goodfootballerornot

A cracking, fast-paced match between two under-achieving former greats.

These two teams met in the Champions League last year. Marseille beat Liverpool at Anfield, only to be hammered 4-0 by Liverpool at the Stade Vélodrome. Since then, Marseille have lost Samir Nassri to Arsenal and Djibril Cisse to Sunderland, but bought the highly promising Hatem Ben Arfa from Lyon. Plus coach Eric Gerets has had more time to drill his team and shape it to his liking.

This was never going to be another roll-over. The Marseille team is full of fast, technical attacking players. So what if most of them are roughly the size of a half-pint glass? Put them against a lumbering holding midfielder like Lucas Leiva, and things could get interesting …

The name of the game was clear from the word go. Marseille were going to attack, attack and then attack some more. Probably a wise call, too, because defensively they looked like they could’ve used Titus Bramble to tighten things up at the back. Liverpool, on the other hand, had for some reason decided to abandon the system that has worked so well for them over the last few seasons in Europe, namely keeping things tight and making life difficult for the opponent. Could be that the players could still feel the effects of the tolling game against Manly United on Saturday. A few of them certainly looked a bit leggy, no one more so than Javier Mascherano, who is normally so quick to the tackle. And Robbie Keane, who presumably left Spurs to play Champions League football, might have felt a bit disappointed starting on the bench …

Marseille certainly had Liverpool on the backfoot from the start. With their lightning-quick wingers and attackers and smart use of space, they were constantly creating problems for the Liverpool backline. And after about 23 minutes they reaped the rewards of their approach. Benoit Cheyrou, the brother of former Liverpool not-so-great Bruno Cheyrout (according to Houllier “the new Zidane”) and by the look of things the brother Houllier should have signed, played a fantastic through ball to the Marseille skipper, Lorik Cana. Carragher played him onside, Reina hesitated a bit coming out, and BANG!, 1-0 to Marseille.

Somewhat undeservedly, Liverpool were back on level terms 3 minutes later. Torres stole the ball from the Marseille not-so-holding midfielder and played the ball to Kuyt who played a neat pass to the path of the onrushing Steven Gerrard. With two defenders in front of him and from a somewhat difficult angle, a goal didn’t look very likely, but the Liverpool skipper produced a simply fantastic finish to chip the ball to the back corner of the net with the Marseille keeper left without chance.

Six minutes later, Liverpool were ahead. Babel controlled a long ball, which Marseille’s version of Djimi Traore missed entirely, and feinted and drew a foul by the hapless centre-back inside the box. A clear penalty. Gerrard stood to take the penalty and buried it via the right-hand post. He then had to re-take the penalty, slotting it coolly in the same corner of the goal.

For the rest of the game, Marseille huffed and puffed and managed to look fairly dangerous without actually producing much. Reina made a few great saves, but Liverpool also had a couple of chances, especially Babel, who should have scored at least one. Gerrard and Torres were eventually withdrawn, and even Robbie Keane got a taste of the action for the last 5 minutes or so. Marseille could’ve nicked a deserved equaliser at the death, but once again Reina made a good save to deny them.

For Marseille, Cheyrout was the outstanding perfomer. Hatem Ben Arfa showed a few good touches and also a Zidane-esque nasty side to his game, but faded and was substituted. For Liverpool, Gerrard with his two goals has to be the star man, but Pepe Reina also deserves some credit, and Carragher looked solid after a slack start. Lucas Leiva looked like he was about to press the self-destruct button throughout the second half, and was probably lucky not to get a second booking or cause a penalty.

So John Terrys red card for one of the most outrageous tackles ever seen was rescinded. Regardless of the interpretation of the rules of the game the problem is the FA were pretty much cacking themselves at the thought of the England Captain being branded a thug. Pity as he is.

Yes the worst start for Spurs since records began, or close to it.  Jol was facing the sack at this point and in a better position too.  I guess after spannering so much on players for Ramos the board are stuck with him, for now.  Villa are looking good and could grab that mythical top four slot if they carry on this way.

Posibly the most significant win for Pool since the CL.  Deinied top of the table by a team who steamed past Man City despite being a man down.  Could be Chelseas year?   Very likely.

For Man U a fairly bad start and Chelsea next week.  Should be interesting.

Despite it only being a 2-0 win for England, with the obligatory boos at half time from the morons who seem to think we have some given right to win these games 10-0 and so should be at least 5 up first half, it was telling for me that Capello had to have a go at Rooney and Cole for not playing as they were told to. Rooney in particulalr doesnt seem to have a great brain, although Joe Cole is hardly GCSE material, but the fact that two of our top players can’t follow simple instructions probably explains quite a few things.

For years now it has been often suggested (and an observation of my own) that Lampard probably can’t play to a set of orders. Hes too fond of going forward and thus removing the support that Gerrard needs when going forward himself and then Gerrard who is the type of player to track all the way back to his own area finds himself even further out of position to compensate which is why players like Barry, Hargreaves and Carrick are deemed essential to England being successful.

That Rooney feels the need to play so deep is worrying and also makes a stark case for not playing him as a striker, if at all. If he and Gerrard are our best and most creative players then yes they should probably make up the attacking midfield and play one or even two proper strikers up front. Sure you have to drop Lampard but many people have been saying that for a long while now and it seems there is a good tactical reason for doing so.

Unfortunatly we wont get that situation I would think, which is a shame as it might pay off with Walcott & Cole wide.

Lets see what happens in the proper match, England do play better against better opponents and hopefully the players wont be too intimidated by the supposed England fans and past recent history and make a mess of it.  But lets remember Croatia are ranked fifth in the world, England fifteenth, a draw is a good result frankly.

I had high hopes for this match. Aston Villa had a fresh young team consisting mainly of English talent: Ashley Young, Gabi Ablon… Aglon… Abgon… anyways, um, James Milner, and um, Luke Young? Last season, they attacked with verve and played several high-scoring games. And Liverpool … not, on all accounts. Still, they are my team—and they have Torres, so …

And then there was the Barry Saga. Was he going to go, was he going to stay? Would Liverpool match Villa’s price, would Arsenal sneak in and snatch him from the under Rafa’s demonic goatee? Would Martin O’Neill pop a vein in his brain with all the blood pumping up to his head? It had all been very exciting for the first month or so. The following 4 months were less exciting, but still … would Barry show Liverpool just what they missed? Would Liverpool show Barry what HE missed by not getting into one of the top 4 teams, who challenge in the Champions League every season?

All these questions were running through my mind at the start of the match. Well, of course Arsenal hadn’t bothered paying 18 million quid for Barry. First of all, he doesn’t hail from some tiny African country, he’s not under 18, and he costs more than 3 pounds. But all the other questions were fresh in my mind as the game started.

And they were promptly answered. Aston Villa’s fresh young English talent were showing precious little freshness and talent. They didn’t attack much, and the little attacking they did they definitely didn’t do with verve. And Liverpool … well, Torres pulled a muscle after 20 minutes. Game over. With Torres, Rafa’s cunning plot of employing 8 defensive outfield players, isolating Keane on the left flank (in theory) and keeping just 1 up front might have some chance of working. After all, they nicked 3 points at Sunderland with that tactic. And somehow managed to rob Boro from a deserved point. But with Torres limping out, and young N’Gog limping in … well, you see my point.

Barry definitely showed Liverpool 18 million pounds would’ve been a tad on the high side, and Liverpool did their utmost to prove to him that he didn’t miss a thing by not joining them. If this was a match between one of the top 4 teams vs. one of the teams supposedly most likely to break into the top 4 then I’d say Hull and Stoke have nothing to fear.

I vaguely remember a shot on goal by one of the teams around the 43rd minute. Could’ve been Xabi Alonso from about 60 yards—and fair game, had Villa still had Carson between the posts, it might’ve crept in. As it was, Friedel had enough time to move his zimmer frame to the right position to make the save.

At half time I suddenly remembered I had some paint drying at home, so I left the pub certain that when I’d check the result later, I’d be punished for my folly. Both teams would return from the half-time bollicking with burst eardrums and blood dribbling down from their ear tunnels, and attack with the kind of verve that would make Keegan’s Newcastle from early 90s look like the Greek national side. Goals of the highest quality would fly in at both ends, and Liverpool would just nick the uber exciting second half, with Keane and Babel both scoring hat-tricks.

Instead, challenging all the laws of metaphysics—but working admirably towards the same goal—both teams had managed to maintain the same high level of tedium on the second half. It’s a game of two halves my hairy rear.

So Keggers has gone, again, and Toon are a shambling wreck of a club unlikely to attract top managerial talent. I mean really, look at them.   8 managers over the past 11 years, not to mention the timings of some of the sackings, a football director or two in London, madness.  This time for Keggers the issue seems to be a similar one with many managers and clubs now, who has control of bringing in or selling players?  Lets face it some managers have wasted millions on some right dross, Newcastle being a prime example of having a string of managers who filled the club with players best left on the dole.  Mike Ashely, who it transpires brought the club before waiting for a due diligence report (that’s checking the books to you), found himself unexpectedly several more million quid out of pocket.  That he wants to keep an eye on the cash and perhaps not make the mistake of previous owners and keep the managers purchasing of the crippled and the talentless in check is understandable, but why Dennis Wise?  In London?  He was a marginal manager at best and as yet seems to have done nothing in terms of bringing in some talent to Newcastle.  That the choice came to Keegan or Wise and Keegan lost is surprising to say the least.  Curbishley also went this week citing similar circumstance, players being sold when he wanted to keep them etc. while the club have said quite the opposite that he was told in all circumstances, but the complaint is the same.  Benetez also appears to have had problems with getting players he wants, and he doesn’t have to deal with dross being brought in by a sporting director, he can buy his own dross, if the owner lets him.

Worse for these owners who are seeking to protect their cash and reign in bad managerial purchases is that the game is full of sporting directors who aren’t really up to the job.  Comolli at Spurs appears to be a bit of a comedian, 16 million for Darren Bent?  Come on!  There also appears to be questions asked of his failure to sign another striker before the transfer deadline and the list of attempted signings is farcical.  There are others but the point is that many are just not doing any better than the managers.

Whatever the situations managers & clubs appear to need a reality check.  Theres too much money at stake to allow most managers free reign on who they buy and for how much.  Players often want to move and there’s naff all that can be done about it.  Players who look a good prospect turn out to be a bit shit, no matter why buys them and worse a class player is brought but has left his magic boots at his old club.  It happens, a lot.

Worryingly for English managers, what are the odds that an English manager will be offered either job?  Blackburn took the bold and pretty much unprecedented step of appointing Paul Ince, a manger who did at least have a good record at a lower level.  If English football is lucky maybe another young English manager will be given a chance and maybe one day the England team will be managed by and Englishman, or will we have our clubs and country managed (badly) by italians?  Im looking at you here West Ham, the only managers linked with your club appear to be Italians?  Why?  While there is no doubting the credentials of some of the Italian talent saying they are interested in coming here, why not look to the Championship, there are some talented English managers who, if given the chance, could well prove themselves.  Is there really such a risk?  Same for Newcastle, who are you going to appoint?  Dont drag out the still twitching corpse of failure that are the unemployed ex preimiere league managers, pick someone who hasnt had a chance at the top level.   The clubs already have Sporting Directors to stop them making expensive mistakes and the coaching staff is in  place, unless the new guy comes in and really changes everything the team at least should be able to continue on wards without a dramatic drop in performance even if they are a bad choice.  Hell Avram Grant got Chelsea to a Champions League final and he apparently didnt do anything at all! Neither are top 4 anyway and now Man City appear to have limitless fund they are unlikely to be able to be top 4 without the sort of money the owners dont seem to have.  Realistically they can only be expecting mid table mediocraty now and maybe a fight for a UEFA cup spot which has just got one place harder to get.   So whats stopping you?  Newcastles last choices of Reoder and Allardyce were sound in this way at least, trying to give a fairly proven manager a chance at a bigger place.  Ok so they failed, but there are no certainties in life and both Newcsatle and West Ham hardly have the worst squads in the league or anything to loose right now.

Uniteds hugely dodgy signing of Berbatov looks to go unpunished, what does the Premiere League do exactly?  What are the rules there for?  Shame on United for their bullying brazen behavior, shame on Spurs for taking the money and shame on the PL for letting it happen.  Every contract is now worthless, every club should feel no compunction to follow the rules of transfers.  After whinging about Madrid all summer and then tucking up Spurs for Berbatov in the same way, if not worse, Man U deserve some form of punitive action.   In fact if I was a manager who wanted a player, just go to their current clubs training ground and ask if they want to join.  Give back the fines to Chelsea for the Ashley Cole affair, what does it matter now?

The Gain, possibly, is for City.  Robinho is a world class player, a world class player who may well find himself a touch surprised to be playing for Manchester City, not United and in the UEFA cup and not the Champions League.  Its unlikely to happen this season but we could certainly see a large gathering of top players at City next year.   As for their new signing, lets see if he actually wants to play for them or not.  Since he has yet to be displayed by the club and considering the clubs status right now you have to feel there’s a good chance he might not actually want to play for them.  The new owners are going to have to pay him a lot of money to get the best from him.

The Pain is for all the clubs not owned by rich backers now.  With City throwing down a massive gauntlet which is grasping a platinum (that’s solid platinum as well, not just some plastic painted thing) billionaires credit card, the rest are going to find life very hard indeed.  Spurs have spent an awful lot of money aiming for the top four and are having a bad start already.  Next season they are going to have an even harder time of it getting into the Champions League, unless Liverpool and Arsenal implode.  Liverpool and Arsenal have stadium issues, one cant get the cash to buy one it needs and the other is struggling to pay off the debt for theirs, what future for them without some extra backing now?

Transfer rules are being ignored and the Premiere League is doing nothing. Contract and transfer chaos looms, at least I hope so.  I certainly hope to see Man U loose some players next season, maybe City can do a Ronaldo and Berbatov double?  We can only hope for a massive shakeup around transfers unfortunately.  Clubs are being brought by backers who will want thier money back, with some serious interest.  Abramovich might just love the game, but he still has only loaned the money to Chelsea.   I suspect Citys new owners are also going to go into this with a harsher deal than what Chelsea are under.

Ye gods that was dull. You have to expect this from games every now and then, especially with 2 managers not known for taking risks but as a spectacle it was poor, poor stuff. Villa had a prime opportunity to take Pool apart after their dodgy performances so far and blew it big style. Benetez will probably be happy enough, still didn’t loose and every point is valuable.