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Serbia vs Ireland and the return of frustrating patterns

Published on in Opinion

On the face of it, escaping with a draw from a rain sodden pitch in Belgrade looks an excellent result. But the final score of 2-2 doesn’t properly reflect what was a strange evening for the Republic of Ireland.

Having started the game superbly, netting early on through Jeff Hendrick, Ireland retreated to the confines of their penalty area and proceeded to hack balls up the pitch to a forlorn Shane Long, who was forced to chase lost causes while hopelessly outnumbered.

Ireland survived until the second half, but the inevitable eventually happened when Serbia’s relentless pressure brought them 2 goals in 7 second half minutes.

Ireland rallied and secured a late equalizer through Daryl Murphy’s first international goal. But encased within what should be considered a glorious moment, I couldn’t help but feel that familiar pang of frustration.

There is an established pattern for this set of Irish players, which has been evident under successive managers and it vexes the hell out of me. Last night’s game was a perfect example of the trend.

Immediately after Ireland’s early goal, nine of the ten outfield players packed their defensive third, engineering a bizarre concession of space and possession to Serbia with 80 minutes still to play. The opening gambit of the second half was particularly comedic, when the Irish team pretty much turned and ran back towards their own goal straight from kick off like the panicked lines of a routing regiment.

It was the same tactic that saw the Republic torn to shreds against Belgium in June and it seems to be their “go to” tactic when facing any opposition considered tricky. It never EVER works.

In fact, Ireland’s most impressive performances come when they are chasing something – be it a win or even a goal. Consider the Italy victory in the final group game at Euro 2016. Ireland needed a win to qualify, so they went out, played positive football from the start and put in a sensational performance albeit against a weakened Italian side.

Last night, once again, when it was required, Ireland began to play, moving the ball through the lines, manufacturing space off the ball with clever runs and the Serbians couldn’t cope. 10 or 15 minutes of positive play brought Ireland a scantly deserved draw. What would just an hour of that kind of play achieved?

It begs the question: why aren’t Ireland playing in that manner much more often? Does Martin O’Neill have the same lack of faith in this set of players as Trapattoni did when Ireland are anything but clear favourites going into a fixture?

The strengths in Ireland’s current squad are markedly in more attacking areas, but O’Neill seems intent on setting his teams up around a set of defensive players of questionable quality with depressing regularity.

Relying on players like John O’Shea, Richard Keogh and Stephen Ward to keep opponents at bay for 90 minutes is asking a hell of a lot. The screening midfielder in front of them, Glenn Whelan, would make an excellent sniper – his ability to appear invisible amongst the short grass on a football pitch is almost super human.

Collectively it’s defensive unit that would struggle in the Championship. And while Seamus Coleman gets a pass for his offensive contributions, his defending is also sub par, which is probably why he is still plays at Goodison Park.

In Belgrade, we saw an Ireland team organized tactically in a manner that screamed they were afraid of the opposition. Encumbering the players with instructions to sit deep and whack the ball clear is telling them that they aren’t as good as their opponents. It’s a dangerous mind-set to have walking onto any pitch. Some might call it pragmatism, but last night it was completely unnecessary. This was an ordinary Serbian side – not a world class German outfit.

It would be churlish of me not to acknowledge that Ireland’s results under O’Neill have generally been very good and I expect to see a very different looking Ireland side in Dublin against Georgia in October – a game the Republic are expected to win. But therein lies that frustration once again. The agricultural pragmatism will probably return for the return trip to Tbilisi.

If Ireland concede the same space and possession of the ball during the trips to Austria, Moldova and Georgia, then chances are points will be dropped. By the time the last tough away game of the group in Cardiff comes around, qualification might already be out of Ireland’s grasp.

Unless of course they need to win…….

by Simon Winter

Twitter: @simonjwinter

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Law 12 : Is Mike Dean the only referee with balls?

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Mike-Dean-Árbitro-Premier-League-169

Mike Dean aka the Gesticulation Guru, the Wirral Waver, the Big Deal in Body Language and general self-appointed centre of the football universe has come in for heavy criticism recently over his officiating.

Usually Dean is deserving of criticism, though some would say he is an easy target as he dances across Premier League pitches on the winds of self-importance, thrusting himself centre stage at every given opportunity.

But following his most recent denigration, when he awarded what looked like a series of super soft penalties, I decided to read the FA’s amendments to Law 12 and it turns out, Mike Dean was correct and we were all completely wrong.

Now that I have emptied the sick from my mouth, I will explain why.

Law 12 states: “A direct free-kick or penalty is awarded if a player commits any of the following offences… holds an opponent, impedes an opponent with contact…”

If that still seems a little grey and open to interpretation, then I’ll detail the directive that was presented by the FA to every Premier League club in pre-season:

FA Directive

Holding in the penalty area

Key principle: Physical contact is an acceptable part of football

Consideration used by match officials (when an act of holding identified):

– Players who only focus on their opponent and pay no attention to the ball before holding an opponent run a high risk of being penalised

– Players who clearly hold an opponent by pulling their shirt, or extend their arm to pull back an opponent run the risk of being penalised.

– Where holding is sustained and clearly prevents an opponent from making a movement it is likely to be penalised.

 

Mike Dean’s first penalty decision this weekend, awarded to Man City when Ryan Shawcross grabbed a chunk of Nicolas Otamendi’s shirt while defending a corner was clear cut and blatant. No argument there.

The second penalty of that game, when Raheem Sterling was adjudged to have impeded Shawcross’ efforts to get free in the box caused far more outrage on Twitter and in my sitting room (ahem). Sterling appeared to lay hands on Shawcross but the contact seemed minimal and only slightly hindered Shawcross’ back post run. But the first point of the new directive clearly shows that Mike Dean was 100% correct to award the penalty.

“Players who only focus on their opponent and pay no attention to the ball before holding an opponent run a high risk of being penalised”

That is exactly what Sterling did. His focus was completely on Shawcross and he made enough contact to impede his run. The new directive might be a little flawed, but Dean adhered to the rule change without omission.

Dean’s decision to award Crystal Palace a penalty when Christian Benteke’s shirt was grabbed by Bournemouth’s Charlie Daniels was also entirely the correct call.

So it seems the under-fire Ostentatious Officiator was right all along, it begs the question: why haven’t his colleagues followed suit?

You could pick out incidents of shirt pulling, run impeding and player watching in almost every Premier League game since the new season kicked-off, yet Mike Dean has been the only referee brave enough to fully enforce the FA’s new directive thus far.

During Tottenham’s draw at home to Liverpool, referee Robert Madley spotted Jan Vertongen hauling Joel Matip down in the box just before a corner came in. Madley told Vertongen to “cut it out” and the corner was retaken with no further problems. On first appraisal, you would have to question Madley’s handling of the incident. Why didn’t he just let it play out in real time and award the penalty to Liverpool? Jurgen Klopp seemed aghast after the game and felt like Liverpool were a little hard done by.

But according to the FA, referees have been encouraged to speak with players before a set-piece is taken to try to avoid that kind of situation occurring. This was also detailed to all Premier League clubs before the season started.

Klopp’s criticism of Madley, which followed hot on the heels of Mark Hughes and Pep Guardiola’s criticism of Mike Dean seems entirely misdirected and downright idiotic when all things are considered. It shows an apparent ignorance of what were clear rule changes before the season started.  It also shows a lack of appreciation for the work put in by those graphic design interns at the FA who probably whipped up those lovely presentation slides. Won’t somebody think of the graphic design interns?

In reality, I guess having a pop at a referee’s decision allows you to shift a little of the blame from yourself and your players. Ryan Shawcross said he had made a silly mistake “having known what’s been said in the summer after meeting the refs”. It would be nice if managers started to apportion blame in the correct direction too, instead of feigning nescience.

Manager’s quibbles about the lack of refereeing consistency are complaints you could have zero complaints about, but now that Dean has set the example (more sick in mouth), the rest of the Premier League referees must have the courage to enforce these new rules. If that means seeing 2 or 3 penalties a game awarded for a month or so then so be it.

Mr Dean should keep brandishing his cards with exuberance, because right now, the Aloof Arbiter has never been more correct.

by Simon Winter

Twitter: @SimonJWinter

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Bastian Schweinsteiger and Respect

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Bastian Schweinsteiger has been made to train with the Manchester United reserves by Jose Mourinho – a demotion deemed so despicable that a veritable army of supporters have mustered to publically defend Schweinsteiger’s honour.

Bastian’s older brother and Bayern coach Tobi Tweeted the words “No respect” in solidarity with his sibling, his boss, club president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was also quoted as saying:

“I could hardly believe it. One or two players are going to think long and hard in future about whether they want to go to such a club. Nothing like that has ever happened at Bayern Munich.”

(Mario Gotze might disagree, but that’s neither here nor there).

A Slovakian lawyer even threw his tuppence in, claiming Mourinho should be jailed for his “bullying” treatment of Schweinsteiger. There’s his fifteen minutes of fame well earned, but what’s really going on?

From what I can gather from newspaper hearsay and snippets of information, the Schweinsteiger situation evolved like this:

Mourinho informed the German that he wouldn’t be part of his plans for the upcoming season and that he should find another club. By all accounts, Bastian said he didn’t want to leave United, which made things more than a little awkward. Jose told Bastian to train with the reserves and to move his belongings from the first team lockers to the second team area, presumably to force Schweinsteiger further towards the exit door, figuratively speaking….I’m not sure whose lockers are closest to the exit door at Carrington.

On the face of it, somebody like Bastian Schweinsteiger deserves better than the old “train with reserves” scolding. The lack of respect shown to a highly decorated legend of the game is what seems to be irking most onlookers. His standing in the game should demand a certain level of treatment, right?  Under these circumstances, I would tend to disagree.

When I talk about circumstances, I’m referring to the ins and outs of Schweinsteiger’s first and most probably last season at United. Van Gaal took a gamble in signing the injury prone Germany captain last summer. His arrival excited fans – I mean of course it did, here was an iconic figure who had won everything in the game and was still just 30 years old. A few weeks after his signing was confirmed, it was revealed that his transfer fee was far lower than first estimated, closer to £8m than the reported £18m. More good news.

But that’s more or less where the positives ended. When the euphoria of signing Basitan F*cking Schweinsteiger (or BFS as his was christened on United forums) subsided, the reality of the actual player behind the name and reputation was an enormous let down.

In his 13 Premier League starts and 5 substitute appearances (yep, that’s how little he actually played), Schweinsteiger looked slow, sluggish and let’s be honest about it, downright overweight. Technically he offered some neat and tidy performances, but his lack of overall fitness was telling and equally damning.

Schweinsteiger roughly translates to “pig stable” in English, which was hilariously apt as we watched him waddle around the centre circle, drenched in meat sweats from what I can only stereotypically assume were the juices from the over-consumption of bratwurst.

Schweinsteiger played just 4 times for United in 2016, spending more time in Germany than England – something that caused considerable consternation among his teammates. The murmurings from Carrington were that Bastian was considered somewhat of a teacher’s pet and that he was given preferential treatment by Van Gaal, who wasn’t exactly a favourite with the players himself.

Some might argue that Schweinsteiger being away from the club while injured was no big deal. I mean, why not spend time in Germany if you cannot involve yourself in training or on match day? But being part of a team is much more than taking to the field. A big part of the reason behind signing Schweinsteiger was to draw on his experience to help and offer guidance to a young United squad short on leadership and character.

And while United struggled on the pitch in Manchester, Bastian was photographed enjoying himself off it in Munich. His only contribution to the team was usually a short post-game Tweet of support, which usually read more like someone paying lip service to fans rather than a genuine heartfelt message of camaraderie to his teammates.

Predictably when the club season ended, Schweinsteiger turned up for national team duty looking slim and athletic for Germany in Euro 2016, appearing in 5 of their 6 games during their run to the semi final.

If United fans’ suspicions about a lack of commitment to their cause needed any further confirmation, Bastian had provided all the evidence they needed in Deutschland white.

That apparent (or blatantly obvious to me) lack of commitment to United is the reason you won’t hear many of their fans grumbling about the latest developments at Carrington while the rest of the world think things smell funnier than Joachim Low’s fingers.

Given his historical Man Utd modus operandi, it would safe to guess that Schweinsteiger turned up full bellied and heavy legged for club training once again.  Imagine what the rest of the players were thinking? Couple this with an enormous salary being earned over a previous season where he essentially phoned in sick from abroad and you are going to have a player on the receiving end of some serious resentment from his team mates. Is it any wonder why Jose wanted him away from the rest of the first team squad?

Could the situation have been handled more respectfully and with more class by Mourinho? Maybe Jose could have used a softer hand, but subtlety has never been one of Jose’s strong points. He wants to win and demands complete commitment from all of his players. When it comes down to it, Schweinsteiger put United a clear and distant second on his list of priorities last season, so maybe he is being treated with the same amount of respect as he has earned at Old Trafford.

by Simon Winter

Twitter: @simonjwinter

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Sam Allardyce & England. Does it make sense?

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It’s half time in England’s 3rd last World Cup qualifying group game and they are 0-2 down to Slovakia at Wembley. It’s a game they need to win to rescue any chance of making the Finals in Russia. England’s players stare at the floor as Sam Allardyce tears them to shreds. His face shines a brilliant shade of Buckfast purple as he flings a magnetic tactics board (still in its original plastic wrapping) against the dressing room wall.  

“What part of get up-em, do you lot not understand?!” he screams. “Now get back out there, hit big Andy early and pick up those bits and pieces.“

Upstairs, the journos are rattling away on keyboards, trying to out-do each other with headlines for tomorrow’s back pages. “Big Sham” is the winner so far. One tabloid’s “F*ck off you fat b*astard” suggestion wins the award for subtlety.

FA Executives exchange knowing looks. He is a goner.

 

First Brexit and now this. Talk about kicking a country when it’s down. As a footballing nation, England is on its knees. They are in dire need of an enormous positive pick me up – but instead they could be getting Sam Allardyce, a candidate from the deepest depths of underwhelming potential appointments.

Another shocking performance at an international tournament is being followed by another managerial swticharoo. Things have moved past deja-vu and in to formulaic ritual with the England national team.  Fail – apportion blame – hire the wrong manager – repeat ad nauseum.

Now it looks as though it will be Sam Allardyce’s turn to have a bash at a job he is completely unsuited to, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone. Instead of modestly assessing his own skillset and appreciating the sort of scenarios his methods do and don’t work in, Big Sam is ready to jump in with both feet. He should be running a mile in the opposite direction, but he has never been short of self-confidence:

“I don’t think there is any coach more sophisticated than me any more, that’s not trying to criticise any other coaches. But there is only Arsene Wenger who has done it longer than me. I’m just as good as everybody at this stage.” he once said.

“It rankles with me at times that I have to remind people what I have done. You have to accept it for what it is. If you start talking about it too much, you just get labelled big-headed, people go ‘He’s blowing his own trumpet again, what’s he on about this time?’ but if no one else is going to talk about it, you have to talk about it. You have to fight your own corner.”

Strong words from a man sacked from 3 of his last 4 club appointments. Newcastle, Blackburn and West Ham didn’t appreciate his genius it seems.

It would be churlish to fail to appreciate that Allardyce can be a good manager in certain situations. He could be classed as a “specialist” in many ways. If your club is struggling and in danger of relegation, then Sam is an ideal appointment. He can guarantee you defensive organisation and prolific set piece utilization – two huge assets to teams low on overall quality.

And maybe that’s the kind of idea being thrown around the headquarters at the English FA. They might be drowning in negativity post Euro 2016 and are resigning themselves to mediocrity.  A “We’re crap, so let’s hire a guy who can organise crap teams” kind of thing.

They are half right, England do need a manager who is capable of organising a team defensively, but they also need someone capable of tactical innovation and instruction in the attacking third of the pitch, maybe even more so. If you look at the balance of England’s current squad, all their potential is in attack. Kane, Sturridge, Rashford, Welbeck, Sterling, Alli, Barkley….say what you like about the English hype-machine and their overrating of players, but that’s an exciting set of attacking players to try to sculpt a team around.

If young players need inspiration as well is instruction, then having them work under Allardyce at national level, while working for Mourinho, Klopp, Guardiola, Wenger et al at club level would be counterproductive to say the very least. Of course I’m not privy to training sessions under each individual coach, but I don’t think it would be a stretch to say there might be a difference or two between their methods and Big Sam’s. If a sizeable chunk of England fans reacted with dismay at the news of Allardyce’s England interview, you can be sure that the majority of their current players did too.

If you questioned Allardyce’s ability to get the best out of technical footballers, he would certainly have his protestations. He once said:

“The lingering long-ball sh*t, the old style, all that rubbish that’s never been me and never been a part of what I am.”

Read that quote to most West Ham fans and they’ll laugh. Their banners reading “Fat Sam Out, killing WHU” , unfurled during Allardyce’s final few months in London were testament to their frustrations at Sam’s direct, no frills style of play.

Sam also said “All this tippy tappy stuff people keep going on about, the right way to play football is all a load of bollox sometimes.” Which would be a more apt, if contradictory reflection of his footballing philosophy compared to the quote above.

The whole idea of appointing Allardyce to try to resurrect England’s fortunes seems bizarre to everyone but the select few making the actual decision. Finding a way to unlock England’s attacking potential is the key to any possible future success but it seems as though the English FA are seeking salvation in 70 yard diagonals instead of their rising stars.

by Simon Winter

Twitter: @simonjwinter

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Pochettino, Tottenham, PSG and the power of words

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“I’ve always said that I would be pleased to join a great club like PSG. Come to Paris? I hope so. It is true that it would please me. It’s part of my dreams. I try to watch all their matches, especially in the Champions League.”

Mauricio Pochettino during interview with French radio station RMC.

Talk about kicking Spurs fans when they are down. Just a couple of days after Tottenham’s unlikely title chances were all but extinguished by West Brom, their misery was compounded by the news that their charismatic manager is already thinking about his next career move.

If Pochettino is indeed already openly contemplating life after the Lane, he is going to make life very difficult for himself. Spurs fans will try to be philosophical about the quotes from RMC, but any poor run of results Spurs have over the next 12 months will immediately be attributed to an apparent lack of total commitment to his job. Pochettino has made that bed for himself.

With just a couple of sentences, Pochettino has transformed Spurs from super-power in the making to a perennial footballing stepping stone once again. And that isn’t the least bit hyperbolic or over dramatic.

If Pochettino sees Spurs as a means to an end and a spring board to what he perceives are bigger and better things, then who’s to say that mind-set won’t transfer to a playing staff that seem to hang on his every word?

“If the boss doesn’t see Tottenham as a club where he can realise his ambitions, then why should we?”

Pochettino’s managerial career has been on a steep upward trajectory since his time at Espanyol and even though Spurs aren’t considered to be among Europe’s elite right now, they have been making giant strides in their attempts to get there. A squad packed with burgeoning talent and potential super stars, a brand new stadium in the works and of course one of the game’s best young managers – Spurs looked like they were on the up and up.

But to reach and stay at Europe’s top table, you need to consistently hang on to your top talents. Traditionally Spurs have regularly lost their best players to more successful clubs. Once a club has an established reputation as a “selling club”, it can prove a near impossible tag to shake. Teddy Sheringham, Sol Campbell, Michael Carrick, Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale all left White Hart Lane in search of trophies. Some were more successful than others in their pursuits, but all of their departures were huge blows to Spurs aspirations.

But this latest Spurs team felt different. Whereas Tottenham teams of the past decade were built around star players and individualism, Pochettino’s side have given new power to the word “team”. Their hard work and determination is balanced perfectly with a quality and dynamism. And even though Leicester will win the title, to me Spurs still look the better team. I can pay no bigger compliment to them.

Up until today, you could see a clear path for their youthful side, it was easy to imagine them continuing to grow and develop together, but now their future looks less than straightforward. Instead of lifting trophies in resplendent white, it’s suddenly far more conceivable to imagine Delli Alli wearing Chelsea blue, Harry Kane United red and Christian Eriksen in Barca two-tone.

Spurs fans will maintain that comments like Pochettino made today are of the “throwaway” variety and they will be confident of keeping their popular manager for the duration of his contract. However the realists among them will know that they are set for a summer of apprehension and doubt, especially if PSG look to replace Laurent Blanc after the Parisians early Champions League exit this season.

With Jose Mourinho looking all set for the hot seat at Old Trafford, Pochettino will be out on his own as PSG’s number one target. And despite Spurs looking and feeling like a job half done for the Argentinean, it would surely prove difficult for Pochettino to turn down a return to the club he once captained, especially after his libidinous interview comments.

Pochettino will be savvy enough to realize the impact his comments would have. His comments today can only be categorized as a “come and get me” plea to PSG.  With two sentences he has clouded what looked like a bright Spurs future.

“Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.”
― Jodi Picoult, Salem Falls

by Simon Winter

Twitter: @simonjwinter

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Eddie Howe and Bournemouth – what happens next?

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Leicester City’s extraordinary season has hogged the vast majority of the limelight this season and deservedly so, but the praise and attention they have greedily gobbled up has unfortunately left a couple of Premier League clubs without their fair share. Watford for example have had an incredible first season back in England’s top flight, but Bournemouth in particular deserve to be showered in haughty praise and back slapping for their Premier League debut campaign.

Even now in late April, with Bournemouth’s Premiership survival all but confirmed, plenty of football fans would be hard pressed to name their entire starting XI or even recognize some of their players if they passed them on the street. It’s testament to just how far under the radar they have flown and how underappreciated their efforts have been. Their crest may look like a woman playing football in the shower, but Bournemouth have been nobody’s soppy bitch this season.

What has made their achievements even more noteworthy has been the style of play employed by Eddie Howe. Trusting a squad largely assembled in England’s lower leagues to play a technical passing game takes plenty of balls. Their considered, ultra-calm precision passing almost looks out of place in the 11,000 capacity Dean Court – and I mean that in an absolutely complimentary way. It would be easy to imagine that the team in black and red was some polished continental side playing on the south coast by invitation.

Howe, who looks more like a work placement student than a tactical professor, will be understandably thrilled that his approach has helped Bournemouth achieve safety relatively comfortably, but he mustn’t stand still. Consistently adhering to his footballing principles is commendable, but Bournemouth’s lack of tactical flexibility could also prove to be their undoing next season when they are tasked with repeating their trick.

There is no shame in playing a more cynical, counter attacking style in certain games when that alternative is required. That wouldn’t be an abandonment of principles, but more a necessary development in variety – another string to Howe’s tactical bow. Sometimes idealism can almost lead to tunnel vision in terms of a football team’s direction.

I’m sure Bournemouth would prefer more points instead of praise following games against the leagues better sides. You can’t always go toe-to-toe with teams of considerably higher quality. Bravery can only get you so far.

Playing 4-4-2 against a 5 man midfield, especially when Bournemouth’s central pairings tend to be more technical and subtle rather than athletic and aggressive, will always prove extremely difficult. It can often lead to a soul destroying game of chasing shadows. It’s something Howe has yet to address properly, although the current midfield options at his disposal leave him little room for improvement as things stand.

That’s why identifying a ball winning central midfielder or two with bite and stamina will surely be top of Howe’s summer transfer wish list. Bournemouth have made the 6th fewest tackles per game (18.6) this season which seems incredibly low for a team in 14th place.

Defensively overall, conceding 61 goals so far is bound to be a major concern. Only the bottom two clubs (Aston Villa and Newcastle) have conceded more. 15 of those have come in the last 5 games, a tough run that included games against Spurs, Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea, but tough as those defeats will be to take, their timing could prove oddly positive.

With the transfer window fast approaching, the string of heavy defeats brings in to firm focus the need for defensive reinforcements. Silver linings and all that. That’s not to say the Cherries are stuttering over the line either. In fact they have had a stronger second half of the season statistically speaking.

At the other end of the pitch, there is plenty of pace, if a little similarity in terms of their attacking options.  A lot will rest on Callum Wilson’s form next season when he returns fully from his cruciate ligament injury and Bournemouth will hope he can be the striker to provide what would be a most welcome 15+ goals next season. Josh King and Benik Afobe offer speed without the requisite end product however and Howe will surely be in the market for an alternative.

That market will be a tricky one to navigate for Bournemouth who now have the financial capability of shopping in some very different departments. There will be bundles of lovely TV cash to throw around and Bournemouth will have to be clever enough not to fall into the same traps as Aston Villa, Newcastle and others by being duped into signing substandard players with fancy names overseas. They must aim for quality over quantity.

It would be remiss of me to finish this article by poking holes in what has been an overwhelmingly positive season for Bournemouth. Their target of Premier League survival has been achieved with impressive and comparative ease. Their squad will only need a little tweaking here and there to be competitive again next year. And even though Leicester have been dominating the column inches, their unlikely success allows Bournemouth fans to dream big – maybe next season’s Premiership will finish with a Cherry on top? I’m sure they will be happy just to be there.

by Simon Winter

Twitter: @simonjwinter

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Wenger out? – Arsenal fans shouldn’t be too quick to push him towards retirement

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The end of Arsene Wenger’s career is fast approaching. Don’t mistake that sentence for a dramatic statement about an impending dismissal – Wenger is 66 and retirement from football management is an inevitability. Even Wenger can’t fail to see it coming.

A sizeable chunk of Arsenal fans are keen to accelerate that retirement process based on what they think is a pattern of serial under achievement by their team under the Frenchman’s direction. They believe two FA Cups in 12 years is a poor return given the talent Wenger has had at his disposal, while yearly Champions League participation has less of a shine if your team is only there to make up the numbers.

Wenger is far and away the Premier League’s longest serving manager. This summer will mark 20 years at Arsenal for “The Professor”. Stability and long term management at a football club usually equals success (or does success bring long term management followed by stability – a question for another time perhaps?), but over recent seasons Wenger has been criticized for his lack of tactical flexibility and downright naivety by repeating mistakes in the way he sets up his teams, particularly in big games. The critics have a point, the figures are there in black and white.

There is an ever increasing army of Gunners who believe that it’s time for a new direction and new ideas, but are they failing to consider and recognize the possible consequences and upheaval that changing a manager of 20 years will likely bring?

If they are looking for a comparable case study, then Arsenal fans need look no further than Manchester United post-Fergie. Granted, appointing Moyes as Ferguson’s successor was a akin to having George Formby close a show for Pavarotti, but making the correct call on a new name for the  hot seat is just one part of what will be a momentous shift in the overall management of the club.

After 26 years, Man Utd was Alex Ferguson. He had sculpted and moulded the club in his image, his purple capillaries were rooted deep within every blade of grass, every brick and floorboard and into every player at the club. He was such an all-powerful autonomous dictator that when he finally handed in his master key at Old Trafford, United didn’t just have to replace a manager, they had to replace their internal organs. Replacing someone with that much influence was always going to be an impossible task, at least in the short term and this is the challenge that Arsenal will soon face.

Because after 20 years, Arsenal are Arsene Wenger. Whether the swarming legions of anti-Wenger Gunners care to admit it or not, their club has been indoctrinated in Wengerism. From cornflakes to croissants, you couldn’t name a part of Arsenal’s entire infrastructure that Wenger hasn’t influenced in some capacity.

After Ferguson’s retirement, Wenger represents the last of that traditional figure of singular control at a football club that the “manager” used to be. The modern way is to separate and delegate. Now we have Directors of Football, Transfer Committees, Development Managers and so forth and first team managers are expected to work within those kind of structures. Running a football team is more of a collaborative effort than ever before. That’s what makes the change from autonomy to democracy such a massive problem.

But while the trauma of United’s post-Fergie dip can be somewhat softened by the years of consistent success he brought the club, Arsenal are facing a probable similar post-Wenger blowout without all that lovely gooey silvery nostalgia (for Wenger’s last decade at least).

What happens when you gut an already floundering club? In terms of overall club structure, replacing Wenger will be like swapping steel girders for bread sticks, but Arsenal fans cannot see beyond the plight of their first team. Most football fans are usually myopic in that way. But if they were to really sit back and think of the implications of replacing Wenger, they might not be so quick to hasten his departure.

Alas, he will be off soon regardless. Father time has caught up with Wenger. Soon it will be vineyards and alcohol instead of dugouts and vitriol.

Instead of booing Wenger over the finish line and out the gates, Arsenal fans would do well to treasure these last moments of stability and free flowing attacking football before their club begins their conversion from Wengerism to something else, because that process could take quite a while. Just ask United fans.

by Simon Winter

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The Teenage Hero from Hershey – Christian Pulisic

Published on in Features

As football fans, I’d imagine you will all be familiar with that feeling you get when you watch a young player for the first time who seems destined for great things – it’s a weird feeling of inarguable self-certainty. You just know. It’s not a feeling you get all that often, but after just 45 minutes of watching Christian Pulisic on Saturday, I just know.

The Revierderby (or Ruhr derby) between Schalke and Dortmund in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday had an extra edge to what is traditionally one of Germany’s most intense rivalries. BVB coach Thomas Tuchel chose to make eight changes from the team that drew with Liverpool just a couple of days earlier. That decision to shuffle his pack in such a major way was enough to ruffle a few feathers, but the 2-2 draw Dortmund earned can be considered a decent day’s work, especially if they can knock Liverpool out of Europe later this week with a little help from the restees.

Compelling as the entire match was as a spectacle, the performance of one player stood out in isolated excellence. I had read the name Christian Pulisic a couple of times before, mainly in transfer gossip columns, but this was the first time I had seen the player considered the biggest American talent in a generation in the flesh.

Starting from a position on the right wing, Pulisic danced past his opponents time and time again with a natural balance and surety of touch, but it was his intelligent use of space and choice of pass that really belied his 17 years. That’s right – seventeen. When I was 17, I was working in a local supermarket making piss all money and trying to cop off with checkout girls. I also wore shirts with dragons on them, which ironically weren’t very fly.

At 17 and playing in Dortmund’s first team, Pulisic must feel like his life is accelerating forward at triple speed. Just three years ago Pulisic was playing for his local side in the Michigan Rush juniors and in the US Soccer Development Academy, Pennsylvania Classics.

Pulisic grew up (which sounds absurdly biographical for someone who is still a child) in Hershey, Pennsylvania, home of the famous chocolatiers, and whose town motto is “The Sweetest Place on Earth”. Their unofficial motto is “Welcome to Diabetesville”….ok I made that one up, but the town of around 12,000 inhabitants suddenly has something to shout about other than their contribution to childhood obesity.

Christian’s father Mark Pulisic played professional indoor soccer for the Harrisburg Heat in the 1990s and if their surname sounds decidedly Balkan to you, it’s because Christian’s grandfather is Croatian. With a footballing father and a European heritage, Christian’s childhood environment was understandably football-centric.

Even though the youngster was slight of frame, he excelled at underage levels, earning him a call up to the US Under-14s national team.  Pulisic talent was so blindingly and immediately obvious that he soon had to juggle national team duty with time spent training in Europe following invites from Barcelona, Chelsea, PSV Eindhoven, Porto and Villarreal.

Pulisic went on to represent the United States at U-15 and U-17 levels, captaining the latter at the 2015 U17 World Cup in Chile, where he had a goal and an assist in three games, providing a bright spark in what was an underwhelming tournament for the US. During his two year stint with the U-17s, Pulisic scored an incredible 20 goals in 34 games.

On January 4, 2015, Dortmund won the battle to sign the prodigious 16 year old and although they initially assigned him to their U-17 squad, Pulisic was drafted into the senior ranks just a year later. On January 24, 2016, a day after making his debut on the first team bench, Thomas Tuchel played Pulisic for a full 90 minutes in a friendly against FC Union Berlin, where he scored one goal and made another.

His competitive Dortmund debut came in a 2–0 win against FC Ingolstadt on January 30, 2016, when he came on as a second-half substitute for Adrián Ramos. Pulisic made his first Bundesliga start on February 21, 2016 against Bayer Leverkusen before eventually being substituted for Marco Reus.

In total Pulisic has appeared 7 times from the bench since January, but his start in Saturday’s derby was just his second for Dortmund. His inclusion at the Veltins-Arna felt like a watershed moment for Pulisic. To be trusted with the responsibility of starting such an enormous game is huge in itself, but Pulisic produced a sensational performance to go with it.

Just a few weeks earlier Pulisic became the youngest American ever to appear in a World Cup qualifier when he came off the bench in the second half in the USA’s 4-0 over Guatemala. The hype building around him stateside is huge and now it looks set to follow him across the Atlantic to European shores.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching Pulisic play yet and are looking for a player to compare him to, I think Christian said it best himself in an interview with USsoccer.com in March 2015:

 “Wayne Rooney has always been one of my favorite players – I just think his competitiveness really shows when he plays. And, I know that it’s kind of random, but Luis Figo was one of my favorite players when I was younger. I loved watching him when he was at Real Madrid. My dad, to this day, still calls me Figo.”

Rooney’s will to win and Figo’s exceptional technique combined eh? No pressure kid. It’s always dangerous to let hype around any young player build to unreasonable levels. It can destroy the confidence and even the careers of kids who often crumble under the pressure of unmeetable expectations.

Pulisic is at the perfect club to manage the kind of attention he is likely to attract, but inevitably transfer rumours have already started and Premier League vultures are already starting to circle. For Pulisic’s and football’s sake, I hope his head isn’t turned this summer. The Premiership is not the place to be for a lightweight 17 year old schemer.

Luckily, just like his selection of pass, Pulisic will make the right choice and develop into the phenomenal player that his potential promises. How can I be so certain? I just know.

by Simon Winter

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Gary Neville and the Sky Machine. A Tale of Digital Hindsight

Published on in Opinion

The ineville-atble has happened – Gary has been sacked by Valencia after an appalling stint as manager at the Mestalla. 3 wins from 16 league games is an atrocious return for the former Manchester United captain and with supporter hostility towards him rapidly increasing, Valencia have said “no mas”.

I wonder how many Premier League managers had a wry smile on hearing today’s news? Quite a few I’d imagine. I’m not for a second suggesting that they wanted Neville to fail, but having watched him  win plaudits for his articulate and often cutting analysis of their teams and tactics on Sky Sports, there might have been a few “see, it’s not as easy as it looks” reactions to his sacking.

Neville used all of Sky’s power, let’s call it the ‘Touchscreen Digital Hindsight Machine’ to explain to the world in great detail where each losing manager was going wrong after each weekend defeat. Neville had built quite the reputation as an insightful voyeur and rose quickly to the top of the football pundit pile – or more accurately the football pundit shit heap, which is quite frankly is.

If hindsight is 20/20 when it comes to life in general, then using the Touchscreen Digital Hindsight Machine makes hindsight in football 40/40 (or an analogy that works).

That in turn makes my analysis of the use of that machine 80/80. It also begs the question: has that tool conned a lot of us into believing some of these guys, Neville included, are far more tactically astute than they really are?

It doesn’t take a genius to freeze frame a Newcastle match and point out that Coloccini should have been better positioned when he is at fault for yet another silly goal, or to cut and paste their full backs into better areas of the pitch after they have gone another walkabout. Circles and blue arrows make it prettier and more technical looking, but aren’t they just showing us something and telling us exactly what it is?

Are we too quick to equate a well put together video clip presentation with a genuine understanding of tactical nuances and complicated systems?

That’s not to say shows like MNF aren’t still interesting viewing, they certainly are most of the time, but maybe Neville lost sight of reality a little in the glare of the TDHM and got caught up in his own hype. Maybe he was reading all the praise laden Tweets after each episode of Monday Night football and they went to his head? The hundreds of begrudging compliments from Liverpool fans must have been particularly ego boosting for the traditional Kop figure of hate.

His appointment to the Valencia job shocked everyone. For a first job in management, you aren’t going to get much bigger (his mate went out on a Lim…. No? Ok then). Friends in high places indeed. I wonder did Neville take a Touchscreen Digital Hindsight Machine with him to Spain along with his winning brand of “here’s what you should have done” analysis?

While Neville seems a natural at the reactive/post game stuff (at least on telly), he looks to have fallen flat on his face in the proactive stakes and unfortunately for Neville, that’s the aspect of management that wins you games for the most part.

Come to think of it, there’s a show I’d watch – a detailed tactical pre-game analysis using similar digital tools, debating and eventually arriving at a prediction and not just a prediction of the score, but a breakdown of where and how it would be won. That would sort the men from the boys.

Neville still has his coaching role with England, but you’d imagine Sky will make some kind of attempt to get him back alongside Carragher on Monday Nights.

If Neville did return to the Sky studios, it would be with tactical tail firmly between his legs. You’d expect a far more reserved Neville, for a few months at least – a pundit less inclined to deal in absolutes, in finger pointing and in overly heavy criticism. That would make the show a worse watch, but I’m not sure Neville’s reputation is strong enough anymore to continue unloading with two barrels.

When Neville took the Valencia hot-seat, he was quick to point out that he didn’t see football management as a long term career choice. Whether he was being genuine, or if that was just an attempt to give himself a soft landing should things go tits up, only he will know. I doubt he will be inundated with more managerial offers in any case.

Maybe all he ever wanted to do, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, was to bask in the warm glow of the TDHM’s warming glow. Where you can just press a button to be on the button. Where all he had to do for an endless supply of kudos was to was call things as they were. Where even Twitter Scousers respected him.

Gary and his Sky Machine. A love story for the digital age. Who are we to deny such a reunion? Maybe Sky will eventually develop the technology required to unite the two permanently in a marriage of flesh and circuitry? The Sky Nev-Bot with touch screen nipples and a blue arrow for a ……

Then, Neville wouldn’t be able to leave the studio at all in case it rained. Bliss.

by Simon Winter

Twitter: @simonjwinter

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Independent football writing : fighting a losing battle

Published on in Features

‘A picture paints a thousand words’ is probably the most idiotic idiom every verbalised. I’m not being facetious when I say it just never made any sense to me. What’s a picture without context? Without some background information? A picture/photograph wrangles and captures a split second from time times infinity. Why restrict and condense a story to something so singular? You can’t look out through your letterbox and tell me what the world looks like.

Sadly the phrase encapsulates modern journalism perfectly. More accurately I guess it would be “a picture replaces a thousand words”.

From my own little niches perspective, it’s a crippling and disheartening reality. As part of the amateur football writing fraternity for the past few years, I’ve witnessed dozens of fantastic independent football sites and blogs come and go, all washed away, their voices drowned out by “new media”.

When I say “new media” I’m talking about any site with LAD affixed to its name on one end or the other. You know the kind of sites I mean – they share dozens of photos, memes, photos of tweets, photos of reactions to tweets etc. all accompanied by 100 words or so, complete with hashtags and emojis. They produce hundreds of mindless transfer rumour stories, linking random players with arbitrary clubs, suckering the reader in with allusive headlines.

It’s grim stuff – but this is football writing today. This is news today. This is journalism today. How can anyone not be horrified by that?

People want instant news and information – if a story cannot be consumed in under a minute, people have been conditioned to give up on it. There is a digital land grab of sorts, a scramble for hits and page views. Numbers and visitors are the mark of online success, not quality of content.

This is the tl;dr generation. For people not cool enough (people like me) to know what that means, it simply means ‘too long ; didn’t read’.  And we aren’t talking about too long as in book chapter long, but the recommended article length for the internet stands at around the 300 word mark. That’s approximately the last five paragraphs back up the page from this point.

That’s what internet marketing and SEO (search engine optimisation) companies will tell you. 300 words MAXIMUM or people just won’t read it. They will also tell you to identify a “keyword” for your article and make sure to cram that word into your maximum 300 as many times as humanly possible no matter how weird and unnatural it makes the piece seem.

Those marketers would hold the LAD (and similar) sites up as shining examples of what modern internet publishing should be. And admittedly, these sites are insanely popular, but their rise to power is evidence that we are letting the idiots win. You could argue of course, that it’s each to their own – everyone will have their preferred method of content consumption. Not everybody wants to read 1000+ long form articles. But such is the dominance of this “new media”, the pool of readers who do want a more informative read is evaporating fast.

An outstandingly written 1500 word football article (yes they are still out there) is likely to get 0.001% of the social media engagement a duckface photo of Jack Wilshere in a baseball cap will. A completely fabricated transfer story linking Ibrahimovic to Leicester City would thrash that same outstanding article in the numbers stakes too.

“Like for Messi, share for Ronaldo” – that will be the epitaph on the tombstone of quality football writing.

That quality writing is still out there if you look hard enough. There is still a small dedicated underground army of writers producing insanely good content and all of it for free. The stuff they write would be the inverse of SEO marketer’s article dos and don’ts.  They write informative, witty, insightful and finely crafted opinion pieces and historical features, but they get a tiny fraction of the attention they deserve.

In fact, we have come full circle in terms of recognizing and rewarding good writing. If I post an article on Facebook that people seem to like, Facebook will send me a message along the lines of “Your article X is proving popular, boost it for €16 to reach more readers”.

Basically they are telling you, your article is great and is being well received by people, so you should pay more people to read it! How insanely twisted is that? How many potential wordsmiths are we losing to this odd, badly warped set up? Not only is it near impossible to earn a living as a writer these days, but now you should pay people to read your own stuff?

Should JK Rowling pay people to read the new Harry Potter? Why does that sound more laughable than what’s happening online right now?

Of course you could claw some of that money back through advertising – right? Wrong. You get paid cents per thousand readers. If you are lucky enough to have 10,000 people reading your stuff a week, you might make a tenner and truthfully, it’s probably not even that much. You might earn enough to cover your website hosting costs, but even that’s unlikely.

Imagine each of those 10,000 readers had to give you 10c to read your writing. Just ten lousy cent. That would be a thousand quid a week for your trouble. Suddenly you have an excellent salary for doing something you love and that people appreciate and enjoy.

Am I saying we should move towards an internet where you pay for everything you read? Of course that seems alien and a bit nuts. It will certainly never happen, but all I guess I’m trying to say is that writers should be rewarded more for their work, especially when it proves popular. That doesn’t sound all that unfair does it?

Maybe it’s Googles fault – according to their product description, their Adsense system is built to reward unique and interesting content. But while you make cents, they make tens of millions by syndicating your website with thousands of others to sell space on your site to their advertising clients. They are using your product (your writing), monetizing it in a major way, while passing pittance to you. It’s one of the greatest cons of the internet age.

It is akin to standing outside somebody’s shop, and selling the shops stock to customers before they enter, taking 99% of the money, leaving the other 1% to the shop owner.

As an independent writer/blogger, you used to be able to supplement your income by selling sponsored links within your articles from time to time. An example of this might be the placement of a link to a casino or betting website organically within a normal article. Marketing companies would pay you 50 or 60 quid for something like that in a one off payment, which could help a little with a site’s running costs. But Google didn’t like that.

Now if you publish a sponsored post or link, Google will actively look to “punish” your website by reducing it’s ranking in their search engine results, strangling your traffic and effecting your readership.

They think that that 50 or 60 quid should go to them through their Adsense progams and ad placements. You deserve one cent of it. How dare you cut out the middle man and maximise the earning potential of your own product.

So why would anyone maintain an amateur independent football blog I hear you ask? It’s simply for the love of it. It’s for that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you see thousands of strangers taking the time to read your opinion about something, then critiquing and discussing it with you.

Nobody gets in to it expecting to make any money. That’s not why any of us started in the first place. But that still doesn’t mean that the financial dividends for having thousands of readers shouldn’t be more rewarding.  We shouldn’t have to lose so many good writers to a system that bleeds them dry and gives nothing back.

So what can you do as a reader to help support football’s underground writing society? Beyond appreciating the hours they put in to writing about football, if you see a donate button on any independent site, why not throw them a few pounds/euro?

If you enjoy an article on their site, take the time to tell them or confirm you did by liking it on Facebook, Twitter or whatever social media platform you prefer. Share it if you want to go one step further.

Every little helps and each time you interact with an article, you could be rescuing a new reader from the clutches of the “LADs”. Because we are better than them. You are better than them.

Don’t let quality independent football writing, blogs and websites disappear beneath the expanding turgid sludge of new media. The football landscape would be a far bleaker place without them.

by Simon Winter

Twitter: @simonjwinter

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