The North South Divide: England v Spain graphs

News today tells us that the credit crunch has further entrenched the UK's North/South poverty divide.

"Britain's north-south divide has widened since the start of the recession and is likely to worsen as households in the north-east and Yorkshire are among the hardest hit by rising unemployment and falling house prices, according to a report." (The Guardian)

With the world's wealthiest footballing nations - Spain and England - set to lock horns this weekend it seems timely to look at the related divides across the two squads. So here are some graphs:

Firstly, Spain have a 23 man squad, England a 25. 19 clubs are represented across the two squads. But which clubs have the largest representation?

In the spain squad, 57% of the players come from Real or Barca.

Whereas, in England there is a broader distribution, but Man City have the most:

To be continued.....

Antoine Griezmann: Real Sociedad's French star of the future

Griezmann Wagon Wheel: Click to Enlarge

In a weekend when the El Clasico bigshots squeezed out pitiful fantasy point, the door was left open for some of the league's lesser known stars to shine. And French starlet Antoine Griezmann siezed the day and registered the stand-out performance from Jornada 32. The 20 year old French forward scored twice for Real Sociedad in their vital 2-1 win over Sporting Gijon and top scored the round (pending delayed results from Villarreal 1-0 Zaragoza) with 28pts. This superb display deserves closer attention.



Griezmann's triumphant week caps a stellar season for the forward who has been one of the league' most consistent performers. He has 225 pts, averages 7.26 and is ranked 19th overall in the top scorers list (just ahead of Soldado (Valencia), Nilmar (Villarreal) and Ozil (Real)). His brace took his goals tally to 7 for the season but this is a forward whose efficacy is in his all round play in the final third. While he has just 1 assist, he has also registered 20 shots on target, delivered 64 Successful crosses, won 32 Corners and drawn 37 Fouls. It all adds up.

His 28 pts was his highest weekly total this season and was a welcome reprieve for Sociedad who have been struggling for goals and slipping dangerously close to the relegation zone. With Raul Tamudo seemingly having forgotten how to be a centre forward and main man Javier Llorente missing since Week 20, Griezmann has stepped up to the plate in his side's hour of need.

Real Sociedad may not be the first club people associate with nurturing the young stars of the future but in Griezmann and Xabi Prieto, the blue Basques have produced two of the outstanding young players of this Liga season and will struggle to hold onto the young bucks for 2011/12.

U-19 Champion

• Griezmann also lined up for the French u-19 side that beat their Spanish counterparts in the European Championships in July 2010. However, the wing-wonder didn't quite have the impact he would have hoped for according to Goal.com's ratings

• Total Football Madness have provided a useful write up on the french man. According to them, Griezmann is "the next big thing to come out of France"

• I enjoyed this fab clip where Griezmann invites his teammates to invade a car after scoring against Deportivo:

Spain Under 21s Squad to face Belarus

These are the top scoring Spanish U21 players in the squad to face Belarus tonight. Even though there are lots of Barca players in the squad, very few get a chance in La Liga. It's good to see their companions like De Gea, Nsue, Adrian and Muniain are getting the chance and making an impact at the highest level.

Spain's Squad to face the Czech Republic and Lithuania