In The Stands » Discussion

Robinho holds the key to a City top 3 finish…

Shaw — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:00:16 +0000

Robinho has always struck me as a player that has talent beyond reason…

His attitude to the game has perhaps hindered his development into a player that deserves the tag of ’world class’. He joins a group of players (this even includes the likes of Joey Barton) who don’t have the mental attitude to deal with adversity. This problem may be as little as not having the strength to put in a performance against a team that makes it impossible to play, a-la-Bolton. To the more difficult problems such as the clash of a player’s private life with the public media .

Robinho fits into the former. Mentally he is not strong enough and when things are not going his way he lets the team know, with weak, negative performances. However, if Robinho and Mancini address this it is possible that he could be a prize asset for Manchester City. His record for the club has been decent, with 14 goals in his first season. But his second was considerably worse, scoring one goal against Scunthrope in the League cup.

However, after returning to Brazil with Santos the Brazilian forward has shone, scoring ten in 14 games. This, plus a decent World Cup would have done wonders to his confidence that looked lost at Manchester City. After all he is the player that Pelé coined as his heir at the age of fifteen.

The question is whether he can take positives from his break from England and bring them back to Manchester City. He is sure to add the much needed class to a team that is only being improved by players that I would consider as second tier class. If Man City can curb his attitude problem then his return will give them the boost in quality needed to push for a title bid.

Team of World Cup 2010…so far

Shaw — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:18:49 +0000

Minus some obvious additions, such as Messi, Robinho and Rob Green, I have put together a team of players that have impressed me in the World Cup so far. Feel free to disagree.

GK: Diego Benaglio (Switzerland & Wolfsburg)

Very tidy against Spain. Some might have panicked at the sight of Villa, Xavi and Iniesta, but he kept his cool to earn his team a clean sheet.

LB: Fábio Coentrão (Portugal & Benfica)

Against North Korea Mick McCarthy commented that his price had increased by 4 million euro’s. He’s young, a good crosser of the ball and composed in defense, so it’s hard to disagree with him.

RB: Van Der Wiel (Holland & Ajax )/ Maicon (Brazil & Inter Milan)

I couldn’t decide between the two. Maicon is self explanatory but. Der Wiel, a less know player, deserves a mention as he has played will for the Dutch.

CB: Stéphane Grichting (Switzerland & Auxurre)

Switzerland are very assured defensively. Grichting experience has helped yield this.

CB: Antolín Alcaraz (Paraguay & Wigan Athletic)

Scored against Italy from a set piece, which is no mean feat. Wigan might have picked up a good defender here.

RM: Landon Donavon (USA & LA Galaxy)

Quite simply Donavon should be playing for a top European side. A Fantastic goal against Slovenia and a captain’s performance against England have helped cement this claim.

CM: Mehmut Ozil (Germany & Werden Bremen)

Ballack’s shoes are a big fill, but Ozil has proved a worthy understudy. He is a player with glorious vision and with astute passing ability.

LM: Elano (Brazil & Galatasary)

Considered a flop at Manchester City which is strange considering that Elano is a key man for Brazil. He is always a threat running from midfield and his two goals have proved this.

CF: Gonzalo Higuain (Argentina & Real Madrid)

Could Maradona have the last laugh after the World Cup hits its crescendo? Quite possibly because the attacking players he has at his disposal is frightening.

CF: Diego Forlan (Uruguay & Ahletic Madrid)

Uruguay’s key man will be the difference when and if his team qualifies.

CF: Asamoah Gyan (Ghana & Rennes)

Although he has missed some golden opportunities, Gyan is always looking to score. His penalty against Serbia, considering the amount of pressure on his shoulders, was fantastic.

Best striker in the world?!?

Ben — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:48:04 +0000

I don’t know if anyone else reads World Soccer but I have a subscription to the magazine and in the most recent issue, they raised the point of the best striker in the world. I’ll explain how they came to their conclusion in a moment but I was wondering what other people thought was required in a striker and who they feel is the best.

World Soccer used quite a complicated system based on goals scored in each competition and points were doubled etc depending on which league they were scored in or if it was in an International match. They also based it on the last four seasons only along with the first month or two of this season. So obviously players such as Henry and Van Nistelrooy are not as high as one would expect because their goal tally’s have decreased as they have got older. Shevchenko does not even make the list due to his lack of goals for Chelsea and the loan spell at AC Milan eventhough he was one of the most clinical strikers in the world when originally at the Rossoneri.

Here’s the list and you can see what you think

20th – Zlatan Ibrahimovic

19th – Robbie Keane (lol)

18th – Ruud Van Nistelrooy

17th – Kaka

=15th – Lionel Messi

=15th – Wayne Rooney

14th – Mario Gomez (lol)

13th – Luis Fabiano

12th – Diego Forlan

11th – Dimitar Berbatov

10th – Freddie Kanoute

9th – Fernando Torres

8th – Thierry Henry

7th – Didier Drogba

6th – Klass-Jan Huntelaar

5th – Luca Toni (lol)

4th – Miroslav Klose

3rd – Cristiano Ronaldo

2nd – Samuel Eto’o

1st – David Villa

So there you have it, David Villa is rated the best striker in the world. And to be fair to the man, he won by quite a margin. 35 points seperated him from second placed Eto’o, an amazing striker in his own right. How Robbie Keane is in the list I will never know and I’m a spurs supporter! But anyway, what do you all think? We all want different things in a striker but who would you want in your team if you could have anyone?

Born in the USA!

Shaw — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:43:16 +0000

For years the America league has been considered the grave of famous footballers careers. But recently it is starting to gain some recognition among neutral football fans (like myself) as an up-and-coming entertaining league.

It all started when the MLS was created as part of America’s bid for the 1994 World Cup. Creators believed the increased popularity brought at international level would ignite a greater interest in the sport at club level. The format is as followed: The Season run from late March or early April to November, with teams from two divisions East and West playing 30 regular season games each. After this eight teams (the top 4 from each division) compete in the postseason MLS Cup Playoffs culminating in the championship game, MLS Cup.

The MLS currently consists of: (Table from Wikipedia)

Team	City	Stadium	Founded	Joined	Head Coach
Eastern Conference
Chicago Fire	Bridgeview, IL	Toyota Park	1997	1998	Denis Hamlett
Columbus Crew	Columbus, OH	Columbus Crew Stadium	1994	1996	Robert Warzycha
D.C. United	Washington, D.C.	RFK Stadium ^{1 2}	1995	1996	Tom Soehn
Kansas City Wizards	Kansas City, KS	CommunityAmerica Ballpark ^{1 2}	1995	1996	Peter Vermes
New England Revolution	Foxborough, MA	Gillette Stadium ¹	1995	1996	Steve Nicol
New York Red Bulls	East Rutherford, NJ	Giants Stadium ^{1 2}	1995	1996	Richie Williams
Toronto FC	Toronto, ON	BMO Field	2006	2007	Chris Cummins
Western Conference
C.D. Chivas USA	Carson, CA	The Home Depot Center	2004	2005	Preki
Colorado Rapids	Commerce City, CO	Dick’s Sporting Goods Park	1995	1996	Gary Smith
FC Dallas	Frisco, TX	Pizza Hut Park	1996	1996	Schellas Hyndman
Houston Dynamo	Houston, TX	Robertson Stadium ^{1 2}	2005	2006	Dominic Kinnear
Los Angeles Galaxy	Carson, CA	The Home Depot Center	1995	1996	Bruce Arena
Real Salt Lake	Sandy, UT	Rio Tinto Stadium	2004	2005	Jason Kreis
San Jose Earthquakes	Santa Clara, CA	Buck Shaw Stadium ^{2 3}	1995	1996	Frank Yallop
Seattle Sounders FC	Seattle, WA	Qwest Field ¹	2007	2009	Sigi Schmid
Future teams
Philadelphia Union	Chester, PA	Union Field at Chester	2008	2010	Piotr Nowak
Portland Timbers	Portland, OR	PGE Park	2009	2011	TBA
Vancouver MLS 2011	Vancouver, BC	BC Place Stadium ^{1 2}	2009	2011	TBA

As this table shows, there is a certain increase in popularity; new teams have joined, teams have reformed and applications for new teams are pending. Why? – well its obvious, the sport is getting popular.

It’s boost in popularity comes down to quite a few reasons.

1. David Beckham – Can one man make a difference? The answer to this is no, but Becks certainly brought a whole new dimension to American football. It can be argued that he is not 100% committed to LA Galaxy but you cannot deny that he has raised the profile of the MLS and brought a global mass appeal to American soccer. (Other big players playing in the league include – Landon Donovan (LA), Claudio Reyna (New York), Brian McBride (Chicago), Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus) and Freddie Ljungberg (Seattle))

2. Increased coverage – From the offset, the MLS paid broadcasters such as ESPN and Fox sports to air live matches, but in 2007 they sold television rights to networks at a profit. (est. 30m per year, for the next 8yrs). 2007 was also the first year that every game was broadcasted live, ESPN created Thursday night live MLS. Fox also upped its game by extending match day coverage to 3hrs to include analysis, interviews and player spots. The league has also seen extended coverage on British and Spanish TV, ESPN this year will air MLS games via their new channel ESPN UK.

3. Increased Profit = Increased investment – The MSL is notoriously unprofitable. LA Galaxy was the first team to gain a profit in 2003, after its first season at the Home Depo Centre. FC Dallas also profited when they moved to Pizza Hut Park in 2005 and this year Toronto FC joined these ranks. But many remain confident, MLS Commissioner Don Garber said on May 11, 2006 that “he expects all the league’s clubs to be profitable by 2010″.Shirt sponsors have also increased revenue (see fig.1 from Wiki)

4. Greater advertisment – The game has more obvious place in popular culture i.e – Film (I love you, man – displays a fanatical LA Galaxy fan ), Red Bull own a team- New York, Pizza hut stadium – Money made via these franchises.

So as a concluding point, it’s fair to say that the MLS is on the verge of gaining recognition as a League worth looking out for in the future. This means we can hope to see new talent emerging (It would be great to see more Americans in England to add to the Clint Demseys, Tim Howards and Brad Friedels of this world), extra football matches in our calendar – especially during our off season and most importantly, a greater increase in fans of to the sport.

Pottinger tackles… New Footballs

Matt Pottinger — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:40:03 +0000

Now I’m pretty critical of any balls flying towards my face, but when people who do it for a living (Read: Paris Hilton, Iker Casillas) are complaining about it are these new footballs getting a bit too mental?

I’m not suggesting we go back to kicking around a pig skin that weighs a stone dry and three when wet but perhaps these balls are making goalscoring too easy, and effectively making scoring from distance simpler and less of an art form. I think, for example, that Ronaldo’s free kick policy of blasting it and hoping for swerve owes more to the ball than to any paticular intent to curl the ball one way or another.

Have your say, a fair point or do I just have balls on the mind?

Just for fun – The Ugly XI

Mark — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:55:04 +0000

Just for fun… A team that the likes of Fabio Capello or Iain Dowie would be proud of.

And yet, this lot still manage to get engaged to the finest supermodels ‘money can buy’

Thomas Vermaelen… looking worth his £10 million already

Ash — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:32:37 +0000

OK it’s a bit early to start saying things like this but after scoring a goal on his debut and this cracking challenge last night, Thomas Vermaelen looks to have settled in and looking worth his pennies already.

The Belgian defender after only two games has appeared to have quickly settled next to William Gallas and the pair along with Sagna and Clichy make a formidable back line for the Gunners. He scored against Everton in his League debut and looked solid, something that they were missing last year with Toure’s drop in form and Gallas being injured for long spells and last night at Parkhead he looked impressive again.

Wenger has said: “Yes, I am surprised but we saw that he had the physical strength and mentality to cope and when he was needed he came in. I believe he has a good mix of the physical and technical for a centre-back and it is interesting to have a left-footed player because he gives you angles for the pass which are very important for the midfielder.”

Once again its looking like good business by the voyeur.

Video spotted on Dirty Tackle.

2018 World Cup – who would you play?

Shaw — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:53:45 +0000

With England Bidding for the World Cup in 2018, I thought I would make a prediction of the squad that we may be playing in that competition (who knows how close I will be).

Joe Hart(GK)

Kyle Naughton(RB) Micah Richards (CB) Jordan Spence (CB/C) Kieran Gibbs (LB)

Jack Rodwell(DMC)

Scott Sinclair (AMR) Junior Stanislas (AML)

Jack Wilshere (AMC)

Theo Walcott (FC) Danny Welbeck (FC)

Subs

Lee Cattermole (Wigan) (DMC)

Michael Mancienne (Chelsea) (CB)

James Tompkins (West Ham) (CB)

John Bostock (Tottenham) (RW)

Ravel Morrison (Man utd) (RW)

Fabian Delph (Leeds) (CM)

Joe Mattock (West Brom) (LB)

Dan Gosling (Everton) (CM)

Danny Rose (Tottenham) (CM)

Nathan Delfouneso (Aston Villa) (FC)

Luke Garbutt (Everton) (RB)

Henri Lansbury (Arsenal)(CM)

Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea) (FC)

Nile Ranger (Newcastle) (FC)

James Henry (Reading) (FC)

Aaron Lennon (Spurs)(RW)

Wayne Rooney(FC)

James Milner (RW)

Manager: Alan Shearer

Assistant Manager: David Beckham

I will be changing this team from time to time depending on what mood i’m in.

So guy’s who am I missing ?……please tell.

Have a look at their future line up. http://soccerlens.com/future-england-lineup-2018/5534/

The Archives: The reasons behind Ferguson’s success

Mark — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:12:08 +0000

Revised and Re-released – The reasons behind Ferguson’s success.

With the Departure of C.Ronaldo and Tevez, ITS investigates why Manchester United were so dominant last season, and how the loss of 2 key players will affect style of play at Old Trafford.

The Trequartista or the 4-6-0 is an evolution of old fashioned formations, especially the 4-2-3-1.

The Austrian ‘Wunderteam’ of the early 1930s had great success with Mathias Sindelar, a centre-forward who constantly dropped deep, and Vsevolod Bobrov, who played a similar role for the Dynamo Moscow tourists team that delighted British crowds in 1945. It was then Nandor Hidegkuti’s role as a deep-lying centre-forward that perplexed England when Hungary won 6-3 at Wembley in 1953. ‘The tragedy to me,’ said England’s centre-half Harry Johnston, ‘was the utter helplessness… not being able to do anything about it.’ If Johnston followed Hidegkuti, he left a hole in the centre of England’s rearguard. If he stayed put, Hidegkuti roamed free.

Roma paved the way three seasons ago. They fielded Francesco Totti, seen as a classic Trequartista, as their lone front man. Totti operated in the ‘hole’ between attack and midfield operating as a focal point like Didier Drogba did for Chelsea. Drogba held up the ball, drifted, and created space for his team-mates to break into. Roma’s 4-1-4-1 formation frequently became 4-1-5-0. Man United beat Roma (minus Totti) 7-1 last year in a Champions League quarter-final. However, Sir Alex Ferguson, having broadly turned away from 4-4-2 after a humbling 3-2 defeat by Real Madrid in 2000, had seen enough. Roma had the model to follow.

The 2007/08 season for United was the first season they employed the system and to great effect, winning both the Premiership and the Champions League. The reason? They had a world class Nr.10 in Wayne Rooney. United deployed Rooney as the nominal front man. He constantly foraged deep and perhaps he has, as Ferguson suggested, been ‘too unselfish’. But it was Rooney’s movement, and the intelligence of his interchanges with Carlos Tevez, that created much of the space for Cristiano Ronaldo who profited with 42 goals. United’s system was, in effect, 4-2-4-0. At times, particularly in Europe, Ferguson fielded an extra holder in midfield allowing Ronaldo to go central and play the Totti role in a 4-3-3-0 formation.

As fitness improves, so the demands on forwards change because defences cannot be relied upon to lose shape as they become exhausted. Modern centre-forwards must be universalists, a hybrid of the old strike-partnerships. Drogba and Emmanuel Adebayor are both battering-rams and goalscorers. A Thierry Henry or a Dimitar Berbatov is capable of dropping deep or pulling wide, as adept at playing the final ball as taking a chance. Somewhere in between the two extremes are ranged Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Samuel Eto’o and Fernando Torres. Just as wingers and midfielders had to, forwards are having to reinvent themselves.

‘Systems are dying,’ said Slaven Bilic, the Croatia coach. ‘It’s about the movement of 10 players now.’

As McClaren said, it works because most teams defend deep, denying space behind the defenders. However, given that space is finite, if you deny it behind the back four you have to concede it in front. Therefore, if your opponents have a quartet of talented and creative attacking players in that area, you are in for a bumpy ride.

Of course, the system is not fool-proof. It works with Tévez, Giggs, Ronaldo and Rooney, but it probably would not work with Nicolas Anelka, Didier Drogba, Lampard and Joe Cole. Not because the Chelsea quartet are any worse, but because they have different characteristics.

The 4-6-0 is an evolution of the 4-2-3-1, believing the use of two midfield ‘holders’ to provide a platform for the creators as pandering to the egos of those attacking players – A great example is Real Madrid in the galacticos era, when Claude Makelele was expected to provide defensive cover for Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo.

Ferguson has recently admitted his tactics will have too adjust. Speaking to Inside United he said:

“We will have to find the goals; our tactics will adjust.

“Fans will see us playing a slightly different style this season.”

“You look to score about 100 goals,” Ferguson added. “If we are going to win the league again or do well in Europe we certainly need players to step up.”

“Going back a few years, we could always guarantee goals from Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham, who always pitched in with about 10 a season.”

“Those goals from midfield have dried up a little in recent years, so we have to address that. I will be looking to (Ji-Sung) Park, Nani, (Luis Antonio) Valencia – even (Danny) Welbeck and (Federico) Macheda – to contribute 40 goals between them. The defenders will contribute a few from set-pieces too.”

This does suggest that Ferguson will revert back to standard 4-4-2 with Rooney playing the more central role and either Berbatov or Owen partnering him. However, could the potential arrival of certain player(s); namely Sergio Aguero, David Silva or David Villa allow him to continue playing the formation he’s lived by for 2 seasons and make history by winning the 4th title in succession.?

Could the 4-6-0 work with England? Players like Rooney, Gerrard, Walcott and A. Young are talented, creative and with the pace of the two wide men, Walcott and Young, it would be frightening to watch. Maybe this is the change England need, I personally hate the typical English style of trying to out pass your opponent.

Sadly, since the formation lacks a proper goalscorer it has been adopted by very few teams and rarely consistently.

References in Wikipedia, SoccerCoaching International, Tactical Football Bible and BBC Sport

The Archives – Stand Up If You Love…

Ash — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:46:07 +0000

The Archives is a series of re-published articles where we will re-release our finest work that you may have missed. Here is the first…

Following the Hillsborough disaster, the Taylor report recommended terracing in the top flight to be phased out. Newly promoted sides from League One into the Championship, also have to have all-seater stadiums within three years. The event sent shockwaves throughout football as 96 football fans lost their lives.

What I am about to say is in no way supposed to be disrespectful to their memory, but is it time that we reintroduced standing areas into the higher tiers of our football league?

Our German counterparts have implemented standing areas in their top flight of the Bundesliga (the third most attended league in Europe). For example, big stadiums like FC Bayern’s Allianz Arena have removable seating so that standing can be allowed during matches; approximately 10,000 seats can be removed to accommodate 30,000 in turn.

What are the benefits from allowing seating areas you ask?
Comfort for others: If you are an excitable football fan and the minute your team goes beyond the half way line on a counter attack, you bolt out of your seat standing. There are normally people behind you, who you will then block and will in turn, begrudgingly have to stand to see.
Atmosphere: In a standing area football fans would enjoy a better atmosphere, rather than being mixed with families and executives. It would encourage your players as it would turn these dying atmospheres in current stadia to unwelcoming, lively environments.
Price: Standing tickets in the Bundesliga tend to be under 10 Euros, an exceptionally cheap price to watch top flight football. If it was to be the same in England, it would help keep “real” fans in the game, who are currently close to being priced out.
Fear of ejection: Currently football teams can lose their licence for their stadium if fans persistently stand. Hence why standing fans are thrown out. With designated standing areas this would not be an issue, meaning stewards can concentrate on more important matters.
Increased Capacity: As a Man Yoo fan I am applying to the vast majority of home matches. However with the large following, I rarely manage to get a ticket. With an increased capacity, it means I and fans alike would have an increased chance of watching their idols play. Also leading to a greater revenue to the club.

Now obviously with this there are some negatives with standing.
Increased disruption to local area: Many areas which have a football club, struggle to cope with the numbers of fans as it is. Whether it be public transport or traffic, increasing this by 10,000/20,000 more could bring chaos to these areas on match day.
Control: It would be harder to control a sea of people as opposed to those in seating. Currently to track down a troublemaker in seating is easy, but if they were in a large crowd it would be harder to track them down, for example, someone throwing a missile.
Avoiding a crush: What is to say that with the return of standing areas, we would not have a crush. This ultimately is the biggest con of reintroducing it. No-one wants scenes resembling the Hillsborough disaster.
Safety of opposition fans: At all games there is always away fans in the home end. Should they make their way to the home standing area, their safety would be heavily compromised.

I believe that with the advances made in electronic ticketing at the turnstiles, that clubs would be able to heavily regulate numbers to these areas. It would mean that counterfeit tickets are redundant and there would be little chance of overfilling a certain area. With the set up of the current stadia, the pitch is no longer fenced of to the public, so should a problem arise, the pitch is now accessible as an overspill. The dangers are still very valid but with increased capacity and revenue, and a potentially livelier atmosphere it does seem a very attractive idea to clubs. And with cheaper tickets, more readily available and better experiences for the fans, it perhaps is time we gave this some serious thought.