REMEMBER that old line about how the public gets the politicians it deserves? Well, it occurred to me the other day that the same could equally be said to apply to our footballers.
It is usually a good idea to see ourselves as others see us. That thought stuck with me as I read comments earlier this month from Michael Beale, Rangers’ first-team coach.
In an interview on a supporters’ podcast – picked up in the media – the Englishman voiced his concerns that Scottish football is too physical.
To summarise, he felt that domestic football up here is refereed differently to the European game, differently in the sense that certain referees “allow physicality to take preference over football”.
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Take that physicality away, and our teams soon find themselves out of their depths when it comes to continental football and the international game.
Not only are we lagging a decade behind the English domestic game, it seems like a “different sport” at times to what you might see in Spain.
Many of the best players in other countries consequently think twice about coming to play in Scottish football and some of our own best ones are quite keen to leave for south of the border as soon as is practically possible.
And this is an analysis which doesn’t just apply to Scotland.
“If you look at countries that were doing well with physical styles 18 years ago, and I’m not pigeonholing anybody but may be some of the Scandinavian countries, they are also not doing so well now,” Beale continued.
There is one last logical conclusion: “If our league is, in general, the most physical league of the bigger ones in Europe, then are we happy with that? If the people and the fans are, then great, but accept that it might then cause some issues later on.”
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Some no doubt will be quick to decry Mr Beale for such swingeing comments after a mere 12 months in our country. And it is easy to talk about such lofty principles when you have millionaire players and the little guys have to find a way to bring you down to size.
But for the record, I seem to remember a similar theme in many of Brendan Rodgers’ early press conferences here, too, after being confronted by some of the earthier elements of our domestic game.
Remember when he promised to “shine a torch on the national game”?
“There is an approach here that needs to change,” he said after watching Gordon Strachan’s side fail to qualify for the World Cup.
“I touched on it last season when I watched Celtic v Rangers at Under-17s. You had the most talented players smashing the ball up the pitch.”
My own view, for the record, is that both the Rangers first-team coach and the former Celtic manager have hit on a pretty fundamental flaw of our game here.
Okay so the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Victor Wanyama, two strong men, found a stint in the Scottish game no impediment to making it to Saturday’s Champions League final. Andy Robertson has too, but would it not have been fair to expect more of our flair players to have developed over the last two decades?
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Now, I like a strong tackle in a derby match as much as the next man, but it occurs to me that the appeal of football in the raw and that old adage about it being a man’s game might just be out of date.
A new mindset – you could call it more Willie Collum, less Bobby Madden – may well be required if we want to develop more players capable of performing at the highest level. Watch the Eredivisie highlights the next time you get a chance for a reference point and you will see that the style of football is completely different.
It didn’t do the young players of Ajax any harm in the Champions League this year.
As I travelled to Hampden Park for Scotland’s women’s World Cup send-off, it was instructive for me how often the ball was played patiently on the ground, shuffled between excellent technical players, many of whom weren’t the biggest or most physical.
There was a distinct lack of blood and snotters on show, too, not to mention noticeably less testosterone bellowing from the stands. But the match was no worse for that.
Football will always be a compromise between physicality and ability, and the best players and teams will always have both.
It might just be wise to ask ourselves if we have the balance right when it comes to the men’s game in Scotland.
And if we as supporters are prepared to modify our tastes a little to make ourselves a player again in the global game.
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