PUT SAFETY FIRST IN DROP ZONE
MERSEYSIDE witnessed two huge goalkeeping cock-ups in the space of three days last week, which illustrated why Burnley and Sheffield United occupy the bottom two positions in the Premier League.
First, Blades keeper Ivo Grbic paid a heavy price for trying to take liberties against Darwin Nunez at Anfield.
Grbic dillied and dallied when the ball was played back to him. And when Nunez came to close him down, the Croatian dillied some more, before the Liverpool striker charged down his attempted clearance and sent it looping back into the visitors’ net.
Suddenly, Chris Wilder’s men were 1-0 down and heading towards a 3-1 defeat in a game where they were comfortable up until Grbic’s moment of madness.
Less than 48 hours later, just a few hundred yards across Stanley
Park at Goodison, it was the turn of Ari Muric to suffer the same fate. This time, Everton’s Dominic
Calvert-Lewin was the beneficiary – and the goal proved to be the winner in a game which was a relegation ‘six-pointer’.
I understand that Vincent Kompany has been so heavily influenced by being Pep Guardiola’s captain at Manchester City that he is trying to emulate the same high-risk/ high-reward philosophy of his former boss.
But there was only going to be one winner when Muric decided against putting his boot through the ball.
Adhering to your principles is admirable. But there are times when you have to prioritise safety first. That was one of those moments. When your head is just about to go under the waves, you don’t ask the man throwing you a lifeline where he bought the rope from.
Watching the Blades and Clarets slump to defeats made me think of the old Albert Einstein quote that the definition of insanity is doing exactly the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
The most damning thing from Kompany’s perspective was that Sean Dyche admitted after the game that he had ordered his team to make the game ugly and to set traps for the Clarets to fall into.
He basically knew that at some point Burnley would put the game on a plate for him. That’s game-management.
Burnley and Sheffield United already appear to be doomed.
Relegation always leaves a bitter taste, but it will be a lot worse at Turf Moor and Bramall Lane this year because fellow strugglers Everton and Nottingham Forest have both had points deducted.
If you can’t keep your heads above the drop zone in those circumstances, then something really has gone wrong.