Monday's European Ramble
Real Madrid are making the Spanish title race interesting, but Arsenal continue to flatter to deceive...
Good Day
Real Madrid
For those who missed it, Real’s 6-1 demolition of Betis was an absolute spectacle and one which ought to serve as a warning to Liverpool fans who might be taking this side lightly. All six of Madrid’s goals came before half time, and Raul in particular put in a performance reminiscent of his very best form of years past. While some commentators openly laughed at the declaration of papers such as Marca that the “title was back on” after last weekend, this Madrid win coupled with Barca’s shock 2-1 loss has triggered memories of the spectacular Barcelona collapse of several years ago, ironically owing much to a bad result against Espanyol. The Madrid public are warming to Juande Ramos, and Wednesday’s tie will prove an interesting gauge of their progress thus far.
Inter Milan
A routine win for Jose Mourinho’s men means that they are well set up for what will prove to be an extremely difficult tie against Manchester United tomorrow night. With the possibility of Michael Carrick playing in defence for United, the stage is set for Zlatan Ibrahimovic to finally disprove the popular notion that he is a big game bottler who is not fit for the biggest stages. Even if Rio Ferdinand manages to keep him quiet, it would take a master class to ensure that a resurgent Adriano cannot inflict any damage on a patchwork quilt of a defence. It promises to be one of several classic ties, and will hopefully live up to the billing.
Manchester United
It would be silly to write United down to the status of underdogs simply because of some injuries in defence however. Saturday evenings win over Blackburn Rovers was by no means a stroll in the park, and had Howard Webb had the bottle to send Cristiano Ronaldo, United could well have found themselves in the bad day section this week. However, the win will come at a cost. The FA have no choice but to act given the petulance of Ronaldo’s kick, which coming only a few weeks after the Shaun Wright-Phillips incident carries an inevitable 3 match ban. Given the excellent performance of Wayne Rooney this is perhaps not as much of a handicap as it might be, but Jonny Evan’s recurrence of an ankle injury comes at a bad time for Alex Ferguson’s side. Rafael da Silva was dangerously exposed by Morten Gamst Pederson throughout the game, and were it not for an idiotic dive by the Norwegian winger, the damage might have been greater. The suspicion remains that Inter will prove extremely difficult opponents, but also that United are a better side than they are getting credit for.
Martin Jol
While Juande Ramos may be the more high profile former spurs manager to be grabbing the headlines, Martin Jol is certainly doing his best to show his former team the error of their ways in sacking him. Hamburg’s 2-1 win at the weekend took them to the top of the Bundesliga, and illustrated why despite Hoffenheim eating up the most column inches of any German side, that Hamburg are perhaps the revelation of this season. Marcell Jansen continued to underline his potential as a high quality striker with a brace, and combined with Bayern’s 2-1 home loss to Cologne, catapulted HSV to the summit. It beggars belief that spurs have let two excellent managers slip through the net only to employ a journeyman English coach who regards the UEFA cup as an inconvenience.
Fulham
It has been very much a season under the radar for Fulham, but one that has illustrated what an excellent job Roy Hodgeson is doing. Their workmanlike 2-0 win over West Brom at the weekend moves Fulham to 8th place in the premier league table, somewhere they should be extremely pleased with given the spending power of Manchester City and Spurs, both of whom are casting envious glances upwards at them. Even more pleased with his weekend’s work must be Bobby Zamora, whose goal broke a premiership duck lasting almost 1,800 minutes – surely some sort of record for a striker?
AZ Alkmaar
The Dutch league may not be the most fashionable these days, but one cannot deny that it has been the most topsy turvy season in living memory. Louis van Gaal has continued the extraordinary work he is doing by opening up a 9 point gap at the top of the Eredivisie table with only 10 games remaining in the season. What is even more extraordinary about this is that the team frantically chasing them in second place in not one of the holy trinity of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord, but the Steve McClaren managed FC Twente. Ajax sit three points back from them with PSV in fourth, while Feyenood continue to struggle down the wrong end of the table despite a vital win at the weekend. To put van Gaal’s achievements into perspective, since the foundation of the Eredivisie in 1956, only 4 league titles have gone to teams outside of Holland’s big three, with AZ being the last to do so in the 1980/91 season. While the league table understandably makes for exciting reading, it may not be good for Dutch football in the long run. With Ajax and PSV struggling in Europe over recent seasons and Feyenoord rare participants since their UEFA cup win in the early years of the new millennium, these results may be the beginning of the end of Dutch teams proving to be any kind of a force in Europe.
Bad Day
Arsenal
The looming spectre of non qualification for the champions league is beginning to rear its ugly head at the emirates, and Arsene Wenger is doing little to dispel the notion that he has to a certain extent lost the plot. “Andrei Arshavin showed some good signs, but also showed that he is not completely fit,” said a deflated looking Wenger, but the fact that the Russian was the best player on the pitch in spite of this is a dire indictment of this season’s Arsenal side. Emmanuel Eboue continues to flatter to deceive, and although Robin van Persie is a wonderful talent, he certainly does not appear to relish physical games such as this one. It will be most interesting to see how the Arsenal fans, who booed their team off the field once again, react should Aston Villa do the unthinkable and break the top 4 dominance.
Liverpool
While you can’t help but admire the character of this Liverpool side, the fact remains that as a squad they are simply not good enough to win the premier league title. With Steven Gerrard hamstrung and Xabi Alonso cutting a frustrated figure on the sidelines due to suspension, the Liverpool midfield looked shorn of leadership and never likely to make the breakthrough. Dirk Kuyt’s admirable efforts were neutred by the ineffectiveness of Albert Riera and Yossi Benayoun, and the utter lack of drive from Javier Mascherano, who looks a shadow of the player he was last season. Even Fernando Torres had an off day, seemingly afflicted by the malaise that hovered like a cloud over Anfield yesterday. There has been undoubted progress at Liverpool this year, but it threatens to be undone by the failure of the criminally underrated Rafael Benitez to sign a new contract. Whether this is simply a hitch or something more dangerous remains to be seen, but the fear remains that Wednesday’s trip to the Bernabeu may prove to be the perfect stage for Rafa to stake his claim to Juande Ramos’ hotseat.
Luis Perea
An utterly awful day for the Atletico defender who not only saw his side slump to a late defeat at Sevilla, but was also the recipient of a hit that looked more suited to the NFL than La Liga, which broke his cheekbone, concussed him and put him out of action for at least a month. Atletico slip to 7th, behind Malaga, and are 5 points behind Villarreal who occupy the final champions league spot. The side are now at a crossroads, for should they seal a good result against Porto in midweek, the thought of missing out on European football will no doubt be an extremely unattractive one to the likes of Simao, Diego Forlan and most crucially, Kun Aguero. For the sadists amongst you, Forlan’s miss from 2 yards out is unquestionably the miss of the season – I would highly recommend a visit to youtube.
Victor Valdes
On the subject of sadism, the all round praise that Valdes had received in many quarters for his season last week was obviously not accompanied by many touches of wood. His error for De la Pena’s second in Barca’s 2-1 loss to Espanyol is one that will probably erase any hope of him being regarded as anything more than a calamity James type figure in his career.
Jurgen Klinnsman
It is promising to be a summer of discontent for the Bayern manager. Despite having one of the most talented squads seen in the Bundesliga for a long time, his side’s 2-1 loss to Cologne has continued to foster the impression that Germany’s run in the 2006 world cup had less to do with their manager and more to do with the phenomenal support they received. Without a good showing in the champions league, the risk of losing their talisman Ribery is going to be extreme.
Chievo Verona
The latest victims of an astonishingly lucky Fiorentina side that have won 4 out of their last 5 despite turning in some truly turgid performances. Adrian Mutu scored the winner after getting away with a foul described by Chievo manager Domenico di Carlo as a “kung fu move” in the build up. The result moves them above Genoa in the champions league places, but you have to believe that an improving Roma side will catch them despite being two points off the pace.
Everton
While Kevin Nolan’s horror challenge on Victor Anichibe will grab the headlines, it was the 3rd minute, season ending breakdown of Mikel Arteta that will do the most damage, and will ensure a few headaches for a second merseyside based manager this week.
Good Day
Real Madrid
For those who missed it, Real’s 6-1 demolition of Betis was an absolute spectacle and one which ought to serve as a warning to Liverpool fans who might be taking this side lightly. All six of Madrid’s goals came before half time, and Raul in particular put in a performance reminiscent of his very best form of years past. While some commentators openly laughed at the declaration of papers such as Marca that the “title was back on” after last weekend, this Madrid win coupled with Barca’s shock 2-1 loss has triggered memories of the spectacular Barcelona collapse of several years ago, ironically owing much to a bad result against Espanyol. The Madrid public are warming to Juande Ramos, and Wednesday’s tie will prove an interesting gauge of their progress thus far.
Inter Milan
A routine win for Jose Mourinho’s men means that they are well set up for what will prove to be an extremely difficult tie against Manchester United tomorrow night. With the possibility of Michael Carrick playing in defence for United, the stage is set for Zlatan Ibrahimovic to finally disprove the popular notion that he is a big game bottler who is not fit for the biggest stages. Even if Rio Ferdinand manages to keep him quiet, it would take a master class to ensure that a resurgent Adriano cannot inflict any damage on a patchwork quilt of a defence. It promises to be one of several classic ties, and will hopefully live up to the billing.
Manchester United
It would be silly to write United down to the status of underdogs simply because of some injuries in defence however. Saturday evenings win over Blackburn Rovers was by no means a stroll in the park, and had Howard Webb had the bottle to send Cristiano Ronaldo, United could well have found themselves in the bad day section this week. However, the win will come at a cost. The FA have no choice but to act given the petulance of Ronaldo’s kick, which coming only a few weeks after the Shaun Wright-Phillips incident carries an inevitable 3 match ban. Given the excellent performance of Wayne Rooney this is perhaps not as much of a handicap as it might be, but Jonny Evan’s recurrence of an ankle injury comes at a bad time for Alex Ferguson’s side. Rafael da Silva was dangerously exposed by Morten Gamst Pederson throughout the game, and were it not for an idiotic dive by the Norwegian winger, the damage might have been greater. The suspicion remains that Inter will prove extremely difficult opponents, but also that United are a better side than they are getting credit for.
Martin Jol
While Juande Ramos may be the more high profile former spurs manager to be grabbing the headlines, Martin Jol is certainly doing his best to show his former team the error of their ways in sacking him. Hamburg’s 2-1 win at the weekend took them to the top of the Bundesliga, and illustrated why despite Hoffenheim eating up the most column inches of any German side, that Hamburg are perhaps the revelation of this season. Marcell Jansen continued to underline his potential as a high quality striker with a brace, and combined with Bayern’s 2-1 home loss to Cologne, catapulted HSV to the summit. It beggars belief that spurs have let two excellent managers slip through the net only to employ a journeyman English coach who regards the UEFA cup as an inconvenience.
Fulham
It has been very much a season under the radar for Fulham, but one that has illustrated what an excellent job Roy Hodgeson is doing. Their workmanlike 2-0 win over West Brom at the weekend moves Fulham to 8th place in the premier league table, somewhere they should be extremely pleased with given the spending power of Manchester City and Spurs, both of whom are casting envious glances upwards at them. Even more pleased with his weekend’s work must be Bobby Zamora, whose goal broke a premiership duck lasting almost 1,800 minutes – surely some sort of record for a striker?
AZ Alkmaar
The Dutch league may not be the most fashionable these days, but one cannot deny that it has been the most topsy turvy season in living memory. Louis van Gaal has continued the extraordinary work he is doing by opening up a 9 point gap at the top of the Eredivisie table with only 10 games remaining in the season. What is even more extraordinary about this is that the team frantically chasing them in second place in not one of the holy trinity of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord, but the Steve McClaren managed FC Twente. Ajax sit three points back from them with PSV in fourth, while Feyenood continue to struggle down the wrong end of the table despite a vital win at the weekend. To put van Gaal’s achievements into perspective, since the foundation of the Eredivisie in 1956, only 4 league titles have gone to teams outside of Holland’s big three, with AZ being the last to do so in the 1980/91 season. While the league table understandably makes for exciting reading, it may not be good for Dutch football in the long run. With Ajax and PSV struggling in Europe over recent seasons and Feyenoord rare participants since their UEFA cup win in the early years of the new millennium, these results may be the beginning of the end of Dutch teams proving to be any kind of a force in Europe.
Bad Day
Arsenal
The looming spectre of non qualification for the champions league is beginning to rear its ugly head at the emirates, and Arsene Wenger is doing little to dispel the notion that he has to a certain extent lost the plot. “Andrei Arshavin showed some good signs, but also showed that he is not completely fit,” said a deflated looking Wenger, but the fact that the Russian was the best player on the pitch in spite of this is a dire indictment of this season’s Arsenal side. Emmanuel Eboue continues to flatter to deceive, and although Robin van Persie is a wonderful talent, he certainly does not appear to relish physical games such as this one. It will be most interesting to see how the Arsenal fans, who booed their team off the field once again, react should Aston Villa do the unthinkable and break the top 4 dominance.
Liverpool
While you can’t help but admire the character of this Liverpool side, the fact remains that as a squad they are simply not good enough to win the premier league title. With Steven Gerrard hamstrung and Xabi Alonso cutting a frustrated figure on the sidelines due to suspension, the Liverpool midfield looked shorn of leadership and never likely to make the breakthrough. Dirk Kuyt’s admirable efforts were neutred by the ineffectiveness of Albert Riera and Yossi Benayoun, and the utter lack of drive from Javier Mascherano, who looks a shadow of the player he was last season. Even Fernando Torres had an off day, seemingly afflicted by the malaise that hovered like a cloud over Anfield yesterday. There has been undoubted progress at Liverpool this year, but it threatens to be undone by the failure of the criminally underrated Rafael Benitez to sign a new contract. Whether this is simply a hitch or something more dangerous remains to be seen, but the fear remains that Wednesday’s trip to the Bernabeu may prove to be the perfect stage for Rafa to stake his claim to Juande Ramos’ hotseat.
Luis Perea
An utterly awful day for the Atletico defender who not only saw his side slump to a late defeat at Sevilla, but was also the recipient of a hit that looked more suited to the NFL than La Liga, which broke his cheekbone, concussed him and put him out of action for at least a month. Atletico slip to 7th, behind Malaga, and are 5 points behind Villarreal who occupy the final champions league spot. The side are now at a crossroads, for should they seal a good result against Porto in midweek, the thought of missing out on European football will no doubt be an extremely unattractive one to the likes of Simao, Diego Forlan and most crucially, Kun Aguero. For the sadists amongst you, Forlan’s miss from 2 yards out is unquestionably the miss of the season – I would highly recommend a visit to youtube.
Victor Valdes
On the subject of sadism, the all round praise that Valdes had received in many quarters for his season last week was obviously not accompanied by many touches of wood. His error for De la Pena’s second in Barca’s 2-1 loss to Espanyol is one that will probably erase any hope of him being regarded as anything more than a calamity James type figure in his career.
Jurgen Klinnsman
It is promising to be a summer of discontent for the Bayern manager. Despite having one of the most talented squads seen in the Bundesliga for a long time, his side’s 2-1 loss to Cologne has continued to foster the impression that Germany’s run in the 2006 world cup had less to do with their manager and more to do with the phenomenal support they received. Without a good showing in the champions league, the risk of losing their talisman Ribery is going to be extreme.
Chievo Verona
The latest victims of an astonishingly lucky Fiorentina side that have won 4 out of their last 5 despite turning in some truly turgid performances. Adrian Mutu scored the winner after getting away with a foul described by Chievo manager Domenico di Carlo as a “kung fu move” in the build up. The result moves them above Genoa in the champions league places, but you have to believe that an improving Roma side will catch them despite being two points off the pace.
Everton
While Kevin Nolan’s horror challenge on Victor Anichibe will grab the headlines, it was the 3rd minute, season ending breakdown of Mikel Arteta that will do the most damage, and will ensure a few headaches for a second merseyside based manager this week.
posted by Oz @ 6:48 PM
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