Sam Allardyce – a football genius by his own account – but sadly the world has never seen it!
Still, he often feels he has the right to comment on other teams, as if he’d somehow do a better job or even more hilariously, play a better brand of football.
His latest soundbite is to suggest Liverpool are a long-ball team – but that it would be frowned upon to suggest as much.
Probably because that’s a barbarically simplistic way of looking at the multitude of ways Liverpool can break teams down, Sam…
“Liverpool play long ball very well indeed from right to left, and very quickly,” Allardyce said, cited in F365. “But nobody will say Liverpool play long ball.
“You wouldn’t hear Martin Tyler saying it because it would be frowned upon.
“You’ve got to be careful about saying Liverpool play long ball. But that’s the way it is. They play long ball exceptionally well and better than anybody else. And that’s why they do it.”
Liverpool play great diagonals between the fullbacks, and send the wingers behind the fullbacks with long-range passes – but to label Liverpool a long-ball team when they effectively don’t even use a striker is so simplistic.
Look at Mo Salah’s goal that was disallowed v Southampton, for example – it’s arguably the best one-touch team move of the season.
The fact is Liverpool are the best team on the planet because they can score goals in any number of ways. From set-pieces, from counter-attacks, via offensive passing moves against a low block, from crosses, from distance.