goodfootballerornot

Very good indeed for the England B team as its been called.  Forget the debate on can Lampard and Gerrard play together, can Scott Carson play for England without stuffing up big time!  The Captain quite rightly took the blame for the shambles as he should have cleared it, but why is he so feted by the press?  He is neither our best player or a great ambassador for the sport yet the press as a rule view him as being the best thing about.   Sadly a sign of the backwards nature of thinking about the game here where its more important for a player to have blood on his shirt and a bandage on his head rather than being able to think, keep the ball and pass well.  Something that came up again when Argentina played Scotland, Terry Butcher a player from who JT could have been cloned was commenting on the hand of god, Maradona quite rightly said, who?  Who indeed.

Still good stuff allround and maybe some of the first team might get dropped and give them a much needed kick in the arse.

Despite only being 6 points behind the league leaders Arsenal were in crisis and according to some Wenger should be replaced.  A strange situation for such a successful manager to be in, especially one who can count well enough to know that 6 points doesn’t make you out of touch.  The problem all the teams have is can anyone take points off Chelsea and Liverpool?

The game itself was marked by some pretty lousy refereeing, Howard Web did his best to not give any penalties, despite there being a possibility of at least 3.  United were undone by Rooney having a bad day at the office and a real lack of quality in central midfield.  Rooney spent the first half shooting wide and for the second when he was shoved to the left as provider some of his crosses left a lot to be desired.  Ronaldo, supposedly the best player in the world and looking nothing of the sort, missed some chances and his assists were not the standard they should have been.  Berbatov doesn’t look like 32 million well spent and for the cost of Man Us attack verses the comparatively weak Arsenal defence they looked short of being the best.

Arsenal played thier usual game and Nasri providing more attacking bite than they have produced for some time.  Wenger may know, but they still don’t look that convincing either.

Fergason has a real problem in that he has seemingly made no provision for replacing Giggs or Scholes, or if he has none of the supposed replacements look up to thier high standard.  That 32 million would have been better spent on a decent central midfielder, Deco springs to mind.

Spurs appear to play better with 10 men, unfortunately not so with only 9.

The early penalty was justified, but the card was not understandable at all.  Yes Bale did a rubbish tackle and hacked the guy down, but it wasn’t malicious, just bad play.  A lucky equaliser was perhaps only fair in terms of their subsequent performance and domination but were always going to have problems after the 2nd goal and red card.

Having Hutton back is a bonus for Spurs, he just needs some practice as his crosses are often poor.  Woodgate looks slow and the unfortunate Corluka looks to be a good buy.  Spurs however are deficient in midfield, no enforcer, hell no tackler!  Modric is visionary but tackles like a girl (David Bently).  Huddleston needs to be played with him as he can at least do a defensive play breaking role.  With Lennon on the left not getting the ball or seemingly able to deliver a cross and Bently doing the same on the right Spurs few forwards are struggling to get any sort of service.   For someone who wants to be David Beckham, Bently also appears to have picked up the bad old Beckham habits of not tracking back, run or just plain not putting him self about enough.  Being subbed for an injured Pavlyuchenko (Known as Pav from now on!) is really a reflection of how poor he is.

Defensively Spurs are shaky, have a keeper carrying injuries as they don’t trust their backup keeper and a Captain who’s career is likely to be over sooner rather than later.  They have also sold all their players who compensated for this by scoring lots of goals.

Spurs and Newcastle are currently being used as prime examples of why the sporting director doesn’t work.  This is just so much bollocks and is a poor journalism.  What doesn’t work is a shit sporting director or a sporting director operating from a different city!

Stoke look like a Championship side and one who should have put more past a desperate Spurs team and if Spurs don’t start winning soon they will be in the Championship.

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.

Shaun Wright-Phillips has just re-signed for Man City. Was his initial move the most futile ever by a professional footballer? Few starts and an ever diminishing England career. For one so young the answer has to be yes. Whatver advisor deludedly told him he could fight for a spot in the starting line up of that team is a right muppet. It was his dad? Well that explains that one then..

Chelsea of course have two other career wastrels in Cudicini and Bridge, Bridge having recently and famously signed a deal which will keep him well paid but doing bugger all unless Cashley Cole gets an injury. I can appreciate the lure of being paid a fortune to do nothing, but for people who are supposed to have a love of playing the game its pathetic. Bridge certainly shouldnt be picked for England again, the Manager can easily cite lack of ambition as a reason. Phillips may at least have an England future now, assuming he will play a lot more of course.

So whos next for the great doss move to Chelsea?

[Update Sun Aug 31st, Sunderland 0 - 3 Man City]

2 for Shaun Wright-Phillips who maybe, just maybe, has now realised that sitting on his arse for 3 years at Chelsea wasn’ doing his career any good. 2 from him and a good performance from City.

The more I think about Capellos squad choice the more annoyed I get. Such a wasted opportunity to play some younger talent with the core of the team for the next world cup and Qualifiers.

UPDATE : The announced squad to play is;

James, Brown, A Cole, Ferdinand, Terry (Captain), Beckham, Barry, Lampard, Gerrard, Defoe, Rooney.

So did McClown also get a Capello face mask as well as a dodgy Dutch Accent?  FFS.

So first up my list of wasted spaces & Problems:

Keeper:

Ok hes got no real choice here. But will James last another couple of years? We know what Robinson can and cant do, is there no other option than Joe Hart?

My list of Bad Selections:

Wayne Bridge! FFS! Hes not played many games for what, 2 years? Those he has played hes looked pants.

I could have picked out Glen Johnson for the treatment but, ok toilet stealing aside, he has shown promise as a player and the times he has played for England he certainly hasnt embarssed himself.

Why is Beckahm even in the squad? Hes only going to be any use as an impact substitute from now on, hes getting slower (from a slow start lets face it) and his tackling isn’t improving either.

Jenas: We know what he can do, which isnt international quality most of the time so whats the point? Prime opportunity to play someone younger to get some experience.

Rooney – no goals or performance of note since 2006. Give someone else a go! I dont care if hes got a great touch, or the most gifted young player around. Hes still a tempermental prat who had promise and isnt coming close to fufilling it. Drop him for a few, it wont hurt the team and might focus his mind a bit.

Heskey. If Owen was fit and playing or going to play then yes put him in the squad. Hes never really built up a rapport with any other striker for England so kind of an odd choice. Yes I know he creates things, so does Crouch, why not pick him? Crouch has a better scoring record and with him and Defoe playing for the same club theres a chance of something clicking here.

My Choices:

Keeper:

Err….

Defenders:

Micha Richards: One for the future without doubt and can play across the defence and well as defensive midfield if required. Why is he in the under 21s? Hes played for England proper and yet hes apparently better off in the under 21s. This had better be a conspiracy for Stuart Pearce to be the next England manager and so he will have had some quality time with the younger players, including Huddlestone and Lennon.

Midfield:

Ashley Young: Showing real promise to be one of the best and since he plays with Barry why not give them a go as the midfield core for England? We know Barry and Gerrard can work well together, maybe Young in the mix would be a much better option than playing Lampard?

Forwards:

Gabriel Agbonlahor: Does anyone really expect Mikey Owen to make the next world cup? Or if he does play well? No? No, didnt think so and neither do I. Another Villa man I know but who else is there? If hes playing alongside players he knows with good providers from the right and left in Bently and Joe Cole theres no reason why we can get goals.

Oh and no, I dont support Villa before you ask.

Well it was a nasty game with John Terry showing every good reason why not to make him England Captain.   Especially after him and Ferdinand had a serious looking disagreement, I know who I would drop from an England team.  Drogba and Ballack also had a right go at each other toward the end which was quite funny but probably indicates Drogba will be gone in the summer.  What wasn’t funny was the constant harassment and abuse of the ref and linesmen.  Pathetic stuff.   Thankfully for the vast, vast majority of the time, no decision is ever changed because a player says something, so why bother?  Frankly they look like over paid tantrum throwing twunts, oh I’m sure some fans thinks its great, shows “passion” and all that but really, grow up.

As for the result, its squeaky bum time in Manchester.  One slip and its very likely the title will be Chelseas.  Chelsea will be on fire right now for the second CL leg and it should be a good one with Liverpool needing to score to be sure.

So Thaksin Shinawatra is, according to a few reports, unhappy at the results his team have achieved, particularly in the second half of the season. Now I don’t know what footballing experience he has, but I suspect like all rich owners the answer is bugger all. The fact that City did so well at the start of the season took everyone by surprise and as Sven rightly said early on he didn’t expect to stay in the top four. But for Thaksin to even be contemplating sacking him due to a perceived slump shows he has much more money than sense, or knowledge about the game. The City squad isnt that great, still, despite costing him a fair bit of cash. The 50 million or so he spent isn’t actually that much these days, but his teamhas a good core now, Richards, Petrov, Elano, Dunne, Benjani etc. Considering how much dross Sven had to throw out it is really a testament to his ability to do well with a thrown together squad who barely know each other, rather than a longer term failure issue. See his England record, apart from the last bit where frankly I don’t think he gave a shit anymore and I don’t blame him for that. So what does Thaksin expect any manager to do with the current league and only spending a comparatively small amount in one go?

It could of course just be press stirring but the responses coming from the club are all a bit vague. Perhaps slightly better than the dreaded vote of confidence which usually precedes a sacking, but still hardly encouraging for Sven or any successor, should there been one soon.