With Kevin Phillips firing home from 12 yards (not the first
self indulgent Crystal Palace reference that will be made), it brought to a
close another dramatic and unsurprisingly controversy filled ten months across
2012/13. From biting to Bale and from Van Persie to vorsprung durch technik,
this is CollinsBeans definitive review of the season that was.
There’s been a lot to take in over this past year and all
along the journey James Platt and Matt Snelling have tried to call it like they
see it. Just how much ‘insight’ they’ve provided is very much open to debate
and analysis (hopefully not by the MOTD team) but before they go on their
summer marketing tour of East Asia we’ve caught up with them to ask them the
burning questions that have been thrown up from August to May.
It’s the players, goals and matches that mattered, as well
as all the other things that really didn’t (which doesn’t leave too much
frankly). This is CollinsBeans end of term wrap up party, so grab yourself an
FA endorsed Budweiser, kick back and enjoy...
Part 1
So where better to
start than right at the top of the Football League pyramid: as the season drew
to a close (well in practice around Christmas really) Manchester United made it
20 league titles, but as Sir Alex Ferguson bows out, will this team go down as
one of his best?
Absolutely not. I know Fergie made noises about this being one of his best sides ever, and there was even talk of matching Chelsea’s record points haul from Jose Mourinho’s first season (that soon tailed off), but in reality the overall standard was poor. In fact it says more about the other clubs that a mediocre Manchester United team cruised to such an easy title win.
To give some credit, the overall squad certainly had depth and there are definitely some promising young players at Old Trafford, Phil Jones in particular. But the first team lacked real star quality in places and you can’t help but feel that under more pressure certain players may have struggled. But as the old cliché goes, you can only beat what’s put in front of you, and Manchester United did it with ease. And (cringe alert) it was fitting really that Ferguson went out on a league title. (James Platt)
Given we live in a time when nostalgia is all the rage, it’s easy to say that Sir Alex’s previous title winning incarnations were better, but I definitely think there is a lot of truth in that, even looking at things without the idealised and misty eyed blur of the past.
Their record, coming dangerously close to breaking the record points haul set by Mourinho’s Chelsea suggests they are right there but for whatever reason this side did not capture the imagination of days gone by. At the beginning of the season United’s defending was as generous as Tony Fernandes’ cheque book but the team, fired by the goals of Van Persie always seemed to win. By the end, they’d turned into a solid outfit grinding down opponents with a series of 1-0 wins.
They’ll be remembered as a team that took the champions crown from their money bags neighbours and for being the last title winning side put together by Alex Ferguson but there have been far more dynamic and far better Manchester United teams than version 20.0. (Matt Snelling)
Staying with the Champions, the end of season celebrations and Ferguson eulogies had one sour note with a certain Wayne Rooney playing the role of the one guy at work that prefers to stay back from the end of year office party and organise his paper clips. Should Manchester United cut their losses, or should the incoming David Moyes welcome Wayne back into the fold?
How to solve a problem like Wayne Rooney…I personally struggle to understand his end game: where is it he wants to be transferred to? He’s always seemed like a guy that revels in home comforts and yet he’s at the biggest club in the country – why so anxious to leave? We’ve been here before of course and it must be galling for the player that after moaning about the club’s lack of ambition and lack of big names as justification for his first transfer request that the club went out and signed a certain Dutchmen thus relegating him to a back seat role.
I
think it’s fair to say that the 27 year old has never quite fulfilled the huge
expectation paced upon him but let’s not forget that this is an immensely
talented footballer who on his day can be an explosive and unplayable force.
The problem comes from too many games where the match seems to pass him by and
he drifts, but, Moyes better than anyone should know the ability he can bring
to the table and he is still one of the best players in the Premier League. If
I were a fiery ginger haired new manager then I would make every effort to keep
Wayne Rooney on board, only, play him up front, as the myth that he can play as
a central midfield player has hopefully been exposed. (MS)
Tricky
one. I personally think Rooney is rather overrated, but that’s mainly because
pundits in this country insist on calling him “world class” and “up there with
your Messi’s and Ronaldo’s”. Rooney is an excellent player in the Premier
League but nowhere near the level of some of Europe’s finest – certainly not
going on his form over the last couple of years anyway.
A
fit, motivated Rooney would still be a massive asset for Manchester United, and
for any English team in fact, but he seems to have become very high
maintenance. It’s not the first time he’s gotten stroppy and threatened to
leave. Perhaps it might be time for everyone to move on and Moyes to begin with
a clean slate… (JP)
Rooney might not have
had his best season this time out, but which player(s) shone brightest over the
past ten months?
It’s hard to look past the obvious names – Robin Van Persie, Gareth Bale, Michu. Van Persie scored the goals to win the title and was particularly good for the first six months of the campaign. Michu was clearly an absolute bargain but Bale probably topped the lot, although I maintain he needs to score 50 a season and perform every week before people put him in the same bracket as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Elsewhere,
Santi Cazorla was excellent for Arsenal, as was Juan Mata for Chelsea. And
neither get in Spain’s first XI. Frightening… I haven’t been a fan in the past,
but I also thought Michael Carrick was superb this campaign – he never gives
the ball away.
Leighton
Baines looked like a class act and if you’re just talking pure football
ability, Luis Suarez was very, very good as well.
Finally
(bit of personal bias here I’m afraid) an honourable nod to Frank Lampard – 17
goals, a new Chelsea record, captain in the Europa League triumph and a new
contract. Not bad for someone written off by some as old and past it. (JP)
When
looking at the players that had the biggest single impact on the successes that
their respective teams enjoyed it’s hard not to look past the goal scoring
talents of Robin Van Perise, Gareth Bale and Michu. As Mr Platt notes, for the
first 6 months of the season, before they got their defence in any way a
coherent shape RVP was the difference between turning draws and defeats into
victories whilst Bale, despite some over the top criticism about diving and
theatrics took his game to a whole new level. Michu meanwhile, at just £2
million shows just like French supermarkets, no-one buys British.
Moving
to the other end of the pitch, and being part of the goal keepers union, I was
incredibly impressed with David de Gea’s improvements. While there are still
improvements that can be made to his game, his ability to deal with the almost
hysterical coverage in the media and from fans he got last year into a
genuinely top goalkeeping prospect deserves a lot of respect. The bequiffed custodian
has an elastic ability to use all parts of his body to keep the ball out of the
net and after all the complaints about the slightness in his frame is
developing a considerable presence in the box.
The
best of the rest then, and everything good Chelsea do comes through Juan Mata
whilst his colleague Eden Hazard in flashes has shown what an artist on the
pitch looks like. Moussa Dembele makes Tottenham tick in an understated (and
under-appreciated way) and I’ll also throw out some love to the sprinting
battering ram that is Christian Benteke: a prop forward in Linford Christie’s
body. (MS)
From the sublime to
the ridiculous, every year needs its flops. Outside of the last series of the
X-Factor who became 2012/13’s biggest disappointments?
In terms of flopping, when you consider the achievements of last year you’d be hard pressed to look past Newcastle United as an entire entity. After the dogs breakfast of a regime that resulted in relegation to the Championship back in 2009 the club seemed to have gone back to basics and be on an upward trajectory. Last season’s hugely impressive fifth place finish was always going to be a tough act to follow but no-one should surely have been preparing for the reversion to the Mike Ashley mean.
On paper this was easily a top half team, but a lack of adequate strengthening in the summer when combined with a demanding Europa League run was never going to be a match made in heaven but that gives a team and manager too many excuses for a Newky Brown barrel load of pitiful displays that reached their nadir in the home humiliations to Sunderland and Liverpool. Must do better.
I’d also note QPR’s merry band of over the hill mercenaries… if I was expecting that much out of them in the first place. Signing players simply on reputation is never a recipe for anything other than hard boiled disaster. Park, Samba, Traore, Fabio, Wright-Phillips, Bothroyd, Granero, Hoilett, Zamora, Bosingwa, all ranged from bad to terrible and the whole club was run like a farce all season. (MS)
Strikers often dominate these lists and there were some prime candidates again this campaign, not least Emmanuel Adebayor who (last two games of the season aside) spent most of the time looking like a lost giraffe wondering what to spend his next pay cheque on. I know he didn’t get much game time, but Darren Bent also didn’t exactly have a season to write home about. Nor did Danny Graham at Sunderland.
Working
back down the pitch, Liverpool put together a nice collection of woefully
underperforming midfield players including Nuri Sahin and Joe Allen, the latter
looking painfully out of his depth. Like Bent above, Scott Sinclair didn’t get
much time on the pitch but still has to go down as a flop.
At
the back – imagine a centre back pairing of Thomas Vermaelen and Martin Skrtel…
Not pretty. Then put Bacary Sagna next to them…
Although
my biggest flop of all is not a player, but actually a manager – Harry
Redknapp. He took over QPR with plenty of time to make a difference, had
everyone in the media backing him and telling us what a great job he’d do,
spent significant amounts of money on transfer fees and wages in January and
led QPR to a sum total of last place, a long, long way from avoiding the drop.
Not sure it was quite the wheeling and dealing QPR fans hoped for… (JP)
“The game is about
glory” Danny Blanchflower once famously said, rather than say celebrating finishing
fourth like you’ve won the World Cup, so with that in mind were Wigan and
Swansea’s respective cup triumphs a welcome break from the usual suspects or a
sign of a dip in quality in from the top sides?
Probably a bit of both. The quality has been undeniably low, but at the same time it’s always welcome to see new teams winning silverware and not just the same old names. You’d have to say Swansea’s success was better managed, in that they didn’t get relegated at the same time…
As
for Wigan – it’s the standard question: would you rather cup success or
Premier League survival? Personally I’d opt for the former as no one is going
to remember in 20 years’ time that you finished 17th in the
league. But obviously you also need to ensure you don’t do a Portsmouth.
(JP)
The
achievement of Swansea and Wigan is definitely something to be enjoyed, and
whilst a dip in quality from the top sides (highlighted by the failings of
English sides in the Champions League) perhaps made an opening, both those
sides grabbed it with both hands.
Would Wigan rather have not got relegated? I’m
sure, but when it comes down to it I can’t disagree with my esteemed colleague
when he says what would you rather tell the grand kids about: winning the world’s
oldest cup competition at Wembley for the first time in your history, defeating
a team put together for the GDP of a small state or scraping survival and
finishing fourth from bottom?
Swansea
deserve immense recognition for creating a successful model where the
collective is emphasised over any individual and where new players, and indeed
managers can be plugged in rather than creating significant upheaval. New, or
different names on trophies can only be good thing for the overall health of
the English game. (MS)
The game is also
about goals. Simply put, which were your favourites from this season if you had
to put together a little Youtube compilation to download and keep?
Up in here in CollinsBeans towers we always enjoy a good rocket and two balls that very much ‘stayed hit’ were Hatem Ben Arfa providing a rare moment of magic in a season of disappointment on Tyneside against Aston Villa. Likewise, although their campaign was to ultimately end in disappointment (and it breaks my heart to say that) Watford’s, or rather Chelsea’s (his parent club) Nathaniel Chalobah almost taking the net off against Leicester deserves a mention.
The favourite though is that thing of beauty when all the parts work in unison and players just simply know where each other are without even a look: it becomes telepathic. Step forward the fantastic team work in the move for Kevin Mirallas’ goal against West Ham. Just perfection. (MS)
Who doesn’t enjoy a YouTube compilation? There was some crackers towards the end of the campaign in particular – David Luiz’s long ranger against Fulham, Matthew Lowton’s stunning chest and volley and, arguably the best of the lot, Robin Van Persie’s textbook volley against Aston Villa.
Gareth
Bale could probably justify his own little compilation and his amazing toe poke
against Swansea was a personal favourite. Sergio Aguero’s solo run against
Manchester United is also worth sticking in.
Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon...
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