Archive for August 29th, 2006
Michael Brown and bad tackles
I don’t seem to be able to let Brown’s tackle on Giggs go. While it’s great to see players committed and yes, aggressive, there’s an obvious line and Brown clearly crossed it. I maintain that any footballer could avoid that sort of challenge if he wishes, and if he doesn’t wish, well you have to wonder about the sort of person you’re dealing with.
Where Brown is concerned I’m just not sure. Here, for example, is his two footed lunge on Portsmouth’s Sean Davis last season:
At the time Sean Davis said that the tackle was deliberate:
“He tried to break my leg,” Davis said. “I know because I saw him look at me and I know he tried to do me. I didn’t want to go down because I didn’t want to show that he hurt me, but he did catch me. I think if I’d gone for (it) a bit more he could have broken my ankle.”
Davis and Brown have what Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager, termed a “history”. “He was at Spurs, I was at Spurs,” Davis said. “He’s only an average player anyway.”
I don’t know what sort of a person Davis is, but clearly they’re not best friends.
So what do we think? Does a team like Fulham need an enforcer? Bouba Diop rules the tricky parts of the pitch, but does so fairly. Is there room for someone like Brown? Whatever he does add to the team, there’s something deeply unpleasant about the two tackles we’ve seen, and it makes it hard to warm to the man. And ideally we’d all like a team full of good players who we want to see play. I hope CC can find the extra midfielder he wants so that Brown finds his rightful home on the bench - Sean Davis was right, he’s no more than an average footballer and we need better.
PS On review, the Giggs tackle (below) is clearly worse. At least on the Davis lunge he lands where the ball was. When stamping on Giggs he wasn’t even close to the ball, which was elsewhere. Anyway, judge for yourselves.
