Sameer Chopra

Their last two league matches have pretty much summed up Liverpool’s season: dominating against a much better opponent (on paper) yet somehow throwing away a result at home against Manchester United; struggling against a team they should beat, looking unable to break down a packed defense before scraping through in 5-4 game of the season […]

When Jürgen Klopp was brought in by Liverpool, this author was one of those who thought that Adam Lallana was unlikely to fit into the German’s gegenpressing style. Not particularly pacy, rarely completing 90 minutes and, at 27, entering his prime as a footballer so he would be perhaps too old to learn new tricks. […]

Stoke City arrived in the Premier League in 2008, the club’s first season in the top-flight of English football for over 20 years. They’ve never left the top division since. The epitome of a club living within its means and playing a style utterly devoid of pretentiousness under Tony Pulis, they finished 12th in their first […]

Since Jürgen Klopp arrived to manage Liverpool, a feeling of positivity and progression has reverberated around Anfield. Even during the sequence of draws before his first win, the squad showed encouraging signs of believing in his tactics, specifically the all-important gegenpressing. And while it is taking longer to mirror his old Dortmund team with the […]

For at least a brief while on Saturday, after a thrilling last minute goal gave them a win against Watford and before Manchester City and Leicester City played, Manchester United took a once-familiar spot on top of the English Premier League table. Since Alex Ferguson ushered in an era of almost constant success in the […]

The season, so far I assumed most Liverpool fans don’t know what to make of the club’s start to the season. Great performances away to Arsenal and Chelsea have been mixed with horror shows at home to West Ham and a shocking lack of ambition away to Manchester United, the biggest fixture of the season. […]

As their fans never fail to remind us, Liverpool are the most successful club in English soccer, if you add up league and European titles (the European caveat would be completely unnecessary if not for a certain Scot and American capitalism, but that’s another story). So it stands to reason that the club can put […]

Soccer is a fickle world. Mere months ago, Aston Villa under Tim Sherwood were playing exciting football, with 4-0 wins against Sunderland and a come from behind victory against Liverpool in a cup semi-final at Wembley. Sherwood was planning on building something over a period of time at Villa, already having put into place steps to […]

The frenzy that greeted Jürgen Klopp’s appointment as Liverpool manager always meant that the German’s first match in charge of the club would be somewhat of a let-down. The man is a very good manager, but not an alchemist. He has the same squad and resources to work with as Brendan Rodgers did after all […]

Contrary to most media attention, there have actually been two recent Premier League managerial vacancies. The same day as Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool departure, Dick Advocaat of Sunderland resigned from his post, saying the tools he was given to work with weren’t enough to keep the Black Cats in the Premier League. “Our squad was simply […]

One month ago, I wrote about how Liverpool’s Brazilian playmaker Philippe Coutinho was a good, sometimes very good player, but didn’t affect games consistently enough to be considered great. I wrote: “The fact that the Brazilian is the best player at a club of Liverpool’s ‘stature’ must be worrying. There was never any doubt that Luis […]

As the UEFA Champions League started up again last week, fans of English teams were left with the now familiar sight of the richest league in the world being put to shame by decidedly modest opposition. Three out of four English clubs lost, and two to teams that have markedly smaller budgets (although compare Manchester City’s […]

They aren’t technically local rivals (although England's northwest is a small place), but it’s fair to say that Liverpool fans see their matches against Manchester United as more important than ones against Everton (and probably can’t remember the last time they played Tranmere). With Manchester City’s recent rise, Manchester derbies arguably mean more in terms […]

Louis Van Gaal has a reputation for being autocratic and dictatorial. Although you wouldn’t know it during his brief spell in England as manager of Manchester United, as the Dutchman seems particularly willing to any and all media suggestions regarding where he should play his captain, (and thus the player who seems guaranteed to play […]

Monday saw Arsenal and Liverpool play out one of the better 0-0 draws in recent memory, with each side laying reasonable claim to dominating a half and finishing deserving winners. It could have finished 1-1, 3-3, or 4-2, to either side, and the fact that it ended goalless only added to the intrigue. Viewers were […]