The Alan Hansen Column: Former Liverpool Legend’s Views on Scotland, England, Diego Maradona, Spurs, Arsenal & Aston Villa
It is an exciting time for Scotland fans this week as world football legend Diego Maradona brings his new Argentina side to Hampden Park for a mouth-watering friendly clash.
Diego’s return brings back memories for me of when I faced him in 1979 at Hampden. Even then, he was as good a young player as you are ever likely to see. He possessed blinding pace, tremendously quick feet and unbelievable close ball control. For those who don’t remember him as a player then let me explain that when Argentina won the World Cup in 1986 it could be argued that he almost single-handedly won it for them. At that level that is an incredible feat.
Maradona has a good chance of being a success as the national team manager for two major reasons. For one he immediately has the major respect of the dressing room as befits his status as the best player to ever come out of Argentina and arguably the world. Secondly he has a squad packed with some great players particularly in attack. It will be interesting to see how it pans out for him but he has a good chance of being a success.
The decision for Scotland to face Argentina in this match is one that can split opinion in the game. George Burley’s side face Holland in their next qualifier so would it be better to face extremely difficult opponents like Argentina in the hope you can pull off a shock result to build confidence but alternatively could result in a hammering. They could have faced a lesser side to ideally get a nice big win prior to facing the Dutch but again the risk is if the team fails to perform then this could damage confidence even further. Personally as a player I would have preferred to face a big side, it will get the players up for it, the fans up for it and should increase excitement ahead of the Holland match.
England also face an exciting fixture of their own over in Germany but the build-up to this match has been marred by the numerous drop-outs by the majority of the squad’s biggest players. It does beg the question, is this the best time to play an international friendly?
For the players, club managers and national team manager this is not the ideal time to play this match. It’s hard to play right in the middle of a busy domestic season, though to be fair to the F.A, every part of the season is tremendously important so it’s extremely difficult to fit these games into the current schedule.
In terms of England’s progression, Fabio Capello will be aiming to continue their impressive recent performances. However, the team that he puts out will be nothing like his recent line-ups as he’s lost the likes of Rooney, Heskey, Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand and Walcott to injury. Therefore, it’s a good chance for him to get a closer look at some of the fringe players with Villa stars Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor likely to get their chance. Both played extremely well at the weekend in the win at the Emirates and are blessed with an abundance of pace so well worth a look.
In terms of the call-up for Chelsea youngster Michael Mancienne I think it is a great time to bring him in. Personally I don’t expect him to feature in the game itself but it will be a great experience for him to train with the calibre of player he will be surrounded with. When Rio Ferdinand was younger he was called-up to the Euro 1996 squad with little chance of playing in the senior side but he has often recalled this as a magnificent experience and one he learnt a lot from. Thus expect this to be the same situation for young Michael. It’s good to bring kids into the squad to give them experience and an even greater appetite to reach the top.
Just a week after beating Manchester United, Arsene Wenger’s young side came crashing down to earth at home to Aston Villa. This has led to them being written out of the title race by the majority of the press. I would have to say I agree that it would be extremely hard for them to win the title now. Few teams can afford to lose 4 League matches in a season, let alone in your first 13 games.
The Gunners may have been incredibly good against United but they were the complete opposite against Villa. When they play well they can beat anyone but when they play poorly they don’t have the capacity to grind out results like Chelsea or Liverpool have been doing. They are not mathematically out of the title race of course but they bookies don’t make them 4th favourites for nothing!
Martin O’Neill deserves great praise for the job he’s done at Villa Park but even a win at the Emirates seems to have been downplayed. Martin has done an absolutely great job and is undoubtedly a great manager. In his time at the club he has made great strides, bought very well and turned a relatively average squad into one of the youngest and most exciting in the Premier League. I doubt Villa will be strong enough to break into the top four this season but if any side is going to do it at the moment then it’s Villa and for that Martin deserves great credit.
Finally, a lot has been made of Tottenham’s Brazilian goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes after yet another mistake in the 2-1 defeat at Fulham. It’s a difficult situation for Harry as to whether to allow the player to play through his horrendous form or is better to rest him and get him out of the firing line. I’ve always felt that if a player makes a mistake it’s better to play him again if the next match comes quickly. However, such is the run Gomes is currently on that opponents will now be targeting him as Fulham admitted this week. Every side will be chipping the ball in around the keeper’s head so it could get worse before it gets better. Whatever, Harry chooses to do, expect Tottenham to be in the market for a goalkeeper with Premier League experience in January.
There’s an estimated prize fund of £15,000 to be won on Midweek 10 today. Just simply pick home win, away win or draw for the ten international friendlies to be in with a chance of winning. There’s also estimated jackpots of £20,000 to be won on Premier 10 and £150,000 to be won on Footy 15 this weekend so put your predicting skills to the test and you could be in the money!
Good luck this week
Alan
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Tags: Alan Hansen, Argentina, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Diego Maradona, England, Scotland, Tottenham
November 19th, 2008 at 13:03
Arsenal are very hit and miss as Alan says, until they get consistency they will contnue to be so. They miss the physical strong characters of the past like Vieira, Gilberto, Petit, Campbell etc, until they bring in leaders and winners I cannot see it changing. Good football, good players but liable to lose or beat anyone!