The Big Friendly Catch Up – Sunday

If everyday really was like Sunday then Birmingham are already down, United are already Champions and Tottenham…well they’ve got ideas above their station again. Mmm…maybe there’s something in this? Here’s some notes on Sunday’s pre-season games…

Some of Sunday’s games have been covered in previous postings. Including Liverpool’s 5-0 win over Singapore in this post. The main talking points concerned the decision by Rafa to start with Agger at left-back, leaving Insua on the bench. In a nutshell – the defensive situation at Liverpool remains confused and, aside from the secure Reina and Carragher, other fantasy options look likely to remain risky.

Similarly Sunderland’s impressive 2-0 win over Athletico Madrid was covered in Friday’s round-up. The key information here surrounds the emergence of Kieron Richardson in the ‘hole’ position just behind the lone striker. Richardson netted both the Black Cat’s goals in this game and Bruce spoke afterwards on his delight at his ability in this role. This would obviously make the Sunderland man far more attractive as a low-to-mid price midfield option, although as the likelihood of Sunderland prising Darren Bent from Spurs increases, you have to question whether Bruce would go with a 4-5-1 with the potential of Jones and Bent as a partnership up front.

I’ll be covering my thoughts on United’s 8-2 mauling of Greentown in China in a follow-up post, simply because there’s plenty to say on the United situation with regards to strikers – a situation that has been the subject of several media stories in the last few days.

So let’s start with Birmingham’s less than impressive 3-0 defeat to Al Hilal in Austria. Yes McLeish rotated his side again here, but the defeat to the Saudi side must surely be ringing alarm bells with Birmingham fans and have us thinking twice about fantasy investment in their promoted squad.

Birmingham started in a 4-4-2 with O’Connor and McFadden up front and McSheffrey and Larsson in the wide roles. Ferguson and Carsley anchored the midfield and Joe Hart got the nod in goal over Taylor. McLeish made six changes at half-time, including the introduction of Keith Fahey, who had recovered from a groin injury. Those changes had little impact however, as Birmingham conceded two late goals as they looked to chase the game. McLeish will hope for a change in fortunes when they travel to Dagenham and Redbridge on Wednesday night.

That leaves Tottenham’s 2-0 defeat to Celtic in the Wembley Cup and Chelsea’s victory over Club America by the same margin, in the early hours of Monday morning.

To be honest, we shouldn’t read too much into the Spurs defeat given that Redknapp was still without a credible centre-back due to King, Woodgate and Dawson being crocked. Harry started with the untried and rather optimistic central defensive partnership of Dorian Dervite and Chimbonda in this one. Spurs looked predictably shaky at the back and two first-half goals earned Celtic victory.

Analyse Redknapp’s starting lineup in more detail and you discover the he again started with Hutton at right-back, keeping new signing Naughton on the bench despite speculation that Hutton is on his way, possibly to Everton. Huddlestone and O’Hara were given midfield berths, while Bent started with Keane up front as Harry restored the 4-4-2.

That seems an unlikely attacking partnership for the future given the fact that Spurs today closed the deal on Peter Crouch from Portsmouth. Sunderland’s interest in Bent is also set to see him move up north in the near future. Those two transfers do little to settle things from our perspective though. There’s plenty of uncertainty in the Spurs lineup – particularly in the attacking positions and at the back, where Spurs look decidedly fragile going into August. Right now, Palacios, Lennon, Modric and perhaps Keane, appear to be the only certain starters for the opening fixture with Liverpool.

Chelsea’s pre-season form has been mighty impressive so far, with four wins from four and just one goal conceded. That record is thanks in no small amount to Carlo Ancelotti’s decision to field strong sides, although he certainly chose to experiment in the 2-0 win over Club America. The Italian gave some pitch time to some of the second string players here. Hilario started in goal, while Sam Hutchinson and Michael Mancienne were given first starts in a makeshift defence that included the recalled Carvalho who skippered the side. In midfield, Deco returned alongside Michael Essien, Florent Malouda and Scott Sinclair. Daniel Sturridge and Salomon Kalou were paired up front.

While that team lineup does little to help us fantasy managers in deciphering Ancelotti’s likely lineup for the season kick-off, it did provide us with another reminder of the difficulty we face predicting a number of positions in the eleven. The left of midfield – with Malouda, Joe Cole, Kalou and Zhirkov competing for starts, is a case in point. Malouda took his chance again in this one, scoring one and setting up Di Santo for the other Chelsea goal. Right now then, it’s hard to see how Ancelotti can overlook the French international but, given Zhirkov’s scoring debut against AC Milan, there is clearly massive competition for that particular shirt. As a result, both Malouda and Zhirkov appear to be going into the season with a huge risk of rotation hanging over them.

We’re due to get more insight on Ancelotti’s thinking when Chelsea visit Reading on Saturday, their final friendly before the Community Shield clash with United on August 9.