Whoever still remains a Soccer All Stars manager from the
moment Season 1 kicked off until now will remember the incredible
early form of then, Southampton's Marian Pahars. A couple of
hat-tricks and some splendid performances from the Latvian international
saw him net an amazing 7 goals in his opening 4 appearances for
The Saints.
Southampton were grinning and manager Jamie Newell's smile
beamed large across his face as he realised his rough diamond was
polishing defences in SAS up with considerable ease. However, as
the season wore on, Pahars form dipped and the goals dried up. A
couple of suspensions here and there and the odd goal saw him
complete a £10m move to Manchester United.
His form and reputation in the early part of the season
contributed to the fact that United were willing to fork out big
money. After all, Pahars had netted a total of 9 goals in 13
appearances. All 9 goals came for Southampton and he's yet to
register for Manchester United.
How many of you felt he was a good player going through a bad
run of form? Southampton decided to sell because the goals were
drying up. Perhaps the expectations of Pahars had risen too
highly? Perhaps or perhaps not. The simple truth about football is
that this little Latvian faces a big season ahead of him.
His early burst in the season came about because nobody was
prepared. Nobody saw him coming, nobody saw him fly past them
either. His pace, his best weapon was never stopped and Pahars was
soon roaming around and hitting hat tricks left right and centre.
Football though crashes down fast and Pahars name was on the
lips of every manager. This became his biggest problem as he was
then marked completely out or taken care of tactically by managers
who knew the damage he could cause. The point I'm trying to make
is Pahars didn't suddenly dry up without reason. SAS managers
caught on to his strengths and put a stop to the danger as much as
possible.
This worked against Pahars and caused him to dry up. It's the
beauty of football and the beauty of unknown players and their
strengths. Pahars could have went on to score so many goals, but
the managers woke up and stopped the fuss with tactical input on match day.
Hopefully this column has helped you understand that players
can do better or worse depending on how the manager handles them
in a particular situation. Tactical input is vitally important to
a sides performance and result come a Saturday afternoon - SAS is
no different.
Will their be more surprises for Season 2? Will another player
sneak past the glaring eyes of the managers and produce one or two
amazing performances? Will natural talent still be too much for
some managers to stop these players? Will managers remember what
Pahars has done in the past? Only time will tell and only you, the
managers, have the answer.
Every
so often the Soccer All Stars Executive Board will publish a column
of sometime regarding issues and topics within the actual game.
These columns can reside around personal feuds, battles or anything
else the Board have found interesting. Perhaps we'll discuss the
leagues current format? A clubs big signing? Whatever is published,
rest assured it will be interesting, articulate and entertaining to
read!
