and the press comes to life.

[of_doom]

The Guardian is generally entertaining, but for passionate football reporting only the Independent will do for me. James Lawton writes honestly, although I have started to find areas of his Liverpool analysis to disagree with, but even that can be refreshing when dealing with the insipid work of most journos. The Sam Wallace article is much more

Comments

[teinte]

Em. I've spent the majority of my online time today scouring around and reading match reactions and smiling enough that my face hurts.

Reading articles like these makes me come to terms with the fact that when it comes to discussing tactics I'm still forever weak. But it's enough that there are journalists who can write about the technical aspects of a match and still manage to capture the warmth of what it's all about.

[of_doom]

See, I'm the opposite. I can regurgitate analysis (SPLOOGE) like nobody's business, but it's harder for me to be thoughtful or witty or charming about it, like these men. That's why I envy sport bloggers so much. They have more licence; they don't have to stick to a purely journalistic code.

[stickmarionette]

Benitez's Liverpool are beginning to harvest results as efficiently as Mourinho's blue machine once did.
What stands out to me, though, is the fact that Benitez' method, although based on organisation like Mourinho, and resulting in a fairly physical team (again like Mourinho's Chelsea), doesn't quite stray over the edge into dodgy fouls and the like.

Benitez' Liverpool seems to have a winner's mentality, but not the kind that values the victory above the spirit of the game itself.

(I have to thank you for introducing me to James Lawton's writing sometime last year. He's wonderful.)

[of_doom]

Isn't he? Him and Paul Tomkins should form some sort of superteam. ;__;