Ugly Stoke put in its place

I watched only the highlights of Stoke's 5-Nil defeat to United but I may watch the entire match - which I have recorded - now that I have read Paul Weaver's match report in the Guardian.

Weaver reports that Stoke's fans behaved badly:

'Even those who did not necessarily carry the fortunes of Manchester United close to their heart, whose heads had not been turned by the whispered blandishments of Sir Alex Ferguson, could not fail to leave Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon without a glow of pleasure over the appropriateness of this result...This had less to do with United than Stoke...Their football failed to fire the imagination and a large section of their witless supporters soured the spirit by verbally abusing Ronaldo whenever he was remotely near the ball. No footballer should be subjected to that. No spectator, either. And after the match the distressingly hard-of-hearing Stoke manager, Tony Pulis, completed a squalid little day for his club when he said: "You get some banter. I don't know what they were singing. I switch off when I'm in the technical zone." '

And Weaver reports that Stoke's team played badly:

'Stoke were almost as awful as their worst supporters. Their two outstanding features this season have been their physicality, which Arsène Wenger would ruefully confirm, and the remarkable deliveries from Rory Delap, who has brought new meaning to the notion of throwing a match...Here they were not their usual robust selves and they had few other weapons with which to sustain their challenge, certainly not football. And Delap, whose missiles have led to seven of his side's 13 goals this season, was taking short throw-ins towards the end.
With the bottom of the Premier League churning upwards like a convection current they are far from safe despite their solid start to the season.'

You know, prior to the match, I was really hoping that United would put Stoke in its place but post-match it was nice to see also that I am not a voice in wilderness and that the Guardian writer put Stoke in its place as well.

I can only hope now that, come season's end, Ugly Stoke are further put into their place as a Championship (English Tier Two) side - with the likes of Alex McLeish's leg-breaking, Ugly Birmingham and Chris Morgan's skull-crushing Ugly Sheffield.

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One decent centreback please

I've been talking about this for about a year now but - while watching the recording of yesterday's Arsenal-Villa match - and having just seen Villa's second goal - I have to say it again: Arsenal need a decent centreback. On the goal Villa's Agbonlahor uses his pace and skill to beat William Gallas and score on Almunia. In the play Gallas makes no attempt to use his body - and allows Agbonlahor a free shot. Terrible defending. Sure there should have been a free kick up the pitch prior to the goal. Sure Agbonlahor might have outmuscled Gallas anyway if he had to. But the should in all of this is that Wenger should have bought a centreback - and a holding midfielder - in the summer.

How to close out a game 101

Just finished watching Milan-Chievo. Not a spectacular match but some beautiful stuff in it - in particular Milan's ability to keep the ball. The final 3 minutes of added time are a clinic in how to close out a match - using skill: the touches, the movements, the calm - beautiful, impeccable. The final sequence of countless Milan touches resulted in a wonderful strike from Jankulovski that deserved to be a goal. Should have been a 2-Nil match but finished 1-Nil for Milan's tenth consecutive match without a loss. They are now a much, much better side than the one which openned the Serie A season with all of the Ronaldinho hoopla - and a loss to Bologna. Hats of to Carlo Ancelotti for turning the side around and making it look beautiful again. Btw-Ronaldinho looks like a very useful player again. Interesting what a change of scenery can do for a player.

And then there were three

I was only able to watch the first ten minutes of the Arsenal - Villa match. I do plan to watch the rest later. But I am now declaring the end of "The Big Four". With Arsenal's reportedly deserved loss to Champions League aspirants Villa, they are now already nine points off the league leaders and will be near as many behind third-place United. Such numbers and also the drop in the quality of their play and their players - to these eyes - means that there is no longer a meaningful "Big Four" in the Premiership. Some will say that a team is Big Four material just by qualifying for the Champions League but I say that a team is only in the Big Four if it can at any time surpass the other "Big" teams. People will point to last week's victory over United but I say that such an open - though admittedly beautiful - game is no measure of greatness. There are now only three big teams in the Premiership - and one very beautiful player development academy - which may or may not qualify for Europe if that other second-rung team, Villa, has something to say about it.

Beautiful Kuyt Header

28th minute.

A beautiful cross from Reira on the left flank, headed back across and into the top corner by the much maligned Dirk Kuyt.

Beautiful goal.

English talent gulf

I've been talking about this for most of my football life but Sir Trevor Brooking, the man who has been put in charge of improving English talent, has finally admitted it: there isn't much English talent - still.

Said Brooking:

"We've been treading water for two-and-a-half years...There is more money in the game than ever before, but I don't see us, in 10 years' time, having capitalised on it.We should have better depth of young English players. We are not maximising our opportunities...I want to have an effect with the 5-11 and 11-16 age groups. That's where the gulf is with the rest of the world."

Brooking looks at a whole host of factors that contribute to the English talent gulf but for me the answer is simply about the country's erroneous approach to or philosophy of football. Croatia, a poor Eastern European country of five million people, got the better of England in Euro qualifying due to their football intelligence - nothing else.

England finally beat Croatia in World Cup qualifying - but look at what they needed to do - hire an Italian to run the team.

And that Italian, Fabio Capello - on the very same day of Brooking's comments - has pointed out that England's best approach to developing talent rests with Arsenal:

“Arsenal’s academy, for instance, is the perfect example of how young players should be brought along at all European clubs."

Arsenal is run by a Frenchman, Arsene Wenger, who has produced many great players including a 16 year-old English boy, Jack Wilshire - who I think will become a more important England player than any we have seen in generations.

England could signficantly improve their talent pool - but they to almost entirely change the way they approach the game of football.

A childhood dream

It was just over a year ago that Fabio Capello called managing the English national team "a beautiful challenge".

He has now revealled that it was also a childhood dream:

“It was a childhood dream of mine to take the England job...For me, the English have always been the teachers of our sport, the ones who took the game to the rest of the world."

Also, in what is a far-ranging interview, Capello talks about the kind of football and the type of team he wants:

“I want to give England a little taste of Latin football from France, Italy, Greece and Spain, and even from Portugal and Croatia...All of these countries have dominated the European Championship and World Cup in the last 10 years, with the notable exception of the World Cup in 2002 when Brazil came out on top...English football has not been just about ‘kick and rush’ or ‘put the ball in the box’ for many years now. I want a compact English team. Whether we win or lose, the most important thing is that we have a team on the pitch and not just a group of players.”

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United are like Brazil

Manchester United's nineteen-year-old Brazilian prospect, Rodrigo Possebon says of their 1-Nil Carling Cup win over QPR:

"It was not really Brazilian weather, but I think the performance was like Brazil...We passed the ball and kept it really well. We had to be patient and wait for the goal. But Carlos Tevez took his penalty really well, and we are all happy to get through."

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Jack Wilshere

A detailed explanation in The Independent of why Jack Wilshere is a beautiful player and will become the biggest English player since Bobby Moore of 1966 World Cup vintage.

Arsenal's beautiful youngsters

They had eight teenagers but Arsenal's B squad managed to beat and thoroughly outplay a near full-strength Wigan in the Carling Cup yesterday.

Said Wigan manager Steve Bruce:

"They were frightening on the night. The age of them. Arsene says it is the best crop of youngsters he's had and when you think of the young players they have had in the past, that is some compliment...They gave us a torrid evening. We've gone out of the cup with a whimper really. They created more chances against us than any other team this season...We've had our backsides kicked by a very good, young Arsenal team."

And the best of that young team for me was the youngest. Jack Wilshire will be more important to England than Theo Walcott. What skill, what vision, what protection of the ball, what passion. A guaranteed great and beautiful player for the future.

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