Let me start with the first claim he makes: Manchester United are on their knees ahead of this ongoing match against City.  There goes your credibility Rob Smyth, with the first ever statement you made in your article. Yes, United have lost to to Blackburn and Newcastle and yes they are indeed out of the Champions League. But the reality is that they are still second in the league, just 3 points behind City. Before the defeats to Blackburn and Newcastle, United had won 4 on the trot smashing in 16 goals and conceding just 1. Hardly the form of a club in decline let alone decay.

Second Claim: Every aspect of the club is decaying. Wow! United still have the core of the team that lifted the Premier League title last season and has added more quality in terms of Ashley Young and Phil Jones. The verdict is still out on De Gea, but just a season ago the youngster starred in the Europa League finals between Atletico Madrid and Fulham and was considered one of the best young keepers in Europe. It is just too early to write him off as a failure. Financially, the brand Manchester United is raking in the moolah despite reporting a mammoth £109m in losses as reported in March 2011. They still became the first club to break the £100m in commercial turnover. There hasn’t been any talks of United’s stars being sold despite the rumor mill churning out stories of Rooney wanting to leave (which unsurprisingly Smyth has subscribed to) and Nani being courted by AC Milan and Juventus. The players likely to leave are the likes of Gibson and Kuszsack. United’s links in the States and Asia are churning in revenues and despite the Glazers’ saddling the club with huge debts, there has been no talks of a financial desperation in the club.

Next Claim: In the past three years, United’s net spend is lower than that of Hull City, Blackpool and Burnley. How so very clever of you Rob Smyth! taking the transfer records into consideration from after the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo. Smyth, if you claim that the Glazers have siphoned off money to such an extent that United have spent less than Hull, Blackpool and Burnley, you bloody well talk about the net transfer spend during the entire of the Glazers’ regime ie., from the 2005 season which comes to a handy £90m which would be just enough to buy the three clubs Smyth mentioned. Smyth just don’t take all your readers for fools.

Ferguson is a miracle of longevity who has emerged triumphantly from deeper holes than this in the past, and may do so again. Yet all genius is finite. It is not just all political lives that end in failure. Ferguson has looked weary in the past two games, slumped passively in his chair when before he would have prowled the touchline, liberally applying the fear of God. His often eccentric selections have started to verge on the wilfully perverse. 

Okay, that was absolutely hilarious. A manager slumps (yet to be proven with evidence) for two games and Smyth claims that his genius is all gone. If this theory is applied to practical use Arsene Wenger should be borderline lunatic and Avram Grant should be six feet under. Fergie has proven time and again that he can adopt and evolve with the times. United’s pure football play at the start of the season was a thing of beauty and yet another proof  of Fergie’s continual evolution. United have been cruelly deprived of a creative midfielder in Tom Cleverly and the spate of injuries they have suffered is borderline Newcastle United pre-Mike Ashley era stuff. In spite of the depleted squad, United have not cooled off in the pursuit of the league title. A couple of shrewd signings in January and the United machine would be back on track perfectly. As I almost finish this post, Paul Scholes has returned and blundered a goal for City and United have defeated City 3 – 2. Could have been 4-1 or might have been 3 – 3 as well. But the bottom line is United won with almost 58% possession and have the psychological edge over their neighbors going to the second half of the season.

United may beat City on Sunday and go on to do the Double; it does not matter. There can be no happy ending here. Well, I believe Rob Smyth might have been a Mayan in his previous life with his doomsday prediction in 2012, but despite all your claims even if United don’t win a damn thing this season, the team is not in decline and will improve for the better.

Smyth, do football a favour and give up writing.

Bruce can feel that he has become a victim of his own success – him consistently over-achieving with smaller clubs causing his employers to expect the improbable of him. But I actually don’t think so. What Bruce achieved with Wigan and Birmingham before that was admirable but he had his limitations. In this article, I have tried to capture the main reasons why Bruce has been sacked from Sunderland.

1. Playing Football Manager in the transfer deals:

This is something which has irked me a lot about Steve Bruce. His transfer deals have always been a case of buy in the numbers and trust few of them would click. As I had pointed in my earlier piece, Bruce has brought in almost 30 players during his tenure at the Stadium of Light (either on permanent transfers or on loans) and has seen 36 leave. And all this in only a little over 2 seasons. Such a high degree of employee churn will never provide a ambient working environment anywhere in this world and Bruce’s intent on playing FM only created an atmosphere in which the players were not that greatly attached to the club. Darren Bent, Loric Cana, Kenwyne Jones and Jordan Henderson have all left without being adequately replaced. And the tradition of dealing in wholesale happened in Wigan also when Bruce was at the helm there.

2. Not having a settled strike partnership:

In the 2 and 1/2 seasons that Bruce managed Sunderland, they never managed to have a settled strike partnership – first it was Jones, Chopra and Benjani changing to Jones and Bent and Sunderland actually had a partnership that was gelling together well. Then Jones was sold to Stoke the following season after Bruce spent most of the pre-season complaining that Liverpool was tapping the striker up. Asamoah Gyan was bought last season and again Bent forged a good partnership with him and young Manchester United loanee Danny Welbeck was also learning his trade alongside them. But Bent left mid-season to join struggling Aston Villa and it was deja-vu time all over again as Bruce spent most of the pre-season this time around moaning that Tottenham were trying to poach Gyan. Gyan did indeed leave but to UAE club Al Ain. Sunderland might have benefited financially with all these deals, but Bruce ended up with not having a striker he could rely on for goals. This season, he failed to replace Gyan, Bent and Welbeck as Bendtner and Wickham have been willing, but not effective enough.

3. Not being able to arrest slumps:

Last season, Sunderland looked like they would break into the top-7 after their wonderful performance at Stamford Bridge, but their second half of the season could be described as only relegation form. The Black Cats lost 11 of the last 19 fixtures, collecting a paltry 20 points out of them. They went on a nine game winless streak and Bruce often looked like he didn’t have a clue. The season before that was the same with Sunderland collecting only 20 points from the second half of the season and that with Darren Bent in their ranks scoring 24 goals.

4. Happy to blame other clubs:

As mentioned below, Bruce was always happy to maintain that the failings of his players who were linked to other clubs were because of the other clubs. He was keen on pointing fingers at Manchester City, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Tottenham and Al Ain rather than focus on the fact that he had attracted quality players to his teams by promising them a platform from which they could showcase their skills and move on to other clubs for lucrative deals. Wilson Palacios, Charles N’Zogbia, Darren Bent and Gyan – all moved to Bruce’s teams on such promise only. They always viewed his team as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. If such a philosophy is used to bring in good players, then Bruce should have also made sure that similar quality replacements were  lined up on the event of a player’s departure.

Bruce will not be written out – he will be back, should the likes of Wolves or Stoke or Villa feel like dispensing with their current managers. But Bruce will have to realize his failings in his previous clubs. He was lucky to have a patient bloke like Ellis Short in-charge of the club. The next time, he just might not get a boss such accommodating.

]]> http://442footballfever.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/bye-bye-bruce/feed/ 0 varadharajanramesh http://442footballfever.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/was-the-6-1-really-on-the-cards/ http://442footballfever.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/was-the-6-1-really-on-the-cards/#comments Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:25:19 +0000 Varadharajan Ramesh http://442footballfever.wordpress.com/?p=235 ]]> In short – No. There was no way that anyone could have predicted that Manchester City could have inflicted such a painful and humiliating defeat on Manchester United before the kick-off. But was a United defeat on the cards? Honestly there was a very good probability of that happening.Let’s get right to business.

Fergie scrapped the 4-5-1 that he employed against Liverpool last weekend and reverted to the succesful 4-4-2. But two very interesting changes were Nemanja Vidic being dropped from the squad and Jonny Evans starting ahead of Phil Jones in the central defensive role alonsgside Rio Ferdinand and Carrick being dropped altogether. Darren Fletcher started alongside Anderson in the centre of midfield and Danny Welbeck started ahead of Javier Hernandez. For City, Mancini’s hand was forced into relegating Nigel de Jong to the substitutes bench due to his injury. This meant that Yaya Toure dropped back to a central midfield role from the advanced role he played against Aston Villa last week and James Milner started in the right side of a attacking troika alongside Silva and Balotelli, behind Sergio Aguero in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

United vs City – starting formations

United had adjusted well against Arsenal who played a similar 4-2-3-1 earlier in the season. But unlike Arsenal, City varied their tactics and as a result United’s 4-4-2 suffered. The first tweak Mancini did to his tactics was having Milner interchange positions with Silva and cover both wings. Especially whenever United’s wingers were on the attack, Milner tracked back diligently and helped his full-backs out. Milner covering both wings and generally being a major nuisance resulted in an extra man when City came forward on a particular wing and made United’s full-backs contend with two wide players attacking their wing. Cisty’s first goal was a prime example of that – Milner and Silva engaging Smalling and the former then laying the ball on a platter for Balotelli to score. Until that point it was the home side who were doing most of the attacking. But City’s one moment of success showed the flaws in United’s gameplan.

Another point that has to be raised at this point is United’s defense giving Milner, Silva and Balotelli all the time in the world when they had the ball. Silva’s to Milner, Milner’s pass to Balotelli and Balotelli’s finish just didn’t have any player in a red shirt trying to prevent them. Rio Ferdinand’s positioning also has been pretty poor on a disturbingly increasing basis. Another of United’s issues has been the lack of a creative midfielder. I had mentioned this earlier as well, Cleverly is being sorely missed by this United side. Even today, Carrick would have been a better bet in the midfield than Fletcher.

United did have shots on goal in the first half but they were mostly from range and at Hart. Infact United had the better first half stroking 306 passes compared to City’s 234. A mouthwatering comeback was definitely on the cards. But just 64 seconds into the second half Jonny Evans’ recklessness got himself a red card and exposed United who were feeling the strain of their 4-4-2 being outwitted. After the incident City hit 262 passes while United could muster only 183 at a success rate of 78%. A noticable feature about United’s gameplay was that they were intent on passing the ball bang onto their wings, but with Milner and Barry tracking back into the wings it was increasingly difficult for United’s wingers to get their crosses in. Nani especially had a very torrid game. He was handled very effectively by Clichy but that was also a result of the Portuguese’s reluctance to pass the ball to Smalling who had darted into City’s box more than once only to throw his hands in frustration on seeing Nani try to pass it to Young or Rooney.

United’s substitutions also didn’t help them as Hernandez and Jones struggled for positions as City had started exerting their dominance over the fading hosts. The situation was ideal for a work-horse like Park Ji-Sung but Fergie thought otherwise and by the time the game ended, United’s players had given up. Three goals in the stoppage time just added more sheen to the score-line, but City had won the battle very comfortably long before that.

]]> http://442footballfever.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/was-the-6-1-really-on-the-cards/feed/ 0 varadharajanramesh lineup goal1 http://442footballfever.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/basels-narrowness-and-uniteds-slackness-combine-to-give-a-classic/ http://442footballfever.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/basels-narrowness-and-uniteds-slackness-combine-to-give-a-classic/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:50:09 +0000 Varadharajan Ramesh http://442footballfever.wordpress.com/?p=223 ]]> 60% possession, 14 attempts at goal with 9 on target (65%), 2 goals up in 17 minutes and the formidable fortress of Old Trafford – United fans could have been forgiven if they had thought that the match was over by half time. But the reality was far from it. Basel scored twice in quick succession in the second half and actually led the tie for 14 minutes before a 90th minute header from Ashley Young salvaged a point for United. United are having a weird season – they are dominating possession, scoring heavily but have also been susceptible to be scored against. David de Gea holds the record for the maximum number of saves made in the Premier League this season with 38 saves – hardly the stat for the ‘keeper of a table-topping club. Much has been made over the emergence of the young guard at Old Trafford but it is clear that their backline is missing a colossus in Nemanja Vidic.

Sir Alex Ferguson, as usual, opted for a 5 man midfield in the European competition with United lining up in a 4-4-1-1 with Ryan Giggs starting just behind Danny Welbeck.At least the 4-4-1-1 was better than the flat 4-5-1 line up that started against Benfica. Basel lined up in a 4-4-2 meaning this game would be open. But their German coach Thorsten Fink made one tactical tweak – playing narrower. United tend to play wide and switch the ball between flanks to make maximum utilization of the wide Old Trafford pitch.

If you notice the starting line-ups, you could see that Besel’s wingers Fabian Frei and Zoua Daogari played a lot narrower compared to United’s wingers Valencia and Ashley Young. Young with his searing pace gave a torrid time to Basel’s RB Markus Steinhofer. United’s width combined with the fact that Basel playing narrower led to the home side dominating possession in the starting phase of the game.

United also pressed forward a lot with Fabio almost playing like a second right winger. The Brazilian often drifted forward exchanging positions with Valencia. It was Fabio’s cut back to Giggs that set up Welbeck for his first goal. The very next minute, Welbeck scored again from another of Gigg’s pass. United were very much in the ascendency but they also could have conceded 2 goals by that time. Frei first fired wide after being set up by Streller’s flick over Ferdinand and then Streller didn’t notice Daogari who came in unmarked and squandered a chance to set him up to score. That was United’s problem – their defense was too slack. Whether it was due to them being complacent that their opponents were Basel or that they were up by two goals or it was Rio’s age and Jones and Fabio showing their inexperience, But there’s no denying that United’s defensive slackness was their undoing. If not for Basel’s wastefulness in front of goal and de Gea’s instincts, United might have been trailing well before half time. I have selected two instances which should have sent warning bells ringing in the United camp, but sadly it was not to be.

a. Daogari chance

Xhaka passes the ball to Alexander Frei and the striker sets off towards United’s goal. Streller moves left and stretches Evra. Rio and Jones are left with the task of shepherding Frei and the situation would have been under control. But the problem was Fabio was too far up the field and he didn’t react when Xhaka passed the ball to Frei. This left Daogari who was playing narrow to simply dart into the box and suddenly the situation became 3 on 3 with Daogari left completely unmarked. Frei passed the ball to Daogari but he missed the opportunity to score. Let off for United and especially Fabio.

b. Streller chance

de Gea’s casual punt up field was headed by Xhaka to Daogari. Fabio tried to tackle but lost out leaving Daogari acres of space behind. Daogari passed the ball to Streller and darted towards the goal with Fabio left trailing. Streller passed the ball back to Daogari and this required Ferdinand to shift towards left to handle Daogari. Jones moved to Rio’s position and Evra moved to Jones’ position. Fabian Frei ran in between Ferdinand and Jones caused the distraction Streller needed to slip beyond Evra. Though Daogari’s cross was headed wide by Streller, it was dangerous and ponderous defending nonetheless. If Fabio had tracked back properly, Streller’s run could have been blocked by Evra.

Basel counter attacked well with their narrow wingers slipping into the gaps in United’s midfield due to their width. Carrick and Anderson didn’t offer much defensive cover and Fabio often looked lost after he had bolted up field. All four United’s defenders had a pretty ordinary day in the office as Ferdinand was too slow to react to balls that were played past him and Jones was a bit too casual. Fabio had a torrid time out except may be for the first 15 minutes. Basel could have won this game, but that doesn’t mean that United couldn’t have. If their defense hadn’t been too casual they could have easily stuffed the Swiss side.

The starting lineup for City these days is a foregone conclusion with only injuries or Carling Cup forcing Mancini to alter his plans. Moyes went for  a 4-1-4-1 with Phil Neville playing in the holding role and Tim Cahill up-front.

City vs Everton – starting line-ups

Mancini’s game plan involves Yaya Toure and Barry lying deep and letting Nasri, SIlva, Aguero and Dzeko do the attacking. City’s attacking quartet do not have a fixed positional role and they tend to shift and interchange positions with each other – making marking them a painful job. This is evident from Nasri, Silva and Aguero’s positions during the game – they were everywhere. Since Barry and Toure sat deep, the attacking midfielders had the liberty to roam out of position.

Aguero, Nasri & Silva – roamed out of position at will

David Moyes sought to counter City’s attacking threat with the vintage art of man-marking. He assigned young Jack Rodwell to mark City’s most creative player – David Silva. It worked like a dream too as Rodwell harried the Spaniard and snapped into tackles. All this was good for 18 minutes when SIlva’s trickery induced a rash challenge from Rodwell and earned him a yellow card. Moyes promptly handed over the man-marking duties to Phil Neville. But 8 minutes later, Silva made sure that Neville got a yellow as well. Everton competed gamely for the first half an hour in which City were able to muster only 2 shots (off-target) and that too from long range. After a rash of cards, Everton had to roll back their aggresiveness in tackles and City took over. The last 15 minutes of the first half saw City registering a further 6 shots at goal.

Everton hung in gamely for 65 minutes when the game changed because of two substitutions. Mancini sent in Mario Balotelli for the disappointing Dzeko and Luis Saha was brought on by Moyes for Cahill who injured himself flying into a tackle. Cahill, eventhough operating as a striker, tracked back regularly to help his team out whereas Saha pretty much tended to stay upfront. Thus Everton had one less player to counter City’s attacks.

Cahill tracked back, Saha didn’t & Everton suffered

Balotelli scored and both managers started ringing in the changes as Moyes making attacking substitutions and Mancini bringing defensive cover – the frittering away of a 2 goal lead at Craven Cottage in mind obviously. Moyes’ strategy of playing the pacy Drenthe down in the middle instead of his favoured left back-fired as Drenthe’s poor back pass allowed Silva to real in a peach of a pass to Milner to score and kill the tie.

The investments that has been made to construct both squads are different and hence a gulf in class. But Everton hung in there and refused to be cowered. But this time, the irresistable force was not to be denied.

As expected Manchester United lined up in a 4-4-2 and Chelsea in a 4-3-3 (or what I call a 4-1-2-3) The only changes from what was expected was Jonny Evans taking field as Ferdinand hadn’t fully yet recovered from his hamstring strain and Darren Fletcher lining up alongside Anderson. For me this was surprising as Fletcher has actually regressed in the last couple of seasons and he looked fairly pedestrian against Benfica and was hauled off at half time. But maybe Fergie wanted someone in the middle of the field who provides a bit of assuredness to accompany Anderson. I still believe Carrick should have started, but hey I’m not the boss. Andre Villas-Boas, seemingly impressed with what saw against Bayer, included Fernando Torres in the starting lineup.

To analyze this match, I think it would be best served if we discern the match into 3 periods of 30 minutes each. The first 30 minutes saw Chelsea dominate proceedings with United playing catch up. United tried moving the ball to the wings and let their wingers cut loose against Chelsea’s full-backs, whereas Chelsea started moving the ball more through the centre. In the first 30 minutes, United had attempted 187 passes with a success rate of 83% and Chelsea on the other hand attempted 150 passes with a success rate of 85%. But the point to be noted here is Chelsea had moved 47% of their succesful passes through the centre of the field whereas United had moved only 36% through the centre. Another point to be noted is 28% of Chelsea’s central midfield passes were in United’s half, whereas a paltry 14% of United’s passes were in Chelsea’s half. 23% of United’s passes through wings were in Chelsea’s half and 27% of Chelsea’s passes were in United’s half. The field was set – United were going to hit the wings, while Chelsea were trying to punch the weak underbelly of United’s central midfield. The first 30 minutes were largerly dominated by Chelsea, not in possesion, but in terms of chances created. Chelsea had 10 shots on goal and United had 1, but the score was United 1; Chelsea 0. Smalling might have been marginally offside but the blame has to be squarely put on Chelsea’s static defensive line. Ramires could have equalized, but his weak shot was saved well by de Gea. United’s central midfielders Anderson and Fletcher had a combined accuracy of 81% whereas Chelsea’s midfield troika of Ramires, Meireles and Lampard had a phenomenal 93% accuracy.

The second 30 minute period saw a furious battle in the 2nd third of the pitch as both teams struggled to impose their dominance. United stroked 192 passes with 83% accuracy and Chelsea attempted 169 passes with only 78% accuracy. This was the period which saw the game yield 3 goals and saw Nani stamp his authority on the match by coasting past Mata as if he was non-existant on the pitch and hit an imperious 20 yarder past Cech. Jones’ lung bursting run resulted in Rooney tapping in his 9th goal of the season. The 2 goals were significant as Chelsea’s defense was happy to let United’s wingers come up to the final 3rd before trying to crowd them out. Maybe this was due to Chelsea not wanting to be sucker-punched on counters while attacking through their full-backs, but the gamble failed and United scored 2 and should’ve had one more only for Rooney to slip while taking his spot kick. Soon after the break Chelsea pulled one back through Torres who ran past Jones to take substitute Anelka’s pass and score.

The third period of 30 minutes was a war of attrition with United refusing to wilt and Chelsea trying to catch the hosts out on their seconds of vulnerability. United’s wingers ran willingly and a mighty 64% of United’s passes were through the wings. Chelsea too did try wing it as Cole found it a bit easy running at makeshift RB Valencia as they passed 52% through their wings. The percentages might sound close but the numbers give you a different picture. United threaded 100 passes through the wings while Chelsea could manage only 53. Torres and Berbatov missed with the former vying for the ‘miss of the season’ award (if there is one anyway).

The overall conclusion could be had both teams, especially Chelsea had taken their gilt-edged chances, the score might have been entirely different. United pressed the Chelsea full backs well restricting them to just 91 passes delivered and this could be put into perspective if we consider their average this season of 148 passes per game prior to this match. United also dominated possession thereby spoiling Villas-Boas’ strategy of possession football. Chelsea’s decision to stand-off the attackers in the midfield cost them dear and the strategy of Meireles and Lampard against Rooney was wrong. Chelsea could have used a Essien or even Mikel yesterday. United out passed Chelsea and their wingers ran well without cutting in as they have done in the previous matches. This was to by-pass Chelsea’s 3 man midfield and to press Bosingwa and Cole into submission. Consider Young, Evra and Nani’s positioning. They clung on to the line more when compared to the previous games when they tended to cut in.

Nani, Young and Evra – clung to the sidelines

Villas-Boas might have lost his first game as Chelsea boss, but there are clear signs of improvement under him. Torres has been linking better with his teammates in the new formation  and the introduction of Anelka when the team was 3 down showed real guts on Villas-Boas’ part. Fergie’s team selection was perfect except for the central midfield pairing of Fletcher and Anderson. It’s weird to say that United are missing a young player who has started only 4 games for them, but such has been the impact of Cleverly that Carrick and Fletcher can be viewed as a downgrade. Anderson too has been playing better with Cleverly. The move of introducing Valencia at RB was strange especially considering that Fabio was on the bench. Maybe Fergie has his doubts on the young Brazilian or maybe is he trying out a Barcelona trick of playing a midfielder in defense? Let’s wait and watch. But for now United are the deserving leaders in the Premiership after wins over 3 of the top 6 clubs.

Both teams rested key personnel for their respective Champions League encounters as both managers acknowledged that Sunday’s game assumes more importance. United almost fielded a different XI with only Rooney, Evra and Evans remaining from the team that started against Bolton last Saturday. Although Lindegaard impressed sufficiently, Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that David deGea will start on Sunday. Rio Ferdinand is fighting a hamstring strain and might possibly not start, with Evans being the likely beneficiary. Tom Cleverly’s untimely injury last week has created a vacancy in the midfield for which Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick would be in contention. Fletcher didn’t have a memorable game against Benfica and Carrick might get the nod.

Villas-Boas might be tempted to start with Fernando Torres in the hope that a visit to Old Trafford might reinvigorate the striker’s lost goal-scoring ability. Torres played really well against Bayer Leverkusen laying on both goals for his team mates but I feel that Anelka might start on Sunday ahead of Torres. David Luiz’s goal scoring display might pose few welcome headaches for Villas-Boas but the Portuguese might not be preferred over the steady Branislav Ivanovic.

Ferguson will revert to 4-4-2 with Rooney and Javier Hernandez leading the line. Carrick and Anderson will man the center of the midfield while Young and Nani will play in the wings. Chris Smalling will play in his new position of RB where he has excelled even more than when he has played at his natural position of CB. Villas-Boas will line up his Chelsea team in a 4-3-3 or to be more specific a 4-1-2-3 system. Raul Meireles will play in front of the defense in the spoiler role in which he was very effective against Sunderland and Bayer. Lampard and the vastly improved Ramires will play along Meireles in the midfield while the attacking troika is likely to be the excellent Juan Mata, Anelka and Daniel Sturridge, who has been impressing on a consistant basis. So the formations in totum hasn’t changed over the years. United have traditionally played a 4-4-2 and Chelsea under Mourinho, Grant and Ancelloti have played different versions of the 4-3-3. But it is the game play style that has taken a major and a telling change for both teams this year. Villas-Boas has Chelsea play possession football and it has worked certainly well against the lesser teams of the league like Norwich, West Brom and Stoke. Another important change in Chelsea’s style of play is the increasing use of their full backs Jose Bosingwa and Ashley Cole as attacking outlets.

Potential Starting Line-ups

Ashley Cole and Bosingwa have strung a mighty 591 passes between them in the 4 PL games they have played. Cole has been more successful of the two completing 87% of his passes while Bosingwa hasn’t been much of a slouch either, completing 75% of his attempted passes. Compare this to United, whose full backs have attempted only 422 passes between them in the 4 PL games they have played at a good success rate of 85%. United have moved the ball through the middle as well bringing Phil Jones’ attacking instincts into play. One thing is for sure – expect loads of passes tomorrow. Manchester United have attempted 2240 passes in 4 games at a success rate of 81.5% whereas Chelsea have attempted 2404 passes with the exact same success rate.

Villas-Boas system depends on retaining majority of ball possession and moving it through the full-backs to the forwards while the midfielders do their best to occupy the attentions of the opposition midfielders. Meireles sits deep and spoils any opposition counter-attack and lately Lampard is also being asked to play a more deeper role than usual. Ramires is being used to create pandemonium amidst the opposition defense with his quick bursts which would enable the forwards to sneak in without much of a hassle.

United will therfore be looking to stifle the service in the wings by asking their wingers to press Cole and Bosingwa and I’m sure Ashley Young and Nani can do it well. Cole, while being somewhat of an attacking outlet, has been poor defensively this season succeeding in only 45% of the tackles he has attempted. Bosingwa has been way better with a success rate of 72%. Though Chelsea play a 4-1-2-3, their forwards have tended to play a bit narrow and this will aid United on the counter attacks. With their wingers pressing Chelsea’s full-backs, United’s full-backs will be afforded the space to dart ahead and to spoil the same, Meireles and Ramires will be pulled out of their positions in addition to Mata and Sturridge requiring to track back and help their full-backs. United have genuine pace in their wings and this will definitely stretch Chelsea. Carrick will look to drop deep linking the defence and attack with Anderson getting the licence to roam forward. If United do manage to cut Chelsea’s supply through the wings, then it would require the ball to be moved through the centre and Chelsea will have the numerical advantage there, but expect Rooney to drop deep and create all sorts of nuisance to Lampard and Ramires.

I believe that the match will be decided in the wings. If Chelsea manage to play wide, they can compete with United on the flanks, but if they do play wide they do not have a good target man and they will end up playing narrow on the top. If United do gain the upper hand in the wings as they have done against Tottenham, Bolton and Arsenal, they will dominate the proceedings. I expect a great battle with the winners being the home team.

In 2005, Nik Besagno created headlines by becoming the 2nd youngest player in Major League Soccer (MLS) history (first being Freddy Adu) to be draft-picked by Real Salt Lake. He signed a ‘Generation Adidas’ contract that guaranteed him a higher pay than most of the established players in MLS. The then 16 year old Besagno claimed “I’m really excited to play for John Ellinger and Real Salt Lake. Playing with Clint Mathis and Jason Kreis and Andy Williams and all the rest of the guys will be awesome”, on being drafted by RSL. Fast forward 6 years – Jason Kreis is the head coach of Real Salt Lake, Clint Mathis is retired for well over a year now and WIlliams is still clocking the miles for RSL. Well, what about Besagno? Well, what about him indeed. This is the story of a dream gone wrong.

Besagno, a Maple Valley native, was introduced to football (or Soccer) by his father John at the age of 8. His elder brother Jacob Besagno was also a football player and would go on to play for Seattle Sounders with limited success. Besagno was scouted for the Olympic Development Program (ODP) and went with his regional team to Costa Rica to play inter-regional and international friendlies, where he was scouted by the assistant coach of the US under-17 team.  A then 15 year old Besagno would go on to be picked for the US under-17 team and started 10 of 11 international matches, scoring one goal and adding two assists in 20 appearances. In November 2004, Besagno was invited to the Under-20 camp and played 89 minutes, helping the U.S. to a 2-1 victory over Mexico just six days after celebrating his 16th birthday.

The then US U-17 coach John Ellinger would go on to become the head coach of Real Salt Lake and picked Nik Besagno in the Superdraft. Ellinger said, “After watching Nik perform during the last 8 months at the U.S. Under-17 Residency Program, I saw on a daily basis that he is a great young talent. As an organization we feel confident that he possesses the ability to be a star in this league. Nik fills a dual purpose for us at Real Salt Lake, as we build for the future and fill a need at the holding midfielder position.”  That was Besagno’s problem. At just 16, he was expected to take on the challenge of playing holding midfielder of a top-flight club. Ellinger, having seen Besagno perform admirably at the U17 level, didn’t have any issues throwing the kid into the deep end. And his GA salary of $136,500 also meant he had to start performing. To understand the ‘Generation Adidas’ concept, I would urge you to read this article. In a nutshell – the GA players earn a lot more than the other players in the league, which by itself is a source for potential disenchantment in the dressing room.

What followed next was to be expected. Besagno found the gulf in class between U17 level football and MLS was huge. In his own words, “The first day was an eye-opener. I got beat up pretty bad,” he said. “It was kind of a welcome to the league. I knew I’d be fighting for every minute.” He made only sporadic appearances for RSL in the next 2 years. In 2007, after a couple of poor seasons, John Ellinger was fired as the head coach of RSL and Jason Kreis took over. Under Kreis Besagno couldn’t get much playing time and was marginalized. In 2008 he was sent on a 90 day loan to Seattle Sounders, who were then playing in the USL, which is one rung below the MLS. Besagno played 10 games for the Sounders and returned to RSL hoping to convince the team about his worth. But what followed was frustration as he was injured and on recovery was not considered for the main team and infact was released by RSL, just 3 years into his 4 year contract. In 3 years, Besagno was able to chalk up only 8 appearances for the club.

Besagno was hoping to get himself signed with newly formed MLS team Seattle Sounders FC. He trained with the Sounders for 2 months but then the club didn’t take the option to sign him on a permanent basis. Once heralded as the next big thing, Besagno wasn’t claimed by any side in the waiver draft effectively ending his MLS dreams. It was at this time that Besagno decided to quit football and concentrate on his studies. But after 5 months without kicking a ball, he knew that football will always be his inner calling and signed for USL Premier Development League (PDL) team Tacoma Tide in 2009. The USL PDL is the fourth tier of football leagues in USA. Besagno chalked 15 appearances for Tide, scoring 2 goals. In 2010, he left Tacoma and signed for their rivals Kitsap Pumas instead. With Kitsap, Besagno has been able to play football on a consistant level and has grown to become the captain of the team and leading them to become the champions of PDL.

Soon after his drafting by RSL Besagno stated that his favorite actress is Lindsay Lohan. Kind of ironic that both their careers have dived south after 2005. At the tender age of 16, Nik Besagno had the world at his feet. But reality has proved to be rather harsh for him.

Both teams lined up in 4-4-2 as it was predicted with couple of surprising changes. Chris Smalling was left on the bench for Rio Ferdinand and Phil Jones took over the right back duties. It was understandable as Manchester United have a double date next week with their trip to Benfica and then hosting Chelsea and Fergie saw it fit to rest Smalling and give Ferdinand a run in before the tougher games. Owen Coyle went for the jugular by resting Fabrice Muamba and Gretar Steinsson and picking Mark Davies and Manchester City loanee Dedryk Boyata. I had mentioned in my previous entry that Muamba was used as a fifth defender in the corresponding fixture last season and that was against a Manchester United team that didn’t have this season’s team’s attacking verve and style. I believe Coyle missed a trick by not playing the defensive minded Muamba. The absence of Stuart Holden and Lee Chung-Yong has taken the bite and creativity out of Bolton’s midfield and the duo are being sorely missed.

It has been established that United’s most attacking outlet is their left flank where Evra, Young and Rooney have combined with devastating results and Coyle was diligent enough in noting that and tried to plug it by deploying Nigel Reo-Coker to support Boyata and Eagles. Take a look at Reo-Coker’s positions during the game – he was generally leaning towards his right with Davies left to man the centre of the midfield.

Reo-Coker’s positions, generally towards the right

As predicted by yours truly, United promptly focused their attack through their right flank – Bolton’s left. The Trotters were not prepared and were blown away. Nani and Jones ran behind Petrov and Paul Robinson at will and pulled the strings to such an extent that all five of United’s goals came from the right flank. Petrov is a very attacking player – I give you that. But that is no excuse for him to stay high up the pitch. As expected, Petrov’s positioning high up the field required Robinson to move up to support him during attack but they were woefully caught out when United attacked or counter-attacked. Take a look at Petrov’s positioning.

Martin Petrov – tended to stay in United’s half and his team suffered

Now compare this with United’s right wing duo of Nani and Jones. They started deep so as to neuter Bolton’s attacking threat through Petrov and then stamped their authority on the wing.

Nani & Jones – covered the flank well and bossed it

The Result: 

Whenever United attacked through their right, it meant that Gary Cahill was pulled out of his central role towards his left to support Robinson, thereby affecting Bolton’s defensive equilibrium. Bolton’s failure on their left wing meant that they were under-staffed either on their left or at center and this resulted in not one or two but all five of the goals United scored. Take a look at the ball movement for the goals and it will tell you the entire story. If not for the offside flag, the score could have been seven or eight – nil. It is surprising that Owen Coyle would fail to look at the obvious and even more so when the goals started to flow in. At the least he could have done what Mick McCarthy did at Villa Park by taking out his wingers and played four central midfielders so as to nullify Villa’s attack through the wings. Let’s hope that Owen Coyle doesn’t commit the folly next time around as his teams have a tough run in.

All 5 United goals – through the right

Stracqualursi, or ‘Denis the Menace’ as the Everton fans have nick-named him, started his career in the Argentinian 3rd division team Union de Sunchales in 2007. He played 24 games for Union and scored 11 goals and earned himself a transfer to Gimnasia-LP. In the two seasons he played for Gimnasia, Stracqualursi scored a paltry 6 goals in 45 games and was loaned out to Tigre at the start of the 2010/11 season with an option to make the deal permanent. Stracqualursi had a very productive season with struggling Tigre as he topped the goal scoring charts with 21 goals in 38 games.

Stracqualursi is so different from the archetypical Argentinian forwards. He is tall (6’3″) and powerfully built and unlike his short albeit tricky peers, Stracqualursi is more like an old fashioned No9. He is very strong in the air and is essentially a player who prefers being inside the box and waiting for the opportune moment to pounce. It is no wonder that a majority of his goals have either been headers or tap-ins. With his aerial ability, he would be a very welcome addition to the Everton squad where Leighton Baines would take glee pinging cross after cross onto Stracqualursi’s head. His defining moment came when he hit a hattrick against Boca and that too at the Bombonera no less. He planted two good headers and converted a penalty as he scored the first hattrick in 15 years at the Bombonera. I checked the youtube and found this spiffy compilation by someone on Stracqualursi.

Now let’s talk about the negatives. Inspite of his good aerial abilities, Stracqualursi’s positioning leaves a lot to be desired as you could see from the video. At 2:37, Stracqualursi tries to get on to a cross but his positioning fails him and he eventually scores the rebound ball from his colleague. Also the Premier League will present him a different set of challenge with defenders who are actually good in the air. Stracqualursi reportedly came to England to go on trial with Championship big spenders Leicester City but couldn’t convince Sven Goran Erikson, who instead plumped for Beckford. But I wouldn’t take Sven’s judgement on a striker as the gospel as his previous buys like Jo, Rolando Bianchi and Felipe Caicedo present a different story altogether. Maybe Sven can’t spot talent or maybe this time he actually found that the player was pants, that time only would tell us. But there should be something good about Traka (as he is known) that Napoli decided to submit a £6m bid for his services only to be knocked back by Tigre who themselves paid only £1.17m to make his transfer permanent.

For now David Moyes and the Everton fans would be hoping that Traka’s no nosense style would click and he could start pinging in the goals. If the player applies his mind and works more on his positioning, he could become a force to be reckoned with.