Maverick's Wonderings

For years and years now England fans build up their hopes claiming that each squad is “the best ever” and their best chance of reclaiming the past glory form 1966. But as yet despite a wealth of talent playing in what is argued to be the best league in the world this glory has shown very little sign of materializing. Why is this? Is it due to a lack of funding at grass roots level? Perhaps we just keep failing to appoint the right manager? Or is it simply that the players available to England’s manager is unlikely to yield a World Cup winning side?

I believe that while grass roots funding is well below what it should be, and thankfully this is finally being addressed by the FA, that this can’t be held completely accountable for England’s Underachieving. 

England will be playing World and European champions Spain at Wembley this November and I think it would be apt to compare the squads that will be on show (working on the squads selected for the last round of internationals) as it clearly illustrates the Gulf in quality between the two Nations.

Goalkeepers:

Spain - Casillas, Valdes, Reina

England - Hart, Carson, Stockdale

The Spanish have been blessed with 3 simply world class goalkeepers, a point brought home by the fact that Victor Valdes who has won La Liga 5 times and the Champions League 3 times, as well as winning the Spanish cup, the Spanish Supercup 5 times, the UEFA Super Cup twice and the FIFA Club World Cup, not even being their first choice between the sticks. Comparing this with England who do have a very talented number one in Joe Hart, but beyond that we see that the options are somewhat limited even having to drop down to The Championship for their third choice goalkeeper.

Spain clearly have the strength and depth over England in this position and whilst England clearly have talent available by and large it is somewhat lacking in the experience many would say is required at the highest international level.

Defenders:

Spain - Arbeloa, Ramos, Albiol, Pique, Puyol, Jordi Alba

England - Terry, Cahill, Jones, Richards, Cole, Baines, Jagielka, Walker

At first glance here you would say that Spain seem to have a slight vulnerability in this area, relying quite heavily on the Barcelona centreback paring of Pique and the aging Puyol. But is that really very different to England having Gary Cahill and John Terry at the centre of their defence? The only real difference being that Puyol and Pique have the added bonus of playing together week in and week out. If you look out to the full backs other than Sergio Ramos, who is undoubtedly world class, Spain seem to be lacking, whereas England have Ashley Cole on the left, who is in many (and my opinion) the best left back in the world and two very good (and quite experienced considering their age) right backs in Richards and Walker. Unfortunately England’s current manager Fabio Capello seems determined to not use a player who’s actual position is RB and instead use any of Phil Jagielka, Chris Smalling or Phil Jones, all very good players but also all centrebacks.

I think England just edge this one, purely based on the ability of their full backs and the slight difference in age between Terry and Puyol, however Spain have proved that they don’t really need more than Pique and Puyol in their defence to go and win.

With the first round of fixtures for the Premier League 2011/12 all finished, I thought it would be fun (/I had nothing to do at work) to take a look at this season’s debutants and see how they got on in the EPL.

Roger Johnson - Wolves 

Johnson has not only signed for Wolves but assumed the captaincy as well, so it would be fair to say there was a fair amount of pressure on Johnson’s shoulders for the opening game. Overall he looked cool, calm and collected in the centre of the Wolves defence and I still believe that he could well be the buy of the season at a mere £7million from recently relegated Birmingham.

Arne Riise - Fulham 

It was nice to see the powerful John Arne Riise back in the Premier League, albeit a bit odd seeing him in a Fulham shirt (which are getting more and more skin-tight every year! Soon they will be simply body painting the kit onto their players!). He did look as good as he ever was at Liverpool, however whether he will get the same sort of support from his Fulham team-mates we will have to wait and see. On the whole he did defend strongly and at times maruade forwards, blowing a decent chance that if it were later in the season I am sure he would’ve buried. Will be key to Fulham maintaining pace in both Europe and the league.

Shay Given - Villa 

Back in from the cold (if not opulent) bench at Man City and looking just as sharp as he did when the prized him away from Newcastle, which seems oh so long ago! making 5 key saves in Villa’s encounter with Fulham and no doubt an decent replacement for Brad Friedel, if not an improvement.

Charles N’Zogbia - Villa

N’Zogbia has essentially been brought in to fill the boots of either Stuart Downing or Ashley Young, or in some Villa fans’ eyes both! He is undoubtedly a very gifted player and at £9.5million seems a bit of a bargain compared to the reported £20million for Downing or £18million for Young. However he doesn’t seem to have quite gelled with his Villa team-mates just yet, even if he has been appointed (probably self-appointed) set-piece taker I think it will take a bit of time for him to settle into the Villa set up, but once he does expect the goals to fly in from both him and Darren Bent.

Jose Enrique - Liverpool

Underwhelmed a bit in his first performance in a Liverpool shirt, but let’s be honest he had only been at the club about 48 hours and probably didn’t even know most of his team-mates names yet. Enrique had an impressive season last year for Newcastle, but I have a feeling he may be more missed by those at St James’ Park than he will impress those at Anfield. Probably a better Left Back than Glen Johnson, who will probably resume his role of being great at attacking but poor at defending on the right hand side. With all of the changes in personnel at Anfield it will undoubtedly be a bit of time until we see any sure signs of Enrique flourishing or failing.

Charlie Adam - Liverpool

Finally Liverpool got their man, and he looked like he had been there for years when they played Sunderland, pulling the strings from midfield like a skilled puppet master and delivering a (now standard) brilliant free-kick that Suarez deftly nodded in, he looks like he will be utilising that left foot of his quite a lot again this year. A great replacement for the seemingly forever injured Stevie G, and a snip at £9million, after all Sir Alex himself said that Charlie Adam was worth £10million for his set-pieces alone!

Jordan Henderson - Liverpool

Was a little anonymous in the season opener, but I think we can all agree he is a prospect for the future as much as he is a star signing. Obviously had a great season for Sunderland last term and will blossom under King Kenny, not sure he will feature as heavily this season especially if Gerrard returns from injury, but will play a decent squad role. In my opinion he needs to bulk up and be able to shove back when the more robust midfielders try and dispossess him.  

Stuart Downing - Liverpool

No doubt in my mind that Villa will sorely miss Downing, he is a superb crosser of the ball and more and more comfortable powering forward at defenders, evident in his nearly perfect goal which sadly was denied by the woodwork. He looks very at home out on either Right or Left flank with Liverpool having a perfect target man in Andy Carroll, a partnership that I think will be very promising this season.

Wes Brown - Sunderland

Brown has been saved from the last resort defender role he had at Man Utd and showed just why he used to be so well regarded, and even played for England don’t you know?! He played very well against Liverpool and if he can keep his fitness will be a great asset to Sunderland as they push to grab one of those Europa League places. Especially if he and John O’Shea can stay fit at the same time, that will be one strong Centre Back pairing which will trouble even the best of forwards.

Sebastian Larsson - Sunderland

Scored an absolute beauty against Liverpool, and no doubt left Birmingham fans with a slightly sour look on their faces, after he left them on a free to join Sunderland. Will be very influential in Steve Bruce’s side this season and seeing as he was brought in for free has to probably be one of the most astute “purchases” this summer.

DJ Campbell - QPR

Had an impressive season with Blackpool last season and will be looking to replicate that form again this time around. Things didn’t look top have quite clicked with his old QPR schoolboys team-mate just yet, but as we have been shown so many times before form is temporary and class is permanent, in time we will know which applies to DJ. (His actual name is Dudley, no wonder he calls himself DJ)

Jay Bothroyd - QPR

Looked sharp, scoring early on for QPR albeit disallowed for offside, still needs a bit of time to gel with Campbell and the rest of the team, but in time he will come good and I think we will see a good few goals from the former Cardiff frontman.

Kieran Dyer - QPR

Went off injured in his first game. In his first Premier League game for QPR he played 6 minutes, 3 of which he spent on the floor injured. This season doesn’t look that great for Dyer, but you never know if he can keep fit for longer than 5 minutes Neil Warnock’s roll of the dice may yet pay off.

Chris Eagles - Bolton

Owen Coyle’s favourite player to buy, showed us just why he is against QPR assisting two goals and generally looking like he could be a real asset to Bolton this season, especially with the injuries to Stuart Holden and Lee Chung-Yong. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him net double figures as well.

Reo-Coker - Bolton

Looking happy to be a first choice player again, and battling away in the midfield he looked assured and another astute “buy” being brought in on a free after Villa released him and then tried to bizarrely re-sign him. Will probably get a few yellow cards for clumsy tackling and over-exuberance but a decent workhorse in the middle of the park. 

Demba Ba - Newcastle

A bit anonymous at the front of the Newcastle line-up, not helped by a fairly scrappy game all round. He showed some signs of quality last season for West Ham, whether he can work a decent partnership with big Shola Ameobi is a big question, and I wouldn’t be surprised to seeing Alan Pardew going to a lone striker based formation, maybe utilising Joey Barton’s creativity and aggression in a more free role in the middle.

Gervinho - Arsenal

Had a mixed start, looked good going forward, not quite so good crossing, a bit worse shooting and frankly awful at punching people in the face (after all if you are going to get sent off for smacking a player in the face you may as well make it worth it!). There were signs of a talented winger when he was running at players, but unfortunately for Arsenal he seems to have instantly developed that strange need to deliberate around the edge of the box that so many of their players have. Not sure he will cut it in the Premier League, but think he will play well in Europe (assuming Arsenal get in it).

Johnathon Woodgate - Stoke

Back in the Premier League actually playing! Woodgate was brilliant against a sharp again Torres and if he can stay fit will provide Tony Pulis a welcome headache at Centre Back, competing with Huth, Shawcross and Upson, perhaps for some of the bigger games he may even play all four and really “park the bus”. Either way if he is fit I would expect Woodgate to play as his skill and experience will be a real benefit alongside the talented-but-still-in-need-of-a-bit-of-nurturing Shawcross.

So finally after what would seem like an eternity the Premier League is back! Not even “rioters” and general havoc on the streets of England could stop it (well apart from Spurs v Everton).

The first weekend of the Premier League always has a large amount of anticipation and expectation. Fans waiting to see their new signings (and keep a crafty eye on everyone else’s too) while wanting their teams to either continue their run of form from last season or to rectify the mistakes they had been making. So when Arsenal v Newcastle, Stoke v Chelsea and Fulham v Villa all ended 0-0 you could be forgiven a touch of disappointment. Then you add Liverpool drawing 1-1 with Sunderland as well as Wigan’s 1-1 draw with Premier League new boys Norwich, and suddenly you can’t help but feel a little let down. 

But don’t fear Owen Coyle knows how to start the season right, steering his Bolton boys to a resounding 4-0 win away to mega-rich (yet incredibly tight fisted) new boys QPR. A score that may reflect a little worse on QPR than was necessarily the case on the day but nevertheless Bolton made it clear that again this year they plan to be pushing up the table towards those European places. An impressive Bolton debut for Chris Eagles with two assists showed exactly why Coyle was keen to bring him in from Burnley, and I would expect to be seeing him assisting quite a few goals this season, as he seems to have slotted into the Bolton set-up as if he had been playing there his whole career. Meanwhile Gary Cahill scored a cracking goal, which will no doubt add about 2 or 3 million onto the price that any potential suitors will have to pay for his services, I’d hurry up and get him now if I were you Arsene!

Man Utd had a difficult time away at West Brom, luckily for United Baggies star striker Peter Odemwingie wasn’t fit to play but in his absence new signing Shane Long put in a credible debut bagging a goal along the way, hardly goal of the season but they all count don’t they! Sadly for West Brom Long’s goal wasn’t enough to hold off the reigning champs and on an impressive league debut for United Ashley Young created the magic moments that bagged United their two goals (one courtesy of a Reid own goal) and in turn the match. It is worth noting that despite fielding a relatively young team, the average age being below 24, United looked incredibly sharp straight from the off and a few of the young Red Devils definitely made a great case for their inclusion in United next game, a nice headache for Sir Alex to have. Unfortunately Sir Alex also has another headache in the fact that he currently has injuries left right and centre already! Ferdinand is out for 6 weeks and Vidic for 2 weeks, they join Rafael who is already out for 10 weeks, Evra who is out until next week, Owen who is hopefully back next week, Valencia and Hernandez who are out until the end of August. Fortunately for Sir Alex the United squad is strong and deep and he will be able to turn to the younger members of the squad to step up and fill some very large boots.

On the other side of the coin though you have Arsenal, who are currently missing Wilshire and Diaby through injury, have lost Fabregas today to Barcelona and are set to lose Nasri to top 4 rivals Man City. Leaving Wenger to choose 3 of Ramsey, Rosicky, Song and Eboue for his midfield. A weak midfield which was evident in their match against Newcastle, a game which was only livened up by the 2 incidents involving Joey Barton (who else?!). The first incident saw Song clearly stamp on Barton, while the second saw him haul Gervinho up off the ground after what appeared to be either a dive or a very very soft foul before getting handed off in the face by the Ivorian resulting in him being sent off on his Premier League debut. 

Elsewhere in the league there was a rare away win for Wolves, which saw a fine volley from Stephen Ward seal the win, and Roger Johnson looked very assured and at home at the back of the Wolves line-up, a definite bargain at £7million this summer. Another bargain signing this summer was Villa’s new man between the sticks Shay Given (cheap at £3.5million) making 5 saves in his league debut for the Villains, unfortunately that was probably the best talking point of the closely fought game at Craven Cottage, where clearly neither manager was willing to take a risk to win the game, more they were happy to simply not lose their first league game in charge of their new teams.

Somewhere that bargain buys certainly doesn’t apply this summer is Anfield, and they had all of their new signings out on display this weekend (with the exception of goalkeeper Doni). Overall Liverpool looked very sharp in midfield and up front, the same couldn’t quite be said of their defence, but in Enrique’s defence at least he had only been at the club a mere few days. Charlie Adam looked comfortable pulling the strings in the new-look midfield while Downing was unlucky not to score what would have been a strong contender the goal of the season, Suarez looked lively too, showing very little sign of fatigue despite his Copa America adventures this summer, charging down Richardson’s lackadaisical clearance and in turn winning a penalty after Richardson chased him back to try and make amends for his mistake. Luckily for Richardson, and most unlike Suarez, his penalty didn’t even trouble the keeper. Suarez did make up for this mistake and scored for Liverpool, reminding them of his blistering form last season. Andy Carroll was out to remind Liverpool fans of exactly what he can do in front of goal too, and scored a well taken effort, only for it to be disallowed, in my opinion wrongly for a shove in the back of Anton Ferdinand. Things went from bad to worse for Liverpool as Seb Larsson scored a brilliant volley to equalise, and has firmly put his name forward for bargain of the season after signing on a free from Birmingham.

New Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas had quite a challenge ahead of him for his first competitive game in charge of the Blues away at Stoke. Tony Pulis’ side came charging out of the blocks and had the Chelsea back line very worried for a large proportion of the first half, and I think for a lot of Chelsea fans half time couldn’t come quick enough. The only saving grace for the Blues’ first half was that AVB’s surprise selection of Torres ahead of Drogba seemed justified as the Spaniard looked razor sharp and much more like the man who scored so many goals for Liverpool. Chelsea dominated a lot more in the second half, and had 3 shouts for a penalty turned down two of which seems fairly conclusive to both me and those commentating on the game. That aside it must be said that Stoke had a penalty shout when John Terry appeared to handle the ball in the area, again waved away by the officials. Stoke goalkeeper Begovic performed extremely well, and again showcased just why Pulis has kept him as first choice keeper ahead of the experienced Sorenson, arguably Begovic deserved the Man of the Match award slightly more than the actual winner Torres, but either way both played extremely well and would appear to have bright seasons ahead of them.

With Man City v Swansea set to play this evening the first weekend of the Premier League comes to a close and all I can say is roll on the next 37.

Mav.

Chelsea, the team that have so frequently been accused of having an “ageing” squad, have dipped into the transfer market 3 times so far this summer and each time have come up with a young talented player. 

The signings of Oriol Romeu (19), Romelu Lukaku (18) and Thibaut Courtois (19) as well as the pre-season emergence of Slobodan Rajkovic (22) and Nathaniel Chalobah (17) show that the Chelsea squad is likely to be a lot more balanced with regard to youth and experience than most let on. 

Yes there are a few “elder statesmen” in the squad with Frank Lampard (33), Didier Drogba (33), Nicolas Anelka (32), Yossi Benayoun (31) who bring experience to the team by the bucket load. But they are balanced out by Josh McEachran (18), Daniel Sturridge (21) and Gael Kakuta (20) who all have a bit of Premier League experience and will be very hungry to get more.

So things are looking fresh and youthful for the boys in blue, they have their experienced players, they have their youth players pushing through, and now they have 3 very talented young players joining their ranks. Albeit Courtois has gone straight out on loan to replace David De Gea at Atletico Madrid, Romelu Lukaku’s deal hasn’t actually been finalised as I write this, and Oriol Romeu has said that at some point he would love to return to Barcelona (which wouldn’t be too hard seeing as he has a buy back clause for €10 million in the first season and €15 million in the second). 

Fan favourites Josh McEachran and Daniel Sturridge both have looked very sharp in Pre-Season, and will undoubtedly be pushing for first team opportunities, and with the injury to Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel then Josh may well get plenty of game time. Danny Sturridge has also staked his claim for a place at the front of Andre Villas-Boas’ 4-3-3 or 4-1-2-1-2 after looking particularly clinical in front of goal, while Drogba and Torres still fail to gel (and score many!).

The future looks bright, the future looks Blue!

Mav.

I’m confused, why are Newcastle selling off their players? We were all a bit shocked when Andy Carroll went to Liverpool but for £35million Newcastle were hardly going to say no were they? That’s more than what Barca paid for David Villa!!

But now Kevin Nolan has gone to Big Sam at West Ham and it looks likely that Joey Barton, Luis Enrique and Jonas are all targets that could well be on their way out of St James Park too. But why? Newcastle had a decent enough season and were playing pretty well under Alan Pardew, so what will happen now? Selling your star striker and your captain is hardly sending out the right message is it??

Fair play to West Ham though Kevin Nolan will undoubtedly be a shining star in the ever-bettering-in-quality Championship, and this clearly shows that Big Sam only plans to be in the Championship for one season, and I would assume that he told Nolan as much.

So Newcastle will sell their stars, and spend a mere portion of that thus damning themselves once more into the Championship whilst West Ham shrewdly snap up bargains left right and centre and push to be back where their fans certainly feel they should be. I know who I’d rather support at the moment…

Mav.

(Yes I meant Jose Enrique)