But Where Will All The Glory Supporters Go?

English football used to be easy.  You played from August to May and at the end Man Utd won.  With that changing overnight (or close enough) who will the discerning glory supporter turn to now?

It’s the fans who decided to support Man Utd a year ago that I feel sorry for.  All those poor residents of Essex and Ireland and Asia and wherever the rest of the 500 million fans are based chose their team based on twenty years of unqualified success only to see it snatched from them.  Where will they turn now?

Across town is the probable answer.  Man City would be the logical choice, they’ve the money to be sure of being there or thereabouts for the foreseeable future and play a style of football just kamikaze enough to be able to claim you like them for aesthetic reasons.

Or there’s Chelsea.  For fans of mind games played loud enough to become essentially snarky white noise they’re irresistible.  And you can spend £40 million in a transfer window and still claim to be the underdogs.

It comes to something when Arsenal are viewed as the left field choice.  In a world where finishing third is viewed as underachievement the sensible glory hunter would surely balk at backing Arsenal’s boys?

The sad things is any Man Utd fan born from the early 80s onwards has never known anything like this.  They have no coping mechanism, no frame of reference.  A lifetime of being successful is all they’ve brought up to expect.

For the rest of us it’s amazing.  The delight in watching a formerly all-conquering team well and truly stack it is one of the best things about following football.  For Man Utd fans it’s terrible.  For everyone else it’s a dream come true.

If you’re watching the Bundesliga because the pressing is of a much higher standard and can’t understand why people are taking such delight in Man Utd’s failings you’re only half a football fan.  As only Germans can do they have their own word for this, schadenfreude or joy in someone else’s defeat (a word that could have been coined just for the rest of the country laughing at Bayern in the days when they used to implode). 

Not as much fun for Man Utd fans, glory hunting or not.  When the novelty wears off you’d imagine they’ll be left with a lot less than 500 million.  And what’ll gall them most is they’ll most probably turn their attentions across town.

Why The Bundesliga Is Already Over

With the Bundesliga about to return from a four week break you’d be hard-pressed to find a single person who believes that Bayern won’t again be champions.  And if this wasn’t bad enough they’ve managed to already destroy next year’s league by announcing the signing of Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski on a free at the end of this season.  The continued dominance of the Wintermeister (winter champions) is predicted by everyone and has now gotten to the point where serious questions are being asked about how much this is harming the league.

Bayern are back to their old ways, buying up their closest challengers best players whether they want them to or not.  Putting ‘strengthen yourself, weaken your rivals’ into practice as often as possible.  They’re back to behaving like 90s era Vince McMahon, buying everyone else’s talent with the express aim of ruining their challengers.  In Germany in the last couple of years they’ve gone from being a more attractive option for a player looking to get paid and win titles to the only option.  Next year’s title is as good as their already.

Don’t believe me?  Look at the evidence.  They’ve lost one game in the Bundesliga in a season and a half.  They’ve already had their two hardest games this season (Dortmund away and Leverkusen away) and came away with four points from them.  Before this season started Bayern had already taken Mario Gotze, Dortmund’s beating heart, the player they’d attributed more hope to than any other.  Now they’ve signed Lewandowski, just the kind of strong, technical, mobile and prolific striker needed to make Dortmund’s formation work and the player that will probably prove harder to replace than any other.  Given that last season with both players in their team Dortmund finished 26 points behind them it’s hard to imagine them turning it around by next year.

Dortmund of course were the team meant to stop this from happening.  That they’ve become a spent force already is the surprising thing.  After the shock of having Gotze smuggled away to Bavaria against their wishes they had a great close season.  They signed players that seemed to fit their template and system and integrated them well.  They kept the rest of their coveted players for at least one more season.  They had the best start to a season in their history.  And then they ran themselves into the ground.  One theory doing the rounds is that Jurgen Klopp’s hard pressing style (the first stat he checks for after the match is if his team has run further than the opposition) is to blame for the amount of injuries they’ve had to contend with.  What’s clear is that unlike Bayern they don’t have the squad to cope, especially now as an established Champion’s League contender.  With both first choice elevens out they would run Bayern close.  This season they played them with an entire back four absent and lost 0-3.  Seeing if they’ve managed to recuperate after the physical and mental break winter has given them will be fascinating.

This applies to Klopp as much as the players.  In recent months he’s looked like he might be undergoing a slow burn mental breakdown as the boys from Bavaria delight in seeing how far they can push him before he snaps.  At the minute he’s starting to look like Michael Douglas halfway through Falling Down, after abandoning his car in traffic and just before a Korean shopkeeper asks him to pay over the odds for a can of coke.  You fear for fourth officials if things don’t turn around soon.  Arresting the slide permanently rests on him performing another close season rescue job.  Losing Lewandowski is their customary one star player a year.  Any more are tempted away and the improbable really will become impossible.

Leverkusen must be worried.  The last time they had a team this decent Bayern promptly nicked their two best players (Michael Ballack and Ze Roberto from the legendary runners up team of 2001-02).  This vintage is improving faster than most would have expected but in truth are still some distance off living with Bayern.  Outside of a period of 90s era self-destruction it’s hard to see anyone unseating them.

The league wide headshaking over the extent of Bayern’s dominance has come just as the Bundesliga was finally ready for their big world tour.  Driving up undervalued overseas rights is the next logical step for a league on the up.  For this Bayern are both its biggest strength and weakness, especially when the Bundesliga is so associated with a level playing field.  Yes you can see the best team in Europe play weekly but as an overseas fan with no affinity to any club why would you bother watching a league where only one team would win?  Even in Spain there are two (three now with Atletico, a pointer to the kind of drive and luck with injuries that will be needed to even challenge).  The problem is as much about perception as anything.  Once everyone assumes that only one team can win it then that’s as much of a problem as it actually happening.

None of this is Bayern’s concern of course.  They would argue, quite rightly, that their success and profile brings attention outside Germany to a league that needs it.  And if we have anyone to blame for Bayern’s current excellence it’s Dortmund.  It was their two titles that drove Bayern to add their pressing and teamwork to their already formidable individual talents.  It’s the responsibility of the rest of the league to raise their efforts to reach up to Bayern, not to debate ways of trying to bring them down.  The question over whether any of them realistically can challenge Bayern long term mainly boils down to resources.  Financial fair play or not, when your richest club (Bayern) have twice the budget of the second richest (Dortmund) they’re likely to pull ahead of the rest.

Why Man Utd Not Qualifying For Europe Would Be Good For Them

There’s a freedom in failure, a licence to do what’s necessary to get back to success.  Long term it might just be best for Man Utd and David Moyes to properly experience it. 

The Glazers were granted an incredible gift after buying Man Utd when Alex Ferguson decided that his socialist background somehow didn’t mean he should object to the amount of debt placed on his football club (since the takeover close to a billion pounds has been paid out in fees and interest according to some estimates) and got on with the business of winning titles on a comparative shoestring.  This doesn’t bode well for David Moyes’ chances of carrying out the massive surgery on the squad needed to get them back to where they need to be.  With the Glazers’ history of doing just enough it’s easy to see a scenario where they sneak into fourth place and go through another transfer window failing to sign anyone of note.

Better then to fail completely, have a great big bush fire of a season.  Finish seventh and out of Europe completely.  Let the fans and media wail that the Empire of Old Trafford has reached its’ end.  Moyes can hold his six year contract in front of him like a shield and point out that the squad he inherited obviously wasn’t good enough.  With the fear of missing out on Champions League football for another season the Glazers would surely have to grant him the money his rebuilding needs.  Without the demands of Europe to worry about he could ship out the dead wood and replace it with fewer players of higher quality.  Going for the title the season after would be easier without the extra games, especially compared to nicking a Europa League spot and having to do the dreaded Thursday-Sunday schlep.  And it’s not like coming from seventh to win would be unprecedented.  In Italy Juventus’ current dominance was started from finishing seventh the season before their first league title.  Dortmund finished fifth then won the league twice and got to the Champions League final the year after.  They were both clubs in worse positions than Man Utd are now.  They used their failures as fuel for their revolutions.  Does anyone really think that Man Utd don’t have it in them to do the same?

The main question over whether this is possible has to be Moyes.  Dortmund and Juve had Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte respectively, coaches who are now seen as the equal of anyone in Europe.  When they took over they were seen as inexperienced and untested at the highest level, just like Moyes now.  After doing distinctly below average with the team he inherited from Ferguson Moyes should be given the chance to show what a Man Utd team built by him would look like.  Failing in his first season might perversely be his best chance of getting the chance to do it.

And does anyone really think that they’re ready to have a serious tilt at the Champions League anyway?  If Ferguson thought they were anywhere close he would have surely taken the chance to try and add his name to the list of managers to win it three times.  He looked at what was needed to turn the current squad into contenders and understandably decided he’d had enough.  The timing of it left Moyes with problems he had no chance of fixing right out of the gate, problems big enough to require a full scale rebuilding job, not a January top-up. 

Whether Moyes would get the opportunity to rebuild is anyone’s guess.  Man Utd made such a big deal of him being given time to build a legacy as Ferguson's anointed chosen one that it’s unlikely that they’d backtrack so completely now.  And to give the fans credit they’ve taken their first real taste of (mild) failure better than many would have predicted, with very few calling for Moyes to be given the boot.  Whether this good will extends to the Floridian billionaires who call the shots only time will tell.  It’s clear that taking the time and expense to float ten percent of the club on the New York Stock Exchange wasn’t with the intention of having the share price drop through the season often and low enough to make it onto the back pages.

Financially there should be no question that they could afford the hit of one season without Europe.  The commercial deals signed over the last ten years would be enough on their own to keep most Premier League clubs in the black.  And the lure of being Man Utd should be enough to attract high calibre players without being able to offer them Europe.  They would still be Man Utd.  The walls to Old Trafford would still stand.  They’d still be on TV every week.  Ferguson would still be in that odd position in the stands, just over Moyes shoulder.  Giggs would still be knocking about somewhere.  After twenty five years of not having to think about it, a season wasted might be the most worthwhile one they could have.

Just How Good Is Oscar?

After a blistering start to the season the answer has to be even better than we thought.

At the height of all the #freeJuanMata brouhaha Jose would most often deal with the questions over why he dared to leave the Spaniard out with one simple response, Mata wasn’t playing because he had Oscar.  After the start to the season that they’ve had you have to say Jose’s already been proven right.

Last year, in his first season in England as pleasing on the eye as his play invariably was there was always a temptation to wonder exactly what he was for.  In an era where football is taken more seriously than ever and the strict adherence to prescribed formations is almost mandatory Oscar was one of those players who you couldn’t immediately see fitting in.  The fact he looks about fourteen didn’t help.  With the benefit of hindsight a slightly hit and miss debut season spent in apprenticeship on the wing and bench has both player and club now reaping the benefits.

It’s worth repeating that Oscar is their top scorer this season, netting four in nine games, already a third of his total for last season.  At no point in his career has he been unnoticed.  We’re talking about a player who scored a hat-trick in an Under 20 World Cup Final and moved to Chelsea aged only 20 for a reported £25 million.  His biggest achievement might be managing to not be overburdened with expectation since his move.  He possibly has Hazard to thank for that.  Eden signed at the same time as one of the most sought after young talents in Europe, tweeting hints about who he’d sign for like a social media focussed Lebron James.  In comparison Oscar snuck through the back door.  After both having last season to bed in it was always likely they’d improve this season.  In the case of Hazard he was many people’s dark horse for player of the year.  So far Oscar is easily outperforming him.

At 22 he already has the best of pedigrees.  He’s won the Europa League and Brazilian Championship.  He’s scored goals against the very best in the Premier League and a hall of famer against Juventus in the Champions League.  Playing as Brazil’s number 10 he’s already won the Confederation’s Cup.  He is flawless technically.  In short he should already have a bigger reputation than he has.  That he hasn’t is probably down to his nationality, Brazil have that many prodigies that the term next big thing for them is never owned, only ever borrowed.  Attention wise he probably owes Neymar about as much as he owes Hazard.

It’s amazing how instantly pivotal he’s been to Jose’s Chelsea 2.0.  In the three behind the striker he’s been first picked, notably ahead of Mata but also in front of Hazard.  Last season Benitez spoke publically about how it was impossible to fit Mata, Hazard and Oscar in the same team without sacrificing defensive solidarity.  For the big games Oscar was invariably the one to miss out.  Mourinho seems to have come to the same conclusion.  For him though the solution lies in dropping Mata.  From the start Oscar has been his first pick and always at 10.  In a squad that must have claim to more of them than any other that must have given him some boost in confidence.  As Jose says it’s not like Brazil are short of options there either. 

In the past he’s been compared in style with Mesut Ozil.  They interpret the 10 position in similar ways, although Oscar isn’t possessed of such a distinctive languid running style and doesn’t yet interpret the possibilities of space as well as the German.  But then does anyone?  Interestingly Mourinho had Ozil as his 10 throughout his time at Madrid.  Clearly he sees similarities, in result if not style.

It’s tempting to see Brazil’s victory over Spain this summer as proof that the idea of a team of rotating playmakers on a carousel is at an end.  Time and next summer will tell.  The reason Jose gives when pressed about his preference for Oscar over Mata is that the Brazilian will put in more running.  Key for pressing but just as importantly for the speed in which counterattacks can be launched.  At Real and this season with Chelsea the focus on hitting teams on the break is if not everything then pretty damn close.  The most effective way to do that is to move the ball as quickly as possible down the flanks, where the space has been left by the opposition (interestingly Brazil are also increasingly trying to play this way).  A player like Mata with their ability to run games through measured possession becomes less important when playing like this.  Whatever you think of the style, Oscar is unarguably better suited to it.

And maybe that’s why for a player as accomplished as he is he can still be said to be underappreciated, it’s tough to pin down exactly what makes him excellent.  He doesn’t dictate play with a hundred small passes.  He doesn’t rake probing balls the length of the pitch.  He doesn’t burn past full backs with his pace.  He’s merely able to find space and be precise when the ball arrives.  As such he’s close to how other new 10s interpret the game, a further forward Toni Kroos, a more compact Mesut Ozil, a less direct Thomas Muller (and it’s not an accident they’re all German, they’re currently producing more of them than any other country, including Spain).  As with them the proof in Oscar’s ability is how effective his team look with him in it. 

If proof was needed of how his reputation is growing English commentators have started changing how they say his name.  Instead of saying it like it had ‘the Grouch’ afterwards they’ve started breaking it up, Os-car with a gap in the middle.  No clue if this is more accurate but there’s a history of commentators only starting to do this when they’re sure the player in question will be going places.  Os-car has a bright future.

Ashley prefers the sound of silence

For a man apparently so set on never publically explaining his decisions Mike Ashley sure doesn’t like anyone else commenting on them.  Three local newspapers, the Chronicle, Journal and Sunday Sun are now banned from the Newcastle ground for covering a protest march before the Liverpool game.  This ban also apparently extends to away press conferences, as the press officer and Pardew refused to take questions from journalists from the three papers involved after the Sunderland defeat (a sequence of events that apparently had several South Korean journalists present questioning whether they were allowed to ask questions or not).  That Ashley (and other chairmen; Port Vale’s has recently banned their local paper the Stoke Sentinel) think that banning sections of the press will ultimately lead to more favourable coverage just shows the delusion that football can live under.  Wild comments about freedom of press aside, and there’s been some cracking coverage this week, it really does defy belief that Ashley thinks that banning papers is the best way to get his point across.  To contrast with an owner down the road who hasn’t been known for explaining his actions Ellis Short printed an apology in the pre-derby Sunderland program for some of the mistakes he’d made that have left his club in trouble.  Whatever you think of how Ashley is running his club it’s unarguable that more communication from him would be welcome from pretty much everyone.  The visit of an in form Chelsea team on Saturday is the last thing they need.  With Pardew apparently fighting to keep his job and almost certain to face questions about subjects non-football related the attention at Newcastle once again is everywhere it shouldn’t be. 

Arsenal can be contenders

Watching Chelsea beat Arsenal this week was confirmation of what should have been fairly obvious, although their team is good enough to challenge for honours this season their squad isn’t.  While both teams rested players the quality of the players Chelsea brought in was a cut above their opponents.  Broadly it’s tough to see a team with Nicholas Bendtner at its point achieving anything.  And every time Giroud falls under a heavy challenge that what they’re facing.  Against Liverpool this weekend they’ll have their main players back and will probably keep their good run of league form going.  Over the course of the season though it’s no secret what will leave them short once again.

Dangerous times for Jol

For a club the size and position of Fulham the League Cup never assumes too much importance.  That’s the case right up until you get knocked out by a lower league team.  The last thing Martin Jol needed was a visit from a Manchester United team coming off two wins and still having to make up ground themselves.  With the likelihood of a defeat this weekend and tough games coming up he’ll be doing well to keep his job.  There’s also the newly occurring phenomenon of working for an owner that wasn’t responsible for hiring him.  Unfortunately it seems like something that isn’t going away anytime soon. 

City Need To Get Back To Winning Ways

Nothing but a win will do against Evertonon Saturday lunchtime.

It’s a good job that David Moyes is attracting negative attention for his struggles across the city.  Moyes’ labours have allowed Manuel Pellegrini to escape undue pressure for away defeats to Cardiff and Aston Villa.  Any more early slipups and not even Man Utd’s struggles will be able to deflect the questions about another stagnating title bid.

The Everton game is one City have to win.  A performance would be a bonus but a win is essential.  Because of their away form nothing else will do.  At the moment City are a different prospect at the Etihad, close to unstoppable when the mood takes them.  The game against United is a case in point.  They scored from their first four shots on target.  They outran, outpassed and outplayed the champions.  The difference between the teams in performance, desire and ability was staggering.  And then the game after they somehow contrived to lose to a Villa team without their best player.  In a season that promises to be tighter than ever every win could be crucial.  City will have to sort out their away form to win the league.  If they want to have the chance to do that they have to keep winning their home games.

Doing so against the last unbeaten team in the league won’t be straightforward.  The game promises to be tighter than most would have predicted at the start of the season.  Gone are the days that this fixture had a grudge match feel to it, when the nouveau riche City signed Lescott despite Moyes’ objections over how it was handled and got thoroughly up Everton’s noses.  Financially the difference between the oil rich City and the poorest (comparatively) of the top teams is stark.  Everton have always come across as bitter and more than a little jealous about that.  In their most lucid moments they’d admit that they’d love for someone with megabucks to come and be their benefactor.  For whatever reason, it ain’t happening.

It should be fascinating on Saturday.  Both teams have started taking very good care of the ball.  After six Premier League games Everton are averaging 59.4% possession and Man City 54.7%, both comfortably in the top five.  Interestingly City average more possession away from home and the most they’ve had all season was in their 3-2 loss away to Cardiff, presumably due to ineffectively chasing the game.  In their 4-1 defeat of Man Utd they had only 45%.  They would appear to be more dangerous when they’re more direct.

Man City are still adjusting to the change in style implemented by Pellegrini, placing more emphasis on attack.  They play closer to 4-4-2 than anything else.  When it clicks it’s impressive.  When it doesn’t it looks terribly flat.  It trusts Fernandinho and Yaya Toure to dominate central midfield with little assistance.  A few games a season Yaya could do this on his own. A few times already this season he’s almost had to.  Fernandinho is taking time to settle.  Bluntly he currently does not look like a £30 million pound player.  In the system they play they can’t afford him to take time to settle.  Pellegrini is also getting used to the particular demands of the Premier League.  Their two defeats so far have come the weekend before Champions League games.  After their humbling by Bayern Munich they need a reaction.  And all eyes will be on Joe Hart.  After the last few games there’ll be a sharp intake of breath every time an effort trickles towards his near post.  It’ll be tense.

For Everton Gareth Barry will be a big loss (the terms of his loan from City mean he won’t play).  To get a player with his experience and desire to prove he still belongs at the top level for free was one of the signings of the window.  He was the best player on the pitch in their win against Chelsea and not just for his unbelievable block to stop Eto’o scoring.  In his place presumably Martinez will give James McCarthy a start.  How he clicks with young player of the season so far Ross Barkley will be key.  In their previous games Barkley has given Everton an extra dimension going forward.  His interplay with Lukaku on Monday against Newcastle was as if they’d been playing together for years.  His playing time so far this season far outstrips the last player to move between the clubs before Barry, Jack Rodwell.  So far Everton have undoubtedly got the better end of that deal.  With rumours of Barkley already being targeted by a bigger club you’d have to hope that he looks at what has happened to Rodwell and many others (cough, Scott Sinclair, cough) and decides to stay put.  He’s unlikely to find anyone who’ll give him as many chances as Martinez.

The most impressive thing about Martinez’s start at Everton has been how consistent it’s been, which after his stint at Wigan precisely no one saw coming.  Losing to teams they should beat, yes.  Beating teams they should lose to, yes.  But unbeaten after six games, never.  If they get away from the Etihad with the record still intact a great start will become even better.  They’ve proven so far that they’re newly hard to beat.  They should prove a stern test for City’s title ambitions.

And that’s before we even start thinking about the main issue on Saturday, who out of Yaya and Leyton Baines will score the best free-kick?  In a league where free-kicks have suddenly started flying in the chance to see two of its finest proponents on the same pitch is too good to pass up.  That of course means they’ll get nowhere near shooting range for seventy minutes and then shank a couple into row Z.  That’s just how it works.

Who’s next?

Now that sacking season has officially begun you have to wonder who’ll be next?  Although given that Di Canio lasted six games they’re a little late in kicking it off this year.  Even in the Bundesliga, the nice, safe, sustainable, ethically sourced Bundesliga, two managers had been given the boot by the time PDC got his marching orders.  It’s either a sporadic outbreak of common sense or more likely everyone in the Premier League is about where they expect to be.  Bookmakers have Martin Jol the favourite to go next (mind you they also have Steve Bruce at the same odds as Arsene Wenger).  You’d think his collection of languid geniuses (and Darren Bent) need to click soon.  Next his Alan Pardew, who since Joe Kinnear took the big office up the hall has the air of a man constantly mentally filling in a constructive dismissal claim.  Newcastle also were forced to release a statement denying that he’d offered his resignation after the Everton defeat.  Watch this space.  Chris Houghton would have been in the mix before his team won at Stoke.  Really there’s been markedly less speculation than previous years, even counting all the #MoyesOut stuff.  It could be that managers are being given time, that after the mad dash to stay in touch with the increase in TV money last season that clubs have decided to give their bosses time.  Or we could get two or three this month.  For what it’s worth I’d have half an eye on Ian Holloway.  He’s coming across as madder than usual, was cracking up day one and managers have been sacked for the crime of getting promoted before.   Stick a fiver on Ollie and Pards.

Liverpool’s Formation

So Liverpool have begun to bravely break the ubiquity of the back four has over English football and started experimenting with 3-5-2.   Just as Wigan did last season to somewhat less acclaim.  The best thing about the coverage they’ve received is that this might end up helping to break up the hegemony of 4-2-3-1.  Any formation is only as good as the personnel you’ve got to fill it.  At the moment Liverpool’s best chance of getting the best out their players is with both Sturridge and Suarez as out and out strikers.  The only way to do that without sacrificing control in midfield is to play three at the back.  The only player it really doesn’t suit is Victor Moses.  Behind the strikers he doesn’t really have the room to use his pace.  With Liverpool sitting in second and Coutinho still to come back into his favourite position they might really click.

De Bruyne Questions Inevitable

It was always going to happen.  Jose can glare and stamp his feet and storm out over questions asked about players who don’t play as much as he wants, when you’ve got a squad as overstocked in certain areas as Chelsea’s is it’s inevitable that they’ll keep coming.  When you’ve got so many players not playing people will talk about them.  Normally Jose insists on a small squad with two players for every position on the basis that bigger ones are easy to lose control of.  In this and so many other things you can’t helping thinking that Jose 1.0 wouldn’t have let himself get in this position.

Why Jose Is Being More Like Jose Than Ever

Now that he’s settled back in to life at the bridge are we firmly in the era of Jose 3.0?

First there was Jose as the Special One during his first stint at Chelsea, riding into press conferences with the confidence of someone who gets to write his own headlines.  Then there was Jose the eye poker at Real Madrid, dropping legendary players to make a point and speaking to the press only to tell them he wouldn’t speak to them.  Chelsea fans may have thought they were getting version one.  They might have hoped that they weren’t getting the second.  Instead they’ve ended up with someone in between the two.

The attention ahead of their visit to Tottenham on Saturday has focussed on the supposed rivalry between Mourinho and Andre Villas Boas, one that apparently came into being after AVB stepped out from his mentor’s shadow.  Jose’s probably glad for the shift in focus.  Before the hype started for ‘The Master Vs The Apprentice’ questions were being asked with increasing frequency about Chelsea’s poor start (by their standards anyway; it’s worth remembering that they topped the Premier League for twenty four hours last weekend).  He’s brought the creative excuses that don’t really stand up to scrutiny with him from Madrid, blaming the age of his young eggs in the Champions League loss to Basel when the average age of the team he picked was twenty seven.  It sounded good though.

He’s moved on now to blaming the change in style he’s in the process of implementing.  It’s common knowledge, although never actually been confirmed, that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich wants to have his club change to a more pleasing on the eye style.  Roman apparently of the opinion that an investment of over a billion pounds should buy you whatever you want.  Mourinho’s comments have been all but an admission that he’s been tasked to it.  Dealing with Jose on current form is like dealing with the secret service, every question just leads to another question.  For example, if he’s been tasked with developing a more aesthetically pleasing playing style what’s with his treatment of Juan Mata? 

Last season’s player of the year has been ostracised more than any other player, left to contemplate League Cup matches and little else.  As an on form Mata would walk into any team in the league it’s difficult to reason with Jose’s decision, especially to the extent to which he’s been left out in the cold.  Mouriho’s reasoning is that because he has Oscar (after all Brazil’s first choice at number 10 in a country that is blessed with them) he has no space for Mata.  This is based on Oscar covering more ground without the ball than Mata would.  There seems to be no chance of him trying to include both, as even as pragmatic a coach as Rafa Benitez did on many occasions last season.  What seems odd about it is that at Madrid Jose would always include Ozil as well as two other attacking midfield players like Di Maria or even further forward with Cristiano Ronaldo.  Either he believes that he could get away with it with the quality of the competition in the Spanish league or he’s making some other point that we can’t quite see yet.  Time will tell.

Speaking of Benitez Jose has been, taking any chance he can get to chip away at the reputation of his predecessor as Chelsea manager like it’s 2005 all over again, starting with taking Rafa to task for having the temerity to win a competition in the Europa League that they shouldn’t have entered in the first place.  Jose’s been doing this since he came back, running through his greatest hits in an attempt to get his lost mojo back, like a Fleetwood Mac reunion, dusting off that old material.  He’s gone back to some of his less successful newer stuff as well, rekindling his rivalry with Pep Guardiola before the European Super Cup Final then talking about how his whole career he’s been the victim of a UEFA conspiracy (which means he’s done pretty well to win two European Cups).  It can only be a matter of time before he starts looking around for more eyes to poke.

Jose used to only manage but create expectations.  He was a master at it.  His first press conference in England where he declared himself special is proof enough of that.  The first season at Chelsea he told the players before the season started that they’d win the league when they played Bolton away in April.  Then they did just that.  He used to be a master of bringing the pressure on himself to take it from his players.  Now he’s struggling to manage the increased expectation his return has brought and it’s showing in the way his team’s performing (for an example of someone managing it better look at Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City, telling the press before the first game that he had the league’s best squad at his disposal and if they didn’t win it was his fault).  Jose used to have the press eating out of his hand.  Now it’s not that easy and you can see it rankling.  They’re like a separated couple that have gotten back together because they couldn’t remember why they broke up in the first place.  Now they’re at that awkward stage of not wanting to be the one who brings it up first.

Which brings us to AVB.  Ever since he came to England he’s been billed as a kind of Jose Mark II, Diet Jose, Jose The Next Generation.  They came up through the same clubs and were even both mentored by Bobby Robson.  Even the theory that they no longer get on is that they’re rooted in an Oedipal struggle to replace/subjugate each other.  The worsening of their relationship, although more has been made of it than should have been, has added an extra spice to a game that didn’t really need any.  At the start of the season Jose was already talking about Tottenham being one of the main challengers for not just the top four but for the title.  Chelsea gazumping Willian from under Tottenham’s noses when they plainly didn’t need him still needles (although given the form of the Brazilian since he signed Spurs may have gotten the better end of that deal).

AVB and Spurs should have more reason to complain about a new style bedding in.  Since bringing in their new signings and adjusting to the loss of a certain Welshman they’ve looked close to the real deal, more solid than they’ve been in living memory, reminiscent a little of Mourihno’s Chelsea, the first version.  They’ve only conceded once in five games and that was in a closely fought derby with Arsenal, the other league leaders.  In a league that promises to not have a runaway winner being defensively sound and efficient going forward may be enough to win it.  Right at this moment that sounds more like Tottenham than Chelsea.

It’s not inconceivable that Chelsea could finish fifth or below.  Someone out of last season’s top four and Spurs will have to and Chelsea finished sixth as recently as the season before.  The match on Saturday will go a long way to proving which is more likely out of these two teams to miss out.  With the pressure and attention being on the managers I’m going for a low scoring draw.  And for Spurs to finish ahead of Chelsea at the end of the season. 

Can Juventus Win The Champions League Playing 3-5-2?

The talk around Turin is that they need to change formation to have a chance of winning but manager Conte is downplaying their chances.

He’s probably right to.  After all, it’s only their second season in the Champions League since 2008-09 and after a 1-1 draw at Copenhagen it hasn’t gotten off to the most auspicious start.  And another season of departures from Serie A has no one proclaiming that Italy will produce another European Cup winner in the near future.  The consensus view is that although Juventus will be strong enough to get through to the knockout stages, they’ll not trouble any of the main contenders.  As a team they’re probably a few seasons away from getting enough experience anyway.  The question is whether they can do it with their current system.

It’s worth remembering how thoroughly Juventus have been dominating their league.  They’ve been champions for the last two years.  They were unbeaten for 49 consecutive league games, including all 38 across the 2011-12 season.  Playing 3-5-2 obviously works for them domestically.  Conte himself sees no reason for change and has said this publically.  In their unbeaten season they used to switch between formations depending on the games, switching from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 to 3-5-2 depending on who they were playing and the players they had available.  Since then they’ve seemed to settle into using just the one.  The transfer business in the summer had them signing two strikers in Tevez and Llorente and Angelo Ogbonna a young central defender from Torino.  If Conte had any plans to change to a back four he would have surely addressed the glaring absence of quality full backs in his squad (His best option as it stands would be to shift Chiellini to left back and move Lichtsteiner back on the right.  Not bad but not exactly frightening when compared to say Bayern’s Lahm and Alaba or Barca’s Alves and Jordi Alba).  It looks like Conte is serious when he says his team will stick to what they know.

Conte knows that his team’s strength is through the middle of midfield and in central defence and its weakness is down the flanks.  His chosen formation both confirms and provokes this.  In central midfield Vidal and Pirlo are as good as anyone.  Vidal in particular has improved over the last two seasons to become something approaching a force of nature when he’s in form.  The strength there has been a big factor in them dominating games.  At times last season Conte had Pogba alongside them and Machiso just further forward, fitting four central midfielders in the same team.  Conte also likes to have two strikers, either Vucinic or Llorente with Tevez working between the lines.  Having three at the back gives them the licence to include two of them without compromising in midfield.

The games that started the debate over whether Juve’s formation might be limiting were the Champions League quarter final loses to Bayern, both of them 2-0.  In all honesty they didn’t ever get close to them over the two games.  If there was ever a team set up to cause Juve problems it’s the Bavarians, with their cadre of intelligent wingers and attacking full backs.  The Italians were outpressed and outrun more than anything, unable to live with their opponents ability to do everything with both precision and speed.  Apart from Dortmund (arguably) there wasn’t another team that could live with Bayern in Europe last season.  The suspicion remains though that Juventus were almost the perfect opponents for them.

Then there’s the argument that Barcelona have basically been playing 3-5-2 for years without ever doing the decent thing and coming out and admitting it.  In the last days of Pep in particular Busquets would often drop back between Pique and Puyol when the full backs pushed forward, often past midfield (especially Alves, who was playing most of the time as more of winger than a full back).  No one questioned the formation then.  The difference is that Juventus do it with three pure centre backs and Pirlo as the deepest lying midfielder.  Bluntly, Barcelona can hope to negate the opposition’s influence through pressing.  Juventus at the moment can not.

It would be such a shame for 3-5-2 if Juventus felt the need to change from it only a few short years after it came roaring back from a decade in the wilderness as the hipster formation de jour.  Napoli, the other major exponents of it, have recently moved to a back four under Benitez (although Mazzarri has brought it with him to his new Inter).  If Juventus fail to make an impact in Europe over the next few seasons it’ll be a blow for variety more than anything.  And with their domestic challengers getting stronger, and no one retaining Serie A three seasons in a row in sixty years, Europe is really the only place they can hope to make a new impact.

More than anything it bears repeating that Juventus are a young team in Champions League terms and are getting to be an older one in real terms.  It took Bayern years of disappointment and two losing finals before they were able to dominate Europe last season.  Juventus have a long way to go before they’re at that point.  There’s also the question of when their older players need replacing.  After the quarter final defeats to Bayern and the European Championship final loss to Spain it seems almost like sacrilege to say but Pirlo might be finally past running games at the very top level, even with Vidal to do his running for him.  Domestically they look set to be there or thereabouts for the foreseeable future.  Whether Conte wants to risk refreshing his team in the seasons to come will go a long way to decide whether they can make more of an impact in Europe.  That rather than their system will be the deciding factor.