Watch Chelsea vs Birmingham LIVE right here.
LIVE MATCH STREAMING begins in short while fr...
Watch Chelsea vs Birmingham LIVE right here. LIVE MATCH STREAMING begins in short while from now
Chelsea vs Birmingham - After the comprehensive 3-1 win against West Brom at the Hawthorns Chelsea will look to build on the win and carry the same momentum ahead for the remaining six games. Birmingham lie 14th in the table and not far off from the relegation zone but having lost just one of their last six league games they have dragged themselves clear of the relegation positions.
So its a game in which they will also be looking to #$%$ at-least a point. But it promises to be a game full of action and hard tackles.
Catch all the latest team news, pre-match interviews & analysis and LIVE match Streaming right here at Chelsea FC News.
Man Utd's attack is always about - cross, cross, cross, cross, cross, cross, cross, cr...
Man Utd's attack is always about - cross, cross, cross, cross, cross, cross, cross, cross, on and on. Typical but highly effective, dangerous and fast cross ball tactics.
Carrick's pass was in fact a deep cross from left to right, aiming at Giggs. Once Giggs got around Bosingwa near the touchline, Giggs could have 2 choice: either cross it in front of goal, hoping someone would tap-in or poach it, or cut it back to in-coming and on-rushing teammates, in this case Rooney. He succeeded, and the goal was simple and easy.
Man Utd's tactics are always like this - Start with cross balls from left to right or right to left, then find a way or two to cross or cut back inside the penalty box (sometimes just outside the edge of the box). And their teammates are always ready - either waiting to poach, or find a space to receive the cut back balls.
Goals scored like this are pretty easy goals. You don't need high talent to do it. Just need a lot of practice. Practice makes perfect. They only need hardworking players to keep trying and trying to succeed.
Thus if you look at Man Utd team, they have hardworking players like Carrick, Fletcher, Park, Valencia. They are good players but not highly talented ones. Following and playing these cross ball tactics over and over again makes them highly useful to Man Utd. They won't get tired doing this.
Plus they have solid defense in Vidic, Rio, Evra, VDS, together with these hardworking players, simply make their defensive job easier.
Up front the only players that can be called talented are Rooney and Berbatov (or perhaps Nani as well I don't know). But Rooney is more useful in this cross ball tactics than Berbatov as he is faster and more energetic.
Hernandez is good, but not a highly talented type of player, just normal. But he is the fastest striker in PL thus make him highly useful to these cross ball tactics - He is fast to receive cross balls or cut back balls. Thus scoring 17 goals now is not a surprise at all. But it doesn't mean he is highly talented though. He is good. But the highly effective cross ball tactics just make him look like he is the best.
In fact these cross ball tactics make everyone of their attackers look like the best - Rooney, Nani, Berbatov, Hernandez. But if you look at some stats, more than 60% of their goals come directly from cross balls. If include some "indirect" cross balls (attack started with crosses, ended with passes, deflection, gifted own goals, cut back balls etc.), the stats could be even more appalling.
Hernandez's goals - about 80% from cross balls Rooney's goals (last season) - more than 70% from cross balls Berbatov's goals - more than 60% from cross balls Just estimated figures - directly or indirectly from cross balls.
But without these tactics, their players are not really as good as people think. And their team would not have scored so many goals as they currently have now.
And because they only need hardworking but not highly talented players who can play these tactics or system well, they only need to spend less on new, cheap players. Glazers must be very happy they have Fergie.
Fergie is a genius.
So to stop or beat Man Utd, you only need to beat one man - Fergie.
To beat Fergie, you need to break his tactics - the highly effective cross ball tactics.
Fast cross ball tactics + hardworking normal talent players + solid defense, all these are enough for them to succeed. It is their secret formula or some kind.
LOOKING FOR MANAGERS THAT WILL COMPETE AND STICK WITH THEIR TEAMS THE WHOLE YEAR. for inte...
LOOKING FOR MANAGERS THAT WILL COMPETE AND STICK WITH THEIR TEAMS THE WHOLE YEAR. for international league with live draft scheduled for Monday Night at 10 30 pm east coast time. 18 teams 3 divisions h2h non keeper. U.S DIVISION is filled,so we need 4 from Canada and 3 from somewhere outside of Cnada and the United States to fill our global division. Could expand league to 20 with enough initerest. If interested in joining our universe contact me at eddino55@yahoo.com
Actually it is not too hard to select which player will be the winner. Just take a good lo...
Actually it is not too hard to select which player will be the winner. Just take a good look at last 10 year PFA Players' Player of the year winners:
Sheringham, RVN, Henry, John Terry, Steven Gerrard, Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs and Rooney.
All these winners share one feature: They have proven themselves that they can play consistently well in EPL FOR YEARS before they finally won the honour.
The key words are - consistent and for years.
Now we look at the contenders:
Gareth Bale - 21 yr-old. Too young to be voted by peers the highest award. Plus he hasn't proven himself yet over some years. Ronaldo took 3 seasons with Man Utd be4 he was named the winner.
Nani - played well this season. But last season and seasons be4 that is a question mark.
David Silva, VDV, Hernandez and all other first season newcomers won't win it that is for sure.
Nasri - same with Nani. played well this season but wasn't outstanding seasons before this.
Berbatov - played well this season. But struggled last season.
Scott Parker and Charlie Adams - perhaps because they are English the English media want them to be contender. But Charlie Adams is newcomer to EPL. Scott Parker played well but his team are struggling with relegation for years. He won't win it unless he proved himself with stronger team.
Which leaves only 2 contenders that has proven themselves - Vidic and Tevez. Vidic - consistent and solid for years. But his votes could be shared out by both Berbatov and Nani. Plus a defender hardly win the honour.
Which then leaves only one truly worthy winner - Tevez
Tevez - played well with West Ham, Man Utd and Man City over 5 seasons. Unhappy ending with Man Utd but played so well consistently after that with Man City. He is helping to push Man City into top 4 this season. Peers (fellow footballers) rate him high. Last season contenders are Rooney, Drogba, Tevez and Fabregas but he is the only one who is "last standing" among the other three (the 3 players fading this season) and still goes strong (albeit exhausted lately). He is fully deserved the PFA award this season. If he is not the winner, then no one is full deserved.
But the problem is the English media. The media never rate him high. Perhaps they focus too much on Messi and their own beloved native English players. Because no English player stands out this season, they give the excuse by saying that "no real outstanding contenders". Typical attitude of the English media.
Which mean - If there was one, even just one, English player that played well and looked outstanding this season, the English media would definitely overrate him so highly until he gets the recognition and wins it. This season only Scott Parker and Charlie Adams stand out among the contenders. So the English media again try their best to promote them. Even if just a faint hope they will do so so that English players have better chance to win it. Typical English media.
If Tevez wins it, Tevez will become the 1st Argentina player, 1st South American player and 1st Man City player to win this highest honour. Like Mancini said - change history of English football.
But perhaps because Tevez is an Argentinian, the English media don't look like wanting him to win it.
P.S. Grand oldmen like Giggs or Scholes won't win it as they are not outstanding enough this season. Giggs won it last time because of playing so well just after Fergie switching him from winger to central midfielder role due to losing pace over age. Thus Giggs was deserved to win.
If Tevez won it, it would complete something unusual - the "threesome fearsome" of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez all won, plus EPL "grand oldman" Giggs between them. Nice huh?
Just want to list some players being recognized as underrated or overrated:
Berbatov - s...
Just want to list some players being recognized as underrated or overrated:
Berbatov - slightly overrated, but he has real skill though, albeit a bit flamboyant.
Javier Hernandez - very overrated, especially overrated by Man Utd fans. He scored about 80% of easy goals from crosses i.e. headers, poacher goals, tap-ins. Without all these crosses (Man Utd are specialist in crosses), his impact can be significantly reduced.
Rooney - Extremely overrated. Not that he is a bad player. He is good. But extremely overrated and overhyped by English Media. He scored more than 70% goals from crosses last season, just like Hernandez this season (like I said, Man Utd are crossing expert). Goals from crosses = mostly easy goals - tap-ins, headers, poaching goals. Scored a lot of easy goals and people easily think he is the best = overrated Scored a lot of easy goals + overrated by English Media = Extremely overrated.
If my grandmother were taller and faster than Rooney or Hernandez, playing with Man Utd the cross ball expert, my grandmother could easily be the season-end top scorer by scoring a lot of easy goals from crosses and easily voted the footballer of the year, as long as she were English. LOL.
Talent wise :Berbatov > Rooney > Hernandez Suitable to the team (cross ball tactics) : Rooney > Hernandez > Berbatov
Thus poor but talented Berbatov being a sub recently.
Gareth Bale - Very overrated. This young kid has potential and fast. But if he were without his speed it looks like he could be nothing. Very overrated by English Media just because the English media don't want Tevez to win the footballer of the year (PFA player's player of the year, voted by players). Neither does Fergie.
The English media always talk about Bale#$%$-trick against Inter and his "fun" on Maicon. But besides that, besides a very few games that he played well, sorry to say, he is nothing. Too young to win the PFA but the English Media want him to win it, because of one guy - Tevez.
Which come to the last footballer that almost every Man Utd fans really hate:
Tevez - underrated, and sometimes very underrated. Underrated by English media. They always use the word "workrate" to describe him but never use the word "talented". But the English media always called rooney "superb", even if rooney just scored some easy tap-ins from crosses set up easily but his teammates.
Tevez - underrated by English media as they don't want him to become the first Argentina and South America player to win the prestigious Footballer of the Year in England soil. They promote Gareth Bale - a 21 year-old kid instead without even consider that Tevez is already 3-times-in-a-row South American Footballer of the year and Brazilian League Best Player of the year. They promote the 21 year-old kid instead. They are biased enough not to want an Argie to win it. It is about time Tevez wins the honour of Footballer of the year, simply because he is fully deserved to win it compared to others.
But the English Media have other ideas, or agenda. Man Utd fans hate him and don't want that to happen as well. Fergie doesn't want him to win as well because he was not worth 25m pound two season ago. It could be embarrassing a "not worthy player" wins the highest honour.
But I don't think Tevez would care a bit about winning it or not though.
So Man U are to revolutionise the way football contracts work by putting all their stars o...
So Man U are to revolutionise the way football contracts work by putting all their stars on to pay-as-you-play deals?
Yes, I can see Man U attracting loads of star quality footballers from all around the globe by having terms and conditions like that.....NOT!
£250,000 a week at Manchester City regardless or not a penny unless you play 90 minutes and score over at Old Trafford, which do you think any sensible footballer would choose?
LMFAO
Isn't your legendary number 7 shirt currently occupied by a complete waste of space who supposedly gets performance related pay?
Man U will have to go back to the drawing board to find money saving ways so they can keep their lords and masters the Glazers in lots of lovely wonga!!!
As a life long LIVERPOOL fan. I'm glad Torres has gone tbh. On his day he is a world b...
As a life long LIVERPOOL fan. I'm glad Torres has gone tbh. On his day he is a world beater no doubt about it. But those days were getting fewer and fewer.
So thanks to Chelski for taking him off our hands lol. Oh and the six points this season : )
And i hope the mighty blades don't go down i really do.
Man Utd look invincible all the time just because one thing - they play perfect "cros...
Man Utd look invincible all the time just because one thing - they play perfect "cross passing" games all the time.
Man Utd's tactics are all about the same - cross, cross, cross, and cross, cross, cross. Arsenal play short passing games. Man Utd play cross passing games. The crossings can be variety - cross from the left, from the right, from the deep left, from the deep right etc. Sometimes they are hybrid - long crossing balls - hybrid of long balls + cross balls. Their cross passings are fast and furious, normally involved one or two men to do the crossing, like the "double crossing" from Giggs and Rooney that led to Hernendez tap-ins. Effective and pretty easy.
Perhaps Fergie got this idea from Beckham era, well, you know, Beckham was king of right cross balls.
So, because they are perfect in playing cross balls, their goals scored look easy as well, mostly easy tap-ins and poaching. That is why Rooney got so many goals last season. Berbatov got so many goals this season. Even their sub Hernandez scored so many easy goals this season. Too easy for them playing like this.
How the hell rival teams can't see this strength of Man Utd and find a way to snuff them out is unknown to me. Stupid or incapable, I don't know. Because if rival teams are smart and effective enough to snuff out their cross passing game, it could effectively kill off more than 60% of Man Utd's firepower, from the way I see it.
So, Man Utd don't need special talent (like Messi, Ronaldinho etc.) to score goals for them. They just need footballers who can do the cross passing well and the tap-ins well. So some people say most of Man Utd current players can't even survive in other teams as they don't have enough talent to play well in other teams. But they are simply just good enough to play in Man Utd - play the perfect crossing system by Fergie.
In other words, player like Hernandez is perfect for Man Utd as he is fast and can tap-in and poach goals fast, getting ahead fast on almost all the cross balls. But with his talent playing in other teams? I have my doubt that he could be overrated.
So, the perfect cross passing games make Man Utd hard to defeat. They are thus highly effective as a team, with solid defense, but individually some of their players are perhaps just ordinary. Good for them, they don't have to buy expensive highly-talented players to play well because of this cross passing system. Glazers must be the luckiest guys in the world to have Fergie.
Man Utd - all about cross, cross, cross, and cross, cross, cross.
Sorry Nando you blew it the day you signed for Chelski, Liverpool were spot on to sell you...
Sorry Nando you blew it the day you signed for Chelski, Liverpool were spot on to sell you for that price, already they have a guy who plays with a smile on his face and is a better player technically than you will ever be, in fact Suarez reminds me of you in your early games and I don't get the feeling this guy will sulk and now we have owners who are willing to take this club forward and yet you keep on talking about Liverpool , I think you know you made the wrong move and that's why you have to justify it to yourself. I hold no grudges nor do most fans at LFC because now the dust is settling we have definitely got the better in Suarez and Carroll.
Pity Yahoo like SKY have tunnel vision and can only see the prem league when it comes to v...
Pity Yahoo like SKY have tunnel vision and can only see the prem league when it comes to video. HELLO!!!!! Championship, leagues 1,2 & 3 calling Yahoo come back to the real world.
Forget club level, lets throw him into the England job and finally have a tactically adept...
Forget club level, lets throw him into the England job and finally have a tactically adept coach who can wring the best out of the #$%$ he's given. He turned the dreadful John Terry into a force to be reckoned with while at Chelsea. Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Terry, Lampard - all excelled under Mourinho.
There is no doubt that Mourinho is one of the best coaches in the world.His Technics and s...
There is no doubt that Mourinho is one of the best coaches in the world.His Technics and skills makes him extra-ordinary when coaching.He has leadership qualities and can influence player in the field of play.However,i don't see him have any chances of winning the league in Spain this season.I think he will stay and fight back next season, to add to his credentials and good reputation of winning league in all the countries he had coached.
Well come on we all know that jose is the best manager in football but sat here thinking a...
Well come on we all know that jose is the best manager in football but sat here thinking as someone sitting on the fence which club would i like to see him at back in the premier league there are a few choices united , liverpool spurs REDNAPP FOR ENGLAND let me know where you would like to see him
no they shouldn't join they aint good enough for one they can stick to there own micky...
no they shouldn't join they aint good enough for one they can stick to there own micky mouse league. And as for one of the comments that they should put a limit on overseas players to 3 and cap the salary is rubbish the premier league is the best in the world by far thats why we attract these players here you ask any pro what league is the best in the world and you will find its ENGLANDS FINEST THE PREMIER LEAGUE
