Mourinho Criticizes His Own Style!

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho seems to have a--really--short memory. The technician complained about West Ham United's defending approach after his team failed to score a goal in the 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, Jan. 29. 

Mourinho even said that West ham played 19th century football. 

"This is not the best league in the world, this football from the 19th century. The only other thing I could bring was a Black and Decker hammer to destroy the wall," said Mourinho in press conference after the game.

Poor Jose! His team had to play against 11 defenders, 11 players in the last 20 meters of the field. A real wall dressed in front of West Ham's goalkeeper. It is surely unfair...Hold on a minute! Isn't that how Mourinho's Inter Milan played against Barcelona when they won the Champions League in 2010?

Against the best team in the world, against a team far better than his, Mourinho did the exact same thing. He asked all his players to stay in font of their goal and to only played in counter attacks. He even forced Samuel Eto'o to play second right-back to help out! In other words, only Barcelona was playing and Inter was waiting. That wasn't a problem at the time for Jose Mourinho, but it seems to have become one after this game.

"It's very difficult to play a football match when only one team wants to play," he said. "A football match is about two teams playing and another team not playing." 

Really? In both games against Barcelona, Inter only had 30 percent of possession. Is that "playing" the game? They did not even try in the second leg. They just kept kicking the ball away and let Barcelona come back in front of their box.

But Mourinho is a genius. He said that a game starts at the press conference before the match and finishes at the press conference after the match. Except this time he did not win. West ham United manager Sam Allardyce did.

"He can't take it, can He?" Allardyce said. "He can't take it because we've outwitted him. He just can't cope." 

Allardyce added that he loved "to see Chelsea players moaning at the referee, trying to intimidate him, Jose jumping up and down saying we play rubbish football. It's brilliant when you get a result against him. Hard luck, Jose!"

Finally, Mourinho admitted that if he had been in West Ham's position, he might have done the same thing. We are proud of you, Jose!

 

 

Ballon d'Or: When Winning Trophies Really Doesn't Matter!

After months of speculations, the 2013 France Football Ballon d'Or was awarded to Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo in Zurich, Switzerland, on Monday, January 13. The Real Madrid player wins the trophy for the second time (27,99%), beating Barcelona Lionel Messi (24,72%) and Bayern Munich Franck Ribery (23,36%). 

Ronaldo wins a controversial Ballon d'Or for many reason! The first one would be FIFA's decision to postpone the deadline of the votes, allowing two extra weeks to vote. At the time, Ribery was, according to observers, the great favorite for the title. However, those extra days gave Ronaldo the opportunity to score four goals in two games with Portugal and self handedly qualifying his country for the World Cup! A way to show the world that he is an incredible player. 

At the same time, Ribery didn't shine with France, despite a qualification for the competition in Brazil. He played well, but did not have the same impact as Ronaldo did. 

But should that matter? Surely not! 

How can a player who has won every trophy imaginable in a year (Bundesliga, German Cup, Champions League, European Super Cup, Club World Cup), a player who has been elected best player of the Bundesliga and of Europe could lose the Ballon d'Or to players who did not win a single thing (For the exception of the Spanish Liga for Messi)? Maybe if there is a conspiracy?

It seems that voters had a different point of view! Indeed, despite all his trophies Ribery only finished third! THIRD!!

All right, I can accept that Ronaldo's impressive goal scoring record (69 goals in 69 games) and his major role in sending Real Madrid to the Knock-out stage of the Champions League (nine goals in six games) and Portugal to the World Cup makes his victory legitimate, but to award Messi the second place is a proof that some people lost their minds! The guy has been injured for the past two months! He had one of his worst season last year and Barcelona won the Liga because the team is one of the best ever to play the game and Messi did not really play a major role in that! 

Sure, Messi and Ronaldo scored an incredible number of goals this year! So what? The Ballon d'Or is awarded to players who score tons of goals or to players who make their team win and are still entertaining on the field?

Speaking of entertainment, Ribery is the player who dribbled the most this season and by far! More than a thousand dribbles for only 300 for Messi and 250 for Ronaldo! 

But most of all, Ribery is a team player, always making the extra effort to help his teammates on both sides of the field. The French made 49 tackles, almost as twice as Messi, winning 89,8% of them! 

So tell me! What are the true criteria to be elected? 

If the winner of the trophy deserves it because he scores more goals than other players, is entertaining and has a major impact on the game, why a player like Thierry Henry never had it? 

Or if being a team player, winning trophies and being an example on the field is not a criteria either than why Pavel Nedved, Fabio Cannavaro or even Zinedine Zidane ever received the trophy? 

The Ballon d'Or is obviously an individual trophy, awarded to a player who achieved an individual's outstanding year. However, football is and always will be a team game and when you win trophy as a team, you still win them individually! 

Unfortunately for Ribery, it seems that voters do not get the ultimate goal of playing the game, which is winning! And if he thought he was going to win easily, he should have talked to Wesley Sneyder... 

Is Barcelona Messi Dependent?

Two games played without Messi; two loses for Barcelona this past week (1-2 vs Ajax and 0-1 vs Atletico Bilbao). I am starting to see a pattern there. The same pattern I saw last season when Barcelona struggled to pass past PSG in the Champions League, to finally end up demolished by Bayern Munich (0-7 overall). It seems that Barcelona forgets how to play when the Argentine star is not on the field!

A year ago, I felt like this Barcelona team was unbeatable, even without Messi; even with the "B" team on the field. The style of play was always the same, no matter who was on the field and opponents never really found a way to stop them (for the exception of a few games when the other teams were playing with 11 defenders in their last 25 yards and games against great teams like Real madrid or Bayern Munich). Barcelona dominated La Liga from start to finish with an incredible Messi.  

This season, however, Barcelona, despite being on top of La Liga, does not show this great football that we expect to see. Is this because of the arrival of the new manager, Tata Martino, whose philosophy is not exactly the same as Barcelona's? Or is it because the other teams studied hard to stop Barca? In my opinion, it is much more simple than that.

When Messi is on the field, all Barcelona players seem to be better, like transcended. It feels like they know they can't lose the game as long as the four-time Golden Ball recipient is on their side! And who can blame them? We all know Messi can win a game all by himself! He showed it many times! And in the past season, when the Argentinian was absent or was simply having a bad day, other players stepped up and carried the team. Something we hardly see nowadays. 

Indeed, players such as Xavi Hernandez or Iniesta don't have the same impact on the game they had in previous years. The Spanish magic duo is not as brilliant as it was last season. Statistics prove it: in 15 games played in La Liga, Iniesta only scored one goal and provided only one assist. Far from his standards. As for Xavi, the midfielder played 12 games, scoring twice and giving one assist. If his scoring abilities are still there, Xavi's passing skills seem to wear off. Maybe his old age (33), does not give him the energy to get close to the box to deliver clever passes like he used to. Even a few months ago, after Barcelona's downfall against Bayern Munich in the Champions League (0-7), people were wondering if the duo was not coming to an end.

But don't get me wrong, Barcelona is still one of the best teams in the world! Mostly because other players are in great form. For example, Cesc Fabregas seemed to have taken Iniesta's role as finisher and last passer for Barcelona. The former Arsenal player found the net five times in La Liga this season. He is also the league's assist leader with eight. Alexis Sanchez is also brilliant so far this season, scoring eight goals (as many as Messi). Those players are probably the reason why barcelona is still at the top of the league.

One player however is still struggling to have an impact on the game. Brazilian star Neymar only scored four goals in 13 games. As a comparison, Real Madrid's most expensive player, Gareth Bale, already scored seven goals, playing only nine games. However, Neymar did great to help his teammates score, providing eight assists. However, Bale also provided many assists, six, in fewer games. This comparison between the two new faces of La Liga shows that one of them plays a major role when the "real" star is injured (Bale).

So, fire away if you think I am wrong, but I think Barcelona should pray to see Messi come back quickly on the pitch, because the way I see it, they won't stand a chance without him this season...