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Following the signing by Liverpool of Thiago Alcantara this week and confirmation on Friday night that they also sealed the purchase of Diogo Jota from Wolves, the tide of opinion has turned away that Manchester City won the Premier title. League this season towards Jurgen Klopp’s team that keeps it. Call me fickle, but I think the newcomers to Merseyside are also revolutionaries. I’m on the run from City and betting my money on Liverpool.
It’s going to be a two-horse race and when Liverpool started the season without adding a major signing to their roster with a shaky win in the classic against Leeds, they felt inaction could cost them. Any team, no matter how good it is, needs a new impetus and renewed competition within the team. You need to evolve and progress and thwart any hint of complacency. The addition of Thiago, in particular, meets those requirements.
There aren’t many players who can improve on Liverpool who won the title by 18 points last season, but Thiago is one of them. He is an elegant and cerebral footballer, the kind of orchestrator of a match that Liverpool have so far not possessed with Klopp. Liverpool’s biggest weapon is its three forwards and the addition of Thiago may mean they are even better equipped than before. The addition of Jota ensures that one of that trio does not get injured.
Pep Guardiola still doesn’t have the answers on how to regain Liverpool’s title
The Reds signings of Thiago (pictured) and Diogo Jota are a game changer for the champions
The city will be close. Closer than they were last season. But as they prepare to play the first game of their season against the Wolves on Monday, there are too many question marks against them to suggest that, especially after the events of last week, they can outperform the champions.
The first, and most obvious, is the news that Sergio Agüero could be injured for the next two months. The city still has a fearsome front, but it is not the same without Agüero. Gabriel Jesús is a brilliant striker but, so far, he has failed to show that he can be as prolific as the Argentine forward when given the opportunity to intervene. Two months is a long time without him.
There are also unaddressed concerns about defending the City. Yes, it was the second worst defense in the league last season, but Liverpool’s was better. So far City have added Nathan Ake from Bournemouth, but the consensus is that that will leave them short. Defensive fragility cost them in their last game last season, the quarterfinals of the Champions League against Lyon, and it will cost them again if they don’t get more reinforcements.
City will run them close, but can be found reeling from Sergio Agüero’s two-month loss
Guardiola has a variety of offensive talents, but still has defensive problems to solve
The city is a beautiful side. They will probably be the best team to watch in the Premier League again this season. But any team anywhere would be poorer because of the loss of David Silva and how they manage without him now that he has returned to Spain is another area of uncertainty. The hope is that Phil Foden, who is already such a wonderful talent, will continue to develop to the point where he fills the void, but Silva will be the hardest act to follow.
City have the most talented player in the league and one of the best players in the world in Kevin de Bruyne, they have Raheem Sterling, who has also matured into a world-class talent, they have Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva and Ferran Torres, the winger recently signed from Valencia to replace Leroy Sané.
Its quality in the future is not in doubt. City are a team that can cast a spell on an opponent and paralyze them with their combination of energy and technical ability, but for all their talents in attacking positions, there is still a feeling that they are vulnerable, particularly to pace, and not They have done enough to address that deficiency.
The signing of Nathan Ake is positive, but may not be enough to prop up his defense
In those heady days earlier this month, when it looked like they were going to sign Lionel Messi, it didn’t seem to matter that they hadn’t solved their most pressing problem. With Messi, who had to worry about defense? But when that deal died, the worries returned.
They still have Guardiola, of course, the man most still consider the best football coach in the world, the man around whom the modern City is built. But there is also uncertainty around him. His contract runs out at the end of this season and despite all kinds of positive noises, he has yet to sign a new one.
Perhaps Messi will come to City next season and he and Guardiola will team up in a golden autumn at the Etihad. Or perhaps Guardiola will return to Barcelona to help Messi in the last years of his career at the Camp Nou. Speculation about everything that will grow as this season progresses. It would be easy for it to become a distraction.
The last few days have been instrumental in trying to read how the season will unfold. Of the two contenders for the title, it is suddenly City who are more like the team that is standing still. Liverpool has the advantage.
The last days could be crucial and now Liverpool have the advantage for the season
Hope Bale proves me wrong at Spurs
Gareth Bale is a wonderful footballer, a player blessed with rhythm and vision and a talent for producing the spectacular in the biggest games. In terms of the trophies he has won, he is one of the greats in British football.
His capture by Spurs president Daniel Levy is, at the very least, a stroke of genius in public relations. She has injected an injection of excitement and hope into a Tottenham season that was beginning to look moribund almost before it began. At best, the move can provide the antidote to the sadness that creeps through the club under the José Mourinho regime.
Gareth Bale’s return to Spurs is fantastic for the club and the Premier League as a whole
His capture, at least, is a stroke of public relations genius from Spurs boss Daniel Levy.
The heart wants Bale’s play to work, not just for Spurs fans, but because anyone who loves the game wants players of his grace and style to thrive and because his arrival will give a major boost to the Premier League as that continues to play empty. stadiums.
The boss says that Bale may be a sticky cast borrowed to try to hide the wounds that open in Mourinho’s club. The director says that seven years after he left Spurs for Real Madrid, it will be difficult for him to live up to expectations. The director says that, at 31, he will only find it harder to stay free from the injuries that have haunted his career.
I go with what my head tells me but I hope that Bale, who has already silenced the critics who said that he had no ambition left and that he would keep the rest of his contract with Madrid on the bench, shows me that I am wrong.
But Bale can be a sticky cast to hide wounds under Mourinho’s opening at Spurs
Scott is the right choice for Question of Sport’s host seat
The question is not whether Alex Scott would be lucky to get the gig as the new host of A Question of Sport. The question is whether A Question of Sport would be lucky if it got Alex Scott.
Part of the reason giving Scott the job is such a great idea is that I’m not a fan of outgoing host Sue Barker. I respect that she was a pioneer in sports broadcasting and if you’ve lasted 24 years on the job, like she did, you’ve obviously been doing something right, but Barker’s kind of smug flattery never did it for me.
If Scott gets the job, it will be because she is a consummate, personable and diligent broadcaster who was in the right place at the right time.
A Question of Sport would be lucky to have Alex Scott, who would be excellent in the role of host
