I'm honestly not sure about England, other than Hodgson will be playing ultra-defensive and will offer little in attack. It says a lot when Welbeck is in your current squad and usually plays (when not injured)... Here's my predictions for the tournament. Group A: Brazil and Croatia to qualify, Mexico and Cameroon knocked out. Most pundits seem to be writing off Croatia but I think they'll do alright - pretty sure they'll get beaten by Brazil (no Mandzukic for that match due to suspension, if he is selected) but Brazil are usually shit against Mexico. Pretty sure both Croatia and Brazil will beat Cameroon and Mexico will struggle against Croatia. Group B: Spain and Chile to qualify. Spain will bore teams to sleep and, as some pundits pointed out, Chile's counter-attacking game will be difficult for the Spanish and Dutch to beat. Chile have some fine players at the moment (Alexis Rodriguez and Gary Medel among them). Netherlands for shock exit. I hate van Persie so I'll be actively rooting against the Netherlands. Group C: Group C and H are the two most open groups in the tournament. I'd put Japan and Cote d'Ivoire to qualify from the group. Greece are just too defensive and I'll admit to knowing very little about Columbia. Cote d'Ivoire has a strong midfield (Yaya Toure, Tiote from Newcastle, Razak, Max Gradel) and experienced defence (Kolo Toure, Zokora, Eboue, Tiene) and a really strong forwards line-up (Drogba, Gervinho, Arouna Kone from Everton, Doumbia, Wilfried Bony from Swansea, Lacina Traore, Salomon Kalou)... Group D: Italy and England to progress. Both of those teams will play ultra-defensive, since England's attack is largely awful - Rooney hasn't shaped up yet in an international tournament and I'm honestly not sure about Sturridge. Welbeck is utter shit. I'm hoping Lambert gets selected ahead of Welbeck and maybe a chance call-up for Fraizer Campbell or Jay Rodriguez. I don't see Crouch or Defoe getting in unless they can score a few goals for their teams between now and the end of the season. I can't see Crouch and Lambert in the same squad, though - too similar in their styles of play. I have to hope England will qualify by virtue of Italy boring Uruguay to death and nicking a late goal inspired by Pirlo (that happens pretty often, doesn't it?). As an England supporter, here's the squad I'd pick for the WC based on performances for clubs over the last 2 years. GK: Ruddy, Ben Foster, Frazer Forster. D: Cole, Gibbs, Johnson, Baines, Jagielka, Cahill, Smalling, Jones. M: Carrick, Lampard, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Barkley, Lallana. F: Lambert, Sturridge, Rooney, Defoe, Campbell. Group E: France and Switzerland to qualify. Can't see Honduras or Ecuador getting through there. France will probably re-call Flamini and boss the shit out of the other three teams... Group F: Obviously Argentina to qualify but I think Nigeria for 2nd place. Bosnia have some good players, but Nigeria are really strong at the moment and have good players all over the park (Enyeama in particular is in inspired form in goals at the moment for his club - 15 consecutive matches for Lille with no goal conceded). Group G: This is the Group of Death, really. Germany should be a lock to qualify as they are excellent all over the park. I hope the U.S.A. can pull a shock, since I can't root for any team that plays Pepe the cunt or Ronaldo. Iran to lose all three matches, despite having a good coach. Group H: The other very open group. Belgium and South Korea to qualify. Russia will just be undone by S.K.'s work rate and I don't think Algeria will prove to be tough opponents for anyone.
OK, let's hear it. I put my ideas out there, let's hear yours. Until then, I'll extrapolate further on mine. Yes, Croatia have a shitload of travelling to do in group A and have recently changed managers (former Bayern and Leverkusen defensive mid Niko Kovac is the new manager) but they have a few good forwards (Mandzukic, Olic, Jelavic, Eduardo among them), one of the best young midfielders in Europe in Halilovic (only 17!) and other good and great midfielders (Modric, Kranjcar, Rakitic from Sevilla, Perisic, Kovacic from Inter, Radosevic from Napoli...) and in defense they have the beastly Dejan Lovren (been in fantastic form for Southampton), the evergreens Srna as captain and Simunic and Corluka and an experienced goalie in Pletikosa. On the whole, Croatia has a really good squad of players to choose from. I still think that they will use their experience and qualify ahead of Mexico. As for Group B, I still think Chile will qualify ahead of either Spain or Netherlands. Chile have an excellent counter-attacking game which will be effective against the possession-based football that Spain and Netherlands play. Yes, Spain are very strong in all areas, as are the Netherlands, but I still fancy Chile to pull a surprise. Nothing more to say about Group C - Cote d'Ivoire and Japan are the two best teams there in my opinion, one being all power (Cote d'Ivoire) and one being all work-rate (Japan). Cote d'Ivoire were unlucky in the last WC to come up against Portugal in their group, but I don't think they'll slip up this time. Japan also always come to the party and have been putting out decent teams for over a decade in major tournaments. Yes, I am aware Columbia has Falcao, but they have a 37 year old defender as captain (Yepes) and a 40+ year old goalie (Mondragon). Columbia have promised much at previous tournaments but have never excelled and I think it'll be the same this time - I'd argue their 1998 squad for that WC (with Freddy Rincon, Carlos Valderrama, Ivan Cordoba, etc.) was better than the one they have now. Group D - sticking with what I posted earlier. Carrick will hopefully fulfill his potential and be England's more defensive Pirlo. England also haven't played poorly under Hodgson (apart from the Germany friendly, where Hodgson acknowledged that he was tinkering with mixing up players and positions) as they mostly stick to a strong defensive game and a 4-3-2-1 formation which is widely used by most Premier League teams. I'm sticking also to exactly what I said for the other four groups. the only one that might not get through there is the U.S.A. but I really hope they can progress at the expense of smug cunts Portugal.
Well, for starters, Mondragon won't be the starter next summer, that will be Ospina who has been fantastic for Nice, and started in net during qualification. Yepes is Captain, but the defense is anchored by guys like Zapata and Armero who are quality players in Serie A. Then you have really talented playmakers like Fredy Guarin, Cuardado, and, especially, James Rodriguez in midfield who are feeding up to Falcao and Jackson Martinez. They are a dangerous team who play really creative football. They are the seeded team in the group for a reason. They could be one of the sleeper picks to progress far. After the US, I really pull for the Three Lions, but I don't know what makes you confident in them to progress given what we've seen recently. When Uruguay turns it on, they are very tough, and they have two better goal scorers in Cavani and Suarez, then anything England offers up front as it currently stands. England needs to figure something out or I don't see them progressing. I think this is the best US team in a long time, but they got hurt badly with this draw. With the form Ronaldo is in, and a better than average supporting cast, Portugal scares me. The best I hope for is mental lapses like their draw with Israel that allows the US to gain a point. Also, Iran isn't in the US' group, I would kill for that. Instead its the bitch ass cunts from Ghana. I already fear them scoring in the first half and spending the remainder of the time diving and faking injuries like they did in 2010.
Guarin is suspended for the first match if he is in the Finals squad due to dangerous play, same as Mandzukic is for Croatia. I don't rate Martinez that highly - he's been very average from what I've seen in the Champions League for Porto and the Portuguese league isn't one of the most competitive leagues in Europe. I'm confident that the rabbit-in-the-hat will be Carrick - he's not been given much opportunity in major tournaments up to now and, like Pirlo, he has the ability to control the tempo of the match. Manchester United have been punching above their weight for some time and it's largely due to him (and SAF) - look at how desperately poor Manchester United have been since Carrick got injured. England have some good goalscorers in midfield (Lampard has a really impressive record) and the striker who starts will need to be someone who can hold up the ball to bring the attacking midfielders into play - Lambert, Crouch or Rooney most likely. Crouch actually has an excellent goal-scoring record for England and, in my opinion, should be in the squad. Defoe offers a different sort of threat but isn't finding the net consistently for Spurs. The larger problem would be on the wings, since Hodgson will probably play a 4-2-3-1. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott would probably be the two best wingers in terms of skill but Milner and Lennon would probably also be options - Milner did very well for Manchester City last night against Bayern, particularly in the 2nd half. Lennon is like Walcott in being extremely fast but has a better first touch - the trade-off being that his positioning is often not as good as Walcott's. If I was Hodgson, I'd try Defoe on the left wing as an experiment due to his decent first touch and still-excellent pace. I don't think Portugal will do well - to qualify, they got to play the footballing giants of Azerbaijan, Northern Ireland and fucking Luxembourg. They drew at home to Northern Ireland. HAHAHA. Portugal do have some good players (Coentrao is an excellent LB, Moutinho and Meireles are fine midfielders, Alves is a solid CB) but they dive more than Ghana (Pepe, Ronaldo, Nani the most guilty of this) and I am hoping the refs will see through their nonsense. If the U.S. can get Tim Howard in the form that he played in against Arsenal, Portugal won't get through to the knockout round.
Nice to see Arsenal get fucked by another referee in a European match. They don't even wait until the knockout rounds now! It's the same ref who fucked us over against Milan nearly 2 years ago. I think that if a Napoli player had ripped off an Arsenal player's leg with his teeth, for that ref, it might have been a yellow. Fucking terrible. How is it that Arsenal seem to be the only team that repeatedly get awful referees? Dzemaili, Mertens and Behrami made some awful tackles - Dzemaili in particular should have been sent off. Ah well, this may guarantee an early knockout round exit (we're bound to get Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, aren't we?), which could galvanise the team for the league. TV Referees are needed to overrule the morons they keep throwing on to the middle of the pitch.
Yeah, ridiculous refereeing. Completely cowed by the crowd. I liked the part where Giroud got booked for continuing play after the whistle - never mind that the entire crowd was whistling like mad. Last week he stops before the whistle and gets excoriated in the media, this week he keeps going and gets a yellow. Go figure. Like you said, it's probably not a big deal, coming in second; yes it'll be a very tough draw, but you have to play those teams eventually if you want to win the CL, and if you're not going to win the CL (and I doubt Arsenal will) then you might as well lose early and get some extra rest/focus for the league.
I think Wenger should show UEFA his middle finger and send out Bendtner, Park and the other reserve players against whomever Arsenal draw in the knockout phase. With Arsenal's current trophy drought, wouldn't it have been better to start more reserve players and lose badly to lock up 3rd place and go to the Europa League (where we'd have a significantly better chance of winning) than going through the motions in the CL and then get knocked out in the knockout round or QF? Any realistic fan wouldn't criticise Wenger for doing this.
I think there is some prize money involved or getting further in the tournament, but that'll be a moot point if we get Bayern, Barcelona or Real Madrid in the draw on Monday. I am damn near certain it will be one of those three, since UEFA always fucks Arsenal with no lube. If it isn't one of those three, I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I'm not holding my breath.
Well apart from those three you could only draw Atletico and PSG, so odds weren't exactly in your favour. Serves you right for not topping your group. It ended up being Bayern in the end. United, in the meantime, drew Olympiakos, whilst City got Barca, so that will be an epic clash.
Arsenal had a pretty difficult group with two other good teams, unlike Manchester United. If Marseille hadn't been so fucking awful against Dortmund and Napoli, Arsenal might have gotten first place in that group. United fell dick first into the QF with that draw, though I hope Campbell scores - he's likely to be in Arsenal's first team next year having spent two years at a CL club on loan. GalatasaDrogbaSneijder draw Chelsea, so that should also be at the very least interesting - English teams often get a hard time in Turkey. Nice to see Juande Ramos gets a chance to exact some revenge on Spurs in the Europa League. AVB got his pink slip today - not surprising after getting gang-banged by Liverpool at home and Manchester City away and not scoring in either of those matches. Even worse than AVB getting the pink slip is that, out of Spurs managers, he has the 3rd highest win percentage since the club started. The players he signed, unfortunately for him and them, did not gel - like Sunderland, he brought in too many at once.
My point was, the way the draw worked, chances were more likely you would get Bayern, Madrid or Barcelona, rather than it be the result of UEFA "fucking Arsenal with no lube". United certainly had an easier time in the group stage, although we destroyed the 2nd best team in Germany both home and away.
Second best team in Germany? Leverkusen? Current second best team, probably won't finish there. Fuck, the English media dub them Neverkusen! Leverkusen have bottled it near the end of seasons many times before - 2001/2002 is a prime example. Lost the Bundesliga by losing the last 3 matches (Dortmund, when Rosicky was there, won their last 3 matches), lost in the German Cup final to Schalke 4-2 and lost in the Champions League to Real Madrid 2-1 (Zidane's goal was other-worldly, but that's besides the point), all within a week. Yikes. This Leverkusen side aren't as experienced in the Champions League as Bayern, Dortmund or Schalke - they only have a few really good players (Kiessling, Leno, Castro, Rolfes, Bender, Derdiyok (missed a lot of games this season due to injury I think?) and Son).
So, that was a busy Christmas and New Years' period in the Premier League, wasn't it? Games just going thick and fast at the moment (that's what she said). Unfortunately, Arsenal have not come out unscathed - Koscielny's leg is held on by tape (you could see the huge patch he had on his knee for the Newcastle match), Bendtner has a calf problem which Wenger said would keep him out "for at least 3 weeks" (he has to sign a forward now, no question), Giroud is injured too... the only fit forwards are Podolski and Walcott - Podolski was very uninvolved in the Cardiff match despite being the sole striker upfront and starting the match, in strong contrast to the performance he put in against Newcastle on the weekend, where he made an instant difference coming on from the bench. Maybe he's a better bench player than starter? Arteta really looks desperately slow now and, in my opinion, urgently needs replacing. Kevin McNaughton ran past him twice - and McNaughton is a bit older than Arteta! Arteta has been a great servant to the club for the past 3 seasons but his pace has gone and it leaves our defense exposed too often in a match. Wenger needs to sign some youth for the defensive central midfield spots. Still can't believe how stubborn Cardiff were. Medel should have been sent off for numerous bad challenges on various players. Their goalie Marshall was superb though. It also highlighted the need for Arsenal to sign a striker who can finish properly - over 20 chances created before scoring one goal. It was ridiculous. Cazorla looks to be returning to his best form, with strong performances against Newcastle and Cardiff. Next up is the NLD. Fuck off you Spurs. The end.
Yeah, I've noticed Arteta's decline in athleticism too. Walcott has been fantastic the last couple of games - constantly making runs and stretching the defense. For me MotM was Wilshere. I haven't seen him be that consistently threatening in a long time. I think the number 10 role really fits him best, allows him to make those darting runs in and across the top of the box. <a class="postlink" href="http://arsenalist.com/f/arsenal-vs-cardiff-city/wilshere-move-wins-a-corner.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://arsenalist.com/f/arsenal-vs-card ... orner.html</a> <a class="postlink" href="http://arsenalist.com/f/arsenal-vs-cardiff-city/wilshere-hits-post.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://arsenalist.com/f/arsenal-vs-card ... -post.html</a> Need a striker badly, the question is who's available.
Lewandowski seems to be confirmed to Bayern - Wenger says it happened 18 months ago. What a fucking cocktease Lewandowski is! Why didn't he just say he had signed for Bayern instead of letting other clubs chase him? I'm actually happy we won't be getting him since it seems he's a similar type of cunt to RvP. There was a rumour about Balotelli being available - I think he'd be a good addition at Arsenal. Yes, he is a nutcase, but a damn talented nutcase (who is still young too!) capable of the exceptional. He's one of those players capable of turning a game on its head all on his own, just like Bergkamp or Henry. I'm not sure if there is anyone equal or better than Balotelli who might be available.
So Arsenal have been Arsenal and have signed exactly no-one going into the last 48 hours of the transfer window. The rumours are, currently, for Draxler, Matuidi from PSG and, again, Berbatov, which will gain traction since Fulham just signed Mitroglou. It's been rumoured that Arsenal offered £24 million for Draxler but Schalke are staying firm on their £37 million release clause and their Director of Football says that he would prefer Draxler to stay but that they can sell him in the summer if he still wants to move. Draxler has 4 years left on his contract so Schalke won't be in any hurry to sell. It seems like exactly the sort of transfer bungling to be expected from Gazidis (see: Suarez, Luis and Higuain, Gonzalo) - the club always tries to low-ball and that's why, so often, players choose other clubs ahead of Arsenal. Matuidi only has 6 months left on his contract at PSG and they may well be looking to offload, having rumoured to have signed Yohan Cabaye from Newcastle United - Matuidi would fit in well and would probably get game time immediately since Arsenal have been decimated in central midfield over the last 3 weeks (Ramsey's now out for another 6 weeks - got a setback on Tuesday I believe, Wilshere for 2 weeks, Rosicky for 3 weeks with a broken nose, Flamini for 3 league matches due to his idiotic red card and Yennaris, who had only appeared in League Cup and F.A. Cup matches, was sold to Brentford on Monday). As for Berbatov, just give Fulham £2.5 million and be done with it - he would only be a stop-gap until the end of next season, which would give Arsene a year to find a quality replacement and Berbatov would get us some goals in the meantime.
Cabaye is confirmed at PSG. I heard Arsenal had basically met the release clause, but Schalke still refuse to sell. Makes sense, if they hold off until the summer, Arsenal will probably be forced into a bidding war with a couple of other clubs. From a United perspective, I'm obviously thrilled. Mata is a tremendous pick-up.
Yeah, the rumour now is that Schalke wanted more money, while Arsenal's board had approved for £37 million, it was Wenger who veto'd the transfer and Draxler will likely go to PSG, Manchester City, Chelsea or Real Madrid (if they choose to replace di Maria) in the summer. Pretty sure now that Arsenal will sign no-one in the circa 11 hours remaining of the window as I post this. Oh, that squeaky noise you all heard was the world's tiniest violin being played for Frimpong's transfer to Barnsley. If he spent less time tweeting crap and more time focusing on his football, maybe he might have been able to get a place. Can't say I'll miss him too much.