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Why we can’t play like Tottenham…
A set of thoughts triggered by Peter Stevenson, LFC, Cyprus.
I was thinking about exactly this question during the abortive international football of the summer. Why can’t the national team play like the clubs it takes its players from.
I’m Spurs; it’s always nice to see a good number of my team in the England team – that hasn’t always been the case and it feels like we’re doing something right.
I’m not an idiot – I am aware that every time we put out an England team __with a fair few Spurs players in: it’s absolutely dire. Not just this summer, we’ve had teams before where suddenly you find Jenas, Walker, Lennon, Defoe and a couple of other form Spurs players and the net result is a really bad England display.
Historically I just wrote that off as the way of the world – we were trying to get into the top four which means we’re not top four which means our players aren’t as good as those in the top four which means that an international team made of those players is not as good as a team made up of players from the top four. Fine.
What about this summer? Our team was good, the players we put in the England squad are good players. Why the sh!te?
1) The England team had a lot of players who had got plaudits in the league for their high-tempo pressing game. We then didn’t play a high tempo pressing game, so why did we expect the likes of Kane (and Vardy) to suddenly be able to play as traditional strikers when they’ve got the chance to play in the national team by being ‘a pain in the ass’ in a high tempo pressing game for their club…
2) The players who have played a high tempo pressing game all season are presumably the ones who are going to be knackered come international tournament time.
So I think my summary is that actually, this may be part of our problem now. The ‘top’ teams with a lot of English representation are playing a high-energy game so their players are going to be knackered come summer. International football often felt like it had what I would call a more ‘continental’ pace (perhaps no longer an appropriate phrase), and the teams that win the international tournaments usually have the capacity to control the pace of the game meaning that the can cruise against lesser teams and save energy for the big games. Deciding that our national identity is an all-action chasing them down style of football is lovely but we would have to accept that the players who are best at doing it won’t be in good shape come tournament time. I only see that working as a national style if we have academies churning out a generation of players who play that way so that we have a decent pool to fall back on. And that’s before you start having World Cups in Quatar in the middle of summer.
Right, best crack on with some work I guess.
Dan, Spurs
Can we have an E-exit please?
Sitting here reading the slim pickings from the mailbox (I know you can only print what you get etc), I wondered whether the English football team should withdraw from international competition. A Brexit for English football (E-exit?) No one’s heart seems to be in it any more. Fans are bitter and would prefer not to care if given the chance. Even though players harp on about the badge etc. you get the sense they are only saying it not in incur the wrath of The Sun. Hell, no one even wants to manage us. Aren’t international tournaments more enjoyable once England get knocked out? Am I just being a joyless tw@t or would anyone else jump aboard a LEAVE campaign?
Adriano, Dublin
Look what the Brexit did…
With the value of the pound continuing to fall, expect players to ask for ever higher wages. Just witness Sanchez and Ozil recently upping their wage demands in their contract negotiations. I wonder what that coincides with?
With higher wages being demanded, I would think there would be a decline in the number of top end players in the Premier League because a) the wages would be too high for clubs to sanction the player purchase and b) the players will be wary of seeing their pay packets erode in value.
I obviously don’t need to tell you how this would impact the quality of the league. Sad, regressive times.
Andrew (slow clap for Brexit, slow clap) Stevens
Looking at the top eight…
Outside of the actual tournaments international football is a bit of a bore, never more so than this week. All I want is another round of Premier League fixtures. These are my musings on the current top eight.
Man City. So much for adjusting to the league. Favourable fixture and impressive performances saw them storm to the top of the table. Everything was looking good and then they ran into Spurs (and Celtic) who made them look vulnerable. They are only going to get better but so are the teams they are going to face. I still think Guardiola might struggle around the Christmas period and the squad looks weak in places but they are looking like title favourites to me.
Spurs, underappreciated and slightly ignored. The most complete team in the league last year and the only unbeaten team so far. Solid, stable and a year or two ahead of their rivals in team development. It will take a good team to finish above them and are capable of winning the league, but I think City and Arsenal are capable of picking up more win.
Arsenal. I really think this year looks different, and I’ll keep thinking that right until the time it ends up looking like all the others! They have the best squad, plenty of experience and have to get it right one year!
Liverpool. The Burnley result brought back memories of last season’s boom and bust results, and teams still don’t need many chances to score against them but they play football in spells that make you think anything is possible. Despite having the hardest start (of the top teams) and proving themselves over seven games I need to see more before I can be sure they are the real deal.
Everton. Very good start. Koeman looks more impressive every season. The League Cup result was a little worrying, and they are still too reliant on Lukaku. This team might have made fourth last year but this season looks more competitive. Capable of splitting the big six if one of them has a poor season.
Man Utd. After three games it looked like Mourinho had worked his magic and everything was going to be okay, and then they played City. The way they lost was probably worse than the result. It’s still early and they are only three points from second place so shouldn’t be discounted. The next two games are Liverpool and Chelsea (both away). Two good results and it will be title talk again but what if they lose? Since Fergie left United have looked broken and vulnerable. I’m not sure Mourinho has the magic to change that anymore. Liverpool could push them outside the top four.
Chelsea. Much like united it looked very different after three games, and like United they aren’t too far from the top. I have more confidence in Conte then Mourinho but he probably has more to do. Probably in a battle for fourth with Liverpool and United.
Crystal Palace. When Chunky gets his teams on a roll they tend to do well. Can’t see them finishing in the top six but they could spend a few weeks above the bigger sides above them.
R Smith (Can odds be too high?)
Aldridge so wrong on Karius/Mignolet
I love John Aldridge, I really do. He was a great player for Liverpool and I fully accept that he knows much more than me about playing and, more importantly, the pressure of playing in big games.
That said, I believe he is madder than a box of frogs to suggest that Mignolet would be a better option than Karius in goal for the game against Man Utd. Mignolet is not good enough. He makes some decent saves but it seems to me (can’t be bothered to find stats to prove it) that he concedes a high ratio of the chances he faces – didn’t he go on a run of conceding 12 shots on target in a row or something last year?
More importantly he is superglued to his goal line and rarely comes out for things that he should including corners. In my view this drives fear and confusion into the defenders who then also make mistakes. His distribution is poor – he is the only goalkeeper that I can remember for years who has been penalised for breaking the six-second rule. His ball control is about as good as mine.
Karius has done easily as well as Mignolet with less goals per game conceded in the league even allowing for the opposition faced. Whilst he may understandably be a tad nervous in his early starts I believe he’ll be a far better option against United or anyone else for that matter.
Adam (Easily dismissing experts since 1972) LFC
What kind of player is Roberto Firmino?
He’s an intelligent, hardworking one with a velvet touch and a crap haircut.
His hard running tends to lead the Liverpool press, he’s always available to take a pass and he is reliable in possession. He’s good at that stuff mainly because he’s a smart chap and makes good decisions.
Apart from his haircut. That was a bad decision.
Si, Basingstoke (Ambivalent on Emma Watson)
On the abyss that is football analysis
Although there are a handful of really good TV shows, audio shows and websites around football (I guess everyone listens to the lovely Jimbo on Football Weekly. MOTD2 Extra is all right, as is this esteemed website.), the state of mainstream football analysis is utterly shocking. I was reading Shearer’s comments today (which provide a glimpse into the abyss that is football commentary) regarding Rooney having “a hell of a lot to offer”. He accompanied that statement with absolutely nothing that elaborates on what exactly he means by that. There’s no argument or any insight. He just said it. Just like you would let a fart escape in a public park. No-one’s going to confront him about it.
So, why is football analysis and commentary so, what’s the best word to use here, sh*t? Is it because of the culture of celebrity that means we’d rather have a famous ex-footballer on the stage rather than someone with an actual critical brain? Is it because the likes of Raphael Honigstein and Jonathan Wilson refuse to debase themselves by having to argue with Danny Murphy about something bland and stupid he inevitably utters? Or is it because the typical football fan has, what’s the best word to use here, sh*t for brains? Is it us football fans driving the demand or do we blame the suppliers/media?
I don’t know what the answer is. I’d love to hear more from you. But, I am sure I am not the only fan who feels this way. Alongside more serious issues like racism, sexism, homophobia and corruption, the state of football commentary is slowly but surely starting to make me fall out of love with a sport that really deserves better inputs than the usual “still got a lot to offer” followed by f*ck all.
Monty (Apologies about the language. I got angrier and angrier as I wrote the above. Thanks for being the exception, F365), MUFC
Any Celtic fans got some safe standing opinions?
Interesting news from Anfield this week – the supporters’ group Spirit of Shankley is going to do a survey of fan opinions towards introducing German-style standing sections to Premier League grounds.
Obviously the Hillsborough support group is very against the idea, but in the overall vote on the topic 93% of SoS members were in favour, which is interesting. The reason I bring it up is because the article I read on the topic mentioned that Celtic now have a nearly 3000 capacity standing section up and running, so I was wandering what Celtic fans thought about the section? Has it improved the atmosphere, or made any difference at all? Are tickets for that section cheaper and/or easier to get hold of?
I’ve been in favour of ‘safe’ standing sections for ages as they seem to do well on the continent, but I’d love to hear how it’s going in a setting closer to home.
Matt, LFC
Bits and bobs
Firstly nice to see two Coventry fans in this morning’s mailbox, echo both of their sentiments. After two wins this week feeling a little better about the rest of the season with what looks like Venus staying in charge (style of football should be out of this world…)
Obviously being a Cov fan I have a few of our, shall we say, interesting kits over the years to choose from, my personal fav being the 1995 purple Peugeot sponsered monstrosity/beauty!
Would have to include Big Mo (Konjic) in any hard bast*rd XI
Was heart warming to read fellow mail boxers responses to Stig’s (mufc) mail the other day, I work with people who suffer from depression in my job and having a constant in one’s life really can help so well done for publishing his and subsequent responses, keep pushing fwd mate you’ll make it through.
On the Rooney being a bit cack yet seemingly a cert for England until he retires can we just agree it doesn’t really matter against Malta et al and maybe just give him a break, constant criticism isn’t going to make him play better. Many journos tried their best to wreck Sterling but he has shown that with a bit of confidence your quality will shine through.
Tom (PUSB)
Disappointed in Football365
I’m fascinated to see if this mail will be published due to a potential conflict of interest this may cause, but here we go.
I’d just like to say how disappointed I am that the website has featured Joey Barton’s book in a bid to promote it. There’s several aspects of this feature that I’m disappointed by, the first is the hypocritical nature of the site to promote the book of a man who has conducted himself incredibly poorly as a man, as an ambassador for the game and as a football player. He’s been jailed for assault and criminal damage, punched a fellow professional during a game, assaulted a team mate on the training ground, getting sent home from pre-season for assaulting a fan, making homophobic remarks and stubbing a cigar out on a youth team player (the list actually goes on much further).
The hypocritical nature of this is that when a certain Jamie Vardy was accused of racial abuse this site took the guy to town, and rightly so. However, the campaign continued to such a point that regular visitors to this site noted the anti-Vardy sentiment behind a large portion of articles written regarding him. How can a site that overly condemns the actions of Jamie Vardy and vilifies him be so at ease with promoting the book of a man who has done far more damage to the reputation of image of a game that we all love? To say this man is a poor excuse for a human being is an understatement, there’s very few people I hate in life but Joey is one them.
The second issue I have is not that we can’t comment on the book feature, I didn’t even read it and I won’t, it’s that when the story regarding his ‘44’ betting misdemeanours was reported yesterday there was no mention on this site, not one. That for me goes against the very ethics of journalism as you have put financial and promotional interests over objectively reporting on sporting matters.
The real test of you impartiality will be if you publish this mail or not.
Love the site, but you’ve let yourselves down with this one.
Cheers.
Leon, Basel
We send this man nothing but love xxx
I’m going to dive straight in here, so apologies for bringing the mood down. Yesterday, my 66-year-old dad was surprisingly diagnosed with a big bag full of untreatable cancers. Needless to say, I’ve been doing a fair amount of thinking in the 16 hours or so since the news – about the future we won’t have and the past we have enjoyed together. Now I’m one can into a bag of Red Stripe on the long train home to see him and I thought I’d share a couple of those thoughts. Talking helps.
When I think of my dad, for some reason many of the memories that come to me are football-related. This is odd as he has not been a big fan since the early 1970s. He’s had a passing interest in England and Newcastle since then, but no more than that.
I think of countless journeys in the car to my under-13 training, I think of the desperation to play well when he was able to watch, him telling me the reason my team wasn’t very good was because we didn’t know how to “get stuck in to the other lads”, I remember him ‘teaching’ me how to head a ball at age 10 then scoring a hat-trick of headers at school the following day. There’s lying on the sofa aged six waiting for a football match to happen and my dad unable to explain why it was so delayed I’d have to go to bed (Heysel), and the time on holiday when I asked him how to say “on me head son” to a Bulgarian kid and my dad convinced me to say “on me bonza mate”.
Those memories are just individual entries in a lifetime of moments, but the one that overrides all else when I say the word ‘dad’ is my first match. It was the late 80s, it was Liverpool Reserves v Newcastle Reserves. I was a horrible glory fan, betraying Geordie roots to follow the country’s best team, my dad a lapsed St James Park regular. Beyond it being really f***ing cold and ending 4-4, I remember nothing of the match. What I remember – and what is making me openly weep on the 1100 to Newcastle – is being in my bedroom with my dad helping me get dressed: two pairs of socks, jeans, two button-up shirts, scarf, hat, gloves. Football stadiums are the coldest places on earth, especially in the north-east. That moment when my dad lovingly tied the scarf around my neck is the memory of my dad I will take to my own deathbed.
Why is this all relevant? – because it shows the power of this game to help create moments of beauty. Beyond petty rivalries, dodgy decisions and costly slips on the halfway line lies what it is all about in the end: bringing people together, whether at the match, in the pub, or in a child’s bedroom. Right now I feel robbed of the things that were supposed to happen, but now won’t. It hurts particularly that he won’t be there when my two-year-old son plays his first game for his school team, creating a memory for all of us which could well have survived into the next century.
But I have these memories and I’m sure he has them and more besides.
I’m now going to open my second beer and think about something else. Look after yourselves and your families.
Paul (Geordie Liverpool fan on a train somewhere near Peterborough)