World Cup 2010 Best of round 3: 1st team + notables

It was a dramatic last round of the group stages. One that had both very good and very bad games.

I watched on a couple of TVs simultaneously, which especially with some groups were very exciting but for the specific purposes of this particular exercise it wasn't all good since it resulted in some very divided or other times very one sided attention. Some matches I watched paying nearly 100 percent attention to over the other and in other cases it was more like 60-40 or 80-20.

Therefore this is definitely the entry where I have the least confidence in my choices and it is entirely unlikely that I haven't missed some worthy performances.

Group stage:

Round 1:

1st Team

2nd Team

Round 2:

1st and 2nd Teams

ROUND 3

1st Team:

Gk: Rais M'Bolhi - Algeria

Lb: Jorge Fucile - Uruguay
Cb: Bruno Alves - portugal
Cb: John Terry - England
Rb: Philipp Lahm - Germany

Mf: Bastian Schweinsteiger - Germany
Mf: Tim Cahill - Australia
Rw: Landon Donovan - USA
Am: Keisuke Honda - Japan

Fw: Chu-Young Park - South Korea
Striker: Robert Vittek - Slovakia

Notables: Fabio Coentrao, John Mensah, Rios/Perez, Alonso

Comments:

Goalkeeper:

Rais M'Bolhi - Algeria



The normal first choice Algeria keeper Faouzi Chaouchi was dropped after his costly error in the 1-0 defeat to Slovenia giving newcomer M'Bolhi playing only his third cap. the chance to shine at the biggest stage.

In the game against the U.S - M'Bolhi held on right until the very end making many good saves and interventions and afterwards the American (and best of round 1.) goalkeeper Tim Howard was nice enough (unlike what he is doing to his defenders, I'm really starting noticing, who he is abusing like he was Peter Schmeichel!) to pay compliments to M'Bolhi calling him exceptional:

“When you create so many chances, you expect to at least put one away. But their keeper was exceptional. Our finishing wasn’t the problem, it was the fact that M’Bolhi was in incredible form and managed to get his body in the way at crucial moments. It was really extraordinary.”

So, in a round where rightly or wrongly I didn't notice too many great goalkeeping displays, M'Bolhi beats the rest.

Left-back:

Jorge Fucile - Uruguay



Retains a spot on the team and this round at the position he has actually been playing.

In the game against Mexico we saw a little bit extra emphasis on defending from Fucile compared to against South Africa where Uruguay came out attacking, and definitely extra impressive this time that he was the first defender to keep Mexico's Dos Santos, who has been in great form, largely under control.

Centre back:

Bruno Alves - Portugal



Another defender from a team who is yet to concede a single goal.

His partner Carvalho also had a good game, as well as the whole team did of course, defending, but Carvalho unlike Alves I thought was caught gambling a few times.

Brazil box striker Fabiano made the "best of team" last round and I talked about how well he complemented the other attacking Brazilian players coming from behind moving close to him.

Kaka and Robinho in Fabiano have the skilled box presence they can combine with and the likes of Maicon, Bastos and Elano as well as having that, have a great athletic target for their quality deliveries.

Now before I call Portugal's or Alves defensive performances great it should be noted that quite a few of those names were missing in this game, giving Fabiano worse players to work with, affecting his effectiveness I'm sure, but credit to especially Alves, who it was my impression mostly was on Fabiano, for largely, or at least better than anyone so far, reducing that particular all important Brazil weapon.

We didn't, like many recent Brazil games, watch Fabiano being effective with deliveries from the wings and we didn't really see him being able to combine with the skillful attackers coming from behind. Bruno Alves (mostly I think) would always be in the way.

Now, stopping most of the Brazil attacking players is very much a team effort and not a question of one on one matchups, but this particular one is extremely important not to lose for the central defender closest to Fabiano in the box. The Ivory Coast defenders lost at times badly, which put their Eriksson midfield team defense pretty much to waste, they had done pretty well actually in the beginning preventing passing lanes for both Maicon and especially Kaka, stopping them getting the ball even or quickly taking it away, but the one player they couldn't stop neither getting the ball or giving it back again to other attacking players moving close to him taking advantage in the final third where it hurts the most, was Fabiano though, and with really bad consequences.

There is no doubt a lot of it was less quality around Fabiano. In this game there were only 4 passes exchanged between Fabiano and Julio Baptista and 3 of those was Fabiano finding the "beast" who then predictable was not able to do much with it.

With Kaka against the Ivory Coast on the other hand he exchanged 11 passes. Then in what I think you can also call a bad attacking game for Brazil, against North Korea, Kaka and Fabiano only combined 3 times!

Interestingly in both of those "bad games" Fabiano then saw increased passing from the wingers. Today again and again from Daniel Alves playing instead of Elano, but not to much effect at all and I don't think there is any doubt you'll rather deal with non-getting to the baseline-crosses (which is hard to concede if you sit deep like North Korea and Portugal) than Fabiano being close to the likes of Kaka, Robinho, Elano and Maicon combining around your penalty area.

Centre-back:

John Terry - England



On the field at least, quietly having a good World Cup where he as one of very few England players has played well in every game so far.

The highlight of that so far was the all important game against Slovenia where apart from being mistake-free he also had to save the team from danger on more than one occasion.

More than a bit worrying how the England centre-backs have had to do that against pretty ordinary attacking teams so far and the team/Capello will have to find a better balance against the first really good attacking team they'll meet, Germany of course in the round of 16. Otherwise neither Terry, or Matthew Upson for that matter who also had a good game, will make enough of a difference to prevent them getting knocked out.

Right-back:

Philipp Lahm - Germany



Not much to add really from when he made the first team in round 1. Other than like with Fucile earlier, I now have Lahm back at the position he is actually playing, and I'm also further realizing that there is no doubt, defensively, that he is more comfortable in the 1on1 situations that tends to find sidebacks, defending on the right rather than the left.

Germany will of course face England in the next round and with Lahm now fully installed on the right we should see an interesting clash of elite fullbacks between him and Ashley Cole.

It would be great for England if Cole could force Lahm to defend against an athletically superior opponent, giving him something to worry about, maybe even halting his forward progress, but I fear for England most of the worries go the other way, with either a Milner placed on the left, who struggled there (even) against the U.S, or perhaps worse, notoriously unreliable defender this season, Steven Gerrard with important defensive responsibilities on the left.

AT THE VERY LEAST it might force Ashley Cole to play yet another game where he is mostly staying back but can even he if he isn't getting enough support deal with what by far looks like German's strongest side to me, the dynamic Müller supported by Lahm and to some extent Ozil.
It will be interesting to see what Capello does there. I'm in no way ruling out a return for Emile Heskey with defensive duties on the left, like we've so many times over the years for his club teams. It would be an unpopular and controversial decision but one it's easy to see Capello make.


Midfielder:

Bastian Schweinsteiger - Germany



Schweinsteiger was possibly even better this game than in the first one against Australia.

Secure short passing with all the right decisions and with his impressive range he sprayed many good longer ones as well.

Defensively he also looked good with many well timed interventions.

All in all this was a game where he hardly put a foot wrong ruling the German midfield.

The only negative is that he picked up an injury and had to come off towards the end. Hopefully that's not something that will bother him the rest of the tournament. His team desperately needs him.

Midfielder:

Tim Cahill - Australia



I think my eyes in the beginning at least mostly were on the Germany - Ghana game but the other game between Serbia and Australia kept getting more and more interesting and towards the end there was a clear case of both teams having to chase the dream and push men forward in pursuit of goals.

Serbia of course ended up once again suffering World Cup heartbreak and are going home early while Australia with good performances in both of the last two games really, and by winning this one, at least has some to smile about.

Cahill as he has so many times before, I felt was the player mostly responsible for that, with a great box to box performance, working hard defensively and being dynamic in attack, making well timed run after well timed run threatening the opponent penalty area, and as he has also done so many times before, with a trademark header scoring a goal in the process.

Right-winger:

Landon Donovan - USA



Donovan has been good in every game so far being the one U.S player who can provide an extra bit of pace or skill and with that make a difference.

None bigger or more important than what he did this round scoring a crucial 90th minute winner against Algeria that put his country through, top of the group, to the knockout stages.

A great (or the greatest?) moment in U.S soccer history.


Attacking midfielder:

Keisuke Honda - Japan



Honda interestingly the most fouled player out of anyone in the group stage makes his first appearance on the team.

In beating Denmark 3-1 he showed once again that he is the Ferrari on Japan's workman like team.

Not that he doesn't put in the extra miles himself. He impressively does that. But his ability with the ball is what sets him apart and against Denmark he showed it plenty.

Usually most noteworthy is his kicking-technique and it was fitting that it was Honda who became the first player to score on a freekick this tournament. Definitely not one of his most impressive, and more the fault of keeper Sorenson than anything and his compatriot Endo's freekick goal later in the game was easily the better one, BUT STILL, it was Honda who broke the duck!

In this game he worked hard defensively and with gliding movement and overall skill he was Japan's main instigator when going forward. Not least exemplified when he brilliantly set up Okazaki's winner.

Forward:

Chu-Young Park - South Korea



In what was a wild fun back and forth game against Nigeria, Chu-Young Park was one of the few I think who actually played a really good game!

Worked very hard and with his quickness and skill he was a nightmare for the big Nigerian defenders all game long.

Striker:

Robert Vittek - Slovakia



As an avid Azzurri supporter this is still too soon to talk about (or even look at! Hence the above).

If I try start writing about the events in this game, Italy, Slovakia or even individual players there is no way I can avoid going into emo-rage-tilt mode ruining my whole day and possibly my sleep! Shock, anger and sadness not helped, to say the least, by my own country Denmark then also going out later that very same (fateful) day.

I'll just say congratulations to Slovakia. I had a great time myself in the very nice city of Bratislava once and met some cool people there, and of course (what this is supposed to be about!) also well done to Robert Vittek who with his good target-man display was a key factor in securing the win.





There is no 2nd team this round where like I mentioned in the beginning there were just a little bit too many of the games going on at the same time where my attention was either split or almost entirely focused on one instead of the other.

But I do at least have some NOTABLES:

Left-back: Fabio Coentrao - Portugal



The most notable of all perhaps, missing out once again only by the closest of margins. Had one bad decision on a pass that could have been costly but that's it really. Other than that he was very good and not faced at all by squaring up to the grueling double dose of Maicon and Daniel Alves.

Centre-back: John Mensah - Ghana

Isaac Vorsah the Ghana centre-back who made my first team after the opening games has unfortunately since been injured and the experienced journeyman defender and captain John Mensah (currently at Sunderland) now finds himself playing with another Mensah, the 19 year old Jonathan who was one of the stars for Ghana when they won the U-20 World Cup last year. My first impression though of Jonathan is that he is pretty raw still and make too many bad decisions, meaning more than ever it's the older Mensah who really has to hold it all together.

Against Germany I was surprised how easy Germany got through the Ghana midfield organization that has troubled other teams. Part of it I'm sure is just great German quality with Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Khedira plus Lahm rarely not present with excellent contributions and then there was the choice of Cacau as the striker who was very often dropping deep adding to the midfield numbers.

Still, Ghana themselves have everyone of their non defenders being cagey in midfield so it's not like they were outnumbered and it's not a good sign for them (it is for Germany though!) that they had to rely too this extent on good defending in their box.

There I thought Mensah out-muscled anyone in sight and how he lead the defense to mostly deal. with all those incoming German passes and runs without the ball from behind. was impressive.

Yes there were a few glitches but if you compare to how another midfield who also failed against Germany, the Aussies and how their defenders were then exposed, then I thought the Ghana back-four lead by John Mensah did admirably in not allowing (many) more clear goalscoring chances.

Defensive midfielders: Arevalo Rios and Diego Perez - Uruguay

The workhorses on the Uruguay midfield has defended well this tournament and when the time has been right for attacking they've also been capable of fulfilling their roles requiring them to pass the ball well enough on to the attacking outlets. Not least Forlan of course, but Cavani's movement and performance as a whole also really picked up this round, doing a good job in many places.

Midfielder - Xabi Alonso - Spain



Before the very anticipated match between Spain and Chile somewhere in the second half came to a truce almost, Xabi Alonso had been a very important player.

Chile did show some restraint in their normal high pressure but what we saw was still what we've never seen before, a team meeting Spain up high defending (literally) mano e mano almost all over the pitch.

On the surface perhaps, it looked like a decent success. They actually in many ways prevented Spain's usual fluid possession game through talisman Xavi. And you could say that's an achievement in itself and its a shame we didn't get that intriguing battle for a full 90 minutes because of the Chile sending off and then a full blown stalemate.

But a sending off I think that's also a clear symptom of Bielsa's tactics against a really good opponent.

Defending against, maybe even far more talented individuals - individually instead of "their space" zonal marking collectively as team, just comes with a prize. In this game not least tons of freekicks.

Very often when a Chile defender lost their individual matchup we saw a foul, either out of need cause in a man to man defending scheme there isn't automatically a man occupying space behind. Instead that teammate is likely marking some other man, allowing potentially tons of free space for the opponent winning the individual matchup!
Or other times it would just be a foul as a result of being late against quick technical opponents getting ahead through a nice pass or good first touch.
To put it simply, in their individual marking, too many of the Chile markers were outmatched individually.

Where Alonso then comes in is taking advantage of that as best as possible under the (not to Spain's liking normally) circumstances and with Chile actually largely succeeding in the Xavi individual matchup Spain were hitting more passes from deep, more direct, than you usually see. You could say they were forced to, but I see it more as the natural order of things.

The best at those passers is Alonso and with Spain players put under pressure and marked high up their own half it makes sense to get the ball quickly instead to where the Spain players are man marked in the Chile half, and where a won matchup means oceans of space behind the Chile defender and a lost one nothing serious at all.
Of course very unlike a Chile matchup won in the Spain half where it would be giving away a serious goalscoring chance (to Chile's credit there were actually examples of this).

But enter the goal where an under pressure Alonso in his own half hits a good long pass towards Torres (somewhat harsh but Alonso able to hit that is this sequence's individual matchup number 1 won by Spain) who is marked up high up by a Chile defender, they get into a one on one race into symptomatic non occupied Chilean space. where I'm guessing the Chile keeper then doesn't like his defender's chances (this actually looks like a miscalculation when watching it again) and he comes out trying to clear the ball (meaning individual matchup number 2 won by Spain - even if conceded by the Chile keeper is the more accurate).

It lands in the free space where David Villa using his pace has gotten away from his marker (individual matchup number 3 won by Spain) and he strikes it brilliantly for the goal.

The 200 best players in the world: 166-163

In between these updates I really want to make a follow up to the Season so far entry that focused on England (which is looking really interesting this year btw), as well as some kind of half season review of at least some of the other leagues.

So yeah, stay tuned to see if I eventually get around to that.

But on with the list:

First the Introduction (zzz) to the list.

And as usual the list so far:

200-195
200: Alberto Zapater - Genoa - Spain
199: Nikola Zigic - Valencia - Serbia
198: Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid - Spain
197: Lucio - Inter - Brazil
196: John Obi Mikel - Chelsea - Nigeria
195: Sergio Busquets - Barcelona - Spain
194-193
194: Philippe Mexes - Roma -France
193: Anatolij Tymoshchuk - Bayern München - Ukraine
192-189
192: Theo Walcott - Arsenal - England
191: Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - Wales
190: Pepe - Real Madrid - Portugal
189: Sergei Semak - Rubin Kazan - Russia
188
188: Alberto Aquilani - Liverpool - Italy
187-185
187: Clarence Seedorf - Milan - Holland
186: Diego Capel - Sevilla - Spain
185: Yossi Benayoun - Liverpool - Israel
184-182
184: Riccardo Montolivo - Fiorentina - Italy
183: Kolo Toure - Manchester City -Côte d'Ivoire
182: Yuri Zhirkov - Chelsea - Russia
181-177
181: Martin Demichelis - Bayern Munich - Argentina
180: Marouane Fellaini - Everton - Belgium
179: Cristian Zapata - Udinese - Colombia
178: Tim Cahill - Everton - Australia
177: Paul Scholes - Manchester United - England
176-173
176: Arda Turan - Galatasaray - Turkey
175: Ezequiel Lavezzi - Napoli - Argentina
174: Klaas Jan Huntelaar - AC Milan - The Netherlands
173-170
173: William Gallas - Arsenal - France
172: Shaun Wright Phillips - Manchester City - England
171: Pavel Pogrebnyak - VBF Stuttgart - Russia
170: Darijo Srna - Shakhtar Donetsk - Croatia
169-167
169: Bojan Krkic and Pedro - Barcelona - Spain
168: Ronaldinho - AC Milan - Brazil
167: Tranquillo Barnetta - Bayer Leverkusen - Switzerland

166:

Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa

Bulgaria

Midfielder



The current Aston Villa captain was voted Aston Villa's player of the year last season by his teammates as well as their fans and he is rewarding Martin O'Neill's confidence in him with some very solid play.

Petrov and O'Neill of course go back to when they were together at Celtic. Petrov won four league titles there but it's interesting how his role and play has changed almost completely from what he was known as then (at least by me who didn't see Celtic that much) and what he does now at a higher level being the captain for a top 4 contender in England.

For Celtic I saw him as a dynamite attacking midfielder who was talented enough to rack up both goals and assists. He scored 55 goals for Celtic in 228 games while for Aston Villa he isn't anywhere near that pace and has just 4 in 106.
Now obviously club and league wise those are two different situations but so is clearly Petrov's role.

While Aston Villa has good depth on their wings and when it comes to more attacking players, in central midfield with Gareth Barry leaving and Steve Sidwell being a flop, they would be in terrible shape if Petrov hadn't been able to do as good a job there like he has. Maybe you could even go as far as to say that they'd have no realistic challenge for the top 4.

In fact it doesn't really look like they miss Barry much at all and while that most certainly also has a whole lot to do with some Villa players still to come on this list, I think a former primarily attacking player like Petrov deserves huge credit for going in as comfortably as he has, doing a great job of good all round technical and physical midfield play.

165:

Amauri - Juventus

Brazil (at least for now)

Striker



Oh how he has fallen since I started making this list...

Amauri along with the rest of his team is struggling terribly at the moment and very few things are working, including the play up front where Amauri is still the most usual suspect.

He has great athleticism, not least strength but also decent pace for someone with his target-man characteristics.

He actually used to be able to play a pretty good wide forward in 3 forward lines but a serious knee injury while still at Palermo took away some of his speed I think.

When he came back though he showed so much quality as more of target-man type of forward that Juventus still did not hesitate signing him for big money. In what at the beginning didn't look like a bad move.

In his first season for Juventus with a partner up front (either the similar Iaquinta or the not similar at all Del Piero) in Ranieri's 4-4-2 he at times performed at a very high level.
The kind of impressive level not only suggesting, depending on citizenship, filling out the hole left by the fading Luca Toni for Italy as well as a much higher placement on this list.

Since then it's all gone to hell though and while I very much against popular opinion, thought he kept his performances at an admirably decent level, on a team with a new inexperienced coach that just wasn't functioning, in the beginning of this season, he has since then fallen to pieces along with most of his surroundings and whether or not a lot of it is really out of his hands and his situation in the Juventus attack would be tough to overcome for almost anyone, it would be very hard to justify any higher ranking for someone playing as poorly as Amauri is at the moment.

He is definitely a lot closer to joining Juventus forward-fallouts from this list like Del Piero and Iaquinta than climbing any higher, but at least he has his health going for him which was the final piece of undoing for the other two.

164:

Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool

The Netherlands

Forward



And here is another player who has found himself in a very bad situation this season and the poor performances that tends go along with that.

Generally Kuyt is not very kindly looked upon by a lot of fans in the first place. What's the use of a forward who doesn't score goals anyway, right?

And then this season with his team really struggling and him obviously not being able to do anything even coming close to changing that, is something that surely hasn't done much to change all the negative opinions about him.

But what I like about Kuyt is his running and work rate. That he is very good without the ball basically all over the pitch. Whether that's defensive work like putting pressure on the opponents and/or defending his wing, or if it's offensively in the final third where his tireless running diagonal or deep, take your pick, presents teammates with a mobile target.
Then when he gets it (current Liverpool it's really much more a case of IF) he is capable with both head and feet to do good things.

Now I'm not claiming Kuyt is a good passer or anything like that but he has good enough ball-control to make sharp turns with the ball enabling him to get either shots on goal (FWIW like everyone else he DID score in abundance in Holland) or makable passes.

Mind you this is in the final third with the ball, because while Kuyt has a lot of value without the ball almost anywhere, with the ball he is pretty useless in most places (this is one area where someone like Rooney is so much better) and can actually be pretty destructive to quality possession if he keeps getting it in places he shouldn't.

Fortunately at his best with his great stamina he is able run himself into right positions without the ball and the right positions in the final third where can be constructive if he gets it or if he doesn't at least create space for the likes of Torres and Gerrard.

Unfortunately this season a lot of that work just seems wasted and in what I suspect is a damaging combination of Liverpool having lost Xabi Alonso, their one midfielder with a great range of passing, and having acquired an attacking right-back in Glen Johnson, it does seem like Kuyt more than ever is getting the ball where he just isn't any good.

Either because he finds himself somewhat further back cause the new fullback loves to come forward a lot, or because the two remaining central midfielders Lucas and Mascherano just doesn't have the deep pass, or any playmaking ability, in their arsenal but time and time again instead passes it short, often sideways, which is where we find Kuyt then, standing still, not making forwards runs and unable to do much positive at all.

And last and possibly least here is a random Dirk Kuyt fact:

He finished 2nd in the Actim Index last season behind Nicolas Anelka and ahead of Frank Lampard who was 3rd.

163:

Bruno Alves - FC Porto

Portugal

Defender



To be honest I don't see all that much of Bruno Alves.

FC Porto isn't on tv a lot here with the exceptions being when they occasionally play a European giant in the Champions League group stage or of course when they've qualified for the knockout stages.

I saw more of him this year for Portugal though (they were in Denmark's qualifying group) where manager Carlos Queiroz started playing Pepe as a defensive midfielder which made room for Alves to play alongside Carvalho in the central defense.

Alves had started playing there already alongside Pepe filling in for Carvalho when he had been out injured and I guess did so well that he kept the spot when Carvalho eventually came back.

The Carvalho/Pepe partnership had already suffered an early very unfortunate 2-3 disaster home against Denmark and while following that they struggled mightily scoring goals, some of it I remember as bad luck, defensively for what its worth after Alves took his place in the central defense, they only allowed 2 more goals in the remaining 8 group games and went unbeaten.

So with that and Pepe's recent season ending injury it does look increasingly likely that it will be Bruno Alves we'll see in central defense for Portugal during the World Cup where they'll face Cote D'Ivoire and Brazil in the group of death.

For Porto where he is the captain he has been the defensive stalwart for years and is currently on 4 consecutive league titles.
He is athletic, strong in the air, a tough tackler and last season he won the Portuguese footballer of the year award!

The 200 best players in the world: 188

One more before the Champions League games start. More later tonight.

188:

Alberto Aquilani - Liverpool - Italy

Midfielder



Injury problems throughout his career and barely having played yet this season is what keeps him this low.

But he has more than enough ability I feel to still make the list.

Aquilani is a very complete midfielder who while not as good defensively as defensive midfielders per se still is quite good and certainly better than most of the midfielders categorized, like he himself usually is, as attacking.
He is just disciplined when it comes to that part of the game and without being a strong tackler or anything does a good job of defending his zone.

I think for Liverpool, health permitting and possbily Rafa Benitez staying permitting, that there is a good chance, like his predecessor Xabi Alonso did and like other players under Benitez have, that he will make great improvements physically and then we could see a really strong two way player deserving of a far far higher ranking. But again, health permitting!

As okay as he is when it comes to the defensive part of the game, he is still way behind in those areas if you again compare him to someone like Alonso. But there are some other things he does on a similar level and some things he does even better.

First of all he is a good passer. In the short passing game he is generally secure and makes good decisions and he is able to execute deeper more direct passes as well.

Where he is definitely better than someone like Alonso though is in the final third playing in tighter space.
He can make quality runs in and around the penalty area both with and without the ball and has some play making ability there too. Unlike some of the previously ranked players who to some extent are restricted to only being able to do this further back in midfield.
He is of course also well known for having a good shoot from the outside.

I think all in all this reads like a player with enough quality to pass many players yet to come. But again and again bad health really hurts him. Hopefully it will less in the future. Both Liverpool and the Italian national team could of course really use him.

The season so far. Part 1: The big 4 or 5

Time to take an in depth look at what I've watched so far of football this season.

After the very very time consuming Serie A preview I don't think it' a bad idea to start somwhere else entirely. So let's start in Engerland (england engerland)!

Top of the table we find Chelsea who is off to an impressive start.
I already wrote quite a bit about Chelsea after the first few games I watched them play this season and I think it's safe to say they've improved some since then.

In those entries I was quite critical at what I saw as some flaws that could prevent what is an excellent opportunity this year to win the title.
Much of that was some bad often slow passing distribution in central midfield when Mikel was playing the "bottom" of the Ancelotti diamond, and that resulting in the team having more difficulty than they should defending width.
Even against a team like Hull. Against Manchester United in the Charity Shield it's more understandable.

But since then it's mainly been the excellent Essien playing that role and the passing game has been quite fluent and more direct.
The ball gets to the opponent's penalty area mostly with relative ease and that's where I think Chelsea with a number of the players they have are a more dangerous team than possibly anyone in the world.
Quite simply if they consistently get the ball up there, either through someone in the diamond making a run forward, Drogba going a little back irresistibly seeking the ball or through their great fullbacks, they're very hard to stop and in the Premier League it's difficult to see who should actually.

And even when/if the notorious slow Mikel is in midfield (and he is a great physical talent who should get playing time) Ancelotti can still put someone like Deco at the top of the diamond and ensure quality distribution that way. Lampard and Ballack given certain roles can make quality contributions there as well though with a price to pay when it comes to their consistent excellent play in the final third.
A price that Hiddink for an example interestingly enough was willing to pay in some of his use of Ballack.

Now I will still maintain that Ancelotti's team is more vulnerable defensively than what we saw under Mourinho and also when Hiddink had them organized very well towards the end of last season, but the EPL is overall still by large (even with some recent examples and trends signalling some change) a league where it isn't "just" the most well balanced team that ends up winning but a great dominating attack too.

Yeah they give away quite a few quality chances these days but they're creating themselves in abundance and as long as that all important distribution to the final third is working smoothly that will continue, and they'll be a decent favorite over their on paper weaker this season, top four rivals.

Two of those rivals faced each other in one of the more interesting games of the EPL season so far.
Manchester United against Arsenal.

Unfortunately for Arsenal in that game they were missing Fabregas who isn't just their best player but one who much of the play is build around and the only one who can take it to a level high enough where the team can be consistently successful. Without him it's just a different team. Interesting then that if you compare to how they looked against United in some of the games last season, that they looked quite a bit better here.
One clear plus for Arsenal here that they didn't have when they faced eachother in the Champions League and United proved clearly the better team, was the addition of Arshavin who is an elite attacking talent, but alot of it, sadly for fans of the gunners, I'd definitely put down to what it was that United was missing compared to those games last year.
More on that later when we get to Manchester United.

It's positive though for Arsenal that their central midfielders weren't outworked and outrun like they were in some of those games last year and I think both Denilson and Song have shown improvements in their play this season.
Diaby too, eventhough he had his own personal disaster in this particular game looks like a better player than last year.
Something of course which simply is a must for a club like Arsenal heavily counting on young talent. They have to live up to their upside or it's just a waste.

In a way Arsenal have been unlucky or if you're a more mean spirited person you could say simply inadequate for not having more depth. Either way in their two toughest games of the season against the two Manchester teams they've been without first Fabregas against United and then Arshavin against City.

Personally I thought it was a real lack of flexibility to continue with the 4-3-3 against City if the two wide forwards were going to be Diaby and Bendtner.
That's bordering on simply ignoring your player's characteristics over the system. Conventional coaching wisdom would say that it's the players and their characteristics dictating what system to play and not the system the players.
It's nothing new of course, to do it like Wenger did this game. Countless of coaches have done the same and for one match only I'm sure there can be found arguments not to change things around.
Still, as the match showed. As a look at the City team sheet SHOULD show. This was a match against a world class opponent where things had to be optimal. BOTH Diaby and Bendtner on the wings in a 4-3-3 is hardly optimal.
And whether it was there specifically the match was lost or not, the result was City being the overall better balanced team on the day. That showed. On a more positive note, individually in central defense William Gallas and Thomas Vermaelen are playing great, so right there is all the foundation Arsenal need for an excellent central defense partnership.

Overall they "just" need the team to be more consistently well balanced. When Fabregas and Arshavin are both there. When the players for an effective 4-3-3 are all in place, there are few problems and they're a very effective team who can steamroll lesser teams and look great while doing it. On the surface, the greatest outside mighty FC Barcelona even.
Not least it has to be said, since it's a pet peeve of mine, against annoying teams like Wigan who face the big teams well bend over before the game has even begun with their terrible naive tactics.
But all in all like I talked about in an earlier entry on Arsenal I think a version of the 4-3-3 over previous years 4-4-2 IS definitely the right step when trying to create a consistently effective attack and the more they can look for inspiration at Barcelona, and what they've been doing so great, the better too.
Some might say it's bordering on crazy talk but I'd maintain that Arsenal is the only team with a chance to get close to that. And considering just getting close is enough to better almost anyone, it's certainly something that's worth a shot.
The system change was the obvious step one but let's not forget the pieces already in place.
Starting with Fabregas they have the closest thing to Xavi there is. Someone who even does some things better and who is a must for a team aspiring for overwhelming possession against their opponents.
Without a Xavi or Fabregas type of player it just has no chance of being effective with how good team defending has become.Arsenal also arguably have the poor man's Messi in Arshavin. They share quite a few characteristics and it could even be argued, though I think there is a significant gap there, that they have a poor man's Iniesta in someone like Samir Nasri.
They even have a striker in Bendtner who can do the needed non-traditional decent job on one of the wings.
Where it then really falls apart is if someone like Diaby plays there. That is just very un-Barcelona like.

That brings me to the striker. Robbie Van Persie who suprisingly, it seems doesn't see a whole lot of criticism or face many questionmarks.
People love his speed and technique. And that's understandable but let me try and throw in what's not so great if you set the bar very high which it should be for a team trying to beat what at the top of the table are still the toughest league competition in the world.
And if you compare what he is doing to the kind of things that a Samuel Eto'o and now Zlatan Ibrahimovic does for Barcelona. The kind of things that Arsenal would need as well, from their lone central striker in a possession based 4-3-3.

I really question if Van Persie has the physical attributes to be really effective there when it isn't play in transition.
And if he doesn't then it's something that even affects him negatively when it comes to his actual strenghts. Like say, combining nicely with Fabregas or Arshavin and using his acceleration to feed off that. But when playing in the center often in narrow space and no real holes to accelerate into, the physical strenght is needed to even get to that, so to speak.

To his credit, even if I think he has a negative attitude sometimes, he has started to do more traditional striker kind of work, including better movement without the ball, which is essential when not an overly powerful striker, but when playing central on top it's just not quite there yet at a high enough level.
A lot of that I think would be helped and maybe even turned into a strenght if there was more switching positions in the forward line. Not just with Bendtner who can be more a traditional lone center forward but with Arshavin too.
Again the inspiration being Barcelona where Messi is often wildly effective switching with the striker and spending some time central and on top. Van Persie is more dangerous too when he isn't restricted to near the central defenders just outside or just inside the box.

Of course, one very obvious positive I found when I first saw the new Arsenal 4-3-3 with Van Persie playing central instead of Bendtner was that it simply made sense to have Van Persie getting all the good scoring chances Arsenal usually create instead of someone like Bendtner who whether it's fair or not has become quite infamous for some poor finishing.
Van Persie being there instead, that SHOULD mean more goals coming from there! RIGHT?

It's not like Van Persie isn't getting shots at goal either. I heard of one stat (I can't find it myself) that the announcer here mentioned the last time I watched Arsenal, where Van Persie was the player with the most shots on goal out of everyone in the league.

So i ask, with just one goal so far isn't Van Persie that much a superiour finisher anyway, OR is he just not getting the really good, the realistic scoring chances?

Either way, it's obviously a problem and I call for more flexibility in the forward line to try and solve it!

Manchester United have rebounded nicely from their early shock defeat against Burnley.

That very flukish defeat actually lead some doubters going way too far, and on the usually entertaining Guardian Football Weekly podcast one of the contributors (unfortunately I don't remember who it was exactly) even forecasted that United wouldn't finish in the top 4! That's either very bold or very silly more likely.

Like with Arsenal I refuse to hand out too much credit for beating stupid Wigan, but while ignoring the controversy, as someone who usually root against United I was very annoyed too, what I can do is give them credit for the second half against City.
It was classic Ferguson Manchester United play with great wing play and fullbacks pushing forward exactly where it hurt the most.
For Manchester City that was the right side with Wright Phillips and Micah Richards who were nothing short of fully exposed by the excellent Evra pushing Phillips way way back where he wasn't comfortable and Giggs being up to his old tricks against Richards, who judging by this might still best fulfill his potential as a central defender instead.While watching I was suprised that Hughes waited and waited without doing any adjustments whatsoever while United had clearly taken over the game creating tons of dangerous situations.
He had flirted with danger in some earlier games too where opponents also too easily created chances but at least there the City forwards were being very dangerous themselves. Despite their goals that wasn't really the case for most of the second half. This was a team dominating them and Hughes failed to come up with or try even, anything.

Overall with Manchester United the only thing I'm quite sure of is that they're weaker this season than the last couple of years. The reasons for that are pretty obvious. Not only have elite players gone and not really been replaced but with them various tactical options too.
To me the Tevez- C. Ronaldo - Rooney forward line looked pretty unstoppable and down through the chains it ensured an incredibly well balanced team who both attacked, not least on the counter, but starting with Rooney and Tevez defended really well too.

Rooney I think is a top 3 player in the world. Maybe even the second best after Messi. The good news for United is that he is still around. With him there is hope. But put him with an amazing attacking talent in C. Ronaldo and a player like Tevez who to a lesser extent does some of the same things both ways that Rooney does, and you have not just hope of great results, but certainty.

As a very non United fan I don't even like to think about it, but consider how close they were to winning both their very tough league and the Champions League two years in a row.
Think about what a great job of team defending Chelsea did on Barcelona in the semis. A job so good that I think most of the time it knocks that Barcelona side out. Then think about how Manchester United throughout the season had been the best defensive team. Better than Chelsea.
Consider the speed and counter attack options they had up front that Chelsea did not.

This is a post I wrote on a sports forum before the final:

United does have great individual talent defensively but from watching Barca so much this year I really think that any team not defending as a TEAM, on a scale similar to what Chelsea did, will be an underdog. You just cannot leave them space.
Hiddink is not exactly known for playing that defensive, ever, yet this was the one time where he felt it was a must. That alone says alot.

Now ignoring the question of whether they will actually go for it or not, I think United certainly could come close to do a similar great job of TEAM defending to what Chelsea did, they certainly did well the last time they faced eachother, Barca have of course improved since then, and if they combine that with their "deadliest" transition game in the world, THEN I think they'll be favorites.

But I don't think any team not heavily geared towards defending, is a favorite to resist Barca's talent when that talent almost inevitably will have 55+ pct of possession.

Did Ferguson for once get it wrong? If he has commented on it since, I'd love to see it.What I do know is that the Tevez-C.Ronaldo-Rooney forward line didn't start and what I kinda wanted to say I guess by going back to all of this, was just how freakish good this Manchester United team were and how very close they were to become one of the best teams in history.
Something Barcelona then took from them and might very well improve upon even, this season if, they repeat.

Like I said, this season, Manchester United, I don't see them as any potential best team in history or anything like that, they do however have the best two-way player in the world, Wayne Rooney to build around, a manager who knows how to win the Premier League like no one else, and last but not least some of the rivals DO look weaker too.

There is definitely hope for Manchester United.

For Manchester City, overall I'm not sure if teamwise I have that much to add from even the last time they came up on this blog when they beat Blackburn.

Playerwise I fully expected Adebayor to score lots of goals. I tipped some people to bet on him as a topscorer even, since I thought he was at worst a top 5 favorite while the bookmakers had him quite a bit further down. Even behind Michael Owen comically enough.

A positive suprise has been Craig Bellamy who isn't just scoring but working very hard a lot of places on the pitch.

And in midfield I like Nigel De Jong who adds some balance to the side. That will be very needed when someone like Robinho is back in the lineup.

Finally in "engerland" even if we may want to we can't forget about lovely little Liverpool.

This was a team who through preseason as I watched questionmarks creeping up on virtually all the other top four sides that I was starting to lean towards making my pick for the title.

Even if, and I know some people are convinced that was the case, Liverpool did indeed run good last season with some rather fortunate results along the way, I liked how under Benitez from year to year there were clear signs of improvement.

Every year under Benitez the goals against had been around the same number. 25, 27,28 and then 27 last season. But at the same time the goals scored had been going up every single year, from 57 and 57 to 67 and last season a league best 77 goals scored.

For a team and a coach who rarely compromises defensive stability in favour of the attacking side of things, for them to get to a point where they improve what mostly has been described as a key problem holding them back, to a league leading best, I thought that was quite a dramatic sign. A very positive sign.

Enter evil evil Real Madrid and them stealing key central midfielder Xabi Alonso.
Always a good technical player, under Benitez, Alonso's physical tools and tactical awareness had improved to such a point where he was becoming one of the best central midfielders in the world and certainly with another one of those, the superb Mascherano, made up one of the best central midfield tandems around.

A tandem that not only ensured Steven Gerrard could play his best in front of them behind Torres, but who made the defensive four look good to. Made their job easier.
And in the case of someone like Jamie Carragher, who's been struggling quite a bit this season, probably a whole lot easier.

Trying to fill his shoes has been young brazilian midfielder Lucas. I think the jury is still out of him and the first indication of him doing a sufficient job will be when the Liverpool defense starts looking consistently balanced again.
So far Carragher has been on his heels way too much and even the normaly excellent Mascherano has at times struggled with the same defensive duties where he normaly has thrived. Not good signs.

Alberto Aquilani who they bought from Roma is yet to play this season. He has been a great talent for many years but has been held back by a lot injuries.
At his best he'll likely have even more to offer forward than someone like Alonso and if Benitez like I think he will, it's what he did with Alonso and others, will have him improve his physical ability and defensive play, we could, barring injuries, see a truly great player sometime in the future.

Elsewhere Liverpool has perhaps the best pure striker in the world in Fernando Torres, a great mainly attacking midfielder in Steven Gerrard and a very good two-way player in Dirk Kuyt.

Like Manchester United, Liverpool have hope.


I hope to have a part II focusing on Italy and Spain a little later.