Players I Hate to Love: Filippo Inzaghi

Is there a player in another club (especially a rival club) who you have a hidden "footie-love" for?  I  do, several actually and that's the inspiration for this piece. It's my take on players in clubs that I openly "beef" but deep down doff my hat to for the joy I get watching them.

Before I go on you have to understand that I've always wanted to be a striker; right from a young age playing kick about ("set" anybody) to this present day with my Sunday league team. I've always wanted to be the guy who puts the ball in the back of the net, the guy who won the match, stole the headlines ... you get the picture? The kicker is that I rarely ever get a chance to play upfront; as a kid I always got stuck in defence, either as a right back or in the center. As I got older  I seemed to "progress" and got to play in midfield - in the center or out wide. All this has resulted in my secret adoration for the No. 9, the scorer who delivers, those who got the chance I hardly get.

Anyway I digress, to kick off my list I chose no other than "Pippo". Now here's a man who knows how to score and how to celebrate. I first caught glimpses of Inzaghi when he was at Atalanta and scored goals for fun whether or not his side won. He finished the season as top scorer and moved on to Juve and then Milan.

There are three reasons why he's top of my list. First I enjoy how he celebrates. He has the look of someone who is truly passionate about the game. Secondly he's a real poacher who is always willing to have a go. Most of the time he looks as if he's just a shade off-side and only comes alive when a scoring chance presents itself. I still hold our defeat in the UCL final in 2007 against him though and that is another reason why he tops my list because he stopped us from winning No 6.

Pippo's a sneaky devil though and many a goal he's scored has been followed by a quick glance at the assistant referee to confirm it wasn't disallowed for offside. I like that there's a touch of laziness about him as well. He doesn't seem to be involved in the build up, just sticking the ball in the net off a tap in, a rebound or whatever.

I always figured I could model my game after his. Conserve my energy for the short busts to create a one on one, spot  an opportunity within a millisecond, the lazy retreating defender to play me onside, getting the maximum return for the most minimal effort. Don't get me wrong I'm not belittling his style or what he has achieved. It just doesn't look like he works hard even though I'm sure he does. His impeccable skill in timing his runs, in staying on the shoulder of the last defender and his ability to finish are purely world class. He doesn't get many games these days at Milan but if you ever get a chance, jump on YouTube, search for "Inzaghi" and learn a thing or two about how to score.

Club or Country?

The international break gives me a time to dissect the club v country discussion. How patriotic are you? Except you support ("are from") a football power house like Brazil, Italy, Germany or Argentina (no England please!) chances are you show more love for a Euro club side than your country. There's some logic to this; excluding friendlies countries play an average of five (only) competitive games in a year. Compare that to your favorite club that could play that many matches in a fortnight. In addition there is a sparsity of quality matches outside of tournaments or competitions and it is easy to see why hearts are won over by club footie.

Still there's pride in hearing the national anthem ringing out before matches and patriotic fervor gushing through veins as national heroes prepare to battle. If you are lucky (or support a power house country) there may be a chance of having a "fantasy league" array of stars from the top clubs to select from. On the other side there are those supporters who have only the odd star player on whose shoulders lie the weight of carrying their nation to the promised land. Nowadays a lot of players see the Champions league as their "World Cup" , with their nations many may never showcase their talents in that holy grail. A classic case is George Weah, a World footballer of the year who never got a chance to play in a World Cup.

There's a chicken-and-egg scenario though as many players will never have been signed by their club sides if not for their national team performances and likewise many a player would never have had a call up without starring for their clubs. The star names we expect to shine at tournaments are typically hyped due to their club form so maybe one cannot do without the other. Don't get me wrong I look forward to watching tournament football; continental or global I don't discriminate. It's the necessary evil of qualifiers for these competitions that task me. These qualifiers interrupt the league season, result in players travelling thousands of miles around the globe and occasionally result in the odd injury that deprives salary-paying clubs of their employees.

A novel idea that just struck me will be to have qualifiers played over a short period of time (4-6 weeks). The challenge will be when to have these qualifiers? perhaps during the summer break?. It could work, if you take away all the international "breaks" and instead adjust the season to start a month earlier or later and during that recovered month play all the needed qualifiers. It'll be great! now where is FIFA when you need them to be listening.

Another derby for the 'Pool this weekend - the Northwest derby against Man Utd. Last season's victory was one of the few highlights of last season and it'll be great to have a repeat this year.

Derby victories and playing on a losing side

So contrary to my last post there where three derbies in the EPL, the Fulham - QPR game while not a common fixture did feature two London sides. It was a tale of three different results: Fulham hammered QPR with Andy Johnson hitting a hattrick, Spurs beat Arsenal with a wonder strike by Walker and of course my main course; Liverpool claiming bragging rights with a 2-nil win over Everton.

I'll say this about the Merseyside derby though, that WAS NOT a red card. It took the spark out of the game and the result probably flattered the Reds as they didn't really look like a side with the numerical advantage. Yes, we had majority of the possession, but very few clear cut chances where created and it didn't look comfortable until the second goal. I'd still definitely take going into the game against Utd with a win (and a Carroll goal) than any other result. The other highlight was Kuyt missing a penalty; I think this is the first he's missed while on PK duty for us and it extends his wait for reaching the 50th goal mark (another hattrick against Man U perhaps).

It's midway into the season (my Sunday league season :-) ) and MFC have played five with one win and four defeats. I won't say the results don't matter as it's more fun playing on a winning side than a losing one but we have to remember why we do this; it's for the love (and maybe the exercise). It gives us an outlet to try and recreate what we see the pros do and be heroes for the day, also it truly is just plain fun. We've got the next three games at home so hopefully the happy days will be back with victories in the upcoming games.

I've got to close with how delightful watching Napoli is becoming. They've beaten both Milan sides albeit against Inter the goals didn't start flowing till Inter went a man down and conceded a penalty. It's more impressive when you think their win over Inter was done without Cavani who's out injured. I'm silently rooting for them this season and if they can pick up a head of steam maybe they can win a first title in decades.