Sunday 26 September 2010

Riding the Rollercoaster

HAS there been a greater story in the Premiership’s short history than Blackpool being promoted to the top tier? Despite being one of the football league’s oldest clubs, Blackpool were slowly turning into the club everybody had forgotten existed, with the club secondary to the fame of the town’s fairground attractions. “What? They have a football club too? Are you sure? Where’s the stadium? I can't see it. Is it on South Pier?”
 
Blackpool was the club that nobody ever imagined would reach the Premier League. Indeed last season, as they reached the Championship, they were favourites to go straight back down into Division One. They were the novel club by the seaside, who wore tangerine, who Stanley Matthews played for.  They were never expected to win titles in the modern era, just survive, but just try telling that to their increasingly loveable manager Ian Holloway.
 
Holloway is now as famous for his words of wisdom as he is for his excellent management career. Blackpool have started life surprisingly well. Defeats at Arsenal and Chelsea were expected, but away wins at Wigan and Newcastle proved that any team promoted to the top tier should be given respect. In Spain recently, bookmakers reportedly gave newly promoted Hercules ridiculous odds of 100/1 when they visited Barcelona at the Nou Camp recently. Such odds are unheard of in England, and they are unlikely to, following Hercules’s shock 2-0 victory over the Spanish champions.
 
‘The Tangerines’ are riding their very own rollercoaster at the moment. For a club with a small stadium, small fan base, and a notably small salary-budget, Blackpool have massively over-achieved to have reached the dizzy heights of the Premier League. Every few years a team is labelled the ‘worst in Premier League history.
 
It happened early on in the Premier League’s history, with Swindon Town suffering badly in the 1993/1994 season, a season only really notable for a creditable home draw against reigning champions Manchester United, and the flailing helicopter arms of Jan Age Fjortoft. Years later, Derby County were absolutely awful in the 2007/08 season, finishing with a record low of just 11 points, with the Rams heavily dependent on a strike-force consisting of the peanut-headed Robert Earnshaw and also Steve Howard, a forward with the mobility of Jan Molby after a carvery.
 
Derby County however, play in the excellent Pride Park stadium, with large crowds every week. In stark contrast, Blackpool were forced to play their first fixture away this season, at Wigan, as one of Blackpool’s stands was not yet up to the building standards required by the Premier League. Wigan themselves have proved that a small club, with small attendances, can stand their ground in the Premier League. Blackpool fans must hope that Holloway can emulate what Paul Jewell and Steve Bruce did, although Holloway’s style of football is more akin to an attractive passing game than the dogged determined pressing system that Jewell and Bruce implemented.
 
On the pitch, Blackpool will look to talisman Charlie Adam for goals and craft from midfield. Adam has so far started brightly and doesn’t look out of his depth. Experienced forward Marlon Harewood had a dream debut at Wigan and will look to lead the line, particularly away from home where Holloway will most probably flood the midfield. DJ Campbell, who was brought back to Bloomfield Road after successfully helping the club win promotion last season, will add pace and enthusiasm also. However, with a lack of real quality in the squad, Blackpool know they face an uphill battle to stay in the Premiership.
 
Blackpool WILL go down this season, with the teams lower down the table looking stronger than the likes of Burnley and Hull City from last season. But even if they don’t last in the Premiership, the shrewd financial running of the club, by recently departed Chairman Karl Oyston, should see the club in good stead in years to come. The ex-Chairman has openly boasted about how the club is the only one he knows not to be in debt. A rare feat in today’s game. Oyston was reported to have stepped down as Chairman due to becoming disillusioned at a lack of success in the transfer market over the summer. He blamed the lack of integrity amongst agents, claiming the club were not going to be held ransom by a culture of greed, eating away at what is left of the soul of football.
 
For many, the battle has already been won by Blackpool. Beating a host of bigger clubs, with bigger budgets and bigger reputations, the Tangerines should relax and enjoy the ride. Living legends such as Dave Bamber and Jimmy Armfield should watch on with their feet up, and Stanley Matthews should be looking down on his former club with immense pride. Many clubs may well have gone bust in 20 years time, thus Blackpool could be the last men standing!

Sunday 19 September 2010

Refreshingly Direct?

The never-say-die attitude of the Premiership again came to the fore yesterday, this time at the Stadium of Light, as Darren Bent’s late, late goal denied Arsenal of what would have been an excellent three points against Sunderland. Arsene Wenger was perhaps justified in his complaints about how much stoppage time was played, but he must be cursing the slack defending that again cost his side a valuable win. As Bent punished yet another sloppy clearance by Gael Clichy, Wenger must have had flashbacks to St Andrews two seasons ago, when Clichy gave a ball away in his own area then proceeded to concede a penalty against Birmingham. The penalty, duly converted by James McFadden, was a dagger in what was a realistic Arsenal title challenge back in 2009. It also prompted a hilariously childish rage by William Gallas, who showed such apparent passion for the Gunners as an Arsenal captain that day, that he now plays for rivals Tottenham.

Although Arsenal ended the game with 10 men, and thus can point to utter misfortune that they conceded the goal when they did, they never really seemed comfortable with what was being thrown at them. Steve Bruce favours directness in his tactics, with two strikers being supplied by two wide men. Indeed, it is perhaps this attacking set-up which explains Sunderland’s success in home fixtures, whilst their success on their travels is sporadic at best. When the Stadium of Light is at full-volume, the directness of Bruce’s tactics seem to work in tandem with a crowd that try to suck the ball into the opposition’s goal, encouraged by their side’s eagerness to move forward. You do get the feeling however, that some Sunderland fans are just relieved to see the ball as far away from the bumbling defensive partnership of Titus Bramble and Anton Ferdinand as possible.

Such is the fashion in the modern game to set up with a five-man midfield and build play slowly through possession, it was somewhat refreshing to see a team achieve success in direct play, turning defence into attack quickly and efficiently. However, this set up has attracted criticism from football purists, especially when clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United and Barcelona have proved you can play pretty football and be successful.

Thus it is rare when tactics that are completely the opposite are employed in the Premier League. Whereas clubs like Wigan and Blackpool have attempted to try and play a passing style, other clubs have adopted a hugely contrasting approach. Stoke City in particular play a style reminiscent of many team in the 1980’s, a decade which saw teams like Wimbledon punt long balls up to their centre forwards. Even Arsenal, a team who easily play the best football in the Premiership in the modern era, were advocates of the long ball approach under George Graham way back in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

Such a strategy was hated by fans and critics alike, but it gave particular problems to centre-backs, who had to deal with aerially-dominant forwards like Mick Harford, John Fashanu and Andy Gray. Everton in their defence played some great football and were highly successful in the 80’s, but then again Fashanu and long-ball merchants Wimbledon were also successful, beating ‘Pass and Move’ Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final. Only Gary Mabbutt would be one to not praise Fashanu’s footballing career, as the former Spurs defender was on the end of a nasty elbow by the former Gladiators presenter in the early 90’s.

In the modern game you could almost compare Stoke’s success at avoiding relegation to the feats of ‘The Crazy Gang’, such is the power and finance of the Premier League’s top clubs. Of course, there are other clubs that have done well to stay up over recent seasons, but none have achieved the success with such an extreme direct style of play. The simple art of dealing with a long ball into the area was natural to the defenders of 30 years ago, but foreign defenders used to playing against neat and tidy opposition, who keep the ball on the floor, are not used to deep, high deliveries coming into their penalty area. One couldn’t imagine the youth coaches of Real Madrid and Barcelona spending hours on the training ground instructing young defenders to head balls away from inside their six-yard box.

Premiership audiences have seen football evolve into a more technical game since the league re-launched itself in 1992. Thus when Stoke, (or anyone who La Liga-bound Sam Allardyce manages) do launch long balls into the oppostion's penalty area, from positions where most clubs would take a quick, short free-kick, the result is refreshingly enthralling. Clubs who find success with this tactic may develop this strategy further if they remain open to inventiveness. Why not increase the height of a long free-kick pumped into the penalty area, making it drop down into the danger area like an atom bomb? Attacking centre-backs will be then be competing against the centre backs from the defence – an equal tussle that could easily result in the type of confusion already seen at the Britannia Stadium most Saturday afternoons thanks to deliveries from Matthew Etherington and ridiculously long throw-in's by Rory Delap. There’s no doubt utilising the unique qualities of Delap have been relatively successful since Stoke were promoted, thus if team’s don’t have a Cesc Fabregas or a Mikel Arteta, why not bypass the midfield and instead launch long balls into a set of giant 6 ft 7 strikers? Deal with that Wenger.

Critics of course may point to the successful clubs of recent years playing with totally different tactics. The likes of Arsenal and Manchester United have played some scintillating football and won many, many games. Tony Pulis however, not only realises that he doesn’t have the cash at Stoke to buy players like Fabregas, but is innovative enough to know that there can be another way to play and compete against Premiership opposition. Allardyce was the first to show signs of complete innovation when rules regarding off-sides were amended five years or so ago. He consequently positioned two players standing way off-side during free kicks, who were allowed to remain onside as long as they didn’t touch the first ball played into the box. Indeed see here for such a goal that caused so much bedlam, that it caused Ian Walker to score a calamitous own goal.

You only have to look at Chris Samba’s goal for Blackburn yesterday against Fulham to see a goalkeeper and defence struggle against an unusual tactic, in this case Paul Robinson’s giant punt. Of course, many referees would have seen the blatant foul by El Hadji Diouf, but it’s not the fault of Diouf or the much-maligned Allardyce that the goal was allowed to stand.

In open play, the danger of the long ball is that you run the risk of losing possession quickly and consistently, and if you are up against top quality opposition you may not see the ball again for 2 to 3 minutes. However, in set piece situations, even a harmless-looking free kick 80-90 yards from goal, there is no reason not to send up the big men, as you would a corner kick. It might not be pretty, and fans may have something to say when they are forking out 50 quid for a match ticket, but if winning is all-important, then as long as it stays within the legalities of the game, then surely any tactic to win is as justifiable as the next tactic. Create the chaos, anything could happen.

Sunday 12 September 2010

Champions League - Let Battle Commence

FANS of European football are now only days away from the first round of group fixtures for this season’s Champions League, and although English clubs failed miserably last season to even make the semi-finals, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal will aim to make this season’s final, enticingly staged at Wembley next May. Tuesday and Wednesday nights will never be the same again. Expect another over-polished Sky Sports production featuring pointless questions by Richard Keys, and the continued presence of the ever-shortening trousers of Jamie Redknapp. Over on ITV, viewers will look to see who the replacement is for Robbie Earle, a pundit nobody openly liked until the nation felt sorry for him after this summer’s World Cup tickets fiasco.

Of course, we as a footballing nation turn into expert pundits ourselves over the course of the season, but not all fans will want to see English clubs do well in European competitions. The argument here being that it’s hard, for example, to hate Chelsea every week, then suddenly be expected to support them on a Wednesday night against a Spanish club, with only marginally more foreign players themselves.

The much-heralded English clubs had dominated in the competition until recently, with every final since 2005 featuring one of the Premiership big boys. Thus it was refreshing last season to see Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Lyon fight it out with the not-so-refreshing Barcelona for the coveted trophy.

Not that English clubs had embarrassed themselves last season. Manchester United went out unluckily on away goals to a Bayern Munich side that seemed somewhat destined to reach the final. Chelsea were ousted over two tight games by eventual champions Inter Milan, and Arsenal were the unlucky opponents to face Lionel Messi’s Barcelona. Only Liverpool failed to impress, though such was the inner turmoil at Anfield last season, it wasn’t surprising to see them fail to qualify from their group.

Manchester United did manage to win the now-defunct Cup Winners Cup in1991, but then suffered some awful Champions League campaigns until 1997 when they reached the semi-finals. Arsenal and Chelsea also managed to win the same trophy in 1994 and 1997 respectively, but the big trophy, the European Cup, continued to elude the English elite until United’s success in 1999.

The days of naïve English clubs taking to Europe in the early to mid-1990’s are sadly missed. Attacking 4-4-2 formations away from home were hilariously torn apart by experienced compact European outfits, and the limit on foreign players (including Welsh, Irish, Scottish players) made for some dubious line-ups. In 1994 English goalkeeper and porn-star lookalike Gary Walsh was chosen to replace the ‘Great Dane’ Peter Schmiechel as Manchester United took on Barcelona at the Nou Camp. How Ferguson must have rued his decision as Walsh played more like Bradley Walsh, and United were hammered 4-0. The best players in the world were certainly not playing in England at that time.

Indeed, when Manchester United finally won the European Cup in 1999, they beat a marvellous Juventus side along the way, a side that had reached the three previous finals. Marcello Lippi’s Juventus sides of that era were undeniably magnificent, featuring players like Zidane, Del Piero, Deschamps, Davids, Di Livio, Peruzzi, Conte, Vieri, Boksic, Jugovic, Ravanelli, Sousa and Vialli. They were equal to the superb AC Milan side of the early 1990’s, although Milan admittedly won more European Cups.

The success of clubs like Juventus, Milan and Ajax in the 1990’s, combined with the superior talent of the players at their disposal, gave the Champions League a real mystique. It gave English football a target to reach, a level of football that has now been met, and indeed sometimes surpassed in recent years. Beating a side like AC Milan away from home would have been unthinkable 15 years ago, but as Wayne Rooney and Manchester United disposed of the Italian giants with ease last season, it was sad to see a Milan side that lacked the quality and the aura usually associated with the club. It was in stark contrast to the team they share their stadium with - Inter, who saw manager Jose Mourinho successfully impose his superb tactical acumen on a side that lacked direction and organisation in previous European campaigns.

English clubs should return to dominant ways in this season’s Champions League, but if they fail it will at least add weight to the argument that the competition is still anyone’s to win, not just the rich Premier League elite. Indeed over in Spain, as Real Madrid have found out to their cost in recent seasons, money cannot guarantee you a European Cup, though this year, in Mourinho, they may well have the right man in charge finally.

Finally, for the nostalgic amongst you (and for Inter Milan fans), here's a link to a clip of a goal scored at the San Siro that I hadn't seen for ages. Enjoy.

Friday 3 September 2010

Good Enough At Goodison?

ONLY two games into the new Premiership season and a handful of managers are already seeing their jobs looking less safe than when the season started. Wigan's Roberto Martinez has been tipped to be the first casualty, after heavy defeats to newcomers Blackpool and current champions Chelsea. However, the recent 1-0 victory over Tottenham at White Hart Lane may have eradicated any hastiness that Wigan chairman Dave Whelan may have been considering. Such excellent results like the Spurs one may even prompt Whelan to rename the Spaniard ‘DW Martinez’ if they continue; such is the pride that Whelan shows towards his assets. Martinez is relatively new to the Premier League, something probably in his favour when it comes to forgiveness; however, it is one of the longest-serving managers in the Premiership, David Moyes of Everton, who may well be the dark-horse to leave his job sooner or later.

Sir Alex Ferguson (unsurprisingly not the subject of this article) tipped Everton to be a surprise package in this year’s Premiership, with the Scot backing his compatriot Moyes to break into the top four with his Everton side. With Manchester City and Liverpool going through a period of transition, Arsenal struggling with injuries, Aston Villa currently without a manager and Tottenham competing in the Champions League for the first time, Ferguson pointed to Everton as the side who could sneak under the radar to surprise them all.

The Toffees, as per usual, ended last season strongly, particularly at the turn of the year, with the return of Mikel Arteta from injury proving a catalyst in the way they recovered from their poor start. Promising youngsters Jack Rodwell and Dan Gosling (now at Newcastle) gave Evertonian’s hope that the future was bright, and new signings Dimitar Bilyaletdinov and Johnny Heitinga settled in well.

Sir Alex thus, was probably not alone in singing Everton's praises ahead of the new campaign. Despite the chase for Champions League places being tougher than ever, Everton appeared to be in the right shape, physically and mentally, for a successful season.

Unfortunately, the Everton faithful have seen their club make an all-too familiar start, failing to win any of their opening 3 games or keep a clean sheet, and only scoring once themselves in the 1-1 draw against Wolves. It’s all well and good finishing the season on a high, but if you start the season carelessly and sluggishly, then finishing strongly is the least you can hope for. Last season Everton had only won 3 league games by Christmas, making the 11-match unbeaten run that they finished the season on even more impressive. Come Christmas, they had to fight, and fight well.

Moyes would undoubtedly call himself a fighter of sorts, particularly as his club, with limited funds, have seen themselves go head to head with richer clubs over recent seasons. The fury seen on Moyes’ face last season when scarf-wearing Roberto Mancini dared to enter his personal space with his woven tassels during a bad-tempered Everton/Manchester City game was priceless. Moyes is a tough Scot, who after initially winning a league title with Celtic, battled it out in the lower divisions of English football, as a player and manager, to learn his trade. Indeed the type of players Moyes has attracted to the club are embedded with the work ethic and spirit that he craves in his teams. However, it is this type of player, and more so the type of player Moyes attracts, that may stall Everton’s chances in the near future.

With the exception of Mikel Arteta, Louis Saha and Bilyaletdinov, Everton’s players seemingly have immediate instructions to work hard all over the pitch, to press, to close down. Moyes knows his team tends to do best when their backs are against the wall, when the media is writing them off and when their league position belies their quality. However, this attitude may not be helping Everton start seasons with the results the team’s quality can obviously achieve.

An argument can of course be made that Everton’s successful recent achievements are because of this mentality instilled by Moyes, and that in the current financial climate, with rival clubs getting richer all the time, Everton are over-achieving. Thus it is whether Everton fans want to continue as they are, fighting against bigger foes, against the odds and achieving highly respectable league positions, which may determine the future of Moyes as Everton boss.

Everton’s boardroom have showed little ambition to match the financial muscle of the current top clubs in England, thus are unlikely to attract the highest calibre of player that the Premier League is turning out more and more. A manager like Moyes is also more likely to attract respectable cast-offs than world superstars, which again isn’t too much of a bad thing as long as the results are in line with fans expectations.

Of course, things could be worse. Indeed if it wasn’t for last day of the season goals from Gareth Farrelly, Barry Horne and Graham Stuart over the last 16 years, Everton could still be a club playing its football outside of the top tier. In the future, the club could overspend and find itself in the lower echelons of the football league in years to come. The club is comfortable, the playing-staff is of a high quality, and the youth system continues to produce fine players capable of competing at a high level. It is simply whether Everton want to gamble for more, which may make or break the club as a force in forthcoming Premiership seasons.

Should Everton choose to replace Moyes, the club would be leaving their current contented position, and travelling into unknown territory. A high-profile foreign replacement has risks associated with poor stability, ‘dodgy’ imported foreigners and ‘dubious’ coaching staff, but get the right man in charge and you can attract players with winning attitudes, in particular players who won’t wait till the team is sitting in mid-table at Christmas before they get going. Indeed, investment is certainly needed to keep Everton as a reasonable force, but again some may argue that big-money backers, should they look in the direction of the Toffees, would prefer to see a more high-profile manager than Moyes at the helm anyway.