Football Food For Thought / Ralph Ellis / 15 September 2008 /

Ralph Ellis looks at the Premiership players such as Cantona who have succeeded after being described by their managers as "last piece of the jigsaw" and the likes of Angel and Rebrov who haven't.

Over the years an assortment of football managers have found enough "last pieces of the jigsaw" to keep Waddingtons stocked for years. That description of a new signing is as routine as the picture of the player holding up a club scarf or a shirt with his name newly printed on the back.

When it's come to time to complete the puzzle, however, most of them have turned out to have the wrong number of curves or bobbly bits to fit the hole they were meant to go in. For every Cantona transforming nearly men into title winners there've been a dozen Sergei Rebrovs or Juan Pablo Angels who stunningly failed to complete the picture.

Now far be it from me to suggest that Sir Alex Ferguson might have made a mistake. History says that every time you put that theory forward he ends up making you look the mug. But after last weekend's games there must be a doubt over whether Dimitar Berbatov will merely make United's jigsaw a good deal more complicated.

On the face of it putting three players of the quality of Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and the big money Bulgarian together should be a guarantee of goals. And yes, United's early effort at Anfield did come when Berbatov turned the defence and picked out Tevez at the back post while Rooney was taking the defenders to the near. But that was about the only time the three of them looked on the same wavelength and the side didn't have the balance it should.

Long term, having more players of that quality in the squad - especially with Cristiano Ronaldo to come back soon - won't hurt. Short term Fergie's big problem will clearly be to fit them together. He's got two goes to get it right this week, starting against Villareal in the Champions League on Wednesday. And even though the Spanish club have started their season well with four points from two games it's hard to look a long way beyond the home win at [1.5]. But next Sunday's trip to Chelsea, already looking massive in the context of the Premier League title race, could be a very different matter. With Ronaldo possibly ready to play, Sir Alex will have some tough decisions on his team because he surely can't fit the Portugal wing wizard and those other three big names into one team? If he tries Chelsea will be great value at [2.38] to win at home.

Luiz Felipe Scolari has got them moving straight away, and the performance at Manchester City was awesomely impressive. Okay, it helped that while everybody else is trying to find the last piece of the jigsaw Mark Hughes is still sorting out the corners and the edge pieces. And he's got to do some work on defending corners before he gets too carried away spending his new found Arab fortune on more superstar players. But there was still a crispness and flow to Chelsea's performance that suggests they can cope with the absence of John Terry even for a game of this size.

While they are fighting it out with each other Liverpool are looking to hit the front with a home game against Stoke to follow up Saturday's big morale booster, and [3.15] for them to top the table at the end of September looks fabulous value. Rafa Benitez reckoned Albert Riera was the last bit of his puzzle and the team did look well balanced for once.

If those clubs are trying to complete their jigsaws, up at Newcastle they've thrown the box all over the floor and walked out of the room in a tantrum! If you took my advice on Friday to lay Gus Poyet as next manager you're already sitting on a healthy profit. Beware of the temptation to back Kevin Keegan even at [3.6] though. While any buyer of the club will be duty bound to bring him back as boss, if Mike Ashley's asking for anywhere between £300million and £400million to sell up and get out with a profit then he might not find too many takers. That could mean him staying around for a while with Chris Hughton carrying on as the man who picks the team.

The Toon are [9.6] for relegation, and that's worth backing only because it will probably shorten in the next few weeks until the crisis is over. The outstanding club to back to go down remains West Brom who are [2.36] for the drop. Don't be fooled by their win over West Ham on Saturday - I was there and they were very much gifted a way back into a game they had lost. They might just be worth backing against Aston Villa on Sunday at [3.15], however. Martin O'Neill's side will turn up after playing Tottenham tonight and a long trip to Bulgaria in the UEFA Cup on Thursday.

Incidentally it didn't take so much limelight, but Portsmouth's win over Middlesbrough proved that Jermain Defoe is scoring goals for fun. He's [2.86] to be top English goalscorer - but grab the [11.5] to be top goal getter overall in the Premier League while it is still there. Can't help feeling Harry Redknapp has already slotted his last piece into place and is sitting back admiring his handywork!

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