A football philosophy? Down with this sort of thing…
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com…
Football philosophy?
Philosophy seems to me rather a grand word to apply to football, which reduces essentially to scoring one more goal than your opponents, or conceding one less, in any match. We’re not talking about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or even of the true definition of a word such as liberty. We’re talking players’ abilities, team formations and tactics. How much philosophy is there in that?
There are, admittedly, observable differences between managers’ preferences and teams repertoire of possible performances. Some clubs are known for preferring a general style. Manchester United and West Ham fans would probably claim for instance, that their team always favoured an attacking style, which, for instance, Middlesborough and Burnley fans might not. But philosophy involves seeking the essence. What is the essence of Jose Mourinho and his teams? According to his long-time player Ricardo Cavalho, it is to win a game at any cost. What is the essence of Spurs’ manager Pochettino? According to himself, he said he was puzzled when someone commented on his philosphy(?) of team formations, saying that he changed formation during a game according to how the game was going. Arguably, Pep Guardiola places more importance on his teams’ accurate passing than Tony Pulis does. What philosophical conclusions can we deduce or infer from those statements?
I suggest that there aren’t any. Football philosophy is a nonsense. Managers have different preferences, players have different abilities and tactics are dictated by what managers see as the requirements for any one game and the abilities of their players to implement them.
So can we please get rid of the term philosophy applied to football and discuss issues in more sensible and precise terms?
Ian (CFC) Hugo
Career change
Michael Owen had an interesting career didn’t he. Now I know this is a strange thought but since it’s Friday that’s what we are all about right?
Now Owen clearly has 2 definitive halves to his career. You have World Cup 98 to Real Madrid 2004 Owen and then you have Newcastle 2005/6 Owen to Stoke Owen (No one cared by the time he was at Stoke).
Now my weird thought is what if you could take the 2 periods and switch them around.
Then he would be a young upstart at Newcastle who couldn’t get into the team through injury, got a lucky move to Man U, drifted to Stoke and got a surprise selection for the World Cup squad and then boom he hits his prime.
A move to Liverpool follows where he wins the plastic treble and he then finish his career at Madrid.
Now if your still with me then thank you because I know his idea requires a lot of imagination.
Is there any players who you think of that would fully change the public perception of them if they could ‘Freaky Friday’ the definitive periods in their career.
Dale (I swear I’m not high) Leeds
Ole’s got the deal
Not to get all tit for tat with the noisy neighbours like Banjo, but while some of their number may be delighted at the appointment of a relative novice as manager, United fans will be pleased to see someone who understands the style of football and the ethic of the club. City fans won’t really know what that is like, since they’ve not had one of either a style or an ethic and will happily take any kind of selling out over the drudgery of before.
If we come down to basic facts, OGS’s win rate is excellent, his ability to improve morale of a side containing supposedly unmanageable egos and get them playing excellent attacking football is beyond reproach, his ability to win tough games against high class opponents is all that anyone could have wished for (I wouldn’t have put money on United getting through against PSG under any manager) and – what is of most interest to many inside Old Trafford – he’s already shown more willingness to back youth and academy players than Pep Guardiola, Sarri or even Klopp have.
No matter what the long-term future holds, United are going the right way again and displaying the right footballing principles. I think most will think that a good thing.
BadWolf
…As we all rub our hands in glee whether it’s rival fans or Utd faithful at the appointment of ole, I can only laugh. Utd have U-turned and went from the most qualified manager in world football to one of the least. I here diehards talking about his Molde exploits but let’s face it, that’s like hiring a successful league one manager. Utd fans ousted Jose because a small amount of children in the Manchester Utd dressing room couldn’t handle the pressure of playing for a manager that expects perfection. The kicker to that is I doubt the aforementioned mutiny squad will be there much longer as heads begin to be turned with no champions league looming. The only difference in Utd’s play is that the players will implement what Jose set out because ole molly coddles them. That doesn’t strike me as the ilk of title winning players. There needs to be a shrewd look at that playing squad as a lot of them are severely over rated. As for players linked, old or young, Utd are linked as the media/world can see that utd squad needs ripped apart. I believe the Utd scouts have their eyes painted on as they are only ever linked with fifa players. Where Bernardo silva sane Fernandinho Van Dijk salah mane Robertson etc considered world class until they got to their current clubs? Utd linked: bale/done Kroos/slow schweinstager then you’re coutinhos jaden Sancho etc.. my point being they are always linked with flavour of the months or big name has beens instead of a manager buying what best fits his system and allowing that player to shine. In summary I cannot see the glory days returning anytime soon until they get a clear structure in place with a world class manager who has a tried and tested system and is allowed to hire and fire whoever he deems fit. Oh and of course he has to be friends with pogba.
John
…I remember quite a long time ago when Man City first got their money their fans were quite a lovely bunch. Decent mindset etc.
Mails like Banjo, MCFC plus their mob on Twitter is making me wonder what the turning point was that made them all such tw*ts.
Man Utd aren’t a “once big club”. They’re massive. I’d wager they could go 29 years without a league trophy (sigh) and will still be bigger than Man City.
To pretend otherwise is nothing short of stupid. Maybe it is important to enjoy your time in the sun because if UEFA decide to prove they have some balls then your lot will be facing exclusion from the champions league at the minimum given your shady financial dealings. So you might really end up being nothing more than a “once big club”. But then you never actually had the fan base, even locally, to have ever made such a claim.
Minty, LFC
Solskj-aaarrrggghhh
I hope this won’t need used by by Christ there’s a certain ring to Ole Gunnar Sh*teshower.
Mangor United, Belfast
…In response to Robert, CCFC regarding the next nickname for Ole once he’s under pressure next. I’m not too sure on this one, but I can already see The Sun headline for that period.
`Ole Gunnar Sackjaer’
Chris Hardy (cringing in advance)
…Sticking with the letter F, surely Folly Gunnar Solskjaer?
ThaiWolf HK
…I saw the Mails page asking if we should give Ole Gunnar Solskjaer a nickname – this came to mind but I wondered if it’s too cynical?
Only Gunna See-a-year
OK, maybe not…
Carl, LCFC fan keeping quiet in Glasgow
…Simply put; he’ll be called “ole” once he fails or the symptoms show. In West Africa, one of the most popular tribes or language is Yoruba. “Ole” means thief in Yoruba!
Sincerely, I thought Poch would get the job as he’s a proven tactician at the top level. Ain’t seeing anything special our Norwegian bride is doing to those players, just that they seem to be playing diligently to spite Jose. Time will prove me….
Congrats to him though
PS. Is it just me that feels that City might not win any of the three trophies available before them? Burnout!
Isaac from Nigeria
…In your article ‘Five tasks on Man Utd’s to-do list after appointing Solskjaer’ you seem to have missed one out: He also needs to figure out a way to steal his precioussss back from those tricksy hobbitses.
Andrew (I can’t be the only one to see the likeness…?) Stevens
Change any three results
Dave (Arsenal) Herts asks for three results that you’d change for your club. I thought about it and quickly came up with three sets of three defeats to turn into wins which I know wasn’t the question, but each are valid for their own reason and it’s Friday morning so hopefully the Mailbox will indulge me.
First, a recent one might be for Liverpool to have won all three of Klopp’s lost finals, picking up a League Cup and Europa League in 2016 and Champions League in 2018 in the process, thus removing the ‘bottlers’ stigma and having a battle-hardened team of winners chasing the league title right now.
Second up is the trio of three lost European Cup Finals of 1985, 2007 and 2018. No explanation needed surely.
However, I‘m going to indulge my inner child and name the 1988 FA Cup Final, the 2-0 home defeat to Arsenal to lose the league in 1989 and the FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace in 1990.
That particular set of results changing to Liverpool wins would have resulted in Liverpool having won the league and FA Cup double in 1986, 1988, 1989 and being league champions in 1990 with an FA Cup Final against Manchester United still to play. What a sliding doors final that would become in hindsight – the prospect of an unprecented treble double for Liverpool, and 4 in 5 years, whilst simultaneously stopping Fergie’s United from collecting their first silverware and the subsequent impact that may have had on English football in the 90s… (or Manchester United just chucking Liverpool off an even loftier perch in the following years…)
Jonny (my England three would be the Hand of God match in 1986 and the 1990 and 1996 semi-final shoot-outs, meaning England in a semi-final and two finals and Germany to inherit a national penalty paranoia for the next 28 years) Dance
…I’ll play along with Dave (Arsenal) Herts. As a Liverpool supporter, the first two come fairly easily for me:
Our game at the Etihad in January. Reverse the score there and we are eight points clear (City still have a game in hand) and unbeaten in the league. I’d feel confident in that position!
Number two would be last season’s CL final, for obvious reasons!
For the third, I’ll resist the temptation to relegate Everton by reversing their 1994 final day victory over Wimbledon! Instead I’ll take the 2012 FA Cup Final against Chelsea, as I attended that one with my Dad so a win there would have been great!
Vinny
Mane for Bale?
Whoever suggested swapping Mane for Bale in the mailbox recently, go and have a cold shower mate. Bale is almost 30, injury prone and would probably almost bankrupt us with his wages, despite our record turnover this year.
Sadio Mane is having his best season in the PL, is 26, will be a key cog in getting the most out of Keita, has lower wages and will probably get BETTER in the coming seasons.
The suggestion is just plain daft. And besides, if Bale moved to ‘Pool we all know he’d struggle with the language…
Lee (Must keep the Mane), LFC
We all have to take a stand
When I was in my 20’s I had a shaved head, number 1 all over. I’m not a particularly hard or aggressive looking person but I do have a bit of a frown and at 6’4 I guess I came across as a little intimidating. I would genuinely get Asian women avoiding sitting next to me on the tube and often nervous looks when entering shops etc. At the time I wasn’t too bothered, space on the tube is at a premium most of the time and any extra was appreciated. The main problem with that hair style though was almost any time I got in a local mini cab (no uber in those days) and had a white driver they would almost immediately start spouting their racist/xenophobic views (a little bit like the black cab driver in The Football Factory). Most of the time I ignored them or once or twice pretended I needed to make a call or whatever to stop or divert the conversation but I didn’t challenge them. Much I think for the same reasons as Steve in the last mailbox. However, once I did, and do you know what? He shut the f**K right up afterwards and even apologised at the end of the journey. Very recently I was in a shop run by a middle eastern guy who caught a black guy trying to steal a straw from a carton of Ribena. His reaction once he’d kicked the guy out was along the lines of “black people always complain about being victimised but they are the ones always stealing” . My reply was that “they” are amongst the poorest members of our community (by that I mean in my area) and maybe if they were offered some help or assistance out of their poor existence they wouldn’t feel the need to steal. He weighed this up for a moment and then totally agreed with me. I guess this is my long winded way of saying I totally agree with Steve and that if the people around the monkey chanters actually stood up and booed them or told them to sit down and shut up they would and I probably wouldn’t do it again. I don’t think running and telling the stewards will work, the stand has to be made by other right minded fans, it would mean so much more coming from the peers of the kn*bheads being abusive. Let’s face it, they feel empowered by having 30,000 fans of the same team around them, they would quickly lose that empowerment if they realised the rest of the stadium didn’t agree with their repugnant views.
Society can only sort this out if it actually makes a stand and show that all bets aren’t off when you walk through the turnstiles at a football stadium.
Kaspar – London
Up all night with Jan Vetonghen
I know it hasn’t really been brought up for a while so this seems out of the blue, but I am sitting here at 3:30am in the middle of a night shift bored out of my tree so bear with me.
I have seen many mails throughout the season highlighting that Tottenham only have two world class players in Kane and Ericsson. While I don’t argue that both are world class that list must also include Jan Verthongen who has captained Belgium in the past and Hugo Lloris who is a world cup winning captain for God’s sake.
I have seen Verthongen play brilliant defensive football consistently throughout his time at Tottenham, time and time again being in the right place at the right time to make match winning blocks and interceptions and I can not fathom how any one could argue how such a rock of a centre half is not world class, give credit where it’s due after all.
Aaron. CFC. Ireland
Son always shines on TV
Interesting that Robert would mention Aha in Thursday’s late mailbox.
Has anyone else noticed a certain South Korean’s propensity to score when the match is on live TV?
Pete ‘Hunting High and Low for some other Aha connections’ Blow
Sack the MC
Ah, F365 mailbox selection committee must have been under deadline pressure. Because by selecting only the 2nd of my 2 Thursday lunchtime message submissions, the starting sentence and my ‘sign-off’ didn’t make any sense! Oh well, to those readers who may have been confused; my unpublished one was basically just saying thanks and happy thoughts to thursday morning Roger and Lloyd for their inspiring messages. F365, probably too late to submit the former, but why not just include the next bits. Because I’m sure he will be getting, justified, abuse from other mailboxers.
Oh, by the way, Kris, LFC, Wirral I despair. Your childish comment on Ole and Poch/Spurs is another reason why all Liverpool fans get tarnished with abuse by other team’s fans. Thanks for that. You do realise there is a chance we might not win anything again as well?! Wait till the season is over. As to next year who knows, there is certainly no ‘definite’ about Ole/Man U backfiring. You idiot.
Mike Woolrich, LFC (And Kris will definitely be one of the outward showing smug guys if we do win the league. (Potentially) sorry about that).
…What a fantastic mail from Roger, THFC. It shows the essence for the beautiful game is still there. Please don’t let it be destroyed totally. Good on you Roger.
Colin (let Johnny Nic know not everyone is a tribalistic twat)
