Sunday Reading: Lefties, Poachers, Sackings and Trip to Anfield
Each week I read countless blogs that my eyes bleed or turn into footballs. But I thought that I would share what I have read in the week, along with a little bit of my own comments. The blogsphere for football bloggers is getting so big now it can be hard to wade through each piece, so I thought I would highlight a few to read on a lazy Sunday morning.
An Oxford Boy in Liverpool – Micro LFC
I am not going to make any secrets that I am in fact a Liverpool fan, born and raised in the city walls. It can be easy to take for granted the way in which football is at the centre of our culture and community, it can sometimes take an outsider like George an Oxford City fan himself to make you appreciate what we have in Liverpool and proud.
George writes about his experience visiting Anfield for the recent Stoke game, coming to Liverpool during the second reign of Dalglaish has given the supporters and the City such a buzz to it, its a good time to be in Liverpool and to visit the games. We find ourselves happy to chat about football once again with brimming smiles from ear to ear.
Are attacking midfielder the new poachers? – Holding Midfielder
Joshua Askew explains how the battle for space on the field has manipulated the change roles across the positions.
Lampard has been doing it for years, Steven Gerrard to an extent and Merelies is turning into one of these attacking midfield poachers for Liverpool. midfielders coming from deep unchecked to grab goals and feed on scraps sharing the same qualities we consider in an old fashioned goal scorer.
It’s an interesting thing to consider and a concept that English football has not fully taken grasp. The main goalscorer are coming from deeper positions while the likes of Heskey hold the ball up and turn supplier for them. A liberation in the offside rule may have forced defences deeper, making it harder for poachers to be successful. Michael Owen himself has recognised his old role as being extinct and he Manchester United as well as Newcastle have tried to develop him into a bigger threat coming from deeper positions.
Reactions to Di Matteo’s sacking
I wrote about Robert Di Matteo on the day he was sacking, my thoughts were clear. Di Matteo was a victim of short sighted management. The form table seems to dictate the hiring and sacking of managers in football today. Much of what I said was reiterated in many places including ‘Back Page Football‘ and ‘Football Ramble‘
Jonathan Wilson’s piece is particularly interesting, he looks at how managers like Brian Clough, Arsene Wenger, Alex Ferguson and Henry Chapman would have certainly been sacked without an apology in the modern game. Knee jerks seem to be the norm, when we see a precedent of given time to managers and you could reap the rewards. While in the genuine cases that managers really fail, they are reward handsomely for doing so. Something has to change.
In Defence of Football – Left Back in the Changing Rooms
Robert Marrs falls for the newest trick in the pressroom. As ‘The New Statesman’ writes some random tosh in order to get a reaction and spread the viral wildfire. Any publicity is better then no publicity afterall.
Helen Lewis Hastely attacks football as a load of selfish, money grabbing, sexist pigs. No respectable ‘middle class’ person leaning to left should support such values in football culture. Lacking any sort of relevance, knowledge of the game or context.
Robert fights the corner of football and does so with a reasoned argument, plenty of examples which backup each point. Much of the piece speaks for itself and I for one share the sentiment of the LBITGR piece. It was nice though for once to consider the good things that come out of professional football.
Pulped Friction – Dispatches from a football sofa
Much has been said about the Keys and Gray sacking. There is no point going over the argument once again. But what is worth going over again is Greg’s literature.
Written from the point of view of Gray and read in my head like a character from an American ‘French Noir’ film. Greg puts together the musings of Gray’s character with Keys.
Referee’s in the spotlight -BBC
Finally something from the BBC, John Sinnot gives us some food for thought about the standard of referees in this country. Typically balanced view from the BBC but in the end the statistics are alarming if you believe the numbers showing referees of bias and plenty of room for improvement.
Referees in the lack consistency, so much room for interpretation and context of a situation within games can skew so many decisions. Without any word from the referees themselves it can be hard to see why decisions have been given either way. In the end clubs and fans are left feeling hard done by. Referees though do need some sort of intervention to help them in decision making.
Hawk-eye on the football field could be the way forward giving managers 2 or 3 challenges to make per game/half could stop the constant moaning and at give referees support, instead of having to rely on one man to make massive decisions under pressure.
