Pub-based punditry on the beautiful game.
The Football Pubcast is a podcast featuring four (or more) blokes, in a pub, talking football.
Shows are recorded every week from our local pub in Canary Wharf, London.
You’ve got to love mental Eastern European celebrations (Temuri Ketsbaia was robbed in the PL 20 Years awards…). Take a bow Rostislav Dyakov, who celebrated scoring the winning goal for Kruoja in Lithuania by…running onto a nearby building site.
Ever feel like you’ve been punched in the stomach watching football? Ever actually been punched in the stomach watching football? If so then you probably know how myself and thousands of other Manchester United supported felt at around 16.55 yesterday…you probably don’t care about that though.
First off…congratulations to Manchester City. I’ve said all along that the team who wins the league deserves it and they do. They scored the most goals, conceded the least and that was, literally, the difference. It’s easy to look at where the title was won and lost but ultimately City won it by “doing a United”; destroying opponents and pulling it out of the bag when the cause looked lost.
As a United fan today is disappointing but you’ve got to hold your head up high. We finished on level points with a team far more expensively assembled, we were blighted by injuries to some of our most important players (what we wouldn’t have given for a fully fit Nemanja Vidic or Darren Fletcher all season) and we had some glorious results along the way. Here’s some highlights from the season for me…
* The Drubbings – There has never been a Premier League season quite like this one, and where better to start than the absolute thrashings that some teams have doled out. Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal, Tottenham 1-5 City, Tottenham 4-0 Liverpool, Arsenal 7-1 Blackburn, Fulham 6-0 QPR…I think that covers them all…oh yes, I forgot the 6-1…Norwich 1-6 Manchester City.
Some of the performances have been out of this world, I mentioned on last week’s show that I don’t think a thrashing can be classed as a truly great game but to be fair those will all live long in the memory.
* The Attackers – La Liga is currently home to the two best attacking players in the world (and maybe 3rd, 4th and 5th) but the Premier League definitely has it’s world class talents. Robin van Persie has finally turned years of potential into world class talent, Sergio Aguero has had the best debut season for a striker since van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney has, strangely for him, gone about proving that he is indeed a world class striker with his best goal haul yet (although he’s still not fully forgiven for THAT contract negotiation).
We’ve had Danny Graham and Grant Holt step up fantastically from the Championship, Newcastle’s Senegalese strikeforce terrorise defences up and down the land and the likes of Yakubu and Emmanuel Adebayor roll back the clock when they looked like their careers were petering out.
* The Defenders – And on the flip side, the defenders have been equally fantastic. I still galls me that Vincent Kompany did not win either the PFA or FWA Player of the Year (he didn’t even get short listed for either prize) and alongside him Joleon Lescott has almost become City’s Denis Irwin – you don’t necessarily notice him but he rarely puts in a bad performance. For United Jonny Evans has returned from the brink to be one of the first names on the team sheet and Rio Ferdinand actually stayed fit for most of the season (and played something like his best)!
Fabricio Coloccini was imperious for Newcastle, finally living up to the potential he had at Milan, alongside the excellent Mike Williamson, Danny Simpson, Ryan Taylor and James Perch. Leighton Baines is finally challenging Ashley Cole as England’s No.1 left back and Kyle Walker, Micah Richards and Phil Jones offer some hope for the future. And that’s before mentioning the ever brilliant Bacary Sagna and the infinitely improved Laurent Koscielny at Arsenal
But the real stand out managers have been lower down the league. Roy Hodgson’s reward for solidifying West Brom as a mid table team has been the England job, Paul Lambert and Brendan Rodgers have both done fine jobs with promoted clubs and David Moyes continues to be the best manager in the second half of the season. If this was limited to the last 10 games then Roberto Martinez would also get a nod. But the undoubted manager of the season was Alan Pardew. After losing most of his senior players in the summer most people had him down as the first manager to get sacked and Newcastle as relegation fodder but the job he has done has been exceptional. The tough job now will be repeating it next season and holding on to his star players.
* The Over-Performers
I’ve already covered Newcastle above but what a year it’s been for them. It’s a great shame that they couldn’t grab the fourth Champions League place but hopefully the club can move on next season. But it’s been a year for the underdog, and for the first time in many (unfortunately blue) moons that both City and Everton finished above their red rivals.
Norwich and Swansea have been fantastic this season, never looking in danger of the drop and, the latter especially, playing great football. Fulham meanwhile have quietly gone about their business and finished in the top half and Wigan have somehow pulled off another Houdini job.
* The Under-Performers
If it wasn’t for Roberto di Matteo (or Lampard-Terry-Drogba, depending on who you think really wears the trousers) then Chelsea would get quite a kicking here. But as it is they’re now a game away from the Champions League so it’s difficult to call that underachievement.
Liverpool have bought some light relief at some of the darkest times this season with their bad PR and even worse performances. They might have a trophy but an 8th place finish can’t be papered over, truly a season to forget. Owen Coyle has done what Gary Megson failed to in relegating Bolton and Venky’s and Steve Kean are clearly Burnley fans but it’s two teams in red and white that stand out for me…
Sunderland struggled under Steve Bruce first half of the season despite a busy summer in the transfer market. Then Martin O’Neill came in and for a while they were flying, but a 13th place finish is very disappointing and a terrible end to the season doesn’t bode well.
And Stoke look like dark horses for relegation next season. They’ve been poor all season, scraping out results in a manner that is increasingly being found out and finishing near the bottom of a lot of stats tables. It’s telling that the Real Premier League Table (a table that takes debatable decisions into account and says whether a team should have got a result or not) has them in the bottom three and next season looks like it’s going to be a struggle.
The PFA Player of the Year nominations were announced yesterday afternoon and, as usual, they show that footballers might not be the brightest bunch. While not helped by the fact they vote for the thing in February it seems to be another year of reputation ahead of achievement. Obviously some of the nominees deserve it but here’s a run down of who’s up for the prize:
So who’s missing? Any of the following, that’s who!
Vincent Kompany (instead of…Robin van Persie)
RVP has been the best striker in the league this season but what of the best defender? Vincent Kompany has been nothing short of excellent all season. He’s far and away City’s most important player (as shown by their performances in his absence) and deserves all the plaudits he receives. He’d be a worthy captain to lift the Premier League trophy, but let’s hope that doesn’t happen yeah?
Antonio Valencia (instead of…David Silva)
While David Silva was the creative star of the first half of the season Antonio Valencia has been the star of the second. Inexplicably he’s able to tear full backs apart despite only having one foot to kick with, a foot that was nearly ripped clean off against Rangers last season. A true old school winger, United fans love him and only partly because he never smiles.
Papiss Cisse/Demba Ba (instead of…Sergio Aguero)
If we’re talking strikers impressing in their first full season in the Premier League then Demba Ba has to be near the top of the list. Before Christmas he was a machine despite having very dodgy knees…and then the African Cup of Nations came. Since then, Ba’s only managed to find the net once. But that hasn’t bothered the Geordies, as another Senegalese goal machine has stepped into the breach. You can’t really split the two for their contribution to Newcastle’s fantastic over-achievement this season so I’d give them a joint nomination.
Michel Vorm (instead of…Joe Hart)
Swansea have had an awful lot of praise this season for avoiding the relegation dog fight and playing some lovely football, but it’s their goalkeeper who has formed the base of much of their good form. Vorm was relatively unknown in this country before this season despite being Holland’s number two goalkeeper at the 2010 World Cup but there’s not many people who don’t know him any more. Apparently United, Arsenal and Spurs are sniffing around him now which shows just what an excellent job he’s done…and what an eye for talent Brendan Rodgers has.
Alex Song (instead of…Scott Parker)
I like Scott Parker. I think he should be England captain at Euro 2012. But really, has he been THAT good this season? Tottenham have struggled since February and that’s been mirrored by Arsenal excelling and overtaking them in the league. For me, if you’re talking about a defensive midfielder then it has to be Alex Song. Tough tackler, great passer of the ball and the unsung hero in an Arsenal team that, back in September, looked destined for mid table.
Clint Dempsey (instead of…Wayne Rooney)
Wayne Rooney probably hasn’t got the credit he deserves this season from the press or the United fans, however I wouldn’t even say he’s been in United’s top five players this year (Valencia, Carrick, Scholes, Evans, Ferdinand in case you were wondering). Clint Dempsey on the other hand is the archetypal under rated player in the Premier League. He’s scored a hatful of goals, mainly from midfield, and contributed a fair few assists on top of that. A big money move beckons in the summer but you do wonder why nobody took the chance three years ago when he was playing equally well?
Back in November a few members of the Pubcast team predicted their starting XIs for England’s first game at the Euros. Here’s a little reminder of who we picked…
Mike: Hart; Smalling, Cole, Terry, Jones; Wilshere, Parker; Milner, Gerrard, Young; Welbeck
Si: Hart; Richards, Jagielka, Jones; Parker, Wilshere, Gerrard; Walcott, Bent, Young
Sean: Hart; Richards, Cole, Lescott, Jagielka; Walcott, Parker, Wilshere, Milner; Young; Bent
It makes for a interesting read now. Only Joe Hart, Jack Wilshere, Scott Parker and Ashley Young featured in every XI (I knew I should have gone for Scott Carson…), but my how things have changed in the last 5 months.
John Terry being stripped of the captaincy was followed by Fabio Capello resigning and Stuart Pearce stepping into the breach. By the time May comes round we may have Psycho in charge, we may have ‘Arry, we may have someone else completely (I’m sticking a fiver on a Peter Reid/Bryan Robson dream team). Internal politics aside, Darren Bent is presumably going to miss out thanks to injury and Jack Wilshere is yet to play a minute of competitive football this season.
So…I’m going to take another crack at guessing who the team will be when we step out against France, starting with the goalkeeper…
Goalkeeper: Joe Hart
Joe Hart hasn’t looked the assured, top class goalkeeper we know and (for England at least) love in recent weeks. A few flaps against Holland, a mistake against Sporting, giving away (and to be fair subsequently saving) a penalty against Swansea. However, it would probably take him to lose the use of both arms and one leg before someone else had a realistic chance of taking his place in Polkeraine (and even then I’d still play him over Scott Carson).
Behind him it’s more interesting. To be fair to Scott Carson he’s had a good season in Turkey, with Bursaspor 7th in the league but holders of the 2nd best defensive record. But is the Turkish league really that high a standard, especially bearing in mind Turkey didn’t manage to qualify for the tournament. My suggested back up keepers we Rob Green, who’s done a decent job in the Championship for West Ham, and John Ruddy from Norwich. Rob Green has had his problems in the past at international level and hasn’t played top flight football for a year while Ruddy has been in goal for the worst defence outside of the bottom five – not exactly filling you with confidence should the worst happen to Joe Hart is it?
The alternatives are few and far between. Fraser Forster, on loan at Celtic from Newcastle, has had a fine season in the SPL and might be worth a look. Paul Robinson is apparently interested in leaving international exile now Capello has left and Ben Foster might consider a call as well but do we really want someone who takes his ball and goes home when they’re not selected? David Stockdale still hasn’t managed to get ahead of octogenarian goalkeeping machine Mark Schwarzer at Fulham and Frank Fielding of Derby has no experience of top class football. Of our under 21 goalkeepers, Jason Steele of Middlesbrough plays regularly at club level but only has one cap for the youth side and Ben Amos is only third choice at Manchester United.
All in all, a sorry bunch. I’m happy for Man City to have plenty of bad luck between now and the end of the season, I just hope it isn’t in the goalkeeping department.
My selection: Joe Hart, Fraser Forster, Scott Carson
It’s a couple of weeks old now but here’s a classic from a recent friendly between Maccabi Haifa and Dynamo Kiev…
Please learn how to post a link correctly Mike… it’s really not that hard
Aleksandr Geynrikh tried to do the fancy fancy with a penalty for Uzbekistan U23 against Zenith St Petersburg in a friendly. And failed miserably…twice…
He should have left it to the all time greats. Johann Cruyff could do this kind of thing…
Then again…Thierry Henry & Robert Pires, two (begrudging) legends of the English game couldn’t pull it off…
The key thing? Just smack it down the middle!
Dan Silver, and 
Michael Coxon are discussing. 
footballpubcast is discussing.
Michael Coxon 3:32 pm on March 27, 2012 Permalink
And no, uploading youtube videos doesn’t seem to agree with me…
Dan Silver 3:40 pm on March 27, 2012 Permalink
Put it up as a Blog Post and not as a Status Update you muppet!!