Juan Mata is a Spanish international, who recently won the U-21 European Championship and is a key player for his club, Valencia. Mata has made around 176 appearances with Valencia, scoring 46 goals in 4 seasons with the club after joining them from Real Madrid. Mata is a player known for his hardworking style, gifted, excellent dribbler, quick, clever, versatile and also quite creative. He also has an excellent left foot and a good eye for goal.
One of the bonuses of not covering a Premier League match for Sky is that there aren’t too many foreign players on view. I’ve got nothing against overseas footballers, it’s just that some of them have outrageous long names, which can make even the most competent broadcasters sound like tong-tied idiots.
It may be an understatement to say that Steve McClaren is an easy target for critics after that infamous qualifying campaign for Euro 2008 in charge of England. The use of umbrella on that tormented night against Croatia didn’t help either, and neither did the abysmally guided press conference in attempted pidgin Dutch after taking the reins at FC Twente. However, after winning the Dutch Premier League with the club from humble Enschede, his stock saw something of an upturn and, after an ill-fated spell in charge of Wolfsburg, he has been permitted a route back into England and a shot at redemption.
The beginning of a new season of expectation. Champions League qualification? Easy, they said. King Kenny is the man. Top four? Champions, they enthused. And so it came to pass. The reds of Liverpool came out, all guns blazing, quick passing, plenty of movement and attacking intent. Certainly in the first half, Liverpool raised the bar. Unfortunately not the cross bar. If they had the score would have been 3-0 at half time. If’s and but’s. Small words with big meanings.
Having attracted much praise during their relatively brief stay in the Championship for their free-flowing style of football under the tutelage of three different young managers, Swansea City finally achieved their top flight dream last season via the play-off lottery.
On the face of it, Newcastle’s pre-season looks like an unmitigated disaster. Their captain has been sold, other star performers have vented their frustrations at the way the club in run on Twitter as well as three players being refused entry to the USA for the pre-season tour. Not exactly what you call plain sailing.
With the distinct lack of transfer funds at his disposal, David Moyes has to be commended for his ability to guide Everton to top-half finishes season after season. This was no different last time out as the Toffees recovered from a dismally slow start (they didn’t win a league game until October) to finish a very respectable 7th place.
Another season came and went and the Arsenal trophy cabinet remained unopened. It has been six years now since they last won a major cup and they can’t afford not to win something of note this year.