Footballing Snobbery
For those who are not the biggest Football fans, allow me to put some context around this article before I start! Last night Chelsea won Europe’s most prestigious footballing competition, the Champions League, for the first time in their history. They defeated German side Bayern Munich via the ‘dreaded’ penalty shoot out. During the 120 minutes of normal time and extra time, Bayern Munich had 43 shots, compared to Chelsea’s 9 and generally ‘controlled’ the game. This was not to dissimilar to Chelsea’s semi final triumph against Barcelona, where Barcelona had 83% of possession compared to the 17% of ten men Chelsea. The sentiment that the better team lost and that Chelsea didn’t deserve to win was mentioned in the aftermath of both games.
Personally, my reaction to Chelsea’s victories over both Barcelona a few weeks ago and Bayern Munich last night could best be described as disgust. I felt very strongly about it as well. As far as I was concerned, in both games only one team had come to play Football, and it wasn’t Chelsea. I spoke to anyone that would listen about how disgusted I would be if the team I support, Manchester United had put in such a performance. Basically I felt that Football had been cheated.
It’s fair to say that there was some degree of bias in my thinking. After all Manchester United have not had the most memorable of seasons, indeed last weekend was a painful experience for any United fan. (Cross town rivals, Manchester City won the league from us with practically the last kick of season.) Despite that though, there was something greater at play. I had in my head a very specific way that Football should be played and perhaps more importantly what the outcome of the match should be when it is played that way. When that didn’t go according to plan, I felt a sense of injustice and betrayal.
A conversation with a fellow Football aficionado last night however prompted me to take a step back and look at things in a different light. We were discussing the concept of Bayern ‘outplaying’ Chelsea. I began by arguing that they had, however when you look at it, it’s almost impossible to argue that point. Bayern approached the game in a deliberate way, but so did Chelsea. Chelsea’s method involved soaking up pressure and trying to hit on the counter. Defensively this worked very well for them, offensively it wasn’t so effective, but it worked well enough to force penalty shoot outs, which they then won. The key point though is at the end of the day, it was Chelsea’s method which got the result, so it stands to reason that it was Chelsea who ‘outplayed’ Bayern regardless of the possession, regardless of the shots at goal.
The counter to this argument could come from the fact that Bayern had several brilliant opportunities to score enough goals to win the tie. These chances fell to individuals, who could usually be relied upon, however last night they failed to step up. The argument here being that it was individual failings on behalf of Bayern players, rather than Chelsea’s tactics that produced the result or to put it another way Chelsea were just lucky. There is a certain amount of naivety in that argument though. Chelsea’s tactics were all about stifling, constricted, suffocating, pressuring the Bayern players, which they did extremely well. One of the consequences of that approach, is that when a Bayern player actually did get a clear shot on goal, they were under great pressure to make it count. Chelsea’s restrictive style of play placed mental pressure on the Bayern players, and as a result they lost their heads, their technique failed and they fluffed their chances. The Chelsea players deserve enormous credit for that.
What comes to mind when considering this match is the old expression, ‘There are many ways to skin a dead cat’. Bayern had their method, Chelsea had theirs and last night Chelsea’s triumphed. There is no ‘devine’ way in which Football should be played. Barcelona and Spain have had great success with ‘high tempo, possession based’ football over the last five years. The Football community has been lavish with it’s praise of this style and rightfully so. But I think a side effect has been the development of ‘Footballing Snobbery’. That is a school of thought that there is only one way to play and if it’s not played that way then Football is the victim. I’ll hold my hand up and admit, I’ve been guilty of this snobbery!
Last night’s game though and the subsequent analysis I ran through in my head, has caused me to ‘wake up’ if you will. I’m starting to remember that the very reason Football is so captivating and emotionally entrancing is the diversity in styles and tactics employed by players, managers, clubs, countries and indeed cultures! Tactics evolve and change over time. There is no ‘right’ way to go about winning a football match and I’d think we’d all do well to remember that.
So congratulations Chelsea FC. You’re not my favourite club by any means, but you and your fans deserve the success you’ve achieved, so enjoy it! After all Bayern Munich completely outplayed Manchester United in 1999 as well and I celebrated like a mad man! Swings and roundabouts this Football lark!