Playoff Time

It's this time of the season, the leagues are done and it all comes to a one or two games – the playoff, so here's a paper about 2 of the most interesting playoff games.

Wolfsburg - Eintracht Braunschweig, 25/5/17, 29/5/17

Everyone in Germany wonders what happened to the runners-up from two seasons ago, to the team who won against Real Madrid, to the team who won the German Cup. The thing that happened to the team is simple enough. The club sold its big stars for a load of money but didn't get replacements in the same calibre. Kevin De Bruyne went to Manchester City for 65M after being awarded Play of The Year in the Bundesliga, Ivan Perisic the great winger went to inter for about 15M, Andre Schurrle went to BVB for 30M, Draxler to PSG for 45M. Out of all Wolfsburg's purchases in the summer only vacant Mario Gomez who led Besiktas for the title in Turkey and Yannick Gerhardt who was brought from Koln for 12M proved themselves to be good and quality buys. Wolfsburg was so desperate they brought back Ashkan Dejagah the Iranian winger who played for the Wolves between 07 and 13. He didn’t make a single appearance. Another thing that Wolfsburg did wrong is the choice of its managers, after sacking Dieter Hecking the club appointed Valerin Ismael who was the manager of Wolfsburg 2, his record as head coach is awful after a failure at Nurnberg. It took him about 4 months to get sacked but once again the club appointed an inexperienced manager – Andries Jonker who worked at Arsenal U19.

Can the great German striker save Wolfsburg?

But you need 2 people for tango so here comes "The Lions". Torsten Lieberknecht is the Manager of the team since May 08. He took the team from the 4^th league to the Bundesliga (at the season of 13/14. After three seasons in the second league, The Lions will fight in their place at the top tier. Dominick Kumbela who lead the team to the Bundesliga on 12/13 is once again (after short periods in Turkey and Greuther Furth) scoring 13 goals. His main partner in the attack Christoffer Nyman scored 11 goals.

The first game will be played in Wolfsburg.

 

Torsten Lieberknecht

Huddersfield Town – Reading, 29/5/17

The big season finale in the best league in the world, the game for the small amount of 60M pounds for the winners. Last season Huddersfield finished 19^th, Reading 17^th. So what happened that those teams are few of the best in the league today?

At November 15, David Wagner joined Huddersfield after 4 years at Borussia Dortmund 2. It took the young outsider time but the man who worked under Jürgen Klopp. What's so special about a man who worked at BVB? He knows how to get the right players in little money. So David Wagner brought Aaron Mooy, Kasey Palmer and Danny Ward from Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool on free loans. Elias Kachunga on 200k loan from Ingolstadt, Michael Hefele, Christian Lowe and Jack Payne of free transfers, Van La Parra for 800k and Christopher Schindler for 1.8M, the thing about all those names – all of those players were vital (maybe expect palmer, but yet he played 20 games) in the successful season of Huddersfield how successful? Elias Kachunga was the team's top scorer with 12 goals. Lowe, Hefele and Schindler were 3 out of 4 main defenders where Schindler playing all 46 league games. Aaron Mooy being nominated for POTS. As good as it seems for a season, it could’ve been even better for the team from Yorkshire. Huddersfield was on the tail of Newcastle and Brighton for a big chunk of the season but in the last months or so the team lost a lot of points that they shouldn't lose after such seas


on, that fact made them finish 5^th although they held the 3^rd position for a long time during the season (after they lose the 2^nd).

 

David Wagner

June 2016, Reading announcing that Jaap Stam is the new manager of the team. The hot-blooded Dutchman who played for Manchester United and was the nightmare of many strikers took his first major job at the club who fell from the Premier League in the season of 12/13. Just like Wagner Stam did some great deals bringing in players. Tyler Blackett was loaned from Manchester United, Joey Van Der Bergh and John Swift came for free (Heerenveen, Chelsea) and players like Paul McShane, Ali Al Habsi and  Yann Kermorgant got "second wind" under Stam. As a player, Stam was well known for his killer instinct, ability with the ball, power and speed all of those made the great centre-back a manager who counts on his attack more on his defence. Yann Kermorgant didn't only get "second wind" he had his best season of his career at the age of 35. He's the top scorer for Reading with 19 goals, can he lead them to the Premier League?

 

 

Yann Kermorgant celbrates once again

 

Invisible Failures - The Alternative Disappointments (Post #1 – Premier League)

Post #1 – Premier League

Players mostly called flops, disappointments etc. when the team paid big money for a 

certain player or expected him to lead the team but he failed. A lot of blogs, sites, journals and papers make every year a least of the 10 most disappointing players in the league, world, country etc.  However, what about those players that one on hand the teams didn’t buy them for much but on the other hand, not like the big named flops who most of the cases get a lot of chances because of their big names or tag prices just don’t "appear" to be a part of the team? I would like to take your attention to this subject of the players who flopped so hard they didn't get a chance to play – The Invisible Failures

Bartosz Kapustka – Leicester City

He had a great season at Cracovia Krakow playing 33 games and over 2400 minutes at the ages of 18-19. Adam Nawalka took him to France to be part of Poland's squad at Euro 2016. He has a great tournament playing all 4 games (starting twice). All those achievements brought him to the headlines and from there the new English Champions Leicester City for bought him for 7.5M pounds.

35 game weeks later Kapustka failed to make a single appearance in the league with Leicester. Although being young and coming to current champions by the way, things went for Leicester this season and the last season stars who failed short on expectations you would have expect to give chances to more players but Kapustka didn’t get his.  

""Kapustka is a good player, getting better, but I don't know when he will be ready to play in the Premier League" Those words from Claudio Ranieri, ex Leicester manager who bought Kapustka sums the issue up. The teenager played his first game for the senior team just in January. He had a good game against Derby in the FA Cup but didn’t get any chance in the league under Ranieri or Shakespeare.

But maybe Kapustka would be able to bounce back next season, reports suggests that Ronald Koeman wants the player to be part of his project at Everton since the summer of 

2016 before he joined Leicester. Only time will tell.

A rare Kapustka appeard

Georges-Kevin N'koudou – Tottenham Hotspur

Not a lot of players tend to move to other teams after one season in their current team. Such thing doesn't happen a lot because it's not so common that player has a good season in a mediocre team that makes a bigger team buy him and there he has even a better season. So good that being only 21 years old he was chosen the 30^th best player in Europe by UEFA poll. Those successes brought the spotlight to the player and Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham Cashed in 11M pounds for N'koudou.  

239,130 pounds is the price that right to this date Tottenham paid for every minute of N'koudou being on the pitch at the Premier League 6 games- 48 minutes. Things being even worse as the player has a total of less than 300 minutes in all other competition for the team (Cups and Europe) although Tottenham suffered a short squad and few injuries one of Eric Lamela who's somewhat plays at the role of N'koudou and was ruled out of the season few months ago.  

"It is normal to need time to adapt,", "Some players need more than others but it is difficult to adapt to our style". Those things were said by Pochettino mid-December and the Argentinian proved himself as someone who knows how to develop young players and work with players that struggle. However, even though N'koudou played a total of 106 minutes in all competitions.  

Reports say that N'koudou is heading for White Hart Lane exit in the summer. Few reports also point out that N'koudou was more of Tottenham's chairman Daniel Levy wish then Pochettino's. He'll probably follow the steps of the previous Tottenham's French flop (that he came to replace) and go back to France, reports suggest he'll join Nantes where he started his senior career.

Will be always remembered - for this awful hair style

Rob Holding – Arsenal

There can't be a flop list without an Englishman. However, Rob Holding is a different kind of flop. Being chosen the best player by Bolton's fans, aged 20 after the team was relegated to league one, Holding caught the eyes of a lot of teams in the Premier League had he been a different level compared to his team. This anecdote brought him to the Emirates. The only thing Arsene Wenger likes more than young French players is young cheap players that he could sell in few years with a big profit. Arsenal paid 5M pounds for Holding.

As said above Holding is a different kind of flop, he didn’t play a lot but played way more than N'koudou and Kaputska noted above. 5 Premier League full games (one against Manchester United three days ago), 7 full games in both FA and League cups and 1 full game in the Champions League.

His first game at Arsenal was one to remember. He saw how the ball got behind him and Arsenal's defense four times as the Gunners lost 4-3 in a horrendous defensive performance against Liverpool in the season opener where Wenger threw the young lad to the deep water.

So how did he actually "flopped" this season being only 21 in such big team in his first season? Considering Per Mertesacker missing the whole season and Gabriel Paulista being a player that has little to do with football Holding could’ve play some more and get into the rotation with the giant names of Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny.

But as mentioned few times already in this piece about him, Holding might've flopped but not like the players mentioned above him he could be a big player for Arsenal in the future as Arsene Wenger said he could be Arsenal's captain in the future (where Wenger is still the manager) ” He has leadership qualities because he’s intelligent". On that high note it must be reminded that Holding can still fail in the future just as Carl Jenkinson did as the worst case, a mediocre case to compare would be Callum Chambers and the best "unsuccessful" case of Isaac Hayden. One thing is for sure – as long as Wenger is the main man Holding won't stay at the club either he succeeds or fails.

Next Arsenal captain? Not when Gabriel is part of the team

Jonathan Benteke – Crystal Palace

Yes, there is such a player and yes, he is the brother of Palace's main man Christian Benteke. No he's nothing like him when it comes to the ability to play football. There's really not a lot to tell about J.Benteke, he has a poor record way before his switch to London. Zero goals in his senior career as a striker, a total of 394 minutes in his 2 seasons at Zulte Weregam. Being included once in Palace's squad he came off the bench against Middlesbrough on September to make his only appearance for Palace in all competitions. Oh, and he came on for his big brother of course. "Christian Benteke insists brother Jonathan is in the Crystal Palace team on merit after Premier League debut" is the title of a post in the Daily Mail on September 13^th. I won't add anything more, I'll just let you keep laughing.

Christian Benteke and a legend

 

 

Before we go to the cream of the crop, there are some honorable mentions to... mention (in the parentheses the # of Premier league games the player had and the number of minutes he played):

Gokhan Tore – West ham (5, 241), Brandon Galloway – West Brom (3, 248), Brice Dja Dje Dje – Watford (0, 0), Will Keane – Hull (282, 5).

Dja Dje Dje's only picture in a Watford game, HOW?

Alvaro Arbeloa – West Ham

Round of applause for the biggest invisible flop! Yes, he was injured for a few months in this season and yes, he is way over his best being 34 years old but Alvaro Arbeloa the ex-Liverpool, Real Madrid and Spain National team had a symbolic failure at the Hammers as the team had poor season after last surprising season and the move to London Stadium.

Three games, it's more than few players mentioned here but it’s a pity for a player of such caliber as he was included in 24 squads for Real Madrid in the La Liga last season and only 5 times for West Ham in the Premier League. It's hard to check but Arbeloa might be the player with the highest rate of yellow cards per game. Can you guess? 3 games, 3 cards rate of 1.00 for the player who used to be scolded by Real Madrid fans for recent years and be known as a weakling although his love and hard work towards the club. "'Hopefully I'm going to see the stadium full with all our fans and I'm really happy to be here." He did see a full stadium (to the amount of seats west ham was allowed to have in a game) but most of the time from the seats themselves

This smile of "Shit I fucked up

Home sweet Home but which one? The story of Reza Ghoochannejchad

He has one of the hardest names to pronounce in the world of football although most of the people just call him Reza and his friends Gucci but other than that, he is having his best season so far in the somewhat late age of 29. The story of Reza Ghoochannejchad (Gooch-an-ee-chad) the returning Iranian.

Reza started playing football at a young age, as a kid he joined LAC Frisia and later Cambuur. At the age of 11, he joined Heerenveen where he played 8 years in the youth team until 2005. He made his senior debut on 16/4/2006 at the age of 18.5 years. Although he was part of The Super Frisians squad for four years he managed to represent, the club only twice in the league and go for a few loan spells in the Eerste Divisie (Second league in 
Holland) where he managed to score five goals for both Go Ahead Eagles and Emmen.

Reza in the Camp Nou of Barcelona, the latest picture he uploaded on the social media

2009 was a turning point for Reza; he has almost retired and folded his contract with the Feas to concentrate on his academic studies of jurisprudence and political theory. It took only a few weeks for the Iranian to meet Ex Ajax, Arsenal and Barcelona player Mark Overmars who used to be a technical director at GAE. The latter appreciated Reza since his loan at the club and offered him to join the club on a permanent basis.  “Marc told me that there was something in my movements which reminded him of a young Overmars."  The thing was that Reza said he will join on one condition – he asked to be allowed to leave the trainings 15 minutes before they end so he can attend to some courses in the university.

After half a year, Reza moved to Cambuur where he played in the youth levels. On his debut, he had equalized Johan Cruyff's record of the fastest goal in Holland – 9 seconds. Before he moved to Sint Truiden in the summer of 2011. He managed to score 15 goals in 37 appearances in the league with Cambuur. In Belgium, although Truiden were relegated to the second division Reza netted 11 goals in 23 games scoring more then 1/3 of the goals for the team. His rise in his first season in Belgium made him progress twice: He was "discovered" by Iran National Team manager Carlos Queiroz. The Portuguese watched him in a game where Sint Truiden beat Lierse 2-0 and Reza was having a great game. After the game, the Ex Man Utd coach called Reza and said: "I think you can help us and if you love your country you must play for it. It doesn’t matter how long you have lived away from your land'.” Reza and his family moved from Iran to Holland when he was 4. He played for Holland's U-15 to U-23. “I think you can help me, if you feel you want to wear the jersey. If you’re proud enough to wear the jersey, give me a call”.

‘I said, “I don’t need to call you back. I’ll tell you ‘Yes’ right now”.

The man who made Reza keep playing football

The second "way" that Reza progressed was that on the last day of the summer, transfer window of 2012 Reza agreed to join the Belgian giants Standard Liege. He moved to the team in January playing half of the season for Sint Truiden scoring six goals in 10 games in the Belgian Second Division. While still playing for Truiden on October 16^th he made his debut in the national team playing 73 minutes as Iran start their qualification campaign to 

Brazil 2014 on the right leg with home win 1-0 against South Korea. Reza was rising in the 

national team after a year and a half since his debut he scored 3 crucial goals in the 3 last qualification matches of Iran to secure the place in Brazil. But on the other hand he couldn’t find his place in Liege Playing 10 games for Liege Scoring 4 goals but starting only 5 times in a full year. In January of season 13/14 he moved to the English club Charlton fc which was owned by the same owner as Liege. 15 games, 10 starts and only 1 goal, that’s what the Iranian had in half a season before the World Cup. It didn't matter much for his place in the starting 11 of Iran was secured. He played 205 minutes combined in Iran's pre World Cup friendlies scoring once against Trinidad and Tobago. Three full games and 1 goal against Bosnia in the World Cup weren’t enough to change Reza's status in Charlton. He was loaned to Al Kuwiat and later Al Warakh before returning to Charlton for a full season but with 10 starts only and 2 goals. His club career kept being shallow compared to his International career where he was the second best scorer in Asia Cup qualifications with 5 goals in 5 games and 2 goals on the main stage of the Asian Cup itself where Iran got knocked out by Iraq in the first knockout round. Reza scored a super important goal in that game after Iran was losing 3-2 in the extra time "Gucci" came and scored on the 119^th 

minute to secure penalties which he himself didn’t take part in

Reza had tough time in England

With the success at the National Team and somewhat failure in the club career Reza, who 

also likes to play the piano and the violin and speaks English, Dutch, Farsi, also likes French, understands German also studied Italian and Portuguese as well he moved back to Heerenveen where he's having his best season till this day.

The Eredivisie has 1 game week left to be played with Heerenveen fighting for Europe Playoff place a big part of that success comes from Reza who scored 19 goals in 33 games placing him second best scorer in the league that is well known for its great strikers. He also scored a hattrick against PSV although his team lost 4-3. That made him the first Iranian to score a hattrick in Europe and the first played since 1970 to score a hattrick against PSV at their home. On the international level reza keeps being a major part in Iran's successful run in the Asian World Cup Qualifications to Russia 2018. Iran are placed on the of group A with 

17 points, Reza playing all the 7 games and scoring once

Reza celebtating, Iran National Team.

As for now, it looks that the future is bright for the 29 year old intelligent striker who also 

likes to have a close connection to his fans on the social media out of respect and not the need for publicity and fame. In that last sentence you could define Reza and after reading the article not being surprised that he came to such heights.