Ever experienced one of those rusty old performances which needs sparking into life? The crowd are getting on the starting eleven’s back, vociferously chanting for a change from their management team. Well thankfully in football, the substitutes’ bench symbolises a shot at redemption not only for a manager to change his system or dabble with personnel but for the players themselves in trying to force themselves into first team contention via a 30, 20 or 15 minute spell whereby they hope to prove the manager wrong and show him exactly what quality attributes they possess.
Unfortunately for some players, they reside on the bench far often than not, and almost are resigned to their ‘impact sub’ tag. For others, they may be young, or on the contrary an elderly squad statesman, employed in the squad simply for the effect or incentive they can give a team in a specific situation. Perhaps the most recognised ‘impact sub’ and celebrated ‘super sub’ in Premier League years was Manchester United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who was often used from the bench by Sir Alex Ferguson. Employing strikers such as Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole and Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer found it hard to displace these talents from the starting line-up but managed to strike 91 goals in an 11 year spell all the same.
Let us fast forward to present day and countdown the 15 ‘impact sub’s’ of the 2011/12 Premier League campaign.
Click on Nani and Chicharito below to see the TOP 15 Dynamic Subs
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Who could be deemed an ‘impact sub’ at your club? Let me know @ http://twitter.com/Taylor_Will1989
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Former England international Sol Campbell has warned Three Lions fans to stay away from Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine or risk coming home in a coffin.
The eastern European nations will host the European Championships in a couple of weeks, but with concerns over terrorism, football hooliganism and racism, Campbell has spoken of the threat to England’s followers supporting their team.
“Stay at home, watch it on TV,” he told BBC Panorama, published in The Daily Mail.
“Don’t even risk it … because you could end up coming back in a coffin. I think they were wrong to award Euro 2012 to Poland and Ukraine, because what they should say is that if you want this tournament you sort your problems out.
“Until we see that you have sorted it out, you are never going to get the tournament. You do not deserve these prestigious tournaments in your country,” he stated.
The families of coloured England players such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott and Joleon Lescott have already stated that they will not attend the event due to the fear of being subject to racist abuse.
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Euro 2012 is well and truly into the business end of the tournament, as the group games are now completed and the quarter finals are now upon us. The knockout stages are now up and running and there some intriguing matches that lay ahead of us in the coming days. France v Spain is obviously the pick of the round, but every game has its own individual twist.
Football FanCast will continue to cover the tournament via a combination of regular blogs, interviews and news, as well as regular match commentary via our Facebook and Twitter pages – we will also be recording a video diary on location in Poland and the Ukraine, getting the views direct from the travelling fans and Tom Skinner will be doing his regular ‘Football Coffee Break’ reflecting on the Euros over here in the UK.
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Sunday 24th June
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The Football FanCast Euros Video Diary – Part Three
Group B Victors Will Provide The Biggest Threat To Spain
England Preparation Sufficient Enough To Yield Success
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Featured Blogs
Euro Extension to the Detriment of Football
Who is Winning football’s Punditry War?
The ‘Domestic Dilemma’ At Euro 2012
Facing up to another midfield renaissance?
Why can’t Europe’s leading lights shine at major tournaments?
Euro 2012 – doing away with necessary nostalgia
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And so the summer transfer window rolls around again and with it bringing a storm of uncertainty over Liverpool. They have their new manager but the club are being relentlessly linked to a vast quantity of players as they look to improve upon last season’s dismal showing. But having spent two years away from the club on loan, will Alberto Aquilani finally get his chance to win over the Anfield faithful?
Often seen as a replacement for Xabi Alonso by Liverpool fans when he signed in 2009 they were disappointed that he could not fill the boots of the Spaniard. Yet they are not similar players. Alonso is known for sitting deep and spraying the ball across the park while Aquilani is at his best in a more advanced role with less defensive duties. A series of injuries during his first year at Liverpool also irked the supporters; they were not seeing a return on the money spent.
He was thus sent out on loan to Juventus the following season. Aquilani enjoyed a decent spell with the Turin club achieving a pass success average of 82.2 per cent whilst also contributing two goals and five assists. But with a new manager coming in at the end of his spell in Antonio Conte no place in the squad was seen for him in the long term following the acquisition of Andrea Pirlo.
Pirlo’s transfer led to Milan taking Aquilani on loan the next season. He had a similarly productive season, finishing with a pass completion percentage higher than that of Pirlo’s at 87.1%. However, Aquilani only started 14 games and made nine substitute appearances while the Juventus player started 37 matches. He also accumulated an average of 42.5 passes per game, under half of players such as Pirlo or Barcelona’s Xavi but Aquilani does not claim to be a midfield lynchpin as the aforementioned duo.
When playing for Massimo Allegri’s side Aquilani often formed part of a midfield three in a 4-3-1-2 which saw a great deal of rotation. He managed to accumulate six assists from this position, more than any other player who operated there for Milan. This certainly shows that he is still capable of making a telling contribution to a team that is challenging for domestic honours.
He may have only scored one goal during his time at the San Siro but his stats suggest he would be at home in a team conducted by Brendan Rodgers. Having built a reputation as a manager who encourages his team to play a high quality passing game, Aquilani could well be in his element. With Steven Gerrard now unable to burst forward from midfield the Italian would have a license to play further forward, suiting his style of play.
Reports are that he could terminate his contract in order to move to Milan but having spent £17million to acquire his services from Roma it would be awful business for Liverpool to let him go for free. With Jordan Henderson struggling to make an impact in the Anfield midfield there are certainly positions open for contention. Aquilani would help provide some decent competition whilst also possibly offering something himself.
Some may argue that he will find less time on the ball in the English game than he did in Serie A. But with Rodgers’ at the helm the team they will seek to hold onto possession as much as possible, creating their own time on the ball to pull open the space and create opportunities. Surely then, Liverpool would not allow one of the top 20 passers from Serie A last season slip away?
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All statistics supplied by www.whoscored.com
Do you think Aquilani is finally capable of making an impact at Liverpool? Let me know on Twitter.
Tottenham have made an offer for Russia’s Euro 2012 star Alan Dzagoev according to the player’s father.
The attacking midfielder, who currently plays for CSKA Moscow, impressed for Dick Advocaat’s men and scored three goals despite the eastern European powerhouses being eliminated in the group stages.
The latest Russia superstar is thought to be on the radar of a wide range of leading European clubs, and the playmaker’s father has revealed that there is an offer on the table from the north London outfit.
“I don’t know if he will stay at CSKA,” The Daily Mail haves his father Tariel as saying.
“There are offers – from Spurs and other foreign clubs. But I tell him not to hurry. Yuri Zhirkov ran off to Chelsea and sat on the bench,” he concluded.
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Meanwhile Andre Villas Boas is widely expected to be named as Harry Redknapp’s successor in the next week.
Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel has been making noises all summer about a potential move away from the club, but going into a fresh campaign, with a tinkered style of play and a new manager at the helm, it’s of paramount importance that the club keep hold of one of their most prized assets.
Alongside Daniel Agger, the Slovakian centre-back formed one of the top flight’s best centre-back partnerships last season. I’ve long since championed Skrtel’s cause as the best natural defender within the Liverpool squad while many have been seduced by the more eye-catching ball-playing stylings of Agger. Skrtel is solid, reliable and first and foremost, he actually relishes defending, which is a hugely underrated quality.
Skrtel hardly sounds as if he’s wholly committed to the club’s cause at the moment, and is staying put more out of contractual obligation than any real desire to: “There exists a number of offers but without the permission of Liverpool nothing can move forward. We have been in talks about a new contract but it has not moved forward. At the moment I am a Liverpool player and what happens in future in football you can never foresee.”
The defender remains a transfer target for Manchester City as they seek to add more depth their title-winning side. It’s somewhat understandable considering that the club recently missed out on Thiago Silva who has just moved to moneybags PSG. While Joleon Lescott has come on in leaps and bounds and his partnership alongside Vincent Kompany was at the heart of their triumph last term, Roberto Mancini is thought to be keen to add a proven Premier League centre-back to their squad, with doubts remaining over Stefan Savic and Kolo Toure having been sold to Bursaspor.
It is worth noting, though, that despite the conjecture, Liverpool have yet to receive any concrete offer for the player and he still has two years left to run on his contract. While it may be spun that he is ‘seeking reassurances about the club’s ambitions’, he is undoubtedly one of the most key and senior players at the club now and he may just want to find out what Brendan Rodgers plans are for the him and the side before they set about discussing a new deal.
He was voted the Player of the Season by the fans last term in a standout campaign. Skrtel has always been a natural defender, but the suspicion remained that he was too keen to dive in early in the tackle, which left him susceptible to getting turned and leaving a big gap behind him. He’s an attacking centre-half that always seemed to play better whenever he had Jamie Carragher alongside him constantly talking in his ear, telling him when to push on and when to hold his position.
It appears to have worked as he’s now the main main marshaling the club’s excellent back four as the club kept 12 clean sheets last term despite enduring a terrible run of form in the aftermath of their Carling Cup triumph.
An often overlooked quality of Skrtel’s, though, is his recovery pace. Under Rodgers he will be asked to perform a tactically aware role, be comfortable in possession and press the opposition high up the pitch, and if this leaves gaps behind the back four, even if they have Pepe Reina returning to a sweeper-like position in goal, Skrtel’s pace at centre-back will be crucial and it’s something that none of Agger, Carragher of Sebastian Coates have in abundance.You really can’t underestimate the importance of balance in a central defensive partnership, with the left-footed Agger complimenting Skrtel excellently. In the nine games that Skrtel played without Agger last season, the side kept just two clean sheets.
Rodgers is eager to keep the defender at Anfield this summer stating after his side’s 1-1 friendly draw against Toronto FC: ” I’ve heard nothing from any other club. Martin has been fantastic and seems happy and contented. He fits into my plans and ideas. I will fight as hard as I can to keep the players that I want here and he is one of them.”
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He is unquestionably one of the best centre-halves in the Premier League at present and has helped form one of the most feared and consistent partnerships, to lose him now would prove a hammer blow. His no-nonsense style will obviously draw admiring glances from Europe’s top bosses and he’s one of the most underrated defenders on the continent and the club must keep hold of him at all costs if Liverpool are to make good on their ambitions.
Liverpool have begun the new season with a brand spanking new philosophy to compliment the new manager at the helm in Brendan Rodgers. It’s all very new down at Anfield this season, even the nets in the goals are new, but old new because they used to be red years ago. However, after defender Jose Enrique’s assertion that the club were attempting to copy Barcelona’s style this term, is that really the way forward for the club?
Copying the greatest club team in living memory is no small feat – the hours of learning and the mentally and physically exhausting time put in on the practice pitch means that this sort of football is not tailored to every kind of player, particularly older ones set in their ways.
Footballers, by and large, are a pretty dim breed of people and all this ‘let’s pass the ball around nicely for five minutes’ is often beyond the realms of most English players’ capabilities, it’s simply not in their DNA to ignore an extravagant Hollywood pass every five minutes – it’s certainly a case of nurture over nature and it requires a great degree of patience that many at the club may not be able to cope with.
Jose Enrique told ESPN last week: “The best team in the world is the best example; Barcelona. You could see against Real Madrid a few days ago, how when they have the ball it is amazing and when they lose it, within three or four seconds they have it back. This is the way we try to play. We can’t compare with Barcelona they are different, but we are trying to play like this. We are starting to learn but we are learning well.”
Against West Brom and in their Europa League games to date, Liverpool have shown a willingness to play the ball out from the back and hunt it down like wild animals looking for an easy meal whenever they happen to lose it, which makes a welcome change from the lethargy which seemed to take hold of the side in the final stages of last term under Kenny Dalglish. There’s an urgency and purpose to their play now, which makes them an attractive and dangerous proposition.
Of course, this cost the side all three points against Manchester City, when Martin Skrtel was found guilty of committing the cardinal sin of defending, playing the ball back to his goalkeeper without looking what was behind him, but Rodgers’ reluctance to criticise him after the match highlighted that this is a learning period for everyone at the club.
Against the champions at Anfield, Liverpool were very impressive, with Joe Allen and Jonjo Shelvey in particular catching the eye. The average age of the squad was just under 25 years of age, the youngest that the club have turned out since playing Newcastle way back in 2003. There is a clear and deliberate shift in ethos – get young players in that the manager can mould, who suit his style of play and are willing to learn his ways, with Raheem Sterling praised by Rodgers as much for his tactical discipline as his pace or trickery out wide.
Nevertheless, doesn’t this all sound vaguely familiar? Didn’t Arsenal try something very similar under Arsene Wenger with Cesc Fabregas as the fulcrum of all of their attacking and creative play? A side based largely around youth and future potential? The result was a seven-year trophy drought from which the club are just starting to recover in terms of their change in tack in the transfer market, and from which they may never fully return to the pinnacle of the top flight because it backfired.
The £15m purchase of Allen was certainly less of a risk than many first feared and he’s misplaced just six of his 114 attempted passes so far in his two league outings at his new club – in short, he’s been absolutely superb, which given that he’s familiar with the system and his role in it, should come as no surprise.
But attempting to copy Barcelona’s style, as Jose Enrique has claimed, which Allen at the heart of it seems like a foolish thing to try and attempt. Their squad and Liverpool’s squad are absolutely poles apart in terms of quality, while the majority of players plying their trade at the Camp Nou have been indoctrinated into such a style from a very young age, not taught it well into their careers.
Perhaps the Spanish left-back has merely fallen into the trap of comparing every side that passes the ball with Barcelona, which seems an overly simplistic thing to do, as each side has their own different ways of penetration to make all the passing worthwhile. The phrase tiki-taka is one that’s often bandied about, but very few teams actually play with it and judging by Liverpool’s performances so far, they aren’t one of them.
There’s also the fact that no club in British football has ever been successful with a style of play that focuses solely on retaining possession as a means of not only attack, but defence – it doesn’t quite suit the culture of the league that we’re in.
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Swansea’s demolition of West Ham last weekend showed that passing football is far more transferable than long-ball football over the course of a 38-game season and to a higher level with better players, but the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City have built their successes in recent years on the ability to do a bit of the ugly stuff as well as the tidy triangles often praised to the high heavens.
It’s a massive gamble, an experiment of sorts, but in the theme of the new at Anfield this season, it’s something borrowed, not blue which appears to be the in-vogue thing. Attempting to copy Barcelona is futile; having a footballing philosophy is fine and principles by which you want to abide by, but you must put your own stamp on it, otherwise you’re in danger of losing your own identity as a club along the way.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has declared he does not expect the club to be busy in the last few days of the summer transfer window.
The Hammers have brought in nine new players this summer and parted ways with the same number as Allardyce has reshuffled his squad in preparation for the club’s return to the Premier League. The Upton Park outfit are still being linked with targets as Friday’s deadline draws ever nearer, including Liverpool duo Andy Carroll and Joe Cole.
The club have just signed Matt Jarvis from Wolves for £10m, and the 26-year-old winger played against Swansea at the weekend. However, Allardyce says further signings are unlikely after speaking with the club’s co-chairman, who has informed the manager the Hammers have reached their spending limit. He told Sky Sports “I think that our finances now are on the limit, as it were, speaking to our co-chairmen. I think that we’ll work with what we’ve got.”
Allardyce added if he does make any last-minute reinforcements it is likely to be on a loan basis. He added: “We’ll never say never, you never know what might turn up. But if it’s going to be anything, it’s never going to get past a loan deal, I think.”
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Just over 24 hours have passed since the summer transfer deadline passed but yet big spending Chelsea are already planning a Winter move for Atletico Madrid striker Radamel Falcao according to the Daily Mail.
Falco scored a stunning hat-trick against the Blues in the European Super Cup on Friday night in Monaco and that seemed to spark Chelsea into life with the player surely happy to discuss a move to the Premier League.
The Mail report that a South American broadcast claimed that a pre-agreement had been reached and that the La Liga hotshot would move to West London in January for around £48million.
The secondary Madrid side have worrying financial issues and Falcao’s agent is already affiliated to Chelsea so it seems everything is settling into place for a major deal to be done.
Only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo scored more goals in Spain than Falcao last season and his strength, pace and skill would definitely suit the English top flight.
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Despite winning all three of their opening Premier League matches, Chelsea were taken apart by Falcao and Atletico Madrid in the Super Cup and that may act as a sharp reminder that Chelsea have an uphill struggle to retain the Champions League trophy that they miraculously won in Munich in May.
Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho has dismissed claims that Cristiano Ronaldo is unhappy at the club and that they would not even think about selling their star man.
Ronaldo claimed he was unhappy in the Spanish capital last week after sparking a debate as to why he refused to celebrate a goal, but Madrid boss Mourinho has laughed off any suggestions of the Portuguese forward leaving, with reports linking him him with a move to both Manchester clubs.
“I would say to every club to forget Cristiano.
“Don’t waste your time… Cristiano and Real Madrid are perfect for each other.”
Ronaldo scored twice but did not celebrate for Madrid before the international break and afterwards explained: “I’m sad. When I don’t celebrate a goal it is because I’m not happy.
“It’s a professional thing. Real Madrid know why I’m not happy.”
But Mourinho has laughed off his comments saying: “If Cristiano’s sad but plays the same — that’s perfect for me.”
“Finally after 15 days of talking about Ronaldo it is time to see if he plays well or not. Ronaldo now needs peace, quiet and to play football which is what he does the best and likes the best.”
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