STARTING XI, MARCH 27TH-28TH

in Starting XI by albion — March 30, 2010 at 3:13 am | 1 comment

GK – Diego Lopez, Villarreal, the big Spanish keeper might not get the recognition he deserves internationally, being behind Iker Casillas and Pepe Reina, even a long hard battle with Victor Valdes for the 3rd spot is no surety of a plane ticket to South Africa. But we rate him highly here at sj. A clean sheet against Sevilla makes him hot property, and helped his team mates to close in on a Europa League place.

DF – Per Mertesacker, Werder Bremen, the big German centre back helped his side to a 4-2 victory over Nurnberg. Not only did he score 2 goals, but after captain, Torsten Frings was sent off late, he helped marshall his defence to a vital win.

DF – Paolo Cannavaro, Napoli, the younger brother of Fabio Cannavaro popped up to score the winner early in the 2nd half. The close range effort keeps Napoli level with Juventus, Sampdoria and only 3 points behind current 4th placed team Palermo.

DF – Jan Vertonghen, Ajax, the young defender scored 2 goals and kept his side in the hunt for Dutch Eredivisie title. League leaders FC Twente must be able to feel Ajax breathing down their necks. On a personal note, the young Belgian is very much in the mould of Thomas Vermaelen at Arsenal and also Vincent Kompany of Manchester City. To say Barcelona is after him is not wide of the mark, we give you the next star of Belgian defenders.

MF – Felipe Melo, Juventus, it’s not been a good season for Juventus, nor a decent one personally for Melo, but the Brazilian came off the bench to snatch a win against Atalanta. It keeps Juve in the hunt for Champions League football.

MF – Frank Lampard, Chelsea, 4 goals and an assist against a good Aston Villa team. Steady Frank is keeping up the title fight almost single handed.

MF – Javier Morales, Real Salt Lake, the Argentinean scored two crackers, the first was a 25 yard half volley. The 2nd was a superb free kick from the edge of the area that bent around the wall into the top hand corner, he also added an assist.

MF – Jimmy Bullard, Hull City, if the Tigers are to avoid relegation then it will be a team effort. The star of that team, and natural leader, Jimmy, completely ran the midfield against his former team, Fulham. His skill, work rate, along with his humor will be a real plus as we going in to the last half dozen games of the season. A dog fight it may be, but we would put our money on Jimmy Bullard holding his nerve over anyone else down in the basement.

ST – Fernando Torres, Liverpool, the striker looked up for Liverpool’s 4th place fight from the first whistle of their game against Sunderland. A stunning 4th minute strike against the in form Craig Gordon was follwed by a calm finish in the 2nd half. When he is on form there is no better out and out striker in the world.

ST – Fabrizio Miccoli, Palermo, one of the most under-rated forwards in Serie A. A hat trick against Bologna only helped his out side chance of a World Cup spot, and also cemented Palermo’s intentions of securing Champions League football next season.

ST – Bryan Ruiz, FC Twente, the Costa Rican scored a 4 minute hat trick against Sparta Rotterdam. He’s been on fire all season and we can see a big summer move for him coming up.

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