FourFourTom debates the Luis Suarez situation at Liverpool and suggests two players who could replace him IF he decides to leave…

If you were to extend the question ‘Is Luis Suarez a world class footballer?’ to a room of neutral football fans, the divide would be almost inexplicable. In the minds of half of the room he’d be regarded as a supremely talented and almost otherwordly footballer, whilst the other half would use the cloud of negatives surrounding him off the field to somehow make a case that he isn’t a fantastic player on it.

There doesn’t seem to be any kind of middle ground – and I believe Suarez thrives on that.

Based on the past 12 months for both club and country it’s impossible to argue his credentials as a top class player and, if it were up to me, he’d be handed the Premier League Player Of The Year award without a second thought. The problem here for Liverpool is that world-class players want to be competing against world class opposition and winning the biggest trophies with the biggest clubs, not finishing 7th or 8th.

Liverpool are rebuilding

Whilst Liverpool are a massive club, they’re  going through a rebuilding phase and aren’t matching up to the level at which the Uruguayan should be playing. In my opinion, playing for Liverpool is holding him back. If he was to move to Bayern Munich, for example, it’s likely he’d win every trophy on offer within the next three seasons.

Where this debate gets really interesting, though, is if you consider this: is Suarez possibly holding Liverpool back in the same way?

Don’t get me wrong and think I’m questioning Suarez’s contribution to the Liverpool team here, because that’s one thing I’m certainly not doing. If anything, I’m suggesting he’s perhaps expected to do too much.

As I mentioned previously, Liverpool are rebuilding after a few disappointing seasons. The additions of Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho have proved to be astute purchases and have added much-needed dynamism in the final third, but they still seem far too dependent on Suarez creating a moment of magic.

When you’ve got a player of such enormous quality the temptation is always to play through them too much, which can ultimately prove detrimental to the team as a unit. A good example of this is Zlatan Ibrahimovic (pictured above) with the Swedish national team – despite him being a national icon, many Swedes believe the team play better football when their tactics don’t just involve getting the ball to Zlatan.

It’s safe to assume Liverpool would receive a massive fee if they were to sell, but it’s unrealistic to think they could go out and splash this money on a replacement of equal quality. They have a rare breed of player in Suarez as he’s both a top class scorer and creator, which makes it incredibly difficult to replace him with one player.

Reds should look again to Eredivisie

For this reason, it could be advantageous for the balance of the team to bring in one player for each distinct role, rather than one player who does everything. To find these two players, Liverpool should be looking exactly where they found Suarez back in 2011 – the Eredivisie.

Ajax’s highly-rated Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen has been heavily linked recently and the fact his contract is running down means his club have to sell him on the cheap to avoid losing him for nothing. His price has been reported as around £15million, which is an absolute steal. Couple Eriksen’s creativity and guile in the centre of the pitch with a crafty wide man who’s capable of getting on the scoresheet and it’s arguable that Liverpool could actually benefit from letting Suarez go. If you were to ask me to name a player for the wide role, I’d go for PSV’s Dries Mertens, who has 13 goals and 14 assists in 27 appearances this season and scored 21 goals in the 2011/2012 season.

The beauty of looking to the Eredivisie is that the wages of top players are miniscule in comparison to those of players in Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, etc, but they’re still more than capable of improving Liverpool’s team. Over the past decade or so, Liverpool have brought some of their best players in from the Netherlands – the likes of Jerzy Dudek, Dirk Kuyt and Sami Hyypia, to name a few.

The dream for Liverpool…

Obviously the dream scenario for Liverpool is to keep hold of their star man Suarez, as well as adding a player such as Eriksen or Mertens to alleviate the weight on his shoulders, but the fact remains that Suarez is too good to be playing outside the Champions League. The call of one of Europe’s top clubs may be too much to resist. Whether they keep him or not, I believe Liverpool have the potential to come back as a stronger side next season and could even get back into the mixer for the much sought-after Champions League places.

• Betting: Premier League Liverpool v Chelsea
• @FourFourTom on Bale, Platini, Arsenal… and more 

By FourFourTom

The Manchester Derby might not have as much relevance to the league standings as many of us hoped it would at this stage in the season, but it will still be a thoroughly enjoyable and vigorously contested game.

The build up over the weekend got me thinking – who would I choose if I were to select a ‘Manchester XI’ dream team? So, y’know, rather than just thinking about it, I sat down and assembled one.

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Manchester United have played 21 of their 30 Premier League games in a 4-2-3-1 formation this season and Manchester City have matched them in 11 of their 30, so it seems like the logical choice to stick with it.

Goalkeeper: Joe Hart

Based on this season’s form alone, you’d probably have to give the goalkeeping slot in your Manchester XI to David De Gea, but based on overall ability I still see Joe Hart as the superior player of the two.

De Gea has improved dramatically this season and no longer looks like the shaky, error-prone youngster he was when he joined Manchester United, whilst Hart hasn’t looked like the same brick wall in front of goal as he did last year, but I’d still rather have the Englishman between the posts.

The main reason I’ve decided to go for ability over form is because I feel De Gea has had more opportunities to shine this season due to Manchester United conceding far more shots on goal than Manchester City. The Spaniard has been forced to make an average of 2.8 saves per game, whilst Hart averages less than one save per game.

Right-back: Rafael

This was probably the toughest decision for me, as both Rafael and Pablo Zabaleta have played tremendously well this season, but in the end I decided to go for Rafael for his reliability at the back and creativity when travelling forward.

Looking at their respective defensive stats this season it’s clear that Zabaleta averages more tackles and interceptions per game, but Rafael is dribbled past far less often, has made 19 more clearances and committed 13 fewer fouls.

When you couple the solid defensive stats with the fact he’s scored one more goal, supplied one more assist and created 7 more goalscoring chances than his blue-side-of-Manchester counterpart, Rafael just about edges it.

Centre-back: Vincent Kompany

Vincent Kompany is the most obvious defensive choice of the lot and someone who I’d expect to be at the heart of anyone’s Manchester XI. He’s as solid as a rock, extraordinarily intelligent and as good as any defender in the league when it comes to starting up moves from the back. I’m wasting my time writing about him, aren’t I? You’d have to be mad to leave Kompany out of your side.

VINCENT KOMPANY:’You’d be mad to leave him out of your dream team’

Centre-back: Rio Ferdinand

Manchester United have had the likes of Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Wes Brown and Rio Ferdinand. Arsenal had Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Martin Keown and Sol Campbell. Blackburn had Ian Pearce. Chelsea have always had John Terry. Man City had Joleon Lescott. Do you see where I’m going with this? A title-winning Premier League side always has an English centre-back and, if my Manchester XI were to actually compete in the Premier League, history suggests they would need one too.

You can argue Nemanja Vidic is probably the superior player when he’s on form or that Jonny Evans has done more than enough to be considered, but when I assemble a team like this one I always make sure to include an English centre-back.

Left-back: Patrice Evra

Both of Manchester United’s full-backs have been incredibly influential when going forward this season, which is why I made the decision to include both Rafael and Patrice Evra in my XI. Evra in particular has been outstanding going forward and he currently finds himself as Manchester Utd’s 5th top goalscorer and 3rd highest assist maker in the Premier League.

Where he looks a little shaky is in his defensive play, he’s made 3 individual errors this season, but with the only realistic competition for this place coming from Gael Clichy, you’d have to give it to Evra.

Central midfield: Yaya Toure and Michael Carrick

I’m writing about my central midfield in one paragraph because, if you remember, Yaya Toure and Michael Carrick make up the exact same duo I had in my Paddy Power Premier League XI earlier this season. I wouldn’t even consider removing either one of my dream central midfield pair because I believe that, between them, they have everything you could possibly want.

Yaya provides an injection of steel, energy and power to the middle of the pitch, whilst Carrick would use his intelligence and range of passing to dictate the play. Between them they’ve completed 3716 of their 4107 passes this season, which is exactly the kind of ludicrous accuracy you want from your central midfielders.

They’ve also made a combined 92 interceptions and 85 tackles, so they’re more than capable of handling their defensive duties and shielding the backline when required.

Attacking midfielder (right): David Silva

My front four consists of goal scorers for the most part, so it’s vital to have a creator to give them the service they need. In terms of Premier League players, I don’t think there’s a better creator than David Silva. The Spaniard is only joint 8th in the Premier League assist charts this season with 7 to his name, but creates more goalscoring chances per game than any other player and only Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla completes more through balls per game.

As I said in my Premier League XI blog, Silva created more goalscoring chances in 2012 than any other Premier League midfielder, and with the quality of Rooney, Aguero and van Persie on the end of them you wouldn’t bet against goals.

WAYNE ROONEY: He always delivers in the big games fro Manchester United

Attacking midfielder (centre): Wayne Rooney

There’s a wealth of attacking talent in the Manchester Utd and Manchester City squads and there’s no position with more options than the central attacking midfield role, but, for me, this choice was still an easy one.

It seems to me that whenever Wayne Rooney doesn’t play for Manchester Utd the cohesion between midfield and attack is less apparent. Whilst you could argue my point with the fact that they marginally average more goals per game without Rooney than with him (2.4 per game without as opposed to 2.3 with), that stat is incredibly misleading as 6 of the 9 games he’s missed have been against teams who are currently fighting to save themselves from relegation. Rooney has delivered in all of the big games and has 9 goals and 5 assists to his name whilst playing in the central attacking midfield position.

Attacking midfielder (left): Sergio Aguero

Sergio Aguero versus Carlos Tevez for the last spot in my attacking midfield trio was a tough one, especially given the fact that I’m seemingly one of the few who prefer Tevez of the two Argentinians. The only reason I went against my preferred player is because Aguero has actually played around a quarter of his games on the left this season, whereas Tevez has only been deployed outside of the two central roles on one occasion.

Although there are other options for the wide positions who make more sense, Aguero has all of the attributes to succeed there. It’s also worth noting that he averages a goal for every 2.5 games he plays out wide this season, which is a good return.

Striker: Robin van Persie

Robin van Persie is going through a bit of a goal drought of late, but you still can’t deny that he’s probably the best striker in the Premier League. In 27 Premier League starts the Dutchman has contributed 19 goals and 8 assists, which means, on average, he directly contributes towards a goal in every single game he starts.

Van Persie also averages a shots to goals average of 21%, meaning he’s likely to score a goal in any game in which he takes 5 shots. Alongside the quality of Silva, Rooney and Aguero, I’m sure van Persie would score for fun.

• Betting: Manchester United v Manchester City
  
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THE MESSI-AH: Bale has enjoyed high praise this season. Has it been too high?

by Four Four Tom

In my eyes, Gareth Bale is an anomaly. On his day he makes a strong case that he’s among the top 20 players in the world, but over the course of a season I’m less impressed than I know I should be. Personally I believe a top class player has to be able to perform at the highest level consistently, which is something Bale has yet to convince me he’s capable of. I’ve taken a real in-depth look at his last three seasons in order to attempt to highlight this lack of consistency, as they’re the three seasons in which he’s been a first team player in an advanced role.

2010/11 was the season in which Bale really announced his presence onto the world stage, as he repeatedly punished Maicon, one of the world’s best right-backs, and scored a hat-trick in the Champions League. In the 13 games leading up to that famous demolition at the San Siro– y’know, that ‘demolition’ which Spurs lost 4-3 – Bale scored just 3 goals. In the 28 games which followed, he netted just 5 times. In 2010/11 Bale only scored in consecutive games on two occasions and went on a run of 13 games without scoring or assisting at one point. In terms of goals contributed in the Premier League, he only finished behind titanic figures of the modern game; the likes of Craig Gardner, Luke Varney, Shola Ameobi, Jerome Thomas and Carlton Cole (to name just a few of the 76 players who topped him). One season defining performance left Bale with a reputation as a world class talent, despite him being tremendously average for the majority of the year and statistically only the 77th best player in England.

Roll on the 2011/12 season, where Bale’s goalscoring was pretty average for an attacking player again, but he found an impressive consistency when playing in his teammates – a trait which saw him finish joint fifth in the Premier League’s assist chart. Even once he’d found this ‘consistency’, Bale still went on several runs of Premier League games without contributing any goals, with the largest of these runs lasting 8 games. With form as up and down as a flautist’s fingers and still largely living off the back of his one amazing performance at the San Siro, Bale was still considered a top class player.

Now we get on to the current season, where Bale has been in by far the most prolific form of his career and earned unparalleled praise. Before his hat-trick against Aston Villa which reignited the dying embers of his world class reputation, Bale had played 20 games for Spurs. In those 20 games he scored 7 goals and assisted once, which, in fairness, is a decent record. If you look at his form since Boxing Day, he’s scored 11 goals in 10 games, which is a ludicrous record for any Premier League player and light years beyond his ‘decent’ showing earlier this season.

We football fans are an extremely fickle bunch, though. We only like to remember what we’ve seen most recently, but contributing steadily over the course of a season is far more important than an annual burst of form, if you ask me. Everyone’s talking Gareth Bale up as if he’s the Messiah based on a handful of games, but over the course of the season there’s an awful lot of players who’ve contributed more.

BALES IN COMPARISON: Spurs’ Welsh winger has a lot to do before he can be classed alongside CR7.

If you look at the season as a whole rather than the most recent games, there’s three players in the Arsenal team alone who’ve contributed a similar amount of Premier League goals as Bale’s 18 (goals and assists combined). Lukas Podolski is one behind on 17, whilst Santi Cazorla is equal on 18. Even Theo Walcott with his shocking inconsistency, lack of football brain, terrible finishing and zero end product has contributed more goals than ‘on par with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’ Gareth Bale this season, with a tally of 20. Another thing I find fascinating is that the media’s favourite pantomime villain, Luis Suarez, has more goals, goals per minutes, assists, shots, dribbles, passes, key passes and tackles than Bale this season and he’s carrying an even worse team on his shoulders – where are the hordes of people saying he’s ‘up there with Ronaldo and Messi’?

I’m not denying the fact that he’s on world class form at the moment – anyone who tried would look pretty daft – but a lack of consistency is something that’s followed Bale throughout his entire career and I don’t see this electric form lasting forever, personally. What I will concede, though, is that there’s no doubt he’s flourishing in his new free role under Andre Villas-Boas and his threat, especially on the counter-attack, is more frightening than ever. This counter-attacking threat is crystal clear if you consider that, of Bale’s 15 Premier League goals this season, 11 of them have come in away games. This is because teams tend to play more expansive, attacking football at home, which means Bale can attack the gaps left in his opposition more freely. When he’s on form and has open grass to gallop into, whether it’s with or without the ball, he’s one of the most dangerous players around at the moment.

If he can find the consistency that’s eluding him and sustain these phenomenal performances for an entire season, there’s absolutely no question that he’ll become one of the best players in the world over the coming year or so – but can he do it, or is he just a form player who’s currently in form?

• Betting: Premier League Coupon
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By FourFourTom

Cancel all of your plans on Sunday, because arguably the most entertaining Premier League match of the season is about to grace your television screen. A tie that offers fantastic entertainment for neutrals and 90 minutes of nerve-racking, knee-chattering, nail-biting torture for fans.

That’s right, it’s North London derby time and it couldn’t possibly be more interesting. Arsenal have had a poor season by their standards, whilst Tottenham are flying higher than ever thanks to a certain Welsh winger. Over the past two decades Arsenal have consistently been the dominant force in North London, but Spurs’ current position means there’s a hell of a lot more than the usual bragging rights at stake on Sunday. A win practically guarantees a place in the top four for Andre Villas-Boas’ men in my opinion, as Arsenal would be 7 points behind with just 30 points available. Finishing above Chelsea to achieve a top four place would still be perfectly achievable for Arsenal, but it’s make or break if they want to finish above their bitter rivals for an 18th consecutive season.

It’s difficult to pick a winner in this one looking at league form alone, as both sides are on superb runs. Tottenham haven’t lost in their last 11 Premier League fixtures, whilst Arsenal have won 8 of their last 12. Arsenal’s only defeats in this period came away to Chelsea and at home to Man City, where they were forced to play 87 minutes with 10 men after Laurent Koscielny saw red.

It’s equally difficult to pick a winner between the two by looking at each sides’ home and away form. Tottenham last suffered a league defeat at home back in November, when they were beaten 0-1 by Wigan. Since then they’ve played 7 home games without defeat, picking up 5 wins and 2 draws. Arsenal have an equally impressive record away from home, though, as the Gunners have only lost one of their last 7 away games – the aforementioned 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge – and have conceded fewer goals on the road than any other Premier League team this season.

Of the last 13 matches between the two, 12 have seen over 2.5 goals and 7 have featured over 3.5

Whilst the match betting looks too close to call, there is an obvious trend over the years once you look deeper into the stats. Of the last 13 matches between the two, 12 have seen over 2.5 goals and 7 have featured over 3.5, which makes respective prices of 4/7 and 6/4 look generous. If you want to take a bit more of a risk, 5 of the last 9 meetings between the two have seen over 4.5 goals and, somewhat peculiarly, 3 of the last 4 have seen over 5.5.

Looking into more detailed goalscoring stats it’s clear to see that Tottenham rarely concede in the first half and Arsenal score far more frequently in the second half. If the stats are anything to go by, backing goals in the second half of this game is where the money should be at. White Hart Lane has seen the fewest first half goals of any Premier League ground this season whilst Arsenal’s last 15 games in all competitions have seen a collated second half scoreline of 22-8 in the Gunners’ favour, which means they outscore their opponents at a rate of almost 3:1. With this in mind, backing the second half to contain more goals than the first at evens may be a good bet. I also like the look of Tottenham leading at half time and failing to win, which is available at 17/2.

If you want a score prediction from me I’m going to plump for a 2-2 draw, with Spurs taking the lead and Arsenal coming from behind with a second half flurry.

To summarise, my top tips for the match will be:
Over 3.5 goals @ 6/4
Half with the most goals – second half @ evens
Tottenham to lead at half time and fail to win @ 17/2

• Betting: Tottenham v Arsenal
• Betting: Premier League Coupon
• Betting: Top 4 finish

FourFourTom picks his dream Premier League team

Let me start by asking you to imagine your dream car. 99% of people will think about the colour, the entertainment system or another luxury feature before sparing a single thought for the engine, the brakes or other fundamental pieces.

Without the latter, the car is not a car. Putting together a ‘Best XI’ works in the same way as putting together a great car. It isn’t as simple as picking all of the best parts and hoping they fit together. It’s about picking the parts that offer the right balance between reliability and innovation. The overall product is more important than any individual feature. Therefore how each part benefits the whole should always be the deciding factor.

So, without further ado, here’s my Premier League Best XI for the Paddy Power Blog.

Goalkeeper: Asmir Begovic (Stoke)

Joe Hart? No. Petr Cech? No. Asmir Begovic is my goalkeeper of choice. After years of loan deals to lower league clubs, forming buttock-prints on Portsmouth’s bench and fighting it out with Thomas Sorensen for a starting place in the Premier League, Begovic has finally paid his dues – and Stoke are reaping the rewards. The Bosnian international tops the Premier League’s clean sheet charts this season, is second in terms of successful saves and has conceded less goals from open play than any keeper in the top flight. The statistic which really shows Begovic’s strength, though, is his handling of crosses – he’s collected 44 aerial crosses this season and is yet to fumble a single one. Every team needs a reliable goalkeeper between the sticks and, for me, that man is Begovic.

Right-back: Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea)

His goalscoring prowess, frequent marauding runs down the wing and crossing ability have quickly earned Branislav Ivanovic a reputation as one of the most feared full-backs in football, but he never shies from his defensive duties. It was a closely run contest between him and Pablo Zabaleta for the right-back slot in my team, but he just edges it.

Centre-back: Vincent Kompany (Manchester City)

When Sheikh Mansour completed his takeover of Manchester City in September 2008 and pledged to fill the squad with high profile players, who would have thought their most valuable player had already been signed for £6million one month earlier? A tremendously intelligent and respectful player off the pitch and a titanic defender on it, Vincent Kompany’s presence at the back has operated as the foundation for City’s renaissance. The best defender in the Premier League and the first name on my team-sheet.

Centre-back: John Terry (Chelsea)

With several injury-plagued months behind him and his physical attributes slowly diminishing, John Terry’s name in my XI may come as somewhat of a shock. For me, the Chelsea man still has qualities which make his inclusion a no-brainer. Without meaning to sound cliché, Terry’s a player who’s willing to put his head where others would shy away with their feet. He’d throw himself in front of a life-threatening Ashley Williams clearance if it meant his team would win the ball back. He’s experienced, he’s a leader and he organises a backline as well as anyone English football has ever seen.

It’s also worth noting that no team has ever won the Premier League without a British mainstay in the heart of the defence. In a hypothetical situation in which my Premier League Best XI was actually competing in the Premier League, John Terry would provide the British backbone that would lead them to victory.

Left-back: Leighton Baines (Everton)

England have been incredibly blessed to have Ashley Cole at left-back for so many years, but I can’t help but feel he’s also been a hindrance to the development of our future squad. In my opinion, Leighton Baines has been Cole’s superior for two years now and should have been handed his chance in the national team much earlier. He’s more than capable at the back and has created more goalscoring chances (69) than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues this season. An easy choice.

Defensive midfielder: Yaya Toure (Manchester City)

Everyone has heard the age-old ‘unstoppable force versus the immovable object’ paradox and wondered which would come out on top. If you ask me, the only way to know for sure is to clone Yaya Toure and have him run towards himself at full speed. If one Yaya collided with another, the universe would probably cease to exist. He’s not your classic defensive midfielder by any means – he’s much more of a box-to-box player – but he’s the only man I’d want acting as the engine in my midfield. If I was to put together a world XI, Yaya would probably still make the cut.

Defensive midfielder: Michael Carrick (Manchester United)

I was asked to describe Michael Carrick in five words recently. I replied “Supremely talented and horrifically under-rated.” Carrick has been pulling the strings in the Manchester United midfield for years, but fans of rival clubs still refuse to acknowledge his simple brilliance. Whether he’s making short passes to keep possession or making incisive through-balls to aid the attack, you always know you’re going to get a consistent performance out of Carrick if you get him on the ball. When creating a ‘dream team’ it’s easy to get carried away and include a midfield full of flair players, but every team needs a Carrick to sit in the middle with his sleeves rolled up, doing the subtle stuff.

Attacking midfielder [right]: Juan Mata (Chelsea)

Although goal and assist statistics aren’t everything for a modern attacking midfielder, Juan Mata’s are tremendously impressive and it’s impossible to look past them. He’s currently joint seventh in the Premier League’s top goalscorerschart and it’s safe to assume he’s only second to Steven Gerrard on assists because he’s started six fewer games. In all competitions this season Mata has an unbelievable return of 10 goals and 10 assists in 23 starts. I toyed with the idea of including Gareth Bale in his place and reshuffling my midfield in order to add a different dimension to my team, but excluding Mata would have been criminal.

Attacking midfielder [centre]: Santi Cazorla (Arsenal)

Santi Cazorla is probably my favourite player in the Premier League. You could watch him game after game and still not know his exact position or which is his predominant foot. His intelligence, versatility and ambidexterity make him an absolute nightmare for opposing teams to contain because it’s impossible to keep track of him. The way he can ghost into spaces, manipulate his body and form attacks sometimes leaves me wondering if he’s a T-1000. I’m not saying he actually is a T-1000 – because he probably isn’t – I’m just saying it would make an awful lot of sense if he was…

Attacking midfielder [left]: David Silva (Manchester City)

David Silva is the third and final prong of my Spanish attacking midfield trident. Although he isn’t blessed with the ambidexterity of Cazorla, Silva still manages to create magic no matter where he picks the ball up. The Manchester City playmaker’s unparalleled vision and ability to judge the weight of a pass allowed him to create more goalscoring chances (108) than any other Premier League midfielder in 2012. As well as leading the tally for the calendar year, he leads the tally for the 2012/13 season, creating 53 chances at an average of 2.9 per game. No Premier League Best XI is complete without him. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the best player in England, when he’s on form.

Striker: Robin van Persie (Manchester United)

Every single night I wake up in cold sweats, pleading with myself to forgive Arsenal for letting Robin van Persie leave for a rival club and every single night I can’t do it. It will hurt me too much to go into detail about his ability and efficiency, but he’s the 11th and final player in my Premier League Best XI. As far as out-and-out strikers go, he’s only behind Radamel Falcao and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

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FourFourTom is a football writer (and Arsenal fan). Follow him on Twitter here.

Best of the best: here’s a Twitter selection of the #PLBestXI

CNN’s Piers Morgan tweeted his #PLBestXI. Here it is…

Here you go @paddypower : Hart, Sagna, Vidic, Kompany, Cole, Fellaini, Wilshere, Bale, Suarez, Van Pursestrings, Rooney #PLbestXI—
Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 04, 2013

Southampton legend and football pundit Matt Le Tissier gave us his #PLBestXI too…

@paddypowerblog hart zabaletta kompany vidic baines bale gerrard lampard rvp suarez aguero—
Matt Le Tissier (@mattletiss7) January 04, 2013

Glynn Hyslop’s #PLBestXI is an attacking 4-3-3 formation…

@paddypowerblog #PLbestXI Hart,Rafael,Terry,Vidic,Baines,Y toure, Fellanai,Bale,Rvp,Suarez,Rooney—
glynn hyslop (@beauhyslop) January 04, 2013

Avi Ramrakka opts for a very debatable centre-back pairing in his #PLBestXI…

@paddypowerblog (4-3-3) Begovic, Rafael, Evans, Shawcross, Baines, Mata, Carrick, Cazorla, Suarez, Michu, Van Persie #PLbestXI—
Avi Ramrakka (@avi_ram94) January 04, 2013

Miller’s #PLBestXI appears to be a bit bias…

@paddypowerblog #PLbestXI De gea, Rafael, vidic, Evans, Evra, cleverly, Carrick, young, Rooney, RVP, Hernandez—
Miller (@mufcmiller) January 04, 2013

While the concept of #PLBestXI appears to have gone over Jonathan McNamara’s head…

@paddypowerblog Guzan Guzan Guzan Guzan Guzan Guzan Guzan Guzan Guzan Guzan Guzan #PLbestXI—
Jonathan McNamara (@Anfield_Row) January 04, 2013

Once upon a time, South Park made a joke suggesting Family Guy’s writing staff were actually a group of manatees, swimming around a giant tank in Fox’s studios. The manatees picked up “idea balls” labelled with keywords which were then used to generate jokes. We obviously know this isn’t the reality of how Family Guy’s staff come up with their ideas, but it’s starting to become increasingly debatable if the same can be said about UEFA.

Over the years we’ve grown to accept the fact that Michel Platini and God-awful, harebrained ideas are synonymous, yet jaws still dropped last week when he churned his latest disaster-waiting-to-happen out of the production line.

MAKING A BALLS OF IT: Family Guy’s ‘manatees’ have a bit in common with Michel Platini

Realistically speaking, ‘We’re discussing scrapping the Europa League entirely and running a 64-team Champions League’ probably makes around the same amount of sense as the Family Guy manatees and their ‘Laundry’ + ‘Date’ + ‘Winning’ + ‘Mexico’ + ‘Gary Coleman’ scenario.

It’s extremely fitting that I’m writing this during a week full of European fixtures which are, for the most part, utterly pointless.

Meaningless friendlies wrapped in a pretty bow

In the Champions League, 13 of the coveted last 16 places were already taken going into the sixth and final group fixtures. There was still something to play for in some groups as first and second places weren’t set in stone, but topping the group isn’t necessarily any better than finishing second when teams such as Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk are in the second pot. The only remaining point of interest – and I’m using the word “interest” very loosely here – was which teams would qualify for the Europa League in three of the groups. Just six of this week’s Champions League games counted for something – and that’s if you’re being generous.

In the Europa League, 48 teams are competing for 24 places and 20 of them have already been decided. So, 17 of the games played this week are pointless and a further two are equally pointless providing we don’t see astonishing results. The fact I’m talking about Europe’s second biggest club tournament here is, quite frankly, embarrassing.

All in all, 40 European fixtures were scheduled for this week and 27 of them were nothing more than meaningless friendlies wrapped up in a pretty bow.

How to fix the Europa League…

If the Europa League is too easy for some teams and the Champions League is too difficult for others, why not just put the good teams with the good teams and the bad with the bad? Why on earth would anyone think it’s a good idea to combine the two and have an even larger gulf in class between the teams at either end of the spectrum?

When we pass on Champions League memories to our grandkids, we want to reminisce about the elite clubs facing off – Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Schmona parking the bus and limiting Barcelona to single figures would be forgotten before the second blow of the full time whistle.

I don’t believe there’s anything hugely wrong with either competition in the current format, but there is a fundamental flaw with how clubs view the Europa League which needs to be addressed before it will be taken seriously.

The better clubs in the competition are usually fighting to try to achieve a Champions League place through their domestic position, so Thursday night fixtures are never welcome. They’re seen as a needless hindrance on the legs of star players, which usually results in reserve teams being sent. Thinking about it logically, who can really blame the managers for doing that?

Over the course of the Europa League group stages, there are six Premier League games which immediately follow those Europa League ties. They are worth a potential 18 points to a Premier League campaign, which could very easily be the difference between qualifying for the Champions League the following season and not qualifying for Europe at all.

This negative attitude towards the Europa League isn’t going to change until the competition itself changes, but the alterations don’t have to be as drastic as scrapping it entirely.

Give managers a real incentive to win it

Why not just give managers a real incentive to want to win it? Why not make a simple change, such as offering a Champions League place to the winner of the Europa League? In the current format, the Europa League champions get an instant pass to the group stage of the competition the following year, but who really wants a pass to take part in a mediocre competition which they’ve already conquered? It should be a stepping stone to bigger things, not the pinnacle of a club’s European ambitions.

Offer Champions League seeded spots to Europa winners

Another alternative would be to offer a seeded position in the Champions League for the winners of the Europa League and a spot for the runner-up based on their coefficient. Not only would the Europa League be taken more seriously, but the quality of the Champions League would also benefit.

WINNERS, KINDA: Who’d rather see Atletico in the Champions League than say, Dinamo Zagreb?

I don’t think anyone can honestly say Dinamo Zagreb and Nordsjaelland are more deserving of a Champions League place than last year’s Europa League finalists, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao. Surely even the fans would rather see their teams taking part in a competition where they had a chance of progressing, rather than one where they’d be whipping-boys for the top clubs.

Yes, the Europa League would lose some quality as a result of this idea, but the entire point of the Champions League is pitting Europe’s elite against each other.

There are countless ideas similar to the ones I’ve mentioned which are capable of making sure the competitions stay both competitive and in line with what they’re meant to be, but UEFA will never consider such simple concepts. They would much rather claw at random “idea balls” and hope for something revolutionary to materialise.

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FourFourTom is a football writer (and Arsenal fan). Follow him on Twitter here.

Cast your mind back to the 2003/04 season. There was only one name on the lips of every football fan – Arsenal. Everyone admired them, everyone respected them and, perhaps most importantly, everyone feared them. Fast forward nine years and it’s a different story altogether. So where did it all go wrong? How did a once-Invincible team become so vincible?

It’s not rocket science to realise that the key to sustained success in football is consistency. Keeping hold of key players at all costs is vital and Arsenal simply haven’t done that in recent years. If a club fails to keep hold of its prized assets, quality has to be replaced with equal quality – again, Arsenal haven’t done that.

In June 2003, Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and was reported to have offered tens of millions in exchange for Sol Campbell and Thierry Henry and, on top of that, Real Madrid were keen to land Patrick Vieira. Both clubs were simply told “no”.

In recent years it’s a different story altogether. Arsenal have let star player after star player walk out of the Emirates, replacing many of them with an upcoming prospect for a fraction of the price. You may not actually believe this, but if you pay a fraction of the price, you’re rewarded with a fraction of the talent.

I’m not saying they were direct replacements by any means, but were Alex Song, Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie ever going to fill the void left by Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry? No, they weren’t. Not in a million years. The former trio, even at their best, would be substitutes in the Invincibles squad. They all had the potential to be great players for Arsenal, granted, but as soon as they began to realise that potential they were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Over the past nine years the level of quality in almost every position has been slowly diluted.

I’m not saying the current Arsenal players lack talent – the likes of Santi Cazorla, Mikel Arteta and Jack Wilshere are all great players – but they’re a totally different breed of player and are playing a style of football which is far from that which the Arsenal of old found success with.

Speed, fluency and ruthless efficiency

The Invincibles played in a 4-4-2 formation, whereas the current squad play in a 4-3-3. The 4-4-2 was based around a rock-solid spine which was always pressing forward, narrow wingers cutting inside to take up goalscoring positions and marauding full-backs providing width on the overlap. It was the perfect combination of technical quality and solidity. This system redefined what a Premier League team could be. The speed, fluency and ruthless efficiency of the attacks made Arsenal an unstoppable force.

When the Invincibles trailed by a goal, or even a few goals, “are they going to score?” was never questioned. It was a matter of “when are they going to score and how many?” There was always a resounding sense of inevitability that they would win.

The current Arsenal squad doesn’t contain the personnel to use that same system, in my opinion. The 4-3-3 system fits the squad well – it’s built around a ball playing central midfield, which is an area where Arsenal currently possess a wealth of talent. Everything is based on a philosophy of keeping the ball with short passing and scoring through patient build up play.

One problem with this system is that it displays a far less threatening mentality from the outset, but the myth that they try too many passes and not enough shots is totally false. If you ask most people why Arsenal fail to win trophies, they’ll say “they try to pass it in”, but that’s simply not true.

Whilst it’s true that the current squad make a lot more passes than the invincible squad, they also take far more shots on goal. Arsenal have taken 168 shots and scored 14 times in their nine Premier League games this season, meaning if they keep up the same average throughout the season they’ll take 672 shots and score 56 goals. The Invincibles took a significantly fewer 471 shots on goal, but found the net 73 times.

Statistics show Arsenal are creating more chances now

For me, the system isn’t the reason why Arsenal aren’t as good as they once were. The statistics show that more chances are being created today than in the days of the Invincibles, but they’re simply not being converted. The answer to why Arsenal aren’t converting the same amount of chances today as they were nine years ago lies in a quote from April 16th 2004, as Andy Gray watched Arsenal annihilate Leeds 5-0 at Highbury.

I’ve seen most things in this league in the last 25 years. I haven’t seen anything like him. I said he was special at the beginning of the game, but he’s more than that. He’s irreplaceable.

I’ve always remembered those words from Gray, which he said in utter astonishment as Thierry Henry slotted home his fourth goal. A dictionary full of superlatives couldn’t offer enough words to describe Henry, but “irreplaceable” is as close as you can get.

What we witnessed in 2003/04 will never happen again

Whether it was through Arsene Wenger’s genius, sheer luck, cosmic alignment or whatever other theories you can come up with is unclear. If you ask me, Arsenal were just incredibly fortunate to bring together a group of phenomenal footballers who all simultaneously hit their peak and shared an almost telepathic cohesion. What we witnessed Arsenal accomplish in 2003/04 will probably never happen again in our lifetime.

Realistically, the best Arsenal can hope for this season is a top three or top four finish, a quarter or semi-final in the Champions League and success in one of, or both of, the domestic cups. The more deluded fans will say “we’ll win the Champions League” or “we’re still title contenders”, but the reality is that a domestic cup and a place in next seasons Champions League would be a great season.

It hurts me to write this as a fan, because it’s an enormous fall from grace for a team who were once the most dreaded match on any team’s calendar.

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FourFourTom is a football writer (and Arsenal fan). Follow him on Twitter here.

“Freddy Adu on the ball. Still Adu. My word, he’s beating players for fun! Adu picks out Henri Saivet on the left. Saivet fires the ball across goal towards Lulinha… Lulinha scores! That’s why he’s the current Ballon d’Or holder! It’s 4-0 inside 60 minutes and Cheltenham Town have surely sealed their fifth consecutive Champions League trophy!”

Wait, what?

Whilst I agree there’s something strangely fulfilling about leading your hometown to European domination in a virtual world, I’d like to bring you back to reality for a moment. Now, brace yourself, because this may shock you. Ready? Okay…

Football Manager isn’t actually the same as real life. Football Manager is an enormous database and hundreds of thousands of pixels arranged to form arbitrary images, whilst real life is, y’know, real life…

It doesn’t matter how many leagues you conquer, how many successful 16-year-old ‘wonderkids’ you unearth or how many stadiums you have named after you, you’re still just sat in your bedroom playing a computer game. The game is not real life. Somewhere in the midst of years of diluting their knowledge of actual football with virtual information, people seem to have lost the ability to distinguish between the two.

High creative freedom?

Real football management is a far cry from knocking back another gulp of Red Bull and promising yourself “just one more game” before switching it off as you go 1-0 down inside 10 minutes. Even when you do get it right, real-life tactics are much more complex than saying: “I want you to go out there tonight and play as a complete forward with the support duty, with high creative freedom and a mixed passing style.”

The thing which infuriates me the most about Football Manager is the attitude that, because you’ve managed a Premier League team in the game, you know better than an actual Premier League manager. Over the 20 years the Premier League has been in existence, only 173 men have managed at the highest level.

DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE (EXCEPT ON FOOTBALL MANAGER): Freddy Adu, now with Philadelphia

It takes years – sometimes decades – of training, education and experience to be a manager. It’s not as simple as slipping into an imaginary world, setting your in-game past experience to ‘world-class footballer’ and instantaneously being presented with a bounty of job offers.

I understand part of the charm of Football Manager is the possibility of finding the next ‘big thing’ lurking in the Israeli second division or somewhere equally obscure, but I have another shocking truth for you to attempt to digest — real-life football players are actual people.

They’re not the same as the virtual representation of themselves. If your star striker scores 40 goals per season on your game, that doesn’t mean he’s actually capable of scoring 40 goals per season. Real players are a lot more than a succinct list of attributes represented numerically and columned down a page for you to glance through whilst thinking: “18 for composure? Yep, this kid has what it takes.”

Fees that would make Sheikh Mansour wince

When it comes to buying one of these gems you’ve discovered, real life is a hell of a lot more complicated than clicking a button to ask your assistant manager to filter him out of your shortlist if he’s an unrealistic target. There are phone calls to be made, agents to contact, legal documents to draft up and countless other formalities which are part and parcel of multi-million pound business deals.

The Football Manager-induced mentality of the average modern day fan is ridiculous. If a signing takes longer than a day to be confirmed, all hell breaks loose on social media. Managers’ desks don’t come fitted with huge “confirm the signing of…” buttons in reality. Additionally, if a club can’t afford a transfer, they can’t afford a transfer. In the real world, money isn’t as easy to come by as clicking “add manager,” taking over a rival club and selling them a bunch of your reserves for a fee so ludicrously inflated it would make Sheikh Mansour wince.

I’m not saying any of this with the intention of badmouthing Football Manager, because it’s an incredibly well-researched and entertaining game, but please just remember that‘s all it is – a game.

FourFourTom is a football writer. Follow him on Twitter here.

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After a number of negative comments we offered some of those who commented to write a blog piece of their own in response to FourFourTom. @chrisquinn3 accepted the challenge and you can read his reply here.

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