Malouda: Ginola or Camara?

Florent Malouda. Scorer of 10 goals for Lyon in 06/07. Player of the year in 06/07.  Sold to Chelsea for £13.5 million pounds in July 2007.

On paper it looks like the success story of an incredibly talented footballer, impressing all in Ligue 1, winning the ultimate acolade in French domestic football and completing his dream move to one of the most succesful clubs in Europe. But then why is the reality so different?

Malouda was purchased in the summer of 2007, by then Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho. With the constant injuries afflicting Arjen Robben, and the less than world class displays of Solomon Kalou, Mourinho was looking for a new option. Having previously signed "French footballer of the year" Michael Essien from Lyon, it would've made complete sense to sign yet another of the league's top assets. After a summer of relative thriftiness from the blues of west London, it seemed that Malouda finally formed the final piece of the Chelsea jigsaw -- a fast and agile player, with good ball skills who enjoyed taking on players, and not too shy of goal. 

So where did it all go wrong?

It isn't fair to suggest that Malouda is "rubbish" or any other derogatory description, his time in Lyon proved otherwise, as did his appearances for the French club in the Champions League. However the facts cannot be disregarded. In his time at Chelsea, the winger has scored a total of 4 goals in all competitions, 2 of those in his first season, and 4 so far this season. The "recipients" of these goals? Shalke, Newcastle, Bordeaux ,Middlesborough and Portsmouth. 

"What about the assists?" I hear you cry. In his 1st season, Malouda managed just 1 assist, in all competitions. This year he is much improved, already boasting 5 assists in the league. So the statistics point to an improving player, a player reborn under Scolari, a manager who enjoys the fast flowing football played by his Portugal side, rather than the drol football played by Mourinho in his later days at Stamford Bridge, and the snooze games managed by Grant. 

However, I believe that he just flatters to deceive. Time and time again, he can be seen powering down the left wing in a decent postion only to make the wrong decision. He too often takes players on, when there is an easier passing option. His crossing is far from perfect, but perhaps most importantly he doesn't track back. This Chelsea side plays with rampaging fullbacks, who like to play the entire wing leaving them exposed to counter attacks, unless the covering wingers do their bit in defending. Malouda too often stays up field, walking back into place. During defensive corners, he sits on the halfway line waiting for the break. When the team go 1 nil down, he drops his head. But far too often doesn't play with his heart.

He isn't the worst player from a technical aspect, and on his day can shine and cause havoc to the opposing full backs. Yet he doesn't play the sort of football he is apparently capable of, or indeed he may already be playing that football but can't handle the pace and physical nature of the English game.

It's a mystery, one which Scolari is continuing to persue, yet one which is damaging Chelsea's title chasing season. If the question isn't answered by Christmas then Chelsea will pay for it.

Justified?

So after the dust has settled on the Mourinho saga, and Martin Jol has finally been handed his p45 via txt message, the challenge for the top 4 is definitely under way.

Chelsea beat a re-invigorated Man City side 6-0 at the fortress of Stamford Bridge. Their style of play and dedication to attacking football was outstanding, with Frank Lampard providing the motor for the victory. They were outstanding, and although Man City did a lot to make them look better (Garrido was so bad, it was farcical), it cannot be overlooked that Henk Ten Cate's training methods are clearly making an immediate impact.

If the rumours of intense training and box to box sprints the day after the CL defeat of Shalke are to be believed, then it is apparent that Chelsea are changing the way they play, starting at the front. They seem to be attacking more fiercly, leaving holes in the midfield which leave the defense extremely vulnerable. Mourinho would never have allowed such play, and would certainly not been a fan of chasing goals when already 3 nil up against a top 4 contender.

On several occasions since his appointment as head coach at Chelsea FC, Grant has mentioned his step-by-step plan to re-introduce attacking football to the club, "we're trying to do exactly what Roman wants" he failed to add.

Perhaps we are all wrong to laugh at him. Perhaps he knows what he's doing. Perhaps of course Tottenham will come fourth.

Somehow, this blog doubts it.

All Hail The Return

And so the Premiership returned, finally after a long absence in which we had to make do with the less than interesting Tevez transfer-saga, the weekend was sunny and filled with exciting episodes such as Obafemi's impressive bicycle kick, Gerrard's pin-pointed free kick, Chopra's last minute winner, Arsenal's comback, Chelsea's return to attacking football and suprisingly the only real bore-fest was United's draw at home to Reading.

We saw Sven put together an attacking team which gave City an away win to West Ham -- a team who have spent big, and were expected to achieve mid table mediocrity. Instead, they could be on the verge of free-fall. Will the blues of Manchester be able to keep this up all season? I certainly hope so, and in repeating such performances perhaps the media will finally go quiet regarding Svennis. Perhaps not.

Will the Geordies fronted by Allardyce finally make up for lost time? It seems that Allardye has finally roused some desire from his side, something that both Roeder and Sounness were unable to do in their combined tenure at the club. It won't be every week that they'll be lucky enough to play against a side as pitiful as Bolton were, but surely a top 7 finish is within their grasp.

This blogger watched the highlights of the Derby v Portsmouth game, but frankly, can't remember them, (although there was a Todd diving header which looked pretty smashing) and therefore won't write an opinionated comment on Portsmouth's season aspirations.
Derby to go down.

Chelsea were suprisingly good to watch -- they attacked at every opportunity (most likely due to the absence of a decent defence, Ben Haim wasn't great and Glen Johnson was embarassing), and Malouda seems to be justifying his price tag. Wright-Phillips was good too.

Man Utd were distinctly average, plus they had to deal with Reading performing the olde "parketh the bus in fronteth the goaleth" trick. Reading did this well and Harmesson was incredible in goal. Rooney picked up an injury, and turns out he's broken his foot. For the third time. Surely it's time to consider changing his boots to adidas?

Liverpool played too, but this blogger reserves the right to biased journalism and therefore any comment on them ends here.

Bring on Tuesday, where Tottenham face Everton!

Counting Down

This blogger wasn't able to watch Chelsea v Man Utd: the rematch this past weekend. Not that we're too bothered, because by the sounds of it (and itermittent glances at Sky Sports News while having tea with the parents), the game was just a repeat of the FA Cup Final of a few months ago.

Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, we were able to watch the goals, and can conclude that both were fairly good. Giggs demonstrated incredible composure and technique, and Malouda demonstrated speed, strength and skill in holding off Rio Ferdinand, but it was the skill and sheer size of Edwin "Super-Double Save" Van der Sar which won the game for the Reds.

All 3 of his penalty saves were excellent, not purely a product of luck, but a combination of the agility and height which has served the dutch-man well throughout his career. The Telegraph mentioned in passing that Alex Ferguson's ommision in hiring a true world class goalkeeper would be telling over the coming season -- they were wrong.

Classically a legendary performance in a penalty shoot-out isn't enough to save a 'keeper's career, as demonstrated by Jerzy "bench-warmer" Dudek following his mesmerising performance in the 2004-05 CL Final. Jerzy has moved to warmer climes, where he will no doubt perform a similar bench warming task to that of Woodgate during his times in Real Madrid.

So what of Man Utd's goalkeeping prospects? Kuszczak's loan move from West Brom has now been made permanent, and Ben Foster needs surgery on a cruciate ligament problem. Obviously Van der Sar can't last forever, and when he does go, United face the same problem they experienced after Schmeical's departure -- however, Ben Foster looks likely to be one of the best keepers in the game.

Elsewhere, Rooney was up to his old tricks. The boy who wouldn't grow up has failed to live up the promise demonstrated in the Euro 2004. He was largely eclipsed by Ronaldo last season, and this season, the arrival of Nani and now Tevez promise to be more exciting, and will perhaps be the elixir that Rooney needs to return to his form of old. A spell in the England u-21's wouldn't hurt the boy.

All that remains now is to wait for the weekend, for the thrilling encounter that is Sunderland v Spurs. We can hardly wait.

And another thing..

One of the main reasons that Beckham went to MLS was to promote the League around the world, to generate a hitherto unprecedented interest in what can only be described as a poor competition. Amongst many of the arguments to bring over Becks, was that a lot of American players, and future talents were leaving MLS at their first opportunity and therefore weakening the League and it's position to hold on to talent.
By bringing over Beckham, they were hoping to be showing some signs of their ambition as a league. They were also hoping that it would convince the younger players that MLS is capable of fullfilling their footballing ambitions, both in terms of wages and quality of football.

By letting Clint Dempsey go to the Premiership they were showing that they didn't have what it took to hold onto their blossoming talent and were widely criticised by the American press and those involved in the game. By signing Beckham, it was a sign that the tide was changing and that perhaps MLS was at a turning point -- good players could be tempted to play in the US.

Alas, it has all been bullshit. Releasing Freddy Adu, a footballer widely regarded as not only the most promising player of US footballing history, but also of footballing history in general, is a big mistake. He has been transfered to one of Europe's 2nd tier clubs (no offence guys, but you know what I mean), for what is probably a reasonable fee -- what message does this send out to other budding players in the US?

Is says that if Adu wants out, then I want out. If Adu has realised that playing for a decent European side is better for his football than scoring bicycle kicks from the halfway line in the MLS, then he's gotta be right. I too, want out.

MLS is sending out the wrong message here to it's clubs, to the kids at grass roots level and to players from abroad who will almost certainly realise that David Beckham going to the US is not that different from Pele doing the same.

And we all know what happened to MLS after that..

And so the silly season continues.

 

At the moment, Man Utd have signed Nani and Anderson from Portuguese clubs Sporting and Porto respectively. They have finally ended the most prolonged and uninteresting transfer-saga of the last few seasons, by finally confirming the signing of Owen Hargreaves. That's about it.

 

Chelsea have signed Sidwell and Pizzaro on free's, but haven't splashed out any money yet. Abramovich has gone on record saying that he still supports Chelsea in everyway, but frankly, it seems that he isn't willing to dip into his pockets to secure the services of talents out there.

There are many stories linking the club with Tevez, who is yet to leave West-Ham, however both Inter (a traditionally Argentinian supporting club) and Real Madrid have been linked with the star.

Give It A Rest

It is at this point in the footballing season that there is suddenly a lot less relevent footballing literature to occupy the minds of those who live and breathe this glorious sport. The media and back-page tabloids everywhere begin to conjure up stories along the lines of "Eto'o to Fulham" or "Mourinho to switch jobs with Martin Jol" and so on. It all ends up being exceptionally confusing and hides the real transfer coups going on.

On the other side of events are these now incessant summer tours to far away continents such as Asia or North America to promote "soccer" as a worldwide brand and to hopefully sell some shirts. Mourinho himself recently described an approaching game against a Mexican side at Stanford College in Conneticut (a location that we assume can only have been chosen due to it's similarity in name to Stamford Bridge) as a "true" test for his side. This is a side who have recently ended a season by playing against the best sides in Europe, and beating most of them, and yet suddenly a US Tour is a good test for your players?

What exactly defines "pre-season"? Surely the idea of a pre-season is to bring your players back to fitness and ready for the struggles ahead. This was once the case, but any player playing 60 games a season for his club during a season, and then playing internationals and Far Eastern tours isn't really getting a rest. In that case, a tour of nations not exactly reknowned for their footballing prowess is just the ticket. It can allow you to play your lesser players, and send off your stars on a 5-star holiday with their kids, it also allows you to integrate your new players into your squad and make some cash on the side -- makes perfect sense really from the club's perspective.

It is in these pre-seasons that suddenly it emerges that the Club are more important the team. Real Madrid have been regularly criticised for their far-eastern tours, returning home to Spain jet-lagged and knackered, but having sold a few Beckham shirts to the kids in South-Korea. Manchester United too are guilty of such Tours, and Chelsea seem to think of nothing else (this club have recently denied their own supporters an open-bus celebration of the FA Cup triumph on the grounds that the Fulham council wouldn't help them out with the 250 grand required...). It seems that the business aspect of these situations take precedent, and that although the club feel it is their right to establish themselves as a brand, as a fan it just seems to take the piss.

Just give them a rest. Let Lampard go to Spain for a few weeks, or Defoe and Ledders to Magaluf, let them all have some time off and rejoice in the millions that you have earnt from being a Premiership side, from securing a European spot, from televising more games and expanding your stadiums. These players need a rest, if they don't, we're going to get more finals like the CL and FA Cup Finals, and nobody wants that.

Revenge Served Warm

They say that revenge is a dish best served cold, but for Milan that wasn't to be. With the 2005 Final still fresh on the minds of both sides, it seemed that the time for the Italian side to reep revenge on the red's of Merseyside had come sooner than anyone could have hoped for.

As fans of the beautiful game, we could not have hoped for a better final. Sure, a few weeks back everyone got excited at the prospect of Manchester United and Chelsea battling out for glory on all three fronts in 3 momentous games, however, after watching the FA Cup Final, it was clear that the Champions League warranted something a bit more, something special, something with a bit of morbo as the Spanish say. With the Final being held in the lap of the Gods in Athens, the Gods came through and gave us AC Milan vs Liverpool - Part Deux.

The build up was always going to be the best part of this Final. There was never going to be a repeat of the legendary fightback where Milan appeared to lose 100% concentration for all of six minutes, there was no Dudek and no Shevechenko either. But this time we had an in form Kaka versus a determined Gerrard and a Liverpool side that had improved in every way over the team of 2005. This time, there was morbo.

Liverpool started well, demonstrating an attacking formation and a desire to take the game to the Italians. Gerrard played off Kuyt and was all over the place, Pennant ran Jankulovski up and down the wing and Mascherano was doing a great job of containing Kaka and Pirlo. Seedorf was AWOL, and Pippo was performing a tribute to terriers everywhere by snapping away at defenders and doing his utmost to get in the referee's ear. It was rivettting stuff, and it seemed that finally, a Cup Final was going to be decided in normal time.

The goal was harsh on Liverpool, although if you believe Inzaghi apparently it was intentional. "Every now and again we manage to pull it off. We rehearse it with the manager." Pure Pippo, and here at Heaven's 11 we believe him, after all, this man is famed for goals which are unlikely to feature in any goal of the season competition. 1-0 Milan, and half-time.

In the 2nd half the game had changed. Liverpool were aware that they needed to go for it, and Milan were quite content in giving a masterclass in defending. Milan's defending left a lot to be desired for, although Nesta had a good game and made a fair few essential tackles which otherwise would've allowed Liverpool to level the score.

Gerrard went through on goal, but his tame shot was easily held by Dida. In the meantime, Benitez threw on Crouch at the expense of Mascherano, the one player who seemed to be able to stop everything Kaka attempted in the centre of the park. Within 5 minutes of his replacement, Kaka slipped a throughball to Inzaghi who rounded Pepe Reina and slotted a very classy shot into the net. At 2-0, with 10 minutes to go it seemed that it was all over.

Kuyt had other ideas. Standing at the far post, the dutchman was able to header into the back of the net to bring the scoreline to 2-1. He was arguably offside, but there was a lot of movement in the box and the decision is contestable. Fans in the epic olympic stadium were overjoyed, sensing another comeback, but this time the Milanese weren't going to fall asleep. They kept their cool, and remained focused. Very few passes went astray in those final few nervous minutes, Liverpool rushed their game and Crouch gave away a foolish foul in the buildup to a potentially threatening play. The game was over, and Milan emerged victorious.

The scenes of celebration were fantastic. Inzaghi was mobbed by his team mates while Liverpool players look dejected, and this blog felt sympathy for the likes of Carragher and Kuyt who were interviewed while still in a state of despair.

Platini has decided that from now on, trophies awarded in European Cup Finals will be handed over "amongst the fans" rather than on a platform in the centre of the pitch, a detail which added a certain old-school element evoking victors of the past. Maldini has now lifted the trophy 6 times, a total equal to that of Liverpool's entire history. Incredible.

Benitez later complained about the referee only allowing 2:51 seconds for stoppages instead of the 3 minutes indicated by the board (incidentally, as the boards only show whole numbers, are we to assume that the ref rounds up or down to the nearest whole number at his discretion? If this is the case, then Benitez hardly has grounds for complaint). There were shouts for handball in the first goal, but overall the Liverpool players seemed to admit that Milan were worthy of their medals.

Gattuso rounded things off nicely by handing the trophy over to Berlusconi before finally adding, "The defeat two years ago will stay me for a lifetime, but this is a different story. It's our turn to celebrate now."

Best in Show

We suppose that with the imminence of tonight's CL Final that we owe it to the footballing world to pass comment on this game of games. We are all being treated to a rematch of perhaps the greatest CL Final of all time. At least according to Rafa who said; ""For me, 2005 was the best final in the history of the competition."

Quite.

This blog on the other hand, doesn't think that tonight will go the same way. And frankly, although we're looking forward to the encounter as any other CL Final, we prefer to comment on it with the aid of hindsight and without a hangover. Plus we don't want to do a Lawro and predict the scoreline.