Tuesday, May 24, 2016

A season to remember. 2015/2016



That moment when you know Leicester City is the 2015/2016 English Champions, getting the better of some of the finest and mega rich clubs in the league. They came, they played, outplayed and here they stand, as Champions! One does not simply win the race to glory in the toughest league in the word unless they are Leicester City. Leicester were doomed towards relegation at the start of the season, but it was a show of great character, fighting spirit, perfect team play, dedication and commitment that has eventually put them at the top of the summit at the end of the season. We all somewhat rather know that the usual top four were never convincing enough to hit the big money, but no one predicted this surprise package as well. I suppose the Ranieri effect has implied a great amount of positive vibes towards this club as the Italian wonderfully worked his magic. I can hardly recall any Leicester players suffering from injuries in most occasions and that could well be a massive turning point in deciding this outcome. They maintained absolute fitness throughout the whole season and had the full squad in most of the matches regardless losing several key player through match dismissal. Leicester is a team filled with very average players at the start of the season, where the whole first eleven would cost only about 75 million euro, and that figure is nothing compared to how some other clubs have spent. Now, they have a team filled with great talent, potential match changers, with the likes of Jamie Vardy, Mahrez, Drinkwater and the list goes on.

The good news is that Ranieri wants to stay put and has urged his players to follow his footstep simply because he believes that with this current squad, they can now go and challenge some of the finest in Europe, with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventes. Ranieri once said in a press conference that he doesn't need star players, but good players with a winning heart. That statement was basically like a massive slap in the face for some of the big clubs in BPL that flopped this season. Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester City were the only clubs that tried to stop Leicester from winning the title, but the heart of the champions were made of steel. Spurs brought it down to the wire only when they drew with Chelsea that sees their chances fly away in the wind. There were massive support and chants for their former coach, Ranieri at the Bridge when Chelsea hosted Spurs and the fans and the players were pretty much eager to hand the title over to Ranieri and deny their London neighbours a sneak at it. The match which ended 2-2, saw some of the players from both sides involved in a tunnel bust up and some nasty scenes on field right at the end of the final whistle.

Manchester United, on the other hand were pretty much busy competing for fourth spot from the start of the season, but failed to qualify for UCL next season, due to dropping some careless points and Man City edged at them at a couple of points. Louis Van Gaal, being the least favourite among the fans, were never really in favour of his so called tactics and to be honest, they badly wanted their former midfield legend, Ryan Giggs to be in charge instead of him. This happens to be LVG's last season at United, and it ended in a high note with United clinching their 12th FA Cup glory against Crystal Palace. There were rumors that Mourinho could be the possible candidate to take over at United, but let's just wait and see what happens.

Jurgen Klopp's arrival has definitely seen a lot of improvement in the squad, in terms of their attacking style and his choices of players were really good. After taking over Rodger's last October, Klopp has regrouped the team, playing players according their plus points and he was such a phenomenal coach. To me, he was not only a coach to all the players, but also  friend that understood them. His natural gestures speaks a million words and he was simply spot on for Liverpool. I could never imagine anyone as spectacular as he is to replace the wounded Liverpool team. Liverpool, I can say had a rough season from day 1 due to some of their key players suffering from long term injuries. This has always been Liverpool's problem, having committed to injury prone players. One good example would be Daniel Sturridge. Other players like, Danny Ings, Jose Enrique and Divock Origi were also out for most of the games this season. In the midst of all this issues, Klopp did manage to guide Liverpool to two Cup finals this season, which is indeed a great achievement for a manager being at the club for the first time. Unfortunately, Liverpool lost both the cup finals to Manchester City and Sevilla but Klopp remained positive despite the consecutive cup losses. It takes a big heart to say good things and remain calm and vibrant regardless the losses, and in fact Klopp praised his players for putting on a good show in the road to both the cup finals. Klopp was very much impressed with his players and just thinks that Man City and Sevilla were lucky enough to have edged Liverpool due to some sloppy mistakes, that's about it. The Board of Directors have strong faith on the German that he will surely be the right one to change the fate of the team and work wonders and also to bring them back to Europe next season.