Turning your back is deemed treachery but the frayed chords of connection have snapped and this team make me feel nothingLast year a poll found that British adults make, on average, 122 decisions every day. A decade earlier a professor at Columbia University found that Americans make about 70. In 2011 a survey of Britons commissioned by a video game developer put the figure at a damningly low 27, essentially painting British adults as a breed of permanently hungry morons most frequently vexed by issues such as “what to have for dinner”, “what to have for breakfast”, “what to have in my sandwich”, and “tea or coffee”. All three surveys polled precisely 2,000 people, suggesting that researchers into decision-making are...
Monday’s shock sacking of Rob Edwards has only deepened supporters’ growing resentment of Gino PozzoThere is no doubt that Watford have been failing this season. The Championship’s pre-season promotion favourites sit 10th and have won one of their last seven league games – and that thanks to a goal deep into stoppage time. Having kept hold of João Pedro and Ismaïla Sarr, two forwards whose combined value has been estimated at upwards of £50m, they have been outscored by 14 sides and had more shots on target than only three. Performances have been incoherent and wildly unimpressive, with the Hornets’ possession consisting largely of central defenders passing the ball among themselves until the crowd grows restless and one of them...
We select a few contenders for the Premier League’s flop of the season – and invite you to have your sayIt is difficult writing lists that point out individual failings, so it is quite pleasing how bad Manchester United have been across the board. On the player front Fred, Cristiano Ronaldo and David de Gea escape with their reputations relatively intact. The summer recruits Jadon Sancho and Raphaël Varane have struggled to fit in, which is quite difficult in such a poor team. Ole Gunnar Solskjær could not get much of a tune out of the squad and Ralf Rangnick has arguably been worse. England’s Harry Maguire and Marcus Rashford have endured a miserable time. Maguire has looked off the...
Crunch time for Manchester City, Liverpool and Spurs, while Watford could be sent downFor the second week in a row, Liverpool can get their work done before sitting back to see how Manchester City fare. The extent of any European bounce or, in City’s case, hangover may be hard to predict but Jürgen Klopp’s men have certainly built up a fearsome head of steam to carry into the final four games. Like Liverpool, Spurs have a rival sitting just above them who, by and large, keep on winning: falling five points behind Arsenal this weekend could prove very costly going into Thursday’s north London derby and it adds to the sense that neither team can really afford anything but victory...
Phil Foden is a valuable set-piece deputy, Mike Jackson’s Clarets keep on moving, plus a defence of the retiring refereesSteven Gerrard prefers to vary his attacking shape to keep opponents guessing and has switched from using a midfield diamond to 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 in his first six months in charge at Aston Villa. The manager was in full agreement that his team looked better once Danny Ings came on as a substitute to join Ollie Watkins as split strikers, with Philippe Coutinho then playing between them, as a false 9 or as the attacking tip of a diamond depending on your interpretation. Both strikers scored in the victory that relegated Norwich and were also instrumental when Villa went on a...