only Arsenal failed to pick up points due to lost at big match against Man City away with similar score and the way the game play. Arsenal lead at first five minute by Theo Walcott’s goal after a quick counter attack. At first half, The Gunners was dominating the game, created another dangerous opportunity to score the second. At second half, Man City played much better. They pressed Arsenal high since tthe beginning, then scored the equalizer at first ten minutes of second half. The game completely changed after that, the momentum was on Citizen side. The home supporters screamed loudly every time Man City’s players pressed Arsenal’s player. Because of Guardiola side had their momentum, they finally could score the second and winning goal, Man City 2-1 Arsenal. On the other hand, the other top 6 teams won with 1 goal different.

After GW 17, Premier League played boxing day game-week, a day after Christmas. The result of GW 18 satisfied all top 6 supporters because every team won. So, it’s a happy Christmas for top 6 teams, particularly every top 6 team won by more than a goal lead, except Arsenal, who had a tough win 1-0 against West Brom.

Finally, Premier League had through half way of the season, at GW 19. Chelsea still continued their winning streak to 13 win, beat Stoke City 4-2. Beside Chelsea, Man United also successfully got 5 win a row, after a tough win 2-1 after left 1-0 behind until minute 84. United’s winning streak trend could be a danger signal for the other top 6 teams who fight for top 4 place especially Jose Mourinho seems found the way to make Paul Pogba, Mikhtaryan, and Ibrahimovic play their best football. The biggest match of GW 19 was Liverpool (2^nd rank) v Man City (3^rd rank). Their point difference was only a point before the match. The game would decide the real Chelsea’s challenger for PL title. The game played with a high tempo since the beginning, just like both team show usually, but the home side took the advantage of playing in front of their own supporters, scored the first goal 8 minutes after kick off. After the goal, Liverpool completely enjoyed the game, pressed Guardiola side to win the ball back at midfield and avoided Man City players to play short pass. As the result, The Citizen did not have any shot on target at first half. At second half, the away team improved better, won the ball at midfield area and played high pressing game. They created goal-scoring opportunities, but they could not score any goal. Jurgen Klopp’s soldier showed better defense than before at this game. The Reds kept the lead until the end of the game, won 1-0, pressed Chelsea at top of the table, and made Man City left ten points behind the leader.

GW 19 also had 2 games in 2017, where Arsenal played at home v Crystal Palace and Spurs played away at Watford. Both team had a good result at that match. Arsenal won 2-0 and Spurs had a superb victory 4-1. AS the result, both team overtook Man City position on the table. Arsenal at 3^rd place and Spurs at 4^th rank.

In summary, December’s PL result showed the League have 2 strongest title contenders, Chelsea and Liverpool, although there are the other 4 strong teams still can compete. January will be another PL tough month because there are several big matches, Spurs v Chelsea at GW 20, Man United v Liverpool at GW 21, Man City v Spurs at GW 22, and there are League Cup semifinal and FA Cup matches. But there is a positive point for every team, the transfer window is opened in January, so it will be a big chance for any team arriving new player(s) to cover their weakness. Chelsea and Liverpool might be the strongest candidates, but PL still have a long season, and everything is possible for any team.