Saturday 9 December 2017

Fireman Sam to the rescue - and a rant about players who can't tackle

Fireman Sam is what Sam Allardyce is being called, after Everton's sudden revival, prompted by his appointment I accept, has taken them into the top half of the table.

I've been reflecting on my negativity about Allardyce's appointment (see A dis appointment, 29 November). I accept that the Board, having mishandled the situation awfully in previous weeks, had to act and make an appointment. They knew who was available, so I wouldn't 2nd guess that. My frustration was that it should never have been allowed to develop as it did.

There are potential positives in Allardyce's appointment. While not accusing him of being "long ball", the team is likely to play more directly and with more aggression and be defensively more robust, all issues that have troubled me since half way through Martinez's reign and for much of the time under Koeman, whose teams also tended to want to consolidate possession after winning the ball and not risk playing it forward at the earliest opportunity after winning the ball in what has become known as a "transition". The irony of that, of course, is that the best teams (yes, Barcelona, Man City etc) do go for the jugular whenever they have the opportunity.

And Allardyce has been at the forefront of sports science using sports psychologists, nutrionists and statisticians since he was in charge at Bolton. By all accounts, when he was interviewed for the England job in 2006 he gave the best and most comprehensive presentation about how to take all aspects of the England national team forward. The only problem was he had prepared a "knock your socks off" Powerpoint presentation. He was told that the FA had no facilities for him to do that, so he had to print off and take hard copies. I doubt that is what cost him the job that time round.

The Sunday Times reporter at Everton's match against Huddersfield last Sunday came up with a phrase that summarised my primal scream/whinge of last week, saying "the jury remains out on whether he is philosophically aligned to his new club". If I had thought of the phrase "philosophically aligned" my piece could have been much shorter.....

Anyway, I said I would see the crowd's reaction to Allardyce for myself at that match. If you saw the game on Match of the Day you may have noticed that Everton did something a bit odd. I was rather expecting Allardyce would be officially introduced to the crowd before the teams took to the pitch, which would be fairly normal. But he wasn't: the teams came out, went through all the usual rigmarole and were all lined up ready to kick off when the stadium announcer asked the crowd to welcome Everton's new manager, Allardyce taking to his technical area and waving. This might have been done because, these days, many punters stay in the refreshment areas under the stands until the teams take the pitch, which means that, together with the over amplified tannoy system, there is essentially none of the pre-match atmosphere of the old days. But it might have been because Everton weren't sure how Allardyce would be greeted. Doing it just as the crowd were about to roar "come on" avoided that risk.

If you listened carefully you'll have heard pretty much what happened. A rather mixed initial response was soon replaced by a generous round of applause coming from the majority of fair-minded Evertonians. That mixed initial response included some very loud boos from a small minority in the stands around me at the corner of the Gwladys Street and Bullens Road stands. Of course, in the old days of terraces, those booing would have been able to congregate together and it would have been much more obvious. But it was a very small proportion.

And me? I gave a rather lukewarm and somewhat begrudging few polite handclaps.

Because of the mid-week game Allardyce had only a single training session with the squad before the match, so one shouldn't read too much into it. There was bound to be more effort but the first half didn't provide me (or anyone else) with much encouragement. Yes, they were getting the ball forward more quickly, but essentially aimlessly. Not long balls knocked high and Wimbledon style, just quick, long "passes" into space were there wasn't a blue shirt. Even goalkeeper Pickford succumbed to this, as he caught the ball from a corner and hit a quick, long, low kick to Everton's right when the only man up, Calvert-Lewin, was running to the left wing ("you great banana, why don't you look first?" I shouted to the amusement of some around me, as Pickford was wearing all yellow). I suspect this was a misinterpretation of what Sam had told them. Everton didn't concede but didn't often look like scoring either in a goalless first 45. Rooney did ok but Everton's most accomplished player in the first half was 20 year old full back Jonjoe Kenny.

The second half was better, with Kenny, Davies, Lennon and DCL (Dominic Calvert-Lewin) combining well down Everton's right on several occasions and it was no surprise the first goal came from that side, with a delightful flick by DCL, who also had a good game, freeing Sigurdsson, who had been totally anonymous in the first half. A 2-0 win felt about right, though I was shocked to see the stats afterwards with Huddersfield having more possession and only one fewer shot on target. It didn't feel quite like that watching.

Allardyce noted in his interview afterwards that he'd told the wide men, Lennon and Sigurdsson, to push on more in the second half and it clearly worked, which is encouraging. When asked by the Everton PR guy in an interview on the club website about the potential of the young players (my specific worry about Sam) and Mason Holgate in particular, Allardyce said "well I think the potential's nearly a reality, from the performance like that and the performance on Wednesday". He also said "I think Jonjoe Kenny is an outstanding young man at full back....his choice of ball possession is first class as a young man, his defending is excellent..", going on to say that the back four provided the platform for the victory. All true.

The above words might have been meant to win people like me over. Before I heard them I'd returned home to tell my Mrs that I might be at risk of sounding foolish (that's not new I hear you say) but Jonjoe Kenny has appeared only 10 or 12 times in the Everton first team and I would wager that, after that number of games, he's at least as advanced in his development as Gary Neville was. Or, if not Gary, then a comparison I can definitely vouch for, Tommy Wright, who played full back for Everton in the 1960s and 70s, appearing nearly 400 times and being capped 12 times for England.

And I would argue Mason Holgate is currently Everton's most reliable centre back, given the poor form of Williams and Keane and Jagielka being out injured. The team selection for Sunday's derby match will be interesting. Whether he selects Holgate and Kenny is Allardyce's first real test, for me.

With a bunch of even younger youngsters, the toffees won in Cyprus last night 3-0. Allardyce might just have landed very fortunately at the biggest club he's ever managed. As long as he realises it.

The other great thing about these two league wins is that, suddenly, the result in this weekend's derby match becomes somewhat less significant. If those two games had gone badly a poor derby would have mad it feel like a real crisis. Now it would just be a hiccup.

There was one comment on Match of the Day that was totally risible however. Ian Wright (who I have a lot of time for) noted that Everton had achieved two clean sheets with Sam. Eh? Allardyce  wasn't officially appointed as manager until the day after the first of the games, against West Ham. And he had one training session before the Huddersfield game. I accept that Allardyce's presence made the team work harder and think about their defending but come on - the Hammers and Huddersfield at home? Huddersfield had conceded 14 and scored nil in their previous 5 away matches. A bit early to be crediting Sam with tightening up the defence, though I'm sure he will.

Still, to give Wright his due, there is 100% support for the proposition that any Everton team Allardyce has anything to do with never lets in a goal. Until Sunday's derby at least.....

There is another game being billed as a derby match this weekend, in my second city, Manchester. (Well, until 2006 it was the only city I had lived in, when I was a student, hailing as I do from outside the Liverpool city limits). I was brought up believing that there are only 3 derbies a year: Everton v Liverpool, Liverpool v Everton and the horse race. But the United v City clash holds out the promise of a fascinating clash of styles, with City's slick passing against United's formidable physical strength (unlike City most of the United team is over 6ft), both teams possessing fearsome pace.

I think it is unfortunate that United's Paul Pogba will miss the game, as it would have been good to see two essentially full strength sides pitted against each other. Pogba was sent off in last week's game against Arsenal for treading on Hector Bellerin. While a red card was correct I think Pogba was unlucky. Everyone thought his offence wasn't deliberate, though that is not material to the referee's decision. I thought he was unlucky because Bellerin's challenge, if that's what it can be called, as Pogba advanced towards him with the ball, was weird. He trailed his left leg out to one side a bit like a goalkeeper spreading himself to make a large target and block a shot. It was more like an exaggerated curtsy than anything else. As Pogba stretched for a ball he had slightly over-run, he could surely not have expected Bellerin to effectively lie down in his path and place his calf roughly where Pogba's boot was going to land. It wasn't a freak incident, because Bellerin had attempted the same ludicrous manoevre earlier in the game.

The root cause of Pogba missing this big match is that Bellerin, in common with most Premier League players it must be said, has either forgotten or never learned how to do a conventional, classic block tackle. Despite spending something rather less the 10,000 hours of legend to achieve real competence, I spent very many hours playing and practicing football as a youngster - enough to take corners with either left or right foot - but I didn't really learn to do a block tackle until I migrated from the forwards to the back four via midfield in my twenties. It's not difficult, but it does require bottle. In the classic 50-50 challenge with two players running towards each other, you try to plant your non-kicking foot as close to the ball as possible,  turning your kicking foot as if to side foot the ball but going for it really firmly, as if striking a long pass as hard as you can. At the point of impact you hold your kicking leg firm, rather than following through. This keeps your foot low and your studs pointing downwards so, although you will foul the other player if you are late, it's not a dangerous challenge for either player, though if you don't commit you risk the bottom half of your leg being twisted round at the knee if the other player arrives at the ball at the same time and goes for it harder than you do. So you don't risk that: the old adage is that you only get hurt if you don't go in hard enough. If both players arrive at the ball together in the classic 50-50 the player who is stronger in the tackle will win, the ball popping forward  past his opponent. The weaker player in the tackle tends to fall forward over the ball. In my later years as a player it was a mark of honour for me that I never lost out in a block tackle, unless the position of the ball made it more than 75-25 in the other player's favour (in which case you are better standing off). I saw (and made) many strong block tackles. Though 50-50 clashes between committed players could look fearsome, the challenges were fair and no-one got hurt - unless one of the players wimped out, turned their head away at the last second and hung out their foot over the ball rather than challenging for it, which is very dangerous for the other player. Remarkably, this latter scenario is exactly what happens week after week in the Premier League on our televisons. Sometimes it's both of the players involved in a challenge doing it!

Ironically, one of the worst offenders is Manchester City's highly rated man mountain Vincent Kompany. He has been sent off several times for lunging over the ball in these head on challenges, committing what I'm sure my sons will remember me branding a "coward's challenge". As you can tell, it really irritates me when these overpaid nonces, who have spent 10,000+ hours playing football, demonstrate that they can't tackle properly. What often look like horrific challenges in slow motion are caused by the culprit losing their nerve and trying to protect themselves.

So it's very simple: if Bellerin knew how to tackle, Pogba wouldn't have been sent off. I thought it was really odd that the Match of the Day pundits didn't highlight this, though I've seen two sports journalists comment on it since, one telling Bellerin "here's a tip: try tackling".

Anyway, what result am I hoping for in the Manchester "derby"? A United win to keep the title race open. And because, despite producing some of the best football seen in England for a long time, if not ever - and some of the goals they have scored this season have been truly outstanding - I dislike Manchester City. The reason is that the only time I've ever felt unsafe in a football stadium (and I've been to quite a few over more than 50 years) was at City's Maine Road in 1972. It's too long a story for now, but involved targeted physical aggression towards the away fans. I know it was a long time ago and it isn't the only time it ever happened but it's the only time it's happened to me and I'm an unforgiving cove at times. I've never wished City well since and I don't tomorrow in terms of the result, though I'm hoping it will be a great match.

* http://metro.co.uk/2016/07/12/the-bizarre-reason-sam-allardyce-flunked-his-england-job-interview-10-years-ago-6002017/

1 comment:

  1. 'If I had thought of the phrase "philosophically aligned" my piece could have been much shorter.....' - Surely not Phil, you're a man of great detail:-))

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