Ras' Football World

Southampton away has traditionally been a tough fixture for Manchester United. I remember the struggles and battles we had at The Dell under Sir Alex Ferguson. Since they moved to St. Mary’s, our results have been better but it’s been no less of a battle and struggle for us. It was the same again yesterday. Frustration There was a point in the game where I was so frustrated that I felt like punching the sofa I was sitting on or the leg rest in front of me. Mason Greenwood had a fantastic chance to give us the lead but uncharacteristically put his effort wide. Against the run of play, Southampton took the lead with their first attempt on target, a header off a corner. Greenwood had another chance, capitalising on a loose ball from Southampton’s Alex McCarthy but he shot straight at the goalkeeper. Again, I expected better from him. McCarthy did better from the rebound to save from Bruno Fernandes. Southampton then doubled the lead through a known source, James Ward-Prowse’ free-kick...

The vultures started circling around Antonio Conte. The Ultras let their feelings known to the players. Inter was in crisis after the midweek defeat to Real Madrid left us on the brink of elimination from the Champions League group stage for the third season in a row. Inter’s response to that was comprehensive. Pivotal Tactical Change I agree with Conte in his post-match comments that results change the opinion of a game. Inter has played well in other games this season but got lesser than we deserve. In terms of result and performance, this was our best performance. Sassuolo were going into this match as one of the three unbeaten teams in the league so far and have been playing very well, carrying a great attacking threat. Tactically, we were impeccable as we nullified the various attacking threats Sassuolo had. A slight tweak to the formation to dispose of the playmaker and revert to a three men central midfield with Nicolo Barella sitting in front of the defence was pivotal. A...

Today is a sombre day for the world of football. Diego Maradona, the Argentine legend passed away hours before Inter’s critical Champions League match against Real Madrid. Inter angered, frustrated and disappointed its legions of fans worldwide by imploding in that said match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9YXS78wFAA Preview We were narrowly edged out in our previous encounter with Real but the performance was promising. Had we been clinical, we might have been the victors. This is not a vintage Real Madrid team, nothing like the ones that won three consecutive Champions League titles. To make matters worse, they were without two key players, captain Sergio Ramos and main striker, Karim Benzema. These factors combined should give us confidence in getting our Champions League campaign on track with a win. Worst Performance Of The Season Instead, we produced our worst performance this season. If the 60 minutes against Torino on Sunday was bad, this was worse. While it took us ...

After a performance like what we saw this morning from Manchester United at Old Trafford against Istanbul Basaksehir, there isn’t much to write about. In case, you don’t already know, United beat the Turkish champions 4–1 to move closer to qualification for the knockout stages. Our play in the first half was smooth and free-flowing. It was pleasant to watch and showed once again what this team is capable of if they turn on the style. This showed the quality available in this team. It might have been against a team that we would be favoured to dispose of but on this display, we can beat anyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAuyYMfN9Ns Free-Flowing Midfield & Attack Donny van de Beek started the game at long last in a withdrawn centre midfield position alongside Fred, a change from where he normally plays. But he didn’t look out of depth playing there. He was instrumental in the quick circulation of possession and triangles we were playing, linking up with Bruno Fernandes further ...

Inter were late to the party but left as the darling of the party. That analogy best describes Inter’s comeback win over Torino. Lacklustre Start For 60 minutes, Inter were sterile in possession, lacked intensity, movement and creativity. In every department, we were second best. Looking at how the first half was unfolding, I thought to myself we got to somehow see this game out and eke out a win. But I cannot begrudge Torino for scoring a deserved opener. In keeping with our first half, Alexis Sanchez lost the ball in our half and Torino capitalised to punish us. I must point out the beautiful assist by Soualiho Meite to free Simone Zaza for Torino’s goal. I had thought after that first-half performance and going 1-0 down, Antonio Conte would get stuck into the players in the dressing room and that would wake them up for the second half. There wasn’t much difference though. Since joining Inter, Ashley Young produced his worst performance. All game, he struggled to cope with the thre...

Manchester United was back in action after the international break. The performance in our last league match before the international break was heartening and positive. We were hoping for more of the same today morning when we played against West Bromwich Albion. What we saw was in perfect tune with how the season has been; infuriatingly inconsistent. We have not won a league game at home this season and on paper, this seemed to be a dead certainty for our first league win at home. But we contrived to make it hard for ourselves. The match was moved from the original 11 pm kickoff in Singapore to 4 am, I presume for TV purposes. It was a tough watch as I struggled to stay awake for this match. While putting myself through the rigour of waking up in the wee hours to watch my team play exemplifies the common commitment among fans in South East Asia for their favourite European clubs, at the end of the game, I felt I should have just slept this one out. Disjointed From the start of the...

 In terms of the ultimate joy as an Italy fan, it doesn’t come bigger than winning the World Cup in 2006. The core of the squad has been together since Euro 2000 with a couple being part of the squad from as early as Euro 96. However, at this stage, they were mostly in their late 20s and early 30s. Age and injuries were catching up and it claimed a vital component of previous squads, Christian Vieri. He was replaced by a late developer, Luca Toni. There weren’t many emerging young talents but there were two in this squad, Daniele De Rossi and Alberto Gilardino. In March, there were a couple of friendly results that went under the radar, beating two big European nations, Germany and Holland comprehensively. Before the World Cup started, the squad was rocked by news of a match-fixing scandal that involved top Italian clubs in Serie A. Many pundits and experts predicted Italy would get distracted by the scandal but I was quietly confident, it would work in our favour. Group Stage ...

South Korea/Japan 2002 At the first-ever World Cup held in Asia in 2002, Italy approached it as one of the favourites to win it. The squad had players that were household names and in their prime like Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta, Francesco Totti, Christian Vieri and Alessandro Del Piero. Add to that the leadership, experience and class of captain, Paolo Maldini. One classy veteran to miss out was Roberto Baggio who raced against time to recover from an Anterior Cruciate Ligament and meniscus injury to try and play himself into contention. Giovanni Trapattoni decided to go against public opinion to call him up. The controversy for Italy started in the second group stage game itself against Croatia. We were denied a legitimate goal by the offside flag before Vieri scored. Had that goal been allowed, we would have been 2-0 up and in a far more comfortable situation. Poor defending and some luck allowed our bogey team to overturn the result. Luck was not on our si...

USA 94 USA 94 and Italy’s USA 94 team will forever hold a special place in my heart. USA 94 was the first World Cup I watched and there were some memorable games and players from this tournament. Italy’s progress just fell short of being a feel-good Hollywood film. It was sweet until we met a tragic end. This was also a tournament where my all-time favourite player, Roberto Baggio was at the peak of his powers. Italy made it out of the group stage by the skin of the teeth as one of the best third-placed qualifiers. Baggio entered the tournament as the best player in the world but was below-par. He chose the right time to rise as all special players do, scoring the equaliser two minutes before the end in the Second Round match against Nigeria. Italy clicked into gear after that with Baggio back at his best, playing the heroic role. He scored the late winner against Spain in the quarter-final and two great goals in Italy’s best performance of the tournament in the semi-final against Bulg...

Conte’s Signings Antonio Conte’s decision to invest in veterans this pre-season has not been vindicated. The idea behind it would have to bring the experience and mentality to situations like when the going gets tough and we need to squeeze out a result. At the moment, it has not had the desired effect at all. On the flip side, players like Arturo Vidal and Aleksandar Kolarov have been guilty of making mistakes that have hurt us in matches. In terms of performances as well, neither has been impressive. The only one I have found to be impressive among the 30 somethings that we signed have been Matteo Darmian who is the youngest at 30 years old. He has been solid and disciplined in defence and been decent going forward. It isn’t the Darmian of Torino or Italy at World Cup 2014 when he attacks but it has not been too bad. Conte’s Formation Conte’s formation has been called into question as well. One should know by now that Conte is rather rigid with his formation. For better or for wo...

This was another Inter game that ended in frustration, irritation and dismay. A draw against a strong team like Atalanta is not a result to turn your nose up at. But the results leading up to this one and the circumstances with which we got this result has irked me. Summary Of The Match In terms of the flow of the game, I felt a draw was a fair result. It could have been worse for us as we were on the ropes after we conceded the equaliser. We could have even conceded a penalty late in the game but had a lucky escape. Both teams matched each other with the respective defences coming on top. For Inter, in tight matches such as this, the team has to win it by hook or crook to be considered serious title contenders. There are games where we will not play well or be evenly matched but we got to learn to squeeze out a win. We failed to do so again. Our Attack Chances were at a premium in the game for us. We scored with our first attempt on target. It was also the best moment of Lautaro Marti...

Once again, the team rose to the challenge when the chips were down. Once again, when the manager, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s job was on the line, the team delivered to keep him in the job. This just begs the question, why don’t they perform like that all the time? Or at least most of the time. If adversity brings the best out of this squad, why don’t the coaching staff create us against the world mentality in the dressing room? Keep the players on their toes in the dressing room even when the pressure is off the team and the manager. The Performance This performance was similar to the one the team produced against Newcastle United at St. James’s Park. We conceded with our first shot on goal and responded very well showing great character and quality in our play. Throughout the game, I felt we were aggressive, getting stuck into tackles and determined to be first to the ball. Overall, it was a hard-fought match with both teams not shy of getting stuck in and taking the game to the opposi...

  Last Season After that horrible 2-0 defeat at home to Burnley on the 23 rd January 2020, crisis talk reached fever pitch. It was the lowest of low for the Ole Gunnar Solksjaer era. At that point, it had seemed that if things didn’t improve soon, he would get sacked. What followed was a long run of unbeaten matches in the league. By then, the damage was already done in the Carabao Cup. We were out-played by Manchester City in the first leg of the semi-final so a 1-0 win in the return leg was scant consolation. That run of unbeaten matches was punctuated by two defeats, in the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea and the same round of the Europa League to Sevilla. Solksjaer got the tactics and selection wrong against Chelsea but United find themselves unlucky to lose to Sevilla. In that run, the swagger had returned. The team played with verve and fluency. They scored goals for fun and the signing of Bruno Fernandes was the catalyst to this upturn in form. United ended the season...

Manchester United slumped to a shock defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir yesterday in the Champions League although those that have followed us in the Premier League wouldn’t be entirely shocked. The Turkish team gained their first-ever win in the Champions League by beating us. In terms of the context of this result, it isn’t too bad as qualification is still within our hands and we are still top of the group. However, in terms of form, this is another alarming result. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEX2ObFYEG4 Shocking Defending The defending by us in this match was absolutely shocking. After getting slaughtered by Tottenham Hotspur, we have shown great concentration, focus and determination in our defending. But consistency is our bane. Inexplicably, we had a couple of blackout moments in our defending and Istanbul capitalised gleefully to score twice. I am not sure if there was an inquest in our dressing room at half-time on the goals we conceded but we are left scratching our head ...