Being single on Valentine's Day is like being a Jew on Christmas day. Fortunately, both of those are out the way for another 10 months and attention can now be put on important matters like non-stop sport.
"Football. FOOTBALL!" I hear you cry like the mad Italian from that advert, although I can't think of any big club competition which restarts this week. Ah wait, the Europa League that's it, the pinnacle of European football where teams actively try and avoid being forced to enter.
Although cup football has betrayed me today (kimmed by the referee) there is always the excitement of the Shampions League as Schteve McClaren christened it, before he messed up Forest and turned Derby into contenders for automatic promotion to the Premier League. I'm not sure what's worse: the prospect of Leicester and Derby getting promotion ahead of Forest or Derby knocking us out of the play-offs with McClaren (brolly in hand) doing a Mourinho-esque touchline slide and unveiling a t-shirt with the names of all the players he bought in his time at the City Ground who were given enormous wages and couldn't be forced out once he buggered off.
Still, at least we have recollections of Derby's last stint in the Premier League to cheer us up when things go tits up in the near future. I'm desperately hoping Taylor Swift has a new album out in the next couple of months for when the inevitable season-ending failure comes about.
Anyway, enough of that, let's take a look at the events coming in the next few weeks which will keep us salivating well into the night:
Shampions League
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so after a three-month hiatus football fans will be pining for the return of the Champions League like a celibate Charlie Sheen walking into the playboy mansion. Although it should be pointed out Sheen recently became engaged to a pornstar so that scenario is unlikely to happen.
The fixtures do not disappoint, with Manchester City-Barcelona a welcome start. With Sergio Aguero fit I would have heavily tipped City, but even without him I would just lean towards them to progress. Barcelona look defensively vulnerable like they did last season and a powerful team like City can bully them like Bayern did so brutally last season.
Jack Rodwell has clearly been rested all season to save him for these games so he will be primed, and James Milner will take time out from his exhilarating Twitter account to put in a big shift as Mick McCarthy would say.
Rumours are abounding that City have asked Manchester United to send Ashley Young over for training in preparation for facing Pedro, Neymar, Busquets and Dani Alves.
Overall, the eight ties are like a box of Celebrations. Without wishing to go all Forrest Gump, you have the Galaxy of the tie at the Etihad and, say, the Galaxy Caramel at the Emirates (sorry but I love Galaxy).
The Leverkusen-PSG match-up is perhaps the Bounty of the line-up - nothing wrong with it, but pales into comparison with the alternatives out there.
Speaking of the Emirates, having put on hold their seemingly inevitable collapse, Arsenal will welcome back Olivier Giroud who ITV helpfully pointed out on Twitter enjoys playing away from home. They come up against Thiago who recently had the most touches in a Bundesliga match since records began. Not to mention the terrifically named Lahm and a few other average players who would crap their pants on a Tuesday night in Stoke. Nevermind their record of played 21, won 19, drawn 2 this season.
As someone who has always liked Arsenal there are conflicting emotions. There is the hope that they can win something, but at the same there is great joy in watching another collapse after Wenger refused to spend in January.
On a similar theme, watching United fans who have had 20+ years of continued success moan after one bad season is even more enjoyable. As someone who respects David Moyes, I'm hoping they knock out Olympiakos so they have some credibility in this year's competition, but nothing moe.
Perversely, a Didier Drogba winner for Galatasaray against Chelsea would be greatly appreciated. Just to get Jose off his high horse (sorry).
A potential quarter-final line-up of: Madrid, Bayern, PSG, Dortmund, United, Chelsea, City/Barca, Atletico would have me moister than Mitchell Johnson at the sight of a tail-ender walking out to bat.
Cricket
Speaking of Mitch, even though I want to see Australia struggle it's hard to begrudge him his success after all the abuse and toil he suffered. Sporting redemption is a powerful draw and what Mitch is doing is bordering on the ridiculous.
As for South Africa, their team selection was all wrong in the first Test. Robin Peterson and Ryan McClaren were never going to do much against a team as buoyant as the Aussies. Dean Elgar and Kyle Abbott have to come in. The same Abbott who had match figures of 9/68 on his only Test and averages 22 in first-class cricket.
In New Zealand, a cracking series is going on between the hosts and India. The ebb and flow has been ridiculous, with huge momentum switches taking place. New Zealand have the better bowlers and India the better batsmen, so a good battle is guaranteed each innings.
New Zealand have so far hit scores of 503, 105, 192 and are currently 252/5 having been 94/5. India nearly overcame a 300-run deficit to win the first Test and with a lead of over 240 this time around there is a chance they can lose. Good pitches, good weather, two evenly-matches teams. What a contest.
6 Nations
The only sport which seems harder to win away from home than cricket is rugby union. Teams reach new levels at their own grounds and can smash the opposition to pieces. England against New Zealand and Wales against England come to mind, but Ireland can race through the gears when they want to.
The next month should offer some close-fought contests and hopefully more Paul Hayward-inspired articles that they should consider throwing Scotland out of the competition.
Elsewhere
Matchplay golf in America, Premier League darts and Forest getting nobbed by the Championship's top-two. I hope to be proved very wrong.
And it's not like Leeds are on TV next two weekends, making the season's tally about 20. You'd think they were a top-two side...
Sunday 16 February 2014
Friday 7 February 2014
Ditching KP the way to go
Cricket is a funny sport. It's a team game but played by individuals. An individual might be dropped for a lesser player for the sake of the team balance. Graham Onions was the top wicket taker in the County Championship but instead the ECB decided to send players on tour with worse records.
It's hard to see how one person's behaviour could affect the batting performance of all others. Unless Kevin Pietersen was spiking Alastair Cook's drink or threatening Ian Bell if he did not hit Steve Smith to mid-on, then it's unlikely he is to blame for England's Ashes drubbing.
But it can't be coincidence that after every major English defeat there is talk about Pietersen being a disruptive influence. The information coming through the media might be wrong, but if there was nothing going on then there would be no story. Clearly, the England management are fed up with Pietersen and have decided that now is the time to make a clean break.
That's fair enough. As Ed Smith pointed out, captain Alastair Cook, limited overs coach Ashley Giles (who needs good results) and the new managing director Paul Downton have decided they don't want Pietersen in the set-up. These are people who will be out of a job if England keep losing, so to discard arguably their best batsman can only have come about if there was a strong case for his removal.
Their mistake is allowing legal issues to prevent them from stating what these reasons are. It seems incredibly bizarre that a player can be dropped but no-one knows why. It wouldn't happen in any other sport.
Some will say that Pietersen has been made a scapegoat, but when you have a history as a disruptive figure then you need to keep justifying your place with runs. The reason Cook can keep his place after two bad series is because he doesn't seem to cause problems. When you're a player who has seen a coach let-go because of you and who was dropped for sending provocative texts, then you have to prove you are worth the hassle. Taking into account recent injury problems, a desire to cash in on Twenty20 cricket and few runs in home and away Ashes, then suddenly you are vulnerable.
Whatever the reason for his removal, it's only fair to thank Pietersen for his international career. The stats say it was very good, but they don't tell the whole story - one of outlandish innings and a talent which was never completely fulfilled. A player who can whack Shane Warne and Dale Steyn (this stats article is excellent in its detail http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/716969.html) should have scored more runs and averaged comfortably over 50. Pietersen may have a top-10 of centuries to rival any other batsman in history, but for each 186 in the dustbowl of Mumbai, there were five horrible dismissals. As Geoffrey Boycott said, how can you teach the young players how to play when they see their senior batsman play a daft shot then shrug it off?
Flower nipped in the bud
On reflection, it's right that Andy Flower is no longer England's head coach. If politics has taught us anything it's that there is a shelf-life for each method. It's for that reason I was so confident that the left-wing Ed Miliband would become Labour leader, coming on the back of New Labour (which admittedly he was part of). The Conservatives saw failure in their right-wing leaders and opted for the moderniser David Cameron. The country gets fed up of one-set of policies than craves a completely different approach.
In football, England realised Steve McClaren was too pally, so they went for the disciplinarian Fabio Capello who turned out to be too hard-line.
The same thing happened to Australia: Micky Arthur was strangling the life out of the team, but the fun Darren Lehmann has allowed for greater enjoyment and better results. Clearly, Flower's methods had gone on for too long. England's batsmen struggled against New Zealand and Australia, often crawling along at two runs an over. For whatever reason, the life had been strangled from them apart from them for the most part and they were sitting targets for a hungry Australian attack. Proof came with the emergence of Ben Stokes who was new to the set-up and batted with a freedom which none of his team-mates could muster.
Now, it's time for England to usher in a more relaxed approach and allow a new team to emerge from the wreckage without fear of failure.
My team for the summer
With two limited overs World Cups in the space of 12 months, the Test side can use this chance to re-build for the future. This is the squad of players who should be featuring regularly this summer:
Openers - Alastair Cook, Michael Carberry
Middle order - Ian Bell, Sam Robson, Gary Ballance, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes
Wicket-keeper - Matt Prior, Jos Buttler
Seam bowlers - James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graham Onions and hopefully Steven Finn
Spinner - Simon Kerrigan
Young players like Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Scott Borthwick should get themselves ready in county cricket. Fast-tracking players in very rarely works.
ODI team
1. Cook
2. Bell
3. Stokes
4. Morgan
5. Ballance
6. Buttler
7. Bopara
8. Borthwick
9. Woakes/Bresnan
10. Jordan
11. Broad
12. Hales
Twenty20 team
1. Hales
2. Lumb
3. Wright
4. Morgan
5. Buttler
6. Bopara
7. Patel (should have been picked. Maybe Moeen now)
8. Woakes
9. Borthwick
10. Jordan
11. Broad
It's hard to see how one person's behaviour could affect the batting performance of all others. Unless Kevin Pietersen was spiking Alastair Cook's drink or threatening Ian Bell if he did not hit Steve Smith to mid-on, then it's unlikely he is to blame for England's Ashes drubbing.
But it can't be coincidence that after every major English defeat there is talk about Pietersen being a disruptive influence. The information coming through the media might be wrong, but if there was nothing going on then there would be no story. Clearly, the England management are fed up with Pietersen and have decided that now is the time to make a clean break.
That's fair enough. As Ed Smith pointed out, captain Alastair Cook, limited overs coach Ashley Giles (who needs good results) and the new managing director Paul Downton have decided they don't want Pietersen in the set-up. These are people who will be out of a job if England keep losing, so to discard arguably their best batsman can only have come about if there was a strong case for his removal.
Their mistake is allowing legal issues to prevent them from stating what these reasons are. It seems incredibly bizarre that a player can be dropped but no-one knows why. It wouldn't happen in any other sport.
Some will say that Pietersen has been made a scapegoat, but when you have a history as a disruptive figure then you need to keep justifying your place with runs. The reason Cook can keep his place after two bad series is because he doesn't seem to cause problems. When you're a player who has seen a coach let-go because of you and who was dropped for sending provocative texts, then you have to prove you are worth the hassle. Taking into account recent injury problems, a desire to cash in on Twenty20 cricket and few runs in home and away Ashes, then suddenly you are vulnerable.
Whatever the reason for his removal, it's only fair to thank Pietersen for his international career. The stats say it was very good, but they don't tell the whole story - one of outlandish innings and a talent which was never completely fulfilled. A player who can whack Shane Warne and Dale Steyn (this stats article is excellent in its detail http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/716969.html) should have scored more runs and averaged comfortably over 50. Pietersen may have a top-10 of centuries to rival any other batsman in history, but for each 186 in the dustbowl of Mumbai, there were five horrible dismissals. As Geoffrey Boycott said, how can you teach the young players how to play when they see their senior batsman play a daft shot then shrug it off?
Flower nipped in the bud
On reflection, it's right that Andy Flower is no longer England's head coach. If politics has taught us anything it's that there is a shelf-life for each method. It's for that reason I was so confident that the left-wing Ed Miliband would become Labour leader, coming on the back of New Labour (which admittedly he was part of). The Conservatives saw failure in their right-wing leaders and opted for the moderniser David Cameron. The country gets fed up of one-set of policies than craves a completely different approach.
In football, England realised Steve McClaren was too pally, so they went for the disciplinarian Fabio Capello who turned out to be too hard-line.
The same thing happened to Australia: Micky Arthur was strangling the life out of the team, but the fun Darren Lehmann has allowed for greater enjoyment and better results. Clearly, Flower's methods had gone on for too long. England's batsmen struggled against New Zealand and Australia, often crawling along at two runs an over. For whatever reason, the life had been strangled from them apart from them for the most part and they were sitting targets for a hungry Australian attack. Proof came with the emergence of Ben Stokes who was new to the set-up and batted with a freedom which none of his team-mates could muster.
Now, it's time for England to usher in a more relaxed approach and allow a new team to emerge from the wreckage without fear of failure.
My team for the summer
With two limited overs World Cups in the space of 12 months, the Test side can use this chance to re-build for the future. This is the squad of players who should be featuring regularly this summer:
Openers - Alastair Cook, Michael Carberry
Middle order - Ian Bell, Sam Robson, Gary Ballance, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes
Wicket-keeper - Matt Prior, Jos Buttler
Seam bowlers - James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graham Onions and hopefully Steven Finn
Spinner - Simon Kerrigan
Young players like Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Scott Borthwick should get themselves ready in county cricket. Fast-tracking players in very rarely works.
ODI team
1. Cook
2. Bell
3. Stokes
4. Morgan
5. Ballance
6. Buttler
7. Bopara
8. Borthwick
9. Woakes/Bresnan
10. Jordan
11. Broad
12. Hales
Twenty20 team
1. Hales
2. Lumb
3. Wright
4. Morgan
5. Buttler
6. Bopara
7. Patel (should have been picked. Maybe Moeen now)
8. Woakes
9. Borthwick
10. Jordan
11. Broad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)