With Morocco’s performance at the last World Cup, do you see an African nation winning the tournament in the next decade? Chinoso
Honestly, no. The World Cup is a slightly odd tournament in that it’s pretty much never had a shock winner – maybe West Germany in 1954, but their subsequent performances have diminished what a surprise that felt at the time. Perhaps all that means is that we’re due a shock but there seems to be something about the magnitude of the occasion in the latter stages of the competition that ultimately benefits the elite.
There’s also a sense that western Europe has effectively industrialised youth production, with players who have been very well coached in academies from an early age being pushed out into extremely high-level competition where the best develop rapidly. Even for the likes of Brazil and Argentina to keep up is very difficult and it is significant that 15 of the Morocco squad at the World Cup came through European academies.
Add in the lack of resources, the chaos and corruption that continues to dog a lot of African teams and the fact that, despite the emergence of the likes of Walid Regragui, Aliou Cissé and Djamel Belmadi, the majority of African teams continue to appoint managers from abroad and have little sense of developing their own schools of coaching, and it’s very hard to see African sides regularly challenging, certainly not in the short term.
The sense of progress and hope that was there from Algeria’s win over West Germany in 1982 through to Senegal’s quarter-final in 2002, a period that took in Cameroon’s quarter-final in 1990 and the victories for Nigeria and Cameroon at the Olympics, is over. Ghana in 2010, kept out of the semi-final only by Luis Suárez’s handball, always seemed slightly freakish – they would have made it six out of six African teams eliminated at the group stage of South Africa’s World Cup had Serbia been awarded a clear penalty for handball against Australia and converted it – but perhaps Morocco’s performance in Qatar can herald the start of a new era of progress.
What is the strangest rule in soccer that you still cannot get on board with? I still don’t understand why the ball has to be still when taking a free-kick. Richard
It has to be still just to make clear that one phase of play has stopped and the kick has been taken; I’m not against that. It’s testament to how good the laws of football were when they were first drawn up in 1863 and how little they have had to be changed – at least until VAR meant we had to try to come up with wording that covers all eventualities. That has led to a handball law that seems absurd to me; I would liberalise it enormously so that a player would have to be trying to cheat to be penalised.
I hate that games (for example, the World Cup final in 2018) can be shaped by penalties awarded for what are essentially random events. Offside seems to be improving, but I would make the interpretation of interference slightly stricter so that a forward whose position forces a defender to try to clear the ball is always considered offside (goals when a player miscues a clearing header, say, with the ball running on to a player who would have been offside had the defender missed the ball entirely) seem fundamentally unfair.
But those are tweaks to laws whose wording has recently been changed. The oddest thing in football, I think, is the throw-in. I’m not suggesting players should be allowed to hurl the ball downfield one-handed, which was what led to the current law being adopted in 1883, but I would be in favour of allowing a player simply to drop the ball to a teammate, or perhaps even to himself.
Are you for or against keeping VAR? Chekwube
I’d be in favour of going back to the drawing board and doing what football’s authorities should have done in the first place, which is to have a huge consultation process involving players, coaches, referees, journalists and fans.
Trial different variants in smaller leagues and see what works and what doesn’t, how it can be improved. Put together a proposal, circulate it, encourage feedback, trial the revised version and only then impose it on the game at large. But consultation seems unfashionable these days, not only in football but more generally; everything in Gianni Infantino’s Fifa is introduced as faits accomplis.
Which title contender is in most need of acquiring an upgrade in the January transfer window? Drew
Arsenal are very obviously in need of a goal-scoring centre-forward, who could not merely change games but also allow Gabriel Jesus to occasionally play wide and relieve some of the pressure on Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, both of whom look exhausted. Liverpool, because of the injuries to Andy Robertson and Konstantinos Tsimikas, could probably do with a left-back at least in the short term, and perhaps also a central defender. Manchester City don’t have such an obvious gap, but Ilkay Gündogan has been missed this season.
On this day
Kevin Keegan’s impact on Newcastle as a manager was extraordinary. He had retired as a player in 1984 after inspiring Newcastle and had left the St James’ pitch in a helicopter. His return in Newcastle’s hour of need as they faced relegation to the third flight in 1992 felt like something out of legend. They survived, were promoted the following season and finished third in their first season up in the Premiership, playing open, attacking, thrilling football. They fell back to sixth the following season, but in 1995-96, they had opened up a 12-point lead at the top of the table.
Slowly, though, their form began to falter while Manchester United embarked on a relentless pursuit. An extraordinary 4-3 at Liverpool at the beginning of April felt like the turning point and Manchester United wrapped up the title on the final day.
That summer, after Keegan had apparently offered to resign, Newcastle broke the world transfer record to sign Alan Shearer for £15m. Newcastle beat Manchester United 5-0 in the October, but followed that with a run of one win in nine league games. When they lost at Blackburn on Boxing Day he again reportedly offered to quit, but followed that with a 7-1 win over Tottenham and a 3-0 win over Leeds.
Yet on 8 January 1997, Keegan did resign to widespread surprise, saying he had taken the club as far as he could.
Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com.
This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition
