Defending the bus

We live in a time when people are obsessed with the way our beautiful game should be played. Some favour a possession-based game which has, a slower transition of play, several short and simple passes looking to weaken the concentration the opposition and then a killer pass is applied usually a slide rule pass or a through-ball over the head of the opposing players.
Others favour a high tempo, high pressing game with fast transitional plays with more intricate and expansive passing. This looks to weaken the bodies of the opposition by stretching them.
There is the counter attacking play, here the team concedes the possession of the ball to the opposition and defends deep but leaves it's quickest players in positions where they can frequently hurt on the break. The transitional play here is the quickest the ball is moved from back to front in as little time as possible.
Then there is 'parking the bus'.

I believe the best managers secure success by modifying tactics to meet those of the opposition and in the wake of the Liverpool manager, Brendan Rogers' comment that parking the bus is easy, i will attempt to defend parking the bus as a game plan.

Now parking the bus is as difficult a plan to execute as any  To successfully carry out this game plan, like the art of war you need the right personnel, discipline and method.

Personnel
Players have different qualities, and having the right blend of players is very important in parking the bus. A powerful striker that can hold of defenders on his own, hard working wingers/wing backs willing to run themselves to the ground, full backs comfortable tucking in to central defensive positions, central midfielders with great positional awareness, strong on the ball and in a tackle and strong, composed centre backs willing to put their bodies on the line when needed.

Discipline
If you have ever played football, you know what comes to mind first when you recieve the ball is to get as far away from your goal as possible, taking on every player that  dares to oppose you. Next will be to go for glory and wheel away in celebration, pumping of the fist in the air comes to mind although sliding on your knees is not a bad option except you are playing in Nigeria (i have scars).
Now it has been determined that attacking is a basic instinct in every player, intense trainings are required to supress it, as concentration levels need to be at peak conditions in this plan.

Method
Knowing where and when to press or stand off an opponent, when to hold the ball, interchange passes, where to head the ball. The timing of a tackle is also important, knowing when to stand up, go to ground or throw yourself at the ball. There is also the timing of the attack, knowing when to pounce.
With the three ingredients mentioned, you can successfully park the bus.
In parking the bus, the team concedes possession and the whole pitch except the area surrounding their goal which, they protect with their lives. They do not look to hit the opposition on the break as often as in the counter attacking game plan but bid their time waiting for one precise moment or two when the other team switches off to do so.

In parking the bus, you look to break your opponents resistance mentally and physically without attacking. I consider success in this like in any other game plan to be, supreme excellence.

THE GAME OF STATS

On transfer deadline day, Arsenal broke their transfer record to sign Mesut Ozil, a world class player with an eye (in his case two eyes) for a pass and as usual, statistics started showing up on the German international. I saw one that read: Most assists for club and country since 1 August 2010: Ozil (91) Messi (82), Mata (72), Ribery (60), Cesc (56) and i began to consider what this meant.

Whenever there is a football related argument, statistics sometimes help determine the winner of the argument, they have become an important part of the game for football fans. For strikers it is the number of goals scored and the goals-to-games ratio that are looked into, for midfielders it is the number of assists (and sometimes goals), for defenders it is the number of clean sheets and the number of tackles per game, for Goalkeepers it is the number of clean sheets and saves per game. But are statistics as important as we make them? Do they tell the full story? Or are they just there to make some of my many miniature/hobbit-like friends look taller during arguments?

If you ask some football fans, they'll tell you football is about entertainment, ask some others they'll say it's about winning. I think football, is about winning entertainment and managers are expected to bring this winning entertainment by assembling the right team of players.
There are three types of players, there are Players that have the ability to go past opponents with ease, do tricks that leave the opposing players flat footed and/or struggling to catch their breathe but have no end products. These players make excellent highlights, but they flatter to deceive.
The second type of players, go about their business quietly but effectively, solid, unspectacular with very little if any inventiveness, boring.
Then there are players that combine effectiveness with elegance, these are the players that give long lasting memories, they find that killer pass when it will be easier to find the needle in a hay stack, the ones that turn a game on its head in one move, they get the home crowd on their feet, and even opposing fans can't help but appreciate them.

Every manager will like their team full of type three players, but when that is not possible, managers look to balance their teams with the other types of players. This is where statistics are important they tell you how balanced your team is, what type of player you need, to improve and who should be sent packing.

Stats, Do they tell all?
To get the full picture you have to look at the stats on every player in the team because football is a team sport and the actions of any one player is dependent on the actions of his team mates. Say a team wants to sign a Mesut Ozil, when looking at the number of goals he has made, you'll also be looking at the activities of his team mates that led to the goals. But even if these kind of players are available to the team buying, all things can't be equal, you cannot have the same type of playing conditions in the same team for different games not to talk of different teams and as we know, in football even the smallest details make a huge difference.

So even when the stats tell you why you need a Busquets for your Xavi, an Arturo Vidal for your Pirlo, a Stewart downing for your Andy Caroll or a Juan Mata to get your Torres firing they don't guarantee successful outcomes.

In conclusion, statistics are as important as they are to the game, don't tell the full story and they certainly don't make Hobbits taller.

THE EPL big PREVIEW

So the big day is almost here. After over 10 weeks, the wait is almost over. A lot has happened during this waiting period, a lot has certainly changed but the biggest change I think came weeks before last season came to an end, the retirement of Manchester United Legend, Sir Alex Ferguson from the beautiful game.

This makes the race to the premier league title more open than it has been in recent times. With Ferguson at the helm, it seemed a given that Manchester united will finish in one of the top two spots but, with the appointment of a manager who is an unknown quantity on the big stage, even the most avid of Manchester united fans believe their teams position is up for discussion although one will expect them to still finish in the one of the top four spots.

 Two of the other contenders for the title also have new managers Manchester City have Manuel Pellegrini and Chelsea, Jose Mourinho in his second spell at the club but, a lot has changed since he was last here.

 Liverpool are no longer challengers for the EPL trophy, Spurs have finally beaten Manchester United ( can i get a Hallelujah! ), there are two welsh teams in the league and finally we have goal line technology, this tells the referee when the whole of the ball has Crossed the line within one second of it happening so no more ghost goals!

Some things still haven't changed, Nicolas 'Normad' Anelka has played in England, China, Italy and is back in England with West brom, Spurs still can't win at the bridge and most notably Arsenal are still looking to end their 8 year trophy drought and it doesn't look to be anytime soon (not with Yaya Sanogo and Giroud as Strikers).

Most teams have almost concluded their summer transfer dealings but a lot can and will still happen. Much of it is going to depend on the outcome of the transfer situations of Suarez, Rooney and Bale.

If Suarez moves to Arsenal, it takes them from being pretenders to contenders for the title, Gareth Bale moving away will weaken Tottenham significantly no matter how much money they get because there is virtually no season revamping player up for sale. Although i believe Bale will stay because, Real Madrid aren't willing to pay how much Spurs are holding out for, not with them trying to sort out Ronaldos contract, except they are willing to sell CR7 to Manchester United.

If Madrid sell Ronaldo to Manchester united, Moyes will be willing to let Rooney go to Chelsea to help bolster their attack.
But for now we wait.

As we look forward to the new seasons here are my Pre-close-of-transfer market predictions, final predictions will follow at the close of the transfer window:


Best Goalie: Simon Mignolet

Best Defender: David Luiz

Best Midfielder: Gareth Bale

Best Forward: Robin Van Persie

Top goal scorer: Robin Van Persie

Best player: Gareth Bale

Best Young Player: Lukaku

Fight for Survival: Cardiff, Crystal Palace, Hull City, Norwich City, Stoke City.

Pretenders: Arsenal, Tottenham
Contenders for the title: Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United

Champions: Undecided

WOUNDED BUT STILL SPECIAL

After 3 years, 3 trophies, lots of in-house fighting, power struggles, war with the media and other managers, Jose Mourinho has left Real Madrid and everyone is glad. Fans, Players, the board of directors of the club, the Spanish media, even Jose himself is happy to be leaving and in truth it is the best move for everyone involved. But how will his stint as manager of Los Blancos be rated, a failure or success?

The 2010 World Fifa Coach of the year was brought into the club to achieve a number of targets including, breaking the monopoly of F.C Barcelona in La Liga and winning "la decima" Madrid's 10th UEFA champions league trophy.

ON LA DECIMA

When he took over the Club, Madrid were in danger of becoming Europe's whooping boys as they had not made it past the second round in what seemed like ages. But he made them contenders and even favourites as he took the club to heights that eluded them for so long, making the semis three times in a row. Even though he didn't win the Champions league, Mourinho has made Madrid a force to be reckoned with again in Europe.

ON BREAKING BARCA'S MONOPOLY IN THE LA LIGA

This task was neither simple nor straight forward. For one, Pep Guardiola had found a way to make his Barcelona team very efficient in and out of possession to devastating effect with one Lionel Messi constantly putting teams to the sword. Beating a team considered to be one of the greatest of all time wasn't going to be easy, managers were not exactly lining up to take on this team just ask former Manchester United Manager, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Secondly, Real Madrid had been psychologically damaged by Barca, in fact they could beat every other team in the Primera Division except the Blaugrana, the El Clasico was now so one sided. But Jose Mourinho, even though he took some battering in the beginning found a way (including some eye-poking tactics) to reverse the spell by which this team was bound that the El Clasico was a more exciting prospect on calenders of football fans around the globe.
He won the Copa Del Rey playing against Barca in the final in his first season and brought home the la Liga in his second setting a new record number of points tally . In his third and final season, he beat Barcelona to win the Super Copa.

So, success or failure?

By Mourinho's high standards, 3 trophies in 3 years isn't good enough, even with a win ratio of over 71% and 100+ goals scored in each of the three seasons as Real Madrid boss but then there wouldn't be a lot of successful managers by his standards.

 The fact that Jose's tenure as a manager is being questioned is an indication of how his reputation has suffered, from losing 5-0 to Barcelona (his worst ever defeat as a manager) to losing a home game for the first time in 9 years it has taking a serious beating.

But knowing 'the special one' like a Phoenix from the ashes he will rise  to capture the minds of football lovers like he did at the beginning of his career as manager. 

All things being equal

Last week i became a football agent, my old team mate got angry (click here to see why), SAF and Di Canio almost got heart attacks and one Jose Mourinho a.k.a 'the special one' was handed the chance to leave Real Madrid (if rumours are to be believed) with a bang. 

We football fans as 'hardcore' as we are love a fairy tale and the Champions league semi-final ties have given us the chance to witness that. The tie, Real Madrid against Borrusia Dortmund isn't going to be easy for any of the sides but Madrid should scale through and although i think Bayern munich are favourites for the tie against Barcelona, i also think one Lionel Messi will have other ideas.

the only one

So fingers crossed we will be getting an El Clasico Champions league final, presenting Mourinho with the chance to hand Real their tenth (Ten! to think some teams haven't won any, not naming any club) champions league trophy in the best way possible. Mourinho finally doing what he was brought to do (win 'la decima' and knock barca off their perch) will consequently get a third champions league trophy for a third different side. This would put him on a different level as a manager.

In a world where we are constantly asking if we are alone, one thing is sure, Mourinho will be 'the only one'.

But this is just one possible outcome.

Mata...Juan thing is needful

PFA Player of the Year contenders?

19 goals and 24 assists, those are the statistics, Juan Manuel Mata's contribution this season to Chelsea's cause. Unless you are Messi or Ronaldo, those are incredible statistics. But it is said that statistics don't tell the whole story, and for a player with superb ball control, an eye for a pass and technique to execute it, keys used to unlock defenses in Europe and beyond this season, statistics definitely can't describe his artistry on the football pitch.

Mata has been getting a lot of praise but i think he hasn't gotten the amount due him or how do you explain why a player, who has more assists in the last two seasons for Chelsea  than Iniesta and Xavi (masters of the new order) combined for Barcelona, can't get a place on the Spanish team.  
How this world cup winner and champion of Europe for both club and country is not in contention for the PFA footballer of the year award is even more shocking to say the least. He has been just as good if not better  than the front runners for this award.

Robin Van Persie has been  a quality addition to Manchester united , he racked up points for them  early in the season, Tottenham are a much better team with Gareth bale, he has been a joy to watch but only Luiz Suarez is as indispensable to his club as Mata is to Chelsea and even this nut- megging, slaloming genius doesn’t look like winning the award simply because he isn’t liked by those with the powers to vote. I'm not saying that those three players don't deserve to win but surely an award that was giving in the past to a player just because he should have won it before, a player that played only a handful of league games cannot be a yardstick for knowing  the best player in the English Premier League.

Mata is a great player, may  turn out to be one of the greatest that English football will see, even if  'they' don't see it now. What is most important is that he is blue, nothing else matters.

Myths, Legends and gods.

 Until last week I considered the writer's block a myth, invented by lazy writers. Speaking of myths i used this last week to look at the incredible career of Lionel Messi and i feared if he continued this way up until the end of his career, future generations would consider his career something that was invented (of course supporting this would be an annihilation of every video evidence). But then i looked up the number of goals that the Brazilian legend Edison Arantes do Nascimento a.k.a Pele scored and they are so many it's ridiculous but he is still considered human. So Messi can sleep safely knowing that his career wouldn't be considered mythical by any means.

Super Frankie Lampard

The last football week has been about legends. There is Frank Lampard, scoring his 200th goal for Chelsea Football Club and 28th for the three lions, he now has 163 league goals, same number as the great Robbie Fowler and 12 behind Thierry Henry making him the 4th highest goal scorer in the EPL. Why the powers that be at the club have failed to offer the best goal scoring midfielder that football has seen and possibly Chelsea's greatest ever player at least a year extension on his contract is a mystery. Oh yes there have been mumblings for him to be made a knight the realm, i think this is the least he deserves for his service to the English game.


Then there is the Leader, Captain, Legend, no this isn't about John Terry so keep reading, scoring his

226th league goal, all in the Italian Serie A and all for the glory of Rome, he now has one other

Roman (albeit from the other side) to beat. Francesco Totti who started out as a gladiator spilling

...immortal

sweat and blood for the eternal city deserves a statue of himself in the Pantheon were mere mortals especially the Bianconeris (not talking about Udinese, Siena, Ascoli, or Cesena, though all wear the Black and white) can come to worship and learn at his feet. Just in case you didn't get that, Francesco Totti is now Leader, Captain, Legend and god.

Please see the Polls to vote below.

Manchester United vs Real Madrid, Match Postmortem

This Post is Dedicated To Mrs Titilayo Adeyinka, at whose Funeral Ceremony This was Inspired.

In a match filled with contentious decisions, Higuain's disallowed goal, Nani's sending off, not sending Rio Ferdinand off for clapping in the ref's face among others. I fear it is the decisions taking at the trafford training centre that counted against this united team, a team good enough to make it into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League but were eliminated by spanish giants Real Madrid.

Early Bath: Nani receiving his marching orders

Sir Alex Ferguson has earned respect deservedly from managers, players, journalists, the Queen and myself. But I think he would do well to learn from 'the only one', Jose Mourinho, not because Mou has a better head-to-head record in matches against him, or because he's a better man manager or because he is a better tactician. It is simply because he is more thorough

 We all know Sir Alex is not one to shy away from criticizing match officials if he feels his team has been wronged. He didn't attend the press conference because he was beating himself up (i would not be surprised if he did literally) for not preparing this team for the occurrence of a sending off, something Mou does every time.

This was evident by the way the team played after the red card. The task was straight forward if not easy, they had to keep doing what they were doing before the incident (deny Real Madrid space). For the first minute they looked like they could hold out, and with the fans behind them they believed they could, but the number of fans behind you wouldn't make up for lack of preparation.

Sir Alex, this one is on you not Nani or even the match officials.

Now let us sway hearts from such trivial matters and attend to more pressing needs.

HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE RAFA?

Interim, care-taker, temporary, acting, short-term, these are are words that have been used to describe many managers (some might say all) in the Roman Abramovich era at Chelsea football club. Guss Hiddink, Roberto Di Matteo, Avram Grant and now Rafa Benitez have all been called one of these. 

Never in my short time of  watching football have I seen a manager hated by the fans of the team he coaches as much as Benitez is. Benitez isn't hated for his tactics, (even though it is a contributing factor, seeing as the club is looking to adopt a more expansive style of football), or for his man management skills (don't ask Materazzi). It is his infamous press conferences that have made him so unpopular with the Stamford bridge faithful. 

Due to the high pressured nature of their jobs, managers tend to have episodes like the one Benitez had yesterday, he now has more than five to his credit. 

Why did Rafa's newest rant installment include citing the club not backing him by calling him interim, as a reason for the team's bad performance? 

That the appointment of Rafa Benitez was short term wasn't a secret, it's even in his contract that he is interim. Avram Grant was called interim, he took Chelsea to their first champions league final. Guus Hiddink and Di Matteo were also called interim, the team did better under them than under those they replaced, they both delivered trophies. Hiddink the F.A Cup, Di Matteo the F.A Cup and the Champions League (same number of trophies Benitez has won in all his time in English football).  

So is the club calling him interim the reason for Chelsea playing badly? NO! 

He also blames the fans for the team's poor performance. 

 I agree that there is some truth to this, as fans singing 'we don't care about Rafa' doesn't create a positive atmosphere. But Benitez didn't expect the Chelsea fans to welcome him with open arms after his press conferences, in one he said: 

"We don't need to give away flags to our fans to wave - our supporters are always there with their hearts, and that is all we need. It is the passion of the fans that helps to win matches, not flags". If you don't know already,here he was taking a swipe at Chelsea fans. 

In another he said: 

"Chelsea is a big club with fantastic players, every manager wants to coach such a big team, but I'll never take that job, in respect to my former team Liverpool, no matter what. For me there is only one team in England and that is Liverpool". 

 Just like the appointment of Sam Allardyce wasn't popular with Westham fans but after he helped them qualify back into the top tier of English football winning games, there they had no choice but to back him, Benitez knew that the only way to get the fans on his side was to keep winning games. In fact there was a time when Chelsea had a good run of form in December 2012, the 'boo-boys' were quiet. 

So is Rafa blaming the fans right? Maybe, managers have made worse excuses. Are they the reason for the team's poor performance? NO! 

Who is to blame for Chelsea's woes you ask? 

The answer might surprise you, but it is SIR ALEX FERGUSON. Yes you are reading it right.  

All problems have a starting date, Rafa's problems and now consequently Chelsea's started the day he decided to engage in mind games with Sir Alex in the 2008/2009 football season, when he had his famous conspiracy theory press conference. He was still at Liverpool and they were in contention for the English Premier League trophy. Liverpool eventually lost out to Sir Alex Ferguson and his Manchester United team and Benitez hasn't been the same since. 

Like problems that end after a while (A pick me up for Arsenal fans), Chelsea's problem will expire when Benitez's contract does or maybe before (depending on Abramovich). This isn't to say they don't or wouldn't have other problems but the 'Rafa problem' will be gone. Many are saying Benitez has committed managerial suicide with his latest outburst, I say there is still a chance of redemption. 

 I should recommend he sees a Psychotherapist but why pay all that money, I say confront Sir Alex and take your marbles back!!!