Football news: People lose their minds about who takes a penalty
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Updated 20/08/2019 at 08:08 GMT
Maybe Nick Miller is completely out of touch about what constitutes a crisis worth getting upset about, but the world appears to have lost the run of itself...
Paul Pogba v Wolves
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Wolves hold Manchester United, everyone seems to lose their mind
As a humble morning round-up of the key stories from the football world, the Warm-Up accepts that there are plenty of things about the game that we do not understand, certainly as much as those who have played it professionally. On such matters, we are mostly happy to defer to those with more experience, knowing that they know more than us.
Then again, sometimes those people lose their minds. Manchester United were held to a 1-1 draw by Wolves on Monday night, but might have won the match had they converted a second-half penalty, awarded when Conor Coady tripped Paul Pogba in the area. After some on-pitch discussion, Pogba took the kick rather than Marcus Rashford, and it was promptly saved by Rui Patricio.
As a non-pro, the Warm-Up would probably file this under ‘not ideal’ but shrug and start thinking about something else. But the actual pros…well, they think differently, it seems. After the game on Sky, Gary Neville was, to say the least, fuming, his voice reaching a frequency that only dogs could hear as he squeaked “something’s not right!” over and over again at the idea of Rashford giving up the chance to take the penalty to Pogba. Jamie Carragher agreed, but in a slightly more listenable fashion, not one that was going to shatter nearby glassware.
It was the fury in the eyes that was most startling. This seemed to be an affront to the game, an insult to the good and the pure of football, a crying shame that such a thing could ever be allowed. It’s certainly a sign that we all take football just that little bit too seriously, given that what actually happened here is a chap missed a penalty, and a team drew when they might have won.
Obviously, you can boil anything down like that and make it sound trivial, but we would gently suggest that there are bigger things in the game to worry about than this, and it’s best to save at least some emotional energy for those.
Maurizio Sarri has…bloody hell…pneumonia
Grim-ish news from Italy, where Juventus have announced that a few days before the start of the Serie A season, their manager Maurizio Sarri has pneumonia.
Juve start their campaign against Parma on Saturday, but the chances of Sarri being in the dugout look pretty slim given the seriousness of his diagnosis. A Juve club statement said on Monday:
Maurizio Sarri, after having observed rest over the weekend, was at the JTC Continassa today where he coordinated the work of his staff. Unfortunately, he could not conduct the training on the field due to the persistence of his flu, which struck him over the course of last week. In the late afternoon, he underwent further tests that confirmed he has pneumonia, for which specific therapy has been prescribed
Get well soon, Maurizio.
Bayern loan Coutinho, world isn’t sure why
All the noises coming out of Germany recently have been that Bayern need to do some work in the transfer window, specifically to sign another defensive midfielder, a winger or two to compensate for the losses of Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben, and maybe someone to give Robert Lewandowski a hand up front and stop him from complaining so much about everything.
Naturally therefore, they’ve signed Philippe Coutinho on a year-long loan from Barcelona, a No.10 who has been tried out wide, tried in midfield and tried in a couple of other places during his stint in Spain, and Barca have been unable to get a tune out of him.
Who knows why they have decided to do this, but hey, who are we to judge the decisions made by the great and the powerful?
IN OTHER NEWS
The nominees for the Puskas Award for bestest goal of the year have been announced, and the Warm-Up would like to endorse the candidacy of this absurd piece of acrobatics by Daniel Zsori.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Hero: Wayne Rooney
You know when you’re leaving a job and you no longer give a single hoot and start saying what you like? We’ve all been there, Wayne.
Zero: Dean Saunders
Who thought it would be a good idea for Dean Saunders to interview comedian James Acaster about his mental health problems we’re not sure, but safe to say Deano lived down to his reputation.
RETRO CORNER
Following the news that Mario Balotelli has signed for Brescia, his home town team, here’s a reminder of what is probably still his greatest moment on the pitch, when he scored both goals for Italy in their Euro 2012 semi-final win over Germany. And then he gave his mum a hug.
HAT TIP
As soon as the lap of honour was complete in Istanbul’s Vodafone Park, Liverpool’s backroom staff swung into action. By that stage it was already the early hours of Thursday morning. There was little time to dwell on the glory of being crowned UEFA Super Cup winners after a penalty shootout victory over Chelsea. There were ice baths to run, recovery shakes to be dished out and video analysis to be pored over. The next assignment was just around the corner and Jurgen Klopp knew that it was laced with danger. Privately, the scheduling had angered the Liverpool manager. He couldn’t understand why his side had been handed a Saturday afternoon showdown away to Southampton in the Premier League so soon after a 3,500-mile round trip to Turkey. But Klopp also knew that publicly complaining would achieve little other than giving his players a ready-made excuse to stumble on the south coast.
For the Athletic (subscription required), James Pearce details how Liverpool coped with the rapid turnaround from winning the Super Cup in Istanbul on Wednesday to beating Southampton on Saturday.
COMING UP
If you needed a surefire sign that the season is truly here (aside from all the football that’s being played, obviously), then it’s the arrival of the midweek round of Football League fixtures. There are full slates in League One and League Two, plus half a Championship round (the other half being on Wednesday), while you can also enjoy the first leg of the final round of Champions League qualifiers, where Ajax face Apoel Nicosia, among others.
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by the Champions League-quality Ben Snowball.
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