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Team Focus: Typically Inconsistent Spartak Struggling at Either End

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Team Focus: Typically Inconsistent Spartak Struggling at Either End For the past decade, since their last league victory in 2001, Spartak Moscow are a club who have been bedevilled by inconsistency. The club’s recruitment of players and coaches has been decidedly sketchy since their legendary coach Oleg Romantsev, the man who won 8 league titles while at Spart...

Team Focus: Madrid's Progression Sees Them Beat Barca at Their Own Game

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Team Focus: Madrid's Progression Sees Them Beat Barca at Their Own Game There was something new about the teamsheets for Saturday’s clasico at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. It was Real Madrid, not Barcelona, who took to the field with more technically-adept playmakers in their XI.All of Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Isco and James Rodriguez started for Madrid in centr...

Team Focus: Rowett Faces Uphill Task After Latest Birmingham Embarrassment

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Team Focus: Rowett Faces Uphill Task After Latest Birmingham Embarrassment When Paul Caddis headed the equalising goal against Bolton in the final minute of last season to keep Birmingham City up, a weight had been lifted off their shoulders. The Championship would await again in August and this time things would be more straightforward. All was still not well and off-fiel...

Team Focus: Instability Continuing to Derail Spurs' Ambitions

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Team Focus: Instability Continuing to Derail Spurs' Ambitions There’s a story of Roy Keane’s new autobiography that begins with him waiting for Alex Ferguson to give his team talk before a match against Tottenham Hotspur. It’s an anecdote Keane uses to explain Ferguson’s feel for what a dressing-room needs, but it also says much about S...

Team Focus: Palace Can't Afford to Lose Defensive Grit Despite Solid Start

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Team Focus: Palace Can't Afford to Lose Defensive Grit Despite Solid Start For a team that suffered such a shock on the eve of the season, Crystal Palace haven’t shown too many signs of trauma.The stunning departure of Tony Pulis didn’t lead to the total collapse it might have. Neil Warnock’s side have stayed admirably solid. That can be seen in their per...

Team Focus: Profligate Saint Etienne Battle On

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Team Focus: Profligate Saint Etienne Battle On The history of Saint Etienne, which built their legend in France and beyond, is full of dramatic interventions and late twists. Saturday’s late winner at Lorient wasn’t quite equal to the drama of the European Cup comeback against Dynamo Kiev in 1976, but it was produced by an unlikely e...

Team Focus: What Will Defeat at Southampton Mean for Sunderland's Season?

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Team Focus: What Will Defeat at Southampton Mean for Sunderland's Season? There aren’t many ways of looking at an 8-0 defeat that see anything other than an unmitigated disaster, which is right and logical. Sunderland were terrible in losing to Southampton on Saturday, a pitiful showing by a team who, by the second half, seemed to have given up. That is inexcusable ...

Team Focus: Ajax Should Look Back to Past Formations in Order to Move Forward

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Team Focus: Ajax Should Look Back to Past Formations in Order to Move Forward 1984 is not only a great novel but also the year Johan Cruyff retired as a professional footballer. His decision to go into management forever altered thefortunesof his boyhood club Ajax and other love FC Barcelona – both competitively meeting for a third time on Tuesday – no individual ...

Team Focus: Defensive Improvements Have Maturing Hoffenheim Flying High

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Team Focus: Defensive Improvements Have Maturing Hoffenheim Flying High At first glance it may seem as though not much has changed in football over the past 14 years. In 2000 Bayern Munich were the reigning Bundesliga champions while Real Madrid were the conquerors of Europe. For some, however, the changes in fortunes have been drastic. In a small village in Baden-Wurtt...

Team Focus: How Dortmund Have Regressed Since Their 2012 Title Win

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Team Focus: How Dortmund Have Regressed Since Their 2012 Title Win The game of football is all about cycles. A team can be deemed one of the best in the world, only to see their stock drop years later. It’s an inevitable, and ultimately disappointing, turn of events that football clubs often endure, but such is life. Borussia Dortmund, it can be said, are cur...