<div id="attachment_7394" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><div><figure class="external-image"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-7394" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-7394" src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/3535956135_ef07c7bdfe.jpg" alt="Will there be more to come for United?" width="500" height="201"></figure></div><p id="caption-attachment-7394" class="wp-caption-text">Will there be more to come for United?</p></div>
<p>As far as&nbsp;title winners&nbsp;go, Manchester United’s Class of 2009 have been one of&nbsp;the best. In cold, hard terms of consistency United have been absolutely incredible – 27 wins from 37 games, 87 points from 37 games and just 7 points being dropped at home&nbsp;belies a level of reliability&nbsp;unmatched since Mourinho’s glory days in the mid-2000s. Line-ups change, the opposition changes, but United win. Again and again.</p>
<p>Individually however, no-one has set the world alight: Rooney has finished brilliantly but was pretty poor until January; Ronaldo has been better than last season at times (Arsenal and Porto away&nbsp;in the Champions League, his brilliant&nbsp;goals against Villa and Blackburn)&nbsp;but drifted in and out until about March; Berbatov is the leader of the assist charts but has divided opinion about whether he is worth £32million; and Tevez has scored five times in the league this season. It would be tempting to say that Vidic has been the dominant United player, but even he has been exposed by Fernando Torres and (more disturbingly) Bobby Zamora at specific points this season. Rio Ferdinand, perhaps? He’s had a season wrecked (to an extent) by injury. PFA Player of the Year Ryan Giggs? Only 15 league starts. The strange thing about this United season is that no-one has truly dominated the season in the way that Cantona, Keane,&nbsp;van Nistelrooy, Bryan Robson et al have in the past.</p>
<p>Perhaps Ferguson himself has been the star of the show:&nbsp;with his&nbsp;rotating and tinkering like a drunk Claudio Ranieri, his shock inclusion of Fletcher and Giggs against Chelsea sparking the turning point of the season, and his clever shuffling of the defensive pack&nbsp;helping Edwin Van der Sar keep 14 consecutive clean sheets. John O’Shea has played more games this season than Wayne Rooney – which says more about his constant changing than words ever could. It would be even more appropriate&nbsp; to name him as United’s star this season as he has finally knocked Liverpool off their ‘f***ing perch’ by winning United’s 18th title, equalling Liverpool’s long-held record. With United’s title win this season they have won three titles in a row for an unprecedented second time, a feat that even Liverpool – neither&nbsp;in their Heighway heyday nor their Grobbelar Glory Days – couldn’t match. Fergie is doing better than ever, taking United to consecutive Champions League finals for the first time and perhaps on the verge of a&nbsp;(not the) Quadruple for the first time in English football history. He is the star of the Manchester United show this season.</p>
<p>He has built a squad that has coped with the loss of its best defensive&nbsp;midfielder (Hargreaves), its best right back (Brown) and its best&nbsp;central defender (Ferdinand) for large parts of the season and won the league with a game to go. He has built for the future too,&nbsp;as even if (as is rumoured) Ronaldo and Tevez leave the club, players like Rooney, Nani, Anderson, Macheda, Welbeck, Rafael, Fabio, Fletcher etc are young enough and talented enough to keep the dynasty for a third decade – Rooney and Fletcher especially seem the heir apparent to the Giggs/Scholes/Neville role of keeping the spirit of the club alive in a multi-ethnic dressing room.&nbsp;Ferdinand and Vidic are unmatched in World Football as a pairing, and&nbsp;Jonny Evans&nbsp;looks good enough to cement his position as Rio’s future replacement. Foster may not be up to replacing Van der Sar yet&nbsp;but he has time.&nbsp;</p>
<p>No individual&nbsp;may have&nbsp;set the world alight this year, but with such talent at&nbsp;their disposal, United fans can surely expect even greater peaks to be climbed by this current squad.</p>


No Star, No Matter: Bright Future In The Offing

No Star, No Matter: Bright Future In The Offing - World Soccer Talk

<div id="attachment_6817" style="width: 250px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><div><figure class="external-image"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6817" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-6817" src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/860201581_5171b72ace_m.jpg" alt="Allardyce&apos;s Arrival Has All But Staved Off Relegation" width="240" height="240"></figure></div><p id="caption-attachment-6817" class="wp-caption-text">Allardyce&apos;s Arrival Has All But Staved Off Relegation</p></div>
<p>Who else could have saved Blackburn so effortlessly? Sat second bottom of the Premier League, five points from safety&nbsp;with just 13 points from 17 games, Sam Allardyce succeeded Paul Ince as Blackburn Rovers’ manager, and in less than 20 games he has made them all but safe – almost in second gear.</p>
<p>He took Bolton up, took them into Europe&nbsp;and developed them&nbsp;into&nbsp;a club so stable that even Gary Megson can keep them afloat with ease. His over-eagerness to join Newcastle perhaps has meant that he probably&nbsp;will be firefighting with clubs like Blackburn forever, but even that “marriage made in hell” was not as bad as first seemed: Mike Ashley sacked Allardyce with the Toon in the heady heights of 12th place, and subsequent failings have shown that Big Sam’s performance –&nbsp;in the cold, hard textbook of results – was&nbsp;in fact&nbsp;a relative&nbsp;success as he seemed –&nbsp;initially at least – to be able to wring the best of Mark Viduka and&nbsp;Obafemi Martins&nbsp;(the latter’s brace&nbsp;at Bolton on opening day the highest peak of his short managership). Ashley’s&nbsp;happiness to jump into bed with the fans meant that he immediately replaced Sam with Kevin Keegan – a man who, even four years previously had looked to sign&nbsp;a host of ageing&nbsp;nineties’&nbsp;superstars for Manchester City (Robbie Fowler, Peter Schmeichel, David Seaman, Michael Tarnat, need I go on?&nbsp;) and whose work in football for three years amounted to running a childrens’ “Soccer Circus” in Glasgow. It&nbsp;was like replacing Fabio Capello as England manager&nbsp;with Glenn Hoddle – and it was shabby treatment for a manager who, whilst not putting any trees up was definitely not going to make Newcastle relegation candidates.</p>
<p>Of course there are mitigating factors: Newcastle were in a shocking run of form, and the “brand of football” issue raised its ugly head once the results started to turn. He is oft-mocked for his “agricultural” style at Bolton, but with signings like Youri Djorkaeff, Ivan Campo, Nicolas Anelka and Jay-Jay Okocha, can you play completely long-ball football? His football tends to be direct, of course, but his organisation and motivation of players is second to none – at Bolton he came away with two draws from three games at Stamford Bridge during the José era, and with consecutive wins at Old Trafford in his first two seasons in the Premier League, surely he was the man to take Newcastle to the level they had slipped from since Bobby Robson left in 2005. I guess Mr Ashley had other ideas.</p>
<p>So Sam ended up at Blackburn. What&nbsp;had become (under Ince) a&nbsp;gung-ho football team with a brittle underbelly, became a drilled, structured outfit with an underbelly made of titanium. Benni McCarthy went from the outskirts of the side to a prolific&nbsp;Premier League&nbsp;goalscorer, Jason Roberts went from an Ade Akinbiyi impression to a spirited strike partner, and Ryan Nelsen has remembered how to defend: In other words, Blackburn are now a worthy Premier League side, who, with Big Sam at the helm can perhaps look towards Europe next season – after all, since Allardyce’s arrival, they have taken 27 points from 19 games, which is European form and would place them comfortably in seventh if taken over a whole season. He is no Mourinho, no Benitez, no Ferguson, but he has sparked a remarkable revival from a team on it’s knees, and – this becoming an increasing Big Sam trademark&nbsp;– has got the best out of a (relatively) small Premier League club.</p>


Big Sam Sparks Rovers' Revival

Big Sam Sparks Rovers' Revival - World Soccer Talk

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<div id="attachment_6538" style="width: 340px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><div><figure class="external-image"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6538" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-6538" src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/3275160602_087c0b8fd11.jpg" alt="Can Gareth Southgate keep Boro up? 25 goals in 35 games says he can&apos;t." width="330" height="248"></figure></div><p id="caption-attachment-6538" class="wp-caption-text">Can Gareth Southgate keep Boro up? 25 goals in 35 games says he can&apos;t.</p></div>
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<p>With West Brom’s unfortunate defeat at White Hart Lane yesterday, the Baggies are all but relegated with 28 points from 35 games leaving them 6 points behind Hull City – with the Yorkshiremen having a game in hand.&nbsp;Barring a miracle, Tony Mowbray’s outfit will be playing Championship football next season, but who will join them?</p>
<p>Sitting second bottom, Middlesbrough are in deep, deep trouble: 3 points from safety, a disjointed side bereft of confidence and a misfiring winger with perhaps one eye on a summer move to Spurs. Of course, there is a very obvious scapegoat in £12m man Afonso Alves, whose goals to games ratio (worse than 1 in 4) is quite frankly shocking for a fox-in-the-box, but it would be unfair to blame all of Boro’s goalscoring woes on the Brazilian – his&nbsp;swift penalty area movement and cool finishing is not suited to Stewart&nbsp;Downing’s crossing from deep, as diagonal crosses towards Alves are wasted due to his lack of aerial ability – when Yakubu and Mark Viduka were with the Teesiders, Downing could cross high balls&nbsp;from a position level with the corner of penalty area safe in the knowledge that Viduka and Yakubu could compete in the air, but with Tuncay Sanli and Alves on the end of his crosses, there is no presence and most crosses from that area are dealt with comfortably. On the other flank, Jeremie Aliadiere strikes me as&nbsp;someone who is uncomfortable&nbsp;playing on the right, and while he does a moderately effective job – works hard, the odd run – he neither seems to like&nbsp;holding his position out there, nor&nbsp;offer much in the way of penetration,&nbsp;and so, if I was Southgate I would seriously consider playing Marvin Emnes from that position, as not only does he offer pace and will look to get in behind the full back, he will complement Downing and offer the kind of variation that has been lacking from Middlesbrough’s play.</p>
<p>At the back they have not been too bad – David Wheater has been steady if unspectacular, and Robert Huth seems to be at home at this level – but the midfield has been another area for concern: a central midfield pairing of Matthew Bates and Gary O’Neil is very industrious, and against Manchester United yesterday they played very well in the first half, hustling the champions effectively and limiting United to few chances, but they don’t offer something different that a team needs at this level – they can pass a ball over 5-10 yards comfortably, and Boro keep possession relatively well, but they aren’t the best at threading passes through defences for the mobile Tuncay, King and Alves to run onto – therefore, I would definitely play Julio Arca, especially for a crunch, must win game like the forthcoming match at St James’ Park.</p>
<p>Their opponents a week on Monday, Newcastle, are probably in worse shape than their neighbours: While they are a place above Boro, they have scored just one goal in 5 games under Alan Shearer, and while there has been a lot of fuss about their crucial ‘winnable&nbsp;games at home’, they have won just 4 games at home all season and there squad is ageing, inbalanced and desperately lacking in confidence.</p>
<p>To me, this Newcastle side looks like a really good side…&nbsp;about 5 years ago. Players like Duff, Butt, Owen, Viduka and&nbsp;Smith have all&nbsp;had careers ravaged by injury and are not even nearly the same force that they were circa 2004, when they were all Champions League quality and above. Like Middlesbrough, their midfield is a hub of activity and industry, but none of Butt, Smith or Nolan are ever going to unlock a Premier League defence with a flash of quality or a clever through ball on a regular basis, and with their one truly exciting creative talent, Jonas Gutierrez, not really sure of his best position, Newcastle have struggled to feed their talented strikers – Martins, Viduka, Owen, (less so) Carroll and&nbsp;Lovenkrands&nbsp;– on a regular basis and have struggled to score consistently. Their players have plenty of endeavour, but, as shown so palpably by Portsmouth on Monday, they do not threaten defences consistently, so when chances come their way they are snatched at – as they may never come again.</p>
<p>Defensively, Fabricio Coloccini is far too inconsistent at this level, and while at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge he has orchestrated fabulous defensive displays, on a number of other occasions he has let his team down with Cacapa-esque moments of madness to concede crucial goals. Sebatien Bassong looks like a talented defender, but there is only so well that he can play alongside the inconsistent Coloccini and a left winger – Duff – playing at left back. Habib Beye has been injured quite a lot, and his reassuring presence has been negated by Shearer’s tinkering – perhaps necessary tinkering – and he has struggled to assert himself at the back. Steve Harper strikes me as Shay Given-lite, as he is a very good shot-stopper, but is perhaps not big enough to be effective at dealing with crosses – top class keepers are not sat on a bench for nearly 20 years.</p>
<p>Hull have collapsed. With 1 win in 18 games, they have slipped dramatically to the relegation zone, being just 3 points above the North-East clubs in 18th and 19th. When confidence is high, poor players can play above their station and overperform consistently, but when confidence is low, the same players can play at below their normal levels. The latter is happening to Hull. Players like Dean Marney, Ian Ashbee and Andy Dawson were extremely effective during wins at the Emirates and White Hart Lane in early autumn, but with Geovanni’s influence waning, these players (especially Ashbee and Marney) are having to take on more responsibilty and create goalscoring chances for the likes of Manucho and Cousin, and they aren’t good enough. Hull aren’t conceding too many goals, a testament to Michael Turner and Matt Duke, who have both shone this season, but The Tigers have scored just two goals in 5 games, and have lost crucial away games to Sunderland and Middlesbrough. Phil Brown, hailed as a ‘breath of fresh air’ earlier in the season, is now being widely ridiculed for his dodgy tactics and his dodgier fake tan, but he may still keep them up – a win next week against Stoke would give them a fighting chance, but as it is now, I would fancy the winner of Boro/Toon next Monday to leap-frog Hull at some point before the end of the season, leaving the Yorkshire club in the relegation zone.</p>
<p>Sunderland are not out of it either. Pathetic performances at West Brom and against Everton have left them 4 points outside of the relegation zone, and with key players – Cissé, Jones, Richardson and Malbranque – being distinctly out of form, they&nbsp;will be&nbsp;in trouble if they do not find at least a couple of draws out of the games against Bolton, Portsmouth and Chelsea. With the players at Sbragia’s disposal however, they should just about be safe, as players like Andy Reid and Kieran Richardson are very capable of producing something when it matters.</p>
<p>As for my Two Cent’s Worth, I think that Newcastle and Hull are looking the most likely to go, as both team’s inability to find wins from anywhere may be their achilles heel, especially with their respective run-ins both being pretty difficult. Then again, who’s to say that Middlesbrough will ever score again?</p>


Who Will Go Down?

Who Will Go Down? - World Soccer Talk

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Stephen Lucey

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Who Will Go Down?