European weekend: Villains of the week feat. AVB, Wayne Rooney and Artur Boruc
AC Milan’s forward Mario Balotelli reacts to missing a penalty during the Serie A football match between AC Milan and Genoa at San Siro Stadium in Mian
They say a moment of brilliance can decide close games, but so can some horrific blunders, moments of madness that tend to change the game for the worse.
Along with its collection of heroes, the game throws up its fair share of villains who did their best to help their team in a losing cause or at worst leave a bad taste in the mouth with their actions.
Here are this week’s candidates:
AVB
There was nowhere to hide for AVB as his side were hit for six by Manchester City
The boot was on the other foot at the end of the previous round of matches in the Premier League where I had vouched for Manuel Pellegrini to be in the ‘Flops of the week’ list.
Two weeks and an international break later, City welcomed Tottenham Hotspur to the Etihad Stadium and proceeded to systematically dismantle them to inflict one of their worst defeats in the club’s history.
It also earns his counterpart – Andre Villas-Boas – a spot in this week’s ‘Flops’ section, because, let’s be absolutely clear, he and his Spurs side had a shocker.
Home is where the heart is for City, it’s a love affair that has seen them pump 13 goals past their opponents the last two games. But, all said and done, when you are a top four side, you’re not going to see six goals put past you without abetting to a good degree.
Ever since West Ham and Ravel Morrison exposed the frailties of AVB’s high-line in that 3-0 away win at White Hart Lane, Spurs have been coming unstuck and the lack of goals at the front is compounding their problem.
The problem is not the squad, anybody who says the £100 million odd was blown away on average players. The truth couldn’t be farther from it. However, that said, signing a good backup striker should have been on their list of priorities, but was conveniently forgotten, as they went about signing one midfielder too many.
Still, AVB has to take some of the blame for this defeat, as he is once again displaying some of those attributes that cost him the job at Chelsea – a tendency to change things too soon. Spurs were losing 3-0 at half-time, but his decision to change to a 4-4-2 opened up the floodgates, and the midfielder sacrificed meant that Spurs lost their edge in midfield.
It wasn’t like the chances were being created and not put away. There had to be better use of the possession advantage that they clearly enjoyed in the first half. The problem was the lack of clear-cut chances being provided to Roberto Soldado upfront who cut a ghostly figure.
And his constant chopping and changing hasn’t helped the new players settle in. He has shuffled around with Mousa Dembele, Lewis Holtby and Erik Lamela without giving either of them a sustained run.
With Manchester United next this week, AVB needs to pick a system and stick to it even if results may not always go your way.
Tom Cleverley
Cardiff City’s English midfielder Peter Whittingham (R) challenges Manchester United’s English midfielder Tom Cleverley (L) during the English Premier League football match between Cardiff City and Manchester United at Cardiff City Stadium in Cardiff, south Wales.
Once anointed as the next big thing after he came on at half-time and changed the course of a Community Shield match against Manchester City, Tom Cleverley has since fallen on barren times. That breakout season was interrupted by injury, every subsequent breakout season has been interrupted by poor form.
It is all the more telling considering United’s acute problems in midfield for a good three years and Cleverley’s inability to cement a place there. As shown with the help of a few tools from Squawka, Cleverley failed to grab his big chance in the absence of Michael Carrick and was thoroughly dominated by Cardiff City’s midfield.
Marouane Fellaini didn’t exactly impose himself either, but he was played in a defensive role and put in a decent shift with respect to winning aerial duels and breaking down plays. Fellaini in fact wasn’t helped by the fact that Cleverley spent so much time in his own half which meant that both of United’s central midfielders were pinned down, in turn increasing the work load on Wayne Rooney and leaving Javier Hernandez all alone to fend off Steven Caulker and Ben Turner.
And yes, he completed 30/38 passes, but as you might have guessed, most of them were sideways and bearing no real attacking threat.
Considering that the alternative to Cleverley is Anderson, who has not featured at all under David Moyes, United fans might be getting a little shifty in their seats right now.
The red cards that weren’t
An above the knee, studs-up challenge, a full-blooded kick from the back in frustration and a left-hook that Manny Pacquiao would be proud of – these were the main talking points of a weekend that saw outrage at what were incidents deemed worthy of a dismissal. Except that no red card was shown in each of them, Kevin Mirallas, Wayne Rooney and Gary Medel being the prime suspects.
Mirallas had a goal and an assist in the game. The goal came much before the incident though, but he did go to set up Romelu Lukaku for one of his two goals. Wayne Rooney had the same match-sheet – a goal and an assist, both of which came after the incident, enraging Cardiff fans all the more as a condescending round of boos engulfed the stadium every time the England striker got on the ball. And as for Gary Medel, he once again worked tirelessly for Cardiff, putting in tackles and breaking up play, but took his aggression a little too far when confronting the clearly bigger Fellaini, saying hello with a feisty blow.
Should each of them have been sent off for their fouls? Mirallas’ studs left a pair of holes in Suarez’s leg, Jordan Mutch didn’t make much of Rooney’s kick from the back, but it was reckless nonetheless and credit to Fellaini too for not making a meal of the punch from Medel, choosing to just push him away instead.
Red card offences – definitely think so – how about you?
Artur Boruc
Artur Boruc tried to wriggle his way past Olivier Giroud
There was once a crazy mad man at Arsenal who also happened to be their goalkeeper. That man was Jens Lehmann and I’m sure he would have been considerate towards Boruc for his attempt to dribble past striker Olivier Giroud, one-on-one, instead of just clearing the ball to safety. Don’t adjust your browser, you did read that right, the Southampton keeper tried to be a little fancy in an area where pragmatism would probably have served him better.
It was once rumoured when Lehmann was close to leaving Arsenal, that Arsene Wenger would seek out Boruc as the German’s replacement. It does make perfect sense, one colourful character for another, but you reckon that Wenger was quite pleased that he didn’t after the game at the weekend.
Then again, they did get Wojciech Szczesny.
Oh! And if you’re wondering why there’s a picture of Mario Balotelli at the start – he missed a penalty!