Slating Nicky
Brian Glanville of World Soccer magazine has first dibs on ruining my day by calling Nicky a "poor substitute" for Gerrard for England. He's apparently forgotten what a "poor substitute" Nicky was for the injured Gerrard (whom I adore, btw) during the World Cup, when Pele named Nicky one of the best players of the tournament. Or SG-E's statement that he ALWAYS picks Nicky when he is fit. Or how Gerrard himself has praised his confidence in Nicky when they play together, knowing Nicky will hold steady and thus allow Gerrard to get forward as he loves to do, making those passes to Owen et al. By contrast, Gerrard had an admittedly weak showing at the Euros. And why? Because he was relegated to the holding role, mainly because Lamp*** could not and would not master himself enough to remain in his position but was single-mindedly determined to get forward and score himself. So Lamp*** gets to be the hero and Gerrard gets slagged in a tournament which everyone expected Gerro to take by storm. Lamp*** offers no safety or stability to the back four. If he's going to bomb forward so he can score and take credit, someone has to hold the shape in midfield. And Nicky's done it brilliantly for England for years. Msr. Glanville might want to take a look at some RECENT footage of Nicky playing for Newcastle, his man of the match debut performance, and his "sublime" (I didn't say it, the press did) little chip pass to set up one of Kluivert's brilliant goals. It's far too easy to be destructive, rather than creative, as Glanville himself notes. Only I'm applying the same criteria to him as a writer. Sloppy, outdated and unoriginal. Now I feel better.
posted by TCMack at 8:54 AM
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