“It is becoming an embarrassment. The Premier League is now becoming a bit of a joke.”
In addition to Manchester City’s cruise to the title, this Premier League season will be remembered as one when conventional wisdom was turned on its head. Pep Guardiola’s side will win the league without the “plan b” many pundits say is needed to win the English top-flight. Jose Mourinho won’t win the title in his second season at a club, as he has in the past, and his reactionary tactics, deemed necessary to get results, have come up short.
The theory that the Premier League is the most competitive division in Europe, and there are no easy games, has also been proved inaccurate. A lot of games this season have resembled a training exercise, where one team attacks and the other defends, particularly when City are involved.
Pep Guardiola’s side have averaged 71.88 percent possession per match in their first 20 games of the season, and that figure is only likely to increase as the campaign goes on. On Wednesday night, City – who are 15 points clear at the top of the table, the biggest lead a team has ever had at this stage of an English top flight season – recorded a 1-0 win over Newcastle United. They finished the game with 78 percent possession. The home side attempted to stifle City, sitting extremely deep before trying to get a chance on the break.
Unlike other teams, Newcastle really don’t have the resources or players to compete with City. However, Rafa Benitez’s tactics drew criticism from Gary Neville, who was commentating on the match for Sky Sports. The former Manchester United defender, who didn’t seem to have any problem with his former team, the richest club in world football, refusing to attack a leaky Liverpool defence back in October, accused Newcastle of lacking “ambition” and said their gameplan was “not acceptable in this league.”
"That’s not acceptable in this league" https://t.co/V3ruNUXo8m
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) December 28, 2017
However, not only is such a tactical plan “acceptable”, it has become the norm in the league for almost every team when they come up against a side with superior talent, as pointed out by Jamie Carragher. The former Liverpool defender made a wider point about the tactic of surrendering possession and space to the opposition, and questioned whether the Premier League will lose its appeal if the type of contest we witnessed on Wednesday continues to happen. Carragher’s assertion that the Premier League is “becoming a bit of a joke” might be slightly harsh, but his analysis is spot on.
“It’s becoming an embarrassment. The Premier League is now becoming a bit of a joke,” Carragher said at half-time of City’s win over Newcastle.
“The teams at the top are so far ahead that the teams at the bottom are accepting they’re going to lose the game and long as it’s by one or two – they’re not going to give it a go. It’s not just Rafa Benitez and Newcastle but there has to be some aggression and then some sort of plan to go forward. But at home it’s a sad state of affairs. The Premier League over the years has been built on every team having a go. That’s why everyone around the world wants to watch it. Will they continue watching it? It’s a sad state of affairs for the Premier League.”
The Premier League is the richest football division in the history of the sport. However, it appears the money hasn’t done much to improve competitiveness, and it perhaps influences negative tactics as clubs prioritise Premier League survival over everything else.
