Rooney's Great Goal

Moved from my other blog
Published on: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008

The one player, I can say for sure, has improved a lot for this season is Wayne Rooney. He is one of the modern day attacking player who plays for his team. One can see they way he defends and runs for the team. But his main talent for which he is wanted is scoring goals. He is doing that more often lately.

Yesterday, I saw his 3rd goal against Belarus. Absolutely Brilliant. I would like to see more of such goals in Red shirt as well.

Football: England Midfield

Moved from my other blog
Published on: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2008


All the Managers want their best players on the pitch. Fabio Capello is far from a good manager. I don't need to say he is one of the greatest football manager living. Gerrard and Lampard are the top two central midfielders in England. They are the match winners. Everyone wants to some how fit in the match winners in the same team. This means that Barry, who played is role of defensive midfielder so well, needs to sit on the bench if England wants 4-4-2 formation. English players would like to play the organized football and 4-4-2 suites them better then any other formation. In the first half of the match against Kazakhstan, Fabio tried 4-3-3 with Rooney as the Left Wide Forward.

I feel that 4-3-3 (or 4-5-1) for a England team will not work. Lampard is used to the 4-3-3 way of playing at Chelsea but he always had some body more creative like Ballack and now Deco alongside of him. I believe that a midfielder like Deco / Scholes is required in that role. Also I cannot think of a player like Rooney playing in the left hand side. He proved to be dangerous behind a striker.

Barry gives a different dimension to a team. He allows the other center midfielder to move freely. Also, he allows the players like Ashley Cole to move forward more freely. Against weaker opponents Barry is not required. Gerrard and Lampard can create havoc. But against stronger opponents and particular when you are playing away, Barry is a required component. Once Fit , Hargreaves will create enough competition for Barry. Fully Fit Hargreaves is a work horse.

I would like to see another world class midfielder but never performed well for England. Micheal Carrick. Carrick is a player who gives entirely different dimension to a team. He is different from Barry in his positional sense. I rate Carrick's passing ability more than that of Barry's.

Coming back to the England team midfield and the formation, I think 4-4-2 is the formation where England can play at their best because they are quite used to that way of playing. They have two or three decent wing players, though not match winners yet. England has a good defense. They have all the basic qualities of a good team but not a great team.

Who will replace Ronaldo ?

There is lots of news going on around Ronaldo leaving Manchester United to Spanish Giants Real Madrid. Ronaldo himself said he loves to play in Real Madrid. He also put everything at Real Madrid side by saying whether Real can give the money to buy him from Manchester.

Fergie doesn't leave a player who will be the player of this year to just like that. He will try to convince Ronaldo to stay for 2 or 3 more years. I also feel this is not the right moment for Ronaldo to go out of a team which won the champions league. He will get the right attention from the coach and managers. He will also be well protected from the media spotlight.

Fergie will bring couple of world class players into the team this year. Lots of big names like Benzema, Berbatov, Henry are linked to a move to the Old Trafford. This team will get better in the coming years with Nani, Anderson, Possebon maturing as a big match players.

Now that Ronaldo is in a mood to go out of Manchester. I do not know who can replace Ronaldo now. Robben is the name coming to my mind. Along with Robben, Man U needs another winger as well for sure to replace the ageing Giggsy. Let us see what happens.

Manchester United needs to buy couple of players

Manchester United bought Michael Carrick recently to fill the void left by Roy Keane. Still, there are lots of voids to fill.

Carrick is not as physical as Roy. How far he will replace Keane is still question mark, if fergie bought him as a replacement for Keane.

Man u needs a replacement for Ruud Van Nistelrooy. The likes Alan Smith, ole can fill that position. But still they lack the quality of the striker which Ruud brings in. He is the master within the 6 yard box. Man u always had the history of buying younger players and grooming them. But this time they need some experience in the front line. Eider Gudhonsen would have been good to be around.

Another problem Man u has to address is the ‘Attacking Midfielder’ role. Paul Scholes is aging and he is not as good as he used to be. South American midfielders or Spanish midfielders would add different attacking combination. But, in the history of Man u, both Veron and Kleberson, the South Americans, failed miserably in Man u. Riquelme will be ideal. They way he is playing, surely he will fit in United.

Chelsea strengthened their Midfield further by buying Michael Ballack. They already got Frank Lampard, Makelele and Geremi in the midfield. Arsenal has good attacking midfielders like Cesc Fabrecas and holding players like Gilberto Silva. Liverpool has Gerrard and Alonso

So let us wait for couple of weeks for a new signing. Hopefully, Fergie will buy Senna, to add some experience in the middle of the park.

England Vs Portugal

Before start of match, I was expecting a touch encounter; the reason being England with poor form and Portugal is without suspended Deco and Costinho, Thigh injury of C Ronaldo.

The first thing which surprised me again is the inclusion of Owen Hargreaves, as a defensive midfielder, in the starting 11. My perception is that, he is a very ordinary player without much of skill and pace.

As the match started, England played with their usual strategy of slowing the pace of the came by passing among their defenders and poor long balls. Portugal is also not playing that well, they relayed mostly on Cristiano Ronaldo. He provided Portugal the speed factor. Obviously, they missed Deco in the match.

An important moment came to England, when David Beckham injured his leg and got replaced by Aaron Lennon. Beckham was not happy about the decision, but I don’t know why? Injection of Aaron Lennon was nullified when the lone striker, star, hope of England, Wayne Rooney, got a Red Card.

Again Wayne Rooney showed that he cannot control his temper as good as controlling the ball. Unnecessary push on his Manchester United team mate, C Ronaldo, costs England defeat in the Quarter finals. But, the referee’s decision of showing Red card is still dubious.

But lot of credit goes to the England Defense, defending for their life, with 10 men. Particularly, Rio Ferdinand showed great strength and positioning at the back line. Portugal did not utilize the edge they had.

Frank Lampard had one bad tournament of his career, I guess. He doesn’t have that strike power and accuracy which he had few months ago. Frank Lampard consistently scoring will be enough for England to reach at least semi-finals. But Owen Hargreaves played great football, with lot of good tackling and showed great stamina. He was instrumental in that game for both attack and defense of England.

Now England, after going back home, has to think of their poor team selection and poor strategy. I don’t think Steve McClaren is the right person to revamp English strategy. People like Luiz felipo scolari or Gus Hiddink would be the right person to take over as England Coach after the Swedie, Swen Goran Ericksson.

Argentina and their chances to win this world cup 2006.

I never knew before that Argentina can play this well. They lost to England some time back. I thought they won’t post a good challenge in this world cup. I have 180 degree shift in my opinion after seeing them playing the first two matches, that too against tough opponents (Ivory Coast and Serbia & Montenegro) , really amazing. They have performed very well in all departments of the game.

Let’s start with their defense. Ayala, Heinze and their captain Sorin. They have that experience in defense in the form of Ayala and Sorin. They don’t need any introduction. Heinze’s performance is comparable with Ayala. He did a very good job considering the fact that he didn’t play football for more than 6 months due to an injury.

Midfield: Their midfield is packed with great players. Particularly, Juan Pablo Riquelme is heart of their midfield. He is the connector between strikers and defense. Every body from defense is passing it to him. He doesn’t got that pace, but his passing abilities and control is amazing. His pass to Saviola (Second Goal) in the first match, was great.

Another man, who scored two goals in the second match against S&M, is Maxi Rodriquez. Never seen him play before, But he scored goals. They got cambiasso, former Real Madrid and now Inter Milan man, to hold the midfield. He did well in both the matches; also scored a goal against S&M. (That goal is a classic, 24 passes before hitting the net). Don’t forget they got the likes of Pablo Aimar in the bench.

Here comes the interesting part of Argentina. Forward line up. I got surprised to see Saviola starting in the first match. I thought he won’t make into World cup squad. He proved me wrong, by playing superbly in the first two matches.

Hernan Crespo, I always believe he is a great player for Argentina, quite underrated. They need him for the entire show here, because he is the only striker there. He is the one who can score within a six yard box.

The line up is not yet complete. They have Tevez in their forward line up. I saw him play for the first time against S&M. He got pace and tricks. Surely, some big European club will pick him, next season.

Hold on…Hold on… I missed Maradona in the line up… Just kidding…Lionel Messi.. Maradona told him as his successor. This speaks about his skills. He is going to shatter most of the defenses here in world cup…

They have all the qualities to win the World Cup….they showed to the world…Let’s wait on watch, will they maintain their high quality…