The Importance of Sport (NEW CONCEPTS)

[Mick Harper]

[Mick Harper]

Coupla weird things from the Rugby World Cup. Japan's famous win over the Irish wasn't quite as it seemed. According to my super slow-mo their final penalty didn't go through the posts, without which a different game would have ensued. Since the whole world was watching I googled Japan World Cup penalty expecting to be regaled with a worldwide post-match scandal uproar and demands for the match to be replayed but ... nothing. As usual, you will have to choose between me and the world. I'm going with the world on this occasion but I've been wrong before.

You have to be dumb to be a rugby forward and a few set scrums will make you dumber still but even so it must have dawned on forwards caught on the wrong side of a rolling maul that they are actually contributing to the other side and should disengage immediately. But no, forwards are so brainwashed with the idea of binding together that they don't, they just keep lumbering 'forward' even though unfortunately it happens to be 'backward'. I was a rugby forward myself but got out just in time. Pretty much.

[Grant]

What spectacular success by Southgate? Have we managed to beat a decent team yet?

[Mick Harper]

You're just bitter about Middlesborough going down. He plays it out from the back -- that's good enough to be getting on with after a hundred and fifty years of hoof'n'hope. Word is, Poch is going to Newcastle if it's any consolation.

[Mick Harper]

Euro News

[Mick Harper]

Your Kits Tonite

Juventus are so proud of their iconic borrowed-from-Newcastle United in days of yore black and white stripes, they have decided to play in black and white quarters. Barcelona are so proud of their iconic red-and-blue halves that for years they refused to have any sponsorship desecrating it, but have decided WTF to wear a red and blue chequerboard. I'm a traditionalist, I always wear my England (on tour) shell suit at the computer. Change it? I don't even clean it.

[Mick Harper]

You know when you've flogged yourself across London loaded down like a Sherpa because your sister needs to go to Kings Cross to visit some godforsaken school friend who lives in some godforsaken part of the north and you've just waved her off with one of those expressions that says hurry back but you probably should stay a whole week to make the trip worthwhile and you plod back to the underground station still loaded up to the gills because she's decided she doesn't need her 'good stuff' after all and they've just closed the underground because Standard Liege are in town to play the Arsenal and are letting off smoke bombs and now you're really fucked? That's amazing because the exact same thing happened to me this afternoon.

[Mick Harper]

I woke up this morning and found I'd already missed England vs Argentina. Come on, Japan, get your time zones sorted. And don't anyone tell me who won. I know it was England but one can never be 100% sure. If ITV are showing it at nine in the morning, why aren't they showing it again at a decent hour? What do they think ITV-4 is for? Yes, Minder reruns, but also possibly something more than forty minutes of highlights, half of which will be Japan vs Samoa and most of the rest will be Nessum Dorma in Japanese and some big blokes saying it was all very different in their day. I didn't pay my my licence fee for this.

[Mick Harper]

[Mick Harper]

I had better give his successor some pointers. First off: the holding midfielder. Rule: if you don’t have one that's up to scratch, don’t select two that aren’t up to scratch. There’s a reason why Henderson and Rice play for Liverpool Reserves and West Ham, it’s because they’re not up to scratch. As it happens, this is is a very difficult position to fill in the modern game so do what teams that haven’t got one, eg Arsenal, do and scrub round it.

In any case, employing two does not strengthen the defence because they either stand left and right and the other side burst through the vacant middle or they play one up, one down in which case it tends to be either none or both, if you see what I mean. What happens in practice is everyone -- especially the full backs -- have a false sense of security. As for your attacking options, well what do you think happens when you have a midfield consisting of two holding players and two wingers?

[Mick Harper]

Next, my old buggeroo, playing it out from the back. The Czechs pressed so everyone was soon hoofing it up the field. Pickford even gave up looking (and maybe waiting, Jordan) for a spare man. But this is not the worst of it. England defenders have got so used to playing it around at their clubs that they all fancy themselves to be Johnny Haynes. Ping. Ping. Ping. Look chaps, most of the time you are just giving away possession and the odd occasion when Harry gets his nut on it he loses possession. When it does arrive at the feet of a man in white, it is a man in white in a position that would have been arrived at by playing it out from the back!

Yes, it's a much riskier option -- especially the way you were playing yesterday -- but always remember: the more they press the fewer they have up the park. It's not so much risk vs reward as twenty chances on goal versus five chances on goal. Better to win 3-2 than lose 2-1.

[Mick Harper]

I know what you are going to say, Mount was 'playing in the No 10 role'. As Glenn said, "I'm glad to see Mason is playing in his favoured position." No, Glenn, we're not interested in what his favoured position is, it's what the team requires that's important. There is a reason why Chelsea play him out wide, and it's because he's not quite ready for the critical No 10 role. Especially not when he's playing with two sub-par holding players and a rookie wide-out. Even Johnny Haynes would be struggling to cope with that. (Or Glenn Hoddle if you are a younger reader.)

[Grant]

England's inability to deal with a pressing team has been a problem for years. They just lacked the ability to play it out from the back. That's why in the World Cup Southgate bypassed the mid-field. Trouble is that works against mediocre teams but against a decent one....

[Mick Harper]

A few factual errors there, Grant. The pressing game has not been in existence for years, it's highly recent. Everybody, save possibly the very best Euro club sides, has difficulties playing out from the back against it, that's why it has come into existence. It is not a question of playing ability -- which in any case England has -- but a matter of training, organisation, selection and mind set. England did not forsake it in the World Cup they fell apart generally. It is far too early to tell what does and does not work against good or bad teams. But do go on.

[Mick Harper]