Players Walk Off the Pitch After Racist Insult From 4th Official

Author: Fran Attié

Tuesday, December 8th 2020 — Paris. As PSG and Istanbul Basaksehir faced off in the final match of Group H of the Champions League, the game was, more than anything, seen as a formality; PSG needing but a draw to qualify, while Istanbul looked to go home with their heads held high.

Not even 15 minutes in however, the match took on different proportions. After an argument between Basaksehir’s coaching staff and the 4th official concerning a possible infraction went awry, players and staff joined in protest over alleged racial insults from the official, Sebastien Coltescu, aimed at assistant coach Pierre Webó.

Amidst the commotion, the referee sought first to show Webó a red card for his complaints, instead of looking more carefully into the matter at hand. Immediately, Demba Ba, forward for Basaksehir, stepped in, objecting to the referee’s decision and uniting players from both teams to take a stand against the racist injury.

As the game was shown on the “Esporte Interativo” network in Brazil, the announcers refused to continue narrating had the match resumed. But eventually, the players, together, decided to walk off the pitch. It was commendable, historic. Hopefully, it may provoke change, or at least a forthright discussion, in a sport that too long has overlooked racism, labelling it as a fringe problem, instead of the systemic issue that it really is.

As of now, UEFA’s only pronouncement was to invite the teams to resume the match with a different 4th official…

SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE

Is Pep Guardiola the Most Overrated Coach in the World?

Author: Joshua Finkelstein

Editor: Fran Attié

Despite spending 832 million pounds in Pep Guardiola’s reign with the club and having a net deficit of 567 million pounds, Manchester City are in 13th place after 8 games. Yes, 13th. As Yashish brought up in the previous podcast after City lost to Tottenham, Pep’s team has finished in the bottom half of the PL at the end of a match week for 5 consecutive weeks. In his whole career before this season, Pep only saw that happen to him twice. Manchester City are already 8 points behind first placed Tottenham, with a game in hand, and only 9 match weeks have been played. So how is it possible that the most expensive and highest quality squad ever assembled in the Premier League, and maybe even in Europe, currently has a record of a mid table team (3 wins, 3 draws, and 2 losses), finished 18 points behind Liverpool last season, and has never won the UCL. If Pep is one of the best managers in the world, then how is Manchester City underperforming this much?

Before I get into it, I know people reading this are thinking, “how are Manchester City underperforming? They won the league for 2 straight years, getting a combined 198 points!” Well, yes. What Manchester City did in those 2 years was incredible, and they also won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup a couple of times. That being said, we need some background on their achievements under Pep. City had a strong football heritage before Guardiola took charge, as Jose Mourinho once said in his 12 minute analysis on his club’s (Manchester United’s) struggles in achieving the fans’ expectations during the 2017/2018 season. In that analysis, Mourinho describes Manchester City’s football heritage before Pep perfectly. He says, “In the last 7 years, the worst position of Manchester City in the Premier League was 4th.

In the last 7 years, Manchester City was the champion twice… And they were 2nd twice. That’s heritage. Do you know what’s also heritage? Is that Otamendi, Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Silva, Sterling, Agüero, they are investments from the past. Not from the last 2 years. From the past.” When Pep came to Manchester City, he already had squads built from Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini, with experienced Premier League title winners and star players, such as De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Sterling, David Silva, and Agüero, who have been the best players for Manchester City under Pep despite how much money was spent. Coupled with the high quality, experienced squad that Pep already had and the amount of money the club spent in his first two seasons, it should come as no surprise that Manchester City blew over the league with 100 points and then 98 in the following season.

So let’s start with Pep Guardiola’s first season at Manchester City and see how they performed. In the summer of 16/17 season, City spent 193 million pounds and finished 3rd with 78 points. In that season, they finished behind Spurs by 8 points, even though they hardly spent any money. In many of the games, Manchester City were destroyed, like their 4-0 loss against Everton and their 4-2 loss against Leicester. In the Champions League, after making the UCL semi finals in the previous season under Pellegrini, City lost on away goals against Monaco in the last 16. After such a successful UCL campaign in the previous season, City were expected to take it a level up with Pep in charge, but they finished worse off instead. In the cup competitions, the Citizens disappointed as well. They got knocked out in the 4th round in the Carabao Cup, a competition that Manchester City won in the previous season under Pellegrini, and the semifinals of the FA Cup. Despite spending a lot of money and supposedly having a much better coach, Manchester City were knocked out of the UCL earlier than in their previous campaign and were trophy-less in the 2016/2017 PL season.

In the summer of the 2017/2018 season, City rebuilt their back 4 by spending 126 million pounds and signing Benjamin Mendy for 51 million, Kyle Walker for 48 million, and Danilo for 27 million pounds. In addition, Aymeric Laporte signed in January for 59 million pounds, and City also signed Ederson for 36 million, Bernardo Silva for 45 million, and Douglas Luiz for 11 million pounds. These signings really transformed Manchester City into an unstoppable force. They achieved a historic season by winning the PL with the highest point tally in history—100 points. In addition, the Citizens won the Carabao Cup. However, they will be disappointed about their UCL performance. City got knocked out by losing 5-1 on aggregate against Liverpool, who were the only difficult opponent they faced in the competition that season, in the UCL quarter finals. Manchester City were once again disappointing in the FA Cup; they were eliminated in the 5th round against Wigan Athletic, who were in League 1 at the time. Despite those failures, especially in the UCL, Pep Guardiola had a very successful and historic season after splashing the cash on defenders.

After such an impressive season, Manchester City did not revolutionize the team in the 2018/2019 season, but they did make a key addition to the squad: City bought Riyad Mahrez for 61 million pounds. In a very competitive title challenge against an amazing Liverpool team, who had a positive net spend since Klopp was hired in 2015, while City had a negative net spend of 385 million pounds since Pep was hired in 2016, Manchester City won the league by 1 point and earned 98 in total, which is a phenomenal points tally. City also won the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup. However, in the competition that Manchester City are desperate to win, they lost in the UCL Quarter Finals against Spurs, on away goals.

In the 2019/2020 season, Manchester City spent 150 million pounds to improve their already insane squad. City signed Rodri for 63 million pounds, João Cancelo for 58 million pounds, Angeliño for 10 million pounds, and Pedro Porro for 11 million pounds. Despite all the money that was spent, Manchester City had a really poor season for their standards, which showed that despite all the money, they were not able to replace their departing captain Vincent Kompany. In the PL, City finished 18 points behind Liverpool, and got knocked out in the UCL quarter finals again. This time they lost to Lyon 3-1. City also lost in the FA Cup semi finals against Arsenal, who won the competition. However, they won the Carabao Cup once again. For such an amazing squad, they really underperformed in most of the competitions they played in. In that season, Manchester City lost every away match against the teams in the top 7 of the PL, except for Leicester, who City beat 1-0. They lost to Liverpool 3-1, to Manchester United 2-0, to Chelsea 2-1, to Tottenham 2-0, and lost 3-2 to Wolves. These results are really disappointing for a squad as incredible as Manchester City’s.

Before the current 2020/2021 PL season, Manchester City splashed another 134 million pounds on signings like Ferrán Torres for 20 million pounds, Nathan Aké for 40 million pounds, Rúben Dias for 65 million pounds, and Pablo Moreno for 9 million pounds. Despite splashing this much money, Manchester City currently have a record of a mid table team. Despite all the money they have spent, they have not dominated the PL like they aimed to when Pep Guardiola became in charge of the club. This season, it looks like City will not be even close to being in the title race for a second consecutive season. Perhaps, City may not even finish 2nd, as teams like Tottenham and Chelsea are performing really well. A superb squad like City’s should be winning if not challenging for the title every season. In three of the five years of Pep being in charge, they have not been close to challenging for a title. With that being said, City could start gaining form after their defeat against Tottenham and get back into the title race. However, after their first 8 matches, they have already lost a lot of ground on Liverpool and the other sides. Even Manchester United are ahead of Manchester City!

This season, Manchester City do not seem to have the sharpness and conviction in front of goal that they normally have. We could see the results of that in their matches. While Manchester City have the highest average possession in the league (62.3%), and second highest shots per game (15.6), they have been struggling to convert their possession and shots into scoring opportunities and goals. Manchester City’s shots on target per match is the 5th highest in the league (5.4). Out of these shots, Manchester City created only 12 big chances, which is the 9th highest in the league, and scored only 1.3 goals per match, which is the 13th highest in the league. Having the 9th highest big chances in the league and the 13th highest amount of goals scored per match are dreadful statistics, especially for such a superb side like Manchester City. Obviously, something is wrong in the dressing room. As mentioned in the previous podcast, Manchester City do not seem to have the confidence to express themselves. Rather than taking chances, they just focus on ball possession and play safe. This struggle highlights how Pep has underperformed for City.

In the past few years, Manchester City have not had the best recruitment. Big signings like John Stones, Benjamin Mendy, and Danilo have all flopped, and Aké could be following soon. Those four players cost a combined 168 million pounds. In addition, players like Nolito, Douglas Luiz, and Angeliño also flopped for the Citizens, which adds another 37 million pounds. Notably, City signed Claudio Bravo for 15.4 million pounds and he absolutely flopped. He made terrible mistakes game after game that led to goals. City were forced to sign Ederson for 35 million pounds after the disastrous signing of Bravo. Overall, City wasted 220.4 million pounds on flop players, which is a lot of money. The fact that they were able to replace signings like Stones and Bravo with better players illustrates the amount of money they have to spend and the luxury Pep Guardiola has, which many managers unfortunately do not.

Furthermore, Guardiola has not made the most out of the players he has in his squad. With arguably the best and most talented squad in Europe, Manchester City have not performed to their potential, especially this season. They should be destroying the league and should certainly be winning at least one UCL in Pep’s reign. However, they have not been anywhere near meeting those high expectations for the past two seasons. Currently, City look like a group of eleven world class individuals rather than a world class team. When good teams set up the right way against Pep, they find success against them. For the past two years, we have seen Lampard, Mourinho, Nuno, Ole, and Arteta outsmart Guardiola by being organized in the back and having efficient counterattacks. This season, more teams are finding success against them. Out of their three wins, Manchester City were only convincing against Wolves. Their other two wins were unconvincing 1-0 wins against Arsenal and Sheffield United. It is clear that Pep has not been able to get his players to perform at their best for the past two seasons.

In addition, Pep has not been able to produce or sign leaders. Since Kompany’s departure, Manchester City have lacked a leader that could lead the squad through difficult times. Coupled with David Silva’s departure this summer, City definitely have no leaders in the squad. They may have been in a better position in that department if Pep was willing to keep players like Joe Hart and Yaya Touré. Instead, Pep prioritized having players able to play his tiki-taka style. Manchester City spent money on talent and did not focus on buying leaders. In difficult moments like this, the squad lacks a leader to motivate the players.

Furthermore, Guardiola tends to overthink his tactics for the big games. For example, in this past season’s UCL quarter final against Lyon, Manchester City decided to play 3 at the back rather than play their normal 4-3-3 formation in order to nullify Lyon’s strengths. The formation change caused City to not play through their strengths and they lost that game. Pep also overthought matches against Liverpool at Anfield in the UCL and Premier League, and against Barcelona in the UCL semi finals when he was at Bayern.

Finally, Guardiola has never built a club before. In his career, he has managed established teams, such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City with owners who are more than willing to splash 100-200 million pounds per season on players. He cannot be compared to managers like Jürgen Klopp, Carlo Ancelotti, José Mourinho, Marcelo Bielsa, and Rafa Benitez, or even managers like Eddie Howe and Chris Wilder who outperform the expectations with limited funding by having great tactics and great player-management skills.

While Pep Guardiola should be applauded for his many successes in his career, such as winning the treble with an incredibly talented Barcelona side, earning two consecutive league titles for Manchester City with incredible point tallies, winning a quadruple for City in the 2018/2019 PL season, and winning three consecutive Bundesliga titles at Bayern Munich, Pep should not be rated as one of the best managers in world football. In Bayern, he was unable to win the UCL with a team that won the UCL before he took charge. In Manchester City, Pep has been unable to dominate the Premier League as he hoped to, especially in the past two seasons, and has not been able to win the UCL yet. Now, with City giving Pep a new two year deal, it will be interesting to see how he manages the team in these difficult times, and if he can prove the doubters wrong. However, at the moment, I think there is no debate that Guardiola is one of the most overrated managers in world football. He is definitely not one of the best managers in the world.

SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE

Maradona, The Best In His Time

Author: Fran Attié

Last year, around this same time, I watched an HBO documentary that had just come out about the man who has just passed away. I went out with a friend afterwards who had lived in Argentina, I told her about the doc, about this man’s life, and as a good Brazilian, I threw in some digs at the Argentine. Eventually, the conversation ended up where so many had before, with her defending Messi while I fervently criticized. A year later, as I look back after this 25th of November, letting the conversation so easily drift elsewhere, was a mistake. Though we couldn’t have known it then, we still reduced one of the great soccer myths into categorical, subtractive parameters; we dealt with men in absolutes, and Maradona was never absolutely anything.

He was, first and foremost, exceptional, one of a kind, the best in his time; he was a leader, a captain of Argentina and Napoli, the heartbeat of a nation; he was vocal, political, a friend of Fidel Castro and a “chavista;” he had a hot temper, a brilliant mind and a was a terrible manager; he partied hard and was addicted to drugs; he was the first Barcelona player ever applauded by Real Madrid fans, and probably the first to ever head-butt, elbow and knee three different players in the head in the same match; he was a world cup champion, who abused his body and his brain off the pitch, and still showed political guile in a time soccer players were mostly expected to look and do good on the pitch; he was an inspiring talent and a bad role model, transcendent and mercurial, a genius, an artist, everything and nothing and all; Maradona was, through and through, a man.

Now, I never saw him play. Mine is a different generation. I grew up on the goals of Ronaldo “Fenômeno,” on Kaká’s cross field dashes, Pirlo’s switches of play, Beckham’s underwear and Zlatan’s taekwondo kicks; Cristiano and Messi. What I experienced growing up of Maradona was a legend, one that lingered more ghostly than stately. It certainly features there my nationality: Brazil and Argentina flaunt one of the great rivalries of modernity—our success on the back of their defeat was always that much sweeter; the opposite, the same—and in midst of taunting and debating, sometimes we forget to appreciate the past. I did, at least. When I looked back into soccer’s history, the landmark was ever (and solely) Pelé, and it couldn’t be, for me, that another player had achieved to such great extents as his, otherwise his legacy might have been threatened. That is the mind of a child. It speaks in absolutes, and nuance comes with age.

Older, I took a bend more tolerant, I studied the game with less bias, and I came to accept sporting legends as statements of their time. Pelé and Maradona are comparable in the extremes, but their genius was expressed in the nuances. Really what we can say, is that the Brazilian’s game, was not the Argentine’s, and much to the same effect, today’s soccer is fundamentally different from the past’s.

As ever, there is beauty today, there is wonder, and the ethereal nature of soccer lives on. But this is also a time when artistry has begun to give way to efficiency, where human error is replaced by the mechanical, and the milimetric faults are scrutinized most intensely. Though the game has turned much more industrious, athletically exceptional, it has also gotten faster, more physical, and has made it harder for controversy to reign magical. And don’t be fooled, there has always been magic in the controversial, Maradona’s in particular, thrived in that field.

On June 22nd, 1986, Argentina played England in the quarter finals of the World Cup. Besides the usual hype and pressure of that sort of match, on the political front, the game was a replay of the Falklands/Malvinas’ war of 1982. It was a battle for superiority and revanche, contentious by default, a match that, in its nuances, probably couldn’t happen today.

Argentina came out victorious then, as Maradona scored the winning goals, two of the most famous of all time: “la mano de Dios,” and “the goal of the century.” They represent the unconventional nature of the Argentine, his genius and his polemic; they are affirmations of a romantic game, and of a resolutely original man.

The first, “the hand of God,” might be the most talked about sporting moment in history. When Maradona scored with his hand, he went beyond the game, literally and metaphorically. Much has been written about that goal, and in retrospect, it became too a signal of political revolt, the coup de grâce in an armed conflict fought four years earlier. That an athlete’s legacy could hold such an exorbitant honor, further goes to show how expansive Maradona really was.

The second goal on the other hand, was the ultimate statement of the Argentine’s talent. It was a 10 second play that so perfectly exemplifies the magic of soccer, the kind of moment every kid will dream of creating, it was poetry in motion:

Maradona picks up the ball behind the midfield line on the right side of the pitch; he spins in place, his back to goal, switches the dominant foot—right to left—he turns, escapes the press, pushes forward, two Brits ciao, ciao; he prances, he glides, still on the right hand side, left foot leads, cuts inside, defender’s left behind, he toggles ahead, outside again as he enters the box, bristling, domineering, a defender tails, goalkeeper charges, pounces, off-tempo, defender slides, blights, left foot to ball… coaxed into goal.

Last year, speaking with my friend, my biggest criticism of the documentary was its rendition of this goal. The action was rushed, poorly edited, filled with spliced-in alternate angles; it took the protagonist as a hero, sole and independent, and projected the moment solely on him, when soccer happens most beautifully on the wider lens. In trying to build up tension, the filmmakers took a narrow approach to the goal, and more severely, to Maradona’s craft as a whole.

The critique I am leveling here, takes the documentary simply as a symbolic starting point, of course. The point really, is to remember that, at the end of the day, we are most kind, most fair when we read people as manifold characters, and not as absolutes. Marcelo Bielsa said this week that “Maradona was an artist. The dimension of the repercussion of his art has infinite forms of recognition.” So, as we celebrate his greatness, let us not forget the nuances, as we are, after all, dealing with art.

SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE