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| Wednesday, 28 September 2011 18:02 |
Zenit 3-1 PortoDanny inspires Zenit to deserved win Porto’s Champions League campaign stuttered this evening, with a Danny-inspired Zenit deserved 3-1 winners in St Petersburg. James got the Dragons off to the perfect with a tap-in on ten minutes, but Shirokov’s brace either side of a Fucile red card left Porto firmly on the back foot. Danny sealed the points with eighteen minutes remaining.
Vitor Pereira selected his strongest available eleven, with Fernando Belluschi replacing the suspended Guarin in midfield. The Argentine was at the heart of a strong start from the Dragons, along with Hulk. The away side moved the ball around well in the opening stages, with Zenit unable to muster the same coordination as their vocal supporters, who created a visceral atmosphere. Porto were rewarded with a goal after ten minutes of play. A rapid counter-attack following a Zenit corner saw Belluschi send a lofted ball through to Hulk inside the penalty area. The Brazilian mis-controlled, but was afforded plenty of room by his marker and seized the opportunity, sending a low cross for James to tap home at the far post. Replays indicated that the Colombian may have been offside, but the linesman’s flag stayed down and Porto were ahead.  However, their lead was to last less than ten minutes, as Helton made his second error in as many Champions League matches. The club captain has been the model of consistency over the last eighteen months, but his inability to clear a fairly innocuous Faizulin cross – he was only able to fist the ball directly into the path of Shirokv – cost his team their advantage. The outstretched Fucile was unable to keep Shirokov’s effort out, and the scores were level after 19 minutes.The goal signalled a period of dominance from the home side, with Malafeev’s smart reaction save from Alvaro’s snap shot (after some neat build up play from Porto) the sole opening for the Dragons. Danny in particular was imperious: clearly motivated at the prospect of facing Portuguese opposition, the creative midfielder left Fernando, Fucile and others chasing shadows. His array of through balls, incisive running and – on one occasion – a gorgeous backheel might have led to a second Zenit goal, but for some slack running and finishing on the part of his colleagues. Fucile earned himself a booking for bringing Danny down just before the half hour mark, and things got worse for Vitor Pereira when Kleber was forced off after landing awkwardly on his left shoulder. Silvestre Varela replaced the Brazilian, but the introduction of the former Sporting man had little affect on the flow of the game. Although his men had sputtered somewhat, Pereira would have undoubtedly been content with the scoreline at the interval, given the circumstances.  However, the half ended on a sour note with Fucile’s dismissal. The Uruguayan took the inexplicable decision to halt a Zenit counter-attack with his hand, and Howard Webb instantly brandished a second yellow card. Porto could have no complaints, and all of a sudden Pereira’s discarding of the functional but reliable Sapunaru was exposed for the gamble many initially believed it to be. The home side picked up where they left off in the second half, with Porto’s numerical disadvantage hitting home time and again. Kerzhakov crashed a shot off the post soon after the re-start; indeed, the former Sevilla man might have won the game on his own but for some wayward finishing and the linesman’s flag, which denied him what looked to be a fair goal on the hour mark. However, justice of a sort was done moments later, when Shirokov put Zenit ahead. Fayzulin’s free-kick found the midfielder at the near post, with Porto’s marking non-existent, and his high, fierce strike left Helton with no chance. Hulk shot narrowly wide from a long-range free kick soon after, but Zenit were in no mood to concede their advantage, and another goal soon seemed inevitable. It arrived with eighteen minutes remaining. Souza’s misdirected pass precipitated a rapid counter-attack, with Kerzhakov haring into the box and crossing. His delivery was deflected off the hapless Souza, and met by the onrushing Danny who stabbed home from inches out. It capped a memorable evening for the Venezuelan-born midfielder, and put the outcome of the game beyond any doubt. Porto threatened sporadically during the remaining fifteen minutes, but any faint hopes of a comeback had been extinguished by Danny, and it was Zenit who had the more clear-cut chances: Shirokov’s unfathomable miss from close range saved Helton’s blushes again, whilst Danny might have added to his tally, but went for an extravagant finish when a simple side-footer would have sufficed. The defeat extends Porto’s winless run to three matches, and leaves Vitor Pereira’s side 3rd in Group G, ahead of tonight’s Shakhtar-APOEL tie. Goals [0-1] James, 10’ [1-1] Shirokov, 19’ [2-1] Shirokov, 63’ [3-1] Danny, 72’ Porto: Helton; Fucile, Otamendi, Rolando, Alvaro Pereira; Fernando, Moutinho, Belluschi (Defour, 72’); Hulk, Kleber (Varela, 33’), James (Souza, 46’) Ben Shave |
My lineup!
-------------------Patricio
Silvio------Pepe------B.Alves------Coentrao
--------------------Veloso
-----------Meireles------Moutinho
-----Nani--------Almeida--------Ronaldo
Here is the question that needs to be asked.
Wouldn't we have been a better team with Pepe as defensive mid sitting in front of Carvalho and Alves?
Now that option is gone, and by all accounts, for no reason at all. I know Carvalho will be villified for "deserting", but there still hasn't been a valid reason for Bento to have sat him in the first place.
Going forward, Portugal won't have it's best squad possible, and frankly nobody has found out why yet.
As for Danny, Bento isn't the only one who has puts him out wide. It's ridiculous, and the only explanation is that nobody has watched any of his matches at Zenit.
While I agree that Danny would be a good inclusion behind the trident of Ronaldo, Nani, and Postiga/Almeida, I also agree with Andre, who correctly stated that a proper defensive midfielder would be necessary to balance out the effect of Danny roaming all over the place. Defensively, we would suffer if we allowed Danny freedom in the middle of the pitch and set Meireles or Moutinho as the holding midfielder. We all know that Moutinho doesn't really have the physical capability to effectively play as a holding midfielder, and Meireles is better when he moves up the pitch in attack too. We could always move Pepe up to be a holding midfielder (when he's healthy again) and keep Rolando-Alves in defense. However, we'd have to drop either Meireles or Moutinho, who are both in pretty good form at the moment.
Ultimately, I'd like to see a few different options tried out that included Danny as the central attacking midfielder behind Nani, Ronaldo, and Postiga. Now is obviously not the time to do that as we are in a crucial stage of the qualification process, but at some point, I'd like to see happen because I think we'd really be tough to stop offensively if we could make that work.
The more obvious point I'm trying to make here is that we need a better attacking midfield presence. We've all "beat that dead horse" enough and the sooner we address that problem the better. Could Danny be the answer? Tentatively, yes, but we would then have to figure out how to use Moutinho and Meireles to the best of their abilities and ensure that we don't leave our back four high and dry with no defensive midfield solution.
My reasoning is that Vitor is not the right coach for Porto. I look at your squad and outside of a few minor tweaks it's the same squad that broke records. You guys also spent some big money on new transfers. So I just figured it would be hard as hell to take the title from you guys and I actually thought you guys could make a real run at the CL again.
Vitor comes across as cocky and you can see that the players are also going into matches with the mentality he's bringing. The hunger for goals seems to be gone. Vitor coming out against Benfica saying that it's a sure fire win and not even wasting his time with reviewing one of our matches proves this point.
If he learns his lesson and starts actually coaching instead of milking last years team, I think Porto can easily step it up. You guys have the talent to do it, just need some motivation from the coaching staff.
Let's face it. The Porto defence is very mediocre. Helton was impressive last season but I don't think he is immune to criticism the way he has started this season. He is making too many mistakes and has been proven in the past (the frango at Stamford Bridge, and more recently v Shakhtar) he is prone to big errors against top class opposition. It wasn't his worst game last night, but his lack of conviction at handling the cross for the first goal and his poor positioning for the 2nd goal is not the level of a Champions League goalkeeper. And this is our captain as well.
The rest of our defence is suspect. Otamendi is slow, our wing backs can't defend particularly well. Only Rolando gives me some ounce of confidence in our rear guard, and even he is suspect at times. Maicon, when he plays, isn't anything special either. Fernando does a great job marshalling this creaky defence, but I would like to see reinforcements in this area in January.
We kind of got away with that last season under AVB. We went through a period where we couldn't keep any clean sheets and defended poorly, but our amazing attacking quality got us though. Remember those Europa League games. Our poor defending in the games against Spartak & Villarreal was easy to forget by the fact we scored so many goals against them. Even the Taca final against Guimaraes is another example.
Without Falcao this season and that cutting edge, our poor defence looks like it will be more horribly exposed this term. We are also playing stiffer opposition, this is not the Europa League. We might find ourselves playing in it next spring if we are not careful.
Questions will be asked of Vitor Perreira, but I really believe we have a lot of cracks in our defence that was papered over last season by our amazing attacking quality.
After Fucile's red card we were always going to lose this game. Our defence can simply not cope with sustained pressure from quality players that Zenit possess with an extra man advantage.
All is not lost however, we still have a good chance to progress out of this group but the moment we come up against a top class side we will be making a swift exit from this competition unless drastic improvements are made to our poor back line.
Here's a crazy stat to finish off with, In Porto's last 15 matches against non-Portuguese opposition in competitive games, we kept just 1 clean sheet, just 1!
If he isn't a Porto supporter don't go around asking every one else to go against a team that is representing the same National team that you play for... Something tells me he'll get booed big time the next time the National team plays at the Dragao. I hope hes isn't surprised or the supporters either.. Just like Benfica supporters hate Ronaldo I think Porto supporters have found a new enemy...
But really, is that the option.
I know that Defour isn't a defensive mid, but could he have helped hold the ball better?
It goes to underline how thin the club is without a key midfielder being available.
Guarin being out was huge on several fronts.
All that needs to be said, is that I too hope Bento was watching. Sadly, I doubt it.
As for this game, there's no shame in losing to Zenit in Russia. It was always going to be tough.
You can also say that this was a lost game due to playing down a man for a whole half, after the Fucile send off.
But there are some troubling signs in my opinion. I'm going to be critical of Pereira here. He had halftime to decide in parking the bus and nab a point or to go out a steal the match. Frankly I didn't care which he chose to do, but the fact is that he did neither. He played the game as if he had the full squad out there.
Why not bring in an additional midfielder. They could have flooded the midfield, slowing down Zenit and still have counter attacking options.
If I was a Tripeiro fan, I would be a bit worried. Mind you that it's not the loss, but in how it all went about. Pereira really brought nothing to the match, when it was clearly needed.
I've mentioned plenty on how some of his comments have been less than impressive. Having him still mention Benfica four days after O Classico, on the eve of a CL match, shows immaturity as a manager. He should have dismissed the question and reinterate how important the CL match was.
Tripeiro fans better hope that he didn't invoke O Classico during the teams pre match speech. LOL!
Let me add that this group just became a bit tricky.
APOEL leading is going to make it tough on the other squads. They will play harder and feel they can squeeze through.
Also, Shakhtar isn't as bad as they've looked, so you could expect not only better, but also desperate play from them.
For me Zenit was always co-favorites to advance, along with Porto. It's not going to be easy.
As for the Danny issue, I agree it's tempting to play him as an attacking midfielder for Portugal, we've been lacking that type of player since the days of Rui Costa. And Danny scores goals, which are much needed by the national team cos the centre forwards we have are never prolific. Problem for me is with Danny in the team, you really need a proper defensive midfielder to balance it out. I still think Meireles is wasted in that position, and he's better further forward. Moutinho is in too good form recently to be dropped from the team, so it's a difficult one to call.
Anyway better to have a dillema of talent than one of having no talent!! This is how I would go: at home to Iceland, Danny in, with Meireles and Moutinho, but away to Denmark perhaps a proper defensive midfielder like Veloso and Meireles further forward. Flexibity from match to match with players of this calibre is the best option to take. I don't think anyone except for Ronaldo is assured a starting place in the national team these days. And that is good, everyone has to earn their place!!
Ronaldo Nani
Moutinho
Pepe Meirelles
Coentrao Alves Rolando Bosingwa
Patricio
may think different?
Neither Meireles nor Moutinho are holding midfielders, but they are both excellent at pressing and they are very good technically. Joao Moutinho is a box-to-box, deep lying, and attacking midfielder rolled into one fantastic player, so I think that he is best right in the middle of the action alongside Meireles.
Danny can then be the creative influence we need in the hole right behind either Almeida or Postiga. The attacking trident of Ronaldo, Danny, and Nani is one extremely talented, fast, and deadly trio. With these 3 players causing havoc in the final third it will be impossible for even Postiga and Almeida to go without scoring.
However, against other world class teams, or when we want to defend a lead, Pepe should be used as a holding midfielder. He was absolutely brilliant against Barcelona in this role.
Bosingwa___Rolando___Alves___Silvio
___Meireles___Moutinho
Nani_____Danny_____Coentrao
___Ronaldo____
Kleber got Injured although I don't think he is ready to be the Forward Star as Falcao and Lisandro were. Porto should have signed and experienced Striker like Falcao and Lisandro were, Kleber is still young and we can't expect a lot from him. Hulk is needed in the Right Wing, when Porto put Hulk in front we lost the feeding of the ball to attack, coz their way of style is built on the right wing.
About Helton, I agree with some of the comments he isn't consistent sometimes especially when Porto play in big games, he does mistakes but sometimes he makes miracle. We can't forget that Porto played with 10 Men in the Second Half, 3 Defenders and 2 DM's were not enough I would have prefered if he had put 4 Defenders instead the game could have changed, Maicon was an Option with Otamendi playing in the Right Back.
Feel Free to Comment.
FCP
In reference to Danny as a AM for the NT, I agree with Jon and Martins. However with two crucial matches coming up, now is not the time to tinker and experiment with the formation. Four points is the goal. Attain that and then try him in that role during a friendly. We could use the 1-3-2-4 formation and it would look like this:
Almeida
Ronaldo Danny Nani
Moutinho Meireles
Coentrao Alves Pepe Pereira
Patricio
Tell me what you think.
Feed back please.
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Our seleccao needs a quick, skillful, creative midfielder in the worst way so why does Danny continue to play as a winger? With Danny in the middle and Ronaldo and Nani on the wings, the seleccao will be able to break down the toughest defenses.