Tom Colborne

Do the Strand: the Manchester United haircut guy exposes our lust for content | Jonathan Liew As ‘the pressure of the haircut’ enters the game’s lexicon, the extent to which football revolves around winning and losing games appears to be fading “I don’t care about his haircut at all,” Matheus Cunha said this week. “I don’t really look at other people if they need to go to the hairdresser or not,” Bruno Fernandes said at the weekend. Michael Carrick, for his part, said he was aware of the haircut issue. But the Manchester United coach insisted it would not factor into his team’s preparations for their game against West Ham on Tuesday night. And so, here we are. Many games of football end up being remembered for reasons far outstripping their original significance: the 1914 Christmas Truce, the 1962 Battle of Santiago, the 2020 pandemic curtain‑raiser between Liverpool and Atlético Madrid. To these we can add the Haircut Game: a mildly arresting 1-1 Premier League draw at the London Stadium that posterity will nevertheless recall as the game when a man did not get his hair cut at the end. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Do the Strand: the Manchester United haircut guy exposes our lust for content | Jonathan Liew

It’s also a bit of a straw man in that nobody is realistically claiming Spurs are a big club that competes for £100m signings like Declan Rice or expects to win the league. The current state of affairs is they’re in the bottom 6 with a top 6 wage bill two seasons in a row.

And not making any acknowledgement that he made up a load of statistics which would have been wilfully misleading even if they weren’t entirely inaccurate.

Tenacity and composure. Where have you been.

He also has more GA than Bukayo Saka from fewer games

Don’t worry, still another couple of weeks of storable rain at least

There’s also an element that due to the weakness of the new Europa League, Spurs got into a dangerous habit of deprioritising the PL because finishing 5th was much harder than winning the EL (Utd did the same). That means season ticket holders paying to watch rotated squads every Sunday.

As far as I can figure, to bring in another senior non-HG cb (for example) we’d probably have to move Endo on. Unless we can find a HG left back to replace Robbo.

But who knows what might happen with other senior players, particularly if we have no CL.

But on this occasion it was denied, because VAR overruled the advantage played by the ref. So at that moment Haaland is indisputably going to score if not fouled. A whole new level of VAR intervening when it shouldn’t, but it won’t be overturned and on Slot’s comments I’m not sure we’ll even try.

Oh it definitely makes no sense. VAR is supposed to be there to avoid mistakes, not intervene to make them. But it won’t be overturned because at the moment Dom pulls Haaland he is about to tap a ball into an empty net.

Haaland would have walked it into the net. I’m not sure the fact it was going in anyway changes anything

Unlucky to lose but it’s hard to win when you’re only on top for a third of the game. Sunderland away in 3 days with no Dom now looks mountainous

One of those where you wonder what the plan is off the ball. We seem to be as high and open as if they’d just played through a high press, but without the high press.

Fill your butts while you can

We didn’t bring him back because Slot still doesn’t think he’ll get minutes for us, and because all 3 parties agreed to the current deal. Villa trying to back out of paying the fee doesn’t change any of that.

Could also be more of a midfield diamond with Grav in a hybrid dm/cb role, allowing for an extra midfielder. Certainly gives us options either way, and best explanation yet for signing Wirtz, Ekitike AND Isak but no winger.

3 cbs wouldn’t hurt at set pieces either

Fair. There’s also some overdue regression to the mean, hopefully. I wonder who was responsible for hiring a set piece coach in the first place, given that we decided to pop up an unsuccessful LinkedIn ad and then appoint internally rather than headhunting like for every single other position.

I’m pro-Slot and pro-underlying performance, but surely head coach takes overall responsibility for set pieces aswell as open play?

The more you think about it the more insane it seems that there is no time limit on set pieces. Teams protecting a result would be idiots *not* to restrict ball in play to a minimum.

Also bonkers - players having to retrieve the dead ball themselves. Place it in their hands and start counting.

Could also account for the lack of wingers. Fitting Isak, Wirtz and Hugo into a 433 isn’t looking any easier now than it ever did.

The biggest and easiest single change would be that the ball is placed for goal kicks instantly by a ball boy/official, rather than the keeper retrieving it from the crowd at his leisure. Then a big-screen shot clock.
Then make throws underarm with a 10 yard retreat and stop clock when ball out.

Newcastle x2, Real, Inter, Villa, Arsenal

Yep - the problem isn’t January for me, it’s that if you’re going to pursue FSG’s ‘wait for the right player at all costs’ strategy, you absolutely can’t have injury-prone players in the squad, particularly clustered in key positions.

Rightly or wrongly I don’t think we’ll ever start signing to cover injuries under FSG/Edwards. It’s the reliance in the summer on players that we all know have unreliable injury records and/or are adapting to a new level of intensity that has caused the problems.

No good option with 3 injured rbs, but taking Dom out of the midfield is the worst imo.

Shape will be interesting - trying to play 433 without Dom in midfield did not go well earlier in the season.

In a completely ridiculous season this might be the most bonkers aspect.

Some sort of mental thing, less physical opposition or just chance?

Ewww. Still, by the QF you can’t complain.

All those hundreds of games and the only real jeopardy is for the 5 teams on 9 points. 20-odd other teams striving for the chance to play less Champions league football.

I’m uncomfortable with a scenario where Spurs could have an easy route to the last 8. Wtf Europe.