Forward is seemingly impossible to fit into a modern system and his signing symbolises a flaw holding back the clubSo, what next? Ole Gunnar Solskjær has gone, and with him perhaps Manchester United’s most visible problem, but a sentimental appointment wasn’t the only issue holding the club back. United are institutionally dysfunctional and it will take more than a change of personnel in the dugout to change that.Solskjær was a fine appointment as caretaker, perhaps the last good decision Ed Woodward made as United CEO. The return of a popular club legend, the sunshine man whose rays of decency could dispel the acrimony of the latter days of José Mourinho’s reign, made sense. The problem was that rather than waiting...
Thanks to Pep Guardiola’s guidance, the technically gifted and tactically smart City tyro is now running games from all anglesIt seems remarkable that there was a time, not so long ago, when the Premier League was seen as holding England back. Only about a third of its players were England-qualified, the argument went, and so opportunities for English youth were restricted. The Premier League has many problems and causes many problems, and for the vast majority of young players perhaps it is difficult to secure game time. But for those at elite level it can be a useful finishing school, offering the most promising young players regular high-class opposition and the very best teachers.These are extraordinary times for English football....
The switch against Albania feels significant, as the flexible formation fits England’s players, especially the full-backsPlayers may still be suffering their post-Euro hangovers, the last of the broken glass may only just have been swept up from Wembley Way, but the World Cup is already only a year and a week away. For England the lessons of the Euros are still being assessed and assimilated and yet, already, FA officials are travelling out to Qatar to scope out training bases. The final run-in has already begun.Suddenly a 5-0 win over a desperately disappointing Albania – how on earth had that side, even allowing for defensive injuries, beaten Hungary home and away? – is not just a jolly night out, a...
Not for the first time this season, Manchester United’s tactical shortcomings were ruthlessly exposed by LeicesterIt was an afternoon to stir the soul, a thrilling game of three outstanding goals and a Leicester performance that suggested their injury problems may be behind them and their season may be about to begin.Even in the context of recent successes, this was a game that will take an exalted place in the collective memory of the King Power. But beyond that excitement, this was another glum day for Manchester United and Ole Gunnar Solskjær. How long can this drift be allowed to go on? How long can nostalgia insulate against the recognition of mediocrity? How long can the same problems be allowed to...
Like Brian Clough, Greaves was very different from the classic English No 9 and together they changed the game’s tactics• Jimmy Greaves dies aged 81For those of us too young to have caught the end of Jimmy Greaves’s playing career, there was always a slightly awkward adjustment to be made.He remained the goalscorer to whom all others were compared for two decades after his retirement in 1971 and yet it was hard to equate his legend with the slightly tubby, moustachioed bloke in the V-neck jumper who was all over ITV. But then you see the footage, see the speed and elegance, the capacity to beat defenders with a subtle change of pace or direction and, above all else, the...