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Team Focus: Everton's Necessary New Identity Under Martínez

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Team Focus: Everton's Necessary New Identity Under Martínez On the face of it, it seems an absurd question. Have Everton improved this season? As David Moyes has toiled at Manchester United, struggling under the scrutiny of the global media as results have gone horribly against him, it has only seemed to emphasise his difficulties that Roberto Martíne...

Team Focus: Liverpool's Defence No Longer a Threat to Their Title Hopes

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Team Focus: Liverpool's Defence No Longer a Threat to Their Title Hopes It’s been a season in which Liverpool have obliterated all expectations, and a large part of that has been because they have rendered any flaws absolutely irrelevant.Consider their previously calamitous defence. Right up to late February, as Brendan Rodgers’ side were conceding three goa...

Team Focus: What’s Going Wrong for Montanier at Rennes?

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Team Focus: What’s Going Wrong for Montanier at Rennes? There are many variations of circumspection that the majority of footballers employ in post-match interviews, flitting between platitudes, faux humility and light boredom. One we rarely see is genuine, sunken-faced concern, but that was the mood of Rennes’ goalkeeper Benoît Costil after ...

Team Focus: Swansea's Pleasing Passing Won't Guarantee Survival

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Team Focus: Swansea's Pleasing Passing Won't Guarantee Survival Since Swansea City were promoted to the Premier League, it's become customary to praise them for the way they've gone about their business after narrowly escaping relegation to the Conference in 2003. This, it seemed, was how to run a club: setting a philosophy, buying players to fit that and then a...

Team Focus: Chivas Hoping to be Surprise Package in Final MLS Campaign

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Team Focus: Chivas Hoping to be Surprise Package in Final MLS Campaign Bobby Burling’s last gasp winner against the Chicago Fire was a fitting way to start the new season for Chivas USA. It was the type of chaos the LA-based club has become renowned for in their decade as an MLS franchise. One could be forgiven for feeling a twinge of nostalgia.Of course, this lo...

Team Focus: Are Felix Magath's Fulham Doomed?

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Team Focus: Are Felix Magath's Fulham Doomed? The least consistent Premier League club off the pitch this season has, accordingly, enjoyed less consistency on it than any other side. Martin Jol never stood much chance, beginning the season as one of the favourites to be first to lose his job, and he was undermined heavily when the club brought ...

Team Focus: Valencia's Transformation Under Pizzi

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Team Focus: Valencia's Transformation Under Pizzi Following an indifferent start to the season, Valencia relieved Miroslav Dukic of his duties in December. Though the Serb had been forced to deal with the departures of Roberto Soldado, Fernando Gago and Aly Cissokho, coupled with the retirement of veteran David Albelda, 20 points from a possible 51...

Team Focus: Valenciennes and Sochaux Keep Hope Alive in Relegation Battle

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Team Focus: Valenciennes and Sochaux Keep Hope Alive in Relegation Battle It’s only Monday, but Le Dauphiné, Haute-Savoie’s regional newspaper, is already thinking ahead to a potentially pivotal moment in the season for its Ligue 1 representatives, Evian Thonon Gaillard. The sports pages make a passionate appeal for as many as possible to attend Saturda...

Team Focus: Chelsea's Step Back Has Taken Them Strides Forward

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Team Focus: Chelsea's Step Back Has Taken Them Strides Forward It's easy, in retrospect, to see the moment at which Jose Mourinho decided he had had enough. His Chelsea side had just lost to Sunderland in the quarter-final of the Capital One Cup and, in his post-match interview, he seemed weary and distant, and yet at the same time defiant. We may have to take ...

Team Focus: Newcastle Must Rebuild After Kinnear Leaves Club in Disarray

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Team Focus: Newcastle Must Rebuild After Kinnear Leaves Club in Disarray In Soccernomics, authors Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski discuss the running of football clubs as businesses. Without giving too much away, they essentially conclude that those that invest in the world of football do not actually stand much chance of making big money, particularly in comparison to ...