As someone who is now about a quarter of the way into his seventh decade of life, you would like to think I’ve seen enough during that time to be able to come up with a coherent answer as to what constitutes a strong competition and what makes up a weak one when it comes to football.
You can guarantee that at some time during the first three months of a season someone will describe the division City are competing in as being a weak one this time around. This sort of statement has always prompted the question described in the previous paragraph in me.
For example, the Championship table for 2005/06 shows the league being won at a canter by a Reading side which I would say is generally regarded as the best seen at that level since 2003 – a period which has seen us compete at that level for all but the 2013/14 campaign. A closer look at that table will tell you that all of the important placings that season had been decided before the final round of matches had been played, so Sky would have been desperately basing their final day advertising on which one out of Watford, Preston and Leeds would finish third and earn the right to face Palace in the Play Offs!
By contrast, although we won the title by a healthy margin in 12/13, I don’t think even the most avid Cardiff fan would say we were in the Reading 2006 class – after all, they had just the nineteen points more than us! However, my recollection is that there were all sorts of issues to be decided on the final day of the season five years ago at both ends of the table. What’s most noticeable to me is that, whereas there is a massive sixty eight points between first and last in 05/06, that gap is only forty six points in 12/13 and, once you take off our eight point lead and the ten points adrift of the rest Bristol City were, there was only twenty eight points between Hull in second and Wolves in 23rd – even more amazing relegated Peterborough finished just fourteen points behind Leicester who made the Play Offs.
No one describes 2012/13 as a vintage year for the Championship, but which one was the “strong” league, the one we won or the one with the all conquering Reading side in – I honestly don’t know!
That’s how I feel about the World Cup tournament that has been taking place in Russia for nearly a month now. Even before England’s “heroics”, Russia 2018 had been having a good press with many willing to describe it as one of the best, if not the best, World Cup Finals tournament they’d seen.
I’m in agreement that this has been a good World Cup and, as someone who has watched all of them since 1966, I would rate it in the top three or four I’ve seen and yet I don’t think there has been one team in it that you could call great – this opinion may change though over the next five days because, really speaking, it’s still a little early to make these sort of judgments.
Nevertheless, this is a tournament that has reignited the whole what is a good competition and what is a bad one debate with me, but this time, I feel slightly better equipped to make a judgement on the question that I’ve always struggled to answer.
World Cup 2018 may not have had an outstanding team in it, but, in my opinion, what it has had is a lot of pretty evenly matched sides that have helped to make so many of the games competitive and interesting.
It’s also had VAR which has helped bring about a statistic which argues strongly in favour of 2018 being one of the better World Cups – there has only been one 0-0 draw up until now.
This doesn’t mean that 2018 has been a free scoring tournament, but VAR has helped to ensure that some poor quality matches which would have definitely finished goalless otherwise have ended up 1-0 thanks to penalties which would never have been given before.
There have been dramatic finishes galore with plenty of late goals being scored and when VAR has got involved, this has only added to the sense of drama. There have been some idiotic penalties given for handball through VAR intervention, but, overall, I’d say its influence has been a positive one – it still doesn’t happen often enough, but anything which ensures that defenders get penalised for the wrestling holds we see at corners and free kicks and anything that ensures that diving cheats like Neymar don’t always prosper has to be a good thing.
As to who is going to win it, I’d say that there has been a game in which all four remaining teams have struck me as potential winners. In saying that, Croatia and France were both playing an Argentina side as open as any so called good side I’ve seen in ages to quick counter attacks when they impressed me. As for Belgium, they strike me as the most complete of the remaining sides and their front three were immense against Brazil, with Eden Hazard being truly outstanding in the dying stages of that game.
Belgium also showed a defensive organisation and team spirit against Brazil that I wouldn’t usually associate with them, but, even with all of these things going for them, they still needed the goalkeeping performance of the tournament so far from Courtois and a fair bit of luck to overcome a team which had three times the number of goal attempts and efforts on target that they did.
As for England, I couldn’t believe the start they made in their first game against a Tunisia side rated as the best African team in the world by FIFA. They really should have been four or five nil up in twenty minutes, but subsequent performances showed that Tunisia were extremely flattered by their high FIFA ranking and England’s problems creating chances from open play have sent out a signal that they are not as good as I thought they were during that purple patch in their first game.
Nevertheless, England impressed me against a Swedish side which rather reminds me of the 2017/18 City side under Neil Warnock. They didn’t mind letting the opposition have the ball and, even in their most impressive game, a 3-0 win over Mexico, they were not “easy on the eye”. No, Sweden, like their fellow Scandinavians Denmark, won’t figure among the great entertainers of Russia 2018, but they have had the knack of getting results that you wouldn’t expect them to when you compare the names on their team sheet with those on most of the ones of sides they faced.
I didn’t think England were great against Sweden, but they still managed to completely dominate them in a way that I’ve not seen happen to a Swedish side in ages – England didn’t strike me as potential winners that day, but there’s a momentum growing with them and they are as dangerous as anyone from set pieces (a phase of play which sometimes looks a weakness for their Semi Final opponents, Croatia).
For me, if England go out and try to take on any of the other three remaining sides in a “proper” game of football, they’ll probably lose, but take their relatively easy ninety minutes against Sweden and put it against what Croatia have been through in their last two games against Denmark and Russia and I reckon they’ll make Sunday’s final – I also favour France, following their fairly straightforward win over Uruguay, to be too physically strong for a Belgian side that looked out on their feet (Hazard excepted) in the closing quarter against Brazil.
If it is a France v England final, then a look at the two squads has me favouring les blues, but I remember their supine showing in the Final of Euro 2016 and think that an England side which has not shown any fear so far could do what Portugal did to them two years ago.
Would I pleased to see England win the tournament? Well, I’d be pleased for Gareth Southgate, who has always come across to me a normal and decent bloke. Rightly or wrongly, it strikes me that normal and decent blokes have been conspicuously absent in England squads at recent tournaments, but this lot don’t seem too bad – none of this is enough to make me want them to win though for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, the idea of a country with a population of less than 5 million winning the World Cup really appeals to me (yes, I know it’s happened before with Uruguay, but the tournament was not the global event then that it is now), so I’m a Croatia supporter at the moment.
The second reason is the one that’s always there with England – a media which fails to recognise that there are parts of this country (i.e. the UK) which do not feel quite as enthusiastic about the England team as they think we should.
Two years ago, Wales reached the Semi Finals of Euro 2016 and they did so with Rob Phillips (who I like) coming over as completely biased towards them in his radio broadcasting, while ITV Wales ran their own programmes (just as they do in Rugby World Cups) to give a more Welsh slant than you’d get on the main ITV coverage. So, Wales has more than their fair share of biased commentators and coverage, but the difference is that they don’t tend to get heard oand/or watched by the rest of the country.
Contrast that with what you get with the mainstream BBC and ITV (who, I have to admit, were very good towards Wales two years ago) – the main commentators on either channel (Guy Mowbray and the awful Clive Tyldesley) rabbit on to you as if you’re a mate of theirs who is with them at some party or pub which is exclusively limited to England supporters, while nearly all of their colleagues barely ever waste a chance to bring England into the conversation even if the game is between, say, Senegal and Japan.
There has been one glorious exception to this rule however in this tournament. John Champion and Ally McCoist on ITV have been a very pleasant surprise, with the latter, a genuinely funny man, being completely unable to hide his enthusiasm for the game and all of the countries involved in this tournament even if he was minded to. This is in total contrast to the cynical, world weary, views you hear from some others who should realise how lucky they are to be getting paid to commentate on “the beautiful game” at the greatest tournament in the world (no names, no packdrill, but for some reason I’m struggling to get a former Liverpool defender who also played for Preston and Brighton out of my mind at this point!).
I missed the first few minutes of the Russia v Croatia match on Saturday which followed on from the England v Sweden game a couple of hours earlier. Now, Messrs Champion and McCoist may have spent all of that time babbling on about England for all I know, but what I can say for certain is that they didn’t come up in the commentary while I was listening until about the twenty five minute mark when Champion asked the perfectly reasonable question “which one out of these two do you think England would prefer to face in the Semi Final?”.
After that there was the occasional reference to ITV’s exclusive coverage of England’s Semi Final and one or two more mentions for Southgate’s men (we learned that McCoist has supported England that afternoon), but it was as if the two commentators had either made a pre arranged decision to keep the England mentions to a minimum or, as I’d prefer to believe, they realised that, like so many other games in this World Cup, there was a perfectly decent, interesting and entertaining encounter between two good, but not great, sides being played out in front of them which deserved their full attention.
I fear that it will be Tyldesley and Hoddle (a good analyst who loses all perspective when England are involved) on the microphones tomorrow, so that will mean I will be watching with the sound turned down, but I’ll listen if Champion and McCoist are there – heck, I’ll even watch my first ever World Cup Final on ITV if England get there and those two are commentating!
Thanks for your views on what has been an entertaining competition but not sure that there has been that much quality football played.
To be honest I haven’t watched every game but with moderate sides like Russia, Sweden and (dare I say it) England progressing as far as they have it doesn’t suggest that the highest quality of football has been played.
Didn’t see much of the Germany games but obviously they weren’t the side they normally are. I couldn’t have been more disappointed with Spain, I thought that was the worst display of possession football I have seen. Not one of the Spanish players seemed prepared, or capable, to go past an opponent always taking the easy option of passing sideways or back.
The one player that has impressed me is M’Bappe, every time he gets the ball he is looking to use his speed to go past a player and unlike a lot of fast players he uses the ball well.
Don’t know what to think of England at times they have shown (admittedly against moderate opposition) that they can play attacking football. Southgate seems very popular with players, pundits and fans and has gone a long way to making people believe that the England football team are not a joke.
Will they win the World Cup? not if their opponents take advantage of what I perceive as a weakness on the left side of their defence. Ashley Young has made a decent fist of playing left wing-back but if England get past Croatia surely either De Bruyne, Hazard or the aforementioned M’Bappe will find him out. Having said that Young did a decent job of man-marking Salah in the Premier League.
Good summary Paul and looking forward now to two well- matched semi- finals.
Agree that England in with a shout, but might struggle in a game that is too open. They have done a great job in managing perceptions and huge credit to Gareth Southgate who increasingly comes across as a decent sort and no mean tactician. Think Modric might undo them but genuinely home England can pull it off.
Lots of credit also to Roberto Martinez who has moulded a team out of some outstanding individuals and created a team of great character.
France look a really good unit and some serious pace and quality. Will be a tough call.
Overall been up there in my top tournaments as well Paul. As you say, no outstanding Brazil or Holland or Argentina teams like in the old days, but lots of close matches, exciting finishes, penalty shootouts and general high standard of football.
VAR has added an extra dimension and generally worked well. Hosts have been enthusiastic and atmosphere comes across well.
We have been truly spoilt these last few weeks and, all in all, a great warm up to get us ready for the City to be playing with the big boys in a few weeks time.
May the best team win!
Happy 2018/19 season to you Paul and every blogger on here.
Now I am biased and I look at the teams who have tried the tippy tippy football which wolves and Fulham were applauded in the championship and see how quickly these teams have been dispatched.
Now I may be completely wrong here but the teams that are progressing towards the final use the quick break, one which I saw a number of times with Cardiff last season and listening to the purist commentators saying how good the teams were I cast my mind back to what was said about Cardiff . Yes we were the devil incarnate of football but how I notice the resemblance with the type of football being presented in the quarter finals.
So it’s going to be interesting whether the tippy tippy Manchester City, Fulham and wolves are really going to set this league alight. I am sure that Manchester City won’t win the premier and I doubt whether wolves and Fulham will survive the rigours of the premiership when most teams will either be better in footballing skills than those two and that a number of the top six teams will have sussed Man City out this next season.
Where will we be ?
I predict in the top half of the table, so let’s see
I can wait this time it’s certainly feels a lot different than last time and the blue and grey shirts look great , much better than red.
And finally that man tan has completely turned my thought process around. To learn the hard way and produce what is a magnificent feeling throughout the club with a superb back room director and CEO plus our great manager can only be put down to excellent p r management and superb business management
He has won this battle the right way and I am once again proud to be a Cardiff city supporter once more.
Thanks Paul, for – as usual – getting us all thinking.
You have got me thinking about this Clive Tyldesley fellow. Why do you reckon is he so appalling? Isn’t this the bloke who has won Commentator of the Year more times than even Kenneth Wolstenholme?
He has always struck me as rather astute. Take his description of Karius’s worst howler in the Champions League final? Didn’t he say something like this, when that nothing-shot from Bale escaped his grasp…
“His reputation would do well to survive this moment…”
How brilliant is that?!
I submit that it is an outstanding comment. Not for Tyldesley, the far more obvious “my mam could have saved that…”…and yet somehow (don’t ask me how, ‘cos I cannot say how)…Tyldesley putting it into this dry diplomatese, somehow emphasises the gravity of the error, not diminishes it.
And in that same game, I seem to recall him describing what most of us saw as a dirty, cynical – and yet in its way BRILLIANT – piece of skullduggery by Sergio Ramos on Mo Salah, as “there was a coming together that only Ramos can fully explain”.
Wow…!! How good and cleverly understated is that? I admire it. As I did his comment on Ramos, when he was handed the trophy…”not everybody’s idea of a model professional…” – then a beautifully judged pause, and then the killer….”…maybe nobody’s”…
Though, having said those words in his defence, I should add that I did not like reading once in an Indie profile of CH, that he avoided using words like “esoteric”, as he did not want the TV viewer to have to consult his or her dictionary.
Eh? Don’t sell your audience short, dear Clive. They are brighter than you think.
Not all of them are though. Andy Jacobs of Talksport is one particular duffer.
He is fond of sneering at thickos who – as he sees them – are guilty of a waste of ink, writing predictable letters to the tabloid press, making what he sees as ultra-obvious points. He is happy to denounce these poor sods by name.
Well now get a taste of your own medicine, Andy Jacobs…while I denounce …YOU.
Recently he had a go at Tyldesley for his pronunciation of the French term “coup de grace”. “Koo de GRASS, indeed…” Jacobs sneered, implying that Tyldesley should be a cultured man like him, and learn French…and then he would say “Koo de Grah” like the herd.
But it is JACOBS who is the fool here…and the herd – who follow blindly – who are wrong.
CH was quite correct in his “GRASS” pronunciation, and it is the others who were/are in error.
Anyway…time for breakfast.
Here apropos of nowt, is my 4-4-2 World Cup team to date…written before tonight’s England v Croatia game…excuse any spelling errors…
I would be interested to know if there is a World Cup 2018 team using none of these players, that could be fairly sure of beating it. I doubt it.
Schmeichel (Denmark);
Trippier (England), Varane (France), Granqvist (Sweden), Marcelo (Brazil);
Di Maria (Argentina), Modri? (Croatia), Pogba (France), Hazard (Belgium);
Mbappé (France), Ronaldo (Portugal).
In closing…
Thanks to Barry for being noble enough to join me in raising a glass to Sir Vincent. What a man…!!
(Vincent, I mean…though you are not so bad either, Barry, come to think of it.)
Best of luck to England tonight, though John Stones (who gives me the heebie jeebies) and Raheed Sterling, would both lose out were I selecting the team, to Gary Cahill and Marcus Rashford.
Watch the Man City duo both play blinders, now I have said that…!!
A piffling further point from me…
I really must resist putting accents on words.
Why? Well because the MAYA blog software somehow often converts an acute accent into a question mark, as it has just done with the “c” of the name of Luka Modric.
Apols.
I was so sure I had got my prediction of a France v England Final right because their opponents would get more and more tired as the game went on, but, bravely and quite gloriously, Croatia proved me wrong. I’m not sure if it was more a case of them, somehow, discovering energy from somewhere, or more likely I suppose, England running out of steam as they paid for what was more of a consistent pressing policy than seen from many others in a tournament played for the most part in physically demanding conditions, but, by the end, it was clear that the better side had made it to the Final. It’s a tremendous achievement for a country with a population not much bigger than Wales and a timely shot in the arm for those of us who believe that being proactive by retaining possession of the ball is preferable to not wanting to have possession of it as you wait for your opponents to make a mistake – if every team played in that way, this World Cup would not have been the unexpected and welcome success it’s turned out as.
Colin, I think your misgivings about Ashley Young were proved correct to some extent last night and Huw also got it right in my mind regarding Modric, but I’d also say that the domination in the middle of the park that he, Rakitic et al eventually enjoyed had a lot to do with England’s policy (which I expected to change for the Semi Final) of only going into matches with one specialist central midfielder in Henderson. Southgate isn’t exactly spoiled for choice in this area mind, but, in a tournament where he got far more right than wrong, Dier for Henderson was a substitution which only weakened England’s central midfield at a time when it was crying out for strengthening.
Barry, I’m playing Devil’s Advocate a little here, but I do genuinely believe that there is an awful lot of faith being put in Neil Warnock pulling a stack of managerial rabbits out of his hat in a manner which we’ve not seen from him before in the Premier League when it comes to next season. I have a lot of faith in our manager, but, according to him, our budget is just over half of what Huddersfield’s is this season, I think we can stay up, but top half? I seriously, serioiusly doubt it.
Dai, I’m not making any claims here as to my brilliance, but, within seconds of Real Madrid’s third goal going in, I was thinking to myself that it had turned into a career defining night for Karius – I would have thought it was something that came to mind for millions watching the match all over the world. I daresay the style of presentation and job demands of those who provide us with commentary on and analysis of what we are watching has changed down the years – I’m a product of my time and so I want to be told things I don’t know and things which make me question my own judgments, but the transformation of commentators, and quite often analysts, into cheerleaders these days is not one I welcome.
I mentioned Welsh examples of this cheerleading in my piece that occurred two years ago at the Euros and I tried to avoid these if I could by watching the ITV national coverage, but it’s often been impossible to avoid this time around with the likes of Tyldesley and Guy Mowbray addressing the country as if the 14 million out of the 67 million UK citizens who are not English as if they wanted a win by England as much as they did – I’m sure there were many who did, but there was also a significant number for whom such talk grated. I watched the game with the mute button on last night and, as a result, was a lot fairer and open minded about England than I would have been if I had been listening to Tyldesley trying to be my mate!
Thanks Paul,
Just a few final thoughts from me on the World Cup.
Yes Croatia were easily the better team in the second half and most of extra time. Surprised though that their equaliser did not go to VAR since the boot was at least “around about” waist height, and could easily have connected with Walker’s head…which admittedly bordered on being low.
All this stuff I hear on the radio about England being “fatigued”, falls on deaf ears with me. Croatia had pretty much the same 14/15 players on the pitch throughout the tournament and they ended up having the hearts of lions and the energy of the Severn bore.
I have never rated Southgate …oh he is a nice guy, I do not doubt. But he has no tactical nous. He proved that with Middlesbrough.
Back last Autumn, such was his admiration for Guardiola, and seeing how his system was succeeding at the Etihad, that he decided to change his England to play like Man City reserves. Indeed, for a short while, he even started dressing in the same “cool street cred” way of his hero…until being ridiculed as “Pep Southgate” made him abandon the “Barca Chic” look…and take refuge in its very antithesis…the M&S waistcoat,
The trouble is that he did not have the players to play the Man City way. Yes he persevered with the Etihad’s weakest link…a greyhound called Sterling. But he had no playmaker…well strike that…he actually DID, but he chose not to select the two obvious guys who can see a pass …Wilshere and Shelvey. Yes both have character flaws and are prone to injury, but are to me far preferable to Henderson and Alli.
And you make a point about possession, and how somehow the fact that Croatia had more possession, vindicates your view that possession football should usually end in triumph. I wish it were that clear cut. But it ain’t Paul…honest.
Did you note the difference in possession? When England had it, they invariably passed square or back to the keeper. Not so Croatia. Their midfield genius duo, always look up and play it forward. And their defenders. None of this Stones square to Maguire and forward ten yards to Henderson, who passes it back to Walker, who passes it square to Stones…
…and then the whole yawn inducing nonsense is repeated.
I did not mind that our long balls forward into space for our greyhound to chase, came to nothing. Oh sure he sometimes caught up with them, but the poor fellow does not know what to do with his feet…let alone the…ball…
Oh Paul, it occurs to me that I did not say in my previous posting, that I wanted Modric to be my captain …but I did and just forgot to write it in. He is a leader of men who can, in addition, run a game. Pep Southgate by contrast gave his captaincy to Harry Kane…who couldn’t run a ladder in a girl’s stocking last night…or the last game come to that.
I was right to have reservations about John Stones. Elegant footballer that he is, he lacks concentration…and Croatia’s winner saw him sleeping.
England ended up beating one good team – Colombia – and one team who Wales or Scotland could beat given a fair wind…Sweden.
And for this, they are being classed as heroes…!!
Ten hours and six shots on target. And the thought that Harry Kane might still win the Golden Boot…!!
Alas, I would give him a tinselled slipper.
In retrospect, I think we should thank heavens England lost last night. I had wanted them to win, but now I see that the freakishly easy draw that opened up for England, could have resukted in this cove Southgate WINNING the whole thing…and then we would never have heard the end of it. And it would have been ARISE, SIR GARETH.
What a joke that would have been.
Interesting to think, btw, that Southgate is less than two years younger at this stage of his life than Alf Ramsey was, when “we”won the Jules Rimet trophy in 1966.
He seemed like an old man, to still not quite 19 year old me. Must have been the bald head.
Finally Paul, I leave you with this note I have just sent Talksport…
‘…
Dear Talksport,
Please tell Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist that Roberto Martinez does not pronounce his name their bizarre Scottish way.
He is SPANISH, after all.
The clue in how to pronounce Spanish names is simple…look for the accent. And that is where the stress goes.
The syllable to get the stress here is the second syllable.*
So it is not their Scottish “MAR-tin-ez”, but rather a good Iberian “Mar-TEE-nez”…!!
Come on boys, it should not be beyond you.
After all, when you go into a bar, you do not ask for a …
“MAR-tee-nee”, do you?
… ‘
*I have not shown it here, because there is no guarantee that it will come out accented on the MAYA blog software. It might be converted into a question mark, as “Modric” was in my previous.
I watched the England v Belgium “bronze medal” game yesterday on ITV with growing disbelief.
No…not a disbelief in the England players, per se. It is a given that their good guy manager, is – a bit like Cookie with Wales – very good on team bonding and team spirit – but pretty clueless when it comes to tactics.
No, the disbelief was with the ITV commentary team of Sam Matterface and Glenn Hoddle. What a pair of chumps.
Suddenly, I understood Paul why you watch games with the ITV commentary muted.*
These two buffoons spent 90 minutes telling us how wonderful this Belgian side were and adding how if they had encountered Croatia in the semi in the other half of the draw, they would be in today’s final.
Yet not a single word on how Wales knocked them out of the quarter final in Euro 2016, just two years ago, having also comprehensively demolished this World Cup’s quarter finalist Russia.
Sometimes such one-eyed English parochialism, makes me want to forget we are fellow Brits with these red shirted colour stealers…
Oh am I glad that this vastly overrated English team are not coming home to tickertape parades…even though I had wanted them to do well. But the hype proved too much for me.
*though I still submit that Clive Tyldesley is their star turn…
With the ladies final at Wimbledon and England v India in the cricket also taking place yesterday afternoon Dai, I only flicked in and out of the football for five minute periods here and there with the result that I had the commentary on when I was looking at ITV. I must have watched about half an hour or so of the match and for much of that time, Messrs Matterface and Hoddle were carrying out an inquest into England’s World Cup which I think ended up with the verdict that we aren’t quite as good as we thought we were (I may be wrong mind because I wasn’t listening to it that intently).
I keep on telling myself that I can remember how great it felt when Wales were shocking everyone two years ago, so the English should be allowed their joy at what they have done. Also, I think the rest of the UK got their reaction right when it came to our exploits in 2016 with lots of generous praise and what seemed like a genuine joy from those non Welsh men and women working in the media when they were commentating on or analysing our games.
However, there was still a separation, which went both ways, when it came to us – I’ve no problem with that (in fact I think it’s how things should be), but, ever since England kicked a ball in this tournament, there has been an assumption from the likes of Tyldesley, Mowbray, Matterface and others that the whole of the Uk were, and should be, supporting England.
Two years ago, you only had to go on any English football club messageboard to get evidence that not everyone in England were enjoying us doing so well and, from a different angle, it was good to see that the BBC had their own answer to ITV’s Champion/McCoist pairing as Steve Wilson and Danny Murphy went through the France v Belgium Semi Final with barely a mention of England’s last four game the following day (it was only being televised on ITV mind!). So, it seems there are those in the English/British media who, maybe, realise that not everyone in the UK enjoys constant references to England during a game in which they aren’t playing – I’m pleased with that because it represents progress from what I thought the situation was this time a fortnight ago.