World Football Postulant

Owen Hargreaves had been expected to return to Manchester United’s lineup today against Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Super Cup.  Although Alex Ferguson was going to use the exhibition as an opportunity to get the England international some playing time, the midfielder has been ruled out of today’s match after his knee was deemed not ready for the match.  Having already ruled himself out of England’s internationals next week, Hargreaves will have two more weeks to get fit for Manchester United’s trip to Anfield on August 13.

Continue Reading »

Michael Ballack hurt his foot against Portsmouth on August 14 and had to leave the match.  He played last week, though it seems he probably should not have, as Chelsea has sufficient depth to prevent aggrevating injuries,  Now Ballack will be out for two weeks, missing Sunday’s match against Tottenham as well as Germany’s two World Cup qualifiers.

It is an injury which, like Steven Gerrard’s, seems convenient.  Continue Reading »

I got too busy yesterday to publish my thoughts on Shaun Wright-Phillips moving to Manchester City, though I just updated American Soccer Reader with the story.

The move came about pretty quickly.  Not so much the Wright-Phillips moved from Chelsea-part.  That seemed to be a given all summer, and it was somewhat surprising when, over the last two weeks, it seemed Wright-Phillips would not be moving.  If anything, he looked to play less under Scolari than he had last season.  But this week rumors regarding Everton and Manchester City surfaced, and while they were initially denied by Wright-Phillips, the winger moved on Thursday.

Continue Reading »

After Liverpool’s defeat of Standard Liège, it was announced that Steven Gerrard would undergo surgery Thursday morning to correct a groin problem that has bothered him for the last month. The Reds’ captain decided to play through the pain this weekend against Middlesbrough as well as tonight, though against the Belgian champions he was a none factor and Rafa Benitez probably would have been better served with somebody else in the lineup. That Liverpool does not have somebody to fill that spot may have contributed to the decision to play Gerrard, and thanks to the upcoming break in the club schedule for World Cup qualifiers, Liverpool should only have to go one match without Stevie G.

Continue Reading »

Manchester City center back Micah Richards had to be stretched off the pitch on Sunday after knocking heads with partner Tal Ben Haim. What looked like a painful but unremarkable clash of heads became serious when Richards fell to the field and lost consciousness within seconds of the collision. The England international spent the night in the hospital.

Thankfully, it looks like Richards will be able to play Manchester City’s UEFA Cup tie against FC Midtjylland on Thursday. Continue Reading »

Manchester United fans may want to bemoan their club’s inability to get three points in their opener at Old Trafford, but solace can be found 930 miles to the southeast, where another storied European club was held to a tie in the home opener of their title defense.

Without three of their best players, FC Bayern Munich held on for a 2-2 victory over Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga opener on Friday,. Munich was playing without leading scorer Luca Toni, German Footballer of the Year Franck Ribery, or their best defender, Martin Demichelis. In other words: It happens.

The Red Devils got the benefit of Newcastle playing without their captain, Michael Owen, but Manchester United were still without Cristiano Ronaldo (injury, long-term), Carlos Tevez (bereavement), Nani (suspension), Anderson (Olympics), and Owen Hargreaves (injury) - all players that would have been expected to contribute in attack. That they were still able to create more and better opportunities throughout the match should be encouraging to Alex Ferguson and his supporters.

The lack of a cutting edge was, however, noticeable. Wayne Rooney played the whole match, whereas he was once thought to be out recovering from an illness acquired in Africa, but he lacked his world-class form, and it was evident when he was unable to make himself dangerous with the ball at his feet around the box. Frazier Campbell had three strong chances and should have had a goal early, but Manchester United’s only goal came when Darren Fletcher, two minutes after Newcastle went ahead off an Obafemi Martins header, guided a Ryan Giggs cross into the net. It was Fletcher’s way of evening the scales after he left Martins alone for a goal off a Magpies’ corner. After twenty-four minutes, the match had it final score.

Giggs was United’s best player during his sixty minutes on the pitch, a good news-bad news proposition for the Devils. The good news is the legendary left winger, who is thought to be in his final season at Old Trafford, looks able to contribute, where many had wondered what he had left in the tank. The bad news for Manchester United is that he was their best player, something (at best) peculiar for a European championship team. It was one example of how Manchester United’s injuries and absences had taken a toll on the pitch.

The injuries for the champions were not limited to before the match. Michael Carrick, who had been named to Fabio Capello’s England national team for Wednesday’s friendly against the Czech Republic, left with an ankle injury and will be out for three weeks. He has been replaced by Tottenham’s Jermaine Jenas for Wednesday, but with Owen Hargreaves still suffering from knee problems, it’s unclear Ferguson will be able to replace his holding midfielder as easily.

Ryan Giggs was not substituted because of age, form or fatigue; rather, he also suffered an injury and had to be removed. At the 2/3 mark of the match, Giggs left the match with a right hamstring injury which will also see him sidelined around three weeks. Late in the second half, center back Nemanja Vidic injured his knee with a supreme effort to get his head on a corner kick. The ball ended up going off the crossbar, and Vidic finished with a noticeable limp after hurting his right knee.

At the end of the match, names like Campbell, Rafael de Silva, and Rodrigo Possebon joined reserves like Fletcher and John O’Shea in United’s side, and while it was a team that was still able to trouble a Newcastle side that played over the last fifteen minutes as if to preserve their point, it was not enough to get a second goal. Newcastle’s two Argentinian imports saw to that.

The Magpies came into the season as the Premiership’s worst returning defense, but summer acquisitions Jonas Gutierrez (right midfield) and Fabricio Coloccini (center back) had a huge impact in preventing the champions’ a second goal. Gutierrez was the match’s best player, having a unparalleled activity rate between the boxes, an adept defensive sense that broke up many Red Devil attacks, and a couple of moments in attack that made him mildly dangerous. Coloccini was active in the middle of the back line - a rangy, physical presence who was frequently finding ways to disrupt the home side’s attack. Those two additions made a profound difference between the Newcastle that finished last season and the team that took a point from Olf Stafford on Sunday.

For Manchester United, the draw stings only because of what happened earlier in the day at Stamford Bridge. In isolation, the draw is defensible, but on the same day that Chelsea put up a 4-0 domination of Portsmouth, the draw becomes a source of worry. Again here, United can look to Germany, where Munich’s draw against Hamburg was made the more worrisome when Schalke 04, the Bundesliga’s third place team last season, dominated Hannover on Saturday. From a distance, it is difficult to convince the casual Bundesliga fan that Munich’s fortunes changed so much after two matches. With the distance of a couple of rounds of the Premiership going by, we will probably be looking on Sunday’s results with the same refrain.

In other words: it happens.

Note: This article will be edited for distribution at American Soccer Reader.

Links
Injury woes for Carrick, Giggs as United drop home points
Manchester United 1 Newcastle United 1: Fletcher spares United’s blushes as urgent need for striker intensifies
Gutierrez the type of player to light up toon
Keegan happy with United point
Magpies frustrate at Old Trafford
Carrick out of England friendly
Jenas replaces crocked Carrick
Fergie reflects on personnel problems
Fergie mulls over ‘credible’ point
Magpies frustrate United
Man Utd 1 Newcastle 1: Man Utd begin title defence in disappointing fashion
Man Utd 1-1 Newcastle: KK’s Toon stand firm
Man Utd v Newcastle stats and ratings
Rusty Manchester United held by Newcastle in opener
United held by buoyant Magpies
Frazier Campbell starts for Man United
Manchester United 1-1 Newcastle: as it happened
United begin title defence with dropped home points

By now, we should all know:  The ratio of a.) attention given to Gareth Barry’s transfer saga to b.) the positive effect on final scores either Aston Villa or Liverpool can expect to receive from his services is way out of control.  To illustrate this, I not only linked all the articles on Gareth Barry that I have access to (below, but I do this with almost every post, so it’s not that big of a deal), but I created this uber-scientific chart to illustrate the relation between contribution and attention:

As you can see, red line higher than blue line.  But don’t quote me on that.  Throughout my highly funded study, Barry remained a versatile midfielder who doesn’t score goals, is approaching the point in his career when his skill set should start dwindling - a valuable contributor to any club, for sure, but not somebody who is going to dominate any matches.

If you asked Martin O’Neill who he would most readily do without when given the choice of Barry, Ashley Young, or Gabriel Abondelyour, it will be a very short conversation.  Barry goes.  The midfielder has more in common with Nigel Reo-Coker in terms of role, scope, and contribution than either Young or Abondelyour.

I don’t think he’s an £18 million player, but Martin O’Neill only needs to find one club to agree with that evaluation to make my view wrong.  If some thought £19-£20 million was overpaying for Robbie Keane, what will they think when/if the Barry deal happens?

Speaking of the newest Red, let’s look at the same analysis done on possible-future-Barry-teammate Keane:

Keane’s overall contribution is higher than Barry’s (the guy did score 23 goals last year), but it’s still pretty far below 1 (whatever “1″ is supposed to mean here).  The attention he’s received - otherwise known as red line - is dwarfed by Barry’s.

OK - I’m getting bogged down by this high-level, academic conversation Let’s leave all this science-talk for the journals and get back to the paper talk.

The drama behind the will-he, won’t-he entailed in the Gareth Barry saga has gotten out-of-control.  He is clearly a good player, as evidenced by his increasing profile within Fabio Capello’s England men’s national team.  In May’s international friendlies, he showed the potential to form a great partnership with Steven Gerrard, sitting deeper in midfield and jumping into the attack as opportunity dictates.  He would fit in well playing behind a line of attackers featuring Gerrard, Ryan Babel, and Dirk Kuyt, working with Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso to bring the ball out of Liverpool’s end and into the attack.

While those were a lot of words dedicate to how Barry could help Liverpool, they are not words which apply exclusively to Barry.  Somebody so inclined could make the argument that the aformentioned Reo-Coker, three years younger than Barry who Aston Villa last season for £8.5 million, casts a similar shadow.  Is Gareth Bary worth upwards of £10 million more than Reo-Coker?  Middlebrough’s Stewart Downing is a different kind of midfielder but is also three years younger, would be a very interesting addition given Fernando Torres, Keane and Gerrard to target, and would probably be cheaper than Barry.  Sulley Muntari just moved to Inter for much less than £18 million.  How nice would Muntari have looked in a midfield with Gerrard and Mascherano?

As the reports continue to come in about how Martin O’Neill does not want to sell, Barry wants to move, Liverpool’s tabled another offer, et cetera, remember the evidence:  the charts in addition to the comparable players.  If Liverpool were able to get this player they have sought all summer, where would have rank amongst their players?  You’ve got Gerrard and Torres and Mascherano, the true heart of this team.  Keane’s just been added, and Babel’s a young and promising starlet.  Jamie Carragher’s got a special and important role on this team at the back.  Barry, if he came, would blend in, not stand out.  He would be the midfield Dirk Kuyt.  It’s not like this is Frank Lampard we’re talking about here.

Step back and think about how absurd this Gareth Barry-thing has gotten.  It will give you something comical (and positive) to associate with all those stories clogging up your RSS feed.

And now having written about this, I can delete all those items from my feeds.

Quotes

“Aston Villa can announce that Gareth Barry will be staying with the club following the interest from Liverpool over recent months. During discussions in the past few days, a final deadline to conclude this episode was set that all parties were aware of and agreed to. This deadline has now passed and so Gareth will remain with Villa.” - Aston Villa
“Naturally we’re all absolutely delighted that Gareth will be staying at Villa Park and relieved to find a resolution and closure to the saga.” - O’Neill
“We are still trying to sign the players that we need and if we need to sell someone now, OK, we will do so. If we can do it (the Barry deal) before the end of the transfer window, we will continue to try.” - Rafa Benitez, manager, Liverpool

Links

Barry refuses to give up on move
Barry the hatcher:  A true Villain is born
Reds urge Barry to hand in request
Villa adamant Barry is staying
O’Neill tries to close door on Barry transfer
Barry’s Liverpool move still on
Barry staying at Villa after Liverpool run out of time
Villa declare Barry move to Anfield dead
O’Neill’s relief at Barry stay
Barry stays at Villa
Reds miss deadline to sign Barry
Villa call off Barry move to Liverpool
Barry staying at Villa
Villa claim Barry is staying
Villa claim Barry stays, despite Reds interest
Liverpool hold fresh Barry talks
Reds and Villa ‘agree Barry fee’
Villa end negotiations with Liverpool over Barry