http://everykickofit.tumblr.com/

Why can't the England football team live up to the expectations of its fans?

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:49:00 -0400

As citizens of a country whose football team hasn’t won an international tournament in 45 years, the expectations of England supporters seem ludicrously naive. However, the exposure and veneration of the Barclays Premier League on a worldwide scale points to a society with football at its core - the nPower Championship, England’s second tier league competition, draws nearly 10 million supporters each season, more than Serie A in Italy and Ligue 1 in France. Since 2005, seven of the fourteen Champions League finalists have come from these shores, yet England have not beaten an elite nation in a knock-out competition since the defeat of Spain at Euro 96. What exactly contributes to this dearth of success in the sport our nation holds so dear?

One of the most popular theories regarding England’s anaemia bemoans the intensity and longevity of domestic football, which leaves players fatigued and lethargic by the advent of the summer tournaments. Peter Crouch, speaking in August 2010, described the reality of Premiership football: ‘Our league is probably the toughest about - even if you’re playing one of the bottom sides you’re still in for a really hard game’. And therein lies the problem. As a product to be marketed, the Premier League is peerless in the sporting industry. With punters demanding their unremitting dosage of theatre and excitement – ‘You don’t learn, because the Premier League wants games to be played all the time, so people can watch it everywhere’, grumbled Sven-Göran Eriksson - it is no wonder the Premier League and its Chief Executive Richard Scudamore look to meet the demand, and benefit financially from the fanatical support received by English clubs. And so, with Scudamore unprepared to disrupt the drama and introduce a winter-break, ‘international players just do not get a chance [to rest] and they’re burnt out’, according to former Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill. Speaking on the same subject, West Bromwich coach Roy Hodgson stated ‘I find it disappointing that a lot of top people in the game have come out and advocated how useful a break would be, and we have not yet found a way to incorporate it into the season’. In fact, Premiership players suffer, on average, four times more injuries from March to May than those in other major European leagues. Fabio Capello, the England coach, himself blamed the national team’s lamentable performance in the 2010 World Cup on exhaustion, claiming ‘we arrive really tired every time we have to play competitions in June’.

Money is also an issue. With the stakes so high in club football – Barcelona received over £50 million in prize money for winning the 2011 European Cup – domestic teams cannot run the risk of their cherished assets incurring injuries while representing their countries. With clubs winning the battle of wills against national teams (the Premier League recently vetoed the release of Under-17 and Under-19 academy players to train with England), continental, rather than international, football is regarded as the pinnacle of the sport by fans and players alike. Jamie Carragher, a European Cup winner with Liverpool in 2005, wrote in his autobiography that ‘defeats wearing an England shirt never hurt me in the same way as losing with my club’. As a result of this indifference, representing England becomes a chore to endure rather than a dream to realise. In his recently published autobiography, former Manchester United captain Gary Neville describes his England career as a ‘waste of time’.

Another concern arising from the sudden explosion in finance in English football is the prevalence of foreigners in the top-flight. A mere 40% of Premier League players qualify for the national team, whereas in La Liga, home of the world champions Spain, the figure is closer to 77%. Although Spanish coach Vicente Del Bosque described it as ‘enriching to have the best players from around the world playing in the Premier League’, there are growing concerns that overseas imports are disrupting the development of home-grown talent. Writing in the Guardian, Paul Hayward echoes the fears of many that ‘promising colts will be stopped at the door of Premier League first-teams, stagnate, or be sent out on loan, never to return as England players’. With the quota of native players in a Premier League squad of twenty-five set at just eight, the division lacks the depth of English footballers to provide competition or cover for positions in the national squad. Hayward’s assessment that ‘Without Owen Hargreaves, England lack a single credible defensive midfielder’ is a depressing reminder of this reality.

This gulf of quality also applies to the academies of top clubs, with José Luis Astiazarán, President of La Liga, asserting that ‘In Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United there are a lot of young Spanish, French and Italian players – maybe this is why you are not creating young English players.’. A further indictment of the foreign influence suggests ‘the best English players are often flattered by the brilliant foreign players around them’, as Ben Chu writes in the Independent. With this in mind, fans expect their heroes to perform likewise for their country, when in fact they are surrounded by less gifted professionals than at their clubs. Given, due to the proportion of foreigners in every Premiership side, England players are unlikely to be team-mates at club level; their lack of cohesion on the international stage is unsurprising. The Spain starting eleven that won the World Cup against Holland last year comprised players from just three clubs, with Joan Capdevila the only player contracted outside Barcelona or Real Madrid. A staggering seven Premiership sides were represented in the England eleven demolished by Germany at the same tournament.

The standard of coaching in this country is another quandary, with a plethora of tactically inept managers and strength-obsessed academy staff. Indeed, the number of trained coaches in this country, 2,769 as of July 2010, is dwarfed by figures on the continent. Spain employs 23,995; Germany employs 34,970. Furthermore, in 2009, clubs in the German Bundesliga invested £50 million in their academies, 3.3 per cent of gross revenues. Premier League clubs invested closer to £30 million, just 1.5 per cent. John Peacock, the Head of Coaching for the Football Association, recently admitted that ‘we’ve always felt that we have to develop our youngsters better than we have done but I don’t think there’s been the correct investment or the correct planning towards getting that structure into place’. Resultantly, children as young as eleven play on full-size pitches, meaning qualities like size and speed are valued over skill and precision. The FA Director of Football Sir Trevor Brooking’s condemnation that ‘Creativity and subtlety in the final third is probably something neglected in all the age groups’ is yet another scathing reflection of youth coaching in England. In Spain and Germany, however, the focus centres on small-sided games on smaller pitches, where technique and awareness are traits glorified above all else. These ideas are clearly benefitting their respective national teams. On the subject of Germany’s technical superiority, former England striker Andy Cole, writing in the Independent, asseverates that ‘they have good, young, well-organised, hungry, ambitious players who have a mindset that allows them to produce the goods at the big tournaments. England do not.’ In the Guardian, Hayward writes that ‘Young English players are allocated single positions and rarely think outside the tram lines of those narrow vocations. The young Germans can open up a pitch with angled passing and running. Spain and Holland are fluid and flexible. The English intelligence remains disengaged’. With the onus on physicality above proficiency, it is no wonder that England trail on the international scene. Paul Wilson in the Guardian reflects that ‘not even £6 million a year buys a coach who can make bricks without straw’.

A further blight caused by the inadequacy of coaching is the paucity of accomplished English managers in the Premier League. The most successful in the current contingent is Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Redknapp, the favourite to succeed Capello at the helm of the national team. Capello has won ten league titles in two countries; Redknapp has never achieved a position above fourth in the Premier League. However, although Redknapp triumphed in the FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008, this success was engendered by an unsustainable wage structure which took the club to the brink of collapse in the subsequent two years. In fact, Rafael Van Der Vaart, a key figure in the Tottenham team, recently declared that ‘There is a clipboard in our dressing room, but Harry doesn’t write anything on it. It’s not that we do nothing [tactically] – but it’s close to that.’ In an era with tactical contests at the forefront, England under Redknapp is a prospect unlikely to strike fear into the hearts of other nations – he introduced striker Roman Pavlyuchenko into the European Cup tie against Internazionale with the mandate to ‘fucking run about a bit’. As Jeremy Wilson muses in the Daily Telegraph, ‘it would only have made sense to sack Capello if there was someone better to replace him’. In English football, it would seem there is not.

The newspaper is, as Arthur Schoepenhauer once said, ‘a far-sounding trumpet’, and consequently pieces written about the England national team have the propensity to cause a great deal of harm. The tabloid press, with their irrepressible tendency to overestimate the capability of the country’s football team (to put it mildly), have not only lead the detrimental vilification of Fabio Capello – ‘for a man with his record to be portrayed as a know-nothing donkey by the nation’s best-selling daily [The Sun] on the basis of four matches is absurd’, writes Jonathan Wilson in the Guardian – but also brought about a culture of hype in which ‘the beliefs of most fans seem to swing from one unrealistic extreme to another, despite plenty of evidence for a more mundane reality somewhere in the middle’, as Stefan Szymanski writes in his book ‘Why England Lose’. As a result, when the England side performs well, they can do no wrong, and fans expect the team to sweep aside all challengers en-route to eternal glory. This overconfidence spreads to the players, who expect success to come without endeavour. As Cole writes, ‘It’s the sheer, typical arrogance of English football that makes results such as [the 4-1 loss to Germany] so shocking’. On the other hand, when the team underperforms, the tabloids leap to criticise, castigate and incriminate, creating a miasma of pressure from which the players cannot escape. ‘No country who have appeared in one World Cup final (and that, on home soil) since joining the party in 1950 has the right to march into a tournament chuntering about “pressure”’ writes Hayward. Yet, with the unrestrained might of the media on its back, the team stutters and falters, having failed to live up to their massaged reputations. ‘We will send 23 men to Rio de Janeiro to find glory. The El Dorado generation, perhaps. They will be feted as heroes, heralded as the team that can conquer the world. And they will, most likely, fail our heightened expectations, and back will come the self-appointed magistrates, and the rope and the noose. This is England.’ writes Rory Smith in the Daily Telegraph, and he is probably right.

The culture of English football rouses another significant concern, with the nation’s fans suffering from a ‘messiah-complex’, as suggested by Jonathan Wilson. He warns that supporters, players and coaches alike must ‘stop looking for a mythical saviour who is going to redeem the protracted decline and get on with making the best of the present situation’. With heroes who drag their teams single-handedly from the mire heralded above all others (think Roy of the Rovers, or perhaps Steven Gerrard), the fans’ acclaim is directed at players with passion, bravery and commitment, rather than the sophisticated traits of teamwork and intricacy that are lauded on the continent. As Rory Smith asserts, ‘Cramming players in because of the names on the back of their shirts does not work any more, if it ever did. Modern football dictates that you play a system that works. It is not a best-fit scenario.’ a stance supported by Hayward, who notes that ‘until the English game joins the world mainstream of possession and skills-based play and drops the old imperial delusions and celebrity-driven self-regard then there will be no end to their stay in the wilderness.’

England’s failure to provide a competent football team is a scourge with many symptoms. Whether or not the national game can be rescued from its perennial demise is in the hands of the FA, Fabio Capello’s successor, and the next generation of youth coaches. The real question, however, is whether they have the foresight to make the necessary changes to revitalise English football. The answer remains to be seen.

Preview: Bolton vs. Manchester City

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:09:17 -0400

The opening weekend of the league season could not have gone any better for Owen Coyle and Roberto Mancini, with their sides capitalising on the inexperience of two of the Premiership’s newcomers, Queen’s Park Rangers and Swansea City. At Loftus Road, Bolton dominated from the twentieth minute, exposing QPR’s weak defence, vulnerable to the potency of the Petrov-Davies-Eagles triumvirate. At Eastlands (or should I say Etihad Stadium?), Manchester City negated Brendan Rogers’ possession football by swarming the Swans’ box, eventually forcing four goals, aided by the introduction of the Argentinian demi-God Sergio Agüero in the second half.

At the Reebok this Sunday, where Manchester City have not won in six attempts, both teams will look to ride the waves of optimism after their impressive showings last week.

THE TEAMS

In defence, Coyle will almost certainly select his first choice back-five, with keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen and centre-halfs Zat Knight and Gary Cahill supported by Gretar Steinsson and Paul Robinson at right and left full-back respectively. In the midfield, the effective anchoring partnership of Nigel Reo-Coker and Fabrice Muama should be given another chance to develop, with Chris Eagles and Martin Petrov deployed on the flanks. Kevin Davies, the fulcrum of all Bolton’s play, will be supported up front by Ivan Klasnic or new signing Sanli Tuncay. In an attempt to contain City’s three man centre midfield, Coyle may well select the deeper-lying Tuncay.

Like Bolton, Manchester City will also deploy four in defence, with Micah Richards, Vincent Kompany, Jolean Lescott and Gael Clichy shielding goalkeeper Joe Hart. Mancini’s customary midfield trio of Yaya Touré, Gareth Barry and Nigel De Jong could sit deep, allowing a three pronged attack of Agüero, Silva and Dzeko to wreak havoc in the final third.

THE TACTICS

BOLTON

Bolton’s deep back-line is limited technically, so the task of moving the ball from defence to attack will fall to Fabrice Muamba, whose job will entail clearing up fragmented City surges and providing Eagles, Reo-Coker and Petrov with opportunities to set up counter-attacks, where the Trotters are at their most dangerous.

In an attempt to even out the numbers in midfield, Eagles and Petrov will drift centrally, as they did against QPR. With Barry, De Jong and Touré occupied by Bolton’s four midfielders, and Kompany and Lescott wary of the threat of Kevin Davies, space will develop in the City half for Sanli Tuncay to collect the ball. Feeding off Davies’ knock-downs and lay-offs, Tuncay will be vital in crafting shooting opportunities for the Wanderers.

If Muamba and Reo-Coker can distribute quickly to Eagles and Petrov, their accurate long-balls to Davies will form the main threat to Kompany and Lescott in Mancini’s defence. If the City centre-backs can cut off supply to Davies in the air, they will stifle Bolton’s main attacking outlet.

MANCHESTER CITY

With Reo-Coker, Muamba and Davies cramming the Bolton midfield in defence, De Jong and Lescott will fulfil a vital role in supplying Clichy and Richards on the wings. As Eagles and Petrov tuck in to try and prevent passes to Silva and Agüero, space will open up for City’s full-backs to exploit in the Bolton half. Bombing into the final third, City’s attackers will get the support they need to trouble Bolton’s defence.

Yaya Touré and Gareth Barry will prove to be vital cogs in the midfield, having taken the most touches of the ball in the 4-0 demolition of Swansea. Their accurate passing will be key in seizing control in the midfield to find space for City to attack.

Bolton’s rigid, deep defence will allow Silva and Agüero to work the ball in front of the back four, from where they can shoot or attempt to play in Edin Dzeko for goal-scoring opportunities. With the support of Clichy, Touré and Richards, by keeping the ball in the final third City can pin Bolton back by sheer weight of numbers and work chances through consistent offensive pressure, as they did last Monday.

CONCLUSION

If Bolton are to prevent Manchester City from winning, Davies and Tuncay (or Klasnic) will have to graft to support their midfielders when not in possession. If Touré and Barry are allowed to dictate the midfield, the quality and trickery of City’s attackers will win the game for them.

Preview: Liverpool vs. Arsenal

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:24:00 -0400

With captain Cesc Fábregas having quit the Emirates to rejoin Barcelona, and midfield dynamo Samir Nasri soon to join Manchester City, Arsenal are ostensibly in disarray. When you add the suspensions of Gervinho and Alex Song (picked up in the dire 0-0 draw at Newcastle) to that equation, along with the injuries suffered by Johan Djourou, Kieran Gibbs, Tomas Rosicky, Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere, finding eleven players of suitable quality and experience to win a Premier League match against fellow European hopefuls Liverpool could be tough for Arsene Wenger’s team.

Not all is particularly rosy in Kenny Dalgish’s camp either. After an effervescent and energetic opening forty-five minutes at home to Sunderland, his team fell away in the second half and lumbered to an insipid 1-1 draw. The talismanic Steven Gerrard is not expected back until September - along with Martin Skrtel and Glen Johnson - and Dalglish has the issue of squad integration to address, given their host of summer signings. Another problem is their poor away form, collecting just 14 points in their last 14 matches on the road. Their recent record away to Arsenal is just as disheartening - they have not beaten the Gunners away in 11 years.

THE TEAMS

Both Wenger and Dalglish are likely to deploy four at the back, with Karl Jenkinson deputising for Kieran Gibbs on the left for Arsenal; and Martin Kelly replacing the shaky John Flanagan at right back.

In the midfield for the Gunners, the mohawked Emmanuel Frimpong will replace Song as the defensive anchor, supporting Aaron Ramsey and one other central midfielder, potentially the England under-21 international Henri Lansbury. For Liverpool, the combination of Lucas Leiva and Charlie Adam in the engine-room looks promising, with the former winning the ball and the latter offering it up for the Reds’ contingent of explosive attackers.

On the flanks, Arsenal are likely to hand Theo Walcott a start on the right wing after his goal-scoring performance in midweek, and on the left Wenger may well turn to the intermittently effective Andrei Arshavin. Jordan Henderson, relatively anonymous against his former club, is likely to be dropped in favour of the industrious Dirk Kuyt on the right flank. Stewart Downing should retain his place after a promising showing on his debút last weekend.

Leading the line for Arsenal will be the brilliant Robin van Persie, the one truly world class player left at the club. For Liverpool, Andy Carroll will continue his attempts to forge a partnership with Luis Suárez, and assert himself as the focal point of Liverpool’s attacks.

THE TACTICS

ARSENAL

In attack, Arsenal will look to keep possession and dictate the play, cramming the midfield with their five attacking players.

With short passes, they will look to pressurise the deep Liverpool defence by overrunning Lucas, with the knowledge that Adam lacks the defensive nous to support his midfield colleague.

Kuyt’s defensive contribution will be vital in alleviating the pressure defensively, while Suárez and Downing will have to contribute off the ball to stifle Ramsey and Lansbury in the centre of the park, and stop Frimpong from launching attacks from deep.

Van Persie and Arshavin will be vital in unlocking the fragile right-hand side of the Liverpool defence, where Carragher and Kelly will be targeted for their lack of agility.

Walcott will be urged to join van Persie in the box, as he is unlikely to have much luck beating José Enrique on the right wing, the Spaniard having been beaten one-on-one just nine times last season.

LIVERPOOL

Offensively, Liverpool will hope to utilise the width provided by the two attacking full backs and Stewart Downing, pulling Frimpong out of position and allowing Suarez space in the middle of the pitch.

From the flanks, or the left boot of Charlie Adam, Liverpool will look to provide Andy Carroll with long balls to put pressure on the aerially inferior Laurent Koscielny and Thomas Vermaelen. The focus on Carroll from Arsenal’s central defenders will allow Suárez and Kuyt opportunities to pounce on knock-downs and loose balls should they drift centrally.

Downing and Suárez will be vital in putting pressure on full-backs Bacary Sagna and Karl Jenkinson, especially on the left-side of the defence, where Jenkinson’s inexperience will surely be targeted by Dalglish and assistant Steve Clarke.

Frimpong will be vital in closing down Charlie Adam, who showed glimpses of his play-making quality against Sunderland. If he is given time on the ball, he proved last season for Blackpool how dangerous his range of passing can be.

CONCLUSION

With both teams missing key personnel in several areas and thus attempting to find places for their new signings and youth prospects, the game could prove an edgy encounter. Control of the midfield will prove crucial, as Arsenal still have enough quality to dictate the game if Ramsey and Lansbury are allowed to feed the Arsenal front three. If Lucas can wrest the ball back for Liverpool on a regular basis, Liverpool’s exciting attack talent may well prove too much for Arsenal’s defence to bear.

Alastair Holder-Ross

'Invincible' Clichy can lead City to Glory

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:05:00 -0400

So, Manchester City have made a signing. And no, surprisingly, it hasn’t cost them an extortionate fee. Gael Clichy, Arsenal’s long-standing left-back, is the latest to make the move to the North-West, charged with the mission of bolstering Roberto Mancini’s already superb and steadfast defence. Not, however, if Aleksandar Kolarov has anything to say about it. The Serb, equipped with his rocket-of-a-left-foot, will be determined to stave off his new French colleague in the competition for a berth in City’s starting eleven.

For just £7m, Clichy could prove to be a wonderful bit of business. At 25, he has the chance to continue developing and improving under the watchful eye of one of the best defensive coaches around. If he can augment a better understanding of the play in front of him alongside his already blistering pace and accurate passing, Kolarov will certainly have trouble regaining his place in Mancini’s side for the new season. Indeed, Clichy’s strengths mirror Kolarov’s weaknesses. The Serb is a player who far too often gets caught in possession upfield looking to burst the net - he attempted 1.5 shots each game where Clichy tried just one every three games - or split the defence, rather than focus on his defensive responsibilities. Clichy, on the other hand, can be extremely economical with the ball, combining superb distribution (completing 80% of an average of 54.1 passes per game, the third highest in the league) with the speed and technique to recover in defence and make telling tackles (3.4 per game), clearances (4.5) and interceptions (3.2). Kolarov, on the other hand, attempted on average in 2010/11 just 32.9 passes at a rate of 77%, making only 1.7 tackles, 3.0 clearances and 1.0 interceptions every game. Considering Mancini implements a largely possession-based style, Clichy will suit his needs to a tee; and, given they missed out on second place merely due to their inferior goal difference to Chelsea, Clichy’s added defensive solidarity will be a welcome addition to a team striving for a first league title since 1968.

One caveat however, is that in purely attacking terms, Kolarov seems to have the edge. In addition to providing 1.6 crosses per game, Kolarov engineered a key pass every time he took to the field. In contrast, Clichy chooses to maintain defensive shape, offering a cross or key pass just once every two games. For a team that aims the majority (73%) of its attacking thrust down the flanks, Clichy’s lack of ambition going forward could prove problematic.

That really is the only fillip as far as Kolarov is concerned. Of all the passes that Manchester City completed last season, 84% - a percentage second only to Arsenal (86%) - were over distance shorter than 25m. Individually, 96% of Clichy’s passes but only 91% of Kolarov’s qualify as ‘short’. For a team seemingly intent on bolstering their possession stats above an unimpressive average of 52%, Kolarov’s tendency to play speculative passes will need to be eradicated if he is to maintain a presence in the side. These trends are easy to see on the chalkboard below.

With failure an inconceivable option, the signing of Gael Clichy will engender more progressive play at Eastlands. A member of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’, Clichy knows how to win, and has the ability to become a cornerstone at the back for Manchester City. The future for Kolarov, it seems, is bleak.

Why Newcastle's French Connection will reap rewards

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 19:01:00 -0400

There is a distinct Gallic flavour to the transfer activity on Tyneside this summer, with Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux and Demba Ba, who plays for Senegal but was born just outside Paris, joining Hatem Ben Arfa at Newcastle. Given Kevin Nolan’s decision to jump ship to play under Sam Allardyce at West Ham, and the unrelenting speculation about the futures of Joey Barton and José Enrique, the winds of change are rumbling in the North-East, and they’re coming from France.

The decision to re-invest a proportion of the £35m received for Andy Carroll in attacking players is an clear indication of Pardew’s aspirations. With Marveaux on the left and Ba leading the line, Newcastle will have on their books two players with undeniable flair and dexterity, something their current crop of forwards struggle to provide.

In Marveaux, Newcastle have a fine creative talent, often drifting centrally to act as an offensive pivot. Unfortunately, however, Marveaux is also a player whose progress has been continually obstructed by lengthy injuries. Last season, he managed just 9 starts. However, the year before - his best campaign to date - he managed 33 appearances, scored 10 goals and set up 5 others, becoming a key attacking outlet for Rennes. His main qualities come in the form of his blistering pace (coupled with dribbling skills that saw him complete 1.4 runs each game this season) and passing ability. Completing 83% over both long and short distances, and especially from set pieces, his accuracy is a vital asset. From August to November, when he sustained the injury that would bring his season to an end, Marveaux managed 1.4 key passes and 1.2 shots per game, with 2 assists and 1 goal (from a penalty).

Where Marveaux’s game is undeniably lacking is his focus on defensive responsiblity. A slight physical presence at just 5ft 7, he won only 20% of challenges in the air, and executed a meagre 0.8 tackles and 0.5 interceptions per game. So damaging to Rennes was his disinterest in tracking back, he was criticised by manager Frederic Antonetti for leaving left-back Carlos Bocanegra exposed throughout the 2009-2010 season. Marceaux also has a tendency to be wasteful with the ball, giving up posession 2.7 times per game, on average.

On form, Marceaux can be irrepressible. Against Toulouse in October 2010, deployed on the left but acting mostly through the centre, he was the offensive hub of the Rennes team, playing just behind Victor Montano and Jires Kembo-Ekoko, creating 4 chances (of which 1 was converted by Romain Danze). He completed 88% of 41 passes, of which 5 were cross-field and 2 were successful through-balls. Taking 65 touches, Marveaux was in possession more than any other player on the pitch. He beat a man and surged into the final third on 3 occasions, leading to 2 shots, both of which were on target, in addition to scoring a penalty to seal the result. Sadly for both Rennes and the player himself, this level of performance has rarely been achieved since injury first struck in June 2008.

At Newcastle, for Marveaux’s creativity to be harnessed, Pardew will have to adopt a strategy which integrates wingers more effectively. Newcastle’s most potent attacking threats came from the centre last season, through Nolan and Barton. By the end of the campaign, Newcastle had resorted to employing Ryan Taylor and Shane Ferguson on the flanks, as they did on the final day of the season against West Brom (below). Neither carried any significant attacking threat, completing 1 dribble and just 3 of 12 crosses between them.

Moreover, Newcastle must improve significantly in their goal-scoring capability. Despite registering a reasonable 28 goals after the injury of their front-line striker Andy Carroll in late December, no Newcastle striker featured in the list of the top 50 shot-takers in the division. The signing of Demba Ba will go some way to improving upon this figure, given he scored 13 goals for Hoffenheim and West Ham last season at a rate of 0.52 per game. Shola Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands and Leon Best each scored 6, at rates of 0.29, 0.33 and (surprisingly) 0.67 respectively. Against West Brom, Newcastle played with two strikers, Lovenkrands and Ameobi, both who chose to drop deep rather than lead the line. Ba, on the other hand, West Ham’s top scorer with 7 goals, operates in a more advanced position, meaning he has the opportunity to take more shots. He averaged 2.9 per game where Ameobi mustered 1.4 and Lovenkrands, 1.6. The diagram below illustrates the average positions of the four strikers over the course of last season.

In signing Marveaux and Ba, Pardew has bolstered Newcastle’s attack with players who add balance and creativity to a side over-reliant on central players. Providing Marveaux can stay fit and Ba can continue his impressive goal-scoring form, Newcastle will have on their hands two players to put to great use. If Newcastle’s policy of targeting Frenchmen continues to attract this calibre of player, then vive la révolution on Tyneside.

Lucas Leiva: an evolution

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:41:00 -0400

Thoughts besieged by dreams of samba football on Merseyside, it was a clamour of veritable and unequivocal ebullience which greeted the news that the Brazil Under-20 captain would be playing his football at Anfield. ‘The new Kaká!’, the Liverpool fans cried gleefully, ‘the winner of the Brasileirao ‘Bola de Ouro’, coveted by Internazionale!’, they professed. And indeed, this was certainly a player to be excited about - Lucas Leiva, capped in his 19th year, the scintillating talent that had set the Brazilian league alight.

But it didn’t quite work out that way. Shoehorned into an anchoring midfield role by Rafa Benítez, Lucas’ attacking threat was nullified upon his arrival at Anfield. Despite asserting he would ‘score goals’ for Liverpool, Benitez deployed Lucas deep in midfield on his debut, alongside Javier Mascherano in a Champions’ League qualifier against Toulouse. Struggling to adjust to the English game and his new position, Lucas was roundly derided for his unambitious passing and reserved demeanour, and quickly became the scapegoat for all Liverpool’s woes.

In one of his first major games for the club, Lucas struggled, and largely allowed the game to pass him by. Playing the entire 90 minutes away to Chelsea, Lucas strangled attacking moves with sideways passes and gave away needless fouls in his own half. Despite a good tackling performance and a positive result, the widespread belief was that Lucas was keeping the club from progressing domestically. In retrospect, the pressure on the young boy, still striving to learn English, must have been immense.

By the next season, Lucas’ star had fallen further still. Benitez’s insistence on playing him had caused general bewilderment in the Kop, for he was displaying traits associated more with Salif Diao than Kaká. Forced to restructure his game completely, the same faults were evident as he strove to adapt to the pace and power of the Premier League. His outstanding work-ethic and commitment overlooked, he suffered the jeers of the Liverpool fans on a regular basis. Indeed, despite contributing to Liverpool’s best league finish since 2002, playing a pivotal role in the 4-1 demolition of Manchester United at Old Trafford, Lucas endured the disdain of pundits and fans alike throughout the season. The Brazilian fire had been all but extinguished - he was a mockery.

Emboldened by the ridicule, Lucas found strength. With the departure of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid confirmed, he announced his intention to make the position his own. By 2010, he had overcome the cynics and cemented his position as a key cog in the Liverpool midfield. Abandoning his youthful locks and working hard on the physical side of his game, Lucas grew into the role chosen for him. Showing admirable resilience, he displayed maturity beyond his years, developing his passing ability and reading of the game while honing his already impressive tackling technique.

His improved performances won him not only the respect of the fans, but a recall to the Brazil squad and the Young Player of the Year award. Despite rumours of interest from Italy, under new coach Roy Hodgson Lucas was made captain for the Europa League qualifier at home to Rabotnicki. With the departure of Javier Mascherano to Barcelona in late August and the recurring injury problems of captain Steven Gerrard, Lucas became the senior midfielder in the Liverpool ranks. Combining defensive mastery with a new found calm in the middle, he largely cut the needless concession of free-kicks from his game, and formed an effective partnership with Raul Meireles in the middle. In addition, Lucas has been vital in accelerating the progress of Jay Spearing and John Flanagan into the first team, acting as a chaperone, taking on added responsibility without any visible impact on his game.

His outstanding performances in both league games against Chelsea in particular have endeared him to the fans. In each game he conducted the midfield from deep, stopping Chelsea attacks while instigating moves with unerring accuracy, completing 89% of his passes, overwhelming Ancelotti’s midfield and providing a firm base to build on offensively. In the 2010/2011 season, Lucas executed 5.2 tackles per game, more than any other player in the division.

The evolution of Lucas from laughing stock to leader in Dalglish’s revitalised Liverpool side has assured him cult status among the Liverpool fans. Indeed, having made over 100 appearances for the club at just 24 years of age, Liverpool’s 2011 Player of the Year has the potential to dominate the Liverpool midfield for many years to come.

Alastair Holder

How Cabaye's calm will liberate Newcastle

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:23:00 -0400

It’s been ground-breaking season in the career of Yohan Cabaye. Not only did he win his first of four France caps in August 2010, he played a masterful role in helping Lille to their first league title for 57 years. His reward? A stellar £4.3m pound move to the North East. The path leading from Lille to Tyneside is hardly a well trodden one, and in purely footballing terms, the incentive to leave the newly crowned champions of France to join a club steeped in viscous turmoil at board-room level seems mystifying at first. Indeed, ever since the ill-advised purchase of Newcastle by the Sportsdirect.com baron Mike Ashley, Newcastle have failed to produce the on-field success their huge fanbase deserves. However, the allure of regular football in the Premier League is such that Newcastle have got their man.

And what a useful man he is too. Occupying the centre of midfield for Lille, Cabaye racked up 36 starts, 5 ‘Man of the Match’ awards and a hefty total of 9 assists. He is not only a commanding and aggressive presence in the centre, dictating moves with impressive accuracy - he completed 82% of his passes - but an industrious player prepared to contribute in or out of possession in equal measure. He executed on average 3.0 tackles and 3.0 interceptions each game last season, playing a key defensive role alongside Rio Mavuba in a midfield containing the attack-minded Eden Hazard and Gervinho. His most appealing trait, however, is his efficiency on the ball, conceding possession through misplaced passes or tackles just 1.6 times each game.

Cabaye is precisely the type of player Newcastle require. Despite possessing three highly competent central midfielders in Kevin Nolan, Cheik Tioté and Joey Barton, the side lacks a natural metronome in the middle of the pitch. Nolan’s approach focuses on surging darts into the box (he scored 12 goals last season), while Tioté tends to act as a defensive barrier, and Barton as an attacking playmaker, the latter supplying 6 long balls and 2.53 key passes per game. In many respects, Barton and Cabaye’s approach are similar, and given the doubts over the former’s future at the club (he remains reluctant to sign an extension to a contract that expires in 2012), the alacrity in signing a ready-made replacement gives Newcastle an effective negotiating position. In fact, there is a substantial argument to be made that Cabaye suits Newcastle’s style of play better than Barton, coupling defensive reliability with the eye for a pass that both possess.

While Barton stations himself on the right of an advanced midfield, Cabaye settles deep in the centre circle, conducting play from a more withdrawn position. Indeed, in their most effective games of the season - for Barton the 4-1 victory at home to Wolves; for Cabaye the 5-0 annihilation of Arles at the Stade Lille-Metropole - those were the positions in which they operated.

Their performances in these games give a deeper indication of their individual talents. Barton had a particularly effective game acting as an attacking outlet, supplying the strikers with direct passes, of which 8 brought about goal scoring opportunities. However, his desire to play the ball into the box meant only 33 (62%) of all his passes were completed. Cabaye, on the other hand, made fewer attacking runs and opted instead to dispense the ball to Obraniak, Hazard or Gervinho, so Lille could develop goal-scoring opportunities without the risk of over-committing to the play. Cabaye performed his task imperiously, rarely wasting possession, completing 88% of 88 passes, and 10 of 11 attempted long balls. Barton executed just 3 from 8. Cabaye had 107 touches and defensively, made 4 interceptions, while in turn Barton could only manage 72 and 2.

While it is dynamism and energy that Barton offers Newcastle, he is often wasteful with the ball and gifts possession to the opposition. Conversely, Cabaye’s capability to sit deeper and provide accurate passes to instigate attacking phases will make him an invaluable asset for Newcastle. Barton’s offensive intent often forces Nolan into a more withdrawn role (as was seen against Wolves), but installing Cabaye alongside the destructive Tioté in the heart of the midfield will unshackle the Newcastle captain, providing balance and composure in the centre of the pitch. If Barton does decide to depart St. James Park this summer, Newcastle certainly won’t miss him.

Alastair Holder

Why Jones and Smalling could be the new Ferdinand and Vidić

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 05:33:00 -0400

For £16m, Manchester United have acquired a very exciting young footballer. 19 year old Phil Jones, the sixth youngest player to appear in the Premier League this season, has all the qualities to become one of the best centre halves in the country. It is no surprise that after such a promising season so many top clubs were chasing his signature. It was, after all, a breakthrough year for Preston-born Jones, making 26 appearances in both the centre of Blackburn’s defence and their midfield.

Jones’ ability to adopt two different roles highlights the skills at his disposal. The illustrations above depict, on the left, Jones playing a central defensive role in the 1-1 draw with Manchester United; and on the right, Jones playing as a central midfielder in the 3-0 win over Wolves, both at Ewood Park. His positioning in both these games is a testament to his talent at reading the play, indicated by his impressive average of 3.0 interceptions per game throughout the season. Because of this particular trait, he was used by Blackburn, even when playing in defence, to break up opposition moves before the ball reached the box. In effect he played as much as an anchoring midfielder as a defender. Coupled with an impressive record of 2.9 tackles per game, Manchester United have a very effective player in the making.

However, Jones is not a classic English defender by any means. His heading ability - he succeeded in only 50% of his aerial duels last season - leaves a lot to be desired, and in contrast to the archetypal British centre-halves (think Carragher and Terry) he makes very few blocks (0.6 per game) and comparatively few clearances, only 4.4 each game where Terry and Carragher reach 5.1 and 6.1 respectively. Instead, Jones often chooses to hold on to the ball once it is regained and look for a pass. These passes, however, are often erratic as he attempts to split the opposition’s defence rather than supply the midfielders, as indicated by his 62% pass completion rate, and by the unsuccessful passes on chalkboard below. Indeed, under Ferguson, these types of passes will have be coached out of him, and it is unlikely that Jones will be played much, if at all, in midfield. His talents are far more suited to defence.

Another raw aspect of Jones’ game is his tendency to make reckless challenges. Last year, he failed to take the ball in 24 tackles, more than any other Blackburn player. He also received 4 yellow cards over the course of the season, the third highest of anybody at the club. Given he was suffering from a knee injury for three months of the season, it is a statistic that is sure to worry Sir Alex. Again, however, it is easily something that a coach as talented as Ferguson will be able to rectify on the training pitch at Carrington.

Although his passes are of varying accuracy, Jones’ natural inclination to play the ball rather than dispose of it as quicky as possible is an appealing trait, and perhaps precisely the reason why Kenny Dalglish, Arsene Wenger and Ferguson saw Jones as the centre-back on whom to focus their attentions. Other leading young defenders in the league like Gary Cahill, Ryan Shawcross and Scott Dann, in contrast, choose to avert pressure by whatever means. Last season, Cahill made a staggering 11 clearances a game, Shawcross made 9.1, while Dann was not far off with 8.4. In addition, they choose to sit much deeper, stopping the opposition with last ditch tackles rather than interceptions. Cahill managed 1.8; Dann, 0.9; Shawcross, 1.0. This indicates a classically British disposition that it is more important to avert any risk of a goal being conceded rather than try to regain posession, which in itself could result in a goal being scored.

That is not to say, for example, that Jones is a superior player to Cahill, who plays a vital role for Bolton. However, the decision to target Jones explores a growing theme at Manchester United - the intention to target defenders that are comfortable on the ball. The impending sale of John O’Shea and Wes Brown to Sunderland, and the emergence of the Da Silva twins, Chris Smalling and now Jones suggests a refocus to a new breed of defenders at Old Trafford, those who possess an instinct to link the defence with the midfield. Most intriguingly, by acquiring Jones, Manchester United have the potential to grow an outstanding partnership in the cente of defence, that will be sufficiently prepared and experienced to replace the outstanding Nemanja Vidić and Rio Ferdinand whenever Ferguson decides to move them on. Smalling will play the part of Vidić, universally adept, dominant in the air (he won 75% of headers) and comfortable distributing the ball to the full-backs; Jones will play the part of Ferdinand, relaxed in taking posession into the midfield and equally as proficient in the art of defending.

In signing Jones, Ferguson has a rock on which to build the United defence for the next 15 years. The signs are not only hopeful for Manchester United, but also for England.

Alastair Holder

Jordan Henderson is a perfect fit for Dalglish's Liverpool

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:34:00 -0400

With the signing of Jordan Henderson from Sunderland for a reported £16m , Liverpool have set the tone for what could be a very exciting summer on Merseyside. Henderson, aged just 20, becomes what should be the first of many promising young players to head a new dynasty at Anfield, and looks set to become a key component of an already heavily-stocked midfield.

With captain Steven Gerrard as well as the impressive Lucas Leiva and Raul Meireles occupying his preferred central berth, the decision by Dalglish and Director of Football Damien Comolli to invest in the middle seems strange, especially taking into account the prospective talents of Jonjo Shelvey and Jay Spearing. However, Henderson’s style of play will offer Liverpool an alternative to any other player on the their books. This is a player who created the fifth most goal-scoring chances in the league, after all.

In fact, after inspecting Henderson’s achievements for Sunderland this year, it’s easy to see the logic in prising the recently capped England international from the North-East. Although the fee is undoubtedly excessive, Liverpool have added to the squad a player with a variety of talents.

At Sunderland last season Henderson was the offensive fulcrum of the team, operating in the middle of the pitch and orchestrating the attacking plays. His completed pass percentage of 81% ranks favourably against comparable players in the league - Fabregas only reached 80% and Frank Lampard 82%. At Liverpool, Jonjo Shelvey achieved a success rate of 78%. Moreover, over the course of his 37 starts in the Premiership, Henderson racked up 78 key passes - 2.22 per game. Shelvey, on the other hand, could only manage 5 in 15 substitute appearances. Henderson’s record of 4 accurate long-passes per game highlights his aptitude in that particular field.

With an average of 0.9 shots per game resulting 4 goals, Henderson consistently produced more effective attacking performances than Shelvey, who has yet to register a goal for Liverpool. However, Henderson’s measly tally of 4 assists in the Premier League seems an unfair reflection given his importance to Sunderland’s attacking play - he created 39 more goal-scoring chances than any of his teammates.

Defensively, Henderson is valuable, though Jay Spearing’s contribution in winning back possession is substantially greater. Averaging 2.5 tackles and 1.5 interceptions every game, Spearing finished the season as an integral part of Liverpool’s midfield. Henderson, meanwhile, despite being widely derided as a lazy defender, managed a reasonable 1.6 tackles and 1.7 interceptions per game, an indication of his versatility as a midfielder.

Undeniably one of Henderson’s greatest attributes is his crossing abilty, both from open play and dead-ball situations. From free-kicks and corners he generated 31 goal scoring opportunities, and provided at least 1 accurate cross every game. This is one area where he excels compared to any Liverpool player, who struggled to create goals from set-pieces all season.

By signing Jordan Henderson, Kenny Dalglish has added a midfielder to provide another dimension to his squad. Although he has six senior midfielders to work with, each plays in a slightly different position and offers something different to Liverpool’s play, giving them options from the bench and an ability to suit their strategy depending on their opponents. In Lucas Leiva, Liverpool have the top tackler in the division (5.2 successes per game) and a player potent at breaking up opposition attacks. Alternatively, Steven Gerrard is still widely regarded as one of the most explosive talents in world football, who despite a season riddled with injury still conjured up 1.7 shots and 6 successful long balls per game. In Raul Meireles, Liverpool have a player who has shown over the course of the season an ability to link the midfield and attack superbly, contributing 5 goals and 5 assists in 33 appearances. Henderson, however, is potentially an exciting amalgamation of all three.

When evaluating the performances of Henderson against those of Lucas, Meireles and Gerrard, it is important to consider the role that each was playing. The diagram above indicates the positions taken up by Liverpool’s midfielders in (statistically) their best games of the season: Henderson vs. West Ham at Upton Park; Lucas vs. Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Meireles and Gerrard at Anfield vs. Manchester City and Stoke respectively. The representation reveals Henderson’s worth as a different option on the right hand side of a midfield three.

In terms of his style of play, it is useful to examine Henderson’s performances in particular areas compared to Liverpool’s other midfielders. The statistics below are taken from the same games as in the positional diagram.

Lucas vs. Henderson

As the chalkboard suggests, Lucas’ tackling is more or less impeccible. Although his superb defensive performance against Newcastle was not replicated every week, on the whole he has proved himself an expert tackler. Henderson, although not Sunderland’s most effective midfielder in defence - Stéphane Sessegnon completed 7 tackles from 12 - showed a willingness to press without the ball and played a useful defensive role.

Meireles vs. Henderson

The diagram highlights the contrasting service provided by Meireles and Henderson. While Meireles is particularly adapt at making direct passes into the 18 yard box, (as well as passes into channels to find the runs of forward players), Henderson focuses on providing crosses from wide positions.

Gerrard vs. Henderson

Playing as one of three central players midfield of five against West Ham, Henderson’s passing came mostly from the right wing, suggesting a desire to support Ahmed Al-Muhammadi by doubling up and putting pressure on the left back Wayne Bridge. Judging by his assist for Cristian Riveros’ goal in the game, the strategy worked, and indicates his prowess at providing support down the right hand side. His passing range is impressive as well, regularly switching the ball to the left with 11 completed long passes. This type of play particularly suits Liverpool’s standard formation under Dalglish - a three man central midfield, with (when all are fit) Lucas withdrawn behind Raul Meireles and Steven Gerrard. Against Stoke, Gerrard was granted a box-to-box role, and performed exceptionally well. He not only had 16 more touches than any other player on the field, but made 6 tackles and provided 8 long balls.

Although Henderson may not have the skills to outperform his new teammates in every area, he integrates all aspects of midfield play into his game, potentially making him an integral option in Liverpool’s midfield.

Alastair Holder

Friedel vs. Gomes - a statistical analysis

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:26:00 -0400

It was to little suprise that the footballing world was greeted with the news that the first major Premiership transfer of the summer involved Harry ‘not-a-wheeler-dealer’ Redknapp. Not including David De Gea’s expected switch to Manchester United, the revelation that Brad Friedel would be moving from Aston Villa to Tottenham has proved the biggest bit of business so far, in England at least. Given Friedel’s age (he turned 40 in May), the decision to join ‘Arry’s army at Tottenham was met with some scepticism. However, with the increasingly erratic performances of Heurelho Gomes between the sticks proving a major limiting factor for Spurs’ progress both domestically and in Europe (he was replaced with Carlo Cudicini at the back end of last season), Redknapp deemed a change was necessary.

Despite his obvious flaws, Gomes is undeniably a brilliant shotstopper. His record of 2.8 saves per goal conceded is impressive when compared to the 1.8 achieved by Friedel, even more so considering Pepe Reina only averaged 2.2 and Edwin Van Der Sar managed 2.6. Indeed, Gomes also blocked one shot per game more than Friedel in the Premier League, and saved the most penalties of any goalkeeper in the division (2)*. Although it says as much for the quality of the relative defences, Spurs kept a clean sheet every 4.3 games with Gomes in goal, while Villa only shut their opponents out once every 5.4 games.

Where the argument for Gomes falls down is the doubts over his reliability. In 2010-2011 Gomes conceded 3 penalites, while Friedel conceded none at all. In addition, a persistent knack of making errors in crucial games has hardly endeared him to the Spurs’ faithful. When confronted by a journalist following a particularly embarrassing howler against Real Madrid, he bluntly assessed ‘it will not be the last one in my career’.

Friedel also seems to be able to offer better distribution, with 4 Villa goals coming indirectly from his long passes. Over the course of the season, Friedel attempted 570 passes (15 per game) while Gomes managed only 375 (12.5). Although this suggests Friedel is more comfortable on the ball, the records of both compare poorly considering Reina, Van Der Sar and Mark Schwarzer consistently average over 20 passes per game.

STATS COMPARISON:

*tied with Ali Al-Habsi and Jussi Jääskeläinen.

Alastair Holder

'Gli Invicibili' and the defeat of Total Football

Sun, 08 May 2011 10:24:00 -0400

Under the stewardship of Arrigo Sacchi, AC Milan conquered Europe in 1989 and 1990, with a team dubbed the ‘Immortals’ by the Italian press, renowned for their entertaining and fluid football. Sacchi’s success at club level won him the faith of the Italian FA, and in 1991 he was appointed coach of the national team. Back at Milan, assistant manager Fabio Capello was promoted to the position of head coach. Inheriting one the greatest European squads ever assembled, featuring the likes of Marco Van Basten, Franco Baresi and Ruud Gullit, Capello achieved even greater success at Milan’s helm than his heralded predecessor. In a five year tenure, Capello guided the club to four Scudetti and a hat-trick of Champions League finals.

Operating in a far more stringent 4-4-2 than instructed by Sacchi, Capello built his philosophy on an uncompromising defence, lead by the imperious Baresi and galvanised robustly by Alessandro Costacurta in the centre, with the versatility of Paolo Maldini and Mauro Tassotti formidable on the flanks. With a young Marcel Dessaily patrolling as the midfield anchor just in front of the defence, Milan restricted their opponents to a measly fifteen goals in thirty-four games in the 1994 Serie A season, an Italian league record. Pressing high and stifling their opponents with a unyielding work-rate born from Capello’s disciplined and focused approach, the new, pragmatic Milan had established a new dynasty - the ‘Gli Invincibili’ (The Invincibles).

Presiding over an unbeaten run of 58 games, Capello had steered his team to yet another European Cup Final, this time against Barcelona, lead by Johan Cruyff, a staunch advocate of the Total Football implemented by Michels in the Netherlands in the 1970s. As a result, the game was hailed as a battle between Cruyff’s attacking splendour and Capello’s defensive solidarity. In fact, leading up to the game, Barcelona had scored a record 91 domestic goals, humbling the spluttering 36 achieved by Milan in 34 league games. Even worse for Rossoneri fans, stalwarts Baresi and Costacurta were suspended and, after the retirement of Van Basten through injury, Milan relied on the maverick but out of favour Dejan Savićević in attack. As journalists across the world set about analysing the game, the majority expected Barcelona to send Milan packing with an emphatic display of attacking prowess, making a mockery out of Capello’s makeshift defence, now comprising the aging Filippo Galli and the immature Christian Pannuci.

Defying all predictions, Milan took the attacking incentive from the off, Demetrio Albertini acting the playmaker as they peppered the goal of Andoni Zubizarreta with shots throughout the opening quarter. This surprising attacking strategy triumphed when Daniele Massaro converted a neat tee-up from Savićević in the 22nd minute. With Romario, leading the line for Barcelona, shackled masterfully by Maldini, Milan swiftly doubled their lead. An incisive passing move instigated by Savićević released Donadoni down the left, who beat a man before squaring for Massaro to clinch his second of the match. With the score 2-0 at half-time, the Milan fans were ecstatic. Two minutes into the second period, the Rossoneri faithful were in raptures again, the impressive Savićević capitalising on an error from Miguel Angel Nadal to launch an audacious lob over the head of Zubizarreta. A finish rich with finesse from Marcel Desailly in the 59th minute completed the rout, and highlighted the confidence and composure Capello had ingrained in his side. AC Milan had once again won the European Cup.

Milan AC - Barcelone finale champions league 1994 by ttcs44

In 1996, Fabio Capello left Milan for pastures new and the team endured a painful fall from grace, slipping to 11th in the following Serie A campaign. Although the years of the Invincibles were over (Donadoni and Massaro had left and Baresi and Tassotti were on the brink of retirement). However, the last vestige of Total Football had been defeated and outclassed, leading to the rise of the 4-4-2 in European football. Capello lead Real Madrid to the La Liga title in his first year at the club, achieving success consistently for another decade in both Italy and Spain. In 2008, Capello was appointed England manager following a torrid Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. However, his regimented 4-4-2 strategy, implemented in the 2010 World Cup, proved too inflexible and the team were eliminated by Germany in the first knockout round.

Alastair Holder

'Joey Ate The Frog's Legs, Made The Swiss Roll, And Now He's Munching Gladbach'

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:58:00 -0400

In a nine year reign from 1974 to 1983, Bob Paisley lead Liverpool to six First Division titles, and produced one of the best teams ever to compete in the English game. However, it was on the continent where Paisley would leave the biggest impression, becoming the first coach to conquer Europe with three different sides. His team, built on the foundations laid by the great Bill Shanky in the sixties and early seventies, would become the first team in British football history to retain the European Cup.

Despite replacing Shankly at the helm of the club, Paisley continued much in the same vein as his predecessor, preserving Liverpool’s renowned pass and move tactics while ingraining within his players a rigorous work-ethic. A strict coach, he became infamous for awarding fouls against static players in training, as well as demanding absolute commitment from each of his players in every match. His squad was drilled to stay on the move, thus providing several options for the man in possession, as well as offering the opportunity to build swift counter-attacks to catch opponents at their most vulnerable. In fact, Paisley implemented a very attack minded strategy, opting for a fluid 4-4-2 with scope for both long balls out of defence and intricate build up play through the midfield. With the effervescent Kevin Keegan dropping into the hole just behind either David Fairclough or Steve Heighway, Liverpool developed a strategy under Paisley capable of outwitting any opponent.

The greatest year of the Paisley regime was undoubtedly 1977, with an unprecedented treble on the cards going into May. Having already secured the league title, Liverpool turned their attention to cup glory. After a captivating European adventure, the club had reached the final. Overcoming St. Etienne in the quarter-finals and then FC Zurich in the semis, the team captained by Welshman Emlyn Hughes had earned themselves an eagerly anticipated meeting with the German champions Borussia Mochengladbach in Rome. Before then, however, was the small matter of an FA Cup Final showdown with Manchester United at Wembley.

Not disheartened by an unexpected 2-1 defeat at the hands of their fierce rivals, 30,000 scousers (the largest ever troupe of football fans to leave these shores) assembled in Rome, confident of victory in their inaugral European Cup Final.

Clubbing together money by any means possible despite the harsh realities of the recession, Liverpool fans had flocked to Rome in their droves. Waving an imposing sea of red and white flags and banners, determined to see their heroes triumph, the travelling Kop occupied nearly three quarters of the famous Stadio Olimpico. By kick-off, the arena was bubbling with anticipation.

Liverpool operated a customary 4-4-2 (or 4-4-1-1 depending on which way you look at it), with Terry McDermott and Jimmy Case dictating the midfield in front of a stern defence of Joey Jones, Tommy Smith (playing his 600th game for the club), captain Hughes and Phil Neal. With Ray Kennedy and Ian Callaghan providing dangerous crosses for the strikers Keegan and Steve Heighway on a regular basis, Liverpool controlled the tempo of the game imperiously for the first half hour, getting their just rewards through a well worked McDermott goal in the 28th minute. Mustering a short spell of dominance after the goal, Mochengladbach pressurised Liverpool deep into the first half, forcing Paisley to order a change to a more defensive strategy. Despite failing to register an equaliser, Borussia grew in confidence early in the second half, with Allan Simonson putting them back on level terms with a thumping left footed drive in the 52nd minute. Determined to restore their lead, Liverpool immediately reverted to a more attacking formation, reaping instant rewards with a powerful Tommy Smith headed goal from a corner, two minutes later. Over the course of the last half hour, Liverpool regained total control, sealing the result emphatically with a Phil Neal penalty after a meandering and menacing run from Kevin Keegan in his last game for the club.

The 1977 season set in motion a decade of Liverpool dominance on both the domestic and European stage. Despite Paisley’s departure in 1983, the club thrived under the continued influence of the ‘boot room’s’ pass and move philosophy. Under the stewarship of Joe Fagan, Liverpool were crowned European champions once more in 1985. However, as the 90s loomed and the new glamourous Premier League crept into view, Liverpool’s grip on English football loosened, weakened by the Hillsborough Disaster and the resulting resignation of club idol Kenny Dalglish as coach.

Alastair Holder

'Gloria Ajax' and Total Football

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:12:00 -0400

The concept of ‘Total Football’ (or ‘totaalvoetbal’ to use its Dutch name) is simple; every outfield player has the technical skills to operate in any position on the pitch. However, instilling a team with its principles proved to be an entirely different matter, as Rinus Michels realised upon his appointment as head coach of Ajax in 1965, leading a stuttering side to mid-table obscurity in his first season. However, in the six years that followed, Michels implemented a tactical system so intricate and effective that the side built by him and managed after his departure by Stefán Kovács conquered Europe three times consecutively from 1971 to 1974.

Michels played for Ajax throughout his career, and was coached by the pioneering Jack Reynolds, who laid the foundations for Total Football in the 1940s, winning the Eredivisie an impressive eight times and lifting Ajax to the summit of Dutch football. After his instatement as manager, Michels’ first hand experience of Reynold’s methods instigated a complete overhaul of the playing style of Ajax, and brought about their development into one of the greatest European sides of all time.

Michels’ first task was to rid the squad of players who were too technically limited to adapt to his creative style. He immediately set about building a team centred around exciting young talent, signing lethal striker Dick van Dijk from Twente and giving Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens the freedom to express themselves on the field. Cruyff was given free rein, appearing all over the pitch, chipping in defensively, orchestrating the midfield as a key distributor and acting as the team’s main goal threat. As a result, his team-mates were forced to fill the positional holes left by his movements, and quickly developed a spatial awareness allowing them to work the ball around the whole pitch with ease. This engendered the ultimate aim of maintaining incisive possession throughout the match. Ajax’s newfound approach reaped instant reward, as they soon secured two consecutive league titles, registering 122 goals in the 1966/7 campaign, a Dutch league record to this day. ‘Gloria Ajax’ was born.

However, after a humiliating 4-1 defeat to AC Milan in the 1969 European Cup final, Michel was once again forced to reassemble the squad. With the introduction of Academy starlet Ruud Krol and the establishment of winger Gerrie Muhren as a first team regular, Ajax secured their first European Cup with a 2-0 win over Panathinaikos at Wembley in 1971. At the end of the season, Michels departed to coach Barcelona.

Despite Michels’ untimely exit, Gloria Ajax’s finest hour came the following year (under the stewardship of Romanian Stefán Kovács) with the 2-0 demolition of Inter Milan in Rotterdam. The Nerazzurri team, the last vestige of the famous catenaccio, were simply outmanoeuvred by the flair and control of Kovács’ side. Dominating proceedings in the first half, Ajax had failed to score despite constant pressure on the Inter goal, with jinking runs into the box from Muhren and Cruyff and deep crosses from full-backs Suurbier and Hulshoff causing goalkeeper Ivano Borden plenty of problems. Two minutes into the second half, however, Cruyff popped up at the back-post after another Suurbier cross and gave Ajax the lead with a veritable tap-in. Cruyff doubled Ajax’s lead in the 78th minute and the cup was theirs. Total Football had conquered catenaccio, and the win was heralded as the end to ‘anti-football’.

Johan Cruyff joined his old manager at Barcelona in 1973, and Ajax’s reign as champions of Europe was over. However, Michels was appointed Netherlands coach in time for the 1974 World Cup, during which Total Football was once again implemented to great effect, taking Holland to the final in which they lost narrowly 2-1 to Germany. Total Football is still widely regarded as a utopian system by fans and coaches alike, but in recent times only Arsene Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’ have come close to adopting a system akin to that of Gloria Ajax.

Alastair Holder

The Rise and Fall of Herrera's 'Catenaccio'

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:10:00 -0400

Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, tactical tinkerers and innovators have defined eras with their styles of play. In this series, we’ll have a look at the key tactical phenomena of the last 50 years, and find out what made them work so brilliantly, starting with the ‘catenaccio’.

A defensive strategy made famous by ‘La Grande Inter’, the Internazionale team that won back-to-back European Cups in 1964 and 1965, the ‘catenaccio’ (door bolt) was a tactic implemented by Argentinian coach Helanio Herrera in his tenure as manager from 1960 to 1968, a period in which the club won the Scudetto three times and the Intercontinental Cup twice, in addition to their European successes. Herrera, born in Argentina, but raised in Morocco to Spanish parents, a stern disciplinarian, became the best paid manager in the world at the time. His miraculous achievements - a 57% winning percentage while in charge of Inter, and the measly concession of, on average, just 0.84 goals per game - lead to him being dubbed ‘il Mago’ (the wizard) by the Italian press.

The philosophy, born from Karl Rappan’s French ‘verrou’ system, in which a verrouilleur would sit in front of the goalkeeper and act as a modern sweeper, was first used by Herrera in his time at Puteaux and Stade Francais, to minimal success. However, on arriving in Italy he refined his system, giving rise to the revolutionary catenaccio.

The system in itself is more attacking than Rappan’s verrou, based on quick counter-surges from long balls launched skywards by defenders as the primary means of offense. Defensively, a ‘libero’, an adaptation of the verrouilleur, sits behind three defenders, nullifying the threat of the lead attacker, breaking up through balls and double marking when necessary.

The 1964 European Cup winning team utilised Armando Picchi as the libero and Spaniard Luis Suárez as the lynch-pin and play-maker in midfield, and included Giacinto Facchetti (widely regarded as one of the best full-backs ever to play the game) as well as Sandro Mazzola, a lethal finisher who played at Inter for seventeen years.

The 1-3-3-3 formation allowed the team to defend with two banks of three players, protected by Picchi, blocking out (in the final) Real Madrid’s flair players by restricting the space in the Inter half. After taking the lead in the first half through Mazzola, Herrera ordered his team to sit back and defend deeply with the intention of catching Madrid on the counter-attack. The tactic worked perfectly, and Milani doubled Inter’s lead in the 61st minute. Madrid pulled one back, before Mazzola sealed the result and secured himself a brace fifteen minutes from time. The game ended 3-1 in the Nerazzurri’s favour.

European success was achieved once more the following year, Inter beating Benfica in the 1965 final, and Herrara found himself an eternal place in the history books of European football.

Although the tactic has slowly died out with the advent of Cruyff’s ‘Total Football’ in the 1970s, a variation of the catenaccio was implemented effectively by Fabio Capello’s ‘Invincibles’ at AC Milan in the early 90s. More recently, the catenaccio has become popular in helping weaker teams overcome more technically-gifted opponents, epitomised by Otto Rehhagel’s success with Greece using the system, leading his side to a Euro 2004 win over hosts Portugal. The tactic is generally shunned by top teams, preferring a more possession based game, dependant upon midfield control rather than counter-attack.

Alastair Holder

Resurgent Liverpool crush rivals Manchester United

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:22:00 -0500

Liverpool are back with a resounding bang. One week after a woeful loss away to Avram Grant’s reinvigorated West Ham, Kenny Dalglish has conclusively proven the doubters wrong with a convincing 3-1 victory against the league leaders, the same team that dispatched Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool 3-2 at Old Trafford last September. What great strides Liverpool have taken since those dark winter days.

On that subject, Roy Hodgson’s ill-timed assessment this week that he ‘wasn’t particularly lucky’ as Liverpool manager now seems a desperate attempt to salvage lost pride given Dalglish’s impact on results with much the same players (barring the effervescent and hugely impressive £22.8m Luis Suárez)

From kick-off to the final whistle at Anfield, you could not help but be struck by the efficiency with which Liverpool went about their work. The much maligned but much-improved Lucas Leiva dictated the tempo of the game imperiously in the midfield, making vital interceptions and tackles as he has done in countless games this season. Indeed, he is now developing into the mediano all Liverpool fans had hoped for when he signed from Gremio with a big reputation in 2007. His pass completion rate this season ranks amongst the best in the league. 84% from 1313 attempted - that’s almost Xavi-esque.

by Guardian Chalkboards by Guardian Chalkboards

Up front, Suarez proved the benefits of a content striker. In direct contrast to Torres in the first half of the season, he worked tirelessly throughout and succeeded in comprehensively banishing all memories of the Chelsea no.9 from the minds of the Anfield faithful. Dirk Kuyt, the epitome of the term ‘workhorse’, proved his worth with a delightfully simple hat-trick (a combined shooting distance of seven yards for all three goals). A good percentage of the credit, however, should go to Dalglish who performed the obvious master-stroke of playing a striker as a striker, succeeding in getting the best out of the flying Dutchman where Rafael Benítez and Roy Hodgson failed.

Of course, it is often the simplest alterations that make the difference. Dalglish, the man who is so loved that Liverpool fans have long since dubbed him ‘King Kenny’, and for whom they offered up a delightful rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ while Liverpool were cruising at 3-0, has deployed the England full-back Glen Johnson on the left for all but three matches since he has taken the reins at Anfield, an astute decision given the quality of his recent performances. Raul Meireles, too, has been revitalised under Dalglish, scoring five goals in six games in February, leading to a well deserved ESPN.co.uk ‘Player of the Month’ award. Of course, the influence of Steve Clarke, the renowned assistant manager chosen by Dalglish and Damien Comolli, should not be underplayed.

The one negative to come out of such an uplifting performance is undoubtedly a long standing one. The mediocre performances of Maxi Rodriguez and Martin Skrtel in particular asks severe questions of Liverpool’s squad depth. If the club are to progress next season it is an issue which simply must be addressed by the new owners.

What is certain, however, is that Liverpool are beginning to show the green shoots of recovery, with Spring in the air at Anfield.

Alastair Holder

Were Andy Gray and Richard Keys rightfully sacked?

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:36:00 -0500

It’s been approximately six weeks since Sky Sports sacked high-profile football presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys, following video evidence of the two making sexist comments towards a female assistant referee, Sian Massey. Now that the dust has settled, was the sports broadcaster right to dismiss the popular duo?

Given their relative fame and prominence on television, Sky Sports had little choice but to dismiss Gray and Keys. After all, the evidence was conclusive, no allegations, simply straightforward video footage. The severity with which the comments were delivered (they were most certainly not spoken in a ‘jokey’ manner) suggests that they genuinely believed Miss Massey was unable to referee a men’s football match, and the Premier League’s decision to appoint her was a scandal in itself.

Not only is the comment sexist, it is also a stereotype that is chronically out of date. The numbers of women involved in league football far exceeds figures at any other period of the professional game. At West Ham, Karen Brady holds the role of Vice-Chairman, having previously worked successfully at Birmingham City; while since 1993 the quantity of women playing football has increased fifteen-fold.

The leaks of further video footage showing Gray asking Sky Sports News presenter Charlotte Jackson to tuck a microphone down his trousers hardly helped his cause, and once a video of Keys asking Jamie Redknapp whether he ‘smashed it’ during a conversation about a previous girlfriend, their position on the station became untenable.

However, in their defence, Sky Sports hardly adopts a feminist attitude. Indeed, Soccer AM, the longstanding Saturday morning show which attracts an excess of 2.5 million viewers each week includes a feature dubbed ‘Soccerette’, in which young women are invited to come on the show wearing football shirts of their choice to talk and generally be ogled at by middle-aged fans in the studio.

What is definite, however, is that the British media would not have allowed any other decision to be made.

Alastair Holder

The radio needs Danny Baker

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:03:00 -0500

First of all, best wishes to Danny and his family in his fight against cancer.

The ‘Danny Baker Show’ was broadcast (and still is, however the host for the moment is Alan Davies) every Saturday morning on BBC Radio 5Live from 9 o’clock to 11 o’clock, and is a simply wonderful sports phone in show. Personally, I make sure I tune in each and every week.

Why? The host Danny Baker’s humour and light-hearted take on the sports I love.

Danny Baker conveys his love for the game in each show through his comical and easy going approach to the listeners (who play an integral part in the show’s fabric - texting, emailing, tweeting and phoning in to provide details of their own sporting pit-falls, triumphs and tribulations). The interactive nature of the format really helps the show become vibrant and engrossing, as it differs from week to week with the choice of outlandish stories on offer, dealt with by Baker in his own delightfully quirky manner.

Furthermore, the show offers a unique view of sports, contrasting vehemently with the stale and repetitive format of modern football shows in which the pundits drag out old clichés from under the carpet to haul them through the necessary half hour of stagnant sports ‘chat’. Baker, on the other hand, illustrates the ‘beautiful game’ with his colourful language and glorious choice of vocabulary, hopping from subject to subject with enthusiastic glee, insubmersible good nature and innate charm. He is a true football romantic, offering relief on those lazy Saturdays we all have after a testing week.

Allow me to fully explain my admiration for this man. It is his stunning eloquence and graceful way with words which constantly has me sifting through bookshelves for a dictionary as I desperately attempt to fathom Baker’s latest construction; the way that he presents his own opinions of sport without devaluing the contributions of the listener.

In an era where so much time is dedicated to discussing the tragedies of the modern world, Baker’s no-strings-attached unashamed light entertainment renders him a modern day poet.

The ‘Danny Baker Show’ is the best show on radio, and it’s such a shame that for the moment he cannot host it.

Alastair Holder

Five nuggets from the Carling Cup final

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:46:00 -0500

1. The FA have (finally) sorted out the Wembley pitch:

A whole load of grass with a bit of astroturf thrown in - the problematic condition of the pitch at England’s national stadium seems to have finally been resolved. Not one major slip in 95 minutes of football was a blissful experience for a viewer, though it certainly has been a long time coming. The quality of the surface has long been the sole inhibition of Wembley Stadium, keeping it from being a truly magnificent arena, fit to host events on the world’s biggest stage. Indeed, it certainly couldn’t have come sooner with the Champions’ League final set to grace London this coming May.

2. You can’t win a trophy without a good goalkeeper:

What a virtuoso display of goalkeeping prowess from the England number two (for how much longer?) in the Birmingham goal. At the other end…err…Wojciech Szczesny didn’t have the best of times, conspiring with Laurent Koscielny to gift Birmingham the lead, and the winning goal, with less than minute of normal time to play.

3. Arsenal cannot cope without captain fantastic Fàbregas:

It’s a problem many fans know so well. With their talismanic captain out, the team looks nervy and bereft of leadership, leading to a limp performance with little penetration and accusations from the media of (valid) over-dependence. Without Fàbregas, Arsenal looked a far weaker proposition, despite the best efforts of an ever-improving Jack Wilshere.

4.Refereeing in England couldn’t get much worse:

Not for the first time this season, and almost certainly not for the last, the performance of the match officials is under as much (if not more) scrutiny than the performances of the players and managers. Given the pace at which the English game is played, surely it’s time to introduce the long-awaited advancements in video technology to help our poor referees officiate as they just cannot cope with the current situation.

5. Holding the cup final on a Premier League weekend is absurd:

The main event this weekend should have been the League Cup Final, and for most football supporters in this country it was, however the decision of the FA and the Premier League to stage Premiership matches on the same day was absolute madness. If the governing bodies of the English game wish to further devalue the domestic cup competitions (the FA Cup Final will receive the same treatment), then more fool them as cup finals are one of the delightful things that make football in England what it is.

Alastair Holder

Over-achiever Hodgson fails at Liverpool

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:17:00 -0500

Don’t get me wrong, Roy Hodgson is a very capable football manager. He is correct to say his coaching methods have been effective all across Europe, and indeed he should be praised for that, but only to an extent. Liverpool Football Club is a footballing institution, and the managers who have passed through over the years - Benitez, Dalglish, Paisley, Shankly - are of the very highest quality, they are the elite. The fact of the matter is that at this point in time, Liverpool need more than ever a top-class manager to even flirt with the Champions League, simply because of the weakness of the current squad.

Let’s consider Avram Grant’s tenure at Chelsea. Since leaving Stamford Bridge he has coached Portsmouth and West Ham, hardly amongst the best in England, and he is on the verge of being sacked at Upton Park. Yet, at Chelsea, Grant’s record stood up against most of his colleagues in the Premier League and took him as far as a Champions League final penalty shootout. Luckily for him, at that point in time Chelsea had enough good players in their prime to compensate for the manager’s tactical flaws. Hodgson, however, does not have this luxury. With the exception of Pepe Reina, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, and to a lesser extent Daniel Agger, Raul Meireles, Lucas Leiva (who has improved beyond all recognition from the mire of two seasons ago) and Dirk Kuyt, Liverpool have a pointedly average squad. It’s fair to say that only these seven players would stand a chance of being selected for any one of the current title-challengers, and a couple would struggle to make it onto the bench at Manchester United or Chelsea. Yet Liverpool fans demand success, because they have always had it, no matter the limitations of the squad. Take the 2005 European success for example, that team comprised Djimi Traore, Igor Biscan and Milan Baros, three players who not even the best agents could find a home for in the Premiership. This team comprises Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen, who are of much the same quality. The difference? In 2005 Liverpool had Rafael Benitez, this year Liverpool have Roy Hodgson.

Alastair Holder

Benitez sacked; McLaren feeling the pressure

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 08:34:00 -0500

So, we approach the climax of another festive season, with the axe held high over coaches all across Europe, buckling under the pressure and expectation of the board and supporters - Allardyce, Hughton and now Benitez the pick of the managerial casualties, with McLaren at Wolfsburg, Grant at West Ham and Hodgson at Liverpool tipped to follow suit in the new year.

The most high profile of these, Rafael Benitez, European Cup winning coach with Liverpool, has now returned to his home on Merseyside to enjoy Christmas with his family after having his contract terminated six months after being appointed at the San Siro. The sacking comes just days after his controversial ‘back me or sack me’ ultimatum to club president Massimo Moratti in the wake of Inter’s 3-0 win over Congalese champions Mazembe, at the Club World Championship in Abu Dhabi. The issue? Well, after the departure of José Mourinho to Real Madrid in the summer, the club had been reluctant to give Benitez the transfer funds he wanted to revitalise an ‘ageing squad’, and indeed their only action in the summer window was an half-hearted bid for the former Liverpool anchorman Javier Mascherano, now at Barcelona.

As a staunch Rafa supporter, finding sense in the decision is not easy. Managers with proven track records on the continent (Benitez holds domestic and European titles in both Spain and England) are rare and expensive, as evidenced by the struggles of Liverpool, an illustrious club landed with a manager whose only success in a 35 year career has come in the obscure leagues of Scandinavia. Furthermore, for a president looking to cut costs at the club, sacking a manager with 18 months left on his contract seems mindless, given the hefty fee involved in releasing a manager from a reported €9m p.a. salary. Even more confusing is the timing of the decision, given that they won their fifth major trophy of the year this month, despite the plethora of injury problems that faced the Spaniard from the moment he joined the club.

Conversely , Benitez’s knack of falling out with owners is surely becoming an unappealing trait for potential suitors, Inter being the third club where he has demanaded more investment for players, only to leave with his adamant requests refused. The fans of both Liverpool and Inter hold Benitez in high esteem nevertheless, the Nerazzuri faithful chanting ‘resta con noi, Rafa Benitez, resta con noi’ (stay with us) upon Inter’s victorious return from UAE this week, as rumours of Benitez’s departure intensified in Italy. Closer to home, at Anfield, fans have been laying banners opposite the stadium begging new owners NESV to replace Hodgson with the man he succeeded, a man who took the club to six cup finals in as many years on Merseyside.

What is clear, however, is the now regular insistence of club owners for immediate success from newly appointed managers. We have already seen several popular coaches fall by the wayside in the Premier League this season, but the trend continues equally on the continent. In the Bundesliga, former Middlesbrough, Twente and most notably England coach Steve McLaren is facing a tough time winning over fans in his first season at Wolfsburg, his team slipping to 13th after a 2-2 home draw to Hoffenheim. A small section of Wolves supporters in one corner of the ground held a demonstration against McLaren’s tenure by raising hundreds of Wolfsburg themed umbrellas, referencing the media nickname ‘Wally with the Brolly’ given to McLaren after England’s disastrous home defeat to Croatia, ending any aspirations of qualifying for Euro 2008. The German press, on the other hand, continue to back McLaren, citing player performance as the main reason for Wolfsburg’s struggles. What remains to be seen, however, is which view the owners will take over the winter recess.

Alastair Holder