Juan Mata here in England, Mesut Ozil in Spain, Eden Hazard in France, Andrea Pirlo in Italy – all top sides in their respective divisions need a quality provider! Having that player on the pitch who can create goal scoring chances consistently and ‘out of nothing’ is a necessity for a team with Championship challenging [...]

Many a time when I played/play the game, managers and coaches have used the ‘win your personal battles’ line as a pre-game motivator. I guess the theory is, if you stop your opponent being effective, and that happens all over the pitch, then the opposition as a team won’t cause you problems. However, in reality, [...]

“The game has changed!” How many times have you heard, particularly from the ex-pros, this statement? There’s no doubt that some ways and forms of modern-day élite football has changed. You only have to look into the life of a professional footballer today, in comparison with a player from 25 years or so ago (their [...]

Shearer, Henry, van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo – the English Premier League has been graced with some of the best goal scorers the game has seen, in what is dubbed by some as the most difficult league in the world. In the previous 10 Premier League seasons, an average of 22.9 goals has earned the Golden Boot, [...]

“I think the rigours of the Premier League are starting to catch up with him. He’s looking pretty tired to me!” Those were the arguable words of Mr Alan Shearer on the BBC’s Match Of the Day show about Manchester City’s David Silva and they got me thinking… When I think of some of the top players [...]