Tim Howard has created a few waves with his latest comments condemning Pep Guardiola for “ruining football”. In an interview he said that teams are all trying to play the “expansive” style of football when in fact there are only 3 teams with the quality of players that are truly able to play that way. As a result football has suffered.
Now I have to admit, I am torn. I would love our team to be playing front-foot football and be thrilling and good every time but, in truth, I don’t like the way Manchester City play. There is no bottle or defensive hardness etc. A bit of thuggery by Haaland doesn’t qualify, but unfortunately the money-making Premier League have bought into the plan by systematically eliminating tackling from the game, even to the point of awarding cards for intent rather than any contact. It is fast on the road to a contactless sport, a bit like touch rugby was a few years ago..
And here’s my conundrum: Sean Dyche is definitely not an expansive football advocate — in fact too much the other way, in my opinion — but is he right in playing the style of football he does? One could say he is with better players, but then better players are not better because they have an engine that goes on and on; they are better for their skill and application of it. They don’t want to be shackled by playing a way they get no enjoyment from either.
In my view, Tim has a significant point, one that I — and many others, I suspect — share: that football has to be able to counter Man City’s approach, because the fans and the world will tire of the same teams winning everything, killing competition and the adversarial nature of combat.
At the moment, I think the authorities have got it significantly wrong in eliminating contact and introducing the disaster that is VAR, all in the service of a Holy Grail of purist football ideology — a world where only the wealthiest survive. Real Madrid, Man City, Barcelona, etc have players of the quality that no one else but the wealthiest can afford.
We are in the midst of being bought by a wealthy owner, but I don’t want to become like Man City. I want to win and win well, but I want to see attacking football with some defensive steel. Sean Dyche may be too defensive for my liking but we do need a clever, adaptable manager who can mix it and not aspire to be something we are not.
Indeed, though, football has changed, not for the better as a sport, but as an entertainment business. I feel fans actually want more than just entertainment from 16 primadonnas; they want their team to out-play, out-think, or just win. We need that adversarial environment and commitment to satisfy our sense of camaraderie and belonging.
Football has become sanitised for the masses and I am sure it’s acceptable to many sitting at home in armchairs, but the joy of football is the unknown and unpredictable nature of a contact sport. Remove that and you have Manchester City.