How the mighty Man U have fallen

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I usually do not blog too much about other clubs, unless I am mocking them in a sarcastic manner. But this blog is a little bit different, as whilst it is about Man U, it is also relatable to Arsenal.

Last night Liverpool hosted Man U in what has to be one of the dullest Premier League games of all time. Littered with pointless fouls – there were 5 in the first 4 minutes – the game never got going. It was supposedly going to be watched by a billion people around the globe, an advert for the Premier League. It would have sent a billion people to sleep.

ISIS will be forcing its captives to watch re-runs of the game with toothpicks keeping their eyelids open as it’s latest form of torture. Having to re-watch the game over and over again will have people screaming to be burnt alive or drowned in a cage.

It is the media response to the game that has surprised me.untitled

BBC Sport’s Chief Football writer, Phil McNulty, described the game as ‘vintage Jose Mourinho’. That he was ushering in a new Man Utd way. Others, on TV, radio and in the written press, have gone out of their way to praise Mourinho’s tactics, describing it, amongst as other things, as a master class from Mourinho.

Whilst Gary Neville said the game gave him doubts over Man U’s title credentials this season he was apparently encouraged.

They nullified Liverpool, grinding out a 0-0 draw. Playing ultra defensive, breaking up the play at every opportunity. Mourinho and Man U set themselves up to not lose the game, rather than win. Hardly any touches in the opponents box, limited position, a single shot on target and their 1st corner in the 82nd minute.

Now had this been David Moyes’ Sunderland, Tony Pullis’ West Brom, or any Sam Allardyce side in the last 20 years, I would fully understand the praise. A lowly side, battling out for a draw against a title challenger.

But this was not a bottom 3 side fighting for their life, it was Man U, the most successful team in English football history.

Victory last night for Man U by 2 goals would have seen them actually leap frog their great rivals in the league. They would have been 4th in the league, 3 points off top. Not bad for a side in apparent turmoil.

A 0-0 draw has left them in 7th place. 3 points behind Liverpool, 5 points behind the league leaders. Rather than getting praise for an underwhelming performance, their should be criticism for Jose Mourinho who last night conceded the title. By not going for the win, he showed that he does not believe Man U are title contenders. He is not even aiming for top 4. He was happy with a draw.

What yesterday showed is why Man U are playing on a Monday night on a Champions League week. They were awful. And this shows how Man U have fallen.

In 2012/13 they were Champions for the 5th time in 7 years. They had not finished outside the top 2 in 8 seasons. The last time they finished below 3rd was in 1991. And here they were, putting 10 men behind the ball, hoofing the ball forward, not interested in scoring, happy for a draw that kept them 7th.

25 years of not being out of the top 3, they have now failed to break into the top 3 in the last 3 seasons. The way they set up, the way they played Monday, it does not look like they will make top 3 this season. And yet we should be celebrating Mourinho?

After their title win in 2012/13, Fergie left Man U, and since then things have gone to pot. And this is where the Arsenal stuff comes in.

Firstly in came David Moyes. The British manager given a chance. He spent a summer trying to sign central midfielders, got turned down by everyone, and ended up with Marouane Fellaini from his old club, Everton. And that was it.

Including the January signing of Juan Mata, Moyes spent £68m, was sacked in April, Giggs shagged his brothers misses and they finished 7th.

Next up was Louis van Gaal. The managerial genius who once substituted his goal keeper before a penalty shoot out. He spent the good part of £250m on players, and his only game changing tactic was to hoof it up to David Moyes’ Fellaini in the last 10 minutes in the hope he headed one in. 4th and 5th and an FA Cup finish. Not a disaster, but not the success Man U fans desire, expect, and have gotten used to.

He was soon out the door when Jose Mourinho came in.

Mourinho has spent £150m over the summer. Including a world record transfer fee on Paul Pogba, who has since gone missing. His key players have been Moyes’ Fellaini and Moyes’ Mata. The result of his investment and genius has left Man U in 7th place, celebrating a 0-0 draw against Liverpool as if they have just beaten Barcelona in a Champions League Final.

Four summers since Fergie left, nearly half a billion spent by 3 managers and for what? To fail to break into the top 4 in all but one season. To play like Stoke City under Pullis or Bolton under Allardyce. 10 men behind the ball. Hoofing it to Zlatan Ibrahimovic who has no pace to run onto it. And the manager being labelled a genius for overseeing the dull game.

How the mighty have fallen.

There is a stark warning for Arsenal in what is happening at Man U. Both for fans and the board alike.

In van Gaal and Mourinho, they got in two manager who, on paper, were at the top of their game. They have given them all the resources they need to be successful. Both have spent the f**king money. And it has got them very little. A single FA Cup in 4 years and playing for a 0-0 draw away from home against a rival.

The time is coming when Arsene Wenger will leave Arsenal. But him leaving, and the new manager spending £100m+ a season will not guarantee success. It will not automatically make Arsenal champions. It will not even guarantee us top 3.

Man U have gone from perennial title challengers to mid table battlers in the space of 3 years. Only Leicester’s fall from grace has been grander in recent years. And spent £500m for the privilege.

The fact the media are going so OTT praising them for a dull 0-0 draw shows just how far Man U have fallen.

Keenos

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Oxlade-Chamberlain – How close is he to leaving Arsenal?

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“Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain refuses to rule out move away from Arsenal”

That was the sensationalist head line that materialised from Oxlade-Chamberlain’s appearance with his dad on Goals on Sunday.

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Before we get into the meat of this blog, let’s deal with a little bit of veg. Here is what Oxlade-Chamberlain actually said;

“I’d be lying if I wasn’t going to sit here and say that it has crossed my mind that I need more game time,” Oxlade-Chamberlain told Sky Sports. “As a footballer, you want to play every game. Me being myself, I’m not happy when I’m not playing.

“There is going to come a time in my career, and I think I’m approaching that, when I do need to be getting more regular football. But my focus completely and utterly now is on playing for Arsenal and still trying to break into the team when I get the opportunity, and help out if I have to come off the bench.”

“My sole aim for now is to help Arsenal and keep pushing myself to play in this team, because I love being at Arsenal. It’s a great club, it’s a great team and I’ve got a lot of faith in the team,” he said. “So I just want to keep focusing on that.

“But there is that in my mind that I do want to get more game time. There comes a time in your career where you have to re-evaluate things and think, ‘Is that going to be here or elsewhere?’

“I’m not there at the moment, I’m fully focused on this season, playing my part in that. When you get to the end of the season, just like managers do where they re-evaluate their team, players re-evaluate their personal situation, and I’ll do that at the end of the season.”

What he has said, and shown, is that he is a mature young man who is focused on his career. He could easily sit on the bench for Arsenal for the next 5 years, picking up a big wage, living the easy life, going Faces, Nu-Bar or wherever these young footballers go these days when they are average players (usually at Spurs) and want to go on the smash and pick up easy girls.

Oxlade-Chamberlain wants to play football. He wants to become the best that he can. He has not refused to rule out a move from Arsenal, but instead refused to accept sitting on the bench. He is clearly happy at Arsenal, but not happy about not playing. So let’s not go OTT with the “Oxlade-Chamberlain says ‘play or me or lose me’” stuff.

But what actually now for the career of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain?

He joined Arsenal for an initial payment of £12m from Southampton a few days short of his 18th birthday. He came with nearly as much hype as fellow Southampton academy prospect Theo Walcott. In fact, the rumours were he was better than Walcott.

In 2011, Walcott was under extreme pressure at Arsenal, from fans and media alike. He was 22 and struggling. As quick as he was, accusations were being thrown around that he lacked a football brain, could not cross, was poor technically, and his time at Arsenal was coming to an end.

A Southampton season ticket holder friend of mine described Oxlade-Chamberlain as “better technically than Walcott, not as much pace, but a better all round player”. And early evidence proved him to be correct.

A video posted to YouTube a few months after he had signed for Arsenal certainly gave a lot to be excited about.

March 2012, he put in his best performance in an Arsenal shirt to date. A fantastic performance in the Champions League against AC Milan, which saw Arsenal come so close to overturning a 4-0 deficit form the first leg. He was just 18.

Very much like Jack Wilshere, who’s best performance in an Arsenal shirt also came as a teenager in the Champions League, he has since gone on to disappoint. Unlike Wilshere, it is not just down to injury.

Now before you all start angrily replying on Facebook and Twitter “another youngster ruined by Le Fraud Wenger”, let’s stop chatting bollocks. Enough youngsters have come through over the years which show that Wenger does not ruin youngsters. It is merely a narrative created to suit an agenda of some very bitter people.

So what did go wrong with Oxlade-Chamberlain? Well he just did not progress.

He always struggled for fitness, always looking like he was puffing out of his arse after 60 minutes, always struggled to put a run of 5 starts together, the signs were there early on.

There was also always question marks over his best position. You get the feeling that he always felt he was better off playing in the middle, behind a striker, but with the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil ahead of him, he usually found himself out wide. At which point he then drifted into the middle, getting in others way.

Oxlade-Chamberlain can beat a man for fun. It is what happens after he beats the man that causes the problem. He would then try and beat another. Then another. Until he gets to the point that he gets tackled. He would always try to beat one man too many.

Rather than beat the man, and play a simple pass to keep the play going, he would end up losing the ball, play breaking down. And it materialised that his crossing was no better than Theo Walcott, and his finishing worse.

He is in his 7th season at Arsenal. And has scored just 8 league goals in that time. The output from him is clearly not good enough.

Last season, he lost his place to Joel Campbell. This season we have seen the development of Alex Iwobi that is keeping him out of the first team.

What the development of these two has shown is just how average Oxlade-Chamberlain currently is. How little he has progressed.

Iwobi is just 20 years old, and is putting in more consistent performances, stringing together more games, than Oxlade-Chamberlain ever did.

He beats a man, plays a simple ball, before finding space to receive it once more. It is no surprise Iwobi is ahead of Oxlade-Chamberlain in the pecking order. He is a better, more effective player than Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Oxlade-Chamberlain can do with looking at Iwobi and Campbell. Work out why they got in the team ahead of him. Their selfless play, their fitness, their desire.

Over the summer Arsene Wenger showed a ruthless streak. Selling Serge Gnabry to Germany, loaning out Joel Campbell to Spain. Whilst Oxlade-Chamberlain might try and engineer his own way out of Arsenal at the end of the season, there is also a high chance that he might be pushed.

If Oxlade-Chamberlain really does want a future at Arsenal, it is down to him, and only him. He is the master of his own destiny. If he does not prove himself when given the chance, he will soon find himself at West Ham.

Of course, he has already showed his desire to play football. and if he finds himself still struggling to break through at the end of the season, maybe a move to West Ham or the like will do him good, will re-energise his career. Playing week in week out for 90 minutes allowing him to prove himself.

Oxlade-Chamberlain days at Arsenal look to be numbered.

Keenos

 

Granit Xhaka – the midfield “hardman” Arsenal have missed 

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For too long it was said that Arsenal miss an edge. A nasty side. A player able to participate in the dark arts. That they are too busy playing perfect football, they do not do enough dirty work. 

How often do you watch Super Soccer Sunday on Sky Sports and hear the commentator say he has taken a booking for the team there.Often. 

And it is usually for the same sort of challenge. A winger running away from the opponent, on the half way line, with defensive team mates out of position.  You take the player down, give away a free kick in a non-dangerous area, and take the booking. Despite it being blatant cheating, the commentators commend the fouler for taking one for the team. 

I have even watched Match of the Day in the past when a player has not bought down an opponent on the half way line, and the likes of Danny Murphy have said he should have bought him down and taken the booking there. Basically condoning cheating.

It is the side of the game Arsenal have not done for many years. Whether this was by design – Arsene Wenger wanting to play perfect & fair football – or due to our players just being too nice – the likes of Mikel Arteta & Aaron Ramsey. We always just seemed poor at giving away the good fouls. 

Then we have the weekend. The Swansea player was clear. Granit Xhaka was a beaten man. The score was 3-2. Xhaka had a choice; bring him down and take the booking, or let his opponent go risking a chance to score an equaliser. 

A friend of mine always played football with the following philosophy. The ball or the man can go past you, but never both. And that is what clearly went through Granit Xhaka’s mind. The ball was gone, but the man wasn’t.

It was a blantant yellow card. Re was unlucky to see red. I don’t care what people say about ‘rule changes’, that challenge would have happened up and down the country this weekend, committed 100+ times in all standards of football, and only one man would have seen red for it. Granit Xhaka. 

The media have responded with their usually hypocritical self. 10 years of saying Arsenal are too soft, that we don’t do the dark arts of the game well, we finally have a player who does something cynical, and they are up in arms about it. 

I have heard radio presenters say “Granit Xhaka nearly cost Arsenal the game” (in fact he stopped a chance). Others have written that he is a liability. That he does not have the calm head for Premier League football.

The reality is that sort of challenge in that area of the pitch is exactly the calm head and awareness needed for Premier League football.

It was not the rush of blood to the head that the Daily Mail calls it. Xhaka knew exactly what he was doing. He was cool, calm and calculated. 

So Xhaka has had 8 red cards in two years. On the face of it, it looks like there is a problem. But statistics can be manipulated to suit an article. Let’s manipulate them another way.

Yesterday was his 1st red card in club football since he was sent off for BorussiaMonchengladbach on 20th December 2015. So he had not been sent off for his club for nearly a year. For a defensive midfielder that screams out “disciplined” to me.

Those 8 red cards that The Mail scream about are in fact the only 8 red cards he has received in his career for club and country. A career that started in 2011. So 8 red cards in 6 years. 

At the minute he averages a red card every 25 games. That is perhaps a little high, but no higher than the likes of Roy Keane or Patrick Vieira – I remember once Vieira getting sent off twice in the 1st two games of the season!

So Granit Xhaka is not the clumsy liability who has a discipline problem that the press make him out to be, but the midfield enforcer willing to do the dirty work that the press have long said Arsenal miss. 

Xhaka just got unlucky on Saturday. And the press have jumped on it because they have an anti-Arsenal agenda. 

Keenos