Wenger believes in Ballack
Arsene Wenger has hailed the performances of Chelsea star Michael Ballack at Euro 2008 and believes he is a serious contender to be named player of the tournament.
Germany captain Ballack has been hugely influential in his side's march to the last four and leads them out against Turkey tomorrow with a chance to reach the final.
He has already named by bookmakers as favourite to lift the Castrol Player of the Tournament award which this year will feature three players voted for by fans on www.castrolindex.com and three nominated by UEFA's Technical Team.
Supporters can only choose from players who have appeared at some stage in the top 10 of Castrol's performance index which measures stats such as how far players run and the accuracy of their passing, shooting and tackling.
Fans currently place Arda Turan in first place after a rush of votes form Turkey but Wenger is looking closer to home and isn’t shy to recommend a player from deadly rivals Chelsea.
He said: "So far for me Michael Ballack is the most influential player in his team. I like the simplicity and efficiency of his game and the fact that he works very hard for his team.
"He makes final balls, good passes, he makes the difference in midfield when it's needed and when you need him to score a header, he's there as well. So you can't fault him. "I'm happy for him, because he didn't always get the respect he deserved when he played in Germany.
"He leads now. He was quiet for a long time. I felt too quiet. He was leading by example but not with his communication. It looks like in this tournament he is leading by both." Wenger has also been impressed by Russia's Andrei Arshavin who was man of the match in his side’s quarter-final victory over Holland.
He said: "Arshavin has shown in the last game how good he is. I was wondering whether Guus Hiddink was going to bring in him or not after he was suspended for the first two group games because the team had won, but the fact you bring him in when the team's doing so well means he's exceptional and he has shown that now."
Because Arshavin has played only twice he isn't yet top of the Castrol Performance Index, that honour goes to Spain's David Villa, who has scored four goals in the tournament. And Wenger expects Spain to make a real go of winning the title now after knocking out Italy.
"Spain look to have a good team spirit and want to wipe out that reputation that they have to play nice football but lose the first difficult game," he said.
"They have players who play abroad like Fabregas and Torres and this helps take the complexes away. They know that players who they practise with have weak days as well as good days and their reputations aren't always as big as they think. That is a big reinforcement of their motivation."
24 June 2008
