25 March 2009

International breaks

I’m so scared of jinxing it, but since I was wondering and bothered to look up the stats, I figured I should share.

There have been five international breaks this season, not counting the current one. Liverpool are 3-2-0 in games right after the break, and 7-3-0 you count two games after. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s a two-week break or just a midweek game.

Break between Pompey 2/7 (W) and City 2/22
• City 1-1, Real 1-0

Mid-week break between Bolton 11/15 (W) and Fulham 11/22
• Fulham 0-0, Marseille 1-0

Break between City 10/5 (W) and Wigan 10/18
• Wigan 3-2, Atletico 1-1

Break between Villa 8/31 (D) and United 9/13
• United 2-1, Marseille 2-1

Mid-week break between Sunderland 8/16 (W) and Boro 8/23
• Boro 2-1, Liege 1-0

Three points more often than not, but not the clean sweep ostensibly needed. Other than the win over United, Liverpool hasn’t been at their best following the breaks – not really surprising given the number of international players in the squad. But they delivered against United, where there was the most pressure and they had the most to prove, so maybe that’s a good sign. It can’t get much more nerve-racking than it will be during this run-in.

4 comments :

Abhiram said...

You amaze me. Great stat. How do you manage to find such things?

We need something to talk about over this lull.. This is just Wednesday. Still 10 more days to go before the next game... Damn boring.

Oh and nate, regarding the Barry debate, have to agree with what you say. But still, i have a feeling that he'll be a Red come this summer.

And what of this Agger contract issue? Does he really want to leave us? I am afraid it might be. Since then, we are being linked from Wheater to Albiol. Hope he stays.

BurgerBrother said...

What about Benayoun vs Benitez in the club vs coutnry battle?

Brian said...

Even better news is that Man U is 3-1-1 in their first match after the break, with their only loss being us, of course, and 4-2-4 in the two matches following combined.

What makes matters worse for the Mancs is that they play 7 matches in April in a span of three weeks. That's a match every three days.

Their squad depth will be tested even further as they begin that stretch without Vidic, Rooney, Scholes, Rafael, and possibly Berbatov.

BackBergtt said...

Yossi is hurt again. God I love international breaks!