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It’s a well known fact that Fabio Capello prefers to use the 4-4-2 system, however we all know the limitations of this system and it’s debatable if it suits England’s best players. The best alternative systems are 4-5-1 and 4-3-3. The potential limitation of either of these systems is the lack of striking support for Wayne Rooney.

It has been suggested that after the recent friendly against Ghana, 4-3-3 has become the new favoured formation. Therefore, it seems logical to discuss this first. Based on the Ghana game it seems the idea is to play two wide players with a central striker. Players like Ashley Young, Adam Johnson, Stewart Downing and other wide players would be in contention to support Rooney. If the formation doesn’t work it can be altered by bringing on another striker.

The 4-5-1 system is generally considered a negative and defensive system, however with the right players it can also be considered a very attacking way to play. The key to this formation is getting the midfielders to push up and support the loan striker.

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The 4-4-2 system is something English players will be used to and is still favoured by a lot of managers who prefer this system; Capello being one of them. It can make teams a bit overly predictable; however it is hard to beat, if a team has a lot of good strikers.

It’s important to remember that it’s players that win games and not formations, but managers need to pick their best players and find the right formation. Rather than pick a formation and then try and find the players that fit into that system. So Capello has to decide who his best players are?

In many ways strikers are a weakness for England at the moment. In particular, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe have had poor seasons in the Premier League. England could probably do well to build the team around players like Ashley Young and Adam Johnson. Therefore, you can understand the appeal of the 4-3-3 system. But is Wayne Rooney suited to playing the lone role up front? Especially as he often plays more as an attacking midfielder rather than an out and out striker.

These questions will need to be answered and England will need to decide on the best system going forward. So that’s my view, but what do you think? What system is most suited to the England players? Can Wayne Rooney play as a lone striker?

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Heard the one about the “family man” Premier League footballer who had an affair with an ex-“star” of Big Brother? Well you probably have if you are able to master an internet search engine, but details of their tryst cannot be reported in the mainstream press due to him successfully obtaining an injunction preventing the fully story from being revealed.

Leaving aside the issue of whether this tawdry tale should be considered newsworthy, why was this footballer able to stop the story from being published when the likes of John Terry, Peter Crouch and (for those with longer memories) Garry Flitcroft were not so successful?

The answer can be found in the European Convention on Human Rights which the UK signed up to in 1998. Article 10 of the Convention protects the “right to freedom of expression” including the “freedom to impart information”. However, under Article 8, an individual has the right to “respect for his private and family life”. Clearly there is a conflict between these two Articles, and the Courts will generally be required to weigh up which of these competing interests is more legitimate in deciding whether to grant an injunction or not.

In the case of John Terry, despite initially being granted a temporary “super injunction” (which prevented the press from reporting that an injunction had even been obtained), the Judge lifted the injunction as he deemed it “not necessary or proportionate having regard to the level of gravity of interference with the private life of the applicant”. That is to say that freedom of expression (of the press) was more legitimate than the possible interference with Terry’s private life. It seems that the key factor in making this decision was that Terry was less concerned with “personal distress” than the impact of adverse publicity on his reputation and more particularly, the commercial effect that the revelations would have on his sponsorship deals.

In the case of our unnamed footballer mentioned above, however, the Judge must have believed that the main motivation in seeking an injunction was to protect the player’s family and not his own image. This is particularly the case where a player’s children are likely to suffer bullying at school if details of the story are revealed.

It remains to be seen how this area of law will develop in the future. The furore surrounding the latest raft of injunctions and political unease at the judiciary “establishing a new privacy law via the back door” has put this issue at the forefront of the media agenda. David Cameron himself has waded in to question whether Judges should have the power to issue “super injunctions”. It is unlikely that the government will seek to introduce a new privacy law in the near future, but it may be that the new Defamation Bill (currently in consultation until June 2011) is used to re-assert the legislature’s authority over the judiciary.

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Adam Leadercramer is a senior lawyer at onside law, a boutique law firm specialising in the sport and entertainment sectors. Adam regularly advises players, clubs, third party investors, agents and others involved in the football industry, and is a Millwall season ticket holder.

A disastrous World Cup campaign in South Africa which included player revolts and walkouts left French football in disarray. Since then the French Football Federation replaced the unpopular Raymond Domenech with Laurent Blanc. Things have improved dramatically since the World Cup winner took over. There has been an influx of young French talent to the squad and players such as Samir Nasri and Karim Benzema, who were overlooked for the tournament have come back into the fold. France are currently top of their European Championship qualifying group and took the scalp of England at Wembley recently. Just when things were starting to look rosy for our friends from across the Channel, the French media is awash with revelations of racist remarks from Laurent Blanc, casting his future as manager into doubt.

There have been huge efforts from world football governing bodies to implement various campaigns into football to help fight the ugly side of the beautiful game. So for this latest scandal to come to light from what is one of the most multicultural nations in the world is not only a disgrace, but a step backwards.  The comments from Blanc came from a meeting in November where he and French Football Federation technical director François Blaquart, Under-21 coach Erick Mombaerts and Under-20 coach Francis Smerecki were discussing recruitment of French youngsters. The contentious comments arose when discussing the best way to develop young French players – should they go for the strong athletic players, or the technical players? Blanc was championing the latter but his words were poorly chosen, Blanc is alleged to have said, “The Spaniards, they don’t have a problem because they don’t have any blacks’ or ‘What is there that is big, strong, powerful? The blacks.” This comes from the recording leaked by French football official Mohammed Belkacemi to Mediapart.

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This scandal has an immediate impact on French football, but also has a worldwide impact on football in general. It shows that after everything that has been done over the years to stamp racism out of the game, it still persists. There are also claims that restricting the number of black and North African players that can enter French academies was discussed, something which Blanc strongly denies. The worrying thing from this allegation is that it shows there is still a long way to go in the fight against racism if it’s present within National football federations. What hope is there to completely eradicate racism from the terraces, when it’s prevalent in board rooms of major sporting nations? I don’t actually believe Laurent Blanc is a racist, however his comments show a lack of intelligence if he feels talking in such a manner is acceptable.

Unfortunately I think racism is something that will continue to mar football, sometimes no matter how much effort is put into campaigns to remove it from the game, you can’t change the mindset of certain people. What’s worrying is that if a scandal like this is coming out of a multinational nation such as France, what is potentially going on in Eastern European countries where racism still rears its head regularly?  It was only a few months ago that Lokomotiv Moscow fans celebrated Peter Odemwingie’s sale to West Brom with a banner showing a banana and the message: “Thanks West Brom”.

The allegations in France are just another example that kicking racism out of football is a never ending task. Luckily in our country racist incidents are few and far between, although there are still isolated incidents, so it’s something that continually needs addressing in the sport of football.

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Kashiwa Reysol have regained top spot in the J-League after a 3-1 win over Urawa Red Diamonds on Saturday.Forward Hideaki Kitajima opened the scoring for the home side in the first minute before Brazilian Jorge Wagner doubled the lead in the 21st.

Kitajima grabbed his second in the 83rd to seal the points before Genki Haraguchi fired a consolation for the 2006 champions in the final minute of normal time.

Kashiwa now have four wins and one loss for the season to lead the league by one points from Yokohama F Marinos and Vegalta Sendai.

Yokohama F Marinos climbed to second after fighting back from two goals down in the first half to beat Avispa Fukuoka 3-2.

Avispa raced to a 2-0 lead as Hisashi Jogo netted in the 31st and 42nd minutes, but Kazushi Kimura’s men managed to overturned the lead in the second half.

Kazuma Watanabe pulled a goal back almost immediately after the break before Yuji Ono’s brace snatched victory for Yokohama.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Ventforet Kofu played out a 1-1 draw as did champions Nagoya Grampus and Shimizu S-Pulse.

Japan international Ryoichi Maeda bagged a brace as Jubilo Iwata comprehensively defeated Montedio Yamagata 4-0 to move into seventh.

Vissel Kobe also climbed on the table after they edged out Kawasaki Frontale 1-0 courtesy of Kang-Jo Park’s 68th-minute strike.

Elsewhere, Omiya Ardija and Albirex Niigata had a scoreless stalemate while Cerezo Osaka held high-flying Vegalta Sendai to a 1-1 draw.

The 25 man squad rule came into place at the beginning of this season to encourage the use of more home-grown players in the Premier League with the long term aim of helping the England team. But does such a rule remove the need for another Premier League rule that states “in every Premier League match each participating club shall field a full-strength team”?

I would say that it should do and which of those 25 players are selected on a match-day is purely managerial preference and the team that he feels is right for that particular game. However, it appears that it’s not as clear cut as that as far as the Premier League are concerned because they fined Blackpool £25,000 for fielding a “weakened” side earlier this season, after making 10 changes from their previous side. Therefore, it will certainly be interesting to see what happened if as expected Manchester United put out an under strength side in their final Premier League match.

Quite how the Premier League decides what a “weakened” side is, I will never know and it’s worth noting that the Manchester United’s fringe players are considerably stronger than the squad players available to Blackpool or Wolves. But that doesn’t mean that Manchester United should be able to get away with it while teams like Blackpool and Wolves get punished.

I think now that the 25 man squad rule has been introduced there is really no need to have a rule punishing teams for playing “weakened” sides and no selection within that 25 man squad should ever be considered a weakened team. The other side of it if teams are always punished for using youth/fringe players then when can these players gain experience?

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I also feel that to some extent teams can govern themselves. Generally speaking managers send a team out to win a game and are not going put out a weak side for no good reason. Yes, sometimes players need to be rested but I don’t think there would ever be a situation when managers would constantly play a weak team. The 25 man rule should ensure that teams keep a close and compact squad and youth players get plenty of opportunities and surely it’s a managers right to pick and choose between that squad on any match-day.

So is it time for the Premier League to stop punishing teams for fielding a “weakened” side and trust the 25 man squad rule will work?

Join the conversation on Twitter and tell me what you think about the 25 man squad rule and if teams should be punished for “weakened” sides.

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Any club that has Harry Redknapp at the helm is always going to be busy in the transfer market, and Tottenham Hotspur is no different. The Lilywhites ended up having a mixed season after a disappointing run in, which culminated in missing out on Champions League qualification. No doubt the Spurs players’ will find it hard not playing Champions League football next season after such a memorable debut campaign for the club. Meaning it is only natural that the likes of Luka Modric and Gareth Bale are linked with moves away, but with ‘Arry’s insistent that the two stars are not for sale and that he wants “Daniel (Levy) to go out and get three fantastic players”, who should Tottenham be looking to bring in to mount a push for Champions League qualification again next season?

Emmanuel Adebayor

Spurs are in major need of a consistent striker after a diabolical goal return from their so called forwards this season. Although signing a former Arsenal player who had a penchant for scoring a goal against them would normally be forbidden, I think this time Spurs fans’ should make an exception. The Togolese forward carries the aerial prowess that Peter Crouch should have, an eye for goal and has continually performed well at the top level. ‘Arry loves a bargain and the Manchester City striker is available at a snip of the price that City paid the Gunners in 2009.

Leandro Damiao

The 21 year old has been in formidable form of late with 22 goals in his last 24 matches for Internacional (that’s more league goals than Tottenham’s forwards managed in nearly 100 games combined in the league last season). The youngster’s pace and trickery will add a new dimension to a rather stale Spurs front line, and could form an impressive partnership with Adebayor (should Spurs take my advice). The Brazilian forward is also being watched by Barcelona, Benfica and Juventus, but Spurs could use there relationship they built up with Internacional when they signed Sandro last summer to get their man. Should Spurs sign the Brazilian star, it will be a major coup.

Gary Cahill

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Rather surprisingly Tottenham haven’t been strongly linked with the Bolton man, but with Manchester United close to signing Phil Jones, Arsenal (as usual) unwilling to pay with anything other than chocolate coins and Manchester City no longer in need for a centre back (as Toure will be back early September), Spurs could have a good chance at signing the former Aston Villa player. With Woodgate and King practically wheelchair bound and Bassong reportedly heading for the exit door, there is definitely room at the heart of the defence at White Hart Lane. Cahill has a surprising eye for goal, something Spurs haven’t really had in a defender since Sol Campbell, as well a successful tackler and a commanding defending, the Englishman would be an ideal signing for the Lilywhites.

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New Chelsea manager Andre Villas Boas has stated that his players must commit to and be willing to die for the club cause if the London side are to be successful in 2011/12.

The Stamford Bridge outfit relinquished their Premier League crown last term, and the ex-Porto coach is eager for his squad to show their commitment to winning it back.

“You can be successful in the game in various different ways. The most important thing is that the idea you want to sell, the players are able to buy it; that it doesn’t seem something so out of the ordinary that they are not able to commit and die for you and for the cause,” the 33-year-old told Chelsea Magazine.

The Portuguese also stated that his team would look to attack and score goals in the next campaign.

“It’s not just a case of the manager arriving, changing things and that’s why they score. You free them from the limitations that they might have in a different kind of system but, in the end, you make them believe in their qualities and this is the most important thing.

“For you to exploit the potential of every player to the full, you have to give them a certain amount of freedom, or else they will never test it. So we encourage them to make better decisions, give them freedom of choice a lot.

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“Once you go towards finding that talent, you can end up with players transcending themselves and doing things they thought they could never do,” he concluded.

Chelsea start their Premier League campaign against Stoke City at the Brittania Stadium on August 13th.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has conceded that last season was the toughest of his career.Wenger’s side had once again looked to challenge for honours for a significant part of last term, only to lose in the Carling Cup final, which in turn became a catalyst for a poor end to the season, resulting in the club’s sixth trophy-less campaign.

The north Londoners were eliminated from the Champions League and FA Cup by Barcelona and Manchester United respectively following the 2-1 defeat to Birmingham City at Wembley.

Speaking ahead of his side’s friendly with Hangzhou Greentown, the 61-year-old said: “The last part of it [the season] was certainly the toughest [of his career] because emotionally it was very difficult because we were on a low. You could see that the last three or four weeks were very difficult.”

“It was because I took full responsibility for what happened.”

“I knew at some stage that it was lost and I had so much hope for the team, because through November and December, you could feel that the team had really taken off and could win everything. And it was so close.”

However, the Frenchman believes that a further year of maturation for his side’s young players, and also a return from injury from a number of key figures, will pay dividends when the new campaign gets underway next month.

“I believe we are perfectly good enough. What we did last year, considering the age of the squad and the problems we had with injuries, was a credit to the team and we have a good opportunity now to show that we have the quality,” Wenger said.

“If you are a winner, you say: ‘We were very close last year, let’s do it this year’. You come back.”

“I believe that the real destiny of this team is now there. They know as well as I know that we were very, very close last season.”

“We intend to show everybody that we can do it. We are a young team and we can only be better. It demands the strength of character that the champions have. That’s what we want to show.”

Emmanuel Adebayor, Tottenham Hotspur striker. Those very words may stick in some Spurs fans throat, but it is a possibility that may very well become fact over the next few weeks. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has confirmed he is extremely interested in the former Arsenal frontman, who is currently looking for a new club. But should Spurs fans remain so angry towards Togo international, in light of his proposed move, and should many be against such a signing?

Adebayor was recently left out of Manchester City’s tour of America and has been forced to train with their youth team, after returning from his holidays. Suddenly unwanted in Manchester, he spent the second-half of last season on loan at Real Madrid after seemingly falling out with City boss Roberto Mancini, and has made no secret of his desire to make that loan move permanent, issuing several ‘come and get me’ pleas to the Spanish giants. Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho is said to be interested in making a deal happen, but Real are reluctant, having their cash tied up in chasing several other targets. This leaves Tottenham his most likely destination at this present moment, if Spurs chairman Daniel Levy can thrash out a suitable loan deal with City, which would leave some fans in an unhappy situation. But should they forget the players past and cross the divide?

Regardless of what many may think about Adebayor the man, Adebayor the player is a proven goalscorer in the Premier League, and a proven handful when he is on his game. With Peter Crouch out of favour, Adebayor is seen as his perfect replacement and an upgrade with a better all-around game. This is what manager Harry Redknapp no doubt sees and, as we all know, when it comes to crossing divides and leaving loyalties to one side, Redknapp is a man who’s been there, scene it and done it! He could prove one of the ‘buys’ of the season, if a cheaper loan deal can be worked out.

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Of course, Adebayor was a hate figure at Tottenham during his 4-year stint with bitter rivals Arsenal, scoring eight times in nine north London derbies. Although he moved on, two goals during a Champions League match against Spurs, whilst on loan at Madrid did nothing to suppress any lingering anger felt towards the former Gunner. But surprisingly, any anger from Spurs fans felt towards Adebayor may well be out-weighed when measured in comparison against what Arsenal fans feel. Once hailed at the Emirates, he is now firmly a villain in those parts, due to his acrimonious departure, seemingly in search of the new wealth which Manchester City had acquired. His goal against Arsenal during his first game against his old club, along with his now infamous celebration in taunting their fans, cemented his place as their new hate figure, possibly even surpassing any current Tottenham player. Various flashpoints and nasty incidents on the pitch, most notably against Robin van Persie, only served to enhance the hatred. Can you imagine the scenes of delirium, and equal anguish, if Adebayor was to perform his goalscoring antics against Arsenal, in a Tottenham jersey?

So, Spurs fans, who was it who said ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’?

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Universidad Cesar Vallejo were not able to make home advantage count in the first round of the Copa Sudamericana.The Peruvian side had to settle for a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their tie against Colombia’s Santa Fe on Tuesday.

Cesar Vallejo controlled the early stages, with Uruguyan forward Mario Leguizamon giving them a fourth minute lead – an advantage they would hold until half time.

But Oscar Rodas salvaged a draw for the visitors with the equaliser on 52 minutes, giving them the advantage heading into the second leg in Bogota on August 28.

In Tuesday’s other first round tie, Uruguayan side Bella Vista could only muster a 1-1 draw at home against Universidad Catolica.

The hosts went ahead on 24 minutes through an Ignacio Nicolini penalty, but Pablo Calandria’s goal for the Universidad side 12 minutes later ensured the Chilean side have the upper hand ahead of the return leg in Santiago on August 17.