Reuters Soccer Blog

Soccer Break Thursday

As the weekend approaches we can all start getting excited about domestic football again and the increase in stories and transfer speculation.

Read here for Arsenal and Real Madrid transfer news, and Tottenham Hotspur fans beware, Niko Kranjcar appears unsettled. It would be a shame to lose such a talent.

We have a Premier League and a Ligue 1 preview for you, and an analysis of the mountain of statistics that come with football reporting. Do you have any amazing stats up your sleeve?

A very topical issue at this time of the year is player burnout. With all to play for managers must exercise caution when choosing their teams but also risk the wrath of the fans if they do not pick their ‘best’ side. Do you pick your strongest 11 regardless?

A player who may well burn himself out without even setting foot on the pitch is Mario Balotelli. The gifted yet volatile Italian is yet again in trouble, this time apparently for throwing darts out of a window at Manchester City’s youth team.

A word on Euro 2012, where England manager Fabio Capello believes his team’s young players will flourish just like Germany did at the 2010 World Cup. Excited at the prospect? Then buy your tickets now.

Staying with the international game, and click here for a good read on the switching allegiances debate.

Soccer Break Tuesday

Spring is here and love should be in the air, but instead all we’re left with is bickering managers.

Fabio Capello and Jose Mourinho are no strangers to controversy, so it’s no surprise to see them at it again, though the timing is odd. Mourinho still has it all to prove at Real Madrid over the next two months, while Capello has yet to truly inspire confidence in England fans.

What do you make of Capello’s captaincy decision after handing the armband to Gareth Barry, days after excluding him from the squad to face Wales?

And Real fans, does it annoy you to see Mourinho flirting so openly with other jobs?

Back to action on the pitch, and on Tuesday there will be a special reason to watch England’s friendly against Ghana. Read more here.

Another special occasion will take place in Japan when the national team play a J-League select team to raise funds for the stricken victims of the tsunami and earthquake earlier this month.

A Different League takes a look at Ireland and whether they are strong enough to qualify for Euro 2012 from a formidable group including Slovakia, Russia and Macedonia. Thoughts?

Does anybody actually care who captains England?

Last week, when Chelsea held a news conference to preview their Champions League match against FC Copenhagen, manager Carlo Ancelotti spent the first 20 minutes fielding questions about John Terry’s re-instatement as England captain.

The Chelsea press officer finally stepped in in an attempt to steer the subject back to club football by asking if there were any questions about the forthcoming match or for fellow guest, defender Branislav Ivanovic.

“Yes,” came the first reply. “Branislav, what do you think of John Terry as a captain?”

The feeding frenzy continued through the weekend and into England’s preparations for Saturday’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales. Rio Ferdinand was “understood” to be furious. “Sources” said he had considered retiring from international football. Capello was widely attacked, ironically, for releasing the news through the media and then for not acting quickly enough to “clarify” the situation when that self-same media cut loose on the matter.

Finally, on Tuesday, Terry was wheeled out by England to face the press.

The defender duly said all the right things. He was “very delighted” of course and yes, Rio had been in contact to say congratulations, proving “what a great man” he was.

Terry decided that the players saying nothing when Capello asked them if they had any questions on the issue was proof that they were all behind him, though he did admit that he was probably “not everybody’s cup of tea”.

Classy Wilshere looked like a Barcelona No 4 in the making

Scrunching up the eyes a bit, and using just a touch of imagination, watching Jack Wilshere on the ball for England against Denmark was almost like watching Xavi. It was quite a shock, in fact, to see a player in an England shirt pause, look up and think before picking out a team mate with a precise, considered pass.

Comparing Wilshere to the peerless Barcelona midfielder Xavi will be stretching it for some. I was pretty surprised, I must say, to read match reports on Thursday suggesting Wilshere had been a bit disappointing.

The conventional wisdom on Wilshere seems to be that Capello risks wasting his talent by playing him in such a deep role. Reporters in England clearly want to see Wilshere playing much closer to the opposition penalty area, wreaking havoc with his deft touch and eye for a pass.

The problem is that Capello’s England have a far more pressing problem than the need for a tricky midfielder to set up chances. As was made abundantly clear at the World Cup in South Africa, England must learn how to hold the ball with more assurance and for much longer periods of time if they are to mix it with the best.

Playing Wilshere as a deep-ish midfielder is a great start. Barcelona used to have Pep Guardiola playing just ahead of the defence, always available to take possession and pretty much always using it effectively with sharp passes, short or long. Xavi plays a bit further forward now but early in his career his game was modelled on that of Guardiola. Wilshere even wore Guardiola’s number four, synonymous with the Johann Cruyff-influenced passing style of Barcelona.

If Capello had half a dozen players as comfortable as Wilshere on the ball he could afford to play the Arsenal man as far forward as he liked. Given the lack of such players in the Premier League, he is best off sticking with Wilshere where he started on Wednesday, allowing England to hold possession and start building from the back.

Capello rarely gets much credit from England’s soccer reporters. This time, the Italian seemed to have got it right. 

4-2-3-1…4-5-1…4-4-2…that’ll be four midfielders and two forwards then?

So Fabio Capello’s masterstroke in revitalising Wayne Rooney and turning England from World Cup no-hopers to instant Euro 2012 favourites was….to tell the Manchester United striker to hang back a bit.

That sage advice, if most of the English press is to be believed, transformed England’s formation from a prehistoric 4-4-2 to the liquid 4-5-1 that all the modern young bucks were using in South Africa.

Of course, like most theories spouted about soccer formations, it is so much hot air and falls apart at the slightest investigation.

The fact that Rooney, at times, sat a little deeper and then ran at the Bulgarian defence to team up fruitfully with three-goal front man Jermain Defoe does not mark a significant change of approach, least of all the abandonment of 4-4-2 — the basic formation usually preferred by most Brazilian coaches during their none-too shabby World Cup campaigns over the years.

The only teams playing a rigid 4-4-2 are the reds and the blues glued to a silver pole who do battle in table football matches around the world — everything else has a measure of fluidity that seems beyond the comprehension of many journalists who base their assumptions solely on the “tactical lineup” team sheets they are often handed before matches.

Forward pairings almost always operate at staggered levels on the pitch, working with each other with flick-ons, one-twos, lay-offs etc that carve a way though a usually outnumbering defence.

Unlike Del Piero et al, at least Beckham may get a farewell game

Fabio Capello’s impromptu announcement that David Beckham was too old to play for England has divided opinion across the blogosphere.

Some have said it was typical of Capello’s hard-nosed, no-nonsense style. Why should he have informed the 35-year-old? Why should he have made the announcement in a more official way? As coach he has the right to do as he wants and Beckham should have had the know-how to quit the international scene long ago.

Then again there are other bloggers who think Capello has been unnecessarily mean and that England’s most capped outfield player deserved better, especially as he is injured and went to the World Cup anyway to help out.

At least Capello has shown one slight chink of sentimentality and said Beckham can have a farewell in a friendly. There is a list of top players who never got that chance.

In Italy, Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi entered their mid-30s not knowing if they had played their last game for the Azzurri or not. As time went on through the reigns of Roberto Donadoni and Marcello Lippi, it became clear they would never be picked again but there was no soppiness. No goodbye for two good servants.

Raul had a similar experience in Spain. Perhaps it all goes to show that it is better to do a Zidane, Maldini or Shearer and nominate your retirement game so you can decide when to say goodbye and not the coach.

England were dreadful but don’t be surprised

People can and will talk about Frank Lampard’s wrongly-disallowed goal all day long but to concentrate on that would miss the much bigger problems that contributed to one of England’s worst-ever World Cup performances.

Claims that their players play too many games, suffer from not having a winter break and that the national team is hurt by the number of foreign players in key positions at the Premier League’s major clubs are all valid.

But the underlying issue is that England’s players, for all their superstar status at home, have rarely been good enough to challenge for a semi-final slot, let alone actually think about winning the World Cup. In this tournament they were undone by their inability to reproduce their club form as individuals or see the big picture as a team.

Coach Fabio Capello deserves his share of the blame, having promised to pick players on form but then going back on his word with spectacularly appalling results.

When Rio Ferdinand was ruled out with injury Capello called up Michael Dawson, the form centre half of the season. Yet after Ledley King, as everyone knew he would, went down injured, Capello opted for Matthew Upson at centre back.

Upson, who had a largely wretched season at West Ham United, delivered a leaden-footed display.

England defence crumble in German masterclass

England coach Fabio Capello would do well to take a transcript copy of Germany coach Joachim Loew’s post-match press conference – because in it he would find all the simple reasons why his side were trounced 4-1 and sent packing from the World Cup on Sunday.

In it, Loew rather clinically explained to the international press sat before him that his side were instructed to target John Terry, pull him out of position and pretty much walk into the huge gaps created in England’s snail-paced central rearguard.

It worked. England will forever talk about the Frank Lampard ‘goal’ that, quite incredibly, was not given despite bouncing a full yard over the German goal line with the score balanced at 2-1, but even if they had equalised, the final result would not have waivered.

Germany were breathtaking at times, able to break at will with electrifying pace and switch the play seamlessly from left to right to leave the England defenders in a state of dizziness and goalkeeper David James no chance between the sticks.

Thomas Mueller, Man of the Match and a real find at Bayern Munich, was superb. Playing on the German right wing he decided to cleverly leave England left back Ashley Cole to his own devices and instead cut into the huge space between England’s midfield and defence time and again.

That, combined with Podolski providing width down the left and Klose running England defenders Terry and Matthew Upson ragged, proved all too much for the Three Lions side.

If England’s footballers were matchplay golfers

It’s a strokeplay knockout golf tournament — let’s call it the World Cup of golf — and an English player is on the tee box of the 18th hole needing a birdie four to advance.

After struggling earlier in his round he has fought back to be level with his opponent but the best finisher will play Paul Lawrie and then Tony Jacklin in the next two rounds while the loser will take on Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

(Stick with it, he gets back to soccer in the end – ed.)

Both players hit good drives but the opponent then creams his second 250 yards, carrying a pond, on to the green, an unheard of shot on such a hole. The English golfer takes a five iron and lays-up short of the water. He duly chips on close to the hole and sinks his putt for a birdie four.

He is delirious, he runs round the green high-fiving the cheering fans. An English TV journalist, bubbling over with excitement, interviews his Italian caddy. “You must be delighted, you’re through.

“Yes, yes, very good, I got my old golfer back,” he beams. “He swung with real freedom in that pitching wedge approach.”

Eventually the crowd settles down and the opponent, against all odds, sinks his 60 foot putt for an extraordinary eagle.

England melt in World Cup pressure cooker

After England treated their fans to a second excruciatingly dull World Cup performance in South Africa on Friday, those wanting answers were left with a bemused looking Fabio Capello and an irate Wayne Rooney rant to television cameras.

England 0 Algeria 0 was not what anyone had in mind for Friday’s Group C showdown in Cape Town and Three Lions’ fans certainly were not expecting to wake up to British tabloid headlines such as ‘Roo-boo-zela’ and ‘Cape Clowns’ the next morning.

England, who waltzed to World Cup qualification with two games to spare, were widely expected to put their opening (and for Rob Green, embarrassing) 1-1 draw with the United States behind them and take hold of the group with a straightforward victory over Algeria.

From kick-off it was painfully apparent that was not going to happen. Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard appeared never to have played together before in England’s central midfield, while Aaron Lennon struggled to make an impact once more.

England talisman Rooney, enduring a barren scoring spell, spent much of the game too deep, desperately looking for the ball only to lose it when in possession.

Algeria, at times, played the better of the football, slicing through giant holes in England’s midfield, who often inherited possession rather than won it back – one of Capello’s pet hates.

The Italian coach’s substitutions also caused some confusion after bringing on Shaun Wright-Phillips, ineffectual in the tournament opener, and giving striker Peter Crouch just minutes on the field once more.