Premier League risks losing appeal
Coaches such as Benitez and Hughton are expert at negating top teams but it is painful to watch Sky resents paying £11million to cover a match where one side displays zero ambition
The stalemate between Rafael Benitez and Mike Ashley makes Waiting for Godot look like an all-action thriller. But Tyneside politics only partly explain Newcastle’s hyper-defensiveness against Chelsea on Sunday.
Premier League football is sold around the world as a rolling bonanza of exciting match-ups. There are signs, however, that teams outside the top six are not willing to march to their doom against opponents that cost £500million to construct. At the weekend, Newcastle, Brighton and Wolves all came up with schemes to avoid 4-0 defeats against Champions League-calibre opposition. All kept the scoreboard quiet, though only Wolves came away with a point, against Manchester City.
Benitez and Chris Hughton – two of the best strategists in the league – found ways to reduce their games to training-ground pace. At Anfield, Hughton left out his playmaker, Pascal Gross, in favour of a quicker, more dynamic midfield thruster, Yves Bissouma, with Glen Murray alone up front to stretch the game, and Brighton hunting where they could – especially in the last 15 minutes – for an equaliser. They lost 1-0 but left Merseyside with morale unscathed.
At Molineux, Nuno Espirito Santo extended his policy of high pressing and ball-hounding to a daunting test for Wolves against the champions of England. His players were highly organised as well as ambitious when opportunities to attack arose.
Benitez, whose diplomatic stand-off with Ashley over budgets has spawned a new definition of tedium, took the new pragmatism to the extremes he touched last season in the Newcastlemanchester City game, which was more siege than football game.
Chelsea’s Jorginho passed the ball 27 more times than the entire Newcastle side – who posted 19 per cent possession against a team shifting under Maurizio Sarri to a more dynamic style. Politically, this was Benitez’s chance to wave a white hankie at Newcastle’s owner while also parading his own unquestioned knack for defensive parsimony. “When you are at Newcastle United, you have to manage because you are in the Premier League and you have what you have,” Benitez said, responding to the pundits on Sky Sports who had lacerated him for a lack of ambition.
“You have what you have” is a reference to Newcastle’s summer transfer window profit of more than £20million. Many Newcastle fans are conflicted. Almost all are grateful to have Benitez as manager because the alternative is another relegation, but many also know this kind of turgid negativity reflects badly on the club, especially with memories of the Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson eras still fresh.
St James’ Park is being sold an image of a manager operating below his natural level and an owner who can afford not to spend on players because he knows (or thinks) his manager will always keep them up. To Ashley, Benitez is the kind of bargain buy who his whole business empire is built on.
Benitez was quick to point out that he is not the only one with a separate set of plans for games against Chelsea, City and Liverpool – the three teams who can really rip you apart. Newcastle’s 5-4-1 formation, with no No10, was a departure from Benitez’s preferred system and lulled Chelsea into the same complacency displayed by Liverpool at Anfield. If top players can see the opposition pose no threat, and are banking up behind the ball, the pace of their play drops, which helps the more defensive teams. Liverpool, in particular, seemed to just assume they would beat Brighton. Time-pressure disappeared. And they almost paid for it when Gross, a second-half substitute, might have equalised late on for Brighton with a header.
Hence, Benitez said at Newcastle: “Yesterday, I saw some games with the same system, and it depends on the players that you have.”
In other words:
I’m not the only one who does this.
But against City last season and
Chelsea on Sunday, Benitez has pushed this new approach to its limits, partly to make a point to Ashley. There were no shots on target by Newcastle between the sixth and 83rd minutes. At Molineux, City claimed 71 per cent of the possession but Wolves still created five chances. In mitigation, Benitez might point to Wolves’ net spend of more than £60 million and say they are entitled to attack more than Newcastle.
Clearly, Sky resents paying £11 million to cover a match where one side displays zero ambition beyond dragging a more famous opponent into a training-ground drill. Super Sunday was not designed for shrewd tacticians who merely try to keep the score down against the best three or four sides in the land.
The problem for the Premier League is that while Chelsea and Newcastle fans will endure these non-events, neutrals may come to think of a trip to B&Q in the rain more productive – and possibly more exciting.