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Stevie And Nando, Sitting In A Tree...
Tony Adams and Martin Keown, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, Kevin Keegan and John Toshack, John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho, Gary Neville and David Beckham, Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira, Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton (I'd throw in Andy Booth and Ronnie Jepson, but most of you would just look confused) - all testament to the concept that partnerships win prizes.
Successful managers not only source and nurture individual talents but also match-make those players to create units. In moving Steven Gerrard into the space between the midfield and Fernando Torres, Rafa Benitez has not only found the recipe for greater success but also bought the ingredients and is currently stood over the stove wearing an apron.
If you have two players with obvious chemistry you must allow them the time and space to dovetail...Rafa has belatedly accepted this after months of swapping and switching and resting and rotating and has been rewarded with phenomenal form. After all, long-term relationships are rarely formed at swingers' parties.
Arsene Wenger understands this more than most and his comments this week that Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas are an even better partnership than Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira is telling. Flamini would have been on nobody's list of potentially world-class players when in partnership with Vieira, but with Fabregas he has found a rhythm that may well have escaped him with any other partner.
Wenger was also in the process of creating a new partnership between Eduardo and Emmanuel Adebayor, and the Togolese striker is struggling to find the same understanding with Nicklas Bendtner or Theo Walcott. Which should give you some indication why even the breathtakingly-good Torres would struggle when paired with Peter Crouch, Dirk Kuyt and Andriy Voronin in quick rotation.
The lazy pundit's way is to say that great players can always play together, but that's how we end up with years of nightmares of the Lampard/Gerrard and Rooney/Owen variety. Nobody doubts that Rooney is a better player than Emile Heskey, but who would I rather see partnering Owen? There's no contest.
At Manchester United, the best partnership on the pitch is in central defence and in Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic they have the most effective pairing in the Premier League and quite possibly in Europe. John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho may have contested this two seasons ago, but a raft of injuries have taken their toll on one half of that couple.
To be fair to Benitez, he would probably have envisaged Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger forming a similar long-term partnership but injury has robbed him of that chance. Injury and African Nations duty have split Wenger's preferred defensive duo and the result is that United have the best defensive record in the Premier League.
Everton have conceded one goal in their last four Premier League games since pairing Joseph Yobo with Phil Jagielka, while Portsmouth have stuck with the Distin/Campbell partnership with encouraging results and Manchester City have struggled since Dunne/Richards became Dunne/Onouha or Dunne/Corluka.
We had a glimpse in the League Cup final of how good Tottenham could be if King/Woodgate joined Keane/Berbatov in some kind of footballing double date, while Chelsea were a team with no partnerships. Aston Villa have Barry/Reo-Coker and Agbonlahor/Carew, but until the last few weeks the only true partnership at Liverpool was between Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia, and that was a little unsettling in a May to December kind of way.
There is no such unease aboout Torres and Gerrard and if that is allowed to bloom into next season, maybe next year will be Liverpool's year (insert your own joke here).
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Seems to be blossoming nicely, especially in Europe.
Can Liverpool win the CL with these 2 on form?
Tony Adams and Martin Keown, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, Kevin Keegan and John Toshack, John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho, Gary Neville and David Beckham, Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira, Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton (I'd throw in Andy Booth and Ronnie Jepson, but most of you would just look confused) - all testament to the concept that partnerships win prizes.
Successful managers not only source and nurture individual talents but also match-make those players to create units. In moving Steven Gerrard into the space between the midfield and Fernando Torres, Rafa Benitez has not only found the recipe for greater success but also bought the ingredients and is currently stood over the stove wearing an apron.
If you have two players with obvious chemistry you must allow them the time and space to dovetail...Rafa has belatedly accepted this after months of swapping and switching and resting and rotating and has been rewarded with phenomenal form. After all, long-term relationships are rarely formed at swingers' parties.
Arsene Wenger understands this more than most and his comments this week that Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas are an even better partnership than Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira is telling. Flamini would have been on nobody's list of potentially world-class players when in partnership with Vieira, but with Fabregas he has found a rhythm that may well have escaped him with any other partner.
Wenger was also in the process of creating a new partnership between Eduardo and Emmanuel Adebayor, and the Togolese striker is struggling to find the same understanding with Nicklas Bendtner or Theo Walcott. Which should give you some indication why even the breathtakingly-good Torres would struggle when paired with Peter Crouch, Dirk Kuyt and Andriy Voronin in quick rotation.
The lazy pundit's way is to say that great players can always play together, but that's how we end up with years of nightmares of the Lampard/Gerrard and Rooney/Owen variety. Nobody doubts that Rooney is a better player than Emile Heskey, but who would I rather see partnering Owen? There's no contest.
At Manchester United, the best partnership on the pitch is in central defence and in Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic they have the most effective pairing in the Premier League and quite possibly in Europe. John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho may have contested this two seasons ago, but a raft of injuries have taken their toll on one half of that couple.
To be fair to Benitez, he would probably have envisaged Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger forming a similar long-term partnership but injury has robbed him of that chance. Injury and African Nations duty have split Wenger's preferred defensive duo and the result is that United have the best defensive record in the Premier League.
Everton have conceded one goal in their last four Premier League games since pairing Joseph Yobo with Phil Jagielka, while Portsmouth have stuck with the Distin/Campbell partnership with encouraging results and Manchester City have struggled since Dunne/Richards became Dunne/Onouha or Dunne/Corluka.
We had a glimpse in the League Cup final of how good Tottenham could be if King/Woodgate joined Keane/Berbatov in some kind of footballing double date, while Chelsea were a team with no partnerships. Aston Villa have Barry/Reo-Coker and Agbonlahor/Carew, but until the last few weeks the only true partnership at Liverpool was between Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia, and that was a little unsettling in a May to December kind of way.
There is no such unease aboout Torres and Gerrard and if that is allowed to bloom into next season, maybe next year will be Liverpool's year (insert your own joke here).
----------------------------------------------------------
Seems to be blossoming nicely, especially in Europe.
Can Liverpool win the CL with these 2 on form?
wrote:And yet Liverpool fans argue about Gerrard playing in an advanced Role....
.
(except for the "Steven-Gerrard-is-fookin-wairld-class-mate-are-you-for-real" brigade...)
