The Warm-Up: What on earth do you say after losing 7-2 at home?
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
Updated 02/10/2019 at 08:43 GMT
It's a good job Nick Miller isn't Tottenham manager, because he might have broken down into floods of tears after that debacle against Bayern...
Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane during the UEFA Champions League group B match between Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Muenchen at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on October 1, 2019 in London, United Kingdom.
Image credit: Getty Images
WEDNESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Jungs, es ist Tottenham
One of the very many reasons that the Warm-Up is not a professional football manager – beyond tactical nous, leadership skills, not having played the game to any standard above ‘waddling pace’ – is that we would have absolutely no idea what to say to a team who had just been gubbed 7-2. Or, more accurately 2-7.
7-2! At home! The Champions League finalists against a team that is supposed to be in transition! Seven – two!
It’s always easy to say this sort of thing but this did really feel like one of those ‘moments’, the culmination of ropey performances and all the worrying noises that have been coming out of Mauricio Pochettino’s mouth in the last few weeks, a sign that the ‘magical-but-not-quite’ era of the last five years might be crashing down around Tottenham’s ears.
And good lord, we haven’t even mentioned the name of their opponents yet. Of course facing Bayern – even a Bayern team still seemingly under construction and not yet fully armed and operational – will always be spicy, and it’s no real surprise that Spurs lost, but this was more than a mere defeat, it was a humiliation, a spirit-crusher, a calamity of epic proportions.
Did the fact that four goals were scored by a former Arsenal player make it worse? Maybe. But if you’re looking for some crumbs of crumbs of comfort Spurs fans, how about this: at least it was a former Arsenal player that they let slip through their fingers so he can’t do that sort of thing for them.
Afterwards Pochettino spoke of taking a breath and assessing things in the cold light of day, which you can view one of two ways: either it was the sensible response of a manager who knows analysing a performance like that when emotions are still running high is pointless and can only be counter-productive; or, it’s exactly the sort of thing that a manager who is panicking wildly underneath the surface would say to try and mask his absolute terror.
Sterling rises to save City
It was all rather more pleasant for Manchester City, even if they did have to sweat for a little while against Dinamo Zagreb. The Croatians had done splendidly to hold City at bay until just gone the hour mark, or if you prefer ten minutes after Raheem Sterling was introduced from the bench.
The visitors possibly should have taken the lead, but after coming on Sterling then bagged the opener for City, breaking the stout resistance and from there the game was City’s - Phil Foden added another after emerging from the bench himself.
“He’s a player who is always there, he has this talent,” Guardiola said of Sterling after the game.
“He loves to score goals, you always have that feeling. He said a few days ago he missed chances at Everton [where he also scored] but he was always thinking of the next one. I think still he can improve his finishing. Today the pass for Phil was perfect. But still there is a gap to be even more clinical – but it’s important that all the time he’s there and that’s why he’s been able to score the goals.”
Ross Barkley has his chips
If Frank Lampard is good at nothing else as a manager, it’s light-heartedly diffusing potentially sticky situations, which he did with what the Warm-Up is going to call ‘aplomb’ on Tuesday, after reports of Ross Barkley’s big night out at the weekend were put to him.
By the standards of recent football escapades involving booze, this was extremely mild, but according to reports Barkley got into a row with a taxi driver while out on the town, there was some disagreement over a) the fare and b) Barkley spilling a load of chips over the back seat of the cab. Police then gently escorted Barkley to a cash point so that he could pay the cabbie, and then presumably he had to seek alternative transport arrangements.
Lampard – and you can insert the chuckles at what you decide are the relevant places yourself – said:
He hasn’t broken a club code being out 48 hours before a game. The lads were given a day off on Sunday. He hasn’t committed a crime other than eating chips in the back of a cab, which is probably a bit out of order for the cabbie, but on a serious note what he has done from my point of view is be naive to be out on that evening in the build-up to a Champions League game. He has admitted that. On a professional level, those are little things that shouldn’t happen. I like Ross. I have had absolutely no problem with him. He works hard and wants to do well. This morning he admitted to making a mistake. I will take that at face value and we move on.
Oh, and Chelsea face Lille this evening in the Champions League.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Heroes: The tattoo artists of Brugge
Hats of to Club Brugge, who gave Real Madrid a scare last night by going two goals up in the Bernabeu before they were pegged back. But inkers of Brugge, sit up and take a sip of coffee: this is your time. Forward Emmanuel Dennis said before the game that if he got a goal in the game then he would get a tattoo commemorating it, and lo and behold he did. Both goals, in fact. “I guess I will now have to get two tattoos,” he said afterwards. Make ’em tasteful and try to avoid areas that might, erm, expand over time.
Zero: Lamine Diaby Fadiga
Maybe you’ve been following the curious case of Kasper Dolberg’s watch, but if not the salient details are that the Swedish striker’s €70,000 timepiece went missing in the Nice dressing room a couple of weeks ago, which inspired Dolberg to threaten going on strike unless the culprit was found. The light-fingered colleague has now indeed been caught, and it was 18-year-old forward Lamine Diaby Fadiga, who has now been sacked with immediate effect by the French side, unsurprisingly.
“Above and beyond all sporting and financial consideration, Nice cannot and will not accept such behaviour that betrays the confidence that unites all the club’s employees and all the members of the Rouge et Noir [Red and Black] family,” said a club statement.
Still, Fadiga seems to have landed on his feet to a point: word is he’s already signed for Ligue 2 Paris FC.
HAT TIP
It was a tie for the ages, and as such one of those that so totally involved you in the moment. Through that, it was perhaps the first modern Champions League semi-final, one of the “true finals” that set the tone for these now regular clashes of super-clubs where the extreme concentration of talent demanded such concentration of attention. You could not turn away.
Ahead of Barcelona v Inter in the Champions League tonight, the Independent’s Miguel Delaney looks back to the epic semi-final between the two in 2010.
RETRO CORNER
On this day 20 years ago, Carles Puyol made his debut for Barcelona. Probably a bit obscure to post a clip from that routine 2-0 win over Real Valladolid, so here he is scoring the winner in a World Cup semi-final. A bit more fitting.
COMING UP
More thirst-quenching Gazprom for you tonight, as there’s another bunch of Champions League ties. The pick is of course Barca v Inter, but Liverpool v RB Salzburg, Lille v Chelsea and Valencia v Ajax should be worth a look too.
Thursday’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by Andi Thomas, so prepare yourselves.
Scan me
Share this article