Mark Holmes says Brendan Rodgers abandoned his philosophy against Stoke - and calls for referee re-education after the Sergio Aguero booking.
Beware of newspaper narrative
Responding to what he felt was a rather blinkered review by Garry Monk of Swansea's draw against Crystal Palace, Guardian journalist Joe Lovejoy wrote that 'the media's modern obsession with quotes is dumbing down football coverage and often giving the public a distorted view of events.'
Lovejoy added that Monk's claim that Swansea had controlled the game was 'patently untrue' but that 'Monk, like all managers, knew his view would be given more space, or air time, than most reporters' words to the contrary.'
It is an excellent point. Such is the size of the beast that is the football media, there can be effectively four separate reports of a single game produced by one publication: the minute-by-minute report, the on-the-whistle report, the report that appears in the Sunday newspaper, and then the one which appears in the Monday version.
It is the minute-by-minute report which generally provides the truest reflection of a game, with each subsequent report adding more narrative, that dangerous thing in journalism that can badly distort the truth.
By the Monday version, significant moments in games have been completely cut from the copy. Even by Sunday the actual event itself is rarely the story, but by Monday the report is almost entirely driven by whichever manager or player's post-match quotes were the most interesting.
Lovejoy did not take Monk's bait, instead leading his Monday report on the reaction of Neil Warnock and Crystal Palace's improvement, but plenty would have done. The Mail on Sunday, for example, led on two 'contentious' refereeing decisions that went against the Swans.
What, exactly, is this moan about, you ask? Well, it is a reminder to all supporters that the best way to judge a game of football is to watch it yourself. The next best may be to follow it minute-by-minute (although even those reports can be affected by preconceptions), but remember that the writer of almost every match report you read has sought to focus on the club, player, manager or angle that is of the most interest to most people.
By Monday at least, facts are of secondary importance.
Rodgers puts points above philosophy
Without wanting this column to become a weekly update on all-things Liverpool, the above point does lead nicely to one about the reporting of the Reds' win over Stoke City on Saturday.
It was the opening and closing lines of Andrew Longmore's report in The Sunday Times that particularly caught the eye.
'If this is Liverpool's pragmatic new look, then the fans will take it every week,' Longmore began.
After a fair assessment of the game itself, Longmore closed with a statement which surely contradicted his opening: 'Liverpool fans can forget about style for the moment'.
Rightly or wrongly, do the club's supporters not expect a certain sort of style from the team? Is Brendan Rodgers' whole philosophy not based around "being offensively being creative as opposed to stopping"?
Against Stoke, that philosophy went out of the window as Simon Mignolet took to booting the ball up the pitch - 23 of his 28 passes went long - towards Rickie Lambert, who won more aerial duels on the pitch than any player.
Liverpool even won more than Stoke in total, had less possession and could quite easily have lost the game had the visitors scored from one of their three clear-cut chances, Mignolet diving at the feet of Mame Biram Diouf on the first occasion, the post denying Bojan from the second, and Raheem Sterling blocking the third, again from Diouf, on the line.
A much-needed win it may have been, but would fans really accept it every week? Unlikely.
However, although neither the performance nor the result was convincing, perhaps Rodgers deserves some praise for adopting a direct approach in the game - if you can forgive the hypocrisy of it all, of course.
"You have to deal with what you've got," Rodgers said after the game. "You've got a goalkeeper who is struggling with the ball at his feet to play out, so you can't expose him.
"Even though it was probably not how he wants to work, and hopefully in time he will get to a point where he is comfortable again playing, it was just important to win. That's what we are paid to do.
"The flowing football will come but first we've got to get our confidence back into the team."
Philosophy is one of the most annoyingly over-used terms in the game at the moment, but there is surely no better philosophy than a winning one. Rodgers has made himself a figure of fun with his glowing assessments of performances criticised by everyone else, and it is hard to shake the feeling he has been hamstrung, certainly this season without Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, of feeling he has to stick rigidly to one way of playing.
It is doubtful Liverpool fans would accept a season of scrappy, uninspiring 1-0 wins, and is is absolutely certain that Rodgers' men will have to improve on what they produced against Stoke if they are to stand any chance of reaching the top four again.
However, it is equally as sure that Rodgers' willingness to favour points over philosophy will help the Reds in their quest.
Evans used as media pawn
There has been much said about Ched Evans' desire to return to football, that won't be added to in this column, but it is somewhat unsettling that both Tranmere and now Oldham have felt it necessary to publicly announce they will not be signing the former Sheffield United forward.
Do these clubs take the time to deny every erroneous transfer rumour or have they simply taken an opportunity to get themselves some national media coverage intended to paint them in a positive light?
Whatever your thoughts on Evans' bid to get a contract, it seems slightly low of any club to attempt to use his situation to their advantage.
Referees need educating
Having banged the drum about diving for several years, I try to avoid the topic in this column these days.
However, the booking handed to Sergio Aguero for simulation in Manchester City's win at Southampton on Sunday only reiterated my long-held belief that referees need re-educating as to what is and isn't an impediment.
Mike Jones, the worst referee in the Premier League, obviously felt that Aguero had dived over Jose Fonte's tackle - and to an extent, he did, but only to avoid possible injury.
Not every piece of contact equates to a foul but, equally, not making contact does not necessarily mean a foul has not been committed.
Fonte slid in with his studs showing and got nowhere near the ball. Aguero took evasive action to avoid the tackle as best as he could but the fact he was not clattered does not alter the fact that Fonte committed a foul.
Yes, it is difficult to make a decision in a split second, but there are simply too many referees that don't seem to understand what is going on in front of them.
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