Liverpool & the Premier League 2014

(Ocean's Eleven)
Linus: Smash and grab job, huh?
Rusty: Slightly more complicated than that.
Linus: Well, yeah.
Daniel Ocean: Okay, Bad news first. This place houses a security system rivalling most nuclear silos. First, we have to get in the casino cage, which takes more than a smile. Next, through these doors, each one requiring a different code changed every 12 hours. Past those, is the elevator. Here's where it gets tricky. It won't move without authorized fingerprint I.D.
Rusty: Which we can't fake.
Daniel Ocean: And vocal confirmation between the Belagio & the vault.
Rusty: Which we can't get.
Daniel Ocean: Furthermore, the elevator shaft is rigged with sensors. Once we get down the shaft, it's a piece of cake. Just two more guards with Uzi's & most elaborate vault ever conceived by man.

I can quite relate this scene in Ocean's to Liverpool's season this year. They have been that tough. Make no mistake, Liverpool are the best team in the country & stand second in the Premier league at the time of writing & are in a fantastic run of form just at the right moment. Unbeaten in their last 10 games; not many know that they have lost just once at home. 2014 has been a year to recon for Liverpool as they are unbeaten so far in 2014. As the season unfolds Liverpool look more & more settled, energetic & determined than  any other club at the top flight. As others have stumbled, an excellent season has transformed into a take-able opportunity to win a first Premier league title.
Watching Liverpool thrashing the big guns in a sensational fashion, you think that they are on the right track to glory. If they were to win the league this season the following factors would play a crucial role in the process:

Resurging Roger ?

By his own lofty standards, Roger Federer had a disappointing 2013. He failed to make it to the finals of any of the four Grand Slams for the first time in a decade. He failed to win any of the Masters 1000 events. He had a shocking exit in Round 2 at Wimbledon at the hands of Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine. In fact the only title he won in 2013 was the Gerry Weber Open in Halle which is the warm-up grass-court tournament before Wimbledon. And when you are talking about Roger Federer, that does not count.

Also for the first time in his glittering career he was troubled by injuries. His back not a 100% for the best part of the year. This was the most evident when, in the 17 matches he lost last year, his normally reliable forehand was not working. His service was also not at its absolute best.

All this naturally led to the calls for his retirement. People started wondering if this was indeed the beginning of the end or maybe, some feared, the end itself. It was hard to believe that this man, after winning his seventh Wimbledon title, was the Number 1 player in the world in July 2012. That seemed to be ages ago. Plus the fact that Rafa Nadal was constructing one of the greatest comebacks in sport history and the continued dominance of Novak Djokovic, nearly everyone found it easy to write Roger off.

S(pain)

Forbes latest list for richest football clubs ranks   Real Madrid and Barcelona, first and third respectively on either side of   Manchester united. However none of the other Spanish teams could make it to   the top 20 of this list where as a premier league team who fought relegation battle last season was ranked 20^th on this list. Among the 20   richest football clubs seven come from England ( Manchester United, Arsenal,   Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Totenham and Newcastle United), five   from Italy(Juventus, AC Milan, Inter, Napoli and Roma), four from   Bundesliga(Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and Hamburg), two from   La Liga (Real Madrid and Barcelona) and two from France (Olympique de   Marseille and Olympique Lyonnais). Jose Maria Gay de Liebana, economics   professor at the Universidad de Barcelona and Spain’s leading football   economist predicts Spanish football will kill itself within 5 years if   current troubles continue.

“ If things go on like this Spanish football   will kill itself. A year ago I predicted that La Liga had only ten seasons   left, now I see that five more would be a lot.”

The Rise of Brendan Rodgers

Rodgers prominently started his managerial career when he was invited by Jose Mourinho to join the Chelsea academy as their head youth coach in 2004. Two years later he was promoted to reserve team manager and retained that position under Chelsea managers Avram grant and Luiz Scholari. On 24^th November 2008, Rodgers left Chelsea to become the manager of championship side Watford. Rodgers had a dreadful start to the season winning only two of his first ten games, leaving Watford in the relegation zone by January. However watford’s form drastically improved and they finished the season 13^th avoiding relegation. Weeks after watford’s survival on june 5^th 2009 Rodgers joined Reading F.C. After a string of disappointing results Rodgers left Reading on mutual consent on 16^th December 2009. Rodgers accepted the offer to manage the championship side Swansea on 16^th July 2010. His beginning at Swansea was so successful that he was awarded the championship manager of the month award. Rodgers led Swansea to championship play offs and after beating the favorites Nottingham forest in semis and his former clud Reading in finals, Swansea became first ever welsh team to join premier league. Despite many predicting Swansea to be relegated, their debut season in premier league was very impressive, having picked up points against many big clubs and kept well above the relegation zone. In jan 2012 a win over aston villa, arsenal and draw with Chelsea earned Rodgers his first premier league manager of the month award. Swansea’s last game of the season was a 1-0 win over Liverpool which saw them finished 11^th in the league.

The Business of Football

Bought for 23 million pounds. Outstanding performance for 2 years. Sold for 37 million pounds. This sounds like the perfect business. Profit, performance, consistency it has it all that a business demands. Businesses are built on things like these. Sadly this is not a story of a 'thing'. This is the story of Juan Mata, a football player, a human being. He signed for Chelsea from Valencia CF for 23 million pounds and after two Player-of-the-year-award winning seasons was sold to Manchester United for 37 million pounds.

The Beautiful Game

Football, the most popular game on this planet is growing more and more popular each day. Football is played at national as well as club level and is the national sport for many countries across the globe. Football players are worshipped like gods in many countries and the way this game is practiced, followed and supported is nothing less than a religion. It is called the beautiful game not only because of its high tempo and exciting nature but also because of the passion of supporters and fans whose devotion to the game and the team and the club they support sometimes is fanatical

Football is basically played between two teams consisting of eleven players each, with an objective of using their feet to get the ball into opponent’s goal which are situated on either side of a rectangular field. The game is played for 90 minutes with a perfectly spherical ball, 28’ in diameter. The game is played on basis of 17 basic rules called as the “laws of the game” which are monitored by referee,linesmen and other officials. Each team of eleven consists of one goal keeper and the remaining ten are divided into defenders, midfielders and attackers.

The Clay Court Conundrum

Tennis has always been a sport of specialists. When you are a tennis player, you are either good at this or you are good at that. You are either a good baseline-player or a good serve-and-volleyer. Either a clay-court specialist a grass-court specialist or a hard-court specialist. All-rounder is a term rarely used in tennis. One might go as far to say that in the open era only Roger Federer has come closest to being an all-rounder. But one look at his record against a certain Spaniard on clay is all it takes to throw his 'clay-court specialist' tag out of the window.

This is what makes clay-court the most powerful variable in tennis. It can influence the ranking, the head-to-heads more than anything. Primarily because playing on a clay-court is worlds apart to playing on a hard-court or grass-court. Secondly because of the number of clay-court tournaments in the ATP calender. Now there can be a valid argument here that this number is approximately equal to the number of hard-court tournaments. But it is easier for a clay-court specialist to play well on other surfaces than the other way round. The chance of David Ferrer winning on hard-courts is considerably higher than Andy Murray winning the French Open. This has all worked in the favour of the clay-court specialists. They find it easier to make a place for themselves, easier to earn ranking points and thus, prize money as opposed to a grass-court specialist who will not get more than 2-3 tournaments a year on his favoured surface. A prime example would be the initial years of Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray.

Is this the fall of mighty Manchester United ?

It’s safe to say David Moyes hasn’t had things going his way in his short time in charge at Manchester united. United have lost 5 out of their first 9 fixtures in 2014 and started the new year with 3 consecutive defeats, you might have to go years back to search when did this last happen which simply shows how strong and consistent Manchester united have been for last few decades. But the real question is- Is this the fall of Manchester united or can Moyes turn his season around and win over the fans at Old Trafford.