'Manchester United and Liverpool will want points, not performance, it's all that matters right now,' says Jimmy Bullard
EXCLUSIVE COLUMN: My performance of the week goes to Everton, so the naysayers can leave their banners at home
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Your support makes all the difference.There seems to have been so many changes to the offside rule that nobody really knows where they are with it anymore.
The recent changes should’ve been made five years ago to avoid the confusion altogether. Take the other night, Coutinho is clearly in an offside position under the new rules and should’ve been flagged. It’s all well and good having the rules in place but completely pointless if nobody is clear about what they actually are.
Fair play to Liverpool for grinding out another result though. They haven’t played brilliantly but they’re sitting pretty with 6 points after two games. It’s all about getting points on the board early doors and the quality will start to come with it once fitness levels improve in the next few games. Performances aren’t the priority right now - look at Chelsea, they would bite your hand off for a scrappy 1-0 win at the moment.
Like Liverpool, Manchester United have started well with two wins from two. I think United are going to have a better season of the two. They look very organised right now and they’ve got quality in abundance. They’ll definitely be a force to be reckoned with and they’ll be there, or there abouts, come the end of the season. Liverpool will also do well, but they don’t have the strength in depth that United have and I worry for them if they get a few injuries.
It will be interesting to see what happens throughout the league once all the summer signings start to settle in. You can’t really say too much after only two games but West Ham's lad Dimitri Payet looks a player – he has caused absolute havoc early on and no defence will look forward to facing him. Memphis Depay is also starting to come into his own after two worldies in the Champions League on Tuesday night. He’s still young and very raw, but he has all the abilities to become a world class player
Performance of the week last weekend definitely goes to Everton. Bill Kenwright has come in for a bit of stick from some fans recently, but they looked very good against Southampton with Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku causing havoc all afternoon.
Confidence is clearly growing within the camp after a poor campaign last season and you don’t want to upset the apple cart by getting banners out calling for the chairman’s head. It affects a player when you know the fans want the manager or chairman out, so the Evertonians need to put their banners away for now and keep getting behind the team. I’m sure they’ll have a very good season if they do that.
Jimmy Bullard has teamed up with Carling as part of their nationwide Shirt Amnesty. Carling are also calling all football fans to head to their Game On tent at V Festival this weekend - follow all of the action @Carling on Twitter.
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