The 200 best players in the world: 109-101

With this entry I've finally reached the top 100 and when I look at all the players to come all I see are writeups that I can't wait to write and individual rankings that I'm mostly pretty happy with.

The last thing is the most important. Countless of times this has been delayed by me instead of doing writeups preferring to waste hours messing with the order. No more of that!

Surely this will be smooth sailing from here with entries at least every other day? Right? Right...

Introduction to the list

The list:

New order

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
166-163
166: Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa - Bulgaria
165: Amauri - Juventus - Brazil
164: Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool - The Netherlands
163: Bruno Alves - FC Porto - Portugal
162-160
162: Lorik Cana - Sunderland - Albania
161: Carlton Cole - West Ham - England
160: Lukas Podolski - FC Köln - Germany
159-155
159: Felipe Melo - Juventus - Brazil
158: Craig Bellamy - Manchester City - Wales
157: Simon Kjaer and Daniel Agger - Palermo and Liverpool - Denmark
156: Alessandro Nesta -Milan-Italy
155: Aly Cissokho - Lyon -France
154-152
154: Walter Samuel - Inter - Argentina
153: Diego Lugano - Fenerbahce - Uruguay
152: Mauro Zarate - Lazio - Argentina
151-148
151: Sebastian Giovinco - Juventus and Luca Cigarini - Napoli - Italy
150: Taye Taiwo - Marseille - Nigeria, Rod Fanni - Rennes and Benoit Tremoulinas - Bordeaux - France
149: Domenico Criscito - Genoa - Italy
148: Fernando Llorente - Atletic Bilbao - Spain
147-144
147: Juan Roman Riquelme, Juan Sebastian Veron, Lucho Gonzalez, Pablo Aimar and Javier Pastore - Boca Juniors, Estudiantes, Marseille, Benfica and Palermo - Argentina
146: Alexis Sanchez - Udinese - Chile
145: Tom Huddlestone - Tottenham - England
144: Gerard Pique - Barcelona - Spain
143-139
143: Raul Meireles, Porto - Joao Moutinho - Miguel Veloso, Sporting Lissabon - Portugal
142: Bacary Sagna - Arsenal - France
141: Eljero Elia - Hamburger SV - Netherlands
140: Marko Marin - Werder Bremen - Germany
139: Giuseppe Rossi - Villarreal - Italy
138-135
138: Raul - Real Madrid-Spain and Ruud Van Nistelrooy - Hamburger SV-Netherlands
137: Konstantin Zyryanov - Zenit Saint Petersburg - Russia
136: Simon Rolfes - Bayern Leverkusen - Germany
135: Ze Roberto - Hamburger SV - Brazil
134 - 129
134: Mauro Camoranesi - Juventus - Italy
133: Simone Perrotta - Roma - Italy
132: Marcelo - Real Madrid - Brazil
131: Christian Chivu - Inter - Romania
130: Simäo - Atletico Madrid - Portugal
129: Marcell Jansen - Hamburger SV - Germany
128 - 122
128: Hatem Ben Arfa - Marseille - France and Goran Pandev - Inter - Macedonia
127: Rafael Marquez - Barcelona - Mexico
126: Nigel De Jong - Manchester City - Netherlands
125: Grafite - Wolfsburg - Brazil
124: Pablo Hernandez - Valencia - Spain
123: Daniel Guiza - Fenerbahce - Spain
122: Ramires - Benfica - Brazil
121-117
121: Mohamed Sissoko - Juventus - Mali
120: Dejan Stankovic - Inter - Serbia
119: Stefan Kiessling - Bayer Leverkusen - Germany
118: Frederic Kanoute - Sevilla - Mali
117: Jermain Defoe - Tottenham - England
116-110
116: Carlos Puyol - Barcelona - Spain
115: Alou Diarra - Bordeaux - France
114: Antonio Cassano - Sampdoria - Italy
113: Deco - Chelsea - Portugal
112: Ryan Giggs - Manchester United - Wales
111: Thomas Vermaelen - Arsenal - Belgium
110: Gareth Barry - Manchester City - England

109:

Wilson Palacios

Tottenham

Midfielder - Honduras



Palacios has quickly established himself as one of the most reliable midfielders in the world.

Defensively in many ways I think he is comparable to previously ranked Nigel De Jong.

Palacios like De Jong has a great work rate and at least comparable tackling ability where De Jong of course is a master, but what puts Palacios just ahead is that both athletically and when it comes to overall technical ability he has a bit more to offer.

Something that I don't think should be underrated as a deciding matter in what team is winning the midfield battle on the given day.
If a player like Palacios not only defends well but through running (especially that) or passing (he does actually have a tendency to lose the ball at times which is his one weakness I guess) can add some pressure coming from the primarily defensive players also, then it's just even more to deal with for the opposition and slowly but surely the midfield that does the best, or most it can, on the attacking front while not making mistakes defensively can gradually, or very quickly sometimes, take over the game. Make it one way traffic instead of back and forth. A certain Scottish Manchester United enforcer is a very good example of this currently.

Perhaps especially in England where it still isn't always given what team goes out there with the defensive mindset and who's looking to attack in numbers. Perhaps both sides are looking to attack in numbers! Then we have the battle, and while Palacios isn't one of those players I'll call a great two-way player, for Tottenham he hasn't been much of a factor further upfield and is first and foremost at his best defensively, his good work with at least constructiveness both ways (well one way it's supposedly destructiveness) is something opponents consistently have to deal with both when they try to attack and when they defend.

On second thought I should probably simply have said that Palacios has great midfield presence.


108:

Gabriel Agbonlahor

Aston Villa

Striker - England



For me the second best English striker after Wayne Rooney and I think it's only a matter of time before that also becomes the popular view.

The way Aston Villa plays he doesn't get nearly the number of goal scoring chances that some other strikers enjoy the luxury of and therefore there hasn't been that breakout goalscoring season just yet. But his outstanding pace, work-rate plus underrated power and technical ability (control and shooting) in my opinion puts him ahead of the pack.

If he is a good enough tactical fit compared to the various rivals in order to earn a World Cup place is an interesting question though.

Some forwards automatically will get selected ahead of him because of what their size brings to the table and then there are some who are still a little bit better in and around the box in tight space including with their back to the goal and are perhaps more proven finishers (even if I think that's somewhat dubious), where Agbonlahor is at his very best running into space.

How much of that Capello thinks England will need from a reserve, with the main guy being better at that and everything else, will make or break Agbonlahor's World Cup hopes.

107:

Ashley Young

Aston Villa

Winger/Forward - England



Ashley Young made the PFA team of the year both in 2008 and 2009 but after an inconsistent 2010 wasn't particular close this time around.

Just like the many previously ranked players of his type, difference making speed is his main weapon and he has good dribbling ability.

He is ranked ahead of all of them so far cause I feel he is a little bit more of a complete player or with a better trackrecord.
He is good in second-striker type of roles as well, and at least until this season, was a very consistent weapon creating and scoring goals through effective crossing and shooting. Better (even much better) than most of the wingers ranked so far.

In true Martin O'Neill Aston Villa style he also has a good work-rate but could improve creativity and short passing.

106:

Giampaolo Pazzini

Sampdoria

Striker - Italy



This was one of the quotes from Pazzini's coach at Sampdoria Luigi Del Neri in my Antonio Cassano writeup:

“Before Cassano couldn't manage many 30m sprints. When he plays further forward he has to sprint 10m so it's different. The question is: when will he do 30 separate 10m sprints?

With Pazzini on the other hand that's a question that doesn't even have to be asked.

Pazzini does those sprints in between opposing defenders tirelessly throughout every game. He has both the work-rate, the acceleration and off the ball movement to be very effective at it.

On top of that he has good ball-control and even some decent dribbling ability that he can use to make way for his very good shooting. In many ways then, a classic Italian dangerman!


At Fiorentina Pazzini was behind in the pecking order to Gilardino and Mutu. With Mutu's career pretty much destroyed this season, Fiorentina could have really used him, but Pazzini moved to Sampdoria instead where, with apologies to Cassano and Palombo, he has been the best player ever since and a big part of their great results lately.

If I had to point out a non strong point it would be that even though he is certainly an option in the middle (if anything) he perhaps isn't the greatest fit in the more and more popular Italian 3 forward lines, at least if you compare to some of his Azzurri World Cup rivals, but he is so good in other areas that he should make the final squad anyway.


105:

Toni Kroos

Bayer Leverkusen (on loan from Bayern Munich)

Attacking midfielder/Winger - Germany



That photo of Kroos the young sensation and the legendary Kaiser himself was taken back in 2007 at the U-17 World Cup where Kroos was awarded the Golden Ball as player of the tournament.

As a 16 year old he had already been signed by Bayern Munich and done so well for their youth team that as a 17 year old he was promoted to their senior squad. There he showed great things as well, for starters he set up two goals in his 2008 debut, but appearances predictably were very limited and he was sent to Leverkusen on loan.

A loan-deal that was then extended into this season in what turned out to be a great move not just for Leverkusen where Kroos played a big part in taking them straight to the top of the table with one brilliant display after another, but for Kroos himself who got the stage where at a young age he could take the Bundesliga and the Germans so much by storm that he'll be very hard to avoid for the World Cup.

When I first saw Kroos he kind of reminded me of young Steven Gerrard. Build and appearance seemed similar and there was that striking ability when kicking a football to have it do whatever he wanted. Especially when it came to shooting.



Now this was a sketchy first impression and Kroos doesn't have that freak athletic ability and unique drive of Gerrard when Gerrard is at his best, making Kroos a less dynamic player, but what he does have is a silky touch when it comes to ballcontrol and the more delicate passes, he even has vision, and then, again like Gerrard, when it comes to crosses, for an example on set pieces, he can really put force into the ball and be accurate at the same time. Or he can just elect to put the ball into the back of the net!

Kroos quite simply has excellent technique involving anything that has to do with kicking a football and that's not a bad thing at all.

104:

Alexandre Song

Arsenal

Midfielder/Defender - Cameroon



Song really started to come into his own last season and has uninterruptedly ever since been a model of consistency. He is also yet another player who has earned a ranking boost through great functionality in two different positions, defensive midfielder as well as sometimes a very capable central defender.

Where Song looks most impressive is man to man duels where he becomes an almost immovable object winning the ball the vast majority of the time. He has great strength and balance in those situations.

While he is not the quickest and doesn't offer much forward I have been impressed with his passing game. He has good distribution and doesn't subtract but definitely adds to Arsenal's possession game.

So does midfield partner Denilson you could say, who often has some of the best passing completion rates out of anyone, but unlike him Song has that clear physical defensive presence and doesn't make the downright gross mistakes without the ball that Denilson continues to do, at times costing Arsenal dearly.
Despite all that secure passing it isn't even given that Denilson is in fact positive value for Arsenal, while in Song's case there is no doubt whatsoever that he is indeed.

Another interesting comparison is much lower ranked Chelsea midfielder Mikel.
For my first few versions of this list Mikel was one the major stumbling blocks obstructing Song's entrance. I couldn't really see Song being much better, or worse for that matter, but it's now clear to me that Song's better passing game and ability to play two positions has him ahead of someone like Mikel by a good margin.

103:

Jérémy Toulalan

Lyon

Midfielder/Defender - France




The least I could do for what is surely one of the most boring players on this list was to find a funny picture...

Toulalan is another defensive midfielder specialist who doesn't offer much the other way and who has received at least somewhat of a ranking boost cause he is a capable central defender as well.

He has a great work rate and is forever harassing the ball holder, is very consistent and doesn't seem to ever make major mistakes.

With the ball he actually has good control and very secure distribution. Again no mistakes but again very little going forward.

Just a very unspectacular solid player doing good things defensively to help his team.

102:

Alvaro Negredo

Sevilla

Striker - Spain



Negredo started this season as he finished the last one, looking like the next superstar striker coming out of Spain.

Relative quick, strong and with excellent technique again and again he showed exquisite finishing scoring goal after goal.

Then things came to a sudden halt and he has spent most of the time since struggling for his new team Sevilla, and as touched upon in the Frederic Kanoute writeup , just hasn't been able to fill the shoes of either Kanoute or Luis Fabiano, in what's been a poor season for the whole team.

As Sevilla's terrible record without that duo starting suggests I think a lot of it is just how much of the Sevilla style and tactics were based on what those two could do, and while Negredo is very good in his own right, he is a different type and less of the supreme athletic box presence that those two together virtually guaranteed.

Sevilla for the last many years have always had great creativity and pace coming from the wings.
Negredo to really shine it's possible needs a whole different kind of buildup, passes coming more from central, so he can be at his best just inside and around the area where his great technique poses much more of a dangerous threat than trying to meet any kind of passing off the ground whether it's a cross or a target-man type of feed with his back to the goal.
It's possible Negredo can develop those things to his game also but so far I haven't really seen it.

His mostly great play the last two years has also put him in the Spain World Cup picture where there is a never ending battle to be first (and maybe second) reserve to the superstars Fernando Torres and David Villa.

On my ranking Negredo is the highest ranked of the bunch and the one who at his best I think is ahead of the others but certainly Athletic Bilbao powerhouse Llorente who I regret not ranking higher and is playing great this season with his size and strength offer something that the others don't and if only one gets to go (Pedro with his versatility has become pretty much certain) then I think it should be him.

101:

Walter Gargano

Napoli

Midfielder - Uruguay



Small in stature but with a big heart Gargano could be one of the most underrated players in the world.

Despite his size this is a midfielder who can command. Defensively with his great work rate and ball winning ability where he is surprisingly strong and in possession where he doesn't just have good technique but a very impressive passing range.

The only weakness I can come up with (and it might be wrong) is that in a tactical demanding environment he perhaps hasn't adjusted a 100 percent yet. On pure talent he blows most of the defensive midfielders he face every week well away, he is just a much better player, but perhaps just perhaps if we're talking defensive positioning alone he isn't quite up there with your good/standard Serie A defensive midfielder.

With my limited knowledge of the Uruguay national team, on paper their World Cup squad has good talent defensively, I chose to rate Diego Lugano pretty high, and not least up front with players still to come on this list, but in midfield I only really see Gargano. It will be interesting what kind of quality they have around him and if not much, if Gargano can carry them on his back.

The 200 best players in the world: 162-160

I actually started writing on a season so far update but got kinda stuck so instead here comes the list again.

Also, I've done some counting and

players on the list playing in:

EPL: 59

La Liga: 43 (It feels low when you compare to EPL and Serie A, but they do crush when it comes to top 20, 50 and 100 too I think, where they have the most players)

Serie A: 44 (There probably is some unintentional favoritism when it comes to some of the lower inclusions over people from some other leagues based on watching more mid-table Serie A teams than mid La Liga, Bundesliga and France teams, but they are clearly behind La Liga and EPL when it comes to the top ranks)

Bundesliga: 23

Ligue 1: 12 (again this feels too low but they're suffering a bit from some very talented people that I just haven't seen enough like Sissoko from Toulouse and then there were a few others like Ben Arfa and Gomis who have been struggling a little bit too much and were late cuts.
Also, none of these 12 have even appeared yet!)

Players on the list from:

Brazil: 19 (Low number when compared to the Europeans but if it's top 400 and of course upwards they'd pull away from the field)

Italy: 17 (A lot of people think the national team has been terrible so this must be way too high right? WELL... Something like half of these aren't even playing on that team regularly!)


France: 16 (see the Ligue 1. comments and to those I'll add Flamini who is easily talented enough but just isn't playing at the moment. A lot of candidates also seems like they're defenders (and goalkeepers for that matter) where a lot people were cut)

Germany: 12 (This really surprised me and it seems very low. When it comes to defenders they're in the same boat as France though and virtually no one made it. All in all I do feel like I have a good representation of their midfielders and forwards where some are ranked pretty high, though of course there will be people who you could easily make a case for in the lower placements)

Argentina: 18

Spain: 26 (The big winner and World Cup favorites!)

England: 19 (Don't like the number compared to Brazil and Argentina or Germany for that matter, but remove Walcott who probably shouldn't have been included after all and it's at least one less!
And like I said in relation to Brazil, all the European nations would start falling behind once we went deeper. England too of course)

An Introduction to the list.

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
166-163
166: Stiliyan Petrov - Aston Villa - Bulgaria
165: Amauri - Juventus - Brazil
164: Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool - The Netherlands
163: Bruno Alves - FC Porto - Portugal

162:

Lorik Cana - Sunderland

Albania

Midfielder



Literally carrying teammates (here Nasri), what a hero!

Lorik Cana is one of the more limited players on this list technically, now that I think about it perhaps the most limited , meaning the rest of what he brings better be something special and all in all I think that it is.

Now it can of course be argued that this is a little too generous of a ranking but defensively I think he is the best midfielder so far, which counts for a lot.

Cana is the former Marseille captain and when he moved to Sunderland this season he immediately became captain there too and when you watch him play there is definitely a sense of this is a real leader trying to make the people around him better.
It's hard for an outsider to really judge something like that and generally it's something that is often probably quite overrated, but Cana really does seem to get acclaim from just about everyone as a great influence on his team.
If nothing else he definitely leads by example, head or feet first with non stop hard work for his team. The man just goes to war in every game.

So why then did he end up at Sunderland and not a better team like for an example Arsenal who over the summer were reported to be interested in his services?

I don't know why that move didn't materialize exactly. There could be many reasons not necessarily to do with Cana's strengths and weaknesses but generally I think it could be argued that his lack of technical skills just aren't a good match for many elite clubs and especially not a team like Arsenal where complementing teammates not just through defensive work but even more so through technique is essential.

Can a team that match in and match out have to break down opponent defenses afford to have a midfielder like Cana who compared to other top players offers far more on the defensive front than anywhere else.
I definitely think that Cana would instantly become the best defensive midfielder for Arsenal and even though they're all improving to various extents I'd say outside of Fabregas (ldo) he'd become the best midfielder too, BUT, and that's the problem, still the worst technical player of the bunch by some distance which even if he is the best "overall", would end up making that team worse!
It's better then for Arsenal to count on someone who is ever improving like Alex Song who is becoming good defensively plus on top of that has a lot of natural ability making him a good fit in the gunners possession game. Technically and physically.
My one complaint about him is that he is slow but Cana isn't the exactly the quickest either, so there...

For Sunderland however, who play very differently than Arsenal and at a lower level obviously, there isn't any real danger of him looking out of place and here he is actually a nice combination of decent skills (cause I hope I haven't made him sound worse technically than he is. He is also good at keeping it simple) good tactical play and of course that trademark fierce physical play of his.

161:

Carlton Cole - West Ham

England

Striker



Before getting injured Carlton Cole was enjoying an excellent start to the season playing on an, at least to me, unforeseen very high level.

Through great athleticism and forward skills to go along with it he was creating goals not just for himself but with some superior displays up front resembling the guy who probably does it better than anyone Didier Drogba, for the players around him as well.

Needless to say West Ham who are currently struggling at the bottom of the table desperately needs him back and personally I'd love to see how he would complement someone like Italian energy bunny Alessandro Diamanti, still adjusting to England in many ways, who would not only love all the space Cole seems to create but also be provided with a great target he could aim his very good left foot at.

I think getting something special going there is what could get West Ham to safety in the table.

That Cole arguably hasn't proven that he exists at a high level over a longer period of time counts a little against him too (maybe it should have counted more) but like other relatively unproven players making the list I don't see (other than in his case some worrying injury concerns) why the good play shouldn't continue for years to come.

160:

Lukas Podolski - FC Köln

Germany

Forward



After some seasons spent mostly failing to shine at Bayern München, Podolski is now back at FC Köln the club where he first broke through, but to my great surprise things STILL aren't going well and at the time of writing only has 1 goal in 15 games and predictably have to endure seeing his name on much less flattering lists (compared to this one!) such as "biggest Bundesliga flops of the season".

Fortunately for Podolski, Alexandr Hleb like already touched upon in the Pogrebnyak writeup (who is on as well btw), was there to wipe competition away and take first.

Of course a lot to do with Podolski's placement on my list is connected to what I've seen from him on the national team where I've almost always have found myself very impressed by his performances.
Comfortable both as a forward and wing he's again and again shown great explosiveness in the final third where his work especially with Miroslav Klose have resulted in one goal after another.
Quite frankly the quality shown for the national team indicates a player who could be ranked much higher, but consistency is the major worry.

Podolski is still only 24 and I expect his play to pick up sooner rather than later.
If it doesn't and he is once again relegated with Köln then perhaps he shouldn't just have been lower but maybe not included at all.

More (much more) football

Three matches I want to talk about.

The Manchester City-Blackburn game that I watched at the weekend and forgot about in the last entry.

A very entertaining Berlusconi Cup game between Juventus and AC Milan yesterday.

And finally the Champions League qualifier that finished a few hours ago between Celtic and Arsenal.

How much will be about the actual games and how much will be about the individual teams only time will tell...

Blackburn - Manchester City:

As everyone knows Manchester City have become filthy rich and have been more than happy to hand out tons of cash to secure (mainly attacking) talent.
Ignoring what came in last season this season alone in has come players such as Adebayor, Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Gareth Barry and Kolo Toure.
All to certain degrees world class players and they join what on paper was already a strong squad.
The overwhelming question is of course if Mark Hughes with all that talent can create a world class team so strong it can challenge the traditional dominating top four.

Personally I think they already underachieved quite a bit last season and this year with these players dramatic improvement is simply a must and I think there can be no excuse not to finish in the top 5.
Villa, Everton and Tottenham mainly, have good squads too but when it comes to world class talent and depth thanks to their enormous spending Manchester City have pulled away and is now up there with the four strongest teams.
When it comes to players. But what about the manager?

Mark Hughes has recived quite a bit of credit over the years. First as Wales manager with his team often performing gallantly and later what was seen as generally overachieving when in charge of Blackburn.
It was rather limited how much I saw those teams play and even more limited how much I actually remember...
But my general impression was one of a team rarely well organized and sometimes with a rather misguided game plan. For what its worth, limited sample size, bad memory and all, it was just one of those teams that sometimes didn't look all that well coached when looking at them, mainly without the ball.

For Manchester City the picture has been similar. Very up and down and Hughes record of 26 wins, 8 draws and 24 defeats so far, is far from impressive.

To be honest I'm not totally sure what system Hughes was playing against Blackburn and its pointless to get caught up in the numbers too much anyway since they change around so much.
The backline was obviously four people and they played very well I thought.
Then Barry and Ireland (out of need in a more defensive role) as central midfielders, and depending on where Wright Phillips, Robinho and Bellamy were located the system was either 4-4-2 or 4-3-3ish.
I actually think Bellamy and Wright Phillips did an admirable job working extremely hard both ways but they aren't exactly great defensive players and Robinho's usual lack of workrate prevented what was probably meant to be a 4-4-2 when defending sticking together and being effective, basically giving Blackburn very favorable conditions to almost at will move the ball to the final third of the pitch, where thankfully for City, both the defense and Shay Given played very well preventing goals.
Hughes putting Wright Phillips and especially Robinho on the wings of a 4-4-2 just will not work longterm and better attacking, more ball secure teams than Blackburn will likely pick it apart.

What should give City hope is the signing of Tevez who outside of Wayne Rooney could be the best two-way forward in the world. He is the kind of player who with his work-rate can complement the likes of Robinho and Adebayor so they can concentrate on what they're actually very good at. Attacking!
Meanwhile someone like Tevez will get it done both ways.

But in a 4-4-2?
A three forward line of Tevez - Adebayor - Robinho would seem more logical and get the best of out those players. Robinho is almost wasted as a wing in a 4-4-2. All Robinho should be asked to do in a game is to attack, to create, and further behind someone like Ireland is also much better with two more defensive midfielders. Gareth Barry being one. Nigel De Jong probably the other.
As well as they actually played yesterday, Bellamy and Wright Phillips with this competition are very good depth players getting games here and there. Starting either over someone like Tevez is a disaster.

Forward of course City looked very good. They can give any team problems with their pace and excellent skill up front and Adebayor, if Santa Cruz at some point doesn't come back and seriously challenge his starting spot, should have a monster season.

But this was a flattering score line I thought. Blackburn had the more chances. Way more shots and a midfield actually consisting of more than two players!
Individually though with everyone playing relatively well the quality gap was large enough in City's favour in order for them to secure a win.
As a team they and Hughes still has some way to go though I think, but put Tevez in a 4-3-3 with Adebayor and Robinho and I think we have a serious top 4 challenger!


AC Milan vs Juventus

For the glorious Berlusconi Cup:
Glorified friendly anyone?

But this was actually a really good game I thought with both teams competing hard seemingly with something to prove.

One very positive thing was seeing Alessandro Nesta finally back and looking pretty solid too.
It's very likely he won't remain consistently healthy but all the credit in the world to him for coming back after one injury nightmare after another.
Back when he was healthy he was the best defender that I ever saw. Simply an immense player.
Even as a Juventus fan I felt my heart stop a little every time he, and he didn't seem to hold back at all, went into hard tackles. Stay healthy Alessandro!

Another player who also did this was of course Gattuso who looked much better than in the Confederations Cup and almost got into a fight with new Juventus signing Felipe Melo.
Melo himself saw the red card plenty last season and I definitely expect fireworks from these two when they cross swords later this season in Serie A.
Melo I hope will be a monster. He is a great physical talent with very smooth passing skills.
For Gattuso everything will be about his health. If not 100 percent fit he really isn't good enough at the highest level anymore. Flamini for an example is definitely better at this point. Lets see if the Milan hierachy will finally be broken under new coach Leonardo or if Flamini is still behind veterans Ambrosini and Gattuso in the pecking order.

Other than the new coach the biggest questionmark for Milan this season is of course Ronaldinho. In this game it was basically the usual from the last couple of years with perhaps a better workrate though. At least in this game. I'm not totally sure. But in spurts he did look good.

One interesting thing though is that he wasn't playing his old role or the role previously occupied by Kaka at Milan.
Pato actually did this and was much more of a forward in this game bordering on attacking midfielder involved in buildup, than being a pure striker. He still made some great speedy runs though. Really he was kind of an everywhere man.
To a lesser extent the same was the case with new signing Huntelaar. He was seen a lot of other places than in the box, working really hard.
Personally I think Pato can be great in that role. His talent has no limit almost but to put Huntelaar out of his element like this just to accommodate a Ronaldinho not at his best anymore and not good enough to play the role he used to, having other people to do that, just so he maybe can be effective around the penalty area, WHERE probably the likes of Huntelaar and Pato would be more effective anyway.
It seems when Ronaldiho plays this is what they will do. The question then of course is how much he will play? We shall see.

Finally on Milan and their players, I also thought new Brazilian defender Thiago Silva looked good and a definite upgrade over the likes of the unreliable Kaladze and the ancient Giuseppe Favalli.

Juventus I could probably go on and on about but will try to restrain myself and just concentrate on what I saw in this game.

First of all David Trezeguet sadly looks just about done to me. The last many many times I've seen him play there has been very little productivity and close to zero value for his team and yesterday was no exception.
I can't rule out him finding form again here and there but in this new Ciro Ferrara three-forward line I absolutely hate him playing a vital part. The unrealistic exception being if the other two parts were to be Giovinco and Del Piero.

When it's with Amauri or Iaquinta I just hate what he does to their game and forces them away from where they are best, just so Trezeguet with his non existant workrate can be where he frankly isn't that great anymore and definitely not as good as the alternatives.
Even, if possible, moreso than before he has become strictly a penalty area player and when he isn't even effective there I'm not sure there is room for that in what is supposed to be a flexible 4-3-1-2, or similar, system.
Another challenge for this system looks to be width where Milan for good parts of the game had the edge. When neither Del Piero or Giovinco plays where is attack from the left side gonna come from?
Molinaro is ordinary personified and De Ceglie still has some way to go in my eyes. Then there is the matter of defending the flanks where the midfield really has to find the right constellation in order to not become too stretched out. At least against good teams.
Against a lot of teams however I think most of the likely midfield formations will control games well enough for any width weakpoints not to be a deciding factor. Not least thanks to additions Melo and the excellent Diego.
A Sissoko, Melo and Marchisio/Camoranesi midfield with Diego in front of them looks very elite and I also think, despite some people's opinion, that Christian Poulsen can go in and contribute positively there over a long season.

The game itself was very back and forth with chances for both sides finishing 1-1 with Milan winning THE BERLUSCONI TROPHY on penalties.

Celtic - Arsenal

This was game two (competitively at least) of Arsenal's new 4-3-3 and while things didn't work out perfectly like at the weekend there were still some positives.

Mainly the midfield play where especially Song looked strong and fully capable of fulfilling his role there satisfactory.
Denilson was less eye catching but defensively this was one of the best games I've seen him in. His positioning was really good compared to in the past where it's been way below par.

One positive in a negative was that it was never really from any established Celtic attack that Arsenal found trouble defensively but only from poor decision making resulting in ball losses when in possession. And that's something that actually was below par from Arsenal today. Arsharvin was even more of a shadow of himself than in the weekend and just looked lost at times, while both Van Persie and Bendtner were quite a bit below the level they showed at the weekend.
In the other end Vermaelen looked extremely impressive and already looks like a great signing.
Celtic as expected fought hard but as local analyst here, Martin Laursen brought up, passing it around too much in their own half at times, especially after halftime, didn't do anyone any favours except Arsenal who could quite easily anticipate and at times even intercept.
Celtic should probably have tried skipping that ball movement, played much more direct and made the match even more into a physical battle.
Easier said than done of course and now with a 2-0 to overcome it's extremely difficult to see them having any chance of going through.

My goal is to have the next entry be some kind of Serie A preview before the weekend.

I will also be watching the Athletics World Championship on and off, as well as of course the Tennis from Cincinnati.