Football News: 10 More Things I Learnt From Football
Image from: grandoldteam.com
1. Romelu Lukaku needs a partner to be effective
The lad is a goalscorer, he has supreme confidence in his abilities, which causes the issues of his comments about moving on to other 'bigger' clubs, but also means he scores goals that a player with less confidence would mess up. Despite this, he still has a first touch that an elephant would complain was a bit heavy, and that is why Kone is so important to Everton this season. Having that second forward up there creates more space for Lukaku, so even if the ball does bounce off him, he can use his pace to get to it.
2. Playing two up top gets the best out of the Everton side
While Roberto Martinez has his principles about the way football should be played, but it was that lessening of his principles and becoming slightly more pragmatic that has turned Everton's fortunes around. Abandoning the slow build up, pass, pass, pass system he arrived at Goodison Park championing, has put Everton back into the top half and European contention. With the likes of Gareth Barry and James McCarthy in midfield, for all their qualities, they are not suited to the slow build up, they are not capable of the clever movement and quick passing required. Shifting over to a quicker build up and moving the ball to the front two faster has made a major difference to the Toffees and they are better for it.
3. Martinez needs to abandon one more principle
I do not want this article to turn into just an Everton blog, but there is one more thing that stands out from the weekend just gone, related to the blue half of Merseyside. Martinez has already shown a capacity to be pragmatic and embrace what works rather than sticking to his principles when they are failing. There is still one more thing he needs to give up on, the belief that a goal from a set piece is worthless. Everton have yet to score from set pieces and they need to add that to their game to really get the most from what they have.
4. Bayern Munich and Barcelona are a class above the rest but Paris Saint-Germain are closing the gap
PSG are still a way behind right now, but they are closing the gap and looking to add the class of Cristiano Ronaldo to their side. Juventus, on the other hand, made a huge mistake weakening their side by allowing the top player they had, Arturo Vidal, move away.
5. Manchester United can attack but they don't
At the weekend Man Utd showed they are capable of good exciting, attacking football, in the final dying minutes of the match against Watford they were free to get forward. Wednesday night against PSV Eindhoven they reverted back to LVG's slow, boring, robotic football. If they win the league, it will be in spite of the tactics, not because of them. The life is being throttled out of the team.
6. Jack Grealish is in danger of disappearing up his own backside
Amid all the hype about Aston Villa's 'wunderkind', and his decision over whether to have a chance to play for the Republic of Ireland and not play for England or to choose not to play for the Republic of Ireland and also not play for England in the forseeable future, people seem to have overlooked the fact that Grealish has not done a single thing to deserve the hype. His main skill seems to be partying too hard with his friends. It is worrying the singular lack of anything approaching intelligence he is displaying, at a time when Villa are struggling and he is left out of the team, he decides that working hard to get back in the team is not for him. The hype has obviously got to him and he now believes he deserves to be in the side and does not need to earn his place. He needs bringing back down to earth, before he throws away his career.
7. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a law unto himself
One of the best stories of the week was Zlatan hiring out a square in Malmo's centre and paying for huge screens to be put up for the locals to watch him play against their side in the Champions League. When prominent British sports journalist, James Richardson, asked a UEFA official what he did regarding broadcast rights, the official just suggested he was Zlatan and could do what he wants. It may well be very tongue-in-cheek, the Zlatan image, but he is playing up to the persona created by his biographer to absolute perfection. It is hard not to like him, once you realise that it is just a big wind up. It has almost become believable that he could have actually said to his father, on leaving home after signing for a new team, 'it is time for you to be man of the house now'.
8. Huw Jenkins is facing unfair criticism
You would be forgiven for thinking Huw Jenkins was hiring and firing managers on a weekly basis, by the way the media are talking. He is constantly criticised for his 'imminent' sacking of Gary Monk, and has been getting that criticism for a month or more now, despite the sacking not actually having happened. If there is one thing Jenkins has done in his time in charge of Swansea City, it is support his managers. If he chooses to make a change now, well you have to think he has good reason for it.
9. Daniel Sturridge is made of tissue paper
The Liverpool striker is beginning to make Darren Anderton (one for the older generation there!) seem like a tough guy, with injury after injury besetting his career. It must be particularly galling for him to be sat on the sidelines watching as the Klopp revolution has turned the team from a laughing stock into a force to be feared. This is the kind of period players want to be a part of, as legends are birthed in these sort of moments, those players who are building the Jurgen Klopp arrival from a mere fantasy for Liverpool fans into a reality.
10. Simon Mignolet is even more of a hopeless case than I realised
We all know Mignolet struggles with his kicking, to put it politely, with his every touch looking like that of a man who had borrowed a pair of boots that are a couple of sizes too big and he has them on the wrong feet. Now we know that he is just as bad with his head and his timekeeping. His attempts to play keep ball in the early seconds nearly played the team into trouble, with him and Dejan Lovren knocking the ball about between themselves in and around the penalty box as Bordeaux players pressed them. Eventually they got the ball up the field to safety, but not without causing a few jitters. Not content with that, Mignolet then decided to rush out of his area to make a simple header and mess it up by heading straight to an opponent. He was lucky to get away with that one, but then decided to push his luck even further. With the rules being very clear about a goalkeeper only being allowed to hold on to the ball for 6 seconds, Mignolet decided to dither while holding onto the ball for 16 seconds. It was incompetence of the kind that would you get fired in a normal job, but his only punishment was seeing the resulting indirect free kick lead to a simple goal for Henri Saivet. If Liverpool want to be realistic challengers for titles, then he needs to be replaced.
Written by Tris Burke November 27 2015 07:35:07
