Six to watch: the fringe players
Often players who weren’t considered part of the starting XI at the beginning of a tournament emerge to play a leading role by the knockout stages. Here’s six who hope to do that:
Javier Pastore
Javier Pastore, Argentina
Who is he? A 20-year-old enganche who has impressed in his debut season for Sicilian club Palermo. A creator rather than a goalscorer himself, he plays just behind the forwards and has both passing ability and a love for running directly at defences. He only won his first cap two weeks ago against Canada.
Why should we watch him? Because Argentina don’t really have anyone in his mould. They have Carlos Tevez, Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero, but these are deep forwards rather than attacking midfielders. Juan Veron plays in the role Pastore would look to fill, but doubts remain about his ability to compete for 90 minutes in the centre of midfield, and he has an unfortunate characteristic of looking like a luxury player when things are going badly. Pastore would play slightly higher up the pitch and look to play the killer pass.
Fabio Coentrao, Portugal
Who is he? A 22-year-old former left winger who has been pushed back to left-back at Benfica, where he has just won the league title. He is incredibly skilful for a full-back, loves to get forward and has the stamina to do so for a whole game. He does sometimes look like a winger playing out of position though, and gives away too many free-kicks.
Why should we watch him? Because he might provide the most penetration from any Portuguese player. If Carlos Queiroz persists with a Pepe-Meireles-Deco midfield, Portugal will need their full-backs to provide support and direct running. That’s unlikely to come too much from Paulo Ferreira on the right, and Coentrao will be playing behind either Cristiano Ronaldo or Simao Sabrosa, both of whom like to cut in onto their stronger right foot. An overlapping full-back is a must, and Coentrao will do that far more than the alternative, Duda.
Riccardo Montolivo
Riccardo Montolivo, Italy
Who is he? A central midfielder with excellent passing skills. Neither an attacking or defensive midfielder, he took over the Fiorentina captaincy in January. At 25, can no longer be described as promising – now needs to step up and prove his quality.
Why should be watch him? Italy lack a trequartista and their most talented midfield playmaker, Andrea Pirlo, may miss the first two games through injury. Claudio Marchisio may be favourite in the centre of midfield for Marcello Lippi, but Montolivo offers a more intelligent option, and probably a closer resemblance to Pirlo.
Christian Eriksen, Denmark
Who is he? A small creative central midfielder for Ajax, at 18 he is the youngest player in the tournament. He only has 15 senior club appearances and three international caps, but there have been calls for Morten Olsen to give him a starting place.
Why should we watch him? Because he is exactly what Denmark are lacking. They are relying on a bunch of rather elderly players to create chances, and Nicklas Bendtner’s injury problems aren’t helping the situation. Eriksen offers a great turn of pace and direct running at goal, and could be a game-changer from the bench.
Michael Carrick
Michael Carrick, England
Who is he? A tall, deep-lying central midfielder who won three league titles and the Champions League in his first three seasons at Manchester United, but was still considered ‘rubbish’ by many. Has justified the billing of ‘rubbish’ by turning in a fairly dreadful half-season for United.
Why should we watch him? Because Gareth Barry’s return from injury is not guaranteed, and Carrick is the only other deep-lying midfielder in the squad. A Gerrard-Lampard midfield partnership may work in the opening games against weak sides, but later on Fabio Capello will look to move Gerrard back to the left, where he likes to drift in and allow Ashley Cole forward on the overlap. This is only possible if England retain possession, something they’ve struggled at in recent tournaments, and as an assured passer, Carrick might be vital, perhaps in a 4-5-1.
Danny Alves, Portugal
Who is he? A Venezuelan-born attacking midfielder, who has impressed in Russia with first Dynamo Moscow and then Zenit St Petersburg, who signed him for €30m two summer ago. Plays centrally and drives directly at goal.
Why should we watch him? Because Portugal’s midfield is far too functional and not creative enough, with Deco increasingly playing a static midfield role rather than looking to support the forwards. Nani’s injury has further damaged Portugal’s creativity, and Alves basically gives Portugal exactly what they’re crying out for.
Six to watch: the fringe players
In a sense the U.S game could be a great opportunity for Carrick as the U.S central midfield tends to sit back, which would likely give Carrick lot of space and little pressure to get some confidence back.
That said he even if he had a good game he still be pillared.
I’ve been dismayed in recent years that the elegant Carrick has been overlooked by England, despite being the midfield lynchpin of Manchester United’s three-in-a-row Premier League Champions and 2008 Premier League and Champions League Double winners. Instead we were “treated” to the talents of the inferior Gareth Barry.
However, I don’t know what has happened to the Carrick but he has carried the pitiful form he showed for United last season into his recent England appearances.
There is no doubt that Carrick at his best would be a lethal weapon for England in the “Gareth Barry position” (ugh!) but on current form he is nothing short of a liability to his team.
I may add Claudio Marchisio to that list. He will be the key performer for Italy in the midfield, beside De Rossi.
Watch Itumeleng Khune, South Africa’s goalkeeper
Great distribution, well spotted.
Djimi Traore won the Champions league with Liverpool, not sure anyone is touting him for France. The problem with both Carrick and Montolivio is they falter against stronger opposition. Teams that press make them look bad as they lack the technical ability to handle it. Flat track bully would be a more accurate adjective. Gareth Barry is simply better than Carrick. It is also a pity Aquilani was given so little playing time for Liverpool. He would be better than Montolivio.
Great point. Aquilani would’ve been perfect in the creative role that Italy are crying out for.
I’ve heard it all now. So Barry is “simply better” than the “flat track bully” Carrick (who apparently “lacks technical ability” – unlike ‘Zinedine’ Barry!) Care to provide a single example of Garry Barry bossing a big game against a strong team? (And no, his exploits in the Intertoto Cup with Aston Villa don’t count, I’m afraid.)
Your Djimi Traore analogy would only make sense if Traore was the heartbeat of a team who had won 3 league titles and a European Cup in the past four years, rather than a passenger in a team who fluked a Champions League win five years ago. If the former was true, then I’m sure plenty of people would be touting him for a place in France’s World Cup squad, and understandably so.
But that’s irrelevant anyway, considering my post was criticising Carrick’s inclusion in Cappello’s World Cup plans, not championing his cause.
Totally agree Pepe.
I can’t see all the fuss about Barry as he’s too one paced and his passing is neither incisive nor accurate the majority of the time.
I would have liked to see Milner being tried in the holding role in the friendlies as I think, if you can get him tackling properly, he could be a midfield ’sweeper’ bringing the ball out and allowing Gerrard and Lampard to make runs.
As much as I like Carrick I do feel he isn’t mentally strong enough for big games as shown with the Champs Lge Final against Barca.
It would be a great point if he was French and wasn’t a Mali international
Xabi Alonso, who knows a thing or two about the deep-lying playmaker position, has been speaking about England’s World Cup chances:
“John Terry, Stevie Gerrard and Wayne Rooney are the obvious names when you think of the important players for England. If they are on top of their game and if Carrick plays, because for me he is a top player, then England will have a chance.
“If Carrick plays for the national team the way that he does for Manchester United, then it would be very good news for England. I think that he could easily fit in the Spanish system because I really like the way he plays.
“He reads the game so well, he is always ahead of what is going to happen and he is always in the right position. When he gets the ball, he plays it easy and he is available to his team-mates all the time. For me, he has the profile to play for Barcelona or any of the Spanish teams. He would also be very complimentary to Stevie.”
Interesting…
I’ve never heard that quote before but it does cast Carrick in a new light. Very interesting indeed.
But does Xabi mean he should play instead of Lampard? I can’t see England going with a narrow three in the middle like Spain or Barca.
Very interesting from Alonso who I think have become one of the best players in the world the last couple of years.
I put some thoughts on Carrick down on my blog not long ago so I’ll just post them here:
A player who on the surface rarely looks impressive and because of it is seldom held in high esteem by most fans.
You could even say that many of his attributes are pretty ordinary. Especially those that would make a good attacking midfielder which he just isn’t anymore, at least not for a very good team.
He just doesn’t have pace or good enough control to be consistently effective in the final third and in one of the more unexpected recent turn of events has in my opinion been surpassed there by midfield partner Fletcher who these days looks better going forward than Carrick.
But what Carrick does have is actual deep lying playmaking ability, a great range of passing and especially when that is combined with a strong physical presence, which Carrick has become, then you have a very valuable player.
Martin Jol put it rather simply this way:
“Michael’s biggest quality is to move play from defence to attack and win the ball. Because of him, other players play better.”
I think since those words were spoken, Carrick has become, maybe even much better defensively and he has a lot of responsibility there, creating the situation where all of Carrick’s best work, the defensive, but rather uniquely for a British player I think, also the attacking contributions take place further back, often in the defensive midfield.
Especially on a team like Manchester United who’ll mostly control inferior opponents. That is just not very eye catching compared to where a lot of the game takes place, in the opponent final third, so I feel Carrick’s contributions further back are terribly overlooked and sometimes ironically even completely forgotten the first mistake or sign of inadequateness he’ll make when venturing forward.
There is just something potentially extremely valuable in a player who can make a good attacking contribution as far away from the opponent goal as possible. He doesn’t even have to go forward to contribute thereby not compromising his defense. It’s just a great risk reward scenario best exemplified with a player like Andrea Pirlo who by doing that to perfection became the most important player on Champions League and especially the World Cup winning team.
Carrick doesn’t have anywhere near Pirlo’s other technical skills, restricting him much more to play deep or get exposed, and from there isn’t even as good a passer but he is gifted in very important (you could say tactical) areas nonetheless, defensive work (better than Pirlo)+range of passing, off the ball movement being a consistent passing option and while it might not be the great difference maker day in and day out in your average Premier League fixture, just like Pirlo not seldom wasn’t that in your average Serie A game against x-defensive opponent, in certain games against certain opponents, Carrick with his skill-set can be the most valuable player on what is a very good team, playing at the highest level, for that he deserves credit.
ZM, as a portuguese I do beg you not to make the same dumb mistake every journalist in Britain seems intent on making. It’s Paulo ferreira, not Paolo. Paolo is an italian name, the portuguese version is Paulo.
Cheers, apologies…
Yea that kid Pastore is like a young Kaka. Amazing technique. Can’t wait to see what he can do! Maybe it’s too early for him to shine in a WC though.
According to the danish media it is confirmed that Tomasson and Bendter will miss the first match against Holland monday. Instead Christian Eriksen will be deployed as an attacking midfielder instead of Tommasson, and Søren larsen as striker. This will evidently be ok for the danish side, cause they are going to play defensively with or without Bendter or Tomasson anyway.
So we might have a chance to see Christian Eriksen in action, he has according to Morten Olsen (manager of Denmark) been showing great prospects on the training pitch.
Coentrao played a great game for Portugal against the peoples republic.
great game by Coentrão against N. Korea. This will be a player to watch closely, mark my words (and ZMs’ before me
it was very interesting to read.
I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?