St Andrew's day in Birmingham

Posted by Darrell Currie on 11/03/2011

Owen Coyle and Alex McLeish are two members of an impressive band of Scottish managers © Getty Images

How fitting it is that two Scottish managers will fight it out for a place in the FA Cup semi-finals at a venue called St Andrew’s? For those of you still scratching your heads as to what I am talking about - St Andrew is of course the patron saint of Scotland. Okay, so I’m off to a far-fetched start here, but let me get to my point - both of these men deserve an immense amount of credit for what their clubs have achieved this season (not sure how I got to that point, but at least it was slightly educational!).

Let’s start with the man who’s been in the blue corner for quite some time - Alex McLeish. Big Eck is a tremendous man, a pleasure to speak to, and he’s found success just about everywhere he’s been: at Rangers he won trophies on a budget, with Scotland he achieved some impossible and unlikely results and at Birmingham he’s just secured the Carling Cup (their first trophy since 1963).

At Wembley, the Blues really shocked the nation by defeating Arsenal, but they were worthy of the win. Alex got his tactics bang-on, exposing Arsenal’s ‘soft centre’ with Nikola Zigic playing on his own up front, and behind the giant striker he had a team of warriors. McLeish gets every ounce out of his players; he’s a motivator who sets high standards (right out of the Sir Alex school of management). Yes he may well be in a relegation fight, but if Birmingham can stay up, then they really can celebrate their cup triumph.

Now McLeish can dream of heading to Wembley again in the FA Cup, thanks to a draw that has been favourable all the way to the quarter-finals. A home game at this stage is great, but to get a side out of the hat that is outside the top six is an even more practical assignment. In saying all that, I’m not sure Birmingham are actually favourites (and that’s despite the fact they’ve only lost four times at home all season).

I was at St Andrew’s last weekend to watch Birmingham lose to West Brom in one of the several West Midlands derbies. McLeish’s team looked like they were suffering from a cup hangover, and more than that, they looked like they had run their race. Vital players were also out injured (including their very own Lazarus - Barry Ferguson).

Without the likes of Ferguson, Craig Gardner and Zigic the team doesn’t play to the same beat. They lacked drive against the Baggies and that is not a positive sign at this stage of a testing season. If these key players do not return against Bolton, then Birmingham will have to conjure up some more of that unlikely Wembley resilience.

The man in the away dugout on Saturday also deserves top billing. Owen Coyle is one of the best men you will ever meet in the game - there are few managers who reply to my texts with a smiley face! Owen is a football purist who is not willing to compromise in his approach to the game. I spent quite a bit of time up at Burnley when Coyle was in charge there and realised he could turn a bunch of decent players into a stand-out cast.

I wondered if Owen could make Bolton tick when he first went there, and I wasn’t sure if he could adopt his own brand of football at a club who are hardly high in the fashion stakes - but Owen went and proved me wrong again. Bolton are flying high and even winning when the odds are against them (just ask Villa boss Gerard Houllier).

You will struggle to find a happier squad than Bolton’s - their Scottish boss’s attitude is so infectious, his good spirit has rubbed off on everyone around him. People keep wondering when they will nose-dive down the Premier League table, but I don’t think Coyle would allow it to happen. Bolton are too good for that, they have a leader on the pitch in Kevin Davies and, when Johan Elmander plays alongside him, anything can happen. In midfield I have been seriously impressed by Stuart Holden (who we have an exclusive interview with in the build-up to Saturday’s game). Owen Coyle once told me he could build a team around the USA international, so he must also rate him extremely highly. Throw in a potential England regular in Gary Cahill and all of a sudden you already have the makings of a consistently strong team - and that sums up Wanderers nicely.

So who will come out on top in this all-Scottish touchline affair? It’s hard to say, but I can assure you that both managers are deserving of a trip to Wembley, or, in Big Eck’s case, a return to that hallowed ground.

First quarter report card

Posted by Darrell Currie on 09/11/2010

Kenny Miller has been in prolific form this season for Rangers © Getty Images

So here we are after 11 games, all the SPL teams have now played each other, and it’s time to reflect on the early season title race, ahead of Wednesday’s big match on ESPN - Hearts v Celtic. It should be a cracker.

Right, let’s start at the top - Rangers. Things could hardly have gone any better for Walter Smith’s side and Sunday’s victory at St Mirren Park on ESPN put the Gers back on top of the table. Only one slip up to date (a home draw with Inverness) has Rangers ahead of Celtic by one point. The question remains though - do Rangers have the stamina to stay there? Kenny Miller recently said fatigue won’t be an issue, but I’m not so sure. On Sunday in Paisley, Rangers looked lethargic, even though they had some time to recover after their match with Valencia, they still looked leggy - Craig Burley said just that when commentating at the weekend.

Rangers have a small squad and Walter Smith knows it. The problem is he can’t afford to try the youngsters out too much as Celtic are keeping the pressure on. At the start of the season Smith said the young talent would have to contribute - so far (apart from in the League Cup) that hasn’t been the case. Steven Naismith and Kenny Miller have kept Rangers on top, with excellence in midfield from Steven Davis in particular, but more players will have to step up if Rangers are to continue on their incredible point-grabbing pace.

Vladimir Weiss started with a bang, but of late (albeit he has had a heel injury) he’s been a little disappointing. He will need to get back to the form he showed at Easter Road some weeks ago. John Fleck could be a key man for Rangers as well. He’s been unlucky with injuries so far, but his trickery can unlock defences just as Weiss’ can. Those wide men can add more dynamism to Rangers’ play. Up front more help is needed too if the Gers are to keep winning. I was impressed by Kyle Lafferty’s work-rate last weekend at St Mirren, he changed the game when he came on at half-time. He looks ready to start from the first minute now - and he can score goals.

With Beattie and Jelavic (the major summer recruits) both ailing on the sidelines the Northern Irish forward finally has a chance to become an Ibrox hero - a status he’s not really come close to achieving yet. Rangers undoubtedly have a strong starting XI, but it’s strength in-depth that they don’t have. Keeping players fit is important of course, but getting more players to contribute is even more vital. That would take some of the pressure off red-hot Kenny Miller and Steven Naismith.

Rangers’ defining moment so far is of course the win at Parkhead. It suggested to me that they are a very strong cohesive unit, but that it is not the game that will decide the league - it’s more likely to be the last Old Firm game of the season that will be the decider in my view.

So that takes me on to Celtic. They have kept pace brilliantly at the top with Rangers, and the only blot on their copy book is the defeat by the Gers at Celtic Park; that is their only blot in the SPL anyway, in Europe they were shocking in Utrecht. That poor European night aside, I’ve been really impressed by the progress Neil Lennon’s men are making. Let’s make one thing clear - while there’s a chance Rangers will suffer from having a small squad, Celtic will only get stronger as their many new players learn how to play with each other more effectively.

Up front there are signs Anthony Stokes and Gary Hooper can be a deadly strike partnership (just ask Aberdeen). There has been a suggestion they can become the new Larsson/Sutton double-act - but I think that’s a grossly exaggerated expectation. They won’t be that good, but they will be crucial this season. Hooper reminds me a bit of Scott McDonald in that he has a low centre of gravity, allowing him to instinctively turn in the box, find some space and find the net. He was a shrewd acquisition.

South Korean Ki is a classy player as well, but he wasn’t strong enough in the Old Firm game and he’ll have to learn from that. The defence has also been a problem for Celtic at times this season (despite the fact they haven’t conceded that many goals) and that needs sorting out. Glenn Loovens has been ousted by Thomas Rogne recently, and with good effect, but Rogne is inexperienced and the big Swedish international Daniel Majstorovic will need to be a calming influence on his fellow Scandinavian. At the same time though Majstorovic also has to be consistent - I’ve seen him look like a rock one week, and a stone the next.

So what does all this add up to? Really I’m not sure, but this is a vital few weeks in the title race that’s for sure - and you can follow it all on ESPN. Check our schedules, we have Rangers and Celtic live over and over again in the coming weeks, and we’re loaded with Old Firm fixtures all the way over the Christmas period as well.

Next up is Hearts v Celtic on Wednesday and it’ll be as tough a test as Neil Lennon’s side have had (not counting the game against Rangers). Hearts won the Edinburgh derby, and I think they have the players to be the best club outside the Old Firm this season. I just mentioned the Celtic defence - well they will have to be strong against the likes of Kevin Kyle this midweek. Celtic lost in their only meaningful visit to Tynecastle last season and that day the Jambos took advantage of poor Celtic finishing and poor defending. Celtic are far stronger now than they were back then under Tony Mowbray, but still this is a tough fixture to predict. One thing’s for sure though – these next few games on ESPN are going to be crucial, and matches like this one on Wednesday will be huge in terms of the final destination of the SPL trophy.

To sum all this up then - perhaps it’s a battle between stamina and progression, with vital questions still without answers. Can Celtic improve enough to keep the pressure on? Can Rangers keep fighting at home and abroad? We’ll find out soon enough. Then again there is also another small factor in this mind-boggling equation – it’s Walter Smith’s final season in charge of Rangers – so perhaps there’s a touch of fate involved here.

Roy keeps Reds calm in Turkish bath

Posted by Darrell Currie on 27/08/2010

I’ll be honest – Trabzon is no holiday resort, not a destination you’d pick for a quiet week away in autumn. Yes, the weather is usually good in this port town set against the Black Sea, but still it’s not enough to tempt the average holiday-maker to make the long journey (in our case London via Istanbul – with a five-hour stopover at the airport).

When Liverpool arrived on Wednesday it was warm and sunny, a pleasant temperature, but on game night on Thursday it was an altogether different story. The heavens opened on the Huseyin Avni Aker stadium shortly before kick-off and the thunderous clatter from the home crowd made it a biblical kind of setting.

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A bridge too far for Everton

Posted by Darrell Currie on 23/10/2009

It was a hurdle Everton's depleted team just couldn't clear – a night in Lisbon against a Benfica side who are starting to turn heads all over Europe.

The Portuguese outfit simply had too much for the Toffees, a mix of flair and ruthless finishing was the devastating combination that had David Moyes scratching his head on the sidelines – rarely have this Everton side left their manager so perplexed.

If Moyes had been able to field his best eleven then of course his side would have coped far better with the flowing attacks of Benfica, but sadly his inexperienced make-shift defence had no answer to the trickery of Angel Di Maria and Pablo Aimar in the Estadio da Luz.

Seamus Coleman will probably never forget his promotion to the first team; the Irish under-21 defender was drafted in at left-back in place of Leighton Baines (who withdrew late on after struggling with a calf injury). Coleman and Dan Gosling (at right-back) were exposed several times, but in fairness, not by any ordinary wing-play – the movement of Di Maria, the Argentinian international, would have caused far more experienced defenders a lot of problems.

Di Maria was the man Moyes mentioned by name after the game, and I wouldn't be surprised if one of Europe's top teams don't sign him up in the coming months. I spoke to some Benfica fans after the game, and they told me the 21-year-old is a different player this season – he's gained valuable playing time with the Argentina senior team under Diego Maradona, and he's much better for it. The winger is still very young, and I'm sure he'll continue to improve.

Everton on the other hand now face a gruelling few weeks, still without so many of their first team regulars, they'll have to re-group quickly. Next up it's Bolton away, then before they even have time to warm-down properly it's off to White Hart Lane for a game in the Carling Cup. Now that's a competition Everton would love to progress in, but the scheduling of the game just two days after the trip to the Reebok stadium, means Moyes will have to play many reserves – that's hardly fair given that the Scotsman is already having to borrow extensively from his youth-team. It's going to be a real test of character that's for sure.

Some good news on the injury front is the continued progress of Phil Jagielka. He and Phil Neville travelled out to Portugal with the young Everton squad, and Jagielka actually took part in the training session the night before the match at the Stadium of Light. Granted it was a light work-out for the England international, but I watched on as he moved around freely, taking shots at goal, even turning and twisting on the firm playing surface. That's a great sign, and his comeback in the coming weeks will spark Everton I'm sure.

Just think how much stronger the side will be when Jagielka, Arteta, Pienaar, Baines, Osman, Yobo, and Neville (and there are others) return. That's a formidable seven. Only then will we see the "real" Everton.

After the match when I spoke to David Moyes I asked him if he was looking forward to putting things right against Benfica at Goodison Park in a couple of weeks, and he said that unfortunately even then he won't be able to field his true side.

I know the Scotsman was not having a pop at those players he was forced to use in Portugal – rather he simply meant that Europe had not seen what his men really are capable of. I sensed his desire to put things right, and make amends for the thousands of travelling fans who represented the club so well abroad. Even at 3-0 down they were still singing the manager's name – they (like Moyes) know better days are ahead.

Smith's Gers cannot afford derby defeat

Posted by Darrell Currie on 03/10/2009

The outcome of the first Old Firm game of the SPL season rarely reveals which direction the trophy will be heading in at the end of the campaign, but I think this game in particular will show us who is on pole for the race ahead.

It’s hardly been an ideal start to the season for either of the Glasgow rivals, but Tony Mowbray at least can plan for the game knowing his men will still be top of the table even if they lose at Ibrox, and mentally that is important. On the other hand, a defeat for Rangers would be disastrous for Walter Smith and the fans – slipping seven points behind even at this stage would mean an uphill battle the rest of the way. Quite simply, the Gers cannot afford to let that happen.

Rangers have not scored in three SPL games, and against Sevilla in the Champions League they were put to the sword in the second half, so it will be intriguing to see what kind of a response they will produce on Sunday.

One man who needs to step up his game is Pedro Mendes. The former Portsmouth man hit the ground running when he arrived in Scotland, scoring a cracker against Celtic in an emphatic win at Parkhead. There have been few glimpses of that kind of form in the past few weeks, and at Rugby Park he was sent off against Kilmarnock, leaving Rangers a man down for the majority of the game.

Mendes links play together brilliantly when he’s on form, but since Barry Ferguson departed he seems to have dropped deeper, taking the ball from the defence rather than receiving it where he is at his dangerous best – near the strikers. Ferguson was always the man who brought the ball out from the back and that allowed Mendes to take on a more forward position, but right now the Portuguese playmaker seems all too content to just receive and make simple passes in the middle of the park and inside his own half.

Perhaps this game will bring out the old Pedro Mendes – he seems to operate on a higher level on these occasions anyway. It’s the other games though that so often decide the league championship, and therefore Mendes must perform more consistently. If he is on-song, expect Rangers to create a lot of chances – he’s the key figure for the Gers in my opinion.

Celtic arrive at Ibrox off the back of a home draw with Rapid Vienna on Thursday night, and they too have yet to hit top form this season. A week ago live on ESPN they defeated St Mirren, but it wasn’t vintage Celtic, and Mowbray made it clear to me after the game that he expects better – an honest assessment from the manager.

I admire Mowbray for attempting to get his team to play slick, attacking football but his frustrations suggest his players aren’t executing his game-plan well enough. Mowbray is still experimenting with his side in defence as well, his centre-half pairings have changed in the past few weeks, and that is another area he’ll have to think long and hard about ahead of this game. Does he pick McManus and Caldwell (as he did midweek), or is it Loovens and McManus (as at St Mirren Park last week)? It’s something he’ll have to get right, and it’s a big call.

Both managers have tough decisions to make ahead of the game, but Walter Smith’s dilemma may be at the other end of the pitch. Up front his men have not been firing on all cylinders and Kris Boyd has not been sharp of late. The Rangers boss will need to decide who the best partner for Kenny Miller is on Sunday, assuming the Scotland international is fit enough to start.

Of course Smith has seen it all in these derby matches, and his experience (and the fact that Rangers are at home) perhaps gives the Gers a slight advantage. The fact that they’ve also had one day more rest than Celtic may also be a factor. Then again, who knows what will happen, it is after all the Old Firm, the derby of all derbies, and the outcome is almost impossible to predict.

Everton in Minsk condition

Posted by Darrell Currie on 02/10/2009

When I arrived in Minsk with the rest of the ESPN team on Tuesday we were pleased to see that the Belarus winter still hadn’t quite set in, but our optimism was short-lived. We were soon informed that the harsh cold was just about to arrive, and in the end it did come on the day of Everton’s Europa League game against Bate Borisov.

At kick-off there was an ice-cold wind, and the rain that followed was severe to say the least. It wasn’t exactly ideal for football, and Bate used it to their advantage, seizing control of the early exchanges. When Bate’s captain Dmitri Liktarovich rocketed in the opening goal I began to wonder if a threadbare Everton squad would have enough about them to come back.

David Moyes was forced to travel to Minsk with a bunch of kids and few had first team experience. It meant he had to start the game in a 4-4-2 system, something I’m sure the Toffees manager would have not chosen to do if more of his regular starters were available.

It says a lot though about his fighting side though that they did go on to win the game, it really was a battling display on the soaking pitch, and as Moyes said to me after the game – the performance of Tony Hibbert at centre-half summed up the evening. Hibbert is not tall, in fact just a few inches over 5 feet, and he was playing out of position, but he fought for everything on the night, and was constantly making last-ditch saving tackles (as was Leighton Baines – who I thought had an outstanding 90 minutes).

Marouane Fellaini headed Everton back on level terms before the terrific Tim Cahill won it for the away side with a typical finish. He reacted sharply to a flick-on, and lobbed the keeper expertly. Tim is known for his heading ability, but I describe this strike as typical because of his timing. He makes fantastic runs into the box when he rises to head home, and his goal in the Dinamo stadium was all about timing. He was right on the shoulder of the last defender, so his run was measured to perfection, and he even had to use the slick pitch to slide onto the pass through, which made the finish even more impressive.

Tim is a top guy, a pleasure to interview, and it was fantastic of him to dedicate his winner to those in Samoa (some of Tim’s family are from there) who have suffered during the Tsunami. I wasn’t sure what the celebration was all about at the time, but he cleared it up in my interview with him after the game, and it was a really kind gesture.

Everton headed back to Merseyside right after the game, and I’m sure the atmosphere on the flight was fantastic, as the Everton players could hardly believe they had come away from Belarus with all three points, when at one stage in the second half you wondered if they would get one.

It wasn’t a good start to the season for Moyes (the ESPN cameras witnessed Arsenal dismantle them at Goodison Park on the opening weekend), but he has his side back on track, and on a winning run. Those who wrote them off , or dismissed their chances of finishing in the European places in the Premier League this season will now remember why Everton have finished 5th twice in a row. They win games when they look like they’re not going to, and the spirit in the dressing-room is tremendous. In my opinion that all comes from David Moyes – he continually gets the best out of his small squad, and hardly utters a word in anger when he’s told year-in year-out that his transfer budgets are significantly less than the teams he’s competing against. It’s little wonder he was named League Managers Association ‘Manager of the Year’ again last season – there are few better than the Scot.

Everton can now all but seal qualification through the Europa League group stages with a win away against Benfica in a few weeks time, and that would be ideal for Moyes, as he could then give some of his stars a rest, and play some of the youngsters who gained experience out in Minsk.

A job well done for Everton, and a trip I won’t forget – largely because of the drenching my producer (Matt Smith) and I took throughout the 90 minutes.