I’ll get Villarreal stuff out of the way first off, to clear some space for a proper rant.
Arsene has lamented the loss of Gael and Djourou, so it looks like Gibbs and Silvestre in defence tomorrow night. He mentioned that Diaby was back, which struck me as something of a non-sequiter in relation to our crisis of defensive absenteeism. Anyway…
His other option would be to start Eboue on the right and switch Sagna to the left. This would give the team-sheet a more experienced feel, but can Eboue remember how to defend (if he ever really got the hang of it in the first place) what with all his exciting attacking fun this season? A toughie.
Marcos Senna’s absence is really big news for us, a player of top-class pedigree who can really dominate big games and (obviously) carries a goal threat too. Much has been made of his apparent dissing of Adebayor. Actually, all the poor bloke seems to have said is that he isn’t as good as Thierry yet and hasn’t done as much in his career, which is a pretty fair shout, I’d say, though if you’re reading Ade, you should take Senna’s comments as a major attack on your manliness and prove him wrong tomorrow night by miraculously scoring 150 overhead-kicks in one game to prove Senna wrong and eclipse Thierry’s scoring record.
Marvellous.
Trembling with excitement about our imminent quarter final clash as I am, I still cannot resist moaning about the sheer idiocy of the shortlist for the PFA Player of the Year award, released today.
For the main award: Giggs, Ronaldo, Vidic, Van der Sar, Ferdinand, Gerrard
For the young ‘uns award: Agbonlahor, Young, Lennon, Ireland, Evans, da Silva
Now, of course, part of the reason for this shameless Man United love-in is that voting took place feckin ages ago, and clearly on the understanding that United were unstoppable. Now it just looks stupid, frankly, rewarding a 1 point gap (with a game in hand) with an astonishing 5:1 ratio in favour of United over Liverpool in terms of players shortlisted.
If it looks stupid, that’s because it is stupid. I mean, it’s not as though counting the votes takes such a long time that they had to poll in January or whenever in order to get the shortlist together for early April when… oh… the season still isn’t really very over, is it? But at least we know which players were flavour of the month half-way through the season.
And Chelsea, a massive 4 points off the pace? No outstanding players whatsoever then. Giggs,having completed a whopping 7 games all year, is preferred to Lampard.
Unprecedented is the presence of so many defensive players from one team on a shortlist meant to recognise outstanding performance across an entire league. United have both centre halves and their goalkeeper shortlisted, and another centre half and a full-back in contention for the Young Player award. Pretty much everyone except the hapless Neviller and Evra then. This could only be on the basis of having a defensive record which is vastly superior to anyone else, surely?
Not so. United have conceded 21 goals this season, Liverpool also 21, and Chelsea only 20.
Can anyone explain this cock-rot to me? Certainly not “MN” who sent a message to 6-0-6, which the BBC have hilariously pull-quoted in their lead article on the shortlist. His analysis?
“I think Gerrard might win it. It all depends on how the votes are cast”
Pretty much, yeah, seeing as it’s a vote and all.
No place for Kevin Davies, a dreadful man to be sure, but one who has outscored almost all the flashy forwards in the top 4 and got plenty of assists, all while being played in a strange, Kuytish wing position for a pitifully poor football team.
And while you’re busy lavishing your rancid approbation all over anyone who’s been near United’s defence this season, just ignore any of the Fulham defence that have conceded just 28 goals so far, a mere 7 more than United and without anything like United’s kind of firepower, which tends to mean almost all the game is played in the opposition half, anyway.
Doesn’t it make you mad?
Tags: Emmanuel Adebayor, Emmanuel Eboue, Man Utd Love-In, Marcos Senna, PFA Piffle
April 14th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
well said my friend. curse the blasted PFA awards…..im just suprised scholes didnt sneak in ahead of gerrard
April 14th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
the bbc just edited “MN’s” comment… it’s like they knew.
April 14th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
It’s a popularity contest – it’s pretty much the American Idol of the Prem and is by no means a barometer for performance. Sure United players deserve a look, especially after breaking the clean sheet record but they shouldn’t be the only ones. I’ve come to take these PotY awards in stride because I pretty much lost all credibilty for them when Thierry didn’t win a single one in the mid 2000s when he was Europe’s top scorer, the Prem’s top scorer and quite possibly the best striker on the planet at the time. In any case these things are great gimmicks for the fat cats to have some lavish ceremony where they can paint the town red, wear expensive suits and sign big checks and donate proceedings to some charity for which they have no idea what their cause is.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:40 am
WC – Thierry became the first player to win the PFA Players’ Player of the Year for two seasons running – in 2002/03 and 03/04.
This list is a joke though, and is a good indication of why United seemed to have the league sewn up when the voting took place – until Liverpool took them apart all the other teams turned up and were already beaten (Le Boss didn’t help this with his “untouchable” comments in my opinion, but maybe that was all part of a scheme to see United wrap up the title by February and Pool and Chelski give up and drop the points needed for us to clinch 2nd or 3rd)
Unfortunately we lost that aura of invincibility very early in the season with sloppy performances. Our team needs to learn that it’s as important to show up for Stoke away as it is Man U at home, not only because you get 3 points whoever you beat, but because as soon as you drop points to “lesser” teams, others begin to scent blood, making your job that much harder in the future.
Hope the boys can step up to the big occasion for the next two games. They showed guts in Rome and we’re gonna need more of the same tonight and on Saturday.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:12 am
On a similar note who do you (Grabs or Grabber) reckon to be our player of the season? Would it be worth putting it to the vote of your readership? RvP for his golden streak at the start of this year? Arshavin for his inspired entry into English football? Sagna for his defensive heroics?
April 15th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I think the Sagna/Eboue vs Gibbs/Sagna question will be answered by Wenger’s team selection elsewhere. Or vice versa perhaps!
If Arsene goes 4-4-2 (with RVP up front), I’d expect Eboue to come in at right back.
Otherwise the Fabnilsong triumvirate will be keep its place in front of Silvestre and Gibbs.
April 15th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
@Skatman,
Player of the season, eh?
A real toughie, since several have had influence at different stages. Early on Nasri was important, but faded since. Arshavin’s been outstanding and kind of a catalyst for our revival, but will only have half a season and has been irrelevant to the CL campaign. Sagna’s been superbly consistent, but would we really argue he’s been a season-changer?
And who knows what lies between now and May? Cesc has been assisting Ade like it’s going out of fashion (crueller supporters might suggest it was, earlier in the season…), and will clearly have a big part to play.
I can’t wait for tonight. Anyone going to the match I’ll be the guy screaming red and white till I’m delirious. Hopefully deliriously happy.
Come on the boys.
April 15th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
@Mac
I perhaps should have clarified that the PotY I was referring to was World Player of the Year. I know we’re discussing PFA but I was simply drawing parallels with any “contest” which tries to put players against one another to determine who is the best. I was merely illustrating that there is never any true credibility for any of these awards since they are based on the opinions of individuals at that point in time rather than say hard statistics to show that a player outperformed everyone else in all areas within a reasonable margin of error.
In any case it should be taken with a pinch of salt because the fact that Giggs is nominated for sentimental reasons and no reason facts already blemishes any honorable merit the award might have. He’s definitely one of the greatest players in the Prem but for 08/09 he is by and far not near player of the year material.