The Week Ahead, Part 2 - Player Picks

I have to admit that my first experiences watching a Roberto Mancini-coached team was a good one.  It was in a pre-scandal Italy (at least the recent one).  Inter Milan were still a plucky 3rd or 4th best team fighting to keep up with Milan and Juve.  The thing that I remember enjoying about them is that you could see just about anything from them on any given weekend.  They could play the typical Italian grinding style and win 1-0, they could go up 3-0 and find a way to give away that lead for a thrilling conclusion or they could go down 3-0 and come all the way back to win 4-3.  It was a win of the latter type that I recall as my first meaningful recollection of Mancini.  It wasn't enough to get me to follow Serie A religiously but it was enough for me to pull for Inter.

I mention this because the same sort of pattern seems to be unfolding at Manchester City.  The budget is bigger.  The upside of the talent at his disposal is higher.  Still, there appear to be two common characteristics that bond his Inter teams with his City teams.  The first is their variance in mental discipline.  No matter what has happened in the matches and even the minutes leading up to a specific instant in time appears to be entirely irrelevant to predicting what will happen next.  Their first choice players will be playing poorly (like last weekend) and someone deep in the doghouse (Balotelli) or in a deep slump (Milner) score goals. You just never seem to know what is going to happen next. The week before it was looking great for the first 60 or 70 minutes and then collapsing and giving up a 2-0 lead on the road in the last 20 minutes rather than creating a 2 goal lead in the last 20 minutes.

The other thing that binds these two Mancini teams is the presence of some, shall we say, unique personalities.  This season's edition features Tevez's increasingly bizarre and petulant behavior, de Jong's no-holds-barred challenges (and occasional dirty play), Dzeko's seemingly from out of nowhere personality, and of course Balotelli-being-Balotelli.  For me, since I really have little for or against City historically, the combination of these two factors and Mancini's ability to manage a team to just about any outcome has made them a really fun story to follow this season.  May it long continue rather than evolving the way Chelsea did under similar financial circumstances.  It would be a shame if City became more ruthless but at the same time less interesting to watch.

OK, on to the player picks:

Observations on the Community Shield

Starting Line-ups

If this is any indicator of starting line-ups - minus injuries (Rafael/Chicharito) or late returnees from tournaments (Aguero) - then we might make the following assessments about both teams:

• Micah Richards started at RB and is priced very reasonably at 7.35 in the Yahoo game - not bad for a starting RB for a top 4 team.  Especially a team starting at home against a newly promoted team.  Just saying.
• Anderson looks like he'll finally get his chance to shine and prove Jeremy right (or horribly wrong) once and for all.  Jeremy has been holding out hope that the Brazilian will make the big step up for a few seasons now and with Scholes gone he seems to have his chance. 
• Welbeck has apparently earned a promotion up into consideration for serious playing time.  With Chicharito out, I have to admit I was surprised that he got the start over Berbs who doesn't appear on any injury reports.  With Chicharito likely out for a while longer, you'd think this would be SAF's chance to get the first team playing together - you don't think that means Welbeck has moved past Berbs, do you?
• Looks like all of the "DDG is not necessarily our #1" talk from Ferguson was just a motivational tactic to make sure that the kid kept playing and training hard.  I can't think of a single reason they'd start him in this match and then not do it again when the curtain raises for real.

Set Pieces

• United: They seemed to go mostly to Ashley Young with Nani taking the occasional attempt - particularly the direct kick from about 25 or 30 yards in the middle of the first half that deflected off Dzeko and ended up going just a shade wide.  
• City: Silva and Kolarov split duty with Silva taking most of the attempts from the right side of the field and Kolarov from the left. Silva's cross for Lescott's opener was very nice. 

Season Preview - Manchester United

Quick Reminder, Real Life

A record breaking 19th league title and a Champions League Final appearance. Sort of speaks for itself, doesn’t it? These are even more impressive accomplishments since a lot of neutral observers would agree that it happened in something of a transition year for United. Their central midfield lacked an above-average talent (which Barca made abundantly clear in the Champions League final) and they featured a lot of very young (Rafael, Fabio, Smalling, and Chicharito) and very old players (Scholes, Giggs, and EvdS) all over the pitch in regular roles. The breakout star of the season and likely the difference between winning the title and not, was Mexican forward Javier Hernandez. Chicharito’s gift for efficient scoring saw him displace Dimitar Berbatov, the league’s joint top-scorer, as a starter. The only downside other than the loss in the final to Barca was a frustrating and non-Ferguson-like tendency to lose leads late on the road. “Fergie Time” just wasn’t quite the same when the Red Devils left Old Trafford last season. Still, with the title in the bag, that’s really just nitpicking isn’t it?

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Nani was a fantasy stud for the first half of the season but ended it as only a part-time starter. Berbatov had matches where he was incredible followed by long barren stretches that caused fantasy managers to pull out the hair Rooney ultimately had transplanted in. Vidic was excellent but expensive. Park was incredibly effective for the price in limited duty. After a disasterous first half of the season, Rooney came back and had at least a pretty good second half (although still not up to his standards or price). Chris Smalling had a very nice run of production for a cheap price as injuries sidelined Ferdinand.

Summer Changes

Ashley Young heads to Manchester United

UPDATE: More thoughts on the Ashley Young to Manchester United deal as it was just finalized (23 June) here.

 ---

Ashley Young heads to Manchester United but Phil Jones deal stalls | Football | The Guardian

Manchester United will officially sign Ashley Young when the Aston Villa forward returns from holiday later this month but their capture of Phil Jones from Blackburn Rovers has been delayed by a dispute over the defender's transfer fee...

Blackburn's owners, Venky's, have since said they do not have to accept a £16m transfer fee and, mindful of interest from Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal, believe he is worth more. Venky's have refused to transfer the player's registration and it may fall to lawyers to decide whether the wording in Jones' contract allows him to be sold at £16m or merely speak to clubs who meet that price. United are said to have no concerns that Jones' transfer will be completed and for £16m.

Young is believed to have agreed personal terms on an initial £16m move to Old Trafford from Villa Park but the transfer will not be formally announced until he has completed a medical.

We've been fans of Ashley Young since the beginning and coined "Blog Favorite" in his honor. Now he's moving on to the big, big time and we can't wait to see what it means for his career and for his fantasy production.

Of course, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Does this herald Nani's departure? Certainly we would expect Young to come in off the left and Valencia the right, with Rooney and Chicharito through the middle....

Heh! Maybe the questions have very clear answers. ;-)

The Jones situation will be interesting to monitor. Surely the likes of Liverpool (and others) will try to out-bid United and get Venky's blessing on a move. I would guess that Jones will have his mind set on United and will fight to end up there. But it will certainly give us something to write about for a while.

Phil Jones to Sign with Manchester United

What, no hug goodbye? Alternate caption, "Samba just mad that Jones made the exit before he did."

Premier League - Jones 'undergoing United medical' - Yahoo! Eurosport

Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones is at Manchester United to undergo a medical, according to various reports on Wednesday afternoon.

Jones, 19, was supposed to travel with his England Under-21 team-mates to Denmark for the European Championship finals on Wednesday.

However, he has been given permission to go to Carrington and undergo the necessary tests before finalising a transfer to the Premier League champions.

This updates our earlier post about Liverpool's transfer activity. So it seems that they've lost Jones, the player that made sense for them, and nabbed Henderson, whom we don't see fitting into the side.

A few more quick thoughts:

• Does this make Gary Cahill the next obvious target for Liverpool?
• Long-term, United are banking on a Jones/Smalling pairing. But with Ferdinand/Vidic as the bedrock of today's Manchester United, will Jones find himself replacing Michael Carrick in the starting eleven?
• What mid- to lower- table team is going get Johnny Evans next season, and can he rehabilitate his reputation?
• Rovers now have the money to make Jermaine Jones' loan permanent. Is that a good thing? I just watched him last night play for the USA against Canada. He plays really well in stretches but can switch off at the wrong times and will lose the ball or make a bad pass. Turnovers in midfield are killer and I worry about his concentration.
• At center-back, Rovers will need another players. Nelsen, Givet and Samba are ageing. The first two are becoming injury prone, and the latter isn't expected to be at the club come next season. Maybe Johnny Evans moves in the other direction?

What do you think of the deal?

Liverpool Transfer Policy

Liverpool close in on Blackburn's Phil Jones and Sunderland's Jordan Henderson | Mail Online

I don't understand Liverpool's transfer policy.  Jones, maybe.  They need options at center back with Carragher getting older and Agger likely to move on.  But Henderson?  They already have two world-class players for the advanced central midfield position and one of their weaknesses last season was trying to shoehorn both Steven Gerrard and Raul Miereles into the same side. Now they want even more depth with Henderson?  It just doesn't seem to meet a need on their part. And as for the player himself, does he look forward to a bench role? Is it just money, or does he expect to oust one, or both of the aforementioned players out of the side?