Slamming Sunday and Niko Kranjcar

Never fear, following the enthusiastic response last week when Guillem wrote the podcast blog, I'm back, banging on the keyboard. Matt Dickinson, the Times' Chief Football Correspondent is on board, to help us review what one broadcaster called Grand Slam Sunday.
And Niko Kranjcar, the man who helped deny England a spot at Euro 2008 (and was indirectly responsible for Fabio Capello moving into Soho Square), drops by to tell us about his time at Portsmouth and why a teeny, tiny country like Croatia continues to punch way above its weight when it comes to sport.
Bill, of course, is here to placate his legions of adoring fans, and Guillem and I do some Quick Hitting...

Matt's convinced the season's over in terms of the title chase, following United' 3-0 win. It's hard to argue with him, though I reserve judgment until they visit Stamford Bridge. Guillem has taken Steve Bennett off his Christmas card list, labeling him arrogant and complaining about Mascherano's sending off. Fallout from Ashley Cole? You bet. To me, the real mystery is what prompted Mascherano's jaunt across the pitch: Fernando Torres' booking. I still don't know why he got a yellow.
Grant went from zero to hero with his substitutions in Chelsea v Arsenal, though Matt correctly points out that this alone doesn't make him a tactical genius. Still, after so much abuse, maybe West London's most prominent Johnny Cash fan deserves at least a smidgeon of respect, no?
Guillem fears Arsenal have some kind of mental block. He may be right, but I also wonder if it isn't as simple as the fact that the real Van Persie isn't back yet (he's obviously not back to his best after his long injury layoff).
Kranjcar reveals how the combination of youth, experience, a budding superstar like Luka Modric and a rising manager like Slaven Bilic explain Croatia's success. He also points out that England probably didn't deserve a place at Euro 2008 and that the road ahead for 2010 will be tough. He also jumps on the Modric bandwagon... I think we can safely add him to the list of superstars-to-be.

Comments

[nick]

a stat for bill

here is a stat for you boys - since toshack took over as wales manager he has given 28 players their debut!

28!!!

he has only been in charge for 32 games so if he could up the ante a little in the next few he can get it up to a debut per game

just goes to show the strength of depth in welsh football eh ;-)

[boubacar lillongwe]

Why did Steve Bennett and Keith Hackett make themselves look so weak again at the weekend. Fergie gets to pick the refs. Vidic and Ferdinand are allowed to get away with continuous little knocks on Torres who gets a ridiculous booking for complaining.

The Mascherano sending off was a joke. Why not send him off when he was actually dissenting??? Why not just wait for the next time he swears? But no, Bennett has to show HE's the tough-guy, the enforcer.

The only way referees will get respect is if they make the right calls at the right time. Bennett and Styles have shown typical British stiff upper lip of late, taking all sorts of abuse.

[rob]

Welcome back Gab.

Accusations of "fanboyism and support of Liverpool despite all logic and common sense gets very tiring, very quickly." This could just as easily be applied to the hirsute Spaniard as the token woman.

Talking of Spain what does everyone make of the stories linking Benitez to Barca? I heard Cruyff had taken a post in Holland but surely Benitez would be anathema to the Barca philosophy? Surely if they are going to go down the win at all costs road Mourinho would be a better bet.

[Lui]

I'm sorry, I just can't get my head around why Mascherano was sent off and Ashley Cole was not. When looking at these two incidents, it highlights the lack of consistancy when dealing with player dissent. I'm not sure when the ref's 'respect' scheme came into play but surely an aspect of this scheme should be an outline of consistancy as to how dissent is delt with. This outline should then be published so the media, clubs and fans can understand it. Cole turned his back to the ref, after a hurrendous tackle, which he should have been given a straight red to anyway, only to recieve a single yellow. Mascherano deserved his first yellow and he was mouthy but I agree with a previous post, if Cole could get away with what he did then how could Mascherano know he would get a yellow for what I guess the ref deemed "aggressive running and asking." Later on in the game, I wasn't sure if I was seeing things but I swear I saw Ferdinand being mouthy to the ref with no disciplin being dished out. If everyone was given a yellow for dissent then there would be no argument for Masch but it's all down to the individual referee's personal opinion. How can five or six Chelsea players surround the ref for every decision and get away scott-free? If the ref is sensitive to an Argentian who aggressively runs and asks, then, suddenly, it's an easy second yellow to give. All people want is consistancy and maybe the only way to get that is to have the Captain as the only player who can talk to the ref but is that going to stop dissent?

[Mike]

Yeah, sorry about the Houghton/Hodgson mix up...but his signings - Litmanen, Andreasen and Hangeland...really, Premiership class?
But yeah, granted Stelios has won the Euro's but I do really rate Edwards as a player. He is such a pivotal part of our side. But I'll concede that I havnt really seen a lot of Stelios week in week out. As for Diouf, I may appear to be narrow minded here, but his disciplinary ecord and lack of professionalism means I will never rate him as a player.

Gabrielle - thanks for the response and analysis and I'm glad to hear you do rate some of our players, but I must say that Evans at CB deserves to be in, our back line as a team work better than that at Fulham and Bolton. Evans and Nosworthy had a cracking season last year, and have done the same again this season. Bardsley looks like a good solid RB. I do like Hunt and Volz though, despite Volz coming in at RM in many of Fulhams games.
As for the player analysis, I do reckon Whitehead deserves a place. You have to have Bullard in there, and Nolan does an important job for Bolton, although he is over rated. Gardner is a better LB than Collins, but I just think that when you look at the starting XI's of these teams, bar Gardner, McBride, and Bullard, I would rather have our team. The defence is solid, the midfield - now everyone is fit and playing - creative and incisive, the only thing is we need someone of a better class to play with Jones - Chopra is a mere squad player.

[ALEX NATHAN]

Firstly, nice to hear from Nico. Refreshingly intelligent, balanced and good humoured.

On Mascherano, he had it coming. Watching the game, it was an extremely predictable sending off. Also I'd like to rail against the awful pronounciation of his name. I've heard far too many commentators, DJs and pundits calling him 'Mas-ker-ayno.' Makes me shiver.

Mike - seriously? To say that Andy Reid is better than Diouf, or Carlos Edwards better than Stelios is somewhat deluded. Sunderland DO have the worst squad in the Premiership, other than Derby. Further, who are all of "Houghton's" (I presume you mean Hodgson) acquisitions? He inherited Sanchez's team.

[Ian]

Really good podcast this week, it is refreshing to keep Alison Rudd off the podcast.

Her fanboyism and support of Liverpool despite all logic and common sense gets very tiring, very quickly.

Claiming that Benitez is the master of "balancing domestic and champions league" commitments was just laughable, and Bill put her right as well.

Although it's good to hear people talk from the heart, they should do so with some balance as well.

[Matt Riley]

This Was Always Going to Happen...

It was a shame for Torres and Mascherano, i hate the way that when there is an incident like the Ashley Cole farce it spills over and other teams and playes tend to get punished, as a blackburn fan it is usually teams like us :-(.

If i was a Premier League manager coming into this weekend i would have told my players to be on there best behavior. regardless of whether Javi should have been sent off, he and the Liverpool team were naive to think that this weekend of all weekends referees where going to be tolerant of players approaching them...

on another note, didn't Bentley and Santa Cruz play well,

Santa Cruz, best signing this season? great value for money and a consistent match winner, he even scores away from home too ;-)

[Joseph]

If Capello is rewarding players for good form, why is Crouch in the squad? Dean Ashton and Jermaine Defoe have been in excellent form for their clubs. I think it sends a terrible message that someone can sit on the bench for a top four club, yet still be picked ahead of a player who is playing fantastically every week for a smaller team.

I understand that David Wheater came highly recommended to Fabio Capello by Stuart Pearce, but surely Phil Jagielka's performances for Everton have warranted a call up ahead of him.

I also find it hard to understand that some people are questioning David Bentley's position in the first team. Surely his impressive form for Blackburn, and his great game against Switzerland should be enough for him to retain his place in the side.

Also, great call on getting Nico Kranjcar on the show. It was interesting to hear him talk about seeing the England/Croatia saga from the opposite perspective. Not only did he seem like an intelligent player, but a nice guy with a good sense of perspective.

[Faithy]

Guillem/Gab - A bit of a random post but seeing as there isn't much going on this week I thought I'd throw it out there.

On the subject of goalies - most people in England seem to think that our goalies used to be the best and now they are rubbish.

Is there some skill that remains underdeveloped in English goalies?

Were the old school really that good or is this just some nostalgic myth?

[Will]

Mascherano lost control, and I don’t think many people want dissent as part of the game, but you can’t simply decide to start enforcing even existing rules out of nowhere without establishing the proper expectation. Why would Mascherano assume he’s going to get sent off for something that happens dozens of times a game? Particularly in heated rivalries. The game would have ended with Reina and Van der Sar on the pitch if Bennett had been consistent, but only Mascherano and somehow Torres felt the brunt.

This is Manchester United versus Liverpool. Not some stage to reestablish a long neglected part of the rule book. Bennett wanted to make a statement for referees, but that isn’t his job and neither is dominating the proceedings. It’s about consistency in applying the rules and Premiership referees don’t do it. Ashley Cole, Fergie, and the coverage of both ruled the day. Is that what we want?

And regarding a prior post: When is 10 v. 11 not key to a result? Manchester looked like winning and were, but of course it’s key.

[Gabriele Marcotti]

Mike - Since I have a spare few minutes, I'll do what I said I'd do in the previous post and put out a best XI of Fulham and Sunderland players (as I see it, putting Sunderland guys in ALL CAPS):
GORDON - Volz, Bocanegra, NOSWORTHY, COLLINS - Davies, Murphy, Bullard, RICHARDSON - McBride, JONES

I have five Sunderland players. But frankly I don't think there's a huge difference between Collins and Konchesky or Nosworthy and Stefanovic or Dempsey and Richardson. I suppose you could fit Whitehead in there as a holding midfielder or as a rightback (but I'm not sure he'd be that much better than Volz or Stalteri for that matter).

Now let's compare it to Bolton...I'd have the following:

GORDON - Hunt, Meite, NOSWORTHY, Gardner - Diouf, Nolan, Campo, RICHARDSON - Davies, JONES

Again I have four guys in there. And again, Richardson out of position, but I think he's too good to leave out. But, again, is there a huge difference between Gordon and Jaaskelainen? Isn't Matty Taylor (who can't even get into this side) better, on paper, than any left-sided Sunderland player?

I don't think I'm being ignorant and it's not a knock on Keane. I just dont' think Sunderland have a very good squad (the fact that they spent so much money and that he bought so many players, I think, shows that Keane would agree that he made a number of mistakes). But if you can stay up with a squad like that, all I can say is "well done".

[Gabriele Marcotti]

Mike - Obviously, on some level, it comes down to personal preference. But when you break it down, you find that Sunderland's players certainly have less top flight experience and often less quality. You either have guys who are making the jump from the second-tier or guys who were marginal top-flight players (like Kieran Richardson). One way to compare individuals is if you take the managers out of the mix and ask yourself how many Sunderland players would get into the starting XI at Bolton, Fulham, or Birmingham... if you do that, we may just end up on the same page...

[IamJoe]

I thought the reaction Liverpool showed after that sending off, was really really poor. There were quite a number of games this season, where teams got points with 10 men. But Liverpool never tried. They never even thought of trying.
Shocking body language from Benitez. Shocking performance from the team in response.
Liverpool bowed servilely to a dominant United side, having the upper hand from first to last minute, and deserved every last bit of their win.

The Mascherano sending off, though not key for the result, might be seen as harsh. But I felt it was the repeated dissent that really got him sent off. Shouting at the ref on any given occasion. The actual incident was just the final nail.

And watching Alonso's facial expression, as Mascherano came storming onto the scene, nobody was actually surprised what would happen, except Mascherano himself.

And instead of hammering down on the ref for punishing purely unacceptable behaviour, I hoped the media would hammer down on every piece of dissent past, present and future, so that dissent will finally disappear from the game.

[Mike]

Just have to say that on one issue in the latest podcast you are somewhat off the mark. At one point you claim that Sunderland has the worst squad in the Premier League, with the exception of Derby, obviously.
Look at the starting XI's of the bottom four or five. Sunderland have the likes of Kenwyne Jones, Jonny Evans, Noyron Nosworthy, Craig Gordon, Andy Reid, Dean Whitehead. Good, hard working players that could ply their trade higher up the table.
Other players such as Edwards, Bardsley and Collins have been either injured this season, or have been outstanding.
Granted, with Halford, Connolly, Kavanagh and Etuhu in the squad we have some weaker players, but compare our team with Bolton.
Cohen, Diouf, Gianakopolos et al, Fulham with all of Houghton's acquisitions - how can they be judged to be better than those at Sunderland.
Must admit, I'm a big fan of Gabriel and Guilleme, but on this point I think there is a slight hint of ignorance. Please, let me hear your repost.