Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Thursday, October 25, 2018
DISPATCHES FROM THE OTHER SIDE 9
Thursday, October 18, 2018
HITTING THE BAR
Even in terrible times, the sight of Burnley heaving into view was always an invigorating moment.
The mind turns to goals, barrowloads of goals, banged in from all directions in all conditions, mainly - it has to be said - by Shaun Goater. This is a fixture, when all is said and done, that has been kind to City for many a long decade.
But, there is also something else that will not go away, despite the merrily flailing limbs of Paolo Wanchope and the shuddering posts and bars. In a roundabout way, it also features a bar too, although this one wasn't quivering after a Carlos Tevez thunderbolt
Despite Shaun Goater's annual party-piece, the avalanche of goals year after year, an act of weapons grade shenanigans by a Burnley player still comes to mind. Step forward - for it is near-on impossible to shake off the memory, Mr Kevin McDonald esquire.
McDonald's name will forever be associated with the 2010 Turf Moor fixture that saw City rush out of the traps and into a scarcely credible 5-0 half time lead. It had been 3-0 after just seven minutes, with many away fans still taking their seats. If Burnley had always been reasonably pliable opponents, on this occasion they were constructed from guacamole.
With the home side trying their best to stay on their feet in the face of Roberto Mancini's increasingly rampant team and weather conditions that could fairly be termed inclement making the pitch look more and more like nearby Lake Windermere, it soon became clear that a possible abandonment was the home team's only real hope of salvation.
Burnley were not helped by the presence in goal of Brian Jensen, a Dane built like an outside lavatory, who, as the BBC kindly put it that evening, "seemed to be betrayed by poor handling". This was a phrase, often put in slightly less eloquent terms, that attached itself to the burly Jensen like chip paper to a brand new pair of Adidas Gazelles.
McDonald contemplates life in a northern town |
McDonald, however, had his own abandonment already in mind and, by half time, as his bedraggled team mates made it to the shelter of the steaming Turf Moor dressing room for a quiet cup of tea and a vol-au-vent with their famously laid-back manager Brian Laws, he was already harbouring a plan of his own to blunt the drama.
Laws, famous for fostering all-or-nothing team spirit at Grimsby, where he had once laid more than jazz hands on the individualistic Ivano Bonneti during a frank tactical appraisal of the Italian's forward play, leaving him with a fractured cheek bone, cannot have been overly taken with Burnley's first half showing. When he issued the magic words, "Kevin, If you don't mind too much, I'd rather not see you out on the park second half," McDonald's plan began to take shape. By the time Steven Fletcher bagged Burnley's consolation goal on 71 minutes to make it 6-1, McDonald had joined his father in the near-by 110 Club and was watching the live action via its big screen, while delving heartily into a variety of salted snacks.
The intake of beer and peanuts helped crystalize some other basic thought processes, however, and McDonald's public repentance was soon being splashed across the morning's press in erudite and respectful tones:
"I now realise it was naive, disrespectful and totally wrong of me to leave the ground at half-time on Saturday, It was a gross misjudgement and instead I should have remained at Turf Moor to support my club and team-mates.
The under-21 international, bought at some expense from Dundee, was soon on his way, with manager Laws not far beyond him. Burnley finished the season relegated. Laws next post was at Shamrock Rovers, where you presume beer was not exactly frowned upon."I acknowledge that I also showed a serious lack of respect to all the fans who were at the ground and who pay good money to watch their team play. I would like to apologise to the players, management and supporters and I have accepted my punishment. In closing, I would like to reassure all supporters that I am fully committed to helping the team as we fight to stay in the Premier League."
McDonald resurrected his career without the need for in-match pub visits at Wolves and now resides at Fulham, where he is an occasional starter in Slavisa Jokanovic's flamboyant side.
****
Saturday, 3 April 2010 -- Premier League
Burnley
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1-6
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City
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(HT 0-5)
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Fletcher 71
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Adebayor 4
Bellamy 5
Tevez 7
Vieira 20
Adebayor 45
Kompany 58
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Raining goals |
Thursday, October 11, 2018
DISPATCHES FROM THE OTHER SIDE #8
Notes on the 2018-19 title race with a different perspective. Writing
with (and about) the enemy. By Sachin Nakrani and Simon Curtis
Under the Volcano
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10th
October 2018 – Back in March,
following Chelsea’s Champions League defeat to Barcelona, I put out a tweet
regarding Lionel Messi following yet another excellent display by the
Argentinian at Camp Nou.
“I feel sorry for Lionel Messi because he hasn’t had the privilege of watching Lionel Messi play football. All he can do is take our word for it.” The tweet was meant as a joke. All night people had been tweeting out the type of stuff you only see when Messi is playing well - ‘we’re not worthy’, ‘he must be from another planet’, ‘greatness in front of our eyes’, that sort of thing and this was my subtle, sarcastic dig at all of the online salivating. But, as is often the case with my tweets, people didn’t get the sentiment behind it and thought I was being deadly serious. There were over 3,000 retweets, 6,000 likes and 50 responses, practically all of which were mushy in their praise of Messi. I initially found the response baffling and nauseating in equal measure, but the more they came in the more my heart melted. Gradually this misunderstanding felt rather lovely - a collective, online appreciation of a player who, let’s face it, deserves all the adulation that comes his way. I thought of that tweet, and the response to it, while stood on the Kop on Sunday watching David Silva play for Manchester City. He’s no Messi but, my God, he’s a wonderful footballer. One of those footballers that makes you acutely aware of how not-very-good you are at football. The way he manoeuvres into space, collects and cares for the ball like a mother collects and cares for her newborn child, and, time and again, plays the right pass at the right time. I watched Silva do all of this on the green grass of Anfield and thought to myself, “I feel sorry for David Silva because he hasn’t had the privilege of watching David Silva play football. All he can do is take our word for it.” The mad, bewildering, scary thing is that he wasn’t even the best City player on the pitch. Heck, he wasn’t even the best Silva on the pitch. Bernardo Silva was absolutely tremendous in centre midfield alongside Fernandinho, showing a level of aggression and robustness that I wasn’t aware he possessed. On the ball he then displayed his renowned technical class; a drop of the shoulder here, a spurt into space there; a pass to the left, a pass to the right, a few forward and the occasional one back. Always in control, always a danger. City were very good on Sunday. Not their sparkling best but defensively excellent and, in possession, showing the type of refinement and purpose that left me convinced they were going to nick it. And of course they nearly did after Leroy Sane collected a pass from - guess who – David Silva, drove into the box and tempted the otherwise excellent Virgil Van Dijk into a clumsy lunge. Penalty with five minutes remaining, the perfect snatch and grab, and then Riyad Mahrez stepped forward and ballooned the ball so high that it still hasn’t dropped to earth. Leaving the ground I felt a mix of satisfaction and relief. I would’ve taken a point before kick-off and even more so after Mahrez’s miss. But there was also concern, partly because of how poorly Liverpool’s front three played yet again and partly because of the savvy Pep Guardiola had displayed from a tactical point of view. Having conceded seven goals in the two games City played at Anfield last season, he was clearly determined to keep it much tighter this time around. It was startling how reserved City were from a structural as well as intent point of view, not really coming forward until around the 15-minute mark. Even then it was tentative and never fully did the visitors go for Liverpool’s throat. In Tuesday’s Guardian, Jonathan Wilson wrote a piece dissecting City’s display and made the point that for all the talk of Guardiola being a ideologue, he has history when it comes to pragmatism. At Bayern Munich, Wilson wrote, a 4-1 defeat at Wolfsburg led to Guardiola questioning his tactics and whether or not he had got “carried away with his experiments in using full-backs in possession in effect as old-fashioned wing-halves that he had forgotten the basics?” Determined to avoid such a drubbing again, the Catalan wrote what he came to refer to as “the bible”. Wilson explains what the bible was but for the sake of expediency, I’ll summarise: “Defend better”. And that’s what City did at Anfield. It earned them a point in a game which last season they got none and if Guardiola is able to mesh the thrilling brand that took City to the title with the type of display that earns them a point in games they’d otherwise lose then God help us all. Saying that, it could transpire that this was actually two points dropped (which it sort of was anyway given Mahrez’s miss) and that rather than keeping Liverpool at bay, City have allowed them to keep hold of their coattails at a time when their football is stodgy and disconnected. Liverpool will improve and if that comes at a time when City go through a rough patch then we could see a quick turnaround at the top of the table and, ultimately, a shift in the team able to call themselves champions of England. That team may not necessarily be Liverpool. After all, Chelsea are level on points with the ‘big two’ and look the real deal under the Italian geezer that is Maurizio Sarri, while Arsenal are also coming up on the rails. Tottenham, meanwhile, are having a properly weird season - doom and gloom all over the place yet Mauricio Pochettino’s men sit just two points off the summit having recorded their joint best start to a Premier League season after eight games. Saying all that, I still believe it will be City and Liverpool who are tussling for the title come late spring. Who wins it remains hard to say - City rightly remain favourites, especially so after their show of canniness on Merseyside. But that display also hinted at a level of trepidation on the part of the champions and a repeat, at Stamford Bridge, the Emirates, Wembley or, dare I say it, Old Trafford, could lead to not only two points being given up but three. Liverpool’s task is to then pounce and take full advantage, a task they’re up for and, all going well, capable of. Game on.
– Sachin Nakrani
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10th
October 2018 – When Malcolm Lowry wrote “I have resisted
temptation for two and a half minutes at least: my redemption is sure” in
Under the Volcano, his novel’s main character was almost certainly not
thinking about Association.Football. Pep Guardiola, though, will appreciate
the thought.
While Lowry’s consul was staving off the urge to get
drunk to forget about the mess he had made of his life, the Catalan had more
pressing practicalities at Anfield, stemming the expected red tide with his
own version of resisted temptation. .
So, Pep had located the button marked “pragmatism”
and given it a damn good prod.
That it should be pressed with such enthusiasm at
Anfield was no coincidence of course. City’s execrable record there is
legendary and will not be repeated in any detail here. Even recent visits
have ended in tears and tantrums, despite home games yielding more positive
results over the last decade.
Last season was a case in point. Four shipped in a
wildly tipping league encounter and three more in a disastrous Champions
League collapse. The five banged in at the Etihad in September of 2017 had at
the time been a record high against Liverpool since 1937, but was somewhat
buried by subsequent developments.
Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp should feel honoured that
the free-wheeling man of such vivacious attacking intent decided this to be the
occasion for caution, practical shape and tightly coordinated defensive
blocks. Laporte and Stones were as tight as could be, Walker and Mendy mostly
tucked in narrow and Bernardo Silva, that effervescent little tinker,
anchored to Fernandinho’s deep midfield patch. It was all very nouveau
pauvre.
Guardiola’s gung-ho mishaps had been questioned at
this very place last season. Here was proof if proof was needed of further
progress by a coach, who never stops learning, never stops listening.
All this was well and good and eventually worked a
treat, but it had been aided and abetted by Liverpool’s queer slump in form.
The very part of the side that drove everyone to distraction last season does
not appear to be functioning at all well all of a sudden. Mohammed Salah,
like the man who lost his sandals in the desert, continues to tip toe around hopefully
but appears to have badly singed his toes.
Firminho too looked out of sorts, leaving the feisty
Mané to run the City defence and get himself tangled with Fernandinho, while carrying
the flag for the home side.
To complete the contrariness, Liverpool’s dynamic
midfield - led by the excellent Henderson - did what was needed to take part in this tactical battle but little
more. Where City had been badly overrun last season, here they produced
numbers and shapes to thwart the home flow. At the back, where Liverpool had
often fallen down a year back, all was serene, as City’s occasional probing
brought few worries to the impressive Van Dijk and his cohorts.
Liverpool will be happy they have removed that
tricky string of fixtures from their to-do list. Huddersfield, Cardiff,
Fulham and Watford come next, with the only demanding trip the one that takes
them to the Emirates to the media’s newly anointed “revolution club”. How
swiftly things move these days. European adventures against a fast-wilting Red
Star and a goal hungry PSG will fill in the spaces for the coming month or
so, but Liverpool will be hopeful that they can use these fixtures to regain
some of the verve they started the campaign with.
While a point has kept them as close to City as is
possible (“joint top” in certain people’s minds), it also allowed the gale
force wind that is Arsenal and the thoroughbreds Chelsea and Tottenham to
edge closer. A two point stretch from top to fifth can only be good for the Premier
League. City’s pomp and circumstance last season was an eye-catching
spectacle, but a repeat of the gap which divided first and second would not
be good for the competitive edge we all crave from the sport.
Liverpool have long been held as the torch bearers
for the challenge to City. At the weekend they became aware that City’s
hierarchy concur with that forecast. In shuttling through the game with their
core beliefs under such tight control, City not only resisted the temptation
to go gung-ho, but threw down a challenge to Liverpool that on this occasion
they were not up to accepting. All pointers continue to suggest a
close-fought battle this season. As Lowry’s consul might have said, “I’ll
drink to that.”
– Simon
Curtis
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Saturday, October 6, 2018
DISPATCHES FROM THE OTHER SIDE 7
Notes on the 2018-19 title race with a different perspective. Writing
with (and about) the enemy. By Sachin Nakrani and Simon Curtis
Rivals
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6th October 2018 – By the end of the
1976-77 season, City and Liverpool were separated by a single point, with the
Blues on the wrong side of the tiny gap.
Liverpool were champions again and
City had to be pleased with runners-up spot to Bob Paisley’s all-conquering
side. It had been a tumultuous season and the two sides might well have ended
up in each other’s finishing positions had the home game for City that Christmas not blown
up in their faces with the clock ticking down towards the final whistle.
With the 50,000 crowd bellowing their appreciation, City hung onto Joe Royle's 35th minute opener, until two minutes from time, when a speculative Liverpool attack led to a misheard call from the out-rushing Joe Corrigan to his defence. Dave Watson, that reliable tower of strength at the heart of City's defence, slid a backpass towards what he presumed was safety, but Corrigan had advanced and the ball skipped past him and into the net.
Watson's anguish at the time was compounded by the end of the season, when that single mistake meant the difference between the two sides come May.
City and Liverpool were beginning to create quite a stir.
A year later another Maine Road full-house saw City wallop Liverpool 3-1 in a match described by the affable Paisley as "the best of British football". City were absolutely flying, but fell away to 4th as Liverpool were pipped by Nottingham Forest, the newly promoted surprise package of the season.
Instead of a City-Liverpool rivalry beginning to take root, Liverpool began a titanic struggle with Clough's Forest over the next three years, while City fell away to Malcolm Allison-inspired mediocrity.
Worse was to come, of course, with two relegations in the 80s and plenty more moss-covered shenanigans in the 90s, by which time Liverpool had resurrected their original Mersey-Manchester rivalry from the 60s with United. More recently still, a kind of rivalry with Chelsea popped up, after several titanic Champions League battles.
Yet, nothing at all to speak of with City. The 80s mean streets gave way to indifference, even pity. A general Manchester-Merseyside discomfort gradually dropped away, in the case of City and Everton at least. Having seen Joe Corrigan bottled in a rare Anfield win in 1981, City fell off to levels of pathetic that even the Kop couldn't jeer at with any deep-felt feeling. 0-4 and 0-6 defeats at Anfield within four days under Alan Ball's judicious leadership reduced everyone to gales of laughter. City were a laughing stock. No rivalry could or would come from this mismatched clash.
Perhaps, even in their new clothes, the fact that City's Anfield record has remained resolutely execrable, means today there is still no sign of a proper rivalry, despite the fact that animosity levels are clearly on the up and - particularly this season - the clubs are on each other's radars like never before.
As with Chelsea-Liverpool, perhaps a couple more Champions League games of the intensity seen last season and a continuation of what seems likely to be a two-pronged challenge for the domestic honours, will bring these two great clubs into sharper focus for each other. City fans can drop the Klanfield always the victims taunts and the Kop can desist from shouting about a club that has only existed since 2008, which thinks everyone's got it in for them.
Or maybe it is exactly this that is spawning new levels of fear and loathing between the two clubs.
This kind of social media fuelled spite may be playing a part in building things up a level or two. Proper hate plays a part in all good football rivalries after all. There are no exchanges of flowers before the River-Boca games or at Ajax-Feyenoord and Porto v Benfica has plenty of over-stretched neck sinew on show. Love and cuddles a proper football atmosphere never made. The signs, therefore, are good!
Certainly - as we have seen in the past with games on the European stage - a rivalry that endures can pop up from nowhere given the right ingredients. Forest and
City- Liverpool has much more possible mileage in it than one with an East Midlands side or one from well-heeled West London. Local bragging rights, building on an already historically tense Manchester-Liverpool rivalry can bring this duel into really sharp focus in the coming seasons. If the clashes between the two sides match the drama and smoke of last season's four games, then it will not take long, there can be little doubt about that. If Liverpool are the real deal and intend to slog it out toe to toe this season, the temperature is about to rise.
Now all that is needed is a battle royale on Sunday and a couple more fragrant Champions League clashes - perhaps a semi final this time - and we will begin to see a new rivalry in English football that is worth its name. – Simon Curtis
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6th
October 2018 – So here we go
then, the Dispatches Derby. Liverpool versus Manchester City, a battle
between the top two – and best two – teams in the country and a resumption of
a simmering rivalry.
I’m old enough to remember when City were a vastly different club to the one
they are now, specifically in the 1990s when, let’s face it, they were
absolutely dreadful. Poor players, poor managers, poor results, no more so
than during the 1995-96 season when Alan Ball’s side were relegated. That was
a season when Liverpool beat City 4-0 and 6-0 in the space of three days and,
in general, my memories of coming up against City back then was that it was
no big deal. They were there to be beaten.Stop. Wait. Scratch that record and go back a second. Liverpool and City – a rivalry? Really? Is it? According to who and since when? The first thing to say is that no one person is, or can be, the arbiter of what constitutes a football rivalry. Different clubs stoke different emotions in different supporters. For instance, I properly dislike Chelsea but that’s because my life as a regular match-going Red began just as the great Rafa-Jose battles of the noughties were kicking-off. I went to practically every one, including all three Champions League semi-finals in 2005, 2007 and 2008, and when you’ve gone through something like that it’s difficult not to dislike the other lot. The chants stick in the mind, as do the smug faces, not to mention the defeats; the 2005 League Cup final … THAT league game in 2014. But for other Liverpool supporters, specifically older ones, Chelsea are an irrelevance. Only Manchester United and Everton matter in the rivalry stakes, with Nottingham Forest and Leeds United coming in a distant second. It’s about context and experience, contests fought. Which brings me on to City. Rivals? Could be, but not right now. Not for me, anyway. There’s been a few tasty games between the sides in recent years, no more so than last season. The 5-0 at the Etihad, the 4-3 at Anfield, and the two Champions League games which well and truly lived up to the hype, in terms of drama and quality. But Liverpool have also had tasty games against Arsenal, Tottenham and, heck, Crystal Palace in that time and no one in and around Anfield look at any of those clubs as ‘the enemy’. I’m aware the situation with City is different given their status – champions as well as fellow title and Champions League contenders – not to mention the enmity that developed on the back of the bus attack, but I simply don’t feel the hate and neither do most other Reds I know. As is the modern way, a lot of this has been driven by social media. Reds and Blues shouting about how much they hate the other side on Twitter, with most doing so in order to develop their (reaches for the vomit bucket) ‘brand’. There’s another reason why I don’t see City as a rival and it relates to the thing that appears to rile their supporters more than anything else. The ‘M’ word. Money. City improved in the noughties but remained a team not to be feared, and that’s how it felt it was going to remain forever. But then everything changed. Sheikh Mansour strode into town. Modern-day Manchester City feel like a different club entirely. It’s City 2.0. A total reboot. Out went the clanking hatchback and in came the sleek sports car hell-bent on roaring past every other vehicle on the road. And fair play, City have achieved that, winning three Premier League titles and currently playing a style of football that may be the best we’ve ever seen in this country. But please, spare me the protests whenever someone suggests all this may have happened because a wealthy Arab made it possible. The arguments I’ve had with City fans over this. Jesus, you’d think I had accused their club of sending players to people’s homes at Christmas to piss on their kids. Howls of indignation, cries of media-driven conspiracy and, in one case, someone suggesting with a straight Twitter face that City’s success has nothing to do with the 2008 takeover. Are you shitting me?! City’s best player on 31 August 2008 – the day before the money came rolling in – was Stephen Ireland and they had Jo up front. City’s best player on 31 August 2018 was (and is) Kevin De Bruyne and they had (and have) Sergio Aguero up front. That didn’t happen through savvy scouting and money earned through shrewd accountancy; it happened because the boys in blue won the lottery. Yes, other clubs have been the subject of takeovers, and yes, other clubs spend lots of money (Liverpool included), but in my lifetime none have gone from nought to 50 in such a short space of time. Enjoy the success but also accept how it’s come about. The overriding factor. The golden elephant in the room. So no, I don’t see City as a rival. It’s too soon for that and, a decade on from the big bang, I still find it difficult to fully respect the club’s rise to elite level. It’s like when you play someone at snakes and ladders and you’re leading but they then throw a six and land on the square with the massive ladder and shoot up to the end. Yes they’ve won fair and square, but you’re entitled to feel peeved about how they got there. Onto Sunday’s match. City are going to win, I can feel it. Partly because they’re an excellent team, partly because they’re due a win at Anfield and partly because I’m properly worried about Liverpool following their loss to Napoli. I was there and it was possibly the worst I’ve seen us perform under Jurgen Klopp. Lacklustre, lethargic, disconnected, crap. No doubt there’ll be a reaction from the boys in red, and the crowd will be up for it, but if City exploit our weaknesses in midfield and take the chances that come their way then I can’t see past an away win, especially as our front three are not up to scratch at the moment. A defeat will be hard to take but it won’t be a disaster given Liverpool will only be three points behind City having had the tougher start to the season. It’s all good, all fine, all worth keeping in perspective. One thing it’s not, however, is a rivalry.
. – Sachin Nakrani
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