The lazy pundits thread

Football 365's Media Watch's take on the column I was talking about last night

Stand by your man

Stan Collymore is not a fan of Pep Guardiola, and he rarely fails to tell us so via his column in the Daily Mirror. This started over a mix-up with Collymore thinking that Guardiola didn’t know who he was, and has snowballed from there.

The problem is that Manchester City are in some double sexy form, and that means Collymore really has to reach to give Guardiola a kicking. Still if you need something passing from a high shelf, Stan’s your man:

‘I even heard some Manchester City fans crowing, ‘We want to win games and win them well’. Which is rubbish – I don’t remember it being about style over substance for them two decades ago when they were scraping through third-tier finals at Wembley.

‘City just wanted to get up the leagues back then and they didn’t care how they did it. Yet here they are, 20 years and a billionaire sheikh later, basking in the gloriousness of life in Pepville.’

Yeah, the b*stards. Enjoying watching their team and everything.

‘It may well be pretty nice at the moment there but I will tell them this: If I was still a player I’d have been much happier with a 0-0 draw away from home against our biggest rivals than scoring seven but conceding two to a Stoke team who will finish in the bottom half of the table.’

Manchester City have beaten Stoke and Liverpool this season, Stan. United have beaten neither, albeit away from home. Are two points really better than six?

‘What did we actually learn about City at the weekend? Not a lot. We know they’ll score fives, sixes and sevens at times this season but we also know they’ll concede goals that, really, they shouldn’t.

‘It doesn’t matter if you win 10-4 or 1-0 you still earn the same number of points, but ultimately it will be the number of clean sheets you keep that win you the title.’

This is the gold stuff, really, so much so that you really do have to read that last line again: ‘Ultimately it will be the number of clean sheets you keep that win you the title.’

Mediawatch doesn’t like to be rude, but ‘ultimately’ it will be the number of points you take that will win you the title. We know that because in the last eight seasons, the team with the most points has won the title in every season. The team that has kept the most clean sheets has won the title in one of those eight seasons. Manchester United kept the most clean sheets last season and finished sixth.

‘What will determine Pep Guardiola’s success is not how they play, it’s whether or not they can get one more point than the team in second. That isn’t a given while they are conceding two goals in games against teams such as Stoke.’

Two things:

1) Manchester City scored seven times. How is that not the thing you’re focusing on here?
2) Manchester United, under your great hope Mourinho, conceded two sodding goals to Stoke. And they definitely didn’t score seven.