Style and winning>Passion and commitment

Well what can I say, it has been nearly a week now and I have only just calmed down about the whole Shawcross v Ramsey saga.  Now do not get me wrong Shawcross did not mean to break our young Welshmans leg but he did, so why the hell am I being made, by the media, to feel bad for Shawcross rather than A.Ramsey?

The media in this country can sometimes be a little bit too ‘England players are committed, you cant take that away from them’. But this commitment and passion is causing injuries like Ramsey’s leg break.  You would not see the media be more in favour of the legbreaker than the person who has had his leg breaked in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Italy and Germany.  It is not just the media of course, you struggle to see these type of injuries happen in those countries.

Our English passion, commitment and determination has done nothing for our countries national team. International referees at that level will not allow our players to get away with challenges like Shawcross’s, so our players do not behave like this at international level.  When they do, they get sent off!

We can’t handle playing another way, this is shown in our lack of international achievement.  But hey, we did it once in 1966, so that is alright.

You do not see teams like Bolton, Stoke and Blackburn achieving anything in football with the way they play, Chelsea’s whose approach to the game is physical, but that does not mean that their players make stupid challenges and rash attempts at challenges. They mix their physical play with stylish football from back to front, occasionally adding in a long hoof by the goalkeeper.

Now if studying Sports Development has told me anything it is that, this is purely not a elite football problem.  From grassroots football to Semi pro football it is the same, grassroots English footballers from 8-55 years old are complimented on their hard challenges and their commitment.  If a player would to do a piece of skill and beat a player or two they would be called a fancy arrogant selfish player, I am sure more man of the match performances in grassroots football go to the player who was the most committed and showed pride.

Again this is not to say that all players should have less passion for their team that Robinho playing away at Scunthorpe, of course you need to be able to give as much as you can for your team and not come away from a game wishing you had done more.

From grassroots we need to start to introduce more emphasis on skill and ball control.  Arsene Wenger has always said that English players generally,  lack the general ball control compared to their European colleagues.  This is why Wenger will choose to buy a cheaper foreign player than a less developed English player.  Who can say that he is wrong?

I could go on all day about how grassroots football in this country needs developing, and the magnitude of volunteers who are underqualified to coach an appropriate way of playing football when young people start to play football as early as 7.

Sort it out the Football Association

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Now what can I say about our league position. Since losing to Man Utd 3-1 we have lost to Chelsea, beat Liverpool 1-0 thanks to Abou Diaby (brilliant film by an Arsenal fan about ‘A Night At The Emirates’), lost to Porto in the Champions League but we got the crucial away goal, an Eboue inspired win against Sunderland and we beat Stoke 3-1 where we showed a great mentality to deal with a horrific injury to win the game.

Performance highlights come from Manu Eboue for his performance v Sunderland, Nicklas Bendtner for his goal scoring form (3 in his last 3 for club and country) and finally, Aaron Ramsey for his performance against Sunderland and then against Stoke, unfortunately his form was increasing rapidly and he would have continued to improve if it wasnt for a late challenge.  It really is a shame that such a young player is going to miss a crucial part of his development in football, while we are made to feel guilty for Ryan Shawcross who is not going to change his style of play.

Ramsey get well soon and I cant wait to see you back in an Arsenal shirt doing what you do best.

Cummon Arsenal do it for Rambo!

With all

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Drogba more holy shit than Dog shit

Drogba destroyed us on Sunday.

Chelsea were far too good for us.  We had so much possession yet we couldnt let them pay by scoring a goal.  As the great Alan Davies says, its like the Weakest link, when no player chooses to bank (shoot) instead of trying one more and passing it along the edge of the box.  Chelsea dealt with our crosses all day long and they were just immense in defence.

They probably will go on to win the title and so they should with a team like that.  John Terry is the most annoying one, because by the look of him he should be an awful defender.  He is slow he is technically shite, yet he knows how to defend and how to make a tackle (even if it is a late one on a player who is shooting and he can get away with it).  The team he plays in knows how to defend. I dont know how they do it so well, but they do.

Their two front men give them the release by simply passing it to them and they will win it and out power people in their way and lay it off or have a shot.

Their first two goals came from two Ashley Cole crosses, they were class crosses in dangerous areas which begged to be put in the back of the net.  Drogba accepted Ashleys invitation and made it look so simple by sidefooting the first goal in.  The second was about 2 mins later and the same ball, Gallas missed it and it hit our number 5 for his 1 millionth goal of the season (wrong net though).

Half time and we strangley took off Song who was our only 6ft plus player out on field and replaced him with Walcott, to no doubt keep Ashley a bit more quiet.  Walcott came on ran with the ball too fast and thus couldnt control it all game.  He didn’t impress me at all, give him some games and he might change my mind.  His pace will undoubtedly scare defenders but he has got to remember to take the ball with him!

Whilst speaking about players that annoyed me, I must mention Eduardo.  Whats happened to him?!  He was this calm player who wouldn’t panic at any moment and simply knock the ball into the back of the net.  Now he is a nervous wreck who couldnt get one shot off on Sunday.  He either found himself with the ball on his right foot and not wanting to shoot, or he would have the ball under his feet.  Carlos Vela at the moment seems like a more mobile and calmer player than him, sort it out Eds.

I dont know how the free kick was given for their third goal, but they are not to blame.  Almunia is.  What was he doing? To conceed a goal two foot away from where he is standing is quite bad.  Ive lost all confidence in him and the sooner we get a new keeper the better, Rob Green?  Now I dont want to take anything away from the free kick because it was soooo good, how does he get that much power on his side foot and for it to curl slightly, its something quite special from the annoyingly good Drogba. Grrr him!

The thing is we weren’t that bad, we just aren’t as clinical as the Russian Revolution in Fulham.  They were too too good.  It’s now how we react, we tend to lose to them in a season so maybe we can beat them at home react well and overcome our next dozen opponents and go on a bit of an unbeaten stretch.

Citeh tonight, in the League Cup. Nice to see some youngsters playing there football.  Hopefully we will beat them.  Saying that we will probs draw with them as thats all they seem to be able to do at the mo.   Pens?

I however will only be able to watch the first half of the game as I am going to watch my 5 aside team play tonight.  Back to the place where I broke my wrist.  Hopefully I wont have bad nightmares when I go back there.  Wish me luck!

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