How the Premiership's "Eurostars" have performed so far

Premier League / Mike Norman / 27 June 2008 / Leave a Comment

From France's flops including Makelele and Evra to Chelsea's trio of Portuguese defenders Bosingwa, Ferreira and Carvalho who have been about par to the impressive Michael Ballack and Cesc Fabregas, "Mystical" Mike Norman talks us through the performances of the Premiership-based players out in Austria/Switzerland..

Approximately 40 Premiership based footballers set out in pursuit of glory at the start of this summer's European Championship, just a few remain - but will it be Fernando Torres and co that claim the title, or the lone Premiership player amongst the German squad?

That lone player is Germany's Michael Ballack, arguably one of the players of the tournament after captaining his country to another major final. But Ballack apart, very few of the Premiership's finest have made a significant impact in Austria and Switzerland over the last few weeks, and I just wonder how this will impact on the clubs they belong to come the start of the new Premiership season.

The Misses

France were dreadful, and unfortunately the same remark goes to William Gallas, Patrice Evra, Claude Makelele, Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka. Why Raymond Domenech persisted with two holding midfielders when he had so many attacking options is something I still can't quite believe. Pairing Makelele and Jeremy Toulalan in the same midfield is akin to your brother dating the good looking cousin - they may look good together, but you know it isn't right.

A few eyebrows may be raised by the inclusion of Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres in this section, but for two players who set the last Premiership season alight, and were sharing favouritism to win the golden boot award, they've been disappointing. Torres has one more game to force me into a rethink, but Ronaldo is gone from the tournament and almost certainly gone from the Premiership. Good riddance I say (through gritted teeth).... but thanks for leaving Miss Atkinson behind.

The Not-So-Bads

The majority of Chelsea's defence was on show during Euro 08, and nearly all fit into the category of 'not great, but not terrible'. Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, Khalid Boulahrouz and new signing Jose Bosingwa all performed with credit. Bosingwa looks an exciting player going forward, but defensively he was stretched a few times and I think this is an area where clubs will look to exploit as he settles into Premiership action.

Edwin van der Sar, Robin van Persie and Dirk Kuyt were close to being 'Hits' based on Holland's excellent group performances, but in major competitions you have to perform at the business end, and unfortunately for the Dutch, too many of their players underperformed against Russia last week.

The Hits

Unlike the Dutch players I've mentioned above, the Premiership based Croatian players perhaps weren't expected to perform so well. But Croatia topped their group, beating Germany along the way, and Manchester City's Vedran Corluka, Tottenham's new boy Luka Modric, and Niko Kranjcar of Portsmouth all had excellent tournaments, despite being eliminated at the quarter-final stage.

Corluka and Modric I was especially impressed with, and I think both these 22 year-olds will be huge assets to their respective clubs throughout the new season.

Cesc Fabregas was almost in the 'Not-So-Bads' section but his dazzling performance last night persuaded me to include him as a 'Hit'. Previously he had been subjected to a few late substitute appearances, however he has always made an impact when coming on, none more so than when he replaced David Villa last night and I think he well go on to have a major role to play in Sunday's final.

And so to Michael Ballack. I know he didn't have the best of games on Wednesday, but neither did Germany. However, the fact remains that Germany have won four of the five games they've contested at Euro 08 and Ballack has been instrumental in this success, both on and off the field. He was excellent in the vital victories over Poland and Portugal, scoring in both games, whilst off the field, he apparently had a huge say in the change of tactics prior to the quarter-final win over Portugal.

Most of the Euro 08 failures will now be on holiday readying themselves for the new Premiership season (unlike Ronaldo who is just on holiday so to avoid the wrath of Sir Alex) and it remains to be seen in what mood they return when they report for training.

Chelsea are the club I fear for most and the [3.2] about them winning the title makes no appeal whatsoever at this stage. They have a huge contingent of French and Portuguese players who must be disappointed following their exploits in Austria/Switzerland and Phil Scolari will have to get them focused quickly. Man United ([2.62]) will be fine, even without Ronaldo, but it's Liverpool I'm interested in most. If Spain go on to win the European Championship then the Reds may well have a spring in their step come August, and I just might have to move Torres from a 'Miss' to a 'Hit' - at [8.8] Liverpool are my idea of a good back to lay option.