Commitment football - what nonsense!

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
19 Aug	3:00 PM	P	Blackburn Rovers (A)	1	1	Draw

I am not the first to note the complete misuse of the word "commitment" by commentators and managers alike. It is used to describe a player who is overly physical and usually outside the bounds of the laws of the game. That kind of aggression is embraced in British football but in my view it is a mistake.

In Italian and Spanish football and even in the more physical French and Brazilian leagues, players pull out of tackles when they believe it could either cause them injury or cause another player injury. It is not worth it for those players to win one ball to sit out for 5 months.

It is not worth it for them to win one ball and put a fellow professional out for 5 months. In my view, that is very sensible and a good example of sportsmanship. In England however, what is seen as sensible in Spain is seen as a weakness here. I know some people might point to Materazzi or the odd exception but for everyone one of those, there are scores of Vinnie Joneses in England.

Players here have traditionally got at each other or dominated each other using physical force. They crush their bones together and whoever limps off is the loser or considered the weaker. It is something in the British character itself and many British players took pride in how hard they were or who they hurt and loved the opportunity to teach those lanky skilful foreigners a lesson when they started arriving here. You can even notice in the small details. When players clash in Spain they offer a hand to the other player to lift him up. Here players rarely do that.

It is not that bad these days but a lot of that still goes on and it is not just against Arsenal. I watched Newcastle v Aston villa and I could not believe what referees and players allow to happen. It seems pointless to allow a professional of finesse to look sometimes like street fight.

In the first week of the Premiership, more than a dozen players ended up on the treatment table – some will be out for a week, some for three weeks and there is already a player out for five months. Many may say there was no contact between players on some incidents but when you go for a ball knowing that the opponent will stick his foot in, you concentrate on the tackle and not so much on how you land after that.

William Gallas jumped to evade a tackle that a player who had no chance of getting the ball had attempted and landed badly. Awkward falls leading to major tears and strains and broken toe bones are so common here compared to anywhere else. It hurts English teams in Europe with so many injuries and also because they forget sometimes that the referee is not from the Premiership and will not stand for bad tackles so they get sent off. In England, you are more likely to get sent off for swearing at the referee or for dissent than from trying to break someone's legs.

In addition this is precisely the reason that England cannot export players abroad. For all we say about the Premier League's superiority, it is amazing how few English players succeed abroad for a country of this size and history in football. It is because very skilful kids die out because they are not strong enough while the bruisers survive.

The football environment encourages the wrong skills and the education on technical skill suffers. England will never do well in modern international football unless this changes. Of course we will simply blame the influx of foreign players! Sven was asked why he didn't play the kind of football we see now at Manchester City with England, and he said it was because he didn't have a player like Elano. Almighty England could not produce players with enough competitive quality technical skills!

Wenger has moaned about this for the past couple of years a little louder than before because although this over-physical game is played against all teams, Arsenal are particularly vulnerable to it for a couple of reasons. First, Arsenal players have tended to come from outside the country and their initial instinct is to pull out of a tackle that might be dangerous.

Teams noticed that Arsenal love passing the ball and if they are jumping tackles all the time and being threatened, they lose fluidity. Lastly, Arsenal are a lot slower now than four years ago. With a lot more touches in midfield through Fabregas and co. there are more opportunities for physical tactics to disrupt Arsenal so they have become far more vulnerable.

At the beginning of the season, Arsenal decided to fight back. In the first half at Ewood Park, Blackburn dug into Arsenal and Arsenal stood their ground. In the second half, Blackburn actually did not kick Arsenal that much but by then, Arsenal's concentration on their opponent's physical side had shifted their mind from the football and Blackburn totally dominated. Arsenal also left the pitch with 4 yellow cards. I am beginning to think that our response should be less tit-for-tat.

The important thing is that Arsenal's rhythm should not be disrupted – i.e that we don't get pushed off the ball just when we are about to deliver a crucial pass. Vieira, Píres and Bergkamp did not really experience that because Arsenal were so quick in releasing the ball that tackles would almost always be late and draw a yellow or red card. Right now Arsenal are a lot slower and ping-pong balls in midfield so it only takes a nudge to disrupt the rhythm.

My view is, fighting teams like Blackburn with studs only leads to even more loss of rhythm and more yellow cards and concentration on the stuff that we are not good at. We are good at football. Let's just add some more power and urgency to the football and that may pay dividends rather than get stuck in their weird violent football that almost seems officially sanctioned.

One game at Old Trafford about 4 years ago, everyone noticed that Manchester United were trying to kick Arsenal off the pitch. Wenger didn't have to say it because it generally happened when a player was on the move – that's how the team played then. Now it happens when players are standing around with the ball looking for options. It's almost too easy for the opponent. Power players who move and a team that moves will beat violent teams any day. We need to be strong but that strength is more about purpose and movement rather than punches.

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BAD BOY GUNNER

Posted on 26 Aug, 2007 at 12:34 PM - Reply

I do think we need to fight fire with fire sometimes, like this season. I must say Wenger has tried to pass to ball around ‘violent’ teams for the past two years and that’s won us no silver-ware. Maybe we did move the ball quicker before (ie, Paddy V days!) but we did not take any sh@t on the pitch either, coz we had fighters dishing it back to the opposition!!!!

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