Shots From Distance 4.5.2010: The resurrection of Chelsea, should Roon play, and other stuff.

After using the Champions League to play my way back into the Bayern Munich lineup, I endanger my team's lead against Schalke by getting a yellow for bumping the assistant referee, and follow that up with another yellow for clumsily challenging a Schalke player. No wonder my manager is hoping that Arjen Robben will be fit for Wednesday's match.



Most sent email in the last 24 hours:



From: England Fan
To: Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United
Subject: Wayne Rooney's place against Bayern on Wednesday



Dear Sir,



In considering this, please see Cesc Fabregas and William Gallas.



Sincerely,

England Fan



Still to be determined if this email actually exists:



From: Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea Manager
To: Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United
Cc: Arsene Wenger, Arsenal
Subject: Wayne Rooney's place against Bayern on Wednesday



Dear Sir,



You have to go for it, give it your all. Get the boy out there and get the result you need to catapult you to Champions League glory! Frenchy in North London was brave enough last week. What, no balls there Fergie?



Carlo

PS I'll kick in a vintage if you play him.





Not necessarily like the humor of watching Sam Malone play Robin Colcord in chess, but entertaining nonetheless........I spent so much time in the table analysis of the English Premier League talking about how Ferguson would rally the troops to a draw on Saturday in the big clash against Chelsea. If anyone knows how to overcome losing a key player, it's the knighted one. In the process, I turned a blind eye to the astute tactician that Carlo Ancelotti can be. An embarrassing revelation, seeing how the Italian led my beloved Rossoneri to Champions League glory on two occasions as a manager.



First, looking at Fergie's team for this match. In the win over Liverpool, he used Park Ji Sung in a more central attacking role, almost as a striker partnering Rooney. I would have thought this was a cinch to see him in the same role, considering that Berbatov is not as mobile as Roon, and provides more of a high target presence. Park's runs off him would have been effective in pulling apart the central defense of Alex and John Terry for Chelsea. Just look at the Korean's winner against Liverpool. Rooney occupied a defender, and Park was free to head home Darren Fletcher's cross. Instead, Park was utilized wide, and from what I watched had little effect on the match. Sir attempts to rectify this by bringing on Giggs to play in that advanced central role (and not moving Park), and brings on Nani for Park.



With a 1-0 lead, what Carlo Ancelotti did was a masterstroke. Nani was likely instructed to play higher on the left, and the Italian brought on Solomon Kalou to occupy the right flank. Kalou had space on the right in one of his first attacks, a sign of the danger. And he started the attack again that led to the winner from Drogba (though offside). Fergie had to go for it, and Carlo made a ballsy decision that led to a moment that could define the title race.


*The author of this blog that maybe 6 people read if I'm lucky has elected not to make any conversation about Simon Beck and his ineptitude. Nor will I make any chatter about the Grumpy Scot's continued reliance on players like Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, and Ryan Giggs. While all are United legends, all are well into the twilight of their careers.*

*I should also call out that on more than one occasion the camera panned to a section of Old Trafford where Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz and Ivory Coast manager Sven Goran Eriksson were seated, with some random guy sitting between them. It's easy to speculate that since the two nations face each other in the World Cup, you would think the man was placed to prevent any further slapboxing between the two gaffers. SFD cannot confirm nor deny that any slapboxing took place.*

And as for idiot bloggers who wrote about Chelsea's demise. Wink, wink, hint, hint........................ I guess I didn't see this coming, but I also made projections based on Wayne Rooney being fit. Additionally, I also based predictions and conclusions on the fact that Florent Malouda would continue to be ordinary. My bad.

But just because Chelsea has regained their place at the top of the table doesn't necessarily mean it will end up there when all the games are played. Their home schedule has as about the same set of challenges that you have when you put your finger through the inside of a twinkie. However, two interesting away fixtures await them; Tottenham and Liverpool. Two sides that are desparate to get all the points they can so they can join the Blues in the Champions League next season.



But when Mr. Burns brought off Darryl Strawberry to have Homer pinch hit for him in the Springfield v Shelbyville Softball final, it worked............ maybe I don't coach at the level that Rafa Benitez does but I do know a couple things about substitutions and decision making. In my time and involvement in this beautiful game, I have arrived at a universal truth: NEVER BRING OFF A PLAYER WHO CAN DECIDE A GAME. The only way Fernando Torres should have been brought off was for one of the following two reasons:

1. He was injured


2. Liverpool had the match in hand, a lead in the neighborhood of 3 or 4-nil.

Since neither was the case, and the Fat Spaniard said so as "I brought him off because he was tired" (paraphrasing, he of course was eating pastries when he said it). Maybe Rafa likes the relaxed environment of the Europa League after all.

But all the money we got for Darren Bent............. With Arsenal (H), Chelsea (H), and Manchester United (A) as their next three fixtures, along with Manchester City (A) before the season is up, that was a bad 3 points for Tottenham to drop.

Amusing moment of the weekend......................... Watching Burnley supporters leave Turfmoor 7 minutes into their team's match with Manchester City, when they fell behind 3-0 en route to a 6-1 thrashing that probably could have been worse if the pitch didn't get so waterlogged.

Because I am spending wayyyyyy too much time on England........... Credit to Louis van Gaal's men for finding the resolve to travel to Gelsenkirchen and beat Schalke 04 2-1. If you read the very opening statement of this installment of SFD, you'll know the player I am referring to is Turkish international Hamit Altintop. With Leverkusen's loss this weekend to Monchengladbach, it would be safe to say that the Bavarians are in the driver's seat.

My understanding is that Nigel Winterburn, Ray Parlour, Luis Enrique, Albert Ferrer, Ian Wright, Hristo Stoichkov, David Seaman, and Andoni Zubizeretta are available for call-up. And rumor has it that Pep will trade the suit for the Blaugrana stripes too................. So add Alexander Song and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the collective mash unit of players for Barcelona and Arsenal. Throw in the suspensions of Pique and Puyol for Barca, and you may see them asking the old-timers to hash this one out. Seriously, the lineups should look like this:

Barcelona: Valdes- Alves- Milito- Marquez- Maxwell- Keita- Busquets- Xavi- Pedro- Henry- Messi

Arsenal: Almunia- Sagna- Campbell (doubtful- knee)- Vermaelen- Clichy- Denilson- Diaby- Eboue- Nasri- Walcott- Bendtner

Team with the most players standing at the end wins.

That's about all I had for this week. A little skewed to British footy but Serie A was rather uneventful this weekend with the top 3 all winning. Until next time......