4 Managers Under Pressure in the Premier League: WST Podcast

5 Comments

1. 

   Rico

   September 1, 2022 at 12:57 pm

   Anthony Gordon is another overhyped English player who doesn’t compare to Havertz, Pulisic, or Werner who have produced for Bigger Clubs and in the Champions League. I disagree with Kartik assessment and I agree with Christopher. If Gordon is worth $100 million than how much is Vinicious Jr worth $250 million?

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2. 

   greg

   August 30, 2022 at 12:46 pm

   The 4 managers discussion got me thinking…swap them around…would Rodgers at Villa do better than Gerrard? Yes. Would Rodgers at Everton (let’s suspend disbelief he could go there given his Liverpool work) do better than Lampard? Maybe, but their issue is getting someone to score. No manager can get goals out of that front line when DCL is injured (which is often).

   Would any manager at Leicester be in the same situation? Yes…the club is a mess financially and the dressing room must be unstable given the captain leaving a week before the season starts and Fofana downing tools. Maybe the dressing room is his doing or maybe the players can see that ownership is tightening belts. They also don’t have a Director of Football, as they’re waiting for the guy from Southampton to finish his “gardening leave”.

   Same with Bournemouth – no manager aside from maybe Big Sam could keep them up. But does make you wonder about Parker. He’s now been at odds with two successive owners. Maybe it’s his bad luck, maybe he’s a bit of a pill.

   Would Gerrard do better than anyone else at the other three clubs? Lampard? I don’t know. They don’t seem to have much in their managerial toolkit other than “c’mon boys we have to outwork the other team”.

   Not fair to compare Gordon to Alli just yet…it’s very clear that Alli’s issue is working hard in training. Mourinho and Lampard said as much.

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3. 

   dave

   August 29, 2022 at 4:52 pm

   Good discussion. The mid-week Gardner interview was excellent, glad to hear you may be planning a few more like that. A few other reactions:
   .
   * Best part about MLS-Apple is there should reliably be a big game Saturday evening, and any fan will know where to find it. Liga MX still have many games Nielsen rated. Two smaller teams midweek on obscure cable (FOXD or whatever) often have <200k viewers. Two smaller teams simulcast Univision/TUDN Saturday evening often have ~500k viewers. One or two big teams simulcast Univision/TUDN Saturday evening often have over 1 million viewers. Helps to have consistent windows featuring big teams in a consistent location
   .
   * EPL have a lot of money and prestige right now, and it seems to only be increasing. Will they squander their advantage somehow? It was not that long ago that EPL were on the verge of losing the fourth UCL slot while nobody outside Spain could beat a Spanish team in UCL/UEL. I guess you never know what the future holds, but EPL are in an enviable position

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4. 

   JP

   August 29, 2022 at 10:23 am

   All the talk of EPL being the defacto super league is premature. Yes it’s the most popular domestic league in the world. Yes, they spend the most money. That doesn’t always mean they have the best teams or most attractive matches. EPL has had a large advantage with their television contracts for many many years already. Some of those years produced poor results in European play, it’s all cyclical as you’ve said. Just because they spend the most, doesn’t always equate to spending well.
   You went through all the issues at Chelsea in this very pod. Other clubs around the world also know EPL clubs have all this money to splash and they enjoy the bidding wars among those clubs to get insane transfer fees. Just like wage increases because of inflation don’t make us richer, EPL clubs often squander their financial advantage on these inflated transfers and come out no better.
   I admittedly don’t follow EPL as close as you guys, but have a general knowledge of the good players/clubs etc. 100 million potentially for Gordon who I honestly don’t know one thing about? Double what Koulibaly went for to Chelsea, who has arguably been the best at his postion for years.
   Speaking of Chelsea, the notion EPL has ALL the best players is a lot of hype. Good players from other leagues go to EPL and all of a sudden with a little club success get recognized and touted for individual awards. I’m specifically thinking of Jorginho here, who was doing great things at Napoli and probably played better than he has for Chelsea, but with a UCL win (and Italy’s triumph at the Euros) he was suddenly getting ballon d’or consideration by some.
   EPL diehards may find joy in Brighton matches or Nottingham Forest, but the majority of fans who make it the “most popular” care about the big 6.
   I’m under to illusions this dynamic doesn’t exist in Serie A too. Most fans care about Juve, Inter, Milan….
   While I can find joy in random a Torino, Sassuolo, Fiorentina, Verona (last season) match doesn’t mean others do. You guys are making a mistake if you think all the EPL viewers care as much about the mid/lower table clubs or even the relegation battle as you do.
   For what it’s worth, the most exciting matches I watched this weekend were Lazio/Inter, Fluminense/Palmeiras, and Union St Gilloise/Anderlecht.
   Lot included in this rant and don’t recall what my original point was, maybe that there’s great soccer around the world that doesn’t include the EPL, and acting like because of the money they are (or will be) the only thing that matters just isn’t true.
   –
   PS. Don’t begrudge you wanting to include ads….but having one start right before you kicked it over to Kartik for his “what to watch” in the middle of the pod was rather intrusive.

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   • 

     D

     September 1, 2022 at 6:34 pm

     It’s the best league in the world and has the best talent lmao stfu with this nonsense 😂😂

     Reply