Appealing decisions post-match

Unsurprisingly, there are some appeals taking place following the Chelsea v Aston Villa match yesterday in which, depending on who you talk to, there was a penalty given that wasn't (on Ballack), a free-kick given that wasn't (which Ballack scored from), and a second penalty given that wasn't (Cole's "handball"). Here's an idea...why don't we resolve some or all of these decisions at the time rather than wasting time afterwards. If, for example, the ball is found to have hit Cole in the chest, he may not be banned, but Chelsea don't get the extra 2 points back.

At what point is the appeals panel going to suggest that they could view the appeals at the time ensuring that decisions are correct and saving all this unecessary and unfair retrospective guff.

Allardyce plays dangerous game

I can't help feeling that you're playing a dangerous game if you walk into a new job and start telling the team that they aren't good enough as Sam Allardyce has done. He has 27 senior players to choose from, barring injury, so is he really saying that he can't find a match squad that he's happy with? Admittedly his preference, I'm sure, is to have bought the whole squad himself so that they are his own choices, but no manager is ever in that situation unless he first buys himself time with the current crop of players, like Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have done. By leaving Bolton he forfeited that, but it was his choice to go to a bigger club and, presumably, make more money.

I'm sure he came in with a brief to strengthen the squad, but he is under pressure and he's lashing out at the players, many of whom will have a say in his future - hardly the most sensible of moves. He needs to quietly manage those players he doesn't want out of the club, while bringing in some he does, but publicly slating them means that he won't get much out of them before they leave, and it doesn't exactly enhance their value in the transfer market.

English advantageous but not mandatory

I can only imagine that the job description for England manager doesn't ask for English to be mandatory as Capello's English is limited at best. How's he meant to motivate his players when he can't speak to them in their own language? Half-time team talks are going to be farcical!

He has a great record for sure, and he could still be very successful, but not being fluent in English, or even competent in English, is going to make his job very much harder. Good luck to him.

Was Sven that bad?

Now that Steve McClaren has gone, the time has come to reflect on some glorious ineptitude. Yes, I am referring to the players, but the manager has also made some clangers too. Back when we had Sven in charge, I thought he took some unfair stick, and when McClaren took over it seemed like a step backwards. A few highlights of Steve McClaren's reign:

1) Dropping David Beckham. Desperate to make his mark, Beckham went from England captain to not in the squad at all. A case of listening to the press, or just poor understanding of the fact that goals tend to come from quality passes? Either way, a catastrophic mistake.

2) Playing Scott Parker in a competitive England match. Let's remember, at this point Beckham still wasn't considered good enough for a place in the squad, so how does Parker get in?

3) Playing Joey Barton. OK, it was only a friendly, but there can be no excuse.

4) Managing to push Jamie Carragher into retirement - a quite amazing achievement, and McClaren was made to pay after injuries to Terry and Ferdinand.

5) Not sorting out his goalkeeping position, culminating in the picking of Scott Carson for last night's vital match. How is Robert Green not even in the latest squads?

So going back to the Sven theme, how does McClaren compare? Well he's worse, far worse. In fact, in terms of losing percentage, he's got the worst record of England managers at 29%. Sven was equal second best in terms of avoiding losses, along with Alf Ramsey, losing 15% of matches. Only Terry Venables record is better in terms of loss percentage.

And Sven's win percentage? 60% - the equal 2nd best win percentage with Ron Greenwood. Top of the list are Alf Ramsey and Glenn Hoddle - believe it or not - on 61%. This compares to McClaren's 50%.

So Steve McClaren may be a nice guy, but unfortunately he's not the man for the job, as proven by his selections and, consequently, his results. I'd love to see Jose Mourinho take the job but I'm not sure how it would go - he thrives on close relationships with his players so how would he cope with only seeing the players occassionally? Unless another top quality alternative emerges, and there are none from the UK, it could just be worth a shot....unless we ask Sven back? :-)

Unlucky Scotland

There is just no way that the "foul" that led to the second Italy goal was a foul against the Italian. 'Nuff said.

Move over Abramovich

This is incredible - a football community website taking over a football club. It will be interesting to see how they go. Each of the 20,000 MyFootballClub members have paid £35 to take over Ebbsfleet United, and they will now vote on player selections and transfers!

Goalkeepers who foul

Not sure if I will be in a minority of one, (it won't be the first or last time) but I thought Owen had a definite penalty turned down against Reading. I don't support either team and have no reason to be biased in any way, but it's not the first time that I've wondered why goal-keepers get away with obvious fouls.

Anywhere else on the pitch, if the player knocks the ball past their opponent and gets taken out in their attempt to chase the ball, it's a foul - no questions asked. In the box, suddenly it's apparently important whether the attacker would have got to the ball before it went out - why? If you are fouled, you are fouled, irrelevant of how far away the ball is. And the keeper's momentum is seen as an excuse - well they shouldn't charge out as quickly as they do then should they? - that is their own risk to take. Owen's looked like a definite penalty to me.

Titus Bramble

Newcastle fans, despite their defensive woes, will no doubt be happy that Titus Bramble finally left the club. The only susprise is where he ended up - Wigan. No Premier League team in their right mind would want to steady up their defense with the inconsistent Bramble. The poor guy needs to be put out of his misery in the Championship at best, if not the 1st or 2nd Division.

Bruce - a whinger?

Steve Bruce seems worried about Gary Lineker's criticism of him as a whinger - there seems little defence for him though! He's argued against decisions that are clearly right, as demonstrated by TV replays, one too many times. It's one thing to be emotional, quite another to ignore the facts.

Yesterday, Bruce got the win he needed though, with Carson Yeung watching, and waiting to meet the manager afterwards. At the end of the game Mr Yeung stretched out his hand to shake co-owner David Sullivan by the hand, only for Mr Sullivan to walk away without even turning to look at him...troubled times ahead perhaps. Bruce though, did himself a few favours with both a win, and some sensible post-match comments.

Team for Russia

A fairly good performance from England today, although not exactly earth shattering. Now it's all about the Russia game. Given Ashley Cole's injury, it's a little tricky to work out who will start on Wednesday, but I'm going for:

Robinson
Richards
Terry
Ferdinand
Shorey
Gerrard
Barry
Wright-Phillips
Cole
Rooney
Owen

I hope McClaren doesn't try and change the formation....fair enough if he prefers someone else at left-back to Shorey, but I hope he keeps the general structure the same. That means leaving Lampard on the bench to start with.

Could this be the start of the end for the actors?

Am I alone in wondering if this could be a turning point for football? Dida has received a 2 match ban for feigning injury against Celtic. It's a pity it's not more, but it at least sets a precedent for players being banned for feigning injury. Could it be that this is the start of a clamp down on the rediculous play acting in football?

Although UEFA did well to ban Dida at all (I didn't expect them to, despite calling for them to), they could have also fined the club for the fact that the physio's went along with the charade. Imagine the effect that could have - players would go go down only for physio's to come on and pull them to their feet telling them not to be so rediculous....everyone's a winner, especially refs who wouldn't have to worry about so much play acting in time.

Fingers crossed this is the beginning of the end.

Great Acting!

Just had to post this because of the absurdity of the dive! Dida deserves to be banned for a dozen games for such idiocy. He must be totally ashamed having seen the replay - it was closer to a tickle than a punch!

The Women's World Cup

You may not even know that it is going on, but England's women went out in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in China. They lost 3-0 to the Americans who were favourites for the tournament but have been comfortably beaten by Brazil in the semi-finals 4-0.

What has been interesting to me is the complete lack of coverage there has been. The BBC took the courageous decision to televise England matches live, and it's a pity that England didn't get to the semi's or final when there may have been a bit of a ground swell of support. I say "may have been" because it doesn't seem that anyone cares. Having watched the first 50 minutes of England's quarter-final I went to the pub expecting to watch the rest on the TV there. As I entered there was the reassuring noise of football supporters so I knew the football was on. Once I'd got a pint I turned round to realise that the game on the TV wasn't England v USA in a crucial World Cup quarter final, but Cardiff City v Preston North End! It amazes me that could possibly be deemed more important!

Not to worry, I thought, women's football is massive in America and they'll all be watching it. Apparently not. I met a football fan mate of mine who lives in America that evening and asked him if it was big the other side of the pond, to get the reply "what World Cup?" and then when I explained, "I don't think anyone knows it is going on mate". So it was also interesting to see the video on the right-hand side of the Brazil-USA match report called "the under-reported women's world cup".

Once again I am clearly in a minority, but why isn't women's football supported or thought to be important?

Unlucky Mourinho?

Some readers may know that I get really frustrated with the scoring for football. You know the sort of thing....the team you are supporting hits the post and bar 6 times in all, has 2 blatant penalties disallowed, but the other team gets a harsh free kick award outside your area with a minute to go. The ball is going to be easily saved by your keeper, but it ricochets off the head of a defender in the wall, and you lose 1-0. Clearly the better team hasn't won.

So it's interesting to look at Chelsea's last 3 games that have, to a lesser or greater extent, influenced Mourinho's departure. Yes, they had a complete shocker in going down to Villa 2-0, but they "won" against Blackburn, only for a wrong decision to rule out Salomon Kalou's goal. And then they had, according to Mourinho's much publicised post match quote "20 chances" against Rosenborg, but only scored once, although they hit the woodwork twice. Mourinho then left Chelsea.

I can't help but think a different scoring system which gives a more accurate reflection of which was the better team would have meant 2 wins out of 3 for Chelsea. But equally there were games last season when Chelsea scraped through by the skin of their teeth where they didn't really deserve to, so it works both ways. But I'd still like to see the team that has clearly dominated a game winning more often, and ideally in my book, every time.

Mourinho

There are a lot of untruths in the media, but it appears that the split between Abramovich and Mourinho was one that was reported accurately. The immediate replacement of Mourinho with Avram Grant shows that this has been a work-in-progress from Abramovich, even if they have claimed that Mourinho left by mutual consent. Interestingly, Pat Nevin has said "Avram Grant is going to be as welcome as Camilla at Diana's memorial"!

I work with a number of young women who are all very upset that Mourinho has gone. He was apparently "decent totty" and he "always had something interesting and funny to say" it seems. I have no comment on the first, but I do think that the Premier League will be weaker for the loss of Mourinho. It will be interesting to see where he ends up managing next, although from the size of his payoff, he certainly doesn't need to work again...

Sigh of relief

You may have noticed that I couldn't bring myself to post about England's performance against Israel for fear of tempting fate for last night's Russia game. But all seems to have gone well, and England got exactly the result they needed.

What do people think about Heskey? I said he was the man and I definitely think he's a good partner for Owen. It will be interesting to see if he is now ahead of Crouch in the pecking order for good.

Owen on form is a class act, and how Sven must be regretting that he didn't have him fit and firing at crucial times during his period as manager. Long may it continue.

But the best perfomance last night, which saw Wales win as well, was Scotland's 1-0 win against France to put them top of group B. If they can get through a group including France and Italy, they will show England a thing or two, given that England are still struggling to make it through a group in which only Croatia should have provided difficult contests.

England miss out on win v Japan

Yes, it is Russia tonight, but I guess you've heard enough about that. England's women played their first game in the World Cup last night - one in which Kelly Smith is expected to star in. She did her bit, scoring two goals, although she has the slightly strange habit of taking a boot off each time she scores - her second goal celebration involved both boots coming off. I couldn't help wondering what comes off if she scores a hatrick!

The game was one that England should have won. Both Japan goals came from controversial free kick awards just outside the area....controversial being charitable - neither were actually fouls. You can see the highlights here. The first of the free kicks ricocheted in, making me wonder again if goals like that should count full value. I still occassionally dream about what might have been in the 1990 World Cup if Andreas Bremer's freekick hadn't ricocheted off the wall high over Shilton and into the net (clearly we would have gone on to win it)!!

Now England's women have the mouth-watering task of taking on Germany who are fresh from scoring 11 in their last game....

Heskey is the man

I realise that this post is unlikely to make you nod in agreement but, if England do start with Heskey tomorrow, I'll be happy. To me it makes no sense to start with two players that are similar like Andy Johnson and Michael Owen. Heskey isn't everyone's cup of tea, but he'll hold the ball up well for Owen and the midfielders to thrive off, and he'll get a couple of free-kicks around the box.

Of course Heskey will now have a shocker and Johnson will come off the bench and score a hatrick! But I think Heskey should start.

An individual being targeted by refs

This story - Crouch is targeted by referees - really annoyed me. Is it acceptable for referees to be warned to look out for individual players? To me, it's clearly not acceptable. Refs need to be advised on how to implement the laws of the game, not told to watch for particular players.

Overseas imports

Once a season (or more) someone complains about the number of foreigners in English football. Not for the first time, Sir Trevor Brooking has made a few comments about his concern for the English game given the number of foreigners.

I've never been worried about the number of foreigners because I'm in the "if they are good enough, they will make it" camp. One of the things that I reckon holds back young sportsmen and women in this country is lack of competition....the 10 year-old star is only allowed to play in the under-12s for example, rather than having a real challenge and playing in the under-15s. Consequently, he/she doesn't keep improving at the same rate, and it makes it harder to break into professional sport.

Major League Soccer in America is an interesting parallel. As The Observer's article this weekend described, they are happy to break their wage structures to bring in the likes of Beckham and Angel because they realise there is only so far they can get without attracting foreign talent. Without that, they have a mediocre league where average (on a world stage) players compete in exciting games, but the interests of the American national team aren't best served, which is why several of the USA team play abroad.

So bring in the foreigners and let's improve English standards so that they all sit on the subs benches - that's what I say!

Kieron Dyer injury

The tackle that left Keiron Dyer with a broken leg doesn't look any worse than many every weekend in my view. What do you reckon?

My petty issues

I watch many football matches both live and on TV. Here are the three things that annoy me the most about watching professional football:

1 - Foul throws. These are never given by referees and linesmen and yet would be penalised every time in Sunday League football. Why can't professional footballers take throw-ins properly?

2 - Half-time and full-time whistle - Why do referees so often wait for a goal kick to be up in the air before they blow for half-time or full-time? This makes absolutely no sense. Their watches are still running when the ball is out of play or in the goalkeeper's hands, so why not blow the whistle then?

3 - Free-kicks - Basic trigonometry. Why do players so often knock the ball one yard to the right or left for someone else to strike it? This changes the angle slightly, but allows the defenders to be 5 yards closer when the ball is struck, thus being completely counter-productive.

I feel much better now. Thank you

Solskjaer retires

Sad news that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been forced to retire.

Is he up there with Gary Lineker as the most amiable of footballers? Logic would say that he should be a great man manager in the coaching staff, but time will tell - logic doesn't always seem to have much to do with it!

"Fullbackery"?

I think Adrain Chiles managed to invent a word on MOTD2 last night with "fullbackery". Apparently there was some high quality fullbackery, especially from Chimbonda for Spurs, during yesterday's 1-0 win for Manchester United.

In my view it was a penalty and it did hit Wes Brown's arm....

Top 4 prediction

It seems cowardly not to make a prediction for the end of the season in the Premier League.

Top 4 in order:

Liverpool
Manchester United
Chelsea
Arsenal

We'll see how far wide of the mark that is come May '08.

Money well spent?

When you're manager of a side that's likely to be struggling at the foot of the table, what's the best area to spend money in? That must have been the thought process of Roy Keane prior to this season, before he decided to spend big for the goal keeping talents of Craig Gordon. At the time, I have to admit I thought he could have used that money to strengthen the outfield players, but I've definitely changed that opinion. Barring a slump in form Gordon seems like an excellent purchase to me.

In the game against Liverpool yesterday he made a few great saves and wasn't far away from saving the shots that did go in either. If he converts a few losses to draws and draws into wins, the £9m price tag will seem small to Sunderland, given the huge value of staying in the Premier League.

Styles admits he got it wrong

It doesn't make Liverpool feel any better that Rob Styles has admitted he was wrong to award Chelsea their penalty on Sunday. The mistake has cost Liverpool two points - all we can do is hope that this doesn't change who comes top at the end of the season. The chances of wrong decisions not changing things are slim though, if you consider that we're only 2 or 3 games into the season and there has already been a goal not given that crossed the line and this penalty, not to mention several other controversial incidents.

King is pick at Watford

Somehow, this Times article isn't quite the same without the large image that accompanied the printed version today. The headline "King is pick at Watford" shows a large picture of King picking his nose!

Another goal isn't given

We're only 2 weeks into the new season and already a goal has been disallowed for apparently not crossing the line. Fulham were denied a perfectly good goal because technology wasn't used to determine if the ball had crossed the line. No blame to the linesman or referee - it was a tough call, but it's cost Fulham 2 points, so what happens if they are relegated by a slender margin? They will rightly be able to blame this, as well as many other things such as Warner's howler in goal to let in Middlesborough's 1st, for costing them many millions of pounds.

Steve Bruce seeing things?

I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Steve Bruce complaining about the penalty decision against Birmingham yesterday. Could there have ever been a more definite penalty? Attacker gets to ball first, nudges ball past keeper, keeper wipes out attacker. Come on Bruce, even the most one-eyed observer can't argue that wasn't a penalty....can they?

His argument seemed to be that the player had kicked the ball out of play, but that's an argument for why to have a go at your keeper for a rediculous challenge isn't it, rather than to get the rules wrong and suggest that this is grounds for not giving the foul? Anyway, thanks for giving us all a giggle Steve Bruce.