Archive for Opinion
One overhead kick, does not a man make
Posted by: | CommentsSo, a single Mongoose kick later and Wayne Rooney is once again the Prince of Salford.
Contract? What contract. Scandal? What scandal.
Although it now seems unthinkable, Rooney’s form had been such that there was more than a murmuring (amongst United fans and media commentators alike) that he no longer warranted an automatic starting place.
His somewhat lethargic performances, combined with the resurgence of Dimitar Berbatov and the ever increasing contribution of young Mexican sensation Javier Hernández, had many suggesting that the more exotic partnership may actually represent Sir Alex Ferguson’s most potent strike force.
Berbatov’s contribution this campaign this season has been such that I read numerous media previews in the days leading up to the game that listed the mercurial Bulgarian as one of the fixtures “key players”.
From a tactical perspective, there was great intrigue as to whether Sir Alex would stick with a traditional 4-4-2 (which he strongly favours at Old Trafford) or whether he would opt for his “big game” 4-5-1 formation.
One thing that the majority of the media didn’t foresee was Sir Alex Ferguson opting for the robust 4-5-1 setup, but leaving Berbatov out of the side and using Rooney as the focal point of the attack.
After all, one player is in the form of his life, while the other is supposedly having the worst campaign of his career. Right?
Why so blue?
Posted by: | CommentsEveryone should know by now that there are four or five teams around the league that I have a bit of a fetish for.
One of said team’s is Birmingham City. The Blues go into today’s game at West Ham in the relegation zone, and only goal difference keeps them off the foot of the table.
Alex McLeish has come under a bit of pressure in recent weeks from fans, media and board alike and there have even been a few rumours that the board may at one point have been considering his position a few weeks ago – although I seriously doubt that was actually the case.
I have to be honest I don’t really understand the negativity towards McLeish – or his team for that matter.
Let’s have a look at a few aspects to see how McLeish is getting on at St Andrew’s.
85 million questions…
Posted by: | Comments‘Ecky thump – the world’s gone bonkers!
Did anyone see that coming? I have to confess, I certainly did not!
Yesterday the Premier League was lucky enough to boast one of the seven most expensive strikers of all time, in the form of a certain Mr Carlos Tevez.
Well, I assume that was the case. For the purposes of this piece, let’s assume Manchester City paid more than £31 million to secure the Argentine’s services.
Historically there has been marginally less shenanigans accompanying each of Carlos Tevez’s transfers than you would expect to find in the Sky Sports studio on a cold winter’s Monday night. For all we know, he might actually have cost Man City more than Ronaldo cost Real Madrid.
However, as the dust settles on one of the most eventful days in UK football history, the Premier League now not only boasts the most expensive striker to EVER play the game, but also three of the top seven.
And all this came about despite the only arrivals from foreign shores being Liverpool’s £22.5 million capture of Luis Suárez and the loan return of the “evergreen” Obafemi Martins at Birmingham.
It seems that Frank Lampard Junior’s hernia problems had an even bigger impact on UK football than even Jamie Redknapp probably would have dared to suggest…
Will the real Aston Villa please stand up?
Posted by: | CommentsEvening all.
I hope everyone profited from 10 man Crewe’s hard fought 2-1 win over a dogged Bradford side at Gresty Road on Tuesday night.
Did you ever really expect anything other than a win from the might combination that is BOTW and Crewe Alexandra?
I have a quick analysis piece for you tonight. Sadly it is a bit out of date, as it is a piece I started putting together almost two weeks ago but my work schedule didn’t allow me to finish it off.
I probably start at least one article a week that ends up going in the e-bin as I normally refuse to post outdated stuff.
However, even in retrospect I think that the findings and analysis in this one are still well worth sharing. So, although 80% of my narrative has sadly had to go down the can, I have refreshed the numbers and put together an updated version. There are some interesting statistics in here that are still relevant and I hope you will take something from it – particularly with the added benefit of hindsight.
Sweet FA
Posted by: | CommentsWhen the football blogging maestro that is Michael Cox of www.zonalmarking.net speaks, people listen.
So I think it is only appropriate that if he asks you a question, you should at least attempt to answer it.
At the weekend Michael took a ten second breather from analysing the tactical decisions of the European footballing elite and creating chalkboards to ask me:
“Would it not make sense to just back all of the top five sides to win the FA Cup at this stage, particularly given how elitist the trophy has become in recent years?”
Well, I have had a bit of a dig around and here is my $0.10 worth on the matter…