Barcelona endured a frustrating return to action in La Liga as they were held at Camp Nou by Villareal yesterday evening. The hosts enjoyed a wonderful 2009, culminating in Leo Messi’s extra-time winner in Abu Dhabi which disposed of Estudiantes and secured the World Club Championship, but their first match of 2010 was muted by comparison.

The Argentinian was sorely missed, although Barca shot out of the blocks and notched the opener on 7 minutes. Dani Alves crossed for Thierry Henry, who swivelled and unleashed a thunderous volley from 12 yards which canonned off the crossbar. Pedro was able to control the ball and drill past Diego Lopez into the bottom corner for 1-0.

In Messi’s absence, there was more emphasis on the roles of Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic although the duo produced very different performances. The former looked especially menacing in the first period for the hosts and caused all sorts of problems for Javi Venta whenever they located him, particularly with piercing, cross-field passing leaving the pair one-on-one. The latter, by contrast, was somewhat anonymous.

Despite the early setback, in a story synonymous with their campaign so far, Villareal grew into the game.
Their bold 4-3-3 formation allowed Barcelona’s defensive triumvirate of custodian Victor Valdes, Carlos Puyol and Gerard Pique very little freedom to do what they wanted with the ball without being closed down.

The Yellow Submarine had opted to leave Guiseppe Rossi on the bench – with that went their most prolific man and they might have regretted it as they fashioned the clearer opportunities of the match. The best of the first-half undoubtedly fell to David Fuster, who was found by a wonderfully flighted cross that he proceeded to head into the turf. Unfortunately for him, the trajectory of the header saw it bounce up and clear the crossbar with Valdes stranded.

The visitors also had a couple of notable penalty appeals – firstly Alves making contact with Marcano in the box although it appeared minimal. As a result, several of the home players were quick to voice their disdain to the referee, an unfortunate aspect of their game which culminated in Puyol being booked later in the half as the Catalan crowd grew slightly restless.

Just prior to the break came the second shout from Villareal and it was a lot stronger than the previous one.
Nilmar bore down on goal from an angle and, with Valdes slightly exposed, Puyol barged the Brazilian off the ball. The naked eye and replays suggested the defender took none of it and a lot of the striker but the referee saw it as a shoulder charge and dismissed the claims.

The reigning champions, while far from their best, were not without chances of their own. Henry was brought down by Venta and Ibrahimovic, the subject of speculation linking him with his old boss Roberto Mancini at Manchester City this week, could only blast the resulting free-kick wide from the angle of the 18-yard-box.

Henry was once again in benevolent mood, causing problems down the left and teeing up the Swede in the box but, as the former Inter man could only strike wide again, he must have been somewhat relieved to see the referee’s assistant’s flag raised.

Villareal’s coach, the former Barcelona man Ernesto Valverde, would have been relatively pleased with their showing, finishing aside, and must have drilled this into his troops at the interval.

Only 3 minutes into the second-half parity was restored – although it didn’t come before Fuster was again guilty of profligacy as he was played in before blasting over from a good position. This time, however, get the chance to make amends for the two glaring misses within a minute.

Nilmar went at the defence in the box but his shot was blocked, the ball falling to Cani who looped a cross into the box and there was Fuster at the back post to hammer a volley into the bottom corner for 1-1.

Although Barca sporadically threatened danger, the visitors were very good value for the scoreline and Pep Guardiola introduced the talismanic Andres Iniesta with just over half an hour left, replacing Jonathan.

The substitute breathed some life into Barca; some good work from Pedro on the flank provided him with the ball on the edge of the box but he could only miscontrol and then scuff his attempt, while soon after he brought a good save from Lopes courtesy of a curling effort from similar distance.

Within a minute, Villareal had countered and forced a corner which was symptomatic of both teams’ approach at this stage and the pace of the game made for fascinating viewing. It was wonderfully poised on the hour and there for the taking.

Valverde replaced Cazorla with Escudero and, in a telling statement of intent, brought Rossi into the fray with a quarter of an hour remaining.

The hosts were still pressing as they rallied in search of the winner. Xavi found Henry in space on the left but he could only force a corner with a deflected effort, while Pique saw his effort meet the same fate in a heavily congested penalty area. Of course, despite a frustrating night which ended with him being lucky to stay on the field, Ibrahimovic is always capable of a flash of inspiration and his best piece of play was working space well on the edge of the box but, much to his consternation, he could only fire his effort wide of the target.

A similar source of frustration for Guardiola was Marcano’s wonderful interception of Xavi’s through ball with 5 minutes left, for had it not been telegraphed then Henry would have been in a one-on-one with Lopez from a very promising, central position.

Yet for all of that pressing, it was the men from El Madrigal who almost provided the sting in the tail on 87 minutes as Senna released Rossi in the box with a perceptive, lofted pass. The Italian glanced the ball beyond Valdes but Puyol was on hand to clear with the ball heading for the net.

In truth, the visitors had the better of the opportunites all evening and, though they have not resumed with a win, for Barcelona it could have been worse as neither side could ultimately find the winner.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The UEFA Cup group stages are beginning to take shape with some interesting clashes on matchday 3 last night.

Group A

In Group A Manchester City, minus Robinho, Elano and Pablo Zabaleta, secured an excellent 2-0 victory in Gelsenkirchen over FC Schalke seize control of the section. The nature of the Citizens’ line-up combined with the form thus far of the Germans suggested that this one would be a home banker, and while the hosts started brightly their resilient and disciplined opponents absored the pressure to strike with a goal in each half.

The pace City had on the break from the likes of Daniel Sturridge and Shaun Wright-Phillips caused problems to Schalke all evening and it was no surprise that the former’s cross reached Benjani with some assistance and the Zimbabwean slotted high into the net to give the visitors the opener. With the home fans disgruntled, Schalke’s Dutch coach Fred Rutten’s problems were compounded when Stephen Ireland latched onto a looping, deflected ball and slotted past Manuel Neuer from 12 yards out.

With Twente Enschede taking break from the action, the remaining game in the group was a keenly fought draw with Paris Saint Germain hosting Spanish opposition in the form of Racing Santander. The Parisians lost their opener 3-1 in Gelsenkirchen, while the Spaniards were searching for their first win after a narrow defeat in Enschede and their ensuing draw with Schalke, hence a win was vital for both teams and it showed.

An end-to-end opening saw PSG strike first through Serbian striker Mateja Kezman, who curled his effort into the top corner of the net after some good work from Peguy Luyindula. Santander were playing a high line in their attempts to find an equaliser but this was breached by Jerome Rothen’s through-ball and it was Luyindula this time around who made no mistake with the finish.

The visitors plugged away and got themselves a critical consolation before half-time. Former Real Madrid man Pedro Munitis delivered a free-kick into the danger zone and Sammy Traore was the unfortunate recipient, guiding the ball into his own goal. Ten minutes into the second period the visitors’ well travelled midfielder Gonzalo Colsa struck a blow to PSG’s hopes of progress when he drove the ball in off the post from fully 30 yards, though no team could ultimately find a winner.

The French club will need to pick something up from their next fixture in Manchester to realistically keep their slim qualification hopes alive, while Santander have a week off before hosting City themselves in the final fixture. Schalke, meanwhile, will play their final game on matchday 4 with a trip to the Netherlands, where a win would almost certainly send them through.

Group B

There were a couple of notable results in Group B where Galatasaray surrendered their 100% record at home to Metalist Kharkiv. The side from the Ukraine had already comfortably dispatched Turkish opposition this season with a 4-1 aggregate victory over Besiktas, although they did lose 1-0 in Istanbul and perhaps with this in mind, Galatasaray went on the offensive from the outset.

Unfortunately for them, Olexandr Goriainov was inspired in the visiting goal and even when he was beaten, by Milan Baros in the 31st minute, the Czech striker was flagged for offside. Sabri Sarioglu was instrumental for the Turks and he brought the best out of Goriainov either side of the interval and they pressed for an opener. Ultimately, and perhaps somewhat inevitably, they were made to rue their missed opportunities when Edmar scored the opener with a low shot and give Kharkiv a vital 1-0 victory. That said, Gala still have 2 wins under their belt and remain in a strong position to qualify if they can pick up a point when they travel to the group’s absentees on matchday 3, Hertha Berlin.

Olympiakos lost their opening fixture in Istanbul and responded with a brilliant 5-1 victory over Benfica in the group’s other game, virtually eliminating the Portuguese club from the tournament. Luciano Galletti set the tone for the evening when he put the Greeks in front within 60 seconds, hammering home from an acute angle. A Nuno Gomes effort was disallowed for offside not long after and the night rapidly deteriorated for Benfica; on 18 minutes Christos Patsatzoglou took advantage of some sloppy defending to send a shot looping over Quim in goal and by 25 minutes it was 3-0 as Diogo, who was exceptional, danced through the defence and made no mistake. Luiz pulled one back for the visitors soon after but it proved no more than a consolation as Galletti turned provider for Fernando Belluschi before Diogo completed the rout early in the second-half.

Group C

Standard Liege top Group C after their 1-0 victory in Belgrade over Partizan. The Belgians are rapidly growing in stature this term having been unlucky to have been eliminated from the Champions League by Liverpool, beating their near neighbours Everton to secure a UEFA group slot and then beating 2006 and 2007 winners Sevilla in their opening fixture.

They have shown discipline and bundles of energy so far this season and it was no surprise that they attacked the hosts from the off – despite only one win in their previous eleven away European fixtures – a succession of near misses culminating in Igor De Camargo’s opener with a headed effort on 36 minutes. The Serbs responded after the break and pushed for an equaliser; Manchester United-bound winger Zoran Tosic had three good attempts, the best of which hit the crossbar, but it was Liege who held on and took the points back to Belgium to make it two wins from two matches and send the hosts crashing out of the competition.

The group’s other game took place in Italy with Sampdoria held to a 1-1 draw by Stuttgart. The visitors surged into an 8th minute lead courtesy of Marica but it was cancelled out towards the end of the first-half when Paolo Sammarco finished well from a corner. It was a game in which chances were few and far between, with many efforts coming from long-range and, although having to settle for a draw, the Germans’ new coach Markus Babbel will know there is a lot that could still happen in the group. Sampdoria have a game in hand on the Germans but that is in Liege, while Stuttgart then host the table-toppers when Sevilla travel to Italy.

Group D

Tottenham Hotspur gained another victory in Group D with a 1-0 victory over NEC Nijmegen in Holland. It is a result which not only helps to dispel memories of Juande Ramos’ poor start to the season – culminaing in their opening defeat at Udinese – but when combined with their 4-0 hammering of Dinamo Zagreb, leaves Harry Redknapp’s men in a very strong position to qualify whatever the result in their final fixture at home to Spartak Moscow, Udinese overcome Zagreb in Italy next Wednesday.

It was Jamie O Hara’s solitary strike on 14 minutes that proved to be the difference between the two sides. Gareth Bale went clear and sent in a cross from the left that Frazier Campell turned onto the underside of the bar, and O Hara was on hand to knock home what proved to be the winning goal. It was not a game of many chances but with Spurs missing the likes of Vedran Corluka and Roman Pavlychenko, they will not be complaining.

Meanwhile Dinamo, so demoralised by their trouncing in North London a few weeks ago, were dealt another killer blow as Ivan Saenko struck a late goal to give Spartak Moscow a 1-0 victory in Croatia. They looked to have little in the way of creativity although Spartak, managed by Danish legend Michael Laudrup, were restricted to long-range efforts themselves in a poor game. As it appeared to be heading for a goalless draw, Saenko popped up with a timely winner from the edge of the box.

Group E

Group E provided one of the games, if not the game, of the evening as AC Milan and their wealth of talent arrived on England’s south coast to face Portsmouth. What proved to be Harry Redknapp’s final game at Pompey was the 3-0 opening day defeat in Portugal against Braga, thus Tony Adams’ troops were looking to atone for that defeat and pick up three points against a team which rested the likes of Ronaldinho and Alexander Pato.

The typically English conditions contributed even more so to what was a delightful game for the neutral but one which would have had the home fans sombre on its conclusion. Filipo Inzaghi went extremely close in the first-half on a couple of occasions; firstly picking up a deflected Andrey Shevchenko free-kick and guiding it past the despairing David James but onto the post and then expertly lobbing the England goalkeeper from 18 yards only to see his effort land on the roof of the net. Milan looked the more threatening but Pompey’s height – boosted by the likes of Peter Crouch – and physical, direct nature caused Milan a host of problems themselves.

Unsurprisingly, it was two converted crosses that put the English side into a two goal lead. The outstanding Glen Johnson was the provider on both occasions – the finishing done by Younes Kaboul and Kanu. Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti threw his last dice with the introduction of his Brazilian stars and it wasn’t long before Ronaldinho magnificently silenced the home fans, curling in a hotly-disputed free-kick from 25 yards. Fervour was replaced by anxiety inside Fratton Park and deep into stoppage-time the predatory Inzaghi controlled a lofted ball into the box before guiding it into the bottom corner to secure a point for the Rossoneri.

It was a result which also kept Milan’s unbeaten record intact and the only other team in the group with such sanguinity right now must surely be Wolfsburg. The German side travelled to Braga and, despite going a goal down, emerged 3-2 winners with Zvjezdan Misimović the saviour. They had already demolished Heerenveen 5-1 in their opener and now have maximum points with Pompey and Milan to face.

What would have made victory all the more sweet was the fact that, until the 83rd minute, the visitors looked like leaving Municipal empty-handed as an Albert Meyong brace sandwiched by a reply from Edin Dzeko left Braga 2-1 up and, if Luis Aguair had not been unlucky with a set-piece, it could have been 3. Cue Misimovic, who first despatched a penalty after Dzeko had been fouled and then showed good control before blasting the ball home in stoppage-time. All may not be lost for Braga though, as if they can win in Holland and Portsmouth fail to win in Germany, the third qualification slot will be theirs.

Group F

With Aston Villa, Group F leaders, out of action it was up to the rest of the teams to play catch up and Ajax went a long way to securing their passage through with a 1-0 victory in Hamburg. Hamburg coach Martin Jol is no stranger to this competition after his time at Tottenham, and his side started brightly with Ivica Olic going close twice in the first period.

Ajax failed to create a great amount all evening and, with Hamburg not firing on all cylinders, it looked to be heading for a draw until Leonardo stole it for the men from Amsterdam. A suicidal backpass from Hamburg skipper David Jarolim was seized upon by the Brazilian, not long on as a sub, who then rounded the keeper and thought he had won it for his team – only to watch his effort hit both posts before having to finish the job at the second time of asking.

Realistically, all is not lost for Hamburg and it would be a major surprise if they did not go on to qualify, particularly given the lack of quality possessed by both Slavia Prague and MSK Zilina as both sides had to settle for a 0-0 stalemate in a match largely dominated by the Slovaks.

Group G

In Group G, St Ettienne are guaranteed a top 3 spot after a 1-1 draw at Club Brugge. David Gigliotti gave the French outfit a lead from close range going into the interval despite Brugge’s Nabil Dirar striking the woodwork on 14 minutes. Ronald Vargas brought the hosts back into it not long after the break but it is Ettienne who will be happier with the point, particularly having lost their last seven matches in Ligue 1.

Valencia are also looking strong in the group, demolishing Rosenborg in Norway 4-0. The Spaniards were beaten twice by their opponents in last season’s Champions League and sent out a clear message of intent with goals from Juan Mata, Pablo Hernandez, Ruben Baraja and Joaquin. The opener was rather fortunate, deflecting in via the Trondheim keeper Rune Jarstein, but from there on in it was plain sailing for classy Los Che. Brugge and Rosenborg now face a battle with FC Kobenhavn, who had the night free, for the third place in the section.

Group H

In the final Group, H, CSKA Moscow continued their outstanding form to beat Polish side Lech Poznan at Luzhniki. The 2005 winners made a bright start and, barring a couple of intermittent Lech opportunities, were rewarded with a two goal lead at half-time; 18-year-old Alan Dzagoev enhanced his reputation following his brace against Deportivo, stroking the ball past Ivan Turina and marauding full-back Yuri Zhirkov doubled the advantage with a volley inside the box. Semir Stilic pulled one back from a free-kick for Lech but ultimately it was not enough.

On analysis of the group before a ball was kicked, however, one surely cannot have anticipated that Feyenoord would be rock bottom with three defeats from three matches, but that is exactly the predicament they find themselves in after a 3-0 defeat against Deportivo La Coruna in Spain.

The Dutch side now find themselves out of the competition after what was a must-win encounter for both teams following their respective losses in Moscow, while the Rotterdam club were also comprehensively outplayed in Nancy.

Deportivo were a class apart on the night and once Alberto Lopo opened the scoring it only seemed that Feyenoord’s defensive exposures would come to the fore once again and so it proved in two second-half minutes via a Kevin Hofland own goal and Andres Guardado. AS Nancy-Lorraine had the matchday off and are in a strong position behind CSKA and Depor have done themselves no harm with this victory.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

After Manchester City’s catastrophic 8-1 reverse at Middlesbrough on the final day of the 2007-8 season, Sven Goran-Eriksson, and a substantial proportion of the club’s supporters, wanted a quick decision on the Swede’s future.

Eriksson’s declaration that a decision should be made within hours of that match was the clearest indication that he wanted to be put out of his misery after rumblings from the club’s Thai owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, in the last few weeks of the season suggested that the man from Torsby would be on his way out of Eastlands.

The curtain wasn’t drawn on Eriksson’s reign for almost a month after the fiasco at the Riverside, largely as a result of Shinawatra’s insistence on marketing the club globally — witnessed last year through City developing close links with 6 clubs around the world – which meant he needed a coach for the team on their recent tour of the Far East. It is, after many years of deriding our neighbours for their appeal in Asia, a strange time to be a City fan.

When I wrote a half-term report on City’s progress for Soccerlens, a fellow Citizen on the comments for that article did not mince any words on my worries about Eriksson’s reluctance to switch from the 4-5-1 formation that had guided the team to 9 straight home victories in 2007, declaring that I was ‘talking bollocks.’ Don’t think for one second I am not grateful for the memories Sven brought to Eastlands, and there seemed to be many; the first day optimism and performance at West Ham, two victories over United and the blending of players with youthful exuberance and foreign class seen so prominently in the early part of the season, the highlight of which was perhaps the 3-1 home win over Newcastle. Not forgetting Sven completing successfully, albeit through the fair play award, Shinawatra’s aim of European qualification in his first term.

The disappointing manner of a home Carling Cup defeat to eventual winners Tottenham, minus red-carded Didier Zokora early in that particular game and an equally frustrating, with all due respect, FA Cup exit at Bramall Lane against a balloon assisted Sheffield United suggested worrying times might be on the horizon. It was a peculiar season in some ways, but in other ways it was ever so symptomatic of the Blues; in 2004-5 City crashed out of the FA Cup at Boundary Park, in 2005-6 they exited the Carling Cup at the home of Doncaster Rovers and in 2006-7 Chesterfield humbled the Blues in the same competition.

Just to elaborate on the definition of the syndrome that, love it or loathe it, is known in and around Manchester as ‘Typical City’, in 2004-5 City kept clean sheets at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw at Highbury.

Eriksson seemed to have virtually eliminated it for the first 3 months of the campaign, but the Blues swiftly appeared to lose their zest and the 4-5-1 system, which produced such free-flowing football when the midfielders offered adequate support, was easily worked out by a few visiting teams to Eastlands. Thaksin’s recent criticism of the second half of the campaign included the fact that motivation was lacking. This remains open to debate, fatigue and confidence may have played a part, but Everton outfoxed and outworked the Citizens to complete a double over them while Wigan ground out a goalless draw at the City of Manchester Stadium that rarely looked in any doubt.

By this time, bizarre as it sounds during City’s best ever Premiership campaign, I was growing frustrated at the team looking a shadow of its former self — not that they stuck to the plan of course, completing that famous double with a first victory at Old Trafford in over 30 years which looked, when Arsenal overcame Blackburn at the Emirates the following night, to have handed Arsenal the title on a plate. How wrong I was…

The downward spiral was bucked slightly with a win at Sunderland and an impressive home win over Portsmouth, but I felt the visits of Everton and Wigan to Manchester prior to them were both must-win encounters if we were to achieve a top-six finish. Rumours were gathering pace regarding Sven’s future before the capitulation against Fulham, after which I, and Shinawatra judging by his expression, were absolutely livid and the aforementioned defeat in the North-East.

The day before that final game there was a march at Eastlands in support of Eriksson, I felt personally that too many City fans were clinging on to the memories and overlooking the danger signs in 2008 and that feeling was only reinforced by the manner of City’s loss to Middlesbrough. The decision to publicise the fact there would be a thorough review into the club as a whole was interpreted by many that Sven’s days were numbered. It was not a well-timed or particularly wise choice to announce such a review. Undoubtedly, the players were psychologically shot in the final fixture — though some of Boro’s efforts were simply magnificent – and many City fans were critical of Shinawatra for this. I have already stated that his timing did not help but he was thousands of miles away from the Riverside that day and was not as responsible as some were making out.

Of course, another consequence of Thaksin’s declaration was to create the type of uncertainty which persuaded Sylvain Distin and Joey Barton to depart the club in the summer of 2007. Barton in particular was stinging in his criticism of the lack of ambition and planning at the club in a radio interview. Distin could not hang around forever and although he has not been missed all that much due to other defenders who need no introduction, it was in a very similar tumultuous climate that his former defensive partner Richard Dunne was strongly reputed last week to be considering overtures from many Premiership teams, Tottenham in particular.

He was rumoured to be highly disillusioned at Sven’s impending departure and his fears were not without foundation now that Eriksson has taken on the role of guiding Mexico to the next World Cup in South Africa.

At this point I will not blatantly lie and say I was not concerned last week when this revelation was announced, especially considering the rumours about Micah Richards and Michael Johnson following suit. I attempted to appease myself: whatever Shinawatra’s human rights record, he is still a businessman and must have some kind of contingency plan, I pondered to myself.

Luiz Felipe Scolari was the name who had been linked more heavily than most, but with his intention of keeping his future undecided until after the European Championships and City due to commence UEFA Cup action next month, albeit at Deepdale due to a Bon Jovi concert staged at Eastlands, it seemed unlikely.

Now, of course, the rest if history. The dust had no sooner settled before Eriksson was being unveiled in Mexico and City approached Mark Hughes. After all the uncertainty of the last few weeks, it was a relief to see City acting swiftly and professionally, partly a consequence of the acquisition from Nike of Garry Cook, who is already advocating the signing of Ronaldinho.

Hughes and Cook certainly fit the mould of Shinawatra’s ambition and vision. The latter explained recently he had to make the ‘ruthless’ decision to give Eriksson the boot, while Cook has stressed, while alluding to the potential signing of Ronaldinho, that there are ‘times when you need to be surgical and times when you need to massage a situation, which is what this case requires’.

It does not seem, on previous evidence, that any of these 3 lack ambition. Maybe an example of this is the way that City released a DVD of a double over United in a season. While the Blues have done this on occasions down the years, such as leaving Maine Road and the epic 4-3 win at Spurs in the 2003-4 FA Cup, or maybe it’s a personal thing but I hope there is a day in the future when we are going to Old Trafford in an optimistic state every term.

In reference to another of my previous articles, one only has to read my tale of 3 top managers to know what I think of Hughes. He demonstrated nous, passion and knowledge in abundance during his reign at Blackburn and, in all honesty while some City fans are expressing reservations about his Old Trafford connections, the man is a class act.

I recall Kevin Keegan in his programme notes against Portsmouth at the culmination of the 2001-2 campaign, announcing the impending arrival of Peter Schmeichel, stating that it should never be a problem to have a class act like that at Maine Road. I read somewhere recently that Hughes did the double over United in his second season at Ewood Park and I haven’t even entertained the thoughts that some City fans seem to have done.

My initial thoughts are that he will bring some of the Blackburn philosophy to Eastlands: plenty of spirit and an emphasis on the flanks and 2 up front. City have never really replaced Shaun Wright-Phillips and while there is an exciting prospect in the form of Vladimir Weiss (there may be a clip of his free-kick against Chelsea in this year’s Youth Cup Final on Youtube), Darius Vassell works hard and Steven Ireland can be enticing to watch, I wouldn’t half-mind David Bentley and Roque Santa Cruz!

Yet it is not really going to be the same for Hughes now in the way that Sam Allardyce found when he took on the Newcastle job. He won’t be talent spotting for bargains anymore, presumably, as there are already reports that he has £30m to spend this summer, maybe more, working on the assumption that Jo from CSKA Moscow will cost £20m and Ronaldinho another £15m.

There is another issue recently which has concerned me slightly, though, and again it comes back to Ronaldinho. I won’t cover this too much really as I wrote a piece on his potential signing a month ago, but a lot of the rumblings seem to have come from Shinawatra and his advisors regarding this signings, even Eriksson was not particularly aware of it when the speculation developed a couple of months ago.

Vladimir Romanov at Hearts and Roman Abramov’s part in signing Andriy Shevchenko have both shown the dangers of too much interference from the boardroom. Hughes does not strike me as the type of man who would tolerate too much of it, but for the time being he has stated he does like Ronaldinho. Shinawatra didn’t interfere too much in the transfers in 2007-8 and would more than likely use this coup to try and cease his frustration at the lack of times the City of Manchester stadium sells out. AC Milan’s initial hesitation at the price tag could be City’s gain.

I know for a fact that there are people out there, not just City fans, who despise the treatment of Sven (which I did not approve of and, for the record, would usually say 1 year for a manager to prove himself is crazy) and people in football circles who were staggered that City let him go.

But I am more excited about the appointment of Hughes than any manager for as long as I can remember in my life supporting City. One thing is for sure, after a flurry of activity at Manchester City Football Club in the last week, it is going to be a very interesting summer…

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Editor: The author’s worst fears were realised as fan violence marred the UEFA Cup Final. Marco has the match report, Guardian has the eyewitness account of the police officer who was attacked by the angry fans.

It won’t be long now until Rangers prepare to take on Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup Final as part of their quest for an unprecedented quadruple of trophies in the 2007-8 campaign, but how will the host city of Manchester cope with the anticipated invasion of between 80,000 and 100,000 fans for this fixture?

There is no doubting that, with its experience of hosting the Commonwealth Games back in 2002, Manchester gained an invaluable insight into what was required for such an occasion to succeed in the right spirit. Considering that the city also boasts Old Trafford and the City of Manchester Stadium among its facilities, Lord Coe’s recent comments that some Northern cities are 30 years ahead of London in terms of arenas and transport links seem to hold some substance. There is also the fact that Old Trafford hosted the Champions League Final in 2003 between Juventus and Milan with a considerable amount of success and prestige. However, issues and events like that are one thing and, with the memory of Celtic’s visit to Seville that year still relatively fresh in the memory, this event could be a different proposition altogether.

For some weeks now, the Manchester Evening News and Scottish Daily Record have been reporting on the way that Manchester will be swamped on May 14th, largely in terms of the respective clubs’ ticketing allocations and of accommodation for the fans. The fact that the City of Manchester Stadium only has a capacity of 48,000 at the best of times probably would have been completely overlooked had the semi-final favourites, Bayern Munich and Fiorentina, made it beyond that stage.

Tickets for the final were divided roughly as follows; 13,000 per club (later adjusted to 17,000 for Rangers and 9,000 for Zenit), 11,000 on general sale via the UEFA website ballot in the early months of 2008 and then around 7,000 on the corporate side. The figures above take into consideration that the capacity is already reduced by between 3,500 and 4,000 for the fixture. Tickets that had a face value of under £100 are now changing hands over the internet for numerous times more, but we are familiar with this – thinking more about Moscow the week after, England World Cup games and the Hatton-Mayweather fight in particular.

One does not need to be Einstein to work out that this is around a maximum of 35,000 if the thousands of the Ibrox masses manage to obtain the tickets they have been so desperately scouring the internet for in the last 10 days, even swamping a Manchester Evening News competition and inundating Manchester City’s ticket office with so many requests that they were prompted to issue at least 2 articles on their website stating that the club did not have any tickets on sale, aside of hospitality, which sold out quickly as well.

Anticipating a maximum of 100,000 Rangers fans descending on the North of England, this still leaves around 65,000 ticketless, which is where Manchester Council bowl into the fray. They will be establishing, after some initial hesitation as a consequence of talks with the GMP, 3 specialist ‘fan-zones’ in the city centre itself, which is a 20-minute walk from Eastlands. This is all well and good, in theory, leaving followers of both clubs to mingle, separately, in a carnival atmosphere while they watch the match. The 3 zones are divided as follows; 15,000 spaces for Rangers fans to watch in both Cathedral and Albert Squares respectively and a third zone for Zenit fans, based in Piccadilly Gardens. Quite why the final one was established when Zenit returned 4,000 tickets for the match itself is open to debate, perhaps it will house some of the Russians living in England. One has memories of a similar ‘fan-zone’ in Exchange Square for England fans during the 2006 World Cup, which caused a lot of controversy and was eventually removed.

The author has not seen much of the Auld Firm fans in action, but does recall a good atmosphere in the day when Roy Keane’s testimonial took place at Old Trafford against Celtic, although the ‘locals’ became slightly agitated at the visiting cries of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ later that night…but that’s another story.

In theory, it should be a great occasion, there have been some complaints but those making complaints are sometimes reminded that it is only what the locals have to endure whenever England travel abroad for European and World Championship qualifiers. Additionally, Rangers have had barely any arrests on their travels this season, despite taking large amounts of fans Europe-wide. Still, one would suppose it is easy to say it should be a cracking day, this invasion, living miles away in Northern Ireland, as I do, which incorporates the next point — it is not just those travelling from Scotland and within England itself…

Hence, still around 50,000 ticketless fans, certainly from a Glaswegian perspective. But that would be too parochial, of course, and FlyBe alone has reported that sales on its flights from Belfast, Glasgow and Edinburgh have risen by 50% this week alone compared to the same time last year for the Manchester route. Incidentally, the English section of Zenit’s website was reporting around a week ago that they were addressing the problem of dramatic price-hikes on their routes from Russia to Manchester, which may strike a chord with the Manchester United and Chelsea fans that will be making plans as I type to descend on the Russian capital in a week’s time.

Anyhow, without wishing to digress too much, the 80,000-100,000 also have to contend with finding accommodation. The vast majority of what Manchester has to offer was snapped up within days, leaving followers of the Teddy Bears searching for alternative places. Fortunately, there are places like Bury, Bolton, Liverpool and Blackpool not too far away and those are the options that have also been investigated thoroughly.

There will, on the bright side again, be a beaming of the game at Ibrox laid on, presumably to ease the burden on Manchester, with thousands expected to attend and alleviate some of that pressure. Facilities like this ought to reduce that weight considerably, and is a step in the right direction, but will Manchester be able to cope? I am not so sure, but all will be revealed! Hopefully it will be a wonderful occasion. Enjoy the game.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The basis for this very short piece lies in a phone call received from my brother after work today, which comprised predominantly one-way traffic on his part, proclaiming all that was great about Ronaldinho and how he would be joining Manchester City in the summer. He never seems to be aware of the hyperbole created during these conversations.

Indeed, the fact that the story was on the BBC website, quite a reliable source — WMD’s aside – when this blue trundled through the front door and flicked on the laptop, only served to whet the appetite in some ways.

That said, one can’t help but be pessimistic in some ways. While writing this, the atmosphere of the partisan locals as Glentoran take on Linfield in the Setanta Irish Cup match is clearly audible, and it is hard to believe it is ten years since City were plummeting into the second tier of English football for the first time playing at grounds not too dissimilar to the Oval.

Back then, Frank Clark brought players such as Barry Conlon and Tony Scully to Maine Road, while Ronaldinho was probably just about emerging through the Brazilian youth set-up at Gremio with another 4 years to wait until that famous 40-yard free-kick that caught David Seaman on the hop in Japan. Reminiscent of the day when George Weah and Paulo Wanchope were brought in by Joe Royle, one can’t help but feel excited when stories like this leak out in the press on the premise that the Brazilian’s representative was joined by his Brother for the weekend defeat to Chelsea. Furthermore, one only needs to look at City’s goal return post-Christmas to see that the club could definitely use the talents of this superstar.

While listening to the news described during that phone call, though, this Citizen felt an underlying current of cynicism pervading through his weary system. Perhaps it was the monotony of hearing him every day through the January window of how we had £150m to spend in it from Shinawatra. (Not to suggest that we don’t indeed have this kind of money to spend, but not for a second does this Citizen expect to see it spent in one window) Perhaps it was guessing the response from the fans of our near neighbours, who didn’t duly disappoint on various message boards scanned after the story with their all too familiar brand of derision. Perhaps it was the knowledge that we did indeed entertain Chelsea at the weekend and thoughts of Roman Abramovich’s admiration for the playmaker. City were linked with a host of players in the early 2008 window; Luis Fabiano, Lukasz Podolski, Wagner Love spring to mind and last but not least, Nicolas Anelka. Of course, we all know where the Frenchman opted to go despite recent claims from Eriksson that City pushed hard to land ‘Le Sulk’, not that one could blame him for choosing Chelsea at the moment.

One final aspect of the cynicism crept in, which probably sounds unbelievable considering the types of signings made in 1998 and may well mean that this author needs an aspect of the psychological ‘reframing’ mentioned by Nick Leeson in his book ‘Back From The Brink: Coping With Stress’. Maybe that’s the case, no doubt the more optimistic Manchester City fans reading would subscribe to this particular view.

However, it is largely brought on by the signings of three particular players — though there are no doubt more and that applies to most clubs. It is akin to the hype of 2003 in some respects, when Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Trevor Sinclair were signed from Real Madrid, Leeds and West Ham respectively. Undoubtedly, Ronaldinho is in a different league to these three, but they are examples and Manchester City fans won’t need reminding of the way these players failed to deliver, or how galling it is that 2 of them will most probably be appearing in the FA cup final this season when at Eastlands we were lucky to get 2 consecutive matches before any of them landed back in for physiotherapy. They were brought in to complement the likes of Anelka and Shaun Wright-Phillips (finding myself reminiscing about the days when they were on our side at the weekend, the curious mind wandered to a comparison of Claudio Reyna and Michael Essien when it queried why Kevin Keegan’s team couldn’t produce back then) and take the Eastlands club to the next Premiership level.

Anyhow, without intending to digress, it is more a curiosity of Ronaldinho’s current state. The lack of Sky access for this author doesn’t make him an expert on Spanish football at the moment, but reading the imperious writings of Subhankar Mondal and Hugo Steckelmacher on that particular league don’t fill him with too much joy. Nor do various articles recently depicting the Brazilian’s downfall and how Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi are by far and away the predominant protagonists in Barcelona’s team nowadays. Maybe the fact they are behind Real Madrid more often that not in the current climate is linked to the playmaker’s complete loss of form, one wouldn’t claim to know too much about this issue, but what would he bring to the Premiership right now, even if it’s Premiership rigours at Stamford Bridge? Think Shevchenko, and the signings referred to above illustrate at times why it can be wrong to sign players purely on reputation.

Then there is the fact alluded to earlier but this time with AC Milan. It is no secret that the Italian giants have courted the South American for a long time now, and they can offer European football at the moment, like Chelsea.

On the whole, it was just a brief writing to see what people thought of this story. Is there anything in it? Would it be possible to accommodate Ronaldinho into the 4-5-1 system that Eriksson is so reluctant to discard? If he does end up joining Manchester City, would you be excited about the knock-on effect of other star performers being attracted to the blue side of Manchester? Would you be excited to see him in the Premiership at all?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Football has undergone something of a revolution in the past few decades in many ways like tactics, diet and players themselves on the pitch. Cristiano Ronaldo perhaps epitomises this in some aspects; his extraordinary free-kicks, willingness to float from one wing to another, dribbling ability and of course not forgetting his unbelievable goal return hitherto this season are all positive examples.

The 2007-8 Premiership season seems more than ever to have highlighted the beauty of possessing set-play specialists and players who can benefit from them. The old cliché that goalkeepers, for instance David James in recent times — England aside, can save around 12 points a season can surely be supplemented to for those teams who put in the practice on the training ground and regularly reap the dividends in tight games in a climate when every place in the league can bring around £500,000, or the loss of major revenue in the event of relegation. Of course, they are not responsible for a club like, for instance Derby County, staying up, but they can make a difference to others.

When discussing this topic in general inside or outside of the EPL, one might primarily think of free-kick takers such as Jose Luis Chilavert – the eccentric Paraguayan shot-stopper who made dead-ball conversions his trademark – or David Beckham, who needs no introduction after delivering countless majestic efforts from outside the box and assists galore from corners during his career. Of course, critics of Beckham suggest that he is unable to beat a man on the flank but nobody can deny his contribution to highlighting the prominence of practicing free-kicks in the modern game. With Beckham departing the Premiership in 2003 for Real Madrid, the fans of today would more likely credit Steven Gerrard or Ronaldo, the latter whose unique execution of this art regularly leaves pundits drooling, as being the major exponents. Laurent Robert was one name in between the two eras who carried the torch for Newcastle, but I recall one particular delivery when he played for Portsmouth at the City of Manchester Stadium in 2005 for John Viafara that was like a dream; the Colombian needed only the faintest of contact with the ball to beat David James and put Portsmouth in front. They lost that game thanks to Andy Cole and Claudio Reyna, but not much went right for the club under Alain Perrin, after all.

However, while stars such as those referred to above make invaluable contributions to for their respective Merseyside and Manchester clubs, it seems to be that the vast majority of clubs in the Premiership have players who can make things happen in these types of situations.

Writing as a City fan, this may have been more notable recently now that Joey Barton has departed for pastures new — his insistence on taking what felt like 95% of City’s fruitless set-pieces in 2006-7 with him — and seeing Elano earlier in the season bringing a hint of this value to the Citizens. That said, the Brazilian hasn’t contributed too much to this in recent months, but it can be little things and not necessarily free-kicks that are alluded to when discussing this. It can be a real joy to see, for instance, defenders pouring into the box for corner-kicks and something come of them.

As I write this, I am thinking of two instances; the first of which was Nedum Onouha firmly dispatching a header past Paul Robinson to wrap up 3 points in the clash with Tottenham recently, and in the 2006-7 campaign 3 points being the difference when City entertained Middlesbrough at Eastlands. The latter arrived courtesy of Barton’s corner finding Richard Dunne near the penalty spot; the affable Irishman wasted no time in directing a bullet header into the top-corner of Mark Schwarzer’s goal, securing what would ultimately be the 3 points.

Occasions with City profiting from corners like this can be, sadly, all too rare, which was all the more frustrating last term when they couldn’t score from open play with any regularity. Perhaps that’s why, to this author, it seems more notable that other clubs possess such traits. The examples above display the benefits for clubs, not just having the players who can deliver quality crosses and shots, but also the players who can get on the end of them.

It’s not necessarily about the big-names such as the two mentioned earlier, Lampard, Ballack, Van Persie and Fabregas. Teams like Everton and Aston Villa seem to benefit quite frequently. It’s no secret that Joleon Lescott and Tim Cahill have enjoyed great goalscoring campaigns, but players such as John Carew and Martin Laursen are regularly found from pinpoint Ashley Young crosses. Blackburn are another that spring to mind, with David Bentley and Morten Gamst Pedersen the players who can deliver while Roque Santa Cruz and Cristopher Samba attempt to create havoc. Nicky Shorey of Reading is a left-back capable of devastating accuracy as witnessed in their recent 2-1 triumph over Birmingham. The part such a facet plays in securing 3 points at the bottom end of Europe’s most physical league cannot be overstated.

Jamie O’Hara of Spurs also appears one likely to cause a few Premiership defences problems in the future, if his recent delivery for Darren Bent’s ‘illegal’ equaliser in that game at Eastlands recently is anything to go by. Martin Jol would surely have noticed Gareth Bale’s set-piece accomplishments at Southampton before splashing out to take the Welshman to White Hart Lane. Who could ignore the impact of Jimmy Bullard’s injury for Fulham when thinking about this aspect of the game? Upon his return he curled a terrific free-kick over the Aston Villa wall a few weeks ago and wrapped up 3 points for the struggling Cottagers.

With all of the above in mind, however, the discussion on the importance of set-plays needn’t always be an offensive one. It’s probably not as significant given the eventual results and Mascherano-gate, but did anybody else notice how Liverpool had nobody on the posts for Manchester United’s second? Even had Reina stayed on his line, it was a free header for Ronaldo and it would have been like a tracer bullet to save from 6 yards at any rate.

Chelsea were guilty of similar neglect against Arsenal; Bacary Sagna’s stooping effort beat Carlo Cudicini too easily. Perhaps the keeper would take some of the blame in this situation, but a man on the near post would have prevented it anyway. The irony wasn’t lost on this author when Martin Petrov, usually such a chaotic attacking threat, blocked a Bolton effort on the post as the 0-0 stalemate went deep into injury-time.

For one usually quite critical of the Blues from set-pieces, credit must go to them for employing this tactic and preventing Wanderers obtaining a massive 3 points!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The season is at a distinct crossroads for Manchester City at present and it seems as good a time as any to analyse the positives that have propelled them, in contrast to recent seasons at this stage, into the top-half and also the negatives that have forced limitations on them to break into the elusive top-four.

The psychology:
It has all seemed too good to be true at times, by complete coincidence over the Christmas period this particular author encountered the book ‘Sven-Goran Eriksson On Football with Doctor Willi Railo’ and decided to read it in an attempt to get inside the mind of the man he had castigated, somewhat harshly the natives of Sweden believe, considering the method of exit from Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006, only a couple of years beforehand.

In a similar style to Nick Leeson’s book ‘Back from the brink — Coping with stress ‘ which was written in conjunction with a top psychologist, this title takes the format of analysing certain behavioural trends of sportsmen, such as their psychology, mental blocks, performance anxieties and then Eriksson offers examples from his time in management whereby such factors may have been apparent, commencing from around the time when his little fancied IFK Gothenburg team upset the odds and defeated SV Hamburg 3-0 in the 1982 UEFA Cup Final up to the days when his England tenure was in its infancy.

Without going into too much detail, there are clearly aspects of it that apply to the way events have unfolded in the last six months or so. Consider the following mental goal, barrier-breaking, and this quote from Eriksson on Lazio’s Scudetto triumph in 2000:

‘As I have said, the club hadn’t won anything particular for 26 years. We were obliged to begin to work with the idea that Lazio would in fact be able to win the Italian League. But it took time for the players to accept that they didn’t necessarily have to finish after Milan and Juventus. And in 2000 we won Lo Scudetto.’

Not to say that Manchester City will be winning the Premiership this year, of course, considering the power of their cross-city rivals and Arsenal, but one doesn’t have to look too far to see that when he described the City project as a challenging one, there are clear parallels with the above.

Eriksson was then asked by Railo to sum up his football philosophy, and was duly informed:

‘Play offensively (mentally and physically), quick passing, think ahead, plenty of running off the ball, close the gaps, organise the team and team management, be positive, stick up for your team, be loyal and accept that people are different.’

Again, looking at the manner of City’s performances this term one could generally find many of the factors in the wins. Another interesting example notes how the Swede tries ‘very hard’ to read the personalities in a team to ensure everybody’s needs are met — think Stephen Ireland’s absence from the Eire team squad late last year along with his rash challenge at Spurs and it may offer evidence as to why Eriksson wasn’t fuming with the player. Hopefully this has given some indication as to how he has lifted City from their relative gloom in recent years, and turned the team into winners at home more often than losers. A football fan doesn’t have to look far to see how critical self-belief can be; a plethora of FA Cup Third-Round upsets in early January and Greece’s Euro 2004 success are just two that spring to mind.

The signings:

All seemed rosy in the Eastlands garden early on in the 2007/8 campaign as Eriksson’s hastily assembled array of international talent made an exceptional impact on the Premiership. Readers will no doubt be aware by now of most of them, but it is a key reason behind the season hitherto and warrants some analysis.

Geovanni — Whisked from under the nose of Harry Redknapp in the summer, the Brazilian is a testament to Eriksson’s preference for players that have technical ability than those who win tackles and has chipped in with three goals, one of which endeared him to the fans — no prizes for guessing who it was against. Rumoured to be a target for Deportivo La Coruna recently.

Rolando Bianchi — The big-money signing from Reggina is another favourite of the fans. Another parallel of Geovanni, he has been constantly linked away from Eastlands but has kept his head down and came to prominence with real poaching instincts to score against Bolton, Aston Villa and Spurs in December. A spectacular 20-yard strike saw off Bristol City back in August, too. Has been criticised by a minority for going down too easily at times, but ploughing the lone furrow up front, which is elaborated on below and lack of chances couldn’t see him described as a failure.

Elano Blumer — Made a real impact in the opening months of the campaign and was instrumental for City. Travelling with Brazil and picking up an injury in October, however, contributed to a dip in form that he seems to be struggling to escape from. The fact defenders are a lot wiser to him nowadays won’t help his cause either. Elano was being linked with Inter a few weeks ago, but these links appear very tenuous.

Vedran Corluka — Very elegant, versatile player who is rarely fazed and is comfortable at right-back, centre-back or as a holding midfielder when Dietmar Hamann has been absent. A superb acquisition who could be seen as lazy at times but mistakes are few and far between, such is his confidence.

Martin Petrov — Explosive Bulgarian winger who took a while adapting to the Premiership after shaking off an old injury. Initially had a tendency to pull the trigger from unrealistic distances and angles but now seems content to cause full-backs, as Lucas Neill and Zurab Khizanishvili can testify, real problems. He was a big favourite at Wolfsburg before a more lukewarm spell for Atletico Madrid, but it is not only City fans who are enjoying the talents of this sublime left-winger, a position that has died out a little over the last decade.

Javier Garrido — Initially looked very comfortable, slotted in superbly from the word go and looked a steal at £1.5m. Yet he had a very poor game at Chelsea in the 6-0 thrashing and has lost his place to the more streetwise Michael Ball recently. Has been a good signing, but in all honesty his positional play at left-back can leave a lot to be desired and he has struggled against the Premiership’s better wingers.

Gelson Fernandes — Has looked very promising as a defensive-minded midfielder and could fill the role next term should Hamann struggle with age. Described as the best young player in Switzerland before he came, Fernandes is multi-lingual and scored an impressive goal at Newcastle recently to secure a 2-0 win.

Valeri Bojinov — Suffered a cruel injury in the Manchester derby success back in August, but received treatment in Rome and now appears not far off a return to the reserves. It is a shame he has missed so much of the campaign but if he can come back well, the player who made his debut in Italy at 15 should surely contribute to City’s stuttering campaign. Didn’t set the world on fire at Juventus or Fiorentina but definitely has a lot to offer.

Nery Alberto Castillo — Another explosive player in the mould of Petrov who is well-known to the more studious football fans around the globe, Castillo was informed by Elano he would regret going to Shakhtar and so it proved. The only trouble is, however, he may be regretting joining City having paid half the transfer fee, looking well off the pace and then breaking a bone in his shoulder against West Ham. Should return to the fold in March but in truth, it should be next season before we see anything resembling Castillo’s magical talent.

Eriksson wasn’t averse to using some of the talents already at the club, and he has benefited from that in the form of Michael Johnson, Stephen Ireland, a revitalised Hamann and a defensive spine of Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Nedum Onuoha on occasions and Richard Dunne. The reasons behind this aren’t difficult to ascertain: City’s real problems in 2006-7 were going offensive, the defence was relatively stable considering the league position, though to use the book as a reference point again it is clear Eriksson believed such existing players had the right amount of talent and positive mindsets.

The choice of Dunne as captain wasn’t one of the more challenging decisions he had to make, but consider the type of player the Irishman is and then the following:

‘Lazio’s captain had to be a symbol for the team. He could have been one of the natural leaders, but not necessarily. You don’t normally select a new player to be captain, as he won’t know the players, the club or the environment.’

Positives and negatives:

It’s difficult to put the proverbial finger, as a fan, on what exactly concerns this one so maybe it is best to do some of it in the form of points:

Positives:

The home form — It makes a big change to see City so difficult to beat at home.
The signings — They have already been touched upon, but the way they have gelled together and manifested themselves into such a good unit can only bear testament to Eriksson’s shrewdness. Whether there is anything in the story that he signed most of them having watched tapes is unknown, but Kevin Keegan did the same thing during his reign at City, signing the Argentinian forward Matias Vuoso for around £4m and he didn’t get a game!

The youngsters — A large part of the credit must go to Jim Cassell at the academy and Stuart Pearce to an extent. The academy has brought through something in the region of 25 players to the first team in recent years with the likes of Joey Barton and Micah Richards gaining caps for England. Joe Hart and Gelson Fernandes look like they could be very polished Premiership performers for years to come.

The creativity — Some of the one-touch football, such as Michael Johnson’s play with Elano to see off Villa at home and the quality of the goals in both games against Newcastle, for instance, has been a joy to watch. It has brought back some fans who became grossly unhappy with the fare on offer during the 2006-7 campaign.

The system — This goes both in the positive and negative columns for this writer. All of the above points, youngsters aside, are in one way or another down to the system Eriksson has employed.

Negatives:

The away form — City’s failure to win on the road in the final part of 2007, after such a promising opening at West Ham, was hugely disappointing. Granted, the win at Newcastle ensured a bright start to 2008, but overall City have been nowhere near good enough. They could have lost by 6 at Blackburn, did so at Chelsea and thrown away leads at Aston Villa, Wigan (where European rivals Everton have just won) and Fulham.

The system — This is explored more below, but it goes without saying its disappointing to see City so formidable at home and so toothless away. Whether some of that is down to the mindset of the players, as perhaps is the case with Fulham, who knows, but at times they have just not looked anywhere near like getting back into games.

Concerns as a fan:

I have always detested the use of personal pronouns in writing, but here it becomes necessary, as it’s encapsulating six months of action so far in the form of feelings, gut reactions, the head and the heart.

I’ve already mentioned in a roundabout way that I wasn’t Eriksson’s biggest fan during his England time — some of his substitutions during the defeat in Belfast in 2005 defied rational thought or belief – but please do not misconstrue this writing as being ungrateful for what he has done, it is merely getting off my chest a few points. One look at his record in club management speaks for itself, too.

Maybe the players have lost some of the motivation they had early on, but I mainly wanted to discuss the formation. 4-5-1 to my mind, is defensive by nature. I have to credit the defence, Chelsea result aside, for the way they have performed, but the formation requires a strong forward to occupy the role of a lone striker and City have Bianchi and Vassell, who are very useful players themselves but I am thinking more of Arsenal’s away form in the run-up to the Champions League Final in 2006. In the Bernabeu, when the Gunners played Henry alone up front, he was immense.

There have been times when we have been lucky at home, no doubt, thinking about the visits from Manchester United, Liverpool, West Ham recently and likes of Reading and Sunderland were within inches or minutes of escaping from the City of Manchester Stadium with a draw. With Arsenal and Everton due to visit in February, I would not bank on that home record staying intact.

The times we have played champagne football, the system has definitely helped in terms of midfielders streaming forward and the fluid interplay which has been a joy to watch. Yet this, in essence, is half the problem, we have been lucky sometimes at home and away from home we closely resemble the team which hangs on in patches of the home matches. At Everton away we had all the possession in the second-half without creating any real efforts until injury-time, against Spurs at home in the Carling Cup we could have played until midnight against ten-men and still probably not scored, but I don’t want to discredit any team for beating City at the end of the day, these are just personal frustrations. I can’t work out whether we have just been plain lucky, or masters at closing games down at home, for instance, and away when we go a goal down there seems to be no plan B.

Teams were nowhere near as aware of key exponents of the fluid interchange such as Elano and Petrov in August, September and October as they are now. This is likely to mean even less chances for a lone forward. An example of this was the way in which Lucas Neill shackled the Bulgarian in the Premiership clash at Eastlands.

I am immensely proud of where we are in the table for once, but there are still grievances like these resonating inside. The Spurs game was a big disappointment in the cup because its opportunities like that, against ten men, which keep the season alive. If we don’t manage to have a successful February even, with a trip to Old Trafford incidentally sandwiched between the above fixtures and no FA Cup path ever guaranteed, we could end up fading into mid-table obscurity with Portsmouth and Blackburn on our coat-tails.

Hopefully, it will be possible to sign Lukasz Podolski from Bayern on loan — as Klinsmann apparently has him in his plans for the summer when he takes the reigns at the Allianz Arena — but we really have to go to a conventional 4-4-2 and start scoring goals or risk being left behind because at the moment City seem to be playing in a completely alternative mentality to the one they had earlier on in the campaign.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Joleon Lescott’s goal ensured the only fire burning brightly around Goodison Park this week was Everton’s European dream as they recorded a valuable three points today against Manchester City.

It was a hotly-anticipated affair and the Toffees went into it not only handicapped by the loss of African stars such as Yakubu and Joseph Yobo, but compounded by the loss of striker Andy Johnson, who picked up a knock in training. City, meanwhile, were looking to further improve their dismal away form by building on their win at Newcastle 10 days ago. Sven Goran-Eriksson was looking for his new loan signing, Nery Alberto Castillo to work in tandem with Darius Vassell, while Stephen Ireland sat it out as Elano switched to the right-hand side of midfield.

There wasn’t, and still isn’t, much separating these two sides in the table and it showed in the first 15 minutes as the players struggled to spark the game into life. Bearing in mind the players absent, goals for Everton would most likely originate from the likes of Mikel Arteta and Tim Cahill, while the Citizens generally rely on midfielders for that too, but the men the 38,474 crowd were looking to light up this encounter found it difficult to assert themselves in the opening quarter of an hour.

Elano toiled away early on just to find some space, winning a free-kick theatrically on 10 minutes as Cahill’s attention was deemed too close by referee Mark Halsey. Indeed, Cahill was booked soon after for a challenge on Dietmar Hamann. The visitors regularly poured the likes of Vedran Corluka, Richard Dunne and Micah Richards forward for set-pieces in much the way that the hosts employ Lescott, but the Brazilian’s delivery evaded all of them and Tim Howard was untroubled in goal.

Following that insipid opening, Everton asserted themselves on the game and caused City a few problems. Nedum Onuoha had to be alert to block Lescott’s shot, and the resulting ball was pumped back into the box but Nigerian striker Victor Anichebe, deemed too inexperienced for the African Nations Cup by coach Berti Vogts, could only manage to direct his header over.

Within minutes it was clear that there were several interesting themes to the game, most notably the battle between Anichebe and Richards and Portuguese full-back Nuno Valente’s surging runs up the left-flank. Lee Carsley tried to work City’s promising custodian, Joe Hart, with an effort from 30-yards, but saw his shot sail harmlessly wide of the target.

Hart was called into action, but not before some very rare slick passing from his team-mates led to Castillo frantically gesturing for a penalty after the ball appeared to strike Valente’s arm just inside the area. Halsey didn’t relent to the Mexican’s claim.

The game resumed its by now normal pattern, and Everton created a glorious opportunity that they couldn’t capitalise on. Anichebe expertly shielded the ball from the visiting centre-halves before laying the ball back to Arteta, in space on the penalty spot. The talismanic Spaniard thought he’d given his side the advantage, but his well struck left-footed shot was brilliantly saved by Hart. The danger wasn’t over for City, though, as the ball broke to Cahill with the goal gaping. The Australian, usually so prolific in these situations, could only fire the ball narrowly over the empty net on his weaker side.

Just after Valente’s cross-cum-shot went just wide, the inevitable occurred. Arteta received the ball back from his own corner, and City’s usually obstinate back-line malfunctioned on two occasions; firstly, the midfielder was given far too much space to arrow a cross into the box while secondly, Richards and Dunne allowed Lescott to steal in between them and give the hosts a deserved 1-0 lead on the half-hour mark.

The onus was now on the guests to awaken from their slumber, and while they briefly threatened for the next 10 minutes, their passing and general cohesion was never going to be enough to break down David Moyes’s well-drilled outfit.

Minutes after Lescott’s striker, Elano, after disputing with Halsey the location of his free-kick, despatched a seemingly goal-bound effort from well outside the box but it struck the wall and went out for a corner. Petrov’s resulting delivery was excellent but again, nobody in a white shirt could get on the end of it. It seemed the only route by which City could equalise — certainly in open play Vassell and the ‘supporting’ Castillo, in particular on a different wavelength to his team-mates, were as effective as Johnson and Yakubu.

Following Everton skipper Phil Neville’s attempt on 37 minutes, which didn’t trouble Hart too much, the visitors did carve a decent opportunity to test Howard but again they failed to: Elano weaved in and out of the home defence before being felled, Halsey waved play on and the ball broke to Martin Petrov. City’s influential Bulgarian was well shackled by the indefatigable Tony Hibbert all afternoon and he wanted too long on this occasion to get his shot off, Hibbert’s interception broke to Corluka and the Croat fired wastefully over the bar. Other events of note before the interval were Hamann unfairly going into the book for a tackle on Valente and Corluka being very lucky to avoid it for a challenge on Carsley before the teams went in with the score at 1-0.

Javier Garrido and Rolando Bianchi warming up in the centre-circle probably showed more enthusiasm and camaraderie than their team-mates did in the first period, but City owner Thaksin Shinawatra didn’t look too crestfallen as he made his descent to his second-half vantage point.

It was a different story after the break, with Everton largely playing a reactive counter-attacking game as opposed to a pro-active attacking one, but Howard in goal was not troubled in the first-half and it was a pattern which, although City improved considerably after the break, would continue for the entirety of the match.

Both teams emerged unchanged, and Eriksson clearly stressed a need for more urgency from the away team. Petrov produced a great run infield before laying the ball wide to Onuoha but, as happened on a wealth of occasions from that point on, the cross into the box was woeful. It wasn’t long before City made tactical changes: Hamann was replaced by Gelson Fernandes while the disappointing Castillo was substituted for the popular Rolando Bianchi. That wasn’t the only change: Eriksson tried to be flexible in changing the positions of Richards and Onuoha, leaving the former free to maraud up the right-wing.

For all of the City manager’s flexibility in this respect, it may have been a refusal to put more up front which meant his team wouldn’t score against a well-organised Everton team in a month of Sundays: Bianchi was frustrated by the service full-stop, compounded by the fact he was foraging alone in attack. On the hour, however, the Goodison crowd were getting anxious as they allowed their opponents so much possession, and it wasn’t long before Moyes replaced James McFadden, subject of much speculation this week, with his younger namesake, Vaughan.

Stephen Ireland came on for Vassell after Carsley was lucky to escape with a booking for a two-footed challenge on Corluka and Hart had to be on guard to clear through-balls twice, but the game lost its edge a little. So much so, in fact, that the linesman, in a classic MOTD2 ‘too good, too bad’ moment, required his flag to be replaced and this was the best action of the second period.

Cahill had two chances to wrap up the points for Everton, both following exceptional, pinpoint deliveries from Arteta, but he could only head wide each time. Petrov came into the game much more for City, but one of his crosses was symptomatic of his team’s performance offensively, hitting Hibbert before striking the Bulgarian and going out for a goal-kick. Moyes wasn’t taking any chances though, perhaps remembering Micah Richards’ 95th minute equaliser in this fixture last season, and brought on Leighton Baines for the tireless Anichebe.

With time fading to gain a precious point, City rallied in stoppage-time, to no avail. Petrov saw a shot very well held onto by Howard, while Bianchi flicked a ball from Fernandes into the grateful arms of the American recipient. Hence, the match finished 1-0 to the hosts, who will again look to take points from their European rivals when they meet again soon at the City of Manchester Stadium.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

England’s failure in the 2006 World Cup, unsurprisingly on penalties, brought about that familiar disappointment and the usual inquests from the media and fans alike. The melancholic failures since 1966 were all the more painful considering the consensus that the country possessed a pool of talent with the best chance to win the Jules Rimet trophy in a long, long time.

The inquests began, why was Walcott taken instead of Defoe? Is the perceived, paradoxical issue of foreigners in the Premiership contributing to it? Can Lampard and Gerrard function together? Why doesn’t the former repeat his club form for country? Why don’t the players gel together? They ran to those a little more subliminal, does the nation have a losing mentality where sport is concerned (even bearing in mind the rugby team’s success in 2003 and a year after that World Cup)? The final, personal one is why did the media have to hound Luiz Felipe Scolari causing him to reverse his decision to take the job on after that tournament in Germany?

Given all of the disenchantment, it is perhaps understandable that the qualification campaign for the European Championship in 2008 has been plagued by negativity. The humdrum nature of the early performances, such as defeat and a shambolic performance playing 3-5-2 in Croatia, culminating in the abuse received in Andorra, has been no surprise, to be honest. George Cohen was the latest, frustrated individual to deliver his damning indictment, while Steve McClaren was no doubt thanking his lucky stars inside the bathroom when Sychev struck the post in Israel on Saturday.

Make no mistake, the fan in me, while only 24-years-old, has suffered the familiar disappointments in my relatively brief lifetime. Occasionally, while proud every time I hear that Baddiel and Skinner song, I tire of it all; the media, the failure, the hype, the criticism and everything that goes with it. That’s England for me, I suppose, though no doubt I will still firmly believe we can win Euro 2008, should England beat Croatia, come April and May and keep the dream alive.

Hence occasionally, in spite of my patriotism, I find it completely and utterly refreshing to see another nation doing well, particularly when against the odds. It reminds me, with all the respect in the world, of an FA cup run from an unfancied team. I have watched Northern Ireland and Scotland‘s dreams unfold, blossom, end, appear to end and stay alive in one case quite closely this time around. Saturday’s matches involving these teams, and Israel, were terrific to watch, a very welcome break from watching England. Indeed, remember Lawrie Sanchez’s run in charge of Wycombe a few years back? Sanchez is managing Fulham now, of course, in a parallel with the Blackburn manager, Mark Hughes, who oversaw an enjoyable and memorable Welsh run aiming for the championships in 2004, only to lose in the play-offs to Russia.

A visit to Windsor Park recently, to see Glentoran beat Crusaders 2-1 and clinch the County Antrim shield, evoked memories of England’s 1-0 defeat there in 2005. There is a mural depicting that particular victory on a wall in East Belfast. It seemed Norn Iron had the potential to do well, but their quest to reach Euro 2008 commenced in disconcerting fashion, losing 3-0 at home to Iceland. They have bounced back in tremendous style, recording a magnificent 3-2 victory over Spain followed by a draw against Denmark and victories over Latvia, Liechtenstein, and Sweden.

Several factors combined to ensure the Ulster renaissance; Sanchez and his ability to get the best out of the team, employing a direct 4-5-1 system that made the team particularly difficult to beat at Windsor Park, where the form of David Healy in particular has caused shockwaves around Europe, a well marshalled defence, magnificent support both home and away augmented by some highly unexpected wins.

The form of the team brought the manager under the microscope of Mohammed Al Fayed, who promptly swooped to employ Sanchez in April 2007. Naturally, it was feared that the campaign would be derailed.

Aside from a victory over Liechtenstein again in August, overseen by the new manager, Nigel Worthington, the fears were realised in the most heartbreaking fashion; successive defeats against Latvia and Iceland and both of them caused by own-goals. Yet there were more twists to come, Kyle Lafferty’s superb strike ensured Olof Mellberg’s header was cancelled out as Northern Ireland claimed a point.

An enthralling victory over Denmark followed on a sodden pitch at Windsor; my visit to the stadium gave me the inclination the Scandinavians wouldn’t find it an easy night, along with previous results. Nicklas Bendtner gave the visitors the lead, but they were soon pegged back by Warren Feeney’s header. The momentum picked up again, Feeney hit a brilliant volley from 25 yards against the woodwork, before Healy broke Davor Suker’s qualifying goals record of 12 with a sublime chip. It would be no exaggeration to call it Cantona-esque; Healy took no more than a brief glimpse upwards before despatching the chip over Sorensen in goal. The drama hadn’t ended, Dennis Rommedahl’s free-kick struck the woodwork and Sammy Clinghan looked to divert a goalbound shot away with his arm in the dying moments. Northern Irish hopes were kept alive, thought they still need a win in the Gran Canaria and hope that Latvia overcome Sweden to stand any chance now.

The Clinghan incident just emphasised how pivotal the officiating can be at times, while Scotland were most probably cursing theirs while this match was taking place. They were heartbroken, after a memorable qualifying effort had come to a valiant end just hours earlier at Hampden Park. The links between Scottish and Northern Irish society need no documenting, yet the former had enjoyed a memorable, roller-coaster campaign in similar style to the latter. On what proved to be a captivating day of football, they were left realistically needing to beat the Azzuri to secure the passage to their first major tournament in 10 years.

There was no shortage of drama at Hampden. Italy were ahead within a minute as they took advantage of some extremely hesitant Scottish defending to find Luca Toni. The giant target-man didn’t need a second invitation, cleverly flicking the ball into the top corner of the net. The Tartan Army had only just finished their Flower of Scotland rendition and were utterly stunned. It could have been worse soon after, Mauro Camoranesi and Toni again going close. With what was to follow, Alex McLeish would bemoan the standard of the officials, but it was Italy who had more cause for complaint. Antonio Di Natale found the net but saw the goal ruled out, wrongly, for offside. The best the hosts could muster tended to come from set-plays, but there were simply too many Italian bodies back: underlined when Andrea Pirlo, usually more of an attacking threat, was on the line to nod away David Weir’s header.

Scotland came out and grabbed a contentious equaliser in the second-half, through Barry Ferguson. The Rangers man looked offside as he put the ball in, but it gave the hosts the impetus they needed to rattle Italy.

Their dominance came to a head in the 80th minute, when James McFadden was played in by Kenny Miller. Agonisingly, McFadden could only fire Miller’s cross wide of the post. With it, one felt, went Scotland’s hopes and so it proved when Christian Panucci headed home in time added on following another paradoxical refereeing decision. Being impartial, with the decisions in mind and the fact the hosts didn’t take their chances, it was probably about the right result but it was cruel on the Scots.

It has been fascinating to watch them too, as along with Northern Ireland there was an upsurge in national attention, belief and optimism following one big result, against France in late 2006. While there were defeats in the Ukraine, Italy and Georgia before the final match, another victory over France, in the Parc Des Princes. James McFadden’s magnificent strike, combined with some heroic defending, ensured a famous victory. A win over the Ukraine followed, setting up the decisive clash, but Alex McLeish can be very, very proud of his men.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The news that Steve McClaren lost his job has filtered through the media this morning, following last night’s abject 3-2 defeat to Croatia at Wembley. It was a defeat that summed up all of the elements of his reign, as a shell-shocked England found themselves 2-0 down within 14 minutes in the crucial Euro 2008 qualifier. Despite restoring parity with 2 of their own in the second-half, the hosts were simply out-classed on the night by their experienced opponents before Mladen Petric determined England’s fate with a deciding goal in the game’s latter stages.

It was a poor pitch at Wembley, believed to be the result of an NFL match being played there 3 weeks ago, while the rain was teeming down. England went close with a header early on, before Portsmouth’s Niko Kranjcar obviously decided there was some truth in the old adage that the keeper should be tested in such conditions. Scott Carson had been called up for Paul Robinson, but the poisoned chalice that is England’s goalkeeping position remained just that, as he allowed Kranjcar’s 30-yard effort to easily squirm past him and up into the top corner of the net. It was a goal that stunned those in attendance and those in white shirts, who could find no immediate response.

Indeed, the visitors extended their lead just 6 minutes later. Eduardo da Silva surged forward with the ball, before exposing England’s defensive frailties and nerves as 4 defenders surrounded the Arsenal man like moths to the flame. Da Silva played a composed through-ball for Ivica Olic to bolt onto. Correctly, no offside flag came and Carson, whose confidence was already shattered from the opener, was hopelessly exposed and could do nothing as Olic took the ball around him and placed it into the empty net.

In truth, everybody expected the Croats to offer something on the night – their manager, Slaven Bilic, had warned they were approaching the match for the win, as had many of his players – but soon after they were knocking the ball around at will, as Peter Crouch toiled away in his solitary role up. Alan Hansen had predicted a comfortable victory for England prior to kick-off, but then again Manchester United never won anything with kids. Suddenly the nightmares of Graham Taylor’s tenure in charge, with the subsequent failure to qualify for the World Cup in 1994, were flooding back.

Croatia threatened a third soon on 25 minutes, as Kranjcar ghosted in behind the usually impeccable Micah Richards at the far post, but he could only head wide. England could not find any penetrative threat to trouble Croatia, and before long John Motson was begging the Andorrans for a miracle in their fixture against Russia. England got the favour they needed on Saturday, now it was up to them and they were wasting another chance in abundance.

McClaren, who engineered some memorable comebacks in his time at Middlesbrough against Steaua Bucharest and FC Basel, introduced an unfit David Beckham for Shaun Wright-Phillips, who had been one of England’s better players, while Jermain Defoe came on to give Crouch some support in attack.

The roof was raised at the famous stadium as the English players emerged for the second-half with some renewed optimism and they upped the pace. McClaren, meanwhile, stood impassively under his umbrella: he would need more than that to stave off the pouring media scorn if there was no comeback this time, and so it has proved.

It didn’t look like improving, when the static defence was again picked off by a through-ball and da Silva latched onto it. Fortunately, a combination of Sol Campbell’s recovery skills and Carson’s outstretched leg diverted the ball wide for a corner.

In fairness, while the loyalty to Beckham seemed outrageous given his recent injury problems and lack of matches stateside, the substitutions had an effect. On 54 minutes, Defoe was tugged slightly by Simunic in the box, and the Swedish linesman had seen enough to warrant a penalty. It was soft, but if the defender had kept his hands to himself, the ball would most likely have been collected by Stipe Pelikosa regardless.

Up stepped Frank Lampard to despatch the penalty into the corner and, suddenly, Wembley sparked into life. Yet even with the deficit reduced, it was the visitors who could have added a couple more; on 58 minutes Wayne Bridge deflected the ball with his weaker foot from 20-yards over a stranded Carson and onto the cross-bar, while before the leveller came, Bridge again got lucky as he dithered on the ball and was robbed by Olic, who could only tamely shoot at the keeper. England still hadn’t really carved out a clear chance in a long time.

Beckham then received the ball out wide, and played a sizzling ball with the outside of his boot into the box. It found Peter Crouch, who chested the ball down superbly before firing a volley into the corner for 2-2. The relief around the stadium and the nation was apparent.

However, there had been too many danger signs to suggest that the danger was over from a three lions’ perspective. Mladen Petric replaced Eduardo da Silva, and within 10 minutes of coming on, he used the acres of space allotted to him by the defence to fire a 20-yard shot across Carson and into the corner of the net for 3-2. On a night like this, there was still room for optimism, even at this stage, but in truth the experienced Croats carried a far bigger threat throughout. Olic did brilliantly to flick the ball into the box from the by-line, but the defence managed to put it out for a corner with Carson stranded.

Darren Bent replaced Joe Cole, who never really got the better of Vedran Corluka all night, as the McClaren threw his last roll of the dice. Substitute number 3 nearly paid off, as Bent hooked a shot towards goal from just inside the box. It was purely opportunist, but unfortunately for the Spurs man, it sailed just over.

Time ticked away, and what had seemed impossible before the match was now startlingly real. Injury-time was played out frantically by the England men and in composed fashion by the visitors.

The final whistle brought the curtain down on the 19-month McClaren era, there could be no other choice for the FA after such a diabolical qualifying campaign. A cacophony of boos showed him the way to go, and he didn’t hang around to shake the hand of Bilic, who masterminded a superb performance. The tactics employed by both coaches reflected their contrasting approaches; McClaren relied on a 4-5-1 to get the point required while Bilic had come purely to win, and sadly, it was the English approach found wanting.

(Editor’s note: Virtual Replay images courtesy of BBC Sports)

From Soccerlens.com - Football News