They're Back!

How we have all missed the vibrant atmosphere of football fans turning up at stadiums to watch their team put on a show with the ball. After six months of playing behind closed doors, the 'beautiful game' is slowly but surely getting back to the norm.    

Football Crowd- St James' Park

Although we have had an exciting finish to the 2019-20 season and an extraordinary start to the 2020-21 season, it has not been the same without the roars and screams from thousands of spectators in the stands. We may not have full stadiums at the present moment, but due to the pandemic, elite sport has been missing its key motto, which is the fans appearing in their stadiums and/or venues. 

There is no doubt that players want to perform to their best of their ability week in and week out, and therefore having spectators cheering and shouting out their names gives them that extra boost of motivation, which may have been lost during the past nine months or so. 

Let's not forget the work that the government and especially the NHS has done to make this possible becuase at one stage, this may have been the end of sport for quite some time, probably for a couple of years at least. 

The return of the fans is also a boost to the clubs in terms of their reputation, they want to earn money and make success and a part of how they do it is allowing their fans the opportunity of coming to see the team play. This is particularly important for the lower tier clubs i.e League One and League Two as they want to achieve more success by winning matches to get promoted to the next tier of English football.  If there are no fans attending the games, the smaller clubs will eventually start to run out of business and shut down. 

Although we are on the verge of getting a vaccine to help up defeat the virus, having the fans back is a huge boost for most clubs around the country. Yes, there are certain areas in which have strict lockdown measures, but the 'beautiful game' is slowly returning to its prime.  

There's a saying that 'football is never the same without the fans', and that's the reality.    

Feature Image: "Football Crowd - St James' Park" by Steenbergs is licensed under CC BY 2.0

   

   

VAR "RIDICULOUS!!'

Those of you who are into football will know that VAR is  driving everyone nuts. First Crystal Palace, Burnley and then Tottenham. All three of these clubs were the first to be robbed by controversial decisions made by VAR this season.

Joel Ward, who was the first culprit to be dumbfounded by VAR on the third weekend of the 2020-21 Premier League season. During Palace's game away at Everton, Lucas Digne fired a shot at goal but the ball hit Ward's arm and was controversially given as a penalty, even though Ward's arm was in a natural position. The same happened with Eric Dier and Tottenham in their home game against Newcastle. Andy Carrol's header struck the England defender'a arm in what look to be a natural position when he was trying to  block the Newcastle centre forward's header attempt at goal. Chris Wood and Burnley were denied a penalty against Southampton, which many people including Sean Dysche were expecting to be given these days even though it was a bit on the soft side.

Why on earth did the FA listen to FIFA? As we know that the Premier League is the best League in the world, VAR is making a complete mockery out of the handball rule and becuase of this, defenders are now attempting to block shots with their arms behind their back. I  think the FA have seriously fallen in love with FIFA and its stupidity. Some people, especially FIFA have forgotten the basic rule of FIFA, where if a player deliberately intervenes with the ball with their arm or hand whilst it is still in play, it should then be given as handball and not the other way round.  Can someone put some sense into these people! Also, when you slide tackle a player, your arm must be raised in order to avoid injury, this is a natural position.

Having a silly rule such as this means that defenders cannot do their job properly. which is to help  the goalkeeper out by blocking shots on goal from the opposing team. 

Another issue on the handball rule, which Liverpool's Joe Gomez cleverly pointed out post the 1-1 draw with rivals City, is the fact that when the referee goes over to the VAR monitor, they watch it in slow motion, but everybody knows that the gaming is not played in slow motion, so how can you identify a handball decision by slowing the incident down?

This is where FIFA and VAR need to be more clear about how they implement the handball rule in professional football.  

Another issue regarding VAR is the offside rule. The rule states that if any part of the player's body is beyond the line of the opposition team's defence when the ball is being passed to them, it is given as  offside. But with that said, you cannot score a goal with your hand, as was the case for Patrick Bamford. Leeds United were controversially denied a goal against Crystal Palace for offside. As Bamford was trying to signal to Ayling where to pass the ball, VAR saw that his arm was beyond the line of Crystal Palace's defenders in the lead up to the goal, so it was ruled out for offside. However, you cannot score with your arm, so this proves that there is no logic whatsoever in this new offside rule. 

FIFA really need to get to the issue of fixing VAR becuase at the moment, it is taking the mockery out of the game. We all know that refereeing in football is one of the toughest jobs in sport, but that does not mean it should be defamed by incorrect use of technology. Fans want to see football being played the right way, but at the moment, the use VAR is proving to be a hurdle in the way of this happening.     

   

Psychology and behaviour in sport

Novak Djokovic has been disqualified from the 2020 US Open. The Serbinator was caught  hitting a ball at a line judges throat expressing his anger of losing his serve against fourth round opponent Pablo Carreno Busta. 

Djokovic quickly showed he concern for the female line judge as he walked straight up to her. Thankfully, the line judge seemed to be fit and fine even after being struck in the throat. Seeing incidents like this raises the question about tennis players attitude on court. David Nalbandian was also disqualified from Queens after kicking the the line judge in frustration leaving a big cut on his leg. 

According to the New York Times,  ' The figures from the Grand Slam tournaments are from all matches in qualifying, main-draw singles and doubles for a 20-year period — tens of thousands of matches.'

Statistics show that racquet abuse is the most common form of indisciplined behaviour on court. This comes to no surprise as this is the the only equipment they use to hit the ball in court.       

'Men have been fined 646 times for racket abuse and 287 times for unsportsmanlike conduct. Women have been fined 99 times for racket abuse and 67 times for unsportsmanlike conduct during that span.'  This proves that men are more susceptible to inappropriate behaviour on court. 

However, physical abuse is not the only thing we get from players on court, there have also been snips of verbal abuse, particularly at the officials. This is generally to vent their anger out at decision which have gone against them.  Italian Fabio Forgnini was fined $300 during a match at Wimbledon in 2019 for making an extraordinary comment, stating that he wished 'a bomb would explode' at the  All England Lawn Tennis Club he also made offensive comments towards English people. 

Watch here

Nevertheless, there are some people who say that Tennis does have an impact on people with mental health issues. Take the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) as an example, Briton Harriet Dart says that she has gained more self-confidence out of it 'Tennis has given me a huge amount of self-confidence'  It’s great for a range of ages and abilities, and the social aspect of it plays a big part in its mental health benefits.'

But does this have an influence on the way they behave on court? The answer is yes both positively and negatively. The positive side is when the adrenaline takes over, this is a source of mental energy which enables the mind to rejuvenate the body, to that it can immediately react to the situation. However, there  is a down side to mental health, which is stress. Stress can be an ingredient for an athlete succumbing to pressure, which can then cause them to make bad decisions, particularly if they are not able to deal with it. Take Rory Mcllroy at the 2011 Masters, who had a four-shot lead going into the last day but was not able to close it out and win the Green Jacket and succumbed to pressure of anxiety by having a poor final round.    

This is why some athletes, particularly those who play individual sports have coaches and mentors, to help them prepare mentally for events. The coach hires a psychologist who then works with the athlete and occasionally the coach behind the scenes to get the athlete mentally prepared for the event.  But are coaches and mentors always responsible for the way athletes behave on court? Well, they can be, particularly if they know the athlete inside out.

It is then up to the psychologist to help the athlete overcome the barrier of coping with stress and anxiety, which can prevent players behaving inappropriately on court. For example, shouting out abuse at the umpire if a decision does not go in their favour.  

Psychology means a lot in sport and is how athletes perform at the highest level. It also has an impact on the state of mind that they are in during game time. Athletes who have more practice in psychology tend to succeed more than athletes who don't. According to verywellmind.com,  'Contemporary sports psychology is a diverse field. While finding ways to help athletes is certainly an important part of sports psychology, the application of exercise and physical activity for improving the lives of non-athletes is also a major focus.' This is crucial as it shows that psychology matters to everyone and not just athletes. 

 

        

 

Feature Image: Djokovic by Bosco Cardenas via flickr 

MS Dhoni: A Legend Of the Modern Game

India Independence day 2020 was the day former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni announced his retirement from International Cricket. 

The legendary wicket keeper batsman had played 350 ODI's and scored a total of 10,773 runs for the country, he also featured in 90 Test matches, where he accumulated a total of 4,876 runs.

Unorthodox he may be, but what a player he had become out of it. Having grown up on the streets of Ranchi(city in Jharkand, India) no one expected him to have a successful career as he had, but did he prove everyone wrong. 

December 2004 was the year Dhoni announced himself on the International stage. However it was not the ideal start to his career as re was ran out without facing a ball in his ODI debut match against Bangladesh. However, things did turn around for him following a swashbuckling 148 not out in his fifth ODI against Pakistan at Vishakapatnam in 2005. 

The innings was a trade mark of the kind of player he was, particularly in the first half of his career with his ferocious six hitting ability. This was quickly followed up by another explosive innings of 183 not out against Sri Lanka in Jaipur. This was his second ODI series of his career. Following the early loss of Sachin Tendulkar, Dhoni was promoted to number three in the batting order ahead of skipper Rahul Dravid with India chasing a daunting target of 299runs. Dhoni's 183 not out guided India to yet another win on home soil.               

Another turning point of Dhoni's career came after India's tour of England in 2007, where he was announced as captain of India's T20 World Cup . This was  the hallmark of Dhoni's journey of becoming one of the greatest limited-overs captains of all time,  especially when he and India shocked the world by winning the first inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa. This was then followed by India's rise to claiming the top spot in the Test rankings in 2009. 

However, this did not satisfy Dhoni's India as the one thing they wanted was that second World Cup. with India being one of three nations to host the 2011 edition along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, there was a sense of expectation for Dhoni's men to deliver the goods, especially with this being Tendulkar's last chance to add a World Cup to his remarkable career.  Dhoni was in charge of a pretty experienced squad of which included the likes of The Little Master, the explosive Virender Sehwag, veteran off spinner Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina and current Skipper Virat Kohli. Being the number one side in ODI's, India went into the tournament as hot favourites, especially on home soil. 

Having had a torrid Caribbean World Cup campaign in 2007, there was even more pressure on Dhoni's side to make this tournament a memorable one, and boy did they deliver, especially with the form of of Yuvraj Singh, who was named 'Man of the Tournament' for his all-round contribution with 362 runs along with 15 wickets.  

Dhoni has also led Chennai Super Kings to four IPL(Indian Premier League) titles and one Champions League title. One of the reasons as to why the Super Kings have been so consistent in winning those titles and the Champions League is the strong Indian contingent of Dhoni himself, Ashwin, Jadeja who joined in season four, Raina and Harbhajan Singh, who was brought in season ten.        

One of Dhoni's key attributes as a player was the ability to remain calm under pressure, which is what made him such a great captain and player, especially in the one day and T20 formats. He was also a good reader of the game and knew what decisions to make at the right time. Even when Kohli took over the role of captaining the white ball side, Dhoni was still in charge of setting the fields and giving instructions to the bowlers. 

During India's tour of South Africa, the stump mics caught footage of the former Indian skipper giving advice to the bowlers on what to bowl and when. These were signs of Dhoni reliving his days as captain even though he handefCup came around, despite Dhoni's best efforts to help India try and win the semi-final against New Zealand at Old Trafford, you could see that the veteran Keeper-batsman looked burned out of International Cricket, especially after an incredible 15-year journey.      

  

Feature Image: MS Dhoni by Khabari Londa via Flickr, Creative Commons   

Should UEFA Scrap Two Legged Knockout Ties?

The UEFA Champions League and Europa League are the two pillars of European club football, but is it time to change its format?

As we football fans know that COVID-19 has messed up the sporting calendar, UEFA have therefore opted to have a mini 'World Cup' style tournament to get this season's competition over and done with, before the 2020-21 competition begins in October.

Let us first discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having two legged ties.  One of the advantages of two legged ties is that both teams get to play twice but in each other's territory. So, for example if Manchester United played Barcelona at the Camp Nou, they would have to play them again at Old Trafford, which is a positive thing becuase they will have home support from the crowd. However, one of the disadvantages could be that it adds to their fixture list which means they will be playing more games. Not to say that this is a bad thing, but what about the clubs who have slightly smaller squads and do not have enough money to add to them in terms of bench strength? 

You look at the top sides such as City and Barcelona and say well the reason as to why they are contenders is becuase they have some of the best players in their starting line-ups. Well, that may be true but they also have quality on their bench so that if one player gets injured, they can easily be replaced, whereas the smaller teams have to search for players who can fill the place of those who are out with injuries, which is always a struggle if the transfer window is not open or more importantly if a club is struggling to find players of a higher quality to try and boost their squad. 

One of the other issues with two-legged ties is that it's so much of an advantage to the away team, especially in the first leg, as one goal counts as double if they score in the second leg. therefore in my opinion that is slightly unfair.

But on the plus side you can say that having a two legged tie adds to the drama as a lot can happen in those two matches. Take Liverpool's miraculous comeback against Barcelona in the second leg of the semifinal clash at Anfield, where the Reds were trailing 3-0 on aggregate. the odds were against them to turn the tie around, but Jurgen Klopp's men delivered one of the greatest nights at Anfield where the six-time Champions League winners stunned Ernesto Valverde's side with a thumping 4-0 win to advance into the final.

Mauricio Pochettino did a similar thing during his time at White Hart Lane. Spurs lost their home leg to Ajax 1- 0 in the second semifinal and needed to win.  the match was on a knife-edge at 2-2 and Tottenham still needed one more goal to qualify for the final and Lucas Moura managed to find it in virtually the last kick of the game. This is why most people are still in favour of two-legged fixtures for the knockout phases for each tournament. they feel it adds more drama and both teams have two bites of the cherry to try and knock each other out of the tournament.  However, the negative side to this could be that the team playing away first as an advantage, becuase if they score in the first leg, it counts as double so then the team playing away in the second leg will have to beat the other teams aggregate score to win.  

With the FA Cup now being a straight knockout competition due to the exclusion of replays, some people may feel that eliminating two-leg ties may feel that the Champions League even overshadow it in terms of popularity.           

The away goals rule was invented in 1965-66 by UEFA as a way of breaking ties in football so that the team who scores the most away goals wins.  So, for example, if a team defeats another team 2-1 in the first leg, the team who got the one goal in that game would only need to win by 1 goal to 0 as an away goal counts as double. Extra-time and penalties can only take place if both teams have scored the same amount of away goals.    

This may sound confusing at first, but some fans find it helps by adding an extra narrative to the match becuase of the combination of having two matches along with the away goals rule. So you have the beginning of the story, which is the first leg and then the last part, which is the second leg.    

A tournament should never lose its identity by changing its tradition. Therefore, two-legged ties in both the Europa and Champions League are still the way to go in terms of keeping its popularity.  

Feature Image: Champions League Trophy by xchange tickets 

       

    

              

2019-20 Premier League Season Review

2019-20 Premier League Season Review

Sunday 27 July was when the 2019-20 Premier League season reached its climax. Liverpool claimed their first League title in 30 years and for the first time in the Premier League era.  The Reds went into  the start of the season with a Champions League title in the bag, but the thing that they desperately wanted was that title, especially having come so close in the previous season, where an awesome Manchester City who proved to be a tough nut to crack, especially under Pep Guardiola.

However, this season, Jurgsen Klopp's Reds were determined to set things right. and they got of to a rollocking start by staying unbeaten in their first 18 games, which equalled City's record of consecutive games won in a season but Watford denied the champions of breaking that record with a surprising 3-0 victory at Vicarage Road. The champions also achieved 61 points in their first 21 matches as well as being the fastest to winning 30 matches with a 3-1 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion. 

The biggest difference has been the signing of Virgil van Dijk who arrived at Anfield in January 2018 and Alison Becker, who joined the reds, who joined the Reds at the start of the 2018-19 season. those so signings were key in terms of creating a solid foundation to allow the Reds to challenge

for trophies again. Yes you can say that the likes of Salah, Mané and Firmino did most of the goal scoring, but scoring loads of goals does not guarantee you a trophy. you need to have that extra security at the back to allow your attacking players the freedom of scoring goals.

Another key asset to Liverpool's success are their two full backs Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold. these two have been the catalyst of Liverpool's attacking play in the previous two seasons. not only has it been their ability to create assists for the front three but their desire to help out with the defensive side has been phenomenal, which is why they are in the top three in terms of the amount of assists in the Premier League. City's Kevin De Bruyne tops the table with 20, ahead of Alexander-Arnold who has 13 and Robertson with 12.

It has been a strange season for Guardiola's City as I would of thought that they would have produced a much better defence of their title. Yes, Liverpool truly deserve it, but as a neutral I would have loved it if City made the Reds earn it rather than letting them run away with it. I just thought City had lost a bit of their mental toughness.

Whether the focus for this season was on Champions League or not, i just felt that City looked a bit off the pace this season. The main reason for this could be the departure of Vincent Kompany. The biggest thing City had missed was his leadership both on the pitch and in the dressing room. You always felt the team was looking slightly weaker, especially on the defensive side. However, you would expect that City and Guardiola will be eager to regain back the title when the 2020-21 season begins in September.

Champions League

Chelsea along with City United and  Liverpool will feature in next season's Champions League following victories over over top four contenders Wolves and Leicester.  The Blues sealed their place im next season's competition following a 2-0 victory against Wolves, who were also looking for a place in Europe's elite competition. Unfortunately, the defeat against Frank Lampard's side meant that
Nuno Espírito Santo side finished the season in seventh place. However, their is still an alternative route for Wolves in order to play in next seasons competition, by winning the Europa League.   

Should Wolves qualify with victory in the Europa League, it wouldn't surprise me if they have a decent run in next season's Champions League becuase of the way Nuno has set them up in terms of tactics and style which is a 3-5-2 system. to be a top European side, you need that balance of attacking and defending, especially in midfield.  the three standout players for me this season have been Ruben Neves, Raul Jimenez and Adama Taore. the trio have been excellent this season and caused chaos in the oppositions defence, especially the pace of Traore. 

Coming back to Chelsea, Lampard has had a terrific first season as Manager. When he first got the job,  you would expect that most Chelsea fans were a little anxious as taking on the role of Blues boss in a relatively young career as a manager, but the way he has handled the team as well as including some of the youth team players, i.e Tammy Abraham, Daniel James and Mason Mount has been outstanding. The Blues still have plenty to play for this season, including a FA Cup final on Saturday against North London rivals Arsenal.                  

Manchester United have also gotten back to a regular top four side and part of this has to do with the signing of Portuguese midfielder who singed a five and a half year deal at Old Trafford for £47million.  His arrival has given a completely new vibe to the club and especially for players like Paul Pogba, who seams to be comfortable playing alongside the former Sporting playmaker in the centre of midfield. Since Fernandes joined the club, the Red Devils have picked up a bag full of points to secure third place. Part of this is to do with his creativity in midfield, which is what United were lacking. His arrival was a boost for all the players and therefore it motivated them to improve there performances, not just individually but as a team as well.         

Commiserations to Leicester City who narrowly missed out on a top-four finish. The Foxes at one stage seemed to be cruising towards Champions League football, however it has been a completely different story post lockdown particularly away from home. Brendan Rogers's sides had only won two out of their remaining nine games, with five defeats and two draws. On the plus side, it nice to see Leicester blood some more English talent such as 22-year old Harvey Barnes and James Maddison. Barnes along with veteran Jamie Vardy have been the two standout players this season for the Foxes this season with Vardy who won the golden boot with a total of 23 goals ahead of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Danny Ings with 22. 

Relegation Battle

If you thought the race for the Champions League was intriguing, so was the battle to avoid relegation. with Norwich City down and out after losing to West Ham, this left Watford, Aston Villa and Bournemouth to battle it out on the final day of the season. Eddie Howe's Cherries needed a victory over Everton, which they got by 3 goals to one. However, it wasn't enough as Dean Smith's Villa managed to hold out the Hammers for a precious 1-1 draw at the London Stadium thanks to a goal from skipper Jack Grealish. 

This was also heartbreaking for Watford as Hayden Mullins's Hornets suffered a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Watford knew only a unlikely victory against Mikel Arteta's Gunners could stand them with a great chance of survival, but they were up against an awesome Aubameyang whose two goals dented their hopes of another season in the Premier League.  

 feature Image: English Premier League Trophy on Display in Manchester United Museum by edwin.11 CC BY 2.0 

 
       

Leading From The Front

France Lloris directs his defence as Croatia prepare to take the free kick in the World Cup Final from which they will ultimately make it France 1-1 Croatia

 At 2018 World Cup Final vs Croatia

Shortly after the half-time whistle during Spurs's home game with Everton, skipper Hugo Lloris was not impressed with the way Son Heung-Min was tracking the run of Toffee's striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin. This led to a bust up between the duo and they had to be separated by the rest of the on-field players.

However, the short bust up seemed to have worked as Spurs looked a completely different team in the second half and secured a 1-0 victory to boost their hopes of Europa League football next season.

During the post-match interview Mourinho was pleased with his teams performance, where he also described the Son-Lloris bust up as 'Beautiful'. He also mentioned about the fact that sometimes being honest with yourself as a team allows you to reflect on your performances and improve yourself mentally

"If you want to blame somebody for that, it's me. I was critical of my boys because they are not in my opinion critical enough with themselves".  

The second half showed a completely different kind of performance as Spurs were able to put in a solid defensive display to keep their 1-0 lead. Seeing incidents like these shows just how important team spirit is and how much passion the players still have for the game regardless of their overall position in the League. Former Spurs midfielder and Sky Sports pundit backed this up at half-time.

That might be a consequence of what happened in the Sheffield United game when he didn’t make a challenge. ‘He runs up to him, he pushes Le Celso into him almost… I’ve been involved with this before. I’ve seen it with Steve McManaman and Bruce Grobbelaar and, in a way, at least it shows that they care because against Sheffield United they didn’t. There wasn’t enough of that.’

This really emphasises the point that yes the manger is their to try and control the team, but it's then up to the players to respond and help each other out by working and communicating effectively with each other, especially on the pitch.

If you look at newly crowned champions Liverpool, a part of their success has come from their passion and desire to win football matches. Yes, you could say that the main reason is to do with teamwork and team spirit. Manager Jurgen Klopp and captain Jordan Henderson for me have been the main stalwarts of Liverpool's success in these past three years. Yes, you could say that it has been Liverpool's front three and two full backs, who have been behind the majority of their success,  but it's even more important for a team to have leaders like Klopp and Henderson, who can set an example for everyone of how team spirit goes a long way to  achieving success, which is one of the reasons as to why they won the Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup and now their first Premier League title. 

When a team is down it's really important for a leader or even a group of leaders to rejuvenate the team and say something like "come on guys this is not good enough, we need more!', phrases like this can really turn an average or below par performance into a top-class one, especially when their is no home crowd to try and jeer the players on.



Feature Image: Hugo  Lloris leading France World Cup Final via Flickr.com

International Football Management

FIFA World Cup displayed on Trophy tour 

If you ever thought managing a club team was the hardest job in football, try being the Head Coach of an International team. When you are the Head coach of National team, you are put under even more pressure not just by fans and the media, the whole nation is looking towards you to deliver the goods for the country.

Due to the popularity of Club football being more popular in the sporting world nowadays, international teams hardly get much time to come together. The  other thing about international team management is that you are dealing with players who come from the same country but play for different clubs. This is why you need to keep your head together and try to make those players gel together aa a team.

The other issue that International managers have is squad selection. If you look at Roy Hodgson’s final tournament, which was the 2016 European Championships, Raheem Sterling was the only out and out winger in the team, which meant there wasn’t enough quality in wide areas on the pitch, so this meant that Hodgson had to re-compensate and put Daniel Sturridge who is traditionally a left footed striker on the right wing.

What was also surprising was the fact that the Premier League has a full array of talented young English midfielders such as Andros Townsend and Danny Drinkwater who had just won the League with Leicester City, so some people may have thought that Roy would also pick players who were in form and not those who weren’t like Jack Wilshere who had just came back from injury. 

Former England striker Alan Shearer backed up this point by saying “ we’ve had players who don’t deserve to be in the squad.” How on earth can he pick Jack Wilshere who hadn’t even started a game or played 90 minutes in over a year for Arsenal and only had 141 minutes on the pitch.’ So, he thinks that Hodgson got it all wrong in terms of squad selection.         

If you look at Spain’s 2010 World Cup winning team, half of Vicente del Bosque’s squad were either from Real Madrid or Barcelona, who are fierce rivals in LA Liga and as well as being two giants of world football. But this did not affect their performance in Both South Africa and the 2012 European Championships as they went on to become the first European team to win back-to-back trophies in their exquisite ‘Tiki Taka’ style of football.

Tiki Taka or Tiqui-taca is a Spanish style of football of which is based on a team keeping possession of the ball. It involves lots of short passing and movement from players on and off the ball almost like a triangle of three players trying to out-manoeuvre the opposing team’s defence. This tactic proved to be the blueprint of their back-to-back success. Del Bosque was also considered as one of the greatest international Football managers of all time. The 69-year old had a win percentage of 88% in all matches including an undefeated European Championship qualifying campaign in 2011-12. 

Barcelona are also good experts of Tikki Takka as they have really good technicians on and off the ball such as Messi and Andreas Iniesta.  

Germany’s counter-attacking style of football under Joachim Löw has also been eye-catching to watch, especially after winning their fourth World Cup in Brazil in 2014. In spite of Messi winning the Golden Boot, Thomas Müller who won the Silver Boot and Manual Nuer, who won the Golden Glove, were the two players who stood out for the four-time winners during that tournament.

Funny Caption of Zidane's head butt on Marco Materazzi

Marcello Lipi, who won the World Cup with Italy in 2006. Relied heavily on his full backs to do most of their attacking play. Fabio Grosso and Gianluca Zambrotta proved to be the catalyst to Italy’s success in Germany. Their ability to put crosses into the box for the likes of Luca Toni and Francesco Totti were a huge success in terms of their attacking prowess.  Although, the Italians did have a bit of help from Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi during extra time. Had the French legend kept his cool on the pitch, things may have been different in terms of the outcome of the match.  He may have been a candidate to take a penalty in the shootout as well. 

Lipi was just the second manager to win the World Cup for Italy after Vittorio Pozzo, who claimed successive World Cups in 1934 and 1938.   

  

As for England, Although they had stars such as Beckham and Wayne Rooney, they were never able to grab a tournament by the scruff of neck and bring home the gold for the country. This was to do with many reasons such as injury’s and inappropriate behaviour on the pitch. Nevertheless, you could say that Cristiano Ronaldo did have a part to play in Rooney’s Red card against Portugal in Germany 2006, especially when he gave a blink at the England star as he was making his way off the pitch. But the former England captain later revealed that it was just banter and nothing else.  

Steve McClaren was undoubtedly England’s worst ever manager. Having only won nine out of eighteen matches, The former Middlesbrough boss failed to make the Three Lions qualify for the 2008 European Championships. McClaren took over from Sven Goran-Eriksen after England’s World Cup quarterfinal exit in 2006. This was also the second time that England failed to qualify for a major tournament for 14 years. Graham Taylor was the first manager who failed to make England qualify for a major tournament. This was the 1994 World Cup, which took place in the United States.

England’s most disappointing tournament came in South Africa 2010 under Fabio Capello. The Italian’s England side were placed in Group C which included USA, Algeria and Slovenia. On paper most you may have thought that the Three Lions would have sailed through to the knockout stages with ease, however, this was not the case as Capello’s side scraped through the group stage with two draws against the Americans and the Algerians followed by a 1-0 victory against Algeria. More fuel was added to England’s 2010 World Cup horror show with a 4-1 defeat to Germany in the knockout stages, especially when Lampard’s goal was controversially disallowed when the ball had quite clearly crossed the goal line.

A frustrated Rooney also had his say about England’s performance in South Africa, especially after the goalless draw against Algeria in the Group Stages. “Nice to see your home fans booing you’. This could have also been a sign that the players were lacking the support of the England fans throughout their performances during the tournament. Capello then spent two more years as England manager and then stepped down before the 2012 European Championships.

Euro 2012 was Hodgson’s first tournament in charge of the Three Lions. After making it though a tricky group of which included France, Sweden and Ukraine, England were knocked out of the tournament in the Quarter Final against Italy on penalties, which was their nemesis in knockout tournaments before Russia 2018.   

You could also say that Brazil 2014 was also a disappointing World Cup. England were put in a tough Group with the likes of Italy who beat them 2-1 in Manaus and Uruguay, who also defeated them by two goals to one in Sao Paulo. England were technically still in it but they needed to win their last game, which they did and hope that Italy beat Uruguay and Costa Rica which they failed to do so.

The 72-year old was also in charge of England’s Euro 2016 campaign, where The Three Lions suffered a humiliating exit at the hands of Iceland in the last 16. Although, you could say that this was due to Hodgson’s bizarre tactics such as playing Daniel Sturridge, who is naturally a left-footed striker on the right wing, putting Kane in charge of set pieces and waiting till the 86^th minute to bring on England’s quickest player in Marcus Rashford on the pitch. These were probably the three most brainless decisions of his managerial career.

Joe Hart, who was England’s first choice keeper at the Euros, also had a nightmare performance in goal against the Icelanders as he let in two relatively soft goals in which were easily avoidable. Match Of The Day pundit Alan Shearer described the match as ‘the worst performance he had ever seen from an England team ever.’ It also looked as if Hodgson did not have a clear game plan and therefore the players were confused about what system they should play in. Shearer also along with Gary Lineker described Hodgson’s England as tactically inept, meaning that the players did not show any skill or enough passion throughout the game.   

Post Hodgson’s exit, Sam Allardyce had the shortest stint as England Manager before he was caught giving advice on the FA’s rules on how to circumvent third party ownership of players after his first and only game in charge. The former Crystal Palace manager was sacked as National team boss by the FA as a consequence of his own actions. The FA then turned to England’s Under-21 boss Gareth Southgate. Interestingly, Allardyce still has the highest win percentage of 100% as England Manager. But it held no significance whatsoever as he was sacked a few days after his first game. Capello had the next best with 76.19%, but he failure to deliver on the biggest stage of all is what forced him to resign as England boss.      

Before Russia 2018, it had always been a struggle for Three Lions in major tournaments. Since 1996, England had never reached the last four of either a World Cup or European Championship.

       

Russia 2018 was also Southgate’s first tournament as England manager. This was England’s best tournament as they had never reached beyond the quarter-finals since Euro’96 when Terry Venables was in charge. England also achieved another historical feat in the Round of 16 against Colombia by winning a penalty shootout only the second time in 28 years, when the first came against Spain at Euro’96. Although, you could say that on paper, they had a relatively straightforward path through to the semis even though they were beaten by Croatia in the semis and to Belgium twice in the group stages and the third-place play-off.  

England also finished in third place in the inaugural UEFA Nations League tournament. This was brought in as an alternate route for qualification in the 2021 European Championships as well as another opportunity for World Cup qualification . This tournament was also devised by UEFA to reduce the number of international friendlies played in a year. It was also used to make international football more competitive outside of the World Cup and European Championships.

Portugal was the first nation to lift this trophy after beating the Netherlands 1-0 in the final.

What was also good from England at Russia 2018 is the fact that Southgate had a system in which the players were able to adapt to. This was a 3-5-2 system with Sterling playing off Kane. 

It was the complete opposite to Euro 2016, where you felt like there was a lack of understanding between Hodgson and his players, as there wasn’t drive or motivation from anyone to create a positive vibe in the dressing room. When this happens, it then forces the manager to make poor decisions in terms of their tactics or when to make substitutions, which can then ultimately result in a team being knocked out of a tournament in its early stages.  One hopes that this could be the start of a brand-new era for Southgate’s Lions. 

 Feature Images: FIFA World Cup by shiveeleaves  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

Zidane Head Butts Materazzi by Paolo Camera CC BY 2.0 

Football Management: Managerial Changes and Player Relationships

 Managerial Changes and Player Relationships

Jose Mourinho Post-match Press Conference
 Tottenham vs RB Leipzig  

It is never a good sign when a manager gets the boot from his football club when they are struggling for form. It is also not an easy job for the person who replaces him or her as the Interim Manager. This is because the players may have to adapt to the style that the new manager wants them to play. On top of this, there needs to be a good chemistry between the manager and the club, so that they can show faith in him. Chelsea have had a revolving door of managers in which most of them have had success in winning silverware.  

At least five mangers have been sacked in the 2019-20 season including Unai Emre and Mauricio Pochettino.

                                                       

During the 2015-16 season, ten mangers were sacked. This is the record for the highest number of managerial changes in a Premier League season. 

If we look beyond Mourinho’s first stint at Chelsea, Avram Grant who was the club’s Director of Football, stepped in as interim Manager in September 2007. The Israeli guided the Blues to their first Champions League final in 2008 where they lost to United on penalties. Chelsea also reached the final of the Carling Cup in that same season, where they were beaten 2-1 by Harry Redknapp’s Spurs.

When Andrea Villas-Boas was sacked by Chelsea in March 2012, his assistant Roberto Di Mateo stepped in as interim manager and guided Chelsea to their first Champions League win. This was the first European silverware since 1998 where the Blues won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup under Gianluca Vialli.

Rafael Benitez also guided the Blues to yet another European title, when they won the Europa League in 2013. But in spite his success, he was never able to win over the fans because of the relationship Chelsea had with Liverpool when the Spaniard was in charge of the Reds.  Benítez did not share a good relationship with Mourinho when the ‘special one’ was in his first stint at Stamford Bridge. This was because the Spaniard criticised the Portuguese for the kind of football the Blues were playing.

Benitez compared Mourinho’s Chelsea to Arsenal’s Invincibles, where he said that the Gunners played more a more attractive style of football. “To me, Arsenal played much better football two or three years ago. They won matches and were exciting to watch. Barcelona and Milan too. They create excitement so how can you say Chelsea are the best in the world?” This statement did not amuse both Mourinho and Chelsea fans, and that is why he wasn’t welcomed by Blues fans during his interim stint at Stamford Bridge.  

Guus Hiddink was another interim manager who had two stints at Chelsea. During the Dutchman’s first stint in 2009, Chelsea won the FA Cup and finished in 3^rd place in the Premier League behind Liverpool and Manchester United who were champions for the 13^th time.  Hiddink then had a second spell at the Bridge, when he replaced Mourinho during the 2015-16 season. The Blues finished in 10^th place of the Premier League. This was their worst performance from a season in the Premier League.

Chelsea then called upon another Italian in Antonio Conte, who was sacked after guiding the Blues to their sixth Premier League title as well as an eighth FA Cup in the following season. But the former Italy boss was sacked after Chelsea failed to clinch a Champions Leagues spot despite their Cup success. 

Maurizio Sarri, who took over from Conte at the start of the 2018-19 season won the Europa League. This was the club’s second Europa League title in 6 years. However, the former Napoli manager decided to move back to Italy with his family at the end of the season, so the club called upon Chelsea veteran Frank Lampard, who had just started his managerial career at Derby County in the 2018-19 season. Sarri’s short stint at the Bridge was a short but eventful one, especially  when he had that ugly spat with keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who refused to be substituted during last season’s EFL Cup final against defending champions Manchester City.      

So, it has been a revolving door of managers joining and leaving the club. Ranieri is the last manager to have a long spell at Chelsea without any silverware. The Italian spent four seasons at the Bridge, before returning back twelve seasons later to have the miraculous season with Leicester City.

However, Chelsea are not the only club to have had a constant change in management. Aston Villa have also had their share of having different personnel in charge, especially during the 2014-15 season, where the had a total of five managerial changes starting from Tim Sherwood, who replaced Paul Lambert temporarily in February 2015.

So how does a team cope with several managerial changes in such a short period of time? Well, know one really knows except the players. Each manager has their own agenda of how they want their team to approach the season this includes the tactics they employ for each game, for example what formation does the team start the game in and how they approach the game as a whole?

When a manager comes up with a plan of how he wants the team to play, it is then up to the players to respond to his tactics and implement them into the game. However, when a team frequently changes their manager, it can become very confusing for the players who are already at the club as they have to get used to a different manager and his or her tactics.   

This can then lead to a misunderstanding between the manager and the players and result in the manager leaving the club. Take Mourinho and Paul Pogba as an example. One of the reasons in which Mourinho was sacked by United could have been based on his relationship with the players and in particular the French superstar.  

The conflict between the pair was due to Pogba posting a story on Instagram based on United’s penalty shootout defeat to Derby County in the 2018-19 Carabao Cup. Apparently Pogba appeared to be laughing about United’s performance in the game, which displeased the ‘Special One’ and this resulted in a falling out between the two, which may have been one of the reasons why the club showed him the door. The other reason was due to a poor run of results.       

As far as the Beckham-Ferguson saga went. The Scot was miffed at the former England Captain after United’s FA Cup  loss to Arsenal. Ferguson’s expressed his anger at Beckham by kicking a boot at him, which left a nasty cut above his right eye. This forced the legendary superstar to leave Old Trafford and join Real Madrid in the summer of 2003.

This symbolises how important it is for managers to have a good relationship with their players, it also shows how important managers are to players.     

Feature Image: by Steffen Prößdorf via Flickr Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 4.0

Football Management: Press Conferences and Media Commitments

Former Republic Of Ireland Head Coach Giovani pondering on
question? 

One of the key responsibilities every manager has is to deal with the media by attending press conferences. Depending on the state of the team, managers will have to answer a certain amount of questions. 

If a team is struggling with form, it’s more likely that the manager will be ask more questions, especially about their future.

It is usually the strong-minded managers who thrive in press conferences. This is because they admit the truth but in a sarcastic manner. After City’s game against Burnley during the 2016/17 season he was asked about defender Fernandinho’s red card. His response was sarcastic in the sense that he actually asked Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves what his opinion was. ’You are the Journalist not me.’ He also suggested Shreeves to talk to referee instead. ‘Ask the referee not me.’  Whether this was said to avoid any criticism towards Lee Mason’s performance in that game is another matter, but this could be one of the funniest responses in a press conference and post-match interview due to Pep’s sarcasm.           

When it comes to mentioning about the referee’s performance in a game there is no one who does it better than Mourinho. It seems that every time his team wins, he congratulates the referee on his performance, but on the other hand, if he loses, he would then start questioning the referee’s decision making during the game. For example, after Chelsea’s home defeat to Southampton in 2015, Mourinho criticised the Premier League’s batch of referees by saying that referees are ‘afraid to give decisions for Chelsea.’

This is the reason as to why referees get mentioned in the media. Managers sometimes like to put them under scrutiny, particularly if they feel that the decisions, he or she makes have unfairly gone against them.

Feature Image:CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Found on Creative Commons by MAKEHOE

Football Management: Transfer Window and Squad Rotation

Money Box by Amar Patel 

The transfer window is the most hectic time of the season for clubs. Players and managers. This is where all teams battle it out to strengthen their squads by looking to add to them. The window came into action before the start of the 2002/03 season.

As those who are associated with football will know that there are two transfer windows. One at the beginning of the season and the other during the middle. The rule was set out by FIFA in 2002. The first Window lasts twelve weeks, the second one lasts one month. If the last day of either window falls on the weekend, there is an extra day that is used for clubs to make last minute signings the cut-off point for all transfers is 11pm on Deadline Day.

Players can be signed either on a temporary loan or yearly contract deal. It is then up to the club’s owner to speak with the player and his agent to make a deal in order to buy him. 

The highest Transfer Window amount for a Premier League season thus far was the 2019-20 season, which was £1,41billion.   

Neymar JR’s move from Barcelona to Paris Saint Germain for €198 million in 2017 is the most expensive deal in history thus far. Harry Maguire’s move from Leicester City to Manchester United for £80million is the highest transfer deal for an English player in the Premier League era.    

Generally speaking, it is the big clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea etc, who tend to do most of the work in both windows. However, most of the work is usually done in the summer as there is two-month break in between each season and so clubs are willing to spend more money as they have a longer period of time and there is a much wider range of players to buy. City spent a record £62.8million on Atletico Madrid midfielder Rodri in the summer of 2019.   

On the other hand, Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has not been afraid to go with a different approach, where he has been using some of the players from the academy and included them in the first team throughout his first season in charge. Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount are amongst those who started their career in the Chelsea Under 18s under Jody Morris and then developed as better players at Derby, Swansea, Aston Villa and even now at Chelsea.

It just goes to show that you don’t necessarily have to go looking for players from the Window itself, if you have a well-structured youth system at the club, there is always plenty of time to groom those players into potential stars of the game. Take Lionel Messi as an example, the Argentine magician started his career at Barcelona’s youth academy and has transformed himself into not only being a Barcelona legend, but also an icon of world football. 

Although, let’s not forget that the Blues had a Transfer Ban during the 2019-20 season for breaching the rules of Status and Transfer of players under 18. This includes the player's parents move to the new country for non-football reasons, both clubs are in the EU and the player is aged between 16-18 and they must live within 100km of the new club.

Bertrand Traore who played 25 games for under 16s and 18s was not officially registered by FA. Therefore, the club were banned from buying new players until the summer of 2020.

This was an unusual situation for the Blues as the like to spend big, especially in the summer Transfer Window.  

Chelsea still managed to sign Cristian Pulisic for £58 million from Borussia Dortmund in January 2019.  This was the club’s last big money signing before the Transfer ban was put in place. This was such a crucial move for the Blues as it was the last chance for the club to strengthen their first team squad by signing the Croatian midfielder.      

So, you can see how the Transfer Window plays an imperative part in football, especially on the business scheme of things. You can spend as much a you like, but the are still rules to that you have to stick to for purchasing new players for your club.  

Each club has their own policy for buying players from the window itself. This includes the players having medical check-ups before signing contracts with new clubs. If they pass the medical test, this means that they are eligible to play for their new club. This contains no health issues such as ongoing injuries.

The medical also includes general health issues such as dental check-ups to ensure that they are physically ready to start playing for their new club.

It is then up to the medical team to inform the manager if the player is fit or not fit enough to play.

The other issue managers have is where to fit him or her in the team?  Some players go to clubs which already have a settled squad and therefore there is the likelihood of not getting enough game time as there could be a number of players who can play in the same position as your new signing. As, a result of this, some managers are having to frequently rotate their starting line-ups for each match.  

This is why some clubs prefer to do their business in the beginning of the season, so that they can plan ahead in terms of the future. However, some teams would generally use the January Window as a safety net if they are struggling for form or have a number of players out with injury.    

This is one of the reasons as why managing a football team is the one of the most stressful jobs in sport, you need to have the ability to adapt to different situations, especially with players who have on loan contracts as they can only stay at the club for a limited amount of  time. So, this is why some manager like to build a full squad of players, so that if most of his first XI are out with injuries, he still has other players that he can depend on to fill the role of another player’s absence. This is otherwise known as squad rotation.

However, the negative side of squad rotation is that if there are a group of players who are in red hot form, they would not want to be on the bench in the next game, particularly when their performance in the last game was of high quality.  You would generally find that the team who makes fewer changes and picks up fewer injuries in a whole season has a great chance of winning silverware. Take Leicester City’s incredible season of 2015-16 where Claudio Ranieri made as fewer changes than any other team in that season.    

The key thing about squad rotation is that you need to have a group of players who can fit into the same role of the player who is out with an injury. If you take Tottenham Hotspur as an example, when skipper Harry Kane was out for the last part of the 2018-19 season, Mauricio Pochettino already had a replacement in Lucas Moura, whose last-minute goal against Ajax sent them through to their fourth European Cup final in 35 years.

So, you could say that squad rotation only works if all the players are in good form and have a good chemistry with each other along with a desire to win as well as playing under a top-class manager such as Sir Alex, who liked to make a few tweaks to his side for every game due to the depth of talent that he had in his squads. This is why managers face such a hectic time in the Transfer Window, they are looking to add more depth in their squad, so that it enables the team to become more successful in winning football matches.

Feature Image: Money Box by Amar Patel