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World Cup Day 8 – A strange day

Day 8 was certainly the most eventful one of the world cup so far for me. And in fairness it was mainly for the wrong reasons.

Germany lost to a referee, and during the match came the biggest shock of all when Podolski missed a penalty for them.

The Serbian’s continued to play handball, just what was Vidic thinking? If anything at all.

The Americans stage a remarkable comeback, only to be robbed by a referee.

And then we have the big question of who is worse, England or France? At least France didn’t try to look as bad as they did, whereas England made the effort to look useless.

England stumbled to a 0-0 draw with Algeria and now the flak will really start to fly in Capello’s direction, Saturday’s newspapers will be lining up to crucify the Italian.

It was another lacklustre performance from England, and Capello’s judgement will be called into question again, including his decision to axe Robert Green after one mistake. On a positive note for Capello at least Green’s replacement, David James didn’t drop any clangers.

Before that the Germans lost the day’s opening match 1-0 to Serbia despite dominating the game. Even with 10 men throughout the second half they still looked the better team, only late on when Germany were throwing men forward did the Serbians look likely to add to their lead.

The performance of the day has to be the USA’s second half comeback against Slovenia to force a 2-2 draw. At half time they were 2-0 down and heading out of the competition, what ever Bob Bradley said at half time certainly worked.

He also showed he is prepared to act and not just let the game drift along by making a double substitution at half time, fair play to him as he was rewarded for his boldness as USA came back and claimed a 2-2 draw.

Villains of the day have to be referees, Koman Coulibaly and Alberto Undiano Mallenco.

Coulibaly wrongly disallowed a Maurice Edu strike in the 85th minute, which would have capped a remarkable US comeback. While Mallenco totally ruined the Germany V Serbia match with a series of ridiculous bookings in the first half, resulting in a very soft sending off for Germany’s Miroslav Klose for two laughable yellows.

I don’t like to criticize referees on this blog, but when they are bad it has to be mentioned. And Mallenco was awful today and probably cost Germany the match with his over the top style of officiating. The continous showing of yellow cards in the first half was an embarrassing performance.

footballgambler June 19, 2010 Football Betting and Opinion , 1 Comment

Return of Barry will help England

The announcement that Gareth Barry will be playing against Algeria on Friday night came as no real surprise as Fabio Capello has made no secret of the fact that he prefers to have Barry in his team, the fact that he has brought him knowing he would miss the first game shows how much faith Capello has in him in the midfield holding role.

I expect this to lead to a dramatic improvement in England, as it is a return to the formation that got them this far, and lets be honest about it, it’s a system that should be good enough to beat Algeria.

I had my moan about Capello’s strange decisions surrounding the USA game, and now am looking at the positives for Friday night.

The only team changes I can see is Barry for Milner, and Carragher for King.

Having picked Rob Green for the USA game (not a choice I would have made), Capello must now stick with him. Unless Green has showed it has badly effected him in training, then I believe he should retain his place in the side. From what I could see Green still looked ok after the error, in fact I was quite impressed with the way he conducted himself afterwards.

It looks like Jamie Carragher will replace King at the back beside John Terry, there is a lack of pace with this pairing, but they are England’s best and most experienced fit out and out defenders.

In midfield I expect Gareth Barry should release Gerrard into a more attacking role. Along with Lampard, the three of them are well used to playing this system, and although I’m not overly happy with Gerrard out wide it is the best way Capello has found to utilize the three so far. And in fairness Gerrard roams a bit when playing this system. Aaron Lennon could do with putting in a performance as he wasn’t great against USA.

Up front Capello has apparently suggested that Defoe is in contention for a start, can’t see this happening myself. Surely if Capello wants to make a change he would bring in Crouch for Heskey. Heskey had a funny game against USA, in a way it was typical performance from him. I didn’t think he played that bad, but the usual problem remained as he missed his chance when clean through, had he scored it could be said he had a good game.

The bookies have England as heavy favourites, they are a best price of 2/7 with Paddy Power and William Hill.

One complaint to make about England, I wish they would stop moaning about the ball. All the teams have to use it, and it just sounds like we are getting our excuses in first!

footballgambler June 18, 2010 Football Betting and Opinion , 2 Comments

England postmortem continues

The debate was still strongly raging throughout Monday on TV and radio into England’s 1-1 draw with USA on Saturday evening.

I noticed the media attention seems to have switched a bit form Rob Green and now onto manager Fabio Capello.

His decision making has been getting called into question now gradually more and more since he announced his final 23 man squad. I too have quite a few issues with that sqaud and some of the decisions made since.

Why after 2 years did he decide to go back to playing Gerrard and Lampard together? I know Gareth Barry’s injury has upset the balance of the team, but I would of thought the best way to handle that would be to slot Milner or Carrick into Barry’s role?

Why was James Milner preferred to Joe Cole down the left? I know this was Milner’s position up until last season, so it’s not alien to him, but he had been ill all week. And to then bring on Shaun Wright-Phillips (who shouldn’t even be in the squad) ahead of Cole to play down the left was unbelievable. What kind of message is that sending out to Joe?

The decision to stick with Rob Green also backfired. I have stated before on this blog that I believe David James to be England’s best allround goalkeeper, they both have a mistake in them, but James offers more to the team in my view.

Anyway, Fabio has made his choice to go with Green and I believe it would be wrong to change that now. Green deserves the chance to redeem himself.

I’m not going to criticize Ledley King’s inclusion, I was one who believed he should be in the squad. And his injury is not the knee. Although I am going to question Matthew Upson’s position in the squad. For the last 12-18 months he has been Capello’s 3rd choice center half, so where has he disappeared too?

If Capello has seen fit to promote Ledley and now Jamie Carragher above him, then why the hell did he take him?

For all too many years now we have seen England managers trying to stick square pegs in round holes. In Capello, up until recently, we seemed to have stopped doing this. Why has he waited until the opening game of a world cup to start doing this now? He should have had his plans for Gareth Barry’s absence finalised weeks ago.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, afterall England only drew with USA, who aren’t the worst side in the world. We should still be able to get out of the group.

With Gareth Barry due back on Friday, I expect to see an improvement in England. This should see us going back to the formation that has served us well during the qualifying, the Capello method that has worked.

Barry’s importance to the team has been highlighted more in his absence. He is one of those players that dosen’t set the world on fire when he’s there, but you miss him when he’s gone. It might sound harsh, but he is England’s water carrier.

Along with a new center half partner for John Terry, it remains to be seen if these are the only changes to the team. Capello’s rigid 4-4-2 should be good enough to get out of this group.

Will he be flexible enough to tinker with it later on in the tournament though?

footballgambler June 15, 2010 Football Betting and Opinion , , No Comments

Did Theo deserve the boot?

I must admit to being very surprised when I heard of Theo Walcotts omission from Fabio Capello’s 23 man squad for the World Cup.

I thought he was a certainty, and at the start of the day I was sure in my own mind that I wanted him there.

I do think that it is very fine lines that such calls are made on. Thinking back to the game against Mexico and in around the 25th minute Theo skipped past a defender looked up and with another back peddling defender to beat on the edge his area, he unexplicably passed to Wayne Rooney, who was two yards off side and not expecting the pass.

Had Theo gone round the last defender (which I’m sure he could off such was his momentum), and then smashed the ball past the keeper, then he would probably be on the plane tomorrow.

The look on Rooney’s face after receiving the pass said it all, I don’t think his thoughts would have been printable.

It just summed up my theory on Walcott, that he is badly lacking in confidence. A confident Theo would surely have finished that chance off himself.

All the recent criticism from ex-players such as Chris Waddle and Paul Merson (to name a couple) must be having an effect on him.

Thats part of the reason to why I’m coming round to thinking that dropping Theo isn’t such a bad move afterall. Yes, I would have taken him, but is Theo lacking in confidence going to be a better option than Shaun Wright-Phillips? Probably not, I suppose.

I’ll give Capello the benefit of the doubt on this selection.

That wasn’t the only surprise sprung by Capello. Despite not playing in any of the warm up games, Stephen Warnock makes the squad at the expense of Leighton Baines. Baines, like Walcott, would appear to have played himself out of the squad.

I was also disappointed not to see Adam Johnson in the squad, England have been crying out for a wide left player for years, so when they get one they don’t pick him.

Don’t see why an extra attacking option like Johnson couldn’t have been selected in place of Michael Carrick, or a defender, with Carragher able to cover all the backline.

I believe Michael Carrick to be a very lucky boy, he is another one who could easily have played his way out of contention. He is lucky that Huddlestone didn’t take his chance. Gareth Barry’s fitness could be another reason why Carrick survived.

Was pleased to see Joe Cole included, there was a few scare stories around over the last seven days that he wasn’t going to make it, to leave him out as well would have been madness.

In the end Capello took the safe option and went with the two players for every position squad.

Not wishing to FA bash, as I’m not one of these people who blames them for everything. But, at 1pm this afternoon the word was out that Theo had been dropped, and at 2.30 it was common knowledge who the seven players to miss out where.

Then we had a statement released from Walcott announcing how disappointed he was not to be included, and a Tweet on Man City’s Twitter page announcing Shaun Wright-Phillips was in the squad, all before the FA officially announced it.

Ok, maybe they were trying to contact players personally before announcing it, but did it really take over 3 hours to ring up all 30 men? I find that hard to believe. The constant drip feed of information didn’t look good.

All thats in the past now, and its time to look forward to the football. Fabio has so far proved himself up to the task, but now the real work starts.

For me, it will be interesting to see how he approaches this tournament. Capello, and Italian managers in general have a habit of being very negative and defensive, history has shown this dosen’t really suit the English style.

It’s now time to find out if we have yet to see the real Capello in action.

footballgambler June 2, 2010 Football Betting and Opinion , No Comments

Is Capello right to wait for Barry?

With all the remarks coming from the England camp and Fabio Capello this week, it would now appear almost certain that Gareth Barry is assured of his place in England’s world cup 23.

If he didn’t realise it before, Capello would have been reminded of just how important a player Barry has become to his side in the wake of England’s 1st half central midfield performance against Mexico at Wembley on Monday night.

Barrys stock seems to have raised in his absence. Monday night showed that he is one of those unsung players that you notice more when he is not there.

In contrast, James Milner, and in particular Michael Carrick showed in that match that they are not yet capable of filling Barry’s boots with a disappointing showing in England’s central midfield.

In the case of Milner, he is an up and coming player who has only just completed his first season playing that role, he is still really learning the position. Add to that, he can also play in a number of positions across the midfield, which would seem to assure him of a seat on the plane to South Africa.

Michael Carrick on the other hand is an experienced player in this position, and Capello would have expected far better from him.

He should now be sweating on his place as his form has been awful lately, including a high profile blunder in the Champions League match with Bayern Munich, which ultimately led to Manchester United getting knocked out of the competition.

If Capello is to pick James Milner as a central midfielder then Carrick might well now be surplus to requirements. That would leave him free to name both Adam Johnson and Joe Cole in his squad.

However, for Carrick, the doubts over Barry’s ankle may well end up being his saving grace. Fabio Capello might now be looking to take extra cover for Barry, in the event he might break down again.

This could play into Carricks hands, as Capello might not want to throw an inexperienced international like Tom Huddlestone or Scott Parker into the squad at this late stage of the process.

Carrick has been there throughout, and Capello might well stick with what he knows.

I do believe that Carrick is a lucky boy if he makes the squad. It would be a shame for the likes of Joe Cole or Adam Johnson if one of them misses out because Capello wants extra cover for a player who is not 100% fit.

footballgambler May 29, 2010 Football Betting and Opinion , , 1 Comment

Ledley King has to go to South Africa

The performance of Ledley King against Manchester City tonight must have made Fabio Capello’s mind up (if he hadn’t already decided) to take him to South Africa this summer, he breezed through the 90 minutes.

King’s ability has never been in doubt, it has only been his recovery time between games that has been the problem. But he has now just completed two games in five days, or three games in twelve days, which ever way you want to look at it.

All three matches were intense games with plenty riding on them, and he came through them all with relative ease, not sure how his knee will look tomorrow morning though, but there didn’t look to be a bother in him at the end of the game tonight, he certainly wasn’t struggling.

He has just proved to Capello and any doubters that he can get through the relevant matches, and that he can also play at the intensity and high level required at a world cup.

I must admit I did have a slight doubt about taking him, not because of Ledley’s injuries, but because of Ferdinand’s back, I didn’t think you could risk the two in the same squad.

Tony Gale said on Sky Sports News that on this form Ledley is the best centre half in the country, and I couldn’t disagree with that.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Rio is captain and the back four are settled, there would be a strong case for starting with King, and who knows, Capello might yet do that.

King has now proved his fitness, and could he have timed it any better. Even Fabio will probably want him rested for the Burnley match now.

For me, he has to go to the world cup. If there is a slight risk it’s worth taking, the pros now far outweigh the cons as he is simply just too good to leave at home.

footballgambler May 5, 2010 Football Betting and Opinion , , 1 Comment

Is Ledley King going to South Africa?

Today’s Daily Mirror is running an article claiming that Fabio Capello wants to take Ledley King to South Africa despite his dodgy knee.

Capello is apparently ready to take the chance on King, and wants confirmation of King’s recovery times between matches.

I personally hope he does take King as I think he is the best centre-half in the country at the moment with proven international pedigree. Some will argue that Michael Dawson is in better form, that may be true, but King is proven at international level and playing well.

If Capello decides against King, then Dawson is the other form defender in the country at the moment, so his inclusion would also be justified.

Of the regular three centre-half squad members, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Matthew Upson, none of them are in any sort of consistent form.

Terry has been awful lately, his decision making on the pitch is starting to replicate his decisions off the pitch. Ok, he has had plenty of decent performances since his alledged affair was exposed, but there has been some shockers mixed in with them.

Rio is injury prone at the moment, his back is giving him far too many problems. It is starting to look like a ‘Ledley King style injury’, one where it needs to be permanently managed, rather than one he will fully recover from. As a result he is in and out of the United team, and that has prevented him from getting into any kind of consistent form.

Matthew Upson (like Rob Green) is a struggling player in a struggling team, it has long been debated as to whether or not he is international class anyway. Surely on current form he isn’t. It is unlikely that Capello will dump him now though as he has been in most of his recent squads.

The only thing that I would worry about with King is obviously his fitness. Can Capello afford to have a not fully fit Ferdinand and King in his squad? If neither can play two games in a week, is it a risk too far?

As far as talent goes, I would have King ahead of both Terry and Rio at the moment. I think Capello should gamble on King, as you have to take risks to win the World Cup. You also need all your top class performers in the latter stages of the competition, and Ledley King is a top class player.

footballgambler April 23, 2010 Football Betting and Opinion , , No Comments

Fabio, it’s time for Zamora

I’ve finally come round to the conclusion that it is time for Fabio Capello to have a look at Bobby Zamora, in fact I would go further than that and say he deserves to go to the World Cup this summer.

I’m not Emile Heskey’s biggest fan and I never have been, but I’ve found myself defending him in pub arguments over the last year or so saying he should keep his place in the England side.

The reason being is that Capello likes a big man, small man combination, and so far it has worked for him with Heskey and Rooney, not because I’m a Heskey fan.

I have also long argued that there is just no one else to play the so-called ‘Heskey role’. If there was someone out there who could lead the line like Heskey does and score 20 goals a season, then great, pick him.

The problem is we don’t have that man, last season Carlton Cole showed he might one day play the role, but he has gone badly off the boil this season. Peter Crouch, despite his size, is simply not a target man. He is also a bit too slow on his feet to play the role.

Now though, Bobby Zamora is emerging as that elusive man.

Not only is Zamora leading the line well, he is also scoring goals regularly. Heskey is struggling to get in the Villa team and his form is crap, he has only 5 goals this season in over 30 appearances.

I know people will say Zamora has no international experience, but I would argue that he is in the form of his life. Zamora also comes up against top class players every week in the Premier League and has not looked out of place in the Europa League either.

And lets face it, they are better players than he would face in the three group games in South Africa.

The arguement that he wouldn’t be good enough against the likes of Brazil, Spain, Holland, etc, dosen’t stack up either. I agree, he probably wouldn’t be. But tell me how many England players are good enough in that company?

Not too many, and certainly not Emile Heskey.

Zamora can do no worse in my view, and he might even score a couple of goals along the way.

footballgambler April 13, 2010 Football Betting and Opinion , , No Comments
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