Yohan Cabaye was the hero for Newcastle as they left it late once again to beat Wigan 1-0 at St James’ Park and stretch their unbeaten run to 11 games in all competitions.
The Frenchman was on hand 10 minutes from time to curl a sublime effort into the top corner at the Gallowgate End to keep the Magpies in fourth place whilst Roberto Martinez’s Latics stay in the Premier League relegation zone after their sixth defeat on the trot. It could have been so different for the visitors who were bright in the first half keeping Newcastle at bay with some resolute defending. They should have opened the scoring early on with Victor Moses’ fierce half volley from just inside the area superbly tipped wide by Tim Krul after four minutes. Confidence levels were boosted by that as they continued to frustrate the hosts with some resolute defending as they went close to breaking the deadlock again only for Hugo Rodallega to flash his shot wide of Krul’s near post on the quarter hour mark. That was a wake up call for the Geordies who took a foothold in the game from then on but just couldn’t turn their high percentage of possession into goals. Their best chance of the half fell to Leon Best but the Republic of Ireland strikers angled header from a Jonas Gutierrez cross was acrobatically parried away by Ali Al Habsi in the visitors goal. Ryan Taylor then curled a free kick narrowly wide as the home side pushed for a opener before Best found himself lucky to still be on the field after wild tackle on Maynor Figueroa resulted in a yellow card.
Magpies Boss Alan Pardew recognised the need for an extra dash of creativity and responded by taking Best off and throwing Hatem Ben Arfa on for the second half playing just off Demba Ba. It paid off almost instantly with the Frenchman’s movement allowing Taylor to find space and swing a cross over from the left with Ba meeting the ball with a downward header that was saved on the line by Al Habsi. That seemed to wake Wigan from their slumber and they almost broke the deadlock through Rodallega again with the Colombian collecting Figuero’s long punt only to smash the ball into the side netting. Still it was Newcastle who looked the more likely to score and Ben Arfa almost did just that but Al Habsi was equal to his fiercely struck shot as the Toon Army supporters started to become restless.
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Their grumbles turned to cheers just minutes later though as Cabaye struck to notch is first goal for the club since his move from Lille in the summer. Again Taylor was afforded plenty of room to swing in a cross that found substitute Sylvaine Marveaux with the winger taking a neat touch and laying it off to Cabaye to bend a right footed effort away from Al Habsi and into the top corner to send the Geordie faithful wild. However celebrations should have been short lived as Wigan went on the offensive and any touch to Moses’ low cross across the face of goal would have resulted in an equaliser. Fortunately for the Magpies they held on claim yet another three points and maintain their impressive start to season.
This piece has obviously been prompted by the Carling Cup debacle that was Obafemi Martins’ shock winner for Birmingham on Sunday, that much is clear, but I may profess to having been in possession of some lingering doubts over Laurent Koscielny’s long-term suitability to a club challenging for the Premier League title for quite some time now. I may, of course, come to eat these words in the future, but will Koscielny prove an astute buy for the club? Or is he destined to never fulfil his potential?
Arsenal threw away the Carling Cup in a way it seems only Arsenal are capable of these days. Many have blamed the young Polish goalkeeper with the unpronounceable name, Wocjiech Szczesny for the error that gifted Birmingham their winner, yet the French centre-half, the subject of this piece, is equally as culpable in my opinion.
Szczesny may be responsible for a rudimentary failure to communicate his presence to Koscielny and also of an element of poor handling ability, yet few goalkeepers would expect an established defender to botch a clearance as poorly as Koscielny unquestionably did.
Koscielny is most definitely a talented defender. His exemplary performance against Barcelona in this season’s Champions League first leg tie alone should be seen as proof of this. Yet his calamitous and highly-publicised error against Birmingham City in the Carling Cup final only serves to highlight the soft underbelly that currently resides within this supremely talented Arsenal squad.
Man Utd have stumbled through the season barely breaking out of second gear. The fact that they haven’t needed to so far is as much a testament to their know-how in the art of winning as it is to their rivals deficiencies. This Arsenal side, for all its qualities, just doesn’t know how to win when it matters most yet and it’s a skill you have to acquire over years of success; something Man Utd seem to rely upon more than anything these days, their ability to grind out results.
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Koscielny looks to be a vulnerable target in the air for me. He’s fairly quick on the deck and good with the ball at his feet, as you might expect from an Arsene Wenger signing. However, the club’s finest player at centre-half this season, in the absence of the deeply missed Thomas Vermaelen, has been Johan Djourou. Sebastien Squillaci has looked a weak link in the side when he’s played and he’s been usurped recently by the Swiss centre-half Djourou. The chopping and changing nature of his partner probably hasn’t helped Koscielny adjust as quickly as he had hoped it has to be said.
The French defender has also had to deal with two suspensions for sending offs against Liverpool and Newcastle this term and a few niggling injuries along the way, something which may have contributed in some way to affecting his adjustment to the English game and his heretofore inconsistent performances.
The return of Thomas Vermaelen to the side may be exactly what Koscielny needs; a stewarding presence beside him. But if we went on the merits of this season’s performances alone, then in my opinion, it would be Djourou that deserved to play alongside the Belgian at the heart of defence and not Koscielny, as his performance against Barcelona has proved to be the exception rather than the rule throughout the course of his debut season so far. The similar styles of Vermaelen and Koscielny may also put Wenger off playing them together in the immediate future.
He arrived somewhat under the radar this summer for a fee in the region of £8m from French second division side FC Lorient. It’s worth noting though that some players simply take more time to adjust to the rigours of the English game than others and at just 25 years of age, he does admittedly have time on his side. May I reiterate that this article hasn’t been written solely with the intention of putting down a player after a high-profile error, merely that it was the catalyst for some long-held views on the player.
The one area that Arsenal still look weak is at the back. The goalkeeping debate shows no signs of abating in the near future, and Koscielny’s gaffe, the one which all but ended Arsenal’s hopes of ending their six-year wait without a trophy, in the immediate future at least, mean that the debate about the need to strengthen at centre half is sure to rumble on well into the summer.
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It was a bad mistake, there’s no getting away from the fact that it was; but players at the back are always likely to be thrust into the limelight for making them due to the nature of the position and we can‘t judge him on that alone. But I do doubt and have done for some time now, the longevity to the Koscielny signing. He simply doesn’t look like the solution to Arsenal’s propensity to capitulate at the back.
He looks very much like a player still finding his feet in the English game, and while I wouldn’t go as far as to claim that the jury is still out on Koscielny‘s ability, I’d argue that when Vermaelen returns, Wenger may have a very different partner in mind for the Belgian than Koscielny.
Jamie Carragher would not be surprised if Fabio Capello kept faith with Robert Green for England's second Group C game against Algeria on Friday.
The West Ham United goalkeeper has been slated for his dreadful error that handed the USA their equalising goal in the 1-1 draw against Capello's men.
However, Carragher, who came on as a half-time substitute for the injured Ledley King, has praised Green and backed him to turn in a solid display against Algeria, who lost their first game 1-0 to Slovenia on Sunday.
"Before the game, if you'd asked me, I'd have said Rob Green is playing," said the Liverpool stalwart."I think he's played nearly every international coming into the tournament.
"For me I always thought Robert Green was going to start because he was always the first-choice pick.
"I'm not sure what he'll do in the next game but I was always sure, if I was going to play in the game, that Rob Green would be behind me.
"I've seen him this morning and he looks fine.
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"I'm sure Fabio Capello will be fine as well. He's been manager of Real Madrid and AC Milan.
"I know we talk about the pressure of managing England but speaking to some of the Spanish players I think Real Madrid is another topic altogether."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Diego Maradona is planning a sensational bid to bring Carlos Tevez to Dubai club Al Wasl and put an end to the strikers Manchester nightmare according to talkSPORT.
The Argentina international is currently suspended at the Etihad Stadium after his refusal to come on as a substitute against Bayern Munich in last weeks Champions League game and has held meetings with officials investigating the incident.
City boss Roberto Mancini has stated he will never consider the troublesome striker for selection whilst he is in charge and it looks as if Tevez could be on his way out sooner rather than later.
Despite only joining City in 2009 the 27-year-old has been hankering for a move away from the club for some time and Maradona is considering making a move to bring his fellow countryman to the Far East.
Since becoming Al Wasl manager earlier this year the South American legend has been desperate to turn his new side into the top club in the United Arab Emirates having failed to win a title since 2007.
Backed by wealthy investment of Sheikh Ahmed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum the 50-year-old manager is positive the club can put together a package that would adhere to Tevez’s demands and give him and his family a chance to start a new life in Dubai.
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With rumours resurfacing that Michael Owen looks all but set to depart from Old Trafford in the summer after his latest injury setback, it begs the question, has the former Liverpool player’s move to bitter rivals Man Utd been one of the most short-sighted, worst thought-out transfers in recent memory?
Now this article isn’t concerned with the expectations that Man Utd fans may have had upon signing Owen. For his 96th minute winner in the Manchester Derby alone, he’s ensured that he’s been worth all the bother. No, it’s simply more to do with the expectation, or relative lack thereof, that Owen has for himself nowadays as the extent that his own personal drive and ambition can be called into question.
Since crossing the bitter divide, Owen has featured in 42 games for Man Utd across all competitions spread over two seasons, but just 15 of these have come as a starter, with just 6 of those starts coming in the league. Surely at just 31 years of age, it’s too early for Owen to be content with a life of semi-retirement on the Man Utd bench?
He was signed by Man Utd to add both experience and strength in depth to the forward line. Form the clubs point of view, they have more than got their worth out of the Owen deal, especially considering that he arrived on a free transfer. But with just 15 starts across all competitions in nearly two seasons, it’s clear that Owen is on the end of a raw deal and he is now quite comfortably the club’s fourth-choice striker behind Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez – a situation that shows no signs of changing any time soon.
If you analyse the club’s results when Owen has been in the side and where his starts have come from and it becomes abundantly clear that he was never destined to figure too dominantly in Ferguson’s plans. Starts last season came against the likes of Burnley, Bolton, Wolves, Hull and Fulham and only serve to highlight the calibre of side that he was brought in to play against. His four starts this season have come against Chelsea in the Community Shield, Scunthorpe in the Carling Cup, Southampton in the FA Cup and Sunderland in the Premier League, a game in which he was withdrawn at half-time – hardly big fixtures for the club and they show Owen’s lack of importance to the first-team.
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Owen arrived at the club full of vigour, seemingly certain that as he entered the autumn seasons of his career, that he would be able to rekindle any international ambitions that he may still have harboured, while at the same time becoming a pivotal member in Man Utd’s assault on the league, sadly though, this has not turned out to be the case and he has been reduced to a role on the periphery.
You’d certainly think that for a player, who was undoubtedly the best British striker of his generation, that with opportunities severely limited at Old Trafford, that he‘d at least consider a move to a club slightly further down the league in an attempt to secure more first-team football. Well you would be wrong.
Back in October, Owen seemingly ruled out moving to any perceived ‘smaller club’ when questioned on what he’d do if he wasn’t offered a new deal at Man Utd stating that “I don’t feel my game is ideally suited to a team that is struggling. Whether I want to be dropping down to a poorer Premier League team, I don’t know. But I won’t be dropping down leagues.” Whether this is either arrogant or simply just an acknowledgment of his own limitations I‘ll leave that for you decide, but to narrow your options so severely seems a tad rash in my view.
Talk has been rife that Owen may even retire from football at the end of this campaign, perhaps with a Premier League winner’s medal in tow, such is his disillusionment with the situation he currently finds himself in – which if it turned out to be the case, would be a monumental waste of his predatory talents. He genuinely still has something to offer. The intelligence that he showed in his short stinit as a withdrawn forward in Kevin Keegan’s three-pronged attack at Newcastle only shows that Owen has a lot more to his game these days than people give him credit for.
Injuries have played their part during his time at Man Utd, as they have done throughout his career, but his choice to join Utd, while entirely understandable at the time, may come back to haunt him. You could even go as far as to question the wisdom of Owen’s respective moves throughout his club career.
Should he leave Man Utd in the summer, an increasingly likely possibility now, Owen’s time at Old Trafford will not be regarded as a bad piece of business from anyone involved at the club, but for Owen, from a personal perspective, it has gone poorly. The move intended to revitalise his England career all but ended it.
Owen’s performance in the Carling Cup final last season was a microcosm of his career to date thus far and with it, his time at Utd too. Practically anonymous until the 12th minute, whereupon racing onto a through ball, Owen finished with aplomb. He left the field injured just half an hour after scoring with a hamstring injury – a defect that has plagued him throughout his entire career. He cut a frustrated figure, and one does feel a degree of sympathy for a player unable to play to the best of his ability for the majority of his career.
The fact remains, when all sentiment is put aside and feelings of betrayal begin to subside on the part of Liverpool fans, Owen will be regarded as a great international player, but rather oddly, a player that never fully realised his true potential at club level.
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His move to Man Utd may have paid off for the club, albeit in a stop-gap capacity, where his tally of 9 goals across all competitions last season more than justified his acquisition. However, from the player’s perspective, the move has prompted little more than the onset of premature retirement and his decision to join Man Utd can be said to have been most unwise and short-term in it’s vision on Owen’s part.
The likes of Everton and Aston Villa are said to be interested in pursuing Owen in the summer, but such is the unpredictability of Owen’s club career to date, that any such rumours should be treated with a degree of suspicion. Owen has previous form when it comes to surprisingly ill-thought out transfers, and as the former England striker enters a fork in the road; a crossroads in his career, he will have to ask himself just how much desire and personal ambition that he still retains – if he continues to play fourth-fiddle at Old Trafford for a further season, therein lies your answer.
Everton have completed the signing of the former Leeds United striker Jermaine Beckford on a four-year deal.
The 26-year-old moves to Goodison Park after being released from his contract with the West Yorkshire side last week.
Beckford scored 31 goals for Simon Grayson's side last season as Leeds secured promotion from League One.
He scored the crucial second goal on the last day of the campaign against Bristol Rovers as ten-man Leeds won 2-1 to seal second spot behind Norwich City.
Beckford also scored the only goal of the game at Old Trafford in January as Leeds knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup.
The prolific forward was at Chelsea as a youngster but drifted into non-league football with Wealdstone before reviving his career at Elland Road, that included loan spells at Carlisle United and Scunthorpe United.
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Beckford was linked with a move to Everton in January when it was widely reported that he had signed a pre-contract agreement with David Moyes' side while agreeing to stay at Leeds until the end of the season.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Joe Hart and Daniel Sturridge have pulled out of England’s squad for Wednesday’s international friendly against Italy, the FA have confirmed.
The Three Lions face the side that eliminated them from Euro 2012 in Switzerland in midweek, but will be without two members of Roy Hodgson’s experimental squad and will not call up replacements.
Hart did not feature in Manchester City’s 3-2 triumph over Chelsea in the Community Shield on Sunday, and has withdrawn due to a back strain.
This means that either Jack Butland or John Ruddy will make their international debut against Cesare Prandelli’s men.
Sturridge has been competing for Team GB this summer in the Olympics, but has also been forced to miss the game due to a toe injury.
It is not known whether Hart and Sturridge will be fit for the new Premier League season that starts next weekend.
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Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has expressed his displeasure with his team’s performance against Norwich on Monday night, as they were beaten 2-1 at Carrow Road.
A Kieran Richardson strike was not enough for The Black Cats, who could not build on their 4-0 win over Stoke last weekend.
The Bantams boss was particularly unhappy with his side’s inability to hold onto the ball.
“We didn’t pass it as well as we normally do, we gave the ball away too cheaply, which is one thing which we have improved on, especially after the performance against Stoke,” he told Sky Sports after the match.
“Today we had too many people that gave the ball away too cheaply, well for me anyway.
“We made a rally towards the end, but we needed to score maybe a little earlier and then it might have been a bit different. But overall I’m slightly disappointed with it,” he stated.
Bruce was also unhappy with the manner of the home side’s second goal, which effectively ended the game as a contest.
“Well the timing, straight afterwards we’ve switched off and not gone with runners and not the done the basics, and the first one was exactly the same.
“They played a one-two down the side of us and we’ve switched off for that minute, and that’s what it takes.
“But fair play to Norwich and the crowd and all the rest of them. It was going to be a difficult one, and one in which we needed to play well on the night, and unfortunately we didn’t do that,” he concluded.
Sunderland will look to regroup back at the Stadium of Light, as they take on West Brom next Saturday.
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The news that Jack Wilshere will escape FA censure for his latest Twitter outburst will have come as a great relief to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, but with the prodigious young midfielder currently occupying column inches (this one included, I understand the irony, believe me) for all the wrong reasons, Wenger should look to stamp down on Wilshere’s behaviour at the club before the young player gets in any more hot water over anything.
Wilshere is currently the country’s brightest young talent. While Andy Carroll may have hogged the headlines with a barely believable £35m transfer deadline day move to Liverpool from his boyhood club Newcastle, it’s in Wilshere where England’s future predominantly lies.
Capable of dictating play from the middle and with a level of maturity that belies his tender years, Wilshere is a phenomenal talent. Capable of playing on the wing too, he’s been earmarked to play the holding midfield role in England’s upcoming friendly against Denmark on February 9th by current manager Fabio Capello.
His rise to fame has coincided with an extended run in the first-team at Arsenal, dispelling any myths that manager Arsene Wenger may have once had a preference for foreign born talent as opposed to English talent along the way.
Wenger always strongly maintained a principle that I happen to agree with him on, that if you’re good enough, you will play, no matter what your nationality. The ones guilty of xenophobia in this instance were the ones that lambasted the Arsenal manager for his failure to bring through English talent, not Wenger himself.
Wilshere heads a bright young generation of English talent for both club and country at the moment, but it’s in his penchant for getting into trouble both on and off the pitch that the 19 year-old needs to completely cut out of his career.
His latest misdemeanour was a rant aimed at referee Phil Dowd after Saturday’s unbelievable 4-4 draw against Newcastle. Wilshere stated on his Twitter feed that: “Inconsistent refereeing needs to stop. It’s killing the game. If Diaby goes, what’s the difference between that and Nolan on our keeper?.” The comments were subsequently deleted a short time later.
The difference between this and Ryan Babel’s fine from the FA for bringing the game into disrepute after he posted a picture of referee Howard Webb in a mocked up Manchester United shirt in jest on Twitter are hard to differentiate between. It would appear that in this instance then, it pays to be English. Inconsistent refereeing may have irked Wilshere initially, but it’s the inconsistent disciplinary procedures at the FA that have saved him from any further action being taken against him. Wilshere’s other scrapes with the authorities, both on and off the pitch, have seen him sent off for a terrible lunge on Nikola Zigic in Arsenal’s 2-1 against Birmingham back in October and arrested twice after being caught up in a fracas at a nightclub in August and after an incident involving a cab driver in January. Of course, with being such a young and high profile footballer, Wilshere is obviously going to attract some unwanted attention on nights out. He’s most certainly not the first Premier League footballer to have been caught out so often when so young, but it’s the fact that he keeps putting himself in these situations at all that’s most troubling. I’m not advocating that he live like a monk. He’s 19 years of age and we should allow a degree of leeway for what is essentially a teenager finding his way, but Wenger needs to seriously get hold of him, sit him down and cut out this unsavoury side of his character before it starts affecting his performances on the pitch. Wilshere has formed a key part of an impressive triumvirate in midfield this season with Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. The fact that he doesn’t look out of place in this company speaks volumes about his potential. He has the ability to be a world-class footballer, especially if he cuts out any trouble off the pitch. Wilshere would be best served displaying some of the maturity he shows regularly around the Emirates on such on a Saturday afternoon and displaying it more in his life choices away from the pitch on a Saturday evening. His decision-making with the ball is fantastic, but in life, so far it’s been more than questionable and he needs to put a stop to these ‘incidents’ before it gets too far out of hand.
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Spain and Barcelona’s success in recent seasons has led to both the club and national teams being discussed as among the best teams ever. It is not just the amount they have won, with Spain becoming the first ever country to achieve three consecutive major international tournament triumphs, but the way in which they have done it. An aesthetically pleasing brand of quick, high-intensity pass-and-move football, coupled with high pressing and squeezing of opponents to win the ball when not in possession. In short, ‘tiki-taka’.
Both sides appear to be turning the whole of the pitch into midfield. Every player is technically gifted and comfortable with the ball at their feet, similarly to the Dutch ideology of ‘Total Football’. It makes it difficult to win the ball in any area of the pitch and opponents must be on guard as they can be picked apart at any moment. As seen at Barcelona and with Spain at Euro 2012, even conventional strikers made way for midfielders as the ‘false nine’ role took to the international stage.
At the heart of the team are Xavi and Andres Iniesta. Two midfielders of a slight build whose deft control and unerring precision with the ball, as well as the amount they utilise it, have made them icons of the game. And with countries across the globe worshipping this style of football, many want to replicate it.
In Brazil, the lack of shorter technically gifted players in the ilk of Xavi or Iniesta is being bemoaned by their national press. In their squad they only possess midfielders at either end of the spectrum. Robust holding-midfielders or energetic, playmaking attacking-midfielders. Spain have stolen the moniker of ‘home of the beautiful game’ from Brazil, and it seems the general consensus is that they must join them in their style of play to regain that title.
It would not work.
Many of the Spanish team have grown up with the possession-based philosophy promoted at every stage of their development, while in Brazil the dedication is less intense and there is still that extra admiration and encouragement of individual brilliance. The majority of the Spaniards also adhere to such notions week in week out whereas none of the Brazilian side can boast that they play in such a 4-2-3-1 system, with a similar passing style, at club level.
The desire to imitate the Iberian teams suggests there is a notion of the right way to play, something which Jonathan Wilson speaks at in length in Inverting the Pyramid. This is not the case. While Barcelona’s football may have wowed fans all over the world, they found themselves stifled by the defensive tactics of Chelsea in last season’s Champions League semi-finals. The Blues were derided for their negative ‘anti-football’, but they ended up as champions. Added to Real Madrid’s dethroning of the Catalan club in La Liga last season, it show the ‘right’ way is not always the winning way.
Brazil have become far more of a pragmatic sideover the last 30 years. Current coach Mano Menezes has recently introduced a high pressing game as part of Brazil’s make-up, but when it comes to possession they should aim to utilise the current tools they have to their maximum. If they cannot hold the ball against a team like Spain then they must exploit their pace on the wings (Hulk, Neymar and Lucas Moura) and robust midfield (Lucas Leiva, Sandro, Ramires) to counterattack. It is a method that has frequently been used in an attempt to best La Roja and the Catalan club, though admittedly only to limited effect.
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It is not as easy as suggesting playing in a completely different manner in two years time. You need the correct players to do it. If the success of Spain has encouraged Brazil to return to the more fluid, dynamic football of old then that is what they should seek to begin instilling at youth level. Of course, the successes of Marcelo Bielsa at Athletic Bilbao and Jorge Sampaoli at Universidad de Chile have shown that such a philosophy can be rapidly installed at club level, but they train their players on a far more regular basis than at international level. If they attempted to implement such changes on the senior national team with the current crop of players in two years time, it would be a complete failure.
When it comes to the World Cup in 2014, Brazilian football fans will be desperate for glory. If they manage to lift the trophy, it will not matter too much if they do not win by playing the swaggering passing game with which the Spanish have been so successful. La Roja did not become successful overnight. It has taken years of work in youth development yet while ‘tiki-taka’ may be lauded and put upon a pedestal, it is not the only way to claim silverware as both Real Madrid and Chelsea have shown.