Bleacher Report - Articles by Gino Grossi

Machester United-Chelsea: Looking Ahead to the Showpiece Game

Gino Grossi — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:00:41 -0400

Going into the final the pressure is mostly all on Chelsea. United have already won the league and can be proud of another successful season. If Chelsea lose in Moscow, it would now make it two seasons without a major trophy (EPL or Champions League) for the biggest spending team in Europe.

Can you see Abramovich being happy with that? He is not really getting his rubles worth is he?

Of course Chelsea will have all the hunger. Everyone knows that Utd’s record in Europe is very poor. A team of their nature should have won more than one Champions League trophy.

Fergie probably knows that he will not be considered a true European great manager if he does not win it another time. Out of the current squad, only Giggs, Neville, Brown and Scholes were there for the 1999 triumph. Some of those did not play in the final, but they were part of the overall success. United is desperate to beat Chelsea, who have become a bit of a bogey side for the Red Devils.

2 Key Battles

Ronaldo v Cole and probably Essien (switching wings)—Ronaldo has never had the best of games playing against Cole and you can’t see Essien giving him much change. I think you will see Ronaldo come inside a lot more to test his luck against the less agile Terry.

Drogba v Rio and Vidic—Again like Ronaldo, Drogba hasn’t had his best games against Utd, but you know for sure that he will be playing the single striker role.

It will be up to the United midfield to track back and pick up the marauding Lampard and Ballack as Drogba will be taking up the centre backs attention.

Formations

Chelsea will probably plump for their tried and tested 4-1-4-1. Cech, Essien, Terry, Carvalho, A Cole, Makelele, Malouda, Lampard, Ballack, J Cole, Drogba.

It will be more interesting to se Utd’s line up. The majority of Utd fans will like to see a 4-4-2 formation and get Utd playing their normal attacking game. We haven’t seen too much of this from United in Europe.

Fergie could also adopt a 4-1-4-1 formation using Hargreaves in the defensive midfielder role to check on the runs of Lampard and Ballack. This will be at the expense of Tevez—Van der Sar, Brown, Rio, Vidic, Evra, Hargreaves, Ronaldo, Scholes, Carrick, Giggs, Rooney.

Some big players with big reputations will be on the pitch on Wednesday night. Let’s just hope we don’t see a repeat of last year’s FA Cup final... a good cure for insomnia!

Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes: OAPs or VIPs?

Gino Grossi — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:45:55 -0500

Is it time for the old guard to take a backseat and let youth flourish?

In the past two United games—4-0 v Arsenal and 1-1 v Lyon, it seems as if the performances of Giggs and Scholes are becoming less effective.

I know Scholes has just come back from an injury lay off, but Gigs surprisingly has been pretty much injury-free, but hasn’t really had that sparkle this season, and it has been a hit-or-miss year for him.

Giggs has never really had any competition for his place—and to be honest, who was there to rival Giggs? We had Blomqvist in 1999, but he was even more injury prone than the great man himself. This year we have Nani, and although he hasn’t yet set the stage alight, there have been glimpses of what a good player he can be.

Against Arsenal he was excellent, and the game changed on Wednesday night when he and Tevez came on to replace Giggs and Scholes. Suddenly, United looked much more of a threat, and it was Nani’s cross that led to the goal.

With Scholes there is no doubt he is an excellent pro and unlike Giggs he has never had great pace and doesn’t need it, but if you look at the other midfielders now at Sir Alex’s disposal—Carrick, Hargreaves, Anderson, and even Fletcher—Scholes is no longer able to command a regular place.

My own preferred midfield partnership at the moment is that of Carrick and Anderson as they are the most dynamic, although Hargreaves is an important cog as unlike the rest he is happy to stay back and do the messy part of the job. Against the more dangerous and top teams, especially in Europe, he has an important role to play in the coming months—if he can stay injury free!

I’m not completely condemning these two to the retirement bin—Scholes would still be in the England set-up if he had not retired. I just think that they no longer should be definite first-team players, and that the team should be picked on merit and not on name.

Six of the Best: A Dazzling Display from the Red Devils

Gino Grossi — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:32:56 -0500

I am fortunate to say that I was there to see Ronaldo’s first hat-trick in English football and the complete annihilation of Newcastle United, a team that once used to be their closest rivals for the Premiership crown.

Nursing my aching calves and wishing that I had an oxygen mask with me, I finally made it to the third tier of the North stand. It is actually quite a good view up there and no need for binoculars or Superman style sight, although the Superman x-ray vision would have been good for the nice-looking girl sitting next to me!

Anyway, onto the game...It started at a frantic pace with Rooney having a good opportunity, and you know if that one would have gone in it might have been him getting a hat trick as well. It was one of those days for him where he would never have scored if the match had gone on all night.

Both fans were giving good support and Newcastle’s chant of ‘Fergie’s right, fans are s***' relating to Sir Alex’s comments about the lack of noise from the Birmingham game, were treated with less than polite songs about the Newcastle team and especially the God from the North – Alan Shearer, always a hated figure at Old Trafford as he turned down our club so many times.

Newcastle, though, really were poor and the defense was so bad, it just doesn’t play as a unit, it is a bunch of individuals who at best are pretty average players chasing around after their own tails. It is surprising to me that since Newcastle came to the Premier League in the 1993-94 season they have always been renowned for having a bad defense and here we are 15 years later and they still have a shockingly bad defense, with all the money they’ve spent it is an embarrassment. Stephen Carr for example used to be a full back that would bomb up and down the wings all game long, now it seems as if they have planted land mines in the opposition half, he wouldn’t tread a foot past that halfway line.

It was a deserved 6-0 and some of the play was outstanding, everyone played their part and with a solid base once again it allowed the front men to show their running, passing and creativity. Giggs and Ronaldo kept on switching wings not letting the full backs rest, Carrick and Anderson in the middle were snapping at everyone’s heels and Rooney and Tevez up front must be a nightmare to play against as they really do have boundless energy and do not play a typical centre forward role, especially Tevez who at times you couldn’t tell what his position was, left back, midfielder or forward. That’s the trick to this team and why Fergie got rid of Van Nistelrooy, he didn’t want that static type of centre forward who was primarily a box player and everything would go though him, this team is interchangeable and play close to the total football style that the great Dutch team of the 70’s pioneered.

A totally enjoyable day out only somewhat ruined by the dodgy kebab and hangover from the night before. The hangover didn't last long though as soon as the mesmerizing feet of the Portuguese maestro got into action, a true superstar and I cannot come up with enough superlatives to describe him, all together now, “He plays on the left, he plays on the right, that boy Ronaldo, makes England look S***"