When Pep Guardiola or Darth Vader’s awesome destructive creations go wrong it tends to be for the same reasonsThere are many issues with Return of the Jedi, not the least significant of which is the fact that it ends in essentially the same way that A New Hope did. Perhaps there are technical differences between the deficiencies that render the Death Star vulnerable in the two films, but fundamentally, it can be taken out by Rebel fighters landing a single accurate shot. As the X-wings were to Darth Vader, so Teemu Pukki, Todd Cantwell, Raúl Jiménez and Adama Traoré are to Pep Guardiola. For both Darth and Pep, when it goes wrong, it tends to be for the same reasons.This...
United’s lack of an overarching plan is now clear for all to see, with Ole Gunnar Solskjær not entirely free from blameWhere does this rank in the litany of dreadful Manchester United performances? Not quite as bad, perhaps, as the equivalent game of the 1989-90 season, the last to start as badly as this, when in their eighth match they went down 5-1 at Manchester City. And not as bad, probably, as the 5-0 humbling at Crystal Palace in December 1972 that brought an end to Frank O’Farrell’s term as manager. But this was bad – bad enough that it is challenging for the post-war podium.Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s mood after the game was reasonable and sad, but also vaguely numb...
By now the malaise at Old Trafford has deep roots – only equally deep systemic change can put it rightAll in all, it’s been an excellent week for Manchester United. There was progress in the Carabao Cup and the announcement of record revenues of £627.1m. What more could anybody want?Excellent, that is, as long as you don’t worry about details such as the limp 2-0 defeat at West Ham last Sunday. Or that the weekend kicked off with United eighth in the Premier League table. Or that a club with a proud cavalier tradition have scored just 18 goals in their last 20 games. Or that the one outfielder of undoubted outstanding quality spent the summer trying to leave. Or...
Sokratis Papastathopoulos’s blunder against Watford is part of a recent trend that will have many sides questioning whether the adoption of this high-risk strategy is worth itL ast Sunday, when the Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos attempted to pass the ball from inside his own penalty area to Mattéo Guendouzi just outside it and in doing so gifted Watford a goal that allowed them back into the game, he joined a recent trend. Everybody wants to play out from the back, but in the past few months doing so has proved exceptionally risky: John Stones against the Netherlands, Plamen Iliev for Bulgaria against England, Michael Keane against Kosovo, Nicolás Otamendi against Norwich – the list of those who have given goals...
In the 4-0 win against Bulgaria, England’s forwards proved too hot to handle and again underlined their potential as the team breezes through Euro 2020 qualifyingIt wasn’t thrilling. It wasn’t much of a spectacle. There must be broader concerns about the diminution of the Euro qualifiers as a spectacle since the expansions of the finals. Not that football has ever shown much inclination to worry about such matters, but there probably should be qualms as well about how many central and eastern European sides seem simultaneously to have suffered such a decline. But for England the lack of drama in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Bulgaria is itself an indication of how positive the present situation is for them. Related: Harry...