Mixed Week / Return to Moore Street

Manchester United had a week of mixed fortunes. On Saturday I sank to a deep deep depression after watching an impassioned Manchester United suffer their first defeat of this season at home to Blackburn Rovers. The tactiical brain behind the team, whether it be the stubborn old Scottish Ferguson or the bewildering Portugese assistant Carlos Quirez, sent out the, by now familiar, 4-5-1 formation as the crowd chanted 4-4-2 almost straight from the off. After going 1-0 down at half time I looked disconsolately around the living room looking for random pieces of furniture to take my frustrations out on. The minimilast interior design concept, pioneered by my girlfriend, in my house was obviously chosen with afternoons like this in mind.

After a seemingly better start to a second half that saw the reds pull it back to one a piece and look actually interested in the game, I saw a flickering light, somewhere in a distant tunnell. Paul Scholes in the United makeshift midfield blew out the candle with 10 minutes to go as he suicidally gave away the ball on the edge of his own penalty box. 2-1. Chelsea beat Villa and Arsenal only manage a draw with West Ham. We slide further behind the Blues in The Premiership race. There's talk all over the Sports Pages that the Premiership is over after 2 months!

Champions League week on Tuesday and Wednesday and a win at home against Portugese Champions Benfica, albeit a very very lucky one. We again surrendered a lead at half time making it 1-1 after 50 minutes. Only Ruud Van Nistelrooy's golden touch in European Competition saved our blushes at home against a weak Benfica. However, even if we are going through a rocky patch, Chelsea, were, for the first time looking vulnerable against an improving Liverpool side who forced a nil all. Painfull to watch, but effective. It will be interesting to see how Sunday's encounter of these two teams go in The Premiership where Liverpool's form has been nightmareish....

On a lighter note, I've neglected this blog for the past few days because I had been temporarily relocated to Dublin City Centre. I was working in an office just off Moore Street. Moore Street is a place I haven't been around since 1995 when I rented an apartment there. The summer of 1995 is legendary in Irish folklore, simply because it WAS a summer. We had sunshine and virtually no rain. Moore Street was traditionally the Irish market street, with fruit, fish, vegetable and catering size tinfoil stalls all manned by 50+ year old Irish women who have been working the same stalls for decades, and who everybody knew by name. There was Imelda selling fish on Wednesdays and Fridays, Missus Connolly's legendary cabbage and potato stall, Joan with her endless boxes of tinfoil and many more too numerous to mention. There was a chatter and buzz about the place and as recent as 1995, no real need for a supermarket.

Yesterday, the difference was incredible. Only a handful of the old guard remained whilst the shop fronts are gawdily adorned with mobile phones and cheap electronics, the character of the old market street has disappeared, the street is Moore Street, but virtually in name only. The population has become a lot more ethnic with Asian and African communities evolving eclipsing the traditional 'old' Dublin Market, which isn't a bad thing, and since less and less people from Dublin are ensconsed in the market tradition since the country prostituted itself to American Computer multinationals, it was inevitable that the shift towards convenience shopping and the 'supermarket culture' would become more and more prominent. It's just disappointing that not more of an effort was done to arrest the death of a street that literally fed myself and Marie for the best summer I can remember.

Repeated 4-4-2 Appeal/ Metatarsel Disaster

The big game of the weekend was Sunday's 'old enemy' game between Liverpool and United at Anfield. And what a load of crap! Both teams have now moved to the 4-3-3 system with renewed gusto and as a result the entire game was virtually a 7 a side in the middle of the park. No room, no passing, two chances in 90 minutes. Utterly predictable 0-0 result.

I say again Mister Ferguson. 4-4-2. Please. Chelsea now go 7 points clear. A comfortable 2-0 win for The Blues at Charlton, make it 6 wins out of six and zero conceded. The bar has been raised again. We have played one game less and remain unbeaten, but the draws to Man City and Liverpool, don't mean two points gained but four dropped.

The other disastrous news from the weekend is that Roy Keane broke his 3rd metatarsel and will be out of action for 2 months. That leaves the Irish national team rightly screwed for the visit of The Swiss. It's looking like sayonara time for the world cup qualifying campaign, and even though it's not dark yet for Man United, it's definitely getting there...

4-4-2

Yesterday, I was too 'emotionally tired' too contribute anything to this embryonic page. Alex Ferguson was beginning to wear thin on whatever tenuous nerve endings populate my shaking torso. Like most armchair SkySports customers and fans of Manchester United, Wednesday night was about as frustrating as missing last orders by 5 minutes. The game was there to be taken, but the means of getting the result was locked behind a metal grille. The metal grille in this instance was 4-3-3.

Chelsea won last years premiership playing 4-3-3. For the uninitiated that involves the following. From your 10 outfield players you are now assigning 4 of them to defensive duties. you have a left full back, two centre halves, and a right full back protecting your goalkeeper. Fine. The full backs take care of the opposing 'wingers' whilst the centre halves manage the two opposing centre forwards or 'strikers'. Simple!

Your midfield consists of 3 midfielders. Two to play centre midfield to take the ball from the defenders and distribute it creatively to your attacking players. The third midfielder, and this is where the flaw lies, sits in front of the back four to protect them from opposing midfielders coming through.

Straight away your team is now biased towards defending. Your three forward players are playing without wing support which can only come now from the full backs making 100 yard advances, which cannot be done quickly and/or as a counterattack. What invariably happens is that one or two of the attackers come back towards the midfield turning the formation into a very narrow 4-5-1. Chelsea did this last year and ended up winning most of their games 1-0. The conceded feck all goals and scored feck all. Overall, it was the most boring championship winning display since George Graham's Arsenal won in 1989.

With 4-4-2, you are trusting your 4 defenders to deal with the oppositions attack. You have two central midfielders and 2 wingers playing in front of the full backs. These wingers are crucial. They supply the crosses for your two strikers, and they turn defenders. If you turn a defense to face back towards their own goal, you immediately have them at a disadvantage, they can't see the runners coming in from the midfield so your passing options upfront increase dramatically.

That's how Man Utd used to play when they won more Premierships that any other team in history.Why change to mimic a negative Chelsea? It's not like we don't have any wingers? Giggs, Ronaldo, Park and Richardson are all well capable of doing the job. You only need 2!

I'm at my wits end. We have a difficult trip to Liverpool on Sunday at noon, and if the old enemy see a 4-3-3 (4-5-1) formation I can only fear the worst. Another 0-0 draw like Wednesday's display against VillaReal could send me over the edge. i don't know where the edge is, or what's over it, and I truly hope the depths of despair are not reached come 2pm on Sunday.

We need to start creating chances. We didn't against City last week or against VillaReal on Wednesday. Chelsea don't create chances, but they are expert in creating 2 chances in 90 minutes, taking one of them, and no one seems to have a clue how to break them down. We don't have the quality in defense that they do. we don't. But we do have much more creative players. Ronaldo, Rooney, Park, Scholes, Giggs. All players capable of turning defenses or playing a defense splitting pass, or crossing deftly to Van Nistlerooy, who will get you goals if you give him chances.

I'm not advocating we take the Real Madrid stance of "We don't care how many goals you score, we'll score one more than you", but please Mister Ferguson, can we attack down the flanks. Please.

On a parting note. Portugal, Greece and The Czech Republic were the 3 most successful teams in Euro 2004. Why? Because they were the only 3 teams to play with wingers. here endeth the lesson...

Champions league Tuesday Apology/ Wednesday Preview

Well last night was a spectacular night indeed! First off an apology for the 'treble' bet. Chelsea did win and are still not firing on all cylinders but did enough to dispatch Anderlecht. Liverpool did however hold on for an away win, but it was a veritable onslaught by Betis in the second half. Rangers should have drawn with Porto except for a last gasp winner, so it was a close call, but this is a results game and 1 out of 3 predictions is just not good enough.

What about Real Madrid? A club in crisis. Overhauled convincingly by Lyon who were aided and abetted by two amazing Juninho free kicks. The look on Casillas' face after he saved a penalty to prevent a fourth Lyon goal said it all. Real Madrid have a real crisis on their hands. Defensively the look shocking and David Beckham's posturing is all very picturesque but not very productive.

My Artmedian Bratislavics put up a valiant fight against Inter Milan, but a newly bearded Luis Figo and co. put in a very professional display that yielded a 'more comfortable than the scoreline indicated' 1-0 away win. Milan's other team AC Milan, like Rangers, also left it late to despatch Fenerbahce 3-1 with 2 from Kaka and a Shevchenko penalty ending Fenerbahce's hopes of a dream start.

On to tonight, and bad news for Man Utd. Roy Keane is out till at least October 9th with a hamstring problem. A tricky away trip to Villareal tonight could scupper an impressive start to their season. Alan Smith looks set to deputise in midfield, but Utd without Keane always look lacking in organisation, not to mention volume based on pitch motivation. A draw would be acceptable with Cristiano Ronaldo also doubtful after the sad death of his father.

Arsenal are home to Swiss outfit Thun, who are rank underdogs in a group Arsenal should win. But we all know about Arsenal's poor European record. Tonight though, even without Thierry Henry, I don't expect them to slip up.

Juventus have started brightly in Serie A, and Patrick Vieira has slotted in very nicely in the middle of the park (they won 4-0 at the weekend) so the annihilation of Belgium's Club Brugge should be a formality. The glamour team of the tournament, Barcelona, begin their campaign tonight away to Werder Bremen in Germany. Werder have made an impressive start to their German Bundesliga campaign, entering the game on the back of a 5-1 victory at 1. FC Kaiserslautern on Saturday. They have scored 13 goals, and three wins, in four matches. But that's the Bundesliga for you. I sincerely doubt they'll be able to step up to the mark when Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto'o and co. take the field tonight.

That's the pick of tonights games, let's hope that the drama of last night in Lyon is repeated again tonight, only, not in Villareal where a steady 1-0 or 2-0 win will satisfy this Manchester United fan.

Tonight's treble is 3 away wins. Barcelona, Juventus and Ajax all to win and you should get slightly over 8/1 again tonight.

Champions League Preview Tuesday

Roll out the Amstel cos it's Champions League night! Well, that's what the sponsors would have you do, personally, I can't abide the stuff, so I'll fly in the face of commercial sponsorship and roll out the Becks. After last years 'surprising' victory for Liverpool FC, my opinion that this is now a straight forward cup competition, and absolutely anybody who qualifies from the group stage can win it, has been reinforced further. Therefore it is essential to give yourself as much advantage going into the knockout stage by qualifying as group winner to avoid playing another group winner in the 'banana skin' first knockout round. You don't believe me? Ask Sir Alex Ferguson and be sure to mention AC Milan.

As always the first bout of group sparrings take place over Tuesdays and Wednesdays to facilitate TV coverage, and who's complaining? Only the millions of Champions League widows accross the Globe between now and May. Let's look at tonights fixtures.

First up is Rangers of Scotland versus the 2004 winners FC Porto. Porto are ageing fast. Rangers have the ascendency in Scotland as Celtic, their only rivals, slip further into the doldrums. This can however be construed as a bad thing for Rangers. The lack of competition in Scotland traditionally transfers into weaker performances by Scottish teams in Europe. Look at Celtics dismal run in recent years. Porto have never looked the same since the talismanic 'Special One', Jose Mourinho departed for Russian billions in London, and this game has draw written all over it.

PSV should despatch Schalke easily enough, but with the loss of their best player JS Park, to Manchester United in the summer, it's debatable how much of a threat they'll pose in a group that contains AC Milan and Fenerbahce who face each other in the San Siro. Milan, who have always been acclaimed for their superb defensive prowess will want a good start to the campaign after giving up a 3 goal lead to a very average Liverpool in last years disastrous final. However, their back line is ageing fast with only Alessandro Nesta coming in at under 30 (barely!). Their grandfather defense is made up of , Jaap stam 33, Cafu 35, Nesta 29, and the eternal Maldini 37! They do however offer the best all round striker in the world up front in the shape of Mister Schevchenko, who has also been courted by his countrymans millions in Chelsea who indeed recalled his strike partner Crespo from loan during the summer. In saying this I can't see Fenerbahce causing an upset.

In Group F Beware Olympiacos. I was impressed with their Greek resilience last time around and they might sneak into the qualifying rounds ahead of Lyon. I fully expect them to beat Rosenborg who will be lucky to get a point from this campaign. In the same group I expect Madrid to turn over Lyon in France. Robinho is a joy to watch, and his transformation to a Galacticos with Madrid may make for the most compulsive viewing of this campaign. Lyon have lost Michael Essien to, yes you guessed it, Chelsea, during the close season. Essien was far and away their best player over the past two seasons, and with the bumbling Gerrard Houllier now in charge as manager, I can see disaster with a capital D looming for the French club on the horizon. However, it could be worse for Lyon fans and Houllier could have succeeded in prising Djibril Cisse away from Liverpool.

Talking of the champions (still hurts to say that), they did end up in the toughest group, and I think a wake up call awaits them tonight in Betis. The wizardly wing play of the Spanish side may however be curtailed should Fernandez and Edu fail to pass fitness tests. Thankfully it looks like their star player Joaquin will shrug off a slight meniscus problem to antagonise the scouse defense. Liverpool's big problem this year is going to be scoring. Peter Crouch (all 7 foot of him) is expected to start up front and for the life of me I still don't know why Benitez bought him. I'm going for a home win here with a lot of scouse tears.

In the same group, and by far the most difficult, lie Chelsea. They have the relatively easy task of the visit of Belgian side Anderlecht. Chelsea haven't been firing on all cylinders this season, their inspirational midfielder Frank Lampard, seems to be preoccupied with fatherhood, whilst the mainstay of their success last year, wingers Duff and Robben, seem to be chugging a bit, unable to find that 5th gear. They will be too strong for Anderlecht though and this will probably play out as a drab 1-0 affair.

I've purposely left the most enchanting encounter till last and this is the game I'll be watching. The minnowest of the minnows Artmedia Bratislava entertain the legends of Italian Serie A, Inter Milan.

Adriano, Veron, Figo and co. take on the team that every neutral lover of the beautiful game has their hopes pinned on. It's the fairytale that we all want to happen. The little team from Slovakia against the Italian might. 23 years ago they beat them. Yes, 23 years ago they beat Inter Milan in a shock 2-1 win in the first round of the UEFA cup. Can History repeat itself? I really really hope so, but if I'm being honest, I don't think they have a prayer.

So that's Tuesdays match up. For my treble bet, I'm gonna go with Chelsea to win, Rangers to draw and Betis to win. You should get 8/1 for this. Tomorrow, I'll be back to eat my words, as always..

Champions League Fantasy Football

Uefa.com have once again provided the engine for champions league fantasy football. It's free to play and for those wishing to pit their wits against myself and one or two others I've created a mini league within the game. Create your world beating XI at http://en.uclfantasy.uefa.com and the password for the mini league is

69057-11709

. Deadline for team submissions is tomorrow evening (Tuesday) at 20:30 GMT.

Usual rules apply, winner gets a beer from the losers next time you see him!

Weekend Premiership Review

Well the weekend, as usual, offered a lot of promise and as Bob Dylan might say "Nothing was delivered". Manchester United have once again let me down. It was derby weekend in Manchester and a newly invogorrated Manchester City team under new manager Stuart Pearce, it has to be said, done a sterling job of containing a United team that looked, at their best, lacklustre. United were without their portugese winged wizard Cristiano Ronaldo due to the death of his father in Portugal and they badly missed the creative spark he provides. Alex Ferguson's bewildering team selections are still including Darren Fletcher. Why? I wouldn't let him play with the kids on the street. He bears as much resemblance to a premiership player as George Bush does to a competent leader. But the real problem with United was leadership on the pitch.

After a tough game midweek on International duty with the Irish, Ferguson decided to 'rest' his 33 year old midfield general. Another disastrous decision from the Scot. United went one up on the stroke of halftime with the only real consolation the Saturday afternoon derby offered United fans. Ruud Van Nistlerooy is scoring for fun, and clinically as he notched his fourth in four games. Then United decided to sit back and invited the inevitable scrappy goal to level the proceedings with 15 minutes to go. Ferguson then brings Keane on when it's too late. If he wants to rest his aging midfielder. Play him at the start and when we go two up, then take him off. A one all draw was probably, like Ireland and France in midweek a fair result, but with the premiership going to be so tight this year, we can't afford to be throwing away leads at home.

Elsewhere (you've probably guessed by now where my premiership allegiances lie!), Chelsea proved worthy of their starting price of 1/8 against Sunderland as they comfortable despatched Mick McCarthy's team 2-0, leaving both teams with their 100% records intact. Chelsea's 5th win on the bounce is starkly mirrored by Sunderland's 5th consecutive defeat after gaining promotion to the premiership last year. Just desserts for the manager responsible for sending Roy Keane home from the last world cup! Chelsea look like champions once again, their Rusiian billions may well be the difference again this year, their bench of Cole, Drogba and Duff could have beaten Sunderland on Saturday such was the dismal display of the northerners.

The best day of the premiership weekend was kept till Sunday when a Thierry Henry less Arsenal went down to a deserved 2-1 defeat to, wait for it, Middlesbrough. Middlesbrough! Without Henry they looked verry, very, blunt. The French goal machine picked up a groin strain against Ireland in midweek. (The Ireland v France game is certainly taking it's toll on the league this week) and is unavailable for up to a month! This couplewd with the inexperience of Senderos at the heart of defense must be a very alarming wake up call, for what is beginning to look like a very understrength Arsenal. Why oh why did they let Patrick Vieira go to Italy during the summer!

News wise this weekend, all focus was up at Saint james' park in Newcastle where Michael Owen made his much trumpetted return to the Premiership from Real Madrid. He still couldn't inspire an insipid display from his team mates who don't seem to relish playing at all these days. Manager Graham Souness, responsible for the devastation of Blackburn Rovers, when he was there as manager must take the blame for the disastrous start to the season. The players look listless and are playing without purpose and direction and even the introduction of a proven goalscorer failed to earn them nothing more than a one all draw with hapless Fulham. Their first point of the season was no consolation for the football mad Geordie fans up north.

Tomorrow we'll tackle the Champions league first round of group stage matches with Diego Forlan's return to Old Trafford with Villareal. Until then....

The Mathematics of Defeat

When George Hamilton doesn't do it, Jim Beglin does! RTE's co commentary team of Hamilton and Beglin have once again conspired to hex an otherwise solid performance by the Irish soccer team as they went down 1-0 to the french. 4 minutes before Thierry Henry pulls a rabbit from his top drawer of striking party pieces, Jim Beglin opens his trap, "I don't like saying this but Henry is having a poor game!". In the tradition of George Hamilton who will take a final minute in Macedonia to his grave, Jim Beglin, in my book should get Carling Opta points for an assist. As soon as the curling Umbro sphere left the foot of Thierry it was only going one way, and Jim Beglin had no small karmic part in the only goal of the night.

Indeed the Irish team is flawed. Kilbane was non existent leaving only Roy Keane to contend with Zidane and Vieira. Ergo, there was very little forward movement from the centre. Damien Duff was marked out of the game, leaving Andy Reid to be the only wing threat to the french. Brian Kerr should have made changes sooner. Kilbane was redundant and should have been replaced by Finnan, swapping Reid into the centre to create while Keane held. Finnan gives you width and defensive competence to deal with anything Gallas could supply down the left and I think the manager must take the majority of the blame for the inability of the Irish to threaten.

So between the two of them, Brian Kerr and Jim Beglin, neither of whom kicked a ball, they conspired to hand the french a scrappy one nil win they didn't really deserve. The Irish didn't deserve it either. A draw, as the cliche goes, would have been a fair result.

Allez Les Verts

In a little over 4 hours time we will know our own limitations. Ireland will more than likely have tasted defeat at the hands of the French, if the papers and the bookies and the blokes on the street are to be believed. But I'm taking a lot more convincing.

I hate to jinx them, but I'm kinda thinking we could win. No, not scrape a draw. We could beat them. Enough of this crazy talk Mister Keogh! What about Zidane, Makelele, Vieira and the goal machine that calls himself Thierry Henry! How can your Irish eleven of also rans from the lower reaches of the English Premiership and The Championship hope to compete with 'Les Bleus'?

Easy, we change the rules of International Football. We do what nobody is supposed to do anymore. We play like it means something!

The Dutch, The Italians and to a lesser extent The French have, in the recent past swapped the passion and fervour of the International game for the 10 million Euro contract with Reebok!, the Pepsi commercial sponsorsip deal and the bit part in a Hollywood movie. The International stage is a minor annoyance that they perservere with until they get their asses back to Real Madrid or Barcelona or Bayern Munich to get along with their real job, and don't think that their real job is anything to do with playing football! No, these 25 year old millionaires are marketeers and their product is themselves.

Greed has taken a stranglehold and what once was the jewel in the crown of the sport, the Jules Rimet trophy, The FIFA world cup, is now only a longer working year for those who are unfortunate enough to qualify!

Thats where the Paddys come in. Most of them are working at the bottom end of the payscale and they don't treat next summers excursion to Germany as an inconvenience but rather an opportunity to earn a bit of overtime. Greece proved it could be done at last seasons European Championships and the Brazillians, Koreans, and The Americans all used 2002's world cup to put themselves in the shop window. Indeed Brazil have done this for decades and the carnival that surrounded Robinho's transfer to Real Madrid only hammers home the point that Brazil needs a world cup to advertise their talents to make the European payout.

The poorer nations will always turn up trumps in the beautiful game and that is what makes it beautiful. The level playing field can be just that, and when the French aristocracy take on the Irish journeymen tonight at Lansdowne Road I'm hoping for a rain soaked typical Irish September evening, just to slide the spirit level a little towards this little island...