A&K Kick Off: Solskjaer's job scrutiny, title Liverpool's to lose and are Everton going backwards?
- Christian Parry
- Oct 10, 2019
- 7 min read
A&K's Kick Off post on Alive and Kicking will feature the mass speculation of Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's future, is the gap between first and second makes it impossible for Liverpool to not win the title, establishing whether Everton have gotten worse or if it's just a poor run of form and more.
Solskjaer under scrutiny
Following recent poor performances, with the latest coming from a 1-0 loss to Newcastle, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United have been in the firing line.
The club currently sits in 12th position with 9 points from 8 games-that's 15 points from league leaders and rivals Liverpool who have 24 and are United's first game back after the international break.
However, their poor run of form has followed them to Europe as they struggled to managed a single shot on target against AZ Alkmaar in a dismal 0-0 draw.
Since becoming Manchester United manager, Solskjaer has amassed a record of 6 wins, 6 draws and 9 losses, which averages out at just over 1 point per match-as a result of this many United fans have become infuriated over their current situation.
"The football club is a joke," said one supporter following the Manchester United game, with another shouting, "Solskjaer's clueless!"
There's speculation about whether the 46 year old Norwegian will still be the Manchester United manager following the Liverpool game on the 19th Ocotober if the team don't get a result from the match.
But, according to The Sun, the club are preparing to ditch Solskjaer if he loses to Norwich at the end of the month-the paper has come out saying United's new manager target will be RB Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann, although will bringing another manager make a difference ?
To be fair to the former Manchester United forward, his side has improved defensively since signing Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan Bissaka has they've only conceded 8 goals in the Premier League-that's 6 less than Mourinho's reign in the 2018-19 season after the same amount of games, proving that Solskjaer's signing's have made a difference.
Clearly Solskjaer deserves praise for improving the team defensively, but is it his tactics or his current crop of players failing the team going forward?
Either way, the former Cardiff City and Molde manager needs his sides form to improve rapidly, otherwise he may be out of a job before January-plus what's a better fixture than the European champions to get back to winning ways...
Liverpool's title to lose?
After 8 wins from 8 games and Manchester City losing to Wolves at the weekend, Liverpool have extended their gap between City so much that many are calling the title their's to lose already
The Reds are currently first in the Premier League with 24 points, where as Manchester City lie 8 points adrift in second with 16.
It is only the start of October, but Liverpool's eight-point lead at the top of the table already looks ominous for Manchester City.
Manchester City have suffered from the injuries to Aymeric Laporte and Kevin De Bruyne, whilst Liverpool have maintained their terrific form from last season by just managing to defeat Leicester City in what was Liverpool's toughest game all season.
James Milner calmly converted from the spot kick in the 95th minute to give the Merseyside team all three points, and because of their grit to hold on many believe this could be Liverpool's year.
The Reds managed their 17th straight win in the league to give themselves a huge cushion at the top.
City on the other hand cant afford a mistake for the rest of the season, which may prove to be extremely difficult as they still have to play Liverpool twice-Liverpool only lost once last time and they appear to be even harder to beat this campaign.
Even with back up goalkeeper Adrian filling in for the injured Allisson, Klopp's men have excelled in their performances and will not want to slip up now-City on the other hand are in desperate need of defensive back up.
Former club captain Vincent Kompany departed before the start of the season and was not replaced.
Guardiola is now playing central midfielder Fernandinho at centre-back whilst Laporte and Stones are out, meaning they are missing the Brazilian in the middle of the park and will almost certainly be looking for defensive options in January in order to boost their already frail title hopes.
The 8 point lead after 8 games is the biggest points difference between first and second in the Premier League's history, and if anything Jurgen Klopp will be wanting his side to climb as high as they can in order to win the club's first league title in 30 years.
Guardiola even said in his book that, "a title is lost within the first 8 games and won in the final 8"-that quote was from the book on his first season in charge of Bayern Munich in 2014, however I'm sure those words will be stuck in his head until the end of the season.
Are Everton going backwards under Silva ?
Everton appeared to have bought well in the transfer window and manged to keep star players to push their contentions for a place in a European competition, but they aren't performing as expected.
The Merseyside club, who are in the relegation zone with 7 points from 8 matches, seemed to have made good transfer business after signing teenage star Mosie Keen for £25 million, Alex Iwobi for £27.5 million and Andre Gomez for £22.5 million-furthermore, they manged to fend off interest from Brazilian star Richarlison.
Unfortunately they sold Idrissa Gueye to PSG and it show's that defensively they may be missing his energy.
Everton have conceded a lot of goals (13) already this season, with only Watford (20), Chelsea (14), Bournemouth (13), Norwich (21) and Southampton (15) conceding more or the same.
A fourth consecutive defeat (1-0 to Burnley) makes it the club's worst run since January 2015, which means Silva heads into the international break in an uncomfortable position, with the two-week break from club football a notoriously dangerous time for managers.
It is only a few months ago that he led them to a run of one defeat in the final eight games of last season, including wins over Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United without conceding.
During his post match interview after the Burnley defeat, Silva was asked if he could turn it around.
Of course," he said defiantly. "I have the same fight in what we are doing-the players know what we are doing but we need results."
As excellent as it is that Silva realises his side need to pick up points quickly, they need to begin straight away as Everton face West Ham at home in 9 days.
With the talent they have in their squad, I believe the players will raise their game and carry Everton back up the table, but it's just a question of whether Marco Silva will be the man in charge when that happens.
Bernardo Silva given extension to respond to FA charge
Manchester City winger Silva has been given until the 21st of October to respond to the Football Association after they charged him over a tweet featuring a comparison of teammate Benjamin Mendy and a black mascot for a Spanish chocolate company.
He had previously been given until the 9th of October, however his deadline has been extended.
Silva is alleged to have committed an "aggravated breach" of FA rules.
The FA charged Silva with misconduct on 2 October because his tweet included reference "expressed or implied, to race and/or colour and/or ethnic origin".
The two players have since come out to say the comparison was a joke-they both played at Monaco together before being signed by Pep Guardiola for Manchester City.
However, many people found the derogatory comparison to be racist and unacceptable.
Premier League Table and Results Recap
The big talking point from the weekend's drama was Manchester City's mishap against Wolves who beat them 2-0 at the Ethihad to create a huge 8 point gap between themselves and league leaders Liverpool.
There was also big talking points at Anfield as Liverpool won a controversial, late penalty against Leicester City to enable James Milner to seal the win for Liverpool.
Also, huge joy for the Longstaff family as the two brothers Sean and Matty Longstaff played alongside each other for the first time for Newcastle against Manchester United-a match where debutant Matty scored the winner for Steve Bruce's team.
Premier League predictions for match week 9
After the first week of predictions, I only managed to score 2/10 winners correctly, however I did score the Liverpool v Leicester match correctly as well, so I will take that as a personal victory for myself.
The early kick off for match week 8 on Saturday the 19th of October will feature Everton vs West Ham, however I can't see The Toffee's improving their form against a West Ham side who have started well this season and will be hungry to bounce back against their loss to Crystal Palace.
Bournemouth and Norwich are both coming off losses to Arsenal and Aston Villa respectively, although I can only see Eddie Howe's side bouncing back-easy win for The Cherries and maybe a Harry Wilson wonder strike will be my thoughts going into the match.
Brighton and debutant Aaron Connolly were exceptional against Spurs last Saturday however, I believe Aston Villa will have gained confidence from their 5-1 thrashing of Norwich and will have enough on the day to cause a 1-1 draw at Villa Park.
Newcastle will also look to build on their solid performance against Manchester United, especially with top performances from the Longstaff brothers and winger Saint-Maxim-Chelsea and their youth destroyed Southampton last weekend, providing me with the feeling their will be goals galore in this fixture.
Brendan Rodgers will be gutted after narrowly losing against his former side Liverpool, although from the loss they'll want to take all 3 points off Burnley-Leicester 3-0 win.
Both Spurs and Watford look like different teams since last season making this one hard to predict, but Tottenham have the ability to produce some magic even when they aren't playing well, hence why I back them to scrape a goal against The Hornets.
Nuno Espírito Santo got his tactics spot on against title holders City, and will again do so against Southampton because I have his side to win 2-0 again.
Manchester City will have to bounce back and unfortunately it's Roy Hodgson's men who'll have to face the wrath of a fuming Guardiola-could get messy for Palace fans.
The lone Sunday game will feature a huge rival match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford...shame for United fans the goal deficit will also be huge as Liverpool will win 3-0, easily.
Lastly, the final game of match week 8 will see Chris Wilder's side being unable to end their losing streak as Arsenal will have too much firepower for them in a 3-1 victory for the Gunners.
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