In a weekly feature I hope to maintain every Monday, I’ll be taking a look at a game or two and the tactical nuances that serve as the difference between a win, loss or draw.
In a break from regular single-game tactical analysis, it’s time to get more general. Thinking back to the summer and the flurry of spending and reorganization being undertaken at several clubs outside the Big 4, there was plenty of optimism about one of this season being the one where finally, the monopoly at the top is disrupted.
While that still might shake out over the course of a long and arduous season, there are enough question marks about the “Next 4″ to doubt the legitimacy of their challenge. This isn’t to say that the Big 4 aren’t without their fair share of issues (perhaps for another Pundit column…) but as recent form suggests, they’ve all managed to shrug off these problems well enough to remain in contention.
So… those “Next 4″ – what’s going on there?
"You… move there! Yes! That's it! And you… come this way a little…"
Manchester City: Sparky’s New Clothes
Considering the strife and stress that comes with a managerial gig at Eastlands (just ask Sven and his puppetmaster, Thaksin Shinawatra), Mark Hughes is still adjusting to having seemingly unlimited resources and wealth with which to construct a team.
In the right man’s hands (*cough*Jose Mourinho*cough*), such free reign could turn your team into a potent force, but with Hughes, there’s an overwhelming, unshakable feeling that he’s got no clue what he’s doing.
Overpaying for familiar names (Wayne Bridge, Kolo Toure, Roque Santa Cruz) yet selling their underrated personalities (Elano, Fernandes, Dunne), Hughes displays all the qualities of a blue-collar guy who wins the lottery and chooses to blow it all on something obscene and made of gold instead of paying off the mortgage. It’s not that he doesn’t recognize what he has at his disposal; it’s just that he’s doing what we expect him to do with it.
The defense is shambolic, even with the flood of EPL-established, money-seeking center backs beating down a path to Sheikh Mansour’s office door. Whether they’re engaged in zonal marking, man-marking, or just simply being told to go out and play, it’s not working. Throw in the crippling mental lapses, like in the 96th minute at Old Trafford, and you’re looking at disaster before your strikers have even touched the ball.
Looking at the midfield, they’re finally understanding the need to play a ball-winning, ball-controlling central midfielder alongside Gareth Barry, a guy who loves to spray the ball around and maraud like a low-budget Frank Lampard, leaving a trail of space and chaos in his wake. As we’ve discussed before, de Jong is the perfect yang to Barry’s adventurous yin, and yet I already know that Sparky will drop the Dutchman to the bench as soon as Robinho, Adebayor and Tevez return. After all, the Sky Blues are a cult of personality and Hughes is merely their babysitter. He stumbled upon a potentially winning midfield balance in the last couple of weeks due to his hand being forced, and I’m sure he’ll stumble out of it just as easily.
There have been flashes of resiliency (I thought they handled the Arsenal threat about as well as they could have hoped for), but the Wolves game said it all. Up 1-0 with an hour to go, and they barely hung on for dear life. You’d never have been able to tell which team was newly-promoted from the Colaship and which team was assembled for hundreds of millions of pounds.
I’d say that the answer is just to spend more money, but that’s obvious, right?
O'Neill: needs those glasses to scour the transfer market
Aston Villa: flashes of genius on a budget
As savvy as Martin O’Neill is, there’s a clear ceiling to this squad whether he likes it or not. Last season’s grueling, multi-tournament calendar flat-out buried the Villans by midwinter, and there’s little to suggest that it won’t happen again this year. Looking at their squad, the same basic issues of depth remain.
The sale of Gareth Barry has left them short on invention and confidence in the middle of the pitch, while the defense is still adjusting to life without Laursen.
As we’ve seen in most big games so far this season, the team with the most balanced, organized midfield wins the game. Villa have survived a lack of midfield control thanks to their brilliance on the counter-attack; with such overwhelming speed up front and down the wings, Villa’s approach caters to this strength. Compress the midfield and defense, swarm for the ball, distribute and off they go.
It’s not a sustainable, rewarding enterprise, but it works with the squad they have until they can afford to do better. In the meantime, their lack of consistency in the middle (could Nigel Reo-Coker honestly ever command a successful, Champions League-caliber midfield?) will continue to stunt their development.
Moyes: every day he's hustlin'
Everton: the EPL’s David Eckstein
Any fan of FJM understands the comparison immediately. Eckstein is physically unimposing, scrappy, gritty, and all those other euphemisms for “what he lacks in natural talent and ability he kinda makes up for in hard work.”
Everton fit this persona to a tee; their midfield is undersized and severely lacking in creativity without Arteta (though someday, Jack Rodwell might be that homegrown maestro we’re all searching for), and succeeds thanks to an incredible work rate and off-the-ball persistence to seek possession.
As legendary Ukrainian coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi once quipped, soccer is all about what you do when you’re not on the ball, and Everton appear to preach this weekly. Their hustle leads teams to turnovers, and their strong wing play is normally good enough to convert the pressure into goals.
The obvious problem of depth aside, the striking coterie at Goodison is perhaps the streakiest and least reliable in the top half of the EPL. Jo, Yakubu (just returning from injury), Victor Anichebe (who never plays) and Louis Saha (despite his brace this past match, and his torrid start overall) are not reliable by any means, thus putting pressure on the rest of the team to provide goals. This past Sunday, it fell to central defender Yobo to score in their victory over Rovers (they are one of the league’s best from set pieces), and most weeks, Cahill invariably finds himself up front to try and pitch in. Factor in Fellaini’s dip in form after a strong debut season in the EPL and things look bleak for the Toffees.
Ultimately, Steven Pienaar can’t do it all himself. Considering the amount of abuse he takes from EPL defenders every week, it’s only a matter of time before he breaks down too.
Any time a Spurs striker misses the target, God gives 'Arry a seizure
Tottenham Hotspur: Anything you can do, we can do almost as well
We already know depth is an issue (between Bassong, King, Woodgate and Dawson there’s barely one salvageable healthy CB), so let’s sidestep that and cut to the core of the issue: Redknapp’s squad construction and the imbalance within.
Last weekend, United played them off the pitch with three defensive midfielders and a winger, leaving their patchwork line of Lennon (adrift and alone), Palacios (not match-fit… what was Jenas’ excuse?), Huddlestone (can’t do it all alone) and Keane (if it worked for Kuyt, why not Keane?) looking amateur by comparison.
This weekend, ‘Arry tried to ape Fergie’s style, running out three proper, full-effort central/defensive midfielders and one winger, only to find that plan backfire as well. This time, his deployment of Palacios on the left flank was a shocking choice; the Honduran drifted infield time and again, as is his instinct, giving the Blues and their diamond all the room in the world to flood the non-soccer-loving Assou-Ekotto and wreak havoc down the wing.
It didn’t help Spurs’ shape that all three goals resulted from simple mental errors on the part of defenders, but the continued, relentless wing pressure from the Blues eventually had to force a breakthrough. Lennon was left to chase long balls aimlessly while the trio of Huddlestone, Palacios and Jenas bunched together and still couldn’t secure enough possession to give Defoe or Keane anything to do up front.
So what are their options? Besides waiting for Modric to return, they need a solid, reliable Plan B for when inevitable squad rotations and further injuries occur. They just bought criminally-underrated Niko Krancjar, so why not use him on the left? If they have any wide-inclined midfielders with a semblance of discipline not to vacate and screw the team royally in a territory battle, why not use them as well?
It’s a problem of depth, but of a slightly different sort. On paper, their squad has weaponry galore, but when it comes time for Redknapp to assemble the puzzle, he keeps arranging the pieces incorrectly.
—
On their day, any one of these four teams can turn up and scare the living daylights out of the status quo. Spurs and Villa have both beaten Liverpool already this season and City have already toppled Wenger’s Great Exciting Aesthetic Youth Collective 2009 while coming so close to taking points from Manchester United. Still, there’s a long way for each of them to go before they could consider themselves a legitimate part of the Top 4 debate, and until some of these fundamentals are addressed, I reckon the established world order is just safe enough.
I loved Moyes’ work in Rome
LB, disagree on the assessment of Villa’s defense- three straight clean sheets with two different central partnerships (Cuellar and Clark at the Cottage, Dunne and Collins ever since)
I’d also go so far as to say that the depth issue is now a non-issue. While you’re right that we do not have a lock-picker in the center of the park, I’d expect either Ashley Young or Stewart Downing to take that role once Downing comes fit.
Villa’s much better prepared to handle a late-season run than they were last year.
@Keith – you are confused, this was written by one “James T”. Lingering Bursitis has been fired.
I am a Spurs realist. We will not be cracking the Top 4 anytime soon. With all due respect to Villa and Everton who are fantastic clubs, they will not be either. Citeh are the wildcard. They can offer wages that pale in comparrison to what Spurs, Villa, and Everton can offer. Come transfer window time when the mercanaries have a choice of 100k a week at Citeh or 50k at the other clubs the choice will be quite clear. When the cream of the crop are looking for a new club and Citeh come in at 150-200k a week well that is where United and Chelsea will be feeling nervous. Fergie’s recent rants suggest he is becoming a little twitchy re his Blue neighbors
Fair enough Keith, I’m just offering my opinion. Plus let’s not get carried away; you played a hopeless Fulham, a toothless Brum and a feckless Pompey.
yeah, but right before that we played a clueless Liverpool.
and in years past, those teams would all have snuck a goal in the last 10 minutes. Not so this year.
personal mockery aside, you still let in one and spent decent chunks of that game on your heels with 8 behind the ball. One game isn’t a great sample size; neither is the three game block that followed
I guess if you’re happy with Dunne, Collins and Cuellar as a CL-caliber centerback grouping, then I can’t argue with you much more, can I?
I think we could challenge for the top 4 this year, if we had any grasp of a Plan B (Plan A was our consistent lineup with Modric on the left).
Even in the early wins this season, Harry’s tactical idea was to throw Crouch up front and hope something happens. Harry just doesn’t seem to be able to make in game tactical changes or subs that cause opponents problems.
This now experiment with Keane is shockingly bad.
How bad does Niko or even Bentley (swap Lennon to the left) have to be in training for Keane to be chosen in midfield over them?
Another problem not highlighted is the lack of a true team captain, thus lacking a clear leader in the team. King is too injured, and Keane is too ineffective on the field. Yet Keane’s “captain” status is likely the reason behind Harry’s determination to pencil him into the starting lineup regardless of form.
I feel better having those three than Toure-Lescott, Jagielka-Heitinga, and the Glass Four at Spurs, to be sure.
And on current form, I’d rather have them than Carragher-Skrtel-Agger
@Keith – you honestly think they’re better Toure and Lescott? You’re delusional, man!
Nice assessment of Spurs, JT. Shocking lack of width since Modric left, and ‘Arry inexplicably leaving GDS and Kranjcar on the bench. So frustrating.
As for the depth issue, name one team in EPL that’s 6 deep at CB. Spurs had depth, they have 4 solid CB’s after all(Woodgate, Dawson, King, and Bassong)…the problem is that all 4 are hurt at once, and Woodgate may not make it back at all. I can’t think of one EPL side that has the depth to overcome that kind of injury barrage. Where depth is a real problem is central midfield. If anything were to happen to Palacios, Spurs are in trouble deep.
on current form, yes, I do. Lescott’s fine at getting forward and delivering on set pieces, but he gets caught AWOL on the defensive end far too much. Toure’s got a good reputation, but he’s not the player he once was.
Dunne’s reputation at Citeh was one of a strong defender that had discipline problems. Now, I know it’s a small sample size, but since he’s gotten his Villa debut he’s won everything in the air near him, and showed himself to be an incredibly composed tackler.
Collins is going to prove to be a bargain. He’s a similarly committed tackler to Dunne, but he’s shown a neat creative edge to his passing. Where Dunne will just win and clear, Collins looks to pass crossfield- at times, his passes have looked almost like the ones we got from Barry.
Assuming Bassong can go by the Burnley match, here’s the lineup I expect to see:
Gomes
Corluka–Huddlestone–Bassong–BAE
Lennon–Jenas–Palacios–Kranjcar
Keane–Defoe
That said, I think ‘Arry’s will be going to Crouch a lot earlier in matches if goals don’t start coming, and may even start Crouch a match or two.
Also, Pavs is now down with an Achilles injury. ye gods.
@phil…No way Huddlestone plays CB. It will be Hutton at RB and Corluka sliding into the middle.
Do you really think Keane deserves a start? Even before Harry had him playing out of position, he hasn’t produced.
Sad to say, but Keane isn’t as versatile as ‘Arry would like. He’s tried him in several different positions with several different assigned roles, but in every single one, he just roams around aimlessly trying to get involved, like the over-eager kid in AYSO.
The fact that ‘Arry can’t figure what to do with his “captain” says it all
@knocs & JT: Keane was invaluable in a link-up role before Modric went down. He was creating space in the middle for Hudd to make deeper runs, and for Defoe to run about and find holes. Keane’s role in the early success was overlooked, IMO, because he missed a few chances. JT’s right that he isn’t the creative force ‘Arry wishes he was, but Keane’s played better than he’s been given credit for. And Palacios is the only player in the side who even comes close to Keane’s workrate.
As for CB, ‘Arry’s played Hudd at CB before, and unless Dawson can train this week, ‘Arry may have no choice, with Dervite on loan.
Right about the link-up play. He’s a good conduit between players, for sure.
That said, I still don’t get how he’s captain!
@ JT: He’s basically captain by default. Ledders doesn’t play enough and he doesn’t train, Woodgate is hurt, and no one else has been there long enough, or is vocal enough, to rate the armband.