Despite being busy with a new baby, Sachin was moved enough by what happened to Eduardo to take a few moments to share some thoughts…
Maybe everything that should been said has been said already. All the officials, players and fans are expected to carry on. They are saying that what happened to Eduardo is part of the game, accidents happen, players mistime tackles. Nothing to see here. Move on.
So 24 hours after the incident why does it still feel sickening? Why does it feel that something sinister happened but everyone wants to get on with it? Why does it seem so wrong? Oh, ‘they’ will say I am an Arsenal fan and this is what I do — I complain when other teams touch our players yet ignore the times that Arsenal players go in with some bad tackles of their own. But the difference I want to point is that most of the Arsenal players under Wenger are technically competent and will not resort to making silly tackles as part of their everyday game. Yes, everyone knows the exceptions and even most Arsenal fans do not appreciate the un-skillful players in their own team. But it does not matter what I say. It happened to an Arsenal player. That is that. Not an English player. And a player that might have aided in England being out of Euro 2008. So it is understandable that everyone wants to move on. But I can’t yet.
When I first heard about the tackle, I immediately thought of words mentioned in a book that I finished reading a few days ago. The Italian Job is an insightful book by Gianluca Vialli which examines the differences in Italian and English footballing cultures and the different management styles that exist (the book includes some worthy interviews with Wenger). I thought of the sections about how the fans view the players behavior differently in England vs Italy. Vialli mentions how in England fans applaud a player attempting to run after a lost ball (meaning lost cause) and consider that attribute as part of a player’s commitment. The player is giving it his all, he cares for the game. Whereas, in Italy fans might consider that player as wasting his energy. Those words stayed with me and I thought of how some players in England might play with a false sense of commitment.
I can imagine the following words in the Birmingham dressing room before the game. Alex McLeish probably told his players to “give it their all”, to “get stuck in”, etc. Now, each player will interpret those instructions as per their ability. I don’t know much about Martin Taylor but I know he is not a player in the mould of Paolo Maldini, a player who can win the ball by not making sinister tackles. Maldini does not need to because his understanding of the game is genius. Whereas from the tackle that Taylor made in that area of the field and just two minutes into a game, I can easily infer he falls under an inept mould of a player. I looked at the smirk on his face after the tackle and that indicated to me that he had no consequences for his actions. His first thoughts were “that will teach ya” or “you are not getting past me” or he even thought that he had just shown the commitment his manager talked about, that sense of “getting stuck-in”, not backing away from a tackle.
Easier to destruct than to create
Unfortunately, the league is full of players like Taylor. Players who sense of tackling is off, players who are not technically competent. So who gets punished? The player or the system that believes it is manly to take an opponent down, a system that encourages players that there is no shame in being physical to stop an opponent?
Question: How do you stop a skilful player?
In 1966, Portugal and Hungry answered this question by kicking the hell out of Pele. The players did not hide their vicious fouls and openly went after the Brazilian superstar.
Well, for the last few years plenty of teams have also answered this question by going after Arsenal in a physical manner (Manchester, Bolton, Blackburn come to mind). What’s worse is that nothing is seen wrong in that. The excessive fouls are just put down to “physical part of the game”. Yup, the physical part of the game that has always existed, exists and will always exist. Players have to be men enough to take the kicks, get up and carry on. And if a player complains about getting kicked too much? Well he is not a man! He is considered weak. A perception that existed in the English game long before the 1990′s was that foreign players were considered too weak to withstand the physical part of the game. Vialli makes a reference to this as well in his book. Ofcourse, the reverse is also true when quite a few English players could not make it in the Italian league because they did not possess the technical skills required to avoid defenders who would breathe on an attacker’s neck constantly. But those narrow views have changed slightly in the last decade when an influx of foreigners came into the English league and the overall style of play has changed to some extent. Yet one can still find commentators refer to some players as having a “silky touch” yet not being physical enough. Which is the truth but does it matter? In the English league it does.
Where are all the high Quality opponents?
In the early 1990′s, Silvio Berlusconi first talked about having an European League where teams such as Milan could play Real Madrid, Barcelona, etc week in week out. His ideas were about a break-away league, where Milan would not bother playing average league teams. The current Champions league is a compromise of his original ideas. In an ideal footballing world, one would love to see Arsenal play teams such as Madrid, Lyon, Barcelona every week. Teams with 11 players who are all technically competent, where the focus of the game is more on winning skillfully as opposed to taking the opponent down by whatever means. But that is only a dream. With the exception of a few teams, almost all the top European leagues feature teams who can’t put together a few passes in succession. Top teams such as Arsenal, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, etc have to play league teams week in, week out where they have to win ugly, where the kicks come flying in, where the tackles are mistimed.
One can only truly appreciate beauty amid ugliness, one can only appreciate joy amid sadness. So maybe one can only understand beautiful football by watching the ugly side of the game. The Premier League wants to play games abroad but do they understand that a majority of people around the world only support a few teams? Arsenal are one of the most appreciated sides around the World because of their current playing style not because they possessed a player who was married to a pop star. In fact, had Wenger not arrived and changed the way Arsenal played, the overall exportability of the league would not be as high as it is now. Shouldn’t there be an emphasis to raise the overall technically quality of the league and encourage better football as opposed to “getting stuck-in” brand of grinding results out? Not really, unless fans start staying away but that ain’t happening.
What now?:
Like others, I also thought of Robert Pires’ injury in 2002. In the F.A Cup replay, he jumped to avoid a tackle and hurt himself on his landing. When I had first seen the incident, I wondered what is he had stayed on his feet? Would the impact of the tackle be worse than his injury? How would Arsenal cope with his loss? Thankfully, Arsenal bravely went onto do a double in his absence and the players bowed down to him during the trophy presentation at Highbury. Now, I do wish that Arsenal go onto win the league and the Champions League trophy this season. To quote Wenger from that double winning season, every game should be like a “Cup final”. Arsenal need to do this to extract some justice from yesterday’s incidents. Anything less will feel hollow.
Final thought….
Football’s Secret Society:
There is a secret footballing society that exists in England. The members trace their lineage back to the old days when the game first caught on in England. Currently, the members meet once a month just on the skirts of Stonehenge when the sun goes down. Some of the current Premier League managers sit on the member’s board. Most of the conversations revolve about the current nature of the game and how the game has gone ‘soft’. The members long for the old days of the game when players never shied away from a tackle, when players were willing to shed blood for their team. The meetings always end when all the members quietly look at Argentina’s goal against Serbia from the 2006 World Cup where Argentina strung together 24 passes to put the ball into the net. The members are always horrified to look at this goal and vow that their English Premier League will never become like this. Never will one team manage more than a few passes before a player gets taken out. They want to preserve a strong league where players can take it like a man.
The only thorn in this member’s sight is Arsenal, the only team that defies this society’s beliefs. Eduardo was a victim of this society’s puppet pulls on Feb 23. Hleb and Cesc are constantly on the agenda as well. But the more Arsenal win in the face of such ugliness, the more the society’s beliefs will be challenged, until one day this society will be crushed. I can only hope!
