Daily Mirror - 03.03.2020

DM1ST
mirror.co.uk/sport TUESDAY 03.03.2020 DAILY MIRROR^47

SollymoreTA n C

The man who always speaks his mind

@StanCollymore

I LOVED how Bayern Munich and

Hoffenheim players responded to

the offensive banner unfurled by

Bayern fans about Hoffenheim

president Dietmar Hopp (with Karl-

Heinz Rummenigge, below) by

passing the ball to each other for

the remainder of the match.

So often when there are issues

around racism, the game

goes on and the club is

just hit with a fine.

The fact the

players stopped the

game and went off

and had a chat... God

forbid a conversation

between football people!

They then went back out and

knocked the ball about between

them, toying with the supporters,

as if to say, ‘We are here to

entertain you – we will play by the

rules on the pitch if you play by the

rules in the stands’.

I loved what the players did and

that would be welcome, especially

for me as a mixed-race Briton, if

more did that in England when

there are monkey chants and

issues around racism.

COLLYWOBBLER

Play Phil or

let him go

PHIL Foden won Man of the Match

in Manchester City’s latest League

Cup triumph, but the worry for him is

will Pep Guardiola keep picking him?

Guardiola has already said he’s

one of the best players he’s ever

worked with (below), and that’s fine.

But if you are only going to get an

opportunity every seven, eight or

nine games then Foden, on the back

of a really good performance on

Sunday, has some

thinking to do.

He doesn’t want to

be getting to next

September and be

living off the memory

of the Carabao Cup.

If I were him, I’d demand a

sit-down with the manager and the

coaching staff and say that unless he

gets more opportunities to play he

might take the Jadon Sancho route.

There are any number of clubs

across europe who would take him,

and if he’s not playing regularly by

mid-August then if I were him I’d say I

want to go out on loan.

And not just for six months, but for

18 months or two years.

I’m sure he’s going to be thinking

he’s going to be late to the party for

the euros, and he will be thinking

ahead to the 2022 World Cup.

He’s got to play. He can’t play one

game in 10. The League Cup will be

forgotten in two weeks’ time.

He’s proved he deserves the

opportunity now, so come on Pep,

give him a chance.

LiverPooL losing to Watford

is the best thing that could

happen to them.

Certainly since Christmas and the

Club World Cup in Dubai, the Reds

have not been great even though

they were still winning.

Now they can have a reset, there

will be words said in the dressing

room about maintaining standards

and they will go out and redouble

their efforts.

Every single Liverpool player has

worked their nuts off for a ridiculous

amount of games to get them into

this position.

But what happens is human

nature takes over. You begin to think

you always find a way to win games

so even if performances drop by one

per cent, and you’re still winning

games, you think you’re OK.

Now all the Invincibles talk will

stop, which will serve Liverpool well

because I don’t think that helped.

The notion that they have lost will

make the players sit up and realise

they’ve got to win just four games to

lift the Premier League title.

There will be a real focus on the

other tournaments, too.

There was so much talk about

Jurgen Klopp’s men going unbeaten

and winning the league. That was

becoming the overriding story of the

season – could they be

the best Premier

League team ever and get 100-odd

points? To be fair to Klopp and his

players, it has not been them who

have been talking about this.

Now they can say we still have

work to do in the Premier League,

which will take us into April, we’ve

still got the FA Cup and the

Champions League.

When I tweeted that it could be

the best thing to happen to

Liverpool, some people responded

saying I was talking rubbish and that

the club would certainly have

preferred to win the match.

Of course they would have

preferred to win the game.

But a lot of other sports people

tweeted in agreement, realising that

you learn more in defeat than you do

from an easy victory.

What Mo Salah (right) and his

team-mates will have learnt from

that defeat is unless you are at your

very best and completely switched

on for every match, anybody in the

top flight can trip you up – including

any team in the bottom three.

They will look at that and redouble

their efforts in the three remaining

competitions.

Historically any sportsman or

woman who has suffered a shock

defeat, all great champions all get

back to basics and doing what got

them to the top in the first place.

If Liverpool had been playing well

and winning games for the last five

or six weeks, we would not even be

discussing this right now.

But a lot of people have rightly

pointed out that they have not been

playing well and so now it’s an

opportunity to take a step back,

refocus and go again.

Not only will they do that in the

Premier League, I think you’ll see a

concerted effort in the Champions

League and there could be a

cracking night at Anfield next

week, almost Barcelonaesque,

when Atletico Madrid arrive

for the second leg 1-0 up.

I think the Reds might

go stronger in the FA

Cup against Chelsea,

too. Of course, it

won’t be the

starting 11 you

would expect in

the league, but

one or two more

senior players may figure.

Two months out, the Watford

result was a shock to the system, a

jolt, a wake-up call. They were so

good, they were almost sleep walking

their way to becoming invincible.

But teams don’t sleep walk to

becoming invincible.

Every single win, every single

point has to be fought for and they

can get back to that level, not just in

one tournament, but in three.

v lla haven’t got the goal power to stay upi

ASTon VILLA have slipped into

the bottom three and my worry

for my old club is goals.

Wesley, brought in for

£22million, didn’t work, got

injured and there aren’t

enough goals collectively to

put teams away.

When you look at Watford,

for example, Troy deeney is

back, who’s a leader. Villa don’t

have that up front. I’ve got them

down to get between five and

nine more points. That would

only take them to a maximum of

34, which won’t be enough.

Jack Grealish (left) has put in

Premier League performances

and his goals and assists stand

up to scrutiny with any other

attacking midfielder of his age

in the top flight.

Unfortunately, the players

around him have not shown that

consistent quality.

John McGinn coming back will

be a big plus for them. He

scores the odd goal and takes

some of the pressure off.

But Villa are going to have to

put in performances they have

not managed this season to stay

up and I just don’t think they

have the quality beyond

Grealish, Tyrone Mings and

McGinn to do that.

Losing at Watford

will be great for

Liverpool.. you learn

more from defeats

than easy victories