Category: Football Reflective

Capital Gains

Capital Gains

Sunday sees a League Cup final that carries greater significance than it is usually afforded. It is Jurgen Klopp’s first chance for silverware at Anfield, for his counterpart in the opposite dugout, it is the start of his swansong. The often derided competition suddenly has the opportunity to play a pivotal role in the season.

Manuel Pellegrini has never shied away from the League Cup’s significance. He rightly points out, it was a catalyst for securing the Premier League in his first season and that it’s no coincidence that last year’s winners, Chelsea, also went on to take the title.

In a season where the pecking order has been turned on its head, a cup victory here, and the boost of confidence it provides, could be the thing that finally settles City into their stride. Despite league defeats at home to both Leicester and Tottenham in recent weeks, they are still very much in the title chase.

The importance of the League Cup was highlighted when Pellegrini relegated the FA Cup on his list of priorities. The FA’s ignorance – or perhaps arrogance – to give into the BBC’s demands for a Sunday fixture, when there were other TV slots available, meant their domestic cup was shown up as an inferior product.

Pellegrini has had to deal with months of speculation about his future, only to endure weeks of assumption since Pep Guardiola’s announcement that he’d be joining the Manchester club in the summer. It’s been easy for outsiders to imply that the dressing room is looking beyond Pellegrini now, that they have their eyes on either the next manager or a transfer.

A cup win ends that debate. It would prove the team is still focused on the here and now. Walking around Wembley with a trophy will reaffirm the unity within the squad and its senior management. It further justifies the FA Cup side after a big win in Kiev.

All that stands in Pellegrini’s way is the competition’s most successful entrant, eight time winners, Liverpool.

For them, the League Cup provides a chance to add some shine to what has turned into a difficult season for Klopp. A new manager always needs time to reshape the club in his vision. But after much fanfare the initial buzz has faded and the enormity of the task has become evident.

Any hopes for a Champions League push by finishing in the top four have disappeared. Their only chance now is through the Europa League, where they face bitter rivals Manchester United next. Even the most optimistic fan can’t be eying Europe’s secondary tournament this season; winning it will be a bonus rather than meeting expectation.

Indeed, all expectations must have shifted in recent times. Was sitting eighth in the table the goal when they fired Brendan Rodgers? It’s hard to believe they wouldn’t have fared better without the overhaul but Fenway Sports Group must have been thinking long term.

Liverpool will be confident of finding an immediate antidote against City following their 4-1 league triumph at the Etihad. Klopp will go into Sunday’s showcase believing an application of gegenpressing will provide a similar outcome. He also knows, like the rest of us, that Pellegrini is stubborn. He won’t modify his approach now, he will try to outgun Liverpool and hope they collapse before his team is overrun.

Sunday could see the coronation of Klopp or the cementing of Pellegrini’s legacy. Failure could lead to the collapse both teams have flirted with all season. It’s not just a cup they fight for at Wembley, it’s precious, season-saving momentum.

Interfering with Play

Interfering with Play

The offside rule used to be a tool used for misogynist jokes about a woman’s inability to understand a law that “real” men saw as child’s play. Nowadays, it is the rule itself that has become a bad joke.

The constant tweaking of the rule (Law 11 in association football’s, Laws of the Game) started with a desire to make football more exciting. As far back as 1925, it has been altered for this very purpose. In that year they modified the last defenders from three to two, this led to 1,673 more league goals being scored that the previous season.

There is clearly a precedent for the rule to slow the game down, with constant free kicks and breaks in play, or goals being ruled out. The modern variants of the law have centred around if players in offside positions are active. Or interfering with play. The problem is, the open to interpretation approach is what’s now interfering with play.

The rule is written as such:

It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.

 A player is in an offside position if:

  • he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent

A player is not in an offside position if:

  • he is in his own half of the field of play or
  • he is level with the second-last opponent or
  • he is level with the last two opponents

Offence

A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by:

  • interfering with play or
  • interfering with an opponent or
  • gaining an advantage by being in that position

No offence

There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from:

  • a goal kick
  • a throw-in
  • a corner kick

Most people that watch a game of football understand the basic principles of the offside law. The flaw with it lies in the opening line: It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.

This ambiguous statement evolved from former amendments that stated: obstructing the opponent’s line of movements or making a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent, before changing to: challenging an opponent for the ball.

Now we have first and second phases of play, being stood in front of goalkeepers on free kicks but officials making on-the-spot assumptions about where the ‘keeper should be looking, as if they are robots that ignore their peripheral vision.

As Brian Clough famously said: “If you’re not interfering with play, what are you doing on the pitch?”

We all want to see flowing football, but not to the detriment of the laws that govern the game. FIFA will never implement a rule change allowing dangerous tackles to be ignored if a goal comes from the subsequent attack.

So why are we being asked to ignore dubious application of an age old law to assist illegal goals?

The attitude to ignore the rule is becoming quite pandemic. Everton scored their first goal against Manchester City in the opening leg of the League Cup semi-final with Romelu Lukaku stood in front of the goalkeeper. The hazy understanding of the rule means it stands with little debate.

Juan Mata scored a beautiful free kick against Shrewsbury Town in their FA Cup clash. Unfortunately, a three-man wall, placed in front of the goalkeeper, never made it back onside before the ball was struck. However, the officials believed they weren’t interfering with play. If you’re not interfering with play when stood in front of the goalkeeper, you never will be.

This attitude to ignore now stretches to even simple decisions. Wayne Rooney scored against Derby County in the previous round, after being marginally offside before receiving the ball. BBC commentator Danny Murphy declared he’d rather enjoy such a good strike than focus on whether or not Rooney was offside. So the message is clear: It doesn’t matter about the rules if it looks good.

This ambiguity needs to end. It’s making the referee and linesmen’s jobs almost impossible. Sooner, rather than later, a major tournament will be decided by a dubious call that sits in the offside grey area.

Nobody wants to see the Champions League or World Cup decided with a goal that leads to an inconclusive debate about if a player was interfering with play.

It’s time to go back to basics. If a player is stood in an offside position when the ball is played, then he’s offside. Leaving it open to interpretation places an unnecessary spotlight on a sport already riddled with mistrust and bad calls.

 

More Tragic than Magic Cup

More Tragic than Magic Cup

Heading into another FA Cup weekend the phrase: “Magic of the Cup” will be brandished about in an attempt to repackage nostalgia as relevancy. The sad truth is that the oldest domestic club competition is looking its age. Bold steps need to be taken to save the tournament becoming no different than the League Cup, or worse, a Premier League club’s equivalent of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

The irony is, those two lesser cups have the answers that could help alleviate some of the pressure bearing down on the FA Cup. In How to Make the FA Cup Great Again the notion of making the fourth Champions League place available to the winners was put forward. That’s less likely to occur now than at any point previously.

The FA Cup now needs to accept its place on the priorities and level of importance list that clubs attach to it. Failure to do this will make it nothing more than an annoyance, that witnesses weakened sides take to the field as clubs rest key players for bigger games.

The quickest way to appease the larger teams is the removal of replays. Should Manchester City, a team still in all four competitions, draw with Chelsea on Sunday, they will have to find a week that has eight days to host the replay.

Manuel Pellegrini has already hinted that a weakened City side will face the Londoners, after being upset his team play so close to a long trip to play Dynamo Kiev. This is slightly cheeky considering last season the Citizens travelled to the UAE for a game only days before their FA Cup tie with Middlesbrough. When it suited the club, travelling was played down. Suddenly it’s important again.

What it does highlight is how the FA Cup is seen as a burden. It sits behind the league and European competition, and at this point in City’s season, less important than the League Cup final. The dread of a replay only further takes away any shine for the club’s management.

Making FA Cup ties one time affairs reduces the fixture congestion. It will also ensure each game is played with the true spirit of a knock-out cup game. At the moment smaller teams hang on for a lucrative payday back at a big ground rather than throw caution to the wind. This enables pampered teams to negotiate the tricky lower league pitches with a degree of danger removed.

But even teams in the lower leagues would prefer to avoid a replay rather than extend a “cup run” that, in all likelihood, won’t get them anywhere near Wembley. Survival is more pressing than chasing empty dreams.

Such is the fear of injuries and fatigue, clubs will consider dropping large numbers of the first team for FA Cup ties, the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy offers a great example of how to help clubs avoid both these problems. After 90 minutes the game should go straight to penalties.

Why give the home team the advantage of another 30 minutes on familiar soil? Save the legs and get straight to the shootout. It’s another way to increase the excitement levels and encourage maverick tactics in normal time.

Traditionalists will feel uncomfortable with the suggestion that FA Cup fixtures could be moved to midweek. At first glance, it does seem like a drastic measure. A further undermining of a flogged dead horse. However, there may be some credit to the idea.

Tuesday and Wednesday games haven’t harmed the Champions League. Perhaps the FA Cup could ride on the coattails of UEFA’s success with a competition and populate otherwise vacant midweeks with something meaningful. The only major concern – aside from losing a familiar (often bemoaned) weekend showcase – is how it will impact working class fans that have to travel on a work night.

The FA needs to consider changes like this. It’s sold its own cup down the river so many times in recent years (starting with the 1999 winners, Manchester United, withdrawing from the following season’s competition to compete in the World Club Cup) and devaluing it ever since. To carry on in the same format is consigning it to death.

No matter how many times the BBC say “The Magic of the Cup” this weekend, the truth is, this once great competition has become a footballing tragedy.