Football is about opinions and we need those
Ihave seen a number of people who would rather listen to the African language commentaries when watching matches on television – especially on SuperSport – just because they feel the analysis can be deflating sometimes.
This is why I was not really surprised to read this week that Pitso Mosimane said he is thinking of unsubscribing from the pay channel because of what he termed “tavern talk” during their analysis shows. Some reacted with anger to his assertions while a few empathised.
Well, Pitso is not the only coach to verbalise his dislike for analysts. They have long been called Monday night football coaches, pros and experts.
Friends, especially those in the same field as I am, have always tried to discourage me from my habit of not listening to the analysis after matches because they claim there is a lot I can learn from it. But I beg to differ.
I always say that if you were not in the change-room during the pre-match talk or during the week when the formations and systems are being practiced and/or preached, you can never authoritatively say a coach got it right or wrong. Whatever you say is at best just your opinion. And the moment you forget your opinion will not be popular with everyone, you are doomed.
What you say must not be passed on as fact but rather as an opinion and if Pitso were to say
Sibongiseni Gumbi
your opinion is tavern talk, then you would have every right to argue with him.
Football is by nature a game of opinions and everyone – including those who have never even kicked a ball in their lives, and they have every right too – has an opinion on how the game should or should not be played. It is for this reason that I have always said coaches, especially at national team level, should be left alone and not ques- tioned on their selections.
A player may be on form and scoring or generally doing well at club level but if the style and formation in the team is not the same as in the national team, then he or she might struggle to fit in. For example, look at how Siyabonga Nkosi excelled at Celtic, yet he could not replicate those performances at Chiefs.
From what I saw, at Celtic the game strategy was centred around him, but at Chiefs it was a different scenario and he struggled a little bit to fit in at first.
And this is where this annoying notion that our football should be synchronised from junior level to senior level and we should develop a national identity comes in … I am totally against that. Teams are different for a reason. Just imagine if all 16 PSL teams played the same way.
The games would bore the hell out of us. There would no longer be the “David v Goliath” kind of clashes anymore because every team would be playing the same type of football.
I enjoy watching teams that Pitso sometimes accuses of parking the bus and not giving his side a chance to express themselves and playing the way they like. This is why football is so unpredictable, enjoyable and frustrating at times.
Like Pitso, I am no fan of analysis, especially during matches and that is why I prefer Baba Mthethwa’s commentary. It is not by luck that he is so popular.