Southampton: Celebrate Dusan Tadic's goal at Old Trafford
Mark Holmes highlights some strange reporting of the Manchester United and Arsenal games - and a bizarre Alan Pardew claim - in our new column.
When I first began my Monday Moan column in 2011 the intention was to be the voice of match-going football supporters. I complained about ticket prices, fading traditions, diving, cheating, the gradual loss of the tackle, the media's failure to properly cover clubs outside of the top six...issues that I genuinely cared about and that I believed other fans did also.
Unfortunately, there are only so many times you can write about the same things, and over time, because of the name of the column, I felt compelled to find someone or some team to criticise every Monday, whether I felt passionately about it or not. Liverpool fans in particular will know this!
It was boring me and was no doubt boring plenty of you also so, with a new year upon us, the time has come to call an end to the Monday Moan's run.
Taking its place will be the Monday Review. It may not be a weekly thing, but the intention is to challenge the mainstream media, to point out the ill-researched claims, the lazy stereotyping of teams, the incessant desire to find a narrative and stick to it.
You can still expect plenty of moaning but it won't be forced; if there is nothing to moan about, there will be no moans. There may even be the occasional bit of positivity!
Hopefully it will make for a better column.
Mark
Van Gaal no better than Moyes?
It quickly emerged after Manchester United's defeat to Southampton on Sunday that the Red Devils have exactly the same amount of points after 21 games of this season as they did after 21 games under David Moyes last term.
It was a fact the media could not wait to point out to Van Gaal after the game.
"So you have waited until this moment when you can put this question," Van Gaal said, in response to reporters. "All the weeks, you have waited to put this question, the moment I have the same points as David Moyes, that I haven't made better."
He has a point. After all, United were about to take four points from a possible 15 at this stage last season, but you can bet that will not be pointed out to Van Gaal as his new-look team begins to make clear in points the improvement from the Moyes era.
It was, as Van Gaal suggested, a one-off opportunity for the media to draw a comparison and, despite Sunday's setback coming on the back of an 11-game unbeaten run, they did not pass up that opportunity.
It was a pretty irrelevant statistic in any case, much like those that point out a team has picked up so many points in a calendar year or over their last 38 games. The only points total that matters is a jot is the one at the end of a season, and it would take a brave man to predict Van Gaal's United will not fare a damn site better than Moyes' in that respect.
Still, that did not stop The Telegraph's Mark Ogden drawing comparisons between the two eras in his response to the Southampton defeat.
It was 'a return to the darkest days of the David Moyes regime,' read the rather exaggerated headline. That United have the same points after 21 games as they did last season 'should be a worrying fact' for Van Gaal, Ogden claims, wilfully ignoring the fact that, unlike his predecessor, the Dutchman remains well on track to lead the team to a top-four finish.
Including Champions League games, United actually managed a 12-game unbeaten run through October and November under Moyes, but that was one of only three occasions all season that the team went more than two games without suffering a defeat. There were never any signs that a long upward curve was on the horizon.
It must be pointed out that United often looked less than convincing through their recent unbeaten run under Van Gaal and, of course, that the Dutchman has benefitted from a big transfer splurge over the summer, but equally it must be pointed out that he has suffered rotten luck on the injury front, particularly in defence, and that the points tally at this stage has been hampered by an entirely understandable slow start as players got used to a new manager, new tactics and new team-mates.
Van Gaal tactics called into question
While drawing comparisons between Van Gaal and Moyes is rather silly, there are certainly questions that need to be asking of the current incumbent's tactics and team selection, as Jamie Jackson did in The Guardian's 10 talking points from the weekend.
The game against Southampton was the first all season that Van Gaal had the five stars of Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Juan Mata, Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao fit and available and, admittedly with the benefit of hindsight, the decision to play Di Maria as one of the two strikers, with Rooney in midfield and Falcao not even in the squad, was a mistake.
Many United fans were also left scratching their heads as to why, with such a myriad of attacking options at his disposal, Van Gaal once again named a three-man central defence, with Daley Blind to the left and Chris Smalling, despite his obvious deficiencies in possession, through the middle.
"You know that they have difficulties to build up with three centre-backs," Saints boss Ronald Koeman pointed out after the game. That Van Gaal was unable to resolve that problem with a full squad and various tactical set-ups available to him must go down as a big black mark against his name.
Lack of Saints praise surprising
While criticism of Van Gaal's tactics is justified, the media's response to the result in general has been hugely respectful to Southampton, whose manager Koeman said he was "not surprised" by the win.
It was, after all a battle between third and fourth in the table, and a re-run of a game which Saints dominated but undeservedly lost, even by Van Gaal's admission, at St Mary's last month. This was not David against Goliath; Koeman's side are genuine Champions League contenders, something that seems to have been overlooked in the narrative that suggests their win was a huge shock and warrants serious questions of the United manager.
Although individuals come in for praise, Jose Fonte and Morgan Schneiderlin in this case, analysis of Southampton's tactics is rather harder to come by than criticism of United's.
The clean sheet they claimed at Old Trafford, managed without Fraser Forster needing to make a single save, was their 10th of the season in the Premier League. They boast the league's meanest defence, with only 15 goals conceded, yet there is a complete dearth of analysis of what they are doing right.
Instead they are patronised, praised only with the caveat that 'they'll fall away' but 'it's been a great season regardless'. Even Van Gaal got in on the act after the game, making the common, ridiculous, claim of a beaten manager that the visitors had 'come for the draw'.
Saints' defensive record would suggest Koeman does indeed put plenty of focus on not conceding - something Van Gaal would do well to consider himself - but to suggest any manager would devise a game plan that did not involve trying to win is stupid, let alone the manager of a team in the top four.
Koeman is certainly not short of ambition, and only injuries will prevent Saints from remaining in European contention until the very end. It was injuries, not them being 'found out' that cost them during a five-game winless run, but their first-choice XI is currently a match for anyone other than Chelsea or Manchester City's.
Just don't tell the press.
Stoke stereotyping lazy and boring
A game between Arsenal and Stoke City can push even the finest journalists into lazy stereotyping.
Mark Hughes said in the build-up that it was "lazy" to suggest Stoke 'bullied' Arsenal in their 3-2 win at the Britannia in December, but it seems the transformation in style he has overseen since replacing Tony Pulis at the helm has gone unnoticed by many.
Miguel Delaney in The Independent on Sunday, for example, was among the many before the game to run with Wenger's comment, in response to a reporter's question, of course, that Arsenal had not done any extra training on set-pieces before the game against Stoke.
Delaney labelled it 'a surprising admission', obviously completely unaware of the fact that set-pieces have actually been a great weakness rather than a great strength of Stoke's under Hughes.
The Potters have scored from only three set pieces all season - only Leicester and Swansea have scored less - but have conceded a league-high 13 from such situations.
Only West Ham, meanwhile, have scored more headed goals than Arsenal in the Premier League, but such facts do not fit the carved-in-stone media narrative of this game.
Delaney even described Stoke's defence before the game as 'almost the last bastion of a vintage British back-line', despite the fact that the diminutive Spaniard Marc Muniesa had recently emerged as first-choice centre-half alongside Ryan Shawcross in a back five also containing a Bosnian, Dutchman and American.
As is turns out, as is always the case in this bizarre match-up between two sides that simply do not turn up on each other's turf, Arsenal won at a canter, winning the physical battle - they even won more aerial duels - as well as the technical one.
That has not stopped the media from peddling the same, tired, old clichés, however.
'Arsenal were interrupted, at times, by Stoke's agricultural approach and their willingness to look for a fight at every opportunity', wrote The Daily Mail's Neil Ashton, who suggested 'some scores were settled' as Mathieu Debuchy was left with a dislocated shoulder after a shove from Marko Arnautovic that even Arsene Wenger did not take umbrage with.
He failed to mention the hand Olivier Giroud pushed towards Ryan Shawcross' face that, if spotted would have led to another red card and would certainly warranted a mention if it had have happened in reverse, but it is important not to forget the narrative at any point.
The Telegraph, meanwhile, jokingly suggested Stoke's approach resembled that of an NFL team, also joking that their philosophy would not be copied by Europe's top clubs...LOL!
Such witty analysis is not offered about the countless other Premier League teams that are easily beaten at The Emirates, but the fact that Stoke no longer present the league's most unique physical or aerial challenge is entirely irrelevant.
They may have to add at least four or five former Barcelona stars to their XI before the media accept this is no longer a clash, at least in north London, that deserves no extra attention than Arsenal v Aston Villa, West Brom, Crystal Palace or any other mid-ranking team.
You can even write about the game without mentioning Aaron Ramsey...oh, oops.
Pardew perception remarkable
While Stoke struggle to change opinions of them after more than a season and a half without Pulis, the Welshman's stock has never been higher, thanks largely to two exciting wingers that helped his particular brand of football work wonders at Crystal Palace last season.
It might also be suggested that working for a London club does not do you any harm when bidding to keep the national newspaper columnists on side.
Being a Londoner seems to help, too, as Alan Pardew's reputation in the capital is quite remarkable given how he and his football is perceived in the north east.
He was regularly criticised by Newcastle fans for his direct approach whilst in charge at St James' Park and, though most neutral observers would attest he did a good job there overall, few on Tyneside were sorry to see him leave his post.
Pardew, too, must be delighted to have the support of a club's fanbase again and, according the Daily Mail's Sami Mokbel, have the opportunity to implement his 'passing style' at Selhurst Park.
'Players were often satisfied just to clear their lines under Warnock,' Mokbel writes. 'If Saturday is anything to go by, those days are gone.'
'Keeping possession seems to be a key objective', Mokbel adds in a remarkably incorrect assessment of a manager's playing style, but one which is regularly peddled by the press that surely cannot have been paying attention to Newcastle over the last five years.
Like him or loathe him, Pardew is a good manager, but he is seemingly an even better self-publicist.
via TEAMtalk | Manchester Utd http://ift.tt/14P2R5n
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