| LMA unimpressed by Murphy criticisms • Murphy's comments deemed 'inappropriate' by LMA• Midfielder had blamed managers for dangerous tacklesThe League Managers Association has criticised Danny Murphy for singling out certain managers he claims are sending out players too "pumped up", saying the Fulham captain's comments were inappropriate.Murphy denounced reckless tackling by some players and pointed the finger at the approach favoured by managers at three clubs – Stoke City, Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers.He was speaking after a rash of heavy challenges this season – including a legal one by the Wolves captain, Karl Henry, that broke the Fulham striker Bobby Zamora's leg.A statement from the LMA insisted such violent tackles were not encouraged by coaches and indicated Murphy should not have spoken out.The statement said: "It is inappropriate for individuals to direct criticism at certain managers who are honest, professional and continue to achieve success on the field with their clubs."The accomplishments of the managers mentioned should be applauded rather than publicly judged. Professional football managers certainly do not incite their players to go out and cause injury to fellow professionals."Two of the three clubs mentioned have yet to receive a red card in the Premier League this season."The LMA statement pointed out that the speed of the game and the fact players are stronger and quicker makes the impact of mistimed tackles far greater than in the past. Coaches instruct players not be lured into early challenges and to stay on their feet, the LMA said."Mistimed tackles by fractions of a second will happen and with that [there] will be a potential risk of impact or injury but in no way does it follow that the actions are either deliberate or encouraged," added the LMA. A managers' support staff, it said, would not back a manager who encouraged violent or reckless play in any direct or indirect way, and that if they did so it would quickly leak out.Murphy's remarks at the Leaders in Football conference in London last week caused controversy.Murphy said: "Your manager dictates what your players do and how you behave."You get managers who are sending their teams out to stop other teams playing, which is happening more and more – the Stokes, Blackburns, Wolves."They can say it's effective and they have got to win games but the fact is the managers are sending out their players so pumped up there is inevitably going to be problems."Every ship has a captain and that's the manager who is in charge."guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Scotland v Spain: Craig Levein defends his strikerless 4-6-0 formation Scotland manager backs ultra-defensive stance for clubs and country. telegraph.co.uk |
The Fiver | The Seven Samurai; and the evil leather biker dudes out of Mad Max | Barry Glendenning and Barney Ronay Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday at 5pm(ish), or if your usual copy has stopped arrivingTHE A-TEAMPlaying with only 10 against 11 for 85 minutes need not necessarily be a disadvantage. Nobody in their right mind would back the seven dwarves and Duran Duran to win a fight against two A-Teams (of course we're including Amy Allen), and the combined forces of the Seven Samurai and Three Musketeers would almost certainly put those of the Famous Five and the Birmingham Six to the sword.That said, once Manchester City defender Dedryck Boyata was sent off for his professional foul on Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh in the early stages of yesterday's clash at Eastlands, it seemed inevitable that the 10 men of Manchester City would go on to lose. And even though Arsenal gave them every chance by missing a penalty and refusing to take pot-shots from six yards if there was a square foot of grass crying out for some of their trademark slick-but-ultimately-fruitless tippity-tappety-tippety-tappety-tip-tap-tip action, the effort of having to work extra hard for their derisory weekly stipends eventually took its toll on City's players and they went down 3-0."I don't agree with the referee's decision," said Roberto Mancini after the match, going on to suggest that if you closed one eye, tilted your head a certain way, contorted your limbs like a dashing Colombian golfer lining up a putt and peered through light blue and white tinted spectacles, Boyata had not actually prevented a clear goal-scoring opportunity."It is never nice to lose, especially when you have put so much effort and work into a match, but our confidence has not been hit by the defeat," declared City defender Micah Richards, a young footballer who has made considerable progress since swearing his way through his first ever live television interview, but increasingly looks like he should be welding improvised tanks out of old bits of scaffolding and other bric-a-brac while shouting "Quit your jibber-jabber!" and "Pity the fool!"MISQUOTE OF THE DAY24 October: "After a difficult week the best outcome has been reached for all parties – except Manchester City" – Gary Neville reflects on the Rooney saga in his Sunday Times of Malta column.25 October: "The newspaper would like to clarify the following: at no point did Gary Neville state the phrase, 'Except perhaps Manchester City'. These words were added by the journalist who worked on the column with Mr Neville" – Sunday Times of Malta editor Steve Mallia apologies for misquoting Neville, in his own column. Here's hoping their conversation didn't go the way of this bad-word-filled chat.REDS DAWN?If the Fiver's meticulous study of the pomp-rock-soundtracked mid-1980s action drama movie genre has taught it anything, it is that you can only ever really claim to have hit rock bottom, looked yourself in the eye and begun the long climb back up to the top once you've enjoyed a moment of proper fist-clenching emotional catharsis, some power chord-laden transformational freak-out basically equivalent to Emilio Estevez doing rock fight-dancing so enthusiastically all the windows suddenly smash.Watching the similarly frenzied scenes at Anfield as Liverpool narrowly squeaked past Blackeye Rovers this weekend, the Fiver was struck by two things. Firstly that it hadn't seen so many happy bald muscular tattooed men hugging each other since the heady days of its 30-minute DJ "residency" in the coat hatch at Vauxhall's fashionable Rubber Dungeon gentleman's nite spot. And secondly, underneath it all, a sense that this finally could be it for Nice Roy Hodgson and his rubbish version of Liverpool: a turning point.Popular midfielder $tevie Mbe seems to agree. "The three points will have done wonders for everyone," Gerrard told this morning's Liverpool Echo. "It is all about getting a sequence of results and we will find out now whether we are capable of doing it. Enough is enough," he added, striking a Donna Summer-style disco pose, leaping on to a small strobe-lit podium and performing an empowering glitzy cocktail stomp dance.Talk of a fresh start seems even to have permeated up to his poor old frazzled-looking manager, who took a break from teasing his increasingly crazed flyaway Brillo-Pad hairstyle with a steel bristle brush to announce that he is now "happy". "I don't know what catalysts are," Hodgson declared, explicitly mimicking Bill Shankly's famous call to arms "Laddie, I'm not familiar with the basic principles of magnetic field intensity". "But there were elements of the performance that have been quite visible in the matches that we have lost or drawn. I don't want to suggest everything is suddenly hunky dory," he added, pretending to be an alien, striking a fey and dandyish pose in a clown costume, wandering off to Berlin to hang out with Iggy Pop and finally spending at least a decade attempting to write the worst lyrics ever seriously included in a pop song before successfully coming up with China Girl.So there you have it for new Liverpool. Slightly less embarrassing Americans in the boardroom. Nu-metal-style shaven-headed, tattooed delirium on the pitch, and a sense that this, finally, could be it for nice Roy and his brave band of whooping bald tattooed men who, the Fiver is willing to concede, probably do look a little bit more like the evil leather biker dudes out of Mad Max than Patrick Swayze in a vest playing a triumphant and uplifting saxophone solo.WIN! WIN! WIN!Want VIP tickets to watch England v France at Wembley on 17 November, a new England home shirt and a digital camera worth £500? Then click here to find out more.GET 66 POUNDS' WORTH OF FREE BETS WITH BLUE SQUAREClick here to find out more.FIVER LETTERS"Lord Ferg said at the weekend that 'all agents are the same and some are difficult'. If all agents are the same, then surely they are all difficult or all not difficult?" – Noble Francis."Re: Kaizer Chiefs fans throwing cabbages (Friday's bits and bobs). Lettuce hope that's an end to it" – Phil Hanson.Send your letters to the.boss@guardian.co.uk. And if you've nothing better to do you can tweet the Fiver.BITS AND BOBSAndy Carroll is £3,500 lighter in the pocket after pleading guilty to accidentally glassing Michael Cook in a trendy Newcastle nightspot. "Liquid was deliberately thrown but the glass accidentally travelled through the air due to the glass having been made wet," Stuart Driver, in mitigation, told the court.Magpies manager Chris Hughton says he's happy to leave Carroll in the hands of Kevin Nolan, with whom he is living under the conditions of his bail arrangements. "Kevin looks after him very well," Hughton said. "I think he arranges his supper at the right time and makes sure he is tucked up in very good time to get a full night's sleep."Chelsea defender Ashley Cole has revealed the true extent of the physical and mental torture that accompanies life as a £120,000-a-week socially mobile Premier League footballer. "It was hard for me in my head," he sobbed. "It wasn't just about the football, it was more my brain and it was getting too much for me … I'm 29 but I feel like 35 or 40. It's hard getting up in the mornings."Fun and games in South America dept: Boca Juniors will complain to the police after eight fans were hit with rubber bullets fired by officers who were trying to force supporters to leave Independiente's stadium after yesterday's 0-0 draw.Sopranos star Jose Mourinho has reminded his Real Madrid players of the importance of tomorrow's King's Cup tie with Real Murcia. "If last year's situation [the humiliation by Alcorcon] repeats itself, I will cross those who play off my list because they will be dead to me," he fuggedaboutited.Uefa president Michel Platini has reiterated his opposition to goalline technology, claiming it would turn the game into "Playstation football".And Notts County are seeking their sixth manager in barely a year after giving Craig Short the boot. That's six-points-off-automatic-promotion Notts County.STILL WANT MORE?Dots? Tick! Arrows? Tick! Pass completion statistics? Tickity-tick! It can only be Michael Cox's chalkboard analysis. Or Jonathan Wilson's oft-forgotten foray into designing bowling alleys.Joey Barton is the new Jimmy Bullard, Liverpool lack hair and Peter Crouch's career is finally on the wane. These are three of the five things Barney Ronay learned this weekend.AC Jimbo and chums dissect the weekend action in the latest Football Weekly podcast.Villarreal may be the team to challenge the big two in La Liga this season, writes Sid Lowe.Koln are in meltdown and Zvonimir Soldo has paid the price. Raphael Honigstein has the lowdown.And Adrian Mutu has gone and got himself into difficulties just when Fiorentina need him most, reports Paolo Bandini.SIGN UP TO THE FIVERWant your very own copy of our free tea-timely(ish) email sent direct to your inbox? Has your regular copy stopped arriving? Click here to sign up.HEURELHO GOMES INTERVIEWED ON SKY OUTSIDE ASDA. WHAT NEXT: TITUS BRAMBLE IN LIDL?Barry GlendenningBarney Ronayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
David Beckham and Juninho lead Galaxy over FC Dallas David Beckham and Juninho scored to help the Los Angeles Galaxy rally for a 2-1 victory over FC Dallas on Sunday night. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Germany's '54 World Cup Win Could Be Drug - Tainted - Study BERLIN (Reuters) - West Germany's 1954 World Cup-winning team, feted as the men who helped put a nation back on its feet after World War Two, may have been boosted by a secret doping programme, according to a new university study. feeds.nytimes.com |