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WE HAVEN'T GOT THE BEST PLAYER IN ARMENIA - THE DAILY MAIL (VIDEO)
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2012/10/29/daily-mail-mkhitaryan/
29.10.12
How does the standard inquest into the state of English football go
again? We haven't got a player like Andres Iniesta. We haven't got
an Andrea Pirlo. Oh, woe is us.
Did you see the Chelsea and Manchester City games last week? We
haven't got Christian Eriksen of Denmark, either. We haven't got the
best player in Armenia, The Daily Mail writes.
The British daily says his name is Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Armenian player
of the year for 2009, Shakhtar Donetsk's player of the year last
season. UEFA rate him among the top 100 footballers in Europe. He
was leading scorer in qualifying Group B for the 2012 European
Championship, in which Armenia finished third and won 4-0 in Slovakia.
He would walk into Roy Hodgson's England team.
It was a sobering week for English football, as much as for English
clubs. The technique on display in Donetsk and Amsterdam was so far in
advance of our own that it is possible to fear not just for England's
fate at the 2014 World Cup, but for the prospect of even getting there.
We kid ourselves with these searches for football's El Dorado, the
hope that we will pass like Barcelona if we could only keep Jack
Wilshere fit. Watching Mkhitaryan pull the strings for Shakhtar on
Tuesday was to marvel at how far we have fallen. Wilshere did not
waste a pass in the first 45 minutes of his return to the Arsenal
side on Saturday but he cannot do it alone.
Mkhitaryan was surrounded by nimble, technically able players such as
Brazil's Willian, who is not even a regular in his national team. Then
it was on to Amsterdam where Eriksen destroyed the Premier League
champions. At the end, Micah Richards, an England international, blamed
the defeat in part on being required to play an unfamiliar system.
Do you think Eriksen, Mkhitaryan or Willian would worry about that?
Shakhtar's second goal was taken beautifully by Fernandinho, ostensibly
a defensive midfield player, who also can't secure a place for
Brazil. He stuck doggedly to his duties but, given one opportunity,
knew exactly when and how to break. That's football.
Thinking football. Could Fernandinho be wrong-footed by a tweak to
Shakhtar's system?
Mkhitaryan is not a defender, nor is Eriksen, but they come from
football cultures in which thought and expression is expected, from
the front to the back. English football continues to dumb down.
Glenn Hoddle got Swindon Town playing three defenders 20 years ago,
with Paul Bodin and Nicky Summerbee as wing backs. Try it now with
the best players in the land and see what happens. Any deviation from
military straight lines is considered heresy and the current England
manager is hardly the type to cry revolution.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world catches up and speeds past. We
flatter ourselves by yearning for the English Iniesta: Brazilian
reserves, the best young player in Denmark, the pride of Yerevan,
capital of Armenia, this is what we haven't got.
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2012/10/29/daily-mail-mkhitaryan/
29.10.12
How does the standard inquest into the state of English football go
again? We haven't got a player like Andres Iniesta. We haven't got
an Andrea Pirlo. Oh, woe is us.
Did you see the Chelsea and Manchester City games last week? We
haven't got Christian Eriksen of Denmark, either. We haven't got the
best player in Armenia, The Daily Mail writes.
The British daily says his name is Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Armenian player
of the year for 2009, Shakhtar Donetsk's player of the year last
season. UEFA rate him among the top 100 footballers in Europe. He
was leading scorer in qualifying Group B for the 2012 European
Championship, in which Armenia finished third and won 4-0 in Slovakia.
He would walk into Roy Hodgson's England team.
It was a sobering week for English football, as much as for English
clubs. The technique on display in Donetsk and Amsterdam was so far in
advance of our own that it is possible to fear not just for England's
fate at the 2014 World Cup, but for the prospect of even getting there.
We kid ourselves with these searches for football's El Dorado, the
hope that we will pass like Barcelona if we could only keep Jack
Wilshere fit. Watching Mkhitaryan pull the strings for Shakhtar on
Tuesday was to marvel at how far we have fallen. Wilshere did not
waste a pass in the first 45 minutes of his return to the Arsenal
side on Saturday but he cannot do it alone.
Mkhitaryan was surrounded by nimble, technically able players such as
Brazil's Willian, who is not even a regular in his national team. Then
it was on to Amsterdam where Eriksen destroyed the Premier League
champions. At the end, Micah Richards, an England international, blamed
the defeat in part on being required to play an unfamiliar system.
Do you think Eriksen, Mkhitaryan or Willian would worry about that?
Shakhtar's second goal was taken beautifully by Fernandinho, ostensibly
a defensive midfield player, who also can't secure a place for
Brazil. He stuck doggedly to his duties but, given one opportunity,
knew exactly when and how to break. That's football.
Thinking football. Could Fernandinho be wrong-footed by a tweak to
Shakhtar's system?
Mkhitaryan is not a defender, nor is Eriksen, but they come from
football cultures in which thought and expression is expected, from
the front to the back. English football continues to dumb down.
Glenn Hoddle got Swindon Town playing three defenders 20 years ago,
with Paul Bodin and Nicky Summerbee as wing backs. Try it now with
the best players in the land and see what happens. Any deviation from
military straight lines is considered heresy and the current England
manager is hardly the type to cry revolution.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world catches up and speeds past. We
flatter ourselves by yearning for the English Iniesta: Brazilian
reserves, the best young player in Denmark, the pride of Yerevan,
capital of Armenia, this is what we haven't got.