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Group B: Portugal - It's Not All About Him, You Know...

Back of the Net — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Back of the Net continue their light-hearted Euro 2012 preview. This afternoon, John Foster on a team looking to prove they can be more valuable than the 'Golden Generation': Portugal...

After stuttering in the early stages of qualification under Carlos Queiroz - widely derided as a poor man’s Mike Phelan - Portugal, now under the charge of Paulo Bento, are expected to face an uphill struggle to overcome the Netherlands and Germany, but a downhill saunter to beat Denmark.

Tournament pedigree
This is Portugal’s fifth consecutive appearance at a European Championships, though the team has never won any major international silverware. During the so-called ‘golden generation’ of the early 2000s, Portuguese players were considered attractive and a valuable investment, but many were also criticised for being dense and unreactive, and prone to dissolving when immersed in mercury.

Manager
Coach Paulo Bento has some work to do in deciding how best to deploy a squad made up entirely of deep-lying playmakers. Saturday’s friendly clash with Macedonia may see all eleven players deployed ‘in the hole’, between the area usually called midfield, and the place where the strikers would be had Portugal managed to produce a decent one since Eusebio.

Man to watch
It is hard to look beyond egocentric Real Madrid megastar Cristiano Ronaldo, mostly because of his insistence on standing four steps closer to the camera than any of his colleagues during team photos. Throughout his career, Ronaldo has irritated fans and opponents alike with his selfishness, his narcissism, his gamesmanship, and, most infuriatingly of all, his astonishing natural ability that countless times has seen him turn defeat into victory all by his sickening self.

National Anthem
Over the last few years, onetime anthem A Portuguesa has been replaced at football matches with 1988 smash hit Suedehead, by lugubrious ex-Smiths frontman Morrissey. At the 2010 World Cup, many players were attacked by the Portuguese media for not knowing the words, with daily newspaper O Jogo publically wondering whether players like Fábio Coentrão even possessed a copy of Bona Drag.

Worth a bet?
Both Portugal and group-stage opponents Germany have been involved in some high-scoring, logic-defying thrillers over recent years. You can get 2/1 on there being more than 2.5 goals, 3/1 on there being more than 3.5 goals, and 5/1 on there being exactly 4.5 goals.

Group B: Netherlands • Germany • Denmark
Group A: Poland • Russia • Greece • Czech Republic

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Group B: Denmark - Poulsen, Poulsen & Poulsen aim for glory

Back of the Net — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:30:00 GMT

The Back of the Net boys continue their tongue-in-cheek look ahead to Euro 2012. Here, John Foster on a team who have upset the odds once and are therefore statisticaly far less likely to do so again: Denmark...

Having enjoyed their greatest success when relying mostly on players called Laudrup, Denmark face an uphill struggle to repeat the glories of the 80s and early 90s, now relying mostly on players called Poulsen.

Tournament pedigree
The Danes have got past the group stage only once in the past four European Championships. However, they sensationally won the competition in 1992 despite only being last-minute participants, their long-honed ability to not engage in a brutal civil war seeing them get the nod over Yugoslavia.

Road to Poland and Ukraine
Denmark topped their qualifying group ahead of former client state Norway, which they ruled from 1523 to 1814; former protectorate Iceland, which they ruled from 1380 to1874; former vassal state Cyprus, governed by Danish Vikings from 1192 to 1489; and former colony Portugal, which was technically ruled by Denmark for three weeks in August 1920 owing to a mistranslated passage in the Treaty of Sèvres.

Man to watch
Wide man Jakob Poulsen will be looking to build on his fine domestic season, assisted by the veteran Christian Poulsen, while rising star Simon Poulsen will provide competition for places. Psychobilly rocker Michael Poulsen sings the team’s official anthem, ‘Der er et yndigt Poulsen’.

Worth a bet?
There’s little value to be gained in what looks like being the tightest group of the bunch, but consider 12/1 against Denmark fielding a starting XI consisting entirely of players named Poulsen.

Did you know?
The great Denmark team of the eighties was known as ‘Danish Dynamite’, in reference to the tendency of several high-spirited younger players to sneak into Legoland after closing time and blow up plastic brick-based scale-models of major cities.

Group B: Netherlands • Germany • Portugal
Group A: Poland • Russia • Greece • Czech Republic

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Frédéric Kanouté ‘not at all sure who he has signed for’

Back of the Net — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:09:00 GMT

The Mali striker seems to have lost his bearings, as Back of the Net's Paul Watson reports...

Suspicions have surfaced that former Tottenham and West Ham star Frédéric Kanouté is unable to name the club he has just signed for, after the experienced striker gave a press conference consisting entirely of platitudes and generic statements.

Kanouté has left Sevilla after seven years with the Spanish giants and reports suggest he has signed for Iranian side Mes Kerman FC – a claim the 35-year-old neither confirmed nor denied at today’s press conference.

“I’m delighted to have signed for [Mes Kerman FC],” Kanouté mumbled while being unveiled by Mes Kerman officials.

“I am really very much looking forward to playing… football for them [Mes Kerman FC]. In fact, of all the teams I have played football for, this is the football team I am most excited to be playing football for in the football league in which the team in question now competes.

“My mind was made up by the illustrious tradition that I assume this club has and the passionate support that I imagine they enjoy.”

The renowned hitman netted 128 times during his seven-year stay in Adalusia and would be expected to torment defences in Iran’s Pro League.

Alan Wright was surprised to be lining up alongside Kanoute and Lee Hendrie

“Sure, I am hoping to make an impact,” Kanouté nodded.

“I’m confident that I will be able to [pause] get the ball into the [goal] on a fairly regular basis.”

As the press conference reached its conclusion, a journalist told Kanouté that many people expected him to retire this summer after such a successful career.

“Yes, me too, that would have made more sense,” Kanouté trailed off.

Kanouté hasn’t always been thorough in researching new clubs. He spent much of the 2000-2001 season at West Ham believing he was playing for Aston Villa and few will forget the famous footage of Kanouté in his West Ham shirt being presented to the royal delegation ahead of Villa’s FA Cup Final against Chelsea by a baffled Gareth Southgate.

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Group B: Germany – Herr There or Thereabouts

Back of the Net — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:22:00 GMT

More tongue-in-cheek Euros previewage from the Back of the Net boys. Here, John Foster on a team you could never call a dark horse: Germany...

Famously always there or thereabouts, Germany were last there in 1996, and an exciting squad will fancy their chances of being there again in 2012 after 2008's final defeat to Spain consigned them to thereabouts.

Road to Poland and Ukraine
Germany qualify automatically, since a European Championships without Germany would be like a summer’s day without the sound of children’s laughter.

Tournament pedigree
Winners of three European Championships and an equal number of World Cups, Germany’s consistent success is attributed by many experts to the fact that they’re always really good. A brief experiment with being really bad ended in humiliating failure at Euro 2000, and has not been repeated since.

The Manager
Since replacing Jürgen Klinsmann in 2006, Joachim Löw has proved himself to be one of the brightest coaches in world football, despite constantly looking like an apprehensive homeopath. “Jogi Löw” is also the most fun name to say aloud of any of the Euro 2012 bosses, though it is also fun to attempt to say “Laurent Blanc” while holding your nose.

Man to watch
Bastian Schweinsteiger will be desperate to go all the way, after a season of near misses that saw him finish runner-up in the Bundesliga, lose in the final of the German Cup and the Champions League, and come second in a creative writing contest with a short story about a time-travelling architect who solves mysteries.

Did you know?
Germany’s classic kit of white shirts and black shorts is modelled after the Fulham team that swept all before them in the Southern League Division 1 in 1906/07.

Worth a bet?
Germany are available at 3/1 to be there, and an even more tempting 6/5 to be thereabouts. Consider backing them each way.

Group B: Netherlands • Denmark • Portugal
Group A: Poland • Russia • Greece • Czech Republic

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Politics, toilets and Coldplay hinder preparations for Copa del Rey final

Tim Stannard — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:58:00 GMT

The Spanish FA must wonder why they even bother with the Copa del Rey, as each time the final is played, there seems to be some kind of chronically awful kerfuffle in the match’s organisation.

This is especially so this year, with the process of arranging the final beginning really badly, getting even worse and then descending into abstract silliness, with a slanging match across four corners of Spain over what constitutes freedom of expression.

The stumbling, bumbling FA got themselves into their first pickle with what should have been the simple task of organising when and where the final was going to take place. It proved to be a bit of an ordeal, with it being impossible to find a date in the normal season due to Barcelona’s participation in the Champions League semis, Athletic Bilbao’s Europa League adventure and what had been a spare midweek being used to reschedule the first round of la Liga which was postponed due to a players’ strike.

Once a date had been set for the match two weeks after the end of the regular season, the problem was then finding a venue. The logical choice was the Santiago Bernabeu, as Real Madrid had long been knocked out and the 82,000 capacity stadium would be more than handy. Unfortunately, the venue was to be out of action on the date of the final due to important repair works to seats and toilets. It’s an excuse poo-pooed in both Barcelona and Bilbao, where the suggestion is that the snub was down to Madrid not wanting their stadium to be used for a farewell party for Pep or a big Basque celebration. Yet exciting snaps published in AS this week show bogs being carried into the Bernabeu, which would appear to confirm Real Madrid’s story.

The Vicente Calderón was eventually given the honour of hosting Friday night’s event, but only after a brand new pitch was laid this week after the previous one was churned up during a Coldplay gig last week. The work was completed on Tuesday, meaning the 'bedding in' period for the new playing surface will be just three days. Fortunately, its only a bunch of Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao players risking the ankles on the turf, so no impact whatsoever to Spain’s European Championship chances should any injuries take place.

Chris Martin: ruining Spanish football since some time last week

Technically the likes of Andrés Iniesta and Fernando Llorente shouldn’t have even be there, as Saturday sees Spain's first warm-up game against Serbia, which takes place in Austria - another absolute howler from the Spanish FA in the national side’s preparations for a tournament they are trying to defend.

As if all this wasn’t bad enough, Spanish nationalist politics and freedom of expression were thrown into the mix when the not exactly media-shy head of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, said that if the national anthem were to be booed ahead of the Copa del Rey final, the game should be stopped immediately, rescheduled and then played behind closed doors. Aguirre was referring to an incident in a final between the same two teams in Mestalla three years ago, when groups of supporters of both clubs booed the Spanish anthem.

However, the Madrid head has only ensured that even more supporters than before are going to join in a heck of a din, not that a discussion on the monarchy and Spain was Aguirre’s intention. “The problem is that we have such mediocre, such populist, such unprofessional politicians that use the media platform for cheap demagoguery,” ranted the ever-reliable Sport columnist Luis Mascaró, who also notes quite rightly that “in a society riven by speculation, corruption and economic crisis, politicians should be dedicating themselves to what’s really important.”

Aguirre’s words caused terse responses from all over Spain, especially in the Basque Country and Catalonia where they are never going to turn down the chance for a squabble. Even Barcelona president Sandro Rosell got involved, expressing a desire that “all Culés can freely express their feelings at the final.”

All this, combined with the fact the final is taking place when people are forgetting the Primera campaign and taking a breather ahead of the Euros, sees a bit of a strangely subdued atmosphere ahead of a game that will need to be a corker if the season isn't going to end with something of a damp squib.

Group B: Netherlands – Together As One, For Now

Back of the Net — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:35:00 GMT

The Back of the Net team's countdown to Euro 2012 continues with Paul Watson on Group B's top seeds, those ever-interesting men from the Netherlands...

This year’s qualification campaign boasted 80% fewer inter-squad homicides than ever before and there’s a new united spirit under coach Bert van Marwijk, whose side will look to carve a blood-soaked path to glory.

Tournament Pedigree
Holland’s sole trophy to date is the 1988 European Championship. Since then, the Dutch have often fallen short on the biggest stage, held back by a lack of team spirit that regularly manifests itself in training ground arguments, on-field shouting matches and occasional acts of ultra-violence between teammates.

In Euro 96, captain Danny Blind celebrated each of England’s four goals in a 4-1 defeat, even performing a provocative solo rumba dance in front of a downbeat Edwin Van der Sar. Euro 2008’s quarter-final loss to Russia was widely blamed on defenders Andre Oijer and Joris Mathijsen, who spent much of extra-time penning scathing letters to De Telegraaf about each other.

Euro 2012 chances
These days there is a new spirit of harmony in the camp. Bert van Marwijk is the coach behind this revolution, gradually moulding a flamboyant powder-keg of a side into a solid, no-nonsense outfit. Deadly on the counter-attack, in defence they roam in small packs, picking out potential targets in the opposition side and lynching them.

The new-look Holland reached the final of the 2010 World Cup but lost out to Spain despite a series of tackles that had to be censored in most European countries, including Nigel de Jong kicking Xabi Alonso’s head clean off.

Kit
Unsurprisingly, the 2012 kit is orange. Dutch fans are required by law to wear orange during matches. In fact at Euro 2008 a lone supporter wearing a shirt that was closer to scarlet was later tracked down by secret services and deported.

Did You Know?
The Dutch have the oldest anthem in the world, Wilhelmus. Penned in 1574, it’s about William of Orange’s bid to liberate Holland from Spanish control. Although it runs to around 15 minutes in total, at sporting occasions only the first and sixth stanzas are sung, cutting out the unpopular second, third, fourth and fifth verses which are an aside about a tasty breakfast in Dordrecht.

Group B: Germany • Denmark • Portugal
Group A: Poland • Russia • Greece • Czech Republic

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Mourinho sticks with Madrid, but are Málaga losing a manager?

Tim Stannard — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:38:00 GMT

La Liga Loca is today sticking its grubby little hand in the air to admit it doesn’t actually have a clue what it’s talking about. Perhaps not the most shocking news you'll hear today.

LLL began the season predicting Barcelona would be league champions, Sevilla would come fourth, Atlético Madrid would crash and burn and that José Mourinho would have had enough of the mayhem to be found in Mordor and move away from Madrid in May.

The latter was a most spectacular failure at tea-leaf reading. Despite cryptic, non-committal shrugs and sighs over the past few months when asked about his future, and a fair number of Premier League pundits predicting a return to England, José Mourinho has extended his contract with Real Madrid by two years to 2016, such is his happiness with life at the Santiago Bernabeu (and delight in pretty much now controlling every single aspect of the club). And the possibility that Barcelona are a big, busted flush, of course.

“I’ve begun to know this club better with all its great qualities and also its little problems that all institutions and people have,” chirped Mourinho, who is set for another four seasons of getting Aitor Karanka to read stuff for him at press conferences.

And, let’s face it, it’s tremendously good news for Real Madrid, as Mourinho’s departure from Madrid would have left club president Florentino Perez looking around for the fifth or sixth to replace him. Or even a manager from the lower 10,000’s such as Míchel.

There’s less stability and solidity to be found at Málaga, a side that may well be a rival to Real Madrid in years to come, should the southerners splurge about €2 billion on players. It seems the club’s General Manager Fernando Hierro will be walking away after just a season, having reportedly disagreed with the way the institution is run economically.

The past year has seen stories of transfer installments being missed, players being paid late and now employees still waiting for their April salaries. Hierro is expected to be talking to the press over what is happening next Monday, with time to kiss and make up with his billionaire bosses in between.

Despite pronouncements from Sevilla president, José María del Nido, that the club would not be signing ‘names’ any more but ‘men’ - in sounded catchier in Spanish, to be fair - the club are set to spend over €3 million on a footballer who fits both bills, Villarreal’s Diego López. The goalkeeper is set to be the first player to abandon the sinking submarine after relegation, shortly followed by Borja Valero the blog suspects.

But the least surprising news of the week - aside from that whole Mourinho business that LLL would like to move away from as soon as possible - is that David Villa will be missing out on the European Championships. This ends a furious debate over whether Roberto Soldado or Fernando Torres should be picked for Euro 2012, with both players now likely to get a spot on the bench in Vicente Del Bosque’s final, final, final squad.

Group A: Czech Republic – Might Not Surprise A Few People

Back of the Net — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:19:00 GMT

The Back of the Net team continue their countdown to Euro 2012 with Paul Watson studying Group A's last and possibly least team, Czech Republic...

Past tournaments have shown that you underestimate the Czechs at your peril. However, that’s unlikely to happen because this Czech team is exactly as good as you think they are.

Tournament Pedigree
Despite being rank outsiders, Czechoslovakia won the tournament in 1976. However, since the Czech Republic’s divorce with Slovakia in the early 1990s it only has the title on weekends and holidays.

The Czechs reached the final of Euro 96 but it was under centuries-old coach Karel Brückner that they truly became a force to be reckoned with. Despite often referring to his team as Austria-Hungary, Bohemia or middle-Pangaea, Brückner had a mastery of tactics. A strike partnership of the thirteen-foot Jan Koller and dog-like ball-chaser Milan Baros proved devastating – backed up by Pavel Nedved, who excelled in a position around three inches offside.

The Czechs played sensational football to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2004 but fell to Greece, who bundled home a Silver Goal in extra-time. It was especially unlucky as the Silver Goal rule had only been invented halfway through the first half, replacing the unpopular Golden Goal rule and predating the baffling Ruthenium Goal rule.

Road to the Finals
The Czechs started their 2012 qualification campaign badly with a 2-0 defeat against Lithuania and struggled to make up ground despite ruthlessly thrashing Liechtenstein 2-0, twice.

A pivotal point came with a hugely controversial late penalty to draw 2-2 with Scotland. Jan Rezek dived to win the spot-kick, becoming public enemy No.1 in Scotland, and didn’t help matters in his post-match interview where he insisted Danny Wilson had tripped him before adding that he had "thought Scotland was a province in England" and that Irn Bru was "just stale Fanta".

Coach: Michal Bilek
Bilek is not the most popular of coaches. Indeed, in a recent poll 96% of Czechs wanted to see him sacked. Of the remaining 4%, 3% stated a desire to see him killed instead and 1% gave answers that actually related to former Middlesbrough striker Mikkel Beck.

Man To Watch: Petr Cech
Champions League hero Cech will be looking to eradicate memories of Euro 2008. Leading Turkey 2-1 in the dying minutes of a must-win group match, the usually flawless ‘keeper gifted Nihat Kahveci an equaliser by letting the ball squirm from his grasp. Moments later Cech was again at fault as Nihat scored a winner. On an error-strewn evening Cech also accidentally sent a case of expensive wine to Nihat’s address rather than his and correctly filed the Turkish player’s tax return.

Group B: Netherlands • Germany • Denmark • Portugal
Group A: Poland • Russia • Greece

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Group A: Greece – Cautious Football, Reckless Spending

Back of the Net — Wed, 23 May 2012 09:00:00 GMT

The Back of the Net team are warming up for Euro 2012 with a few friendly looks at the teams involved. Here, John Foster looks at the high-spending, low-scoring enigma that is Greece...

The Greeks will hope to detract attention from their country’s dismal economic situation by refocusing people’s minds on their dismal football team.

Tournament pedigree
Greece’s solitary international success came in Portugal at Euro 2004, which they’ve not shut up about since, in the same way that Billy Bob Thornton never lets anyone forget about the fact that he used to be married to Angelina Jolie. The glory days did not last long, however, as Greece were retrospectively disqualified from the 2008 event after managing to stink the place out even more they had four years previously.

Manager
Mournfully-countenanced Portuguese coach Fernando Santos has introduced a greater degree of flexibility than his predecessor Otto Rehhagel, replacing the latter’s tried and tested 8-1-1 with a more adventurous 7-2-1, occasionally daring to experiment with the swashbuckling – some might say reckless – 6-2-1-1.

Man to watch
Celtic striker Georgios Samaras is the tallest player in the squad, and possesses the largest forehead, so will presumably be seeing more of the ball than any of his team-mates.

Worth a bet?
Available at 66-1 to repeat their 2004 performance and lift the trophy, Greece are a more realistic 33-1 to repeat their 2008 performance and be found not to have qualified for the tournament at all.

Did You Know?
 According to the Greek FA, the nation boasts two World Cup wins, in 480 and 387 BC. FIFA refuses to recognise these, however, insisting that winning the Battle of Salamis and establishing the Platonic Academy, impressive achievements though they are, do not count as football matches.

Group B: Netherlands • Germany • Denmark • Portugal
Group A: Poland • Russia • Czech Republic

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Group A: Russia – Excellent Control There

Back of the Net — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:25:00 GMT

The Back of the Net team continue their build-up to Euro 2012 with individual team profiles. Here, Mark Watson – yep, him off the telly – looks beyond Poland and Ukraine to the brooding presence of Russia…

After years of mediocrity, Russia exploded into life at Euro 2008, where strike partners Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko captured the public’s imagination. Each earned a big-money move to the Premier League, where they promptly gave the public’s imagination back. At the time of writing Arshavin has completed more than 4,500 minutes for Arsenal without passing the ball, and was put out of action during the Gunners’ clash with QPR when three of his team-mates combined to bring him down just outside the box.

Tournament Pedigree
Russia’s precise football history is difficult to determine, since from 1945 until the breakup of the Soviet Union access to their results was restricted to government officials. The BBC and ITV were forced to stop televising Russia’s World Cup fixtures in 1986, when Elton Welsby disappeared in mysterious circumstances after opining that the Soviets had "a bit of work to do in the second half" against Romania. He has never been seen since.

As far as can be discerned from records, though, the USSR "won every tournament contested, their spirit of comradeship triumphing over the crude capitalism of their opponents and overwhelming all foreign-funded interests. Except when Van Basten scored that wicked goal in 1988."

Road to the Finals
Guus Hiddink stood down from his position after failing to guide his side to the 2010 World Cup, but he was replaced by countryman Dick Advocaat after President Vladimir Putin commanded officials to "find me another of those funny little Dutchmen". The Russians never looked back after starting their campaign with six points, beating Armenia home and away by refusing to acknowledge their independence.

Did You Know?
Oligarch Roman Abramovich is probably Russian football’s biggest name, despite the fact he never kicks a ball. As well as owning Chelsea FC, the oil billionaire’s recent acquisitions allegedly include a controlling 51% stake in the sky, meaning that no passenger plane can take off without sending him a greeting card; part-ownership of Tom Jones, ensuring that during live performances of his hit What’s New Pussycat, Jones has to replace the word ‘Pussycat’ with 'Roman'; and 50 miles of the Great Wall of China. In Season 6 of Lost, he paid a reported $50,000 to have a character say "only Abramovich can get us out of this". Sources claim that he was recently blocked in a bid to buy exclusive rights to cheese.

Group B: Netherlands • Germany • Denmark • Portugal
Group A: Poland • Greece • Czech Republic

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Barcelona suffering a less than smooth succession

Tim Stannard — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:04:00 GMT

If there’s one thing La Liga Loca turns its oversized nose up at, it’s gossip, tittle-tattle and unsubstantiated rumours.

Actually, the blog is lying right through its belly button here. LLL loves all three and has a sworn duty to regale readers of such stories when they appear on the Spanish street. So, LLL is going to do its duty and report what is currently being bandied about in bars in relation to Barcelona, even though most may well be a whole lot of baloney.

The last time LLL left the Catalan camp, the club was apparently undergoing a smooth passage into its post-Pep world by appointing club No.2 Tito Vilanova as the new main man, with his predecessor’s blessing. Well, a story in El Mundo last week reported that Guardiola apparently had no idea about the plan to pick Vilanova, wanted someone else entirely and was only informed of the move on the morning he held his press conference announcing his departure.

The story goes that he asked Sandro Rosell to hold off on the announcement until he could speak to his friend. Instead, the new appointment was confirmed soon after Pep’s future was revealed. The article also gives further details on an apparently acrimonious relationship between club president and Pep in the final weeks of the current manager’s tenure.

At this point it’s worth mentioning that Barcelona have said this is all hogwash and nonsense and are looking at taking legal action against El Mundo for the story. But it isn’t a massive secret that the relationship between Guardiola and Rosell has never been as warm and fuzzy as the one shared by the now ex-Barça boss and Joan Laporta, who Rosell replaced after the 2010 elections. This coldness certainly hasn’t been helped by Barcelona’s current regime taking Laporta and his former board to court over alleged losses made during his tenure at the club, as well as banishing Johan Cruyff from the scene.

Poking his nose into what is turning out to be a stormy transition from Pep to Tito is the shy-and-retiring Laporta himself, a figure who had been off doing local political things, but who hasn’t ruled out returning to the Barcelona scene, claiming that Rosell has ruined all his good work over the past two years. “Perhaps I should start planning,” mused Laporta at the beginning of the month on running for president again.

The former president’s gripe is that Rosell has not taken care of the relationship with the Spanish FA, which has led to the lack of penalties going Barcelona’s way, apparently, while he has also suggested that the appointment of Tito Vilanova was “a panic decision” so as not to “receive the full social impact of not having done more to keep Guardiola.”

Naturally, Laporta is hardly a disinterested party in the whole affair, and nor is the likes of el Mundo, with even supposedly proper papers in Spain having political reasons for being pro or anti certain clubs and presidents, far from the world of sport.

This story has overshadowed Barcelona’s preparations for Friday’s Copa del Rey final, with the relationship between Pep and Tito being the first topic for players when probed by the media.

“It hurts as in the dressing room we knew the relationship is good,” said Cesc Fabregas, another member of the team trying to deflect what is being perceived as false negative attention and a deliberate distraction ahead of Pep’s farewell at the Vicente Calderón.

Group A: Poland – It's Not All Fun & Games

Back of the Net — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:52:00 GMT

From today, the Back of the Net boys will be counting down the days to Euro 2012 with team profiles and much more. To start with, Paul Watson starts with Group A's somewhat fortuitous top seeds, hosts Poland...

The lowest-ranked team in the competition, Poland aren’t particularly good. Unlike the golden generations of the 1970s and 80s, today’s Poland team is full of players who will probably sign for West Ham.

Tournament Pedigree
Austria and Switzerland 2008 was Poland’s first European Championship and pitted them against Germany in a heated clash. As the hype ahead of the game grew, Polish paper Super Express printed a picture of coach Leo Beenhakker holding the severed heads of Michael Ballack and Joachim Low. The paper was widely criticised until it emerged that the photo was in fact real and had helped bring an end to Beenhakker’s terrifying bloodlust. Nonetheless, a depleted Germany still ran out 2-0 winners.

As is traditional, as hosts Poland were allowed to choose their group opponents and opted for Greece, Russia and the Czech Republic – a group so lacking in excitement that it doesn’t even feature on most wallcharts.

Road to the Finals
Poland and Ukraine were chosen to host Euro 2012, beating bids from Italy, Croatia and Hungary and Crosby, Stills and Nash. The voters were said to be won over by the honesty of Poland/Ukraine’s slogan: “A vast forbidding wasteland where terrible things have happened.”

Coach: Franciszek Smuda
It has taken staunch disciplinarian Smuda some time to fully eradicate the holiday-camp regime of libertarian former boss Leo Beenhakker. Disapproving of frivolity, Smuda has led a crackdown on anything he regards as nonsense, which includes nights out, drinking and passing backwards.

Artur Boruc was axed from the squad for a drunken night out, Slawomir Peszko and Marcin Wasilewski were dropped for an even drunker night out and Michal Zyro was only picked as a reserve after drawing a smiley face on his kit bag. Smuda is quoted as saying “The world has this image of us Poles as all fun, but that isn’t the case.”

Did You Know?
Poland’s squad contains the most letters of any side in the competition. It takes coach Smuda anything between three and 10 hours to write his team-sheets, so don’t be surprised if the Poles take the pitch with just eight or nine men.

Group B: Netherlands • Germany • Denmark • Portugal
Group A: Russia • Greece • Czech Republic

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Can you name all 20 Premier League shirt sponsors?

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:17:00 GMT

Well, can you?

After the 'success' of last season's sponsor naming quiz, we thought we'd test your memory (and the power of advertising) with another.

We've used cutting edge technology to mask the sponsors' names and logos on the home shirts of all 20 Premier League teams from the season just finished (or in Wolves' case, the season that finished back in February). How many can you remember? Do you know what these companies actually do? Don't you have some real work to be getting on with?

Click the link at the bottom of the page for the answers - no peeking!

Disclaimer: There's no prize, obviously

ANSWERS See how many you got right

Life as a La Liga manager: LLL speaks to Getafe's Luis García

Tim Stannard — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:06:00 GMT

Luis García is a football manager who seems to love his job. Win, lose or draw, the cheerful 39-year-old always seems to have a smile on his face, and as well the young coach might as the Getafe boss has had a tremendously successful four-year spell.

It began by leading Levante out of the second division after near bankruptcy, followed by an incredible battle for survival in la Primera last season before a move to Getafe, where he lead his new team to a solid 11th place finish.

La Liga Loca caught up with one of the hottest managerial properties in la Liga to assess the season just gone for his club, the general state of the game in Spain, and his country’s chances in the European Championships.

García without a smile on his face, just to disprove Tim's theory...

So how are you feeling now the season is over?
Mentally, the season demands a lot of you. You’re managing the pressure and are very focussed, so I’m finishing the year quite tired and ready for the holidays, but after just a week away from football I know I’ll be desperate to get back to training again.

It was a very different end to the season for you, with far less pressure in the dying weeks than last year with Levante, did you miss it?
We had chances to get into Europe but that ended with a defeat against Mallorca. Then we drew against Athletic Bilbao and had a final game against Zaragoza that was very strange. Last year, Levante were under pressure right up to the second-to-last round, but we got a tough point against Valencia so it’s different to this year with Getafe. But that’s good as it means we achieved our objectives. We weren’t under pressure, but it’s a shame we couldn’t push on for more, however, we didn’t have any problems.

Tell us about last season with Levante and that incredible late run that saw the team stay up...
Last season was a great one but it’s all been over a four year process. It was fantastic for the fans who had really been having a tough time. It was a moment for everyone to enjoy and you have to appreciate them as there are always bad times. Just look at Villarreal, who began the year in the Champions League and ended it being relegated. Football is either about good times or bad, so you have to celebrate the positive moments. Levante have had four years of success with stabilisation, promotion from the second division, staying up and then this year’s campaign. These are some magical times so you have to congratulate them and hope they can repeat the success next year.

Motivation is important in football, so do you have a difficult job at Getafe, a team that’s usually too good to go down, but not good enough for the European places?
It’s a club whose natural position is between eight and twelve and that’s where we are now. We can’t be compared with Málaga, Athletic Bilbao, Sevilla and Valencia. It’s impossible to compete with them. Then again we also can’t be compared with Racing or Sporting as we have a bigger budget. It’s not easy, we began the season badly so in the end we lacked the points to fight for anything more. The motivation is the need to improve and finish as high up the table as possible.

Could a lack of motivation in some teams be another reason for the huge gap at the top of the table to the other 18 teams?
No. If the players at Valencia think that they are not going to win the league it’s because they know they are not going to win the league. Before when Valencia did win it, it was with around 70 points, and now Real Madrid have won it with 100 points which is something incredible. But in the group of teams in the level below Madrid and Barça, two were in the Europa League final, so these are two very good sides. But the other two are the best in the world. Anyone can win a knock-out match whether it be Getafe, Chelsea, Bayern Munich or Valencia. But no one else can win the regular league in Spain. After 38 games, it will be Real Madrid or Barcelona.

García lead Getafe to a win over Barcelona in November

How does la Liga compare to the Premier League?
The English league is a lot more balanced, Manchester City have won now. Did I see the last day? Yes, and this is what makes football great. But you have other teams like Manchester United and Chelsea, but here it’s only two teams who can win. Madrid and Barcelona always looking for more signings and to improve. You have two teams, then a group of five or six and then the rest. I think Getafe can be one of the best of this final group. But it’s much easier for Getafe to fight to be in this group of five than for a team in the group of five to be in the group of two.

Do you think there’s ‘Fair Play’ off the field in la Liga, with some clubs obeying financial rules and others ignoring them and not paying taxes or their players?
You can have a situation where the president of Getafe says “if we don’t sell this player than you don’t get paid”, so everything has to be improved in regards to how and when clubs can sign and there needs to be more punishment for those who don’t pay their way and meet their obligations. Imagine if you had a president who says 'we won’t sell anyone, we’ll bring in eight players which cost this much money and then they don’t pay for them'. It can’t be this way. Things need to be taken much more seriously. But I can’t give any solutions, it needs to be the club presidents and the League. They need to get together and demand that everything is taken more seriously. It’s logical that teams who do everything right can’t compete with those who don’t make their payments.

With the season now over, were there any players away from Real Madrid and Barcelona that caught your eye and ones to look out for?
There were a lot. At Athletic Bilbao you have Muniain, Javi Martínez, and Llorente. You’ve got Adrían at Atlético Madrid, really good young players. The level of the players in la Liga is one of the best in the world, the average away from Real Madrid and Barcelona is excellent.

Looking at Euro 2012, how can it be that Spain’s first warm-up game comes a day after the Copa del Rey final?
This is tough for everyone. In England you know when you are going to play your games way in advance, but not in Spain. Sometimes the first question is ‘when are we playing? Saturday, Sunday or Monday?’ it’s a bit in the air. But it was quite difficult as Madrid and Barcelona were in the Champions League semis so it was hard to find a date before that final for the Copa del Rey match, but this has been a problem for years and it’s hard to resolve.

Spain doesn’t look in good shape ahead of the Euros, with doubts over the fitness of Puyol and Villa and the form of Piqué. Are they still favourites?
Yes, Spain are favourites but that doesn’t mean that they are going to win as the tournament is such a short one. As well as playing well, luck needs to be with you as well. When Spain won the last European Championships, they won a match on penalties. In the World Cup final against Holland there was a one-on-one with Iker Casillas and Arjen Robben. You need to be the best and have those moments go your way. If Spain were to take part in a league with 38 games they would be champions, but in such a short tournament they can be knocked out by anyone.

What are your personal plans for the future?
A football manager can’t have plans. I’d like to complete the two years I have left of my contract here. I began in the Segunda B, then I moved to Levante then it was Getafe. Everyone is happy at the moment but they can sack me in six months time. You never know what is going to happen, you live from day to day.

Dutch development model highlights where England are going wrong

Guest Writer — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:19:00 GMT

With the European Champions now less than three weeks away, Tom Bennett explores the differences between youth development in England and the Netherlands...

As Euro 2012 moves ever closer, it's no secret that the Netherlands are one of the driving forces in world football, and will be among the favourites to lift the trophy come July 1. Their dominance comes with the flamboyant elegance of their ‘total football’ style and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Oranje have just won UEFA's European Under-17 Championship in Slovenia, triumphing over an equally impressive German side which hadn't conceded a single goal in the four games en route to the final against their old foes.

The final turned out to be a very close encounter. Germany took the lead just after half-time from captain Leon Goretzka’s header, but in time added on Elton Acolatse hammered home an equaliser to send the tie into extra-time and penalties.

In a break with perceived national traits, Netherlands came out on top in the shootout, as Marc Stendera saw his penalty saved and they won 5-4. The tight nature of the game was typical of the tournament these two sides have had and the players that have been on display for both teams.

It was evident the two sides would be challenging the final from the moment they kicked off what is the 10th edition of the tournament since it changed from its previous Under 16 format.

These two sides - along with Spain - have dictated European youth football for the past few years, and that continuous supremacy shows no signs of cessation. Highlighted by the fact both the 2009 and 2011 European Under 17 Championship finals included the two sides, with the Netherlands victorious in 2011 and Germany triumphant in 2009, the continent will be shaking in fear of facing these potential outfits in a four or so years time, as if they aren't already. But what are they doing that is so different from the rest of us?

Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp and Ruud Gullit have all graduated from the Dutch academy ranks and led their country to extraordinary glory in the past few decades and a new crop of world-beaters are just on the horizon.

Rai Vloet, Nathan Ake, Tonny Trindade de Vilhena and Thom Haye have all produced consistently outstanding performances throughout the tournament, helping Albert Stuivenberg’s team reach the final with ease. All four have linked up luminously to provide intelligent movement, undisturbed possession and an abundance of goals for Oranje in the five matches that led them to the title – and that sums up where they come from, what they’ve been taught and what they will bring to the senior team in what looks a bright future.

Tonny Trindade de Vilhena is among the stars of Holland's next generation

It is common to see a 4-4-2 system used by clubs in England, but in Holland they actively encourage to adopt a 4-3-3 formation and make training sessions about enjoyment rather than pressure to move on to the next level. They believe in keeping possession to create opportunities, but also to always move in an attacking way – backwards movement does not exist here.

There is a lot of pressure at all levels in England to win, whereas in Holland the focus is more on the pleasure of playing the game, which ultimately brings with it a natural hunger for success.

This indirect way of winning is as apparent off the pitch as it is on it, the country focuses on providing top class facilities and invests vast sums of money into amateur clubs to make them the focal point of the community.

Following the introduction of the model by Louis van Gaal on behalf of the Dutch FA (KNVB) in 2002, it may be surprising to know that only 36 clubs in Holland are officially professional, but a further 2,700 amateur sides benefit from the KNVB’s £1 billion investment every year. Despite this huge contrast in money and numbers from England, the relationship between professional and amateur sides is much closer, with regular games between the sides across all levels.

In England, grassroots football can only hope to benefit from a fraction of that investment. The Premier League contributes £43.4 million to grassroots football (less than 5% of it’s TV rights deal) and even though the FA stated in 2000 that they would contribute £20m per annum to grassroots football, in 2010 they only paid £12 million.

Another factor in their success could be the uninterrupted commitment of the community towards developing youth football in the country, which is nothing short of admirable. The KNVB has 1.2m members - 7% of the Dutch population.

This lack of investment and enthusiasm for the grassroots game in England leads to poor facilities, which means the top coaches and players will lack the motivation to get the best out of themselves or their players when it comes to developing them into world-class talent. A typical amateur side in Holland has warm changing rooms, floodlit artificial pitches, spacious clubhouses and a dedicated medical centre run by approximately 100 community volunteers. A typical amateur club in England is lucky to have hot showers.

The facilities are impressive but it is the consistency of those that makes it evident why Holland are currently ranked fourth in the FIFA World Rankings. Every one of those 2,700 amateur sides has their own academy with equally impressive amenities. It seems the only way is up.

After securing and now maintaining this state-of-the-art platform for development, the Dutch are now focusing on tactics more than the technical side of the game that will keep them as a major force in world competitions for many years to come. England – be very, very scared.

Napoli ready for summer long party after Italian Cup triumph

Richard Whittle — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:17:00 GMT

Napoli brought the curtain down on the Italian season with a stirring Italian Cup final victory, ending what had up until that point been an unbeaten campaign for Juventus.

The 2-0 scoreline denied the Turin club the double, but it was a perfect way to celebrate a year which had seen Walter Mazzarri's Napoli bring an attack-minded approach to both the domestic and continental stage, winning them plenty of admirers both home and abroad.

Inconsistency in the league cost the Azzurri a return to Europe’s premier competition, but hoisting aloft the cup for the first time since the Diego Maradona era was more than adequate reward – and how the Partenopei enjoyed their evening in Rome.

Over 30,000 Napoli fans danced and sang in the rain inside the Olympic stadium, while back in the Bay area the mother of all parties was well under way even before the final whistle sounded.

Success was built around stifling Juventus at source, with Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi closing down the Bianconeri back-three, thus denying Leonardo Bonucci in particular the space to bring the ball out towards the halfway line.

There is no doubt Mazzarri outwitted Antonio Conte tactically, and when Juve were forced to hit the ball long, Hamsik was already shadowing Andrea Pirlo in the centre of the pitch.

With the Swiss pairing of Gokhan Inler and Blerim Dzemaili forming a formidable defensive wall through the centre, Pirlo was forced into ever more risky passes. When he turned to the flanks, Christian Maggio and the very impressive Juan Zuniga were quick to press forward, leaving Napoli’s back three relatively unscathed apart from a late Salvatore Aronica challenge on Claudio Marchisio inside the area which went unpunished.

Winning the ball higher up the pitch unleashed Napoli’s best weapon: the counter-attack, with Inler and Dzemaili taking it in turns to break forward to support the attack while Zuniga and Maggio kept their opposite wing-backs Stephan Lichtsteiner and Marcelo Estigarriba pinned back - and more times than often forced to track back, leaving Napoli with superior numbers to repel any Juve counter.

It was the perfect strategy to make the champions look almost ordinary, but the night belonged to the men dubbed ‘The Three Tenors’: Cavani, Lavezzi and Hamsik.

It was a much-used routine that broke the deadlock just after the hour-mark, when Hugo Campagnaro’s long throw was flicked on by Cavani for Lavezzi to burst into the area where goalkeeper Marco Storari could do nothing but bring the Argentine crashing to the floor.

In the stands, owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, who had dragged the club out of the third tier some eight years ago, could not watch as Cavani stepped up to dispatch the penalty in a manner befitting his moniker ‘The Matador’.

From that moment, Napoli as a whole were equally clinical in everything they did, as Juventus, as was to be expected, poured forward in search of an equaliser.

The gaps were there to be exploited, and after Mazzarri withdrew Lavezzi, who had run himself into the ground on what was more than likely to be his last appearance for the club,. El Pocho’s replacement, Goran Pandev, took up the mantle to play Hamsik in for the all-important second goal seven minutes from time.

Juventus may have fought back from 2-0 and then 3-1 down at the San Paolo earlier in the season, but there was little time left to mount another comeback - The Invincibles were vanquished, with Fabio Quagliarella shown a straight red card in added-time for elbowing Aronica.

The Napoli team and its travelling support could not wait for the final whistle to go as they crowded around the edge of the pitch; Lavezzi was so overcome by the moment that he broke down in tears and missed out joining his team-mates in tossing Mazzarri up into the air.

De Laurentiis strode around the pitch like a conquering Cesar while Hamsik made good on his promise by allowing his team-mates to shave off his Mohawk – it was one of those evening where you knew would end in volcanic emotions.

And what of Alessandro Del Piero on his final appearance in a Juventus shirt? Well, it was a low-key evening, ending earlier than expected when he was substituted with 22 minutes still remaining, but in truth his parting gift had come last weekend back in Turin during the title celebrations.

As ever, he was gracious in defeat, as were Juventus, who left the stage for Napoli to party the night away. Knowing Naples, the party will continue right up until the two sides meet again in the Italian Super Cup in August.

John Terry: Champions League victory exactly how I planned it

Back of the Net — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:58:00 GMT

As the dust settles on Chelsea's amazing Champions League victory, Back of the Net's John Foster explains that John Terry always knew things would unfold in such a fashion...

Chelsea captain John Terry has declared himself 'over the moon' with his side’s penalty shootout triumph in the Champions League final, announcing that the trophy was just reward for his brilliantly executed tactical masterplan.

Chelsea were victorious against Bayern Munich despite allowing the German side countless chances to win the game, an outcome Terry revealed was “always my plan”.

The 31-year old did not play in the match, however, following his red card against Barcelona in the previous round, a dismissal Terry proudly stated was “the most important piece of the jigsaw.”

“If I hadn’t crucially kneed Alexis Sanchez in the bum when I did, we’d have lost that game, no question,” Terry asserted. “In that moment it all came down to me, and I’m very proud I did my duty.

“Plus, it was crucial I get myself suspended for the final, so that I could heroically lead the lads to victory from the sidelines,” he added.

“If that’s not leadership, I don’t know what is.”

JT - pictured with his assistants - loves it when a plan comes together

Terry also claimed credit for changing into full matchday kit, including shinpads, to lift the trophy at the end, telling FourFourTwo.com that the gesture spoke volumes about his character.

“It would have been the easiest thing in the world to stay on the sidelines and let the players who won it take the glory, but I’m big enough and man enough to stand right in the middle of any celebration, whether it’s got anything to do with me or not.”

In addition, the former England captain chose to dedicate his medal to a player he described as “the man who makes Chelsea what they are”, namely himself.

“It’s a great night for the owner, for the lads, and of course for the fans,” Terry remarked, “But most of all, this victory was all about me.

“At the end of the day, no-one deserves it more.”

More from Back of the Net

Sackings, cup wins & relegation: Why Spurs will want to avoid 'doing a Zaragoza'

James Maw — Mon, 21 May 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Tottenham fans will have been left feeling rather green in the gills after their club's Champions League spot was pilfered by London rivals Chelsea on Saturday evening, but this isn't the first time a club finishing in a qualifying position has missed out.

Real Zaragoza finished the 1999/00 Primera Liga season in fourth place, only to lose their spot in the following season's Champions League when Real Madrid - who had finished fifth - beat Valencia in the final of that year's competition.

With the prize of a place in the most prestigious competition in club football taken away from them, things soon started to unravel.

Manager José Francisco Rojo had his head turned by the chance to return to his hometown club, Athletic Bilbao. Juan Manuel Lillo replaced him in the hot seat, but top scorer, spitting-Serb Savo Milosevic, was soon also off to Parma.

Savo upped and left when Zaragoza missed out on the Champions League

Zaragoza then fell at the first hurdle in the 2000/01 UEFA Cup. Having led Wisla Krakow 4-1 after the first leg, the Spanish side took an early lead in Poland to extend the aggregate score to 5-1. But four goals in ten second half minutes levelled the tie, and the Polish outfit eventually won on penalties.

That result played a part in the speedy sacking of manager Lillo after only three months at the club, with Luis Costa arriving as his replacement - his fourth of five spells in charge at La Romareda. But that didn't lead to any kind of upturn in fortunes in la Liga, with los Blanquillos eventually finishing the season in 17th - just one place and point above the drop zone.

There was some good news, at least, in the form of a Copa del Rey victory which secured a return to the UEFA Cup in 2001/02, though they failed to make much of a splash then either.

Rojo returned after just a year in Bilbao, but the club's troubles came to a head - or more accurately, a bottom - when the Aragonese side were relegated from the top flight after finishing the season at the foot of the table (apologies for any anatomical confusion).

Although they made an immediate return, the club have only managed one top half finish in their eight top flight seasons since, having also spent 2008/09 in la Segunda.

The fact Spurs will enter the Europa League at the group stage means they will be in European competition until at least December – so no chance of an exit as early as Zaragoza's, while it also seems they have already avoided losing their manager to his ‘dream job’. But holding on to their star names may prove a little tougher, not least as Gareth Bale has been pretty much gone from the neck up since mid-February.

Still, there's that cup win to look forward to. Perhaps.

Fascinating final clash of styles which echoes down the ages

Paul Simpson — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:27:00 GMT

Paul Simpson, editor of FourFourTwo's UEFA-flavoured sister magazine Champions, on the Allianz Arena clash

The 2012 UEFA Champions League final isn’t just a contest for the greatest prize in club football; it is the latest instalment in a never-ending tactical argument.

Jupp Heynckes’ Bayern belong to the grand tradition of Bill Nicholson, Jock Stein, Rinus Michels, Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola in which teams dominate possession, take the initiative and feel obliged to win in style, as Danny Blanchflower once put it.

Roberto di Matteo’s Chelsea stand for a different, no less valid, tradition in which teams seek to draw the opposition out and punish them on the counter.

Catenaccio was pioneered by the great Swiss coach Karl Rappan in the 1930s, developed in Italy in the 1950s by Milan coaches Gipo Viani and Nereo Rocco and perfected in the 1960s by Helenio Herrera’s Inter.

The counterattacking style of Rocco and Herrera dominated European football in the 1960s. Milan’s triumph over Benfica in the 1963 European Cup final signalled a shift to a new age of austerity on the pitch. Herrera’s Inter emphasised the point by defeating Real Madrid and Benfica to win back-to-back European Cups in 1964 and 1965.

With the goalscoring genius of Giacinto Facchetti at left-back, the panache of Sandro Mazzola up front and the genius of playmaker Luis Suarez in midfield, Inter were a sophisticated, tactically shrewd, technically gifted team but their reputation has been undermined by the legions of moronic imitators who turned catenaccio into a blueprint for boredom.

As UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh likes to point out, there are many ways to win a football match. The Herrera way came unstuck against Celtic in 1967. Stein admired Herrera and had studied the Argentinian’s methods, once telling his left-back Tommy Gemmell: “Your job is to play like Facchetti”.

In the heat of Lisbon, the immovable object of Inter’s defence crumbled under the irresistible force of Celtic’s attacking verve. The Lisbon Lions played, as Gemmell put it, “pure attacking football”. The left-back did his bit, scoring the equaliser that shattered Inter’s resistance.

1967: Celtic's brio breaks Inter's resolve

European football expected Rocco’s Rossoneri to restate the case for the counterattacking game in the 1969 final against Michels’ Ajax. But Milan attacked from the off. In the 67th minute, when Angelo Sormani made it 3-1 to the Italians, the outcome was settled.

Organised by Michels and inspired by Cruyff, Ajax exacted total revenge in 1972 and 1973, beating Inter 2-0 and Juventus 1-0 in two of the most one-sided finals in the competition’s history. The manner of these defeats was so comprehensive that even Italian football, which had championed catenaccio as “the right of the weak” in the famous words of Gianni Brera, realised a rethink was required.

At this point, the tactical war seemed over. In a sense, it was. As a philosophy of football, counterattacking had had its day. But coaches kept using the tactic when the occasion – or the opposition – demanded.

The most successful exhibition of counterattacking football in a European Cup final since the 1960s was probably Nottingham Forest’s 1-0 win over Hamburg in 1980. For whatever reason – possibly because it encouraged other coaches to underestimate him – Brian Clough perpetuated the myth that he knew nothing about tactics.

As Jonathan Wilson has proved in Nobody Ever Says Thank You, his compelling biography of Old Big Ead, this is errant nonsense. In 1980, with striker Trevor Francis injured, Clough told Gary Mills to move into midfield in a 4-5-1 that utterly stifled the German champions.

After the final (which Forest won 1-0 thanks to John Robertson’s goal), Hamburg coach Brnko Zebec sounded like a man who had just been mugged: “Hamburg carried the whole weight of that game. Nottingham only defended. I say this not as a criticism but as a statement of fact.” Enzo Bearzot, who would win the World Cup two years later with an enterprising Azzurri side, even accused Clough of reinventing catenaccio.

1980: 'Robbo eats Hamburgers' as Forest outwit the Germans

Although Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan proved that Italian teams – especially when illuminated by Dutch genius – could attack and entertain, winning the European Cup in 1989 and 1990, old prejudices lingered.

When Cruyff moved from the pitch to the dugout, he maintained his suspicion of the Italian style. “The Italians,” he famously said, “can’t beat you, but you can lose to them.” (To which Carlo Ancelotti replied: “If Cruyff wants entertainment, he should go to the cinema.”)

The Dutch icon cast the 1994 UEFA Champions League final, in which his Barcelona side faced Fabio Capello’s Milan, as a contest for the soul of football. But with Alessandro Costacurta and Franco Baresi suspended, Don Fabio decided, like Rocco in 1969, that attack was the best form of defence. Milan won 4-0.

1994: Fabio four, Johan nil

Pep Guardiola was one of the Barcelona players shaken by that defeat and, though he still reveres Cruyff as a mentor, he saw at first hand how dangerous over-confidence could be. In his short but spectacularly successful coaching career, Guardiola – along with Jose Mourinho – has raised the bar with the sheer meticulousness of his pre-match preparation.

Mourinho has replaced calcio as the principal public object of Cruyff’s ire, partly because of the Portuguese maverick’s abrasive brand of mind games but also because of the ruthless – and often effective – way he has organised his Chelsea and Inter teams to frustrate Barcelona.

The 2010 UEFA Champions League semi-final was Mourinho’s greatest riposte to Cruyff. As Sandro Mazzola points out in the latest issue of Champions magazine: “With typical Mourinho canniness, Inter didn’t confront Messi – they simply cut off his supply lines, employing a four-man cage tactic”. This was a huge gamble – Messi’s team-mates could exploit the space vacated elsewhere – but it worked. Inter had won and, whatever purists might say about their style of play, the tie was hardly devoid of entertainment.

2010: Inter put Messi in the cage

Two years later, Mourinho’s former club have reached their second UEFA Champions League final after similar heroics at Camp Nou as Roberto di Matteo, replacing Andre Villas-Boas, prioritised results over style.

One reason the debate between purists and pragmatists will never end is that the distinction between the two is not as clear-cut as many purists would suggest. Possession football isn’t always thrilling – the most enthralling match in Spain’s successful 2010 World Cup campaign was probably their 1-0 defeat to Switzerland – and teams that counter aren’t always dull: Chelsea’s 4-1 victory over Napoli in the round of 16 was as compelling as their disposal of Benfica in the last eight was efficient.

Nobody knows how Chelsea will play in Munich. Facing the same kind of defensive reshuffle as Capello in 1994, will Di Matteo decide attack is the best form of defence? Or will he choose containment? The rope-a-dope Muhammad Ali style tactics worked for 10-man Chelsea in Barcelona, but only with Messi missing a penalty.

With away goals irrelevant in Munich, Di Matteo will need Chelsea to compete in midfield, be resolute and disciplined on the flanks and, when the spaces open up behind Bayern’s wide players, make the most of them.

Heynckes faces his own tough choices. In 2010, Bayern were not simply undone by the absence of Franck Ribery. They were confounded by an Inter team so confident in its organisational nous they were happy to give the ball away. Louis van Gaal’s Bayern were too methodical, too slow and took so many touches – often five or six before finding a team-mate – that the Nerazzurri defenders had time to ensure they were perfectly in position.

2012: Which way will the coaches go?

With Ribery and Arjen Robben in the starting line-up, and Toni Kroos floating free in midfield, Bayern should be more fluent going forward than in Madrid. Mind you, just as Di Matteo is unlikely to emulate the old-school catenaccio of Herrera’s Inter, Heynckes’ Bayern won’t employ the gung-ho attacking football that worked so memorably for the Lisbon Lions in 1967.

Whoever triumphs in Munich, neither side will land a knockout blow in the eternal contest between the ghosts of Herrera and Michels.

Could Kalou's direct running be what wins the Champions League for Chelsea?

Michael Cox — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses FourFourTwo's StatsZone app to preview Saturday's Champions League Final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea...

Chelsea’s performance in their semi-final victory over Barcelona was highly reminiscent of their former coach Jose Mourinho’s tactics in the 2010 semi-final, when his Inter side travelled to the Nou Camp and enjoyed a similarly successful result. Mourinho also went onto play Bayern in the final that year, kept roughly the same tactics, and Diego Milito scored both goals in a 2-0 win.

Will Chelsea follow Mourinho’s lead, and play the same way against Bayern as they did against Barcelona? The two sides play a similar style of football – Barcelona have the highest pass completion rate and highest average possession in Europe’s five major leagues, but Bayern are second in both categories. With 'home advantage' helping their dominance, the German side are likely to enjoy well over 50% of possession.

Of course, Bayern play with more natural width than Barcelona and, in Mario Gomez, have an aerial target for crosses. But the defensive stats from their match in Barcelona demonstrate that Chelsea have already been playing in a manner that will suit the challenge of Bayern – intercepting the ball in very central positions, but making tackles in wider positions to close down the wingers.

Frank Lampard has taken on a different role in Chelsea’s European fixtures this season. In the league, even when fielded as a deep-lying midfielder alongside John Obi Mikel, he still gets plenty of time to move forward into the opposition half and help create chances. But in the Champions League, he’s played as a very disciplined holding midfielder, something we haven’t seen him do before.

The graphic below demonstrates this – his Premier League role is as something of a box-to-box midfielder, spraying passes all over the pitch. In the home game against Barcelona, he barely got into the final third, and focused on playing passes out to Ramires and Juan Mata on the break.

It will be interesting to see where he is fielded in the final – he could play as a holding midfielder alongside Mikel, with Mata as the number ten and Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou on the flanks. Alternatively, if Malouda isn’t fit, Mata will move wide, Lampard will be pushed higher up, and Michael Essien would come into the side alongside Mikel. Even then, it isn't yet clear whether Lampard would play high up the pitch in support of Drogba, or much deeper alongside his two midfield colleagues.

The suspension of Brazilian holding midfielder Luiz Gustavo means Bayern are without a certain first-teamer deep in midfield, and will therefore have to play Toni Kroos and Bastian Schweinsteiger as their two holders.

That means Kroos has to be brought back from the advanced midfield role he has filled so well in the two legs against Real Madrid. Instead, Thomas Muller will play there, probably occupying a position higher up the pitch, close to Mario Gomez.

But Muller also has a tendency to drift to the right when fielded in that No.10 position – in the away game against Marseille, for example, he consistently took up positions on the right wing (where he can also play) despite the fact Arjen Robben was playing in the same zone. Chelsea will have to be wary of this, and be careful that Ashley Cole isn’t overloaded in the left-back position.

Another enforced change for Bayern will be Diego Contento coming in at left-back in place of the suspended David Alaba. Contento won’t know his direct opponent until kick-off – Salomon Kalou could play on that flank, or Di Matteo could decide to put Juan Mata out there. Those two players offer a very different threat, with Kalou more of a dribbler and Mata likely to put himself in central positions and create.

Interestingly, Contento is a very different style of left-back to Alaba. As Contento showed in Bayern’s game at Manchester City earlier in the season, he’s much more of an interceptor than a tackler, the complete opposite of Alaba. With that in mind, his style might be more suited to playing against Mata’s clever positioning than against Kalou’s direct running with the ball.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE in-play and covering Champions League and Premier League. Coming soon: the completely free Euro 2012 StatsZone, in association with Coral.

Big decisions due for Vicente del Bosque

Tim Stannard — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:23:00 GMT

If Roy Hodgson thought his lot was a bad one – having to deal with a nasty tabloid press out to get him before a single England match, not to mention needing to pick Stewart Downing – it’s small beer, chips and sausages compared what Vicente del Bosque is having to put up with.

True, the Spain manager can enjoy the wholehearted backing of everyone in the country, what with having won the World Cup, and can also choose from some of the best players on the planet, a considerably happier situation that confronts his English counterpart.

However, due to the lack of planning skills of the Spanish FA, Del Bosque can't choose his final squad for the Euros until about 20 minutes before the first match kicks off. With the Copa del Rey taking place a day before Spain's first warm-up game, Del Bosque will be unable to train or select any Barcelona or Athletic Bilbao players – a not inconsiderable chunk of the squad’s make-up.

This has meant that Del Bosque has had to pick a provisional provisional squad – perhaps the only explanation as to why Atlético Madrid players feature for the first time under the moustachioed man’s tenure. “I’m not about clubs, I’m about players,” noted Del Bosque in an interview in Friday’s Marca, saying that there hadn't previously been any Rojiblancos good enough.

As LLL checks earlier blog entries in case hat-eating is required, Atlético full-back Juanfran has been called into the team – presumably to be rejected at a suitable subsequent moment – along with Adrían and Álvaro Domínguez. Also called up is Beñat of Betis.

However, Del Bosque is still his normal uncomplaining self, despite probably missing Carles Puyol, dealing with an out-of-form Gerard Piqué and sweating on a hobbling David Villa. “It’s a special case, but we have to think with clear heads before making the decision,” admitted the Spain manager on whether or not the Barça striker will make the final squad, to be announced on May 29th.

A posse of other Spanish managers are also in the news this week, in a more domestic context. Sevilla have signed up Míchel for another season, despite the former Getafe man failing to qualify for Europe last year whilst Joaquín Caparrós has been persuaded to stay on for another campaign in Mallorca, on the grounds that it's probably a pleasant, peaceful life there.

Manolo Jiménez looks like staying on at Zaragoza, despite his reported demands that the club make an effort with the youth system and that he and and his team have more control over hirings and firings.

Rayo are set to have talks with José Ramón Sandoval next week over his future, whilst Valencia have already admitted that new boss Mauricio Pellegrino wasn't the first choice to take over – LLL suspects the Argentinian wasn’t even the second or third – with sporting director Braulio Vásquez revealing that the top man for the job was André Villas Boas, but the Portuguese ended up turning down the chance to be Mestalla manager for some strange reason.

Madrid's youth academy deserves as much respect as Barcelona's

Gareth McKnight — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:21:00 GMT

Barcelona's la Masia youth academy is renowned for its productivity, but as Gareth McKnight reports, Real Madrid's Castilla has arguably had a bigger effect on Spanish football

Much to Real Madrid’s displeasure, Barcelona’s La Masia youth setup is viewed as football’s No.1 breeding ground for new world-beating talent. With the likes of Leo Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi examples of the quality coming off the Catalan production line, and seven youth-team graduates in the starting XI that won last season’s Champions League final, the praise is understandable and justified.

The easy theory, prompted by the capital club's star-collecting 'galactico' ethos, is that Barcelona make players and Real Madrid buy them. But the Santiago Bernabeu side’s youth system has more of an impact on their side, and La Liga, than first meets the eye.

Whilst Madrid’s current first-team may be dominated by big-money buys such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, this has not always been the case. In the late 1980s a combative and direct Madrid side won five successive Primera Division titles with five homegrown players at the core of the team.

Those five players – Emilio Butragueno, Manolo Sanchis, Martin Vazquez, Michel and Miguel Pardeza – were nicknamed La Quinta del Buitre (the Vulture’s Cohort), and led the club to one of their most successful periods in recent times. The club prided itself on its Spanish core, coupled with a hardworking and passionate ethos.

The change in philosophy came during Florentino Perez’s first tenure as Real Madrid president between 2000 and 2007, with Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham high-profile, foreign Galacticos signings. Perez’s policy was initially coined Zidanes y Pavones, after Zidane and youth team product Francisco Pavon, the idea being to introduce one new big-money signing and one youth team member per season.

However, the young players, blinking in the limelight of the big-name signings, were rarely given opportunities and the team was accused of elevating entertainment above achievement, with the teamwork of La Quinta del Buitre not present.

Zidane and, two to his right, Pavon

The policy of signing big-name players has continued into recent times, but many Madrid fans see Jose Mourinho’s current approach and style of play more similar to the hard-working Quinte del Buitre team rather than the lavish Galacticos idea. Furthermore, looking at Real Madrid's Castilla youth system, there have been a large number of graduates to have made a significant impact in the game in Spain, right up to the present time.

The poster-boy for the Madrid academy has always been Raul, who still holds the club’s all-time goalscoring record from his 16-year stint at the Bernabeu. Similarly, Guti was a fans’ favourite in his 15-year spell, making almost 400 appearances throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Despite the capture of the world’s most recognisable stars, these two remained the darlings of the Bernabeu.

In the current side Iker Casillas is held in as high a regard as anybody, and captains the club; Spain’s all-time record cap-winner needs no further praise and is a tribute to the pedigree of the Castilla. There were high hopes that Esteban Granero would be the next Castilla protégé, but as yet the talented midfielder hasn't been able to hold down a regular place in Los Blancos’ first team.

Raul and Casillas: homeboys

Some have graduated from the Castilla, gained first-team experience elsewhere and returned, such as defender Alvaro Arbeloa and forward Jose Callejon, who currently provide depth to Mourinho’s squad. However, Madrid’s youth setup is apparent in other sides across La Liga (and indeed Europe).

Spain internationals Juan Mata and Roberto Soldado got first-team experience at Valencia and matured into world-class players, with both being linked with a move back to the Bernabeu at various times in their careers. Alvaro Negredo has swapped the Spanish capital for Andalusia, and has made sufficient waves at Sevilla to battle his way into the national set-up.

Other examples include highly-rated Benfica midfielder Javi Garcia, Villarreal’s Borja Valero and Valencia midfielder Dani Parejo, alongside countless others through the divisions.

Real Madrid's youth system have produced some excellent players in recent times, and although La Masia may be fabled in terms of the last 10 years, the Castilla has had widespread influence over Spanish football, both at the Bernabeu and further afield.

With the style, components and emphasis of almost all clubs and teams evolving and changing over the years, perhaps the Castilla will come to play an even bigger role in the future Mourinho is building.

Everybody left out of Roy Hodgson's England squad

Back of the Net — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:30:00 GMT

England's new coach has really swung the axe, as Back of the Net's John Foster explains...

New England manager Roy Hodgson has been defending his surprise decision to leave everyone out of his squad for the European Championships in June

The ex-West Brom boss swung the axe in his first national team selection, choosing to omit Rio Ferdinand, Micah Richards, Adam Johnson, Paul Scholes, and Michael Carrick.

There was also no place for Aaron Lennon, Peter Crouch, Daniel Sturridge, Scott Carson, or any of the other 4,000 professional football players eligible to play for England.

“We needed to try something new,” explained the 64-year old at a press conference yesterday to announce the 0-man party.

“Everyone’s had their chances at previous tournaments to show what they’re capable of, and unfortunately, everyone’s made it repeatedly clear that they’re not up to the task.”

How England will line up for their Euro 2012 opener against France

Having spent a career getting the most out of limited resources, Hodgson insisted that he had thought carefully about how to make best use of England’s pool of available talent.

“When I asked myself who deserved to be in the team on merit, the obvious answer was nobody, so that’s who we’ve gone for,” he told FourFourTwo.com.

“It’s not the most physical line-up, given that it lacks any corporeal form, and I wouldn’t expect us to dominate possession,” he added. “But I’m confident that this team can be more than the sum of its non-existent parts.”

The decision to take no footballers means England will presumably line up in a 0-0-0 formation, though a more flexible 0-0-0-0 has also been touted. And with no big egos to contend with, the dressing-room disharmony that has plagued previous squads should be kept to a minimum.

Reaction among supporters to everyone’s omission has been mixed, however.

“It’s great to see Roy get rid of the dead wood, but I worry about this team’s strength in depth,” said England fans’ spokesman Hugh Merryweather. “We’re lightweight in every position, and there’s literally no-one on the bench.”

“Also, I can’t believe he picked Stewart Downing.”

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Toilet talk in Spain as Lotina leaves Villarreal in the poop

Tim Stannard — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:36:00 GMT

Three days after Villarreal’s rather rapid relegation from la Primera, LLL suspects there are still sobbing supporters sitting in the stands in el Madrigal, their mouths opening and closing like goldfish. In the space of just three minutes the club suffered the divisional descent of both their first side and ‘B’ team, the latter to make way for the Yellow Submarine seniors in la Segunda next season.

The gentleman largely responsible for this, Miguel Angel Lotina, left his coaching post on Wednesday having chalked up an impressive third relegation with a Primera club thanks to a record of three wins, five draws and three defeats in his 11 match tenure. “I felt like a manager again,” said Lotina, thanking the club for the chance to continue his reign as the one and only Lord of Doom.

However, Villarreal president Fernando Roig has other things on his mind, quite aside from his team not being much good / motivated / bothered. As well as hints of “worrying” goings-on in la Primera, as alluded to by Lotina over the past three or four years, Roig has added to the pot by claiming that by doing things by the book and following the rules in la Primera, Villarreal have been at an unfair disadvantage against most other teams in la Liga – a not completely outrageous suggestion as it turns out.

“[We have been] competing with sides that don’t pay their taxes, social security or their players...these clubs can sign and sign players then not pay for them.” Parts of this description fit Zaragoza, who stayed up at Villarreal’s expense, and Atlético Madrid, the team who sent them down with a 1-0 win in the last match.

The last couple of days have also brought up some curious goings-on in Vallecas in the final few minutes of Rayo’s game with Granada, with the Madrid team desperately needing a goal against their rivals at the time in order to make sure that it was Villarreal – losing to Atlético Madrid – and not themselves getting relegated.

It seems that some of the Rayo players were telling their counterparts that Villarreal were in fact losing by a couple of goals rather than the one – a scoreline that would see the visitors safe – and that it would be really nice if they could let Rayo score to allow both clubs to celebrate. “They told us it was 0-2 but we said ‘No, we don’t know anything,” admitted Granada’s Iñigo López.

“We need to win or we are dead,” are the words that Rayo boss José Ramón Sandoval revealed that he shouted to his counterpart, Abel Resino, on the touchline shortly before Rayo got their winner that keeps the club’s place in la Primera.

All this is of only partial interest to AS and Mundo Deportivo, who are having a spat that involves the Copa del Rey, Florentino Pérez and some toilets.

Some readers will remember that Real Madrid withdrew the Santiago Bernabeu as a possible venue for the Copa del Rey final between Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona due to repair works planned for the time of the game. “Nonsense,” was the response from the Catalan press, suspecting that Madrid were being meanie-heads and not wanting to see Barcelona celebrate a possible win in their stadium.

Wednesday’s edition of Mundo Deportivo published a photograph on the front cover of some very pleasant-looking toilets at Madrid’s home, claiming that word of works was a sham. AS countered with photos of missing seats in the stadium, reporting that 14,000 seats were being replaced and 240 bathrooms being repaired.

All in all, it’s a nice bit of Spanish silly-season symmetry: the papers are in the toilets as Villarreal’s world goes down the bog.

Why Michael Carrick should start for England this summer

Alex Keble — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:47:00 GMT

If it's a straight shoot-out between Carrick, Parker and Barry for the defensive midfield role, the stats show the Old Trafford man should get the nod, says Alex Keble

Until recently, Michael Carrick's league form has gone somewhat characteristically unnoticed. His quiet consistency, although never overlooked by his manager, fails to draw the attention of the press. This is no real surprise: Carrick's play relies primarily on tackles and interceptions, breaking up opposition attacks before playing a simple pass to begin the classic Man United counter attack.

It's fair to say Carrick wouldn't be the first name suggested for Roy Hodgson's Euro 2012 squad, but a brief look at statistics from FourFourTwo's Stats Zone quickly answers any questions. It's not his defensive work that merits inclusion ahead of rivals like Tottenham's Scott Parker and Manchester City's Gareth Barry, but his excellent use of the ball.

Will England use a defensive midfielder?
Roy Hodgson is well renowned to be a pragmatic manager who, given only a short space of time to work with the players before the Euros, will look to focus on defensive solidity. He will be acutely aware of England's technical deficiency, knowing that England are, despite media hype, underdogs.

With this in mind, there's a good chance of Hodgson utilising a midfield anchorman. Analysing England's recent international record, we can see that in the last six competitive games England have won four and drawn two. All four wins came when England used a 4-5-1 with Parker playing deep; both draws were when Capello selected a more traditional 4-4-2.

Hodgson's West Brom team regularly switched between 4-4-2 and 4-5-1, choosing the latter against stronger teams when a more defensive set-up is necessary. In the last two months Hodgson has used five in midfield (with Youssouf Mulumbu in the holding role) against Man City, Newcastle, Chelsea and Man United. The likelihood of him fielding a similar formation in the European Championships seems relatively high, considering he has already acknowledged success in the summer is 'going to be unbelievably hard'.

Carrick, Parker or Barry?
So why pick Carrick ahead of Parker, the man whose terrier-like approach has seen him become an international regular and guaranteed first choice for high-flying Spurs – or Barry, who has been England's default defensive midfielder for half a decade? At first glance, Parker makes more tackles per game than Carrick (3.8 to 3.1) and his interceptions are also superior (3.2 to 2.5). His play on the ball, however, is far weaker than Carrick's.

This isn't an abstract problem. Hodgson has been quoted as saying "If you take [the second striker] out, the threat to the back of the defence has to come from the midfield, you need midfield players bursting forward... The central midfielders do an important job for you, they’re going to protect the back four, and they’re also going to be the catalysts for attacks'.

In other words, in Hodgson's 4-5-1, he needs two thing from his central midfield. He needs them to be "bursting forward" – which seems much more like Parker than Barry – but he also needs them to be the "catalyst for attacks". Step forward Michael Carrick.

Carrick's defensive statistics may not be as high as Parker's but they are still very good. He makes 3.1 tackles per game, more than both Marouane Fellaini and Alex Song. He also averages 2.5 interceptions per match – no mean feat for a midfielder.

What's most intriguing is the number of clearances Carrick makes: a puny 1.6 per game, lower than Parker and Barry. Why is it that a midfielder so adept at breaking down opposition attacks rarely makes clearances? The answer: he seldom feels the need to do so.

Carrick's ball retention is outstanding. He makes an average of 72.4 passes per game, significantly higher than Parker or Barry, and bettered only by Yaya Toure and Mikel Arteta, arguably the two best midfielders in the league this season. Of these passes, Carrick has an 89.8% completion rate, and his long pass completion is even more impressive, with an average of 6.1 per game: Carrick rarely loses the ball, rarely gives away possession.

Given Hodgson requires a midfielder who can be the "catalyst for attacks", Carrick fits the bill perfectly. The consistency of his passing and his ball retention skills make, as can be easily seen in any Man United match, a huge contribution to their swift counter-attacks.

If Hodgson requires attackers to burst forward to support a lone striker, than surely an anchorman who will play the pass rather than clear his lines is the best way to ensure his fellow midfielders can offer attacking support quickly and efficiently. The cool head of Carrick, calmly retaining possession and beginning an England attack, suddenly appears as a favourable option to Parker.

Evidence: Head-to-Head In Key Games
To consolidate this idea, let us analyse Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur against the same opponent: their 2-1 victories against Arsenal.

When United won at the Emirates in January, Carrick played as part of a four-man midfield, in an anchor role that allowed Giggs the freedom to link up with Rooney, dropping into his familiar role at No.10. Parker played a very similar role as part of a four-man midfield in Spurs' October win over Arsenal.

The Stats Zone statistics show us Carrick's high pass success rate (51 out of 56) and his unusually low number of clearances (2), suggesting good ball retention and controlled defensive play.

What's more, Carrick made more passes and more tackles than any other player on the pitch, although, importantly, he made comparatively few clearances, and fewer than his counterpart Alex Song. United had 51.4% possession at the Emirates, completing 350 passes to Arsenal's 334.

Whereas Carrick trumped his fellow midfielders for the number of passes made, the stats show that Parker made fewer passes than five other players including four Arsenal midfielders; indeed, at White Hart Lane Arsenal had 61.7% and completed 415 passes to Tottenham's 227.

Perhaps as a result of this pressure, Parker made more tackles than Carrick (and the second most in the game).

Both men attempted two clearances, but Carrick's were inside his own penalty box, suggesting he will only clear the ball and willingly concede possession when there is imminent danger. Parker's clearances, from slightly further forward, may indicate a deficiency in composure. This may appear a subtle difference, but it may just be exposed at international level.

Perhaps more damningly, Opta stats reveal that Parker was tackled more often than Carrick (or for that matter Gareth Barry). The Spurs man was dispossessed 58 times in his 29 league games – twice a game, double the average of Barry (36 times in 34 games) and four times Carrick, who was dispossessed only 15 times in 30 games. With possession of paramount importance, Carrick is simply less likely to lose the ball.

Carrick for England?
England were transformed in 2007 when Gareth Barry re-entered the England set-up in a similar role, albeit in a 4-4-2 formation. Having relied on the tenacity of Owen Hargreaves up until this point, the introduction of an excellent passing midfielder in a deep role instantly gave more freedom to Steven Gerrard. Barry has remained in the England set up ever since, but his defensive work cannot compare to that of Parker or Carrick.

It is interesting to note that Manchester United, a team with the highest possession rate in the league, have won fewer aerial duels than any team bar Swansea and Wigan. Having a defensive midfielder who does not put the ball in the air, but instead quickly and efficiently turns over possession, certainly helps this statistic, and gives his fellow midfielders more time on the ball.

It's no wonder that Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs have had such great seasons dictating play from the centre of the park, while Ashley Young has impressed on the left,Wayne Rooney has had his best league goalscoring season and Danny Welbeck has broken through for club and country. With Carrick in the England side, we can expect a similar amount of time and space for his team-mates in Ukraine.

Carroll lord of the skies, Gallas a pass-master and the thing Stephen Warnock is good at

Stats Zone — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:00:00 GMT

With the 2011/12 Premier League season now behind us, we reveal the Stats Zone Awards!

note: there is no tangible prize for any category.

Best and worst passing accuracy (of players to have attempted over 500 passes)
1. Leon Britton (Swansea) 93.49% (2258 passes)
2. William Gallas (Tottenham) 93.05% (676)
3. Paul Scholes (Man Utd) 93.05% (1137)

1. Steve Morison (Norwich) 56.04% (546 passes)
2. Kevin Davies (Bolton) 57.77% (901)
3. Peter Crouch (Stoke) 59.26 (1141)

Most unsuccessful long passes
1. Maynor Figueroa (Wigan) 178
2. Marc Wilson (Stoke) 158
3. Phil Jagielka (Everton) 146

Most shots per minute
1. Edin Dzeko (Man City) 71 shots in 1497 minutes (21.1 mins per shot)
2. Robin van Persie (Arsenal) 141 shots in 3334 mins (23.6)
3. Wayne Rooney (Man Utd) 120 shots in 2839 mins (23.7)

Fewest successful passes per minute
1. Djibril Cisse (QPR) 68 passes in 536 mins (7.9 mins per successful pass)
2. Ryan Shawcross (Stoke) 418 passes in 3169 mins (7.6)
3. Conor Sammon (Wigan) 116 passes in 835 mins (7.2)

Most shots off-target from outside the penalty area
1. Gareth Bale (Tottenham) 27
2. Wayne Rooney (Man Utd) 26
3. James Morrison (WBA) 24

Most blocks
1= Jonas Olsson (WBA) 39
1= Ashley Williams (Swansea) 39
3. Gary Caldwell (Wigan) 36

Most aerial duals won
1. Andy Carroll (Liverpool) 153
2. Peter Crouch (Stoke) 149
3. Younes Kaboul (Tottenham) 121

Most interceptions
1. Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa) 103
2. Youssuf Mulumbu (West Brom) 101
3. Stilian Petrov (Aston Villa) 97

Best shot-to-save ratio
1. David de Gea (Man Utd) 77.86%
2. Joe Hart (Man City) 76.98%
3. David Stockdale (Fulham) 75.86%

Most fouls committed
1. Wigan Athletic 485
2. Everton 481
3. Bolton Wanderers 463

1. Grant Holt (Norwich) 89
2. Marouane Fellaini (Everton) 88
3. Alex Song (Arsenal) 73

Most fouls suffered
1. QPR 446
2= Swansea 433
2= Newcastle United 433

1. Jonas Gutierrez (Newcastle) 86
2. Victor Moses (Wigan) 76
3. Luis Suarez (Liverpool) 74

Most goals scored from outside the penalty area
1. Manchester City 20
2. Manchester United 15
3. Tottenham Hotspur 14

Most goals conceded from crosses
1. Manchester United 27
2= Chelsea 24
2= Norwich 24

Team to hit the woodwork the fewest times (because we're bored of hearing about Liverpool's bad luck)
1= Norwich 7
1= Stoke City 7
3. Bolton Wanderers 8

Best shot conversion rate
1. Manchester United 18.94%
2. Manchester City 17.68%
3. Newcastle United 15.77%

Worst shot conversion rate
1. Liverpool 9.13%
2. Wigan Athletic 11.02%
3. Aston Villa 11.14%

Congratulations one and all. Now, about that after-party...

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE in-play and covering Champions League and Premier League. Coming soon: the completely free Euro 2012 StatsZone, in association with Coral.

Bolton Wanderers' Kevin Davies too good to go down, FA confirms

Back of the Net — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:02:00 GMT

The Football Association has been left with a massive logistical headache after it was forced to confirm that Bolton striker Kevin Davies is too good to go down.

Bolton were relegated from the Premier League on the final weekend of the season after drawing 2-2 at Stoke, despite manager Owen Coyle’s insistence throughout the campaign that his side were too talented to drop down to the Football League.

However, it has now emerged that Coyle was partly correct in his assessment. While 35 of Bolton’s 36 squad members were precisely good enough to be relegated from England’s top tier, Kevin Davies was fractionally too good.

Sadly for Bolton fans, it doesn’t appear that these findings will benefit their club. The Football Association has encouraged Davies to join another Premier League side, but should Davies refuse to find a new employer, he will be forced to compete alone.

Kevin Davies FC take an early lead at Villa Park on the opening day of 2012/13

The FA will be keen to avoid Davies setting up his own club and have pointed out that his ground, 6 The Mount, will need comprehensive work to meet Premier League standards.

“It’s no secret that the FA is keen to prevent Kevin Davies FC playing in the Premier League next season,” a Football Association spokesman told FourFourTwo.com.

“While I can only imagine they would have a similar points tally to Bolton this season, it’s bad for the image of English football to have a solitary striker, albeit a tenacious one, taking on the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea.

“As a nation we had to fight hard to overcome the stigma European countries placed on us for allowing Mark Crossley to compete in the UEFA Cup for those three seasons in the 1990s and this would surely be a step backwards.”

While Davies’ agent insists the ageing marksman is a target for several mid-table Premier League outfits, the 35-year-old was seen buying a pair of goalkeeper gloves in JJB Sports yesterday wearing a garish, home-made shirt with a KDFC crest and is rumoured to have booked a pre-season friendly with Northwich Victoria.

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Who should Roy take to Euro 2012?

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:43:00 GMT

Workplaces up and down the land are abuzz with debate about who Roy Hodgson should take to Euro 2012, and Casa FourFourTwo is no exception. Here's what we think...

David Hall, Editor
Goalkeepers: Joe Hart, Rob Green, John Ruddy
Hart’s nailed on as number one. I’d take Ruddy for him to get a pinch of major championship spice (he could wind up a long term understudy for Hart) and I’d take Green because if Hart does end up “letting his country down” (TM every away ground that Green’s played in front of since), who better to have on hand to talk him through it?

Defenders: Kyle Walker, Micah Richards, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Gary Cahill, Phil Jones, Ashley Cole
Fisticuffs between Rio and John? Possibly. I’d like to think that maybe, just once, we could all be adults and focus on the job at hand rather than the mess created back home. There’s a good bit of pace in this defensive mix, a recurring theme in my 23. As a side note, after watching Terry, Cahill and Cole line up against Barcelona, I started to feel a lot more confident about the summer. But then I am a hopeless England romantic.

Midfielders: Michael Carrick, Scott Parker, Frank Lampard, Steve Gerrard, James Milner, Theo Walcott, Ashley Young, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Experience and youth. Pace and guile. Exuberance and control. This selection should be able to cover all potential scenarios put before England. I think Carrick’s had a great season and should get a shot in front of the back four. Then it’s all about pace: two out of Walcott, Young or the Ox. I imagine an ageing Ukraine soiling their pants at the sheer speed of it all. In front of Carrick? Possibly Lampard: depends where his head’s at after the Champions League final.

Forwards: Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge, Andy Carroll, Darren Bent
Pace, pace and more pace up here. Welbeck and Sturridge would be my preferred pairing while Rooney is suspended; Carroll would be someone to throw on if things are going pear-shaped and Roy requires a kitchen sink-style plan B. Bent? God only knows if he’ll make it, but he does have a handy habit if being in the right place at the right time.

James Maw, Online Features Editor
Goalkeepers: Hart, Ruddy, Green
Hart is a no-brainer, of course. Green can entertain the rest with tales of his adventures in the Football League, while Ruddy has a very pun-friendly name, which is what we need going into a major tournament.

Defenders: Walker, Richards, Joleon Lescott, Cahill, Terry, Jones, Cole
Two caveats – namely the fitness of Cahill and Walker. Chris Smalling would've been ahead of Phil Jones, were it not for his unfortunately-timed groin injury. No space for Leighton Baines – Lescott is the back-up left-back. A risk, yes, but we may as well take a few.

Midfielders: Parker, Carrick, Lampard, Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Aaron Lennon, Young, Adam Johnson
Lennon has had a good season at Spurs, when not hampered by injury – his pace makes him a superb impact sub. Lampard's late-season form make him a must, while Adam Johnson brings a bit more craft in wider areas. As for Scholes, if Gary Neville can convince us it's worth spending four hours watching Blackburn against Wigan, he can convince his old mate to dust off his passport one last time and make the trip.

Forwards: Walcott, Rooney, Welbeck, Carroll, Oxlade-Chamberlain
Carroll's impressive recent performances edge him ahead of Peter Crouch for the 'lump it to the big man in a last-gasp attempt to bundle home a late goal in a game we really deserve to lose' spot. Oxlade-Chamberlain perhaps hasn't played as much as he would've liked this season, but he's as good a wild card as England are going to get.

Louis Massarella, Commissioning Editor
Goalkeepers: Hart, Green, Jack Butland
Simple theory. Hart’s the undisputed No.1, Green's the most experienced back-up available. As for Butland, what’s the point taking an experienced no.3 keeper unless he’s an amazingly good tourist guide/Scrabble player? Hugely unlikely to be needed on the pitch, so take a youngster for tournament/squad experience. Butland looks the most promising and has worked under new goalkeeping coach Dave Watson at Birmingham. Perfect.

Defenders: Walker, Richards, Lescott, Cahill, Jones, Cole, Baines
Feel sorry for Chris Smalling: he would have been in, has been playing well at centre-back, proved he can play right-back for England – and he has three A-levels, more than the rest of the squad combined. I’m taking a balls-out risk: no Terry or Rio. Both in decent form but nowhere near their best, so kill the debate, take neither, let’s move on. No excuses then – or perhaps the perfect excuse for not doing well. Not sure I trust Jones at CB yet, bit too buccaneering, but he is “the future” apparently. Also a good deputy for Parker in midfield. Richards is one of the two best right-backs, who can also play centrally. Carrick could play centre-back at a push too. Which leads us to...

Midfielders: Carrick, Parker, Barry, Gerrard, Lampard, Lennon, Young, Oxlade-Chamberlain
I really can’t understand why Carrick hasn't been in the squad recently. Better than Barry for me. Great positionally, loads of interceptions, two-footed passer, chips in with the odd goal, outstanding season in a lightweight Man United midfield. I’d play him alongside Parker. Lennon's back in on recent form, with Oxlade-Chamberlain because he can play on left as well as right and I'd prefer him as back-up to Young than a functional Milner. So, no Theo then? Not so fast...

Forwards: Rooney, Welbeck, Walcott, Sturridge, Carroll
Walcott must have been thinking “Oh no, not again”, having played in all the qualifiers, only for his form to dip recently and Lennon to come up on the rails as he did in 2010. For me, Theo has always been an instinctive player, more suited up top than out wide, where he has more time to think. He also reflects my one clear policy for this squad – to overload with England's main attribute: pace. Imagine Walcott coming on up top for the last 20 minutes... a defender’s nightmare. Welbeck and Sturridge deserve a berth, maybe even to start the opener. Sturridge, a rare left-footer, can also play wide. As for Carroll, I was going to plump for Crouch, who has been in good form and has previous at international level (against the like of the Isle of Wight, Bermuda and Guam), but as FFT’s ed pointed out, foreign refs just seems to penalise him because he’s really tall and thin and has to stoop to win a lot of headers. So Carroll it is, mainly because of recent form. I think he’d relish the opportunity – and that others would like playing off him.

Huw Davies, Staff Writer/Sub Editor
Goalkeepers: Hart, Ben Foster, Alex Smithies
It's concerning for England that there are few trustworthy replacements if Hart succumbs to injury: the second and third keeper spots are wide open. It’s a perfect opportunity for England to blood a talented youngster and give him tournament experience. Though injury has put his career on hold this season, 22-year-old Alex Smithies of Huddersfield is still a real prospect and no less reliable than Scott Carson or David Stockdale.

Defenders: Walker, Richards, Lescott, Cahill, Terry, Jones, Cole, Baines
Lescott can deputise at left-back, but England wouldn’t want to lose him in the middle. While he’s looked occasionally suspect at Chelsea of late, Terry is still one of few chest-thumpers who can inspire England in tough circumstances, even if he loses his first-team place to Lescott and Cahill. It’s unfortunate that the flexible Chris Smalling misses out, but it’s good news for the underrated Richards and PFA Young Player of the Year Walker, who no longer have to battle it out for one place. (Glen Johnson has been found out enough times now.) Jones should go as a utility player, capable across the defence and in central midfield should England’s holding players get crocked.

Midfielders: Parker, Carrick, Lampard, Gerrard, Milner, Lennon, Young, Walcott
Carrick should come in for the sidelined Jack Wilshere, with Parker the obvious choice to battle alongside him in the centre. Lampard and Gerrard may no longer be the players they were, but they still have a lot to offer – most importantly, goals from midfield. Milner is a useful squad choice, Young and Walcott are standard picks for pace. Pace is one of England’s key assets, so they need a ready replacement: with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain having played only a few hours of top-level football, the vastly improved Lennon – seriously missed by Tottenham when he was injured – could be a key impact sub.

Forwards: Rooney, Peter Crouch, Daniel Sturridge, Welbeck
Probably the hardest position to pick, with so many options offering so many different things. England would love an out-and-out finisher like Darren Bent or Jermain Defoe, but both lack game time. Fortunately, Welbeck has it in him to be a poacher, and Sturridge has said in the new issue of FourFourTwo that he’d like to do the same: lead the line, score the goals. England shouldn’t need a lanky lummox as Plan B, but they frequently do and Crouch is still the best option for that. He offers more than the alternatives – inconsistent Andy Carroll, goal-shy Bobby Zamora or untested Grant Holt, who many forget has only started 23 games for Norwich this season.

Gary Parkinson, FourFourTwo.com Editor
Goalkeepers: Hart, Scott Carson, Scott Loach

Joe Hart is England's key player: nowhere else is the pool so shallow. With respect, you're picking the other two names from a hat (or cap); it'd be nice to have experienced back-up – Paul Robinson? – but they've all requested gardening leave.

Defenders: Richards, Walker, Cahill, Lescott, Jones, Phil Jagielka, Cole, Baines
Much as Hodgson might want John Terry and Rio Ferdinand focused, fit and at the top of their game, that hasn't been the case for years and the scope for off-field friction between the pair could poison the squad atmosphere. Without them it's a youngish defence, but Cahill and Lescott are hardly greenhorns and experience failed in 2010, so Fabio Capello was rejuvenating the squad anyway. Experience gained here will benefit several of the next generation.

Midfielders: Carrick, Parker, Barry, Gerrard, Lampard, Milner
Despite the absence of Jack Wilshere, England have decent options for the central positions – withdrawn and advanced. Carrick has excelled, Barry has learned a lot, Steve'n'Frank offer experience (and options behind the main striker until Rooney returns) and Milner will do an intelligent job anywhere.

Forwards: Rooney, Carroll, Welbeck, Young, Lennon, Walcott
Coming into form bang on time, Carroll is a very different option up top. Welbeck squeaks out rival Danny Sturridge on account of more sharp-end experience (and day-job time spent with Rooney and Young), while Walcott similarly holds off clubmate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – for the time being: England have plenty of fast, tricky wide attackers, with Adam Johnson another overlooked option.

--------------

The FourFourTwo Squad
Fingers and toes asplay, we've worked out how many times each player has been selected by the assembled ~~idiots~~ experts:

5: Joe Hart, Kyle Walker, Micah Richards, Gary Cahill, Phil Jones, Ashley Cole, Michael Carrick, Scott Parker, Frank Lampard, Steve Gerrard, Theo Walcott, Ashley Young, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck
4: Joleon Lescott, Aaron Lennon, Andy Carroll
3: Rob Green, Leighton Baines, John Terry, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Daniel Sturridge
2: John Ruddy, Gareth Barry
1: Jack Butland, Ben Foster, Alex Smithies, Scott Carson, Scott Loach, Rio Ferdinand, Phil Jagielka, Paul Scholes, Adam Johnson, Darren Bent, Peter Crouch

Adding the players picked by five, four and three FFT writers totals 23, so the selected-by-committee squad is:

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart, Rob Green
Defenders: Kyle Walker, Micah Richards, Gary Cahill, Phil Jones, Ashley Cole, Joleon Lescott, Leighton Baines, John Terry
Midfielders: Michael Carrick, Scott Parker, Frank Lampard, Steve Gerrard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner
Forwards: Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Andy Carroll, Daniel Sturridge, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Ashley Young

The observant will notice that there's not enough goalkeepers there – so John Ruddy would have to replace either Baines, Terry, Milner, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sturridge. Not easy, this selection lark, is it?

The Premier League team that haven't given the ball away once all season

Stats Zone — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:33:00 GMT

Forget Barcelona (and Swansea), this would be the best passing team in the world.

OK, so they don't have a goalkeeper, and most of them are inexperienced forwards who made just one substitute appearance, but the below are the 11 players to have completed 100% of their passes in the Premier League this season...

Owen Hargreaves (Man City) 15 passes
Marcel Gecov (Fulham) 11
Callum McManaman (Wigan) 7
Cameron Lancaster (Tottenham) 4
Bruno Andrade (QPR) 4
Sebastien Squillaci (Arsenal) 3
Will Keane (Man Utd) 3
Ryan Noble (Sunderland) 3
John Gorman (Wolves) 1
Jordan Slew (Blackburn) 1
Stefan Maierhofer (Wolves) 1

Now all they need is a manager with experience of coaching a group of tika-taka types. If only there was one available...

Good Day, Bad Day: Lotina’s terrible treble and Levante’s last day delight

Tim Stannard — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:57:00 GMT

Good Day

Real Madrid
LLL had suspected Real Madrid may have been too giddy and ticklish to overcome a Mallorca side fighting for a Europa League spot, but the chance to pick up 100 points - and a rod for their own back in seasons to come - gave Real Madrid the incentive required to waltz to a comfortable win and kick off celebrations that seemed to go on longer than the match itself. The highlight was perhaps José Callejón getting revenge on José Mourinho for a goal celebration in Mestalla by leaping on his manager’s back in a reversal of roles and riding the Portuguese across the pitch.

Víctor Valdés
There are still strange tribes out there in the football wilderness who feel the Barcelona goalkeeper isn’t all that, even when they get the chance to compare the angry one with José Pinto. Total nonsense, of course. Despite conceding two goals on Saturday against Betis, Valdés won the ‘Zamora’ best goalkeeper award for the fourth season running, and the fifth time in his career, by conceding just 28 goals in 35 games.

Málaga
It was a case of 'job done' for Málaga after Sunday’s 1-0 win over Sporting, a scoreline that was considerably tighter than necessary considering the number of chances. Málaga, who now make it through to the final qualifying round for next season's Champions League. But they lost 14 games! 14! That’s one less than Villarreal! LLL isn’t going to let this one lie.

Falcao
Quite a fine week finished with a flourish and another goal to give Atlético every chance of sneaking into fourth, had Sporting nabbed a late equaliser against Málaga on the south coast of Spain.

Levante
They did it! There was just the single European place left and Levante grabbed it with a 3-0 win over what must have been a disheartened Athletic Bilbao after their Europa League final humbling on Wednesday. Having been in the top six for so long and even leading la Liga for a wee bit, the fear was that Levante would fall flat on the last day, but despite the absence of leading scorer, Koné, they stumbled over the line.

Rubén Castro
The difference between an okily-dokilly average team staying up and going down is usually a goalscorer who can reach double figures. Betis forward Rubén Castro managed that with 16 goals, the last two coming against Barcelona to put him just one behind Fernando Llorente as the best Spanish goalscorer in la Primera this season.

Raúl Tamudo
Blimey. That was close one. Rayo were just seconds from going down with Zaragoza winning, but then Raúl Tamudo popped up (in an offside position by the looks of it) in the 92nd minute to keep the Vallecas club in the top flight and kick off the mother of celebrations in the down-on-its luck neighbourhood.

Manolo Jiménez
With all the talk of ‘incentives’ being hurled in the direction of a fairly litigious Zaragoza, a match away at Getafe where the home side had three men sent off (Zaragoza had one for their part) and a penalty, as well opposition who barely gave a flying fig would look a bit iffy. But not giving a flying fig has been the general vibe Getafe have given off ever since they secured their safety a couple of weeks back, so each to their own on what they think went on in the Coliseum.
Zaragoza’s performance was hardly startling, but in front of about 14,000 traveling fans, the away side did just enough to pinch the victory that sealed a remarkable survival effort that had manager Manolo Jiménez looking quite shell shocked on Sunday night after the match and doing a local folk dance in Zaragoza’s main square a day later.

Bad Day

Valencia
A whimper of a final game of a whimper of a season in which their players did only just enough to grab third place with ten points fewer than last season, saw Los Che defeated by Real Sociedad. This is a club that needs a serious kick up the bum.

Osasuna
It seems a bit arbitrary to throw Osasuna into the bad day section despite a 4-2 win at Racing, but it wasn’t enough to get European football, with Levante sneaking the Europa League spot by just the point.

Mallorca
A last day tussle against Real Madrid was a little bit to much for Mallorca, whose valiant battle for a European spot come to nowt, thanks to a 4-1 defeat in the Santiago Bernabeu and Levante’s victory against Athletic Bilbao.

Pablo Sarabia
Even with Castilla, the Real Madrid midfielder on loan at Getafe was a gobby so and so, with constant red cards for back chat to the referee. Sarabia was at it again by applauding a yellow card awarded to him just seconds before.

Miguel Angel Lotina
There’ll be plenty of time to pick apart exactly where it all went wrong for Villarreal, but one of the worst moves the club could have made was to appoint ultra defensive Lord of Doom, Miguel Angel Lotina, as manager. Once again, Villarreal went out with their back four, backed up with midfield trivot, and once again it failed to work, with the game-plan of simply hoping the opposition don’t score coming a cropper. Lotina has now relegated three clubs from la Primera, having also come close to doing it with Espanyol in 2006.

Sporting
The Asturian’s side chances of survival were just 4%, but even had Sporting managed to beat Málaga - which they were never anywhere near doing - it would have done them no good due to victories for Zaragoza and Rayo.

Stats don't lie: McLeish was awful – and getting worse

Alex Keble — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:16:00 GMT

Aston Villa's lacklustre league form was getting ever worse under Alex McLeish. His dismissal was a necessary step if Villa are to avoid relegation next season, says Alex Keble

Alex McLeish's tenure as Aston Villa manager was plagued by fan and media unrest from the outset. Criticism has been hurled in his direction ever since owner Randy Lerner decided to appoint the man who not only managed arch rivals Birmingham City, but relegated them twice in three years.

Unfortunately for McLeish, the cries of dissent only increased as the season progressed. No wonder: Villa slumped to 16th in the table, recording their lowest points tally in more than 20 years and emerging victorious from Villa Park on only four occasions; the lowest in the club's 138-year history. On Monday, Lerner sacked McLeish, less than 12 months after making the controversial appointment.

Villa fans remain adamant that their antipathy towards the manager was not fuelled by his links with the blue half of Birmingham, but by an aversion to the defensive style and desperate lack of quality that characterised both his Villa and his Birmingham sides.

After the lacklustre display in Villa's final match at Norwich, McLeish called for more time; it comes as no surprise that he has not been given it. Stats Zone shows that his Villa side were getting progressively worse, not better. What's more, their mind-numbingly tedious football was beginning to show an alarming resemblance to the drab Birmingham City side that skulked out of the league 12 months ago.

Traditionally, managers are given time to instigate their brand of football in the first year; fans and media alike ignore unspectacular results, recognising that creating a team that blends requires patience and diligence. Witness the first Villa Park seasons of both Martin O'Neill and Gerard Houllier. So why hasn't McLeish been given more leeway?

Well, the 'rebuilding' year does not mean that performances should be ignored. Under the previous two Villa managers there were numerous signs that players were learning, styles were emerging, and the manager was moulding the club to his own unique philosophy. In direct contrast to this, McLeish's reign was directionless and entirely unsuccessful from beginning to end.

Gabby Agbonlahor, who has committed himself for life to his boyhood team, described the 2011/12 campaign as "one of those seasons you want to get out of the way and get through"; Villa's talisman hardly seemed optimistic about a future under McLeish. Who can blame him? The statistics speak for themselves.

The Stats – Villa declining
Only Stoke City have scored fewer goals this season than Aston Villa. Only Wolves have won fewer matches. No team has drawn more games. It doesn't need a close statistical scrutiny of the evidence is not required to reach the conclusion that Villa are a boring side to watch.

What's more pertinent is the overall decline in form as the season has progressed. There persists a feeling of aimlessness, as low morale (characterised by Agbonlahor's comments) threatened to submerge Villa in another relegation fight next season if McLeish was allowed to continue.

Aston Villa recorded an average of 11 shots per game this season, the 19th worst in the division. This, coupled with averages of 72% pass completion and a measly 43.2% possession, make for difficult reading. These figures are even more compelling when comparing the final 13 games of the season to the first 25.

The statistical evidence strongly suggests that Villa became progressively worse as the season wore on. If we break down Villa's season into three equal parts, this trend becomes even clearer.

What is most interesting about this chart is the increasing rate of deterioration between each third: a small decrease between the first and second sections is followed by a sharp decline for the final segment. As the previous bar charts showed, Villa's form has dropped off significantly towards the back end of the season.

Observers claiming McLeish would have "come good" (as his old manager Sir Alex Ferguson suggested), or that he simply required more time to implement his style upon the squad, should take note of the trend. Improvements were not being made. By the end of the campaign, the club was hurtling towards relegation, producing performances – and results – indicative of a team devoid of confidence and simply unable to perform under the current system.

In a mid-season report addressed to fans, McLeish hit out against accusations that his sides play defensive football, declaring he believes in "attacking, winning football". However, Stats Zone's records of individual performances quite firmly contradict this claim.

A common critique of his tactical approach is that McLeish's emphasis on defensive solidity inhibits his teams from posing a significant attacking threat. The statistics evaluated above add substantial weight to this claim, but further evidence can be found in the attacking regression of two of Villa's key performers from last season: Mark Albrighton and Darren Bent.

Here we can see two key attacking players, both achieving less in the final third than in the 2010/11 season. Defensive football primarily requires maintaining shape and taking few risks; Albrighton's decline in take-ons and chances created strongly suggests an unwillingness to commit to attack or risk losing possession via a dribble or inventive pass. Bent's inferior goalscoring prowess only consolidates this theory.

Indeed, examining the Stats Zone screenshares of Bent's final three games before injury paints a haunting picture of a lonely figure. The striker accumulated just four shots on goal, contributing little else to build-up play.

With these figures in mind, is it not possible that McLeish was simply failing to motivate his team and give them the confidence to score goals, rather than intentionally implementing negative football? Sadly not. Comparisons to Birmingham City last year have been made countless times during the season and, once again, the statistics seem to correlate with the general consensus: it's a style of football that McLeish chooses to instil in his players.

Birmingham's pass completion statistics for the 2010/11 campaign are very similar to Villa's this term (71.6% avg to 72% avg) and their possession stats are actually better than Villa's (47.2% avg to 43.2% avg). If this wasn't alarming enough, the most compelling piece of evidence when comparing the two clubs' fortunes is the number of shots taken per game: Birmingham City, finishing with fewer goals than any other team last season (37), averaged 10.6 goals per game; Villa have averaged 11.0 this term.

Under McLeish, Aston Villa were descending increasingly swiftly with no real sign of their fortunes changing, given their alarming similarity to the Birmingham side McLeish relegated twice. All evidence rejects the worth of the tactics employed over a long and arduous campaign that produced forgettable performances.

The ever-growing voices of dissent were finally answered, and Villa must now begin restoring their pride from square one. McLeish leaves B6 with one of the worst managerial records in the club's history.

20 FACT!s you didn't know about this season's Premier League

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:42:00 GMT

Liverpool were the only team to convert fewer than 10% of their shots into goals this season. If all shots were goals, Liverpool would have finished third, behind Chelsea and Manchester City.
Sacked Chelsea manager André Villas-Boas had a higher win percentage in league games (48.2%) than Roberto di Matteo (45.5%).
Tottenham's Jermain Defoe became the first player in Premier League history to reach 20 (career) goals as a substitute.
Aston Villa recorded their fewest wins in a top-flight season since 1890/91 (seven), when there were only 12 teams in the division. Villa were the only side not to score from a corner in the PL this season.
Liverpool's Stewart Downing had 72 shots without scoring (more than any other player) and created 55 chances without supplying an assist (more than any other player) in the Premier League. He also took one penalty and hit the woodwork five times.
Manchester City are the third team in Premier League history to earn 55 points from a possible 57 on home soil (along with Chelsea 2005-06 & Manchester United 2010-11).
Manchester United’s total of 89 points is the highest recorded in a Premier League season by a team who didn’t win the title.
Liverpool’s total of 52 points is their worst ever in the Premier League.
Tottenham earned more points from London derbies than any other side this season (14). Their final total of 69 points is just one point fewer than their best (70 in 2009-10).
Only one player has scored more goals for a relegated Premier League side than Yakubu's 17: Andy Johnson (21 for Crystal Palace in 2004/05).
Norwich's Grant Holt scored 15, the most for a newly-promoted side since Andy Johnson.
Liverpool are the only top-flight team to have lost every away game they have fallen behind in this season (10 in total).
Arsenal have recovered more points from losing positions than any other team in the Premier League (24).
The last player to score as many goals on his debut PL season as Manchester City's Sergio Agüero (23) was Fernando Torres (24 in 07/08).
QPR received nine red cards in the PL this season, the joint-most by a team in a single Premier League campaign (with Sunderland 2009/10).
This is John Terry’s highest-scoring season in the Premier League (six goals).
Manchester United's Wayne Rooney has 27 league goals this season, the most he’s ever managed in a Premier League season. Rooney reached double figures for away goals in the Premier League for the first time.
Swansea recorded the second-highest pass completion rate in the PL this season (85.7%).
QPR's Djibril Cissé played in eight league games this season: he was sent off in two and scored in the other six.
Wolves didn't score in the opening 15 minutes of any league game until their last, at Wigan this weekend.

Premier Pub Ammo: Deep Scholes, supreme City, woeful Liverpool, deadly Arsenal

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:42:00 GMT

Fascinating facts flung from FourFourTwo's StatsZone app, powered by Opta.
Coming soon: the completely free Euro 2012 StatsZone, in association with Coral.

Everton 3-1 Newcastle United
Despite only returning to Everton in January, this is Steven Pienaar’s joint-highest scoring season in the PL (four goals, all for Everton). Pienaar has been involved in eight goals in his last eight PL games: three goals, five assists. Nikica Jelavic has bagged nine goals in 13 PL games since joining Everton in February, making him their top league scorer for the campaign, and equalling Tim Cahill’s tally from 2010/11. Everton had 10 shots on target in this match, their most in a PL game this season. Demba Ba failed to score in all 13 league games where he and Papiss Demba Cisse have started together this season.

Manchester City 3-2 Queens Park Rangers
Pablo Zabaleta’s goal was his first of the season in all competitions; Edin Dzeko scored his first league goal since February. Dzeko's goal was City's 43rd shot, Sergio Agüero's was their 44th. City's 44 shots (to QPR's three) is the most by any team in the PL since 2003/04: no other side this season has managed more than 31 shots in a game.

City had 81% possession in this match, the most recorded by a team in the PL this season, and completed 651 passes to QPR's 85.

Norwich City 2-0 Aston Villa
Norwich got their first league clean sheet in 14 games.

Stoke City 2-2 Bolton Wanderers
Jonathan Walters scored for the first time in 19 league games: his last goal was on New Year’s Eve. It was only his second PL brace (also vs West Brom in November 2010). Kevin Davies scored three goals in his last four league games. Mark Davies scored four league goals this season, having scored just one in his career before this campaign.

Sunderland 0-1 Manchester United
Paul Scholes made 98 successful passes, more than any other player on the last day, but only eight in the final third.

Swansea City 1-0 Liverpool
Liverpool’s possession of 38% in this game was their lowest in a Premier League match this season.

Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Fulham
Emmanuel Adebayor has scored in three successive Premier League games for the first time since February 2010.

West Bromwich Albion 2-3 Arsenal
Arsenal have conceded two goals before half-time in three of their last five league games. Arsenal scored with all three of their shots on target in this game. Baggies ‘keeper Martin Fulop made two errors leading to goals.

Wigan Athletic 3-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wigan have scored six first-half goals in their last two Premier League home games. They have won three Premier League games in a row for the first time since January 2009, and have taken 21 points from their last nine games, more than any other side in the division. Wolves have won none of their last 14 Premier League matches, losing 10 in that run.

Tearful farewells take centre stage on final day in Serie A

Richard Whittle — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:44:00 GMT

RESULTS Sun 13 May Catania 0-2 Udinese, Cesena 2-3 Roma, Chievo 1-0 Lecce, Fiorentina 0-0 Cagliari, Genoa 2-0 Palermo, Juventus 3-1 Atalanta, Lazio 3-1 Inter, Milan 2-1 Novara, Napoli 2-1 Siena, Parma 1-0 Bologna.

With the top two and bottom two places already sorted, attention on the final day of the season turned to third, with third from the top offering a place in the Champions League preliminary round, and third from the bottom offering a place in Serie B.

While Lecce and Genoa nervously eyed the score from each other’s match to see who would join Novara and Cesena in relegation, there were four teams in the chase to join AC Milan and champions Juventus in having their eardrums troubled by the belting out of the Champions League anthem from a stadium PA system next season, a couple of times at least.

The permutations were bountiful, so it seemed we would be in for a day of typical Italian intrigue and excitement. But sadly it was a little more straightforward.

While high drama seemed in the offing, the reality was very different: Udinese secured third spot with a routine win at Catania, while Lecce were condemned to the drop by their own failings at Chievo, leaving Genoa and Palermo to half-heartedly kick the ball around inside an empty Luigi Ferraris stadium.

Grooooooooup huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuug!!!

Udinese can be genuinely proud of their achievement of going one better than last season, considering that each year they can expect to lose their star players - as happened with Alexis Sanchez and Gokhan Inler last summer - with Mauricio Isla widely tipped to be heading for the exit door.

In fact, Francesco Guidolin is well aware that making the group stages of the Champions League will be quite an achievement – last season the Bianconeri ran into Arsenal in the preliminaries – and the coach is now seriously considering stepping down, unsure that he can cope with another year of keeping such a small squad competitive on two fronts.

Most of the other top clubs pay their star performers more than Udinese’s overall wage bill, so attempting to overcome the likes of Napoli and Inter next season will become even more taxing.

Even Lazio will find it difficult to keep pace with Napoli and Inter, despite finishing ahead of them in qualifying for the Europa League, which sparked mass indifference, such is the prospect of Thursday evening in Minsk. No wonder Biancocelesti coach Edy Reja is not committing anything to paper just yet…

There were certainly groans of despair within the Inter ranks, with their final-day defeat to Lazio meaning they will start next season’s European campaign in early August.

But there are some who can bask in the sun for as long as they want, as the real emotional highlight of the final day was produced by a smattering of fond farewells up and down the country. Unsurprisingly, many of them dragged on a bit – at times it was like watching a whole room of pre-schoolers who had scuffed their knees, such was the uncontrollable bawling.

Alessandro Del Piero bids farewell to Juventus after 19 years' service

There wasn’t a dry eye in the San Siro, with a third of the squad finally calling it a day - and they made sure that everyone knew it.

When Paolo Maldini retired a few years back, the legendary defender ran around the pitch, waved to the fans and disappeared down the tunnel without a second glance, but Filippo Inzaghi, Rino Gattuso and Gianluca Zambrotta were more like overcome Oscar winners as they blubbed away even after everyone had left and the grounds staff were trying to close up.

Mark van Bommel had embarrassed himself on the Milan Channel a few days earlier, with a farewell performance that included dabbing his eyes with a hankie, but in keeping with their truly classy performances on the pitch, Alessandro Nesta and Alex Del Piero called it a day in a more tasteful manner.

Nesta had told everyone he was off because he couldn’t face trying to keep up with the likes of Leo Messi, while Del Piero turned the kick-around with Atalanta at the Juventus Stadium into a sideshow, with an impromptu lap of honour after he was substituted on the hour-mark.

Del Piero’s beaming grin was nearly as wide as Luis Enrique’s when he announced he was too “tired” to face another year at AS Roma, but at least Juve captain’s exit was a fitting centrepiece to a final day that failed to provide much on-field drama.

Newcastle sacrifice cult hero in attempt to appease angry god and seal Champions League spot

Back of the Net — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:45:00 GMT

Things are heating up as the Premier League season draws to a close, quite literally for one for St James' Park hero, as Back of the Net's John Foster reveals...

Fearing their Champions League bid may be derailed at the last by divine disfavour, Newcastle United have announced plans to appease the football gods by making a human sacrifice of cult hero Rob Lee.

According to a statement released by the club today, a pyre of wooden idols and animal carcasses will be erected outside St James’ Park before the club’s season-ending clash with Everton.

Ex-midfield general Lee, who made over 350 appearances for the Magpies between 1992 and 2002, will be bound to a totem in the middle of the pyre, his body painted with charms, mystic symbols, and the Champions League logo.

Then, director Derek Llambias, stripped naked and smeared in holy oils, will set the pyre alight, in the hope that the sacrifice of the club’s former captain will be sufficient to prevent Tottenham from claiming victory against Fulham, or Arsenal from claiming any points at West Brom.

“We’d hoped to have our destiny in our own hands going into the final day,” commented manager Alan Pardew. “But as it turns out, our destiny is, as ever, in the hands of the ichor god, Bel-Shamharoth.

“After the Man City game, it became clear that Bel-Shamharoth was angry. So I consulted some runes, had a chat with the chairman, and we both agreed the best way to appease his anger is with an offering of blood.”

Lee, 46, declared himself “honoured” to be selected for the rite.

“It’s not every day you offer yourself in burnt tribute to the Eater of Souls, but I’ve never run away from big decisions,” the one time Wycombe Wanderers midfielder told FourFourTwo.com.

“After all, finishing fourth is the most important thing these days.”

“Once in the Otherworld, I shall journey to the Dark Mountain to make entreaties to the Beyond Ones, and hopefully we can avoid a playoff against someone like Atletico Madrid.”

The sacrifice, which will be presented by Donna Air, will be shown live to subscribers of Newcastle United’s official television channel, and will be sponsored by Sports Direct.

More from Back of the Net

How QPR can beat Man City and West Brom can stifle Arsenal

Michael Cox — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:37:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses FourFourTwo's StatsZone app to preview the final round of Premier League games.

Coming soon: the completely free Euro 2012 StatsZone, in association with Coral.

With the title, the Champions League places and the relegation spots all to be decided this weekend, there are plenty of interesting fixtures on the Premier League’s final matchday of 2011/12. But there’s only one place to start – Manchester City’s home game with Queens Park Rangers, crucial at both ends of the table.

While Newcastle were eventually defeated once Roberto Mancini moved Yaya Toure higher up the pitch last week, their general approach worked quite well against City – they sat deep and very narrow, making it difficult for Mancini’s side to play through the middle. With David Silva and Samir Nasri both moving inside from the flanks, City had no natural width, and when they were shown wide, their crosses were poor.

Therefore, the natural strategy for QPR this weekend will be to replicate Newcastle’s approach – to defend narrow and not bother trying to win the ball in wide positions. Trouble is, that’s the exact opposite of what they did last weekend at home to Stoke. Then, QPR’s players were told to stop the delivery from wide zones – so this weekend will be a good test of Mark Hughes’ side’s tactical flexibility.

Of course, if QPR fail to get a point, Bolton Wanderers can survive with a win over Stoke City. There’s recent history between these two clubs – Stoke thrashed Bolton 5-0 in last season’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, before Bolton got revenge with the same scoreline in November’s win at the Reebok.

That match was while Stoke were competing in the Europa League, however, and Tony Pulis was scathing about his side’s performance after the game. “It’s in the bottom three or four games in over eight years I’ve been at the club,” he said. “The way we’ve played is just not good enough…we were very, very poor all over the pitch.”

This will be a much more closely-fought match, and since Stoke currently have nothing to play for, Bolton might regret giving them such a beating back in November – it gives Pulis’ side motivation ahead of an otherwise meaningless match for them.

Meanwhile, Arsenal will be trying to secure third place against a West Bromwich Albion side that has often frustrated them at the Hawthorns in recent years – last season Roy Hodgson’s side earned a point in a 2-2 draw.

That performance from West Brom was a stereotypical display from a Hodgson side – barely any closing down high up the pitch, but instead two solid banks of four behind the ball, well inside West Brom’s own half. As the graphic below shows, no tackles were made higher than the halfway line, and only six of 28 interceptions were made in the opposition half.

West Brom are currently in 10th place, but could (in theory) finish 14th if they lost to Arsenal. That would mean a difference of £2.8m in prize money – a decent amount to a midtable Premier League club, so this game isn’t without meaning for a home side saying farewell to the next England manager.

Tottenham will be looking to take advantage of any Arsenal slip-up, with a London derby at home to Fulham. Spurs’ 3-1 win over Fulham in November looks like a comfortable victory on paper, but they actually struggled to create clear-cut chances throughout the game, with Fulham recording more than twice as many shots.

Tottenham generally created chances by playing the ball into central positions on the edge of the box, and the likelihood of them replicating these attacking moves depends largely upon the players Fulham use in the centre of midfield.

It will be two of Mahamadou Diarra, Danny Murphy and Moussa Dembele. Diarra brings most defensive protection, while Murphy is a distributor and Dembele provides attacking thrust. Martin Jol’s selection in that position will probably determine what type of game Tottenham can expect, and where they should try to create from.

La Preview: Good news for Piqué, Atletico look to avoid hangover, Málaga eye bonus prize

Tim Stannard — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:33:00 GMT

Real Sociedad (14th) v Valencia (3rd) - 20.00 local time
Unai Emery has decided to get as far away as possible from Mestalla, by Russian off to take over Spartak Moscow on a two year deal. Meanwhile, the side he is leaving behind, third-placed Valencia, already have a brand new coach (and hate figure for their moaning fans in about six months time) lined up, with Mauricio Pellegrino preparing to take over.
This name might ring a bell to la Liga and Liverpool supporters, as he’s the same fella who played for Valencia for five seasons up to 2005, before moving onto Liverpool both as a footballer then a coach under Rafa Benítez, whom he followed to Inter Milan. The big advantage the Argentinean has ahead of beginning his work is that he already knows how fickle the fans can be in Mestalla.
“Mauricio knows the club very well and knows what’s expected at Valencia, he knows the objectives,” revealed David Albelda, “and that it’s a team that first needs to be in the Champions League and from that point try to get as far as possible in all the other competitions.” Exactly what Unai Emery achieved in fact, during his spell at the club which still ended up in boos and jeers.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Real Betis (12th) v Barcelona (2nd) - 22.00
Was that the tiniest of whoops from Gerard Piqué on hearing news of Carles Puyol’s probable absence from Euro 2012, with the springy-haired stopper needing knee surgery and therefore facing a race against time to be ready for the championships? Of course it wasn’t.
But Puyol’s misfortune may be his teammate’s good luck, with Piqué not in the best of form this season and potentially watching Sergio Ramos and Puyol lining up in the centre of defence from the comfort of the substitutes bench. Still, Vicente Del Bosque is certainly gutted about the whole business. “Some of the worst news we could have had,” sighed the Spain manager.
Puyol said that the knee felt dicky on Sunday and the doctors recommended operating straight away. “I don’t know if it was my last European Championships. I know that I want to retire on the pitch and not on the operating table,” said the defender, who faces a six week recovery period.”
LLL Prediction - Away win

Sunday

Getafe (11th) v Zaragoza (18th) - 20.00
The challenge for Getafe is to show that they aren’t being paid off by Zaragoza in the usual end of season bribery suspicions whilst that belonging to Zaragoza is to clear their name of any wrong doing being slandered around by certain figures at Granada, to name just one. Getafe club captain, Javier Casquero, began the campaign on Sunday by claiming that although his team have nothing to play for “we are going to defend our honesty. We are serious club of honourable footballers who’ll be going out to win.”
“It’s all absurd,” snorts Zaragoza coach, Manolo Jiménez, on slurs from Granada’s direction on possible economic incentives being offered to opponents. “In the second round we’ve not stopped facing sides with a lot to play for in every game. The best thing is not to respond to these provocations, but the accusations are getting more serious every time.”
LLL Prediction - Away win (Zaragoza to stay up)

Levante (7th) v Athletic Bilbao (9th)
During his scoring streak, all the talk was about how Levante striker Arouna Koné would react to scoring 18 goals this season, the figure that would trigger a contract renewal with his parent club, Sevilla, something that the forward definitely didn’t want. However, Lady Luck appears to have sat beside the Ivorian - but not Levante, who could do with his goals right about now - by giving Koné a knee-knock a week or so ago, a strain that sees him missing the last match of the season for Levante just a goal from the dreaded target.
LLL Prediction - Home win (Levante to make Europa League)

Real Madrid (1st) v Mallorca (6th)
Although the Madrid players will be thinking of continuing their league title-winning celebrations with fireworks and fiestas at the end of Sunday’s match - festivities which appeared to continue through 80 minutes of the Granada match, last weekend - they are likely to have quite the fight on their hands against Mallorca, who are not so much dark horses, but stealth technology, Special Ops gee-gees sneaking up into the European places.
The master behind this impressive push is Joaquín Caparrós, a coach who is a bit of a Womble in the sense that he is able to make use of things that everyday folk leave behind. In an interview with Marca, the potential new Sevilla boss revealed that he doesn’t need fancy pants stars to achieve success but hungry young talent and committed oldies. “I want a collective team with talent but passion and professionalism 24 hours a day.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Rayo Vallecano (17th) v Granada (15th) - 20.00
It’s probably fair to say that neither of these two teams are heading into a huge Sunday in Vallecas in the best of spirits. Granada are still licking the wounds of their implosion against Real Madrid last weekend, with the team heading into the Rayo game with three important players suspended - naughty Dani Benítez won’t be back until November.
Rayo, meanwhile, have had a ‘mare since their 5-2 defeat against Sevilla. Reportedly, the club was close to firing José Ramón Sandoval on Sunday, with some players supposedly behind the move. The plan was to put Sporting Director Felipe Miñambres in temporary charge, but he refused, telling the bosses to be patient. At a press conference attended by Rayo leaders and players - but not Sandoval himself - everyone claimed all the stories were stuff and nonsense, and that everyone was ready for a bit of a make-or-break game on Sunday. “We are all united an going in the same direction,” claimed club captain, Míchel.
LLL Prediction - Home win (Rayo stay up, Granada go down)

Espanyol (13th) v Sevilla (10th) - 20.00
While a new slimline Mauricio Pochettino is set to stay on a bit longer with Espanyol, Míchel’s future at Sevilla is not so certain, with the manager possibly being moved out at the end of the season after failing to deliver European football of any kind, something that’s going to weigh heavy on the club’s dwindling coffers.
After a huge turnover of coaches in recent years, the Andalusian outfit are reportedly looking at bringing back Joaquín Caparrós, the man who, between 2000 and 2005, aided the development of some of the side’s finest products, including Jesus Navas, Sergio Ramos and José Antonio Reyes. Looks like a smart move, for once.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Málaga (4th) v Sporting (19th)
Sporting’s chances of going down are said to be 96%, and not just because they need both Zaragoza and Rayo Vallecano to lose, but because Sporting must also win. Against a Málaga side who look like sneaking into the Champions League despite having lost 14 matches this season, that's a pretty big ask. As an extra incentive, Marca are also reporting that €4m will be handed out to the squad, should the team finish in fourth - a win will secure it - whilst another €1m will be doled out should the team win their qualifying match and enter the competition proper.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Villarreal (16th) v Atlético Madrid (5th)
LLL is not sure what was more surprising, a brilliantly executed offensive plan from Atlético Madrid, a water-tight defence, or the sight of the normally stern as nails Diego Simeone with a slight grin on his face and tears in his eyes as he watched his players celebrating Wednesday’s Europa League win. All in all, it touched the blog in parts it never knew it had.
But despite celebrations from the players that probably continued into Thursday and then Friday, there is serious business to be done on Sunday, with Atleti still in with a chance of Champions League football if they beat Villarreal and Málaga slip up in any way against Sporting. However, should Málaga get an early one, then you can expect Atleti’s energy levels to fall faster than a trophy in Sergio Ramos’ hands.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Racing Santander (20th) v Osasuna (8th)
Adieu Racing, and thanks for all those great memories you gave us...that seventh place a few years ago...and...er...well, thanks anyway. So it comes to pass that a club in a mess from top to bottom that may not have its ownership issue dealt with for another 28 years knowing how long these things take are bowing out of top flight football by hosting Osasuna, a properly run club of a similar size that by no coincidence has done rather well this season and are one win from the Europa League, should some other results go their way. Like Mallorca and Levante failing to win for example. It’s complex.
LLL Prediction - Away win

City set for period of domination, is this the end of Kenny Dalglish?

Jon Champion — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

ESPN’s man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend’s Premier League action. Watch ESPN’s exclusive action from the final day of Serie A on Sunday with Juventus v Atalanta at 1.30pm and Catania v Udinese at 7.15pm

FIXTURES Sun 13 May Chelsea v Blackburn, Everton v Newcastle, Man City v QPR, Norwich v Aston Villa, Stoke v Bolton, Sunderland v Man Utd, Swansea v Liverpool, Tottenham v Fulham, West Brom v Arsenal, Wigan v Wolves.

For only the sixth time in Premier League history, the title race has gone down to the last day of the season. It has never been decided on goal difference before but that is very much a possibility this time round.

The expectation going into the weekend is that Manchester City will beat Queens Park Rangers and everything else will be all but academic, but this season has thrown up so many twists and turns that you can never be quite certain.

Slightly less convincing is the prospect of Manchester United winning at Sunderland; the Stadium of Light has become a difficult place to visit since Martin O’Neill has got his feet under the table.

Should City beat QPR and become champions they will have been the best of a mediocre bunch. The fact the top two in the Premier League could both end with 89 points tells you that the rest of the league has been relatively weak - United won the league with 80 points last season and found points harder to come by. It’s difficult to see anything other than an imminent period of City domination going forward, unless there is similar significant investment in one of their main rivals.

The real springboard for City’s success was winning the FA Cup last year. That really put them on the trophy winning map and the winning league is a natural progression from that. Mancini’s side have made heavy weather of it though, sailing for the first six months and playing some tremendous stuff, they then lost their way and only really rediscovered that early-season ruthlessness in the last month.

The fact United were able to overtake City shows certain mental frailties in Mancini’s side, but it seems they’ll get away with them this year. It ultimately seems as though the key moment of the season was the first derby in November, City won 6-1, United’s citadel was stormed and for the first time in 81 years a visiting team had scored six at Old Trafford.

The fact it looks very possible they’ll win the title by merit of their marginally superior goal difference tells you exactly how crucial that emphatic victory has been.

From the race to the summit, to the desperate scramble to avoid the trapdoor - if QPR are swept aside by City, then a win at Stoke would be enough for Bolton to remain in the Premier League.

Owen Coyle’s men are much better off going to Stoke at this stage of the season rather than the first half, when Stoke were playing well. The Potters have now won just one of their last 10 games and seem to be easing off a little, much to the frustration of Tony Pulis.

It could be that everything is set up for one last hurrah for Kevin Davies - his parting gift after nearly a decade as a talismanic stalwart at Bolton could be to score the goal that keeps them in Premier League; it’s time for him to stand up one last time in the Bolton cause. I’m in no doubt that Owen Coyle will give the address of his life in the dressing room at the Britannia Stadium but teams in this situation either suffocate or thrive and Coyle must make sure they feel able to go out and play rather than be worried about the consequences of not performing.

Speaking of the consequences of not performing, Arsenal know if they fail to do so at West Brom, they may lose their Champions League berth. But if they win, they finish third and can consider that to be a reasonable season after plumbing the depths in the autumn and hitting the highs in the early spring.

They go to the Hawthorns, where Roy Hodgson will be looking to go out with a bang after what they’ll consider a good season. Having lost nine games at home, their form at the Hawthorns has improved recently and they have the prospect of finishing in the top half.

However Arsenal’s prize is much the greater - it’s worth millions of pounds and the future of certain players, most importantly Robin van Persie. This is a much bigger deal for Arsenal and it would be a surprise if they don’t go and win the game.

Back in North London, Tottenham will be hoping their rivals slip up, because then three points in their own game against Fulham would see them finish third – the position they held for much of the season. The extra incentive is there, as finishing fourth would leave them hoping Chelsea don’t win this season’s Champions League in order to enter it themselves next year.

I have been critical over the season of Martin Jol’s methods and it seems they’re still not hugely popular with one or two of the players, but they could finish seventh in the league which is a tremendous return for them, it would equal the type of league finish they were achieving under Roy Hodgson. They’ve won five of their last seven, they’re entertaining to watch especially with the likes of Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele.

But Tottenham have found some form at the back end of the season, picking up a couple of wins and a draw in their last three, and they should have enough to see off Fulham, particularly with that home advantage.

Newcastle’s destiny is not in their own hands. The Magpies go to Everton hoping Spurs fail to win, or Arsenal lose – if either happens, they can grab a top four spot with a win at Goodison.

Most neutrals will hope Newcastle can do it, as they’ve brought so much to the table this season. It will be tough for them to replicate the form they’ve displayed this term next year. The likes of Chelsea and Liverpool are unlikely to perform as poorly next time out, and Newcastle may struggle to hold onto their better players. Their model has been to buy players relatively cheaply and sell them when a decent offer comes in, and it remains to be seen how resistant Mike Ashley will be when big clubs come along waving chequebooks for the likes of Fabricio Coloccini, Tim Krul, Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse etc. Whether the model works longer term we’re about to find out.

The Toffees, meanwhile, have only lost three times in the last 22 games and are starting to seem like their old, obdurate selves. They sit one point above Liverpool, which will give them every motivation to win.

Liverpool go to Swansea for what could be Kenny Dalglish’s final game in charge. I was very intrigued by his response at the end of the FA Cup final at Wembley, the camera panned to him and he had tears in his eyes which is unusual for a man who doesn’t portray much emotion; he seemed particularly melancholy, which is very un-Dalglish.

I just wonder if he knows the American owners have already made a decision to dispense with his services at the end of the season. If that decision has been made on league performances, you could understand why. They currently sit eighth in the table, with 30 points dropped at home, 13 Premier League defeats and 34 points from the top of the league; that is not what the Americans bought in to.

There'll be another managerial conundrum at Carrow Road, where Norwich host Aston Villa. Canaries boss Paul Lambert is being strongly linked with Villa, should they decide to part ways with Alex McLeish. Norwich are another team who have eased off towards the end of the season, although they did play very well in their 3-3 at Arsenal last weekend.

They’ll play with freedom and cause problems for Aston Villa, who are safe but are only really going to survive by default. They have been, without question, the most boring team to watch in the Premier League this season. I would expect Norwich to finish with a flourish and a win.

Another team finishing with aplomb are Wigan. For them to drag themselves to safety from a position of such hopelessness at the mid-way point of the season almost outstrips anything any other side has managed this season. Six wins from their last eight games and maintaining the belief in the way they should play football - we should applaud Roberto Martinez for getting his team out of trouble in such style, and the club's fans will certainly do that after Sunday's home game with relegated Wolves.

Finally, on to Chelsea against Blackburn, two consecutive league defeats for Roberto Di Matteo and only one win in five league games, but they finish six in the table whatever happens – and they’ll have that Champions League final on their minds.

Blackburn are a hopeless case and I fear it is just a matter of waiting for the implosion, both financially and in terms of players leaving Ewood Park. There seemed to be an air of denial about Steve Kean this week, with him making comments about giving it a go next season and hoping to get out of the Championship at the first time of asking.

The greater danger is the club going through the Championship and into League One, given the way the club is managed. They end the season the way they lived through it: in a total mess.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the FA Cup and Barclays Premier League. Watch ESPN’s exclusive action from the final day of Serie A on Sunday with Juventus v Atalanta at 1.30pm and Catania v Udinese at 7.15pm

Atlético Madrid to break romantic hearts in Bucharest

Tim Stannard — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:53:00 GMT

Wednesday’s Europa League final is another sure sign of why Atlético Madrid are known as one of the most unlucky, put-upon clubs in the world, in that most of a neutral bent watching the game will dearly want the Rojiblancos to lose the match. But not for who they are, but instead for who they aren’t - and that’s Athletic Bilbao.

As a cheesy tabloid would write, Athletic Bilbao are the People’s Players who have stolen the hearts of most in Spain and around the world for their homegrown talent, passionate football and never-say-die spirit, and for charitably giving Gaizka Toquero something to do in life. Giving Manchester United a good thrashing on a couple of occasions certainly sold them to the majority of the English market.

However, the watching world may be a tad disappointed come the end of Wednesday’s final as although Atlético Madrid are incredibly flaky in la Liga this season – their chance of finishing fourth on the last day of la Liga is due to everyone else being a bit hopeless rather than Atleti being particularly good – Diego Simeone’s side have been truly dominant in the Europa League both home and away, having won all eight of their knockout games against Lazio, Besiktas, Hannover 96 and Valencia.

Even the team’s domestic tendency of throwing away late leads in injury time has largely been absent in Europe, aside from a few wobbly moments in the Vicente Calderón at the end of each half against Valencia in the first semi-final. Nevertheless, even if Atlético are winning their fans won’t be even remotely relaxed until the final whistle has been blown.

Two years ago, Atlético beat Fulham in another battle to be the Best Side In Europe Likely To Finish About Seventh In Their League. However, the experience won’t weigh too much in Atlético’s favour, because they've long since lost the front four behind that victory, Diego Forlán, Kun Agüero, José Antonio Reyes and Simao. Their replacements – Falcao, Arda Turan, Diego and Adrían – aren't quite as sexy and strong but remain more than useful on their day.

The message from manager Diego Simeone – aside from the usual mantra about his players showing they are men, flapping their cojones about and giving it their all on the field – has been about having a bit of fun on the pitch too, as much as it is possible with leg-breaking tackles being dished out. “Experience is important, but passion is more so,” explained the Argentinian. “You wait for a final all your life. You can end up playing two or three, but you have to face them as if they were your last.”

Rivals Simeone and Bielsa, together in their Argentina days

While Atlético’s pre-match preparations may well have involved being shouted at for hours on end and charging into shop-window dummies with Fernando Llorente’s face fixed to the front, the more sedate Marcelo Bielsa will have been inflicting days and day of Atlético Madrid videos on his footballers, such is the geeky gaffer’s love of that type of thing. Indeed, LLL imagines Javi Martínez switching on his in-flight entertainment system hoping to catch something soothing involving Jennifer Aniston and finding a two-hour scouting report on Juanfran popping up on his monitor.

A reported 20,000 Spanish fans of both sides have made it to Bucharest and will be trying to hoover up some of the 32,000-odd tickets made available to UEFA, sponsors, the local beauty queen’s family and Vlad the Impaler’s cohorts. And those who get in will see a fine final between two teams with two very different philosophies.

While Athletic are most un-Spanish in that their campaign has been carefully thought through and is the fruit of many years of planning and steady progression, Atlético Madrid has been considerably more frenetic and frenzied, with the side’s philosophy as usual represented by the phrase ‘cobbled together’.

Nevertheless, while LLL’s romantic heart would like to see Athletic Bilbao returning to Spain as Europa League champions, the pragmatic head puts Atlético Madrid as Wednesday night’s winners with a second European triumph in three years.

Steve Kean still sort of believes Blackburn can maybe stay up, weary friends report

Back of the Net — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:22:00 GMT

You and your precious Premier League may think Blackburn are down – but, according to Back of the Net's Paul Watson, their ever-positive manager has different ideas...

Worried sources close to Steve Kean have revealed that the Blackburn manager is working on a complex series of elaborate plans that he believes will allow his side to avoid relegation.

It has been a tough season for Kean, who was chosen as the figurehead for the club’s supremely unpopular owners Venky’s after the baffling dismissal of jowl-rich kick-and-rush specialist Sam Allardyce in December 2010.

With relegation seemingly inevitable for the last six months, Kean has been the received torrid abuse from Rovers fans, but has always insisted his men would beat the drop – a belief he still holds despite relegation being mathematically decided by Monday’s loss to Wigan.

“Steve seemed down when he got back from the Wigan game,” a source close to Kean told FourFourTwo.com. “But oddly he started to perk up the next day and began saying cryptic things about his ‘devilish master plan’ and how things have ‘all fallen perfectly into place.”

Blackburn's biggest smile since 'Dunny' heard 'the chicken men' were coming

Kean has reportedly spent the last 36 hours in his office hunched over a computer, a calculator, a box of nitrogen tri-iodide crystals, a rudimentary daisy cutter fuse, a copy of Shane Richie’s autobiography Rags to Richie: The Story So Far and a radish.

“He’ll go silent for quite a while and then come up with another idea - he really won’t give up,” a despairing friend of Kean’s explained.

“Admittedly a lot of them aren’t great ideas – it’s mostly stuff like hacking into the FA’s website and changing the tables, hanging around Roberto Mancini and seeing if he leaves any points lying around or releasing a rabid dog on to the pitch at the Chelsea game. To be honest, I really can’t see how the dog thing would help at all.

“You almost think it would have been easier to have beaten a few teams like Bolton, or had a shot on target or two against Wigan.”

There are reports Wolves boss Terry Connor is one step ahead of Kean, and has pulled off a tactical masterstroke to combat his side’s grim plight by declaring the final game of the season against Wigan to be a ’25-pointer’, giving the Midlanders a chance of survival and handing Roberto Martinez’s men an unexpected shot at European qualification.

More from Back of the Net

Premier Pub Ammo: Shaky Szczesny, dead-eye Dempsey, penetrating Petrov...

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:45:00 GMT

More data mined from the Stats Zone app, yours from FourFourTwo and Opta.

Arsenal 3-3 Norwich City
Alex Song has managed 10 assists in 33 PL games this season, compared to four in 116 league games before this term. Norwich have conceded a goal before half-time in each of their last nine Premier League games. Grant Holt has scored eight goals this season against the Premier League's current top eight sides.

One of Norwich’s goals came courtesy of a Wojciech Szczesny error; overall this season Arsenal have registered 13 errors leading to goals and five own-goals, with that total of 18 self-inflicted goals six higher than any other team in the Premier League.

Arsenal mustered 11 shots on target against Norwich, their joint-highest total in a single Premier League game this season. Norwich scored three goals from just four shots on target, with Szczesny’s overall saves-to-shots ratio this season now just 63.3%, the third worst of any keeper to play 20+ games.

Newcastle United 0-2 Manchester City
Man City have scored a higher percentage of goals in the second-half than any other team in the PL this season (68%). After being pushed forward following Nigel De Jong's 61st-minute introduction, Yaya Touré netted his second Premier League brace. Touré also set up four shots.

Fulham 2-1 Sunderland
Clint Dempsey – who became the first American player to reach 50 Premier League goals – scored his second direct free kick in the league this season; only Sunderland's Seb Larsson has scored more (three).

Danny Murphy made the most passes in the PL this weekend (90). Moussa Dembelé completed seven dribbles: only three players have completed more in PL games this season. All four of Phil Bardsley’s Premier League goals have been scored from outside the area.

Queens Park Rangers 1-0 Stoke City
Djibril Cissé has either scored or been sent off in all seven Premier League appearances for Queens Park Rangers.

Aston Villa 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Emmanuel Adebayor has now been involved in 27 goals this season (16 goals and 11 assists), and is just one short of equalling his best campaign (07/08 – 24 goals, four assists). Tottenham had 19 corners in this match, the most by an away side in the PL since Opta started collecting that data in 2003/04, and the second-most in any PL game after Portsmouth (20 vs Fulham in November 2006).

Villa had just one shot on target in this match. Overall the Villans had just four shots, though this is actually one more than in their first meeting with Spurs this season (three), they didn’t have a single unblocked shot from inside the area.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-0 Everton
Wolves didn’t manage a single shot on target, but did manage to avoid equalling Sunderland’s record of 10 consecutive home league defeats.

Bolton Wanderers 2-2 West Bromwich Albion
West Brom got 10 shots on target, more than they've managed in any PL game apart from the 14 against Wolves in February. Excluding corners (two successful out of four), Martin Petrov made five successful crosses; the only player to manage more in the league this season is Wolves' Matt Jarvis, who has twice completed six.

Manchester United 2-0 Swansea City
United had 28 shots; they’ve only had more in one PL game this season (29 vs Aston Villa in April). Swansea achieved their lowest possession figure of the campaign (40.2%) this season, but Leon Britton completed all 27 passes he attempted.

Blackburn Rovers 0-1 Wigan Athletic
Blackburn had only 29% possession in the first half v Wigan. Rovers’ pass completion of 60.9% was their second lowest of the season and the eighth lowest of any team in any Premier League game this season. Paul Robinson has posted the lowest saves to shots ratio in the Premier League this season: 57% (the average is 69%).

Wigan's 20 shots equalled their best in a Premier League away game this season (they also managed 20 at Carrow Road). Franco di Santo created three chances, his best return in a Premier League game this season.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Juventus return to their roots to land title

Richard Whittle — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:57:00 GMT

It has taken six years and many a heartbreak, but Juventus are finally back top of the pile in Italian football.

The club has come a long way in rebuilding its tattered reputation, from that 1-1 draw at Rimini on the opening day of the 2006-07 season, to the 2-0 win at Cagliari which, coupled with AC Milan’s derby defeat, ensured the Bianconeri could not be caught at the top with one game remaining.

Who knows how many honours the club would have collected in the meantime if the heart of the team had not been torn out following the events of Calciopoli and the subsequent demotion to Serie B, even if it their spell in the second tier only lasted one year.

One of the secrets of the Old Lady’s success through the 90s and into the new millennium was the rationale of not being afraid to allow a big name to leave as long as the sound foundations of the team – built through astute management and, of course, major investment – were not undermined.

The roll-call of star names passing through the vaulted headquarters in Turin included the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Gianluigi Buffon, Pavel Nedved, Lilian Thuram, David Trezeguet and the two Fabios, Cannavaro and Capello.

When the bombshell hit in 2006, the name Juventus alone could not guarantee an instant return to the heights of previous decades, as the likes of Real Madrid and Inter cherry-picked the major assets, including title-winning coach Capello.

It has taken three presidents and six coaches to achieve this crowning moment, and although there was a third place finish on their return in 2007-08, and a runners-up spot in 2008-09 there seemed little in the way of continuity to suggest that a league title was in the offing.

At the higher management level, Giovaani Coboli Gigli arrived from a business background to lead from the boardroom, while the urbane Jean Claude Blanc put his business degree from Harvard to good use.

The Luciano Moggi-Roberto Bettega era would be erased from history, but the new line-up were mere babes in the murky world of Italian football. After a host of coaches came and left, having failed, it took a return to the past to finally get Juve back on an even keel.

It seems incredible that a club whose watch-word was once ‘stability’ would take so long to return to its roots, with the arrival of Umberto’s son, Andrea, the last male member of the clan.

The masterstroke was, of course, bringing Antonio Conte back in to the fold. As a player, the battling midfielder may not have shined as brightly as the likes of Alex Del Piero and Zidane, but he was a guardian of the Juve flame and knew what values he needed to reinstall within the playing staff.

Not only are the team unbeaten in all competitions, with an Italian Cup Final to look forward to, but they have also set a club record 21 clean sheets. Victory was built from the back in the best traditions of Italian football, while sporting director Giuseppe Marotta enabled Conte to sprinkle the side with a few sparkling diamonds.

Andrea Pirlo must be in the running for the player of the year award, proving that Milan were mistaken in not offering the playmaker a further two-year deal, while Mirko Vucinic was ripe to show off his talents in a new environment.

A return to the Champions League opens a new chapter, but it also brings with it a new set of difficulties, as Milan found to their cost this season.

But the Old Lady has at least re-applied her foundation, and she is finally back in style.

Heroes & Villains: Loyalty, levellers, lunacy and livestock

Mark Booth — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:34:00 GMT

HEROES

Roberto Martinez
Loyalty in football is a rare thing, so it’s heartening to see it pay off so comprehensively in Roberto Martinez’s case. It’s impossible to give former Swansea boss enough credit for what he has accomplished at the DW Stadium this season. On Monday night his side clinched safety with a game to spare and leapfrogged Alec McLeish's Aston Villa, which vindicates the Spaniard’s decision to turn down the manager’s job there. What the Villa faithful wouldn’t give to see Martinez instead of McLeish in the dugout.

Wigan have subverted all of the clichés of what it takes to survive in the Premier League, as it is their expansive, inventive football that has catapulted them out of harm’s way this time around. Their wins over Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool have earned the headlines, but there was something equally impressive about the manner of their performance at Ewood Park.
There was a relaxed patience about their businesslike approach, an enjoyment about their football that was all the more obvious when contrasted against the grim ashen faces in the home end.

Wigan may not have started the season well but they've finished with 18 points in eight games, a total unmatched by anyone except fifth-placed Newcastle. Next time a queue forms for Martinez’s signature, Villa will find themselves far down the pecking order.

Yaya Toure
The introduction of Nigel de Jong in place of Samir Nasri on the hour may well be heralded as the most significant substitution of the Premier League season. The Dutch bull terrier was neat and tidy enough in breaking up Newcastle’s attacks but it was the effect the switch had further up the field that settled matters at the erstwhile St James’ Park.

City’s lack of a Plan B if their little fleet-footed forwards failed to puncture defences was responsible for their springtime slump, but in pushing Yaya Toure up behind Sergio Aguero, they have a one-man alternative that the Uniteds of Manchester and Newcastle have been unable to resist.

The former Barcelona midfielder is City’s big man for the big occasions: he’s now scored in three of City’s biggest matches in recent history – the FA Cup semi-final against United, the final against Stoke and in this almost-but-not-quite title decider. Surely now the only team that can stop City are City themselves, which is a staggering turnaround after that miserable Sunday afternoon at the Emirates Stadium.

If they do finish the job, it’s the team’s spine that has sealed their title. In Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Joleon Lescott, Gareth Barry, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero, they have six players that have delivered eight-out-of-20 performances all season long. Three more home points, or the final act in the “typical City” tragicomedy? Next Sunday will decide.

QPR
The pitch invasion at the climax of QPR’s last-gasp win against Stoke might have been premature but you could forgive the Rs fans their overexcitement after the stars aligned for them at Loftus Road and the Reebok Stadium.

Djibril Cisse’s late winner and James Morrison’s late equaliser against fellow strugglers Bolton have ensured that victory against the champions-elect isn’t as mandatory as it had seemed for long periods of this match. Now two points clear of the relegation zone, Mark Hughes's side know if Bolton don't win at Stoke, all three newly-promoted sides will have escaped the drop for the first time since 2002, when the three survivors were Fulham, Blackburn… and Bolton.

Roy Hodgson
Baggies supporters wore England shirts in honourt of the national team’s new manager, and the good-natured atmosphere in the Reebok's away end radiated onto the pitch as West Brom fought back from two down to snatch a point.

The level of desire shown by West Brom was heartwarming for Bolton’s relegation rivals, not to mention England fans: Hodgson's men had little to play for compared to their opponents, but never gave up and in the end outplayed their hosts. James Morrison netted on his return from injury to level matters in the dying seconds after Chris Brunt had rifled home with 15 minutes to go.

VILLAINS

Owen Coyle
At 2-0 at the Reebok Stadium and 0-0 at Loftus Road, things were looking rosy for Owen Coyle’s men. Then came two questionable substitutions (replacing the relentless David Ngog with the paceless Ivan Klasnic and the game's key creator Martin Petrov with the barely fit Chung-Yong Lee), two lapses in concentration, two points dropped – and 200 miles away, QWPR’s last-gasp winner – have left Bolton staring into the abyss. A trip to the Britannia Stadium might have been overhyped as the ultimate gauntlet but it’s still a pig of a fixture for a team needing all three points to have a hope of survival.

Bolton’s woes have been one of the biggest surprises in a season littered with shocks. Optimism was in ready supply going into the new campaign in August thanks to Coyle's progressive, aesthetically-pleasing football but a combination of costly injuries, poor signings and disastrous defending have caused Coyle’s stock as one of the brightest young British managers in football to collapse.

Perhaps the Scot can take some solace in the fact that QPR are travelling to a team with 17 home wins this season aiming to wrap up the title – and that their own away record is relatively decent: no team in the bottom half has won more away games than Bolton, who have won at every team below Stoke in the league. He's certainly upbeat, as he usually is.

"We knew we were going to have to go to Stoke anyway and earn a result so maybe it's a good thing that a draw won't be enough,” said Coyle. "We have to earn the right to get in front and make sure we don't give up soft goals. If we do that I'm convinced we can win a very tough game."

Steve Kean
All the talk from Ewood Park this season has centred around the notion of the players believing in their beleaguered manager. Are the players playing for the shirt? Is Steve Kean the right men to lead them? Are Venky’s running the club into the ground?

Who cares? They’re just not very good. Save for one or two decent results at the turn of the year, it’s never looked like Steve Kean was going to prevent Blackburn ending their 11-year top-flight stay.

The only moment of relief for Blackburn came in comic form, when a chicken in a Rovers flag was unleashed onto the Ewood Park pitch. The bird showed all the neat footwork and invention lacking in Blackburn's players, easily evading Yakubu before Ali Al-Habsi finally brought the pitch invader into custody, presumably to be sent to a factory in India.

The removal of Sam Allardyce remains one of the more bizarre and masochistic boardroom decisions in recent Premier League history, especially when his replacement was unproven and lacking the charisma required to change dubious minds.

The Blackburn fans' default chants this season have been “Kean Out” and "Venkys Out", but with the manager insisting he'll stick around and the owners unlikely to find a buyer for their damaged goods, it’ll be interesting to see if the baying hordes’ thirst for blood is sated ahead of a season where this particular club currently deserves to be: the Championship.

Mario Balotelli
Still yet to return to the pitch after his impression of a walking red card at the Emirates Stadium, Mario Balotelli has had plenty of time to sit on the naughty step after being left out of the squad altogether at Newcastle. With John Guidetti returning to the Etihad Stadium after a hugely impressive loan spell at Feyenoord, the odds are shortening on Super Mario kicking off 2012/13 elsewhere.

Sir Alex Ferguson
Perhaps it’s disrespectful to Swansea to criticise United for failing to win by the kind of margin that would have put them back in control of the title race. If all hope is lost for United, it’s surely the away defeat to Wigan and their most un-United-like failure to see out their 4-2 advantage at home to Everton that have done for them.

There was a flatness at Old Trafford for their final home match of the season that barely lifted even after Ashley Young put them 2-0 up with a special finish. Sir Alex’s attempts to summon up the club’s famous never-say-die spirit after the team completed a lap of honour to a half-empty stadium sounded like a public clutching of straws.

However, this is Manchester United, and it’ll take someone braver than this correspondent to write them off completely, even if this looks like a bottling job that few thought a Sir Alex Ferguson team capable of.

North London
Does anybody actually want these Champions League places? First Arsenal pass up the chance to all but guarantee their berth, by allowing Norwich a third goal through Steve Morison’s late leveller. Then 10-man Tottenham failed to overcome lowly Aston Villa, ensuring the fight will go to the final day. Both clubs have had far more opportunities to wrap up qualification than they would have had in previous years, but time after time the North London sides have stuttered at the crucial moment.

It could continue. Arsenal face Roy Hodgson’s farewell party at the Hawthorns and Spurs have a dangerous-looking encounter with in-form Fulham; both teams will be looking anxiously over their shoulders at the much more in-form Chelsea and Newcastle.
Perhaps if the more brainless factions of both team’s support would stop the tedious “mind the gap” sentiments and concentrate on more than simply getting one over on each other, they could hope to go on and challenge the Manchester order as both have threatened to do at times this season.

Good Day, Bad Day: The Genius of Granada & Atlético’s Incredible Options

Tim Stannard — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:48:00 GMT

Good Day

Leo Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo is such a team player that the Real Madrid star probably wasn’t even aware Leo Messi had scored four goals to move five strikes clear in the Pichichi chase with one game left until the following morning. But like Ronaldo's triumph last season, it’s a bit of a hollow victory for the Argentinean, seeing as he won’t be winning la Liga. Still, Saturday's four goals seemed to be a farewell gift to Pep Guardiola during the coach’s final appearance at the Camp Nou as Barcelona boss.

Unai Emery
The coach delivered Valencia a third successive third place finish in what was his final game at the Mestalla before departing the east coast club. LLL feels that’s job done for the departing coach, despite his players and the fans not exactly helping him on the way. We half hope the club soon live to regret the treatment given to poor Team Unai over the past season or two when officially under new management.

Atlético Madrid
Looking at the league table at around 11pm on Saturday night, the phrase ‘you are kidding me’ sprung from the blog’s gob. Actually, it was something a little bit stronger. Atlético’s victory against Málaga sees the Rojiblancos in with a chance of Champions League football next season. All they need is to dispose of Villarreal and for Málaga to fail to beat Sporting, but due to the close nature of the European places as we approach the final day, Atlético could even end up with nothing at all.
Despite the reasonably strong position for Atlético - one that Diego Simeone said he would have signed up for when he took over - the Vicente Calderón club came so close to doing their familiar shooting-themselves-in-the-foot routine. Points have been lost in the closing seconds all year due to clumsiness - most recently against Real Sociedad - and it seemed like it was déja-vu all over again on Saturday, with Málaga scoring what seemed like a perfectly good goal that was subsequently ruled out for offside. Let’s see if Atlético’s luck holds out for two more big games this week, starting with Wednesday's Europa League final.

Mallorca
Once again, Mallorca do just enough to pick up a victory. Sunday’s result was a 1-0 win against Levante was the third in the team’s last four matches - the sign of a side that is clinical with few chances created but incredibly sturdy at the back. Mallorca may not quite achieve the goal of European football next season with a clash against Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabeu to come, but Joaquín Caparrós has made sure the opportunity has come incredibly close.

Osasuna
Another solid 1-0 home win, this time against Real Sociedad, keeps Osasuna in a chase for a European spot.

Freddie Kanouté
The injured Malian was given just a few minutes against Rayo Vallecano and still managed to score. The former Frenchman, who has has been one of the players LLL has most enjoyed watching over the years, said goodbye to the Sánchez Pizjuán having given wonderful service over the past seven seasons. The footballer will be very much missed in la Liga.

Zaragoza
The side came so, so close to blowing it in the home clash against Racing, missing a huge number of chances. But in the end, Angel Lafita came through with ten minutes to go to give the relegation-battlers a 2-1 victory against Racing. Although Zaragoza's self belief is high after three victories on the trot, there are clearly nerves-a-plenty in the spines of them there footballers. However, a win against Getafe - no harder than playing 11 shop window dummies theses day - will see Zaragoza safe against some astronomical odds earlier this year.

Sporting
It was tears from the poor old Sporting players last Tuesday after defeat to Villarreal looked like seeing the Asturians being sent to la Segunda this weekend. But Sporting survive to fight one more day after winning against Betis. The second-from-bottom team now need to beat Málaga next weekend - unlikely - and hope that Zaragoza and Rayo Vallecano both lose - very, very unlikely.

Bad Day

Kaká
For the fourth time this season, the forward was been substituted at half-time after disappearing from the match. Kaká probably isn’t going to be hanging about the Santiago Bernabeu next season.

Manuel Pellegrini
The Málaga manager seemed considerably wrinklier and more bouffant-ed since LLL last saw the Chilean face-to-blog, and also appeared quite frustrated that his team couldn’t kill-off Atlético Madrid to guarantee fourth spot, after a dominant first half in the Calderón. Although they have what looks a very comfortable final game against Sporting next Sunday, Málaga still have work to do, even if European football of some kind has at least now been secured.

Míchel
The Sevilla boss was set the target of delivering Champions League football when he took over at the club in February. Yet Míchel didn’t even manage to provide Sevilla with Europa League football next season. The former Getafe boss has said that projects as messed up as Sevilla’s need time and patience, but it’s unlikely club president José María del Nido will give him much of either, with Joaquín Caparrós even being touted for a return to the Andalusian club over the summer.

Granada
Well that was smart. Take a well deserved 1-0 lead against Real Madrid, rugby tackle Cristiano Ronaldo to give away a penalty with ten minutes to go and then score a own goal in injury time. But that’s not all. Oh no. Not by a long way. Get two of your players sent off for abusing the referee after the match, have another throwing a full drinks bottle at the same referee to ensure a lengthy suspension. Oh yes, make sure that these are your three best players missing for the final match of the campaign when the team could still be relegated.
Instead of apologising and realising what buffoons you have been, blame the referee for being from Zaragoza, the home of one of your relegation rivals and basically suggest that he is either biased or corrupt. “It was premeditated,” claims Mikel Rico. Good going, all round.

Miguel Angel Lotina
The Villarreal boss experienced relegation on the final day of the season with Deportivo last term, and may well be doing so again, this time with another big name of Spanish football - Villarreal. Now that really does take some special kind of talent. The Yellow Submarine still have Rayo Vallecano sat between them and the drop-zone, but are only one point ahead the two teams below them - it all creates an incredibly uncomfortable situation next Sunday against Atlético Madrid.

Rayo Vallecano
The Madrid side have really, really, really got to hold it together now, despite the Sevilla defeat being the side’s ninth loss in a shockingly bad run of ten. All of this back story needs to be cast asunder - LLL thinks that’s correct English - with the players focussing on the notion that if they beat Granada on Sunday, they are safe for another season.

Torres facing race against time to master Abide With Me

Back of the Net — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:17:00 GMT

Chelsea face Liverpool in the FA Cup Final this weekend – but, according to Back of the Net's Paul Watson, their reborn striker has a problem...

Chelsea striker Fernando Torres is struggling to prove to Roberto Di Matteo that he has mastered the tricky final verse of Abide With Me in time for tomorrow’s FA Cup Final against Liverpool.

The Spanish marksman has returned to form of late after an 18-month wobble, but he may still miss out on English football’s showpiece event.

Reports suggest that Torres will lose out to Didier Drogba for a place in the starting 11 after faltering badly during training ground renditions of Abide With Me – the hymn traditionally used to prepare the soul for death or footballers for an FA Cup final.

“Fernando’s sensational at ‘when other helpers fail and comforts flee’ but he just can’t seem to find any fluency with ‘Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadow flees’,” a source told FourFourTwo. "You can see him getting frustrated because his work rate is truly phenomenal.

“But Roberto [Di Matteo] just has to look to experience on occasions like this and when you’ve got Didier Drogba able to sing all eight verses, including the slightly jarring second stanza, you can’t see past that.

“Besides, his harmonies with Gary Cahill are just heavenly. It’s no secret that his majestic descant was one of the main reasons Gary was brought in.”

There have been reports that Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has been leading a pre-training session chorus of Abide With Me for the last month, but conflicting reports suggest the Scottish boss may actually be singing Sweet Child o’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses, something by Teenage Fanclub or just speaking as normal.

More from Back of the Net

City must prove they have ditched old habit of letting glory slip through their fingers

Jon Champion — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:17:00 GMT

ESPN’s man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend’s Premier League action. Watch exclusive all-day coverage of the FA Cup Final on Saturday from 8am

FIXTURES Sat 5th May Arsenal v Norwich Sun 6th May Newcastle v Man City, Aston Villa v Tottenham, Bolton v West Brom, Fulham v Sunderland, QPR v Stoke, Wolves v Everton, Man United v Swansea Mon 7th May Blackburn v Wigan

It goes without saying that this weekend will have a huge impact on the title race. City are in the driving seat after a dogged and disciplined performance gave those 'noisy neighbours' a 1-0 victory over United on Monday at the Etihad Stadium.

The blue half of Manchester will face a stern test in the game of the weekend away at Newcastle, whose own Champions League aspirations were boosted by that superb win at Chelsea in midweek.

It is very much in the history of Manchester City to get into winning situations and see it slip through their hands, but this is the new City, and although many expect them to win their final two fixtures, this is their pivotal game. City will be expecting United to win their last two and must therefore do the same.

Only two teams have managed to beat Newcastle at St James Park this campaign, and City will need to be at their best if they are to avoid coming unstuck and opening the door for the red half of Manchester to regain the title.

Never in their wildest dreams did Newcastle supporters imagine that their side would be on the brink of a Champions League place with two games to go, but they will now be expectant of grabbing it with a win on Sunday. The atmosphere will be electric and passionate as it is the game that decides both clubs’ seasons. Manchester City may find they feeling a long way from home when they step out on the turf of St James Park.

Manchester United will be aware of the result in Newcastle by the time they kick-of at Old Trafford against Swansea, but they must win their final two fixtures. United’s line-up in Monday’s Manchester derby was cautious and they would be expected to return to their standard 4-4-2 formation on Sunday.

Swansea have only won once in their last seven, and as long as United are on their game they should have too much for their Welsh visitors.

Away from the title race the battle for third and fourth place is really hotting up with Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle only separated by a point.

Arsenal contest the only fixture on Saturday at the Emirates against Norwich City, who have had a fantastic season but were well-beaten by Liverpool last week and have not performed well recently. They should be ideal opponents for Arsenal as they look to secure a Champions League spot with six points from their final two matches.

But Spurs will be hoping their North London rivals slip up before they travel to Aston Villa on Sunday. Villa are really struggling but they should scrape over the line. Only one win at Villa Park in six months is not good enough and it will be interesting to see if Alex McLeish is still at the helm next season.

Tottenham looked good at Bolton in mid-week and they seem to be gradually getting back on track. The England management question mark has also been lifted, which will come as a timely relief for their players and supporters. They are in pole position for fourth place but must not take their foot off the gas against Villa, who are desperate for points.

Villa will be looking over their shoulder at how the teams below them get on. One of those, Bolton, face a massive game at home to West Brom, which they must win to stand any real chance of staying up.

Owen Coyle’s side did not get a lift from the emotional return of Fabrice Muamba in mid-week but they face a side who may have their minds elsewhere, as they know that a new manager will be in the dug-out next season, after Roy Hodgson’s appointment as England manager.

It has come to the crunch now and Bolton must capitalize on their home advantage to stay up.

Also battling at the bottom are QPR, who entertain Stoke at Loftus Road. Rangers have won their last four home fixtures and with a trip to Manchester City on the last day this is a must win game for them. Stoke have only won one in nine but they are always difficult opponents and their height and power at set pieces could trouble QPR.

But Mark Hughes has made Loftus Road a fortress over the past month or so, beating the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs and if they can reproduce that form they should beat Stoke. Tony Pulis’ side could have a big impact on who goes down as Stoke entertain Bolton at The Britannia on the final day of the season.

If the bottom sides pick up points on Sunday, Blackburn could well be down if they lose at home to Wigan in Monday evening's game at Ewood Park.

The form book does not favour Rovers, who have lost six of their last seven, while Wigan have won five from the same amount of games. Roberto Martinez’s side have played with real adventure and deserve to be where they currently are but if they lose to Blackburn they will be right back in the thick of things. However if the Latics come away with a victory, they could be assured of survival.

It's credit to the excitement of this season’s Premier League that there are only two games with nothing riding on them in the penultimate weekend of the campaign.

Relegated Wolves host Everton at Molineux, and although Terry Connor’s side showed resilience to earn a 4-4 draw away to Swansea in their last game it is a case of too little too late. Everton have been very solid in recent weeks, and I should be too well drilled to slip up in this one.

If the Toffees win at Wolves they will be pretty much nailed on take seventh place above their Merseyside rivals Liverpool.

The Reds may even be pipped to eighth spot after their mid-week home defeat to Fulham. That win will leave the Cottagers brimming with confidence when they take on Sunderland at Craven Cottageon Sunday.

Martin Jol hopes to be back in the sidelines after a recent chest infection but, Martin O’Neill’s team have been drawing too many games recently. It’s five stalemates in their last six outings and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is another draw for Sunderland here.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the FA Cup and Barclays Premier League. ESPN will be providing all day and commercial free coverage of the FA Cup Final on Saturday from 8am till 8pm

Dalglish faces striker headache, and Torres could make it even worse

Michael Cox — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:30:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses FourFourTwo's StatsZone app to preview Saturday's FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Liverpool...

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish’s big decision ahead of Saturday's match against Chelsea at Wembley will be whether he starts Andy Carroll upfront, or uses Luis Suarez as his main striker. The Uruguayan forward is in great form following his hat-trick against Norwich last week, and enjoyed being able to roam the width of the pitch as the primary striker.

Suarez tends to play in the right-centre channel, where he gets the ball into feet and takes on opponents. Against Norwich, seven of his eight dribbles were on that side of the pitch, as were four of his five shots. He also played very well in the FA Cup semi-final by continually getting in behind Leighton Baines and taking on Sylvain Distin in that zone.

His opponent in that position would be John Terry, who dealt well with Suarez in their previous meeting at Stamford Bridge, despite the fact Andre Villas-Boas was ordering Chelsea to play with a high defensive line at that point. That meant Suarez’s main threat was his pace – now, with Chelsea playing deeper, Suarez will pick up the ball between the lines and run at Terry.

Carroll, of course, brings a more direct style to Liverpool’s passing. As the midweek game against Fulham showed, Liverpool hit a lot of long diagonal balls from the right-sided centre-back position towards Carroll, taking advantage of his aerial power, but making Liverpool’s attacks predictable.

Carroll had a difficult time in front of goal – from seven attempts, he got just one on target. Liverpool’s problem this season has been dominating games but not taking their chances, and Dalglish will have to question whether it’s worth bringing in Carroll’s aerial presence if he’s not offering a significant goal threat.

Roberto Di Matteo has been rotating his side in recent weeks, but has tried to keep his centre-back pairing together before big games, so the fact John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic started in the midweek defeat to Newcastle suggests they’re likely to start at Wembley this weekend.

There’s an interesting pattern to the way Chelsea pass the ball out of the defence – Terry always plays significantly more passes than Ivanovic, and is more likely to play incisive forward balls into attackers to the left of the pitch.

Ivanovic, however, is more ponderous on the ball, and plays either sideways passes to Terry, easy balls out to the full-back, or long, high diagonal balls. Liverpool would do well to focus on blocking potential forward passes for Terry – Ivanovic’s passing is unlikely to hurt them, unless he’s hitting long balls for Drogba.

But despite Drogba’s reputation as a cup final specialist, could Fernando Torres get a start against his former club? His late goal at Barcelona has improved his confidence, and his hat-trick last weekend against QPR showed he is back to something approaching his best. He’d relish the opportunity to play well against Liverpool on such a big stage this weekend.

Torres tends to pick up a lot of long balls towards the left of the pitch, yet becomes more involved in short passing over to the right. Equally interesting were the positions he scored from last Sunday – all three goals were hit from wide positions, either side of the six-yard box. If he starts, Torres will look to get into the positions between centre-back and full-back and receive balls through the defence – a very different threat from Drogba.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Meet the man attending his 1,000th consecutive QPR home game

Guest Writer — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:58:00 GMT

From youthful record-breaker to radio commentator, Tony Incenzo has seen it all at Loftus Road. He tells Tom Bennett about his four-decade odyssey...

"I think I’ll have to leave about 6am just in case – I don’t want to chance anything this week...”

This Sunday, talkSPORT reporter Tony Incenzo will tread a familiar path to Loftus Road for relegation-haunted QPR's vital clash with Stoke City. Like all Rs fans, Incenzo will be anxious to get there on time – “as radio broadcasters, we usually have to arrive early to set up and test equipment" – but with more reason than most, for the fixture will be his 1,000th consecutive Rangers home game.

On April 28th 1973, the 10-year-old Incenzo attended QPR's clash with Fulham. He hasn't missed a home game since – league, cup, friendly or testimonial. “I was only a little boy at primary school and I thought I’d go along to the terraces at Loftus Road to watch QPR," he explains.

"I’ve now been there for 39 years and I hope that I’ll be there for 39 years more. I can’t see a reason for it ever ending. I am a true football supporter and I will always stand by and support my club.”

That first game ended in a 2-0 victory for his beloved QPR, who had already been promoted to the First Division. The journey ahead had many highs and lows to come, from Rangers going into administration in 2001 and suffering an FA Cup first-round defeat by non-league Vauxhall Motors in 2002 to their Premier League promotion last season – he really has seen it all.

“When we lost to Vauxhall Motors in the FA Cup we really did hit rock bottom," he recalls. "It was an awful time for the football club. We were relegated the season before and it didn’t look like things could get any worse. No disrespect to non-league sides, but that was really the lowest point.”

Incenzo’s career as a football reporter has only aided his perpetual attraction to the club and given him a front seat for some of the club’s most applauded memories. “I remember on the final day of last season when everyone was waiting on whether we’d be getting a points deduction. I was able to break the news live on the radio – breaking news – that QPR wouldn’t be docked points and would play in the Premier League this season. It was incredible.”

After that final-day hysteria and following his regular post-match interview with manager Neil Warnock, Incenzo experienced what most fans can only dream of. “While the interview broadcasted on air, I was able to hold the Championship trophy. Warnock was holding it and then passed it around to all the journalists. I would have taken it home with me if Warnock had let me! It's simply amazing to have that much access to the club you support."

Tony with the Football League trophy

There have been other high points. “The FA Cup Final in 1982 was also such a special moment, in particular the home victory against Crystal Palace in the quarter-final. Those are the sort of moments you will never forget.”

The young Incenzo began visiting grounds and he hasn't stopped since. Incenzo had visited all 92 Football League stadiums by the time he was 17 – a record which earned him a five-minute interview on the Saturday morning show Noel Edmonds' Swap Shop.

Three decades on, he has now attended games at an extraordinary 1,750 different grounds. “Last Tuesday I went to Linton Granta in the Cambridgeshire Counties League, which shows the level that I’m down to. I’ve been to all the Conference, Conference North, Southern Premier etc – and I’m now working my way down through the leagues…”

Every young lad dreams of meeting his footballing idol, and of course Incenzo is one of the privileged few whose wishes have been fulfilled. “Stan Bowles always used to be my favourite player, my hero and my idol, and now I’m friends with him and chat regularly. I also used to admire Gerry Francis, another player who I now know very well. Last week I spoke to him on the phone twice.”

Tony (at right, aged 12) with QPR legend Dave Thomas

Incenzo parallels his love of the game to the love of his career, which has seen him work for a number of media outlets including Sky Sports. “If you can’t be a footballer, working in the media for football is the next best thing," he explains. "I can remember describing forwards scoring goals, and I just say it as if I was the one scoring.”

He's as qualified as anyone to assess the extent to which our game has changed throughout the decades. “It’s faster, it has a much higher tempo. The speeds at which these players play is incomparable. Also the money involved with football nowadays has increased dramatically.”

If those are the changes brought about during his first 1,000 consecutive home games, what changes will the next 1,000 bring? “You can never tell what the future of football will hold. I’d expect things to grow commercially, especially abroad. I know QPR have links with Malaysia and India so we’ll probably see something over in Asia. I also think a European club league will break off separately to the Premier League.”

As Incenzo prepares for this weekend’s glorious milestone at Loftus Road, his club face the possibility of relegation from the Premier League, but if the worst were to happen, they can of course count on his continued support.

“Even if we went down this year it wouldn’t affect me too much. I’d still keep going to every match; I can’t think of a reason that would prevent me from doing so. We have the financial backing and support at the club so if we did go down I don’t see any reason why we can’t come back up again.”

Tony Incenzo is a reporter for talkSPORT.
He was interviewed by Tom Bennett, editor of The Youth Radar.

Ronaldo relying on teammates to help him catch Messi in Pichichi chase

Tim Stannard — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:37:00 GMT

After two days of exuberant partying, La Liga Loca is pretty much pooped.

No, those celebrations were not in relation to Real Madrid sealing the league title on Wednesday evening, but instead the fact that there’s no more midweek football this season. Aside from the Europa League final next week, that is, the grand competition which will determine the greatest club between the pair likely to end up in 7th and 8th in Spain.

Despite 'Round 20' - nestled quite naturally for la Liga just ahead of Saturday’s 'Round 37' containing much promise of moving and shaking, not a great deal happened apart from Real Madrid winning the league title and Iker Casillas celebrating it with some gusto the following evening on the bus trip to Cibeles, where the Real Madrid captain took an inordinate time tying a knot on the banner draped around the statue’s head.

Valencia's late victory over Osasuna, combined with Málaga's defeat to Barcelona, should be enough to secure third place for Los Che, while Rayo slipped dangerously close to the relegation zone with a 1-0 defeat at Mallorca.

Every single match this weekend kicks off at nine on Saturday night, meaning LLL's Monday review is going to be sketchier and more guess-work-based than normal.

Real Zaragoza will be relegated if they fail to beat Racing at home - which they won’t - and Rayo manage to pick up just a single point away at Sevilla. That’s actually easier than it sounds, as the Andalusian side are quite, quite awful these days, having lost 2-1 to Betis in injury time on Wednesday to ensure Míchel the Manager probably won’t be getting his contract at the club extended any time soon.

With Athletic Bilbao having no chance of getting into the Champions League, facing a whopper of a match on Wednesday and already qualified for Europe next year due to the Copa del Rey final appearance, their clash against Getafe already sounds like the dud of the round.

The new league champions Real Madrid will have to get themselves together for the trip to Granada, where Cristiano Ronaldo will probably be giving all his teammates high fives and pats on the back every two minutes in an attempt to motivate them sufficiently to pass him the ball so he can score a bunch of goals and catch up with Leo Messi, who currently has two strikes more in the Pichichi chase.

Granada themselves need either a victory or Zaragoza to lose to secure safety. Barcelona will be playing 13th placed Espanyol in the most meaningless Catalan derby for some time, although it will be another shooting gallery session for Leo Messi, no doubt.

For those uninitiated, Mallorca against Levante may not look the most enthralling of ties, but Joaquín Caparrós has turned the Balearic side from relegation fodder to European-qualifying super heroes by moving the side into seventh after four wins in five. There rise may well come at the expense of Levante though who are facing the last two games without super-striker Koné.

Sporting’s only chance of staying up is if they win their final two matches, Rayo Vallecano lose their games and Zaragoza have a bit of a flop in the final run-in. They’ll be face a happy-go-lucky Betis on Saturday.

The chuckles from Atlético Madrid watchers are still dying down after yet another injury time disaster from the Vicente Calderón club on Wednesday. Atlético were leading 1-0 until Real Sociedad equalised in a comedy scramble to leave Diego Simeone swearing unmentionables about his back four on the touchline, not for the first time in la Liga this year and probably not the last. The Rojiblancos will be hosting Málaga while trying not to expend too much energy before the Europa League final.

Villarreal have probably done enough to stay up with a midweek win against Sporting but will want a point or two more to be sure, especially if they are picked up against Valencia in Mestalla. Osasuna are still hoping to sneak a European spot with a home match against Real Sociedad, and might be a cheeky outside bet to do it.

LLL Predictions
Zaragoza v Racing - Home win
Athletic v Getafe - Draw
Mallorca v Levante - Home win
Granada v Real Madrid - Away win
Sevilla v Rayo Vallecano - Away win
Barcelona v Espanyol - Home win
Sporting v Betis - Home win
Atlético Madrid v Málaga - Away win
Valencia v Villarreal - Home win
Osasuna v Real Sociedad - Home win

Forget Torres, Drogba is the man to fire Chelsea to a cup final win

Jon Champion — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:42:00 GMT

ESPN’s man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to this weekend's Wembley showpiece. Watch ESPN's exclusive all-day coverage of the FA Cup Final on Saturday from 8am

FA Cup final day is still one of the most exciting days of the year, and I am really looking forward to the 131st edition. We have two heavyweights in the final this year in Chelsea and Liverpool. Of the 763 clubs that entered the competition, all the potential David’s have had a go at causing a historic upset, and now just these two goliaths remain.

Perhaps surprisingly, these two have never met on this stage before. They have met in a League Cup final in the last decade, as well as three Champions League semi-finals, so it is not as if they aren't used to playing each other in big matches - indeed, they met in the quarter finals of this season’s League Cup.

They know each other’s games and approaches inside out, which makes this game a tough one to call. Chelsea will start as slight favourites, due to their superior recent form, and I believe they are slightly better off than Liverpool in terms of their current development. Liverpool’s signings this season have not really come to fruition, whereas Chelsea's - such as Juan Mata and Gary Cahill - have really found form in recent weeks.

But, in the Reds favour, they do have two outstanding players in the form of Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard, both of whom are capable of providing moments of magic. The Uruguayan frontman scored one of the best hat-tricks I have ever seen last weekend at Carrow Road against Norwich City, and if he and Steven Gerrard come to the party then they have a real chance.

Neither side will go into the game brimming with confidence after mid-week home defeats in the Premier League. Both sides made lots of changes and neither of them coped with their opponents. Liverpool’s defeat to Fulham was pretty miserable, while Chelsea’s loss to Newcastle at least came against a side who have generally been in fine form of late.

What stands the Blues in good stead for Saturday’s showcase final is the fact that they have been playing big games on a regular basis over the last few weeks and have produced when it really matters. They will bring back big name players for the final as well.

Didier Drogba has a fantastic record in cup finals - whenever Chelsea play in a cup final, he seems to score and it is often the winner. Meanwhile, in Ashley Cole, they have a player who holds a piece of FA Cup history, with more winners medals than any other player in the modern era.

Chelsea also have a great recent history in the FA Cup, winning three of the last five finals.

As for Liverpool, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have both won the FA Cup twice in 2001 and 2006, Pepe Reina was in goal for that memorable final against West Ham in 2006 and Glen Johnson has won the cup with Portsmouth, but that’s it in terms of big match FA Cup Final experience.

Chelsea’s big match players - the likes of Drogba, Lampard and Terry - relish these kind of big match atmospheres, and the Chelsea squad have more experience in these big games, and that could be the defining factor. If Drogba is on form, he can be unstoppable, and I would see him starting ahead of Torres, although the Spaniard may well make a cameo appearance against his former side.

It is a very difficult one to call, but I fancy Chelsea to edge it. Either way, we're certainly set for a compelling encounter.

Fiorentina coach Delio Rossi pays the price for his 'Falling Down' moment

Richard Whittle — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:40:00 GMT

There seems to be no depth to which Italian football will not plunge in order to maintain its position as Europe’s, if not the world’s, wackiest league.

We have had Genoa players forced to hand over their shirts on the orders of fans, the man-handling of the referee by Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti and now Fiorentina coach Delio Rossi topping it all by delivering a couple of solid punches to one his own players.

Many a coach must have dreamt of taking their frustrations out on a player with a few well-aimed blows, but it is rare to see it actually happen, rarer still in the middle of a match.

Fiorentina were trailing Novara 2-0 in what was something of a relegation tussle when, with just over 30 minutes gone, home coach Rossi decided he had seen enough of what he perceived was under-performing from Adem Ljaijc and removed the striker from the fray.

Naturally the Serb did not take too kindly to being substituted so early in the game and sarcastically applauded the decision as he made his way to the bench. Unfortunately, Rossi’s frayed nerves snapped and the coach stormed over to first grab the player by the throat and then deliver a couple of right hooks.

Only the intervention of the technical staff (so that’s what they are there for…) saved the former Manchester United target from receiving the hiding of his life from a middle-aged man who had allowed the pressures of the moment to get to him.

There is an old saying in Italy that goes something along the lines of “when everyone else is losing their heads, you might as well join in.”

However, Rossi crossed a line from which there was no way back. By the end of the evening, club owner Andrea Della Valle had sacked his coach and promised further punishment for the player, as if the 20-year-old had not suffered enough humiliation.

The most bizarre moment came when Rossi exited the dugout to indicate to the referee that there was nothing to see here, as if he had done nothing more than lose his footing for a moment.

The officials had not seen the incident, otherwise Rossi would have been making the long walk to career ruin much sooner. Instead, he was still able to be in the dressing room at half-time, where he no doubt jolted the rest of the team into producing a two-goal comeback to earn a point which should be enough to keep the Viola in the top flight.

We will probably not see Rossi back in football for some time - certainly not in the next three months, with the Italian FA this morning confirming that as the length of his ban - but he is not the first coach to lose his head and attack one of his own players during the course of a game.

Back in the 1983-84 campaign, Pescara coach Tom Rosati slapped Vittorio Cozzella during a league match against Como. The striker took it on the chin, so to speak, and the following week the pair were seen joking away as if nothing had happened.

In fact, Cozzella admitted he had been a bit of an annoying sort and the episode had helped him develop into a more mature player.

It is doubtful Ljajic will be feeling quite so forgiving as he nurses a sore jaw and bruised ego this morning. For Rossi, this “Falling Down” moment will prove far more costly.

Nolberto Solano (Peru v Spain, 2004)

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:58:00 GMT

A determined attitude and cultured right foot helped ‘Nobby’ Solano to become  a cult hero in Newcastle,  but he is also one of Peru’s  all-time biggest celebrities. And why not, when he scored goals as good as this one?

Just 20 minutes into Peru’s glamour tie against Spain, ranked 71 places ahead of  the humble South Americans, Joseba Etxeberria’s loose pass was intercepted. It took just  14 seconds and nine touches between six players for Peru  to take the ball from their defensive third into the Spanish net, silencing most of a 24,000-strong crowd and sending a vocal handful of scattered Peruvians into raptures. And who was there to stroke the ball home? Solano, scorer of 20 goals  in 95 games for Peru.

“We launched  a counter-attack,”  the trumpet-playing wide-man recalls. “My friend Andres [Mendoza] crossed the ball. I chested it down, let it bounce and then, from  25 yards, set my sights on goal and hit the ball with  the outside of my right foot. It flew past  Iker Casillas.”

Although the game finished 2-1 to the Spanish superstars, who would be dumped out of the Euro 2004 group stages a few months after this warm-up match, Solano remembers the game, and his goal, with fondness.

“It was so special because we don’t often get to play countries like Spain and the very best players in the world.

“That has to be the very  best goal I ever scored.”

Words: Rob Stewart and Robert Summerscales. Illustration: German Aczel. From the June issue of FourFourTwo, out now. Subscribe!

The rule changes that could hand the title to Man United

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:11:00 GMT

Earlier this week, Manchester City leapfrogged their local rivals United into top spot on goal difference – and after the match, Gary Neville revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson always drilled into his players how terrible it would be to lose the title on goal difference.

This set us wondering if the Govan knight could protect his youngsters by appealing for a late change to the Premier League's absurdly meritocratic differentiation criteria (points, goal difference, goals scored) and adopting some methods previously tried here and abroad. But how many would lift the champions back into pole position?

There's no point changing back to the two-points-per-win system abandoned (on Jimmy Hill's insistence) in 1981: both teams have won 26 times.

Using the old Goal Average system – in which goals scored are divided by goals conceded, and abandoned in England in 1976 – City still win comfortably, 3.259 to 2.606.

Under the head-to-head system, used (in preference to goal difference) in La Liga, City still win…

…and obviously City would win on the away goals rule between the two teams. However, if we compare away goals across the entire campaign United are top – just: each team has scored 36, but United have conceded three fewer goals on the road than City's 17.

If we apply the criteria UEFA use in international qualifying to rank runners-up – ie ignoring results against the lowest-ranking teams in certain tables – then we have to discount the Manchester rivals' results against Wolves. City beat them 2-0 and 3-1, but United won 5-0 and 4-1, so again it's bad news for Fergie…

Perhaps United could press for the introduction of the Argentinian system for deciding relegation candidates, which is to average out each team's points hauls from the last three years. Under this system – which has long been accused of favouring big teams having an off year – United would be nine points clear of their rivals.

Various leagues around Planet Football have tried other tweaks to their league tables. Throughout the 1960s the Greeks utilised a "3-2-1" system, whereby draws gave two points and even losses a point. In this instance that wouldn't change anything bar the totals, as the teams have each won 26, drawn five and lost five. Oh well.

A few leagues, notably France in the 1970s, have awarded a bonus point for scoring three or more goals. This is something City in particular have managed with aplomb, 13 times at home (including one 3-3 draw) and six times away to United's eight times at home (again, including one draw) and five times away. (If a second bonus point were awarded for a sixth goal, United would get one for their 8-2 annihilation of Arsenal… but City would get two for their two 6-1 wins at Carrow Road, and, well, you know the other place they won 6-1.)

For one season in the early '80s, the League of Ireland awarded an extra point for away wins and draws (so four for an away win, three for home win, two for away draw, one for home draw). United's 12 wins and three draws on the road would bag them an extra 15 points compared to City's 13 (nine wins, four draws).

In mid-80s Bulgaria, teams received no points for scoreless draws. City and United don't often do blank games: in fact they've only managed one between them this season, and City would be really regretting their Boxing Day deadlock with West Brom. Whatever happened to that bright young Baggies boss?

Meanwhile in those crazy mid-80s, over in China, headers counted double in the league table (not in the match – you couldn't instantly come back from two down by flicking it up and nodding it in). No Premier League team has scored more headers than United's 15 this season, but City have bagged nine (including Vincent Kompany's in this week's summit meeting) so they'd still be two goals ahead.

At the same time, the Chinese also awarded bonus points for each team member called up to the national squad. City have had six players capped by England this year (Hart, Richards, Lescott, Barry, Johnson and Milner); United have had five (Smalling, Jones, Young, Rooney and Welbeck) but have also had call-ups for Cleverley, Carrick and Ferdinand, so they win on that score.

If all else fails, United could resort to the measures used in playgrounds and pubs everywhere: My Stadium's Bigger Than Your Stadium...

...and anyway, We've Won More Trophies...

...and More Lead Singers From Simply Red Support Us. So ner!

Press hand Hodgson chalice that definitely isn't poisoned, oh no

Back of the Net — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:16:00 GMT

With the FA naming Uncle Roy as the new England manager, Back of the Net's John Foster has been to speak to some folks who are definitely 100% behind the new man and aren't upset their mate missed out in the slightest, so whoever told you that is a big, fat fibber...

West Bromwich Albion boss Roy Hodgson was yesterday announced as the new England manager, having agreed a four-year deal with the Football Association to take charge of the national chalice.

Hodgson, 64, spoke of his excitement at being appointed, and dismissed suggestions that the chalice, a vessel forged by Stanley Rous from the molten embers of Excalibur and inlaid with three ruby lions by Sir Alf Ramsey himself, may be spiked with deadly toxins.

The assembled media were quick to agree, ridiculing any suggestion that by merely touching the chalice, Hodgson was bringing a terrible curse upon himself and his loved ones.

“There is no truth to the suggestion that the press might already be looking to get rid of Roy,” said a Daily Mail columnist, while squeezing drops of an unidentified green liquid into the chalice.

“We back him one hundred and ten percent, regardless of how he deals with the press, the scrutiny that comes with the job, and an unexplained bout of hydrargyria.”

Hodgson succeeds Fabio Capello, who was forced from the role in February after contracting hypervitaminosis after speaking to journalists. Capello’s predecessor, Steve McClaren, stepped down after mysteriously ingesting large quantities of arsenic at a media event, while Sven-Göran Eriksson was forced to quit after reacting badly to a plate of fugu at a press dinner.

The job also proved too much for the immune systems of Graham Taylor (acute radiation sickness), Kevin Keegan (attacked by fire ants), Glenn Hoddle (stigmata), and Bobby Robson (surfeit of peaches).

But the press pack was united in insisting that it was wrong to think too hard about the chequered history of the chalice, with all English media outlets looking forward to exchanging barbs with the ex-Switzerland boss, so long as the barbs were not over-scrutinised by toxicologists.

“It’s not fair to criticise him before he’s even started work,” commented a reporter from The Daily Star, while slipping on a pair of surgical gloves. “But rest assured we’ll be right behind him all the way, watching his every move.”

“He deserves time to show he’s the right man for the job, and prove that the pundits, the press, the journalists, and especially the media are all wrong in anticipating a total disaster,” the scribe added, carefully loading a poison dart into a blowpipe.

“We’ll be on his back the whole time. Sorry, did I say ‘on his back’? I meant ‘right behind him’. Which is just where we want him.”

More from Back of the Net

In the new issue: England, Germany, Holland, Spain & the Metropolitan Police

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:14:00 GMT

If you’re worried about the season coming to a close and long football-less summer stretching ahead of you, then you’ve clearly forgotten about the European Championship. Not to worry: it’s our job at FourFourTwo to remind you, so that’s what we’ve done – and how.

This month's issue of FourFourTwo comes with our legendary tournament supplement. That’s 68 silky pages on Euro 2012, with the full lowdown, strengths, weaknesses, kit guides, tactical analyses and interviews with a player from every nation, including Xavi, Petr Cech and Yohan Cabaye.

Plus, we look back at how the European Championship turned from an unliked mini-tournament into a glorious monster cup, and why this year’s event will be the best ever.

And in the main issue, we have not one, not two, not even three but FOUR different covers for you to choose from. Or you can buy all four if you want. That’d be nice for us, but don’t feel you have to. (Do it.)

Poland and Ukraine will host the most hotly anticipated Euros tournament in years, and with a number of teams in it to win it, we bring you the interviews and the inside stories on Spain, Germany, Holland and, of course, England.

Some say that England are in freefall, devoid of a captain, Rooney for two games and any hope of success. We say: nonsense. The Three Lions can lift the trophy, and by looking at lessons from history and speaking to members of heroic underdogs Denmark in ’92 and Greece in 2004, we tell you how.

We also speak to Joe Hart, Ashley Young and two young striking hopes in Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge, both looking to step into Rooney’s shoes, to see why they’re confident of springing a shock. And if you’re still not convinced, tactical experts detail how England can win without Wazza.

And now: a road trip. First, we look at how Holland recovered from the night that killed a proud tradition of Total Football, “destroying a 40-year tradition and dragging it through the s**t” (not our words). Rafael van der Vaart explains how they’re going to restore pride to the Dutch game.

Next stop, Germany. FFT investigates how a foreign invasion made the Germans a modern power in world football. They could win the Euros this summer, thanks to a little help from a Brazilian player, a Pole, a Nigerian ...you get the picture. And just to make it even clearer, we speak to Polish-born Lukas Podolski about his dream of winning the European Championship in his home country.

So one of England, Holland and Germany could win the Euros... but what about holders Spain? Sorry, chaps. FFT can reveal that La Roja’s dominance will end this year, due to dressing room unrest, crushing fatigue and... well, you’ll have to read the feature to find out. In the sake of fairness, Fernando Llorente and Vicente Del Bosque tell us they’re not worried, and Xavi explains why England “intrigue” him.

But the June issue isn’t all about the Euros. We travel to Argentina for the exclusive story on football’s biggest ever mistake. One day in early 2000, a kid by the name of Lionel Messi tried out for River Plate and scored eight goals. Naturally, River went straight ahead and signed... his mate. Find out how they dropped the ball in a decision that changed history, and how it all came down to an argument over a window seat.

Back on home soil, we go to watch the team that tackles criminals on a daily basis but only gets cautioned at the weekend. The Metropolitan Police FC, and their two fans, are looking for promotion – and they’re even less popular than Crawley.

And that’s not all. The madness of the Football League hasn’t excited just Manish and Claridge on a Saturday evening – we love it. We look back on the moments when the lower leagues went berserk, from rants and text pests to a severely disturbing injury to the nether regions.

You wouldn’t have seen that kind of controversy down at Portman Road when Alf Ramsey was at the helm. We mark the 50-year anniversary of Ipswich’s title triumph by recalling and celebrating what could have been Ramsey’s real finest moment.

What’s more, we put your questions to Shay Given ahead of the biggest summer of his career. Likes include: Bobby Robson and Kenny Dalglish. Dislikes include: Ruud Gullit and being reminded of that Dion Dublin goal.

Still not enough for you? Luckily, we’re feeling generous. Buy the new issue and you can also feast your eyes on interviews with Nicklas Bendtner, Mikel Arteta, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Bryan Robson, plus many more besides.

If you buy one football magazine this month, make it this one.

The June 2012 issue of FourFourTwo and Euro 2012 supplement was brought to you by... Xavi, Nilmar, Bryan Robson, Alan Shearer, Daniel Sturridge, Shay Given, Giorgio Chiellini, Nikica Jelavic, Sebastian Larsson, Darren Anderton, Ashley Young, Vicente del Bosque, Matt Le Tissier, George Cohen, Neil Danns, Rafael van der Vaart, Hugo Almeida, Yohan Cabaye, Mikel Arteta, Koloman Gogh, Richard Gough, Clarke Carlisle, Nobby Solano, Petr Cech, Nigel de Jong, hurdles champion Dai Greene, Udinese manager Francesco Guidolin, Paul ‘Sensible’ Merson, Julian Gray, Joe Hart, Peter Schmeichel, Mark Burchill, Christopher Wright, Lukas Podolski, Fernando Llorente, Cameron Jerome, Nathan Pond, Ruslan Rotan, Georgios Samaras, Nicklas Bendtner, Ray Crawford, Danny Welbeck, Tulio Maravilha, Wayne Routledge, Teddy Sheringham, Jason Demetriou, Per Mertesacker, Jakub Blaszczykowski (try saying that drunk), Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (and that), Shane Long, Santi Cazorla, Stelios Giannakopoulos, Michel Salgado, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Gibraltar’s manager, football’s WAGs, the worst professional team in the UK and the man who was better than Messi.

Real Madrid prepare to celebrate, Bilbao fans prepare to turn up late

Tim Stannard — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:46:00 GMT

Not for the first time, it’s the pasillo, rather than the potential end of the Primera title race, that dominates the headlines in the Spanish capital.

For the uninformed, the pasillo is traditional guard of honour given to league champions by opposition players prior to the first match after the league has been won. It was being discussed in squeakily excited terms by the Madrid press as far back as the winter, when Real Madrid were 10 points clear at the top and calculations were being done whether or not Barcelona would have applaud their rivals on to the Camp Nou pitch ahead of their recent clash, as they did in 2008 (see the below video).

Instead, the talk now is of whether it will be another club not exactly enamored with all things Madridista going through the ritual - Athletic Bilbao.

If Málaga beat Barcelona at the Camp Nou in Wednesday's 8pm kick-off, Real Madrid will be officially crowned league champions for the 32nd time without kicking a ball, as their match at San Mamés doesn't get under way until 10pm. But as a floppy Málaga have next to no chance of beating Barcelona at the the Camp Nou, Real Madrid will most likely have to do the hard work themselves and defeat Athletic in their own back yard for the sixth time in seven seasons.

Málaga doing their duty and rolling over will spare some Athletic fans missing the first five minutes of the match, with rumours suggesting a group of supporters would boycott the opening stages of the fixture in order to avoid the accursed ‘pasillo’. This isn’t simply because they don’t like Real Madrid, it is also a protest against the capital club's president Florentino Pérez, who barred the Santiago Bernabeu from being a potential Copa del Rey final venue due to all important toilet repair work at the stadium, and certainly not due to the fact he didn't fancy seeing a certain Catalan club having a party on his patch.

The chance of winning la Liga even saw José Mourinho breaking his radio silence and giving Aitor Karanka a bit of a rest in the pre-match press conference. However, there may be more quiet to come in the next few weeks if things go alright on the night. “I’ll do what I always do,” said the Madrid manager, who is on the brink of winning four league titles in four countries, “I’ll be as quiet and hidden as possible.”

Jose - hidden and quiet, just as promised

It’s a strategy that Unai Emery would dearly love to adopt however, the under-pressure Primera coach is having to dodge question after question on his immediate future in Mestalla. Valencia are in action at home to Osasuna and looking to take advantage of fourth-placed Málaga’s potential Camp Nou defeat to move three points clear of the southern side. “Our limit is to be third in la Liga,” reiterated Emery to fans always wanting a bit more. “I’ll celebrate it and I invite people to celebrate it and enjoy it, too.” Good luck with that plea to the Valencia fans, says LLL.

It’s a big evening in the battle for Europa League places (stay awake, please), with Levante away at Zaragoza - who must win to stand any chance of staying up - and Atlético Madrid at home to nothing-to-play for Real Sociedad, a sure-fire sign of an imminent away victory in the Vicente Calderón, if ever there was one.

The Seville derby is also taking place, although it’s a bit of a ‘meh’, mid-table affair this time around, despite Betis having the incentive of being able to go level on points with their neighbours, should they win in the Sánchez Pizjuán. Which would be nice. Rayo will make yet another attempt to pick up the last three points needed to stay up with an away match at Mallorca.

In Tuesday’s games, Sporting pretty much sealed their relegation fate with a 3-2 home defeat to the then fourth-from-bottom side, Villarreal, who moved seven points clear of the Asturians with two games to go. Granada moved to the 42 point mark with a victory over Espanyol whilst Getafe drew 1-1 with Racing in a midday kick-off at the Coliseum in front a crowd that managed to reach the four figure mark, quite remarkably.

Wednesday Predictions
Atlético Madrid v Real Sociedad - Home win
Barcelona v Málaga - Home win
Sevilla v Betis - Draw
Mallorca v Rayo - Away win
Zaragoza v Levante - Home win
Valencia v Osasuna - Home win
Athletic Bilbao v Real Madrid - Away win

The Euro 2012 England squad predictor: Who we think Roy will pick

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

So it's Roy, not Harry, who will attempt to sail the perhaps not very good ship England through the choppy waters of Poland and Ukraine.

We've spent the last few months trying to second guess Fabio Capello, then the FA, then Knappsy.

But, having evidently wasted all that time, here is our final prediction for England's Euro 2012 squad...

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

Players are ranked in order of certainty of selection

1 Wayne Rooney - Manchester United ■
Playing well and scoring goals. Don’t. Get. Injured.

2 Joe Hart - Manchester City ■
Best England No.1 post-Seaman. Another man England can't afford to be without.

3 Steven Gerrard - Liverpool ▲
Main goal threat from midfield. May need to shoulder goalscoring burden during Rooney's ban.

4 Scott Parker - Tottenham ▼
Has tired over the last two months but will still add bite to the midfield.

5 Ashley Cole - Chelsea ■
Has improved as the season has gone on. A star of Chelsea's resurgence.

6 Joleon Lescott - Manchester City ▲
Arguably the best English defender in the Premier League this year.

7 Theo Walcott - Arsenal ▲
England’s biggest threat is pace, and in-form Theo has that in spades.

8 Gary Cahill - Chelsea ▲
A goalscoring defender: always a plus in tournaments. Showed his quality against Barcelona.

9 James Milner - Manchester City ▼
Versatile as a Swiss Army knife. One of Capello's favourites - will Roy rate him as highly?

10 Frank Lampard - Chelsea ■
Has come into form at the right time for club and country. Experience could be crucial.

11 Ashley Young - Manchester United ▲
May not be Mr Popular with the public at present, but England form has been good over last 18 months.

12 John Terry - Chelsea ■
Takes command in big games

13 Michael Carrick - Manchester United ●
Must replace the injured Wilshere; the best English midfielder this season bar none.

14 Kyle Walker - Tottenham ■
Strong and pacy, like club-mate Parker, he has tired of late, but still likely to travel.

15 Danny Welbeck - Manchester United ■
The primary lone striking option. Could be thrust in at the deep end during Rooney suspension.

16 Leighton Baines - Everton ▼
Reliable understudy to Cole; made it into the PFA team of the year.

17 Phil Jones - Manchester United ▲
Offers cover in three positions and growing in maturity.

18 Gareth Barry - Manchester City ▼
Dependable, if uninspiring; may be required to settle the midfield.

19 Peter Crouch - Stoke City ●
Has enjoyed a good first season at Stoke, and Roy is said to be a fan.

20 Scott Carson - Bursaspor ■
A firm second choice in goal, and Roy will know how enlightening working abroad can be.

21 Daniel Sturridge - Chelsea ▼
Another fleet-footed option, though question marks over decision making and perceived 'selfishness'.

22 Robert Green - West Ham ■
Solid for the Hammers, but will playing outside the top flight hinder his chances?

23 Paul Scholes - Manchester United ●
Wanted: a passer in the middle of the park. We can hope, right?

Those on the outside

Aston Villa's Darren Bent will almost certainly be involved should he recover sufficiently from the ankle ligament injury which has ruled him out of action for the last two months. Micah Richards, Phil Jagielka and Rio Ferdinand will all be waiting in the wings for a defensive spot to free up should any injuries occur.

The most likely of Roy's West Brom charges to make the trip could well be Ben Foster. The keeper, on loan from Birmingham, took a break from international football last May, but could be encouraged to return by a manager who knows him well.

Of the new coach's other former players, Fulham midfielder Danny Murphy and QPR striker Bobby Zamora stand out as being in with a chance of earning a late call-up. Murphy could be a good option for a deep-lying midfield string-puller, should Paul Scholes decline any potential advances, while Zamora has the strength and aerial ability to lead the line alone if need be. Zamora, who played for Hodgson at Fulham between 2008 and 2010, has perhaps jumped Jermain Defoe and the slowly-improving Andy Carroll in the queue for the final forward berth should Darren Bent fail to return from injury.

A lack of prolonged spells of form, fitness or playing time will most likely hinder Stewart Downing, Aaron Lennon and Adam Johnson's chances.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain represents the most likely 'wild card', but having not yet secured regular football at Arsenal, despite some hugely impressive cameos, will almost certainly work against him.

May Day midweek mayhem as Spain rocked by match-fixing allegations

Tim Stannard — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:14:00 GMT

Normally, match-fixing allegations in Spain only come to light about two after the games have taken place and it’s far too late to do anything about them, not that there was ever any will to probe them in the first place.

But ever since it became an actual banged-to-rights, ‘ello ‘ello’ ‘ello, take down your particulars crime at the end of 2010 - LLL was as surprised as anybody to discover it wasn’t one in the first place - those running the game in Spain have become a little bit faster to the draw when it comes to investigating potential naughtiness involving the mythical ‘suitcases’ of cash used to ‘encourage’ teams one way or the other at the end of the season.

The third-to-last round of la Liga matches kicked off on Tuesday - although technically it’s round 20 due to August strike business - with stories of skullduggery rumbling in the background. A representative for the Spanish League (LFP) told radio station Cadena Ser that “three weeks ago, we met with the official state authorities to report our concerns on this (match-fixing) theme and we gave them a press dossier.”

Although no specific report has been made against any match, Javier Tebas, says that “there are seven or eight games each each season where there could be an agreement to predetermine the result.”

This all comes at the same time as a journalist for another radio station, COPE, has made accusations that Sporting’s 3-0 victory at Espanyol on Saturday may not have been completely out of the blue. It’s an allegation completely denied by both clubs, with Sporting president Manuel Vega-Arango claiming his club are already looking into legal action and that “we are a modest club in economic terms but very big in terms of our supporters who don’t deserve this.”

But Sporting will have to park this controversial bus for a day or so, as the team have a season-defining game against Villarreal kicking off at 20:00 on Tuesday evening, local time. Sporting are currently second from bottom on 34 points, with the Yellow Submarine two places above them on 38. A defeat and it’s probable all over for Sporting. A win and it’s ‘get in’. A draw and LLL is not too sure what will happen, with Villarreal still facing two eminently losable games against Valencia and Atlético Madrid.

At the time of writing, the latest score flash from Getafe’s midday kick-off is 1-0 against the already relegated Racing. That leaves one more match being played on Tuesday at 18.00 with Granada hosting Espanyol. Again, it’s not one that exactly tickles the ivories, but a win for the Andalusians should see the side reaching the survival point mark, which is quite a remarkable achievement for a team that was expected to be going straight back down to la Segunda.

Tuesday Predictions
Getafe v Racing - Home win (Ed - The game ultimately finished 1-1, sorry)
Granada v Espanyol - Home win
Sporting v Villarreal - Draw

Things you may not have noticed from Man City vs Man Utd

Stats Zone — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:13:00 GMT

Monday evening's crunch Premier League tie between Manchester City and Manchester United was perhaps as cagey and closely-fought as was to be expected, given what was at stake. Here are a few interesting tidbits we found using our StatsZone app...

One of the most telling statistics to emerge following last night's game was United's zero shots on target. It was the first time since May 16th 2009 against Arsenal that they have failed to hit the target in a league fixture.

But Wayne Rooney and friends weren't the only ones failing to hit the mark. Manchester City star Sergio Aguero also failed to find the target with his five shots on target, having previously been in sparkling form.

It was a case of18th lucky for City - the cross which lead to Vincent Kompany's first half header was their 18th of the match, and the first successfully find a man in a blue shirt. In the second half, City attempted a further eight crosses, all of which were unsuccessful.

Roberto Mancini's side found it far easier to create chances by attacking through the middle of the pitch and patiently waiting to thread passes through any gaps in United's defence.

Then again, this is perhaps no surprise given City's forwards - Aguero and Carlos Tevez - are both just 5ft8in.

Among City's top performers on the night was Samir Nasri. The Frenchman completed the most passes in the attacking third of the pitch and also completed the most successful take-ons of any player on the pitch.

But despite Nasri's impressive showing, it was one of City's defenders, Pablo Zabaleta, who created the most chances. The Argentine fullback made key passes on four occasions over the 90 minutes, generally from deep on the right.

Zabaleta also made the most interceptions of any player - six of City's 18. This consistent picking of United's pockets helped the Premier League's new leaders frustrate their rivals and fairly comfortably hold out for three points.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Call that a close title race? THIS was a close title race...

Guest Writer — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:46:00 GMT

Manchester City and United are locked together atop the Premier League, and as the season nears its climax, dare we hope for a finale as exciting as Germany's in 2001? Gerard Brand tells the story...

The first 19 years of the Premier League have seen two truly dramatic last-day title wins: Blackburn relying on a West Ham brick wall in 1995, and Manchester United’s 2-1 victory from behind against Spurs in 1999 denying Arsenal. The other last-day wins – Chelsea’s 8-0 Wigan walloping in 2010 and Manchester United’s routine victories over Middlesbrough in 1996 and Wigan in 2008 – were barely worth checking Ceefax for.

The Premier League’s final day is better known for relegation candidates battling it out in matches not even a Mystic Meg would dare predict. But what's more entertaining? Drop-dodging battles may induce pain, euphoria, mass financial homicide and ill-advised on-pitch karaoke but staying up by the skin of the teeth can't compare to winning a title at the death, even if it is for the most hated club in the country.

The final fortnight of the 2000/01 German Bundesliga season featured a Schalke side looking for their first title since 1958 in their last season at the Parkstadion, lederhosen-to-lederhosen at the summit with one of the most successful Bayern Munich teams in recent history.

This wasn’t just a last-day drama. This was a two-part series with more twists and turns than even the most enthusiastic (and unrealistic) soap opera writer could spit out, beginning on the penultimate weekend of fixtures.

Going into stoppage time at home to Kaiserslautern, Bayern were being held 1-1 while Schalke were goalless at Stuttgart. That would leave both teams level on 60 points heading into the final round, where Schalke’s superior goal difference and remaining home fixture with relegation candidates Unterhaching would put them in good stead, while Bayern faced a long trip to Hamburg.

Cue the first twist. In a frantic final minute, the pendulum swung toward Ottmar Hitzfeld’s Bayern. In Munich, Alexander Zickler’s ferocious 90th-minute volley turned one point into three for Bayern; simultaneously, relegation-threatened Stuttgart scored through Krasimir Balakov to beat Schalke. Advantage Die Bayern, three points clear going into the final week.

Enter round 34 of 34. In Gelsenkirchen, Schalke fans were in celebratory mood for the final match at the outdated Parkstadion, their home since 1973. However, Bayern only needed a point in Hamburg to claim the title, and most fans around the country expect a third successive title for 'FC Hollywood' – especially when Schalke went 2-0 down within the first half-hour against Unterhaching. They came back to level the scores by half-time, to regain some hope with Hamburg-Bayern still goalless. Schalke pushed for a goal to take the lead, but Jan Seifert’s strike for Unterhaching put them 3-2 behind.

They needed to win their match and hope that Hamburg nicked three points. Joerg Bohme helped them do their bit: a quick-fire double put Schalke 4-3 up, before joint league top scorer Ebbe Sand put the game beyond doubt.

Unbelievably, part two of said miracle was realised 200 miles away, with Sergei Barbarez’s brilliant 90th-minute header for Hamburg. Hitzfeld looked speechless, his bench slumped in despair, his team 1-0 down. If Hamburg could hold on, Schalke would win their first league title in 43 years on goal difference.

Bayern still needed a draw. Schalke’s game had finished, and the pitch filled with thousands of anxious yet excited supporters, watching the dying minutes of the Hamburg-Bayern game on the Parkstadion's big screen.

In the fourth and final minute of added time, Hamburg's former Schalke goalkeeper Mathias Schober picked up a backpass 10 yards outside his area. Up stepped Patrik Andersson, whose indirect free kick somehow deflected its way through a wall of Hamburg players.

The last kick of the game retained the title for Bayern, seen live by 60,000 back in Gelsenkirchen. Cue wild celebrations from Bayern players, many of whom had suffered their own last-minute agony two years before in the Champions League final defeat to Manchester United.

Schalke fans were openly sobbing, some in realisation and some in disbelief. The players watched on in the stands, sharing the disappointment with the ardent support. Meanwhile, up in the northern port city, Stefan Effenberg lifted the salad bowl for Bayern, confirming one of the most dramatic conclusions to any season.

In Schalke's situation, many would hide behind their grief, give their post-match interviews, woefully describe their disappointment and disappear for the summer feeling mightily sorry for themselves. Schalke general manager Rudi Assauer took a different route, addressing fans outside the ground after the game and rallying them to be proud of the team – not something you could envisage Sir Alex or 'Bobby Manc' doing if the situation gets as dramatic on May 13th.

Scant consolation for Schalke came with a 2-0 German Cup Final win over Union Berlin just seven days later, but a much coveted Bundesliga title has eluded them ever since, with another two second-placed finishes. Bayern immediately went on to win the Champions League with a penalty shoot-out victory over Valencia, and have won the league five times since, making a record 22 titles overall.

Looking back on the last two weekends of the 2000/01 Bundesliga campaign shows how football provides unrivalled glory, before regurgitating it as a heap of bile-ridden anguish. And repeat. A spectacular irrelevancy it may be, but the beast that is the beautiful game showed here what it is capable of, and here’s to hoping for some of the same a bit closer to home in the coming weeks. For us neutrals, anyway.

Inside the derby – with Mancini, Vidic, Micah and Cleverley

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:44:00 GMT

The November 2011 issue of FourFourTwo previewed the Manchester derby with a cover story examining the history of the fixture and interviewing several protagonists. It makes for fascinating reading...

Roberto Mancini
FFT: Manchester United have set a high standard in recent seasons. If you finish above them, do you think you will win the league title this campaign?
RM: I think so, for sure! United began winning many years ago and they have a winning mentality, so it's not easy to match them and be on their level so quickly. They’re one of the best teams in the world, but we have a good team as well.

What’s your relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson like?
I have a good relationship with Sir Alex. For all he has achieved over the past 20 years, he deserves the kind of respect he gets. He’s a good guy and I like him – but it would be great if I could beat him this season!

How much has the atmosphere around Manchester changed?
It’s very important for the city of Manchester that both teams are at the top, playing great football and are in the Champions League. Now, Manchester is like Milan or Rome, which can only be a very good thing.

What kind of reaction do you get from Manchester United fans when you are out and about?
They are very good and respectful. They smile and say hello and I can go to the city centre without any problems. From time  to time I bump into their players and they are respectful too; good guys as well as great football players.

Nemanja Vidic
FFT: What did you know about the Manchester derby before you came to England?
NV: Not much. Then, it was not one of the derbies that is known all over the world, like Manchester United versus Liverpool or Arsenal and Chelsea. Now it is different. The games are much more competitive and everyone knows how important it is.

That’s possibly because when you first arrived, City were at a very different end of the table to United. Could you tell it meant a lot even then?
Yes, it was still important within the club. The first game after I signed was a Manchester derby. I didn't play but I was in the dressing room before the game and Sir Alex Ferguson made it clear we could not lose. He told us all how important it was. That is something I understood because derbies are the same everywhere. It is like the Belgrade derby, Red Star versus Partizan. As soon as you see it, you realise how much it means.

What did you make of it?
It wasn't just my first game as a United player, but the first English game I had ever seen live. We lost. Patrice Evra, who had been signed at the same time as me, played and he didn’t do too well. It was good to have the chance to see what English football was like. It was so fast, really tough, and all the players seemed so big. The passion was a real surprise, too.

Even as a United player, is it good for the city that both clubs are doing well?
Definitely. As a player, you want to be part of the big games. They have more tension, more quality. They are more difficult, but that's why you play football: to play against good players, good teams, in front of good crowds. All of the excitement we have had against City in the last few years means it is the best atmosphere in the stadium when we play them.

Do these games feel different now? Is it the most important game of your season?
We've had a few games against City in the last few years where we have won in the last minute and the excitement has been incredible. It is maybe going to be one of the most important games for us in the next few years. There is more pressure when you play against them now. Derbies are about the fans: it's them who have to go into work tomorrow and see the other fans, and it's them who get texts straight after the game, with a joke about United players or City players.

Micah Richards
FFT: How has the rivalry with United changed during your 10 years at the club?
MR: I have noticed a change but not in the way you might imagine. There was more of a derby vibe a few years ago when we had the likes of Nedum Onuoha, Michael Johnson, Stephen Ireland and Richard Dunne, because they knew what winning the derby was all about. It’s still an important game, but it’s more about who can play the better football rather than blood-and-thunder challenges – that’s what derbies used to be  all about. It’s definitely different.

What’s it like around the city for the players? You must pull up alongside each other at traffic lights on the way to training and bump into each other all the time in restaurants and shops?
Yeah, I see some of their lads outside of football as I’m good friends with Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck from the England under-21s – they’re good lads, but on derby day, all friendship is forgotten!

Tom Cleverley
Is it a good thing for City and United that your closest rivals are now your nearest neighbours?
It’s good for Manchester and the Manchester derby, which was one-sided for a long time. City have made good signings and they’re playing well. There will be a bigger than normal build-up around the derby.

You’ve actually played with a lot of the City players…
I know Micah [Richards] best from England’s under-21s and I’ve been with England alongside Lescott, Johnson, Barry and Joe Hart. There’s a lot of United and City players with England and the Community Shield was brought up. They were saying that we didn’t batter them, whereas we explained quite clearly that we did. It was a great game, really exciting, and I’m sure it will be the same again when we play them in the league.

----------

From the November 2011 issue of FourFourTwo. Interviews by David Clayton (Mancini and Richards), Rory Smith (Vidic) and Andy Mitten (Cleverley).

Good Day, Bad Day: Puyol’s punch, Racing’s relegation & rubbish Reyes

Tim Stannard — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:41:00 GMT

GOOD DAY

Real Madrid
A touch lucky at times – what with the perfectly good early goal disallowed for Sevilla, who proceeded to be somewhat hopeless in front of goal – but it was job done for Real Madrid on Sunday morning in the Santiago Bernabeu. A comfy 3-0 victory leaves the team just needing a win at Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday to pick up league title No.32.

Thiago
Although there was much to enjoy in the performances from Leo Messi and Pedro in the front three during Barcelona’s 7-0 demolition of Rayo, LLL was particularly tickled by Thiago in the centre of midfield, who bossed and lauded over what was admittedly a bit of a soft centre for Rayo. The Spanish/Brazilian was a footballer who seemed to thrive under the responsibility handed to him in the absence of Xavi and Andrés Iniesta. It was a performance that saw Barcelona recover from a tough week in some style.

Carles Puyol
The Barcelona legend's status goes up another notch with his ear-clipping intervention to stop Thiago and Dani Alves celebrating the fifth goal with a samba in front of the Rayo fans. “We apologise to Rayo, it will never happen again,” announced Pep Guardiola after the game.

Málaga
The 1-0 win over Valencia sees the southerners draw level in third with the team they beat – although not on head-to-head scores – but it was a flat performance in a flat game between two flat teams. This sounds a tad harsh, but without a decent striker – as Málaga are at the moment – the Champions League challengers aren't really that impressive as an outfit, Santi Cazorla and Isco aside. More investment needed this summer.

Valdo
The forward is the typical example of how Levante have been successful over the past season and a half – a journeyman footballer thought to be past his best, stepping up to the mark with Bruce Willis / Armageddon style big performances and nuclear detonations. The 31-year-old popped up with two assists and a goal in a 3-1 win over Granada that still gives Levante a chance of a Champions League place thanks to Valencia’s imminent collapse: little Levante are just three points and two spots behind their city neighbours.

Betis / Atlético Madrid
A point is probably just fine for both clubs in their respective quests to stay up and qualify for more European football. However, all the excitement came at the end, with three goals in the final six minutes to make a 2-2 draw in Andalusia.

Raul García
An amazing – and it truly was amazing – 10th league goal of the season for the Osasuna forward-type-player gives his side a point at Villarreal and an ongoing chance of European football next season.

Mallorca
The final three games will probably end in three defeats, with Mallorca taking the Getafe holiday option, but there's a very faint sniff of a top-six finish for the Balearic club who are three points off after Saturday’s rather surprising 3-1 away win at the Coliseum. See, la Liga can be exciting after all!

Real Sociedad
You sense that not all fans are happy about it, but la Real's not-all-that-popular French boss Philippe Montanier has led the club to top-flight safety with three games to spare – thanks to a couple of goals from Antoine Griezmann, who finally decided to show up to the Primera party after a lost year in San Sebastian.

A Rayo loon
LLL spent a fair amount of Sunday’s game against Barcelona watching an insanely animated Rayo fan dressed in an all-in-one unitard-with-mask Spiderman-style suit, covered in black and white checks. The blog salutes you.

Zaragoza, Sporting
Closing in from behind on 17th-placed Villarreal, both clubs sense fear and other unmentionable whiffies coming from the back of the Yellow Submarine. Both won their weekend matches to close the gap to four points with three games left, and on Tuesday Sporting face...Villarreal, of course!

BAD DAY

Gonzalo Higuaín
The striker began the season as José Mourinho’s No.1 striker, but now the Argentinian is very much a No.2, despite having scored a goal more than Karim Benzema. A (very) late sub in both Champions League semi-finals and the Clásico, the Argentinian didn’t even make it off the bench on Sunday, a possible response to reports that he has been talking to representatives of PSG due to his unhappiness at being shoved down the pecking order at Real Madrid.

Valencia
Thought so. Completely given up. “Unai Emery left his theories on a winning mentality in the library,” complained the match report in AS after the lame defeat to Málaga.

José Antonio Reyes
The Sevilla forward was a complete waste of space on Sunday against Real Madrid, to end a year where he has been a complete waste of space for both the clubs he’s played for.

Getafe, Espanyol
Two teams who, having reached the fork in the road with directions marked "European football next year" and "European vacation now", have taken the more relaxing route. Getafe crashed 3-1 at home to Mallorca, with Luis García admitting that “I’m sad: I can’t find any explanation for such a bad match.” Meanwhile, Espanyol did even worse, with Paul from Barcelona in the stands to see a 3-0 defeat by relegation-doomed Sporting.

“Well that was the worst performance I've witnessed since I saw DLT doing a Radio 1 roadshow in 1978 [Gary Davies always delivered – LLL]. Overpaid, underperforming, lacking any real ideas – and Espanyol weren't much better.

"Basically this one was phoned in. For a team with an outside chance of Europe they lacked any ideas and most of the team looked like they were 'on the beach' already.

"To quote Fernando Torres – and what a fantastic week it's been – the best team doesn't always win. Despite being rubbish, Espanyol still played better football than Sporting – but like Chelsea, Sporting took their chances and deserved to win because they wanted it more.

"Sporting's fans were great and Espanyol fans clapped Sporting off the pitch, more to show disgust at Espanyol to be honest. Things not looking good here. All the best players will be gone in the summer and the lack of ambition stated by Kameni looks to be true.” –– Paul, Barcelona

Villarreal
Saturday’s 1-1 against Osasuna was the third match in a row that Villarreal have held a 1-0 lead in a game, before missing chances and then seeing the advantage being wiped out. Although Villarreal have only lost one of their eight matches under Miguel Angel Lotina, five have been draws. Tuesday’s clash at Sporting could either seal safety for the east coast club or leave the team in all sorts of trouble with two matches to go – matches against Valencia and Atlético Madrid, no less.

José Ramón Sandoval
Rayo still need those three points to enjoy safety for another season, but there was no chance whatsoever of picking them up against a Barcelona side who completely outclassed a team supposed to be enjoying home advantage. “I can’t look myself in the mirror,” admitted the Rayo boss. “If you let in seven how can you not be ashamed?”

Racing Santander
Now officially relegated after defeat to Real Sociedad, they may not be back for a while considering there's an almighty mess concerning who actually owns them. It’s the fans who must suffer the absolute idiocy of the former management of the club with the ‘sale’ to Ahsan Ali Syed, a move that has spelt disaster for an institution that’s 100 years old.

Chase for third brings out plenty of erratic behaviour in Serie A

Richard Whittle — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:01:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat 28 Apr Palermo 1-1 Catania, Cagliari 0-0 Chievo, AS Roma 2-2 Napoli Sun 29 Apr Bologna 3-2 Genoa, Siena 1-4 AC Milan, Novara 0-4 Juventus, Lecce 1-2 Parma, Atalanta 2-0 Fiorentina, Inter 2-1 Cesena, Udinese 2-0 Lazio.

With just five points between third and seventh heading into the weekend’s fixtures as the race for Serie A’s third and final Champions League spot intensifies, anxiety was always likely to be at a premium. Sure enough, from Rome to Udine, there were some surreal moments.

The barmiest came in the Sunday evening showdown at the Friuli stadium, where the two sides to have made most of the running for that coveted third spot – Udinese and Lazio – went head to head.

For a long time things were flat, with neither team showing great desire to return early for pre-season training in order to prepare for the Champions League qualifying round. Udinese talisman Antonio Di Natale scored the decisive goal on 69 minutes, with Roberto Pereyra adding a second in the dying seconds.

The away team immediately kicked off – but not in the traditional, centre-circle-based sense. The Lazio players had a heard a whistle and promptly stopped chasing a long clearance into their half. But the noise had come from the stands, and the ensuing confusion enabled Pereyra to sprint down the touchline and score from a tight angle.

Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti had fallen to his knees in despair at hearing the “phantom” whistle and when he saw that the referee was waving play on; was unable to get back in time to cover his line.

He did, however, find a good change of pace to join in with the touchline melee, where there were unsurprisingly few cool heads, with the Lazio camp fuming at this perceived injustice.

Andre Dias was shown a straight red card, the club ‘suits’ - who for some unfathomable reason are allowed on the bench - got involved in a bout of pushing and shoving, while Lionel Scaloni got up close and personal with the fourth official.

Further sanctions will no doubt follow after Marchetti was seen to push the referee, who was attempting to explain to an irate bunch of troubled souls that there was little he could do, simply because he hadn’t blown his whistle.

The Lazio players wanted the goal ruled out and the final ten seconds resumed with a drop ball in the middle of the pitch – and it seemed for a moment that the referee was going to oblige but stood by the ruling that only the man in charge can bring the game to a halt.

Napoli are currently sat in third and have the edge over their rivals thanks to a superior head-to-head record and arguably more favourable fixtures, but they could have held a more substantial advantage.

They looked to be cruising to victory at AS Roma, where they had the full backing of most of the Olympic Stadium as the home fans turned their back on their own team.

However, with the clock ticking down and the away side 2-1 up and looking like extending their lead, Roma substitute Fabio Simplicio scored an unlikely equalizer, before haring off into the stands to hug his wife and child – and it wasn’t as if they were sitting in the first row.

It was so off-kilter that even the locals stopped verbally abusing Luis Enrique for a moment to enjoy the spectacle, but at the final whistle the Curva Sud – home to the diehard support – demanded that Francesco Totti follow his crest-fallen team-mates over for a good dressing down, before urging the captain to have the coach sacked forthwith: cue quick exit.

Weirdness of a different kind was unfolding at the San Siro, where Inter had not so long along seemingly given up any hope of getting into Europe at all when Andrea Stramaccioni was promoted from the youth team to replace Claudio Ranieri.

But the coach, who is a couple of years younger than Javier Zanetti, has overseen a run of six games unbeaten, culminating in a 2-1 win over Cesena.

However, the Nerazzurri have the toughest fixture list ahead, with a trip to Parma on Wednesday evening, a derby – a nice little quirk considering AC Milan are trailing Inter’s least favourite club, Juventus, at the top - and then a trip to Lazio.

There is little time to settle nerves with another midweek round looming and with Napoli, Udinese, Inter and Lazio level on 55 points, the chase for third looks guaranteed to bring out plenty of more erratic behaviour.

Premier pub ammo: Torres and Pienaar reborn, Spurs break set-piece duck

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:46:00 GMT

More data mined from the Stats Zone app, yours from FourFourTwo and Opta.

Chelsea 6-1 QPR
John Terry's 27th top-flight goal brings him only one behind Ian Harte in the list of Premier League goalscoring defenders – but second-placed Harte still lags 10 behind top man David Unsworth (38).

Chelsea's tally of 30 shots (including blocks) is the second-highest of any team in the PL this season. The only team to top it was Fulham with 31 when they lost 3-1 at home to Spurs in November – the Cottagers' only success that day coming via an own goal.

Fernando Torres has scored seven goals in 14 matches in all competitions under Roberto Di Matteo, compared to five in 49 under the previous two bosses at Chelsea. His compatriot Juan Mata now has the joint-most assists in the PL this term (13).

Tottenham 2-0 Blackburn
Blackburn Rovers became the first team since West Brom v Man City in December 2004 not to attempt a single shot (including blocked shots). Up the other end, Kyle Walker scored Tottenham’s first goal from a set piece in the PL this season: before his free-kick, they were the only team yet to score from one (direct or indirect). Conversely, only Aston Villa (23) have conceded more set-piece goals than Blackburn (22) this term.

Spurs' midfield partnership complemented each other perfectly. Sandro won 11 tackles, the highest in a PL game this season (yellow crosses on the screen below; green diamonds are interceptions). Luka Modric completed 103 passes in this game, the most by a PL player this weekend.

Everton 4-0 Fulham
Only Emmanuel Adebayor has provided more assists in a single PL game this season (four, v Newcastle in February) than Steven Pienaar's three against Fulham. Steven Pienaar has had a hand in 10 PL goals for Everton in 11 games (three goals and seven assists), compared to just one assist and no goals in 10 appearances for Tottenham.

Stoke City 1-1 Arsenal
The Potters scored with their only shot on target of the first half (they only managed two in the entire 90 minutes). In total, 39% of Stoke’s goals this season have been headers, a league-high proportion.

Sunderland 2-2 Bolton Wanderers
Nicklas Bendtner has been involved in six of Sunderland’s last 10 PL goals (five goals and one assist). Sunderland have scored a league-high five goals from direct free-kicks this season.

Swansea City 4-4 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves have won 15 points from losing positions this season; only Arsenal (20) have gained more. Swansea have won just one of their last seven Premier League matches.

Wigan Athletic 4-0 Newcastle United
Victor Moses netted the earliest brace of the season in this match, both of his goals coming in the first 15 minutes.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Heroes & Villains: Torres restored, Spurs find saviour, McLeish's Villa pointless

Mark Booth — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:30:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat 28 Apr Everton 4-0 Fulham, Norwich 0-3 Liverpool, Stoke 1-1 Arsenal, Sunderland 2-2 Bolton, Swansea 4-4 Wolves, West Brom 0-0 Aston Villa, Wigan 4-0 Newcastle Sun 29 Apr Chelsea 6-1 QPR, Tottenham 2-0 Blackburn.

Heroes

Roberto Martinez
Five wins out of seven have left Wigan looking like they’re going to escape relegation the hard way yet again. Usually one would assume a team making a late charge for safety would have done so by rolling their sleeves up and shedding more than a few bucket loads of sweat, but Wigan have subverted all of the clichés this season by toppling Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and now, Newcastle United by playing the expansive, eye-catching brand of football demanded by their Spanish boss.
Their sudden upturn in fortunes could be attributed to subtle tweaking of Martinez’s system, or maybe their style is just better suited to facing quality opposition – whatever it is, Wigan are now three points clear of the relegation zone with two to play. A win against Blackburn next Monday evening should be enough to see them defy gravity – and early season expectations - for another year. If they do, and they can hold onto their manager, perhaps next term they can finally aspire to more than just mere survival.

Fernando Torres
The Camp Nou hero looked restored to his former glory with a hat-trick in Sunday’s 6-1 butchering of QPR at Stamford Bridge. It wasn’t just the clinical finishing that had returned, but also the movement, awareness and explosive pace over the first five yards that once made him the Premier League’s most feared marksman during his first three years in England.
His first Premier League treble since Liverpool’s 6-1 win over Hull in September 2009 boosted Chelsea’s hopes of claiming that lucrative fourth Champions League spot, should they fail to win the pot itself in Munich.
If there is one note of caution, it’s that we’ve previously heralded the ‘second coming’ of Nando, only for the freckly-faced forward to go missing the following week. Next weekend is the FA Cup Final, we note. Against his former club, we note. This would certainly be a good time to finally show a bit of consistency in a blue shirt.

Nikica Jelavic
“Follow the Jelavic road,” sing the Everton faithful in tribute to their new hero. He may have only arrived in January, but he’s already the club’s top scorer for the season, having netted 10 goals in his first 13 games at the Merseyside club.
There were question marks over Jelavic’s ability to make the step up from the SPL to the Premier League, but he’s adapted seamlessly to life south of the border and played a huge role in Everton scoring four goals in three consecutive Premier League matches.
The Croatian’s most recent two strikes contributed to a hugely impressive 4-0 win over in-form Fulham. The Toffees are two points ahead of city rivals Liverpool, and if they can see off Stoke and Wolves, they will finish ahead of the Reds for the first time since 2005.

Terry Connor
After last Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester City condemned Wolves to the drop, Connor spoke of preserving the integrity of the division in their remaining three fixtures, aware that other Premier League clubs would rely on them to show some pluck despite their own fate already being sealed.
These were admirably altruistic sentiments from a beleaguered manager so soon after relegation, but the words looked as empty as Wolves’ points’ coffers at the Liberty Stadium when they were 3-0 and then 4-1 down. A fight back followed, however, and Wolves somehow managed to get themselves back on level terms to earn a rare and unlikely point.
It’s tempting to question where this desire and clinical finishing has been all season, particularly in Connor’s reign, but let’s simply toast a remarkable turnaround and the latest example of just how mental this league can be.

Sandro
Although Kyle Walker’s superb free-kick made the headlines, it was the disciplined and robust, yet adventurous performance of the Brazilian midfielder that was the most telling factor in Tottenham’s victory. The 23-year-old was dominant in the absence of Scott Parker, and his eleven completed tackles were more than any other player has managed in a single Premier League match this season.
Spurs have three games in which to save their Champions League dream – Sandro could be the key to rejuvenating a side that has lost a lot of its verve and swagger in recent weeks.

Luis Suarez
Three goals of the very highest quality from the Uruguayan headline-maker showcased a newfound assassin’s steel in front of goal. Liverpool’s goalscoring woes and propensity to find woodwork over net has been well documented, but Suarez gave one of the season’s great individual performances at Carrow Road, scoring a hat-trick in which each goal was better than the last.
The 45-yard chip that ended his evening (and the game as a contest) will be the strike that lives longest in the memory, but it was the striker’s energy and tenacity that truly impressed. Suarez is exactly the type of forward that gives defenders sleepless nights with his relentless pressing and harrying which found rich reward in this 3-0 win. Now, go and sign him a strike partner, Kenny.

Villains

QPR
The Hoops were the biggest losers on a weekend that saw three of the other four sides in the relegation scrap pick up points. QPR were 4-0 down within 25 minutes at Stamford Bridge and barely even set foot in the opposition half in the first period. If they had shown a fraction of the spirit the already-doomed Wolves had mustered at the Liberty Stadium, they surely wouldn’t have succumbed as willingly to the Chelsea onslaught.
It’s often said that Mark Hughes isn’t the type of manager to instantly turn around a poor run of form, with his players needing time to become imbedded into his system, but time is a luxury that the Rs are no longer afforded. Although they have managed the odd creditable result here and there to boost their survival hopes, at no stage have they been able to put together a run like the one Wigan have managed recently.
It’s looking increasingly likely that Sparky will need to pick up maximum points on the final day at his old stomping ground, the Etihad Stadium. A feat no side has achieved in the league this season…

Danny Simpson
It’s been a phenomenal season for Pardew’s men, but Saturday’s heavy defeat at the DW Stadium was a brutal reminder of what can happen when performance levels drop even a fraction. Too many of Newcastle’s best players suffered off-days simultaneously, and Wigan waltzed through with ease time and time again.
Danny Simpson has been the unsung hero of the Magpies’ season thus far, but he suffered at the hands of the Terminator-like running of Victor Moses, who was too quick, too strong and too clever for the Manchester United academy graduate. One poor showing doesn’t spoil what’s been an incredible season for Simpson’s Newcastle, and Saturday’s defeat should be filed under “reality check”. However, with Chelsea and Manchester City still to play, their Champions League challenge has reached a critical stage.

Randy Lerner & Alex McLeish
When the ‘foreign ownership’ debate rears its head, Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner is often used as the case for the defence. The American’s spell as chairman has been characterised by an unfussy and a patient ‘hands off’ approach, but surely this charity must be nearing its end.
It was an extremely masochistic decision when Lerner installed Alex McLeish as manager. Forget the Birmingham ties and his relegation blemished CV, when football is this joyless, it really does leave you wondering: what’s the point? A 0-0 draw with local rivals West Brom might just be enough to secure another season in the top flight, but one wonders whether a season in the Championship may actually do them good.
Villa have spent the season playing like a nervy newly-promoted side desperately hoofing and scrapping for points rather than one of the most established clubs in the Premier League, and whether they survive or not, Lerner only has one decision to make. It’s never nice to see a manager lose his job but when the football is this tedious and it doesn’t get results, it’s time to let someone else have a go.

Norwich City
Having suffered three consecutive defeats for the first time this season, perhaps the lack of depth in this Norwich City squad is starting to show. It was a leggy performance from the Canaries, whose minds may have been on the beach with relatively little to play for, and Liverpool made them pay.
There’s clearly no need to hit the panic button at Carrow Road just yet, but their recent poor form may leave manager Paul Lambert fearing a potential outbreak of ‘second season syndrome’.

Steve Kean
Battling relegation with just three matches to go, having just watched one of their rivals for the drop walloped 6-1 and facing a team who had won just one of their last nine league games, you would probably have expected Blackburn to go to White Hart Lane on the front foot.
Not so, this was one of the limpest, most pathetic performances of the season, even by Blackburn’s often rather low standards. They stood off and admired Tottenham’s build-up play and, in scenes reminiscent of “I Am Legend” (the ace book, not the awful film), Yakubu was stood alone, miles up the pitch without a yellow shirt in throwing distance.
Rovers were so pathetic that they became the first side to fail to muster a single shot on goal over the 90 minutes of a Premier League match since West Brom did so against Manchester City in December 2004. While the Baggies went on to avoid the drop that year, it’s almost impossible to see Rovers performing a similar miracle.
In fact, the only thing that was miraculous about this match was that Blackburn weren’t beaten by a wider margin, so if ‘damage limitation’ was Steve Kean’s plan, then the mission was a complete success.
Blackburn have gone to Old Trafford and claimed three points this season by seizing the initiative and being first to every ball – here, they looked disinterested and worryingly lacked any sense of direction or a plan. They look doomed and, on this evidence, the Premier League won’t miss them much.

Chelsea boo boys
This was more than the vocal minority who booed the minute’s silence for Hillsborough prior to the Blues’ FA Cup semi-final against Spurs, there was widespread booing of Anton Ferdinand every time he received the ball. Genuinely depressing stuff.

Proud of Turin: Juventus and Torino top the bill (again)

Adam Digby — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:54:00 GMT

As Turin's two clubs - Torino and Juventus - sit atop Serie B and Serie A respectively, Adam Digby looks at what the clubs' rivalry means to the city...

The Mole Antonelliana is a major landmark in the northern Italian city of Turin. It is named after the architect who built it, Alessandro Antonelli, and stands tall above its surroundings, its distinctive spire every inch as synonymous with the town below as the world famous Shroud housed just a mile away.

In the Italian language, the word mole literally means 'size', and is often used to denote a building of lavish proportions. As such, it is perhaps fitting that the derby encounter between the city's two clubs derives its name from the term.

Juventus and Torino contest what is known as Il Derby della Mole and, thanks to them currently leading the top two divisions, Turin is once again becoming a major force in Italian football, having spent the last few years in the shadows of Rome and then Milan.

The cross-city encounter has been one of Italian football's fiercest rivalries since Torino were founded by former Juve President Alfredo Dick in December 1906 following a less than amicable split.

The divide between the two sets of supporters was often seen as a symbol of the class divide of those pre-Second World War days. Juventus were closely associated with the wealthy Agnelli family - owners of car manufacturers FIAT, with Torinese novelist Mario Soldati remarking that the Bianconeri were "the team of gentlemen, industrial pioneers, Jesuits, conservatives and the wealthy bourgeois". Torino were, according to Soldati, "the team of the working class, migrant workers from the provinces or neighbouring countries, the lower middle-class and the poor".

There have also been comparisons with another northern industrial town, Manchester, with Juve's widespread support across the country compared to that of United, while Torino's more localised fan base draws parallels with City.

Looking at results of their 227 encounters to date, Juventus are the side in the ascendancy, with 91 wins and 62 draws, but il Toro (74 wins) have enjoyed their own spells of dominance, particularly before the tragedy of Superga in 1949 when they were undeniably Europe’s premier club.

During the 1970’s Torino went over five years unbeaten against their neighbours, while they also overcame them in the 1938 Italian Cup final by an aggregate score of 5-2.

Yet since Torino's last win – a 2-1 Serie A triumph in April 1995 – Juventus have taken control, with eight wins and four draws.

Throughout their 106 year history, Torino have only spent twelve seasons outside the top flight and ten of those have come in the years since that last derby triumph. Strangely, one of their two seasons in Serie A in that intervening period coincided with Juve's year of exile in the second tier, much to the delight of their fans, who took great pleasure in seeing their rivals finally take a turn below them in the lower tier.

Giorgio Chiellini celebrates scoring the winner in the most recent Turin derby

Fast forward to today, however, and the Granata are enjoying a superb season, sitting first in Serie B after 35 games, boasting the best defensive record in the division and having suffered just five defeats.

Coach Giampiero Ventura has a squad built specifically to win promotion, blending veteran campaigners such as Alessandro Parisi and Ferdinando Coppola, with promising young players such as Matteo Darmian and current Italy International Angelo Ogbonna.

Across town, having moved out of the Stadio Olimpico – which the two clubs previously shared – Juventus are three points clear of Milan at the top of Serie A, and amazingly still undefeated after 34 league matches.

That Ventura is the Torino coach is one of many links between the two clubs and, given the style and philosophy he seemingly shares with his Juve counterpart Antonio Conte, the one which echoes with greatest resonance.

When their paths first crossed, Conte was at Bari and Ventura in charge of Pisa. The future Juventus boss was left hugely impressed by his opposite number's tactical approach, and would go on to mimic the 4-2-4 system used by the Tuscan side that day, making it his first choice formation until his arrival in Turin last summer.

This made it relatively easy for Ventura to replace Conte when the latter left Bari for Atalanta in 2009, although both men retain an open outlook and have since developed far greater tactical flexibility.

But the similarities run far deeper than that and the fact both currently have two Serie A promotions to their name.

Both extol the team ideal over individual qualities as the relatively low tally of each sides’ top scorer attests; Mirco Antenucci has just nine for the Granata while Alessandro Matri has ten for Juve.

They both also maintain, despite the effort demanded by their defensive strategies – in each case based on almost relentless pressing – a small turnover of players. Both squads contain eleven men who have started at least twenty-two games as the two men continue to concentrate on a small core of key players who have earned their trust.

With a league title still far from guaranteed for either team, perhaps even hoping for a return of the derby is a stretch, given Torino's woes in recent seasons.

They have established a strong lead atop the Serie B table but losing in the playoffs hit the side hard last season and ensuring automatic promotion must be the first objective for Ventura and his team.

Across town, both the fans and the financial position of the club make a Champions League berth the absolute minimum required return from a season which has already promised so much.
Supporters on both sides will watch and hope their teams end the campaign as strongly as they began it. Their city awaits.

Inside the mind of Pep Guardiola

Guest Writer — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:15:00 GMT

Pep Guardiola will step down as Barcelona coach at the end of the season, but just who is the man who masterminded arguably the greatest club side of all time? In the August 2011 issue of FourFourTwo, Graham Hunter – the only British journalist to have got past Pep Guardiola’s ‘guard dog’ – revealed all...

5-1 and 10-4. These are the aggregate scores that Barcelona have notched over Manchester United and Arsenal during their last six meetings. While Fergie’s side have been lauded for an ability to consistently win trophies and the Gunners lavished with praise for the beauty of their football, so perfectly have Barça combined the qualities of both – culminating in fantasy football at Wembley in May – that they can rightly take their place among the best teams of all time.

Lionel Messi is en route to surpassing Pele and Maradona, Xavi is arguably the most complete player in Spain’s history while Andres Iniesta’s sublime skills are complemented by an innate gift to score or assist at the most crucial moments.

Even the supporting cast of Gerard Pique, Eric Abidal, Victor Valdes and Dani Alves are enjoying new levels of appreciation. Then there are the likes of Sergio Busquets and Pedro, products of Barça’s much lauded and copied La Masia youth system which provided nine of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad. And we haven’t even mentioned David Villa, the world’s best centre-forward and Spain’s record scorer, who was deemed to have struggled at times during a season in which he scored 23 goals (and provided nine assists), including the piece de resistance in the Champions League final.

But amidst the torrent of praise there is one figure who remains under-explained and under-appreciated. Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola.

This saturnine, pencil-slim, passionate but introverted Catalan has worked a sporting miracle – not simply in giving us irresistible football with which the world has fallen in love, but by transforming the mess he inherited into a winning machine.

Just before Guardiola took over at the Nou Camp in 2008, the Barça crowd jeered their side into the Champions League semi-final because the display against Schalke was so disappointing. Weeks later, Real Madrid completed their second consecutive La Liga title with a 4-1 whipping of Barcelona – who finished 18 points behind them – and Frank Rijkaard’s team was forced to form a guard of honour in welcoming Madrid onto the Bernabeu pitch. Players were flabby and indisciplined, the coach had lost the will to crack the whip and teams were finding Barça a soft touch.

The contrast now is startling. It would be foolish to say that it’s all down to Guardiola but without him, Barça were rudderless and adrift.

Xavi recalls the impact of the new manager’s arrival: “We were just back from winning the Euros with Spain and instantly I could sense a different atmosphere, new standards and much more emphasis on getting fit. I recall saying to [Andres] Iniesta, ‘We’d better hop on this train or it’ll pass us by.’

"Standards had slipped. A kilo here or there didn’t matter. A few minutes late here or there didn’t matter. Now everything mattered. But Pep was right on top of everything like a hawk.”

Listen and learn: an early Pep talk with the players

Gerard Pique, who was brought in with the new guard, explains: “Pep doesn’t just give you orders, he also explains why. That makes you a better footballer because you learn the reasoning behind his instructions.”

When he took over from Frank Rijkaard, Guardiola announced he’d be giving no one-on-one interviews. This has meant that those who didn’t grow up watching Guardiola the midfield string-puller for Barcelona and Spain have had to learn about him from afar. His peak as a player came between 1992 and 1997 so there must be many outside Spain – and a minority within his own country – who only know him in his current incarnation.

The only times Guardiola has felt inclined to give exclusive face time is for the official programme before each of his Champions League finals as coach, and on both occasions this correspondent has been lucky enough to be sat opposite him.

So what to share? Firstly, it’s an intense experience. You pass through a smaller pre-office in which Tito Vilanova, his trusted assistant coach, works on a computer but sits facing the outside door – situated like a guard dog, with his back to the boss.

The Barça manager is famed for his obsessively detailed studying of opponents; banks of DVDs are apparent, as are books, magazines and, naturally, photos of his loved ones (long-term partner Cristina and their three children), of whom he’s seen rather less since taking the hotseat.

While friendly and generous with his answers, we both know Guardiola would rather not be doing this. Not while he continues to say ‘no’ to long-term friends in the press and to the demanding local television station which sponsors the club – not to mention the inquisitive world media. He’d much prefer to do his interviews in the mass forum of a press conference.

The greater spotted Pep, rarely interviewed one-on-one

Yet even though time is short, if we stumble on a subject which lights his fire there is immediately the intense, passionate tone of voice and phraseology which, we can only believe, hits the mark with his players. Even in close verbal combat, you only get glimpses of it. But when he talks about playing to win rather than ‘playing not to lose’, it’s there.

It’s something he’d already touched upon in the 2009 Final programme: “When you get to this stage in Europe it’s often the case that teams can be governed by a fear of losing and play cautiously.” He promised that win, lose or draw, his team wouldn’t die wondering (despite the absence of Iniesta, Alves, Abidal and Rafa Marquez). He’s even described some of Barça’s play under him as “audacious”.

Guardiola isn’t just driven by his own philosophy on the game, though. Unsurprisingly for somebody who has always been interested in ideas and cause – social as well as sporting – he makes a direct correlation between his team’s approach and the economic crisis. “For me it all makes sense – the effort, the work, the planning, the concentration and the discipline – if you do it for the people. The manner in which we’ve played this season is a demonstration of the respect we have for the people who pay for a ticket or pay money to watch games on TV.”

And for Guardiola, it’s about winning the right way, but above all winning. In his team’s last nine meetings with Real Madrid they have won six and drawn two, with a 20-5 goal aggregate. Add the three La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues and the new high watermark for intoxicating football they’ve set and it’s little wonder that the club president who appointed him, Joan Laporta, has admitted: “If I were reincarnated I’d like to be reborn as Pep Guardiola.”

* * *

This latest phase of Guardiola’s lifelong relationship with Barcelona started on a Saturday night in August 2008 when he was re-presented to the Catalan faithful as their new coach.

The game was preceded by a massive son et lumiere (‘sound and light’) festival during which Guardiola smiled to the camera, turned and told the assembled faithful “…we can’t promise a specific title but we will never stop trying, never give up and I advise you to fasten your seatbelts… you’re going to enjoy this ride.”

Unveiled: Barça's old new hero

Prophetic words, in hindsight. But sometimes a prophet is not honoured in his own land. Guardiola’s lengthy journey with Barcelona, indeed with football, has been almost as full of thorns as crowns.

Josep Guardiola was born in the Catalan countryside, approximately an hour’s drive from the stadium where he was to make his debut as an excitable ball-boy (he’s famous for twice running on the pitch to congratulate Barça players at the end of matches – when Terry Venables’ side clinched the league title in 1985, and when Barcelona qualified for the European Cup final a year later in 1986).

Santpedor is a small agricultural town, part of whose name (aptly, given Guardiola’s subsequent career) means ‘the golden place’. Barça first came calling when Guardiola was 11 but he didn’t want to leave home to live in La Masia, the stone farmhouse situated just behind the north goal of the Nou Camp where Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored those famous goals in 1999. According to his mother, what sealed the deal for Guardiola was that from his dormitory window in La Masia he could “see the football pitch every morning when I wake up!”

FEATURE Behind the scenes at La Masia

However, he was soon haunted by the same question which would later be asked of Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and above (or below) all Messi: was he big enough? Carlos Naval, one of the longest-serving and most popular officials at the club, remembers recommending Pep as “a kid who is small, not tall at all, but who plays like the gods.”

Naval continues: “He saw what nobody else saw, he anticipated everything that was going to happen. But people said, ‘That kind of player doesn’t exist! – we’re talking about a boy of 11 years old. There are no miracles in football.’”

Charly Rexach, Barça’s legendary goalscorer of the ’60s and ’70s who became Johan Cruyff’s assistant and later battled like a tiger to make sure the club signed Messi, always fought Guardiola’s corner. “What caught my attention was that even though Pep was really small and skinny he played one-touch, or at most two-touch football which set him well above everyone in his age group,” he recalls.

Manager Cruyff and Rexach not only trusted his ability but accelerated his promotion to the first XI. According to Guardiola, it was something akin to the Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel icon, The Creation of Adam, where God and Adam touch hands and lightning shoots out.

* * *

In order to understand that, it’s important to skip forward 24 years to 2003 in Qatar, where a rather morose, downcast Guardiola is playing. Having wound down his career via Serie A (a short spell in Mexico will later precede his retirement), he reflects on his playing career. Moments like being told ‘no’ after a trial with Manchester City in 2001 have stung him, as has the fact that, despite only being 32 on leaving Brescia, no upper-echelon club thought he could do a job. He wanted to end his playing career “in Europe – France, England, Scotland even – but I think that option’s gone”.

Pep the ageing player continues: “I became a regular at Barcelona aged 20 because I had Cruyff as a manager and he believed in playing a certain way. If I were 20 at Barcelona today I'd never make it as a professional. At best I’d be playing in the third division. My skills haven’t declined. It’s just that football is played at a higher pace and it’s a lot more physical. To play just in front of the back four now you have to be a ball-winner, a tackler like Patrick Vieira. If you can pass too it’s a bonus.”

Guardiola the ‘quarterback’ didn’t play as high up the pitch as Xavi does now, but in what became a ‘mythical’ position in Cruyff’s 3-4-3: the ‘pivote’, or simply the ‘4’. Defensively he had to anticipate trouble before it reached the danger area, shepherd attacks into areas the opponents didn’t want to use, receive the ball from the back line, begin the attacks and shuttle the ball to and fro so that the Dream Team could re-establish their shape once they’d won the ball back.

Lifting the European Cup in 1992

Bobby Robson said what he liked most about coaching the player (to a season of three trophies in 1996-97) was “the speed at which he learned things.” He added: “Both as a man and a footballer, Pep is very intelligent. Tactically he’s world-class.”
But what the Barça fans luxuriated most in was his sublime passing. They were often over greater distances than the modern Xavi-orchestrated tiki-taka, but pinpoint all the same.

Marc Overmars, who played both with and against the boy from Santpedor, says Guardiola was “unique. He saw the play faster than anyone but then used the ball in precisely the best way to take advantage of the situation.” Positionally he was like Busquets or Michael Carrick but – as he admits himself – didn’t have the surging pace or stamina to burst forward like Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard. The ball did his work.

Most importantly, though, he understood what he was doing, what others should do, how to move the team forward and – most crucially – what his team-mates should not be doing. Kiko, Atletico Madrid legend and Guardiola’s Olympic gold medal-winning team-mate in 1992, once commented: “Pep was born telling people what to do. I can imagine him telling the babies in his ward – ‘you in that cot and you in this cot.’”

Xavi admits that, in a playing sense, it was hard to live in Guardiola’s shadow: “When I was coming through, seen as Pep’s replacement, he treated me like a friend and gave me advice. But for the crowd it was hard. I was seen as the ‘outsider’ despite being from La Masia, and viewed as the one pushing Pep out. It made me unsure of whether to stay or go look for a career elsewhere [namely Man United, whom Xavi admits made him an offer]. In the end I was too stubborn to leave.”

Off the shoulder: Pep and Xavi

While part of Guardiola’s decision to leave in 2001 included making way for the new guard, he also left disillusioned. After the departure of Cruyff and Robson came Louis Van Gaal – “the man with whom I most discussed football”. The club had been deluged with expensive foreign signings and a devastating year-long injury left him introspective, unsure that he was a central part of the Barça ethos and suffering from idle, stupid chitter-chatter that because he liked cinema, books and fashion, perhaps he was gay.

Guardiola finally left on freedom of contract, telling fans and media: “This isn’t a decision taken after a bad game or a defeat four days ago. I’ve thought long and hard about it and my decision is that I want to experience new countries, new styles of football and learn a new language.” His father Valenti had a different view: “Perhaps the club didn’t deserve such a player, a guy who simply couldn’t eat his dinner if Barça lost.”

His time in Italy was soured by what proved to be another false accusation – that he’d used nandrolone as a performance enhancer. Against the odds he won a seven-year battle to clear his name, telling friends he’d fight to his last cent to prove his innocence if required. His sister Francesca admits: “I thought he should give up and on more than one occasion I told him ‘they aren’t going to accept your innocence’. But, hats off, he wouldn’t hear of it and was finally vindicated. I would have thrown the towel in.”

But although his Italian is superb and he speaks fondly of both Brescia and Roma (who he joined briefly), he was frustrated by the football culture. “When I played in Italy,” he wrote in a column for El Pais, “they told me to forget about ‘this passing game’ because, simply, there was ‘less space’ in their football. I never understood it. The pitch was the same size. What I saw was the movement of some guys, in relation to where others were, and what they did was mistaken. That was the only reason there was less space.”

Facing old foe Raul with Roma

When no top-level European club made him a firm offer after Serie A, Al Ahly were the beneficiaries. Guardiola played in Qatar for significant remuneration and what he’s often described as his sense of adventure and the very relaxed lifestyle.

While he played low-pace, low-stress football, Guardiola played a lot of golf too, and used his long free hours to study English. But what he discovered in the Gulf, above all, was that he had an absolute need to stay in football, that his coaching badges were vital to him. In his own words, he “loved that ball” too much to drift out of the sport – even though his diverse leisure interests would have been more than enough to keep an ordinary man happy.

* * *

In 2007, Guardiola was given his first coaching job, at Barça B. Txiki Begiristain, once a winger to the left of Guardiola in Cruyff’s Dream Team, had become director of football when Laporta won the 2003 election and recommended it was time to re-incorporate the iconic, intelligent product of the academy. Ex-Barça director Evarist Murtra confirms: “Were it not for Txiki’s insistence, we wouldn’t have signed Pep to coach the B team.”

Around that time, Begiristain generated ominous headlines by warning Frank Rijkaard and his self-indulgent stars that “the squad has to train more rigorously. There needs to be tighter controls and a better work ethic.”

Guardiola, though, was just getting his feet under the desk: “I’m grateful for the opportunity because, as a coach, I’m a nobody. I need to win because if I’m successful I’ll have credibility and, if not, I’ll be sacked. It’s the law of the dugout. I’ll try to transmit the values of this club and give the players some individual liberty. But I believe in the boss being in charge. And now I’m the boss.”

Eventually, Guardiola was informed that if Rijkaard didn’t win a trophy that season (2007-08), the Dutchman would be removed and Pep would assume control. The technical staff had watched Guardiola’s development with the kids and his success in taking Barça B out of the third division at the first time of asking. They also loved Guardiola’s tactics, his man-management, his substitutions and the air of control and vision which had returned to the club’s nursery side.

Yaca Garcia Planes was the only journalist to follow the B team throughout their entire season and summed it up by saying: “He won confidence and respect with a number of tactics. Unity was the first thing he sought and the introduction of regular breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the whole team – paid for by Pep if the results had been good enough – was a regular tactic. A new set of fines for being late, for being sent off and other small, previously ignored details brought new standards.”

Yet promoting him to the top job was still a risk – he was only 37. But that didn’t stop him from continuing his disciplined approach when he was handed the job. He told players on his first day: “If you think I’m going to be soft on you, an easy touch, simply because I’m only 37 then you are wrong, you are out of luck. My pride and my ambition are enormous and let’s be clear – you’re going to work hard.”

Watch your step: one of Pep's first games, a friendly at Hibs

New rules included coming in for breakfast before training and players being at home before midnight on any night when there was training the next day. On the training pitch, every player was told to be ready to work at bang on the announced hour – not tying laces, not trotting in a second late – or it’s a fine.

In training Guardiola’s known to be more of an interventionist than a dictator, stepping in to correct the odd detail or re-explain a concept. But if the hairdryer is needed, it’s a match for Fergie’s. “If he really ‘starts’ on one there is no stopping him,” admits Pique.

One anecdote which indicates the jolt his players got in the summer of 2008 was an early, fierce ticking-off from the new boss for Eric Abidal. The Frenchman told him: “There’s no need to speak to me like that. I’m a grown-up, a family man and I don’t need to be talked to like that.” He was reassured by President Laporta that “Pep is just that intense. It’s not personal.” From there to Abidal being given the captain’s armband in the 2011 Champions League Final and being asked to lift the trophy is a microcosm of the journey everyone, including Guardiola, has undertaken.

A manager should be judged not just by his iron fist, but also by his velvet glove. In Guardiola’s first summer, Barcelona were at war with the Argentine FA, FIFA and the International Olympic Committee over their right to withhold Leo Messi from selection for the Olympic football in Beijing. Ultimately Joan Laporta won a victory at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The Olympics were not part of the FIFA calendar so Barça had the right to order Messi to return, immediately, for their Champions League qualifier against Wisla Krakow.

But Guardiola thought long and hard, recalling his own Olympic triumph and what it meant to him. On hearing the verdict, he immediately opposed his president and Begiristain, despite the huge fuss which had been made to keep Messi, and took a personal decision to allow him to play for what subsequently became a gold medallist Albiceleste side. Guardiola won undying loyalty from Messi, got through the Champions League qualifier without him – and showed president, players, fans and media who really was boss now.

Whatever you say, boss: Pep and Messi in 2008

Had Barça been eliminated or Messi injured then history might have been utterly different. Smart or lucky? You decide. Either way, he’d got the world’s best player immediately on side. “From the first moment Pep was brilliant to me,” says Messi. “He told me what he’d demand from me but listened to my wish that I should play what might have been my only Olympics. I can only say that I owe him.”

Another piece of fine man-management came weeks later. After getting rid of divisive duo Ronaldinho and Deco, another tricky character, Samuel Eto’o was next for the exit. But after watching the first few weeks of training, the new boss changed his mind. “His attitude and work have won me over,” was Guardiola’s verdict.

Eto’o played brilliantly in that treble-winning season, scoring the goal which won the Champions League final after being warned that he would be allowed not one single blot on his copy-book. But that June, Eto’o was out, this time definitively, because of “a lack of feeling” between the two.

The majority of those Guardiola has worked with can’t speak highly enough of him, though. Busquets is one of those who has been promoted from B team success with Guardiola to Champions League and World Cup glory. “Pep is identical now to what he was like then,” he explains. “He studies endlessly, prepares in detail, draws the maximum from his players and makes us ready for the opposing team.

"It involves many hours watching videos but also a huge knowledge as a coach and experience as a player.” His assistant, Tito Vilanova, a childhood friend, says Guardiola’s X-factor is his “contagious self-confidence. His will to win is matched by a complete belief that he’ll win and an ability to explain how to do it.”

* * *

But for how long is Guardiola going to keep winning with Barça? “Pep loves this club madly and lives his work with too much intensity,” says legendary Barcelona water polo Olympian Manuel Estiarte, who was brought in by Guardiola as the club’s director of external relations. “I’ve occasionally had to tell him to take it easy so that he doesn’t burn out.”

Exit stage left: Pep Guardiola, 27th April 2012

Indeed, there is a feeling that he isn’t in it for the long haul. Johan Cruyff even speculated that Guardiola, whose contract only extends to the end of the 2011-12 season, might walk away following the Wembley triumph. After all, how much better can it get? But the remarkable win in London has renewed his energy and enthusiasm for the job and he told his players “it doesn’t end here” after the game.

So where does it end? Perhaps those of us who enjoy what Guardiola has created will get another year from him at the Nou Camp. He believes that he has set up a style of thinking, of working and of playing that can live beyond his specific mandate.

But his wanderlust, the same instinct which told him to abandon the nest and sample different languages and cultures, will take him to coaching duties in England and Italy – perhaps even Qatar again before he eventually returns to Barcelona as president. Of that FFT is quite sure.

In the meantime, the rest of us should just keep our seatbelts fastened and enjoy what remains of the ride.

On 27th April 2012, Pep Guardiola announced his intention to step down as Barcelona coach at the end of the season. His replacement will be Tito Vilanova, his assistant and 'guard dog'.

United will need defensive perfection to quell City's Argentine double-threat

Michael Cox — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses FourFourTwo's StatsZone app to preview Monday evening's Premier League title decider between Manchester City and Manchester United...

The relationship between Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero during Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Wolves last week was interesting – the two Argentines haven’t played together much this season, but they still had a good partnership, possibly because of their time together for their national team.

The basic idea was simple – Tevez would drop deep and play as the No.10, tempting the centre-backs to move forward and close him down. At the same time, Aguero would make runs in behind the defence and hope for a through-ball, generally from David Silva or Samir Nasri, though his goal was actually assisted by left back Gael Clichy. Aguero also drifted out to the left.

It will be interesting to see how United cope with this duel threat – the communication and understanding between Jonny Evans and Rio Ferdinand will have to be perfect – Evans will probably look to play as the covering defender to use his pace up against Aguero, while Ferdinand will watch former teammate Tevez more keenly.

At the other end, despite Manchester United’s shock collapse in the 4-4 draw with Everton, we did see some excellent link-up play between Danny Welbeck and Wayne Rooney – with Welbeck teeing up Rooney for United’s excellent fourth goal.

The two have a similar dynamic to Tevez and Aguero – Welbeck stays high up, Rooney drops deep, although there’s probably slightly more variation in their positioning.

A key part of the game will be precisely how deep Rooney and Tevez move to pick up possession. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Rooney playing as an extra midfielder, to help out Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes win the possession battle, and provide mobility. He might even drop back onto Gareth Barry when out of possession, to allow Carrick and Scholes to minimise the space between them and the United centre-backs, to close Tevez out of the game.

Sir Alex Ferguson described Jonny Evans as ‘arguably the best defender in the country’ earlier this month, but it was Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany who was elected into the PFA Team of the Year, alongside Newcastle Fabricio Coloccini.

But how do Evans and Kompany shape up statistically? Kompany makes more tackles per game (2.1 to 1.3) and more interceptions (2.4 to 1.9), but Evans makes more clearances (7.8 to 6.4) and blocks more shots (1.0 to 0.8). With the ball at their feet, Evans is more reliable, with a pass completion rate of 90.4% compared to Kompany’s 87%.

While both are excellent positionally, they are clearly very different in style – Kompany is an old-fashioned centre-back who dominates in the air with his physical strength, while Evans is a more precise, crafty defender who nicks the ball cleanly. In the biggest Premier League game of the season, the pressure will be on Kompany to live up to his billing from the PFA, and on Evans to prove his manager right.

One of the more striking contrasts in approach between the two teams in the reverse fixture was the distribution of the two goalkeepers. David De Gea looked to play short passes to his defenders, or longer balls out to the wing towards Nani, who could use his aerial power up against Gael Clichy. Whichever he did, his balls were generally controlled and precise.

Joe Hart, on the other hand, thumped long balls directly down the centre of the pitch towards Mario Balotelli, who tried to flick the ball on. That may change, however, with Tevez and Aguero unlikely to win many aerial balls, so City will most likely have to build up play more intricately.

The different approaches of De Gea and Hart with the ball are perhaps a reflection their nationalities, although over the course of the season there’s relatively little different between their pass completion ratios – De Gea is on 57.3%, Hart on 52.5%.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Thrashed champions: Hammered teams who went on to win the title

Guest Writer — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:04:00 GMT

Roberto Mancini insists Manchester United are still favourites to the lift the Premier League trophy, but if they do, they won't be the first champions to recover from a good hiding earlier in the season. European football expert Michael Yokhin looks at some memorable examples.

In late October, when Manchester City thrashed United 6-1 at Old Trafford, some thought it was the end of an era, let alone a season's title race. Who could recover from such a drubbing and still win the title? Well, actually, a surprising number of teams have come back from a caning, winning the league despite shipping five or more goals in a game. Ask Alex Ferguson himself....

1996/97: Newcastle 5-0 Manchester United; Southampton 6-3 Manchester United
“You've just seen the champions today,” boasted Newcastle chairman Freddie Shepherd. No wonder he was jubilant. After collapsing to lose the 1995/96 title to Manchester United, the Magpies took their revenge on October 20, demolishing the previously unbeaten champions.

The riot was started by Darren Peacock, who almost never scored, and finished by his elegant central defensive partner Philippe Albert with an audacious lob. In between, David Ginola scored a Goal of the Season contender, while Alan Shearer assisted Les Ferdinand and (of course) scored himself.

If conceding five was bad, the following week United went one worse on the south coast. Peter Schmeichel had one of the worst games of his career, while Eyal Berkovic scored two and made three in only his third game for Graeme Souness's Southampton. Egil Ostenstad, also in his third game for the Saints, bagged a hat-trick. While Ferguson could blame it all on the early Roy Keane sending-off, there was no excuse for conceding 11 goals in a week – not even the grey shirts which he had blamed for the previous season's Dell defeat.

Crisis claims were even more relevant when United lost their next game at home to Chelsea, but the recovery was swift. They were back on top by January, and by the end of the season it turned out Shepherd was perfectly right. By then Kevin Keegan had resigned, while Graeme Souness’ Southampton just managed to avoid relegation by the skin of their teeth.

1999/2000: Chelsea 5-0 Manchester United
Quite an occasion for the Italians. It was possibly Gianluca Vialli's greatest game as Chelsea manager, while Massimo Taibi probably proved to be Ferguson’s worst ever recruit. Treble-winning United arrived at Stamford Bridge unbeaten in 29 league games, but that record came to an end in a spectacular fashion in early October.

It all started when Gus Poyet took advantage of a terrible Taibi blunder in the first minute. Then £10 million man Chris Sutton scored the only league goal of his bizarre Chelsea career. Even Jody Morris, better known for his antics away from Stamford Bridge, scored.

The Blues leapfrogged United to the top of the table and were dreaming of becoming a top team, long before Roman Abramovich arrived. However, they immediately lost three in a row and eventually finished fifth. United were back on top by November and strolled to an easy title, 18 points ahead of runners-up Arsenal.

1993/94: Zaragoza 6-3 Barcelona
Under the tutelage of young coach Victor Fernandez, Zaragoza played some exuberant attacking football in the mid-'90s, and one of their greatest nights was on 13th February 1994.

Fernando Caceres started it off early, and Gus Poyet finished it late on, but it was Caceres' Argentinian compatriot Juan Esnaider who was the biggest star with a brace. Discarded by the Real Madrid academy just a few months previously, the burly striker proved his point at Zaragoza and was resigned by Los Blancos in 1995.

That day, however, Johan Cruyff couldn’t believe his eyes. Pep Guardiola was sent off, and Ronald Koeman was substituted to save him from embarrassment. Romario did his utmost at the other end with two goals, but that didn’t really help. With Deportivo La Coruna beating Sevilla, Barça were now five points off the pace in the chase for their fourth successive league title.

Cruyff's side never relented, however, and once again rode their luck on the final day. After winning in the previous two seasons thanks to Tenerife beating Real Madrid, Barcelona this time owed their title to Miroslav Djukic’s penalty miss in the final seconds of the season for Deportivo against Valencia. Zaragoza finished third in 1994, and got their just reward a year later when Nayim lobbed David Seaman in that Cup Winners’ Cup final in Paris.

2002/03: Real Madrid 1-5 Mallorca
Hell hath no fury like a striker scorned. Well, not Samuel Eto'o, anyway. Elbowed out of Real Madrid, the Cameroonian never forgave his former side, and long before singing rude Real-riling songs at Barcelona title celebrations, Eto'o produced one of the most stunning games Bernabeu has ever witnessed.

Involved in a mighty title struggle with La Coruna and Real Sociedad in early May, Madrid lead 1-0 at half-time thanks to a goal from Ronaldo. Then the unthinkable happened: as Eto’o ran riot, Mallorca scored four goals in 21 minutes. Roberto Carlos was so frightened by him that he scored a weird own goal. Amazingly, the disaster was complete when Carlitos replaced Eto’o at 89 minutes and scored himself in injury time.

Vicente del Bosque’s team dropped to third after 0-0 draw at Huelva a week later, but managed to snatch the title nevertheless in a dramatic fashion. That didn’t save the moustached coach, who was shown the door – along with legendary captain Fernando Hierro – hours after the final whistle of the last game.

1977/78: Fortuna Dusseldorf 5-1 FC Koln
This was an extremely important game for legendary coach Hennes Weisweiler. The man who built the the great Borussia Monchengladbach team (and fell out with Johan Cruyff at Barcelona) returned to his first club Koln in summer 1976, but his first season was marked by constant conflicts with Wolfgang Overath, and in the close season Weisweiler controversially discarded the 33-year old icon.

Everyone waited to see how Koln would fare without perhaps the cklub's greatest ever player, and the knives were sharpened for Weisweiler when the opening day of the season brought a heavy home thrashing by Dusseldorf.

The atmosphere changed very quickly, though. Koln won their next four games, scoring 18 goals in the process, and never looked back. They won the title on the last day – on goal difference, despite Gladbach crushing Borussia Dortmund 12-0 in desperate attempt to overtake their local rivals. This remains Koln’s last Bundesliga trophy.

2006/07: PSV Eindhoven 1-5 Ajax
This could lay good claim to being the most dramatic season ever in Holland. Six weeks before the end, the title looked wrapped up: PSV led the table by eight points from Ajax and AZ Alkmaar. Then Henk Ten Cate’s Amsterdammers came to Eindhoven and made fun of Ronald Koeman’s team, scoring at will, with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar bagging a brace. Even PSV's consolation goal was scored by former Ajax legend Patrick Kluivert.

After this defeat, PSV almost completely fell apart. They took just five points from their next four games, dropping to third before the final week, with all three contenders level on points. AZ needed just a win at lowly Excelsior Rotterdam – but lost, while PSV snatched the title from Ajax on goal difference by thrashing Vitesse 5-1. Some reverse for Koeman.

2000/01: Nantes 0-5 Bordeaux
Remember Pauleta? The Portugese striker, who became the best goalscorer in France during the first decade of the century, announced himself to the whole country with a 63-minute hat-trick at Nantes. Those were his first goals after moving from Deportivo La Coruña to Bordeaux, and his first victims went into a tailspin after that amazing home defeat in early September 2000.

The Canaries took just two points from the next four games and found themselves in 15th place, with coach Reynald Denoueix facing the sack. Then they had their own 5-0 away win at Strasbourg, and everything was yellow-and-green again. Nantes finished the season with eight wins in a row, winning the title comfortably. Bordeaux – beaten 2-0 at home by the Canaries in the return fixture – finished fourth.

1982/83: Real Betis 5-1 Athletic Bilbao
Javier Clemente built a very tough Basque side around Andoni Goikoetxea, the infamous Butcher of Bilbao. Who would have believed they could be thrashed with such ease at the most crucial point of the season? Six weeks before the end, Athletic were level on points with Real Madrid, when Betis took them apart. Luckily for Clemente, champions Real Sociedad, their fellow (and rival) Basques, drew 0-0 with Los Blancos, leaving the gap at a single point.

The drama went to the wire, with Madrid leading by the very same point before the final round. Alfredo di Stefano’s team then lost at Valencia, while Clemente won at Las Palmas to celebrate his maiden trophy. The margin of the win? 5-1...

1995/96: Karlsruhe 5-0 Borussia Dortmund
In the mid-90s Karlsruhe were a joy to watch, with red-headed coach Winfried Schafer on the bench and young Jens Nowotny playing like Matthias Sammer at the back. South African striker Sean Dundee was their dangerman, before becoming one of the biggest Anfield flops ever. On April 30th he had a terrific game against champions Dortmund, scoring and helping Russian rocket Sergei Kiriakov get a brace.

It was a potential disaster for Ottmar Hitzfeld’s men, as Bayern Munich were hot on their heels. There was a massive relief, though, when a week later the Bavarians squandered a two-goal lead at Bremen, losing 2-3 and giving away a golden chance to overcome their rivals. The challenge faded, and Hitzfeld comfortably won the title for the second time, by a whopping six points.

2007: Lyn Oslo 6-0 Brann Bergen
In Norwegian, Lyn means lightning, Brann means fire, and this was certainly a flaming affair. Bergen had been beaten just once before visiting Oslo, but looked like a very poor amateur team, taken apart in what could have been an even bigger humiliation. Chinedu Obasi, the Nigerian striker recently signed by Schalke from Hoffenheim, was one of the stars for the home team.

Brann didn’t take the setback too seriously, as they recovered quickly to win their first and only title since 1963. Lyn’s fate was much worse. Sadly for the supporters who filled their compact Frogner stadium that day, they are now recovering in lower divisions, having gone bankrupt in 2010.

1999/2000: Brondby 5-0 Herfolge
You might think that John Jensen’s coaching career was limited to a few months as Steve Kean’s assistant at Blackburn. You'd be very wrong. The former Arsenal legend, scorer of that sensational goal versus Germany at Euro 92 final (and very few others), concocted what probably was the most improbable title win ever: a side from a village of just over 3,000 inhabitants were champions of Denmark. Jensen signed just one player in the summer of 1999, and in a very strange season Herfolge were soundly beaten more than once.

Brondby bagged five against them, with the first two coming from suitably-named striker Ruben Bagger, but Herfolge finished ahead of them in the final table, with a goal difference of just “+4”. They were relegated in the very next season, when Brondby thrashed them 5-0 again.

La Preview: European euphoria, succession crises and pocket change

Tim Stannard — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:18:00 GMT

SATURDAY

Getafe (11th) v Mallorca (12th) – 18.00 local time
One of the coaches being linked with Unai Emery's job – the whiteboard-loving Valencia boss has apparently told his players he’s off in the summer; more on that later – is Luis García, despite having been in the Getafe job for a single season. For the most part it was a successful campaign, with Getafe only wobbling a little at the start. This builds on a season in the city of Valencia last year which saw the launch of the mighty Levante.

LLL senses that the backwater life of Getafe may not be suiting García, especially with the Team Dubai money apparently gone, and that there may be some ship-jumping sooner rather than later – especially considering the manager’s thoughts on where his current team belongs in the universe. “I’ve always said that Getafe’s place is in between eighth and 12th,” said García, who may soon be opining that the perfect position for third-placed Valencia is third place.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Levante (5th) v Granada (16th) – 18.00
The blog is a little concerned that at the end of a fine campaign Levante might end up with nothing at all – never mind a Champions League place, which was always a big ask. They need a whopping win on Saturday if they aren’t to slip out of the European places, with Athletic, Atlético, Osasuna and Sevilla all able to catch them if things go badly.

The fans have recognised that the players need a bit of a boost in the final spurt and have launched the “We are dreaming of Europe” campaign to back the team both home and away for the four remaining games.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Espanyol (10th) v Sporting (19th) – 18.00
As well as in Levante, there’s also been a European rallying call in Perico-land, with pretty much half the league still in with a chance of continental footie next season. Espanyol are three points off the top six and should feel good about closing the gap against a very doomed Sporting. “I have absolute confidence in this group and would bet that we’re going to be in Europe,” said a perky Mauricio Pochettino. “Let’s see if we can get about 10 points, although in the end this might not be enough.”
LLL Prediction – Home win

Real Sociedad (14th) v Racing Santander (20th) – 18.00
Double jeopardy or something like that! A win for Real Sociedad on Saturday would both mathematically secure another Primera year for la Real and also send Racing down to la Segunda. Excitement!
LLL Prediction – Home win

Villarreal (17th) v Osasuna (8th) – 22.00
It’s been a pretty fine campaign for Osasuna all around, free of the usual relegation scrapes which have been a frequent feature for the Pamplona club. Club president Patxi Izco has decided that this would be a perfect time to step down after 10 years, setting up elections in a month or so. “There are mental and physical reasons, there’s my family and I think it’s a good decision,” explained the weary club president. “I prefer to go before I’m kicked out. What’s more, I’m tired.” LLL shares his pain.
LLL Prediction – Home win

SUNDAY

Real Madrid (1st) v Sevilla (9th) – 12.00
Want to talk about the defeat? Nope? Can’t say LLL blames you – penalties are never fun – so let’s chat instead to the Sevilla camp, who travelled to Sunday’s match as early as Thursday to avoid their own city’s April Fair, which has been known to lead players astray. When asked why the squad are being yanked out of the city so early, Jesús Navas admitted that “I can see why, I’m not much for going to the Fair.”

Meanwhile, Sevilla president José María del Nido said that his side can take a certain English team’s performance against Barcelona as a way of beating Madrid on Saturday: “A poor Chelsea in football terms has knocked Barça from the Champions League; why can’t Sevilla be capable of winning in Madrid?” Because one side can defend and the other can’t?
LLL Prediction – Home win

Real Zaragoza (18th) v Athletic Bilbao (6th) – 16.00
At last! Luis García finally appears during what has been an underwhelming season at Zaragoza. The former Espanyol forward has been out drumming up optimism around the city that Zaragoza can stay up, which is quaint to see. “You can definitely save yourselves with four wins,” announced García, “because Villarreal, Granada and another team will mess up. Our first game against Athletic is fundamental and will an important step if we win.” Fortunately for García and his team, Sunday’s opposition may be feeling a little lethargic after a somewhat strenuous Thursday night.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Málaga (4th) v Valencia (3rd) – 18.00
Unai has reportedly told his players in the dressing room that this will be his final season in Mestalla. No great surprise there. This has kicked off rumours over who will replace the manager and then spend a joyful season or three being booed by supporters for achieving exactly what he was supposed to achieve with the club.

As previously mentioned, Getafe’s Luis García is a possible candidate and so is former Espanyol boss Ernesto Valverde, who has been having quite a lot of success in Greece with Olympiacos and is set to be leaving at the end of the season. Other names being bandied about include Didier Deschamps and Joaquín Caparrós, which LLL would love to see.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Betis (13th) v Atlético Madrid (7th) – 19.45
Real Madrid and Barcelona may have let their country and themselves down with their midweek European knockout, but Atlético Madrid and Athletic Bilbao did king and country proud with a double win to set up an all-Spanish final – so we can find out who's the best side in Europe who will finish about sixth in their league.

Naturally, this achievement sees the Atlético players reaching full marks on Diego Simeone’s ‘Hombre-o-meter’ for footballing manliness. “They put in an enormous effort for the directors who have had confidence in us and for the people who are today proud of Atlético Madrid,” said the bullish Rojiblanco coach.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Rayo Vallecano (15th) v Barcelona (1st) – 21.45
If Barcelona lose to Rayo after Madrid have beaten Sevilla, the champions will lose their crown. Not that Rayo fans have any interest in the Catalans' trials and tribulations – they have a couple of preoccupations of their own. The first is needing three more points to ensure safety; the second is the ongoing war with the team’s directors, who have called for another “Day of the Club”, which sees season ticket holders having to pay an extra €20 to see the Barcelona match.

Although ideas such as arriving late, leaving early, or going in and back out again have been thrown about, the fan group ADRV came up with the great idea to pay for the €20 ticket in loose change, although the club responded by claiming that they don’t have to accept more than 50 coins for a single payment.
LLL Prediction – Away win

United won't be afraid to attack City on Manchester's big night

Jon Champion — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:00:00 GMT

ESPN’s man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend’s Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Norwich City v Liverpool on Saturday from 4.30pm on ESPN.

FIXTURES Sat 28 April Everton v Fulham, Stoke v Arsenal, Sunderland v Bolton, Swansea v Wolves, West Brom v Aston Villa, Wigan v Newcastle, Norwich v Liverpool Sun 29 April Chelsea v QPR, Tottenham v Blackburn Mon 30 April Manchester City v Manchester United

There’s only one place to start this weekend, ironically where we’ll end it – the 162nd Manchester derby. This is the most important Manchester showdown since Denis Law’s famous back heel for City that sent United down to the old Second Division in 1974, and I have a feeling that event may be superseded by the consequences of Monday evening’s meeting.

The game is wonderfully set up. The most amazing, most surprising score line of the season came in the reverse fixture – the 6-1 win for Manchester City at Old Trafford back in October – but remember Manchester United won at City in the FA Cup, so it’s beautifully balanced.

Manchester City have managed to regain some momentum as Manchester United have lost theirs. They had conceded one goal in seven games and were looking rock solid, but then they let in four in 52 minutes against Everton. It’s a question of whether that momentum of Manchester City is enough to throw Manchester United, and it’s one I’ve been wrestling with for most of the week and still haven’t come to a firm conclusion. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Manchester United have built their reputation on upsetting the odds in situations just like this where they are about to be knocked from their perch and they’ve managed to discover some ingenuity that allows them to see it through. It’s going to be difficult to bet against Manchester United in a game such as this.

Despite the fact a draw would suit them, I don’t think United are going to adopt a defensive approach. The only concession will be that Wayne Rooney might play a little bit deeper to make a 4-2-3-1 formation rather than a 4-4-2. Rooney will be able to drop back and help out in midfield a little bit more than usual, but I expect them to go and be positive.

The only other change will be at right back, where Rafael had a shocker last week, with the suggestion being that Chris Smalling will come in. This means they will have three central defenders in the back four. They are better off with the height, although height is something that they don’t necessarily need against Manchester City, but that will strengthen them.

Key players from Manchester City’s point of view are ones that can potentially win the game for them. Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero fall into that category and we also have the possibility that Mario Balotelli could be involved. However, it is a stretch of the imagination to think that in such a pressure-cooker atmosphere he will be given any sort of role given his recent foibles. Elsewhere, Vincent Kompany is very important for Manchester City because he is arguably the best defender in the Premier League and the one thing they can’t really afford is for United to score early on.

It’s a great showcase for English football because you know that every set of eyes on the planet will be set upon the coverage in the Etihad Stadium.

I don’t have any gut feeling about the outcome of the match. I’ve wrestled with this as I’ve wrestled with every other game this season. Common sense suggests that City should win because they are at home, have the momentum and have already scored six against Manchester United earlier in the season. But then again, this is Manchester United, and normal rules don’t apply where they are concerned. I’m sure this United team is nowhere near as good as many of its predecessors, so have they got it in them to see off the challenge?

Another key game this weekend is Arsenal’s visit to the Britannia Stadium, a trip they never, ever look forward to. Although, the Gunners do seem to have something in their bonnets going to Stoke City and the physical challenge that will be presented to them will be a good measure of whether they’ve moved on at all under Arsene Wenger this season. There is a renewed incentive for Arsenal, with possibly only three Champions League places up for grabs thanks to Chelsea’s European progress, which will should fire them up. It’s just one win in the last seven for the home side so I rather fancy Arsenal on this occasion.

Also now very much in the Champions League hunt are Newcastle United, who travel to a Wigan Athletic side just one point above the relegation line. For Alan Pardew’s men, how gutting would it be if they finish fourth and then find out that’s not good enough for the Champions League? But who says they aren’t going to finish third? I think it’s unlikely, but then again I’ve been saying it’s unlikely they’ll get into the top four all season.

Chelsea’s home match with Queens Park Rangers on Sunday may well be overshadowed by the controversial handshake situation between John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, but it is an important game in its own right for both clubs. Chelsea’s best hope of getting in the Champions League is to win it because they’re four points off fourth place in the league. Roberto Di Matteo has recorded ten wins, four draws and one loss, so that has put him in pole position to be the new long-term Chelsea manager - or at least as long term as any Chelsea manager can be. QPR have proved rather adept at hunting down the big fish of the Premier League in recent weeks, albeit at home, as they’ve lost their last five on their travels. If they were to get a point they could rely on winning their remaining home fixture against Stoke and that might be enough. QPR believe they’ve got it in them to win it, so let’s see.

Another game with consequences at either end of the table is Tottenham Hotspur’s home encounter against Blackburn Rovers. Spurs at QPR last week were slow and predictable. They have a large squad but they have only got two fit centre backs and they’ve only got one fit forward in Jermaine Defoe. Emmanuel Adebayor and Louis Saha have been injured and they lost Ryan Nelsen at the back last week at the last minute, so they are rather empty in their key areas. Having said that, they do face a Blackburn side that doesn’t travel well - they’ve lost five in a row before beating Norwich last week and they’ve only got 31 points, which doesn’t seem anywhere near enough. They’ve got to win two of their last three games to have any chance. They finish at Chelsea so maybe their best bet is to perform as they’ve rarely performed this season at Tottenham, then Wigan at home a week on Monday. Wigan seems to be their potential escape route, but a difficult one.

Vying with Rovers to steer clear of relegation are Bolton Wanderers, who go into their clash at Sunderland off the back of four wins in seven in the Premier League. If they were able to replicate that form over the season as a whole, it would put them in the top half very comfortably. Kevin Davies has had a fuller role in recent weeks and has played his part in that mini renaissance under Owen Coyle. If there is a good time to go to Sunderland, this is probably it - they do seem to have taken their foot off the gas. Three of their last four games have ended 0-0 and they haven’t scored in 405 minutes in the Premier League now. Bolton have shown themselves adept at putting a side with confidence in decline to the sword at Villa Park midweek, but they may have to settle for a point at the Stadium of Light.

With the relegation fight getting ever more tense after every game, Aston Villa have been reeled back into the scrap off the back of a sequence that has seen just the one win in 13 games. They are now just three points clear of danger and Saturday’s opponents, West Brom have found a vein of form of late. Roy Hodgson is tapping on the shoulder of Harry Redknapp in the England managerial stakes and hopes to get the call if the leader of the race falls. A lot of credit goes to their central defenders, Gareth McAuley and Jonas Olsson, who between them have held the side together on many occasions this season. I would expect West Brom to win this and that would leave Aston Villa in all sorts of trouble.

Elsewhere this weekend, Norwich City have the incentive of knowing they will go level on points with Liverpool if they win this weekend’s encounter at Carrow Road. It would be extraordinary if they did, given the disparity in resources between the two. Liverpool have a dreadful record in 2012 in the league. It’s three wins in 15 Premier League games, which is nowhere near good enough. Places are up for grabs in the FA Cup Final though, and the likes of Craig Bellamy and Maxi Rodriguez will be looking for an impressive display to try and force their way into Dalglish’s plans for the Wembley final, and that is probably the factor that gives this game any sort of edge.

Their Merseyside rivals, Everton, will aim to follow up that remarkable 4-4 draw at Old Trafford with a home victory over Fulham on Saturday. But the Cottagers have won three of their last four games, and are aiming to match their best ever Premier League finish of seventh, which is still perfectly attainable. Everton are tough nuts to crack though, especially at Goodison Park. They have been defeated only three times in 19 in all competitions and if there’s one manager that will keep his team going all the way to the bitter end, it’s David Moyes.

Finally this weekend, Swansea City are on a run of only one win in six in the Premier League, but they can realistically expect to make that two wins in seven against a Wolves side with eight defeats in nine games. Doris de Vries must be thinking ‘what if?’, as he took the strange decision, in retrospect, to leave Swansea at the end of last season and join Wolves last summer.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Norwich v Liverpool from 4.30pm on Saturday.

Has four years of managing Barcelona taken its toll on Pep Guardiola?

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

The two pictures below - from the summer of 2008, shortly after he took the helm, and earlier this year - would suggest perhaps so...

That's what happens to a man who has endured four years of sniping from Mourinho, whinging from Zlatan, over-affectionate late-night phonecalls from Cesc and having to carry the can when the team fail to complete over 800 passes in a match...

NEWS Pep set to leave Barca at end of season

McEachran disappointed to learn transfer talk just half-stifled sneezes

Back of the Net — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:07:00 GMT

The Chelsea rookie has been getting a bit ahead of himself, Back of the Net's Paul Watson has more...

Sources close to Swansea loanee Josh McEachran have relayed his disappointment at learning that recent transfer rumours linking him to a summer move were in fact a series of half-stifled sneezes.

Chelsea sent the England Under-21 star out on loan to Swansea in search of first-team football, but McEachran has struggled to get his awkward, guttural name on the teamsheet.

And while McEachran remains highly rated within the game, sources close to the downbeat starlet suggest he was devastated to discover that a recent transfer rumour was in fact caused by a synaptic release.

“It’s been a tough season for Josh, so when he heard he had been linked with Bolton it was a boost,” a source close to McEachran told FourFourTwo.com.

“He took it hard when he found out that the rumour had been brought about by Phil Gartside suffering a mild allergic reaction to a stray cat.

For a brief moment, McEachran thought he was on his way to Old Trafford

“The next day he again got his hopes up when he thought the bloke behind him on a train was talking about him, but it turned out he was actually choking on a brazil nut. The whole thing has left him wondering whether anyone is talking about him at all.”

McEachran’s agency Key Sports are refusing to panic, insisting that while a significant percentage of apparent McEachran mentions are false alarms, some people do know who he is.

“There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Josh lately and only some of it will have been spasmodic involuntary action,” a spokesman for the agency assured FourFourTwo.com.

“Just the other day, in fact, I’m pretty sure I heard someone talking about him on the radio. I was going through a tunnel at the time though.”

The confusion may not be a bad thing for McEachran. In 2008, Arsene Wenger famously signed Francis Coquelin while attempting to order a main course in a restaurant in Brittany.

More from Back of the Net

Are you a No.1 or a No.2? The best and worst promoted assistants

Gerard Brand — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:59:00 GMT

The last few days and weeks have seen the paths of two managers lead in very different directions. Terry Connor has looked a disconsolate figure in the Wolves dugout, having picked up two points from a possible (albeit unlikely) 30 on offer and seen his Old Gold side relegated to the Championship.

Meanwhile, some 135 miles south-east, Roberto Di Matteo has seemingly masterminded a Chelsea resurgence that has taken them to the cusp of a Champions League trophy – the one thing Roman Abramovich covets, and the one thing his stream of managers have failed to deliver.

Yet Connor and Di Matteo have something significant in common. Both were assistant managers promoted to the big job instead of serving another man brought in from outside. Given their identical tasks in trying to turn around a discontented, underperforming team, the fortunes of each manager couldn’t be more conflicting. Simply put, it’s been one big success story for Di Matteo, and one unfortunate tragedy for Connor.

So what does history tell us? Is promoting from within an inspired (and cheap) decision, or a disaster waiting to happen? Or is it the case that giving the keys to the second-in-command has always been as much a gamble, with just as unpredictable results, as Di Matteo and Connor have shown this season?

The successes

Bob Paisley
Liverpool
August 1974 – May 1983
P535 W308 D131 L96
Win ratio 58%

There’s no better place to start than with a manager who carried on what his predecessor had begun. Undoubtedly the most successful embodiment of a coach-to-manager transition, Paisley was a managerial graduate of Liverpool’s famous ‘boot room’ under Bill Shankly’s leadership.

The switch was a smooth one, with Paisley already part of the furniture and seen as a kindly uncle alongside the father figure of Shankly. If anyone was reluctant to accept the change it would have been Paisley himself, a modest man who tried to sneak away from a Wembley win in 1983 without lifting the Milk Cup.

Paisley’s record speaks for itself: 19 major trophies, including six league titles. He is the only manager ever to win three European Cups, and it will stay that way for a bit longer now that Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola have failed to reach this year’s Champions League Final.

So successful he famously said, “I’ve been here during the bad times too – one year we came second”, yet all the while showing an unassuming persona, Paisley became a legend of the game. Not a bad internal appointment, then.

Bill Nicholson
Tottenham Hotspur
October 1958 – August 1974
P783 W373 D189 L221
Win ratio 48%

‘Bill Nick’ took the reins at White Hart Lane after acting as a coach for Spurs, and also England at the 1958 World Cup.

Regarded as Tottenham’s finest manager, he won the league, three FA Cups, two League Cups, a Cup Winners’ Cup and a UEFA Cup, in a tenure that included the first ever domestic cup double of the 20th century.

As a player, coach, manager, scout and president, Nicholson stamped his image on Tottenham Hotspur, and like Paisley he proved that loyalty pays off – and so too does trusting your assistants with the managerial mantle.

David O’Leary
Leeds United
October 1998 – June 2002
P203 W101 D47 L55
Win ratio 50%

Assistant to George Graham until 1998, O’Leary took the Yorkshiremen on a cash-fueled, four-year stag do around Europe (the less said about the hangover, the better).

Known for their array of young talent, or “honest bunch of lads who try to do their best” as O’Leary called them, Leeds reached their peak with the Irishman in 2001, beating AC Milan and qualifying at the expense of Barcelona en route to the Champions League semi-finals.

That fantastic European campaign will never be forgotten by Leeds fans, even though the money spent during the former Arsenal defender’s reign – nearly £100m in four years – would ultimately lead them to financial ruin. By then, O’Leary had been given the boot by the much-loved Peter Ridsdale.

But there’ll always be the memories...

Dave Bassett
Wimbledon
January 1981 – June 1987
P303 W144 D74 L85
Win ratio 48%

Unlike his satirical Scouse brother Mike Bassett, Dave never achieved England manager status, but his miracle work at Plough Lane did lay the foundations for one of English football’s most charismatic teams – the Crazy Gang.

Taking over in the old Fourth Division, Bassett guided the Dons to four promotions (and one relegation) in six years, taking them to the top flight just nine years after they joined the Football League.

He is also regarded as the architect of Wimbledon’s... ‘physical’ tactics, perfectly suited to a time when a two-footed dropkick to the face wouldn’t warrant a ticking off.

Alan Curbishley
Charlton Athletic
June 1995 – May 2006
P514 W198 D137 L179
Win ratio 39%

Having been a player-coach for one year and joint manager with the wonderfully named Steve Gritt for four, Curbishley took sole command of Charlton in 1995 and within three years took them to the Premier League.

Final-day relegation swiftly followed in 1999, but promotion returned them to the top flight just as quickly and six happy years ensued, with the Addicks consolidating top-flight status under his tenure and under the radar.

When Curbishly left Charlton in 2006, they were comfortably mid-table. That two relegations in three years followed hints strongly at the positive impact Curbs had in his 16 years at The Valley.

The failures

Les Reed
Charlton Athletic
November 2006 – December 2006
P7 W1 D1 L5
Win ratio 14%

We’ll stick with Charlton as we begin our search of the assistants-turned-managers who, like Terry Connor, seemingly found themselves out of their depth.

Les Reed did not look like a football manager. Sadly for Charlton, appearances weren’t deceiving. Harshly branded ‘Les Miserables’ by a press unaware of standard French pronunciation, Reed was another member of the earpiece brigade, and was more of the Sammy Lee ilk (see below) than Sam Allardyce in terms of getting results.

‘Santa Clueless’ – another cracker from our friends on Fleet Street – was relieved of his duties on Christmas Eve, presumably not because he had work to do at the North Pole. He’s often regarded as the worst manager of all time, which isn’t very nice, but isn’t easily deniable either.

The Addicks went down under Alan Pardew that season, and have yet to return.

Sammy Lee
Bolton Wanderers
April 2007 – October 2007
P14 W3 D4 L7
Win ratio 21%

As Big Sam departed the Reebok for Newcastle, Little Sam took over at Bolton – but he looked a weak figure throughout his short time in charge, especially given Allardyce’s success with the club (not to mention his size).

Sammy Lee’s tendency to sport the Britney Spears earpiece on the touchline raised a few giggles, and an important question too: who was on the other end?

In a few months, Lee – now back at Bolton, working with the Academy after a stint as assistant manager at Liverpool – took Bolton from the European spots to the relegation places, and he was let go before things got out of hand.

Still, his enthusiastic, positive nature meant that Wanderers fans bear him no ill will. They just don’t want to ever see him in the manager’s seat again.

Wilf McGuinness
Manchester United
June 1969 – December 1970
P87 W32 D32 L23
Win ratio 37%

A harsh inclusion? Revisionists would argue that Wilf McGuinness did a decent job in very difficult circumstances, but nobody ever said being a football manager isn’t hard. And looking back, maybe appointing a 31-year-old first-teach coach as Matt Busby’s successor, while the greatest manager in the club’s history is upstairs watching your every move, isn’t a tip-top idea.

Certainly, leading Manchester United to eighth in 1970, a three-place, three-point improvement on the previous year under Busby, doesn’t represent an absolute disaster. But the team began the following season badly, and they have high expectations up at Old Trafford. In an incredible case of surrender and retreat, the United hierarchy sent McGuinness down to his old position in charge of the reserves, and brought Busby back to take the helm once more.

McGuinness may have been a victim of circumstance in his unsuccessful move up the ladder, but it’s worth pointing out that he went on to take York City from their highest ever league position to two successive relegations, leaving them needing to apply for re-election to the Football League.

Tony Adams
Portsmouth
October 2008 – February 2009
P22 W4 D7 L11
Win ratio 18%

Four years out of practice after taking Wycombe down to League Two in his debut managerial job, Tony Adams was nonetheless named as the man to follow Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth.

He only followed him out the door, however, as his tenure at Fratton Park lasted just a matter of months. Once a fantastic defender, Adams was arguably let down by a back line that threw away 10 points in the last 15 minutes of his 16 league games in charge – but the manager can hardly be absolved from all blame for such a record.

Still, chief executive Peter Storrie should probably get some of the flak, for saying on Adams’ appointment that he hoped “Tony will be here for as long as he wants to be here.”

Yes, Peter, unless you sack him first.

Chris Hutchings
Bradford City
June 2000 – November 2000
P21 W7 D4 L10
Win ratio 33%

Wigan Athletic
May 2007 – November 2007
P13 W2 D2 L9
Win ratio 15%

Hutchings is a fascinating creature; an assistant who keeps getting managerial work even though he clearly isn’t very good at it.

Assistant at Bradford, Hutchings took over the then Premier League side when Paul Jewell left at the end of the 1999-2000 season. A markedly poor few months followed for the Bantams, with just one win from 12 – against Chelsea, admittedly – proving evidence enough for the inexperienced manager to be given his P45.

Still, we shouldn’t be too harsh on Hutchings: he did take Bradford to the semi-finals of the Intertoto Cup in the summer with wins over FK Atlantas of Lithuania and Holland’s RKC Waalwijk. Then there was that 7-2 win over Darlington in the League Cup. Take that, Darlo!

It was evidently enough for Wigan chairman Dave Whelan to give assistant manager Hutchings another bite of the spam fritter some seven years later – again after Paul Jewell had left the club. Six straight defeats led to Hutchings’ demise, in a perfect example of how to save your season by getting rid of your malfunctioning gaffer at the first sign of collapse (NB: This does not always work).

There was a sense of the inevitable when Jewell resigned as Derby County manager in December 2008, and sure enough Hutchings once again took the helm, albeit only in a caretaker role this time. He was replaced by Nigel Clough, still manager at Pride Park today.

Time in charge of Walsall followed, but Hutchings seems to have accepted his true calling as a No.2, rather than a leader of men. He is now assistant at Ipswich Town. You can guess who their manager is – and probably who their next one will be.

The inside story of the Allianz Arena, Champions League Final venue

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:50:00 GMT

We now know the contenders for the Champions League Final on Saturday 19th May: Chelsea and Bayern Munich. Bayern will have home advantage, because back on 29th January 2009 the 2012 final was awarded to the Allianz Arena, which they own but share with neighbours 1860 Munich.

Designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, the stadium began construction on October 21st 2002 and was officially opened on May 30th 2005. It's a fascinating stadium: have a look.

The main entrance to the stadium is along the Esplanade. Visitors can access the Arena from the nearby Fröttmanning underground station, the coach parks or the multistorey car parking. The parking facilities under the Esplanade are Europe’s biggest underground car park, offering spaces for approximately 9,800 cars. There are spaces for a total of 350 buses – 240 to the north of the Arena and 110 in the south.

The roof of the Allianz Arena consists of 2,874 air cushions and has a total surface area of 64,000 square metres. The foil is only 0.2 mm thick and up to 98% UV-permeable. It is, it says here, the world’s biggest roof made of foil. Each cushion has a surface area of approximately 35 square meters, although none of the honeycombs has precisely the same shape. The honeycombs are made of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, as if you couldn't guess.

Giant fans underneath the stadium plump up the cushions, like a good house-cleaner. If the blower fails and water collects during the resulting cooling process, a clever little valve opens at the lowest point so that the moisture can flow away before the mass of water overloads the roof construction. Which would suck.

If snow settles on the roof during winter - not likely in May, but bear with us – a total of 12 pressure sensors measure the snow and trigger a pressure increase in the cushions to balance out this load.

The membranes, one-thirtieth of the weight of glass, have a self-cleaning coat and are ventilated continuously.

The two 'Allianz Arena' signs are up to 4m high and are made of steel, sheet metal, aluminium and transparent plastic. Each letter weighs between 250 and 500 kg. More than 100,000 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been installed in each sign and they only require about 20% of the power used by conventional lighting, so that's nice.

Eye-pleasingly, the Arena can be lit up in different colours to mark the teams who are playing there – so when Bayern are at home it's lit in red, for 1860 it's blue and for Germany games it's white. The light can be changed within the space of two minutes. Here it is in Chelsea blue:

…and in Bayern red:

Just for chuckles, and not to antagonise Pep and Jose, but here's what you could have won (besides the Champions League): the stadium in Barcelona and Real Madrid livery.

The stadium has a top capacity of 69,901 – although that figure includes standing areas.

There are 66,000 seats, and as usual for Champions League games this may be slightly restricted by segregation.

There are three tiers, the lower tier seating 20,000, the middle seating 24,000 and the upper 22,000.

Herzog & de Meuron designed a new type of seat specifically for the Arena. Unlike in many other stadiums, where standard seats differ from box seats, the three different forms of seating used in the Arena (standard folding seat, VIP seat and box seat) are of uniform size and appearance, with silver coating. Each individual seating space was hand-marked, down to the last millimetre, before the first seat was installed, because the Arena is curved rather than rectangular.

There are four changing rooms – one for each of the 'home teams' (Bayern and 1860) and one each for their respective opponents. There are also two changing rooms for the officials. Curious.

Each changing room "boasts" (weird word, that) 22 lockers and 12 showers. You can make your own joke up there.

Above is the mixed zone, where the world's media will attempt to pigeon-hole the winners and losers. And below is the tunnel from which the protagonists will emerge. May the best team win…

Luis Enrique's Roma experiment going up in smoke

Richard Whittle — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:31:00 GMT

Luis Enrique arrived at AS Roma in the summer with dark hair on his 41-year-old head and a reputation for being a no-nonsense coach. Nearly nine months on he has grayed considerably and for many in the Italian capital he has stopped making any sense at all.

When he turned up at the club's Trigoria training centre for his first session in August wielding an iPad, he was immediately dubbed Zichichi, after Antonino Zichichi, the silver-haired doyen of nuclear physics. But in recent weeks he has been acting more like the nutty professor.

The latest experiment to go up in smoke came in Wednesday’s rearranged fixture home fixture with lowly Fiorentina, a match which ended in a frustrating 2-1 defeat. In truth the damage had been done last weekend at Juventus, when the Spaniard had decided to start Simone Perrotta, who had not played since December, leave the in-form Francesco Totti on the bench and once more deploy Daniele De Rossi out of position in central defence.

The gossamer-thin line-up was torn apart by a marauding Juve to the tune of four goals. However it was not just the defence which was shredded, but also the whole camp’s fragile confidence

The cold shouldering of the captain turned into a full-blown bout of flu which had the Romans fretting that their inspirational leader would miss the midweek fixture, yet it was Enrique’s pre-match press conference which caused most distress in the Capital.

Asked to explain how the team had failed to provide Juventus with any semblance of a competitive run-out, silence ensued. And ensued. And ensued, before being briefly broken by a muttered, “I am thinking.”

Nearly a minute passed before he launched into a long, meandering and at times incoherent explanation, one which was more awkward than the silence that had proceeded it.

Among the topics touched upon were 'taking responsibility', 'believing in the team' and 'not always relying on Totti'. One couldn’t help but wonder if the team talk had been equally as rambling.

Having gone a goal down to Fiorentina after only two minutes, it seemed Roma had rescued a point when Totti stuck out a foot to fortuitously divert Fernando Gago’s wayward effort home with 12 minutes remaining.

But the rest of the match had been a similar to the debacle in Turin: a mish-mash of misplaced passes and nervy defending, so it was no real surprise when the visitors scored a winner two minutes into added time.

Roma’s soft centre was exposed once again, as was the team’s ill-discipline. Forward Pablo Osvaldo was shown a straight red card for dissent and joins Erik Lamela - caught spitting at Juve’s Stephan Lichtsteiner in Sunday's defeat - and De Rossi in being banned for this weekend’s match against Napoli.

Enrique has been strict with his code of ethics off the pitch, banning Osvaldo for a dressing-room dust-up with Lamela and dropping De Rossi for turning up late to a team meeting. However, once they cross the white line, the players seem to lose all respect for the team ethic.

At least the coach was willing to accept this most recent set-back had been his fault, and thought better than to mention the “project” which the local media firmly believe isn’t going to make it past the blackboard stage.

He still couldn’t let go of his growing bitterness towards the press, claiming they should be pleased to see he was only four games away from leaving the club, with the season drawing to a close. However, in doing so he fed himself to the lions, which now include a growing number of the fans: a giant banner on Wednesday read: “If you are a real man Luis then leave now.”

In fairness, a foreign coach taking on his first major job with the plan of changing the philosophy of the Italian game was never going to have an easy time of it, especially in the high-pressure environment of Rome.

Patience is something generally in short supply among the media and fans in Rome, but not within the club, it would seem. Sporting director Franco Baldini reiterated that Enrique would be in charge next season – a stance unlikely to change over the course of the run-in, even if the team does fail to qualify for Europe.

But if Enrique is still around in August, he better have a new formula stored in that iPad.

Manchester City players can't help but fluff their lines

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:40:00 GMT

Perhaps the pressure of the title race really is getting to Manchester City's stars.

Watch Mario Balotelli, Joe Hart, David Silva, Vincent Kompany and Samir Nasri try and fail to promote the club and Umbro's Show Your City kit launch campaign

To be honest, we were expecting more fireworks from Super Mario...

Stats Zone analysis: How Chelsea shocked Barça and made it to Munich

Stats Zone — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:15:00 GMT

Much like the first leg, last night's Champions League semi-final second leg at Camp Nou featured a persistent attacking threat from Barcelona largely nullified by a stupendous defensive performance from Chelsea, as shown by the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now...

The player influence and average position diagrams for the second half of Tuesday evening's match are particularly telling – every Chelsea player was firmly entrenched deep in their own half, with every Barcelona man camped in opposition territory.

Having spent so much time pinned back in their own half, it’s no surprise that Chelsea had a lot of work to do repelling the ball from their own penalty area.

The Chelsea ‘wall’ made a combined 17 tackles, 24 interceptions and 59 clearances, but only conceded ten fouls for their trouble. This was all despite losing Gary Cahill to an early hamstring injury and John Terry to his own stupidity within 37 minutes.

Given the nature of the match, it comes as no surprise to see Barca dominating the passing statistics – but the degree to which they did so is still quite staggering.

In completing 161 passes, Xavi outdid all 14 of the visiting players to take to the pitch combined by 66.

In all, ten Barcelona players completed more passes than Chelsea’s top passer, Raul Meireles (15). The eleven players to complete the most passes in or into the offensive third of the pitch were all Barcelona players.

In fact, the Chelsea player to complete the most passes in or into the final third was goalkeeper Petr Cech, who found a man in a white Chelsea change strip six times.

This was six times more than Barca keeper Victor Valdes, mind you. The Catalan custodian unsurprisingly preferred to knock the ball short, rather than plant one on little Leo’s head from 70 yards.

This difference in approach summed up the two differing styles of play adopted by the two teams over the two legs. Barcelona persisted with their trademark patient short-passing game, while Chelsea loaked to soak up the pressure and get the ball forward as quickly and directly as possible in order to catch the European champions on the break. The simple fact Chelsea are in the final tells you which was the more effective tactic over the 180 minutes.

While none of the above came as much of a surprise, the fact Lionel Messi was unable to put Chelsea to the sword certainly did.

The two-times Balon d'Or winner completed just 74% of his passes - and only 69% of his passes in the attacking third - and was generally unsuccesful in his attempts to dribble past opposition players, succeeding just three times from nine attempts.

These stats certainly don't compare favourably to those from his last match against an English club at Camp Nou, the 3-1 victory over Arsenal of March 2011. On that night he was successful in nearly all of his dribble attempts and had a higher pass completion percentage in the final third (76%), though that was from fewer attempted passes.

He did, however, successfully complete more tackles than any other player on the pitch. Which is something to cling to, at least.

The Argentinean wasn’t the only pint-sized magician who was quieter than usual. Chelsea’s Juan Mata struggled to make much impact over the two ties, although that is perhaps forgivable given his side enjoyed so little possession. He completed just 17 passes over the two matches.

As a team, Barcelona were perhaps a little profligate. Although Chelsea did superbly to nullify them for large swathes of the match, the soon to be former Spanish champions still managed 23 shots at goal. Of those, ten were off-target, eight of which were from inside the penalty area.

Chelsea, meanwhile, made the most of the few openings they were able to carve – scoring three goals from the 11 chances they created over the two legs.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League – and, coming soon, Euro 2012.

Champions League preview: Bayern look to find Kroos control at the Bernabéu

Michael Cox — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:30:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now – to preview Wednesday's Champions League semi-final second-leg...

Bayern Munich’s main men ahead of the trip to Real Madrid are, as usual, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben. But there’ll be even more focus than usual on the duo, after they reportedly came to blows at half-time of the first leg.

According to German daily Bild, Robben refused to allow Ribery to take a 40th minute free-kick, leading to a dressing room row which saw Ribery punch Robben and earn a €50,000 fine.

Nevertheless, both are expected to be in the starting line-up at the Bernabeu, offering an attacking threat down either flank. In theory, they play in a similar fashion – getting the ball on the flanks and then cutting inside onto their stronger foot. But there is a big difference in the way they pick up the ball – Franck Ribery drops deep into his own half, drifting away from his full-back and collecting the ball in deep positions before driving at the defence.

Arjen Robben, on the other hand, is more of a wide forward. Unlike Ribery, he never collects the ball directly from a Manuel Neuer pass, and instead stays wide in the final third, hoping to get possession when the opposition left-back has moved narrow, leaving space on the flank.

Real Madrid’s full-backs are actually badly-suited to playing against this threat. Alvaro Arbeloa is a defensive-minded right-back who doesn’t like moving too high up the pitch and tracking his opponent. Their left-back will be Marcelo or Fabio Coentrao, naturally more attacking, but likely to be forced to stay deep by Robben’s high positioning.

The key battle in the first leg at the Allianz Arena was the players used as the attacking midfielder on either side. Mesut Ozil was Real Madrid’s choice – he stayed high up the pitch, drifted to the right, and although he didn’t see a great deal of the ball, he did pop up in the box for Real’s equaliser.

Toni Kroos played that position for Bayern, but came much deeper, playing short passes in and around the centre circle and helping Bayern dominate possession.

The two are likely to start in the same positions again - Ozil will be high up playing the final pass, while Kroos will be in deep positions trying to prompt breaks.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Madrid press demand Mourinho's side don't go the same way as Barça

Tim Stannard — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Tongues have never been as busy in Spain as they were on Wednesday morning, a statement that perhaps requires some clarification.

In Madrid, they were being bitten. In Barcelona they were being used to lick wounds. In Sevilla, the fun-packed Feria (the city's April Fair) is taking place, so it’s best not to speculate as to what kind of naughtiness may have been going on.

The mood in the Catalan camp is not a good one, after Chelsea did their defensive thang on Tuesday night to knock Barcelona out of the Champions League. The 2-2 draw saw the Londoners gain a spot of slobbering revenge for the events of Stamford Bridge '09, when the luck was very much against the English team, a fact that appears to have been overlooked by the local papers, from what LLL can gather.

The general vibe in the Barça media in response to a setback which leaves the Copa del Rey as the team’s only realistic hope of a trophy is a mixture of disappointment, moaning, taking it on the chin and the usual dose of smugness, though perhaps in smaller quantities than usual.

The bravado is provided by the front pages of both Mundo Deportivo and Sport. The former reminds fans who may be feeling a little down in the dumps that “to be Barça is to be the best there is”, while its rival bemoans the unfairness of football on the front cover

Of course, Chelsea would disagree, having handed Barcelona about 98% possession, had their numbskull captain sent off and even given away a penalty to hand their Spanish opposition a chance of beating them. Statistics underlining the dominance of Barcelona over Chelsea stuffed into both papers, but the Catalans were lacking in the area that matters most - goals. '47 chances, a missed penalty, four posts hit', bemoaned Sport, with Josep Maria Casanovas lamenting that “they were up against a Chelsea side who were more efficient, had more luck and knew how to take the few chances they had.”

Mundo Deportivo’s Santi Nolla leads the clarion call, with the reminder that “Barça fell with their heads held high, faithful to a style but less fresh than normal.”

Madridistas would usually love nothing better than some serious taunting and pee-taking at their rival’s expense, however Real Madrid’s own future in the competition is by no means secure, with Bayern Munich taking a 2-1 lead into the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night. “Don’t you fail,” commands Marca’s front cover, with a picture of a celebrating Cristiano Ronaldo next to poor Leo Messi from the previous evening.

Madrid’s biggest concern will be a leaky defence that is generally not a its strongest in the Santiago Bernabeu, so there is the suspicion that if Bayern score it could be the end of the Spanish side’s Champions League run. If fact, so spooked is the club that it has run the familiar “fans are the 12th man” style campaign, something LLL has always been baffled by. After all, if supporters can’t raise themselves for a Champions League semi-final, when can they?

LLL is predicting a long night being forced to cheer on their team for the Real Madrid fans, predicting a 2-1 win after 90 minutes and penalties to follow. And the blog wouldn’t want to bet against a German team in that scenario.

Swindon fans uneasy about the way Di Canio is saluting them

Back of the Net — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:20:00 GMT

There have been a few awkward moments at The County Ground, Back of the Net's John Foster has the 'details'...

Flushed with success after securing promotion from League Two, Swindon Town boss Paolo Di Canio has saluted the club’s fans from a balcony outside The County Ground, a gesture that many admit has left them feeling rather uncomfortable.

Despite going down 3-1 to Gillingham, results elsewhere meant that Swindon went up with two games to spare, an achievement that Di Canio has dedicated to the club’s fans, by extending his right arm repeatedly and promising all 3,000 season ticket holders a plot of land in Ethiopia.

‘Paolo’s been great for Swindon all year’, said Supporters’ Club chairman Roger Bunce. ‘And people are prepared to overlook his controversial past actions, like pushing over officials, falling out with managers, and leading an army to invade Rijeka with the intention of returning it to its rightful place within Italy, so long as results on the pitch are good.

"Go right wing..."

‘But there’s something not quite right about rejecting post-match handshakes as representing a degenerate bourgeois mentality, or demanding the referee be deported for being a communist agitator.’

Gifted maniac Di Canio has caused further awkwardness by changing the pre-match music be changed to 1920s hit ‘Giovinezza’, and by proposing Swindon abandon their traditional red shirts in favour of a new, entirely black design.

Earlier this season he was criticised by other managers for re-arming the youth team and talking openly about invading Somerset, having also described Yeovil Town as ‘a pistol pointing at the heart of Wiltshire.’

Editor's note: this isn't a serious accusation. But you knew that, because you're not stupid.

More from Back of the Net

Champions League preview: Chelsea focus on the hole behind Alves

Michael Cox — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:47:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now – to preview Tuesday's Champions League semi-final second-leg...

One of Chelsea’s better players last week was Ramires, who was moved across to the left of midfield and told to track Daniel Alves up and down the touchline, before quickly breaking past him when the ball was won. Ramires didn’t do the latter too often – but once was enough, as he set up Didier Drogba’s winner (the yellow arrow indicating the assist).

Ramires also had the energy and positional sense to help out defensively, shown by how often he helped break up a Barcelona attack. But on the other flank was Juan Mata – less energetic, less able defensively, more creative. Although he filled in well on the right, tucking in and making Chelsea narrow in midfield, he didn’t actively do anything in a defensive sense. His contribution was limited to a handful of passes, and one wayward shot.

Mata’s place in the Chelsea side at the Nou Camp is not assured. it’s likely he’ll be picked to give Chelsea some level of attacking threat and help make their passing flow, but Michael Essien performed well at the weekend and would be a stronger defensive option.

Chelsea’s intention to attack into the space behind Alves was also summed up by their passes in the final third at Stamford Bridge. As the graphic on the left below shows, the majority of their passes were down that side, particularly long balls in behind the full-back.

Compared to their weekend performance against Arsenal, it’s a huge difference. At the Emirates they played their more natural game, attacking down each flank equally – albeit with a different set of wingers, Saloman Kalou and Daniel Sturridge.

Chelsea’s attacking route should depend on Barcelona’s formation – if they play a back four and Alves pushes on, then breaking in behind him is the logical option. But if Pep Guardiola chooses a back three, there will be gaps on both flanks, as Real Madrid showed on Saturday night.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

All eyes on Piqué & Pep during Barça’s pre-match prep

Tim Stannard — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Considering Barcelona’s defence hasn’t really been the cause of the club’s annus...er...weekus very baduss - which has instead been down to a somewhat limp attack that relies rather heavily on Leo Messi not feeling peaky - there has been quite a to-do about Gerard Piqué failing to appear for the games against Chelsea and Real Madrid.

However, unless Pep Guardiola and the Barcelona communications team are being rather mischievous, the Shakira-obsessed centre-back looks likely to be lining up in the Champions League semi-final second leg against the Londoners, given it was Piqué who took time out of his busy social schedule to talk to the press ahead of a match in whcih Barcelona have a bit of catching up to do.

Piqué’s main task in the press conference was to confirm everything was just tickety-boo with Pep Guardiola, despite the manager clearly have having lost his ‘feeling’ with the centre-back, something that normally involves a transfer to Serie A a few months later if Bojan and Zlatan’s experiences are any thing to go by.

“My relationship with him is very good, although you don’t believe it,” said Piqué to the journalists, “We speak a lot.”

The defender then said he would go to great lengths to see his coach carrying on for another season at the Camp Nou. “I’d stick my hand in a fire,” confirmed Piqué in a promise LLL would be amused to see Pep hold the centre-back to.

Guardiola later spoke on the issue and was happy to confirm Piqué had not been playing simply because he wasn’t good enough, rather than there being any issues about his private life. “Of course, it’s for sporting reasons. A coach can’t control private lives. Gerard has a very full life as a person, I want this for him and want him to be the same person I’ve known for four years and Tito has known since he was a kid, a happy guy. It’s his life, it’s not for me to say he should do this, not do that.”

The other discussion point in the Catalan capital surrounds how Barcelona are going to get circumnavigate Chelsea’s big defensive bus and overturn the 1-0 deficit from the first leg. Josep Maria Casanovas, writing in Monday’s Sport, says through a Linford Christie-style Positive Mental Attitude. “The problem is in their heads, in getting back their confidence, in restoring their morale, in having confidence in their own abilities,” reports the columnist.” There is also a call for the crowd to give the team a warm hand on their entrance ahead of the game, “Barça have given so much, they deserve our total support in these difficult moments.”

Last week the Catalan press triumphantly called that Barcelona would be in the final because the side were infinitely superior to Chelsea. This week, with some doubts over the team's progression, the vibe from some is that Barça should go through because it wouldn’t be fair if they didn’t. “The fans of this Barcelona team deserve a Champions League final. As much as the team do,” were the thoughts of Mundo Deportivo's Santi Nolla, who apparently got a little emotional from Saturday’s scintillating atmosphere in the Camp Nou.

“The day of Real Madrid in Camp Nou was exciting when hearing the how the hymn was sung in the stadium, almost a cappella, with goosebumps before the match. Or in the last ten minutes of a tempestuous match with the Barcelona fans singing the club’s name, a sign of such support.” What the Mundo Deportivo writer wasn’t excited about, it seems, was all those long periods between his two highlights.

A few songs aren’t going to help Barça beat Chelsea. Leo Messi needs a bit of help, Xavi Hernández needs to rediscover his mojo and Cesc needs to pull his finger out a little. If that happens, then LLL predicts a fairly comfy 3-0 win for the Champions League holders to help their bid to retain their title.

Premier Analysis: Man U midfield muffled, Stoke outpass Newcastle, Liverpool 0 Barn Doors 1

Nick Govier — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:38:00 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

Where else to start than at Old Trafford, where Manchester United twice squandered a two-goal advantage to draw 4-4 with Everton. Tony Hibbert contributed two assists with crosses from the right; Manchester United's tackling chalkboard shows that few tackles were attempted in Patrice Evra's left back position, as Nani was loathe to help protect his team-mate and Everton were able to overlap at will.

In the centre, the past trumped the present as former Manchester United players Phil Neville and Darron Gibson demonstrated to the current incumbents how to boss a midfield at Old Trafford.

Manchester City capitalised on these dropped points to close within three points at the top of the league ahead of next Monday's Manchester derby at the Etihad. It wasn't plain sailing for Mancini's men however, as Wolves knew that failure to win would mean relegation. The home side actually edged the possession with 52%, but two defence-turning through-balls (in yellow) put Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri through to send Wolves into the Championship next season.

Roy Hodgson enjoyed a winning return to Liverpool, who have only won five of their 17 home games this season (as opposed to six out of 10 during Hodgson's tenure). Once again Kenny Dalglish was left to rue a lack of quality in Liverpool's finishing, as 16 of their 30 shots were off target and a further 10 were blocked by a resolute West Brom defence.

Liverpool did at least work Ben Foster, which is more than can be said for Stoke, who registered zero shots on target in their 3-0 loss at Newcastle. Uncharacteristically, Stoke had many more attacking-third passes than their hosts, often working the ball around on the floor. Perhaps a little more directness would have troubled the Newcastle defence more? As it was, Newcastle sealed the victory and are now the form team in the race for a top four finish.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Good Day, Bad Day: Pep’s Problems, Arda’s ‘ard work & a Tennis Ball Tantrum

Tim Stannard — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:37:00 GMT

Good Day

Real Madrid
There was a beautiful silence in Spain on Sunday morning, aside from the cheering in the fancier bits of Spanish capital and the grumbling from the culé collective. The hush was thanks to nobody moaning about conspiracies, refereeing decisions, fouls, offsides or any other minutiae that so often get picked over post-Clásico.
Real Madrid won Clásico XI fair and square through a disciplined, focussed defensive performance and a dangerous attack that had more shots on goal to Barcelona with a ratio of six to three, despite only having 27% possession. The league title could now be won on Sunday if Madrid beat Sevilla and Barcelona lose out at Rayo Vallecano.

Valencia
Booed onto the field but cheered off of it. That was the story of Valencia’s 4-0 win over Betis, with their supporters still livid after Thursday’s Europa League semi-final surrender in the Vicente Calderón.

Arouna Koné
A goal from the on-loan Levante striker in a 1-1 draw against parent club Sevilla took Koné to 14 in the league and 16 overall for the season, two goals shy of an automatic contract renovation with Sevilla, something the forward reportedly doesn’t want.

Gaizka Toquero
There’s an awful lot of responsibility on the limited but hard-working shoulders of Athletic Bilbao's Toquero, a forward who has to deliver the goals when Fernando Llorente is rested to stay freash for the side’s European encounters. Unfortunately for the poor fella, Toquero is rarely able to fill his partner’s poaching boots, with his goal in the 1-0 win away to Racing just his fourth in the league this season. However, it was enough to give Athletic all three points and move the team into sixth.

Arda Turan
The Vicente Calderón has seen an awful lot of fun over the past few days, starting with Thursday’s 4-2 Europa League win over Valencia. Atlético carried on in that confident spirit on Sunday with a comfy 3-1 victory over Espanyol. The victory came thanks to two great goals from Arda Turan, a second minute bicycle-kick being the best of the bunch. Atlético are now attempting a late-burst, Seb Coe style, off Málaga and Valencia’s shoulder in the race for a Champions League place.

Sevilla Fans
Seconds into the match against Levante, hundreds of tennis balls were lobbed onto the Sánchez Pizjuán pitch in protest at the kick-off time being moved from 22.00 to 22.30 so as not to interfere with the post-Clásico coverage. “Stop the game, Mou is still talking,” read the banner which would have been more impressive had it instead read Karanka.

Mallorca
Quietly, quietly without too much disturbance in the Force, Joaquín Caparrós has guided Mallorca to another year in la Primera. The 1-0 win over Zaragoza moved Mallorca onto 43 points, the maximum that Saturday’s opponents who are third from bottom in the table can achieve with Mallorca having a better head-to-head record over the Aragon outfit.

Carlos Vela
Yet another place in the Good Day section for the Real Sociedad forward, who is on loan from Arsenal, a club who must have noted the Mexican’s inspired run of form. Vela’s bicycle kick to pick up a point for la Real against Villarreal was the fancy front man’s 11th of the season and fifth in the past five games.

Granada
A 1-0 win against Getafe may not look that sexy with certain other matches taking place this weekend but it moved the Primera newbies to within a single win from staying up.

Sporting
Probably a bit late now, but a 2-1 victory over Rayo on Saturday is better than a defeat LLL supposes. Sporting now level with Zaragoza on 31 points.

Bad Day

Pep Guardiola
The Barça manager admitted errors in his approach to Saturday’s title crunch-fest, with the youngster Cristian Tello carrying a lot of the goalscoring responsibility for the team. However, LLL has some sympathy as the Barça boss didn’t really have that much choice.
The side’s best chance of a big win this season is in the Champions League, which made playing the knock-carrying Alexis too much of a risk. Cesc is out of form, David Villa injured and Pedro will also be required in the Camp Nou for the visit of Chelsea. Guardiola’s tinkerings were necessary ones, but when the game began the line-up simply wasn’t strong enough to beat a Real Madrid that was firm at the back yet probing up front. It’s a simple answer to a complex question of how Real Madrid beat Barcelona in 90 minutes at the 11th attempt for José Mourinho.

Sevilla
Míchel’s men are completely losing their way in the final run-in when rivals for a European spot such as Athletic and Atlético are rediscovering their form. Sevilla were battered 5-1 by Getafe last Monday and were held at home 1-1 by little Levante on Saturday night / Sunday morning.

Rayo Vallecano
The Vallecas Flash is in awful form at the moment with injuries, suspensions and general fatigue catching up with the team. The 6-0 victory over Osasuna a couple of weeks ago, is the side’s only win in the past seven games, a spell that has seen six losses, the most recent being a 2-1 reverse at Sporting on Saturday. The final two or three points Rayo need to stay up could be tough ones to get, especially as the next clash is the visit of Barcelona.

Villarreal
Another lead lost in the final minutes for Villarreal who dropped two points in a draw against Racing last weekend in the final seconds and did it again against la Real on Sunday with just five minutes left on the clock. Those errors make the difference for Villarreal needing five more points or a single point to stay up.

Zaragoza
Ouchies. A defeat to Mallorca sees Zaragoza needing to win all of their final four matches against Athletic, Levante, Racing and Getafe to give the team the smallest of chances of staying up. All those challenges are doable but Zaragoza are relying on Villarreal six points above them to have a bit of a mare at the end of season. But with Miguel Angel Lotina in charge, anything can happen.

Racing Santander
Reports of a team that look a touch down in the dumps are not all that surprising for a Racing side that’s bottom-of-the-table on 26 points, without a win in over four months, having just lost their 16th league game of the season with a 1-0 defeat to Athletic Bilbao.

Genoa fans get shirty as players left humbled and humiliated

Richard Whittle — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:08:00 GMT

The run-in to the end of any season calls for cool heads, but there were few in evidence at Genoa on Sunday.

As if trailing Siena 4-0 with only 50 minutes played of what was a vital relegation encounter may have been bad enough, further humiliation was heaped upon the home players by their own fans in whar could be the moment that sends this proud club into freefall.

Not only did a section of the home support disrupt the match by throwing flares on to the pitch and climbing atop the protective covering above the tunnel, they then demanded those they deemed not worthy of wearing the shirt remove them.

The majority of the players duly obliged to do so, rolling over in submission much as they had done to the visiting team.

Team captain Marco Rossi had gone over to discuss the situation with the main ultras group, numbering 70-odd supporters, before trudging back to his team-mates to inform them they would have to de-robe.

There were a fair few long faces among the players as Rossi turned kit-man and gathered the sweat-soaked shirts, to parade them in front of the triumphant tormentors.

In that instant inside the Luigi Ferraris Stadium, it seemed the team bond was broken, and for many looking in from the outside it was a reflection of each player’s own character that they meekly succumbed to the demands of the masses.

However, there were two players who refused to hand over their work clothes: Giuseppe Sculli and Sebastien Frey.

The incredulous look Frey gave the ultras should be cherished by anyone who ever needs to stand up to a bully. “This is my shirt and I am not giving it to anyone,” was the French goalkeeper’s response as he stood in front of the stands.

Sculli is another who does not like to be messed with, and the midfielder marched right into the crowd to explain that he too was in no mood to show off his bare chest.

Although it was certainly a primal demonstration of breast beating, there was not a dry eye in the house as footballer and burly fan embraced across the fencing thus enabling the match to proceed without further incident.

No one had seen so few hold so many to ransom since, well, since Serbia had been in town. As with the events which lead to the Euro 2012 qualifier of October 2010 being abandoned, some may well ask where the officials and the forces of law and order were while the madness was unfolding.

While the police stood by and monitored the situation from a safe distance, gathering video evidence and blaming the Genoa players for bowing to the ultras’ demands, club president Enrico Preziosi was left equally impotent, taking his ire out on coach Alberto Malesani, sacking him for the second time in four months.

The team will be forced to play their remaining two ‘home’ matches at least 250km from Genoa and behind closed doors – which will probably be a welcome relief for the players.

Luigi De Canio has been handed the task of ensuring Genoa do not go the way of city rivals Sampdoria and drop down into Serie B. But after the events of Sunday, few would put their shirt on it.

Rafael Márquez: More issues than FourFourTwo

Kris Heneage — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:25:00 GMT

Where do you begin with Rafael Márquez? A fantastic career in Europe, only enhanced by a stellar international legacy with Mexico - the pinnacle of which saw him captain El Tricolor at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

In August 2010, Márquez traded Europe for MLS, agreeing a three-and-a-half year contract with the New York Red Bulls; his vast experience wouldn't come cheap at $4.6m a year. In his introductory press conference Márquez (via a translator) sounded ambitious: “I have not come here to [retire]. I am only 31 years old. I have come to play and to win championships.”

The league’s commissioner Don Garber also championed the deal, adding “This team, up until recently, hasn’t earned the right to go out and say ‘We’re a world-class team, we’ve got a world-class building, we are deeply committed to this sport’.”

That world-class authenticity demonstrated itself early into Márquez’s Red Bulls career, a wonderful long range effort against Toronto FC* proving that the Mexican still had more than enough to give. With an overall third-place finish, the 2010 season was far from terrible for the club, with the 2011 campaign eagerly anticipated.

In the off-season Hans Backe introduced new faces and Márquez started the season well, but as the Red Bulls began to struggle midway through the season, a change emerged in the Mexican. Poor form during August and September saw the Red Bulls secure only two wins in seven.

The nadir of that poor form came at home to Real Salt Lake. Down three goals after 21 minutes, a late strike by Joel Lindpere was scant consolation for Red Bulls fans as the defence looked worryingly porous. Low on confidence, Tim Ream’s mistake for RSL’s second was unfortunate and not befitting of a side with aspirations of winning MLS Cup.

As the huddle of reporters crammed into New York’s dressing room after the game, Luke Rodgers, while content to acknowledge the mistake, more bemoaned the fact that the Red Bulls always seemed to learn the hard way.

By contrast Márquez was less diplomatic saying: "I think I am playing at my maximum level, and doing everything I can. I don’t have, unfortunately, four defenders on my level that can help me out. I think that this is a team game, and unfortunately, there isn’t an equal level between perhaps [Thierry Henry] and myself, and our team-mates."

Not content to simply bemoan the majority of his team-mates, Márquez then homed in on US international Ream, with some stinging criticism. “Tim is still a young player with a lot to learn. He still has quite a lot to learn, and well, he has committed errors that are very infantile and cost us goals.”

Although Marquez tried to claim mistranslation, video surfaced that proved contrary to his claims. Manager Hans Backe chose to suspend Márquez immediately.

Even with the off-pitch issues, New York made the play-offs after defeating FC Dallas in the wildcard game – meaning a meeting with LA Galaxy and a chance for Márquez to redeem himself.

Instead, the Mexican put on an altogether different kind of show in the first leg at Red Bull Arena. The Galaxy secured a narrow 1-0 win thanks to a goal from former New Yorker Mike Magee, but sadly that wasn't the indelible image left by the matchup. At the final whistle Márquez threw the ball at Landon Donovan, which engineered an almighty fracas that would make the WWE proud.

The scuffle was far from the most endearing moment of Márquez’s illustrious career, and for many it was already enough: his first full season had been a disaster and the subsequent three-game suspension seemed somewhat lenient.

Having missed the first two games of the 2012 season, he returned with a solid display against the Colorado Rapids. But if he seemed a reformed character, he chose last weekend’s game against San Jose to provide his detractors with ample ammunition.

Márquez repeatedly grappled with Shea Salinas at every San Jose corner, and when the pair fell to the ground Márquez seemed to lash his foot out at the midfielder. It was a blatant penalty and Salinas broke his clavicle, ruling him out for six to eight weeks. Credit must go to the former Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder, who told curious journalists that he had already forgiven the mexican for what happened.

In the second disciplinary action of his Red Bulls career, Márquez received a fine and another three-game suspension. Many have commented on the leniency of the ruling, citing Brian Mullan’s 10-game ban for breaking Steve Zakuani’s leg as evidence of inconsistency from the MLS disciplinary panel.

From a club perspective, it presents a potentially difficult decision. New York-based journalist Daniel Feuerstein admits that there is a dichotomy between fans and the ownership. “A lot of the fans want him gone, they feel he's an arrogant player," says Feuerstein. "The problem is the club are paying him a lot of money, so they won’t want to just let him go as it would be expensive. The team is also going through some injuries so it won't be that easy to just let him leave.”

Márquez will serve the first game of his suspension this weekend, missing the trip to D.C. United. Given that the transfer window is now closed till late June, the club’s hierarchy have ample thinking time on precisely what to do with project Márquez.

Chelsea face another 'Grade A' fixture, but can they maintain their swagger?

Jon Champion — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of QPR v Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday from 4.30pm on ESPN

FIXTURES Sat 21 April Arsenal v Chelsea, Aston Villa v Sunderland, Blackburn v Norwich, Bolton v Swansea, Fulham v Wigan, Newcastle v Stoke, QPR v Tottenham Sun 22 April Manchester United v Everton, Liverpool v West Brom, Wolves v Manchester City.

This weekend sees Chelsea compete in yet another Grade A fixture, having so convincingly won their FA cup semi-final against Tottenham last Sunday, and ground out a surprise first leg lead in their Champions League tie with Barcelona on Wednesday evening.

They now come up against one of their biggest and closest rivals in Arsenal in a match which will hold huge significance in the battle for Champions League places for next season.

There is so much history between Arsenal and Chelsea; their most recent was a thriller, Arsenal winning 5-3 at Stamford Bridge, with a hat trick from Robin Van Persie. But it’s difficult to know what to make of Chelsea going into this weekend’s encounter. Will their physical and mental exertions against Barcelona take their toll, or will the morale boosts of the last week see them play with real swagger?

I tend to think it’s more likely to be the former. It would be remarkable for Chelsea to find their top level of performance after what they have just gone through and what they are about to in the second leg against Barcelona next Tuesday.

Despite losing to Wigan on Monday, Arsenal are still in pole position for third place, even if they lose to Chelsea. The Gunners created buffer for themselves with their recent purple patch, and that meant they could afford one slip up without being punished too severely.

We now know Mikel Arteta will be out for the season with a knee injury, and he will be a big miss for Arsenal, having grown in influence and authority over the course of the season. When he first came it seemed like a panic buy, and for the first few weeks he looked like a fish out of water but gradually he settled in. He’s adopted a slightly less attacking role then he had at Everton, but he has been a real positive influence for Arsenal and it has been £10 million well spent.

Another team chasing champion’s league qualification is Newcastle, who have put themselves in the thick of Champions League contention with five straight wins. They have given themselves a genuine chance of finishing in the top four, which I find quite astonishing.They are level on points with Tottenham, two clear of Chelsea and five behind Arsenal with a game in hand. So if Arsenal were to lose to Chelsea and Newcastle were to win their home fixture with Stoke City this weekend, they will surely have even the Gunners in their sights.
They’ll be confident of keeping up their part of the bargain, not least as Stoke have little left to play for now safety has once again been assured. They pay lip service to this idea of a top ten finish and getting more Premier League points than ever before, but Newcastle will be the team with real hunger, and I’d expect that to show come full-time on Saturday afternoon.

This all leaves Tottenham feeling rather concerned. They travel to QPR on Saturday evening to face a side who are strong at home – winning their last three at Loftus Road – despite poor away form. With some tough fixtures ahead - they still have to go to Chelsea, entertain Stoke and face Manchester City - this is a match QPR will feel they have to win if they are to retain their top flight status.
I can see them doing it; they’ve beaten the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool at Loftus Road this season and Tottenham look to be lacking a bit of confidence at the moment. That, combined with QPR’s recent improvement, may alter the balance somewhat.

It’s also a pivotal weekend in the title race, and Manchester United will feel this is a good weekend to play Everton. David Moyes’ side put so much into their FA Cup Semi Final defeat against Liverpool last weekend that they may well be mentally and physically lagging. United, with nine wins out of ten, have scored in 48 of their 50 games this season, and will be confident of keeping the gap at the top at five points. Everton are tough nuts to crack but they showed in that FA Cup defeat how they lack a ‘plan B’ when the going gets tough. And at Old Trafford, not only do you need a ‘plan B’ but more often than not plans C, D and E, too.

Manchester City, meanwhile, have got the equivalent of a gimmee. Wolves “bounced back” with a draw at Sunderland last weekend, after seven defeats on the trot, but they could be relegated this weekend. They’ve also lost arguably their best player, goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey to injury for the remainder of the season. I can’t see anything but a win for City and relegation for Wolves – even if results elsewhere extend their suffering for another week.

It is also looking bleak for Blackburn, who have now suffered five defeats in a row. It seemed as though some of the players believed they had done enough when they were winning a few matches a month ago. They’ve got two home matches that will ultimately decide their fate, the first is against Norwich on Saturday and the second is a potentially huge fixture against Wigan on the penultimate weekend of the season.
Blackburn are playing full of fear and its difficult turning around an ocean going liner when its set in a certain direction – and the direction Blackburn are heading in is towards the Championship.
Unlike Rovers, Norwich will play without fear or inhibition - they’ve got 43 points to their name - but they’ve only won two of their last nine in the Premier League and they capitulated in the end against Manchester City having played very well for an hour. A trip to Ewood will present the perfect opportunity to bounce back with a positive result.

Bolton are the other side currently in the bottom three, but they’ll still fancy their chances of pulling themselves out of the drop zone, not least as they have two games in hands over most of their rivals. But it’s time for their spine - Nigel Reo-Coker, Kevin Davies and David Wheater - to stand up and be counted, while Darren Pratley would do well to show he made the right call last summer when he abandoned newly promoted Swansea for Bolton.
His former club travel to the Reebok this weekend, and their patchy away form will encourage Bolton ahead of a fixture they really must win.

Amazingly, the form side in the Premier League are Wigan Athletic, and they’re now five points clear of trouble. They travel to Fulham on Saturday having won four of their last five, yet when the sides met back in October, Fulham’s 2-0 win at the DW was the seventh of eight consecutive defeats. If anyone deserves an accolade it’s Roberto Martinez. He has maintained faith in that group of players when everyone else - myself included - had lost hope in their chances of survival. He’s told them the way they play football is the way that is going to keep them out of trouble, and it seems he is going to be proved right.
But Fulham are three games unbeaten and have risen from14th place up to 10th, thanks in part to the form of fringe players such as Alexander Kacaniklic and Kerim. I get the feeling that though some of his methods were initially unpopular with the squad, the players are gradually accepting and adjusting to life under Martin Jol.

You could call Aston Villa against Sunderland ‘a dead rubber’, but Villa have a very big four days ahead of them. If they were to lose their next two games – the second is against Bolton on Tuesday - they would be bang in a relegation battle. They have just one win in the last eleven Premier League games, and they have a pretty threadbare squad at the moment. We always talk in a blasé fashion about a side falling into the relegation mire at the very last; they are the only candidates that could possibly fulfil that role this season but if they win one of those two games they should have just about enough points on the board to survive.

Liverpool, while being nowhere near that relegation scrap, will be equally as disappointed with their showing in the league this season. Their cup showings are covering the cracks and when Andy Carroll nodded in that late header against Everton at Wembley, it bought Kenny Dalglish a bit of time and breathing space. Were one to compile a form table for the calendar year, they would be next to bottom of it, and that is clearly not good enough.
West Brom are playing with a bit of freedom and have won two of their last three. Roy Hodgson will surely feel he has a point to prove to those at Liverpool, where his league record was not too different to that of Kenny Dalglish in the Scot’s current spell. West Brom will be in the mood to cause Liverpool a headache, and given the Reds’ poor home record and the potential for a cup hangover, they may do just that.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of QPR v Tottenham Hotspur from 4.30pm on Saturday.

Beef and Rice: Arsene's never-changing menu

Gary Parkinson — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:53:00 GMT

Even if Pat Rice retires at the end of the season, FourFourTwo.com editor Gary Parkinson doesn't expect major changes at Arsenal

You can tell it's spring: Pat Rice is set to retire. Just like last April, the newspapers have been reporting that the Arsenal assistant manager will step down at the end of the season after 42 years of service.

Arsene Wenger apparently managed to talk him out of it last season and it would be foolhardy for the Arsenal board to buy the carriage clock just yet. Rice is Arsenal to his aching bones, Wenger is a persuasive man and the Gunners coaching hierachy changes at glacial speed.

Having been a youth team coach since 1984, former Gunners apprentice Rice (who played for the club for 14 years, amassing north of 500 appearances) was caretaker manager until Wenger arrived, promptly making 'Mr Arsenal' his No.2. Rice has been at his side ever since.

Arsene agreed with Pat's theory that life was like a box of chocolates...

Meanwhile, up in the stands, there's another key sidekick, appointed as first-team coach mere months after the Frenchman's arrival and there ever since. Not many outside Arsenal could name him, and more than a few fans would struggle to place him, but he's Wenger's main sounding-board.

Beefy, balding Bosnian Boro Primorac is Wenger's tactical lieutenant, watching from on high in the posh seats and conferring with the manager at half-time before a thorough post-match debrief. Wenger is obviously not a man given to rapid change, but it's said that if anyone has his ear, it's Primorac.

The pair met when Wenger was managing Monaco and Primorac in charge of Valenciennes. When Primorac heard that his players had been offered bribes by Marseille, he spoke out in public and later gave evidence in court. Finding himself ostracised in France, he was welcomed by Wenger to Nagoya Grampus Eight and followed him to Highbury in March 1997 as first-team coach, a job he retains to this day.

The difference between first-team coach and assistant manager causes confusion among many fans, and for that matter quite a few footballers. The assistant is the No.2 – the boss's sidekick, usually housed in an adjacent office or even sharing the same cell, cooking up ideas with the boss deep under the main stand. The chief coach usually puts those ideas into reality, striding proprietorially round the training ground and attempting to turn theory into good, hard practice.

However, different managers use different structures, and at Arsenal the majority of training sessions are held by Wenger himself, with Primorac in attendance. In effect, Arsenal don't need a replacement for Rice, because he's already there: to a great extent, Primorac is the No.2.

That's not to say Pat Rice's role hasn't been important. Upon Wenger's arrival as an astonishing alien – the first foreigner to coach the club, with his fancy don't-eat-chips ways – Rice was a wise choice as his No.2: the legacy link to Arsenal's past, the grounded history to Arsene's footballing futurism.

Aaron Ramsey's glue-related prank was a roaring success...

As he searches for a Rice replacement, Wenger no longer needs an establishment representative: he is the establishment. He can choose pretty much whoever he wants, and it wouldn't be astonishing to see the fiftysomething Primorac shift to No.2 while a younger man helps Wenger (himself a sexagenarian) with what Arsenal players of old dismissively referred to as the BBC work: Balls, Bibs and Cones.

But would that that good for Arsenal?

It's instructive to compare Arsenal's hierarchy history with that of Manchester United. In his time at Old Trafford, Alex Ferguson has had eight assistants (seven if you count Carlos Quieroz's two spells as one). Naming them all is a tough pub-quiz question, so do take notes and test your friends' knowledge.

Fergie brought Archie Knox down from Aberdeen in 1986, then promoted Brian Kidd in 1991. When in 1998 Kidd moved to manage Blackburn, Fergie hired Steve McClaren and won the Treble. Backroom loyalist Jimmy Ryan replaced Middlesbrough-bound McClaren until Queiroz came in for a year before being appointed by Real Madrid. Fergie went solo, then roped in Walter Smith for a few months before Queiroz returned in 2004; four years later, Portugal appointed Queiroz and Fergie promoted Mike Phelan.

These details are presented not merely to give you pub ammo, but to highlight the difference between Wenger and Ferguson. Since 1997, the Frenchman has had the same two sidekicks; meanwhile, the Scotsman has bounced ideas off Kidd, McClaren, Ryan, Queiroz, Smith and Phelan.

Fairly or not, both managers have a reputation for being stubborn, but you can't help but wonder if Ferguson's frequently-changing boot-room sounding-boards have helped him keep United fresh. Certainly it can be argued that Ferguson has rebuilt teams in danger of becoming stale – and not coincidentally, it can't be denied that United have been more consistently successful.

Success is based on a number of things but one of them is openness to change. Companies whose boardrooms remain static can become ponderous. Intellectuals can become ideologues if they are surrounded by those who never question the dominant theory. Arsenal are going through a good few months on the field, but a bad few years in the trophy cabinet, and while few would call Rice and Primorac 'yes men', could it be that Wenger needs to hear some fresh input?

During Wenger's time at Arsenal, no Fergie assistant has lasted longer than four years – potentially bad news for Phelan, who hits that anniversary this September. By that point, Arsenal could have a new No.2, or perhaps merely move Primorac to the role he already effectively occupies. For those who wish to see a more open title race, it's to be hoped that whatever Wenger chooses to do, it helps give Arsenal momentum rather than inertia.

Going direct will help Walcott beat the Blues, Ba to get the chance to end drought

Michael Cox — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:21:00 GMT

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

The most interesting battle of the weekend’s opening Premier League fixture between Arsenal and Chelsea at the Emirates will be Ashley Cole’s tussle with Theo Walcott. The two were teammates for a brief spell at Arsenal, although never played in the same side, and it’s always an interesting battle of pace and positioning when the pair go head-to-head.

Walcott often gets the better of Cole – last season he starred in a 3-1 Arsenal win at the Emirates by constantly breaking in behind the left-back, and in Arsenal’s 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge earlier this season, Walcott was a real force on the right flank by exploiting the high line Chelsea were then playing under Andre Villas-Boas.

It’s interesting to note that almost all of Walcott’s passes in that match were backwards – rarely did he play the ball into the middle of the pitch. This shows how tightly Cole was tracking him when Walcott got a ball into feet – his only option was a first time pass the way he was facing. Walcott only tried three dribbles in the game, and all three were successful – the key is Arsenal feeding him the ball in a position where he can attack directly.

On Saturday, Roy Hodgson returns to Anfield for the first time since being dismissed as Liverpool manager early last year. Kenny Dalglish, his successor, predicts he’ll get a warm ovation from The Kop, despite widespread dissent at his style of playing during his brief spell in charge.

One of the key problems during Hodgson’s reign was Liverpool’s narrowness. Hodgson always orders his sides to defend with two narrow banks of four, with the wingers generally breaking directly towards goal, rather than hugging the touchlines. That was summed up with how rarely Liverpool crossed the ball when he was in charge – in stark contrast to their current status as the Premier League’s most frequent crossers.

In their last home game against Aston Villa, they crossed the ball 48 times in the match, including corners – more than once every two minutes.

Compared to the equivalent fixture from Hodgson’s time in charge, where they crossed only 15 times, it’s a noticeable difference – although Hodgson would prefer to point out the difference in result.

The reverse fixture between Newcastle and Stoke saw Demba Ba confirm his place as one of the league’s deadliest strikers, helping himself to a hat-trick in a 3-1 away win at the Britannia Stadium at the end of October.

But Ba’s reputation has been dented slightly since then, partly thanks to the arrival of his fellow Senegalese forward Papiss Cisse, who has taken over Ba’s mantle as Newcastle’s main striker. Alan Pardew has re-jigged his side, and often Ba is now played out on the left in a 4-5-1 system and has not scored in his last nine outings for the Magpies.

But whether upfront alongside Cisse (as against Bolton) or out on the left (away at Swansea), Ba still manages to pick up the ball in central positions – the graphic of his passes received at the Liberty Stadium doesn’t suggest that he is playing in a wide role. The key difference is how close to goal he picks up the ball, though, and with Newcastle sure to dominate possession against Stoke, he should be able to get into goalscoring positions more readily.

Manchester United struggled to find a reliable midfield combination at the start of the season, but the return of Paul Scholes and the consistency of Michael Carrick means they’re ending it with a partnership that retains the ball as efficiently as any side in the league.

The passing graphics from last weekend’s comfortable win over Aston Villa shows the difference in the two players’ passing – Carrick tries more ambitious forward passes, and the angle of his balls are generally more diagonal towards the flanks. Scholes, more reliable with his distribution, plays a much higher percentage of short square passes.

The two will get another chance to showcase their ball retention skills at home to Everton this weekend. David Moyes is likely to tell his players to stand off and sit deep, and it will be interesting to see how United try to break Everton down.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Bolton accidentally extend Steinsson's contract by 18,002 years

Back of the Net — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:45:00 GMT

The Trotters have made a bit of a boo-boo, Back of the Net's John Foster takes up the story...

Bolton Wanderers’ fiscal prudence will come under scrutiny after a clerical error saw Gretar Steinsson’s contract extended by over eighteen thousand years, to 20014.

According to the player's spokesman, a typographical error by Bolton chairman Phil Gartside will see the 30-year old earn £13,000 a week for the next 936,104 weeks, plus appearance bonuses.

“Obviously I’m happy with the new deal,” Steinsson told reporters.

“At first the club only wanted to offer a one-year extension, so I’m delighted they’ve relented and given me the full eighteen thousand.”

The Icelandic right-back also confirmed that he expected to finish his career at the Reebok Stadium.

“I think I’ll probably retire when this deal’s up,” he told reporters. “After all, I’ll be 18,032 years old by then, which is a good age to hang up your boots and maybe think about going into coaching.”

Bolton's 20013/14 away kit was one of Reebok's better efforts

An ashen-faced Gartside admitted he had not intended to tie Steinsson to the club for over eighteen millenia, but added that he was determined to make the best of the situation.

“[The contract] may seem a bit on the lengthy side, but a lot can happen in eighteen thousand years,” he told FourFourTwo.com.

“Eighteen thousand years ago, for example, who’d have thought that the land bridge between Asia and Alaska wouldn’t exist today, or that humans would successfully domesticate the wolf? I’m confident Gretar’s experience will be a great asset for this club, especially for our younger players, over the next one hundred and eighty centuries.”

“Besides,” Gartside added, “as the saying goes, eighteen thousand years is a long time in football.”

This is not the first time a Premier League club has erred in its contract negotiations. In 1998, a computer malfunction led to Sheffield Wednesday paying Wim Jonk £8,888,888,888 a day for the duration of his two-year deal.

Similarly, in 2002, confusion over the correct exchange rate of the newly-launched Euro saw Massimo Maccarone move from Empoli to Middlesbrough for £15.5 billion, a fee most fans believe he struggled to live up to.

La Preview: Superheroes, Sulkers and Strange Scheduling

Tim Stannard — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:19:00 GMT

Saturday

Mallorca (13th) v Zaragoza (18th) - 18.00 (all kick-offs local time)
Instead of investigating scoundrels stealing, embezzling, hiding or spending tax payers' money in the somewhat seedy area of Balearic local politics, a local court has decided to waste even more hard-earned cash by investigating whether UEFA were right to exclude Mallorca from the 2010/2011 Europa League for falling foul of the organisation's regulations by going into administration.
Unsurprisingly for an institution possibly playing to a local audience, the court decided pointlessly that UEFA were quite wrong to make that decision, although what anyone is supposed to do about it now is anyone's guess...
LLL Prediction - Away win

Sporting (19th) v Rayo Vallecano (14th) 18.00
Eagle-eyed fans watching Rayo’s defeat to Atlético Madrid last week will have noticed the club’s mascots were dressed as a series of super-heroes. This is all down to a temporary marketing deal with a film distribution company that sees the club being sponsored by “The Avengers” which already looks like it may be suffering from X-Men-itis, with too many characters smashing each other to pulp.
Rayo stalwarts Tito and Pito were asked which superheroes their teammates would be. “Michu would be the Hulk because of the way he changes when he scores. Míchel is Captain America because he united everyone. Diego Costa is Iron Man as he fights with everyone,” was the considered response. The geek in LLL would suggest that Iron Man is fairly picky about his battles often preferring to ponce about instead, but that’s another story for another day.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Barcelona (2nd) v Real Madrid (1st) - 20.00
In previous dispatches, LLL reported that the Madrid press were a mixture of positive and negative in response to Real Madrid’s 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich. Some focussed on the generally poor performance of the team, while others highlighted the importance of the away goal, though that Mesut Özil strike may not be much use to a team who have kept just 20 clean sheets in their 50 games this season.
There is a bit more spark in the Catalan crazy media in response to Barça’s defeat to Chelsea, a loss which has left the Culé camp feeling a little hard done by, the poor little lambs. Sport’s front cover declares positively that Barcelona “will go through playing like that”, while lead columnist Josep Maria Casanovas spits that “the English were cowards and conservative”, though it was an approach that clearly seemed to work, LLL would like to point out. “This game could be repeated 10 times and Barça would win nine,” fumed the writer.
Both results have made the Clásico somewhat tricky to predict as the games tend to be self-contained form bubbles. However, LLL is going to give it a go. The fact that Real Madrid don’t need to win will be a big influence on the match and lead to a sparkling 2-2 draw and two red cards. Both for Pepe probably.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Sevilla (9th) v Levante (5th) - 22.30
Now if you are paying attention, you’ll notice this particular game is due to kick-off at 22.30, therefore it’s a match that’s going to start on Saturday and end on Sunday, some kind of Spanish scheduler’s wet dream. The original kick-off time was the normal slot of 22.00, however it was bumped back by the Spanish League who didn’t want a single moment of this inferior fare soiling the post Clásico nonsense. So it seems Barcelona and Real Madrid press conferences are deemed more important than a match that could turn out to be a Champions League tussle.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sunday

Real Sociedad (15th) v Villarreal (16th) - 12.00
Miguel Angel Lotina usually sucks the life force out of LLL, so much so that even writing about one of his teams - in this case, Villarreal - makes the blog want to curl up on the sofa and snooze...which it has just done for half an hour! Making this morning's blog a little late.
News...news...need some news. Here you go. Ángel thinks the Real Sociedad game will be a final and could mark the season. LLL isn’t even going to go there, for once...
LLL Prediction - Home win

Granada (17th) v Getafe (11th) - 12.00
Remember the whole concept of Getafe Team Dubai? No? The buy-out by the Royal Emirates Group that would see an investment of €20m each season? Oh. Well, it seems that it might not happen after all, with Marca reporting that a deal that was supposed to be finalised at the end of April looking a little doubtful on the grounds that next to nothing has been heard from the group looking to buy Getafe in the first place. Maybe someone made a secret visit to the place and thought better of it?
LLL Prediction - Home win

Racing Santander (20th) v Athletic Bilbao - 16.00
Although a defeat for Racing and wins for Granada and Villarreal will spell relegation for the Cantabrian club, there is a least some good news. Last Friday, manager Álvaro Cervera went into hospital suffering from heart pains but was released on Tuesday to go back to work, where the manager spoke about a trying few days. “I’m sure it was a situation of stress. I don’t know the cause. I lost my father and my mother in a month-and-a-half, I changed teams and have turned from winning to losing,” said Álvaro.
Worth noting the lack of t-shirts of support from the players during the match their boss miss last weekend, and the revelation from the Racing coach that only two players visited him in hospital. Not that LLL is judging or anything.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Atlético Madrid (8th) v Espanyol (10th) - 18.00
Blimey, not only have Atlético made the front cover of AS, but also the front cover of Marca - the day before Clásico Saturday, no less. That’s how good the Rojiblancos were for large chunks of their Europa League semi first leg against Valencia, with a brilliant performance from the front four and the usual going to sleep at the bag.
“Marvelous Falcao!” was the headline from AS, after the striker's two goals took him to ten Europa League strikes for the season, with his second of the night so good that it even seemed to surprise the Colombian himself. “I’m happy to help with my goals,” said the future Chelsea/Manchester City/Barcelona/anywhere-but-Atlético-next-season hit man.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Valencia (3rd) v Betis (12th) - 21.30
LLL is looking at its ‘Team Unai’ membership card and wondering if it can continue to carry it proudly in its wallet after the 90 minutes of nonsense the blog experienced in the Vicente Calderón on Thursday night. Although Valencia picked up two goals in the injury time of each half to sort of keep the club in the tie against Atlético with the scores at 4-2, it was an abjectly awful performance from the visitors. Heck, even the Valencia boss himself agreed. “We were inferior in attack, defence and intensity,” admitted Emery. “In the second leg we need to get back to being this Valencia that we have been for large parts of the year.”
Perhaps the one advantage for Valencia in the team’s ongoing chase for third spot is that the players are hardly going to be tired from Thursday night’s exertions.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Monday

Osasuna (6th) v Málaga (4th) - 21.00
Just when Málaga needed a bit of a boost to carry the southern side over the Champions League finish line and overcome that challenge from pesky Levante, a blast from the past is back, back, back in town. Julio Baptista has returned to the club after a bit of R&R on some kind of muscle tear and foot rot (Spanish papers go into great medical detail). “The rehab is going well,” reported The Beast. “I’m here to help the team.”
LLL Prediction - Draw

Chelsea v Barcelona: An astonishing statistical story in screengrabs

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:28:00 GMT

Last night's Champions League semi-final at Stamford Bridge featured a sustained attacking threat from Barcelona thwarted by a brilliant rearguard action from Chelsea, as shown by the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now...

Barcelona completed almost five times as many passes: 754 to Chelsea's 158. But no yellow "assist" arrows…

As @attacktheball pointed out on Twitter, in the attacking third Chelsea completed 17 passes (mostly long) to Barcelona's 215.

Player Influence shows involvement by average position and name size (the bigger the name, the more touches the player had). Note the solidity of Chelsea's deep-lying midfield.

Barcelona sent in 21 crosses (including corners) but few reached their target.

Barcelona had 24 shots to Chelsea's four – but 11 of the visitors' attempts were blocked…

…as this screenshare shows.

Chelsea players blocked five of Messi's seven shots; Drogba had one attempt all night and scored the winner.

Messi attempted the most take-ons (dribbles), but they were all central and mostly unsuccessful. Drogba had Chelsea's most take-ons, and most were in his own half.

…but as a million Chelsea fans pointed out, one stat's bigger than the rest: Chelsea won 1-0.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League – and, coming soon, Euro 2012.

Didier Drogba: 'Journalists made me say I dive'

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:02:00 GMT

In March 2007 FourFourTwo had a sit-down with Chelsea's Didier Drogba, then-contender for Player of the Year and star striker under Jose Mourinho. He explained how he made it to the top, how he reacted to accusations of diving, and why he owes a great debt to Hernan Crespo and Andriy Shevchenko.

Jose Mourinho likes his players to keep their feet on the ground; to not forget where they came from. Just because you earn  a fortune doesn’t mean you should no longer stand in queues or pay your restaurant bills like everyone else, the Portuguese tells them. Chelsea players should, in other words, try to behave like ordinary folk. Didier Drogba, a dedicated follower of Jose, has clearly heeded the message.

Running a little late for our meeting, the Ivory Coast striker calls to apologise: he’s having trouble finding the address where we are to rendezvous. He is, in fact, lost somewhere along the Fulham Road. The man from his boot sponsors, Nike, springs into action. Giving directions over his mobile phone as he moves, he bounds out onto the busy thoroughfare, waving his arms wildly at every four-wheel drive vehicle that speeds past in the hope that it is Drogba’s; this being the Chelsea-Fulham border, that’s almost every other car. A couple of minutes and a few brushes with death later, there’s still no sign of him. The phone rings. “What make of car are you driving?” Mr Nike asks the 6ft 2in, 13-and-a-half stone striker.  “A Mini,” Drogba replies.

His choice of car may not be quite what Mourinho expected, but Drogba’s affection for his manager has never been in doubt. Chelsea’s first trophy under their new boss was the 2005 Carling Cup. In the final, Drogba helped the Blues come from behind to beat Liverpool 3-2, but Mourinho missed the denouement, having been sent off  for winding up the Liverpool fans with  a finger-on-lips shushing gesture. When the manager failed to reappear after the final whistle, Drogba was the one who went  hurtling down the tunnel to fetch the Special One and make sure he joined the on-field celebrations.

Mourinho was the man who convinced Roman Abramovich to pay Marseille  £24m for Drogba when the Russian  preferred Ronaldo. And it was Mourinho who convinced Drogba to stay at Chelsea last summer when he was unsure of his place at the club and had serious offers on the table from some of Europe’s top clubs.

So given that the newspapers are full  of speculation over Mourinho’s future the day we meet, it’s only natural that we start with Portugal’s most famous face. “Chelsea without Jose Mourinho?!” Drogba almost shouts our question back at us. “I don’t even want to think about it. Jose Mourinho is the man who has brought us our current success. Chelsea have won two consecutive Premier League titles after going 50 years without being champions. Some people seem to forget that.

“Winning a major title each season is all you can ask of a coach. Sure, there were some top players at the club in recent times, like Gianfranco Zola, Tore Andre Flo, Gustavo Poyet and many others who all helped the club to grow, to mature. But for all the success they had with Chelsea, there was still no Premier League title. Not until Jose Mourinho.”

Drogba can sum up his relationship with the manager in one word: trust. “The  biggest thing he brought me was his faith in me. When he took over at Chelsea he was given the choice of some of the biggest names in football. But he said ‘No, I don’t want them, I want Drogba’. When you know somebody has done that for you, you know just how much faith, how much trust, they have in you. And that gives you great confidence in yourself.”

If confidence is a fundamental part of  a successful athlete’s make-up, then Drogba must have it in spades this season. After two years of playing mainly back-to-goal as  a kind of one-man battering ram, fighting to provide knock-downs and scraps for Frank Lampard and various wingers to feed on, he has at last been given the chance to show what he can do when he has another forward alongside him.

Much has been written about the  perceived drawbacks of Mourinho’s new  4-4-2 formation, but Drogba has been  a man transformed, banging in goals with a hitherto unseen consistency and showing just why the Chelsea manager insisted on bringing him over from France. Perhaps surprisingly, Drogba puts his appreciation on record for a former rival who never seemed to settle in London.

“I owe Hernan Crespo big time,” he begins. “For most of last season either he played or I did, but we finished the season often playing together and I think our  partnership helped show the manager that I was better with another striker  alongside me. I’m playing in a different  context this season – I have more freedom to roam and that suits my game.”

Unlike many, he’s also quick to acclaim Chelsea’s £30m summer signing. “Part of my success stems from the fact that Andriy Shevchenko is there now, making space for me, taking defenders away. The goals have been going in for me and I’m sure they’ll go in for him soon. He’ll turn it round.”

Given that many presumed Shevchenko would be a direct replacement for Drogba, it seems fair to say that this season has gone better than expected. Drogba smiles. “Some people seem surprised to see me scoring so many goals this season,” he says, “and I’ve been praised for a couple of nice ones against Liverpool and Barcelona. But I have to say that makes me laugh. I scored  much better goals when I was playing  for Guingamp.”

Guingamp was Drogba’s first top-flight club. With a population of 8,000, it is the smallest town ever to have a team in French football’s top division, and it’s where Drogba finally made his breakthrough; where,  at the age of 24, he found himself  playing at the highest level after years of unfulfilled potential kicking around in the lower leagues.

His was a very different footballing  education to contemporaries like Thierry Henry, who came up through the ranks of youth academies. But then his was a very different childhood.

Born March 11, 1978 in Abidjan, the  Ivory Coast capital, Drogba is the eldest of seven children – he has four brothers and two sisters. His father was a banker, his mother a typist, and when young Didier was just five years old they made a decision that would shape the rest of his life. Being ambitious for their first-born, and wanting him to get a better education than on offer at home, Drogba’s parents sent him to France to live with an uncle and aunt in Angouleme. Little Didier cried for almost the entire plane journey.

He spent three years in France – where his uncle, Michel Goba, an Ivory Coast international, had played for Dunkirk and Brest – before having to return home because of permit problems. At the age of 11, though, Drogba was back with Michel, the man he calls his second father, in  the country that would later reveal his  formidable football talent.

“It’s true that I haven’t spent all that many years in the Ivory Coast, but bizarrely I have more memories of Abidjan than Angouleme or Brest, where I spent more time,” Drogba now recounts. “Even though I went to France young, I don’t feel like I left my African roots behind. They are anchored deep inside me and it all comes out as soon as I’m back in the country.

“If I spend too long away I get nostalgic,” he continues. “I feel like they were the best years of my life – I had a sense of freedom, the like of which only Africa gives you.  I am the kind of guy who has a problem accepting constraints and rules and I felt in my element over there.”

In his in-between years, waiting to return to France, Drogba recalls playing three-a-side street games, mini-tournaments with a punctured ball. The kids even had  a trophy to compete for – a plastic bottle containing sweets and the odd coin donated by neighbours. Young Didier played with an Argentina shirt on his back, brought back from a game in which his uncle represented Ivory Coast against the South Americans.

Drogba says his African roots explain much of the way he is today – including his late development as a footballer. “I often used to hear the word nonchalance from my coaches in the early days,” he admits. “Some Europeans take our apparent  calmness as something provocative, but it’s not that at all. An African guy will simply feel strong and untouchable; it’s something you have in your genes, nothing to do with being pretentious. It’s just a character trait you are born with.

“Mentally speaking, an African is solid: he knows how to be jovial even when things are going badly. It’s a way to show you’re relaxed and can deal with the situation. Right now, for example, there are problems in my homeland, but in the streets you will come across people having fun, partying. It’s just their way to forget and to make do, to deal with things. In the African culture we are taught not to complain and to be happy with what we’ve got. The African will often have the approach that things will be better tomorrow and therefore time is on our side.

“The danger is that having great faith in yourself can sometimes lead you to be blinded by that confidence,” he continues. “Having a great force of character can  sometimes turn against you if it ends up masking the reality. That’s what happened to me at the start of my career. Way too often, I would do things I shouldn’t,  diet-wise and fitness-wise, thinking that  I wasn’t risking anything. Thankfully,  with age I became more mature. I learned I would be better off thinking short-term sometimes. I like to think I’m still quite spontaneous but at the same time I have  a better grip on reality.”

In football terms, it all began for Drogba at the age of 15 with Levallois-Perret,  a club from the Parisian suburbs whose first team was playing in the equivalent of the Conference. Yet despite team-mates describing him as the best player at the club, four years later he had failed to make much of an impact. There was a genuine risk that he would never make it as a pro. Fortunately, Second Division Le Mans had seen  something in the 19-year-old and lured him away from the capital.

His early months at Le Mans were blighted by a spate of injuries which left him in despair. “Didier complained about often being injured,” says Alain Pascalou, then the assistant coach. “So I said to him: ‘Either bring charges against your parents because you’re a weakling, or set about changing something in your life.’”

Cutting out the Big Macs and the late nights, Drogba finally earned his first  professional contract at the age of 21, going on to score seven goals in 30 games in his first full season of second division football. But the following three-and-a-half years were marked by inconsistency, by ups and downs. Then, in January 2002, he moved to Guingamp. It was the turning point he had been waiting for.

In his first full top-flight season, playing alongside current France international Florent Malouda, Drogba rattled in 17 league goals. Alain Perrin signed him  for Marseille, and Drogba rocketed to stardom. In France’s most football-mad city (somewhere between Liverpool and Naples), Drogba unleashed the passion on the Velodrome’s 60,000 regulars with  a series of breathtaking displays. In his  solitary season in the south of France, he hit 19 league goals and another 11 in European competition. In the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, he scored home and away  as Marseille saw off Liverpool and then  walloped another two, including one  fantastic solo effort, against Newcastle in the semis to fire his side into the final.

Suddenly, the whole of Europe  was watching. Mourinho, who had already spotted Drogba in his Guingamp days, came across him in a Champions League group game with FC Porto and began his charm offensive with flattering comments and clever asides. A few months later, the two were reunited in London.

A hero in Africa and an icon in his own country, today Drogba is one of the most recognisable players anywhere in the world. At home, barmen have named a beer after him and fans crowd round TVs to watch him dance whenever he scores a goal for the Ivory Coast. There’s a communion in these celebrations that is reflected in the national team. You only have to see  the squad together for a little while to understand that these moments are as vital to them as oxygen. They share a closeness inconceivable in the England set-up.

It’s a cultural thing, according to Drogba. “Our get-togethers are great times,” he enthuses. “There are no barriers, there’s no holding back, not like in club situations where there are many different cultures and nationalities. It’s a chance for us to live in our African way. When we have a meal together, for example, you’d think it was  a wedding banquet or something. We’re all laughing our heads off from start to finish. Every meal is a celebration. The national team is a real family. We have so  many things in common, and childhood memories which are so similar. It’s only  natural that it brings you closer.

“In Europe, you tend to have everyone in his own world – guys with phones stuck to their ear, everyone doing their own thing. With the national team, it’s like we’re  a bunch of kids – everyone is singing, even those who will be on the bench. Maybe it’s to reassure ourselves or lift the pressure. When Sylvain Wiltord heard us before our friendly against France, he came up to me and said: ‘Hey, it’s really cool with you guys. You haven’t got a spare place going in the team for me, have you?’”

Drogba’s huge fan club back home has had plenty to cheer about this season, but 12 months ago, things weren’t so rosy. Drogba wasn’t scoring as many goals as  he would have liked, and not getting the appreciation he felt he deserved. Then came the infamous post-match television  interview with the BBC in which he said: “Sometimes I dive.”

Suddenly, Drogba was English football’s public enemy number one, slammed in the tabloids and broadsheets alike. Even parts of the Chelsea support fell in line with the anti-Drogba sentiment and took to jeering him. “There were times when it was very tough,” he admits. “Sometimes after a game you could feel a bit down. But let me tell you something: mentally I’m a very tough guy. I’ve learned to cope with anything, and I can use criticism, hostility, as a booster instead of allowing it to bring me down.

“Some players would have gone under. When you’re criticised by your own fans... well, not everyone would have been able to handle that. But I can sincerely tell you that it didn’t touch me. I didn’t allow it to.  It annoyed me, yes, because taking stick from your own fans is something I found ridiculous. But I rode it out.”

He’s more inclined to blame the media than the fans. “The accusations of diving really stemmed from journalists taking advantage of my less-than-perfect grasp of the English language. I think they knew what they were trying to get me to say. And from my point of view it’s more shame on them, not on me.”

The irony is that some of those same journalists will soon be voting for Drogba as this season’s Player of the Year. Right now, the race would appear to be between him and Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo; it’s a turnaround that makes the Ivorian chuckle. “It just goes to show how quickly things can change in football, doesn’t it? This time last year I was being criticised all the time, and taking stick from some of our own fans. Ronaldo came away from the World Cup branded a villain and with the papers asking if he would ever play for United again. Now people are talking about us as potential players of the year!

“Obviously it would be a great honour and quite something to win such an award. Beating Cristiano Ronaldo would in itself be something. He’s a great player – I really like watching him play. He brings this...  creativity to the game. He can really go  a long way because he’s still very young and he seems to have good people around him. He seems to have his head on his shoulders. He is scoring more goals this season as well, which makes him a real force.”

Not unlike a certain Chelsea striker... “We’re completely different players so you can’t really compare us but I like his ability to eliminate opponents. It’s funny to look at our respective paths. When I was 21, I’d just signed my first pro contract with Le Mans in the French second division. I’ve had an offbeat path. I didn’t go to any academy, I didn’t come up through a big club, like Ronaldo or Thierry Henry.

“Back then I couldn’t have imagined being where I am today. But I had  a dream. Like all young footballers,  I dreamed of making it to the top and I think having a dream is so important. You have to have something to hope for in life and maybe having that dream helped me get to the top.”

Whether you love him or loathe him, there’s no denying Didier Drogba is pretty close to the summit right now.

Interview: Darren Tulett. Portrait: Leon Csernohlavek. From the March 2007 issue of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

Mixed moods over odds of an all-Spanish final

Tim Stannard — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:40:00 GMT

Ha! La Liga Loca knew it! José Mourinho will be moving back to the Premier League over the summer, after all. That’s the only reason the blog can think of to explain why the Madrid manager didn’t follow his standard operating procedure after footballing setbacks: either publicly blasting the referee for being a UEFA-conspiracy stooge or privately waiting for him by his car to rant about ruining his life.

NEWS Advantage Bayern after late Gomez goal

The referee for the Bayern Munich match on Tuesday night happened to be Howard Webb, an Englishman, and therefore a useful ally to have next season. True, Mourinho noted after the game on a couple of occasions that he felt that he first goal for Bayern was offside due to Luiz Gustavo standing in front of Iker Casillas, but the message from Mourinho was that refs have a tough job and do the best they can. “It should have been ruled out, but I don’t have a bad feeling.”

Mourinho was perhaps balancing that decision with the later one that saw Marcelo only receiving a yellow for giving Thomas Müller an almighty boot. “It still hurts,” complained the Munich man. “The doctors are going to examine me but I can walk,” he continued, presumably waving away a proffered piggy-back.

"Comme ci, comme ça. No, hang on…"

A suspension for Marcelo would have had meant a very uncomfortable week for his replacement Fabio Coentrao, who has received the bulk of the blame for the defeat for his failure to stop the runs of Arjen Robben and Philippe Lahm. The full-back and a certain German midfielder received the full scorn of Tomás Roncero in Wednesday’s AS. “Coentrao and Khedira are not starters in a great Real Madrid, like we all dream of. An imperial Madrid, that dominates games and silences the Allianz Arena with a match of 'I’m in charge here, little Germans.'”

AS editor Alfredo Relaño was unimpressed with both teams in what LLL thought was a very entertaining, open clash for an encounter of such significance. “Neither of the two teams were of the height of a European semi-final nor at their club level,” said the head of a paper whose front cover warns that “the Bernabeu will decide.”

This may be an issue for Mourinho: although Madrid have the away goal, Fortress Bernabeu is a bit of an open house this season with Getafe, Rayo, Betis, Osasuna, Atlético Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Athletic Bilbao, Zaragoza, Levante, Málaga, Real Sociedad, Sporting, Pontferradina, Dinamo Zagreb, CSKA Moscow and APOEL all scoring in Madrid’s home.

Marca would disagree, their front cover claiming that Mesut Özil’s close-range effort is a “golden goal”. However, like AS, Marca were not overly impressed with the performance of the visiting side – apart from their French striker. “A bad night for Ronaldo and di María... but a good one for Karim Benzema,” said the paper’s match report.

The result has put the all-Spain Champions League final in some jeopardy, with LLL putting the first tie at 50/50. Barcelona are generally expected to have an easier time of it in Stamford Bridge, the scene of a crime that José Mourinho still rants about: Barcelona’s controversial win over Chelsea in 2009. “What’s lost is lost,” mused Pep Guardiola, who said that he’s not expecting a revenge mission from Wednesday’s opponents.

Sport appear to be so confident of victory that the paper's front cover leads with Real Madrid’s defeat to Bayern. It does find room inside for a truly enormous amount of smuggery from Josep María Casanovas, who gasps about the welcome Barça received in London.

“The Barcelona of Messi has turned into a paradigm of football, the mirror into which everyone looks, the team which is building up merit to pass into history as the best in the world. It’s not an exaggeration but a marvellous reality. Never has Barça been so admired and respected.”

The over-stimulated Sport columnist continues in this manner for quite some time – as does his colleague Lluís Mascaró, who is in very confident mood indeed ahead of the game and is slobbering over the thought of more glorious nights for the Catalan Crusaders. “The first step should be taken tonight in London. Barça are superior to Chelsea – very superior according to experts in English football.”

And this sums up the mood in Spain ahead of the second semi-final. Any English rival is always going to be respected, but the problems suffered by Chelsea this season and the team’s wobbling form have been closely followed due to the presence at the club of Juan Mata and poor Fernando Torres.

One half of the Real Madrid and Barcelona divide are now less than confident of being in Munich in May after Tuesday night’s game. The other think they’ll be there even before Wednesday’s has been played.

Lionel Messi thought ‘Gary Cahill’ was just a turn of phrase

Back of the Net — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:00:00 GMT

As the European champions arrive in West London to face Chelsea, Back of the Net's Paul Watson reveals a major oversight in their pre-match scouting...

Barcelona star Lionel Messi has confessed in his pre-game press conference that he believed Chelsea defender Gary Cahill was a prepositional phrase rather than a functional centre-back.

In the build-up to Wednesday evening’s Champions League clash, Cahill has been vocal in his belief the Blues can upset Barça and his comments have deeply unsettled the La Liga giants’ camp.

“We were shocked to hear Cahill’s rallying call, not least because not one of us had heard of this man, Gary Cahill,” the Ballon d’Or winner told journalists.

Talk of 'El Cahill' has been rife in the Catalan press in recent days

“I asked Cesc [Fabregas] if he remembered him from the Premier League and he said he thought ‘Gary Cahill’ was just an English phrase," Messi explained. "You know, something like ‘with all due respect.’”

Over the last few days, reports from the Barcelona camp suggest that ‘Gary Cahill’ had entered into the players’ vernacular, playing an ungainly and obtrusive role in usually flowing sentences.

During an open training session wave after wave of promising attacks petered out in a crescendo of confused calls of ‘Now, Gary Cahill’, ‘Gary Cahill, first-time ball, Gary Cahill.’

“Of course I’m worried about Cahill,” Barcelona boss Josep Guardiola admitted. “He just has that ability to interfere with our play, especially on a syntactic level, but, Gary Cahill, we feel we have what it takes to get the result we need, Gary Cahill.”

There will be pressure on Guardiola to get pre-match preparations correct. He came under fire back in February following Barca’s shock defeat to an Osasuna side many of his players believed was a water park.

Champions League preview: Chelsea must keep it tight in the middle and curb Alves threat

Michael Cox — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:00:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now – to preview Wednesday's Champions League semi-final...

Chelsea vs Barcelona, Weds 19:45
It comes as no surprise that Barcelona created the majority of their chances in their quarterfinal against AC Milan by playing the ball through the centre of the pitch, but the ‘chances created’ graphic from the two legs shows quite how much they rely on this approach.

Milan coped reasonably well because they naturally play very narrow, and their diamond midfield closed Barça out in the centre of the pitch. Barcelona still created chances, of course, but they rarely played sparkling football. Pep Guardiola’s side were actually better when they introduced Cristian Tello at the end of the first leg, and played Isaac Cuenca in the second match – those young wide players stretched the play and created gaps in the Milan defence.

Chelsea naturally play a wider game, with Roberto Di Matteo favouring a 4-2-3-1 system, with the wide players dropping in to form a second bank of four. But this might be a game when he has to play narrow than usual. Ramires is likely to be a key player – he started on the right against Tottenham on Sunday, and though he’s likely to play that position again, he should be able to tuck in very narrow and effectively become another central midfielder. If there’s a zone you can allow Barcelona to have the ball, it’s in their left-back position.

The right-back zone, however, is somewhere Chelsea will need to keep tight. Daniel Alves’ versatility means he can play anywhere up and down the right flank – right-back, right wing-back, right midfield, right wing, or even as a right-sided forward. It’s worth remembering that at this stage last year, Barcelona were afraid of long diagonal balls being played in behind their full-backs, so Alves played a very defensive role, barely venturing into the attacking half.

This season he’s been more offensive in general, particularly when Barcelona play a 3-4-3 and he moves higher up the pitch into midfield. But Barcelona will pay Chelsea a lot of respect in this game, and won’t be as attack-minded as we’re used to – at least, that’s their usual strategy when playing the first leg away from home. It will be interesting to see who Di Matteo uses on the left – whether he wants to primarily defend against Alves, or look to attack him.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

De Boer's spring offensive sees Ajax march to the brink of the title

Mohamed Moallim — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:58:00 GMT

Love or hate them, Ajax are unignorable. Those who wrote them off as title challengers made one grave miscalculation. At the helm is a street fighter, the most capped outfield Dutch international, a natural born winner.

After a refreshingly competitive season, the Amsterdam giants are destined to triumph again. Even before last week's crucial midweek round – in which the five chasing clubs failed to win while a 5-0 cruise for Ajax at Heerenveen opened up a six-point gap – the 12 Eredivisie coaches not involved in the title race were asked to predict the champions: nine replied Ajax. It's a far cry from early February, when the champions lay back in sixth place.

They've marched clear of the pack thanks to Frank de Boer’s man-management but also because their rivals have fallen by the wayside. Last Wednesday, news of PSV’s 2-1 loss to RKC Waalwijk was greeted with euphoria at Heerenveen's Abe Lenstra stadium, not by the home fans – though they would remain level on points with the Eindhoven club – but by the visiting horde of Ajax supporters. Combined with that 5-0 win against a purported title rival, this felt like the final resistance squashed.

Defeated PSV caretaker Phillip Cocu said there would be no more talk of the championship. Feyenoord boss Ronald Koeman told the press that winning the Eredivisie was never part of the season's plan anyway. AZ coach Gertjan Verbeek insisted there was hope, although there was little left among his players and fans the following weekend when his team lost at PSV.

Twente gaffer Steve McClaren hoped for one more twist, which he got that weekend when NAC Breda's dying-seconds equaliser cost him two valuable points. Meantime Ajax were serenely defeating De Graafschap to maintain a six-point gap.

Back in early February, Ajax lost 2-0 at home to FC Utrecht the week after a 4-2 loss at a Feyenoord inspired by hat-trick scoring Manchester City loanee John Guidetti. The historic defeat to Utrecht, the first side to complete the double over Ajax in consecutive seasons, left them eight points adrift of the leaders.

HALF-TIME ORANJE, 2 Feb 2012: Klassieker victory suggests a brighter future for Feyenoord

De Boer was at the lowest ebb of his short managerial career, but instead of tearing into his players – criticising their profligacy in front of goal was the closest he came – he calmly outlined a simple mission: not to drop any more points until the end of the season. The gauntlet was thrown down – and immediately picked up by the Ajax players.

Defender Jan Vertonghen has set the standard, wearing his heart on his sleeve right next to his captain's armband. Vurnon Anita’s return to midfield has allowed better synergy, eradicating the disjointedness that plagued De Boer’s team in the first half of the season. And with the pressure on others above them, everything else began to fall into place.

Marching on together: Ajax in February

One by one, FC Twente, PSV and AZ would be proclaimed favourites. PSV looked unbeatable at home – until FC Twente arrived and put six past them. That brought forward Fred Rutten's planned summer exit and hastened Cocu's arrival; despite winning the KNVB Cup, the Eindhoven club still look shaky, having had a torrid year.

AZ, who defined inconsistency last season, kept picking up wins until the toll of playing in three competitions took its effect. Verbeek would tell you his side don’t look tired but that’s not the impression they’re giving. McClaren’s Twente should have kicked on after their rout in Eindhoven, but stagnated as the English manager tried to learn about a squad running out of steam.

Meanwhile Feyenoord and Heerenveen were stuttering as much as winning. Both Ronald Koeman and Ron Jans (who will be replaced in summer by Marco van Basten) have done very well this season; both clubs should finish well, but the shortcomings of last season in either side haven’t been totally relinquished, nevertheless a successful campaign.

As the others faltered, Ajax just kept winning, rewarding De Boer’s defiance after that fourth defeat of the season to Utrecht. One victory turned into four consecutive wins; it became eight on April Fool's Day as the side went top with a 6-0 demolition of midtable Heracles while AZ were being held by Vitesse.

The 5-0 win at Heerenveen was Ajax's ninth successive win, while the routine 3-1 home win against De Graafschap made it 10. They’ve accumulated 35 goals, scored by 13 different players, conceding just four in the run. A team that had trailed by 11 points in November now lead the league by six.

A few weeks ago, the six-team title race gripped the nation; now it seems a procession for Ajax. The new battleground is for second: a point separates five teams, all eager for taste of Champions League football.

HALF-TIME ORANJE, 24 Feb 2012: Five points between the top six: the best title race ever?

None of those five teams had an answer to Ajax’s improbable resurgence, which has outstripped all rivals. In the same 10-game period, Feyenoord and Heerenveen have mustered the most wins (six), Twente have scored the most (21) and Feyenoord have conceded the fewest (seven) – but the stats aren't in same league.

Ajax have simply followed Rudyard Kipling's advice: “Keep your head when all about you are losing theirs.” The Amsterdam giants have an essence of renewal and vigour there’s swagger and calmness in their football. By contrast, you get the impression that their rivals' energy is being sapped by each passing week: May can’t come quick enough.

With four games remaining, the mayor of Amsterdam has advised citizens to start planning the celebration of the 31st championship. De Boer would be quick to warn him against complacency, but he knows deep down that momentum is with them and acknowledges them as “hot favourites”. Having led Ajax to last season's title after taking over in December, De Boer is again proving himself capable of overcoming the opposition in the second half of the campaign. The natural born winner will surely triumph again.

Bayern represent Madrid's first big test on 'a night for the brave'

Tim Stannard — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:30:00 GMT

Let’s face it, Real Madrid have had a bit of cosy time of it in the Champions League so far this season.

Unlike the other Spanish sides to enter the competition, they haven't had to deal with testing tussles against the likes of Milan, Chelsea or Manchester City. Instead, José Mourinho’s men merely had to dispose of Dinamo Zagreb, Ajax and Lyon in the group stages and then CSKA Moscow and APOEL in the knock-out rounds. They could almost have done it with one hand behind their backs while humming a chirpy little ditty. Indeed, that’s how LLL imagines Kaká approaching every game he’s played in this season.

So the question being asked in Spain ahead of Tuesday's semi-final first leg trip to Germany is not just what will happen when Real Madrid come up against Bayern Munich - a team the Spanish side have traditionally struggled against having lost ten of their 18 meetings - but what will happen when the Spanish league leaders come up against a decent team, full stop.

One theory suggests the players may well have a few problems, as they have done in their last few meetings with Barcelona, and more recently in their draws against Valencia and Málaga in the Santiago Bernabeu.

However, on another day the chances created in both those matches would have gone in, Real Madrid would have an eight point lead at the top of the table and Bayern would be quivering in their Bavarian booties at the thought of the mighty Spanish side turning up on their doorstep. After all, just because Madrid haven’t had the chance to take on anyone tough the Champions League doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t beat them comfortably when they do.

Jose's habit of listening to JLS during press conferences went down badly

AS have billed Tuesday evening's fixture as “a night for the brave”, with a picture of Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas holding thumbs aloft, accompanied by an editorial fretting over the traditional dangers posed by Bayern Munich. “Bayern Munich is the only team in Europe where Real Madrid has a losing balance after facing them a sufficient number of times, not just occasionally.”

Marca’s front cover has a photograph of the view that faces the players when entering the Allianz Arena pitch in Munich with the headline, “stairway to glory” in big, shiny letters. Inside, the paper reports a confident José Mourinho claiming “I’ve spent a long time preparing for this game and I have everything clear.”

What was unusual about that statement was the fact that the Madrid manager was talking at all, considering the Portuguese has been keeping a happy silence over the past few weeks in la Liga, with Mourinho apparently unable to go a whole 10 minutes without complaining about refereeing decisions. “Today UEFA make me speak,” noted the former Chelsea manager.

The visiting coach was unable to stop himself when asked about Howard Webb, who is charge of Tuesday’s clash, and Mourinho seems quite satisfied with the appointment. “As aways, my players are going to help him and I hope everything goes well,” promised Mourinho with an admirably straight face.

Although LLL likes sitting on the fence as much as the next blog, it’s going to go for one of its comfortingly incorrect predictions and fall into the ‘just because they haven’t played anyone decent, it doesn’t mean that won’t beat anyone decent’ camp and go for a cheeky 2-1 away win, which would see Madrid put one foot in the final, and a return to Munich.

TACTICAL PREVIEW Michael Cox on Bayern v Real Madrid

Champions League preview: Could Mourinho have a tactical surprise in store for Bayern?

Michael Cox — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:33:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now – to preview Tuesday evening's Champions League semi-final

Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid, Tues 19:45
While their title rivals Barcelona are intent on pressing high up the pitch in every game, Real Madrid’s approach without the ball is a lot more varied, with Jose Mourinho implementing different strategies depending on the opposition.

It will be interesting to see what Mourinho does away at Bayern Munich tonight. In many ways, Bayern have moved towards the style of football Barcelona play over the past couple of years, with a possession-based approach very much the default strategy, rather than the quicker, more counter-attacking football that got them to the final two years ago.

One of the major changes has been at the back, where Holger Badstuber and Jerome Boateng now form a decent centre-back partnership. Both would have been considered full-backs a couple of years ago – Badstuber when breaking through at Bayern, and Boateng at Hamburg – and they’ve brought good technical quality on the ball to their new position.

Both are confident in playing square passes across the back, but can lose the ball when hurried into forward passes, as the diagram below demonstrates. Mourinho might ask his forwards to provoke them into playing an ambitious forward pass, while closing down the likes of Toni Kroos and Bastian Schweinsteiger in midfield, to break up Bayern’s passing game.

Many eyebrows were raised when Mourinho bought Hamit Altintop from Bayern Munich last summer. The versatile midfielder didn’t seem to fit into the Real Madrid side, and he hasn’t featured a great deal this season – he’s only started one league game all season.

But he did start Real’s last Champions League game, a 5-2 thrashing of APOEL. Although this was primarily because Real took a three-goal lead into that tie and were relatively sure of progress, it also hinted that Mourinho might want to use him as a tactical weapon later in the campaign.

Mourinho often likes to experiment in games that have already been won, ahead of tricky upcoming matches. For example, a couple of weeks before his Inter side famously parked the bus at the Nou Camp to hold on for a 3-2 aggregate win in 2010, Mourinho had shifted to a (rather unnecessary) 5-4-1 in an away cup tie at Fiorentina, where the players barely left their own third of the pitch, despite having controlled the game until then.

Altintop could be a useful option for three reasons – first, he is versatile, which means he could be used on either flank according to how Bayern set up. Second, he is against his former club, and knows the Bayern players better than any of his teammates. Third, he is more secure defensively than Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo, and could help double up against Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery. If Mourinho has a surprise in store, this might be it.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Good Day, Bad Day: A Dynamic Duo, Foraging Falcao and Crafty Clemente

Tim Stannard — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:35:00 GMT

Good Day

Cristiano Ronaldo & Leo Messi
It’s not just the goals which put the dynamic duo on 41 apiece that see Ronaldo and Messi in the Good Day section this week, rather the fact both players are, to a degree carrying their teams on their backs at present. Leo Messi’s wonderful opening effort against Levante brought Barcelona back from 1-0 down, while the thigh-tapping Titan put Real Madrid into the lead in what was an unexpectedly uncomfortably match against Sporting. Neither club were particularly bright and beautiful on Saturday night and will certainly need to buck their ideas up midweek in the Champions League.

Athletic Bilbao
Free kick. Header. Fernando Llorente. 1-0 win against Mallorca. A familiar routine for Athletic Bilbao, who have now broken through their iffy patch in la Primera to pick up seven points from the last nine and put the Basque team just one point from the European places.

Falcao
It was a verdict of ‘must do better’ from the blog for Atlético, who were playing a much-weakened Rayo. But at least Falcao was up to the job for the Rojiblancos, with the forward’s 22nd goal of the season sealing a 1-0 win that leaves his side in a big gaggle of clubs just outside the European places.

Espanyol
Paul from Barcelona is back, back, back. And so are Espanyol, apparently, after a 4-0 thrashing of Valencia that seems to have taken everyone by surprise.
“Well, didn't expect that. Back after last week's illness (thanks Tim and Jordi VW) just in time to see a drubbing. A pretty dull first 20 minutes unless you like watching blokes in orange trying to kick anything that isn't round.
Then fantastic work from MOM Sergio Garcia who laid it on from Christian Gomez to score easily. Then, the best goal of the match from Verdu whose run and shot was something special,from his weaker foot too.The only thing more surprising than the scoreline and Christian's clean gloves was that Valencia still had 11 men on the pitch.
Second half, Valencia had a good ten minutes without looking like scoring then Espanyol took control and it was a surprise they only scored two more through. Not a fantastic performance from Espanyol but too good for the poorest Valencia team I've seen in 16 years.
Ref had a shocker, though. Not as bad as the other Valencia/Barcelona derby. What was all that about? Clear handball vs a nudge. How come no other teams get decisions like that, Manchester United aside, of course?”
Paul, Barcelona

Rubén Castro
The Betis forward made sure his 14th league goal of the season was an absolute peach, and in the process gave his team a 1-0 win over Osasuna to push the Seville side over the 42 point mark.

Real Sociedad
A very handy but referee-assisted point at Málaga puts la Real one win away from safety.

Zaragoza
The 1-0 win over Granada and cries from the crowd of “yes, we can!” kicks off Zaragoza’s five match attempt to save their skins from la Segunda. Eleven points will probably be needed from the final 15 available. The rescue mission continues away at Mallorca next weekend.

Bad Day

Team Unai
And it was all going so well for the happy campers of Team Unai. A point against Real Madrid and a midweek trashing of Rayo Vallecano had seen Third-Placed Valencia returning to third-place. But then the ever erratic Espanyol came along to stick four past them in what Marca describe as 'a morning stroll' in Cornella on Sunday. “We lost out tactically, physically and mentally,” admitted the Valencia boss, whose line-up against the Pericos had one beady eye on Thursday’s Europa League encounter with Atlético.

Málaga
In a decision that would have had the papers hopping mad had it been against Barcelona or Real Madrid, the referee ruled out what would have been an injury time winner for Málaga in what ended up as a 1-1 draw against Real Sociedad. Defender, Martín Demichelis was in an onside position when he poked the ball into the back of the net, but the referee did not see it the same way and thus took away two points that would have seen Málaga sitting in third spot.

Levante
It was a typically gutsy display by Levante to hold off Barcelona for about two thirds of the game. However, a Leo Messi double meant that it was not to be. However, a defeat for Valencia and a home draw for Málaga a day later was a useful exercise in damage limitation for Levante.

Miguel Angel Lotina
There is much finger-wagging in Villarreal’s direction and their coach for taking a 1-0 winning margin for granted and failing to push for a second. This eventually cost Villarreal two very important points with Racing equalising in injury time to leave the Yellow Submarine five points from the relegation zone and six from safety. It will be probably enough to keep Villarreal up, but Lotina is making things unnecessarily hard for the side.

Javier Clemente
Seven defenders in the line-up for Sporting and accidentally allowing a ball to be rolled onto the pitch by a member of his bench whilst Real Madrid were attacking. All in a good day’s work for the Sporting boss, whose team will soon be needing snookers to stay up in la Primera this season.

Premier pub ammo: City's Silva service, shot-shy Sunderland, pass-shy Blackburn

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:52:00 GMT

More data mined from the Stats Zone app, brought to you by FourFourTwo and Opta.

NORWICH 1-6 MAN CITY
David Silva set up seven shots, the most by a Man City player in the Premier League this season, managing his first assist since 22nd January vs Tottenham.

Carlos Tévez has scored four goals from seven shots in his two starts since his “return”.

When Tévez and Sergio Agüero have both started PL games this season, City have averaged 4.3 goals per game. Agüero completed eight dribbles in this match – only one player this season has completed more in a PL game this season: Wigan's Victor Moses, on the opening day… against Norwich.

WEST BROM 1-0 QPR
Chris Brunt made the most successful passes into the final third of all players on Saturday (24).

SUNDERLAND 0-0 WOLVES
Sunderland have now failed to score in three straight league games, despite having more shots than usual under Martin O'Neill. Since the Ulsterman took over they have averaged 10.8 shots per game (3.2 on target, 1.3 goals); under Steve Bruce earlier this season they averaged 13.5 shots per game this season (4.2 on target, 1.15 goals).

SWANSEA 3-0 BLACKBURN
Blackburn made only 139 successful passes, the lowest total in a Premier League match this season by any side apart from Stoke.

MAN UNITED 4-0 ASTON VILLA
Only three teams have had more shots in a PL game this season than United's 29 against Villa.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Heroes & Villains: Tevez's swerving drive, Young's tumble & Kean's cluster of losers

Mark Booth — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:30:00 GMT

Heroes

Carlos Tevez
It would be overly simplistic to cite Mario Balotelli’s absence as the key contributor to Manchester City’s sudden rediscovery of cohesion, but his omission allowed another of their ‘lovable’ goal-scoring ‘rogues’ to show the Premier League what it’s been missing.
There was so much to admire in Roberto Mancini’s side’s 6-1 win at Carrow Road, but Carlos Tevez’s energy, link-up play and goals have added a spark to a season that looked to be winding down to a feeble surrender.
“We’ll fight to the end,” sang the away crowd as City lay siege on the Norwich penalty area, their angles of attack ever-shifting, their intensity out of possession relentless, and their goals increasing in quality with each notch on the scoreboard.
City seemed to be in a one match goal of the month competition. Was it Tevez’s wicked swerving drive that opened the scoring, Aguero’s rifle into the top corner which came after a telepathic team passing move or Aguero’s second, a marvellous solo effort that was capped with a measured finished from the edge of the area that was the best goal of the day?
City fans won’t mind picking over the goals again to aid their decision but for the rest of the league, it was a terrifying reminder of just how devastating City can be when they play without the handbrake on. If only Carlito’s golfing holiday had finished a month earlier…

Insert lame golf pun here

Manchester United
They might start every match at Old Trafford one goal up at the moment but United produced again when the pressure was on them. Sunday’s 4-0 win over Aston Villa was as comfortable as we’ve come to expect and the perfect reaction to their disappointing 1-0 loss to Wigan in midweek.
It seems almost perverse, given the scoreline, that this was another underwhelming showing from Sir Alex Ferguson’s men, but perhaps that has been the difference between them and their city neighbours. United can still stick four past another Premier League side without being at their devastating best. Wayne Rooney perfectly illustrated this point by turning in another sub-par performance yet still managing to find the back of the net twice.
City are running out of matches to claw back United’s lead, and at present it looks like they might just have done enough to walk away with their 20th league title.

Terry Connor
Wolves put-upon boss has looked like he’s needed a good hug for the past two months, but his team’s hard-fought 0-0 draw with Sunderland stopped a run of seven straight defeats. Stephen Fletcher could have won the match with a header which was well saved by Simon Mignolet, but the endeavour that was on display will have heartened Terry Connor.
For much of the last seven or eight weeks, Wolves have been far too easy to roll over, and perhaps they wouldn’t be five points adrift had Connor been able to get this much out of his team earlier. Whether it’s too little too late remains to be seen, but at least there’s a suggestion Wolves will go down fighting: "Things seem to go against you when you're down at the bottom but the lads have kept going and we'll keep going until the end,” said Connor after the match, thankfully not on the brink of tears this time.

The joy of snatching a point at Sunderland was clear to see on....oh

Gylfi Sigurdsson
Swansea’s on-loan midfielder put in another match-winning performance as Swansea ended a run of three-successive defeats in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Blackburn. The former Reading man has now scored seven goals since joining the Swans on loan from Hoffenheim, leading Brendan Rodgers to complain that his value was going up with each passing week. Sigurdsson has so far stated his intention to remain in South Wales next season, but will he still feel that way should one of the Premier League’s top sides come calling over the summer?

Villains

Ashley Young
After Young’s theatrics were put under the microscope in United’s 2-0 win over QPR last weekend, you’d have thought that the ex-Villa winger might try and keep a low profile this weekend. Instead, he produced an even more cynical act of deception and referee Mark Halsey bought it, pointing to the spot after just seven minutes.
This was United’s ninth penalty at home this season, the most any team has had since Arsenal in 2006/07.
Young’s card will surely now be marked, and referees might think twice before pointing to the spot for even the most blatant of fouls. A reputation such as the one Young is quickly developing is a tough one to shake.

Not the worst thing Young's been caught on camera doing, let's face it

Bobby Zamora
With matches against Man City and Tottenham among their remaining four fixtures, QPR have left themselves with the toughest possible assignment in preserving their Premier League status. Saturday’s defeat at the hands of West Brom has left them just two points clear of the relegation zone, which is troubling when you consider Bolton have two games in hand and Wigan appear to have found some semblance of form in recent weeks.
Bobby Zamora was signed as the answer to the Rs' goal-scoring woes, but in truth it’s a transfer that hasn’t really worked out so far. Deprived of his strike partner, Djibril Cisse, to perpetual suspension, Zamora was inept in this latest defeat, unable to provide the cutting edge in what appeared an eminently winnable fixture at the Hawthorns.
Most worrying for QPR fans will be the lack of a big push at the climax. West Brom were probably expecting the fight of their lives in the final 10 minutes, but instead were allowed to stroke the ball around and actually looked the more threatening as the game wound down. A short spell of domination either side of half-time was the best they could muster and it’s looking increasingly likely that the London club could be on their way back to the Championship.
The Four Year Plan Part 2, anyone?

Steve Kean
The tongue-in-cheek "Steve Kean for England" chants are a distant memory now and the rumblings of discontent from Ewood Park are once again increasing in volume. Who are the real Blackburn Rovers? Is it the team who battled to credible wins against Arsenal and Manchester United, or the hopeless cluster of losers who crumbled so meekly at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday?
Kean faces a mammoth task to keep Rovers in the division as their form seems to have deserted them at the worst possible time. They’re now three points adrift of safety after a self-destructive performance which featured a nightmare afternoon for Scott Dann. Not only did the former Birmingham defender make a complete mess of a clearance to gift Swansea their second goal, he also deflected in their third.
It’s difficult to see Blackburn escaping the drop now, with trips to Stamford Bridge and White Hart Lane to come. Their hapless manager may be heading for Venky’s industrial deep fat fryer.

Defeat was one in the eye for those who thought Rovers could stay up

John Ruddy
The scoreline may have flattered Mancheser City a touch, but the way in which the Canaries wilted after the Blues’ third goal was uncharacteristic given their performances so far this season. Norwich had their tails up after Andrew Surman’s goal had given them a foothold early in the second half, and they looked the more likely to score the game’s fourth goal until Carlos Tevez nodded in City’s third.
It may seem harsh to criticise John Ruddy having earlier lauded the standard of City’s goals, but he won’t be happy to have been outleapt by a 5’ 7” striker, and definitely should have avoided being beaten at his near post for City’s first, despite the mid-air deviation on the travelling ball.
The Norwich fans may have serenaded their custodian with chants of “England’s Number 1”, but on this evidence, he has some way to go before he can think of deposing his opposite number on the day.

Italy falls silent for Piermario Morosini

Richard Whittle — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:15:00 GMT

The death of Piermario Morosini has naturally left the world of Italian football and sport in general reeling.

The official announcement that the Livorno midfielder had lost his life during the Serie B game at Pescara was swiftly followed by the decision to postpone all matches over the weekend.

At the San Siro, AC Milan and Genoa players were warming up for their late afternoon game and the stadium was slowly filling up as the players went through their paces.

In the press room, the journalists were already in possession of the shocking news and few had drifted out to the stand, leaving the international television commentators to inform their viewers that there would be no football.

Down on the pitch, the players were taking the news in and as the team officials explained the situation, they slowly walked off in pairs or alone, some of them shaking their heads, others looking up to the stands seemingly for further confirmation that such a tragic event was in fact true.

There was a muted exit from the stands as fans made their way into the early evening and 45 minutes after the announcement the San Siro was left in eerie silence – as all stadiums up and down the country would remain.

In a country where footage of car-crash victims is flashed across prime-time news screens, replays of the moment the 25-year-old collapsed on the pitch were re-shown through the evening – not through any morbid fascination, but that is how Italians deal with death: in a very open way for all the world to see.

The Livorno players arrived at the hospital in stunned silence and left emotionally drained and in tears of genuine grief.
Tributes flooded in from the whole world of football, from former team-mates to those who had never met the player; in Spain and England a minute’s silence was held ahead of their late Saturday and Sunday games.

Morosini may not have been one of the big names of the Italian game but he was a popular figure who had been building a solid career after having come through the Atalanta youth ranks before joining Udinese where he made five appearances, and was still under contract.

He also had spells at Bologna, Vicenza on two occasions, Reggina and Padova, and had represented his country from under-17 to under-21 level. Many of those players preparing for the Euros this summer – such as Domenico Criscito, who had been his room-mate at under-17 level and described him as “a brother” – had played alongside him at international level.

Morosini had known enough tragedy in his short life. Both of his parents had died when he was a teenager, his disabled brother had committed suicide and his elder sister, who will now be supported by Udinese and Livorno, is handicapped. He was active in the footballers’ union, especially in helping players who had difficulties of their own.

Morosini’s death immediately drew comparisons to the case of Bolton Wanderers player Fabrice Muamba. As at White Lane so inside the Stadio Adriatico there was a doctor in the stands who happened to be head of cardiology at the nearby Santo Spirito hospital.

The doctor, Leonardo Paloscia, raced on to the pitch in an attempt to revive the player and although there were reports, backed up by photographs, of a traffic police car blocking the emergency entrance – Pescara players Marco Verratti and Damiano Vanon sprinted to the stranded ambulance to retrieve the stretcher – ahead of the autopsy Paloscia maintained that everyone had done all they could and carried out their duties in a professional manner.

No one could deny this was the case, but with former Italy volleyball international Victor Bovolenta collapsing and dying during a match last month, there have been calls for great prevention of life-threatening incidents, with every sports club forced to have a defibrillator on site and someone trained in its use.

Italy is proud of its screening for those participating in sports at all levels and can point to the check-up that discovered Nwankwo Kanu’s heart defect, while Antonio Cassano is back playing after having a heart malformation diagnosed and corrected.

As the Italian Medical Sports Federation head Maurizio Casasco pointed out, even the most intense screening cannot always prevent cases such as this – and most times only a rapid response can help save lives.

In one of the many eulogies through Saturday evening, former Udinese coach Giovanni Galeone, who was in charge of Morosini for a season, recalled that the player had a real sadness in eyes but his face was always lit up by a wonderful smile.

Morosini had been popular for many reasons and that more than anything was why the stadiums were rightly silent this weekend.

Kop's komedy keeper kapers betray modern lack of depth

Huw Davies — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:34:00 GMT

FourFourTwo staff writer Huw Davies wonders why modern clubs so often have undisputed No1s

Liverpool’s comedy keeper capers this week have seen the Reds forced to recall their fourth-choice glovesman, Peter Gulacsi, from Hull ahead of their FA Cup semi-final against Everton. But it isn’t a sign of their lack of strength in depth between the sticks. Rather, it reflects the widespread death of the battle for the No.1 jersey.

At very few, if any, top clubs in Europe is there still a real bunfight over which goalkeeper is first-choice. Not only does nearly every major team have an undisputed No.1 – their second-in-command isn’t even close.

Take Chelsea. After the once-world-class-but-now-slipping Petr Cech, the Champions League semi-finalists have only the highly questionable Ross Turnbull and the hilarious Hilario in reserve.

Take Arsenal. Wojciech Szczesny has come on such leaps and bounds that he is now one of Arsenal’s best players. Are they offered the same kind of protection when he is replaced by Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski or – God forbid – Vito Mannone? Of course not.

For even more emphatic examples, look at the big two in La Liga. Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas, perhaps the best goalkeeper on the planet, need not fear for a moment that Antonio Adan will challenge for his spot, and if Barcelona lose the classy Victor Valdes to injury or suspension, they can only rely upon Jose Manuel Pinto, he of the outrageous ponytail and dodgy keeping habits.

This is Barcelona, for goodness’ sake: the best team in the world, and their back-up keeper is an unreliable 36-year-old with crap hair! Need we go on?

OK, so Liverpool aren’t alone. But are they really helping themselves with this ‘one good keeper only’ policy? By choosing to play Pepe Reina in every game in every competition, they are achieving continuity and, obviously, a better standard of first-team goalkeeper in all matches.

But their reserve stoppers aren’t getting match practice. And with goalkeepers more than outfield players, this means you aren’t getting the chance to build a relationship with the team’s defence in front of you. The drop-off in quality between your first- and second-choice keepers becomes massive.

In short, as soon as Pepe Reina cannot play for whatever reason – as is happening now – Liverpool’s last line of defence turns from reliability into liability.

And they’ve brought this on themselves. Since the departure of Jerzy Dudek, forced onto the sidelines by Pepe Reina after winning Liverpool the Champions League, the Reds haven’t even entertained the possibility of anyone seriously rivaling the Spaniard in goal.

There was Charles Itandje, Diego Cavalieri, Gulacsi, Jones and now Doni – all of whom were Reina’s direct replacement in event of injury and suspension; none of whom were or are of substantial quality.

It’s not that Doni is a terrible goalkeeper – he isn’t. He has 10 Brazil caps, after all, and impressed for Roma across half a decade. The point is that he wasn’t signed by Liverpool as a serious candidate for first-team action.

Can Doni himself be blamed for joining? Not really: at 32, moving to a traditionally big club to be a sub arguably makes sense. And he’s hardly alone: some keepers make a habit of moving to a club just to be second choice. Spanish one-cap wonder Cesar Sanchez played a handful of games in five years at Real Madrid, joined Tottenham as a back-up to Heurelho Gomes and is now, at 40, sitting on the bench for Villarreal (maybe not literally right now, admittedly).

Stuart Taylor is a classic example. In 15 years at Arsenal, Aston Villa and Manchester City, he has made in the region of 30 Premier League appearances. He’s happy, it seems, to be surplus to requirements.

Rightly or wrongly, reserve keepers are often seen as unambitious, or even lazy. Carlo Cudicini was certainly given that label at Chelsea.

It’s rare, though, that a goalkeeper stays to fight for his place. For one season, Manchester City had, according to Roberto Mancini and a fair few pundits, two of the best goalkeepers in the world in Joe Hart and Shay Given. A classic battle between the two was expected.

In fact, it lasted only one year, with Given leaving for Villa after that. Not that this was new: Gordon Banks left Leicester shortly after winning the World Cup when a young Peter Shilton insisted upon being first choice (and he was only 17, the cheeky git).

It was ironic, really, that Given found himself in this position, seeing as he’d taken Steve Harper’s place at Newcastle in 1997. And Harper has continued to be unlucky, falling to a lengthy injury last season and usurped by the superb Tim Krul as a result. Yet he hasn’t left the club looking for first-team football. Still, he is an exception. Some fight for a place, but the most part, sub keepers are expected to know their place.

And so we have the modern phenomenon of the ‘cup keeper’: top-flight teams giving their reserve goalies a run-out seemingly just to keep them happy. It can result in a change of the No.1 – Stoke went back to Thomas Sorensen after he impressed in their FA Cup run last season and Asmir Begovic struggled at the start of this season – but generally, it’s seen as crumbs from the table.

This even happens in the Championship: Cardiff stuck with second-choice Tom Heaton through their League Cup campaign this season right until the final, and were rewarded as he put in outstanding performances in the semi-final and final penalty shootouts (even if they were doomed to lose to Liverpool at Wembley).

More exotically, the aforementioned ponytailed Pinto plays in the Copa del Rey for Barcelona, but has featured in only 11 league games in five years at the Nou Camp.

Tottenham, meanwhile, had three keepers vying for a first-team place at the start of this season, electing to play Brad Friedel in the league, Heurelho Gomes in Europe and Carlo Cudicini in the FA Cup. Of course, it’s a cop-out as far as Gomes is concerned: if the one thing you want in a reserve keeper is patience and a safe pair of hands, the often-brilliant-but-volatile Brazilian is a nightmare candidate.

So which team has the right approach? Stoke, with their juggling of keepers according to form? Or Barcelona and Real Madrid, who seem to do fine with only one quality keeper? That said, Arsenal’s chopping and changing over the last few years led them to find a true No.1 in Szczesny - albeit only eventually, after Wenger initially overlooked the youngster in the hope that the older goalkeepers coming through the Arsenal academy would prove reliable.

In truth, it's very difficult to introduce a new goalkeeper, and transitions are rarely smooth. At Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson cast around for years trying to replace Peter Schmeichel, and filling the boots of Edwin van der Sar led to a very public beauty contest earlier this season between Anders Lindegaard and the initially derided David de Gea.

Even as managers rotate their squads so much that it's often hard to second-guess their first XI, such high-profile public competition for the No.1 slot is rare. When goalkeepers come and go, defences seem unsettled and the media are quick to label the manager indecisive.

But with so much at stake in such a vital position, shouldn't clubs reintroduce the policy of two - or more - keepers battling for supremacy? And should back-up keepers be satisfied with only domestic cup appearances, in the knowledge that often, even if they do well they may never get selected ahead of their rival but for injury?

Whatever the theories, the fact remains that Liverpool go into the FA Cup semi-final with a perceived weak link in goal. And you have to ask whether that would be the case had Pepe Reina been given the occasional rest.

FA Cup preview: Jelavic movement and Meireles creativity key at Wembley

Michael Cox — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now – to preview this weekend's FA Cup semi-finals...

Liverpool vs Everton, Sat 12:30
Matches between these two are renowned for being undisciplined and seeing plenty of cards, but the most recent Merseyside derby – Liverpool’s 3-0 win at Anfield in March – was a surprisingly tame affair, with only 15 fouls and a single yellow card.

Howard Webb will take charge of the game on Saturday afternoon – and he’s only shown one red card in his last 34 league games, so this may not be the usual bloodbath.

In fact, this might be a cagier than expected – there’s a combination of an early kick-off time (which often means a quiet atmosphere), no side having home advantage, and neither being strong favourites with the impetus to take the game to the opposition. Liverpool are lacking confidence, Everton are generally a reactive side – we could be in for a slow game.

New Everton signing Nikica Jelavic has proved a hit so far at Goodison Park, and it’s notable that his goals have all come in a very similar fashion – meeting a pull-back from the wing, then steering the ball into the far corner. His two goals last week against Norwich, compared with his debut goal against Tottenham, demonstrate that pattern well.

Jelavic will be up against one of the best centre-back partnerships in the country, Marin Skrtel and Daniel Agger. They may be more vulnerable to Jelavic’s movement towards the near post, rather than his aerial threat.

But arguably the key to stopping this approach is to prevent Everton getting runners into the channels to play the cut-back in the first place. The absence of cup-tied Steven Pienaar helps Liverpool in this respect, but Leon Osman will be a very dangerous player, likely to make unchecked runs through the defence and into pockets of space either side of the box. When the ball gets into those zones, watch for Jelavic’s runs towards the ball.

Tottenham Hotspur vs Chelsea, Sun 18:00
Where will Gareth Bale play this week? The Welshman has varied his positioning in recent matches, either stationed in his traditional role out on the left, or moving inside and playing more of a free role. In big matches, he’s generally stayed out on the left, and we can probably expect him to see him there in this match. With Branislav Ivanovic suspended, Roberto Di Matteo will pick Jose Bosingwa at right-back. He’s likely to stick tight and prevent Bale running with the ball.

Bale’s previous appearance against Chelsea was interesting – he stayed wide on the left, and generally received the ball from very short passes. But he struggled to get up to full speed on the run, and despite staying in a wide position, only attempted one cross all game. That sums up the confusion about his job when switching between two roles – if deployed as a wide player here, he’ll need to centre the ball more frequently.

With Juan Mata suffering a dip in form over the past few months, Frank Lampard deployed in a more restricted role under Roberto Di Matteo and Florent Malouda out of favour, the man who has created more chances than any other player for Chelsea in the last two games has been Raul Meireles.

The Portuguese midfielder assisted Branislav Ivanovic’s goal against Wigan with a good pass (even if Ivanovic was clearly offside) and then repeatedly teed up teammates for strikes from just outside the penalty box in the draw at Fulham on Monday evening.

Tottenham can be too open in front of their defence – Luka Modric is hardly a holding midfielder, and his attacking tendencies leave the dirty work to Scott Parker. The England midfielder has looked tired in recent weeks and is struggling to cover as much ground as he was in the first half of the season, so Chelsea may be able to work the ball into some long-range shooting positions on Sunday evening.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

West Bromwich Albion found to be a front organisation

Back of the Net — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:35:00 GMT

Odd goings-on going on in the Midlands... Back of the Net's Paul Watson has the scoop...

A lengthy undercover operation commissioned by Back of the Net has revealed that West Bromwich Albion is nothing more than a front organisation used to siphon off points to other legitimate teams.

The news is expected to rock the world of football with many of Britain’s top teams having openly contested matches against the West Midlands points laundering outfit in recent times.

“Our suspicions were raised by the fact that West Bromwich isn’t a real place you get,” explained the undercover agent who led the sting.

“We dug a little deeper and found that The Hawthorns wasn’t a realistic name for a stadium and nobody could quite explain why people always refer to them as The Baggies.”

Every season anything between 60 and 80 points leave ‘West Brom’ bound for the Premier League’s top teams via a complex system of arranged meetings at football grounds around the country.

A matter of hours after a resounding 4-0 “defeat” against Manchester City, events at the Etihad Stadium take on an altogether more sinister complexion.

“It was all suddenly so clear,” Back of the Net’s inside man continued. “I looked over at Hodgson and just saw a powerless puppet; a really blocked up, sniffy puppet.

“At 3-0 down, rather than trying to re-jig things tactically you could hear [Roy] Hodgson threatening Paul Scharner. It was all stuff like ‘don’t break my balls on this,’ ‘there’s plenty of ways for a utility man like you to go missing’ and ‘you don’t want to end up with Boaz Myhill.’”

The dramatic climax of the investigation saw a West Brom representative offer Back of the Net’s reporter three points if he could assemble 11 men and teach them to take a set piece.

As we go to press, Baggie Bird remains wanted by Interpol for three charges of racketeering.

Editor's note: this isn't a serious accusation. But you knew that, because you're not stupid.

More from Back of the Net

A wild week for La Liga's Other 18

Tim Stannard — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:48:00 GMT

“Tonight, Matthew, La Liga Loca is going to be Jarvis Cocker.” Instead of a Stars in Their Eyes (is that still running in the UK? Is John Craven’s Newsround?) rendition of Common People, the blog is going to recreate the Pulp frontman’s finest moment – wafting his booty about during Michael Jackson's rendition of Earth Song at the 1996 Brit Awards.

But in this case, instead of publicly pricking the pomposity of the King of Pop, LLL will overlook the limelight-hogging Real Madrid and Barcelona in order to focus on the extras in the background singing "What about us?" – the other 18 La Liga teams. That’s who LLL is focusing on today: The Other 18. So there.

As was to be expected, and as probably didn’t escape anyone’s attentions, both Real Madrid and Barcelona won their matches to maintain a four-point lead at the top of the table for the forces of Mordor. But there was fun to be found elsewhere, with Valencia retaking third spot thanks to a 4-1 win over Rayo Vallecano that wasn’t as dominant as the scoreline suggests.

“Our play lacked some fluidity because Rayo made it an uncomfortable match for us,” admitted Unai Emery, who enjoyed the experienced of not being booed out of Mestalla for perhaps the first time in two or three months.

Málaga missed out on the chance to hang on to third by being late losers at Villarreal. They started well when Santi Cazorla opened the scoring in the 65th minute, although he displayed his affection for his former side by opting for the non-celebration approach. Unfortunately his team-mates thought this was a naff and each one of them came up to give the little fella a hug and hair ruffle.

The injury-time victory for Villarreal sent the home stadium into bedlam and moved the Yellow Submarine seven points clear of Zaragoza, who crashed 3-0 to Sevilla – the southern side putting themselves back into European places contention by moving into seventh. “I think that the Villarreal goal affected us because we don’t only depend on our own results but those of our rivals,” admitted Manolo Jiménez after the game.

Levante stayed in fourth after twice throwing away leads at Sporting to lose 3-2, despite many doubting the Asturians team had it in them to attempt such a comeback. The home crowd certainly didn’t think so, once again booing coach Javier Clemente, this time when he took off two attacking players with the scores at 1-1.

“If it’s the public who are making changes then why are they paying me?” scoffed the people-influencing, friend-winning manager. Despite the hard-earned home win, Sporting remain in big relegation trouble thanks to Villarreal's late victory: like Zaragoza, Sporting remain seven points from safety; unlike Zaragoza, Sporting's next game is away to Real Madrid.

Under them in the Segunda-bound slurry tank are Racing, who were tonked 3-0 at home by Mallorca to leave the Santander side rock-bottom on 25 points. “There is still a mathematical possibility, but it’s not a big one,” said Racing boss Álvaro Cevera on his team’s survival chances.

By contrast, Mallorca's win put them on 40 points and one victory from sure safety – although that now seems to be a dead topic in la Primera, considering the bottom three of Racing, Sporting and Zaragoza are looking very done and dusted indeed.

Round 34 Predictions
Real Madrid v Sporting – Home win
Levante v Barcelona – Away win
Espanyol v Valencia – Draw
Zaragoza v Granada – Home win
Betis v Osasuna – Home win
Málaga v Real Sociedad – Home win
Villarreal v Racing – Home win
Athletic Bilbao v Mallorca – Home win
Rayo Vallecano v Atlético Madrid – Away win
Getafe v Sevilla – Away win

Everton and Spurs look to shift balance of power and reach Cup Final

Jon Champion — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:06:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's FA Cup action. Watch exclusive coverage of Saturday's FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Everton from 11am on ESPN

This promises to be a mega weekend for the FA Cup. It's only the third instance of a 'double derby' FA Cup semi-final weekend. The first came in 1950 when Liverpool defeated Everton and Chelsea lost to Arsenal. Then it happened again in 1993 when Arsenal beat Tottenham and Sheffield Wednesday overcame their city rivals United, both at Wembley.

Saturday's semi-final between Liverpool and Everton is the third Merseyside derby of the season, with the men from Anfield winning the previous two. But I have a sneaking fancy for Everton in this though, just because their recent form has been so strong, with just two defeats in seventeen in all competitions. I know David Moyes has scant regard for his runners-up medal from three years ago, when his side lost to Chelsea - he feels his decade at Everton can’t really be validated until he brings home a major trophy. If they can sneak past Liverpool then they’ve got a really good chance of doing that. But it’s a big ‘if’.

It’s probably the most important Merseyside derby since the final of 1989, which followed horribly hard on the heels of the Hillsborough disaster. There will be a minute’s silence in both semi-finals this weekend to pay respect to the 96 who died in that tragedy 23 years ago.

Liverpool may well be fuelled by that. An FA Cup semi-final against their oldest and closest rivals on the weekend of the Hillsborough anniversary - if that can’t motivate them, nothing will.

Third choice keeper Brad Jones steps out of the deepest and darkest of shadows to take his place between the posts for the Reds. There is a theme over the years of goalkeepers becoming heroes in the FA Cup having come from nowhere, and indeed of goalkeepers being plucked from obscurity before freezing on the big day. He’ll certainly hope to find himself in the former section of the history books come Saturday evening

But Everton go into this with as good a chance as they’ve had in 20 years of toppling their rivals. I don’t feel there’s a great deal between the teams this year, as the Premier League table suggests.

Sadly for Everton they’ve lost their current form player in Steven Pienaar, who is ineligible having featured for parent club Tottenham in the third round. Their key man will probably be Nikica Jelavic, who has made such an impression since signing from Rangers in January. A man who clearly knows the way to goal, he is something Everton really have been missing. Jelavic has all the signs for being a potential Everton hero for a number of years to come, and netting in this semi-final would be a good place to start.

Liverpool, meanwhile, will look to Steven Gerrard to lead by example. A man who as a boy used to go to Goodison one week and Anfield the next. There are always these twists, particularly with to the Merseyside derby, that so many of those that are now associated with red were initially blue and vice versa. Liverpool is a city apart and I think it shows on derby day.

Moving onto Sunday’s semi-final, it is an important day for both Tottenham and Chelsea, but I feel for Spurs it is a slightly more important. Barcelona loom for Chelsea three days beyond this game, and the longer this game goes on, the more that will play on their players’ minds.

Tottenham have got their own battle for a top four place, but they can put that aside for just one weekend. Harry Redknapp has a soft spot for the cup ever since his early managerial days with Bournemouth, where he knocked Manchester United out so spectacularly at Dean Court that January afternoon in 1984, and he’ll have his players up for this. It’s also time Gareth Bale stepped up to the plate after a fallow few weeks for Tottenham.

Just as I have a sneaking fancy for Everton, I would just edge towards Tottenham for a place in the final, as much because of Chelsea’s Champions League involvement than anything else, however good their run of form has been under Roberto Di Matteo.

Jon Champion previews the weekend's Premier League matches

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the FA Cup and the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Liverpool v Everton in the FA Cup Semi Final from 11am on Saturday.

Ignore Mancini's 'mind games', City still have hope in the title race

Jon Champion — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:23:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of the FA Cup Semi Final between Liverpool and Everton from 11am on ESPN

Looking at the title race as it stands, I don’t agree with Roberto Mancini’s claim of it being all over - that’s just his version of blunt mind games.

It’s still alive and if Manchester United slip up once more and Manchester City manage to win their remaining games, then it does all come down to that derby game on April 30.

On Saturday, Manchester City travel to Norwich. Manchester United won at Carrow Road and City need to follow suit, but Norwich continue to surprise. Just when one got the impression they had switched off and were thinking of their beach towels, they go and win at Tottenham. Paul Lambert described that win as the best performance by a Norwich team in his three years in charge. The Canaries are perched very happily in tenth place and have been a match for the best, particularly at Carrow Road.

It will be a real test of Manchester City’s away record, having only taken one point from their last three games on the road. They can cut the deficit to two points due to the difference in kick off times with Manchester United, which would mean that Sir Alex’s men would just start to feel City’s breath on the back of their necks ever so gently again, which they haven’t for a little while.

I expect Manchester City to win. They showed what good flat track bullies they are against West Brom, who were very compliant opponents. If Manchester City were going to have any pretentions at all of prolonging the title race, then this is a game that they simply have to win.

It was, of course, Manchester United's defeat at Wigan on Wednesday which gave City this new slither of hope, and I was amazed as everybody else by the champions' poor showing at the DW. Whether there was just a little complacency creeping in with that eight-point lead having been handed to them almost on a plate, for whatever reason they were not the usual Manchester United. Yet that it rarely happens twice in a row, particularly with the nature of their manager. One would expect Aston Villa to feel the full force of a Manchester United side 'on the rebound' on Sunday.

United have won all six home games since the Blackburn debacle on New Years Eve. It’s difficult to see anything other than them making it seven, although Aston Villa's away record is perhaps not as woeful as you may expect. Of the 14 draws Villa have picked up this season, nine of them have been away, in fact they’ve lost only four away games. They won at Chelsea and calved out a draw at Anfield recently, and obviously have a way of playing that is difficult to break down away from home. Manchester United have an imperative to win this, whereas Villa don’t, and that should see United through.

As for United's midweek conquerors, Wigan find themselves coming into form at the right time. They’ve lost only one in their last six, a very unlucky defeat at Stamford Bridge last week. When I asked Sir Alex Ferguson back in autumn whether Wigan would go down, he said ‘no, they’re course and distance specialists’, to use a horse racing analogy. They’ve been in a pickle so many times that they know how to pick themselves out of it.

They’re far from out of the woods yet with five games to go but Roberto Martinez's side seem to have that belief and they’re certainly playing for their manager. They’ve given themselves a better than even chance of escaping, and it would be vindication of the unwavering faith Martinez has shown in the group of players he has assembled.

But Arsenal away is probably the toughest test in the Premier League at the moment, as Manchester City found last weekend. With nine wins in ten, they have built up a five-point cushion for their top four place, and they will be more than a little confident having won 4-0 at Wigan earlier in the season. Wigan will do well to get anything in North London on this occasion.

Another team in a dog fight at the bottom, QPR, have won their last three at home, including victories over Liverpool and Arsenal, but they’ve lost their last four on their travels. Their last two home games against Tottenham and Stoke are going to be vital to their chances. It’s taken a while for Mark Hughes to impose his 'modus operandi' on them, but gradually they’re looking rather more organised than they were six weeks ago. They’ve got their ideal opponents this weekend in West Brom. With one win in six in the Premier League, the Baggies were pretty meek at Manchester City in midweek and I have a feeling that this could be QPR’s fourth away win of the season and arguably their most important. If they win this they are perhaps just one victory from safety, and they’ll fancy their chances, particularly given West Brom's patchy home form. I feel quite strongly that Queens Park Rangers will come out on top this weekend.

Also down towards the foot of the table, it’s looking rather grim for Blackburn. After a mini resurgence, they’ve gone and lost four in a row and now they’re three points short of safety. They’ve lost impetus at a crucial time, and it will be difficult to regain it with just five games to go. Two of those are at Tottenham and Chelsea, so it’s an uphill struggle for Steve Kean and his team. Swansea, like Blackburn, have lost their last four, including three of their last four at the Liberty, which was their great strength for so much of the season. It’s slightly taking the shine off what has been a tremendous debut season in the Premier League. I would love, from Blackburn’s point of view, to say they’ll win at Swansea but I’m not sure they will.

Finally, rock bottom Wolves play Sunderland. They’re nine points from safety with only 15 points available. At Stoke last weekend, for the third game in a row they led and then lost. They were pretty lifeless at the end of that. It seems they know their fate and have done so for a couple of weeks. They’ve lost seven in a row, they’re shipping goals left, right and centre and there’s internal dissent in the camp surrounding the captain Roger Johnson, who’s been dropped in recent games. Even though Sunderland have won just two of their last nine in the Premier League, I'd tip Sunderland to win this weekend's match quite comfortably.

Jon Champion previews the weekend's FA Cup semi-finals

Man City's biggest own goal: A decade-long transfer policy failure

Eliot Rothwell — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:51:00 GMT

There comes a time during any revolution when those wanting to overthrow the status quo need to assess if they have the firepower, the arms and the force to enable them to override the current leaders. And if they don't, if they need more firepower, more arms and more force to enable change at the top, the recruitment of that force needs to be measured and considered.

Here lies the problem facing Roberto Mancini and Manchester City, a club with a long history of recruiting the wrong kind of cavalry. Their current men-at-arms are the ever-controversial Mario Balotelli, the rangy but disappointing Edin Dzeko, the short but explosive Kun Aguero and the rotund golfer Carlos Tevez.

Earlier this week it was implied and quickly denied that Balotelli had played his last game for the club, and it's not beyond the realms of possibility that all four will have left by September, given the revolving door at Eastlands and Real Madrid's covetous glances at Aguero.

City have never been a club to do things quietly, and they have flirted with both disaster and glory ever since their return to the Premier League with Kevin Keegan in 2002. In that decade a succession of managers, directors and chairmen have continually spent money on strikers who have rarely turned out to be suitable.

On their return to the Premier League, the citizens purchased Nicolas Anelka, Matias Vuoso and Alioune Toure to complement existing strike pair Shaun Goater and Darren Huckerby. Since then, City have recruited Robbie Fowler, Andy Cole, Darius Vassell, Georgios Samaras, Paul Dickov (again), Bernardo Corradi, Rolando Bianchi, Valeri Bojinov, Felipe Caicedo, Benjani, Robinho, Jo, Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz, Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli and Sergio Aguero.

Of those 21(!) strikers signed over the 10 seasons it's hardly unfair to say that only Nicolas Anelka, Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and possibly Benjani for his derby-day heroics, have been storming successes. And even of those magical four, the current Tevez situation does the recruitment staff at City no favours.

While the remainder of those strikers haven't all been total disasters – with an honourable mention to Robinho, the marquee signing that arguably made the rest of the Abu Dhabi-fuelled imports possible – the litany of partial or complete failures shows the suits' strike-rate to have been as wasteful as most of their purchases.

With the in-form and ever-improving John Guidetti returning from his Feyenoord loan in summer – and Emmanuel Adebayor's Spurs loan ending with two years still to run on his Eastlands contract – City may not need to hit the market hard, despite being linked with names like Gonzalo Higuain and Robin van Persie

However, should they feel the need to recruit more top-line troops, they'll need a more measured approach to acquire the firepower needed to complete the revolution.

Del Piero and Totti grab the perfect wave on Big Wednesday in Serie A

Richard Whittle — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:33:00 GMT

RESULTS Tue 10 Apr Chievo 0-1 AC Milan Wed 11 Apr AS Roma 3-1 Udinese, Catania 1-2 Lecce, Napoli 1-3 Atalanta, Parma 2-0 Novara, Fiorentina 0-0 Palermo, Inter 2-1 Siena, Genoa 1-1 Cesena, Juventus 2-1 Lazio.

Wednesday evening was an emotional one for two players whose careers have basically been a window into the true heart of Italian football over the last two decades.

It was 'Big Wednesday' in Serie A and two veterans caught the perfect wave. Alessandro Del Piero scored the winner for Juventus against Lazio and Francesco Totti netted the goal that put AS Roma 2-1 up at home to Udinese.

Both players are coming to the end of their illustrious careers, but still possess the ability to grab the limelight away from any young pretender – and retain the title of genuine fuoriclasse.

Del Piero was making his 700th appearance for Juve when he trotted on to replace Mirko Vucinic with just over 15 minutes remaining in the perfect setting of the Juventus Arena.

Suddenly the volume was amplified to such levels that even Antonio Conte was forced to give up screaming at the top of his lungs and instead settled for some manic arm-waving from the sidelines.

With the home side encamped in the Lazio half, but with Vucinic giving the ball away at every turn, the match was evenly poised at 1-1 – a scoreline which would have left Juve a point shy of AC Milan at the top of the table after the champions had sneaked a 1-0 victory at Chievo 24 hours earlier.

But the stage was set for Del Piero to once more roll back the years and produce a moment of sheer drama, with one of his trademark curling free-kicks with just eight minutes remaining.

It looked as if Andrea Pirlo was set to try his luck but, with the visitors unable to get their wall set up, the referee gave Del Boy the nod. With Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti rooted to the spot, the ball was in the net before he could move, and the stadium was soon in a state of delirium.

An instant poll among Bianconeri fans demanded club president Andrea Agnelli reverse his decision to make this the 37-year-old club legend’s last season, but it seems there is no going back.

Conte has only given Del Piero three starts throughout the campaign, but he has scored against Inter in the league and Milan in the Cup in the new stadium.

Having made his debut for the Old Lady as an 18-year-old mop-haired youth at Foggia back in September 1993, he has now scored 187 Serie A goals, taking him into the top ten in the all-time goalscoring charts.

Before last night’s game, Totti had scored 211 league goals to put him fifth amongst the greats. Just moments after Del Piero reeled away with his familiar tongue-out celebration, down in the Capital the Roma captain was sticking his thumb in his mouth to indicate he had moved on to 212.

Roma were desperately searching for a win against Udinese in order to keep their hopes of holding on to third place alive, but much like Juve, the Giallorossi had dominated their opponents only to be left labouring with the scores locked at 1-1.

Totti’s vital goal may have been a tap-in, but it lifted the Romans after the debacle that was their 4-2 defeat to relegation-threatened Lecce at the weekend, and they would ultimately go on to secure a 3-1 victory.

Two years Del Piero’s junior, Totti, much like his old friend, can still unlock any defence with his movement and quickness of – and of course he too is a leader and team player.

While his team-mates and coach Luis Enrique had to listen to jeers as their names were announced, one name received only cheers and applause. However, in the post-game melee with the press, Totti’s first words were “we win as a team and lose as one.” Almost at the exact same moment back in Turin, Del Piero was saying much the same thing.

Class, as they say, is permanent, and these two greats of the Italian game are still on the crest of a wave.

Distracted Phil Dowd spends 90 minutes fretting about post-match handshakes

Back of the Net — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:16:00 GMT

Bemused by Dowd's decisions during Wigan's game with Man United? Back of the Net's John Foster has the scoop...

Phil Dowd spent the duration of Manchester United’s shock defeat to Wigan Athletic on Wednesday thinking about his post-match handshakes with players and officials, FourFourTwo.com has learned.

Dowd has been the target of intense criticism after making several controversial decisions during the match, including failing to send off Jonny Evans, ruling out a Wigan goal, denying Man United two penalties and allowing the first half to continue for 55 minutes while he practiced his handshake technique in the centre circle.

“Mr Dowd’s mind seemed to be elswhere,” remarked Latics boss Roberto Martinez. “He was gazing into the middle distance for at least the first 15 minutes, and I know he didn’t have a clear view of Victor Moses’ disallowed goal, because I could see him staring at Rio Ferdinand's wrists.”

Sources close to Dowd have told FourFourTwo.com that recent events had brought his complex about his handshake to a head.
First, the Staffordshire-based official found himself unable to stop shaking the hand of Oriol Romeu after Chelsea’s clash with West Brom, forcing the young midfielder to miss two matches with a sprained thumb.

Then, following Newcastle’s game against Norwich, Magpies boss Alan Pardew announced publicly that shaking hands with Dowd was “like fondling a dessicated hagfish”, words which Dowd is understood to have found quite hurtful.

"What if I injure a goalie's hand?"

“Last night was particularly tough for Phil,” ex-referee Graeme Poll told FourFourTwo.com.

“Roberto [Martinez] is reknowned as having one of the most sophisticated handshakes in the Premier League, masculine but contemporary, and with impeccably well-moisturised palms.

“And even though it’s a privilege to shake the hand of a living legend like Sir Alex [Ferguson], he could snap your fingers like dry twigs if he wanted to.

“So it wouldn’t surprise me if Phil was more nervous than usual. Though having said that, that’s no excuse for giving Gary Caldwell a panicked curtsey at the final whistle. He deserves better than that.”

The FA have announced that until Dowd overcomes his fear of handshakes he will only referee games involving QPR, whose manager Mark Hughes considers politeness to be a sign of weakness, and so refuses to shake hands with anyone as a matter of principle.

More from Back of the Net

Analysis: Is Mikel Arteta really a better playmaker than Samir Nasri?

James Maw — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:50:00 GMT

There are several prescribed solutions for a longer, healthier, happier life; don't stress about work, eat well, try and get at least eight hours sleep a night and don't inject heroin into your eyeballs while driving at 120mph around a winding mountain road.

But perhaps the most crucial is 'ignore everything Piers Morgan says'.

Generally that's something we at FourFourTwo try to do, but one of the smarmy smug-lord’s Twitter-based blatherings on Sunday got us thinking - is Mikel Arteta really a better player than Samir Nasri?

Eighteen months ago there would have been little debate. In the first half of 2010/11, Nasri was in electric form. The then-Gunners playmaker scored 13 goals in his 25 appearances between the start of the campaign and 1st January 2011, also contributing four assists.

Conversely, Arteta was struggling at Everton, having still not fully rediscovered his mojo following a knee injury that had ruled him out for most of 2009. But while Nasri's form in the second half of the season dipped, with just two goals and one assist coming in his final 21 outings for the North London side, Arteta slowly started to re-find his. So much so that, when Nasri (and Cesc Fabregas) departed N5 in the summer, Arsene Wenger moved to bring him in as a replacement.

Although there is little question Arteta had the better of Sunday's meeting between Arsenal and City at the Emirates Stadium, both players have found form of late.

While Arsenal's No.8 has won plaudits for his role in the Gunners' resurgence in the final third of the season, Nasri's improved showings have perhaps slipped under the radar.

The Frenchman was named City's player of the month for March by both fans and the club, and was particularly impressive in City's 2-1 win over Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on March 21, scoring the home side's late winner after a neat exchange of passes with Carlos Tevez. His absence from the frustrating 3-3 draw with Sunderland at the end of the month was perhaps telling.

A direct comparison between the two players is difficult given they generally operate in slightly different roles. Nasri looks to trouble the opposition by finding spaces between the defence and midfield - be that out wide or around the 'D'. Arteta, meanwhile, generally occupies a deeper position, rarely venturing as far forward as the opposition penalty area or into wide areas, but instead looking to play balls into these areas. But nonetheless, they are both playmakers whose primary objective is to keep their team in possession and create openings.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the aforementioned differences in their roles and playing styles, Arteta has completed more passes than Nasri (2,200 to 1,339), with the Man City man attempting more crosses (121 to 109). At this stage it is worth adding that the pair’s passing and crossing completion rates are both within 1% of each other’s.

What’s more surprising is that Arteta has attempted far more passes into the attacking third of the pitch than his City counterpart.

Arteta has laid on just the two Premier League assists to Nasri’s seven, but interestingly the Spaniard has created 63 goal-scoring opportunities, two more than the Frenchman. Would it have killed Robin van Persie to be a little more clinical in front of goal...?

When it comes to the defensive side of the game, there is only one winner. Arteta has made more tackles (71 to 17), more interceptions (55 to 28), more clearances (41 to 17), and more blocks (6 to 1), though this has all perhaps come at the cost of having conceded more fouls (41 to 17).

The former Everton man also comes out on top when it comes to bothering the back of the net. Arteta has scored seven goals from 27 shots, 14 of which have been on target, giving him a shooting accuracy of 52% and a chance conversion rate of 26%. Nasri, on the other hand, has scored four goals from 24 shots, 11 of which were on target, giving him a shooting accuracy of 46% and chance conversion rate of 17%.

On the basis of this season's evidence, it seems Arteta has quite comfortably been the better of the two players. Given Arsene Wenger turned a £14 million profit when replacing Nasri with the Spaniard, you'd have to say things have worked out pretty well for the wily Alsatian. If only Yossi Benayoun had turned out to be better than Cesc Fabregas...

In the final analysis, having adjusted their respective games since last summer's transfers, Arteta and Nasri fulfil different roles, each achieving his end artistically and effectively. Not to mention the fact Nasri is a good five years younger than Arteta. Comparing them directly is akin to making a spurious crowd-pleasing decision between a singer and a dance troupe - and what kind of attention-grabber would thrive on that, eh Piers?

ANALYSIS Bale needs to shelve quest for freedom, for the good of Spurs

'Big up' to Opta's Mark Hazell for his additional statistical brilliance.

Atlético Madrid vs Real Madrid, history, reality, influenza...

Tim Stannard — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:57:00 GMT

The flu being suffered by Adrían and Falcao, the existence of Luis Perea in defence, Diego Simeone’s limited tactical preparation of yelling "Passion! Grit! Cojones!" at his players, 13 years of failure at the Vicente Calderón, a spooked Real Madrid in no mood to mess about... these are just some of the dark forces aligning against Atlético Madrid in El Derbi – a game that could well start on Wednesday and finish on Thursday should there be any injuries, due to an insanely late kick-off time of 22.00 on a school night.

Although an awful lot of the focus is on Real Madrid’s faltering form in recent big games against Málaga and Valencia, there should be more musings on Atlético’s la Liga journey of late, a topsy-turvy one compared to their wonderfully smooth passage, as it were, in Europe.

Using a football manager’s favourite cliché, Atleti will have to give it around 94% if the team are to hold back their opponents and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, who seems to actively enjoy and be motivated by the abuse routinely hurled at him from the stands. The problem for the Rojiblancos is that their performance levels in the last game against Levante were at around 12%, what with conceding after just 58 seconds.

The Wednesday worries for Atletico are their tendency for sluggish starts and their visitors' ability to blast teams away in the opening minutes. The hosts' hopes of a Champions League finish are disappearing faster than Javier Clemente’s friends in Gijón.

On an administrative point, LLL’s must now refer to Real Madrid as Aitor Karanka’s men, considering José Mourinho skipped his third consecutive press conference – due to being upset by refereeing decisions, claim Marca. The first of those was before the Valencia game had even taken place, making the blog believe the Portuguese is part of some kind of Minority Report-style refereeing pre-crime unit.

So, Karanka’s men are now merely a point clear after Barcelona comfortably dispatched Getafe 4-0 in a match that LLL was predicting might be a tad tough for the Catalan club. The blog still isn’t entirely sure why it came up with that crazy notion. As usual Pep Guardiola was trying to get everyone to calm down a little, pointing out that an upcoming trip to Levante might not be the cakewalk everyone seems to think it will be.

Barcelona’s win against Getafe was the third of the matches played on Tuesday. Earlier on, Osasuna beat Europa League rivals Espanyol 2-0, a much-needed win after shipping 11 goals in their last two matches. “We had a debt and now it’s been closed,” announced a satisfied José Luis Mendilibar. Real Sociedad – with another goal from Carlos Vela – and Real Betis played out a 1-1 draw that keeps both sides out of the relegation battle for a bit longer.

Also in action on Wednesday, Valencia host a feisty Rayo Vallecano, who won’t be squatting on their laurels despite being two points from probable safety. “The fans demand a team that defend the badge and that’s what I want to,” promised manager José Ramón Sandoval.

Málaga’s win at Racing on Monday sees Team Unai being pushed into fourth. A failure to beat Rayo – quite possible – and a victory for Levante against Sporting – very possible – would see Valencia being shoved into fifth spot. If so, not even a handy result against Real Madrid and qualification to the Europa League semi-finals would prevent a hanky-waving hammering for Emery and his players in Mestalla.

LLL Predictions
Valencia v Rayo - Home win
Granada v Athletic Bilbao - Away win
Sporting v Levante - Draw
Atlético Madrid v Real Madrid - Away win (1-3)

Heroes & Villains: Lucky generals, willing foot-soldiers and reluctant sharp-shooters

Mark Booth — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:41:00 GMT

The ever-hectic Easter weekend analysed by Mark Booth, with additional input from James Maw and Gary Parkinson

RESULTS Fri 6 Apr Swansea City 0-2 Newcastle United Sat 7 Apr Sunderland 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur; Bolton Wanderers 0-3 Fulham; Chelsea 2-1 Wigan Athletic; Liverpool 1-1 Aston Villa; Norwich City 2-2 Everton; West Bromwich Albion 3-0 Blackburn Rovers; Stoke City 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers Sun 8 Apr Manchester United 2-0 Queens Park Rangers; Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City Mon 9 Apr Everton 4-0 Sunderland; Newcastle United 2-0 Bolton Wanderers; Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Norwich City; Aston Villa 1-1 Stoke City; Fulham 1-1 Chelsea

HEROES

Roberto Di Matteo
Considered to be a caretaker at Chelsea until the summer, Roberto Di Matteo is doing his reputation no harm in this spell. Many felt that Di Matteo wasn’t given enough time to turn things around when he was in charge at West Brom, but after Roy Hodgson came in and improved their results overnight, the Italian was the forgotten man when vacancies arose elsewhere.

While it’s not beyond imagination that Roman Abramovich will offer Di Matteo the job at Stamford Bridge long-term, chances are that summer will bring the usual big-name recruitment drive, while Di Matteo will have made himself eminently employable.

In beating Wigan and resisting a determined Fulham fightback, Chelsea occasionally rode their luck but looked to have rediscovered that resilience and bankability they once enjoyed at home. It also looks to be a happy, united camp, which is a remarkable transformation from those dark days under Andre "AVB" Villas-Boas.

They say if you can’t be good, be lucky. Chelsea might just have stumbled upon a manager who is both. – MB

Mikel Arteta
The matchwinner on a day to remember for Arsenal against Man City. The Gunners were every bit as good as City were shoddy in this one-sided 1-0 and their winning goal befitted the Arsenal performance. Arteta left Everton to play in matches of this prestige and with his classy, unfussy brilliance, he proved that he’s well worthy of the bigger stage of the Emirates Stadium.

While City’s best players either went missing or were marked out of the game, Arsenal gave an expressive, confident display that proved the QPR defeat was a blip. A familiar scoreline for Arsenal, then, but had there not been Joe Hart heroics and world-class performances from Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott, this could have been a hammering.

Wojciech Szczęsny barely had a save to make behind the completely unflustered Laurent Koscielny and Thomas Vermaelen, who in turned owed their calm to Arsenal’s midfield. Arteta, Alex Song, and Tomas Rosicky ran the show to overturn the carping of critics who compared them unfavourably to last term's Fabregas-Wilshere-Nasri trio. – MB

Manchester United
Title No.20 looks in the bag now for Manchester United as they put eight points between themselves and their city rivals. They were helped on their way on Sunday by one of the most generous refereeing decisions you’ll ever see but this was a display of total domination against a QPR side who would probably have accepted a 2-0 defeat after 15 minutes.

Over the past six games United have collected 10 more points than City to completely alter the complexion of the title race. It’s United’s to throw away now and one can’t help but feel it was Paul Scholes’ reintroduction in January that turned the tide. – MB

Luis Suarez
Liverpool haven’t got much left to play for in the Premier League but the fourth successive defeat that seemed likely for long stretches at Anfield on Saturday would have left morale at a very low ebb indeed. For that reason, Luis Suarez’s point-saving late equaliser against lowly Aston Villa was worth its weight in gold to Kenny Dalglish.

Liverpool fans might tell you that had all of their shots that hit the woodwork this season had gone in they’d have amassed 13 more points; however, even that hypothetical would only raise them one league position and in the harsh world of Premier League football, a shot that hits the crossbar is still off target. – MB

Grant Holt
It's a fair punt that The New Kevin Davies has been in the Heroes section more times this season than anyone else. Once more, against Everton on Saturday he dug Norwich out with his 13th Premier League goal of the season; two days later he intelligently led the line as the Canaries carved out a deserve win at Spurs. Wayne Rooney is the only Englishman to have scored more league goals than Holt, so we’ll say it again: get him on that plane. – MB

Alan Pardew
It seems that being linked with the England job sends managers spinning off-axis. In spring 2006, the beauty parade did Steve McClaren's Middlesbrough, Sam Allardyce's Bolton and Alan Curbishley's Charlton few favours; six years on, since the week after Fabio Capello's exit Harry Redknapp's Spurs have been on relegation form with six points from eight league games.

With that in mind, perhaps Alan Pardew's early withdrawal from the one-horse race – mocked at a time when Redknapp's coronation seemed imminent, inevitable and irrefutable – was yet another masterstroke from the Newcastle manager. Despite being in the top seven all season, the Magpies have somewhat flown under the radar compared to the media-dominating teams around them.

Using inherited players judiciously and adding to them with wise buys like Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse, Pardew has taken a club in danger of implosion to a realistic chance of Champions League football. And if the best teams are marked by their ability to win even on a sluggish day through individual brilliance or teamwork, their Easter Monday win over a surprisingly threatening Bolton team marks them out as a genuine threat to the three London teams squabbling over the lower Champions League positions. – GP

Stoke
Far be it from us to deal in cliché, but you really can't relax against Stoke, even if they're playing their 51st match of a stamina-sapping season. For the second time in three days Robert Huth equalised against a team with far more to fight for; although Villa outdid Wolves in holding on for a draw, their smallest home crowd of the season vocally aired their displeasure with players, manager, football and life. The Potters' five remaining fixtures include two (more) against drop-dodgers and two against Champions League aspirants: none can expect an easy ride. – GP

Paul Lambert
The fact that Norwich – already safe and with seemingly little to play for bar 'pride' – were the more determined, hungry and composed side at White Hart Lane on Monday afternoon says as much about the Canaries and their manager as it does out-of-sorts Spurs and Harry Redknapp.

Having stuttered somewhat in recent weeks, taking just five points from their previous seven, it seemed as though the Premier new boys had their eyes on the beach after all but securing their top-flight status in the first six months of the season. But motivation didn't seem like an issue as they put a major dent in Tottenham's Champions League hopes, while also securing perhaps the most memorable victory of their own season.

Lambert's pro-activeness and touchline enthusiasm was in stark contrast to his opposite number, with Redknapp spending most of the game slouching in the home dugout seemingly unable to turn the tide in his team's favour. The Scot has instilled a tactically flexible City team with a determined work ethic and uses his squad intelligently according to the opponents.

While Brendan Rodgers has enjoyed huge praise for Swansea's superb showing this term, Lambert has perhaps been left in the shadows somewhat, despite taking his team further up the league ladder. Norwich fans may actually see this as a good thing, especially with the ‘managerial merry-go-round’ likely to be in full swing this summer, including in North London. But with Norwich now four points and league places ahead of the Welsh side, perhaps he is a better candidate for manager of the year. – JM

Victor Anichebe
Some Toffees fans remain undecided about Big Vic, Everton's top league scorer and the third-deadliest in the league on a minutes-per-goal basis. Overshadowed by Nikica Jelavic and no stranger to boos from the Goodison faithful, he refused to celebrate after putting Everton 4-0 up against Sunderland. Some might call this petulant, but we'd prefer to say it was an acknowledgement that the goal was clearly deflected in off luckless Jack Colback – and that after Anichebe's airshot from the first attempt. To wildly celebrate a goal like that would take the self-obsession of, say, Tim Cahill. – GP

VILLAINS

Mario Balotelli
It looks like Roberto Mancini has finally run out of excuses for not-so Super Mario. From the kick-off at Asenal Balotelli looked like a red card waiting to happen and should have seen red after just 20 minutes for his horror tackle on Alex Song. Martin Atkinson probably would have done City a favour had he seen the potential leg breaker and dismissed the Italian; such was his lack of application.

The Balotelli sideshow is just one factor of many in City’s likely failure to win the title. An over-reliance on David Silva, a lack of width and an increasingly emotional manager have probably done for City’s title charge but it’s such a shame to see genuine professionals like Vincent Kompany, Joleon Lescott, Joe Hart and Sergio Aguero so badly let down by one of their team-mates in this encounter.

Kompany will probably lift the Premier League trophy eventually but you increasingly get the feeling that he won’t be passing it along the line to Mario, after his manager admitted that he’s likely to have played his last game for City. There’s a good player in there somewhere, but there's no greater indication of how far Balotelli's stock has plummeted than that many City fans would prefer to see Carlos Tevez at the club in August. – MB

Lee Mason
We’re not in the habit of hanging referees out to dry after a decision made in haste and reviewed at leisure... but that’s exactly what we’re going to do this week. On Sunday at Old Trafford, Lee Mason didn’t just make one bad decision; he made three for the price of one.

Not only was Man United's Ashley Young at least a yard offside, it was the faintest of touches from QPR's Shaun Derry and the harshest of red cards after just 15 minutes. Forget video technology: if referees are going to make knee-jerk decisions and players are going to dive, then we’ll still be debating bad decisions for decades to come.

Even more bizarrely, Mason seemed to make up his mind instantly rather than to take a second to discuss it with his assistants. As Jamie Redknapp put it, “he couldn’t wait to send him off.”

Young shouldn’t escape without any blame, either: he has previous for making the most of minimal contact before hitting the ground, like those other pesky foreigners Adam Johnson, Steven Gerrard, Danny Welbeck, Wayne Rooney... – MB

Mike Jones & Dave Bryan
It wasn’t a good weekend for officials elsewhere either, with assistant referee Dave Bryan failing to spot that Branislav Ivanovic was at least two yards offside before he gave Chelsea the lead against Wigan. It was cruel on the Latics, who deserved at least a point out of the match, and it was a decision that left Roberto Martinez furious.

"I don't want to go into the debate that it's very easy to referee against little Wigan," said the usually calm Spaniard, "but unfortunately, I believe this is the best league in the world and we should get better decisions than that." It remains to be seen if Martinez will be punished for his comments but one would hope common sense prevails and he’s forgiven for his justified anger. – MB

Mark Hughes
It's hard enough to win at Old Trafford with your best players, and with just seven matches left for QPR to preserve their Premier League status, you might have expected Mark Hughes to give his side the best possible chance of causing an upset. No disrespect to Jay Bothroyd, but surely the Rs needed Bobby Zamora’s strength and leadership upfront.

Hughes also left Joey Barton out of the team to… well, we’re not exactly sure but it was something to do with saving Barton’s suspension until later in the season. When they will probably need the points even more. After they picked up none at Old Trafford. Right… – MB

Gary Caldwell
More evidence, if needed, of what a cruel game football can be. At Stamford Bridge, Caldwell made an uncharacteristic burst forward just minutes after Diame’s equaliser for Wigan and was presented with a golden opportunity to notch what might have been the winning goal for his relegation-threatened side. Instead of going with his head, the defender – who a fortnight earlier had calmly notched a winner at Anfield's Kop end – tried to chest it down and the opportunity was quickly gone. Within seconds, Chelsea broke away and scored. Caldwell will be hoping that wasn’t a season-defining moment in Wigan’s battle to defy gravity once more. – MB

Wolves
The weekend could have gone worse for Wolves – the teams closest to them all lost, too – but time is running out for Terry Connor’s men, six points adrift with six games left after six straight defeats.

Saturday's tea-time kick-off at Stoke gave them the knowledge that Bolton, Blackburn and Wigan's losses meant they could halve the gap. They were even given a leg-up with a fortuitous opener when David Edwards's run and air-shot sufficiently confused Asmir Begovic to let Michael Kightly's through-ball bounce past him.

But this seems a side without self-belief. Connor’s admission that he didn’t feel there was a foul in the lead up to Stoke’s winner was admirably honest in this blame culture era but perhaps it also revealed a weakness that has permeated onto the pitch: an acceptance of their fate. – MB

Sunderland
Going anywhere nice for your holidays, lads? Not yet you aren't. After tearing up the table in Martin O'Neill's first couple of months with seven wins in his first 10 league games, Sunderland have only won two of the last 11 games in an all-competition run incorporating a Hawthorns hiding, a Blackburn beating, late surrenders to Man City and (painfully) Newcastle, and a chaotic Cup exit at home to Everton.

The Toffees again twisted the knife on Easter Monday, winning 4-0 with a much-changed team. A goalless Easter leaves Sunderland back in the bottom half, only a point below eighth place but only three points above 14th, much less glamorous – and miles behind their Europe-chasing neighbours. – GP

Good Day, Bad Day: Inspirational Unai, Rampant Rayo and an Invisible Villarreal

Tim Stannard — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:42:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat 7 Apr Getafe 2-0 Sporting Gijón; Rayo Vallecano 6-0 Osasuna; Espanyol 2-2 Real Sociedad; Real Zaragoza 1-4 Barcelona; Real Betis 3-1 Villarreal Sun 8 Apr Levante 2-0 Atlético Madrid; Mallorca 0-0 Granada; Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Sevilla; Real Madrid 0-0 Valencia Mon 9 Apr Málaga 3-0 Racing Santander

GOOD DAY

Leo Messi
Hello again, Mr Messi! Same shapeless haircut as usual as if your mother has done it? Two more goals, sir? Another assist, a brilliant bit of skill that nearly brought about another assist? Sounds like the usual weekend, Mr Messi. Now, would sir like something for the weekend?

Unai Emery
LLL isn't entirely sure that it's going to help the Valencia manager’s cause at all with the Mestalla fans, but a comfortable cruise through to the Europa League semi-finals and a masterful tactical display at the Santiago Bernabeu to frustrate Real Madrid must surely give Team Unai some respite... Nope? Didn’t think so.

Levante
It needed just 10 minutes of work for Levante to rid themselves of sleepy Atlético Madrid on Sunday in a 2-0 win to make the Valencia club official, grown-up serious contenders for the Champions League places, never mind the Europa League, after three victories in their past five games. “It tells you everything when we say that one Atlético signing is worth three times Levante’s budget,” said a proud Juan Ignacio Martínez after a result that temporarily put his team on the same number of points as Valencia.

Getafe
Getafe plod their way to the magic 42-point safety mark with seven games to go thanks to a victory so comfortable over Sporting, the tension-free home support ended up entertaining themselves in the Coliseum by joining in with the visiting supporters when they called for the head of Javier Clemente.

“Let’s see where we end up,” said Getafe boss Luis García, whose team now have a decent chance of a European spot, such is the bumbling nature of the teams around them. And LLL is having a stern look at you, Espanyol and Osasuna.

Athletic Bilbao
A huge sigh of relief in the Basque Country after Athletic manage their first win in five. Both they and Sevilla were sluggish in the first half but the home team suddenly found their mojo and won with a traditional method: cross for Fernando Llorente to head in.

Rayo Vallecano
Late last week, a furious José Ramón Sandoval waved a piece of paper to the press claiming that due to a technicality of the club going into administration, he was being legally forced to return wages paid to him last summer – late wages, no less. The Rayo boss admitted that he was expecting a contract renewal, something that will probably ripped apart in front of his bosses' faces now.

A livid Sandoval promised that the team “would work harder to show that this badge is above everything else.” Rayo would go on a “Japanese strike”, an expression meaning trying even harder than usual. The brilliant Rayo boss and his players were true to his words with a 6-0 demolition of visiting Osasuna – a very handy victory after three defeats had left the Madrid side wobbling.

Michu
A brace against Osasuna makes it 15 for the rampaging Rayo marauder. LLL is behind his manager when Sandoval said that Spain should look at him after the European Championships, to add some meat and muscle to the tiki and taka.

Betis
The Seville side may not always get the results they deserve but they're never less than entertaining to watch. That was certainly the case as they tore into Villarreal, with the dynamic front duo of Rubén Castro and Roque Santa Cruz coming up with a goal between them to give Betis back-to-back victories and a 10-point cushion from the relegation zone.

Carlos Vela
Two absolute belters for the magic Mexican makes it another week in the Good Day section for the on-loan Arsenal attacker.

BAD DAY

Real Madrid
The Madridista press appear to have taken Sunday’s setback against Valencia on the chin, Monday’s papers praising the goalless draw with whoops a’plenty and box-to-box antics. “It felt like a great European semi-final,” wrote AS editor Alfredo Relaño.

However, it will no doubt sink in over the next few days that Madrid’s grip on the league title has slipped remarkably over the past month, to leave the club swinging about on la Primera’s rope ladder like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom. Rather than Madrid going through a sticky patch of poor form against Villarreal, Málaga and Valencia, perhaps it’s because Mourinho’s men have come up against teams who are both disciplined and organised.

Pepe
The bad news was that Pepe showed his loony side on Sunday when he lashed out with his foot after a tackle. The good news for the defender was that it was against his own team-mate, more by luck than design.

Osasuna
Ten goals in two games conceded by the Pamplona people, who have now gone into sleep mode – as witnessed when Rayo rushed into a 4-0 lead after 34 minutes. “We can’t repeat this attitude as we represent a team, a region and a city,” fumed manager José Luis Mendilibar ahead of what must have been a very unpleasant trip home indeed for his failing footballers.

Atlético Madrid
Despite complaints of a midday kick-off on Sunday after a Thursday night game in Germany, Diego Simeone grumbled that the weekend’s loss to Levante was not “an excuse, but a reality.” LLL wonders what the reasons are for Atletico's failure to win in other 13 la Liga trips this season.

Espanyol
Dropped points at home in a 2-2 draw with Real Sociedad sees the Pericos on the naughty step this week. Here’s Paul from Barcelona to tell us all about a fourth match without a win for stumbling Espanyol... except he can’t due to bronchitis with only the energy to complain about a missed penalty by the ref! Must be serious. Get well soon, Paul from Barcelona!

Villarreal
Plan A for a side managed by Miguel Angel Lotina is not to concede and hope for the best. Two goals for Betis in the first half saw the Villarreal boss rifling through a very empty tactics sack for a plan B with the visitors playing a back four, a defensive duo in front of them, a full-back in front of them and a single striker and two lonely play-makers. “When I came, things were worse than they are now,” claimed Lotina after the match, wheeling out the “not my fault” excuse nice and early.

Javier Clemente
LLL was front row and centre before Javier Clemente, who had seen his Sporting side limply fail to Getafe with barely a shot on goal. The blog was hoping for a repeat of last week's slanging match with a journalist – as long as it wasn’t the thin-skinned, sensitive blog – but instead Clemente (who is the tiniest person you’ll ever see, by the way) spoke openly and honestly for about 20 minutes.

Having taken over in January, the Sporting boss said that there’s very little a coach can do in such a short spell aside from motivate the team, lift spirits if possible and try to fix any glaring errors. Clemente pointed out the fundamental issue with Sporting is that the team are hardworking and ‘honest’ but collectively are not good enough for la Primera. “If you are going to compete in a Formula 1 race, then you need a Formula 1 car or else you are going to finish last in every race.”

Amauri finally comes good as Juve take control at the top of Serie A

Richard Whittle — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:15:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat Apr 7 Atalanta 1-2 Siena, Cagliari 2-2 Inter, Cesena 0-0 Bologna, Chievo 3-2 Catania, Lecce 4-2 AS Roma, AC Milan 1-2 Fiorentina, Novara 1-1 Genoa, Udinese 3-1 Parma, Palermo 0-2 Juventus, Lazio 3-1 Napoli

It was a weekend of shocks and surprises around Serie A, with the biggest coming at the San Siro, where Amauri scored his most important goal yet for Juventus.

Sure, the striker happened to be wearing a Fiorentina shirt at the time, but although his late winner against AC Milan helped ease the Viola’s relegation worries, it was the club who had previously discarded him that benefited most.

The Ital-Brazilian had been shown the door in the most acrimonious of circumstances by the Turin club at the start of the season, after returning from a loan spell at Parma. He had hung around like a bad smell until January, training with the youth team, until a window of opportunity finally opened in Florence.

Having failed to score since April 2011, the gangly front man broke his duck in the most unlikely of surroundings and in the most unlikely manner, having only charged on to the pitch like a bolting horse in the final quarter of a match from which the visitors had been more than willing to take home a point.

Even if Juventus had not been preoccupied with the preparations for their early evening match at Palermo, there was little chance of Antonio Conte or anyone else from the Turin club calling the 31-year-old to offer their congratulations and thanks.

Not that Amauri would have cared that much after his fractious break from the Bianconeri, and who better to enjoy the moment with than the missus, who was straight on the phone to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary.

But you can rely on Sky Italia to take the shine off anyone’s day, and one of their reporters was quick to ask the tousled-haired forward how good it was to have done Juve a favour.

Although he may have lost his beaming smile for a moment, he bounced back by chirpily insisting all he was interested in was helping Fiorentina.

Amauri is all too aware of how football can turn against you, and Massimiliano Allegri is beginning to learn the same lesson. With the Champions League now gone by the wayside, the Milan coach is duty bound to defend the club’s Serie A title, but his side looked completely spent after their exertions at the Camp Nou last week.

It was the first time the time Milan had lost two in a row under Allegri, and he was at a loss to put together a compelling defence for his side’s below-par performance, one which saw the champions blow a 1-0 lead.

The only bright note on an otherwise listless afternoon was the return of Antonio Cassano, who was given a ten minute run-out after receiving the all-clear to at last resume playing. The forward almost produced something out of nothing late on with a darting run into the area.

However, even with his cardiac problems hopefully behind him, it will take time for the 29-year-old to rediscover his match fitness, and with it the sort of form that can give Milan a much-needed fillip in the run-in.

Impetus is something Juve do not need and with the positive news arriving from the north, down in Sicily they then tore into Palermo to take command at the top of the table.

Conte has been chipping away at Rossoneri confidence for some time and last week he led a 12-minute motivational speech in the centre of the training pitch, tellingly in full view of the TV cameras.

It was almost akin to Al Pacino’s rousing pre-game team talk in ‘Any Given Sunday’ - a loud and clear battle cry of intent and one that Allegri would do well to heed.

There is little time to be introspective, however, with a full midweek round to face: so confident are Juventus that even the arrival of third-placed Lazio, who saw of a very tired looking Napoli on Saturday, looks unlikely to knock them off their stride.

Milan, on the other hand, with injuries and suspensions mounting, will travel to Chievo knowing they need to bounce back immediately or risk handing the physiological advantage to the Old Lady once and for all.

Rafael faces Taarabt puzzler, Downing still misfiring, Pizarro the man for City

Michael Cox — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:46:00 GMT

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

Adel Taarabt’s Premier League season burst into life with an excellent performance and well-taken goal in the 2-1 win over Arsenal last weekend, and now he’ll be looking to turn in a similar display against Manchester United this weekend.

Taarabt will be fielded out on the left wing, a position he interprets in an interesting way. He doesn’t hug the touchline and cross the ball, but neither does he drift into the centre of the pitch particularly often. The main feature of his game is the constant attempts to drop away from his marker – he comes very deep towards the ball to pick up possession in space, or positions himself in a ‘square’ between four opposition players in their two banks of four.

His battle with Rafael will be an interesting one – the Brazilian likes to stick very tight to his man, and is happy to follow him up the touchline. But will he track Taarabt into more central positions?

After Taarabt broke his goalscoring duck last weekend, the Premier League player to have attempted the most shots without finding the net this season is Liverpool’s Stewart Downing.

Downing seems to have lost all confidence when presented with a decent scoring opportunity, yet continues to hit long-range attempts from ambitious positions. In his last start, the 2-1 defeat to Wigan, he had four shots but none troubled Ali Al-Habsi.

This weekend’s game against former club Aston Villa may remind him his of good goalscoring form of last season, when he hit nine goals. In fact, his final goal for Villa was in the final match of last season, from his only shot that day – and it was against Liverpool.

Manchester City are now in a position where they have to throw caution to the wind – they can’t really afford another slip-up in their attempts to catch Manchester United. Even a draw away at Arsenal, which Roberto Mancini would probably have considered a good point back in the Autumn, isn’t quite good enough.

Therefore, Mancini may consider using David Pizarro in the centre of City’s midfield, in place of the more defensive-minded Nigel de Jong. Pizarro has only started one Premier League game, at home to Bolton, and although he misplaces more passes than De Jong, it’s obvious that he’s more forward-thinking and direct with the ball at his feet.

While a trip to Arsenal may usually be a fixture in which Mancini would prefer to deploy a more solid holding midfielder, the reality is that City need someone to dictate play from deep, and the Chilean might be the man for the job.

Bolton manager Owen Coyle deservedly picked up March’s Manager of the Month award after three crucial wins over fellow relegation strugglers QPR, Blackburn and Wolves.

A notable feature of these games has been the high number of shots Bolton have attempted, particularly in the latter two games - 17 against Blackburn and 20 against Wolves.

Part of the reason for their high number of shots per game is the use of David Ngog rather than Kevin Davies upfront. Ngog has 1.8 shots per game, while Davies only has 1. The two strikers only have five goals between them this season, but the Frenchman appears to be the greater danger in the penalty box, even if he lacks Davies’ aerial ability.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Togetherness and experience giving United the edge over City in the title race

Jon Champion — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Stoke City vs Wolverhampton Wanderers live on ESPN from 4.30pm on Saturday...

FIXTURES Fri Apr 6 Swansea v Newcastle Sat Apr 7 Sunderland v Tottenham, Bolton v Fulham, Chelsea v Wigan, Liverpool v Aston Villa, Norwich v Everton, West Brom v Blackburn, Stoke v Wolves Sun Apr 8 Manchester United v QPR, Arsenal v Manchester City

Manchester United’s performance, and indeed result, at Blackburn Rovers on Monday night highlighted the difference between themselves and their neighbours. United are exactly that, and their togetherness and experience told in a game in which they were largely frustrated for long periods, when they were rewarded with two goals in the last 10 minutes. City don’t seem to have quite the same nous when it comes to winning and closing games out. That is why, all of a sudden, Sir Alex Ferguson’s team have a five-point lead, which seemed unthinkable even six weeks ago.

But Manchester United are still a little more fragile than they have been in past seasons, but they are a fragile side that has won 10 of their last 11 Premier League games. A home fixture against Queens Park Rangers should be exactly what they need on this busy Easter period. The Red Devils have scored in 46 of their 47 matches in all competitions this season, which tells you how consistent a threat they have been.

QPR, having beaten Liverpool and Arsenal, have shown they can take on the top sides, which is what they must continue to do in the final month or so of the season given their run in. However, both of those victories were achieved at Loftus Road - they are not so clever away from home and I cannot see beyond a home win for Manchester United.

Such as result will mean Manchester City are likely to troop out at Arsenal eight points behind. This would be psychologically significant for a side that has taken its share of battering both in the media and in on the field recently. I saw them last weekend against Sunderland and, while they came roaring back from 3-1 down, they were a shadow of their former selves for the first 80 minutes. They have only won one of their last four Premier League matches and their away record is modest for a leading side – four defeats on the road and only seven wins. I expect their frailties to be fully tested at the Emirates Stadium.

After ending their winning streak at QPR last week, the Gunners are now only above Spurs on goal difference, with Robin van Persie in the midst of what by his standards is a dreadful drought – three games without a goal. This game is a lot more difficult to call than the one at Old Trafford. I just have a sneaking suspicion that, with all their leading lights back, City will show their true colours, so I am going for City to sneak a win. From a neutral’s perspective, I hope I am right because they must to win to keep the title race alive. With three points, Manicini’s men will still be very much in the hunt. However anything less is likely to leave a gap of seven or eight points, which would be too big to overcome.

If Arsenal are defeated, Tottenham Hotspur would regain third place with a solitary point at Sunderland. Swansea proved to be compliant opposition for Spurs last week, as the Londoners ended a run of five games without a win, but Martin O’Neill’s Black Cats should provide a much sterner test on Saturday lunchtime. This is the hardest of all the games to call this weekend because Sunderland have been ‘in and out’ of late. After a dramatic improvement following the Ulsterman’s arrival, their form has tailed off and, after the cup exit to Everton, I’m not quite sure what they are playing for between now and the end of the season. That may play into Tottenham’s hands, because I am sure Harry Redknapp will have his troops ‘at it’. Realistically, Tottenham have only got one target for the rest of the campaign because, ultimately, Champions League qualification will be more important to them than the FA Cup. I can see Spurs going all guns blazing and, if was forced to choose a winner, I’d plump for them.

Roberto Di Matteo’s record as Chelsea boss makes pretty impressive ready – seven wins in nine. I thought they looked nervous at home to Benfica in midweek but they got the job done. They are scoring plenty of goals under the Italian – 20 in nine games - and I can’t see anything other than three more points for the Blues at home to Wigan Athletic, despite the Latic’s recent revival.

Liverpool are enduring their worst run of league form in nearly 60 years- six defeats in seven Premier League games. Kenny Dalglish has just eased off on all the rhetoric and defiance in his public utterances. No longer is he accusing his inquisitors of a lack of intelligence for questioning his side’s recent form. We learnt this week that there is going to be an internal review conducted by the Fenway Sports Group at the end of the season, to which Dalglish will be asked to contribute. While there are no suggestions that his job is under threat, there are serious questions being asked of Liverpool’s lack of form because a top-four place was the aim set in August and even if they win two cups I don’t think that will paper over the cracks.

Their opponents on Saturday, Aston Villa, are in equally woeful form – one win in eight – although they briefly threatened a dramatic comeback against Chelsea on an emotional day at Villa Park last week. Many of their thoughts will be with captain Stilian Petrov, who is battling Acute Leukemia. The prospect of a place in the FA semi-final at Wembley should act as an incentive for Liverpool’s players and, despite their serial habit of dropping points at home, I can only see them adding to their win at Villa Park earlier in the season and completing the double over Villa at Anfield. Villa are only five points above the drop-zone and another defeat will seriously perk up the clubs below them.

I am not as confident in Swansea City as I was during the middle of the season when they were winning almost every game at home and drawing the rest. The Swans have only managed to win two of their last seven at the Liberty Stadium and, home and away in the Premier League, it is four defeats in their last seven. While there are no alarm bells going off in South Wales, there have been one or two signs in their last few games, notably the home defeat to Everton, that sides are beginning to work out how to combat their expansive and very attractive playing style. I would be very surprised if Alan Pardew hasn’t picked up on that, given his tactical triumphs this season.

Newcastle United have won their last three games and are five points off the top-four. While it is rather farfetched to think they are going to achieve a Champions League place, they have every chance of pipping Chelsea to fifth, who will do well to stay focused on the league run in, given their upcoming fixture schedule and the distractions of huge semi-finals against Spurs and Barcelona. I think Europa League qualification for Newcastle would be a huge achievement. Having said all of that, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this game finish all-square. The Swans remain reasonably difficult to deal with at home and Newcastle will be tactically cute, so I think a draw is on the cards.

After recording three straight league wins under very difficult circumstances, Bolton Wanderers boss, and Manager of the Month, Owen Coyle deserves tremendous credit. Ahead of the game with Fulham, his message to his players will surely be ‘don’t ease off’, because they still remain in real dogfight. They seemed to have found a way of playing that really suits them. Although they could have been three goals down at Molineux last weekend, they played brilliantly in the ‘business end’ of that game and deserved the win.

Fulham can play without fear now. They are marooned in 10th place on 39 points, which will be more than enough to stay up this year. They have shown they are capable of beating the best and losing to the worst, so goodness knows what will happen. I'd expect it to be an open and entertaining game, and Bolton should have enough to get something out of the game, which could be vital come May.

Norwich City are another side which have been showing all the signs of having their minds on the beach. They have won only once of their last six but their Premier League status has already been secured, which is a wonderful achievement. In Everton, they are a playing a side that will definitely not give up before the end of the season. The Toffees have only lost twice in their last 15 games in all competitions. David Moyes’ men are also playing for a place in the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool. They currently sit above their Merseyside rivals in the Premier League table and will be determined for things to remain that way. I fancy a fully-motivated Everton to claim all three points at Carrow Road.

West Bromwich Albion are finishing the season poorly with three defeats in their last four games. Blackburn Rovers have lost their last two but won three of their previous five. Steve Kean’s side needs the points, while West Brom don’t and that might be key. Blackburn have more reasons to be motivated although they also have more reasons to the nervous. Nevertheless, I fancy Rovers to get something at the Hawthorns – probably a draw.

Wolves are six points from safety and, I am sorry to say, have probably gone. They have conceded 24 goals in seven outings, shipping five on three of those occasions. I was amazed the see the public spat between goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and captain Roger Johnson last week. The former Birmingham defender has proved himself to be a rather divisive character in the dressing room this season and his appointment may well have played a significant role in the side’s demise. Unfortunately for Terry Connor, I think Stoke City are ready to provide some sort of backlash following their lackluster showing at Wigan. With a much smaller squad, the Potters have played the same amount of games as Chelsea this season, but I fancy the hard-working Potters to take all three points at the Britannia.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Stoke City vs Wolverhampton Wanderers , Saturday, 4.30pm.

La Preview: Boring Bielsa, Mourinho’s Mind and Clemente’s Cruelty

Tim Stannard — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 07:30:00 GMT

Saturday

Getafe (10th) v Sporting (20th) - 18.00 (local time)
Sporting manager Javier Clemente’s space shuttle-sized gob got him into a bit of hot water this week. During a press conference on Sunday, Clemente got into a ding dong with local journalist Juan Gancedo, who had criticised the temperamental trainer for being out-of-date and stale in his coaching methods. Rather than choosing to disagree with the writer, Clemente called him out in front of the group, promising to tell the scribe's son that "his father is a disgrace.”
Unsurprisingly, the response from the journalist was to pack his bag and leave with more insults from the Sporting boss to follow. In the days which followed there was silence from Clemente, despite a complaint from the local media. The head of communication at Sporting, Manfredo Álvarez admitted that “this isn’t good for anyone” and claimed Clemente had "defended himself against what he considered to be offensive.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Rayo Vallecano (12th) v Osasuna (6th)
One of the most unpleasant sights in Spain’s grounds this season was a group of Osasuna fans trampling over children to get into a scrap with a father and his two kids for bringing out a Real Madrid banner during last weekend’s visit of the league leaders. With the images being widely broadcast on TV and on t’interweb, Osasuna was forced to take action and have announced that four of the five aggressors have been found and could well be facing fines and very lengthy stadium bans due to the severity of their astonishingly cowardly actions.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Espanyol (9th) v Real Sociedad (14th) - 18.00
The pauper-like Pericos have had to sell part of the rights to three of their footballers to raise €2.3m to make ends meet until the end of the season. Bits of Héctor Moreno, Álvaro Vásquez and either Javi Márquez or Jordi Amat have been flogged off to an English investment organisation, Doye Group. “This situation is not the most convenient for any coach or any team,” admitted Mauricio Pochettino. “We are used to getting by like this and I have an absolute resignation about what is happening.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Zaragoza (18th) v Barcelona (2nd) - 20.00
Saturday sees a huge test for Manolo Jiménez and his Zaragoza side, who are up to their eyeballs in self confidence at the moment after three wins in a row. In an interview with El País this week, the Zaragoza boss talked about what he had been doing to put lead in the players’ pencils and restore some fighting spirit.
“Everything is now a competition (in training) and everything has a reward like being freed from picking up all the equipment for the winner or having to buy the group some snacks for the loser. It also serves to work on their competitiveness and to lose the fear of winning and then failing, two needs when I took over the group.”
LLL Prediction - Away win

Betis (15th) v Villarreal (17th) - 22.00
The latest player to be on the end of LLL’s simpering man crush - no-one will ever beat Fabio Cannavaro, mind - is delicious footballing dish, Roque Santa Cruz, who is currently on loan to Betis from Manchester City, not that anyone really remembers considering the forward has only managed six league goals.
Betis are still keen to keep the pretty-mouthed poacher though and have begun talks to take him on board permanently. “We have spoken about the economic aspects but City have a lot to say and in England clubs don’t negotiate until the end of the season,” revealed sultry Santa-Cruz.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sunday

Levante (5th) v Atlético Madrid (7th) - 12.00
It’s a tricky time for Levante striker, Koné, at the moment. The forward who is on loan from Sevilla would clearly like to score enough goals to push his team into the European places, a new target for the club revealed Levante president, Quico Catalan, during the week. However, should Koné score 18 this season, then the footballer’s contract with his holding club renews, something the Ivorian is not so keen on. Koné currently has 13 strikes in all competitions so the Levante forward may not be quite so prolific in the team’s remaining eight matches.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Mallorca (13th) v Granada (16th) - 16.00
Bored of a Thursday morning, LLL was having a look at each Primera club's top scorer and trying to judge who was the most important to their side. The blog was not completely to surprised that Granada had the second worst ‘top scorer’ in the division, with Guilherme Siqueira managing just six goals for the team.
But then the blog realised that this is a tally from a fullback in a struggling side, so it's little surprise to read that Granada’s owner is looking to flog the Brazilian defender this summer, potentially to a side the size of Barcelona. “Siqueira is a fantastic fullback and you have to watch him very closely,” said Pep Guardiola before their recent league clash on a possible new player for the campaign to come.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Athletic Bilbao (11th) v Sevilla (8th) - 18.00
This may make no sense to any non-Spanish speakers here, but you’ll get the vibe. While Athletic manager, Marcelo Bielsa, is much-admired in Spain for his work with the Basque club, there is the sense the Argentinean is both boring and barmy at the same time. Here’s a clip of Pep Guardiola dreading simply asking “how are you?” to the Athletic boss because of the somewhat lengthy response to such a philosophical poser.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Real Madrid (1st) v Valencia (3rd) - 21.30
José Mourinho is nothing if not a fairly fascinating character whose brain will be well worth dissecting one day (hopefully after a long, healthy, happy life). In an interview with Italian paper, Corriere della Sera, the Madrid manager revealed that he needs a bit of antagonism in the air to help stay fresh and alert - something that explains an awful lot of his dubious behaviour over past seasons.
“Adrenaline is something the body needs. And to avoid relaxing I prefer to feel a bit of the noise from my (football) enemies,” says Mourinho who also spoke about his ambitions in the game which is to win the Champions League with three different teams and manage Portugal to a title in the future.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Monday

Málaga (4th) v Racing Santander (19th) - 21.00
Having their match stuck on a Monday night, sees Málaga having to kick themselves repeatedly for nine days since last weekend’s home defeat to Betis, a game where scores of chances were missed. A lot of them were done so by Salomón Rondón, a footballer who sounds like he’s very hard on himself indeed, if an interview with AS is anything to go by.
“I’ve watched the game, I’ve seen it, analysed it,” admitted the forward. “My final touch is failing me at the moment,” noted Rondón on where his finishing prowess could be improved. “I start off well, beating the defenders for pace or in the air but my last touch is the one that’s causing me problems. I get the advantage but I don’t finish things well.
LLL Prediction - Home win

John Arne Riise’s brother also plays for Fulham, reports shocked John Arne Riise

Back of the Net — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:17:00 GMT

Another curious tale from the world of football, Back of the Net's John Foster has the details...

John Arne Riise has been expressing his surprise at learning that his brother, Bjorn Helge Riise, has been his team-mate at Fulham for nearly nine months.

John Arne, 31, admitted he’d had no idea his sibling had played over thirty matches for the West London club since 2009, until yesterday, when they unexpectedly found themselves sitting next to each other in a tactical briefing ahead of Fulham’s trip to Bolton on Saturday.

“I looked up and this guy was staring at me,” the elder Riise explained. “I asked him what he wanted and he said, ‘it’s me, it’s Bjorn Helge.’ Then I recognised him!”

“To think, we’ve been working at the same place since July, but this is the first time we’ve actually come face-to-face. It’s really an incredible coincidence.”

Bjorn Helge Riise, 28, was equally unaware of his brother’s presence at the club.

The Riises later realised they'd been parking next to eachother for six months

“I don’t really read the papers, so I’d had no idea John had signed,” he told FourFourTwo.com. “I thought I vaguely recognised him from somewhere, but with me being a right winger and him being a left back, we just didn’t get much chance to interact.”

“Sometimes our parents would send emails telling me what John’s been up to, but they were always going on about his long-distance free kicks, and asking me why I couldn’t do long-distance free kicks like his, so I stopped opening them. To be honest, I thought he was still in Rome.”

“Last week Mum asked me how John Arne was getting on. I was like, how the hell should I know? She must think I’m still upset about that time when he borrowed my bike and crashed it into a fjord.”

The other Fulham players had apparently assumed the Riise brothers were aware of one another’s presence. John Arne recalled being welcomed to the Cottagers by club captain and ex-Liverpool colleague Danny Murphy.

“When Danny asked me if I was looking forward to catching up with BH, I assumed he meant Brede Hangeland, with him being Norwegian, like me.”

“Or Broadcasting House, which was my favourite radio show when I played for Liverpool.”

“When I explained that I stopped listening to it after Eddie Mair left to present PM, Danny looked confused. Now I know why.”

The Riise brothers’ reunion is said to have lasted ten minutes, before Bjorn Helge brought up his missing bicycle, and John Arne put him in a headlock and started flicking his ears. The pair then had to be separated by Martin Jol.

Preston intelligence leak arms Owls with lethal trivia

Back of the Net — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:39:00 GMT

There's a big, sticky controversy in League One, Back of the Net's Paul Watson investigates...

Preston manager Graham Westley was left seething after discovering that members of his squad had leaked valuable information to opponents Sheffield Wednesday, including the club’s nickname, record scorer and illustrious early history.

The struggling Lancashire outfit went down 2-0, a result that didn’t surprise an irate Westley given the crucial confidential information the Owls had managed to gather.

“You could tell something was wrong,” Westley explained. “The second we got off the coach I swore I could hear one of the Wednesday players talking about Ted Harper’s club record 37 goals in 1932-33.

“And sure enough, it soon become clear that Wednesday’s defenders knew our nickname was the Lillywhites and that Ribble Valley Shelving sponsored us between 1990 and 1992.”

Preston's 1889 FA Cup winners, all of whom are familiar to the Owls' squad

Gary Madine netted twice to secure the points for Wednesday, but there was controversy surrounding both goals.

“Madine’s finishing was excellent,” Westley conceded. “But you have to ask yourself whether he would have got into those positions had he not known that in 1888/89 we were the first team to go through an entire season unbeaten?”

Not for the first time this season Westley described ‘different agendas’ within the dressing room.

“It makes life very tough as a manager,” he said. “Paul Parry, for example, loves throw-ins."

“Graham Cummins has this thing about beating the traffic, so he’ll always be edging towards the touchline as the final whistle approaches. Then you got Paul Coutts who always likes the score to be a binary number – once it gets to 1-1 he’ll just head for the corner flag. It’s tough to get everyone pulling together.”

Meeting Zlatan, the Football League's Top 50 & King 'Arry's managerial merry-go-round

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:56:00 GMT

The May issue of FourFourTwo has hit the shelves – Didrik Ottesen reveals why it’s a must-read...

As an increasing number of football fans start losing sleep and gnawing off their own fingernails with the season approaching its tense climax, you can be sure FFT will keep 'putting in a shift' through to the glorious (or bitter) end of the campaign - and beyond.

With the season coming to a close, what better time to name the Top 50 Football League Players of this season? That's exactly what we do in the May issue of FFT.

One man whose end-of-season ambitions are slightly higher than breaking into the top 50 (about 47 places higher, to be precise) is Harry Redknapp. Those who know him the best exclusively reveal to FFT how the East End wheeler-dealer* has become England’s would-be-king.

What were his exact words to Paul Merson when he wanted to take him to Portsmouth? What does Paolo Di Canio actually think of his ex-boss? And how does John Hartson think Harry handled ‘The Berkovic incident’? All is revealed to FFT by the men themselves.

We also take a look at how the current Tottenham manager could start chaos this summer by instigating the biggest ever managerial merry-go-round, should he depart White Hart Lane for Wembley and the England job.

Also potentially on this contractual carousel could be Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Roberto Mancini, but what do these three succesful managers have in common? They’ve all managed Zlatan Ibrahimovic (or at least tried to...). The super-Swede is exclusively interviewed in our new issue.

Is it true he used to do taekwondo? What actually happened between him and Guardiola at Barca? It’s all revealed as FFT chats with the mercurial and controversial serial title winner.

Another man who's no stranger to controversy is Paolo Di Canio. We travel to the Kassam Stadium to take an up-close look at the lower league clash the Italian labelled “bigger than Roma-Lazio” - the A420 derby between Oxford United and Di Canio's Swindon Town.

Sticking with all things Football League, there's also our aforementioned countdown of the Top 50 Players - plus we name the best player at all 72 clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two.

We also hop over to Rome to reveal what really happened when Dundee United were harassed, threatened and denied a European Cup final place when they played Roma in 1984. Then we go to China to have a chat with Shanghai Shenhua manager Jean Tigana, learn how Shenhua got hold of former Arsenal, Real Madrid and Chelsea 'bad boy' Nicolas Anelka and how they may lure Didier Drogba in the same direction.

But we don’t stop there! We also speak to Chelsea hot-shot Oriol Romeu, go one-on-one with Fabrizio 'the White Feather' Ravanelli, talk amazing headers with Martin Palermo, have a cheeky chat with Roberto Di Matteo, ask Kevin Phillips few silly questions, look at the game’s top ten cry babies, talk to Milan Baros on scoring goals for fun at Galatasaray and speak to Zico, who is now manager of Iraq (just the football team, not the whole country).

Not bad for an end-of-the-season effort, really.

This issue was brought to you by Fabrizio Ravanelli, Craig Burley, Rob Scott, Liam Hearn, Radamel Falcao, Steve Fletcher, Ian Taylor, Roberto Di Matteo, Matt Jarvis, Kevin Phillips, Michel Salgado, Shaka Hislop, John Hartson, Paolo Di Canio, Remi Garde, Matt Ritchie, Jordan Rhodes, Peter Whittingham, Nicolas Anelka, Marlon Harewood, Oriol Romeu, Joey Beauchamp, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eamonn Bannon, Archie MacPherson, Maurice Malpas, Jim McLean, Davie Dodds, Zico, Ilie Dumitrescu, Milan Baros, Martin Palermo, Rio Ferdinand, Seb Larsson, Rickie Lambert, Marco Tardelli, the top scorer in world football and the Italian who supports Truro City...

*Only joking, Harry...

Martin Palermo (Boca Juniors v Velez Sarsfield, 2009)

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:25:00 GMT

It isn’t often that headers  are considered truly classic  goals, but then it isn’t often that someone finds the net with their nut from an incredible 43 yards out.

Argentine striker Martin  ‘El Loco’ Palermo had a reputation for being strong in the air throughout his prolific career, and aged 35 he had his noggin to thank for what he describes as “perhaps the most spectacular goal I ever scored”.

Boca Juniors’ all-time top scorer explains: “One gift I always had was finding new ways of scoring. I didn’t look  for it – it would just happen.  A bicycle kick, a penalty where  I slipped and hit the ball with both of my feet [it still went in], a header where I ended up hanging from the bar... and that night against Velez was another special goal for my collection.”

“We were 2-2 at a packed  La Bombonera with less than 20 minutes to go. There was  a long ball from the back, Nico Gaitan pushed forward to press the last defender, and Velez keeper Montoya was forced  to clear it with a long kick.

“The ball was directed right where I was standing, close to the centre of the pitch. I instinctively tried to head it back to the empty goal, as Montoya  was completely  out of position.

“It was really magical  to see the ball kissing  the back of the net,  as it was making a dangerous curve and  I feared it would end up hitting the post.

"I took off my shirt and celebrated with all the fans, with my arms wide open. It was a key victory for us, as it was rumoured our coach, Alfio Basile, would have quit if we didn’t get the three points. After that, he stayed.”

Words: Martin Mazur. Illustration: German Aczel. From the May 2012 issue of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

Champions League preview: Keeping Gaitan and Cardozo quiet key to Chelsea progress

Michael Cox — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:19:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now – to preview Wednesday night's Champions League action...

Chelsea v Benfica, Wed 19:45
Chelsea’s performance in Lisbon last week was the textbook European away performance – they defended deep in their own penalty area, then broke in the second half to poach a crucial away goal. Defender David Luiz, visiting his former club, was particularly impressive.

But the tie is not yet won, and despite failing to score and ultimately being beaten at home, Benfica offered a significant attacking threat. The combination to watch out for at Stamford Bridge is obvious – crosses from Nicolas Gaitan, who created no fewer than seven chances at the Estadio da Luz, and finishes from Oscar Cardozo, who hit the target with half of his eight.

Chelsea’s priority must be defence – after all, a clean sheet gets them through – but they may want to defend higher up the pitch in the return leg, to prevent Cardozo getting into the box so often.

Real Madrid v APOEL Nicosia, Wed 19:45
Few gave APOEL Nicosia much chance in their two-legged tie against Real Madrid, but the dominance of Jose Mourinho’s side in last week’s first leg was still quite astonishing.

The Spanish league leaders attempted 28 shots over the course of 90 minutes, whereas APOEL couldn’t muster a single attempt. Cristiano Ronaldo alone tried his luck with ten shots. Worryingly for the Cypriot champions, that was their home leg.

It’s difficult to see how APOEL have any chance of recovery – they can be backed at 40/1 to win at the Santiago Bernabeu, and 110/1 to qualify for the semi-finals.

A more interesting market would regard whether or not Ivan Jovanovic’s side will have a shot on target – the odds would probably be about eve...

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Barça battle through as Mourinho rubbishes rumours

Tim Stannard — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:14:00 GMT

Whenever supporters of Real Madrid and Barcelona whine, bleat and stomp their feet about how they are so, so, so hard done by when it comes to referees, La Liga Loca always reminds such complainants of the notion of 'swings and roundabouts' in football and how everything tends to even itself up at the end of the season.

Of course, this largely falls of deaf ears, with the same supporters wandering off muttering “Villarato” and “Anti-Villarato” under their breaths.

But the philosophy came into play in Barcelona’s double header with AC Milan. Alexis Sanchez was denied a decent penalty shout in the first leg, but the Catalan club got a favourable decision in the second. Alessandro Nesta’s naughty tug on Sergio Busquets, a player who doesn’t need much encouragement to go to ground, was spotted by the referee, who (eventually) pointed to the spot.

The happy-go-lucky Zlatan Ibrahimovic was not impressed. “I now know what Mourinho meant about coming to the Camp Nou” the Swede grumbled. Meanwhile, the Madrid manager’s ‘spokesman’ Eladio Paramés tweeted “after the first 45 minutes we now know who is going to win the Champions League.”

LLL says simply "them’s the breaks."

Barça were the better side over the two matches and will now feature in their fifth Champions League semi-final in a row, a feat that has Sport tickled pink, with the paper declaring Pep’s Dream Boys “King of the Champions”.

“Barcelona are officially the best team of the 21st century. Three titles and five consecutive semi-finals show this,” boasts Lluís Mascaró, who is already looking forward to a Clásico-themed final and what could be a major, major back pedal should Barcelona eventually come out second best. “The winner of this ‘mother of all finals’ would be the ‘champion of champions’. The loser would suffer a difficult to overcome sporting and psychological reverse.”

The may be a distinct lack of similar tension in Wednesday night’s Champions League clash between Real Madrid and APOEL, with the Spanish side 3-0 up from the first leg and hosting their Cypriot rivals in the Santiago Bernabeu, where the home team only tend to lose to sides rhyming with ‘Carcelona’.

So, plenty of opportunity for mischief, especially from AS, who have this week been peddling the story that Kun Agüero will be coming to Real Madrid over the summer, with Gonzalo Higuaín and €10 million going to Manchester City, where the former Rojiblanco player is reportedly not happy.

When probed on this possible move, José Mourinho poo-pooed it completely, claiming it was a false story and that “if I comment on false front pages (all the time) then nothing will get done.”

There is a hanging-in-the-balance theme to the three la Liga teams in action in the Europa League on Thursday. Atlético Madrid are heading to Germany to take on Hannover in a clash where a slender 2-1 advantage is held by the ‘Hombres!’ of Diego Simeone.

Valencia are on the brink of oblivion, with poor Unai Emery facing a game in an angry Mestalla against AZ Alkmaar, who have a 2-1 lead from the first leg. Meanwhile, European heroes Athletic Bilbao will be defending a 4-2 advantage in San Mamés against Schalke, with Marca predicting a giant tribute from the home fans for the former Real Madrid man, Raúl. LLL has a feeling that this may be a dream that won’t be coming true.

Push and Run: What's new with Stats Zone v1.4?

Stats Zone — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:43:00 GMT

They say in football (and in plenty of other places...) that if you're not moving forwards, you're falling backwards, and for that reason we're pleased to announce v1.4 of Stats Zone is now available from the App Store.

The biggest change is that you can now have 'push notifications' sent to your mobile device. Simply choose up to five Premier League or Champions League teams and get live updates on lineups, goals, red cards and half time and full time scores. You can also be alerted to new content on the Stats Zone blog and any future updates to the app.

But there are several other changes to the app. Prematch lineups also include list of substitutes, so you can see how the managers may look to shake things up as the game rumbles on.

The app now features two new shot 'event' types filtering all attempts at goal into shots from inside and outside penalty area.

There is also a new pass event type for backpasses to the goalkeeper, so you can determine which sides use their man between the sticks to patiently keep possession, and which teams simply don’t trust their keeper with the ball at his feet.

Player dashboards can now be split into defensive and attacking actions, so you can better assess those all-rounders.

Dashboards will also now feature any own goals that particular individual has inadvertently knocked in at the wrong end. Not that they'll thank us for highlighting it with a thick, yellow line...

We realise football is a global game, and to make things a bit easier for our international users we’ve tweaked the app so all match kick-off times are displayed in the user's local time zone, wherever they may be.

If you've not yet given Stats Zone a try, why not? You can download the app with last year's Premier League and Champions League data for free and see what all the fuss is about.

Champions League preview: Barca must learn from Bayern and find some width

Michael Cox — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:04:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now – to preview Tuesday night's Champions League action...

Bayern Munich v Marseille, Tue 19:45
Opponents know all about the threat of Bayern Munich’s Arjen Robben cutting inside from the right flank onto his left foot, but Marseille found out last week that there is a more complex threat from that wing when playing Bayern.

Thomas Muller, the man who theoretically plays behind Mario Gomez in the 4-2-3-1 shape, actually spends most of his time moving towards the right of the pitch. Look at the pattern of his passes received (below), and it appears as if he’s a right-winger.

That movement has two effects – firstly, it allows Robben to drift inside into the centre of the pitch and exploit the space Muller has created. Secondly, it means Bayern often have three players on the right flank – Robben, Muller, and Philipp Lahm moving up the outside from full-back.

Since Marseille’s two players on that flank naturally pick up the two greater attacking threats, it meant Lahm was left free – and he completed more passes than any other player last week. Bayern will look to retain the ball in the second leg, and Lahm will be a key player in that.

Barcelona v AC Milan, Tue 19:45
Maybe the pitch was to blame, but it was surprising how little Barcelona tested AC Milan down the flanks in last week’s 0-0 draw at the San Siro. Milan’s narrow 4-3-1-2 formation means the full-backs are often left free, and Max Allegri’s side can be vulnerable to a quick switch of play from one side to the other.

Part of the problem was that Barcelona played Andres Iniesta in the left-sided forward position. Iniesta is a fine player, but he prefers playing an attacking midfield role, and when used as a forward he tends to come inside into his natural position anyway. Pep Guardiola probably played Iniesta there in order to give Barcelona more options in midfield – Milan have a four-against-three advantage in terms of pure formations, but it meant Barca were unable to stretch the play. With Carles Puyol used at left-back, they had no width down that side.

Cristian Tello’s arrival from the bench provided Barcelona with a real outlet on the flank – he properly stretched the play, as you can tell by the difference between the passes he and Iniesta received. Guardiola should go with a true wide forward – Tello, Pedro Rodriguez or Isaac Cuenca – to exploit Milan’s weakness in wide zones in Tuesday evening’s second leg.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Premier Analysis: United go sideways, Ba looking sheepish, Spurs' big mistake

Nick Govier — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:23:00 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

The destination of the Premier League title became a little clearer this weekend as Manchester United scraped past Blackburn Rovers and emerged with a five point gap over 'noisy neighbours' Manchester City. But for a long time the win had looked far from certain with United only able to muster three shots on target until the final ten minutes, despite enjoying 73% of possession and 92% pass completion at Ewood Park. At the other end, David De Gea had kept them in the game with three excellent acrobatic saves.

The second goal was a microcosm of the match in many ways. There were 37 passes in the buildup to Ashley Young's finish (the highest such sequence this season), but they were most sideways and offered no real penetration or threat to the Blackburn back four. It was only when Antonio Valencia finally picked the ball up on the right and drove forward that Blackburn's resistance was shaken and Young's smart finish sealed the points.

Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes posted great passing statistics, with the former making 92 successful passes and the latter only misplacing two passes in his 80 minutes on the pitch. However, as can be seen below the vast majority of these passes from both players were sideways with little threat to the Blackburn defence; only three goal scoring chances were created by the pair. It was possession for possession's sake for most of the game, and it was perhaps unsurprising that Scholes was substituted for Ashley Young so United could adopt the more direct, higher tempo approach which saw two goals scored in the next five minutes of the match.

The five point gap was secured thanks to Sunderland's 3-3 draw at Manchester City and an impressive performance from a diminutive playmaker, but not the one you'd expect. Stephane Sessegnon overshadowed David Silva with an impressive performance, only misplacing three passes and creating four chances, leaving the field with two assists. Silva could only produce one goal scoring chance in the 90 minutes.

Newcastle continued their push for fourth place with a relatively comfortable 2-0 win over out-of-sorts Liverpool. One outstanding feature of the match was the skew to the right that both sides exhibited, as shown by the crossing chalkboard below. Newcastle and Hatem Ben Arfa in particular were much more accurate in their crossing, attempting fewer but finding their target more often than Liverpool, including the cross for Papiss Cisse's opening goal.

Liverpool were able to get into crossing positions on the right quite often as Jonas Gutierrez was filling in at left back and was provided with little protection from Demba Ba. Alan Pardew has moved Ba to the left of a front three to accommodate Cissé while also keeping Hatem Ben Arfa in the side, and it is working for the team as a whole, if not for Ba, who seems a little lost on the left and hasn't scored in seven league matches. He tends to play the ball backwards so that he can adopt a more central position, rather than looking to provide balls into central areas from out wide. Andy Carroll on the other hand had an eventful afternoon, demonstrating his strength in the air by winning 11 out of 15 aerial duels, but rarely did those duels take place in the penalty area as Liverpool's poor crossing denied the former Newcastle man an opportunity to score against his old club.

Liverpool's slide has been capitalised on by Everton, who continued to enjoy their customary run of form in the second half of the season to move above their local rivals in the table. Steven Pienaar in particular was excellent, completing 92% of his passes against West Bromwich Albion. Such was the threat he posed, the Baggies were forced into fouling him now fewer than six times. He was only able to show glimpses of this type of form in his rare outings for parent club Tottenham Hotspur, including a 12 minute spell against the Toffees in January, that time playing on the right.

Could Tottenham live to regret letting the South African go, given their post-January struggle for form was in part due to the lack of a player like Pienaar to step in during the absence of Aaron Lennon?

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Fear of failure spooking Camp Nou collective ahead of Milan showdown

Tim Stannard — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:51:00 GMT

A small gesture can speak about 500 words in Spanish. Handily, that’s about the length of a typical column/rant/stream of consciousness from one of the millions of pundits churning out footballing bits and pieces in the daily papers.

When Cristiano Ronaldo scored his wonder-thwack against Osasuna on Saturday and revealed a shapely thigh, it was enough to send Josep María Casanovas off the edge, with the Sport writer claiming on Monday that this was yet more evidence of the moral superiority of Leo Messi over what he considers to be a comparitively vulgar Portuguese prole. “He couldn’t think of any other celebration than to lift up his shorts leg, show off the muscle and tell his team-mates: ‘what a great leg I have, it’s a cannon’”.

In actual fact, Ronaldo was making a private joke with Madrid’s back-up keeper Antonio Adán, who had mocked the forward for only working on his upper body in the gym, but why let a wee fact get in the way of another body blow in the endless Clásico wars.

This led LLL to think that surely the culé crazies had bigger fish to fry this week, and sure enough by Tuesday morning Casanovas was finally focussed on a matter considerably more important than Ronaldo’s manly thighs - AC Milan coming to the Camp Nou in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final.

The writer continues a theme in the Catalan capital ahead of the game, that the Milan meeting is a final that isn’t a final but in actual fact is a final. “It’s the most important match of the season. Spectacle won’t be enough, no other result that a win for Barça will do.” The paper is once again calling for the fans to play their part in the match - usually a definite sign of panic - by clapping occasionally and making making the odd whoop of encouragement. “With this support, with this team, today we’ll go to the semis!” yells the cheerleading front cover.

There are few outward signs of nerves, with Francesc Aguilar over at Mundo Deportivo getting rather excited about a “night of champions, superstars, some of those of Barça who are the best in the world and will want to confirm this.”

This bravado designed to ease the bone-clattering of the culé collective expresses genuine nail-biting stress that this is a clash where Barcelona may not win out and that it will be the dastardly Italians and their defensive ways going through to the semi-finals.

Although the 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou in the group stages was a bit of a flukey one for Milan, there are fears another smash and grab is possible, especially with Barcelona failing to score in San Siro last Wednesday. Pep Guardiola certainly feels that way, admitting that he is not afraid of an away goal because he knows it is going to happen.

“I have the feeling that they are going to score, so this doesn’t worry me,” claimed the Barcelona boss at Monday’s press conference. Carles Puyol peered out from behind his perm to also speak about the final nature of the non-final. “The match is a final in the sense that only a victory is enough.”

The return of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, an ability to defend well by the Swede’s teammates, a decent attack and a spotty record for Leo Messi against Italian teams sees a tense night to come in the Camp Nou for Barcelona, but one in which LLL feels Barcelona will eventually prevail.

Good Day, Bad Day: A Terrific Trio, Delightful Diego & Zaragoza in the Zone

Tim Stannard — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:47:00 GMT

Good Day

Real Madrid
La Liga Loca will happily put its neck on the line and say Madrid's 5-1 victory at Osasuna was the best 90 minute league display for Real Madrid this season. It was a game in which the blog genuinely expected the league leaders to struggle, having lost on the same ground last season and failed to secure victory in Pamplona over the past three trips. But as soon as an absolute stormer of a volley from Karim Benzema put Madrid into the lead after six minutes, that was that. Curtains drawn, slippers on, with an ITV costume drama on the television, and a plateful of crumpets to munch on for the rest of the game.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema & Gonzalo Higuaín
This terrific trio have now scored 99 goals for Real Madrid between them this season. Ronaldo has managed a handy 47, Benzema is on 28 with Higuaín throwing in 24 for the cause. There could be a lot more to come with 12 games potentially left in all competitions.

Barcelona
The Catalan club were in a tough spot on Saturday. Athletic had rested five first-team players from the starting line-up and had only finished playing their previous game 47 hours before, so expectations were that the visitors would be easy pickings for the Camp Nou club.
But as many teams are finding out, Marcelo Bielsa is no mug, and although the team is clearly tired, Athletic are more than capable of making life difficult for opponents if they are in a mood to defend, defend, defend. However, Barça kept plugging away in a match when it might have been very easy to have become frustrated and more than a little panicked.

Levante
The European football dream - or curse, perhaps - lives on for Levante after a hugely-impressive 1-1 draw in Mestalla against Valencia. Levante are currently in fifth with a nice four point cushion over Atlético Madrid in seventh. And we all know how reliable the Rojiblancos can be when the pressure’s on.

Atlético Madrid
Although the back four looked a little wobbly from time to time during the first half, Sunday’s midday victory over Getafe by a 3-0 margin was an extremely comfortable one for the Rojiblancos. The effort displayed by the home side only probably reached the four out of ten mark on Diego Simeone’s “Hombres! Courage! Fight! Passion!” scale.

Diego
Perhaps the player the blog is enjoying watching the most this season. Atlético are a completely different team with the brilliant, play-making Brazilian in the line-up.

Real Sociedad
Philippe Montanier received some criticism around local parts for allowing his players a beer or two to forget last weekend’s 5-1 defeat to Real Madrid. Looks like some apologies are due to the Frenchman after a sparkling 4-0 win over Rayo on Sunday night.

Carlos Vela
An eternal promise of world football who is now finally starting to deliver. The Mexican’s solo effort from the halfway line topped off what has been a solid spell for the 23-year-old. He has already grabbed five goals in 2012.

Pepe Mel
Poor Pepe Mel’s existence at Betis consists of pressure building, building, building before a victory and a footballing trump of relief so powerful it could blow the seats of the club’s stadium into the river. Betis had gone six matches without a win and badly needed Saturday’s rather fortunate victory against Málaga, during which Lady Luck was nuzzled on their shoulders for once, with Betis happily looking down her top. “We didn’t deserve to win but last Sunday we could have put four past Racing,” said Mel recalling last weekend’s disappointing draw.

Granada
The Andalusian newbies have moved from LLL’s ‘if Racing/Sporting/Zaragoza don’t go down, then this lot are definitely doomed’ into ‘they might actually stay up through pulling themselves up by their own boot straps rather than other teams being worse’. Granada are now in cluster with the likes of Betis and Villarreal and giving themselves every chance of staying up after beating Racing on Saturday with a last minute penalty.

Zaragoza
Yikes a’larky! They’ve only gone and done it again. Yet another late effort for Zaragoza against Sporting - the kind seen against Villarreal, Osasuna and Atlético Madrid - lifts the Aragonese team off the bottom of the table for the first time in nearly four months and continues to give Zaragoza the tiniest sniff of a chance of staying up, with the side now on 28 points with eight games left. Next week’s home clash against Barcelona could be a most intriguing one, to say the least.

Bad Day

Unai Emery
Things are not looking too good in the Unai camp, somewhere LLL often likes to reside. The local derby in Mestalla that Valencia really, really, really had to win ended up being a draw and was very close to being a defeat in the final few minutes. Emery’s side have now gone four games at home without a win in the league. However, times might even be getting tougher for the Valencia boss with a Europa League clash due on Thursday - the Spanish side 2-1 down to AZ Alkmaar - and a visit to the Bernabeu on Sunday.

Málaga
After five wins from the past six games the footballing laws of nature temporarily dropped a piano on Málaga’s hopes of sneaking into third place with a 2-0 home defeat to Betis, who only had a couple of shots on goal in comparison to Málaga who had loads and loads. “The ball didn’t want to go in,” was the lament from Manuel Pellegrini after the clash.

Rayo Vallecano
Just two more wins needed for the Vallecas team to stay up, but three defeats in a row - the last of that string being a 4-0 loss at Real Sociedad - suggests that the team is running out of gas and perhaps missing the fear factor of relegation needed to get those final victories.

Villarreal
A goalless draw against Espanyol for the side lead by Miguel Angel Lotina. Swap the word ‘Villarreal’ for ‘Deportivo’ and it’s 2011 all over again for a manager caught in another relegation scrap and who will have to be keeping a beady eye on Zaragoza for the rest of the season.

Racing
A home defeat to Granada in front of despondent supporters now sees Racing as full-on, brrraaaaains-seeking, intestine-missing, flesh shredding walking dead, wandering around in every decreasing circles before am inevitable bludgeon to the skull with a crow bar called la Segunda. “I’m not desperate, but concerned about finding solutions,” admitted Racing coach, Álvaro Cervera.

Sporting
Javier Clemente sounded most unhappy after Sporting’s home defeat to Zaragoza, a direct rival for relegation. And when the Sporting boss isn’t boasting, bragging or talking absolute tosh then that’s normally very bad news for the supporters of the team he’s coaching at the time. Clemente said that while the team works hard, is willing and gives everything, what skills they possess in the first place may not be enough to stay in la Primera.

*Hot news update! On Sunday, Clemente rowed with a journalist who eventually walked out due to things getting more than a little nasty between the pair when the Sporting boss told him he was going to tell his son that he’s a “disgrace”. Normal service resumed for the Sporting boss.

Prosinečki's Red Star revolution already bearing fruit

James Horncastle — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:05:00 GMT

Robert Prosinečki did a hop, skip and a jump. He hugged a member of his coaching staff, then turned back towards the field of play and raised a celebratory fist in the air. Once the elation subsided, he pulled at the lapels of his suit jacket, took in a deep breath and hoisted his trousers up a bit as though to compose himself. Try as he might, Prosinečki couldn’t keep the emotion in and incited the crowd once more.

A few moments earlier Red Star striker Filip Kasalica had been put through on goal. This was a chance for individual glory in the Belgrade derby. Challenged by Partizan defender Nemanja Rnić, he stayed strong and held his ground, but by now the ball was getting away from him. Just as it seemed to be out of reach, he slid and prodded a shot between onrushing goalkeeper Vladimir Stojković’s legs. It rolled into the corner of the net.

Kasalica promptly vaulted the advertising hoardings and ran, arms-outstretched, towards the hardcore support at the Marakana. He had already announced himself to them on March 14 by scoring the fastest debut goal in Red Star’s history a minute and 13 seconds after coming on against Smederevo. Yet the meaning attached to a match-winning strike in a fixture of this intensity will inevitably bring endearment almost beyond comprehension.

There was still a quarter of an hour remaining in the first leg of Serbia’s Lav Cup semi-final, but at 2-0, Red Star had broken Partizan’s resolve. They’d been on the ropes at times, legs wobbling, and were fortunate that each of their sucker punches landed. Both goals were opportunistic. Luka Milunović’s opener, a dinked finish over Stojković’s shoulder inside the 20th minute, came when another youthful Luka, this time carrying the surname of Milivojević, slotted his teammate through after capitalising on a costly defensive mistake.

Red Star fans celebrate victory over their bitter rivals

This was the game’s narrative arc. Whereas Red Star left nothing unpunished, Partizan spared their rivals. Lamine Diarra hit the post and Saša Illić fluffed his lines when presented with a one-on-one, skewing an effort wide. Better finishing may have left the visitors with fewer regrets. Instead, by letting Red Star off the hook, there is a burgeoning sense that this is the latest sign that the momentum might just be gradually swinging away from Partizan.

If anyone had suggested as much back in December, they’d have been open to ridicule. Set on what looked like an unstoppable course for a record fifth straight league title, Partizan were 10 points clear at the winter break. But a fall-out which started after their early exit from the Europa League at the hands of Shamrock Rovers back in August has threatened to derail their campaign.

Left seething at their elimination, president Dragan Đjurić refused to let the issue die. He repeatedly criticised Partizan’s coach Aleksandar Stanojevic and Mladen Krstajić, last season’s captain, who had been installed as the club’s director of sport at the beginning of the season. When a run of 13 consecutive wins didn’t appease him, a sick and tired Krstajić decided it was time to hit back. He was fired for his trouble. Stanojevic then resigned in protest.

Considering the size of Partizan’s lead at the top of Serbia’s SuperLiga, there was little reason to panic. They were ‘untouchable’. Whoever came in would merely have to pick up where Stanojevic left off and follow the script he had laid out. How hard could it be? No one could possibly stuff this up, could they? So confident were Partizan, they even dared to appoint the hapless Avram Grant as Stanojevic’s successor.

It didn’t take long for things to turn ugly: back-to-back draws in Grant's first two games against struggling Novi Pazar and mid-table Sloboda Point Sevojno brought dissent from the Partizan crowd. Grant was pelted with lighters. He won the next two, but defeat to Red Star in the derby left him under more pressure. He seemed indifferent to it all. “I cannot make him show emotions, he’s just that kind of guy,” Đjurić said. “If it was up to me, I’d be emotional even if Partizan were playing cricket.”

Prosinečki took over at Red Star in December 2010

While Grant remains on a sticky wicket, Prosinečki is all of a sudden bowling everyone over. In the last month, Red Star have won six games in a row and have reduced the gap at the top to six-points. There’s an outside chance of reclaiming the league championship, a feat they haven’t achieved since 2007. No longer also-rans, Red Star are at least headed in the right direction and that owes a lot to a courageous decision Prosinečki took in the winter.

A year into the job and frustrated at a lack of progress, he tore up his original plans and started over, placing 11 players on the transfer list. “We need to inject fresh blood into the club at once by adding young talents from Red Star’s academy,” Prosinečki said. “They are the club’s future and I am convinced that’s the only way of looking at things because signing players who become surplus to requirements after six months is not the best policy.”

Red Star promoted their kids and reinvested the £2.5 million recouped from player sales in yet more blossoming talent. It was thought that such a strategy would not yield instant results, that everyone needed to have faith and be patient. “Building a team capable of giving our fans something to cheer about will take time and we can only think of domestic silverware again in a few years,” Prosinečki concluded. Instead, beyond all expectation, they’re already in contention for honours.

Enthusiasm. Exuberance. The benefits associated with youth have reinvigorated Red Star. Milunović, in particular, has caught the eye. A free transfer from Zulte Waregem in Belgium, the 19-year-old Serbia Under-21 striker has scored three times in his first four games for his new club. Like fellow new signing Kasalica, one of five derby debutants last week, his goal against Partizan has been taken as a signal of intent, perhaps even the portent of a new dawn.

But forget talk of Red Star bringing through a generation capable of winning the European Cup again, as Prosinečki famously did in 1991. He admits that a repeat of that achievement is impossible today. “When I think about the players of that time, I am convinced that victory was inevitable,” he said. “Boban, Jarni, Mijatović, Suker… The Yugoslav league was among the top five in Europe. A revival would be difficult. Yugoslavia had a population of 24 million and the players weren’t allowed to leave before they were 28. Today the best players leave at 17. Red Star, Partizan and Dinamo Zagreb live on this, on talents. Maybe a team can emerge, but it’d only last a year.”

For now, that’s what Prosinečki is aiming towards. If he were to win something this season, then the chain-smoking former playmaker could at least afford to put down his Marlboros and light a cigar instead. There’s a lot of smoke at Red Star and perhaps this team is about to come alight too.

Little Aeroplane's managerial career taking off as Catania aim for Europe

Richard Whittle — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:06:00 GMT

This time last year Vincenzo Montella was in the middle of his spell as caretaker period at AS Roma, attempting to keep the team on course for a European place in the dog-end days of the Sensi family ownership.

A sixth place finish and a ‘thanks but no thanks’ from the incoming owners from across the Atlantic brought an end to his eleven-year on-and-off association with the Giallorossi, with a loan period at Fulham at the tail-end of his playing days leading to his first steps in coaching with Roma’s under-15 side.

The Little Aeroplane’s career in the dug-out has really taken off since being offered the job at Catania soon after leaving the capital, where he has brought all that experience of a big-name club to the more homely surroundings of Sicily.

The good citizens of Catania have never known a season like it, and another sixth place finish is not beyond the realms of possibility for Montella, but this time it will be beyond expectations of his employers, a club whose annual wage bill would hardly cover the Roma reserves.

With the freedom to apply the ideas and methods he has gleaned from the likes of Luciano Spalletti, Fabio Capello, Sven Goran Eriksson and Walter Mazzarri down the years, Montella has turned the unheralded Elephanti into a fearsome beast.

At just 37, he is at the forefront of a new generation of tacticians – Antonio Conte, Massimiliano Allegri and Luis Enrique - who make sure the ball does the work, but that the players do not stand around and admire their craft.

Last week a 2-2 draw at Napoli extended Catania’s unbeaten run to seven games and just two points behind Roma who were in the final Europa League spot.

Leaders AC Milan were the most recent to feel the heat of the Massimino stadium when they arrived for the early kick-off on Saturday. The match had been sold-out a week in advance and almost full two hours beforehand as the fans awaited their fortnightly treat of seeing their local heroes take on the mainland.

In a first half in which the visitors showed no ill effects of their tussle with Barcelona, it seemed Catania had accepted their place in the pecking order as they fell behind to a Robinho goal. But half-time is when the coach has that precious opportunity to get his ideas across – quickly and no doubt simply.

Catania’s problem was failing to get the best out of their key men in midfield, with Sergio Almiron, Francesco Lodi and Mariano Izco unable to get forward to support the front-three which included Pablo Barrientos.

Dropping the latter further back on the right flank and pushing the fleet-footed Alejandro Gomez even further out to the left wing brought the midfield further up the pitch to support the hard-working central striker Gonzalo Bergessio.

With Milan once again hitting the long ball towards the imposing figure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Montella could afford to play three at the back, thus pushing the full-backs up where they could deliver the ball quickly into advanced positions.

The equalizer may have come from a corner, but a sustained period of pressure had stretched Milan to the limit. It is this high-intensity style of play that is ensuring that Catania’s journeymen, many of them Argentine, are travelling in the right direction. In doing so, they are also causing Montella’s own stock to rise.

There have been reports that his next destination will could be either Inter or Napoli, with both clubs in need of a revamp in the summer.

The Nerazzurri would seem a perfect destination for Montella’s burgeoning talents, with Massimo Moratti stumbling around in the dark since Jose Mourinho’s departure in the summer of 2010.

He got rid of Claudio Ranieri at the start of last week, turning to youth team coach Andrea Stramaccioni, whose tenuous qualification for the post was having won the NextGen Series the day before.

Stramaccioni - a year younger than Montella and also a former coach in Roma’s junior sector - certainly brought some school-yard football to his first game in charge. Inter held on to beat Genoa 5-4, but if Moratti wants to see his team play in a grown-up fashion again, he should head south and land the leading candidate for the coach of the year.

My Favourite Premier Player: The all-American hero

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:50:00 GMT

American players haven't always been well-received in England. FourFourTwo contributor and Champions staff writer Andy Murray celebrates the man who did more than most to change that.

It can be difficult to like the Yanks. The migraine-inducing accent grates to the point of self-harm; Hollywood’s bombastic films – they’re not 'movies' – offend good taste; and the sense of arrogance irritates most Anglophiles purely because, let’s face it, we’d love to be able to pull off Marlon Brando’s muttered insouciance.

It should be even harder to truly love an American ‘soccer’ player. Coming over here, taking our jobs, and bringing cheerleaders and pom-poms with them to enliven Millmoor or Kenilworth Road; not even Cobi Jones’ skittish runs down Coventry City’s wing could melt my heart to the post-1994 World Cup American invasion. John Harkes was pretty average, ditto Claudio Reyna and Joe-Max Moore.

Brian McBride changed everything.

Blessed with a neck so sturdy and thighs so thick they could start revolutions, he was different. Nobody could head a football like Brian. At just 6ft, he wasn’t tall but that thigh definition wasn’t for idle decoration: the American striker could out-jump any centre-half. Having reached the ball first, he’d then pummel away goalbound headers with the ferocity most Premier League footballers usually reserve for a 2am post-kebab fracas. In the States, he’s nicknamed McHead: it shows.

First brought to England by David Moyes for a six-month loan at Preston in 2000, he threw himself into the First Division’s rough and tumble with typical gusto. During his September debut against Stockport, a nasty collision caused a blood clot in McBride’s arm that required an operation to remove a rib and alleviate the pressure.

He only managed another eight appearances but within two years Moyes came calling again, his Everton side in need of Premier League firepower. McBride’s four goals in eight games piqued Fulham’s interest and it’s here that I fell in love with the stately Yank.

I’m no Cottager – settle down at the back – but as a rakish midfielder who’s scared of his own shadow, let alone 6ft 4in defenders, I wouldn’t put my shapely chicken legs anywhere near the challenges McBride would with his head. A man-crush hastily developed.

His bloodied yet unbowed performance at the 2006 World Cup after Daniele De Rossi’s elbow assault – look closely and you can see a hole in his cheek – remains my defining image of this Titan’s perfect bone structure and magnificent jawline.

“McBride has enough titanium in his face to cause backups at airport security checkpoints the world over,” says MLS journalist Jeff Carlisle.

McBride isn’t the best American player in Premier League history. Thanks to Clint Dempsey, he isn’t even the best American player in Fulham’s Premier League history. But his selfless hold-up play and willingness to run himself into the ground are attributes adored in SW6.

When the Craven Cottage club survived relegation on goal difference in 2007/08 – having being five points adrift with three games to go – it was club captain McBride, plus Jimmy Bullard, the team turned to for inspiration. A McBride goal – a bullet header, obviously – against rivals Birmingham City on the penultimate day of the season went a long way to avoiding the drop. It’s easy to see why the club named a bar at the ground in his honour a season after his departure in 2009.

“I’m not a Fulham fan, but as an American I’m proud of McBride,” says a comment on a YouTube compilation of his goals. Well, I’m neither a Cottager nor a Yank, but so am I. A trailblazer who donated $100-a-goal to the Central Ohio Diabetes Association after losing his grandfather to the disease, he made American footballers fashionable, as Dempsey has found to great success [Jozy Altidore less so – Ed.]

Sod Bruce Springsteen, McBride’s my all-American hero.

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My Favourite Premier Player: The all-American hero

Darron Gibson’s war-cry lost in faint breeze

Back of the Net — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:08:00 GMT

Everton's midfield general has been attempting to rally the troops, reports Back of the Net's John Foster...

Darron Gibson’s attempt to rally his Everton team-mates in advance of Saturday’s game against West Bromwich Albion has proved unsuccessful, according to reports from Goodison Park, after the 24-year old’s motivational oration was lost in a light wind.

Everton had just concluded their final training session in advance of Saturday’s mid-table clash with the Baggies, when the normally shy Gibson was reportedly seized with the desire to address his team-mates.

But his impassioned pep talk was lost in the gentle spring breeze drifting across Merseyside, leaving his embarrassed colleagues straining unsuccessfully to hear him.

“It was pretty awkward,” Phil Jagielka told Back Of The Net. “Darron was clearly fired up, but we couldn’t hear a word he was saying.

“He was shaking with emotion, and making all these hand gestures, but Darron’s not got the loudest voice, and I don’t think anyone could work out what he was getting at.

“Leighton Baines was lip-reading for a while, and Tim Howard tried to catch Darron’s eye while miming for him to speak up, but he just kept mumbling on and on.

“In the end we all had to stand around politely and watch him get redder and redder, while he opened and closed his mouth like a vehement guppy.”

The content of Gibson’s speech is not known. He reportedly began by praising the club’s recent run of results, before the breeze stiffened momentarily, cancelling out his voice except for occasional snatches of words and phrases, like “passion”, “final third” and “yoghurt”.

At one point, the wind dropped enough for the players to hear Gibson describe the Viking hero Ragnar Lodbrok’s siege of Paris, and compare West Brom manager Roy Hodgson to French king Charles the Bald, before another gust rendered the rest of the sentence inaudible.

“It went on for about 15 minutes,” continued Jagielka. “When he was finished, Gibbo had tears in his eyes. I think he ended by reciting the lyrics to The Fields of Athenry, but John Heitinga reckons it was I Will Always Love You.”

Back of the Net asked Darron Gibson to comment, but his response was too quiet to be understood.

More Back of the Net blogs

Former hero Le Toux prepares to return to face Philly

Kris Heneage — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:02:00 GMT

There’s been something of a bad taste in the Philadelphia air the past few months, with changes aplenty and some of the club’s most respected players departing for pastures new – and not always willingly. Such was the case of Sebastien Le Toux.

Le Toux and FourFourTwo exchange small talk in French ahead of some difficult questions regarding the last six months. The timing is apt, given that Le Toux returns to Philadelphia this week to play against his former employers.

He comes back to PPL Park having already made his mark on the scoresheet – after four minutes of his Vancouver debut. Having moved fairly seamlessly, it’s a throwaway comment that potentially explains how he made such a transition.

“I am, what is the word? Ambidextrous?” he asks. That flexibility with his hands may have stretched to other facets of his life. It was certainly the case at Philadelphia. Not only a goalscorer, Le Toux contributed to 57% of the team’s goals in his two seasons – a staggering feat, and part of the reason so many questioned the decision to move him on.

In a protracted relocation, his destination initially appeared to be Bolton Wanderers. Asked about the trial in Lancashire, he interjects. “I wouldn’t really call it a trial, more a visit. I wasn't ready physically and after I came back things went very fast with the trade.”

As fans registered their concern at the decision to let him join Vancouver, Le Toux opted to tell his story. Considering how often the intricacies of player trades go unknown, the Frenchman was breaking from convention.

Many attributed his open nature to the fact he lacked representation, something he has since rectified. “I’ve got someone else since this happened. I’ve had agents before in my career when I was younger.”

It also seemed to serve as testament to Le Toux the man. When it came to dealing with the Union, he felt a middleman wasn’t needed. A cynic may call this naive; an optimist would prefer to term it admirable.

It’s very easy to feel sympathy for Le Toux. As he tries to move on with his career, the story crops up again and again, like a bitter divorce. Was he angry? “I was frustrated at how he [coach Piotr Nowak] treated me, but I have a lot of friends from there. My girlfriend is from there. I'm trying to turn the page and focus on my career with the Vancouver Whitecaps.”

Le Toux is polite and answers every question honestly. Having had time to calm himself, he's less outspoken than before. The same can’t be said for Nowak. His weekly press conference was peppered with questions of Le Toux’s return and the coach manager decided against diplomacy.

Asked how he thought Le Toux would be welcomed back, the former DC United manager replied "Maybe confetti, maybe a parade and banners. I have no idea what it's going to be like and I'm not worried about that whatsoever."

As Chris Vito of the Delco Times reported, it didn’t end there, Nowak continuing his discourse with one reporter for sometime after the press conference had finished, much to the surprise of those in attendance.

By contrast Le Toux’s approach is far more relaxed. Asked how he will come down from the emotions of the weekend’s game, he replies with typical understatement: “I like to drink wine and listen to music. I’m very thankful to be doing what I do, and living my dream.”

His more tranquil disposition may be due to a healthy relationship with Whitecaps coach Martin Rennie. His early report is glowing, with Rennie seeming to offer much of what he missed towards the end of his stay in the city of Brotherly Love.

“He’s a great person; I’m very happy he is my manager now,” says Le Toux. “Martin is very communicative with the players, his door is always open. You know you can count on him, and he can count on you.”

Vancouver will be hoping to rely on Le Toux this weekend. Philadelphia’s season has begun with three defeats and staunch criticism of the new project being undertaken by the club. It’s a stark juxtaposition with Vancouver, who sit atop the Western Conference with seven points and optimism bubbling nicely in the Canadian city after a tough inaugural season in MLS.

But if Vancouver is quickly becoming a home from home, how will Le Toux feel to play at PPL Park as a visitor? He laughs and pauses to consider his words, not through difficulties with the language barrier – his English is flawless – but as he tries to assess and order his emotions.

“I’m looking forward to playing in front of my family and my friends in there. I will be focused on winning the game for my team.” And with this diplomatically polite answer, Sebastien Le Toux leaves to prepare for the final 90 minutes of this chapter.

My Favourite Premier Player: The badly drawn artist

Hitesh Ratna — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:20:00 GMT

Matt Le Tissier: A Southampton player so good, even Portsmouth fans liked him. Well, some of them. FourFourTwo's features editor Hitesh Ratna pays tribute.

The extravagant beak. The shapeless hair. The bulging midriff. The lumbering gait. Without the ball, Matt Le Tissier looked totally out of place on a football pitch. Like a fan who had somehow blagged his way into the team; who, as soon as the ball came to his feet, would be exposed as some Sunday League chancer. This wasn’t a professional footballer, surely.

Then he’d get the ball and everything would change. Having received a pass, he was just as likely to hit an inch-perfect 80 yard pass, slalom (albeit very slowly) between two defenders or nonchalantly flick it up and volley home from 30 yards. And for me, that was the simple but enduring appeal of Southampton’s favourite son: not that he was a great player, but that he was a great player who looked like he should be a sh*t player. An oxymoronic combination of lumbering elegance, the everyman genius, the workaday (Le) God.

Which is why I think his collection of astonishing Premier League goals is unlikely to be matched. Cristiano Ronaldo looks like he should be able to thwack the ball in from 40 yards. So what if Thierry Henry beat the entire Spurs team to score; he was part footballer part sprinter. And as for Dennis Bergkamp, well, he’s Dutch. He was born to play.

Le Tissier, on the other hand, is from Guernsey. GUERNSEY! He certainly wasn’t a sprinter, and for him, six-packs are to be kept in the fridge. When speaking to FFT in 2010, he confirmed his casual approach to professionalism – and at the same time enhanced his appeal – by revealing his pre-match meal: an omelette. And as for fish and chips, never on a match day; they were reserved for the night before a game.

Fuelled by eggs, battered cod and mushy peas, he still managed to score that goal against Blackburn. That goal against Newcastle. That goal against Manchester United. He was, it seemed, incapable of scoring a bad goal. And being the first midfielder to score 100 goals in the Premier League, there was quantity to his quality. His tally of 25 league goals from midfield for the Saints in 93/94 has only been bettered once: by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2007/08.

But then Ronaldo played for Manchester United, who in 2007/08 did the league and Champions League double. The season Le Tissier bagged his record haul in the league, Southampton finished 18th, one point above relegated Sheffield United. With the Saints scoring a paltry 49 goals, it meant Le Tissier scored more than half of all the team's goals.

And yet he stayed. Flair surrounded by graft. Ronaldo played with Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Carlos Tevez. Le Tissier had to make do with Francis Benali, Jason Dodd and Iain Dowie. To borrow from David Baddiel, seeing Le Tissier in the Southampton lineup was like finding a Matisse in a bunch of Rolf Harrises. But then he was a throwback to a bygone era off the pitch too: his loyalty bigger than his ambition. You can’t help but admire his devotion.

It is, after all, one of the reasons that Le Tissier can count Xavi among his fans. “I used to love watching Matt Le Tissier,” the Barca midfielder told FFT in 2009. “He played for a small club with a small stadium. But he would never leave. He stayed where his heart is.”

Yes, Xavi. He stayed where his heart was and scored great goal after great goal. All while having the mobility of a wheelie bin.

You’ve got to love that.

Doing the can-can, Madrid’s party poopers & Athletic’s disadvantage

Tim Stannard — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:57:00 GMT

SATURDAY

Racing (18th) v Granada (17th) – 18.00 local time
A match between relegation rivals is almost certainly going to see the dreaded ‘final’ tag being used one or two times this weekend. But this clash and a fight for survival is something that Granada are more than ready for, according to owner, president and hair-gel king Quique Pina: “We’ve spent two years constantly playing big games. The city knows how to do this as it was so hard to get into the Primera – and now we have to fight to make sure we don’t lose what we have.”
LLL Prediction – Draw

Sporting (19th) v Zaragoza (20th) – 18.00
When Manolo Jiménez took over Zaragoza in December, he who is reportedly in possession of large... er... courage parts confidently predicted that his team would stay up this season – but said that only one pundit in 10 would agree with him. A few wins down the road, 25 points in the bag and six more victories to go until what should be a safe points total sees Jiménez in even more confident form. “I reckon that five out of 10 think we will save ourselves,” claimed the Zaragoza boss to Marca, this week.

Jiménez was asked what forfeit he would perform if Zaragoza did stay up. After some pondering, he decided that “I see myself dressed up in local costume, cycling around the Plaza del Pilar or trying to dance a jota [an odd, can-can-style dance].” Worth cheering on the Aragonese outfit until the end of the season, just to witness all that.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Osasuna (6th) v Real Madrid (1st) – 20.00
X-Men superjet flight to Pamplona? Check. Comfy bus to move the players about town? Check. Luxury hotel to make sure the Madrid squad is ready for Saturday’s tough-tackling, long-ball dominated clash against Osasuna? Check. Ten thousand students having an 18-hour boozy street party kicking off on Friday morning 400 metres from the Real Madrid hotel? Probably not ‘check’, but that’s what José Mourinho’s men are facing this weekend in what could be a very sleepless spell up in beautiful Navarre.
LLL Prediction – Away win

Barcelona (2nd) v Athletic Bilbao (11th) – 22.00
If Barcelona think they are being treated harshly by the slings and arrows of referees and evil conspiracies from various national and supranational federations then pity poor Athletic Bilbao, who are having to play their Camp Nou clash 47 hours after the end of Thursday’s magnificent 4-2 over Schalke.

And the reason why? They don’t have a whole army of newspapers, radio and TV stations to do their moaning on the club’s behalf and to make sure poor bunnies Barcelona have enough rest time for their Champions League game against Milan.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Málaga (4th) v Betis (15th) – 22.00
Although Betis are seven points clear of the relegation zone, which is not that bad really, there has been some murmurings over the future of manager Pepe Mel – as indeed there have been all season.However, level-headed club president Miguel Guillén – far too sensible to have a future in the game in Spain, and especially in Andalusia – came together with Mel to take part in a local radio station interview as a show of unity.

“The biggest impact is always to sack the coach,” admitted the knowing Betis manager, whose team are currently without a victory in six. “Now’s not the time to go mad,” soothed his boss. “The confidence in the coach is total.” Beautiful really.
LLL Prediction – Home win

SUNDAY

Atlético Madrid (8th) v Getafe (10th) – 12.00
Another victory in the Europa League – a 2-1 win over Hannover – wasn’t the big news ahead of Sunday’s clash. Instead it’s the remarkable boast / promise / lunatic episode in AS that claims that nearly a thousand Getafe fans will be making the trip to the Vicente Calderón for the midday clash. Crazy talk. Sheer crazy talk.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Valencia (3rd) v Levante (5th) – 18.00
Two league defeats in a row and a now a 2-1 loss at AZ Alkmaar means these are golden days for those Valencia fans who love a moan during a game. Sunday's Mestalla match-up against local rivals Levante gives plenty of opportunity for some apple-squeezing boo-age, especially if their little brothers win and go level on points. Should Valencia ruin the fun by winning, the hankie-waving may have to wait for next Thursday if Valencia can't turn it round against their Dutch visitors.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Real Sociedad (14th) v Rayo Vallecano (12th) – 21.30
Apparently, there was some criticism around San Sebastian that some Real Sociedad players went out after last Saturday’s loss to Real Madrid and dared to try and enjoy themselves, a mere seven days before their next clash. The footballers should, of course, have been sitting in a corner thinking very hard about their performances against a couple of strikers who cost about €120m.

Real Sociedad manager Philippe Montanier also thinks that such criticism is tosh and tish – and told the media so when asked to share his thoughts on the Saturday night outing. “It was good to disconnect,” opined the Frenchman. “If you go home and go to bed you constantly think about what happened and it’s much worse. Better to have a beer together, try and work through the defeat, disconnect and recover mentally.”
LLL Prediction – Home win

Villarreal (16th) v Espanyol (7th) – 21.30
When Lord of Doom Miguel Angel Lotina was appointed as the boss of Villarreal last week, Bernd Schuster compared the forlorn, brooding figure to Alatriste, a rather maudlin Spanish literary figure. Lotina hasn’t taken to this at all well, although he claims that “it didn’t bother me: he says I’m sad but he doesn’t know me.”

However, the Villarreal boss did admit that “what my friends or family think worries me. The idea that people have when they see things on TV often isn’t real. I don’t know Schuster but he doesn’t seem very nice.”
LLL Prediction – Home win

MONDAY

Sevilla (9th) v Mallorca (13th) – 21.00
Despite a few sticky patches here and there – but that’s the manager’s own business – Míchel is beginning to have some success at Sevilla. Well, a couple of victories against relegation battlers anyway, but that’s what constitutes success for Sevilla in these somewhat barren times for the Andalusian club.

Míchel was chatting this week about his immediate future and said that it would be better for all perhaps if the uncertainty persists over whether he will be on the bench next season. “It wouldn't be good for me if the president said ‘Hey Míchel, next year you’ll be here whatever happens’. The team needs to keep up this tension – and the other one who needs to keep this is the coach.”
LLL Prediction – Home win

How to stop Walcott and Man City – and Swansea's secret weapon

Michael Cox — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:02:00 GMT

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

Arsenal’s trip to QPR on Saturday afternoon should see an interesting battle between two players who know each other well from their days at the Emirates together – Theo Walcott up against Armand Traore, who moved to Loftus Road at the start of the season.

Walcott’s main asset is his pace – but Traore is also extremely quick, and so when facing his ex-teammate, Walcott has to vary his game and show that he has the ability to beat an opponent with a trick, as well as with raw speed.

In the first meeting between the two earlier in the season, Traore largely stopped Walcott from doing anything in the penalty box – it’s notable how his interceptions and tackles are right on the edge of the area, and Walcott’s passing chalkboard illustrates how he struggled to make an impact inside the box.

Sunderland’s 1-0 win over Manchester City will go down as one of the most defensive – yet most effective – performances of the Premier League season. Ji Dong-Won’s late goal came after a dogged defensive display on New Year’s Day.

The pattern of interceptions and tackles is interesting – Sunderland intercepted the ball higher up, as they closed down City when they tried to play through midfield, but almost all their tackles took place very deep, within 20 yards of their own goal, and particularly in the left-back zone.

Sunderland will almost certainly play the same way in the return match at Eastlands, and City should be aware that they’re unlikely to be tackled in the centre of the pitch – that’s the zone they can create from.

Jose Enrique started the season in fine form for Liverpool, but a little like fellow Spaniards Juan Mata and David Silva, his displays have dropped in quality recently. Up against his former club Newcastle – currently eight points ahead of his new team – he’ll be looking to make an impact.

His performance in the shock home defeat to Wigan summed up his recent form – he got himself into good positions, but was then underwhelming with his delivery. Seven out of eight successful take-ons was contrasted with none of his attempted four crosses finding the intended target.

Swansea will be without centre-back Steven Caulker for their trip to White Hart Lane this weekend, since Caulker is on-loan from Tottenham, and therefore ineligible to play against his parent club.

Caulker is a solid defender, but like most Swansea players, his ability to pass the ball is also crucial in his selection over Brendan Rodgers’ other options in his position. Although the Welsh side are famed for their short passing play, Caulker is one of the few who tries to pass the ball over longer distances, as his pattern from last week’s defeat to Everton shows.

In contrast, likely replacement Garry Monk – who deputised in the reverse fixture, the last game Caulker missed – plays much less ambitious passes, and rarely strays forward from his natural centre-back position. Swansea will be weaker at the back because of Caulker’s absence, but might also miss him prompting attacks from deep.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

The 20 worst Premier League kits

Gary Parkinson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:43:00 GMT

Earlier this week, we gave credit where it's due for the 20 best Premier League football kits. Now, it's time for debit where it's due: the worst of the last two top-flight decades. And no, that grey Manchester United kit isn't in there…

Arsenal (A) 1991-1993
Welcoming the Premier League era with a bang (as taste leaves the building, slamming the door behind it), this chevron shocker is a staple of bad-shirt lists because it's quite unbelievably bad. Someone designed this; someone cleared it; some even bought it.

Aston Villa (H) 2004/05
More shameful chevron shenanigans. Rehired kit manufacturers Hummel went overboard on the pointy little bleeders for this shirt, which only lasted a year before being dechevronned. Didn't stop people asking "Why are they sponsored by Cows?"

Birmingham City (H) 2010/11
Give the people what they want, goes the mantra. So when Birmingham hired Chinese manufacturer Xtep, there was a four-way public vote on the new shirt design, and the worst one won. Could've been Villa fans on the sly; certainly a lesson that democracy doesn't work. You hear that, China?

Blackburn Rovers (A) 1996/7
Not a good season for Rovers. Alan Shearer had gone, Ray Harford resigned, Sven-Göran Eriksson reneged on replacing him – and the players had to shuffle around in this mess, which combined an unwisely bold yellow with vertical strips of what looks like doodles or the result of leaning against a freshly-creosoted fence.

Bolton Wanderers (H) 2008/09
You'd think it'd be hard to go wrong with a plain white shirt. You'd be wrong. This Reebok effort made it look like the Wanderers players were wearing some sort of sports bra. The one after that looked like a stripy Tesco carrier-bag.

Chelsea (A) 1994-1996
Back in the early 90s, there were conversations in the pub (it's like Facebook, but boozy) about whether kit manufacturers were trying to outdo each other in awfulness. The Silver Tangerine may be Umbro's entry, as worn by Chelsea ledges like Ruud Gullit and Dennis Wise.

Coventry City (A) 1992/93
Notable taste-swerving shirt pioneers since the 70s (the Talbot T, the cack-brown away kit), Cov reached a nadir with this effort from the Premier League's first season. Thankfully seldom seen, it was redolent of a car windscreen in a particularly grisly public information film about seatbelts.

Everton (H) 2009/10
Yep, the white bit recalls fond memories of Everton's excellent 1985/86 season. But coupled with the chest-crossing hem, it looks too much like a lady's plunging neckline. And we really don't want to consider Osman's orbs, Cahill's cleavage, Bilyaletdinov's bazongas, etc.

Fulham (A) 2010/11
Apparently, some people like this kit. They say it's the colour of Australian sports teams, as if that makes it all OK. It's also the colour of the result left behind after a sickly cat gorges on grass, or a toddler eats its crayons.

Liverpool (H) 1993-95
Shankly changed Liverpool to all-red in 1965, but in 1991 Adidas added their three-stripe motif overtly to the right shoulder and left hip, and this update doubled the intrusion so players looked like they'd been rugby-tackled by Tippex. The team's not been the same since. Coincidence?

Manchester United (H) 2009/10
Commemorative kits are good for clubs, in that they can scrap them after a year, and for fans, in that they don't have to put up with frequently awful designs for more than one campaign. Some centenary or other 'inspired' Nike to whack a black rugby-shirt V across the chest; reaction was mixed, to say the least.

Newcastle (A) 1997/98
Newcastle don't have to wear their away kit very often; good job, with shockers like this. This cacophony of blue, green and orange – with badge and stripe off-centre for no real reason – looked like an ugly bruise ripening in the sun, and when Kenny Dalglish's underachievers wore it in a 4-1 defeat at Leeds ref David Elleray changed his own shirt to avoid any comparison.

Norwich City (H) 1992-1994
No apologies for including the legendary "Canary-cack" shirt, one of several from the dawn of the Premiership when kit designers appeared to be seeing just how much they could get away with. Apparently manufacturers Ribeiro went bust halfway through the 1993/94 season, and replacements Mitre toned it down ten notches for the following campaign; draw your own conclusions.

Nottingham Forest (H) 1994-1996
Forest were relegated and immediately re-promoted in a pin-striped strip of cool simplicity, which was the subtly altered in pre-season to replace Shipstones with new sponsor Labatts. Sadly they then switched to this over-egged pudding, with thick black "rucksack straps" and unnecessary white horizontals.

Reading (A) 2007/08
Hoops are jolly, lively livery. Perhaps influenced by the dour public image of Steve Coppell – a man who once, when asked what promotion to the Premier League meant, replied "nine months of hell" – Reading dialled down the joy by choosing change colours of funereal black and grey. Reading were relegated.

Sheffield Wednesday (H) 1995-1997
You'd think it'd be difficult to get it wrong with stripes. You'd be wrong. After a century of regularity, Wednesday suddenly decided to go all barcode, making it harder to see the badge (pity) and manufacturer logo (justice) and adding unprecedented splashes of yellow. And that's to say nothing of the background montage of letters saying, oh yes, SWFC (Stop Wilfully Faffing with the Colours?).

Sunderland (A) 1996-97
"To mark the 11th anniversary of the 1985 Milk Cup Final – which Sunderland lost 1-0 to Norwich City through an own goal in a season which ultimately saw both teams relegated – we've honoured our Canary conquerors by adopting their colours for a change strip." So ran a press release which we've just made up.

Tottenham (A) 1995/96
Purple is the colour of kings. Purple is the colour worn by high academics. Purple is the colour of pride. Purple is the colour of UKIP. Purple is the colour of death. Purple should not be the colour of a football kit.

West Ham (H) 1993-95
In the early 90s, kit manufacturers overstepped the mark. Having signed up West Ham and Southampton, Pony wasted no time in pasting their trademark (no, really) reverse tick across the chest of the players, attempting to justify it with various other unnecessary brush-strokes.

Wigan (A) 2008-09
Fluorescence demands confidence. It screams "look at me", so you'd better be worth looking at. Barcelona did it in 2005, Chelsea in 2007; Wigan coat-tailed along the following season. No need for jokes about news arriving slowly in Wigan.

Don't shout at us, it's just a bit of fun

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Putting together any 'Top 100' is difficult when the subject matter is so subjective, but compiling The Top 100 Premier League Games still seemed like a good idea at the time. More fool us.

Everybody will disagree with our analysis, we know that. But if the mantra 'different strokes for different folks' was good enough for the late Gary Coleman, it should be good enough for you.

However, particular apologies to fans of the four Premier League clubs past and present who don't feature in any of the 100 matches we've chosen. We apologise because we've either made a mistake, or your team is boring.

Nope. We don't know what's going on here either...

So, what makes a match one of 'the best'?

It's not about one singular moment, rather a full 90 minutes of entertainment and drama. For that reason, the game featuring Darren Bent's beach ball assisted goal against Liverpool is out, but the one including Sunderland's calamitous treble of own goals against Charlton is in (sorry, Mackems).

We know goals aren't the be all and end all as far as a compelling football match is concerned, but it stands to reason that there are a fair few high-scoring thrillers in the list. We've attempted to counter that by including some particularly enthralling low-scoring matches, while remaining mindful of our remit.

Some matches are also there because the ramifications shocked us to our very core (forgive us if we’re being melodramatic, but this is the Premier League, after all), by leading to title glory, European qualification, relegation…or perhaps a suspension or four.

Ultimately, these are the 100 matches we look back on from the last 20 years that make us think ‘yes, that was good’.

So sit back, relax and enjoy The Top 100 Games of the first 20 years of the Premier League (minus the ones we forgot).

Champions League a bridge too far for Toon, but London trio all fallible

Jon Champion — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:46:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action...

FIXTURES Sat 31 Mar Aston Villa vs Chelsea, Everton vs West Brom, Fulham vs Norwich, Man City vs Sunderland, QPR vs Arsenal, Wigan vs Stoke, Wolves vs Stoke Sun 1 Apr Newcastle vs Liverpool, Tottenham vs Swansea Mon 2 Apr Blackburn vs Man Utd

The balance between the three London sides in contention for those last two Champions League spots - Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea – appears to have swung. For a long time it was Spurs who were the sure things, Chelsea who looked set to grab fourth and Arsenal who looked destined to miss out.

Now, Arsenal are hot favourites for third, while last weekend’s draw at Stamford Bridge leaves Spurs with a five point gap over Chelsea, now rank outsiders.

The three sides all have certain fragilities which could affect them at various times in the last eight games of the season. It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen with any certainty, because they don’t deliver the level of consistency that you would normally expect from a top four side, although Arsenal clearly seem to have found their rhythm at the right time.

Just below that capital trio are two sides who face one another in what looks the most intriguing of this weekend’s Premier League ties. Newcastle against Liverpool is one of the blue-chip Premier League fixtures, thanks largely to those 4-3 thrillers in the late 90s, two of the greatest Premier League games of the last twenty years.

Liverpool have already secured a Europa League spot by virtue of their Carling Cup triumph, with the possibility of FA Cup success still to come. But the Champions League is now beyond them, and I fancy that may also be true of Newcastle, despite another brilliant showing at West Brom last time out. They would have to finish above two of Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea, and although they’re already level on points with the Blues, the North London pair are still quite far ahead.

Newcastle are still in a strong position for a Europa League place, however, and they’ll therefore be disappointed to be going into this game with so many injuries. Given a full-strength team and home advantage, they would really fancy themselves against Liverpool, but they’ll be forced to deal with the threat of Luis Suarez without first choice centre backs Steven Taylor and Fabrizio Coloccini. Liverpool are themselves a bit of a wounded animal at the moment, having lost five of their last six in the Premier League, but on this occasion those injuries might just tip the balance in their favour.

Chelsea are still fighting on three fronts, with that tremendous Champions League win in Portugal in midweek and the forthcoming FA Cup Semi Final against Tottenham. Chelsea appear to have discovered a little something extra under Roberto Di Matteo, because it’s five wins, a draw and a defeat in seven matches under the Italian’s caretaker management and he’s clearly getting a response from his squad, which Andre Villas-Boas wasn’t in his last few weeks. Aston Villa should be compliant opponents on Saturday. Eight points clear of trouble, Villa are, in my view, the dullest team to watch in the Premier League. They’ve won just one of their last seven in the league, yet their best result of the season was a 3-1 win at Chelsea on New Year’s Eve. Nevertheless, Chelsea are on a bit of a roll under Di Matteo, and I would expect them to avenge that defeat with a win at Villa Park.

Tottenham against Swansea should be the most pleasing game on the eye of all the weekend fixtures. Spurs are without a win in five Premier League games, but should win on this occasion, not least because Swansea will be without one of their unsung heroes Steven Caulker, who is on loan from Tottenahm. While most of the plaudits have gone to their more creative players, Caulker has done very well and I understand the staff at Spurs are looking forward to assimilating him back into their first-team squad next season. Swansea have won three out of their last four in the Premier League, but Tottenham played very well against Bolton in the FA Cup in midweek and should continue their return to winning ways.

QPR’s daunting run-in continues with the visit of Arsenal to Loftus Road. Having only recently faced Liverpool and a tricky trip to Sunderland, they still have to play the top five before the end of the season, and that may well be the most telling factor in their battle against relegation. Indiscipline is another contributing factor, with Djibril Cissé’s second red card in as many months leading to a four game ban. Strangled by suspensions, it’s just a question of whether QPR are good enough to get at an occasionally fragile Arsenal, who have enjoyed seven consecutive Premier League wins. Earlier on in the season QPR may have caused problems, but this is a different side. They haven’t got the terrier-like Neil Warnock urging them on, they have Mark Hughes who is an altogether different style of manager, and for that reason I would be surprised if Arsenal don’t win this particular London derby and put QPR in even deeper trouble.

Elsewhere at the bottom, Wolves seem to have collapsed. There is an air of resignation about the players and the club in general. They made a huge mistake in the sacking of Mick McCarthy and the handling of his appointing his successor. Terry Connor was watching Saturday's opponents Bolton play at Tottenham on Tuesday and while everyone thinks he is a very good assistant, few are yet convinced he is a manager. Bolton have won their last two matches in the Premier League, against QPR and Blackburn, doubly valuable wins because they were against their companions in distress. Looking at the bottom of the Premier League table, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the bottom three stay the same until the end of the season, with Wolves at the very bottom.

Another of the current bottom three, Wigan Athletic, have at least been showing signals that they could perhaps turn things around. They’re only off the bottom by virtue of Wolves’ collapse, but their last three games have brought two draws and a win, and they have lost only one of their last seven. They’ve most likely left themselves a little too much to do this year but I certainly wouldn’t rule them out of escaping. They’ll find their games against Stoke difficult but the Potters are not as strong on their travels as they are at the Britannia. This is a difficult one to call, with the relegation threatened teams a lot is down to desire at this stage of the season and this game against Stoke is a good barometer of Wigan’s desire.

Blackburn Rovers were complacent against Bolton in their local derby last weekend. They did not play well and received a sharp reminder that they cannot afford to ease off. They will be rank outsiders against Manchester United at Ewood Park this weekend, but we shouldn’t forget they won 3-2 at Old Trafford on New Year’s Eve in probably the most surprising result of the season. Having said that, that will be the ultimate motivation for Manchester United, who have won nine of their last ten in the Premier League. They are not the results machine that they have been in previous seasons and I do see them slipping up at some point between now and the end of the season to give an extra twist to the title race. It’s their 47th game of the season; they’ve only failed to score in one match, which was at Newcastle over the New Year. Blackburn still need three wins to be sure of safety, but Manchester United should have too much for them on Monday night.

You can’t bet against Manchester City at home; they’ve won every league game they have played there this season, scoring 44 and conceding just seven. The crunch match is going to be the Manchester derby at the end of April, but the key for them at the moment is who’s fit and who isn’t. Without Vincent Kompany they look vulnerable at the back, whereas with him you can see precisely why they’ve got the best defensive record in the Premier League. They’ve missed him for the last few games and are hoping that he will be back this weekend. They’re also hoping that Sergio Aguero will return because he was equally missed in that 1-1 draw Stoke last Saturday. This weekend’s visitors Sunderland are a side who have just gone off the boil slightly, with two wins in their last seven games in all competitions. Despite disappointment against Everton in the FA Cup in the week, they’re sitting comfortably in eighth place, and while Martin O’Neill won’t want his team to ease off, it would only be natural if they did slightly. Unless they are anything other than at their best, and unless Manchester City have an off day, I cannot predict anything other than a home win.

Everton, on the other side of the coin to Sunderland, will be buoyed by their place in the FA Cup semi-final and, with two defeats in fourteen games in all competitions, they’re a tough nut to crack. I struggle to see West Brom winning this game, after how poor they were against Newcastle last weekend; I couldn’t believe how naive and open they were in the first half. They have taken one point from their last three games after a run of three consecutive wins and that sums them up. They have a good spell and then a bad spell, and that is why they’ll end up lower to mid table. The only question regarding this match is whether it will be an Everton win or a draw.

Fulham have a similar problem - three defeats in a row after three wins in a row - and they’ve failed to score in their last three games. They were very unfortunate at Old Trafford on Monday night not to earn a penalty late in the game, because they had played quite well throughout the game. I like the number of attacking players that Martin Jol is managing to pack into his line-up with Pogrebnyak now as the main striker. If you look at their midfield it includes players like Moussa Dembélé who is one of the best attacking players in the Premier League! Their game against Norwich is a game that doesn’t particularly engage me because nothing really rides on it. I think there’s plenty to admire about Norwich but they have only one win in five games and that was against a very poor Wolves team. They seem to be coasting towards the end of the season and maybe Fulham can take advantage of that. It should be one of those games where you sit back and enjoy the football, without too much concern for the result.

Jon Champion is lead 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.

Your Premier League Perfect XIs: UK vs Rest of the World

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:42:00 GMT

Earlier this week we asked you to pick two perfect XIs as part of our Premier League week: one made up entirely of Premier League players born in the UK, and another of 11 foreigners. You sent us some fascinating suggestions – some brilliant, some... shall we say, 'interesting'.

Of course, that shouldn’t be a surprise – it’s not easy to pick these teams. Not only do you have 20 years’ worth of players to choose from, and in one XI a whole world to scour, but you have to take into account how 11 footballers plucked from different periods, places and clubs would interact; what the team’s tactics would be, and whether you could trust that midfielder and this defender to be on the same team without them either nutting each other or sneaking off with their team-mate’s missus (or both).

Do you pick a team that could realistically work together, or pack it full of superstars and hope for the best? That’s what the pros often seem to do, if 11 years of Perfect XIs in FourFourTwo are anything to go by. A few of you took the same approach: that is, just cry “Sod it” and try to find space for Zola, Bergkamp, Cantona, Henry and Ronaldo all on the same pitch (you know who you are).

Here are a couple of your more feasible XIs – as feasible as this concept can get, anyway. First up: the Brits.

We’re big fans of Matt’s attacking triumvirate, with an experienced midfield putting in the hard yards behind. The only problem could be a lack of width, unless Rio fancies charging up and down the touchline on the overlap.

No width woes for Atif, who also injects a bit of Welsh flair into an otherwise all-English team with the inclusion of Ryan Giggs. Again, though, no real mopper-upper in the middle – and the Premier League Foreigners XI is bound to have some creativity to handle.

Let’s find out. For your consideration: two of your own suggestions for the all-time Overseas Premier League XI. And no, we didn’t include the one that featured Richard Dunne (again, you know who you are).

It’s a very balanced side, is Keith’s, but one with creativity and goals all over the park. Even his goalkeeper has a Premier League goal to his name. And there’s no doubt Thierry Henry would enjoy having David Ginola and Gianfranco Zola to lay on the assists as well as his former Arsenal team-mates in midfield.

Now this, we like: Claude Makelele anchoring, to allow the rest of the team to surge forward. Dwight Yorke is an interesting selection as the ying to Henry’s yang, as are hyper-attacking full-backs Dan Petrescu and Silvinho. C-Ron and Marc Overmars might have some tracking back to do.

So, onto FourFourTwo’s own pair of XIs. We’ve made some brave choices in our selection, but you can’t pass up this opportunity to pick so many talented players...

We’ll admit it: we’re slightly worried about defending the flanks. But this is the sexiest team (or indeed the only team) you’ll ever see playing 3-4-2-1.

And the UK team...

Obviously no predominantly English team could even think of playing in a formation so loose – or indeed, any formation other than 4-4-2. So 4-4-2 it is, with an allowance made for a midfield diamond to push Le Tiss – just edging out Paul Scholes – up the pitch.

So what do you think? Which of these teams is the best, and which the worst? Who would you pick? And who would win between a UK and foreign Premier League XI? Let us know in the comments below, on Facebook or on Twitter with the hashtag #premxis.

Judgement Day, 1994: The four-way relegation battle

Louis Massarella — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:16:00 GMT

History remembers the victors, but some of the most dramatic moments in 20 years of the Premier League have come in relegation battles – tense, all-or-nothing affairs. In November 2000, FourFourTwo recalled a day full of them.

Swindon were down. So were Oldham, barring a miracle. But who would join them in Division One? On 7 May, 1994, four teams were fighting for their Premier League lives.

The Build-Up
As dawn broke on Saturday 7 May 1994, Everton fans awoke to contemplate a potentially dreadful day in their club’s history. After losing 3-0 to Leeds United the week before, the Toffees had dropped into the Premier League relegation zone, one point behind Ipswich Town, Sheffield United and Southampton. Unless results that afternoon, the final day of the season, went their way, Everton would be dumped unceremoniously into Division One (as it then was). Their opponents were Wimbledon, who had nothing to play for, but who were also notoriously difficult opponents.

"It was win at all costs," recalls former Everton right-back Ian Snodin. He and his team-mates knew that if Everton drew they would need Ipswich to lose at Blackburn in order to stay up – they would be unable to catch Southampton and Sheffield United, who had vastly superior goal differences. "No matter what we did, if everyone else won their game we’d be relegated," says former striker Tony Cottee. "We were relying on others."

Wimbledon went into the game in sixth place, on the back of a nine-game unbeaten run, seven of which they’d won. The Everton faithful were clearly worried: the Wimbledon team bus was set on fire the night before the game in the hope that the Crazy Gang would be put off their stride. It didn’t work.

"If it’d been anybody but Wimbledon I’d have thought, 'Perhaps they’ll roll over and let us win', but they’d have loved to send Everton down because we’d had some battles with them in the past," says Snodin. "At the time they were also a good team with some very good players," says Cottee, "so we knew it was going to be tough."

Former Dons boss Dave Bassett was also hoping Wimbledon would do him a favour, as he was now manager of Sheffield United. "Sam Hammam felt he had been snubbed once by Everton and wanted to see their demise," says Bassett in his book Harry’s Game. "He even offered his players a holiday in Las Vegas if they won."

United had pulled themselves clear of the danger zone with two wins and a draw in consecutive games and approached their encounter with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in relaxed mood. "We didn’t think they’d be up for it because they were in the FA Cup final the following week and nobody wanted to get injured," says former United defender and lifelong fan Carl Bradshaw. "Some of the other teams had difficult games so a draw would have done us."

With a tough away match at Premier League runners-up Blackburn Rovers awaiting them, Ipswich Town would also have been happy to pick up a point. "We thought a draw would have been a great result," admits John Wark, then approaching the end of his illustrious playing career with the club. "That was our aim and we hoped other results went for us."

Southampton had what appeared to be the easiest game of the four teams. They were playing West Ham, who were lying in 12th place, at Upton Park. They could go for the win with more confidence, knowing the Hammers had little more than pride to play for.

"We weren’t expecting any favours from West Ham," says the Southampton skipper, Francis Benali. "But if you know that a draw might be enough, there are some doubts as to whether you go for the win. That’s completely the wrong approach to take."

The First Half

Everton got off to the worst possible start. After four minutes, Anders Limpar inexplicably stuck out a hand to Gary Elkins’ corner and Dean Holdsworth scored from the resulting penalty.

Seven minutes later, Danny Williamson gave West Ham the lead at Upton Park. "I began to think, 'Oh my God, here we go', because we didn’t know what the scores were elsewhere," says Benali. But the Saints’ worries were short-lived – Wimbledon doubled their lead over Everton on 20 minutes, when Gary Ablett sliced an Andy Clarke shot (which was going wide) into his own net. "The way in which we conceded the goals was ridiculous – typical of our season," says Everton’s manager at the time, Mike Walker.

Moments later, Holdsworth missed a clear-cut opportunity to make it 3-0. "That would’ve been game over," says Cottee. "Teams rarely come back from 3-0 down to win." Then, on 24 minutes, Graham Stuart gave Everton a glimmer of hope when he pulled a goal back from the penalty spot following a foul on Limpar by Peter Fear. "It was crucial that we hit back straight away," says Snodin. "If we’d had two minutes to reflect on the situation it would have been difficult to pick ourselves up and get a result."

However, things went from bad to worse for Everton. On 29 minutes Jostein Flo gave Sheffield United the lead at Chelsea. Then, on the stroke of half-time, a trademark Matt Le Tissier free-kick drew Southampton level with West Ham. Meanwhile, Ipswich were holding firm against a Blackburn attack spearheaded by Alan Shearer at the height of his powers. "We were quite cautious in the first half," says Ipswich midfielder Geraint Williams. "We knew we had to pick something up and if we were two or three down by half-time that would’ve been impossible."

"Blackburn were doing most of the attacking," says Wark. "It was like Custer’s last stand: we had a flag planted on the edge of our box."

Half-Time

Everton 1-2 Wimbledon
Chelsea 0-1 Sheffield United
West Ham 1-1 Southampton
Blackburn 0-0 Ipswich

As the teams trudged off at half-time, the bottom of the table was much as it had been that morning. As fans around the country tuned in their radios, they learned that as long as Wimbledon led, other results would be immaterial.

That left Everton needing to twice breach a defence that had conceded three or more goals only four times in the Premier League that season – to the top three, Manchester United, Blackburn and Newcastle, plus Leeds United, who finished fifth. "Having got a goal back, there was no need for me to start shouting," says Mike Walker, whose players were not made aware of what was happening elsewhere. "The players still knew what they had to do."

Instead, it was left to the elder statesmen in the Everton dressing room to rally the troops. "I’m one of those players who went around boisterously voicing my opinion to get the lads going," says Snodin. "Dave Watson was another. If it was left to the three or four of us, there was no way we were going down."

"It helped that it was still win or bust," says Cottee. "We had to go out and keep piling on the pressure. And we did. I don’t remember Wimbledon having too many chances in the second half."

Ipswich, on the other hand, were still happy to just keep things tight at Ewood Park and hope that Everton wouldn’t come from behind to beat Wimbledon. At half-time, according to Wark, Town manager John Lyall merely said, "You’re defending well: just try and hold out and hit them on the break." Sometimes that tactic can work. Sometimes, of course, it can not bring salvation.

The Second Half

If the first half was the undercard, then the second half was the main event. After seven minutes of sparring, the punches were thrown thick and fast. Southampton drew first blood, Neil Maddison’s 52nd-minute strike giving Saints the lead at Upton Park and making them all but safe. Then, in the space of three minutes before the hour mark, Jakob Kjeldberg’s headed equaliser for Chelsea was immediately cancelled out by a Glyn Hodges goal for Sheffield United. "From then on we thought we were cruising, no problems," says Carl Bradshaw.

Matthew Rush and Le Tissier then exchanged goals at Upton Park. Everton, who were now laying siege to the Wimbledon goal, still occupied the third and final relegation spot, still needed to win, but were still trailing 2-1.

But, in the 67th minute, the ball broke loose from a corner for Barry Horne – who hadn’t scored all season – to lash a 30-yard shot past a helpless Hans Segers into the top left-hand corner of the Wimbledon goal, prompting Barry Davies’ famous cry of "Oh, Horne!" on Match of the Day. It was 2-2.

"A few Everton fans came running onto the pitch," remembers Cottee – but the team’s position had not altered. Even when Mark Stein made it 2-2 for Chelsea against Sheffield United in the 77th minute, Everton remained in the dropzone. However, the pressure was now building on the Blades, who had twice surrendered the lead at Stamford Bridge.

What followed soon after was both the pivotal moment of the day and a major talking point for years to come. We are, of course, talking about Graham Stuart’s 81st-minute winner for Everton: no more than a firm, side-footed prod that squirmed past Hans Segers into the net after Stuart had played an untidy one-two with Cottee on the edge of the box.

Segers’ failure to make what seemed like a regulation save came under scrutiny two years later when he was at the centre of match-fixing allegations [thoroughly refuted and never proved - Ed.]. In his book, The Final Score, the Dutch keeper gives his account: "He hit a shot that took a deflection off another player’s leg, so that made the ball change direction slightly. The pitch was uneven and the ball hit a bump and spun beyond my control as I dived."

Everton fans teemed on to the pitch in the realisation that, for the first time all afternoon, their team were out of the relegation zone. Stuart’s goal had, instead, left Ipswich – who had been lucky not to concede a penalty in the 73rd minute when David Linighan punched a Lee Makel cross – needing to win at Blackburn. "In the last 10 minutes, I suppose we panicked and everyone was bombing forward trying to get a goal," says Geraint Williams. "We did have a few chances."

At Stamford Bridge, Sheffield United were also pushing forward in search of a winner. "Our bench said we needed to win because everybody else was winning," says Bradshaw. "A draw would have been enough, but obviously we got the wrong messages." As United committed men forward, Chelsea broke clear and caught them on the counter-attack. Glenn Hoddle – on as a second-half substitute – flicked on Dennis Wise’s cross for Stein to add his second in the 90th minute of the game. Within 30 seconds of the restart, the final whistle was blown.

At Ewood Park, though, the teams were still playing. On hearing that Chelsea had scored, Ipswich again stepped on to the back foot, believing a draw would be enough. "It was a funny game, especially the last 10 minutes," says Wark. "Our reserve goalie at the time, Clive Baker, was running up and down the line giving us messages. One minute it was, 'Attack, attack, attack', then all of a sudden we had to get back and defend."

Ipswich held on, but the reaction at Ewood Park at the final whistle was not unbridled joy at getting a draw – the players knew they had to wait for news from the other grounds. "A few players jumped in the air and some sank to their knees, but then the bench came running on so we knew we’d done it," says Geraint Williams.

As expected, Southampton joined Ipswich in escaping the Premiership trap door, despite being pegged back to 3-3 in the 90th minute before a pitch invasion at Upton Park temporarily forced the players off. By the time the players emerged from the dressing rooms, the Saints already knew they had been saved, but at Goodison Park Everton were still waiting for confirmation. "I didn’t know we’d survived until I got to the tunnel," says Cottee. "John Fashanu was there. He said, 'You’re safe, TC, you’re safe', because he obviously knew the other results."

Sheffield United had staved off the threat of relegation for 90 minutes only to be sunk by an injury-time goal conceded chasing a winner they didn’t need. "We got off the pitch as soon as possible," says Bradshaw. "Everybody was distraught. We had it in the palms of our hands and we threw it away."

"When you play Russian Roulette, you sometimes get the bullet," said a pensive Dave Bassett after the game.

Full time
Everton 3-2 Wimbledon
Chelsea 3-2 Sheffield United
West Ham 3-3 Southampton
Blackburn 0-0 Ipswich

"The scenes after the game were unbelievable," says Mike Walker. "There were grown men crying." Although the champagne corks popped in the Everton dressing room, not everybody was in the mood for celebrating. "From my point of view it was a time of relief," says Cottee, who left the club four months later. "Celebrations are for cup finals and winning the league."

Of course, the Toffees did have FA Cup success to celebrate a year later, but faced more struggles against relegation until the arrival of Walter Smith as manager, despite pledges – like that made by two-goal hero Stuart after the Wimbledon match – of "We must never let this happen again."

For Ipswich, whose brush with relegation had been expected, survival proved to be no more than a stay of execution. They finished the next season propping up the Premier League. "After the game, John Lyall said to us, 'You’re very lucky to still be in the Premiership,' says John Wark."

For Sheffield United (and Swindon Town and Oldham Athletic), relegation had dire consequences. They were relegated at a time when the gulf between Division One and the Premier League – in terms of quality of football and financial rewards – was starting to widen and have never threatened to return since [until 2006 – Posterity Editor]. After the Chelsea match, Bassett described the relegation as "the most difficult and emotional time I’ve experienced." There are many who played or watched football that day who would feel the same.

From the November 2000 issue of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

Milan put bodies on the line to keep Barça at bay

Richard Whittle — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:52:00 GMT

AC Milan will head to the Camp Nou next week knowing that they will once again have to exert every sinew and fibre of their bodies to deny Barcelona progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League.

What Massimiliano Allegri’s side will probably need to add to all that effort will be a goal from open play – something they could have had after just two minutes if Robinho had kept his head when left free inside the area, but the Brazilian could only volley high over the bar.

It was certainly not an evening for artists at the San Siro, where once again the pitch was well below the standards of a top-class European venue: in fact, a few hours before kick-off the sprinklers had been on maximum. The soggy top surface was perfect for all those last-ditch sliding tackles that the Milan players would have to put in – and on two occasions Luca Antonini aquaplaned in to deny goal-bound chances.

"No…"

Pep Guardiola had pointed out in the pre-game press conference that he was expecting the opposition to defend in strength through the middle – but if he was hoping to exploit the flanks, then he was sorely disappointed.

Antonini was hardly beaten on either flank, switching from the left to the right when the equally impressive Daniele Bonera moved into the centre to replace the imperious Alessandro Nesta after the veteran’s back finally gave out.

Allegri had made some crowd-pleasing promises that his side would take the game to the Catalans, but having already conceded three goals to the same opposition at the same venue in the group stages there was no way Milan were going to play an open, expansive game.

"…no…"

It wasn’t exactly catenaccio, but as it had been against AS Roma at the weekend it wasn’t free-flowing football going forward. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was once again left to battle for long balls, although the Swede could have scored early on – but while one part of the gameplan didn't flourish, the other excelled.

SERIE AAAAARGH!, Mon 26 Mar: Milan go Route One on Roma

If at times it looked like a training exercise, with Barça patiently passing the ball around in midfield, then Allegri can take credit for schooling his players in the art of defending in the build-up to the encounter.

In front of the back four – which after all was missing regulars Ignazio Abate at right-back and probably the world’s best central defender Thiago Silva – Massimo Ambrosini was another imposing figure.

The club captain might not have played if Mark van Bommel hadn't been suspended, but his harrying of Leo Messi was a key element in keeping the visitors as far away from the penalty area as possible.

"…no!"

Clarence Seedorf – not normally noted for his defensive abilities – and the equally hard-working Antonio Nocerino helped to seal up the centre, forcing the ball to be moved wide where Antonini and Bonera were rarely troubled.

And when the first and second lines of defence were breached, goalkeeper Christian Abbiati smothered the efforts – and in truth there were only two – thrown his way. Only once did the stopper fail to move quickly enough, when Alexis Sanchez burst into the six-yard area only to exaggerate his fall – otherwise it may well have been a penalty.

It was one lapse but it could have been costly and any lack of discipline and organisation in the Nou Camp will surely be punished. The Rossoneri will tackle the return leg with an even more hardened None Shall Pass attitude – but finding an away goal will be just as important.

Messi’s Milan malaise, Mourinho’s laughing fit & Atlético’s man-hunt

Tim Stannard — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:04:00 GMT

Admiration for a defensive job well done, sulking about an attack that failed to break through and a touch of referee-moaning thrown into the mix. That was the Barcelona press reaction to Wednesday night's goalless draw in Milan, which leaves next week’s second leg curiously poised, like David Silva standing on one leg in Trafalgar Square dressed as Hilda Ogden.

"Ooh Stan…"

Mundo Deportivo's Santi Nolla grumbled that it was “objective unfulfilled, everything open but a good chance for Barça to go through to the semis – although Milan did give enough evidence to make his players aware it won’t be easy.”

Sport set aside a bit of space for an unnecessary and mean-spirited dig at Swedish referee, Jonas Eriksson, for failing to give a penalty for Christian Abbiati’s challenge on Alexis, noting rather unfairly that the man in the middle happened to be a compatriot of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, say no more, nothing to see here.

It was a moment that La Liga Loca enjoyed watching on Telemadrid – the somewhat partisan channel broadcasting Wednesday's match to viewers in the capital – whose commentators and pundits were forced to instantly come up with numerous reasons why it was a brilliant decision from Eriksson, a posture that would have been completely reversed had Cristiano Ronaldo been involved instead.

Clean as a freshly-valeted whistle

Rather remarkably considering the forward’s form of late, Ronaldo failed to score for Real Madrid against APOEL on Tuesday night in a 3-0 scoreline that may look like a goalfest to those lucky enough to have missed it, but was an awful drudge of a game between one team that parked every bus in Cyprus in front of their goal and another that was doing the equivalent of a yawn and belly scratch for much of the encounter before Marcelo and Kaká livened things up with half-an-hour to go.

A fine result that leaves Madrid with both feet in the semi-finals was greeted with some cheer in the Capital City media – but for some reason it got Barcelona-based Sport writer Joan Batlle very hot under the collar indeed, calling the Madrid team vulgar during the match.

“The 0-3 barely puts make-up over the reality of the current Madrid," burbled Batlle. "Mou is laughing at Madridistas.” LLL suspects that the supporters are joining in the chuckling, considering the team are top of the Spanish league table with a six-point lead and almost certainly in the Champions League semi-finals for the second successive year.

"Yeah, it's rubbish, this. Mourinho out!"

The European fun isn’t over in Spain, with three teams having a big night out in Thursday's Europa League action. Atlético Madrid are taking on Hannover 96 at the Vicente Calderón, another chance for Diego Simeone to summon the spirit of Ernest Hemingway and do the managerial equivalent of stripping off his shirt to thump his chest. “It’s the best time to find out who the men are,” roared the Atlético coach, leaping up onto his desk, “and the players have to turn up in times like this.”

No such fist-pumping rhetoric from Valencia's Unai Emery, who is in Holland to take on AZ Alkmaar and has probably given up trying to get any kind of reaction from his players. A tired and exhausted Athletic Bilbao have made a tiring and exhausting trip to Germany to play Raúl’s Schalke in what will no doubt be a tiring and exhausting match. Good job the Basque team's next game is only on Saturday night at Barcelona, eh?

The 20 best Premier League kits

Gary Parkinson — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:19:00 GMT

Two decades of high-eyeball merchandising opportunities... sorry, team shirts have produced some crackers and some shockers. First, how it should be done...

Arsenal (H) 2000-2002
The finite shelflife of modern kits help take you back to a certain time, and Arsenal's relatively shortlived sponsorship by Sega's ill-fated Dreamcast pins this kit to the dawn of the new century: Pires, Henry, Ljungberg, Vieira, Campbell, Cole and a third Double.

Aston Villa (A) 2009/10
After two years of oppressively dark away kits, Villa's 2009 set paired simple dark blue shorts with a top of almost stunning simplicity: plain white with a subtle pinstripe and unfussy sponsor logo. The year after, they switched back to black and gained an ugly new sponsor. Never mind.

Blackburn Rovers (H) 1992/93
Back to dark blue after a brief flirtation with a suspiciously sky-blue hue, Blackburn's first top-flight kit for 26 years paid much more reverence to the ancient halves than to the sponsors' red logo. Quite right, too: why bow to corporates when Uncle Jack's signing the cheques?

Chelsea (A) 2003/04
Chelsea have had some awful away kits of late but this design was well-received. The central double stripe was eye-catching without being eye-watering, and even its slight similarity to an Embassy Regal cigarette packet was kinda retro.

Crystal Palace (H) 1997/98
Few teams can have changed their colours more often than Palace, who have flitted between white, red and blue in various combinations. The late-90s dabbling with white shorts, socks and collars coincided with a top-flight season that begun with Steve Coppell and concluded with Lombardo, Brolin and ignominy.

 Fulham (H) 2009/10
After disastrous dalliances with asymmetry and overcomplication followed by back-to-basics plain white, Fulham got the balance right with this round-collared, black-sleeved effort. That it coincided with the greatest season in their history may be a happy accident or divine design approval.

Leeds United (H) 1993-1995
New unfashionable sponsor, new unheralded kit-maker, new unprecedented horizontal stripe… it could have gone horribly wrong, but this blue-collared classic was a marvel of understated design. Sgt Wilko's team responded with two fifth-place finishes.

Leicester (H) 1996-1998
A golden era for the Foxes, with the first silverware in a quarter-century and Martin O'Neill building a team featuring Heskey, Lennon, Claridge & Co. They lined up in this kit, with tasteful two-tone V-neck collar and cuffs and a sponsor logo yet to absurdly incorporate the sun.

Liverpool (H) 1995/96
They like a bit of 'istoree at Anfield. After unfortunate early-90s kits majored on three intrusive diagonal white stripes, Adidas' final strip for a decade recalled the club's 70s pomp by relegating the manufacturer motif to a subtle sleeve-stripe and restoring the red hegemony everywhere except a bold white V-neck.

Manchester City (A) 2011/12
If you have plans to conquer the continent, you can do worse than ape AC Milan. That was Malcolm Allison's idea in the late '60s, when City adopted Rossoneri stripes as an away kit – and won the league, FA Cup, League Cup and Cup Winners' Cup. This season's strip reverts to the popular theme.

Manchester United (H) 1998-2000
Reeking of David Beckham, this kit strongly evokes the 1999 Treble-winning side – although in Europe the side wore a simpler version shorn of the black piping. The zip-up collar and elasticated cuffs even kept out the worst of the weather. Well, some of it.

Middlesbrough (H) 1992/93
Although predominantly red since the 19th century, Boro have often been bold with wedges of white, and their kit for the Premier League's maiden season was a fine example. Lennie Lawrence's team wore proud splashes of white and that iconic ICI sponsor's logo.

Newcastle United (H) 1995-1997
If the round white four-button collar lent this shirt a timeless quality, the Newcy Brown bottle label rendered its wearer almost a walking symbol of the city. And with attacking title campaigns, stunning record signings and dramatic managerial walkouts, everyone was watching Newcastle.

Nottingham Forest (H) 1992/93
Compared to its magic-eye predecessor and black-swathed successors, this was a classy outfit for Brian Clough's final, relegation-doomed season. The buttoned red collar and subtle pinstripe were entirely suitable attire for Stuart Pearce and Roy Keane to wear while terrorising the division.

QPR (H) 1995/96
The titular hoops have remained largely untouched, but this is our favourite iteration. The simple round blue collar and centralised badge marked a classy debut by kit manufacturers View From (who they?). Shame the team struggled without Sir Les Ferdinand and dropped out of the top flight.

Southampton (H) 1995-1997
After two years of looking awful in Pony's first Saints kit with asymmetric stripes and a reverse tick at the top, Le Tiss & Co. were delighted to receive a back-to-basics affair with pleasing thin stripes and a retro collar. Just don't mention the Where's Wally socks.

Tottenham Hotspur (A) 2000/01
You can tell a good away shirt when you hope for more kit clashes. Tottenham only had to wear this tasteful, regal dark blue outfit a handful of times and lost on each occasion – although they had unveiled it at the tail-end of the previous season with a home win against Sunderland. Oh well.

West Brom (H) 2002/03
Boinging into their first top-flight season since 1986, the Baggies took kit design in-house and produced their best shirt in years. Tasteful stripes, no extraneous detail, simple collar... if only they hadn't finished 19th in it.

West Ham (H) 2001-03
With Harry Redknapp, Rio Ferdinand and both Frank Lampards gone, this was a new era for West Ham under Glenn Roeder. With Paolo Di Canio looking more imperious than ever in two-tone round-neck, blue sleeves and white socks, the Hammers finished seventh, their second-highest position in 15 years… then got relegated the following season.

Wimbledon (H) 1993/94
For the second Premier League season, Wimbledon acquired a sponsor and a new kit manufacturer, darkened the blue and added a tasteful yellow collar. It worked: fired by 24-goal Dean Holdsworth, the Dons finished sixth – as it turned out, their highest position.

And now the bad news: the 20 worst Premier League kits

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My Favourite Premier Player: The all-American hero

My Favourite Premier Player: The Emperor of Rome

David Hall — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:15:00 GMT

In our Premier League week we'll be celebrating 20 years of the rebranded top flight – including naming our favourite players from that era. This time, it's the turn of FourFourTwo editor, Mr David Hall, to speak of a certain feisty Italian...

They all thought he was mad. Harry Redknapp had finally lost the plot. Paolo Di Canio? Paolo Di effing Canio? He’s a complete lunatic. He pushes refs over, for gawd’s sake.

When West Ham took delivery of Sheffield Wednesday’s bad boy in 1999, there was more than a little concern over H’s mental health. Then the Italian played. And how he played. "Paarlo" was unique. He would happily pluck a pass out of the sky at chest height, hold the ball up, beat a couple of players and get a cross off. He’d then follow this by berating everyone within a 10-yard radius for not being on the end of his fine work. It took a while for the rest of the team to get on his wavelength.

West Ham have had a lot of great players pull on the claret and blue, but very few that fulfilled the cliché of "worth the entry fee alone". Di Canio was one of those men – entirely unpredictable, sublimely skilful and completely unhinged.

Here are some moments that define Paolo Di Canio:

The Spotkick Spat (vs Bradford City, 12/02/00)
This game finished 5-4 to West Ham, but not before Paolo and Frank Lampard had enjoyed a wonderful handbags session over who was going to take a penalty. Paolo won (of course) and scored the spot kick (of course).

The Voluptuous Volley (vs Wimbledon, 26/03/00)
For me, still the greatest Premier League goal of all time. It was a fairly quiet match in front of a not-very-full Upton Park, but that never really bothered Di Canio. Over comes the cross from Trevor Sinclair, and while he’s airborne, Di Canio controls a volley with the outside of his foot back across the Wimbledon keeper. Something to tell the grandkids? You betcha.

The Conscientious Catch (vs Everton, 15/12/00)
Many fans wrote Di Canio off as a petulant child, particularly after his Alcock pole-axe while with the Owls. Then he goes and does a stupid thing like this. Rather than collect a cross and stuff it in an empty net, the Italian caught the ball. Why? Everton’s keeper had rushed out to collect a ball and had crumpled with what looked like an excruciating knee injury. Rather than give West Ham three points, Di Canio showed the world he was a mature chap after all. He won FIFA’s Fair Play Award for his trouble.

The Barthez Bungle (vs Man Utd, 28/01/01)
Admittedly, this was an FA Cup game, but humour me if you will. Although not a spectacular strike, this was Di Canio at his best. Unerring self-belief had him ignore the attempts of Fabien Barthez waving his arm in the air as if an offside decision had been given. The Italian calmly continued, slotted the ball in the net and sent the away support into raptures. For many seasons after, West Ham fans still greated Man United followers by waving and arm in the air to the song "Let’s all do the Barthez".

The London Larrup (vs Chelsea, 28/09/02)
East London doesn’t have much love for the West, so Di Canio scoring a brace of fantastic goals in a 3-2 win confirmed his legend status for Hammers fans. The first was impudence of the highest order – Di Canio flicking the ball up to set himself for a 35-yard volley past Carlo Cudicini. Bosh!

Weirdly, for all his on-pitch brilliance and arrogance, that probably wasn’t his greatest strength as a Premier League star. His biggest asset as a player was his ability to engage with and understand the fans.

Di Canio had form with his boyhood club Lazio, where he was a regular on the terraces. This experience shaped his innate ability to relate to fans – something that Swindon Town supporters will, no doubt, have noticed over this past season. He more often than not judged the mood of the fans perfectly, meaning he was a divisive character to have in the team. Just ask Glenn Roeder.

His name still rings out at Upton Park today as the fans pine for that stardust that Di Canio brought to West Ham. The Boleyn hasn’t seen the likes of him since he left for Charlton in 2003. Nine years is a long time. Many feel it won’t be much longer before he’s back, wreaking wonderful, beautiful havoc again.

Ribéry returns to Marseille with a point to prove to France

James Horncastle — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Franck Ribéry is coming home. Not to Boulogne-sur-Mer, the place where he grew up and is about to open a shisha bar called O’Shahiz with his brother and two brothers-in-law, but to Marseille.

As he walks out on the field at the Stade Vélodrome for the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday night, memories of the two intense years he spent there will flash before the Bayern Munich winger’s eyes. “Playing Marseille again will be special,” said Ribéry. “My relationship with the fans was magnificent. I was an idol.”

Ribéry hails from the same area in northern France as another club legend, Jean-Pierre Papin, and it wasn’t long after he signed for Marseille in 2005 that Ribéry was adopted by a group of supporters notorious for being hard to please.

A cheeky urchin, he could have been one of their own from down on the docks, shouting and swearing with the best of them. The scar on his face, a sad memento of a childhood car crash, may once have made him a figure of fun but now added a certain street appeal.

Reunited with his former Metz mentor Jean Fernández, he had just walked out on Galatasaray after a payment dispute. Their loss, which was made all the more painful following Ribéry’s performance in the Türkiye Kupasi final when he had scored one and set up another in a 5-1 thrashing of bitter rivals Fenerbahçe, was undoubtedly Marseille’s gain.

Pile-on! Ribéry in his Marseille pomp

Ribéry had shown glimpses of his talent before in France with lower-league clubs Boulogne, Alès and Stade Brestois before Fernandéz game his a chance at Metz – but never on a stage like Marseille, where the hype and media attention is quite unlike any other club. It can distort the reality, but it was clear from the outset that Ribéry was the legitimate article.

Nicknamed FerraRibéry at Galatasaray, he got off to a flying start in Marseille. His first season there remains one of his finest ever, all blistering acceleration and Brazilian dribbles.

All of France sat up and took notice after the goal of the season against Nantes, a quickfire turn-and-shoot screamer from nearly 40 yards that swerved as it rose out of the goalkeeper’s reach, smacking a kiss on the bottom of the bar before bouncing down and crossing the line. At that moment Ribéry became Le Phénomène.

He was the star of an underachieving Marseille team. They looked to him to give them a sense of direction. Club captain Fabien Barthez wore the armband, but it was Ribéry who shouldered the fans’ expectations. Only he, it seemed, could make the difference. The matchwinner became the unofficial leader.

Come the end of the season, Ribéry had inspired Marseille to a fifth-place finish. Regrettably they lost the Coupe de France final to rivals Paris Saint-Germain, but on a personal level he couldn’t consider his first campaign as anything other than a success.

Named Young Player of the Year, he received a call-up from Raymond Domenech to represent France at the 2006 World Cup. He proved one of the tournament’s revelations and although les Bleus lost the final to Italy on penalties, Ribéry was anointed as the retiring Zinedine Zidane’s successor and with that title came the interest of Europe’s biggest clubs.

His head was turned. Arsenal were mentioned, as were Real Madrid. Ribéry said: “My wish is to leave Marseille. I’d like to leave because I want to win other things. I’d like to play in the Champions League. I want to keep evolving. I want to have great players around me. It’s important for me.”

He flirted openly with Lyon, the Ligue 1 champions, an affair that ended with their owner Jean-Michel Aulas defending himself from allegations of tapping up.

In the end, Ribéry decided to stay; all was forgiven because he offered the prospect of leading Marseille to their first league championship since 1992. But it wasn’t to be: a groin injury, then a fractured metatarsal, meant that he was missing from the action all too often. He lacked consistency and couldn’t get into a rhythm.

Marseille, bolstered by Djibril Cissé and the emergence of Ribéry’s ‘little brother’ Samir Nasri, finished the season as runners-up, 17 points behind Lyon. For a second year running they came up just short in the Coupe de France final too, Ronald Zubar’s miss in a penalty shoot-out against Sochaux prolonging a trophy drought dating back to the 1993 Champions League win.

Front-runners: Ribéry with Djibril Cissé

Unconvinced that Marseille could match his ambition any time soon, Ribéry left in summer 2007. He was careful not to betray his supporters, choosing to leave not for Lyon but for Bayern Munich in a transfer worth £22m that would be reinvested to strengthen the team. They couldn’t begrudge him for it.

“Franck is a player that we helped bring to light and it’s with a heavy heart that we see him go today,” said Marseille president Pape Diouf. “When a player of his stature departs, it leaves a void.”

As was the case with Didier Drogba, the time Ribéry spent with Marseille was short but sweet: it stayed with them. Before an emotional return to the Vélodrome with Chelsea for a Champions League group stage match last season, Drogba recalled how difficult it was to wrest himself away from Marseille.

“I was really down,” said the Ivorian. "I went to the dressing room on my own for the last time and then I broke down. I cried and cried. I went out on the pitch for the last time and, again, I broke down in tears. All my emotion flowed out of me.”

While sentimental, Ribéry perhaps doesn’t share as strong a bond with Marseille as Drogba. To him, the club was a stepping-stone to bigger and better things, not a rock on which he’d have quite happily built a castle and lived forever.

Yet his popularity in France has arguably never been as high as it was than in the summer of 2006. Since then, injuries, an unsavoury scandal, plus the perception that he bullied the teacher’s pet Yoann Gourcuff and was one of the ringleaders of the strike at the 2010 World Cup have taken a lot of the shine off his reputation back home.

Ribéry is the best-paid French player, with an annual salary worth £9.7m. Few Bayern fans question whether he’s worth it, not on the back of this season’s virtuoso performances. But in France, it’s a different story. He has repeatedly let his country down, failing to fulfil the promise he showed in his first handful of caps and to replicate his club form.

In the 57 appearances he has made for France since the 2006 World Cup, Ribéry has scored only seven goals and laid on nine assists for his teammates – hardly anonymous, but a disappointing return when one considers that many hoped he’d effortlessly pick up the baton from Zidane.

Signing for Bayern: is club eclipsing country?

Against Germany last month, a friendly that many thought was designed for him to shine in, he flopped even though France unexpectedly won 2-1 in Bremen. “You all know his career and the difficulties he has been through in the last two years,” Laurent Blanc told reporters.

“He is capable of finding his level again in the national team," insists the national manager. "It’s for that reason that we persist with him because he is one of those rare players who is able to unlock defences. For the moment, he has not given what he is capable of.”

With that in mind, Wednesday’s match at the Vélodrome takes on a greater significance. It’s another opportunity for Ribéry to redeem himself in front of his compatriots. He is playing some of the best football of his life and has 14 goals and 15 assists for Bayern this season.

Confidence is high and there are several good reasons to believe in victory. Bayern have won five on the bounce, including a 20-goal spree over three games in a week. Meanwhile, Marseille are on a run of seven straight defeats and will be without first choice goalkeeper Steve Mandanda as well as centre-back Souleymane Diawara. The timing and the setting couldn't be any better.

THE FUNDESLIGA, Wed 21 Mar: Resurgent Bayern face biggest test yet at glorious Gladbach

Will Ribéry rise to the occasion? He missed Bayern’s last visit to France, when they knocked out Lyon to reach the 2010 Champions League final, after receiving a red card in the first leg. Whether he keeps his head or not remains to be seen. The mind games might have already begun.

“It’ll be special,” insisted Marseille coach Didier Deschamps. “On a psychological level, it won’t be easy [for Ribéry]. I know about it [as I played against my old team] with Chelsea. I was terrible. My coach took me off after about an hour…”

If an ex-player formerly known as the ‘water carrier’ once bottled it, then Ribéry might need a stiff drink to settle himself before kick-off. France is watching.

Champions League preview: Chances ahoy for wide-boys Robben, Ribery – and Messi

Michael Cox — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 06:02:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now – to preview Wednesday night's Champions League action...

AC Milan v Barcelona, Wed 19:45
Barcelona have already played Milan in the group stage this season, when they slipped to a rare draw at the Nou Camp, before winning 3-2 away at the San Siro.

The key player in the away win was inevitably Leo Messi. He played an interesting role in the 3-4-3 shape Barcelona were playing that day, constantly drifting away to the right of the pitch, almost into his old role on the right of a three-man attack. With Milan playing a narrow 4-3-1-2 system, Messi often found room on either side of their three-man central midfield, picking the ball up in space before driving at the defence.

From there, he continually tried to slip the ball through the defence into the path of a player on the left side of Barça’s attack – indeed, he set up one goal for Xavi Hernandez through this route, and it’s something Milan should be aware of going into this tie.

Marseille v Bayern Munich, Wed 19:45
Everyone knows Bayern’s main attacking threat in the Champions League: their two wingers, with Arjen Robben on the right and Franck Ribery on the left, both coming inside onto their strong foot. Mario Gomez may have hit the headlines with four goals in the stunning 7-0 win over Basel in the last round, but it was the two wingers who were the key players and created most of his chances.

The two players have very different passing styles. Ribery is more likely to play a vertical pass backwards to a full-back, or down the line for an overlapping run. He also sends crossfield passes out to the opposite flank, either for Robben staying wide, or Philipp Lahm motoring forward on the overlap.

Marseille will be prepared for the threat of both players, and are likely to defend narrow to prevent the duo coming inside and shooting. However, they should beware that both are capable of going down the line and playing a pull-back into the box, even with their weaker foot. It’s easy to say that Ribery and Robben should be shown down the line, but if Cesar Azpilicueta and Jeremy Morel do that too much, the wingers will enjoy the space on the flanks.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

My Favourite Premier Player: The French Revolutionary

Huw Davies — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:26:00 GMT

In our Premier League Week we'll be celebrating 20 years of the rebranded top flight – including naming our favourite players from that era. Today, FourFourTwo staff writer Huw Davies on the seagull-invoking collar-botherer...

I should have hated Eric Cantona. For many a football fan growing up in the 1990s, Manchester United represented the enemy: relentless victors, who in my case just as relentlessly defeated my team in every meeting, regardless of how well either side played. In short, they were winners. And as a result, probably without meaning to, they seemed to convey a sense of entitlement – even arrogance.

If any footballer embodied arrogance, it was Eric Cantona. The man who didn't so much play football as imply he was gracing the field with his presence. The man who perfected the art of celebrating a sublime goal with a shrug, almost literally before Mario Balotelli was throwing his toys out of the pram. The man who told FourFourTwo in 2008: “I don't care about being superior – if I want to kick a fan, I'll do it.”

So naturally, I should have hated him. Certainly, it's hard to find yourself in the same corner as a man content to assault a football supporter on the pitch, whatever the verbal provocation. But with the ban and headlines of “The sh*t hits the fan” now mere footnotes, history has forgiven him. In the same way that only Leonard Rossiter could get away with playing Rigsby and only Barack Obama could get away with singing Al Green as President, only Cantona could get away with kicking a fan in the face. He got away with it because he is Cantona.

Of course, this aura off the pitch was a result of his wizardry on it; you couldn't be an average player and receive the adulation he did (especially as a Frenchman in a still staunchly anti-Gallic country). He swept across the pitch in gliding movements, creating space with consummate ease and shooting as naturally as if he'd booted his way out of the womb. Now he would be seen as a false 9, bringing team-mates into the game with his movement. At the time, it was hard to see him as anything other than just... brilliant.

But for all the goals among his countless on-pitch memories – that volley against Liverpool, that volley against Wimbledon, that volley against Arsenal – Cantona, like Dennis Bergkamp at Arsenal years later, was possibly even more adept at creating chances than taking them. Often out of nowhere, too: his chip to set up Denis Irwin in the 4-1 win against Tottenham in January 1993, just a month after he joined United, showed that. It doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to think that with the likes of Rod Wallace to be on the finishing end of Cantona's creativity, Leeds United could have pushed harder for a title had Howard Wilkinson kept him at Elland Road for more than a few months.

Not that this went through the head of a boy watching Cantona on Match of the Day. A few clipreels were enough to make me put up my collar every time I played football; my excuse was that I was protecting my neck from sunburn, but nobody was fooled.

And I wasn't alone in trying to recreate his chip against Sunderland, and like everyone else, I had about as much success as I did in emulating his inimitable reaction as the ball clipped in off the post – the slow turn, taking in his surroundings.

He was impetuous, aloof and if you believe The Sun, a thug – but Cantona's class was enough to make him a hero, not a villain. Just.

There's a fantastic piece on miniboro.com inspired by Diego Maradona called Tainted Love. It also describes my feelings towards Eric Cantona. Tainted love – but love nonetheless.

House-training Mourinho stays silent about the silence

Tim Stannard — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:23:00 GMT

For about 10 minutes every day, La Liga Loca gets to be José Mourinho. Well, the José Mourinho of 10 minutes or so during Madrid’s Champions League press conference ahead of Tuesday's game against APOEL Nicosia.

LLL is currently teaching a puppy not to bark or reach up desperately with a paw when the blog is trying to eat its din-dins. If puppy follows the rules, toes the line, plays it square then she is rewarded with a tiny tit-bit. Sometimes.

The look on the blog’s face during this daily spell is both very, very serious, of course, but with the hint of a cheeky grin about to break out because of the whole amusing nature of the situation and the wonderful, exhilarating feeling of power.

That was exactly the look the Madrid manager sported during Monday’s media scrum. The Spanish contingent were sat before him, knowing that if they did the equivalent of a dog bark during dinner and asked anything about referees, transfer rumours, his future – anything tasty and scrumptious, basically – then nothing would be thrown from Mourinho’s plate. Behave, curb their natural yapping natures, and maybe their treat-dispensing target would throw them a morsel.

But, as ever, one or two couldn’t help themselves and asked Mourinho about the story of Ronaldo being sold to Chelsea, who was responsible for the club’s media silence and whether he felt Real Madrid were being persecuted. To no avail: all probes were blocked by the club’s media officer with a cry of “Champions League only!”

Mourinho looked like he was just desperate to break into a giant grin at the Spanish media’s pain and anguish at those moments when self-control was lost, although Marca interpreted the whole situation as being tense rather than being enjoyable for the Madrid boss.

The only tasty treat thrown out by Mourinho was the statement that he wasn’t behind the idea of the media silence that began after Wednesday’s Villarreal clash and continued before and after Saturday’s victory over Real Sociedad that saw neither coach nor players talking to the media.

"Hang on, we can't BOTH be ventriloquists…"

The fun part was that Mourinho was contradicting what Director of Institutional Relations Emilio Butragueño had said the day before when revealing that “it was a stance from the technical team and dressing room that we respect, and was taken with the wise idea of avoiding building up more tension.”

For the rest of the conference, Mourinho was sweetness and light in praising APOEL and the opposition coach – until a journalist asked Sami Khedira if the footballers would be allowed to speak to the media after the match. At this point, Mourinho got up to leave, the German midfielder said that he was “sorry, I’m only a footballer, I just play” and followed his boss out the door.

It looks like there's still an awful lot of house training to be done at Real Madrid. But one man, for one, is enjoying the experience.

Roman Abramovich: He came, he saw, he conquered

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:03:00 GMT

In February 2007, FourFourTwo marked its 150th issue with a number of features on 'The Men Who Changed Football'. But it's not all about the Wengers, Cantonas and Bosmans – as David Conn explains, one mega-rich Russian changed football forever the moment he stepped off his private jet and into Stamford Bridge...

The BBC was always painfully eager, in July 2003, to say it “broke” the story that a Russian, Roman Abramovich, had suddenly bought Chelsea. The Beeb’s then business reporter, Jeff Randall, was more than usually excited about the deal, telling the nation that Abramovich, whom he described blankly as “one of the richest men in Russia”, had indeed taken over the faltering, debt-soaked West London club. We were given no context then about who Abramovich really was, or how he came to have so many barrels of roubles, or why he had chosen to pour so much of this money into buying a football club which was reaching the end of Ken Bates’ line.

Bates, who briefly retired to Monaco with his £17m pay-off from Abramovich before suffering from football club  ownership withdrawal syndrome and  buying Leeds United, has always scoffed at claims that Chelsea had been just days from financial collapse. Abramovich’s  people never quite went that far, but Bruce Buck, the lawyer who became Chelsea’s chairman, did say that the club had been in “very serious financial difficulties”.

Abramovich’s intervention was to blast huge change into the English game, and it instantly wiped away Chelsea’s debts. The formerly crippling £75m Eurobond loan, which Bates had taken on in December 1997, was made to seem like  a tenner Chelsea had forgotten they owed the newsagent.

Nor was the new regime prepared to wait and see how the players they inherited would fare: Abramovich splurged £117m immediately on a  shopping list of new playing staff. When you recall who Chelsea bought in that initial frenzy – Hernan Crespo, from Inter Milan for £16.8m; Damien Duff, £17m from Blackburn; Claude Makelele, £16.6m from Real Madrid; Geremi, £7m from Middlesbrough; Adrian Mutu, £15.8m from Parma; Glen Johnson, £6m from West Ham; Wayne Bridge, £7m from Southampton; Joe Cole, another from  relegated West Ham, for £6.6m – it is worth reflecting on how scattergun their success rate has been.

There was always a question about how far the Abramovich project had signed up to the manager, Claudio Ranieri, but he nearly made himself difficult to sack,  guiding Chelsea, with some dignity and humour, to second in the Premier League –  11 points behind unbeaten Arsenal – and to the semi-final of the Champions League, where they lost to Monaco, 5-3 on  aggregate. Monaco lost 3-0 in the final to Porto, so Chelsea hired the European champions’ manager, Jose Mourinho. The offer he couldn’t refuse included a reported £6m a year salary and all the money he could ever spend on players.

Chelsea went buying again: Arjen Robben, a £12m PSV winger who turned down Manchester United; Mourinho’s  ex-Porto defenders Ricardo Carvalho, £19.85m, and Paulo Ferreira, £13.2m, joined Didier Drogba, signed for  £24m from Marseille, and Petr Cech, a  goalkeeper who cost £7m to ginger up some competition with Carlo Cudicini.

Mourinho brought organisation,  solidity and ruthlessness of purpose, along with his signature arrogance and overcoat, to this extravagant collection, and two  seasons after the questions over whether Bates’ Chelsea were even going to survive, Abramovich’s club were Premier League champions. Manchester United, until then the world’s richest, their fortune built on commercially exploiting the conveyor belt of success engineered by Sir Alex Ferguson, suddenly looked like game northern  tryers compared to the plaything of the dreamy-eyed playboy gazing down from the Stamford Bridge directors’ box.

As to why Abramovich did it, we can still only speculate, unless we choose to believe the simple explanation offered in the only interview he has given since he shook English football to its foundations. He had, he murmured, “fallen in love with the beautiful game”.

This is the same rationale since offered by all the businessmen flooding in from overseas to buy Premier League clubs. They all say they love the game, not that they can smell money. The Glazer family who paid £810m for Manchester United from their Florida base and saddled  the club with £660m debt told us they  were “avid” United fans. Randy Lerner, the MBNA credit card company heir who bought Aston Villa in the summer of 2006, said plenty about the interest he developed in football when a student at Cambridge in the early 1980s, but nothing much about his financial plans or motivation for buying the club. Eggert Magnusson, the chairman of Iceland’s FA, waxed on about the history and heritage of West Ham after the £85m takeover of the club in November, although the principal financial force behind the deal, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, did acknowledge – via his spokesman – that it represented for him a “business opportunity”.

Accounts of Abramovich’s life depict  a lonely, sickly orphan who did not play football with the rough-and-tumble lads of his neighbourhood. But as a billionaire, he said he was taken to Old Trafford one night and decided to buy some of the game’s magic. He looked – this is important to remember – at Real Madrid and Barcelona, but found that Spanish clubs are not for sale because, great football institutions as they are, their fans own them.

"I want that one!"

English clubs, however, are all companies. And they were all then, except for United, in  various states of financial desperation, with debts accumulated either in trying to keep up with United or avoid relegation to the financial tundra of the Football League. Abramovich’s purchase of Chelsea sparked another round of wage inflation, with top players reportedly paid £120,000 rather than the £100,000 which had previously been top whack. The already debt-laden clubs realised they were falling even further behind, and began a worldwide search for more Abramoviches to sail to the rescue.

Although he never gave a more detailed, grown-up explanation of why he came from nowhere to buy Chelsea, Abramovich did in that sole interview provide a tantalising glimpse of the business culture from which he had emerged. Asked what advice he would give to young people aspiring to make money in Russia, Abramovich cited what was a wry saying among his peers: “Do not imagine that you will never go to jail.”

Behind the man’s unreadable blue eyes, and his purchase of a football club, lies the story of Russia’s carve-up after communism. The country was not lovingly remodelled with the help of well-meaning western  advisors into a fully functioning democracy and economy. Russia’s institutions, the army, police and civil service cracked apart, millions of ordinary people’s savings and pensions were rendered worthless  overnight, and the country’s vast, state-owned industries, property and natural resources were suddenly up for grabs.

Abramovich is said to have launched his business career selling toy plastic ducks from a grim Moscow flat. He then built a career in that post-communist environment with an oil trading company, Runicom. But he landed his really outrageous fortune not through gradual hard work and dynamism but via what many Russians regard as the greatest scandal of those wild years, the ‘loans for shares’ scheme.

Abramovich, then in partnership with an extremely influential new businessman, Boris Berezovsky, had worked his way into the inner circle of Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who was politically embattled and running out of cash. ‘Loans for shares’ was dreamt up by Yeltsin’s advisors after intense lobbying from these businessmen, who sniffed that they were within reach of Russia’s great prizes.

Abramovich with Berezovsky

The almost unbelievable arrangement was that the businessmen would lend Yeltsin’s government money and support, and in return he would grant them,  by decree, the right to manage huge  companies owned by the state. These  massive assets, including oil fields and  refineries and huge nickel and aluminium processing factories, were then sold off in “auctions” which were effectively closed to competitors. The same few businessmen paid a fraction of the companies’ true value and became billionaires overnight.

Abramovich bought Sibneft, a company sitting on 30 per cent of Russia’s oil, for just $200m – money he could easily borrow because the company was worth billions. While the majority of Russia’s population floundered in a collapsing society, a handful of individuals had landed much of Russia’s wealth. They were labelled the oligarchs.

Chrystia Freeland, the Financial Times’ Moscow bureau chief during those chaotic times, named her book Sale of the Century after the loans-for-shares process. It was, she wrote, “Such a naked scam, such a  cynical manipulation of a weakened state, that – especially now as Russia continues  to fall apart – it is tempting to dismiss the  rapacious oligarchs who instigated it as just plan evil.

"Yet... the future oligarchs did what any red-blooded businessman would do, seeking the most profitable opportunity. The real problem was that the state allowed them to get away with it.”

The explanation provided by John Mann, Abramovich’s and Sibneft’s spokesman, does not differ all that much from Freeland’s. “Was the process perfect?” Mann asked rhetorically. “No. The investors lent money to the Government in return for managing the companies, then later when the companies were privatised they had an advantage in buying the  shares. But it was not illegal; they played  according to the rules of the time.”

Mann argued that all of Russia was  undervalued, and Abramovich was taking a risk on whether his company would succeed in the modern era – although with a resource as precious as oil, it is difficult to see how the “auctions” could make Abramovich  anything other than an instant billionaire.

Abramovich attained celebrity here by buying into football, and nobody seems to care much how his money was made. But in Russia, the oligarchs were and still are loathed, seen by most people as latter-day robber barons. When Vladimir Putin,  a president with old-style Soviet roots, took over from Yeltsin, he was expected to undo the oligarchs’ wealth, although he is reported to have told them he would leave them intact if they stayed out of politics.

Those who opposed Putin were hounded, including Berezovsky, who moved to London and fought off extradition proceedings on the grounds that criminal charges laid against him in Russia were politically  motivated. Then two years ago, the  wealthiest oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested and charged with massive fraud, theft and tax evasion, for which he was  eventually convicted, sent to prison and stripped of all his wealth.

In Britain, the debate about Abramovich – such as it was – barely touched upon the moral question of how he scooped his wealth,  or whether our football clubs should be vehicles for billionaires from  anywhere. Instead, most of  a half-hearted discussion  centred on whether his  intervention had been good for the English game.

Simon Greenberg, who left his role as sports editor for the Evening Standard to become Chelsea’s head of communications, says it has all been positive: “Before, people complained that English football was  dominated by Man United and Arsenal. Roman Abramovich’s investment in Chelsea has broken that duopoly and  created more competition. Much of the money has trickled down the game.”

"Hello? Is that the England team? Yes, I can hold."

Greenberg cites the purchases of Cole and Johnson from West Ham, Scott Parker for £10m from Charlton in January 2004 and Shaun Wright-Phillips from Manchester City for £21m in July 2005 as examples where the selling clubs have been able to use the money to balance their books and sign players from clubs lower down.

“The investment of so much money in Chelsea has also been a catalyst for more investment in other clubs,” he says, “which has been good for the game.”

Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters’ Federation and a Stoke City fan himself, could hardly disagree more completely: “Mostly the new owners – wherever from overseas or here –  are attracted because football is  a plaything for them or to make money, not because they have any links to a club. The money is not trickling down meaningfully;  the gap is growing wider between the rich clubs and the rest, and  weakening the competitiveness  of football.”

Before Abramovich arrived, Arsenal and Liverpool had been terrified of Manchester United’s financial power, leading Arsenal to borrow £260m to build their 60,000-capacity Emirates Stadium and Liverpool to decide to move too, but fail to find the money. The discussions which Liverpool began in December with Dubai International Capital were the latest in a two-year hunt for a saviour which began embarrassingly with talks, ultimately aborted, with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Everton announced a partnership with the Swiss-based Fortress Sports Fund, which promised investment from another Russian businessman, Boris Zingarevich, who  contemptuously denied he had any  intention of becoming involved. Man City, with debts of around £100m after Kevin Keegan’s spending spree, made clear their willingness to “talk” to any passing Russian billionaires, but sadly, nobody called.

In fact, the next acquisition of a top English football club finally happened down the Mancunian way: the slow, tortured,  bitterly contested takeover of Manchester United by the Glazer family in June 2005. It was an education in the poker game of company takeovers – the Irish racehorse owners John Magnier and JP McManus walked away with £227m, winnings of  an estimated £100m, from their sale of  29 per cent of United – and in the eye- watering way deals can be financed.

United were not only eight times Premier League champions, three times Double  winners and European Champions in 1999, but the club prided itself on having won so much and relentlessly expanded Old Trafford’s money-making activities without going into debt. United’s accounts for the last 11 months before the takeover showed a turnover of £159m, still way above Chelsea or any other club, a profit before tax of £10.76m, and no bank loans or borrowings at all.

The Glazers paid £810m in total, with £265m borrowed from bank JP Morgan  and £275m from three US hedge funds at punishing interest rates of between 14 and 20 per cent. The Glazers then took United off the stock market, and ladled the debt onto the club itself. After refinancing last summer, United’s total bank debts, which were zero, are now £660m, with £62m due in interest every year.

For a core of Manchester United fans who had opposed the original stock market float, protested against the ticket price increases and aggressive commercialism which branded Ferguson’s golden years, then fought in 1999 to defeat the proposed takeover of United by Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB, the Glazers were a fate too far. Those fans formed a new club, FC United, member-owned, beginning at the base  of the football pyramid and reflecting the community and fan-oriented character they had craved at Old Trafford.

“It is about making football accessible again,” says the club's chief executive Andy Walsh, “for young people and many fans who felt alienated by the big business  takeover of the game.”

FC United manager Karl Marginson

Fans at other clubs have noticeably not protested at their takeovers, hoping instead that the takeovers would ditch mostly unpopular former owners – Terry Brown at West Ham and Doug Ellis at Villa sold their shares for millions – and herald good times ahead.

Keith Harris is a merchant banker whose company Seymour Pierce was involved in the Abramovich takeover and the subsequent buyouts at Aston Villa and West Ham. According to him, football clubs are regarded by the exceptionally wealthy as “trophy assets”. “Some people buy yachts,” he said, “and some buy football clubs.”

Malcolm Clarke reacts with a snort:  “A football club isn’t like a yacht – they’re not trophy assets. Clubs are important parts of their communities, loved and loyally  supported by their fans. The clubs need  protecting, not to be bought by people about whom we know so little, for reasons which seem to be all to do with making money from TV rights and ticket prices.”

The Glazer takeover has one thing in common with Abramovich: the family gave just one public interview, and in it they said they were motivated by being “avid” United fans. If you pushed the family’s financial PR people for a fuller explanation, they did sketch out the thinking which surely applies to the wave of takeovers now washing into the English game. “If you look at Premier League football’s popularity, at how the world is developing and how much leisure spend is increasing,” the spokesman said, “the family believes that long term they will make a success of Manchester United and get something out of it.”

Premier League football’s success and aggressive marketing of TV rights to over 200 countries means it is seen and the clubs “supported”, however virtually, by millions of people around the world. Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson’s spokesman said English football is now “like Hollywood films”.  That – the TV revenue, and potential  merchandise to be sold to fans worldwide – is the gold the investors see in their  calculators. Where it leaves fans, and the clubs’ souls, remains to be worked out.

Even Chelsea insist they will break even despite five years of feverishly spending Abramovich’s money – although few believe the billionaire bought the club to turn  a profit for him personally. Particularly after Khodorkovsky’s public humbling, many observers were convinced Abramovich did it to make himself very visible and difficult for Putin to scythe down. Through  football’s incomparable profile and prestige, went the theory, Abramovich made himself too visible and celebrated in the West to be brought low at home.

Then in September 2005, Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned oil company, bought Abramovich out, paying $13bn for Sibneft. Far from undoing the scandalous sale which handed Abramovich the oil, Putin’s Government paid him that unimaginable return to buy all the “trophy assets” he can ever dream up, be they yachts, football clubs, or Andriy Shevchenko.

John Mann, Abramovich’s spokesman, has always maintained that the theories were wrong; that there was no cunning political ploy behind the purchase of Chelsea.  “Mr Abramovich was never accused of any criminal offence, and he had no need of an escape hatch from Russia. He is not involved in politics and continues to do what the [Russian] government asks of its businessmen,” insists Mann.

“He bought Chelsea because he wanted to buy a football club.”

Champions League preview: Chelsea and Real Madrid look to the wings

Michael Cox — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:40:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT & Opta, available now – to preview Tuesday night's Champions League action...

APOEL Nicosia v Real Madrid, Tue 19:45
No-one is giving APOEL much hope ahead of their clash with Real Madrid, but Jose Mourinho will have briefed his players about the threat of each of the home side’s attackers. They have the frustrating but exciting Brazilian Ailton up front and the creative talent of Ivan Trickovski just behind. They also have the option of Esteban Solari – younger brother of former Madrid winger Santiago – if they want to go with two strikers.

But they’ll probably play just one, in a defensive-minded 4-2-3-1 system. From there, they like to break quickly down the flanks, and it’s the wingers that Real Madrid will need to keep an eye on. Indeed, the two wide players have combined for APOEL’s two most important goals of their Champions League campaign so far: the winner against Porto in the group stage that secured progress, and then the winner in the second leg of the second round against Lyon, which forced the tie to a penalty shoot-out won by APOEL.

For both goals, Constantinos Charalambides has stormed down the right before squaring the ball across the box for Gustavo Manduca coming onto the ball unmarked at the far post. Manduca is suspended for the first leg after getting sent off after Lyon (his first yellow card was for taking his shirt off while celebrating) and Trickovski might move over to that side – but the danger remains, and Madrid's full-backs might be more cautious than usual in the first leg in Cyprus.

Benfica v Chelsea, Tue 19:45
Andre Villas-Boas was committed to attack: plenty of ball possession, a high defensive line and lots of pressing in midfield. Chelsea weren’t accustomed to that, and although it’s difficult to see precisely what Roberto di Matteo’s plan for the side is, they seem a more pragmatic side under the Italian, more reminiscent of the Guus Hiddink and Carlo Ancelotti days.

That means they’re likely to play a deeper game against Benfica, based around counter-attacking rather than constant possession. Judging from Benfica’s two games in the second round against Zenit St Petersburg, Chelsea should have plenty of chances to win the ball and break quickly: only 11 of the Portuguese side’s 38 take-ons were successful.

The main offenders? Right-back Maxi Pereira lost the ball seven times in the tie against Benfica, as did wide player Nico Gaitan. The latter can play on either flank, or in the middle, but will probably play on the right – which means that being secure down the left then breaking quickly down that side should be one of Di Matteo’s instructions.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Back To The Future: How Sky Changed Football Forever

Jonathan Wilson — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:23:00 GMT

In February 2007, FourFourTwo marked its 150th issue with a number of features on 'The Men Who Changed Football'. But as Jonathan Wilson notes, it's not all about the Wengers, Cantonas and Bosmans – thanks to Sky and the Premier League, perhaps the most seismic shift in football's history came off the pitch...

Way back in 1994, when FourFourTwo came mewling and puking into the world, football had been a whole new ball game for only two seasons. People were just getting used to calling the top division “the Premiership”, Manchester United were coming to terms with winning back-to-back league titles after 26 years of dearth, and the Sky revolution was in its infancy. Going to the pub to watch a game still seemed oddly eccentric, big screens were virtually unheard of, and the prudent were still waiting to see how things went before splashing out on a dish. Yet even amid the uncertainty, it was obvious that the scale of Sky’s project was extraordinary.

In that 1994-95 season, Sky screened 60 live Premier League games out of a total of 143 live matches in all competitions. There were Sunday games and, to the consternation of conservatives the country over, there were Monday night games with fireworks and cheerleaders. “We had to sell,” explains Richard Keys, who has anchored over 1,000 games for Sky. “We had to get in people’s faces, we had to make it exciting. We weren’t lying back and inviting people to join in  if they wanted to; we were selling.”

And boy, did they sell. It was brash, it was noisy and it was colourful – and that was just Keys’ wardrobe. The growth of European football rather curtailed the Monday experience, but Sundays now seem empty without two live Premier League games (not to mention two Spanish matches in the evening). Then there are the lunchtime and tea-time pay-per-view offerings on a Saturday. Last season, Sky showed 438 games in all competitions; this season they expect the figure to be nearer 450.

Even Andy Gray admits that we may be reaching a point where there is too much football on television – although, as he points out, we do have an ‘off’ button – but the deeper concern within football is the reliance on Sky. Despite the arrival of Setanta to break their exclusivity [That went well – Hindsight Editor], Sky paid £1.2 billion for the Premier League rights for 2007-10. Nobody has forgotten the impact of the collapse of ITV Digital on Football League clubs, and the perception now is that there is a need to keep Sky sweet.

The truth, though, is that certainly in the early days, Sky needed football as much as football needed it. The growth of both in the ’90s was the tale of a happy symbiosis. “Sky came at the right time for football, just at the time of the Taylor Report when clubs must have been wondering how they could ever afford the improvements,” says Andy Melvin, now the Deputy Managing Director (Production) of Sky Sports but from 1991-99 its Executive Producer of Football, responsible for all live coverage.

It should not be forgotten that in 1992, BSkyB was losing £10m a week. In 1993, having secured Premier League rights, they recorded a £62m profit. As BSkyB’s former Director of Sport David Hill once said, “Football is first, second and third” in satellite television’s appeal. The most recent figures show that 8.2m Britons subscribe to Sky for £3.2bn; most  of those have said that Premier League football is the main reason for their subscription.

It’s not just the quantity of football on television that has changed since the Sky revolution. When Sky won the rights, there were those who saw barbarians at the gates, but whatever other criticisms may be cast at them, the quality of their coverage has transformed the way we watch football. “When we started, the BBC and ITV were in the comfort zone,” Melvin says.

Melvin had offered Andy Gray the chance to work as a presenter at Scottish Television, only for the forward to sign for Rangers and alienate half his audience. Convinced of Gray’s media skills, though, he had no hesitation getting him involved at Sky.

“My first instruction to Andy was, ‘Don’t tell me what I can see; tell me what I can’t see,’” Melvin explains. “He pounced on that immediately and knew what I meant. When the first replay comes in, the commentator had better be finished what he’s saying, because Gray’s then [claps his hands] smack! We used that ability to do something that had never been done before. There were so few live games, and those that were on TV began five minutes before kick-off and went off air five minutes after the final whistle. There was no substance, but people took it because they knew no better.”

Time, clearly, was an issue – and the one thing a specialist sports channel has is time – but even now, when other broadcasters are devoting increasingly large slots to football, their analysis too often exists in the category Gray mocks as the “great cross, great header, great goal” school of punditry. At least one terrestrial channel has warned its presenters not to go too deep for fear of turning off a non-specialist audience,  a notion Keys finds astonishing.

“Why do you think that a wider audience doesn’t want to know?” he asks, incredulous. “If you can can educate a greater audience, then you’re doing your job. Just keeping it superficial isn’t the right way at all. Do we present news bulletins in a superficial manner because lots of people might not watch? No, we present them in a way that is respectful to the public.”

The increasing depth of specialist knowledge is a feature of the proliferation of television channels. “The more channels there are, the more people can pick and choose the things that interest them,” confirms Dr Jon Adams of the London School of Economics, who specialises in the study of the transfer and popularisation of knowledge. “That means that an individual may know about fewer things, but probably knows more about them. From the broadcaster’s point of view, the lowest common denominator isn’t so low now.” Flicking onto ESPN’s Dead Good Sport channel offers a pertinent illustration: much of what passed for commentary before 1990 now sounds patronising, or trite.

Yet the realisation that there was a public appetite for tactical analysis came to Melvin and Gray almost accidentally. “Andy and  I were drinking one night,” Melvin recalls. “He was drinking Rolling Rocks and I was drinking San Miguels, and this place being what it was, the bottles were lying on the table. We were talking football, and I was asking questions and he was explaining the 4-4-2 system, the sweeper system, and so on. The brown bottles were defenders and the green ones were attackers and we were aware – because he’s loud at the best of times, and especially when he’s had a drink – that people were watching and listening. The next day I said to him, ‘Do you realise what we did last night?’ and he said, ‘Yep. That’s what we’ve got to give them.’”

Sky’s innovations have now been copied the world over, and not just in terms of Gray’s tactical analysis. Soccer Saturday has been a huge, if unlikely, success. “It’s radio with pictures,” said Keys. “It’s a watch. It’s addictive. It’s the ultimate form of flattery that everybody’s copying it.” Football First has added another string. “If you’re a Charlton fan you used to be grateful for two minutes on Match of the Day and ‘Thank you very much, BBC,’” says Melvin. “Now you can switch on Football First and get your 50-minute edited highlights.”

Their problem is that Sky has become too successful; that it is so associated with the game’s ’90s boom that it is blamed for many of the difficulties or irritations that have resulted from it. It is a little over two years since The Observer ran its ‘The Game That Ate Itself’ campaign, which claimed that the fan was being replaced by the consumer and that supporters were being ripped off. At the heart of that process was television.

The scheduling of games is a persistent gripe. It is rare now that more than half a weekend’s programme kicks off at the traditional time of 3pm on a Saturday. It is easy to blame Sky for that, but it is equally true that they can only offer to screen the game; the clubs have the final decision.

Two examples spring to mind. Last season [2005-06], Manchester City and Everton were due to meet in a tea-time game, only for Everton to go out of the Champions League, leaving them with a UEFA Cup tie to play on the Thursday evening. They refused to play two games in two days, but with both clubs unwilling to forgo the pay-per-view money, the match was re-arranged for 11.15 on the Sunday morning.

This season, Newcastle preferred to play Sheffield United less than 48 hours after their UEFA Cup victory in Palermo than miss out on the television revenue. They lost 1-0, sparking fans’ protests against the board. If clubs are chasing money rather than results, clearly there is something  very wrong, particularly in a case where  a manager’s job is under threat, but is that Sky’s fault for making the offer? Or the club’s fault for snatching at it?

“In all the time I’ve been here, I can categorically tell you we’ve never asked for a kick-off time to be changed,” says Keys. “But if you want everybody kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday, you’re not going to see the likes of Klinsmann, Gullit, Cantona – the best players in the world – coming here.”

That is perhaps a touch disingenuous – Sky must have matches played at times when people will watch them (they are still prevented from broadcasting live games at 3pm on a Saturday), and would not pay the vast sums they pay if they were not – but it does hint at the more general truth that a financially successful league does not happen without compromise.

The complaint about kick-off times is partly nostalgic (although the regular 3pm kick-off only became possible throughout the season with the advent of floodlights in the early ’60s), and partly to do with the problems for away fans of getting to games. This is where scheduling becomes a balancing act: generally speaking, the greater the number of away fans, the better the atmosphere; and the better the atmosphere, the better the game – or at least the better the perception of the game, which is effectively the same thing.

El-Hadji Diouf, among others, has spoken of the importance of having a stage on which to perform, comparing himself to an actor needing a vast and expectant audience to produce his best. In Egypt at the African Nations Cup last year, organisers were so concerned by the possible debilitating effect of empty stands that they bussed in army recruits to fill the spaces.

There is a sense in which Sky – or any television – needs away fans because without them the product is diminished. “When you go to Old Trafford for a cup tie, it’s a totally different atmosphere, and in an ideal world you’d love for them to be able to cater for that level of away support on a weekly basis, but those guys aren’t going to turn up on a weekly basis,” says Keys. “You’ve got to be realistic in that respect. It wasn’t happening; grounds weren’t full.”

And whatever complaints there may be about the changes in the game since the advent of the Premier League, it can’t be denied that attendances are up, dramatically. Last season may have seen a drop of 0.06%, but the average Premier League attendance was still 33,873, higher than the 24,271 of 1994-95, FourFourTwo’s first season. That figure may look low now, but ’94-95 was the ninth successive season that attendances had gone up. What is also interesting about those figures is that although the Premier League, all-seater stadia and Sky accelerated the process, the growth in the popularity of football had actually begun far earlier.

Of course, just because people are going to games does not mean that the atmosphere is good, and anecdotal evidence would suggest that it has got worse over the past decade. Yet if Sky can be blamed at all for the dwindling atmosphere in our grounds, it is only in as much as their money has hastened the change in the game’s culture rather than provoking it.

Sky’s money created the Premier League in its present form, but the gentrification of the game had begun before that. Most clubs had a fanzine by 1990, and Fever Pitch emerged from that culture. Then there were Gazza’s tears and the Taylor Report. Sky and the potential of satellite television was certainly not the only factor in the football boom, but it was perhaps the crucial one. Take out any other feature and the boom would probably still have happened; take out Sky and its money, and it could not have. That money, along with Champions League revenues, has led to the self-perpetuating elite, but it’s not Sky who distributes the television money – it’s the Premier League.

That said, Sky’s impact is not simply to do with football’s direct income from rights; it is the indirect income from advertising, sponsorship and exposure. Without the constant promotion of the Premier League, would so many fans – particularly those fans from wealthier sections of society rather than those from which football traditionally drew its support – go to games? Without them, would ticket prices be so high? Lord Justice Taylor saw a “reasonable” price for a ticket in 1990 as £6, which even taking inflation into account equates to around £12 today. Would shirt sales be so important? That commercialisation, that policy, to quote The Observer’s sports editor Brian Oliver, of “putting the football consumer ahead of the football fan” may grate, but it’s hard to see how Sky can be blamed. Surely we don’t want them to give football less money?

If they did, there would be fewer top players in our league, the standard would be lower and our clubs would be disadvantaged in Europe. Progress always comes with compromise, and, as Keys says, would we really swap what we have now for “a £2.50 ticket and a cold pie”?

From the February 2007 issue of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

The frontman: RICHARD KEYS
A fixture on the TV-am couch in the ’80s, Keys joined Sky in 1992, becoming the face of Super Sunday. With HDTV in mind, he recently had electrolysis on his hands.

Was the fact that you came from TV-am a problem in terms of credibility?
I’m not sure everyone was that keen on me getting involved at first, although I’d been a sports reporter before TV-am.  I was probably more sofa than sport at that stage, but sport was where my heart lay.

Is it important to have a journalist as a frontman?
It’s critical. Young reporters should have a belief that that’s where they can go. That’s not to say I don’t believe there’s a place for ex-sportsmen. David Gower does a superb job on our cricket, so it is possible.

How critical has your relationship with Andy Gray been?
He’s improved my understanding of the game. He’s a genius. It’s really sloppy and easy to say, ‘Great cross, great header, great goal.’ Andy tells me something different. How did the cross get in? Why wasn’t the fella marked at the back post? Could the keeper have done better? It’s not critical; it’s observational, instructional.

What have been your highlights?
The first title success Man United had, we had Denis Law and Bestie, and we watched them celebrate for an hour. Believe it or not, it was fantastic television.

Best guests?
Graeme Souness is a stunning contributor. And Cloughie once told David Livingstone off. “Can I ask you a difficult question?” says David. “Young man, you couldn’t ask me a difficult question if you tried.”

Any nightmare guests?
A former national team manager who joined us on a Champions League night and wasn’t very warm. When the game finished, I popped into the toilet and when I came out he was gone. He was typically efficient. He won record caps for his country. [Gray: “It was Lothar Matthaus”].

The analyst: ANDY GRAY
A celebrated striker with Wolves, Villa and Everton, Gray joined Sky at the advent of the Premier League and has become English football’s most respected pundit.

What’s been Sky’s best innovation?
It sounds ridiculous because it’s so simple, but you’d never see football today without a score and a clock in the corner.

Any complaints about your analysis?
I remember Don Howe saying, “Andy’s not telling me anything I don’t know”. I wasn’t trying to. I was trying to tell the fans what they didn’t know. Football is a very simple game that gets complicated by coaches. My job is to simplify it. In the early days  I spotted a little run Teddy Sheringham did for Spurs. So we highlighted it. Teddy comes up to me the next week and says, “Thanks very much, Andy. I’d been doing that for 10 years and nobody spotted it – now I’ll never get away with it again.”

Ever considered coaching yourself?
Yes, and there have been a couple of occasions in the past 16 years when  I might have jumped ship. I guess if I’m sat in my rocking chair at 75 I’ll wonder whether I should have done it. As a player I was very thoughtful, and not just about my own game. In my day you either became a coach, ran a pub or sold insurance, and of those three, coaching would have been the most appealing.

Highlights in your time at Sky?
The first live Premiership game, Forest vs Liverpool, was a massive day. The last-day finish when West Ham played Man United and Blackburn played Liverpool, too. And we all talk about Liverpool-Newcastle, 4-3. Liverpool scored in the first and last minute and we had five goals and such drama in between. It encompassed everything you would want in a Premiership match.

Will the big four still be the same four in 2019 when FFT is 300 issues old?
If Abramovich jumps ship, no. Chelsea will shed players and finish sixth. United, Liverpool and Arsenal will still be there, because they’re based on more solid foundations.

The pioneer: GABBY LOGAN
Daughter of former Welsh midfielder Terry Yorath, Logan joined Sky in 1996, becoming the first mainstream female football presenter, before moving to ITV [and BBC since].

When did you decide you wanted to be a sports broadcaster?
I was always glued to sport on TV but there were hardly any women doing those jobs. I didn’t want to be Des [Lynam] any more than I wanted to be Jeremy Paxman. I did work experience on newspapers and in newsrooms and I worked for local radio during my law degree, but although I did some sports reporting, I started at Newcastle’s Metro FM as a newsreader.

Did having a well-known dad help?
He’s no networker, so I never asked him for any help, but I was used to seeing him with journalists and on TV and camera crews coming round, so it didn’t seem a bizarre thing. Then, when I was 15, I appeared on Blue Peter and thought live TV was the greatest thing. When I joined Sky, ex-players used to say hello because they knew my dad, but by then I was comfortable in that environment.

How did the move to Sky come about?
Someone on Metro Sport asked if I fancied doing touchline interviews at St James’ Park. They previously had this 65-year-old guy trying to stop players outside the dressing room, and thought they might have more luck with a 22-year-old blonde. I was a bit naive, but you have to get your break somewhere. Richard Keys, who was covering a game for Sky, spotted me and a month later I was living in London.

Did you encounter any sexism?
I’m sure I did, but I was so focused that I didn’t really notice. I wasn’t that conscious of my gender because I had a female director, a female producer and a lot of women in the office, whereas at ITV I felt more like I was in the minority.

Do you see yourself as a role model?
Well, I do get female students asking what they should do next because they want to get into what I do. That makes you realise that girls are thinking, “I could do that.”

The legend: GARY LINEKER
A legendary England striker, Gary Lineker became ‘the new Des’ in 1999, having worked as a pundit and presenter for the BBC since retiring from playing in 1994.

How did the change from pundit to anchorman on Match of the Day come about?
I was saying the same things every week, so I started presenting on Five Live. Things fell nicely for me: Bob Wilson left Football Focus, Steve Ryder sat in while I learnt the ropes, then I popped into the chair. Des left for ITV and I got MotD! At first I was like a rabbit in the headlights. You have to be less opinionated as a presenter. But if I feel strongly about something I’ll say so, as I’ve done with England at times.

How much of an impact did Sky’s coverage have on the BBC?
Massive. It was refreshing then, but I don’t think they’ve moved on massively over the years – whereas I think we’re now right up there in terms of cutting-edge technology. We also have the advantage of no adverts.

Do you regret missing out on the Sky money as a player or are you happy to avoid the hype?
I lived through the hype of two World Cups, but it’s accelerated over the years. It isn’t going to slow down either, even though we keep saying it will. Yeah, it would be nice to have earned what they do now, but I do OK.

How has the football media changed?
When I was playing a TV crew at training was rare. Nowadays you’ve got papers, websites, radio and magazines. It was like that at Barcelona every day. I remember thinking, “God, this is so different.” Not now.

What are the biggest changes from a broadcasting perspective?
The volume of recorded games. When they put together a montage of my career, they play the same ones every time. Nowadays every goal scored is recorded.

When the Prem moved to ITV did you worry that’d be the end for the Beeb?
Yes, but we fought back. The BBC have backed football, too. Our audiences during the [2006] World Cup were unbelievable.

Gray and Keys portrait: Steve Orino. From the February 2007 issue of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

My Favourite Premier Player: The classy clown

Gary Parkinson — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:18:00 GMT

In our Premier League Week we'll be celebrating 20 years of the rebranded top flight – including naming our favourite players from that era. First up, FourFourTwo.com Editor Gary Parkinson on the man of a thousand YouTube clips...

The Premier League's financial muscle means our top-flight fields have been graced by many of the world's finest players. It's easy to forget the technical aridity that previous generations grew up on: an atmosphere where "fancy" footballers from Hudson to Hoddle were mistrusted, marginalised, mocked.

That said, those who live on caviar occasionally crave chips. Even as the financial rewards took footballers into a different level of existence from those who watched from terrace or armchair, there's something alienating about technique so good that mere mortals couldn't conceive of it.

It's for this reason that at many clubs, the favourite player isn't the one whose onboard trigonometry can see the invisible pass: it's the one who charges around like a kid, enthusiastically piling into challenges to the approving roar of the crowd.

And it's especially the one who reacts with the crowd, seeing them not as a paying audience and potential merchandising opportunity but as equals. The rugged left-back you can imagine sharing a pint with. The club stalwart who cares as much as you do.

Rightly or wrongly, Jimmy Bullard feels like that everyman. The former painter and decorator who found himself paid to play a game he loves, Bullard at his best oozed enthusiasm and joie de vivre. In a game which far too often takes itself far too seriously, he was much-needed light relief, keeping Soccer AM in amusing clips for the thick end of a decade.

Examples are legion and well-known, but there's so many of them that you may not know them all. (If not, the embeds are at the bottom of this blog.) Interrupting team-mates' staid interviews with irreverent irrelevance. Leapfrogging unsuspecting opponents in a goalmouth melée. Charging around the dressing-room in a dirty-kit wheely-bin with underpants on his head. Choosing a free-kick taker by rock-paper-scissors (recently re-employed by Bayern Munich). Running the length of the pitch during a floodlight failure to score an imaginary goal. Being unable to keep a straight face when a bad smell interrupts an interview. Using a goal celebration to gently mock boss Phil Brown's notorious on-field team-talk. Pulling his shorts up to his nipples when filming the po-faced Premier League player profile.

Bullard keeping it light with England

There's something in that irreverence, that determination to enjoy life and upstage the overly serious, which we find appealing. True, there's something of the hyperactive child about him, but there's a difference between childish and childlike, and we could all use some of that wide-eyed enthusiasm from time to time. It taps into something that's all too frequently absent from modern life.

Evidently Bullard was thankful for the opportunity he got. He'd swapped his paint-flecked overalls and got his chance at boyhood club West Ham, and when they released him he knuckled down and worked his way back up through Peterborough and Wigan. By August 2008 he was in Fabio Capello's England squad, and you don't get that for a smile and a cheeky wave. Bullard's set-piece precision and eye for a fine pass prompted club transfer records to be broken. No joke's that good.

It's true that Bullard's popularity may be the clipreel effect – a variant upon the modern phenomenon of the selective-highlights 'YouTube player'. Bullard has never represented my club, so I've never been disappointed by his lack of tracking back, or angrily agreed with club disciplinary measures for off-field indiscretions on pre-season tours or turning up late for training. I haven't been horrified to see him leave over a contract dispute.

Perhaps that's why he's my favourite Premier League player, for today at least. Many others have been better, but few have been more enjoyable to watch.

Rarely in this tribal game do you enjoy watching a member of the opposition; perhaps, if you're feeling especially gracious, you may applaud a moment of true greatness. Even less often do you identify with him. And perhaps that's what's missing in the modern game.

Stay tuned this week for more of FourFourTwo's favourite Premier players. Meanwhile, heeeeeere's Jimmy....

Twenty years of the Premier League

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:31:00 GMT

The Premier League is fast approaching the climax to its 20th season. Two decades is a long time in football: long enough for stories to grow into legends, long enough for babies to grow into full international players, and certainly long enough to deserve a retrospective what-was-all-that-about look back from FourFourTwo.

So all this week we'll be looking back at the last 20 years of top-flight football – a fascinating time of massive changes, for better or worse, in the game we love. It won't be a whitewashed love-in, but nor will it be a week-long grumble-fest about how things were better in the olden days when you could always expect a dart in the head at your local league ground.

There'll be some of the finest features from the history of FourFourTwo – itself nearing 18 years old – and some new thoughts from our staff members and freelance writers alike: you'll be hearing from Jonathan Wilson and David Conn, among others. We'll examine the effect of Sky, and Roman Abramovich and the rise of foreign ownership, but it won't all be bad news: our writers will be nominating their favourite Premier League players and explaining their choices. Feel free to bicker.

On Friday, in a move designed to infuriate bosses everywhere, we'll reveal the Top 100 Premier League Games. (Yes, that one's in there. No, not that one, it was rubbish.)

And we'll be asking for your opinion. Toward the end of the week we'll be naming two Premier-era Perfect XIs: one of UK players, one of foreigners. Tell us on Twitter and Facebook who you'd pick; you never know, we might even agree…

Premier pub ammo: Spurning Spurs, long-range Liverpool, effective Everton

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:32:00 GMT

Astound your friends and irk your enemies with the help of the Stats Zone app from FourFourTwo and Opta.

Chelsea 0-0 Tottenham
Spurs had more shots than any other Premier League side on Saturday (20). Tottenham have had 70 shots in total in their last three games combined, but have just one goal to show for it.

Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa
Villa didn’t manage a single shot on target, just one off target and two blocked. That's the joint-fewest attempts on goal by a team in the PL this season.

Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
Mark Davies completed 33 of his 34 passes in this match. 21.6% of Blackburn’s passes in this match went long, more than any other team’s this weekend (average 12.7%).

Liverpool 1-2 Wigan
Liverpool had 19 shots in this match, but 11 were from outside the box. Luis Suárez alone had six shots and set up four more.

Norwich 2-1 Wolves
Only three players (Tomas Rosicky, Steven Gerrard and Luis Suárez) made more passes in the final third than David Fox this Saturday: he’s made the most passes of any Norwich player this season (1254), and created more chances than any other player at the club (37).

Sunderland 3-1 QPR
QPR didn’t manage a single shot on target from inside the box in this match.

Swansea 0-2 Everton
Swansea made 231 more passes (554) than Everton (323), but the Toffees attempted and completed more passes in the final third. Swansea misplaced 12 passes in their own defensive third in this match: four more than any other side this weekend.

Stoke 1-1 Manchester City
All 17 of Carlos Tévez’s passes found a team-mate. More than half (51.3%) of Stoke’s passes went direct into the final third. The fourth and fifth-longest goals from distance in the PL this season were scored in this match: 33.6 metres for Peter Crouch, 33.9 for Yaya Touré – it was the first time Crouch had scored from outside the box since December 2008 (vs West Brom).

West Brom 1-3 Newcastle United
All five of the shots attempted by Demba Ba and Papiss Cissé combined were on target. Papiss Cissé had only two touches in the West Brom box: both resulted in goals.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Premier Analysis: Toon target Jones, Wigan snuff out Liverpool, Spurs lean left

Nick Govier — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:32:00 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

Newcastle approached their match against West Bromwich Albion with what looked like a deliberate attempt to target Billy Jones at right back. Time and again Krul kicked towards this area but Jones was dominant in aerial duels, as can be seen below.

Newcastle even tried switching the targeted player between Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cissé, with little success.

They moved away from this tactic after halftime, in part due to the lack of success they were enjoying, but also because Hatem Ben Arfa had demonstrated that keeping the ball on the floor and attacking Jones was causing the right-back more problems. Ben Arfa achieved two assists from this area with low crosses, either side of getting his own name on the scoresheet.

Liverpool succumbed at Anfield yet again, this time to a Wigan side who are starting a belated climb towards safety. Liverpool attempted 32 crosses, of which only five found their target. Surprisingly this was not a fundamental change due to the half time introduction of Andy Carroll, but a match-long approach. Perhaps this was driven by the lack of success Liverpool were having along the ground; Wigan made 25 interceptions in the 90 minutes.

David Wheater was the surprise match-winner for Bolton in the emotional game at the Reebok against Blackburn. A fitting tribute to Fabrice Muamba it may have been, but it also allowed Bolton to climb out of the relegation zone and ensured Blackburn remain within touching distance. Wheater's two goals were rare forays into the Blackburn half, and a surprise for a player whose chalkboard demonstrates is in the team primarily to clear his lines and play it simple to the more expressive members of the side. Blackburn's recent run of form was punctured, in part due to them only achieving a 60% pass completion percentage.

Finally, Tottenham couldn't quite find the goal which would have just about killed off any chance of Chelsea finishing in the top four. Gareth Bale started wide on the left, and Spurs directed their passing as wide as possible in the first half to spread the play. A lack of a wide player on the right meant the game became congested on the left, particularly as Rafael van der Vaart drifted infield. In the second half Harry Redknapp seemed to encourage Kyle Walker forward from right back, and Bale and Van der Vaart adopted more central positions further forward, enjoying the space created and nearly securing the three points with a late flurry of action in front of the Chelsea goal.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Good Day, Bad Day: A defensive Jimmy Saville & La Liga's Niles and Frasier Crane

Tim Stannard — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:59:00 GMT

Good Day

Real Madrid
By refusing to speak to the media, José Mourinho and his players are - a) sulking, or b) standing up for their right to protest against evil refereeing injustice, it all depends on the cut of your duvet. As it turns out, this radio silence is actually quite pleasant and peaceful, but it does mean nobody really knows what they all think about Saturday’s 5-1 win over Real Sociedad.
All LLL can add is that there was a physical sense of release - no, not that type - from the 82,000 or so Madrid fans in the stadium after back-to-back draws had seen the capital city club losing a chunk of their advantage over Barça. Once again it was BAU for Madrid - chances were being created and put away with some aplomb by Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuaín, with the Frenchman’s lob being the pick of the bunch.

Leo Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo
Another couple of games and another couple of records for the Frasier and Niles Crane of la Liga. Or should it be Cliff and Norm? Either way, Messi’s opener for Barcelona against Mallorca saw the Argentine break the original Ronaldo’s club record of 34 league goals in a season.
Meanwhile, the Real Madrid man’s double meant the Portuguese became the quickest player to score a century of goals in la Liga - 101 in 92 games - and sees an astonishing record of 131 official goals in 131 official games. Which is roughly a goal a game, by LLL’s reckoning.

Barcelona
Things got a little bit tingly there for a while with Pep’s Dream Boys down to ten men and hanging on to a 1-0 lead. The old Barcelona away form had returned, with the side looking more than a little lost in the Balearics. But Gerard Piqué undid some of the damage he has done at the back this season with a goal up the other end, poking home a shot from Messi that came back off the post. “Nobody can stop Barça!” boasts Sport’s front cover quiet incorrectly, considering the team are second in the table, six points off the top.

Manuel Pellegrini
Málaga aren’t just strong favourites for fourth place as they were a week ago, but perhaps now the hot tips for third, with Valencia having stalled completely. Should José Mourinho leave the Santiago Bernabeu this summer, then Florentino Pérez might want to look at the promising young buck at the helm of the club who is delivering this success under enormous fan and media pressure...

Osasuna
Another team who have beaten their target of 42 points for survival with a victory against Levante. “Permanency was our first challenge. Now we’ll go on from match to match and nothing more,” promised coach, José Luis Mendilibar. That first game happens to be the visit of Real Madrid to Pamplona, a game LLL suspects the home fans and players are going to relish somewhat.

Getafe
Like a stealth-shielded football machine that no one much cares about, Getafe have moved themselves onto 39 points without anyone really noticing, apart from an alert Russian radar operator in Siberia who reported the blip to his superiors. The club’s third win from Getafe’s last four games was Saturday’s rather surprising 3-1 victory over Valencia in the Coliseum.

Zaragoza
Hat’s off to Zaragoza and Manolo Jiménez. A second win in a week for the bottom side, this time against the ever generous Atlético Madrid. But as the Zaragoza coach noted, “we’ve still got a foot and a half in the Segunda,” with his side in possession of just 25 points, the same as Racing and Sporting with all three teams looking doomed this year.

Bad Day

Valencia
Third-placed Valencia are on the brink of becoming fourth-placed Valencia after their defeat to Getafe, combined with Málaga’s continuing rise saw the Southern side move level on points with the Mestalla men. It seems Valencia spent far too much time in their comfort zone watching the melee beneath them, thinking they would never be caught up in it. Just three league victories in 2012 sees Valencia being given a huge boot in the bum that the players are going to have to react to before the supporters all find out where they life and turn up at their homes with pitchforks.

Levante
The 2-0 defeat at home to Osasuna sounds like the kind of result to be expected once Levante had reached their survival mark, which they did in midweek. But it was only down to some fantastic goalkeeping from visiting goalkeeper Andrés that stopped Levante winning this one and going equal on points with Valencia, something that must be a huge incentive in the final run-in in la Liga for Levante.

Espanyol
Espanyol’s fancy dream of being a big European player has seen referee-itis spreading to Cornella, where Paul from Barcelona is in feverish mood, blaming the man in the middle for Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Málaga. Take it away!
“A two footed lunge from behind, with the sole intention of bringing down the player is a red card in the 20th minute, 50th minute etc. Then why isn't it in the first minute? A foul is a foul, right?
Goalie who has just replaced an injured keeper handles outside the area to stop a player from having a shot. Red card or not?
One for you gamblers. What are the odds of there being no offside decisions in the first half then the same assistant signaling 90% of all forward passes offside in the second half ?
In basketball, basically you can push an opponent and the foul goes your way. When was this introduced in football?
It seems oil money can buy more than just good players. Welcome to the New Order. Real, Barça and Valencia have a new member of the top four clubs who seem to be loved by the referees, while every other team continues to get it from a great height.”
Paul, Barcelona

Diego Simeone
“Courage! Effort! Courage! Effort! LLL is going to interrupt the Atlético Madrid manager’s usual spiel with an observation made to the blog by Garreth Nunn of madridatleticos.com, who quite correctly asks what would have happened if Gregorio Manzano had been in charge of a side that lost at Zaragoza in the final ten seconds of injury time thanks to a defender giving away a completely pointless, ludicrous penalty.

Rayo Vallecano
Something wasn’t quite right in Vallecas from the start of the match against Villarreal. The atmosphere lacked the usual spark, the fans lacked that tiny bit of extra commitment and passion. In the first half, this was mirrored by the footballers who were a little slack but who put in the yards in the second and deserved more from the efforts than a 2-0 defeat.

Athletic Bilbao
Ouch. Numerous chances created against Sporting on Sunday afternoon and all wasted bar one, a great effort Oscar de Marcos. “We should have won by three or four goals,” observed Marcelo Bielsa. “Sporting attacked once and got a point.” Athletic now without a win in four games and are slipping away from the European places, never mind the Champions League.

Philippe Montanier
The Real Sociedad boss has received some rather stroppy criticism from the direction of AS whose correspondent, Aritz Gabilondo, who was upset with the visitors’ game plan to play five at the back and perhaps frustrate a nervous, previously out-of-form Real Madrid. The players have “never been such a slave to their manager,” fumed the AS man. “(Montanier) should be sacked for this. Today. Without a minute more of red-faced shame.”

Betis
The Seville side are having a rough old time of it at the moment, although still seven points from the relegation badlands. Betis blew a win in the final seconds midweek against Espanyol at home and dropped yet more points this time hosting struggling Racing, who scored with 12 minutes to go. Betis now without a victory in six.

Miguel Angel Lotina
A yellow and blue shell suit? Really? The Villarreal boss looked like a defensive Jimmy Saville...

Heroes & Villains: Crazy Cisse, Crouchie's golazo and a damp London squib

Mark Booth — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:13:00 GMT

Heroes

Owen Coyle
The way in which Owen Coyle has conducted himself in the past ten days has been a credit to not only Bolton Wanderers, but Premier League as a whole. Where last Saturday had been traumatic, there was a celebratory air at the Reebok Stadium and a real sense that the players were finding an extra yard in their legs as a tribute to their team-mate Fabrice Muamba.
It must have been a relief for Owen Coyle to return to the business of a football match, and it seemed his players even felt the pressure of the relegation scrap easing, perhaps as a result of this newly rediscovered sense of perspective.

Wigan Athletic
With relegation rivals Wolves, Blackburn and QPR all suffering defeats, Wigan were able to capitalise by claiming their first ever win at Anfield. Too often this season the Latics have created a shedload of chances but failed to convert enough to win the game, this time that model was turned on its head as Shaun Maloney and Gary Caldwell took two of the few chances that fell their way.
There must have been times this season when Villa Park looked like some tropical oasis in a grayscale desert to Roberto Martinez, and perhaps in those moments he regretted his loyalty to Dave Whelan in turning down the Villa hot seat. Martinez is one of the league’s most likable managers and the football his team plays probably make them the neutral’s choice to stay up. If they are to do it, they will need more of the fortune that saw them claim the points on Saturday with tricky fixtures against Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal to come in their remaining eight games.

Peter Crouch
Peter Crouch has scored an impressive selection of extravagant volleys in his career but this was one of his best. The Stoke striker was a handful for a makeshift Manchester City backline throughout Saturday’s tea-time encounter, and his endeavour was rewarded on the hour when he produced the moment of the match with a 30-yard golazo that had him dreaming again of a summer trip to Poland and Ukraine.
Stoke’s performance was founded on all of the principles that have made Tony Pulis’ side so difficult to beat during their four-year stay in England’s top division. In truth, the Potters looked like the team more desperate to win and were first to every ball, allowing no space to City’s superstars. In the final 10 minutes, only Stoke looked like doing enough to seal the win when you might have expected City to work through their gears. Pulis’ men didn’t let them and claimed a deserved point.

Hatem Ben Arfa
Ben Arfa ran the show in Sunday’s 3-1 win at West Brom, setting up two goals for Papiss Demba Cisse and weighing in with a goal of his own to cap a memorable display which left his manager purring.
“I thought today a couple of his bits of play were mesmerising, he was just outstanding,” said Pardew after the match.
Thanks to Nigel De Jong, it has taken Ben Arfa some time to burst into life for Newcastle, but he’s finally showing just why Newcastle fans more knowledgeable than Alan Shearer were so excited about his signing in 2010. If Mike Ashley decides to keep his attacking trident of Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa together, Newcastle may have cause to look even further up the table next season. As it is, they’re level on points with Chelsea and a Champions League tilt might not be out of the question this year, with Tottenham wobbling in fourth.

Theo Walcott
It’s now seven wins in a row for an Arsenal team who look like they’re really starting to enjoy their football again, and no player more so than Theo Walcott. Whatever clicked in Arsenal midway through the North London derby a month ago is still very much in effect and this victory over Aston Villa was as comfortable as they come.
Walcott embodies this new razor-sharp Arsenal approach. For all their intricate passing triangles and tireless movement there is now an end product and Walcott’s clinical finishing has eased the goalscoring burden on Robin Van Persie who won’t have minded that the Gunners three goals were spread around the team.

Grant Holt
We knew he could notch vital goals with both feet and with his head but picking up a pointless red card for a rash challenge proved that he’s the ideal man to spearhead England’s gallant quarter-final exit in the summer.

Villains

Kenny Dalglish
Five defeats in six league matches and, for the first time in King Kenny’s second reign at Anfield, there are cords of discontent sounding just under the surface. With only eight points since the turn of the year, only QPR and Wolves have worse league records in 2012, and even the Anfield fear factor has been dispelled, this time by Wigan Athletic who had never won there until Saturday’s smash and grab victory.
It seems that a Carling Cup win and an upcoming FA Cup semi-final only go so far to immunising a manager from heavy criticism, and with Rafa Benitez lurking in the peripheries; it seems that a mid-table finish just won’t be good enough for an Anfield faithful who’ve been raised to expect better both in terms of style and results.
Incidentally, Roy Hodgson’s West Brom are just three points behind them.

Eggert Jonsson
Wolves are in enough trouble without throwing away points in such a careless fashion. Former Hearts midfielder Eggert Jonsson could barely put up a case for the defence after he handballed in the area to gift three points to Norwich. Terry Connor’s team have conceded 16 goals in five games and are being cut adrift at the bottom. Anything less than three points from next Saturday’s fixture with Bolton and they look doomed.

Tottenham and Chelsea
A squib is an explosive. A damp squib is an ineffective explosive and this was a match that never caught light despite its fanfare billing.
Emmanuel Adebayor is a player who should move clubs in every transfer window. If his head was right he’d be one of the world’s most feared strikers, as it is, too often he fails to show up and put in an honest afternoon’s graft. Despite his latest sub-par performance, he still could have been the match-winner on Saturday but he headed over under relatively little pressure and was too casual on another occasion after he’d rounded Cech.

Manchester City
Given the balance of play, City have to look on their draw at the Britannia as a point gained. Most worrying for Roberto Mancini’s men, it was the home side that showed the greater commitment,
This is surprising when you consider the team’s respective circumstances. Fighting for a title and with the wind in their sails after a hard-fought comeback win against Chelsea in midweek, you would have expected City to capitalise and to put the pressure on their neighbours in the title race. Instead, this was a flat, lethargic performance from City that lacked in urgency, especially after Yaya Toure’s 30-yard sighter drew them level.
Even the introduction of prodigal son Carlos Tevez failed to ignite City this time and although this was one of their toughest remaining assignments, their inability to carve open a limited Stoke side puts a huge question mark against their title chances.

Djibril Cisse
Three goals and two red cards in five appearances. The most frustrating aspect of Cisse’s frequent absences is that they look a different team when he’s playing and not one that should be battling the drop. His manager was furious with his latest dismissal, calling it a “crazy challenge” – it’s difficult to argue. A wild two-footed lunge that could have left Frazier Campbell seriously injured gave Mike Jones no choice but to hand the French striker his marching orders.
It was another costly sending off for QPR, who crumbled to a 3-1 defeat, the dropping of captain Joey Barton doing nothing to rally Mark Hughes’ men to successive wins. None of the fighting spirit showcased in their dream midweek comeback against Liverpool was on show on Saturday and the Rs are back in the relegation zone.

Milan go Route One on Roma – and Mr Juventus comes up trumps

Richard Whittle — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:40:00 GMT

As a general rule in the final third of the Serie A season, league titles aren't won by playing pretty football but ground out game after game. AC Milan certainly proved that point against AS Roma on Saturday.

After being outpassed by their visitors for most of the game, Massimiliano Allegri’s teak-tough title-holders dragged themselves back into the contest via an aerial assault on the visitors' backline to complete a stirring 2-1 comeback victory.

The sight of Zlatan Ibrahimovic chasing down one long ball after another or pulling down another hoofed clearance was contrary to what we have come to expect of a club that likes to put style before steel.

RESULTS Sat 24 Mar Milan 2-1 Roma; Palermo 1-1 Udinese Sun 25 Mar Atalanta 2-0 Bologna; Lazio 1-0 Cagliari; Napoli 2-2 Catania; Genoa 2-2 Fiorentina; Novara 0-0 Lecce; Cesena 2-2 Parma; Chievo 1-1 Siena; Juventus 2-0 Internazionale

However, Allegri had to tailor his gameplan to the resources at his disposal – especially after Thiago Silva limped off in the opening 10 minutes with a thigh problem.

Allegri had taken a major gamble with his influential Brazilian, who had gone through a personalised pre-game warm-up. Once he had to change gear into a sprint, pulled up immediately and will miss both legs of the Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona.

With a midfield of hard-hats like Massimo Ambrosini, Sully Ali Muntari and Antonio Nocerino, subtlety was never going to figure that highly; instead, Milan expertly used Ibra’s power and Stephan El-Shaarawy’s pace.

Wednesday’s San Siro showdown against the La Liga champions will be a world away from the Route One approach employed by Milan against the Giallorossi. Despite their neat possession football, the Romans created a grand total of two clear-cut chances; Pablo Osvaldo scored one and Francesco Totti attempted his trademark chipped finish when a straightforward drive would have done the trick.

Such pussyfooting was steamrolled at the other end by Ibrahimovic. The Swedish wrecking ball had one of those evenings where he lumbered around crashing into opponents and falling over himself – but still stumbled away with the man-of-the-match award and two goals to take his tally to 22 in the league.

Still chasing fifth place and therefore Europe, Roma gained more than pat on the back; it was more like a size-13 boot imprinted on their fragile backline.

If Milan were dogged, Juventus were dominant against Inter 24 hours later. Knowing that they couldn't afford to allow the leaders to maintain their overnight seven-point advantage, Antonio Conte’s men tore their old nemesis apart in a second half full of guile and craft.

With the visitors doing little more than aiming long hopeful balls towards Diego Milito or Diego Forlan, with Gianluigi Buffon foiling the former twice, Conte dispensed with a defender, bringing on Leandro Bonucci for three at the back, flooding the midfield with five and introducing Alessandro del Piero.

Not only did the veteran’s entry suddenly lift the crowd, his goal to make it 2-0 nearly took the roof off at the Juventus Stadium such was the delirium in the stands – not to mention on the home bench.

Juve had opened the scoring in a more routine manner when Martin Càceres headed home from Andrea Pirlo’s corner and the alarming lack of concentration in the away defence was further exposed when Arturo Vidal worked a neat pass into the area for “Mr Juventus” to finish with a low angled shot.

The old maestro will bring to a close his glittering career with the Old Lady at the end of the season, and having played a mere bit-part throughout the campaign it was fitting that his first goal in the league should come against Inter in front of his adoring public.

Far East and far out: Russia's remotest derby, on the Sea of Japan

Mark Gilbey — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:16:00 GMT

Much like Timbuktu, Vladivostok is one of those places whose name conjures up evocative images of some distant outpost at the world’s end.
“Vladivostok is far away,” Lenin once opined. “But it’s ours.” The Soviet Union’s founding father never gazed out upon the Pacific coast, unlike the statue of him outside the city's grandiose train station does.

Boarding the famous Rossiya from there, it would take an entire week to reach the Trans-Siberian Railway’s western terminus in Moscow, some 4,000 miles away. Even a flight between the two cities is an onerous nine-hour journey.

So understandably there were few tears shed when Luch-Energiya Vladivostok finished bottom of the Premier League table four seasons ago. Their relegation was no doubt welcomed by CSKA Moscow goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, who a year earlier had bemoaned their very presence in the championship, declaring that instead they should join the Japanese J-League.

Luch-Energiya’s Dinamo Stadium is only 100 metres from the Sea of Japan. In fact, many of the cars you see driven on Vladivostok’s roads are right-hand vehicles shipped over from Japan, and the club's recent preparations for the league’s resumption took place in South Korea.

It isn't until the third tier that Russia’s pyramid becomes regionalised. But like Russia itself, football is overwhelmingly weighted towards the west of the country and Luch-Energiya are just one of a handful of clubs in the top two divisions located on the Asian side of the Ural Mountains.

The only other Far Eastern outfit among them are SKA-Energiya Khabarovsk. Concessions were made in an attempt to accommodate these two far-flung sides, with the league “pairing” fixtures to cut down on travelling.

That means two matches in quick succession. For example, Baltika Kaliningrad – from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, around 4,500 miles west of Vladivostok – would travel out to play Luch-Energiya then a couple of days later face SKA-Energiya.

There have been talks about changing this format, however. Like the Russian Premier League, this is an elongated campaign in the First Division as it falls into line with UEFA by ditching their traditional summer calendar to adopt an “autumn-spring” system.

Despite the acting governor of Primorsky Krai – the region of which Vladivostok is the administrative capital – recently announcing that he’d like to see Luch-Energiya back in the top flight side, they and SKA-Energiya find themselves in the bottom half of the table.

(As an aside, quite how clubs like these will fare with the new schedule when temperatures plummet in Siberia and the Far East remains to be seen.)

Despite this “pairing” of fixtures, Vladivostok and Khabarovsk are hardly what you would call near neighbours. Khabarovsk, the Far East’s second-largest city after Vladivostok, is a little over 400 miles away, just a stone’s throw from the Chinese border on the Amur River. For SKA-Energiya’s fans, that means taking a 13-hour train south to Vladivostok when the pair meet on Monday.

Driving isn't recommended. Six years ago, a hardy trio of Zenit St Petersburg fans climbed into a 20-year-old Honda to drive to a league game in Vladivostok – 4,000 miles as the crow flies, more like 6,500 miles as the road wends.

Although they managed to see their club record a 2-0 win, the car died, leaving them stranded in Vladivostok. They were forced to take the train all the way back to St Petersburg, making it home just in time for Zenit’s next match the following week, whereupon the club rewarded their loyalty by presenting them with a new car. Today, the clapped-out Honda is on display in the Zenit museum.

It's not just a problem for visitors. As Luch-Energiya manager Sergei Pavlov once said during an interview with UEFA, "it takes us two days to adapt when we travel to Moscow, but when we return home it takes a whole week to get back to normal.

"It's terrible that none of the scientific recovery programs can help the team. There's no secret recipe here. This whole thing is tougher for us than for anyone else."

In spite of all these long haul flights though, neither Luch-Energiya nor SKA-Energiya have vastly different home and away records, as one might expect. Luch-Energiya in 15th are two places and five points behind SKA-Energiya.

Monday’s game will make a pleasant change for both, yet it is business as usual for Pavlov and his team the following week. They face the eye-watering trip to Kaliningrad on 1 April to play Baltika, in what is surely the longest away day anywhere in the world.

Stewart Downing wakes up screaming in middle of game

Back of the Net — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:21:00 GMT

The England wide-man hasn't enjoyed the most productive first season at Anfield, and Back of the Net's John Foster knows why...

Liverpool winger Stewart Downing has spoken of his anguish at waking suddenly, trembling and drenched in sweat, in the middle of the his side’s 3-2 defat to Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday.

Downing, who has struggled for form since his £20 million move from Aston Villa last summer, woke early in the second half, when he was struck by a wayward pass from Jay Spearing.

“It was a horrible nightmare,” the ex-Middlesbrough star told reporters. “I was dreaming that I couldn’t control my legs, or my feet, or a simple five-yard pass. And every time I tried to put in a cross, the ball turned into Randy Lerner’s big, laughing face and floated away into the night.

“Then suddenly I woke up and I didn’t know where I was. But after about twenty minutes of stumbling around in confusion, things started to feel familiar.”

“Then for a while I thought I was being shouted at by a tub of hairgel with a million teeth,” added the occasional England ace. “But it was only Jordan Henderson trying to be assertive.”

Some observers have been quick to criticise Downing for having an hour-long nap during a Premier League game, but Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish defended his somnolent wideman, preferring to focus on his unseen contribution.

“Okay, so Stewart’s not offered that much in attack, or defence,” the paper-skinned tactician told Back Of The Net. “Or midfield, for that matter. But Joey Barton was very quiet all match trying not to wake him, and you have to give Stewart credit for that.

“Sure, maybe when Stewart first signed he’d go missing for a while during games, when the crowd were on his back, or when he needed a wee,” Dalglish continued.

“But fair play to the lad, we laid his comfort blanket on the touchline before kick-off, and he’s spent the whole match hugging it. I thought he did very well to help limit QPR to only three goals.”

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s coaches are reportedly encouraging Downing to observe team-mate Andy Carroll, which should make him feel much better about himself.

Missing out Madrid, spa life for Levante, Málaga on a mission

Tim Stannard — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:18:00 GMT

When is a run-of-the-mill 1-1 draw away from home not a run-of-the-mill 1-1 draw away from home? When Real Madrid are involved, that’s when.

A referee evidently not especially fond of backchat, along with some inadvisable gestures and comments from members of Real Madrid’s coaching team and players saw about 29 red cards dished out to the capital city club during Wednesday’s clash in El Madrigal, and a whole host of conspiracy cries from the local Madrid press. Just for a change.

However, seeing as no-one from Real Madrid spoke about the kerfuffle after the match, and no-one will be speaking about it ahead of the Real Sociedad clash on Saturday, La Liga Loca will gloss over the matter and instead discuss more deserving subjects such as Levante, the chase for fourth place in Liga and a big away win for Mallorca.

Aside from Real Madrid, Wednesday night’s other big losers were Athletic Bilbao, Sporting and Valencia. The Mestalla men were probably the pick of the bunch though, having lost 2-1 to bottom-of-the-table Zaragoza in what was a truly disastrous result for Unai Emery, whose spell at at the east coast club really looks like having come to an end. The Valencia manager was once again booed from the field by handkerchief-waving fans, but was still a particularly positive porpoise about the future. “The handkerchieves will be returned back to their bags, I believe in the team and there are solutions,” promised Emery after the game.

Valencia’s neighbours Levante managed to move within three points of their big brothers after a tremendous 3-1 win over Real Sociedad, the team’s fourth victory in five matches. To celebrate hitting what they still considered their survival target, with Levante now on 42 points, the players were taken on a relaxing spa day involving tennis. Probably a far cry from what the hard-working footballers were really hoping for.

Sporting had an awful result, with a 3-2 home defeat to relegation rivals Mallorca, who are starting to do rather well under Joaquín Caparrós. The result leaves Sporting four points from safety and there must be concerns that the club’s dithering defence will spell the end of the team’s Primera tenure, which would be a great shame.

“We are conceding sloppy goals, there needs to be greater forcefulness at the back,” complained Clemente whose spell at the club so far seems to consist of all talk and no results-driven trousers.

Athletic Bilbao appear to have completely run out of energy and legs and suffered their third defeat in a row at Atlético Madrid. However, Marcelo Bielsa, was not going to use that or referees as excuse for the dropped points - LLL coughs ‘ are you listening José Mourinho’ - and instead blames himself for the defeat. “I feel especially responsible due to the decisions I took which did not modify nor fix what needed to be corrected.”

The three matches on Thursday saw Sevilla pull out of a bit of a nosedive with a 3-0 away win at Racing Santander, Betis drawing 1-1 with Espanyol, whilst Málaga continued with what is looking like a successful push for a Champions League spot with a 4-2 win over Rayo to leave the side with four victories from the team’s last five games.

Rovers' resolve, Swansea surge, but Tottenham tumbling

Jon Champion — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:14:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Stoke City vs Manchester United live on ESPN from 4.30pm on Saturday...

I’ve been encouraged but also amazed by the productivity and the emotional nature of the response of the wider public well beyond football to what happened at White Hart Lane last weekend.

I can’t pretend it was anything other than a horrible day for anyone who was there - people felt stunned, tearful even, as they watched potentially tragic events unfold on the pitch. That’s now thankfully been tempered by the news of the astonishing recovery Fabrice Muamba is beginning to make and I just hope it continues in the same vein.

Last Saturday, you wouldn’t have thought there was a chance of Bolton being able to play Blackburn, in what is always a very tasty Lancashire derby, one week on. But thankfully that game is going ahead in rather happier circumstances. As much as things have been put into perspective by the events of the last week, in a football sense this is a very important fixture for Bolton, particularly after they slipped back into the bottom three during the week.

Will Bolton ride on a tide of emotion, fuelled by the knowledge that their team-mate is still seriously ill in a hospital 200 miles away, or will the traumatic nature of the past week take its toll on them?

I believe it may well be the former. Owen Coyle, who deserves a mention in this for the wonderfully dignified way in which he’s conducted himself and conveyed the image of his club, let alone providing personal support at Muamba’s bedside, will always have players in line behind him. I would expect Bolton will produce probably their best performance of the season against Blackburn and they may need too, because Blackburn, extraordinarily, have managed to find some form and are now five points above the bottom three.

I don’t know from where Rovers have dug out this resolve. From what I hear, talking to one or two people at the club, the players have gotten together a bit – there are a number of experienced men there, such as Paul Robinson, and they have perhaps cleared the air somewhat.

That’s helped Steve Kean in that he has a united group of players possibly for the first time this season. They’ve given themselves a fighting chance of staying in the Premier League, against all the odds. But I’d have to fancy Bolton on what’s sure to be an emotional afternoon at the Reebok.

Elsewhere fellow strugglers QPR travel to Sunderland, with the West London side presumably still buzzing after that astonishing result in coming back from 2-0 behind to beat Liverpool, especially when you consider they had taken just two points from their previous six games.

They’ve got a horrible run-in, and I still feel that maybe we’ll look back on that result as a one-off rather than the start of a run, because so many of their remaining fixtures are so tough.

But I don’t think Sunderland is as tough a fixture as it was a month ago. They were insipid in their midweek game at Blackburn. They’ve only won one of their last five games in all competitions, but they do have the prospect of the cup replay against Everton, immediately after this QPR game, which becomes a very important match for them. So they could be excused for concentrating more of their efforts on that. They may give QPR half a chance.

Liverpool have had eight away defeats and eight home draws – two fairly damning statistics for a side who had ambitions of finishing in top four. Kenny Dalglish has this week said that people who criticise him and the team don’t understand football. Well, the league table tells its own tale. 42 points from 29 games, 12 points off fourth place, and given the amount of money they’ve spent, that’s just not good enough.

As for Wigan, who visit Anfield on Saturday, they’ve drawn their last couple of games, and that’s just not enough, they need wins. The teams drew 0-0 at the DW in December, and it’s tempting to say that if QPR can turn over Liverpool, then so can Wigan. But this game’s at Anfield, and it’s unlikely this will happen to a Dalglish team twice in a row, so I can’t really see beyond Liverpool for this one.

Wolves are now bottom of the pile on goal difference behind Wigan and Bolton. Terry Connor’s four games in charge have yielded one point and they’ve let in fourteen goals. I bumped into Mick McCarthy at a function in London this week and he was adamant he would’ve kept them up. It’s hard to disagree with him because you just feel the managerial change has totally destabilised the club. The playing staff don’t seem to be responding to Connor in the way they did to McCarthy, even when Mick was struggling.

Their hosts Norwich do seem to be switching off early, having taken one point from the last four games. They seem similar to Charlton of yesteryear, who used to get to a safe position in the league and then go on holiday from mid-March onwards. I’m sure Norwich will dig out a result or two between now and the end of the season - one of them may well be against Wolves - they don’t really need to do too much more, with 36 points to their name, putting them 13 points clear of trouble.

While Norwich are easing off as we approach the finish line, Swansea are sprinting towards it, having now won three in a row. They’re eighth and just three points behind Liverpool, and were they to finish ahead of the Merseysiders, that would be fantastic for them and pretty damning for the Anfield side, given the comparative resources of the two teams. But they will find Everton a tougher nut to crack than some they’ve faced of late, but the Toffees have just gone off the boil as well, losing their last two, at Liverpool and against Arsenal, after a relatively long unbeaten run.

It shows the limitations of their squad that David Moyes has banged on about for much of the season. I think they can be forgiven for slipping below their very highest standards on occasion this season. It’s about whether Moyes can crack the whip and return them to their best for a trip to the Liberty Stadium, because no-one goes there and gets anything unless they’re actually playing absolutely at their best, as Man City found.

What’s riding on Newcastle’s visit to the Hawthorns on Sunday is their chance of European qualification. They’re still five points clear of the team behind them, Liverpool, but their Europa League prospects are largely going to be determined by who wins the FA Cup and what effect that has on the shake-up for European places via the league. But all they can do is keep winning at the moment and they’re winning enough to stay in contention. I don’t think they’re quite the force they were earlier in the season. They were without Tiote last week and ended up playing Cabaye, a central midfielder, on the left wing, and Gutierrez at left-back. They changed that later in the game and looked rather better

West Brom are one of these teams that you never know quite what you’re going to get from. They did win at St. James’ Park in December and with Roy Hodgson very keen to press his England credentials at the moment, he’ll be driving them hard right till the end of the season. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one ended in a draw.

In the battle for the Champions League spots, there’s a London derby as Chelsea host Tottenham on Saturday lunchtime. The Blues have had four wins under Di Matteo, before the midweek setback against Manchester City.

They do look a better unit, but I still think there are a number of shortcomings. Much was made by many of us about Fernando Torres scoring twice in the FA Cup, but he was back to his hesitant self at the Etihad on Wednesday night. So I think Didier Drogba will come back to lead the line against Tottenham with rather more brio.

I quite fancy Chelsea in this given just how badly Tottenham have lost their way of late. They’ve now dropped below Arsenal, having been 10 points clear just a matter of weeks ago.

It’s a question of momentum, isn’t it? There’s negative momentum afflicting Tottenham, and I don’t see that changing with this fixture. Chelsea away is a tough ask, with Di Matteo having rounded up the players and gotten them to play for him in a way that they weren’t for the old manager.

Arsenal, meanwhile, look likely to make it a seventh consecutive victory – they’ve scored 19 goals in the six games they’ve won recently. They’re up to third place now, having chiselled out a win at Everton. They do seem a more resilient outfit recently, and I don’t see them being troubled by an Aston Villa side going nowhere quickly.

They’ve done just about enough to stay up but they’ve impressed no-one. They’re 10 points clear of trouble but in virtually any other year, they’d be looking over their shoulders with rather more fear.

Manchester United went to Stoke earlier in the season, and were lucky to get away with a draw. They will now be hoping Stoke give a similarly tough examination to Manchester City, who will go into the game a point behind Manchester United.

Self-evidently, if they draw or win, they will go ahead in the table, before United play on Monday night. A lot has been made of Manchester City having dropped out of the title race, or pole position, which they have, but I don’t buy into this stuff that all of the momentum is with Manchester United.

Tevez coming back in could just be the little boost they need. He set up the winner against Chelsea on Wednesday night. I quite fancy them against Stoke, even though Stoke are quite a tough nut to crack at the Britannia. This is the sort of game that defines champions. If City can go there and succeed where United failed, it would be one more reason to suggest they are the better team.

Manchester United have the sort of run-in that Sir Alex Ferguson would’ve chosen for himself had he the power to do so, starting against a Fulham side that travels as well as Real Ale, with only two away wins all season. Fulham won three in a row and lost the last two. I’ll be amazed if they don’t make that three wins followed by three defeats.

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

Drugs 0, MLS 1: "They saved my life," says Real Salt Lake's new star

Kris Heneage — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:58:00 GMT

“They didn’t just save my dream, they saved my life.” That’s how Sebastián Velásquez perceives Real Salt Lake’s decision to select him during the MLS Superdraft in January.

After a whirlwind few months, the rookie reflects upon the moment he found out he’d be making his competitive bow against league champions LA Galaxy. “I saw my name on the board [the night before] and I just started grinding my teeth,” he said. “I was really nervous. In my mind I remembered what a friend from back in Colombia had told me: it’s two goals, 22 people on the field, and three referees. Just go out there and have fun.”

To truly comprehend his journey, you must go back. Born in Colombia's second city Medellín, Velásquez moved to the US with his mother at the age of two. Throughout his youth he went to school and played club soccer with the aim of one day playing the game professionally.

At 17, his first chance came. Offered a trial with Barcelona after impressing their former striker Steve Archibald, Velásquez began an intense training regiment in preparation for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“I was good friends with a guy called Anthony Solomon. He owned an artificial pitch called Carolina Indoor Soccer,” he explains. “He would let me have the keys so I could start at six or seven in the morning till late at night. When I found out about the Barcelona trial, I spent eight months working and sleeping there – it had a couch in the building. I’d do things like shooting, running with weights on my legs, at a good pace. All kinds of things.”

He describes the trial with Barcelona as an unforgettable experience, but it failed to provide a contract, as did a subsequent spell with local rivals Espanyol. Undeterred, Velásquez returned to the US to play college soccer for Spartanburg Methodist College. The school not only helped him financially, but provided him with what he describes as an excellent soccer program.

After a two-year apprenticeship, Velásquez was ready to move on. Having agreed to join Clemson University, he received a shock phone call: “They told me they had heard about my try-outs in Europe and that because of that I was ineligible – I had no idea.”

With the college route apparently blocked and his dream seemingly over, Velásquez had little idea what to do. His mother was now back home in Colombia, which at the time seemed the only option. “I visited Colombia three times [in the space of a year] to see if I could fit into the lifestyle and adjust to it.”

Chasing down Landon Donovan for RSL against the Galaxy

As Velásquez begins to elaborate, he reveals the culture shock. “In Colombia there’s not as much security as there is in this country,” he said. “There you can drink whatever age you want; you can do drugs on the corner of a soccer field.”

With his mother also living in one of the most dangerous areas, Pedregal, Velásquez provides a harrowing example of day-to-day life on a gangland frontline. “I remember when she’d call me crying and you could hear the shootings outside between the gangs. I didn’t want to go into that.

"When you’re young there, if people don’t know you they're always going to ask ‘Who is that? Is he trying to take over our territory?’ I didn’t want to be a part of that. I want to be safe and not make bad decisions.”

It’s at this point you begin to understand why Velásquez is so grateful to Real Salt Lake. Already possessing a one-way ticket to Colombia, he made a vital final phone call. “It was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.

"I was thinking about doing it, and I asked my college coach. He said I should, but I didn’t want to give him the news I wasn’t going to Clemson. Five minutes later, my professional life changed forever. If I hadn’t made that call there would have been no Sebastián in MLS.”

At this stage it was only a trial, and as Velásquez had already learned, that was no guarantee of being picked up. Huddled with his mother around a computer back in Colombia, Velásquez watched the Superdraft process unfold – all the time hoping and praying.

“When the first two drafts got picked, my mom got nervous. I just sat there and said 'Don’t worry, things will work out, stay positive'. As soon as they picked me… man, I just started crying – that’s all I did, was cry.”

There’s a flicker in his voice as he recalls the moment that made this all possible. Selected at No.36, Sebastian Velásquez was now a professional soccer player. As he begins to settle into life in Utah, he hasn't forgotten his mother. “We’re looking at that right now and her paperwork situation,” he said. “RSL is helping me with that. They’ve put me on to the immigration lawyers, so hopefully I can get her back here or help out economically.”

Proud of his Colombian roots at a club with a heavy South American influence, Velásquez has fit into the squad seamlessly, even gaining a nickname. ‘El Mofeta’ (‘The Skunk’) refers to the blonde and black hair that two teammates shaved off last week, something he takes in good spirits.

He may be living life one day at a time, but what does the future hold for Velásquez? “Someday I want to be an agent,” he declares. But he wouldn't be a merciless money-mad merchandiser: his reasons are far more positive. “So I can go to these different spots where I know things are bad, give my hand to a kid and say ‘There's green land on the other side of the hill; you do have an opportunity at life.” It’s a noble wish and one that you hope he is able to complete.

For the time being, however, his aim is simple – and he believes achievable under the stewardship of coach Jason Kreis. “I want to learn something new each day and become a better player. Jason Kreis is an incredible coach. He’s always there for you. I have so much respect for him that it feels like a father and son relationship.”

Stoke's secret corner routine, Spurs' weakness and Jol's dilemma

Michael Cox — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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

Travelling to Stoke this weekend, Manchester City’s defence will be in for the traditional Britannia Stadium aerial test. Roberto Mancini’s first concern will be his centre-back pairing: he’ll hope to have his first-choice duo of Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott available after injury problems in recent weeks.

He might also be wise to look at the pattern of Stoke’s corners in their last two home matches. There appears to be a different plan depending upon whether the corner is hit from the left or the right. All five corners taken from the left were fired into the near post zone, where they were either met by a Stoke head or cleared by the defender guarding that area.

From the other flank, there’s much more variety, with the corner often being played into a zone between the width of the goalposts. Whether this is a deliberate tactic or not is questionable, but Mancini’s defenders – whoever they are – should be made aware of the pattern.

Aston Villa visit Arsenal for the second time this season, following a 3-2 defeat in the FA Cup Fourth Round. They went 2-0 up in that game – as they did in the Premier League fixture last season, when Darren Bent helped himself to two goals.

His pattern of passes received last season shows that he works the channels continually, and receives plenty of long clearances downfield from the goalkeeper. It’s notable that he only gets the ball in the area twice, and finishes both chances. The lesson is clear – Bent’s all-round game is OK, but keep him outside of the penalty area and he’s less of a threat. Expect Arsenal to maintain their high defensive line this weekend.

During December's 1-1 draw between Tottenham and Chelsea, one of the interesting tactical battles was the situation in Chelsea’s left-back zone. Aaron Lennon was injured – as he is for this fixture – so Rafael van der Vaart was played out on the right.

But Van der Vaart doesn’t like playing on that flank, especially when asked to track a dangerous attacking full-back. He did a poor defensive job on Ashley Cole, partly because he was always focused on coming inside into the middle of the pitch. Cole scampered down the left to create two chances, one of which was finished neatly by Daniel Sturridge.

Harry Redknapp should remember this ahead of this game, and it’s unlikely that he’ll play Van der Vaart on the right again. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Gareth Bale fielded out on that flank – he’ll come inside too, of course, but he should also track back and nullify the threat of Cole.

Fulham boss Martin Jol has been playing a particularly attacking side in recent weeks, fielding not just two strikers (usually Pavel Pogrebnyak and Andy Johnson) up front but also two forwards on the flanks (Clint Dempsey and Bryan Ruiz). Furthermore, he’s moved Moussa Dembele, also more happy as a forward, into the centre of midfield.

Dembele has adapted well to the change in position – the diagram below shows how different his game has become. He’s more patient on the ball, he spreads the play wide, and has a much higher pass completion rate.

But he offers little defensive protection, leaving Fulham’s holding midfielder stranded ahead of the defence. Danny Murphy isn’t a tackler either, while Mahamadou Diarra had a poor game against Swansea. Will Jol be brave enough to play Dembele in the centre of midfield against Manchester United, or will he opt for a more cautious approach involving two traditional central midfielders?

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Team GB: meet 'Union' Jack Rodwell

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:18:00 GMT

Not being the miserable types who snipe and sneer without reason, we at FourFourTwo are bang up for the Olympics. Not least because it represents a chance for immediate salvation after inevitable disappointment at the Euros. Dammit!

Now, we're not going to pretend we'll be drooling over the dressage or captivated by the canoeing, but c'mon – there's a football tournament which will feature teams like Spain, Brazil – and, like it or not, Team GB. Whatever the political whathaveyous, there'll be a GB team flying the flag – and here's the kit they'll be wearing, as designed by Stella McCartney and modelled by 'Union' Jack Rodwell.

Roll on July...

Why Shakhtar Donetsk have Welsh roots

Mark Gilbey — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:12:00 GMT

You could have been forgiven for thinking it was the opening ceremony to an Olympic Games, such was the spectacular opulence surrounding the gala event Shakhtar Donetsk held to celebrate the club’s 75th anniversary last year.

Rihanna topped the bill at May's multimillion dollar all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza that charted their history back to the days when Shakhtar started out as a workers’ side for miners from the Donbass, a fiercely proud industrial region of what is today eastern Ukraine.

These roots haven't been forgotten. The club’s crest features a pair of crossed hammers with a flame, and their very name means “miner” in Russian. Even the orange and black coloured kit is a nod to the past.

Donetsk is considered to be the unofficial capital of Donbass. When billionaire owner Rinat Akhmetov – himself the son of a coalminer – christened Shakhtar’s new stadium in 2009 he called it the Donbass Arena.

Reflected glory: the Donbass Arena

Coal has been mined in the region since 1721 and later that century iron ore was discovered, prompting the Russian Empire to look overseas to help exploit these reserves. With the promise of free coal, a cheap labour force and a considerable return on investment, one such industrialist who took them up on their offer was a Welshman, John Hughes.

The Merthyr Tydfil ironmaster quite literally put Donetsk on the map. Prior to industrialisation this barren steppe was known as “the Wild Fields”, but in 1869 Hughes paid £24,000 for the rights to build a metallurgical plant, and with him the 55-year-old brought around 70 skilled Welsh labourers.

While some left, many settled and their families travelled out to join them for a new life in the Ukraine. Donetsk, or Hughesovka as it was originally known, grew up around the plant and an expat community blossomed with schools, an Anglican church, hospital, tearooms, bathhouses and dancehalls soon built. Hughes also established Donetsk’s first fire brigade.

In time, his empire grew to include a factory producing the rails for Russia’s ever-expanding railway network and several collieries. The British workers brought with them leather footballs. Matches were soon being played in the shadow of the metal works, but it wasn't until 1911 and the creation of the Hughesovka Sports Society that things became more organised.

Big man: A statue of Hughes in Donetsk

By then, Hughes had died, leaving his four sons to inherit the business. Football had taken root in the Ukraine and regional tournaments were beginning to be held: in 1913 a Hughesovka side that included eight Britons won the Donbass Cup.

Just a year later the First World War broke out and then came the revolution that irrevocably changed the landscape in this corner of the Russian Empire. Three of the team’s British footballers are known to have fallen in battle.

When the Bolsheviks swept into power, the state assumed control of Hughesovka’s industrial works and its expat community fled. By 1924 Hughesovka became Stalino – not, as you might expect, after Josef Stalin, but the Russian word for steel: “stal”.

The game the British workers left behind didn’t disappear and it continued to be played after their departure by the Donbass miners, who founded Shakhtar in 1936 to compete in the inaugural Soviet championship later that year. Their original name was Ugolshchiki Stalino (ugolshchiki means “coalminer”).

This quickly changed again as the club was rechristened Stakhanovets Stalino in honour of the legendary Oleksiy Stakhanov, a local worker who state media reported mined an incredible 102 tonnes of coal during a single shift – 14 times the average.

Against the backdrop of Stalin’s five-year plans, Stakhanov become something of a propaganda figure as the Kremlin sought to increase productivity among the workforce and a 10-day period of “Stakhanovism” followed. Stakhanovets’ first official league match was a 4-1 defeat to Dinamo Kazan on 24 May 1936.

When Nikita Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Union, he oversaw a policy of “de-stalinisation” aimed at removing the cult of personality Stalin had built up and in 1961. As a result, the club – and city – changed names. Stalino evolved into Donetsk, deriving its moniker from the Seversky Donets River.

As Shakhtar Donetsk, the team won the Soviet Cup four times; twice in the 1970s the Pitmen, as they are nicknamed, were runners-up of the Top League.

Their arch-rivals Dynamo Kyiv dominated after independence until Akhmetov came to power in October 1996 and ushered in a new era for the club and, indeed, Ukrainian football.

Akhmetov and coach Mircea Lucescu celebrated winning the 2009 UEFA Cup

But despite the upheaval and several changes over the years the people of Donetsk have never forgotten their city’s founding father. Several places bear his name and a statue of Hughes stands proudly on its main thoroughfare.

He isn't the only Briton to leave a lasting legacy in this corner of eastern Ukraine, though. Hughes wasn't even the first. Seventy-four years before he arrived on the banks of the Kalmius River, Scotsman Charles Gascoigne established an iron foundry just 80 miles from Donetsk, that spawned the city of Luhansk.

Messi’s moment, Unai’s adios and Atlético’s Intertoto adventure

Tim Stannard — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:37:00 GMT

The moment Lionel Messi and his supporters had long been waiting for finally arrived on Tuesday evening. But for those paid good money and under threat of the sack unless gushing things are written about him, it was probably a match they had been dreading for some time. How do you raise the already justifiably stratospheric level of praise into something beyond the outer reaches of our galaxy?

A quick rejig of the Barça history books meant that little Leo only had to score one goal on Tuesday night to become the joint-highest goal scorer in the club’s history. along with Julio César. Two strikes meant the honour would be his alone. Naturally the Barcelona forward banged in another hat-trick, just to make sure, in a mad-as-a-loony-lizard 5-3 win over Granada.

Messi’s 234 goals at the age of just 24 makes the Argentinean “the greatest scorer in history,” yelled Sport’s front cover.

“It’s Messi who puts the gold into the club’s colours with goals, records, hard work, assists and playing football like he was in the school play ground. He’s the number one,” writes a tearful Santi Nolla.

But it's a busy Wednesday in a snowy Madrid, and LLL doesn’t have time for such sentimentality, so it’s a swift handshake and pat on the head for Messi, before we move on to more pressing matters. Among them is Tuesday's goalless draw between Osasuna and Getafe, with the home side firmly in the “plopping themselves at the thought of actually getting fourth place” club, dropping two easy points.

Real Madrid will be looking to restore their eight-point lead at the top of the table by beating Villarreal. That in itself may not be much of a challenge, but to do so the side will have stay awake against a team now lead by the notoriously dull, seven-man-defence-loving Miguel-Angel Lotina. To prepare themselves for this taxing task, the club exposed themselves to a press conference by assitant manager Aitor Karanka, enough to send one’s eyeballs permanently to the back of one’s skull.

Atlético Madrid will take on Athletic Bilbao in what is set to be a chilly Vicente Calderón, with both team's looking to succeed where Osasuna failed in not allowing Málaga or Levante a free run at the final Champions League spot. “We have to be strong and know what we are playing for,” said Diego Simeone, who apparently hasn’t been told the Intertoto Cup has been scrapped.

An unenthused Unai Emery may be that little bit less irritating to his players on the touchline in the clash against Zaragoza. Valencia are facing a team bottom of the table, without a league win in Mestalla for nearly 20 years and, what’s more, the Valencia boss seems to realise that his time is up at the club, with the fans getting their way on forcing Emery out for the simple reason that they appear to be bored with him. “Possibly, I’m not being enigmatic, it’s reality and it could well be,” was the manager’s response when asked if this was his final season with the team.

Sporting have a bit of a humdinger at home to Mallorca, with the side three points from Villarreal and playing a team who can be a tad flakey on their travels. Levante will be looking for that final win to secure safety and an early summer holiday, when they make the trip to Real Sociedad.

Predictions
Atlético Madrid v Athletic Bilbao - Draw
Sporting v Mallorca - Home win
Real Sociedad v Levante - Home win
Valencia v Zaragoza - Home win
Villarreal v Real Madrid - Away win

Resurgent Bayern face biggest test yet at glorious Gladbach

Stefan Bienkowski — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:01:00 GMT

This season’s Bundesliga has been a journey full of surprises. So much so that it's big news when the most successful club in German football, Bayern Munich, win three games in a row – and that Borussia Moenchengladbach, who flirted with relegation last season, would be the definitive test for the in-form Munich side.

Bayern have welcomed the business end of the Bundesliga season with an ease that has eluded them until now. With 20 goals in their past three games, the Bavarians have not only rekindled hopes of a title challenge, but also restored the fascination with this season’s Champions League final at their own Allianz Arena.

The winning spree started on Saturday 10 March when a slapdash Hoffenheim side were mercilessly torn apart 7-1. But the trigger for the good form was the previous Saturday, when Leverkusen overcame a travelling Bayern side, that had too often seen disappointment on the road, by two goals to nil.

Considering that was just 10 days after an embarrassing first-leg Champions League defeat in Basel, many feared this was the beginning of the end for Jupp Heynckes and his squad. Sporting director Christian Nerlinger publicly denounced the result, stating that Bayern had effectively handed the title to Dortmund and – after the Basel humiliation – managed to rule themselves out of another trophy. For most, this is what Arjen Robben & Co deserved: a fruitless season that embodied little progress on the pitch or off it.

THE FUNDESLIGA, Tue 21 Feb: Which Bayern will turn up in Basel?

Yet in a plot twist befitting the club nickname FC Hollywood, this criticism seems to have awoken a passion in Heynckes' ego-filled squad and inspired a siege mentality that will have no doubt saved the German coach a few blushes come the end of the season.

Three days after demolishing Hoffenheim 7-1, Bayern crushed Basel 7-0. Such a scoreline instilled confidence that the previous result wasn’t simply a blip, but also marked the return of the Bayern side that had shown a real hunger for European success earlier on in the season by battling through a Champions League group of death containing Manchester City, Napoli and Villarreal.

Immediately after brutalising Basel, Bayern travelled to the Olympiastadion to make short work of a Hertha side that are well and truly self-destructing. After brushing aside the Berliners 6-0 – making Bayern's aggregate score for the week 20-1 – Heynckes was quick to declare that his side’s rapture wasn’t down to a fault in the opposition, but a mixture of team spirit and camaraderie that only the greatest sides could obtain.

Robben's hot streak has helped rejuvenate Bayern's season

Whether Heynckes can take credit is up for debate. Throughout the three games in question, Robben – often overlooked by his coach this season – has been the key man with seven goals and five assists, which is definitely better than any form he’d shown for the club beforehand.

If Bayern’s inconsistency can be put down to relying solely upon Franck Ribery for most of this season, then this current run of form is certainly down to the addition of their Dutch superstar, with no thanks from the coach.

Similarly, the side still struggles from defensive blunders and tactical deficiencies that would be picked up on by most coaches, but not Heynckes. For better or for worse, this Bayern side will continue to rely upon its exquisite attacking parts to make up for deficiencies in not only its defensive aspects, but also its general make-up. Whether Heynckes would be willing to admit it or not, Bayern’s ‘togetherness’ is only more coincidental than the easy run of games his side have had over the past two weeks.

However, such a system will be put to the test this Wednesday when Bayern travel to Monchengladbach to face Marco Reus & Co for the third time this season. Having lost both league games 1-0, Bayern will have their resurgence severely tested in the DFB Cup semi-final.

THE FUNDESLIGA, Fri 10 Feb: Last year's drop-dodgers clash as rejuvenated title challengers

A side built from the ground up by the fine tactician Lucien Favre, Gladbach define everything that this current Bayern side seem to stand against: order, tactical knowhow, defensive awareness, and a collective ability to attack as a team.

Although very much built upon the ability of playmaker and talisman Marco Reus, the Foals' unequalled ability to adapt around their manager’s tactics has helped them pick up league points off the other big-four teams, Schalke and Dortmund. The champions and leaders, Dortmund await the winners in the DFB Cup final, having overcome second-tier Greuer Furth on Tuesday night with a goal in the last minute of extra time.

There is arguably no tougher German side than Gladbach to face in a one-off test between two sides. Bayern’s tilt at domestic and European success may well be defined by how well they do in this tie, come Wednesday night.

Villarreal set to go on the defensive (and dour), but Barça back in business

Tim Stannard — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:34:00 GMT

A large, dark shadow has fallen across the land in la Liga. No, Maniche isn’t blocking out the sun again, the Lord of Doom, the King of Crying, the Price of Appalling Football, Miguel Angel Lotina has returned.

Last seen relegating Deportivo last season in abysmal style, Lotina has been appointed as the new coach of Villarreal after Sunday’s sacking of José Molina, who was in turn appointed Villarreal coach after December’s sacking of Juan Carlos Garrido.

The first question on everybody's lips is whether Lotina is going to ruin what few positive aspects are left to Villarreal, a team lying fourth from bottom, three points from the relegation zone. The message from the former Deportivo man is ‘absolutely not, promises, promises’.

“I’m not going to change the philosophy of the team after ten years of great football,” claimed Lotina at his unveiling on Monday. “I’m so happy to be here,” added the new Yellow Submarine Admiral, trying his best to force a smile. “The excitement I have is tremendous.”

AS scribe Javi Mata, for one, is less than convinced the El Madrigal faithful are going to be backing the appointment of Lotina, a coach who makes his Villarreal debut against Real Madrid on Wednesday. “After testing the waters of Villarreal fan reaction, I don’t know whether they’ve signed Lotina or one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

Although a brand new midweek round of two matches - Barça vs Granada and Osasuna vs Getafe - is about to begin, the dust has barely settled on the final fixture of the last round, with Espanyol beating Racing 3-1 on Monday evening to move the Pericos into sixth and leave the side from Santander stuck fast in the relegation zone. “A big week for Espanyol, a point against Betis on Thursday and victory at home to Málaga next Sunday will mark them dow as serious contenders for fourth. Racing will be lucky to avoid the drop. Commitment, yes. Ability, not really,” was the verdict from LLL correspondent, Paul from Barcelona, watching the game in Cornella.

The talk in both the Real Madrid and Barcelona corners of the press is whether or not the league title race is back on. As the answer is "probably not, but hey, no-one really knows. Football is a funny old game," there is much pouring over fixture lists and fretting in Marca and AS over why Madrid didn’t beat Málaga on Sunday. “Is eight points enough?” asks Marca’s concerned front cover on Tuesday.

Pep Guardiola continues to think so, with the Barça coach admitting that “I keep on thinking that it is going to take a lot and we won’t manage it. I still see it as impossible.”

“Pants on fire,” says AS editor, Alfredo Relaño, “He’s not going to convince anyone, let alone the club’s fans.”

Barcelona have the chance to temporarily close the gap at the top of the table to five points against Granada on Tuesday evening - cue giant “FIVE POINTS” headline on front cover of Sport on Wednesday morning.

Eagle-eyed fans will spot Carlos Martins lining up for the opposition, despite the midfielder being sent off on Saturday. However the relevant FA committee which deals with bans and suspensions and what-not did not meet on Monday due to a bank holiday in Madrid. Of course. “It’s details like this, unquestionable, in other countries that put the quality of the league into doubt,” tuts another completely balanced Marca editorial.

LLL Predictions:
Osasuna v Getafe - Home win
Barcelona v Granada - Home win

Good Day, Bad Day: Malaga’s big moment, Messi’s magic & Levante’s longevity

Tim Stannard — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:39:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat 17 Mar Granada 2-1 Sporting Gijón; Real Zaragoza 1-1 Osasuna; Getafe 1-0 Real Sociedad; Sevilla 0-2 Barcelona; Rayo Vallecano 3-0 Real Betis Sun 18 Mar Levante 1-0 Villarreal; Mallorca 2-1 Atlético Madrid; Athletic Club 0-3 Valencia; Real Madrid 1-1 Málaga

GOOD DAY
Leo Messi
It may be a bit late for the Catalan club, but Barcelona appear to have recovered from their away-day ditherings with an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy victory at Sevilla following wins at Atlético Madrid and Racing Santander. Barça’s second goal was another exceptional effort from Leo Messi, who at the age of 24 years and 270 days becomes the youngest footballer to reach 150 la Liga goals. One to watch, thinks the eagle-eyed, talent-spotting LLL.

Roberto Soldado
A much-needed win for Valencia, Unai Emery and especially Roberto Soldado. The men from Mestalla had only won two of the previous 10 league games, with Spain’s latest striking sensation only scoring one goal in that spell. A hat-trick against Athletic will certainly do all three parties good in their respective hunt for third-place security, respite from hostile supporters and a place in Spain’s Euro 2012 squad.

Levante
They just don’t give up, do they? An incredibly late winner from Xavi Torres against Villarreal moves Levante back into fourth spot on 41 points – and just a couple away from survival, which is the repeated mantra about the club’s overriding goal this season. A good result in the midweek round of matches could see Levante’s summer holidays starting very early indeed – if the club doesn’t fancy the extra effort of European football next season.

Málaga
The visitors to the Santiago Bernabeu weren’t much of an attacking threat in the second half of Sunday night’s 1-1 draw with Real Madrid, but that didn’t really matter. Manuel Pellegrini’s men hung on in there, watched the home team miss their chances and pounced when given their own opportunity thanks to a majestic free-kick from Santi Cazorla. Málaga had been waiting all season for a ‘big’ result in la Liga. They’ve just got it.

Rayo Vallecano
Magnificent stuff once again from Rayo, who bounced back from a 5-1 stuffing against Espanyol last Monday with a 3-0 win over Betis, another side who had come up from la Segunda over the summer. Reaching 37 points gives Rayo hope for survival (already, with 11 matches left) and even Europe; of course, José Ramón Sandoval doesn’t want to hear of such talk, although LLL doesn’t believe a word of it from a very ambitious man. “The fans can get excited with everything all they want, but we aren’t going crazy about Europe, because if we do and any game is lost, we don’t want to go overboard about defeats,” claimed the Rayo boss.

Getafe
Back-to-back victories for Luis García’s side - the second of those against Real Sociedad on Sunday – puts Getafe onto 35 points and a quiet, uneventful end to the campaign to match what has been a fairly quiet, uneventful year in the sleepy capital suburb of Getafe.

Andrés Palop
The Sevilla keeper prevented what could have been a five- or six-goal rout by Barcelona in the Sánchez Pizjuán.

Mallorca
Bobbling along nicely under Joaquín Caparrós. Not always a team you’d pay good money to watch – or any kind of money, come to think of it – but that’s not the concern of the Mallorca boss, whose job it is to keep the Balearic team in la Primera. And that’s what he’s doing with Mallorca, in midtable on 33 points after a 2-1 Sunday afternoon win against Atlético Madrid.

Granada
LLL is perhaps going to have to change its mindset, which won’t be easy at all for the stick-in-the-mud blog. It has always put Granada in the "could still go down quite easily, if it doesn’t watch where it's going" column, but a very competent victory over Sporting on Saturday has given the Andalusians a plump comfortable cushion above the relegation zone: although 18th-placed Racing play tonight, Granada are seven points clear of the relegation zone and only two behind 12th-placed Sevilla. Although, in truth, that latter fact might not say much for Míchel’s men this season.

BAD DAY
Real Madrid
Look at that! Real Madrid in the Bad Day section. That hasn’t happened since the last time the side lost league points, way back in December against Barcelona. Sunday’s result was what can sometimes happen in la Liga: Real Madrid don’t always win.

Indeed, José Mourinho was correct in saying that “perhaps the question is how we score so much and so often,” rather than why Madrid didn’t get a second goal against Málaga to kill the game off and maintain a 10-point table-top gap. AS have declared that the title race is back on – as have the Barcelona-based papers, of course – but LLL is far from certain.

Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao
From what LLL saw, the Rojiblancos were a tad unlucky in the 2-1 defeat to Mallorca with a own goal and a missed penalty not helping the Atlético cause. However the result does show, as in Athletic’s 3-0 defeat of Valencia, that the Europa League may well take its toll on both teams in terms of league form, with less cup-tied teams like Málaga taking advantage in the not so fierce fight for fourth.

Iñigo Martínez
La Real were little bit unlucky against Getafe in a 1-0 Coliseum defeat thanks to an unavoidable own goal from the defender, with the ball bouncing first off the keeper and then immediately striking the centre-back.

Villarreal
That’s really going to hurt the morning after. It was a giant kick to the footballing goolies that has cost the job of José Molina, a manager only appointed in December. A goalless draw at Levante was already bad enough for Villarreal and Molina with the game going into injury time, but a last-gasp goal conceded really cooked the former goalkeeper’s goose with the side now five games without a win and expecting the visit of Real Madrid on Wednesday night.

Sporting
Before Saturday’s defeat to Granada, Sporting’s Sebastián Eguren talked about the game being a seven-pointer due to its importance. Expect the Uruguayan to say "there’s 11 finals left" any moment now.

Zaragoza
Rather like Villarreal, Zaragoza suffered massive sporting trauma to the nether regions late on Saturday. The bottom-dwellers led 1-0 against Euro-chasing Osasuna after Helder Postiga's 86th-minute goal, but then the Pamplona posse pulled off their speciality act with a header from a corner two minutes later – an “infantile” mistake, according to Zaragoza coach Manolo Jiménez. As much as they will talk of fighting to the very end, Zaragoza still need seven or eight wins from the final 11 league games this season to survive. Unlikely.

Premier pub ammo: Great Britton, off-song Canaries and vivacious Valencia

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:32:00 GMT

Astound your friends and irk your enemies with the help of the Stats Zone app from FourFourTwo and Opta.

SATURDAY
Fulham 0-3 Swansea City
Swansea's Leon Britton had 109 touches in this match, more than any other player over the weekend, the first time he has managed more than 100 in a PL match this season. Fulham made more interceptions than any other side in this shortened round of PL games.

Wigan Athletic 1-1 West Bromwich Albion
Wigan's Franco di Santo has more shots than any other player this weekend, yet found the target with just one of them. West Brom won 17 of the 19 tackles they attempted in this game, the best success rate of any side over the weekend.

SUNDAY
Newcastle United 1-0 Norwich City
The Magpies picked up 15 fouls in this game, making the Canaries the dirtiest side of the weekend. Norwich misplaced 74 short passes in this game, a weekend high figure.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-5 Manchester United
No player created more goalscoring chances than Antonio Valencia this weekend, and two of them led to goals – the 34th time in the PL this season that someone has provided two or more assists in a game. Wolves tried a weekend high 14 flick-ons in this match, but only two were successful.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Heroes & Villains: Featuring, for once, some REAL heroes

Mark Booth — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:16:00 GMT

The usual Premier League bouquets and brickbats from Mark Booth – but first, something far more important...

HEROES

The medical profession and football family
Heroes and Villains is a light-hearted round-up of Premier League action, but serious mention must be made of this weekend's events in the FA Cup tie at Tottenham. When Bolton's Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest at White Hart Lane, he immediately received priceless medical attention and was taken to a nearby hospital, where he continues to be given round-the-clock care as he fights for life.

It is easy to take for granted that football players are healthy; that volunteers from St John Ambulance will continue to attend every professional game without charge, despite frequently remaining unpaid when clubs going into administration pay off 'football creditors' instead; that the increasingly overstretched NHS will be there to cater for us all, player or fan, if the worst should happen.

It is also easy to assume, in an era of internet anonymity allowing "banter" to spiral into spurious spite and hatred, that football is irrevocably compartmentalised into tribalist factions. The reaction to Muamba's collapse disproves the assumption beyond all doubt. Inside the ground, horrified Spurs fans gamely tried to inspire Muamba by chanting his name, before respectfully acquiescing to Howard Webb's inevitable decision to postpone the game. On Saturday night, Bolton Wanderers forums were flooded with genuine well-wishers from San Jose to Sofia, as fans gathered to hold a virtual vigil.

Muamba is a very long way from recovery, but he is also very lucky to be alive. As football fans, we are lucky that despite all the hype and bluster, when something of true importance happens we can come together as one and hope for the best.
– Gary Parkinson, FourFourTwo.com Editor

Gylfi Sigurdsson
David Silva and Robin van Persie will probably fight it out for the league’s individual awards this season but if there was a prize for best loan signing or unexpected breakout star, Gylfi Sigurdsson would be a shoo-in.

His second brace in three games gave Swansea a hugely impressive 3-0 win at Craven Cottage on Saturday. A good dribbler, an expert crosser and a deadly finisher, the Icelander will have created quite the queue for his signature the summer.

Where last season’s fêted newcomers Blackpool faded after an eye-catching start, Swansea only seem to be gathering momentum as the season progresses and have moved into eighth place.

If there has been a criticism of Brendan Rodgers’ men this season, it’s been their inability to replicate their home form on the road, so this was a real statement of intent. They made 169 more passes than Fulham in this match – and the Cottagers aren’t shy of stroking the ball around themselves.

A late charge for Europe in their first Premier League season?

Jonny Evans
Once a figure of derision at Manchester United, Evans has been a solid presence since Nemanja Vidic picked up his season-ending injury. In truth, it wasn’t just his improving defensive abilities that see his name featured among the weekend’s heroes: he was the only scorer when the teams were at 11-a-side and set the champions on their way to their 5-0 rout.

United are not only putting breathing space between themselves and their neighbours with points, they’ve also eaten into the commanding goal difference advantage City once held. There are now just three goals between the clubs and the pressure is back on City ahead of their awkward looking match against in-form Chelsea on Wednesday. Over to you, Roberto.

Wolves’ South Bank
Gallows humour was the order of the day for the home support as they watched their side slip to the bottom of the table. The 5-0 scoreline was probably harsh on United, such was the champions' dominance, but the South Bank never stopped singing in support of their beleaguered team.

The fans' chants undoubtedly showed more doggedness and creativity than their players, with “It’s just like watching Bilbao” the pick of the self-deprecation. There were a few mumbles of “Moxey out” in reference to the CEO's decision to remove Mick McCarthy from the hot seat – but perhaps it should be “Sky out”: Wolves have now conceded five goals in each of their last three televised games.

Jonas Gutierrez
Jonas seemed to be revelling in his new position at left-back for the Magpies in their 1-0 win over Norwich City. There were some eyebrows raised when it was announced that the Argentine international would replace Davide Santon at full-back but he defended well and managed to overlap on the left-wing with distinction, earning him the man of the match champagne. This switch was the latest evidence of just what a progressive manager Alan Pardew is: with nine games to go, Newcastle already have one more point than they accumulated all last season.

VILLAINS

Wigan Athletic
Roberto Martinez will still be scratching his head wondering how his team didn’t pick up all three points in this latest frustrating afternoon at the DW stadium. Wigan have won only once at home all season – back in August – and no team in the top five tiers have scored fewer on their own patch. In many ways, this match epitomised the Latics’ season with their lack of a reliable goal scorer again costing them points.

Although Martinez has displayed a commendable commitment to playing good football, the club have only defied gravity thanks to Dave Whelan's handouts, making their position look increasingly perilous. As former Wigan player Paul Scharner said after equalising for West Brom: "I would be a bit worried if Wigan left the Premier League. Whether they ever came back depends on Dave Whelan. He would have to put in a lot more money for them to have a chance."

Mahmadou Diarra
Martin Jol took a real punt on the Mali international who seems to have had “once cost Real Madrid £22m” attached to his name since he landed in England. There was no evidence that this punt is about to pay off for Fulham during their 3-0 home loss to Swansea. It just wasn’t Diarra’s day, as proved when he went careering into the advertising boards and suffered a deep cut to his head. He bravely carried on but his performance was poor as he failed to surpress the attacking overtures of the rampant Welsh side.

Unbeaten Juve and underimpressive Vucinic finally show class to fire five past Fiorentina

Richard Whittle — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:55:00 GMT

After a week's media blackout from a club convinced there is a plot to stop them returning to the summit of the Italian game, Juventus locked away their conspiracy theories to turn in a dominant performance at Fiorentina.

The 5-0 trouncing of the feeble Viola, who played 70 minutes with 10 men after Alessio Cerci booted Paolo De Ceglie off the ball, was the Bianconeri’s highest score of the season and came after four consecutive draws had handed the advantage to AC Milan at the top of the table.

RESULTS Sat 17 Mar Parma 0-2 Milan; Fiorentina 0-5 Juventus Sun 18 Mar Cagliari 3-0 Cesena; Internazionale 0-0 Atalanta; Bologna 2-2 Chievo; Catania 1-0 Lazio; Siena 0-2 Novara; Lecce 1-1 Palermo; Udinese 2-2 Napoli Mon 19 Mar Roma v Genoa (ko 1945)

The feeling is that even if Antonio Conte’s men let their football doing the talking, the title is still Milan’s to lose – and the way the champions are going about picking off opponents, that four-point lead might as well be 10.

However, it was pleasing to see the Bianconeri enjoying themselves and especially the goal celebrations between Artur Vidal and Leonardo Bonucci who re-enacted their supposed punch-up at a nightclub following last week’s draw at Genoa.

Conte watches his men get physical

Having scored just three goals in the last four games, they managed five from just seven shots on target. Such clinical finishing was built around the mercurial talents of Mirko Vucinic, who opened the scoring with a stunning strike from the edge of the area.

Since his €15 million summer move from AS Roma, Vucinic has struggled to justify his price tag – but the Montenegrin finally broke loose of the malaise that has been hanging over his game, displaying the masterclass of movement, passing and general forward play that his coach had been demanding.

Setting up Claudio Marchisio and Andrea Pirlo – the latter dedicating the win to Fabrice Muamba – Vucinic was reminiscent of the reason why Milan take to the pitch in such confident manner: Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Like the Swede, Vucinic can be unstoppable when he decides to turn it on and he's just as adroit at taking up positions from which he can play his midfielders into goal-scoring positions, as demonstrated at the Artemio Franchi.

Only fifth goal-scorer Simone Padoin wasn't a recipient of a pinpoint delivery – and probably only because Vucinic had left to a standing ovation, his work well and truly done.

Conte knew his side needed to make a major statement on the pitch after Milan had strolled to a routine 2-0 win at Parma, although there were the now-typical complaints that a Rossoneri goal shouldn't have stood after Urby Emanuelson raced through from the halfway line and almost right through Ibra, who was trotting back from an offside position although adjudged not to be interfering with play.

Silvio Berlusconi was in the stands for his first away match in 18 years, but whether the returning president will be present at the Juventus Stadium on Tuesday evening is another matter.

The Italian Cup semi-final return leg has been given even more significance, coming at such a crucial stage of the season with relations between the clubs at an all-time low.

In order to progress, Milan must become the first team to defeat Juventus this season – and by two goals, considering the Old Lady's 2-1 win at the San Siro last month – which would make the encounter more than a sideshow to the title race.

However, it could end up being the highlight of the campaign for Juve if they can keep their 100% record intact.

Dalglish's defensive dilemma, Miyaichi facing Assou-Ekotto challenge

Michael Cox — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:11:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview the weekend's FA Cup action...

Liverpool’s tactical battles against Stoke have been interesting since Kenny Dalglish took charge of the Reds for the second time. Stoke’s threat from set-pieces is well-established, and Dalglish has responded to that danger by shifting to a system featuring three centre-backs.

The 0-0 draw between the sides in January was an example of Liverpool using a three-man defence, which worked well, but further up the pitch they had problems. They crossed the ball 42 times in the game, nearly once every two minutes, which played into the hands of the Stoke centre-backs who were happy to deal with an aerial threat. It didn’t help that Liverpool left Andy Carroll, their chief aerial threat, on the bench – though they were without Luis Suarez, who will be perfect against Stoke’s rather immobile backline.

Stoke’s crosses in the previous fixture generally came from the right, and that’s a feature of their attacking play this season – 42% of their passes are played down the right, a higher proportion than any other Premier League side. It will be interesting to see if Dalglish plays three at the back again, and if not, whether Liverpool are more prone to crosses.

The star of Bolton’s 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers last weekend was young Japanese wide forward Ryo Miyaichi, who created no fewer than seven chances in the game.

This weekend he’ll be up against Tottenham left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto, one of the league’s most consistent left-backs, and it will be interesting to see how the two deal with each other. Assou-Ekotto, as the dashboard from his performance last weekend shows, generally stays solidly in position when his side attacks, and doesn’t leave much space in behind.

Therefore, Miyachi will have to utilise more than his considerable raw pace – and as a player on-loan from Arsenal, he’d love to play a part in knocking Tottenham out of the competition.

Despite the arrival of Gary Cahill, Chelsea’s first-choice partnership at the back is still John Terry and David Luiz, judging by Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Napoli.

Luiz had a good game in midweek, and it’s clear that he brings good passing quality to the back four. Terry’s ability on the ball is also better than he gets credit for, and Chelsea now have two centre-backs comfortable on the ball and able to distribute directly from the back.

These two will almost certainly get plenty of time to play good passes against Leicester this weekend, and it’s interesting to see how their passing patterns vary. Terry plays a lot of backpasses and simple balls to left-back Ashley Cole, rarely hitting square balls to Luiz. The Brazilian is the opposite – no backpasses, plenty of square balls and more direct passes into the opposition half.

Everton versus Sunderland should see a direct battle between two young Irish wide players – Seamus Coleman on Everton’s right, and Sunderland’s promising left-winger James McClean.
Coleman is usually used in a relatively defensive role, protecting his full-back – either Phil Neville or Tony Hibbert. Last week he was used in an unfamiliar wide role after Gareth Bale was used on that flank, but he had a good game, regularly intercepting the ball before it got to Bale.

He might be in for a different challenge against the tricky McClean. Against Liverpool last weekend, McClean constantly tried to beat Liverpool right-back Martin Kelly, but was tackled seven out of nine times. Coleman will have to get goalside of McClean, and show that he can tackle as well as intercept.

Stats Zone is a

La Preview: Big love in Bilbao and rage against Reyes

Tim Stannard — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:46:00 GMT

Saturday

Granada (16th) v Sporting (19th) – 18.00 (all KOs local time)
Thought Sporting were in trouble, second-from-bottom of the table and three points from safety? Well, you are quite, quite wrong. The Gijón side’s Uruguayan midfielder, Sebastián Eguren, has some big news for both you, Mr (or Ms, Miss or Mrs) Smarty Pants, and the club’s fans ahead of this weekend’s relegation battle.
“The match is worth seven points: the three that Sporting win, the three that Granada don’t win and the extra point would be for the goal average,” said the midfielder, recalling his team’s 2-0 win earlier this season against Saturday’s opponents.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Zaragoza (20th) v Osasuna (6th) – 18.00
As there’s not a great deal worth talking about in the football sense with Zaragoza any more – not that football has ever been a key theme of LLL – it’s time to dish the latest dirt on Zaragoza and the club’s owner/president, Agapito Iglesias. Last week, it was revealed that Iglesias was trying to sell the club to fine, upstanding candidates only. This time around, the story is that a judge is investigating possible financial impropriety that may involve the owner.
A transaction is being probed in which half a million euros of a 2008 transfer fee from Betis to Zaragoza for Sergio García was allegedly spent on a deposit for a luxury apartment which was purchased in the name of Real Zaragoza.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Getafe (13th) v Real Sociedad (11th) – 18.00
Cata Díaz is a footballer who is often seen, but rarely heard. Correction – Cata Díaz is a terrifying footballer who is often seen, but rarely heard; a proper, scary, doesn’t-need-to-look-or-act-hard-to-be-hard footballer. The Getafe defender has played every minute of every league game this season, but a fifth yellow card of the season in the win against Villarreal on Monday night sees the centre-back suspended on Saturday.
So the Argentine stopper celebrated this chance to put his feet up by having a quick chat with Marca about his recent call-up to his national side and a certain, oft-talked-about compatriot. “Messi doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone – he’s the best in the world,” said Díaz, daring anyone to disagree with him.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Sevilla (12th) v Barcelona (2nd) – 20.00
Fine, upstanding citizen of Andalusia and president of Sevilla, José María del Nido, is feeling a little upset with his players, with one in particular standing out in the Sevilla leader’s bad books. After Saturday’s defeat at Sporting for Míchel González’s men, del Nido announced that he felt the footballing members of his team who are also internationals are “not giving the same performance than they are at other places". He added, "We have to look for a formula so that they perform here, for those who pay them."
José Antonio Reyes received a special mention, unsurprising as the winger has not done a great deal since a move to Sevilla from Atletico over the winter transfer window. “José Antonio is not giving the performance we were hoping for,” said del Nido – someone who knows all about the feeling of being cheated and defrauded. And not even allegedly.
LLL Prediction – Away win

Rayo Vallecano (10th) v Betis (15th) – 22.00
Rayo suspected that they had got away with a cheeky one and were going to be able to play talented forward Lass Bangoura on Saturday, despite the 19-year-old receiving a fifth yellow card during last week’s horrendous 5-1 defeat at Espanyol.
The referee had got his figures mixed up and the post-match report reflected that no.25 (goalkeeper Joel) had been booked instead of no.27 Lass. Rayo decided to keep quiet on the affair rather than appeal, but their cunning plan was scuppered when the official, Fernando Teixeira Vitienes, realised his error and sent through a post-match addendum to the Spanish FA, which sees Lass sitting out Saturday’s late-night special after all.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Sunday

Levante (5th) v Villarreal (17th) – 12.00
Villarreal supporters will be observing Levante’s players running out onto the pitch on Sunday with a sad moan of “That’s supposed to be us” – a team fighting for the Champions League places. Villarreal’s form has not improved under José Molina, a fact reflected by Monday’s lame home defeat to Getafe. However, the only performing player for the Yellow Submarine this season, Borja Valero, still had some fighting talk for the fans.
“We weren’t tall, handsome and good when things were going well, and we are not ugly, short and a disaster now,” ranted the playmaker, helpfully.

LLL Prediction – Away win

Mallorca (14th) v Atlético Madrid (8th) – 16.00
A while ago, LLL remembered that Atlético Madrid president, Enrique Cerezo, vowed in quite a huff that he would never speak openly about football ever again, seeing as he had a lot of his sporting decision-making powers taken away from him. That lasted about three days. Cerezo was tongue-flapping again this week when probed on Kun Agüero, and made some statements that might make the club’s fans raise an eyebrow or two in both surprise and disagreement.

“His departure didn't go well – he could have left things perfectly well with the fans. But we have a great affection for him: he was the most loved player of all time at Atlético.” Strong words.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Athletic Bilbao (7th) v Valencia (3rd) - 18.00
Failing to heed LLL’s snooty tweet last week, in regards to the paper’s obsession with toadying to Real Madrid in the face of other, more relevant news in Spain, AS were at it again on Friday. Iker Casillas was splashed on the front cover ahead of the Champions League draw, rather than the wonderful performances of Athletic, Atlético and even Valencia, all of whom went through to the next stages of the Europa League.
But once again it was Athletic Bilbao that stole LLL’s heart with another victory over Manchester United. And they also won over Sir Alex Ferguson, who said that “he had never seen a team like this in Europe” and wanted Athletic to go all the way through to the final.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Real Madrid (1st) v Málaga (4th) – 21.30
LLL always gives a skip and squeal whenever it hears that former Real Madrid president, Ramon Calderón, has been waffling away about whatever pops into his head at the time. This week, Calderón – currently under investigation for questionable activites undertaken during his spell at the Santiago Bernabeu – was complaining about how seedy everything has become under his successor, Florentino Pérez.
“The traditional ‘image of the señor’ of Real Madrid has deteriorated," he said. "The club allowed a banner of ‘Mou, your finger shows us the way’ (into the stadium), a horrible moment.” Calderón also claimed that Pérez tried to force Iker Casillas from the club. “Florentino wanted Buffon. He didn’t want to renew Casillas' contract and he was close to leaving the year it ran out.”
LLL Prediction – Home win

Monday

Espanyol (9th) v Racing Santander (18th) – 21.00
Espanyol’s latest bright young thing made a mark for himself in last weekend’s 5-1 win over Rayo. Midfielder Paul Quaye became the youngest Perico player to feature in la Primera, at 16 years and 177 days. The Ghanian joined the club in 2009 and has been guided along his way by mentor and coach Javi Peña, and also the senior players – claims Peña: “I will forever be grateful to [35-year-old striker Walter] Pandiani and everything he’s done for him.”
LLL Prediction – Home win

Liverpool the team for the big occasion as FA Cup takes centre stage

Jon Champion — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:57:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's FA Cup sixth round action. Watch ESPN's FA Cup sixth round coverage with Tottenham Hotspur vs Bolton Wanderers on Saturday at 4.30pm and Chelsea vs Leicester City on Sunday at 2pm.

There may also be some Premier League action this weekend, but the FA Cup deserves to take centre stage.

The competition is still very open - we could be heading for a Merseyside final, an all London final, or it could be Leicester against Bolton. Looking at the quarterfinal line up, I’d be rather surprised if it was all settled this weekend, I think we could be looking at one if not two replays here.

For me, Everton against Sunderland looks like the tie of the round. David Moyes actually rested players for the Merseyside derby during the week on the basis that he would have them available and in peak condition for this one, so from their perspective it seems the cup is the centre point of the remainder of their season. I know David Moyes is desperate for another taste of a Wembley final and is attaching great importance to this game.

Sunderland will also see this as a game of great importance. They managed to beat Liverpool without tigerish midfielder Lee Cattermole and their most creative forward in Stephane Sessengon, but will miss them more playing away from home. This is a really intriguing match-up and I wouldn’t be surprised if this one goes to a replay.

Tottenham are the highest ranked team left in the competition but haven’t played particularly well against lower league opposition so far this season, and they can’t afford to take as many liberties against Bolton. Owen Coyle has been given a little bit of breathing space after a getting a bit lucky against QPR last weekend, meaning he can afford to concentrate more of his resources on this game. Bolton’s main objective is to stay in the Premier League, but they’ll look at Tottenham’s inconsistencies and believe they have half a chance of getting back to Wembley for a second straight season.

I think the Chelsea celebrations may have just about died down by the time they kick off against Leicester after their remarkable comeback against Napoli. Roberto Di Matteo has now won all of his three games in charge, but succumbed to a few casualties on Wednesday night – John Terry and David Luiz may both be missing, so I think it will be a substantially weakened team that takes to the pitch, not through any desire on Di Matteo’s part.
Having seen Leicester - the Blues' FA Cup quarterfinal opponents - a few times this season, I’m just not sure what we’re going to get from them, they are frustratingly inconsistent. You look at the team sheet and there are some Premier League names on it and on their day I think they can give Chelsea a game, especially if they face a changed team. I will go for a Chelsea win in this one though, but if Leicester can hold them for an hour, things might get interesting and we might get into replay territory.

The fourth and final quarter final is a fourth meeting of the season of Liverpool and Stoke, and as always Stoke will be a thorn in Liverpool’s side. Liverpool have been held eight times at home this season and I think Stoke will go there and give it everything as it’s their last remaining focus after playing in so many competitions. They are good enough to go to Anfield these days and get some sort of result, not necessarily a win but this would be another fixture I could see going the distance – and that would mean a re-match at The Britannia.

I'm tempted to say Liverpool are the favourites for this competition. Their performances in the big games have been very good - it's been finding that level on consistency in the seemingly more routine games that's cost them in the league.

But if they can continue to grind out those one-off performances - which is, after all, what cup football is all about - then I can see them going on to complete a 'cup double'.

Meanwhile in the Premier League, Fulham face Swansea in a game for the purists, if not for those keen on seeing something fiercely competitive. Both sides have done very well to secure safety so early on in the season and as neither side are going anywhere in a hurry, it could lack that competitive edge. It will be tremendous on the eye but I don’t think it will go down in history as one of the most meaningful games of this Premier League season.

Newcastle are just about alive in the race for Europe, I think it’s more likely that they will just miss out, but it will still be a tremendous return. They take on a Norwich side that looked a little bit tired last weekend. They’ve reached that stage of the season where they can either play without any inhibition or results will tail off after realising the magnitude of what they have achieved.

Wigan played very well last week and had a wonderful chance to beat Norwich. They have good wingbacks in Boyce and Beausejour, and an industrious midfield but don’t have anyone who looks likely to score any great weight of goals. Opponents West Brom won three on the bounce before losing at Old Trafford, which is the story of their season – no consistency, but on their day good enough to take on the best. However Wigan are far from the best and despite their stirrings at Norwich, I’m rather thinking West Brom will return to form with a win.

Manchester United go to Wolves on Sunday with the chance to go four points clear, which would make the top of the table look very different to how it has done for the majority of the season. I expect them to take that chance, even with their defeat at Molineux last season. Wolves have drawn one and lost two under Terry Connor, who has been left holding the baby, a baby that is screaming its head off at the moment. I don’t think that footballing father figure, Sir Alex, will make the baby’s mood any better.

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

Napoli bow out with heads held high, but it's the final curtain for Inter

Richard Whittle — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:10:00 GMT

It had all the makings of Napoli’s greatest evening in European football. They hoped the party would go on forever, but it all went flat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The final 4-1 scoreline was more than harsh on Walter Mazzarri’s men, but in truth they were well below their vibrant best – the form which had seen them take a 3-1 advantage into the tie.

There were early chances for Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani, which may have given the team impetus to push on and put the contest beyond doubt, but it all started to go wrong when Christian Maggio limped off with an ankle injury just after the half-hour mark.

In Napoli’s five-man midfield going forward, the Italy international provides extra support and telling crosses from the right – as he had already demonstrated in the opening moments with a curling ball to the back post, which Cavani slid into the side-netting.

In fact, the opening goal of the evening came in part from Maggio's inability to run freely and close down Ramires, who had time to come inside and whip in a pinpoint cross for Didier Drogba to head home.

With Maggio off and a reshuffle requiring Juan Zungia to move over to the right to accommodate left-footed substitute Andrea Dossena, Chelsea began to find more space down both wings – and in particular Branislav Ivanovic was given far too much time to bring the ball forward down Napoli's left flank.

Maggio: midfielder much missed by Mazzarri's men

Napoli were always prone to Chelsea's aerial threat – and with the wide positions exposed, the back three dropped ever deeper into their own area. Unsurprisingly, the second and third goals came from the centre-halves having to back-pedal and concede corners.

Undoubtedly the Azzurri's best period came they were two goals down and played much further up the pitch, using the flanks to their advantage. Again, it was a deep cross that saw Gokhan Inler react quickest to fire home a stunning half-volley from the edge of the area.

However, partly through choice and partly through force they again dropped too deep, leaving Cavani and Lavezzi too isolated to become the decisive factors everyone back in Naples had hoped.

Surrendering a two-goal lead and conceding four may not happen in the future, with Mazzarri’s men gathering valuable experience against a Chelsea side who are well used to such tense European nights – and at times it seemed as if Roberto di Matteo's home team were cast out of the Italian mould.

There was plenty of falling on the ground and precious seconds taken at set-pieces, especially in extra-time, and maybe for the neutral the thought of another packed house at the San Paolo with Cavani and Lavezzi rampaging forward would have made for an more entertaining quarter-final than watching the more pragmatic Blues.

As it stands, Serie A joins the Premier League in having just one representative in the last eight – that being AC Milan, who will be hoping not to draw Chelsea in light of their most recent performance in London.

SERIE AAAAARGH!, Wed 7 Mar: Milan sober up in time to avoid embarrassment at Arsenal

Inter exited the tournament on Tuesday after a half-spirited effort against a very average Marseilles side. Going out to the away goal finally brings the curtain down on the Nerazzuri's ageing stars, who had in truth made one too many encores.

The former Treble winners will finish the season without a trophy but more damning is the fact that while Napoli ended their European adventure with their heads held high, Inter could only bow theirs in shame.

Madrid, meet Didier Drogba's heir: the smiling assassin who gives his all for the team

Guest Writer — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:09:00 GMT

As Real Madrid welcome CSKA Moscow to the Bernabeu, international football expert Michael Yokhin explains why many in West London should be watching the visiting Ivorian striker...

When asked about his most important quality as a footballer, Seydou Doumbia doesn't hesitate: “The ability to love and respect my team-mates”.

The answer befits the smiling CSKA Moscow striker, who is taking Russia – and Europe – by storm on his way to superstardom. With five Champions League goals this season, and 45 goals in all competitions during an 18-month CSKA spell, the Ivorian has exceeded even the most optimistic dreams of his employers.

Doumbia's 25 league goals (and counting) this season have made it the most prolific campaign by a foreigner in Russian history. True, the current Russian Premier League season is elongated to bring the country into line with most of UEFA, but it's not for nothing that he was voted Footballer of the Year in 2011.

A Doumbia brace in the 2-1 Russian Cup Final win over Alania Vladikavkaz gave a debut trophy to coach Leonid Slutsky, who can’t hide his delight: “We knew Seydou would score plenty of goals, but didn’t imagine there would be so many of them.”

Doumbia does everything with a smile on his face. “I am an optimist, always waiting for good things to happen in life,” he says. His acclimatisation in Russia, after moving from Young Boys Berne in summer 2010, was extremely quick, especially for a young man who was then 22 (he turned 24 on New Year's Eve).

Doumbia in familiar pose with Young Boys Berne

“He's such a positive and cheerful person that the team accepted him immediately,” admits Vasily Berezutsky, one of CSKA's veteran players. "He was on the same wavelength with us from the very first minute. His smile brings us a lot of joy." Given Doumbia’s background, such an attitude is far from obvious.

Seydou grew up in Adjame, a troubled suburb of Ivory Coast capital Abidjan, and his family was wretchedly poor. He never got presents for holidays, and more often than not didn’t even have something decent to eat. Trying to help his mother to feed his three younger brothers, Doumbia used to sell rags on the street. That’s where his luck suddenly changed at the age of 12 when he met Olivier Koutoua, president of Centre Formation d'Inter football academy.

“I told the kid that he should be at school, but he asked me to buy some handkerchiefs,” remembers Koutoua. "I had to save him." At the academy Doumbia worked harder than other kids. He would train for hours kicking the ball with both feet, and setting himself original targets, like hitting the post hundreds of times every week from different angles. He played in the second division at age 15. At 17 he was the top scorer in the country's Premier Division with 15 goals, despite representing tiny Denguele that finished ninth.

Unsurprisingly, Doumbia’s excellent start didn’t escape the watchful eyes of European scouts, and several French teams offered him a trial. But when bureaucratic problems stopped Doumbia getting a French visa, his agent suggested he tried his luck in Japan. Kashiwa Reysol badly needed a striker, Doumbia scored twice in a trial and a deal was swiftly signed.

However, the rest of his Japanese career was far from perfect. The cultural change was too huge for a 18-year-old, and the coach mistook that ever-present smile to mean that the youngster wasn’t serious enough. A loan spell at second division Tokushima Vortis didn’t work out either, and at that stage Doumbia’s career was going in the wrong direction.

It’s only symbolic that the striker’s kind character helped him out once again. Thierry Doubai, a little-known midfielder who remained a close friend from their mutual years at the academy, was playing for Young Boys in Switzerland, and he persuaded his bosses to give Seydou a chance. The Berne club paid just €150,000 for Doumbia; it would prove to be a bargain.

To start with, coach Vladimir Petkovic didn’t really believe in Doumbia. Frequently used as a second-half impact sub, the Ivorian started just five times during 2008/09, his first season in Swiss Super League. That didn’t prevent him from finding the net 20 times, finishing as the league’s top scorer and winning the Player of the Year award.

A certain starter in his second season, he responded with 30 more goals, the highest amount in Switzerland since 1988. Add 17 assists over the two seasons, and you will understand why Young Boys supporters nicknamed him The Lord.

Doumbia kept thanking the fans after every game and made sure he developed a good relationship with them, becoming their most popular player by a distance. He easily retained the Player of the Year title, but by then the Berne crowd knew he was off to pastures new: the deal that took Doumbia to Moscow had been sealed in January 2010, with the player staying to finish the season in Switzerland. CSKA president Yevgeni Giner agreed to pay €10 million for the Ivorian, meaning his value had multiplied by 77 in little more than a year.

Young Boys' profit could have been even more astonishing: Rubin Kazan offered €25 million, trying to outbid their Russian rivals. The offer was so outrageous that Young Boys president Werner Muller considered it a joke and didn’t take Rubin seriously. A few months later the Tatars paid €20 million to Hoffenheim for Brazilian playmaker Carlos Eduardo, who has been injured ever since.

Young Boys used a fifth of their Doumbia profit to sign Emmanuel Mayuka, the Zambian who celebrated winning the African Nations Cup this January – beating Ivory Coast on penalties in the final of a tournament Doumbia mostly watched from the bench.

Chased by half of Madrid: will Chelsea also be on his heels?

Doumbia is used to that role: he also fulfilled it at the 2010 World Cup, acting as understudy to the ultimate Ivorian star: Didier Drogba. The younger man's day will most certainly come sooner rather than later, but in the meantime he is happy to learn from the striker who used to be his idol.

“I always wanted to be like Drogba,” admits Doumbia, a longtime Chelsea fan who readily admits he dreams of playing at Stamford Bridge. That aspiration could well come true as early as this summer. With Drogba on his way to China (if you believe potential team-mate Nicolas Anelka), and Fernando Torres’ career in total disarray, the Blues badly need a top scorer.

Roman Abramovich’s friendship with CSKA president Yevgeni Giner is well-known: in 2009 it helped bring Yuri Zhirkov to London. Some reports in Russia even suggest Chelsea recommended CSKA sign Doumbia from Young Boys in the first place, in order to check the striker on a bigger stage before making the ultimate purchase. He was so impressive, though, that Abramovich’s team is not the only option for the Ivorian now. Andoni Zubizarreta, Barcelona’s sporting director, is rumoured to be ready with a healthy offer for the new star.

The potential buyers will get an outstanding footballer. Lethal in front of goal, Doumbia shoots well with both feet, is a good header of the ball despite being just 5ft10in, and – unlike many a striker – is very generous towards his teammates. His unique dribbling goes back to the side streets of Adjame. “I invented tricks there, and just polished them later,” he says.

In fact, even Slutsky took his time to get used to Doumbia’s style. “He often starts moves that are downright illogical,” says the CSKA coach. “He would go into defenders, putting himself into situations you just can’t get out of – but he does get out. Doumbia is a real virtuoso, able to get past players who can’t understand his intentions. His way of playing is so unusual that marking him is a very tough job”.

And he's consistent. CSKA were used to the wayward brilliancy of Vagner Love, the outrageously talented Brazilian who could score against anyone and then disappear for months. Doumbia gives his utmost effort in every game, peaking on a big occasion. During his first season in Moscow the Ivorian netted seven times in the Europa League; in this season's Champions League group stage, he averaged a goal a game.

Seydou scored twice late in the first game, saving his team a point in a 2-2 draw at Lille. He then contributed a brace in a 3-0 win over Trabzonspor, but was sent off in the return fixture in Turkey, thus sitting out when CSKA lost at home to the French champions.

On the final matchday, the Russians needed to beat Inter at San Siro and hope for a draw in the other game – and that’s exactly how it worked out. Doumbia wasn’t afraid to promise he would score against the Nerazzurri, and true to his word he netted early in the second half, with his good friend Vasily Berezutsky claiming the late winner.

Slutsky said he couldn’t believe his ears when told that Lille failed to beat Trabzonspor, thus sending CSKA into the last 16. The Russians rode their luck, but the draw wasn’t that favourable to them, setting a clash with Real Madrid. Doumbia couldn’t be happier, though. A year ago he claimed that one of his cherished dreams is to score against Los Blancos. Now he’s got a chance to fulfill it.

The first leg at the frozen synthetic pitch at Luzhniki wasn’t Doumbia’s best game, even though CSKA managed to score in injury time to draw 1-1. At Santiago Bernabeu the Ivorian can stun the world, doing no harm to his already glorious reputation. Hard-working, strong-charactered, positive, ever-smiling, friendly and extremely talented, Doumbia has the world at his feet.

Players beg Pep to sign on as press try to guess Mourinho's next move

Tim Stannard — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:58:00 GMT

Pep Guardiola may have felt a touch...heavier on Wednesday. No, the Barça boss hasn’t been on the Maniche diet - the extra weight was caused by a significant section of the Catalan media grabbing hold of his ankle, wailing hysterically and being dragged about the house as the Barça boss went about his morning ablutions.

The problem is that the middle of March has arrived and the Dream Boys boss still hasn’t decided whether he should stay on for another year of fun at the Camp Nou, and no doubt another year of questions over whether he will be staying on for another year at the Camp Nou.

A procession of players have been before the media pleading with their manager to stay. This week, Leo Messi was claiming modestly that Guardiola was a more important figure than himself at the club. On Tuesday, Xavi Hernández admitted that “the dressing room is not ready for a ‘no’ from Guardiola,” causing images of many a Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker head-and-fist-to-the-heavens style ‘Nooooooooo!’ should Pep be the bearer of bad news. “We hope he carries on. He’s the leader and he has given us order and discipline and turned us into a winning team,” said the mini-midfielder.

Barcelona-based Sport are in quite the tizz about Pep’s indecision, with Wednesday's front cover begging Guardiola not to have any more doubts. “Call the president and say you’ll carry on,” begs Joan Vehils. “The players, fans, directors, the club...everyone wants it.”

It’s possible Guardiola is waiting for José Mourinho to blink first in his decision on whether to stay on for another 12 months in Mordor. After all, a season without the Madrid manager poke-poke-poking away continuously would be a much more attractive prospect than another campaign with 'The Special One' constantly paying Pep special attention.

Mourinho was at it again over the weekend, with a whole new approach to annoying the heck out of his rival. The Portuguese was willing to admit to his faults in regards to openly whining about referees, but suggested other managers - including Pep Guardiola, one assumes - are merely a little more ‘clever’ in how they go about their business. “I’m not the perfect coach because I have criticised referees before using strong words, but others sell a different image than mine but we are all the same,” Mourinho said on Friday.

The press conference ahead of Wednesday evening's Champions League clash against CSKA Moscow was full to the brim with tea leaves for Mystic Meg types to gaze at, looking for clues as to Mourinho’s future. Cristiano Ronaldo claimed Mourinho would be around for at least another season, and the man himself insisted “my future does not depend on this match...”

Yet LLL imagines he is still very much under pressure to secure the club's tenth European crown, and being knocked out at this stage would sit well at all with the powers that be.

That’s unlikely to happen with Madrid supremely strong favourites to go through against the Russians with the tie at 1-1, the home side holding an away goal. Oh, and Mourinho’s men have been generally quite good this season.

Moyes hails Everton’s "say die" attitude

Back of the Net — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:03:00 GMT

He's back... former Pohnpei manager and outside bet for the England job Paul Watson chips in with the latest Back of the Net piece.

Everton manager David Moyes was full of praise for his players after last night’s 3-0 derby loss to Liverpool, hailing the Toffees’ dignified and placid subservience in the face of defeat.

Moyes’ men boosted their bid to finish exactly in mid-table by cancelling out a gutsy win over Tottenham with a lily-livered capitulation against their old rivals Liverpool, keeping them solidly anchored in ninth place behind teams who can score from open play but ahead of teams unable to take a long throw.

“It’s just fantastic to have a group of players that aren’t afraid to accept their limitations,” Moyes beamed after the final whistle.

“Rather than waste everyone’s time and risk heaping further indignity on themselves by attempting to rectify the situation with passes, crosses or shots, the lads have humbly capitulated.

“Many sides would see going behind in a derby just before half-time as a prompt to create some chances, but we weren’t remotely tempted to try and claw our way back into the game.”

While fans seemed unimpressed with Everton’s lack of spark, Moyes was seen applauding Steven Pienaar for time-wasting at 2-0 down and the manager himself insisted on inserting an ‘L’ in the fixture list on the club’s website several hours before kick-off, stressing that he was "saving the webmaster a job".

Despite their lack of chances, Everton had 47% of possession at Anfield. However, the figure could be misleading as much of that total came during a 12-minute period when the ball got stuck in Marouane Fellaini’s shirt, causing widespread embarrassment and frustration.

Previous stories:
Premier League defences terrorised by mysterious masked winger
Steve Bruce unable to explain football to a six-year-old
Wolves appoint man who claims he was McCarthy's assistant
Visiting Joe Cole wows Liverpool squad with French toast
Kenwyne Jones bunks off Stoke training to play football
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

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

How to win the league and be relegated in the same season

Ed Malyon — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:45:00 GMT

It is one of the oddities of Argentina’s complicated relegation system that clubs often know their fate many months in advance.

Based on a system that tallies the average points attained over three seasons, the two sides with the lowest averages are automatically relegated from the division each June.

The next two teams up the table play off against second division sides for the right to keep their place in the top flight, this was the fate that befell Buenos Aires giants River Plate last season.

At the beginning of the 2011/12 season (see image below), Tigre – a modest, but historic club from northern Buenos Aires – knew only an incredible campaign would see them avoid relegation this June.

More than that, they would need to challenge for the title to even have a hope of survival, and given they had just lost their star striker Denis Stracqualursi to English club Everton, things didn’t look good for a club with little money and under the guidance of a rookie manager in Rodolfo Arruabarrena.

Although their challenge for second place and a berth in the Copa Libertadores fell short late in the Apertura season, they had already overachieved enough to give themselves an outside chance of survival heading into the Clausura.

Yet five games in, Arruabarrena is now contemplating the possibility of winning the league yet still getting relegated.

Only 36 years old, El Vasco is best known in Europe for his time at Villarreal, who reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2006 thanks to his quarterfinal winner against Internazionale. The team centred around Juan Román Riquelme’s ability as an enganche in Manuel Pellegrini’s 4-3-1-2, and this also forms the base for Arruabarrena’s Tigre.

Villarreal’s success in Spain was built upon a tight-knit unit that shared a footballing philosophy; a little piece of South America in Castellón, with seven Argentinians, a Uruguayan, a Bolivian, a Brazilian and an Ecuadorian when Riquelme arrived, not to mention a Chilean coach in Manuel Pellegrini. It was Pellegrini – now at Malaga – who instilled in Arruabarrena the importance of the group in any success:

“In this job it’s fundamental to lead. It’s much more important than 4-2-2, 4-3-1 or 4-8-3… I don’t know how many systems there are and they keep adding numbers… What is important is to know the personalities of the players, and how to combine them.”

And that he has done.

Arruabarrena celebrates his Champions League goal against Inter in 2006

Blending together a mish-mash of fairly uninspiring players, only Boca Juniors have amassed more points than his side in the last 12 months.

He has unearthed the potential in players like Román Martinez, a former Deportivo Morón player who had failed in Spain, or Ezequiel Maggiolo, who is inexplicably nicknamed ‘lettuce’.

Diego Morales had also led a fairly unremarkable career until being picked up by Tigre, but he has since become the team’s attacking fulcrum, creating goals and also finishing the Apertura as their leading scorer. His role is similar to that of Riquelme in the Villarreal of the mid-noughties, and considering Arruabarrena was the one who originally convinced Riquelme to join the ‘Yellow Submarine’ from Barcelona, his appreciation of the importance of a classic South American ‘10’ is clear.

A win for Tigre this weekend may still not be enough to take them to the dizzying heights of the relegation playoff places, but even with most of his title rivals in midweek continental action, a first ever league title for the club couldn’t be further from the mind of El Vasco.

“Our table is the relegation table,” he said this week. “We mustn't make the mistake of thinking otherwise.”

He is humble too. When recently linked with the job at Boca Juniors - the club where he won the Copa Libertadores as a player – he was quick to quash the speculation, reasoning that he still makes far too many errors.

His mentor Pellegrini once told El País that “if one were to just put players in a tactical system, something crazy would happen”, but even though Arruabarena has followed this advice seemingly to the letter, he may find his side in the crazy situation of being champions while also getting relegated.

Champions League preview: Space behind Ivanovic could be Chelsea's undoing

Michael Cox — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:00:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview Wednesday night's Champions League action...

Chelsea’s problem in the first leg of their tie with Napoli was down their right, where Branislav Ivanovic played an extremely attacking role and constantly left space in behind himself – exploited gleefully by Argentine left-sided forward Ezequiel Lavezzi, who scored two goals and also missed an excellent chance at 2-1.

The pattern of interceptions shows that Chelsea were good at winning the ball down their left, but completely bare on the right, where Ivanovic wasn’t helped by the advanced positioning of Daniel Sturridge. This helped Napoli find plenty of time and space down that side. Their three goals, and most of their shots, came from an inside-left position.

Chelsea have a new coach, of course, but Roberto Di Matteo will be well aware of Napoli’s threat on the break. Chelsea need two goals, but must make sure not to leave too many gaps at the back – in particular, in that right-back zone.

Midfield duo Pontus Wernbloom and Yevgeny Aldodin contributed to a fine first leg performance for CSKA Moscow side against Real Madrid, with the Russian side snatching a 1-1 draw on their own patch.

The two were theoretically playing alongside each other as the holding midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 system, but the dashboard of their performances shows they play completely different roles. Aldodin plays quite high up the pitch and is reliable with his passing, knocking the ball gently from side to side, but he rarely helps out defensively.

Wernbloom, on the other hand, plays an all-action defensive midfield role. It’s notable that his patterns of interceptions, tackles and fouls cover the entire width of the pitch, and he’s effectively forced to do the defensive work of two central midfielders.

It’s a thankless tash – but Wernbloom got his glory by popping up at the end to score the equaliser, and CSKA now have hope going into the second leg.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

It's Pep vs Piqué, says Madrid; Yellow Submarine still sinking

Tim Stannard — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:01:00 GMT

Apart from sporting a new natty haircut, one of the most noticeable aspects of José Mourinho over the past couple of weeks has been the Madrid manager’s rather generous way of praising the opposition – namely Rayo Vallecano and Real Betis.

Oddly generous about the quality of football and steely attitude of the opposition players, the Portuguese has also taken time to gush profusely about the noise and passion of the home support. Indeed, after the 1-0 win in Vallecas Mourinho even gave them a quick clap.

As LLL has joined in the local hobby of interpreting every utterance or gesture from Mourinho at least 15 times for hidden meanings, the blog is quite sure that the Madrid coach is continuing his campaign to try and develop something that may be beyond his admirable powers – the creation of an atmosphere at the Santiago Bernabeu.

That campaign continues ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League clash against CSKA Moscow with the release of a promotional video starring Real Madrid players all giving it the Delia Smith “let’s be ‘aving ya!” vibe. The clip is set to be played in the Santiago Bernabeu before kick-off – probably at ear-splitting volume, knowing the insane strength of the club’s PA system, which the blog is sure can be heard from the moon.

“I want you to be my hands,” says Iker Casillas (while his face clearly says "Really? My contract says I HAVE to do this?"). “I want you to be my feet,” demands Xabi Alonso. “I want you to be my magic,” is Marcelo's must-do whilst Pepe says something about “noise, support us, you better, knee caps, ankles, waiting for you outside.”

In a week without football at the Camp Nou, Tuesday's Mundo Deportivo returns to the good old referees-favouring-Real-Madrid conspiracy. Meanwhile, Sport recycles a story from capital-city TV station Telemadrid – which is quite, quite abysmal, incidentally – that Pep Guardiola's contract renewal is dependent on the sale of Gerard Piqué, the coach apparently having lost his "feeling" with the defender.

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell denied the story completely on Monday, blasting “public media who, with public money and taxes from their citizens, are dedicating themselves to giving information which is untrue, without foundation and completely false.”

Back in Sport's pages, Joan Vehils senses the forces of Mordor behind the story, linking it to other media outlets to demonstrate what the Camp Nou collective perceive to be organised hostility from the capital collective. Telemadrid is “a public TV channel whose head is a good friend of the Madrid president. Pure chance or not, but at [radio station] COPE and [TV show] Punto Pelota there are friends of Florentino Pérez as well.”

Tucked away in the football news for Tuesday is some actual... well... football news. Villarreal’s problems increased with a 2-1 home defeat to Getafe, whose Monday-night travelling performances are normally wetter than a kipper in a monsoon.

After a defeat including a missed penalty from Borja Valero, Villarreal are fourth from bottom and with just the single point from the last four games. “I can understand that people are upset and I accept this,” admitted coach José Molina, who must be very concerned indeed about his own future and that of a club in desperate trouble.

Champions League preview: Valbuena and Marseille aim to outnumber Inter full-backs

Michael Cox — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:35:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview Tuesday night's Champions League action...

Basel hold a narrow one-goal lead over Bayern Munich as they travel to Germany for the second leg of a tie that has the potential to be the shock of the round. Basel were completely dominated in the first leg, yet somehow managed to score a late winner through Valentin Stocker, and Bayern’s 61% possession was in vain.

The pattern of passes into the final third in the first leg tells an interesting story. It can often be tricky to predict how Basel will play down the flanks because the two wide players, Fabian Frei and Xherdan Shaqiri, move between various positions. Often they switch flanks, other times they both move into the centre, and sometimes one winger moves all the way across the pitch to the other side, where they create a two-against-one situation against a full-back.

Bayern should be aware that, while they conceded the only goal of the first leg after a cross from their left-back position, it is actually in the right-back zone where Basel attack more, so Brazilian Rafinha will need a solid defensive performance.

On the subject of crosses, they were also a big feature of the first leg between Marseille and Inter, which also saw a 1-0 home win for the underdog in the first leg. Incredibly, Marseille managed to score with their 44th and final cross of the evening, a corner turned in by Andre Ayew.

There was a simple reason why Marseille were crossing the ball so much – they played with a wide 4-2-3-1 system and Inter played with a narrow 4-3-1-2. That meant that Marseille could get their full-backs forward, create two-versus-one situations, and find space to centre the ball.

But two-versus-one often became three-versus-one, because of the interesting role played by Marseille playmaker Mathieu Valbuena. On paper he was the central attacking midfielder in a, but he rarely spent time in the middle – instead, he drifted to either flank away to shake off his marker, finding space in much wider areas. This helped the Ligue 1 side overload Inter on the flanks.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Good Day, Bad Day: Málaga make their move as Barça enjoy a quiet night

Tim Stannard — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:20:00 GMT

Good Day

Cristiano Ronaldo & Gonzalo Higuaín
More steamrolling striking action from the poaching pair with Ronaldo picking up league goal number 32 of the season and the supposedly out-of-form and for-sale Argentinean striker grabbing his 17th in a cracking 3-2 win over Betis, that was a tad controversial. No surprise there this season in la Liga.

Conspiracy Theorists
And there was LLL hoping we could all go a week without discussing the referees of la Primera. Sadly, it wasn’t to be, with two huge penalty claims ignored in the Betis match following 'handballs' from Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos. LLL feels that the former was as clear as day, but that the latter was a tough one to spot with the incoming shot being whacked at such speed and a leg being involved in the moment too - if a referee can’t be sure then he can’t blow the whistle. In theory.
However, the two different views of the incidents were predictably held on Sunday with Marca praising perfect refereeing and Barcelona-based Sport crying foul over a ‘robbery’.

Leo Messi
A quiet week for little Leo with just the seven goals in two games. The last couple came in a rarity for Barcelona - a fairly comfortable away win. Heck, the Catalan club even got a soft penalty to keep everyone in the Barcelona world happy.

Málaga
A 1-0 win over Levante moved Malaga into fourth place and gives even more reason to believe the blog’s spider sense that money-bags Málaga will be taking that very open fourth and final Champions League spot this season. The victory over the former fourth-placers - a team with an annual budget about €80m less than the home side - was Málaga’s third win a row, useful form to have ahead of what will probably be a disappointing, lame 4-0 capitulation at the Santiago Bernabeu next Sunday.

Osasuna
Two goals from two set-pieces from Osasuna - one an own goal - gave the Pamplona side a win in the local derby against Athletic Bilbao and move the Navarrans into the Europa League places.

Atlético Madrid
The 2-0 victory over Granada was the side’s first win in five league games, therefore something to be celebrated by the Rojiblanco faithful, 55,000 of whom turned up on Sunday at midday to sing their little cotton socks off. But the match was a distinctly drab one with LLL suspecting that a 1-1 draw was on the way before Falcao popped up with a second goal in injury time after miraculous run down the right wing by Juanfran.

Espanyol
After some recent shambolic performances, Espanyol pulled a corker out of the hat with a 5-1 win over Rayo. Paul from Barcelona was there to see the miracle take place.
“Well, where did that come from? I was expecting the worst and instead got a huge shock. 4-0 up at half time, two goals each from Uche and Coutinho. Second half, Espanyol took their foot off the gas and allowed Rayo a glimmer of hope provided by their best player on the day, Tamudo. When he scored, he didn't celebrate and received a warm round of applause. Good reception throughout. Uche got his hat trick a few minutes later.
A few points
- ‘Remontadabilidad’ or for those of you who speak Dowie "bouncebackability". The perfect answer to last week's shameful performance.
- Kalu Uche, in his first match he was more Ooh Betty than Uche (think about it ). I thought we'd signed Heskey but we have a Yakubu.
- Coutinho. More Pablo Aimar than Messi but hints of Leo in there. See his second goal.
- Sergio García - brilliant today, makes us a better team and has deservedly won over the fans. He makes Verdú a better player too.
- Paul Quaye - 16-year-old, Barça are after him, he told them to do one, makes his debut. From Ghana and the best player in his age group in Spain according to most sources, Michael Essien-esque.
-Rayo, missing a few players came to play and will be fine. Good support and to a man (80 odd) they stood up to applaud the Jarque minute. Class, well done lads."
Paul, Barcelona

Betis
For the second away match in a row in la Liga, José Mourinho was praising the opposition players, coach and supporters in a game that he once again admitted that his side were lucky to win. “Betis deserved more,” was the verdict in a match the Madrid game complained was far too open and anarchic to his liking, a testament to the very attacking, incisive approach from the home team who showed their better qualities on Saturday night, as opposed to Monday’s horror show against Levante.

Real Sociedad
It’s win, defeat, win, defeat, win at the moment for la Real, but it’s enough to keep the side out of trouble and snug in mid-table with 33 points. The latest victory was a perfunctory one against a drab Zaragoza on Saturday afternoon.

Bad Day

Unai Emery
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Unai’s Valencia side had already received a barracking from the home fans on Thursday after conceding two goals to PSV in what was still a 4-2 win. So you can only imagine what the reaction was to Valencia going 2-0 up against Mallorca and then only drawing 2-2 to make it just two victories in the side’s ten league games this calendar year. This awful run leaves Málaga just four points behind third, a spot which was supposed to be set in concrete for Valencia.

Rayo Vallecano
“We are going to get the tape of today’s game and throw it in the bin,” promised Rayo coach, José Ramón Sandoval, after the side’s 5-1 tonking by Espanyol in Cornella.

Sevilla
A similar story to the pre-Míchel Sevilla that eventually saw Marcelino getting the boot - too many chances missed too many times, on this occasion it was in the 1-0 loss at Sporting.

Zaragoza
Two weeks ago, Manolo Jiménez was a mad as hell with his team after a late thrashing by Málaga. Then the Zaragoza manager was happy as a pie after a win against Villarreal. It was grumpy face Manolo making an appearance once again on Saturday night after a 3-0 defeat to Real Sociedad, which requires Zaragoza to win at least eight of their remaining 12 matches to stay up. Which probably isn’t going to happen. “There’s nothing else to say,” complained an exasperated Jiménez. “We gave them the win when everything was in our favour,” said a manager who appeared to be watching a very different game to everyone else.

Heroes & Villains: Two cheers for Swansea, Mancini's mistake, Liverpool languish

Mark Booth — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:30:00 GMT

As things get all the more interesting at the top and bottom of the Premier League, Mark Booth names the do-gooders and evil-doers of the latest round of action...

Heroes

Manchester United
The big winners this weekend. For the first time in five months, United are top of the Premier League outright as their neighbours stumbled in Wales.
This was the comfortable afternoon one would have expected against a West Brom side that were unable to replicate their 2-2 draw at Old Trafford of last season. It was a low-key win for United, entirely in keeping with their successful running down of City and the afternoon’s two biggest cheers were reserved for news from South Wales.
They have been relentless in their snapping at City heels and finally have the opportunity to build a lead of their own, which will only be aided by their talisman Wayne Rooney coming into goalscoring form at the right time. Rooney has now netted in each of his last four matches and notched seven in his last seven to take him over the 20-goal threshold in the Premier League for the second time in his career.
If United do seal their 20th league title in May, unlike last season it won’t have been handed to them, especially when you factor in the long-term injury to their best centre-back and the wealth of talent in City’s playing squad. Number 20 might just be the sweetest one yet for Sir Alex Ferguson.

Swansea City
Normally if a newly promoted team pulls off a surprise win over the league leaders you picture a smash-and-grab performance founded on defensive discipline and plenty of running – but Swansea’s win over City was so much more than that. For the first half an hour you would have thought it was Swansea who spent half a billion on their playing squad, as they had City chasing shadows. There’s so much to admire in the way in which the Swans go about the game, keeping the ball and forcing mistakes with their oppressive harrying when out of possession.
The subdued performances of David Silva and Samir Nasri, City’s expensive playmakers, was testament to the Swansea midfield – in particular, Joe Allen, who has been a huge part of the Welsh side’s impressive first season in the Premier League.
These three points practically assured another season in the top flight, which is good news for fans of good football everywhere. They’ve been a breath of fresh air for the league since their promotion (though unlike similarly oxygenating Blackpool, they look guaranteed to stay up), and have put one in the eye of those who have said that only physicality will see newly promoted teams survive.

David Moyes
A perfect anniversary for the Scot, who has now been at the helm for a decade at Goodison Park. Everton’s 1-0 win over Spurs demonstrated all of the characteristics that have made Moyes one of the most respected managers in the league.
Spurs followed Manchester City and Chelsea into the trap of underestimating the Toffees’ grit, and if this was an audition for the likely vacancy at White Hart Lane this summer, Moyes can expect a call back from Daniel Levy at the very least. Everton have been defying gravity for as long as Moyes has been at the club and the only thing more pleasing than a clean sheet and three points will be that it was Jelavic who scored the only goal – certainly not the first wise piece of business the managerial supremo has been responsible for in the past 10 years.

Blackburn Rovers
Steve Kean’s detractors have gone awfully quiet in Lancashire as Blackburn continued their decent run with a significant win in their fight against relegation. Rovers looked dead and buried earlier in the season but now sit three points outside the relegation places after winning 2-0 away at fellow strugglers Wolves.
It was their first clean sheet in 31 games, and not for the first time this season it was Junior Hoilett who inspired Blackburn to the win. There will be a quite a queue for the Canadian’s signature this summer.

Didier Drogba
There was little to savour in Chelsea’s grinding win on Saturday afternoon. This was a workmanlike performance from Roberto Di Matteo’s charges, but after looking so porous at the back this season a second successive clean sheet is just the tonic for the Chelsea faithful.
There was something Mourinho-like about this win, particularly as it’s still Didier Drogba that Chelsea look to for inspiration. Drogba’s winner brought up 100 Premier League goals for the Ivorian, who is yet to agree a new deal at Stamford Bridge. If he does depart in the summer, Chelsea will be losing a striker as ingrained in the fabric of the club as the likes of Peter Osgood and Jimmy Greaves.

Villains

Roberto Mancini
There were tears in the away end, whispers of Jose Mourinho’s name in the media and desperate City fans ready to welcome outcast Carlos Tevez back to the fold after a miserable afternoon in South Wales. City would do well to gather their thoughts and apply some perspective to their situation after surrendering top spot on Sunday. With 10 games to play, including one Manchester derby at Fortress Etihad (14 league games, 14 wins), a one-point margin in March is no reason for City to think they’ve blown it so early in the campaign.
In this match, however, Mancini got it wrong from the outset. Not for the first time this season, his decision to start Gareth Barry and Nigel De Jong together in midfield cost his side the initiative, leaving Mario Balotelli an isolated figure for the first half an hour and convincing Swansea that there was nothing to fear from the league leaders. City’s manager rectified his mistake 35 minutes in and brought Sergio Aguero on for a despondent Barry.
The impact was immediate and City started to meet Swansea much higher up the pitch. But if City don’t score early away from home, too often they look like they won’t score at all – and so it proved.
The injuries to Kompany and Lescott proved decisive too, with Stefan Savic undoing his prior good work to gift possession to Swansea, which Luke Moore punished in the most definitive manner.
City are getting a reputation for being poor on the road and with trips to Stoke, Arsenal and Newcastle still to come, this is a reputation that needs addressing or their title bid is likely to end in tears. More of them.

Gareth Bale & Harry Redknapp
As FourFourTwo’s very own James Maw recently pointed out, Gareth Bale would be better served in returning to the left side of midfield as he yet again failed to influence the match from a more central position, once again cutting in from the right with Luka Modric curiously shifted out left.
Tottenham look top-heavy when starting with two strikers and it seems to be a shocking oversight from Redknapp, who is either daydreaming of a summer in Eastern European or too stubborn to accept that his 4-4-2 is simply not complimentary to the make-up of his squad. Bale’s directness from wide areas was probably the most threatening element of Spurs’ ascent up the league table, and it’s unclear whether his and the team's sudden drop in form is a result of the Welshman’s delusions of grandeur or a lack of direction from the man who would be king on Tottenham’s bench.

Steve Morgan
Morgan’s decision to show Mick McCarthy the door wasn’t Abramovic-like in its prematurity. There was an undeniable sense that things had turned stale at Molineux and an airing out of the dressing room was needed; a fresh voice to provide a charge to battle-weary limbs. With the greatest of respect to Terry Connor, he probably doesn’t possess the voice fans were hoping for (in fact he seems to have very little voice at all), and the games are running out for a team that has failed to keep a clean sheet in 13 matches.
Morgan’s decision to fire McCarthy without an experienced replacement lined up looks like it might cost his club its Premier League status and is a cautionary tale for any other Premier League chairmen with itchy trigger fingers.

Kenny Dalglish
Dalglish’s men can forget about a return to the Champions League next season. Liverpool have now failed to score in nine Premier League matches, and their need for a top-class striker is obvious when you consider that 16th-place Blackburn have scored 10 more goals than them this season.
This is the first time the Reds have lost three games in a row since 2003, when they were managed by Gerard Houllier and Michael Owen was their top scorer with 16 goals. In 2012, Craig Bellamy leads the scoring charts with a paltry six. More worryingly, if the Premier League had started on January 1st, Liverpool would be in the bottom three.
Should Kenny be trusted with John Henry’s money again after splurging £56m in the summer on Messrs Adam, Henderson and Downing?

Bob Pollock
There haven’t been too many better adverts for the introduction of video technology in football than in QPR’s 2-1 defeat to Bolton. It may be one of the game’s more tedious talking points but that’s only because the solution is so obvious, easy to implement and inevitable.
Clint Hill’s header was a yard over the line before it was clawed back – brilliantly – by Adam Bogdan but assistant referee Bob Pollock failed to spot it and QPR never really recovered.
The R’s have a gauntlet-esque run-in, and if it will take all of Mark Hughes’ cunning for them to avoid an immediate return to the Championship. We’re guessing this wasn’t part of the four-year plan but there are some decisions that are impossible to account for.

Mario myth makers
If Noel Gallagher’s interview with Mario Balotelli taught us anything, it was not to believe everything we read. He’s entertaining enough on the pitch without these increasingly tedious and fictitious sideshow stories. The interview simply conveyed what most rational people already knew: that he is a thoughtful, shy and intense young man. Unfortunately, you still get the impression that the nation’s tabloid journalists had their fingers in their ears as Super Mario dismissed all of the mythical headlines, from confronting schoolyard bullies to handing out wads of cash to tramps, as baseless lies.

Goal-fest could spell good news and bad for Napoli ahead of Chelsea showdown

Richard Whittle — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:25:00 GMT

RESULTS Fri 9 March Napoli 6-3 Cagliari, Chievo 0-2 Inter Sat 10 March Palermo 0-1 Roma Sun 11 March Cesena 0-2 Siena, Atalanta 1-1 Parma, AC Milan 2-0 Lecce, Genoa 0-0 Juventus, Catania 1-0 Fiorentina, Novara 1-0 Udinese, Lazio 1-3 Bologna

Napoli may have warmed up for their Champions League showdown at Chelsea with a 6-3 rout of Cagliari, but given AC Milan put four past Palermo prior to their embarrassing narrow escape at Arsenal, Walter Mazzarri’s side will still be more than a little cautious ahead of their trip to London.

The Azzurri hold a narrower lead than Milan did heading into the second leg of their last-16 tie, and although they have demonstrated that scoring goals comes easily to them, they have also shown that conceding goals does too. With the tie delicately poised at 3-1 in their favour, there is still plenty of work to be done.

Cagliari forward Joaquin Larrivey’s hat-trick may have been little more than a personal triumph, with each goal ultimately proving a mere consolation, but worryingly for Walter Mazzarri all three were simple headers from routine crosses.

The first came with Napoli already leading 3-0, when an in-swinging free-kick from wide on the right put the home defence on the back foot; enabling Larrivey to guide his header home unmarked.

The second and third were both the result of chipped crosses into the six-yard box, where once again the back-line were out of position and goalkeeper Morgan De Santcis rooted to his line.

Chelsea will no doubt attempt to pepper the Napoli box with a few high balls in the early stages, but the visitors will also need to prevent their opposition from getting to the by-line to deliver crosses under the crossbar of a keeper who is less than secure with his handling.

Much will depend on the back-three of Hugo Campanaro, Salvatore Aronica and the commanding figure of captain Paolo Cannavaro maintaining a tight line to ensure that they no one is left isolated one-on-one.

However, the wing-backs will have an equally crucial role on closing down the space along the flanks, and if the team can repel Cheslea through the first half an hour then space will open up for Ezequiel Lavezzi, Edison Cavani and Marek Hamsik to work their magic on the counter-attack.

Lavezzi and Cavani in particular have been in breathtaking form, with the Argentine scoring for the sixth consecutive game in all competitions on Friday to equal a club record set by compatriot Diego Maradona back in the 1987/88 season. For many, El Pocho is the man who can take Napoli all the way in Europe.

Cavani, of course, has been bubbling over nicely in front of goal, but Hamsik has been a little quiet of late, despite the spikey-haired playmaker being back on the scoresheet against Cagliari.

With Lavezzi free to attack from wherever he feels he can do the most damage and Cavani drifting out to either flank, Hamsik has been restricted into playing a more withdrawn role. Although he doesn’t get into the opposition penalty area as much as did last season, the Slovak is developing into something of an all-rounder – and a very good one, at that.

He could be the key to stemming the Chelsea side higher up the pitch, while also acting as the launch pad for attacks involving the pacy front-two as they search for that vital away goal.

Napoli’s trip to Stamford Bridge promises to be another emotional European night for Serie A, with most involved in Italian football hoping the only tears shed by the visitors will be those of joy, which was how exactly Claudio Ranieri greeted Inter’s win over Chievo.

Such has been the pressure on the ever personable Roman to halt the Nerazzurri’s recent slump that when Walter Samuel and then Diego Milito struck to secure a first league victory in seven, it all became just a little too much.

The result, which just happened to come on the club’s 104th birthday, and the coach’s misty-eyed reaction certainly gives the much put-upon side and its weary fans a massive lift ahead of their European encounter with Marseille.

With Inter trailing 1-0 from the first leg, the San Siro should finally resound to some genuine cup-tie atmosphere, but even qualification to the quarter-finals is unlikely to save Ranieri’s bacon in the longer term.

As he was drying his tears and calming his nerves, reports were filtering through that Moratti had already met with Andre Villas-Boas to sound out the recently-sacked Chelsea manager about taking charge next season.

In the meantime it would be a crying shame if Serie A does not have three representatives in the quarter-finals come Wednesday evening.

Spurs lack accuracy, Miyaichi adds pizzazz, but Barton too 'Hollywood'

Nick Govier — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:09:00 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

The battle at the bottom of the Premier League was the focus this weekend, with four of the five teams cut adrift at the foot of the table playing a relegation rival.

First up was Bolton Wanderers' 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers. In a relatively balanced game in terms of possession, territory and controversial decisions, it was the marginally tidier football of the home side which eventually prevailed. Nigel Reo-Coker and Joey Barton both attempted 49 passes, yet while the Bolton midfielder completed 84% by keeping things 'ticking over' - playing it short and maintaining possession, Barton too often looked for longer, 'Hollywood' passes and ultimately saw his completion rate dip to 63%.

As the game continued, QPR began to seize control and Bolton became more and more entrenched in their own half (with the exception of Arsenal loanee Ryo Miyaichi, as can be seen on the player influence chalkboard below). Owen Coyle has had success in taking youngsters on loan from top clubs before, with Jack Wilshere and Daniel Sturridge's previous loan stints proving mutually benefitial, and the latest temporary Trotter secured the three points for Bolton with a piece of deft play in front of the back four to release Ivan Klasnic.

The other drop-zone face-off also saw the points heading to Lancashire, as Blackburn Rovers eased past Wolverhampton Wanderers. A total of 23 interceptions across the pitch helped Blackburn seize control of the game - a dispirited Wolves side could only manage three - and two goals from David Hoilett secured the victory. The emergence of the Canadian has been one of the few positives for Blackburn this season, and they will need a few more match-winning performances such as this to drag themselves clear of the relegation battle.

The fifth team fighting for survival, Wigan Athletic, travelled to Norwich on Sunday knowing that a loss would open up a three point gap between themselves and Bolton in 17th place. Perhaps spurred by this, they had the better of the game with 55% possession, 53% territory and seven shots on target to Norwich's two, despite falling behind after just ten minutes. It was a well-earned point at Carrow Road, as the likes of Chelsea and Newcastle will testify.

Finally, Everton completed a home hat-trick of wins to nil with a backs-to-the-wall victory over Tottenham Hotspur. The away side dominated after the break as they searched for the equaliser, restricting Everton to only 50 passes in the second half as they created 17 shots. However, shooting inaccuracy cost Spurs as they could only find the target with three of these attempts. That's three losses in a row for Harry Redknapp's side, as Everton continue climbing the table with back-to-back home wins over Manchester City, Chelsea and now Tottenham - a fantastic way to celebrate David Moyes' decade in charge.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

La Preview: Ignoring Athletic, a Sacking in Santander and Rocking Rayo.

Tim Stannard — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:47:00 GMT

Saturday

Málaga (5th) v Levante (4th) - 18.00 (all KOs local time)
It’s high time for LLL to stick its head around the door at fourth-placed Levante to see if there's any talk of Europe yet, rather than of simply escaping relegation. The swift answer is ‘nope’. “Sometimes we forget that we are just Levante,” said ever modest coach, Juan Ignacio Martínez, when the words ‘Champions League’ were uttered in his presence up.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Real Sociedad (13th) v Zaragoza (20th) - 18.00
Have €100 million or so to pour away into a giant financial black hole of a football club? Then go purchase the Segunda-bound Real Zaragoza, as that’s the sort of amount needed to take over the club and cover its debt. Owner/President/Meddler-in-Chief Agapito Iglesias has taken the hint from the fans - who hate his guts - and announced that he can be bought out by anyone with more money than sense.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sporting (19th) v Sevilla (10th) - 20.00
José Antonio Reyes appears to have found his Atlético Madrid form already, despite only moving back to home town club Sevilla just a month or so ago. The problem there is that form is a little bit pants. Still, one great man of Spanish football, Joaquín Caparrós, who used to manage the midfielder back in his own Sevilla days, has come out in defence of a footballer who continues to rub fans up the wrong way.
“Of all the footballers I’ve had, I’ve never seen anyone do the things that Reyes does, apart from Leo Messi. He is strong, technical, a real football talent. I’m sure that he’ll be back to the Reyes that he was at the start,” soothed the Mallorca manager.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Betis (12th) v Real Madrid (1st) - 22.00
It was all very touching, really. Once upon on time - about a year and a bit ago to be not particularly exact - former Sporting boss, Manuel Preciado, and José Mourinho were enemies, throwing insults at each other through the press. But then they patched up their differences and became BFFL. Preciado was at Real Madrid’s training centre on Wednesday to continue that friendship and pick up a few coaching tips along the way. “At the moment, we have a great relationship,” growled Preciado.
Manolo is on a bit of a sabbatical after leaving the Asturian club and “taking advantage of unemployment, although I hope it isn’t too long, to learn, improve methods, see colleagues and enjoy myself. I’m going to be in Spain for 15 days and afterwards go to Europe on a professional / tourist tour. I want to go to Italy and England.”
If anyone out there should bump into the wonderful fella on his travels, then make sure you get him a frosty, cool beer.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sunday

Atlético Madrid (9th) v Granada (16th) - 12.00
There are a few rumblings in Madrid that Diego Simeone is getting quite a soft ride in the town, despite Atlético failing to win any of their last five league games. LLL suspects it’s because the Rojiblanco boss cuts quite a terrifying figure, which is as good a reason as any.
Then again, Atlético Madrid have only lost one of the nine league games Simeone has been in charge - a clash against Barcelona - and as the Atleti boss points out in an interview in Wednesday's Marca, “when I came we were ten points from fourth place, now we are four (it’s actually five - nitpicking LLL). It depends on how you look at it but I always want to see the positive side.” LLL, not wanting its body parts rearranged next time it sees the Argentinean, is going to agree wholeheartedly.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Espanyol (11th) v Rayo Vallecano (8th) - 16.00
Selling Michu in the summer is likely to be one money-making scheme for cash-strapped Rayo Vallecano, given he is currently Spain’s joint-top goal scorer this season. However the club may have stumbled onto another sure-fire bank account-busting winner - hosting popular music concerts and giant disco-dancing sessions.
Now the traditional place for a football club to do this is the stadium itself - the Vicente Calderón hosts the likes of Muse and Coldplay - but Rayo reckon that their rather nifty training complex would be a much better venue. A tester is reportedly taking place at the end of April with a dance music session called “Musicland” with DJ’s such as Carl Cox and John Digweed turning up, playing some Altern-8 and Prodigy songs and wondering what the blazes they are doing on an astroturf pitch some four miles outside of Madrid.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Valencia (3rd) v Mallorca (14th) - 16.00
Unai Emery has a book out! Oh yes, he does, co-written with Juan Carlos Cubeiro, the tome is called “a winning mentality: the Emery method,” and is all about positive thinking and that kind of business.
However, the book isn’t just about a football club reaching third spot and hanging on to it for dear life, it has lessons that can be used out in the real world too. “This mentality is for difficult moments not just in life but also necessary in society,” said the Valencia boss at Monday’s presentation. “This mentality is something that’s in your thoughts, your attitude, not in the results and this is what we’ve established at a very high level at Valencia. The team always wants to win although the results are that they don’t always win.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Racing Santander (18th) v Barcelona (2nd) - 18.00
While Barça have been moaning about problems concerning referees - real or imaginary - the Catalan club are traveling to take on a side with genuinely troubling issues. This week, Racing let go of their second coach of the season, Juanjo González. Although the Santander side are still in the relegation zone, the team have been doing as well as expected and grinding out points here and there to keep them in the fight for survival.
But, it seems the administrators who now run the club have had other ideas and let Juanjo go, reportedly due to not getting on with his co-coaches. “I don’t agree with the decision but I can understand it,” said González to local Cantabrian radio. His previous partners, Fede Castaños and Pablo Pinillos, are expected to carry on with managerial duties until someone else who doesn’t mind working for peanuts can be found to take over.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Osasuna (7th) v Athletic Bilbao (5th) - 21.30
A glorious night for Spain in Europe saw victories for Valencia, Atlético Madrid and most wonderfully of all, Athletic Bilbao, who gave Man Utd a lesson in Basque brilliance on Thursday. So which story did AS make their lead on Friday morning? Another "Isn’t José Mourinho brilliant?" story. There are a group of editors at the paper who should be feeling ashamed of themselves right now.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Monday

Villarreal (17th) v Getafe (15th) - 21.00
Although Dani Güiza has without doubt been the worst of Getafe’s strikers this season - a race for the bottom if ever there was one - it is Miku and now Javier Arizmendi who suffered the boos of the Getafe fans, which probably constitutes three people in the crowd of 200 having a bad day and needing an outlet.
Arizmendi was the target in last Saturday’s home defeat to Málaga, something that has coach Luis García concerned. “I don’t understand why they do this to him. They booed Miku as a substitute before he was playing. We’ll have to use just one striker now so they aren’t jeered,” said the Getafe boss.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Western Conference preview: Pitchside log-cutting, questionable haircuts & the Honey Badger

Kris Heneage — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:23:00 GMT

Many see the MLS Western Conference as the stronger of the two, and the favourites at this stage have to be LA Galaxy, despite the 2011 MLS Cup winners losing centreback Omar Gonzalez to injury on the first day of a month-long loan spell at FC Nuremberg.

While the top three places may be cut and dry, excitement this season comes in the mid-table battle. With four sides potentially vying for that last play-off spot: Vancouver, Portland, Colorado and San Jose all have things going for them. They also all possess kryptonite-like weaknesses that will hamper their chances, making it a tough difficult battle to call.

But who are the teams involved, and where do we think they'll finish?

Chivas USA (9th)
Last season was a tough one for the Los Angeles-based side. Inconsistency meant they finished one place from the bottom in the West, with little likelihood of big improvement in 2012. The club added pace to the flanks with the signing of former Arsenal trainee Ryan Smith, but there’s a distinct lack of depth up front, putting a lot of pressure on Juan Pablo Angel to perform.

If Chivas are to achieve anything this year, the issue of consistency needs rectifying. That can often be hard to do with such a high turnover of players, and while poor league finishes have seen them get better draft picks, it’s not really an ambitious long term strategy.

Key Player: Juan Pablo Angel. Watch a compilation of Angel’s goals for New York (good news, there's one below...) and you’ll see why so many in MLS admire the Columbian forward. Moved on to the LA Galaxy when Thierry Henry arrived in the Big Apple, it was a similar story for the former River Plate and Aston Villa man when Robbie Keane made the move to LA. With so few options behind him (bar rookie Casey Townsend) it’s a lot to ask of Angel and if he fails to score you have to question who will pick up the slack.

Colorado Rapids (7th)
After winning the MLS Cup in 2010, the defence of their title never really got going last season. Manager Gary Smith went back to England after a falling out with the club’s technical director Paul Bravo, amid claims he was “sick of the backbiting.” Former Cardiff City man Miguel Comminges, Ireland international Caleb Folan and MLS Cup final hero Macoumba Kandji were also allowed to depart the club as Oscar Pareja moves towards playing a more fluid 4-3-3.

While his new system may still accommodate Jamaican forward Omar Cummings, Smith favourites such as Brian Mullan will likely find themselves warming the bench. Colorado have long term potential, but the squad still needs work if it’s to play the way Pareja wants them to.

Key Player: Connor Casey. Think Colorado and star striker Casey tends to spring to mind. After missing most of last year with an Achilles injury, much of their success this season depends on whether he can stay healthy. His robust style of play means while he may lack pace, he’s the ideal focal point for their new attacking triangle.

FC Dallas (4th )
A heavily compacted fixture list last season saw FC Dallas try to compete on two fronts, tiring themselves out in the process. Admittedly Dallas weren’t the only club with Champions League commitments, but their policy of fast-stracking youngsters into the side, while admirable, did seem to hamper them last year.

Despite the squad’s best attempts to convince people otherwise, former Colombia midfielder David Ferreira’s absence through injury was also noticeble.

Maintaining focus throughout the squad, as well as being more clinical in front of goal, will be key for Dallas this year. By bringing in Panama striker Blas Pérez (nicknamed Super Ratón - Spanish for Mighty Mouse) the club have attempted to address the second problem. And now George John is entering the final year of his contract, holding his concentration may stifle attempts to maintain harmony.

Key Player: Brek Shea. Possessing a vast array of questionable haircuts, Shea is a 6 ft 3 wide-man with the lungs of a whale. An artist in his spare time (see the below video), he’ll do well to balance all of his commitments this year. Proving he’s human by eventually succumbing to fatigue last year, he became a versatile component of the Dallas side and will be a large part of any success they have this time round.

Los Angeles Galaxy (1st)
You have to commend LA for last season, deapite the burden of pressure and expectation they were still able to deliver David Beckham’s first MLS Cup. Although Becks spent a long weekend in Paris, he’s back and committed to a new two year deal.

The pressing concern for LA is the injury suffered by Omar Gonzalez while on loan at FC Nuremberg, with his replacement Andrew Boyens not having the best of games against Toronto in the Champions League on Wednesday. However LA can celebrate the returns of midfielder Juninho - on another loan deal from São Paulo, and Edson Buddle following a disappointing stint in Germany for the US international forward.

Key Player: Landon Donovan. In a team littered with stars it’s difficult to single out one, but Donovan just rises above his team mates. While he might be playing coy about his future, he keeps producing for LA when required. Scoring a late equalizer against Toronto midweek, it typified why you need players like him in your team. If he can balance a hectic international schedule with his club commitments, he could very easily be the MVP for 2012.

Portland Timbers (6th)
Portland almost capped their debut season with a play-off berth, and they’ll be hoping they can go one better this time around. Kenny Cooper has been replaced by Kris Boyd, the ex-Rangers man enticed by the prospect of working with fellow Scot and current Timbers coach John Spencer.

Unfortunately the club’s young designated player José Adolfo Valencia will be spending this season on the treatment table as he recovers from knee surgery.

With Spencer scouting Colombia for players following good seasons from Diego Chará and Jorge Perlaza, the Timbers have been busy this off-season, seeing several lesser known players depart Oregon. Although it’s unlikely they’ll win MLS Cup, the play-offs are certainly achievable.

Key Player: Kris Boyd. It took him just eight minutes to score his first goal for Portland, a neat header in a friendly against Swedish side AIK. Expectations of Boyd are high, partly due to his time with Rangers as well as the handsome salary he’ll be picking up while he’s with the club. As you might expect, Timbers owner Merritt Paulson is confident Boyd will be a big hit in MLS. The one piece of advice we’d offer the former Middlesbrough man would be to not irk 'Timber Joey' while he's at work (see below...)

Real Salt Lake (3rd)
IIt was hard not to feel sorry for Real Salt Lake last season. A narrow defeat in the Champions League to Mexican side Monterrey was only worsened by the sickening leg break midfielder Javier Morales suffered a week later.

Credit must go to the club for not only making the play-offs but also knocking out heavy favourites Seattle. The summer saw veterans Robbie Russell and Andy Williams depart, which helped secure new deals for Ned Grabavoy and the sometimes temperamental Fabián Espíndola.

Enzo Martinez also arrived via the Superdraft and he could potentially blossom under Jason Kreis’ tutelage. Defensively solid, Salt Lake are definitely one of the better sides in the West, but perhaps not quite good enough to trouble Seattle and LA just yet.

Key Player: Javier Morales. The year 2011 was not a good one for the Argentine playmaker for obvious reasons. Now fully recovered, his return should make the club a more dynamic prospect in attack - provided he recaptures the form that earned him an All Star selection in 2009 & 2010.

San Jose Earthquakes (8th)
The biggest move for San Jose was Bobby Convey relocating himself to Sporting Kansas City (insert terrible Wizard of Oz joke here). While Convey might not have got on with coach Frank Yallop, his public outburst made the situation untenable, regardless of how good he is.

Tottenham forward Simon Dawkins returns on loan, but rumours of David Bentley joining him seem a tad fanciful. Akin to D.C. United, a late surge almost saw San Jose make the play-offs, but alas it was not to be. Having added some options up front, the back line still looks a little suspect, and with such a high player turnover in the off season San Jose will take time to gel.

Key Players: Chris Wondolowski. A fantastic goal return over the last two seasons, Wondolowski really is one of the best finishers in the league. Having made the MLS team of the year in 2010 & 2011, expect him to be near the top of the goal-scoring charts once again this year. As for San Jose, it’s sad to say but it’s a same story as last year, with the Earthquakes relying on the ‘Magic Wondo’ to perform.

Seattle Sounders FC (2nd)
Kasey Keller finally called time on his illustrious career and the Sounders will miss his big-game experience as they look to compete in both MLS and the CONCACAF Champions League this season. Former Ajax winger Mauro Rosales has earned his designated player contract after an impressive 2011, with Congo DR winger Steve Zakuani edging ever closer to a return after his horrible leg break last year.

Elsewhere, Eddie Johnson will be hoping to prove that Seattle were right to swap Mike Fucito and Lamar Neagle for his services, and former Liverpool trainee Jason Banton has earned the chance to display his talents in MLS. As LA’s only realistic challengers, expect Seattle to comfortably make the play-offs.

Key Player: Osvaldo Alonso. Cuban international Alonso is nicknamed the “Honey Badger” for his tenacious style of play, and while Rosales and Co may take the headlines, it’s Alonso that really makes Seattle tick. His selfless and tidy play in the middle of the park make him the fulcrum of the side and although he may not be flash, he’s the kind of player any team with MLS Cup aspirations needs.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC (6th)
There wasn’t anything funny about Vancouver last season (including Terry Dunfield’s terrible Christmas Cracker style joke). This season seems far more optimistic, as the club have dealt wisely in the off-season. Like a master craftsman, coach Martin Rennie has begun refining his squad, sending Lee Nguyen to New England and acquiring Scotland's Barry Robson (although he won’t arrive until July).

Arguably one of the best moves the club made was getting Sébastien Le Toux from Philadelphia. His hard working mentality will serve the club well, and if Eric Hassli can curb his poor disciplinary record, there’s potential in Vancouver. Also watch out for the speedy Darren Mattocks, who has looked impressive in pre-season.

Key Player: Barry Robson. It might sound silly to pick a player who won’t arrive till halfway through the season, but having watched Robson has a lot to offer. While there are still question marks over the Vancouver back line, it's likely to be a close battle between them and Portland for that last play-off spot.

Eastern Conference preview: Firefighters, Kenny Rogers and Bob Dylan

AVB's philosophy diluted, Spurs supply sparks Saha, Wolves & Rovers lean left

Michael Cox — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:19:00 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...

Andre Villas-Boas had just 27 league games in charge of Chelsea, starting with an away draw at Stoke and ending with an away defeat to West Brom. What changed in that time?

Tactically, plenty of things. Chelsea stopped playing with such a high defensive line, they no longer rotated the midfield triangle and they started to move away from the 4-3-3 formation Villas-Boas favoured at Porto, and shifted towards more of a functional 4-2-3-1.

Amother noticeable difference between Villas Boas’ first and final games in charge is the number of times Chelsea attempted to dribble past opponents. They tried it 38 times against Stoke, and just 15 times against West Brom. This could be explained a number of ways – less possession, less confidence, less skill – but ultimately it shows that Villas-Boas’ philosophy had been watered down significantly by the time of his departure. It will be interesting to see the figures from this weekend’s home clash with Stoke, under new boss Roberto Di Matteo.

Sunday afternoon’s match at the Liberty Stadium sees the battle of the Premier League’s best two passers – depending on which statistical measure you take.

Swansea’s Leon Britton has the highest pass completion rate in the league at a highly impressive 93%, while Manchester City’s Yaya Toure completes more passes per game than any other player, with an average of 79.7.

The difference is demonstrated by the comparison of their last home game – Toure marauds around the pitch and sees plenty of the ball, but sometimes concedes possession with forward passes. Britton, however, is much more static and generally plays short sideways balls.

Louis Saha will return to Goodison Park this weekend for the first time since his surprise January move from Everton to Tottenham. He’s not guaranteed a start, though – Harry Redknapp has started with two upfront in his last two games, but this has resulted in heavy defeats to Arsenal (5-2) and Manchester United (3-1), so he may move back to one upfront.

Saha managed to score twice in his first start for Tottenham against another of his old clubs, Newcastle United. That was more than he’d scored in 18 league appearances for Everton this season, and Everton fans may have wondered where Saha’s sudden goalscoring form came from.

But there’s no real secret to the sudden success – Saha was simply receiving the ball plenty of times in goalscoring positions, which didn’t happen once in his final game for Everton.

Wolves against Blackburn is a classic relegation six-pointer, with the clubs straddling the relegation zone in 18th and 17th place respectively, level on 22 points and separated by four on goal difference.

They have something else in common – no other sides in the league have such a preference for playing down the left flank. Wolves play 42% of passes down the left compared to 32% on the right, while Blackburn’s figures are 38% on the left, and 28% on the right.

This may seem a fairly obscure statistic, but the pattern is obvious when looking at the positions the two sides entered the final third in their previous matches. As a result, the most important players in this game might be the two right-backs – Wolves’ Ronald Zubar and Blackburn’s Jason Lowe.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

The Burnden Park Disaster remembered

Gary Parkinson — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:31:00 GMT

When Bolton Wanderers hosted Stoke City in an FA Cup Sixth Round game on 9th March 1946, fans flocked to witness what they thought would be an unforgettable game. Sadly, that's exactly what they got.

Bolton had won the FA Cup in 1923, 1926 and 1929, but had only got past the Sixth Round once since. They had won the 1945 Football League War Cup and hopes were high for more silverware. Stoke had never got past the Sixth Round (reached in 1928 and 1934), but they had the already legendary Stanley Matthews.

Uniquely in FA Cup history, ties were two-legged in that first postwar season. The Football League hadn't restarted, making the Cup more popular than ever.

Eyewitness Alf Ashworth attended the match with his brother Bill. “People came from far and wide because this was the first year the FA Cup was being played for after the war. People were coming back home from the forces, and Stanley Matthews for Stoke and Ray Westwood for Bolton – both internationals – were in the teams that day.”

The match wasn't all-ticket: Bolton's highest gate that season had been 43,453, well below the Burnden Park record of 69,912. However, Matthews' fame added thousands to an attendance already swelled by Bolton's 2-0 lead from the first leg, and the near-3,000 seats in the Burnden Stand were off-limits, still requisitioned by the Ministry of Supply. In addition, the closure of the Burnden-side turnstiles for the huge Embankment end placed extra pressure on the entrances on the other side of the terrace.

Crowds started arriving in their thousands before 1pm, and by 2.30pm the Embankment was nearing capacity. Alf Ashworth could see problems developing from his vantage point at the other end of the ground.

“Entrance was from Manchester Road only, and on the right by the turnstiles was a bar,” explained Ashworth. “People used to congregate round this bar, and wouldn't move from there. To left of the goals there was a mass of faces and no spaces, whilst farther over it was evident that there was room, but people wouldn't move over to the Burnden side of the ground.”

At 2.40pm the turnstiles were closed. However, thousands were still trying to get into the ground, and many broke in to the Embankment from the railway behind it, removing sections of the ramshackle fencing. A concerned father and son escaped the crush by picking the lock of a closed gate, but thousands poured in through the open gate.

Bill Cheeseman was on the Embankment with his sister, who had come specifically to see the great Stanley Matthews. “It was such a crush”, he recalled. “It was getting dangerous. We were getting squeezed by the people in front and behind. Everyone was pushing.”

As the teams came out, a characteristic terrace “swell” caused dozens to spill onto the pitch, temporarily holding up the game. By now women and children were being passed overhead to huddle at the side of the pitch, but this was not an uncommon occurrence at the time, and the game kicked off – with tragic consequences. As the crowd pressed forward again, two metal crush barriers gave way and the crowd collapsed in on itself.

“All of a sudden those that were in front of us seemed to go – all falling down like a pack of cards,” said Cheeseman. “We managed to get out and I was glad about that.”

Others weren't so lucky. Although play restarted, the seriousness of the situation was obvious even to Alf Ashworth at the other end of the ground. “People were being carried away on stretchers,” he saw with horror. “Some of them had their arms dangling over the side, and I thought they looked dead.” A police officer ran on to the pitch to alert the referee, who took the sides off the field at 3.12pm.

Half an hour later, on police instruction, the match restarted with a hastily-constructed new touchline made from sawdust; beyond it lay bodies on makeshift stretchers, covered with coats. At half-time the players simply swapped ends and kicked off again, and the match ended in a goalless draw.

The players were unaware of the scale of the disaster. Stanley Matthews himself later wrote that “In our dressing room we heard more rumours about the increasing number of casualties. Yet it was not until I was motoring home that evening that the shadow of grim disaster descended on me like a storm cloud.”

Thirty-three football fans had died and more than 400 injured in what was then football's biggest disaster. As Alf Ashworth asked: “Who would have thought that going to a football match would result in such a tragedy?”

A fortnight after the disaster, in the semi-final at Villa Park, Bolton lost 2-0 to Charlton – but they lost much more than a game that fateful March.

Things heating up at the bottom, can Arsenal narrow the gap on Spurs at the top?

Jon Champion — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:02:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Everton vs Tottenham Hotspur live on ESPN from 4.30pm on Saturday...

With things so delicately poised at the top of the Premier League, it’s sometimes easy to overlook exactly how fraught the upcoming relegation scrap is likely to be. But with the five bottom sides all struggling for any kind of form and currently separated by just two points, there are sure to be plenty of twists and turns at the foot of the division.

This weekend sees four of those five sides face one of their relegation rivals, making this a crucial round of fixtures in the battle for survival.

Despite all the upheaval at the club, with fan protests against the owners and manager Steve Kean, Blackburn somehow currently find themselves just above the Premier League drop zone. They have the chance to widen the gap when they travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers, who will still be reeling from the 5-0 thumping doled out by Fulham last Sunday.

These have also been a particularly unsettled few weeks for Wolves. They sacked Mick McCarthy after last month’s 5-1 humbling at the hands of West Brom, and then seemed to take an age to identify a replacement before settling on McCarthy’s former assistant, Terry Connor. They sort of suggested he was always their first choice, but I’m not entirely convinced that was the case. We now hear stories of defender Roger Johnson turning up to training somewhat worse for wear, so we can expect him to be disciplined by the club in due course.

But what really matters is what happens on the pitch, and with things so tight at the bottom these fixtures are absolutely integral to the two sides’ hopes of survival. A tense draw wouldn't surprise me, but I just have a feeling Wolves' fearsome home crowd may help them to a crucial win.

The second relegation ‘six-pointer’ comes at the Reebok, where Bolton Wanderers host Queens Park Rangers. Bolton’s opening day 4-0 victory at Loftus Road suggested this could be an enjoyable campaign for all involved with the club, but the fact of the matter is that they’ve won just five Premier League games in the 26 which have followed, with none of those victories coming since mid-January.
They still have the distraction of the FA Cup, and given they don’t have a big enough squad to rotate the side, that will still be sapping energy and focus. Defeat to Rangers would leave Bolton five points adrift of safety and that will be something Hoops boss Mark Hughes is also well aware of.
Hughes has yet to really stamp his authority on QPR, but he will once again be able to call on his desired striker partnership of Bobby Zamora and Djibril Cisse, with the Frenchman returning from a three-match ban. The pair have only played 33 minutes together so far, and whether or not they hit it off could well decide whether or not the West Londoners avoid the drop.

When Norwich visited Wigan at the start of the season, many expected both to be embroiled in the relegation scrap come the end of the campaign. But Norwich have defied expectations and are already all but safe. The same cannot be said of Wigan, whose chairman Dave Whelan last weekend revealed he would be seeking talks with manager Roberto Martinez over the club's current position. The Latics have won just one of their last 12 Premier League matches, and they don’t seem to have the goal threat that has got them out of trouble in recent seasons – 23 goals in 27 matches is a very poor return indeed.
For that reason, Norwich will be confident of a victory at Carrow Road, which would take them to 38 points, a great achievement for a side of whom so little was expected.

If you were being kind, you would describe Aston Villa’s current home record as ‘disappointing’. If you were being realistic, you’d describe it as simply ‘bad’. Just three wins in 13 home fixtures is a record akin to those sides right down at the bottom, and though Villa should have enough to eke out the two or three victories required to ensure they don’t get dragged below the dreaded red line, these are still troubling times for fans, manager and owner alike.
Saturday’s visit of Fulham gives them the chance to get back on track, but the Cottagers have suddenly found a bit of form, winning their last three and soaring up to eighth place.
Yet Martin Jol’s side are essentially the curate's egg of the Premier League – they’re just as capable of winning brilliantly as they are losing feebly, so Alex McLeish will be hopeful his side catch them on one of their off days.

Like Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo makes his Premier League debut as Chelsea manager with a fixture against Stoke City. If nothing else, the departure of the Portuguese appears to have lifted the mood at the club, with the players laughing and joking before the midweek cup victory at Birmingham, and also on the bench during the match.
Yet they still have problems. What was originally intended to be a transitional season may now become two, and with Champions League football for next season currently looking unlikely and several new players needed before they can compete at the top again, there’s a lot of rebuilding to be done. They must win here to keep their top four hopes alive.

Sunderland seem to have shot themselves, not just in one foot, but in both. The red cards handed to Stephane Sessegnon and Lee Cattermole during (and after) Sunday's Tyne/Wear Derby draw at Newcastle mean both players will be missing for the next three games, with Cattermole missing a fourth due to it being his second dismissal of the season.
That will severely weaken the Black Cats for the visit of Liverpool, who will consider themselves unlucky to have been beaten by Arsenal last time out. That loss will most likely have put an end to any lingering hopes of Champions League qualification, with the prospect of completing a cup double now likely to be their top priority.
Sunderland’s resurgence under Martin O’Neill appears to have been halted, but they have at least comfortably avoided being drawn into the relegation mire, which you wouldn’t have predicted four months back.

West Brom may have won six games on the road this season, but when they face the big boys they usually battle valiantly before crumbling, and I expect the same to happen when they travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on Sunday.
We’ve said many times that United haven’t been at their best this season, but they still keep grinding out those wins are have kept themselves within touching distance of City. They know exactly what it takes to be successful in a title race, and I have no doubts they will succeed where they failed last season and beat the Baggies at home.

The fixture between Swansea and Manchester City is sure to be a fixture that’s pleasing on the eye. Brendan Rodgers’ side have performed admirably against the top sides this season, with their 4-0 opening weekend defeat at the Etihad Stadium the only time they’ve looked really well beaten. But at home the Swans are far more formidable, and they have lost just two of their 13 home fixtures to date. This will be a real challenge for Roberto Mancini’s Premier League leaders, but the motivation of knowing United will most likely win their fixture will see City go all out to do the same, and I believe they will come away from south Wales with the points.

All of a sudden, Arsenal are once again the hot ticket in town - as was the case a few years back. Robin van Persie’s sparkling form continues unabated, but the same cannot be said of Monday evening’s opponents Newcastle, who are now stuttering somewhat having performed so well for the first six months of the season. That heavy defeat at Tottenham has perhaps taken the wind out of their sails, with the subsequent home draws with Wolves and Sunderland not enough to keep them in the hunt for a top four spot.
Three impressive wins on the bounce for Arsenal - albeit the last one in vain - have really lifted the mood both among the players and on the terraces, and there's no reason to suggest they shouldn't continue their resurgence against Newcastle on Monday.

Saturday evening’s trip to Everton could be one of the major roadblocks on Tottenham's path to the Champions League. Everton are currently in good shape, having now gone six unbeaten. They worked wonders in the January transfer window by begging, stealing and borrowing what they could, and now look back to their old selves after a somewhat stuttering first half of the season. Spurs haven’t looked quite themselves over the last few weeks, and that ten point chasm which once Iay between them and Arsenal has quickly closed to four. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Gunners narrow the gap on their North London rivals to one point this weekend, with the help of David Moyes’ side.

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

Premier League defences terrorised by mysterious masked winger

Back of the Net — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:16:00 GMT

It's been a crazy season in the Premier League, and Back of the Net's John Foster is here to serve up another piping hot slice of football knowledge pie...

Rumours are spreading of a mysterious masked footballer who has been appearing at Premier League grounds up and down the country, terrorising unsuspecting full-backs with his dazzling wing play, before vanishing into thin air.

According to several reports, the masked winger typically appears from nowhere to boost one team’s attacking options, ravaging the opposition’s defences for a ten or fifteen-minute spell, before disappearng as quickly as he came.

At Craven Cottage last Sunday, the mystery man abseiled down from the stadium roof to get goalside of the Wolverhampton Wanderers defence, before delivering a defence-splitting pass to Clint Dempsey, who scored to put Fulham 3-0 up.

Moments later, the velvet-swathed ace skipped past three Wolves challenges, and a desperate attempt by Richard Stearman to remove his mask, before unleashing a rising shot into the top corner.

His work complete, the man some call “The Deadly Shadow” mounted the black charger he had earlier tethered to Mark Schwarzer’s goalposts and rode back into the night, leaving the amazed crowd asking, “who was that masked man?”

“I’d never seen anything like it,” said Sunderland full-back Phil Bardsley, who was tormented mercilessly by the black-clad figure, then aiding West Brom, during his side’s 4-0 defeat two weeks ago.

“We were doing OK, when suddenly [the mystery winger] sprang out from behind a corner flag and collected a through-ball to score,” he told FourFourTwo.com.

“He’d run at us every time he got the ball. He probably got to the byline 20, 30 times. Kieran Richardson’s refused to play at left-back since, just in case he pops up again.”

A league spokesman confirmed that it was against FA rules for the masked winger to swoop suddenly onto the field of play without the referee’s permission, to insist on playing in a midnight-black kit, and to carry a long, thin rapier, which he used to face down Paddy Kenny when scoring his second in Blackburn’s surprise 3-2 win over QPR last month.

But, the spokesman added; “It seems this mysterious fellow laughs in the face of the rules, and has no regard for status or convention."

Many observers are asking whether the appearance of the mystery winger is connected to other recent events.

In January, the houses of several ex-referees were broken into, with a single black marble chess piece left behind on each occasion, a crime that has left police baffled.

Then, last weekend, a question mark was discovered carved into the front door of FA headquarters in Soho Square, on the same day that high-society paramour Nancy Dell’olio was spotted clasping a black silk handkerchief, identical to the one the masked winger uses to mop his brow during matches

Fearing that his full-backs may be next in line to face the mystery winger’s torments, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish is reportedly preparing for his team’s next game by picking only midfielders.

Previous stories:
Steve Bruce unable to explain football to a six-year-old
Wolves appoint man who claims he was McCarthy's assistant
Visiting Joe Cole wows Liverpool squad with French toast
Kenwyne Jones bunks off Stoke training to play football
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 ot 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

Eastern Conference preview: Firefighters, Kenny Rogers and Bob Dylan

Kris Heneage — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:12:00 GMT

The Eastern Conference wasn’t pretty last year. Each time a team looked like securing first place they invariably slipped up and aided their rivals, who in turn did the same. This makes the East difficult to predict – or competitive, if you’re an optimist.

As it turned out Houston benefited from the mass self-destruction, eventually getting to the MLS Cup final only to lose narrowly to the LA Galaxy. New team Montreal join the East this season and will most likely just enjoy being involved: rarely is much expected of an expansion team in their debut season.

But who are the teams involved, and where do we think they'll finish?

CHICAGO FIRE (6th)
Last season, Frank Klopas was a firefighter. Not in the sense that he was punching his players after games, but that he was an interim coach trying to stabilise a team that had only won one of its last 10 games before he took the post.
Draw specialists last year, Chicago are now a fast counter-attacking side with a lot of options in midfield. As with any team operating in this way, the back line will need to be solid, putting pressure on former Charlton and Feyenoord defender Cory Gibbs to perform.

Key player: Gibbs might be keeping the goals out, but up the other end Dominic Oduro will need to replicate his form from last season. Earning a first Ghana cap in January, the striker's pace means opposing teams could drop an extra few yards back, potentially hampering Chicago’s tactical plan.

COLUMBUS CREW (4th)
Coach Robert Warzycha’s rebuilding job still only seems half-complete, what with four of his starting XI leaving in the off-season. One of that quartet was Anders Mendoza, provider of one of the most awkward moments of last season.

With Jeff Cunningham one goal from equalling the all-time MLS goals record, Columbus were awarded a penalty. As designated penalty-taker Cunningham readied himself, Mendoza stood over the ball, even ignoring his captain's request to leave it for Cunningham.

It was ugly, but it worked – Mendoza scored – and that sums up Columbus. Far from the most aesthetically pleasing side in league, the Crew are more effective than attractive. Provided Chad Marshall stays healthy and Eddie Gaven keeps contributing from midfield, expect to see the Crew make the play-offs once again.

Key player: Having scored a goal every other game for Universidad Catolica in his native Chile, archetypal No.10 Milovan Mirosevic is likely to be the creative lynchpin for the Crew this year and will be an exciting prospect to watch.

DC UNITED (5th)
Now Charlie Davies has returned to Sochaux, DC have brought in Rapid Vienna striker Hamdi Salihi as designated player. With MVP Dwayne De Rosario recently agreeing a contract extension, the club have a front pairing that should score goals. Coach Ben Olsen will be aiming to eradicate the defensive frailties that cost DC a play-off spot last season.

Part of his plan involves signing experienced former Real Salt Lake defender Robbie Russell and the imposing Argentine Emiliano Dudar. Having failed to make the play-offs in the last three years, DC now look a solid bet – provided that backline clicks into place.

Key player: Hamdi Salihi. Asked how he’d handle the pressure, Salihi calmly replied: “OK: this is my job. I know my quality.” His confidence may not be misplaced: a strong pre-season means there’s a degree of excitement building in Washington. Just don’t expect any funny post-match interviews from him.

HOUSTON DYNAMO (3rd)
Although Houston have to wait till May for their new stadium – they'll play away games only until it's ready – at least Brian Ching will be around to enjoy it. His return and renegotiated contract has actually helped the club that came so close to winning the MLS Cup last year. Having unsuccessfully tried to woo Kris Boyd, Houston will still see signing a striker as a priority and with few designated player options readily available, it will only spite Houston further if Boyd performs well at Portland.

Key player: Brad Davis. It was cruel that he missed the MLS Cup final after such a fantastic season last year. His can-opener of a left foot will be vital of Houston are to recapture that form. Coach Dominic Kinnear now looks like affording Davis the freedom to roam, making him the main supply-line to Houston’s strikers – so no pressure, Brad...

MONTREAL IMPACT (10th)
If there’s a song that best illustrates Montreal’s off-season it’s Kenny Rogers' The Gambler: "You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em". Deciding to take Brian Ching seemed questionable at the time, especially given the player's vocal displeasure at the move; the club gained little when he eventually sent him back to Texas.

One move that did pay off was taking Eddie Johnson via the allocation process. Gaining Lamar Neagle and Mike Fucito in the trade with Seattle represents good business and will set them up well for their inaugural season. The unenviable task for coach Jesse Marsch is to form an understanding among a large, newly-assembled group of players; it may take time.

Key player: Matteo Ferrari is the standout name. A good pedigree in Europe will see him placed squarely at the heart of Montreal’s back line. It’s a strong test of his leadership and mental strength and we’ll learn a lot about him during the early months of the season.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION (9th)
The king is dead; long live the king. Steve Nicol’s departure didn’t befit a man who had done so much for the Revolution and its players, but in Jay Heaps the club have a popular successor.

Heaps cut several players in the off-season, meaning the remodelling of the side is far from finished. Shalrie Joseph is now a designated player and should form a fairly combative central midfield partnership with former DC United man Clyde Simms. Unfortunately for New England fans, it’s about looking towards the future and enduring the present.

Key player: Languid French striker Saer Sene arrived from Bayern Münich II having scored a goal against AC Milan (friendlies count, right?), but former Derby midfielder Benny Feilhaber will be the key component in midfield. His pre-season bicycle kick was nice, but if New England are to make the transition to Heaps style of play, Feilhaber will need to perform.

NEW YORK RED BULLS (2nd)
New York still have concerns at the front and back. They enter the season with a young pair of goalkeepers who will need to quickly adapt to the pressures of MLS. Meanwhile, striker Luke Rodgers is still in the UK with visa issues; Red Bulls' record without Rodgers doesn’t make for good reading, so getting him back is vital.

The off-pitch dramas of last season did little to aid moral, and if the club are serious about winning the MLS Cup, they'll need a united and focused locker room is required. On paper a strong side, New York show you why it’s good to remember the game is played on grass and not A4.

Key player: Thierry Henry. The Frenchman may have looked good on the pitch last year, but this season he’ll have to hold together a sometimes volatile dressing room. Rafa Marquez was nothing but trouble last year and for all the Mexican’s perceived quality he didn’t justify his hefty salary. Henry’s form may be good, but he will need to display his leadership qualities and unite the squad if New York are to avoid some of the embarrassing scenes of last season.

PHILADELPHIA UNION (6th)
After US women's coach Pia Sundhage’s impromptu press-conference karaoke version of Feelin' Groovy, it'd be nice to see Philadelphia gaffer Piotr Nowak do likewise with Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are a-Changin’. Some of the club’s most loved players have departed the city of brotherly love and there’s a big risk factor for the Union, especially given Sébastien Le Toux’s contributions over the last two seasons.

Admittedly the money from Le Toux’s move has allowed them to secure some important players, but the Frenchman’s stats don’t lie - he was a big player for the club.

Key player: Leonard Pajoy. Harsh, perhaps, as he may not be a direct replacement for Le Toux – but he’s going to need score goals, if only to justify his manager’s decision. It’s a lot to ask of the 30-year-old Colombian, especially given the lack of consistent goalscoring during his career.

SPORTING KANSAS CITY (1st)
Sporting have a vibrant young side possessing real potential this season. Omar Bravo may have returned to Mexico with Cruz Azul, but with the acquisition of Bobby Convey and a designated player spot still available, Sporting KC are likely to be the best the East has to offer.

The pain of defeat to Houston last year should aid in motivating the players to reach even higher this time around – and if they maintain their discipline, then who knows how far they might go?

Key player: Jimmy Neilsen. As captain of Sporting KC this season, much of the necessary maturity is likely to come from him. At 34, his experience should make him a good leader and if he can instill a rigid discipline in his younger team-mates, the mistakes of last season may be eradicated.

TORONTO FC (8th)
Aron Winter is trying to build something in Toronto. Trouble is, his typically Dutch ideal of a fluid 4-3-3 still hasn’t worked out yet, and after five underachieving seasons the burden of having never reached the play-offs is starting to weigh down on TFC. Mid-season signings Torsten Frings and Danny Koevermans had contrasting fortunes, with Frings often so deep that his influence was stifled.

The club have moved on a few defenders, including Englishman Andy Iro, but have also looked to secure former Manchester United product Richard Eckersley after his loan spell last year. Winter has long-term ambitions, and has said he aims to have the club challenging in 2013 – not really want you want to hear if you’ve just bought a season ticket.

Key player: Danny Koevermans. The stereotypical target man, Koevermans is expected to lead the line and play a big role for Toronto this season. An intimidating target up front, he turned in an impressive his goal return for a mid-campaign signing. Now he’s had a full pre-season his potential impact is huge, provided he gets the service and support from those around him.

Western Conference preview: Pitchside log-cutting, questionable haircuts & the Honey Badger

Exclusive: Lionel Messi is very good at playing football

Stats Zone — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:01:00 GMT

We have this from a good source. Namely Opta, who feed all that yummy data into Stats Zone's hungry mouth.

Here's how the young scamp got on in last night's win over Leverkusen, just don't get us started on Adrian Chiles publically pondering whether he could do it for Stoke...

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Brilliance or buffoonery from Spanish FA over Copa del Rey clash?

Tim Stannard — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:34:00 GMT

La Liga Loca read somewhere that the then backwater, boiling, hellhole of Madrid was made capital of Spain as all those lobbying the King on behalf of other cities were united in thinking it was a truly terrible idea. It was actually a brilliant plan by His Majesty, who reasoned that if it’s impossible to keep everyone happy, it's better to make sure everybody is equally miffed, especially if some of those people have private armies.

The blog likes to think that this was the strategy followed by the Spanish FA in choosing the date and the venue of the Copa del Rey final, but LLL knows it would be giving the group far too much credit. The declaration, made on Tuesday, that this year’s contest between Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona would be hosted in Atlético’s Vicente Calderón on Friday 25th May has managed to leave both clubs, their fans and Vicente Del Bosque all a little unhappy - but this was down to incompetence rather than some kind of cunning plan.

The most logical way to approach the Copa del Rey each year would be for the FA to have a look at the league and European fixture list over the summer and assign a date for the final - not unlike the approach taken for the other rounds. Instead, in recent seasons the FA have decided to cross their collective fingers, hope that the Champions League busy Real Madrid and Barcelona don’t get through to the final so that their stadiums can be used for an easy-to-fix clash in April between two clear-scheduled sides, such as Mallorca and Levante.

But pesky Barcelona made it through, and with they and Athletic both having an awful lot of fans, the Santiago Bernabeu seemed the obvious choice for the clash. But despite both teams lobbying strongly for the fixture to take place on Real Madrid's patch, the request was denied. At this point, LLL should point out that Real Madrid are not refusing to allow their stadium to prevent Barça from potentially celebrate a title in it, but rather due to planned building works.

This is something Pep Guardiola apparently forgot in Tuesday's press conference ahead of their Champions League tie with Bayer Leverkusen. “The club didn’t want the Calderón,” explained the Barça boss. "The club and Athletic wanted another venue. It’s our fault Athletic won’t get to go to the Bernabeu as if the rival in the final was not Barça, it would be being played there.”

“Building works?” said Guardiola when nudged by the press pack, “well, if there are building works, there are building works,” noted Guardiola cheekily.

Athletic Bilbao were pushing for the Cartuja stadium in Seville - the venue for the 2003 UEFA Cup Final between Porto and Celtic - as it is a little bit bigger than the Calderón, but lost out in a vote at a Spanish FA meeting which Barça didn’t attend in protest at the whole Gerard Piqué business.

The date of the 25th May was chosen as it meant Barça’s potential participation in the Champions League final six days before wasn’t relevant. The problem is that the Copa del Rey final now takes place the day before Spain are scheduled to play their first Euro 2012 warm-up match, leaving Del Bosque without all of his Barcelona and Athletic contingent for the match itself and the training sessions before hand.

All-in-all, it was a tough decision that had to be made, but a mess that could have been completely avoided had the FA perhaps acted a little sooner. Like last summer.

Get more from the April 2012 issue

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:03:00 GMT

The shiny new edition of FourFourTwo is in shops now, and as usual we want to give you even more. So as you gasp, chuckle and nod in agreement reading the April 2012 issue, see what else we have to offer below...

ROBIN VAN PERSIE EXCLUSIVE
The unstoppable goalscoring machine talks about many things in his no-holds-barred interview with FourFourTwo, from his arty family to Arsenal without Cesc. But he really gets excited when talking about his best two goals.

In the red corner, there's the stupendous volley against Charlton in 2006, described by Arsene Wenger as the "goal of a lifetime".

In the blue corner, there's that exquisitive finish against Everton earlier in this campaign, seemingly destined for goal of the season.

But which is better? Van Persie seems to prefer his hit against Everton – what do you think?

COMING SOON: PREMIER LEAGUE WEEK
As promised on p105 of the magazine, we'll soon be dedicating a whole week to the Premier League, to celebrate 20 years of the modern game. From Monday, March 26, FourFourTwo.com will be awash with special features, retrospectives, quizzes, archive pieces and the pièce de resistance: our countdown of the 100 greatest Premier League games. We're excited just thinking about it.

YOUR CLUB'S BEST AND WORST FOREIGNER
So the full list, as chosen by fans, has been revealed: the magicians who appeared out of nowhere, and those you wish had just disappeared. With all of England's 92 league teams and the SPL's 12 featured, chances are you have an opinion – tell us what it is, on Facebook or Twitter.

EURO 2012 ENGLAND SQUAD PREDICTOR
The European Championship in Poland and Ukraine draws ever closer, and England seem no more sure of their squad now than they were three months ago. But with Fabio Capello out of the picture it's all change, and we've predicted a brave 23 to be chosen by the new manager. Agree? Disagree? Let us know, in the comments section at the bottom of the blog, or again, on Facebook or that there Twitter.

ONE-ON-ONE: NOBBY SOLANO
In our interview with the Peruvian-Geordie legend, reader Rob Hanworth asks Solano: "You won 'free-kick taker of the year' in 2006. Who do you think is the best free-kick taker of our generation or any other: Beckham, Zola, Juninho, Seb Larsson – Ryan Taylor?!"

Well, let's see, shall we?

THE SEARCH FOR ALI DIA
For more on Ali Dia, legendary for all the wrong reasons, check out our One-on-One interview with Matt Le Tissier from October 2010, archived online in our interviews section. He had much more to say on the one-game 'wonder' than "He was f***ing hopeless!"

WELCOME TO ANZHI MAKHACHKALA
Enjoyed our feature on Europe's latest big-spenders? We have regular missives from Mark Gilbey on the state of football in Russia and the former Soviet Union in our blogs section. Head on over to Never Mind The Bolsheviks for blogs on the weird, wacky and wondrous goings-on in eastern Europe.

FFT TRAVEL: LILLE
If you're intrigued by our footballing travel guides but don't fancy Lille, why not look at our dedicated Travel section online? There you'll find pieces on everywhere from Bari to the Basque country, and we've plenty of club guides too.

THE GAMES THAT CHANGED MY LIFE: MARIO KEMPES
The Argentine looks back on some famous matches for FourFourTwo in the April issue – here are a few videos of the games to complement his words...

Brazil 2-1 Argentina

Argentina 2-1 Hungary

Argentina 2-0 Poland

Argentina 3-1 Holland

Valencia 2-0 Real Madrid

GREAT GOALS RETOLD: HAMIT ALTINTOP
It's a bloody cracker this month, as FIFA's 2010 Goal of the Year is remembered by the man who scored it: Turkey's Hamit Altintop. Boooooooooom!

MICHEL SALGADO COLUMN
Misplaced your mag? Read his explosive views on Saurez, Evra and racism in football online.

PERFORMANCE
Get more from Performance online – you can get everything from tactics tips to technique teaching. Relating to the content in this month's magazine, we have plenty for you to feast your eyes on:

After more on leaving full-backs for dust after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's guidance, or further advice on boosting your turbo? Performance has tips from Theo Walcott and Aaron Lennon.

Interest piqued by Yaya Toure's masterclass to dominating the middle of the park? Quality midfielders such as Andres Iniesta, Michael Carrick and Jack Rodwell offer their midfield guidance.

Hungry for recipe ideas befitting a footballer? Put aside that greasy bacon butty and feast on the breakfast of champions, then see what Jermaine Jenas has to eat for his first meal of the day.

Liked Kevin Doyle's advice on losing your marker? Then you'll love Darren Bent's guide to being a maestro of movement.

Feel you've learned how to cope during the season's squeaky bum time? Read more articles in our Psychology section to make sure your head is in the game at all times.

So your wingers have read how to put in the perfect cross every time, but your strikers still don't know to get on the end of it? Get them to read our Performance tips on scoring from crosses, courtesy of Alan Smith and Dion Dublin.

It's all here, on FourFourTwo.com and Performance.

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

Champions League preview: Fabregas adopts Xavi role, APOEL still have hope

Michael Cox — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:55:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview Wednesday night's Champions League action...

Cesc Fabregas has often been fielded as part of a notional front three for Barcelona this season, but now is getting more playing time in his traditional midfield role.

Pep Guardiola was reportedly concerned that Fabregas was bringing too much directness and urgency to Barcelona’s play, and that he had become ‘too English’ from his eight years at Arsenal. That meant he was reluctant to field him in the midfield, because it meant Barcelona moved the ball too quickly towards goal, whereas the side is used to the patience of Xavi Hernandez.

But Barcelona’s first leg win over Leverkusen showed that Fabregas is capable of playing something close to the Xavi role – the direction of his passes was generally sideways, with a high completion rate, very different to a previous away performance in Europe, at Milan.

APOEL Nicosia, the clear outsiders in the round of 16, still have a chance of progression after losing only 1-0 to Lyon in the first leg of their second round tie.

They were extremely fortunate to get out of France with only a one-goal defeat, however. Lyon peppered the APOEL goal with 18 shots in the 90 minuts, whereas the away side only registered one attempt.

APOEL’s game is dependent upon counter-attacking, so they might find it difficult at home with Lyon sitting behind the ball, and with no need to attack. There’s also the problem that while a 1-0 win would be enough for APOEL to force extra time, if they concede the first goal, they then need three. With that in mind, this might be a slightly cagey second leg in Cyprus.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Milan sober up in time to avoid embarrassment at hands of Arsenal

Richard Whittle — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:44:00 GMT

Winning a European tie by a goal over two legs has long been the stable of Italian clubs. But when it's achieved after holding a 4-0 advantage from the first, then it's certainly not living up the best traditions of Serie A sides: closing up shop and playing out the dullest of goalless draws.

AC Milan are no ordinary Italian side. Having all but put the matter beyond doubt at the San Siro without conceding a goal, their decision to go to Arsenal with a trident attack had been questioned by many back home.

However, Massimiliano Allegri is in his job because he follows the club mandate etched into every coach’s mind by president Silvio Berlusconi: Milan always line up to attack and entertain.

The Gunners’ tormentors from a fortnight ago, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho, were joined up front by inexperienced Stephan El Shaarawy on his Champions League debut – but apart from the young striker and winger-turned-left-back Djamel Mesbah, the rest of the team had plenty of European big-match experience.

We can confidently assume that Berlusconi, or anyone anybody else with Rossoneri leanings for that matter, failed to enjoy the first half at the Emirates Stadium, where Arsenal not only restored some much-needed pride but scored three unanswered goals to set up what looked likely to be a grandstand second period.

However, to misquote an old Italian saying of knowing when to put the wine bottle down, Milan sobered up during break when it became clear that they were close to embarrassing themselves by crashing out of the competition in a style they had managed before.

Back in 2004 they had also scored four at home to Deportivo La Coruna, but tellingly conceded one; in the return leg, Carlo Ancelotti’s men – Paolo Maldini, Clarence Seedorf and all – let in four but could not find the vital away goal.

Just when they thought such a capitulation would never happen again, along came that evening in Istanbul where they gave up a 3-0 lead against Liverpool – so Milan have form of throwing it away in the one-off occasion.

An early goal in the Gunners net was what was needed, but instead Thiago Silva & Co. conceded one after six minutes – and then a second and a third. Even so, they could have gone into the dressing room with at least one away goal if El Shaarawy had a cooler head when faced with a presentable chance.

The second half was much more in keeping with a team with genuine hopes of making the latter stages, if not the final, with the midfield closing space up and then spreading the ball wide to good effect.

In fact, Milan probably had the better chances in the second 45 minutes – apart from one moment when Christian Abbiati stuck up an arm to deny Robin van Persie from right in front of the goal. His full-length save from the same player in the first leg was wonderful, but this time his intervention was vital.

Soon after, Antonio Nocerino missed an open goal and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was far below his majestic best but still better than most, fired wide when presented with the ball just outside the area and the goalkeeper out of position.

There's no doubt that the events of the first leg had a bearing on how the players approached the return, but at least they can come back down to earth again and understand that this is a team that will need a very a favourable draw to get anywhere near Munich come May.

They could end up facing either Napoli or city rivals Inter, which would take us back to the tensions of previous one-country meetings, but at least there would be few surprises. Alternatively, they could run into the Spanish – and run the risk of being carved open, as they were last night.

It was a sobering experience for Allegri and maybe in the future he won't want his side to have a seemingly unassailable lead going into a second leg.

Champions League preview: Zlatan looks to bamboozle Arsenal again

Michael Cox — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:05:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview Tuesday night's Champions League action...

Arsenal may have seen Milan’s starting XI at the San Siro and wondered quite who their main playmaker was. Kevin-Prince Boateng focuses on getting himself into scoring positions in the box, the three other midfielders play much deeper, while Robinho is more of a second striker.

The surprising answer to that question is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Milan’s main goalscorer. He surprised the Arsenal defence with his movement into deep positions, particularly to the left of the pitch. Laurent Koscielny was uncomfortable moving out to that side – he usually plays slightly deeper than Thomas Vermaelen, who moves towards the ball more readily. Arsenal will have to watch out for Ibrahimovic’s movement tonight.

While Ibrahimovic’s display in the first leg has put an end to any claims that he doesn’t play well against English clubs, he’s previously played very well at the Emirates. Two years ago he scored very similar goals against Arsenal for Barcelona – from long balls in behind the defence into an inside-right position. Both Koscielny and Vermaelen will need to play very well to stop him tonight.

Zenit take a 3-2 lead to Lisbon for tonight’s second leg against Benfica, having won a crazy first leg in freezing conditions that was littered with errors at the back.
Benfica seemed troubled by the unusual nature of the Zenit midfield, where Igor Denisov, Konstantin Zyryanov and Roman Shirokov play fluid roles, and rotate in order to get out of the opposition’s press.

Zyryanov generally plays between the other two, who take on interesting roles. Denisov is the holder and therefore sees a lot of the ball, but rather than keeping his passes simple as you’d expect from a player in that position, he plays a high number of forward passes – which means he gives the ball away frequently.

Further forward, Roman Shirokov started his Zenit career playing at centre-back, but has evolved into a Frank Lampard-style powerful attacking midfielder, who makes late runs into the box to become a real goal threat. He scored twice in the first leg, and Benfica will need the returning Javi Garcia to watch him closely.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Houston legend returns to help shape the future of MLS

Kris Heneage — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:02:00 GMT

At the dawn of a new MLS season, Kris Heneage explains how Houston Dynamo are welcoming back a true legend

It's clear to see why Brian Ching was determined to stay at the Houston Dynamo. As the club nears its inaugural season in the new BBVA Compass stadium, the club's leading goalscorer wanted to weave himself into the club's tapestry just one more time. "From my first days in a league I've never played in a stadium that the franchise could call its own," he said.

Reflecting from a safe distance upon one of the toughest weeks in his professional career, Ching begins to recount the series of events that almost curtailed his dream.

"Having just come off the MLS Cup loss on Sunday, to finding out I was unprotected on Monday, being made aware of Montreal's interest on the Tuesday and then Wednesday getting picked… it was an emotional time."

That's surely an understatement: it was a nightmarish week for the Hawaiian forward, starting with losing the MLS's showpiece final to LA Galaxy. The next day, Ching discovered that he was not among the 11 players Houston had chosen to protect from selection by new club Montreal Impact during the expansion draft.

Sure enough, Ching was one of the 10 nominated by the Canadian side, to his horror. Staunchly opposed to leaving the Dynamo, he even threatened to end his career prematurely.

"When I said I would retire, I think it's fair to say that it was an emotional statement," he admits before pausing, as if to take stock of the last 16 weeks. "The two months before I reported to Montreal were difficult. There were some sleepless nights, for sure."

After some soul-searching, the 33-year-old decided not to retire. "It came down to me feeling that I had another year of soccer in me – whether that be for Houston or Montreal."

In the end, he returned to the Lone Star state, Montreal trading him back to the Dynamo in exchange for a conditional first-round pick in the 2013 SuperDraft. "I think the league saw value in me being back in Houston," he explains. "It was an uncomfortable situation at first. In someone else's shoes it could have been an extremely negative situation."

During his two-month stay in Montreal he would play only one match for the Impact – against Houston – but he still has some tracksuits and a backpack from his time in Montreal, gifts from a club he views with great respect and admiration. "The organisation treated me well, like a veteran, like a leader. When the time came to be traded back, a lot of the guys said 'We wish you were sticking around, but we understand.'"

Ching looks on as LA celebrate… things would only get worse

Ching finally secured his return in mid-February, with Dynamo manager Dominic Kinnear keen to emphasise how pleased he was. What had at first seemed an ugly affair now had what many believed to be the right conclusion, but once again questions were being raised about the trading system.

Unlike other footballers around the world, Ching had no say in the move. While some criticised Houston for not protecting a player the fans adored, others objected towards the expansion-draft system – but not Ching.

Instead he appreciates the journey the league has undertaken, with the hope that it will continue to flourish. "When I first got into the league there were 12 teams. Then we went back down to 10 teams, and at that point there was one owner that owned five teams," he laughs.

"Now we're looking at the league with 19 teams, with every single expansion team coming in creating a huge buzz and lift. We're really starting to turn people's heads in America towards soccer: that's special to be a part of, regardless of what I guess you could call growing pains."

Ching faces the future with determination

Ching wants to help the US game overcome those growing pains. His restructured Dynamo contract means less money now, but guarantees that when his playing career is finished, one in the club's 'front office' will begin.

"I want to work for the Dynamo when I'm done," he explains. "Part of me getting into the front office is to go about and hopefully try to change things. I've been a player for the last 11 years and I know what players go through, so I want to try and create a better environment for the players."

While joking about needing to pay the bills when he retires, Ching goes on to outline why he wants to be involved in the future of MLS, a league he speaks passionately about. "I'm invested in soccer," he said. "I got into this sport, and it wasn't about the money – it was about playing the sport I love.

"I see a future in it for me, in helping the younger generations come around and play in a league that's better than the one I played in. That will give me satisfaction that I was part of something bigger than myself, and that I helped to grow something."

With a number of former players having made similar transitions, Ching already sees the benefit of incorporating ex-professionals into the league structure. "Anytime you get experience into those management situations, you understand both sides of the party. When you do that it's more likely you'll come to a better conclusion that makes both sides happy."

Although content to discuss his long-term plans, Ching is more concerned with the present. Houston won't officially host a team in their new stadium till May, and having played on pitches bearing faded gridiron markings, Ching explains stadium ownership is more than just vanity.

"I think a big part of soccer turning the corner is a lot of the teams are starting to control their revenue streams and their own stadiums," he explains: when the Dynamo and Impact open their soccer-specific grounds this season, only three of the 19 clubs will still be playing in arenas not designed specifically or partially for the round-ball sport. "They're getting more TV exposure and I think further down the road here's a lot of markets that could support further expansion teams."

It has been a thoughtful conversation but it has been peppered throughout with Ching's laughter. With his humble disposition, it's clear to see he appreciates the life that he has been afforded – attributing his relaxed outlook to his upbringing. Now in his adopted home and able to focus on the coming season, his aim is simple: to carry on scoring in that new stadium.

"That would be nice," he agrees with another warm laugh. "Originally I wanted to get 10 goals, but I think I'll just settle for being healthy."

Premier Analysis: Efficient Man Utd, inefficient Liverpool, ineffective Chelsea

Nick Govier — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:46:00 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

The highlight of an eventful weekend in the Premier League was the Tyne-Wear derby, which eventually finished 1-1 after what would best be described as a feisty encounter. The 29 fouls led to two penalties, eight cautions and two straight red cards, one of them after the final whistle.

Sunderland were the only team looking to play football in the first half, with Newcastle seemingly out to get as many players sent off as possible. Then a moment of madness from Stephane Sessegnon handed the initiative back to their opponents, who had only created a single shot on target before the Benin international's 58th-minute red card.

Last week's blog looked at Bobby Zamora's performances after his move to Queens Park Rangers, but Fulham certainly won't miss him if Pavel Pogrebnyak keeps up his astonishing start to life in West London. He has scored with all five of his shots on target so far, becoming the first Fulham player to score in his first three Premier League games and Fulham's third hat-trick scorer in the Premier League era. His goals overshadowed a dominant performance from Moussa Dembele in midfield, as Fulham brushed Wolves aside with ease.

It was a potentially pivotal weekend in the race for fourth place – or perhaps that should now be the race for third place? The shots-attempted chalkboards tell the story of each match quite convincingly.

Firstly, a smash-and-grab in North London, as Manchester United sealed a 3-1 win over Tottenham despite only managing six shots in total – a weekend low. The difference between the two sides was shooting accuracy, with the away side getting five of those six shots on target while Spurs could only get six on target themselves for all their dominance.

Another North West v North London match this weekend featured another smash-and-grab, this time in favour of the capital club. Arsenal were dominated by Liverpool in the first half, conceding a penalty and seeing their woodwork rattled twice. Yet Liverpool's shooting accuracy (or lack of it) came back to haunt them, only managing four shots on target over the course of the match – two of those the saved penalty and follow-up. Arsenal however improved after half-time with five shots on target to Liverpool's zero, including the winning goal.

Finally, Chelsea struggled to smash, let alone grab, at The Hawthorns in what would turn out to be Andre Villas Boas' last match in charge of the Blues. The away side could only clock up two shots on target over the 90 minutes, one of those an Essien blast from range. West Brom had 25 shots, and it's hard to argue that they didn't fully deserve the win. That's three wins in a row for Roy Hodgson's side, with an aggregate score of 10-1.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Barça throw hissy-fit over perceived Piqué persecution

Tim Stannard — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:56:00 GMT

Imagine, if you will, the Barça and Madrid football media as particularly troublesome seven-year-olds. See, that wasn’t so hard was it?

At the moment, Real Madrid are sitting as smug as can be, with their hands and face covered in chocolate cake and cream. “Yuuuummmmmmmmghhh,” they gurgle.

The seven-year-old aligned to Barcelona is in a very different mood indeed - screaming, wailing, chucking dolls’ heads about and very close to going to bed without its dinner if it isn’t careful.

Barça’s extraordinary temper tantrum has been caused by a feeling of persecution at the hands of the Spanish FA and referees, who they feel are trying to deny the club the league title. In fact, it’s the exact same hissy-fit thrown by the Real Madrid toddler over the past few seasons when they weren’t winning enough games of football, and needed a bit of a smokescreen to mask this inconvenient fact.

A general grumble of discontent for the past month or so - when Real Madrid’s lead at the top grew almost unassailable, by coincidence - grew to a giant wail of frustration and poo-poo hurling on Saturday when Gerard Piqué was sent off in the 3-1 win against Sporting.

LLL thought the referee was doing Barcelona a favour considering how badly Piqué had been playing of late, but apparently the club were most miffed about the decision that a neutral observer would have said “seen ‘em given.”

It was the defender himself who was most irate, and the defender showed fantastic judgement by telling the media post-match that referee Velasco Carballo had it in for him following a disagreement over a first-half penalty call. “Referees can make mistakes but can’t make premeditated decisions,” complained Piqué.

The referees' union have taken umbrage to this suggestion, with the president of the Technical Committee of Referees, Victoriano Sánchez Arminio, reporting Piqué to the FA’s Competition Committee for “putting the honour of referees into doubt.”

Barça responded on Monday, with club spokesman Toni Friexa asking the FA to “clarify the rules of the game,” with regards to what can be said. He also announced that the club would be taking the very mature decision to not send representatives to Tuesday's official meeting to discuss the venue for May’s Copa del Rey final, describing the move as a “sign of unhappiness.”

The Barça media’s screams have been most fulsome in response, kicking off on Monday with the “Real Madrid defence” to back up Piqué - the simple premise that their rivals have done something similar in the past and weren’t punished for it, therefore they are not guilty of the current misdemeanor, either.

“We remember Casillas in the Camp Nou tunnel after the cup knock-out telling the ref to his face to ‘go off and celebrate with (the Barça players)’” fumed Sport's Josep María Casanovas fumed on Monday. The same writer had another good rant a day later, and completely misunderstood the nuances behind the concept of freedom of speech. “The only thing Piqué did was to express an opinion and when you say what you think, you can’t be punished,” opined the culé columnist.

Mundo Deportivo think Piqué should have taken another approach, one reportedly adopted by José Mourinho after the aforementioned Clásico clash. “Piqué was wrong. He should have gone to the car park and sat in the referee’s car to complain,” wrote Santi Nolla, who may have made a good point despite the intended sarcasm as at least that conversation would have been private.

All-in-all, it’s a little unedifying, especially considering the amount of pee-taking and joshing about the Real Madrid media being a sore loser by making the exact same refereeing conspiracy declarations in the past when they weren’t the Big Daddy of la Primera.

This campaign of persecution is unlikely to peter out anytime soon either, with the front cover of Tuesday’s Sport saying that “a war has exploded.”

“We will defend Piqué to death,” writes Josep María Casanovas in the same edition. “Rightly or wrongly,” were the missing words from Tuesday’s opinion piece on a scrap that is getting bigger - and nastier - by the day.

Heroes & Villains: The excited new boy and the gobby chairman

Gary Parkinson — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:42:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com Editor Gary Parkinson nominates the weekend's winners and sinners in the top flight

HEROES
David Moyes
Everton's manager has advocated a 20% pay cut for "everyone" in the Premier League, in order to address spiralling finances and reduce ticket prices for increasingly hard-up fans. Some suspect an ulterior motive from the comparatively underfunded manager of the cash-strapped Toffees (whose league attendances have started to dip below 30,000 for the first time in decades), but after a generation of widespread fiscal irresponsibility Moyes' words have a weary wisdom beyond dispute.

Pavel Pogrebnyak
Five shots on target, five goals, three wins for Fulham. His latest triplet blast, a perfect hat-trick of header, right foot and left-foot-while-falling-over, was greeted with the sunny smile of a man enjoying his football – and what's even better is the willingness the Russian shows to get involved with team-mate, whether being determined to set up Andy Johnson or one of the first to congratulate fellow goalscorer Clint Dempsey. Maybe the nouveau-riche neighbours' unwelcome deadline swoop for Bobby Zamora was a disguised blessing.

Passion
You wouldn't want every Premier League game to be like the Tyne-Wear derby, but it was a visceral pleasure to watch, especially for the neutral. Testy but tasty, it had it all – dozens of shots, penalties scored and saved, red cards before and after the whistle, a late equaliser from a local lad, and a sterling refereeing performance from Mike Dean.

Steve Kean
Yeah, him. Backed in the boardroom, derided in the stands and ridiculed beyond, the Scot continues to keep his reflective head above the relegation Plimsoll Line. True, it was only Wolves' Craven Cottage collapse that lifted Rovers above the dotted divider on goal difference, but the man written off more times than a stock-car banger continues to get results. Well, it’s either him or the Blackburn players have the deepest reserves of self-belief and pride in the entire league.

Wojciech Szczesny
Kept Arsenal in the game at Anfield, not least with his penalty save, then said with the commendable honesty of the genuinely relieved that "We were really lucky. We got away with murder at half-time because in the first-half we got killed all over the park." Props too to Robin van Persie, scoring two goals on the day his picture adorns the new issue of FourFourTwo… although in fairness we could probably have released that mag most weekends and he'd have helped with the publicity.

NEW ISSUE Van Persie, Al-Habsi, Dempsey, Solano and your club's best and worst foreigners

VILLAINS
Chelsea players
So the old boys finally got rid of the anguished young manager, after what has felt like a season-long campaign of confrontation, argument, off-field undermining and on-pitch underachievement. But like privileged prep-schoolkids bullying a substitute teacher in the run-up to their exams, their childish webellion could bounce back like a brick on elastic. For a start, some say the boot-wearing bovver-boys dislike interim coach Roberto di Matteo even more than they disrespected Villas-Boas, so they'll have to put their faces straight before rescuing cup campaigns against Birmingham and Napoli. More importantly, with a resurgent and resilient Arsenal occupying fourth place, who's going to end the season singing "Thursday night, Channel Five"?

Harry Redknapp
Since the 5-0 win over Newcastle had football media types clambering over each other to anoint Redknapp as England boss, Tottenham appear to have been writing a Things Not To Do In International Football manual. First, you fail to impose your class on minnows in should-win games (the 0-0 at Stevenage). Then, using entirely questionable tactics, you humiliatingly throw away a lead in a crunch game (the 5-2 loss at Arsenal). Finally (in this weekend's 3-1 loss at home to Manchester United), you get your bravehearts to play above themselves but then get clinically picked off by a better team. Actually, that's exactly what England do. Sign him up.

Owen Coyle
Having picked up five wins in 10 games over Christmas and January by playing a fluid 4-5-1 showcasing the attacking elan of Mark Davies and dogged midfield diligence of Fabrice Muamba, Coyle's gameplan at Manchester City involved marginalising Davies to the wing and relegating Muamba to the bench in favour of recently-signed centre-back Tim Ream – played out of position in midfield. Coyle will never be as unpopular in Bolton as his predecessor Gary Megson, but he appears to be trying his best.

Frazier Campbell
Worst. Tackle. Ever.

Dave Whelan
Never one to keep his counsel or decline an interview, the chairman charged to the airwaves after Wigan's defeat by Swansea to tell the nation that he would be taking Roberto Martinez to task. "I will have a meeting with him on Monday morning and ask him some questions about the performance and his selection," blustered the sportswear salesman. "We had three quality players on the bench and I want to know why." The man who bankrolled Wigan's rise has the right to ask the question, but not to undermine his manager at a crucial point. With the four teams above them facing off next week, Wigan have a great chance to vault up the league – but first Bob Martin must meet the boss while the players either wonder or snigger.

Good Day, Bad Day: Piqué has a pop and Vela sees a ghost

Tim Stannard — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:28:00 GMT

Good Day

Gonzalo Higuaín
Criticised in some quarters for failing to deliver against Rayo last week in place of the injured Karim Benzema, the Argentinean striker was under pressure to pull out a few goals against Espanyol, although the forward doesn’t have anything to prove in LLL’s eyes and should probably head to a club that appreciates him a bit more. The fact that Higuaín has scored 16 goals in just 11 starts during the current campaign should certainly act as a sweetener.
But Higuaín quite likes banging in goals against Espanyol and knocked in a couple more to add to the hat-trick in Cornella earlier this season in a very run-of-the-mill 5-0 victory that has Marca and AS gasping about goal fiestas as opposed to bemoaning utterly hapless opposition in Real Madrid’s home, once again.

Seydou Keita
A lovely strike with the scores against Sporting level at 1-1 left the midfielder with the praise of Pep Guardiola ringing in his ears after Saturday’s 3-1 victory at the Camp Nou. “One of the best things I’ve experienced since I’ve been Barça coach is being able to know (Keita),” said the Catalan coach proudly, before being asked a bunch of questions about referees and conspiracies.
Saturday’s clash without the suspended Leo Messi against a tough-to-break-down Sporting wasn’t the most convincing of displays, but that doesn’t really matter really considering Barça won in the end and the league title is long gone, anyway.

Valencia
Los Che grabbed an early 1-0 lead against Granada thanks to the impressive-this-season Sofiane Feghouli and then merely hung on to it. A perfect match for a late afternoon Sunday nap.

Markel Susaeta
LLL suspected Athletic would be a tad distracted by Thursday’s Europa League clash with Manchester United and blow this game completely. Not so, thanks to a couple of efforts from Markel Susaeta, who is thriving under Marcelo Bielsa, scoring three in the team’s last two league games. LLL is now dangerously excited about this week’s Old Trafford match.

Málaga
For one night Málaga were in the Champions League places. That was until Athletic nabbed fourth spot a day later. For once, Manuel Pellegrini’s men managed to do something they have struggled to do all year - put together back-to-back wins. The double against Zaragoza and Getafe was just third time the team has managed it. Málaga were 1-0 down in the game before three screamers from outside of the box gave the southern side all three points to take off a little bit of the pressure that had building on the club with just the team’s third away win of the season.

Michu
Two more strikes in contributing to a remarkable comeback for Rayo Vallecano from two goals down against Racing makes the forward (midfielder technically) the equal top-scoring Spaniard in la Primera, tied with Fernando Llorente and one more than current flavour of the month, Roberto Soldado.
“I never saw this game as lost,” claimed Rayo boss, José Ramón Sandoval, on a victory that moves the Madrid club into eighth place. “Rayo never give up.”

Atlético Madrid
Only just in this particular section due to LLL feeling very mellow on this pleasant Monday. The Rojiblancos are now without a win in the league in five matches after Saturday night’s 1-1 draw at Sevilla, but it was probably a decent one-off result as Atlético were without Falcao, Diego and Arda for the clash. That was certainly what Diego Simeone appeared to feel as he was caught by TV cameras fist-pumping away (in the style of Tim Henman, not Ever Banega) going down the tunnel after the clash. Atlético are still four points off the Champions League places, so expect a great deal of “we have 13, 12, 11 finals left,” from the players over the next few weeks.

Manolo Jiménez
The Zaragoza coach warned there could be a repeat of his giant strop from last week when he stormed out of a press conference feeling “ashamed” of his team if things weren’t any better against Villarreal on Saturday. That was very much on the cards with three minutes to go and the home team 1-0 down. But then Villarreal nodded off and Zaragoza popped up with a quickfire double to give the bottom-of-the-table side just their fourth win of the season. “I’m proud of the attitude they showed,” beamed Manolo enjoying a very different mood time time around.

Bad Day

Gerard Piqué
Not just a bad day, but a bad season for Piqué, who has fallen out of favour with Pep Guardiola due to the kind of dreadful display seen last month at Osasuna. Matters got worse for the Barça defender with a red card in this weekend's home win over Sporting, with the World Cup winner then ranting against the referee to the media. This rather unwise move may see Piqué in hot water with the FA, and not unsurprisingly so considering the defender said his sending off was “pre-meditated” due to ill-feelings after a complaint to the man-in-the-middle over a penalty not awarded earlier in the match.

Espanyol
The fact Espanyol have only won four league games in the Santiago Bernabeu since the 1928/1929 season probably wasn’t a good omen ahead of Sunday’s match. Nor was the team’s indifferent away form this year. But constantly giving the ball away with sloppy passes hardly helped matters in what was eventually a 5-0 defeat in a game that Espanyol should never have bothered turning up for. “One of the worst matches I’ve experienced,” admitted Espanyol boss, Mauricio Pochettino after the game.

Real Sociedad
At 1-0 down, Real Sociedad had a perfectly good ‘ghost goal’ from Carlos Vela ruled out by the referee when Gorka Iraizoz scooped the ball back from the inside of the goal. Yet they have refused to use the decision as an excuse for Sunday’s derby defeat - something that two other clubs in particular (and their fanboys in the media) may have done in the same situation. “We didn’t lose because of the referee,” noted la Real boss, Philippe Montanier.

Getafe
Three long distance efforts from Málaga spelled defeat for Getafe at the Coliseum, and continued a run of five league games without a win. At the end of January there was a sniff of a chance of a push for the European places in the air in Getafe aside from the smell of car fumes. Now Getafe are just five points from the drop zone and facing a SIX POINTER against Villarreal, next weekend.

Villarreal
'Awful, decent, awful, decent' goes Villarreal’s form these days. So it was no surprise that ‘awful’ was back again this weekend, with a 2-1 defeat at Zaragoza.

Racing Santander
Being down for ten men for 87 minutes of the game against Rayo - goalkeeper Toño quite rightly sent off for reckless challenge - didn’t help Racing’s cause, but the team probably shouldn’t have blown a two goal lead with the bus-parking opportunities that this affords. Racing still in the relegation zone and now without a win in seven.

Ten-man Roma lose derby as Lazio boss Reja has the final word

Richard Whittle — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:33:00 GMT

Attempting to win a derby with eleven men is difficult enough, but when your team is reduced to ten after a mere seven minutes, the feat becomes nigh on impossible.

Not only did AS Roma find themselves in that very situation against bitter rivals Lazio, but the man dismissed was goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, who also conceded a penalty following a last ditch foul on Mirsolav Klose.

Forced into a change a little earlier than anyone could have reasonably expected, Luis Enrique withdrew birthday boy Erik Lamela and threw on reserve keeper Bogdan Lobont, who was immediately picking the ball from his net having been sent the wrong way by Hernanes from the spot-kick.

From that point it should have been plain sailing for the Biancoclesti, but the Rome dust-up is not known as ‘the derby of derbies’ for nothing. With nothing to lose and pumped full of the adrenaline of the occasion, Roma equalised less than ten minutes later through Fabio Borini.

At that stage it seemed that perhaps the unlikely would happen, but with tiring limbs came tiring minds and Lazio were able to exploit some slack defending, with Stefano Mauri sliding home the decisive second goal midway through the second half.

Roma’s perilous position was borne out of the kind of mistake that has plagued Luis Enrique’s side all season: giving away possession in midfield and then being caught short at the back.

Opposition teams have learnt that the Spaniard has basically done away with a four-man defence, with the full-backs encouraged - perhaps even contract bound - to push well beyond the two central defenders, who are expected to sally out wide to leave space for a midfielder, generally Daniele De Rossi, to drop deep.

However, if one of the central defenders - and in this case it was Gabriel Heinz -needlessly gives the ball away, their opponents have advantage high enough up the pitch and with everyone caught out of position the back line is swept away like a paper umbrella in a storm.

It has happened against lesser teams than Lazio, including Cagliari, Siena and most recently Atalanta – and all it took was one stray pass to undo all of Enrique’s planning for a match which represented the Giallorossi’s best chance of staking a claim for third.

Lazio came into the game seven points ahead of their city rivals and level with Udinese for that final Champions League spot. This meant that, in theory, the pressure should have been eased, but a derby in the Capital brings with it a very unique set of strains and demands.

Both Curvas were full a good ninety minutes before kick-off, while the streets of the Eternal City had been left to the tourists to roam in the warm early Spring sunshine.

The Olympic stadium is a cauldron all of its own, but the two teams had done their best to keep the heat at manageable levels. There had been little or no major proclamations of intent in the week leading up to the big day, or any pre-game fist pumping, though certain elements of the Lazio support spoiled that somewhat with their unsavoury chanting towards Juan.

This was perhaps as the teams had other things on their minds. Roma warmed up for the derby by going down to nine men in a 4-1 defeat at Atalanta, while Lazio were busy attempting to calm the internal dispute which had seen coach Edy Reja temporarily resign via fax a week previously.

The veteran was back pacing the technical area after what he described as merely a ‘misunderstanding’. That ‘misunderstanding’ being one between steady Edy, club president Claudio Lotito and sporting director Ilgi Tare over January transfer activity (or a lack of it) following the recent 5-1 defeat at Palermo.

A second derby win of the season and a first in which Roma were the designated ‘home’ side since 1997 should have been enough to ease the tensions within the Lazio hierarchy, but instead Reja used the post-game press conference to perhaps sarcastically applaud the winter transfer moves Emiliano Alfaro - a lightweight striker from Uruguay - and rent-a-midfielder Antonio Candreva.

Neither player made the starting line-up, though the former did come on as a late substitute. Reja was also quick to appoint Gianfranco Zola – linked with the Lazio post during the recent times of uncertainty - as his successor, but his tongue was once again firmly in his cheek. By Monday morning he was making reconciliatory tones that maybe he would like to remain.

There is no doubt that the 66-year-old has worked a small miracle with the players he has at his disposal. Granted, Klose is having something of a swansong in Serie A with 12 goals to his name, while Hernanes can at times be inspiring, but the rest of his charges are no more than workmanlike.

The fact that they could not kill off the match when they were a goal and a man up points to a lack of strength in depth and although they currently reside in third place would be a poor reflection on Serie A if Lazio finish ahead of either Udinese or Napoli.

But the way things are going they may even feel that second place is not out of the question, with Juventus dropping two points at home to Chievo, though the Turin side do have a game in hand to extend their current three-point advantage.

Such a situation makes Roma’s position even more puzzling. In terms of individual quality they outshine Lazio and Juventus but their followers are beginning to wonder whether the “project” the club have embarked on will ever come to fruition.

Luis Enrique lamented the fact that he his side had finished another game with ten men after what was their eighth sending off of the season).

“What have I done to deserve this s**t?” he asked, to which one media wag joked that it was a better standard of stool than the punters were subjected to most weeks.

Even the usually loquacious Enrique was at a loss for another comeback on a day where Edy Reja had the final word.

The Euro 2012 England squad predictor – 05/03/12

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:00:00 GMT

We're now just under three months from the start of Euro 2012, and England are still without a permanent manager or captain and face a very real possibility of going in to the tournament's first two matches without their first and second choice forwards. Oh, and there are also question marks over the fitness of their prodigious playmaker.

Still, we'll have a laugh, won't we? Right?

Here's how we see the state of the squad at present, whoever's picking it...

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

1 Wayne Rooney ▲
Coming into form nicely. Will b crucial, despite missing the first two matches.

2 Joe Hart ▼
Lynchpin in goal. Key man, still pretty much unrivaled between the sticks.

3 Ashley Cole ■
Best tournament player: a must, despite patchy form at club level.

4 Scott Parker ■
The team’s insurance policy. A potential captain for the finals.

5 Steven Gerrard ■
Could be star man in Rooney’s absence, if he can stay fit.

6 James Milner ▲
A man for all positions. Will the new manager favour him as Capello did?

7 Joleon Lescott ▲
Could secure a starting place if Terry or Ferdinand are left out.

8 Danny Welbeck ▲
Looks increasingly like a starter, especially with Bent now injured.

9 Daniel Sturridge ▲
Battling Walcott for wing berth. Staying in Chelsea side crucial.

10 Leighton Baines ■
Capable but untested. Most logical back up to Cole.

11 Gareth Barry ▼
Another steady season, though Fabio’s departure may hurt him.

12 Chris Smalling ●
Could usurp underplayed Cahill. He'll need games at club level, though.

13 Theo Walcott ▼
Still consistently inconsistent, but this has been perhaps his best season.

14 Frank Lampard ▲
Will be an asset from the bench. Evidently Villas-Boas agrees...

15 Kyle Walker ●
Pushes ahead of Glen Johnson

16 Phil Jones ▲
Could be main beneficiary if the new manager opts for youth.

17 Ashley Young ■
Injury hasn’t affected his form

18 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ●
Makes things happen; starting to look genuinely exciting. Needs games.

19 Jack Wilshere ▼
Injury delay means he could now be seen as a gamble.

20 Darren Bent ▲
Stagnating at Villa but one of few out-and-out strikers

21 Scott Carson ▼
A concern if he has to play, but there are few options available.

22 Robert Green ●
Playing in the Championship is better than not playing in the Prem (see Stockdale, D)

23 John Terry ▼
Bye-bye Capello, ta-ra Terry?

Close contenders

Micah Richards started against Holland, and his versatility may stand him in good stead. Yet Kyle Walker - who pulled out of that game injured - is still probably just ahead of him at this stage. Stewart Downing was one of England's better performers in that friendly defeat, but his inconsistent form for Liverpool could yet see him lose out. Michael Carrick wasn't involved in that friendly, but his form for Manchester United has certainly been good enough to put him in contention. This Redknapp old-boy could benefit if Jack Wilshere doesn't make it.

Manchester City's Adam Johnson and Manchester United's Tom Cleverley will both be in contention, but will need to be fit, firing and playing regularly for their clubs to get the nod.

Bubbling under

Jermain Defoe's form for Tottenham this season has been reasonable, but he hasn't been able to force his way into the team regularly enough to keep his England squad place. Rio Ferdinand's impressive performance for Manchester United at White Hart Lane was a reminder that he can still cut the mustard. Everton's Phil Jagielka hasn't played since January and will need to find momentum quickly upon his return.

Outside chance

With Rooney suspended and Bent potentially injured, there have been a few shouts for new names in the striking department. The campaign for Norwich's Grant Holt to be included has continued on Twitter, but Swansea's Danny Graham is perhaps a more likely 'shock' inclusion. If the man Redknapp gets the gig, it's not inconceivable Peter Crouch could be back in the frame, but we suspect Fraizer Campbell may not be invited back.

The Euro 2012 England squad predictor: January, February

Premier pub ammo: Liverpool longer than Stoke, shot-shy Man U

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:51:00 GMT

Astound your friends and irk your enemies with the help of the Stats Zone app from FourFourTwo and Opta.

SATURDAY
Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal
Arsenal's eight attempted crosses was the weekend's lowest total. Van Persie only received two passes in the penalty area, and scored from both.

Only Liverpool, Villa and Wolves haven't scored an injury-time league goal this season. Liverpool attempted more long passes than Stoke this weekend.

Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Aston Villa
Villa reached a team mate with a weekend-high 36% of their crosses from open play. Nobody won fewer fouls than Blackburn's five.

Man City 2-0 Bolton Wanderers
Bolton had the weekend's worst tackle success rate: 42%. Man City meanwhile had more touches in the opposition box (37) than any other side this weekend.

Queens Park Rangers 1-1 Everton
The Hoops had more shots off target (7) from inside the box than any other team this weekend. Everton won more fouls (16) than any other side in this round.

Stoke City 1-0 Norwich City
Tony Pulis’s side have netted the division's highest proportion of goals from set pieces (59%). Kyle Naughton made more unsuccessful passes (24) than any other player over the weekend, completing just 50% of his 48 attempted passes – but only three players completed more passes: Dean Whitehead, Andrew Surman and top passer Glenn Whelan.

West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Chelsea
West Brom managed five shots on target from outside the box v Chelsea, more than any other side this weekend. Chelsea had the best middle third passing accuracy (92%) this weekend.

Wigan Athletic 0-2 Swansea City
Swansea won 64% of their duels v Wigan, the best rate of the weekend. Wigan were successful with just 1 of the 13 dribbles they attempted in this match, the worst rate (8%) of any side in this round.

SUNDAY
Newcastle United 1-1 Sunderland
Newcastle had more corners in this game than any other team in any Premier League game this season. Sunderland attempted fewer passes than any other side this weekend.

Fulham 5-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Pavel Pogrebnyak has hit five shots on target for Fulham, all of them resulting in goals. Wolves played a higher percentage of passes in their own third (22%) than any other side this weekend.

Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Manchester United
Only Norwich (14) have scored more headed goals than Manchester United (13). The champions had fewer shots (including blocked shots, six) than any other side this weekend.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Hamit Altintop (Turkey v Kazakhstan, 2010)

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:45:00 GMT

Poor Matty Burrows – how things may have changed had it not been for Hamit Altintop.

The Glentoran striker, whose backheel volley was watched by millions on YouTube, missed out on FIFA’s Puskas Award for goal of the year thanks to the Turkish midfielder’s amazing strike against Kazakhstan.

One of Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid signings last summer – not purely on the basis of this hit, of course – Altintop looks back on his goal with a modest smile. “As the ball was coming towards me I wasn’t thinking about anything other than hitting it towards goal,” he says.

Sometimes in football you know you’ve hit the sweet spot. That was such a moment.”

And some sweet spot it was. A lofted corner from Emre Belozoglu floated to Altintop  at the edge of the box; the next second, the ball was hitting the roof of the net. Even though his fierce right peg was well known, his team-mates’ reaction was one of amazement.

“Yes, it’s true I’ve always had a powerful shot,” says Altintop. “In training today I almost broke Iker Casillas’ hand! But that goal was a one-off. I don’t think I could hit it the same way again if I tried 100 times.”

Even so, his Puskas Award takes pride of place at home. “I’m proud because it represents all goals scored that year,” adds Turkey’s very own Mr ‘Golden Ball’ – the direct translation  of ‘Altintop’ into English.

“I don’t think I’ll win it again,” he says with a smile.  “Still, I can try though...”

And here is Matty Burrows' effort from the same year...

Words: Sefa Atay. Illustration: German Aczel. From the April 2012 issue of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

Fan confrontations leave Ramos needing a strong finish to the season in Ukraine

Mark Gilbey — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:01:00 GMT

It wasn't supposed to be like this for Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk; not this season.

Ahead of his first full Premier League campaign in Ukraine, a bullish Juande Ramos had once again spoken of the club’s ambitious plans to end Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv’s dominance.

Not since Chornomorets Odesa were runners-up in 1996 has any other team finished in the top two.

Even below them, Metalist Kharkiv have been bronze medallists for fives years on the bounce, but Dnipro were just four points behind Myron Markevych’s side last season and this was supposed to be when it all came together.

After all, Ramos has spent a considerable amount of money since succeeding Volodymyr Bessonov in October 2010.

With two-thirds of the season played though Dnipro are fourth and, more significantly, Metalist in third place have what is surely an insurmountable 14-point lead over them. Now, the natives are getting restless.

"Ramo$ go home", read one banner at the Dnipro Arena during a game against Tavriya Simferopol; another in Spanish compared his wages (rumoured to be €4 million a year) to those of the then Volyn Lutsk manager Vitaliy Kvartsyanyi following a surprise home defeat.

And upon returning from a 2-0 loss against Zorya Luhansk an angry group confronted him at the airport demanding he resign.

It isn't easy for a foreign coach to succeed in eastern Europe – something Ramos knows all too well from his brief period at CSKA Moscow a couple of years ago – they need to be familiar with the intricacies of the game.

But the refereeing scandals, dogovornyak (a match-fixing practice from Soviet times), oligarch rivalries and the standard of pitches are all issues to be discussed elsewhere.

Shouldering the blame

The former Sevilla and Tottenham Hotspur manager must shoulder much of the blame for Dnipro’s woes.

His constant tinkering to the starting line-up has fostered an inconsistency and rarely have they managed back-to-back wins. Ramos has cited injuries as a mitigating circumstance and, to an extent, he is correct.

Most notably, losing his captain and best central defender Andriy Rusol, who was forced to retire at the age of just 28 after failing to recover from a back problem has been a real hammer blow.

It was a position that required strengthening even before the Ukrainian international called time on his career though.

Only seven teams have a worse defensive record than Dnipro this season, but the arrival of Ondřej Mazuch from Anderlecht should help plug a back four that has conceded 25 goals in 20 matches.

Already that figure is five higher than in the whole of the previous campaign and there are still 10 rounds remaining.

One question fans will surely be asking themselves is why Eric Matoukou, a championship-winning defender with Belgian side Genk last year, was signed in the summer and then promptly farmed out to Arsenal Kyiv.

Indeed, there has been much criticism of Ramos’ dealings in the transfer market. In the past Dnipro were a club usually relying Ukrainians, or those from the former Soviet republics and eastern Europe, so in many ways his arrival denoted a new era.

With a coach of Ramos’ standing, it was hoped they would be able to attract a higher calibre of player from further afield.

It’s debatable whether there is a coherent policy in place. Ghanaian right-back Samuel Inkoom has come in for the bulk of the criticism and many would consider the €5.3 million signing from Swiss champions Basle to be the league’s worst newbie.

A dubious honour

His team-mate Giuliano surely runs him a close second for that dubious honour. A year ago Dnipro parted with a club-record €11 million for the Brazilian.

Giuliano – voted best player of the 2010 Copa Libertadores – has also been unable to adapt and the 21-year-old playmaker is yet to provide a single assist this season. With just one goal to his name, already he is being linked with a return home.

Ramos also paid a hefty sum for Metalist winger Denys Oliynyk, but his position is arguably where Dnipro’s most talented midfielder Yevhen Konoplyanka operates best from.

A quick, technically gifted player superb with the ball at his feet, England fans will soon discover at Euro 2012 that the 22-year-old is a real menace cutting in from the left on to his right foot.

Off the pitch, rumours persist about Ramos’ relationship with the club’s hierarchy. Over the winter break a friendly against Cracovia Kraków was cancelled at short notice, apparently after a clash between him and Dnipro’s general director Andriy Stetsenko. For their part, it is something they both deny.

Just last week, however, reports suggested that Ramos had issued an ultimatum to Stetsenko demanding a meeting with the club’s Swiss-based billionaire owner Ihor Kolomoisky regarding transfer policy.

On the plus side, the acquisition of Derek Boateng from Getafe, who chose Dnipro ahead of clubs in England has looked a shrewd one, with the tough-tackling Ghanaian adding some much-needed bite to the heart of midfield.

Another area Ramos has done well to fill is the void left by striker Yevhen Seleznyov. Dnipro’s top scorer in each of the last two seasons returned to his boyhood club Shakhtar over the summer, leaving many wondering where the goals would come from.

Nikola Kalinić scored just seven times in 44 Premier League appearances for Blackburn Rovers; already he has nine goals from 12 matches at Dnipro.

This weekend the league returns from its winter break, but realistically it won’t get any better than fourth this season.

Challenging Metalist for the bronze medal would have been the bare minimum expected from Dnipro, so it remains to be seen just what the outcome will be if there is no tangible sign of improvement. Just four points separate them and Metalurh Donetsk in eighth.

How Ramos could do with a convincing performance against Shakhtar at the Donbass Arena on Sunday to kick-start a strong finish.

A Dutch assassin, a Texan sharp-shooter and a Little Peruvian Master

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Jamie Orrell explains why you should buy the new issue of FourFourTwo...

The number of shivering short-wearers on your local high street will have told you that spring has sprung, but we’re not interested in frolicking in the sun just yet.

All eyes at FFT Towers are locked on to the rapidly approaching ‘business end’ of the season. So are those of the headline interviewee of our April 2011 issue, a footballing foreigners special, out now.

The fine young chap in question has swept everyone else in the Premier League aside over the past year, smashing goal scoring records while winning his team matches almost singlehandedly. His name? Why it’s Robin van Persie, of course, and we have an exclusive interview.

Has it been frustrating to play in a side struggling after the sale of Cesc Fabregas? Does he really believe he can top a year in which he scored 48 goals for club and country? And why is Dennis Bergkamp “old-timey”? The Arsenal and Holland star answers these questions and more, opening up to reveal some astonishing truths.

But Van Persie is just one in a long line of stellar names from overseas to light up the English game. FourFourTwo looks back on how the foreign invasion began, from the pitch to the boardroom, and whether it made football in Blighty better or worse.

It’s not all about the Premier League, either. In an incredible 17-page feature, we reveal your club’s best and worst ever foreign player, as voted for by fans. From Aberdeen to Yeovil, we have the imported heroes, villains and absolute jokers in the English 92 and SPL.

Continuing our foreigners special, we find out what a typical day in the life of a Premier League star is like. From the snow to the cuisine, Argentine-Geordie wide-man Jonas Gutierrez, Omani Wigan stopper Ali Al-Habsi and Brazilian duo Lucas Piazón (Chelsea) and Andre Santos (Arsenal) tell us how they’ve adapted.

We also go in search of a man considered not only the Premier League’s worst import, but perhaps the English top flight’s worst ever player. The infamous Southampton alumnus is nowhere to be found – can we pick up the trail of Ali Dia?

Our latest One-on-One is with lovable trumpet-tooting Peruvian Nolberto Solano. He wasn’t bad at that football lark, either. Nobby talks Newcastle, guinea pigs and being Christened ‘the little master’ by none other than Diego Maradona.

Moving abroad (the home of foreigners), we follow Roberto Carlos and Samuel Eto’o to Dagestan – the most dangerous place in Europe, according to the BBC - to get the inside track on big-spending Russians Anzhi Makhachkala.

Clint Dempsey scored the only goal in the USA’s first ever win over Italy, and is arguably the Premier League’s most underrated player. FourFourTwo has an exclusive chat with the Texan about Fulham, hat-tricks and fishing.

But wait, there’s more! Do you think Cloughie was the best manager England never had? Think again. Introducing Jesse Carver, who took Italian football by storm wearing slippers.

Elsewhere, we recall Ronaldinho’s crazy year, talk Euro 2012 with Jerome Boateng, get expert advice from Yaya Toure and Phil Jones and meet the best supported youth team in the land – Rushden & Diamonds!

Plus, we crunch the numbers on every foreigner to play in the Premier League, and get Peter Schmeichel’s Perfect XI of overseas imports. Phew.

The April issue of FourFourTwo was brought to you by: Nobby Solano, Aaron Ramsey, Matt Le Tissier, Teddy Sheringham, Andre Santos, Robin van Persie, Clint Dempsey, Yaya Toure, Mario Kempes, Kevin Doyle, Peter Schmeichel, Cliff Jones, Jonjo Shelvey, Roberto Carlos, Joao Carlos, Simon Grand, Dave Beasant, Jonas Gutierrez, Phil Jones, Keith Knox, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lucas Piazon, Terry Cooper, Brian Glanville, Hamit Altintop, Luke Rodgers, Rob Lee, Gordon Strachan, Ali Al-Habsi, Jerome Boateng, Michel Salgado, FatBoy Slim, the 90-year-old scout and fans from over 100 clubs.

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Rafael v Bale, Walcott v Enrique, offbeam Tiote and Chelsea's struggle

Michael Cox — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:12:00 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...

Gareth Bale was initially ruled out of the Manchester United versus Tottenham game because of concerns over a hamstring strain, but Harry Redknapp is now optimistic his left-winger will be fit to start on Sunday.

Sir Alex Ferguson will be disappointed if Bale makes the game, but will remember that he hasn’t fared particularly well against Manchester United over the past couple of seasons. Rafael has played very bravely and aggressively against him both with and without the ball.

When United have possession, the Brazilian has pushed up high to force Bale back inside his own half. When United don’t have the ball, Rafael has stuck tight and tried to intercept the ball before it gets to Bale, not allowing him to get up to full speed to dribble with the ball.

This has had both positive and negative consequences – at Old Trafford last season Rafael nullified Bale so well that the Welshman’s pass completion ratio was below 50%, but in the previous game at White Hart Lane, his impetuousness resulted in him picking up two bookings, and United had to hang on for a draw.

If Bale doesn’t start, Redknapp may turn to Niko Kranjcar, despite the Croatian’s quiet performance at the Emirates last weekend. Moving Luka Modric out wide would be another option, but with Scott Parker absent from the centre of the pitch, it’s unlikely Harry Redknapp will want to further weaken his central midfield zone.

We will also have a good winger versus full-back battle in the Liverpool-Arsenal game at Anfield, where Theo Walcott will be up against Jose Enrique. Walcott enjoyed a great second half against Tottenham last weekend, and as a classic confidence player, will be eager to pick up where he left off.

In his first meeting with Jose Enrique this season, however, the Spanish left-back clearly got the better of him. He played quite deep, meaning Walcott was unable to exploit any space in behind him, and was instead forced to cross in tight situations, of which all six were unsuccessful. In fact, Jose Enrique actually completed more successful crosses himself.

But the Spaniard’s form has dipped slightly over the past few weeks, and with Liverpool at home and their defence likely to play higher up the pitch, Walcott might fancy his chances of taking him on – and will look to recreate his famous assist for Emmanuel Adebayor back at Anfield back in 2008, albeit with Robin van Persie applying the finishing touch this time.

Cheick Tiote is brilliantly energetic, fierce in the tackle, decent positionally, but probably not a particularly talented passer. At the start of his time at Newcastle, the Ivorian seemed to be aware of his limitations on the ball, and played short, safe, sideways balls to more creative teammates.

But last weekend as Newcastle lost a 2-0 lead to Wolves, Tiote often attempted more ambitious forward passes, which frequently went astray and meant Newcastle conceded possession cheaply. That was particularly frustrating given Newcastle’s lead, where ball retention should have been their main concern – at 2-0 up, Tiote gave the ball away seven times from 24 passes.

It will be interesting to see Tiote’s approach this weekend when Sunderland come to town. The Tyne-Wear derby is typically a frantic game which sees the ball given away frequently, so Newcastle could do with some sensible distribution from the centre.

West Brom are very much the underdogs in their home game with Chelsea, but are coming off the back of an excellent 4-0 win over Sunderland in their last Premier League outing.

While fans will be delighted with the sudden deluge of goals, Roy Hodgson is more likely to be content with the solid performance at the back, as West Brom’s display without the ball was highly impressive. They managed to complete 15 of 17 attempted tackles, and all 10 of their clearances were successful.

This is likely to be a difficult test for Chelsea, against a side who will sit deep and keep it tight between the lines. Juan Mata will be starved of space between the lines, and Daniel Sturridge won’t get much behind the defence: it will be tough for the visitors to make the breakthrough.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Eddie Johnson returns from the wilderness to Seattle

Kris Heneage — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:07:00 GMT

Former Fulham, Cardiff and Preston striker Eddie Johnson has ended up back in MLS at Seattle. Kris Heneage fills in the blanks

Eddie Johnson may have returned home to MLS, but he’ll be keen to note the changes since his departure in January 2008. Former club Kansas City Wizards now go by the name of Sporting KC, and his new club the Seattle Sounders were still a year from their MLS debut when he joined Fulham as an exciting 23-year-old.

In the years that have passed the league has gone from strength to strength, but Johnson sadly hasn’t. His time at Fulham yielded few games and even fewer goals – under a dozen, in fact. Unable to hold down a first-team place, he was loaned by Cardiff and Preston to little effect (two goals in a combined 49 appearances), although a spell at Greek side Aris Thessaloniki yielded a more fruitful one-in-three goal return.

Released by Fulham last summer, he returned to his roots training at the IMG Soccer Academy. That’s when USA team-mate DaMarcus Beasley reached out to Johnson, offering him a chance with Mexican top-flight side Puebla.

Johnson trained with his new side ahead of the Mexican season, and after being given time off at New Year, prepared to fly back to Puebla from Florida. But at the airport he received a call from Beasley, claiming he’d read local reports that the deal was off.

Puebla cited a failed medical, but Johnson tells a different story. "The club said I didn't pass my physical. I never took a physical," he said. "Then they said that I was unfit, but I trained in every session and I did well, and the coach was happy with the way I trained. All the guys in the locker room were excited for me to join, but it was out of my control with the guys in front office.”

Instead he claims there was a difference of opinion between the club’s technical director and coach Juan Osorio, formerly of the Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls. Osorio wanted Johnson, but his technical director preferred to sign a Mexican forward; with neither side willing to relent, the deal was cancelled.

Johnson: From limbo to Seattle

With the clarity of hindsight, Johnson laments the fact that he didn't have an agent, something he has since rectified by hiring Lyle Yorks. “I’m happy right now and it's a better situation," he says. "Lyle has a great reputation in Europe and he thought Europe would have been great for me, but I couldn’t keep sitting out. I know this league and I just want to come back and play. I want to let my football do the talking for me.”

Subject to the league’s allocation process, Johnson was originally signed by the Montreal Impact, the newly-admitted Canadian club. They promptly decided to trade him to Seattle in return for Lamar Neagle and Mike Fucito. Some say it's a risky move for Seattle, but Johnson sees it as a great display of faith from the Sounders and coach Sigi Schmid.

“I couldn’t be in a better environment,” he said. “The coach believes in me and he thinks I’ll make a great fit in the team. I had the chance to train with Mike and Lamar and I think they’ll do great in Montreal.”

With Johnson knowing little of the Seattle area other than its heavy rainfall, he relied on former Aris teammate Freddy Adu to fill him in on what to expect. “Freddy and I are really good friends," explains Johnson. "When I heard Seattle were offering a lot to get me, I was like: 'I’ve never really been to Seattle… I heard it rains a lot up there.'

"The first thing he said was 'Man, Seattle has the best fan support, you’re going to love it.' I watched some highlights on MLS.com and I saw how electric the atmosphere is; he said 'Trust me, you’re going to love it.'”

Now 27, Johnson admits that with the help of Sigi Schmid he also hopes to catch the eye of Jürgen Klinsmann and add to the 42 caps he already has for the national team. “I couldn’t be in a better environment for that. If I’m playing well enough to get into the US men’s national team, I think Sigi has a good relationship with him [Klinsmann]. I know If I’m doing it week in week out, Sigi will give him a call.”

His season with Seattle is likely to begin with a CONCACAF Champions League tie against Santos next week, and Johnson can't wait to start making up for lost time. “The CONCACAF Champions League will be good. Right now we’re focused on our quarter-final game and I’m looking for that first goal in a Seattle Sounders jersey.”

As for his aspirations this season, Johnson is keeping those to himself, but there’s an air of determination and confidence in his voice. “As a player you always set goals. Right now I’m going to keep those goals to myself, but I’d like to go back and see what ones I did accomplish and what I didn’t accomplish.”

Earning an estimated $100,000 this season, Johnson could very easily become an astute signing for the Sounders should he recapture his early career form. As the team needs a viable partner for Fredy Montero, Johnson will seek to quickly establish an understanding with the Colombian if Seattle are to once again make the play-offs in a difficult Western Conference.

Right now though, Johnson is simply asking for a healthy season. “It’s a long season we have a lot of games with the CONCACAF Champions League, the big question is can our team stay healthy throughout the year. If we stay healthy we’ve got a strong chance.”

La Preview: Getafe’s confessions, Zaragoza’s shame and Pochettino’s promise

Tim Stannard — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:50:00 GMT

Saturday

Mallorca (15th) v Osasuna (7th) - 18.00 (local time)
Remember Emilio Nsue? No? Up-and-coming young Spanish striker? Well, the Mallorca forward was certainly in that cat basket last year, but he hasn’t started a game since the beginning of January and he’s not happy about it. “I’m really upset about how I’ve been left out. I’m being left without the Olympic Games,” complained the forward in regards to his treatment by Joaquín Caparrós.
Nsue also had a message for fellow striker Michael Pereira, who has been much more active this year in his place. “I note that when I lose a ball, people are always on top of me, whilst when someone else does, it doesn’t matter.
“It’s only when we are together that we can manage our objectives,” taunted his high-minded team-mate and rival via Twitter. “More than ever we must think of Mallorca and not divide ourselves through egotism.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Getafe (14th) v Málaga (6th) - 18.00
It’s been confession week in Getafe, with a couple of players shuffling before the press, looking at the ground in shame, mumbling that their performances simply haven’t been good enough and that they are very, very sorry indeed. First up was Dani Güiza, who wisely agreed with the comments made last week by manager Luis García that he wasn’t exactly delivering on the goal-scoring front this season. “I’m not happy with my numbers either,” admitted the forward. “I wasn’t playing for a year-and-a-half but now I’m feeling better,” said Güiza perhaps promising goals galore, starting at Málaga.
Güiza’s teammate, Diego Castro, also had something to get off his chest admitting that he too had not been much cop in the current campaign. “I’m not happy with my personal situation and what I’ve delivered. I have to improve and the team does too.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Rayo Vallecano (11th) v Racing Santander (18th) - 18.00
During the week, Sergio Ramos admitted that he had sort of left an elbow out for Diego Costa during last Sunday’s Madrid derby, though he didn’t mean to do the Rayo forward any harm, of course.
Diego Costa appeared to be just fine with that response - a reputation for diving perhaps coloured the referee’s view of the incident - and pointed out that “it was quite heated during the game. I was scrapping with them (Pepe and Ramos) from the beginning,” recalled the on-loan Atlético Madrid striker. "Things happened in the game, we fight out on the pitch and it stays there.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Barcelona (2nd) v Sporting (19th) - 20.00
LLL senses that Javier Clemente didn’t accept the Sporting job because he wanted the challenge of keeping the Asturian side in la Primera, but rather because he needed a platform for spouting off on all manner of topics on a daily basis to a media who are always more than happy to fill a page or two with the Basque manager’s thoughts.
This week, Clemente was musing over Barcelona, and how he didn’t really enjoy watching the Catalan club, which is unfortunate as Pep’s Dream Boys will provide his opposition on Saturday. “It’s fantastic football, but I go for more direct football. I don’t like long periods of possession when you are winning 1-0,” said the Sporting boss who has lead his side to two draws since taking over from Manolo Preciado.
Clemente is an admirer of Carles Puyol though and suggests that a couple of Real Madrid defenders should copy the Barça centre-back, but perhaps not in the hair department. “Puyol is an example to follow in football and should be for Sergio Ramos and Pepe as he goes for the ball with nobility.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sevilla (10th) v Atlético Madrid (9th) - 22.00
Atlético’s opponents, Sevilla, had a couple of players called up to the Spain squad in the form of Alvaro Negredo and Jesús Navas. However, none were required from the Rojiblanco ranks. Now, in any other country the next step would be to look at some candidates - Juanfran, Adrían and Gabi for example - and realise that the lack of Atlético talent in the Spain team is due to other players being better.
But this being Spain, some think it’s a giant conspiracy and that Vicente Del Bosque has it in for the Vicente Calderón club. “The manager always finds a reason not to choose an Atlético player,” moans José Miguelez in AS, the reason this time being the crazy notion that none of them are actually good enough.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sunday

Zaragoza (20th) v Villarreal (17th) - 12.00
The blog's last report concerning Zaragoza boss, Manolo Jiménez, was of the fiery chieftain storming out of a press conference after a 5-1 defeat to Málaga, declaring that he was ashamed and that there was going to be no more kid gloves treatment with the players.
Manolo took a few days to calm down before returning to speak to the media on Wednesday, but there was no great change to the former Sevilla manager’s mood. “I still feel ashamed of the image we presented in the game from the 63rd minute. I still feel angry and the only thing that will make it go away is a change in image.”
LLL Prediction - Away win

Athletic Bilbao (5th) v Real Sociedad (13th) - 16.00
LLL will admit to finding the interview with Javi Martínez published in Wednesday’s Marca surprising. Not because it was actually quite good, but because it was located in the Real Madrid section, with the paper seeming to imply that just because they stuck the Athletic player on the front page the other day as a Mourinho target, the Spain international is now a Real Madrid player.
“I play for a great team and all I’m thinking about is Athletic, Athletic and Athletic. I’m very happy here in Bilbao,” was the response of Martínez to an opening question that is fairly easy to guess.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Granada (16th) v Valencia (3rd) - 18.00
Unsurprisingly the Valencia players were booed from the pitch after last weekend’s home defeat to Sevilla. LLL uses the word 'unsurprisingly' as that’s what the Valencia supporters in Mestalla tend to do anyway no matter the result - that and the loss leaving the east coast club with just the single win in eight. But when the only side breathing down your neck are Levante, who have managed just the single win in nine, the incentive to give a flying hula-hoop is limited.
Unai Emery came out on the defence of his team by saying that the supporters should judge the club at the end of the season. This was a stance backed by Roberto Soldado who dipped his toe into tempestuous fan-fighting waters by suggesting that “what happens with Valencia is valued more outside of the club than here inside and that “it seems that third place doesn’t have any merit.”
LLL Prediction - Away win

Real Madrid (1st) v Espanyol (8th) - 21.30
Perico coach Mauricio Pochettino has said that he won’t be making any complaints about refereeing decisions during Sunday’s game no matter what happens in the Santiago Bernabeu against Madrid. “I’m not afraid of refs and I don’t have any prejudices,” claimed the Espanyol coach.
If that does happen then a manager in la Liga not whining about decisions going against his team is enough for LLL to have the Argentinean coach captured, stuffed, dressed in his Espanyol tracksuit and placed in the Spanish FA’s museum and labeled as some kind of freakish, mutated oddity.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Monday

Levante (4th) v Betis (12th) - 21.00
After going eight games without a win, Levante finally managed to pick up three points last weekend with a victory at Espanyol. It lifted Levante back into the Champions League places, but club captain Sergio Ballesteros is still of the mindset that the club are not yet safe on 35 points with 14 matches left. Although it would take a feat of Zaragoza proportions to be relegated, the hefty stopper says that Monday’s game is another battle to avoid the drop. “The Betis match is 50% of our salvation. When we manage our objective we can dream about other things,” said Ballesteros this week. LLL suspects those ‘other things’ might be called ‘summer holidays’.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Magpies have the edge over Black Cats, Arsenal's commitment put to the test

Jon Champion — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:19:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Watch exclusive coverage of Newcastle United vs Sunderland live on ESPN from 11am on Sunday...

FIXTURES Sat 3 March Liverpool v Arsenal, Blackburn v Aston Villa, Manchester City v Bolton, QPR v Everton, Stoke v Norwich, West Brom v Chelsea, Wigan v Swansea Sun 4 Feb Newcastle v Sunderland (live on ESPN), Fulham v Wolves, Tottenham v Manchester United

In what could be a pivotal weekend in the Premier League season, the pick of this weekend’s fixtures comes on Sunday, when Newcastle host bitter rivals Sunderland. The Tyne-Wear derby is one of the most underrated in the English football, and because it takes place 300 miles away from London it doesn’t quite get the attention others do, but for both sets of supporters it’s about as big as it gets.

Although both sides lost last weekend, Alan Pardew and Martin O’Neill’s sides head in to the fixture enjoying relatively good form. Not since 1948 have Newcastle and Sunderland been placed higher (they currently sit in sixth and ninth respectively) going in to the derby and although there isn’t too much between the two sides, you have to see Newcastle as favourites. Not only do the Magpies have home advantage, they have come out on top in recent matches against their closest rivals – Sunderland fans won’t thank me for mentioning the 5-1 humiliation they suffered in this fixture last season.

Two of the clubs vying for a Champions League spot face each other when Arsenal travel to Anfield to face Liverpool in Saturday’s early kick-off. It will be difficult for the Gunners as Kenny Dalglish’s men will be buoyed by winning the Carling Cup last weekend, although we will have to wait to see if their talismanic captain Steven Gerrard is fit after his excursions playing for England in the week. Those Arsenal fans who have claimed that the victory in the north London derby against Spurs last weekend has saved their season well, I’m afraid may well be mistaken. The Gunners' problem is that they have struggled for consistency this season and the trip to Merseyside will be a real test to see if they possess the commitment and resolve to dig out results. I have my doubts.

Another epic Premier League tussle sees Tottenham take on Manchester United at White Hart Lane. After the aforementioned defeat in the north London derby, Spurs have only won two out of their last six games and they need to quickly re-discover the form that has propelled them to third in the league. Although Sir Alex Ferguson’s side have won six and drawn one out of their last seven games, this is not the formidable United side of years gone by and for that reason I think it will end all square on Sunday.

Although Blackburn have lost three of their last four games and shipped fifteen goals in the process, I fancy Steve Kean’s side to emerge victorious in their encounter with Aston Villa on Saturday. The Villains have won only three games out of a possible fifteen, and defeat on Saturday would really set alarm-bells ringing in the ears of supporters at the midlands club.

Another side firmly in the midst of a relegation battle are Bolton, who face a daunting trip to league leaders Manchester City. Roberto Mancini’s men boast a perfect Premier League home record of thirteen wins from thirteen, and I imagine it will be pretty straightforward for them against the Trotters. Although four of the Lancashire club’s six wins have come away from home and eternal optimist Owen Coyle will be telling his players to focus on that, I just can’t see anything other than a home win.

There is real cause for concern at QPR after another defeat last weekend at home to Fulham, their third in three games. The ‘new manager syndrome’ has had little affect on the west London club and they continue to be very ill disciplined, with a number of players receiving their marching orders in recent weeks. They face an in-form Everton side who have only conceded four goals in their last seven games. Manager David Moyes spent very wisely in the January transfer window and I expect the Toffee’s will come away from Loftus Road with all three points.

This weekend sees Stoke play the 44th game of what has been a very long and arduous season for the Potters. They face a Norwich side who are sitting comfortable in eighth place, and with a few more wins, the Canaries can start thinking about a second successive season in the Premier League. However, Tony Pulis’ side seem reinvigorated by their 2-0 win over Swansea last weekend and I see them taking all three points at the Britannia Stadium this time round as well.

How the fortunes of West Brom have been reversed in the last fortnight. Resounding wins over Wolves and Sunderland has opened up an eleven point gap between themselves and the drop zone. They take on a Chelsea side who will be without captain John Terry through injury. The constant speculation that manager Andre Villas-Boas will be sacked at any given moment cannot be good for the players and they will have to work very hard to come away from the Hawthorns with all three points.

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez welcomes his old side Swansea to the DW stadium on Saturday. Brendan Rodgers’ side are currently ten points clear of the Latics and although they have only won twice away all season, there is no better time for the Swan’s to inflict more misery on Martinez and his Wigan team.

Coming from 2-0 down at half time to draw 2-2 against Newcastle must have felt like a victory for new Wolves boss Terry Connor. As I said last week, I’m not convinced by the appointment of Mick McCarthy’s former assistant as manager and I feel that if the Molineux club wanted to have the desired affect of changing managers then they should have dispensed with McCarthy in January. The West Midlands club face an inconsistent Fulham side who although are strong at home, I can see this ending in a stalemate – which unfortunately is not quite good enough for Wolves at this stage of the season.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster for the Barclays Premier League. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage of Newcastle United vs Sunderland, Sunday, 11am.

Four’s a crowd for Man City, Roberto Mancini and Carlos Tevez

Guest Writer — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:08:00 GMT

Man City fan Tom Wilkins wonders whether his club need the returning Argentinian at all – this season or next…

It might not have quite been what he had in mind, but this week Carlos Tevez got his wish to return to action for Manchester City. However, having turned his nose up at the opportunity to run out at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Tevez instead had to make do this time with a slightly less glamorous appearance for the reserves against Preston at Carrington.

Although his 45-minute display was goalless, more significantly it represents a return to the forefront of Roberto Mancini’s thoughts. Can he really afford to ignore a striker of Tevez’s quality at such a crunch time of the season?

Carlos Tevez has never been a master of timing, whether openly musing in the press about his impending retirement, or singing the praises of Giggs, Scholes and Ferguson before his return to City. It remains to be seen whether his actions are born out of malice, greed or mere stupidity. True to form, Tevez might just have returned to City at just the wrong time.

City’s Blackburn Rovers walkover last weekend was important for a number of reasons. It represented another three points, another clean sheet and another three goals to add to the spiralling goal difference. But crucially, it was brought about with beautiful symmetry by Manchester City’s three-pronged strike force.

A flash of opportunism from Mario Balotelli’s left foot, a strike of pure technique from Sergio Aguero’s right and a textbook thumping header from Edin Dzeko brought about the most perfect of hat-tricks for Roberto Mancini. Just as the going gets tough, his strikers appear to be getting going.

The club can look back from a safe distance at a sorry January. Bookended by league defeats at Sunderland and Everton, the month had witnessed City exit two cups with home losses to north-west rivals.

But what a difference a month makes: since that grim Tuesday evening on Merseyside City have won five straight games, conceding just one goal and scoring 13. A return to those balmy, early-season days when we didn’t have a care in the world and goals flowed like Sheikh Mansour’s cash.

Throughout the season, Sergio Aguero, alongside David Silva, has been an ever-present delight. While Silva took half a season (OK, maybe less) to find his Premiership feet, Aguero hit the pitch running on his debut against Swansea, scoring two and creating one – as a substitute. City hadn’t seen a debut like Aguero’s since Ali Bernabia brought joy to a club hopelessly floundering in the wrong division.

Since that slick start, Aguero has kicked on and justified not only the hype but also his price tag. Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll continue to wear their pricetags around their necks, yet Aguero spirits around the pitch without a care in the world: he's already contributed a staggering 21 goals and six assists.

Edin Dzeko hasn't had such an easy time of it. After a blistering start to the campaign, including a 'perfect' hat-trick (left foot, right foot, header) against Spurs, Dzeko has occasionally seemed to regress. He's the archetypal confidence player: when things are going well for him and the club, the goals will come, but conversely, his will be one of the first heads to drop when his touch starts to let him down.

Recent goals against Wigan, Fulham and Blackburn will hopefully see Dzeko’s form return to the sparkling heights of August when he was able to waltz past all challenges put in front of him. Dzeko seems to be a well-liked part of the club, and his boyish enthusiasm on scoring is infectious – he’s just the sort of person you want to do well.

The final prong of City's striking trident needs no introduction. Surely no other player in the country can have received more column inches – back-page and front – this year than Mario Balotelli. The Italian may well be the most infuriating player I've ever watched. Balotelli is absurdly comfortable on the ball and couldn’t be more confident of his own abilities.

He's one of a select few players in the league who can change a game from absolutely nothing – a lightning burst of pace or an impossible finish made easy, all the while without any celebration, of course. Unfortunately, his ability to change a game isn’t always for the better and cards of both colours keep coming.

Balotelli’s omission from the Italy squad this week hints at the dilemma facing managers with the young striker. While others lose patience and cast the youngster adrift, Mancini continues to put his faith in Balotelli. Sadly that faith is not always repaid. As the season draws to a close and Mario’s suspensions rack up, it’s probably about time that Balotelli settled down (as much as he can) and translated that potential into ability. On his day, he can be the most fearsome striker in the league; he just needs to make it his day more often.

So what then for Carlos Tevez? Historically, league-winning sides have tended to rotate four strikers over the course of the season, although that implies a system with a front two and Mancini has more often selected a 4-2-3-1 using attacking midfielders like Silva, Samir Nasri, Adam Johnson and Yaya Touré.

As the season progresses, there can really be no other place for Carlos Tevez than fourth place in the pecking order. Injuries, suspensions or a horrific loss of form aside, can Tevez’s reintroduction to the first team really generate anything other than disharmony among the players who have got us this far?

Looking ahead even further and the future for Tevez at Manchester City after the summer looks even bleaker. It’s not just our strikers back home who have been scoring. John Guidetti has been the most prolific of the lot, albeit in the Dutch League: during February he scored hat-tricks in three successive games, and is averaging more than a goal a game for Feyenoord.

It will be fascinating to see whether the teenager, who made his full Sweden debut this week, is given the chance to prove himself in England. They could have their next great striker – and a readymade solution to the Carlos Tevez situation, without having to approach the likes of Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani who are apparently on the club’s radar.

The future looks bright up top for City – both this season and next. Even without the troublesome Argentine, City already have the most fearsome strikeforce in England, if not the whole of Europe. Having said all that, there will be a lot of soul searching to do if Carlos Tevez scores the goal to win Manchester City the Premier League title. Now then, how’s your timing Carlos?

Steve Bruce unable to explain rules of football to six-year-old child

Back of the Net — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:20:00 GMT

The currently unemployed coach got himself in quite a pickle. Back of the Net's John Foster sprays us with his fact hose...

Former Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has proved incapable of explaining the rules of football to Andrew Gould, a six-year-old child, sources were reporting yesterday.

Bruce, who has had a virtually uninterrupted career in the game for over thirty years, apparently struggled to outline even the most basic concepts of the sport, leaving Gould bewildered and close to tears.

“You have to score more goals, right, your team, yeah, which is you and ten other blokes, so eleven, or ladies, if you’re a lady, which you’re not, obviously, plus the substitutes, including the goalie and the substitute goalie if you have one, hang on,” he started.

“There’s eleven of you, right, well not of you, but of your mates, or rather ten of your mates, plus you, and there’s the manager, yeah, who stands on the side and tells you where to kick it, which is into the goal, not your goal but the other goal, and when you kick it into that goal you’ve got one goal.”

Noting Gould's confusion, an increasingly sweaty Bruce tried again.

“Imagine this pencil is John Mensah, and this glass of port is Craig Gordon or sometimes Simon Mignolet. This chunk of brie, here, is offside. Would you like some brie? I’ll just finish it off, then.”

The former Manchester United defender’s stumbling attempts to address the six-year-old continued for close to 20 minutes, and four further glasses of port, until a squirming Gould demanded to be allowed to watch Power Rangers.

Bruce’s former captain at Sunderland, Lorik Cana, told FourFourTwo.com that Bruce had often struggled to communicate with his players at the Stadium of Light.

“During team-talks he’d shout out a lot of abstract nouns, like ‘passion’, and ‘desire’, and ‘sugar’,” Cana recalled.

“Often his mouth would open and close, like a fleshy carp, with no sound coming out. Then he’d poke at a blackboard with a stick, even if nothing was written on it.

“He spent one half-time just reciting the names of Pokemon characters, before bringing on Andy Reid for Lee Cattermole and shouting ‘Charmeleon, I choose you.’”

At the time of writing, Bruce was struggling to explain the plot of Pokemon to his 78-year old mother.

Previous stories:
Wolves appoint man who claims he was McCarthy's assistant
Visiting Joe Cole wows Liverpool squad with French toast
Kenwyne Jones bunks off Stoke training to play football
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

No complaints in Spain over Fernando Torres' international absence

Tim Stannard — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:35:00 GMT

Thanks to the magic of television and the odd newspaper report, it has come to the attention of most Spain fans that Fernando Torres hasn’t exactly been the most prolific of forwards of late.

Indeed, most Chelsea games are broadcast live on Spanish television, so they can see for themselves what a rotten time of it the former Atlético Madrid man is having in England. So rotten, in fact, that a return to the ups, downs and yet more downs of the Vicente Calderón on a salary of tuppence a week would currently be preferable to life at Stamford Bridge.

When Vicente del Bosque announced on Friday that Torres, the player who scored the winning goal in the Euro 2008 final - a strike that launched Spain into its golden age let’s not forget - it was no great surprise. Indeed, anything else might have been seen in Spain as madness, with the campaign to have Valencia’s Roberto Soldado back in the squad after a five year absence steadily building momentum. “I hope I don’t have to wait another five years for a call-up,” joked the chirpy forward, who has racked up 20 goals in all competitions this season.

Despite being a manager who tries to stick to his tried-and-trusted players whenever possible, Vicente Del Bosque admitted that he had no choice but to leave El Niño at home for Wednesday’s friendly in Málaga against Venezuela, a stance that he’s maintained despite Sevilla striker, Alvaro Negredo, pulling out of the squad with a muscle tear.

“It hurts to leave Fernando out, but I can't be unfair and block those who are are pushing through,” explained the Spain coach. Del Bosque received support from his predecessor, Luis Aragonés, who said that “it’s normal that a footballer who doesn’t play and isn’t it form doesn’t get picked.”

If anyone was still in doubt that it wasn’t the right move to make and felt sorry for the Chelsea man, AS helpfully named 18 Spaniards playing top flight football who had scored more goals than Fernando Torres this season before the weekend’s action - a list included Real Madrid fringe player José Callejón, and Sporting’s David Barral.

The absence of David Villa through injury, along with Torres and Negredo, leaves Soldado and Fernando Llorente as the only ‘proper’ strikers in Spain’s squad for the friendly, a situation that might see Del Bosque playing the ‘false nine’ system used to great effect in the Euro 2012 qualifier against Scotland, with David Silva taking up the forward role. However, Llorente has been in such stupendous form of late that the Athletic Bilbao striker might well be given a chance to lead the line in la Rosaleda.

But Torres and the options for the front three weren’t the only topic of conversation at Del Bosque’s pre-match press conference on Tuesday. The other was the complete codpiece of a calamity the Spanish FA have made of setting the date the of Copa del Rey final.

If Barcelona reach the final of the Champions League, then the match is likely to be played on May 25th, a day before a Spain warm-up game when ideally Del Bosque would prefer it if his Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao squad members were focussed on Euro 2012 and not booting lumps out of each other.

“Of course, we’d like more time, but it’s impossible,” said the Spain coach. With Fernando Torres set for a fairly quiet end to the season, perhaps there’s a chance for the misfiring forward to make it to the European Championships after all?

Dutch history at Wembley: Anger, awe, elbows, elimination and expectation

Mohamed Moallim — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:12:00 GMT

When Holland ride into Wembley it will be their seventh visit. It's a stage renowned for controversy and drama, but it's one on which every Dutch footballer wants to play. Previous pilgrimages to the cathedral of football have seen humblings and masterclasses.

Euro 96 Group A, 18 June 1996: England 4-1 Netherlands
The last Dutch visit, 15 years ago, will live long in the English memory. The summer of 1996 was when football came home. Guus Hiddink's side arrived without the injured Frank de Boer but on the cusp of a golden generation, with many players educated at an Ajax side who had reached the last two Champions League finals.

The first sign of their ‘intent’, on behalf of a well-known sportswear firm, was a billboard campaign featuring Patrick Kluivert superimposed on the Dutch tricolour with a simple message to the England boss: 'Venables, Quit Now'.

However, as was to become typical of Oranje get-togethers, the confidence was followed by chaos and drama. Amid reports (decried by Clarence Seedorf as media mischief) of a racial divide in the camp, Edgar Davids decided to air his grievances with Hiddink.

In a radio interview, the man nicknamed ‘The Pitbull’ by Louis van Gaal sank his teeth into the national coach: “Hiddink must take his head out of players’ asses, so he can see better.” Davids was sent home. An integral part of the Dutch midfield, he would be very much missed when the Netherlands faced the home nation.

In a result still celebrated in England, the hosts humiliated Hiddink's side 4-1 beneath the Twin Towers. Described by many as Terry Venables' finest hour, it was Hiddink’s darkest.

“It was a big defeat," said the coach. "I felt isolated. England taught us a lesson in every aspect of the game.” Dennis Bergkamp added that the result haunted him and would only be exorcised if he gained revenge – but his playing path would never again cross with the England team.

Phillip Cocu, now an assistant coach of the Oranje, came on that night as a 72nd-minute substitute. By that point the English onslaught led by Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham had put the hosts 4-0 up. “We have to be really pleased for ourselves,” Venables beamed. "Personally, it's the most satisfying performance of all time, because of the quality of the opposition. This sort of result doesn't happen to Holland very often.”

The reaction back home centered around the Davids affair, as Hiddink was labelled a coach choosing to cut his nose to spite his face. England’s 4-1 victory remains Oranje’s heaviest defeat in tournament football.

USA 94 qualification, 28 April 1993: England 2-2 Netherlands
The English saw that Wembley win as revenge of sorts for what had happened three years previously. Well-placed in chasing qualification for the 1994 World Cup, having won three and drawn one of their opening four fixtures, England took a 2-0 lead after 22 minutes through a brilliant John Barnes free-kick and David Platt's tap-in after Les Ferdinand had hit the post.

Paul Gascoigne was running the game for England, until he was on the receiving end of Dutch captain Jan Wouters' elbow. "It was never my intention to injure Paul," Wouters later insisted. "The injury was so unfortunate for England because for the first 20 minutes Gascoigne was the best player on the field.”

To add insult to Gascoigne's injury, Wouters helped the Dutch halve the deficit 10 minutes before half-time when his sumptuous pass was volleyed home by Inter Milan forward Dennis Bergkamp.

Gascoigne was replaced at half-time and England looked increasingly nervy until with four minutes remaining, Des Walker brought down Marc Overmars in the area. Peter van Vossen needed no second invitation to level the scores.

“We had a little bit of luck at Wembley," reflected Dutch boss Dick Advocaat. "It was a great game, with good football from both sides, and England nearly did enough."

His captain disagreed. “To come back like that was not luck. You have to give credit to the fighting qualities of the team. If we had lost that one, we would have been finished.”

Whether or not teams make their own luck, the result would ultimately prove vital to the Dutch qualifying for the 1994 World Cup – ahead of England, for whom this started a run of five games yielding only one win. “Coming back from 2-0 down in England really kept our hopes alive,” Bergkamp said. "It was a key result.”

Friendly, 23 March 1988: England 2-2 Netherlands
Five years and a month before The Battle of Wouters' Elbow, the teams again shared a 2-2 Wembley draw, this time in a friendly. Aged 25, Ronald Koeman – at the time the Eredivisie's leading scorer with 21 goals – ended up skippering his country for just the third time, but it would be another defender making the headlines.

Tony Adams would have the dubious honour of scoring at both ends, first equalising for the Dutch – converting a Wouters cross – after Gary Lineker had put England in front. John Bosman would give Holland the lead before Adams redeemed himself, heading in a second-half Trevor Steven free-kick to become the only England player to score for both sides.

At full-time the capacity crowd applauded the two sets of players off. This was the appetiser before the main course as three months later they would meet in Frankfurt. One of the notable absentees for Rinus Michels, who had won the European Cup here in 1971, was training in Milan in an ultimately successful bid to get fit for the finals. His name: Marco van Basten.

European Cup Final, 20 May 1992: Barcelona 1-0 Sampdoria
Wembley has always held a romanticism for Dutch players. Johan Cruyff showcased his breathtaking talent as his Ajax dismantled Panathinaikos in the 1971 European Cup final. “Playing at Wembley was something totally special because Wembley has always been different,” the legendary No.14 recalled. Twenty-one years later he would be back to guide FC Barcelona to their first European Cup title.

The image of him stepping over an advertising hoarding after his comptriot Ronald Koeman struck his free-kick is just as potent in the minds of Cules everywhere as the goal itself. “That win at Wembley is part of the fabric of Barcelona today,” Koeman reminisced.

In one of his post-match press conferences Cruyff would utter the phrase ‘en un moment dado’ [at a given moment]. The phrase never existed – he would often literally translate terms from Dutch into Spanish – but it has now entered the Spanish lexicon.

European Cup Final, 2 June 1971: Ajax 2-0 Panathinaikos
Cruyff's first European Cup success at Wembley was achieved without the one player who could challenge him for the title of the true Total Footballer: Ruud Krol. The left-back broke his leg in a league game against NEC, just before the European Cup semi-final against Atlético Madrid and the domestic Cup final against Sparta Rotterdam.

It was the lowest point in his career. As a result it robbed him of the opportunity of playing at the venue for his club. “Nowhere in the world is a venue noisier than Wembley,” he recollected. “And I was there, among the players, but they got to play and I could only watch. It was the hardest moment of my career. That feeling then and there, the sound, the excitement, that’s why you play football.”

Ajax would beat Ferenc Puskás's Greek champions 2-0. Once referee Jack Taylor brought the game to a close, a sea of Dutch fans ran onto the pitch to celebrate with their heroes. “Wembley has never seen scenes like this,” Kenneth Wolstenholme declared.

Friendlies, 14 January 1970: England 0-0 Netherlands
Krol made his international debut against England at the age of 20, in November 1969 in Amsterdam; the Dutch lost by a single goal. However he made amends in the reverse fixture two months later at Wembley, England's first game of the 1970s. It ended goalless, but after an imperious defensive display Francis Lee called Krol the finest left-back he'd ever faced.

Friendly, 9 February 1977: England 0-2 Netherlands
It would be seven years before Krol and ‘clockwork Oranje’ would return to North London, under new boss Jan Zwartkruis. In only his third game in charge, the former Dutch military XI coach would deliver Holland’s first win anywhere against England.

Roughly midway between two World Cup final appearances, a star-studded side that included Willy van de Kerkhof, Johan Neeskens, Johnny Rep, Rob Rensenbrink and Johan Cruyff were overshadowed by Jan Peters; having won 10 caps without a goal, the NEC midfielder scored a brace in a famous 2-0 victory.

England boss Don Revie was left in awe. “Holland were magnificent, the best international performance at Wembley since the Hungarians in 1953. They taught us a lesson. They showed us tonight how far we've got to go.”

Friendly, 25 May 1982: England 2-0 Netherlands
Five years later in May 1982, England would reverse the score in Krol’s last appearance at the stadium and his penultimate game for Oranje, Tony Woodcock and Paul Mariner condemning Kees Rijvers’ men.

Two of current Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk’s former AZ teammates, Hugo Hovenkamp and Kees Kist, played in the only Dutch triumph at Wembley. Hovenkamp is one of three Dutch internationals to make their debuts at the stadium (the other two are Peter Boeve in 1982 and Adick Koot in 1988).

Van Marwijk could add to that select group on Wednesday night: he has given debut call-ups to Ola John and Luciano Narsingh. But the coach may not think this is the time for experimentation: without a win in his last three matches the game takes on added significance.

With the European Championship a few months away, there’s an opportunity for the Dutch to record their second win at the home of football, but in the wider picture a chance to send a signal of intent as the clock ticks down to Poland and Ukraine.

Bale needs to shelve quest for freedom, for the good of Spurs

James Maw — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:48:00 GMT

It’s just over 16 months since Gareth Bale’s Champions League hat-trick in the San Siro propelled him head-first into the continental consciousness.

In a way, he has since been burdened by the perhaps inflated praise heaped on him in the days following that performance. The hyperbole spouted by others is used as a stick to beat him with. One national newspaper continually sarcastically refers to him as ‘the World’s Greatest’ on Twitter, while suggestions he shares some of the same attributes as Cristiano Ronaldo are routinely mocked, with some saying he possesses little more than sheer pace.

Comparisons to the Real Madrid star – widely regarded as the second best player in the world – may seem fanciful, but there can be no doubting Bale has a skillset wide enough to make him one of the very best, should he continue to develop.

Indeed, statistics compiled at the start of this month showed that Bale had scored more goals, provided more assists, attempted more passes and made more tackles in his first 99 Premier League matches than the Portuguese had done in his.

The vast majority of those first 99 matches saw Bale play on the left, be it as an overlapping full-back or an out-and-out winger. And that, by a long chalk, is where Bale has been at his best.

Inter right-back Douglas Maicon probably still spends his evenings sat alone in the dark rocking back and forth mumbling ‘taxi’, such was the relentless harassment he received from Bale against the Londoners in the autumn of 2010.

In the second meeting in particular, Bale was unstoppable. Despite the not unsubstantial warning of a hat-trick at the San Siro, Inter seemed unable to stop the Welshman rampaging down their right flank. His pace, power, control and vision out wide created two goals and inspired Spurs to a famous win which went a long way to seeing the Londoners finish top of Group A.

But Bale recently revealed he was concerned at being frozen out of matches as a result of being doubled-marked if he continued to hug the touch-line, and instead wanted the freedom to drift inside.

"Being stuck outside is not good all the time," he explained. "You need to mix your game up and give the opposition things to think about. If I'm not getting the ball, I'm not helping the team. I want to be involved, get as much of the ball as I can, so that's why I've had to go inside to be a positive influence on the game."

The early signs were good. Following Tottenham’s impressive 2-0 victory at Norwich in December – in which Bale and Rafael van der Vaart both played in more central ‘free roles’ behind Emmanuel Adebayor – there was much talk of how the Welshman had finally found the freedom he needed to really express himself on the pitch. The fact he scored both goals, the second a powerful run from the halfway line, only set the tongue-wagging into overdrive.

Those comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo once again reared their head, this time relating more specifically to the Real Madrid man’s transformation from wing-wizard to net-bothering leading man.

But while it's encouraging that a young player should be so determined to develop his game, could it be said that this mindset is selfish? Is this desire to take the game by the scruff of the neck currently to the detriment of Tottenham as a whole? Maximising the team's performance should surely come before that of any individual. And after all, if the opposition double-up on Bale, his team-mates – the likes of Van der Vaart, Luka Modric and Aaron Lennon – should be able to find more space in other areas of the pitch.

In Sunday’s defeat at Arsenal, Bale looked a shadow of the player who over the past two years has so often terrorised defences. In the first half played on the left of a midfield four, drifting inside when the mood struck. In the second half, he was shifted to the right as an inverted winger, continuing to attempt to cut infield.

The below Stats Zone diagrams show that, although the free-roaming Bale received the ball more often on Sunday than he did in the reverse fixture at White Hart Lane in October, he created three fewer chances than he did when focusing on attacking from a wide left position in the home fixture. In fact, the two chances he did create in the more recent match were from wide on the left.

Of course, the level of performance of Bale’s team-mates and opponents must also be taken into consideration when making these kind of comparisons, but this is not an isolated incident. The fact he struggled to make an impact when playing in a more central role in the recent FA Cup tie away to League One Stevenage should perhaps have been a warning that straying from the norm against a side battling for a top-four spot in the Premier League was an unwise move.

And it’s not just Bale himself that suffers. Left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto, unsurprisingly, doesn’t get anywhere near the same degree of protection when Bale goes walkabout as he does when the former Southampton man focuses on attempting to get round the outside of the opposition right -back. The Cameroonian is also left bereft of options when it comes to distribution and bursting into the opponent’s half. The below diagram shows how he not only completed far fewer passes in Sunday’s defeat than in that match against Inter, but also that his forays forward were far more irregular.

Harry Redknapp will naturally be keen to keep Bale sweet, and giving him his desired freedom on the pitch may be a good way to do that. But he’ll need to be watchful that this doesn’t come at the expense of the fluidity and cutting-edge of his team, and recent evidence suggests that Spurs are at their best when playing a 4-4-1-1 system, with Bale wide left, Aaron Lennon wide right and Van der Vaart playing off Adebayor.

While there are signs England’s manager-in-waiting is eager to show he isn’t the tactical dinosaur his detractors paint him as, this is not the time to experiment. With a massive few months coming up for player, manager and club, sticking to the tried and tested for the time being looks the safest bet for all parties.

Over to you: Inaccurate Van Persie, invisible Blackburn, indomitable Norwich

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:02:00 GMT

FourFourTwo's Opta-powered Stats Zone app is designed to help you prove your point and share your findings. When we get time, we like a trawl through the screenshares, and here's some of the best from this weekend...

Firstly, Arsenal v Tottenham watcher Dyl O'Neill pointed out that Robin Van Persie only had one shot on target during the entire 90 minutes. It worked, though.

Watching the same match, Jaesung noted that Yossi Benayoun completed all of his 14 passes in the final third.

The trip to Manchester City didn't produce a great day for Blackburn's passing statistics: 11 City players completed more passes than Blackburn's top man Morten Gamst Pedersen – including, as Chris Prior notes, David Pizarro, who was only on for the last 25 minutes.

Warming to his theme, Chris Prior also notes that James Milner completed more passes in his eight-minute substitute cameo than Scott Dann did in the whole game.

As Swansea City Blog notes with a mixtures of pride and regret, Swansea City had almost 74% of possession at Stoke but could only muster three shots on target.

Also proud in defeat was committed Canary Luke Bell, who noted (among other things) that Manchester United were forced into 14 more defensive clearances than Norwich.

What will you discover this weekend?

FEATURE Mon 27 Feb Premier Analysis: How Spurs handed Arsenal the game
FEATURE Mon 27 Feb Pub Ammo: Yaya v Blackburn, AVB's best yet and the man who can't score

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Fear, loathing and football: Explaining a peculiarly turbulent season

Paul Simpson — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:53:00 GMT

Bobby Kennedy once famously suggested that “One fifth of the people are against everything all of the time”. Anybody who has followed this peculiarly turbulent English football season might feel Kennedy was understating his case. There has always been an undercurrent of fear and loathing in football, but in 2011/12 they have been the season’s defining emotions.

The most significant events – the Luis Suarez case, the shocking suicide of Gary Speed, the Carlos Tevez saga, the collapse of Rangers – have made ugly headlines as the beautiful game becomes an industrialised melodrama in which a monstrous regiment of Sky Sports News reporters are permanently stationed outside British football grounds in the apparent belief – all too often sadly justified – that if they stand there clutching their microphones for long enough, something – some event, micro-event, or rumour of an imminent micro-event – will happen.

The big scandals have been relentlessly, even recklessly, hyped up by the media so that a season graced by some remarkable games – United 8-2 Arsenal, United 1-6 City and Arsenal 5-2 Spurs – may end up being defined, in the history books, by the absence of a handshake.

Except for me, the defining image of the season so far is the hatred on the faces of Blackburn fans as they taunted their manager Steve Kean this winter, a scene almost as disturbing as the hellish visions of the Dutch Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch and football’s most agonising contribution to the car crash TV genre.

This truly is a golden age for T-shirt printers...

The frustration is understandable. It can’t be easy being coached by a man who looks (and some would say manages) like one of Peter Kay’s sidekicks in Max And Paddy’s Road To Nowhere or having your new owners damningly referred to in the media as “Indian chicken farmers”. It’s odd the way the media invariably uses that exact description as if they would be slightly less reprehensible if they were merely Indian or chicken farmers but the fact that they are both puts them mysteriously beyond the pale.

But the ferocity is troubling. Relegation – and I say this as a Leicester City fan – used to be viewed, rather as sitcom burglar Norman Stanley Fletcher regarded arrest, as an occupational hazard. Not any more. Mind you, at the other end of the Premier League table, the mere prospect of a season without UEFA Champions League football has inspired more fear and loathing at Arsenal and Chelsea than Hunter S. Thompson found in Las Vegas or on the campaign trail.

In the first half of the North London derby, the kindest thing any Arsenal fan said to Theo Walcott was “Get him off!” The promising, but frustratingly inconsistent winger had become a potent symbol of everything some fans resented about Arsene Wenger’s management. The harassment got so intense that any remark to Walcott that didn’t contain an expletive must have struck the player as a compliment. No wonder he celebrated his goals with such joy.

Meanwhile in west London, the Andre Villas-Boas project has entered treacherous waters. Every team selection or substitution is analysed for evidence of incompetence. Chelsea’s travails illustrate perfectly how fatuous the British media’s football coverage has become. When AVB arrived in the summer, the media unanimously agreed that his major task was to rejuvenate an ageing, underperforming squad. Six months later, he is being crucified for – yep – trying to rejuvenate an ageing, underperforming squad.

We don't know enough about Doctor Who to make a pun here. Sorry.

Building a new team is, like the regeneration of Dr Who, an uncertain process: you never know whether you’re going to end up with David Tennant or Sylvester McCoy. And so far, the new Chelsea have been more McCoy than Tennant. Yet they played their most fluent football of 2011/12 when they demolished Valencia in December when Frank Lampard was on the bench and Didier Drogba looked bothered.

From the outside, it is hard to say unequivocally whether AVB is the right man for the job – or whether his critics in the squad are justified. But the situation is surely more complex than the media would suggest. Most Chelsea fans I speak to revere Lampard but admit to reservations about his current game. A few have wondered what has happened to Ashley Cole’s sat nav. As great as Cole has been, some supporters feel John Terry has been blamed for not filling space created by Cole’s inconsistent positioning.

What Arsenal, Blackburn and Chelsea have in common is a feeling among supporters that they have no control. I wonder, harking back to Bobby Kennedy, whether that lack of control has become more painful because of the economic turmoil we are living through. Through little fault of our own, all of us are living with a degree of uncertainty about our everyday lives we find it hard to handle. Our lack of control is mirrored at international summits where even the politicians, who can normally be relied upon to fudge their way out of a massive crisis, have often looked at a loss. No wonder so many of us are against everything all of the time.

The cliché is that football reflects society. If that is true, David Cameron ought to be very worried.

The Pep talk that aroused a nation

Tim Stannard — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:28:00 GMT

Should the great leaders at FourFourTwo ever grow tired of LLL’s showbiz demands and cut the blog loose, starvation and playing the accordion badly in the Madrid metro awaits. LLL certainly isn’t going to find work in the Spanish media, as it doesn’t seem to quite get how it works.

The blog was just a few metres away from Pep Guardiola on Sunday night in the Vicente Calderón press room when the Barça boss admitted that “we aren’t going to win the league. We will compete until the end, we aren’t going to give up, nor we will stop being who we are on the pitch, but I don’t think we will win the league.”

"Refreshingly honest and sensible," thought a very British blog on the Barça boss accepting that the 10-point gap probably won’t be closed because of Madrid’s canny ability to pick up points due to the side’s indomitable spirit and determination (or constant help from the referees in a giant global conspiracy, depending on your affiliation).

Apparently LLL got the wrong end of Pep’s stick completely. According to the Barça media, Guardiola was being ironic, joking, conducting a savage attack on refereeing bias and boosting his team’s morale, all at the same time. It's nothing whatsoever to do with the Barcelona manager going nuts and actually saying what he actually thinks.

"What have I said now?"

“He’s seen things that he doesn’t like in this championship, above all the inertia that surrounds Madrid: penalties, sendings off, goals incorrectly ruled out for their rivals, goals given to Madrid that shouldn’t have been. This makes him think that Mourinho’s men will win the title almost by ‘decree’,” claimed Monday’s edition of Sport.

Mundo Deportivo reckons that Guardiola’s confession was too-many-spoons, not-enough-knives ironic, a theory discussed by one of the club’s directors on Monday. For Carles Vilarrubí, Pep was displaying “intelligent irony. He was saying that our footballers have to play excellently because the Liga BBVA is not giving objective nor normal conditions so that the best team can win.” “I don’t want to say that we are complaining about referees,” added the Barcelona VP.

LLL is therefore assuming that Vilarrubí is arguing that those meanie-heads Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao, Getafe, Espanyol, Villarreal and Osasuna are the ones to blame for the lack of “objective and normal conditions” in la Liga by not allowing Barcelona to trot off with three points in their clashes with the Catalan club this season.

AS editor Alfredo Relaño fumes in an editorial on Tuesday that "I really like Guardiola's manner much more [than Mourinho] but quite frankly I'd appreciate knowing, if he wants to say something, that he is really saying it. At least in this sense, Mourinho has an advantage over Guardiola."

With football punditry in Spain now largely consisting of propaganda, spin, Kremlinology, interpretation, reinterpretation, misinterpretation, making stuff up and mad ranting, it’s quite possibly another reason why Guardiola is taking such a long time to consider whether or not he can face another season of this madness when one simple comment is torn apart and reconstructed a billion different ways.

Good Day, Bad Day: Rampant Ramos, a bad mood in Mestalla and Levante live!

Tim Stannard — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:44:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat 25 Feb Racing Santander 1-1 Sporting Gijón; Real Betis 1-1 Getafe; Málaga 5-1 Real Zaragoza; Espanyol 1-2 Levante Sun 26 Feb Villarreal 2-2 Athletic Club; Rayo Vallecano 0-1 Real Madrid; Valencia 1-2 Sevilla; Osasuna 2-1 Granada; Real Sociedad 1-0 Mallorca; Atlético Madrid 1-2 Barcelona

GOOD DAY

Sergio Ramos
The Madrid defender should have been sent off for an elbow on Diego Costa. But Ramos wasn’t, so instead the centre-back was able to almost single-handedly deal with every ball thrown into the Real Madrid box on Sunday (and there were a lot of them). Ramos probably hasn’t had this much fun since... er... can’t say that... or that... or that. Oh.

Cristiano Ronaldo
LLL once scored a back-heeled goal in a five-a-side match, so, you know, a bit of perspective please.

Leo Messi
An opportune free-kick from little Leo gave Barça three points against Atlético Madrid, and although a fifth yellow card means the Argentinian misses next week’s visit of Sporting, it's probably a good game to sit out. “Everyone is asking for Messi to be rested: he’ll be resting next week with Pepe,” noted Guardiola on a suspension that the Madrid defender also has to endure.

Levante
The visitors were a tad jammy at Espanyol with a late deflected effort from Rubén Suaréz gaining the victory, but it was the side’s first win since December 10th – nine games ago – and inevitably, it returned Levante to fourth, where they have squatted for what seems like much of the season.

Fernando Llorente
A headed effort – of course – against Villarreal on the forward’s birthday gave Llorente his 13th league goal of the season and surely Spain’s No.9 shirt on Wednesday, in the absence of David Villa, Fernando Torres and the injured Alvaro Negredo.

Málaga
For a couple of hours before Levante’s win at Espanyol, Málaga were in the Champions League places. That in itself was an eyebrow-raising surprise considering Málaga’s consistent inconsistency this season. The 5-1 scoreline over Zaragoza, which was mainly due to a late glut of goals after the opposition had given up, continued a tidy series of results which reads LWLWLW.

Andrés Fernandez
A solid match for the Osasuna goalkeeper gave the home side a 2-1 win against Granada and moved the Pamplona club into seventh, one point from the Champions League places.

Jesús Navas
After some disgruntled murmurs when the Sevilla midfielder was called up to the Spain squad to face Venezuela on Wednesday, Navas answered his critics – LLL can’t believe it just wrote that cliché, but then again it can – with a goal and an assist in the 2-1 win at Valencia. A very handy return to form under Míchel.

Rayo Vallecano
LLL is still a bit giddy from this encounter. Not because there was anything especially brilliant about it as a match – neutrals watching at home may have switched off in the first half – but because it was, for once, a passionate, proper contest against Real Madrid rather than the monotonous processions that have largely been the theme at the Santiago Bernabeu this season.

A big thank-you for this uncomfortably happy sensation goes to an attacking approach from the home team and the Rayo fans who sang their cotton socks off for 90 minutes – an effort that earned applause from Jose Mourinho as he walked off at the end.

Betis
The sheer number of teams in the Good Day section this week suggests that a happy LLL is not quite feeling itself, but hey-ho. Betis find themselves there despite a 1-1 draw at home to Getafe that Pepe Mel says was a little unfair. “In the overall count, we deserved to win – but this isn’t boxing, but football,” observed the Betis boss with unflinching accuracy. But then Mel looked on the much brighter side: “We have 30 points and are playing good football.”

Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao
Sharing a feisty 2-2 draw, both teams contributed to the rarest of matches in Spain: a Sunday midday kick-off that was actually pretty good.

Racing, Sporting
The old cliché is true: the 1-1 draw did neither of these sides in the relegation zone any good. But there are positives to be taken for both teams. Sporting are still unbeaten in the two matches under Javier Clemente. Under their terrific trio of coaching staff, Racing have still only lost two matches in the last 11 games – one of those being at the Santiago Bernabeu. However, too many draws sees Racing still in big trouble.

BAD DAY

Valencia
A home defeat; just the one win in eight in la Liga; only five points ahead of Levante and 14 behind Barcelona. You bet your bottom that Valencia fans were not happy after Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Sevilla, no matter what the side did against Stoke in the Europa League.

Espanyol
"Grrrrrr! Thump! Thump! Thump!” That’s the sound of Paul from Barcelona grinding his teeth to dust and kicking himself – and maybe Espanyol’s players – after a home defeat against Levante and a missed chance to maintain a Champions League spot.

“Still wondering six hours later how Espanyol didn't win. There are some days the ball just won't go in. Eagle-eyed readers will recall this from a fortnight ago, but nothing has changed: Espanyol lost a match against a bunch of thugs whom they had totally dominated.

"You know things aren't going your way when the worst player you've had in last five years (Valdo) scores against you and the ref allows attempted leg-breaking tackles. Regular readers will know how much I hate feigning injury as a tactic, and the night before the Oscars, Levante must have thought they were up for a statue. Horrible, horrible team and a jammy deflected free kick to win as well.”

Atlético Madrid
A first defeat under Diego Simeone, but no disgrace considering the opposition. The current Atlético side is primarily built not to lose, and tactic is clearly working well. But a pattern is developing, with the side playing more defensive first halves and then opening up in the second. Indeed, Atlético were only a few great Víctor Valdés saves away from picking up a point against Barça late on Sunday night.

The match also showed what an immense home support the Vicente Calderón club has when it’s in the right mood – aside from the despicable Ultras, who sang “Alves, you’re a monkey” when the Real defender was substituted.

Zaragoza
The bottom-dwellers were doing reasonably well on Saturday, having taken the lead against Málaga. But the visitors eventually gave up and crashed to a 5-1 defeat after some immensely sloppy defending in the final 20 minutes of the game. It was enough to send coach Manolo Jiménez storming out of the press room after a brief appearance, suggesting his footballers learn to play for 90 minutes and that he felt “ashamed".

Premier pub ammo: Yaya v Rovers, AVB's best game yet and the man who can't score

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:51:00 GMT

Astound your friends and enemies with the help of the Stats Zone app from FourFourTwo and Opta. (All "best" stats refer to Premier League matches this season unless otherwise stated.)

Manchester City v Blackburn
City had 78.5% possession in this match, the highest Premier League possession rate since Liverpool against Birmingham in November 2009. Yaya Touré made the most passes in the PL this weekend (103), completing 101; the entire Blackburn team completed 147 passes.

Aleksandar Kolarov assisted two goals & created four more goalscoring chances; Mario Balotelli also set up six chances (joint-most in this weekend's PL games) and completed 33 of his 38 passes.

Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham have lost more games (8) after being two or more goals ahead than any other team in Premier League history. Arsenal have recovered 13 points from losing positions this season, second only by Wolves (14). Only David Silva (12) has more assists than Emmanuel Adebayor (11). Spurs had four shots on target in the first half, but just one in the second.

Stoke City v Swansea
Swansea’s first shot on target didn’t come until the 77th minute.

Chelsea v Bolton Wanderers
Chelsea had more shots on target (13) and more corners (14) against Bolton than they have managed in any other league game this term. Frank Lampard's goal means he has reached double figures in nine different Premier League seasons, a number topped only by Alan Shearer (11).

Newcastle United v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Papiss Cisse has scored in both of his two home Premier League games, but it wasn't a surprise that Newcastle couldn't hold on: Wolves have won more points (14) from losing positions than any other Premier League team. Mind you, no team has been behind more often: Wolves have been losing in 22 of their 26 league games.

Queens Park Rangers v Fulham
QPR could set a new record: all five of QPR’s red cards this season have been at Loftus Road, and no club has ever had more than five home expulsions in a single Premier League campaign. Before being dismissed, Samba Diakité made the most fouls in the PL this weekend (6). All of QPR’s shots on target came from outside the box. Adel Taarabt attempted a weekend-high six shots – he's now had 41 shots in the league this season without finding the back of the net.

West Bromwich Albion v Sunderland
Sunderland conceded more than two goals in a league game for the first time this season. West Brom scored early again: 21% of their goals this season have come in the opening 15 minutes, the biggest proportion in the Premier League.

Wigan Athletic v Aston Villa
The Latics managed only their second clean sheet in their last 23 Premier League games. Jean Beausejour's 20 crosses included 11 corners but also nine from open play, none of which found their target.

Norwich City v Manchester United
Michael Carrick made 101 passes, of which 88 were successful. Norwich had 16 shots to Man United’s 11, but the visitors got 7 on target to the hosts' 5. Only Norwich have scored more headed goals (14) than Man United (12) this season. Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs scored in the same Premier League game for the first time since February 4th, 2007 against Spurs.

FEATURE Mon 27 Feb Premier Analysis: How Spurs handed Arsenal the game

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Wolves appoint man who claims he was McCarthy’s assistant

Back of the Net — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:39:00 GMT

His team may have fought back to draw at Newcastle on Saturday, but there's still mystery surrounding Wolves' new boss Terry Connor. Back of the Net's John Foster investigates...

Wolverhampton Wanderers have chosen as their new boss a 49-year-old man, Terry Connor, who claims to have until recently been Mick McCarthy’s assistant at the struggling Midlands club.

The appointment comes as something of a surprise, given Wolves’ initial statement that McCarthy’s successor should be a manager with a track record of doing well with struggling teams, with Premier League pedigree, and who people had heard of.

But instead Connor was offered the role after Wolves were reportedly rejected by Alan Curbishley, Brian McDermott, Gus Poyet, Walter Smith, Steve Bruce, Neil Warnock, and Diego Maradona, who called the situation at Molineux “unbefitting of a serious manager”.

“We were starting to wonder if we’d done the right thing in letting go of Mick,” admitted club chief executive Jez Moxey. “But fortunately Terence [Connor] got in touch with us, reminding us that he was Mick’s assistant and was therefore the obvious choice.”

“Until he mentioned it, none of us thought that Mick had even had an assistant”, admitted Moxey.

“But Terry was quite insistent, so we’ve given him the benefit of the doubt. I suppose it’s like the old saying goes: the best assistants are the ones you don’t take any notice of.”

Reports suggest that Connor has varied his story within the Wolves dressing room, telling Nenad Milijas that he had managed for several years in Scandinavia, while successfully persuading Steven Fletcher that he was ex-Real Madrid prompter Fernando Redondo, allegedly affecting an exaggerated Spanish accent in the forward’s presence.

Supporters’ club spokesperson Martha McVie has welcomed Connor’s arrival, however.

“Many bosses these days mouth off at the slightest provocation”, she said. “But Terry Connor’s the quiet type who gets on with the job, keeps his head down, and lets others do the talking for him.

“At least, I assume he does. To be completely honest, I’ve no idea who he is.”

Previous stories:
Visiting Joe Cole wows Liverpool squad with French toast
Kenwyne Jones bunks off Stoke training to play football
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

Heroes & Villains: Man Utd's Teletext scorers & Redknapp's jerking knee

Mark Booth — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:15:00 GMT

RESULTS (click team name for web-wide club news feed) Sat 25 Feb Chelsea 3-0 Bolton, Newcastle 2-2 Wolves, QPR 0-1 Fulham, West Brom 4-0 Sunderland, Wigan 0-0 Aston Villa, Man City 3-0 Blackburn Sun 26 Feb Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham, Norwich 1-2 Man Utd, Stoke 2-0 Swansea

Heroes

Arsene Wenger
At 2-0 down it felt like the North London derby was turning into a watershed moment in the 15-year Arsene Wenger regime. It was hard to imagine a team so frequently criticised for a lack of grit finding a way back against high-flying Tottenham, until quickfire goals from Bacary Sagna and Robin Van Persie hauled them back into the game just before the break. A real test of character for Wenger’s charges, especially after disappointing results at Milan and Sunderland, but in the end it was a test they passed with ease.
As well as the Dutchman played, for once this wasn't just the Robin Van Persie show. Tomas Rosicky and Yossi Benayoun turned in hugely impressive performances setting the emotional tone for Arsenal by constantly pestering and pressing Tottenham's defence which couldn't cope with their industry. Theo Walcott recovered from a poor first half and rediscovered his clinical streak to fire the goals that added the gloss to Arsenal's best 60 minutes of the season, leaving their manager to look up the table for the first time in months.
"People will see now that Arsenal are alive more than anyone thought before the game," said Wenger after the match, "The performance today showed spirit. From the technical side, and with the drive of the whole team and style that we want to play, everything was perfect despite a very bad start."

Chelsea
Another team putting Champions League disappointment behind them was Chelsea, who brought the feel-good factor back to Stamford Bridge with a convincing 3-0 win over beleaguered Bolton. Roman Abramovic was watching on, looking sunnier than he's done in recent times, which will have been a pleasing sight for Andre Villas-Boas, who knew nothing less than a comfortable win would do after their spirit-sapping 3-1 defeat in Naples. With their £50m striker on the bench and Drogba set to leave in the summer, perhaps the answer to the striker crisis could be David Luiz who looks more comfortable in the opposition penalty box than his own.

Ryan Giggs
What on earth are they going to do when he retires? Uncertain times may lie ahead for Manchester United but the immediate future looks rosy after ticking off another awkward assignment on their quest to run down City. You could have gone on Teletext in 1995 to see Scholes and Giggs’ names in the scorers column and given the last minute nature of this win, there was something cosily nostalgic about it. 900 appearances and counting for the Welshman and there’s no sign of him slowing down any time soon.
On the day he does retire, Sir Alex would do well to do the same, this man is irreplaceable. "To play 900 games for this club, who I've grown up supporting, is special - it's a great day for me,” said Giggs, “I am sure there will be more twists and turns in the title race and I expect more drama and late goals."

West Brom
The Baggies 4-0 win over Sunderland was the surprise result of the weekend as Hodgson's men picked up their first three points at the Hawthorns since January. Sunderland possess one of the division's best away records and would have fancied their chances of recording a sixth away win in seven games on Saturday against a team who had managed just nine goals at home all season. It wasn't to be though as Peter Odemwingie continued his impressive recent form, helping himself to another brace.
Even sterner tests await for Hodgson though: "Our home form has been poor and it was a much-needed win. We mustn't rest on our laurels - we've got Chelsea next."

Terry Connor
Mick McCarthy is far from a bad manager, but there was a feeling that things had turned stagnant at Molineux and sometimes a new voice is needed in a dressing room – preferably one without a thick Yorkshire drawl. Terry Connor was given 13 games to save Wolves and McCarthy’s former assistant got off to a great start with a hard-earned point at Newcastle.
At half time Connor got his side in 2-0 down but that new voice seemed to have the desired effect as they reappeared for the second period transformed and got their reward through goals from Doyle and Jarvis. A pleasing day’s work for Connor who we’ll forgive for the “we’ve got 12 cup finals” cliché he dusted off afterwards.

Villains

Harry Redknapp
Knee-jerking is a particularly unattractive trait for a potential England manager but it was one showcased in Harry’s half-time substitutions at the Emirates on Sunday. Tottenham had more than a foot-hold in the first half of the North London derby, and could perhaps consider themselves unlucky to be pegged back to 2-2 having lead 2-0. Yet, while it appeared there was a need to arrest control of the midfield, with the 4-4-2 system Redknapp had surprisingly adopted failing to quell the attacking threat of the Gunners, the changes made at the break appeared to weaken Spurs further.
On came Sandro and Rafael Van der Vaart - the latter particularly famed for his lack of tactical discipline - as Redknapp curiously shifted Gareth Bale right, the Dutchman left and left the natural width and searing pace of Aaron Lennon on the bench.
The manager pointed to defensive mistakes in his post-match interview, but the collapse that saw them ship three second half goals originated in the midfield where they were overrun for the entire half. In scenes reminiscent of Spurs’ 5-1 defeat to Manchester City, they simply failed to cope with the shift in the game’s momentum. Where Spurs had been understrength in that early season humbling against the league leaders, this was Tottenham’s first-choice XI and after such a bright start, the heaviness of this defeat will be difficult to bounce back from – especially as Manchester United await next week.

Blackburn Rovers
Manchester City’s David Pizarro came on as a substitute in the 71st minute and made 28 passes, which is more than ten of Blackburn’s players managed. Sometimes statistics do tell the whole story. Steve Kean isn’t the first manager to plonk ten of his eleven players in front of the goal at the Etihad Stadium this season and though all have failed, most have left their reputations still intact. Blackburn have been on a decent run and on their last trip to Manchester their fearless counter-attacking display earned that rarest of things - an away win at Old Trafford.
On Saturday it was a different approach from Kean’s men, if you could call it an approach at all. This was one of the poorest top flight performances in recent memory as Blackburn barely put a tackle in for 90 long arduous minutes and at times City resembled a malicious cat, playing with innards of a particularly feeble mouse. It took 92 minutes for Blackburn to force a save from Joe Hart and that was the tamest of strikes from Yakubu, who was given no help whatsoever from his teammates.
Steve Kean might need that new bodyguard of his if he comes within spitting distance of Sir Alex Ferguson any time soon.

Mark Hughes
What is it about Mark Hughes and handshakes? Sparky made Martin Jol the fourth Premier League manager he’s fallen out with over these post-match acts of courtesy and this one was particularly odd. Hughes appeared to bat away the Dutchman’s hand and later cited the Fulham bosses attempts to pat his head to explain his refusal to shake his hand. Jol joins the illustrious company of Roberto Mancini, Tony Pulis and Arsene Wenger on Sparky’s hit-list. Premier League managers beware, without a Premier League win since 21st January, Hughes is in no mood for pleasantries.

Swansea City
Swansea have deservedly won all manner of plaudits for their expectation-defying start to life in the top flight but they failed the acid test of a trip to the Britannia Stadium at the first time of asking. Swansea aren’t the first team to take an aesthetically pleasing style of football to Stoke City and leave empty handed but their away form has been disappointing all season. They’ve picked up just nine points on the road and this was a particularly depressing encounter.
Michel Vorm’s late failed fitness test proved decisive as his replacement Gerhard Tremmel seemed to struggle to cope with the Potters’ physicality from long throws and crosses as Stoke’s soft second goal proved. As introductions to Premier League life go, this was a particularly bruising one for Tremmel and the Swans will hope to welcome back one of the league’s best keepers in Vorm for their trip to the DW Stadium next week.

Kevin Friend
Masochism, good housekeeping or a dark sense of humour? Whatever it was that possessed Kevin Friend to add 11 minutes of injury time to Wigan Athletic vs Aston Villa at the DW Stadium, it certainly wasn't welcomed by the 20,601 people who attended this cure to insomnia. The Villa fans who managed to stay awake greeted the final whistles with boos for Alex McLeish who celebrated just three Aston Villa goals in the whole of February.

Premier Analysis: How Spurs handed Arsenal the game

Nick Govier — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:14:00 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

RESULTS (click team name for web-wide club news feed) Sat 25 Feb Chelsea 3-0 Bolton Wanderers; Newcastle United 2-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers; Queens Park Rangers 0-1 Fulham; West Bromwich Albion 4-0 Sunderland; Wigan Athletic 0-0 Aston Villa; Manchester City 3-0 Blackburn Rovers Sun 26 Feb Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham Hotspur; Norwich City 1-2 Manchester United; Stoke City 2-0 Swansea City

It was a weekend for emphatic victories in the Premier League, with four of the nine matches won by a margin of three or more goals.

Perhaps the most dominant performance came from Manchester City as they brushed aside Blackburn Rovers with ease. The home side were a constant threat to Paul Robinson's goal, mustering 28 shots to their opponents' five – and four of those Blackburn shots were blocked, making Rovers only the second side this season (after Swansea at Everton) to register just one unblocked shot.

Nearly every statistic at the Etihad was heavily skewed in the home side's favour: their 692 completed passes (and a 93% pass completion rate) accounted for 78% of the possession, helped in no small part by the return of Yaya Toure in midfield. He matched Nigel De Jong in only misplacing two passes, as the pair completed 198 of 202 attempted passes.

The largest margin of victory came at the Hawthorns, where Martin O'Neill's rejuvenated Sunderland suffered their first major setback at the hands of West Brom. The four-goal margin of victory didn't flatter the home side, who had 20 efforts on goal and got half on target. A sizeable proportion of the home side's chances came down the left wing, where Jerome Thomas and Liam Ridgewell caused Phil Bardsley no end of problems all game.

That result may have been surprising, but that was nothing compared to the demolition derby at the Emirates on Sunday as Arsenal crushed Tottenham 5-2. At half-time with the game poised at 2-2, Harry Redknapp made sweeping changes to his side which only succeeded in handing the game to Arsenal.

Removing Luis Saha to revert to a three-man midfield nullified Tottenham's counterattacking threat – but the switch to inverted wingers (substitute Rafael van der Vaart on the left and Gareth Bale on the right) rendered Bale less effective, as shown by examining his contribution in each half.

Even more critically, playing with inverted wingers left Benoit Assou-Ekotto exposed at left-back. It was no surprise that most of Arsenal's chances, including all three second-half goals, came from attacking Assou-Ekotto.

That wasn't the only London derby this weekend: Fulham's trip to QPR gave the chance to examine Bobby Zamora's performance against his former team. In the reverse fixture Zamora created six goalscoring chances and registered two assists, while also scoring a goal from one of his four shots; this time around, he couldn't manage a single shot at goal.

In truth the comparison is slightly unfair: in the first game, Zamora was on the right end of a 6-0 drubbing, but even in defeat this time he managed to create two chances in a team reduced to 10 men after Samba Diakite's early red card. The Malian could hardly feel the dismissal was unjustified after committing six fouls in his short time on the pitch.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Bizarre decisions in crucial San Siro clash highlight pressure on officials

Richard Whittle — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:54:00 GMT

Nothing gets the football fraternity’s blood boiling more than bad refereeing. So if Paolo Tagliavento’s performance during the top-of-the-table clash between AC Milan and Juventus is anything to go by, those watching would have been in need of a quiet lie-down in a darkened room.

It was certainly all too much for Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani, who reportedly had to leave the stadium at half-time such was his distress at witnessing his side have a perfectly good goal disallowed – that and the fact he apparently confronted the official in the referee’s dressing room before having an ungentlemanly set-to with Juventus coach Antonio Conte.

Conte would later go ten rounds of verbal sparring with former former Milan midfielder-turned TV pundit Zvonimir Boban over whether a second-half equalizer from Alessandro Matri - which was also ruled out - merited greater complaint.

The off-field discord was a by-product of a highly dramatic match, living up to the best traditions of Serie A’s ability to court controversy at just about every turn.

The home side were already leading one-nil and basically outplaying a timid Juventus, when just before the half-hour mark Sulley Muntari headed the ball across the line from close range, only for Gianluigi Buffon to scoop it back from at least a yard over the goal line.

The Rossoneri players peeled away in mass celebrations as the majority of the opposition bowed their heads in resignation, only for the referee to wave play on. The official was aided and abetted by his assistant, who decided it hadn’t crossed the line, or perhaps suffered a complete mental blackout and couldn’t engage in any decision making process.

Passengers on passing jets who happened to be peering out the cabin window at that very moment would have vouched that the ball had crossed the line, but the men who mattered didn’t, leaving the hundreds of thousands watching from the stands or their sofas gawping in disbelief.

The fact Buffon didn’t miss a heartbeat and threw the ball to the free Marcelo Estigarriba, who raced away and nearly scored at the other end, only added a surreal coda to one of the most bizarre incidents seen on a football pitch in recent memory.

Juve had been droning on about ‘events’ going against them for the last few weeks and another talking point ensured that they could continue to do so: Matri had what replays clearly showed was a good goal ruled out for offside when he was level with the defence, but the striker and his employers still had the last laugh when he fired home the equalizer with seven minutes remaining.

Naturally, both camps had their own spin on the two disallowed goals. Milan believed that at two-nil they would have been out of sight, while Gigi Buffon countered that the match should have finished 2-2, but stated he would have never owned up to the ball having crossed the line. In which case, if Italy coach Cesare Prandelli was to follow his ‘sporting ethics code’ to the letter, the veteran would have to be dropped from the Italy squad for this week’s friendly against USA.

That will not come to pass, but once again there have been renewed calls for the introduction of goal-line technology in the wake of what La Gazzetta dello Sport called: ‘The Ghost Goal’.

However, the real problem rests with the referees and the crushing pressure they are under from the clubs, the media and of course their own federation, which has unfortunately led to officials wilting on quite a few occasions this season.

The general unruliness of Saturday evening spilled over into the Sunday fixtures, which were overseen from the fussy to the downright dictatorial. AS Roma finished their match at Atalanta with nine men, while Palermo full-back Federico Balzaretti was sent off within the first minute at Siena.

There could be further fall-out from Saturday evening: TV replays caught Philippe Mexes throwing a kidney punch at Marco Borriello, while Muntari took his frustrations out on Stephan Lichtsteiner’s jaw line.

Massimo Ambrosini had to be dragged away from confronting Georgio Chiellini as the players headed to the tunnel at the final whistle when cool heads were in short supply.

As long as this ill-tempered state of affairs persists then referees will continue to commit errors that will come back to haunt not only them but also those on the receiving end of the decisions – just ask the spooked Galliani.

Wolves' succession worse than Blackburn's as clubs race to the bottom

Gary Parkinson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:10:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com editor Gary Parkinson on the managerial fun and games at the foot of the Premier League...

This season's Premier League relegation battle has veered into an It's a Knockout of competitive misery.

Welcoming Wigan to the Reebok Stadium and noting that visiting boss Bob Martin's inflexible insistence on "playing proper football" had gathered more plaudits than points, Bolton's Owen Coyle rushed to embrace the ideology. Reverting from the 4-5-1 with which his team had lost one game in seven to the 4-4-2 that had served them so badly hitherto, Bolton surrendered possession and the points in a hapless home hammering.

Having spent a wedge of wodge to keep QPR in the division by assembling a squad containing enough strikers to make even Bob Crow cringe, Mark Hughes promptly watched his new charges lose successive six-pointers to Wolves and Blackburn, to find themselves right in it.

Having won that match at QPR to escape the drop zone, Wolves had the chance to drag their freefalling local rivals West Brom into the mire. Instead, they capitulated 5-1 in a defeat so dire that owner Steve Morgan felt compelled to fire Mick McCarthy.

Whatever the merits of that decision, it can't be denied that Wolves have created a succession crisis. Laying out a precise set of criteria (specifically Premier League experience) which precluded all but a few candidates, Morgan and camera-happy chief exec Jez Moxey found their field considerably narrowed when the fans rejected the very idea of Steve Bruce and willing interviewee Alan Curbishley apparently rejected the job – twice.

In between those Curbed approaches, the club flip-flopped by chasing young Football League bosses with no top-flight managerial experience – Brighton's Gus Poyet and Reading's Brian McDermott. Poyet shrugged off the idea, McDermott signed a new contract.

And so, after a quick lurch to the opposite extreme by approaching retired sexagenarian Walter Smith, Wolves have ended up at the usual destination of desperation by appointing the assistant-turned-caretaker Terry Connor until the end of the season.

That's not to say promoting caretakers never works – Chris Hughton did a much better job at Newcastle than either of the messiahs he replaced, Keegan and Shearer. However, Connor is obviously so far from first choice as to have already been undermined by his club.

At least in that respect Venky's didn't get it wrong at Ewood Park. True, many a Rover would revoke the decision to sack Sam Allardyce and elevate his assistant Steve Kean to the top job, but at least the Scotsman seems to have the backing of his players.

Well, most of them. Not to be outdone by the calamities around them, Blackburn now appear to be determinedly ostracising their most effective player, Chris Samba, who seems set to leave for Russia today in exchange for £7.5m which will do Kean's squad no good at all.

Economists talk about a "race to the bottom". It seems we've got our very own in England's top flight.

Old Lady's leading man Matri building a big reputation

Adam Digby — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:12:00 GMT

From the moment David Trezeguet departed for Alicante, fans and journalists bemoaned the lack of a true goal scorer in the Juventus attack.

When Fabio Quagliarella arrived, the club's fans were understandably disappointed. The physical embodiment of the oft-used 'scorer of great goals but not a great goal scorer' cliché, the Italian international was viewed more as a member of an eventual supporting cast rather than a leading man in his own right.

However, once settled, he quickly established himself in the second striker role, showing attributes rarely seen at his former clubs. Of course his penchant for the spectacular remained, but the 'PlayStation player' became something of a predator too. Headers - never previously a strong feature of his game - and even a few scrappy strikes (relatively speaking, of course) saw the ex-Fiorentina man reach nine goals before the winter break at an impressive 145.67 minutes per goal.

Then came the injury, ruptured knee ligaments ruling him out initially until April, eventually seeing him miss the entire remainder of the season.

The rumour mill once again sparked into life, this time bereft of the Edin Džeko story it created a 'shortlist' that was seemingly endless. Luis Fabiano, Giuseppe Rossi, Diego Forlan, Karim Benzema and Emmanuel Adebayor appeared to be on a rota system at Turin-based sports daily Tuttosport's front page. One name featured ever more increasingly, that of Sampdoria's Giampaolo Pazzini who became an obsession, particularly among the more realistic of the clubs fans who could see past the fanta-Calcio of the other candidates and find logical, intelligent reasons as to why he was a far more viable target.

When the then Sampdoria striker did indeed move, a €13 million deal saw him leave the Ligurian club for something of a bargain fee, but sadly for Juve (at the time, at least) it was not to Turin, but instead to rivals Inter. Juve did eventually make a move in the market, but the man they acquired was initially viewed as thoroughly underwhelming.

'Juventus Shock' was the Gazzetta dello Sport headline that greeted the arrival of Cagliari's Alessandro Matri on completing a move to the Bianconeri.

A product of Milan's youth system, Matri joined the Rossoneri in 1996 at the tender age of 12. Finally progressing to the first team in 2003, Matri eventually made his only appearance for the San Siro side in May of that year.

He then bounced around on loan in the lower leagues at Prato, Lumezzane and Rimini before joining Cagliari in co-ownership where then-coach Massimiliano Allegri made him the focal point of his attack. During a spell in 2009 he notched in seven consecutive games - a feat only bettered at Stadio Sant'Elia by the great Gigi Riva - and he ended the 2009/10 season with a total of 13 goals. He started 2010/11 in much the same vein, with eleven goals already prior to his winter move to Turin.

The fact Matri was playing so regularly - he featured in all thirty-eight games during 2009/10 - was also a good sign for this Juventus, who at that time had a reputation as being a club with serious injury issues.

Despite standing just 1.83m Matri is a classic 'number 9', strong enough to hold off defenders and surprisingly quick, as many of his Cagliari goals prove. He is excellent in the air, a trait he uses not only in building attacks and scoring goals but also to help his team defensively at set-pieces.

During his time in Sardinia he showed his suitability playing as both first and second striker in a two-man attack and as the target man in a 4-3-3 formation. This sees him able to form effective partnerships with each of the other forwards on Juve's books despite their vastly different characteristics. His first appearance saw him misfire on a number of occasions, but he brought a positive attitude to the side, something the man he replaced was clearly not doing. Getting into the right positions, making intelligent runs and linking with those around him were all good signs despite the an eventual 2-1 win for Palermo.

After that torrid debut he quickly became a vital component in the team and one of few bright spots in the end of season slump. Scoring five goals in just seven games since that encounter in Sicily quickly endeared him to the clubs fans, and by season's end he would reach the traditional striker's benchmark of 20. This impressive tally had him in fourth place in the Capocannoniere chart, ahead of players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alberto Gilardino and, most pertinently, Pazzini.

What is also notable is that his strike-rate improved at a Juve side perceived to be struggling, down to a goal every 139 minutes compared to his 153-minute average at Cagliari. Not only was that better than Quagliarella, but it also beat new teammates Alessandro Del Piero (227.75) and Luca Toni (263.5). Yet the summer of 2011 was filled with rumours of another big name striker arriving, as the club were linked once again with a lengthy list of names touted to become the next headline act in Turin.

Mirko Vučinić did arrive, followed this January by fellow former Roma front-man Marco Borriello, but still Matri remains in the lead role. Currently eleventh highest scorer in Serie A with nine goals, criticism has never been too far away, with knocks on his strike-rate a constant, particularly after any of the club's ten draws. But once again, the numbers are on his side. His goals have come from just 54 shots, far fewer than the big name strikers ahead of him such as Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani and nowhere near the wastefulness around him, as Vučinić’s three goals from the same number of attempts prove.

While flaws to his game remain - he is still learning what it takes to play for a club battling for titles rather than survival - it is often not to those peers he is being analysed against. Instead fans of the Old Lady look to their recent history and once again the name Trezeguet is never too far away who three times in his Juve career - remember he is the clubs all-time leading foreign goal scorer - broke the magic twenty goal barrier. In 2001-02 he was named joint top scorer in Serie A with 24, in 2005-06 he netted 23 and in 2007-08 exactly 20.

In doing so he took 112, 108 and 104 shots, a rate far worse than that of Matri, who required just 79 attempts to reach his tally of 20 last season. While longevity and consistency must be added to that lethal touch in order to ever favourably compare with the man known as TrezeGol, the figures prove that the sniping at Matri's finishing is misplaced.

His form in Turin has seen him become an increasingly regular fixture in recent Italy squads and Cesare Prandelli's team, playing a style closely resembling that of Conte's Juve, is ideally set-up to take advantage of the 27 year olds skill-set. With Juventus atop the Serie A table and Euro 2012 looming large, perhaps Alessandro Matri will soon have the reputation and recognition his talent deserves.

Five points between the top six: Best title race ever?

Mohamed Moallim — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:19:00 GMT

“It's not the despair, I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.” The words uttered by John Cleese in Clockwise have been echoed by football fans ever since.

As spring blooms, the Dutch championship race is taking shape. Unexpectedly, if not unpleasantly, six sides are in the hunt – making this the most exciting, unpredictable and competitive Eredivisie season in living memory.

With most teams having 12 games left, the top six are separated by just five points. Joint leaders PSV Eindhoven and AZ Alkmaar are two points clear of Heerenveen, with FC Twente (who have a game in hand), Feyenoord and defending champions Ajax each one point further back than the last. It's the first time in 55 years that six teams have been in such close contention.

Can any other competition claim this number of close challengers? Outside the Eredivisie, the gap between first and sixth is closest in France with 12pts. In Italy it's 13, in Germany 15, in England 18, in Portugal 19 and in Spain it's a huge 29.

If all six Dutch challengers want to win the title then ultimately five will end the season in despair, and although AZ, Heerenveen and Feyenoord can considered their title push an unexpected bonus, the longer they stay in contention the more their pride could turn to anguish.

There will be naysayers who question the division's quality, but that's grossly unfair. True, it’s not the strongest, but that has allowed the environment for six evenly matched teams to take shape. It's better than living in a duopoly.

Bubbly: Ajax celebrate the 2011 title. Who's next?

Every side has weaknesses as well as strengths but if the title-chasers continue to display deficiencies it can only be good for competition. It's unlikely that all six will take it to the wire but the longer there’s an open race, the bigger public interest will be.

Eredivisie Live, the pay-TV channel owned by all 18 clubs, already has more than 350,000 subscribers – making it the highest rating digital channel in the Netherlands – but with around seven million people actively interested in football there’s still potential for growth, and seeing more than three teams battling will only appease.

Nobody denies that there are stronger leagues in Europe, but their comparatively unequal distribution of wealth has led to only a few with realistic aspirations. Eredivisie managing director Frank Rutten is proud that the Dutch top flight is now more like the open German model than the duopolised Spanish one.

As Rutten notes, this wasn’t always the case in Holland: for most of this century's first decade, PSV won seven titles in nine years. Their regression has opened up the league, and not just to the rest of the traditional Big Three, Feyenoord and Ajax – no strangers themselves to hegemony: from 1965 to 2008 those three hoovered up 43 of the 44 Eredivisie titles.

Since PSV last lifted the title in 2008, three different teams have won the title – most recently Ajax, but before that AZ (for their second title) and then FC Twente (for their first). And now the four most recent champions have been joined in the hunt by Heerenveen and Feyenoord.

No one could have predicted Heerenveen's upturn: their 43-point haul is already two more than last season, when they finished 12th. Known over the last 15 years or so for punching above their weight, they're straining to be champions: “I think we can say the ‘C’ word,” as coach Ron Jans said after the win over NAC Breda made it seven victories in eight games, including five on the bounce. More impressively they’re the only side to score in the first 22 games of the campaign which is a record.

FEATURE Oct 19 2011: Great pretenders Heerenveen seek to climb back into contention

But Jans, who recently praised the Eredivisie's newfound competitiveness, is also cautious. “I don't count on it happening: other teams are stronger. We lack the maturity to totally control a game, even if individually we have a lot of quality. But you never know what could happen.”

Former Heerenveen boss Gertjan Verbeek has also surprised. His AZ side were disappointedly inconsistent last season, but this time the wide-open title race means they're right in there. That said, there’s the feeling they’ve not played like champions elect, and a recent winter slump of one win in six games cost them the opportunity to open up a nine-point gap.

AZ's Europa League success may have distracted them

Echoing Jans, Verbeek has said that the Eredivisie is no longer a "Mickey Mouse" league and that the eventual champions might require 85 points or thereabouts (12 more than champions Ajax needed last season). A bad time, then, for the Alkmaar side to take their foot off the gas and let bookmakers' favourites PSV draw level at the top.

Like AZ, Fred Rutten’s PSV have stuttered this season, but they possess the most dynamic and prolific attack. It could very well be the difference that ends their four-year wait for the title.

One of the major criticisms levelled at Rutten last year was his conservative nature: PSV were too reactive in their approach, especially when teams put them on the back foot. Lessons learnt from last season will still need to be shown, such as dealing with the pressure heading into the final months, but so far things have looked promising despite a recent setback in Groningen.

Ajax’s aspirations were pronounced dead after a home defeat to FC Utrecht, but as is so often the case they managed to find their way back into the title picture – and with a battered squad close to full recovery, Frank de Boer once again believes. Last season they managed to claw back a seven-point deficit with fewer games remaining than now.

Also preaching positivity is Steve McClaren, and no wonder: with 15 goals and three wins in his first four games back, FC Twente are hitting their stride just at the right time. One of the pre-season favourites (along with PSV and Ajax), they’ve quietly gone about their business – even under the hardly subtle Co Adriaanse. Much depends on the goals of Luuk de Jong, along with the creative influence of Ola John and Nacer Chadli.

The last contenders, and arguably biggest outsiders, are Feyenoord. The Rotterdammers' renaissance has captured the imagination: this time last year they were on the brink of relegation, but now Ronald Koeman – who took charge in summer – could become the first manager to win the championship with each of the Dutch big three.

FEATURE Feb 2 2012: Klassieker victory suggests a brighter future lies ahead for Feyenoord

Winning the title will be a tall order, but for Feyenoord even being a contender means the season is already deemed a success. The priority for this campaign was getting back into European football; can the club afford to get sucked into the hype and hope?

This weekend sees four of the challengers meet: Heerenveen travel to AZ and Feyenoord travel to PSV (where last season they were mauled 10-0). Meanwhile, fourth-placed Twente will expect to beat midtable visitors Utrecht and sixth-placed Ajax will want to win at second-bottom Excelsior.

The right combination of results could see the top six condensed into a three-point zone. Then we most certainly will be entering squeaky-bum time.

Arsenal's plan to stop Gareth Bale, Villas-Boas' striker dilemma

Michael Cox — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:56:00 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...

Sunday’s North London derby is the biggest Premier League fixture of the weekend, with Tottenham threatening to finish above Arsenal in the Premier League table for the first time since Arsene Wenger arrived in England back in 1996.

An obvious threat is Gareth Bale down the left, and although he’s recently been given more of a free role to come inside into the centre of the pitch – and was actually fielded as the central playmaker in a 3-4-1-2 last week at Stevenage – he generally stays wider in bigger matches. Against Manchester City recently, for example, he hugged the touchline and battled Micah Richards.

He’ll be up against Bacary Sagna in this game, and the Arsenal full-back will draw on experience from last season to stop the Welshman – he won both his tackles, and all seven aerial duels.

Manchester City’s game with Blackburn Rovers is a clash between the two sides in the league most potent from set-pieces. City have scored from dead ball situations 15 times this season, while Blackburn are next best on 14

However, Blackburn will be weakened by the imminent departure of powerful centre-back Chris Samba to Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala. He was their main threat in the air at set-pieces, although he had missed many games through injury anyway in recent weeks.

Samba always stood in the same position for corner kicks – generally quite deep just behind the penalty spot, and slightly towards the far post. Corners would be hung up towards him in that position –and as shown by the away game with QPR, he generally got his head to the ball.

When Samba was absent from the reverse fixture, Blackburn’s corner style changed – they instead put the ball into the six-yard box, and were much less successful.

Saturday sees QPR’s Bobby Zamora taking on his old club Fulham, where he enjoyed the best football of his career in Fulham’s Europa League run in 2010.

The short trip across west London hasn’t resulted in a big change in the way Zamora plays – he still spends most of his time challenging for long, straight balls down the centre of the pitch. However, at Fulham he frequently drifted to the right of the pitch, where he could allow Damien Duff inside onto his left foot, or cut inside and shoot with his own favoured left side.

Mark Hughes is also taking on his former club, and it will be interesting to see who he chooses to support Zamora – last weekend he played a 4-4-1-1 with Adel Taarabt behind, but at home he will probably use another forward, despite Djibril Cisse’s suspension.

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas again has to choose between Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba upfront. The Spaniard’s woes in front of goal are well known, but Drogba hasn’t been in particularly good form either – he’s only scored twice from open play in the league this season, the same as Torres. Drogba has played 954 minutes, Torres 1195.

With little to choose in terms of form, it’s style that Villas-Boas will consider ahead of the home meeting with Bolton. Drogba continues to receive longer balls and stay in central positions, while Torres moves to the channels and becomes involved in build-up play more. Drogba’s goal return is better, Torres suits the system more – but neither are currently promising options.

FEATURE, Fri 24 Feb: Man City welcome Toure return as title race reaches 'squeaky bum time' – Jon Champion

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

La Preview: Arsenal man goes AWOL, Pep’s replacement and Bielsa’s big day

Tim Stannard — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:40:00 GMT

Saturday

Betis (12th) v Getafe (14th) - 18.00 (local time)
A broken arm for central defender Lopo in last weekend’s Espanyol clash saw Getafe exploring the possibility of trying to bring in cover using the emergency, break glass procedures allowed by the league under such circumstances. In the end, former Getafe centre-back Alexis returned on loan from Sevilla to partner the snarling Cata Díaz in the centre of defence.
The attentions of coach Luis García now turn towards getting Dani Güiza to score on a regular basis - goals, that is - as the former Spanish international has only managed three in 18 league appearances. “His figures are much less than we were hoping for. We’ve been very patient with him and given him a lot of chances but it hasn’t happened,” said the increasingly impatient manager.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Racing (18th) v Sporting (19th) - 18.00
Regular readers will be aware that one of LLL’s big issues - apart from the ones involving an irrational fear of jellyfish currently being ironed out with therapy - are managers and players claiming there are so many 'cup finals' left when describing a run of league games when their team is in a tight spot. Heck, even an Athletic Bilbao player did it recently, despite the fact his team look good for a Champions League-qualifying finish.
Fortunately, hard-as-nails new Sporting manager Javier Clemente won’t stand for such crazy talk either. When asked whether Saturday’s clash against fellow relegation-zoners Racing was a definitive game, he snapped; “whatever happens, no-one is going to die. Every match is important, the only difference is that Racing are like Sporting.”
For once in his live, Clemente is the voice of sanity and reason.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Málaga (9th) v Zaragoza (20th) - 20.00
Two clubs having disappointing seasons and two clubs really needing a win on Saturday. Málaga have been ordered by Manuel Pellegrini to endure double training sessions as punishment for being hopelessly flimsy for much of the season, while the not-so-good-ship Zaragoza lost another crew member, with Antonio Tomás finishing his contract early and heading off to CSKA Sofia, despite only joining in September.
In contrast, one player who wants tto hang around is Carlos Aranda, who joined Zaragoza in the winter transfer window and hopes to stay on for the long-term, despite being fully aware of where he is about to be playing his football. “I didn’t come here for five months. I would love to stay on with them in la Segunda,” claimed Aranda, this week.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Espanyol (4th) v Levante (7th) - 22.00
Arsenal fans with good memories may remember a player called Pedro Botelho, who joined the North London club just over four years ago but has since spent most of his time on loan to sides in Spain. Until the winter window, the lanky left-winger was playing for Rayo and doing pretty well too, until getting drunk one night and getting into a shunt with a police car, whose occupants found the 22-year-old to be above the alcohol limit.
Botelho was then moved on-loan to Levante in January but didn’t feature in the squad that lost to Rayo on Sunday, a strange move given he would have known his former team-mates only too well. It turns out that the midfielder was on the naughty step having disappeared from the team hotel after the recent away day at Real Madrid, then failing to make the train back to Levante the following morning.
Marca report the player was unaware the players had been confined to quarters for the Sunday night and says that he had a dentist appointment in Madrid on the Monday, hence his railway station no-show. The club didn’t believe a word of it and fined Botelho €15,000. LLL suspects a return to Arsenal in the near future is unlikely, irrespective the London club’s current problems.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Sunday

Villarreal (17th) v Athletic Bilbao (5th) - 12.00
Hip, hip hooray. It was a bit of a tight squeeze for both Athletic and Manchester United in their respective Europa League games against Lokomotiv Moscow and Ajax, but both got through to set up last 16 double-header that has the normally cool-as-a-cucumber LLL watering at the mouth and gurgling in the stomach. Although that’s normally a sign of having recently eaten some undercooked croquettas. Heck, even Athletic coach Marcelo Bielsa is excited too. “Playing against Manchester United is not like any other game,” noted the weird one.
LLL Prediction - Draw

Rayo Vallecano (8th) v Real Madrid (1st) - 16.00
Vive La Revolution. The much-messed with Rayo supporters groups were not happy at all about their team’s bigwigs declaring Sunday’s visit of Real Madrid being a “Day of the Club” - a chance for the members who already have a season ticket to pay even more to see the game. Last week, LLL reported that this extra charge was set to be €25 and this is still the case to an extent.
Where Rayo have relented, according to AS, is in allowing unemployed season ticket holders entry for just €5. Good news to a degree, but bad news in that those included in this discount will probably be a significant number with Spain’s unemployment rate being 22% and the working class barrio of Vallecas especially suffering during Spain’s never ending economic crisis.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Valencia (3rd) v Sevilla (11th) - 18.00
Valencia weren’t as spooked as Marca were with the hordes of Stoke City ‘hooligans’ and ‘ultras’ - terms used to describe normal, run-of-the-mill Midlands fans - descending on the city in lovely, sunny weather for a nice game of football. The speculation in Valencia that it was only the supporters with football on their minds during the Europa League clash, with Tony Pulis bringing a squad of just 15 to the Spanish east coast for the clash. “Are they coming here to go on the beach or play a game of football?” was the first question on local radio station, Punto Radio Valencia, to a traveling English journalist. The beach seems to be the answer, with Valencia picking up a 1-0 win.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Osasuna (10th) v Granada (15th) - 18.00
Although Osasuna are trundling along quite well this season on the pitch, off it there seems to be the whiff of economic problems in the air, with Marca reporting that the club would like to reschedule the payments of its debt with the local tax authority over a 75-year period. The sum of €27.9m is weighing heavy on Osasuna but club president, Patxi Izco, claims that the request for some repayment tinkering is “practically normal” in other companies and that a little bit of help would be appreciated.
LLL Prediction - Home win

Real Sociedad (16th) v Mallorca (13th) - 18.00
Even though it wasn’t Villarreal’s fault Mallorca were kicked out of last season’s Europa League competition for going into administration - with the Yellow Submarine taking their place - the Balearic club and supporters are still grumpy as heck about the whole matter which was due to Mallorca breaking UEFA’s rules and regulations and thus entirely their only fault.
But there is a suggestion the club are ready to make nice to Villarreal sometime in the near future, according to club president, Juame Cladera. “Last season we were obliged to have relations because of the transfer of De Guzman, and in some way this softened things up. It’s not good to have such distance for such time.”
LLL Prediction - Home win

Atlético Madrid (6th) v Barcelona (2nd) - 21.30
All week, the talk in Barcelona and the rest of Spain is what Pep will do next concerning his rolling contract extension. But if the worst for the Catalan club were to happen and Guardiola was to head to pastures new - or sit on a beach for a year which would be a good plan - speculation has already started on who could take over.
The names thrown up by Marca in what appear to be a mad brain-storming session are Luis Enrique, Ernesto Valverde, Oscar García (current cantera coach), Lluís Carreras (current Sabadell coach), Marcelo Bielsa, Marco Van Basten, Joachim Löw and Andrés Villas-Boas. Mundo Deportivo even throw some of these names into a poll with Luis Enrique coming out in top with 39% followed by Bielsa with 21%.
LLL Prediction - Away win

Man City welcome Toure return as title race reaches 'squeaky bum time'

Jon Champion — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:30:00 GMT

ESPN's man with the mic Jon Champion looks ahead to the weekend's Premier League action...

FIXTURES Sat 25 Feb Chelsea v Bolton, Newcastle v Wolves, QPR v Fulham, West Brom v Sunderland, Wigan v Aston Villa, Man City v Blackburn Sun 26 Feb Arsenal v Tottenham, Norwich v Man Utd, Stoke v Swansea.

If Manchester City are genuinely Champions elect, as some of their fans have been saying, this weekend's game against Blackburn Rovers is one they must win, and I think they will.
I can’t see Blackburn getting anything from the match. They remind me of a car that needs its breaks serviced; you know the breaks are faulty therefore you know it is going to crash, it is just a question of when.
City have Yaya Toure back from the African Cup of Nations to assist their title charge. He hasn't played a domestic match since the 3-0 Premier League win over Liverpool on January 3. Since then, City have crashed out of both English cup competitions and seen Manchester United close the gap at the top to just two points.
The Ivorian is obviously a key figure, but I didn’t realise quite how important he was until I spoke with the City coaches earlier this week. They explained that, not only is he a driving, dynamic force from midfield, but that he is also the most popular recipient of passes. The player everyone looks to pass to.

But when you look at the title race you shouldn’t be backing a team you should be backing a manager. We are now getting towards what Sir Alex Ferguson christened himself, “squeaky bum time” and even though Manchester United are hardly pulling up trees with their form, they are only two points behind Manchester City.
This weekend they go to Norwich, where Eric Cantona was famously sent off in the past. The Canaries are in eighth place with 35 points and probably only need two wins to be sure of staying up in the Premier League, which would be a tremendous achievement for them.
They will make life difficult for Manchester United, but we are into the final third of the season; the time that Ferguson and United traditionally get the bit between their teeth so I would expect them to win on that basis.

Tottenham are at Arsenal on Sunday and this game may well exemplify the shift in power in North London. Arsenal seem to be going nowhere fast and are clinging to fourth place by their fingernails; something I can’t see them maintaining for much longer. Tottenham look set to finish above Arsenal for the first time in Arsene Wenger’s time with the Gunners and while there is a 10 point gap on paper there is a gulf in the quality of football. I expect a full strength Tottenham side to go to the Emirates and win.

The Andres Villas-Boas story rumbles on. It does seem that he has gone for revolution rather than evolution at Chelsea; clearly he has been told he has to change the guard but I feel the change has been too radical. No one seems to know what the future direction of the club is at the moment so maybe it is a good time for Bolton to go to the Bridge.
Bolton should have every bit as much, if not more than Birmingham City and they managed to chisel out a draw. I just feel they lack a goal-scorer; Kevin Davies looks a shadow of his former self but Owen Coyle is relentlessly positive so I won’t write Bolton off in this one.

Newcastle remarkably, are still sixth and could be as high as fourth come the Sunday evening. The big news for them is that Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye are back in the centre of midfield. At home their form is formidable with just two defeats from 12 games this season. There is always a great belief in the Newcastle crowd and I think that will carry them through against a Wolves side still lacking a manager.
I can’t help but think that Steve Morgan has made a mess of the whole managerial change. Caretaker Terry Conor is trying to keep the players happy but it is hardly the ideal preparation for a game which could shape their season.

Another team who have sought a change in fortunes by making a change in the dugout are QPR. But there hasn’t been a massive upturn in form since Mark Hughes arrived at Loftus Road, and the pressure will be on for the visit of his former club, Fulham. Bobby Zamora will also be facing his former employers, just to add a little extra spice to what is often a more 'friendly' derby.
QPR are only out of the bottom three on goal difference and they are not playing the sort of football that suggests they will put together a run of results before the end of the season.
Fulham are an enigmatic side but they keep doing just enough to keep them out of danger which is hardly a satisfying way to go through a season. My feeling is that Hughes will have Rangers right up for this and that may be enough to see them through.

With West Brom we have another team that is just doing enough to stay out of trouble. Peter Odemwingie is threatening to show some form after a disappointing start to the season.
Speaking about disappointments; Sunderland’s have been washed away by the arrival of Martin O’Neil. I think James McLean, the youngster from Derry, would be a contender for Young Player of the Year if he had played more games. He and Sunderland have if not unstoppable momentum, then impressive momentum and that should be enough to carry them through at the Hawthorns.

Wigan are bottom of the table but still only two points adrift and last time out they won at Bolton. They play some lovely football but I don’t think they have enough in their squad to dig themselves out of trouble.
They face a side in Aston Villa who are merely treading water; they don’t seem to have much in the way of heart or substance to them. So if Wigan are going to entertain any hopes of getting out of trouble then this is a game they have to win.

Stoke have fallen away recently; down to 13th but they are still nine points clear of trouble. Their biggest problem is that this game is post a difficult trip to Valencia and I think that will be a factor.
Swansea on the other hand will come into this one nice and fresh. I think this is a good day for Swansea to play Stoke. Also I will give a mention to the Swan’s Joe Allen who is another candidate for Young Player of the Year in my eyes; he has looked immediately at home in the Premier League this season.

Jon Champion is football commentator for ESPN. Watch ESPN’s live and exclusive action from Italy’s Serie A as Inter Milan travel to Napoli on Sunday, 7.15pm.

Visiting Joe Cole wows Liverpool squad with French toast

Back of the Net — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:38:00 GMT

Six months after setting off for France, Joe Cole has proven he's learnt a thing or two. John Foster went to find out more...

Lille loanee Joe Cole has used a brief visit to parent club Liverpool to show off his new culinary repertoire, whipping up an exemplary French toast that is said to have left his former team-mates “dazzled.”

“This is a great opportunity to show the gaffer and the lads how much I’ve learnt in France”, Cole told FourFourTwo.com.

“I used to think there was only one kind of toast,” he said, “and you made it by putting bread in a toaster.

“But it turns out you can make toast in a pan with an egg and cream batter, a bit of maple syrup, some cinnamon, and a dusting of icing sugar.

“Small differences, but it’s still toast at the end of the day.”

The former Chelsea playmaker explained that he felt his breakfasts were stagnating a bit in England.

“Earlier in my career I’d do things like try and make a smoked salmon kedgeree with crispy fried shallots and a mustard jus, when the most anybody wanted was a bun.

“I found myself falling back more and more on pop tarts and supermarket muesli. It does the job, but it’s not the sort of breakfast you want to serve up to people day in, day out.”

Pundits in England have long considered Cole to be more suited to a continental style of breakfast, though the player himself admits to having had some doubts before his move to France.

“It was a big step. I had to get a place to live. I had to learn the French word for whisk. I thought it would take me a bit of time to find the eggs, but it turns out there’s a special shelf for them in the fridge.”

Asked for his opinion on Cole’s culinary skills, Lille team-mate Pierre Bosquet commented, “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas le toast.”

Previous stories:
Kenwyne Jones bunks off Stoke training to play football
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

Capello's rejuvenating leaves Pearce with little need to experiment

Gary Parkinson — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:05:00 GMT

Interim manager Stuart Pearce's England squad has been met with a wave of indifference. For all the overexcited tabloid-TV talk of calling up "inexperienced" players, and a few respectful phone calls to older squad members left out this time, the only uncapped players in the pot are Fraizer Campbell and Tom Cleverley. Plus ça change, plus ça meme chose, as Basile Boli might say.

But what else was Pearce to do? He wanted to give gametime to those who haven't had much of it, but had he called up his old England U21 players en bloc, he would have been derided as a narrow-minded nepotist. And there's not much we can learn about Joleon Lescott, Michael Carrick or Jermain Defoe that we don't already know.

At the top of the age scale, there would be howls if he had reinstated the old guard like Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand. Like a few ageing players, both those former Hammers may have all their fingers crossed that their old mucker Harry Redknapp gets his expected coronation. So might Joe Cole. There might even be an excited Christmas-morning twinkle in the eye of David Beckham.

The reason the squad doesn't look shockingly jejune is that Fabio Capello had already started rejuvenating England after the last tournament. The oldest squad at South Africa 2010 had looked decidedly doddery, and Capello had started a surgery just as necessary as the one Andres Villas-Boas is struggling to achieve at Chelsea.

Joe Hart is now the player England can least afford to lose. Kyle Walker, Phil Jones and Gary Cahill have come into the backline. Although leavening a midfield built around Jack Wilshere with the selfless experience of Scott Parker, Capello was also exploring options like Jack Rodwell and Adam Johnson. Up front, Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck have also been brought in for inspection.

The renovation had already started, and despite his building-site experience as an electrician, Pearce didn't need to bulldoze a squad which qualified undefeated despite the changes.

Fully deserving of his call-up is Micah Richards, ostracised by Capello but flourishing at Roberto Mancini's Manchester City into a powerful, adaptable and increasingly clever right-back – an area of uncertainty for which England could use a solid answer.

Similarly, although the squad is young it's good to see the recall of Steven Gerrard, who needs time back in the international saddle – especially in the temporary absence of Wayne Rooney. Running the game from behind the main striker, the Liverpool skipper could be a worthwhile stand-in for his fellow Scouser in the first two games of a Euro 2012 tournament into which England go with no manager, but a decent squad of options.

Vancouver hope Robson signing can Cap off-season business

Kris Heneage — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:45:00 GMT

In amongst the mountains of Vancouver something is stirring. Having last week announced Scotland international Barry Robson had signed a pre-contract agreement to join in the summer, the Vancouver Whitecaps are putting the finishing touches to an off-season they hope will allow them to really challenge in a competitive Western Conference.

While the deal may seem to have been completed rather quickly, head coach Martin Rennie admitted he’d been a longstanding admirer of Robson, but had been unsure of whether he could convince the player.

"I wanted him right from the start but I spoke to someone who said there's no chance you'll get him, so I kind of gave up on it," Rennie said last Thursday. "But I looked at it a bit more and thought 'maybe there's a chance,' and then he showed some interest."

With Robson’s former Dundee United teammate Paul Ritchie also on the coaching staff, the adjustment to life in MLS should be somewhat smoother for Robson and his family as they embark on life in the culturally diverse city of Vancouver. Ritchie also echoed the sentiments of Rennie and was keen to stress some of Robson’s best qualities: "Technically, he's very strong and he has a great left foot and provides a lot of ammunition from the wide areas," he explained.

As for the player himself, he already sounds enthusiastic about the prospect of Canadian life. Having spoke with former Middlesbrough teammate Kris Boyd about the potential move, Robson admitted to turning down an extension from his current club as well as several other offers in England in order to move West. “The league is rising and it’s getting better all the time,” Robson told reporters. “I can see some good players coming over now, and it’s something that’s been in my mind for a while. As soon as I got the offer from [Vancouver], it was a no-brainer for me.”

Robson joins the club as a designated player, the second Scot to do so this season after Boyd. Quite how much that will earn him remains unclear at this stage, with $175,000 being attributed to Vancouver’s salary allowance instead of the usual $350,000 - a consequence of Robson joining at the midway point of the season.

Even though he will arrive late, manager Rennie is far from disheartened at having to wait for Robson. “From the perspective of adding someone in July, I think it’s a good thing for us,” Rennie said. “At that point, we’re going to know exactly where we see Barry fitting in, exactly what position we want him to play. Barry has been a proven playmaker at the highest levels of the game for both club and country. He is a versatile box-to-box midfielder that can play in several positions, with the ability to create and score goals. Barry will be a great addition to our squad."

Although he is unlikely to take the captaincy from former Watford defender Jay DeMerit, Robson’s experience will serve as an invaluable asset. As well as Old Firm ties against Rangers, he has played internationally and in the Champions League - even scoring against Barcelona. Working best in a more advanced role, many on Teeside are sad to see the versatile Robson depart, believing the veteran Scot still had much to offer the club.

As for Vancouver, the transfer represents the club’s tenth acquisition during a busy off season. Change was likely to be the order of business after a somewhat difficult debut season in which the club finished bottom of the league. It’s fair to say the hierarchy of the club (which includes NBA star Steve Nash) will be hoping the new additions bring an upturn in fortunes for the side, who are still very much in their infancy.

While bringing in new players has been integral to the changes, keeping some of the current roster on the pitch has been of equal necessity. Vancouver’s premier designated player Eric Hassli garnered eight yellow and three red cards last season- which surprisingly didn’t seem to hamper his ability to strike up a bond with the fans.

Regardless, the former FC Zürich striker says he is keen to rectify the situation in the upcoming season. "That was a big mistake last year. This year is going to be good. Just two red cards," he said. While many - including his manager - will hope Hassli is joking, his partnership with compatriot Sebastién Le Toux could be vital for the ‘Caps this season, with the playoffs likely to be their minimum expectation.

As for Robson, his focus remains on getting current club Middlesbrough into the top tier of English football, with manager Tony Mowbray confident that his midfielder’s commitment will not wain in the coming months, adding: “We will all be sorry to see him go and we wish him all the best. His contribution to the team this season has been huge and I am sure that will be the case over the remainder of the season.”

Madrid’s mad moment, Pep’s breathing space & Stoke’s scary support

Tim Stannard — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:14:00 GMT

While Andre 'the new Mourinho' Villas-Boas didn’t exactly enjoy his night out in Naples with Chelsea, the original version had a fairly decent time of it in Russia, with his Real Madrid side drawing 1-1 with CSKA Moscow.

However, you’d have thought Madrid had been the ones left with a second leg mountain to climb, such was the The Special One’s maudlin mood after the game thanks to the Kremlins that still lurk in the squad’s tactical system.

Madrid were fairly comfortable and holding a 1-0 lead, until Swedish striker Pontus Wernbloom - a member of a Real Madrid fan club - popped up in second-half injury time to nab an equaliser. “I don’t know if it was a mistake or a lack of concentration,” commented a glum Mourinho on the set-piece strike that was conceded

“I’m not happy, but neither am I sad,” said the Madrid manager, a mood that sums up the feeling in the Madrid papers, who are sulking about the last gasp leveller, even though they remain confident .

Still, Tomás Roncero of AS was a happy camper due to yet another Cristiano Ronaldo goal. “He’s capable of playing with a broken ankle, sweating at minus ten, aiming with his weaker foot like it was a Colt 45,” swooned the columnist.

A rare midweek off for Barcelona has given the local media time to muse over Pep Guardiola’s reluctance to sign on for another year at the Camp Nou. The vibe in the Catalan capital is simultaneously insistent on the Barça boss making a decision one way or the other and giving Guardiola space, not wanting to seem too rude - like standing behind someone who is using a cashpoint to pay their phone bill.

“If we are talking more about the future of Pep than Messi’s four goals then we are all doing something wrong,” pointed out Josep María Casanovas in Sport, who is very much in the leave Pep in peace brigade.

Although Barça’s week is a quiet one, giving Cesc Fabregas chance to pootle off to present an award at the Brits, three other clubs are in action in the Europa League. LLL is already looking forward to heading to the Vicente Calderón on Thursday night and cowering under its seat to hide from the 2,000 or so Lazio supporters who will be in attendance at the game in the Spanish capital. Still, the blog is sure that if Diego Simeone is standing between the blog and a mass of scary Italian support then it will feel quite safe, especially since Atlético Madrid have a 3-1 advantage to defend.

Marca are fretting about the 4,000 Stoke ‘ultras’ and ‘hooligans’ - supporters to everyone else - who will be descending on Valencia for the second of their Europa League clash on a day that is due to see demonstrations from students in the city. No such concerns over hordes of away fans for Athletic Bilbao, who will be looking to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Lokomotiv Moscow in the Basque Country.

Champions League preview: Narrow Basel to squeeze out Bayern, Marseille seek home comfort

Michael Cox — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:00:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview Wednesday night's Champions League action...

A trip to the south of France to take on Marseille sounds like a difficult game for Inter, but when you look at the French side’s record at the Stade Velodrome in the Champions League so far this season, it’s far from impressive.

They lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal due to a late Aaron Ramsey goal, while Olympiakos’ Ioannis Fetfazidis also struck in the final ten minutes to pick up three points for the Greek side. Winning your home games in the Champions League group stage is generally seen as vital for progression, but Marseille won only one of their three, against Dortmund.

And even that game was something of a fortunate win – 3-0 completely flattered Didier Deschamps’ side, who recorded just eight shots compared to Dortmund’s 20.

Basel shocked Manchester United in the group stage to set up this meeting with Bayern Munich. The tie is particularly special for Basel coach Heiko Vogel, who worked with the youth team at Bayern between 1998 and 2007, and doubtless knows the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Toni Kroos, Thomas Mueller and Holger Badstuber very well. This is actually Vogel’s first Champions League game as Basel’s full-time coach – he was only in temporary charge for the United game.

A key part of his approach against United was to bring the wide players in from the flanks to become more of a force in the centre of the pitch. That was particularly obvious for Xherdan Shaqiri, who spends much of his time in the middle, while Fabian Frei stays slightly wider, but notably switched from wing to wing. This movement might cause Bayern problems – they’re not as solid in front of the defence since the departure of Mark van Bommel a year ago, and Basel will fancy their chances of a result.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Just which Bayern side will show up in Basel?

Stefan Bienkowski — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:23:00 GMT

For most fans, this weekend showed a return to the joyful nature of the German Bundesliga: of the four title-chasing teams, Schalke won, Gladbach won, Dortmund won and Bayern slipped up.

RESULTS Fri 17 Feb Hoffenheim 1-1 Mainz Sat 18 Feb Nurnberg 2-1 Koln; Leverkusen 4-1 Augsburg; Kaiserlautern 1-2 Moenchengladbach; Hertha 0-1 Dortmund; Hamburg 1-3 Bremen; Freiburg 0-0 Bayern Sun 19 Feb Schalke 4-0 Wolfsburg; Hannover 4-2 Stuttgart

From FFT's Bundesliga stats page

This time Bayern slumped to a weary goalless draw at 18th-placed Freiburg, whom they had beaten 7-0 at home back in September. The dropped points leave them four points adrift of leaders Dortmund, with an equally obliged Gladbach slipping into second place.

The Bavarians' coach Jupp Heynckes described the performance as "sluggish", but it was hardly surprising. There had been equally uninspiring performances against Wolfsburg three weeks previously – where they had required a fortunate handballed Arjen Robben goal to beat Felix Magath's men – and the following week's draw at a rejuvenated Hamburg.

This week, Heynckes made an interesting point about his side’s inability to appreciate Freiburg’s desire to move off the bottom of the league – a hunger evidently absent in his own team, which could explain why Bayern are so inconsistent in the league.

Robben complains to no avail at Freiburg

With a group of players that shouldn’t encounter nearly as much trouble as they make for themselves, Bayern seem determined to make every game a challenge, as if to live up to their FC Hollywood title. Each game encompasses a weekly ritual of doing enough to dominate the opposition without truly making a real effort on goal.

The inability of Robben, Thomas Müller and Franck Ribery to provide efficient build-up play has undermined the spectacular goal tally of Mario Gomez – so much so that in the past few weeks, Heynckes has resorted to subbing the German targetman for Ivica Olic, in the hope that the Croatian's sheer willingness to run at everything will disrupt the opposition enough to allow his midfield to capitalise.

Stood against the hard-working, perfectionist utopia of Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund and Lucien Favre’s Gladbach underdogs, it’s hard not to see this Bayern side as the incoherent ruler of a league determined to eject them from their throne as the largest club in the land. If the Bundesliga truly is as unpredictable as people think it is, then it owes a lot of that to Bayern Munich.

Inconsistent at home, Bayern have been anything but flaky in Europe. In eight games so far they have a 100% home record and have only been held at Napoli and beaten at Manchester City with a weakened final-matchday side, having already ensured qualification and top spot.

Concentrating on the Champions League rather than the Bundesliga would be neither unexpected nor ill-advised for a club that has always weighed its worth in European – rather than domestic – success. This squad, with its outstanding imported wing pairing of Ribery and Robben, was assembled with the main purpose of returning to the glory years of the 1970s.

The club’s near-perfect continental form is a clear indicator of where their ambitions lie. They may have the odd domestic hiccup but the Bavarians have disposed of England’s expensively-assembled table-toppers, the surprise package of Italian football (Napoli), and a reliable old guard of Spanish football (Villarreal).

Hart despairs as Gomez scores at the Allianz

So how will Heynckes' men approach their knock-out tie with Basel, starting in Switzerland on Wednesday night?

Champions, top of the league and unbeaten in 14 domestic fixtures, Basel have been no slouches in Europe either. They qualified from the group stages at the expense of Manchester United, from whom they took four points; they also got a draw at fellow qualifiers Benfica.

True, the Swiss side’s best player – 20-year-old Xheridan Shaqiri – has already signed a pre-contract for Bayern, but that may mean the German side (further) underestimate their opponents.

To the famous Bayern Munich, FC Basel will be one of two things: another small club that they should beat, or an opponent that stands in the way of their goal. Are they another formidable foe that the superstars from Munich await with great enthusiasm, or are they just another contractual obligation for Ribery & Co to fulfil?

Champions League preview: Chelsea width could unsettle Napoli, Real test for Doumbia

Michael Cox — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:49:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview Tuesday night's Champions League action...

Chelsea’s trip to Naples presents an interesting tactical battle between the home side’s back three, and the away side’s front three. This is not a situation Napoli are particularly used to in Serie A, with few Italian sides playing with genuine width, though coach Walter Mazzarri is more than accustomed to changing his formation slightly according to the opponent.

Mazzarri probably won’t want to keep three against three at the back because of the lack of cover, so is more likely to drop his wing-backs towards their own goal, to make a five against three situation. That will mean Napoli are outnumbered in midfield, but they’ll probably be happy enough to allow Chelsea time on the ball, and focus on counter-attacking.

It will also be interesting to see how Chelsea play without the ball – whether they use their three forwards to press Napoli’s back three, or whether they stand off more. Andre Villas-Boas should be well aware that it’s Hugo Campagnaro, the right-sided centre-back, rather than the left-footed Salvatore Aronica, who offers more going forward.

Tuesday’s early kick-off sees Real Madrid making the long journey to Moscow to take on CSKA, where Jose Mourinho’s men will be up against Seydou Doumbia, one of the in-form strikers in the Champions League so far. He’s notched five goals from his five starts, though he blotted his copybook with a red card away at Trabzonspor, meaning he was suspended for the home defeat to Lille.

As a powerful Ivorian forward, comparisons to Didier Drogba are inevitable, but Doumbia does share a good all-round game with the Chelsea striker. In his game against Lille, he receives the majority of passes in the centre of the pitch, often after long balls. But his positions of take-ons shows he can drift wide and beat his man.

It will be interesting to see whether his style changes after CSKA sold his strike partner Vagner Love to Flamengo. With no obvious replacement, Doumbia might have to get through more work upfront.

Wednesday's preview: Narrow Basel to squeeze out Bayern, Marseille seek home comfort

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Mourinho’s ear muffs, Zaragoza’s fear of ghosts and Banega’s tough break

Tim Stannard — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:45:00 GMT

The sign at La Liga Loca’s bus stop showed the temperature in Madrid to be -3 early on Tuesday morning. However, it didn’t feel that cold to the blog, despite the fact that it was wearing its favourite Dalmatian puppy fur-coat and sheepskin ear muffs.

So this is why LLL has no beef with fuss being made in the Madrid media about how chilly it’s going to be in the Russian capital for Tuesday’s Champions League clash between Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow. “It’s freezing!” complained a reporter for Spanish Television channel TVE1.

“Minus six but it will feel like minus 12!” proclaimed AS. “Minus 10 but will feel like minus 15!” yelled Marca.

To be fair to AS, the paper’s editorial does note that the temperatures won’t feel that bad for the footballers. “It will will almost feel bearable after the cold snap we’ve had in Spain” noted editor, Alfredo Relaño. However, you do get the impression that the likes of Marca would prefer it if the Madrid players were wrapped up in scarves, sporting mittens on a piece of string and were being handed cups of hot cocoa during the match by a handy helper with not much else to do. Nuri Sahin perhaps.

Although the cold may make things a little trickier - especially for Iker Casillas - the fact CSKA Moscow have not played a competitive game since December 7 due to the winter break will certainly help the visitors ‘Putin’ a decent performance (awful, just awful - ed). But then again, aside from three Barça games, the standard of opposition in la Liga has been so bad this year that neither has Real Madrid, perhaps.

On the domestic front, the final match of Round 24 of la Liga was completed on Monday evening, with an away win for Betis ending Zaragoza’s mini-revival, which had consisted of one victory. This now leaves Zaragoza at the bottom-of-the-table, 11 points from safety, but manager Manolo Jiménez has more spooky concerns. “Fear and ghosts are dominating us,” revealed the Zaragoza coach after Monday’s defeat.

Ever Banega’s doctor also spoke to the press on Monday to stop any more sniggering over a horrendous, painful and probably quite terrifying accident that saw the Valencia midfielder having his ankle crushed by his own car on Sunday. “It was a break more usual with a motorcyclist than a footballer,” observed Enrique Gastaldi after the hour-and-a-half operation on Banega’s broken ankle, an injury that will see the Argentinean out of action for at least six months.

Good Day, Bad Day: Ever’s accident, Messi’s miracle and Espanyol’s ascent

Tim Stannard — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:30:00 GMT

Good Day

Real Madrid
There was an awful lot of boasting in the Madrid press concerning the ease with which José Mourinho’s side beat Racing 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu - even though Racing were down to ten men for 52 minutes of the game.
“Incontestable authority,” bragged Marca, while AS editor, Alfredo Relaño exclaimed that “the team has everything. I’ve been watching the side for nearly 50 years and I think this is the best.”
But a down-beat José Mourinho summed up the mood of a match in which bravado was not required, by claiming the game was won without his players having to do too much. As you’d expect against a club that is in administration, could not afford to employ a new coach to replace Héctor Cúper, and whose annual TV income is about 10 times less than Saturday night’s rivals. Anything less than a convincing, no-alarms-and-no-surprises win would have been incredible in the correct sense of the word.

Leo Messi
“Messi has returned!” gasped AS on Monday, with LLL quite unaware the Argentinean had ever been away.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who had held a five goal advantage over Messi in the Pichichi chase, must have been left exasperated, as Leo quite brilliantly bagged the second four-goal haul of his career. The 5-1 thrashing of Valencia won’t make a Ken Dodd Diddy-Man of a difference in the title race, but it sure was fun to watch.

Espanyol
The Pericos only picked up a draw against Getafe on Saturday, but it was enough to send Espanyol into the Champions League places on goal difference.

Athletic Bilbao
Just as Sunday's San Mamés meeting with Málaga was threatening to turning into a bit of a tough tussle, Athletic smashed in three 'old skool' Basque goals - a goalmouth scramble and a couple of finishes from crosses - in four mad second half minutes. Athletic are now equal on points with Espanyol but out of the Champions League places on goal difference.

Rayo Vallecano
The side from Vallecas are on an astonishing run of the form, having won their past three matches, and now have the same number of points as Málaga and just two fewer than fourth placed Espanyol. The latest victory was a whopping 5-2 victory over Levante, making next week’s home clash with Real Madrid a tantaslising affair to say the least.

Andrés Palop
One of the big decisions made by Míchel the manager when taking over Sevilla was to drop Javi Varas to the bench and restore goalkeeping old timer, Andrés Palop between the sticks. In Saturday’s 2-0 win over Osasuna that move paid off, with the 38-year-old pulling off a couple of cracking saves at 1-0 to help hold the lead that was eventually extended in injury-time to 2-0.
“I’m enjoying every minute I play as I know that there aren’t many left,” the chuffed veteran enthused post-match.

Mallorca
LLL must admit that, much like the rest of the world, it didn’t see Mallorca's 4-0 win against Villarreal on Sunday coming.

Abel Resino
Granada are chuntering along nicely under new boss Abel Resino, who has now picked up three wins from four since taking over from Fabri. The last of these was in the sight of ski-slopes on a glorious looking morning in Granada with a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad, who were reduced to ten men in the first half, but that arguably wouldn’t have made any difference to the result.

Javier Clemente
The grumpy old goat wasn’t able to inspire Sporting to a win at home to Atlético, but there was certainly signs of life in the Asturians during the 1-1 draw.

Bad Day

Ever Banega
The Valencia midfielder is now out for the next six months having broken his ankle after being run over by his own car at a petrol station having forgotten to put the hand-brake on. That represents a bad way, however you look at it...

Atlético Madrid
The Rojiblancos remain unbeaten under Diego Simeone, but the side are currently unable to capitalise on this newfound solidity by converting the chances being created. Falcao was most guilty of goal-missing mischief on Sunday in a 1-1 draw at Sporting, the third stalemate in a row in la Liga for Atlético.

Levante
The 3-5 home defeat to Rayo sees Levante finally losing their hold on fourth spot, having not won in their eight games since December 10th. AS somewhat vaguely attribute this current malaise to “a lack of identity.”

Málaga
“A team that has 13 shots on goal and six chances in the first half has done more than enough to win,” complained Manuel Pellegrini after the 3-0 defeat at Athletic. That may be true, but it helps if those chances are converted. Málaga continuing to suffer from irksome inconsistency with the side’s last five games reading LWLWL.

Getafe
A considerably sprightlier display than the defeats against Real Madrid and Rayo but only a draw at home against Espanyol, when something more was probably deserved.

Lopo
The Getafe defender is set to miss the next three months with a fractured upper arm after a hefty challenge in Saturday evening’s Espanyol clash. It’s yet another injury to yet another member of the back four that Getafe have suffered this season. “Being a defender at this club is a high risk profession,” noted Getafe boss, Luis García.

Villarreal
A 4-0 defeat to Villarreal sees the side as veering between good, meh and blooming awful. Sunday’s defeat was very much in the latter camp.

FourFourTwo: Accept no imitations

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:19:00 GMT

We at FourFourTwo have heard news of a disturbing matter from two different sources in the past week. We have been told, first by a student and then by a police officer, that there is a man in the Sheffield area masquerading as a FourFourTwo employee.

He calls himself Richard Nelson, and he is nothing to do with us.

We like to have a few laughs on FourFourTwo.com, and this may sound like a joke. Sadly, it's not: ‘Mr Nelson’ has used our name to his own advantage and, more worryingly, to con money out of hardworking people.

In his guise as someone working for FourFourTwo – which is based in Teddington, south-west London, and not in the north of England as he claimed – he promised work experience to a student and aspiring journalist, in return for a few drinks and a spare room for a few nights.

At FourFourTwo, we will never request payment from anyone wishing to come into our Teddington offices on work experience.

Not content with stealing from a student, ‘Mr Nelson’ has, we’ve been informed by the South Yorkshire Police, run up a £70 bar tab with a fake card, only to disappear with it unpaid.

The South Yorkshire Police would like to hear from anyone who has any information, on 0114 2 20 20 20.

We would like to reiterate that we do not employ anyone by the name of Richard Nelson. Nor do we use anybody else as a mediator to arrange work experience placements.

To arrange a work experience placement, please email contact [at] fourfourtwo [dot] com

Napoli limber up for Chelsea while Inter curl up and die

Richard Whittle — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:15:00 GMT

RESULTS Fri 17 Feb Internazionale 0-3 Bologna; Fiorentina 0-3 Napoli Sat 18 Feb Juventus 3-1 Catania Sun 19 Feb Lecce 4-1 Siena; Novara 0-0 Atalanta; Genoa 0-1 Chievo; Cesena 1-3 Milan; Roma 1-0 Parma; Udinese 0-0 Cagliari

Napoli have had one thing on their minds all year: the Champions League. Their first aim was to put in a decent display in the group stages, but drawing at Manchester City and holding Bayern Munich at home gave them the belief that in a one-off situation they could make waves in the competition.

And so it proved: beating City at the San Paolo all but saw Walter Mazzarri’s side through to the knock-out round, with qualification mathematically secured at Villarreal in a routine win – although routine may not be the right word, what with Mazzarri getting sent to the stands for impeding a home player inside the Napoli technical area.

That crime means the jack-in-the-box coach is suspended for both legs of the last–16 meeting with Chelsea, which might mean his players drop their standards: never content with what he sees, the tetchy Tuscan is constantly berating anyone in earshot just to keep them on their toes. However, even he must have allowed himself to take some satisfaction from Friday’s league performance.

It's only two years since their opponents Fiorentina were in a similar position to Napoli – preparing for a glamour Champions League knock-out tie, in their case with with Bayern Munich. They've since fallen on hard times and Napoli hardly had to break sweat to run out 3-0 winners.

The Viola are no more than workmanlike, but Napoli took few chances after going ahead inside three minutes. Using the match as a dress rehearsal in the defensive duties they may have to employ on Tuesday, they recorded a fourth consecutive clean sheet.

However, it was the form of the Holy Trinity of Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi that would have raised the hopes of the Neapolitan support days before meeting the Blues. Cavani had a 100% hit-rate with his two shots, bringing his tally to 15 in the league for the season – while after missing an open goal from a diving header, Lavezzi found redemption with a snaking and then powerful run before dispatching the third late on.

Obviously the colour purple has a galvanising effect on Cavani. When he was at Palermo back in 2007, he scored his first Serie A goal against Fiorentina; then on the opening day of the 2010-11 season he repeated the feat on his Napoli debut at the Artemio Franchi stadium.

The opening goal highlighted the importance of Mazzarri’s three stars remaining in perfect sync: Lavezzi turned inside on the edge of the area to find Hamsik, who in turn flicked a perfect pass into the path of El Matador to deliver the coup de grace. Hamsik and Cavani then combined to produce the second – this time the spiky-haired Slovak's raking crossfield pass meant the Uruguayan needed only to look up and drive home a low shot.

Mazzari wasn’t showing it, but he couldn’t wait to withdraw the pair from the fray and from then on it was left to Lavezzi to run amok: El Pocho's quick movement and mazy runs will worry Chelsea in the San Paolo bear-pit.

It's not even as if Napoli are a three-man show: Gokham Inler has rediscovered his form in the centre of the pitch, not only offering some neat passing but also tidying up in front of the back three.

With the attacking trident on its game, Mazzarri might have worried about his defence, but captain Paolo Cannavaro was as secure as his elder brother Fabio ever was. Miguel Britos offers a calm head in place of the erratic Salvatore Aronica. Third backline boy Hugo Campaganaro limped off in the early stages in Florence, but the Argentine was replaced by Gianluca Grava whose very existence on the pitch is to win the ball and clear his lines. This no-frills approach at the back, allied to a rich vein of extravagance in attack, could make it another memorable night at the San Paolo.

While Napoli were walking it at Fiorentina and looking forward to continental competition, Inter were sliding down the league past them as their season continues to crumble.

On another evening of listening to the San Siro chanting Jose Mourinho’s name, president Massimo Moratti legged it with 25 minutes remaining rather than stand another minute of a disjointed, listless display. While Claudio Ranieri’s tactics baffled, 16th-placed Bologna scored two unanswered first-half goals before cantering to a 3-0 result.

After losing to bottom-placed Novara the previous week, Ranieri had confidently announced that he could finally play the system he had always wanted to as he ordered the players to line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

However, with Diego Forlan and Wesley Sneijder confused as to whether they were required to provide any defensive cover or remain in advanced positions, the coach solved that problem by pushing both of them out to the wings – which led to Sneijder sulking on the right flank and Forlan lost in a cloud of self-doubt on the left.

It was painful to watch, not only for Moratti but the disgruntled fans, who needed little encouragement to provide a vocal pointer to whom they think should be on the bench.

The first question is, would Mourinho want a return to the club of the walking dead? The second questions is, would Moratti actually green-light some decent signings? New faces are desperately needed, as anyone under the age of 30 – such as Sneijder – wants out, while the rest should be shown the door.

Less than two years after Mourinho's groundbreaking treble, it's time to start all over again for the former masters of Serie A and Europe, and now their only realistic hope is not to suffer further humiliation at Marseille on Wednesday. If not, then Moratti will looking at hiring a fifth man to banish the sound of the only name the fans love to sing.

Exclusive: Salgado on Suarez, Evra, Terry, Capello and racism

Michel Salagdo — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:30:00 GMT

In an exclusive preview of his monthly FourFourTwo magazine column, Michel Salgado gives his own insight into the recent racism rows involving Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, QPR – and eventually costing the England manager his job…

Racism is a complicated, sensitive issue and not one I particularly wanted to talk about, but given the huge impact it has sadly had in English football over the last few months, it is worth discussing. Because I come from a different country, I can perhaps offer a different perspective.

First, though, I want to stress that I do not think either John Terry or Luis Suarez are racist. On the football pitch the tension is enormous – it’s insane. Your heart is racing, and you often find yourself in situations where you say things that you do not mean. Sometimes, you don’t even know what you’re saying.

There are certain similarities between the John Terry case and the Luis Suarez one, but they should not be considered the same. The John Terry case is hard to comment on because we still do not know what happened. You are innocent until proven guilty and that presumption of innocence has to be respected. In that sense, Fabio Capello was right.

The FA have not investigated him, they have not reached a definitive conclusion, and yet they decided to strip Terry of the captaincy. Yes, the charge is serious and yes, it can have an impact on the England team, but that makes it a decision of footballing significance. It is hard for Anton Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand and the rest of the England team too, but any resolution must be reached in consultation with the manager.

October 23rd: Terry covers his mouth as he walks away from Ferdinand

Luis Suarez’s case is different. I believe he has made four mistakes.

First, he offended Patrice Evra. That can perhaps be explained, even justified by the heat of the moment.

Second, after the game, he should have apologised. That he didn’t choose to do that can perhaps be explained by pride.

Third, when the case was brought against him, he denied wrongdoing and was determined to fight it, yet he lost the case and got an eight-game ban. The report seemed to clearly show he was guilty. But his actions forced his coach and his club to defend him to the death, leaving them in a difficult and unpleasant situation. That can maybe be explained by fear.

And finally, he refused to shake Evra’s hand. Evra was the one that made the gesture and Suarez refused to reciprocate. The offended party offered his hand and, with the world watching, the offender refused it. That was a big moment: everybody was waiting to see what happened, and by refusing to shake hands Suarez gave the game a bad image. He left English football in a difficult position too. I do not think that has any explanation at all.

February 11th: Suarez refuses to shake Evra's hand

Perhaps Suarez thinks he is the victim – he has certainly acted as if that is the case. Maybe he did not think that what he said was offensive: for him it may not have been, but for Evra it clearly was. And he had to realise that. There are linguistic nuances, and the use of words is not the same everywhere. Negro or negrito, for example, are not the same in Spain as in England, and not the same in Latin America as in Spain.

Words are conditioned by language, culture and history. It’s not just race. I, for example, have found that some of the jokes you tell every day in the dressing room in Spain, you cannot say in England. In Spain we joke a lot about other people’s wives or sisters: here, you just don’t do it. You have to understand that. It is up to the foreign player to adapt to his new surroundings, not the other way round.

There are rules – laws, even – and you must abide by them. If something is not allowed, it is not allowed. Just because you don’t think it is offensive does not mean it is not offensive, and does not mean you shouldn’t apologise. Besides, when someone uses an abusive term 10 times, and in the way it was used, there’s little question about its intent to offend.

October 15th: Suarez and Evra exchange words

Against Manchester United in February, Suarez had the chance to put it all behind him and he didn’t. That mistake – his fourth – was the worst. He had been found guilty and had not appealed. He had been banned for eight games and was now back in action. That was the moment to back down: if you think eight games is too much, tough luck.

‘May he who is free of sin cast the first stone’, as they say. We all make mistakes – all of us. But you have to step forward and say sorry. You apologise for what happened in the heat of the moment and it ends there. But you must apologise.

In the end Suarez did apologise, but it felt forced. The apology has to be sincere. The apology also has to be directed to Evra, and it wasn’t. You have to be man enough to step up, swallow your pride and apologise properly.

Luis Suarez probably doesn’t care what I think; I’m probably not important to him. But as a professional footballer, a colleague, I would like to hold out my hand to him and invite him to resolve this situation. For the good of the game and for his own good too. Speak to Evra.

I do not think Suarez is a racist. He is a brilliant footballer, and it is sad that people will remember him for this and not for the player that he is.

Meet Myron Markevych’s marvellous Metalist

Mark Gilbey — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:28:00 GMT

The most eyebrow-raising midweek result was Metalist Kharkiv's dismantling of Red Bull Salzburg. Eastern Europe expert Mark Gilbey introduces the Ukrainian upstarts with a long history

It’s usually after the interval when Metalist Kharkiv have done the damage to their opponents in the Europa League this season. Ten of the Yellow-Blues’ 15 group-stage goals came during the second half of matches.

However, in Austria they put three past a stunned Red Bull Salzburg in the opening 45 minutes to all but end this last-32 tie. Ukraine’s last representatives on the European stage now seem certain of progressing to the next round.

Metalist opened the scoring after just 20 seconds when the lively Taison capitalised on a defensive mix-up and rounded goalkeeper Alexander Walke to slot the ball into the net with minimal fuss.

The gifted Brazilian put in a man-of-the-match performance last night. Taison epitomised the exciting, slick attacking brand of football Metalist are playing right now and he had a hand in both of Jonathan Cristaldo’s goals. Substitute Marko Dević completed the rout in injury time with a neat finish.

The hills are alive with the sound of Metalist celebrating

What little attention Ukrainian football receives in the UK centres chiefly around Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv, but below the “big two” Metalist have made healthy inroads over the last few years in establishing themselves as a genuine third force.

The bronze medal has been theirs for five seasons on the trot now, and considering they command a 14-point lead over Juande Ramos’ Dnipropetrovsk with just 10 games remaining, that will surely be the minimum Metalist achieve in this campaign too. Four points separate them and second-placed Shakhtar, whom Metalist beat 2-1 at the Donbass Arena in October.

Progress domestically has been mirrored on the continent and this is the third time in four years that the Metalworkers, as the club’s name translates in English, have reached the knockout stages of the Europa League.

They're unbeaten in nine European matches now and in three of those Metalist have scored four times. Four more in Austria brought their total to 19 Europa League goals this season, meaning Metalist are the highest-scoring side in the competition.

Hailing from Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, in the north-east of the country just a few miles from the Russian border, Metalist are one of the league’s oldest teams – but success only really arrived after Oleksandr Yaroslavsky assumed the presidency in 2006; during the Soviet era their only success was a domestic cup in 1988.

Policeman-turned-businessman Yaroslavsky is a dollar billionaire who has invested a tidy sum in his hometown club over the past six years. Metalist’s 41,000-capacity stadium will also host Euro 2012 games this summer. The Metalist Arena – known locally as the Spider Arena on account of its unique roof support structure – was renovated and reopened in time for Yaroslavsky’s 50th birthday in 2009; it was an event attended by Ukraine’s president and prime minister.

The other key figure central to Metalist’s success is their manager, Myron Markevych. He has spent time shadowing Fabio Capello, Carlo Ancelotti and Christophe Daum and their expertise has clearly rubbed off on him. An erudite and intelligent man fluent in several languages, Markevych is arguably the best Ukrainian coach around at the moment with over 500 Premier League matches under his belt.

The 61-year-old has Metalist playing an aesthetically pleasing, fluid style of football with more than a hint of South American flair to it, much like Shakhtar. Five Argentinians started the match in Austria with another on the bench, while Metalist also have a quintet of Brazilians on their books.

Markevych: acquisitionally open-minded

Mircea Lucescu’s transfer policy at Shakhtar is focused solely upon creative, young attacking types, but Markevych doesn’t impose such limits on himself and Argentinian centre-back Marco Torsiglieri has been an authoritative figure for Metalist this season.

One of the questions many fans were wondering was how Metalist would cope with the loss of key midfielder Denys Oliynyk (there were rumours the Ukrainian international wanted financial parity with the club’s South American contingent), who became one of Ramos’ expensive recruits at Dnipro – but José Ernesto Sosa has excelled and Cleiton Xavier looks another shrewd acquisition.

To fend off interest from Santos, the Brazilian was handed a new contract and the captain’s armband. The 28-year-old is one of the best attacking midfielders in the Premier League and his loss would have represented a serious blow.

Captain Cleiton, the Brazilian boss

This focus on South America means one criticism often levelled at Metalist is just how un-Ukrainian they are. There was speculation ahead of yesterday’s game that Markevych was going to field a team with no ethnic Ukrainians in the starting XI at all.

Premier League rules state that clubs must start with no more than seven foreign players, but three of Metalist’s Ukrainians have been naturalised and in the past when Markevych coached the national team, and the word was that Senegalese defender Papa Gueye would also be changing citizenship.

As it was, Markevych picked one Ukrainian, Kharkiv-born goalkeeper Oleksandr Goryainov, and there were another couple on the bench. He cited a lack of domestic options when recently quizzed about the subject, but for now the talk isn't of nationalities, but of trophies.

A genuine three-horse race picks up again soon when the Premier League emerges from its winter break and in Europe their adventure looks set to continue as well. It remains to be seen whether they have the ability to juggle both, but this could be a very exciting conclusion to the season for Metalist.

The race card, JT & Rio, Fabio & Harry, and George & Mildred

Iffy Onuora — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:11:00 GMT

Our manager-for-hire and roving reporter Iffy Onuora continues his ramble round the football landscape – and it's a bit slippy...

Hello there and welcome back from the cold – literally: as temperatures in the People’s Republic of Bristol soared from last week's Baltic depths into the balmy Med-like eight degrees.

And what of the footballing landscape since last we were together? Well my winter bunker didn’t allow me to escape the fact that there have been one or two race incidents of late circulating. I emerged blinking into a spring-like haze convinced it was 1985 again, with everyone reaching for the race card.

I think we shouldn’t let this window of opportunity pass us by. Why not scour the BBC and ITV archives and resurrect those bastions of cultural awareness Love Thy Neighbour and Mind Your Language? (Younger readers should ask their elders, or skip a couple of paragraphs…)

You may laugh, but with more time on his hands than any man should really have, a cursory flick through the daytime TV wasteland revealed that ITV4 was repeating George and Mildred, a 1970s cultural icon about a hectored buffoon and his frustrated aspirational housewife.

It was rubbish then and if you can appreciate that time hasn’t done it any further favours, I think it’s safe to assume that its place in the pantheon of British TV is less than assured.

George and Mildred: Iffy TV

Where was I? (Well, quite… – Ed) Ah yes, the race card. All a little depressing and there's no need for me to add to the column inches, other than to say that I did wonder exactly how long I had been in my Bristol bunker – especially when I passed a nearby 80s retro night and had to fight temptation to don my MC Hammer baggy pants (kids, I’m on way back now, honestly!)

Of far more interest is the imminent arrival of Sir Harry of Redknapp as the next TOTHAAIHP (Target Of Tabloid Hatred After An Initial Honeymoon Period), aka England manager. I’m happy to add my small voice to support his coronation, but I’m just as interested in what the repercussions will be for him and some of the players.

For the latter, I think he’ll be a breath of fresh air after what was clearly a stifling influence under the previous TOTHAAIHP, Fabio Capello. In my humble experience, the arrival of a dominating figure like Capello can work on a short-term basis before the very attributes of forcefulness start to grate.

Did the sergeant-major schtick lose its effect?

Despite the one-dimensional nature of Sir Alex Ferguson’s public image, his great strength is undoubtedly an ability to relate on a human level with multimillionaires, some of whom could be his grandchildren. For all his qualities as a football man (and as someone younger than Sir Alex), Capello never struck me as someone who could do the same. You can argue all you like about cosseted players and youngsters generally, but that’s one genie that WON'T be going back into the bottle anytime soon.

Man-management is the one quality at international level that’s needed more than any other, and it's a quality abundantly found in Sir Harry. (I’m pre-judging here, looking forward to winning Euro 2012 against the odds, and a country basking in patriotic Olympic fervour.)

That’s not to say that beneath the charm Sir Harry’s not got a ruthless streak. Plenty of player have felt an icy blast across the bows in the past having crossed him, like Darren Bent, unfavourably compared to Sir Harry’s wife in terms of chances taken.

The make-up of the squad will be fascinating. I don’t think the Ferdinand-Terry axis will cause problems, as some suggest. A quick pre-tournament hatchet-burying will suffice: the lure of one last major tournament for both players will be enough to let things be forgotten, if not forgiven, for the duration. After that, and with the Terry court case in July, all other bets are off.

Will JT and Rio bury the hatchet for a month?

The great Paul Scholes has also been mentioned – and watching him strut his still considerable stuff, it’s no surprise, and confirmation that class is permanent. Xavi, Iniesta and others may be too much for him – but group opponents Sweden, France and Ukraine? In the possible absence of his heir apparent Jack Wilshere, it would be a great option – and having retired prematurely, the chance of a final swansong may be irresistible for such a competitive character.

At the other end of the spectrum, there’s the possibility of Arsenal’s young tyro Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain making it on to the plane. It would certainly make more sense than Theo Walcott going to Germany in 2006. Oxlade-Chamberlain certainly has the edge on the 17-year-old Walcott – in fact seasoned Arsenal observers suggest that he may already have the edge on the current 23-year-old Walcott.

It will be a fascinating watch, and may come down to each player’s versatility in different positions. How ironic it may be if the current Tottenham manager can coax the best out of Walcott – possibly playing in a more central role for his country – than the current Arsenal manager, for whom he remains an enigma. Let’s not forget that Sir Harry managed Walcott at Southampton for a brief period too.

"Triffic, Feo!"

There will be other selections to ponder, and no doubt Sir Harry will be lauded in some quarters, derided in others for the bold/conservative/mystifying nature of his selections. He’ll know that already and be ready for it, and his experience will count for much in handling it. His prominent family grounding will serve him well here, and I wonder if his son Jamie may take up a role in the background, respected player and pundit that he is.

And although I don’t expect to see a place for Lady Redknapp in the backroom staff, there must surely be a place for Rosie the dog. She was surely the undoubted star of the court case – so dress her up in a St George's coat and pretend she’s a bulldog, and we’re laughing!

– Iffy

Exclusive: Rayo boss Sandoval on miracles, Madrid and what Fernando Torres should do

Tim Stannard — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:48:00 GMT

If ever a manager had a tough job, it’s José Ramón Sandoval at Rayo Vallecano. Last season, the club’s entire future depended on achieving promotion to la Primera with a squad of players who weren’t being paid. This season, the job is to keep a club in administration in la Primera on a budget dwarfed by competitors.

So far, it’s mission accomplished with the Madrid side well away from the relegation zone and four points from the Champions League places with just over half the campaign gone. In an exclusive interview with FourFourTwo, the Rayo boss talks about how he survived last year’s struggle in la Segunda, the secret of Rayo’s success, Spain’s Euro 2012 chances, and how his enormous passion for English football may one day take him to the Premier League.

FFT: How did you motivate your players to win promotion last season when most weren’t being paid?
I put into place ideas from amateur football. The one thing I enjoyed about last year is my belief that football is about teamwork, effort and commitment. This is what motivates you, as it’s more than your own personal world or contracts or anything else.

Last year, when the players weren’t getting paid, I would go down to the dressing room and listen to their problems. I got to know their personal lives and problems, and I studied a lot when I got home. I got to know their world. When the results improved along with their self-esteem, it was all worth it. We made a conscious decision to isolate ourselves and form a common block between the coach and the players.

I have a background in lower-league football and if there’s one thing that’s forgotten in the professional world it’s what it’s like in amateur football, where players play because they want to and have passion. You mustn’t lose this desire of reaching the summit. When a player becomes a professional he needs to keep thinking about playing for a better team, being a better player. This can only be done through hard work and humility.

The message we spread in the dressing was "It’s possible". They would say "But boss, it’s not". That phrase became a motto in the dressing room. If you're looking for a result, then this message works.

Sandoval (foreground) spreads the good word

Were you nervous ahead of the first Primera match, at Athletic Bilbao? Did you know what to expect from your team?
I'm probably more ambitious than anyone else in the dressing room, but it can be contagious. I knew that with the players we'd brought in we could achieve our minimum goal, which was staying up. It was a difficult pre-season as we were in administration and there were players who weren’t training. The methods we used were to raise self-esteem and confidence. They way we involved the players was to say if you want to achieve something, you can do it.

The Athletic game was my first in la Primera, in a stadium that I love and where I wanted to make my debut. The confidence I had in my players was that if things went badly we’d reinvoke the spirit of last year: if you want to do it, you can. You have to keep believing in the players, even if you are in a higher division. We signed footballers who identified with our philosophy. We were much stronger out on the pitch than Athletic Bilbao because the players wanted it more.

Movilla at 37 didn’t want to retire, Lass at 17 wants to get better, Michu was a player at Celta and he shares my spirit, the spirit of the second division. Seven players, I think, made their la Primera debuts – but we were playing against a team in a similar situation with a new coach and new players.

One of those players you brought in was Dani Pacheco on loan from Liverpool. How is he progressing?
The Spanish rate players on the present rather than the past. He’s come from Liverpool, but didn’t really play for Liverpool. We're looking to get the best out of Dani Pacheco: up until now he’s had injuries so hasn’t been able to get going.

But it’s important that a player knows where he is. He’s at Rayo now, he has to work like a Rayo player. If not, then you won’t play. So we're working a lot with him on a psychological level and getting over to him what the spirit of Rayo Vallecano is, as he needs to identify himself with the badge. Even if you have a lot of quality, if you don’t play the way I want then you aren’t going to be included.

In contrast, Michu is having a fantastic season...
With patience, he could make the Spanish side. It’s a bit early to be thinking about Euro 2012, as we're talking about players in the team who are playing in the Champions League. But he’s someone that Vicente Del Bosque can look at afterwards. He’s strong going forward and works hard in defence. He has incredible strength in the air. He’d be an interesting player for the Premier League.

Michu (2nd right): "Yaaaaaaaay!"

What about you – would you like to coach in England one day?
It’s somewhere I’d like to end my career. I’ve got a great passion for English football. I watch everything I can, highlights and live games. I’m addicted to football! I’m passionate about everything to do with the English league. But it’s really important to speak English as I’m someone who’s at their best when I can connect with the players. Managing any team in England is one of my dreams.

Can you imagine a coach being in charge in Spain for 25 years like Sir Alex Ferguson?
It’s impossible in Spanish culture. I’d like it if it was. There’s no patience here: results rule, but in England it’s different. The supporters in England have a love and passion for what happens out on the pitch and it’s not just about the results. There’s isn’t much patience here. If a coach lost a Champions League game like Ferguson did [against Basle] he’d be out in the street in Spain.

Does La Liga have a future without a fairer redistribution of TV rights?
Everything in life must have balance. If you are going to have a fair league you need a balance in budgets and help for those teams with less resources. If not, it’ll become a league of two. This year, Real Madrid and Barcelona know how to compete against each other, but imagine if there were five teams who could fight against each other?

"How's YOUR recession?"

In the Belgian league, for example, a team reaches the Champions League and it doesn’t know how to compete. Rayo are a team with a budget of €7m competing with a team with €450m: it’s not good for the spectator. There needs to be more balance with budgets and the share of TV money.

The reference is the Premier League in the quality of players, organisation, the TV money share, the timetables. The fans are super happy because they can plan their trips to see their team. We need to be more professional in Spain. England is an example for everyone.

What would your advice be for Fernando Torres?
I’d tell him to stay in England, but he needs to work with a coach who understands him. Moving from one team to another was a big change for him. He has a lot of responsibility but what he needs is patience to make mistakes. His technique and intelligence are perfect for England. If I was coaching him he would be a team player. People demand that he’s a defining player, and he isn’t. At Liverpool, he scored a lot but he also set up a lot of goals. He was a reference for Liverpool. It was a shame when he moved to Chelsea. The fans didn’t want it.

Would you take him to the European Championships?
He has to go. He’s a key player for Del Bosque, but I don’t know if he’s a starter. Del Bosque looks at the group as a whole; Torres has won everything with him and he’s a key player for him.

"Well, that's nice to hear"

Who would be in your Spain XI for Euro 2012?
Spain's problem is that there are no fixed full-backs, so I think Sergio Ramos needs to play at right-back. Javi Martínez is doing very well at Athletic Bilbao and could be a candidate in the centre.

I’d take Roberto Soldado and Fernando Llorente as they offer different things and take Fernando Torres too. It’s great for Spain to be going into the European Championships with these three strikers. The front trio depends a lot on what Del Bosque wants. David Silva could play, or Juan Mata, or Andres Iniesta. It’s the system of play will decide who starts, but which ever footballer players it’s a luxury for a the Spanish team.

With Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets, Spain’s central midfield is the best in the world. Spain’s success comes from having phases when you can play Iniesta or Silva or Mata and get numerical superiority up front, then you have Sergio Ramos coming up-field, that’s going to be important. I think Del Bosque has been looking a lot at our left-back Jose Manuel Casado, he’s having a great campaign for Rayo and could be a key part of the Spanish side in the future.

Back to la Liga: do you think Unai Emery has the toughest job? Valencia can never make the top two but won’t go below third.
The fans there are very demanding, but they’re not looking for Valencia to win the league. What they want is for the team to be brave, to attack, to go toe-to-toe with Barcelona and Madrid. But it’s impossible to have the same quality of players as Madrid and Barcelona with their budget. Being third is being top of our league.

You have to see things as being half-full. If I was in charge of a team of this calibre, my first message would be "Win the league? Why not?" My first message at Rayo last season was "Promotion to la Primera". People thought I was mad, but I believed Rayo could go up. My first message this season is that Rayo must be here next year.

But my second message is to go for something more, although it’s difficult to say to the fans: to get Rayo into the Europa League. With hard work, anything is possible. But you have to have a great team, work 24 hours a day and study a lot. In the end, it’s just 11 against 11 when you play the opposition. Any match can be won, any match.

Sunderland's big-team plan and Spurs' surprise iron man

Michael Cox — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:32:00 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...

The only all-Premier League tie in the FA Cup this weekend sees Arsenal travelling up to Sunderland for the second consecutive weekend, after Thierry Henry’s late winner snatched a 2-1 victory at the Stadium of Light last Saturday.

FIXTURES (click team name for web-wide club news feed): Sat 18 Feb 12.30pm Chelsea v Birmingham City (Live on ESPN) 3pm Everton v Blackpool; Norwich City v Leicester City; Millwall v Bolton Wanderers 5.15pm Sunderland v Arsenal (Live on ITV) Sun 19 Feb 12noon Crawley Town v Stoke City (Live on ESPN) 2pm Stevenage v Tottenham Hotspur (Live on ITV) 4.30pm Liverpool v Brighton & Hove Albion (Live on ESPN)

Arsenal would usually be expected to dominate possession in this meeting, but last weekend’s statistics were particularly surprising. Sunderland attempted only 149 passes in the opposition half, fewer than any other side that weekend, while Mikel Arteta became the first Arsenal player this season to attempt more than 100 passes in one game.

Martin O’Neill’s approach against big teams is to sit very deep – and though it didn’t completely work last weekend, the pattern of passes played in the final third by both teams shows that Arsenal struggled to play passes to a position on the edge of the ‘D’. Sunderland focused more on long balls.

Birmingham versus Chelsea isn’t an all-Premier League tie – but it was last season, and at St Andrews Birmingham recorded one of the most unlikely Premier League victories of 2011/12.

The home side recorded just three shots in that game; two were blocked, the other was a cool finish by Lee Bowyer past Petr Cech for the game’s only goal. Amazingly, Birmingham managed to keep a clean sheet despite 32 Chelsea shots.

The task this weekend will be much more difficult, not least because Birmingham are now a Championship club – but also because this game is at Stamford Bridge, where they lost last season. But with last year’s experience, plus Chelsea in a poor run of form and Birmingham unbeaten, could this fixture be a potential shock?

FEATURE, Fri 17 Feb: Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal set for FA Cup trouble – Jon Champion

We can also look to last season for a previous Everton versus Blackpool fixture – and a very fine one in which Everton ran out 5-3 winners. No Premier League match last season saw more than eight goals, and only two other games equalled it.

However, most of the goalscorers from that day have been transferred away – Louis Saha and Jermaine Beckford were the contributors to Everton’s five, while Liverpool’s Charlie Adam and Southampton’s Jason Puncheon were on target for Blackpool. Only Alex Baptiste remains, and is likely to start at the back for Blackpool.

Stevenage’s game with Tottenham is likely to be billed as a potential giantkilling, but Spurs are in a good run of form and won 5-0 against Newcastle last weekend. While the attackers inevitably got most of the credit for that performance, Tottenham also competed well in midfield, where the duo of Scott Parker and Luka Modric won 10 of their 12 attempted tackles throughout the game.

Parker’s tenacity is an obvious part of his game, but Modric is a much better player defensively than often given credit for, and it’s unlikely that the two will be bullied by the physical power of a lower league midfield.

FEATURE, Fri 17 Feb: Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal set for FA Cup trouble – Jon Champion

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Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal set to face FA Cup trouble

Jon Champion — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:23:00 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.

It's the last 16 of the FA Cup this weekend, and it's a very well-balanced draw. Each of the ties includes a Premier League club, yet there's only one all-Premier tie: Sunderland-Arsenal.

FIXTURES (click team name for web-wide club news feed): Sat 18 Feb 12.30pm Chelsea v Birmingham City (Live on ESPN) 3pm Everton v Blackpool; Norwich City v Leicester City; Millwall v Bolton Wanderers 5.15pm Sunderland v Arsenal Sun 19 Feb 12noon Crawley Town v Stoke City (Live on ESPN) 2pm Stevenage v Tottenham Hotspur 4.30pm Liverpool v Brighton & Hove Albion (Live on ESPN)

For me, the two ties that stand out are Crawley-Stoke and Stevenage-Tottenham. Two years ago, they would have been non-league against Premier League.

Stevenage have history in the Cup: as recently as last year they knocked out Newcastle on a memorable day at Broadhall Way. Since then they've lost their manager Graham Westley who built the team, and they have Gary Smith in charge, but they're still very much playing the same way.
Tottenham could be a tougher nut to crack than Newcastle and but it's an intriguing cup tie that will really test the visiting players because Broadhall Way will be packed. The London side are lucky in that they have such strength in depth that they could field a second XI that would still be a match for most Premiership teams, and ultimately I would fancy them to go through. But it really is a fascinating occasion.

From Broadhall Way to Broadfield Stadium, and Crawley-Stoke is another fascinating tie. Having been there last year when they knocked Derby out, I think Crawley are good enough to give Stoke a run for their money – especially as Stoke are on such a bad run.
Crawley boss Steve Evans is a wily old manager and he’s a man that can build a team. Last year, he told me he thought they were a League One side playing in the Conference. Now they're a point off the top of League Two and I think they're good enough to play in the lower half of the Championship.
Crawley have a puncher's chance because Stoke had been on a downward curve in the last two months. It's a blessing in disguise that they've been drawn against Valencia in the Europa League; we've seen how their European adventure has impacted their league form.
Ultimately Stoke's first aim will always be to stay in the Premier League – so they can almost go out valiantly against Valencia, one of the bigger names in Europe, and say “Look, we’ve had a good season in Europe. Now let’s go out and focus on the Premier League.” Having had a taste of Wembley last season, I think for them, the FA Cup now is a priority, but it isn’t for Tottenham.

It seems as though every game is vital for Chelsea's Andre Villas-Boas right now, and Birmingham at home comes into that category. I don't think this is a foregone conclusion by any means: Birmingham beat Chelsea in the league last season and are on a good run – unbeaten in 13 games, they haven’t lost in 2012, and they’ve only conceded 27 goals in 30 Championship matches this season.
Chelsea will struggle to break them down. Fernando Torres isn’t scoring, Daniel Sturridge seems unhappy. Rumour has it that only Jose Bosingwa, David Luiz and Ramires are truly behind the manager and the rest wouldn’t be bothered if there was a managerial change. Birmingham have what it takes to go there and frustrate them so I think it could be another awkward lunchtime for Villas-Boas.

Arsenal go to Sunderland for the second time in a week, this time without Thierry Henry and most of their central defenders, with Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny both picking up injuries during the last two games. For those reasons, I fancy Sunderland to get their revenge after that late Premier League defeat last weekend.
Arsenal are heading in the wrong direction. They're going to struggle to hold on to a top-four place and Sunderland are very mobile under Martin O’Neill. Young James McClean has been an outstanding find and they have Fraizer Campbell back now as well. I fancy them to beat Arsenal – and to be a side nobody will want to play in the last eight.

Liverpool's tie against Brighton is one for the purists, but again anything but a foregone conclusion. Liverpool have drawn so many at home and Brighton, though perhaps lucky to edge past Newcastle in the last round, are a very good team.
I’ve seen them a few times now and they play in a very attractive way under Gus Poyet. They’ve taken Sam Vokes on loan from Wolves and he’s looking very much the part. They won at Anfield in the Fifth Round in 1983, they'll take 6,000 fans there and I just think they’re good enough to really take a few punches at Liverpool.

The most attractive tie of the round could be Everton against Blackpool. Blackpool's replay win in the last round at Sheffield Wednesday was tremendous. They played a mixture of first teams and reserves but they played like Barcelona! Matt Phillips, Kevin Phillips, Lomana LuaLua and Thomas Ince played as an astonishing ‘fab four’.
They'll see this as a way of playing their way back onto the Premier League stage and though Everton have made some good signings in the January transfer window, rather like Brighton and Liverpool the day before, I think the Merseyside club will have a lot to do to knock out Championship opposition.

Bolton will probably just want out of the cup now to focus on their Premier League survival campaign. They tend to have a couple of good results, then three or four really bad ones. And that win against Liverpool, which looked like a turning point, now seems to be a long time ago.
Millwall are an unheralded side. They have a player in Liam Trotter who I really like and he really holds their midfield together. I fancy Millwall to get the result against Bolton. I can’t imagine Owen Coyle is going to play the full first team and we may well see Millwall’s name in the last eight because of that.

Finally, Leicester visit Norwich – but which Norwich? If it's the one that hosted MK Dons in the League Cup and lost 4-1, Leicester will win. If it’s the Premier League Norwich then you have to fancy the home side will have too much for the visitors. Leicester players like David Nugent, Kasper Schmeichel and Matt Mills would all sit quite comfortably in the Premier League, so if Norwich have a bad day Leicester will go through but otherwise I think you’d have to fancy the Canaries as firm favourites.

Jon Champion is lead football commentator for ESPN, broadcaster of the FA Cup. ESPN will provide live and exclusive coverage from three FA Cup Fifth Round matches: Chelsea v Birmingham City (Saturday from 11.30am), Crawley Town v Stoke City (Sunday from 11.30am) and Liverpool v Brighton & Hove Albion (Sunday from 3.45pm).

La Preview – Sevilla’s French middle finger, Marca’s maths and Piqué’s pique

Tim Stannard — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:13:00 GMT

SATURDAY

Getafe (12th) v Espanyol (5th) – 18.00 (local time)
Whilst Rayo are busy raising ticket prices, across town Getafe are dropping them to get more than a handful of fans into the Coliseum for Saturday’s Espanyol clash. Last week, LLL reported that tickets were being given away to supporters who spend more than €40 in the club shop, although the blog doubts there's anything in the club kiosk worth paying more than €40 for. A night out with Dani Güiza, perhaps.

AS report that Getafe are going a step further for the weekend’s clash by dropping the price for the cheapest ticket to €30, prompting speculation as to why that isn’t the usual price anyway, considering Getafe matches have hardly been thrilling affairs of late.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Real Madrid (1st) v Racing Santander (18th) – 20.00
This week, Marca were able to veer away from their 10-point-lead-inspired "Real Madrid / Mourinho / Ronaldo is blooming fantastic" editorial theme to trumpet the publication of the paper’s 25,000th edition – a fine achievement. But this got the egg-heads at the ever-excellent Spanish sports media watchers La Libreta de Van Gaal a little suspicious.

La Libreta managed to dig out the front cover of Marca’s 20,000th edition from November 1st 2003. So according to Marca’s maths, they've published 5,000 editions in around 3,000 days – prolific, to say the least.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Sevilla (13th) v Osasuna (8th) – 22.00
You’d have thought that those footballing folks at Sevilla would be far too busy bedding in new manager Míchel while desperately spinning the message to fans that the former Getafe coach is the right man for the job and not an evil Madridista at heart.

But it appears that there was still time to have a pop at the French, currently Spain's bad guys after a satirical puppet show made unsubtle suggestions that all of Spain’s greatest sporting triumphs stemmed from some naughty medicinal help.

The likes of Marca and AS and even the Spanish government registered their displeasure – and for Míchel's debut at Real Sociedad, Sevilla sent the team out wearing shirts emblazoned with the logo “liberté, egalité, superiority”.

Technically, that kind of naughtiness is very much against FIFA regulations and is punishable if the referee reports it – but the man in the middle failed to take note, for some reason.
LLL Prediction – Home win

SUNDAY

Granada (17th) v Real Sociedad (11th) – 12.00
Last season, there was an awful lot of talk about the fine performances of Xabi Prieto, la Real’s impressive playmaker. Indeed there was even ‘Spanish international’ talk wafting in the wind at one point. This year, Prieto has been considerably quieter – but the midfielder bucked up his tactical ideas at last during Monday’s 2-0 win over Sevilla. “It was my best performance, but it wasn’t hard to beat the games I’ve played up to now,” he said, with commendable honesty.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Athletic Bilbao (6th) v Málaga (7th) – 16.00
There were helpful graphics appearing in Thursday's sports papers informing readers of how Athletic would be handle the freezing temperatures of Moscow in their Europa League tie with Lokomotiv; these ingenious measures included wearing things called gloves to keep their Basque handies warm. In the end, it wasn’t enough, with the Ruskies taking a 2-1 lead back to Bilbao for the second leg.

Atlético Madrid and Valencia kept the Spanish end up, as it were: the Rojiblancos gave Johnny Italian something to think about with a 3-1 win at Lazio, while Unai Emery’s men won 1-0 at Stoke thanks to a Mehmet Topal piledriver. “Football is played with your feet,” noted a sniffy Marca the next morning.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Sporting (19th) v Atlético Madrid (6th) – 18.00
Last week, the word on the Sporting street was that former No.2 Iñaki Tejada would replace Manuel Preciado after the longserving coach was dumped by the club. This is no longer the case. Instead, Sporting have appointed la Primera's prickliest figure, Javier Clemente; the Basque barnstormer is now in charge of his ninth club in Spain.

The message from Clemente when unveiled to the media and fans on Tuesday was very similar to that of Diego Simeone, the coach of Sunday’s opponents: “I’m going to ask [the players] for hard work, effort and sacrifice.” Fancy football is definitely going to be off the menu for Sporting who are currently six points from safety. “I’m not going to lose too much time looking at how to play pretty football. What’s most important is to be positive and win,” promised Clemente.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Mallorca (16th) v Villarreal (15th) – 18.00
A revival in form for the inspirational figure of Borja Valero has lead to a revival in form for Villarreal, who have now gone four matches unbeaten. It has also lead to a revival in stories concerning the midfielder moving to a bigger and better world next season – the Santiago Bernabeu. “They're talking about Real Madrid now,” chuckled the former WBA footballer. “It was Barça before. But I don’t think they are going to pay millions and millions for me,” said Borja with quaint modesty.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Levante (4th) v Rayo Vallecano (10th) – 19.45
Despite an impressive protest in the stands during Sunday’s clash with Getafe, the Rayo fans have lost a battle against the owners over the 'Day of the Club' against Real Madrid next week – the tradition that sees season ticket holders having to pay extra for their seat, normally in matches against the league leaders and Barcelona.

This year, socios will have to pay an extra €25 with the promise that there will be a reward some time next season. But as one fan noted to LLL, supporters were aware of the ‘Day of the Club’ plans at the beginning of the current campaign, so there wasn’t too much they could do it about it any way.
LLL Prediction – Home win

Barcelona (2nd) v Valencia (1st) – 21.30
“Pep and Piqué, sitting in a tree, F-I-G-H-T-I-N-G”. That’s the infantile vibe coming out of Catalunya this week after the centre-back was punished for a lamentable display against Osasuna in la Liga by being made to sit in the stands during Barça’s 3-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen. Reports are that Guardiola is not happy at all with his defender, due to his high-profile relationship with Shakira, footage of him rafting during his summer holidays, and playing football like a spanner.

However, Piqué’s apparent displeasure at being dropped from the team – and that of the footballer’s father José towards the manager – is a big positive for the pair, says a straw-grasping Joan Vehils in Thursday’s Sport. “The worrying thing would be if Piqué was happy to be in the stands and his father happy to fly to Germany and not see his son play.”
LLL Prediction – Home win

MONDAY

Zaragoza (20th) v Betis (14th) – 21.00
Least surprising headline of the week in the Spanish sports press concerned Zaragoza owner and president Agapito Iglesias, a gentleman who let’s just say has his fingers in all kinds of different pies. “Iglesias being investigated by tax authorities,” reports AS, concerning oddness during the sale of midfielder Ander Herrera from Zaragoza to Athletic Bilbao over the summer.
LLL Prediction – Draw

Zambia answer the call of destiny

Jonathan Fadugba — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:58:00 GMT

When he saw the shot sail wide he could take it no more. Already on his knees with the rest of the team, hanging on in quiet desperation, all Didier Drogba could do was slump to the floor, a physically and emotionally exhausted heap. The game was surely up.

After 120 tense minutes of football that ebbed and flowed, two hours of suspense in which Lady Destiny seemed to sway indecisively between Ivory Coast and Zambia, Gervinho missed. Stoppila Sunzu stepped up to take the 18th penalty to win the game. He smashed it home. Zambia were champions, and with it one of the most remarkable tales of redemption football has ever told was complete.

What followed were moments of emotion pure enough to rival any in Africa Cup of Nations history. Joy, smiles, tears, glory, kinship, unity. James Chamanga pounded the air in sheer delight before weeping uncontrollably. Kennedy Mweene charged off, clearing the advertising board like an Olympic hurdler. Team coach Herve Renard carried Joseph Musonda, too wounded to walk having gone off injured after 10 minutes, to pray with his ecstatic teammates.

Just a few miles from the site at which 30 people – including 18 members of the national team – lost their lives in a tragic plane crash 19 years earlier, Christopher Katongo lifted the trophy for Zambia. The banner in the crowd read “Zambia Chipolopolo: Honouring the Gabon crash heroes in style. AFCON 2012 Champs.” Against the backdrop of a desperately painful past, this was a life-affirming tale of atonement.

The significance of the occasion was not lost on Zambia's players. After the game came tears of joy as players recognised their role in this incredible story. "The win is very emotional,” midfielder Isaac Chansa wept. “Yes it [the air crash] played a part, we believed that if the final will be in Libreville this will be ours this time around. Like the coach said, it was written somewhere that we will win it.”

Chansa fulfils destiny

Golden Boot winner Emmanuel Mayuka was near speechless. “A voice inside me told me that this was our day, that the cup would be ours. I don't know what to say. It's indescribable. Only God has made this possible. We thank him with all our hearts.”

To put this unforgettable triumph into context it is worth remembering just how unlikely it was first considered. Even without the likes of Egypt, Nigeria and Cameroon, Zambia had gone into this tournament as 50/1 outsiders. The 2-1 opening win over Senegal alone was described as 'stunning'. To reach the final therefore was an exceptional achievement. To win it, a fairytale.

"This is something enormous – something that appeared unrealisable before the competition began," said coach Renard, now a hero to the Zambian people in his second spell in charge. "I told them if we got to the final we would play in Gabon where the plane crashed. There was a special significance in that. They found the strength. I don't know where."

Renard is a shining example of a foreign coach that has embraced the history and background of his adopted nation. No sooner had the Frenchman received his winner's medal than he took it off his neck and placed it on that of Kalusha Bwalya, president of the Zambian FA and central figure of the 1993 team.

Renard and Bwalya embrace in triumph

Bwalya's dreams were finally fulfilled in Libreville and it was a touching and heartwarming moment to see him lift the trophy he spent decades pursuing in honour of his fallen team-mates. “He is the best Zambian player of the last century and he escaped the plane crash,” said Renard. “He was criticised for giving me the second chance. I dedicate the victory to him because he gave me the opportunity to coach.”

Fitting too was the presence of former Zambian president and godfather of independence Kenneth Kaunda, flown out especially for the final; a man who so enthusiastically followed football during his presidential reign between 1964 and 1991 that he often attended random lower-league matches out of sheer love for the game. Before the Chipolopolo nickname, Zambia were known as the 'KK XI' in tribute to their pioneering former leader.

Kaunda gets his hands on the trophy

In a presidential address, recently elected Zambian president Michael Sata was exuberant in his praise for the squad. “You have really honoured your departed colleagues who perished during the course of national duty off the coast of Gabon. To the coaches, team management, Football Association of Zambia executive and everybody involved, I say it is a job well done.”

Celebrating a job well done might be the only priority for many Zambians in the coming days and weeks. But when the dust settles they can anticipate an exciting future following the Chipolopolo. Not only are Zambia African champions, they also possess a team full of young, newly-successful talent with ample room for growth.

In defenders Chisamba Lungu and Sunzu, the graceful Nathan Sinkala and the highly gifted striker Mayuka there exists a spine that could well be in place for the next decade, and already they possess the invaluable experience of winning a major tournament. Others are emerging, like 17-year-old Evans Kangwa.

When appointed president of Zambia's FA in 2008 Bwalya said his dream was “that Zambia should one day be able to go to the World Cup.” Never has that goal seemed more attainable.

Perhaps we will see the Chipolopolo at Brazil 2014. What matters now though is that in 2012, in Gabon of all places, Zambia completed a journey so remarkable it felt touched by the hands of destiny.

Milan and Ibra prove a point to rivals across Europe

Richard Whittle — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:38:00 GMT

Wednesday turned into a double evening of delight for AC Milan – a demolition of Arsenal in the Champions League on the back of Juventus failing to regain top spot in the league following their goalless draw at Parma.

No Italian team had won by such a wide margin against an English club since Milan recorded the same 4-0 scoreline against Manchester United back in 1958.

The Rossoneri have always felt that they are the true representatives of all that is good about Italian football and they certainly proved that against what the local press en masse felt was a “timid” Arsenal. But in a country where few youngsters get the chance to shine in Europe – Stephan El Shaarawy was left on the bench throughout the 90 minutes – they did applaud Arsene Wenger for fielding such a youthful side, although they questioned why weren’t there more English players in the team.

FEATURE: Fear the Pharoah, not the Duck

Maybe he had little other choice and despite Arsenal lacking that renowned English spirit of never giving up, it was a Milan performance of another era and the victory ranks up there with the 3-0 mauling of Manchester United in 2007, although nowhere near the 5-0 humiliation of Real Madrid in 1989.

These memorable results all came in the European Cup/Champions League and for one player in particular letting go of what he described as his “obsession” in lifting the trophy may well lead to getting closer to actually getting his hands on it after all.

We're talking of course about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who produced his best-ever European display taking into account the supposed quality of the opposition.

The Swede hasn't been in the best of moods in a domestic league where opponents like Napoli and Juventus know how to get under his skin. However, against what could be termed more “sporting” opposition, who were less inclined to indulge in shirt-pulling and verbal abuse, he was left free to get on with the top of terrorising them at every turn.

Virtually impossible to mark as he dropped deep or drifted out wide, Ibra set up two and deservedly bagged one after winning a penalty for the fourth and final goal. It could have been six if Alexandre Pato had not been wasteful on two occasions late on.

AbracadIbra: head and shoulders above Van Persie and Henry

The Brazilian was introduced as a late substitute but the damage had already been done – and a clear message sent out to Massimiliano Allegri: you'll get even more from Ibra if he is paired alongside Robinho and Kevin Prince Boateng.

The two Premier League rejects showed England that their careers had moved on seamlessly since leaving Manchester City and Portsmouth. In fact, Robinho surprised even the home support by scoring twice and generally toying with the Gunners’ defence.

However, it was the sharp interplay between the three that really provided the launching pad for this impressive display, with Boateng’s stunning volley getting proceedings off with a bang.

From there Robinho was wriggling his way all over the frontline, but always looking out for the towering figure of Ibra – who returned the favour by setting up the Brazilian twice.

The plaudits in the Italian press were mainly for those two stars, but at the back Thiago Silva must have finally won over everyone that he is the best defender in Europe, if not the world. Milan must do everything now to ensure that Barcelona’s reported interest does not start to gather momentum.

If the seven-time continental champions want to continue holding their own among Europe’s elite then they need to retain such start quality. Certainly that's what they did on Wednesday, banishing the memories of last year's Tottenham defeat and sending out a warning to their rivals that the old Devil is on the prowl again.

FEATURE: Milan's teenage Pharoah so much more than a new Pato

Champions League preview: How Arsenal can beat Milan – with help from their worst enemies

Michael Cox — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:54:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview Wednesday night's Champions League action...

Zenit St Petersburg v Benfica (Wednesday 5pm GMT)
Zenit once more face Portuguese opposition, having just about overcome Porto in the final matchday of the group stage. That win was rather fortunate, after an incredible game when Vyacheslav Malafeev managed to keep a clean sheet despite Porto having 24 attempts, while Zenit barely threatened.

The Russian league leaders have been robbed of the services of Portuguese playmaker Danny through injury, and it will be interesting to see what their strategy is throughout this tie. Usually they depend heavily on the break, but Danny is a large part of that. Do they sit back at home knowing they’ll be under huge pressure at the Estadio Da Luz, or play a more proactive game?

Milan v Arsenal (Wednesday 7.45pm GMT)
Good news for Arsenal: Milan are slow at the back and narrow in midfield. As a result, they’re particularly vulnerable to pace down the flanks, which should play perfectly into the hands of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Walcott, on the right, will have the added benefit of support from a natural full-back in the shape of Bacary Sagna, whereas Oxlade-Chamberlain might have to make do with Thomas Vermaelen out of position. Therefore, it’s down the right that Arsenal must look to attack, and Walcott could do worse than get in touch with his England team-mate Aaron Lennon for some advice.

Visiting Milan at this same stage last year, Tottenham focused their attacks down the right with Lennon receiving plenty of passes on the flank – and a late break saw him setting up Peter Crouch for the winner.

It’s easy to imagine Walcott doing the same for Robin van Persie. Not only has the Dutchman finished 10 of Walcott's last 11 assists, but the young Englishman has already grabbed an assist at the Guiseppe Meazza, setting up Emmanuel Adebayor in Arsenal’s 2-0 win at Milan back in 2008.

Tuesday's preview: How to beat Barcelona – and why APOEL are so successful

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Fan favourite Le Toux's trade highlights big changes at Philadelphia

Kris Heneage — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:53:00 GMT

According to Neil Sedaka, ‘breaking up is hard to do’. That doesn’t seem the case for the Philadelphia Union, who last month traded away Sébastien Le Toux to the Vancouver Whitecaps, much to the dismay of the player and fans.

After heavy speculation that he may be departing the city of brotherly love, Le Toux was offered a trial with Bolton Wanderers – which he cut short after a week, stating his heart was still firmly with the Union. Le Toux also claims he was so attached to the East Coast club that he dropped his salary demands.

Philadelphia failed to make an offer, at which point the player claims his calls and text messages began going unanswered. It all seemed very surprising considering how valuable an asset Le Toux had become. In just two seasons he was involved in 57% of the Union’s goals, costing less than $180,000 a season. With Le Toux an All-Star in his first season and a genuine contender for MVP in 2011, his request for a raise to $400,000 seemed far from exorbitant.

The striker says eventually he no longer cared about the money – which he cites as the club’s sole motivation for trading him. It's far from a clean break: Le Toux was decidedly less vocal about his poor treatment when it seemed likely he would be going to Bolton. While unlikely to damage Phialdelphia’s pre-season plans, it has left the majority of fans uneasy.

Coach Piotr Nowak has looked to defuse the situation by explaining that the club are aiming to build for the future, not just around one player: "While this decision wasn't easy, we are confident that the allocation money we receive will provide the flexibility for us to compile the best possible roster for 2012 and beyond."

Those fine words were hardly matched by Philadelphia's subsequent signings of 30-year-old Colombian Lionard Pajoy and veteran defender Chris Albright, although the wider context is that the club have also been able to give Sheanon Williams a pay rise while acquiring the full rights to Roger Torres – the latter a by-product of the Le Toux deal.

Lost love: Le Toux with the Union fans

As emotions ran high, Nowak notably stated that “Feelings are not in my job description” – a somewhat hard-nosed admission given that Le Toux could have considered himself a cornerstone of the Union, his form towards the end of last season playing a large part in the club's late push towards the play-offs.

The decision to amputate Le Toux so readily could put off players considering a move to PPL Park – especially as at 28, the Frenchman was far from a veteran. Those looking to dissect the deal from a business standpoint believe the club were simply looking to maximise the profit on a player they acquired at an almost minuscule cost.

Le Toux, who began his career with Lorient in his native France, is one of the few professionals that doesn't have an agent, meaning he has spoken very candidly about his exit from the club. Admitting to a feeling of disgust at the way he was treated, he aims his venom squarely at coach Nowak – claiming he would rather retire than play under him again and adding with a hint of Gallic sarcasm, “I’m sorry for the guy who already bought my jersey. Maybe he can get the refund.”

In little over a month's time, Vancouver visit Philadelphia in what is likely to be an emotionally charged afternoon for both the player and fans alike. Le Toux’s aim is simple: “I expect to win and I expect nothing more.”

With goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón also allowed to return to Colombian side Deportivo Cali despite being named an All-Star last season, it seems many of the players that were foundations of the club are departing – and in Le Toux’s case not willingly.

These moves have seen Nowak come in for such heavy criticism from fans that he has appealed via Twitter for a quelling of abusive messages – for the sake of his wife and daughters, who he claims often read his account on the social networking site.

Having now lost two of their most iconic players in the space of a week, the Philadelphia Union are undergoing a remodeling. As with any wholesale change, the risk is high. A bad start could easily see fans longing for the names of the past and happier times.

However, should it pan out the way Nowak is predicting, Philadelphia could be a major player in the arguably weaker Eastern Conference, just not with fan favourite Le Toux around – something few could have envisaged at the start of last month.

Champions League preview: How to beat Barcelona, and why APOEL are successful

Michael Cox — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:16:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox uses the StatsZone app – from FFT and Opta, available now – to preview Tuesday night's Champions League action...

Bayer Leverkusen v Barcelona (Tuesday 7.45pm GMT)
Barcelona don’t lose many matches in the Champions League under Pep Guardiola, but one opposition coach who defeated them insists that the key to getting the better of the reigning champions is shooting from long range.

“I noticed that Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, key players in the team, almost never drop back to their own penalty box,” says Kurban Berdyev, whose Rubin Kazan side defeated Barcelona at the Camp Nou two years ago. “This style of play in the midfield creates free space for shots from the middle range.”

Leverkusen have just the man for this job in forward Andre Schurrle. In their home Champions League games so far this season, he’s had a shoot on sight policy, attempting plenty of shots from distance against Valencia and Genk. Barcelona might be more defensive away from home, but after Guardiola rested Xavi and Iniesta at the weekend, they should start here and might leave the space that Berdyev talks about.

Lyon vs APOEL (Tuesday 7.45pm GMT)
APOEL are the surprise package in the second round after topping a strong group featuring Zenit St Petersburg, Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk. The Cypriot champions play a defensive, counter-attacking game, depending upon good movement up front in their 4-2-3-1 system.

Main striker Ailton drifts to the channels and looks for balls over the top, with willing support from three attacking midfielders. Konstantinos Charlambidis hugs the right touchline and Gustavo Manduca enjoys playing on the left, although central attacking midfielder Ivan Trickovski can switch with either.

Because APOEL play almost exclusively on the break, they generally only attack with those front four players. The two holders, Nuno Morais and Helio Pinto, don’t really join in breaks; instead, they take it in turns to pivot out towards the touchline – the Portuguese duo’s initial movement is generally towards the wing, from where they play direct forward passes.

Wednesday's preview: Why Arsenal should beat Milan – with a little help from their worst enemies

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Premier pub ammo: Where Chelsea went wrong and Norwich went right

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:55:00 GMT

More statistical curios spotted with the help of the Stats Zone app from FourFourTwo and Opta.

Aston Villa v Man City No player embarked upon more unsuccessful dribbles this weekend than Marc Albrighton; no player made more touches in his own half this weekend than Joleon Lescott.

Bolton v Wigan Wigan were awarded 20 fouls, more than any other side over the weekend and the third highest this season.

Everton v Chelsea The Toffees topped the weekend offside league with six flags. Chelsea attempted more crosses and corners than any other side this week – 33, but only four were successful.

Fulham v Stoke This game had three goals from only five shots on target (three for Fulham, two for Stoke). Fulham made more unsuccessful passes (152) than any other team this weekend.

Man Utd v Liverpool Liverpool made more recoveries (66) than any other team this weekend. Man Utd were the only side not to make a substitution this weekend and were only the fourth side this season to remain unchanged.

Sunderland v Arsenal Arteta became the 22nd player to attempt 100+ passes in a Premier League game this season – but perhaps surprisingly, the first Arsenal player to do so. By contrast, Sunderland attempted just 149 passes in Arsenal’s half, fewer than any other side this week.

Swansea v Norwich Swansea hit the woodwork twice this weekend, more than any other side. Perhaps surprisingly given their perceived aerial advantage, Norwich took more short corners (four) than any other side this weekend.

Tottenham v Newcastle Emmanuel Adebayor is the first player to assist four goals in a Premier League game since Cesc Fabregas for Arsenal v Blackburn in Oct 2009. Tottenham scored five goals from only seven shots on target.

FEATURE Mon 13 Feb Premier Analysis: Bright side from drop-dodgers and Man City's missing main man

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Premier Analysis: Bright side for drop-dodgers, and Man City's missing talisman

Nick Govier — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:25:00 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

RESULTS (click team name for web-wide club news feed) Sat 11 Feb Manchester United 2-1 Liverpool; Blackburn Rovers 3-2 Queens Park Rangers; Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Wigan Athletic; Everton 2-0 Chelsea; Fulham 2-1 Stoke City; Sunderland 1-2 Arsenal; Swansea City 2-3 Norwich City; Tottenham Hotspur 5-0 Newcastle United Sun 12 Feb Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-5 West Bromwich Albion; Aston Villa 0-1 Manchester City

The bottom six sides faced each other this weekend, and a win for Wolves at home to West Brom would have lifted them to within two points of their Black Country rivals. As it is, a yawning seven-point gap has opened up above the bottom five teams, largely thanks to West Brom's astonishing 5-1 victory over poor Wolves, which ultimately led to the sacking of Mick McCarthy.

The away side registered an astonishing 29 shots at the Molineux, 14 of which were on target, with Wayne Hennessey's eight saves the highest of the weekend. But even Hennessey's heroics couldn't prevent Peter Odemwingie from leaving with the match ball after his own weekend high: six shots on target.

Both of the other six-pointers in the relegation mini-league were won by the team lower in the league at kick-off. Blackburn's 3-2 victory over QPR drew them level on points with the Hoops, despite Adel Taarabt's best efforts.

The magic Moroccan created seven goalscoring chances as QPR clocked up a West Brom-matching 29 shots at goal, but Blackburn's defence certainly didn't chicken out of the battle, throwing themselves in front of 12 shots, restricting the visitors to seven shots on target and ultimately making the difference. How Wayne Hennessey must have wished for a similar level of protection to that which Paul Robinson enjoyed.

Wigan Athletic remain bottom, but avoided being cut adrift with a derby win at Bolton Wanderers. The home side managed only 43% of possession, but compounded their problems with the second lowest pass completion percentage of the season, finding a teammate with just 57% of their attempted passes.

At least Owen Coyle can take some solace in a second-half improvement; as the game stood at half-time, his side – reverted to 4-4-2 by the reintroduction of Kevin Davies for Fabrice Muamba – had enjoyed only 33% of the ball and, most damningly, completed just 55 passes (compared to Wigan's 179). Bolton finished the game on top as they pushed for an equaliser, eventually matching Wigan's 13 shots at goal over the 90 minutes.

Finally, Tottenham reacted to a week of speculation over their manager in fine style, obliterating a depleted Newcastle with ease on their way to opening up a 10-point gap between themselves and the battle for fourth spot.

Manchester City loanee Emmanuel Adebayor received the plaudits for his four assists (a feat unmatched since Cesc Fabregas for Arsenal against Blackburn in October 2009), but he also created a further two goalscoring opportunities, scored a goal himself and completed 58 of his 61 attempted passes. If Spurs do indeed mount a title challenge, will Manchester City regret providing their rivals with such a threat?

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE during the game, covering Champions League and Premier League.

Good Day, Bad Day: Barça blow title & Ronaldo gets a BFF

Tim Stannard — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:29:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat 11 Feb Racing Santander 0-0 Atlético Madrid; Osasuna 3-2 Barcelona; Real Betis 2-1 Athletic Bilbao Sun 12 Feb Espanyol 0-2 Real Zaragoza; Málaga 3-1 Mallorca; Rayo Vallecano 2-0 Getafe; Valencia 4-0 Sporting Gijón; Villarreal 3-1 Granada; Real Madrid 4-2 Levante Mon 13 Feb 8pm Real Sociedad v Sevilla

GOOD DAY

Ronaldo
Marca's readers regularly vote the preening Portuguese ‘player of the week’ no matter what he's done. For instance, Ronaldo topped the poll after last week's 1-0 win over Getafe – when he wasn’t even the best player for Real Madrid, never mind the best in the division.

For once, he may well deserve the accolade after Sunday's hat-trick against Levante – his sixth treble this season. But what really seemed to make Ronaldo smile from ear to perfectly-tanned ear was that the Santiago Bernabeu crowd sang the footballer’s name for once, making them officially BFF.

Real Madrid
LLL supposes the team gets a Good Day slot, what with the whole probably-winning-the-league business after Barcelona’s defeat.

Valencia
Let’s just say that, after Wednesday’s cup knock-out against Barcelona, anything other than a home victory against Sporting would have been very unpopular among the fans. It may have taken an own goal and two in added time, but Valencia delivered.

Levante
Lost at Real Madrid but their plucky performance in the Santiago Bernabeu, coupled with the fact that they're still fourth in the league despite not winning any of their nine league games since 10th December, means that it was still probably a very good day for Levante.

Diego Ribas
The playmaking centre of everything fluffy, decent and good for an Atlético Madrid team who easily deserved to beat Racing by some margin. Instead the woodwork, iffy finishing and a brilliant opposition goalkeeper combined to create a third goalless draw for Atlético Madrid under Diego Simeone - but at least it wasn’t a Deportivo-style goalless draw. The Rojiblancos are now six games unbeaten, because it's six games since they conceded a goal. Impressive to say the least.

Málaga
A 3-1 win over Mallorca puts Málaga just one point from the Champions League places. Which is outrageously jammy considering the money spent and the fact that Manuel Pellegrini’s side have only picked up two victories in the past nine.

Osasuna
A classic smash and grab from Osasuna, whose bustling and impressive attacking performance against Barcelona will probably be overshadowed by much handwringing and wailing in the Catalan capital over another a failure on the road for the champions.

As José Luis Mendilibar noted after the victory, the win was down to hard work and a fair amount of fouling – which is why LLL will always have a soft spot for the Pamplona club, who are now one point off the Champions League places.

Michu and Diego Costa
Both players scored in Rayo’s 2-0 win against Getafe and look a formidable front two. Coach José Ramón Sandoval claims he's still looking down the table rather than up, despite being just three points from the European places; then again, about 12 teams are in the same mid-table boat, so that’s probably a good plan.

Betis
The Seville side needed that one. An injury-time winner against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday night slowed a slide down the table after five matches without a win.

Villarreal
A four-match unbeaten run including three victories, the latest being Sunday’s 3-1 victory over Granada: life looks a little better for Villarreal, who are now just six points off the Champions League places. Which is quite mad, really, considering the dog’s droppings of a season it’s been for the Yellow Submarine.

Toño
Racing's glove-wearer gave a goalkeeping display so good that tough-as-boots Atlético Madrid boss Diego Simeone waited outside the dressing room, not to rob Toño of his lunch money and give him a wedgie, but to congratulate him for his sterling work in the goalless draw. “It’s the first time something like that has happened to be,” remarked the relieved Racing man. “It was a very nice gesture.”

Zaragoza
Still going down but the rather unexpected 2-0 win away at Espanyol stopped a run of 14 league games without a victory which stretched back to the 16th of October.

BAD DAY

Barcelona
LLL suspects that Pep Guardiola's decision to rest Cesc Fabregas, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández against Osasuna was unavoidable. Despite the “we’ll fight until the very end” exhortations from the Catalan camp, the title race was already all but over.

The situation is that Barça have had three fronts to fight on – but with an already small squad further depleted by a whole stack of injuries, they don't have enough players. Last Wednesday's win against Valencia means they've reached the Copa del Rey final, but the Champions League knockout round starts on Tuesday with a trip to Bayer Leverkusen: what else is a manager supposed to do but tweak and twonk to get the best results from the available pool of players?

Wouldn’t Guardiola have received even more criticism had Iniesta and Xavi played for example and knacked themselves again, missing the Champions League games which Barcelona could then have lost?

Gerard Piqué
Then again, Pep’s player gamble might have paid off had Gerard Piqué not had a stinker of a match and been at fault for both of Dejan Lekic’s goals, which gave Barcelona far too much to do after the side’s traditional sluggish start on the road.

Espanyol
Home defeat to Zaragoza saw Espanyol blowing the chance to move into the Champions League places despite Levante’s loss. LLL was very much looking forward to hearing from Paul from Barcelona to find out what happened.

“Still wondering six hours later how Espanyol didn't win, but there are some days the ball just won't go in. Kalu Uche got a hat-trick – of sitters missed. Two good saves from the keeper, Coutinho hitting the bar and Verdu missing the follow-up.

"Then again we can't defend set-pieces and two of Zaragoza's three wins this season are against Espanyol. Zaragoza are poor but not the worst I've seen. Ref lost the plot and the linesman near me should visit an opticians. Had loads of puns about Zaragoza's HB pencil shirts. Looked sharp, came for the draw, shaded possession etc but am in a state of shock.

"MOM Coutinho. Looked good and was unlucky not to score.”
– Paul, Barcelona

Getafe
Looked as cold and miserable at LLL watching from the stands during the side’s 2-0 defeat to Rayo in Vallecas and its freezing temperatures, freezing wind and freezing pretty much everything. With last week’s loss to Real Madrid and the defeat in another city derby, the fact that Getafe have done next to nothing in both encounters will be the biggest gripe for Luis García who was less jovial than normal on Sunday, as to be expected.

Heroes & Villains: Toxic plunges and the Church of Harry Redknapp

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:09:00 GMT

RESULTS (click team name for web-wide club news feed) Sat 11 Feb Manchester United 2-1 Liverpool; Blackburn Rovers 3-2 Queens Park Rangers; Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Wigan Athletic; Everton 2-0 Chelsea; Fulham 2-1 Stoke City; Sunderland 1-2 Arsenal; Swansea City 2-3 Norwich City; Tottenham Hotspur 5-0 Newcastle United Sun 12 Feb Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-5 West Bromwich Albion; Aston Villa 0-1 Manchester City

HEROES

Harry Redknapp
White Hart Lane seemed to transform into the Church of Harry Redknapp for the late kick-off on Saturday. The impassioned hymns did the trick; there was something of the divine on the pitch too as Tottenham took Newcastle United apart. The message from Harry’s players was clear: don’t go.

Harry Redknapp’s occasional over-familiarity with the media doesn’t invite much sympathy from people outside the club, but you couldn’t begrudge him his first stress-free night since the charges were brought against him last year. Louis Saha looks to be yet another smart acquisition, but the night belonged to Emmanuel Adebayor, who set up the first four Spurs goals before getting one himself.

They remain outsiders to finish top, and though the pull of his country might be too much for Harry to resist, it’s looking like he’ll leave a Champions League outfit behind him – remarkable when you consider the state the club was in when he took over in 2008. Something about two points from eight games, wasn't it?

Thierry Henry
Mission complete for Henry, who signed off from his second Premier League stint in typically memorable style. A last-minute winner at in-form Sunderland will leave Gunners fans wishing his loan from New York Red Bulls could be extended, just to silence any remaining pundits who thought Henry could only damage his legacy by going back.

Arsene Wenger refused to rule out a third spell at the club for the Frenchman, who proved he still has plenty to offer at the highest level.

Manchester United
The Red Devils gave the perfect demonstration of how to play a football match rather than get distracted by events off the pitch. Manchester United took the sting out of Liverpool to deliver three points that keep the pressure on neighbours Manchester City at the Premier League summit.

Paul Scholes seems to grow in stature with every game back, and he was the best player on the park on Saturday, with his passing range and tactical awareness still very much intact.

Peter Odemwingie
West Brom’s hat-trick hero set his sights on a top-ten finish with the Baggies after they recorded a 5-1 away win at Midland rivals Wolves. It was one of the more surprising scorelines of the weekend, and Odemwingie, who looked to be struggling with second-season syndrome before now, was back to his clinical best in this humiliation of Wolves.

"I hope we can change our home performances, and then there's nothing that can stop us finishing in the top 10,” enthused the striker, whose side moved to within 11 points of the magic 40 mark, said to be the target to hit to avoid relegation.

Everton
David Moyes’ men repeated the job they did on Manchester City last week, with a shock 2-0 win over Chelsea at Goodison Park. Steven Pienaar would have been wondering why he left in the first place, after putting Everton into an early lead with an excellent drive and finish.

An onslaught was expected from Andre Villas-Boas’ men but it never really arrived, and Everton were able to add to their tally courtesy of Denis Stracqualursi's first Premier League goal, after more good work from Landon Donovan in his farewell fixture.

Grant Holt
With a regime change underway, the 'Holt for England' campaign is gathering momentum. The burly frontman has now notched nine Premier League goals in his maiden top-flight season, and his staggering ascent from League Two in just three years continues apace, after he inspired Norwich to three vital points at erstwhile Fortress Liberty.

VILLAINS

Kenny Dalglish
Anyone who had paid attention to Luis Suarez before he arrived in England would have come to expect moments of transgression from the Uruguayan, but Kenny Dalglish’s behaviour in the Affair That Need Not Be Named has been surprising and genuinely disappointing.

What seems most astonishing to anyone outside Liverpool has been this blind defence of Suarez in the face of all evidence and reason. Rational Liverpool supporters, of which there are many, were badly let down by their manager in Saturday's post-match interview. It would have been easier for Dalglish to simply refuse to answer questions on the handshake, but instead he came out on the offensive and only served to prolong the scrutiny and pressure on his striker.

Sunday’s numerous apologies should finally put the whole depressing episode to bed, but not without Liverpool’s worldwide reputation taking a toxic plunge.

Chelsea
Andre Villas-Boas called it "one of the worst displays of the season" and it’s difficult to argue with him. The Portuguese manager accepted the blame for the defeat, citing a shortcoming in his side’s preparation for the match.

Chelsea certainly lacked fluidity in the final third of the pitch, and their £50m striker yet again failed to shine in this, the final game before Didier Drogba returns from the Africa Cup of Nations. Torres looks destined to return to the bench after missing the opportunity to stake his claim for a regular start, and one wonders if the Spaniard will ever return to the form that made him one of Europe’s most feared strikers.

In this feature alone we’ve been through a veritable smorgasbord of excuses for his dramatic loss of form. Perhaps it was a question of fitness; of Drogba's overbearing presence; or maybe he just needed a run of games.Now the explanations are at an end, and it should bring no joy from any neutral football-lover to see this shadow of Torres meander listlessly from cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac.

If Villas-Boas is given another summer to turn Chelsea around, one of his most important decisions will be what to do about Torres. It might just be the act that defines his spell at Stamford Bridge.

QPR
The Rs have taken just one point from winnable fixtures against under-pressure teams Aston Villa, Wolves and now Blackburn since Mark Hughes took over at Loftus Road, and look set for a springtime relegation battle. Conceding seven goals against three of the league's lowest scorers is no basis for the recovery expected after January dealings. QPR did stage something of a fight-back from 3-0 down, but substitute Jamie Mackie’s goals weren’t enough to spare Hughes successive defeats.

The problem with a January transfer splurge is that you are denied a pre-season for players to gel together and be drilled on their responsibilities in a manager’s system. Hughes will have more money to spend in the summer thanks to owner Tony Fernandes’ deep pockets, but the question is whether he’ll be strengthening for the Premier League or for promotion back to the top flight. Too many more of these off-days and it’s likely to be the latter.

Alex McLeish
McLeish had clearly paid some attention to the Moyes and O’Neill model that had taken maximum points from the league leaders, as the philosophy was much the same: keep it tight and hope to steal a goal on the counter attack. Where McLeish’s setup differed, however, was the lack of intensity in Villa’s pressing. Manchester City were allowed to stroke the ball around the midfield and cultivate a degree of comfort in possession that only served to settle their nerves in their first away game since that miserable night at Goodison Park.

Villa weren’t helped in their quest for a first home win since Bonfire Night by the resigned indifference of the support, which radiated onto the pitch from the stands. It seemed a matter of time before City found a way through and when they did, Villa took 15 minutes to force a meaningful save from Joe Hart. The frustration for Villa fans and players will be that when they did work through the gears, City hardly looked watertight at the back.

As Martin Tyler put it: McLeish’s Villa died without knowing.

Milan's teenage Pharaoh so much more than a new Pato

Richard Whittle — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:00:00 GMT

AC Milan were standing at the crossroads of their season on Saturday evening: one route led down a frozen path as Juventus disappeared into the distance, the other a charge to the top of the table.

Being Milan, they did what one would expect of them. The Rossoneri found a bit of that old devil that had been missing from their play for the last few weeks to come away from the frigid tundra of Udine with all three points, and move back to the top of the table (Juve were once again left out in the cold when their match at Bologna was postponed due to snow).

It was a show of real character from the defending champions, who were without 13 first-team regulars through either injury or suspension. The latter could potentially keep Zlatan Ibrahimovic out of a further two matches if the slappy Swede does not have his three-game ban reduced on appeal – an important issue as the third would mean missing the crucial match against Juventus at the end of the month.

No need to be duly concerned, however: Milan have a new star to fawn over in the shape of Stephan El Shaarawy. He is proving the old adage that if the talent is there, your age doesn't matter – unless you happen to be Filippo Inzaghi, 38, who has been usurped by the 19-year-old.

With Milan producing a performance in keeping with the glacial temperatures to leave them trailing to Antonio Di Natale’s goal, a half-time blast from Massimiliano Allegri produced the desired effect.

That, and the fact that Marco Amelia made a couple of crucial saves, kept the visitors in the contest until Maxi Lopez – another striker pushing poor old Pippo further down the Milan pecking order – was introduced to hand El Shaarawy some much-needed support.

Having laboured against the giants in the home defence, the youngster drifted out to the left flank, and it was from there that he produced a darting diagonal run before driving in a low shot-cross that goalkeeper Samir Handanovic could only push back into the path of Lopez, who grabbed his first goal for the club.

It was a case of “Carlos who?” as the new signing had waited a whole week in a Milan hotel room while Adriano Galliani tried in vain to sign Carlos Tevez on loan, with the promise to Manchester City that if he were to sell either Pato or Robinho in the summer then he might hand City some money for a permanent move.

The fact that Tevez’s Argentine compatriot Lopez went on to set up El Shaarawy for the winner, then, could well have saved Milan the bother of having to enter any more protracted negotiations with the English club.

The pair will have more time to build their budding partnership, but the feeling is El Shaarawy could even get Inzaghi scoring again, such is the ease with which he brings his team-mates into the build-up. What's more, his near-post finish for the winner had SuperPippo written all over it.

Handed the moniker 'The Pharoah' for no other reason than his father is Egyptian, the Savona-born teenager has always been destined to climb to the top of the pyramid. He has represented Italy at every level through to the under-21s – and as this blog has said before, he could yet make Cesare Prandelli’s Italy squad for Euro 2012.

Coming through the youth ranks at Genoa to become the fourth-youngest player ever to make his Serie A debut (at 16 years and 55 days), it was his player-of-the-season performances at Padova in Serie B last term that persuaded Milan they could pick up a cut-price gem.

Being a fan of the club may also have smoothed the move, and after a summer of bedding in at Milanello, where he developed some muscle for his slight frame, El Shaarawy was given his debut as a late substitute in the 3-1 defeat at Napoli in mid-September. In the following game, he came off the bench at the San Siro to announce his arrival as a genuine finisher, notching the equaliser against Udinese.

Scoring against the same opposition twice in a season will no doubt become a common occurrence for the spiky-haired wonderkid – he also found the net against Juventus in the Italian Cup in midweek – but Massimiliano Allegri will be well aware that he needs to nurture such talent.

The last thing Milan want is for him to end up like Pato, who burst on to the scene in similar fashion before succumbing to trappings of early stardom, where he was reportedly pulling much more than his hamstring.

The early signs are that, despite his extravagant hair-cut, El Shaarawy is a level-headed young man who has come a long way in the last few months.

He has scored the same number of goals as Pato this season but his four have come from two fewer starts, even though both players have appeared in 14 games overall. With the Brazilian back in full training, Allegri must decided whether to return the seemingly fragile 22-year-old to the starting line-up for the Champions League tie with Arsenal on Wednesday.

The problem, if one can call it that, is that Ibrahimovic will be back for the European tussle, and the perceived wisdom is that he and Pato are like oil and water. However, although El Shaarawy mirrors Pato with his raw pace, close control and finishing, he seems to have more awareness of what is going on around him, and so far his decision-making has been spot on.

Allegri should make the right choice on Wednesday and allow the rest of Europe to get a glimpse of this exciting new star of Italian football.

ACoN Diary 8: An emotional end to a memorable tournament

Jonathan Wilson — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:42:00 GMT

There were two options. Well, three, but we didn't really want to shell out for yet another flight.

We could go east to Mongomo, stay the night there, cross the border first thing in the morning and then try to find a car or bus in Oyem to take us the remaining eight hours to Libreville. Or we could head south to Cogo, find a pirogue [a small boat] to take us across the estuary, and then try to find a car on the other side to Libreville. The second way was quicker, but the first way sounded like a more interesting journey – heading inland, rather than sticking to the coast, as most people in Equatorial Guinea do.

We reached our decision over lunch in the French Cultural Institute, but really it had been made earlier than morning as we changed money with a Lebanese trader on the sea-front in Bata. We'd asked if he knew any drivers who might have the relevant papers to take us all the way to the Gabonese capital.

He didn't, but as we discussed possible routes, somebody else in the shop piped up. He'd always go by Mongomo, he said, because his mother had died two years earlier when the pirogue she'd been travelling in had capsized. "Be careful of drunken boatmen," he warned.

So we headed east, through the jungle and the hills to Mongomo. Four times we crossed police checkpoints, but at each one a cursory chat about the football was enough to get through. Those who've spent time in Equatorial Guinea previously stress this is a major change of approach; that until recently, the police here were extremely aggressive.

Mongomo itself is extraordinary. It's the home town of Obiang Nguema, the president who seized power in 1979, which may explain why it features a huge modern floodlit basilica and a strange Italian-style central piazza in which a bell-tower is lit by ever-changing coloured lights. We stayed in what was by far the nicest African hotel I've been to: a five-star sprawl with a swimming pool and Spanish colonial architecture.

We went to the border early the next morning. Problem. You may remember from my last entry that I'd raced across the airport at Malabo to catch my connection; it turns out that by doing so I hadn't been registered properly by immigration. "We have a lot of problems with foreigners coming through the bush," the border guard said.

"Really? English foreigners?" asked the photographer I was travelling with. "And if he knew a way through the bush, why would he be here now?" For once, logic won out, and with the production of my boarding cards I was through.

We got a lift in the back of a pick-up on to Oyem, and found a driver there to take us on the final nine hours through the jungle-clad foothills of the central massif to Libreville. That relieved trip on the pick-up, through stunning countryside, was probably the most memorable part of the whole tournament.

Or at least, that was how it seemed at the time. But nobody who was at that final, nobody who felt the charge when Stopila Sunzu slammed in the winning penalty in the final, will ever forget it. Football doesn't give out sentimental favours; Zambia earned their success with dedication and discipline. But that didn't lessen the emotion of it.

Jonathan Fadugba: Zambia's remarkable journey makes them winners regardless

Zambia's remarkable journey makes them winners regardless

Jonathan Fadugba — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:30:00 GMT

Together they walked slowly to the coastline, singing in unison. Once there, and despite the entourage, a gentle ocean breeze and the swish of waves kissing sand were the only sounds. A team, representing a nation, stood in silence.

Those present laid flowers. A few said prayers, many shed tears. The coach Herve Renard stood solemnly behind his players and observed, a mix of pride, sorrow and conviction in his eyes. Kalusha Bwalya, the country's greatest ever player, laid a wreath. Zambia united in grief and remembrance.

After staying in Equatorial Guinea for the entire Africa Cup of Nations to date there was only one way Zambia could return to the scene of one of the worst disasters in African football history - the 1993 air disaster that took the lives of 30 people including members of Zambia's greatest football team. As finalists. So they did, upsetting Ghana to win the semi-final 1-0 thanks to a goal from Emmanuel Mayuka. A return to Gabon was secured.

The team travelled to Libreville and first port of call was the Beach Sablière, site of the 1993 air disaster that cost 30 players, crew and officials their lives off the coast of Gabon on April 27, on their way to Dakar to play Senegal in a 1994 World Cup qualifier.

Nearly nineteen years have passed since the day when, two minutes after the De Havilland C5 Buffalo military aircraft took off carrying the sporting jewels of a football-mad nation, it exploded off the coast of West Africa into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all on board.

This was a team that had promised Zambia the world. A thrilling, vibrant, exciting group of players that stunned football only years earlier when, at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Zambia highlighted its astounding promise by thrashing Italy 4-0, the Chipolopolo announcing themselves on the global stage.

Zambia had designs on a first Africa Cup of Nations trophy and a place at their first World Cup. But the tragic events of 27th April 1993 robbed them of their goal, robbed wives of their husbands and mothers of their sons.

As he laid flowers and answered questions to the gathered media on the beach, Kalusha Bwalya's face portrayed a quiet dignity and a deep underlying pain. The undoubted star of Zambia's memorable team, only a twist of fate stopped him from being on that plane. Due to club commitments, the then PSV player had made his own arrangements to travel to Dakar from Eindhoven. He was just leaving his house when he was informed of the news.

Since that dark Spring day, Bwalya has dedicated his life to honouring his brothers, by attempting to complete the journey they began together nearly two decades ago. His anguish has taken him on a lifelong mission to lead Zambia to the pinnacle of African football – a place they once seemed destined for.

"In 1993, the Chipolopolo came here to fulfill a promise,” he stated from the beach in Libreville. “They did not succeed, but instead gave up their lives for a gallant cause - the dream to bring glory to our country, mother Zambia."

"It is the same cause that brings us here today, the only difference is that we are alive and our former team mates are no longer here.”

Since 1993 Bwalya's drive has been relentless. He led a decimated, patchwork Zambian team to the 1994 Cup of Nations final just months after the crash. He was there when the 1994 World Cup dream finally faded. He played into his 40s, trying desperately to help Zambia qualify for a World Cup. He coached the national team. Now, as president of the Zambian Football Association (FAZ), his project is one game away from fulfilment.

“It keeps us busy every day,” Bwalya says. “We can't sleep. The generation that we lost, we have now found another generation that is probably ready to take over from where the fallen heroes passed away.”

“It's not the same; I always think you can't replace a human being with another human being, but I think the boys have done us proud.”

There is a reconnect between the 1993 team and the class of 2012, led by Renard and guided by Bwalya, that makes Zambia's unlikely path to their third Cup of Nations final, in Libreville, a truly extraordinary story.

It is a sentiment that Renard touched on after Zambia beat overwhelming favourites Ghana – the feeling that, above and beyond a story of unlikely sporting success, this is a tale of destiny.

"There's something written that we have to go to play to honour the memories of the Zambia national team that died in 1993," the Frenchman stated. One should not overlook what an emotional, heartwarming story this really is.

Renard has played a big part in Zambia's route to Libreville. You could see evidence of a promising team under his guidance in 2010 in Angola. There, the Chipolopolo were unfortunate to lose in the quarter finals to Nigeria on penalties, having shown glimpses of a developing side.

This tournament has proved that promise and for that Renard deserves great credit. In football, a coach's role is not only to choose players and devise tactics. He also sets the emotional tone of the team.

Renard has done this magnificently. In his crisply pressed white shirts he cajoles from the touchline, arms waving frantically to keep Zambia in shape. “Mayukaaaaaaaa” he cries like an army drill sergeant whenever his striker fails to defend from the front.

His tactics and team selections have been both innovative and effective, a key factor in Zambia coming this far. Bwalya's brave decision to sack Dario Bonetti and reinstate Renard on the eve of the tournament has paid off.

Zambia are now just one game away from realising their dream. It will not be easy. A formidable Ivory Coast, yet to concede a goal, stand in their way.

“It’s like we’re in front of one big mountain,” said Renard. “We have to climb it but we don’t have a helicopter and we don’t have a car. We just need to have a lot of courage and to think ‘yes, we can do it’. I’m one hundred percent sure we can do it.”

No matter what happens against Ivory Coast, Zambia are winners at this Africa Cup of Nations. For reaching the final, for their resolve, for the pain of the last nineteen years and for the character and strength of a nation that suffered and grieved, but that rebuilt and gave hope.

For the drive and courage of men like Kalusha Bwalya and for the memory of his brothers lost. "God has given us this opportunity to be here and now we must win this Africa Cup of Nations for the Zambia national team from 1993," said Renard.

Zambia have already shown they are winners. All that remains is to write it into history.

Tactical Preview: Michael Cox on the ACON final

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.

This season's Champions League stats cost just 69p, and the Premier League stats £1.49.

Why not try the Africa Cup of Nations 2012 version, completely free with no in-app costs?

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. 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