Premier League Nonsense

My epiphinal moment

It was only about four years ago I started writing about football on a regular basis. My aim was simple. To write about the simple game in a simple way. I grew up with punk, no thrills, no bells and whistles, just two or three minutes to say what you wanna say. Same with my writing. But I also wanted to improve my knowledge of the game. I wanted to progress from White Riot to London Calling.

I was leaving England just as the fanzine movement was taking off and I had high (ish) hopes that they would help improve the coverage of the game which at that time only had Shoot and Saint & Greavsie which was considered cutting edge because of its humour. Alleged humour.

Today we have wall to wall coverage of the English game but I'm not sure all these talking heads contribute to people's understanding of the game. When I started writing I would often take aim at these pundits, usually ex pros, who would get into games free and basically spout shite then go home and wait for the cheque to drop through the letter box.

Listen to an ex pro and everything, but everything is down to bad marking or poor refereeing. Everything that happens on the field is because the defender was daydreaming or the ref needs to get down the opticians pretty damned quick.

And that was the sum total of these pros contributions. So I whinged. And then a media mate of mine wrote back and said that while he understood what I was trying to say, he had a certain amount of sympathy with the pundits.

Why! I mentally screamed.

And then I thought about it. And it dawned on me. Football is so damned simple. If a defender isn't doing his job properly then yes, someone might score. Because the ref or linesman is only human then yes, they are going to miss things. And without these errors we would not have football. We would have chess. And no one would pay to watch that.

There is nothing more really to add. Everything else is window dressing.

Take formations. You know what? I went to hundreds of games when I was younger and I never knew whether a team was playing 4 4 2, 4 2 4 or 3 5 2. I didn't have a scooby and it never once distracted me from enjoying a game of football.

But now I am forever being pestered about 4 1 3 2 or 4 1 4 1 or 4 1 2 1 2 or some such crap. Is player X better in the hole? I don't frigging know.

I never knew whether Tony Adams played on the right side of a back four or the left side and it certainly wasn't something we discussed as we walked back to Finsbury Park in the rain. He was crap or he played well.

With blogs and all that I really thought we would see a return to football as the simple game with spot on analysis but with some banter thrown in. but instead what we get is punters, including people like me, pontificating about formations or wing backs or zonal marking without clearly understanding what they are talking about.

Which brings us back to pundits. These guys played the game but for whatever reason they never moved into coaching. Why bother when they can go on TV, blame the ref and still have time for a round of golf before it gets dark. But players don't make the best pundits necessarily.

To get a better understanding of the game I would much prefer to see, or hear, coaches or former coaches, give their 10 pence worth. I want to hear both sides about zonal marking v man to man. I want to know whey the left footed player is being played on the right.

Players as pundits trivialise the game when they blame the defence or the officials for everything. Time perhaps for some real analysis...