da betano casino： He’s Manchester City’s new Mario Balotelli, they say. He’s becoming a liability. With three sendings off already this season, Fernandinho is costing his team more than he’s helping them. And how, by the way, can a team who average 60% possession or so over all their Premier League games manage so many red cards? Maybe Pep Guardiola should start to coach tackling – his players might benefit from some instruction.
da cassino： As City can’t find a consistency, as they can’t find the intensity or the penetration that Guardiola wants, and as they can’t find a way of keeping the opposition from scoring, there was always going to be criticism – fair criticism, indeed. There’s plenty to criticise with Guardiola this season. And although City is certainly his biggest managerial challenge, this is also surely his worst season as a manager to date. That doesn’t mean he’s failing.
But the criticism of Fernandinho is over the top. It exposes a reading of football that depends on consequences rather than what actually happened. It’s as if the stats matter more than the performances, as if what you can print on the page matters more than what happens on the pitch.
A look at Fernandinho’s red cards shows that.
Three in half a season looks bad – it is bad. It’s bad in a strict, consequentialist sense. But before you start questioning discipline and calling him a liability, you need to look at what happened.
His first red card of the season came against Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League. By all accounts, it was a baffling second yellow card. Fernandinho was adjudged to have pulled the shirt of an opponent who was running past him, but there wasn’t much in it. It wasn’t an obvious shirt pull, and if there was one, it was minimal. On another day, he’d have got away with it.
His second red card was a straight red received against Chelsea in a melee following a shocking Sergio Aguero tackle on David Luiz (himself lucky to have been on the pitch to receive a knock to the knee). Though, once again, Fernandinho can count himself a little unlucky to have been provoked by Cesc Fabregas.
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Only the Burnley red card was a definite one that was Fernandinho’s fault in its entirety. The others can be excused, but a two-footed tackle shows a lack of discipline.
That’s technical discipline, though. The kind of self-restraint you need to show on a football pitch, but not necessarily in life. It’s the same kind of discipline you need in order to hold your run to stay onside, but not the same kind of discipline that you need not to punch Diego Costa. That’s a different kind of physical urge.
It’s also true that it wasn’t a terrible tackle. It was a red card, but certainly not the worst one you’ve ever seen. Another technical red card, a letter of the law red card. Fair enough.
But that’s not enough to make him Manchester City’s liability, it’s not enough to mount an inquisition, and it’s not enough to question City’s discipline. It is, however, enough to make you question whether or not the people who set the agenda ever actually watch football, or whether they just read about it afterwards, quoting stats to back them up without ever explaining the action behind the stat.
Stats are important, but they don’t tell us everything. They are complimentary, but you also need to watch the game to see what really happened. Otherwise we’ll lose all nuance in a game where nuance is the best part.
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