NOV 21 — Alan Hansen: former Liverpool defender and captain, now television pundit. Mark Hughes: former Manchester United striker, now Manchester City manager.
The pair clashed on many occasions on the pitch as Hughes’ emergence in the United front-line coincided with the tail-end of Hansen’s glittering career; now they’re at loggerheads again.
The root of the argument was Hansen’s comments on the BBC’s flagship highlights programme, “Match of the Day”, after the last set of Premier League fixtures a fortnight ago.
Reviewing Hughes’ side’s 3-3 draw with Burnley, Hansen laid into City’s defending – in particular left-back Wayne Bridge. “Down the left side with (Joleon) Lescott and Bridge, you just couldn’t believe what was going on,” he lamented.
“When you talk about organisation and communication, playing off one another and as a team, the marks out of ten are minus six. They were that bad. From top class players I just couldn’t believe it. It was schoolboy defending. For the third goal, my God, what is going on there?
“I just feel sorry for Wayne Bridge. He was just that bad. You tend to be critical but on this occasion I just felt sorry for him.”
Hughes, as you would expect, did not take the criticism lying down. “Pundits on ‘Match of the Day’ or whatever just have an opportunity to nail individuals in the public domain,” he snarled. “I am sure that their process involves looking at incidents in games, but not taking it as a whole.
“That is the role in life that they have decided to follow and that is the way it has to be. But there is a frustration when they don’t go into particularly in-depth analysis. I would question how many games they actually watch live, from the start to the conclusion of games.”
Take that, Mr Hansen!
So now, as Premier League action returns this weekend following the international break, who should be the visitors to Anfield, the scene of so many of Hansen’s triumphs? Why, it’s none other than Manchester City – Mark Hughes, Wayne Bridge et al! Quite a game is in prospect.
In truth, the spat between Hansen and Hughes is only a minor side issue to an already compelling occasion. Since their phenomenal summer spending spree, City have repeatedly stated that their ambition for the season is to finish in the top four (as their midfielder Nigel De Jong reiterated in my recent interview with him on these pages). And the club that City have set firmly in their sights to replace in those coveted Champions League qualifying places... none other than Liverpool.
Even at this early stage of the season, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal seem to have the top three tied up. It’s simply very hard to see anyone else – Liverpool, City, Spurs, Villa – being able to do more than compete for fourth place, so this weekend’s fixture at Anfield carries plenty of significance.
Both teams have indifferent form coming into the game: City have drawn each of their last five Premier League games, including disappointing ties against lesser clubs Wigan, Fulham, Birmingham and Fulham – not the form of a Champions League team.
Recent results have of course been even worse at Liverpool, who have just that magnificent victory over Manchester United and a controversially earned draw with Birmingham (in the days when David N’Gog’s dive topped the cheating charts before being usurped by fellow Frenchman Thierry Henry) to show for their efforts since the end of September.
Rafa Benitez will have welcomed the international break as a chance to take stock and give some of his injured stars a chance to recover, and now his team needs a victory. So do City. This one should be well worth watching.
The early kick-off at Anfield is without doubt this weekend’s most eye-catching fixture, with today’s later games seeing Chelsea and Manchester United both presented with very winnable home ties against Wolves and Everton respectively.
It will be interesting to see if Arsenal can continue the scintillating form that took them into the international break, especially without the injured Robin Van Persie. They face a tough test against a rapidly improving Sunderland side, and something tells me the Gunners might stumble.
Finally, if you need to take a Sunday evening away from the TV screen, this could well be the best possible weekend to do it: has there ever been as unappetising a Sunday line-up as Bolton v Blackburn, Spurs v Wigan and Stoke v Portsmouth?!
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
Saturday (11pm unless stated)
Liverpool v Manchester City, 8.45pm
Birmingham City v Fulham
Burnley v Aston Villa
Chelsea v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Hull City v West Ham United
Sunderland v Arsenal
Manchester United v Everton, 1.30am Sunday
Sunday
Bolton Wanderers v Blackburn Rovers, 9.30pm
Tottenham Hotspur v Wigan Athletic, 11pm
Stoke City v Portsmouth, midnight Monday
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Uhh, well, Mr Hughes, since in the UK, they don't allow the screening of the usual 3pm kickoffs, there are really only four to five games a weekend one can realistically watch. That's half of the games. Meaning to say, pundits will likely miss half of all action going on.
But that's beside the point. Football is a sport where goals are what matter. Players like Andy Cole or Michael Owen show their worth in the 10 seconds or less prior to a goalscoring chance - did they get into the right positions and did they finish well. Players like Lescott or Bridge show their ineptitude in exactly the same amount of time.
While watching whole games are great for tactical analysis and all that, highlight reels should not simply be relegated to fodder for the TV fan, but they are also key pointers for where players could have done better or did not do enough at crucial moments of the game.
By Sparky's own logic, it means that Thierry Henry and David Ngog and whoever else who benefited from "sleight of hand" tactics on the pitch should not be put down for mere "incidents." Nor should referees for just a few moments of madness.
I hope then, to never see Hughes complain about "incidences" in a game.