An oldie like me usually looks at the importance given to tactics with some disdain. After all, back in "the old days" footie was just footie wasn't it? You learnt your own part of the game as a defender or midfielder or forward and then somehow slotted in with the other specialists to form a team. To win or not win depended on (1) the skill in individuals (2) understanding between the players and (3) the desire and effort to win.
That was all that was needed really but now we've inculcated the belief that it's much more serious than that and we have to look at it more scientifically. Once-upon-a-time the older players coached the younger ones during the actual course of the game, but now coaching is a big-time profession.
So I'm thinking I must be a dinosaur not to agree with and follow that line of thinking, and, hey, I never came near to being a professional footballer anyway, so what do I know.
Then, in the Daily Mail of Saturday October 21, Graeme Souness told us that he believes that the old approach towards games was the best. "There is little that is new", he says, "just a lot of spoofing and bluffing". He thinks tactics are over-used. Well, well, well; is there room for the non-expert after all, I wondered! And I have a lot of time for Souness: for me he was a fine player; he could be brilliant in his play and tough, too, if the occasion demanded it.
Graeme elaborated on his thinking. "There's one thing I don't get", he said. "I don't know how Jose Mourinho gets that message across to his players. You know the one I mean. At the final against Ajax at Anfield last week. 'We're not good enough to take them on in a game of football. So we're going to go long and stay behind the ball'". Graeme continued. "I don't know how you say that to players - because when I played at Liverpool, it was the opposite. We were made to feel unbeatable."
He had more to say: a lot more. Particularly about interpretation of the stats that pundits love so much. "A couple of years back we had figures on who had completed the highest rate of passes of any Premier League player. It turned out to be Per Mertesacker. Five yards this way, five yards that way. So what?"
Graeme also referred to the hero-worship of the blade-runners; those players that cover every inch of grass and are hailed for it. Graeme said: "I got injured with Liverpool once. I was returning from a bad back. Joe Fagan said to me: 'Today, son, obviously your fitness won't be where it should be. Try just standing still occasionally.' I don't think I ever got so many touches. How did he know that? Years and years of experience."
He said of Ronnie Moran: "He always left the feeling there was room for improvement, that every game was vital, that you showed no mercy, but stayed humble when you won. He was ruthless, but he had a way of making you strive to be better."
Interesting, isn't it, that since the old guard departed from Anfield that the club has never won the championship. And when I saw Liverpool play back then I always wondered about the look they had about them, a sort of "we've won this game" look before they'd hardly started. It didn't always work, of course, with that thrashing by Villa of 5-1 in 1976 as proof. But it was Liverpool that won the title that year, not Villa.
There were some lovely anecdotes in that article of Graeme's; click here to read it.
So, in reality, is football really what I always thought it was? More to do with love for the game, common sense and character than anything else. Perhaps it would be except someone invented the idea of money.
He summed up the main part of his article with this statement: "There are so many myths of what is important these days. We've got to go back to the strengths of being British. Instead, we look at Spain, we look at Germany. We're like the Chinese. We're trying to make copies of Louis Vuitton handbags."
Yep, it was the Villa that invented modern football and led the world. Wasn't it?
P.S. - A 'Call For Help'. Sorry to state this, but apart from my love of Villa history, one of the reasons for writing my book 'The Villa Way - 1874-1944' was because my wife and I are in a rather bad situation, financially. Our central heating doesn't work as the gas supply has been condemned (electric heaters are hugely expensive to run), and my wife cannot get back to work because of long-term health problems. And she needs a certain level of care. In any case, I have found it difficult to get work that pays enough having not been employed for several years. I'm 73 years young.
Frankly, I need to sell my latest book in some numbers to help make ends meet.
I know you will enjoy my book. One happy purchaser (David) has written: "I must say you have completely upset my schedule today as once I started glancing through I couldn't put it down! You clearly have invested a lot of time and effort in this book and it is worth every penny."
In addition, 'Mick' has informed me that the book is "beautifully written".
Please click here for the bookshop.
And you will also find that the blind Villa fan John Flanner MBE has his highly enjoyable book, "Beautiful Game, Beautiful Memories", available at the same bookshop. John's wife is bed-ridden so you might understand that he also (as a blind person) is finding it difficult to cope, though in his case his children are at hand.
I am sure you will find both books a great Christmas stocking filler and well worth the investment!
Thank you for reading this.
That was all that was needed really but now we've inculcated the belief that it's much more serious than that and we have to look at it more scientifically. Once-upon-a-time the older players coached the younger ones during the actual course of the game, but now coaching is a big-time profession.
So I'm thinking I must be a dinosaur not to agree with and follow that line of thinking, and, hey, I never came near to being a professional footballer anyway, so what do I know.
Then, in the Daily Mail of Saturday October 21, Graeme Souness told us that he believes that the old approach towards games was the best. "There is little that is new", he says, "just a lot of spoofing and bluffing". He thinks tactics are over-used. Well, well, well; is there room for the non-expert after all, I wondered! And I have a lot of time for Souness: for me he was a fine player; he could be brilliant in his play and tough, too, if the occasion demanded it.
Graeme elaborated on his thinking. "There's one thing I don't get", he said. "I don't know how Jose Mourinho gets that message across to his players. You know the one I mean. At the final against Ajax at Anfield last week. 'We're not good enough to take them on in a game of football. So we're going to go long and stay behind the ball'". Graeme continued. "I don't know how you say that to players - because when I played at Liverpool, it was the opposite. We were made to feel unbeatable."
He had more to say: a lot more. Particularly about interpretation of the stats that pundits love so much. "A couple of years back we had figures on who had completed the highest rate of passes of any Premier League player. It turned out to be Per Mertesacker. Five yards this way, five yards that way. So what?"
Graeme also referred to the hero-worship of the blade-runners; those players that cover every inch of grass and are hailed for it. Graeme said: "I got injured with Liverpool once. I was returning from a bad back. Joe Fagan said to me: 'Today, son, obviously your fitness won't be where it should be. Try just standing still occasionally.' I don't think I ever got so many touches. How did he know that? Years and years of experience."
He said of Ronnie Moran: "He always left the feeling there was room for improvement, that every game was vital, that you showed no mercy, but stayed humble when you won. He was ruthless, but he had a way of making you strive to be better."
Interesting, isn't it, that since the old guard departed from Anfield that the club has never won the championship. And when I saw Liverpool play back then I always wondered about the look they had about them, a sort of "we've won this game" look before they'd hardly started. It didn't always work, of course, with that thrashing by Villa of 5-1 in 1976 as proof. But it was Liverpool that won the title that year, not Villa.
There were some lovely anecdotes in that article of Graeme's; click here to read it.
So, in reality, is football really what I always thought it was? More to do with love for the game, common sense and character than anything else. Perhaps it would be except someone invented the idea of money.
He summed up the main part of his article with this statement: "There are so many myths of what is important these days. We've got to go back to the strengths of being British. Instead, we look at Spain, we look at Germany. We're like the Chinese. We're trying to make copies of Louis Vuitton handbags."
Yep, it was the Villa that invented modern football and led the world. Wasn't it?
---------------------------------
P.S. - A 'Call For Help'. Sorry to state this, but apart from my love of Villa history, one of the reasons for writing my book 'The Villa Way - 1874-1944' was because my wife and I are in a rather bad situation, financially. Our central heating doesn't work as the gas supply has been condemned (electric heaters are hugely expensive to run), and my wife cannot get back to work because of long-term health problems. And she needs a certain level of care. In any case, I have found it difficult to get work that pays enough having not been employed for several years. I'm 73 years young.
Frankly, I need to sell my latest book in some numbers to help make ends meet.
I know you will enjoy my book. One happy purchaser (David) has written: "I must say you have completely upset my schedule today as once I started glancing through I couldn't put it down! You clearly have invested a lot of time and effort in this book and it is worth every penny."
In addition, 'Mick' has informed me that the book is "beautifully written".
Please click here for the bookshop.
And you will also find that the blind Villa fan John Flanner MBE has his highly enjoyable book, "Beautiful Game, Beautiful Memories", available at the same bookshop. John's wife is bed-ridden so you might understand that he also (as a blind person) is finding it difficult to cope, though in his case his children are at hand.
I am sure you will find both books a great Christmas stocking filler and well worth the investment!
Thank you for reading this.
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