EPL Talk » Inter Milan

2 Players Who Should Move On: Daniel Agger And Didier Drogba

Sebastian Shepard — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:34:15 +0000

1. Didier Drogba
Possibly the sulkiest striker at Chelsea, Didier Drogba has been constantly linked elsewhere since the departure of the Special One in 2007. First Barcelona and La Liga, and then Inter and the Serie A tempted the hitman. Drogba has alternately loved the London club and then claimed he was unhappy.

The attitude might have worked under a coach like Mourinho who manages to inflate the egos of his players and have it be good for the team, but under less authoritative management, the ridiculous on-pitch squabbles between Ballack and the Ivorian result from this destructive synergy.

Now the big man has lost some of his pace and is 31 years old, the time might be right to move to Inter to see out the rest of his days. Though the Inter staff will want someone younger to invest in the future, Mourinho could argue that Drogba’s proven goal-scoring record in the Champions League is just what the team needs to send them past tough European opposition. Further, if Ibrahimovic is actually sold (unlikely), then Mourinho will certainly need a non-alcoholic striker (sorry Adriano) to replace the Swede, and Drogba, comparable for power and size, might just be the fit. He doesn’t have the “Ibra-cadabra” but in a league that doesn’t require as much pace, and where his considerable weight would count for even more against less hard-tackling defenses, Drogba would surely be a deadly finisher.

2. Daniel Agger

As the numerous Liverpool fans have voiced already in this previous article, Daniel Agger is an excellent defender who is suffering on Liverpool’s bench. This isn’t an instance of a player needing time to develop – Agger is ready to play on any top European team. To become a defender that gets worldwide recognition, Agger needs to stay healthy and get regular playing time, and this simply isn’t happening at Liverpool. The last thing he needs right now is to be sitting on the bench. Skrtel and Carragher deserve their spots, so the best move for Agger would be a move elsewhere.

Real Madrid need a new center back; Cannavaro is most likely headed back to Italy and Metzelder is out of favor. Agger has the ball skills to play in the Spanish league, and there could be no complaints about club ambition. Madrid also have the galáctico-sized budget to lure the defender away with high wages.

Closer to home, Manchester City certainly could use defenders more than they need Kaka, but Agger might prefer the bench of a title-worthy Liverpool than a project that may or may not be competing for a Champions League spot next year.

There has also been talk about the two Milan clubs going to war over Agger’s signature, and both aging defenses could use a classy center back with a future.

To be honest, any club can use a classy center back with a future, the question is, which will make room?

Man United Quadruple is Bittersweet Possibility

Richard Whittall — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:56:18 +0000

United Enjoy a Cold Cup of Carling

It’s the first of March and although there is everything to be decided, you can smell it in the air. This could be the year United do what hasn’t been accomplished by a British club since Celtic in 1967: winning the League, FA, and European Cups, in addition to the Premier League trophy.

Yet as can often happen in football, the circumstances behind the feat would be less than ideal. Many pundits have argued convincingly that last year’s United, who won the European double, were a superior club who battled against difficult opposition in a fighting, post-Mourinho Chelsea in both the Premiership and European Cup. This year, Chelsea has faltered with the early departure of Phil Scolari, and now United’s only other credible competition (sorry Villa) for the domestic crown is Liverpool, who showed clear signs yesterday they are running into the familiar Benitez melodrama: up-in-the-air ownership and swirling questions over the manager’s future. The Premier League seems to have surrendered early.

The FA Cup, outside the possibility United fold to draw-obsessed Arsenal or maybe-resurgent-maybe-not Chelsea, could also be handed to the Red Devils. And no one else outside of Barcelona looks as convincing for the Champions League title—the same Barca that has just dropped two games in a row. Unless Inter can find a strategy that doesn’t include having Ibrahimovic attempt to dink past four United defenders on the edge of the area, Manchester United should go through to the quarterfinals.

For United fans, who no doubt have all been supporting world football’s Harlem Globetrotters since the pre-Ferguson/MUTV/Sky/Murdoch/Asian tours/Nike sponsorship period, the quadruple will be the epic, orgasmic climax of two decades of domestic dominance. For the rest of us, it will reveal one direction football might take during the up-coming economic depression/recession: total dominance by one, enormously popular club with enough financial clout to weather the coming storm. This probably won’t matter a damn for football’s pocketbook—after all, everyone loves a winner.

What it might mean for football’s soul is another matter entirely. This year, United could dominate because everyone else is shit. And as clubs are forced to cut ticket prices, managers send b-sides to major cup competitions, the Premier League feels “lucky” it can still get lots of money in broadcast rights, and more and more lower tier clubs, some with histories as long as Newton Heath’s, simply fall off the face of the earth, we could be in for two decades more of this sort of thing. So get ready for a new, fifth domestic cup competition, the next step up for the Uniteds of the world: the Quintuple.

Ferguson versus Mourinho: Clash of the Chess Player-Like Football Tactician Grandmasters

Richard Whittall — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:56:05 +0000

The delicious mind-game between former Premier League rivals Jose Mourinho and Alex Ferguson didn’t disappoint yesterday afternoon. Whether making sure each player wore the correct shirt to the organizing their players in a way to enhance the scoring of goals, these two towering geniuses of the modern game proved beyond a doubt they are football managers.

Of course to the layman, yesterday’s Champions League match between EPL’s United’s of Manchester and Serie A’s Internationals of Milan appeared to be a routine game of eleven-a-side football, but for those with expert tactical knowledge, every detail—from the way Maicon threw in the ball after it went out to touch, to the way Ronaldo fell over several times—was calculated from the start, pieces in an intricate chess match played by two grandmasters of the game.

You could tell by the way former Chelsea boss Mourinho leaned against the glass wall of his enclosure that he knew exactly what he was doing, like asking the men who were best able to kick the ball in the opposing net to try and do just that, or making the guys really good at defending their own net form a line of some sort at the back. As for Ferguson, who sat and watched the whole game with his face reacting to the events taking place on the pitch, he made no mistakes at all, like making sure there were eleven men on the pitch instead of twelve, and not giving them hockey sticks or knives, which I believe UEFA no longer allows.

Yes, not since Kasparov met Karpov has the world seen such a pairing. I mean, look at how Ferguson used non-regular starters to replace players unavailable due to injury, or how Mourinho used the best players at his disposal to play in their regular positions. The intense extra-sensorial perspetival action was almost too hard to bear. Indeed, when sometimes-fit-but-sometimes-not-fit striker Wayne Rooney came on in the latter stages of the game to replace tiring Ji Sung Park, it seemed to be checkmate times a billion, until Mourinho had it clear he had other plans. Like having his defenders snuff out Manchester’s attempts on goal.

Now we can all look forward to the second leg in Manchester in two weeks time. Will Ferguson attempt a slightly different formation so that the players will better interact with one another to facilitate the scoring of goals? Will Mourinho give an inspiring team talk to try and improve or maintain his players’ performance in the second half? You’ll have to tune in to find out!

Is Mourinho Really The Special One?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:32:54 +0000

Tomorrow night sees a meeting between two of Europe’s best coaches in the Champions League when Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United travel to Milan to face Jose Mourinho’s Inter side. Mourinho’s magic touch is still continuing in his current spell in Italy, with one trophy already safely stashed away with the SuperCoppa and 3 more on the horizon for Inter. Currently sitting 9 points clear of second placed Juventus and 10 ahead of fierce rivals A.C. Milan, Jose has continued his phenomenal run as a coach by now reaching 110 home games unbeaten in all competitions since 23rd February 2002.

English football has certainly been duller since Chelsea made the ultimate mistake by letting him leave by “mutual consent” back in September 2007, Chelsea haven’t won a trophy since and are now on their 3rd managerial replacement with a 4th lined up to take over from Guus Hiddink in the summer. Abramovich may have all the money, but he can’t buy the qualities that Mourinho gave the Blues and his 6 trophies in 3 seasons spoilt them. He took a Portugueseteam and won both European competitions in successive seasons when faced with richer, stronger opponents on the way, including beating Manchester United in the 2004 Champions League with a last minute goal from Costinha at Old Trafford that took them through.

Mourinho’s celebratory sprint down the line introduced him to the British public and no doubt his growing reputation was cemented with Porto’s success that season. Beating Lyon in the next round too was a impressive performance, Lyon were a better side than they are now and probably will never have as good a chance to finally add some European silverware to their bulging trophy cabinet as they did that season. In his last 3 jobs, as manager of Porto, Chelsea and now Inter he has collected 13 trophies and has an incredible winning percentage of 71% in all competitions.

The Inter job is probably the easiest one he’s had in his career so far, replacing Roberto Mancini last summer saw him take over the reigning Italian Champions so he had a more successful platform to move on from but he knows he will be judged on Inter’s success in the Champions League. Inter have spent over £600 million since president Massimo Morratti took over in 1995 but have only a lonely Cup Winners Cup trophy, won in 1998, as their only European silverware during his tenure to show for that investment. If anyone can take Inter to the next level, Jose Mourinho is the man.

If Inter knock Manchester United out of the Champions League this time, only Barcelona can stop Mourinho winning the title for the second time in my opinion, but to win it again would confirm his reputation as the best manager in the world. I know a lot of his critics accuse him of arrogance, but he simply has supreme self confidence, as he once again showed in his press conference when taking over at Inter, when he claimed to have learnt Italian in 3 weeks and dropped local terms in to his answers, showing once again his unbridled ability to work hard and continually push himself forwards.

Now that was impressive, both in linguistic ability and his attitude of soaking himself in local culture. Learning Catalan whilst at Barcelona was another excellent piece of P.R. for him, the Barcelona fans take anyone to their heart who learns the language. He perhaps strained that relationship with his antics in the clash during the 2005 Champions League, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go there after he’s finished his latest project in Italy.

A man that can speak 5 languages so fluently (Portuguese, English, Spanish, Catalan and now Italian), with trophies in 3 different countries and has a wonderful ability to wind his opponents up, after his spats with Wenger and Benitez in England and now Ranieri in Italy, often seems him come out on top in the mind games and a penchant for sartorial excellence. Yet he’s not always so spiky and outspoken, notably in the fantastic relationships with other managers, such Sir Alex Ferguson, Martin Jol and Sir Bobby Robson. Sometimes he can go too far, as the voyeur comments towards Wenger and his current fall out with Claudio Ranieri but he will apologise when he realises he’s gone too far. He loves his family and his Yorkshire Terrier dog, he demands respect from his players and they love him for it. He pushes himself constantly and strives for improvement. He wears his heart on his sleeve, announces targets and usually achieves them. He is a winner.

It looks as though the Serie A title is Inters, giving Mourinho his 14th trophy but Jose knows that only the Champions League will do to take Inter back to their golden period of the 1960’s. As Inter are celebrating 100 years of unbroken top flight football, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Mourinho takes the Champions League again. He’s the real deal, the Special One and you can never rule any team he manages out of any competition.

Champions League: Your Running Commentary

The Gaffer — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:00:43 +0000

The group stage of the Champions League begins today with several intriguing matches as well as the return of Chelsea and Liverpool to continental football.

Be sure to set your DVRs for the following matches on TV today in the United States (all times eastern).

Bordeaux vs. Chelsea: 2:30pm ESPN2/ESPN360.com
Sporting Lisbon vs. Barcelona: 2:30pm- ESPN Deportes and 5pm ESPN Classic
Marseille vs. Liverpool: 2:30pm Setanta (replayed at 7:15pm Setanta).
PSV Eindhoven vs. Atletico Madrid: 5pm ESPN Deportes
Panathanaikos vs. Inter Milan: 5:35pm Setanta, and 7:30pm ESPN Deportes

If you’ll be watching – or have watched – today’s matches, please share your thoughts, insight, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

In the meantime, be sure to visit our sister site Champions League Talk for previews of Group C, Group B and Group A, as well as how Sporting Lisbon could cause an upset today against Barcelona.