Tooting Broadway to London Bridge, London Bridge to Canning Town, Canning Town to City Airport.
City Airport to Canning Town, Canning Town to London Bridge, London Bridge to Gatwick Airport.
Gatwick Airport to Edinburgh Airport.
Edinburgh Airport to a building somewhere in Edinburgh.
A building somewhere in Edinburgh to Edinburgh Airport.
Edinburgh Airport to London City Airport.
London City Airport to Canning Town. Canning Town to London Bridge. London Bridge to Tooting Broadway.
And here I am. Fog meant that this morning’s flight was cancelled, so we tried a different airport. Fog delayed takeoff here, so we arrived at our 2pm presentation at 3pm. I was leading this part, jumped – tie askew – into a room of people, and found that the small room of 5-6 people I had expected was in fact a lecture theatre of 30-40 people. I didn’t have time to get out my notes, so blathered on for an hour, then we came home.
I am exhausted.
The only football thing I learned came in Gatwick’s BA Business Lounge (we got bumped up following the cancellation). Here I read a free copy of FIFA (TM) Magazine (TM)(TM). There was an interview with Fabio Capello in it, and he said that he sees football as being all about a 9-1 formation these days, and that the game is almost being reduced to having a great goalkeeper and a great forward, with everyone else really being moveable defenders. I don’t think he meant that, but it’s interesting in that it makes one think. I ought to dig out the exact quote:
Every team, no matter what formation the use, actually have a system I call the “9-1″ formation. By that I mean that nine players primarily have defensive duties, and up front there is one lone striker who is supporters by his team mates rushing to join him in attack. The crucial difference often lies in the quality of the goalkeeper and the striker, with Spain’s Casillas and Torres and Italy’s Buffon and Toni are fine examples.
Intriguing. I can see where he’s coming from, and you can very easily see how our current team plus Fernando Torres would win an awful lot of football matches. Yes, he’d help a lot of teams, but I honestly think that a player like that, allied to our now proven solidity, could be seriously dangerous. He’d make more difference to Fulham than he would to any other team, perhaps. Never happen, of course, but this is what Capello’s on about I’m sure.
In the same way, I read today that Michael Owen has scored seven goals from 16 shots this season. Our Bob has one in 27. Andy Johnson has four in 18. Now that’s not a fair comparison, but it does show the difference you might get with a premium player. Again, we couldn’t sign Michael Owen even if we had the money, but star players, it seems to me, almost always seem to to be surprisingly decent value.
Then he said, about something else: “In Italy it is all about tactics and playing for a result..”
Roy’s an Italian coach in all but nationality, isn’t he?
That is a bad day. Could have been worse though, you might have ended up getting stuck in Scotland ;0)
The 9-1 formation is interesting, albeit concerning at international level given that our goalkeeper (James) and striker (Heskey) are both far from world class. Can’t fault Heskey for his commitment, and we have played better with him in the side, but add Torres to England and WOW.
Comment by Martin — December 17, 2008 @ 10:54 am |