Date published: Friday 10th July 2020 2:36
Get your mails in to [email protected]…
Dear Football 365
No doubt, as we hit the business end of the season you’ll be hearing from so-called Tottenham ‘supporters’ expressing their displeasure with our hard-fought goalless draw at 18th placed AFC Bournemouth.
Well, I say boo hoo to those naysayers and keyboard warriors as we have much to look forward to at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, such as:
David Harris, Sydney
I think it is to do with the initiation of contact like 16 Conclusions touched on but also intent/negligence and possession of the ball. The laws of the game do not specifically reference these (I don’t think, haven’t checked because it’s very early and what fun is a football discussion based in fact?) but they are factors in deciding what is a foul and what is just a coming together and contact between players.
Obviously there are fouls where the player in possession just gets kicked but there are a large number of fouls out there that occur when a player with the ball (attacker) runs at an opponent (defender), knocks it past the defender and the defender trys to kick the ball away as it goes past him but misses it, placing his leg or foot or whatever he used to try and make the tackle (so in Phil Jones case, his face) in the path of the attacker. The attacker, chasing after the ball, is the one that then actually initiates contact with the defenders leg/foot/face which tried to get but missed the ball and the attacker is impeded. This all happens in milliseconds in real time and is given as a foul as the defender has impeded the attacker with either a degree of intent or negligence.
So I think yesterday’s incident is basically what happens above with the difference being there is intent/negligence in the above example, and in yesterday’s there isn’t. Yesterday Konsa chooses to make a tackle on Fernandes who is running towards him with the ball, but there is no intent as Fernandes does an unexpected roulette dragback twirly type thingy (the correct terminology for this little bit of skill) which he can’t have been expected to expect (quality English right there). No negligence either as Konsa’s only moved slightly himself, he’s not been reckless in what he’s done. Likewise with Fernandes though, he’s doing his twirly thing and actually has his back to Konsa at the moment of contact so cannot know where he is, so no intent or foul for me there either. You could argue he’s been reckless but he’s in possession of the ball trying to go past an opponent and I don’t think I would class his twirly thing as reckless or negligent either. Certainly neither of their actions are ‘dangerous play’, which are specified in there laws of the game.
Next, Mason Greenwood. Jeez, what a player this kid is. The lad looks like an absolute natural. His work to set up the first goal was excellent, his all round play is brilliant (that switched pass on the run in the first half was beautiful) and he is absolutely lethal from anywhere near the goal. For his goal, I almost knew he had scored before he’d even struck the ball, that’s how good he is. Those two little touches to set himself before the strike were brilliant and gave the Villa back line no chance. I’ve never been this excited about an up and coming United player, including Ronaldo. Thank god Jose isn’t in charge any more, because we would never have seen Greenwood get this kind of game time.
In some ways, 3-0 was disappointing as we really ought to have scored more. Fred, Wan Bissaka, Rashford, Bruno and Greenwood could have all scored additional goals, but I suppose that’s a luxury you can afford while you’re already winning and keeping a clean sheet. Pogba was also excellent again last night and thoroughly deserved his (very well taken) goal. I think Keane was absolutely spot on in the post-match analysis, in saying that he seems to be relishing not being that leader figure. It’s really taken the pressure off him, having Bruno taking on a lot of this responsibility. It also went mostly unnoticed but he did an absolute peach of a side-step in the first half to unleash a brilliant counter-attack. His confidence has come back to the point that the little tricks and risks he tries are starting to mostly work out. This is finally the Paul Pogba that we thought we were buying, so fair play to him and the coaching staff for turning it around.
It’s great to see us finally putting teams at the wrong end of the table to the sword; our inability to do this earlier in the season is the reason that we’re so far off the pace in the league. Those dropped points against Palace (L), Southampton (D), West Ham (L), Newcastle (L), Bournemouth (L), Sheffield United (D), Villa (D), Watford (L) and Burnley (L) are all results that have either been corrected in the return fixtures or feel like they wouldn’t happen again now. We’ve got Palace, Southampton and West Ham in our next three fixtures, though, so I guess we’ll see soon enough.
Since OGS took over in Dec 2018, Man United have been (an albeit distant) 3rd in the table, behind only Liverpool and Man City in terms of points accumulated. Given that United have only finished in the top 3 once since SAF left 7 years ago, that is already an improvement over a season and a half.
OGS (and his coaching team) have managed to do this whilst having to rebuild a totally new first team, and get rid of several players who were either not good enough, or just didn’t want to be at the club. Look at the first teamers from last year who he has had to either loan out, phase out of the first team or sell outright: Young, Smalling, Jones, Lindgard, Pereira, Herrera, Sanchez, Lukaku. I don’t think any of those players would be in the first team at the moment. Last season they were all in the first team with no other options (~shudder~)
He did have an awful period from March 2019-Jan 2020, but I think that is to be expected when you are rebuilding a new team, with a new identity, new style, new ethos. The squad was unfit (as they had been basically walking through games under Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho), not harmonious as it was full of players who were not good enough or just there for the money, and above all just a mixture of the whim of the previous 3 managers. You can definitely tell this is an OGS team now (or almost like a SAF team, as guess who OGS is trying to borrow from)
In his period the biggest weakness has been beating teams who defend in 2 banks of 4/low block/whatever you want to call it. Against the big teams he has been tactically very good. This season United have beaten Man City three times, Chelsea three times, taken 4 points off spurs, and I think will probably also do the double against Leicester. These victories have largely been done with a midfield of McTominay, Fred, Lindgard and Pereira (with no Pogba or Hernandes for a lot of those games). Imagine that!!
Against the low block teams now with Pogba, Fernandes and Greenwood playing together they have now been doing much better, and wins against these teams now seem a formality. For all those who doubt the tactical nous of OGS (and his team, Mike Phelan and Carrick and McKenna are not there just because they are his mates) should reconsider and watch the team going forward.
United have a front three who are now outscoring Liverpool’s, and the squad have scored 99 goals this season. Last night they became the first team in PL history to win four consecutive games by a 3+ goal margin. By the end of the season they will probably have three 20 goal strikers if Greenwood keeps going at this rate.
United have the 3rd best defensive record in the league (I anticipate this will become the 2nd best by the end of the season)
United have lost fewer PL games than Man City this season.
At the beginning of the season OGS did say that this would be another season of transition. And so it has proved to be. The squad is starting to come out of that period now in a very healthy way. Clearly planning has been done for the long term. The team is the youngest in the PL, and there are still very exciting prospects who will come through next term in Teden Mengi (CB) and Hannibal Mejbri (creative midfielder), which may mean that an extra CB or backup for pogba/fernandes is not as urgent as before. Greenwood will be the #9 going forward, And clearly OGS is planning on having 2 excellent players for each position. Someone is clearly acting as the Director of Football in the absence of an official position, it’s probably OGS and Phelan together managing Woodward upwards.
So I think for all the talk about United still being 5th, which I think shows how difficult it is to break into the top 4 these days, OGS deserves some praise for rebuilding a football behemoth, which 18 months ago was a total shambles. There have been ups and downs, but it looks like United are coming out of a very fallow period of rudderless leadership with a clear identity, a style which is difficult to contain, and a long term plan involving youth which is beginning to come to fruition.
Well lets take a look at PSG’s potential route to the final, remembering that all of their games will be one off knockout ties, no second legs, no dreadful collapses, no Barcelona comebacks of old, so first up PSG take on Atalanta then in the Semi Final if they were to win would be Leipzig or Atletico, on paper that is easily the easier route to the final, no Bayern, no Madrid, No City and no Barcelona, so that Quarter Final is against the Serie A surprise package of recent seasons Atalanta, which for me is certainly going to be the hardest game in that run to the final, Atalanta are playing some incredible football and maybe even themselves could make the final which would result in many neutral fans supporting them due to how they play football and who does not love a good underdog story? We championed Ajax last season, Atalanta would surely take that mantle for the neutral.
This got me thinking about the relationship between the on-pitch referee and the VAR.
They are both referees, which means they are peers. One would assume they know each other and you could also assume they have positive relationships with each other. Human nature would suggest that, at least subconsciously, they want to protect each other.
Is this the biggest problem with VAR? That it’s the police reviewing one of their own. When ‘a clear and obvious error’ is subjective, wont teammates veer towards backing each other, instead of undermining the on-field decision?
Subconsciously or consciously, peers will look after their own. So to the VAR, that ‘clear and obvious error‘ needs to look more like a Zidane headbutt from hell as opposed to a subtle but definite push in the back.
This isn’t fully blaming the VARs. They’re reacting to deep rooted human behaviours which makes it harder to make unbiased decisions.
And yes, there are VARs doing excellent work and they should be applauded for it, but it’s starting to feel like there’s too many instances where that’s not the case.
He is black and Tarkowski is White – unconscious bios or conscious that’s the only difference (if the laws are applied equally). I am white, and grew up in Hackney with many colours and saw heaps of racism and have been on the receiving end a couple of times of racism when with friends (just to qualify my statements – even though i am white I can still recognise it).
I get sick of commentators fawning over players like Harry Maguire (did you hear the other day the commentator talking about ‘the England players broad chest’ WTF!). Or every time a black player looks unhappy on the pitch – ‘he really needs to smile more’ oh FFS, yesum sir!! – why should he??? You dont say that about white players – when they are not smiling its because they are unhappy with their performance, being professional. The criticisms are very different for no reason.
Update your browser to view this website correctly.Update my browser now
×