EPL Talk » Gabriel Agbonlahor

Lethargic and Disjointed But Liverpool Can’t Panic

Paul Bestall — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:58:19 +0000

The unfortunate downside of modern technology means that any armchair fan can now comment on any team without actually seeing the game. As I type this, I’m listening to Radio 5 and Liverpool “fans” are calling for the head of Benitez. “The worst display I’ve ever seen from a Liverpool team” shouts one fan who obviously missed the F.A. Cup defeat to Barnsley and league defeats to Bradford, Barnsley and Watford too.

“We’d have won the League last season if it wasn’t for Benitez, sack him now” shouts another fan who seems to have forgotten Liverpool broke the record for the most points by a runner up in the Premiership last year. “We need a world class midfielder to replace Alonso, Rafa spend the money!!” So much for the reports Liverpool are skint eh? It reminds me of a time listening to a football phone in here in Sheffield, Wednesday had just lost, caller rings up. “Wednesday are rubbish, sack the manager.” “Have you been to the game?” asks the host. “No” comes the reply, “I’ve just seen the score on Sky Sports News”.

I’m stunned by the level of ire I’m hearing being aimed towards him, I never thought I’d get to a point where I’d be defending Rafa Benitez but seriously who really wants the manager sacked 3 games in to a season? Did I miss something or are Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa the worst teams the Premiership has ever seen? No, didn’t think so. Liverpool have lost to two very good teams. I know they only lost two games last season, but come on let’s be reasonable here. They’ve not lost to Scunthorpe and Norwich City have they?

It’s interesting to note that on the day of the Stoke City game last week, the rumours returned regarding Benitez’s position at Anfield and the fact he was contemplating walking away from the club. This is a story that will not go away and has dogged him since 2007. Someone keeps fanning the rumours and it certainly can’t have a stabilising effect on the team or the club.

Tonight Liverpool were poor, the first 20 minutes apart but Aston Villa were superb. They got a goal and never let Liverpool settle, typical of how Martin O’Neill likes to set his teams up away from home. They like to soak up pressure and attack on the break, using the pace they’ve got in the team. With Carragher and Skrtel still struggling with head injuries, Lucas showing a lack of invention. Mascherano oddly was then forced to push forward, leaving the back four exposed.

It played straight into Villa’s hands. Young and Agbonlahor looked someway back to the form that pushed Villa up the table last season. Reo-Coker was immense, chasing, harassing and fighting for every 50-50 ball. Friedel seemed unpassable. Villa deserved the win.

The thing with knee jerk reactions like this is that people simply go “Sack the manager” without considering who’d replace them. So sack Benitez, who do you replace him with? Would anyone come with the financial situation as seemingly dire as it is behind the scenes? Clearly there is no money to spend, the signing of Kyrgiakos smacks of bargain hunting, especially after all the speculation linking Liverpool with Hull’s Michael Turner.

Benitez hasn’t become a bad manager in 3 months and Liverpool haven’t become a bad team. They’re just trying to find some form with key personnel struggling with injuries, nothing more, nothing less. They need to pick themselves up, dust themselves down and concentrate on Saturdays match at Bolton.Liverpool could have stolen a win on the opening day, but should have been 3-0 down by half time. Stoke were ripped apart time and again.

I don’t think anyone is going to run away with the league this season and Liverpool’s key situation could be the lack of African players come January. Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City all have big players that will be going to Angola and that will be a tough month for those three teams, regardless of squad size and financial muscle. The Premiership is never won in August and the kneejerk fans need to remember that.

England Under 21’s Should Be Proud Win Or Lose Tonight

Paul Bestall — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:51:48 +0000

Fresh from giving England fans palpitations after Fridays semi-final win against host nation Sweden, England’s young lions have a chance to win some silverware for the junior lions for the first time since 1993. England Under 18’s triumphed that year, riding a week long wave of growing optimism and support to beat Turkey 1-0 in front of 25,000 fans in Nottingham. Tonight’s Under-21 final pits England against its greatest rivals of the modern era, Germany, in a repeat of the final Group A game.

England of course, will be missing three players. Joe Hart has failed in an appeal to get his second booking recinded after shadow boxing one of the Swedish players in the penalty shoot out. Agbonlahor also picked up a second booking and Campbell was sent off in extra time after receiving two bookings. Normally, that would be a big blow for any side, but with Theo Walcott desperate to finally get his tournament going, and a straight choice between Scott Loach or the very highly rated Joe Lewis, Pearce has the talent to fill the gaps.

It also seems to put a bit of a mockery on the claims that English youth football is suffering due to the influx of foriegn players. Pearce has led this side to the semi finals of the last two tournaments, with players such as Mark Noble, Gabriel Agbonlahor, James Milner and Theo Walcott at his disposal. These are not just players desperately thrown in to fill gaps, these are quality players, with plenty of Premiership experience between them.

Can they win tonight? Of course they can, the reserve team drew with the German side a week ago, so they will have not given anything away to their opponents. I’ve also seen that the Germans have changed their kit to red tonight to give them a psychological advantage which oddly means they’ve completely forgotten about Englands 5-1 destruction of Germany in Munich in September 2001. That night, the Senior side tried the same trick to stop England wearing red, but ultimately it blew up in their faces.

Of course the crucial thing here is not to put too much pressure on the side and the players if they can win tonight. England Under 21’s had a golden period in the early 1980’s, winning the competition twice in a row, 1982 and 1984. Those players perhaps didn’t move onwards as much apart from Trevor Steven and Mark Hateley perhaps but Howard Gayle, Paul Walsh and Mel Sterland never really made the step up.

There’s no doubt that the England Under 21’s side have shown that their are some positives for the future of English football, despite the doomongers and pessimists that worry constantly about the lack of English players at the Big 4. Of course we’d like to see more English talent given a chance, but Manchester United have always championed English talent, Liverpool have 2 or 3 outstanding prospects coming through also.

Pearce will be looking to bring the trophy home tonight from Malmo and improve his fast rising reputation in the England set up. His passion and pride for his country can never be questioned and before the team leave the dressing rooms tonight, Pearce will instill them just what winning this tournament will mean for these players.

The PFA Player Of The Year Shortlists Are A Joke

Paul Bestall — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:42:48 +0000

If today’s PFA Player of the Year shortlist shows us anything, announcing the player of the year with almost 6 weeks of the season left looks a stupid decision. With only Steven Gerrard not from Manchester United on the six player shortlist, it just shows how quickly things in football can change. What if Frank Lampards goals fire Chelsea to a treble this season? What if Arsenal win the Champions League? Could Manchester United miss out on the Premiership, F.A. Cup and Champions League yet have a player win the PFA award?

Has Edwin Van Der Saar really been the best Premiership goalkeeper this season? Surely Mark Schwarzer’s contribution for Fulham has been more important between the sticks, as perhaps Shay Given at Newcastle and Manchester City this season can claim too. Manchester United could play a snowman in goal sometimes and no-one would notice.

Liverpool have now only got one chance of silverware after Wednesdays classic Champions League Quarter Final say Chelsea edge them out, with Lampard once again dragging the Blues through. Lampard has now scored 19 goals in all competitions, 2 less than Gerrard and Ronaldo but has set up more goals for his team mates than those two put together.Ferdinand has been superb all season, Vidic has seen his form drift away since February.

I don’t understand why the PFA awards have to be announced so soon and the voting to be concluded before all the major trophies are handed out. Last season, it was obvious that Ronaldo was head and shoulders ahead of anyone else, won all the domestic player awards and then failed to deliver once again for Portugal, spent all Summer flirting with Real Madrid and then missed the beginning of the season through injury and still won the World Player of The Year Award.

This year, there is no stand out candidate, but for Lampard to be omitted is beyond a joke. During the final weeks of Scolari’s reign at Stamford Bridge, Lampard carried them single handed it seemed to try and keep them in as many competitions as possible, showing guts and determination throughout the chaos that seemed to be going on all around him. Are professional players that daft that they couldn’t see that?

The Young Player of the Year award seems even more ludicrous, only 3 of the candidates have truly played well all season. Ireland, Rafael and Lennon have been head and shoulders above the other 3 candidates, with Ireland being the stand out nomination. Of the other 3, Agbonlahor has scored 3 goals since Christmas, has Jonny Evans been that good all season and Ashley Young has been so inconsistent as to be almost laughable to be included in the final six.

How two Aston Villa players could be included when they’ve won 3 games out of their last 15 matches makes me think that the nominations must have been done on New Years Eve because Villa have fallen away so far and are in danger of finishing 6th when they had a good chance of finishing 3rd. Are there so few young players kicking around? Where’s Jack Rodwell? Mark Noble and Jack Collinson from West Ham have both had excellent seasons yet don’t feature at all.

Hopefully Ferdinand and Ireland will win the awards, but the nominations themselves just don’t make any sense at all. It’s time to move them to the end of the season when it actually matters.

Stephen Ireland Deserves The Young Player Of The Year Award

Paul Bestall — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:05:27 +0000

Why are they bothering having a Young Player Of The Year vote this season is beyond me as Stephen Ireland is head and shoulders above every other candidate playing in the Premiership this season. Ireland has been in magnificent form since the season started and with everything going on at Manchester City on and off the pitch, has been a wonderfully consistent performer for the City.

Ireland has really begun to show the consistency his early appearances promised when he made his breakthrough back in the 2005-2006 season and this season he has been in exceptionally form in City’s midfield. It also seems that Ireland has managed to put his very ill advised lies of September 2007 behind him and begun to concentrate on playing football.

How the Republic Of Ireland must be wishing he would return from his self imposed exile to add his beautiful range of passing and eye for important goals to a lacklustre midfield. To say Trapattoni and Brady rate the young midfielder would be an understatement but he has so far refused any attempts to re-introduce him back into the international fold. It’s a situation I can’t really understand when a player simply refuses to play for his country at such a young age, but that shouldn’t detract from his performances this season.

I hope he does return to International football soon though, it would be a shame for such a footballing talent to not garner the international career and caps his talent deserves, but ultimately only Ireland can make the decision to wear the emerald shirt once more. Let’s hope that Shay Given joining Manchester City will perhaps lead Ireland to make himself available for the next international squad in June. When you’re in a qualifying group with Italy and Bulgaria, you need your best players available, Ireland easily finds himself at the top table quality wise for his country. Yet I don’t suppose Mark Hughes will be that sad to see him staying fresh for Manchester City, as they attempt to topple SV Hamburg in the UEFA Cup next week.

He’s been head and shoulders above any of his potential rivals for the Young Player Of The Year award and for me, one of the best midfielders regardless of age this season. It would have been easy for Ireland to hide this season as City got linked with virtually every player in Europe, but his game seems to have gone from strength to strength since Abu Dhabi United bought the club. The constant linking of his employers to top quality players seems to have become a driving force behind his play. He was always a great passer of the ball, but now he makes more bursts into the box and his eye for goal has really sharpened up. His set piece deliver is consistently dangerous, his link play, eye catching. For a man of 22, he sometimes shows dazzling maturity with the ball at his feet.

I can’t see any other young player coming close to him this season, Ashley Young has fallen away as has his team mate Gabriel Agbonlahor, Theo Walcott has missed too much of the season, Aaron Lennon whilst good, has yet to deliver consistent form over a seasons length.Ireland has been immense this season and deserves to be the first Irishman to win the Young Player of the Year award and the first Manchester City player to win it since Peter Barnes in 1975-1976. It’s richly deserved.

Villa’s Poor Form Should Give England Fans Pause

Richard Whittall — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:42:47 +0000

Title race back on, blah blah blah, Aston Villa torn apart like a dingo on a newborn, yada yada yada, England expects ahead of international week—wait just one minute there, pal.

It would be safe to say that Villa is a sort of stand-in England B side in the Premier League, at least according to the English press in light of Capello’s on again/off again preference for the once-potent duo of Agbonlahor and Young. So while Sunday’s thrashing of Villa by Liverpool is good news for Gerrard’s form heading into internationals this weekend, it gives the lie to recent claims that England has achieved some measure of depth in the senior squad.

Villa were very poor, and while O’Neill’s decision to field a more open 4-4-2 at Anfield has taken much of the blame, the form of Heskey, Young, and Gareth Barry certainly didn’t help the cause. O’Neill even seems to have lost some measure of faith in the latter—he’s already said he’s open to letting Barry go wherever he wishes at the end of the season.

But beyond their current league woes, Villa are at risk of losing out to “mostly-foreign” Arsenal in Champions League qualification for next season. The CL would have given Villa’s English players invaluable experience playing the best teams and players in club football’s most important knockout competition, surely decent preparation for South Africa 2010.

The case might be made that England is strong enough with out its younger players or its aging but still useful internationals. At the moment, Steven Gerrard is worth ten Gareth Barrys. But Gerrard, like Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney, has missed big tournaments to injury before (Euro 2004). If England is to expect any measure of success in South Africa next year, it will need a strong group of second strings. Villa’s current slide in form will not help toward that end.