Tuesday 3 March 2009

Man U - PSG - Milan

Hey everyone welcome to my new football blog.


Hopefully each week, I'll be blogging with my thoughts on the games I've watched over the weekend and any other issues that I wanna express my opinion on.
If you know me, you know this will not only cover the British Isles but football all over the place, from South America to France to International stuff.


I'll try and leave YouTube links with goals you need to see, or anything else worth watching.


This week I have watched Sheffield United v Birmingham, the Carling Cup Final between Man Utd and Tottenham, first half of Atletico Madrid v Barcelona, the highlights of Celtic v St Mirren, plus some highlights around Europe.


ENGLAND

May aswell start in England, big big week for Man U, not only lifting the Carling Cup which I'll come back to, but Liverpool had a shock defeat by Middlebrough, must say Tuncay's goal was nice, some good build up and nice finish.

This leaves the Premiership in Man U's hands it's their title to lose now, and with Giggs having an awesome season and the rest of the team firing on all cylinders, I can't see Liverpool or Chelsea catching them now but anything is possible.

It was nearly a Bad weekend for Aston Villa, it could have been so much better, 2-0 against lowly Stoke, but they rallyed back and picked up a point, luckily for them Arsenal could close the gap any further, another 0-0 for the Gunners, Is it time for Wenger to move on?

Anything but a victory this week and I might not be the only person thinking this, not reaching the Champions League would be a massive blow for them, and surely the Arsenal board would have to look at the situation, yeah they have been unlucky with injuries but so are most teams, I wouldn't want Arsene to leave the club as his work with youngsters is second to none but maybe someone else needs to hold the reigns.


Back to Man Utd winning the Carling Cup, i really enjoyed the game, even thought there wasn't a goal, it was end to end, fast paced, good chances, apart from goals it had everything else, Tottenham did really well, Aaron Lennon terrorised Patrice Evra most of the match and did a great job defensivley, my one concern with Lennon though is his delivery from the wing, If I was a coach at Spurs, i'd have Lennon in training and he would be made to cross in 100 balls a day under pressure, he has so much pace and great movement if he could put in a good cross he's be so so dangerous, but all he does is hit the ball hard towards the middle of the touch, there is no variation, now is this down to technique or mentality, to look up and dink a cross in now and again.

Ben Foster again showed how good a keeper he is with some fantastic saves, and thoughts go to Tottenham born Jamie O'Hara and his penalty miss, it was a poor penalty, just the right height for a keeper to save it.

I think everyone felt when it got to penalties Man U would have the edge and so it was. I can honestly see them winning the 5 trophies this year, the Champions League is the hardest one yet.


SCOTLAND

Now to Scotland, big week for Celtic a thumping 7-0 victory over St Mirren, the highlight not only Nakamura's hat-trick but Marc Crosas's first for the club, the midfielder on loan from Barcelona had yet to score in Spain or when on loan with Lyon in france, has now opened his Celtic account and will do well to score a better goal, this win along with Rangers 1-0 win at Hamilton meant Rangers still are on top but only now by 4 goals, it's gonna go down to the wire again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bNO8FafKRo

SPAIN

It's all heating up in Spain, since Juande Ramos took over Real Madrid have gone on a great run, Barcelona have stuttered a bit, after losing last week in the Catalan derby, they had a tough match ahead in Madrid against Atletico, I only managed to watch the first half due to alcohol from Saturday night but it was quality football all the way Superb goals from Henry and Messi, but a fantastic strike from Diego Forlan meant it was 2-1 at Halftime, and who would have thought Atletico would upset the mighty Barca, winning 4-3, leaving the gap at the top only 4 points, the momentum now in Real's court.

Messi's goal for me shows he is on top of the world right now, quick turn burst of pace and he's in on goal, he is right now ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in the best player stakes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxDEqSzN41w

FRANCE

Another interesting week in France, my team Lille got beat by Northern rivals Valenciennes, losing touch with the teams at the top, Lyon could only manage a draw with Rennes and with PSG's 4-1 victory over Nancy this closed the gap at the top to 4 points.

PSG are having an awesome season, after hangin on to their Ligue 1 place by the skin of their teeth, legendary striker Pauleta retired and coach Paul Le Guen remained in charge, I didn't have high hopes for them, but the master stroke has been the loan return of striker Guillaume Hoarau 28 goals in 38 games last year at Le Havre getting them promoted, and this season he is joint top scorer in Ligue 1 with 15 goals, not alot of players adjust to stepping up a league so easily but he has and the inclusion of Le Mans midfielder Sebastien Sessegnon and winger Ludovic Giuly, do PSG have what It take to stop Lyon winning 8 titles in a row, more on that in the coming weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-J4FiEaPPU

ITALY

Last topic I want to cover this week is AC Milan, why oh why oh why do they want to sign Beckham for any longer, the initial "Beckham factor" has gone, beaten off Sampdoria 2-1 this week, knocked out the UEFA cup by Werder Bremen, beaten in the Milan derby a draw at Reggina, they did manage a 1-0 victory against Cagliari but any decent Milan team should be winning this match most times.

So what has Beckham brought to the San Siro apart from shirt sales and English media attention, not alot, he has scored 2 goals and showed his boundless energy, however Milan need to think of the future.

Paolo Maldini 40 years old
Emerson 32 years old
Pipo Inzaghi 35 years old
Clarence Seedorf 32 years old
Alessandro Nesta 32 years old
Andriy Shevchenko 32 years old

Plus people like Gattuso, Ambrosini, Abbiati, Dida and Jankulovski are all the wrong side of 30.

As Man Utd have shown the way to success is combining the mix of youth and experience, Milan still have Pato, Kaka, and Flamini but it is a very old squad and adding the 33 year old Beckham to the squad, especially if they have to pay £10million for the service, this is money that can surely be put to better use, there are lots of talented players in Serie A around 23-26 year old mark that could be brought in to take the team forward.

My advice to the people in charge of the Rossoneri, is ditch the plans to keep Beckham and put money into players like Cigarini (Atalanta) Montolivo (Fiorentina) and Lavezzi (Napoli).


Until next week Ciao


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