The False 9

England XI: Mourinho and Guardiola

2012-03-04T18:27:00.001+05:30

A story on a well known British newspaper website recently claimed that Harry Redknapp was not the FA’s only choice for the England managers job. In fact, they had found out (Through the usual unnamed source) that the FA were considering approaching either Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho........................

[This pause is to allow you, the reader, the get up off the floor and stop laughing]

Outlandish and far fetched as that may be, it does pose the question: What would a Mourinho England team look like? And what about a Guardiola England team, what shape might that take?

Mourinho’s England XI

Lined up in Mourinho’s 4-3-3 - The Special One has a few favoured systems, and this one can be considered his Plan ‘A’. A fairly narrow midfield of one defensive midfielder, one box-to-box player, and one midfield man more free to join attacks. Three up front, two wingers that can interchange, and a target man.

Joe Hart is an automatic choice in goal, no questions asked – he is the best goalkeeper England have to offer.

Across the back four, old friend Ashley Cole plays at left back. He too is a fairly automatic choice, despite his advancing years. Mourinho likes his full-backs to offer attacking width, and this is why Cole is complemented on the other side of defence by Kyle Walker. Glen Johnson would’ve had a good shout at being started in the right back berth, if it were not for the fact that he was not really trusted by Mourinho at Chelsea. He preferred fellow Portuguese Paulo Ferreira, and also brought in Geremi as cover – eventually shipping Johnson out to Portsmouth. Kyle Walker would provide the required amount of attacking threat down the right wing, and is an able defender too.

John Terry was the rock at the heart of Chelsea’s defence for Mourinho, indeed he still is. Mourinho is well known for his faith in favourite players, and also known for not giving a damn what people think – just look at how he asked/allowed Pepe to play against Barcelona! Terry gets the nod, and Jose takes the flack.

Alongside Terry isMicah Richards. Terry needs a quick intelligent player next to him to cover. Rio Ferdinand has performed this role in the past for England, but his creaky knees count him out as an effective and reliable “get out of jail” man. Micah Richards has the physicality and pace required to do this job. Also, as a player who is primarily used as a right back, he’s more comfortable on the ball, and will be useful playing out from defence.

In midfield, Wayne Rooney plays in the attacking position where Lampard at Chelsea, Sneijder at Internazionale, and Mesut Ozil plays for Real Madrid. This might seem strange, to play England’s current best attacker in midfield, but here he will get involved in the play as much as he likes to – and Ferguson has experimented with him here recently too. Rooney’s all-round game is about so much more than gettingo nthe end of things, and like Sneijder and Ozil he can orchestrate things from this advanced midfield position. He is complemented by Scott Parker, who is used in a role that was Michael Essien’s at Chelsea and Sami Khedira’s at Real Madrid. Scott Parker might not have the long-range shooting ability of those players, but he is sufficiently “all-action” to make up for this – and this is where the limitations of the talent pool make themselves clear. Completing the midfield trio, and playing as the shield in front of the defence is Phil Jones. A player so versatile that not even Alex Ferguson knows his best position, his work rate and defensive qualities make him perfect here. In addition, his versatility means that he can drop back to make a five man defence when a lead needs protecting, cover for Kyle Walker when needed, and also steam up field and get involved in an attack on rare occasions.

Up front, Ashley Young and James Milner play on the flanks, and would interchange to keep opposition full backs guessing. Adam Johnson was a strong contender here, and would certainly make the bench, but Milner’s additional bulk just shades it for him, he is strong on the ball. Both wingers would be asked to drift infield and try to drag their markers in to give Cole and Walker space to exploit behind.

Andy Carroll plays as the target man. Certainly a controversial choice given his woeful recent form. However, Mourinho is one coach, if there are any, that could get the best out of the big Geordie. Drogba was transformed into a world-class striker by Mourinho, who convinced him that he was so. The same could be done for Andy Carroll, and in fine form, Carroll is the type of player to relentlessly battle a defence, and keep two centre-backs occupied all day long.

Of course, this is an imagining of Jose Mourinho’s England XI – you may have your own views, feel free to post them below, and feel free to slate this one and anyone elses! There are discussions to be had over every single position (probably barring Joe Hart in goal) Put Gerrard where Rooney is? Oxlade-Chamberlain instead of Milner? Try to use the same system though.

Guardiola’s England XI

Lined up in Guardiola’s 4-1-2-2-1 formation. A team that favours inverted wingers, a false 9, and a defensive midfielder that drops back to make a back three when both the full backs stride up the pitch.

Joe Hart. That’s it… a no brainer.

The back four – Ashley Cole is again almost an automatic choice, there has probably never been a finer player to wear the number 3 shirt for England. 90+ caps and still no realistic competition for his position. Glen Johnson gets the Dani Alves role he’s secretly always wanted. A license to bomb up the right flank almost every time England get the ball is what is required here for Guardiola’s XI. Glen Johnson has been much maligned by certain critics, but there isn’t currently an English right sided defender more adept at attacking. Much is made of Micah Richards and Kyle Walker’s claims to this position, but when they come together on the pitch, it’s often Johnson who leaves the others desperately chasing shadows (Might be a bit of an exaggeration there…). The centre-backs need to be comfortable on the ball. Ferdinand is one of the coolest customers in possession – more stylish on the ball than a lot of midfielders, and he is joined by Cahill who, whilst still a little raw, is a centre-back of the ball-playing variety.

Phil Jones is the thirds player so far along with Joe Hart and Ashley Cole, to make both coach’s XI. He is quite simply a beast – Think Barcelona with Yaya Toure rather than Busquets or Mascherano and you’ll get the picture. When Cole and Johnson disappear off into enemy territory, he will drop back between Ferdinand and Cahill to form a back three.

Now, for the part that needs a bit of imagination…. Which English players fulfil the roles of Xavi and Iniesta?

After checking and checking again whether some archaic bylaw and even more ancient bloodline could allow Xavi and Iniesta themselves could turn out for England, Guardiola goes for broke and puts names of all the English born midfielders into a hat. Luckily for him, his glamorous assistant pulls Jack Wilshere and Paul Scholes out of the depths of black felt. Paul Scholes, as is widely reported, is revered in Spain – especially by the Barcelona players themselves. Xavi in particular, when asked by English press who his favourite player was, he named Scholes as the best central midfielder of the last 15-20 years. Scholes’ range of passing, positional awareness and ball-retention ability make him perfect for Guardiola’s England. Alongside him would be Jack Wilshere. The young Gunner is still learning the game – which is no disparagement, he’s already head and shoulders above most muck and bullets midfielders in the Premier League. But his quick touch, technical ability and close control would partner the old head of Scholes rather well in midfield. Scholes gets to have fun as Iniesta, whilst Wilshere is the link player.

Guardiola’s more recent teams, since he moved Messi off the wing (Actually now he’s sometimes back out wide) have utilised converted strikers as wingers, drifting in from the flanks – much like Mourinho, you might say. Pace and directness is the key here, because with Rooney playing a withdrawn role up front – as a false 9 – they will often be the England players closest to goal. Daniel Sturridge starts on the right and Walcott on the left. Again, when they naturally drift infield, those attacking full backs can exploit any spaces created behind the opposition full backs. Rooney is the fulcrum of the team, sitting just off the defenders, difficult to pick up and looking for intricate passing patterns to cut through defences after they’ve been bored to tears with the tiki-taka.

Once again, this is an imagining of Josep Guariola’s England XI – you may have your own views, feel free to post them below, and feel free to slate this one and anyone elses! There are discussions to be had over every single position. Is Cleverley ready for central midfield? Would Kyle Walker be a better pick than Glen Johnson? Theo Walcott – are you f***ing serious? Etc etc

Ajax Vs Manchester United-A Close Look At Ajax's System

2012-02-15T23:45:00.000+05:30

Two clubs with illustrious pasts in the Champions League face off in the Europa league for a spot in the last 16. For Manchester United and its fans,playing on Thursday nights will be an unusual affair and with United chasing City to retain their Premier League title,one cant expect Ferguson to play his strongest side always. But as this weekend is an FA Cup weekend and with United already out of it,we may see a stronger than usual United side taking to the field in Amsterdam. Ajax on the other hand are struggling in the Eredivisie and their win over NAC Breda at the weekend was the first win after the winter break.

Formation

Frank De Boer usually sets his team in a 4-3-3 with Enoh as the deepest of the three midfielders,with the highly rated Christian Eriksen alongside him. Janssen,if fit will be the third midfielder for Ajax. Janssen was used as an deep lying playmaker earlier in the season,but then De Boer started playing Enoh and at times Anita purely as a holding mid. Usually Ajax builds from the back and the wing backs do push up forward quite a bit with Enoh dropping deeper to cover. Ajax's main worry at the moment is getting the ball to the front three,they generally enjoy a good amount of possession in their own half but struggle to split open defences. With someone like Christian Eriksen you expect to see defence splitting passes,but under Frank De Boer he doesn't look to get forward much and generally is involved in the initial build up play(In recent Eredivisie games i.e).

As i don't have access to Eredivisie stats,lets look back to the Champions League group stages. Of course Ajax were a slightly different team then with Sigthorsson, Boerrigter,Boilesen and Van Der Wiel all available.

Real Madrid Vs Ajax

Ajax Vs Dinamo Zagreb

I have taken passing statistics from two games,one which Ajax won against Zagreb and the other which they lost to Madrid. In both of the games Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen were the ones who received the most passes. And the most frequent pass combination was not surprisingly between the two center backs themselves. And look at Eriksen's column,in the game against Madrid he has attempted only 6 passes to the striker Sigthorsson. Also the number of passes he attempts per game is quite low for someone so talented(playmaker). Against a full strength Manchester United team building from the back might be a little difficult as both Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck(If they start) are hard working and cover a lot of ground. So Berbatov starting for United may be an advantage to Ajax,but the Bulgarian may pose other problems.

It ll be interesting to see what kind of game United will play,Sir Alex Ferguson over the past few seasons has opted to play a patient passing game away in Europe. If United do play that waiting possession game,it ll be an interesting tactical battle with both the teams essentially wanting to do the same thing. In this case Wayne Rooney will be the key player(as he always is). If he starts,he will ensure that United don't get outnumbered and so can let the deeper midfielders dictate the tempo and dominate possession.

Coming back to Ajax's 4-3-3,it does at times tends to become a 4-6-0 when Ajax lose possession. De Jong who started out the season playing as a second striker tends to drop back. And also the wingers don't stay high up on the pitch. This also is the reason that Ajax can't counter effectively and so use a slow and patient build up starting from the center backs.

Frank De Boer

"Against lesser teams mistakes are not easily punished. We showed against Real Madrid we can keep possession, now to score goals."-Frank De Boer

Possession is all good only if you make it count,and making it count has been Ajax's major problem this year. But a tie against a side like Manchester United should motivate them and there is talent in the team to cause the English Champions problems. If Frank De Boer decides to play both Lodiero and De Jong,it would be a positive move and will make the game more open and exciting. De Jong does tend to support the striker ahead more than Janssen does,obviously this will mean Ajax will lose control in the center but their effectiveness in the final third will improve.

Frank De Boer may spring a tactical surprise and start with a 3-4-3,a throwback to the days of Cryuff. Of course the similarities end their,but there are some advantages for Ajax with 3 at the back,as Manchester United are most likely to play with 2 strikers and if Rooney doesn't start,United will have 2 men up front who don't drop deep that often. So a spare man at the back will help Ajax defensively and also in retaining possession.

Note-Enoh is out injured,and most probably Ismail Aissati will take his place

Mr Wenger's Epiphany

2012-02-12T10:29:00.002+05:30

The following is courtesy of strange bOUnce,a site dedicated to fiction,satire and verse,all lightly brushed up with sport.

Mr Wenger smiled. “Not at all. The cacophony of boos when I took Alex off just serves to highlight what a good manager I am.”

The young journo’s reply was a quizzical expression.

“It shows how highly the fans rate him, and means I was right to sign him in the first place!”

Mr Wenger bounced out the room and was soon in the car park. There, he saw some young boys kicking a tennis ball between themselves. One of them spotted the Arsenal manager and alerted his mates.

“Hey, look who it is! Mr Wenger, sir, when’s Abou Diaby back? He’s always injured these days.”

Mr Wenger smiled. “It’s hard to tell these things, we must just wait and be patient. Soon though, I hope.”

The boy looked sad. “Do you think maybe he was a waste of money, Mr Wenger? We really need a strong, consistent midfielder but you keep your faith in him and that Czech one with perfect hair, and they’re never fit.”

“Indeed. But their combined absence today just showed what a good manager I am.”

The boys all replied with quizzical expressions.

“The gaping hole in our midfield shows how much we missed them, and what good signing they would have been if they had two working legs between them!”

Mr Wenger bounded past the boys to his car. Driving along the motorway, he tuned into Radio Five’s 606. The phone-in was focused on his club. DJ Spooney and Jason Roberts were saying some less that complementary things about his tactics.

Mr Wenger phoned in -- using a hands free set, of course -- and immediately he was put through.

He smiled self-assuredly as he spoke to the presenters. “My instructions to the players were a little off, perhaps you are right, yes. The fact we only lost by the one goal though surely serves as an indicator of what a good manager I am?

The presenters responded with a stunned silence, quizzical looks wasted on their listeners.

“What good players I must have picked, if they can perform like this and almost earn a point, even with such a poor strategy and weak leadership. I should be a scout--”

Mr Wenger stopped mid sentence. His smile turned into a furrowed brow. He hung up, not listening to Spoony and Roberts’ responses.

The epiphany had hit him. He punched a number agitatedly into his phone.

“Mr Hill-Wood? Yes, it’s Arsene. Yes, fine. Yes. No. No. No. No, we can’t afford.. No... Listen, can you get an errand boy -- yes Andrei will be fine -- to get me the following, for first thing tomorrow? One cardboard box, big enough to clear my desk, one notepad, big enough for the names of six hundred African midfielders, and one long, warm, winter coat. I’ll be needing to keep warm in my new calling, and the flimsy little thing I have at the moment’s no good at all.”

He hung up abruptly again, not giving the Arsenal Chairman a chance to answer.

Arsene smiled again, as he ripped up his half empty tactics book. This time, however, for the first time in years, his smile was a genuine one.

-Jude Ellery

England's tactical journey under Capello

2012-02-10T00:10:00.001+05:30

Capello’s departure just 4 months before a major tournament leaves a lot to be desired, and a bad taste in the mouth too. Whatever the reasons behind the reasons for his departure are, the presented facts are that Capello spoke out against the FA’s decision feeling that he had been undermined and declaring that he did not agree with the decision. Not wanting to try and read between the lines or speculate on national characteristics or personal attitudes and working relationships, the facts are that Capello has gone.

Looking back at his tenure, it’s difficult to sum up in simple terms. Yes, he has the highest win percentage of any England manager ever, but he also presided over the debacle of the 2010 World Cup, which was statistically England’s worst ever. Alf Ramsey won a lower percentage of games, but crucially won the World Cup in 1966. Bobby Robson has a lower win percentage than Steve McLaren, but is far more fondly remembered because he led the team to an agonising semi-final exit at Italia 90 whereas McLaren will be remembered for his humbling failure to reach Euro 2008. Performances when it counts is what a legacy is founded on. Fabio Capello England reign will most likely be remembered as a failure then, because of the dismal display in South Africa and quite frankly humiliating destruction by the hosts.

It is often said that more is learnt in defeat than in victory – ergo, Capello should only be considered a true failure if lessons from South Africa 2010 were not heeded. The most stark lesson was that the 4-4-2 was dead in the water on the international stage. So long the English national team’s bedrock and point of reference, its default and natural state; the 4-4-2 was demolished in 270 soul-destroying and 90 breathtaking minutes.

Indications are that, yes, lessons were learnt by Capello. He played England in a 4-4-2 just three times in the fifteen games since the World Cup (Admittedly winning all three).

When Capello was appointed, much was made of his disciplinarian nature – this was the man to break the dressing-room cliques, pop the inflated egos and crush player power. This was the man who dropped Beckham at Madrid, the man who had managed some of the greatest names in football’s illustrious history whilst in Italy and Spain, one of the most decorated managers in the domestic game. He did that to some extent, but not everyone got the message. John Terry’s failed revolution was, well… revolting.

He was also heralded as the manager to bring England up to date tactically. People must have forgotten his glory years at Milan were largely based on a 4-4-2 formation, and he played that same formation at Juventus and Real Madrid. Tactical innovator? Perhaps not. But he is a master at creating tactical systems to suit his playing staff. The perennial problem of managing a national side is an extrapolation of the old adage “you can chose your friends but you can’t chose your family” – Capello couldn’t buy Sergio Busquets from Spain, or Messi from Argentina, or Ozil from Germany; he had to work with what he had at his disposal. For a nation of footballers whose very bread and butter had been 4-4-2 since childhood, it would be tough to get those players to adapt.

A loss to France in his second game in charge when deploying his team in a 4-2-3-1 prompted a return to 4-4-2, and after winning two friendlies against USA and Trinidad using 4-4-2, Capello fell short again with a 4-2-3-1 by drawing with Czech Republic. The remainder of 2008 went well for Capello’s 4-4-2, in the next five games he only once deviated to a 4-3-3 against Kazakhstan winning 5-1 and the other four games were victories too. The final game in 2008 was a 2-1 win over a German team who were learning their own lessons in time for 2010.

Capello played 4-4-2 six times in his first year in charge – resulting in six wins out of six.

In 2009, Capello’s second year in charge of England, he suffered an educational defeat at the hands of a very proficient Spanish side (This defeat would be used as a benchmark against which a later victory would be compared – as evidence of progress) and this prompted a big change in tactics. The next six games were played using the popular and modern 4-2-3-1, in an attempt to replicate somehow the tiki-taka game of the Spanish national side, or Barca-without-Messi as they are better known. Only Holland could keep England from victory in that run of games. This was a great period for Capello, that run without loss lasted seven games in all, culminating in a huge 5-1 crushing of new rivals Croatia – that win used as a contrast to McLaren’s battles with Slaven Bilic. During those matches, Rooney was used in the middle of the attacking midfield trio, and scored 4 goals from that position over 6 games. Momentum was building – in the press and trickled down into the nation’s consciousness, 4-2-3-1 was the future, and England has the players to fit. Then the campaign to do away with 4-4-2 took a knock, a loss to Ukraine at the tail end of the year using 4-2-3-1 again prompted Capello to retreat to the safety of 4-4-2. The belief that if England lost using 4-4-2 then it would be England’s fault – the entire nation; or even more-so, the fear that suffering defeat whilst tactically experimenting would result in castigation, in the manner which McLaren was torn apart by the press after trying 3-5-2 in Zagreb. In 2009 4-2-3-1 was Capello’s most used formation, winning four out of seven games and losing just once. 4-4-2 was used only four times - two wins and two defeats.

But Capello used the safety net of 4-4-2 - following that defeat to Ukraine, England took the field in that old familiar formation. Momentum and spirit was raised with easy victories in the warm-up games, and then… well we all know what happened then. In 2010 England played 4-4-2 nine times, winning six but critically drawing twice and losing once. However, the safety net effect of 4-4-2 is still there. One can only imagine the uproar if England had have had such a dismal tournament and not played 4-4-2. But then of course, they might not have done so badly….

After England’s disgraced team returned home, the campaign to ditch the 4-4-2 was started up afresh. Since the World Cup, Capello has experimented far more than he had before (and of course, during). In 2011 England played nine games and only once trotted out in a 4-4-2, and that was the first game against Denmark, which England won 2-1 but were given a scare by wunderkind Christian Eriksen. It will be remembered as the year that Scott Parker finally established himself as the first choice defensive midfielder for England. Four times England have set out in variations of 4-1-4-1, three of those with Parker as the lynchpin, including of course the much heralded 1-0 victory over World Champions Spain. That performance has been rightly accredited as a fine defensive performance, much in the way that the famous 0-0 draw in the Stadio Olimpico was on the road to qualification for the 1998 World Cup. Scott Parker, Phil Jones and Gareth Barry were all used in the midfield during that game, more evidence that Capello had learnt from the World Cup

Crucially, Capello thought that the answer to the Lampard-Gerrard puzzle was Gareth Barry, and it wasn’t. Whilst Bobby Robson had the iconic image of Gazza crying to remember Italia 90 by, Capello’s legacy will forever be blighted by the images of Barry being completely outpaced and outclassed by a ruthless and mobile German attack. Blitzkreig indeed.

So, whilst he’ll always be remembered for what happened in Bloemfontein, Capello the disciplinarian used his time at the helm of England to nurse the team away from the comfort blanket of 4-4-2, even if he faltered spectacularly on the way. In the long term, the FA will hope that the disastrous campaign in South Africa can be used as a point to build up from, much in the way that Germany itself recovered from disappointing returns in the 1998 World Cup and even more-so from Euro 2000.

Football Venn Diagrams-The Anfield Cat!

2012-02-07T17:28:00.001+05:30

Click the picture to enlarge.

A Game of two halves - Chelsea 3-3 Manchester United

2012-02-06T16:45:00.000+05:30

Not so many years ago, this fixture would’ve had the country enraptured – streets would’ve been deserted, cars abandoned with their engines idling, their owners pressed up against TV rental showroom windows, babes left crying in their cots, dogs left scratching at the back door wanting to be let out – everything had to wait. But the days of Chelsea being title contenders have gone, for now at least, and Chelsea’s home record is not what it was. Chelsea are not in the two horse race for the title, they are six points behind Tottenham who play tomorrow, and they went into this game twelve points behind their former sparring partners. Perhaps only Arsenal’s patchy season is saving Chelsea from more derision than they are getting – the thoughts are though, that this is a team in transition which will come good again.

Chelsea and Manchester United are both sides who have had injury problems of late. Manchester United could put out a fairly decent side made up of all of the absent players. Lindegaard in goal, Smalling, Phil Jones, Vidic and De Laet make up a serviceable back four, across the midfield you could have Nani, Cleverley, Anderson and *cough* Bebe *cough*, with old Mickey Owen running around quite slowly not winning headers up front. Seriously though, six of those eleven would’ve been considered for the starting eleven had they been fit. Chelsea are not quite as crippled as United, but were still missing the spine of their team. Terry, Lampard out injured, along with Ramires and Mikel - and Drogba still away at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Chelsea lined up in a now familiar 4-3-3, but with a few subtle tweaks. Villas-Boas has shown some compromise in his footballing beliefs, but is still a man who trusts his philosophy of pressing all over the pitch and a high back line. The compromises came in the positioning of the two wingers Sturridge and Mata. Mata in truth played more centrally, allowing Malouda to push up the left wing, although there was interchange between the two. Malouda had ostensibly been included as one of the midfield three along with Meireles and Essien. It could be described as a 4-2-3-1, with Torres ploughing the lonely furrow on his own, but Sturridge’s attacking instincts had him in a striking position, while Torres often drifted wide to the right.

John Terry has looked to be one of those Chelsea players who struggle with the new system, and whether the acquisition of Gary Cahill from Bolton was a short-term measure with an eye on court proceedings (Now a mute-point as Terry’s court date has been set for after the season has finished) or whether he’s been brought in to provide a long-term replacement for Terry, Cahill’s style should suit that high line better than Terry. He’s more mobile and quick-witted too, he’ll suit the style – whether he has the quality to help turn Chelsea back into contenders is still in question.

There were no surprises in the back five – although any line up with David Luiz included has the potential for surprises at any stage. Ashley Cole missed the game through suspension, so Bosingwa filled in on the left. Manchester United fans will have been licking their lips in anticipation of an in-form Valencia up against Bosingwa playing on his less favoured side.

How did Manchester United line up? Well… was it a 4-2-3-1 with Giggs and Carrick as a double-pivot behind the trio of Valencia, Rooney and Young in support of Welbeck? Or was it a 4-4-2, or a 4-4-1-1. Rooney is the x-factor here. He prowls the field of play almost in a free role, confusing opposition markers and confounding pundits by popping up all over the place. The concern for United fans won’t be at which string of numbers best represent the formation, but at the names at the heart of the defence. Ferdinand is not having a good season. He’s not got the get-out-of-jail pace he used to have, and Johnny Evans will have to produce a large number of outstanding displays before he will ever be trusted as a first choice centre-back for United. Let’s call it a 4-4-2 for Sir Alex’s sake.

The first half was in a way reminiscent of a Mourinho era Chelsea. Functional, disciplined, and effective. They were perhaps fortunate not to concede one penalty, and also perhaps fortunate not to have Gary Cahill sent off for felling Welbeck just outside the box with no other defender looking in a position to trouble the attacker. As it was both decisions were called no fouls, much to the annoyance of the men in red. These things have a way of evening up over as season, but rarely do they do so over the course of the same game.

Although, as mentioned above it looked on paper that the most easily won duel between player could have been Bosingwa up against Valencia, it was on the other flank and in the favour of the other team that the mismatch actually presented itself. Captain Patrice Evra was given a torrid time during the opening half, and for large periods of the second. Evra isn’t one of those modern attacking fullbacks who can’t defend – he’s a good defensive player who is also adept at overlapping on the attack, but he was out of sorts for much of this match. Two of Chelsea’s goals came about because Evra couldn’t deal with Sturridge. Capello take note!

First, Evra allowed Sturridge to skip past him and cut a ball back across from the byline, which ricocheted off De Gea and Evans into the net. Perhaps that should read “the hapless De Gea and the hapless Evans”. The third goal – not entirely Evra’s fault – but his foul on Sturridge, bringing the Chelsea player down as he went by again, gave Chelsea the free-kick from which Mata set up David Luiz to head home. The David Luiz surprise element in this story is that he was almost completely unmarked, Ferdinand trying to look stern after the event when everyone knew that sheepish would have been more apt. Between Manchester United’s calamitous concessions was the pick of the goals, what was missing from forty five minutes of the first half came to fruition just forty seconds into the second – a moment of genuine quality - Torres showing his team mates how to assist a goal with a wonderful cross to Mata who slammed a thundering volley home with his left.

When the third went in, Sir Alex Ferguson had to act. The ineffective (some would say woeful) Ashley Young was replaced by Javier Hernandez who went up top alongside Welbeck, with Rooney pulling the strings just behind. This gave Evra the impetus to drive forward more. Sturridge had inflicted real damage on the United left-back, and it was his turn to be on the back foot. An Evra run into the box highlighted the fact that Sturridge is a striker, converted to a winger, asked to contribute defensively – it was a clumsy tackle in the box.

Rooney duly equalised form the spot, and the comeback was on. Not many teams would even consider fighting back from 3-0 down at Stamford Bridge, let alone be able to – but a team like Manchester United wouldn’t consider not fighting back. Ferguson appraised his bench and sent on another attacking substitution. Paul Scholes came on for Rafael, Valencia switched to right-back as he has many times now, and Giggs was shuffled out to the left. The old master proved his worth yet again with the cross for United’s equaliser. At the time of the tactical switch, a comeback had seemed improbable.

Clumsy defending might have been to blame for two of Chelsea’s shipped goals, but the tactical changes made by Ferguson forced pressure on Chelsea, who really didn’t have an answer. Chelsea had found themselves 3-0 without really playing that well – Mata’s goal aside – and in the end might be considered lucky to get a point which is a ridiculous situation to find themselves in after leading by three clear goals. The instructions given to Villas-Boas' men are to press and look for interceptions all over the pitch. Once the comeback had begun, his players just didn't perfrom this as well as they had in the first half, which barring two penalty claims, was a pretty barren period of football for Manchester United.

Chelsea's interceptions where down from 19 in the first half to just 8 in the second. Ferguson removed ineffective players, shuffled players of influence into more dangerous positions, and clawed back a three goal deficit.

Rough Diamonds #7-Nick Ioannou (Manchester United)

2012-01-20T10:37:00.003+05:30

Nick Ioannou is a highly rated school boy who became the first Cypriot to represent Manchester United when he was named in the FAYC 4th round game against Derby County.As little is known about this future star in the making,i asked Stelios from Cyprus Footy to give us an insight.

Nick Ioannou A Legend in the making

Nick Ioannou is a 16-year-old Manchester United youth player. He was born and raised in Cyprus, son of Demetris Ioannou, a player that needs no introduction in Cyprus. Nichola’s father was a very successful defender known for his size and strength. These are qualities that his son has inherited and developed which helped him become a Manchester United youth player.

He participated in United’s U15 side Marveld tournament in the Netherlands (June 2010), at Manchester United Premier Cup U16: World Finals (September 2010) and an unused substitute in an U18 Youth game last season. Until now he received invitations for training with Cyprus U15 National Team and U17 National Team. Manchester United awarded him a two-year scholarship which will begin in June 2012. He has a elder brother who is a U19 Cyprus Youth International ,Michael Ioannou.

18th of January 2012 was a great day for Nicholas Ioannou. The 16-year-old Cypriot made his debut for Manchester United’s U18 FA Youth Cup win over Derby County.
Nicholas played the whole game in defense. Paul McGuiness, their manager, trusted Nicholas to play against Derby wonder kid Mason Bennett and he did very well! Nicholas proved himself well throughout the game and showed that there’s a reason why he signed a two-year scholarship deal back in June with the big Manchester club.
To be chosen for the Manchester United U18 squad at only 16 is a serious deal. Having spoken to people close to him as well as people involved in the Manchester United youth teams they said they have no doubt that Nicholas will play for the Manchester United first team one day.

-Stelios Markou
Website: www.cyprusfooty.com
Twitter: cyprusfooty
LinkedIn: Stelios Markou

You can read the rest of the Rough Diamonds series here.

Why it’s going wrong for Andy Carroll

2012-01-16T02:08:00.000+05:30

He moved from North-East to North-West on deadline day, part of an amazing carousel of big bucks and big names moving between Premier League football clubs on the last day of the window.

Newcastle fans were distraught, this was 'their boy' abandoning the dream that they wanted to share with him, and live through him. The more broad-minded of Geordies accepted that this was a good move for the player, Liverpool may not be the power-house of English and European football that they were in the 70s and 80s, but they were a recognised member of “The Big four” group of clubs. Regularly competing in the Champions League – even winning it five years previously. And it was certainly a good move for the club. £35 million pounds for a player who was still proving himself in the top division, and in fact had not managed 20 goals in the Championship during their promotion year. Begrudgingly, some wished him well. The home-grown successor to the heroes of yesteryear Jackie Milburn and Alan Shearer had flown the nest, and he even issued statements about how he had wanted to stay. There was a tit-for-tat exchange between player, manager and football club as to whether Carroll had handed a transfer request in to force the deal through, or whether he had been ordered to. He clearly cared about the club and the Geordie faithful.

An accusation levelled at Liverpool was that they had panic-bought. Certainly they needed a marquee signing to appease fans angry at the departure of Fernando Torres. Liverpool brought in Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. That was still good business wasn’t it? Forget about £35 million for Carroll, that’s what English clubs have to pay for young English players. And this kid had potential – young, and strong, on the cusp of the England squad, and a breath of fresh air in the Premier League. He’d scored 11 goals in 19 league games, so had managed the step up to the Premier League, and his style of play was a nostalgic throwback to good old fashioned English centre forwards. Another player famously associated with both clubs, Kevin Keegan, had described him as “probably in the top three headers of a ball [he had] ever seen in football” – never one to get carried away with things is our Kev.

Fast forward 12 months – to now. Liverpool sit 2^nd in the table, 2 points behind Manchester City. Andy Carroll tops the goal scoring charts, level with Fernando Torres. The Kop chants Carroll’s name if he’s playing or not, pundits joke about Liverpool still being a one-man team but it’s not Gerrard they’re talking about. The first name on Fabio Capello’s team sheet is Andy Carroll and the question posed by deep-thinking journalists and bloggers is “Who to partner Carroll?” at the Euro 2012 tournament.

It’s not entirely inconceivable is it? Perhaps it is…. But it wasn’t 12 months ago. And all because Old Biff fished Gray’s Sports Almanac out of a bin and stole the De Lorean.

In reality Liverpool sit 6^th in the league table, 13 points shy if City having played one more game. Andy Carroll has scored 2 goals (As has Fernando Torres), level with Martin Skrtel and behind such luminaries as Stephen Ward and Anthony Pilkington. The Kop chants Luis Suarez’s name, whether he’s banned for making racist comments or not, pundits joke about Liverpool still being a one-man team and it’s still Gerrard they’re talking about. Carroll is barely in contention for the England Squad – people like Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge have leapfrogged him and the question posed by deep-thinking journalists and bloggers is “Where has it all gone wrong for Andy Carroll?”

At Newcastle, despite his young age, the team was built to his strengths. Conventional, if limited, wingers such as Wayne Routledge and Jonas Gutierrez scorched the flanks, firing crosses for Carroll to steam on to and head home. Carroll led the line, either up top on his own or assisted by Shola Ameobi or Leon Best. Both Best and Ameobi like getting the score sheet themselves, but just look at how Demba Ba is getting along this season to see how they are players who get the best out of strike partners. Joey Barton not only provided him with quality service, but kept the hacks off his back by playing the greatest game of hooligan one-upmanship since Oasis ruled Cool Brittania and the Gallagher brothers competed to see who could get the most scandalous stories printed about them (Oh, they still do that?).

Carroll was the big fish in a little pond. That’s not meant as a disrespect to Newcastle FC – a big club, but one which had just been relegated and promoted. He liked it that way, cock of the walk. Liverpool have their own home-grown heroes, and are not a team geared up to play to Carroll’s strengths.

Tactics

Kenny’s tactics in fact may be hindering his expensive forward. Recently he’s been trying out playing Downing on the right (More about him later) and Bellamy on the left. Inverted wingers (those who play on the opposite side to their natural foot) are perfect for cutting in and playing little nippy-nappy intricate triangles, but no so good for hitting the byline and whipping crosses in. That’s the sort of service Andy Carroll needs. Bellamy is a converted striker himself, he’ll always prefer to cut in and look for a scoring opportunity himself than to lay on service for another player – Kuyt too. Needless to say, both Kuyt and Bellamy do an awful lot of work for their team, but it’s not the sort of work that Andy Carroll needs them to do. Dalglish has even been playing Glen Johnson of the left sometimes – instead of his typical overlapping runs, he’s also had to cut inside onto his stronger foot.

The chalkboard above shows all of Downings successful passes during the 74 minutes that Carroll was on the pitch against Manchester City. Downing has only got within 18 yards of the byline twice, and only found Carroll with a pass three times. That's just not enough. That's just an example of one game. There has been times that Carroll has been taken off just as Downing has cone on. Or one has player, but not the other - once Downing even came on in place of Carroll. Best crosser and best header of the ball should play together more. As it is, Carroll is struggling for goals, and Downing has not made one single assist. They've only played about 1/3 of available game time both on the same pitch.

Liverpool’s short passing game just doesn’t suit Carroll, he’s a very talented player at what he does. But he won’t get much joy swapping positions with more versatile and mobile team-mates, as Suarez can do with wingers or players “in the hole”. He’s a number nine, full stop. Powerful, aggressive and single-minded. He's not the sort of player to go on a mazy run or play intricate 1-2s with three team-mates before backheeling a lob over a befuddled keeper.

Whilst not wanting to resort to humping long balls up to the big guy up front, Liverpool need to mix it up a bit and alter the way they approach the opposition goal if they want to see a good return on Andy Carroll.

He showed at Newcastle that he's competent enough to lead the line on his own, he's certainly physical enough. But he does still need support. If he's going to be up there as a target man, he needs players making runs around him to flick onto or otherwise bring into the game. Against Manchester City in the recent Carling Cup win over Manchester City, Carroll looked so isolated and dejected, it was bordering on unpleasant. Every long ball that went up to him was a waste of time. If he won the ball, there was nothing to do with it. Admittedly, Liverpool were defending a slender lead against the most expensively assembled squad in English football, so they weren't too adventurous, but it must have been a long afternoon for Andy.

Fitness

Carroll was signed injured, and didn't make his debut for Liverpool for a number of weeks. When a player is as big as Andy Carroll, injuries do take a time to get over. Any man on the street of a similar physique would struggle to regain fitness after a fairly long injury lay off. Big man, means big muscles, means big problems especially if it's the thigh that's injured. He was apparently told by management at Liverpool that he needed to shed a few pounds before he'd even kick a ball for them.

Carroll stands at 6'3" and has never been lean, but if you care to compare images of his Newcastle playing days with a recent photograph, he's clearly put on a bit of timber. A lot of people 'fill out' in their early twenties, few of them are professional footballers though.

Luis Suarez

Luis Suarez, currently banned for 8 games, has been such a revelation since hitting these shores that team-mates have been looking for him more than they have Carroll. Not that there is very often the choice. Suarez and Carroll have only started a third of league games together, and only both finished the 90 twice - against Everton and Blackburn. They therefore still have a lot of work to do before they can call themselves a partnership of any note.

Confidence

The injury-delayed start was far from ideal, the wait for the first goal didn't help either. But, sometimes watching Andy Carroll play football is downright awkward and it shouldn't be that way. It's affecting his game. Even the things that he should be good at, he is starting to doubt himself. The suspension of Vincent Kompany put Carroll up against Stefan Savic - and most people expected him to fill his boots and Savic's. But he didn't, he was outmuscled by a gangly beanpole. He was kept quiet. Simply running with the ball became too much for him that game, he tripped over himself, bouncing the ball off his thigh - to jeers of derision from the crowd.

It shouldn't be forgotten that this is a young man, after all. He's falliable, he's competitive, and he's human. Poor form can become somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a player lets it affect his head, then it's almost guarenteed to continue. The huge £35 million price tag hasn't helped either in this regard. Expectation are so high for Andy Carroll, perhaps he needs to go through this perjury and come out of it phoenix-like, the other side.

Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam

As mentioned above, Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll have only been on the pitch together for about a third of possible minutes played. But, even when they have played together nothing has happened between them. On paper, Downing is the best crosser of the ball in that Liverpool squad, and Carroll is the best header of the ball. Everyone knows that football matches aren't played on paper, but it's like they've never met...

Jordan Henderson has had a similarly unimpressive debut season so far with the Reds. In fact, Henderson and Downing seem to be doing their best to make Carroll's price-tag look reasonable.

Charlie Adam. Not an impressive start for the supposed playmaker signed form Blackpool after a long and flirtatious pursuit. Not being burdened with an eight figure price-tag may have helped Charlie settle on Merseyside, because he hasn't been as woeful as the other recent signings, but there seems to be a lack of invention, perhaps a lack of subtlety in his game. Guile - that's the word. Adam's passing has been lacking the vision and guile that is expected of him.

A good example of this is to contrast his passing with that of Steven Gerrard in the recent Premier League loss to Manchester City. Steven Gerrard came on as a sub for Charlie Adam after almost an hour, and played 35 successful passes out of a total of 43 attempts, compared to 32 successful passes out of 43 for Adam. In roughly half the time, he had completed more passes than the man he replaced. Not many players compare favourably with Steven Gerrard in a Liverpool shirt, but that's astonishing. It is compounded when the positional data is looked at.

As the chalkboards show, Charlie Adam played twice as long as Steven Gerrard but completed fewer passes - and none going forward in the final third of the pitch. (The only completion seen on that top chalkboard is a throw in). Charlie's central midfield colleague managed two forward passes in the final third of the pitch - but then he did play 90 minutes. Liverpool have missed thier talismanic captain, and no-one moreso than Andy Carroll.

Written by Tom Nash @ffootballer

The Resurgence of the Deep Lying Playmaker-Part 2

2012-01-13T12:37:00.000+05:30

Read Part 1 Here

FC Schalke and their two year long search for the right one:

It was tiresome, boring, but a whole lot effective. FC Schalke’s season in 2009/10 did not entertain many, even Schalke fans would be excused for not being entirely joyful watching their team scratch their way to a multitude of 1-0 victories. It was always defence first, counter attack second; the season ended with a surprise second place finish (after coming eighth the previous season) and a joint top defence record alongside champions Bayern Munich, 31 goals conceded.

What was interesting about Schalke’s 4-3-3 formation was the complete lack of need of a deep playmaker, instead, manager Felix Magath opted to use two pure defensive midfielders in the form of young Joel Matip, who has since then seen himself move to a central midfield position, and Christopher Moritz before the transfer of Peer Kluge saw him move alongside Matip. This was supplemented with Ivan Rakitic acquiring the forward most role in midfield. The formation was similar to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan who won many of their latter matches in the Champions League by defending deep and counter attacking with precision and quality through Sneijder, Eto’o and Milito. The team was basically divided into a bank of 6 defenders and 4 attackers, though the two wingers were especially hard working therefore making it a virtual 8 man defensive wall for the opposition to breach. Of course, with such a defensive attitude, you need quality attackers to be able to consistently score and quality attackers Schalke had in Rakitic, winger Jefferson Farfan and poacher Kevin Kuranyi.

The oncoming summer transfer window saw a transfer that would swiftly bring about a couple of changes which would turn Schalke’s strength into its underlying weakness for much of the season. The transfer of Raul was seen as a major victory for a club of Schalke’s stature, while being a firm big club in Germany, they barely forged recognition outside of the central European country. Therefore, signing a player with the history of Raul was seen as a fantastic achievement. But what the transfer also brought was a huge Spanish ego to satisfy and while Raul is an extremely modest player at heart, Schalke were surely not going to run the risk of making their star advertiser and their ticket to the European market unhappy and risk him leaving as soon as he came.

Fixing Raul into the working formation of last season was not difficult for Magath, given his technical abilities and intelligence on and off the ball, he was on paper the perfect striker to play slightly in behind a main target man like the Dutchman Klass Jan Huntelaar (brought in to replace the Russia bound Kuranyi). That meant that Raul would stand in direct competition with one of Schalke’s best players of the previous season, Ivan Rakitic but no matter how will the young Croat played, there was always going to be one winner in that battle.

Since Raul was now in firm position of the role ‘in the hole’ behind the striker, Magath’s decision was how to fit one of his star players. Rakitic was never one of the most hard working midfielders and therefore a winger position did not suite him well since Magath loved to have players willing to bust their lung to get up and down the pitch (Farfan, Edu, Schmidtz). The one position where Magath did see a fit for Rakitic was as one of the two deeper midfielders thereby adding the dimension of proper passing midfielder in defensive midfield. What Magath had not anticipated was the sheer divide between the defensive ability of Rakitic and what was required from a player in that position. The result was a complete catastrophe for the Royal Blues who lost their first four matches conceding nine goals. The theme continued throughout the first half of the season with Schalke ending the autumn period on 10th place, the 17th game would prove to be the last for Rakitic who, through his poor performances in his new position and disenchantment of life in Germany, was allowed to leave for the La Liga with Sevilla FC.

Much the same has continued this season with the newest player to be pulled back into defensive midfield being one of the young stars of Germany, Lewis Holtby, who just returned from Mainz following a tremendous season playing as a winger or in behind the striker. Once again the manager, this time Ralf Rangnick who took over after Felix Magath was sacked mid way into the second half of the season, saw the passing ability of Holtby and decided to try out the youngster in a deeper position in order to have a better technical presence since Raul’s performances of last season saw merit in him keeping his position in the first team in Holtby’s more natural position. While not being nearly as good as he was last season. Holtby’s performances have been better than that of Rakitic and therefore present a bit of hope for Schalke that their search for the prefect deep playmaker might end here.

Bastian Schweinsteiger vs Toni Kroos and its defensive significance for Bayern Munich:

Bastian Schweinsteiger is a named mentioned many times in this article already. One of the best central midfielders in the world, he presents the total midfielder. Another example of an attacking midfielder used to fill the deep playmaker slot, Schweinsteiger has excelled in the role and has grown into a midfield few others could compete with in terms of his completeness. His abilities as an attacker were well known to the public due to his performances for Germany as a winger in the 2006 World Cup and 2008 European Championships but what Schweinsteiger developed during his first year as a deep playmaker was his defensive game; though it can be argued that Schweinsteiger has always had the defensive sense to be able to play in the middle, it was in his own words that he said during his early days that he would rather help his side not concede a goal than score one.

While Bayern Munich have been reaping the rewards of coach Louis Van Gaal’s decision to make the surprise decision to move Schweinsteiger into the center of midfield, the club have struggled to find a suitable replacement for given Schweinsteiger’s importance to the side, it is paramount that they have someone to fill his boots in case of unavailability. Toni Kroos is one player who has been used regularly as either back-up to Schweinsteiger or even playing alongside him on occasions, as was the case last season. Kroos has always been known as an attacking midfielder, from his days of early prominence winning the Golden Ball at the 2007 U-17 World Cup to his breakthrough season on loan at Bayer Levekusen playing mostly as a left winger or behind the striker. His strength was his fantastic passing ability, therefore, a move to the center of midfield would seem logical given the world trend.

His move into central midfield wasn’t a success, his first season was largely frustrating with some poor performances putting his future at the club in doubt. With the change of manager at the end of the 2010-11 season came a new hope for Toni Kroos as he would be reunited with his coach at Leverkusen, Jupp Heynkes. It wasn’t a surprise to see Jupp immediately reinstate Kroos into an attacking midfield role and the form of one of Germany’s best youngsters subsequently went up. Bayern Munich’s form was tremendous at the start of the season with the form of Kroos and Schwiensteiger being largely responsible for it. Sadly, Schweinsteiger sustained a broken collarbone during Bayern Munich’s clash with Napoli, which ruled him out till the end of the first half of the Bundesliga season.

Immediately, Bayern Munich once again found themselves with the question as to who to replace Schweinsteiger with. Kroos’ form and relative experience playing in Schweinsteiger’s position meant that he would be the most logical choice and thus that was the case. Though the form of Bayern Munich had not deterred to a large extent (they have maintained their place at the top of the table till the mid season break), there has been one large negative consequence from the injury of Schweinsteiger, defensive strength.

Well documented was the amazing feat of the Bayern Munich side to go 1147 minutes in all competitions without conceding. Much of the praise was heaped upon the new goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer. Logically, that would seem the case given he was the biggest signing for Bayern Munich during the summer and was thought to bring defensive solidarity to a Bayern Munich side who were criminally conceding goals during the previous season. The clean sheet run was ended by an own goal in a Champions League match vs Napoli and though Bayern conceded two more (being down a man after 28 minutes) against Hannover in their next match they managed to keep another clean sheet against Nuremberg and were looking comfortable once again against Napoli (3-0 after the first half) before Schweinsteiger sustained his injury.

Bayern Munich’s defensive record prior to Schweinsteiger’s injury was 4 goals conceded in 16 and 1 half matches while their record since has been 9 goals 6 and 1 half matches. The rest of the defence has largely been untouched so the vast difference in the two records can be put down to the absence of Schweinsteiger. The lack of defensive ability of Kroos, also illustrated in the previous season during his poor performances in the center of midfield, has effected Bayern Munich’s ability to hold the opposition and is yet another example of the importance of being able defensively holds for a deep playmaker, an importance many clubs ignore when choosing who to play in that now popular position.

How is the future trend going to look?

It’s happened throughout history. Whenever a new position adopts itself in order to give a team an advantage, managers immediately look for quick fix solutions by bringing in existing players and hoping for them to adopt the role to the effect of gaining that advantage. What we should now see are young players emerging who have been groomed to play the specific position of a deep playmaker, they have already been a couple of them to catch the eye of the public. Jack Wilshere of Arsenal broke through into the London side last season and caused waves of praise for his performances in the middle of the park. Class on the ball mixed with tenacity off it, Wilshere showed the perfect mix of the offensive and defensive ability needed to occupy the role so coveted. A little west of Arsenal, another young player was beginning to make waves. Josh McEachran of Chelsea is another player billed by many to be a future Premier League and England star in the center of midfield, maybe even alongside Wilshere though the similarity in both their games might see a recurrence of the Gerrard-Lampard problem that plagued England throughout the previous decade.

It’s difficult to suggest whether the use of the deep lying playmaker will continue after the next 4-5 years. The dominance of Barcelona on the European stage has emphasized the importance of being able to hold possession in the middle of the field and restricting your opponents from being able to attack by starving them of the ball. It was a tactic brought upon them by Johann Cryuff and after years and years of hard work implementing this philosophy upon its players and, most importantly, its youngsters at La Masia, the dividends are paying off in astronomical numbers. Another team now reaping the benefits of a change of philosophy towards a more technical attacking game are Germany who, after the horrors of Euro 2000, decided to concentrate more on the upbringing of the young players in the Bundesliga clubs. Right now, Germany are widely regarded as the only national team capable of toppling the World and European champion Spanish side, who have greatly benefited from the current Barcelona team, and their football is said to be the most exciting. So maybe until the success of Barcelona, Spain and teams who favour the tactic of playing for possession and stress the importance of having a deep playmaker is stopped, we will continue to see the rise and further development of the deep playmaker.

-Hasan Ejaz

The Resurgence of the Deep Lying Playmaker-Part 1

2012-01-10T16:19:00.002+05:30

and How Clubs are Using Attacking Midfielders As Solutions

There is a clear lack of equilibrium in the demand and supply of natural deep playmaking midfielders, the rapid progression of the 4-2-3-1 over the previous decade has seen a huge rise in the stock of a breed of midfielders who were thought to be dying. Indeed, it was one of the finest midfield orchestrators, Pep Guardiola, who in 2004, while managing Qatar FC, lamented about how his older role was not deemed unwanted in an age of revolving around the use of specific defensive midfielders and attacking midfielders:

“The emphasis, as far as central midfielders are concerned, is all on defensive work”

Yet, he did go on to mention one player who was continuing to shine the beacon of light, current Juventus player Andrea Pirlo. Pirlo has by far been the player looked up by many football experts as the greatest deep playmaker of his era but with little competition. That though has changed in recent times. Besides the usual suspects in Xavi and Xabi Alonso, two players who were groomed into the role at an early stage of their career, Xavi was seen as the direct replacement for Pep while Xabi was crucial to the Real Sociedad side of the early noughties which, amongst other impressive seasons, came second in the 2002/03 season thus leading to Xabi being awarded the Spanish Player of the year, the increasing preference of the 4-2-3-1 for many European sides has seen the growth of players occupying the deep playmaker position.

The rapid increase of the formation (and its close cousins, the 4-3-3 and 4-1-4-1) over the last 3-4 years has caused a boom in the demand for teams to concentrate more on dominating the center of the pitch. With that tactic comes the need for players who are able to be efficient in possession of the ball. The above graph shows the percentages of matches, for the English Premier League, that the team has opted to play a 5 man midfield with a lone striker (either 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1). Though not always, the five man midfield, and 3 man central midfield, involves a deep lying playmaker (also used in some 4-4-2s as with the Manchester United’s case) who is used to effectively control possession and dictate play for his team. Therefore, we can see that there is a huge demand for players with the qualities required to play that role.

The demand has thus far not been easy to keep up with; logically since most of the younger players coming up today have been groomed according to the prevailing tactics of the time, mostly either has attacking midfielders or as defensive midfielders. Two players have been immediate success though through the adaption from an attacking midfielder to deep playmaker are Luka Modric and Bastian Schweinsteiger and thus still being relatively young in comparison to Xavi and Xabi Alonso, their price is arguably amongst the top 5 in the world. Chelsea did have a 40 Million Pounds bid rejected by Tottenham just last August. It’s not only Chelsea who are suffering from the lack of quality playmakers, many of Europe’s top clubs are looking for players to take over the role and many are resorting to testing attacking midfielders in that position.

What is a Deep Playmaker?:

First things first, one has to get the definition of the deep playmaker out of the way. The position is in the center of midfield and can be adopted within either the more common 4-2-3-1 or the 4-4-2 (4-2-2-2 for the pedantic). The formation matters less but what is essential is the qualities of the player, quite specific to certain areas, more than any other position in midfield.

The main qualities one would be looking for within a deep playmaker are passing, intelligence and defensive positioning. His role is that of the main distributor, a quarter back if you will, who provides a link between the defence and the attack and usually connects them with one wonder pass of the ball. Passing, therefore, is considered to be, rather with dire consequences it must be said, the single most important asset needed for a deep playmaker and therefore we can somewhat already see the reasoning behind the articles main argument of attacking midfielders being player deeper than they are used to.

Now, I will try to show some examples of teams opting to rotate attacking midfielders into deeper positions in order to fulfill the need of the playmaker and also the defensive problems that can arise from such tactics.

Wesley Sneijder and Manchester United’s conundrum:

Being a Manchester United fan, the recent trouble presenting itself in the center of midfield has been a particularly interesting issue to study. The question for years has always been regarding the successor to Paul Scholes, one of the most complete central midfielders of his era, starting off as a striker and slowly ending his career as a deep playmaker when his legs weren’t able to carry him forward like they used to. Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes presented a formidable central midfield partnership, though both played very similar roles and were key players in Manchester United’s successes in the mid noughties. What is also interesting though are the players being linked to United daily in hope of solving thosethat lingering question. Besides Luka Modric no other Premier League player consistently linked could be classified as a deep playmaker like Scholes in his latter career, and that is the inherent problem that manager Sir Alex Ferguson is having to work around. Tottenham well and truly know the value of Luka not only to United but also to the other big teams of the Premier League. While his quality is an indication of the value, the lack of substitutes almost doubles that value.

Manchester United are not the financial power they used to be, bidding over the 40 million Tottenham have been demanded is far out of the reach of the Red Devils so they were forced to look elsewhere. Bastian Schweinsteiger was another name commonly put in the press and eventhough his contract was running out within two years and there were slight concerns that he might not accept Bayern Munich’s latest contract offer, the German club were reportedly not going to budge unless offers were in the ludicrous numbers. As it happened, Schweinsteiger did sign a new contract thereby rendering him completely off the market.

So those were the two established deep playmakers gone from the reckoning. Surely there were other players natural to that position who were available? That was simply not the case, the next target that United were set on was Inter Milan’s Wesley Sneijder, a player who had played his entire career as an attacking midfielder, playing either center or on either sides. There was much discussion about just how Sneijder, who had come off his best season in 2009-10 playing as an attacking midfielder in Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan side that won the Seria A and Champions League, would fit in a United system, that while not technically having an attacking midfield position on the team sheet, with Rooney occupying his usual role. Comparing two usual performances of Wesley Sneijder and Wayne Rooney shows the similarities in the positions occupied by both players.

A heat map of the man Wesley Sneijder is trying to replace, Paul Scholes, shows how Sneijder would have to adapt his game in order to fill the role required of him

The heat map shows a clear preference to stay behind the half way line in support of the defenders rather than the attackers. For Inter Milan during Mourinho's days, this role was rotated amongst Esteban Cambiasso and Thiaggo Motta though neither were very adept at passing long range, rather sticking to the role of winning the ball in midfield and laying it off with short and simple passes to Sneijder in attacking positions. Sneijder essentially had two very adept defensive players in behind him thereby reducing the responsibilities on him to support his defenders, he will not be given the same license while at United and would have to learn the trades of defending if he were to be successfully implemented in that position.

It should be added that while United did fail to bring in a new star midfielder, they potentially found one in one of their own, Tom Cleverley. Manchester United were playing like a team possessed in the early part of the season and a primary reason for that was the form of Cleverley who was playing the role of the conductor in midfield, alongside Anderson. While United were free flowing in attack, they were also porous in terms of conceding shots on goal. During the first four games in which Tom Cleverley and Anderson were partnering in midfield, United conceded 7goals in the first four matches, after which Cleverley’s injury has ruled them out for the rest of the season till date. That in effect is the possible danger United are facing if they bring in Wesley Sneijder.

-Hasan Ejaz

Part 2 will up very soon

Alex Ferguson: "Chieck please!"

2012-01-06T04:44:00.004+05:30

Firstly, let me apologise for the awful pun.

Secondly, if you have arrived on this page just because of that awful pun please stop reading. You don't deserve it, and we've already got the pageview hit - just leave.

Newcastle midfielder Chieck Tiote has been scouted by a number of clubs including Manchester United. His stock has risen phenomenally since his arrival from FC Twente in the summer of 2010 for £3.5 million. If any move is to take place in January, rest assured the fee would be a lot more than that. Factor in Tiote’s recently signed SIX AND A HALF YEAR contract, and Magpie’s owner Mike Ashley is considering a Golden Goose dilemma. To cash in, or not to cash in?

Both of Newcastles central midfielders have tasted success with their former clubs. Tiote was part of Schteve McLaren’s (Yes it is necessary to keep calling him that) Eredivisie winning FC Twente side. Alongside classy midfield partner Yohan Cabaye they form a formidable unit at the heart of Newcastle’s team, and are a big part of the surprising form exhibited by the Football League Championship winners of 2009/10. No difficult second season symptoms for the Toon. Cabaye, although apparently not known by the pundits on Match of the Day, was part of Lille’s fantastic Ligue 1 winning side containing Eden Hazard, Gervinho and Moussa Sow.The two of them outplayed Manchester United’s central defence and Tiote in particular got amongst his opponents and ruffled a few feathers; Cabaye of course scored a wonderful free kick goal. Neither Cabaye nor Tiote will be getting nosebleeds this high up the league table, but Alan Pardew faces a real fight to keep them at the club – especially Tiote, who has been compared to Manchester United legend Roy Keane.

Tiote is flattered by such comparisons at this stage of his career and they’re probably not helpful, but any more performances like in the 3-0 victory over Manchester United and he’ll really start to earn that high praise. He snuffed out Wayne Rooney on a number of occasions - whenever the forward dropped deep to find space, instead he found Chieck Tiote tackling, blocking, intercepting and harrying him and his team mates.

Would he fit in at Manchester United? I’m sure he would. United under Ferguson have undergone many evolutions over the 25 years, several great teams have been put together and disassembled, but one thing Sir Alex has quite often struggled to do is replace certain players. Schmeichel is probably the most notable “irreplaceable” United stars. Several men tried to fill the huge void left between the sticks by the great Dane; In no particular order Taibi, Bosnich, Carroll, Mickey Mouse and Mr Bean have all had a go. It took 6 years before Fergie got it right with Van der Sar. Roy Keane is another one of those players that hasn’t really been replaced. And there have been perhaps even more candidates, some of them even more laughable than Massimo Taibi (Djemba Djemba anyone?). Owen Hargreaves was probably the closest fit to Keane’s role, not just a classy player able to pick a pass, but a tenacious battler too. Sadly his entire body was made is blasa wood and glass stuck together with beeswax, and he just couldn’t string successive minutes together on the pitch, let alone a run of games. Tiote seems to have the edge on Hargreaves when it comes to influence or presence, still some way of Roy Keane in that regard, although to be fair almost everyone in the world who ever kicked a football plays second fiddle to the Irishman when it comes to on pitch presence.

Fergie is still a big fan of the 4-4-2. He seems almost a defiant tactician, relying on his players being better than their opposites, but against Newcastle, Giggs and Carrick were outplayed, outmuscled and surprisingly outclassed by Cabaye and Tiote. It’s not an uncommon thing for Fergie to buy a player that has performed well against his team. Obviously there's a lot more scouting that goes on beforehand and after, but a man as confident in his teams abilities cannot help but be impressed when someone does real damage to them.

If Sir Alex does decide to have a go at prising Chieck Tiote away from Tyneside, he’ll need a whole lot of money. Not only is he in outstanding form, not only is he the right sort of player, not only is he on a massively long contract - he’s also had that all important acclimatising period in the Premier League. Much like Keane himself did at Nottingham Forest under Cloughie.

Manchester United have suffered horribly with injuries this season. But even with all of their midfielders fit and ready, they don’t have a player in Tiote’s mould. Someone who will not allow himself or team mates to be bullied, which at times this season United have succumbed to. It’s a very strange sensation watching an Alex Ferguson team get bullied, and what they need is an enforcer. Rumours of a Wesley Schneider transfer went on all summer, but Manchester United already have creative midfielders, Tom Cleverley looked like being a homegrown Scholes replacement until his injury halted his progression, but there’s no Roy Keane in that squad. Phil jones has been used in midfield, but is perhaps too young and good-natured to be the hard man. Tiote looks like he’d be comfortable in that role.

Written by Tom Nash @ffootballer

Emergence of ‘Micro Tactics’ and the Changing Face of Football

2012-01-02T10:13:00.001+05:30

Football is evolving, and how! Gone are the days when teams used to line up with a default formation of 4-4-2 or a 5-3-2 and collide against each other in a game of skill and physicality. Great managers like Helenio Herrera, Arrigo Sacchi, Rinus Michels, Bob Paisley and Sir Matt Busby always played the same formations, and almost always, the same tactics. Managers like Paisley, Brian Clough, Johann Cryuff and Tele Santana always stuck to an ideology which formed the basis to their tactics and gameplay. And they were successful in creating some of the greatest teams in the history of the game.

A fast forward to the modern day game would see the likes of Jürgen Klopp, Andres Villas-Boas and Joachim Löw no longer sticking to a simple game plan. In fact, not many managers are ideology-driven today, as they are success-driven. Their tactics are evolving with time, and more importantly, self-evolving. To put things in perspective, on one hand you have a Pep Guardiola, who devotionally follows the time-tested ways of Barcelona, and on the other, a Jose Mourinho, who carves success out of outsmarting the opposition. In the former’s case, the ideology is more important, and drives the tactical aspect of the game, whereas in the latter’s case, there is no ideology, and the tactics are more dependent on the opposition.

: José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho – The Special One, indeed.

It would be futile to argue on which is a better approach, and I will leave it to the readers to decide for themselves, as that is not the subject of this article in itself. I would only like to hint at how football is progressing, and how the modern game of football is evolving. It is rather interesting to see what Raphael Honigstein of ‘The Guardian’ stated after Bayern’s defeat to Dortmund:

“After a decade in which having a strong “footballing identity” was seen as a must, Klopp’s approach tantalisingly hints at a post-ideological future when there will only be micro-tactics left”

What does this mean to the game? And more importantly, what does it mean to the common fan? There must be a lot of questions that arise in the readers’ minds.

But before all that, what is ‘micro-tactics‘?

To put it simply, micro-tactics is management at its highest level of complexity. Micro-tactics refers to defining each player’s role in a team to the last detail possible. But micro-tactics in football needn’t mean the same, as strategising need not mean telling others what to do. A large part of success comes from drawing a line as to where not to tell them what to do. No player would like to be bogged down with limitations imposed on him, even though a level of control is necessary. Micro-tactics also gives rise to tactics and formations that play best to the abilities of the players available, as opposed to asking the players to play according to an ideology. This allows the coach to extract the most out of the group of players, and thereby perform best to their abilities.

Football, as a game has evolved so much commercially and strategically, that it is no more just a game. Back in old days, it was played for pride and passion for the game. Money, and more importantly success has taken over as the prime motivation today. Head coaches today don’t have the luxury of building a team over 3 or 4 years and then trying to win something. Players want to play at the highest level and add to their silver collection right from the time when they are teens. Post-ideological football will be very different from what we have witnessed over the past decade or two. For a start, new player positions like “defensive targetman” and “fantasista” have evolved recently, which were not in use before.

What has been central to the gradual shift towards micro-tactics has been the rise of young managers like Andre Villas-Boas, Joachim Löw, Jürgen Klopp, Slaven Bilić, Ciro Ferrera and the likes. José Mourinho opened the floodgates by winning the league and the Champions League with an inexperienced Porto side at a very young age, and since then, we have had many young managers achieving various degrees of success with mostly young sides.

Mourinho has always been known for his tactical display on the field. He would shut the opposition out, and play from the back of the formation, with the striker expected to play more than one role. The midfielders and defenders are on strict instructions on how to play on the pitch. Most of his success comes from loading his own box with defending players and playing long balls up front. It is more probable that he would be remembered as the coach who killed the flair, rather than an advocate of the beautiful game. What an average fan forgets to notice is the kind of discipline and groundwork that goes into it. The manager has to convey to the last bit of instruction, to the players in order for such a tactic to work, as opposed to a free flowing game.

For a team that doesn’t train to a particular philosophy, it is all the more difficult to adjust and readjust themselves every week as the opposition changes. A manager needs to take into account the mentality of the players, and the trust they have on each other while devising tactics, apart from intensive scouting of the opposition. Here is where a manager’s intelligence and astuteness comes into play. It is believed that the German coach Joachim Löw scouts his opposition so thoroughly that he comes up with a list of five formations they play, and prepares his side intensively to play three of them. All with a single formation they play, that is a 4-2-3-1. What changes is the individual instructions. Broadly, there are two versions of the formation that Löw employs. One is a regular 4-2-3-1, which plays by retaining the ball and moving it quickly from one player to the other, while retaining the shape. The other, which is played against attacking teams, is a deep 4-2-3-1, which works more on counters, and mostly through the wide men, while Özil plays as a shadow striker. But Löw is able to play any formation that is put in front of him, just by tweaking how individual players are supposed to play on the field.

Joachim Löw – Let not his looks distract you, he's an astute tactician below all that glamour!

It is a similar case with Jürgen Klopp, whose team Borussia Dortmund primarily employs a 4-2-3-1, but there are broadly at least three ways in which they operate – an attacking version which involves quick and short passes, building up from the back, a deep variant which relies more on long passes and use of width, and an asymmetric version, which seeks to expose weaknesses in the opposition. Dortmund have performed so well, that they have been crowned the German champions this season. A lot of credit goes to the coach for identifying players that suit his tactics, and the players themselves for executing the plan on the pitch.

No amount of writing would suffice to stress upon the importance of scouting in the modern game. Every game is scouted, every move is dissected, and every weakness is laid exposed by the shrewdest of the managers. A case in point is Andre Villas-Boas, head coach of Chelsea, who grew up strategising and performing background work for great managers like Bobby Robson and Jose Mourinho. He is so good with his scouting of the opposition, that a picture from Chelsea tactic boards revealed that he scouted oppositions for Mourinho down to details like the average jump height of opposition players during set piece defending. By analysing the opposition to that deep a level, there is little that one could do wrong. In his first season at Porto, he was undefeated in the league, winning 46 out of the 53 matches he has been in charge of, losing just 3. Stupendous indeed! Of course Chelsea are a different matter altogether now.

While there is a definite shift towards micro-tactics, it would be wrong to say that a definite football philosophy does not win you anything. Guardiola’s Barcelona have been winning almost every competition that they participated in, ever since he took charge. There are managers like Manuel Pellegrini and Carlo Ancelotti who involve micro-tactics within a philosophy, and there are managers who are gradually shifting from a definite philosophy to open-ended modern game.

Whatever may be the reason – may it be success or lure of fame and recognition, or the fear of losing or obsession with winning, or plain outsmarting the opposition, the game is changing. It is drifting towards a post-ideological era, where only micro-tactics will remain. And football will all be about numbers, stats and figures. That is not to say that the beautiful game will lose all its flair and magic. For there will always be a Messi in an Argentine team playing to a plan, a Zidane in a disjoint French team, and a Del Piero in Juventus shirt playing their hearts out, for the love of the game more than anything else.

-This Post originally appeared on SportsKeeda

-Kiran Vr

The False 9:Year In Review

2011-12-30T11:59:00.000+05:30

What a fantastic year 2011 has been,Manchester United finally knocking off Liverpool of their "perch" by claiming their 19th English League title. Barcelona continued their dominance by winning the Champions League and the Club World Cup. But this year one certainly didn't see revolutionary tactics,but there were many a interesting tweaks and innovations. Barcelona with their 3-4-3 and Napoli's brilliant counter attacking style were some examples.
So if you haven't been following The False 9 for the past 8 months or you once again want to brush up your memory on how a media punta actually works or why the Libero may be the next big thing in football,then have a read.

May

May saw the start of our Rough Diamonds series where we look at young players who have the potential to be World-Class footballers when they reach their prime. This series was also featured on A Football Report's The Best of Football Writing in 2011.

Then as a preview of the Champions League final we did a piece called The Champions League Final If I Was God. Sadly for Manchester United fans the match didn't turn out the way it was described in the article.

June

June saw us get serious with The Makelele Role,Javier Hernandez-Rebirth Of the Poacher and The Libero-The Next Tactical Innovation.

We also mulled whether the likes of Andy Carroll and QPR will be a success in 2011-12 in Andy Carroll-The 35M Throwback and QPR-Will They Survive?

Then we previewed Argentina's chances at the Copa America and this article was featured on The Guardian's Favorite things this week.

Next we threw an insight what sort of roles Ashley Young and Nuri Sahin will play at their new clubs.

Finally we tried answering the age old question of whether Barcelona can do it on a cold December night at Stoke

July

We tried answering another eternal question,Why England Never Win?

Also we did some analyisis on if Argentina are the new England?

August

August saw the start of the football season,so we were busy doing Match Previews and Reviews which are of little use now.
So the only article which you people may interested in would be the The Death Of The Box To Box Midfielder

September

We ran out of steam in September with only 3 articles,but Jose Mourinho would be very interested in this one-How To Beat Barcelona?

October

In the early parts of the season Manchester United conceded a lot of goals,read a comprehensive analysis on how they were conceded.

Also take a look at how Levante found themselves at the top of La Liga.

November

November was an exciting month for us,as we were nominated for the NOPAs.Sadly we didn't win the award.

We started out Legends series and onto more serious stuff we discussed how the Future could be strikerless for Spain.

Another article which was quite popular was Mikel Arteta,Media Puntas and The False 9s.

For the people who hate football tactics and still think Messi is just a number 10 and not a false 9 we recommend Football and Alcohol and When Fergie Lost by 9!.

December

Start of December saw us previewing the El Clasico with a series of articles which included Mesut Ozil-From a German Heart to a Spanish Dance.

And we ended the year with Oriol Romeu-David Luiz's Saviour? and In Praise of Attacking Fullbacks.

Have A Happy 2012!

Conventional wingers: A dying breed?

2011-12-29T08:24:00.000+05:30

In the good old days, the rules of playing football were simple, and so were the tactics. The big and sturdy lads played in the centre of the park and upfront, the hard lads guarded the back, the bright ones played as inside forwards and the little, quick ones played on the wings. The left footed ones played on the left, and the right footed ones played on the right. And the one who had no partner to rely on, played in goal.

Some eight decades ago, 2-3-5 ruled football. Then came this guy called Herbert Chapman who was the manager of Huddersfield Town (and later Arsenal). He decided to change the way the game was played, and switched his team’s formation from the traditional 2-3-5 to the famed W-M formation, which actually translated into 3-2-2-3 on the football pitch. Chapman did away altogether with wing-play, his firm belief that inside passing was “more deadly, if less spectacular than the senseless policy of running along the lines and centering just in front of the goalmouth, where the odds are nine to one on the defenders.”

Herbert Chapman – Man with a plan

Chapman won two FA Cups and five league titles in all with Huddersfield Town and Arsenal between 1922 and 1933 with this ideology, but the image of a winger dribbling, running past full backs and crossing into the box remained the ideal sight to the eyes of English football lovers. One might argue that Chapman’s success should have ended any such notions, but the nostalgia associated with wingers continued to breed in the minds of the English.

Then came the Second World War, and when it ended – there was a sudden influx of wingers in English football. Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Jimmy Mullen, Len Shackleton, Charlie Mitten were some of the names that emerged in the aftermath of the war, delighting the spectators with their adventurous displays on the flanks. Suddenly, it seemed that Chapman’s theories had become a thing of the past and wing-play became the trend in English football again.

Stanley Matthews – Greatest conventional winger of all time?

The epitome of wing-play came in 1953, when Stanley Matthews’s heroics on the right wing almost single-handedly won the FA Cup final for Blackpool against Bolton Wanderers. However, the Soviets were scornful of such individualism as against the collectivist mode of theirs, Dinamo Moscow manager Mikhail Yakushin noting that –

“The principle of collective play is the guiding one in Soviet football. A player must not only be good in general; he must be good for the particular team. His individual qualities are high, but we put collective football first and individual football second, so we do not favour his style as we think teamwork would suffer.”

The 6-3 hammering at the hands of Hungary at Wembley – just six months after Matthews’s performance in the Cup final – was just the beginning of the end for the winger in that era. But the final nail on the coffin was the shift from three at the back of a W-M formation to maintaining a back four, thus resulting in a 4-4-2 (or 4-1-3-2) as we know today. The process began during the early 1950s in Hungary, the USSR and Brazil, and gained universal recognition when Brazil won back-to-back World Cups in 1958 and 1962.

Alf Ramsey developed his own ideas on the 4-4-2 formation in the mid 1960s and by the time England won the World Cup in 1966, the winger was no more the traditional winger. He was now regarded as a wide midfielder, who was not only supposed to run down the flank and cross the ball into the box, but also put in a defensive shift by negating the effectiveness of the opposition full backs.

Football tactics continued to evolve, and formations such as the 4-3-3 or the 4-2-4 came into the limelight in the next two decades, when the ‘wide midfielder’ became sort of a ‘wide forward’, but the winger remained a distant memory. The Dutch adopted ‘totaalvoetbal’ or ‘total football’ which brought considerable success, and attacking flair came to be associated with the Netherlands national team and Ajax of that time. However, the popularity of the 4-4-2 persisted, compelling Johan Cruyff to describe its dominance as the “death of football”.

Masters of 'total football'

The new millennium brought back the wingers, as different formations such as 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 came to prominence along with 4-4-2. The 4-2-3-1 accommodated two holding midfielders, which allowed the managers to play wingers with full backs overlapping them. A new breed of wingers – the inverted wingers – cropped up in the meantime who could play on the opposite flank, unlike the one matching their stronger foot. The overlapping full backs remained outside the box while the wingers cut inside.

Such a tendency to move infield was a deviation from the original perception that the true purpose of a winger was to run past defenders to the goal line and whip in a cross into the penalty area. As the lone striker would require some kind of support in the box from midfield when it came to scoring goals, the wingers cut inside to assist the centre forwards. The inverted wingers could come inside onto their stronger foot while attacking the weaker foot of the opposition full back, and it also enabled them to take a better shot on goal. This was the only explanation for the modern directness of such wing-play.

There are numerous examples where an inverted winger operates with an overlapping full back. Robert Pires with Ashley Cole (Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’), Arjen Robben with Gregory van der Wiel (the Netherlands) or with Philip Lahm (Bayern Munich), Angel Di Maria with Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid) or even Ashley Young or Luis Nani with Patrice Evra (Manchester United) are prime examples.

Arjen Robben – The Inverted Winger

One might also find attacking midfielders drifting onto the opposite flank and doubling up as wingers. The best example that can be cited is Lionel Messi at Barcelona, though there are other prominent ones such as Niko Kranjcar and Luka Modric at Tottenham Hotspur. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney might be known as strikers, but their ability to play anywhere across the forward line means they could occupy a similar role when needed.

Currently, they are few teams in Europe that operate with conventional wingers. Barcelona, the champions of Europe last season, do not have any natural wingers in their team. Players like Iniesta or Dani Alves often play out wide in midfield, but their ‘tiki-taka’ style of play doesn’t require an outright winger as such. Similar is the case with English giants like Chelsea and Arsenal, who usually operate in the 4-3-3 formation.

However, teams like Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Tottenham Hotspur have held on to the belief that wing-play is essential to their counterattacking style. Manchester United have Luis Antonio Valencia, who is a right-footed right winger – a throwback to the good old times. Then there is Gareth Bale, who has been consistently doing well for Tottenham as an outright left-footed left winger.

So the conventional winger has now become a ‘new age’ winger of sorts – one who can take on full backs, score goals and operate as a playmaker rather than just getting to the by-line and curl in crosses. With the evolution of tactics, one might as well witness him doing just about everything there’s to do with the ball on the pitch.

This Post first appeared on Sportskeeda

-Abhinav Chakraborty

In Praise of: Attacking Full-Backs

2011-12-19T01:23:00.000+05:30

The modern full-back has many duties to perform. No longer is it enough to leave an opposition winger stud-pocked and bruised, a modern full-back must also present an attacking threat of his own. He must overlap his own winger, get to the byline and deliver a cross.

A modern full-back must have pace, he must have discipline and positional sense, he must have good technique and great stamina.

Perhaps the most famous full-back in the history of football, certainly in recent decades, is Paolo Maldini. He represented a different breed of full-back to those prominent in the modern game. Strong in the tackle, great in the air, and a gifted reader of the game, his defensive qualities gave him a splendid career lasting 25 seasons at one of the top clubs in Europe. But, he wouldn’t get into most modern sides. Certainly not as a left back. True – he was equally imperious at centre-back for AC Milan, and would certainly fit the bill with any top side today in his prime. But at full-back, the role has changed. His eventual replacement at Milan and for the Azzuri, Gianluca Zambrotta is much more attacking minded than the great Maldini. Zambrotta is facing a challenge for his Milan spot (where perhaps his utility is a drawback) from Luca Antonini – a converted left winger.

A lot has been written about the specialisation on midfielders and attackers – deep lying playmakers, trequartistas, false nines… traditional roles on the football pitch are blurring and redefining. An attacking full-back may seem to be an oxymoron, but there’s few teams who don’t employ them these days. Teams like Barcelona are characterised by full-backs so far up the pitch that the defensive midfielder (First choice being Sergio Busquets) is more often than not nearer his own goal than members of his back four. Brazilian Dani Alves spends more time in the opposition half than his own, giving width to a system that has converted strikers playing as wingers and drifting infield when in possession. Indeed, it is the prevalence of attacking midfielders than has prompted the high demand, effusive acclaim and high transfer fees for top quality defensive midfielders.

Brazilians have long been at the forefront of attacking full-back play. Carlos Alberto scroed one of the most famous World Cup goals in history in 1970 whilst playing as a right-back, and a lot of the best modern attacking full-backs are Brazilian. Dani Alves, Maicon, Michel Bastos, Marcelo, Felipe, the da Silva twins and before all of those Roberto Carlos and Cafu are all more comfortable on the front foot. Such is the trend at the moment that quite often some full-backs at top clubs are somewhat questionable in defence. England’s current first choice right back Glen Johnson is better known for his attacking forays and occasional wonder goals than for his tackling and defensive prowess. On the other flank for the three lions, Ashley Cole – arguably one of the world’s best attacking left-backs – has the rare quality of looking just as comfortable playing one-twos on the opposition 18 yard box as he is slide tackling on the edge of his own. To see Ashley Cole playing so well for Chelsea over recent years is to wonder why successive England managers have struggled to find an answer to “the left midfield problem” over the years. Don’t forget that when breaking into the Arsenal team all those years ago he was keeping Sylvinho out of the side, who at the time was keeping Roberto Carlos out of the Brazilian national team.

The prevalence of attack-minded full-backs and the influence that they have on games is perhaps best illustrated by the praise given to those considered the best in this position. Philippe Lahm is definintely one of those considered the best – the distinction given to him is that… well… he can defend a bit. The emphasis given to the attacking duties for a full-back has become so dominant that full-backs that can actually defend are singled out. Gary Neville, for all his detractors on Merseyside and elsewhere, was considered one of the very best – because in addition to his famous close relationship on and off the pitch with David Beckham, he was a fantastic defender too. Towards the end of his career he curbed the attacking instincts to an extent, but in his pomp he was renowned for overlapping and getting crosses in, and also for covering back to win the ball back from wingers. Neville was an automatic name on both Manchester United and England team-sheets for ten or so years, earning 400 league appearances and 85 international caps. There’s no doubting that he revelled equally in the ire directed by opposition fans as he did in the support from his own. Gary Neville won eight Premier League winners medals, but came up short on the international scene. Not his fault really….

One player who has won international tournaments is Sergio Ramos. He might look like the kid from Home Improvement who went on to star in Pinocchio and not much else, but he’s also a damn fine example of an attacking full-back. Admittedly, not the best at defending…

As is the current trend in all discussions tactical, we will always, inevitably, inexorably, inescapably turning to look at Barcelona. This season, Guardiola has often sent out his team in a 3-4-3 formation. Using Mascherano as a centre-back, more able than most to bring the ball out of defence, and sending Alves into midfield itself. It would be easy to imagine Pep Guardiola saying to Alves “Just do what you do Dani” and sending him out. Iniesta has ostensibly lined up at left midfield, but the vast majority of the width has been provided by Alves.

Perhaps we’re witnessing the next tactical evolution…? Necessity being the mother of invention, it was expected that the next big thing would be finding a way to beat Barca’s tiki-taka style, but maybe it will just be the further refinement of that style. More in midfield, and with a defensive midfielder more competent and confident at passing the ball around to keep possession… this team could be even more frustratingly good than before. Death by possession…

What should we call it? Tiki-taka-toe?

Marseille 2-1 Lorient:Cheyrou wins it for Marseille

2011-12-18T11:04:00.001+05:30

It’s not so often that you see two 4-4-2s pitted against each other these days, but this was the case as Marseille snatched a 2-1 win over Lorient. This game nicely illustrates Jonathan Wilson’s point that: “Formations are neutral; it is their application that gives them positive or negative qualities.”

BBC African Player of the Year André Ayew was unavailable for OM, although his brother Jordan started upfront alongside Loïc Rémy. Jérémy Morel and Morgan Amalfitano lined up against the club they left in the summer. Lorient lined up as expected, except for Mathias Autret starting on the right in the place of Yann Jouffre.

Kick and rush?

The start of the match was frantic, both teams looking to bypass the creative zone with long balls. This can be a feature of teams playing 4-4-2; with less obvious short passing options than a single-striker formation, getting the ball straight to wingers and forwards or behind the defence. But in this instance, the teams had enough quality and avoided a “kick and rush” game; Lorient putting together some neat passes once the game settled, before Marseille grew into the game following Lamine Koné’s 32nd minute sending-off and finished with 66% possession.

Left midfielders cut inside

Rather than simply playing flying wingers, both teams mixed it up on the flanks to good effect. The right-sided players on either team, Amalfitano and Autret, did stay in position out wide and offered a direct crossing threat. However, Mathieu Valbuena would wander in from Marseille’s left, often ending up on the opposite flank to create an overload (much like Silva and Milner have been doing at Manchester City). On Lorient’s left flank, Mathieu Coutadeur would drift into the middle to replicate the numerical advantage gained from playing three in the centre and was a great influence on his side’s attacking play in the first half. As a knock-on effect, both left-backs (Morel and Mareque) had a tendency to drift forward on the overlap.

The difference in the movement of the left-sided players and their right-sided counterparts is evident from the heat maps below.

How to defend without a holder

It was easy to see which team was more used to playing in a 4-4-2 shape. Lorient stayed compact throughout the game, with the defensive line never far from the midfield. This caused the defence to push up when Lorient had the ball which may have cost them, as Rémy had space to run in behind the defence, forcing Koné to haul him down. However, the general result had been to deny Marseille space between the lines.

The home side allowed too much of this space to Coutadeur to play through balls in the first half. It was clear that the defence are used to having a holding midfielder sweeping up in front of them, so sat back a bit, but having only two in the centre meant they had less protection. Alou Diarra and Stephane M’bia are both players who are comfortable at sitting in front of the defence, but were troubled by Lorient’s passing and got drawn higher up the pitch (as well as having more responsibility to get forward than in, say, a 4-2-3-1).

Compare this with Lorient’s approach when Marseille dominated in the second half. They formed two banks of four and the central midfielders stationed themselves close to the deeper defence. While this standing off could have been punished if Marseille had someone who could provide creativity from deep, they were successful in stifling Marseille’s attacking play until late on.

Fluidity key in attack

Rather than the traditional strike partnerships of yore (big man-little man, creator-poacher etc.), some of the teams of today who use two centre-forwards will play a style in which neither of them acts as a focal point. Instead, they drop off into space between the lines to create chances for the attacking midfielders or their partner, almost like playing with a pair of false nines. Think, for example, of the Rooney-Tevez partnership at Manchester United (which Ferguson could be trying to recreate with Danny Welback). Other prominent examples are the Aguëro-Balotelli partnership at City and Rossi-Cassano for Italy.

The duo of Kevin Monnet-Paquet and Joel Campbell, while lacking the ability of those players, worked to similar effect here. Monnet-Paquet was very lively, dropping into the hole to link Lorient’s play and moving out to the wing to provide width when Coutadeur came inside. Campbell, on loan from Arsenal, played more like a proper no.9 but liked to drift to the right before cutting in.

This fluidity is a feature throughout Christian Gourcuff’s side and allowed them to put together some wonderful passing triangles, playing their way out of defence and creating chances to slip through balls to onrushing players. The succession of neat lay-offs from their slick passing moves sent Jean-Alaixys Romao through in the first half and he should have squared for one of his team-mates to score. Unfortunately for Lorient, going to ten men severely compromised their ability to put attacking combinations together. Going to 4-4-1, with Romao filling in at centre-back and Monnet-Paque to the left wing, they didn’t offer enough support for Campbell.

Marseille, meanwhile, looked ponderous in attacking even when dominating. Ayew and Rémy didn’t do enough to link the play. Deschamps could have changed to a formation involving an extra midfielder to provide creativity, but perhaps this is one of the trappings of playing 4-4-2 when going after a goal; reducing the amount of strikers you have feels like a backward move. Anyway, Marseille often struggled for ideas and would often resort to getting their full-backs to cross hopefully from deep.

Individuals settle game

Why is 4-4-2 is so well-loved in England? Could it be that the country which, more than any in Europe, values individuality (rather than the collective) likes to see a system in which individual players makes the difference? Whether that’s complete bollocks or not, some would argue that such a simple tactical match-up makes for a game settled by individual contributions rather than tactical wizardry.

First, Innocent Emeghara (on for Campbell) latched on to a long ball then beat Diarra and Mandanda to give Lorient the lead on 77 minutes. Seven minutes later, the bright Valbuena finally found some space in behind Lorient’s midfield and placed the ball into the top corner of Fabien Audard’s goal. And in stoppage time, the midfielder’s free-kick was headed home by Benoit Cheyrou (who could have been marked by Romao if he hadn’t been sent off seconds earlier).

At the same time, we’ve already seen complex tactical factors affecting the game and causing it to be more than a simple battle of 4-4-2s. And even if the goals were more down to individual contributions, they can’t be fully separated from tactics – Emeghara only had to beat one defender for his goal because Marseille were pushing forward in an attempt to score.

Marseille dominated the possession and shot statistics and may have won comfortably without a good performance from Audard, but did lack the finesse to create openings for much of the match. The team looks a lot more comfortable with a single striker formation and will surely return to this once the older Ayew brother returns, but need to show more cohesion going forwardif they are to challenge for the Champions League.

As for Lorient, they played some good positive football early on but did not contribute much after going down to ten men (which is understandable at the Stade Velodrome). I’d recommend watching this little-known side if you get the chance; their purist-pleasing style is created by manager Gourcuff despite the limitations of running such a small club. You can see the difference between his coaching ability and the resources available to him when Autret knows exactly where to move in relation to his team-mates, but lacks the basic technique to control the ball once he’s in a good position. Anyway, the Brittany club should be staying the top half and continue to trouble France’s big boys.

-Ihsaan Budaly

Oriol Romeu-David Luiz's Saviour?

2011-12-15T14:55:00.000+05:30

Oriol Romeu at 6ft 1in and with his muscular body must be the most un-Barcaish player to have emerged from La Masia. He may not have the technique or the vision of his former partners in crime at La Masia,but the former Espanyol youth player 's tactical reading and his willingness to cover for his teammates is vital,especially when you have gifted ball playing midfielders ahead of you. Chelsea's resurgence in recent times is mainly due to the fact that they have tightened at the back and are conceding less goals. Earlier in the season the defence was leaky and with Obi Mikel out of sorts and Essien injured,they didn't play with a recognised defensive midfielder which added to their defensive woes. Now,playing with Romeu in front of the back four and playing a deeper defensive line,the blues are more organised and are looking to challenge for the Premier League

When you have someone like David Luiz playing in the center of defence,you need to have someone responsible and defensively capable player to cover for him. Many people feel David Luiz remains a liability in defence and doesn't deserve a place at Chelsea,but in these days where opposition teams generally tend to play with two holding midfielders,the ball playing central defender becomes a potent goal-creating(scoring) threat. But as we have seen many times with Luiz,it is catastrophic for some one playing in that position to be adventurous. Last season's title deciding game at Old Trafford was one of the numerous occasions where Chelsea had to pay for David Luiz's lack of defensive awareness. So people may ask,why not drop him?

Fantastic technique,great finish and dribbling skills which will make any Premier League winger proud,which manager doesn't want such a player in his team. And when that player is a central defender ,it is an added bonus as the opposition rarely makes plans or assigns someone to mark a central defender. Having said all of this, a defender's primary duty is to defend and Luiz doesn't seem to have understood that fully. So why not play him in midfield or as a full back?

Barcelona under Pep Guardiola have been the source of many tactical innovations over the past 3-4 years. And players changing their starting positions to perform different roles has been a main tactic,Lionel Messi dropping back to play the false 9 role,Dani Alves playing as a right winger,David Villa cutting in from the left to play as a striker. So this shows that moving away from your initial position and role is the order of the day. In terms of positioning there may not be much difference in a number 10 and a false 9,but as Lionel Messi will tell you there is a world of difference. In the el clasico,Pep Guaridiola after 20 minutes switched Puyol from center back to right back and asked Busquets to drop deeper. This move was vital in Barca fighting back from a goal down and winning the game. Sergio Busquets after the switch, didn't exactly play as a center back.

Source-Opta Jose Twitter Account

The picture above shows that Busquets was neither a center back nor a defensive midfielder,Barcelona were playing with a back 3 and a half . Now coming back to Romeu and Luiz,they seem to be the perfect pair to replicate such a switch. Luiz can be given more freedom to attack,especially when Chelsea are chasing the game, Luiz can push forward and go on runs into the final third with the assurance that Romeu will cover for him if there is a counter attack. Both of them have unconventional skills set,which do not allow them to perform specific roles,Romeu's passing and vision is not of enough quality to play as a deep lying playmaker and we all know about Luiz's limitations as a central defender. So it makes perfect sense for AVB to try out the 3 and a half defence and allow David Luiz the freedom he craves. Having said all of this, its not certain that something which works for Barcelona will work for Chelsea,as players under Guardiola have been brought up together and understand each other's roles on the pitch very well. For players to achieve a level of fluidity where they can seamlessly switch positions and roles,they require a good understanding of each other's game which requires time and loads of training ground practice.

For David Luiz to continue playing as a central defender at the highest level in a flat 4-4-2,he needs to curb his attacking instincts and remain disciplined. Even if that is possible,Chelsea will lose a goal scoring threat in the final third. So the ideal solution for AVB is to play a back 3 and a half with Romeu playing as a half CB-half DM. AVB can do this by bringing Ivanovic slightly inside and giving Luiz a free role on the right. So the young Oriol Romeu may be the key to David Luiz's future at Chelsea.

Maybe someday we will get to see Premier League teams playing football like the Dutch national team of 1970s

Coral.co.uk:

If you are thinking of making some bets on this weekends sporting fixtures then look no further than coral.co.uk to make all of these bets!

Football Venn Diagrams

2011-12-11T16:42:00.001+05:30

El Clásico:Luis Figo

2011-12-10T14:34:00.001+05:30

Could we write a series like this without this man? The most infamous of the Clásico Heartbreakers, followed by some honourable mentions...

Clásico appearances: 23 (14 for Barcelona, 9 for Real Madrid)
Clásico goals: 4 (3 for Barcelona, 1 for Real Madrid)
Barcelona record: W7 D4 L3
Real Madrid record: W4 D3 L2

Even before arriving in Spain, Luis Figo was at the heart of transfer controversy. Having unwittingly entered an agreement with Juventus in 1995 due to the influence of his club, Sporting Lisbon, an angered Figo then attempted to sign a contract with Parma. As a result, Figo was banned from transferring to an Italian club for two years, something he attributes to the influence of corrupt Juventus director Luciano Moggi. However, Barcelona came to the rescue with a bid of £2.25 million for the Portugal international.

Figo was initially billed as a replacement for Michael Laudrup, who had moved to bitter rivals Real Madrid a year ago. But soon after arriving at the Camp Nou he was moved from a central position to the right wing, where he would play the best football of his career. Possessing excellent ball control, great awareness of his team-mates’ movement and an unpredictable burst of acceleration, Figo was instrumental as Barca won La Liga in 1998 and 1999, the Copa del Rey in 1997 and 1998 and the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1997.

The Blaugrana were also getting the better of rivals Real Madrid in clashes between the two. Figo was a big-game player, and made the difference in these key encounters. He had a key role in his team’s double over Real Madrid in the 1997/98 season – here we see him racing through to set up Giovanni for a dramatic late winner at the Bernabéu.

In the return Clásico at the Camp Nou, Barca romped to a 3-0 victory, Figo scoring one of the finest goals of his career with this left-foooted screamer.

This relationship was to turn sour as Figo demanded a higher wage, claiming that the club undervalued him. Months of speculation over the possibility of a move to Italy passed, but the eventual outcome was far more dramatic. Real Madrid broke the world transfer record, paying £38 million to bring Figo to the Spanish capital and begin the galactico era.

If he wasn’t feeling fully appreciated before, this was about to change; being awarded the Ballon d’Or as Real won the league title in his debut season. Another title win would come in the 2002/03 season, but the greatest moment of Figo’s time at the club was the Champions League win of 2002. Labelled by critics beforehand as the “match of the century”, Madrid faced Barcelona in the semi-final. Figo missed the first leg but featured in the second as Los Merengues won the European Clásico 3-1 aggregate before defeating Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 at Hampden Park.

But while becoming a hero at Madrid, the fans who had idolised him before his move would also make their feelings clear. Most infamous is the Clásico of November 2002, at the Camp Nou. While it was a fairly unremarkable 0-0 draw, it’s memorable for the hostile reception given by Los Cules to Figo; jeering his every touch as well as throwing coins and bottles when he went to take corners. And of course, the pig’s head.

Figo would eventually leave Madrid in 2005, as the galactic project began to fall apart. Moving to Inter, he enjoyed a successful end to his career, making 132 appearances and winning 4 Scudetti. He remains at the San Siro in a backroom role, happy to be away from the country where he caused so much controversy. A truly controversial figure, seen by many as a mercenario, he must at least be remembered as one of the greatest players to have played for either Real or Barca and a key figure in the history of the Clásico.

Plays like...

It’s clear that Figo, as the protagonist of Portugal’s “Golden Generation”, was a huge influence on many wingers such as Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. But Ronaldo’s explosive, powerful style is at odds Figo’s more measured approach. Players like Mesut Özil and Andrés Iniesta, primarily creative with a tendency to move into wide positions, seem to mirror Figo’s style better.

Honourable mentions
Or should that be dishonourable mentions? Here are some players who’ve played for both Real Madrid and Barcelona; not all of them, however, have donned both shirts in the Clásico.

Josep Samitier – A colourful figure, who is still Barcelona’s second-highest goalscorer. However, he transferred to Real Madrid in 1932 and went to score three Clásico goals against his former employers. Going on to become a manager then scout for Barcelona, he again defected to Real Madrid and hijacked the Alfredo di Stefano transfer. Still seen as a Barca hero despite his betrayal and his friendship with Franco.

Ricardo Zamora – Legendary Spanish ‘keeper spent three years at Barcelona and six at Real Madrid.

Alfredo di Stefano – One of the greatest players in history and the top scorer in the history of the Clásico with 18 goals. While never being a Barcelona player, he gets a mention for agreeing to sign for Barcelona before being persuaded to join Madrid when arriving in Spain in 1953, a saga that intensified the rivalry between the teams.

Luis Milla – The defensive midfielder came up through Barcelona’s academy and had started to establish himself in the first team. But after a disagreement over his contract renewal, he joined Real Madrid on a free transfer in 1990 and would go on to make over 200 appearances for the Castilian giants.

Gheorghe Hagi – Despite enjoying a good second season with Real Madrid, the Romanian midfielder, was sold to Brescia in 1992. After shining at the 1994 World Cup he went to Barcelona, but didn’t really settle, eventually moving to Turkish giants Galatasaray where he played his best football.

Robert Prosinecki – The Croatian playmaker was something of a journeyman. He spent three years
at Real Madrid at the start of the ‘90s, scoring in a Clásico, but joined Barcelona in 1996 after more travels. He left the Camp Nou after just a year, eventually becoming a cult hero at Portsmouth.

Samuel Eto’o – Barcelona were keen to sign the Cameroonian after he impressed at Real Mallorca, with the small problem that he was co-owned by Real Madrid. However, a large transfer fee meant that Eto’o got his move and went on to be prolific for the Catalans, winning three league titles and two Champions leagues.

Javier Saviola – Impressed as a youngster at Barca, but lost form and favour and failed to make an impact after moving to Madrid on a free transfer.

-Ihsaan Budaly

We are previewing El Clasico,with a series of articles all of which you can read here

If you like our blog,then do vote for us here.

El Clásico:The Dream Team vs The Galacticos

2011-12-09T04:24:00.002+05:30

An imagining of a match between two famous El Clasico sides. The 1992 European Cup winning Barcelona team, known as “The Dream Team” versus the 2002 Real Madrid team, at the beginning of what is known as the Galactico’s period. Il Fenomeno doesn’t make the side – he signed in late summer 2002. Sadly too, Romario didn’t join until the year after Barcelona’s European Cup triumph.

First up, the team sheets.

Barcelona 1992 (4-2-3-1)

Real Madrid 2002 (4-4-2 Diamond)

Former player Cruyff’s return as manager to the Camp Nou in 1988 was the start of a resurgence in Barcelona’s fortunes, following the relatively disappointing years with El Tel and Luis Aragones in charge. Four La Liga titles in a row (1991-94) and a European Cup triumph helped to make Cruyff Barlecona’s most successful ever manager, until he was recently overtaken by Pep Guardiola. Cruyff’s team combined a core of Basque players with outstanding foreign signings such as Hristo Stoichkov, Ronald Koeman and Michael Laudrup.

Real Madrid’s Galactico’s would go on to include Englishmen Beckham and Owen, but in 2002 President Florentino Perez had been in control for two years, and had added former Blaugranas hero Luis Figo and Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, breaking transfer fee records each year. In contrast to Barcelona, Real Madrid had a fine European Cup pedigree at the time of their team featured here, in fact Los Merengues had won the UEFA Champions League in 1998 and 2000.

In the 1991/92 season, Barcelona’s Dream Team won La Liga, but failed to beat their El Clasico rivals – both the game at Camp Nou and Santiago Bernabeu finished 1-1. In contrast, the Real Madrid team of 2001/02 finished 3^rd behind Rafa Benitez’s famous Valencia side of Canizares, Ayala, Ruben Baraja and Pablo Aimar, and Deportivo La Coruna. They did of course win the Champions League and with the purchase of Brazilian superstar striker Ronaldo went on to win La Liga in the next season.

The Match Report.

Two legendary teams took to the field at Wembley, the home of football. Barcelona 1992 “The Dream Team”, led out by captain Andoni Zubizarreta; and Real Madrid 2002 “The Galacticos”, captained by Fernando Hierro. A nice touch before the match began – both teams gave each other a guard of honour, clapping their rivals onto the re-laid hallowed turf of the Cathedral of Football.

Soon after, hostilities resumed – a match full of energy, passion, and a fair few frayed tempers. Barcelona prevailed 2-1 courtesy of goals from Hristo Stoichkov and Ronald Koeman, and survived a late onslaught from Real Madrid after being reduced to 10 men for the last 12 minutes. Real piled on the pressure, but couldn’t find the second goal to take it to extra time, after Zidane scored a goal of fabulous quality.

Real Madrid started the more lively of the two. Roberto Carlos spent more time in the opposition half during the first twenty minutes than his own – putting Albert Ferrer under pressure and restricting Goikoetxea’s attacking chances.

Barcelona began to come into it though, Guardiola and Bakero putting some lovely passes together, keeping the ball from Real Madrid. Guardiola in particular characterised his play with simple, short passes which had Real’s midfield chasing shadows.

The first goal came ten minutes before half time. A slip by Luis Figo letting Michael Laudrup onto the ball in a dangerous position, the great Dane advanced on the Real Madrid’s defence, drifting into the space vacated by Roberto Carlos who had sprinted ahead to give Figo an option. A lovely chipped ball between Hierro and Helguera put Stoichkov through who let it bounce before firing a low shot beyond Casillas.

The young ‘keeper made some amends early in the second half, pulling off a series of stunning saves to deny Stoichkov and Bakero, and also a stunning reaction save to keep a Nadal header out from a well worked corner.

Real Madrid then began to play a bit, showing their strengths. Roberto Carlos continued his tireless runs, Makelele snuffing out Barcelona attacks and distributing the ball to his more creative colleagues. The Real Madrid attack had been quiet until this point, but in the 55^th minute they combined to give Zubizarreta more to do than keep himself warm. Zidane outmuscled Bakero and played in Figo with a glorious reverse ball. Quick feet by Figo found him half a yard in the area, his curled shot had Zubizarreta beaten, but the ball agonisingly pinged off the corner of the bar and left post.

Barcelona seemed to take heed of the warning. Applying more pressure through midfield, they began to press higher up the pitch and were rewarded for their belligerence with a second with just over 20 minutes remaining. Another well worked set piece found Koeman 30 yards out. The Real Madrid wall remained static as Laudrup surprised them by playing the ball laterally to the onrushing Koeman who again cemented his reputation for deadly accuracy and power from range. No keeper in the world would’ve kept his shot out; 2-0 Barcelona.

Barcelona didn’t take their foot off the gas though. They continued to play the possession game, frustrating Real Madrid. Helguera in particular began to take out his frustration on opponent’s legs. Although perhaps it was a ploy to bring out the temper of another hot-head on the pitch. In the 78^th minute Stoichkov was brought down once to many times for his liking, and retaliated by raking his studs across the ribs of Helguera when both were on the floor. Helguera received a yellow for the foul, but Stoichkov got his marching orders from referee Pierluigi Collina.

Real Madrid, a man to the good but two goals down, turned up the tempo in the remaining minutes of the game, and it was then Barcelona’s turn to soak up pressure. Five minutes before the end Zidane produced the moment of brilliance his team had been looking for, setting up a grandstand finish. Receiving the ball from Makelele in the centre circle, he played a one-two with Solari, then laid the ball off for Morientes. Morientes found substitute Steve McManaman down the right wing who made the bye-line before chipping a cross to Zidane on the penalty spot. Bringing the ball down with his chest, he executed a perfect Cruyff turn, bamboozling Koeman before hammering a right foot shot into the top corner of the goal.

In the end it wasn’t enough. An injury time effort from Raul was palmed onto the bar and behind, but Zubizarreta’s touch wasn’t spotted by the linesman or referee, who blew for full time. The Dream Team 2; The Galactico’s 1; a match of scintillating football sent the 80,000 capacity crowd home happy. Everyone present in that grand old stadium will be telling people for years “that match was unbelievable”.

You can follow Tom on twitter @ffootballer or visit his blog The Frustrated Footballer

We are previewing El Clasico,with a series of articles all of which you can read here

If you like our blog,then do vote for us here.

El Clásico:Luis Enrique Martínez García

2011-12-08T17:51:00.001+05:30

Today’s Clásico Heartbreaker made a grand total of 32 appearances in El Clásico and is a rarity; a player who moved from Real Madrid to Barcelona.

Clásico appearances: 32 (13 for Real Madrid, 19 for Barcelona)
Clásico goals: 5 (1 for Real Madrid, 4 for Barcelona)
Real Madrid record: W4 D5 L4
Barcelona record: W8 D7 L4

Luis Enrique Martínez García cut his teeth at local club Sporting Gijón. Becoming a first-team regular at the age of 19, he hit 14 goals in 35 appearances during the 1990/91 to haul the Asturians to a UEFA Cup place while earning a call-up to the Spanish national team. However, it was clear that Luis Enrique’s skills were destined for a bigger setting and he joined the powerhouse that is Real Madrid at the end of the season.

At Madrid he quickly established himself as a source of creativity and flair from out wide, playing a key part in his club’s Copa del Rey triumph in 1993 and ending Barcelona’s run of four league wins in 1995. In the run-up to gaining that winner’s medal, Real destroyed their fiercest rivals 5-0 with the fourth coming from the boot of Luis Enrique.

And yet he would go on to become one of the most reviled players in Real Madrid’s history, while the part he played in the drubbing at the Bernabéu would be forgotten by Los Cules. Exactly two years after Michael Laudrup had moved for free from Barca to Madrid in the summer of 1994, Luis Enrique saw out his contract and moved to Catalonia – prompting anger from his old fans and scepticism from his new supporters.

That wouldn’t last long. This was a man entering his prime and about to bless the Camp Nou with his best years. Best described as an attacking midfielder, Luis Enrique displayed extraordinary versatility in playing all across the midfield and frontline, even using his tremendous stamina and work-rate to great effect when asked to fill in at full-back. Not that being Mr. Versatility cost him the chance to take centre stage, as he hit an impressive total of 55 goals in all competitions over his first three seasons at the club. It’s remarkable how quickly he went from outsider to club captain; well, not really, considering his first season yielded a Cup Winners’ Cup win before he led the Blaugrana to league wins in the following two campaigns.

He could finish with his right, his left and was absolutely superb in the air; as seen in his headed brace in the Clásico of February 1999, en route to the second league victory. (His goals are at 1:20 and 3:50).

A tendency to play well against his former side sat well with the Barcelona fans and, as you can see from above, his Clásico results are considerably better in a blue and red shirt. The success somewhat dried up after 1999, with Barcelona failing to win a major trophy from the 1999/2000 season until his retirement in 2004. Not only that, Barca were edged out in two European Clásicos as Real Madrid knocked them out 3-1 on aggregate on their way to a 2002 Champions league title.

But as a veteran of the side, Luis Enrique played his part in the building of a side who would bring glory to the Camp Nou under Rijkaard, several players continuing to star for Guardiola’s current dream team. The footage below, from his last ever Clásico in April 2004, show both the level of hatred which he will always kindle in Real Madrid’s fans and his ability to influence a team through sheer presence on the pitch. After he comes on, Barcelona come back from one down to win 2-1 through goals from Kluivert and Xavi, signifying the end of Madrid’s era of dominance.

Luis Enrique looked set to become a permanent part of the Barcelona family, joining the coaching staff after his retirement before being put in charge of the ‘B’ team in 2008 following Pep Guardiola’s promotion. However, he landed the Roma job in the summer and is currently trying to bring his own brand of attractive football to the Italian capital (with mixed results). Whatever his success at managerial level, he will be remembered as one of the most controversial figures in Spanish football and a true legend of the Clásico.

Plays like...
It’s rare to find a player with a combination of Luis Enrique’s attributes. Few can replicate the talsimanic effect that the former captain had on the side better than Carles Puyol, but they are completely different players. Lionel Messi’s knack of making intelligent runs in from wide areas (seen more before he became more of a central player) is reminiscent of the Spanish great, while his driving runs from deep seem to have been watched by Cesc Fàbregas. Pedro’s comfort at playing on either wing harkens to Luis Enrique’s versatility. But for all the young Barcelona players who he may have influenced, some of who could be considered greater players, none are easily comparable to the legend from Gijón.

-Ihsaan Budaly

We are previewing El Clasico,with a series of articles all of which you can read here

If you like our blog,then do vote for us here.

El Clásico:Tactical Preview

2011-12-07T18:00:00.001+05:30

Last year’s clashes between the two sides were certainly eventful. From the 5-0 thrashing by Barca at the Nou Camp to the 1-0 Copa Del Rey win for Real Madrid, the press and fan focus on the games were huge. The general feeling was one of intensity and as such emotions spilled over on more than one occasion.
The tactical battle however was overlooked at points. From Barcelona’s smooth, fluid performance in the first game, to Madrid’s aggressive pressing in the first half of the Copa Del Rey Final to the somewhat reserved full back play from Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League semi final, there was some interesting tactical battles.

However this season’s first La Liga clash between the two sides promises to be the most unpredictable yet.
One of the main talking points tactically is what formation Barcelona will set up in. Will it be 4-3-3 or 3-4-3?
It’s quite clear Barcelona have become more unpredictable in terms of shape and line up. Guillem Balague commented on Tuesday’s Revista De La Liga “This is not as we’ve seen for the three previous years with Pep Guardiola. [Before] a 4-3-3, we know who’s going to play… he seems to be adjusting much more than before.” Indeed many different players have played for them this season, especially in attack and a range of shapes have been played.

Barcelona

The rumours seem to lean towards them playing a 3-4-3 shape. This would mean a number of things. In terms of the back three, it could go a number of ways in terms of selection. However there a lot of doubts as to whether Pique will be picked. Abidal will probably start on the left of a back three with Puyol in the middle and Mascherano on the right of it.

The midfield four because of this would probably mean Alves on the right, Xavi and Busquets in the middle and Iniesta on the left. Such a move is risky – it will require a very good level of intensity from Barcelona to keep the ball in such positions because otherwise their defence could be exposed. However as Messi put it on Monday “It means we’ve got more people in midfield and more possession of the ball.”
The front three will also be interesting. Whether Fabregas will start, or whether they will take the same shape as last season with Messi drifting around in deep central right positions with Villa and Pedro holding wide and making diagonal runs into space. There are a whole range of possibilities open to the Catalan side. There is the possibility that Messi will lead the line in the centre with Fabregas slightly deeper than him leaving the right hand side to Alves. However the way this was exposed against Valencia’s strong left side combination of Alba and Mathieu means this will probably not be the case especially considering Real Madrid’s left side of Marcelo and Ronaldo.

Apart from the shape, Barcelona will probably have a similar general attitude to the game - long transitions with the three players at the back spreading out really wide, playing the ball between the lines and controlling the circulation of the ball in midfield. Arguably the main key points will be how aggressive their pressing is – it’s not always as intense as people say it is – and also how quickly they will move the ball around. Whether they can get good penetration against Real Madrid is still questionable despite their 5-0 thrashing of them last year.

(How Barcelona build possession from defence to midfield)

Real Madrid

Arguably though the biggest talking point should be how Real Madrid will approach the game. The key will be, as it always should be against Barcelona, to remain compact. Whether they press high up or whether they sit back and try and make space tight in the final third, they have to remain together.
Their main shape with Mourinho has been the 4-2-3-1 shape with Alonso and Khedira in the two holding roles and Di Maria, Ozil and Ronaldo as the three behind the striker, generally Higuain. Whether they change their shape will be interesting as well. If they move the ball quickly on transition after winning it, be it high up the pitch or in their own penalty area, there may well be space to exploit, though Barcelona’s defence is arguably better than theirs. As such the two wingers, Di Maria and Ronaldo, will be one of the key attacking areas. Their speed and aggression on the counter attack is brilliant and their penetration is first class, especially in 1v1s.

Whether Ozil will play is probably their biggest selection choice. If they try and win the ball high up, Ozil may well be a key player to take advantage of the space with quick transitions. However if Barcelona go with a 3-4-3, meaning an extra man in midfield as well as their obvious threat between the lines and predictable control of possession, an extra man in midfield could well be essential. Thus Ozil may well be dropped in favour of Lassana Diarra in a 4-3-3 formation. In such a scenario Sami Khedira would probably be the highest midfield player and the key may lie in the way Mourinho used him against Valencia, meaning they have a flexible option of pressing high up and trying to stop Barcelona getting space for their transitions from defence into midfield or sitting back and compacting the play in their own half and defensive third.
Their play will probably be much more vertical than Barcelona’s. Whereas Barca do have a mix, though generally most passes remaining short, their play will almost certainly be more horizontal than Madrid’s mainly because they will probably have long spells of possession in Madrid’s half and continuous vertical play won’t work. Madrid will probably have to have very quick transitions and though their possession play has improved a lot, their quick, direct, vertical play will be their main chance to open Barcelona up and get goals.

It will be a fascinating game to watch tactically and if Barcelona do set up in a 3-4-3 it will be interesting to see how Real Madrid will react. Either way it will hopefully, for the neutral, be a great tactical encounter. And with two of the best tacticians around in charge of the teams, there will certainly be talking points after the game.

-Written by Jonny Mullins of Lankyguy Blog

We are previewing El Clasico,with a series of articles all of which you can read here

If you like our blog,then do vote for us here.

El Clásico:Michael Laudrup

2011-12-07T15:09:00.001+05:30

The first of the Clásico Heartbreakers we looked at specialised in scoring goals; the second was a master of creating them...

Clásico appearances: 21 (17 Barcelona, 4 Real Madrid)
Clásico goals: 2 (both Barcelona)
Barcelona record: W6 D4 L7
Real Madrid record: W1 D1 L2

Poster boy of the “Danish Dynamite” national team of the 1980s, Michael Laudrup was one of the most gifted footballers of recent history. He boasted superb technical ability, combined with unparalleled elegance as well as a tendency to find space and team-mates effortlessly. Despite shooting to world fame for his exploits with an overachieving national team at Euro ’84 and the World Cup of 1986 in Mexico, he never really succeeded at Juventus where the pressure to replace Michel Platini was too great.

Barcelona, in 1989, weren’t at their best either. Legendary ex-player Johan Cruyff had taken over at the start of the 88/89 season. While he brought silverware in the form of the Cup Winners’ Cup, Real Madrid were dominating on the domestic front; claiming the Copa del Rey in addition to the league title (astonishingly, their fourth in a row). However, one of the greatest periods of Barcelona’s history was imminent and the 25 year-old Danish schemer whom he brought to the club was to be the crown jewel of his team.

The success wasn’t immediate. Madrid won a fifth consecutive league title in 89/90 and, while beaten 2-0 by Barça in the Copa del Rey final, sent out a signal of intent with a 5-1 aggregate win over the Catalans in the new season’s Supercopa. But it was not a sign to things to come as Barcelona cruised to a title win, ten points clear of second-placed Atlético Madrid and eleven clear of Real in third. Laudrup came to the fore, pulling all the strings and finding a goalscoring touch which had eluded him in Italy. Here’s his spectacular volley from a 2-1 Clásico win at the Camp Nou.

With the temperamental but brilliant strike duo of Hristo Stoichkov and Romário joining Barcelona, they went on to win a further four league titles and, in 1992, the club’s first ever European Cup. The pair have constantly paid tribute to the playmaking ability of Laudrup, giving them a constant supply of killer balls to feed on; watch him, at about 1:30, lay on the third of Romário’s hat-trick in a 5-0 drubbing of Madrid in January 1994.

However, with Netherlands defender Ronald Koeman also in the side, Barcelona were forced to rotate (as only three foreigners could be played in a match). With manager Cruyff electing to leave Laudrup on the bench for the 1994 final of the newly-branded Champions League, his team were destroyed 4-0 by a ruthless Milan (whose manager, Fabio Capello, admitted after the game that he was relieved at not having to deal with the opposition’s star player).

This surely pointed to deeper problems. Known for being unselfish on the pitch, Laudrup was somewhat more difficult off it. An unwillingness to adapt to the pragmatic style of Denmark manager Richard Møller Nielsen meant that Laudrup and his younger brother Brian walked out on the national team in November 1990. Brian returned in April 1992; shortly before Denmark were awarded a place in Euro ’92 at the expense of warring Yugoslavia. He would provide the creativity to a side who, against all odds, took home the European Championships. Michael Laudrup had to settle for watching his country’s greatest footballing achievement from afar.

Inevitably, one club (even if it’s mes que un club) wouldn’t be big enough for the egos of both Laudrup and Johan Cruyff. The Dutchman was sometimes dismayed at Laudrup’s tendency to go missing for much of a match – another penchant, for providing game-changing moment of magic, perhaps made this more infuriating. Both parties have since played down talk of a falling out, so Laudrup’s next action can’t really be pinned down just to this. But after the Champions league snub, he shocked the football world by moving on a free transfer to Barcelona’s biggest rivals, Real Madrid.

While only being in the Spanish capital for two years, the maestro’s impact was keenly felt. He inspired Real to a 5-0 win in his first Clásico in a white shirt; ironically, a year on from Barca’s identical victory. A gracious Cruyff couldn’t help but praise his former protégé and Madrid would go on to win La Liga, making Laudrup the first player to win five consecutive league titles with two different teams.

The level of animosity levelled at Laudrup during his two visits to the Camp Nou while playing for Los Merengues was incredible. The jeers from the crowd in the footage below (supposedly from Laudrup’s very last Clásico in February 1996, though the commentary suggests otherwise) are only outdone by the look of embarrassment on Laudrup’s face as his former mentor refuses to give him the ball for a throw-in.

Whether or not he actually made the remarks which the commentator in the video alludes to, time healed the scars. Of all the great players who switched between the two clubs, Michael Laudrup remains the one who is still loved by both sets of fans. Even after his spell in Madrid, Barcelona fans couldn’t continue to hate the man who played such a key part in the club’s history. Laudrup, asked where his allegiance now lies, simply replied “They are my two teams, both of them.”

He has more La Liga winners’ medals than anyone else who features in this series, but that’s not even the most fitting accolade to his brilliance. It’s the constant tributes gushing from those who played alongside him, unreservedly acknowledging his ability to bring the best out of others. And if you need evidence of that, look no further than two of his biggest fans. Romário, his Barcelona team-mate and Spain’s Pichichi (top scorer) in 1994; and Iván Zamorano, his Real Madrid team-mate and Pichichi in 1995. Michael Laudrup is perhaps the greatest of the Clásico Heartbreakers.

Plays like...

Described by Andrés Iniesta as “the greatest player in history”, it’s easy to see how Laudrup has influenced the Barcelona midfielder’s game. Both are graceful players, with a peerless reading of the game and the ability to produce magic in the final third. But whereas Laudrup had a mercurial side, capable of drifting out of the game and not contributing much defensively, Iniesta is a tireless worker who uses his energy to close down opponents. When he and Xavi are played side-by-side, it’s inevitable that they will dominate possession. Maybe a closer fit is Real Madrid’s Kaká; a true number ten who may not always control the game but, when on song, has the skill and invention to unpick the meanest of defences.

-Ihsaan Budaly

We are previewing El Clasico,with a series of articles all of which you can read here

If you like our blog,then do vote for us here.

El Clásico:Mesut Özil

2011-12-06T14:52:00.001+05:30

German Heart to A Spanish Dance: The Influence of Mesut Ozil on Real Madrid

It’s taken a while. What started in 2000 by the German Football Federation (DFB) is now bringing forward a plethora of young football stars. There was the initial group, consisting of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski, Phillp Lahm and Per Mertesacker, of young to-be world class footballers who announced themselves in the 2006 World Cup. Current Real Madrid players, Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil, are part of the second batch; stars of Germany’s 2010 World Cup campaign. They’d been household names in Germany for majority of the prior two seasons, but it was only after showing their exploits on the World stage that their names were now broadcast outside Germany and, most importantly, in Madrid.

Jose has always been a man specific to his needs, he doesn’t deter from what he wants. Real Madrid knew what they were getting when they took him in during the summer of 2010 after the Portuguese won his second UEFA Champions League. Real Madrid also knew that they had just spent over 250 Million Euro’s on players like Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka and that Mourinho is not afraid of giving either one of them the sack in place of one of his preferred players. As it happened, one of those players was eventually ousted by someone who cost almost six times as less.

Mesut Ozil: The Next-Next Zidane

Zidane was born to immigrant parents and was raised from a neighbourhood in the slum areas of Marseille; Mesut Ozil was born to immigrant parents and came out of the slum neighbourhoods of Gelsenkirchen. It’s destiny, surely? Not likely that many were thinking along the same angles in 2007 when Mesut Ozil made his first strides into professional football playing for his local first division club, FC Schalke 04. Though rated as a potential star not much was thought besides, at least not enough to convince his club to give him a pay rise when he demanded one for his new contract. Bremen identified the talent in the German U-21 star and came calling with a ‘massive’ offer of 4.5 Million Euro’s, the highest fee for a German teenager (yes, HIGHEST), an offer Schalke could not refuse.

This happened in January 2008, fast forward two years and Ozil was in the midst of a barnstorming season that would see him end up with 21 assists in just over 40 matches. Fast forward another few months and Ozil was in the middle of destroying the world’s best in the World Cup. That was when Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid came calling; and when Madrid come calling, you end up listening. Bremen eventually lost their star for a fee that was just under three times as much (12.5 Million Euro’s) as they paid two and a half years back. It was daylight robbery, something the usually very generous (offering to take Julian Faubert from West Ham was considered to be angelic in some areas of London) Madrid were not known for.
Just the previous season, Madrid had spent 65 million Euro’s on a certain former World Cup winning, European Cup winning, World and European Player of the year Brazilian. He was meant to recreate the glorious memories of one of Madrid’s greatest players and eternal stars, Zinedine Zidane. Ozil played in the same position, surely he wasn’t going to be able to oust one of the stars of World Football? That was the general consensus at the start of the season; by the end, that was turned completely on its head.

With a team consisting of some rather, to put it mildly, selfish attackers such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Angel Di Maria, Jose Mourinho needed someone to be able to connect all of the attacking talent together. Ozil had made a career of playing passes and not scoring, it was a perfect match. Thus that proved to be the case, not just on a personality point of view but a tactical point of view as well. An age of pure wingers seems to be a by-gone one. From the days of Luis Figo, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs tearing up the wings, we now find ourselves with the expression of Messi, Robben and Ribery cutting in from the wings. That is the phenomenon of the inverted winger; a winger by name, but hardly a winger by conventional practice. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel Di Maria can be categorized in the same way.
Width is rarely offered by either one, with Ronaldo placed on the left and Di Maria on the right, their usual practice is to receive the ball and immediately cut into what is their stronger foot. That in effect severely congests the center of the field, a position where a playmaker, like Ozil, is expected to exert influence. Congesting that area would make it difficult for a pure playmaker from the older ages to have that influence; at the risk of being castrated in public, dare I say maybe even the mercurial Frenchman would have trouble. But while Ozil and Zidane share comparisons in their upbringing, Ozil does hold one distinct advantage over his hero; the ability to play as a winger.

Starting from his days at Schalke, Ozil had showed ability to play down the left wing. In fact, that was the position where he had made majority of his early appearances for the Royal Blues. After moving to Bremen, Ozil also found himself in an auxiliary winger position while being placed on the left side of a central midfield diamond alongside Diego Ribas. That was just for the first season though, after which he was firmly placed as a central attacking playmaker following Diego’s departure. But those first few seasons as a winger had enabled him to add a rare piece of weaponry to his arsenal. The ability to play as a winger is something which ultimately separated Ozil from the crowd of other playmakers in world football, and ultimately what made him an essential piece in Mourinho’s puzzle:

The pictures above illustrate the difference between the ‘inverted wingers’ and more regular wingers (All pictures courtesy of ESPN Soccernet). Alongside the images of Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo’s heat maps against Atletico Madrid from their home league encounter last season are heat maps of more regular wingers who play in the same area of the field (Antonio Valencia vs Chelsea (H) 2010-11 Premier League alongside Di Maria and Gareth Bale vs Inter Milan (H) 2010-11 UCL alongside Ronaldo).
And thus we move on to Ozil’s heat map from the same match vs Atletico Madrid:

It’s clearly shown from the heat map (again, courtesy of ESPN Soccernet) that Ozil, though being classified as a central attacking playmaker, was seen holding as much possession on the right and left side of the pitch as the center; some might even argue that it’s more. Ozil ended the match with a goal and an overall contribution that made him one of the stars of the match. This strategy was repeated time and time again by Mourinho against his La Liga rivals and it worked to perfection. Ozil, coming into the season having more potential of being added onto the list of young stars who came to Madrid and fell from stardom, ended his debut campaign with 24 assists and 10 goals in 53 matches.

But, none of those assists or goals came against Barcelona in five matches. And that brings us to the next part of the Ozil story; since really no Madrid player will ever be considered a great unless he produces something special against Barcelona.

Ozil vs Barcelona: 2010-11

It’s difficult to classify Madrid’s 2010-11 season as either a success or a failure. Looking at it from a retrospective point of view, they reached the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League, something which they hadn’t done since the 2002-03 season; they won the Copa Del Rey, something which they hadn’t done for over a decade and they gained 92 points in the league, their second highest tally ever. Surely that’s a successful season if I’ve ever seen one, isn’t it? Oh wait, they lost 5-0 to Barcelona.

Ozil played a part in that memorable clash; only the most ineffective 45 minutes of his career. That ended up being a recurring theme for the next four matches Madrid had against their arch rivals. Ozil was rarely able to display even a speck of the phenomenal talent he had shown in the other 48 matches of the season and with the upcoming clash against Barcelona, it’s adamant that Jose Mourinho find a solution to this problem regarding Ozil’s performances. Or rather, does he need a solution at all?

You can argue whether the current Barcelona side are the greatest club side ever but what you cannot is the fact that this midfield is the greatest ever. That was essentially what Ozil had to come to face with every time he stepped on the pitch against Barcelona. The midfield trio of Xavi, Andreas Iniesta and Sergio Busquests is one can suffocate you with a piece of paper. At first, Mourinho tried beating Barcelona at their own game by playing high up the pitch trying to push the Catalan midfield back. It simply didn’t work, it was the equivalent of a punching contest between a 130lbs boxer and a 200lbs one.

Ozil was made to suffer because of this; he is an attacking midfielder and therefore works in the final third of the pitch. But in order for the ball to reach the final third, it must come through the second area; and when you play Barcelona, that is strictly their territory. Xabi Alonso is the deep playmaker for Madrid and it is essential that he have a game where he is able to spread the ball with ease in order for the more attacking players to be able to exert influence in the final third. Alonso had a torrid time against the Barcelona midfield as did his midfield partner Sami Khedira.

Statistically, it showed. Compared with the season average of 60 passes per game with an accuracy of 85%, Xabi Alonso was only able to complete 79% of his 48 passes. Sami Khedira had an even poorer game, completing only 65% of his 20 passes while averaging two times as many passes with a success rate of 86%. That 5-0 drubbing was a lesson for Mourinho, attacking through the center was not an option. That meant that Ozil’s role in the following Madrid vs Barcelona matches would be minimal, atleast in terms of playing in his favoured role.

Not to put the blame solely on Alonso and Khedira, Ozil also did not seem mentally ready to face the might of Barcelona. Having only had experience of playing in the Bundesliga and with a few appearances in the UEFA Champions League, Ozil had never played against a team of the calibre of Barcelona (you can argue that he played against Spain, but Barcelona’s midfield is better). That, and the fact that Ozil had only played with his new teammates for little over three months, meant that Ozil was always going to initially struggle. Mourinho subsequently moved from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3 with Pepe switching to a defensive midfield role in order to curb central danger of Barcelona’s midfield and, in particular, Lionel Messi. The one to come out of the side was the most offensive central midfielder, Ozil. Madrid’s performances improved considerably losing only one of the next four matches during that season and winning 1-0 in the Copa Del Rey final. Though Mourinho removed the position which suited Ozil, the German’s versatility meant that he was available to play in the position of left or right winger as he did in the Copa Del Rey final.

Ozil vs Barcelona: 2011-12

Madrid have already faced Barcelona twice this season during the early season Spainsh SuperCup and on both occasions, Jose Mourinho surprisingly went back to his favoured 4-2-3-1 and on both occasions, Madrid took the game to Barcelona and matched them pound for pound, the only difference between the magic of Lionel Messi.

Ozil’s influence on the game was also much better. It seemed that the initial season with his new team and the experience of playing against Barcelona five times the previous season helped him gain the confidence to play better; and he certainly did in the first encounter during which he scored a goal. While not managing to match his previous season’s statistics in terms of passing numbers, again we have to consider that he is playing against Barcelona and that he will not get nearly the same opportunities to get possession, Ozil was much more of a danger than in previous matches. Scoring a goal, creating numerous goal scoring opportunities showed Jose that he just might be able to match Barcelona in the upcoming La Liga fixture by playing the 4-2-3-1 in favour of the more defensive 4-3-3.

One issue that is present now though, which wasn’t during the previous season, is the lack of form of Ozil this season. While Ozil was racking up assist after assist prior to the first league meeting with Barcelona last season, Ozil this season has struggled to say the least. Five assists in the first 14 league encounters is a low number not only for a player of his talent but also a player who plays for a free scoring team like Real Madrid.

Some of the reasons for this lose of form could be placed on Ozil being played as a winger early on in the season with Kaka stationed in the attacking playmaker position. While Ozil is suitable to the winger role, he clearly does not favour being pushed into a wide role with little freedom to roam into the center. Kaka, unlike Ozil, is not a player who is comfortable taking up positions in a wide position and therefore Ozil is not able to rotate positions with the Brazilian like Di Maria does with Ozil. When Ozil did move into the center, there was quite a bit of congestion which prevented Ozil from having his usual influence. Kaka had been struggling with injury recently but returned to the side playing 10 minutes replacing the once again rather disappointing Ozil so there might be a slight chance that Ozil would be replaced by the Brazilian for the El Classico.

Ozil had shown improvement against Barcelona in the first two matches of the season but his regular season form has fallen. While this game does not present a make or break opportunity for Ozil, it will be a great opportunity for the young German to prove that he does indeed have the talent and mental capacity to come out trumps against one of the greatest sides ever.

-Hasan Ejaz

We are previewing El Clasico,with a series of articles all of which you can read here

If you like our blog,then do vote for us here.

El Clásico:Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima

2011-12-06T11:13:00.001+05:30

This week, we’ll be looking through the history of El Clásico to find some of the players who have played in the match for both sides. Several high-profile players of great ability have represented both Barcelona and Real Madrid, and we’re not talking about guys moving on for a last shot or easy pay packet when they’re past it. We aren't interested in transfers like Michael Owen to Manchester United or a Christian Vieri to AC Milan (well, not unless I find time to write about Javier Saviola). No, we’re talking about players who donned both the Castilian white and the Catalan blue and red during their prime years and who made a real impact in the heated matches between both sides. Of all the Clásico Heartbreakers of the modern era, this man has scored more Clásico goals than any other...

11 Clásico appearances (4 Barcelona, 7 Real Madrid)

6 Clásico goals (2 Barcelona, 4 Real Madrid

Barcelona record: W2 D1 L1

Real Madrid record: W2 D3 L2

The player referred to in Brazil as “the real Ronaldo” is often remembered for his time at Real Madrid from summer 2002 to January 2007. It’s testament to the new one (Cristiano, of course) that he has already reached O Fenómeno’s haul of 83 La Liga goals in half the time, and in fifty less games than the Brazilian’s 127. Still, it’s not really a record to be sniffed at and the tally would certainly have been higher if not for the World Cup-winning striker’s well-documented fitness troubles.

But Ronaldo was more impressive in his stint at the Camp Nou in the 1996/97 season. In fact, there aren’t many footballers who’ve impressed so much in a single season, as the 20 year-old hit 47 goals in 49 games (many of them memorable) to steer Bobby Robson’s side to victory both the Copa del Rey and the European Cup Winners’ Cup. It was in the former that they knocked out Real Madrid in the semifinals, with Ronaldo opening the scoring their 3-2 first-leg win.

He also scored the only goal in Barça’s home win over their arch-rivals in the league. Can you spot two other players who might be featured in this series?

Five years later, Ronaldo had endured an injury-stricken spell at Inter and arrived at the World Cup in South Korea with a lot to prove. Eight goals not only got him a winner’s medal, a Golden Shoe and the recognition he deserved; it also earned him a €46 million move to Real Madrid. Barcelona fans had no problem banishing his superb year in Catalonia to distant memory, as he scored 23 goals for his new employers including one in a 1-1 draw in April’s Clásico, helping Madrid to the league title. He would go on to score another three against his former side and one of his best performances came in this 4-2 win at the Bernabéu, where he sets up Zinedine Zidane for the opener before adding a headed second.

It’s hard to judge Ronaldo’s overall effect teams as being wholly positive. Real Madrid’s Liga win in his debut season was the only national league championship to his name during his whole career. Barcelona won La Liga for the two years after selling him to Internazionale in 1997, while his departure to the red side of Milan in 2007 was followed by two league wins for Real. Nevertheless, out of players who’ve crossed the divide, his haul of six Clásico goals is second only to the nine of pre-war star Josep Samitier.

Plays like...

Is there really a player you can compare to someone nicknamed ‘the phenomenon’? Marrying explosive pace and power with sublime finishing ability, it’s tempting to suggest similarities to his Portuguese namesake despite a difference in position. But out of all the players who could feature in the upcoming Clásico, it’s probably Karim Benzema who performs a similar function to the Brazilian in his young days; a speedy striker with the ability to drop into space, turn and beat defenders. Benzema may lack Ronaldo’s confounding ability to score when having an otherwise awful game but should the Frenchman feature on Saturday, Mourinho will be after more of an all-round performance.

--Ihsaan Budaly

If you like our blog,then do vote for us here.