Morning all.
I didn’t watch the England game last night. Not because I’m not patriotic but because it was a pointless friendly. The only thing which interests me through this international break is the health of our players.
I’m not stupid, I know not every football fan agrees with a managers team/squad selection, that’s quite apparent on any footballing forum each week but to boo a player when his name is announced, when he comes onto the pitch and staggeringly, when he scores a goal, is disgraceful. Yes, I’m talking about Ben White and the way the England fans treated him last night.
When players come together to represent their respective countries, club football should go out the window. Whatever happened between White, Southgate and his coaching staff a few years ago is irrelevant and quite frankly, it’s no one else’s business other than those involved but whatever it was, it was enough to cause White to leave the England camp. Thomas Tuchel wiped the slate clean and so should the rest of the England fans. Why pay an arm and a leg for a ticket to watch a game only to then boo a player before he’s even kicked a ball? Shameful in my opinion. This isn’t about White being an Arsenal player, it’s about fan behaviour towards players.
Thomas Tuchel:
“There was a mixed reception which I’m disappointed about because we protect our players. He’s been excellent in camp. He deserved also to start and got us almost the winner, but I also understood that it happened to other players before here. He needs to take it on the chin. We will always protect him and hopefully we can put it behind [us] because he is ready to write some new chapters and we are ready to give him the chance, so hopefully everyone can move on and accept it.”
Both Phil Foden and Noni Madueke were on the receiving end of nasty challenges leaving both unable to play on. I read the referee had a shocker, as did VAR. As for the penalty conceded by Ben White, he got a touch on the ball first apparently but after a couple of seconds of looking at the pitch side monitor, the German referee overturned his original decision. The World Cup should be interesting then if the officiating last night was an example of what to expect in the competition.
England play again on Tuesday and it’s widely expected that Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka will feature. Hopefully a better set of officials will be appointed and the England fans focus on supporting their country instead of booing an individual player.
Catch up in the comments.
From the little I saw of it as I was doing my local pub quiz ( asking the questions ). White went from villain to hero to villain again. Probably the least of his worries or mine for that matter . The general impression was that the penalty was given to make up for the fuss over our goal and the ref thought that it was best to even things up. ( coward _)
Inevitably we lost a player to international duty as did City how long for in either case we don’t know. Next we run the gauntlet again with Saka and Rice , strange how it always seems to be us that suffers.
Agree, a pointless game, pointless officials and just more injuries. Stupidity imo at this stage of the season.
Nobody is as two-faced as the British sports media and wasn’t it was them that highlighted the Ben White ‘scandal’ in thd first place, banging on about it endlessly, so I wasn’t at all surprised by the crowd reaction just as I wasn’t then surprised by the media’s hand wringing following the crowd’s reaction. I’d love to see Ben White go to the World Cup just so it pisses off all those media wankers.
Worried about Madueke, just as we needed him as well, really needed him. Arteta will need to dip into the Academy for the next couple of games before Bournemouth.
Intereseting reaction from Bowen and Maguire after White scored as they were probably in the dressing room when the Southgate , Holland spat took place.
Maybe they know exactly what happened .
Rico, you ask what were the (some) of the England fans thinking, probably how bad and boring the match was as whole. There’s always a number of brain-dead morons among the crowds in the cheap, relatively so, seats. They pay their money so I suppose they feel entitled to make their feelings known.
Early in the game Madueke injured one of the Uruguay defenders while battling for possession, the ref ignored the incident but shortly after two or three players clattered him and left him in a heap on the pitch, no action from the ref, again. In my opinion Tuchel should have subbed him immediately, but left him to try and “run off” the injury which he couldn’t and was only then subbed. The same thing happened with Foden, injured and left to carry on whilst it was obvious he was struggling.
The game was a “friendly” Tuchel had bench full of subs so had no need to risk aggravating the injury to either player.
Clubs will be wary of releasing players if they are to be put at risk by bad management decisions.