Soccer Philosophy

I was telling my Dad when Man U opened a 7-point lead over Liverpool, "that's it, Man U may win the Premier League but not the Champions League anymore without the constant pressure."

Both of us are Man U fans but Dad had another view: Now that Ferguson can afford to field younger players in the League with the buffer, the senior players will be rested well for a better challenge in the other fronts.

Dad is reasonably accurate but in soccer, it is never scientific and we can't reason things out. The form of the team matters although it is not scientifically proven, ie.  the team with a 50% chance to win in all matches should remain with 50% chance to win the next match; although in reality, the team will have a better chance to win the next one if the previous match went well.

Soccer is as much about skills as about man-management. It is easy to go down but difficult to build up. When Man U won the historic Treble in 1999, they were placed in the Group of Death in the Champions League and fought hard against Juventus in the knock-out rounds and killed off Bayern Munich with injury-time goals, it was never smooth-sailing.

What I'm trying to say is that the players need to be under the siege-mentality to give that extra 'umph' to win the games and like it or not, we need the chasing pack as much as we want to run away from them.

In the Champions League quarter-finals over the last 2 days, Man U drew with Inter Milan while the other 3 teams won (and not with any easier opponents). As a Man U fan, I hope I am wrong but I have my reasons.

Next, I am just as skeptical when I read about footballers being philosophical. When Drogba said that, "Hiddink is the man that we need" or when we hear Robinho endorsing Scolari after his sacking, we ought to know that we can't read too much into them.

No offence to their intelligence but they tend to be too blessed physically that some parts of their brains have become brawn. Will Drogba say that Hiddink is The Man if he wasn't fielded? Does Deco sing the same praise while he was dropped to the bench? Are we talking about the same Robinho who flew back to Brazil and made a big fuss that Kaka wouldn't follow his folly?

I rest my case.