Year: 2015

The best Premier League players from each club

Chris McGlynn EPL, Soccer , , , , , , , , ,

This is the first of a two part series where we identify the top player on each English Premier League team. Big thanks to my friend Jack Venezia for helping me out with this one. 

Jordan AyewAston Villa
Jordan Ayew, Forward
Aston Villa just barely survived the Premier League last year placing 17th in the English top flight. To make matters worse, captain Fabian Delph and star forward Christian Bentke have left Villa for Manchester City and Liverpool respectively. However, both of those players went for hefty fees, leaving Villa’s manager Tim Sherwood a lot of money to play with. So far, Sherwood has spent all of that money on two things: replacing Delph and Benteke and giving Villa’s defense a much-needed overhaul. Idrissa Gueye from Lille looks to take Delph’s spot in the midfield while Jordan Ayew signed to help alleviate the loss of Benteke. Considering that Benteke scored or assisted just about every other goal Aston Villa scored since he joined the club, Jordan Ayew has the biggest shoes to fill. However, I would like to add an asterisk to this decision. Since Villa placed 17th last year, they are literally the worst team from last year still in the league. That means that more than just Ayew will have to step up this year if they expect to see improvement.

Eden HazardChelsea
Eden Hazard, Wide Midfielder
Chelsea won the league last season and still have one of the most star-studded rosters in the world. It is difficult to say who is the most important player on Chelsea, because they have some many tremendously good players. Even if Diego Costa went down with an injury, Chelsea still have Loric Remy and Ramadel Falcao waiting in the wings to take his place. This is true at practically every position. Hence the difficulty in picking Chelsea’s best player. Personally, I am going with Eden Hazard. He won best player in the league for a reason. Not to mention Hazard is only 24 years old. He is both the present and future star of this team. If Chelsea wants to repeat as champions, Hazard must perform. 

Romelu_LukakuEverton
Romelu Lukaku, Forward
After a disappointing 11th place finish, Everton will be looking to return to their winning ways. In the 2014/2015 season, Everton scored 13 fewer goals than the year before and had 5 fewer shutouts than the year before. Everton’s worst spell ran between the end of November and March. A span where Everton only had two wins, five draws and nine loses. That spell can likely be attributed to Tim Howard’s winter injury. Still, all of the onus cannot be placed on Howard’s injury. As mentioned above, substantially fewer goals were scored. This lack of goals was likely due to Samuel Eto’o being a flop of a signing. That means the pressure falls on Romelu Lukaku as Everton’s most important player. He is being asked to be THE goal scorer for this team and there are not many options behind him. Plus, Everton shelled out more money for Lukaku than any other player in club history. If Lukaku disappoints, Everton will be in deep trouble.

Philippe CoutinhoLiverpool
Philippe Coutinho, Attacking Midfielder
Last season was slightly disappointing for Liverpool, placing 6th in the Premier League. Liverpool’s goal is always a top four finish and qualification for the UEFA Champions League. A positive aspect to last year’s disappointment was the play of Phi         lippe Coutinho. Coutinho is obviously the most important player on for Liverpool right now. He will have many new players around him in James Milner, Roberto Firmino and Christian Benteke, but Coutinho must be the glue which holds this new group together. With the loss of Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, the team will need a new leader on and off the field; Coutinho is in poll position to pick up where Gerrard left off. I am not saying that Coutinho will be replacing Gerrard, but Coutinho can take control of this team and lead it where he likes. 

Wayne RooneyManchester United
Wayne Rooney, Forward
Manchester United finished fourth in the Premier League last season, just barely reaching their goal of Champions League qualification. Over this summer, Manchester have been wheelin’ and dealin’ with transfers both in and out of the club. The biggest of exit had to be the loss of Robin van Persie. Even though RVP didn’t always impressed at United, he gave them more options up front. With van Persie out of the picture, Wayne Rooney is the only pure striker on United of first team quality. I know Memphis Depay was brought in, but it is looking like he will play as an attacking midfielder rather than a second striker up front with Rooney. When you look at Man U’s midfield (Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin, Juan Mata, Memphis Depay and Ashley Young just to name a few) I have little doubt that Rooney will get the service he needs either. It might seem like a forgone conclusion but I am pegging Rooney as United’s most important player.

Nathan_RedmondNorwich City
Nathan Redmond, Winger
After only one season in the Championship, Norwich have rejoined the ranks of the Premier League. Due to Norwich’s promotion, their numbers form last year sound a lot better than they actually are. Therefore, picking the most important player becomes very difficult. To be honest, in the short term, I cannot point to any one player on the Canaries who has a more important job than another. Cameron Jerome has the weight of scoring goals on his shoulders, Steve Whittaker has to hold down the team defensively, and Nathan Redmond is expected to be the set up man. All of them played well in the Championship but will have to play better to stay in the Premier League. However, in terms of Norwich’s long-term success, Nathan Redmond is 21 years old and may carry this team for years to come if they stay in the Premier League. On a side note, if Norwich fall back to the Championship after one season, I have a feeling Redmond will be picked up by a bigger name club.

Bojan KrkicStoke City
Bojan Krkic, Forward
Stoke City finished in the top 10 of the Premiere League, their best ever finish in the Premiere League, last season. Stoke’s manager Mark Hughes is also an interesting one. He has a very deep team and is apt to use that depth across the board. For example, no one striker played more than 28 games last season. However, that statistic may have been different had Bojan Krkic not gone down with an injury. Krkic is a product of the Barcelona academies and has often been compared to Lionel Messi due to his size, speed, and footwork on the ball. If Krkic can stay healthy, (a big ‘if’ considering last season’s injury was not his first) he can do wonderful things for this football club.

Gylfi_SigurdssonSwansea City
Gylfi Sigurdsson, Winger
Swansea also had their best ever finish in the Premier League sitting at 8th place. Moving forward, Swansea have added a few new players up top with Andre Ayew, and Eder. Both of these players will be supplemental to Gylfi Sigurdsson, who finished third in the league in assists. Sigurdsson spent a lone spell with Swansea back in 2012 and now returns on a permanent transfer. He is the nucleus to this team’s offense. Like many other players who I have named to be most important to their respective teams, Sigurdsson is relatively young at 25 years old. As is Swansea’s manager at 36 years old. This team is playing well now and looks like they will be playing well for quite some time. 

Etienne_CapoueWatford
Etienne Capoue, Defensive Midfielder
Coming from the Championship, Watford have brought a lot of players in this season. That is most likely a result of Watford’s two previous visits to the Premier League, where they were immediately relegated. Fortunately, Watford already have two good goal scorers in Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo who combined for 41 goals last season. However, I believe new signing Etienne Capoue will be just as important as those two. Tottenham was willing to part with Capoue because he never broke into the teams staring 11. Now, he has the job of protecting Watford’s back four from the Premier League giants. If Capoue is a bust, it might not matter how well Deeney and Ighalo play. Similarly though, if Capoue plays incredibly it wouldn’t be able to make up for a lack of goals. I think Watford has a solid chance of staying the top flight of English football, but I am not making any guarantees.

Winston ReidWest Ham
Winston Reid, Center Back
West Ham had a lackluster season last year finishing just 13th in the Premiere League. An interesting statistic I found was that the Hammers lost more games in which they scored first than any other team in the league. Even more surprising is that they lost 20 such games. Let me reiterate that: West Ham was lost the lead in 20 games. Therefore scoring goals is not the issue for this team. Instead, I believe West Ham need more defensive help. Luckily, they do not have to make any big trades to find it. Center back Winston Reid played phenomenally two seasons ago but was injured last season. With Reid’s return, West Ham can hold onto a few more of those leads.

To see part two of this series, click here.

MLS’ alternative to tiered system

Chris McGlynn EPL, MLS, Soccer ,

Just about every other soccer league in the world uses a tiered system. What that means is the bottom handful of teams from that season are relegated to the lower league while the top teams from the second league achieve promotion. For some reason though, MLS has avoided it, despite having the North American Soccer League (NASL) and United Soccer League (USL Pro) below MLS.

I have been a strong advocate for MLS to adopt this method. I think it would be a great improvement to US soccer and create more interest in the sport stateside. The other aspect that promotion and relegation introduces is that every games matters. All other American sports, particularly football, basketball and hockey all have an incentive to tank. Losing is rewarded with a top draft pick. Relegation prevents tanking and keeps teams fighting to the very end.

Yet MLS doesn’t have that. The teams at the bottom could easily just bail and begin tanking. After all the league has its own draft. Teams could attempt to move up in the draft order by losing more games. MLS has a different solution to that problem other than the threat of relegation.

Through careful control of roster building and the allocation of Designated Player Spots, MLS has kept every club fairly competitive. The season is about two thirds of the way through and pretty much every team is alive in the playoff hunt. The Chicago Fire and the Colorado Rapids sit in last place of the Eastern and Western Conference respectively. Heading into the weekend, both clubs were only eight points out of a playoff spot though. I’m not saying it easy to make up that ground but it is more than possible. In both conferences as well, the three through six seeds were only separated by a matter of two points. That’s a single match that could shake up the whole conference standings. That is absurd with almost every team having played 20 games.

The two seed isn’t even that far out of reach either. The Columbus Crew and Montreal Impact each held the second spot in their respective conferences. The distance between themselves and the sixth seed was only four points. Everyone is still playing for something because no one has an insurmountable deficit or an unassailable lead. There will be no tanking because everyone is still in it. If Chicago suddenly strung together a four game winning streak they could find themselves on the fringes of the playoff picture, rather than in last place. If FC Dallas dropped two straight games against Western Conference opponents, it could find itself clinging to the final playoff spot rather than in control of the West.

Parity is what every professional league strives for but few achieve. MLS has come about as close as you can get to achieving it. The league has prevented the creation of super teams that simply dominate the competition. It is hard to head into an MLS season with the champion a foregone conclusion. Many thought Orlando City and New York City would be top playoff contenders. Currently, neither of them hold a playoff spot. Many thought Seattle and Los Angeles would dominate the West again but it is Dallas who sits atop the table. MLS has prevented teams tanking by keeping everyone interested in winning. Everyone is able to still rise up into or fall completely out of the playoff picture. That is incredible work by MLS and a very creative solution to team’s tanking.

Now the design isn’t perfect. LA dominated the league recently. Overall though, MLS has avoided super teams with the limit on spending. English, Spanish, French, German and Italian soccer is dominated by the same five or six teams (actually only three in Spain) every single year. In Germany a team not named Bayern, Dortmond or Wolfsburg hasn’t won the league in eight years. Since 1992, only one team not named Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester (City or United) has won the English League. On the Italian side, only two times since 1991 has a team other than Juventus, Inter or AC Milan won the title. France isn’t much better as Lyon and PSG have combined to win 10 of the last 14 titles. Spain is the worst culprit of all. Only once since 2000 has a team outside of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Sevilla won the league. MLS has a very different story as nine teams have won the league since its inception in 1996.

Very few times can you truly sit back and think that MLS has found a way to solve a problem the European Leagues can’t solve. This is probably one of them.

Red Sox didn’t learn the first time

Chris McGlynn Baseball, MLB , , ,

The Boston Red Sox suffered for a very long time. Maybe not as long as the Chicago Cubs but still for over eight decades. The Curse of the Bambino finally broke in 2004, when Boston made its long-awaited return to the series  . The Sox won in spectacular fashion, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in what was expected to be a seven-game series.

Three years later, the Sox were back in the World Series, this time facing the Colorado Rockies. Boston once again looked dailed in and downed the Rockies in just four games. Manager Terry Francona became the first manager to ever win his first eight world series games and the Red Sox had their second title in four years.

When 2013 rolled around, the Red Sox once again found themselves back in the World Series with a chance to win its third title in nine years. Boston met a familiar foe in St. Louis once again and actually failed to sweep their opponent. However, the Sox still went on to win the series in six games and became something of a dynasty with three titles in nine years.

Rick Porcello
Porcello’s 5.44 ERA would mark a career worst.

Following their 2013 World Series victory, Boston seemed to hit the reset button. Jacoby Ellsbury left in free agency. Jake Peavy, Felix Dubront, Jon Lester, Jonny Gomes, John Lackey, and Andrew Miller away in the waning days of July for various prospects and draft picks. This was two seasons after the Red Sox sent Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett away to Los Angeles in return for a bunch of prospects and some salary relief. The Red Sox went from having a top three payroll entering 2012 to have some room to spend. The Sox were very lucky to have been able to escape some of those torturous deals by dumping them on the Dodgers.

It seemed like the Red Sox had turned a corner. With Ben Cherington, a disciple of saber metrics guru Theo Epstein, as the general manager, many thought the Red Sox would begin to search for more affordable deals that avoided any massive inflation to the salary cap. 2014 rolled around and Boston struggled as expected with all of its young talent trying to work itself out.

Pablo Sandoval
Sandoval, a career .291 hitter, has only hit .260 this season with a career worst for on base percentage and slugging.

The next offseason though, Boston seemed to ditch the prolonged rebuilding effort and wanted to make a splash. They spent a combined $180 million to bring in Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. Cherington also brought in Rick Porcello from the Tigers and by early April had given an $82 million dollar contract over the next four years. By opening day, the Red Sox had managed to commit $262 million over the next five years for only three players.

Boston was spending money on these players as if they were sure things that couldn’t possibly fail. Meanwhile, Porcello has a 5.81 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP at this point in the season. Porcello has also given up more runs than any other Red Sox’s pitcher this season, third most among all pitchers in MLB. On the offensive side, Sandoval and Ramirez have only hit 23 extra base hits combined. Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts have more on their own. Ramirez and Sandoval also have the 90th and 94th best averages in the bigs. Ramirez has been redeeming at least with his 19 home runs but Sandoval has only managed to hit 8. That would be his lowest total since his rookie year where he only played 41 games.

Hanley_Ramirez
Ramirez has a history of missing extended amounts of time due to injury but has been a very capable homerun hitter for Boston this year.

All three players have been mediocre this season. Each of them is putting up career worsts in multiple categories. And it only cost Boston $48.5 million for this season. It just goes to show that trying to buy your way back into contention barely ever works. The crazy thing though is that Boston seemed like they had figured that out already as they begun moving the massive contracts on their books. Baseball is a spenders game but the spending has to come wisely.

The Red Sox also had perfect examples of value contracts on their roster already. Betts and Bogaerts, Boston’s two best hitters, are costing the Sox just over a million dollars for both of their contracts. If that isn’t maximizing players on rookie contracts, I don’t know what is. And we’ve seen that spending big doesn’t always work. Obviously the Yankees have had unparalleled success but that’s the exception. Boston has success buying championships with a top-five payroll before but since the year 2000, only 5 of the 15 World Series Champions were teams with a top-five payroll. It is far from a guarantee.

Boston is headed for a second straight season at the bottom of the AL East with several of expensive disappointments on the roster for years to come. It would be more acceptable if Boston’s pay roll was down and the team was testing young players. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case and this team is now just even more disappointing.

John Farrell will likely have a little bit longer that he can ride the success of 2013 before it starts to wear off. If Boston continues to strikeout on a big contract players though, him and Cherington could be out of a job soon.

Another step in the right direction for MLS

Chris McGlynn EPL, MLS, Soccer , ,

Yesterday was a very good day for MLS. The most obvious point would be the MLS All Star’s victory over English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur. Obviously it would be more impressive if it wasn’t an All Star team playing against a normal club team but all the same it was a great spectacle for fans of soccer. They got to see one of the better English teams in person and see the top talent MLS has collected over the past few years.

Tranquillo Barnetta
Barnetta will join the Union in the coming days.

MLS clubs also announced two big signings yesterday. Philadelphia Union signed Tranquillo Barnetta on a free transfer from Bundisliga side Schalke FC. Barnetta might not be the biggest name but he represented Switzerland at the 2014 World Cup and has 75 caps for the national team. Then Eastern Conference rival New York Red Bulls announced the signing of Gonzalo Veron from San Lorenzo in Argentina. The 25-year old spent the last three years playing in the top division of Argentine football. Neither one of the signings is head turning or prolific but it underlines a greater theme going on in MLS this season.

Veron and Barnetta follow Didier Drogba and Shaun Wright-Phillips as MLS signings from the past week. Drogba is the biggest name there by far but the other three are all well respected players. Overall, they just add to the collection of big names and new talent infused into MLS over the last two seasons.There is still a ways to go before the league can start luring top players stateside during their prime.

Gonzalo Veron
The Red Bull hope Veron can bolster their attack as a winger.

However, this is easily the best collection of talent MLS has ever seen. That isn’t saying much but the level of talent in MLS exceeds previous level by a substantial amount. The success the LA Galaxy and the Red Bulls saw in the International Champions Cup highlights that fact. The MLS is starting to gain on the rest of the world in terms of being a competitive soccer league. They are nowhere near touching England, France, Italy or Spain but they might now find themselves more on par with Eredivisie in Holland or many of the South American leagues. They have certainly surpassed the Scottish Premier League and the Swiss Super League. I’m not saying that every team in MLS could beat teams from these countries but that the level of talent is higher overall.

Andrea Pirlo
Pirlo has already come over and begun his career with the expansion team NYCFC.

American soccer is still in infancy by comparison to Europe or South America but these recent additions have certainly caught them up, even if it was only marginally. On top of that, these big name signings continue to bring in new fans. Even if these guys are older, the sheer name recognition is bringing fans in the door. So far this season, average attendance per game is up almost 2,000 fans per game. Over the course of a season that makes a huge difference. MLS is on pace for a record setting season when it comes to total attendance, one that will push it to almost the same average attendance as Serie A in Italy and Ligue 1 in France.

There is no ignoring that soccer has taken hold in the US anymore. MLS is well on it’s way to challenging other leagues for the country’s attention. Average attendance for MLS games have surpassed NBA and NHL games. Granted hockey and basketball are held in much smaller arenas it is still a step in the right direction. MLS is not great by any stretch but it should no longer be considered a joke as it was even five years ago.

Giovani Dos Santos
Dos Santos is the latest international star to join the Galaxy.

If names like Andrea Pirlo, Stephen Ger   ard and Giovanni Dos Santos continue to choose to come to MLS despite their usually older age, MLS will eventually begin to draw other talent. It takes time and the league has started the gradual process. Hopefully this means that now it is only a matter of time for the league to really grow in terms of play. With rumors that Christiano Rinaldo and Zaltan Ibrahimavic could one day make their way to MLS, there is no shortage of aging stars looking to continue playing. Hopefully some of the younger stars begin to follow.

Why the NFL had no choice with Brady

Chris McGlynn Football, NFL , , ,

The NFL is a joke these days. The fact that you can sit there and think to yourself, well what are you referring to here is some indication of how much so. It could be the laughable attempts to improve player safety, the failure to address domestic violence or the continued drug related suspensions. In this case, I’m actually referring to none of those though and I’m focusing on the NFL time and time again reducing or repealing player suspensions.

It has been a long six months for Tom Brady. Usually, the Super Bowl champion would get at least a little time to relax and savor his victory. Instead, he has spent his offseason in the midst of a private investigation regarding the deflation of footballs in the AFC Title Game against the Colts. Brady was subjected to questioning first by the league then later by independent investigators under Ted Wells. The whole story was poked and prodded as much as possible and the media (yes myself included) had a field day with it. It was a supposed stain on the legacy of Brady and the Pats Super Bowl win.

Tom_BradyYet as time has gone on, no real hard evidence has surfaced. The Wells report indicates that Brady “more likely than not” was aware of the situation. Brady once again refuted the claims but the league imposed a four-game ban on the New England quarterback for the start of next season.

That didn’t settle anything though as the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and Brady went on to appeal the suspension. That to weeks of trials and further investigations into the situation. What surfaced most recently definitely puts Brady in some hot water. It turns out he had destroyed his cell phone and sim card while the NFL was trying to acquire them as evidence. He claims it was a normal procedure for him as he was replacing his old phone. I can bet Brady wouldn’t want his own personal information, messages or photos falling into the wrong hands and winding up online. It makes sense to destroy. Unfortunately, he just picked a really bad time to do it.

The phone destruction doesn’t necessarily prove anything but it certainly makes Brady look guilty and that was enough for the NFL to vote to uphold the suspension. Brady and the NFLPA are now appealing that decision because apparently you can appeal everything in the NFL. Maybe Brady has a point that the NFL doesn’t have enough hard evidence but that’s not why they are making an example of him.

As I have made clear the NFL is a joke with reducing and repealing suspensions. So it should come as no surprise that the league feels it is pressured to uphold Brady’s suspension to save face. The NFL can attempt to be as harsh as it wants but it has previously set precedents that the NFLPA will often use as a way to negotiate down a suspension. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the length of some of them either (see Ray Rice, domestic violence). In short, the NFL has looked weak and it seems like the NFLPA has just been pushing them around.

Tom BradyThe league has no desire to look weak obviously. Already this summer Greg Hardy and LeVeon Bell had suspensions reduced after appealing the decision. The league needed to make a stand and show that it is capable of dishing out a suspension then upholding it. The NFL gave itself no choice but to uphold the suspension. Brady just seems to be caught in the crossfire. Now I can’t tell you if Tom Brady is innocent or not. That much has not been clear. What is clear is the overall lack of cohesion between the NFL and the NFLPA and the amount of leeway Commissioner Roger Goodell has with suspensions.

The NFL was in many ways forced to implement a system that established standard sentences regarding domestic violence punishments. The league also has a system in place for violations of the substance abuse policy. However, outside of those two categories, there is a lot left open for interpretation. That is where Goodell simply seem to slap an arbitrary number of weeks on the table and say it is final. The league needs to find a way to avoid that at all costs. That sort of uncertainty surrounding the suspension allows it to be appealed. Brady’s situation is unique but that does not mean that Goodell should choose what he feels is warranted. It is more than clear that Goodell’s judgement is questionable at best.

The easiest thing for the league to do is arrange an outside board that collaborates with the NFLPA to assign suspensions that fall outside the realm of domestic violence or substance abuse. That was not everything is being appealed before it even hits the table and Goodell is removed from the equation.

As for Brady, there is only one way that the league will relent on his four-game suspension, if he admits that he was involved or had knowledge of the situation. Even then, it would only cut his suspension in half. I don’t see Brady going this far only to back off and say he knew. Whether he did or not. I think Brady is just going to have to bite the bullet and sit out the four games. No one seems capable of coming to his rescue. Not even the NFLPA. The NFL is determined to make up for past weaknesses.  It is at war. And it seems determined to win.