Rise of a young star

Last night Middlesbrough hosted FA-Cup holders Chelsea in this years competition. A rather comfortable 2-0 away win for the Blues in the end, goals being scored by Moses and Ramires (arguments can be made that Torres got the final touch), but none of these mentioned players caught my attention any more than they usually do. Instead a Dutchman was my Man of the Match. Born in mid-february 1995, the newly-turned 18 year old Nathan Ake was a giant in defensive midfield for the Londoners. He hardly missed a pass, but even more importantly he made challenges so clean, you could of thought he had played at this level as long as the bush-haired Carlos Puyol. Ake reminds one a lot of teammate David Luiz, not only do they have rather unique similar hair-styles, but the lethalness that Luiz provides when closing in on an opponent. In one sense Ake was better than Luiz usually is. Luiz being rather renown for making silly mistakes in dangerous areas, Ake was flawless, beautiful ball control, making simple choices (as a defensive midfielder should) but without necessarily playing cowardly.
Naturally Middlesbrough are not either of the Manchester clubs, opponent wise, so the young Dutchman's future is far from gold and diamonds at this stage. But in my mind Ake will not have a problem will the majority of the Premier League clubs if he was put up against them tomorrow. I can't stress enough how talented this 18-year old is and how much I look forward to seeing him dominate the midfield area at Stamford Bridge for the next decade.
One thing worth mentioning is that apart from a stoppage time substitute this was Ake's first senior appearance, and I have never seen anyone dominate like that on a debut.

AVB vs Benitez

One used to be employed and one is employed by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, they are both from the Iberian peninsula and they both manage London clubs.
During the summer of 2011 Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had caught the eyes of the young Portuguese manager Andre Villas-Boas. No one could blame him, Villas-Boas had gone through the domestic league undefeated and won the Portuguese title with Porto basically without any competition,
so naturally Abramovich hired him on a three-year contract. Clearly there was a bright future for AVB, a high wage and basically infinite money to spend on new players. Anyone who knows anything about English football, knows that this was not the case. After a 1-0 away defeat to West Brom, Abramovich fired AVB, where Robbie di Matteo took over and Chelsea went on to win the Champions League and FA Cup. Nowadays Rafael Benitez is Chelsea's manager and everything is far from good. Constant failures from Benitez, such as FIFA:s Club World Cup, where they lost the final to Corinthians. They had a 2-0 lead against both Southampton and Reading, which both ended in 2-2 draws.
So why is AVB so successful without unlimited funds, and Benitez unsuccessful with unlimited funds?
Naturally they are different types of managers, and arguments can be made for Villas-Boas is a better manager than Benitez. I for one agree that AVB is the better manager at the moment, even though I doubted him during his Chelsea-spell in 2011-2012.
If i start with Benitez, what has he actually changed tactically since he took over the reigns from di Matteo? He has the same formation, basically the same players in the starting 11, so one might argue that he hasn't really done that much. In all truth he actually hasn't changed much, only one thing might be considered as changed. He is using Victor Moses much more than Di Matteo and when he does there is more options attacking wise for Chelsea, besides the delicacies of Mata and Hazard. To be fair to Rafa, when Moses is playing, Chelsea play much better football, even though results don't necessarily show it. During the match against Sparta Prague last week Eden Hazard scored an absolute screamer to make sure Chelsea made it through to the last 16 in the Europa League. Against Man City a few days later Benitez decided to substitute Hazard, while at a 1-0 deficit to the likes of Oscar. Without taking away anything from Oscar, Benitez can not make a decision like that and expect to be successful in winning the match. Just days before Hazard showed he can decide a match and that was the thanks from Benitez, in my mind outrageous. Don't get me wrong Benitez is a good manager in general, but making decisions like that doesn't exactly increase your popularity with the fans at Stamford Bridge.

Looking at AVB, why couldn't he succeed at Chelsea but is doing it at White Hart Lane?
Simply one answer: Gareth Bale. Without it making it seem like I have a schoolgirl crush on Bale (considering my latest post), he has been simply phenomenal. So what has AVB done to motivate him? He did what Pep Guardiola did to Messi, AVB let Bale have a free role. Looking at the spectacular hat-trick Bale scored at San Siro, all three goals were exactly the same, Bale ran down the left flank and ended up shooting from a bad angle and putting the ball back in the net. This season basically all of Bales goals have come from the centre of the field. In my opinion he is much more lethal with a clear angle towards goal than without and this is a major key to Spurs success throughout the latest weeks. With Bale in this form Spurs can beat any team in the world, lets just hope that Bale maintains the immense form he is in, otherwise, in all truth Spurs may not even make it to a top four finish this season.

Gareth Bale - Britains best player

Last night Tottenham surpassed Chelsea and overtook the third spot in the EPL thanks to their 3-2 away win at upton park. During the latest weeks Tottenham have won matches without actually playing at high standards, the reason to the "success" is simply thanks to the Welshman Gareth Bale. 8 of the 10 latest spurs goals speaks for itself. With pace that only can be matched by a handful of premier league players he has been a nuisance for the various opponents back four. Not only is it amazing the amount of goals Bale is scorin for spurs but the quality of the finishes, the decisive goal last night being a prime example of that. You can argue that van Persie is more important for the league leaders, however a lot of van Persies goals could have been scored by welbeck, chicharito or Rooney , not taking anything away from the sublime season that van Persie is having. Bales goals have meant the world to spurs and their fans, managing to reach the third and final direct qualification spot to the champions league. If Bale keeps up with this fantastic form it will be hard for Villas-Boas and Daniel Levy (Spurs chairman) to hold on to the Welshman during the summer transfer window. The only way to keep him is to secure champions league for next season. In my mind a player of Bales quality has to play in the world best club competition. We all remember what he did at San Siro against Inter in 2010. Gareth Bale - without a doubt Britains best player