The biggest story to come to England in the last few weeks has been the return of the “Messiah” Kevin Keegan as manager of Newcastle United just weeks after the firing of Sam
Allardyce. Big Sam grew increasingly under fire at the Toon for what many supporters in the Northeast called a Neanderthaloid brand of football, especially after being compared to the
high-flying sides Keegan himself led 12 years ago, and he was unwilling or unable to change his approach. Although he employed dietitians, and psychologists, used scientific training methods
and ran a tight ship defensively, Sam was a squarish man, who preferred a squarish style, and couldn’t adapt to the culture of the club, or the expectations of the Toon Army.
What does this have to do with Serie A or La Liga? Well, if anyone followed the dour side that Fabio Capello ran out to the Santiago Bernabeu last year, no one was surprised that
he was fired despite his winning the Primera Liga title. His replacement, Berndt Schuster, whose plucky, serviceable Getafe side was amongst the defensive leaders in La Liga last year, was
inexplicably hired by the Meringues to deliver a more attractive, attacking philosophy. The press, the socios, and even club leadership are now more than a bit disappointed that rather than
Joga Bonito, the club are winning with that same plucky, defensive style Schuster used to good effect at Getafe. Imagine that.
At Valencia, Quique Sanchez-Flores also drew a great deal of criticism for his boring brand of football, and his successor Ronald Koeman continues his misguided legacy, but it’s
nothing new; there’s been an ongoing problem there at the Mestalla since before the time of Hector Cuper. In Italy, land of Catenaccio, there are still a few sides that play in the classic
style of Il Grande Inter coach Helenio Herrera. While his old club Inter do tend to grind out wins without excelling, city neighbors Milan have also
played tentatively, lacking offensive punch due primarily to injury and an uncharacteristic lack of quality in attack. Just look at the fate of one of the most successful managers in recent
history: Jose Mourinho. He was essentially fired, because he wouldn’t bend to the pressure of entertaining the masses. His Liverpool rival, Rafa Benitez, is coming under similar fire. Finally,
even with a “Golden Generation” of English talent, Steve McClaren was not able to qualify the English national team for Euro 2008 because he unable or unwilling to take the reigns off his squad
against the minnows of European Football.
There’s a disconnect here. The clubs and the supporters groups are calling for one brand of football, football as spectacle, and the managers are teaching another brand entirely.
They make excuses, that the modern game can’t be played openly anymore, that a team needs to be strong at the back and wait for an opponent’s mistake on the counter. They feel the pressure of
results, the economic realities of relegation, so they play not to lose, handicapping their chances before a fan has even sat down for the match. You can guess which side I fall on.
Whether it’s by choice, or by necessity, it is rarely in a club’s best interest to grind out a 1-0 victory. A slight lead in a match allows a slim hope of belief in the opponent,
the small mistakes get magnified, and all it takes is a faulty decision, under the duress and fatigue late in the game, to allow an opponent a late equalizer or worse yet a decisive goal. Worse
than his oft criticized rotational policy, it is in this manner that Benitez’s negative tendencies that have hurt Liverpool most. They play a match close in the first half and wait to attack on
the counter in the second, and have suffered disappointing results against inferior clubs, whereas a similar club with a similar talent pool like Arsenal, that play to their own strengths and
exploit weaknesses in their opponent, are within a hair’s breath of a much more talented Manchester United side at the top of the table.
Close your eyes and think about which sides play beautiful, attacking football. Roma play 6 midfielders essentially, but they are bombs away from essentially all parts of the
field. They are unpredictable, mercurial and when on their game, no side in Serie A can match the waves of offensive talent that they can throw at you. Barcelona, under Frank Ryjkaard, have
some of the best attacking talent in La Liga. They have unprecedented skill on the ball, the dribbling skills of Messi, the powerful shot of Eto’o, the silky smooth runs of Henry and no one is
more deadly on set pieces than Ronaldinho. In England, there is a reason why Arsenal and Manchester United have dominated the Premiership over its existence. It’s not just because they have
more money and buy the best talent. The primary reason is that they play with confidence that their skill players can play better than your skill players and they will punish you for it. Other
sides that play beautifully? Werder Bremen, Lyon, Sevilla, and Spurs are all taking the bait.
Do these clubs necessarily have more talent, and thus can afford to take more risks? Certainly if you’re comparing them to a recently promoted side like Derby, Almeria or Genoa,
but a club like Valencia with top door quality should not be playing a mixture of 4-3-3 and 4-5-1 with the wingers tracking back. Neither should Liverpool, or Real Madrid, or especially one of
the richest clubs in the world: Chelsea.
Is there a ground-shift happening as we speak? I hope so. With some managers playing two defensive midfielders and a man up front against non-league sides and drawing 0-0, I look
at the re-appointment of Kevin Keegan as Newcastle United manager as a return to what Ruud Gullit called “Sexy Football”. Frankly, it’s about time.
On Real Madrid 2.0: The Trickle down Theory