Pastore's Enigma

I'm not a fan of Ligue 1 but last weekend I stayed up to watch (I'm lying cuz I can't sleep actually) Montpellier vs Paris Saint-Germain. Wanted to see what's the big fuss about Cavani vs Falcao this season. Personally, the game was about another player excelling in a role he's not used to, Javier Pastore, as a deep lying midfielder. But the draw at the Stade de la Mosson did throw up a particularly intriguing lesson, and one that could greatly benefit PSG as the season progresses. 

Since arriving at the Parc des Princes from Palermo in the summer of 2011, Javier Pastore has flattered to deceive. The Argentine international was immediately brilliant, enjoying the sort of immediate impact that you would expect of a player worth €42 million. Six league goals and two assists in his opening 10 games for PSG appeared to herald the birth of a new superstar in the French capital. He finished his debut season with 13 goals and five assists. 

However, the 18 months that followed have not been as happy as the opening six. The 24-year-old has still contributed regularly, including important goals against Toulouse, Evian, Valencia and Barcelona last season, and finished the title-winning year with four goals and eight assists. But the playmaker's sulky, disinterested demeanour has become just as common, and frustrating, as his occasional flashes of brilliance.

Pastore is an enigma. 

Carlo Ancelotti struggled to solve him and decided the best way to utilise the expensive attacking midfielder was by playing him out wide, having fleetingly tried a deep-lying role in his early days in charge, but almost giving up on 'el Flaco.'The Italian declared his willingness to persevere with the mercurial talent, but also made his disappointment clear last December. 

The Argentine's impassioned plea to his coach to stay at PSG towards the end of last season, before Ancelotti eventually left for Real Madrid, speaks volumes over how hard the two-time Champions League winner worked to rediscover his player's true form. But new coach Blanc might have stumbled upon the solution to Pastore's struggles during the draw with Montpellier, and it is not something new or revolutionary. 

With the ever erratic Marco Verratti being substituted in the 76th minute on the verge of a second booking, Pastore was asked to drop into the deep-lying midfield role alongside Blaise Matuidi in order to push substitute Hervin Ongenda as far forward as possible. In that role for the final 14 minutes, the previously invisible star came to life and produced a simple but effective performance that eclipsed his entire showing up until that point. 

Moved into the centre, albeit further back than he'd prefer, Pastore looked far more comfortable than he has done at any point played out wide on the left. His distribution was immaculate, something that was not true of his performance against Bordeaux or the opening 76 minutes in Montpellier, and he looked more calm and composed than he has done for a long time in a PSG shirt. 

Crucially he also looks calmer and more composed than Verratti who, true to form, only took 32 minutes to pick up a first booking of the season. The diminutive Italian was lucky to stay on the pitch for various incidents after his initial caution. When fit, Thiago Motta provides that reassuring influence. But Pastore looked just as capable when filling in for Verratti, not to mention infinitely more reliable than the youngster and less injury-prone than Motta. 

'El Flaco' now appears to be maturing. 

When Ancelotti initially tried him in a deep-lying role, he was not ready for it. But given how difficult it is for PSG to now accommodate a number 10 role when playing with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani up top, a more withdrawn central role looks the best fit for Pastore with the current 4-2-2-2 formation. After the Montpellier cameo, it appears that he is more willing to accept deployment in that position and it should be clear to Blanc that he now has another option there in the Argentine. 

One of the French champions' major problems from their opening two matches this season has been a lack of creativity from midfield. Often the moves have broken down when the ball comes to Pastore on the left. Pairing a player with the technical talent of the Argentine, but without the petulance of Verratti, would enable the team to accommodate the industry of Ezequiel Lavezzi out wide. Doing so would also preserve a vital pace-based attacking outlet in the midfield that Pastore cannot offer. 

With former Napoli man Lavezzi flanking Ibrahimovic and Cavani, and a reinvigorated Lucas Moura on the right, PSG could arguably become more fluent in attack. Placing Pastore further back, Blanc's side would also benefit from his understanding with Cavani from their Palermo days, something we saw flashes of against Montpellier. That will be particularly useful as the side from the capital embrace their ability to take a more direct approach with two physical strikers now leading the line, something that will come to the fore domestically as the season progresses. 

It was only a short spell lasting less than 20 minutes, so perhaps it was too little time to judge whether Pastore is truly ready to change position once again. But with Ajaccio at home coming up this weekend, by no means a straightforward game but one that PSG can arguably use to experiment and still expect to win, Blanc has the opportunity to try a new look with Cavani likely to make his full debut.

Rooney Is Losing His Way

Lost in the persistent summer debate about Wayne Rooney’s future has been full appreciation of his qualities as a footballer. At his best, there are few born in England more capable than Manchester United’s bullish, rampaging No 10.

Lost in Rooney’s own head, though, would appear to be the real value of playing for his present club.

It is well-worn cliché that players don’t prosper after leaving Old Trafford and it’s not entirely true. Cristiano Ronaldo did, for example. So did David Beckham. Going further back, so did players like Mark Hughes and Gordon Strachan.

Nevertheless, it is hard to understand Rooney’s hard headedness at present. Over the course of the last two seasons, the 27-year-old has not always played his best football yet he has scored more than 50 goals for his club and, just last May, won his fifth Barclays Premier League title, his ninth major trophy.

Free now of the manager with whom he struggled to get along last season – and he is not totally to blame for his problems with Sir Alex Ferguson – Rooney should be sensing new opportunity, feeling a new vigour. Peculiarly, he seems to see only dark shadows and conspiracies.

Looking at Rooney’s current tussle with United, it is difficult to know who is fighting who.

Is it Rooney and United? Rooney and new manager David Moyes? Or United and Rooney’s agent, Paul Stretford?

Certainly, United are determined not to be dictated to by Stretford, the agent who quite remarkably managed to turn a transfer request to his client’s advantage back in October 2010. One minute Rooney was being publicly criticised by Sir Alex Ferguson for his impertinence, the next he was signing a new contract worth £250,000-a-week.

Apart from that, though, Rooney – and whoever it is he listens to – seems to see and hear criticism everywhere these days. Overnight, he has become a very sensitive young man and what he appears to have lost sight of is the most obvious course for his career.

Amid the weight of criticism that came his way in 2010, I had some sympathy with Rooney’s argument. His contract was running down, he felt United were getting left behind in the transfer market and indicated that he didn’t wish to sign an extension.

That was entirely his prerogative, especially after spending the previous three seasons doing all the running and hard work that the much-indulged Ronaldo didn’t want to.

This time, though, his approach to his future is harder to fathom.

If Barcelona or Real Madrid were sending love letters to his house then maybe it would be different. They aren’t, though. At least not yet.

Currently he has attracted interest from Arsenal and Chelsea in the Premier League. Overseas, meanwhile, there has been interest from the French clubs Monaco and PSG, both of whom have recently spent lavishly on alternative attacking players.

If we presume for moment that United would sell to Arsenal or Chelsea – which is highly improbable – it would be interesting to understand Rooney’s rationale when it comes to the attraction of both clubs.

Arsenal haven’t won a trophy for nine seasons and in May celebrated a fourth place finish with remarkable gusto. 

Chelsea, meanwhile, continue to employ a scattergun approach to the hiring of coaches and players and, as a result, have won just one league title in seven years.

Certainly Chelsea may offer to pay Rooney more than United will. Any offer the current champions do make in the future will be heavily incentivised and Rooney’ s basic wage would undoubtedly have to be lower.

The Rooney of old, though, used to accept challenges rather than sense only slights.

Moyes’ comments at the weekend that suggested Rooney may have to play second fiddle to Robin van Persie provide a case in point. The United manager’s words were perhaps unfortunately timed but, nevertheless, Van Persie scored 30 club goals last season, 14 more than his team-mate.

As such, he deserves his starting berth on August 17 at Swansea. It is just a little disappointing that Rooney doesn’t seem keen on earning his. He should remember that no sportsman – no matter their previous contributions – has a divine right to anything.

To re-iterate an earlier point, the troubles of last season were not entirely Rooney’s fault. He has indeed spent too long being shunted from position to position – a victim of his own versatility – and Ferguson’s decision to talk publicly about an off-the-cuff, verbal transfer request at the end of the campaign still seems petty to this day. Rooney probably didn’t deserve that.

What he must realise now, though, is that opportunity beckons once again but only if he chooses to see it.

It is easy to talk about the debt Rooney owes United. He no doubt feels he has paid his dues through goals.

More pertinent is the fact that he owes it to himself to make the right choices.

Don’t listen to the money, Wayne. Don’t listen to what other people tell you. Listen to the football.