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Courtesy of our friends at ‘The United Religion’

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The only pass that Edwin van der Sar seems to making these days is with the Manchester United supporters.

It has never been a secret that Sir Alex Ferguson’s managerial achilles’ heel has always been with the goalkeeper position, and it seems to be rearing it’s ugly head again.

van der Sar, who has just turned 40-years old, is unavoidably on the verge of retirement, and it comes as a relief that Sir Alex is already making an honest effort to bring in a suitable, accomplished goalkeeper to fill the void when he does call it a day.

There have been a handful of top-class goalkeepers linked with a move to Old Trafford, but Ferguson must pay for the best of the best rather than trying to develop another one, because it is one position that can either make or break a team’s aspirations.

That goalkeeper must possess not only the ability to play for one of the world’s biggest clubs, but also the mindset to handle the stresses of playing on football biggest stage at Old Trafford.

As he has discovered the hard way, Sir Alex has seen many ‘keepers with the ability try to make it, but unfortunately he has only had two in his 24 years to make it more than four years.

Merry-Go-Round

Before Peter Schmeichel arrived in 1991, Ferguson was faced with a goalkeeping dilemma having four different shot-stoppers – Chris Turner, Gary Walsh, Jim Leighton and Les Sealey – all making at least 30 appearances in his first four-and-a-half seasons with United.

Following Big Pete’s retirement in 1999, Sir Alex Ferguson went through another 11 different goalkeepers before signing van der Sar from Fulham for £2 million in 2005.

Edwin is revered as the man that helped organize United and lead them out of the dark days during the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons to the most successful three years in the club’s history.

Conversely though, he has not reach the heights he did in previous seasons, and his age may just finally be catching up to him.

The most disappointing part of Edwin’s game this year has been his distribution, because it has been very poor to say the least.

Five

However, the only time he has been remotely criticized for one of his five nearly costly lapses in judgment has been his hollower against West Bromwich Albion, which cost United two points, and ultimately subjected United to massive amounts of pressure from the media.

Thankfully, his other FOUR mistakes were not as costly, but they also cannot be forgotten or passed off as they have been.

Chris Brunt’s lofted ball into the United six-yard box was not the only time that van der Sar fumbled a very tame cross, either.

Prior to that, his first blunder which went unpunished was against Valencia.

Juan Mata floated in a cross from his right, which VDS completely misjudged it, but thankfully for United, so did Roberto Soldado, and the Valencia hitman was unable to direct his header under the bar.

THREE times in the last four starts, van der Sar has put his teammates under the cosh by clearing the ball directly to an opposing player, and if they were more accomplished finishers, then United would have been severely punished and forced to come from behind.

His next shocking mistake came against Stoke City when he wanted to prevent putting United under the strain of facing a long throw-in from Rory Delap, so he tried booting the ball down field, but it went to straight to the man who he wanted to prevent taking the throw-in.

With the United goalkeeper scrambling to get back, Delap had time to settle the ball down and have a shot from 40-yards out, but the goal gaping, the Stoke City midfielder screwed his attempt horribly wide and VDS was let off.

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His next mistake came against Bursaspor in the UEFA Champions League match.

With the match tied at nil-nil, and just on the stroke half-time, Edwin’s weak kick fell to Gustav Svensson 20-yards from goal, but the Green Crocodiles midfielder blasted well over the the United bar when he should have done much, much better.

Most recently, he hurried his clearance and it went straight to Karl Henry, but the Wolverhampton captain did not have the accuracy, or the awareness to really test the out-of-position United goalkeeper.

While he was not at fault for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake’s equalizer, VDS needs to accept responsibility for failing to reach his intended targets throughout the match.

Sir Alex Ferguson has to be aware of the deterioration of first-choice his goalkeeper, so the supporters, whether they agree with this observation or not, must believe that the Gaffer will buy a ready-made goalkeeper to fill Edwin van der Sar’s gloves rather than another tailor-made one.

Read more excellent blogs at ‘The United Religion’ website below

La Liga Their Own!

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Using the phrase ‘two horse race’ is lamer than Sergio Ramos’s attempts at time-wasting, but after just 12 games of the La Liga season, there’s a clear trend that suggests the two pedigree animals are about to leave their rivals trailing in their wake. Some of the closer pursuers are by no means useless nags, but such has been the relentless class of Liga’s top 2 that already a sizeable gap has emerged. We’d be as hesitant as Xabi Alonso taking a free-kick to declare any game held in November is a title decider, but there’s no doubt that whichever of Spain’s fiercest rivals prevails in this version of el Clasico will feel confident about going all the way.

If the likelihood of a tremendously exciting Barca v Real clash wasn’t enough to get you interested, then the fantastic Money-Back Special Paddy Power are offering on the match will help. If there are more than 4 goals in this match, Paddy Power will refund all losing 1st Goalscorer, Last Goalscorer, Correct Score and Scorecast single bets on the match. It seem like a lot of goals, but bearing in mind the option of 4 or more goals is just a 13/8 shot, it’s not as unlikely as you’d would normally think.

With the corporate messages out of the way, now we can look at the likely outcome of this game. Whilst Real Madrid haven’t quite engaged in the ritual slaughtering of rivals in the same manner as Barcelona, they have already assimilated those typically Jose Mourinho traits of efficiency, pouncing on weakness and overwhelming smugness. Strangely for a team managed by the Special One, they’re also combining success with huge dollops of style.

Both sides do struggle from defensive weakness. Real have done marginally better in this respect, but the stats hide the fact it’s thanks in large part to the supreme efforts of Iker Casillas. He may get little to do, but when he does, he almost always does it well. He’s made some crucial saves at crucial times that have facilitated easy wins for his team that otherwise would have been more hard fought. Monday evening promises to be his busiest evening of the season to date and the success of his efforts at keeping the waves of Barcelona attacks at bay are going to go a long way to deciding who emerges with the upper hand in the race for the Spanish title.

If Barcelona hit top gear, no team can live with them and the 11/10 for a home win looks good. One major note of caution would be the Special One’s ability to stifle his former employers. He did it with Inter Milan en route to Champions League glory earlier this year and there’ll be plenty of people taking up the option to back Real Madrid @ 5/2. Such a result would give los Blancos a four point lead at the top of the table and no doubt see the Camp Nou sprinklers once again whir into action moments after the final whistle.

There’s so much attacking talent on show that picking out a 1st Goalscorer is harder than Premier League footballer in a monogamous relationship. With both players in superb form, backing both Messi and Ronaldo to score @ 4/1 is a very interesting bet considering their phenomenal goalscoring records. On a similar theme would be the opportunity to back Ronaldo to score direct from a free-kick @ 5/1. Javier Mascherano is no stranger to the referee’s whistle and if he gives away free-kicks in dangerous areas, there are few team better equipped to capitalise than Real.

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Cardiff are four points behind Championship leaders Queens Park Rangers after being held to a 1-1 draw at home to struggling Preston.

North End looked on course for a shock 1-0 win after Michael Tonge's deflected free-kick put them in front but a headed goal by Andy Keogh in the fourth minute of stoppage time spared the Bluebirds' blushes.

Welsh rivals Swansea jumped to third in the table, just a point behind Cardiff, thanks to a 3-1 victory at Ipswich in the lunchtime kick-off at Portman Road.

Town had taken the lead through Andros Townsend but the Swans came fighting back to take the point thanks to a brace from Craig Beattie and a further strike from Joe Allen.

Elsewhere Norwich leapfrogged over Derby with a 2-1 win at Pride Park, while Leeds and Coventry also moved above Nigel Clough's men with victories over Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough respectively.

Palace looked to be heading for an unlikely win courtesy of a Neil Danns strike but Luciano Becchio scored two goals in the last nine minutes to secure the points.

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Marlon King got the only goal from the penalty spot in the 78th minute for the Sky Blues to see off a Boro side that had earlier missed a penalty through Leroy Lita.

And finally Watford picked up only their second win in 10 games with a 3-2 win at home to Leicester.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Humility, modesty, reticence, humbleness. These are words that you can categorically say will never appear in an article about Mario Balotelli (except this one), especially after his rather arrogant showing at the Golden Boy award ceremony.

I have a theory about arrogance, and that is that it should only be deployed in one of two situations; first, as a defence mechanism, if you are, in fact, not very confident about your ability in a given situation, or, second, in a jovial sense when you know you’re the best, and you want to inject a bit of comedy into a given scenario. Jose Mourinho being the master at the latter, and, say, someone like Nicklas Bendtner being adept at the former. Mario Balotelli, however, seems to fall into neither category, and for me, the enigma of ‘Super Mario’ just continues to stupefy.

Having won the award for best young player in Europe, Balotelli proceeded to show why, around the globe, he has failed to make many friends, by stating of the man who finished second, Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere;

“What’s his name? Wil … ? No, I don’t know him, but the next time I play against Arsenal I will keep a close eye on him… Perhaps I can show him the Golden Boy trophy and remind him that I won it.”

And perhaps Jack can remind him of the score at the Eastlands when the two sides met earlier in the season…

He also noted of former winners that;

“There’s only one that is a little stronger than me: Messi. All the others are behind me… I am delighted to receive the award, but who should have won it but me? Two years ago I finished sixth and then fourth in 2009. It was finally my turn. My aim is that this prize will transform itself into the Ballon d’Or. To have won this award is a good omen to achieve that.”

Perhaps this is where his humility comes in. He has admitted that Lionel Messi is better than he is, but even that is tempered by ‘a little stronger’. But when you bear in mind past winners have included Cesc Fabregas, Wayne Rooney and Rafael van der Vaart, his modesty is perhaps stretched to its limit by the admission that Messi is better than him.

After scoring 8 goals in 11 appearances for Manchester City, there is no doubt he is a prodigious talent, and after probably the most productive hat-trick in football history against Aston Villa, in terms of the ratio between effort and final product, Balotelli is on a high. His apparent homesickness has given his plight a more human face, but while he continues to disrespect those in the game, he is going to make few friends.

The only place the 20 year-old can prove his own sense of self-worth is on the pitch, over a sustained period of time, otherwise, for all his talent, sound-bites and searing, arrogant rhetoric, he will become the footballing equivalent of a travelling circus; a nomadic laughing-stock.

If you liked this and would like to read more, then why not check out my blogs, or follow me on Twitter.

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Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all to win at 15/8!

Considering the unreliability of Sky Sports reporting, there is good chance that this report isn’t true, but it is being said that Liverpool are set to renew their interest in West Ham’s Carlton Cole in the January transfer window. One of the reasons the report does have some credibility is that Roy Hodgson has admitted that the Reds were interested in signing the player in the summer. Sky now believes however that West Ham owners David Sullivan and David Gold are willing to sell the striker in January for between £7m and £9million.

In my humble opinion, I cannot see how Carlton Cole is worth anywhere near that amount. The most he has ever scored in a season was 12 goals, a figure he got to by playing 32 times during the 2008/09 season for West Ham. During his much praised rich vein of form last campaign, he scored 10 goals in 36 matches, hardly the strike rate that opposition defenders are terrified of. Of course, Cole does have his good attributes. He is exceptionally strong and is a powerful presence in the air but is this enough to warrant £9million?

If we look at Liverpool striker David Ngog, you will see that he could very easily develop into the style of player that Cole is. Although not as strong as Cole in regards to upper body strength or as powerful in the air, he has developed this season to have a better first touch and has managed to score eight goals in all competitions as opposed to Cole’s five. The big worry for me with Cole is that he is just too inconsistent. He goes through lean periods where he doesn’t contribute enough to the game and doesn’t contribute the goals required of him. He started this season very poorly and is only beginning to gain a semblance of his true form. There are too many similarities with Emile Heskey not be worried. Although everyone at Anfield admired Emile’s effort and aerial ability, by the end of his time on Merseyside he was just not scoring enough goals.

This is the fundamental problem with this signing. If our ambitions are above mid-table mediocrity, we need players who do more than “do a job” for the team like Cole. To take the goal-scoring load of Torres, Reds fans would like another striker who not only compliments the Spanish striker’s play, but can also fire in 20+ goals a season. That is the only way Liverpool will find themselves back in the top four in the future. Among Reds fans, names such as Aguero, Dzeko and Llorente have been mentioned, but all we get is Carlton Cole.

Certainly Reds fans have to be realistic about who we can get while we sit 12th in the table, but if we spend £9m on a player who won’t make a “big difference” to the quality of the team, then it is just not worth it. Roy himself said he is looking for players who are either young or can give the team a big step up in quality then Cole ticks neither box so why should he be considered at all? We have spent too much money in the last two decades on players who have just not been good enough. Souness, Evans, Houllier and Benitez can all be blamed for some bad signings, and it is now Roy who has also gone down the same route. I am hoping Damien Comolli and others at the club will begin to reverse this trend or otherwise the dream of a 19th Championship will continue to be a forlorn hope.

Read more Liverpool blogs at the excellent Live4Liverpool

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Holy Crap – it’s live fantasy football! Become part of Chelsea v Aston Villa and play Picklive for FREE Watch and bet live – spices up any game!

Raul Meireles put in an inspired display as Liverpool ran out 3-0 winners over Wolves at Molineux on Saturday.

Meireles supplied Fernando Torres with the first of his two goals before killing off a spirited Wolves team with a brilliant shot of his own early in the second period to seal Liverpool’s first win since Kenny Dalglish’s return to the club.

While Wolves can feel aggrieved at a score line that flattered the visitors, there is no doubt that Liverpool earned their win courtesy of ruthless finishing.

With Steven Gerrard serving a one match ban, Meireles reveled as the main source of the Reds’ creativity and his 35 yard half volley just past the half hour gave Wayne Hennessey another cause for concern, with the Welsh international diving on to a Maxi Rodriguez effort moments later.

With the hosts labouring in vein, Liverpool edged ahead with a routine 36th minute break that again exposed Wolves’ defensive naivety.

Ronald Zubar’s failure to step up with his fellow defenders and enforce the offside trap allowed Christian Poulsen to find Meireles along the right channel who in turn fed Torres in the centre for the simplest of close-range finishes.

Lively Wolves were guilty of missing a similar chance seconds before the break when a loose ball fell at the feet of Nenad Milijas whose poor control allowed Pepe Reina precious time to dive and save at the Serbian’s feet.

Meireles turned from goal supplier to scorer with a wondrous 50th minute volley that deserved to settle any game.

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Daniel Agger’s deep centre was headed clear by the Wolves back line and fell to the Portuguese play maker who hit a dipping first time shot over Hennessey from 25 yards.

Wolves rallied somewhat but despite seeing Reina spill Stephen Fletcher’s swerving volley and debutant Adam Hammill waste a close range chance, Torres sealed the points for the visitors when he tucked away his second in injury time to seal the points.

Sporting Lisbon needed a last-minute equaliser from departing striker Liedson to secure a point in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Naval on Friday.

Brazilian-born Liedson gave the hosts the lead after 33 minutes at the Estadio Jose de Alvalade XXI, but Naval hit back through another Brazilian marksman, Fabio Junior, who converted a penalty on 43 minutes before Michel Simplicio put Naval ahead on the stroke of half-time.

Helder Postiga converted a penalty for Sporting on the hour mark to level proceedings, but French midfielder Nicolas Godemeche restored Naval’s advantage seven minutes later.

Just when it looked as though Naval had done enough to secure a valuable three points away from home, Liedson – in one of his last appearances for Sporting before returning to Brazil to play with Corinthians – bobbed up again to secure a share of the spoils.

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Sporting remain in third place on the table, still seven points behind second-placed Benfica and 18 adrift of leaders Porto, while Naval remain on the bottom of the table, level on 10 points with Portimonense.

Real Madrid legend Raul returned to Spain for the first time since leaving to help new side Schalke secure a valuable 1-1 draw with Valencia.

Raul’s strike on Tuesday was his 69th Champions League goal and his 71st in UEFA competitions, taking him past Filippo Inzaghi as the all-time highest goal-scorer in European competition.

The away draw gives the Bundesliga outfit every chance of progressing in the second leg at the Gelsenkirchen on March 10.

But the night could not have begun worse for Schalke, as the 2000 and 2001 Champions League finalists claimed an early lead.

A lovely move that began with Aduriz found Frenchman Jeremy Mathieu, who put a sublime early ball into the box.

Striker Roberto Soldado charged towards the near post and struck a left-foot shot past Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, sending the Mestalla crowd wild.

The goalscorer had another chance to find the back of the net only moments later but turned his header wide after a neat cross from Miguel, while Aduriz could only find the side netting from six yards.

Valencia turned up the heat in their quest for a second goal after the break with Argentine Ever Banega just shooting wide, before Aduriz shot straight at the goalkeeper when he should have done better.

And the La Liga outfit’s failure to take their chances came back to haunt them after 64 minutes when Raul found the back of the net.

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A neat ball from fellow Spaniard Jurado gave Raul the chance and, after a well-controlled first touch, he produced an exquisite left-foot finish that reminded everyone of the former Spain captain’s undoubted qualities in front of goal.

It was a vital goal for the Germans and they nearly claimed a late winner when, in the first minute of injury time, substitute Hao Junmin – who had only just come onto the pitch – forced a terrific save from Guaita in Valencia’s goal.

But in the end Schalke were happy to settle for an away point, especially after the injury time dismissal of Lukas Schmitz for a second yellow card.

Real Madrid defeated Racing Santander 3-1 on Sunday to remain in touch with Barcelona, while Sevilla suffered a setback at Atletico Bilbao.Real, playing for the second time in three days after thumping lowly Malaga 7-0 on Thursday, kept within seven points of the La Liga leaders with a comfortable victory highlighted by a brace to Karim Benzema.On-loan Manchester City man Emmanuel Adebayor, starting in place of the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, got himself onto the scoresheet with the opener on 24 minutes.The goal was a thing of beauty, set up by Xabi Alonso’s defence-splitting through ball from the centre circle.Alonso’s pass released Mesut Oezil, who played a one-two with Adebayor before skipping into the area past two defenders, drawing Racing goalkeeper Tono wide and playing across goal for the Togolese striker to casually side-foot into an empty net.Oezil had a hand in Benzema’s first goal three minutes later, the Germany international again linking up with Alonso before threading an inch-perfect pass to his French team-mate, who went one out with Tono and proved up to the task.Racing started to find their confidence in the second half and had a glorious chance to draw within a goal of Real when Giovani dos Santos was tripped in the area by Alonso, but defender Pablo Pinillos’ weak shot was easily cut off by Iker Casillas.Bakircioglu eventually put Racing on the scoresheet in the 70th minute, shooting wide of Casillas after being played in by Mehdi Lacen, but Real had restored their lead five minutes later when Angel di Maria drove forward and again isolated Benzema and Tono.Adebayor had a late chance to extend Real’s lead from the penalty spot, but he too failed to beat the keeper after a weak attempt.Elsewhere, European hopefuls Sevilla slumped to eighth on the table as Bilbao snapped a four-game losing streak with a 2-0 win at home.Sevilla defender Federico Fazio put the hosts ahead with an own goal in the 66th minute, deflecting into his own net in a scramble to clear a whipped-in cross, while Julien Escude was at fault in Bilbao’s second, fouling in the area and handing an 88th-minute penalty to Andoni Iraola.In other results, Espanyol’s European hopes took a blow as they fell 1-0 at Levante, their fourth loss in five league matches, while 10-man Sporting Gijon trumped Getafe 2-0.Almeria defeated Hercules 2-1 in a battle of the cellar dwellers, and bottom-placed Malaga fell 1-0 at home to Osasuna.

Birmingham City’s accidental Carling Cup hero Obafemi Martins said he is unsure of his future at St Andrew’s.The Nigerian striker – on-loan from Russian club Rubin Kazan – scored one of the easiest winners of a Cup final when Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny spilt the ball into his path, with Martins obligingly tapping home to send Blues fans at Wembley into frenzy on Sunday.But with the winners’ medal in pocket, Martins said talk of a permanent deal to keep his place in Alex McLeish’s squad was premature.”I don’t know anything,” Martins told The Birmingham Mail. “I’m still on loan and I just want to be with the team, scoring goals, and we will see what is going to happen.”Martins said his decision to join Birmingham was vindicated by their last-gasp victory over Arsenal on Sunday, with City winning their first trophy since their League Cup triumph in 1963.”When Birmingham called me, I decided to come. They have the players that can play. I’m lucky to be here, and we have won at Wembley,” he said.