Are playmakers coming back into vogue in the Premier League?

Kagawa could become the fulcrum of Manchester United's attack this season

The recent arrivals of Shinji Kagawa and Robin van Persie at Manchester United have left Sir Alex Ferguson with an interesting dilemma. How does he fit both new signings into the same team alongside Wayne Rooney? With Rooney's recent injury, he may not be able to answer that question for a few weeks, but the way United have played in their first couple of matches has been telling. It is clear that after a few years of usually playing 4-4-1-1 with Rooney dropping off a strike partner (most recently Danny Welbeck), the veteran manager wants to place more emphasis on the playmaking role. Kagawa, who can also operate on the wings, is an attacking midfielder with all the qualities to dominate a match in the playmaker, or number 10, position. This is where Ferguson has deployed the Japanese 23-year-old in both the league matches against Everton and Fulham. Of course, Rooney, ostensibly a striker, does enjoy dropping deep into the playmaker position, and when on form displays a passing range which allows him to operate as a creator effectively. In the defeat against Everton, he started as the forward playing ahead of Kagawa but had a poor game, and he was benched for the Fulham victory before coming on and getting injured. Similarly, van Persie tends to drop deep and play the role of creator as well as being a lethal finisher when playing further up the pitch, but in the home game with Fulham, his partnership with Kagawa showed great promise. With the Old Trafford club struggling for midfield creativity in recent years, the addition of Kagawa as playmaker could be both crucial and poignant, but Ferguson could struggle to keep his plethora of strikers happy. 

van der Vaart looks to be on his way out of White Hart Lane

Elsewhere in the Premier League play-makers appear to be coming into vogue, apart from at Tottenham Hotspur where Andre Villas-Boas is keen to shift Rafael van der Vaart, despite the Dutchman being one of the most talented creators in the league. While he has played a 4-2-3-1 formation early in his Tottenham career, it is known that AVB favours a 4-3-3 formation, and his reasons for selling van der Vaart could be that it is difficult to fit a traditional number 10 into such a system. Last season at Chelsea, Villas-Boas deployed play-maker Juan Mata wide on the left of his 4-3-3 formation, and while the Spaniard did perform well, the Portuguese managers tactics ultimately failed. When Roberto Di Matteo took the reins at Stamford Bridge, he shifted to the popular 4-2-3-1 formation with Mata as the central play-maker and managed to lead Chelsea to Champions League and FA Cup glory, though it is worth noting their league form did not improve radically and they still finished 6th in the league. Either way, Villas-Boas doesn't seem keen on having the focus of his team on a play-maker and it is expected that his two creative midfield signings, Gylfi Sigurdsson and the newly-acquired Moussa Dembele will play centrally in a 4-3-3 but more as box-to-box creators than number 10s. 

Fernando Torres can expect Juan Mata and Eden Hazard to provide plenty of ammunition

Over at AVB's old club, Chelsea, the contrast could not be more pronounced. Di Matteo, who was the Portuguese's assistant before taking over, clearly disagrees with his predecessor on the play-maker front. Alongside the already established Mata, he has brought in the Brazilian Oscar, the German Marko Marin, Wigan's Victor Moses and the much-hyped and incredibly-named Belgian prospect Eden Hazard. The first three games of the season have seen Mata remaining the central figure with Hazard taking one of the wide positions in the 4-2-3-1 formation. Marin is currently unavailable through injury, but with the likes of Raul Meireles, Ramires, Florent Malouda, Daniel Sturridge, Ryan Bertrand, Moses and Oscar all competing for places in the attacking third behind Fernando Torres, it is going to be extremely difficult for Di Matteo to keep many of his creative players happy at all this season. The perception is that now Roman Abramovich has won his much longed-for Champions League, his new target is to build a team which play the sort of entertaining passing football which Barcelona and Spain have perfected. These teams play with multiple play-makers, and this summer Spain often lined up without a recognised striker, as the 'false nine' formation polarised opinion, but ultimately proved successful. But for it to work effectively at Chelsea, Di Matteo will need great man management skills and for his holding midfield duo, currently Frank Lampard and John Obi Mikel, but with Oriol Romeu and both Meireles and Ramires also in contention, to protect the defence effectively. Regardless, Torres will surely have plenty of chances carved out for him, so a repeat of last season's appalling goal-scoring form will be inexcusable, and his two goals in the first three league games show that that will be unlikely.

It might be difficult for both Silva and Nasri to start in a 3-4-1-2 formation

Over at the home of the champions, the Etihad Stadium, Roberto Mancini is overseeing an intriguing experiment with his formation. The Italian has been trying out a 3-4-1-2 in pre-season and used it in the Community Shield victory over Chelsea and the 2-2 draw away to Liverpool but it is clear his players aren't quite used to it. Playing three at the back has been extremely rare in football over recent decades as the back four have dominated, but the back three is making a comeback in Italy, and Wigan Athletic pioneered it with much success in the latter half of last season. However, while to the untrained eye it appears to be a defensive formation with an extra centre-back shoring up the back-line, Mancini's true ambition could be to make the most out of his play-maker. At Anfield that man was Samir Nasri, who operated behind strikers Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli and ahead of a midfield which consisted of James Milner and Aleksandar Kolarov as wing-backs and Nigel de Jong and Yaya Toure in the centre. It didn't quite work away to the Reds as City's players still seemed to be getting to grips with the formation and they were lucky to be gifted a point by Martin Skrtel's clumsy back pass late on. Yet by putting the emphasis on one play-maker, Mancini seems to be playing against the strengths of his squad. With David Silva, Tevez, Sergio Aguero and even the Ivorian Toure all capable of playing as in the number 10 role, it does seem counter-productive to play with four deeper midfield players. In fact the formation makes it very difficult to fit both Silva and Nasri into the same team, as neither would suit the wing-back role. But Mancini has shown over the past few seasons that he knows how to make a team evolve, with the holding-midfielder-overload of his early days at City replaced by last season's free flowing, goal-laden success. If he gets his players all singing from the same sheet then the wily Italian could be lauded as one of the best tactical managers of his generation. 

Barcelona are very familiar with the concept of play-makers

Over the past decade or so, play-makers have struggled to fit into English teams. The likes of Rooney have been played largely as strikers and talents such as Joe Cole have been forced out wide and often wasted. But on the continent they have often still thrived, as seen with Kaka in Milan's Champions League successes of the mid 2000s, at the fulcrum of a narrow 4-3-1-2 formation, and with Wesley Sneijder playing behind Diego Milito in Internazionale's treble winning campaign of 2009-10. Real Madrid have gone from Zinedine Zidane to Mesut Ozil over the past few years and Barcelona have been spoilt with the likes of Javier Saviola, Ronaldinho and Deco even prior to the current crop of Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas. But it is only now that the Premier League's top clubs all seem to be embracing the idea of the team focusing on playmakers. The obvious exception being Tottenham and Villas-Boas. If he fails, as many think likely, and the likes of Kagawa, Hazard and whoever becomes the focal point of Mancini's 3-4-1-2 succeed, then a whole new era of play-maker orientated football could be upon us. Worse things could happen to the Premier League.

Aguero's absence unlikely to halt title defence

Mancini has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal

Manchester City fans at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday would have been forgiven for fearing the worst after Sergio Aguero fell down injured and was substituted early in the first half of the 3-2 victory over Southampton. The Argentine forward was one of Roberto Mancini's key men last season, netting 23 goals, including that late winner against QPR, on the way to claiming City's first title since 1968 and many would expect him to be sorely missed if out injured for any extended period. But would it really effect the Citizens that much? In fact, with the expensively assembled strike force Mancini has at his disposal it may even prove to be a blessing in disguise.

As it happens, Aguero's injury is only set to rule him out for four weeks. As there is an international break in this period that means he is only likely to miss Premier League clashes with Liverpool, QPR and Stoke City. The 24-year-old should be in contention in time for Arsenal's visit to the Etihad on 23rd September, a fixture in which the Argentine bagged the winner last season. The games Aguero will miss should aid Mancini in being able to provide additional playing time for his other big name strikers. With Carlos Tevez, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko all fit and available City are even in a position to allow promising young Swedish forward John Guidetti, who netted 20 goals in 23 appearances for Feyenoord last year, go out on loan again, or perhaps be sold.

The three strikers who will be looking to fill the void for City all have their own tales to tell but it is undisputed that they are exceptional talents in their own right. Tevez seems to be a rejuvenated man at the start of this season and is already off to a flyer after netting in the Community Shield against Chelsea and opening the scoring against the newly-promoted Saints. After his disgraceful, self-enforced absence from the City squad last year, he returned in time to contribute to the title victory, scoring a memorable hat-trick at Carrow Road along the way and appears to have settled his differences with Mancini. As seen in the past, the former City captain has fire-power in abundance and he found the net 52 times in his first two seasons at the club following his controversial signature in 2009. With compatriot Aguero out of action, Tevez will see this as an opportunity to re-establish himself as the Citizens' main goal threat and with the likes of Samir Nasri, David Silva and Yaya Toure in the squad he should have plenty of service.

Then of course, there is Balotelli. The young Italian is never far away from the headlines although he is not always in Mancini's starting line up. An impressive Euro 2012 tournament for his country, the highlight being his man-of-the-match performance and brace in the semi-final victory over Germany, did great things for his reputation this summer and he will be hoping to establish himself as one of the Premier League's finest attacking talents this season. Again, Aguero's absence could give him the boost needed in terms of playing time to make himself first choice under Mancini. Now 22, the former-Internazionale forward needs to curb his temperament and maverick behaviour and focus all of his energies into playing football. The screamer he scored in that semi-final against Germany, as well as his over-head effort against Ireland in the group stage exemplified the qualities he can offer, but his embarrassing behaviour in the away fixture at Arsenal last year is still fresh in the memory. Mancini gave the impression that Balotelli may have played his last City game back then but clearly, as he has done with Tevez, the manager has valued the talent of the player highly enough to give him another chance.

Having said that, Balotelli wasn't the first choice substitute to partner Tevez once Aguero had been substituted on Sunday. That honour went to Dzeko, sometimes the forgotten man at City, but somebody who did have a huge reputation of his own before joining up with Mancini's squad in January 2011. The tall 26-year-old arrived from Wolfsburg in Germany for £27million and having earned the accolade of, alongside Brazilian Grafite, beating Gerd Muller and Uli Hoeness's record of most goals scored by two team-mates in a Bundesliga season (2008-09). He also finished as Bundesliga top scorer in 2009-10 and showed he had more to his game by adding ten assists in both of those seasons. Yet since he arrived in England he has struggled to nail down a position in the starting line-up, in no small part down to the quality of competition that City have for their striking berths. The Bosnian has had his moments at City, with a four-goal haul at White Hart Lane early last season chief among them. A goal in the crucial last day win over QPR last season and another in Sunday's victory over Southampton show that City's number 10 does have plenty to offer Mancini and like Balotelli and Tevez, he will be hoping that Aguero's absence gives him more of a chance to make an impression. With such an embarrassment of riches available to him, the Italian manager may actually be relieved that his selection dilemma is made slightly easier each week with the absence of his star striker. If two of the other trio can perform to their best over the next month, then the ex-Atletico Madrid man might not walk straight back into the first choice XI after all. Manchester United may have added Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa to their ranks, and Chelsea have brought in Eden Hazard and Oscar, but what is certain this season is that City are going to take some beating.

Van Persie's departure need not spell doom and gloom for Gooners

van Persie had said goodbye to Arsenal, but Wenger's squad can push on to future success

After yet another long drawn out transfer saga involving Arsenal, Robin van Persie has finally completed his move to Manchester United. While the Dutchman is undoubtedly a fantastic addition to Sir Alex Ferguson's artillery, the move has piled the pressure on his former manager at Arsenal. The captain's departure from the North London outfit has yet again left people questioning whether Arsene Wenger is taking the club in the right direction. But while I have often disagreed with Wenger's policies and philosophies over recent seasons, I feel that this time, all is not lost for Arsenal. As long as the exodus ends now. 

That could be a big ask as already Alex Song seems to be lining up a move to join another former Gunner, Cesc Fabregas, at Barcelona. But if Wenger can manage to keep him at the Emirates Stadium the Frenchman may finally be able to build a team good enough to challenge for trophies within a couple of seasons. Any sooner than that is simply unrealistic but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Arsenal could be in the title race again by 2014. How, you ask? Consolidation has to be the way forward. Unlike last season, when Wenger let Fabregas and Nasri depart late on in the transfer window without having much time to sign top quality replacements, Arsenal have already made some astute purchases this summer. Before their 29-year-old talisman left, the squad had already been bolstered by the purchases of Germany forward Lukas Podolski, France striker Olivier Giroud and, perhaps most excitingly of all, Spain midfielder Santi Cazorla. With these three genuinely top notch footballers in the squad, Wenger's men still have plenty of potential.

Over recent years Arsenal have sent out all the wrong messages to their rivals and supporters in the transfer windows. In the past seven years five captains have been sold, as before Fabregas and van Persie the French trio of Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and William Gallas all left despite being Wenger's choice to captain the squad. The latter of those may have been a less important figure as he wasn't the greatest defender Arsenal have had and had caused plenty of controversy with his off-pitch, and sometimes on-pitch, behaviour. But the first two were true legends of the game, let alone the club, and both could have offered at least a couple more years of service to Arsenal. Both went on to win more trophies in Europe, something which we are constantly reminded Arsenal have failed to do since Vieira sealed the 2005 FA Cup with his last kick as a Gooner. In this period the club have fluctuated in form but have consistently finished either 3rd or 4th in the league and been knocked out of Europe by around the quarter-finals or last 16 stage. Solid, but a long way off spectacular.

Of course, it is not only captains that have departed the Emirates stadium with plenty of petrol still left in their engines. Mathieu Flamini, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri have all chosen to leave Arsenal behind them during this period. Unbelievably, the latter four of those have all ended up at Manchester City, illustrating the power shift between the two clubs. Back in 2004 when Arsenal went a whole league season unbeaten, the thought of a club like City, then a mid-to-lower-table outfit, signing so many quality players would have been unthinkable. And for Wenger to regain the credibility and attraction of his club he needs to make sure the likes of City, United and Barcelona don't get their hands on any more of his star players. Podolski has proven himself with Germany, becoming the youngest ever European to reach 100 caps for his country this summer and netting 44 times along the way, despite often being deployed out wide. Giroud, at 25, has plenty to offer and having scored over 20 league goals in two of his last three seasons in France will be expected to pick up van Persie's baton and lead the assault on opposition defences. Cazorla has been in the Spain squad throughout their period of international dominance and while he struggles to start for them (not in anyway a criticism considering Fabregas, David Silva and Fernando Torres are all in the same situation) he has accrued 47 caps over the past five years. These players could form the core of a new Wenger team, and perhaps one that wins trophies again.

Nevertheless, the new boys can't be expected to do it all on their own. They will need the existing Arsenal core to gel with them and play to their maximum. Jack Wilshere's return to fitness is paramount. The diminutive playmaker hasn't played competitive football since June 4th 2011 when England drew 2-2 with Switzerland but he has been handed the number 10 shirt and is pencilled in for an October return to the first team. Theo Walcott and Gervinho need to up their quality of service from the wings and will be expected to chip in with more goals too, but that is certainly within their capabilities. If Song stays, he will be needed to strengthen the midfield with his eye for a good pass as crucial as his positional sense and defensive attributes. If he does leave, Wenger will need to replace him or risk his team really struggling in the middle of the park. New captain Thomas Vermaelen and new vice-captain Mikel Arteta will both play crucial roles in the squad and their fitness is very important. Keep them fit and a solid core of a team is in place. Full back positions are a worry as Bacary Sagna is still injured and Kieran Gibbs is injury-prone while Wojciech Szczesny will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing Euro 2012 where he got sent off in the first match as his country crashed out in the group stage on home soil. But the young Pole's displays last season showed enough ability to warrant being first choice goalkeeper for the foreseeable future.

So it could be the fitness of the squad that dictates Arsenal's performances this season. They lack the strength in depth of their rivals but remain a force to be reckoned with if they are firing on all cylinders. Wenger knows full well that Arsenal have becoming a selling club, but he, and the board, need to bring an end to that situation. Their star striker van Persie is gone, and so are pretty much all of the team that last came close to the title race (2007/08 - they finished just four points off first place), but quality remains and it must be consolidated. If this team play together for a couple of seasons, and if a couple of reinforcements are added each transfer window, Wenger could be king again. While this season's title race looks set to be a three-way tussle between the two titans of Manchester and European champions Chelsea, Arsenal may yet manage to get themselves back in the running next year. They just need to start keeping their best players.

Olympics show women's football is ready to shine

Wembley has played host to many Olympic football games this tournament

In the past few days I have had the privilege of visiting Wembley Stadium twice to watch Olympic football matches. On Saturday I was present to witness Mexico's entertaining 4-2 extra time victory over Senegal in the quarter-finals of the men's tournament, while yesterday I returned to observe Japan's 2-1 win over France in the semi-finals of the women's tournament. Despite there being more goals in the former game, I must say that the latter was vastly more entertaining particularly in a second half in which the French took the game to Japan, the reigning world champions, and could count themselves highly unlucky not to at least earn extra time. In fact the match was an incredible advertisement for the women's game and one which has led me to draw the conclusion that it is high time women's football was treated with more respect and given much more attention in the media.

Japan's women will look to add Olympic gold to their world title this week

In my experience with sports journalism, I have researched and written the odd feature for my old student newspaper on women in football, but had only reported on a couple of women's matches at university level. In these games I saw much skill and entertaining football but some of the excellent technique and quality of play shown at Wembley yesterday, in what was the first high level women's football game I had attended, provided a spectacle which is on a par with the many men's games I have been to in the past. Admittedly there are a couple of aspects of on-field play in which the women’s game is behind the men’s. Most noticeably the goalkeepers seem to struggle more even at such a high level and are less dominant in the penalty area. As well as this, they seem less capable of performing the long goal kicks which have become commonplace in the men’s game, instead preferring to play short passes almost all of the time. That though, can be seen as a good thing as it encourages attractive played-on-the-floor football. In fact with the tiki-taka style of football played by fantastic men’s teams like Barcelona and Spain, this is something which is often encouraged.

Elodie Thomis impressed playing out wide for France

Goalkeeping faults aside, the technical ability possessed by many women’s players is truly of the highest quality. I have previously observed a couple of 30-yard screamers at university level and on the pitch in the Olympic semi-final there were some fantastic skills on display. France’s speedy winger Elodie Thomis showed incisive play which would put several members of the the French men’s team to shame after their Euro 2012 shambles. The 25-year-old was not the only player on her team with skills and the forward Louisa Necib pulled off an incredible turn, worthy of Andres Iniesta, in the second half and unleashed a dipping shot which was not quite good enough to beat the Japanese ‘keeper. Yuki Ogimi and Mizuho Sakaguchi’s goals for the Asian nation both came from well executed set plays, showing that the female game has mastery of a skill which is often lacking in the men’s game – the delivery of accurate free kicks. Another accusation often levelled at women’s football is a lack of pace, but this was completely not evident from the Japan vs France game where a lot the Japanese players and notably Thomis, amongst others, on the French side had pace to burn. In fact there was little aesthetically different about the speed and precision of the game compared to the men’s game. Another observation was the apparent flexibility of formations with midfielders drifting forward to support the strikers and full-backs also pushing up regularly, a far cry from the rigid systems which often appear in the men’s game, notably with England’s national team.

The flags of all the nations competing in football are displayed beneath the Olympic rings

The Olympic football tournament on the whole is a different experience to regular matches with more of a family or carnival atmosphere. The increased presence of the somewhat irritiating Mexican waves is proof of this but whereas this can belittle the men’s tournament in the eyes of some, the Olympic crowds are actually an improvement compared to the usual levels of interest in women’s football. The Mexico-Senegal men’s quarter final was a sell-out in a 90,000 seater stadium yet only 61,482 turned up for the women’s semi final. But compared to a normal Women’s Super League game (only 4,500 capacity at the champions home stadiun), or even the 2011 Women’s Champions League final (14,000) or 2011 Women’s World Cup semi-final (25,000) attendance this is actually an improvement. On top of this, whereas the men's tournament is under-23 only, bar three overage players, there are no age restrictions for women, increasing the quality of the tournament. The women’s game is getting some of the attention it deserves thanks to it's role in the Olympics, which it has only been included in since 1996.

Mexico's Giovani dos Santos (green no.10) starred at Wembley on Saturday

Some farcical news which appeared this week was the fact that the Japanese men’s team were given business-class flights by their football association yet the women, despite being world champions, were only provided with economic class flights. This blatantly unfair display of favouritism is something that should surely be eradicated from sport and athletes of both genders should be treated equally. At the end of day, women’s football is just as good a spectacle as the men's game which can even rake in large crowds at very low levels. The time has come where women’s football should no longer be derided and people should watch it whenever possible. They won’t be disappointed. And in an era where Arsenal are charging over £100 for some non-executive tickets to their stadium, the fact it is a whole lot cheaper to get in is a fantastic additional bonus. The more people that support it, the quicker it will develop, and eventually it might just come close to enjoying the attention which the men's game will surely always receive.

This article originally appeared on James Phillips's Olympics blog tsfe2012.blogspot.com