Euro-2016-Missing-Players

No matter what the competition is and in which sport, spectators want to see the best competitors taking the field. In football this is no different. All of the squads have now been announced for Euro 2016 and there are numerous high-profile absentees from this year’s tournament.

Out of all of the players that will be absent from the 15th edition of the European Championships, you can compile a very competitive squad and one that would probably challenge for the trophy.

Goalkeepers

England’s Jack Butland fractured his ankle during England’s 3-2 win over Germany in March, just after he had been given his chance by Roy Hodgson to stake a claim to become first-choice. Our other two keepers, Ron Robert Zieler and Kevin Trapp, haven’t missed out due to injury, but because of the shear wealth of talent that Germany have in goal.

Defenders

Real Madrid team-mates Raphaël Varane and Daniel Carvajal were both called up for France and Spain respectively. However, Varane picked up an injury in training ahead of the Champions League Final and Carvajal limped off in the aforementioned game with a muscle injury. Belgium’s captain, Vincent Kompany, sustained a thigh injury during the Champions League semi-final second leg and will be a big miss for the Red Devils. 20-year-old Luke Shaw suffered a double broken leg during Manchester United’s Champions League defeat last September and isn’t yet fully recovered. Bayern’s Javi Martínez has had a season disrupted by injury and there were question marks over his fitness ahead of the Euros.

Midfielders

Spain are blessed with a wealth of talent in midfield and that is why Juan Mata, Isco and Saúl Ñíguez have been omitted. If the trio were of another nationality, then you would have seen them playing in the Euros this summer. Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla was excluded having just returned from a long-term knee injury. Lass Diarra has enjoyed a renaissance this season and was part of France’s squad for the Euros. Unfortunately he had to pull out of the squad after suffering a knee injury during a 3-2 friendly win over Cameroon last week. Italy have arguably been hardest hit in midfield with certain starters Marco Verratti and Claudio Marchisio missing through injury, significantly weakening their squad. New Manchester City signing, İlkay Gündoğan, will be missing his second successive tournament due to injury.

Attackers

Gündoğan’s former team-mate, Marco Reus, is also set to miss out on a second consecutive tournament due to concerns over his fitness. Germany will also be missing Karim Bellarabi who was cut from the provisional squad as Joachim Löw has gone for the more experienced Lukas Podolski and André Schürrle. Chelsea’s Diego Costa was omitted from Spain’s squad due to not fitting their style of play. Danny Welbeck scored 6 goals for England during the qualifiers but a knee injury that will keep him out until early 2017 has forced him to miss the Euros. Hosts France will be missing the attacking trio of Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa. The former has been omitted due to an impending court case, whereas the other two miss out due to the wealth of attackers at Didier Deschamp’s disposal.

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Mourinho-at-Man-Utd

So the axe has finally fallen on Louis Van Gaal’s reign at Manchester United. The veteran Dutch tactician has cut a disgruntled and cantankerous figure in recent months, as he put up a defiant front against the growing reports suggesting his job was in jeopardy.

Van Gaal can point the finger of blame at the English press, who he claims have “already sacked me for six months”. He might blame the expectations of United’s fans, as he asserts it is unreasonable of them to think their team should be top-four certainties, let alone title challengers.

But ultimately, Van Gaal has fallen short of his primary objectives; last weekend’s FA Cup win – United’s first majory trophy of the post-Ferguson era – will allow him to leave with a measure of success, but failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League, coupled with the drab playing style he has produced, has seen to it that van Gaal will be ushered into early retirement.

And it would appear that the worst kept secret in football over the last six months is finally out: José Mourinho will be Manchester United manager next season.

Mourinho certainly doesn’t come without his fair share of caveats, but the 53-year-old former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss is a born winner who will back himself to bring the glory days back to old Trafford; there’ll be no complaints about expectations being too high from the outspoken Portuguese.

The squad that Van Gaal will bequeath to his former assistant is one of reasonable quality, but there are several players whose confidence seems to have taken a hit over the past season or two. Mourinho will have to assess which players he feels still have something to offer, and which members of the squad need to be moved on.

The likes of Memphis Depay, Ander Herrera and Morgan Schneiderlin have all had disappointing campaigns, but Mourinho will recognise that each can be restored to a level where they can be important cogs in the machine he is looking to build.

Juan Mata will be nervous to discover whether he has a future under Mourinho, after the Portuguese determined that Mata lacked the tactical discipline to fit in at Chelsea, despite the fact that the Spaniard was voted the club’s player of the year two seasons running.

Although he hasn’t pulled up any trees in his time with United, Mata has been a solid performer with a respectable goals and assists output (10 goals and eight assists from 52 appearances this season). Mourinho will have more pressing squad management issues to resolve before deciding what to do with Mata, so the former Valencia player may yet be given time to prove his worth.

There are three players in particular, however, that Mourinho should be looking to ship out of Old Trafford if he is to re-shape the current United squad.

England defender Phil Jones joined the Red Devils from Blackburn Rovers in 2011, when he was just 19 years old. Hailed as a future England captain, the versatile player’s Old Trafford career has been hampered by injury. Jones has averaged fewer than 20 Premier League appearances across his five seasons as a United player, and when he has played, he has often been shifted around between full-back, centre-back and central-midfield.

Jones, now 24, has suffered as a consequence of his position-shifting and, five years on, it is hard to point to any area of his game which has markedly improved since his £16.5m move from Blackburn.

Despite only having 13 appearances to his name all season, and having been out of the first-team picture since an injury in January, Jones was named among United’s substitutes for the FA cup final ahead of more deserving candidates such as youngsters Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Timothy Fosu-Mensah. Mourinho should now call time on Jones’s United career in favour of utilising some on the promising young defenders beginning to emerge.

Marouane Fellaini has produced some commendable performances during United’s triumphant cup run. But the Belgian falls some way short of the technical ability expected of a standout United midfielder. For all his physicality and aerial prowess – which in itself is somewhat overstated – he lacks the quality of passing and touch needed in a top-class player. His propensity to violently swing his elbows around has cost United of late, after retrospective punishment saw the former Everton player suspended for the final three league matches of the season. With reported interest from Roma and AC Milan, Mourinho should look to cash-in on David Moyes’s first signing as United boss.

The major positive credited to Van Gaal during his United reign has been his commitment to playing young players from the club’s academy. Marcus Rashford and Jessie Lingard have thrived since being given their first-team debut by the former Ajax manager. But any credit van Gaal earnt for blooding youngsters has been undermined by his readiness to drop some of them as soon as a more senior player becomes available.

The case in point here is how Marcos Rojo was preferred to either Borthwick-Jackson or Fosu-Mensah at left-back. The Argentinian has been a fixture since his return from mid-season injury, despite some utterly horrific performances. Mourinho will surely have witnessed Rojo’s abject form and can have only concluded that the former Spartak Moscow player is surplus to requirements.

In terms on incomings, it would appear that Mourinho has already identified several potential signings. Star names such as Zlatan Ibrahimović, James Rodríguez and Raphaël Varane have all been mentioned in speculative newspaper articles.

Mourinho will have highlighted the need for a new centre-back, a creative midfielder, right-winger and striker. And with United ready to back him in the transfer window to the tune of £200 million, the former Porto boss will undoubtedly be sifting through agent Jorge Mendes’s list of clients and contacts as though it were his own personal shopping catalogue.

For United fans, with the arrival of a new manager, and a potential cast of incoming players, the off-season stands to provide more entertainment than they’ve seen on the pitch for some time.

About the author – Ryan Baldi

Ryan is a Midlands based freelance sports writer specialising in European football. He has been fascinated with the continental game ever since he was presented with his first football kit at the age of 7 years old whilst on holiday in Spain – a Barcelona shirt with ‘Romario 10’ printed on the back. A contributor to numerous footballing websites, Ryan has also covered martial arts for local and national print publications. Ryan’s musings on European football can be found here. 

twitter: @RyanBaldiEFB

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Juan-Mata

This Saturday’s issue of the ‘i’ newspaper had a feature entitled ‘Mata shines in the Van Gaal revolution’ in recognition of the integral part that the Spaniard plays in Manchester. Two years ago Mata became Manchester United’s club record transfer when he flew into Carrington in a helicopter with a £37 million pound tag around his neck. Before that, Mata had transferred from a Valencia team that gained so many plaudits with talents like David Silva and David Villa, to Chelsea as the Premier Leagues infatuation with the ‘Number Ten’ really started to hit the heights of sheer romanticism.

The past decade has seen a massive shift in the way that Premier League teams operate on the pitch, and this has been largely influenced by the continental game. Gone are the days of orthodox 4-4-2 formations that relied largely in athleticism and brute strength – think about the Manchester United team that won the treble in 1999 with Roy Keane at the helm – they have been ousted by the 4-2-3-1. As mentioned the 4-2-3-1’s origins are from the continent and relies on movement, dynamism and precision passing to create overloads and passing triangles across the pitch. But most importantly the formations effectiveness rests largely on the shoulders of the individual who plays behind the striker.

This position is largely known as the ‘Number 10’ and is home to some of the world’s most revered players, those who immediately draw the eye with their intellect on the pitch, fantastic movement and passing range. This individual controls the game from his advanced position and Mata is one of the best at it as this season shows. His ability to control the game fits perfectly with the Van Gaal system of football, one that relies so heavily on possession. Manchester United struggled massively after the departure of Alex Ferguson, they had a squad that was bereft of creative players and midfield that was slow and one-dimensional. The arrival of Mata was meant to steady the sinking ship under David Moyes, but the Scotsman pushed his main creative hub out on to the right hand side and as such the ship eventually sunk for the man who finds himself in San Sebastian.

United’s number 8 is the prime example of how a playmaker should operate; using movement to cycle possession and create gaps. The position can be wholly underrated, and when a playmaker is left out of the team it is almost as if a team lacks any creativity going forward. Mata is the ultimate ‘connector’ providing creative flair to any team he plays in, which invariably makes those teams all the more threatening. After being used out wide he is now at the centre of the pitch, and Mata is much more beneficial to his team as a result. His goal scoring return further demonstrates that he should play a more central role, with 9 goals last term was the best since his 12 for Chelsea during his debut season.

Since then Chelsea themselves has really struggled without a naturalised Number 10, their success has largely come from wider areas of the pitch after the departure of Mata. Whilst Oscar is an extremely talented footballer, the question that is raised is whether he can replicate the delicate, intelligent play that a Number 10 can bring. The same question was posed to Shinji Kagawa who ultimately failed to live up to his sparkling reputation in Dortmund when playing down the middle for Manchester United. The position is an incredibly difficult one to master, hence why the players who play there are held in such high esteem – almost as if they are fantasy characters. When thinking of the likes of Zidane, Riquelme, Ronaldinho the football fan always becomes misty eyed, emotional and a large smile will appear on their faces because they are capable of magic on the football pitch.

There should be no doubt that when Juan Mata retires that he should bring those same emotions to the ordinary football fan because he is capable of the same things. Imagine Mata in a wizards hat casting a spell over the ball as he tricks his way past the opposition midfielder before picking out a wonderful through pass for the striker. Equally as effective floating in from the right hand channel as well, his intelligence is exactly what is needed to succeed at the highest level. In the modern game, every team craves a player who can create something out of nothing and Manchester United fans should feel incredibly happy that one of those players is in one of their shirts.

About the Author – Ben Jarman

Freelance football writer with a penchant for Spanish and European football. Work published by Fulham FC, Italian FA and the Evening Standard.

Twitter: @sonikkicks

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