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First post...Men's selection - Bircham?


Brum

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This is my first post on this site. I have enjoyed reading other for years but have decided to end my silence. I am a die hard soccer fan and avid supporter of the blues birmingham city and team canada.

I would like to make my first post about Marc Bircham. I think he is a very under rated player. A hard tackler and has a good first pass vision and I think an automatic choice for our center mid. I think he is a poor man's Nicky Butt. Above the footballing reasons he is a leader and has great team spirit. He can bring our team together...unite them andmake others around him play with passion and commitment. NOt many players have this gift and we need to use it to our advantage. Now that I am register you will here more of my opinions whether you want to or not.

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quote:Originally posted by Stu

Hello Brum, and a BIG BLUE welcome to a fellow BLUE-NOSE (KRO SOTV):D

I'd have to agree with you about Marc, I think he is sorely missed on the Senior side and Frank should give him a shot. He won't be sorry.

I agree with you both. He may not be polished but he plays with an urgency and abandon that is often lacking from our current line-up. Hume has some of that but I'd love to see Bircham get another chance.

db

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I'm of two minds about Bircham. On the one hand I don't actually think he's more talented than Imhof or Grande (or Deguzman and Hutchinson, but I think they're more valuable to us in other spots than d-mid). At the very least those two are better suited to the CONCACAF game. That being said he brings an intangible to the team that few others do, if any. And he serves a pretty good ball in and is good on set-pieces. I'd rather see him than Serioux in the squad, Serioux' decent Gold Cup not withstanding. I hope he at least gets another shot.

Welcome Brum btw . . .

cheers,

matthew

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I would play bircham in the middle of the park in a robbie savage sort of role...destroyer/inspirer. Here is the team i would play..

Sutton

stalteri kluka hutch brennan

bircham

hume simpson

de guz

tomasz mckenna

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I don't know guys, what about Serioux's cruise missiles? It's like having a corner kick any time we get a throw-in within thirty-five yards of the touchline. To me, this quality in Serioux means a midfielder has to be head and shoulders better than Serioux to justify playing ahead of him. The only midfielders I rate that highly at Hutchinson, DeGuzman and Stalteri (not counting left-wingers, since Serioux can't play on the left).

Bircham may arguably be better than Serioux, but I don't think he's so much better that it justifies playing him ahead of Serioux and losing the cruise missiles.

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quote:Originally posted by Brum

I would play bircham in the middle of the park in a robbie savage sort of role...destroyer/inspirer. Here is the team i would play..

Sutton

stalteri kluka hutch brennan

bircham

hume simpson

de guz

tomasz mckenna

I like the line up. Very mobile with experienced target men

upfront. Hume and Simpson will take on defenders on the wings,

and de Guzman as playmaker. Bircham will bring Watson's grit

to the match, imho.

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quote:Originally posted by Brum

I would play bircham in the middle of the park in a robbie savage sort of role...destroyer/inspirer. Here is the team i would play..

Sutton

stalteri kluka hutch brennan

bircham

hume simpson

de guz

tomasz mckenna

Yallop used a bit of a diamond in the gold cup, but I don't think JDG is comfortable in an attacking role (unless you're talking about his brother). I'd love to see Bircham too, although I think he'd be better served in a partnership with Bobby, sending Hutchinson out on the right. More of a defensive 4-4-2 for Spain.

Wondering out loud here: If you're Yallop and you know you could have a long term central midfield of Bobby & Hutch, with guys like Imhof, Serioux, and Grande as a supporting cast, maybe you have a discussion with Marc about his role or lack thereof. Maybe Bircham just didn't like where the gaffer was coming from and told him to get stuffed???

It's hard to blame either of them. We all like to talk about who plays at the highest level. A year ago, Bircham was arguably the best player on a club in arguably the 6th or 7th best league in the world. You'd think, and maybe he did, that would make him an automatic starter in the new Yallop regime. I believe Imhof started ahead of him against Belize? Could be wrong about that though, as he must have seen some action with his face is all over the soccercentral intro, celebrating with Brennan's late strike.

Could have been a similar situation to the rumoured occurrence with JB, only Bircham doesn't really have the same ties to the MNT. You gotta love the guy, but he's about as Canadian as the queen herself.

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I think he also plays some right back. But I think right now we need hutch at the back because it is our weakest position and the most important on the pitch. I would also appreciate the comments about serioux and think he could play at right back or on the right of mid.

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quote:Originally posted by matthew

I'm of two minds about Bircham. On the one hand I don't actually think he's more talented than Imhof or Grande (or Deguzman and Hutchinson, but I think they're more valuable to us in other spots than d-mid).

I don't get it either. I do not recall ever being dissapointed in Bircham's play when he was called up. But by the same token, I do not know he can be rated ahead of those Midfielders that you have listed. They are are all more accomplsihed professionally or have impressed me much more with their play. Consider also that two separate coaches with different philosophies have given Bircham a chance and shortly thereafter have stopped calling him up. Perhaps they have some off the pitch issues with Bircham.

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I hate to sound repetetive, but as i have posted before being a die hard QPR supporter and following the team closely, marc bircham is desperately needed in the canadaian squad! he plays at ahigh level game in and game out in a very competetive division! it really makes me wonder what yallop knows that we don't when i see the players picked ahead of him! maybe there is some kind of personal problem between the two, after seeing his hair cut for the belize matches, how can you question his committment to canada?

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quote:Originally posted by youllneverwalkalone

Well I that is what I suspected is at the root of the Bircham fanfare stemming from some people on this forum who have an affinity for English football.

I see no evidence that the second tier in england is 6th or 7th best league in the world. I think that that is more wishfull thinking and personal bias. If that were true then why did a second tier team from england (ie.: Millwall) exit so quickly form the UEFA cup last year?. What did they get to face? one opponent? They were "back home before the postcards arrived" so to speak. If the english players after the top 100 in all of England were so talented that their play elevates the second tier to the status of 6th to 7th best in the world, then I would think that England would be the envy of nations like Brazil, Argentina and France. They would not be losing to Denmark by 4-1 and there would be tons of English 2nd tier players scattered throughout various leagues around the world much like Brazilians and Argentinians. So i don't see that at all. In fact, with the exception of last weekends Chelsea vs Wigan match, the quality difference between between the top echelon of the EPL and the relegation zone teams is humongous. Therefore you cannot convince me that the Man U's, Liverpool's, Chelsea's, Arsenal's etc dominate their round of 32 opponents in CL and Uefa to the same degree that they man handle the Norwich's of the world. So what does that tell you about the teir two sides in England?

Consider also that two separate coaches with different philosophies have given Bircham a chance and shortly thereafter have stopped calling him up. Maybe there are "off the pitch issues" with Bircham.

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quote:Originally posted by Free kick

Consider also that two separate coaches with different philosophies have given Bircham a chance and shortly thereafter have stopped calling him up.

Yes, that's my thought as well. The fact that Bircham was "alienated" by Osieck caused much distress here on the forums and was a key argument in favour of dumping Osieck. Now a completely new and different coach comes in, one who is applauded for his handling of players (though we have since seen signs that maybe he isn't as perfect as some people believed), and Bircham is quickly left out. What to conclude? The only common factor under both coaches is Bircham himself.

When he was called I can't recall many problems with Bircham, but I also can't recall anything to warrant all the hype about him that seems to be continuously present on this forum.

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quote:Originally posted by Free kick

Consider also that two separate coaches with different philosophies have given Bircham a chance and shortly thereafter have stopped calling him up.

Yes, that's my thought as well. The fact that Bircham was "alienated" by Osieck caused much distress here on the forums and was a key argument in favour of dumping Osieck. Now a completely new and different coach comes in, one who is applauded for his handling of players (though we have since seen signs that maybe he isn't as perfect as some people believed), and Bircham is quickly left out. What to conclude? The only common factor under both coaches is Bircham himself.

When he was called I can't recall many problems with Bircham, but I also can't recall anything to warrant all the hype about him that seems to be continuously present on this forum.

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I wouldn't claim QPR is a top club in world football, although they had their moments. It's difficult to compare clubs who do not face one another with any regularity. This is why I attached "arguably" to my assertion. There are facts that are, well, facts. One of which:

The English Championship is apparently the 4th most attended league (raw number) as documented here:

http://www.canadian-soccer.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7492

Unlike Bundesliga 2, many of the tickets are NOT cheap. Ticket prices in football, like other sports, are highly correlated to wages. In a free market, wages should give a reasonable reflection of the quality of the product. Particularly today, when there are more and more foreign player who'd rather make the quid than play a round or two of champions league in their home country.

Back to Bircham, it's not like we have players in Argentina and Brazil to compare him to. We've got a bunch of guys in the UK, Scandinavia, and central Europe. The average Voyageur (not me) often judges a Canadian by the level at which they play. In June of last year, Bircham would have to be considered part of the starting 11 according to this criteria. That's all I was saying.

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I wouldn't claim QPR is a top club in world football, although they had their moments. It's difficult to compare clubs who do not face one another with any regularity. This is why I attached "arguably" to my assertion. There are facts that are, well, facts. One of which:

The English Championship is apparently the 4th most attended league (raw number) as documented here:

http://www.canadian-soccer.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7492

Unlike Bundesliga 2, many of the tickets are NOT cheap. Ticket prices in football, like other sports, are highly correlated to wages. In a free market, wages should give a reasonable reflection of the quality of the product. Particularly today, when there are more and more foreign player who'd rather make the quid than play a round or two of champions league in their home country.

Back to Bircham, it's not like we have players in Argentina and Brazil to compare him to. We've got a bunch of guys in the UK, Scandinavia, and central Europe. The average Voyageur (not me) often judges a Canadian by the level at which they play. In June of last year, Bircham would have to be considered part of the starting 11 according to this criteria. That's all I was saying.

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In a perfect world, Canada would play enough friendlies that guys like Bircham who are "fringe players" with the club would get a chance every now and then.

I'd like to see him get called, but I don't see him being much more than a good role player off the bench. Canada already has a few of those type players already.

Jason

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