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Football Fundas with Novy Kapadia: Season Wrap

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As the Football season all across Europe nears the end, Novy Kapadia sums up this season for all the major teams across popular leagues. He also talks about the expectations ahead of the next season for these teams.

On Chelsea winning the Premier League:

This Premier League season was touted as the battle of great managers like Mourinho, Guardiola, Klopp, Wenger and Conte. Now, Conte without a doubt has outshone them all and established himself as one of the top managers in the world. The way he revived his team by changing the system to a Three-back system after the losses to Arsenal and Liverpool in September and October, its very courageous and the way he handled the players is commendable. He was strict at times when he was required to, for eg. when Diego Costa wanted to leave the club midway through the season, he managed to persuade him to stay and he kept the team happy overall. He kept the bonding between players and management intact when players like Fabregas were sidelined on the bench. There were no tantrums and he managed the team really well and tactically he got them in great shape. He used lesser known players like Victor Moses and Marcus Alonso really well. And I believe that 13-match winning streak really made the difference and helped Chelsea to a well-deserved victory.

On Challenges for Chelsea in next season with Champions League games:

Certainly, it’s going to be very hard to play in Europe, especially at the business end. It will be World Cup Year in 2018 and the matches will finish much earlier than the regular season. The Champions League would be finished by this time next year as is the general practice in a World Cup year. So, it’s actually going to be even tougher. He(Conte) must be planning on buying new players to strengthen his team as Real Madrid have shown this season that you have to have a strong squad to play dominantly in the home league and in the Champions League. It will be a true test of calibre for the Chelsea players, and Conte’s calibre as a manager. I think Chelsea will do better than Leicester City. I am not taking anything away from Leicester City’s performance this year in Champions League, but I believe Chelsea will do much better than all the current english teams because I believe they have a balanced squad.

On FA Cup Final and Wenger’s Future

Wenger has said that he will take the decision on his future at Arsenal after the FA Cup final against Chelsea. If he wins three FA Cup titles in four years, I think it will be really hard to see Wenger out, especially if he beats Arsenal’s major rival and League winners Chelsea. It’s an ideological battle between the clubs and not just North London vs West London. So if he can overcome Chelsea in the FA Cup Final, I think he is going to stay for at least one more year, but if they lose and if they lose badly he might be gone for good. Personally, I think he should go because he has lost that magical touch. Earlier he had that eye for bringing new players to the team and most of them became star players. Somehow he is not able to get the best out of his players and I think it’s time for a change but it is up to the Arsenal management to decide. But he has lost the support of the fans and PL is no longer a fight between four teams as was the case a few years earlier. I feel that he has not been able to field a strong defense after he lost those legendary players like Campbell, Tony Adams, Ashley Cole and a much more and it becomes very important because PL is won by dominating the lesser known smaller teams, who always look to upset giants like Arsenal.

ALSO READ: Zlatan steals the show in Man Utd’s Europa Celebrations

On Manchester United vs Ajaxthe Europa League Final

I think it is going to be a competitive game. Manchester is lacking a proper striker like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Ajax are a young team with nothing to lose and they have a lot of young players who can play at the top level. If they don’t succumb to the pressure of playing a big game such as the Europa League Final, Ajax can cause a lot of problems for the already injury-prone Manchester United team.

However, Manchester United have a better experience and desire to play at the big stage and Mourinho knows pretty well how to motivate the players in a situation like this when the Champions League spot is on the line. Overall I think it would be a balanced game.

For Man Utd, however, the game will decide the success or failure of their whole campaign this year. If they win, the Champions League spot, which was their major target this season, will be achieved. If they don’t, the main problem for them will be to attract good players because whatever salary you give them doesn’t matter if you are not playing the Champions League. Also, as I said earlier it will be a World Cup year so more and more top players would prefer to play in the Champions League to show their worth to the National Team selectors.

On Real Madrid winning the La Liga

Firstly Zidane’s rotation policy was brilliant. Secondly, Real Madrid showed they have a lot of depth in their squad. The league is like a marathon and not a 100m race, where you play with a lot of planning for future matches and you depend on all your players and their strengths.

Barcelona are too much dependent on Messi, Suarez and Neymar. As Messi and Neymar were disturbed because of their personal problems Barcelona had to suffer. The major difference between the two teams(Real Madrid and Barcelona) was that Real won more matches against the lower placed(on the La Liga table) teams. Barcelona slipped up a lot against teams like Malaga, Real Sociedad etc. They did well against the top four teams, they defeated Real Madrid for instance. But slipping up against the lower placed teams affected them dearly. Barcelona have to notch up their defense. It’s been too long that Messi’s brilliance has bailed them out. Ever since Puyol left they have never fielded a strong defense and now Dani Alves is also gone (to Juventus), so it’s a very shaky defense.

Atletico Madrid does not have the resources to match the brilliance of Real Madrid and Barcelona. They are however playing to their strengths and finishing among top teams in Champions League from past few years, but still, they lack that depth in their squad.

On Juventus winning the Serie A title for a record sixth time in a row and the absence of Milan giants in top 5…

I think the Milan teams (Inter and AC Milan) and the whole Italian League has declined a lot now. They are not able to attract top players and not much young talent is coming to the Serie A. Juventus have been a cohesive squad and both the Milan teams have been struggling as far as that is concerned.

But we can’t take anything away from Juventus because they have a very strong squad and they have proved themselves time and again in the Champions League including this year. They deserved to be the Champions but somehow I feel they are not being pushed by the other teams in Serie A unlike the teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona. The best thing that has worked for Juventus is that they were able to hire the best managers, earlier it was Antonio Conte , now its Allegri who stayed with the team and provided stability, something that Milan clubs have struggled with.

On Bayern Munich’s Landslide victory in Bundesliga

Bundesliga has been lopsided now with Bayern emerging as an imperialist power buying off all the best players. Other teams came no where close in the competition, unlike England and Spain where the league is very competitive . Borussia Dortmund threatened them briefly under Jurgen Klopp’s leadership but after that it was all Bayern. Ancelotti fielded a balanced squad and maintained the playing style of Pep Guardiola. The only surprising thing for me was the rise of RB Leipzig to the second place.

On Champions League final Juventus vs Real Madrid at the Cardiff

Its still a long way to go and a lot depends on injuries. It will be a fascinating encounter between one of the best defense in the world and the team that has been attacking so well. Ronaldo’s magic might work for Real, but for Juve their three Center backs and Buffon have been absolutely outstanding this season and it will be a real clash of the titans.The team that can stop Messi, Suarez and Neymar from scoring at Camp Nou is undoubtedly a very strong contender for the top spot. But stopping Ronaldo and others like Isco, Benzema and Bale will be really difficult. Nothing can be said for certain as of now but no doubts, it will be one of the finest finals in recent years.

 

 

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