Abysmal Play? It Has to Be Serie A!

At the Christmas break, Inter pretty much have the league wrapped up. This despite only scoring one goal in each of the last four games (resulting in two wins, one loss, and one tie). So not only is the league title a forgone conclusion, but the most dominant team in that league, the defending champions of Serie A, have struggled to produce substantial offensive output. It also seems as though Samuel Eto'o is suffering from the same, predictable Serie A malaise as Kaka once did..

Need a further indictment of the level of play/players in the Italian top flight? Just look to FIFA's World XI. Soccer's governing body went with a 4-3-3 formation with Iker Casillas in goal (Real Madrid/Spain), Dani Alves (Barcelona/Brazil), Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd/Serbia), John Terry (Chelsea/England), and Patrice Evra (Man Utd/France) across the back.

Headlining midfielders include Steven Gerrard (Liverpool/England) and Xavi and Iniesta (both of Barcelona/Spain).

Finally, up front Puskas Award winner Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal) is joined by Fernando Torres (Liverpool/Spain) and, of course, FIFA World Player of the Year Leo Messi (Barcelona/Argentina).

Which is a round-about way of saying that not one of the World XI is from Italy or playing for an Italian team.

P [dot] S The preponderance of English and Spanish clubs is understandable, given those players' success in competitions for club and country. Nevertheless, it does seem curious that Ligue Un's Player of the Year Yoann Gourcuff was left off this list (maybe in the place of Stevie G?).

Gourcuff was a true master of the midfield last season, producing the kind of displays that earned him a (justified) comparison to the great Zidane and earned Bordeaux their first title in a decade. Actually, come to think of it, Gourcuff's resurgence coincided with his Italian escape. And that pretty much sums up my point.

Miserable Man Utd

In the past, Femme-Football has been cautiously optimistic about Man Utd's future without Cristiano Ronaldo. SAF obvi has this whole Premier League management thing pretty much down. But just as the Reds are suffering from not having found an adequate replacement for Alonso, so are United in regards to their former talisman.

But it's more than that, if Saturday's game at Craven Cottage showed anything, it was Manchester's stunning lack of depth at the back. Because of injuries, Sir Alex had to switch to his less-preferred 3-5-2 line-up and the results were disastrous. Moreover, even at full fitness, the partnership between Ferdinand and Vidic, which, in title-winning years past, has been solid, seems to be suffering under the weight of Rio's declining form (bad news for both England and Man Utd).

Speaking of declining form, it seems time that Paul "I Never Met a Tackle I Didn't Like" Scholes hang up his professional boots. Actually, it's long overdue. While Ryan Giggs relishes in adjusting his play to the reality of his potential, and has been justly rewarded another Old Trafford extension, the pace of the game has just gotten away from Scholesy, and he doesn't seem willing or able to remodel his pugnacious play based on his physical limitations. Which wouldn't be so bad, if his errors didn't often lead to wide open opposition scoring opportunities deep in the United half (witness Danny Murphy's goal in Fulham's win).