By Benjamin Leinwand and Chris Anderson
When it comes to pay, not all positions are created equal. In fact, we have long known that strikers command a premium for their services. So it should come as no surprise that Major League Soccer is no exception. In 2011, average earnings were distinctly tilted toward the offensive side of the pitch.

Against Wolves, Jordan Henderson only misplaced four of his passes from open play for a completion rate topping 90%. He may not have connected on any of his seven attempted crosses, which does rather drag down his overall numbers, but it is nonetheless an impressive statistic. As for how he achieved such a high completion rate, the answer is a fairly simple one: He kept it simple.

It's been awhile since I trawled through the Guardian chalkboards for interesting items. I know, we all missed it.
I remain convinced that Liverpool changed tact in midfield during the interval. The key seemed to be Spearing, more willing to stay in his own half and shield the defense rather than pressing higher up the pitch and leaving gaps.

Ireland striker Robbie Keane has already become Aston Villa's in-game gaffer by shouting out pitch instructions to his short-term colleagues.
Keane has ingratiated himself to team-mates and fans alike with his brilliant double in the 3-2 victory at Wolves last Weekend and it capped an amazing full Villa start for the 31-year-old Irish captain who is currently on loan from LA Galaxy.

Gabriel Gomez was signed by the Philadelphia Union in late December. Last night was the first chance Philly fans have had to examine the versatile Panamanian.

In a 1-0 friendly loss to the United States, Gomez played as a calming link between Panama's back four and skittish front five.

The good news: He was fantastic.

The Seattle Sounders have added a PDL team to their youth development program, partnering with the Tacoma Tide and rebranding the team as Sounders FC U-23. The team will be coached by current Sounders academy director Darren Sawatzky and play somewhere in Pierce County, although a permanent home has not yet been determined.

Ooh, it's a little early for tongue, Nolan. What kind of girls do you think we are? Image: PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images.

Nature abhors a vacuum, Kickettes. It isn't something we made up as a convenient opening remark for a transfer update post, it's the truth.

Don't believe us? Last week, we told you that Ludovic Obraniak had left Lille for Bordeaux, leaving a massive gap in their pretty player quotient.

One of the areas of focus during the tactical work this camp has been on shifting and moving as a unit, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. One exercise designed to train these movements is what Jurgen Klinsmann calls the 'six goal game'.
Using a field of 70 yards long by 72 yards wide, the coaches set up the big goals in the center of each endline and then placed two smaller goals on each side seven yards from the sideline.

In the spirit of honesty, I can let you know that I've been writing the same Revolution-focused blog post for well over a week. It's a long winding tale of where the team stands and what you might do differently from a business and marketing perspective. Goodness knows, I didn't have the heart to also tackle on-field possibilities in the same post.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp conceded that Roy Hodgson's resilient West Brom side made it tough for Spurs at White Hart Lane last night and the boss was just grateful for three points at the end of the match.

Jermain Defoe broke the deadlock after the hour mark and Spurs held on but Harry agreed that it was tough,

"It was very important for us to stay up there and it was a hard night," said Harry.

Featured image: Paul Rudderow

Editor's note: At the end of the 2010 season, we posted a series of season reviews of every Philadelphia Union player. Over the next several weeks PSP continues with a review of the 2011 season.

I saved Migs for my last player review of the season because really, what else is there to say?

A match that we looked in control of for the entire 90 minutes. At half time with the match still at 0-0, it just looked like a matter of time before we opened the scoring. And on the 54th minute Gareth Bale steps up. Ade receives the ball in the box and tries to work himself some space for a shot, but instead opts for a pass to Bale who controls and puts the ball under the outstretched flailing hand of Ruddy.

I think we all had a feeling, for better or worse, that Gary Cahill was going to be a Chelsea player come January after seeing Owen Coyle's comments last week. Now, we have some concrete information from Andre Villas-Boas that the club is indeed pursuing the English defender.

Only a matter time until this is closed then?

Injury problems and also the upcoming African Cup most likely will force Arsene Wenger make some activity in the January transfer market especially in covering the full back and striker positions.

Arsenal are set to lose Gervinho along with Marouane Chamakh for the African Cup, while their main full backs such as Bacary Sagna, Kieran Gibbs, Andre Santos and Carl Jenkinson are all injured.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Editor's note: At the end of the 2010 season, we posted a series of season reviews of every Philadelphia Union player. Over the next several weeks PSP continues with a review of the 2011 season.

It was a disappointing second year for Jack McInerney.

In the last few weeks the Seattle Sounders have lost a total of 9 players by draft, transfer, trade, retirement, and just about every other way you can think of for a team to lose a player. This week we talk about those loses and what the team will do to fill those gaps.

We have an audio clip from the December 7th press conference call with new Sounders netminder Michael Gspurning (Guh-SHPURN-ing), answering Jeremiah's question as to how long he would like to stay in Seattle.

Harry's pre-match comments have pretty much given us the starting line up for tonight but there are still some gaps to fill in,

"I was doing a little bit of work with them this morning and there's seven internationals in there," said Harry.

"Defoe is here, Gio Dos Santos, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Kaboul, Pienaar, Niko, Sandro, they will all play.

In the last few weeks the Seattle Sounders have lost a total of 9 players by draft, transfer, trade, retirement, and just about every other way you can think of for a team to lose a player. This week we talk about those loses and what the team will do to fill those gaps.
We have an audio clip from the December 7th press conference call with new Sounders netminder Michael Gspurning (Guh-SHPURN-ing), answering Jeremiah's question as to how long he would like to stay in Seattle.

The Philadelphia Union have made their first off-season moves, and the latest installment of the KYW Philly Soccer Show has Union assistant coach John Hackworth on the pod to talk about it.

In part one, Coach Hackworth joins KYW‘s Greg Orlandini and Philly Soccer Page writer Eli Pearlman-Storch to discuss losing veteran midfielder Justin Mapp to Montreal Impact in the Expansion Draft and other possible moves in the offseason.

Frank Klopas -- Getty ImagesBy Charlie Corr
ESPNChicago.com
In the coming weeks, the Chicago Fire should be announcing an abundance of player options that they are picking up heading into 2012. The Fire have yet to officially state the return of midfielder Pavel Pardo or comment on other players' contract status, but in all likelihood a large portion of the 2011 squad should be on board next season.

This home game against Borussia Dortmund could turn out to be tougher than the away visit to Chelsea. It probably won't have as many goals and will be tighter in the middle, but from a physical and mental point of view the players will have to give at least as much if not more than that celebrated triumph.

Harry Redknapp is the quintessential English manager. Working class roots, played football since he was a kid, steeped in the game, worked his way up in management from the lower leagues. Close to his players, he preaches the virtues of hard work and character. He has prospered in the modern era but his teams would look familiar to fans from any era of English football big men at the back, tough tackling midfielders and wingers with another big bloke up front.

**This weekend's guest post comes to us from Paul, who's been posting as PDubz18 for awhile now. Written prior to the start of the international break (England v. Spain coming up, brace yourselves for poppy poppy poppy. Also, annihilation.), he discusses the system Liverpool's used so far, and how the personnel fit into the general approach utilized by Kenny Dalglish and his staff.

I'm a big fan of Charlie Adam; the Scot is a modern day Jan Molby, and he shares many of the Great Dane's footballing characteristics, such as exquisite passing ability; great close control; a venomous shot, and of course, a distinct lack of pace (!). As we've seen this season, Adam seems to tire early in games, which allows the opposition to exploit the gaps he leaves in midfield.

A couple of weeks ago, Gary Gillespie revealed that when he was at Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish, the players were 'just told to go out and play', and that during his 8 year spell at Anfield 'the days we were actually coached I can count on one hand'. Against Swansea yesterday, it seemed like the coaching had regressed back to Gillespie's 1980s heyday for the afternoon.

After the West Brom victory last week, I posted an article arguing that the quality of Liverpool's second half performance had been wildly exaggerated. The gross hyperbole coming from fans, pundits and ex-players after the game was laughable, and just served to deflect attention away from the real issues, which were exposed again today by an outstanding Swansea team who, quite frankly, gave Liverpool a footballing lesson on their own ground.

United are a top priced 1.25 to make the annual return to Manchester another unhappy experience for former captain Steve Bruce, and if the form book is anything to go by then they should comfortably beat the Black Cats.

Since suffering a heavy defeat in a certain match which we no longer talk about, the Reds have answered the calls of the gaffer and quickly got back into winning ways.

Liverpool were brilliant in the first half against Norwich on Saturday; the team started like gangbusters and could've been 5-0 up at half-time. Things changed in the second half though; energy levels seemed to drop, and big gaps began appearing in midfield, which allowed Norwich to get back into the game.

The Gap Is Closing

Pepe Reina believes that the £120 million invested by The Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is driving Liverpool ever closer to arch-rivals Manchester United. "I hope [the signings] have helped close the gap," said the Spanish international following Saturday's 1-1 draw with Manchester United.

Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina believes the club's recent recruitment drive has helped close the gap further to the Premier League's top teams.
The Reds have dropped out of the top four during the last two seasons after being mainstays in the UEFA Champions League.
Liverpool spent big in the summer in a bid to improve their squad and Reina has been encouraged by what the new arrivals have brought to the team.

Andre Villas-Boas has always stated that he wants his players to express themselves, find gaps in the their defence in between the lines and exploit them. Juan Mata spoke of AVB's attacking approach he wanted to implement at Chelsea and Bolton was THE game where everything went right as we got the ball forward.

You don't need an Italian football expert to tell you Gian Piero Gasperini was off to a bad start at Inter. Even though he has lead the Nerazzurri in fewer than a half-dozen competitive matches, his team looked nothing short of horrendous in that time. It can be argued he did, in fact, deserve the pink slip handed to him this morning.

Using only hand gestures, Tomas Rosicky demonstrates the size of the gaps in Arsenal's defence that Manchester United romped through in their last EPL fixture. Image: Alex Livesey/Getty Images.

Alan Pardew puts paid to the idea of bringing in any free agents to plug any gaps in the Newcastle United squad, and he looks forward to the return of Hatem Ben Arfa. You are probably not surprised to find out that this is 'it' now in terms of the squad until January. Pardew has [...]

It's Friday evening, we're on an international break and the long, long summer transfer window has finally closed; time for something a little light hearted. How about the colour of socks?
Yes, I really did this, but I cannot possibly stress this enough: I really, really don't care about the colour of socks on our home kit.

Over the rest of this week, we'll be giving up more space on Twohundredpercent to non-league football. As many of you will already be aware, this weekend sees Non-League Day taking advantage of a gap in the Premier League and Championship schedules to try and promote the cause of the semi-professional game.

The Arsenal legend Frank McLintock believes that Arsene Wenger has been given enough years to address the Gunners' deficiency in defence, and this could be his last chance to plug the gaps or the Frenchman could be sacked for his obstinacy. McLintock, who won the Double with Arsenal in 1971, said: "If he doesn't start [.

31 players have been allocated squad numbers for Newcastle United's 2011/2012 season. As we haven't posted it here yet, I thought I'd list the squad numbers for the 2011/2012 season. 31 players have so far been allocated a number but there are three gaps for numbers 3, 9 and 12 (and obviously an infinite number [.

By Puck Ladies and Gentlemen welcome back to the Happy Hour. Wednesday's match with Mexicowent just about as scripted, at least in this writer's view. The USMNT veterans were unfamiliar with their new assignments under Klinsy and El Tri took advantage, exploiting the resulting gaps in defense. The addition of former USMNT outcasts like JFT [.

By Puck Ladies and Gentlemen welcome back to the Happy Hour. Wednesday's match with Mexicowent just about as scripted, at least in this writer's view. The USMNT veterans were unfamiliar with their new assignments under Klinsy and El Tri took advantage, exploiting the resulting gaps in defense. The addition of former USMNT outcasts like JFT [.