The State of English Premier League

Must read..its interesting

E.P.L will certainly not at its best

"In four Champions League meetin between Chelsea and
Liverpool, these two of the Premiership's biggest
teams managed to score ONE goal between them. Now
don't get me wrong, I believe their tactics are
EFFECTIVE. Defence wins game, as I always believe. And
their results both in the Europe and domestic fronts
have proved that with their defence-oriented tactic,
both of them will be a major force for years to come.

I have a vision: within the next decade, all the top
sides of the Premiership will be employing foreign
managers. They will be adopting a cautious,
result-oriented tactic, just like Chelsea and
Liverpool do. Take Newcastle for example, Graeme
Souness' is on the edge, it's only a matter of time
before the axe fallen on him. If their chairman is
smart enough, he would hire a foreign coach. Not the
"sexy football" type of Ruud Guilt cowboy football,
but a "tactican" whose brand of football doesn't need
to be pretty, but effective. Spurs had already done
that, and the result is for everyone to see.

Arsene Wenger is an odd exception. His belief on
attacking football and team spirit is more
English-like than your typical foreign "tacticans".
When Man Utd and Arsenal were at the peak of their
power, though they were labelled by journalists as a
boring annual "two-horse" race. But their football on
the pitch suggested otherwise. I called Arsenal's
football as "First 15 minutes of Hurricane", they
would blow you away within the opening quarter hour of
the match. Man Utd's football was the "Last 15 minutes
of Storm", it didn't matter if you were led by one
goal or two, you knew you weren't safe when playing
against United, 'cos they would create wave after
wave's attack inside the last quarter hour of the
match to tear you apart.

Both sides employed a more cautious-free traditional
English attacking mental. Because of that they would
inevitably be dropping silly points during their
"two-horse" title race. And that's what made it
interesting. And that's why both teams had
successfully turned around a 10-12 points deficit
respectively to beat each other to the titles in the
previous campaigns.

One day, Alex Ferguson will call it a day at Old
Trafford, so will Arsene Wenger with Arsenal. And I
have a strong feeling the next managers for both clubs
will be more likely a Sven, Rafa, Special One type of
"master-tactican" than anything else. Arsenal fans who
been complaining about AW's lack of tactical
flexibility will get their wish.

Good bye to the end to end attacking football, the
trademark of English football, the reason why we all
love watching English football. And entering a new
phase of English (Football) Revolution... introducting
the "Series E".

Just like watching the Italians "

This will be the future of English Football in coming
10 Years