Tim Cahill survives Socceroo outing. Samir Nasri catches the eye once again. Adam Johnson bemoans his bench-warming role at City and Mick McCarthy backs his defensive tactics. Here’s some scribbles from the last 24-hours…
Tim Cahill started for the Socceroos in their 1-0 win over Paraguay in Sydney. The Everton man, an injury doubt before the game, played out 75 minutes and will now return to Goodison and prepare for the derby with Liverpool on Sunday. Barring any reaction to last night’s run-out, Cahill will surely start in an advanced role in support of Yakubu. He and Mikel Arteta will look to start to gather increased Fantasy interest from this point on as Everton begin to show a semblance of form that coincides with a run of opponents that could well bring more positive results and goals for the Australian. Everton have four matches at Goodison in the next six, starting with Liverpool on Sunday.
Samir Nasri sparkled in France’s 2-0 success over Romania in Paris; the Gunners playmaker played out 74 minutes of the game but ironically, the home side’s goals arrived late on when he was off the pitch. Regardless, Nasri’s form and confidence continues to look strong as he and Arsenal embark on a kinder run of Premier League opponents. The expected return of Cesc Fabregas undoubtedly casts a cloud over Nasri’s Fantasy potential and having started the Frenchman “in the hole” behind Chamakh in previous outings, it will be interesting to see how Wenger harnesses Nasri’s current form with the return of his skipper.
Niko Kranjcar offered a reminder of his abilities to Spurs boss Harry Redknapp with a brace of goals that won the game for Croatia in Israel. Kranjcar got his first from the spot and then converted a Luka Modric assist to earn a second and decisive goal for the Croats. Both Kranjcar and Modric completed the 90 minutes, along with Spurs team-mate Vedran Coluka. All three will go on to face Norway in a friendly on Tuesday – it will be interesting to see their level of involvement in that one given that Spurs travel to Fulham on Saturday, ahead of the Champions League trip to the San Siro on Wednesday week.
Adam Johnson has spoken out about his situation at City, stressing his disappointment at being dropped to the bench for recent matches.
“I was very disappointed to lose my place after I was man of the match against Blackburn and I haven’t started a Premier League game since. That is hard for me, but we have a great squad here and the manager makes the decisions – you just have to deal with them.”
Significantly Johnson then goes on to acknowledge that City’s fans were calling for his arrival prior to his winning strike from the bench against Newcastle last time out…
“Coming on and scoring against Newcastle was magnificent…The fans were singing my name to come on sooner, which is nice.”
Pointing out the City fans’ own frustration with Mancini is probably not a wise move but, having scored such a stunning goal last weekend, it is hard to see Johnson remaining on the bench when City travel to Blackpool in Gameweek 8. Johnson will, of course, have the chance to reiterate his form against Montenegro on Tuesday.
Mick McCarthy appears to be getting rather defensive (ironically) about his current formation and tactics at Wolves. McCarthy has reacted to fan frustration concerning the role of Steven Fletcher who appears to be employed as right-winger since returning to the starting lineup. McCarthy stresses that his side are playing a fluid 4-3-3 formation with Kevin Doyle, Matt Jarvis and Fletcher as the attacking trio. The Wolves boss is obviously struggling to convince the Molineux faithful and the stats hardly back up this 4-3-3 theory – Wolves have had the fewest goal attempts in the entire Premier League and have managed just 17 shots on target. Despite the emphasis on defence, they are the only side not to have kept a clean sheet. Wolves are struggling badly and Karl Henry’s suspension isn’t going to help their cause.
