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Tactical preview of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations final - Ivory Coast vs Zambia

Michael Cox — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:36:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the FREE Africa Cup of Nations version of Stats Zone to preview Sunday's 2012 Africa Cup of Nations final...

Francois Zahoui’s first big decision will be where to play Yaya Toure. In the 3-0 win over Equatorial Guinea, Toure was fielded as a deep midfielder in the first half, and he was little influence on the game. The Ivory Coast lacked invention from the centre of midfield, and improved once he moved further forward after the break.

In the 1-0 semi-final win over Mali, Toure started higher up and was probably the key player in the game. He provided the link between midfield and the front three, and was a goal threat himself – hitting the near post with a powerful drive.

It seems logical that Toure should be used high up the pitch, but Zahoui has favoured a very defensive, functional strategy so far, and he might use Toure in a more reserved role early on.

Zahoui’s selections have seen plenty of rotation throughout the tournament, with only the goalkeeper Boubacar Barry, centre-backs Kolo Toure and Sol Bamba, and Didier Drogba starting every game. Gervinho and Didier Zokora will also start, but the full-back positions are up for grabs, while there’s also the question of who will join Drogba and Gervinho in the front three.

Salomon Kalou is the favourite and the more experienced option – he also brings a good relationship with Drogba by virtue of them playing together for Chelsea. But former Leeds and Leicester star Max Gradel played well in the quarter-final win over Equatorial Guinea, and probably offers more of a different option – he comes short to pick up the ball, and the Ivory Coast need that link between midfield and attack.

The players’ dashboards reveal different patterns of play, although the biggest difference is that Kalou is more of a goal threat. In a final likely to be tight and tense, that might be crucial.

Zambia coach Hervé Renard’s first choice is about his main striker. Having played Emmanuel Mayuka upfront throughout the competition, he surprisingly brought in James Chamanga to play upfront in the semi-final win over Ghana. But that experiment lasted only until half time, with the score at 0-0.

Mayuka replaced him, and scored the winner with a lovely curling shot that went in off the far post, to secure progress to the final. Really, this should be a no-brainer – Mayuka is the right option, and the position of his passes received compared to Chamanga’s shows that his pace allows him to pick up the ball much closer to goal.

The second decision is more complex. Against Ghana, Renard went with two holding midfielders, Nathan Sinkala and Francis Kasonde, to give the side more structure in the middle of the pitch. The result of this was that clever midfielder Isaac Chansa was pushed out with, and tricky left winger Chisamba Lungu was only on the bench.

But then Zambia won the game having brought on Lungu down the left and pushed Chansa into his favoured central midfield position. Lungu made ground down the left and Chansa played the ball forward to Mayuka, who finished. The goal wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the substitutions that pushed Zambia back to the line-up they used in the quarter-final.

So does Renard play his best side, or the side that is more defensively disciplined? Getting Chansa into the game is key – as the diagrams show, he’s far more prominent in the centre than when played out wide, before the substitution against Ghana.

More ACoN analysis from Michael Cox:
Wed 8 Feb Ghana's weakness and Ivorians' threat
Fri 3 Feb Deep forwards, midfield runners and the narrowest team
Mon 30 Jan Botswana's goal peppered, Boussifi makes it count & Pitroipa's dribbling problem
Thu 26 Jan Ivory Coast fail to utilise Yaya as young Lass fails to show class
Fri 20 Jan How will Premier League strikers fare at the Africa Cup of Nations?

Little England need to think big and get the best man for the job

Gary Parkinson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:54:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com editor Gary Parkinson on the farce and fiasco that has surrounded the English national football team in recent days...

The departure of Fabio Capello was a domino-topple of wrongness.

John Terry’s heinous (alleged) crime was bad enough; the legal system’s preposterous tardiness turned a problem into a half-year soap opera. The FA’s decision over his captaincy was difficult enough, but reaching it without consulting the manager was tantamount to constructive dismissal of their most well-remunerated employee.

Capello's decision to vent his spleen on Italian TV seemed either unprofessionally immature or a calculated move to render his position untenable by pandering to the prejudices of the xenophobic.

Fittingly for a chain of events started by alleged racism, it's that xenophobia which is the ugliest of all. Whenever the second most important job in the country is vacant, every village's idiot feels the need to proclaim – and when the incumbent wasn't from these parts, the cry is "an Englishman, any Englishman".

There's no problem with the first part. There are strong reasons for a nation to promote its own coaches, but there are stronger reasons to hire the best, even if it means swallowing national pride before it becomes bigotry. You won't have heard many Welsh rugby fans at the 2011 World Cup semi-finals complaining that Warren Gatland was born in New Zealand, not Neath.

Capello led England to two tournaments out of two with extreme efficiency and the highest win percentage since World War II, that psyche-defining epoch by which many on these shores still think the planet is defined. Sven-Göran Eriksson qualified for three successive quarter-finals, a feat unmatched by any England manager (Alf Ramsey's England didn't have to qualify in 1966 and lost their only game at Euro 68).

Contrast that to the last two managers born under the flag. Steve McClaren resigned in shame after failing to reach Euro 2008, while Kevin Keegan – having scraped to Euro 2000 on goal difference and crashed out of the finals at the group stage – resigned with the lowest win percentage of any England manager in history.

And yet to many here and abroad, it seems these little Englanders would rather the country ignore those clever foreign types and get a good old heart-of-oak in charge. These would be the types who still believe Johnny Foreigner learnt a lesson in the 1950s, when those fancy Magyars lost at Wolves because Stan Cullis had the pitch watered so much that the mud seeped over the top of Ferenc Puskas’s boots.

"Wait, you're replacing me with HIM!?"

They'd rather lose with a lionheart – although lions have never been native to England, and while we're at it St George was apparently a Roman soldier also venerated in Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Egypt, Georgia, Germany, India, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Ossetia, Palestine, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and the USA.

But in the wider picture, it’s all part of the usual English yo-yoing between managers. Robson’s too old, get a young manager! Taylor’s too introverted, get a people’s champion! Venables is too East End, get an apparently polite chap! Hoddle’s too introverted, get a people’s champion! Keegan’s too passionate, get an ice-man! Eriksson’s too foreign, get an Englishman! McClaren’s too player-ruled, get a disciplinarian!

No one is pretending Capello didn't have his faults: the 2010 World Cup was a fiasco, but he seemed to have learnt from it and led a rejuvenated squad to unbeaten qualification. (Mind you, the only game his England had previously lost was after they had qualified with two games to spare, along the way to racking up Europe’s largest goals-for tally.)

It's also evident that Capello has left most teams, even if successful, feeling somewhat brutalised by his efficiency and crying out for more fun, whatever that means. Real Madrid was the most extreme example: brought in to win the title, he did so and was sacked – twice. There seems something distant, dislikable even, about him – but again, he was brought in as a reaction to the very approachable English failure Steve McClaren.

It has been noted that there seems a certain disconnect between the FA's anti-racist stance and their seemingly populist preference for an English manager. Laudably, even if as window-dressing, they have refused to rule out a foreign manager. And so they should. Even compared to six years ago, in the death by committee that led to McClaren's cocked-up coronation, there seems a scarcity of correctly-passported coaches.

Harry Redknapp is the obvious front-runner, heralded by his mates in the chip papers; but unlike Capello, he's simply not a winner: one FA Cup triumph at Portsmouth, later rendered very hollow indeed by the financial mess the club was getting itself into. An affable also-ran, best known for his keen work in the import and export trade, Redknapp is a self-professed tactical agnostic. Are we really seeing England return to the age of "Get out there and run about a bit"?

Despite the worry over the imminence of the Euros, and the undoubted inconvenience of the sudden succession crisis, the FA have time to shop around. Stuart Pearce is in temporary charge for the imminent friendly against the Netherlands – a game which may just help to show that these continentals can play a bit – there's three clear months until the pre-tournament friendlies.

It should, but doesn't, go without saying that England should get the best man available for the job – or rather jobs: avoiding embarrassment in summer, then building for the future. The FA are commendably open to the idea of a short-term manager being replaced after the Euros, when there would be a considerably wider talent pool to choose from and club managers far easier to coax away.

There’ll be more options in summer, when managers are more freely available. For a start, it seems likely that Jose Mourinho will ride into the Madrid sunset, possibly after his usual second-season title triumph. For now, despite his sabre-rattling threats to leave, there's no way he'll walk away and pass up the chance to usurp Barcelona.

In the meantime, England should hire the man most likely to hit the ground running with the tactical fluidity necessary to get the best out of someone else's team. At the moment, that’s probably Guus Hiddink, who has made winners out of Australia, South Korea and even Phil Scolari's Chelsea.

That said, there’s a deep, sour part of me, one I'm not proud of, that’s tempted to see the FA appoint a hapless English fall-guy caretaker, who’ll sink without trace. Then we can bounce back in the opposite direction – for the good of English football.

Clausura 2012 preview: Organisation key to Verón's hopes of a fairytale ending

Ed Malyon — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:23:00 GMT

In the absence of bitter rivals River Plate, Boca Juniors waltzed (or should that be tangoed?) their way to an Apertura title with very little competition.

Second place seemed to induce vertigo upon the team to occupy it, with each more feeble than the next when presented with the chance to forge any sort of title charge. The result of this is that four teams ended up joint second, albeit twelve points back from Boca.

With the top sides taking part in the Copa Libertadores as well as the Clausura during the second half of the season, there will be a chance for the chasing pack to take advantage of the enormous midweek journeys being made by playing in the continent’s premier club competition.

Relegation will be decided in June, with Argentina’s complicated system meaning every point gained over the past three years could be absolutely vital. The bottom two sides of the average points table are automatically relegated while the next two play in two-legged survival playoffs against sides from the second tier.

Here is your team-by-team guide to the Argentine Clausura 2012...

All Boys
Mauro Matos scored seven of All Boys’ fifteen goals last season and if his contribution dips then el Albo’s flimsy squad will find themselves plunged even further down the table.
Key Player: Mauro Matos
Prediction: 18th – Relegation Playoff

Argentinos Juniors
With a new manager in, and a couple of their better players out; January has been a fairly uninspiring time for Argentinos fans who will need to unearth another talent from the youth system that spawned Juan Román Riquelme and Diego Maradona.
Key Player: Fabián Bordagaray
Prediction: 14th

Arsenal de Sarandí
A bizarre rule has gifted Arsenal a (perhaps undeserved) Copa Libertadores place and with a small squad, they could struggle over the next few months to juggle long midweek trips all over the continent with their domestic commitments, meaning they may have to settle for mid-table. Obolo will be a big loss, but Carlos Carbonero is a great signing.
Key Player: Luciano Leguizamón
Prediction: 11th

Atletico Rafaela
Hit the giddy heights of second early on in the Apertura, but Rafaela will be happy to repeat their mid-table finish if it gives them another season in the top flight to build on. Cesar Carignano returns to the club to partner Dario Gandín up front and will represent a great piece of recruitment.
Key Player: Cesar Carignano
Prediction: 8th

Banfield
A shocking campaign from Banfield saw them finish bottom, principally due to managerial comings-and-goings, but also thanks to general mismanagement from above. In Walter Acevedo and Facundo Ferreyra – among others – they have some fine players, but there are no excuses for losing 14 from 19 games in a season. They need a remarkable twelve months from now on if they are to avoid relegation in 2013.
Key Player: Facundo Ferreyra
Prediction: 13th

Belgrano
Finishing joint second on 31 points was an enormous achievement for Belgrano, having only just been promoted back to the Primera División. Having sold Franco Vazquez to Italian side Palermo, they now need someone else to build the side around and may struggle through this campaign at the wrong end of the table.
Key Player: Ribaír Rodriguez
Prediction: 15th

Boca Juniors
New signing Santiago Silva is only permitted by FIFA rules to represent Boca in the Libertadores, but this could well work out for JC Falcioni’s side. Their squad has been further strengthened following their title win and they finally have the right manager, but significant progress on the continental scene may mean they miss out on retaining their domestic title.
Key Player: Leandro Somoza
Prediction: 3rd

Colón de Santa Fe
Shrewd signings in the summer propelled Colón to fifth place (although level on points with second) and there seems little reason that they’d struggle to repeat that in the Clausura. The further addition of Leandro Gracián last month was a wise one, and without the added strain of continental football they should do well despite the unfortunate injury to defensive leader Ronald Raldes.
Key Player: Tomás Costa
Prediction: 5th

Estudiantes de La Plata
In re-signing Mariano Andújar and Enzo Perez, Estudiantes can now put out ten of the eleven players that won them the Copa Libertadores in 2009. Three years on from that, and under a different manager, the Students have a great shot at the Clausura title if they can once more get organised – something lacking in their last two managerial experiments. Could Verón end his career in fairytale fashion come June?
Key Player: Juan Seba Verón
Prediction: 2nd

Godoy Cruz
A terrific few years for the club from Mendoza mean they will get the chance to appear in the Copa Libertadores. But given their fairly small squad, they will be happy with mid-table anonymity and a progression from the group stages in CONMEBOL’s showcase tournament. They boast the Apertura top scorer - by quite a distance - in Ruben Ramirez.
Key Player: Diego Villar
Prediction: 10th

Independiente
The red devils are another side who will benefit from not being involved in continental competition, and following a torrid 12 months, could challenge for the top four again. With the experience of Gabriel Milito, and young talents like Patricio Rodriguez and Lucas Villafañez, Ramón Diaz has a strong squad to pick from.
Key Player: Ernesto Farías
Prediction: 3rd

Lanús
A small club that continues to punch above its weight, Lanús may struggle – like Godoy Cruz – to deal with battling on two fronts. They are boosted by the collapse of Guido Pizarro’s move to Fiorentina, after his Italian passport failed to come through before the deadline. The talented Silvio Romero needs to start scoring regularly to avoid wasting his undoubted potential.
Key Player: Diego Valeri
Prediction: 7th

Newell’s
Virtually certain to go down in 2013, they could bring that forward if they continue their horrendous performances of the past year or so. If archrivals Rosario Central don’t come up from la B then it could be the first time in the nationalised professional era that the city of Rosario doesn’t have a club in the top flight. They won just one of their nineteen Apertura games.
Key Player: Mauricio Sperdutti
Prediction: 16th

Olimpo de Bahia Blanca
Having overachieved in their first season after promotion, that difficult second season has proved to be just so for the league’s most southerly team. Stripped of many of their best players, only Martin Rolle keeps them above mediocrity and it could be a hard campaign for them.
Key Player: Martin Rolle
Prediction: 19th - direct relegation

Racing Club
Diego Simeone’s overly defensive outlook cost them the chance to challenge Boca for the Apertura, but his departure to Atletico Madrid will be replaced by a more attractive footballing era under Alfio Basile. Managing to keep hold of their prized Colombian duo of Giovanni Moreno and Teo Gutierrez has made them Argie Bargy’s favourites to triumph come June.
Key Player: Agustín Pelletieri
Prediction: Champions

San Lorenzo de Almagro
San Lorenzo face the very real possibility of joining River Plate – a fellow member of Argentina’s ‘big five’ – in plying their trade in the second tier. Having strengthened significantly in January though, they have given themselves as good a chance as possible of avoiding the drop. Carlos Bueno will be a vital signing.
Key Player: Nestor Ortigoza
Prediction: 12th

San Martin de San Juan
Another newly-promoted team that overachieved in the Apertura, they will find things a bit more difficult now other sides have become wise to their style of play. Facundo Affranchino has signed from River and could be a crucial player.
Key Player: Mauro Bogadón
Prediction: 17th

Tigre
The spectre of relegation is truly hanging over Tigre, but if they can repeat their strong performance of the Apertura, they may be able to avoid the automatic relegation places. A club of limited resources but they have a lot of heart, a good young manager and some talented individuals.
Key Player: Roman Martinez
Prediction: 9th – Relegation Playoff

Unión de Santa Fe
Having finished the season poorly, manager Frank Kudelka said he was looking to bring in some fresh blood. A lower-league striker has arrived but if he doesn’t immediately find his feet then Argie Bargy can see them finishing rock-bottom.
Key Player: Paulo Rosales
Prediction: 20th

Velez Sarsfield
One of the country’s best clubs over the last two to three years, Velez still managed to finish third last season despite having a poor season by their high standards. They have signed three top quality additions to their squad and Ricardo Gareca is a coach allowed the time and resources to keep evolving the club. They do, however, have some very long away trips in the Libertadores.
Key Player: David Ramirez
Prediction: 6th

Canaries to edge Swans in aerial battle, the difference between Walcott and AOC

Michael Cox — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:19:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the best of the weekend's Premier League action...

Swansea against Norwich is a clash of two newly promoted clubs flying high in the top half of the league, and also a meeting between Brendan Rodgers and Paul Lambert, two of the most promising young managers in Britain.

The two clubs have very different strengths, however. Swansea always keep the ball on the floor and look to hold the ball in deep positions, while Norwich are more direct. Although they’re certainly not a long ball team, they enjoy playing crosses into the box for their strikers.

Norwich have scored more headed goals than any other club in the league, while Swansea win the fewest aerial duels per game. That combination was evident in the previous meeting between the sides – Norwich crossed the ball with plenty of success, while Swansea barely won anything in the air. This time, Swansea will hope to dominate possession more, and keep the ball away from their own third.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has inevitably been cast as the new Theo Walcott, but even at this stage of his career, he seems to have a more complete game.

In last weekend’s 7-1 win over Blackburn, Oxlade-Chamberlain grabbed two goals – but his all-round play was also impressive. The comparison with Walcott shows that the elder player stays wide and gets assists by playing square balls across the face of goal, while Oxlade-Chamberlain came infield to link play more regularly.

With Arsenal’s newly found threat on the wing, their battle with Sunderland on Saturday should be interesting. Martin O’Neill has brought in a style of play based largely around width and crossing, so it will be interesting to compare the approach of the two sides in wide zones.

The previous league meeting between Manchester United and Liverpool was overshadowed by the Luis Suarez – Patrice Evra incident, although it wasn’t a particularly good game. Both sides went for negative systems and waited for the other to attack, and both goals came from set-plays – Steven Gerrard’s free-kick, and Javier Hernandez turning in a corner. The midfield zones lacked any sort of creativity.

It’s worth remembering that two key midfielders from that battle will be missing tomorrow – Lucas Leiva and Darren Fletcher are both out for the season. The comparison of their passing from the previous fixture shows an interesting pattern, with Fletcher’s passes being much squarer than Lucas’, who perhaps surprisingly gives the ball away more frequently than Fletcher.

Everton have a knack of frustrating the top sides, mainly through their approach of sitting very deep behind the ball and denying the opposition the spaces to pass through them.

In the reverse meeting between the sides at Stamford Bridge, Everton used this approach, which resulted in some amazingly high pass completion rates for Chelsea players in deep positions. Both John Terry and Jon Obi Mikel were close to the 100 mark, in terms of passes attempted and pass completion percentage.

Chelsea triumphed 3-1 in that game, however, and David Moyes may order his side to play higher up the pitch at Goodison Park. Fernando Torres continues to look short of pace, so playing high up the pitch and leaving space in behind isn’t a huge problem.

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

Last year's drop-dodgers clash as rejuvenated title challengers

Stefan Bienkowski — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:14:00 GMT

From avoiding relegation to aiming for the stars – it's very possible in Germany, says Stefan Bienkowski

This weekend’s Bundesliga promises a game of local and national interest as Schalke travel 40 miles south-west to face fellow surprise package Borussia Moenchengladbach in a ripe encounter between third and fourth.

Having vastly improved since last season’s flirts with relegation – Schalke finished 14th out of 18, while 16th-placed Gladbach only stayed up after a play-off with VfL Bochum – the two Northern Rhineland sides are chasing Dortmund and Bayern Munich in a four-way race for the title.

From the outside, the Bundesliga seems pleasingly erratic. Eschewing the usual European model of regular champions or settled elites, it has produced four different winners in the last five seasons, and none of them are the team which perhaps best depict that unpredictability: Schalke 04.

The team from Gelsenkirchen have truly turned it round from last season. Despite an impressive run to the Champions League semi-finals, they suffered abysmal league form. After replacing Felix Magath in March 2011, makeshift manager Ralf Rangnick was trying desperately to keep the club from falling apart.

Despite Magath’s pantomime-villain persona within German football, his role was undermined by their inability to perform in the league. Magath’s men failed to pick up a single point in their first four games of last season, and Schalke lost 12 further times to rack up 16 defeats in 34 games.

Under Rangnick, the club began the 2011-2012 campaign in better form, winning three of their first four games of the season and topping the table with Bayern. In typical Schalke fashion, they lost their next two games, dropping to ninth.

At this point, Ralf Rangnick decided he could no longer put up with the pressures of the job, and resigned with immediate effect. But every cloud has a silver lining which came in the form of a Dutchman by the name of Huub Stevens. Since his appointment, the club have only lost two of 13 games and have maintained a level of form equalled only by champions and leaders Borussia Dortmund.

The changes under Stevens are evident from the manner in which the former Netherlands international gets the most out of his players. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar – a player seldom praised under Magath – has already scored twice as many goals as he did last season, with six games to spare. Similarly, Raul has contributed 13 goals in 28 – remarkable considering it took him more than 50 games to reach 19 under Magath.

KJH (centre) and chums celebrate a win at Koln

This strike partnership has been the cornerstone to Stevens’ success, as the coach has done all he can do distinguish his side from the regimented, defensive side of Magath’s tenure. Schalke's goals-against column is almost twice as bad as their title rivals, but nobody has won more games.

And so to this weekend's trip to Gladbach. Like Schalke, Borussia have been entertaining this season, have experienced a comparable renaissance under new coach Lucien Favre, after an unpleasant experience in the last campaign went as far as to threaten the club’s Bundesliga status.

Michael Frontzeck had an unfortunate season with the club, winning only four games before losing his job in February 2011, when Favre then took over. At that point, Gladbach were dead last in 18th position, with a goal difference of -24.

Favre won his first game in charge – against Schalke – and the club won six of their last 11 games to drag them out of the automatic relegation spots. They then fought for their Bundesliga lives in a play-off against VfL Bochum, winning the two legged tie 2-1 on aggregate – a young Marco Reus scoring the late equaliser to ensure the victory and his club’s safety.

Gladbach's young bucks (Reus second right)

Swiss coach Favre has rejuvenated die Fohlen (the Foals), distilling his excellent tactical knowledge into a squad full of fantastic young players. The very definition of a counter-attacking team, Gladbach have been admiringly termed the ‘sit and hit’ side.

Of course, all this hasn’t simply been down to tactics. If Favre has built a stage for the promising young performers, Marco Reus has certainly been the star attraction. The midfielder has contributed 12 goals and three assists in 17 games, and despite agreeing to join Bayern in the summer, the 22-year-old shows no sign of letting it get in the way of his duty for Gladbach.

Schalke travel to Monchengladbach after dropping their first points in six games last weekend when they were held to a 1-1 draw against relegation battlers FC Mainz. Likewise, Gladbach dropped two points to Wolfsburg last Saturday after brushing aside Bayern and Stuttgart in the two weeks prior to the game.

Whatever the result, goals and attacking football are promised from two sides who seem determined to put as much distance between themselves and their dark past.

La Preview: AS mull Mourinho movements as Zaragoza go for a record

Tim Stannard — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:21:00 GMT

Saturday

Racing Santander (18th) v Atlético Madrid (7th) - 18.00 (local time)
“Courage! Passion! Cojones! Courage! Passion! Cojones!” has been the very clear message from Rojiblanco coach Diego Simeone since taking charge of Atlético over Christmas. To be fair, this particular mantra has been a tremendous success, with his team yet to concede a goal, never mind lose a game during the newbie’s spell. So it’s time to drop in on the Argentinean ahead of another match and see if the power-mad positive vibe has changed at all.
“I am conscious that we can give so much more than we are all giving now and we are going to demand more from ourselves,” yelled Simeone during Wednesday’s press conference. So that’s a ‘no’ then.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Osasuna (9th) v Barcelona (2nd) - 20.00
As if Real Madrid and Barcelona don’t have enough opportunities for big squabbles, another has arisen - the location of the Copa del Rey final. As ever, the Spanish FA don’t yet have a date for the show-piece event or any clue of where to play it. The mega-capacity Santiago Bernabeu would be ideal, but AS claim that this notion would be poo-pooed straight away by Real Madrid with the club giving all sorts of excuses such as security, building works and possible Champions League celebrations. However, the paper’s editor hits the mole on the head with a mop when writing that “the reality is that they don’t want it because they don’t like the idea of Barça winning the Copa in the Bernabeu.”
LLL Prediction - Away win

Betis (16th) v Athletic Bilbao (6th) - 22.00
LLL gets the feeling Javier Clemente doesn’t like Marcelo Bielsa and his fancy, passing football ways at his beloved Athletic Bilbao. In a tremendously rant-filled interview with ‘Quality Sport’, the former Athletic boss claims that “nothing has moved forward under Bielsa. There are no great changes. They are the same players.” The grumpy Basque so-and-so also discusses what would happen if anyone at the club tried to change the team’s traditional ‘local club for local people’ transfer policy. “He would last three weeks in Bilbao as the fans would finish him off. I would too.”
LLL Prediction - Draw

Sunday

Espanyol (5th) v Zaragoza (20th) - 12.00
A special challenge for la Primera’s bottom-dwellers this weekend. If Zaragoza fail to win, then the team will equal the worst run in the club’s history. Zaragoza have now contrived to go 14 matches in la Liga without a victory. Another failure this weekend will equal a record that has stood since 1943. Good work!
LLL Prediction - Home win

Málaga (8th) v Mallorca (13th) - 16.00
Due to all the excitement of Marcelino’s sacking by Sevilla, LLL began to get a little bit carried away and thought Manuel Pellegrini was about to bite the bullet after Monday night's defeat to Granada left Málaga with just the single victory in eight games. Apparently the blog was not alone in sensing a firing in the pipeline, a whiff so big that the club’s sporting director, Fernando Hierro, came out to speak to the press on Wednesday to deny that there was any managerial movement in Málaga’s footballing bowels.
“There isn’t an ultimatum for Pellegrini or for anyone,” announced the former Real Madrid man. “I’ve spoken five or six times with him and he’s very excited about the project.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Rayo Vallecano (12th) v Getafe (10th) - 16.00
And so Getafe’s quest to find fans continues. The least surprising news story of the week was in AS, who suggested few supporters would be making the short trip from Getafe to Vallecas to catch another Madridileño derby. However, Getafe don’t give up that easily with the paper also reporting that every punter who spends €40 in the club shop - although it is more of a small kiosk, to be fair - will be handed a free ticket to next weekend’s clash against Espanyol.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Valencia (3rd) v Sporting (19th) - 18.00
Valencia getting knocked out of the Copa del Rey at the semi-final stage by Barcelona sees Unai Emery’s men now completely focussed on the Europa League and the non-existent battle from teams below to grab the side’s solid as cement third-place perch. Sporting, meanwhile, have decided to stick with the former number two manager, Iñaki Tejada, at least until June after the recent sacking of Manuel Preciado.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Villarreal (17th) v Granada (14th) - 19.45
It’s been two matches and two wins for Abel Resino as Granada manager, since taking over from the flat-topped, odd character that was Fabri. Curiously, the former Atlético boss is a former goalkeeper - the second in la Primera along with José Molina at Villarreal who Granada are facing this weekend - so Marca probed him thoroughly on his opinion on Spain’s current crop of goal-stopping supremos. “Valdés is the goalkeeper that I like the most,” opined Resino, “I think he is the most dominant in all the areas of being a goalkeeper. Casillas is very regular and has the advantage of competing since he was very young.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Real Madrid (1st) v Levante (4th) - 21.30
There is an interesting juxtaposition in Friday’s AS, which boasts that José Mourinho has already begun to plan his team’s next pre-season - familiarising himself with the Manchester traffic system, perhaps. On the opposite page of a spread predicting that Mourinho will be taking Real Madrid back to Los Angeles, the paper also carries an article musing over whether a move to Spurs might be an option for Mourinho what with all the kerfuffle over Harry Redknapp and Fabio Capello.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Monday

Real Sociedad (15th) v Sevilla (11th) - 21.00
As usual, the sacking of an old manager and the arrival of another has seen footballers falling in line to praise the new coach up to his knee caps. Sevilla’s Manu del Moral couldn’t be happier to see Míchel at the Andalusian club with the forward having played for the manager at Getafe. “If I had to chose a coach to change this situation, then Míchel without doubt is the right one,” oozed Del Moral. “At Getafe he found a very similar situation and managed to change things around.”
LLL Prediction - Draw

Harry Redknapp's England switch not a forgone conclusion

Jon Champion — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Tottenham Hotspur vs Newcastle United live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday...

February 8th 2012 will go down as one of the more extraordinary days in recent history of English football. People of a certain age will remember where they were when Don Revie walked out on England, and there are comparisons to be drawn with the way Capello has done the same.

Perhaps with a bit of persuasion from the FA, the Italian has left a job that had seen him make an awful lot of money, but not necessarily an awful lot of progress.

The front runner to replace Capello is Harry Redknapp, who was found not guilty on tax evasion charges on Wednesday morning to complete this most unique of days. I don’t think he’s the only candidate – Roy Hodgson would love to talk to the FA, as I’m sure Sam Allardyce would, though perhaps operating in the Championship seems too big a leap of a stage.

The top two English managers in the Barclays Premier League, in terms of league position, are Harry Redknapp and Alan Pardew, who meet in front of ESPN cameras at Saturday tea-time as Tottenham host Newcastle.

Pardew has had a few mentions recently, although his back catalogue is not yet sufficiently strong enough to mount a realistic challenge for the job. It will boil down to whether Harry Redknapp wants to do it, and it’s a foregone conclusion that he will.

The England job has become such a poisoned chalice; you look at a man who is enjoying his best success of a lengthy, 30-year career and the last three have brought him unparalleled success. He’s displayed an ability to buy and manage players at a level that he has not been able to operate at before.

Of course, if he goes to the England job, he doesn’t have that luxury to create a team in quite the same way, which is what he has loved doing. I just wonder whether he might look at it and think, “It’s a fantastic honour and I’d loved to be offered it – but I might just turn it down.”

The whole issue could act as something of as a distraction ahead of Saturday’s crucial match, but I think the overriding emotion at White Hart Lane would be one of relief that Harry Redknapp is still available to manage them in the short-term – even that wasn’t a given on Wednesday morning.

You could see the response of the fans to Harry when he walked out in a recent game against Wigan – he even remarked on that in his comments outside court on Wednesday and said it was one of his most emotional experiences in football. I think that’ll be doubled when he walks out on Saturday for two reasons; the court case is over and Spurs fans would want to show Redknapp how much he means to them and how much they want him to stay.

Newcastle are the side that refuse to go away as far as the battle for those top four spots goes, and I love the optimism of Alan Pardew. Many other managers would be tempering expectations, particularly with a fanatical following like the Toon Army, and trying to manager the fact that they probably won’t make the top four. But he is going for it hammer and tongs – he’s saying, “Let’s chase after Chelsea, we’re only a point behind – let’s really go for it!”

Isn’t it refreshing hearing a manager saying that, rather than coming out with managerial speak to try and dampen down expectations? It’s a real change to hear that and I think Alan Pardew has got his mojo back after a spell in the lower divisions.

I liken his success at the moment to a period he had at West Ham where he led them to an FA Cup final and into the upper echelons of the Premier League. This most unlikely marriage – a Londoner and the Toon army – is working out beautifully. It may be stretching the imagination to think they will finish in the top four, but clearly they are going to give it a go.

I was at Stamford Bridge last week to see Chelsea throw away a three goal lead - they’ve now drawn their last three Premier League games and will need to do better when they travel to Everton. In a rather sinister development, Roman Abramovich has taken to turning up at training sessions – he’s done it twice in the last week – which is never usually a good sign for an incumbent manager; it’s usually a sign that their time may be drawing to a close.
To be fair to Andre Villas Boas, he’s missing Didier Drogba and he has a striker in Fernando Torres who still doesn’t know the route to goal. He had a glorious chance to score late on in the game against Manchester United, but decided to take four or five touches rather than hit it first time, which he would have done if he was playing to instinct rather than fear in his mind.
Chelsea will find it difficult at Goodison Park, especially as the last visitors there, Manchester City, left with no points. The injection of new blood in Darron Gibson, Steven Pienaar and Nikita Jelavic has revived and enhanced a flagging, small squad. It’s just two defeats in 12 in all competitions for Everton now, and it’s one of the reasons that David Moyes will probably be one of the names thrown into the mix for Tottenham, should Harry Redknapp move on.

Meanwhile, Sunderland host Arsenal, and I really fancy the home side for this. Arsenal don’t have the best record at the Stadium of Light – they’ve struggled on occasions – and I think Sunderland, if not an unstoppable force at the moment, certainly are a side with as much momentum as any other team in the Premier League right now. At home, in front of a near 50,000 sell-out, I really think it’ll be another win – a fourth in succession in the Premier League – for Sunderland. They’re young, fit and playing for their manager – I don’t think Sunderland fans would have envisaged that four months ago.

Normally the headline game of any weekend, Manchester United vs Liverpool will no doubt be billed as Evra v Suarez, which is something of a shame. This is still the domestic fixture with the harshest edge to it – it’s not a local derby in the strictest terms, but this is the keenest rivalry in English football, and will remain so as long as Dalglish and Ferguson are at the helm of the two clubs.
United showed all the abundant skill and character they have exhibited for the past quarter of a century under their manager to comeback from 3-0 down at Chelsea. Liverpool, meanwhile, showed their limitations against a Tottenham side who were restricted in terms of their selection by a whole host of injuries. Suarez came off the bench, but I’d expect him to start at Old Trafford, and he obviously gives Liverpool a little extra dimension.
But I don’t think there’s enough in Dalglish’s squad for a top four finish, which would be the minimum requirement given the investment that’s been made.

The central figure of Blackburn’s home match against QPR, Chris Samba, could perhaps return. Sidelined because of his dispute with Blackburn, having nearly gone to QPR, he is fighting the Venkys who are unhappy at the way he was trying to engineer a move away from Ewood Park, and decreed that he wouldn’t be sold.
Blackburn conceded seven at Arsenal, and have lost three out of five since their win at Old Trafford on New Years Eve, and are heading in the wrong direction again. QPR having only won one in four under Mark Hughes – Cisse’s suspended and the two sides lacking in confidence. But I’d pick Mark Hughes to win this against his former side.

Bolton have won three of their last eight games, including a memorable victory over Liverpool, but were really meek in going two nil down at Norwich last weekend. But Wigan are the ideal opponents – nine games without a win, losing four of their last five and five points adrift. Doomed, I think, because they just can’t score any goals – only 21 in the whole season. Bolton need to take full advantage.

Fulham against Stoke presents two sides who have enjoyed as comfortable a season as they both would have liked. Fulham were really poor at Manchester City last weekend – it just wasn’t a contested.
However at home they are a different prospect, and Stoke could do with getting something because they’ve lost their last three and have dropped out of the top half. Tony Pulis will have them wound up as there is a sense of injustice over Robert Huth’s sending off, and subsequent unsuccessful appeal.

Swansea and Norwich are two promoted sides who are making a very good fist of things in the Premier League. Tenth against ninth – who would have thought that?
I still think they need three more wins each just to guarantee safety, and I think Norwich will do well to come away with something because of how strong Swansea have been at home.

Moving on to the Black Country derby, West Brom are showing relegation form which is worrying for Roy Hodgson – one win in seven with four defeats in that spell. Wolves enjoyed a valuable win at Loftus Road, but West Brom have tended to get the better of Wolves in recent history. I think both will settle for a draw.

Manchester City at Aston Villa should be another three points for the league leaders – most top sides seem able to leave Villa Park with all three points, which wasn’t the case not so long ago. The growing discord around Villa and Alex McLeish will grow a little louder as I don’t see City having any problems on Sunday.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Tottenham Hotspur vs Newcastle United, Saturday, 4.30pm.

RE-RE-WIND: The Crown says 'No, acquit him!'

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:01:00 GMT

Wembley, Soccer Aid 2008: It's The Artful Dodger feat. Craig David. Old Knappsy subs on Southampton's finest export (yes, Theo, really)

Yesterday’s man is right for England’s future

Guest Writer — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:43:00 GMT

As the English press go gaga, Mark Robinson explains why Harry Redknapp really is the man to lead the national team...

As one chapter ends, another begins. Just hours after being cleared of tax evasion charges at Southwark Crown Court – dispelling accusations of financial skulduggery which have shadowed him for five years – Harry Redknapp stands alone as the outstanding candidate for the recently vacated England hot seat.

Even for a man well used to the emotional rollercoaster that is football management, the events of Wednesday will have had the 64-year-old Tottenham boss pinching himself. From potential disgrace in a court of law to being within touching distance of a job often referred to as the second most important in the country, all in the space of a single afternoon. It trumps anything he has experienced in close to 50 years in the game

The relegation battles, the crossing of bitter divides and those last-minute transfer deals which have nourished his reputation as a ‘wheeler dealer’ are etched across Redknapp’s face and are explicit in his character, which invokes nostalgia for a bygone age.

At a time when football clubs are being increasingly dominated by statistical analysts, nutritionists and psychologists, here is a man cut from a vintage English cloth. A throwback to an age where men in camel coats and fedoras puffed on cigars in dugouts across the country, in between devising deals to swap players for lawnmowers or vice versa.

The major factor in Redknapp’s success has been the force of his endearing and shrewd personality, a by-product of which is his ability as a manager of men and as a master motivator.

The perception of Redknapp as something of a ‘wide boy’ should not detract from his credentials for the biggest job in English football. The nurturing of several future England internationals during his spell in charge of West Ham, which also included a fifth placed finish in the Premier League in 1999, first served notice of his managerial talents. FA Cup success with Portsmouth in 2008 followed, but it has been his work with Tottenham Hotspur in recent seasons that has seen him earn broader praise at both home and abroad.

He took over a grand old club in crisis and at the foot of the Premier League at the end of 2008, and by the end of the following campaign – his first full season in charge of the club – had guided Spurs into the Champions League. This season, his team has outshone Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool by producing the only sustained challenge over the first half of the season to the hegemony of the Manchester clubs in the Premier League title race.

Redknapp has built his Tottenham side on the principles of versatile attacking football, able to benefit from the flexibility of both patience and directness. He has nurtured and developed the abilities of Gareth Bale and Luka Modric and has added the contrasting qualities of Scott Parker and Rafael Van Der Vaart to a midfield that, at its best, can be mentioned in the same sentence as Barcelona’s without provoking derision.

His effective handling of the hugely talented but notoriously combustible Emmanuel Adebayor, a task seemingly beyond the capabilities of even Jose Mourinho, illustrates Redknapp’s genius in a nutshell.

Given the baggage he has carried around for so long, proven or unproven, whether the naturally cautious Football Association have the courage to appoint him remains to be seen, but the outcome of his trial removes a significant obstacle.

The institution’s reluctance to bow to public pressure in the 1970s and employ the controversial but brilliant Brian Clough sets a worrying precedent for Redknapp’s backers. So does its failure to back Terry Venables, himself plagued by rumours of financial wrongdoing, following England’s unfortunate exit at the semi-finals of Euro 96.

The similarities between Venables and Redknapp are pointed. Both are men that have spent their careers trading on their ability to extract the maximum from the players at their disposal, and both are men you are more likely to encounter at an East End greyhound track than at a UEFA coaching convention.

In Venables’ case, that very English mixture made him the England manager that has come closest to glory at a major tournament over the last 16 years. After years of failed experimentation with foreign coaches and fashionable methods, it is time to give yesterday’s man another shot.

Kris Boyd's MLS move highlights the league's complexities

Kris Heneage — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:36:00 GMT

Given Bill Shankly's professed admiration of socialism in relation to football, one would imagine he'd quite enjoy the financial regulations employed by Major League Soccer.

While the economic disparity between the top and bottom of England's Premier League is often highlighted, the same issue fails to surface in MLS. In line with most US sports, the league strives towards financial parity and providing every team with an equal opportunity of winning.

Take for example Kris Boyd's recent move to the Portland Timbers. The former Rangers striker had been in negotiations with Houston Dynamo – even flying to Texas – but the two parties failed to come to an agreement.

While holding discussions with Boyd, Houston placed 'discovery claims' on him. This meant that, in the event of a rival MLS club signing Boyd, Houston would have to be compensated. At the same time, Boyd's agent began discussions with the Portland Timbers, managed by former Chelsea player John Spencer.

Despite strong interest from the Dynamo, Boyd chose to sign with the Timbers. As a consequence, Portland traded a first-round 2013 draft pick to Houston in order to complete the deal, meaning Houston actually gained something from not signing Boyd.

Advocates of 'discovery claims' believe the system benefits all parties involved. Portland acquired a striker to replace the recently departed Kenny Cooper, Boyd gets to join his preferred MLS side, and Houston get something to ease the pain of missing out on a player of Boyd's potential.

But just as socialism has its detractors, discovery claims also garner criticism. A team may hold 10 claims at any one time – they expire on September 1st each year. Although in Boyd's case Dynamo clearly made a genuine attempt to sign the player, it has been suggested clubs may seek to gain an advantage by staking a claim in a player they have no real intention to pursue. If such a case did present itself, it's likely the league would punish the offending team, should this be proven.

Now you may question why such rulings exist. Essentially it's to prevent an auction between clubs. After all, MLS is a single-entity league and internal competition only invokes bidding wars, which raise salaries. It also serves in the best interest of the clubs due to the stringent financial constraints of the salary cap, which attempts to negate financial wastage.

The concept convolutes itself further when you learn the list of discovery claims is kept secret by the league. Working out which clubs found certain players requires Sherlockian deduction, or a leak of information from a club (often the one that will benefit).

Of course, this also holds wider implications. To use a hypothetical example: Player A is 'discovered' by Club X. In the meantime, Club Y show a distinct interest in Player A – but upon learning that they would have to forfeit something to Club X, decide against making a move.

In those circumstances, the potential impact of Player A on MLS bears little relevance, as he (and the US game) will have missed out on a potentially mutually beneficial move. What was implemented to breed fairness can be twisted to serve a more sinister purpose.

Thankfully that wasn't the case here, but what's important for Portland fans is that Boyd represents a substantial gamble. The Timbers made space for him by moving Kenny Cooper – admittedly far from prolific last season – on to New York Red Bulls, so if Boyd struggles in Oregon, they'll have strengthened two rivals at once for no appreciable gain.

The pressure is on the new guy. Timbers fans have been eager for a synopsis of his talents, and the response is simple: goals and little else. That's what convinced Middlesbrough to furnish him with a lucrative contract after he left Rangers on a free in 2010. Unfortunately, the goals weren't nearly frequent enough (six in 27 league games to be precise), leading to claims of Boyd being lazy and one-dimensional.

Serving only to intensify the pressure, Boyd also enters Portland as a designated player. Often referred to as the 'Beckham rule'‚ it allows dispensation to have a player outside of the salary cap. As with other DPs, Boyd will receive $335,000 from the salary allocation with the club's owner collecting the rest of the bill.

While Boyd awaits a decision on his work visa, it's believed he'll join Portland at their LA training camp which began this week. Considering there was reported interest from a number of Championship clubs as well as tentative links to former club Rangers, Boyd's decision is something of a coup for MLS and shows that the US is becoming a more considered option for European players.

His MLS career potentially begins in March with a home game in the atmospheric Jled-Wen field against the Philadelphia Union. Then in May he makes the trip to Houston, at which point both sides should be able to define who came away best from the complex deal with Timbers owner Merritt Paulson already sounding confident: "Kris perfectly fits the profile of the team's needs and will make a huge impact."

Kenwyne Jones bunks off Stoke training to play football

Back of the Net — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:17:00 GMT

Back of the Net's John Foster with shock news from the Potteries

Stoke City forward Kenwyne Jones has been spending less and less time in training, according to reports from the Britannia Stadium, frequently choosing to spend his time playing football instead.

Jones, a keen sportsman from a young age, says he likes the release that football gives him from the tedious grind of his day job as a striker for Stoke City.

“I really enjoy playing football, especially the technical side – you know, ball control, passing, that sort of thing,” Jones told FourFourTwo.

“But sadly my boss looks down on all that, so I have to be pretty careful in case he finds out about it.”

The 27-year-old admitted that sometimes his thoughts stray to football when he’s meant to be concentrating on other things.

“The other day, when I was working the channels, I noticed some Manchester United players having a game of football behind me. They seemed to be having a really good time, so I stopped and watched them for a while. It was beautiful.

“But then Mr Pulis screamed at me to get stuck in, so of course I had to forget about football for a while.”

Jones also revealed that his family had urged him to consider making a career out of football, but he wasn’t convinced it would be right for him.

“It’s tempting, and I’ve thought about it a lot in the past, but my whole life is here now. Besides, I know my job is a bit rubbish, but someone’s got to do it. Who else is going to rough up the centre-backs and win those flick-ons? Diego Arismendi? I don’t think so.”

Previous stories:
De Gea: If I stare at the floodlights I see angels
Ball still bobbling around in Villa box, three days later
Wigan given permission to talk to Maynard, but not about football
Banana touted as potential banana skin for Hull
Nobody able to explain why Tony Hibbert is in Gabon
Spurs target found to be carefully-arranged pile of shoeboxes
O'Neill creates "stunning" rogan josh from contents of Bruce's pantry

Back of the Net writer Paul Watson's book Up Pohnpei: A Quest to Reclaim the Soul of Football by Leading the World's Ultimate Underdogs to Glory is available now

ACoN Diary 7: A less than smooth journey which had a happier ending than Ghana's

Jonathan Wilson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:30:00 GMT

As Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed the decisive penalty in Sunday’s quarter-final in Libreville, a dreading realisation dawned: Mali v Ivory Coast was clearly a far less interesting semi-final than Zambia v Ghana.

I checked various websites for flights to Bata but without success, so began trawling the various agencies. Eventually, at around 1030 on Monday morning, I found one that could sell me a ticket to Bata, leaving at two that afternoon. Excellent, I said, I’d take it and texted a friend already in Bata to reserve me a hotel room. I was scheduled to arrive at 2000, I said. The hotel agreed to send a car.

The agency didn’t take cards, so I dashed outside to find an ATM. I found one, put in my card, and it swallowed it. I ran to the bank round the corner. “The guard will be here later. Come back on Friday.”

Fortunately, another journalist was with me and I borrowed money from him, jumped in a taxi, raced back to the house I was staying in, grabbed my bag and my spare credit card and dashed off to the airport.

I checked in fine. The flight was schedule to go first to Sao Tome, then on to Malabo, where I had to change for Bata. But when they began boarding just before 1400, the stewrard suddenly announced the plane was for Sao Tome only. “We’ll come back and take you to Malabo,” he said. I pointed out that I – and four others – had a connection to Bata, and he shrugged. There was a Chinese group who had to be brought back, and that took precedence over the schedule.

The plane took off at 1430. I watched it go, then checked online how far it was to Sao Tome. A little under 200 miles. Maybe 35-40 minutes of flying time. I tweeted my calculations. We needed the plane back by 1715 to have a chance of landing in Malabo before 1900. The woman next to me, who’d been fiddling with her Iphone, suddenly turned and stared at me. “Is that you?” she said, waving the phone at me. It turned out she was the Nigerian TV presenter Chisom Mbonu, and she followed me.

I was beginning to give up hope, but at 1714 a speck of white and green emerged from the clouds. We boarded and took off with remarkable haste (there were only eight of us). The grey Atlantic seemed to go on forever, but we landed at 1850. A bus was waiting to take us to the terminal. As we boarded, though, I saw another plane in the same livery boarding on the other side of the airfield.

I got off the bus and asked a steward. He confirmed that was the Bata flight. “Can I run?” I asked. He shook his head at which, from nowhere, a minibus appeared. “Bata?” yelled a cheery man in an orange vest. The five of us boarded.

“What about the bags?” somebody asked.

So we got off again and picked through the hold to find them, jumped back on the minibus and rattled across the centre of the airfield to the other plane. As I sat down, we began taxi-ing.

We touched down in Bata bang on 2000. “Exactly on time,” said the woman from the hotel who’d come to meet me. “Smooth as can be.”

Not quite. And nor was the simple progress many imagined Ghana would make. Zambia defended deep and well, and scored with their only shot to reach their first final since 1994.

Barça fans prepare to chill out as Mirandés disappointed by unromantic Basques

Tim Stannard — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:36:00 GMT

This week in Spanish football will see some dreams ending, some beginning and some sort of about to start, but not quite. It's not unlike the semi-conscious, leg twitching, gurgling slumber induced when Aston Villa games are broadcast in Spain on a Saturday afternoon.

Plucky part-timers Mirandés harboured sweet dreams of another Primera upset in San Mamés on Tuesday night in their Copa del Rey semi-final tie, despite being down 2-1 to Athletic Bilbao from the first leg.

Unfortunately for the third-tier side, their Basque opponents are about as romantic and sensitive as a Premier League footballer approaching a bikini-clad Hollyoaks babe. There was no time wasted with small talk by Athletic, who got exactly what they wanted at the end of the night, a final date with Barcelona or Valencia.

Athletic went 3-0 up after just 22 minutes and eventually won the game 6-2 (8-3 on aggregate) in front of 40,000 fans. “It wasn’t the dream farewell,” admitted Mirandés coach, Carlos Pousa.

The Basque side must now wait and see who they will face in the final, with the European champions facing a couple of tough battles. The first is overcoming Valencia in a tie currently delicately poised at 1-1. The second is getting culés to come to the Camp Nou at nine on what is going to be a very chilly night indeed in the Catalan capital.

“We’ll be up for it,” promised Pep Guardiola. “And to those brave souls who go to the stadium, I tell them that we want to reach the final. That’s our desire,” said the Barça boss, who also claimed in what may be deemed a rather sexist manner that “it’s a match for men.”

Barcelona being 90 minutes away from reaching the Copa del Rey final has caused a bit of back-peddling for one particular Catalan, Lluís Mascaró of ‘Sport’. The journalist last season claimed the competition was worthless because Real Madrid won it. But he appeared to have changed his tine in Wednesday’s edition. “It was because Madridismo celebrated the cup as if it was the Champions League, when in reality it’s a lesser tournament than can’t save any campaign.”

Joining Mirandés in the 'fragile dreams being crushed' camp is Marcelino, who bade farewell to Sevilla in a Tuesday press conference after his sacking 24 hours beforehand. “Life deals out tough blows,” admitted Marcelino, in what was an emotional goodbye to a club he had mostly ruined.

Trying to repair some of the damage is Míchel, who will have a tough job trying to appease some of Sevilla's core support due to his rather Real Madrid-ish background. Oh, and the fact that his managerial career isn’t exactly a sterling one, aside from a single decent season with Getafe.

“For Sevilla fans, Míchel is the best coach in the world,” was the command from club president José María del Nido to the side’s supporters, who best give Míchel a very warm hand on his entrance in the team's next game in the Sánchez Pizjuán.

Stats Zone semi-final preview: Ghana's weakness and Ivorians' threat

Michael Cox — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:55:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the FREE Africa Cup of Nations version of Stats Zone to preview today's semi-finals at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations...

Zambia v Ghana (Wed 8 Feb, 4pm)
Zambia should line up in a basic 4-2-3-1 system against Ghana this afternoon, matching their opponents in the centre of the pitch.

Their midfield partnership functions in an interesting way. Nathan Sinkala can also play as a centre-back, and therefore plays extremely deep in midfield, picking up the ball from his own defenders and calmly distributing the ball out to the full-backs. He rarely ventures into the final third of the pitch.

Isaac Chanca plays alongside him but has much more licence to get forward. He has the freedom to drift to either flank, and also attempts difficult through balls on the edge of the box. It’s very similar to the way Ghana play in midfield, with Anthony Annan sitting and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu driving forward; we could see two identical systems doing battle at Estadio de Bata.

Ghana start the game as firm favourites, but one area they need to improve upon is their distribution from the goalkeeper. Adam Larsen Kwarasey basically had the right idea in the quarter-final win over Tunisia – most of his deliveries were short out to the back four, helping Ghana get the ball forward gradually, and retaining possession.

But a few times he was tempted into kicking the ball long – and Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan is hardly the greatest aerial threat. The diagram shows how unsuccessful these balls were, confirming the feeling that Kwarasey is better off being short with his distribution.

Mali v Ivory Coast (Wed 8 Feb, 7pm)
On the face of it, there was nothing for Ivory Coast to be too disappointed with in their 3-0 win over Equatorial Guinea. They took the lead in the first half and never looked like giving it up, and were comfortable all the way through the game.

But their performance wasn’t as impressive as the scoreline suggests. Ivory Coast continue to have a problem with creativity, and although they managed 11 shots on goal, only five of those chances were actually created themselves – they relied on mistakes for the rest of their attempts.

Even the one assist they did manage was from a set-piece, and this will be a key part of their approach against Mali. The Malians need to be disciplined in their third and prevent conceding free-kicks – Didier Drogba thrives on crosses and is going for the Golden Boot.

The one Ivorian who did provide a spark in open play was Max Gradel, the former Leicester and Leeds winger who played on the left of the front three alongside Didier Drogba and Gervinho. Salomon Kalou will be hopeful of regaining his starting spot for the semi-final, and Francois Zahoui has rotated his players throughout the tournament, but Gradel deserves to continue in the side after his fine performance.

The obvious strength in his game is his dribbling ability, and against Equatorial Guinea he dropped very deep to pick up the ball before turning and running at the right-back Kily. He'll try the same thing again here, and although Mali right-back Drissa Diakite won all four of his attempted tackles in the quarter-final against Gabon, he also conceded seven free-kicks. With the aforementioned Ivorian threat from set-pieces, he needs to be more disciplined today.

More ACoN analysis from Michael Cox:
Fri 3 Feb Deep forwards, midfield runners and the narrowest team
Mon 30 Jan Botswana's goal peppered, Boussifi makes it count & Pitroipa's dribbling problem
Thu 26 Jan Ivory Coast fail to utilise Yaya as young Lass fails to show class
Fri 20 Jan How will Premier League strikers fare at the Africa Cup of Nations?

Over to you: How you analysed Liverpool vs Tottenham

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:03:00 GMT

Like a Terry's Chocolate Orange, the Stats Zone app is designed for sharing. If you're watching the match and see something interesting, check it on Stats Zone and click 'Share' to send it to Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, forum, SMS or email.

Tweets are collected at http://fourfourtwo.com/statszone/ – and we'll try to repost the best on blogs like this. You could be famous.

Accessing the live-updated stats during the game, @CouchPundito noted Scott Parker's four fouls in the first 39 minutes...

...and at half-time,@SwansBlog (yes, a Swansea blog) noted that only two of Liverpool's 14 crosses had reached their target.

At the same time, Man City fan @_ChrisPrior was noting a rather more effective presence: "It's hardly a controversial point of view, but Luka Modric is awesome."

For all the probings of Modric and others, as regular Stats Zone contributor @footballistix noted, "Very little goalmouth action so far, mainly as neither team can get in the opposition box".

As it turned out, the goals didn't flow in the second half, thanks to the endeavours of people like Scott Parker. @JoseCoaching noted the Tottenham man's interceptions and clearances...

...while @CouchPundito noted the "different jobs" of Parker and his possible England partner Steve Gerrard.

@malccrombie posted "For all you @Charlie26Adam haters" while sharing the Liverpool midfielder's passes.

As ever, it wasn't all praise. Demonstrating his passion for Stats Zone, FourFourTwo's online features editor @JamesMawFFT shared the following at 2am: "Louis Saha completed just one of his seven passes v Liverpool (14%). Integration..."

Download Stats Zone for free from the iTunes store with all last season's interactive stats.

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Tears of despair for Gabon, but beaten hosts still have a bright future

Jonathan Fadugba — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:58:00 GMT

After the laughter comes tears. The star of the show stood emotionless, a mix of resignation and yearning in his eyes. A stadium held its breath. Belief melted into hope.

Seydou Keita paced slowly towards the penalty spot for one last dance with the keeper, ball cradled in his arms. Was there to be one final twist? A reprieve for a country that had embraced its role as co-hosts so joyously?

Not this time. With ice in his veins Keita slotted the penalty low past Didier Ovono. The dream was over.

As the Mali's players darted off wildly in different directions around the pitch to dance, sing and celebrate, the emotion became too much for Pierre Emerick Aubameyang. After a 1-1 draw, extra time and nine well-taken penalties, his was the only miss.

So often the Panthers' saviour, a hesitant run up and shot was saved by Soumbeyla Diakite to send Gabon out. Overwhelmed by the intensity of the moment, Aubameyang burst into tears, inconsolable.

Huddled around him, despondent teammates embraced their number nine. From the Mali bench, the winning coach Alain Giresse, formerly in charge of Gabon, went to offer comforting words to former colleagues. Gradually the stadium emptied out, Libreville no longer the party capital of the world but one plunged into sorrow.

The stadium emptied but Aubameyang remained, unable to leave. In the end his father, Pierre Aubameyang, walked onto the pitch and, in a moment of pure emotion, held his tearful son in his arms. No doubt somewhere amid all the gentle sympathising and consoling, the words of encouragement for his son would also involve passing on his own experiences of such deep disappointment. Aubameyang senior was part of the last Gabon team to make the quarter finals of an Africa Cup of Nations – in 1996, when they lost on penalties to Tunisia after another 1-1 draw.

The sadness etched on Aubameyang's face in those moments offered stark contrast to the sunglass-wearing, smiling young man who arrived at the stadium a national hero only hours earlier. At AFCON 2012, Aubameyang has been the shining star of a Gabon team that has thrilled its people for two unforgettable weeks.

His three goals, explosive pace and all-action style only further endeared the Saint-Etienne forward to a growing legion of fans. It is no coincidence that, up in the presidential box, the first lady chose to wear the number nine on her Gabon shirt. Market stalls have been selling underwear with 'Aubameyang' emblazoned across the front, enough to put any lady in the mood, presumably. The handsome, stylish, mohawked striker has become the nation's pin-up boy.

Aubameyang has been a revelation here, but when asked whether his growing international profile might not affect the youngster, his club manager Christophe Galtier was unflustered. "Knowing the man, I am not worried at all. He has his head on his shoulders and the good fortune to have a father who had a long and successful career."

Sad as it is in the moment, the miss may well benefit the 22-year-old, formerly on the books at Milan, in the long term. His undoubted skill and trickery offer promise of a real player in the making. "Aubame is confirming all the hopes we have of him," Galtier had previously remarked, and that was certainly the case in Gabon. But there is an element of the complacent and overly flashy about Aubameyang at times.

After all, this is a player who earlier in the season, after a few weeks of outstanding form in France, had the Superman logo shaved into his hair. The crushing disappointment felt here may remind him in future that success can be fleeting and to get too carried away can be dangerous. An exciting career awaits if lessons are learnt in Libreville.

For Gabon, failure to advance past the quarter finals provides a sad end to a tournament they truly graced, offering us all such wonderful entertainment and joy. The 3-2 win over Morocco to seal qualification, by way of a 97th minute Beckham-against-Greece-esque free kick from Bruno Zita Mbanangoye, is already the game of the tournament if not one of the best international matches in years, an incredible denouement to a breathtaking game.

Disappointment will linger for now, but from the flames of their 2012 campaign a phoenix may well yet emerge. Gabon have a young, exciting team with a promising future and can now look to challenge again in 2013 with renewed vigour drawn from rich experience. "We lacked a bit of luck," Gabon coach Gernot Rohr commented. "I want to congratulate my players because they gave everything, and when you give everything you can leave with your head held high."

There are in fact certain similarities with the experiences of Gabon in Libreville and another African team that sprinkled stardust on a competition before exiting painfully at the quarter final stage not so long ago – Ghana. They dazzled, they stared into the face of history but ultimately they faltered; right down to the moving tears of a star player whose decisive penalty miss terminated the dream. That young team recovered pretty well in the end and are now one game away from a final at this same stadium in Libreville.

Gabon may well look on on Sunday and hope a similarly bright future awaits a group of players who did their country proud.

De Gea: If I stare at the floodlights, I see angels

Back of the Net — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:45:00 GMT

Back of the Net's John Foster explains the United stopper's visions

Manchester United keeper David de Gea insists that if he stares directly into the Old Trafford floodlights, a celestial host of cherubim and seraphim emerge and sing heavenly melodies unto him, sources close to the 21-year-old were reporting yesterday.

Ex-Atlético Madrid ace De Gea has endured a mixed start to his career in England after a series of high-profile gaffes led pundits to question Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to put his faith in a man who looks like a bashful werewolf.

But the watchful presence of the heavenly host has reassured the Spanish stopper that his luck is about to change.

“It happened first against West Brom”, De Gea said. “I was just looking at the floodlights for ages and ages, and then time seemed to stop, and this figure that looked like a winged Steve Coppell flew out of the brightness and hovered in front of me, smiling.

“When he vanished, I felt an incredible sense of calm, and Shane Long had made it 1-0.”

The second time the wispy-faced custodian saw angels was against Manchester City in October.

“I stared at the floodlights for 20, maybe 25 minutes,” he recalled, “And eventually the clouds parted, beautiful music filled the air, and the spirit of Remi Moses appeared and told me to narrow the angle.

“I felt so happy, until he called me a pillock because I’d just let Edin Dzeko make it 6-1.”

The young No.1 admitted that he is keen to see more angels, but he doesn’t know yet when they will descend upon him, their voices raised in celestial harmony, mirroring the divine order of creation.

“We’re at home to Liverpool next,” said De Gea. “I'll just have to stare into the floodlights for long periods of the game, and we’ll see what happens.”

Goalkeeping eccentricities are nothing new at Old Trafford. Les Sealey used to slaughter a goat in the centre circle before kick-off, which he would then consume at half-time in lieu of oranges.

Later, Peter Schmeichel insisted on playing alongside a life-size toby jug, which would go on to build a career in management, most recently with Sunderland.

Previous stories:
Ball still bobbling around in Villa box, three days later
Wigan given permission to talk to Maynard, but not about football
Banana touted as potential banana skin for Hull
Nobody able to explain why Tony Hibbert is in Gabon
Spurs target found to be carefully-arranged pile of shoeboxes
O'Neill creates "stunning" rogan josh from contents of Bruce's pantry

Cycling supersedes Marcelino’s Sevilla sacking in Spanish press

Tim Stannard — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:54:00 GMT

Spain’s twin cities are split over which direction to run in Tuesday morning's papers.

Over in Barcelona it’s all about Wednesday’s Copa del Rey semi-final against Valencia and Dream Boys president Sandro Rosell hobnobbing with David Cameron in Downing Street. The Culé King was in Old London Town for the Laureus awards, where Barcelona were handed yet another trinket. “Barça, the best team in the world,” purrs Mundo Deportivo’s front cover.

Football has been booted into touch like Pepe dealing with an opposition attacker (or midfielder/defender/goalkeeper/match delegate/sweet seller) in Marca and AS, with the Madrid-mad papers hopping mad over the two year suspension handed to cyclist Alberto Contador by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday, after the he failed a drugs test during the 2010 Tour de France. “The victim of a band of bureaucrats,” fumes Marca’s editorial. “CAS has lost all its credit and done irreparable damage to cycling and sport.”

There isn’t even room in the papers to complain about referees favouring Barcelona. There is, however, coverage of la Primera’s eighth managerial change of the season, the sacking of Marcelino by Sevilla following a run of seven league matches without a victory. Winning just nine of the his 32 games in charge certainly didn’t help his case either, nor did the fact that Marcelo Bielsa was the first choice for the club in looking for a replacement for Gregorio Manzano last summer. Plus, the being deadly dull part as well.

Marcelino knew that his toast was burned on Sunday night after the 2-1 home defeat to Villarreal, admitting that “I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m sacked, but I’d understand any decision.”

“Changes in direction, obstinacy, and a lack of luck. The factors which sum up Marcelino’s disastrous phase with Sevilla,” strops José María López in Diario de Sevilla.

The lucky fella chosen to move snugly into Marcelino’s still warm seat is former Getafe boss and all around hunky so-and-so Míchel, who has a contract that runs until the end of the season, but that will renew automatically should Sevilla finish the league campaign in the top six.

LLL now suspects Manuel Pellegrini could well become change number nine in Spain’s top flight after his Málaga team were beaten 2-1 by Granada, who have put together back-to-back victories under new boss, Abel Resino. Málaga, in the meantime, are on a rotten run with just the single win in the past eight league games - and that was against Sevilla so may not count as a proper match, judging by their current form. The removal of Marcelino might not be the last bit of sacking activity in Andalusia if results don’t improve in another southern city.

Get more from the March 2012 issue

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:30:00 GMT

It seems like only last week we were singing the praises of the February issue of FourFourTwo, but already the next magazine has hit the shelves – and the March edition is another cracker.

But for those of you who want more than 156 glossy pages of access, insight and fun, here is our monthly 'Further Reading' blog. Once you put down that magazine, see what else we have to offer in relation to the March issue...

ENTER MADRID, EXIT BARÇA
The March issue brings the story of Mourinho's Madrid being poised to topple Pep and pals, but at FourFourTwo.com we have insight from Spain several times a week. Head on over to our La Liga Loca blog section for regular missives from Tim Stannard on the world's biggest league. Predictions? Reactions? Banners encouraging testicular fortitude? It's all here.

RONALDO v MESSI
Comparing the globe's two best players is a tricky job: Barney Ronay's piece in the magazine was as comprehensive as it was analytical, but sometimes you just need to see the evidence for yourself. Maybe these videos will make you change your mind as to who is better of "the likeable floppy-haired Ewok" and "the balletic machine". Or maybe they'll just reinforce what you already think. Take a look and find out.

RAMIRES & SZCZESNY EXCLUSIVES
We got personal one-on-one time with the big hopes of the two remaining English clubs in the Champions League: Ramires of Chelsea and Wojciech Szczesny of Arsenal. Unfortunately we have no video of the Polish stopper's dad decking Roberto Mancini, but you can see why he and 'The Blue Kenyan' (or 'Rambo', depending where you're based) are so crucial to the pair of Londoners' hopes in these videos:

EUROPEAN BATTLE PLANS
We've got the tactical lowdown on how English teams can ensure they fare well in the Champions League and Europa League knockouts, but where are you going to get analysis on their opposition? In our extensive Blogs section, that's where! We have local experts spread right across Europe – and beyond – so if you want nous on Napoli or musings on Milan, views on Valencia or dirt on the Dutch champions, see what the men in the know have to say.

Elsewhere, Professor Champions League himself will be watching every game, quill in hand, ready to scribble off another fascinating blog on the world's premier club competition.

And that's not all: the FourFourTwo Stats Zone app is now just 69p for the Champions League, so if you want to be an armchair analyst, you know what to do (erm, buy the app).

EURO 2012 ENGLAND SQUAD PREDICTOR
We're going to take a punt here and guess that you disagreed with our predicted 23-man England squad in the magazine. Hey, it's fine: after all, there are so many contenders. Read who they are, as well as the updated list, in our latest Euro 2012 England Squad Predictor blog – and tell us what you think in the comments section, on Facebook or on Twitter.

CLUB FOCUS: PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN
We take a look in the March issue at wannabe superclub Paris Saint-Germain, in the first of our new series going inside the world's most fascinating teams. Back in December on FourFourTwo.com, editor of The Football Diaries Stuart Coleman explained why PSG's revival is good for the whole of French football. Vive la révolution!

ONE-ON-ONE: DENIS LAW
In this issue's One-on-One, where footballing legends answer your questions, Denis Law 'struggles to remember' his worst defeat with Scotland, losing 9-3 to the old enemy. Here's a video that might jog his memory...

Of course, it's a myth that Law's backheel relegated his beloved Manchester United in 1973, but it was still a massive moment in his life. Here it is, for any young whippersnappers reading:

Here are some much happier moments for the Lawman, becoming a hero in Manchester apparently to music by a bunch of Liverpudlians. Well, you can't have everything.

GREAT GOALS RETOLD: JURGEN KLINSMANN
As you might expect, it's another cracker in our Great Goals Retold series: legendary striker Jurgen Klinsmann showing why he was all the rage with a scintillating strike for Stuttgart against Bayern Munich in 1987. Check out the video to go with his words, for as sublime a move ending with an overhead kick as you're ever likely to see.

MESSI'S COUSIN
It's never easy living in somebody's shadow, so feel for Maxi Biancucchi, footballer for Olimpia in Paraguay – and Lionel Messi's cousin. But for one moment Maxi was king of the world, and here's why. Leo would be proud.

NON-LEAGUE TO PREMIER LEAGUE
We also talk to four top-flight players who have lived the modern-day football fairy tale: coming up from the non-leagues to play in the Premier League. So non-league, in fact, that the internet has no videos of their lesser-known exploits. Enjoy instead these tasters of Chris Smalling, Steve Morison, Carl Jenkinson and Michael Kightly playing for their Premier League clubs – Kightly in a pre-season friendly between the selling club and his buyers, Gray's Athletic and Wolverhampton Wanderers...

FFT TRAVEL: NAPLES
Like the look of our footballing guide to Naples in the new issue? Get more from our FourFourTwo travel site, including more reasons why Naples is "Italy turned up to 11". Then fly! Go on, what's stopping you?

PERFECT XI: ROBERT PIRES
If you enjoyed Bobby P's line-up of the best players he ever shared a pitch with, you'll probably like our archive of Perfect XIs online. For all you Gooners, here's Ian Wright waxing lyrical about Paolo Maldini's good looks; for all you Frenchmen, here's Eric Cantona on Rene Higuita being "a great keeper"; and for all you Arsenal-loving Frenchies, we also have Emmanuel Petit on his brave decision to appoint joint-managers.

We're constantly updating our archive too, so keep your homepage locked on our Interviews section for more access from FourFourTwo's 17 and a bit years.

ACTION REPLAY: HEREFORD v NEWCASTLE, 1972
It wouldn't be the March 2012 edition of FourFourTwo without recognition of the all-time most famous upset's 40-year anniversary. To go with your nostalgia and magazine feature, have some highlights of the Bulls' incredible victory, including a fan in a tree:

FFT'S NEW POSTER BOY
We're big fans of Steve Welsh, creator of football art website miniboro.com, around here: his posters are all over our office. Hopefully, if the Upfront article didn't already, this should explain why.

REFFIN' HELL!
In Planet Football this month you can read about some of the most extraordinary things ever happen to a match official. Now you can see them too! Here is evidence we didn't just make up a bunch of incredible tales; these videos make you wonder who would ever want to be a ref...

Ref does runner from drunk Dane

Wheely annoyed Dutchman lets rip

When players get a bit too friendly

Solution: get on the booze yourself

ONE CARDBOARD CAT & 2,000 PHANTOM FANS
Intrigued by our story from Germany, about Hansa Rostock fans reacting to a stadium ban against Dynamo Dresden by smuggling in cardboard cut-outs? Then have your curiosity piqued by these extra snaps. Not only did the nearly empty arena feature a two-dimensional cat, but these fake fans as well. Bizarre...

PERFORMANCE
Let's not forget we have a really rather wonderful Performance website as well as the monthly magazine section. For more on what you've learnt from the March issue, check out the following.

Want more tips on being a striker after Michael Owen's tips on positioning? Read Jermain Defoe's six-step guide to striking and Darren Bent's tips on being a maestro of movement.

Want more on structuring a training session? We have a whole Performance section dedicated to training, so get your guidance from us.

Want more on how to defend like an icon after Franco Baresi's masterclass? Try these tasty tips from modern pros and Manchester United team-mates Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.

Want more on recovery on top of the benefits of chocolate milk for post-match recovery? We have plenty of recovery guides in our section dedicated to just that.

Want more on how music can help your all-round football game having read Judge Jules' soundtrack to your season? Put on your giant headphones and immerse yourself in music to improve your performance.

Happy reading.

Like what you see? Subscribe now and nab yourself a special offer!

Big freeze and frosty relations hit Serie A as Zlatan sees red

Richard Whittle — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:54:00 GMT

The big freeze sweeping through the north of Italy has had those of a certain age pining for a much simpler time. A time when all Serie A matches kicked off at 3pm on a Sunday and venerable, gravel-voiced Sandro Ciotti ruled the airwaves, as reports filtered in from around the grounds while the country collectively digested its Sunday lunch.

The last time the full league programme was played in the afternoon was the 1991/92 season, and for many it has been all downhill since. That could certainly be said of many of the country’s stadiums, which over the 22 years since Italia ’90 have on the whole fallen into a state of disrepair, in some cases necessitating them being torn down and rebuilt from the bottom up.

Juventus took the decision to raze the Stadio delle Alpi and reaped the benefits of playing on through the snow storms, though when they traveled to Parma and the uncovered Tardini stadium they had to watch their name join the rest of the rinivati (postponements).

With first the midweek fixtures and then the weekend thrown into disarray, the question asked was whether Italian football and Italy in general had it in them to drag the game into the 21st century by beginning a rejuvenation of stadiums.

Sky Italia were particularly miffed as they had paid a healthy sum to broadcast three evening matches over the weekend, which would have ensured big TV audiences, particularly for Roma-Inter and Milan-Napoli. The channel’s deputy head Jacques Reynaud wondered where the €8 billion they had invested in television rights had gone.

The simple answer is on player salaries, with 80 per cent of club expenditure heading directly into player bank-accounts.

Sky may have had to fill a hole in their weekend schedule where the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, Francesco Totti and Diego Milito would usually have been running around in, but Italian football is staring into a black hole of its own making.

Apart from Juventus and the local authorities in Turin, there seems little desire among clubs and their local councils to find common ground on improving outmoded stadiums: Roma are at loggerheads with the city with regards to a new site, while Milan have all but given up on settling into a new home away from the San Siro.

It is the same story in Genoa and Florence, while the San Paolo in Naples is beginning to look like the Coliseum from the outside. The only other club to have made improvements has been Novara – and the Piedmont outfit ensured their synthetic pitch was playable for the visit of Chievo on Thursday as temperature plummeted to minus 10.

What a shame they are odds-on to be relegated, which brings us on another nostalgic boom – the call for Serie A to return to an 18-team league. This, it is suggested, would not only ease fixture congestion for those competing in Europe, but also make the step up from Serie B to A a less daunting one for those teams winning promotion each season.

Of course, all the hand wringing and calls for change will probably be forgotten in a week or so when the sun comes out again and the temperatures start to climb.

By that time we may have a clearer picture on where the title may be headed. Juventus and Milan were both frozen out on the pitch, with the leaders held to a goalless draw at home to Siena while the Rossoneri were also left empty-handed against Napoli.

One constant in Italian football is of course a good dose of controversy – both the Juventus Stadium and San Siro warmed to it on Sunday.

Juve were beside themselves for what seemed like a stonewall penalty turned down when Siena captain Simone Vergassola’s out-stretched arm blocked Giorgio Chiellini’s cross. However, memories being selective, Cagliari should have had two spot-kicks on the same pitch a few weeks ago so, as they say, these things usually even themselves out.

While Juve were firing blanks down the road in Milan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was getting all slap happy in a match that reflected the climatic conditions to a tee – very chilly.

In an episode that was more vaudeville comedy than vicious act, the big Swede extended an arm from behind the back of team-mate Antonio Nocerino to deliver a slap to Napoli defender Salvatore Aronica, who was so shocked that he returned the favour to Nocerino, who had not been so innocent in instigating the melee in the first place.

It may have seemed a comic incident but it could see Ibra suspended for two or possibility three games. If it is the latter then he would miss the league game against Juventus.

The pair clash in their Italian Cup first leg on Wednesday with little sign of a thawing in the frosty relations between the two: Antonio Conte has been playing down his side’s chances of lifting the title so much that Massimiliano Allegri was forced to misquote “the lady doth protest too much.”

Juve still hold a point advantage and a game in hand; and despite the leaders stalling there was little change in the chase at the top, with both Udinese and Lazio losing, at Fiorentina and Genoa, respectively while Inter’s mini revival has gone into complete reverse after a 4-0 humbling at AS Roma.

In fact, with Roma still have to play their remaining 26 minute at Catania – suspended due to heavy rain – in midweek and Luis Enrique’s exciting but frustrating side could yet warm the hearts through this bleak mid-winter.

Premier Analysis extra: Fact explosion

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:53:00 GMT

Bags of pub ammo from the weekend's games, provided by the Stats Zone app from FourFourTwo and Opta...

Theo Walcott has frequently been accused of lacking end product, but that certainly wasn't the case as Arsenal thrashed Blackburn 7-1. Walcott became only the fourth player this season to grab a 'hat-trick' of assists in a single Premier League game.

It's only the second time Walcott has assisted more than one goal in a single league game. Intriguingly – or not, given the Dutchman's dominance at Arsenal – 10 of Walcott's last 11 Premier League assists have been scored by Robin van Persie.

It wasn't all about Walcott (or for that matter Van Persie). The England youngster didn't attempt a single dribble, unlike Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who attempted seven and completed five. Behind them, Mikel Arteta completed more final-third passes than any other player this weekend.

Arsenal were ruthless, their seven goals coming from just eight shots on target. Rovers were less so: although they only missed one shot, it was the only time they managed a shot in Arsenal’s area.

Also scarily efficient were Martin O'Neill's Sunderland. At Stoke they had just one shot on target and six overall; the hosts weren't much better, and the 'grand' total of 15 shots is the joint-lowest in the league this season, level with Sunderland's October win at Bolton.

Swansea also successfully smashed and grabbed, winning 2-1 at West Brom with their only two on-target shots out of 16 (compared to the home side's seven on target out of 21 attempts). They've now scored five goals from just six shots on target in their two games against the Baggies this season. And to prove they're not all tippy-tappy passing, mini-midfielder Joe Allen attempted more tackles (10) than any other player this weekend.

Somewhat less efficient were QPR, whose lopsided attacking against Wolves may have reflected their reduction to 10 men: 55.8% of their attacking play came down the right flank, compared to just 14.9% via the left. Not that it worked from either side: none of their 17 crosses, and only one of their seven corners, found its target.

Bolton may not have won at Norwich, but it wasn't for lack of taking the game to the hosts: 77% of their passes were made in the attacking half – a higher proportion than any other Premier League side on Saturday today. Pity they weren't so organised at the back: Wanderers completed only 71.7% of their passes in their own half, by far the league's lowest success rate this weekend.

Also popping it around with aplomb were Fulham, who had the highest passing accuracy in the PL this weekend (88.3%). Indeed, they made more passes in total than their hosts Manchester City… but still lost.

When your luck's in… the headlines after Newcastle-Aston Villa were all about the debut winner from Papiss Cisse, but the visitors were unlucky to be written out of the story. Villa had seven shots on target to Newcastle’s three and also completed more passes than their hosts.

Finally, to yesterday's 3-3 thriller between Chelsea and Manchester United. Despite each conceding three goals, both Petr Cech and David de Gea made six saves. None of De Gea's were from his compatriot Fernando Torres: Chelsea's £50m striker set up three shots (including Juan Mata's goal) but only tried two himself, both of which were off-target.

Perhaps the most telling statistic of the weekend is that Chelsea made only eight tackles. Manchester United made 29.

Stats Zone is a freely-downloadable app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game. It covers Champions League and Premier League games – and there's a completely free version dedicated to the Africa Cup of Nations.

Premier Analysis: Leaders bossed in their own backyard, Torres changes for the worst

Nick Govier — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:33:00 GMT

The weekend's top-flight action analysed by Footballistically.co.uk editor Nick Govier, with the help of the Stats Zone app from FourFourTwo and Opta

Manchester United's visit to Chelsea demonstrated more than any other match the decline of Fernando Torres as a goalscoring threat. In his Liverpool pomp the Spaniard man used to terrorise the United back line by playing through the middle, often causing a defender of Nemanja Vidic's quality to look pedestrian to the point of desperation.

RESULTS (click team name for web-wide club news feed) Sat 4 Feb Arsenal 7-1 Blackburn Rovers; Norwich City 2-0 Bolton Wanderers; Queens Park Rangers 1-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers; Stoke City 0-1 Sunderland; West Bromwich Albion 1-2 Swansea City; Wigan Athletic 1-1 Everton; Manchester City 3-0 Fulham Sun 5 Feb Newcastle United 2-1 Aston Villa; Chelsea 3-3 Manchester United (Mon 6 Feb 8pm Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur)

At Chelsea, however, his game has changed. No longer the ever-present threat running in behind the defence, he now drops deep and moves wide so often that Chelsea regularly play with nobody in the penalty area, making it easy for opposition defenders to pick up those late runs from midfield that made Frank Lampard a 20-goal midfielder for seven seasons on the bounce.

Using StatsZone we can see how rarely Torres picked the ball up within 25 yards of goal, instead receiving it in front of the back four or wide to the left.

As if to emphasise the point, Chelsea's second goal was assisted by a Torres cross from the right wing – one of two crosses which certainly had more of an impact on the game than his two attempted shots. Perhaps he should be studying Wayne Rooney, who managed to combine excellent link-up play with eight shots at goal.

Or perhaps Torres could look further north for his inspiration. Newcastle's Senegalese strike duo Demba Ba and Papiss Cissé created their Premier League partnership earlier than expected after Leon Best's injury brought forward the new signing's introduction, and to Aston Villa's chagrin the pair showed very good signs of forming a threatening duo, topped by a goal apiece.

While Newcastle were benefitting from returnees from the Africa Cup of Nations, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini was still trying to find a suitable lineup to compensate for the continued absence of Yaya Toure. Against Fulham he boldly played Samir Nasri in a more central role alongside Gareth Barry.

While the end result was a comfortable win, it wasn't without risk: Nasri's propensity to drift to the left allowed Fulham, and in particular Danny Murphy, to seize possession. The visitors eventually registered 53% of the ball – at a ground where City have been so dominant that they've only dropped two points since Christmas 2010 – and five shots on target to City's four.

Unfortunately for Fulham, they couldn't turn those shots on target into goals. It was a very different scenario at the Emirates, where eight goals were scored from 10 shots on target between Arsenal and Blackburn. It may sound like a poor reflection on both goalkeepers, but none of the eight goals could be claimed as goalkeeping mistakes. Save percentages are more indicative of defensive flaws, allowing shots from almost certain goalscoring positions, as a Blackburn defence shorn of Christopher Samba and reduced to 10 men before halftime amply demonstrated.

The Euro 2012 England squad predictor - 06/02/12

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:30:00 GMT

Wondering who'll be in the England squad for the summer's inevitably successful jaunt to Poland and Ukraine? So is Fabio Capello, if this morning's papers are to be believed.

Fortunately, we've had a sit down in a quiet room and have come up with a list of how things stand at present - most likely to travel at the top, those at risk of missing out towards the bottom...

Key:
▲ = moving up
▼ = moving down
■ = non mover
● = new entry

1 Joe Hart ■
Unrivaled No.1 and the key to defensive stability (hopefully)

2 Wayne Rooney ■
Still the most dangerous player, though less so when banned

3 Ashley Cole ■
A cert: Capello’s Mr Reliable, even if club form has been patchy

4 Scott Parker ▲
Never-say-die attitude rubs off on everyone around him

5 Steven Gerrard ●
Fit and firing: Rooney’s stand-in for France and Sweden?

6 John Terry ▼
Stripped of the captaincy, but still certain to be in Fabio's plans

7 James Milner ■
Work-rate and versatility make him the ideal utility player for any 23

8 Gary Cahill ▲
Will look to build an understanding with new club-mate Terry

9 Gareth Barry ▼
Efficient if unspectacular, a staple of Fabio's squads since day one

10 Leighton Baines ■
Unproven but solid understudy in a position with few options

11 Theo Walcott ▲
Capello favourite. Form a worry, but explosive pace still a weapon

12 Daniel Sturridge ▲
Has forced his way in at Chelsea and is aiming for the same with England

13 Danny Welbeck ▲
Form with Manchester United has seen him overtake Darren Bent

14 Joleon Lescott ▲
Consistent Man City form makes him a reliable alternative

15 Stewart Downing ▼
Must do more to secure place (and that's just with Liverpool...)

16 Jack Wilshere ▼
Should still make it despite suffering an injury setback

17 Ashley Young ▼
Injury sees him slip down the international pecking order

18 Frank Lampard ■
Invaluable source of goals when it matters in the big games

19 Glen Johnson ▼
Capello’s go-to right-back, but under threat from Kyle Walker

20 Scott Carson ■
A long way behind Joe Hart, but there aren't too many options left

21 Darren Bent ▼
On the bench for now, but form in qualifying stands him in good stead

22 Phil Jones ▼
Standing has slipped after a few shaky defensive performances

23 Ben Foster ●
Could he be tempted out of his self-imposed exile?

Close contenders

David Stockdale has enjoyed an extended run in the Fulham goal, and Capello would be buoyed to see his the keeper playing, especially given the effect regular football has had for the confidence and development of Kyle Walker, as he continues to play a part in Tottenham's tentative title push. Adam Johnson finds himself on the other end of the spectrum as Roberto Mancini has persisted with an improved Samir Nasri, when it looked like Johnson could jump ahead of the former Arsenal man. Chris Smalling is still out with glandular fever, but it's no secret that Capello admires his composure and comfort at right-back. So much so, that he has refrained from picking Micah Richards in previous squads, despite the Manchester City defender's barn-storming displays from that very position. Jermain Defoe led the line well against Manchester City – grabbing himself a goal – but his late miss would have tipped the balance further towards Bent and the more versatile Welbeck and Sturridge.

Bubbling under

Everton's Phil Jagielka and Jack Rodwell are a couple of weeks away from fitness. Given the size of David Moyes' squad, both will be find themselves back in action as soon as Everton look to push on into the top half of the table, and turn Capello's head. Aaron Lennon has continued to display his aptitude on both flanks but never seems far from an injury, while Tom Cleverley will be a welcome boost to both club and country as he is set to return next week and assist Manchester United teammate Michael Carrick, who has been in inspired form over the last two months. Bobby Zamora’s shift to (a bit more) West London has started well with a goal on his QPR debut against Wolves, but one wonders whether Capello really thinks he is capable of leading the line for England in a major tournament.

Outside bets

Andy Carroll hardly grabbed his chance to nail down a starting place with club or country during Suarez’s eight-game absence, but he has at least resembled a footballer in the last few games (he even scored a goal, y'know...). Gabriel Agbonlahor's form has curtailed after an impressive start, but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain seems to be going from strength to strength, after exciting outings against Manchester United and Blackburn – his technical ability and decision-making a particular treat. Leon Britton anyone? The key cog in Swansea’s engine room (do engines have cogs?) who looks unperturbed by the ever so frantic Premier League. The Wandsworth Xavi – possibly England’s?

The Euro 2012 England squad predictor: January

Heroes & Villains: A silky Cisse, a silly Cisse and an honourable exit

Mark Booth — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:44:00 GMT

HEROES

Arsenal
This was exactly the statement Arsene Wenger wanted from his players, who served Blackburn with a Baltic blast of revenge in the Saturday lunchtime game. Blackburn were a shambles but Arsenal were every bit as good as their opponents were awful in this brutal seven-shade kicking.

We may not have seen too much of the football that made the Gunners so popular in Wenger’s tenure so far this season but this was vintage Arsenal with heroes all over the pitch. Theo Walcott played like a man who knows Gervinho is soon back from the Africa Cup of Nations and Alex Song continued to advance his reputation as so much more than a defensive linchpin with his assist for Van Persie’s first goal particularly impressive.

In a tournament year there’s usually an exciting young player who makes a late charge to the England squad, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain might just be the latest. It was a performance of the highest quality from Oxlade-Chamberlain, who looks to have settled straight in to life at the Emirates.

But it wasn’t all about AOC as Arsenal’s fellow triple-initialled frontman yet again proved to be Arsenal’s hero with another hat-trick. What, just the three this time, RVP?

Martin O'Neill
Five wins in their last six games for Sunderland – and more importantly, three successive Heroes nominations. It’s the stuff of modern folklore that the Britannia Stadium is a place from which even title-chasers are grateful to escape with a point and their ambitions intact. For Sunderland to go there and take maximum points says so much about the spirit and desire their manager has instilled in his short time there.

The conditions at Stoke were as inhospitable as the atmosphere, making this smash-and-grab win – they had one shot on target – all the more satisfying for the Black Cats’ faithful. Top of the form league over the 10-game period since O'Neill took over, Sunderland have gone from 16th to eighth place under the Ulsterman. Having gained 22 points from a possible 30, they sit just seven points off fifth-placed Arsenal; with 14 games to go, perhaps it’s not even too giddy for Sunderland fans to start dreaming of Europe.

Sir Alex Ferguson
Three goals down at Chelsea, there was a real danger that Manchester United would lose more than just points. After their September humiliation by Manchester City it took the champions some time to recover their fluency, and it was looking like another period of reflection for Sir Alex Ferguson… until Wayne Rooney’s penalty pulled them back from the brink.

Under the circumstances this wasn't two points lost but one gained. United have their manager to thank for their incredible powers of rejuvenation – these players know phoned-in performances are unacceptable – but also their tactical fluidity: each of his three substitutions subtly but winningly changed their ever-attacking formation.

Although they may have ridden their luck, once the champions had a goal back the comeback always looked a possibility. Ferguson will be delighted to end the week a point closer to the noisy neighbours and with one of his hardest remaining assignments fulfilled in inspiring fashion (no, not the polo-neck).

Manchester City
Normal service resumed for Mancini’s men. Only the wintry conditions separated this performance from one of City’s autumnal annihilations but they were helped on their way by an early penalty which understandably enraged Fulham. Adam Johnson is a better professional than his 10th-minute Bambi act suggested: while Chris Baird did make contact with the winger, he was already on his way to ground before Mike Dean pointed to the spot.

Roberto Mancini will be most pleased with Sergio Aguero, back to his scintillating best after a couple of quiet weeks, and most especially a clean sheet in the captain’s absence. After a shaky spell during Vincent Kompany’s four-game ban, Stefan Savic couldn’t have asked for a more comfortable reintroduction to the City defence: he won all five of his aerial duels, although Clint Dempsey’s aerial prowess is hardly the stuff of legends. Clear again at the top, City need to rack up the points in this, their final gentle run of fixtures before the all-important run-in.

Papiss Demba Cisse
The perfect debut for Newcastle's new No.9. It was perhaps not the cleanest of contacts on the volley – a fraction later and it would have seemed a wild slash – but Alan Pardew won’t mind as the competition for places at St James' Park really hots up.

Mick McCarthy
The midweek villain secured three vital points at QPR as Wolves ended a poor run of form. Knives were being sharpened at Molineux after Tuesday's disappointing defeat to Liverpool, giving the Yorkshire Irishman a sleepless night with “McCarthy out” ringing in his ears.

There’s no doubt Wanderers were granted a slice of luck at Loftus Road with Djibril Cisse's 34th-minute dismissal (McCarthy: "You know my sentiments towards football now: that wouldn't have been a sending-off when I played") but Wolves reacted more smartly to the situation. At half-time McCarthy swapped defender Richard Stearman for striker Kevin Doyle, whose winner sets Wolves up nicely for Sunday's derby with West Brom.

QPR have now dropped a league-high 15 points from winning positions while Wolves have recovered 13 points from losing positions – more than any other team. McCarthy out?

Norwich City
Even the most deluded Norwich fans must have been ready to write off Saturday's game against Bolton after losing both centre-halves to first-half injuries. Daniel Ayala and Zak Whitbread have already proved to be canny acquisitions for Paul Lambert, who described this 2-0 win as the best of his three seasons in charge. "That was as good as I've ever seen us play," a delighted Lambert said at full-time. "The effort and the desire the players showed was absolutely brilliant”.

Brendan Rodgers
It’s difficult to praise Swansea without patronising, but the side no-one gave a prayer in August – unless of course they abandoned their footballing principles – are now within 10 points of the 40-point safety mark, making a Blackpool-style collapse less likely by the week. Moreover, that's now two wins in three league trips for a team already pretty impregnable at home.

For Swansea’s manager, the Mourinho-protégé tag is also starting to come loose as Rodgers continues to cement a reputation for being his own man with his own footballing philosophy, which is becoming as effective as it is attractive.

Gael Givet
If only every player could react as professionally as the Blackburn Rovers defender when he was given his marching orders. In a time when players and managers are finding it increasingly difficult to take responsibility for their actions, Givet’s lack of protest and resigned apology to Arsene Wenger as he departed was so refreshing, even if it was an ugly challenge that preceded it. Perhaps he just sensed the thrashing coming toward his team like a bank of snow-bearing cloud.

VILLAINS

Andre Villas-Boas
When Chelsea went 3-0 up against Manchester United it looked like Andre Villas-Boas was giving a lesson to a visiting manager twice his age. Sir Alex Ferguson had brought on Javier Hernandez and was readying Paul Scholes when Wayne Rooney made it 3-1 in the 58th minute.

This was no time for Villas-Boas to panic but a United onslaught was inevitable and it was the perfect opportunity to bring on Oriel Romeu to shore up Chelsea’s midfield. AVB dithered and only made the substitution when Rooney struck again, by which point Chelsea had sacrificed their momentum and were made to pay for their manager’s indecisiveness.

Villas-Boas is still very much trying to step out of the ample shadow of Jose Mourinho, whose decisive substitutions are remembered fondly at Stamford Bridge. It’s easy to forget that Villas-Boas has only been a manager for three years; perhaps that inexperience showed on Sunday.

Perhaps the 34-year-old can't be judged fairly until he has completed a very necessary overhaul of an ageing squad. The question is whether he will be given time to complete that job, given Mourinho's PR machine had used the back page of Friday's Sun to offer his special services again next season.

Chris Baird
The Fulham full-back can count himself extremely lucky to miss out on a nightmare hat-trick at the Etihad. As if his concession of a penalty and an own goal weren’t enough, Baird’s scissor tackle on Edin Dzeko was the perfect demonstration of how to beat your buddies to the bathtub. Late, high and from behind, it was generously deemed only cautionable by Mike Dean – just about the only generosity Fulham received on an otherwise miserable evening in Manchester.

Roy Hodgson
It speaks volumes about the division's stragglers that West Brom are still six points clear of the drop zone; it says everything about the Baggies' own form that they might not keep that cushion for long. Having won one and lost four of their seven games since Christmas, Hodgson's side are sliding down the table; down to 15th, they're now the nearest targets for the bottom five.

QPR's heavy investment and new manager could well mean they overhaul the five-point difference between the clubs, while West Brom's local rivals Wolves could cut the gap to two with a home win in Sunday's derby; after that, the Baggies face in-form Sunderland, Chelsea and Manchester United.

After Swansea left The Hawthorns with all three points and West Brom with the joint worst home record, Hodgson spoke worriedly about losing the support of the home fans. Perhaps he'd better worry about losing the support of chairman Jeremy Peace, who pulled the trigger on Roberto di Matteo a year ago this week.

Roger Johnson, Djibril Cisse & Mark Clattenburg
It was probably harsh of Clattenburg to send off Cisse, who has suffered two nasty leg-breaks. However, there’s no doubt that the French striker’s reaction to Roger Johnson’s challenge gave the referee an excuse to dismiss the Lord of the Manor of Frodsham: when you raise your hands and place them on an opponent’s neck there’s always a risk of seeing red.

With the debate on dangerous tackles continuing to rage, Johnson can count himself extremely lucky to escape dismissal himself for what was an ugly two-footed tackle. It was a match-defining red card and the Rs will have every reason to feel aggrieved that Clattenburg may have got the wrong guy.

That white polo-neck
Sir Alex Ferguson is hardly a fashionista, but the polo-neck shirt he graced upon arriving at the King's Road set Twitter ablaze. Fashionistas up and down the land pondered if Sir Alex was making a late run to be the first James Bond from Govan, or perhaps driving to Dundee in a Vauxhall Vectra loaded with Toblerone. Whatever it was, stick with the grey overcoat in future, Alex.

Good Day, Bad Day: Busquets' new experience, Atlético & Valencia 'die ugly'

Tim Stannard — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:46:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat 4 Feb Barcelona 2-1 Real Sociedad, Getafe 0-1 Real Madrid, Mallorca 1-0 Real Betis, Levante 1-1 Racing, Athletic Bilbao 3-3 Espanyol Sun 5 Feb Atletico Madrid 0-0 Valencia, Real Zaragoza 1-2 Rayo Vallecano, Sevilla 1-2 Villarreal, Sporting 1-1 Osasuna FIXTURE Mon 6 Feb Granada v Malaga

Good Day

Sergio Ramos
The defender is the man-of-the-moment in the Madrid press, who are admiring his willingness to stand up to José Mourinho, shout a bit both in the tunnel and on the pitch, clear balls up the field, score goals from corners and get sent off considerably less than before. “The soul of a leader” purrs Monday’s admiring headline in AS. The best of a boring bunch in Madrid’s 1-0 win at Getafe.

Barcelona
Although Barça aren’t tonking sides like in the good old days, Pep’s Dream Boys will take any win they can with the team’s injury list getting longer by the hour. The Catalan club began Saturday’s 2-1 win over Real Sociedad without Gerard Piqué, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Pedro, David Villa and Alexis in the starting line-up either through injury or being a bit tired.
The news got worse for Guardiola, with Sergio Busquets getting caught by a stud in the second half and feeling what it’s like to be genuinely injured for once in his life - the sensation was met with look of confusion and bewilderment.

Christian Tello
Yet another fancy-footed wide-man forward player type thing from Barça’s cantera production line, and a footballer scoring in his first Primera start for the club. Now, if they could only churn out a six-foot-five big man up front...

Levante
It's really hard to know where to stick Levante these days, because of the current contrast to the side’s storming 2011. The team have yet to pick up a victory in 2012, with Saturday’s 1-1 draw with struggling Racing being the fourth time in the new year that the side has failed to pick up maximum points in a fairly winnable home game.
But Levante are still in fourth - not a good observation on the quality of the chasing pack for the Champions League places, currently like a greyhound race on an ice rink - and need just three or four more wins to secure their Primera status, which let’s not forget was the main goal of the campaign rather than all this qualifying for Europe business.

Athletic Bilbao & Espanyol
LLL is still more than a little irked that it missed this cracking match due to the blog being in transit to watch a complete dirge-fest in the freezing cold between Real Madrid and Espanyol. As in last week’s clash against Rayo, Athletic scored three goals, but this time it wasn’t a win but a 3-3 draw with Espanyol managing the same feat, the final equalising effort coming in the dying seconds of the match.
With Valencia, Levante and Atlético Madrid all drawing, a point apiece won’t make either side particularly happy though, as the game was a fine chance missed to plant a crampon onto the icy slopes of the Champions League places and unpack the base camp tents. But for the crucial job of entertaining the supporters in freezing San Mamés and those as snug as a bug on their sofas, both clubs are honoured with a Good Day spot.

Thibaut Courtois
It wasn’t the Atlético Madrid goalkeeper’s fault Sunday’s goalless draw with Valencia was such a sludge-fest, so LLL must applaud the on-loan keeper for a fifth clean sheet in la Liga in a row.

Diego Costa
The striker - on-loan from Atlético Madrid - was making his debut for Rayo Vallecano, being one of four newbies to join during the winter transfer window. The Brazilian was also making his first La Liga start of the season due to injury. Nevertheless, the forward scored Rayo’s first goal in a 2-1 win at Zaragoza to help undo the damage of two costly home defeats in the Madrid club’s past two matches.

Mallorca
The blog is torn between its long-standing admiration of Mallorca manager Joaquín Caparrós, and its dislike of his limited, defensive side who have bored the nipples of the blog whenever it has seen their games. Still, Caparrós is doing what is being asked of him by keeping the team out of the relegation zone, even if it ain’t pretty to watch. That was certainly a description of Saturday’s 1-0 win over Betis, which the Balearic side managed despite being down to nine men.

Villarreal
Three matches undefeated now and win away at Sevilla sees Villarreal slowly pulling themselves away from their rather embarrassing temporary residence in the relegation zone.

Helder Postiga
Zaragoza’s Portuguese poacher is becoming a scorer of great goals, rather than a great goal scorer, after another stonking over-head effort against Rayo on Sunday.

Bad Day

Atlético Madrid & Valencia
Awful, awful, awful. Diego Simeone may have been a furious figure shouting “Courage! Fight! Courage! Fight!” to his Atlético players, but naff all happened in Sunday’s goalless draw in the Vicente Calderón aside from a late flurry of activity in the final seconds. “It was born ugly and died ugly,” was the apt match report from AS.

Marcelino
Events may well catch up with LLL, with Marcelino being sacked while the blog is going through the process of being written, sent, having the swear words removed, libelous comments adjusted, Arizmendi jokes extradited and the final results then being published. But the blog would not be at all surprised if it's the end of the road for the Sevilla boss in the meantime, after a home defeat to Villarreal on Sunday that leaves the team four points from the relegation zone.
LLL has actually started to feel a little bit sorry for Marcelino in recent games, as there has been attacking intent to Sevilla’s play but the strikers have been a little profligate in front of goal.

Luis García
LLL’s favourite Primera manager by a long, long way. Funny, smiley, open and always happy to admit when his Getafe side play badly or if the game is an absolute dog - something that was an apt description of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at the feet of visiting Real Madrid.
“It was ugly for us, for the crowd” admitted García in a cold encounter he described as “strange” and that his side never got into, noting that Real Madrid largely bypassed the midfield for once. “We couldn’t rob a single ball,” was the reason given for a bit of a flat Getafe performance in the Coliseum.

Iñaki Tejada
A disappointing result for Manuel Preciado’s immediate replacement at Sporting - a 1-1 draw at home to Osasuna in a match where the Asturian side took the lead. “I’m the coach until they tell me otherwise,” said the former number two after the draw that keeps Sporting in the relegation zone, three points from safety.

Zaragoza
The home defeat against Rayo leaves Zaragoza without a league victory since 16th October and ten points from safety at the bottom-of-the-table.

ACoN Diary 6: Jungles, local drunks and monkey sanctuaries

Jonathan Wilson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:23:00 GMT

Want to know more about Equatorial Guinea and Gabon? You're in the right place. Here's part six of Jonathan Wilson's Africa Cup of Nations diary

The guide-book doesn’t offer much in the way of tourist attractions on Bioko, the island part of Equatorial Guinea. In fact, it suggests just one thing: the monkey sanctuary near Moka.

So, taking advantage of some spare time between the group stage and the quarter-finals – and of a photographer with a car and the need for some feature shots – I at last headed into the interior.

The jungle that edges the coast road from Malabo to Luba is the closest I’ve come to the stereotypical jungle of children’s adventure books.

In Borneo, India and other parts of Africa I’ve always found it a little disappointing, like British forests but more so, the thick canopy meaning all that can survive are the tallest trees and a scattering of scrub. Here, though, in what I assume is secondary forest, the vegetation is thick and lush, and dominated by banana and plantain. Walking through it would be impossible.

As we turn inland, and twist and turn our way up Mount Cameroon, the forest thins. Pockets of low cloud lie in hollows, so the effect is a bit like parts of the Lake District, only 30 degrees hotter. We get to Moka, but there’s no sign for any monkey sanctuary.

Following the road, we end up in a half-bit compound surrounded by orange concrete walls. That should have been a warning: the president, Obiang Nguema, loves orange concrete.

A soldier turns us back, telling us to present ourselves at the local mayor’s office to get “authorisation”, although for what is unclear. On our way, we saw a new-built road off to the left. Checking the soldier wasn’t following us we turned off, and almost immediately found at another junction.

The road to the right stopped after a few yards, so we went left, and found ourselves on an implausibly straight stretch of flat tarmac. At the end was what appeared to be a roundabout, but when we got there turned out to be a helipad. That was when it dawned on us that what we’d thought was a road was a landing strip.

A little later, a construction worker confirmed the president was having another residence built up there at the top of the mountain.

We never did find the monkey sanctuary. Back in the village various people admitted it existed (once we'd got over the confusion of me saying 'monjes' - 'monks' when I meant 'monos' - 'monkeys') but everybody seemed very concerned we should have “papers”. It would take an hour to walk there, somebody said, and offered to take us to see some waterfalls instead.

He then offered some horses and, when we turned that down, said if we came back at the weekend he would take us to a lake. In the end, we gave up, and settled for a couple of beers in the local bar where a local drunk insisted Equatorial Guinea would beat Ivory Coast on Saturday. They didn't, but were comprehensively outplayed in a one-sided 3-0.

Stats Zone quarter-final preview: deep forwards, midfield runners and the narrowest team

Michael Cox — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:33:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the FREE Africa Cup of Nations version of Stats Zone to analyse the latest action from the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations...

Zambia v Sudan (Sat 4 Feb, 4pm)
Sudan are one of the narrower sides in the competition, as shown by the diagrams from their 2-1 win over Burkina Faso in their final group game.

The narrowness can be observed in two distinct ways. First, with the exception of one corner, all their chances were created by a pass played from a central position, including goalkeeper Akram El Hadi Salim’s blatant hoof down the pitch for the second goal, finished nicely by Mudather El Tahir.

Second, they barely ever cross the ball. From the 12 crosses they attempted against Burkina Faso, six were from corners. In other words, they only attempt a cross from open play once every 15 minutes, so Zambia should primarily be concerned with keeping it tight down the middle of the pitch.

Ivory Coast v Equatorial Guinea (Sat 4 Feb, 7pm)
Equatorial Guinea’s Juvenal – full name Juvenal Edjogo-Owono Montalbán – is really a Spanish player. Born in the Catalonian city of Sabadell, he joined his hometown club at the age of 29 in 2008.

His style of play is typical for a player from that region. He’s an excellent passer, possibly a natural No.10, but spends much of the game coming deep to get the ball before spraying it across the pitch for team-mates.

He’s also stormed forward to have plenty of shots in his three matches so far, and is probably the biggest threat to the physical Ivorian midfield three of Cheick Tiote, Yaya Toure and Didier Zokora.

Gabon v Mali (Sun 5 Feb, 4pm)
Modibo Maiga plays an interesting role for Mali, who take on Gabon this weekend. The forward, who was heavily linked with Newcastle last summer but has remained at Sochaux, plays as a deep-lying forward but isn’t really based around creativity in the traditional sense – he plays more of a hold-up role, laying the ball off to midfield runners.

FEATURE Five to watch at ACoN 2012 (including Modibo Maiga)

The diagrams below show that a very high proportion of his passes are played backwards rather than forwards, although they can be highly effective – he created four chances with pull-backs in the 2-1 win over Botswana.

Ghana v Tunisia (Sun 5 Feb, 7pm)
As at the World Cup two years ago, Ghana seem set up to play on the counter-attack, and like to work the right-hand side of the pitch more than the left. On that side they have Andre Ayew, a true forward rather than the more functional player on the other wing (either box-to-box midfielder Sulley Muntari or full-back Samuel Inkoom are used on the left).

Furthermore, their right-sided central midfielder, Emmanel Agyemang-Badu, breaks forward much more than the left-sided holder, Anthony Annan, does. Badu’s Udinese teammate Kwadowah Asamoah, the central attacking midfielder, also likes to move across to the right.

FEATURE Five more to watch at ACoN 2012 (including Kwadwoh Asamoah)

In their previous game against Guinea, they only managed to create three chances in the game, but all came from the right. This means Tunisia’s left-back will be in for a big test. Ammar Jemal started Tunisia’s first game of the tournament there, but Khalil Chemmam was used in the win over Gabon. His dashboard reveals a fine performance, and he’ll need to replicate that on Sunday.

More ACoN analysis from Michael Cox:
Mon 30 Jan Botswana's goal peppered, Boussifi makes it count & Pitroipa's dribbling problem
Thu 26 Jan Ivory Coast fail to utilise Yaya as young Lass fails to show class
Fri 20 Jan How will Premier League strikers fare at the Africa Cup of Nations?

DE-FENCE! DE-FENCE! DE-FENCE! City players love that there Superbowl

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:39:00 GMT

Manchester City’s players took time away from their preparations for Saturdays match with Fulham to indulge in what the Americans call ‘football.’

Ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, two members of City’s de-fence – NFL fans Joleon Lescott and Micah Richards - kitted themselves out at the club’s Carrington training ground, to show their support for the teams who will do battle this weekend in Indianapolis.

Lescott is a Patriots supporter while Richards favours the Giants, so to make sure things didn’t get too heated between the City team-mates, the ever-disciplined Nigel De Jong stepped in as referee.

England defender Lescott will be a keen viewer on Sunday night; "I got into NFL from a really young age, a good friend of mine was into it in a big way because his dad was from America and a Miami Dolphins fan."

Richards said "I got into it through a mate because I was more into basketball," before adding "It’s a lot more physical than our game and a genuine contact sport, but it looks like quite a cool sport and it’s something I can see myself really getting into in the future."

Tough-tackling midfielder De Jong is no doubt a fan of the robust nature of the game; "I’ve been into NFL for about five years now. We have mutual friends out in the States who follow the sport and I’ve been watching it on TV for a few years now and I’ve really got into it."

Lescott says he might play Gridiron in the future; "The NFL guys are very agile and quick and they put a lot of hard work into their game. I’d definitely like to give it a go when my playing career ends – whether I’m any good or not remains to be seen!"

We’re not yet sure if Lescott, Richards and De Jong will douse ‘Coach Mancini’ in Gatorade, should they win the Premier League title, though...

By Steven Toplis

Pearce's shower scene and Maradona's fingerprints

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:23:00 GMT

In the new FourFourTwo – out now, folks – we profile the work of Middlesbrough fan and artist Steve Welsh. A former cartoonist for iconic fanzine Fly Me To The Moon, Welsh set up MiniBoro.com to collate interviews but also to showcase his art. And we should all be glad.

Far from being Boro-centric, the site celebrates cult heroes from around the world and across the decades. Welsh's often simple yet brilliantly executed images tend to concentrate on a well-known aspect of a player or team and play with the visual iconography – so Stuart Pearce is celebrated with an image of the blood circling out of the shower in Hitchcock's Psycho, while Edgar Davids is represented as a pitbull with the simple byelaw-quoting 'no fouling'.

While their opponents had their half-time oranges Celtic's 1967 European Cup-winning 'Lisbon Lions' would obviously eat raw meat, and Maradona's complex relationship with the English psyche is summed up with the legend 'tainted love' and a fingerprinted football.

FourFourTwo's current favourite – and Welsh's images adorn the office walls at FFT Towers – is the first one below, dedicated to erstwhile Boro assistant manager Viv Anderson. The right-back is often pigeon-holed as 'England's first black international' but the MiniBoro illustration resembles an Ishihara colour-blindness test.

See below for all those images plus more dedicated to Carlos Valderrama, Socrates, Terry Butcher, Norman Hunter and Sheffield United. Welsh has produced dozens of images, perusable at MiniBoro.com and available to buy as prints, framed prints and stretched canvases.

What else is in the new issue?

Two-year ban a cruel blow for Shakhtar keeper Rybka

Mark Gilbey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:51:00 GMT

Football is still to emerge from its winter hibernation in Ukraine.

And with temperatures well below zero at the moment, it is around this time of year when many Premier League clubs head off to training camps in sunnier climes to whip themselves into shape for the second half of the season. Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Spain are the destinations of choice for most.

Shakhtar Donetsk swapped the bleak weather of Ukraine’s industrial east for Dubai last month, and are now in Spain to participate in the unimaginatively named Copa del Sol.

The domestic season resumes in just a few weeks, but one player who isn't going to be featuring any time soon is the Pitmen’s goalkeeper, Oleksandr Rybka.

Just two days after featuring in Shakhtar’s 4-0 win away to Karpaty Lviv last November, UEFA officials turned up at the club’s Kirsha training base to perform random drug tests on 10 players, one of whom was Rybka.

Unbeknown to Shakhtar officials, the 24-year-old had taken slimming pills containing a banned diuretic, and while that in itself is not a stimulant, what it possesses is the ability to mask doping.

The hope was that Rybka would escape with just a six-month ban, but on Monday he and Shakhtar’s worst fears were realised when UEFA handed him the maximum sentence: two years.

The club will stick by Rybka, who only signed a two-year deal in the summer and soon they intend to launch an appeal.

"In the best-case scenario we want to annul this disqualification," affirmed Shakhtar’s CEO Sergiy Palkin.

"If not, we will try to shorten it as much as possible… Oleksandr said himself that he took this substance. But we consider UEFA's decision to be wrong because he took it after the game… If he took it before the game it would be different.”

UEFA have also requested that FIFA make it a global ban. As it stands, the earliest Rybka can return to action is 10 January 2014.

The punishment is a cruel blow for a player who has been something of a revelation at Shakhtar since arriving from minnows Obolon Kyiv a littler over six months ago.

Arguably Rybka was the league’s best goalkeeper last year. He’s also one of the few players to have emerged with any credit from what was a pretty disastrous Champions League campaign.

Outside of Ukraine, his transfer would barely have registered among fans, yet within the country some consider it to be a historic one for the championship.

Rybka came through the ranks at Shakhtar’s arch-rivals Dynamo Kyiv, and although he was always second fiddle to Oleksandr Shovkovskiy, the shot-stopper spent six years with his hometown club. It was a transfer that divided fans in Ukraine.

Serhiy Rebrov and Oleh Matveev may have crossed the divide in the past, but their moves were at a time when Shakhtar could hardly be considered true competitors to Dynamo in the Ukrainian championship.

Not long after signing the contract, photos of Rybka looking a little worse for wear in a Kyiv nightclub were leaked online. Although it later transpired they were taken four years ago, the episode made for an embarrassing start to life in Donetsk for Rybka, who was forced to explain himself at his new club.

To some quarters of the Shakhtar faithful, it didn’t matter that he made his way to Donetsk via Obolon, and not directly from Dynamo.

Rybka was taunted on his debut by the ultras behind his goal, but such has been his impact that Shakhtar supporters voted him as the club’s player of the year.

“I just tried to do a quality job,” he admitted. “It took some time to win the fans’ support.”

And while Rybka won over one set of supporters, it was perhaps natural there would be those in Ukraine’s capital unhappy with his move east.

After a game in Kyiv last October during which Dynamo fans had vented their disapproval, another controversial photo of Rybka appeared in the Ukrainian press; this time of him apparently making an obscene gesture to the crowd. He denies it though, claiming the image may have been Photoshopped.

In just six months, Rybka has gone from playing at the league’s smallest club to the biggest, displaying form that made the national team’s head coach Oleh Blokhin take notice.

He made his international debut for Ukraine against Estonia in October, and even saved a penalty. Rybka has won over 40 caps at various youth levels in the past and it seemed finally that he had the platform at Shakhtar to realise his potential.

Barring an injury, Shovkovskiy will be Blokhin’s number one at this summer’s European Championships that Ukraine co-host with Poland, but Rybka would almost certainly have made the 23-man squad.

Blokhin is fortunate that he can call on Andriy Pyatov, whom Rybka usurped at Shakhtar, while Spartak Moscow’s Andriy Dykan also has international experience.

Shovkovskiy turned 37 last month though and with regular first team football, Rybka will have had his eye on being the long-term successor to a goalkeeper he spent so many years as understudy to at Dynamo.

Shakhtar were prepared for a ban. Bohdan Shust was recalled from a loan spell at Illychivets Mariupil recently but UEFA enforcing the maximum sentence has come as a shock in Donetsk.

Rybka’s ban is just the latest issue for Shakhtar this year as they prepare for the defence of their Premier League title.

Putting aside the upheaval surrounding Willian’s future, his fellow Brazilian Jádson has returned home and there is also a dispute with Artem Fedetskiy at Karpaty

Plus, Lucescu has been absent during the winter break. The 66-year-old suffered several broken ribs and a lung laceration after being involved in a car crash with a tram in his native Romania last month, leaving assistant coach Alexandru Spiridon to take charge of first team affairs while he recuperates.

The return of Ilsinho has also sparked debate among fans after the Brazilian controversially walked out of the club in 2010 following a messy contract dispute

It remains to be seen just how this chaotic month will affect Shakhtar’s title chances, in what is a three-horse race this season.

Unbeaten Dynamo lead Shakhtar by a point, but Metalist Kharkiv aren’t too far behind and Myron Markevych’s side did win at the Donbass Arena earlier in the campaign. Ten rounds remain and Shakhtar still have both to play.

Their first game when things pick up again next month is against Juande Ramos’ Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk though; they are well off the pace in fourth, but the former Sevilla and Tottenham Hotspur coach will be looking for his side to finish strongly after such a disappointing campaign so far.

Manchester United aim to exploit Cole absence, as Bale drifts inside again

Michael Cox — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:56:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the best of the weekend's Premier League action...

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini now has an extra central midfielder to choose from, following the loan signing of Roma's David Pizarro.

Pizarro offers something that Gareth Barry, Yaya Toure and Nigel de Jong don't: excellent distribution from deep in midfield, where he can play simple short passes to retain the ball, but also much longer incisive passes into the feet of attackers. City struggle against teams that sit deep, with Barry unable to provide the creative spark and Toure's game based more around driving runs.

At his best, Pizarro is one of the best deep-lying playmakers in Europe. Using StatsZone's data from last season's Champions League, when Roma reached the second round, we can compare his passing stats to Barry's from the midweek defeat to Everton.

It's clear to see that Pizarro is more adept on the ball - his passes are longer, more reliable and even when spreading play to the flanks, the passes move the side up the pitch. Barry's distribution is very short, and against Everton he wasted possession with too many straight long balls.

Ashley Cole is suspended for Chelsea's home match with Manchester United after his red card at Swansea in midweek, so Chelsea will have to field another left-back for the first time in 65 Premier League games, an astonishing statistic that perhaps partly explains why Cole has looked jaded in recent months.

While Andre Villas-Boas has options in that position, none of them are perfect. Ryan Bertrand is inexperienced, Paolo Ferreira is right-footed and David Luiz was once torn apart when playing left-back...against Villas-Boas' Porto side, who thrashed Benfica 5-0 with right-winger Hulk running riot.

Cole has struggled in his last two games against United, however. Back in September Nani had a good game and kept dribbling past opponents, including Cole, while Antonio Valencia did the same thing last May.

Tottenham travel to Anfield on Monday night, with Gareth Bale likely to be Spurs' main threat after an excellent performance in midweek. But which Bale will we see?

The Welshman has been used in two very different roles in recent away matches. In the win at Norwich, Harry Redknapp told Bale and Rafael van der Vaart they could 'play where they want', with the result that Bale came inside and made himself the game's star player.

But away at Manchester City a fortnight ago, he stayed wide and hugged the left touchline, doing battle with Micah Richards. With Liverpool still without a good central midfield combination in Lucas Leiva's absence, this might be a game for him to roam inside.

Arsenal's previous meeting with Blackburn Rovers was a remarkable game. The scoreline, 4-3 to Steve Kean's side, was enough of a surprise, but it was made even stranger by the fact Blackburn recorded just eight shots in the match, compared to Arsenal's 23. In fact, Blackburn only scored two of their four goals themselves - Arsenal helped them by scoring two own goals.

The two goals Blackburn did score on their own came from Yakubu, who completes his three-game suspension this weekend. His absence is a huge blow, and makes it more difficult for Blackburn to retain their unexpected record as the only club in the Premier League to score in every away game this season.

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

Back the champs to chin Chelsea with Rooney off the reins

Mark Booth — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:32:00 GMT

FIXTURES Sat 4 Feb 1pm Arsenal v Blackburn Rovers 3pm Norwich City v Bolton Wanderers, Queens Park Rangers v Wolverhampton Wanderers, Stoke City v Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion v Swansea City, Wigan Athletic v Everton 5.30pm Manchester City v Fulham Sun 5 Feb 1.30pm Newcastle United v Aston Villa 4pm Chelsea v Manchester United Mon 6 Feb 8pm Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur

After a bonus midweek serving, the Premier League is back again this weekend with a full helping of fixtures. There’s plenty of interesting matches available to tempt tipsters, including the most super of Super Sundays with Manchester United travelling to Stamford Bridge to face Andre Villas-Boas’ Chelsea.

Despite their rather patchy recent form, Chelsea are slight favourites with William Hill to overturn their 3-1 defeat at Old Trafford earlier in the season. Their 6/5 odds offer little value, so perhaps United at 15/8 might be more profitable, especially given their 2-1 win over Arsenal last time they were in the capital.

Wayne Rooney is likely to be restored to the line-up after missing United’s FA Cup fourth round tie at Anfield and he’s rated at 6/1 to open the scoring on Sunday. With Didier Drogba still on international duty with Ivory Coast, Fernando Torres is running out of time to stake a claim to be Chelsea’s main man and despite being in the middle of the worst goal drought of his career, he’s 2/1 to score at any time in this encounter.

Similarly difficult to call is Monday night's Champions League showdown at Anfield. Tottenham might just have played their way back into title contention but a win at Liverpool will go some way towards their primary target of a return to Europe’s premier competition.

Harry Redknapp’s men are 15/8 to complete a double over Kenny Dalglish’s charges, with new signing Louis Saha 9/1 to open his account with the first goal of the game. Liverpool will welcome Luis Suarez back to the fold and it’d be typical of a man no stranger to headlines to stamp his name all over this fixture. Suarez is 11/2 to score first and 6/4 to score at any time.

Elsewhere, Manchester City will be hoping to get back to winning ways at the fortress Etihad Stadium where they still boast a 100% winning record. They’re rated at an unsurprisingly stingy 2/7 to record a win over Martin Jol’s Fulham, who are 7/1 to record a famous first win AB (after Bobby). Zamora’s replacement Pavel Pogrebnyak is 11/1 to open the scoring and 4/1 to score at any point – perhaps an ambitious punter might look at a Pogrebnyak-inspired away win double to really fill pockets on Saturday evening.

In the weekend’s other fixtures, on Saturday lunchtime Arsenal are heavy favourites at 2/7 to avenge their September defeat at Blackburn. Wolves boss Mick McCarthy knows that a defeat at QPR will heap the pressure on him – not that the bookies have any sympathy, making the Rs 10/11 favourites to inflict a third successive defeat on the Midlanders.

Everton are 11/10 favourites to record a second successive win and leave Wigan rooted to the foot of the league, whereas Swansea can be backed for an intriguing-looking 2/1 to pick up all three points away at West Brom, though caution is advised due to the Swans' poor away form.

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La Preview: Transfers, tiffs, Googling and 'cojones, cojones, cojones'

Tim Stannard — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Saturday

Mallorca (15th) v Betis (13th) - 18.00 (local time)
The side run by Joaquín Caparrós had a major boost on Wednesday, when Mallorca failed to land misfiring forward Javier Arizmendi from Getafe. Unfortunately, that minor moment of happiness was curtailed when former Betis boss and current Mallorca majority shareholder, Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, went onto Radio Marca and told the station he wanted Betis to win Saturday’s match, a bit of a turn-up for the books to say the least. “You are putting me in a bit of a bind as you know what I feel. I would like Betis to win,” admitted the former coach, who has managed Betis on two occasions.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Athletic Bilbao (6th) v Espanyol (5th) - 18.00
Not that the Basque side really had much choice in the matter due to their player pickiness, but Athletic did not move into the transfer market during the winter window. Espanyol went quite craaazeee though, bringing in three footballers late in the day. Former Barça and Getafe midfielder, Víctor Sánchez, escaped the imploding Neuchatel Xamax and returned to Spain. The Pericos also boosted their attack by picking up Coutinho on loan from Inter Milan and rescued another Neuchatel orphan, Kalu Uche, who was with Almería last season.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Levante (4th) v Racing Santander (17th) - 18.00
Perhaps LLL’s favourite bit of stuff and nonsense from the deadline day came from new Racing midfielder Marcos Gullón, who has joined from Villarreal. Quite naturally, the 23-year-old wanted to make a good impression at his presentation on Wednesday and noted that Racing was “a good club to begin at in the Primera,” even though LLL suspects Gullón will be in la Segunda in about four months time.
But even so, it was a solid start. But then the former Villarreal man got a little bit carried away with the occasion by boasting that Racing was “an historical Primera club” (LLL - debatable), has done “important things” in the league (LLL - trophies won = zero) and had been in Europe (LLL - once). If Gullón is a slick on the pitch as off it, Racing have a real thunderbolt on their hands.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Getafe (9th) v Real Madrid (1st) - 20.00
A match against Getafe always brings up Pepe’s on the pitch problems, thanks to his giant wig-out that saw poor Javier Casquero used as rugby ball in April 2009. This is rather unfortunate timing as Real Madrid’s short-tempered stopper is only just starting to live down his last unfortunate incident, the Leo Messi hand stamp.
Pepe was a topic of conversation for Getafe striker, Miku, who will be up against a defender and a team he scored two goals against in this season’s Santiago Bernabeu clash in a 4-2 defeat. The question posed was whether Miku was afraid of the big, bad Pepe. No, was the reply, “I train with Cata Díaz every day,” scoffed the forward bringing up the topic of Getafe’s own physical enforcer who had a fun ‘discussion’ with Marcelo not so long ago.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Barcelona (2nd) v Real Sociedad (12th) - 22.00
The Clásico buzz has definitely worn off in the Spanish media, and it appears that this week nobody can really be bothered to do that much work. Lazy reports about referees favouring Barça/Madrid have been published dutifully. AS noted that there are more Google searches for José Mourinho’s name in Barcelona than in the Spanish capital. Marca have been trying to work out what needs to happen for Real Madrid to time their league title win with getting a guard of honour at the Camp Nou.
In Barcelona, Sport has noticed that it is rather cold in Spain at the moment and predicts that Pepe’s Dream Boys will be glove-tastic and will be playing Saturday’s match with the temperatures at -4. Good job that fantastic atmosphere in the Camp Nou will warm them up, eh! (LLL runs for cover).
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sunday

Sporting (19th) v Osasuna (10th) - 12.00
It's been a tough week for poor old Sporting, with the tearful sacking - from the guy doing the firing - of manager, Manuel Preciado, after nearly six seasons in charge. It’s a move that supporters seem to be behind, all be it reluctantly, but there is great resentment towards the footballers who they feel are just as responsible for Sporting being in the relegation zone due to nocturnal naughtiness.
Signs at training this week called for “less going out, more effort,” with one slogan painted onto a wall of the club suggesting “cojones, cojones, cojones,” as being the only way out of the team’s predicament. AS reports that the club has responded to such criticism by planning to have a 23.00 curfew players for any nighttime excursions.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sevilla (11th) v Villarreal (18th) - 18.00
Now LLL likes sticking its beak into a bit of a scandal, especially when there’s much ado about nothing. This week’s storm in a thimble came at Sevilla, when it looked like there had been a training ground spat between Freddie Kanouté and manager Marcelino, with the striker heading to the dressing room early after strong words were said between the pair.
Not so, apparently, with the excuse that Kanouté was merely a bit moody after being told that he could no longer train due to a knock he was carrying. “During no moment of the season has there been problems between then,” informed a club statement sternly.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Zaragoza (20th) v Rayo Vallecano (14th) - 19.45
Tired of all the conflict and cattiness in football? No? Well, nor is LLL. But despite this, the blog's cockles were tingled by the sight of supporters of both sides in the Rayo against Athletic Bilbao clash from last weekend in Vallecas. An occasion that included Athletic fans singing Rayo songs (happy, heavy sigh of kitten-like contentment)
LLL Prediction - Away win

Atlético Madrid (7th) v Valencia (3rd) - 21.30
Valencia gave themselves a decent chance of getting through to the Copa del Rey final with a 1-1 draw against Barcelona in Mestalla. Part of the reason for not losing the tie was Unai Emery not believing a word of Barça’s injury reports, especially in relation to Alexis and a remarkable recovery after last week’s Clásico clash.
“We lost Albelda this morning, and Soldado had a serious injury and we had to operate on his knee,” joshed the Valencia manager ahead of last Wednesday’s game.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Monday

Granada (16th) v Málaga (8th)
An embargo enforced upon Málaga for outstanding money owed to Osasuna for Nacho Monreal meant that the southern side had their purses snapped shut during the winter window, aside from the incorporation of goalkeeper, Carlos Kameni into their ranks. Granada however, pulled of a potentially great coup by bringing in Brazil U-20 World Champion striker, Henrique Almeida, who joins on loan from Sao Paolo.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Element of doubt creeps in at City as chasing pack prepare for battle

Jon Champion — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:35:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. ESPN's live and exclusive coverage of Manchester City vs Fulham is entirely free this weekend from 4:30pm on Saturday...

A month ago, Manchester City versus Fulham would have been a foregone conclusion. But now, although you would still heavily favour City to win this weekend, there is that element of doubt creeping in.

In their last nine fixtures, City have won just three and that kind of form seemed inconceivable in mid-autumn. It’s amazing what the loss of Yaya Toure has done; it seems to have removed a whole dimension to their play. He is the one they have really struggled to replace and that’s going to continue to be the case for a couple of weeks, in all likelihood.

Carlos Tevez – who has been virtually been forgotten now - and Mario Balotelli – who serves the third game of a four-match ban – they can do without because they’ve got Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero to cover. But Toure plays a unique role and so they have no replacement for him and boy are they missing him. He can probably name his price if he wants a new contract on his return.

City will be aware that there is a chance they could lose the lead of the Barclay’s Premier League this weekend. Say Fulham manage to eke out a draw, the door is open for Manchester United the following day when they step out at Stamford Bridge against their old rivals Chelsea.

Personally I think that Manchester City will beat Fulham and will still be top of the pile; but I’m glad that it is a race and not a procession because there was a stage of the season when it looked like City were going to run away with things but it certainly isn’t going to be the case.

Manchester United may not be playing brilliantly at present, but under Sir Alex Ferguson they always hang on in there, and whilst they remain there it will sow seeds of doubt in City minds.

Chelsea, their opponents this Sunday, are twelve points off the top and are missing Didier Drogba, who may well be past his best and may well be on the way in the summer, but given that Torres can’t buy a goal for love nor money they could really do with him.

I think if Manchester United are going to have any title pretensions then it is a game that they have to go out and win – that would send out a message to City. Chelsea are ordinary enough this season for United to go there with a degree of confidence.

Sturridge and Mata have done very well, but there are too many who are perhaps over the hill, going down the other side now. I’m thinking particularly of Terry and Lampard and I don’t think Petr Cech is the goalkeeper he once was. So for that reason I think United go there with a really good chance.

They will hope to have Rooney back which will be significant for them, but they do have this problem with the goalkeeper. It may be that Ben Amos gets another chance. The question is whether Sir Alex throws David de Gea back in now that he knows Lindegaard is out for a month on the basis that he paid £17.5 million for him? It is a conundrum that Ferguson has had to deal with many times over his career and he usually gets the answer right.

If Chelsea don’t finish in the top four it will be through their own failings rather than the achievements of others. I see fourth place as being there for the taking for them.

They’re not in the same class as Tottenham - let alone that of Manchester City or United - but equally I don’t see Newcastle, Liverpool or Arsenal being on the same level as Chelsea.

Newcastle are in a slightly false position in sixth place, they’ve done wonderfully well to keep churning out results despite the roadblocks that keep being thrown in their way, but I don’t see them sustaining a top four challenge, even though they should have enough to see off Aston Villa on Sunday.
Yoan Cabaye’s three-match ban is a real problem for Newcastle, Alan Pardew has been railing against various sections of the media for daring to comment that Cabaye committed this foul.
What he’s doing by publicising this is trying to create that siege mentality and it seems to be working, because for all the adversity and the lack of players they are still churning out results. I expect them to get another one this weekend, not least as Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse will return.

Liverpool have suddenly found a rich seam of form. Less than two weeks ago Kenny Dalglish was berating his players for a lacklustre display, absent of heart, at Bolton. If those words were supposed to induce a positive response then they have hit the nail on the head. Since then, three very impressive victories for Liverpool have reinvigorated their season.
It’s going to be a very close and an entertaining game between two very different sides when they face Tottenham on Monday evening. Spurs have match-winners throughout their side, whereas Liverpool are more reliant on the team effort. Tottenham will finish higher in the Premier League, but with home advantage Liverpool will fancy their chances of knocking them out of their stride.

Arsenal hoped to end their losing run with a win at Bolton on Wednesday night, but only chiselled out a very dull 0-0 draw. If they can’t beat Blackburn at home then there really is something seriously wrong, and I expect them to win this one fairly comfortably.

Norwich face Bolton and I wonder how significant come the end of the season their 3-0 defeat at Sunderland on Wednesday night will prove to be. They looked nothing like the silky smooth operators they were in the first two thirds of the season. Nagging in the back of my mind is the fact we’ve seen this same situation with other teams season in season out.
Hull City and Blackpool had really good starts to the season and then fell away dramatically and got ended up bang in the middle of the relegation dogfight. There is still cause for concern at that prospect in Norfolk, though they’ve probably got enough points on the board thus far not to lose too much sleep just yet. They need to find another four wins in fifteen games and a home game with Bolton represents a possibility to get the first.

It’s reaching the point of no return for Mick McCarthy and Wolves. I’m surprised they’re struggling as badly as they are because they’ve got some decent players and a great team spirit but that doesn’t seem to be enough for them. They can’t score consistently, defensively they’re a soft touch and QPR - with a clutch of new players and a new manager in place - may prove to be too strong for them in the bear pit of Loftus Road.

Sunderland travel to Stoke and will feel they have a good chance of getting a result. They’re riding a wave of confidence under Martin O’Neill and Stoke are stuttering ever so slightly. It’s been a huge boost for Sunderland having Frazier Campbell back after 18 months out. He scored a sublime goal against Norwich on Wednesday night, and as long he’s fit enough to start again, it gives Sunderland the spearhead that they lacked when Steve Bruce was in charge.

West Brom seem to have a couple of steps forward and then two or three steps backwards, it’s frustrating for Roy Hodgson, but they should have enough about them to stay in the division.
We’ve said everything that we can say about Swansea’s style of football, a sort of mini-Arsenal. They’ve got a number of unsung players who have only come to our attention this season; in particular Joe Allen, who looks one of the best attacking midfielders in the division. But Swansea away from home are a completely different beast to the side that performs with such conviction and style at the Liberty, so this is a good barometer to see if Brendan Rogers is managing to address their problems.

The Premier League table makes very grim reading for Wigan now, because they’re five points adrift. Fifteen points from 23 games is out and out relegation form in any season. They had their little purple patch in December, but now they’ve gone back to where they were before, losing most of their games, conceding far too many goals.
On Saturday they host Everton, who will be on something of a high having beaten Manchester City and brough in a new striker in Nikica Jelavic. They should build on that by bouncing off the top team and a victory, and going to the bottom team and winning that.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Manchester City vs Fulham, Saturday, 4.30pm. ESPN will be completely free to watch from 3rd February – 6th February on Freeview, Sky, Top Up TV and BT Vision. This means fans will be able to watch Saturday evening's match for free.

Klassieker victory suggests a brighter future lies ahead for Feyenoord

Mohamed Moallim — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:13:00 GMT

A fixture that has historically often decided championships did so again. Ajax left Rotterdam aggrieved, and did so with their hopes of retaining the title now hanging by a thread.

A hat-trick by John Guidetti, on loan from Manchester City, condemned the Amsterdammers to a 4-2 defeat, their first in the league against the De Kuip outfit in six years.

Feyenoord’s victory over their most bitter rivals was their third consecutive home win. The last two happened to be against the other members of last season’s top three: PSV and FC Twente, the aggregate score reading 9-4 in their favour.

In truth, Feyenoord have been a club transformed over the last 12 months. This time last year the Rotterdam giants were hovering just above the relegation zone. In the last few months respectability has been restored to a club that stared into the abyss and survived.

Ronald Koeman, who took over in July, has added steel, dynamism and creativity, but there is still room for improvement.

“The squad is comfortable in dealing with the trainer. The feeling is good in the group," captain Ron Vlaar said. "We are developing rapidly as a unit and I believe that we are more stable than last season."

In their most recent victory, the Rotterdam club were relentless in their pressing of Ajax, and picked them off on the counter. This has been their approach for much of the season, yet they still seem to struggle to motivate themselves against the ‘lesser’ sides.

For example, the defeat away to bottom side VVV at the start of the year may have scuppered any slim hopes of being involved in a championship race. But perhaps their victory in de Klassieker will make up for it.

“We have waited so long. This is great for the club. I am so happy for Rotterdam,” Koeman beamed, having preserved his unbeaten record in this fixture, which now stands at eight games.

Koeman’s appointment – following the departure of Mario Been at the end of last season – was seen as a gamble, but there was justification, given his record with youthful squads especially in the Netherlands.

"It's a real people's club – there's always something going on," Koeman enthused.

"But it's a club with good organisation, a talented squad and ambition. The latter is very important: I am a no-nonsense figure and completely suited to the playing style and vision of the club."

He also made history, becoming the first man to play for Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord, and also coach all three. His return to Rotterdam parallels his playing career in that his arrival was met with a few disgruntled grumbles, even if many of the club’s fans were willing to give him a crack. The cheerleaders were helped by his decision to enlist two former club greats - Jean-Paul van Gastel and Giovanni van Bronckhorst - as assistant coaches.

"Needless to say, Feyenoord is a splendid club for me to pick up the thread again as head coach," announced the younger Koeman. "It is my firm conviction that we are able to surprise this season. There is indeed plenty of quality and talent in this young squad."

In recent years, off the field clashes have marred the rivalry. Away fans have been barred from attending the fixture since 2009 as a result of increased hooliganism. The ban is expected to be lifted in 2014, with pleas to the Dutch FA for the ban to end early likely to fall on deaf ears.

The tribalism was again evident in the build-up to the most recent meeting, with Koeman enraged by a tweet made by Ajax full-back Gregory van der Wiel.

In less than 140 characters, the highly-rated Dutch international fullback wrote “020 is de baas in 010.” In other words ‘Amsterdam is the boss in Rotterdam’, the numbers representing the area code of both cities.

Koeman felt this seemingly innocuous spot of e-taunting could stoke the flames of aggression in what was already set to be a volatile atmosphere.
“It’s up to the KNVB and Ajax to intervene, if that was one of my players, I would have imposed sanctions,” he said. “This statement by Van der Wiel was stupid. It’s not the first time he’s done something foolish.”

Van der Wiel missed Sunday’s match, so didn’t feel the full brunt of the enraged Rotterdam faithful, or of his side’s defeat. He wasn’t the only senior defender missing; Toby Alderweireld and Andre Ooijer were added to the list of casualties which already included Nicolai Boilesen. Ajax coach Frank De Boer was even forced to take part in training to even up the numbers, and didn’t look out of place.

There were half-hearted appeals from supporters for him to come out of retirement, initially in jest. During Sunday afternoon many of them will have genuinely wished he had dusted off his boots and taken to the pitch. The constant changing of the backline has mostly played its part in Ajax struggling this season.

Koeman had earmarked the defence as Ajax’s weak point, and this assertion was justified. Yet it was the away side that drew first blood, with Christian Eriksen capping off a brilliant counter-attack. Not since November 1991 have Feyenoord kept a clean sheet against their foe, a staggering 41 games ago.

Then came the turning point of the game. Jan Vertonghen thought he had won the ball cleanly from Guidetti in the penalty area, but was dismayed when referee Bjàrn Kuipers pointed to the spot. The Swede dusted himself down and converted to level the scores.

Kuipers defended his decision during a post-match interview on Dutch television, however after watching the footage he admitted it could have gone either way, though he remained adamant it didn’t change the game.

Vertonghen was incensed, but De Boer, though unhappy with the decision, calmly accepted it and felt the three points could have still been won. Not for the first time he questioned his more senior players, notably Eriksen, who failed to take the contest by the scruff of the neck, despite hitting the opener.

Ajax once again controlled possession for large patches of the first half, with Feyenoord seemingly willing to wait to pounce on the counter.

It is damning that Ajax have taken just five points from a possible 18 in their matches against AZ, PSV, FC Twente and Feyenoord so far this season. And that may be more than deserved judging by some of their performances in those matches.

They fell behind shortly before the interval when Guidetti bagged his second of the game, netting after Ajax keeper Vermeer had parried Bakkal's header.

If De Boer was expecting a response from his still incensed side after the break, he didn’t get it. Otman Bakkal doubled Feyenoord’s lead shortly after the re-start and, although Feyenoord keeper Erwin Mulder gifted Dmitri Bulykin a second for the visitors, Guidetti completed his hat-trick and the scoring with eight minutes remaining.

In the aftermath of the win, the hattrick hero – Rotterdam’s new son and cult icon - dedicated the victory to the boisterous support. Koeman was quick to lavish praise on the Swede who, despite his tender age of 19, has quickly become the player the manager and fans can rely on, with 14 goals in 13 league games.

But the Manchester City loanee isn’t the only Feyenoord youngster making a big splash. Guidetti’s rise has coincided with the emergence of midfielder Jordy Clasie, who was shielded from last season’s chaos at De Kuip while serving a loan spell on the other side of the city with Excelsior.

Educated at the club, he was loaned out to get valuable game time. The chances of him featuring under Been appeared slim but, given the likelihood of one or two midfielders departing, Feyenoord were appeared likely to throw him in the following season instead of dipping into the transfer market.

This was not least because Clasie is blessed with natural talent. His development has impressed many, especially those with the future of the national team in mind. His style of play - keeping possession, circulating the ball, ingenuity and exemplary passing - has earned him the nickname ‘the Xavi of De Kuip’, with the Spaniard being his idol and reference.

“I want to be like him,” Clasie has perhaps unsurprisingly stated. “Xavi is unplayable in everything he does.”

Given his height – 5ft5 – Clasie should also take inspiration from the fashion in which the Barcelona man has shown size isn’t a hindrance. Those that felt he wouldn’t make it as a professional are starting to tuck into their humble pie. Despite his relative inexperience he’s already of the key components in Koeman's side. The conductor of this rejuvenated Feyenoord and was again at the heart of the action against the enemy.

Before the game De Boer declared his side the stronger of the two, claiming, without a hint of irony, that Feyenoord were inconsistent. Those words came back to haunt him. Although they went into the game five points off the leaders – now seven – this masked what has been a ropey campaign.

Koeman dismissed Ajax’s chances of winning the league, labelling them vulnerable - few would disagree with him. However, the remaining fixtures look appeasing, and if any club can come back from the dead, it’s them. However, with PSV and FC Twente starting to hit their strides, it might be too little too late.

While at the start of 2011 trepidation engulfed De Kuip, in 2012 it’s tranquillity. For Koeman, the longer this newly-found team spirit remains, the better.

What a difference a year makes: The curious case of Lucas Barrios

Gareth McKnight — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:26:00 GMT

Borussia Dortmund striker Lucas Barrios had an up-and-down 2011 at Signal Iduna Park, with the ecstasy of winning the German top flight blighted by a dramatic fall from grace. From talisman, goal machine and Bundesliga winner to outcast in just six months, the Paraguay international was reportedly close to making a deadline day departure from the German champions; but what does 2012 have in store for Barrios?

Signed from Colo Colo in July 2009, Barrios quickly became an integral part of a young and exciting Dortmund team, continuing the goalscoring form which had seen him become a star his homeland. Barrios was the North Rhine-Westphalian club’s top scorer for his first two campaigns, and last season was the making of the South American marksman, as his 19 goals fired Jurgen Klopp’s men to their first Bundesliga title in nearly a decade.

BVB must have been rubbing their hands together after reviewing their capture of La Pantera (the Panther) for just over €4 million; rumours linking Chelsea with a £30 million move for the Paraguayan were rife in the summer of 2011.

But the promise of leading the line for the ambitious German club in this season’s Champions League saw Barrios remain. He was on top of the world, but what goes up must come down.

Barrios was part of the Paraguay side that reached the final of the Copa America in the summer, but a thigh injury meant he had to start the last game from the bench, and returned to Germany unfit after the tournament. A poor pre-season compromised by injury meant the striker missed the start of the 2011/12 campaign, and his replacement Robert Lewandowski grasped the opportunity to play with both hands. The Polish striker has bagged 18 goals in all competitions already this term and has cemented himself a place in Die Schwarzgelben's first XI.

Barrios has only started one game in 2011/12, and is yet to score in his 11 appearances for Dortmund. Frustration is clearly setting in for the South American, Fulham were reportedly close to sealing a £7 million deal for him on deadline day, while Liverpool have also been reported to be monitoring his situation.

Despite this, Barrios’ dramatic fall from grace should be taken with a pinch of salt; the hitman’s goal record proves testament to his class and quality. With a reported asking fee of less than £10 million, it is surprising that other bigger clubs did not make more of an effort to sign the striker, with the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal in need of attacking reinforcements.

The next year is an important one for Barrios, as at 27-years-old he is can ill-afford to spend the bulk of his time getting splinters and losing sharpness on Dortmund’s bench. The German champions should not forget Barrios’ heroics in last term’s title charge; given an opportunity he could well play a big part in retaining their mantle as the nation’s top team this season.

With 18 months left on his contract, Jurgen Klopp may well be tempted to sell Barrios this summer if his fringe status continues; if this is the case clubs in England, Italy and Spain should take note.

The old adage that form is temporary and class is permanent applies here, and Barrios’ suitors need only to take heed of the forward’s tally of 84 goals in the four seasons before this one as an indication of his enduring quality.

One thing is for sure; he is too good not to be playing regular first-team football in a leading European league. Whether that is with Dortmund or not remains to be seen.

Heroes & Villains: Missing millions, a good ref and a hapless handcuffer

Mark Booth — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:35:00 GMT

Midweek delight and derision from Mark Booth, with a little bonus moaning at the end from Gary Parkinson...

RESULTS (click team name for web-wide club news feed) Tue Jan 31 Everton 1-0 Manchester City; Manchester United 2-0 Stoke City; Swansea City 1-1 Chelsea; Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 Wigan Athletic; Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-3 Liverpool Wed Feb 1 Aston Villa 2-2 Queens Park Rangers; Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Arsenal; Sunderland 3-0 Norwich City; Fulham 1-1 West Bromwich Albion; Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Newcastle United

HEROES

Manchester United
The champions were the big winners of this midweek round of fixtures after easily seeing off the challenge of Stoke City. Now level with their neighbours at the top of the Premier League, United are moving into what is historically their favourite period of the season. With all the talk surrounding United’s lack of spending, it was a transfer out of Old Trafford that proved to be their most profitable on Tuesday, with Darron Gibson’s goal against Manchester City giving his former boss reason to smile over his bottle of plonk.

There was nothing particularly memorable about this efficient dispatch of Tony Pulis’ Stoke, who continued their poor run against the big boys with this 2-0 defeat. City cling on to top spot through goal difference, but Sir Alex Ferguson will feel the momentum is very much with his team and the neutrals rejoice as one of the tightest title races for years maintains its ebb and flow.

Everton
Everton were arguably the big winners of this year’s low-key transfer window, bringing in the natural finisher they’ve been crying out for in Jelavic, being reunited with Steven Pienaar on loan and, most crucially in this fixture, taking Darron Gibson off the Old Trafford scrapheap.

The contrast between the costs of the playing squads on show could barely have been greater, yet it was Everton who prevailed, displaying the kind of grit that characterises David Moyes’ tenure on Merseyside. A makeshift defensive pairing of Tony Hibbert and John Heitinga limited City to just a handful of clear-cut chances and Maraoune Fellaini worked tirelessly to suppress the creative artistry of David Silva and Samir Nasri.

The frustration for the Everton faithful is that they can drop points against teams like Blackburn, who got a draw in the last game at Goodison – perhaps explaining why Tuesday's attendance was only the second sub-30,000 league gate in Moyes' decade at the club. With their new reinforcements there is at last reason to believe there are brighter, more consistent times ahead for the Toffees.

Tottenham
It's as you were in the title race, as if the cruel defeat at the Etihad Stadium never happened: Spurs climb back to within five points of the summit. It was a particularly convincing performance from Tottenham, who needed a reaction after dropping five points in the last two Premier League games.

Harry Redknapp clinched the loan signing of Louis Saha on the final day of the transfer window and if he can stay fit, he could play a vital role as understudy to Emmanuel Adebayor. Against Wigan, it was again that prolific midfield coming up with the goods, including one beautiful individual effort from Gareth Bale. If Adebayor and Saha can find the back of the net on a consistent basis, perhaps Tottenham could find themselves in a title race after all.

Sunderland
If the Sunderland board were ever in any doubt as to whether they made the right decision in replacing Steve Bruce with Martin O’Neill, these reservations were seen off in convincing style on Wednesday night. Norwich were on a six-match unbeaten run before they made the trip up to the Stadium of Light but former Canaries boss Martin O’Neill has got the Black Cats doing the simple things well again and their ascent of the league table continues in style.

Frazier Campbell netted his first Premier League goal in 17 months and Stéphane Sessègnon maintained his excellent recent form to put Sunderland eighth in the table – a quite remarkable turnaround even by O’Neill’s high standards.

Andy Carroll
At times the criticism levelled at the 23-year old has crossed the line into something resembling glee and completely out of perspective for a young man trying to find his way at a big club. This dog’s abuse was silenced on the anniversary of his deadline day £35m move from Newcastle as he weighed in with a poacher’s goal which was the highlight of an encouraging Liverpool display.

Dalglish originally hoped that Carroll could work in tandem with the returning Luis Suarez, and there’s at least a suggestion that these hopes could be rekindled if this spirited performance at Wolves was anything to go by.

Chris Foy
Referees rarely get the headlines for getting decisions right, but Chris Foy deserves a mention after spotting the slightest of fingertips from Wojech Szczęsny in the last seconds at the Reebok Stadium on Wednesday night. Without that brush of glove it was the clearest penalty you’ll ever see as the Arsenal keeper took out Bolton's Mark Davies. Foy did spot it and the 0-0 stalemate was sealed – much to the ire of Owen Coyle, who missed it like the rest of us mere mortals.

VILLAINS

Manchester City
How Roberto Mancini must dread his trips to Merseyside. The Italian shouldered the blame for City’s toothless showing at Goodison Park, claiming to have underestimated Everton. If this was an exercise in taking the pressure off his players, it was misplaced given City’s miserable record in this fixture.

Outfought and bereft of ideas to break Everton’s resolve, this City side was a shadow of the outfit that romped through the league in autumn. After Darron Gibson delighted in opening the scoring against his previous team's cross-town rivals, there was nothing to be seen from David Silva, Samir Nasri, Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko – £125m of players went missing, more than any dog's Monaco bank account, making the absence of Yaya Toure in City’s midfield all the more obvious.

The truth is that City haven’t been at their sparkling best on a consistent basis since their air of invincibility was taken at Chelsea in December. Teams seemed to have worked out how to play against them, with the Martin O’Neill formula particularly popular: sit deep in numbers, invite City on, frustrate them and break with pace. If the oft-touted ‘form of champions’ is winning games ugly, surely dominating games and losing is the form of runners-up.

David Dunn
Blackburn can consider themselves unlucky to see Newcastle leave Ewood Park with all three points. It could have been so different for Steve Kean’s men had they not conceded a desperately unlucky own goal and had David Dunn converted the 43rd-minute penalty.

If that spot-kick had levelled the match, Blackburn may have picked up at least a point in their quest for survival; as it was, Tim Krul saved David Dunn's effort and as Blackburn chased the game Gabriel Obertan punished them on the break. Newcastle beat Rovers for the third time in four months and kept Kean's men in the bottom three.

Mick McCarthy
The pressure is mounting on the Wolves boss after a bad night against Liverpool at Molineux. The first of the dreaded “McCarthy out” bed-sheets made an appearance in the stands; in the mixed zone, with typical Yorkshire honesty, he took the blame for the defeat; and in the dressing-room he witnessed club owner Steve Morgan barge in to tear a strip off the underperforming Wanderers.

In the past Wolves have been guilty of failing to beat the teams around them and only a neat line in giantkilling has kept them out of trouble. With their powers of upsetting the odds starting to elude them, McCarthy needs to find some points – starting at QPR on Saturday – or the words on those scrawled bed sheets will soon find their way onto Wolves’ letterheaded paper.

Benoît Assou-Ekotto
Tottenham’s full-back will receive no punishment for his horror tackle on Franco di Santo on Tuesday night. Yet again this glaring flaw in the FA’s justice system has been brought to the light as referee Lee Probert admitted to seeing the challenge but decided to take no action, making the FA powerless to step in and land Assou-Ekotto with a deserved three-match ban. Football managers crying out for consistency in decisions on dangerous tackles are left to tear their hair out – a job that would take a while with Benoît's bouncing bouffant.

Deadline day
It seemed that the small matter of the football only conspired to get in the way of Sky’s now traditional deadline day song and dance. Jim White, the yellow ticker and Big Ben couldn’t save this deadline day which proved to be something of a damp squib as a new-found austerity gripped the Premier League.

Match of the Day
Speaking of TV and deadlines, the BBC's flagship football programme was inexplicably scheduled to started half an hour before the 11pm window-slam, when most fans were hopefully (or fearfully) scanning rolling news, websites, forums and Twitter.

Furthermore, with half the Premier League teams not in action until the following evening, you have to ask why the midweek edition wasn't on the Wednesday: fans of Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn, Bolton, Fulham, Newcastle, QPR and West Brom won't get their licence fee's worth. There wasn't even the consolation bone-throw of a Match of the Day 2 with keen Colin and his chums – who, while we're on the moanbox, frequently put far more effort into their analysis than the main-show regulars. – GP

Handcuffs
Putting the boring adult hat on, people entering the field of play is a definite no-no, and although handcuffing yourself to the goalpost might deserve points for originality, the Liverpool fan protesting against his daughter's dismissal by Ryanair is hardly equivalent to emancipation-chasing suffragettes chaining themselves to 10 Downing Street. Nobody likes to see people losing their jobs but with youth unemployment reaching 21% and topping a million, if we're to have handcuffings for every jobless young person we're gonna need a lot of goalposts. – GP

ACoN Diary 5: Prohibitive ticket prices taking gloss off a great tournament

Jonathan Wilson — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:32:00 GMT

The fifth installment of Jonathan Wilson's diary of the Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon

Angola 2010 increasingly looks like a nadir. It could hardly have begun worse, with the gun attack on the Togo team, but even if that atrocity hadn’t happened, it would still have been a miserable tournament.

There was the farce of the opening game, when Angola, as though to confirm every stereotype about naive African defending and shocking African goalkeeping, squandered a four-goal lead in the final 11 minutes (and, yes, I am personally bitter about that; I’d written 11 pieces on the shooting before the game even started, and had five match reports to file within 20 minutes of the final whistle).

Transport was nightmarish, costs prohibitive, acquiring visas all but impossible: Angola was the tournament in which CAF showed quite clearly that the fans meant nothing to them. And then there was the football which, Egypt, Ghana, and to an extent Zambia aside, was dismal: negative, boorish and just not very good. (Actually, personally, I had quite a good time, sitting in a nice guest house in Benguela and eating a lot of seafood, and the press-box fight between Algerian and Egyptian journalists in the semi-final was one of the highlights of my career, but still...)

In most regards, this tournament has been better. The football has been, generally, open and attacking and if Ivory Coast and Ghana have been a little cautious, well, that’s understandable for favourites. Malabo, at least, feels a safe city – I’ve happily wandered about at night in a way I wouldn’t have in Luanda; and the prices are nothing like as ludicrous as Angola.

But where the tournament has fallen down – again – is in attracting fans. This is a perennial Cup of Nations problem.

Part of the issue is geographical: hold the tournament in west Africa or north Africa, and it becomes far easier for travelling fans with distances more manageable for large groups of teams: in Mali in 2002, for instance, thousands of Ivory Coast fans crossed the border to Sikasso.

The issue is also partly financial: hosting the tournament in oil-producing countries tends to mean hotels are aimed at wealthy businessman, placing them out of reach of all but the richest fans. And visas were at least as hard to acquire as they were for Angola, putting off significant numbers of Europeans who might have travelled.

But actually, the real issue isn’t travelling fans. The real issue is the lack of local people turning up for games not involving the hosts. Again, this isn’t something new, but it really is something CAF must address. The suggestion that Equatorial Guinea and Gabon aren’t real “football countries” is only part relevant – the Cup of Nations is by home way the biggest public event staged in Malabo; people should be turning up out of interest if nothing else.

Price, clearly, is then the major problem. The cheapest tickets cost 5000 Central African Francs (around £6.25) which represents around a week’s wages. Of course people aren’t showing up. Hicham El-Amrani, he general secretary of CAF, when pressed on the subject, said, There is a system of sale that needs to be followed and respected. his is the flagship tournament - we cannot just give away tickets.”

But why not? Why not, the day before a match, place unsold tickets on sale for, say 100 francs for a joint adult and child ticket? That would, surely, cover administration costs, would ensure games aren’t played before empty seats, and would make the tournament a spectacle for all local people, not just the rich ones.

A Sad Day at Sporting and Athletic's Copa Cruise

Tim Stannard — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:26:00 GMT

It is with a heavy heart – and yes, LLL does have one – that the blog must report the firing of Manuel Preciado. The long-time Sporting manager, smoker and swearer extraordinaire has been through horrendous personal tragedy but has kept going despite all the horrible stuff life has thrown at him, including the death of his wife, son and then father.

Preciado took a severe professional blow on Tuesday when he was told that his services with Sporting were no longer required after nearly six seasons in charge and 232 official games. The last of those was against Real Sociedad: a 5-1 defeat to leave the team in relegation zone.

Although Preciado has been in many a sticky spot before with Sporting and survived, this current bad run was one too many for club president Manuel Vega-Arango, who announced emotionally during a joint press conference that "I don't know if the decision will be good or bad, but it has been very considered. There was enormous sadness in taking it."

The now-former coach took the bad news with dignity, saying that "I will be with this team for life." It seems the Sporting supporters have the same affection, with 'Thank you Preciado' becoming a top Twitter trending topic in Spain.

The other big news oop north in Spain was the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg between third-tier Mirandés and Athletic Bilbao in the ground of the mighty minnows. But unlike those flimsy nanny-pants sides Villarreal and Espanyol, the battling Basque team were not going to be the evening's Primera butt-monkeys and came away with a 2-1 lead to take back to Bilbao thanks to a couple of goals from the currently imperious Fernando Llorente.

The other, less glamorous tie takes place on Wednesday evening, with Valencia hosting Barcelona – who by all accounts have been having a spot of bother on the road this season.

Because both Leo Messi and Sandro Rosell have used the word 'referee' in recent comments, the Madrid press have got into quite a tizz saying that the Catalan side, their backs up against the photocopier, are lowering themselves by resorting to tactics used by the likes of, well, Real Madrid.

Admittedly, one particular method of the capital club's manager is to wait for a referee to go to his car after a game and then hurl insults at him – an action that, quite remarkably, will go unpunished.

"This is bad news for football," noted Marca's editorial on Wednesday, commenting on the Barça president observing that things weren't going too well for them this season with refs. "This murky territory of making complaints appeared until now to be the exclusive territory of Mourinho."

With La Liga's big two currently chorusing "Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me" it appears that the referee in Wednesday's cup clash will be under just as much scrutiny as the players.

Ball still bobbling around in Villa box, three days later

Back of the Net — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Seventy hours after the final whistle of their FA Cup fourth round defeat against Arsenal, a bedraggled Aston Villa back-line are still battling in vain to clear the ball from their penalty box, a statement on the club’s website has revealed.

Villa looked set to spring a cup shock when they took a 2-0 lead into half-time at the Emirates Stadium, but reality set in as some slipshod defending saw McLeish’s men fall to a 3-2 defeat.

And things have gone from bad to worse for Villa fans as the club have admitted on their website that their jobbing back four still haven’t managed to clear their lines, almost three days after their opponents left the pitch.

Despite the upbeat headline "Villa close to getting routine cross clear", video clips showing a clearly exhausted Alan Hutton drilling clearance after clearance into the back of a bruised and bloodied Richard Dunne while a confused Stephen Warnock spins around in small circles have raised serious concerns about the future of the club.

An interview with ineffective managerial growly-man Alex McLeish, whose top button is now irrevocably undone, betrayed the severity of the situation.

“It’s no secret that we’ve no[t] cleared the ball yet,” the Big Eck rasped while straightening out a sleeping bag on the edge of the technical area.

“Arsenal are a talented side, but at this point we’ve got only ourselves to blame. It’s a big worry because at any point you feel Van Persie could drop by again and punish us.”

McLeish is under pressure to resolve the situation quickly after coming in for severe criticism when Villa conceded twice against Wolves a fortnight ago while their defensive quartet tried to unlock Gabby Agbonlahor’s new phone.

Previous stories:
Wigan given permission to talk to Maynard, but not about football
Banana touted as potential banana skin for Hull
Nobody able to explain why Tony Hibbert is in Gabon
Spurs target found to be carefully-arranged pile of shoeboxes
O'Neill creates "stunning" rogan josh from contents of Bruce's pantry

Tumour-free Mondonico makes emotional Serie A return

James Horncastle — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:00:00 GMT

It feels good to see Emiliano Mondonico back in Serie A. It really does. Hearing on Monday afternoon that he is to replace Attilio Tesser at Novara brought a smile to many faces.

Not because there was any ill feeling toward his predecessor – not at all. Tesser had masterminded Novara’s historic return to Serie A after 55 years in the lower leagues, and for that the fans are forever grateful. But with the team seven points adrift from safety, it’s time now to fight for survival, and Mondonico is nothing if not a survivor.

A year ago this week, he reluctantly stepped down from his position at second division Albinoleffe. It was temporary, he insisted: “I hope to be back within two games, maybe even before.” Mondonico, to everyone’s surprise, was to undergo surgery.

The 64-year-old wasn’t checking into hospital for a routine hip, knee or ankle operation to ease the pain caused by an old injury from his playing days with Cremonese, Torino, Monza and Atalanta. He had a tumour in his stomach, and not just any tumour. It was huge. When Professor Novellino removed it at the Seriate hospital near Bergamo, the tumour weighed 5kg.

Anxious for updates on his boss’s condition, Daniele Fortunato, a member of Mondonico’s backroom staff then acting as Albinoleffe’s caretaker manager, paid a visit to his mentor’s bedside. He found Mondonico in high spirits, watching Inter play on TV. Apparently the tumour wasn’t aggressive. It wasn’t attached to any major organs. It wasn’t cancer, he said. “There’s a subtle but fundamental difference,” noted Mondonico before explaining his medical predicament as if he were distinguishing zonal from man-marking to one of his players.

“Beating it, eradicating it, was possible. We did it,” he told Il Corriere della Sera. Marco Bernardini, the journalist sent to interview Mondonico, noted that he used the plural. “Life’s a team game,” he quipped. “My life, that is. There’s me, naturally, and the surgeons who operated on me.

“After opening me up, they had the courage not to close me up again without having taken away that sick mass of fat and dead flesh. It seemed like there was nothing they could do; that it would be all be useless. Instead, they dared to do the impossible.”

To general amazement, Mondonico resumed his place on the bench 30 days later for Albinoleffe’s match against Modena. As he walked out of the tunnel, everyone in the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia stood up and applauded. He looked gaunt after losing so much weight, but the pointed black eyebrows and grey moustache were still there twitching mischievously. Football was his therapy. “By going into training every day, every kick that I gave the ball was the equivalent of kicking that beast in the face. I’m not saying that in this case it substituted medicine,” Mondonico claimed, “but I still like to think that inside.”

The road to recovery, though, was a long one, and there were many twists and turns still to come. Albinoleffe struggled and were required to win a relegation play-off match against Piacenza to stay in Serie B. Mondonico saved them, of course.

But as the full time whistle blew and the supporters rejoiced, a tear streamed down his face. Mondonico needed to save himself again. The tumour had returned. He had put off another operation for 15 days until Albinoleffe were safe. “For me, a new season starts,” he said. Visibly emotional, Mondonico had to leave the press conference for a moment to pull himself together. On returning, he let it be known: “I don’t feel defeated.” This was not the end of the world – the fine del Mondo.

For the sake of his health, he finally left Albinoleffe. This was to be the toughest game of Mondonico’s life. The second surgery, to everyone’s relief, was hailed a success. “Cancer,” he told Il Corriere della Sera, “is like the monster in Alien which has by now completed its awful work of devastation. The sarcoma I had in my belly was certainly a foul beast but not yet a winner.”

Talking shop with then Fiorentina manager Giovanni Trapattoni in 1999

At his age and faced with his situation, many of us would have retired. There are more important things in life than football like friends and family. Except that’s exactly what it represents to Mondonico. “Football is my best friend,” he told La Stampa.

It wasn’t too long before he was pacing up and down the sidelines, ball under one arm, whistle between his pursed lips. He was offered the chance to take an Italian XI to the University Games in China, but it was too early. Instead, once a week during his convalescence at his home in Rivolta d’Adda, Mondonico went to a psychiatric institute where he benevolently coached groups of men and women with addictive disorders, from drugs and alcohol to gambling. Football had helped him recover, so why not others?

“When there’s a desperate team, they’ll still call Mondonico and I’ll be there,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. On Monday 30 January, 2012, Novara president Massimo De Salvo duly picked up the phone.

NEWS, Jan 31: Mondonico replaces Tesser as Novara boss

“I’ve come full circle,” Mondonico said. “On January 31, 2011 I went into the operating theatre for the first time. Exactly a year later I return to do what I’ve always done in life. I’m sorry for Tesser, who throughout these difficult times was always close to me. But football, and life, are made up of these things.”

What Novara will get from Mondonico is pane e salame [bread and salami]: good, honest, wholesome football, the genuine kind with a dashing of experience too. Mondonico has taken charge of 915 games as a coach. He guided Atalanta to a Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final in 1988, and inspired Torino to the 1992 UEFA Cup Final.

Then came the proudest of his five promotions to Serie A, achieved with Fiorentina in 2004. That had a special taste. Why? Because he is a fan of the Viola. Check the records of the 7 Bello ultras of the Curva Fiesole and they’ll tell you that member No.72, registered in 1987, is Emiliano Mondonico.

Above all else, though, he is famous for what he did in that 1992 UEFA Cup final. Playing Louis van Gaal’s Ajax, Torino hit the woodwork three times, and when the referee denied Roberto Cravero a penalty, Mondonico rose from his chair and held it aloft. It became a provocative symbol of protest against the injustice of it all. When Torino fans heard Mondonico had fallen ill a year ago, they arranged a meeting at the Stadio Olimpico and each had a photo taken of them holding up chairs. It was a sign of solidarity and gave their hero the courage to win the game of his life.

In Novara on Thursday, Mondonico will make his first appearance in Serie A for seven and a half years, against Chievo. It promises to be emotional.

As he drives to the Stadio Piola, one wonders what song this great music lover will play in his car. As a player at Cremonese, he once deliberately got himself sent off so he could miss an away trip in order to see the Rolling Stones in concert.

Wild Horses would perhaps be a good choice now, as not even they, it seems, could drag Mondonico away from football.

Why Senegal failed to shine at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations

Jonathan Fadugba — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:25:00 GMT

To really grasp the nature of Senegal's spectacular failure at this Africa Cup of Nations you need only look at the teams who finished above them in Group A. For Senegal to finish below Equatorial Guinea is surprising, unfathomable even. But to finish below Libya, given the vast gap in quality and wildly differing paths they travelled before meeting in Bata, is astonishing.

Consider it for a moment. Libya is a team that had to overcome political divisions, a full-scale, bloody revolution, a qualifying campaign in which they could only play one game at home due to the conflicts, the suspension of their domestic league and – as if all that wasn't enough - the death of their team doctor the night before a crucial qualifier.

They have no globally renowned stars, the structure of their league leaves much to be desired and until recently transfers abroad were heavily restricted by the now deceased Colonel Gadaffi.

Compare with Senegal, who boast millions of pounds worth of talent and three of European football's most prolific strikers over the past year, and it is truly remarkable that Libya managed to beat them 2-1, let alone finish above them over three games.

Such an achievement is to Libya's great credit. To Senegal's great shame, they finish bottom of a group they were supposed to stroll through on their way, in many people's eyes, to lifting the trophy itself.

Why, then, have Senegal failed, again?

Effectively Senegal's shortcomings come down to a mixture of three factors...

1) Bad luck

It's never nice to be too critical, so we might start with the positives. Senegal are young enough to learn from this experience and they should come back stronger. Very few players in the squad are over 30 and, used intelligently, the painful memory of AfCON 2012 might spur the Teranga Lions on to greater things. All men make mistakes but only wise men learn from them, to paraphrase Winston Churchill.

Senegal were also unfortunate that, rather than smile on them, the gods preferred to belch out an almighty torrential rainstorm before the deciding game against Equatorial Guinea on matchday two.

Heavy rain is football's great leveller. Bad pitches don't make bad players better, but they certainly make good players worse, and despite Equatorial Guinea's inspired recent displays there can be little debate their players are of inferior technical quality to the Senegalese.

"The state of the pitch was not good but I’m not trying to seek excuses for our defeat,” the coach Amara Traore commented. On a better, less rain-sodden surface, Senegal might have found the fluidity needed to scrape victory and progress from there.

With the niceties out of the way now we can sink our teeth into assessing where this sorry campaign really went wrong.

2) Tactical naivety

While being a youthful team has its advantages, it isn't all sunshine, lollipops and Supergrass soundtracks. The age old debate of youth versus experience reared its head once again here and in Senegal's case an absence of the latter was both evident and costly.

Traore, a relatively inexperienced coach whose only previous managerial role was at ASC Linguère, appeared to go through the tournament with no clearly defined strategy for his team, stumbling from formation to formation almost randomly.

They began the competition with a 4-3-3 against Zambia, but any gameplan was discarded almost immediately when, 2-0 down after 28 minutes and shellshocked, Traore ripped up the scrapbook, took a midfielder off and threw on another striker. It wasn't quite 4-2-4, it wasn't quite 4-3-3. It wasn't quite anything. They improved but still fell to a 2-1 defeat.

Against Equatorial Guinea, Traore switched to a more conventional 4-4-2 albeit with a striker, Dame N'Doye, out wide. It changed little. The lions still lacked teeth and were surprisingly limp against the co-hosts' rigid defensive shape. In their final game Traore rotated again and Senegal, already defeated and in disarray, played a dishevelled 4-2-4 with a centre back as a holding midfielder and another striker out wide.

In attack there was also zero continuity. Mamadou Niang, Demba Ba and Moussa Sow started the first game. N'Doye joined them inside a half hour. Traore then tried Ba, Papiss Cisse and N'Doye out wide, and finally Niang, Ba, Souleymane Camara and Deme N'Diaye.

All this portrayed a team without structure and a coach without answers. By comparison the more experienced Marcos Paqueta was almost professorial on the touchline, his tweaking of Libya's tactics and calm authority a stark contrast. Traore will learn from all this for next time – if afforded a next time by an impatient football federation who may smell blood.

This leads to my final point which, scratching beneath the surface of Senegalese football, reveals a quite obvious and simple truth.

Senegal really are just not that good.

3) Hype versus reality

This applies both to the current team and to Senegal as a football nation in general. Senegal have been overestimated at this Cup of Nations. Blinded by the delights – the Bas, Cisses and Sows in attack – glaring weaknesses in other areas were overlooked.

Put simply, Senegal's team is all sugar and no flour. The strikers can be wonderful but the team desperately lacks midfield guile and creativity. “In the medium and long term, games are always lost in central midfield,” the Italian coach Alberto Zaccheroni once said, but the Teranga Lions' midfield is both porous and unimaginative. On more than one occasion Traore resorted to using strikers as wingers and Senegal struggled to breach defences. When they did, their crossing was dreadful.

Stats Zone analysis illustrates this.

Strikers like Ba and Sow are penalty box players who thrive on good service. In the Premier League, taking statistics until December Ba was one of the worst strikers in the top seven in terms of minutes per chance created. Offer him good service however and 14 league goals show how ruthless he can be.

In Equatorial Guinea this service never came. Ba received the ball only twelve times in the opposition penalty area in three games – six times against Zambia, six against Equatorial Guinea and not once against Libya. By comparison, Didier Drogba received the ball in the opposition penalty area almost as many times in just one game, against a Sudan side who were subsequently praised for their compact defensive shape...

If your team is blessed with clinical finishers, providing good supply is as vital as it is logical. But Senegal's bitty midfield offered next to nothing, a fact not helped by constant rotation. When Birmingham City's holding midfielder Guirane N'Daw is your most creative outlet, as he was against Zambia, you've got problems.

This leads to a deeper issue. Truth is, Senegal have never been a traditional power in African football. There is no golden era, no history of success. They've never won a Cup of Nations, are one of only four teams in the last twenty years to host a Nations Cup and not at least reach the semi-finals, their recent finals record is dire (won none, drawn two, lost six) and administrative problems and in-fighting are rife.

Never a shrinking violet, El-Hadji Diouf had his say after elimination was sealed.

“The Senegal team has no soul,” he stated. “The team is weak, or let me say doesn’t (sic) worth the big name pundits give to it and the true status has just been revealed.”

“I predicted the failure of Senegal at the 2012 Afcon and it has happened. The FA people are jealous of Senegal’s 2002 generation. They don’t want to associate us with the team. They have mixed politics with football in Senegal and things will never change for good for now.”

Strong words. And while one could question the extent to which Diouf is merely using a poison tongue to further his own agenda, on the evidence of Senegal's 2012 Nations Cup campaign, he may have a point.

In the new issue: Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG, Man United, Southport...

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:18:00 GMT

The evenings are slowly getting lighter and the Champions League knockout stages are inching closer. But right now, the FourFourTwo March edition is on the shelves – and do we have a story for you...

Could this be the season the tide turns in La Liga? Jose Mourinho may already be getting itchy feet, but he won’t leave a job unfinished and usually wins the league in his second season – which means Barcelona are in trouble. This month, FourFourTwo brings you unique insight into the greatest battle in modern football, and how Real Madrid may finally take Barça’s crown.

With two great sides going to war, perhaps England’s best hope is that they destroy each other. But don’t despair! We’ve put together a definitive battle plan for every English side in Europe on how they can beat their opponents. Using Stats Zone analysis and local knowledge, FourFourTwo has the masterplans to lead England to continental glory – plus interviews with star players Ramires and Wojciech Szczesny.

Elsewhere in Europe, there’s a revolution going on. Paris Saint-Germain look set to be the world’s new superclub, leading the league by a distance and backed by Qatari coffers and multimillion-pound signings. In the first of our new Club Focus series, we delve deeper to find out the full story, starring Leonardo, Ancelotti, Platini and more.

Our latest One-on-One is another cracker: none other than Denis Law. The Manchester legend talks City, United and how he played with only one eye. And yes, he was playing golf when England won the World Cup...

Would you paint your house in your club colours? How about your car? OK, then – would you quit your job and fly 10,000 miles to see your team lose 5-0? Thought not. We speak to the nutters who’ve done it all out of love for their club.

But enough of the big boys: as usual, FourFourTwo also gets down and dirty. First, we send our travelling trouper to the nastiest, most spiteful derby in the North West. That’s right: Fleetwood Town vs Southport. With the seaside pair both battling to gain Football League status, a double-header presented a perfect opportunity to see why they hate each so much.

While we’re on the subject of non-league, we ask a handful of Premier League players just how they went from part-time park football to walking out at Wembley. Chris Smalling, Steve Morison, Carl Jenkinson and Michael Kightly have all made the transition from non-league to the Premier League – now they tell us how.

Of course, we couldn’t ignore the 40th anniversary of the biggest Bulls hit ever: Ronnie Radford's Rocket for Hereford against Newcastle. The greatest FA Cup giantkilling ever is retold by those who were there, from narked Newcastle players to happy Hereford fans, and a few coppers who turned the other cheek to a certain pitch invasion.

And that’s not all. Elsewhere in the March issue we analyse this season’s Premier League substitutions to reveal which managers know what they’re doing and which are making it up as they go along.

Michel Salgado informs us why Thierry Henry and Paul Scholes’ comebacks could never happen in La Liga, Barney Ronay investigates the Messi v Ronaldo duel for spectators’ hearts, and we’ve interviews with David Trezeguet on moving to Argentina and Franco Baresi on how to make defending look easy.

Frankly, it’s difficult to work out how we managed to fit it all in.

The March issue of FourFourTwo was brought to you by: Denis Law, Johnny Giles, Jurgen Klinsmann, Michael Owen, Chris Smalling, Richard Lee, Ricky George, Ronnie Radford, Milan Baros, Dean Howell, Wojciech Szczesny, Neil Warnock, David Keyte, Colin Addison, Franco Baresi, Wayne Routledge, Carl Jenkinson, Manuel Preciado, Steve Morison, Nigel Martyn, Judge Jules, John Motson, Robert Pires, Michael Kightly, Malcolm MacDonald, Patrick Vieira, Ramires, Michel Salgado, David Trezeguet, Leo Messi’s cousin, the footballer with no nationality and Italy’s Subbuteo Ultras.

Tell me more...

Jurgen Klinsmann (Stuttgart v Bayern Munich, 1987)

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:28:00 GMT

Jurgen Klinsmann was both a great goalscorer and a scorer of great goals, but he says this was the greatest of the lot.

His bicycle kick for Stuttgart against Bayern Munich, who had Mark Hughes playing for them, stunned the German champs – so much so, Stuttgart went on to thrash them 3-0.

“For a striker, a bicycle kick is something special; something you love to do,” says Klinsmann, fondly recalling his favourite strike for FFT. “You dream about scoring one, but if you score one in a very big game in front of 70,000 – and Stuttgart against Bayern is like Spurs versus Arsenal – then it’s even better.”

But it’s not all about the finish: the build-up is outstanding as well. With 18 minutes on the clock, an accurate cross-field ball is casually volleyed into the box for Klinsmann to dispatch in style. Three touches, from the left wing to the right, to the net.

Klinsmann went on to top the Bundesliga scoring charts that season, but none could top this effort, and it was rightly named German Goal of the Year.

It held greater importance  for Klinsmann himself, though. “It opened the doors to international football for me, because a month later Franz Beckenbauer called me up and shortly after that I got my first cap. That’s why it was my  most special goal.”

Klinsmann’s debut for the German national team was  a 1-1 draw with Brazil – the first of 108 caps and 47 goals – but ‘the Golden Bomber’ puts this strike ahead of them all.

Words: Chris Hunt and Rik Sharma. Illustration: German Aczel. From the March 2012 issue of FourFourTwo, out now. Subscribe!

Are Diego Simeone's Atlético Madrid becoming 'the new Osasuna'?

Tim Stannard — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:43:00 GMT

To the those still finding their way around la Liga, Osasuna are constantly referred to in Spain as a very ‘British’ team.

It is a description that is simultaneously both complimentary and insulting to Her Majesty’s sporting honour. It praises the ‘raw and honest’ qualities of the British game and of the Pamplona club, as well as its passionate and ever-so-slightly bonkers crowd. There is also the strong and snooty implication that British football is violent, peppered with long balls and packed with ankle-smashing tackles, which is a fairly apt description of how Osasuna go about their football business.

For those who wonder if Valencia are ready for Stoke in their upcoming Europa League clash, or whether Barcelona could transfer their fancy pants game from la Primera to the Potteries, watching 90 minutes of a fixture featuring Osasuna will provide a good insight. It’s the closest the beautiful game gets to cage fighting.

About a month ago, a positively flimsy Atlético Madrid would have been smashed to smithereens at Osasuna, after all, the side had yet to win away all season and Osasuna are notoriously tough to beat at home. But then Diego Simeone - a tough-tackling, tough-talking, downright scary midfielder back in the day - took over as manager, and is starting to transfer some of those qualities to his new side.

Despite only taking over at the Vicente Calderón at the end of December, the Argentinean coach has transformed Atlético Madrid into the mirror image of himself, a team with the emphasis on physicality rather than flair, despite the talent of players such as Diego, Arda Turan and Falcao in the ranks.

Under the stewardship of Simeone, the Rojiblancos have managed a draw and three wins and have yet to concede a goal, a record that has moved Atleti into seventh, two points from the Champions League places, a position that was completely unthinkable at Christmas. The last of those victories came on a cold and frosty Monday night in Pamplona in front of Osasuna’s usual baying crowd.

In a match of few chances, Atlético’s goal in the 1-0 victory came from Diego Godín in a corner move that saw the visitors make sure the ball went in by any means necessary. At the other end, the back four withstood Osasuna’s usual ferocity and physicality.

“Courtois showed in a ‘British’ ground that he’s ready for the Premier League,” purred an admiring Kiko Narvaez in AS, on the keeper currently on loan from Chelsea.

José Luis Mendilibar, Osasuna’s gruff manager, could do nothing but admire the new buff, bludgeoning Atlético, despite the defeat. “Atlético beat us in intensity and aggression.”

The victory puts Atlético back on track to achieve their main goal this season - Champions League football, which in turn will help fight off the financial crisis they are currently embroiled in after years of hirings, firings and terrible signings. It also gave another indication that, despite Simeone’s ways being a little basic and a mix between Dave Bassett and Kevin Keegan, they are getting results.

“(After the game) the Atlético players embraced as if Charlize Theron had promised them a date with her ten twin sisters,” noted Iñako Díaz-Guerra in his match report in AS.

LLL was hoping - against all odds, of course - that’s Atlético’s incredible and admirable rebirth might see the side sneaking an appearance on the front page of either of the Madrid papers on Tuesday morning, considering there isn’t too much else going on in Mordor this week.

Sadly, it was not to be with Real Madrid and José Mourinho still dominating the landscape. And that’s a big, old shame as its the club’s neighbours who are the true big story in the Spanish capital at the moment. And for once, it’s for the right reasons.

Botswana's goal peppered, Boussifi makes it count & Pitroipa's dribbling problem

Michael Cox — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:09:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the FREE Africa Cup of Nations version of Stats Zone to analise the latest action from the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations...

Jonathan Pitroipa is by far Burkina Faso’s most famous attacking player, although in this tournament he’s seemingly well aware of that, and has been trying to shoulder too much of the creative burden.

The Rennes player has spent much of the tournament trying to dribble past players, with mixed success. In the two matches he’s played, against the Ivory Coast and Angola, he’s completed 10 of the attempted 19 take-ons, with the success rate dropping the closer he gets to goal. He’s clearly a talented player and specialises at running with the ball, but he might be better off having more faith in his teammates in the final third.

You won’t find a more efficient striking performance than that of Ihab Boussifi in Libya’s 2-1 win over Senegal.

Boussifi only received the ball twice in the penalty box and only attempted two shots, but converted both chances to secure a famous victory, and confirm Senegal’s early exit.

Like Abubakr al Abaidy, highlighted last week for his good display from full-back (http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/africacupofnations2012/archive/2012/01/26/ivory-coast-fail-to-utilise-yaya-as-young-lass-fails-to-show-class.aspx), Boussifi plays for Libyan club Nasr – if this is a fair reflection of the talent at the club based in Benina, it might be worth scouts checking out their other players.

Gabon’s thrilling late win over Morocco will go down as one of the best games of the tournament, and was also notable for some extraordinary tackling statistics – 80% were successful, with the vast majority occurring in the defending side’s half of the pitch.

It’s surprising that five goals were scored in a game where the defending sides were so precise with their tackling. Morocco’s left-back Badr El Kaddouri was the most prolific tackler, completing all seven of his attempted tackles – he’s responsible for the line in the top-left of Morocco’s tacking screen.

Finally, Botswana’s terrible display against Guinea resulted in a 6-1 defeat, likely to be the largest win of the tournament. Even more shocking than the concession of six goals was the fact Botswana allowed Guinea an amazing 30 shots on goal – one every three minutes.

Defending is clearly a real problem for Botswana – they let Ghana have 19 attempts in the previous game. However, mere qualification for the first time in their history is a huge achievement for the side, and they should be able to use this experience to their benefit in future.

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

Click here to get the FREE Africa Cup of Nations version of Stats Zone

Good Day, Bad Day: Barça’s local battering and same old story at the Bernabeu

Tim Stannard — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:00:00 GMT

Good Day

Real Madrid
It was a very familiar story at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday. Real Madrid started off at a snail’s pace, waited until the opposition had scored an unlikely goal - Zaragoza in this case - then woke up a little, before polishing off their visitors without too much fuss or bother. The major difference to other games was perhaps that Madrid only managed to score three goals, when five or six against the bottom-of-the-table side was expected. If this update was a very long tweet thing, then it would be #autopilot. In fact, the blog likes that idea so much, it’s going end every single one of today's entries with a hashtag. So there.

Esteban Granero
From the wilderness and a possible loan deal with Betis, to a starting role in the side in the space of a couple of weeks, ever since Sami Khedira got injured and José Mourinho caved in to pressure from the press to play “the good ones” in the starting line-up. The players with creative flair, as opposed to Pepe in the midfield, for example. #graneronotapsycho

Espanyol
Goodness grief. A 1-0 win over Mallorca for Espanyol moves the Pericos up into fifth. Let’s hear how it happened with Paul from Barcelona.
“A weird day, a weird goal and even weirder refereeing decisions. Question - why is it that the two dirtiest teams in La Liga wear identical kits? Move over Osasuna there's a new gang of thugs in town. Last week we had that idiot, Jara, trying to maim someone, this week we had ten of them.
The goal - a comedy of errors doesn't do it justice, a through ball from Verdú,Weiss is beating the defender to the ball, he receives a body-check ice hockey style. A penalty! But no, the ball bounces up, the keeper dives over Weiss, grabs the ball, lands, the ball breaks free, Weiss puts it into an unguarded goal. The keeper then claims he was fouled. By whom? Defender is down feigning injury to avoid red card. Genius
Overall, a good result, not the best performance against a team who will hopefully will go down and will smash the most reds in a season record.”
Paul, Barcelona

Fernando Llorente
Llorente's three goals in a cracking 3-2 win against Rayo takes the powerful lad from Pamplona to ten league goals for the season, the same as Karim Benzema. Amazingly though, it was the first league hat-trick of his career.
LLL is thinking that, on current form and ability, Roberto Soldado, Alvaro Negredo and Fernando Torres are way behind the Athletic forward in the pecking order for a start with the Spain. The three goals against Rayo showed Llorente’s strengths, a couple of habitual headers and a lovely strike from the edge of the box. #goodtouchforabigman

Málaga
Blimey, Málaga needed that one. The 2-1 victory over Sevilla saves a little bit of the sorry season so far for the southerners. “I hope this is the beginning of a positive run and lets us fight for our objectives,” said Manuel Pellegrini after the game. #stillawasteofmoney

Dani Güiza
The Getafe striker may not have known much about his goal in the 2-1 win at Levante which deflected off his leg, but the Euro 2008 winner will take it, considering it was only the striker’s third since rejoining Getafe. #celebratorydrinksallround

Real Sociedad
La Real really are doing very well at the moment, having lost just the one match in eight. The latest victory was the 5-1 thumping of a sorry Sporting in San Sebastian. #mid-table

Abel Resino
A big yay for grumbly, grouchy Abel Resino who made a winning return to la Primera as the new boss of Granada with a 2-1 victory at Betis. #stillgoingdown

Racing
The side from Santander continue their feisty run of football matches with a 2-2 draw against Valencia, with an equalising goal coming in the final minutes of the game. #probablystillgoingdown

Villarreal
When Villarreal crashed and burned against Atlético Madrid a couple of weeks ago, LLL was sure that the fallen giants were so abject that even Pep’s Dream Boys on the road would be able to take care of them quite comfortably. But a big box of chocolates will be on the way to El Madrigal from Mordor, as keeper Diego López and a hardworking display from the rest of the team shut out Barça for 90 minutes - only the third side to achieve this in la Liga this season. #toogoodtogodown

Bad Day

Barcelona
It’s not so much the notion that a plump and proud Real Madrid now have a seven point lead at the top of the table that is really going to bug the Barça boys. The sixth time this season that Barça have been rusty on the road won’t be that bad in comparison for what’s coming up. It’s the tutting, sighing and finger pointing from the local press for the next few weeks that going to grind Barça’s gears.
“The worst Barça of the Guardiola era,” fumed Lluís Mascaró in Sport rather harshly, despite the paper’s cheery front cover claiming that the side “won’t give up.” “They can’t give us an ultra-motivated display against Madrid and then give a poor one against Villarreal,” complained Joan Vehils.
These mumbles and grumbles are likely to get louder and louder over the next three weeks with Pep’s shrinking squad facing Valencia three times in the cup and league and with a fun trip to Osasuna to come, as well. #allbutgivenup

Valencia
The Valencia side better be saving something special for the cup double-header against Barcelona as 2-2 at Racing Santander along with two more draws and a loss in 2012 certainly isn’t going to go down well with the fans, especially after conceding a 2-1 scoreline to Racing in the last two minutes of the match. #lazyitis

Levante
LLL was just about to write something soothing and sympathetic about fatigue affecting Levante’s old codgers in the 2-1 home defeat to Getafe which left the fourth-placed outfit - yes, still - without a win in five. But then the blog read comments from 35-year-old, Juanfran, who dismissed the notion as pure puppy poop.
“Someone who works 12 or 14 hours is tired,” scoffed the defender. “Personally, I think it’s lamentable to look for excuses that we are tired. It seems very sad to say that as we are a veteran squad we are tired.” #summerholidaysalready

Marcelino
Oh dear, a failure in a second derby in the past two weekends for the Sevilla boss certainly isn’t going to help Marcelino’s cause, whose team have now gone six matches without a win. #doomeddoomed

Betis
An awful result for Betis who lost 2-1 at home Granada who were playing just their first game under new coach, Abel Resino. “We aren’t this team,” lamented an existential Pepe Mel. “We’ve never been this before.” #ohyesyouhave

Rayo Vallecano
Coach, José Ramón Sandoval, mused a couple of weeks ago that Rayo’s back-to-back home games against Mallorca last weekend and then Athletic Bilbao would be crucial to the side’s survival chances. LLL hopes the manager is wrong as the two games were lost. The second defeat, Saturday’s thriller against Athletic Bilbao, sees Rayo now just two points from the relegation zone with just three wins from ten games in Vallecas, a home that was supposed to be a strong point for the side this season. #relyingonDiegoCostaohdear

Sporting
LLL can’t even write ‘a battling performance from Sporting, but a defeat’ which has been a familiar phrase used by the blog before to describe the Asturian’s 5-1 thumping by Real Sociedad. “I would understand any decision, but it’s not me that would have to take it,” growled manager, Manolo Preciado, after the loss. #cannon fodder

ACoN Diary 4: Eq. Guinea on the rise, a near death experience and a wild rat supper

Jonathan Wilson — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:22:00 GMT

The great Jonathan Wilson continues his diary of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon...

No rats were harmed during the making of this blog. Well, not by us, anyway...

It was just spitting on to rain when we stopped by the beach. I hopped out of the car and wandered through a line of palm trees towards the sea. As I did so, I heard a shout of warning and paused.

Something brushed past by face and shoulder and the sand to my right reverberated with a loud thump. I glanced down, and there in the sand was a branch, perhaps 20 feet long and heavy enough to have buried itself four inches deep. Had I been standing 18 inches to my right, it would have clouted me full on.

A mate of mine has just returned from a month embedded with the US army in Afghanistan; last week, I came considerably closer to death than he did.

As we arrived, so too did about half a dozen fishing boats, canoes really. A Spanish journalist negotiated with one of the men, and we bought a long thin fish and several sardines, then paid one of the fishermen's wives to cook them for us. As we wandered over to a rough wooden table, we passed another local man grilling some meat on a grill. I didn't recognise it, and it was covered in writing yellow larvae. "Wild rat," the man explained. "But there's some insects got inside it."

Further research revealed wild rat is common fare in Equatorial Guinea. I was quite happy to stick to our fish, although when it arrived, it turned out that the bones were blue-green. Some Googling when I got back to the hotel suggested it was probably a garfish, but whatever it was, it was much, much nicer than the rat looked.

We then headed on round the bay to Luba, a small town on the south-west corner of Bioko, the island part of Equatorial Guinea. It was built by Maximiliano Jones, a slave-trader from Sierra Leone who sold his own brothers. A bust of him still stands in the town, while a street and the main hotel are named after him (although Jones, of course, is pronounced "hoh-ness" round here).

The hotel itself is painted pale blue and bears a striking resemblance to the hotel where Jack Nicholson holes up in the Antonioni film The Passenger. A fantastically clear river runs by it. The water is so pure that despite being 10 or 12 feet deep in places, you can read the make of the tyres and other detritus among the weeds on the bed. A little nearer the sea, as it shallows out, children play and women do the laundry.

It's not clear if it's there that Equatorial Guinea were supposed to be staying before their game against Zambia in Malabo, but when they got to Lubo, they decided they didn't fancy it and moved to the resort of Sipopo, where Ivory Coast are based. That, if nothing else, demonstrates the rising status of the side: a little over a week ago, the $1 million win bonus put up by the president's son looked a desperate gamble; now somebody - presumably the government - is happily paying for them to stay in luxury.

Jonathan Fadugba: Tunisia - the team to beat at ACoN 2012?
Michael Cox: Ivory Coast fail to utilise Yaya, Lass fails to show class
Tom Legg: Ghana up and running but still a work in progress

Blizzard kings: all-weather Juve blow pretenders Udinese off course

Richard Whittle — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:01:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat 28 Jan Catania 1-1 Parma; Juventus 2-1 Udinese Sun 29 Jan Fiorentina 2-1 Siena; Cesena 0-1 Atalanta; Roma 1-1 Bologna; Lecce 1-0 Internazionale; Chievo 0-3 Lazio; Genoa 3-2 Napoli; Palermo 2-0 Novara; Milan 3-0 Cagliari

It has been a week of worrying seismic activity and blizzards in the north of Italy but even Mother Nature can't knock Juventus off their stride.

The weather was fitting for the winter champions when they took on third-placed Udinese at the Juventus Stadium – where the undersoil heating meant there was never any doubt of the match going ahead.

FEATURE, Mon 23 Jan Winter champions Juve take heart in title charge

However, just be on the safe side a massive tarpaulin covered the pitch before the match. Rolling it up proved problematic, which meant that the teams had to delay their warm-ups – but once the bubble-wrap was out of the way both sides got stuck into each other in good old full-blooded fashion.

When AS Roma had visited earlier in the week, those present had witnessed the visitors pass the ball around neatly, making pretty patterns all over the pitch before forgetting the whole point was to finally score.

No such kaleidoscopic art with these two sides, who only saw the outcome in black and white – although Juve were forced to wear their pretty-in-pink shirts. Both sides lived up to Juve coach Antonio Conte’s assumption that the outcome was worth six points by playing the game at twice the normal pace – an urgency sorely lacking when they had met in Friuli just before Christmas.

The direct approach meant that the ball seldom remained in the possession of either side for more than one or two passes. It did ensure that another sold-out crowd could forget that their cars were all snowed in, but it had Andrea Pirlo parked in the centre of the pitch on many an occasion as the ball whizzed over his head for the ever-keen Alessandro Matri and Udinese old boy Fabio Quagliarella to chase after.

However, only when the playmaker managed to bring some calm to the frantic proceedings could we enjoy the full repertoire of his passing master-class as his man-marker Almen Abdi, an attacking midfielder by trade, gamely followed him around like a lost dog.

With his side trailing to a typical Matri predatory finish, visiting coach Francesco Guidolin replaced Abdi to set Antonio Floro Flores – one of the top flight’s most under-rated finishers – free in the wide-open spaces where the Juve defence had once resided.

Flo’s equaliser, which if it had been scored by his team-mate Antonio di Natale would have had the press crowing for days, looked to have given the visitors impetus to go on and win the game – and if Di Natale had been at his sharpest they may have taken the lead.

But here’s the rub: when in doubt Conte plays to the team’s strengths and rather than throw on a fresh striker for the tiring Quagliarella the touchline growler opted to shore up the midfield with Claudio Marchisio, who no one believes is an attacking midfielder but certainly acted like one in picking out the perfect pass for Matri’s winner.

We now understand why Conte signed Marco Borriello: not to pick the former AC Milan and Roma benchwarmer, but to get the best out of Matri, who has responded strongly to the thought of being replaced by someone equally concerned with personal grooming.

Despite their immaculately presented frontmen, Juventus are far from beautiful to watch – but as Conte pointed out, if his side has to win ugly so be it.

Such comments would never find their way down the motorway to Milan, where finesse and a certain savoir-faire is expected whenever the Rossoneri take to the pitch. They needed only a sprinkling of style to overcome Cagliari on Sunday evening in front of a disappointing crowd of just under 20,000 at the San Siro but once again Zlatan Ibrahimovic lit up proceedings with a delightfully executed free-kick in a routine 3-0 win.

With Udinese knocked back and Inter losing at Lecce of all places, the Old Lady and the old Devil are beginning to stretch away at the top – although much to Conte’s pleasure, there's little time to sit around and mull things over. Juve are back in action tomorrow evening at Parma while Milan travel to Lazio, who are back in the hunt for third, on Wednesday.

Wigan permitted to talk to Maynard, but not about football (or fishing)

Back of the Net — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:30:00 GMT

The in-demand Bristol City striker is set for non-football related talks with Wigan, so says Back of the Net's John Foster...

Bristol City have given Wigan Athletic permission to talk to highly-rated frontman Nicky Maynard, FourFourTwo.com understands, so long as the Premier League side promise to ‘stay off the topic of football’.

“Wigan have expressed an interest in Nicky”, Robins manager Derek McInnes confirmed to our reporter. "We’re happy for them to come down and have a chat with him, but if I hear the words ‘football’, ‘contract’, or ‘transfer’, I’ll have to ask them to leave.”

“There will be no touching, either”, he added.

A list of approved conversation topics, seen by FourFourTwo.com earlier today, includes motoring, the weather, Maynard’s recent holiday in Guadeloupe, and the possible reunification of the Sugababes’ original lineup.

An attempt by Wigan boss Roberto Martinez to add ‘fishing’ to the list was refused, with City officials suspicious that Martinez would use the opportunity to make reference to Maynard’s potential strike partner, Conor Sammon.

Similarly, Maynard’s stated desire to talk to Martinez about his favourite television programme, Dark Wing Duck, was dismissed when Ashton Gate officials noticed that the line in the theme tune, “when there’s trouble you call DW”, could be interpreted as a come-and-get-me plea to Wigan chairman Dave Whelan.

Wigan have been frustrated in this season’s transfer window, failing to negotiate a move for Dutch striker John Verhoek after he disagreed with Whelan over the best method for poaching eggs, while the transfer of Leeds ace Ross McCormack in early January broke down acrimoniously, with Martinez denying that the phrase ‘taking down the Christmas tree’ was a coded reference to tactics.

Previous stories:
Banana touted as potential banana skin for Hull
Nobody able to explain why Tony Hibbert is in Gabon
Spurs target found to be carefully-arranged pile of shoeboxes
O'Neill creates "stunning" rogan josh from contents of Bruce's pantry

La Preview: Espanyol’s embarrassment, Mourinho’s madness & a fan club’s lack of faith

Tim Stannard — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:20:00 GMT

SATURDAY

Espanyol (5th) v Mallorca (14th) – 18.00 (local time)
Oh dear. A Copa del Rey quarter-final knock-out over two legs by the mighty Mirandés sees Paul from Barcelona getting a special guest appearance to explain away the "shameful, shameful, the blog tells ye!" embarrassment.

“Basically I never mind when the better team wins. And this is one of those occasions. Mirandés were better over the two legs and thoroughly deserved to go through, Espanyol created nothing and got what they deserved. Giving away stupid free kicks in the last minute was ridiculous. A poor performance and boy do we need a striker. I may be in hiding for some time. –– Paul, Barcelona"
LLL Prediction – Home win

Rayo Vallecano (13th) v Athletic Bilbao (7th) – 18.00
The Copa del Rey quarter-final job was probably already done in Mallorca, with Athletic going into Wednesday’s home leg holding a 2-0 advantage. But speaking of advantageous legs, a wonderful air-shot from Mallorca keeper Juan Calatayud certainly helped the Basque side on their way to an encouraging semi next week.
LLL Prediction – Away win

Real Madrid (1st) v Zaragoza (20th) – 20.00
One would have thought the ever-cheerful, magnanimous José Mourinho would have all been with the handshake and "Great sporting spectacle, old bean" after the spiffing 2-2 draw with Barcelona on Wednesday. But apparently not according to the Madrid manager’s spokesman, Eladio Paramés, on his Twitter account.

Down in the depths of the Camp Nou parking garage, Mourinho apparently had words with referee Teixeira Vitienes, shouting at the Clásico's man in the middle that “You screw over those who are working. You don’t respect serious professionals, now’ll you smoke a cigar and go off laughing, it’s a disgrace.”
LLL Prediction – Home win

Villarreal (17th) v Barcelona (2nd) – 22.00
Whilst the Madrid media have taken the draw and Copa del Rey knockout to Barcelona as a victory (because the side wasn’t as humiliated as usual), the Catalan capital has turned once more into Gloat City, especially in reaction to José Mourinho’s reported comments to the match referee.

“When he talks more about robberies they talk less about him, the real loser of this story,” wrote Sport's Joan Batlle of Mourinho’s cunning tactics. “'Gentleman of honour',” scoffs Mundo Deportivo's JM Artells, invoking a phrase from Real Madrid’s anthem.
LLL Prediction – Away win

SUNDAY

Betis (12th) v Granada (18th) – 12.00
For a while, Fabri’s snow-white flap-top and potty-mouthed ways were doing just fine for Granada. But then a bit of poor form, along with a public rebuke of some of his players for not training hard enough, pushed Granada president Quique Pina into dispensing with the coach who delivered back-to-back promotions and Primera football to the club. Meanie-head.

Former Atlético Madrid manager – and there are an awful lot of them kicking about – Abel Resino has taken over, and he has a plan. Oh yes. “They are better footballers than they believe,” said the one-time goalkeeper, giving some love to his players.

Beep, beep! News flash: Resino actually has two plans to stay up. The second is blind faith. “I believe there are four or five worse teams than Granada.” Unfortunately these sides weren't named, but LLL imagines one rhymes with Laragoza.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Real Sociedad (15th) v Sporting (19th) – 16.00
If your team are probably going lose and eventually get relegated, then you’d might as well make some cash out of it to ease the pain. That was certainly the view of one particular Sporting fan group, who won nearly €91,000 on Spain’s equivalent of the football pools – by correctly betting on a home win for Villarreal against their boys last Monday.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Levante (4th) v Getafe (11th) – 16.00
With Levante flagging a little at the start of the new year, it’s reinforcements ahoy in Valencia. The forgotten man of Racing Santander, Oscar Serrano, rode in to save the day and get sent off on his debut in the cup against Valencia. “Levante is a club that goes for players with my profile,” said the midfielder, more or less admitting to be cheap, desperate and limited but willing.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Racing Santander (16th) v Valencia (3rd) – 18.00
Valencia have enjoyed Ever Banega disappearing from games, and turning up late for training still giddy from the night before, so much that the club has decided to give the Argentinian midfielder a contract extension from 2013 to 2015. And not because of a plan to sell him this summer, repeating the manoeuvre of Valencia-for-life Juan Mata. “We’ve renewed him not with the intention of selling him, but that he stays here,” claimed Valencia president Manuel Llorente, convincing no one.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Málaga (10th) v Sevilla (9th) – 21.30
It’s with a heavy sigh that LLL faces the battle of the drop-outs: midtable moneybags Málaga against sorry Sevilla. But the blog might have to scratch the ‘moneybags’ part, as it seems that Málaga may not flash with cash after all: the LFP have barred the club from signing anyone this January until €2m owed to Osasuna is paid for Nacho Monreal, bought over the summer.

Up there with “I tripped and fell into the life-boat” for excuses is Málaga’s explanation for this unfortunate event. “The consequence of complexities in approving budgets and transactions with foreign institutions,” was the official excuse from the Qatari-owned club, who also fell behind in payments with Valencia and Villarreal for Isco and Santi Cazorla.
LLL Prediction – Away win

MONDAY

Osasuna (6th) v Atlético Madrid (8th) – 21.00
So, here’s the theory behind an advertising campaign to get supporters to be season tickets for the second half of Atlético Madrid’s season. Whilst LLL would have gone for “it probably won’t be as bad as the first half”, advertising bods have run with the old-school notion that a human soul weighs 21 grammes. Atlético have two million fans in la Liga goes the blurb, meaning that the Rojiblancos have two tonnes of soul behind them for the next five months. And if they re-sign Maniche, they could have two tonnes of player.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Banana touted as potential banana skin

Back of the Net — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:39:00 GMT

Back of the Net's John Foster on the potential Tigers-taming tasty comestible

A banana, Hull City’s opponents in the FA Cup Fourth Round, is being touted in various quarters as a potential banana skin.

The banana progressed to the fourth round following a surprise 2-1 win over Brentford – and ever since the draw pitted them against the Tigers, pundits have been queueing up to speculate that they might repeat the trick at the KC Stadium.

"It’s easy to see Hull slipping up," warned ex-Chelsea coach Ray Wilkins, who has been spotted talking tactics with the banana.

"Many teams get overconfident when they’re facing a side from a lower division, especially when that side is an inanimate piece of fruit.

"The most important thing of all for Hull, though," Wilkins added, "is that they stay on their feet."

Hull boss Nick Barmby was keen to stress his awareness of the threat posed by his opponents.

"We’re well aware of what [the banana] can do," he told FourFourTwo. "We had it watched in the last round, when it really got in Brentford’s faces, and last weekend, in Waitrose, when it sat deep in a shelf full of other bananas, rebuffing any advances with its prohibitive price tag.

"We’ve definitely got the advantage in terms of height and mobility, and so long as we don’t choke, I think [the banana] is there for the taking."

Defeat to the banana would mark yet another embarrassing failure for Hull against nominally inferior opposition. The Championship side were famously left with egg on their faces after their clash with a chicken in 2010, while in 2008 a young side was embarrassed by a saucy postcard.

Elsewhere in the fourth round, Swindon Town, a side made up entirely of players called David armed with slingshots, are being widely tipped as potential giantkillers.

Previous stories:
Nobody able to explain why Tony Hibbert is in Gabon
Spurs target found to be carefully-arranged pile of shoeboxes
O'Neill creates "stunning" rogan josh from contents of Bruce's pantry

Liverpool's weak link, QPR's new challenge and the round's most interesting clashes

Michael Cox — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:50:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the weekend's big-name FA Cup games...

A clear problem for Liverpool in their 3-1 defeat at Bolton Wanderers last weekend was the lack of a defined holding midfielder to occupy the space ahead of the centre-backs. In the continued absence of Lucas, Kenny Dalglish chose a central midfield duo of Steven Gerrard and Charlie Adam.

Neither is a defensive midfielder, and both got caught too high up the pitch – meaning both Mark Davies and Nigel Reo-Coker could stroll through the defence to score. Of the two holders, it was Gerrard who contributed considerably more defensively, as shown by the pair's tackling – or rather Adam's absence of it.

Against Manchester United this weekend, Liverpool won't have to worry so much about driving midfield runs, but they will be up against the threat of Wayne Rooney in the hole. What will Dalglish's solution be? A midfield trio might be the sensible solution, perhaps with Jay Spearing in the side.

Get the FREE Africa Cup of Nations Stats Zone app

Queens Park Rangers are another side who are without their star holding midfielder for the rest of the season. Argentine Alejandro Faurlin was enjoying an excellent campaign, but a cruciate ligament injury means he won’t feature again this season. Mark Hughes has money to spend on a replacement, but his immediate solution to the problem has been to recall Akos Buzsaky to the first team.

The Hungarian saw little playing time under previous manager Neil Warnock, starting just two Premier League games – he’s already started more under Hughes. Last weekend against Wigan he enjoyed a solid game, attempting more shots and completing more passes than any other QPR player.

That ball retention is vital for QPR, especially with the often wayward passes from midfield colleague Joey Barton, who finished with just a 50% completion rate last weekend.

However, playing Wigan is very different to playing Chelsea. QPR will spend long periods without the ball this weekend, and it will be the defensive side of Buzaky's game that is really tested. Here, he’s no match for Faurlin, who made more tackles per game than any other Premier League player this season.

West Brom v Norwich is a fixture that took place just a fortnight ago in the league, with the Canaries running out 2-1 winners through a late Steve Morison goal.

Norwich are an interesting side because they generally play with a midfield diamond, making them very narrow. They're happy to invite crosses, confident the centre-backs will be able to deal with any aerial balls.

West Brom tried to exploit that narrowness in the league fixture by hitting diagonal balls across the pitch from right to left. In particular, Gonzalo Jara played some long balls out towards Jerome Thomas on the left, and most of West Brom's attacks went down that left flank – summed up by the fact Norwich made almost all their interceptions on that side of the pitch.

Expect a contrast of styles in the Bolton-Swansea tie. In the league meeting between the sides earlier in the season, there was the most obvious different in goalkeeping distribution you'll ever see - Swansea's Michel Vorm passed the ball out of the back, completing 32 of 33 attempted passes, while Bolton's Jussi Jaaskelainen thumped the ball long constantly, retaining possession less than half the time.

Swansea were completely dominant over Bolton at the Liberty Stadium, running out 3-1 winners having completed 620 passes to the visitors' 230, and attempted 23 shots to Bolton's eight.

But Swansea have the Premier League's worst away record and are unable to assert their short passing game away from Wales. It will be interesting to see whether Bolton are able to turn the match into more of a direct encounter at the Reebok Stadium, and if so, how will Swansea cope?

Stats Zone, the award-winning app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App store in two versions: Premier League / Champions League and Africa Cup of Nations. Share your screens - we'll publish the best...

Amicable divorce signals the end for Russia's greatest Love of all

Mark Gilbey — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:30:00 GMT

And so, it seems, Russia’s great Love affair is finally over.

Every CSKA Moscow fan knew this day was coming; the amicable divorce has been stretched out for some time, but after seven *ahem* eventful years in Russia, Vágner Love is at long last heading home to Brazil after Flamengo completed a €10 million deal with the Army Men for their mercurial striker earlier this week. It is the end of an era.

The 27-year-old will be remembered as arguably one of the greatest forwards in the history of the Russian league. And things were rarely dull with him around, either.

With those trademark multicoloured dreadlocks, Vágner Love was an iconic figure at CSKA, scoring 117 times during 244 appearances for the Muscovites since arriving from Palmeiras in 2004.

He departs having won two Premier League titles, five Russian Cups and the UEFA Cup, after netting the winner against Sporting Lisbon in the 2005 final.

"In the opinion of most fans and experts, he is the best foreign player not only at CSKA, but in all Russian football," a statement read on the club’s official website yesterday.

"The team, the club and the many thousands in the army of CSKA fans thank Vágner for all that he has done for CSKA! We wish him good luck in everything and great new victories!"

No other overseas player has scored more in the Premier League than Vágner Love and he has certainly played his part in football’s development in Russia. He was also the first foreigner to join the “Grigory Fedotov Club”, the name given to an elite group who have netted a century of goals (Grigory Fedotov, the first to have achieved such a feat, was a former CSKA player who scored 149 times for the club).

A popular character, Vágner Love was unpredictable both on and off the pitch. He is a flamboyant figure, a maverick - someone the fans loved.

It is rumoured Vágner Love’s name derives from his time as a Palmeiras player when he was caught with a girl in his room ahead of an important game.

“It isn't a secret that I like women, and that I take care of how I look, but that doesn't mean I can't focus on my football as well,” he said at the time.

Vágner Love certainly knew how to enjoy himself; perhaps a little too much.

His former team-mate Jô tried his hand in England with Manchester City and before too long Vágner Love’s strike partner Seydou Doumbia will no doubt also be playing in one of Europe’s top leagues, so there is a sense of unfulfilled promise to some extent, despite all that he has achieved in Russia.

The reported €10 million fee Flamengo paid is indicative of his immense talent.

In 2008 – arguably Vágner Love’s best season at CSKA – he finished top of the scoring charts with 20 goals and became only the second foreigner to win the league’s Player of the Year award.

His generously moustached manager Valery Gazzaev called him "one of the best strikers in Europe" at the time.

Then things started to unravel. A video of Vágner Love with the unimaginatively named Brazilian porn star Pamela Butt had previously been leaked online that year. She was enraged.

"It's appalling," Butt told the Folha de São Paulo. "I'm very well paid to have sex on camera, but I earned nothing for this. I am two people: Pamela the actress and Pamela the private lady, and today the private lady is defiled."

Vágner Love simply shrugged it off.

"Hey, I'm known for being amorous. Let's be honest: this reputation isn't one that unsettles me."

Yet his career had already begun to stagnate in the Russian capital and in 2009 he returned home to Brazil, joining former side Palmeiras and then Flamengo on loan, citing “family problems”. Several European clubs were interested in him around that time.

Many doubted whether Vágner Love would even return to see out the new two-and-a-half year contract he signed before departing. But he did, and with some success

Vágner Love looked like he was getting back to his best with nine goals in the second half of 2010. There is no doubting that on his day – and mood permitting – Vágner Love is unplayable.

He had also formed a fruitful partnership with Doumbia as well, the league’s top marksman, but only managed to find the back of the net nine times himself domestically in 2011.

It was no secret Vágner Love had been hankering after a move back to Brazil and although fans will certainly miss him, they will concede his time in the Premier League was up.

“I’ll take extremely warm memories with me from Russia,” he said on Wednesday.

“In these seven years, I have felt love and support from the club and from the fans. I fell in love with CSKA with all my heart and felt an affinity with it.

“They were great years – we won a heap of titles! But, even more, I value how people connected with me here. At CSKA they made a man out of me, for which I am above all thankful to the club president Evgeny Giner.”

His good relationship with Giner is perhaps one of the reasons why Vágner Love stayed in Moscow for so long, even if he clearly didn’t take well to the Russian winter.

Although Vágner Love has been involved in more than his fair share of controversies, his goals have, to a certain degree, made him somewhat immune from criticism. He is, and will forever remain, an immensely popular figure among CSKA fans.

The Premier League is losing one of its most colourful characters in Vágner Love, but also one of its best strikers.

До свидания, Лав, до свидания...

Tunisia – The team to beat at ACoN 2012?

Jonathan Fadugba — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:30:00 GMT

For a team that could just as easily be sitting at home watching on TV, they made a pretty good start.

Tunisia were seconds away from going the way of Egypt, Cameroon and Nigeria in this competition last October. With Malawi 2-1 up against Chad going into stoppage time, the South East African nation were about to cause another Africa Cup of Nations upset by sneaking to the finals alongside Botswana.

Tunisians everywhere could only watch events in N'Djamena and pray. Then, at the last moment, those prayers were answered. In the 94th minute, Karl Marx Barthelemy glanced home an equaliser for Chad to break Malawi hearts and send Tunisia to their tenth straight Cup of Nations finals.

With Ghana and Ivory Coast overwhelming favourites, Tunisia went under the radar in the build-up to this Cup of Nations. A pre-tournament 0-0 draw with Catalonia did little to fan flames of enthusiasm, before a 2-0 defeat to Ivory Coast almost doused them completely, their coach Sami Trabelsi describing it as simply “not good at all.”

“The team still has a lot to do with the midfield, attack and control of both ball and pitch,” said Trabelsi.

Nevertheless, Tunisia's 2-1 opening game win over Morocco in Group C's North African derby has now given a nation inspired by the Arab Spring, a revolution they sparked, real hope that maybe 2012 will be the year of the Carthage Eagle.

Tunisia's players celebrate during their victory over Morocco

The game was a victory for collective over individual. For Morocco, defeat offers a harsh reality check after their coach Eric Gerets had spent time talking up his team's chances of going all the way. Defeat to the old enemy Tunisia, their bête noir, by the same scoreline as in the 2004 Nations Cup final, is a worrying setback.

For Tunisia, on the other hand, victory provides a welcome shot in the arm. “It's a precious win” Trabelsi raved. “It's good to have started this CAN (Africa Cup of Nations) with a win, because the last few CANs we started badly,” said Zouhaier Dhaouadi, who played an influential role down the left hand side of midfield, coming close to scoring with a shot that struck the post. “We want to play a big role in this competition and the first objective is to qualify.”

Their captain Karim Haggui, a member of that 2004 side, went further still. “Tunisia's new generation wants to write its own history and looking at the potential of these young players that we've got, I really hope we can write it at this Nations Cup.”

Despite Morocco's dominance of both possession and chances, it was Tunisia that provided the composure in Libreville, playing with an efficiency and a maturity that bodes well. Morocco had 67% of the possession and produced 16 attempts at goal but it was their North African rivals who took their chances, with five of theirn six shots on target and two ending in goals.

Defensively, Tunisia were also very impressive. The centre back partnership of Haggui and Toulouse's Aymen Abdennour showed aggression and spirit, while behind them Aymen Mathlouti made some excellent saves to deny Marouane Chamakh - who continues to misfire - and Mbark Boussoufa.

Abdennour and Haggui both seem to have been carved from the same slab of rock-hard Tunisian granite – two rugged, gutsy centre halves. As we can see using Stats Zone, they won 100% of the tackles they both went in for while nipping in to make 11 interceptions in and around the area. Indeed the below dashboard shows just how good Tunisia were in the tackle, completely dominating Morocco in that aspect of the game:

As we learnt from Egypt over the past three tournaments, through players like Wael Gomaa and Essam El-Hadary, a strong understanding between defence and keeper is key to AFCON success.

As with Egypt in 2010, Tunisia also showed they possess a healthy selection of game-changing options from the bench. Youssef Msakni came on to twist and turn his way to a wonderfully skilful second goal while the likes of Issam Jemaa and Oussama Darragi remained in reserve (the former through injury). Might another Mohamed Gedo, super-sub turned tournament top scorer, be within their ranks?

Tunisia already have the spine of a continental championship winning side. Last year, in the midst of revolution, the Carthage Eagles won the African Nations Championship (for domestic based players) thanks largely to a core of key players of whom many are included here. Korbi, Msakni – both scorers against Morocco – Abdennour, Darragi and Dhaouadi; all have tasted victory in national team colours already. Their manager at CHAN? Trabelsi. Darragi, Msakni and Korbi were also part of the Esperance side that won the CAF African Champions League.

Bearing in mind the last four tournament winners have all possessed majority domestic based squads, the importance of this core is difficult to overlook.

“We won the CHAN (African Nations Championship) during the revolution. Now we're going to do everything to win the CAN to give joy to Tunisia. We have several players who have played in the Champions League final and the final of the CHAN. That can only help us all,” explained Dhaouadi.

If they are to go far in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea, Trabelsi, who captained Tunisia against England at the 1998 World Cup, is right in saying his team must do more in midfield and control the ball better. But the early signs are encouraging for Tunisia, who look a reasonable bet to continue a trend that has seen a North African team lift the trophy at every Cup of Nations since 2002.

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

Jonathan Wilson: ACoN Diary: David Dein, visas & the art of groundhopping
Michael Cox: Ivory Coast fail to utilise Yaya as young Lass fails to show class
Tom Legg: Ghana up and running but still a work in progress
Jonathan Fadugba: Five to watch at ACoN 2012 (who don't play in England)

Another clash of the titans offers Spurs and Newcastle cup hope

Jon Champion — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's FA Cup fourth round action. Watch ESPN's FA Cup fourth round coverage with Watford vs Tottenham Hotspur on Friday at 7pm, Brighton Hove Albion vs Newcastle United on Saturday at 4.30pm and Arsenal vs Aston Villa on Sunday at 3pm

It’s FA Cup Fourth Round weekend and there are once again some intriguing ties taking place, not least the one at Anfield between those two old rivals, Liverpool and Manchester United.

The good thing from the point of view of the competition as a whole and some of the other sides involved in it is that Manchester City have gone out already, one of Liverpool or Manchester United are going to go out, and Chelsea and Arsenal are still pre-occupied with the Champions League.

Sides like Tottenham and Newcastle are now thinking ‘We’ve got a realistic chance this year.’

The purest cup tie of the weekend probably involves Newcastle, as they travel down to Brighton. It’s beautifully set up for a number of reasons, not least the difference in status between the two.

Newcastle are in great shape, currently sat sixth in the Premier League, while Brighton are currently tenth in the Championship, just two points off a playoff place having only returned to the second tier under manager Gus Poyet last summer.

The beauty of this one is there will be a record crowd at Brighton’s brand new ground, the AMEX Stadium, which is earning rave reviews; it’s one of the very best of the new grounds which have sprung up around the county in recent years. They dug out something like 138 cubic meters of chalk and much of the ground is actually built below ground level, so they have built into the Sussex chalk.

I’m really looking forward to going there and being part of what is going to be a 22,500 sell-out, for a tie which could easily go either way. Brighton play really nice football - they’re rather like Swansea in that they play a brand of expansive football which is very easy on the eye - and adopt the same 4-3-3 shape week after week.

Newcastle have had some very good news this week with Senegal crashing out of the Africa Cup of Nations, meaning strikers Demba Ba and new man Papiss Cisse, are going to be back much sooner than expected, but they won’t be back in time for this weekend.

That means it is the ‘B crew’ for Newcastle in some respects, with midfielder Chieck Tiote also away with the Ivory Coast. They should still have enough to progress, but the beauty of the FA Cup is that you can never be too sure.

Although Newcastle are a very diligent side, they’ll find it tough. Their North East rivals Sunderland lost at Brighton in the League Cup earlier this season, while Liverpool just about squeaked through in the same competition, so I’m expecting Brighton against Newcastle to be, if not the tie of the weekend, then certainly one of them.

Tottenham also travel to face Championship opposition, with Watford hosting the Premier League high-flyers on Friday evening.

The Hornets’ star performer is Marvin Sordell, a prodigious young forward whose ten goals this season have aroused the interest of several Premier League clubs. The rest of the side has been assembled for minimal money, containing players who have either arrived on free transfers or for very small fees, who have been unwanted by other clubs.

They’ve also got a promising goalkeeper in Scott Loach but I don’t know collectively that they’ve got enough to really worry Tottenham, Spurs have got a Premier League game four days afterwards, so it will be in Harry Redknapp’s mind to select a side that will rest most of the key players ahead of their Premier League game and I think he can afford to do that.

I watched Watford fairly closely recently in the run up to this game, and I struggle to see this one being an upset. They’re 18th in the Championship and in truth appear a fairly limited side. Even if Tottenham make a host of changes – which they well might – Watford have probably got enough to hurt them.

There’s been memorable moments between Watford and Tottenham, but unless Watford produce something that I’ve not seen in recent weeks, I think they’ll struggle to add another.

Liverpool versus Manchester United obviously leapt off the page when the Fourth Round draw was made. It’s a repeat of last year’s meeting in the Third Round which was the first game of Kenny Dalglish’s second coming, a game which from his perspective was marred by the sending off of Steven Gerrard.

It’s been a funny old week for Liverpool, berated by their manager for their lackluster performance at Bolton in the league last Saturday, they then played terrifically well against Manchester City in the semi-final of the League Cup on Wednesday evening, booking their first trip to the new Wembley. So they will head into this game on a tide of optimism. Manchester United will have it all on, because I think Liverpool’s performance at Bolton was a one-off.

The FA Cup will still be a high priority for these two teams, particularly for Liverpool because Dalglish is at a stage in his development of the club, where they need to win every trophy they can possibly get their hands on. The League Cup would be a good start in that respect, but the FA Cup would be a more prestigious pot to win.

For Manchester United, I’m not convinced they are going to take the Europa League particularly seriously. In a list of wishful trophies this season, the FA Cup would rank above the Europa League in Sir Alex Ferguson’s mind and for that reason I would expect them to pursue it fairly hard. A lot depends on how the title race goes.

If Manchester City were to surge ahead and Manchester United were not to have a realistic chance of winning the title going into the last six weeks of the season, you’d see them fielding strong sides in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final should they get there.

The Premier League as ever will have an overriding bearing on where the FA Cup comes on most clubs’ priority lists. For the time being I think it’s fairly near the top for both Liverpool and United.

With the Ferdinand–Terry issue really overshadowing Saturday’s meeting between QPR and Chelsea, what we should not forget is that it was actually an invigorating and fascinating Premier League game when the two met in the autumn; QPR’s defeat of their rivals was one of the seismic results of the season so far.

It is hard to see that happening again, but QPR are gradually improving under Mark Hughes. New players arriving are not going to be there this weekend, so I will be surprised if Chelsea do not go through.

The lowest ranked side left in the competition now are Swindon Town, with madcap maverick Paolo Di Canio as manager. Fourth in League Two, they go to Leicester City in a repeat of the 1993 play-off final, when Paul Bodin’s penalty earned Swindon a dramatic 4-3 win and with it a place in the Premier League.

I saw Leicester beat Nottingham Forest comprehensively in their third round replay ten days ago and they just seem to be coming good, they’re getting used to their returning manager Nigel Pearson and his demands and his ways. I think they are going to have a very strong second half to the season, I would expect them to beat Swindon and to be a threat to whoever they play later in the competition. They could be something of a wildcard from the Championship this year, because they do have a squad that is, if not brim-full, then moderately full of Premier League quality.

The other League Two side to mention are Crawley Town, who were one of last year’s heroes with that win over Derby. They go to Nick Barmby’s Hull City and they go there with half a chance given their league form.

At the very least, I think they would expect to get Hull back to the Broadfield Stadium for a replay. Those two League Two sides have got plenty to play for, but with both away from home, the draw could have been kinder to both of them.

But we are guaranteed at least one side from the lower half of the league structure going through, with the all League One meeting between Notts County and Stevenage.

Stevenage made headlines by beating Newcastle last season, while Notts County have been making quiet progress in this season’s competition.

We also have another chance to see Thierry Henry in action as Aston Villa trot out at Arsenal, where the mood will be an interesting one to gauge after last week’s events and the criticism of Wenger’s substitutions.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

Evra a long-shot to silence Anfield crowd with goal in cup grudge match

Mark Booth — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:35:00 GMT

This year's FA Cup Third Round will be remembered for Swindon Town, Thierry Henry and a dramatic Manchester derby. With the holders Manchester City out of the competition, all eyes will be on Anfield on Saturday, as City's conquerors Manchester United continue their quest for silverware at Liverpool.

Brave punters only need apply for this encounter. The fixture earlier in the season finished 1-1 and, unsurprisingly, William Hill are struggling to separate the sides with Liverpool slight favourites at 6/4. Steven Gerrard found the net in that match back in October and, according to the bookmakers, he’s the man most likely to break the deadlock on Saturday at 6/1. Wayne Rooney’s traditional frosty reception from the Kop won’t come as a surprise to the front-man, who is at 6/5 to silence them at any point in the match. His skipper Patrice Evra can expect an even rougher ride from the home support, and is priced at 40/1 to open the scoring.

Those not relishing the prospect of entering the Anfield lottery will look to the round’s potential giant-killings for value. Brighton’s form at their new home is impressive, with seven wins, three draws and three defeats in the league at the Am-Ex Stadium. The Seagulls also saw off Sunderland in the Carling Cup earlier this season and with opponents Newcastle losing Cheick Tiote, Demba Ba and new signing Papiss Cisse to the Africa Cup of Nations, a 3/1 shock could trouble the bookies.

Sunderland’s recent form under Martin O’Neill’s stewardship has been excellent, but they face a tricky home tie with neighbours Middlesbrough. Boro’s wretched recent form might explain their long 4/1 odds to win at the Stadium of Light, but this is the FA Cup and O’Neill is likely to rest several players.

Another rivalry that will be renewed on Saturday will take place at Loftus Road where Chelsea take on QPR. Despite the R’s' win against Chelsea in October, Andre Villas-Boas’ men are heavy favourites to take care of matters at 8/13. However, this one might be worth taking a closer look at, especially if you’re looking to put together a profitable accumulator. QPR are generously priced at 9/2, and when you factor in their new manager, the fact that the FA Cup is Chelsea’s lowest priority competition and Fernando Torres’ recent form in Drogba’s absence, there’s definite cause for optimism among the QPR faithful.

Arsenal are another club who might not place the highest emphasis on the FA Cup, so expect Thierry Henry to shrug off his calf injury to give top-scorer Robin van Persie a rest. The Frenchman is placed at even money to score at any time, but those believing in the magic of the FA Cup might like the look of 4/1 for Henry to score the last goal of the match against Aston Villa. Alex McLeish’s men are valued at 4/1 – possibly another option for optimistic accumulators as they look to end their 17-year trophy wait.

Elsewhere, it’s a big ask for League Two Swindon to repeat their third-round heroics when they play Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, as reflected in their 6/1 odds. Another possible Premier League scalp could occur at Pride Park where Derby County take on last season’s beaten finalists Stoke City. Stoke will be back in Europa League action against Valencia in a couple of weeks, and might take the opportunity to rest a few key players, giving Nigel Clough’s men every chance of recording a 6/5 upset.

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Mid-Season La Liga Ratings and Slatings: Real Sociedad to Zaragoza

Tim Stannard — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:15:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com's Primera pundit Tim Stannard presents the final part of his half-term report card...

Real Sociedad - current position 15th
The mission for la Real this season is to try and gain some stability under French boss Philippe Montanier and allow a group of talented, home-grown, still-whiffing-of-compost footballers to bed-in, while also avoiding the drop from la Primera. It’s a mission that went a little off track for a while, with the newbie boss nearly getting ‘le boot’ back in November after a run of eight league games from which just two points were picked up. But the Basque big-wigs remained firm - just about - and la Real have since started to solidify like stale jelly. They've even been responsible for two of the goals of the season, a couple of halfway line zingers from Iñigo Martínez.
LLL Rating: B-

Sevilla - 9th
Horrible. Quite horrible. But that’s been Sevilla for the past couple of seasons as they’ve gone through managers like Pep Guardiola gets through Rogaine. The latest ‘new, new, new’ project leader is Marcelino, who took over from Gregorio Manzano in the summer. Marcelino’s job was to tighten a horribly leaky defence without damaging a talented forward line.
Although the first part of that mission went reasonably well at start, Sevilla have begun to let goals through at one end whilst failing to score at the other. This is largely the fault of the new boss, whose defensive instincts are such that LLL is sure snipers have been put in place to prevent any Sevilla player bar Alvaro Negredo crossing the halfway line. Pants, pants, pants, pants and if it carries on much longer, Marcelino is a goner, and a good thing too.
LLL Rating: D-

Sporting - 19th
As much as it will disappoint the Spanish public, many of whom see Sporting are a bit of a second favourite due to their fiercely loyal (and mass-traveling) fans and the wonderful Manolo Preciado, this may well be the season that Sporting return to la Segunda after four seasons of top-flight tussling.
It’s not really anyone’s fault. Sporting have few resources, struggle to attract anyone to play for them and are running their little Asturian socks off just to stand still. Sporting will need at least seven more victories in the second half of the season, and it’s tough to see where they will be coming from. Aside from the Atlético Madrid match.
LLL Rating: C-

Valencia - 3rd
Perhaps the reason Valencia fans are generally so grumpy and easy to displease is that the club is stuck in some kind of limbo, perhaps until the end of days in la Liga. The team is never, ever going to be good enough to move above Barça or Real Madrid. But then again, the Mestalla men will rarely be bad enough to slip out of the top three, despite it very much being a selling club due to a pile of debt and a new stadium to build.
And so Valencia will plod along, looking to sniff about for the odd Copa del Rey or European glory along the way. Both are still up for grabs for the club in January - although it’s unlikely Stoke City in the Europa league was what fans and Unai Emery in mind - so it has been a reasonable enough season so far for Unai Emery’s men.
LLL Rating: C-

Villarreal - 17th
While Villarreal fans are hoping to chuckle away in the shower in May over an entire terrible year that was all just a bad dream, Bobby Ewing-style, it ain’t going to happen. Injuries to strikers Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi, falling into the relegation zone, a pointless - literally - Champions League campaign and the sacking of the previously imperious Juan Carlos Garrido all really happened.
The one crumb of comfort is that Villarreal can’t possibly have a worse second half to the season than the first - after all, that would mean relegation. Something, quite, quite unthinkable for a team that has achieved so much in recent years.
LLL Rating: F

Zaragoza - 20th
Same old, same old for Zaragoza. Sack the manager who kept them up last season and bring in a bunch of new players over the winter window, hoping for a repeat performance. That’s the game plan of Agapito Iglesias, owner and president of Zaragoza, and a gentleman that the fans would dearly love to see the back of after dragging the club further and further into debt and administration over the summer.
Zaragoza have only picked up two wins all season and the blog really can’t see the side picking up eight or nine more and the odd draw in the team’s remaining matches.
LLL Rating: F-

Part One: Athletic Bilbao to Granada
Part Two: Levante to Real Madrid

Ivory Coast fail to utilise Yaya as young Lass fails to show class

Michael Cox — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:14:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the FREE Africa Cup of Nations version of Stats Zone to analise the action from the first few days of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations...

Versatility has always been key feature of Yaya Toure’s game – he’s able to play anywhere down the centre of the pitch; as a number ten, a box-to-box midfielder, a holding player or even as a centre-back, where he lined up for Barcelona in the 2009 Champions League final.

In the Ivory Coast’s 1-0 win over Sudan in their opening game of the current Africa Cup of Nations, he was in theory playing as the most attacking of the three central midfielders, ahead of Jean-Jacques Gosso and Chieck Tiote, and behind the attacking triumvirate of Salomon Kalou, Gervinho and Didier Drogba.

But the positions of his passes received demonstrates how deep he came to get the ball, which may have turned Ivory Coast into something of a broken team, with no link between midfield and attack. Toure attempted to motor forward and score himself, but all three of his attempts were off target.

Lass – real name Alhassane Bangoura – is one of the brightest young talents in African football. The Guinea forward plays in Spain with Madrid-based Rayo Vallecano, and has made a good impact at club level this season by providing the running that veteran forward Raul Tamudo can no longer get through, in an energetic Rayo side. He is naturally a winger, although can be deployed upfront in order to provide Asamoah Gyan-style runs into the channels.

But Lass didn’t enjoy a good opening game in the 1-0 defeat to Mali, and was arguably trying to do too much himself. Both of his shots were off target, and from the five times he tried to dribble past an opponent, he was tackled on four occasions.

Gabon’s defence was highly impressive in their 2-0 opening round win against Niger, with the centre-back pairing of Bruno Ecuele Manga and Remy Ebanega particularly dominant in the air.

It was notable how high up the pitch they made clearances, keeping a high line and pushing the Niger defence away from goal. Ebanega was the more proactive of the two, making more clearances, which occurred slightly higher up the pitch than his partner’s.

Manga, who was Laurent Koscielny’s replacement at Lorient in France, shows many of the qualities of his predecessor, calmly reading the game rather than diving into tackles.

Another relative unknown to have made a significant impact in the opening round of matches was Abubakr al Abaidy, even though his Libya side were defeated by Equatorial Guinea. Al Abaidy, playing as a left-back, completed more passes than any other player on the pitch and was a real force bombing down the left wing.

He also showed good defensive awareness, making five interceptions to break up Equatorial Guinea attacks. More impressive performances like this, and he might find himself being linked with a move to a more prestigious club – he currently plays for Nasr in his home country.

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

Click here to get the FREE Africa Cup of Nations version of Stats Zone

ACoN Diary 3: David Dein, visas and the art of groundhopping

Jonathan Wilson — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:16:00 GMT

Jonathan Wilson continues his diary of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea...

Famously, Lord of the Rings doesn’t end after the Ring has been despatched into Mount Doom [errr, spoiler alert - ed]. Instead, there are a number of coda, explaining what happened to the characters next. Most anti-climactic – and deliberately so – is the return of Merry and Pippin to The Shire, where they find life insufferably banal after their adventure, the everyday concerns and gripes of the general population dreadfully tedious.

Steve must find something similar every time he goes back from a Cup of Nations. Steve isn’t his real name, but I don’t want to blow his cover. He’s a local government official – again, let’s keep this vague – from the north-west, but since 1996, he’s been at the opening game of every Cup of Nations. More than that, he’s seen a game at every stadium used since, bar three (the two Nigerian grounds when they co-hosted with Ghana in 2000 and Kayes, in the far north-west of Mali, in 2002). Somehow, he manages to wangle himself accreditation, to persuade various unhelpful to give him a visa, and then manages the logistics of his travel with determination and inventiveness.

Equatorial Guinea is not an easy country to get into. As far as I’m aware, aside from the BBC, the only British people to have secured a visa for the Cup of Nations through the London embassy are David Dein and I. It took me about two months of negotiation and pleading, phone calls and emails, and even then it was only processed thanks to two people – Kennedy at CAF and Angelina in the embassy – going far beyond the basics of their job.

Groundhoppers will be sure to take in Stade d'Angondjé in Libreville, Gabon

Steve, goodness knows how, persuaded first FlyBe then Air France to let him on the plane from Manchester to Paris and then Paris to Libreville with just a letter supposedly guaranteeing he would be granted a visa on arrival (Air France had told me there was no way this would be possible). He got a dual visa there, flew to Bata for the opening game, and then on to Malabo on Sunday. Early on Monday he caught a plane to Libreville for Gabon’s victory over Niger and Tunisia’s 2-1 win over Morocco. The next day he flew to Franceville for the Group D fixtures before taking a train back, flying back to Malabo and then to Paris and Manchester.

All but one of the other British groundhoppers were thwarted by the visa restrictions and the cost. They are an odd and eccentric bunch, dedicated to nothing more than “collecting” grounds, whether at major tournaments or just in normal league games. Conversations with them tend to drift inevitably to discussions of how many Austrian second-division grounds they have left to do, or if anybody knows a cheap guest-house in Waalwijk, or how the Cup of Nations hasn’t been the same since Burkina Faso in 98.

Until the mid-nineties it was a predominantly British pursuit, but the Germans have taken over. King Hopper now is Kurt (again, not his real name). I saw him this week as well (at least, I think I did; he’s one of twins, so it’s hard to be quite sure); he led a band of German hoppers in by air to Libreville, from where they drove to up to the Rio Mitemele and crossed the border by pirogue.

There is a train-spotterish aspect to hopping, of course, but they also have a sense of adventure and a staggering level of initiative. But when Steve arrives back in his drab local authority office tomorrow, you do wonder whether his other employees have any notion of how extraordinary the logistical feats he’s performed this week have been.

Stats Zone analysis: Ghana up and running but still a work in progress

Tom Legg — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:14:00 GMT

Finalists last time, Ghana got off to a winning start against Botswana – and, notes Tom Legg, look to be adressing their critics

A 25th-minute goal by “Rock of Gibraltar” John Mensah secured Ghana a deserved victory over Africa Cup of Nations debutants Botswana on Tuesday afternoon in the Stade de Franceville.

Botswana coach Stanley Tshosane opted for a defensively minded 4-1-4-1, and in the absence of youngster Skhana Koko the goalscoring burden was placed firmly upon the shoulders of talismanic striker Jerome Ramatlhakwane.

There was only one surprise in Ghana's starting XI: the inclusion of Emmanuel Badu over Udinese team-mate Kwadow Asamoah suggested coach Goran Stevanovic was mindful of the physical threat Botswana’s midfield unit would pose. Asamoah Gyan was passed fit to play after his recent injury, and Jordan Ayew, younger brother of the BBC African Footballer of the Year Andre Ayew, made his Africa Cup of Nations debut on the right flank.

FEATURE Ones to watch at ACoN 2012 (including Asamoah, Ayew and Ayew)

The Black Stars go from reactive to pro-active
Recent criticism of Ghana has centred around the side's lack of tactical development over the past 12-18 months. No longer underdogs, the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations finalists and World Cup quarter-finalists are now arguably Africa's top side. Despite this change in status, their tactical approach had shown little sign of development, until today.

Ghana dominated the early exchanges with 68% of possession, while playing a progressive and pro-active attacking style of play, far removed from the counter-attacking system so successfully used under previous coach Milovan Rajevac.

In possession, Ghana were extremely positive in committing players into their opponents’ half: both wingbacks, particularly Samuel Inkoom on the left, were fundamentally wingers. This allowed Jordan Ayew and Andre Ayew to drift infield and combine with Asamoah Gyan and the midfielders, as the brothers' first-half passes-received screens demonstrate.

Advanced wingbacks left space at either side of Ghana’s centre-backs, Mensah and John Boye. Stevanovic remedied this by encouraging his holding players Anthony Annan and Emmanuel Badu to sit deeper and wider, almost covering for his progressive wingbacks, when either of his two centre backs had the ball at their feet.

As Botswana’s central midfielders Patrick Motsepe and Mogogi Gabonamong tracked Annan and Badu into wider areas, space opened up in the centre of the pitch for Sulley Muntari, who drifted deeper as he looked to receive short passes to feet from Ghana’s centre-backs and central midfielders. The Internazionale midfielder is Ghana's best passer over distance; with time and space just in front of the centre circle, he could drive angled passes out to either flank, utilising the advancing wingbacks.

Another positive aspect of Ghana’s attacking strategy was the interchange of positions between Andre and Jordan Ayew. This gave the Black Stars’ central midfielders better short passing options and, crucially, created space down the flanks for their wingbacks.

Conversely, Ghana’s attacking strategy influenced their defensive system: with players committed in advanced areas of the pitch, when they lost the ball they had to press Botswana in their own half of the pitch. Ghana wanted to dominate possession and to control the tempo of the game. They wanted to be proactive, not reactive.

The importance of good crossing and attacking options
The most positive aspect of Botswana’s first half performance was their defensive shape. They were patient, well-organised and defended deep enough to restrict the space beyond their back four, denying Asamoah Gyan space to penetrate.

When a team defends like Botswana did in the first half, and the opposition adopts the type of attacking system Ghana deployed, the best option for the attacking side is to play ‘around’ their opponents. This is done by creating spaces in wide areas, allowing wingers and wing backs to delivery good quality crosses into your opponents’ penalty area.

Ghana failed to do the latter part of this. Of seventeen crosses in the first half, only three were completed; of 12 after the break, only one reached a Black Star.

The reason why so many of these crosses were ineffective is not only due to the poor quality of the balls delivered from wide areas, but also the lack of targets the wingers had to aim for: Ghana’s frontline is possibly the smallest in the Africa Cup of Nations. There’s simply not a lot to aim for.

If Ghana are to continue with this attacking system – and it's to be hoped that they do – then they need to work on have a more varied repertoire of crosses from wide areas, like cut-back crosses to the edge of the area. Players like Muntari and Andre Ayew are more than capable of finishing from distance.

A way forward for Botswana
After Ghana captain Mensah's 66th-minute red card, we got a glimpse of Botswana’s attacking set-up. Their system, which involves three key players – midfielder Ofentse Nato, left-winger Phenyo Mongala and target man Jerome Ramatlhakwane – is simple but often effective.

Nato is Botswana's midfield pivot and best long-distance passer. As soon as Botswana win the ball back in deep areas, they try to get Nato in possession as quickly as possible. And once Nato is on the ball, Mongala looks to make runs beyond the advanced opposition wingback, knowing that Nato will more often that not find him with a long diagonal pass.

The final phase relies on the ability of Mongala to either beat a covering defender and/or deliver a quality cross for Ramatlhakwane to meet. And that's where the Zebras' plan fell down: although Mongala completed 30 of 33 attempted passes, most were well outside the danger area and he failed to complete his sole take-on or any of his four attempted crosses.

Tuesday night's clash between Mali and Guinea, which ended 1-0 to the Malians, was one of the most open and entertaining games thus far and highlights the quality of Group D. But you could argue that this gives Botswana a better opportunity to advance out of the group stage than if they were in a so-called ‘easier’ group against nations like themselves who will defend deep.

Like Ghana, Mali and Guinea have full-backs who like to push on and support in attack. If Nato’s aim stays true during the remaining two group games, there should be opportunities for him to unleash more diagonals for Mongala and Moemedi Moatlhaping to latch onto. If they can deliver with quality from wide areas, then Ramatlhakwane should have the goalscoring opportunities on which he thrives.

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

Jonathan Wilson: ACoN diary: Drogba, Dogtanian & a double-header
Michael Cox: How will Premier League strikers fare at ACoN 2012?
Jonathan Fadugba: Why Africa's 41st-best football nation is hosting ACoN 2012

Mid-Season La Liga Ratings and Slatings: Levante to Real Madrid

Tim Stannard — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:08:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com's Spanish specialist Tim Stannard continues to run the rule over the first half of the 2011/12 season in the Primera Liga...

Levante - current position 4th
Given Levante are in the Champions League places it would take Pepe-level madness to not hand out top marks to the biggest swats of the class this season, Levante.
Under new coach Juan Ignacio Martínez, Levante have continued in the first half of this season where the Valencia team finished the second half of the previous campaign - like a steam roller plodding along at 30 miles per hour. The team may be overtaken by a bunch of other teams come May, but it’s very hard to stop their momentum in the meantime. The veteran back five have been magnificent, the midfield industrious and the forward line brutally efficient in converting chances.
There is the feeling, though, in LLL’s waters that once Levante wheeze over the 42 point mark, which could be done by the end of next month, then a slide down the table would be inevitable, with a European place neither feasible or perhaps desirable given the limited size of their squad.
LLL Rating A+

Málaga - 10th
An enormous stinker of a disappointment. In a season where Osasuna, Levante and Espanyol are currently dueling it out for fourth spot, it should have been a cinch for Málaga to have swooped in to join the party, having invested €58m on nine shiny new players over the summer. The club’s owners must surely have expected more bang for their buck than the current 10th spot and barely a memorable performance thus far in la Liga.
Manuel Pellegrini has claimed a lack of effort, concentration and energy from his players, with Santi Cazorla - the most expensive of the lot - suggesting the team need to be a little less prissy in their play and considerably more effective. Of the nine signings, only Isco has done the footballing business, with Ruud Van Nistelrooy looking particularly ineffective and upset at his lot. Julio Baptista is due to return soonish, but if Málaga fail to make at least top six this season, by gum drops there will be some heads rolling in May.
LLL Rating: D-

Mallorca - 14th
Institutionally, it was a rocky start for Mallorca. Michael Laudrup fell out with majority shareholder Lorenzo Serra Ferrer over signings, style and most probably what to have breakfast - LLL suspects a herring vs chocolate donut debate. The team were doing just fine though, and that’s how it has continued under Joaquín Caparrós who took over from the Dane. The most experienced coach currently managing in la Primera will keep a club in administration and with a limited squad up for another year without too much fuss.
LLL Rating: C+

Osasuna - 6th
Another team overachieving like crazy this season. Osasuna are normally very strong in front of their mad as bats supporters, but immensely flaky away from home. That has changed a little this year, with Osasuna managing to pick up three wins and two draws away from Pamplona. The most Scottish Spanish coach in la Liga, José Luis Mendilibar, continues to shout and scowl his way through a season doing the best with a limited squad whose top scorer, Ibrahim Baldé, has only managed five goals.
Their 27 points see Osasuna peering carefully at a European place - although that might be a stretch - rather than the relegation zone and the supporters will be more than chuffed with that. Once they’ve stopped throwing stuff at you and telling you to leave town.
LLL Rating: A

Racing Santander - 16th
An all round stinky pudding of the season for Racing really, but with some light at the end of the tunnel of desert. An ‘owner’ being investigated by Interpol, a ‘board’ appointed by the ‘owner’ too dysfunctional to look after the club say the administrators and three coaches running the team’s affairs after Héctor Cúper left in November.
However, this trio have done remarkably well for the club with Sunday’s defeat against Getafe being the first of the six games that they have been in charge. Racing are currently out of the relegation zone, however the blog is not sure that’s how it will be come May.
LLL Rating: C

Rayo Vallecano - 13th
Perhaps the best fans in the la Liga this season have cheered on a team that are doing just fine, despite everything that’s working against them. That includes ongoing squabbles over contracts and money, a manager that feels is not being backed by the owner despite what has been achieved and absolute dog of a pitch that the club neither have the time nor the money to change.
Indeed, Rayo’s three-sided, noisy, Trotskyist fans on top of the opposition stadium should be a bonus to the club in its bid to stay up, but Rayo have only won three at home, losing five along the way. It could be touch and go for the club’s survival bid, but fingers crossed from LLL that it’s all ok come May.
LLL Rating: B+

Real Madrid - 1st
A bit of perspective please! Although those only interested in tittle, tattle and gossip - that’s LLL, for one - may be focussing on the scrap between Mourinho and his players, fans, the press and possibly the club president, let’s not forget that Real Madrid are currently at the top of the table, with club record goals and points tallies for a first half of a season, have a five point lead over housewife’s favourite Barcelona, and had a spotless record in the Champions League.
Technically speaking, everything has gone rather well for Madrid, aside from that losing to Barcelona business and the blog would be very surprised indeed if Mourinho doesn’t win at least the league this season, perhaps before stomping off to England.
LLL Rating: A-

Part One: Athletic Bilbao to Granada
Part Three: On Thursday - Real Sociedad to Zaragoza

Five more to watch at ACoN 2012 (who don't play in England)

Gareth McKnight — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:13:00 GMT

Earlier this week, Jonathan Fadugba picked out five excellent players at the Africa Cup of Nations who don't ply their trade in England… yet. Now Gareth McKnight selects another five – or six – to watch

This year's Africa Cup of Nations has brought top-drawer players and teams to fight it out for glory in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The likes of Yaya Toure, Didier Drogba and Demba Ba are superstars of the modern day.

However, look beyond the Premier League names and you'll find plenty of other players waiting to make their names. Furthermore, with the absence of heavyweights Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa, the chance is there for lesser-known players and teams to star. Past competitions have brought some of the current top African players into the limelight, and there is a crop of young, up-and-coming talent ready to show their worth this time round.

Alain Traore (Burkina Faso and Auxerre)

Burkina Faso midfielder Alain Traore has been mightily impressive for club and country over the last 12 months, and is the creative talisman for his nation. The versatile 23-year-old frequently starts in the centre of the park for Paulo Duarte's men, but don't be surprised to seem him pick up the ball in wide areas or look to get beyond the strikers.

Excellent vision and an eye for goal mean Burkina Faso's Group B opponents must be mindful of the Auxerre playmaker. Seven goals this season for the Ligue 1 club have seen the likes of Newcastle and Manchester United being linked with a move for Traore, who could well be pursued again by leading clubs if he has a strong tournament. With him alongside Marseille’s Charles Kabore, the Stallions have a competitive and dangerous midfield at their disposal.

Indeed, although Burkina Faso somewhat unluckily lost their opening group game 2-1 to Angola, Traore scored from a curling free-kick (pictured) and can lay strong claim to being man of the match. He attempted and completed more passes (41 out of 54) and attacking third passes (18 out of 29) than anyone else, and also had the most shots (four).

Watch him vs Ivory Coast, Thu 26th, 7pm; vs Sudan, Mon 30th, 6pm

Kwadwo Asamoah (Ghana and Udinese)

Midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah has starred in Udinese's progression over the last two seasons, and his determination and boundless energy in the centre of the park, allowing likes of the Andre Ayew free space and time on the ball, will make him an ominous opponent at this year's competition – should the Black Stars choose to use him.

The butt of criticism from some Ghanaians who feel he hasn't been replicating his fine club form for his country (to which Asamoah has responded that he plays "according to the instructions of the coach in a manner that best suits the team"), the 23-year-old seems to face a fight with Sulley Muntari for his place – and Muntari got the nod for the opening 1-0 win over Botswana.

Having matured greatly over the last 12 months – and subsequently being linked with top clubs in England and Italy – the Accra-born midfielder will be hoping that his ACoN is more like 2010, when he was a key figure as Ghana reached the final, than 2008 when he remained an unused substitute.
Watch him (possibly…) vs Mali, Sat 28th, 7pm; vs Guinea, Wed 1st, 6pm

Younes Belhanda (Morocco and Montpellier)

With creative talents like Mbark Boussoufa and Adel Taarabt on board, Morocco should be an enjoyable team to watch, but their key playmaker could well be Montpellier prospect Younes Belhanda. The 21-year-old has played an integral part in leading the Stade de la Mosson club up to an unexpected second place in Ligue 1, and has netted five times this season. Excellent with the ball at his feet, the former France U20s playmaker will hope to control possession and pick a defence-splitting pass.

He certainly got off to a good start against Tunisia, despite Morocco's 2-1 defeat. His passes attempted and completed (48 out of 64) were higher than anyone on the pitch bar his central midfield partner, captain and goalscorer Houssine Kharja. Like Kharja, Belhanda was busy in the attacking third with 18 completed passes out of 28, creating two chances as the Lions of the Atlas dominated without winning.

Watch him vs Gabon, Fri 27th, 7pm; vs Niger, Tue 31st, 6pm

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon and St Etienne)

Can you be a journeyman at 22? Having joined AC Milan at age 17 but failed to break through, France-born striker Aubameyang was farmed back out on loan to Dijon, Lille, Monaco and St Etienne before signing a permanent deal with the latter last month. Now he needs consistency to live up to his early career potential.

He turned down an invite from Italy U19s and represented France U21s before following in his father Pierre’s footsteps by representing Gabon. With the hopes of a nation resting on his shoulders, he inspired the co-hosts to a commanding 2-0 victory over Niger on Monday, scoring the first goal and helping create the second.

Central to all Gabon's attacking play in a dominant performance, the No.9 had the most shots (five) and shots on target (three), also creating two chances as the Panthers overwhelmed their competition-debutant opponents.

Watch him vs Morocco, Fri 27th, 7pm; vs Tunisia, Tue 31st, 6pm

Andre (and Jordan) Ayew (Ghana and Marseille)

Marseille's Andre and Jordan Ayew are quickly becoming two of the most sought-after talents in European football, as the pair have progressed through the Stade Velodrome youth system into the first team. The sons of Ghana legend Abedi Pele are doing their best to represent their famous family.

Older sibling Andre (pictured) has already racked up over 30 caps at the tender age of 22, and is a supposed target for Arsenal among others. His trickery, speed and guile make him a top player already, and his creativity will be key in Goran Stevanovic's men charge for glory.

Jordan, now 20, has evolved into more of a central attacker, and will look to take advantage of his brother's range of passing. Electric pace and elusive movement off the ball will make the starlet a handful for opposing defences.

Both started in Ghana's opener against Botswana, although Jordan was substituted on the hour as the Black Stars tried unsuccessfully to extend their 1-0 lead. Andre was the more visible player, with 19 successful passes in the attacking third, four successful take-ons out of five and a painful nine fouls suffered – three times more than any other player.

Watch them vs Mali, Sat 28th, 7pm; vs Guinea, Wed 1st, 6pm

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

Get more from the February 2012 issue

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:46:00 GMT

So you've finished the February 2012 issue – on sale now – and you're thinking, "Well, that was a good read – but you know what? I want more." We hear you, brother/sister.

Take a look, then, at our monthly 'Further Reading' blog. Because sometimes, transsexual internationals, Sir Alex Ferguson and football's greatest conman just aren't enough...

FERGIE'S BIGGEST CHALLENGE
In our unparalleled 12-page feature, we look at what the future holds for one of the game's greatest ever managers. But let's not forget his past.

We've set up a special in-depth section of FourFourTwo.com dedicated to Sir Alex, including a detailed look into his 25 years at Old Trafford, a classic, fascinating exclusive interview with the Scot after his 1999 Treble triumph and his best ever Manchester United XIs. And for those of you who aren't fans of his, we've even recounted his 10 darkest moments.

Don't miss our gallery, either, of every trophy won by Ferguson during his reign at Manchester United.

AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS SPECIAL
We've not one but two magazines for you this month, with a 23-page ACoN mini-mag on the reverse of your regular read. And even that's not enough to satiate our Africa lust!

From the opening match to the final, we'll be covering the tournament on FourFourTwo.com with regular news updates, a diary from the legendary Jonathan Wilson and insightful analysis with FFT's award-winning Stats Zone, now extended to the ACoN. Don't forget to keep checking our Africa Cup of Nations blog section for the diary, Stats Zone, team guides and more. And hey, want to download Stats Zone for the Africa Cup of Nations yourself? Here's how.

FOURFOURTWO'S 12 FOR 2012
In the February issue FFT picks out a delightful dozen to watch this year, from gaffers to goalscorers, and we interview hotshots Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Rickie Lambert on what 2012 holds for them.

But if you feel mere words aren't enough, check out these tasty videos on the players to keep your eyes on...

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looked the business against Manchester City, and even at the tender age of 18 he's an outside bet to make the England squad for Euro 2012. Here the winger shows what he's capable of even before he moved to Arsenal:

Speaking of hot young talent, Liverpool's 17-year-old Raheem Sterling looks a bit useful. Could this be the season he gets a crack at the first team in a labouring Reds side?

Moving overseas, it's clear already that Germany have wunderkids in abundance. After a fledgling Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira (among others) drove their team to an impressive semi-final showing in the 2010 World Cup, another generation is already hot on their heels. Get an idea why everyone is raving about teenage sensation Mario Goetze, the highly sought-after Borussia Dortmund playmaker and Tintin lookalike (even if he is out for two months):

It's a big year for Cristiano Ronaldo, charged with leading Mourinho's Madrid to glory and, most importantly, triumph over Barcelona. Is he up to it? This video-maker says yes:

Back on home shores, it could be a massive 12 months for Edin Dzeko, too. The Bosnian striker may find himself having to take centre stage at Man City more often than first thought, with Sergio Aguero more suited to dropping deep and Mario Balotelli always one second away from a suspension. Here's Dzeko doing what he does best, possibly to the tune of a Justin Timberlake remix (feel free to press the mute button).

Into the Football League, two players to keep tabs on are the much-vaunted Rickie Lambert of Southampton and Jordan Rhodes of Huddersfield. Each seems to be on the verge of a move to the Premier League – here's why:

Young Spaniard Oriel Romeu also has a big year ahead of him at Chelsea. See why the Blues bought him below, then read why they may find it difficult to hold on to him.

THE DEATH OF THE TACKLE
Are the days of the meaty challenge finally over? FFT investigates in the February 2012 issue, and to accompany that we've dug around to find video evidence of some of the best and worst tackles the world of football has ever seen.

First, the worst – featuring Gazza, Keano and some of the dirtiest men outside prison. After seeing these, you'll be thankful these challenges are being outlawed.

But wait: tackling isn't all about fouling. What about when the ball is perfectly snatched away from an attacker's feet? Worship at FourFourTwo.com's defending altar, with our video tribute to the best tackles the world has ever seen, from Bobby Moore to Ledley King.

ONE-ON-ONE: DIETMAR HAMANN
The former German midfielder answers readers' questions in the new issue, but there's also a tricky poser from Pepe Reina, who asks: "You scored some decent goals, but which was your favourite?" Didi opts for two: one for Newcastle against Juventus, and one for Liverpool against Portsmouth. But which do you think is better?

Hamann didn't mind us photographing him making a fool of himself with a Liverpool shirt either. Guess who?

ASK A SILLY QUESTION
And we've plenty more exclusive interviews where that came from. This month it's the turn of Steve McManaman to field nonsensical posers on cavemen and the shape of the transfer window.

If you want more where that came from, head on over to our Interviews section, where we're constantly adding classic interviews from the FourFourTwo archive. We've got One-on-Ones, Perfect XIs and more, including – naturally – some of the very best interviews for Ask A Silly Question. Currently making us cackle in the office is Charlie Nicholas admitting he's jealous of bald people. Check it out.

GREAT GOALS RETOLD: ALLAN RAVN
Enjoy Allan Ravn recounting his belting strike against Manchester United? Want to see the goal in glorious technicolour? Of course you do. Watch the video, read the interview and marvel at the cartoon of the goal. We have more Great Goals Retold besides, too.

EURO 2012 ENGLAND SQUAD PREDICTOR
You can read the 23 players we picked for Capello in the February issue online, but we'll be updating it every month and we want your feedback. Where did we go wrong? Tell us in the comments section, on Facebook or @FourFourTwo on Twitter.

ROMANIA: THE MADDEST PLACE IN FOOTBALL
If you're still wondering why we identified Romania as the place where all the footballing wackos hang out, check out this video of Steaua Bucharest owner Gigi Becali carrying out some impromptu car repairs after being locked out of his £350,000 Maybach:

Not convinced? Here's goalkeeper Remus Danalache protesting a series of decisions against his Vointa Sibiu team in a game against Petrolul Ploeisti. The stroppy stopper turns his back on the penalty, refusing to try and save it. Then when he is forced to face the right way, he still makes no attempt to stop it. Noble, perhaps, but nonetheless bizarre.

FFT TRAVEL: ISTANBUL
Elsewhere in Planet Football this month we profile Istanbul as a footballing tourist destination. The Turkish capital is about more than a Liverpudlian miracle, dontcherknow – as our online Travel guide shows. We've many more city and team guides, too, from Copenhagen to Kiev and Birmingham to Barcelona.

THE GAMES THAT CHANGED MY LIFE: ROGER HUNT
Now we've some cracking archive footage for you, to accompany former Liverpool striker, and World Cup winner with England, Roger Hunt telling FourFourTwo about the matches that made him:

PERFORMANCE
Finally, you can find much, much more from FourFourTwo Performance online as well as in the magazine.

In the February 2012 issue, Michael Mancienne gives tips on playing the ball out from the back. Here, Rio Ferdinand gives his own tips on doing just that.

If you want more from the injury clinic, you'll find all you need in our injuries section.

We also have a guide in the magazine on drills to help you leave your marker for dead; online, Newcastle United strength and conditioning coach Duncan French has more drills for speed of foot and change in direction.

And if you're looking for more on shooting after Alan Shearer's guide to hitting the target with power, we have advice from Nani, Frank Lampard, Theo Walcott and more.

Enjoy.

Nobody able to explain why Tony Hibbert is in Gabon

Back of the Net — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:45:00 GMT

Back of the Net's John Foster on the Africa Cup of Nations-induced selection headache facing Everton boss David Moyes (not really...)

Everton’s Tony Hibbert has been spotted in Gabonese capital Libreville, leading to speculation the gaunt right-back may be playing in the African Nations’ Cup.

Gingery lynchpin Hibbert has no scouting experience, has not been given leave by his club, and is not believed to be working for any media organisations. In addition, he is not eligible to play for Gabon, nor any of the other participants in this year’s competition. Both his parents and all four of his grandparents are English, meaning Hibbert’s international options are limited to England and the Republic of Ireland.

"He missed training on Monday, but I assumed he’d asked the gaffer [David Moyes], and the gaffer assumed he’d asked me", commented assistant boss Steve Round.

"Then we saw the pictures from a Libreville street market of Tony making a last-ditch tackle on a tricky fruit vendor. It has to be him. Nobody else would be wearing a Gabon shirt with ‘Hibbert’ on the back."

Everton are now investigating the absences of other first-team players who may or may not be playing in the African Nations’ Cup.

‘I was doubtful about Seamus Coleman being from the Ivory Coast, but then he showed me on Wikipedia so I had let him go,’ continued Round. ‘I thought Victor [Anichebe] wasn’t going, because Nigeria haven’t qualified, but he told me he was actually from Niger, and I got embarrassed and let him go too.’

‘I was sure Diniyar Bilyaletdinov wasn’t African, but then, I was also sure the Upper Volta was in Bulgaria, and it turns out it’s in Africa, like Tony Hibbert.’

An anonymous source close to Goodison Park has told FourFourTwo that Everton’s stars are planning to take in a safari and do a spot of trekking, before going to Kono to meet Joseph Yobo’s parents.

Previous stories:
Spurs target found to be carefully-arranged pile of shoeboxes
O'Neill creates "stunning" rogan josh from contents of Bruce's pantry

Inside football’s poker pack

Guest Writer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:54:00 GMT

Forget the bookies or a game of blackjack at the back of the bus. The modern-day footballer gets his off-field kicks on the felt. For the March 2011 issue, Steve Hill dug out his smartest suit to investigate...

As all but the unobservant will have noticed, poker is everywhere these days. The early noughties boom brought millions of new players to the game, with the convenience and anonymity of online play making it accessible to almost anyone, and bespoke poker rooms springing up in casinos for those who like to play live.

Gambling has been part of football culture for decades, with such apocryphal tales as QPR’s Stan Bowles being spotted in the bookies minutes before kick-off at Loftus Road. The obligatory card school on long coach journeys to and from away games is a staple of the domestic season. So it’s not the greatest leap of logic to think footballers might be interested in poker, particularly those encumbered with huge disposable incomes and swathes of free time.

Indeed, big names such as Andrei Arshavin, Andriy Shevchenko, Francesco Totti and Gigi Buffon even find the time to appear in high-profile card tournaments. These are generally as a result of sponsorship from the major online poker operators, but away from the cameras it is believed that a slew of footballers are regular poker players, either privately online or among themselves.

“There's supposed to be a big Premier League footballer game organised by Teddy Sheringham that a few play in, but names are kept on the QT,” claims PokerPlayer magazine editor Alun Bowden. “You rarely, if ever, see players at live tournaments.”

One player to buck this trend is Manchester United’s Darren Fletcher, who took advantage of Scotland’s absence from the 2010 World Cup to play in the World Series of Poker, the calendar’s marquee event in Las Vegas. It conjures a comical image of a ruddy-faced Sir Alex bundling into the Rio Hotel’s vast Amazon Room, elbowing Texans out of his way in a blur of poker chips, and hauling Fletcher out by the ear, much as he once curtailed Lee Sharpe’s nightclub escapades.

However, Fletcher’s appearance was presumably with his manager’s approval, or at least in the hope that Fergie doesn’t read the PokerStars blog, where Fletcher revealed his hard luck story and early tournament exit. Fletcher also exposed a nascent poker culture at Old Trafford, citing a weekly home game involving Wes Brown, John O’Shea, Jonny Evans and Owen Hargreaves. The mind boggles.

“Poker was a natural progression”
While the majority of poker-playing footballers appear to treat the game recreationally, a couple of former pros in this country are prepared to pit themselves against the world’s best: the aforementioned Sheringham and his former Millwall sidekick Tony Cascarino. While Shezza led the way on the pitch, it was Cascarino who first took to the felt, before introducing his long-term friend to the game.

“It was his fault,” insists Sheringham. “I met Cas at Millwall: that was when I started playing poker. Only on the coach, I was only a bit-player. Cas used to play all the time. It wasn’t until 10 years later that poker became really big in football.”

Cas & Shez hit the green baize

In his short time on the circuit, Sheringham has enjoyed some notable successes, most recently when coming fifth in a tournament in Vilamoura, Portugal, for a payday of €93,121.

His transition from footballer to poker player has been largely seamless. As he says, “I’ve always played cards so it was a natural progression. I play once, twice a week maximum. Every now and then I get weekends off where I can go and play tournaments – Vilamoura, or the Bahamas, which I went to last Christmas. I’m going to try and take in the Aussie Millions tournament next year. A couple of mates are going, so we’ll have a game of golf as well, a bit of fun, a few beers...”

As for his recent success, Sheringham says: “I was pleased I came fifth. Obviously €93,000 is not to be sniffed at. It puts me in a few more tournaments – all the five grands, 10 grands to enter, it pays for a few of them.”

For Cascarino, meanwhile, the poker boom came at just the right time. In his brutally frank autobiography Full Time, the former striker outlines how he played on through the pain barrier as a footballer with no real retirement plan.

When Cascarino did finally hang up his boots, he found himself living in Paris, where he was able to claim a reasonable level of unemployment benefit. “I’d finished, I’d retired. I had nothing to do,” he says, treating FFT to dinner after a recent win.

“I used to go to the Cirque Casino in Paris, and every time I lost I used to punish myself and walk home from the casino instead of getting a 50 francs cab. And I got really fit when I first started playing because I was walking home every f***ing night. I was playing against quality players. Them walk homes was when I really realised I was doing something seriously wrong.

“I lost quite a bit of money the first year and I learned a lot. I always treated that period of my poker as a real lesson as to why there’s luck and skill. Because if you’re relying solely on luck you can’t win at this game.”

Away days: Fulham's Johnny Haynes and Alan Mullery start the school

Cascarino’s progress culminated in a career-best result in 2009, when he won the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Grand Final, trousering a cool £168,800. “It’s funny because I played in two World Cups and one European Championship as a footballer and I never got that in prize money for qualifying for them tournaments,” he laughs. “So I got more for playing poker – and I didn’t have to share it with anyone!”

Cascarino insists that the thrill from winning at poker is “far better” than scoring a goal. Sheringham, though, isn’t so sure. “Football’s in my blood,” he says. “Since I was a little kid I’ve always wanted to be a footballer, so I wouldn’t compare it to football because it’s very, very different. But I can’t run about anymore so I’ve got to try and find something else that gives me a bit of an adrenalin rush, and poker certainly does that, especially when we’re playing for a lot of money.”

“Fabien Barthez is good, because he's gently mad and has a poker face”
It’s a theme echoed by former Bayern Munich and France right-back Willy Sagnol, who caught the gambling bug as a youngster playing for Monaco. “When you’re a professional in sport you're living every day with this competition context,” he explains. “When you play for so long – like Teddy Sheringham played for more than 20 years – you get a lot of adrenalin on the pitch and you’re looking for that too after your career. There are not a lot of things that can give you this adrenalin rush. Poker is one.”

Sagnol even started installing a card room in his St Tropez villa before moving back to Munich, where he has begun work on a games room that will come with an open invitation to FFT to play him at poker. “Just make sure I’m there – I'll never say no,” he tells us.

Now scouting for Bayern, Sagnol mainly plays poker with friends – including some recent 16-hour sessions in Las Vegas – but has occasionally pitted himself against the pros. “I have played some tournaments, but I'd say poker for me is something very difficult because when you play football you know what to do; you know how to deal with situations normally.

"But with poker it’s something new. When I play in a poker tournament the pressure is bigger than when I was playing football because you’re not used to dealing with it and it’s something completely new. But it’s exciting at the same time.”

Who would you rather owe money to?

Poker isn't as big in Germany as it is in France and England, something Sagnol may have taken advantage of. “In Munich they weren't very good!” he says. “When I didn’t have any money at the end of the month I used to organise a poker game... no, that’s a joke! But at Monaco some players were quite good, like Fabien Barthez. He was good because he was gently mad and he has a poker face too – he can hide every emotion. But at Bayern, the main goal wasn’t to make money. It was to have fun.”

“If you let footballers loose, fortunes are won and lost”
But what happens when it becomes more than a bit of fun? Years ago at the launch of a betting website, ex-frontman and career gambler Steve Claridge relayed the tale of having to kick off at a bleak northern outpost having lost thousands on the horses during the coach journey. Losing cash to your team-mates could provide an even greater psychological minefield – as Claridge attests, having played cards at every club of his career.

“There could be a few hundred won or lost,” he says. “Managers will try and put a cap on it for obvious reasons. Players don’t want it on their mind that they’ve done a week’s wages before a game. Many players are gamblers but you just try and control the card game. If you let lads go loose, fortunes are won and lost. That can be a bit of a problem.”

Unfortunately for Cascarino, that problem came to a head in the Republic of Ireland squad. “My first trip was the [1988] European Championship,” he says. “Liam Brady organised a card school, and after loads of money had been won and lost – and I did win – we got on the plane, at which point Liam said, ‘Forget it. Amnesty. Bets are off.’ I was at Gillingham on two hundred quid a week and I’d won about £1,300, thinking, ‘This is paying for a lovely holiday.’ And I had to swallow it…”

International tournaments appear fertile breeding grounds for poker schools, and as Cascarino and Sagnol both admit, they can be good for team bonding and staving off boredom. “At World Cups and European Championships you’ve got a lot of time to blow. You end up playing loads and loads of cards,” says Cascarino.

Sagnol insists that hours playing poker brought the France team together at the 2006 World Cup. Perhaps England should have played a bit more poker in South Africa? “They didn’t stay long enough,” quips Sagnol, “but I’m sure they have played. That’s what football players should do because it’s about conviviality. The only negative thing I can see is if you were playing like mad: three, four, five times a week and betting £200,000. I think that would be a bit insane.”

Big Jack's lads relax at Italia 90

But would it? Surely today’s multimillionaire superstars can lose big money without it becoming a problem? “It’s a great question,” says Peter Kay, CEO of the Sporting Chance Clinic, which he founded with recovering alcoholic Tony Adams. “If they lose 20 grand, that’s like me losing 400 or 500 quid. It hurts, but it’s manageable. But if I kept doing that I would get to the point where I couldn’t pay the mortgage.”

One wealthy star whose gambling reached uncontrollable levels is Stoke winger Matthew Etherington. The winger’s debts reached £800,000 when he was at West Ham, the club having to lend him £300,000 to pay off some of that. Yet Sheringham claims Etherington was a good poker player, even making money.

“I’ve never had anyone presented to me who’s said, ‘I’m OK on everything else but poker is my problem’,” says Kay, himself a recovering alcoholic. “A lot of people who can control horse racing to a degree might be lost on a roulette machine or in a casino. But a good poker player will know when the odds are stacked against him cards-wise. Someone with an addictive nature will discard that and double the bet. You start taking risks.”

Etherington is now recovering after being treated by the Sporting Chance Clinic, but Kay isn't surprised when competitive sportsmen get drawn into gambling. “Matthew Etherington lost a fortune through gambling and a lot of people with addictive problems would think, ‘I’m really good at poker, I enjoy it and it’s a challenge.’ You’ve got to remember the competitive nature of footballers, especially when they retire. Poker gives them that.”

“It’s not a passing phase – we love it”
Competition’s not the only thing poker is giving ex-footballers. As Sheringham and Cascarino are proving, for those prepared to invest time and commitment, poker can provide a genuine post-career alternative to management, punditry or running a pub.

The former strike partners are certainly aiming high. “I’d love to win a big tournament,” says Sheringham. “But I know I’m playing with top professionals when I’m playing these big tournaments.”

Cascarino agrees. “I’d love to win a European Poker Tour or a World Series bracelet. But to be honest, I play poker because I love it, even when you have your bad days. That’s what me and Teddy have: a passion for it. It’s not a passing phase for us.

“A lot of people come in, try their luck and see how they go. Me and Teddy will be around playing poker until we pop our clogs...”

The draw of home: Why Chelsea could face losing Oriol Romeu

Gareth McKnight — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:49:00 GMT

Freelance football writer Gareth McKnight ponders whether Chelsea may have difficulty holding onto their new Spanish starlet further down the line...

With Spanish football on an all-time high, there is no wonder that Premier League clubs are eager to bring players from La Liga to England.

With Pepe Reina’s current and Xabi Alonso’s past importance to Liverpool, Juan Mata’s immediate impact at Chelsea, Cesc Fabregas’ legendary status in North London and David Silva leading Manchester City’s title charge, the English top flight has been blessed with incredible talent from Spain in recent times.

However, seemingly more than any other nation, Spanish players yearn for home and have left English teams at the peak of their individual abilities.

An emerging talent at Stamford Bridge is quickly proving his worth and may well one day be added to the impressive list of world-beating Spanish players that have graced British shores.

Oriol Romeu joined Chelsea from Barcelona last summer, and despite only making one solitary substitute appearance for the Catalan giants before departing, he has become a crucial member of Andre Villas Boas’ squad almost instantly. Jon Obi Mikel, Ramires and even Frank Lampard have seen their time on the pitch impacted this season by the Portuguese coach’s use of the youngster, and Romeu is already one of a host of players that Andre Villas Boas is building a new-look Chelsea team around.

Romeu has a great blend of the traditional Spanish qualities, and a battling nature that has suited the pace and aggression of the Premier League. Technically gifted with the ball at his feet, Romeu has an eye for a pass and calmness when in possession that is uniquely distilled through the ranks at La Masia. Add to this his ability to read the game, a keenness to put in a tackle and excellent positional play and Romeu is already at 20 years old an accomplished defensive midfielder.

However, just like in the case of Fabregas and Alonso, the draw of his homeland may hamper Chelsea’s long-term ambitions and plans for the Ulldecona-born man. Reports have emerged that Barcelona have a buy-back option integrated in Romeu’s contract, which can be implemented at the Camp Nou outfit’s request in the summer of 2012 or 2013.

With the abundance of midfield talent currently at Pep Guardiola’s disposal it is unlikely that the European champions will opt to bring Romeu ‘home’ this summer, but given another season of Premier League and European football and it may well be deemed that the starlet could be an asset in the Catalan senior squad.

With Xavi and Andres Iniesta currently at the peak of their powers, Sergio Busquets filling the defensive midfield slot, Fabregas being deployed as a second striker and Thiago Alcantara an impressive back-up, Guardiola’s options in the centre of the park are simply salivating.

However, given another 18 months, the two current dominant playmakers in Catalunya may well be starting to feel their age, and with Busquets gradually making the transition to central defence, Romeu could be summoned.

This would be a big blow for a team like Chelsea, who are not accustomed to losing key players; anyone who leaves Stamford Bridge is generally surplus to requirements. With Roman Abramovich’s billions, an ambitious young coach in place and an exciting team being built around the Spaniard, surely Romeu would be tempted to knock back Barcelona’s potential advances?

Not very likely. The draw of La Liga’s top sides is huge, not least to those who have witnessed their allure up close. The fact Romeu is a Barca youth product means he has been instilled with the mindset that playing for the Blaugrana is the Holy Grail since the age of 13, and Chelsea now have a problem.

One only has to look at the demise of Liverpool since the sale of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid to see the potential effect of losing a Spanish midfield general. Cesc Fabregas openly admitted to ‘feeling English’ during his time in North London and frequently spouted his love for the Emirates outfit.

He was part of a team unbeaten for an entire season in England, played in a Champions League final and had the adoration of one of the most respected coaches in world football, his fellow players and fans. Nevertheless, he could not resist the appeal of home.

An equally concerning thought that Chelsea will need to keep in mind revolves around Juan Mata, and like his countrymen, whether or not he would be able to resist either Barcelona or Real Madrid’s charms in a year or two’s time.

Mata is a Madrid youth player who again did not make the first team, and was later farmed out to Valencia. One feels there may be unfinished business at the Santiago Bernabeu for the attacker. Finally, even Sheik Mansour’s unlimited financial resources would probably not stop David Silva doing all in his power to forge a move away from Manchester City if one of Spain’s big two came knocking.

Spain’s World Cup-winning golden generation is currently the best crop of players in the game, with the country’s top two domestic teams the biggest clubs on the planet. For an English side to snag a leading Spanish player must be seen as a massive coup, however it should be advised that over-reliance on this superstar may end in tears; only time will tell in the case of Romeu.

Group D: Ghana, Mali, Guinea & Botswana

Jonathan Wilson — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

GHANA
Two years ago Ghana arrived in Angola with a young, highly promising squad that had allowed coach Milovan Rajevac to impose a strict discipline.

The absence of Sulley Muntari spoke volumes: mess Rajevac around and no matter how established you were, he had no qualms about turning to youth. The result was a side in harmony, who clearly enjoyed each other's company and played to a strict tactical discipline, which usually meant Asamoah Gyan being deployed as a lone – and often lonely – striker.

Although beaten 3-1 by Ivory Coast in their opener, 1-0 wins over Burkina Faso, hosts Angola and Nigeria saw them to the final where they were defeated – 1-0 – by Egypt. They carried that form into the World Cup, and were within a Luis Suarez handball of becoming the first African side ever to reach a World Cup semi-final.

The question now is how they'll cope with increased expectation, and if their counter-attacking style can still function when they are expected to take the game to the opposition. A mere two dropped points in qualifying suggests few problems, but the goalless draw at home to Sudan raised that very question about their capacity to break down well-organised defences.

The method, essentially, is simple. Gyan operates as a roving targetman, with Kwadwo Asamoah just off him and Andre Ayew to the left as part of a creative trident. Anthony Annan holds in front of the back four, with Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu alongside him as the shuttling midfielder.

Kevin-Prince Boateng could have occupied that role – or played slightly further forward with Asamoah moving to the right – but the AC Milan midfielder recently retired from international football. As in South Africa, they'll again be without long-term knee injury victim Michael Essien, denying Ghana a player of genuine class, but the midfield is an area in which they still have plenty of options. Gyan showed in the World Cup how brilliantly he can play the lone frontman role, too, holding the ball up and manufacturing chances or set-plays from seemingly impossible situations.

Having been the best African side in the past two World Cups, and with the squad that won the Under-20 World Cup in 2010 to draw on, there is every possibility that Ghana, who in the 1960s were probably the first great African side, could go on to dominate African football for several years.

Then again, it's not that long ago we were saying something similar about Ivory Coast.

Coach Goran Stevanovic
After reaching the World Cup's last eight under Rajevac, Ghana turned to another Serbian when he left for the Middle East. Stevanovic, a one-cap wonder for Yugoslavia, had been an assistant with Serbia & Montenegro and coach at Partizan. His record is underwhelming, but his 4-2-3-1 philosophy does ensure continuity with his predecessor.

Key player Asamoah Gyan
When Ghana hosted the 2008 ACoN, a tearful Gyan was close to walking out after barracking by home fans. Two years on, he was the major reason for Ghana's success. His edge may have been blunted, however, by quitting the Premier League for the UAE.

Key game vs Mali, Franceville, Jan 28
Mali vs Guinea should be a straight shootout for second, but Ghana will need to win it to avoid a nervy final group game against Guinea.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
They were so tough against us in 2008, and although we beat them they are now at a higher level. With Gyan, they have a real chance. Finalists.

MALI
Solid in midfield with Fredi Kanoute upfront, Mali should have made more of an impression in recent tournaments. After semi-final appearances in 2002 and 2004, they failed even to qualify in 2006, and were eliminated in the first round in each of the last two tournaments – despite an astonishing opener in 2010, in which they came from 4-0 down to force a draw with Angola.

Kanoute retired after that tournament, with Momo Sissoko also calling a halt to his international career. The Mali midfield remains strong, however, with Monaco's Mahamadou Diarra partnering Barcelona's Seydou Keita.

Qualifying was less than emphatic, though, a draw against Liberia in their final game meaning Mali progressed ahead of Cape Verde only because of a better head-to-head record, a 3-0 win in Bamako overcoming a 1-0 deficit from the match in Praia.

Coach Alain Giresse
One of the great midfielders of his generation and part of the France side that won the European Championship in 1984, Giresse has had an unorthodox coaching career, following up stints with Toulouse and PSG by going to Morocco with FAR Rabat. He moved into international management with Georgia before inspiring Gabon's rise.

Key player Seydou Keita
There is a tendency to regard Keita as a holding player, but in fact he is more than that, and at Barcelona usually plays alongside Sergio Busquets rather than instead of him. An intelligent passer, effectively the playmaker, he sets the tempo for the Mali midfield.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
Progressing will be hard, but as they showed against Angola in 2010, they are capable of pulling off something special.

GUINEA
After reaching three quarter-finals in a row, Guinea failed to reach the last ACoN. But the core of the side, notably attacking duo Ismael Bangoura and Pascal Feindouno, that performed so creditably in 2008, has stayed together. Even ex-Celtic defender Bobo Balde, now 36 and playing for Arles-Avignon, is rolled out now and again.

They were unbeaten in qualifying, a record they preserved by scraping a late equaliser away to Nigeria in their final game, eliminating the Super Eagles. Senegal beat them 3-0 and 4-1 in friendlies last year, though, and there was also a 2-1 defeat to Venezuela.

Coach Michel Dussuyer
The former keeper is in his second spell with Guinea. He coached Benin in 2010, but was sacked with all other coaching and playing staff after a first-round exit.

Key player Pascal Feindouno
The schemer is the captain and main creative force. Having missed the quarter-final thrashing by Ivory Coast in 2008, he has unfinished business – and a great shop window as he approaches his 31st birthday: he became a free agent this month and can sign for whomever he chooses after the tournament.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
With the return of Dussuyer, they have a real chance of making the quarters.

BOTSWANA
Botswana surprised everyone by being the first team to qualify for this year's Cup of Nations, but given their squad depth, they have it all to do now.

Not only have they never qualified for a major finals before, they've not even come close. Botswana didn't play their first international until 1968, and it was only in the '90s that they began trying to qualify for the World Cup and ACN. All but six of the squad are domestically based, and those exceptions play in neighbouring South Africa. But conceding just seven goals in eight qualifiers shows resilience, and they beat Tunisia home and away, losing only after qualification had been secured.

Coach Stanley Tshosane
The shaven-headed reason for the remarkable upsurge in Botswana's fortunes says: "It's the same as in school: prepare well for exams and you'll pass."

Key player Dipsy Selolwane
The 33-year-old, who spent four years in the MLS, is Botswana's all-time top scorer with 15 goals. He often plays in midfield but they need his sharpness upfront.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
No frontrunner, but will want to prove they are ready for such a stage as this.

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

Group A: Senegal, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea & Libya
Group B: Ivory Coast, Angola, Sudan & Burkina Faso
Group C: Gabon, Tunisia, Morocco & Niger

Mid-Season La Liga Ratings and Slatings: Athletic Bilbao to Granada

Tim Stannard — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:38:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com's man in Madrid Tim Stannard runs the rule over the first half of the 2011/12 season in the Primera Liga...

Athletic Bilbao - current position: 7th
Within the space of a couple of weeks, LLL saw the worst and the best of Athletic Bilbao under the every-so-slightly strange Marcelo Bielsa. In a goalless draw against Getafe, the side looked toothless and a little lost, with Javi Martínez appearing as fed up as a caged hedgehog with being stuck in central defence, the rampaging midfielder’s new position.
For the first half in Sunday’s 4-1 defeat in the Santiago Bernabeu, the Basque side were quite magnificent, the movement of the two lines of three causing no end of defensive confusion for Madrid. This tactical upgrade had been whacked on to the strength, power and downright direct dirtiness of Joaquín Caparrós, who had done wonders to develop a team of outstanding young talent such as Iker Muniain. There is still much work to be done but so far Athletic are rolling along nicely with a solid chance at grabbing fourth in la Liga, still in the Copa del Rey (at time of writing) and through to the next round of the Europa League.
LLL Rating: B+

Atlético Madrid - 8th
Blimey. Where to start? The short version - and the one LLL is going with - is a half season of institutional indecision from Enrique Cerezo and the Gil clan over whether they wanted Gregorio Manzano or not. By December, the answer was no - that was certainly the vote from the supporters, who failed to back the incoming coach from the beginning. While Atlético had a decent record at home, their away form was appalling, with the Rojiblancos only picking up their first win on the road in January.
The incoming Diego Simeone appears to have given the players the mental toughness that had been lacking, but it is too late now for a side that is out of the Copa del Rey, out of the Europa League and still has some catching up to if it wants Champions League football next season - something that the club’s bank account requires.
LLL Rating: C-

Barcelona - 2nd
LLL is going to be a little bit harsh here, as although Barcelona have beaten Real Madrid 14 times already this season, the Catalan side are still five points behind their league rivals. Although this could be closed during a wobbly spell, it’s Barça that look the most flimsy this season with very silly points being dropped away from home - Getafe being the champion chump moment for the Catalan club.
These points have not been tossed aside because Barcelona have worsened this season - indeed the signings of Alexis Sánchez and Cesc Fabregas have strengthened the Catalans enormously, but because in la Liga, Barça really don’t seem to be that bothered any more. Except when they rolled up at the Bernabeu to remind Real Madrid that although the Capital city club may win the league title, they are still inferior to Barça. However it’s unlikely that fans of the Madrid club will give a jumping jot about that in May.
LLL Rating: C+

Betis - 12th
A barking mad season so far for Betis, who sit in 12th with 26 points, meaning that it would take a disastrous second half of the season for the Seville side to go down. But then again, Betis are more than capable of achieving that, having gone through a spell between September and December picking up just one point from 30, a horrific slide that nearly got coach Pepe Mel the sack. So while mid-table is just fine for the newly promoted club, it could have been a whole lot better for Betis.
Extra bonus points are awarded though for playing some purty football and really giving it a go in the Santiago Bernabeu and Camp Nou this season, although both matches did end up with defeat ultimately.
LLL Rating: B-

Espanyol - 5th
The Pericos have trundled along quite nicely in la Liga this season without making too much fuss and noise. But that’s been the trademark of coach, Mauricio Pochettino who is now in his third full season at the club and having to dig deep into the cantera - and get Sergio García playing - after losing the goals of Javier Callejón and Osvaldo after the summer.
While Espanyol have hauled themselves into fifth partly by the fact that no-one else in that position is particularly consistent this year - LLL’s polite way of saying ‘any good’ - it’s above the expectations of a side who would happily have settled for a late top ten spot come May, whilst the team’s youngsters gained another year of experience.
LLL Rating: B+

Getafe - 11th
LLL can’t think of a single time it’s seen Getafe this year and had its tiny mind blown, as used to happen from time to time in days of yore. Well, perhaps twice. Not even the Barça match was particularly impressive despite Getafe inflicting the only defeat on the Catalan club in la Liga this season.
Luis García had a rocky start with the club since joining from Levante with the team struggling for goals - technically, Getafe still are, as Dani Güiza has been largely hopeless on his return - but in the past couple of months, García has made the Madrid(ish) side tough to beat, if not unspectacular. The half-way point sees Getafe snuck in mid-table where they are likely to remain. But that would be just fine after the second half of the season.
LLL Rating: C+

Granada - 18th
Although Granada are in the relegation zone, having just sacked their manager, that's exactly where LLL expected the side to be, with back-to-back promotions perhaps seeing the club peeking too early in la Primera. But still, the blog thought the club would be in an even worse situation by now, cut adrift at the bottom-of-the-table so Granada are actually doing a little better than LLL originally anticipated.
LLL Rating: C-

Tomorrow: Part Two - Levante to Real Madrid

Three once again the magic number for Serie A defences

James Horncastle — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:11:00 GMT

Some games stick in the mind more than most. One of the greatest I recall watching while growing up happened on a sunny spring day in Turin in April 1997. It was between Juventus and Udinese and caught the imagination because the outcome left many in the stands scratching their heads.

Shortly after kick off, it looked like the result was a forgone conclusion. Regis Genaux’s red card meant Udinese were down to 10 men and at the mercy of Juventus, who were the reigning Champions League holders and on course to reach another final as well as reclaim the Serie A title from Milan. The writing, it seemed, was on the wall.

Yet Udinese coach Alberto Zaccheroni out-maneuvered his opposite number, Marcello Lippi. Instead of taking off a striker and bringing on a defender to form a 4-4-1, he sprung a surprise. He left three-at-the back and withdrew one of his strikers into midfield, but on the condition that when the team had possession, he’d resume his former role up front.

Juventus did not know how to react to what was ostensibly a 3-4-2. They were beaten heavily 3-0, as Marcio Amoroso and Oliver Bierhoff both found the net in the five minutes before and after half-time. Any resistance Zaccheroni had met when proposing a three-man defence to his players earlier in the season crumbled. They embraced it, went undefeated for the remainder of the campaign and finished fifth then third the following season.

Zaccheroni got the Milan job on the back of that success and led them to the Scudetto in 1998/99 with a three-man defence made up of Bruno N’Gotty, Alessandro Costacurta and Paolo Maldini. He claims to be not the last but “perhaps the only” coach to win the title in Italy by using the tactic. There’s a degree of self-interest in that assertion. Osvaldo Bagnoli and Fabio Capello might have something to say about it. But it’s also fair to argue that no one is more associated with the three-man defence in Italy than Zaccheroni.

Zaccheroni's back three - including Maldini - won Milan's 16th title in '99

I mention this because, after the relatively successful re-emergence of the tactic under Gian Piero Gasperini at Genoa and Edy Reja at Napoli - both of whom achieved promotion with three-man defences in 2007 - it is no longer an odd exception in Serie A, rather a clear trend across the league as a whole.

The tipping point appears to have come at the end of last season. Walter Mazzarri’s Napoli finished third and qualified for the Champions League group stages using a 3-4-2-1, while Francesco Guidolin’s Udinese followed close behind them, ending the campaign in fourth place after adopting a 3-5-1-1.

Were the other teams missing a trick? Judging by their reaction it seems like they certainly think so.

In addition to Napoli and Udinese there are now seven other teams in Serie A from Fiorentina and Parma to Genoa and Novara basing themselves around systems with three-at-the-back. The list does not include Inter, who started the season with a 3-5-1-1, which they abandoned after a brief and ill-fated spell under Gasperini because it didn’t suit the players. Nor does it take into account the occasions Juventus have swapped their 4-1-4-1 formation for a 3-5-2 in a clear attempt to adapt to their opponents when faced with Napoli and Udinese.

Some have also made the case that Roma use three-at-the back too, but that’s simply the evolution of their 4-3-3 under Luis Enrique with Daniele De Rossi dropping between the centre-backs once the team has won possession in order to provide extra cover in defence and give license to the full-backs to push on and support the attack.

The question remains though: what’s behind the revival of the three-man defence in Serie A. Wasn’t it pronounced dead not too long ago?

In some respects, it’s circumstantial: Take for example, Vincenzo Montella. He opted for a 3-5-2 at Catania because he found himself without any full-backs. He even went so far as to convert Davide Lanzafame, a striker, into a right wing-back out of necessity. Bologna coach Stefano Pioli made a similar decision based on an appraisal of the resources at his disposal. He decided upon a 3-4-1-2 because, in his opinion, it best suited the characteristics of his players.

On the other side of the spectrum there are coaches like Gasperini, who appear to be wedded to a tactic and are dogmatic rather than pragmatic about using it even if it doesn’t fit the team. In his four seasons at Genoa, for instance, he used a back four just 20.4% of the time. Serse Cosmi also falls into this category of three-at-the-back fundamentalists. He has played that way more or less since his time in charge of Perugia in 2000. So is it really any surprise that Lecce are currently lining up in a 3-5-2?

However, for a tactic to be this widespread in Italy there must be a more profound contextual reason as to why it has suddenly become so popular again. The rise of the three-man defence perhaps coincides, at least in Serie A, with the fall of one-striker systems. Ever since Luciano Spalletti left for Zenit St. Petersburg and José Mourinho departed for Real Madrid, the most fashionable formation on the peninsula has been the 4-3-1-2. To put that into some kind of perspective, it was used more than 100 times in Serie A last season.

A three-man defence works especially well in this situation. Rinus Michels once claimed that teams should always have one defender more than the opposition had forwards, and that’s certainly the case when a three-man defence comes up against two strikers.

This is a solution to the problem posed so often in Serie A last season by teams matching up against each other in a 4-3-1-2. In this scenario, there is no attacking width to speak of and the game inevitably becomes a pitched battle in midfield. When faced with a 3-5-2, a team playing 4-3-1-2 finds itself in difficulty, as the wing-backs can exploit the space on the flanks without worrying about their defence. This is because a 3 v 2 situation means there’s a spare man, who can, if he sees fit, either sweep up or bring the ball out of defence and create an attack.

Guidolin alluded to this in a tactical discussion with Il Corriere dello Sport.

“The aspect that convinces me the most about a three-man defence,” he said, “is not so much the desire to be more covered in central areas but the part played by the three defenders in winning back possession, because if they do it well and one of the three manages to get into the other half of the pitch, you always put your opponents in difficulty.”

Elaborating on this point, Zaccheroni added: “In the medium and long term, games are always lost in central midfield and this tactical solution allows you to have a very dense one at that… The return of this kind of defence is borne out of the desire not to lose the battle in the middle of the pitch. The use of a three-man defence is not to add an extra striker to the team but an extra midfielder.”

This debate isn’t confined to Italy either. Pep Guardiola no less has taken it to the extreme at Barcelona, experimenting with a 3-1-3-3. Against Santos in the Club World Cup final in December, he essentially went without a natural striker and played with five midfielders plus Lionel Messi, who defies categorization as a classic centre-forward.

Guardiola’s reasons for using a three-man defence are slightly different from those held by his peers in Italy. Yet it’s clear that, though once considered out of date, the tactic is now back in fashion.

It seems three is once again the magic number.

Five to watch at ACoN 2012 (who don't play in England)

Jonathan Fadugba — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:07:00 GMT

You all know the superstars – but who are the rising stars playing in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon? Jonathan Fadugba – Editor of Just-Football.com (and chief correspondent for FFT.com's United States of Africa) – lists five likely lads looking to impress on the big stage.

Given the variety of teams to have qualified for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, there's sure to be a horde of European scouts running the rule over players in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew admitted the club would be sending scouts to “monitor” the competition in search of another Papiss Demba Cisse, while Bundesliga club Hoffenheim's scout Lutz Pfannenstiel described it as the “perfect platform,” a “responsibility for every proper club in Europe.”

But who will these scouts be looking at? Here are five players who could star at ACoN 2012 given the opportunity.

Mehdi Benatia (Morocco and Udinese)

I highlighted Benatia last June in my all-star African team of 2010/2011 and since then the Moroccan international's influence on club side Udinese has continued to grow. Nominated for the Best Defender in Italy award in his debut Serie A season – no small achievement in a league that knows a good defender when it sees one – Benatia is a key component of a miserly Udinese defence that has conceded fewer league goals than any other team bar Juventus. Reads the game exceptionally well and is useful in possession.
Watch him vs Tunisia, Mon 23rd, 7pm GMT; vs Gabon, Fri 27th, 7pm; vs Niger, Tue 31st, 6pm

Seydou Doumbia (Ivory Coast and CSKA Moscow)

A nomadic career to date has seen the Ivorian striker travel in the last four years from Japan to Switzerland to Russia, where he plays for CSKA Moscow. Wherever he lays his hat, goals usually follow. Pacy, powerful and prolific, the 24-year-old scored 50 goals in 65 games for Young Boys Bern before heading to Russia and hitting another 24 goals in 32 games in the Russian Premier League.

He has been named Player of the Year in both countries and has five goals so far in this season's Champions League. He could add a whole new dimension to Ivory Coast's frontline if he can find playing time in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea – he came on in the 89th minute of the opening win over Sudan.
Watch him vs Burkina Faso, Thu 26th, 7pm; vs Angola, Mon 30th, 6pm

Jonathan Pitroipa (Burkina Faso and Rennes)

Rennes coach Frederic Antonetti raves about Pitroipa, saying that if the 25-year-old could add consistency to his game he would be one of the most dangerous players in Europe. It's easy to see why Antonetti is so enthused. A speedy, nimble winger who can occupy both left and right flank, often switching positions at regular intervals during games for Rennes, Pitroipa is a player with potential star quality.

Described as the 'Burkinabe Cristiano Ronaldo', a tag he doesn't appear to particularly like, Pitroipa does need to become more reliable if he is to go on and succeed at the highest level. But the basic ingredients are there with his array of tricks, dazzlingly quick feet and ability to beat a man effortlessly.

He started ACoN 2012 in typical style in Burkina Faso's somewhat unfortunate 2-1 defeat to Angola. Nobody attempted more take-ons (seven, with three completed) and, perhaps not uncoincidentally, nobody suffered more fouls (seven) – but only attempted one cross (uncompleted), didn't create any chances and was outpassed by 11 players, including six of his own team-mates.
Watch him vs Ivory Coast, Thu 26th, 7pm; vs Sudan, Mon 30th, 6pm

Emmanuel Mayuka (Zambia and Young Boys)

When Seydou Doumbia left Young Boys for Russia the Swiss outfit were quite clear about who would replace him, wasting no time in securing a deal for promising young Zambian Emmanuel Mayuka. Now just turned 21, the bustling striker first came to attention at the Under-20 World Cup in 2007, where he starred for a junior Chipolopolo side that made the last 16.

He was the youngest player at the African Cup of Nations 2008 and has shown very promising development in the years since, thanks to his presence in attack and explosive change of pace. Mayuka, who has said that his dream is to play for Manchester United, can play as a lone striker or drift across the front three and scythe his way in-field via the channels.

ACoN 2012 started well for both Mayuka and Zambia: his 12th-minute header sent the southern side on the way to a precious 2-1 win over group favourites Senegal. He only had one other shot but got it on target, and his danger-man tag was shown in that nobody drew more fouls than him (four).
Watch him vs Libya, Wed 25th, 4pm; vs Equatorial Guinea, Sun 29th, 6pm

Modibo Maiga (Mali and Sochaux)

Off the field, Modibo Maiga has been a disaster this season: throwing tantrums, insulting his own supporters and even refusing to play for Sochaux. It all stems from a long-held desire to leave the Ligue 1 strugglers for a bigger club which, in fairness, his abundant talent probably warrants.

Nevertheless his shenanigans have been quite disheartening to witness and one wonders to what extent it was his misbehaviour, rather than worries over the state of his knee, that caused Newcastle United to pull out of an £8m deal.

It's a shame because when on his game the Mali international is a real handful – aggressive, alert, strong in the air and a good finisher. Scoring 15 league goals last season suggest he can do it at a high level, and having been rejected by the Magpies he will be desperate to impress watching scouts here to rescue him from his nightmare in Montbéliard.
Watch him vs Guinea, Tue 24th, 7pm; Ghana, Sat 28th, 7pm; Botswana, Wed 1st, 6pm

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

Good Day, Bad Day: Boos for Mou, a miraculous Messi and fabulous Falcao

Tim Stannard — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:21:00 GMT

Good Day

Real Madrid
In what may have been a big middle finger to all the critics, José Mourinho switched from fielding nearly every available defensive player - as he did against Barcelona - to playing almost every attacking footballer, with Karim Benzema, Mesut Özil, Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso and even Esteban Granero starting Saturday’s game.
Although the side was a little overrun by a feisty Athletic Bilbao in the first half, when the team clicked in the gear in the second - thanks to a penalty for Cristiano Ronaldo - Madrid looked more than decent. This approach still may not have been enough to beat Barcelona but it certainly calmed down some critics in the press. “Why didn’t you put a team like this out against Barça? Why?” was the plea to Mourinho from Tomás Roncero.

Leo Messi
Just brilliant. That’s the most original comment the blog can come up with for Messi’s hat-trick against Málaga on Sunday evening, the forward’s 14th for the Catalan club, equalling a Barça record. It was an all round splendid display from Barcelona in Málaga - bar a wobbly start - in match LLL thought Pep’s Dream Boys would drop points like the care-free mavericks they've been of late. But the 90 minutes was miles away from some of the lethargic displays put on by the club away from home in la Liga this season.

Levante
A goalless draw with Zaragoza where absolutely nothing happened by all accounts, but another point eked out by Levante, a side who are now counting down the points until they reach 43. That means four wins left over the entire second half of the season. Quite doable really.

Espanyol
Does Espanyol sitting plump and pretty in fifth make Paul from Barcelona a happy puppy on Monday? Nope. Of course not, here’s grumpy chops and here is his opinion on Saturday’s 3-0 win over Granada...
“They say there are no easy games in football. Well, someone should tell Granada. Ye gods they are not any good. Probably the worst Primera team since Extremadura.
A stroll for Espanyol who didn't need to get out of second gear to win by three goals, all this despite Thievey playing. Baena, Verdú (penalty, and it was) and Rui Fonte scored and it could have been more.
Granada also had this moron called Jara who came on with the sole intention of breaking someone’s leg. Get this idiot out of football. Ref was ok despite not dishing out a red (see above) and a crumb of comfort for Granada - excellent fans, over a 100 and vocal. Hats off to them. Hope they stay up despite that prat Jara. They deserve it - the fans not the players.”
Paul, Barcelona

Falcao
Prior to new Atlético coach Diego Simeone’s arrival, lazy-boned forward Falcao wasn't exactly in the blog’s good books. But five goals in two games - including three against Real Sociedad - see the Colombian move on to 14 strikes for the season, the best first half of a season for a Rojiblancos striker since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in the 1999/00 campaign.
While the improved form of the expensive Falcao is clearly a boost to Atlético, the fact that the side has yet to concede under Simeone in the three games in charge for the Argentinean, is considerably more telling.

Betis & Sevilla
A generous and tremendously condescending LLL is putting both teams into the good day section due to the positive, hippy vibes created around what used to be a really nasty derby, and for a cracking game of football which ended 1-1.

Alvaro Negredo
The Vallecas man’s equalising effort in the aforementioned fun-fest was the striker’s first since the 17th December against Real Madrid.

Jaime Gavilán
After a bit of a ‘meh’ first third of the season, Getafe are now plodding along nicely under the ever chirpy Luis García, unbeaten in five with three wins, all of them by the odd goal. That was the case on Saturday with a 2-1 victory at Racing, a win kicked off by an equalising goal from winger, Jaime Gavilán who was making his first start since March 2011 after a couple of serious injuries.

Bad Day

José Mourinho
It’s all going a bit pear-shaped for the Madrid manager, despite Mourinho giving his team the best first half to a season in terms of points and goals in the club’s history. First the press turned on the manager - with Mourinho taking a hammering after Wednesday’s latest Clásico catastrophe - then the players, at least according to Marca, who on Sunday wrote of a big split between the coach and the senior Spanish contingent.
The Athletic Bilbao match saw dissent within the fans with Mourinho’s being booed on three separate occasions when the club’s Ultras sang his support. “I didn’t ask to come here, it was Madrid who asked me,” was Mourinho’s non-plussed response after the match.

Osasuna & Valencia
Both in the dog house for boring the trousers off LLL in Sunday’s midday kick-off which put the blog in a somnambulant mood for the rest of the day. The only action that took place in the game came in the final few minutes when Roberto Soldado looked like he had given Valencia their first league win of the year, David Albelda saw red for a horrendous challenge and Lolo scrambled a very Osasuna equalising effort in injury time.

Málaga
“More effort, more concentration” was Manuel Pellegrini’s assessment on his side’s performance in the 4-1 defeat to Barcelona, where the home team only turned up for the opening few minutes and to force good saves out of Víctor Valdés. Málaga have now slipped back to tenth place, are without a win in six and that must be putting Manuel Pellegrini and his project under pressure despite constant claims of patience.

Rayo Vallecano
When Rayo spurned three or four good chances in the first half of their clash with Mallorca, LLL watching in the stands sensed that something nasty was waiting around the corner in a game they really needed to win. That nastiness came a few minutes into the second half with a header from Iván Ramis - but not once did the supporters stop singing in Vallecas despite the defeat.

Racing Santander
A first defeat for ‘The Trio’ managing Racing after three wins and two draws since taking over from Héctor Cúper.

Fabri
Granda aren’t even in the relegation zone, but that hasn’t stopped club president Quique Pina having a wobbly moment by sacking Fabri after three straight defeats, and just one victory in six. In doing so, the club parts company with the manager who gave the team back-to-back promotions from the Segunda B to the Primera. Which is a bit sad really.

ACoN Diary 2: Drogba, Dogtanian and a double-header in Malabo

Jonathan Wilson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:45:00 GMT

Jonathan Wilson continues to document his time in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations

One of the joys of travel, they say, is the incidental knowledge you pick up on the way.

Yesterday, for instance, I was sitting in a restaurant in Malabo tucking in to a very good spaghetti bolognese before the double header of Ivory Coast against Sudan and Angola against Burkina Faso (food in Africa, for a western European palate anyway, is easily broken down: former British and Portuguese colonies = dreadful; former French and Spanish colonies = pretty good. This is doubly true of bread and coffee). The TV was showing the classic eighties cartoon Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, dubbed, I thought, into Spanish. But then the action went past a school, above the door of which was written ‘escuela’.

At first, I wondered whether they could possibly have redrawn that section of the cartoon to render it in Spanish but, having decided that was unlikely, I Googled the series. It turns out it was initially a joint Spanish-Japanese production and that the English dub, the one we all grew up with, was a translation.

Further research shows that Around the World with Willy Fogg (with its villainous wolf apparently modelled on Paul Breitner) was also a Spanish-Japanese co-production, while Ulysses 31 and The Mysterious Cities of Gold were French-Japanese. British animation seems to have been shamefully restricted to shorts like King Rollo and Willo the Wisp, the epic sweep apparently beyond them.

I tried asking the waiter about Dogtanian, but linguistic confusion led him to think I was talking about Didier Drogba, and he confirmed that he expected Ivory Coast to win the Cup of Nations. Like many others in Equatorial Guinea, he claimed to be an Ivory Coast fan, insisting his family came from there.

The Elephants, strong favourites for the tournament, began against Sudan on Sunday. The game kicked off at 5pm, but I got to the stadium at one, anticipating the chaos for which the Cup of Nations has become notorious. As it was, things couldn’t have gone more smoothly. There wasn’t even anybody checking accreditation at the door, and the wifi – always a journalist’s first concern – worked perfectly.

The stadium itself is small, with a capacity of only 15,000, but could hardly have a more beautiful setting. As you sit in the press-box, the lower slopes of Mount Cameroon stretch away to the right, covered in jungle and shrouded in mist. Over the stand to the left, perhaps 200 yards away, is the sea, which drew a small flock of white ibis to peck their way across the pitch, at least until the crowd swelled enough to scare them off.

The crowd didn’t swell much, though. Including the volunteers who took up their seats at half-time in the Ivory Coast v Sudan game, there were probably no more than 10,000 in the 15,000-capacity stadium. This is a perennial problem for Cups of Nations: when the hosts aren’t playing, crowds are always poor – and that's despite governments such as those of Ivory Coast and Angola subsidising trips for fans. Given the cheapest ticket was £6.25, around a week’s wages for the majority of the country, perhaps that isn’t so surprising, while travelling fans – never large in number in Africa anyway – were probably put off by the high cost of accommodation and the difficulty of attaining visas.

Ivory Coast weren’t great, but they were good enough – Didier Drogba heading the only goal midway through the first half and the much-maligned Boubacar Barry making two excellent saves to protect the lead before Yaya Toure dropped deep to shut the game down. It was efficient rather than spectacular, but given how often Ivory Coast have started Cups of Nations well only to falter, that’s probably for the best.

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

Jonathan Wilson: ACoN diary 1: Volcanoes, oil & a dancing Santa
Michael Cox: How will Premier League strikers fare at ACoN 2012?
Jonathan Fadugba: Why Africa's 41st-best football nation is hosting ACoN 2012

Heroes & Villains: the weekend's winners and losers

Mark Booth — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:48:00 GMT

Who left their mark and who hit the skids this Premier League weekend? Mark Booth investigates

RESULTS (click team name for web-wide club news feed) Sat 21 Jan Norwich City 0-0 Chelsea; Everton 1-1 Blackburn Rovers; Fulham 5-2 Newcastle United; Queens Park Rangers 3 -1 Wigan Athletic; Stoke City 1-2 West Bromwich Albion; Sunderland 2-0 Swansea City; Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-3 Aston Villa; Bolton Wanderers 3-1 Liverpool Sun 22 Jan Manchester City 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur; Arsenal 1-2 Manchester United

HEROES

Manchester City
Winning the Premier League requires a broad range of skills. Back in the first third of the season, Manchester City showed fluency as they put opponents to the sword with freewheeling football drawing admiration from all quarters. The Christmas period was a test of their mettle which City just about passed, but for their latest victory, the league leaders must thank the lords of fate.

Not only did Tottenham's Gareth Bale and Jermain Defoe conspire to waste a golden opportunity to win the match in injury time, but the Premier League’s foremost protagonist left his mark on the game in predictably idiosyncratic style. It’s impossible to read Mario Balotelli at the best of times but the did-he-didn’t-he-mean-it argument on his Scott Parker tread will remain a mystery to all but the striker. Had any other player been responsible there would be no debate but Balotelli invites controversy upon himself at every turn.

As it was, Balotelli stayed on the pitch and was the coolest man in the stadium when he sidefooted home in the 94th minute to seal the three points. City’s next five games (Everton A, Fulham H, Villa A, Blackburn H, Bolton H) look relatively straightforward when compared to Manchester United’s (Stoke H, Chelsea A, Liverpool H, Norwich A, Spurs H) and they will be relieved to escape this, one of their trickiest remaining assignments, with their title credentials intact.

Danny Welbeck & Antonio Valencia
Welbeck's performance at Arsenal showed exactly why he might feel that he deserves a better contract. It wasn’t just his match-winning finish but his link-up play with Valencia and willing running that characterised a hugely impressive performance from the striker. It was another efficient win from Manchester United, who seem to have the happy knack of winning games without playing particularly well.

Over the course of a season any successful side needs individuals to take responsibility and in Welbeck and Valencia, United have two players who will do just that as they look to hang on to City’s coat-tails. If the teams keep matching each other point for point as they have been doing, their meeting at the Etihad Stadium on the 28th April might just be the match that decides matters.

Norwich City’s backline
Norwich’s 22nd match since returning to the Premier League brought their first clean sheet. While Chelsea certainly looked the likelier to break the deadlock at Carrow Road, it was credit to the Canaries defence that the score remained level. John Ruddy was handed the man of the match champagne but there should be a glass each for his defenders. Daniel Ayala, Zak Whitbread, Kyle Naughton and Russell Martin worked in tandem to nullify the threat of Fernando Torres, who was withdrawn after 77 frustrating minutes.

Andy Johnson & Clint Dempsey
After Danny Guthrie gave Newcastle the lead just before half-time at Craven Cottage it looked bleak for one of the league’s most inconsistent sides. Fulham had offered nothing in the first half to suggest that they could get back into the match, but the introduction of Andy Johnson changed the game. Johnson's direct drive into the heart of Newcastle’s defence created Fulham’s second, while the fourth was a penalty won by Johnson after taking the ball around Tim Krul, who was left with no choice but to take him out.

Dempsey, meanwhile, notched a hat-trick – and if the first goal was fortunate, the second two were goals of the highest quality, both of them clinical thrashes across Tim Krul into the far corner. A wonderful servant, Dempsey has now scored 51 goals for the club.

Robbie Keane
Like he was never away. The Aston Villa loanee was largely anonymous against former side Wolves but popped up when it counted with two excellent finishes to fire Villa to 11th on manager Alex McLeish’s 53rd birthday. A move to the ever-improving MLS might not be the semi-retirement it once was but Keane’s match-winning performance suggests that the LA Galaxy forward might have crossed the Atlantic at least a season too soon.

Steve Kean
There’s no doubt that Kean’s players are standing firmly behind their manager and it’s paying dividends as Blackburn climbed out of the bottom three with a draw at Everton. David Goodwillie has shown in flashes that he might prove to be a smart acquisition for Kean, who is turning the volume down on his critics with each passing week.

QPR
It seemed the eyes of the country were on Loftus Road for QPR's relegation showdown with Wigan Athletic and Mark Hughes’s side didn’t flinch, securing a convincing 3-1 win. There was a lot of nonsense being spouted in the lead-up to the match, unsurprisingly centring around Joey Barton’s Twitter account, but the players kept their focus and Hughes picked up his first three points as manager. With reinforcements being lined up from across the world on Tony Fernandes’ ‘limitless’ budget, the Rs can start looking up the table at last.

Craig Gardner
When Gardner revealed this month that he was suffering from homesickness, it looked like his days at Sunderland were numbered – especially after being linked with a loan back to former club Birmingham. "I don't think that anybody wants him to leave the football club,” said Martin O’Neill after seeing Gardner score the goal of the day on Saturday – a beautiful dipping 25-yarder that sealed yet another win for in-form Sunderland. O’Neill’s powers of persuasion may still be tested before January is out, but given the Ulsterman's Clough-like ability to foster team spirit, Gardner would benefit from seeing things through to the summer as the Black Cats’ ascent up the Premier League table continues apace.

VILLAINS

Gareth Bale & Jermain Defoe
A stupid, crazy end to the game began as the hapless Stefan Savic allowed Bale and Defoe to break clear. Bale put too much on his sidefooted pass across to Defoe, who failed to adjust his legs and could only slide the ball wide. This was Spurs’ golden opportunity to truly join the title race but it wasn't to be after Ledley King subsequently took out Mario Balotelli – who might himself heave a sigh of relief at not being in this section – and now the Manchester clubs have pulled clear of Spurs. There’s no shame in leaving the Etihad Stadium empty-handed this season but the manner of this defeat clearly hurt Tottenham who looked shell-shocked at the final whistle.

The Arsenal support
This wasn’t a case of a few isolated idiots; there was widespread booing at Arsene Wenger’s decision to replace the lively Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with the out-of-form Andrei Arshavin. There’s no doubt that it was a baffling decision but quite what the Arsenal fans hoped to achieve with their emphatic reaction to the substitution is a mystery. After two disappointing defeats, and facing champions who knew they had to keep up with their cross-city challengers, the last thing a team needs is a chorus of negativity from their own supporters – and targeting Arshavin will have done nothing but further damage the player’s ailing confidence.

Arsene Wenger
That said, it was a terrible substitution that might have cost them a point.

Alan Pardew
God knows what happened at half-time at Craven Cottage but Newcastle were every bit as bad as Fulham were excellent in the second half. Whether the Magpies thought the game was won or not, their defending was erratic to say the least, as Andy Johnson and Clint Dempsey were given a license to breach their defence at will.

Alan Pardew has deservedly won praise for his masterminding of Newcastle’s expectation-defying first half of the season, but he was too slow to react to Fulham’s reshuffle when Brian Ruiz was removed from the centre of midfield and they were overrun for most of the second half, shipping four goals before Pardew looked to his bench to change things. Even then, it was a negative substitution, a recognition that the game was up, and Newcastle slipped to a heavy 5-2 defeat.

Fernando Torres
Save for one genuine moment of inspiration when Torres had Ruddy at full stretch with a flick of the outside of his boot, it was another disappointing showing from the £50m striker at Carrow Road. He's now gone 15 hours without a goal – his longest dry patch in English football – but the most troubling aspect of Torres’ performance was the second-half performance in which the Spaniard looked lethargic and ponderous, finding blind alleys with overambitious dribbles that were easily snuffed out by Norwich’s resolute defence.

After a more encouraging display last time out against Sunderland, the striker saw his frail confidence take another hit after another missed sitter from 10 yards saw him withdrawn for Romelu Lukaku on 77 minutes. The consensus thus far has been that Torres needed games to restore his confidence, but how long can Villas-Boas – hardly in the world's safest seat himself – stick with a player whose misfiring is so obviously costing his team valuable points towards a Champions League berth?

Glen Johnson
In an unhappy Saturday evening for Liverpool at Bolton, Johnson was found wanting on numerous occasions, either failing to stop Martin Petrov getting past him or, worse, going completely AWOL. Yes, Johnson gets forward readily, but too often he is found to be positionally naive and caught too high up the pitch to fulfil his defensive responsibilities. Any England supporters looking forward to the summer should be hoping Fabio Capello finds a cure for his Micah Richards-phobia or get used to heart palpitations come June.

Emmanuel Frimpong
Your heart has to go out to the on-loan midfielder, who may now face another three months out of action after fracturing a cheekbone against Aston Villa. It’s bad news for Arsene Wenger, too, who would have been hoping for the 20-year-old to pick up some valuable first-team experience at Molineux. After spending last season on the treatment table, it’s another season of frustration for Frimpong who will be hoping more ‘DENCH’ times lie ahead in 2012/13.

Chris Coleman
Not an inspiring co-commentary spell from the new Wales boss, who namechecked Mario Bolochelli, Sergio Ramos (he meant Juande) and David de Silva. Fingers crossed he has an easier time remembering his own players' names.

Wenger's astute substitution, Keane leads the way, Jol sets Dempsey free

Nick Govier — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:40:00 GMT

The weekend's top flight action analysed by Nick Govier, editor of Footballistically.co.uk

The shock of the latest round of Premier League matches was the seven goal thriller at Craven Cottage, notable not just for the number of goals but also for a phenomenal tactical turnaround by Martin Jol which swung the game Fulham's way.

Fulham began with Bobby Zamora up front on his own and Newcastle were able to isolate him as they seized control of the match. Steve Sidwell was removed before halftime for Andrew Johnson to provide a partner for Zamora, and Bryan Ruiz was withdrawn at the break for Chris Baird.

This moved Damian Duff from the left to the right wing, and most importantly allowed Clint Dempsey to get on the ball further up the field. The change in average positions before and after these changes is shown in the chalkboard below.

The resulting improvement Clint Dempsey's influence was most notable; only completing two passes prior to Sidwell's withdrawal and finding himself performing a more defensive role, yet having much more of a say after the change, particularly going forward, not least by scoring a hat-trick.

Robbie Keane nearly joined Dempsey in the hat-trick club as he made his first start for his latest club, Aston Villa. He led the match stats for goals (two), shots (four), shots on target (two), successful passes (44) and attacking third passes (21 successful of 27 attempted), in a dominant display which ultimately made the difference.

From dominant attacking displays to dominant defensive ones, as Sunderland kept a clean sheet in the face of 69% Swansea possession, restricting the Welsh club to just three shots on target. This was largely down to the Black Cats’ 22 successful tackles (the equal highest of the weekend, with Arsenal) and 21 interceptions (fourth highest of the weekend).

Wigan were ever so slightly less successful with their tackling against Queens Park Rangers, conceding 19 fouls, including two penalties. Four of those fouls were on Shaun Wright-Phillips; his nine attempted take-ons (hexagons on the chalkboard) show how eager he is to run at the opposition right-back and cause him problems.

Finally, another right-back with problems this weekend was Johan Djourou. Having been sent off at Fulham and left exposed repeatedly against Swansea, Manchester United directly targeted him throughout the first half.

They got their reward when Nani crossed from space on Djourou's side for the opening goal. An uncharacteristic halftime replacement was needed by Wenger, and it was telling that the introduction of 18 year old Nicholas Yennaris shored up that side of defence for the remainder of the game.

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Juve take heart in title charge after being crowned 'winter champions'

Richard Whittle — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:06:00 GMT

The title of ‘winter champions’ may be merely a symbolic one, but Juventus will take heart from claiming the lead at the halfway stage of the season.

In the last seven seasons, the team that have been crowned winter champions have gone on to land the title outright.

Saturday’s 2-0 victory at Atalanta left Antonio Conte’s men four points ahead of AC Milan and unbeaten so far, with a record of 11 wins and eight draws.

Milan have won 12 and drawn four, but tellingly have lost to Juventus, Napoli and most recently Inter. It could be such matches as the city derby that play their part in the outcome of the Scudetto, such is the closeness of this year’s title race.

Juve’s 19-game unbeaten run may seem impressive, but Roberto Mancini’s Inter side went 31 matches undefeated during their title-winning campaign of 2006/07. In most of the last seven years it was that dominant Nerazzurri side leading the way at the halfway stage – so this year is possibly a bigger test of the theory that the team leading in January will still be there come May.

Stephan Lichtsteiner heads Juve into the lead at Atalanta

Indeed, those looking for messages in the tea leaves will find that, ever since three points for a win was introduced into Serie A 17 years ago, only four winter champions have failed to take home the prize in May.

It will be a long hard slog for everyone through to late Spring and at present there is little likelihood of Juve or Milan suffering a major collapse in form, though the Old Lady has the kinder fixture list ahead of their meeting with the Rossoneri at the end of February.

Injuries could be a factor in the battle for the title, but Alexandre Pato succumbing to another hamstring strain and facing a month on the sidelines seems to be met with more of a sigh of relief than cries of frustration in the Milan camp.

The absence of the future Mr Berlusconi has finally afforded the Italian footballing public a glimpse of the talented Stephan El Shaarawy, who scored against Novara last week in the Italian Cup and whose entry at half-time against the same opposition at the weekend gave Massimiliano Allegri’s men the sort of zip and zest missing whenever Pato is on the pitch.

The 19-year-old will no doubt be given a clear run through the next month, and if he continues to display a keen eye for a goal then who knows he may even force his way into Cesare Prandelli’s plans for Euro 2012.

Over at Juventus, Conte can also call upon youthful vigour: Luca Marrone came on as a second-half substitute for the injured Simone Pepe at the weekend, and the 21-year-old set up Emanuele Giaccherini for the second goal of the game with a delightful flick.

If Udinese have any aspirations of remaining in the top three then they will be relying not only on their home form – having dropped only two points at the Friuli so far – but on the goalscoring form of Antonio Di Natale.

El Shaarawy, Ibrahimovic and Robinho celebrate against Novara

The Serie A capocannoniere for the past two seasons took his tally thus far this term to 14 with a thunderous volley in the 2-1 win over Catania, but the veteran striker was joined at the top by Zlatan Ibrahimovic who grabbed a brace in Milan’s 3-0 victory at Novara. His second was a dead cert for the cheekiest goal of the season – a nonchalance back-heel that even the usually stern-looking Swede could not help smiling about.

Outside the current top-three AS Roma must feel they make 2012 a year to remember, and Francesco Totti has already started on the right foot.

Vilified for missing a penalty against Juventus only a month ago, the talismanic Roman etched his name into the history books when he broke Gunnar Nordhal’s Serie A goalscoring record for one club by taking his impressive figure to 211 with a brace in the 5-1 demolition of Cesena.

Nordhal set the record some 50 years ago with Milan and it may be another 100 before we see any player surpass Totti. Suddenly now even the most sceptical critics are convinced Luis Enrique’s exciting young side will have a say in where the title ends up.

It is unlikely they will win it, but the Giallorossi are in the pack chasing Udinese and still have 26 minutes of their rain-disrupted match at Catania to play.

Another Roman enjoying a pleasing weekend was Claudio Ranieri, who saw his Inter edge past Lazio. In doing so they took their winning streak to eight matches in all competitions and leapfrogged the Romans into fourth place.

January may be considered the cruellest month for some, but for the title chasers the winter blues have already been blown away.

Group C: Gabon, Tunisia, Morocco & Niger

Jonathan Wilson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

GABON
Football is full of 'what ifs', but few have as much reason as Gabon to ponder what might have been.

What if president Omar Bongo, who had ruled the country for 42 years, hadn't died shortly before a World Cup qualifier against Cameroon in June 2009? Gabon had won their first two fixtures and led a Cameroon team in disarray, as the Otto Pfister reign came to an end, by five points. A home win in Libreville would have given them an all but insurmountable lead.

But Bongo's death caused the game to be postponed, and by the time they reconvened the following September, Cameroon had regrouped under Paul Le Guen. In the space of four days, Cameroon beat Gabon home and away; suddenly the lead was gone and it was the Indomitable Lions rather than the Panthers who made it to South Africa.

Gabon gained some measure of revenge by beating Cameroon at the Cup of Nations in Angola – a match in which Didier Ovono established himself as probably the best goalkeeper in Africa – but it was a success on which they were unable to build. A draw against Tunisia and defeat to Zambia left them level on points with Cameroon and Zambia. They celebrated on the pitch in Benguela but, like South Africa last year, they had misunderstood how the head-to-head system worked and were knocked out on goals scored.

Although their best performance in the Cup of Nations was reaching the quarter-finals in 1996, Gabon has the feel of an emerging football nation, and on home soil the expectation will be of a place in the semis at the very least.

This is a squad with players from clubs in countries as varied as Tunisia, Belarus and Hungary, but it's notable that 11 of the squad play their domestic football at home in Gabon.

Manager Alain Giresse was replaced by German Gernot Rohr in 2010, but he's maintained a similar approach. Gabon don't score many but they don't concede many either, thanks in no small part to goalkeeper Ovono and combative centre-back Bruno Manga, whose robustness has seen him become an effective replacement for Laurent Koscielny at Lorient. And while a friendly defeat to Gambia in June caused a few ripples of anxiety, Gabon have beaten Niger and Equatorial Guinea since then, as well as putting in solid performances in defeats to Ghana and Brazil.

Coach Gernot Rohr
The defender played 350 games for Bordeaux before managing them over three stints, including to a UEFA Cup final. Since then he has wandered through a number of French second division teams, as well as Young Boys of Bern, and he lasted only five months in his last job at Nantes before taking over at Gabon in February 2010.

Key player Bruno Manga
Manga was spotted by Bordeaux scouts, but never played for les Girondins. He impressed sufficiently at Angers, though, to earn a move to Lorient and become a regular at international level.

Key game vs Tunisia, Franceville, Jan 31
If Gabon don't take six points against Niger and Morocco, this match could be edgy. It's the only game in this tightest of groups to be played outside the capital, and a runners-up spot will likely mean a quarter-final with Ghana.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
They will feel a lot of support from the home fans as a host nation, but they will also feel pressure from that. Gabon will need to create a surprise to beat one of the two big teams in their group if they are to progress.

TUNISIA
Talk about changing of the guard. Of the sides who have won the last nine tournaments, Tunisia are the only one to have qualified this time. Even they squeaked through behind Botswana, getting the win they needed against Togo on the final day.

Tunisia were the first African side to win a World Cup finals match (against Mexico in 1978), and have reached four World Cups. They won the Cup of Nations at home in 2004, and lifted the CHAN – the tournament restricted to players from their home country's domestic league – in Sudan last year, giving them a welcome retort to those who criticised their policy of naturalising Brazilians for much of the last decade.

But these are turbulent times, with seven changes of coach since 2008, and Tunisia seem to be struggling to find an identity now the glory years of 2002-06 are over. Although they hammered both Chad and Mali last year, they also lost to Oman and Algeria. Inconsistency rules.

Coach Sami Trabelsi
Once a rangy centre-back for CS Sfaxien in Tunisia, Trabelsi (below, left) won 52 caps for the team he now manages. The 43-year-old played at the 1998 World Cup and coached the Tunisian Olympic side. He took over as full national coach after Ammar Souayah quit following last year's uprising.

Key player Karim Haggui
A tall, rugged central defender, Haggui was the youngest member of the squad that won the Cup of Nations in 2004, and is now the most experienced member in terms of caps won. He moved to Europe with Strasbourg in 2006 and, after three years at Bayer Leverkusen, is now at Hannover 96.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
So well organised, they will rightly have high hopes. They shouldn't have many troubles getting through this group.

MOROCCO
They held their nerve to qualify on the final day by beating Tanzania 3-1, but the result that really counted for Morocco was a 4-0 hammering of neighbours and rivals Algeria in June last year. It suggested Eric Gerets' approach was beginning to pay off.

Friendly results have been mixed, though, and there was a frustrating lack of cohesion to their play in Marrakech last November, both in the 1-0 defeat to Uganda and the 1-1 draw with Cameroon. Gerets' style is most effective when he has his players for a protracted period, though, so tournament football should suit this Morocco side.

Coach Eric Gerets
As a manager, the 57-year-old Belgian has won league titles in Holland, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and his home country.

Key player Marouane Chamakh
The Arsenal forward was just 20 when his goals inspired the Lions of the Atlas to the 2004 final. While he's struggled lately to get regular football for the Gunners, he offers the physical threat to make the most of the Morocco midfield's technical quality.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
Having only conceded twice in getting here, they will be a force in this group.

NIGER
Talk about an odd way to qualify: Niger ended their campaign with a 3-0 defeat to what was effectively an Egypt under-23 side, but as South Africa mistakenly played for a draw against Sierra Leone and finished lower on head-to-heads, it was enough.

Niger actually lost three of their six games, but nonetheless they've qualified for the first time. Given their federation admitted it might have been unable to afford to send them to Angola had they qualified in 2010, it is quite an achievement – particularly after being grouped with Egypt and South Africa.

Coach Harouna Doula Gabde
Gabde makes a point of thanking God for their success, but it may have more to do with his intense, hard-pressing 4-4-2.

Key player Kassaly Daouda
The goalkeeper, one of three players in the squad from Cameroonian club Coton Sport, has won over 50 caps and had a brief loan spell at Rapid Bucharest.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
Unlikely qualifiers to the tournament, they will find it tough to progress here.

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Group A: Senegal, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea & Libya
Group B: Ivory Coast, Angola, Sudan & Burkina Faso
Group D: Ghana, Mali, Guinea & Botswana

Group B: Ivory Coast, Angola, Sudan & Burkina Faso

Jonathan Wilson — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

IVORY COAST
We've been talking about last chances for a while now. But this, surely, is Ivory Coast's final, final chance for their gifted generation – perhaps the most gifted any African nation has ever known – to win something. Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue, Salomon Kalou, Didier Zokora – it's a list of explosive talent few countries in the world can match, and yet so far they have never quite delivered. At World Cups, Ivory Coast have twice been undone by cruelly difficult draws; at Cups of Nations, luck has repeatedly been against them.

In 2006, for instance, they reached the final, but then faced the hosts Egypt in front of a hostile, passionate crowd in Cairo. Drogba missed a sitter that would have won it late on, and then saw his penalty saved as the Ivorians lost in a shootout. In 2008, Egypt were again their nemeses, producing probably the best performance of their six-year reign as African champions to beat them 4-1 in the semi-final.

Then, two years ago in Angola, they went 2-1 up in the 89th minute of a quarter-final they had dominated against Algeria, conceded in injury-time, conceded again early in extra-time and, emotionally shattered, couldn't raise themselves to find an equaliser. Vahid Halilhodzic was sacked as coach for what he referred to as "one minute of madness" from his side, and the familiar story of instability and short-termism went on as Sven-Goran Eriksson took Ivory Coast to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The question mark about Ivory Coast was always whether the players had the imagination to get the best out of their power, but Gervinho offers the team an inventiveness from wide areas – something that has long been a failing not only for Ivory Coast, but for west African football as a whole. He remains inconsistent and his final ball can be wayward, but at least now Ivory Coast have a variety of approach.

Additionally, in CSKA Moscow's Seydou Doumbia they also have one of the most natural young finishers in the world right now. And since his move to Manchester City from Barcelona, the newly liberated Yaya Toure has emerged as one of the few multi-purpose midfielders at the highest level of the game.

Qualifying was a breeze, with six wins out of six and 19 goals scored, but the key, as ever for Ivory Coast, is whether they can convert that into silverware in the finals.

Coach Francois Zahoui
After a disappointing World Cup under Eriksson, Ivory Coast turned to Zahoui, who made his name as coach of Abidjan club Africa Sports. His record cannot be faulted, but indications are that new federation chief Augustin Sidy Diallo would prefer a big-name European coach.

Key player Yaya Toure
Four years ago, when Kolo Toure suggested that his brother – whom he compared to Patrick Vieira – was the better player, most thought it was fraternal generosity speaking. It turns out he was right. The midfielder has developed into a combative presence who plays box-to-box, distributing well and contributing his share of goals.

Key game vs Sudan, Malabo, Jan 22
Angola will likely be their hardest test, but Ivory Coast should have qualified by the time the teams meet in the third game. The key will be getting off to a good start against a big, awkward Sudan side.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
They will have one priority in this Cup of Nations: to win it. They've often missed the last step to hold the trophy but I think this time they can achieve their dreams.

ANGOLA
Petrodollars were supposed to equal progress, but it hasn't quite worked out like that for Angola.

After two qualifications for the Cup of Nations in the '90s, they stunned Nigeria by qualifying ahead of them for the 2006 World Cup. Captain Fabrice Akwa told anyone who'd listen that the World Cup was the perfect stage to prove Angola wasn't "just about oil, war and poverty". Maybe not, but it was a stretch to suggest it was suddenly about football.

With draws against Mexico and Iran, Angola certainly didn't embarrass themselves in Germany, but they were eliminated at the group stage in the 2006 Cup of Nations and were stodgy in reaching the last eight in Ghana two years later. Even on home soil last time out they only flickered, and lacked the wherewithal to break down a solid Ghana in the quarter-final.

Since Luis Goncalves left in 2008, Angola have had a flurry of coaches, with two defeats in six qualifiers hardly a ringing endorsement of their quality going into this tournament.

Coach Lito Vidigal
The brother of ex-Portugal international Luis Vidigal replaced Zeca Amaral 12 months ago, becoming Angola's fifth coach in three years. Once a defender for Campomaiorense and Belenenses, Lito played for Angola in the 1998 ACoN.

Key player Gilberto
The 29-year-old left-winger missed the 2006 World Cup through injury, but was Angola's most impressive player at the Cup of Nations in 2010. Now at Lierse in Belgium, he became a star at Al-Ahly where he won six Egyptian titles and three African Champions Leagues.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
Their experiences from Germany 2006 and the 2010 Cup of Nations will help. A good chance of making the quarters.

SUDAN
The only east African side to qualify for Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, Sudan have a far prouder history than their FIFA ranking of 112 suggests.

They hosted the inaugural tournament in 1957, finished runners-up in 1959 and 1963 and won on home soil in 1970. But living up to that past has proved difficult with the economic and political turmoil that has beset the country. Since 1976, Sudan had qualified only once before this tournament – in 2008, when they lost all three games and failed to score a goal. Only Ghana took points off them in qualifying, though, as they went through as a best runner-up.

Coach Mohamed Abdalla Ahmed
Ahmed was coach at the 2008 ACN and led the team to third at the 2011 CHAN (the competition restricted to players based in their home country's league).

Key player Haitham Mustafa
One figure bestrides Sudanese football. Captain and record caps holder, the astute midfielder has won 11 Sudanese Premier League titles with Al-Hilal.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
With young players coming through, just improving on 2008 will be Sudan's aim.

BURKINA FASO
Mauritania's withdrawal left Burkina Faso with just Gambia and Namibia to overcome in qualifying. They did that with ease, averaging three goals per game and only dropping points away to Gambia having already qualified.

Having made five ACoNs in a row, they missed the next three after finishing fourth on home soil in 1998. But this second qualification in a row, with a side just coming to maturity, suggests they are a nation on the up. They have pace, strikers Aristide Bance and Moumouni Dagano are potent and defender Bakary Kone was solid enough at Guingamp to earn a move to Lyon last summer.

Coach Paulo Duarte
After a part-time stint at Le Mans, the 42-year-old Portuguese former defender is now fully focused on the Stallions, whom he led to Angola in 2010.

Key player Jonathan Pitroipa
A lightning-fast winger or midfielder, Pitroipa made his name at Freiburg and Hamburg before moving to Rennes for £3.2m in 2011, scoring two on his debut.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
Their target is second place. Although possible, I think it will be tough for them.

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Group A: Senegal, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea & Libya
Group C: Gabon, Tunisia, Morocco & Niger
Group D: Ghana, Mali, Guinea & Botswana

Group A: Senegal, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea & Libya

Jonathan Wilson — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

SENEGAL
A certain date is scored deep into the consciousness of Senegalese football: October 11, 2008. That was when it hit rock bottom.

The Lions of Teranga needed only to win at home against their generally disregarded neighbours Gambia (the Senegalese call it "a suppository in the a**e of Africa" because of the country's curious shape, snaking along the banks of the river which shares its name) to reach the second phase of World Cup qualifying. They drew 1-1, and so missed out on both South Africa and the 2010 Cup of Nations.

For a side that had been one of the coming forces of the new century, that had beaten France in the World Cup, that had lost the 2002 Cup of Nations Final only on penalties, that had been controversially beaten in the semi-final by hosts Egypt in 2006, it was some setback. Tony Sylva, Khalilou Fadiga, Salif Diao and El-Hadji Diouf, veterans of the 2002 World Cup, had all played in that game, but there was clear need for rejuvenation.

Not surprisingly, it was Diouf whose departure proved hardest to manage. As turbulent as he is, his energy, tireless front-running and imagination had been a key factor in Senegal's rise. He remains the greatest icon Senegalese football has ever produced, but it seemed that his personality had become too dominant in the dressing room.

Last July, Diouf effectively made the Senegalese management's decision for them. Having missed a disciplinary hearing convened to investigate claims he had made about corruption in African football, he vowed to "go to war" with the Senegalese federation if they attempted to impose any sanction. They banned him for five years.

The suspicion, though, is that Senegal don't actually need him. They have attacking options aplenty, with Demba Ba, Mamadou Niang, Dame N'Doye and Souleymane Camara all battling for the striking roles in Amara Traore's attacking 4-4-2, in which the forward Moussa Sow, such a key figure in Lille's French title win last season, tends to be forced out to play on either flank.

The defence perhaps does not quite have the same depth of quality, and following successive friendly defeats to Colombia, Peru and Morocco, expectations have been dampened. But Senegal's forward line means that if they can discover defensive solidity – and they conceded just twice in qualifying, despite a tough group including Cameroon and DR Congo – they will prove a serious threat.

Coach Amara Traore
Traore was 36 when he went to the 2002 World Cup and didn't play one minute. But few would quibble with the job he has done in trying to restore dignity to Senegalese football since replacing Lamine N'Diaye in December 2009.

Key player Moussa Sow
Sow, who turns 26 two days before the ACN begins, was top scorer in France last season with 25 goals, including three hat-tricks, as Lille won the title. Although he was a part of France's Under-19 European Championship-winning side in 2005, he committed to Senegal in 2009. Given Senegal's attacking resources, he often finds himself out wide, trying to add goalscoring thrust from midfield.

Key game vs Zambia, Bata, Jan 21
Ahead of a World Cup qualifier between the two teams in 1993, Zambia's team were killed in a plane crash. This will be a poignant meeting of the group's best teams.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
After missing out on two tournaments in 2010, Senegal will be highly motivated. Should make at least the semi-finals.

ZAMBIA
Two years ago in Angola, Zambia dominated their quarter-final against Nigeria but lost on penalties.

As the Super Eagles sleepwalked – yet again – to third place and Zambia coach Herve Renard was lured away by the wealthier Angolan federation, it was hard to see much future for a team that had impressed with its vibrancy. But now Renard is back and Zambia look a force.

The question is whether Renard should be back; although his departure felt traumatic, he was only reappointed in October, and it was Dario Bonetti, once of Roma, Milan and Juventus, who led them through qualifying – only to be fired.

Although Zambia lost away to Libya in their second qualifier, that was their only defeat, and a record of just two goals conceded – one of them, weirdly, away to tiny island nation Comoros – speaks of a solid, balanced team. Like 2010, this is a team lacking stars, made up of players based largely in Africa, including six from 2010 African Champions League winners TP Mazembe of DR Congo.

Coach Herve Renard
Renard's first head coaching role at a professional club came at Cambridge United, where he was dismissed after winning just four of 25 matches. He only lasted six months as coach of Angola after abandoning Zambia for them in 2010, returning to the Chipolopolo following a stint at USM Alger.

Key player Christopher Katongo
Utrecht forward Jacob Mulenga is the only player at a western European club, but the experienced Katongo of Chinese side Henan Jianye is Zambia's key figure, offering creativity from either flank.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
Not to be underestimated. We only beat a solid Zambia in the last minute in 2010.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA
Equatorial Guinea have never qualified before, and their failure to qualify in 2002 was only their second attempt.

The co-hosts have put in a team for every tournament since, but a FIFA ranking of 151 tells its own story. They climbed to 64th in 2008, but the more stable Elo rankings never had them higher than 141st. A trawl of Spain for players with Equatoguinean heritage has bolstered the squad, and a 3-2 aggregate victory over Madagascar saw them make the second phase of World Cup qualifying, confirming the positive signs left by a draw against Cameroon and a 3-0 win over the Central African Republic.

Coach Henri Michel
The 64-year-old is one of the most respected coaches in Africa. He managed France at the 1986 World Cup and has coached Cameroon, Morocco (twice), UAE, Tunisia and Ivory Coast.

Key player Randy
Las Palmas left-winger Iban Iyanga – or Randy – is one of the recent call-ups based in Spain. His mother is from the Canaries; his father, Equatorial Guinea.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
They've been inconsistent, so will need to turn things around fast to get through.

LIBYA
Given Libya have only appeared at two Cups of Nations – finishing runners-up as hosts in 1982, followed much later by a winless showing in Egypt in 2006 – qualifying was eye-catching even without the knowledge of what the country has been through recently.

Pride in the new nation – the kit has been changed to red and black to reflect the flag of the National Transitional Council – has clearly been an inspiration. Despite having to play home qualifiers in Egypt, Libya secured second place in their group with an emotional 0-0 draw away to Zambia and qualified unbeaten as one of the best-placed runners-up.

Coach Marcos Paqueta
The 53-year-old won the Under-17 and Under-20 World Championships in 2003 as coach of Brazil, and led Saudi Arabia in their poor 2006 World Cup campaign.

Key player Samir Aboud
The goalkeeper is the most successful player in Libyan history, winning nine Libyan Premier League titles with Al-Ittihad. He played in an African Champions League semi-final in 2007.

Samuel Eto'o predicts...
Will have special motivation to succeed. Libya could well get through this group.

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Group B: Ivory Coast, Angola, Sudan & Burkina Faso
Group C: Gabon, Tunisia, Morocco & Niger
Group D: Ghana, Mali, Guinea & Botswana

How will these Premier League strikers fare at the Africa Cup of Nations?

Michael Cox — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:27:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the Africa Cup of Nations - get the FREE Africa Cup of Nations version of Stats Zone now...

This is widely considered to be the final chance for the Ivory Coast generation led by Didier Drogba, who plays upfront with two of two other players well-known in the Premier League – his Chelsea teammate Salomon Kalou and Arsenal forward Gervinho.

Favourites for the competition, Ivory Coast’s problem is that they lack real creativity in midfield, depending upon the role Yaya Toure plays – he can be used either as a very attacking force, as he was for Manchester City last season (most notably in the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United) or as a holding player, as in his Barcelona days. As a result, their style of play is direct, powerful and often a little predictable.

However, if you want to play that way, Drogba is as good a striker as you’ll find. The passes he received in his most recent game, Chelsea’s defeat to Aston Villa, shows a striker who generally stays in central positions and is happy to receive longer balls. His shooting was wayward, however – from his five attempts the only one on target was a penalty. He is the Ivory Coast’s main man, but he shouldn’t be allowed to dominate proceedings too much.

Second favourites are Ghana, the only African side to progress past the group stage at the World Cup two years ago. They also enjoyed a good Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 2010, getting to the final by playing a counter-attacking game and relying on the pace of forward Asamoah Gyan, who scored the only goal in both the quarter-final and semi-final.

Gyan is a completely different type of forward to Drogba – and the diagram of his most recent complete game available on StatsZone, at home to Newcastle earlier this season, illustrates his style perfectly.

He rarely stays in central positions, even when playing as the lone striker – he works the channels and drifts out to the wings. However, he’s so quick that he often finds he has no support, and takes shots from highly ambitious positions, meaning his shooting can be highly erratic.

Senegal’s matches will be watched closely on Tyneside – Newcastle’s new strike partnership of Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse is the same combination likely to be used by Amara Traore at the ACoN.

It will be interesting to see which striker plays in which role. They are broadly similar players – Cisse is a classic number nine and thrives in the penalty box, and while Ba can play on the flank, he’s excelled this year at Newcastle by playing as a classic centre-forward. Will Cisse be the main striker, or Ba?

Ba’s performance against Manchester United, his final game before departing for Africa, showed that he’s more than capable of playing alongside another static central striker, in Shola Ameobi. There, the two collected plenty of long balls, and Ba never ventured to the flank in the final third.

It sums up Maroune Chamakh’s woes: the last complete game he’s played was a dead rubber Champions League tie away at Olympiacos. After a good start to life at Arsenal, his form over the last year has been horrendous, and with Robin van Persie’s superb displays, Chamakh hasn’t got much playing time in the Premier League this season.

The Moroccan is primarily seen as a number nine, a target for direct football – it’s interesting how long many of the balls to him are, particularly considering the general style of Arsenal’s play.

That will probably be his role in this tournament – Morocco play with many attacking midfielders, with the likes of Mbark Boussoufa, Nordin Amrabat, Younes Belhanda, Adel Taarabt and Houssine Kharja to choose from, plus Youssouf Hadji as a second striker.

Chamakh will be asked to hold the ball up, and his role might be more about laying the ball off to runners, rather than shooting. That’s probably a wise move if his recent goalscoring form is anything to go by.

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Equatorial Guinea: How Africa's 41st best footballing nation came to host the ACoN

Jonathan Fadugba — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:26:00 GMT

As one of the smallest countries in continental Africa, what do you do if you cannot play your way to a major international tournament? In Equatorial Guinea's case the answer was simple. You buy your way in.

Aided by the discovery of vast oil and gas reserves that prompted huge economic growth in the mid-1990s, Equatorial Guinea found the resources possible to mount a joint bid with neighbours Gabon. After seeing off competition from Nigeria, in 2006 they were named joint hosts for what will be their first ever African Cup of Nations.

In a sense, therefore, the challenge is already won for the Nzalang Nacional. As a nation with just 2,300 registered players merely competing on such a stage is impressive enough. Loftier ambitions must be considered unrealistic. A comparative lack of competitive football having qualified as hosts only puts them at further disadvantage.

A further blow was the loss in December of veteran French coach Henri Michel, African football's serial hired hand. Michel cited 'repeat interference' as reason for leaving his eleventh post in Africa, leaving Brazilian coach Gilson Paulo to take over on a two-month contract that tells you everything you need to know about any plans for long-term development. Guinean officials described Michel's resignation, not one month before the team's opening game, as 'sabotage'.

One of Michel's principal complaints while in charge was over what he interpreted as meddling by the son of Equatorial Guinea's president Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Africa's longest serving leader, described as a 'despotic ruler' and accused by Human Rights Watch of using an oil boom to "entrench and enrich [his dictatorship] at the expense of the country's people."

Despite having one of the highest levels of GDP per capita in Africa according to the World Bank in 2009, social inequality in Equatorial Guinea is desperate. The most recent Household Expenditure Survey in 2006 showed that 70% of the population live below the poverty line, despite the country's newfound wealth, and investment in social-sector developments have dragged.

In 2010 Transparency International brought a case against the Obiang family accusing it of laundering the nation's riches. It reported that the Obiang family's assests - including eight luxury cars in France worth €4.2million - were worth far in excess of what the family officially earn.

Differences of opinion are often poorly received. Ahead of last year's African Union summit – hosted by Equatorial Guinea - Amnesty International reported that political opponents of Obiang, as well as up to 100 students, had been arbitrarily arrested and detained without charge.

"President Obiang’s government is already among the worst human rights abusers in Africa and the continuing persecution of political opponents is deplorable," said Tawanda Hondora, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director.

It is against this backdrop that Michel tried to bring his experience to a team facing huge challenges. Ruslan Obiang, the president's son, worked with Michel in his capacity as Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, but the pair clashed on a number of issues, team selection being one. Nicknamed 'the sorceror', Michel wanted to forge a tight knit group of preferably local based players. The president's son felt differently.

Obiang favoured a more exotic blend of overseas-based, naturalised Equatoguineans. The dispute had already forced Michel to resign once last October, but he reneged on his decision a week later. The final straw came when Equatorial Guinea's preliminary Cup of Nations squad was announced and, according to Michel, "a player was added to the list without permission."

With that in mind, Paulo's 23-man squad makes for interesting reading. Ten of the 23 ply their trade overseas in Spain, land of the old colonial rulers, while others like Brazil-born keeper Danilo, Liberian Lawrence Doe and the Cameroonian striker Thierry Fidjeu, are naturalised representatives. Meanwhile five local based players called up by Michel for the Nzalang Nacional's World Cup 2014 preliminary round qualifier triumph over Madagascar in November were omitted.

President Obiang has boldly declared that he expects Equatorial Guinea to go all the way at this Cup of Nations. "Not only do we want the national team to display attractive football and sporting values, we also want them to win the Cup. The trophy must remain in Equatorial Guinea," he stated. But really this is a pipe dream. The squad is arguably the weakest in the competition.

Defensively they can be compact - three clean sheets in their last seven games offers some hope - but in reality their current FIFA ranking of 150th in the world (41st in Africa!) tells its own story.

Deportivo La Coruna forward Rodolfo Bodipo is captain and leader, the nation's best known player, while Javier Balboa's career highlight is scoring for Real Madrid. They along with Fidjeu will be looked to for creativity and firepower.

Kicking off against Libya, the home support they receive in Bata will need to be at its boisterous best if Equatorial Guinea are to have any hopes of a respectable campaign. Tough games against Senegal and Zambia follow. It is therefore very difficult to see how Paulo can manufacture anything other than a nice bit of international coaching experience for himself during this brief stint in charge. After the tournament he will return to his administrative position at Vasco da Gama's academy in Brazil.

In managing to qualify for the World Cup in Germany last year Equatorial Guinea's women delighted the entire nation and were celebrated as heroes. Now it's over to the men.

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

Jonathan Wilson: ACoN diary 1: Volcanoes, oil & a dancing Santa
Michael Cox: How will Premier League strikers fare at ACoN 2012?

ACoN Diary 1: volcanoes, oil and a dancing Santa

Jonathan Wilson — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:43:00 GMT

Jonathan Wilson agreed to furnish FourFourTwo.com with a diary of his time in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. Here's the first instalment.

The descent into Malabo comes abruptly. You break through the mist that has covered the Equatorial Guinea capital for the two days since I got here, and see nothing but the grey Atlantic and a splodge of volcanic rock covered in thick forest. Then suddenly there are a handful of red-tiled roofs amid the trees and the plane is screeching along the runway.

The road into town is broad, modern and all but empty, lined with new-built concrete buildings. At the first junction, a flatbed truck packed with Chinese construction workers crosses in front of us; a little further on I notice that a large purple-brown building on the right is decorated with large Chinese characters. There’s not much doubt where the money’s coming from for much of the building work.

There’s a sense of incongruity about the whole place, something that is only enhanced by the hotel, which – conveniently – backs on to the stadium. Twelfth Night has been gone a fortnight, but in the car park are inflatable Santa Clauses, while a nativity scene stands in the lobby next to a 5ft-tall model Santa, who writhes provocatively to We Wish You A Merry Christmas and thrusts his pelvis while calling for figgy pudding.

It’s welcoming, albeit in a slightly weird way, and that is really what this tournament’s all about. Until now, after all, who in the rest of the world cared about Equatorial Guinea? There’s been a pattern to recent Cups of Nations: Angola two years ago, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon this time round, and it was supposed to be Libya next until the uprising against Gaddafi intervened. These are all oil-rich countries (as are Russia and Qatar, which may not be coincidence), and that they want to spend their wealth on hosting tournaments is not charitable largesse.

This is about laundering the image of the country, raising its profile, making it seem “normal”. Two years ago, the Angola captain Fabrice Akwa said the Cup of Nations was a chance to prove his nation was not just “oil, war and poverty”, and that surely is the aim of other hosts (which makes it all the more frustrating that getting visas for Equatorial Guinea and Gabon has proved so difficult – after two months of discussions, I got mine about three hours prior to the embassy closing the day before my flight left; I know of at least five other journalists who gave up.)

And, whatever you think of the ethics of spending money on hosting a tournament when there are social projects desperate for cash, local enthusiasm is clear. The Ivory Coast team bus was mobbed by fans, all seemingly desperate to bang on the windows, when they arrived. Local television has been showing a non-stop churn of footballers smiling and shaking hands with men in suits, interspersed with people in Equatoguinean colours dancing on the wings of dilapidated planes (grounded) cut with a montage of great Cups of Nations goals.

In Malabo, my taxi driver insisted yesterday, the excitement is only going to grow. “Everybody who likes football has gone to Bata for the opening game,” he said. “On Sunday, woooooh....” On Sunday, Ivory Coast play Sudan, and then Burkina Faso face Angola. It should be quite a day.

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

Jonathan Wilson: ACoN Diary 2: Drogba, Dogtanian and a double-header in Malabo
Michael Cox: How will Premier League strikers fare at ACoN 2012?
Jonathan Fadugba: Why Africa's 41st-best football nation is hosting ACoN 2012

Exploiting Arsenal's vulnerability at fullback key to United's hopes at the Emirates

Michael Cox — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:39:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the best of the weekend's Premier League action...

An obvious area of weakness for Arsenal in recent weeks has been in the full-back positions. With Andre Santos, Kieran Gibbs, Bacary Sagna and Carl Jenkinson all out injured, Arsene Wenger has been forced to play centre-backs out of position there. And, after Johan Djourou was sent off against Fulham when looking thoroughly uncomfortable at right-back, away at Swansea Ignasi Miquel struggled in an unfamiliar left-back role. Those two look likely to start again in Sunday's home fixture with Manchester United.

The Premier League champions will surely look to target that area and exploit Arsenal's vulnerability there, particularly at left-back. Sir Alex Ferguson has an interesting choice for the right of midfield - Nani terrorised Arsenal in this fixture two years ago from the right, which turned out to be the start of an impressive run of form.

But Antonio Valencia enjoyed an excellent game against Bolton last weekend and might be more of a natural wide right player to take on Miquel down the outside and get crosses in. The contrast in Nani’s and Valencia’s play is shown below: Nani’s performance against Arsenal earlier in the season, and Valencia’s from last weekend.

The first meeting between Chelsea and Norwich this season was an interesting tactical battle. Paul Lambert played a 5-3-2 away at Stamford Bridge, which meant Norwich had cover at the back, but left the Chelsea full-backs free – that turned out to be crucial, as Jose Bosingwa moved forward unmarked to thump in a brilliant opener.

But at the other end of the pitch, Norwich caused Chelsea significant problems by knocking the ball over the defence and getting Grant Holt to challenge John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic in the air, with ten free-kicks resulting from these challenges.

Norwich’s aerial route is crucial to their game – they’ve scored more headers than any other side this season, and it will be interesting to see if Andre Villas-Boas gives a debut to Gary Cahill alongside Terry at the back, or retains Ivanovic, who is probably better in the air despite his previous struggles against Holt.

Either way, it will be a physical contest – and the diagrams show that Holt prefers to battle against the right-sided centre-back, rather than Terry, who plays to the left.

Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor is on loan from Manchester City and therefore unable to compete against his parent club, which will probably mean a start for Jermain Defoe as the lone striker on Sunday, with Rafael van der Vaart just behind him.

This isn't a game that will naturally suit Defoe's qualities - away from home Harry Redknapp would probably prefer a strong striker who can hold the ball up, but he doesn't seem to have much faith in Roman Pavlyuchenko, Adebayor's natural deputy.

Defoe has evolved his game to become a better all-rounder in recent years, however, and his link-up play is much better than a couple of seasons ago. He should look to come deep and drag centre-backs away from their natural position - Stefan Savic, in particular, lacks inexperience and can be pulled around. Defoe’s passing from last start, against West Brom, shows how deep he often drops.

Landon Donovan's return to Everton for a two-month loan spell has reaped instant rewards - his excellent through ball to Victor Anichebe rescued a point last week at Villa Park,
It's exactly the sort of thing Everton have been missing. This season, they average only one through ball per match, a terrible record equal with the likes of Stoke and Norwich, sides that unashamedly play long balls and hit crosses towards big central strikers. It shows that, in addition to lacking a regular goalscorer, Everton also miss creativity from midfield positions to set up chances in the first place.

Donovan provides that – against Aston Villa he played more passes in the final third than any other player, and also created the most chances, three. This weekend he’s up against Blackburn, who concede over two goals per game, meaning the American is likely to play a key role.

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Ali Bongo, masks and zither-harps: meet the hosts

Jonathan Wilson — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:36:00 GMT

Know next to nothing about the proud hosts of ACoN 2012, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea? Fear not! Impress your friends with facts gleaned from Jonathan Wilson's five-step guide to each of the co-hosts.

Gabon

1. Europeans arrived in equatorial West Africa in the 15th century, and gave Gabon its name because of the estuary of the Komo River’s resemblance in shape to the gabao, a Portuguese hooded cloak. Gabon became a centre of the slave trade under French protection. The country became independent in 1960.

2. In 1849, the French attacked a slave ship just off the coast of Gabon, freeing the captives who founded Libreville (‘free town’). It is now the country’s capital, with 600,000 of Gabon’s 1.5 million population living there.

3. Backed by French logging interests, Leon M’Ba was elected president, with Omar Bongo vice-president, in 1961. M'Ba imposed a one-party state in 1964 and fought off a military coup that sought to reimpose democracy with the help of French paratroopers. He died in 1967 and was replaced by Bongo, who ruled until his death in 2009, replaced by his son Ali Bongo.

4. Oil is responsible for 81% of exports and 43% of GDP, but production is declining and it is estimated it will have run out by 2025. Although a per capita annual income of $8,600 is high for the region, wealth is concentrated among a small elite, with over 90% of assets held by under 20% of the population.

5. Gabon is famous for its masks, which come in two main types: the n’goltang of the Fang people and the relicary figures of the Kota. The masks, used on ceremonial occasions such as births, marriages and funerals, are crafted from rare local woods, and are often inlaid with precious materials. Look out for  them at games, too.

Equatorial Guinea

1. Equatorial Guinea was at various times settled by the Portuguese, the British and the Spanish, and it was even briefly ruled from Buenos Aires during the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars. From 1844 until its independence in 1968, Equatorial Guinea was a Spanish colony, and it remains the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa.

2. Francisco Macias Nguema was elected as Equatorial Guinea’s first president in 1968, but he declared a one-party state two years later. His reign of terror, in which it is estimated 80,000 of the country’s 300,000 population were killed, lasted until 1979 when he was deposed by Teodoro Obiang. Macias’ most notorious atrocity was the execution at Christmas in 1975 of 150 alleged coup plotters in the national stadium, as Mary Hopkin’s song Those Were The Days was played over the tannoy.

3. Obiang remains in power, having survived a reported 12 coup attempts. The most notorious of them came in 2004 and led to a British citizen, Simon Mann, being jailed amid allegations – strongly denied – that the coup had been financially backed by Margaret Thatcher’s son, Mark. Obiang was re-elected in 2009.

4. The economy of Equatorial Guinea has been revolutionised by the discovery of large oil reserves in 1996. As a result, according to World Bank figures, Equatorial Guinea has the world’s 22nd highest per capita income (the UK is 20th), although it's concentrated in the hands of a small elite among the country’s 676,000 population.

5. The Bantu, Equatorial Guinea’s ethnic majority, traditionally dance the bailele to drive off evil spirits. It is usually accompanied by a three- or four-piece orchestra featuring a mvet, an instrument that resembles a cross between a zither and a harp and can have up to 15 strings – an ideal souvenir for travelling fans.

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

FEATURE, Wed 18 Jan: All change in Africa in two amazing years since the last ACoN – Jonathan Fadugba
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: New teams, new starts, new winner – the most unpredictable Cup of Nations yet – Jonathan Wilson
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: Welcome to our football festival – Steven Pienaar
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: Crazy bets, naked beardies and animal magic – Jonathan Wilson

La Preview: Death threats, Pepe poking and Getafe’s big scare

Tim Stannard — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:30:00 GMT

Saturday

Espanyol (9th) v Granada (17th) - 18.00 (local time)
Good grief, Espanyol will be quivering in their Catalan boots ahead of next week’s Copa del Rey quarter-final second leg clash with lower league Mirandés. The opposition coach, Carlos Pouso, was so irked at his team throwing away a 2-0 lead against the Pericos by conceding three late goals in six minutes that a heck of promise was made ahead of the rematch.
“We are going to die whilst killing but I don’t want to be misinterpreted. There won’t be any violence, dirty play or sitting back,” yelled the Mirandés main man.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Racing Santander (15th) v Getafe (13th) - 18.00
In the same way you have that sinking feeling of horror in the stomach having realised your house keys or wallet have been lost, Getafe fans must have been fearful that Javier Arizmendi had ended his loan spell at the massively imploding Neuchatel Xamax early. After all, the Madrid club has more than enough strikers on its roster to launch easy chances over the bar in the form of Miku and Dani Güiza.
But the Coliseum collective - all 25 of them - were able to breath a sigh of relief in the end when it appeared that Arizmendi would be merely passing through Getafe before signing on to launch footballs into orbit with Mallorca.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Real Sociedad (14th) v Atlético Madrid (10th) - 20.00
When the chips are down, as they frequently are, the Spanish football press can be a touch mean-spirited. On the other hand, when there’s fresh optimistic meat around, as in the form of Diego Simeone at Atlético, the papers can be an easier ride than Sergio Ramos. Allegedly (yes, LLL has flicked through the odd gossip magazine by accident).
One of the remarkable innovations that have seen Atlético Madrid pick up four points from six, according to a purring Marca, is that the new guy in town prefers to sit on the left side of the bench as opposed to the right like evil Gregorio Manzano. Also, “Manzano forced players to have breakfast together before training,” notes the paper, while it is voluntary with Simeone. Of course, had that been the other way round then the paper would have been praising the Atlético coach to his nipples on his brilliant team-bonding ways.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Real Betis (11th) v Sevilla (7th) - 22.00
Sevilla’s suffering form has seen Marcelino blessed with the vote of confidence from his president, José María del Nido. Ahead of the derby against Betis, del Nido says that a manager only eight months into the job is quite safe despite a run of four league games without a victory. “There isn’t any result that could endanger the coach’s job.”
There was at least some good news in Sevilla's fairly bleak existence, with AS reporting that Monchi - the side’s Sporting Director - would be signing on with the club for another five years, despite stories that he would be joining the coaching set up of the Spanish FA, whose teams LLL has been told have been fairly successful of late.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Sunday

Osasuna (6th) v Valencia (3rd) - 12.00
Valencia’s sluggish start to the new year which sees just one point from two in 2012 has certainly upset the fans, who booed the team off the Mestalla pitch in last weekend’s defeat at Real Sociedad. However, the Copa del Rey has given Valencia and Unai Emery a bit of a lifeline with victories in the last sixteen over Sevilla and a 4-1 win in the quarter-final first leg against Levante to keep everyone happy.
“We know that despite it being 4-1, nothing is definitive and there’s another leg,” said a dutiful Emery after Thursday, late night derby clash.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Rayo Vallecano (12th) v Mallorca (16th) - 16.00
Rayo boss José Ramón Sandoval is not a happy Vallecas bunny at all. Although the coach and his players have performed well above expectations by sitting comfortably in mid-table at the (nearly) halfway stage of the season, a key player at the club has been moved off against the manager’s wishes, although the footballer in question said he wanted the transfer to Belgium on the very good grounds that he’d get paid an awful lot more money.
Centre-back, Jordi Figueras, was on loan from Rubin Kazan but has been sold to Bruges with Rayo being compensated €700,000. Although cash is a vital commodity at the club these days, Sandoval fumes that football should have come first in the decision. “I gave my opinion to the administrators, the technical secretary and explained the important of the player to the team, but this wasn’t taken into account. We now face the league with two right-footed centre-backs, one who’s on four yellows.” “I want to win the next game but we have to be realistic. We are going to war with water pistols,” fumed the Rayo boss.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Málaga (8th) v Barcelona (2nd) - 18.00
It’s with a scowl and a snarl that Gerard Piqué must have been poked into the spotlight to face the press on Thursday afternoon and a barrage of questions from the Clásico the night before, a match that finished so late the central defender must barely have had time to go to bed.
While Piqué commented as diplomatically as possible under the circumstances that he wouldn’t know what he’d do if one of his teammates had the same night as Pepe, the Catalan defender did try to defuse further damage to morale to the Spanish side by praising his comrades for Euro 2012. “The national team showed examplary behaviour. There won’t be any problems” assured the political tightrope-walking Piqué.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Levante (4th) v Zaragoza (20th) - 19.45
Zaragoza’s season-saving - or so the club’s president hopes - signing frenzy has begun. Midfielder Tomas Dujmovic has been brought in from the cold from Dinamo Moscow, scary striker Carlos Aranda has left Levante to head to the other end of the league table whilst Zaragoza are maneuvering to bring another forceful presence to the team by picking up Málaga’s Apoño on loan.
It’s fighting players to match with the fighting talk from coach, Manolo Jiménez, who says that “nine out of ten people think the team will go down. I don’t.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Real Madrid (1st) v Athletic Bilbao (5th) - 21.30
LLL suspected that the Bernabeu brains at Marca would be spinning like mad to get Real Madrid out of their sticky situation in their Clásico cup clash, but the blog was quite wrong. Instead, the paper has continued along its Godzilla-style path of destruction in attacking José Mourinho. Friday’s edition lists the seven sins of the Madrid manager during the game, criticises the manager’s transfers from the summer and prints a page of letters from fans attacking the Portuguese boss.
The paper doesn’t even approve of Pepe defending himself by claiming the Messi hand stamp was an accident on the club’s TV channel. “Pepe is falsifying reality and has turned Real Madrid into an accomplice that shames the club’s supporters,” fumes the editorial.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Monday

Villarreal (19th) v Sporting (18th)
Now, LLL is no expert when it comes to motivating footballers. In fact it’s not really an expert at anything. But the blog reckons that when the chips are down at club, the last thing José Player wants is some besuited blowhard insulting him in the press. Villarreal already dour situation has perhaps been worsened with the club’s VP, José Manuel Llaneza blustering that “if anyone doesn’t like the way things work now, they can go whoever they are. The good life and cushions are over.”
Not content with this diatribe, Llaneza then claimed that Monday’s home match against Sporting was the most important in his 17 years at Villarreal, suggesting that the director must have been completely smashed during a certain Champions League semi-final with Arsenal.
LLL Prediction - Home win

How the kits are made

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:59:00 GMT

The Africa Cup of Nations is always a delight to the eye. The football, the fans... the new shirts. As usual, Puma have been getting busy and the designs for the new shirts have been created in conjunction with local artists. Watch on to find out more...

GABON
The proud co-hosts will be stepping out in a shirt designed by local artist Owanto, and with the team nicknamed The Panthers there was only one place to start. “I love the idea of the players wearing the skin of a big cat,” says Owanto. “I wanted to develop this with a camouflaged panther skin print to the entire football kit but football’s governing bodies wouldn’t allow it.” A team of panthers: if only!

GHANA
Specialising in paint, mixed media collages and printmaking, Ghanaian artist Godfried Donkor took his inspiration from the Black Stars’ performances at the 2010 World Cup: “The diagonally falling dark stars mirror the team in formation, in attack and in defence, protecting the red, gold and green stars, which are the national interest.”

IVORY COAST
It’s a scary thought: Yaya Toure bearing down on you in goal, an elephant emblazoned across his chest. “I wanted to use the force and power of the elephant to inspire,” admits local designer Ernest Duku. The kit’s power to intimidate is enhanced by the fit, which like all the tops here, is tighter than the average jersey to emphasise the players’ physique.

SENEGAL
Stretching across Senegal’s jersey, figure-hugging to prevent shirt-pulling, is the Baobab tree. “Growing up playing football in Senegal, the Baobab tree used to act as a guardian, sharing its shade and fruit with everyone,” says the artist behind the shirt, Samba Fall. “It’s a symbol of good memories that the team can take to the tournament.”

There's more information on the shirts at puma.com/football.

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: Crazy bets, naked beardies and animal magic – Jonathan Wilson
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: Welcome to our football festival – Steven Pienaar
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: New teams, new starts, new winner – the most unpredictable Cup of Nations yet – Jonathan Wilson
FEATURE, Wed 18 Jan: All change in Africa in two amazing years since the last ACoN – Jonathan Fadugba

Spurs and Arsenal out for revenge as title race reaches pivotal stage

Jon Champion — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:57:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch live and exclusive coverage of Bolton Wanderers vs Liverpool live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday...

This is the biggest weekend of this Premier League season so far, with two blockbuster games on Sunday involving the big two from Manchester and north London.

Manchester City against Tottenham is a fascinating game in prospect, not least because City have looked a touch vulnerable of late. They struggled at Wigan on Monday night and they’ve had some poor results over the last month or so. They’ll also be missing two hugely influential players in Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure.

It’s amazing what a difference the absence of those two pillars of their team is making, even given the amount spent on their squad. If Tottenham play to their best, they’re capable of getting a result at Manchester City and what a turnaround that would represent after Manchester City really came of age with that spectacular 5-1 win at White Hart Lane back in August.

At that stage Tottenham had played two, lost two and seemed at sixes and sevens, but since then their form has outstripped everybody else in the Premier League. think this is beautifully set up and I really fancy Tottenham to get something out of the game.

At the beginning of the season if Mancini had a doubt over any of his defensive players, it was probably Joleon Lescott. Now, in the absence of Kompany, Lescott is cast in the role of senior centre back, and its not a role that sits comfortably on his shoulders, even though his form this season has been much improved.

Now he is playing this role whereby he has be the leader alongside young Montenegrin Stefan Savic, who has definitely got a mistake in him, probably at least one a game. He’s still learning the ropes and may turn out to be an outstanding player, but he’s not there yet.

There’s also the issue of neither full back position being completely settled, due to this constant rotation at left back between Clichy and Kolarov - with the odd appearance from Zabaleta - and Micah Richards having been struck down with hamstring trouble in recent weeks.

Obviously Tottenham won’t have Emmanuel Adebayor there to try and exploit that, but they do have Jermaine Defoe, who is straining at the leash to get a chance – this is his big chance to show exactly what he can do, its his big opportunity, he’s a player who generally loves the spotlight and thrives rather than shrinks in it, so I would expect him to be a major factor for Tottenham.

The whole game is beautifully set up and I really fancy Spurs to get something out of it.

Tottenham’s North London rivals Arsenal will be desperate for history not to repeat itself in Sunday’s second headline fixture. On the same seismic weekend that Spurs were dismantled by City at White Hart Lane, Arsenal were embarrassed by that 8-2 defeat away to Manchester United.

The fact Arsenal have a genuine chance of getting something against Manchester United five months on shows the extent of the turnaround, and the fact United have fallen from grace since the glorious early weeks of the season. Nani and Ashley Young creating havoc down the wings, Rooney in prime form and Tom Cleverly anchoring the midfield earning rave reviews all seem like distant memories right now.

Whereas Arsenal have improved steadily - though not to the point that I see them as convincing top four challengers, however - they should have enough in their locker, particularly at the Emirates, to cause Manchester United some problems.

This is a litmus test for Manchester United. They’ll kick off knowing the Manchester City result and if City don’t win the door will be left ajar for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.

The United of old would strive through a half open door, but I’m not convinced this Manchester United is capable of performing with quite such conviction or indeed consistency. We may look back on this weekend as one of the most pivotal in the Premier League title race.

I have to put my cards on the table and say I’m amazed that Norwich are ninth with 26 points, in all probability needing just four more wins in 17 attempts to secure their top flight status. On current form they should sail it.
Having said that, I was speaking to the coaching staffs of Leicester and Nottingham Forest following their cup replay on Tuesday evening, and they were still preaching caution for Norwich City. They cited recent Premier League debut seasons for Hull City and Blackpool, in which the wheels have fallen off after the turn of the new year.
But I don’t see that happening to Norwich. They are a unit that’s performing well; they have enough to stay up despite the skepticism of some of their former Championship colleagues.
On Saturday they host Chelsea, who have suffered more defeats at home than away, so they may be happy to again be away from Stamford Bridge. They’re still missing a regular goalscorer, but were at least boosted by Michael Essien making his first appearance of the season against Sunderland last time out.
He’ll be a huge asset for the final third of the campaign if he is anything like the old Essien – though that’s no small feat after such a serious injury. It’s almost like a new signing, its as if they’ve dipped into the transfer market and bought, not just Gary Cahill, but a new midfielder too.

Everton have so far slipped to 10 defeats in 21 Premier League games – five in 10 at Goodison Park. They appear to be a team going nowhere fast.
I don’t see them in relegation trouble but I do wonder about David Moyes beyond the end of the season, I struggle to see a man with such ambition and drive being content with drifting in mid-table in the Premier League.
In previous years he’s been able to conjure up something which has allowed Everton to punch above their weight, but he and they seems to have been dragged down by the club’s financial problems and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is managing another team at this time next year.
Saturday’s opponents Blackburn know a thing or two about a downbeat atmosphere, and with no Yakubu this weekend due to suspension it could be another tough afternoon for them. Yet two wins in their last three Premier League matches has given them hope again, and the very fact they’re breathing oxygen again rather than being submerged in the rapidly enveloping waves of the bottom three is clearly cause for positivity.
Even so, Blackburn will do well to get anything out of their trip to Merseyside.

Fulham are currently six points clear of the drop zone, but we often talk of a seemingly safe side dropping into trouble, and I think they are a side that should be slightly concerned about that.
Martin Jol, perhaps feeling the heat, has been sniping at his predecessor Mark Hughes, newly installed at QPR, but he would perhaps be best served concentrating on his own team, because Saturday’s opponents Newcastle are back in form. They’ve won three out of their last four and will be hoping desperately that Yohanne Cabaye recovers from the injury that he sustained following a horrible tackle from QPR’s Shaun Derry last weekend.
Newcastle may have felt the bite of the Africa Cup of Nations more than most other Premier League sides – losing Demba Ba, Cheick Tiote and new-signing Papiss Cisse - but they should still fancy themselves against most opponents. They are sixth, level on points with Arsenal and four points behind Chelsea and it is truly astonishing that they are still as high as they are, they are my team of the season so far in terms of defying expectations. What I would expect is for them to go to Fulham and get something.

Across West London, Mark Hughes had some effect on his new side Queens Park Rangers during their cup replay win over MK Dons during the week, but it is the Premier League that matters most. The stats don’t make good reading; six defeats in seven, two months without a win and none at home for a full three months. But Mark Hughes will galvanize them, as well as bring in one or two more players to strengthen in key areas.
This weekend is an important one because their opponents Wigan are one of the few sides below QPR in the table. They pushed City reasonably hard the other night but they’re never going to score many goals, and they’re always going to concede a few, so despite the switch to three central defenders, I predict difficult times ahead for Wigan and Mark Hughes should get his first league win this weekend.

Stoke are very happily installed in eighth place, with those big European games coming up next month against Valencia in the Europa League, a really glamorous occasion.
Tony Pulis will be looking down the table rather than up, with a sizable five-point gap between them and Liverpool, and a number of clubs below queuing up to overtake them. A top half finish is far from guaranteed, particularly with those European commitments looming for them again. But you would fancy them against this weekend’s opposition West Brom, who have slipped from ninth to 15th following three straight defeats.
Roy Hodgson has a bit of a battle on his hands, I don’t see them going down, but I do see them having an uncomfortable flirtation with relegation, which Stoke should hasten this weekend.

Last weekend’s defeat at Chelsea was a bit of a reality check for Sunderland, but they still had chances to win that game. They are much improved under new management but they still don’t possess that cutting edge. We wait to see whether Martin O’Neill buys the striker Steve Bruce longed for before the window closes; the trouble is you don’t get value for money in the January transfer window.
This weekend they host Swansea, who are on a run of one defeat in seven after that memorable win over Arsenal, though their away form isn’t so impressive. They look like having more than enough to stay up but just one win in ten on the road may be a worry.
With that poor away form, combined with Sunderland’s general resurgence under Martin O’Neill, it’s difficult to see beyond Sunderland as winners at the Stadium of Light this time out.

There’s a derby of sorts at Molineux, where Wolves - seven without a win and dumped out of the FA Cup by Birmingham during the week – host Aston Villa.
Although they’re far from a free-scoring side, Wolves do tend to find the net consistently, they’ve scored in 12 of their last 13 league fixtures and in Steven Fletcher they have a striker capable of keeping their heads above water.
There is a camaraderie and team spirit in Mick McCarthy’s squad that isn’t in existence in some of the other struggling teams, and against a Villa side going nowhere that could make all the difference. Alex McLeish has seen his team win twice in 10 matches, they aren’t playing to Darren Bent’s strengths and are not really hurting the opposition very often. This is a big opportunity for Wolves to pick up three much needed home points.

Bolton are the team with the most losses in the Barclays Premier League, with 15 of their 21 games ending in defeat. They suffer from the toxic combination of having the worst defence in the league - 46 goals conceded - and not scoring that many at the other end, though I note with interest they have scored more than Liverpool, which perhaps says more about this weekend’s visitors to the Reebok.
Despite their significant difficulties, Bolton had the best player on the pitch at Old Trafford last weekend in Mark Davies, but one man can’t carry a team, and now they also have to make up for the absence of Gary Cahill, who’s been so important to them in the last three seasons.
Liverpool, even without Suarez, should have too much for Bolton this weekend, and I’ll be fascinated to see what shape of team Kenny Dalglish comes up with, having again flirted with playing three centre backs in a fairly dour 0-0 draw with Stoke last time out. Will he have enough faith in Andy Carroll against a couple of centre backs who are new as partners in David Wheater and Zat Knight? Does he have enough courage and faith to throw him in from the start? Liverpool supporters will hope he does.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Bolton Wanderers v Liverpool, Saturday, 4.30pm. ESPN will be completely free to watch from 3rd February – 6th February on Freeview, Sky, Top Up TV and BT Vision. This means fans will be able to watch, for free, the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester v Fulham, 4th February.

Crazy bets, naked beardies and animal magic

Jonathan Wilson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:35:00 GMT

It's a crazy old tournament, the Africa Cup of Nations – and this year's competition should be no exception. Jonathan Wilson gives you the loco lowdown on what to expect in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Most likely to turn up despite not qualifying... South Africa
With Egypt unsettled, it should have been a breeze for South Africa to qualify ahead of Niger and Sierra Leone. Not only did they fail, but they did so in the most embarrassing manner possible, believing a draw in the final game was enough. Like Cameroon and Gabon in the previous Cup of Nations, though, they’d failed to understand how head-to-head worked in a three-way tie.

As players celebrated on the pitch and TVs broadcasted a congratulatory interview with the president of the federation, the awful truth dawned. The federation compounded its embarrassment by threatening legal action to have goal difference rather than head-to-head used to separate sides level on points.

South Africa players in raptures – before the penny drops

Most likely to not keep a clean sheet... Sudan
The Falcons of Jediane have conceded in each of their last nine ACoN matches. In fact, the last game they won in the tournament format was the 1970 final.

Most likely to flummox commentators... Jerome Ramatlhakwane
You try pronouncing the surname of the Botswana striker, who scored five of the Zebras’ seven goals in qualifying. No, us neither.

Most likely to give up a seemingly unassailable lead... Angola
The Sable Antelopes were on the wrong end of the biggest comeback in ACoN history in 2010, surrendering a four-goal lead after 74 minutes to draw 4-4 with Mali. Meanwhile, a 19-year-old student called ‘Big Matt’ lost £4,400 on an in-game bet, trying to win an easy £44. Oops.

Most likely to carry an elephant’s tooth in his boot... Boubacar Barry
When Ivory Coast last won the Cup of Nations, in 1992, keeper Alain Gouamene supposedly carried an elephant’s tooth in his boot that witch doctors said would make him loom as big as an elephant when forwards bore down on him. Whatever the reason, he didn’t concede a single goal in the tournament. The error-prone Barry could do with similar assistance.

Most likely to hit Row Z... Tunisia
The 2004 champions managed just four shots on target in three games at the 2010 ACoN.

Most likely to kill a guinea fowl... Guinea fans
The occasion was Guinea vs Morocco, at the 2008 ACoN in Ghana. The national anthems and handshakes over, the players jogged into their own halves. As most of the crowd waited for kick-off, in the stand behind one of the goals, a roar went up.

As the rest of the stadium peered to see what was going on, a fat, bearded man, naked to the waist and wearing an elaborate band in his hair, held up a white bird, still twitching as blood dripped from it. He handed it to one of his two assistants and, from a small wooden cage, took another bird. He squatted, hopping from foot to foot, then took a knife and slit its throat before, wide-eyed, holding it aloft and chanting. He went through the ritual for a third time.

Guinea went on to win 3-2, despite a second-half red card for Pascal Feindouno, a result that effectively took them through to the second round. The Ghanaian papers the next day were adamant: one goal for each guinea fowl slaughtered. Something went badly wrong in the second round, though, and Guinea lost 5-0 to Ivory Coast. They failed to qualify for Angola two years ago but this time, having eliminated Nigeria, they are back, and will surely have brought their birdkiller with them.

"Uh-oh, Guinea have a penalty"

Most likely to regret their political history... Equatorial Guinea
In 1977, the dissident Equatoguinean politician Valentin Bisan-Etame was jailed. His wife was pregnant with the boy the world would later know as the full-back Lauren. There was only one way things could get worse, and it happened as Valentin was sentenced to death.

What happened next sounds more like the plot of an implausible thriller than the opening chapter in a footballer’s life story. “My uncle was in the military,” Lauren explains, “and when the order went out to kill the political prisoners, he helped them to get out – not just my father but others too. They killed some people, but my father escaped just in time, as he was on the execution list. He ran away to Cameroon, and my uncle too.”

Lauren’s mother had already fled with her children. “She was pregnant with me, and if our family hadn’t escaped, I probably wouldn’t have been born,” Lauren says. “We lived in Cameroon until I was three years old, and after that we went to Spain, because Guinea was a Spanish colony.”

The family grew up in Seville, and Lauren began his career at Sevilla, although he never played for their first team, moving on to Levante, Mallorca, Arsenal and Portsmouth before winding down his career at Cordoba in Spain. He could have played for one of three different countries: he chose Cameroon and won 24 caps.

Most likely to contest a scoreless final followed by a penalty shootout... Ivory Coast
The Elephants have won one ACoN and lost one via the dreaded spot-kicks; both games finished 0-0 in normal time. In 1992, it took 24 penalties for the final to be settled, Ivory Coast eventually triumphing 11-10.

One thing’s for sure: they should reach the knockout stages, at least, having never lost to any of their Group B opponents – Sudan, Angola and Burkina Faso – at the ACoN. There’s a first time for everything, mind.

Ivory Coast celebrate their epic shootout win in 1992

Most likely to be buoyed by ‘new country’ syndrome... Libya
Montenegro are just the latest in a string of Balkan nations to benefit from the surge of patriotic pride that follows a revolution or newly gained independence. Although Egypt’s qualification was derailed by the Arab Spring, Tunisia won the CHAN (the tournament for domestically-based players) in 2011 shortly after their uprising. Libya, who changed kit to match the colours of the National Transitional Council in September, are the most likely beneficiaries in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Most likely to be the best at the tournament who has played in El Salvador... Didier Ovono
The Gabon goalkeeper was outstanding in Angola two years ago, particularly in the 1-0 win over Cameroon. A fine shot-stopper, if not necessarily the most commanding, Ovono is now settled at Le Mans, but his route there is as winding as can be imagined.

The Gabon government paid for him to join the academy run by former Cameroon keeper Thomas Nkono in Barcelona. After four years in Gabon, he was signed up by Alianza in El Salvador before returning to Europe with the Portuguese side Pacos de Ferreira. Then it was off east to Dinamo Tbilisi in Georgia, then he eventually arrived in Le Mans in 2009. “Nkono taught me everything I know,” he said.

Team most likely to not win a single game... Burkina Faso
The Stallions have never won a game – never – in the ACoN away from home soil, losing 13 and drawing four.

Most likely to blow your stats-addled mind… Free ACoN Stats Zone app
Yes, it's back – the award-winning statistical anaylsis app from FourFourTwo and Opta returns with a special ACoN edition. Follow @StatsZone on Twitter to find out more. Did we mention it's free?

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

Smart money could be on the draw in Premier League summit meeting

Mark Booth — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:31:00 GMT

There was a time that Manchester City vs Tottenham would be an optional aperitif to a 4pm 'Grand Slam Sunday' serving of Arsenal vs Manchester United, but not this year.

This time around the fixture is arguably even more relevant to the title race than the showdown at the Emirates, as Tottenham look to move within two points of Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City. The league leaders will be hoping their mini wobble ended with their win at Wigan on Monday, but with William Hill having Spurs at 3/1, the bookies clearly feel Spurs have an opportunity to become the first side to win away at City since Everton in December 2010.

City’s possession of Europe’s only remaining 100% home record makes them outright favourites at 10/11, so the value may be on a sharing of the spoils at 12/5, especially as Nigel De Jong, City’s destroyer-in-chief, is likely to come into a side that would probably accept a draw out of one of their trickiest remaining assignments.

Spurs will be without top-scorer Emmanuel Adebayor due to the terms of his loan deal, with Jermaine Defoe likely to take his place and Rafael van der Vaart providing support - they’re both rated at 8/1 to open the scoring. Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli, Edin Dzeko and David Silva are all shorter odds to score first, so brave punters could do worse than to lump on for a Defoe or Van der Vaart-inspired 1-0 away win.

The day’s other game is similarly accumulator-unfriendly, given both team’s recent patchy form. Arsenal, buoyed by the return of their all-time record goalscorer Thierry Henry (7/4 to score at anytime), have only been beaten once at home in the league but still come into the match as slight underdogs.

One reason for this is Manchester United’s impressive away form, which seen them lose only once on the road, conceding just six goals in the process. Their 8/5 odds are difficult to argue against - less see a huge return on - but United have their own returning hero in Paul Scholes, who got off the mark against Bolton last week. Scholes probably won’t start the match but romantics might like the sound of 11/1 for United’s evergreen midfielder to score the last goal of the game.

Elsewhere, there’s plenty of tempting encounters for punters looking to string together a lucrative accumulator. Bolton play host to a Liverpool team struggling for goals without the talismanic Luis Suarez and may spring a surprise at the Reebok. Bolton are at fours to pull off a shock, while a 0-0 stalemate is 11/1 – not a bad shout considering the two teams have only managed 49 goals between them this season.

At 9/2, some may be tempted to give Norwich City a fighting chance at upsetting Chelsea at Carrow Road, but with Fernando Torres looking something like his old self against Sunderland last weekend, it might be worth backing El Niño to bag a demon-exorcizing hat-trick at 25/1.

William Hill are Official Supporters of the England Team and the FA Cup - Join now and get up to a £25 Free bet (Ts&Cs apply, click for details)

New teams, new starts, new winner – the most unpredictable Cup of Nations yet

Jonathan Wilson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:08:00 GMT

The gathering in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea is one of the hardest competitions to predict. Jonathan Wilson explains

We know already that this Africa Cup of Nations will yield a new champion. The years of Egyptian domination are over, and emphatically so. The transition from one generation to the next is always difficult, but it was compounded in Egypt’s case by the chaos of the uprising against Hosni Mubarak. Where Libya were inspired by their revolution, Egypt faltered, and the winner of the last three ACoNs – a record achievement – finished bottom of their qualifying group.

Tunisia, who won the Cup of Nations on home soil in 2004, will be there, but none of the five champions before that will be in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Cameroon, winners in 2000 and 2002, fell to a resurgent Senegal. South Africa, the winners in 1996, somehow failed to capitalise on Egypt’s decline. Nigeria, winners in 1994, continued their slapstick cycle of underachievement by conceding a late equaliser against Guinea that cost them a place as a best runner-up.

That leaves as clear favourites Ivory Coast, who won the tournament for the only time in their history in 1992, and Ghana, who have won it four times but not since 1982. In a sense they represent two different generations of African football.

Ivory Coast are the very recent past, with a squad of established stars such as Didier Drogba and the Toure brothers who must wonder how on earth they haven’t yet won a Cup of Nations. Ghana, with an array of young talent drawn from the side that won the Under-20 World Cup in 2009, reached the final in Angola two years ago, were by far the best African side at the World Cup, and could dominate the continent’s football for much of the near future. The question, then, is which of them represents the present.

Will Toure's team or Gyan's gang triumph?

Tournament football, of course, is never that simple. Senegal, rejuvenated and rebuilt after the failure to qualify two years ago, have a potent strike force. On home soil, Gabon, having improved radically over the past few years, could push hard for the title. “We have the advantage of playing at home, and turn that into high motivation to drive us through the group stage,” says their coach Gernot Rohr.

The other host, Equatorial Guinea, are one of three sides making their first Cup of Nations appearance, and are the lowest-ranked side in the competition, lying 151st in the FIFA standings. “Whatever the draw, all the teams would have been above us,” says their coach, the experienced Henri Michel. “Every game will be like attacking Everest. For us, the task is almost insurmountable. If we succeed it will be a major feat. We will try to look good.”

The two other debutants, Botswana and Niger, may feel the same way. That said, Botswana qualified so impressively they were the first side to book their place in the finals, while Niger ousted Egypt and South Africa. The question, of course, is what this means for African football as a whole.

Is this about the traditional powers underperforming, or is it about the rise of new forces? Is this about the development of African football stalling – while Ghana were within a Luis Suarez handball of becoming the first African World Cup semi-finalist, they were the only African side to make it through the groups – or does the greater range of teams qualifying for tournaments suggest a greater maturity, a new strength in depth?

Quite aside from who wins the tournament, it is that issue that makes this Cup of Nations particularly fascinating. Modern football is often about seeing the familiar names battling it out in slightly different permutations. Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, though, offers something new. The make-up of the teams alone mean this will be an Africa Cup of Nations like no other. Enjoy!

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

FEATURE, Wed 18 Jan: All change in Africa in two amazing years since the last ACoN – Jonathan Fadugba
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: Welcome to our football festival – Steven Pienaar
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: Crazy bets, naked beardies and animal magic – Jonathan Wilson

Furious Madrid press turn on Mourinho after Barça disaster

Tim Stannard — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:04:00 GMT

Given the the feeling among the Madrid-based press that this time Real Madrid manager José Mourinho would finally show Barça who was boss, it’s no great surprise that their reaction to Wednesday's Bernabeu defeat has been relentlessly, unforgivingly brutal.

In particular, two papers who are normally like panting, tail-wagging, eager to please puppy dogs when it comes to Madridismo, have now become a snarling pack of wild beasts. While the feeling among the fans after Madrid’s Copa del Rey quarter-final first leg defeat was merely bored resignation at yet another set back - with only one victory for Madrid in the nine Mourinho vs Guardiola clashes - the vibe in Marca and AS is fury.

A crunching deadline from a late-night finish and a game from which Madrid will have taken little positive sees Thursday’s AS front page lamenting the defeat and another “repertoire of bad behaviour from Pepe.” Tomás Roncero leads the angry mob on the inside pages, asking Mourinho “isn’t it better to die on your feet and play with all your talent than be beaten before the game begins?”

The risk of playing a makeshift defence containing Hamit Altintop at right-back and Ricardo Carvalho - returning from a four month injury lay-off - in the centre of defence was a large one. It may have paid off had Madrid not conceded yet another header from a corner, with Carles Puyol equalising for Barça early in the second half to sap any confidence the Madrid players had gained from Cristiano Ronaldo's first half opener.

However, the gamble to play Pepe in midfield, in a throw-back to last year’s controversial contests, was a whopper - like asking Bruce Banner to travel on the tube at rush hour having missed a night’s sleep. It was a bet which failed spectacularly.

Marca branded Pepe’s pugilistic, polemical performance which peaked with what looked like an intentional stamp on Leo Messi’s hand as “disgraceful”.

“The behaviour of Pepe was intolerable, violent with an excess or aggression and theatrics,” blasted Thursday’s editorial.

The front page bemoans the “Never Ending Story” with Barcelona over recent seasons, with the match report claiming Madrid had “betrayed their history” with Mourinho’s approach to a clash in a competition the Madrid coach had previously dismissed as the least important for his club this term.

Unsurprisingly, the reaction to Madrid, and in particular, Pepe, in the Catalan capital was outrage. Mundo Deportivo lead with the headline “Heroes and Villains”, with Sani Nolla branding Pepe a “public danger”.

“This doesn’t belong in today’s football. It belongs to butchers form the Jurassic era,” continued the columnist.

Sport were a tad more aggressive, with a headline claiming Barça to be “Bleeping Bosses of the Bernabéu,” a reference to Guardiola’s bad-tempered comment about José Mourinho last season. The paper’s most culé columnist, Lluís Mascaró, wasn’t going to let another victory in the Spanish capital go unmentioned, gleefully reporting on “a sporting humiliation that the Bernabeu won’t forget for years. Madrid played in their own stadium with fear, like a small team. Trembling with terror.”

Normally the rival newspapers from the different sides of Spain disagree on the colour of the sky. But for once, they are all united in one concept - this was a very, very bad night for José Mourinho, Pepe and Real Madrid.

Welcome to our football festival, by Steven Pienaar

Guest Writer — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:42:00 GMT

He won't be there himself – South Africa were one of several 'established' nations not to qualify – but Tottenham midfielder Steven Pienaar will be watching the Africa Cup of Nations as a true fan...

The Africa Cup of Nations is always a huge occasion, because it is one of the biggest football tournaments on the planet. It’s such an important moment for the fans of every country and a celebration of African football as a whole. Africans are crazy about football and the way this tournament brings the whole continent together to enjoy the game is very inspiring.

The Africa Cup of Nations is very different to other tournaments and combines everything that is special about African football. There has been much poverty and several civil wars throughout the continent over the past few decades, and during all this football has been the only sport that could really bring people together.

The supporters are very passionate and the atmosphere during a tournament, both in the stadiums and around on the streets, is crazy! Everywhere is filled with music, colour, dancing and a huge love of the game. Going to a Cup of Nations match is like going to a festival.

Let's go: the 2010 opening ceremony...

There were a few surprises during the qualification stage for this year’s tournament and some of the strongest African teams like Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria and us, South Africa, did not qualify. This means that Ghana and Ivory Coast are probably the favourites going into the group stages. But we shouldn’t forget teams such as Morocco, Senegal and Mali, who all performed really well in qualification. So there could still be a few surprises, and I think there is actually no team you could completely rule out of winning it this year.

Then there are the hosts, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. It was amazing to play in the 2010 World Cup in my home country. It definitely gives you a special feeling to represent your nation in your own backyard. One of the highlights for me was the fantastic support from the home fans, who totally embraced the event. I’m sure the host nations this time around will get a lift from that.

Not qualifying for this year’s Cup of Nations and the circumstances around it happening were really hard; the whole of South Africa was so disappointed not to make it. We were in a tough group in which three teams had the chance to qualify going into the final round of matches, and it ended badly for us. But we are now focused on ensuring we are at our strongest for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, which will be hosted in our country.

We already proved to everyone in 2010 that South Africa can host international tournaments of this scale, and 2013 will once again be a perfect opportunity for us to show the world our culture and enthusiasm for football. Hopefully we can conquer the continent next time around!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this year’s tournament.

Thanks to Puma. Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

FEATURE, Wed 18 Jan: All change in Africa in two amazing years since the last ACoN – Jonathan Fadugba
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: New teams, new starts, new winner – the most unpredictable ACoN yet – Jonathan Wilson
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: Crazy bets, naked beardies and animal magic – Jonathan Wilson

McClaren's Twente return could prove the best January comeback of all

Mohamed Moallim — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:00:00 GMT

“You don't know what you've got until it’s gone.” No saying is more relevant to FC Twente right now. After 18 months of separation, the club’s adopted son Steve McClaren has made a surprising, but welcome return.

His departure in the summer of 2010 after guiding the club to the first ever Eredivisie title came as a blow, in fact it was almost as big a surprise as his arrival in 2008.

After that infamous rainy night at Wembley which saw his England side fail to qualify for Euro 2008, there was a period of soul searching for McClaren. He travelled Europe meeting coaches, including Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, to discuss the game and try and decipher where he had gone wrong.

Although at that stage his stock back in England couldn’t have got much lower, his earlier performances at Middlesbrough - on a budget, but most importantly with an emphasis on the development of local youngsters - had already convinced Twente chairman Joop Munsterman that the McClaren was the man for his club.

Just under seven months after he had been made the scapegoat for all of English football’s failings, McClaren was appointed manager of a club who were far from a household name back in his homeland.

By the time he left, he had become the first English manager to win a major European league title since Sir Bobby Robson had done so with FC Porto in 1996. However unlike the genial Geordie, he didn’t hang around to try and win back-to-back championships. At the time it was thought this was so to avoid tarnishing a legacy, but as time has passed there has been a realisation that the work he started has not yet been finished.

In the long-term it hasn’t been fatal - in his absence Twente managed to consolidate as one of the leading three sides in the Netherlands - but this was naturally a step down from being champions. In his two seasons with Twente, McClaren took the club to frontiers that had previously been imaginable for a provisional outfit; they were challenging the established elite.

In departing, McClaren left a lasting imprint which successor Michel Preud'homme attempted to alter – and he did – but it wasn’t the Twente of 2008-10.

A side renowned for its vigour and creativity was replaced by a more robust outfit that, although still favouring attacking football, lacked the same zest.

Preud'homme left last summer and his replacement ‘Psycho’ Co Adriaanse – one of footballs most hard-headed individuals - a move always seen by most observers as the risk the risk it ultimately proved to be.

For those solely looking at the league table his dismissal might come across a bizarre decision. Twente aren’t doing too badly, third in the league with five points separating them and leaders AZ, and through to the last 32 of the Europa League. The one blemish was their agonising extra time exit from the Dutch Cup at the hands of PSV.

With the results generally being satisfactory, what ultimately sealed Co Adriaanse’s fate was his demeanour and working relationship.

No stranger to strained relationships, Adriaanse was reported to have fallen out with the players over his tactics and training methods. “There was no chemistry between Co and the players,” he said. “I cannot go deeper than that. But I, personally, never had problems with Co.”

Adriaanse is never afraid to put his point across and events in recent weeks, including a tirade against sections of the football media, might just have been the final straw. What it does say, albeit subtly, is that Munsterman made a rare error in judgement.

Munsterman, who along with Herman Wessels saved the club from liquidation during the 2002/03 season, has been a leading light in business and football administration, with the way he has run his club seen as something of an example to the rest of Dutch football.

The decision to opt for McClaren wasn’t the most difficult and the Englishman jumped at the chance to return after disappointing tenures at VfL Wolfsburg and Nottingham Forest. In his first press conference back it was noteworthy McClaren made the point to stress the importance of the chairman in his decision and how both share the same vision for FC Twente. A growing club in his eyes one that has accelerated in the time he’s been away.

He also reserved special praise for the supporters, who took to him immediately in his first stint, brushing up on their English football chants to make him feel at home.

McClaren inherits a squad much changed to the one he left. Only eight players remain from his last season. However his arrival been welcomed even by those who hadn’t previously worked under him.

The trio of Blaise Nkufo, Kenneth Pérez and Bryan Ruiz, who combined accounted for 41 of the 63 goals scored in their title-winning season, have moved to pastures new.

The squad may be different, but more importantly it’s still one of the more talented groups in the league. Luuk de Jong, who was handed his debut by McClaren, has developed into the brightest young striker in the Eredivisie. A sign of a good goal scorer is improvement on his tally as each season goes by. In his third for FC Twente he’s currently two behind the twelve he managed last season.

His decision to stay, turning down a move to Fiorentina, was no doubt met with a sigh of relief. Aside from the Italians, as each week goes by it seems a new suitor is being mooted. Although he’s keeping his feet on the ground, he hasn’t ruled out making a move to a foreign league when the time is right.

One of the major tactical decisions made by Adriaanse in his short stay was moving Nacer Chadli from a wide position to a central playmaking role.

To an extent it has worked, as the Belgian has thrived as a creative force in the middle of the park. In some ways his roles in his first two years at the club mirrors both Ruiz and Pérez. With Ola John and Emir Bajrami occupying the flanks it’s likely he’ll continue through the centre. His link-up play with De Jong was one of the more promising sights as the 2011 came to a close.

The defence, featuring the ever present Peter Wisgerhof, club captain Roberto Rosales, Douglas and Dwight Tiendalli, represent one of the more consistent back-lines in the division. And sitting just in front of them are Denny Landzaat and Wout Brama, who provide the steel, dynamism and much needed verve to strike the right balance between defence and attack which the team does collectively.

Expectations for the rest of the season are mixed: Munsterman has gone on record as being willing to settle for a top four finish. However his manager believes the championship is still a realistic goal.

"The competition is very strong this year. PSV have grown and are very good. AZ are developing and manager Gertjan Verbeek is doing a good job there," McClaren said in his press conference.

“Ajax will always be strong in the second half of the season so will Feyenoord and Vitesse are also growing. But my aim is to make sure we are in contention in the last five games."

His first spell began with a 1-1 draw away to Roda JC, and only goalkeeper Nikolay Mihailov, Douglas and Brama remain from that game. The second chapter of his relationship with the club starts at home to RKC Waalwijk.

As soon as the focus of the cameras is taken off McClaren, the real work will begin. In a month of greats returning to the clubs of their former glories, McClaren’s comeback may be the only long-term fairytale, and one to keep an eye on.

Mourinho feeling the tension of upcoming Clásico

Tim Stannard — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:14:00 GMT

Tuesday was another happy day in Marca’s extreme graphics department. In previous weeks the Photoshop-wielding group had been called upon to put together an incredibly disturbing photograph that morphed together the faces of Gonzalo Higuaín and Karim Benzema to make the perfect striker. That call of duty was followed by a splendid mock-up of the French striker as Puss in Boots, complete with a cat’s face and whiskers.

Wednesday edition of the paper sees a front cover with a shot of the lower halves of Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo with their arms handcuffed together. “Condemned to Win” booms Marca’s front cover ahead of Wednesday night’s Copa del Rey quarter-final first leg clash at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The paper is half right, in the sense that Real Madrid are under strict orders from the fans to beat Barcelona in the Bernabeu for the first time during Pep Guardiola’s tenure at the Catalan club. But it’s fair to say Barça have more than proved themselves against Real Madrid, having only been defeated in one of the eight previous Clásicos between the Barça boss and José Mourinho.

This desire for Madrid to finally deliver at home may explain José Mourinho’s incredibly tense, bolshy mood at the pre-match press conference. Or perhaps, José Mourinho generally just being incredibly tense and bolshy is a more valid reason. When asked about the tactics for the match, the Portuguese hurled toys far and wide from his Special Pram.

“If Ramos plays at full-back, they are going to criticise me, as he’s better as a centre-back. If I play Fabio at right-back they will criticise me as he’s left-footed.” This rant against the press went on for some time, covering Sami Khedira and Pepe, among others.

“It’s better that we all go to the cinema and after let’s see the result and give our opinions.” That’s certainly what LLL would like to do.

Mourinho’s prickliest moment came when asked about Cristiano Ronaldo, who is very much the centre of attention ahead of the Clásico, precisely because the forward is hardly ever the focal point of attention during the Clásico.

“Cristiano has the final word,” yells the front cover of AS, with editor Alfredo Relaño noting that “Cristiano against his ghosts, this will be a game.” Mourinho was dutifully protective of his player warning the assembled journalists that “if any of you have a go at him we’re going to have a problem. I won’t let you.”

The performance of Ronaldo is one of the tactical topics that will be on Mourinho’s mind ahead of the game. Who to play at right-back in the absence of the suspended Alvaro Arbeloa and whether to use Angel di María for part of the game, despite not being fully recovered from injury are amongst others. At time of writing, it’s not clear if the Argentinean will even be in the squad with Real Madrid not releasing any names to the media and fans until an hour before the clash.

In comparison with the tense terseness of the Spanish capital, the Camp Nou bat-cave was a far more jolly place, with Pep Guardiola in a fairly relaxed mood, as should be expected of a manager with nothing to prove in this particular, oft-repeated tie. Though the Barça boss claimed that “I have a lot to lose, credit doesn’t exist in this sport.”

Mundo Deportivo have gone for a new angle on the match, publishing a photo of the Copa del Rey trophy itself on Wednesday’s front cover - the mangled version dropped by Sergio Ramos in front of a bus last year. “Barça, fix it!” demands the headline.

This is just one of a number of motivations the Barcelona players have to grab at least a draw in the Santiago Bernabeu before next Wednesday’s second leg clash. The others include annoying the heck of Mourinho and Madrid by frustrating them again, and perhaps equalling the number of wins in el Clásico between the two teams in the 216 matches played so far.

Madrid currently have 86, with Barça one behind. Two goals will also see Leo Messi become the striker with the most number of goals against Madrid in Barcelona’s history. All in all, there’s more than enough amuse-bouches to get the juices flowing even if the main meal hasn’t got the taste buds tingling of everyone in Spain.

All change in Africa in two amazing years since the last Cup of Nations

Jonathan Fadugba — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Welcome to our new ACoN section. To begin with, Jonathan Fadugba – Editor of Just-Football.com (and chief correspondent for FFT.com's United States of Africa) – looks at the recent past and immediate future of African football…

When Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the 2010 World Cup organising committee, spoke to the world's media just days before the start of the tournament in South Africa, he did so with the exhausted yet satisfied glow of a man about to witness successful fruition of a turbulent 16-year journey. "It will be a moment to cherish but, also, a moment to remember our past," he stated.

Nineteen months later, the time has come to savour another marker in the sand of African football's picturesque landscape – the 28th edition of the African Cup of Nations. The party moves some 700 miles north this year, from Luanda to Libreville, as the continent's undisputed sporting showpiece treads new ground in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, following on from Angola 2010.

Before considering ACoN 2012, with all the intrigue and excitement it promises, a moment to reflect. Jordaan's words strike a chord on the eve of this Cup of Nations: in the two years between Ahmed Hassan triumphantly hoisting Egypt's third consecutive trophy in Luanda and the current final preparations from Malabo to Franceville, African football has lived through a kaleidoscope of emotions.

Those 24 months have brought tragedy, triumph, success, failure, growth, development and widespread upheaval – both sporting and political. And although it's undoubtedly simplistic to generalise about a uniformity of emotions across a continent comprising more than 50 nations, the Pan-African sense of unity and spirit – exemplified at the World Cup through South Africa's post-elimination 'BaGhana BaGhana' support – does suggest at least a semblance of collective conscience where football is concerned.

In two short years the face of African football has changed. At the start of 2010, eager smiles turned to despair and heartbreak after bullets rained down on the Togo national team bus making its way to the tournament, a terrorist attack that left three dead and the world in shock. Egypt's record third consecutive crown broke new boundaries, but as an event the tournament was permanently scarred. Prominent figures questioned with renewed conviction the sagacity of an African World Cup.

Tragedy in Angola was followed months later by triumph in South Africa with the eminently successful staging of World Cup 2010, a defiant poke in the eye for the naysayers and curmudgeons that thought Africa incapable of such feats (Uli Hoeness, I'm looking at you). On the pitch, Ghana's emergence as a modern international power was a mere crossbar's coat of paint away from being confirmed by history.

Rightly or wrongly, World Cup 2010 saw the maturation of a continent in the eyes of the world in terms of organisational ability, esteem and respect. Before it, Africa was considered untrustworthy, an unnecessary risk. After it, the "doubters became believers" according to Jordaan. FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke claimed South Africa would be "Plan B" for future World Cups. Many try to count legacy in dollars and cents, but the psychological impact, the global shift in perception, was priceless.

Job done: Fans leave Soccer City after the World Cup final

From there, the warm glow of a job well done transformed to the white hot sear of revolution. Although it's not possible to prove a direct link between Northern Africa's political uprising and revolutionary regime changes and the concurrent crumbling of African football's traditional order, but the manner in which the two coincided displayed a certain neat symmetry. The potential emergence of new footballing powers and the ominous absence of fallen kings, gazing on solemnly from the shadows, are sure to be consistent memes as affairs in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea unfold.

African football has always possessed a certain charm. From the touring "wizards in bare feet" that captured English imaginations in the late 1940s to the larger-than-life multi-millionaire stars dazzling crowds globally today, Africa has always been seen – and to a certain extent seen itself– through the prism of its football. The game that causes "young men to faint, holy men to swear and strong men to become impotent for a day," as Nigerian sports writer Samuel Akpabot once put it, continues to do so, as a competition that pre-dates the European Championships embarks on its latest unpredictable chapter.

To begin, on Saturday the co-hosts Equatorial Guinea meet Libya – as unfathomably barmy an opening game as you could imagine, completely indicative of the fluctuating state of African football. Is it a sign of progress or regress? Has the talent pool widened or drained? Are these the hallmarks of a brave new world or warning signs of a desperately mediocre one?

It is the unanswered questions that lend football its captivating beauty. Is this finally Ghana's year? Who are the emerging powers? Does the absence of Nigeria, Cameroon and holders Egypt represent a permanent shattering of the status quo or a temporary blip? How will Gabon and Equatorial Guinea fare as hosts? Is it last chance saloon for Ivory Coast's golden generation? How many strikers can Senegal actually field at one time? Will Demba Ba score more goals than he drinks bottles of syrup?

The answers will come. The past two years have been memorable; the future is to be cherished.

Follow the Cup with FourFourTwo's news, analysis and new ACoN version of Stats Zone – it's all free!

FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: New teams, new starts, new winner – the most unpredictable ACoN yet – Jonathan Wilson
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: Welcome to our football festival – Steven Pienaar
FEATURE, Thu 19 Jan: Crazy bets, naked beardies and animal magic – Jonathan Wilson

Redknapp thinking outside the box in transfer quest, as O'Neill curries favour at Sunderland

Back of the Net — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:13:00 GMT

Is it news? Is it plain? No, it's the return of Back of the Net...

Spurs target found to be carefully arranged pile of shoeboxes

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has admitted his disappointment after a scouting mission to watch Marseille striker Loic Remy revealed the gifted marksman to be a sturdy pile of discarded footwear containers.

The day after a 1-1 draw with Wolves ended Spurs’ 24-hour bid to win the Premier League, Redknapp jetted off to watch Remy net twice in Marseille’s win over Lille.

However, while the French Press continue to laud the 24-goal hitman, Redknapp wasn’t satisfied with what he saw.

“From a distance he looked the part and he’s taken his two goals well in fairness,” Redknapp told Back of the Net while completing the sale of a job lot of Region-3 DVDs on Brick Lane.

“But late on in the game it’s become clear that he’s actually a collection of cardboard boxes with a shirt pulled over them and that, for me, is a concern.

“Loic’s had fantastic success in Ligue 1, but the Premier League is another matter. Against your Boltons and Blackburns maybe we could bounce a few off Remy, but his movement is going to let him down against the likes of your Manchester Citys, in fairness.

“At least this shows why it was necessary for me to fly across Europe rather than trust the word of a network of highly-paid scouts, countless videos and newspaper articles.”

Redknapp was also disappointed in the summer when he was forced to back out of a deal for Brazilian marksman Luis Fabiano at the 11th hour after scouts discovered he was in fact a thriving coffee shop.

The worst victims of lax scouting in recent times were Bristol Rovers, who signed Latvian international Vitalijs Astafjevs in 2000 only to later discover that he was a plural, forcing comedian turned manager Ian Holloway to field 10 men for most of the campaign.

O’Neill creates ‘stunning’ rogan josh from contents of Bruce’s pantry

New Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill continues to impress at the Stadium of Light after producing a delectable curry from a cupboard of ingredients Steve Bruce had written off.

The arrival of O’Neill has seen a marked upturn in the Black Cats’ fortunes with players, fans and staff alike praising his immediate impact and heavily insinuating their relief at Bruce’s exit.

“With all due respect to Brucey [Steve Bruce], Martin’s brought a real buzz to the place,” defender Matthew Kilgallon enthused.

“It’s just nice to come in to training and not feel a disorientating cocktail of revulsion and sympathy.”

Within an hour of his appointment, O’Neill had already sorted out set piece marking, instigated a new fitness regime and completed a sudoku puzzle that Bruce had been battling with since this time last season.

And upon Sunderland’s triumphant return to the North East following the recent FA Cup third round win at Peterborough, O’Neill pulled off an equally impressive culinary tour de force at the Stadium of Light.

Flinging open a draw marked ‘Steve Bruce’s stuff’, O’Neill rustled up a rogan josh that wowed his squad.

“The gaffer’s just gone through the box and pulled out two quartered onions, some sunflower oil, four garlic cloves, a thumb-sized piece of root ginger, Madras curry paste, paprika, a cinnamon stick, six green cardamom, four cloves, two bay leaves, a tube of tomato puree, a lean leg of lamb and a tub of Greek yoghurt and before you know it he’s made a stunning curry for us all,” Kilgallon explained.

“It’s taken us all by surprise because the old gaffer [Steve Bruce] had told us he couldn’t make anything without buying in some new ingredients.”

The boy who never learned to bend it like Rivelino

Paul Simpson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:15:00 GMT

Baseball, the American novelist Michael Chabon once declared, is the gift fathers give their sons. In Britain, that gift is usually football.

My dad died a year ago. One of the smaller consequences of his death was that it ended an intermittent dialogue between us about football that had lasted most of my life.

Our conversation started in the 1960s. Dad fervently admired Don Revie’s mighty Leeds United and, even though as an eight-year-old I had to admit they could knock the ball around a bit, I couldn’t bring myself to like them.

I never quite understood why. Sheer pig-headedness? Pre-adolescent rebellion? Perhaps.

Decades later, when I was watching Seinfeld, I found another likely explanation. When a friend of Jerry’s told him he would like a potential acquaintance, he replied: “Why would I like them? I don’t like anybody.”

Like Seinfeld – and like most journalists I know – I couldn’t stand someone else telling me something was good.

So whenever Leeds blew it – against Chelsea in the 1970 FA Cup final, Wolves to lose the league title in 1972 and Sunderland in the 1973 FA Cup final – I cheered, a gleefully gratuitous reaction which dad took in good part.

Chopper, Ossie and friends put a smile on the face of a young Paul Simpson

As I couldn’t support Leeds, I turned to Jimmy Bloomfield’s stylish Leicester City side, 16 miles from home in Nuneaton. A cousin and uncle were regulars at Filbert Street and within weeks my throat was raw as I joined in the Len Glover roar – a foot-stamping, ear-splitting, larynx-bursting noise that greeted the sight of Glover, on the wing. with the ball at his feet.

Coventry City were nearer but there were no family ties and, under Noel Cantwell’s management, they were one of the most sterile football teams in Europe. Dad often quoted Michael Parkinson’s appalled descriptions of the Sky Blues in which machine-gun-like Ernie Machin was forever mowing down anything that moved.

But Brazil, not Leeds, provoked the family’s first real football-related clash of generations. Although we are officially obliged to pretend, looking back, that we all supported that beautiful Brazil team in 1970, I didn’t. I supported England, wept after the tragedy of Leon and cheered on the Italians in the final because they had beaten the team who had beaten us and done so in a match so enthralling I can still recall particular scenes – Beckenbauer patrolling midfield with his arm in a sling, Riva stabbing home Italy’s third – as vividly as if I was watching it live today.

Luckily, dad was a shrewder judge and, after the final, decided it was time I, being nearly nine, learned to bend it like Rivelino.

Until then, my football practice in the back garden had been a kick and rush affair – five touches for me, playing as Team A, to get from one end of the lawn to the other and then I, as Team B, had five touches to get back to where I started.

This wasn’t, dad rightly concluded, the best way to train a footballer who aspired to play in the school team (ambitions that began and ended with one inconclusive substitute appearance, out of position, at left-back) and so, for much of that summer, he put the ball on a particular spot on the lawn and invited me to try and curl the ball over an imaginary wall.

I tried to curl it with every part of both feet – the outside, the inside, and the instep – and striking every area of the ball. But after four weeks, I began to lose heart. If the ball was curving, I couldn’t see it. So one night – after ten free-kicks went either infuriatingly straight or veered into the rhubarb – I rebelled, saying I wanted to revert to my old five-touch game.

Rivelino's set-pieces would hardly ever disturb rhubarb...

It was, in all fairness, a poor reward for his weeks of patient counsel. Looking at me with horror, dad complained: “You’re just like all the other Europeans, you just want to play kick and rush.”

Chastened, yet relieved, I ran down the other end of the lawn with the ball. I felt more at ease pretending to be Riva than Rivelino and dreamed of having a shot so powerful I could break a spectator’s arm, just like Riva, as my International Football Book Of The Year No13 informed me.

Yet for months, when dad wasn’t looking, I’d sneakily put the ball on that same spot, try a different method of kicking it and study the ball’s trajectory intensely, determined to calculate whether I had managed to make the ball deviate slightly from its normal path. I was never convinced.

When Revie left Leeds, I realised that dad belonged to that much-derided breed whose passion for the game was defined not by a particular club but by a commitment to, as he put it, “teams who play good football”. West Ham were always in favour – later I discovered his affection might owe something to family history: his dad, my grandfather, had enjoyed living in the East End in the 1920s when the Hammers had been in their pomp.

Apart from Revie’s Leeds and the Hammers, he admired Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest. If their game wasn’t exactly Brazilian in its adventurousness, Forest did recognise that football is best played on the ground. And Clough, in the Midlands in the 1970s, was a plain-talking, maverick deity.

After I left home, our talks about football were more intermittent, often consisting largely of a prolonged post-mortem on England’s latest failure during – or on the brink of – a major tournament. (I had learned the lessons of Leon in 1970 well and never wept again: West Germany 1972, Poland 1973, Argentina 1986, Netherlands 1993, Brazil 2002 and Germany 2010 were greeted stoically with resigned despair). He mercifully missed the debacle in Bloemfontein – he was in Cyprus at the time – but rang next day to ask: “How bad were they?”

Dad was ahead of his time in the sense that he never seemed to expect too much from – or even particularly enjoy – watching England. He was much more ecstatic when Denmark beat Germany at Euro 1992 than I ever saw him after an England game.

Denmark celebrate Euro 92 glory (Simpson Sr. not pictured)

Whenever I was back in Nuneaton for the weekend, we would watch Match Of The Day. Dad’s mode of viewing was to pour himself a large glass of red wine, settle in his favourite armchair, shake his head occasionally and tut a lot. The only Premier League side he could bear to watch, he once announced, was Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal.

When I asked once why he didn’t watch much football, he said: “I can’t stand all the mistakes”. At the time, I took this for the curmudgeonliness of age but, a year later, accidentally catching a dire bottom of the table clash one not-so-Super Sunday, I started counting the errors. After nine consecutive changes of possession, I had to stop because continuing to watch this serial ineptitude had begun to seem like an act of idiocy.

In the 1960s, dad had entranced me with heroic tales of the Nuneaton Borough v Bedworth United derbies of his youth. In his enthusiastic telling, these legendary games were spectacular, gladiatorial contests played out before an enraptured throng.

In the derbies I’d seen, this great local rivalry manifested itself in some shamefully crude tackles and a 90-minute debate over which set of supporters were less likely to have a job. The highlight of ‘my’ derbies was a half-time pitch invasion I staged with a mate in a valiant, albeit hopelessly misguided, attempt to fill up our autograph books.

Nearly 50 years after those indifferent derbies, three generations of the family – my dad, brother-in-law, son and nephew – miraculously went to watch Boro. Not a derby, but Boro were still at home. It was the first time we had all been to watch the Boro – or Town as they had been renamed as punishment for some mysterious financial irregularities – and the match became even more of a family do when attacking full-back Eddie Nisevic, a cousin’s son, came on in the second half as Boro chased the game.

Like those coaches who watch from the stands, Dad had by then retired to the back row where he delighted in pointing out, with all the authority of a retired midfield general, which unit of the team wasn’t moving forward or back in unison and supporting the play as they were supposed to.

That was the last game we watched together but this week, in dad’s memory, I will venture into the back garden, put our deflated UEFA Champions League matchball in the middle of the lawn, and try, with little hope and even less expectation, to bend it like Rivelino.

Della Valle vows to act as Fiorentina faithful lose patience again

James Horncastle — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:16:00 GMT

Delio Rossi held up his hands. “I am not Padre Pio, but a football coach,” he said. Miracle work, it seemed, was not his calling.

Yet after taking the Fiorentina job in November, some supporters were indeed shouting: “Santo Subito.” Rossi, they claimed, should be made a saint immediately, for he had exorcised a demon and delivered them from evil. Sinisa Mihajlovic was finally gone.

For 18 months the Fiorentina faithful had whistled, insulted and protested against the Serb. So when their prayers were answered after a 1-0 defeat to Chievo, it was thought Rossi would lead the club back on to the righteous path.

Sunday night’s events appear to indicate, however, that Fiorentina are still on a road to perdition, and that for all his faults, Mihajlovic wasn’t the only problem. Things go much deeper.

Condemned to a 1-0 defeat at home to bottom club Lecce, anger proved hard to contain in the stands. Owner Andrea Della Valle had left his seat in the Tribuna d’Onore out of superstition at half-time. With hindsight, it was a lucky escape. When the full-time whistle was blown, his executive president Mario Cognigni and one of the club’s advisers Paolo Panerai were spat at and subjected to a series of bad-tempered chants. Security had to be called and they were escorted to safety.

Fiorentina ultras then tried to break into the dressing room. They were held back, but a crowd outside the Artemio Franchi estimated to be 500-strong lingered for two hours after the game and demanded that their message be heard and taken on board. A delegation of seven ultras sought and obtained a meeting with Cognigni, chief executive Sandro Mencucci, communications director Gianfranco Teotino and team manager Vincenzo Guerini. After quarter of an hour or so, they re-emerged without any trace of satisfaction on their faces. The question is: what did they talk about?

According to Monday’s Il Corriere dello Sport, the ultras outlined three specific concerns. The first was that the club doesn’t appear to have total control over its players. All too often this season, there have been indications that there’s a culture of indiscipline and lack of professionalism among some of the players in the Fiorentina dressing room. Admittedly Houssine Kharja was somewhat harshly punished for arriving late for training because of his commuting to-and-from Milan where his family live. Stevan Jovetic, Adem Ljajic and Khoumar Babacar made the headlines too after they were banned from driving for not having the right paperwork. Fans can live with that.

What they can’t live with, though, is hearing about key members of the first team partying until the small hours in Florence’s nightclubs before games in a difficult season. Juan Manuel Vargas was caught in October. Alessio Cerci and Andrea Lazzarri were spotted in November. They were each named and shamed in the local press, then fined.

Cerci in particular has come in for criticism for not “respecting the city.” Asked to move his illegally parked Maserati by a traffic warden, he allegedly refused to do so until after he had finished his dinner. His case wasn’t helped last week when, in response to being dropped for Fiorentina’s Coppa Italia clash against Roma, his girlfriend launched a tirade on her Facebook page once they were knocked out. “No Cerci? No Coppa Italia!!! Ahahaha… bye bye Delio [Rossi] and bye bye Fiorentina fans,” she wrote.

The second issue on the ultras’ agenda was the Della Valle family’s growing distance from the club. The third centered on a lack of investment. The two are not mutually exclusive. For the last two years, Fiorentina’s owners have perceived a distinct lack of gratitude for resurrecting the club they had bought in 2002, which was then playing under a different name in Serie C2 and still reeling from the effects of bankruptcy. They felt let down, first by coach Cesare Prandelli, who decided to take the Italy job in 2010, then by Florence’s mayor Matteo Renzi, who shelved their plans for a new stadium with hotels and retail space. There was genuine disillusion.

Diego Della Valle, Andrea’s brother, wrote an open letter outlining the situation: “I need to know with extreme clarity what the city and the fans want and expect for the future of Fiorentina, to understand if there is still the motivation for the owners to continue down a common path of sporting passion, to build the best possible future and to restore all the pleasure of going to the stadium to spend an entertaining afternoon. If there aren’t these conditions then, as we have said before, the owners are ready to step aside.”

Amid growing protests from the fans, the moment had come to ask if their time and money could not be spent better elsewhere. Last January, for instance, they committed £21.5 million to the restoration of the Colosseum in Rome, while transfer expenditure at Fiorentina throughout the season was £13.3 million, the lowest outlay since the club returned to Serie A in 2004.

As the disenchanted Della Valle brothers withdrew into themselves, the team’s best players began to lose faith and perhaps came to believe that Fiorentina’s ambition didn’t match their own. Captain Riccardo Montolivo revealed he wouldn’t be signing a new contract after his existing deal expires in 2012 and was stripped of the armband. Alberto Gilardino’s “fire had gone out”.

While it’s useless to keep players who no longer want to play for the club, it’s also counter-productive in Gilardino’s case to sell one of Italy’s best centre-forwards to Genoa for just £7 million, as Fiorentina did last week, partly because, with Santiago Silva about to be sold back to Argentina, Fiorentina didn’t have a replacement lined up and would now be forced into playing Jovetic and Ljajic up front.

With no natural strikers in a young and inexperienced squad, is it any wonder that the fans’ raised a few eyebrows? This is a club that, in recent memory, has had Luca Toni, Giampaolo Pazzini, Adrian Mutu and Gilardino leading the offensive line. Now too much was being asked of Jovetic. As for Ljajic, on being played out of position, he missed sitters against Roma and Lecce.

To make matters worse, negotiations to sign the much-maligned Amauri from Juventus hit a snag over the players’ excessive wages demands. Then came a report that Valon Behrami, one of Fiorentina’s most committed players in a dispirited bunch, had been cheekily asked for in part-exchange by Juventus.

Interviewed on Sunday night, a shaken up but conciliatory Andrea Della Valle promised action. “It’s true we deserve more. The fans deserve it too, naturally. They do what they think is right the protest is understandable if it’s civil. It was a cold shower that we didn’t expect. With another three points we would have been nearer the European places. Now we have to roll up our sleeves and make up for our mistakes. The market still offers us two weeks of trade and we’ll do something soon.”

Fiorentina currently lie 13th in Serie A. It’s hardly a disaster, but also no real improvement in terms of results than those they achieved under Mihajlovic, even if the team’s style of football has sometimes been easier on the eye. Rossi insists that for the rest of this season “blood and tears” will need to be wept by his players. What Fiorentina need more than ever, though, is to start smiling again.

Jádson’s departure marks the end of an era at Shakhtar Donetsk

Mark Gilbey — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:38:00 GMT

Jádson walked out onto the pitch at the Donbass Arena for one last time yesterday.

The pint-sized playmaker surveyed the stadium where he scored the first goal at for Shakhtar Donetsk against Obolon Kyiv some two-and-a-half years ago, before heading back down the tunnel to have a moment to himself in the home dressing room.

After seven seasons with the club, few in this corner of eastern Ukraine will begrudge him a move to São Paulo in his native Brazil.

Inside the bowels of Shakhtar’s magnificent home it was standing-room only at Jádson’s farewell press conference and for those unable to attend, the event was streamed live on the club’s official website.

He emerged at noon to a standing ovation from fans and journalists.

Jádson was one of Mircea Lucescu’s first signings as Shakhtar manager, after buying him from Atlético Paranaense in January 2005. A superb player with a sublime touch and low centre of gravity, he honed his skills as a futsal player before making the step up to 11-a-side football at the age of 13.

The compact midfielder is an intelligent, technically gifted individual, able to spot a pass or find the back of the net himself and he has been a mainstay in a Shakhtar side that has gradually supplanted Dynamo Kyiv as Ukraine’s pre-eminent club.

In his 272 appearances Jádson scored 64 goals, as well as providing assists for countless others. He departs with five Premier League winners’ medals.

And his name shall never be forgotten in Donetsk after netting the decisive goal in the 2009 UEFA Cup final against Werder Bremen.

With the score tied at 1-1 in the first period of extra time, Darijo Srna made one of his marauding runs down the right and fed Jádson who had arrived late from a deep position; although he didn’t strike the ball cleanly, he got enough on it to beat Tim Wiese and ensure Shakhtar became the first Ukrainian side to lift a European trophy in the post-Soviet era.

That goal was shown during a 20-minute video documenting his time in Ukraine at yesterday’s packed press conference.

Only his manager was absent. Lucescu, still in a Bucharest hospital after being involved in a car accident recently, spoke with the midfielder over the telephone, leaving Shakhtar’s CEO Sergei Palkin to host the event.

He presented Jádson with a club shirt emblazoned with the number 272.

“I want to thank everyone who came here to say goodbye,” said the tearful 28-year-old.

“Today, I am leaving. I will remember the whole period spent in Donetsk. In addition to the trophies, I will take with me the fans’ love and respect towards me and my family. I am very touched. It is a very sad moment.”

He was highly-respected in the city. Assistant manager Alexandru Spiridon commented that “I have worked together with Jádson for seven years. He is part of Shakhtar, a very important part. To be honest, when Jádson said goodbye to us, my eyes were filled with tears.

“Jádson deserves the warmest and kindest words - as a footballer and as a person,” continued the Moldovan.

“But still, it is a very sad moment when the person with whom you have worked side by side with for so many years leaves. It feels like a part of you is leaving.

“I saw that the boys were experiencing the same emotions when saying goodbye to Jádson. It was hard.”

For all his, and the club’s success though, Jádson isn't really departing on a high. His recognition at international level has been some time coming, but after playing in the Copa América he made just 14 more appearances for Shakhtar since the summer.

They are second in the Premier League table too, a point behind Dynamo, albeit with a superior goal difference.

There is a sense that maybe it was the right time for him leave though. Indeed, it had been on the cards.

Shakhtar earn €3.8 million from the deal, plus take 30% of the rights to São Paulo’s 20-year-old midfielder Wellington, who is valued at €10 million, but for now Lucescu may stick with what he has got.

Even if they are involved in a three-horse race domestically, there is no Champions League football for the club to contest.

There was some good news for Shakhtar fans yesterday, however. On the day Jádson left, their tricky, left-footed, right-sided attacker Douglas Costa penned a new five-year deal. Undoubtedly the 21-year-old is a real talent, but Lucescu must be praying he now adds some consistency to his game.

Douglas Costa’s fellow Brazilians Dentinho and the distinctly un-Brazilian sounding Alan Patrick will probably be more involved in first-team affairs, but in the last few games before the winter break Henrik Mkhitaryan excelled in Jádson’s role behind the central striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

A classy player with an eye for goal, the poster boy of Armenian football is another outstanding prospect at the club. The 22-year-old has big boots to fill though, as does Jádson.

He takes the No.10 shirt at São Paulo vacated by Rivaldo, who last week made a surprise move to Angolan side Kabuscorp.

“Jadson was our team’s soul. He was always cheerful. He liked singing songs. He always created a good atmosphere within the team,” said Srna after saying goodbye to his team-mate.

“It is a pity that he is leaving for good. Jadson is a great player, one of the leaders at Shakhtar, but most importantly, he is a wonderful person and a loyal friend. The circumstances were such that he had to return to Brazil. But that's life. And I am sure that we will meet again.

“In any case, we promised each other!”

Plans are also afoot to give him his own star on the Walk of Fame that was launched last year.

He may be gone, but Jádson won’t be forgotten in Ukraine any time soon.

Barça lament referees revolt ahead of Clásico clash

Tim Stannard — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:21:00 GMT

Those who are still dipping their pinkies into the steamy waters of La Liga may not be aware of exactly what the 'Villarato' is.

This term - oft-used in Spanish football - was coined by Madrid-based daily newspaper AS to describe an imaginary conspiracy said to have been cooked up by FA President Angel Villar, Barcelona and the country's referees to make sure that all decisions went in the Catalan club's favour and against Real Madrid.

Apparently, the 'Villarato' is no more. Instead, the 'Anti-Villarato' is in play, as demonstrated by the failure to award Barça a late penalty for hand-ball in last week's derby clash against Espanyol, and the booking of Andrés Iniesta for a dive when another penalty was probably the right decision.

"There are times when the referees are against us," moaned Xavi ahead of Wednesday's Clásico. "I have the feeling that this year they are against us more than other teams." Even AS Editor Alfredo Relaño thinks the tide has turned in the refereeing stakes. "Before, everything was going one way, not any more," was the happy-clappy message in Tuesday's editorial.

This is just a sample of a mixed bag of pre-Clásico rumblings ahead of a game nobody is completely sure whether or not to bother taking seriously.

Josep María Casanovas in Sport perhaps best describes the importance of the two Copa del Rey games in terms of what it means to the title race, in which Real Madrid currently hold a five point lead. "Knocking the league leaders out of the cup would be a decisive injection of morale for Barça."

Still, this thoughtful analysis hasn't stopped the Sport man's colleague, Lluís Mascaró, launching into another of his trademark 'good vs evil' rants.

"After seeing the sad performance of Mourinho in Mallorca, no-one can doubt that Madrid will lose points. Not even the help of the refs (anti-Villarato) can stop such a vulgar team falling to any rival that plays with intensity and ambition," rants Mascaró on sides like Espanyol, Getafe and Real Sociedad, three teams who have managed to stop Barcelona in their tracks this season.

Over in Mordor, AS are claiming that "Barcelona are afraid of [José Manuel] Pinto", reporting that supporters would rather have Víctor Valdés in goal than their back-up net-tender and designated cup game keeper. The Barça press may well argue that Real Madrid are afraid of Messi, Alexis, Cesc, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Piqué, Alves and Abidal, given only one of the eight Clásicos between Mourinho and Guardiola have been won by Madrid.

While the first of a possible eight Clásicos in 2012 kicks off on Wednesday night in the Santiago Bernabeu, the first of the cup quarter-finals will actually take place in Barcelona, 24 hours earlier, with third-tier Mirandés facing Espanyol on Tuesday evening. "Mission impossible," claims Carlos Pouso, the Mirandés manager whose team received a special birthday treat by flying to the game on a big silver sky demon never before seen by most of the side's players.

Mauricio Pochettino, meanwhile, is doing the humble, respectful routine ahead of a clash against a side that have already knocked out Villarreal and Racing in this season's competition. "It's a team who have eliminated two Primera clubs. One can catch you by surprise, if it happens a second time and it's a knock-out then they have good reasons for being here," warned the Espanyol boss.

Heroes & Villains: Slick Swans, slipping Spurs and critic-correcting Carrick

Vithushan Ehantharajah — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:22:00 GMT

Heroes

Manchester City
The DW stadium is hardly a fortress, but there’s no such thing as an easy three points when you’re without two of your most important players, as City were in the absence of Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure on Monday evening.
Stefan Savic and Joleon Lescott settled well at the back after a scratchy opening 10 minutes, and look likely to continue their partnership against Tottenham on Sunday. Micah Richards should return for that fixture, though one would think he’d slot back in at right back rather than in the middle, especially given the threat of Gareth Bale from wide.
However, Roberto Mancini’s biggest worry will be in midfield rather than at the back. City missed the drive and ball-retention of the younger Toure in the middle of the park. Samir Nasri was better than of late, but still not at his best, and with Nigel de Jong short of match-time it could prove fatal to start the Dutchman ahead of the former Gooner in what will be a frenetic encounter.
As big as Sunday will be (title rivals Manchester United will also face Arsenal), City’s 1-0 win over Wigan took them to 51 points after 21 games. Opta data shows that all four sides to have taken over 50 points from their first 21 games of a Premier League season have ended it as winners.

Swansea City
In a meeting of two of the Premier League’s slickest short-pass specialists, Brendan Rogers’ men came out in top in a thoroughly enjoyable game at the Liberty Stadium. Last week we were treated to an exhilarating Manchester derby that left us breathless – on Sunday we were left satisfied by some classy caressing of a football. And credit to Swansea for giving it to us; very few established Premier League sides would have the confidence to try and beat Arsenal at their own game.

Steven Fletcher
As an impressive youngster at Hibs, Fletcher was once said to have grabbed the attention of Real Madrid. Not enough to elicit a formal enquiry from the Spanish giants, but they did compile a DVD of the Scot after some impressive displays.
However it is only really now, thanks to the loss of Kevin Doyle to injury, that Fletcher is starting to blossom into an accomplished footballer at the highest level. While he lacks Doyle’s industry, his touch and invention is superior to the Irishman, as is his goal threat; his opener against Tottenham was his ninth in the league this season, compared to Doyle’s two.

Blackburn Rovers
Relegation strugglers don’t usually pull off accomplished wins with only ten men, even at home. But for all Blackburn’s faults, they do know where the goal is – they are the joint sixth highest scorers in the league (with 32 goals), and goals keep you up; just ask Birmingham fans…
While they have issues at the back to sort out – starting with the future of Chris Samba – the loss of Yakubu through suspension for games against Everton, Blackburn and Arsenal is a blow.
But as they proved in the 70-odd minutes without the rotund Nigerian, they have the means to cope. Whisper it, but does anyone else get the impression the Blackburn players actually quite like Steve Kean? They certainly seemed to play that way…

Michael Carrick
A returning – and scoring - Scholes grabbed the headlines, but Carrick was superb against Bolton. Despite a couple of error-strewn performances in the last month, Carrick has been United’s best midfielder since THAT defeat to Manchester City (and one of those displays was at centre-back). He’ll never win over all his critics, but Carrick has seemingly convinced Sir Alex and the rest of the coaching staff at Old Trafford that he is a key part of Manchester United and their run-in for number “20”.

Villains

Chris Foy
At the end of a week in which every tackle had been scrutinised interminably, it was perhaps fitting that the man who started it all off by dismissing Vincent Kompany in the Manchester derby ended the week with a much, much worse decision.
QPR's Shaun Derry flew into a challenge on Newcastle's Yohan Cabaye right under the referee's nose, and was only booked for his trouble. Derry was off the ground, reckless and could easily have broken the Frenchman’s ankle had he made contact (though the former Lille man probably caused further damage by jumping up to remonstrate with the QPR midfielder).
It would have been interesting to see if Alan Pardew would have still accepted Foy’s awarding of a yellow card had Newcastle not taken all three points.

Tottenham Hotspur
A draw at home to Wolves hardly signals the end of Spurs’ title charge, but it is a blow, especially given how City and United had floundered over the Christmas period.
The novelty of a three-horse race means Spurs wouldn’t necessarily have to beat both Manchester clubs in order to win the title. But with that comes the added pressure of having to be near-faultless for the remaining 34 games - that includes beating lower-table opposition at home.

Kenny Dalglish
Since his return, King Kenny has impressed with his tactical dexterity, but against Stoke he perhaps tried to be too clever by adopting three at the back, which served Liverpool well at the Britannia last season.
His decision to then bring on Andy Carroll, only to sacrifice width with the withdrawal of Downing seemed equally perplexing. In the absence of Suarez, Dalglish would probably be better advised to go back to basics, especially given the limitations of the Uruguayan’s under-studies.
Yes Liverpool are unbeaten at home, but they have dropped 14 points - almost five games’ worth - in 11 games at Anfield.

West Brom
Only five points off the relegation zone, West Brom have been quietly slipping down the table; one point in the last four games – three of which have been at home – represents a worrying slip for a side few predicted for the drop.
Their performances have not been particularly bad, but a few more defeats could see Roy Hodgson’s men knee-deep in the mire at the bottom of the table.

Liverpool draw blank, Ramsey's unhappy return and Spurs get 'Frimponged'

Nick Govier — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:32:00 GMT

The weekend's top-flight action analysed by Nick Govier, the Editor of Footballistically.co.uk

It was Groundhog Day for Liverpool in their match against Stoke this weekend, as they again failed to score despite dominating possession.

Kenny Dalglish opted to play three central defenders against Peter Crouch as a lone target man, allowing Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson the freedom to both push forward. However, it was at the other end where Liverpool struggled, registering a single shot on target in a Premier League game at Anfield for the first time since May 2010 against Chelsea.

This was mainly due to Dalglish opting to spearhead his attack with Dirk Kuyt, who often came deep to receive the ball and link up with the rest of the Liverpool midfield. This allowed the Stoke defence to drop off and let Liverpool play in front of them, making their job much easier, and meant Liverpool rarely had targets in the penalty area for those advanced wing backs to hit; only five of 42 attempted crosses found a Liverpool man. The game was screaming out for Andy Carroll to provide a presence in the box, as suggested in the Stats Zone preview, but perhaps his lack of contribution in the thirty minutes he was on the field suggests why Dalglish was loathe to start him.

If only Dalglish could call upon Fernando Torres for that presence in the box... the Chelsea man may not have been on the scoresheet this weekend, but at least he's not hiding. Twelve touches in the opposition box was more than any other player in the Premier League this weekend, and he also led the league in scissors-kicks-against-the-bar assists, as Frank Lampard bundled in his rebound for the winner.

Another team making chances from close range were Wolves, who achieved a 1-1 at White Hart Lane by keeping Spurs shooting from distance. Luka Modric was the most prolific, attempting six shots from outside the box (a weekend high) and scoring Tottenham's goal with one of them.

Part of Wolves' success was due to them stopping Spurs from playing through them, intercepting the ball 31 times or once every three minutes. Leading the interception count for the visitors was Arsenal-loanee Emmanuel Frimpong with five, along with three tackles and a block. He also managed five fouls and a yellow card against his North London rivals before the inevitable red card was averted with his withdrawal on 67 minutes.

But not every Arsenal midfielder had a good weekend against old rivals this weekend. Former Cardiff City man Aaron Ramsey returned to Wales and perhaps wouldn't have minded an early substitution himself. Whether the former Cardiff man was affected by the Swansea crowd, or was struggling in the absence of Arteta alongside him is unknown, but he gave away a penalty and was caught on the ball for Swansea's second goal. His pass completion percentages also fell, from 90% at Fulham to 76% this weekend.

One-time Arsenal youth prospect Leon Britton showed Ramsey how it's done in that area, leading the league in successful passes this weekend with 71 as Swansea won the tiki taka battle at the Liberty stadium.

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

Good Day, Bad Day: Comeback kids, sorry Sevilla and Atlético’s new era

Tim Stannard — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:21:00 GMT

Good Day

Gonzalo Higuaín, José Callejón
Both Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo looked a little lost in the hurly burly of the second half of Madrid’s 2-1 win over Mallorca, when pretty much every forward player at José Mourinho’s disposal was out on the field. Heck, even Kaká played, things were so desperate at 1-0 down.
However, Higuaín celebrated five years with the club with yet another crucial comeback goal, while Callejón continued in what has become a sparkling campaign for both the player and his flat top, with his third league goal of the season making him the most effective player in la Liga with a strike rate of one goal every 75 minutes in all competitions.

Alexis Sánchez
Rather like Angel di María, Alexis is never going to be a favourite for the blog due to the footballer’s outrageously theatrical ways and unnervingly tiny face, but the bustling Barça player has qualities that LLL loves, in his strength, drive and finishing. Alexis popped up with an assist and a goal on Sunday against in Betis, in a game when Pep’s Dream Boys had a bit of a scare having gone 2-0 up in the first half to then blow the lead. Fancy that, Barça falling asleep in the middle of match.

Athletic Bilbao
Marcelo Bielsa’s side were hugely disappointing last week against Getafe, but showed signs of the old, proper Athletic on Sunday in a 3-0 win over Levante with all three goals being headers, the call sign of the Basque battlers who now move into fifth-place.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy
The goal from the Dutch striker against Sporting was just his second of the season in la Liga for Málaga.

Atlético Madrid
A 3-0 win over Villarreal sounds fantastic - especially compared to recent results - but it isn’t yet “another chapter” as claimed by AS, who are most enthusiastic in their response to Diego Simeone’s home debut on the Rojiblanco bench. It’s an attitude shared by Marca who boast of “another Atleti”.
While the former player was more active on the sidelines than Gregorio Manzano - responding to the chants of fans, hi-fiving his players, applauding Diego off the pitch - Atlético weren’t enormously better than in previous games in the Vicente Calderón this season. They were however a little luckier, and were also playing awful opposition.
The line-up was not that different, nor the tactics. Falcao’s first goal came from a move that was offside and the second from a penalty that was a foul committed outside the box. LLL is not saying there are not signs for temporary optimism for the Rojiblancos, but the “new Atlético”, “Europe, here we come” declarations within a couple of games of a new regime have been made to look silly before. Instead, the message from LLL is patience, young Padawan, patience.

Diego Simeone
Before the appearance of the new Atlético Madrid manager before the press post Villarreal, LLL was joshing whether a pertinent question for the Argentinean would be, “are you ready to apologise to David Beckham?”
Didn’t feel quite so brave when Simeone walked out, though. Looked like the Atlético Madrid boss could remove your head with a pair of tweezers without breaking into a sweat.

Betis
The Seville side are very much a confidence team that tends to win and lose in runs. At the moment, Betis tails are up after three straight wins and that form carried on into the Camp Nou with the visitors coming from 2-0 down to get back to 2-2 but eventually lose out 4-2.
Pepe Mel was still unhappy with the outcome though, when asked about the secret of facing down the Catalan club. “I don’t have the formula for beating Barça as they knocked four past us.” Despite the scoreline at the Camp Nou, Sevilla - the next opponents for Betis - should be feeling very concerned indeed about next weekend’s derby.

Michu
LLL is enjoying watching the Rayo striker enormously this season. Tall, physical with good Michael Bolton hair, Michu popped up with his eighth league of the season to help Rayo to a 2-1 win over Granada. The forward won’t be in Vallecas for much longer.

Real Sociedad
It was with a gasp of surprise that LLL noticed that la Real were in 14th now, having gone six games unbeaten. Saturday’s smash and grab by Antoine Griezmann was a jammy effort involving a hand-ball and deflection, but the Basque outfit did enough to deserve something from the game.

Racing Santander
A remarkable run for the managerial trio at Racing continues an unbeaten streak ever since the sacking of Héctor Cúper. Racing’s latest triumph was a 2-0 win - assisted by two penalties - over Osasuna to lift the Cantabrians into 15th, two points clear of the drop zone.

Joaquín Caparrós
A iffy offside decision, a 1-0 lead lost and a superb Mallorca performance that had no reward in the end was too much for Caparrós to bear with a sending off in the final seconds of the game, with the Andalusian’s notorious temper getting too much for him and the man-in-the-middle.
Mallorca’s fight and fire in the first forty-five minutes saw José Mourinho praising the opposition with the claim that “the team responsible for what we couldn’t do in the first half was Mallorca,” a useful reminder that when the big two do badly it isn’t always down to their own deficiencies but impressive opposition.

Sporting
A win so dramatic that at least one member of the Sporting side appeared to be in tears. A late Ruud van Nistelrooy equalising effort looked like producing a 1-1 draw in Gijón, until a whopper of an effort from Oscar Trejo in injury time gave Sporting a hugely important win.

Bad Day

Valencia
The Mestalla men are only just back from a long, relaxing winter break, but Unai Emery was blaming fatigue from a Copa del Rey double against Sevilla for a 1-0 home defeat to Real Sociedad, a second league match in 2012 without a win. However, Saturday’s opposition had just been smashed 6-1 by Mallorca in the cup but didn’t seem to be suffering any adverse consequences.
Valencia’s normal front two of Roberto Soldado and Jonas were absent from the starting line-up due to suspension and rotation, but their replacements of Ariz Aduriz and Dani Parejo in support simply didn’t deliver.

Osasuna
A first defeat at home for Osasuna, this season, to Racing Santander of all teams.

Sevilla
Watching a whole host of Sevilla players blast the ball over and wide of the goal again and again, left LLL feeling a little sorry for manager, Marcelino. The forward line fielded against Espanyol was fairly attacking for the normally defence-minded coach with Alvaro Negredo, Jesus Navas, Manu del Moral and José Antonio Reyes all in action.
But every one of those footballers were guilty of misses, especially in the first forty-five minutes, a run that contributed to a goalless draw in a less than impressed Sánchez Pizjuán. “After the first half we played, it’s not normal for it to end 0-0. But that’s football,” sighed Marcelino who is under increasing pressure after a run of four league matches without a win.

Granada
Fabri was furious on Saturday and as well the Granada manager might be after a 2-1 home defeat to Rayo. Fabri was angry at the ref - as all coaches are these days, except Pep Guardiola, and especially his players. “Matches are begun to be lost during the week, ” fumed the Granada boss, “every minute of training has a reason, not just for filling in a report and getting paid at the end of the month.”

Málaga
Sporting boss, Manuel Preciado, summed up Málaga’s situation the best when noting that although they were better that Sporting on paper, his own team had more spirit, fight and effort. Five league matches without a win and a cup knock-out to Real Madrid sees the Málaga project in some trouble at the moment.

Villarreal
José Molina now has to decide which Villarreal is the real team that he’s stuck in charge of. The side that went 2-0 up against Valencia last weekend or the one that was utterly hopeless in the 3-0 defeat to Atlético Madrid. The incredibly-gloomy looking boss who has the air of Miguel Angel Lotina in terms of misery was ruthless in his appraisal of his players after the defeat.

Zaragoza
15,000 fans demonstrating outside the ground and yet another chance for all three points missed at home for bottom-of-the-table Zaragoza who could only draw 1-1 with Getafe.

Derby specialist Ranieri once again enjoys local bragging rights

Richard Whittle — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:51:00 GMT

From the Special One to the Specialist – the derby specialist that is.

Claudio Ranieri, the wily old Roman, has added the Milanese bragging rights to those he garnered in the capital during his spell at the helm of AS Roma, and to a lesser extent in Turin with Juventus.

There had been reports Jose Mourinho had been encouraged to send his support to his former players in the build-up to the game. The Milan derby was a fixture in which the Portuguese used to take three points for granted, but this most recent Inter success was built on good old Ranieri prudence and attention to detail.

Diego Forlan and Wesley Sneijder were both declared fit, so naturally everyone assumed they would start, but of course Ranieri has never been one to follow conventional thinking and with Gianpaolo Pazzini and Ricky Alvarez impressing last weekend in the 5-0 defeat of Parma, it was as you were at kick-off.

Milan, for their part, could easily have been without Alexandre Pato if the Berlsuconi family influence had not been such a pull on the striker remaining at the club instead of moving to Paris.

There may have been a few groans around the dressing room as the news came through that the bubbly Brazilian would be staying; especially if you happened to be Massimiliano Allegri, who had no option but to start the boyfriend of the president’s daughter.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic must not have been too happy either, if his subsequent display was anything to go by, though maybe the personalised training programme the Swede had been following all week was to mask an injury problem.

In truth, in the first half Inter had to dodge a few bullets, which turned out to be fired in a scatter-gun fashion rather than with the deadly accuracy we have come accustomed to from the defending champions. However, when it came to calm head in front of goal there was only one marksman to count on.

Diego Milito had been at his princely best against Parma, where he scored twice, but he was simply regal when it counted this time. He swept what was more of a pass than a shot to the far corner when presented with his only clear-cut chance of the game, after Ignazio Abate’s failed clearance left the striker with an angled run down the left side of the area.

As Milan started to look even more sluggish, Inter became more energised in every facet of their play – and having edged in front they frustrated their opponents at every turn.

There was one moment in particular that summed up the differing approaches of the two teams: Milito looked to have lost the ball in the centre of the pitch but as Ibrahimovic closed in the Argentine raced back to win the 50-50 challenge and at the same time retain possession.

Then there was Javier Zanetti and his right-hand man Esteban Cambiasso, who harried and retrieved lost causes to drive Kevin Prince Boateng and Urby Emanuelson to distraction.

While the likes of Boateng talk about getting another tattoo if they win the Champions League and generally give off the air of the modern millionaire footballer, the two Argentines would never be seen with a hair out of place (though in Cambiasso’s case, this is less of an issue).

They believe that football is their life - off-field charisma means nothing to them, unlike a few Milan players who have allowed the bright lights to blind to who they really are.

Tellingly, someone who is cut from the same football cloth as the Inter veterans – Mark Van Bommel – was Milan’s only decent performer on the night.

It had been a sobering week for Milan’s big names, what with Adriano Galliani forced to stand down in his chase to sign Carlos Tevez after what was apparently a very stern call from Berlusconi to call off the hounds and in future consult the powers at the very top – Silvio and Barbara.

The repercussions could yet be felt if Inter decide to make good on their claims for the Argentine, though with the way results are going at the moment, do they really need a potentially disruptive influence just when things within the club are settling down once again?

Ranieri will not be too concerned about who he has to work with, but he will be well aware how important his derby magic has been in galvanising the black and blue half of Milan.

La Preview: Barça 'down to the bare bones' as Cristiano finds yet another critic

Tim Stannard — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:56:00 GMT

Saturday

Zaragoza (20th) v Getafe (12th) - 18.00 (local time)
More institutional disharmony at bottom-of-the-table Zaragoza saw four members of a board only appointed on the 30th December quitting in a huff, on Tuesday. The complaining quartet, which included the club’s very short-lived Delegate Councillor, resigned their posts claiming that the autonomy over Zaragoza’s affairs, apparently promised by owner and president Agapito Iglesias, never came through. Amazing that.
The give-away to the group was Iglesias meeting Míchel, the first choice head of Manolo Jiménez for new manager after the sacking of Javier Aguirre, apparently behind the board’s back. LLL suspects that the free-and-single Guti’s Twitter confession that he had also been approached to join the s(t)inking ship, might have been the final straw.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Granada (15th) v Rayo Vallecano (13th) - 18.00
Curses! Both Christmas and Reyes are over, which means its too late for someone to buy LLL an intriguing sounding book that has just been released, but would probably take a lifetime to read. “Vallecas and Rayo, 1924-2011” by Rosa de la Vega weighs in at over a 1,000 pages and is “the bible of Rayoism, there’s been no such book that explains our history,” noted club president, Raúl Martín, on a epic volume that LLL would very much like a free copy of please having just plugged it.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Sevilla (7th) v Espanyol (8th) - 18.00
Another bad week for Sevilla president, José María del Nido. Defeat to Rayo Vallecano in la Primera, a cup knock-out to Valencia and the Spanish ‘Fiscalia’ (legal types) looking for immediate prison for del Nido after his recent conviction for fraud, despite the appeal process to come.
On Monday the Sevilla top dog went before the judge who has to ponder over whether to give in to the official request or allow bail with certain restraints such has the removal of Del Nido’s passport and a hefty amount of cash being handed over.
Meanwhile, on the pitch affairs have focussed on the future of manager, Marcelino, due to Sevilla’s current poor results - a future that is assured until June, opines AS. But that assurance been heard one or times before in la Liga with very different outcomes.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Mallorca (14th) v Real Madrid (1st) - 20.00
Now LLL really does enjoy a good old stir and Alfredo di Stefano is giving the blog good reason to have a huge, naughty poke over his utterances concerning Cristiano Ronaldo. After December’s Clásico defeat, the passport-swapping poacher wrote that “I recognise that Ronaldo was too ‘Cristiano’ for some to forgive,” when some locals booed the Portuguese forward for selfishness.
Di Stefano was at it again on Wednesday when questioned over whether it was the done thing for a footballer to be booed by his own fans. “The public have the right to do what they want as they are paying,” announced di Stefano, coming out in support of the...er...supporters. However, the Argentinean was back on message in his weekly column in Marca, writing that “Cristiano is the permanent Ballon d’Or of Real Madrid. Ronaldo is all gold.”
LLL Prediction - Away win

Valencia (3rd) v Real Sociedad (16th) - 22.00
Valencia’s away goals-inspired victory in the Copa del Rey meant Unai Emery didn’t have to eat his words, one tiny letter at a time, thanks to a goal from Roberto Soldado in Seville, in Wednesday’s second leg, last 16 clash. Before what was to become a 2-2 draw over the two legs, the Valencia boss had been asked who was the better striker, Soldado or Alvaro Negredo.
Naturally, Emery chose his own man claiming that “Soldado is better from here to Lima.” That faith was restored with his striker’s 66th minute effort to give Valencia a quarter-final clash against city neighbours, Levante.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sunday

Atlético Madrid (11th) v Villarreal (18th) - 12.00
It takes a lot to make a grumpy LLL laugh early on a Wednesday morning, but an interview published in Marca did the trick. And if Atlético fans already suspect some unwarranted cruelty and belly-poking is on the horizon, the blog would like to point out that, by coincidence, a disbelieving Rojiblanco fan approached LLL on the topic of the same article on the same day.
The interview in question was with the astonishingly average Juanfran, who joined from Osasuna a year ago to replace Simao (worth a chortle in itself) and has done naff all since. But it’s all the fault of the managers in charge, so says the Atlético player.
“I’ve not played as much as I hoped for different circumstances” - like being no good, thought LLL. “I came as one of the best five wingers in Spain and look where I am after a year. What’s true is that I’ve disappeared off the map and I want to get back to my status now,” If that ‘status’ means being a half-decent midfielder at Osasuna, then LLL is sure that Atlético’s bosses will be more than happy to oblige with a swift transfer.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Osasuna (5th) v Racing Santander (17th) - 16.00
An interesting philosophical debate was opened up by Osasuna boss, José Luis Mendilibar on Wednesday, when suggesting that “more than a miracle” was required to overturn Barça’s 4-0 lead in a Thursday’s cup game. Victor Valdés not once whining at the referee during a game perhaps?
LLL Prediction - Home win

Athletic Bilbao (9th) v Levante (4th) - 16.00
It was a no nonsense 4-0 win for Athletic Bilbao over Andrés Iniesta’s Albacete on Thursday night in the Copa del Rey to make sure that the Basque club did not go the same way as Albacete. The match which sets up a quarter-final tie with Mallorca (a heavy Joaquín Caparrós theme there) was brightened up though by an astonishing Messi-like strike from cult hero (i.e. not very good but tries), Gaizka Toquero, with a cracking back heel. “Toquero’s goal was great,” agreed Mad Marcelo Bielsa, “I’m very happy he scored it. He deserves it.”
Levante, meanwhile, came from 2-1 down against Alcorcón from the first leg to show the upstarts from la Segunda who’s the Mack Daddy by beating the Madrid(ish) side 4-0.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sporting (19th) v Málaga (6th)
The day after Willy Caballero had spilled to give Karim Benzema a goal and Real Madrid the Copa del Rey tie with a 1-0 defeat, Málaga moved swiftly to add a bit of competition to the goalkeeping places. Not the best of timingw for Willy, although talks had been ongoing before the clash. The goalie who has joined the long list of newbies on the south coast is Carlos Kameni who has been an Espanyol outcast since the summer, despite a seven-and-half-year spell as a Perico.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Barcelona (2nd) v Betis (10th)
While Iker Casillas has described the huge number of Clásicos played in 2011 and to come in 2012 as making the games “decaffeinated” the Barça press are very excited indeed at the thought of two more games, after Barcelona’s 2-1 win over Osasuna.
“How exciting!” yelled the front cover of Friday’s Mundo Deportivo. The problem for Barcelona, though, it that Pep’s Dream Boys may not have enough players to field in the two games, as well as the match against Betis. Maxwell has been flogged to PSG, David Villa is crocked, as is Andreu Fontás - possibly until the end of the season after an injury picked up in Pamplona. Ibrahim Afellay is still MIA, Pedro has picked up a knock and Seydou Keita is away at the Africa Cup of Nations. Time to activate that Bojan buy-back clause perhaps...?
LLL Prediction - Home win

Top of the league – having a laugh?

Chris Cox — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:05:00 GMT

It's not all fun leading the pack, says Southampton fan Chris Cox...

For the past few years I’ve looked on with a slight sense of envy as teams other than my own top various divisions.

I can remember watching Reading absolutely running away with the Championship a few seasons back whilst a depressing Southampton side struggled to run away with a point from Roots Hall. Then again, for every 5-0 loss at Hull on a foggy evening there was a 6-0 win at Wolves.

Eventually you find yourself jealous of sides like Chesterfield last year, despite the fact they’re in a league you wouldn’t dream of seeing your team playing in, purely because their fans are watching a lot of winning football.

But now my beloved Southampton are top of the league and I’m genuinely not sure how to act about it. It’s quite difficult knowing what to do, especially in recent weeks when we’ve been on a bad patch of form. You can’t keep singing ‘We are Southampton, we’re top of the league’ with conviction when you’ve only had one win in the past six league games.

Given where Saints were a few years ago, I wonder how to feel about things at the moment. Do I take the line that we’ve spent a fair bit of money to get where we are and our form is unacceptable, especially when we’ve shown we deserve to be at the summit? That’s one way to look at it.

The flipside to that particular coin though is that we’ve only just escaped League One, administration, a negative points total and trips to Adams Park, Spotland and the ‘other’ St. James Park (No offence intended, Wycombe, Rochdale and Exeter…). Maybe I need to appreciate having a football club at all.

It’s a difficult one, all said and done.

Watching those other sides do so well, you imagine being top of the league and in with a shout of promotion or silverware must be one massive party. I can’t say it’s been like that so far. You just want the season to end now so that you win the title and that’s that, and you worry each time a team around you runs into good form.

That team’s form could be what dispatches you from your lofty position. Cardiff, for example, who have already beaten Southampton, are doing very well. Too well for my liking…

Last season was a difficult one too. We finished second and got promoted, which was the aim all the time we were in that division. I found myself on the pitch after we secured our place in the Championship, celebrating with thousands of others, but really I don’t think I was ever amazingly happy. Having been used to the Premier League for so long, League One was a bit of a shock. Escaping it was more relief than joy.

January is a particularly difficult month in the table-topping fan’s diary. Having seen a five-point lead evaporate and now sitting at the top of the pile on goal difference alone, the focus is on reinforcements. Except Southampton these days don’t do reinforcements, per se. Nigel Adkins has stressed time and again that we won’t sign for the sake of signing, and any additions will be better than what we’ve already got.

Easier said than done though, isn’t it Nigel?

Reports recently linked us with Gary Hooper, scoring goals for fun in Scotland – and the price is £6 million. To pay that in the Championship would be incredible and I’m not sure I’d like it, though it does occur to me that it’s not every day we’re top of the league with ambitions to get back into the Premier League – and can afford to spend such amounts of cash.

The transfer market has moved on too; if you’re English and can kick a ball, you’re going to have a hefty price tag. Maybe it's time to break the record fee spent on Rory Delap (locally pronounced ‘Rory Dollop’, ‘Rory DeCrap’ or even ‘Rory BeCrap’, depending on where you were sat at St. Mary’s).

With prices like £6m being quoted from Scotland, it’s no surprise the net has been cast a lot wider – like Tadanari Lee, a highly promising Japanese international. Maybe it’s time to put on hold the dream of an all-English XI and look abroad for value-for-money signings, if we’re really that serious about promotion. Horses for courses and all that...

I should point out I'm incredibly grateful for the position we’re in. There are clubs in much worse places than us with fans on the verge of crying, if not already in tears. Looking at crisis clubs like Darlington makes me question how I should feel about it all, so please spare me the accusations of being a spoilt brat.

As proven by Darlo, things change very quickly in football. Imagine the feeling of winning the FA Trophy one minute, then facing extinction the next. I think ‘terrifying’ is the word. The Championship in particular isn’t going to stop and let us think about how to act and how to feel. It’s time to simply keep calm and carry on, like those overused posters tell us to. Perspective must be kept, but at the same time there is room to dream - it is football after all.

Perspective is a funny thing in football, funny because it often goes missing. Look at Spurs right now – in with a shout of winning the league, which I think the neutral would absolutely love. If they didn’t at the very least qualify for the Champions League they’d be disappointed, wouldn’t they? Same thing here. I’m afraid to say I’d now be disappointed if we didn’t achieve promotion, and to put a finer point on it, automatically.

How am I going to treat being top of the league then, now that the rare feeling is actually here? Well, I’m going to carry on as normal. Celebrate when we’ve won, moan when we’ve lost, agonise when we’ve thrown it away, and rejoice when we’ve won it at the death. Most importantly, I’ll carry on through thick and thin, simply because it’s my duty as a fan. Come on you reds.

…I’d take the end of the season now though. Seriously.

Not just for the love of money: Tottenham's most fascinating man

Guest Writer — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:15:00 GMT

Phil Gillen of TheSeatsFaceThePitch.com on the always-entertaining Assou-Ekotto

Benoit Assou-Ekotto doesn't score many goals, but his effort against Everton cemented his place in Tottenham Hotspur's apparent resurgence and into the white hearts of the N17 faithful.

Not often in these glamorous, hedonistic days does a player emerge to stand out from the crowd of prima donnas. Not often would you expect to see a player topping up his Oyster card at a London Underground station. Not often would you see a professional footballer so laid back he was almost horizontal. Assou-Ekotto bucks the trend.

Signed in the summer of 2006, he was lauded as one of the brightest young stars in French football. As impressive as that label sounds, similar titles seem to accompany every foreign player arriving on these shores, so judgement was rightly reserved.

Given the promise that heralded his arrival, Assou-Ekotto made a faltering start to his Tottenham career. First impressions were that he was merely a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the Thimothee Atouba school of ‘Own Penalty Area Step-overs’ due to his lackadaisical defending. His every touch was greeted not by raucous applause but the sound of 30,000 palpitating Lilywhite hearts.

His first season was blighted by a series of injuries that scuppered his attempts to unseat Lee Young-Pyo as Spurs’ first choice left-back. After a serious knee injury, he only featured twice in the 2007-08 season. Talk of not settling in England led to rumours of a move back to France.

The Cameroonian had, to that point, maintained a seemingly blasé attitude toward his chosen career. His well-documented comments admitting that he merely played football to make money were refreshing in their honesty, if a little unsettling for the Spurs faithful. The distance between passionate fan and well-paid player seemed to be once again widened.

However, given his injury problems, Assou-Ekotto admitted that he now appreciated his career more – it was still a job, but one that he shouldn’t take for granted. And in the following season, as Juande Ramos's side gained two points from their first eight games, Assou-Ekotto stepped up his game. He featured heavily after the appointment of Harry Redknapp, playing – like the team – with a new lease of life. He was slowly becoming an integral part of the Spurs line-up.

Still, he was stigmatised for his laid-back style and previously publicised comments; despite his growing prowess on the field a somewhat myopic view of Assou-Ekotto had already been formed. Notable television pundits continued to highlight his apparent lack of concentration and commitment, not to mention his over-ambitious heart-stopping defensive trickery. It wasn’t until he masterfully contained Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2009 League Cup Final that he finally started to receive the recognition he deserved.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s first Tottenham goal was a rather poignant and instructive moment in the club’s modern history. Starting the 2009/10 season afresh under Redknapp’s tutelage and eager to finally banish the memory of the club’s worst start for a century the year before, Tottenham were handed a tricky home tie against the eternally title-tipped Liverpool. Some focus was on how Tottenham would start the new season, but most was on this surely being “Liverpool’s year”.

Tottenham started the game brightly, and were marginally the better team for the first half. In the 44th minute, Tom Huddlestone’s disappointing free kick rebounded to the nearby Assou-Ekotto who surprisingly unleashed a wicked half-volley past Pepe Reina in the Liverpool goal. That goal seemed to instil a tangible belief into the team, evident when Spurs overcame a second-half Liverpool equaliser to win 2-1.

A confident Spurs went on to qualify for the Champions League. Assou-Ekotto’s goal in the first week was by no means the defining reason for Spurs’ qualification into the supposed “Promised Land”, but an important part of the thousand-piece jigsaw it surely was. It was a signal of a team coming of age, typified by the individual’s newfound vigour and purpose.

A number of candid interviews have shown Assou-Ekotto to be more down to earth than his previous comments might have suggested. Football is his job, but that doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy himself or indeed be able to relate to the fans. His admission that he will happily travel to London on the underground like the rest of the great unwashed started to show glimpses of the character behind the on-field nonchalance and wild hairstyles.

There have been questions asked of Assou-Ekotto’s decision to play international football for Cameroon rather than the country of his birth, France. One suggestion levelled was that he merely wanted to play at the World Cup. In a May 2010 interview with the Guardian, Assou-Ekotto concisely retorted.

“Me playing for Cameroon was a natural and normal thing," he explained. "I have no feeling for the France national team; it just doesn't exist. When people ask of my generation in France 'Where are you from?’ they will reply Morocco, Algeria, Cameroon or wherever. But what has amazed me in England is that when I ask the same question of people like [Aaron] Lennon and [Jermain] Defoe, they'll say: 'I'm English.' That's one of the things that I love about life here.”

The 2011 riots in Tottenham struck a chord with Assou-Ekotto – eventually. While everyone else in the country was glued to rolling news coverage, in typically detached fashion he was unaware of the troubles until a friend from France sent him a text. Assou-Ekotto took to the Tottenham streets to meet the locals and amongst the burnt-out buildings and ransacked shops he got his hair done, as he had for the last five years.

"People are nice here," he insisted. "They ask about the next game or the last game, but now the streets are very quiet, it's like a ghost city”. He called on football to assist with the problems rife in communities across the country. Many players appear at charity events, raising the profiles of worthy causes, but they are often put up to it by clubs or agents. Not to be critical of any player's work for charity, but Assou-Ekotto’s genuine concern for the Tottenham High Road community came from the heart.

Whereas it would seem there are more than a few football dignitaries yet to fully appreciate Assou-Ekotto’s languid style of play, Tottenham fans certainly realise the real benefit he brings to the club, both on and off the pitch. Although his rise in stature has coincided with the opposition's right flank focusing less on attacking than containing Gareth Bale, to suggest Assou-Ekotto has an easy time of it is doing him a great disservice.

Many of Spurs’ attacks stem from the left-back's coolness on the ball in tight areas, working space for Bale or Luka Modric to exploit. It's worth noting that Bale’s emergence as the talent he is today wasn't all down to the Welshman impressing in training; it was an injury to the in-form Assou-Ekotto that somewhat forced Redknapp's hand and opened the door for Bale, initially at left back.

Redknapp recently praised Assou-Ekotto’s commitment, when in the past even he had been at a loss to explain why the player wouldn’t know who Spurs’ next opponents were. When illness prevented him from travelling to Wigan with the squad, Assou-Ekotto received a call from Redknapp the night before the game asking if he might be able to feature in the game in anyway. At 7am Assou-Ekotto took a taxi to Wigan and played the whole match, helping Spurs to a 2-1 win. It was hinted that he only made the journey because he didn’t know how far Wigan was, but he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Some fans feel that players should also live and breathe the club. When a player wants to move to apparent 'bigger things' it's an affront that evokes a bilious rage in many a passionate fan. Gone are the days of the ‘one-club men’ who share the fans' affinity for the institutions where they ply their trade. The rewards of jumping ship at the soonest moment far outweigh the relative incremental wage increases of renewing a current contract. Before we cry foul and beat our sweaty palms on the ground in rage, any of us in a similar situation would do the same.

For a man initially painted as a mere mercenary, Assou-Ekotto has unassumingly begun to dispel that image. He's not interested in the over-dramatised side of the game, the supposed star names or their reputations. When asked which big-name player he would like Spurs to sign he replied “Look, Darth Vader could come to Spurs. I don’t care. If he does his job well I am happy for Spurs.”

Summarising on the Spurs-Villa game, Danny Murphy commented that “You can’t take Benoit seriously with that hair” after the player trotted onto the pitch with a wild afro that would have made Carlos Valderrama blush. But that's part of “Disco Benny’s” allure to Spurs fans. Football is taken too seriously and with the profession is in dire need of lampooning, Assou-Ekotto is happy to oblige.

"The whole problem with football players is that they really take themselves seriously," he acknowledges. "We kick a ball around and we earn 100,000, 200,000 or even 300,000 Euros a week. We don't improve the world. It's not like we invented hot water. We just kick a ball.”

With rumours of the newly-minted PSG making eyes at the full-back, hopefully Spurs can persuade him to continue to “kick a ball around” in London for a little while longer.

It's Big and it's Wednesday...

Paul Winslow — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:05:00 GMT

Five back-to-back A League matches make for an interesting scheduling experience, says Aussie-based Anglo journo Paul Winslow

The post-Christmas apocalypse in the UK is easier to bear for football fans. Matches come thick and fast and there's plenty to do in that time between taking the tinsel down and realising that you were never going to give up booze for a whole month anyway. And crazy scheduling means there are matches on most night to keep you interested. The world may be cold and miserable, the bank balance may be alarming, but football can ease you through.

In Australia there's no such requirement for entertainment. Summer's here and Australians don't so much retreat into their shelters for January as cavort around like new-born lambs in spring time. Christmas isn't the end of the year, it's the start of the summer. Most people take the week after Christmas off and even then the Australia Day holiday on January 26 is on the horizon, helping to make the return to work more palatable.

So there's no need for sport, but God there's an overload of it in case you want to hide from the sunshine (and the locals are prone to it, considering one Aussie advert states “there's nothing healthy about a tan”). As well as waking up on most mornings to find Foxtel has recorded a new batch of Premier League games, Australia are going toe-to-toe with India in a Test match cricket series. Shane Warne has returned to grace the domestic Twenty20 Big Bash competition. And then there's, erm, Big Wednesday.

Big Wednesday is Fox Sports' equivalent of Super Sunday. Its moniker may not be quite as catchy (seriously boys and girls... 'Big' Wednesday? What's wrong with Wicked Wednesday, Wild Wednesday, Wacky Wednesday...) but they have something that Sky doesn't. Because the teams are geographically remote – Wellington must travel 3,266 miles to play a domestic game against Perth – many of them are in different time zones.

That means that even if everyone kicked off their game at 7pm local time, matches would actually be stretched over several hours in real time. And that means that if you're a bit clever and use some jiggery-pokery on the schedule you can actually arrange five back-to-back matches – a full round of league fixtures – without involving the weird kick-off times that La Liga often indulges in.

In truth, Big Wednesday – designed to mark the halfway point of the season – got a bit swallowed up in the sporting morass and a Wednesday was always going to be a tough day to make any real impression, but it was a novel concept. And the best part of it was watching the guys in the studio as Wednesday turned into Thursday and they got their heads round watching 450 minutes of football back-to-back.

I feel bad for what I'm about to say. I know I shouldn't. I know it's a serious problem. But I don't remember anything about the football, I just remember one single thought. As the panel chatted after the final game and discussed how they had managed to stay awake, I looked at Mark Bosnich and thought to myself that in the old days he had a surefire, self-admitted 10-gram-a-day way of doing that.

I'm sorry Mark, you're actually relatively good as TV pundits go and you didn't deserve my unconscious disparagement. But let's face it, people everywhere must have been thinking the same... whatever timezone they were in.

Arsenal can look forward to a rare afternoon of physical dominance

Michael Cox — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:18:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the best of the weekend's Premier League action...

Arsene Wenger will be hoping young Emmanuel Frimpong enjoys a good loan spell at Wolves for the rest of the season, but will be paying particular attention to his performance this weekend – where he’ll be up against Tottenham Hotspur, who currently sit nine points ahead of Arsenal. Wenger has never before finished below Spurs in his 15-year spell as Arsenal manager.

Wolves play a very different style of football to Arsenal, and that is reflected in the nature of Frimpong’s passes. In his debut for Wolves, at home to Chelsea, almost all his passes are vertically forward or backwards – compare that to his final game for Arsenal, away at Aston Villa, and he plays the majority of his passes sideways.

It’s interesting that Wenger was happy for Frimpong to go out on loan to Wolves – usually he’s careful to loan his players to play sides that attempt to play a similar brand of football, as seen with Jack Wilshere’s spell at Bolton. Frimpong's game is not based around passing as much as Wilshere's, but Wenger will hope it doesn’t become too direct.

The first meeting between Liverpool and Stoke this season saw the most ‘undeserved’ three points of the season going to Tony Pulis’ side – they won 1-0 despite having only three shots compared to Liverpool’s 24.

Without Luis Suarez, Kenny Dalglish has an interesting decision to make upfront – should he fight fire with fire by using Andy Carroll? The £35 million striker was left out of the first meeting between the sides, with Dalglish believing pace and movement was more likely to unsettle Stoke. He was probably right – but Liverpool lacked that finishing touch, and a static central striker might work well at Anfield.

Swansea are very much like Arsenal – short passes, lots of possession, but a bit flimsy and not great at physical challenges. Brendan Rodgers’ side are particularly poor at aerial duels – they only win 6.5 balls in the air per game.

Arsenal, then, find themselves in the unusual position of being the more physical side, more likely to dominate in the air. In the first meeting between the sides at the Emirates, Arsenal won 14 of the 17 high balls. Will Arsenal look to exploit this by being more physical than usual, or will it be a battle of short passing?

Swansea’s main threat is likely to come down the flanks – their wingers often look to check inside, but with Arsenal still without any recognised full-backs, Rodgers would do well to tell his wide players to take on their opponents.

There are a couple of interesting statistical features of the Everton v Aston Villa game this weekend. First, Everton take a higher percentage of shots, 74%, from central positions than any other side. Perhaps one of their problems with goalscoring – aside from the lack of a clinical striker – is that they are simply too predictable with the positions of their shots. The midweek away defeat to Tottenham Hotspur showed the problem – all the shots from a similar zone, none of them were on target.

While Aston Villa have been one of the most negative sides away from home in the league this season, their last game on the road was the surprise 3-1 win away at Chelsea. There was an obvious area they excelled in at Stamford Bridge – tackles, winning 17 from 21 – and Everton will have to be ready for a physical battle in this match.

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

Henry's sense of drama could save Arsenal's season, but are Spurs title contenders?

Jon Champion — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action...

Whatever happens across the weekend in the Barclays Premier League, it will struggle to make quite the same impact as Thierry Henry’s re-introduction to English football on Monday night.

His arrival as a substitute in the FA Cup tie with Leeds transformed what had been one of the worst games of the season into an occasion that everyone now will always remember, and it showed he’s still got that sense of drama and intervention he’s carried with him throughout his prolific career.

He carries that into the Premier League this weekend, with Arsenal traveling to Swansea for the first Premier League appearance of Henry’s second coming. And it promises to be the most attractive fixture of the weekend.

Swansea and Arsenal are two sides for whom the purity of football is paramount and for that reason if I was going to stump up the money to go and watch one particular Premier League game this weekend it would be that at the Liberty Stadium.

Swansea have been very strong at home – losing just the once, to Manchester United – and on the face of it a draw would be a good result for Arsenal. But, given Arsenal’s position just outside the top four, they really need to be going to Swansea and winning if they’re going to have genuine hope of returning to the Champions League next season.

A number of the top sides have still got to go to Swansea, and although they’ll all find it difficult I would expect there will be teams other than Manchester United who will win there, and I would imagine that Arsenal would see themselves as being part of that category.

Across North London, Tottenham’s strong form continues. Wins against West Brom and Everton have moved them level with Manchester United and within three points of the summit.
In fact, with City not playing until Monday, Spurs could be joint top for a couple of days should they win their home game with Wolves on Saturday, though I’m not sure exactly how much that is worth at this stage.
Tremendous credit is due to Tottenham for getting as close to the two Manchester clubs as they have done, but I still struggle to see them as genuine title contenders. I may be forced to eat my words before mid-May, but I still look at their squad and think there isn’t quite the same depth as there is at City and United.
I know they’ve managed to cover for the absence of Scott Parker of late, but if Emmanuel Adebayor or Gareth Bale was injured for a length of time they would miss those players rather more, and I’m not sure that the deputies are quite up to scratch.
Still, they are doing tremendously well, with 14 wins in their last 18 Premier League games since that 5-1 home thrashing by Manchester City and just one goal conceded in their last six Premier League home games, so they are a mighty tough nut to crack.
They have a lot of very difficult fixtures ahead – including trips to Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City. We’ll start to find out a lot more on Sunday week when Manchester City and Tottenham meet at the Etihad Stadium.
As for this weekend’s fixture, I can only really see a home win. Wolves are in the middle of a run of tough games, they just keep on coming, they had Manchester United and Arsenal away in December, they’ve already played Chelsea this month and now it’s Tottenham. They’re pinching the odd point here and there but really only when these really difficult games are out of the way and they can play some teams rather closer to them in the table are we going to know what their fate is likely to be.

While there has been some rather unsettling talk - denied by player and club - that Darren Bent could be leaving Aston Villa for Liverpool, there is at least a new recruit on his way to Villa Park in the form of Robbie Keane
Therefore we have an LA Galaxy loanee match-up on Saturday, with Keane’s new side facing Everton and Landon Donovan. We’ve already seen the value of the two month loan with Henry at Arsenal, and Villa and Everton will be hoping Keane and Donovan can make similar, if not quite such dramatic impacts.
Both clubs could certainly do with a boost. Villa haven’t managed to win back to back games this season, while Everton have managed only two victories in their last seven games in the Premier League. These are two sides not performing to pre-season expectations. Everton have got more excuses then Villa for being underwhelming this season because of Everton’s financial difficulties. Villa I just think are underperforming. I’m told Alex McLeish his players to go out and express themselves, but it doesn’t look that way when they get out on the pitch. They were workman-like and nothing more when I saw them at Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup last weekend and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this game ends all square.

Frustratingly, Blackburn have failed to build on that shock win at Old Trafford, losing at home to Stoke two days later and then going out of the FA Cup at Newcastle. We hear reports two of their better players - Junior Hoilett and Chris Samba - are likely to leave before the end of the transfer window. That will sound the death knell for their Premier League survival hopes, as Samba is immense at the back, while Hoilett is probably their best creative player. If they lose their best players at either end of the pitch, what hope have they got?
Perennially under-fire Steve Kean faces one of his old clubs in Fulham at Ewood Park this weekend. Martin Jol’s team are improving, with just one defeat in seven in all competitions, the 5-0 thrashing at home by Manchester United. But for the most part they are looking reasonably solid, and they have enough in their ranks to stay in the division. They’ll fancy their chances at an unhappy Ewood Park.

Also on Saturday, Chelsea host in-form Sunderland. Chelsea will perhaps be more worried about being just one point ahead of Arsenal than they are about being eight behind Spurs, because the top four is the be all and end all for clubs of Chelsea’s stature.
Their form continues to frustrate their supporters, and now they’ve lost Didier Drogba to the Africa Nations Cup for the time being as well.
Sunderland have chiselled out five wins in their seven games under Martin O’Neill, which tells you what a bit of confidence can do for a squad. Belief has been restored and the players have shown just what a good squad O’Neill has inherited. He’s quite a fortunate man in that regard. He’s gone to the club where the squad probably doesn’t need major surgery, it just needs a cutting edge added to it.

At the moment Liverpool, with the boost of the win in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final, seem to be riding out the absence of Luis Suarez, but I wonder if Saturday’s game with Stoke is where they will start to miss him. The Potters are just the sort of side Liverpool tend to struggle against. Kenny Dalglish’s side will stand up to the physical challenge, no doubt, but Stoke could cause them real difficulties.
Stoke are in good form and Andy Carroll will be meat and drink to Ryan Shawcross and Robert Huth. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stoke get a result, even though their away form isn’t great.

Manchester United, remarkably, are facing up to the possibility of a third consecutive Premier League defeat, something that very rarely happens. What was slightly alarming in the FA Cup victory at Manchester City was the way they lost the initiative and nearly lost the three goal lead against ten men. They’ll have taken less confidence from that game than perhaps they might.
But Bolton are just the sort of opposition United would want to try and get themselves back on track, because Bolton still look a remarkably nervous team, despite winning two of their last four games. There’s enough in the squad for them to survive, but at present it’s almost impossible to see them getting anything at Old Trafford.

West Brom are in one of their lulls. They seem to be a side that goes on runs of either good results or bad results, and they’re in a bad trot at the moment, with one point from their last three games.
They’re still six points clear of the bottom three, but they’ve only won two of their ten games at home and that will be a frustration and a concern for Roy Hodgson.
They’ve got nearly twice as many points away as they have at the Hawthorns, and that’s something that he’ll be working on. One of those away wins came at Carrow Road in September, but it’s this weekend's opponents Norwich who go into the match in better shape, sat in ninth place with just one defeat in their last six Premier League games. It’s tempting to say this is going to be a draw because West Brom are less of a force at home then they are on their travels and Norwich are just looking pretty solid at the moment.

Newcastle finally appear to have found a bit of form again, having suffered a run of two points in six matches. They’re coming off the back of that 3-0 win against Manchester United, so it’s now two wins in their last three.
But the losses of Demba Ba and Chieck Tiote are significant, as is the fact that stories are beginning to circulate suggesting the better players could well be sold. This is the template Mike Ashley has come up with - they buy low, and sell high once they’ve developed players - and unfortunately the likes Ba and Tiote fall into the category of potentially saleable players.
This Sunday they host a Queens Park Rangers side appearing for the first time under a new manager in Mark Hughes, and there is always that new manager honeymoon period affect to consider. It’s two months though since Queens Park Rangers won, and while they go there with a chance of getting something, I would still be surprised if Newcastle don’t win.

The latest round of action ends on Monday evening, when Manchester City make the short trip to Wigan. At the moment we’re left wondering exactly how deep the ‘crisis’ at Manchester City really is.
Monday’s match may offer some answers. They really do seem to be missing Yaya Toure in particular, and will again be without Vincent Kompany thanks to his four match suspension.
And you have the manager complaining that he doesn’t have enough players and please would the board spend some money, which I think to any fair minded neutral individual seems a fairly remarkable state of affairs.
Wigan have got a very good record against Manchester City over the years. The worry for Roberto Martinez is that his team has produced an upsurge in form but that upsurge is only producing draws. They’ve drawn with Liverpool, Chelsea and Stoke, all admirable results but they need to get wins from somewhere. I think it’s beyond the bounds of credibility to think they’re going to beat Manchester City, so I think Wigan’s travails continue.

Jon Champion is football commentator for ESPN. This season, ESPN’s live television football coverage includes the Barclays Premier League, the FA Cup, the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, England U-21 matches, Dutch Eredivisie and international friendly matches.

Prospect of Clásico double moves ever closer as Madrid overcome Málaga

Tim Stannard — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:02:00 GMT

Real Madrid's sturdy midfield ‘trivote’ and Málaga’s reliably hopeless attack took us all a giant leap towards two more Clásicos, starting next week. Oh joy.

A 1-0 Madrid win described by Marca as “pragmatic” and “a lesson in efficiency” came after Málaga keeper Willy Caballero spilled Karim Benzema's tame shot into his own net to help Madrid on their way to a 4-2 aggregate win. This left the Forces of Mordor with 48 hours to wait and see whether Barcelona could hang on to their 4-0 lead over Osasuna in Pamplona, and set up the second of a possible eight Clásicos in 2012.

Despite the fact Barça are these days apparently too fancy-pants to give their all on away day trips against the minnows, it’s a advantage that even the travel sick Catalans should be able to hang on to.

It was very much back to life, back to reality for Pep Guardiola on Wednesday, after being feted by FIFA at the beginning of the week. The big questions being put to the Barça boss ahead of the Osasuna clash were whether he felt the Spanish FA was out to get him after a last minute handball in the box by an Espanyol defender went unpunished in Sunday evening's derby draw, and why wasn’t he Mourinho-style mad as hell about it?

“What benefit is there in complaining? Are they going to give me points? Sometimes (decisions) are in our advantage,” said Guardiola with the kind of reasonable logic that’ll see him turned down for job after job in the ref-baiting Premier League for being far too sensible.

The two other games played in the cup on Tuesday night continued what has been a disturbingly interesting tournament this season. They were dancing in the streets of Miranda de Ebro near Burgos (up north, somewhere) after third tier Mirandés drew 1-1 at Racing Santander to seal a spot in the quarter-finals with a 3-1 aggregate win.

Mirandés will be facing either Córdoba or Espanyol - currently 2-1 to the second division outfit after the first leg - but it’s the money-spinning big boys that the Mirandés coach wants. “I prefer Espanyol as they are in la Primera,” beamed Carlos Puso.

Tuesday’s other game was an astonishing affair. Mallorca went into the clash with Real Sociedad trailing 2-0 from the first leg, a deficit which worsened when Ifrán gave La Real the lead on the night after 16 minutes. But then Mallorca went goal crazy - something that they have failed to do on a consistent basis this year - by scoring six, including four in a six minute spell in the first half. “I always said goals would come and that’s what I kept on thinking,” said Mallorca boss, Joaquín Caparrós.

Real Sociedad’s manager, meanwhile, was horrified by the enormous boot in the Balearics that his team had just taken.

“The attitude from my players hurt me a lot,” fumed Philippe Montanier. “Our elimination is incomprehensible. We didn’t respect the people of la Real, nor football, not Mallorca. I would qualify this as a lack of professionalism,” the beaten boss exclaimed in fine ‘no s**t Sherlock' fashion.

FIFA hand Barca a timely morale boost as Madrid face 'the first final'

Tim Stannard — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:39:00 GMT

After hours of its passengers and crew screaming, hollering and generally making a bit of a racket, the dead in the water Barça boat was finally thrown a lifeline by FIFA’s passing luxury liner.

Rather than contemplate the fact the title race looks half way lost after Sunday’s draw with Espanyol opened a five point gap below the forces of Mordor in Madrid, the Ballon d’Or prize handed to a smoking jacket wearing Leo Messi on Monday evening gave the Catalan press the opportunity for some timely smugness.

As ever, Sport lead the way, with Josep Maria Casanovas going above and beyond the call of bragging duty by boasting that the event was “a recognition of the best club in the world. A homage to the stars that have turned the Camp Nou into the capital of world football. An extraordinary promotion.”

Over at Mundo Deportivo towers, Santi Nolla wanted to go on bended knee before Messi and Pep Guardiola for their personal tributes to Xavi and Tito Vilanova respectively after picking up their awards for best player and best manager. “The words and gestures in Zurich clearly show that the success of Barcelona, a great team, comes from sharing.

Although Marca were unusually generous in putting Leo Messi on the front cover of Tuesday’s edition in honour of the Argentinean’s award, the paper’s main concern - and that of AS - is Madrid’s Copa del Rey last 16, second leg clash with Málaga. Although there are technically five more games to be played until the final and Madrid have a handy 3-2 lead, Marca are fretting that the game in La Rosaleda is “the first final.”

Even Gonzalo Higuaín is getting in on the act by claiming that Málaga “always have good games against us” - aside from the 3-2 loss last week, the 4-0 defeat earlier in the season, the 7-0 thrashing last year, and the fact that Málaga have not beaten Madrid since the 1983-84 season...

The Cristiano Ronaldo sulk-gate story lingers on, with José Mourinho defending his pouting player. “If you are going to criticise a player for not celebrating goals then criticise me as I didn’t celebrate any of them,” said the Madrid manager. The other main story is Marca’s claim - and that of the footballer’s agent, no doubt - that English clubs are sniffing around Angel di María, with the player trying to renew his contract with the club and arrange a hefty pay rise.

There are two other matches also taking place on Tuesday night, with Racing Santander trying to spare some Cantabrian blushes by turning around a 2-0 deficit from the first leg against third tier Mirandés whilst Mallorca look to overturn the same scoreline at home to Real Sociedad.

Good Day, Bad Day: Barça blow, cry baby Cristiano & barking Bielsa

Tim Stannard — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:34:00 GMT

Good Day

Karim Benzema
The striker is the current French toast of the town - no, he hasn't been covered in egg yolk, though whatever the on-fire forward does in his own free time is his business. It was Benzema who kick-started Madrid’s midweek comeback against Málaga in the cup and it was the Frenchman who was the best of a bad bunch with a brace against Granada in a 5-1 win that gave Madrid a five point lead at the top of the table.
José Mourinho’s men were equally as lethargic as the side that was so dramatically blasted by the coach after Tuesday’s game, and found that Granada were quite hard-to-handle with the tie relatively open until the opening minutes of the second half. Fortunately for Madrid, the team’s league campaign is not the most challenging in January so the players have plenty more opportunities for a yawn, stretch and nut scratch before polishing off their opposition.

Levante
Although Levante could only manage a goalless draw at home to Mallorca - mainly thanks a great display from goalkeeper Gustavo Munúa - draws for Osasuna and Málaga and a defeat for Sevilla meant that the damage from two dropped points was limited.

Espanyol
It’s a very happy new year for Paul from Barcelona, who was at Cornella El-Prat to see what was a fairly newsworthy event in the Catalan capital.
“Call it poetic justice, fate or chickens coming home to roost. I myself prefer to see it as ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’. Yes, it was a penalty. Yes, it was handball (more later) but a quick history lesson sees the ref's decision as par for the course, but what's different here is that it went against Barça.
In 15 years of attending these games that's the first big decision that's gone in Espanyol's favour. So, I think fair is fair. On the subject of handballs, Leo Messi's reaction to his cheating is priceless. Best leading actor surely ?
Barça seemed strangely subdued last night. Was it the atmosphere - not as hostile as two years ago but still pretty intimidating - the Christmas break or Espanyol's tactics? Messi looked bored, Alexis cost how much! Xavi and Andrés Iniesta don't seem to have left feet. Playing three at the back didn't seem to work. If Espanyol had had a half decent striker instead of Thievy, the result could have been very different.
Hats off to Pochettino. Got his tactics spot on, especially second half when he brought on Javi López who had a blinder. Sergio García and Jordi Amat also stood out for me. The ref was ok in parts (especially at the end) but the linesman who spotted Messi's cheating, hand-to-ball not ball-to-hand like Raúl Rodríguez, had a 'mare. He gave a foul against Thievy when Puyol miscontrolled it and a blatant foul on the same player by Piqué right on the edge of the area.
Well done to Pep for taking the result with good grace and Sandro Rosell too despite his recent mad speech in Qatar. I've now seen the top two live and one looked way better than the other. Wasn't the one I was expecting to be honest.”
Paul, Barcelona

Marcelo Bielsa
A bad result for the Athletic boss, but a ‘good day’ prize for Bielsa for being so highly entertaining during Sunday’s afternoon game and keeping LLL more than occupied during a fairly plodding goalless draw with Getafe.
Not once did Bielsa sit on the visitor’s bench. Instead, Argentinean spent the Getafe clash crouching down at either side of the dugout and hugging the sides, along with the occasional squat by the touchline. As one Twitterer suggested, a ‘squat-off’ with Andrés Villas-Boas would be fine festive entertainment.
LLL was not a huge fan of his tactical changes to Athletic though - Javi Martínez is wasted at centre-back whilst there was no target man up front until Fernando Llorente was introduced in the second half as the forward recovers from injury.

Pepe Mel
A 2-0 win over Sporting suggests the decision from the Betis bosses to hang on to Pep Mel despite a run of just one point from thirty in a terrible phase in 2011 was the right one. Sunday evening’s victory was the club’s third in a row.

Atlético Madrid
Really hard to know where to stick Atlético Madrid this week, but for the sake of a bit of a change, it’s a ‘good day’ award for the Rojiblancos despite yet another doomed attempt to win away from home after a goalless draw at Málaga.
Despite just one game in charge, the stamp - no pun intended towards the Argentinean’s victims during his playing career - of Diego Simeone was clear to see on Atlético: an awful lot of tough tackling but not too much threat going forward.
There is much talk in the Madrid press in the post match reaction of concentration, intensity and foundations being built but some fancy football is going to be needed next week in a key home clash against Villarreal if Diego Simeone’s happy relationship with the Atleti fans isn’t going to last as long as a Kardashian’s marriage.

Rayo Vallecano
It wasn’t a particularly happy holiday in Vallecas after four defeats, a cup knock-out and the players refusing to attend the club’s Christmas dinner after a dispute over money with the owners. But spirits were certainly higher on Sunday with a boisterous, bustling busy 2-1 win over a lethargic Sevilla in front of truly fantastic fans.

Racing Santander
The 1-0 win over Zaragoza - an awful game by most accounts - sees the record of the managerial trio in charge of the team stand at two wins and two draws since the sacking of Héctor Cúper. They are also now out of the relegation zone by a point. Too many cooks? Pah!

Villarreal
Curses! It was all looking rosy for new Villarreal boss José Molina when his side lead local rivals Valencia 2-1 with just four minutes to go. But then the defence failed to clear their lines and Ariz Aduriz swept the ball home to level matters. Although Villarreal slipped into the relegation zone, a point against a tasty team seems some cause from optimism in el Madrigal.

Bad Day

Barcelona
While one doesn’t want to talk about counting chickens before the fat lady sings, she’s certainly tucking into a second helping of brownies and custard when it comes to Barcelona’s title chances. A combination of poor away form, the tendency to switch off during games, a bad recent record against Espanyol and a last minute penalty decision going against the Dream Boys left Barça five points behind Real Madrid after a 1-1 draw in Cornella.
But to be fair to Barcelona there has been very little moaning about the call that saw an unpunished handball from Raúl Rodríguez. There is a general acceptance that the nothing more was deserved for a starting eleven that was the same as the one that faced Real Madrid, but certainly didn’t put it as much effort.

Cristiano Ronaldo
The Portuguese player’s extremely pouty response to his first and Real Madrid’s fifth goal of Saturday’s victory has received a very hostile response in normally friendly waters. Although Aitor Karanka claimed that Ronaldo “was only angry because not everything worked for him,” nobody believed José Mourinho’s number two for a second.
Instead, it’s quite clear that Ronaldo is still the incredible sulk after being booed by some sections of the Santiago Bernabeu during el Clásico in December. “Cristiano is a magnificent player but sometimes his pride lets him down,” tuts AS editor Alfredo Relaño, with colleague 'Mad' Tomás Roncero suggesting that José Mourinho should "sit down with Cristiano and calm him down.”
Marca were equally as critical with Sunday’s editorial suggesting that “if Cristiano doesn’t like how the Madrid fans express themselves, the worst thing he can do is show it in the celebration of a goal.”

Dani Alves
Supporters in the stadium heard the racist noises aimed at Barcelona's Dani Alves, TV viewers heard them too. But it appears nobody else did, not even the Brazilian himself.
“I was very focussed on the game and didn’t hear anything. I never hear what goes on around me, but it took place then I condemn it. We hope to get rid of this kind of behaviour,” said Espanyol coach Mauricio Pochettino after the game.

Málaga
This season’s Málaga isn’t actually that good - notable exceptions such as Isco and Santi Cazorla aside - but a few decent results could see la Liga’s nouveau rich team making the Champions League places, which are just five points away, simply because everyone else around them is equally as disappointing or - as in in Osasuna and Levante's case - will probably lose form as the season goes on.

Marcelino
The Sevilla manager’s instincts are always to avoid defeat rather than go for the win, and this is costing Marcelino’s men badly, with the club now on a run of three league defeats. In the final half an hour, Sevilla showed how well they can go forward when two strikers are played after the introduction of Freddie Kanouté, but it was too little, too late despite Marcelino after the game talking about luck and the size of the Vallecas pitch.

Real Zaragoza
They may have a new manager in Manolo Jiménez, but the result was the same - a defeat, the club’s eleventh in 17 games. “No football, no heart and no soul,” blasted the match report from AS on a team that are bottom of the table with just ten points.

Sporting
If Zaragoza look set to take up the first relegation spot then Sporting could well be claiming the second. The away defeat to Sporting makes it just one win a five for Sporting.

Milito refinds his regal form as Inter fire five past Parma

Richard Whittle — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:31:00 GMT

Written off more times than Italy's debt, Diego Milito has found a few stray goals in his back pocket to suddenly more Golden Boot than Bidone d’Oro [Golden Bin] – Italian football’s least sought-after award, for the year's worst player.

The Inter striker – and many were using that word lightly following his annus horribilis in front of goal – joined such notable such names as Rivaldo, Christian Vieri and Adriano (a three-time loser) in landing the ‘prize’ last month.

However, it hasn't signalled once and for all the demise of the instinctive goal-poacher known as El Príncipe [the Prince]. Indeed, it seems to have become more of a spur than a burden.

The Argentine had failed to find the net in the league since the end of September – and had even upset his most ardent backer Massimo Moratti after missing an absolute sitter at Atalanta – although he finally got back on the scoresheet in the 4-1 win over Lecce just before the winter break.

RESULTS Sat 7 Jan Siena 4-0 Lazio, Internazionale 5-0 Parma Sun 8 Jan Udinese 4-1 Cesena, Atalanta 0-2 Milan, Bologna 2-0 Catania, Cagliari 3-0 Genoa, Lecce 0-1 Juventus, Novara 0-3 Fiorentina, Roma 2-0 Chievo, Palermo 1-3 Napoli

The pressure was still on the 32-year-old coming into the first game of 2012, at home to Parma, but he answered the call with a dominant performance at the San Siro where he scored twice and had a part to play in two of the other three goals as a 5-0 romp nicely set up Claudio Ranieri’s men for Sunday’s derby.

The visitors contributed in part to their own downfall and were a shambles in every area of the pitch, but with Milito drifting out to either flank and basically picking when and where to make his runs there would have been very few defences capable of holding on to his royal coat-tails.

"Hugs!" Milito (2nd l) is mobbed by Pazzini, Maicon, Zanetti and Alvarez

Even through his long barren period and lack of form, the Buenos Aires man was always an unselfish runner into space and never hid from his duties of showing for his team-mates – and the biggest smile of Saturday evening came not in celebration of either of his two sublime finishes but his weighted pass to send Gianpaolo Pazzini through to score a goal of his own.

The Italy international has suffered as much as Milito this season but he too will have taken heart from his performance, remaining as he did as the target man while his strike-partner scurried off along the frontline. The pair may have done enough to start against AC Milan next weekend, even though Diego Forlan is expected to be fit for what promises to be a titanic tussle at the San Siro.

Inter were coming into the Parma match on the back of four straight wins, albeit against modest opposition, but Ranieri knew the importance of making it five in a row: the team failed in that feat last season under Leonardo even though they pushed their city neighbours for the title in the second half of the campaign.

It was of course Jose Mourinho’s Treble-winners who had last enjoyed a five-game winning haul and the bulk of the Special One’s team were still on show at the weekend.

The result was not lost on the players at the final whistle as they celebrated with more gusto than usual when they defeat Parma at home – maybe they were still smarting from last year’s crucial setback at the Tardini – but more likely they were sending out a message to their own fans and their rivals that there is plenty of fight in the Nerazzurri yet.

Milan, for their part, answered in kind by inflicting a first home loss of the season on Atalanta, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic once again head and shoulders above everyone else. The Swede scored the opener from the penalty spot and set up Kevin Prince Boateng for the second in a comfortable 2-0 win.

Home defender considers single-fingered "itchy-face" gesture

It was a good weekend overall for forwards, with Alessandro Matri scoring the only goal of the game at Lecce to ensure Juventus kept pace at the top of the table while Antonio Di Natale, who has never grasped the concept of a goal drought, grabbed a brace for Udinese in their 4-1 win over Cesena.

So the weekend may have belonged to the Prince (Milito, not Boateng), but the King of Rome caught the eye too: Francesco Totti hadn't scored all season and had even been barracked by some of his own fans at the tail-end of last year when Gigi Buffon saved the Roma captain’s penalty effort.

Presented with the opportunity to make a amends early on against Chievo, the veteran of many a one-on-one strode up to the spot and buried the ball with such power that goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino had no time to move.

He then doubled his tally for the season with a second goal by repeating the feat from 10 metres, although at least the keeper got a hand to the ball.

As with Milito, Totti knew he'd come good in front of goal again and had already prepared one of his famous T-shirts, this time reading “Sorry I was late” – a statement the Inter man would no doubt agree with.

The Euro 2012 England squad predictor - 06/01/12

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:00:00 GMT

Who’d be on the Three Lions’ plane if the squad was picked today? Here’s your starter for 23, players in descending order of certainty to travel and/or 'undroppability'...

1 Joe Hart (Manchester City)
Undisputed No.1. Irreplaceable. Key man.

2 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
Forget the ban. England’s best player.

3 Ashley Cole (Chelsea)
Well ahead of his rivals, even if he's not quite at his peak.

4 John Terry (Chelsea)
Fading force but still crucial.

5 Scott Parker (Tottenham Hotspur)
Indispensable anchorman.

6 Ashley Young (Manchester United)
Finally finding his feet at international level - has made the left wing his own.

7 James Milner (Manchester City)
Capello favourite. Versatility makes him a perfect squad player.

8 Gareth Barry (Manchester City)
Has bounced back well from World Cup disappointment.

9 Glen Johnson (Liverpool)
Still first-choice, but faces competition from emerging Kyle Walker.

10 Leighton Baines (Everton)
Solid back-up in a position where there are few options.

11 Phil Jones (Manchester United)
Versatility crucial. Could start if he maintains early season form.

12 Stewart Downing (Liverpool)
Been back-up winger of late.

13 Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea)
Chelsea form and width can’t be ignored.

14 Theo Walcott (Arsenal)
Qualifying regular. But remember 2010?

15 Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)
Injury and return to his best permitting.

16 Joleon Lescott (Manchester City)
City form could get him there

17 Gary Cahill (Bolton Wanderers)
In possession, but in danger given poor recent form.

18 Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Played in last six qualifiers.

19 Darren Bent (Aston Villa)
Should go as only out-and-out striker.

20 Scott Carson (Bursaspor)
Rebuilding in Turkey, but question marks.

21 Jermain Defoe (Tottenham Hotspur)
Potential game-changer. Predator.

22 Danny Welbeck (Manchester United)
Edges out Zamora and Carroll.

23 David Stockdale (Fulham)
Well at least he's now getting games in the Premier League.

But what of the chasing pack? Here are the other runners and riders...

Close contenders

Steven Gerrard will be almost assured of a place if he can stay fit for the remainder of the season, while if Kyle Walker's form at Tottenham between now and May is anything like that of the first half of the campaign he'll be a shoo-in. Adam Johnson will also be in the frame, as long as he secures regular first team football between now and May - though that's no straightforward task at Manchester City.

Any injuries or loss of form among the defenders could see Manchester United's Chris Smalling or Manchester City's Micah Richards make the trip, though the latter still has some impressing to do as far as Mr Capello is concerned.

Fulham hit-man Bobby Zamora has clearly caught Fabio's eye, but he'll need to score goals consistently to nab another international chance.

Bubbling under

Everton defender Phil Jagielka will be hoping a six-week layoff with knee ligament damage will not significantly scupper his chances, while Jack Rodwell also sustained an injury in Wednesday evening's defeat to Bolton. Spurs winger Aaron Lennon may be in with a shout if he can rediscover his early season form.

Having been denied a senior England debut when August's friendly against Holland was postponed due to civil unrest in London, Tom Cleverley was then struck down by foot and ankle injuries. If he returns, as expected, towards the end of this month and is able to hit the ground running, the Manchester United starlet should be well in contention.

Outside bets

At the start of 2011, Andy Carroll was seen as the answer to all England's problems. The striker was in hot goal scoring form and earned himself a £35 million move to Liverpool. He even scored in his second international appearance against Ghana in March. Yet his loss of form at club level has seen him play just three minutes for Capello's side since, and unless he can re-establish himself at Anfield in the absence of the suspended Luis Suarez, he's unlikely to make the cut.

Spurs' defender Michael Dawson will hope he can quickly nail down a place at White Hart Lane make a late surge, having missed the last five months through injury.

Gabriel Agbonlahor has enjoyed something of a return to form with Aston Villa this term, and is back in contention having been called into the squad for the Spain and Sweden friendlies, while Norwich target man Grant Holt's goal-scoring form in his debut Premier League season may have aroused Capello's interest. No, really. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is many people's tip to be England's wild card, though we fancy he'll need to play a lot more football in the second half of the season to convince the Italian he's worth the risk.

Mancini could up the tempo to win midfield battle in FA Cup derby

Michael Cox — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:30:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the best of the weekend's FA Cup action...

Newcastle United versus Blackburn Rovers is one of only two all-Premier League ties in this weekend’s FA Cup Third Round, and it’s a repeat of one of the most one-sided Premier League fixtures of the season, played back in September.

Although Newcastle only won the game 3-1, they recorded seven times as many shots as Blackburn. That said, their shooting accuracy left a lot to be desired, with only four of their 21 shots testing Paul Robinson, who had a poor game. They’ll have to be more ruthless in front of goal against Blackburn’s on-form reserve goalkeeper Mark Bunn, who has turned in excellent displays at both Anfield and Old Trafford in the past fortnight, to help his club to four unexpected Premier League points.

It will come as no surprise that two of Newcastle’s three goals in that game were scored by Demba Ba, but this cup tie marks the beginning of Alan Pardew’s time without the Senegalese striker. He’s scored 58% of his club’s league goals this season, a higher percentage than any other player in the league.

Wolverhampton Wanderers’ short trip to Birmingham City at Saturday lunchtime sees a return to St Andrew’s for centre-back Roger Johnson, who left the club after their relegation last season.

Johnson had a good campaign despite that relegation, but has been disappointing at Wolves. He’s also had a run-in with the club’s fans, labelling them “a disgrace” and “disgusting” after sections of the support cheered Mick McCarthy’s decision to substitute Karl Henry against Newcastle.

Johnson’s positioning seems less assured this season. Last year he was always in the right place to head the ball away inside the penalty box, but this season he’s much less of a force. In last weekend’s game against Chelsea, for example, he didn’t make any successful clearances – in the corresponding fixture in 2010/11, he made seven.

The main event of the weekend, though, is clearly the Manchester derby. A highly-charged match in any circumstances, this tie is given extra spice by the fact these sides are first and second in the league, and because it’s the first derby after Manchester City’s incredible 6-1 win at Old Trafford in October.

A main feature of that game was the positioning and movement of City’s two wide players, David Silva and James Milner. On paper, Silva was on the left and Milner was on the right, but they took it in turns to move to the opposite side. As the graphic shows, Milner got an assist from the left – the first goal, for Mario Balotelli – while Silva played plenty of passes from the right.

But this wasn’t a simple case of them switching sides – they made diagonal runs across the pitch, one at a time, to combine, helping to create 2 v 1 situations against United full-backs. Roberto Mancini would love to be able to do that again, but with both Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry unavailable, Milner may have to be used in the centre of midfield on Sunday.

Manchester United are also without one of their key central midfielders, as Darren Fletcher remains out of contention with long-tem illness. He was United’s best performer in that 6-1 defeat, completing more interceptions than any other player, and also scoring a fine goal.

United were noticeably overrun in the centre of midfield during the 3-0 defeat to Newcastle in midweek, and with the benefit of an extra day’s rest and home advantage, Mancini may attempt to make this a fast-paced, fierce midfield battle. If that’s to be the case, United will miss Fletcher’s tenacity.

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

La Preview: Sinking ships, aching goolies and Iker Casillas Avenue

Tim Stannard — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:44:00 GMT

Saturday

  Racing Santander (19th) v Zaragoza (20th) - 18.00 local time  
La Liga returns from a Christmas slumber with a clash between the two biggest football boot-wearing disaster zones in la Primera. Racing are now being run by administrators due to no-one being entirely sure who owns and controls the club and huge amounts of pre-Christmas institutional in-fighting. The side itself is in the hands of three coaches whose supposedly temporary appointment was made permanent during the break when nobody was paying much attention. The trio, fronted by Juanjo Gonzalez, managed to lose 2-0 to third tier Mirandés in the Copa del Rey during the week.  
Zaragoza have a new manager in Manolo Jiménez but have lost a key player in the wonderfully named Ponzio, who announced he was joining River Plate while sniffling like a big girl at a farewell press conference. “There are people who understand me and those who don’t. But honestly I’m not leaving the sinking ship,” claimed the sinking ship-leaving midfielder.   
LLL Prediction - Draw

Levante (4th) v Mallorca (14th) - 18.00
  LLL was already aware of the genius of Mallorca manager Joaquín Caparrós, but it had no idea of its depth. It turns out that the madcap Andalusian is the Primera coach to have served the most consecutive years in the division, with 11, and the most matches under his belt, with 390. The secret of this success, claims a modest Caparrós is Google and gadgety things. “He who doesn’t adapt to new times is dead. You have to innovate, learn and be creative. Before, you had run for miles to get information, today you have everything on the internet.”  
LLL Prediction - Home win

  Real Sociedad (15th) v Osasuna (5th) - 18.00  
The Osasuna collective wasn’t happy at all at the appearance of Leo Messi during Wednesday’s 4-0 cup defeat and not just because the Argentinean scored two goals. Like everybody else, the club had been lead to believe the forward would be missing the match with the flu, but instead Messi came on in the second half to contribute to Osasuna’s eventual demise. “If Messi’s stomach was aching then my goolies ached too,” scoffed an unhappy Osasuna club president, Patxi Izco.
  LLL Prediction - Draw  

Real Madrid (1st) v Granada (13th) - 20.00  
On Thursday, Iker Casillas attended the opening of his own street in his home town of Móstoles, to the south of Madrid. As well as being probed about being the oddness of Iker Casillas walking along “Iker Casillas Avenue”, the goalkeeper was asked for his opinion on José Mourinho’s rant about his players traveling too much over Christmas and enjoying the holiday festivities a bit too enthusiastically. Unsurprisingly, for a footballer who advertises beer, the club captain was a fan of the latter. “(Holidays) are for disconnecting, for being with family, for spending time doing other things and not thinking about football.”   
LLL Prediction - Home win

  Málaga (7th) v Atlético Madrid (10th) - 22.00
  In the end, José Antonio Reyes slipped quietly into the night to return to Sevilla which is very much against the grain at the club with memories of the long drawn-out departures of Kun Agüero and Diego Forlán still fresh. Although there is a bit of paperwork to be done at time of writing - sorting out the reported €1.5 million the club owes the whining winger for one - the €3.5 million deal is done and dusted. How to replace Reyes is now the challenge for new boss Diego Simeone, who made the worrying admission this week that “I spend 24 hours a day thinking about Atlético Madrid,” which really can’t be healthy.   
LLL Prediction - Away win  

Sunday  

Rayo Vallecano (16th) v Sevilla (6th) - 12.00  
In the final dispatches of 2011, LLL reported that Sevilla president José María Del Nido had been found guilty of fraud during his time as a lawyer working in the sleaze pit of Marbella and was to be sent to the slammer. However, due to a lengthy appeal process Del Nido won’t be going to prison just yet. But this does not mean that his life will be completely footloose and fancy free as the Sevilla big wig has to visit a judge on Monday to see what constraints he may suffer, including the possibility of having his passport taken away.   
LLL Prediction - Away win   

Getafe (12th) v Athletic Bilbao (9th) - 16.00
  LLL will be dropping in on this particular game after a Sunday morning session in Vallecas and may well be watching a visiting side lead by the next Barcelona manager. With Pep Guardiola yet to confirm his career intentions (a 2013 departure is a good bet) the paper talk is that one of his mentors, Marcelo Bielsa, could be the successor. “Bielsa has the capacity to be manager of Barcelona, there’s no doubt,” confirmed the current Barça boss.   
LLL Prediction - Away win

  Villarreal (17th) v Valencia (3rd) - 18.00  
A local derby against a side fresh from a 1-0 win over Sevilla in the Copa del Rey is not exactly an easy start for new and very temporary Villarreal boss José Francisco Molina, who has taken over from the fired Juan Carlos Garrido. But that doesn’t mean the new manager sucking up sessions have not begun, with the disappointing centre-back Cristian Zapata getting his work in early. “Molina is very demanding, he wants is to work hard on pressuring and not giving the opposition any breathing space.”  
LLL Prediction - Away win   

Betis (11th) v Sporting (18th) - 19.45
  LLL suspects 2012 might be a bad one for Sporting, who are going to find it tough going in their relegation battle, which could ultimately be doomed. Still, Manolo Preciado is staying positive even if the blog isn’t saying that his club’s situation “is not dramatic” but difficult instead.   
LLL Prediction - Home win  

Espanyol (8th) v Barcelona (2nd)   - 21.30
AS have been driving home their “Villarato” nonsense again - the campaign that suggests the Spanish FA is in the pocket of Barcelona - by using an attempt by Pep’s Dream Boys to have the first tie of the club’s cup clash with Osasuna switched to Pamplona to allow time to have the pitch changed at the Camp Nou. This request was denied leading AS editor, Alfredo Relaño, to claim that “they’ve over abused the influence they’ve invested in,” at the FA.   
LLL Prediction - Away win

Tamworth and Fleetwood look to make cup history as an old hero makes a return

Jon Champion — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's FA Cup action. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive coverage of three FA Cup matches this weekend.

As everybody with any passion for English football will already know, this weekend promises to be a very special one.

FA Cup Third Round weekend is one of the high points of the domestic season – and a day when the inequalities of English football can be celebrated.

The fact that you’ve still got four non-league teams in there, pitching against the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, and all the other giants, makes it a unique competition and one to celebrate.

The headline act is obviously the Manchester derby, at the Etihad Stadium, which comes at an intriguing time with both Manchester City and Manchester United suffering set-backs in their festive Premier League fixtures.

Sunday’s clash shouldn’t have two much baring on what happens in the Premier League title race, and it will just be refreshing to look at this as a one-off knockout game. I can’t imagine it’s going to end 6-1 again, I’m sure United will give a much better account of themselves.

But while that is the game which will dominate the column inches over the weekend, it’s not really reflective of what the FA cup is about. I almost prefer to look at the mismatches in the draw, because those are the one’s that will produce the real genuine cup stories.

It was at this stage last season that Stevenage beat Newcastle, for example. So those are the games that I tend to look at when I look at the draw. There are 32 ties and probably half of them carry that intrigue of the inequality of the two participants, and that’s the joy of the third round of the FA Cup.

Tamworth's top scorer Iyseden Christie will have Everton in his sights

For example, on Saturday Conference National side Tamworth will travel to Goodison Park to face Premier League giants Everton. It will be a great day out for Tamworth, though they’ve had their moments in the sun before, playing what was then second-tier opposition in the form of Norwich and Stoke in 2006 and 2007 under Gary Mills.

While you wouldn’t expect them to get anything from a visit to Goodison Park given the gulf between the two sides, that gap has been bridged a few times in recent seasons. Though Sutton remain the last non-league to beat top flight opposition when they knocked out Coventry in the late eighties, Exeter and Burton Albion both managed to draw with Manchester United as non-league sides in recent memory, so there is hope for these teams.

Tamworth will be hoping to get a draw at Goodison, get them back to The Lamb Ground, get the television cameras there and all the money that comes with it and give them a real going over. But that’s perhaps stretching the imagination, because with Everton you know that they’re going to be at it. David Moyes won’t allow anything else – there’ll be no complacency.

In a way, the non-league sides haven’t been particularly well served by this draw. Tamworth, of course, are on the road - albeit to something of a glamorous opponent - Salisbury travel to Sheffield United and Wrexham make the trip to Brighton’s Amex Stadium, which is a particularly difficult place to have to go to.

There’s only Fleetwood Town of the non-leaguers who have actually been drawn at home, and they pulled out something of a plum with a local derby against Blackpool.

It’s an intriguing tie, and not only because they are near-neighbours, separated by seven miles on the Fylde coast.

Micky Melon, the Fleetwood manager, is a former Blackpool player and a very close friend of Blackpool boss, Ian Holloway. The man that owns, and has bank-rolled, Fleetwood’s rise so far is a chap called Andy Pilley, who only bought the club having tried and failed to buy Blackpool. Pilley is close friends with former Blackpool star Charlie Adam, who is a regular at Fleetwood’s matches and should be in attendance on Saturday - so there are lots of links between the clubs.

It’s a parochial occasion, but it’s a fascinating occasion, and is perhaps the tie that best epitomises what the FA Cup is about in this year’s third round draw.

It’s a big gap between the Conference and a side going pretty well in the Championship, but Fleetwood are this season’s Crawley Town - a non-league side in name only.

Jamie McGuire & Jamie Vardy celebrate Fleetwood's win over Yeovil

This is thanks to the money invested and the quality of the players at their disposal. They’ve got a player called Jamie Vardy, who has been the subject of interest from a host of Football League clubs and large transfer fees have been mooted for a move for him. I think that he will stay with Fleetwood while they are still in the cup.

They’ve also got Richard Brodie, who was playing for Crawley last year, and guys like Jamie Milligan, who 12 years ago was playing in midfield for Everton in the Premier League, and also had a shirt spell with Blackpool. So they’re not without experience, they’re not your normal non-league side, and I expect them to make life pretty difficult for Blackpool at what will be a sell out at the Highbury Stadium.

And I can also tell you from personal experience that Fleetwood boast the best chip shop I have come across outside a football ground, so that’s another reason for going to that one.

Tony Pulis will take his Stoke side – FA Cup finalists last year, of course – to one of his former clubs, Gillingham. There’s a bit of feeling - there often is where Paul Scally, the Gillingham chairman, is concerned.

Pulis and he didn’t part company on the best of terms, but I would expect Stoke to go and do a very professional job at Gillingham. I saw Gillingham play at Macclesfield about a month ago, and they looked rather impressive. A glance down their team-sheet reflects the fact they’ve spent a fair bit of money – by League Two standards - assembling a decent team.

Many good sides have stumbled at Priestfield in previous years, and I think they’ll give Stoke a good game, but I think that Stoke, a lot like Everton, are another honest team. They’re not going to be lulled into a false sense of security, the likes of Jon Walters and Rory Delap, have forged their careers in the lower divisions and then worked upwards. I think you’ve got honest professionals who are unlikely to be ‘hoodwinked’ by the pitfalls that may lie in store.

MK Dons against Queens Park Rangers is an interesting tie in that, were the League One side to beat the Premier League new boys, it perhaps wouldn’t be classed as an upset. I would expect MK Dons – a side going well in their division - to beat what will almost certainly be a QPR reserve side, if their League Cup selection policy of earlier in the season is anything to go by. In that competition the Rs were knocked out at home against Rochdale, and Neil Warnock came out publicly and said he was very pleased to have that off their agenda - the same may well go for this. So, in actual fact, MK Dons should perhaps be favourites.

If I was looking for a really entertaining cup tie I would be looking more at games like Swindon versus Wigan.

Swindon will be a good place to be on Saturday; they’ll be a good crowd at the County Ground. Paulo Di Canio has brought some effervescence of his own personality to Swindon Town - gates are rising and expectation levels are high.

Di Canio will hope to leave another mark on the cup - this time with Swindon

Wigan are probably the least attractive team that you could draw, but nonetheless they are a top flight scalp and I wouldn’t be surprised if Swindon take it.

Again, I don’t think Martinez will play the full first team, and even if he did, I think Swindon are good enough to give them a pretty difficult afternoon at the County Ground.

But that’s not the only tie with a good chance of an upset, there’s another at the Moss Road, where League Two Macclesfield host Bolton. The Trotters aren’t in the best shape, despite their midweek win at Goodison, while Macclesfield will be well geed-up by manager Gary Simpson, having battled through a tough second round tie against Chelmsford City – drew away and then won a closely contested replay at Moss Road in bitter conditions just before Christmas.

This will be the two teams’ second meeting of the season - Macclesfield went and gave a very good account of themselves at the Reebok in the League Cup; they led but lost 2-1. And given Bolton’s travails, the fact that Owen Coyle, I don’t think will play his full team - I think it will be mix and match, you’ve got to say that Macclesfield have got half a chance in this game.

Bristol Rovers against Aston Villa on Saturday evening will have an added edge to it. With Rovers sacking their manager Paul Buckle on Tuesday, his assistant Shaun North will take the helm. And what a game for his first dabble as a senior manager, the visit of Aston Villa visit to the Memorial Stadium.

Rovers have a new ground in the pipeline, but it’s three or four years away, so the Memorial Stadium, which is really a rugby ground – that’s how it started it’s life, will be packed to its ten and a half thousand capacity. I went there on a scouting mission on Boxing Day, when they led Plymouth Argyle 2-0 and contrived to lose 2-3 in the ninety-third minute, which contributed to Paul Buckle’s demise.

But what struck me most was that the pitch is a bit of a bog, and whilst they were putting up a tent - a special cover to protect it and makes sure the game goes ahead, I think it may be soft. Aston Villa’s main threat comes through the pace of players like Gabriel Agbonlahor, Darren Bent and Charles N’Zogbia, but it’s going to be like running through treacle for them.

With the Rovers players desperate to make a good impression on their next manager – whoever he may be – and given they also have a great cup tradition, I think Aston Villa could find themselves enduring a particularly awkward evening.

If I could be at any game on Sunday, I would want to be at London Road to watch Peterborough play Sunderland. Sunderland have been rejuvenated under Martin O’Neill, who always takes the FA Cup seriously, while Peterborough, managed by a Ferguson, have some good players and a decent home record. This is one that could well end up going to a replay.

Of the big guns, Chelsea will expect to come through against Portsmouth with relative ease, even though I’m sure Andre Villas-Boas will mix up his team a bit. While Cheltenham's trip to Tottenham will be a terrific day out for a club that has now established itself in the Football League having been in non-league for donkeys’ years. It’s a payday for them as well. I’ve seen them a couple of times this season and they play some really nice football, and are performing well on the road. Tottenham, I think, will put out the sort of side they did in the Europa League, which gives Cheltenham half a chance, though I would expect Spurs to power through in the end.

The action is rounded off by an intriguing tie between Arsenal and Leeds, who met at the xth round stage last season, with the Gunners needing a late penalty from Cesc Fabregas to scrape a replay up at Elland Road, which they eventually won. It’s also a repeat of the 1972 Cup final, which is a historical note rather than a relevant point to this game.

I spent January 2nd at Elland Road, watching Leeds against Burnley to see how they looked and I was wondering whether to hang around at the end to have a chat with Simon Grayson, but at 1-0 down in the 89th minute I decided I would attempt to beat the rush, and left for home.

By the time I had got into my car it was 1-1, and by the time I was on the M1 it was 2-1 to Leeds in the 97th minute. That may well have been a win that has preserved Simon Grayson’s job through to this cup-tie, because I think he would have been on particularly rocky ground with Ken Bates if they’d lost again.

Leeds will meet a much-changed Arsenal side, but the headline could yet be the reappearance of Thierry Henry, wearing the number 12 shirt – the one he always wanted to wear at Arsenal, but he couldn’t get it first time round because Christopher Wreh had it and he had to settle for 14, which he made into an iconic jersey. But I think it will be a wonderfully emotional occasion when Thierry Henry jogs out of the tunnel at The Emirates on Monday night. And while it’s a pretty good cup-tie in its own right, it will be a special occasion for that reason alone.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the FA Cup. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage from third round FA Cup matches between Birmingham City v Wolves, 12.30pm and Bristol Rovers v Aston Villa, 5.30pm on Saturday 7th January and Arsenal v Leeds United on Monday 9th January, 7.45pm.

Milan and Juve stay in touch over refreshing break

Richard Whittle — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:56:00 GMT

AC Milan and Juventus return from the winter break joint top of the table and sporting matching winter tans after a week of warm-weather training in Dubai.

The ever-fashionable clubs have mirrored each other throughout the first half of the season, and will be keen to match strides rather than fall behind the times. There are four matches remaining before the crowning of the winter champions, which is always a good indicator of the eventual champions: in the 17 years since the introduction of three points for a win, only four winter winners have failed to triumph come May.

It could be that a January slip-up gives one team or other that vital advantage before the mid-February return of the Champions League – in which Juventus, free this season of any European competition, will hope the Rossoneri triumph against Arsenal having run themselves into the ground.

However, continental commitments could prove marginal and overall there is little to choose between the clubs. Massimiliano Allegri and Antonio Conte are young and determined coaches with fresh ideas, players in form and (currently) fit – and the feeling that every match is there for the taking.

Juve have already got one over Milan rivals with a late double in the 2-0 home win back in early October, traditionally a time when the Rossoneri are below par – but more than any other team, Milan have always enjoyed the return to action in January.

If there is to be any trouble at the champions, it could well come from within their own ranks. The club's desire to show the world that they can always incite a star player to Milanello has seen them make an all too public pursuit of Carlos Tevez; as the saga rumbles on, no doubt to the final hour of the final day of the transfer window, the seemingly growing rift between Allegri and Alexandre Pato could well unsettle the club.

There's no doubt that the pair don't see eye to eye on how the game should be played: the player is too ad hoc for the methodical coach and in a recent interview Pato made it clear that where Carlo Ancelotti offered guidance, Allegri offers only hollow words.

“The coach tells me I need to improve, but not how and in what areas,” claimed the Brazilian in a frank recent interview with heavyweight Milanese daily Corriere della Sera. “With Ancelotti, at least we talked on how to improve my game by telling me what I needed to do.”

The outburst was greeted with some irony within the Milan organisation. “At least it proves he is alive,” commented one source to the self-same newspaper. To some at the club, the 22-year-old is seen as something of a sphinx, someone who barely opens his mouth to chat and when he does it is only with his fellow Brazilians.

Such a lack of empathy cost him the armband in late November when Milan faced Chievo without club captain Massimo Ambrosini and his vice Rino Gattuso, along with a whole host of experienced players.

By tradition the armband would be passed to longest-serving available squad member, which would be Pato – remember he arrived at Milan back in 2007. However, Allegri anointed Thiago Silva, Pato’s closest (and if reports are to be believed, only) friend in the dressing room.

The fact that Pato is dating Silvio Berlusconi’s daughter Barbara has apparently made the situation within said dressing room a little tense, with squad members feeling they can't speak their mind just in case a stray word is taken out of context and somehow gets back to the top.

Allegri knows he needs to stay on the right side of the president and blurted out in a press conference in Dubai that he had no problems with Pato, only to suggest in the same breath that maybe the Duck’s quacking was just a way of getting a few issues off his chest.

The coach also seems to have a few issues simmering below the surface and he had a little dig at the forward’s reccurring fitness problems: “Maybe he felt left out during his recent injury.”

Pato was sidelined for nearly two months – spending most of that period training alone – and it seems that he has become marginalised with Zlatan Ibrahimovic now seen as the focal point of the team.

So when a friendly on Wednesday night pitted Milan against PSG, now overseen by coach Ancelotti and sporting director Leonardo, speculation buzzed that Pato is set to team up with his two mentors. Scoring the only goal of the game sent a message to both parties, but there is little sign of any thawing in the relationship with his current coach.

;

Over at Juve, Marco Borriello’s arrival raised a neatly-plucked eyebrow from the man he could replace: Alessandro Matri.

Coach Conte already has Mirko Vucinic, the fit-again Fabio Quagliarella and Alex del Piero in attack while Luca Toni, Amauri and Vincenzo Iaquinta still lurk in the shadows, but Borriello’s style is similar to Matri’s and the new man also has his sights set on a return to the Italy squad ahead of Euro 2012.

A bemused Matri denied that he was under pressure. “We have the same number of strikers as the other clubs… we have four, five, no, six or seven... I don’t know.”

Borriello and Matri are considered two of the pin-up boys of Italian football and the press have hailed Juve as possessing the two most handsome frontmen in the league, but it looks like it could get ugly in the battle for the No.9 shirt. However, if Milan were to accept an audacious €45m PSG bid for Pato, even the arrival of Tevez couldn't stop Juve feeling they have the edge in the title race.

Mourinho fumes as lethargic Madrid struggle to shake holiday hangover

Tim Stannard — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:39:00 GMT

Aside from eye-poking, mumbling, slouching, wearing body-warmers and being a prolific conspiracy theorist, José Mourinho's one defining characteristic as a manager is that he doesn’t tend to openly criticise his players. Other than Karim ‘the *** cat’ Benzema.

So anyone who hadn’t caught Real Madrid’s first half display against Málaga in Tuesday's Copa del Rey clash would have realised that the forces of Mordor must have been absolutely rotten for forty-five minutes, given that the Madrid manager admitted “if I could have, I would have changed eleven players [at half-time]".

Instead, Mourinho brought on three newbies after going into the break 2-0 down in the Santiago Bernabeu, thanks to two identical headed goals from corners. It was a triple change which worked a treat and transformed a lethargic, lackadaisical side “with no tension” and clearly still on their holidays into a bustling busy-body, Benzema-inspired outfit which scored three goals to give Madrid the advantage in next Tuesday’s second leg in Málaga.

Mourinho threw another titbit to the press by suggesting that some of his players may have been a little too festive during the winter break, a rest that the Portuguese is not exactly a big fan of. “Some use their holidays to rest, other use it for constant travel, having fun and eating at their father’s house, their aunt’s and their grandmother’s.”

This has, of course, lead to a tremendous guessing game in Spain - well, in LLL’s household anyway - in trying to identify the guilty culprits. Marca helped things along a little bit by publishing photographs of Cristiano Ronaldo playing with dolphins in the Maldives, Kaká in Dubai and Iker Casillas in a bar surrounded by friends and one or two beer bottles. “The Christmas album that Mourinho did not like,” stirred the paper.

There was no such controversy for Goody Two Shoes, sort-of sponsored by UNICEF Barcelona, of course, with the European champions all tucked up in bed - by scantily-clad supermodels, no doubt - before 10pm, having knocked four past Osasuna in their first leg cup clash on Wednesday, setting up the all too real possibility of two more Clásicos in January in the next round. Huzzah...

Pep’s Dream Boys were one of the few Primera clubs to put in a proper evening’s work in the cup. Racing Santander managed to lose 2-0 to Segunda B side, Mirandés, whose main striker works in a bank. Athletic Bilbao were held to a goalless draw by Andrés Iniesta’s Albacete and the mighty Real Madrid-slaying Alcorcón beat Levante 2-1. The Copa del Rey being as it is, all three top flight sides have the chance to correct their mistakes next week in their home legs.

The best tie of the lot takes place on Thursday evening, as Valencia host Sevilla in a battle of two teams likely to be taking the tournament very seriously indeed. Unai Emery is especially up for the game, sensing “connotations of life and death” in the two-legged clash, making the Valencia man one of the few working up a sweat over the competition at this relatively early stage.

Allan Ravn (Brondby v Bayern Munich, 1999)

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:21:00 GMT

The 1999 Champions League Final was an iconic match; Manchester United’s last-gasp victory over Bayern Munich is remembered around the world. What may be a bit hazy is that the two sides also met in the group stages. And outside of Denmark, it’s unlikely that anyone remembers that Danish club Brondby led that group – which also included Barcelona – after the first matchday.

But anyone who saw Allan Ravn’s stunning winner against Bayern has it etched into their memory. People still stop the 37-year-old in the street. “I think I’ve met everyone who was at the stadium that day!” Ravn laughs.

Like United some eight months later, Brondby left it late against the Germans. An 87th-minute own goal brought the Danes level. Then in the final minute, with the home fans proudly celebrating the draw against the European heavyweights, Ravn chipped the ball over two Bayern defenders and charged towards goal.

“I didn’t have enough energy to take the last man as well,” he recalls. “So either I needed to make one more dribble, which probably wouldn’t have gone that well, or take the shot.

“I saw Oliver Kahn was a bit outside the goal and I wanted to pass it over him.”

From just outside the box, the midfielder looped the ball into the top corner. The scoreboard read 2-1 and the local fans lost it. “It was like some kind of explosion,” says Ravn. “The sound was amazing.”

Ravn rates the goal, in the club’s first Champions League group match, as “absolutely” his career highlight.

Sadly,  the 10-time Danish champions lost their next five and haven’t made the group stage since.

Words: Michael Huguenin. Illustration: German Aczel. From the February 2012 issue of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

Fergie, transsexual internationals, football's biggest con-man and the death of the tackle

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:30:00 GMT

Our New Year’s Resolution at FourFourTwo Towers was to give you more (and to try and not get so worked up about the state of public transport) – so here goes. In our new February 2012 issue, now on sale, we present... two magazines!

That’s right, ahead of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, we have a special 23-page mini-mag on the tournament, to be found on the reverse of your usual issue. Click here for more details on that.

New Year’s Eve marked a big occasion: Sir Alex Ferguson turned 70. But how much longer can he lead Manchester United to the very top? In a special report, FourFourTwo looks back on Fergie’s career and forward to what is still to come, focusing on how he can overcome his two biggest challenges yet: bouncing back from European humiliation and keeping City in their box.

Certainly, exciting times are ahead, and not just in the UK. We pick our ’12 for 2012’ – a destined dozen to watch this year, from superstars Mario Goetze and legend-for-hire David Beckham to bright young things Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling, including interviews with Rickie Lambert and Euro 2012 hopeful Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

We also have an exclusive interview with Newcastle boss Alan Pardew, who reveals his secret behind winning the hearts and minds of thousands of disillusioned Geordies – plus why he wants to manage abroad as well as take charge of England.

Meanwhile, we investigate the death of the tackle. “It isn’t a quality to aspire to,” says Xabi Alonso, and Rio Ferdinand agrees – but why is tackling a dying art form, replaced by visionary defenders and intercepting midfielders? And can centuries of English tradition catch up with the modern game?

It’s one of the most incredible football stories you’ll ever read: the Brazilian who had a long playing career without ever kicking a ball. Meet ‘the Kaiser’, and marvel at his stories of hiding his inability to play football while starring at the very top level. Just how did he do it? Read and find out.

Frankly, it’s enough to make you want a drink. So quench your thirst with our Action Replay on the history of beer and football as one, from pre-match whiskies to hoolies abroad.

Heard the one about the transsexual who helped a football team win their first ever football match? Thought not. FourFourTwo was there as American Samoa broke history, overcoming years of disappointment – and ribbing over a 31-0 defeat to Australia – to claim three points for the first time, with a highly unusual defender...

Things are just as odd up in Bradford, where 90th in the Football League played 92nd as the Bantams took on the Pilgrims of Plymouth. Was it all misery and moping? We sent our travelling trouper to find out.

Of course, that’s not all. The February issue also features a One-on-One interview with Dietmar Hamann, the former Liverpool man answering YOUR questions – including the one about the copy of Mein Kampf he received as a Christmas present at Newcastle.

Then there’s exclusives from Darijo Srna, Michel Salgado and Roger Hunt, our search for the longest away-day trips in England and Chris Smalling, Sebastian Larsson and Alan Shearer all offering advice in our Performance section.

Oh, and did we mention the Africa Cup of Nations?

We profile every team in this special magazine, from Ghana to Guinea and everyone in between.

Plus, we’ve a complete guide on what games to watch and when, a fascinating history on the hosts, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and a rundown of why the ACN is the craziest of all international tournaments. Leave your sacrificial birds at the door.

Oh, and we had a chat with two men who sadly won’t be at the competition, to see what they make of the candidates. Steven Pienaar offers his opinion on this year’s tournament, and Samuel Eto’o gives his verdict on every team.

Don’t miss out.

The February 2012 issue of FourFourTwo and the Africa Cup of Nations magazine were brought to you by... Rio Ferdinand, Roger Hunt, Bobby Hassell, Alan Pardew, Samuel Eto’o, Andy Cole, Pepe Reina, Andy Butler, Dietmar Hamann, Roy Barry, Lee Sharpe, Darijo Srna, Allan Ravn, Graham Potter, Brian Wake, Leon Cort, Steven Pienaar, Eamonn Bannon, Keisuke Honda, Ryan Giggs, Phil Parkinson, Rickie Lambert, Mark Hughes, Tony Cottee, John Gorman, Willie Miller, Alan Shearer, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Michael Salgado, Neville Southall, Michael Mancienne, Steve McManaman, Brazil’s Ricardo Rocha, Carlos ‘Kaiser’ Henrique, the stars of American Samoa and the shortest player in Europe...

Holiday season extended indefinitely for sacked trio of managers

Tim Stannard — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

A holiday-celebrating LLL turned its back for just a few minutes and found la Liga had been up to all kinds of naughtiness, like a toddler smearing doo-doo onto a freshly painted wall. It's just one of the reasons why the idle blog never made it as a babysitter during its teenage years.

Although LLL is still searching through the landscape for more managerial debris, as far as it can tell there were three Primera coaches fired during the Spanish league’s winter window. One was entirely predictable, the second was a bit of a surprise quite frankly, while the third was eyebrow-raising at first but not that unusual after considered reflection.

Gregorio Manzano bought the managerial biscuit in no uncertain terms after Atlético Madrid's home loss to Albacete. The Copa del Rey exit ended Greg’s second coaching spell at the Rojiblanco loon house. The club moved quickly to replace him by hiring former player Diego Simeone, as the next manager to be fired by his new bosses in six months' time.

“Today is a new cycle for Atlético Madrid,” trumpeted club president Enrique Cerezo, using a very apt word considering Atleti 'cycles' tend to end back where they started – with some poor chump being sacked. “We need to get the team’s spirit back,” noted Simeone, whose first training session was held at the Calderón with 5,000 fans attending.

Villarreal prompted a rather surprised ‘golly’ from LLL by parting company with Juan Carlos Garrido, who last season led them to fourth place and the Europa League semi-finals. But Garrido got the boot after awful performances this year in la Primera, the Champions League and the Copa, from which they were knocked out by lowly Mirandés.

“It was not a surprise,” announced the club’s former No.2, who quite clearly has greater predictive powers than the blog. Former Atlético and Deportivo goalkeeper and Villarreal youth team manager José Francisco Molina is taking over until the end of the season, with the Yellow Submarine a little on the skint side these days having made a €16m loss last season.

“We want to show that we’re not inferior to anyone and our hard work will put us where we belong,” promised Molina, whose first game in charge is against Valencia this weekend.

The third club to fire their coach was Zaragoza, by some distance the most ridiculously run side in la Primera. Club president Agapito Iglesias has the itchiest trigger finger around and disposed of Javier Aguirre with the club rock bottom of the table and out of the cup at the hands of second division Alcorcón.

Iglesias then appointed a new board whom he described as “honest people, Zaragoza forever who feel the club’s colours and can help,” which would make a nice change. Part two of the plan was to appoint former Getafe boss Míchel, but the man who kept the Madrid side up then led them to the Europa League decided that the Zaragoza seat was a little too hot for his posterior.

Back-up choice Manolo Jiménez, last seen on Spanish shores being jettisoned by Sevilla, has taken on the fun challenge of keeping Zaragoza up with a fine bit of bum-kissing. “I’m not coming to a team at the bottom of the table, but an historical great that is Real Zaragoza.” Now he simply needs to follow that PR victory with one on the pitch – which would be the side's first since October.

Berbatov smelling blood again as Tottenham accomodate tactical anarchist

Michael Cox — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:30:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the best of the weekend's Premier League action...

Despite all eyes being on Andy Carroll, Newcastle may miss another old boy rather more. Jose Enrique has been excellent at left-back for Liverpool so far this season, rarely letting an opposition winger get the better of him. He’s also improved his attacking game and frequently gets forward to provide crosses from the left, and is probably more of a threat in this respect than fellow summer signing Stewart Downing.

There have been suggestions that Enrique is in the frame for a call-up to the Spanish national side, but Vicente Del Bosque seems reluctant to select him. Instead, Spain’s number three shirt is on the back of Valencia’s diminutive Jordi Alba. Using Enrique and Alba’s performance in the same fixture, away at Chelsea, Alba seems more suited to tiki-taka – his passes are shorter, more patient and take place higher up the pitch.

After Tottenham’s fine victory at Norwich, Harry Redknapp revealed that he had told both Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale to ‘play where they want’ during the match. It worked rather well – the Dutchman had a fine game finding space between the lines, while Bale popped up all over the place and scored two good goals.

It’s particularly interesting to see where Bale moves when he has no positional instructions – although he receives the ball a few times out in his usual left-sided position, he also drifts to the right, into central positions and into the box too – where he received a pass from Emmanuel Adebayor to slot home his first goal.

Van der Vaart is something of a tactical anarchist anyway, and generally picked up the ball in his usual positions – right-of-centre – generally from lateral passes rather than forward balls.

Dimitar Berbatov is back in the picture for Manchester United, but unfortunately has become a player exclusively used for thrashing relegation-threatened sides. Of his 11 league goals in 2011, all 11 came against bottom-half clubs, eight were at Old Trafford, and nine were against clubs who were either relegated in May or are currently in the relegation zone.

Therefore, Saturday's home match with bottom-placed Blackburn seems to be the perfect match for him. He hit five goals against them in this fixture last season, a joint Premier League record, and is fresh off the back of a hattrick in the 5-0 win over Wigan.

Swansea’s Wayne Routledge will get the chance to take on one of his many former clubs as Tottenham visit the Liberty Stadium this weekend. Routledge joined Spurs in 2005 after an impressive debut Premier League season for Crystal Palace, but made only five league appearances, and was twice loaned out before being sold to Aston Villa in 2008.

Routledge hasn’t had an impact in the games he’s played against better sides this season, chiefly because he finds it difficult to become involved in play. In the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United, for example, he only attempted 24 passes, half the number he does in a usual league match, as shown by the comparison with the home win over Fulham.

Swansea are one of only two sides, along with Wigan, to have scored less than one goal per game this year, and Routledge must take some of the blame here. In his 115 Premier League appearances for seven different clubs, he’s yet to score a single goal – a terrible record for a winger

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

Liverpool face bleak Suarez-less winter as Everton go binary

Jon Champion — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action

It may a festive time of year when many people look forward to their football, but there’s something of a cloud hanging over our national sport with the developments of the past week involving Luis Suarez and John Terry.

Perhaps the most incredible development is this strangely intemperate statement made by Liverpool and their players. You can quite understand a club operating in an ‘all for one and one for all’ style siege mentality, but that appeared a slightly blind response that ignored the realities of the situation. Obviously there will be an appeal to follow and we’ll see what happens with that, but I’m not sure the reaction has done a usually very proud club much credit.

Kenny Dalglish’s side will certainly miss Suarez badly for those eight games if any appeal is unsuccessful, and given he may well face further retribution for his one-fingered gesture at Fulham earlier in the month, it’s possible he could end up missing over a quarter of the Premier League campaign – without wanting to pre-judge whatever punishment may be forthcoming for the second charge.

Some of Liverpool’s results this season – particularly at home – have been a bit underwhelming, and given these latest developments and with Arsenal and Tottenham finding form and Chelsea also in the mix, it’s almost impossible to see Liverpool finishing in the top four.

Liverpool will look to bounce back from a disappointing draw at Wigan when they host Blackburn Rovers on Boxing Day.
Rovers are the basket cases of the Premier League; bottom of the table, five points adrift of safety and two wins from 17 games this season. While the general feeling was that the home defeat by Bolton would be the end of Steve Kean, extraordinarily it hasn’t been and he and Blackburn limp on, and at the moment it seems that they’re limping towards relegation.
Even with all the off-pitch distractions, Liverpool will be far too strong for Blackburn, especially with Suarez currently still available.

Chelsea, of course, will have to wait to learn the fallout of the John Terry situation, but as far as matters on the pitch are concerned, I saw them at Wigan last weekend and they seemed to slip back in to being their struggling early-season selves. They’ll soon lose Didier Drogba to the Africa Cup of Nations, and then we’ll see whether Fernando Torres is really up to taking up the mantle.
On Monday they’ll host Fulham in a West London derby that is often rather engaging. It may not be a rivalry as fierce as, for example, Tottenham against Arsenal, but they are often matches which produce good football, and in recent years Fulham have often seemed to play above themselves.
So even though the Cottagers are coming off the back of a 5-0 home defeat to Manchester United, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see them give Chelsea a really testing afternoon at Stamford Bridge.

Manchester United are probably about where they’d want to be around this time of year, just tucked in behind the leaders ready for a big surge in the second half of the campaign. But there’s a fair bit of balderdash spoken about exactly how well United do in the second half of a season – yes, historically they’ve done well in the second half of a season, but if you look at recent campaigns it’s not actually been the case, so it will be interesting to see how they develop as the season wears on.
Nonetheless, they’ll be happy that it’s Wigan Athletic visiting Old Trafford on Boxing Day. The Latics have ground out two good draws against Chelsea and Liverpool in recent days, but the nature of the modern day points system is such that they would have been better off winning one and losing the other. They are now just one defeat in six and played very well against Chelsea last weekend, but you still watch them and worry that perhaps they aren’t quite pragmatic enough. That could well prove their undoing against the champions.

It’s difficult to see anything other than a Manchester City win away to West Bromwich Albion. That’s despite the Baggies earning an impressive three points at Newcastle in midweek and currently sitting in the top half of the table – where you’d imagine they’d be delighted to be come the end of the season. But the key is that twice as many of their wins have come away than at the Hawthorns – four on their travels and just two at home – and I don’t see that improving against a fairly rampant City.

Bolton battled to a job-preserving win for their manager Owen Coyle at Blackburn on Tuesday evening, and will next face a Newcastle side on something of a slump after their impressive start to the league season. The Magpies have now not won in six and it’s probably just as well that they’ve already got 27 points to their name, as it’s a struggle to see them picking up quite so many points in the second half of the season. They’ll give Bolton an awkward Bank Holiday afternoon, despite being so besieged by injuries, but if Bolton are to have any chance of turning their season round they’ll need to build on that win at Ewood Park, and that means beating Newcastle.

Sunderland have secured two wins in three under their new manager Martin O’Neill, while their festive opposition Everton are having something of a binary season – six of their games have finished 1-0 one way or the other. The Toffees have to take whatever they can get these days, given their financial restraints, so to be 11th place with 20 points to their name isn’t so bad, even though usually by this stage of a season they’d expect to be halfway towards European qualification rather than halfway towards safety.
David Moyes will certainly wish this fixture had come along a month ago when Sunderland, under previous management, were struggling to score and struggling to win games. While O’Neill hasn’t yet been able to change the personnel, what he has done is instil a bit of confidence in the players, and that has shown in their performances thus far.

Overall Stoke will be happy with where they are at present – in eighth place with more European football to look forward to in the New Year. A 3-0 defeat away to Manchester City doesn’t say a great deal about a mid-table side as most sides will lose at the Etihad Stadium this season, and they’ll view Monday night’s fixture at home to Aston Villa as a great opportunity to get three more points on the board, given the visitors look so bereft of confidence.
It pains me to say it but I think Villa are the dullest side to watch in the Premier League at the moment. They rarely seem to be able to light up a game, and it looks like being a long season for their season ticket holders, though I don’t see them struggling against the drop.

Arsenal have won eight of their last 10, though most of those have been against sides they’d expect to beat, and they’ll be expecting that run to continue against Wolves in Tuesday’s rescheduled match, with Mick McCarthy’s side winning just two of their last 15 Premier League games. Arsenal have turned things around very well without ever suggesting their going to unsettle the top two in the table, though the top four looks within their grasp. Wolves will look around the bottom end of the table and see three sides below them they will feel they have a good chance of staying above, and a few above them who they may fancy could slide.

One of those sides could be Swansea, who host fellow Premier League newcomers Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday evening. The Welsh side have now claimed just one win in seven and are 14th in the table, with the points they’ve won largely coming at the Liberty Stadium – they’ve taken 15 from 18 so far this season and against Neil Warnock’s side I’d expect them to make it 18 from 21, with QPR really still needing to strengthen.

Tottenham have always enjoyed going to Norwich and there have been significant links between the two clubs down the years – Norwich’s great team of the early 90s featured several Spurs old boys including John Polston, Ian Crook and current assistant manager Ian Culverhouse.
Those links continue today, with full-back Kyle Naughton on loan at Carrow Road from Tottenham, but he’ll be unavailable for Tuesday’s match due to both a suspension and Premier League rules.
Of all the matches over Christmas, this is perhaps the most attractive, and if I was to lay out £35 for a ticket anywhere on Monday or Tuesday, it would be at Carrow Road.

Jon Champion is a football commentator on ESPN, broadcaster of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League and more. For more information visit espn.co.uk/tv

NMTB's FSU Review of 2011

Mark Gilbey — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:45:00 GMT

It's been a fascinating year in the former Soviet Union, as our Iron Curtain-twitcher Mark Gilbey reports...

This time last year, a bare-chested Luciano Spalletti was trotting around an icy Petrovsky Stadion in jubilation after leading Zenit St Petersburg to their second Premier League title since the fragmentation of the Soviet Union. And they're top now, too. But the Italian has kept his shirt on, for this is a transitional season in RUSSIA.

From next year the championship will ditch its traditional summer calendar and fall into line with the major European leagues by adopting an “autumn-spring” system. The corollary is an additional 14 rounds tacked on to the end of the regular 30-game season.

Over the summer CSKA Moscow held a seven-point advantage over Zenit, but now trail by six and there were question marks over the future of the club’s coach Leonid Slutsky. He has, though, redeemed himself somewhat by taking the Army Men into the knockout stages of the Champions League.

They qualified with Zenit, so that means there will be two Russian sides playing Champions League football after Christmas for the first time. Only Lionel Messi and Mario Gómez scored more than Seydou Doumbia in the group stages. He has been nothing short of prolific for CSKA this season, netting five goals in five Champions League games to add to the 24 the Ivorian has domestically.

Dan Petrescu also deserves a mention. His newly-promoted Kuban Krasnodar are ensconced in the top half of the table after being something of a yo-yo side these past few years. Defensively they have been frugal, but Petrescu has his own hot-shot Ivorian striker banging in the goals at the other end. Lanky Lacina Traoré has 15 to his name in the 21-year-old’s debut season to make him one of the league’s top newcomers.

It has also been a memorable year for football in the restive north Caucasus. In January an ambitious Terek Grozny provided an early shock to 2011 with the managerial appointment of Ruud Gullit, who was set the target of taking the Chechens into Europe. Terek moved into a new stadium in Grozny and several big names were linked with the club, but the Dutchman’s reign was a dismal one and Gullit was sacked after just 13 games.

Their neighbours in Dagestan have made a far better fist of challenging the established order. In the space of a year Anzhi Makhachkala have gone from being almost unknown outside of Russia to the name on everybody’s lips. Barely a day passes without them being linked to a high-profile signing.

The club’s wealthy owner Suleiman Kerimov has bankrolled the creation of a new side that includes Roberto Carlos, Yuri Zhirkov, Balázs Dzsudzsák and Mbark Boussoufa, but the capture of Samuel Eto’o really announced their arrival on the world stage. Anzhi finish 2011 in seventh with 12 rounds remaining.

How bottom side Tom Tomsk would like a few roubles from Eto’o’s mind-boggling wage package. Financial problems and the loss of their experienced coach Valeri Nepomniachi for health reasons have the seen the fortunes of the league’s easternmost side head south since the summer. The Siberians even went 12 games and over 1,000 minutes without scoring a goal.

Over the border in UKRAINE the league begins its winter hibernation with an unbeaten Dynamo Kyiv holding a slender one-point advantage over their arch-rivals and reigning champions Shakhtar Donetsk.

Success domestically has been tempered by poor showings in Europe for both. Once again Dynamo failed to navigate their way out of the Champions League qualifying rounds and last week exited the Europa League.

It was worse for Shakhtar. The Pitmen were expected to kick on after last year’s exploits in the Champions League – not least because Mircea Lucescu was able to retain his star players – but they finished bottom of their group and didn’t pick up a win until a dead-rubber on matchday six against APOEL Nicosia.

Their departure leaves just Metalist Kharkiv flying the flag for Ukraine in Europe. And after just one defeat in the league, Myron Markevich’s side are by no means out of finishing in the top two when things pick up again in March. Maybe, just maybe, they can go one better after five successive seasons as bronze medallists.

Juande Ramos’ Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk are 14 points off the pace following an inconsistent start to the campaign. The Spaniard was rumoured to be for the chop; he survived, and Dnipro have been buoyed by the arrival of Nikola Kalinić from Blackburn Rovers who has scored nine times in 12 games to help fire them up the table.

April saw minnows Obolon Kyiv write their name in the history books by ending Shakhtar’s unbeaten record in Donetsk that stretched back to 2008. The Brewers operate on a shoestring budget and don’t have a single foreign player on their books, but triumphed 1-0 to inflict a first home defeat on Shakhtar in 56 matches.

Obolon also beat Shakhtar in Kyiv and took four points off Dynamo last season. This campaign points have been hard to come by. Kyiv’s third club are bottom of the table and didn’t pick up a win until round 17; by then Serhiy Kovalets had already lost his job.

The most successful ARMENIAN team of the post-Soviet era, Pyunik Yerevan, were denied an 11th successive league title by Ulisses Yerevan. Arguably the real story has been the performances of the national team this year though.

They emerged as the surprise package during qualifying for Euro 2012. Vardan Minasyan had his young side well-organised and playing some attractive football, and while defeat to the Republic of Ireland meant he was unable to take them to the play-offs, there are certainly grounds for optimism in Armenia. Shakhtar’s Henrik Mkhitaryan was voted the country’s player of 2011.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland overcame another improving former Soviet republic to reach next summer’s finals: ESTONIA. Flora Tallinn retained their Meistriliiga title, while Trans Narva’s Latvian forward Aleksandrs Čekulajevs scored an incredible 46 goals.

He won’t mind that 18 of those came against the league’s whipping boys Ajax Lasnamäe. The Tallinn side won promotion last year, in no small part down to their coach Andrei Borissov, who left ahead of the new season for FC Infobet and things never got going for the amateurs.

Ajax failed to record a win all season. Along the way they picked up just four points, scored a paltry 11 goals and conceded an incredible 192 during 36 games. The squad lacked discipline after a poor start and picked up several red cards, while Betradar flagged a couple of matches as suspicious.

Key players departed and the side was replenished with several members of the youth team who play in the Teine Liiga, Estonia’s third tier. Even their president pitched in: Boriss Dugan took over coaching duties in the spring and the 51-year-old also pulled his boots on to make seven appearances as a player.

BATE Borisov confirmed themselves as BELARUS’ number one team by picking up their sixth consecutive league title; furthermore they reached the group stages of the Champions League. The club’s Brazilian-born Belarusian Renan Bressan also underlined his credentials as the division’s best player.

Dinamo Minsk bid farewell to their manager. Again. Sergei Ovchinnikov exits and is replaced by Aleksandr Sednev, who becomes Dinamo’s 25th coach in 12 years.

There was a change at the top in MOLDOVA as Sheriff Tiraspol were unable to take an 11th consecutive Divizia Naţională title after being ousted by Dacia Chişinău, Rohan Ricketts’ former side.

Another pioneering Briton abroad, John Gregory, popped up in KAZAKHSTAN to take charge of fallen giants Kairat Almaty over the summer. The former Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa manager was unable to save them from relegation on the final day though.

The AZERBAIJAN dream is also over for Tony Adams after 18 months with Qäbälä. They finished last season in midtable and as we approach the winter break Qäbälä are sixth in the 12-team championship. There was that long unbeaten run in the previous campaign – and they did keep 21 clean sheets from 32 matches – but it would be erroneous to consider Adams’ time in Azerbaijan an overwhelming success.

UZBEKISTAN midfielder Server Djeparov was voted Asia’s player of the year for the second time in his career. The central Asian republic are also through to the fourth qualifying round of the 2014 World Cup.

Ex-Southampton striker Marian Pahars began his first steps into management in his native LATVIA by taking the reigns of another of his former clubs, Skonto Riga. The 35-year-old guided Skonto to fourth.

Temuri Ketsbaia didn’t take GEORGIA to Euro 2012, although they did beat Croatia at home during the qualifying stages and finish the year at 73th in the FIFA world rankings, 52 places higher than when the ex-Newcastle United midfielder took over in November 2009.

And finally, Ekranas once again made a clean sweep of the trophies in LITHUANIA. Valdas Urbonas’ team won the A Lyga, Lithuanian Cup and Super Cup for the second year running.

Capital gains: well-connected PSG's revival is good for French football

Guest Writer — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:31:00 GMT

Stuart Coleman, Editor of The Football Diaries, on the benefits of Paris St-Germain's rejuvenation

As Nicolas Sarkozy took his place in the Élysée Palace in June 2007, le président's team of choice had just finished their Ligue Un campaign in a dismal 15th. Paris Saint-Germain, one of French football's great clubs and the capital's only top-flight representatives, equalled their lowest-ever league finish after a season spent flirting with relegation.

That season had been a tumultuous one on and off the pitch, with former playing hero Paul Le Guen replacing the ineffective Guy Lacombe as manager in January 2007 and the shocking death of a PSG fan, shot by police after anti-Semitic harassment of an Israeli Hapoel Tel Aviv fan, in November 2006.

The fortunes of the capital city's biggest sporting asset had reached their nadir. As Le Guen's erstwhile employers Lyon swept all before them at the top of the table, PSG had to look on from the league's lower reaches, struggling without an all-important league title since 1994. By 2007, discord, violence and disappointment had established themselves as the club's defining features.

Fast forward four years and things are very different in the Western reaches of Paris, where the Parc des Princes rises like a brutalist monument to the beautiful game, standing watch over the ever-rumbling périphérique, the endless motorway marking the border between the city and the suburbs.

President Sarkozy, a genuine PSG fan, could afford a moment to forget his country’s economic problems, and let slip a satisfied smile. The premier has reportedly played a major part in not only the revitalisation of the French top flight, but also the dramatic changes at his beloved Paris Saint-Germain.

In November 2010, French football was looking with increasing fear towards a bleak future. The clubs had been handsomely remunerated by a generous TV package since 2008, courtesy of a bidding war between major broadcasters Orange and Canal Plus. With the rights for the 2012-2016 contract soon to be arranged, Orange announced they would not be taking part, apparently leaving Canal Plus to a monopoly and an enviably strong position from which to negotiate.

Having operated under a rights deal that paid better than the equivalent agreements in Spain and Germany, both of which are better-supported and more profitable leagues, the powers that be in French football were worried about the effects of vastly reduced rights money. Ligue Un's relatively low turnouts and a lack of commercialism could render contingencies incapable of bridging the impending financial gap: many thought that even bigger clubs like PSG could fold.

Enter Sarkozy. The French president played a major role in convincing Qatar's Crown Prince Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani to purchase a controlling share in PSG – and to persuade Qatari broadcaster al-Jazeera to step in and effectively save French football with a considerable TV rights deal.

Qatar Sports Investment, which was set up by the Crown Prince in 2005, was created in order to promote the oil-rich nation’s interests abroad, particularly in Europe. (As well as the takeover of PSG, QSI announced a record-breaking shirt sponsorship deal with global football darlings Barcelona.) The chairman of QSI and friend of the Crown Prince, Nasser al-Khelaifi, also happens to be the chairman of al-Jazeera sport, thus completing, for the Qataris, Sarkozy, French football and PSG, a mutually satisfying circle of influence.

It has been suggested that Sarkozy asked Michel Platini to support Qatar’s bid for the 2018 World Cup, in order to oil the wheels of the rights deal and the takeover of PSG. Neither side admits to any such arrangement and while the UEFA chief firmly denies the accusation, but it is a matter of record that his influential vote ultimately did go to the unlikely Middle Eastern bid winners.

Whether the financial dealings behind the scenes at PSG were Machiavellian scheming or simply shrewd business, the news of PSG’s takeover by wealthy Qataris sent shockwaves through French football and was the beginning of a new chapter in the club’s turbulent history. The new owners brought a renewed optimism and self-confidence to the club’s beleaguered supporters, who have spent much of the last decade wallowing in self-pity.

QSI’s financial muscle allowed the club to compete with the richest of Europe’s elite group; the signing of the highly-rated and widely-coveted Javier Pastore from Palermo for just under €40m in August was both a coup for the club and an overt announcement of PSG’s ambition. Indeed, Paris spent a wholly conspicuous €89m last summer; more than every other club in Europe, with the exception of England’s own Middle Eastern nouveau riche, Manchester City.

Opposing fans have felt a curious mixture of envy and disdain, the culture of buying success being considered vulgar and less valid than ‘earned’ victory – the same arguments that Chelsea and Manchester City had to contend with upon their own mega-rich takeovers. Despite the ostensibly obvious similarities, many PSG fans felt that the major investments taking place under QSI’s ownership were merely helping Paris back towards where they belonged – the top.

The merits of this line of thinking are up for debate, and it's worth remembering that last season PSG managed a creditable fourth place prior to QSI’s takeover. But no matter the route via which competitiveness has been reached, the club the French love to hate are, beyond any doubt, back.

The dominance of Lyon in the opening decade of the century, winning seven titles in a row from 2001/02 to 2007/08, was as interminably tedious as it was hugely impressive. A league dominated by one force is only genuinely positive for that club; the lack of competitiveness harms the image of the league abroad and bores neutrals and opposing fans alike.

Thankfully, the last three seasons have seen three different league winners, Lille, Marseille and Bordeaux having all claimed the Ligue Un crown. To add a little extra spice to the mixture, the poseurs from Paris are back and are more than ready to stake their own claim to French football’s greatest prize.

PSG are the second best-supported club in France, after their arch-rivals, Marseille. The QSI takeover brings them back to the top table and provides Ligue Un with a continental contender with the stadium, profile and cash to attract quality players, such as Pastore, and a global fan base to the French top flight.

Brazilian Leonardo, who has taken up a Sporting Director role at PSG, has insisted that the playing squad will be improved by focusing on young French talent, which so often in the past has been drawn in by the far-reaching tentacles of the Premier League. The former Milan and Inter manager has also appeased those fans keen to explore the tantalising possibilities of the club’s newfound wealth, with the promise of the occasional ‘marquee’ signing like Pastore thrown in for good measure.

Moneyed they may be, but the club is well aware of the negatives associated with a specious Galacticos policy. Maintaining a French core to the team and club will please fans and if the temptation to fill the team with stars is resisted, the French national team, which is still rebuilding its reputation after the World Cup debacle, should also see demonstrable benefit.

The claimed dedication to young French talent seems so far not to be just bluster, with the promising Blaise Matuidi, Jérémy Ménez and the outstanding Kevin Gameiro joining the likes of club captain Mamadou Sahko at the Parc des Princes in the summer.

With a rejuvenated squad, Paris have made an impressive start to 2011/12; Les Parisiens will enter the new year second in the table, kept off the top spot solely by an inferior goal difference to surprise contenders, Montpellier. Having just missed out on a second round spot in the Europa League, PSG’s ambition for the season is now the single-minded pursuit of that elusive Championnat.

Not all will be pleased at the kind of massive instant investment PSG are currently undergoing, but to see the club where the likes of Ronaldinho, Raí and Weah have shone, one of Europe’s true glamour sides, revitalised, hungry and back amongst the leading pack at the top of Ligue Un is a satisfying sight for any fan of French football.

So vive Paris, vive la France et vive la révolution!

Manzano left facing Atlético axe as Simeone waits in the wings

Tim Stannard — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:19:00 GMT

The fact everyone had actually been gathered together to talk about a football match had been pretty much forgotten in the Atlético Madrid press room on Tuesday evening.

Instead, the pre-match conference became a feeding frenzy, with battered, beleaguered boss Gregorio Manzano on the menu. Most of the questioning centered on whether a Copa del Rey game a day later was going to be the manager’s last in charge of Atlético Madrid.

“Ask me about Albacete, not about rumours,” pleaded a weary Manzano, to no avail.

Atleti have to turn around a 2-1 first leg deficit in Wednesday evening's clash at the Vicente Calderón, but the real focus of the media’s attention was the news that former Rojiblancos midfielder Diego Simeone had resigned from his post as manager of Argentine club Racing Club de Avellaneda in expectation of taking over in the Spanish capital.

The appointment could be confirmed as soon as Monday, so say AS, who see the move as a done and dusted irrespective of what happens in Wednesday’s game.

When quizzed regarding the possibility of Simeone returning to the club he represented over 125 times during two spells, the most recent ending in 2005, Rojiblanco president Enrique Cerezo told Argentine radio he would “end up being manager” at Atlético, which to LLL sounds more like some kind of vague threat than a prediction or promise...

Another Spanish big cheese making a declaration on Tuesday was Sevilla president José María Del Nido who held a press conference a day after he was found guilty of fraud by a court and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison. Unsurprisingly the ever cocky and confident Del Nido revealed that he planned to stay on in charge of Sevilla despite the conviction as in his mind the legal process was far from over.

“The sentence can be appealed and while it is not firm I remain innocent of everything,” claimed Del Nido, who said he gave the concept of standing down for the good of the reputation of the club some consideration but then eventually thought better of it, what will all the big lunches, comfy seats and free match tickets.

“I’ve been through the good and bad sides. I understand my position as president benefits the institution more than it can damage its image, although it’s true that it will seem damaged,” admitted the Sevilla president who received banners of support during Sevilla’s 2-1 cup win over San Roque, a result that sent them though the next round of the Copa, where they were joined by Real Madrid, Mallorca and Espanyol the other winners from Tuesday night’s games.

Past catches up with Sevilla President Del Nido

Tim Stannard — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:14:00 GMT

Outside Spain, the billionaire’s paradise of Marbella is known as a sizzling, sunny spot to park a North Sea ferry-sized yacht and put one’s Russian or Middle Eastern feet up for a while.

Within the country, though, Marbella has a well-earned reputation for being a sinkhole of festering, filthy corruption for the past couple of decades.   

The town and surrounding area was the power base for the horrendously dodgy former Atlético Madrid president and Marbella local mayor, Jesús Gil, who died in May 2004 after a spectacular existence of boorish behaviour, corruption accusations, fraud, prison sentences and tons and tons of pie.   

The legacy of Gil continued in Marbella with his former lieutenant, Julian Muñoz, taking over the role as Mayor and also ending up in the slammer for fraud - something that has made him a bit of a folk hero with Spain’s Telecinco channel which has followed his life and loves over the past decade with great interest.

  The connection between these two figures - aside from both being despicable people - is that their lawyer was Sevilla president, José María del Nido, who was also up to his armpits in illegal activity in Marbella, declared a court on Monday in the long running corruption ‘Caso Minutas’ trial, which examined Del Nido’s role as a legal advisor to the city council.  

“Del Nido was a willing accomplice criminally responsible for offenses of continuous fraudulent activities in tenders, corrupt practices and embezzlement of public funds,” the court ruling said in sentencing the Sevilla president to prison for seven-and-a-half years.

NEWS Sevilla chief Del Nido sentenced over fraud

  The 54-year-old who has been president of Sevilla since 2002 will not be straight to jail though as there is still an appeal process to go through which could take quite some time, years even. However, it has started a debate on whether a convicted criminal should be in charge of a Primera football club (as opposed to a whole host of not convicted but probably should be ones, perhaps).   

Although Del Nido is set to give a press conference on Tuesday evening to discuss his present and future, a leading shareholder, Rafael Carrión, has called for the president to step down. “If I were him, I’d resign, as Sevilla cannot have a criminally convicted president. It damages the entity.”   

Del Nido, though, is popular with fans for having saved the club from near oblivion in the first part of the last decade and having led them to incredible success in Spain and Europe, a run of trophies that included two UEFA cup wins. However, message boards in Spain do also reflect that a number would be somewhat uncomfortable about having a crook as a leader.

  The support from the club itself since Monday’s sentence was past has been firm with sporting director, Monchi, wanting to “give out a message of confidence, affection and calm.” Sevilla coach, Marcelino, also offered his “total and sincere support," adding, "my hope is that he stays on as Sevilla president for many more years to come.”    

As well as Del Nido’s immediate future and that of the club being somewhat uncertain at the moment, it will be interesting to see what happens to the vigorous campaign lead by the Sevilla president on seeking a fairer distribution of TV rights between the 20 Primera clubs.

After all, what right does anyone have to talk of what’s fair or not when they have spent many years ripping off Marbella tax-payers to the sum of €2.8 million.  

It wouldn’t be at all surprising if Del Nido stayed on at his post whilst the legal process continued. The tolerance for corruption in Spain is fairly high, mainly because it is unfortunately so prevalent in Spain, especially in local councils.

What’s more, Del Nido’s dubious past connections have hardly been a secret, although something conveniently ignored by the media. Until Monday that is when the Sevilla president’s past finally came back to haunt him.

Valencia back to his best, Nasri passes with flying colours & VDV wings it

Michael Cox — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:55:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the best of the midweek Premier League action...

Shortly before the final whistle in Manchester City’s 1-0 win over Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, the Etihad Stadium’s PA system announced Samir Nasri as the man of the match.

It was a slightly surprising choice – there had been other much more impressive performers in the game, and was probably intended as more of a symbolic gesture in a match where he was up against his former club.

It is interesting to compare his passing in that game with the last time he played against City in an Arsenal shirt. He starts on the left in both games – in his Arsenal days he drifts into central positions more and sometimes across to the other side, but at City he plays on either flank, rarely making passes from central zones.

It’s also noticeable how many more passes he plays into the box with City – at Arsenal, he tried to play much shorter passes through the centre, and he gave the ball away nearly twice as often as he did in the reverse fixture back in January.

Despite this, of all the players to have featured in 10 or more Premier League matches so far this season, only three – Leon Britton, John Terry and John Obi Mikel – have a better pass completion rate than Nasri. That reliability in possession will come in handy against Stoke, to prevent them getting the ball and launching it forward.

Manchester United’s Antonio Valencia has been back to his old self in the past couple of games, grabbing four assists in the victories against Wolves and QPR – before those two games, he hadn’t contributed an assist all season.

It remains to be seen whether Valencia starts against Fulham this week – it’s rare for Sir Alex Ferguson to name the same side in two consecutive games, let alone three consecutive games – but he would be wise to pick the on-form Valencia, which would make for a powerful battle against John Arne Riise in Fulham’s left-back zone.

Wigan rarely pick up good results against the big sides, but it was no surprise that when they did at the weekend – when a late Jordi Gomez equaliser rescued a point against Chelsea – a good midfield performance from James McCarthy was one of the main reasons.

Wigan actually outpassed Chelsea in that match, with McCarthy completing more passes than any other player. He’ll aim to do something similar this week against a Liverpool side without their most reliable passer, Lucas Leiva.

McCarthy forms a good central midfield partnership with David Jones, who has an even better pass completion rate. As a result, Wigan have the seventh-highest pass completion rate in the league – one place above their opponents this week.

Without Aaron Lennon for this week’s match with Chelsea, Harry Redknapp might be forced to deploy Rafael van der Vaart on the right flank, the solution he opted for after Lennon’s injury against Sunderland on Sunday.

Though van der Vaart went to the right, as shown by the positions he gets the ball in, he essentially plays the same game as when he plays behind a main striker – moving into the centre of the pitch and trying to thread direct passes through the defence. Against Sunderland, Tottenham had neither Lennon nor Gareth Bale, so the goal predictably came from a Van der Vaart straight pass.

It will be interesting to see how Chelsea look to contain the Dutchman, if he starts on the right. Usually Ashley Cole is involved in a straight battle of pace against Lennon, but here he’ll have to make a decision about how far to track van der Vaart, before handing him over to Oriel Romeu, guarding the zone in front of the defence.

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

De Boer balances his influences to take Ajax back to basics

Mohamed Moallim — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:44:00 GMT

Frank de Boer sat there, in his own word "helpless", as Ajax crashed out of this season’s Champions League with defeat to Real Madrid. A year to the day since his appointment, it was the coach's 50th match and his 10th defeat, his second at home.

The defeat – to De Boer's former Barcelona coach Jose Mourinho – was all the more painful given the circumstances: the Amsterdam side had two perfectly legitimate goals disallowed at critical stages of the game.

However, at least De Boer could afford to look back and say the seeds for a brighter future had already been sown. Ajax, at least on the pitch, look to be on good footing, with their coach constantly evolving his tactics and taking inspiration from former coaches as well as an ex-teammate.

As he entered his first press conference as coach, De Boer had outlined his objectives in the most clear and concise way possible. To him, the brand of football Ajax had been playing under Martin Jol was partly responsible for the stagnation of the current crop of players.

"We had to ensure that the players bought into this idea again, and rid themselves of a certain apathy that was evident on the field," he explained. "That was the feeling I had when I watched games from the stands. The full-backs rarely moved up the pitch and the centre-backs kept pumping long balls forward, when they should in fact be free to dribble if the situation calls for it, and re-launch an attack properly."

Almost immediately, with just a few hours of training and a slight tactical tweak, the first signs of a change presented themselves in his first game in charge: the 2-0 win over AC Milan at the San Siro. "We played following the Ajax philosophy," De Boer said afterwards, "with wingers and a real No.10 – and everyone did well at the job they were assigned beforehand. The wingers kept the field broad, and came in at the right times."

In the months that followed that result, there was a gradual move from a 4-2-3-1 to an orthodox 4-3-3. "When it comes to playing football, movement on the field and attacking, I am close to Johan Cruyff’s philosophy," De Boer explained, with a slight difference: "I like the 4-3-3 formation. I know you need the right players for that, but if you want to find them, then you will."

In truth, his philosophy is a mash-up of Johan Cruyff and Louis van Gaal (who in turn both adapted theirs from Rinus Michels). The way he wants his side to play is reflected in both. His coaching methods are akin to former coach Van Gaal – for example, meticulously analysing his opponents and then relaying that information in a classroom to his players, although he has so far left the notebook in the dressing room rather than taking it with him to the dugout.

"What's up with using a notebook?"

One of the major criticisms of Jol was his inability to play with wingers. In fairness to him, it’s been a while since Ajax did: some say since Marc Overmars and Finidi George rampaged down the flanks.

The imperative of playing with out-and-out wide men has seen the likes of Miralem Sulejmani not just improve but became crucial components. As well as the system changing, so has the build-up: no longer is the team heavily dependent on the counter-attack and long balls.

Instead the aim is to constantly develop short passing into circulation football. The attack starts from the back, with the goalkeeper. Kenneth Vermeer has inspired much debate this season, but despite some notable errors – FC Utrecht away springs to mind – he has remained De Boer's No.1 choice. Like his compatriot Michel Vorm at Swansea, Vermeer seldom kicks the ball long: even under pressure, it’s always a pass to either centre-back or full-back.

This way of playing is nothing new at Ajax. When Cruyff took over in 1985, his first act was to find a goalkeeper capable of playing football: he found one in Stanley Menzo one of the first sweeper-keepers. He would continue under Van Gaal, but lose his spot after a 1993 UEFA Cup nightmare in Auxerre, where he conceded a goal direct from a corner kick; from then on the ‘ice rabbit’ Edwin van der Sar would take the gloves.

CRUYFF v VAN GAAL, INDIVIDUAL v TEAM
Cruyff’s vision is the backbone of the club, and some of his tactical innovations returned this season. The 3-3-1-3 formation, used throughout his tenure at the club and adopted by Van Gaal, became the staple of Ajax: renowned worldwide, it even reached South America and inspired Marcelo Bielsa who fell in love with the team of the mid-90s.

And in a cup game this year against lowly VV Noordwijk, the system made its comeback. A back three of Toby Alderweireld, Andre Ooijer and Jan Vertonghen – all Ajax graduates and therefore familiar with the formation at youth level – has even got De Boer hinting he might continue playing this way on a regular basis in the near future, mainly due to how it allows his midfield to control possession as well as the ebb and flow of the game.

De Boer's explanation for using it then, and subsequently against Roda JC twice in the cup and league, was that it's the best way to combat sides playing with two forwards – a similar reasoning forwarded by Michels. Indeed, the legendary Dutch coach's belief in individual training has been a prominent feature under the current coach.

“The individual cleverness of the players was missing when I first got here," says De Boer, who returned in 2006 as a youth team coach. “The individual action at the highest level is essential. We are now in training much more individualised. That is so important.”

This is where Van Gaal and Cruyff start to differ. Though the two have similar domineering personalities, they are very different under the surface. At the heart of the recent power struggle is a clash of ideologies, with either side claiming their brand of football to be superior – and suitable for Ajax. "Of course, Louis van Gaal has an understanding of football," Cruyff said. "But we have a clear difference in approach."

Cruyff, De Boer & Van Gaal: Ajax's internal triangle

A good example is the development of players and running the youth programme. Van Gaal is accused of allowing the deterioration of Ajax's academy from the mid-1990s onwards. As a coach, his way of thinking is on the side of the collective; this also applies to the development of players and what is often seen as a militaristic approach to team building.

By contrast, Cruyff believes in the individual. He is an ardent proponent of what's known as the 'Michels model' – including individual training, in which character building is as much as important as skill development. The idea is that at critical stages of a match, instead of relying on others, the player solves the predicament himself. Talent is one thing, but it's better employed with a football brain.

Under Van Gaal, Ajax moved away from this approach. No wonder Cruyff has said of Van Gaal: "I do not think he can make Ajax a top club again. He will get results short-term, but things have to change in order to improve Ajax."

In recent years Cruyff has lambasted previous regimes for putting profit ahead of the quality of football. It was as if Ajax had become a football training centre designed to develop players and sell them off to the highest bidder. Any ambition of reaching the heights of yesteryear was gone.

Cruyff's problem is that he can be too much of an idealist. The club found themselves in that position because of the changing economic climate of an increasingly globalised game, especially after the Bosman ruling meant clubs could lose players they'd spent years developing without receiving any recompense.

Of the side which won the 1995 Champions League, Patrick Kluivert, Winston Bogarde and Michael Reiziger were all lured on free transfers to defeated finalists AC Milan alone; after a single poor year in Italy, Kluivert moved to Barcelona for nearly £9m. Ajax were clearly being short-changed, and to avoid that, they had to sell players before contracts ran down.

However, Cruyff's critique hints at a deep problem in trying to marry this new economic reality with the Ajax traditions. If a player of quality was to depart, he would need to be replaced by one of similar ilk, so the club is left with two options: to develop academy players, or to scout and sign them. Priding themselves on their brand of football, Ajax had always preferred the former option, but not enough genuine talents were coming through – not enough for any long-term planning.

Cruyff brings in his wingmen

Asked about the recent boardroom tussle between the two opposing views, De Boer couldn’t bring himself to side with one over the other – perhaps understandably, considering the situation shows no sign of clear resolution as Cruyff and his lawyers hit the courts to block Van Gaal's appointment.

HALF-TIME ORANJE, Thu 17 Nov: Civil war looms as Ajax appoint Van Gaal behind Cruyff's back

However, in a recent interview with Voetbal International it seems he’s chosen Cruyff. “My biggest concern is the performance of the first team. That should not be compromised by the troubles at the club,” De Boer said. “I think it’s clear to everyone what Cruyff’s vision is and we should follow that direction. It would be very strange after a few months to take another path.”

AMSTERDAM TO BARCELONA AND BACK
Another source of inspiration for De Boer is Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, who keeps in regular contact with his former Camp Nou team-mate. One of the many positives of the Catalan club's recent superiority is how much their brand of football owes to the Dutch school. As pass-master Xavi admits, "Our model was imposed by Cruyff: it's an Ajax model."

The one aspect of the current Barcelona team that has greatly impressed De Boer is their ‘pressure play’ – also a feature of Van Gaal’s Ajax – when not on the ball: from losing possession to regaining it in mere seconds. It's something he’s starting to introduce, but the whole way the team plays has captivated him.

“In the modern game, you tend to dominate if you have eight or nine players behind the ball, just like Barça,” notes the coach. “Leaving two wingers up front glued to the touchline doesn’t help an awful lot. You have to be dynamic, full of movement. Keeping possession of the ball seems like a silly thing to say on paper, but on grass it’s actually even more important than it sounds.”

Twin brother Ronald, now also coaching at Ajax, notes that during their spell at Barcelona Guardiola made clear his love of Dutch football. "He always talked about total football, forward pressing, about what Johan [Cruyff] taught him and about Dutch players. Pep has that urge to attack and to dominate, a bit like the Dutch play.”

Before he took the Ajax job, Frank de Boer paid a visit to Guardiola, where he studied his training sessions as well as having an in-depth conversation about the Barcelona blueprint. It’s not often the Dutch side looks elsewhere for a reference, but with Cruyff’s vision clearly thriving at the Catalan club, it’s a stellar example that Ajax can go back to their basics.

And so far that is exactly what is happening, on and off the pitch. The old saying that Rome wasn't built in a day is appropriate in Amsterdam today. As he enters his second year, with his team as defending league champions, De Boer can be content; asked if he dreams of taking the Oranje or Barcelona job, he smiles and politely replies that his only dream is to remain at Ajax for 10 years.

FourFourTwo.com readers' Premier League XIs

Guest Writer — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:31:00 GMT

Following on from FourFourTwo.com's Premier League XI and Tim Stannard's La Liga XI, here are a few English top flight suggestions from you, our dear readers...

Even FourFourTwo Performance's Ben Welch got in on the act...

A few responses provided highly unworkable formations, of which this is the most mental...

Here are the best of the rest...

ligamedanfpl @ligamedanfpl
Vorm; Walker, Coloccini, Jagielka, Enrique; Nani, Silva, Mata; Holt, Hoilett, Van Persie.

Will Forrest @WF_APEX
Given; L.Young, Cahill, Hangeland, Cole; Modric, Wilshere; Nani, Sessegnon, Silva; Suarez

Glyn Phillips @glyn_phillips
Vorm, Johnson, Vidic, Shawcross, Baines, Barton, Tiote, Silva, Lampard, Bale, Van Persie.

James Peter Smith @PesPete91
Reina; Rangel, Vidic, Hangeland, Baines; Mata, Modric, Cabaye, Silva; Bent, Van Persie.

Aaron Cobb @acobb403
Krul; O'Shea, Shawcross, Jageilka, Riise; Jarvis, Lampard, Sinclair, Bale; Rooney, Van Persie.

Chris Gladwin @chrisgladwin
Vorm; Walker, Dunne, Gabbidon, Enrique; Nani, Fellaini, Ramires; Aguero, Van Persie, Yakubu.

Pepper @Chrispepper06
Schwarzer; Hutton, Vidic, Cahill, Baines; Adam, Tiote; Sturridge, Silva, Bale; Van Persie.

Liam Jones @liamjefc
Ruddy; Walker, Cahill, Coloccini, Baines; Nani, Romeu, Lucas, Silva; Van Persie, Suarez.

Alex McGowan @AlexScouse13
Cech; Walker, Cahill, Taylor, Baines; Silva, Barton, Pilkington; Rooney, Van Persie, Suarez.

Chris Selway @Selway826
Jaaskelainen; Rangel, N.Vidic, C.Samba, J.Enrique; D.Silva, Barton, Lampard, Bale; Van Persie, Bent.

Jonny Phillpotts @FGuerrilla
Vorm; Walker, Jagielka, Cahill, Enrique; P.Jones, Silva, Mata; Ba, Van Persie, Rooney

Alistair Wong @AlistairWong13
Vorm; Walker, Woodgate, Coloccini, Cole; Lucas, Silva, Pilkington; Agbonlahor, Rooney, Van Persie.

TPiMBW @TPiMBW
Vorm; Simpson, Vidic, R.Johnson, Baines; Mata, Y.Toure, Dempsey, Bale; Suarez, Van Persie.

Adam Shannas @Shannas87
Given; Johnson, Samba, Cahill, Baines; Silva, Barton, Lampard, Bale; Rooney, Van Persie.

Paul Gayton @pgato80
Given; R.Taylor, King, Woodgate, Baines; Ramires, Silva, Gerrard; Van Persie, Rooney, Holt.

Joseph @jmarlow10
Krul; Huth, Vidic, Jagielka, Enrique; Silva, Modric, Mata; Dembele, Van Persie, S.Fletcher.

Redknapp should think long and hard before taking management's biggest gamble

Liam Twomey — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:36:00 GMT

When it comes to the England job, there are many who believe Harry Redknapp’s widely-touted appointment to succeed Fabio Capello after next summer’s Euro 2012 finals to be a mere formality.

In light of this, it’s understandable that the words of Daniel Levy - Redknapp’s chairman at Tottenham – at the club’s annual general meeting last Tuesday were greeted with a measure of surprise in the media.

"Harry has 18 months left on his contract," Levy stated.

"We have had a conversation where it was said that, as far as Harry's concerned, he's very happy here and that he doesn't particularly want to consider England at the present time.

"We will worry about that situation if it arises in the summer."

Levy’s comments were generally portrayed as casting doubt on the common assertion that Redknapp to England is a ‘done deal’ – as indeed it probably is not yet – but in reality what he said was nothing new or even unexpected.

For his words constituted no more than a confirmation of Redknapp’s unwavering focus on the task in hand at White Hart Lane, albeit with the rather telling acknowledgment that the Spurs boss’ long-term future may well have to be assessed at the end of the season.

Primarily, Levy’s address aimed to reassure the club’s board, staff and fans that the on-the-field progress evident in Tottenham’s highly promising start to the campaign won’t be derailed by any off-the-field speculation – whether about Redknapp or prized assets Luka Modric and Gareth Bale, who he was also at pains to state will not be leaving in January.

In spite of these latest comments, it remains highly likely that Redknapp will be chosen as Capello’s replacement next summer, and that he will jump at the chance offered.

After all, there is reportedly a real appetite within the FA to ‘go native’ again with their choice after the expense and unpopularity of the stony-faced Italian, and Redknapp is widely considered the outstanding English candidate in terms of style and achievements.

Moreover, the former West Ham boss is, and always has been, fiercely patriotic. Having described the England job on numerous occasions as the "pinnacle" of a domestic manager’s career, it seems almost inconceivable that he would reject the chance to scale new heights.

That said, a man in Redknapp’s current situation would be entitled to have doubts about drinking from one of the most poisonous chalices in football.

Managing the Three Lions has been the making of few Englishmen over the years, and the undoing of many – just ask Graham Taylor, Kevin Keegan or Steve McClaren.

Taking the England job has become the biggest gamble a manager can take, and Redknapp has more to lose than most.

After beginning with relatively humble resources at Bournemouth and enduring 28 long, hard years in the unforgiving world of football management, he is finally in charge of a club capable of competing for top domestic honours on a consistent basis.

For Tottenham, fuelled by the spectacularly productive if not always entirely harmonious partnership of Levy and Redknapp, are most definitely a club on the rise.

The arrivals of Scott Parker, Emmanuel Adebayor and Brad Friedel have added real substance to a squad already among the most stylish in the land, and now a club which last season enjoyed a maiden Champions League campaign is beginning to dream of greater success this term, with Redknapp refusing to rule out a title challenge.

And it’s easy to see why. Spurs currently lie third in the Premier League, seven points behind leaders Manchester City with a game in hand. Last Sunday’s defeat away to Stoke ended a run of 11 league matches unbeaten and six consecutive league victories.

More impressive still is the manner in which this form has been achieved. Redknapp’s young and dynamic side have overrun most opponents with pace, guile and relentless attacking intent, gaining legions of neutral admirers in the process.

Spurs’ prospects this season look good and, if Levy’s determination to keep the club’s top stars remains steadfast, their longer term future is even more promising.

Now 64 and with an FA Cup triumph with Portsmouth in 2008 the only top level trophy to his name, Redknapp would be forgiven for wanting to stick around in north London long enough to enjoy the full fruits of his labour.

Such a refusal would be a hammer blow to an FA desperately seeking to regain some credibility after England’s calamitous showing at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the farcical nature of the failed bid to host the 2018 tournament.

But while the remarkable balance Redknapp appears to have struck between entertainment and results at Spurs is what has put him in pole position to become the next England manager, it also happens to be what may ultimately convince him to pass up the opportunity.

Regardless of his intentions, Harry will be hoping the FA knock on his door next July. Tottenham or England? Whatever the answer, it’s clear there are worse questions in life.

Premier Analysis: How Man City nullified Arsenal's key man

Nick Govier — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:10:00 GMT

The weekend's top-flight action analysed by Nick Govier, the Editor of Footballistically.co.uk

The pick of this weekend's matches was undoubtedly Arsenal's trip to face Manchester City. It rapidly became an end-to-end shootout, but there were some tactical elements which helped the home side gain the upper hand.

City pressed high up the pitch when the Arsenal defence were in possession, often forcing the ball back to Wojciech Szczesny and not giving him an option to play a short pass back out to his back four. This prevented Arsenal from building from the back and instead forced Szczesny to kick long – which played into the hands of the taller City defenders. Compare Szczesny's distribution with that against Everton last week when he was able to pass short and keep possession more often.

Another element in the victory was how well Pablo Zabaleta contained Theo Walcott. The winger has been playing exceptionally well recently but was prevented from making much impact at all on the game by an outstanding performance by Zabaleta, who dispossessed Walcott on a number of occasions and nullified his threat in behind.

Manchester City's win took them back to the top of the Premier League, after Manchester United had briefly taken top spot following a relatively untroubled victory over Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road. The match was most notable for Michael Carrick's first goal in 70 matches, and a partnership with Phil Jones in the centre of midfield which looked very promising indeed. Jones has been played in several positions since his move to Old Trafford, but his box-to-box ability may see him playing in a midfield role for a while yet.

Another midfielder impressing in West London this weekend was Clint Dempsey. Notionally playing on the left, he often drifted infield and was at the centre of most of Fulham's positive play. He left the field with a fine headed goal and an expertly-weighted through-ball assist, and could have created more goals had it not been for the determination of the Bolton defence to throw themselves in front of shots and keep the score respectable.

Bolton are bottom of the league, but a win on Tuesday evening against Blackburn will leave Steve Kean's charges at the foot of the table. In last week's review we noted via Paul Robinson's kicking stats how direct Blackburn play; this week that directness resulted in a classic Route One goal.

Scott Dann scored against West Brom after a Paul Robinson punt was nodded down by Christopher Samba. Examining Samba's passes received and player dashboard shows how much of his play takes place in the opponent's penalty area: he won two flick-ons and the knock-down for the goal.

Blackburn have regressed a long way from Mark Hughes' tenure at the club, when Morten Gamst Pedersen and David Bentley were relentlessly seeking out the likes of Roque Santa Cruz with dangerous crosses from wide areas. Under Steve Kean the flanks are ignored completely as their pass map shows – only twice did Blackburn attempt a cross from within 18 yards of the byline.

And finally, "row Z" may be the cliché, but this weekend some of the shooting was so wild that fans weren't necessarily safe even if they weren't behind the goals…

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

FourFourTwo's Premier League XI

Vithushan Ehantharajah — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:45:00 GMT

FourFourTwo recently received an email from a Mr Steve James, who proposed the Premier League and La Liga should face off in something of an all-star match, but with a catch. No club would be represented by more than one player.

This would prevent any one club from dominating their league's representative XI (yes, we mean Barcelona, obviously) and would provide a greater indication of the strength (and, indeed, depth) of the two leagues.

The thought caused much debate at FFT Towers, with punches thrown and certain individuals refered to as 'ruddy idiots'. Fortunately, the violence died down once we had all agreed on our Premier League XI. We also asked FourFourTwo.com's man in Madrid, Tim Stannard, to provide his La Liga XI, which you can see here.

In putting together a Premier League XI to battle La Liga’s finest, FFT’s thoughts immediately turned to stifling the opposition; as the last four years have shown, going toe-to-toe with some of the tikiest-takiest players around will only end in tears.

However, with a one player minimum from each club, I entered this project with the type of blind-optimism usually reserved for our brave Lions on the eve of international competition. Remembering we also had to adhere to the stipulation, we delayed draping our Premier League flag out the office window, and sat down to make some very difficult, and no doubt disputable calls...

Michel Vorm  - Swansea City
Certainly not a household name on his arrival in the Premier League, despite already having a handful of Dutch caps and being one of the three keepers Bert Van Marwijk took to the 2010 World Cup, Vorm has endeared himself to Swans and fantasy football nuts alike. His brilliant reflexes and penalty-stopping expertise have won headlines and plaudits. Despite the season having not even reached the halfway stage, the former Utrecht gloveman has already saved a handful of points for the promoted side.

  Luke Young -  Queens Park Rangers
 With all due respect to the former England international, his presence in this hypothetical XI is largely down to the fact that the league’s best right-backs line-up alongside some lovely little creative sorts, who also feature on this list. While unspectacular, Young’s a solid ball-playing defender, with more than 10 years of Premier League experience behind him.

 Nemanja Vidic  - Manchester United
 It says it all about the Serbian’s influence (and Manchester United’s displays over the last 12 months) that a defender would be the standout pick from the league champions. While his inclusion means no place for Nani or Wayne Rooney, Vidic’s solidity has held his side together, especially during times when they have been found wanting further up the pitch. His absence for the rest of the season is a massive blow for Sir Alex Ferguson, but luckily he’s fit and raring to go for us in make-believe land.

Gary Cahill  - Bolton Wanderers 
"He’s not as good as people think!" go the tweets, with a few expletives thrown in hither and thither. While Bolton’s form is poor, it would be foolish to pin it solely on the England centreback, even though his performances have generally fallen below his own high standards this term. Talk has turned to rebuilding with the funds garnered from his sale in January, but he could play as crucial a part in the heart of their defence should he stay put.

Leighton Baines  - Everton 
Equally adept in defensive and attacking areas, Baines provides an extra threat on the left wing with his willingness to overlap and ability to cross from deep – not to mention his dead-ball prowess. Now England’s number two in this position, the former Wigan man has shown vast improvement since Fabio Capello decided against taking him to South Africa in 2010.

 Ramires -  Chelsea 
Last year he was branded little more than industrious, but this season has seen the Brazilian consistently put in polished displays - even demonstrating a goal-scoring aptitude many doubted he had. Everything about Ramires is relentless, and it is clear to see he is Andres Villas-Boas’ main man in the middle of the park.

 Yohan Cabaye -  Newcastle United
 One of the seven Gallic Geordies - or 'Mark Owen', as he is referred to by his teammates because of his boyband-like good looks – Cabaye has been the driving force behind Newcastle’s impressive start to the season. While classy on the ball, he’ll also provide some extra bite to the midfield.

 Luka Modric -  Tottenham Hotspur
 After early season discontent brought about by a botched move to Stamford Bridge, Modric has come back into the Spurs side and made them the title-challengers some have dared refer to them as. Undoubtedly one of the best midfielders in the league, the Croatian pips Gareth Bale to a spot in the XI, thanks in part to the choice of formation.

David Silva -  Manchester City
 The best player in the league? Almost certainly – a season of acclimatisation (with the odd flash of brilliance) has set him up for a second where he has become the heart-beat for a ruthless Manchester City. Looking as comfortable as he ever has done on a football pitch, the former Valencia man will know this opposition inside and out – as would have Juan Mata – but Silva’s greater influence (by virtue of a longer Premier League stint) gives him the edge in this one.

Luis Suarez  - Liverpool 
Not exactly flavour of the month right now, you can never quite take your eyes of Suarez for fear of missing something game-changing. While Liverpool struggle to get the best out of him without an accomplished striker, his energy and directness will prove a useful foil for this side’s front-man. Speaking of which...

 Robin van Persie -  Arsenal
 After a quite staggering run in front of goal, Van Persie’s sumptuous volley against Everton in the last round of fixtures leaves him one goal away from equalling Thierry Henry’s record of 34 in a calendar year (all this in what is arguably his secondary position). Aguero came close, but missed out because of Silva’s inclusion; Rooney’s tendency to drop was unwelcome give the personnel behind him. Demba Ba’s 11 goals so far gave him an outside chance, but unfortunately record-breaking trumps left-field, even in footballing Narnia.

FEATURE Tim Stannard's 'one man one club' La Liga XI

Tim Stannard's Primera Liga XI

Tim Stannard — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:45:00 GMT

The mission set by the evil FourFourTwo masters sounded an easy one at first. Pick your la Liga XI to take on a side from the Premier League. “Easy,” thought LLL “Barcelona with a couple of Real Madrid players thrown in for good measure.”

The catch though was that the side had to be made up of players from eleven different clubs, not so easy considering 18 of the 20 la Primera outfits are, to be brutally honest, not really much good. In fact, it was a torturous exercise of jiggling, poking and swearing, but here are the results in a sort of narrow 4-3-3 formation.

Thibaut Courtois - Atlético Madrid
While the rest of the Rojiblancos are merrily underperforming - as they tend to do every year - the 19-year-old Chelsea loanee has been a solid performer between the sticks, with the Belgian goalie making lingering memories of David de Gea seem distant.

Juanfran - Levante
The selection strategy has been to pack the midfield and forward line with talent and then hope for the best in defence. Especially in the fullback area. Yes, Juanfran is 35 and is getting on a bit, but Juanfran has also been a rock in one of the best teams in la Liga in 2011, statistically speaking. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, buddy...

Adil Rami - Valencia
Fast, tough, aggressive and quite scary at the back as well as very handy in the opposition box, the French international has been one of the buys of the season, and is Valencia’s very valuable contribution to la Liga’s best XI.

Iñigo Martínez - Real Sociedad
Spanish U-21 defender extraordinaire, future full team regular and a centre-back who also likes to score goals from his own half - something that Martínez has done twice this season.

Miguel Torres - Getafe
This was a real problem position and the whopping weak spot of the team. Miguel Torres is the best of a bad bunch of Racing and Zaragoza players available as although the Getafe fullback is incredibly unspectacular, has a fear of crossing the half-way line, Torres is reasonably competent and consistent.

Javi Martínez - Athletic Bilbao
A tough-tacking, box-to-box, rampaging World Cup winner who can also play in defence which may be necessary from time-to-time in this particular line-up. A powerful, physical footballer that any Premier League team would love to have anchoring their midfield.

Borja Valero - Villarreal
His team may not be having the best of spells at the moment with Valero’s form suffering too, but the Villarreal playmaker has been one of the consistently best Primera players over the last couple of seasons - an expert at nearly every type of set-piece, cross and pass imaginable.

Santi Cazorla - Málaga
Playing in front of his former Villarreal teammate, Borja Valero, it’s Santi Cazorla - a footballer with wonderful technique, brilliant creativity, a cheeky smile and a Spanish international who would have had an awful lot more caps by now if it weren’t for the fact that’s he’s in existence on the earth at the same time as footballers like Andrés Iniesta, David Silva and now Juan Mata.

Cristiano Ronaldo - Real Madrid
Positioned on the left of a front three it’s the one and only Cristiano Ronaldo, a footballer that many knockers forget scored an awful lot of goals playing for Manchester United, as well as the century and then some of strikes he’s banged in with Real Madrid. The manager’s only concern is whether Ronaldo and a certain Argentinean in the squad will speak to each other - never mind pass.

Leo Messi - Barcelona
It was a serious temptation to drop the wee Argentinean to bring in Andrés Iniesta to the midfield or even have the defence lead by Gerard Piqué, but the decision was made to go on the all out attack and adopt the policy of scoring more goals than the opposition - something Leo Messi might be able to help with.

Alvaro Negredo - Sevilla
It was a tough choice between the Sevilla striker and Fernando Llorente for the front man position, but Negredo nicks it due to the requirement of Javi Martínez to add some steal to the midfield and help out at the back. However, the former Madrid man more than justifies his position as a forward who can score goals ranging from the simple to the spectacular. Negredo is also a footballer who was the top scoring Spaniard in la Liga last season with 20 goals.

FEATURE FourFourTwo's Premier League XI

Good Day, Bad Day: Saint Iker’s save, Soldado’s strikes & Manzano's misery

Tim Stannard — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:43:00 GMT

Good Day

José Mourinho
The Madrid manager still looked utterly miserable after his team’s 6-2 victory over Sevilla, and as well he might considering he had to face endless questions from ranting local journalists about the financial inequalities in la Liga, all of which were met not unreasonably with indifferent shrugs and responses of ‘not my problem, mate’.
Mourinho had claimed as early as Monday that his side would bounce back from their Barcelona battering and be top of the table at Christmas, and so it came to pass. While Barça have struggled away from home this season - Santiago Bernabeu aside - Madrid continue to take their away day adventures very seriously indeed, something that could be key when the title race continues in 2012.

Iker Casillas
Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel di María should have a couple of spots in the Good Day section but, quite frankly, LLL is a little bored of writing about their endless goals and assists. For the record it was four and two for the pair respectively on Sunday. Instead the blog has decided to shine its torch of truth on Iker Casillas, this time around, as the Madrid captain hasn’t really had the chance to pull any whoppers out of his goalkeeping net this season.
‘San Iker’ certainly did in the Sánchez Pizjuán with an astonishing stop from Manu del Moral, that was reminiscent of an effort against Diego Perotti two years ago in the same fixture. That was followed by another fine effort from Piotr Trochowski to help withstand an early battering from Sevilla and keep Madrid in the game to produce their eventual thwacking.

Roberto Soldado
Two cracking goals for the Valencia man making it 11 in la Liga this season, ends a worryingly wobbly spell for the Mestalla men and seals what has largely been a solid start to the season for Valencia despite the club’s Champions League exit.

Osasuna
Drawing 1-1 with visiting Villarreal with just ten minutes to go, Osasuna needed something old school to break the deadlock. And that’s what they produced, with Sergio scoring a trademark header from a trademark corner for another trademark Osasuna victory that sees the Pamplona side in fifth going into the winter break.

Thievy
Espanyol’s rather exciting young French striker Thievy launched a screamer of a shot just two minutes into the match to give Espanyol a 2-1 win at Sporting. It gave Espanyol back-to-back wins before the winter break to help calm a few concerns about a Perico lack of firepower.

Athletic Bilbao
It certainly wasn’t a mighty purty performance to beat Zaragoza 2-1, with Athletic down to ten men after the referee sent off Javi Martínez for a perfectly good tackle and gave the visitors a penalty in the process. But Athletic kept on plugging away in the second half when Zaragoza were also reduced to ten men and local hero, Gaizka Toquero, came up with a late winner to end a run of three matches without a win.

Pepe Mel
Betis are being rewarded for sticking with coach Pepe Mel, despite a awful spell that produced nine defeats and a draw. Betis have now won their last two games and looked more than decent in Sunday lunchtime’s 2-0 victory over Atlético Madrid.

Getafe
Seeing Getafe playing away from home and ending up scoring more goals than their opponents is a most peculiar sensation seeing as the Coliseum club hasn’t managed it since December 19th of last year, making three points on their travels a newly-formed Christmas tradition for Getafe. Saturday’s 2-1 win over Mallorca after two goals from Abdel Barrada was also the first time the side had managed two or more league victories in a row in about a year. The last time that happened was (anyone, anyone, anyone?) December 19th last year.

Racing Santander
The goalless draw against a 10-men Real Sociedad still keeps Racing in the relegation zone but the result does see the Cantabrian club undefeated in the last three games ever since their trio of trainers took over from Héctor Cúper.

Bad Day

Sevilla
To lose 6-2 at home is more than a little careless. To do it two years in a row to the same opponent as a hapless Sevilla have now managed is quite ludicrous. In just one match, Marcelino’s men managed to increase by half and then some the goals that a previously tight Sevilla had conceded so far this season.
A host of early chances were missed - LLL is looking at Manu del Moral for a couple of them - and Real Madrid scored whenever they wanted. “I have the feeling that we’re a team that has highs and lows and we played a match today that’s very hard to explain,” mused Marcelino the manager.

Gregorio Manzano
LLL discovered that it did have a heart after all. The blog was up in the stands watching the Atlético Madrid manager on the touchline being roundly abused by the crowd for a good 45 minutes. It’s no wonder Manzano prefers to sit on the bench - something that also generates wrath from the Vicente Calderón crowd.
Despite Atlético playing reasonably well for much of the game against Betis, the side simply weren’t able to take their chances with the horribly off-form Falcao missing two very early sitters which would have surely given the Rojiblancos a comfy victory. Instead, Betis stayed patient, waiting for Juanfran’s inevitable errors and came away from the Spanish capital with a 2-0 win - a defeat for Manzano that will surely be the end for his brief but troubled (second) spell at Atlético Madrid, a team now just four points off the relegation zone.

Sporting
Three defeats in four for Sporting, the most recent of which against Espanyol, leaves Manuel Preciado with a fun of a five month relegation battle to come in 2012.

Villarreal
Sporting's failure to pick up points this weekend leaves Villarreal out of the relegation zone, but only on goal difference. The 2-1 defeat to Osasuna on Sunday sees Villarreal fans set to suffer a very unhappy Christmas.

Zaragoza
Some comedy defending some Zaragoza against Athletic Bilbao, especially in the first half for Markel Susaeta’s goal, sees Javier Aguirre’s side going into the Christmas break, rock bottom of the table and on a run of five straight defeats. “The dressing room is really down, but la Liga carries on,” admitted the club’s plucky Mexican manager. “Other clubs are moving away from us, but where there’s life there’s hope.”

El Clasicoast: The Southampton view

Chris Cox — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Southampton fan and FourFourTwo.com writer Chris Cox tells the recent history of the South Coast derby from his side...

The windows are being boarded up, the police are creating their own version of the Berlin wall and two south coast cities have gone absolutely mental. It can only be Portsmouth vs. Southampton, the south coast derby.

For me, it’s probably the best game in the Championship this season. Millwall and West Ham fans might argue otherwise, as I’m sure Brighton and Crystal Palace fans will too. Or maybe Coventry and Leicester supporters. But who cares? They’ll have their turns again this season but right now it’s all about the royal blue against the red and white.

It’s never dull when this occasion is around the corner. Prior to one tie in 2005, there was a huge banner on the Redbridge roundabout that read ‘Skates – please leave your caravans at the park and ride’. In another clash I’ve seen a single grown man, seemingly possessed, in a fit of incredible rage try to smash past his own fans to have a go at Portsmouth’s mob in the away end – all because they were calling our goalkeeper fat. I wonder what will happen this time…

Matters on the pitch ought to be just as feisty - Portsmouth have had 33 yellow and two red cards at Fratton Park this season. The last ten derbies have featured 31 goals. Sometimes there’s more action than a Die Hard box set.

Saints celebrate victory in 2005, but they would still end up relegated

Personally I’ll never forget my first south coast derby. It was the F.A Cup Fourth Round in the 2004/05 season. I even remember where I was when I found out the result of the draw. It was GCSE History and I was sat on the back row trying to ignore the invention of penicillin and the medicinal uses of boiling tar.

A friend of mine, on an early internet-enabled mobile phone, had managed to load the draw on the FA’s official website. It only took about 20 minutes. His phone’s screen was probably the size of a one pence piece, but squinting, I could just make out the all-important words ‘SOUTHAMPTON v PORTSMOUTH’.

We won that game 2–1, but it was the rare highlight of a terrible campaign. Having beaten the blue few in the cup, on the day of my 16th birthday I watched us get hammered 4-0 at home by Manchester United at the quarter-final stage. A couple of months later we then got relegated. It’s the hope that kills you, one television pundit remarked, and how right he was.

Looking back, it comes as no surprise to me that we ended up finishing bottom of the table, down and out after 27 years of the top flight. I remember hearing some time ago that there are statistics explaining that success is directly related to the number of players a club uses. In that season, from memory, we used about 40. The back of the match day programme was barely big enough.

Just look at where some of those players are now. David Prutton, who got himself a ten-match ban for pushing a linesman against Arsenal, spent time with Swindon and Colchester, and Paul Telfer, despite somehow playing in the Champions League and having had more comebacks than a prog rock band, is at Sutton United.

That’s one end of the scale though I suppose. Peter Crouch, having relaunched his career with us, now has a formidable goal scoring record at international level (if against relative minnows like Andorra and Jamaica) and appeared in a Champions League final. Anders Svensson is the all time record appearance holder for Sweden and Antti Niemi was one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League at the time.

It all appears to be going right for Southampton now, though. I no longer feel as if I’m watching a team held together with paper clips, sticking plasters and chewing gum. It feels like a solid squad with the potential to be in the Premier League next season, and one that might actually win enough matches in the league we’re currently in. Although there have been blips – Doncaster and Bristol City away most notably.

So it’s with a sense of excitement and expectation that I go into the game at Fratton Park. We’ve lost 4–1 in our last two encounters, one which was totally unacceptable and shambolic, the other a League One team recovering from being deducted ten points against a side who had recently won the F.A Cup – and would go on to the final that year too.

While we were rotting away and slowly heading for oblivion between 2007 and 2010, I dreaded the thought of visiting Fratton Park, as Portsmouth spent vast sums of money (which as it turned out, didn’t do them any favours in the long run) and went from strength to strength. Now, it’s two Championship teams playing for the three points and pride. There is no massive gulf between the two teams, their league table positions aside, so perhaps this is the first proper derby for a long time.

So this clash marks the end of perhaps the worst period in Southampton’s history and the start of something special. For me at least, it’s personal too. I don’t want to celebrate Christmas with stockings, trees and baubles this year. Give me a good game, three points and bragging rights.

El Clasicoast: The Portsmouth view

El Clasicoast: The Portsmouth view

Guest Writer — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Journalist, FourFourTwo contributor and Portsmouth fan Steve Morgan tells the story of the South Coast derby from the blue side...

Seventeen miles. One – as Southampton fans will cheerily point out to any Pompey aficionado – for each of the points currently separating the clubs in the Championship as they gear up for another shuddering bout of El Clasicoast.

Southampton still head the table after an impressive start, but have wobbled of late. Pompey are mired in 16th, but show signs of life on the pitch under rookie boss Michael Appleton (the less said about life off it, the better).

Just four games into his Pompey career Appleton is chasing the kind of result and performance which can make a reputation. Lord knows Portsmouth could use a bit of local pride. Even the otherwise mostly-hapless Alain Perrin, or ‘Reggie’ as our charismatic, bonkers, briefcase-sporting French boss was inevitably known during his time passing through the ever-revolving door of the PFC managerial suite under chairman Milan Mandaric, is a legend. Pourquoi? For ‘beating the scum 4-1’ in 2004/05, of course. Allez les Bleus. Chapeau monsieur!

On paper, this encounter arguably has all the makings of a scrappy draw, maybe even an away win, though the horror of that admission makes me want to gag. It’s certainly a prime opportunity for Appleton to assess the talent at his disposal where it really counts. No less is it the sternest test of nerve yet for Nigel Adkins’ promotion-seekers. Urgh The.Very. Thought. Of. It.

Still, on the plus side Southampton don’t travel well and a trip to Fratton Park when the mood is right is about as welcome as an invitation to a picnic in a wind tunnel. Faint hearts in the blue corner should take succour at being reminded of Pompey skipper Arjan De Zeeuw’s reflections on the 4-1 triumph over the recently-defected Harry Redknapp’s Saints in the afore-mentioned L’Affair Perrin in 2004/05 – the last season the clubs spent in the same division.

Old 'Arry was made to feel at home on his Fratton return with Saints...

That day, all five goals came in a breathtaking opening 24 minutes in which the sides traded blows charging around the turf like frantic, puffing, stark-eyed heavyweights in search of haymakers. Lomano Lualua bagged his spot in Pompey folklore with two goals before crocking himself with a traditional backflip. Job done, this was one of the greatest cameos Fratton Park has witnessed, at least in my relationship with the old girl.

De Zeeuw talked of having had the game won in the tunnel, Pompey’s pumped-up players realising that Southampton, already teetering on the Premier League precipice simply didn’t fancy it.
‘Win it in the tunnel’ would be the keynote of any fan’s pre-match address, especially today. Rumour has it that Peter Crouch, due to play for Southampton, failed to re-appear after the warm-up because he’d felt a bit queasy. Such occasions, though probably apocryphal, are nonetheless food and drink to fans ever-hungry for popular mythology where derby-day tales, or ‘ledge bants’ if you’re unlucky enough to be Tim Lovejoy.

Come what may, events at Fratton Park will certainly ruin one city’s collective Sunday lunch. If familiarity breeds contempt, one wonders what the blue and red corners would make of each other were that old adage to fit the bill here, for while this is one of English football’s fiercest, least-understood derbies, it’s also one of the least-contested. Absence – it’s only the seventh league meeting in 24 years – has not made the heart grow fonder.

Cross-city derbies dictate by geography that both sets of supporters have to rub along together during the week at work, and often at home. Pompey-Southampton is perceived by extremists in the former camp as a sporting collision of markedly different cultural worlds – us and them. Portsmouth, with what a friend jokingly refers to as ‘the people’s republic of Milton’, an imaginary island within a real one, is replete with historical grudges perceived over status accorded Pompey by Southampton-based media. Then, and this is far more likely, its navy port pitted against commercial port, the former on the slide since the war, the latter burgeoning from the 1950s. Throw in a chippy mistrust of anyone who may have been on a yacht and is called Giles and you have the perfect storm.

Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds, and no, Portsmouth-born Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities was about Paris and London and written before football was codified and all that. Still, it’s a neat coincidence and the author’s birthplace is not a matter of dispute.

No-one seems to have a definitive handle on where football relations really began to sour, though. Some say the ‘scummers’ (Pompey’s nickname for ‘the team down the road’) moniker is derived from a 1930s dockers’ strike, the Southampton Company Union Men (SCUM, for people struggling to add two and two) returning to work before their blue brothers. Others suggest the rivalry really began in earnest when the teams’ fortunes started to diverge: Pompey’s slump to the basement, squared with Southampton’s FA Cup final success in 1976, albeit thanks to a solitary goal from the late Portsmouth born-and-bred Bobby Stokes.

While the sides share proximity on a map, they are currently in different orbits. As I write this, our current owner Roman Antonov is due in court on charges of fraud and money laundering. Only a fool would compare the clubs’ respective youth operations, though Andy Awford is doing his damnedest to rectify that, having twice taken bragging rights at junior level this season. Small beer admittedly, given a recent Southampton harvest that includes Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale, and most disconcertingly of all, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Portsmouth-born, Pompey fan and son of former England winger and Pompey player Mark.

It’s a record that has been stuck in the same groove since the 1960s. Less than a decade after Matt Busby’s testament to youth with his vibrant Manchester United side, often plucked from the neighbouring Salford streets, 200 miles south Pompey boss George Smith could be found dismantling the club’s youth policy, claiming that there was nothing around Portsmouth but fish (in the spirit of equality, Pompey fans are known as ‘Skates’, owing to suggested sexual proclivities of sailors on long hauls at sea with their catch. Whatever).

Michael Appleton is a son of Salford himself. And as is the unwritten rule with any Alex Ferguson alumnus, however fleeting, hopes are high that he will have had some Govan shipyard magic dust rubbed into his pores. Good times for a change, as the bard of Salford, Morrissey, opined.

The cut of his jib has been admired already. He might be a ringer for Voldemort (even Ferguson can’t match that), but he clearly possesses a keen sense of humour – and the gallows variety is a must, given our well-publicised, if never satisfactorily explained travails since FA Cup glory in 2008, which now feels like the lifetime ago that it more or less was.

Apparently, we have enough money to last out until April. Administration is knocking at the door again. It’s round more often than the Jehovah’s Witnesses, to be truthful. There is always the thought that these may well be the end times, as supporting Pompey these days is rather like living with a manageable medical complaint.

If reality bites the hand of salvation here, Portsmouth fans will be crossing everything that it won’t be too hard. Spare us that at least.

El Clasicoast: The Southampton view

Tevez to Milan: Another pact with the Devil?

Adam Digby — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:46:00 GMT

They couldn't could they? After everything Carlos Tevez has done - his every outburst publicised and chronicled in many languages and televised for all to see - Italian giants AC Milan have elbowed their way to the front of the queue to sign the Argentinian forward.  

While the queue of clubs interested in the 27-year-old's services has shortened in recent weeks, the club known as il Diavolo ('The Devil') tabled an offer to take him off Manchester City's hands - and out of Roberto Mancini's increasingly greying hair - when the transfer window opens in January.  

The Premier League club are said to have rejected their initial offer but, despite the player's refusal to play and his extended - and unauthorised - stay in Argentina, Milan Vice-President Adriano Galliani has tasked himself with trying to seal a deal to take the former Boca Juniors man on loan for the rest of the season.  

There is no doubting how good a player he is when the mood takes; he was the Premier League's top goal scorer last season, while his huge desire and work-rate have made him a stand-out player at every club he has played for, not to mention more popular in his homeland than even Lionel Messi.

  Other clubs have been put off by a combination of his sheer unprofessionalism and a 'representative' who with each passing day grows more and more akin to the Al Pacino character in the film Devil's Advocate ("Freedom, Carlitos.... is never having to say you're sorry"), all but leaving the San Siro giants in a position to dictate terms to Manchester City.  

This offer has quickly been dismissed by many observers, but to do so is to overlooked the influence and negotiating skills of Milan vice president Adriano Galliani.  Time and again Berlusconi has dispatched his man to bring home a player and, on almost every occasion, Galliani has delivered.

Here is a man who, in July 2008, watched Barcelona turn down a £25.5 million offer from Manchester City for Ronaldinho only to somehow convince them to accept his own bid of £14.5 million that same month. He returned to the Catalan club last summer for Zlatan Ibrahimović - a player with a €250 million release clause in his contract – completing a €24m deal just thirteen months after Barca had paid Inter over €69m for the Swede.  

Galliani's list of great deals doesn't end there either. He has already taken advantage of Manchester City, signing their €42.5 million man Robinho for €18 million. He has Liverpool's Alberto Aquilani on a loan deal that will cost just €6 million to make permanent should the English club’s €25 million signing from Roma play 25 games this season. The 67 year old also convinced Genoa to loan Milan Kevin-Prince Boateng just hours after they had signed him from Portsmouth.  

It is hardly a recent trend either, back at the start of the new millenium he engineered a swap deal with Inter, sending their city cousins Francesco Coco and Guly in exchange for two other players you may not have heard much about, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo.

  As well as being a move typical of Galliani, the capture of Tevez would also fit well alongside some of Milan's other recent captures. While many questioned how Massimiliano Allegri, the coach who led the club to the title in his debut season, would cope with so many big egos, he moulded them into a title-winning team with very little fuss.

  Of course, Zlatan has fought with the occasional team-mate, the big Swede can only play nicely with others for so long, but on the whole every one of those potential trouble-makers has bought into Allegri's ideals and they have all benefited.

Two major factors are firstly the remoteness of the club's training ground, the famed Milanello complex is very isolated and there is little admittance to the media. Secondly that the majority of news outlets in Italy are owned by a certain Silvio Berlusconi only helps to reduce any negative press that might otherwise blight such an opinionated group of players.

Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain have also been linked to Tevez, but the former Italian Prime Minister made clear his position on the possible move when he spoke to Sky Italia earlier this week.  

"The situation that regards Tevez is very clear, he has to choose between two solutions: prestige and money. Milan represent prestige, the possibility of being seen all over the world and to win the Ballon d'Or. On the other hand, PSG, who represent Qatar, is the chance of a big wage. Now it's up to him to choose."

La Preview: Barça baiting, Manzano's must-win match and Ruud behaviour

Tim Stannard — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:50:00 GMT

Two weeks ago

Barcelona 4-0 Rayo Vallecano
Already played thanks to Club World Cup-enforced rescheduling, but LLL would have said 4-0 anyway

Saturday

Mallorca (11th) v Getafe (13th) - 18.00 (local time)
Although LLL was at the Coliseum last Sunday to see Getafe’s truly awful 1-0 win over Granada - a memory it is trying to obliterate through the means of meths - it didn’t hear the boos for forward Miku from a section of the home support. That’s largely because a section of the home support in Getafe’s case is about eight boisterous 14-year-olds trying to be heard from the other side of the stadium.
There was apparently a repeat of the boo-age on Tuesday during Getafe’s 1-0 Copa del Rey home defeat to Málaga, something that manager Luis García did not like one bit. “We are killing an important player and this doesn’t help. He’s upset and hurt,” claimed the Getafe boss on his suffering striker.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sporting (18th) v Espanyol (8th) - 18.00
Well someone at AS certainly had too much time on their hands this week. After Espanyol’s thrilling goalless draw at Celta Vigo, an excited hack found out that the two times that Espanyol won the Copa del Rey in 2000 and 2006, the campaign began with a 0-0 draw in the first round away leg that....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
LLL Prediction - Home win

Athletic Bilbao (9th) v Zaragoza (20th) - 20.00
The club described last weekend as “dead and without a soul” stuck its president and owner, Agapito Iglesias, before the press this week, potentially behind a big iron fence to hold back extremely irate fans who feel with some justification the Zaragoza overlord is a truly incompetent figure. Iglesias told the world that he wasn’t going to indulge in one of his favourite hobbies - firing coaches - by sacking Javier Aguirre despite his team being bottom-of-the-table. “ We’ve never doubted him,” claimed the Zaragoza big cheese.
To make up for this lack of sacking action, Iglesias promised that he will do the next best thing in terms of sensations that make him feel tingly and that’s bring yet more footballers in. Potentially through a new agency he is setting up to do precisely that activity.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sevilla (5th) v Real Madrid (2nd) - 22.00
There was a rumble in the Spanish capital that the Madridista Marca would get up to some mischief in regards to Barcelona just at the same time that the Catalan club was in Japan attempting to win yet another trophy. Through pure coincidence of course. And low and behold, Wednesday’s front cover claimed David Villa was set to be sold either in winter - unlikely now after what happened in regards to his leg - or over the summer, due to both the player’s poor performance and the desire of the fed-up forward to leave the Dream Boys.
Pep Guardiola responded to such naughtiness by saying that “Marca are lying” an accusation that the never ever, ever make stuff up paper angrily objected to in an editorial on Thursday.
“We have a duty to millions of readers that we consider sacred,” stropped the paper. “No story that we don’t believe in is published. Our intention is always the same, to inform,” continued the editorial causing an enormous coffee sputter and coughing fit from the amused and bemused LLL.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Sunday

Atlético Madrid (10th) v Real Betis (14th) - 12.00
While Atlético were preparing to embark on the first of three home games Gregorio Manzano needs to win in the space of a week, Betis boss Pepe Mel was having a bit of a barney at his players after a 1-0 defeat to Cordoba in the accursed Copa del Rey. Having been fairly supportive and diplomatic throughout the season, despite the failing form of his footballers, Mel went all Vin Diesel on his squad ranting that “there are players who aren’t taking the chance to make a difference and make things difficult for the squad selection for the next game.”
Mel’s fury reportedly saw whopping dressing room and coach home rants - something that the soon to be outcast striker, Jorge Molina, certainly didn’t seem to appreciate. “If this is what he thinks then he needs to say to the player’s face,” stropped the forward.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Granada (15th) v Levante (4th) - 16.00
Another side who had a bad time of it in the Copa del Rey were Granada who travelled up to San Sebastian to be beaten 4-1 by Real Sociedad. The club’s president, Quique Pina, was apparently so upset by the loss that he was threatening to force the squad to travel back to the south of Spain from the north coast by coach. AS report Pina then cooled his heels a little and allowed the Granada players to go back by plane the following morning as planned.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Osasuna (7th) v Villarreal (17th) - 18.00
Another match and yet more misery for Villarreal who could only manage a 1-1 draw at third-tier Mirandés. However, it is a treble yay for Sunday’s opponents who beat Almería 3-1.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Racing Santander (19th) v Real Sociedad (12th) - 19.45
Last Sunday, Racing’s Alvaro celebrated his first Primera goal by giving his shirt away to a supporter in the crowd in the side’s 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao in San Mamés. But then poor Alvaro regretted his decision realising it might have been nice as a bit of a memento, especially as he may not be scoring too many more times in this particular Racing team.
So the young defender used something called Twitter to try and get the shirt back. “I wasn’t thinking because of the excitement! Ha! Ha!” explained the Racing stopper. The story had a happy ending though with Alvaro being contacted by the not so lucky supporter who handed the sweaty shirt back to its first owner.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Valencia (3rd) v Málaga (6th) - 21.45
A goalless draw at Cadiz meant more melancholy for Valencia after the defeats to Chelsea and then Levante. But there was some cheery news at least with the announcement that work to restart on the New Mestalla after a couple of years ‘pause’ whilst the club nearly went bankrupt.
The gossip from Málaga according to Marca (yes, them again...) is that there was a bit of a tiff between Manuel Pellegrini and Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who has had a busy season not scoring goals for the southern side as well as sitting on the bench for the whole of the Real Madrid game - something that kicked off a riff between the pair. This fall-out eventually lead to Van Nistelrooy being left out of last weekend’s squad that took on Real Sociedad, although the Dutchman did return for Tuesday’s cup win against Getafe.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Totti demands respect as Roma fans grumble at penalty failure

Richard Whittle — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:40:00 GMT

In an age where loyalty can be bought at the opening of a transfer window, Francesco Totti has always resisted the call of the sirens.

As with Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Del Piero and Javier Zanetti the Roma captain has become synonyms with club he plays for.

Known as “bandiere”, no one can picture these loyal servants in any shirt other than the one they have worn for most, if not all of their careers. So there was some shock not just in Rome but throughout Italian football and beyond when Totti revealed he had been insulted by his own fans.

Apparently a group gathered outside the player’s home to voice their disappointment that the star had missed a penalty against Juventus on Monday evening. Totti has had his run-ins with Roma fans in the past, but obviously this time he was feeling particularly vulnerable and revealed that was contemplating leaving.

Talk about spoiling Christmas, picking as he did the moment during an interview with Sky Sports Italia at the club’s festive bash to drop the bombshell.

However, after a short period of thumb-sucking he cleared up any misunderstanding by reiterating his desire to see out the rest of his days at Roma, although that reassurance came with a veiled threat that he expected to be treated with more respect. But from who?

After all, he could have left on numerous occasions: Silvio Berlusconi made an offer he knew would be refused because as the AC Milan owner put it: “his heart is with Rome and you can never tear the heart away.”

Real Madrid would have not only provided him with riches beyond his wildest dreams but also a cabinet case full of trophies. He even admitted he had been tempted by the thought of a switch the Bernabeu, and you have to wonder how differently he would be perceived around Europe if he was now ending his days in the Spanish capital.

Instead, his remained committed to the city of his birth and a club that has had more downs than ups during his 19 years there. Now 35, he has won the league but once and the Italian Cup twice but throughout it all his name has always been cheered the loudest when the team is announced, which was the case on Monday evening as the fans then chanted their refrain: ‘Un capitano, c’è solo un capitano.’

This latest outburst comes after a year to forget for the veteran: Roma missed out on a Champions League place and then new American consortium led by Thomas Di Benedetto arrived to sweep away the old regime to which Totti was seen as closely associated with.

Former owners the Sensi family had promised him a say on club matters when he eventually retired, but Di Benedetto kept his distance for most of the summer. They only met briefly as the management staff began to take on a completely different shape.

Franco Baldini was brought back as sporting director and suggested that the No.10 concentrate on playing rather than concern himself with matters outside his remit, such as his attempt to woo Gigi Buffon to the club, which considering the fact the Italy keeper saved Totti’s penalty would have been a good idea.

Baldini’s supposed criticism was seen by many as originating from much higher up the hierarchy, and with Totti already grappling with new coach Luis Enrique he could not afford to alienate his new employers as well.

This little show of pique comes on the back of a difficult start to the campaign, where Enrique has attempted to impose his own style on the team, substituting the star man at some inappropriate times such as the last quarter of the Europa League qualifier against Slovan Bratislava when the outcome was in the balance. There is no doubt that Totti would have taken no joy from the subsequent elimination from the competition...

Niggling injuries and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding his role on the pitch – as well as off it when he finally calls it a day - seem to be the underlining factors in this latest moody episode, rather than what may or may not have been shouted in his direction by those with little to do with their time on a winter’s evening.

Liverpool defend smart, Newcastle face different challenge & Rio fills Vidic void

Michael Cox — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:28:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the best of the weekend's Premier League action...

Liverpool have only scored 18 goals in their 15 league games so far this season, a disappointing record that even bottom-placed Bolton can beat. Kenny Dalglish blames poor finishing, claiming last weekend that his side had dominated every game they’d played this season, with the exception of the 4-0 away defeat to Tottenham.

His side do have the best defensive record in the Premier League, however, conceding just 13 goals. The 1-0 home win over QPR last weekend showed how intelligently they defend – they complete far more interceptions than tackles, generally quite high up the pitch and therefore breaking up opposition moves before they’ve really begun.

Liverpool also deserve credit for continuing to look solid despite the absence of Lucas Leiva – in the 200 minutes they’ve played since his injury in the Carling Cup against Chelsea, they’ve conceded only one goal, away at Fulham, and that was primarily down to a Pepe Reina mistake, rather than poor defending.

Newcastle were without first-choice centre-back duo Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini in their defeat against Norwich last weekend, and Paul Lambert managed to successfully exploit their aerial weakness at the back. Grant Holt and Steve Morison started upfront, Norwich pumped long balls their way, and all four goals came from crosses or set-pieces.

With James Perch and Danny Simpson likely to continue at the back this weekend, Alan Pardew will be relieved that he’s facing the least dangerous aerial side in the league. Swansea only win 5.2 aerial duels per match – no other side wins fewer than 8.2.

In fact, Newcastle won a higher percentage of their aerial battles than Swansea in their respective matches last weekend – both competed 13 times in the air, Newcastle won nine and Swansea only four. Both sides might benefit from keeping the ball on the floor this weekend, however.

On the subject of injuries at centre-back, it was interesting to see how Manchester United adapted in defence without Nemanja Vidic last weekend. The win over Wolves was the first game they had played since the Serb was ruled out for the season with a cruciate ligament injury sustained against Basel.

It seemed that Rio Ferdinand essentially took on the Vidic role. Ferdinand usually leaves the aerial battles to Vidic and sweeps up behind, but against Wolves he was always in the right place to clear the ball inside the penalty box – that is Vidic’s trademark, as he makes more clearances per match than any other player in the Premier League this season.

In all, Ferdinand made 18 successful clearances in the game against Wolves, over double the number he made against Aston Villa in the previous game, when Vidic made 19.

Manchester City started excellently against Chelsea on Monday night, pressing high up the pitch, winning the ball back quickly, and not allowing Andre Villas-Boas’ side to settle. They should have been out of sight within the first half hour, and will point to a penalty not given to David Silva as one of the main reasons they only scored one goal.

It was obvious how much they tired in the second half, even before they went down to ten men thanks to Gael Clichy’s second booking. After that, Chelsea were intelligent with their use of the ball, spreading play from flank to flank and making City get through a lot of running.

This meant that Roberto Mancini’s side found it very difficult to win the ball. While in the first half they made 11 tackles, in the second half this figure dropped to six – they simply didn’t have as much energy, and had to endure long periods without the ball.

Stats Zone, the app from FourFourTwo powered by data from Opta, is available now at the iTunes App Store

Man City looking to bounce straight back as United prepare for life without Vidic

Jon Champion — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:14:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's football action. Watch live and exclusive coverage of Wigan v Chelsea live on ESPN from 4:30pm on Saturday

Perhaps the most interesting question we’ll see answered this weekend is how Manchester City react to their first Premier League defeat of the season.

They’ve got another tough game against Arsenal on Sunday, but my expectation is that City will bounce straight back. The defeat at Chelsea will have just concentrated the mind a little - if that were needed - and they’ll come back strongly against Arsenal - this could be the end of Arsenal’s lengthy unbeaten run of seven wins and a draw in their last eight games.

City were slightly unfortunate at Chelsea in that they dominated for the first half hour, before letting it slip. Obviously the sending off of Gael Clichy didn’t help them, but it offers hope to other teams in the Premier League title race that there are one or two signs of fallibility still at Manchester City. For all the wonderful football they’ve been playing and the swagger that they’ve shown, they can be beaten, and we now know that – it was important that someone showed it at some stage prior to Christmas, and Chelsea, in that sense, have done the rest of the Premier League a bit of a favour.

However you could also argue that, in a sense, the monkey is off City’s back now – it sounds strange to say that a defeat in some cases can be beneficial, but not being constantly conscious of defending an unbeaten record can allow a team to be less inhibited as the season goes on, so I think over the long term it may even be seen secretly – although they would never acknowledge it publicly – as quite a good thing.

They’ve had a very good start to the season and just had this little reality check, and they’ll be hoping its straight back to business from the Arsenal game onwards.

In the meantime, Manchester United have got the chance to go top, albeit possibly just for a couple of hours, with their match at Queens Park Rangers kicking-off four hours before that of their rivals.

United are doing, really, what we expect them to do, which is to bounce back from the disappointments of the defeat to City and their elimination from the Champions League. If there’s one feature of Ferguson’s quarter of a century in charge it is that phrase of Iain Dowie’s – bouncebackability. If they have a setback they come roaring back and if you look at their medium term results since that 6-1 mauling at Old Trafford, it’s now five wins and a draw in the Premier League, so they’re going reasonably nicely. The swagger of early season is a long distant memory, but Manchester United are still tough nuts to crack.

I’m not sure Alex Ferguson will be quite as upset as perhaps certain sections of the press have been about the loss of Nemanja Vidic, because I’m led to believe he was questioning the Serbian’s future at the club beyond this season anyway. He was wondering whether perhaps we’d seen the best of him and was considering moving him on in the way he decided to sell Jaap Stam when many people regarded him still as being at his peak.

I think a similar situation might well have been developing with Nemanja Vidic, but that’s been taken out of the manager’s hands now because he’s unavailable for the rest of the season. I don’t see that as a major impediment to Manchester United in the rest of their Premier League campaign.

The best game I’ve seen in the Premier League this season was Manchester City’s visit to Loftus Road. QPR gave the league leaders a real examination, and although City ultimately came through in the end to win 3-2, Queens Park Rangers will really try and get at Manchester United in the same way.

But Manchester United are old hands when it comes to going to potentially quite hostile venues like Loftus Road, and I see them coming through with a win this weekend.

Elsewhere, this is also a really important week for Blackburn. Not only have they got West Brom at home on Saturday, they then face companions in distress Bolton at Ewood Park in a local derby on Tuesday. The most striking thing about their last match – the late defeat at Sunderland - was that there was no Plan B. They took the lead but then there was no change of strategy, they were denied what looked a legitimate second goal but they always looked like they were going to concede. There was no attempt to try and solidify the side on the field of play and for that reason they looked vulnerable, and in the end it wasn’t a great surprise that Sunderland managed to breach them not once but twice in the last six minutes. There are also now suggestions of financial difficulties – promptly denied by the club’s owners. It’s difficult to discern fact from fiction with all the contrasting stories emanating from that club at the moment, but what is certain is that they need a home win against West Brom and then they need to follow it up by getting something against Bolton, so it could well be a defining week for Steve Kean.

Everton have lost their last two games a goal to nil against Stoke and at Arsenal. They are lacking a reliable goalscorer. Louis Saha is one of those strikers that goes on a run of scoring, but when he’s not in a sequence, he can be something of a liability. I think he’s a terrific player to watch, his movement is almost feline, but he’s not in a run of goalscoring at the moment and Everton need him to find his scoring boots fairly quickly because they’re back in the lower half of the table again and there will be four or five matches before the returning Landon Donovan will be able to feature.
They’ll be comforted that Sylvain Distin is fit again, but will be concerned by the number of home games they have lost this season - four so far, which is unusually high for an Everton side before Christmas.
This weekend they face Norwich, tenth in the table, four of their five wins have come at home, though, and even though they’ve won two of their last three games, Everton will feel they’re due a win and I think they might just get it against Norwich.

Fulham were dealt a significant blow with the news that Mark Schwarzer is going to be out for six weeks with a back problem. He, once again, has been quite excellent this season and he’s had quite a lot to do. Fulham have only three Premier League win and are coming off the back of a devastating finish to their game against Odense in the Europa League – their 31st game of the season. While they can look with some comfort to the New Year in the knowledge that the games are going to thin out considerably, they will be wary that following the visit of Bolton this weekend, their next two games are against Manchester United and Chelsea. That makes Bolton, if not a must-win, then really a game they could do with winning.
They have every chance of doing so, because Bolton are in poor shape at the moment, with three wins and twelve defeats over the course of the season. I’m surprised that they’re still struggling, because I think they’ve got the players to dig themselves out of trouble, but it’s as if they’re in a little cocoon at the moment and there are questions being asked of Owen Coyle. I know Phil Gartside, the chairman, is fidgeting. He will take council from Eddie Davis, the Isle of Man based businessman who owns the club. Coyle cannot afford many more defeats.

Newcastle, after their terrific start to the season, have taken just one point from their last four games and promptly fallen down to seventh. But the big advantage for them this weekend is the likely return of Fabricio Coloccini in central defence - they had no centre halves last weekend. And even a bigger plus, Cheick Tiote coming back into midfield alongside Cabaye. That makes them very strong in the middle of the park.
They’ve got three fixtures in a row that they would expect to take something from; this Saturday's against Swansea, the visit of West Brom to St. James’ in midweek and then a trip to Bolton on Boxing Day, so it’s an opportunity for them to get back on track and back into the top six which I do think is the very height of their ambition.
As for Swansea – two points from seven away fixtures outlines their Achilles heel – very good at home, pretty mediocre away, so I think a really good opportunity for Newcastle to get back on track.

Wolves against Stoke is something approximating to a local derby, it’s certainly regarded as such by the supporters of both clubs. Wolves are very reliant on Steven Fletcher for goals – he’s back to form and to fitness and has scored three in his last two games, and they’re just about keeping their heads above water with two wins in their last five outings. I think one of the causes of concern for them at this stage is that Wigan seem to have found their feet finally and there are signs of a revival up in that area of Lancashire and Wolves could be one of the victims if Wigan were to pull away from danger, so, the visit of Stoke, on the back of Europa League duty again, could present a good opportunity to get some more points.
But the Potters have won their last three in the Premier League – they’re looking more like the Stoke of early season again, so I predict a very tough afternoon for Wolves.

Finally there are signs of life from Wigan – those wins at Sunderland and West Brom have kick-started their season, yet they’ve not won at home at the DW since August, and that needs to change if there is to be substance to this recovery. Those wins show there is still life in the squad and there is still a will to play for Roberto Martinez – they do like him the players there and admire him – but I can’t see them getting anything against Chelsea this weekend, and I think that will only add to the rather smug sense of satisfaction displayed by Chelsea’s young manager at the moment.
I can’t help but feel that Andre Villas-Boas, while he’s got a lot to offer in management terms, is still feeling is way and learning in terms of his PR, and if he’s trying to win friends and influence people I’m not sure he’s going the right way about it with some of his recent comments. But, three wins in a row, and ultimately he will be judged by results by those on high at Stamford Bridge so he’s in rather better shape than he was a fortnight ago.

A win for Aston Villa last week – a rarity this season - but they now face a sterner test in the form of Liverpool. I just see them as a very ordinary, mid-table side, not much more than that, and I would expect Liverpool to prove as much on Sunday afternoon.
The Reds have suffered just one defeat in thirteen in all competitions, and although they’re tucked in nicely in sixth, they are five points off a Champions League place, and I do honestly think that top four, as a finishing place, is probably beyond Liverpool, which will be a disappointment to the American owners having spent so much money. They are a work in progress, and it may be next season before we see the best of various new signings that Kenny Dalglish has made, but they’ve got every chance of winning at Villa.

Spurs showed why they’re not quite good enough to be in genuine title contention in their defeat at Stoke last time out. I know they were unlucky with a couple of penalty decisions that went the wrong way from their perspective, but Tottenham succumbed where others who are likely to be in the shake-up at the end of the season wouldn’t have done.
As for Sunday's opponents Sunderland, well, the late comeback against Blackburn earned them their first win in seven weeks, in their first game under the enigmatic Martin O’Neill. He can pump the players full of confidence, what he can’t do at this stage is provide goals, because the lack genuine, reliable, Premier League-quality goalscoring strikers. Connor Wickham will be that in years to come, I don’t think the Korean Ji is the answer.
There are one or two talks being in place behind the scenes to see if Asamoah Gyan might be persuaded back from the middle-east for the second half of the season but it’s difficult to see that that will be a particularly happy reunion when he returns to Sunderland bearing in mind the way he departed.
I don’t see Martin O’Neill being able to improve Sunderland’s prospects in the immediate future other than injecting a bit of confidence, which alone won’t be enough at White Hart Lane.

Could Neymar rival the as yet unrivalled Messi?

James Horncastle — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:17:00 GMT

It has never taken very much for Pelé and Diego Maradona to fall out.

Locked in an apparently perpetual dispute over their respective claims to be the world’s greatest ever footballer, this is a match without the restraint of yellow and red cards where the elbows and the tackles keep flying in and the final whistle never comes.

It’s hardly a beautiful game. It’s pretty undignified. Mud is thrown. Points are scored. Own-goals too. No one wins. But that of course hasn’t stopped them.

Ahead of the Club World Cup final between Santos and Barcelona in Yokohama on Sunday, they have clashed again, this time regarding their anointed successors, Neymar and Lionel Messi, who should go head-to-head in that match.

“Making an individual comparison,” Pelé said. “I think Neymar is much better, more complete. He strikes the ball well with both feet, can dribble off either side and scores goals. Messi is very good, but a lot depends on where he plays. He is doing very well at Barcelona, but with Argentina, he has had difficulties. Neymar plays well for both Santos and the national team.”

It’s not difficult to find a few holes in that rather general and self-interested comment.

Maradona, however, chose to ignore them and launched another broadside at his rival, suggesting without any apparent self-irony that rather than lack any substance, Péle’s argument was full of it. “It seems he took the wrong medication,” Maradona sneered. “He got confused and didn’t know what he was talking about. I suggest next time, he takes the right pills before making any suggestions and that he should change his doctor.”

Pelé might of course reply that, coming from Maradona, that’s a bit rich. But let’s remain on the high ground and not lower ourselves to that level. After all, there’s a good debate to be had here: Can Neymar genuinely provide Messi with a greater rival than Cristiano Ronaldo? Can he push him that little bit further?

It’s worth asking because, as Brian Phillips wrote in a piece for Grantland, somehow, the Messi and Ronaldo rivalry hasn’t really happened. That feeling was compounded after Barcelona’s 3-1 victory over Real Madrid in El Clásico last Saturday. A photo published in Marca appeared to show Ronaldo kneeling at the feet of Messi, and though it was inadvertent, it captured the mood. Yet again, he had been forced to defer to his rival.

In 13 games against Barcelona, Ronaldo has found the back of the net on just three occasions. Messi, by contrast, has made a far more telling impact, putting 13 goals past Real Madrid in 16 games. From that perspective, it’s a very one-sided, unequal, almost abstract contest. For whatever reason, Ronaldo doesn’t seem to feed off Messi unless it’s for the Pichichi. He doesn’t visibly raise his game when confronted with his rival face-to-face.

Another example of this was the Spanish Super Cup in August. Ronaldo went into it on the back of a full pre-season. Messi had completed just three days training. Who made the decisive impact? Messi again.

None of this is to deny Ronaldo his reputation as one of the great players of his generation or of all-time. It’s a question of whether he’s the player - if there actually is one - who can rival the unrivalled, who can get under Messi’s skin, who can draw a reaction, make the Barcelona star doubt himself or take it up yet another notch.

Neymar might not be a better player than Ronaldo right now, but by all accounts he certainly has the potential. Their over elaborate playing styles are similar. So too is their habit of wreaking havoc from the left-hand side. Neymar, however, has achieved more, it can be argued, than either Ronaldo or Messi had at this stage of their careers. At the age of 19, they had scored 7 and 21 goals respectively. According to Opta, Neymar has struck 79 times in 153 appearances for Santos and played a leading role in the club’s triumphs in the 2010 Copa do Brasil, when he hit 11 goals, and the 2011 Copa Libertadores, when he dominated the second leg of the final against Peñarol.

Of course, some caveats do come in the standard of the opposition, as Arsène Wenger touched upon in his glowing assessment of the boy who grew up idolising Robinho.

“If I had the money, I’d put it on Neymar,” he said. “You can’t say that Neymar is Pelé as he had won the World Cup by the age of 17. He has the potential to be one of the future great strikers but at the moment there’s a big difference between the Brazilian League and a European League.”

Still, there’s no doubting his ability. Nor how he has been a protagonist in major continental competitions. Neymar was voted Brazil’s Young Player of the Year in 2009. He has since been the country’s Player of the Year the last two seasons running and was the only person on France Football’s 25-man shortlist for the Ballon d’Or to be playing outside of Europe. His magnificent solo effort against Flamengo is also up for the FIFA Puskás award for Goal of the Year with Wayne Rooney’s bicycle kick against Manchester City and Messi’s flick against Arsenal as its competition.

Rivalry is about talent, that’s for sure. There has to be a creative friction that comes from competition. But that’s not all. It’s also about a narrative, and with that in mind, maybe Neymar’s story pits him against Messi more so than Ronaldo’s does him.

For starters there’s an immediate clash of footballing civilizations: it’s Brazilian versus Argentine, a contrast that, for obvious reasons of history, is starker than with the Portuguese and much more multi-layered with the 2014 World Cup as its event horizon, the gravitational pull of which is impossible to resist.

Hosted by Brazil, an entire nation will presumably be looking to Neymar to not only inspire the country to a sixth world title, but also to ensure there is no repeat of the 1950 'Maracanazo', when outsiders Uruguay pipped Brazil to the World Cup in their own back yard. Messi will be the enemy within. He too will be burdened with pressure, albeit the kind that comes with having to answer the only remaining question mark hanging over his career: can he follow in Maradona’s footsteps and lead Argentina to World Cup glory?

That’s still two and a half year’s away. A lot can happen in the meantime. Moreover it’s worth remembering that Neymar and Messi aren’t likely to be in regular contact until then. As hosts, Brazil aren’t required to qualify for the World Cup, and so won’t meet Argentina in a competitive environment until 2014 at the earliest. Neymar, meanwhile, has also signed a two-year extension on his existing deal at Santos, taking his pay in line with the best players in Europe. That indicates he will continue to play his club football in South America until after the World Cup, limiting his chances of meeting Messi.

But does a rivalry need proximity? Can a lack thereof actually preclude one from being generated, nourished and sustained? Well, not necessarily. This is why that in prospect between Neymar and Messi is so intriguing. Because on the one hand you have a player who chose to stay in his homeland and on the other you have a player who chose to leave. These decisions have come to define them and their relationships with Brazil and Argentina respectively.

Neymar has had offers from Europe since he started out as a footballer. When he was 14, he spent a week on trial at Real Madrid. “But I decided to come back. It wasn’t the moment to leave Brazil.” He then famously turned down Chelsea the summer before last. “I really don’t regret it. From the moment I decided to stay in my country, I told myself that I was right to make that decision. Without it, I would not have won the Copa Libertadores, a title that Santos had been waiting 50 years to win.”

His part in that campaign, which saw Santos lifting a trophy they hadn’t won since Pelé was in the side back in 1963, goes some way to explaining his popularity. But it’s his staying that has made it all the sweeter and inspired even greater affection. Brazilians are used to seeing their very best players leave early. They have to be enjoyed from afar, and their success does not always feel like their own. That’s not the case with Neymar, whose very being in Brazil is also a powerful symbol of the country’s financial strength and a badge of honor that the people can wear.

The public image of “selflessness and patriotism” he has managed to get across, even if it is contrived and has been ‘bought’ by Santos with the help of Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff who they appealed to in order to attract sponsors capable of helping the club meet his contract demands, has endeared him to the people immensely. It even calls to mind how Janio Quadros declared Pelé a “national treasure” to prevent him from moving abroad amid interest from Europe’s biggest clubs in 1961.

Now compare that with Messi.

He left Argentina at the age of 13 because Barcelona offered to pay for the growth hormone treatment that his hometown club, Newell’s Old Boys, could no longer afford, and despite refusing to represent Spain at youth level there is an absurd suspicion, though by no means unanimous, that he is more Catalan than Argentine even if he still speaks with a distinct Rosario accent, that he reserves his best performances for his club rather than his country, that he isn’t a “player of the people” because he didn’t grow up among them like Carlos Tevez did in Fuerte Apache.

Writing about Messi’s uneasy relationship with his country for the Guardian, Jonathan Wilson cited an article from El Gráfico in 1928 that sought to personify Argentine football as “a pibe with a dirty face, a man of hair rebelling against the comb; with the intelligent, roving, trickster and persuasive eyes and a sparkling gaze that seem to hint at a picaresque laugh that does not quite manage to form on his mouth, full of small teeth that might be worn down by eating yesterday’s bread.”

Sacrilegious though it might be to say it considering he is a Brazilian, but that image, when taken out of its Argentine context, seems closer to Neymar than the Messi. True, the Mohawk isn’t exactly “rebelling against the comb”, rather it’s embracing the gel or wax, but it fits with the mischief evoked above. Messi’s is cut sensibly and, as Wilson claims, it gives off the impression that “a streak of European discipline has entered his soul.”

That notion of discipline filters into their playing styles too. Neymar has nearly as many cards as he does goals in his fledgling career. Opta make it 47 yellows and three reds to be exact. Diving. Dissent. It’s part of his game, and by indulging him and thus inflating his sense of importance, Santos have risked “creating a monster.”

That phrase was used by René Simões, the former coach of Atlético Goianense, after he witnessed Neymar launch a tirade at his boss Dorival Junior during a match with Santos in September 2010. Dorival Junior had stripped Neymar of his penalty-taking duties, provoking a furious reaction. With a game against Corinthians coming up, the club sensationally backed the player and sacked the managed instead.

No such histrionics are imaginable with Messi. To compare the two in that respect, it’s like fire and ice. Indeed, Messi recently told France Football that if he’s aggrieved about a result or a decision, he closets himself off and doesn’t respond to text messages. There are no tantrums. But then again, Neymar is still only 19. He’s five years’ Messi’s junior, though the Argentine, perhaps because he was educated in the ways of La Masía rarely if at all acted in a similar fashion during his teens.

Neymar’s apparent combustibility will prove hard to extinguish. Just look at how Wayne Rooney, for instance, is still prone to frustrating acts of immaturity. For now, a healthy respect exists between Neymar and Messi. But there is something in their characters that could make this a rivalry like that between John McEnroe and Björn Borg.

So far, they have met only once in a friendly between Argentina and Brazil a year ago in Doha. It ended 1-0. Messi scored the winner in the 90th minute and Neymar could only look on in awe after being substituted.

“I’ve always said Messi is the best player in the world,” he claimed.

Outside forces will continue to compare and contrast, to build things up, to create smoke when maybe there’s no fire. “It is certain that Neymar will be the best in the world by 2014, without doubt,” said Santos coach Muricy Ramalho. “Now Messi is the best, Cristiano Ronaldo is second. Neymar is third best in the world, but by the World Cup here in Brazil he will be first.”

That still remains to be seen. Even so, Sunday’s encounter should be fascinating.

Conference semifinals, financial transparency and winter breaks

Luke Rodgers — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:45:00 GMT

More exclusive insights from New York Red Bulls hit-man Luke Rodgers. Here he tells Kris Heneage about the MLS Cup, winter breaks and wage structures...

Well the season has finally come to an end, with LA Galaxy being crowned MLS Cup champions. You can’t take anything away from them, they were fantastic. In some ways to go out to the eventual winners - as we did in the Conference Semifinals - does soften the blow. For me, we were the only team that really challenged them all season, having beaten them 2-0 at our place in the normal league season.

The first leg was a bit of a let down because we conceded a soft goal to Mike Magee. He actually spent five years at New York before moving to LA, so the goal obviously meant a lot to him. Of course that wasn’t the main talking point, that was saved for the scuffle at the end between Juninho and Rafa Marquez.

I know people have been questioning Rafa lately but I’ll say this much; I hope he stays in New York because for me he is still a fantastic talent and someone that can be a major asset to this team. Rafa was handed a three game suspension by the league in the wake of what happened. That meant he missed the second leg, which was a blow.

We started the return leg in LA brilliantly. I scored very early on and it silenced the Home Depot Centre which gave me such an adrenaline buzz. Unfortunately we couldn’t capitalize on our early goal, and LA eventually made us pay with two goals of their own. At 3-1 it was always going to be difficult to overturn that and in the end we just couldn’t do it.

The positives for us are the fact that we made the playoffs and were able to get close to a team like LA, those are definitely things to take into next year as we look to push on.

Now that the season has finished I’m back in England, which is nice. This will be my first Christmas off which is definitely one of the advantages of our league schedule. I’m looking forward to spending time with my family and in particular my daughter Lola, because I know how important Christmas is to her. If I’m lucky I might even get to catch a Birmingham City game or two while I’m home.

A few of my team-mates, including USA international defender Tim Ream, have departed for training sessions with clubs in Europe. Tim has gone to West Brom for a few days and will then head up to Bolton after that. It’s a great learning expericne for him and it also gives a chance for clubs to take a look at him, which is nothing more than he deserves. I know I’ve said it before, but I really do think he’ll play in the Premier League one day, he’s that good.

I read a recent interview with my old teammate Dwayne De Rosario in which he said he thought he was due more money. In MLS your wages are posted at the start of the season on a spread sheet, which is one thing that still surprises me. I’ll be honest and say I’m not a fan of the transparency when it comes to salaries. I just think it causes trouble, and I don’t see the relevance of it.

I think Dwayne raises a good point though, if he’s performing well he should get paid. Take Wayne Rooney as an example; If he starts playing really well and scoring goals for Manchester United, he gets a new contract on more money because he’s earned it. Now that isn’t always the case here, they take into consideration your marketability and how you appeal to new fans I understand they have to do as they are still a fairly young league but they have to draw a line sometimes. Talent should always be rewarded in my opinion.

The big announcement last month was clubs releasing their draft lists. Thankfully New York decided to protect me which means I couldn’t be picked up by another MLS team. As I said a few months ago, the trade system is still a bit crazy to me but I’m slowly getting my head around it. I’m just pleased that my future is sorted for next season.

I don’t return to New York until January which means I’ve got just over a month back home. After that I’ll begin pre-season training and gearing up towards the new season. Despite a few injury setbacks this season, I’ve had a fantastic year out here and I’ve not only enjoyed being here but being able to share my experiences with you, so thank you for reading.

I hope you have a fantastic festive period and a great New Year. Hopefully 2012 will be a great year for us all.

Pragmatism, pain & plankton: the Apertura season review

Ed Malyon — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:34:00 GMT

Ed Malyon rounds up the (half) season action in Argentina...

THE CHAMPIONS
Boca Juniors broke all sorts of records on their way to winning this title: an unbeaten campaign in which they conceded only six goals, winning the league by the biggest points margin since the move to short tournaments. Not pretty or expansive, but pragmatic and effective – they were deserving champions if not a little, well, dull.

THE CHALLENGERS
Slightly inaccurate heading: it was painfully clear from around the halfway point that nobody would stop the Boca juggernaut. Three sides finished level on points with second-place Racing, who could've been a contender but for Diego Simeone’s overly-defensive outlook – they drew 10 of their 19 games, their matches averaging just 1.26 goals per game in total.

The late surge from Velez flatters their season, while newly-promoted Belgrano will be delighted with their finish but should struggle more now that playmaker Franco Vazquez is off to Palermo in January. As predicted in these pages pre-season [humble brag], Colon did OK with new signings Chevanton and Tomas Costa, but certainly exceeded expectations by finishing fifth.

THE NOTHINGNESS
Mid-table anonymity is a desperate disappointment for some and a joyful haven for others; Godoy Cruz finished the season poorly but still qualify for the Copa Libertadores due to Argentina’s barmy football calendar system. Independiente shuffled managers and ended up in eighth, the three promoted sides that weren’t the aforementioned Belgrano all finished in the top 11, and the senseless plankton of the division like Arsenal and All Boys were in there somewhere, it’s just that nobody cares where.

Tigre are the most interesting story: almost certainties for relegation come June due to Argentina’s frankly odd relegation system (notice a theme?), this small suburban club needed to challenge for the title in both the Apertura and Clausura to even have a chance of staying up. Well, part one is complete: they finished seventh, and have a chance of reaching a relegation play-off which seemed impossible only a few months ago.

THE BOTTOM
Estudiantes should have been challenging for the title; the only bright spot for them is that Juan Seba Veron has decided he’ll postpone retirement for another six months. San Lorenzo are one of the Argentine ‘big five’ but are on course for the relegation play-offs despite boasting one of the division’s best playmakers in Nestor Ortigoza.

Olimpo’s Martin Rolle has been outstanding despite playing in a terrible side and he’ll doubtlessly be off when their inevitable relegation is confirmed in June. The other two sides at the foot were Newell’s Old Boys, who are just terrible, and Banfield. Argie Bargy's season preview tipped the latter to be the surprise package but they only surprised in how diabolically poor they were, finishing rock bottom.

COPA LIBERTADORES QUALIFICATION
Boca Juniors, Velez Sarsfield, Lanus and Godoy Cruz are all deserved qualifers for South America’s premier continental competition. Arsenal de Sarandi aren’t, but will somehow be playing in it due to being the most successful Argentinian side in the Copa Sudamericana. Getting into the top continental competition for not even reaching semis of the secondary cup is, however, an absolutely mental rule.

AND RIVER PLATE...?
They’re second in the B Nacional, just two points off leaders Instituto de Cordoba (former club of QPR’s Alejandro Faurlin). Expect them to be back in the big time come August.

THE ARGIE BARGY AWARDS
Player of the season Rolando Schiavi (Boca Juniors)
Young player of the season Franco Vazquez (Belgrano)
Top scorer Ruben Ramirez (Godoy Cruz)
Manager of the season Julio Cesar Falcioni (Boca Juniors)
Best nickname Franco ‘The Mute’ Vasquez
Player most likely to be mistaken for a constellation Agustin Orion (Boca Juniors)

Could these 10 stars force their way into FFT's next Top 100?

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:30:00 GMT

As you may well be aware, this month’s issue of FourFourTwo magazine includes our take on the Best 100 Players in the World.

The selection process wasn’t easy (as mag editor David Hall explained last week), with as many as half the names discussed during deliberations unable to squeeze into the final 100.

As such, there are some very good players who missed out. Below are 10 of the players who just missed the cut this year, but that we expect to be in the running next time round…

Ganso
Age 22
Position Midfielder
Club Santos
Nationality Brazilian
A potentially integral part of Brazil’s new breed, but lacks consistency and goals from midfield. It’s telling that it’s Neymar and Damiao being linked to Europe. Talented, but needs to step out of his team-mate’s shadow.

Alan Dzagoev
Age 21
Position Midfielder
Club CSKA Moscow
Nationality Russian
Made FFT’s longlist having been one of our under-20s to watch just six months ago. Already Russia’s main man and the reason CSKA’s Seydou Doumbia scores so many goals (look out for him too), the new Arshavin is on the verge of success.

Jan Vertonghen
Age 24
Position Defender
Club Ajax
Nationality Belgian
Won the title with Ajax, where he’s now captain, and appears regularly for Belgium despite competition from Thomas Vermaelen, Vincent Kompany and Daniel Van Buyten. As with Dzagoev, the real test will come in a bigger league.

Andre Ayew
Age 21
Position Forward
Club Marseille
Nationality Ghanaian
Narrowly missed out (along with team-mate Loic Remy), with 30 caps and a World Cup already under his belt. Impressed in patches against English teams in the Champions League, but has a tendency to disappear in big games.

Ashley Young
Age 26
Position Midfielder
Club Manchester United
Nationality English
An excellent start with United has silenced the doubters. It’s too soon now, but if he keeps up his early season form at domestic and international level, there’s no doubt he’ll be in with a strong chance of making our list next year.

Alvaro Negredo
Age 26
Position Forward
Club Sevilla
Nationality Spanish
The burly forward arrived in Andalusia in the summer of 2009, having won plaudits for his goal scoring exploits with Liga minnows Almeria. His first season at Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán was unspectacular, but last term he rattled in 20 league goals and appears to have moved ahead of Fernando Torres in the international reckoning.
Another season like that will see his stock continue to rise.

Nuri Sahin
Age 23
Position Midfielder
Club Real Madrid
Nationality Turkish
Having inspired Borussia Dortmund to their first league title in nine years last season, Sahin was spirited away by the bright lights of the Bernabeu. His impact in the Spanish capital has thus far been minimal, with a knee injury restricting him to just one league appearance at the time of writing. His flair and creativity will likely make him a key figure in Jose Mourinho’s side sooner rather than later.

Kwadwo Asamoah
Age 23
Position Midfielder
Club Udinese
Nationality Ghanaian
A key member of the Ghana sides that in 2010 made the final of the African Cup of Nations and the quarterfinals of the World Cup. The fleet-footed midfielder has quickly become a key creative outlet for both club and country. His form at Stadio Friuli side helped the Bianconeri into the qualifying stages of the Champions League where he was among the players who looked most likely to trouble Arsenal.

Maarten Stekelenburg
Age 29
Position Goalkeeper
Club Roma
Nationality Dutch
In joining Luis Enrique’s Barcelona-inspired project in the Italian capital, Stekelenburg became the first Dutchman to don the (now skin-tight) crimson shirt – or at least the goalkeeper’s equivalent. For his country, he has proved a more than capable replacement for Edwin Van der Sar, and at €6 million, he represents a steal for Roma, who are starting to get into their groove.

Ezequiel Lavezzi
Age 26
Position Forward
Club Napoli
Nationality Argentine
Lavezzi’s reputation may not have been enhanced to the same degree as Edinson Cavani by Napoli’s third placed finish of last season, but the Argentina international has already proven in this season’s Champions League campaign that he is a forward of the highest standard.

LIST FFT's Top Ten Goalkeepers
LIST FFT's Top Ten Defenders
LIST FFT's Top Ten Midfielders
LIST FFT's Top Ten Forwards