Talking points: Defensive solidity the catalyst for United, Dyche's Everton and VAR drama
MAN OF THE MOMENT: Manchester United's Casemiro celebrates. Pic: John Walton/PA Wire.
Wembley looked impressive on Sunday for the League Cup final, so impressive you could almost forget the oppressive autocratic regime that owns Newcastle and the oppressive autocratic regime that wants to own Manchester United. Football is very good at wiping away such worries.
Casemiro was absolute class. He’s won 10 of 12 finals he’s played and this occasion was never going to trouble him. His perfect header for the opening goal was significant, but his defensive performance was outstanding. At one point Callum Wilson ran at him and Casemiro calmly dispossessed him like the Newcastle man was a small child playing with adults.
Erik ten Hag has got United playing excellent defensive football, at times hunting Newcastle down in packs, denying them space in their own penalty box. In the second half Newcastle switched to a 4-4-2 and put a lot of pressure on, though never really testing David De Gea consistently. They threw everything they had at United, at one point having 82% of the possession and didn’t seem to tire of beating their heads against the Red’s brick wall. But it wasn’t near enough. United’s recovery runs were very impressive, their organisation equally so.
Ten Hag, who didn’t put a foot wrong all afternoon, brought on Scott McTominay and Marcel Sabitzer to break up the Geordie’s midfield domination and put Casemiro a little further back to screen the defence. It worked. They gained more control of the ball, saw the game out and should’ve scored a third.
Newcastle’s set pieces were poor and the fact they only managed two shots on target, to Manchester United’s nine tells its own story. United’s players were clearly absolutely delighted to pick up their first silverware in six years. They were great on the ball, they were great off the ball and Newcastle went home, still waiting to win a cup since 1975’s forgotten Texaco Cup victory over Southampton.
This season, Arsenal have already been cheated out of two points and thus an even wider lead at the top. So when the VAR ruled out a Leandro Trossard goal for what was absolutely not a clear and obvious error by the on-pitch referee, they rightly felt cheated all over again. Soon after this, Bukayo Saka was impeded by Harry Souttar in the penalty area, the referee didn’t call it, but this time neither did VAR. Yet if the decision to disallow Trossard’s goal was correct, Souttar’s offence was no less a crime and a penalty should’ve been awarded. Taken together, neither decision made sense.
As it was, the 1 - 0 win at Leicester meant the Gunners took all three points home and these errors will likely be forgotten. But it's simply not good enough. The VAR system is, if anything, getting worse. To fans this feels all the more unjust because the mistakes are made after sometimes lengthy consideration and many replays. Still, it was Arsenal’s 18th win in 24 games, the most in the history of the club and their form is still good.
If you listened to pundits talking about Everton since Sean Dyche has taken charge, winning two games 1 - 0 at home, you’d have thought Dyche was the reincarnation of Rinus Michels. The fact is, for all his qualities, Dyche is often overrated by British pundits, who seem to see what they want to see in the man, regardless of whether it aligns with reality.
Maybe they’re scared of him. While their performances improved defensively for those two home wins, it also has to be said they were very limp in the loss to Liverpool and on Saturday against Aston Villa, they lacked quality on the ball and missed what chances they did have. Losing 2-0 at home showed it is far too early to proclaim Dyche as the miracle worker some would have us believe.
While this is in large part the fault of the club for not buying a striker worth the name (Neal Maupay just isn’t a top flight forward). Dyche was brought in to radically change their fortunes and it’s still very early in his reign, but it was a result that put Everton into the relegation places.
The new manager's bounce is over and now he’s got to do the hard yards. Dyche can certainly talk a good game and has all the self-confident, middle-management jargon needed to seemingly convince some of the game’s observers that this is the same thing as talent and insight, but can his team back him up on the pitch? If they can’t and do go down, all those ex-pros who spent much of Dyche’s time at Burnley bemoaning the fact he wasn’t given a chance at a bigger club will have to eat a large slice of humble pie, take off their blinkers and see exactly why he wasn’t.
It was a regulation 4 - 1 win for City over Bournemouth and Erling Haaland got his obligatory goal. However, the game gave plenty of grist to the mill for those who believe Haaland is merely scoring the goals that someone else would score were he not there and not adding anything beyond that. Therefore, he hasn’t improved the side. They certainly didn't need him to beat Bournemouth. The test will come in the Champions League.
Will he make the difference in tight games against top opposition? He didn’t score against RB Leipzig in midweek, and as per usual, didn’t even touch the ball much. There are still plenty who can’t see beyond his goal total, which already at 27 in the Premier League, will certainly end up being record breaking, but City never lacked goals and always scored a lot. So what improvement has the Norwegian brought?
In the Spurs game against Chelsea, Stuart Attwell sent off Hakim Ziyech, then sent him back on, deleted the red and gave him a yellow, though what that was for wasn’t clear. It was all a real mess. This is the knot that using VAR is tying the match officials into. It undermines them at every turn.
Attwell’s decision to send off Ziyech was justifiable for violent conduct. He might also have given him a yellow for a poor challenge on Richarlison. But the VAR stuck its nose in and suggested he reconsider if it met the standard for a red for violent conduct.
Nowhere in the rules does it say you can hit someone in the face, even if you only meant to hit him on the shoulder, but apparently VAR thought it did.
Attwell had made a correct decision, not merely on his own, but with the help of the linesman. VAR told them to think again.
Attwell looked humiliated as his authority had been completely undermined when he had made a perfectly justifiable decision. The lesson that came out of it for the on-pitch officials was don’t make any call until you hear from Stockley Park.
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