SBNation.com User Blog: fahrurozi

Imaginary Malaga Squad Next Season (With The Help From Chelsea Youngsters)

fahrurozi — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:15:11 -0000

While everyone is busy with Ferguson retirement and Hazard-esque Mourinho returns to Chelsea. I'm suddenly excited to see the prospects of Chelsea youngsters. I consider Jose Mourinho*) as a manager who doesn't seem to use youngsters on regular basis unlike Guardiola, Ferguson, or Wenger. However, with promising talents already in our pocket, we can say that these youngsters are ready to step in for higher level. Let's say they're good enough for Chelsea but not for current first team so getting more minutes on loan is a better option. It's a good thing that Chelsea already have Vitesse as feeder club. And it's getting better with Malaga joined Vitesse as well ( I know we can't consider them as feeder as the contract probably say bla bla, whatever).

*) Amen To That

Malaga, I can say, is on the same level with Chelsea. Not entirely the same in all aspects but looking at the competition level and current position in the league, Malaga for sure is Champions League level. Which is ours too. They also backed by rich owner like us, but with some problems against UEFA they have to deal with, they had to be extra aware in spending money. With upcoming FFP is on the list of their obstacle in buying quality players, getting players from loan definitely the only likely option available for them.

Malaga currently have 5 players coming from loan (Lucas Piazon, Oguchi Onyewu, Roque Santa-Cruz, Diego Lugano, and Vitorino Antunes). Those players future in Malaga, off course, are in doubt. They could be back to their parent clubs and could stay as well. In this piece I Imagine that all of them are leaving so there'll be 5 spots to fill in. So let's start to imagine which positions they have to improve and whose Chelsea players could fill the spot:

1. Defense

Patrick Van Aanholt

Since Nacho Monreal joined Arsenal, the left back spot belonged to Vitorio Antunes, which is a loan from a club named "PacoS de Ferreira", a Portuguese club (in case you don't know, like me). Antunes didn't offer the same quality as Monreal did so the left side of Malaga is a bit lost of something that Monreal provided. Altough Eliseu and Duda can play as left back, they weren't able to play at their best since it's not their favoured position. I'm not too sure whether PvA is going to be as good as Monreal for Malaga in short time but I believe he'd be improvement to those aforementioned names.

Tomas Kalas/Kenneth Omeruo

This is harsh but in my opinion Jesus Gamez is average player for Champions League level. I wouldn't say Kalas and Omeruo are the best choice to improve the right side but considering their performance for Eredivisie this season and their versatility in defense (both can play as CB and RB), with only Demichelis and Welligton as recognized CB, Malaga surely needs one of them.

2. Midfield

Kevin De Bruyne

Yes, KDB has quality to play with Chelsea first team next season. However, if I were Jose Mourinho, I'd rather send him on loan again and Malaga is the best place for him. Simply because Pellegrini likes a creative players who can play from deeper position. This opinion not only based on the fact that Piazon started from Pivot position twice this season, but also based on what I saw when Cazorla still working with him both at Villareal and Malaga, which he was deployed as pivot, and also, as deep lying playmaker too. I would like to see this happening to KDB. Considering it's hard to replace Mata-Hazard and we have too many players to play for attacking midfield position.

Lucas Piazon/Marko Marin

I can't say much about this guy but he should play for Malaga again next season, especially if Isco leaves. You can browse his video and read usual weekly loan report by Steve, and you'll understand why.

About Marko Marin, it would be good for him to go out as he hasn't played much football this year. Especially on permanent basis. But if the club still trust his ability, sending him on loan is an option. However, with the likes of Isco, Joaquin, Eliseu, and Portillo, it'd be difficult place for him to get first team too.

3. Forward

Romelu Lukaku

Honestly, I want Lukaku to play for Chelsea next season. I personally think he could compete (and even won) for a striker spot against Ba and Torres. Plus, we can retain his home grown status here. However, with rumour linking us with top class names are going to arrive at Stamford Bridge next season, and he's only 19 year old, it's quite a wise decision to send him on loan again. This time, to a top side of La Liga.*

*Personally would like to see him bullying Barceloner with his physical awesomeness

We all know that beside those names, Chelsea still have lots of talents on loan or at Cobham. However, Malaga is a top side in a top league. I assume that players like Wallace, Ake, Thorgan Hazard, Kakuta, et. al. are still not ready yet for that level and I'm afraid they wouldn't get minutes at La Rosaleda. And some locals, like McEachran, Chalobah, Kane, et. al. will be much better to play for English side due to retain their home grown status. Yet it's up to the situation whether who should be going and who shouldn't.

And here's my "dream team" for Malaga:

Caballero (GK)
Kalas - Welligton - Demichelis - PvA (DF)
Toulalan - KDB (MF)
Joaquin - Isco - Piazon (AMF)
Lukaku (CF)

Slight Concern on Oscar's Best Position

fahrurozi — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 13:58:15 -0000

While Chelsea fans currently busy in praising Ba and mocking Torres, I have another thing to worry about: Oscar's best position.

Oscar is not in Rafa's first choice currently and i'm a bit worried about that. Not because Moses offers something better in terms of balance, but because when he gets his game time, he's not the player I expect him to be. After his cheeky comment during Club World Cup, I think there's a bit disharmony between him and FSW. Yeah FSW is a mug by not picking him because it's the only time I saw him being effective under FSW reign. But overall his playing was a bit left-off from his world class potential.

I decided to look back on how good he was during RDM era. All I can say that he was great at that time because the skillsets he has, not because he played at his best position. Remember his two long range shots at CL? It tells me a lot about his skills. I googled various articles on Oscar's best position or his future position then I found 3 articles from WAGNH. Here they are just to slightly remind you of what type of player Oscar actually (or potentially) is: 1. a central midfield by Steve, 2. a long term Lampard successor by Graham, and 3. a Toni Kroos-esque type of midfielder. According to those articles, basically we expect him to be a central midfielder. Not behind strikers nor pivot.

By far, I try to suggest myself that both RDM and FSW had trained him to play in that position. But my question is, why is he not preferred to play there when Romeu and Lamps were absent injured? Why picking Luiz who hasn't been satisfying in pivot (apart from FSW rubbish decision not to pick Mikel even when he's available)?

So I come to a conclusion that Oscar isn't perfectly suit to scrappy 4-2-3-1. I hope I'm wrong but it seems like we have to use another formation to accommodate his best, just like we did to Torres (get rid other forwards, buy creative players, signed FSW, etc). That means, it could also be sacrificing other talents to shine to accommodate Oscar.

I'm writing this post because I know Oscar has enormous potential but I haven't seen that week-in week-out so it bothers me a for a while. Thoughts?

While Chelsea fans currently busy in praising Ba and mocking Torres, I have another thing to worry about: Oscar's best position.

I'm writing this post because I know Oscar has enormous potential but I haven't seen that week-in week-out so it bothers me a for a while. Thoughts?

Chelsea Chasing Italian Forward?

fahrurozi — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:35:00 -0000

Chelsea Chasing Italian Forward?

valid?

The Learning Robbie Di Matteo

fahrurozi — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 06:57:16 -0000

1 Champions League trophy and 1 FA Cup in his only 2-3 months at Chelsea were probably the biggest achievements for Roberto Di Matteo. It was beyond our expectation (and probably himself and the board) to win such trophies after Chelsea sacked their manager. Also adding the fact that Chelsea were on the worst run in PL during Abramovich era, and subjectively I can tell you that it was the worst squad that Chelsea had since Abramovich took the club. But RDM still managed to win 2 prestigious trophies despite he was sacked by Wes Brom in previous season. Lucky?

No I don't think he's lucky to win that both. After strings of bad performances from AVB, he changed few crucial things and also gave a new perspective at our side. 4-2-3-1 being used more often, old guards made more appearances, Ramires and Berty on the wing, and the most important thing from him was his effort to bring back winning mentality to our side. One of them was the video motivation which was being told by Berty. I am totally amazed with how he worked on that. Oh wait, his future at that time was also unclear. With Pep Guardiola always linked to us after his (coward) resignation from Barcelona.

Some of our fans, including me, were still unsure whether he could bring us to successful years ahead. He's not pictured as good as Mourinho, Guardiola, and Ferguson. His defensive method was also raising questions from fans and media, as it wasn't the way which Roman expects.

This season, we're sitting on the top of the table so far. It's a good precedent but still we can't hide our concern over some problems (defeat against Atletico & City, draw vs QPha, poor result during pre-season, lack of strikers, Torres, etc). His decision to pick Berty (an LB) for an attacking winger was also worrying us. And this is probably the major factor why some fans still wanting Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho to take his seat. I just don't want that though.

I'm not here to defend Robbie but he extremely needs an extra support from the board, the players, the staffs, the fans, and the media. However, he's still a newbie manager whose never managed PL team in full season. He has a lot to prove yet has a lot to learn. And as far as it goes, I can see him learning. He's not naive with his own "philosophy" or his "project" yet he tries to give some players new position (Rami & Berty on the wing, Luiz on RB, remember?) and we have some new styles of play too. This point shows us that Robbie is trying new things but his lack of experience sometimes cost us.

Experimental

All those "learning" stuffs from Robbie seem experimental to Chelsea. But his appointment as assistant manager by AVB and as manager by Chelsea were experimental as well. This "experimental" thing worrying fans sometimes. But any of you remember that Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova were also experimental appointment by Barcelona? I'm not comparing Robbie with them and not comparing Chelsea with Barcelona. But Barcelonistas seem happy with the appointment of them without much-worrying about hiring big name managers, yet they always challenge for the title each season.

Back to Robbie again. So far, his experimental attributes caught in my eyes the most. As much as the season goes, his decision quite surprising us. Picking good players in wrong position is worrying us though, but I can accept it as to me, he's still learning. I can tell you that our style vs Stoke (which Cole and Brana didn't offer width) was also his decision so the full backs do the harm from center and not doing their usual job (play wide, take on, cross) since it will be difficult to win crosses against Stoke. To me, this is experimental yet brilliant tactics despite we did't win comfortably.

Chelsea fans surely love Robbie especially to those who follow Chelsea since late 90s or since long time ago. But some of us love him as a player and still doubting his quality as manager. What he gave to us last season probably the best history for any Chelsea manager but that's just not enough. Robbie has a lot to prove and I sure he'll do that for sure. His experimental on many things is a prove that he's learning to prove himself as top class manager. I believe that he'll be better than himself currently and I hope it soon, as Chelsea manager.

"A Full-time Learner Sometimes Better Than A Genious"

Juventus (Probably) Have The Best Midfield Combination In The World

fahrurozi — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 02:16:34 -0000

This is no exaggeration as many of you might think. If you look into previous season, with no world class forward, Juventus made their unbeaten run record. It was one of the most sensational midfield performance I ever see from Juventus with only 3 recognized midfielders called MVP (Marchisio-Vidal-Pirlo). The only thing missed from their astonishing midfield was decent subs/squad depth. But they already improvised during transfer window with some names arrived: Kojo (Kwadwo Asamoah), Mauricio Isla, Paul Pogba, and Sebastian Giovinco.

I've been following Italy national team and Serie A since WC 1994 and Juventus is my favoured team in Italy so I know them quite much (dont worry, Chelsea is still my number 1).

Barcelona & Madrid probably stand on the top of the list when we're talking about clubs with best midfielders thanks to their big name players. I take Barcelona as comparison: they now have Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets-Fabregas-Mascherano-Song-Thiago (adding that Messi & other forwards often play from deep and help their midfield) and they do wonderful job last season (+Keita -Song). But in my perspective, what they can only do is passing carousel at its finest. It's great (and boring as well) to see tiki-taka whatsoever and off course it's dangerous. But that's only it: have you ever seen them dangerous when they passes weren't dynamic (i.e. when the pitch is bad or anything that made their passes ineffectual and they started to dive, dive, dive)? Apart from the fact that our traditional 'parking bus' always success against them, have they ever played against team with better possession and won the match in defensive approach? Never for sure. And that's what Juventus are. They are always impressive even when the pitch is bad, the passes not so dynamic, and also when they unable to dominating the game.

According to WhoScored, in their first 3 matches, the 5 best players of them are their midfielders. All of them are rated above 8. Here's I write a few about them:

Andrea Pirlo is the main man, he spreads the ball everywhere short or long with high accuracy. He also does his bit in defensive duty by marking his opponents and tackle them. Quite poor in the air, slow in pace, but still able to dribble past 1 or 2 opponents. Very good at set pieces (despite scoring no goal from Freekick for Juventus last season) and deliver great, great, balls from his own half. One of the best deep lying playmaker in the world.
Arturo Vidal, the forgotten Chilean star who scored 7 goals for Juventus last season, 10 goals 15 assists previously for Leverkusen. He's naturally DMF who can play as pivot (it's very popular recently), strong tackler, aerials battler, proper box-to-box and also has a good sense in long pass and long shot. What else to say? I was hoping he joined Chelsea last season from Leverkusen when he stated he wanted to leave them. He was available for €10 m as well. So I was gutted when he joined Juventus instead.
Claudio Marchisio. I can't really see anything really special from this guy but I like him a lot. He's not the player with the best passing, best dribbling, or anything. But he has it all balanced. He fill the role between Pirlo and Vidal last season and scored 9 goals with his intelligent timing in penalty box. He's not on the same level with Lampard or Gerrard but he plays effectively with everyone, unlike those aforementioned names.
Emmanuele Giaccherini is no world class player but one of consistent performers for Juventus if he had the chance to play. He's small but very quick. Scored beautiful goal against Genoa in his first appearance this season. Despite only play once this season, he made 5 key passes on that game. Albeit he played very poor for Italy in Euro 2012, I can say he's improving a lot and does his job very well.
Kwadwo Asamoah is one of their best signings this season. At a glance he looks like a tenacious powerful midfielder like Essien during his prime, and yes he is. He's strong physically but also offering good pace & good technique. He's a decent defensive winger who has good cross and powerful long shot. If you watched his debut goal vs Napoli on Supercoppa, you surely watched him scoring beautiful goal with his left foot, outside penalty box, with one touch.
Sebastian Giovinco. A Juventus fanboy who drives the team on his own dribble and neat passes. He's very small but he's tricky player. I assume that he has the same agility & dribbling style like Arjen Robben, but he's not as selfish as Robben and much better in terms of playmaking and set pieces. To add a stat, he scored 15 goals and 11 assists for Parma last season. A massive coup for Juventus.

I think this season they're all clicked well and really dangerous. At first I was disappointed not to see any worldclass strikers joined Juventus but then it's blessing in disguise for me as Chelsea fan. There are still few names await to be played and I haven't watched them yet this season. Paul Pogba & Mauricio Isla were the names that I'm afraid will give another worrying factor to our Chelsea side. I'm not forgetting De Ceglie and Lichsteiner as their additional midfield in 3-5-2 since to me they're more wingbacks, not midfielders.

I hope Robbie will be looking to attack from first mins. If we'd choose to sit back and waiting for the counter, I'm afraid that wouldn't success. I give you my preferred formations:

4-2-3-1

Cech

Brana-Luiz-Terry-Cole

Mikel-Ramires/Romeu

Sturridge/Moses-Hazard-Mata

Torres

Oscar is not ready for double pivot

fahrurozi — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 03:13:10 -0000

This is my first post on WAGNH as i've been following WAGNH for only few months. This could be the most unimportant post on WAGNH I guess, but still I feel the need to write this since nobody in my house cares with what I'm thinking.

On Sep 10, Graham posted a piece quoting Eddie about Oscar that he's not ready yet for double pivot:

Oscar can play in number of positions. We are blessed with players who can play in multiple postions. He can play in the number 7 role. Again he is not going to be a old fashion winger. He's not that style of player. He can play in the number 10 role. He can also play in the 6 and 8 role. Where Lampard and Obi play. He isn't ready to play in the number 6 or 8 role yet, but it's something he has. The number 10 and 7 he can play in those positions the most.

-Eddie Newton. Source: Premier League TV via Transfer News Central.

I suggest all off you would't really care on whether he's ready or not for double pivot or ready to play in other position if you saw our catastrophic midfield performance against QPR. Actually, Mikel did well unless his mistake that almost lead to a blatant goal by Zamora. Hazard & Berty did nothing wrong, but less dangerous. Yes, Lampard and Ramires were awful.

Honestly, I agree that Oscar is not ready yet for pivot. He's small, physically raw, and bla bla whatever you say. But that doesn't mean he can't play elsewhere. See Ramires & Berty did less in helping Hazard-Torres or making any threat in final third, they're not natural wingers and we all know Oscar did brilliant in right wing during Olympics despite he was playing to a more creative role, a No. 10 role, and yes, he's now Brazilian No. 10 in his only 20 years of age.

What I am thinking is, we had no reason to put him on the bench last match. Here's my opinion why:

Mata was rested so it was the right time to put Oscar as he's our another neat passer.
How could Oscar be ready for pivot (or elsewhere) if he doesn't get his playing time?
It's only QPR, we shouldn't put defensive-minded players like Berty on the wing like we're up against Barca or Bayern. Offering very little didn't he? (No Berty, I love you, I don't blame you for causing no harm)
We only used 2 subs from possible 3, with Lamps & Rami did nothing effective in first 75 mins, not trying him was a mistake. I watched Chelsea vs QPR with my two brothers and from their neutral perspective, looked like a draw was enough for Robbie.

I have to say that apart from Luiz, there was a little feeling told me that Berty & Ramires wouldn't play effectively; and it was right. I was looking for Studge & Oscar played together with Hazard in supporting Torres but I knew that Robbie preferred wingers who track back and help their fullbacks. But if we were afraid that those players would leave the space exploited, we could use Ramires or Romeu (more defensive-minded) in pivot instead Lampsy, who was terrible that day.

Remember how AVB tried to sign Alvaro Pereira and said that our youngsters weren't ready (including Berty) but then Robbie himself picked Berty for CL Final. I hope Robbie remember this and apply this to Oscar. Ignore the theory he's not ready, just give him more time.