Depending on your school of thought, you may view Harry Redknapp as an expert football manager or a man who can only buy his way to success.

On the positive side, Redknapp’s man-management skills means that the whole club and team plays for him, a passion which can only help in the position QPR are in. He has also brought in a few players that are looking better than anyone former QPR manager Mark Hughes signed. Players such as Andros Townsend and Jermaine Jenas — who played for Redknapp at Tottenham — are playing very well right now, and were both came on free transfers to Loftus Road. His eye for players was exactly what was needed at Queens Park Rangers. This will give QPR fans hope that they can stay up this season.

On the downside, Harry Redknapp’s squads are not rotated enough. This is the reason why many teams that Redknapp has managed suffer an awful loss of form towards the end of the season because the players get tired. This lack of rotation, coupled with his strong personality, tends to alienate some players. A few negative attitudes can derail a push to remain in the Premier League. Redknapp’s lack of tactical flexibility is also a problem. When he finds his team, he then finds and sticks with a formation. While this works incredibly well in some games, it doesn’t always work. This causes a varied form book and allows teams to figure out how to play against Redknapp’s sides. Injuries can also easily put paid to any good runs Redknapp’s teams have had. The evidence is with his time at other clubs.

What do you think about Harry Redknapp? Do you think he will help Queen’s Park Rangers beat relegation?

This was a debate that came up recently, and I was keen to attempt to create my own current Premier League XI thinking that it would be a really easy task. It wasn’t.

I will endeavour to support my choices for each position, but I would love to hear a case for other players who I have either simply forgotten or because I have focused too much on one aspect of their game. Regardless this list is not set in stone.

Goalkeeper:

My choices are between Joe Hart, Petr Cech and current golden boy Asmir Begovic. My vote goes to Cech. Out of the three, he has a better all round game. He takes crosses, organizes the defense well, and is a wonderful shot stopper. After regaining some of his form, Cech also doesn’t make many mistakes. Added to this, Cech has maintained a level at the top for years, winning the Champions League and Premier League with a trophy cabinet that far outstrips my other two contenders for this position. His consistency is a major reason I have Cech as the goalkeeper of my team.

Right Back:

This is a really tough one at the moment. My nominations for this position include Rafael, Kyle Walker and Glen Johnson. After much soul searching, my choice has to be Branislav Ivanovic. He is both solid defensively and good going forward. Ivanovic’s strength, defensive awareness and training as a centre back all give him good defensive stature and perhaps makes him the most solid defensively.

Ivanovic is also an asset at set pieces in both boxes.

Centre back:

The first centre back is an easy choice I don’t think many will disagree with — Vincent Kompany. He’s commanding, has great positioning, a calm collected personality, and a half decent left foot. Kompany is everything you want from a title-winning centre back and certainly inspired Manchester City to the Premier League number one spot last season despite being one of their cheaper purchases recently.

Centre back:

The other centre back is more difficult. There are so many choices. To name but a few, Rio Ferdinand is forcing his way back in, as are Thomas Vermaelen, Nemanja Vidic and Jan Vertonghen.

This is even more complicated by the decision of whether to make this the best ‘team’ or just the best individual XI. The general rule for a team is to pick one physical centre back, the role I have given to Kompany, and one more technical centre, this would rule out Vidic for this other role. Ferdinand, though strong recently, has been poor these last few seasons. This has been evidenced by the emergence of Jonny Evans as a United regular. Finally this brings the options down to two and my choice will be Vertonghen almost by process of elimination. Vermaelen’s form has been shocking recently, but I will defer my decision to the Belgian coaches who prefer Vertonghen at centre back and play Vermaelen at left back.

Left back:

As an Englishman, this is really the only position I have any joy writing about from a national perspective. The two choices are Ashley Cole and Leighton Baines. The only problem here is which Englishman to choose. My preference is Ashley Cole, who is good defensively and possesses better pace than Baines. Also Cole has cut it at the highest level for many years, both at Arsenal and Chelsea. Baines, though, has an undeniably amazing left foot and good link up play with Steven Pienaar on the Everton left flank. For me Cole’s all round game is what places him at the top of the English Premier League.

Right Midfield:

Moving into the midfield things get even harder to figure out. This for me is an easy choice that will become clearer with the rest of the midfield. As I know, this player has played here many times. My choice is therefore David Silva, the Spanish wizard with a wand as his left foot. It is an easy choice in one way; Silva is one of the best attacking players in the Premier League. He is also willing to work incredibly hard from this position, something that was integral in Manchester City’s win of 6-1 over Manchester United last season. From here Silva can link up the attack, coming inside and out.

Centre Midfield:

The first choice is easy. It is without a doubt Yaya Toure, arguably the best player in the Premier League right now.

Toure is strong, powerful, deceptively quick and is a good passer and striker of the ball. Toure is the full package and was the first name on this list.

Centre Midfield:

I can’t think of anyone more dynamic to join Toure in the midfield than Jack Wilshere. Wilshere has a great left foot and is the stand out player in what can be considered a rather drab Arsenal team. He has great fight and spirit, which is perhaps my favorite part of his game. It would be unwise, however, to ignore his fantastic left foot, vision, driving runs and ability to find space. Wilshere is both the perfect person to assist with the defensive duties and to pick up the ball from the defense to propel attacks forward.

Left Midfield:

Over recent weeks this decision has been made for me. The best left sided midfielder in the league is easily Gareth Bale. He has put aside some of his inconsistency to become one of the best in the league right now. I fail to see how anyone who has watched Gareth Bale play recently could argue this decision. This is perhaps my second easiest choice behind Toure.

Attacking Midfield:

I have chosen an attacking midfielder rather than a second striker because there is more talent in this position in the Premier League right now than upfront. A 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 is also the favoured formation of the world. My choice in this role is Juan Mata. It is a difficult one since there are so many players who can play here.

Having not been completely convinced with Mata when he originally came to Chelsea, he has without a doubt proved me completely wrong. Still young, he has the time to improve and would work well with the other choices I have selected because he prefers a passing game. Mata, as well as providing crucial assists, is perfectly capable of scoring goals to help his team.

Striker:

This choice was difficult to make. In the end, I decided you could not exclude a player of quality in red hot form because you do not like his personality. For all the play-acting and nastiness that he shows on the pitch, the striker with the best form right now is Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan has such a massive impact on games for Liverpool and has been scoring important goals with ease right, left and center. It’s impossible to leave him out of my side.

As much as I would have liked, I could not fit in Robin van Persie, Ryan Giggs or any Manchester United footballer into my side.

What’s your current Premier League starting XI? Post yours in the comments section below.

It is an assumption made over and over again in soccer circles. “I’ve been supporting them for forty years, so I know what is right.” Or it’s “You didn’t know what it was like, you weren’t there.” Does this really mean that someone is more fanatical? Or even has a better knowledge of the game in fact?

As an Arsenal fan, it is an argument I hear quite a lot. Whenever someone younger defends Wenger you hear “You’ve only known Arsenal with Wenger, how could you possibly have an opinion?” But you have to go back a way to find Arsenal fans who do know anything other than Wenger. As he began managing Arsenal in 1996, in reality no one born after 1990 is really going to remember before Wenger and as a result anyone under the age of 23 has really only known Wenger in charge. It’s impossible for anyone this age to know any different than Wenger, but they are not incapable of using Google. Even a quick search will tell anyone that doesn’t know that every team has its ups and downs during their history. Usually. supporting a club for twenty years gives you some kind of recognition with your fellow fans, but at the moment Arsenal is a special case. In fact those who have stuck with Arsenal for their seven, and probably eight, trophy less years are going through a time where Arsenal are hard to support and those who stick around are probably the true Arsenal fans.

With Chelsea the argument is much similar. “You were not around before the Abramovich years so you’re not a real fan.” But then again as Abramovich took over in 2003, less and less people will have been around before Roman Abramovich bought the club. Who would have wanted to be any way? Since 2003 Chelsea have won nine major trophies – the UEFA Champions League, the Premier League 3 times, the FA Cup (4 times) and the League Cup twice.

With the introduction of the Internet, anyone can know anything about any club. No one really needed to be there to know what happened. Obviously they needed to be there and feel the atmosphere or the depression whichever club and whatever time they are looking at. It means, though, that everyone in football can know the same amount no matter what age they are. Facts and figures can be looked up, and people can read other accounts of people who were there. The point being that people who are older, especially soccer fans, do not automatically know more anymore.

Undeniably people will make the argument about glory supporters and those who swap their team at a moment’s notice; the game is rife with it. This is not something that will stop though and if they are funding your club by paying for merchandise and maybe even at the turnstile, I would not complain too much about them. Sometimes their knowledge and loyalty maybe lacking and this is annoying but it is not the true young fans that should be targeted by this kind of assumption.

Deriding someone’s opinion for being a younger fan could deny the game some of its most avid supporters, those who are not jaded by the beautiful game. Yet who turn up time after time. In Arsenal’s case there are plenty of better arguments to oust Wenger, so this one does not really need to be used. It quite frankly makes people look a bit stupid because they don’t have any arguments to use instead, and seem just as bad as those who show blind faith towards people in football.

So does being older make you a better fan? No, the answer to being a better fan lies somewhere else, in the amount that you watch the games, the amount you take part in the club’s fan base and the amount you defend them and support them when they need it. Anybody of any age can do this and they should not be put off by dismissive comments.