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Premier League – Manchester City vs Manchester United Predictions
For the last few seasons, the Manchester Derby has been the most important match of the season in the Premier League, usually pitting the best two sides against each other, with the local rivalry between Manchester United and Manchester City obviously adding to the importance of the occasion.
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Bayern Munich – Bastian Schweinsteiger Makes the Pep Guardiola System Work
It was simply impossible for a Bayern Munich team so talented no to start putting in impressive performances at some point. Apparently, the return of Bastain Schweinsteiger to full health and form is the difference between Pep Guardiola being misunderstood and berated than the same manager talked about as a tactical genius.
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FC Barcelona – Pedro Gives Lionel Messi a Break From Scoring
Hard to tell if the new Barcelona is really less about possession and simply more about being direct and finishing off matches later rather than sooner, but if it gives the chance for Pedro to steal the spotlight from Lionel Messi with an impressive hat trick, you won’t hear too many complaining about it.
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Liverpool FC – Steven Gerrard Can’t Be This Bad With Luis Suarez Still Out
In what might be his worst performance in a very long time, Steven Gerrard showed that for Liverpool to continue counting on him to hold their midfield on his own is asking for trouble, while manager Brendan Rodgers didn’t really help his team by insisting on Iago Aspas or playing with a weird, 4-centre back formation.
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Chelsea FC – Oscar Makes Jose Mourinho Look Like a Genius
The best thing Jose Mourinho could have hoped for after explaining to everyone why Juan Mata isn’t as important to him as he was for other Chelsea managers over the last couple of years was having Oscar start, play well and score, making the ‘Special One’ seem like the man with an answer to everything.
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Liverpool FC Screwed Over by Neil Swarbrick & Brendan Rodgers
Who plays without full backs, instead opting for a lineup that includes a defensive line of four centre backs? Brendan Rodgers has the answers. However, Liverpool can also complain about the decisions made by Neil Swarbick, not giving them a clear penalty in the first half after Daniel Sturridge was fouled by Dejan Lovren but because he didn’t dive, no foul was called.
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NFL Referees – Evaluated by Tiers, not Grades Anymore
The decreasing level of refereeing in the NFL, despite the visual aids, it something that calls for immediate action. It seems that the first step taken by the league in order to fight the “epidemic” is changing the way they evaluate the officials. No more ranking them based on a numerical system, but instead keeping them in tiers that will determine if they can be part of a playoff crew or not.
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Juventus FC – Why Fernando Llorente Isn’t Playing
One of the surprising absentees from the Juventus lineups this season has been Fernando Llorente, signed this summer as answer to the club’s forward problems, but so far has seen only one minute of action in the Serie A and Champions League matches.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Between Great and Villanous
On the bright side of the unimportant things that happened to Lionel Messi this week, he was endorsed by an all-time great as the best footballer in the world today. But bad “news” also came, as allegations of him being a dictator in the Barcelona dressing room came up again.
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Liverpool FC – Iago Aspas Gets His Moment to Shine
Maybe the Philippe Coutinho injury means the end to the impressive start Liverpool have been on this season, but it might also be the chance for Iago Aspas to finally show it was a wise decision to sign him this summer, and erase the bad impression he has left during the first month on the job.