GRAEME SOUNESS: There’s a worrying obsession gripping Premier League teams

I settled down to watch the Champions League this week but after just 15 minutes found myself turning over to enjoy Leeds United versus Middlesbrough in the Championship instead.

There’s not enough jeopardy to this Champions League format; it has become boring. There are too many games where teams are not bang at it – like Liverpool this week – and it’s bland because other opportunities remain to put results right.

But as well as the Champions League, I have to say even our own Premier League, which is generally regarded as the best out there, has become a hard watch at times, too much playing in your own half and too much passing from side to side.

Look at who is making the most passes in the Premier League today and statistics tell you they are all defenders. On average, they touch the ball 72 times a game. Erling Haaland, the top scorer in the Premier League, touches the ball on average 23 times a game.

As a midfield player I was always told the people that matter most are the strikers. Get your passes in early and accurately so the ‘badge-kissers’ have time and space to do their job and score the goals. Now, other than the top teams, there’s far too much football played in their own halves.

I don’t think you would want to be a centre forward if you were looking to carve out a career in football today.

A more interesting midweek clash was Leeds against Middlesbrough in the Championship

But the way the game has been played at the highest level has even made the Premier League a hard watch at times 

Strikers must be hugely frustrated with their team’s endless square passing when they’re making positive runs begging for the ball to go forward.

Historically, defenders were the last players you would want in possession. As the opposition, you’d be shouting ‘leave him with it’ or trying to get your centre forward to force the ball onto the least competent of their back four, then chase them down and force a mistake. 

The state of the pitches played their part too, as years ago there was more risk of a miscontrol and misplaced passes.

Now, a defender is a very different animal. They have the most touches of the ball but to what effect? Some managers will come out after losing a game and point out ‘look, we had 65 percent possession…’ Yes, but the majority of that is in your own half and under no pressure.

Per Mertesacker in his final years at Arsenal had the best pass completion statistics in the Premier League, but the vast majority of those passes were only ever 10 yards square, to the left of him or to the right and never hurting the opposition.

It can make for lots of average fare, it’s hardly edge of your seat stuff and can’t be enjoyable for the supporters.

Going to football matches doesn’t come cheap anymore, you are hard pressed to find a ticket for less than £60. It’s not just a dad and lad event; it’s mums and daughters who go too now. That’s an expensive day out for very little exciting football.

When I was at Liverpool, our coach Ronnie Moran would be refereeing our small-sided games and the most common thing you would hear him say is ‘play it forward’. There would be a few more choice expletives, and he’d say, ‘I can do that, that’s how old men play football. Stop playing it square’.

Defenders like Virgil van Dijk are the ones making most passes in the Premier League today

Erling Haaland, the top scorer in the league, touches the ball on average 23 times a game

Per Mertesacker in his final years at Arsenal had the best pass completion statistics in the Premier League, but the vast majority of those passes were only ever 10 yards square

It should be every player’s first thought: where can I play it forward rather than just taking the easy option and going square. 

The team I played in at Liverpool was full of good passers of the ball, we were the best passing team around and the thinking was you were constantly testing the opposition defenders’ concentration levels, so sooner or later one would go to sleep and you would punish them but the difference was we were doing it deep in the attacking half.

I bet if you asked most of these defenders today if they are comfortable doing what they are being asked to do, the majority would say ‘no’. Only the very best ones can get away with it. The rest make too many mistakes in and around their own box which leads to too many efforts on goal and conceding unnecessarily.

The Southampton manager Russell Martin said this week he was embarrassed to be on five points, yet in the same breath says he’s never going to deviate from his principles of playing out from the back. 

Vincent Kompany had the same principles and got relegated, then incredibly was offered one of the biggest jobs in world football at Bayern Munich.

I’m not sure the decision makers at Southampton want to hear that their manager is not going to deviate from principles when they are bottom of the league with five points.

To win football matches at any level today you must have an element of unpredictability. So, I’m not sure it’s too wise to be sending out a message telling all the opposition you are going to play the same way all season.

Even the biggest clubs in the world compromise their style to win. Look at Real Madrid at Manchester City last season. When Real couldn’t break out of City’s press, they went long in the second half. 

This is a team more than any other in world football that is expected to play open, expansive football, yet went against their instincts to dig out the result.

Now that’s good management.

Former Liverpool manager coach Ronnie Moran would often tell his players to ‘play it forward’

When Real Madrid couldn’t break out of Man City’s press, they went long in the second half

United show how NOT to run a football club 

What a PR disaster Manchester United is.

You’d swear the leadership team have a brainstorming session every Monday to say ‘Right, who can we upset this week?’

They sack the sporting director, who Sir Jim Ratcliffe only months earlier had described as ‘one of the best around’, cut Christmas bonuses for staff and all along we are seeing little or no improvement in the most important area of what happens during 90 minutes on a matchday. It has been calamitous.

What happened to Dan Ashworth is mystifying. He spent as much time on gardening leave from Newcastle United as he did working for the club. 

They brought him in because they believed he had the best knowledge and experience of what potential targets are out there and sack him within five months, reportedly because he didn’t share Ratcliffe’s vision? Surely that vision was clarified in the very first meeting.

It’s strange. There must be more to it, because he has not had a chance to do what he was brought in to do.

I do think they have a good manager in Ruben Amorim but he will need the proper tools to fix this United and for that he will need talented, experienced people who have a knowledge of the game and contacts throughout the world.

Even then, because of financial fair play, he will be unable to do much in January unless they get players out of the door. And, given the quality of these United players, there won’t be a queue round the Stretford End for those wanting to buy them.

What happened to Dan Ashworth is mystifying – after a lengthy spell on gardening leave the sporting director was sacked in just five months

Ruben Amorim is a strong mangerial choice but will need the proper tools to succeed at United 

Boyhood academy graduate Marcus Rashford is one of the players considered up for sale

How do you get rid of the poor players from that squad when they are on so much money and who would want a pay off to go?

United will pay an extremely heavy price for their poor recruitment over the past decade. That is, as I never get tired of saying, is the most important thing at every club yet, let’s face it, United have given a masterclass of how not to do it.

We now have a scenario where Marcus Rashford is one of those considered up for sale.

You have to say he looks like a young man who doesn’t enjoy being a footballer.

I hark back to the game between Luton and United last season where Rashford barely lifted a leg to track back and allowed Ross Barkley to dance past him. That should never have been seen on a matchday. That’s something that should have been confronted on the training ground.

Firstly, either senior players or, secondly, the coaches should have given him a right rollicking at Carrington so that attitude to doing the hard yards never emerged. I chuckle to think how some of the players I played with would react if they ever saw that on the training ground.

Barring a sea-change, it is time to put him out of his misery and let him leave one of the greatest clubs in the world.

There’s a player in there but, like Anthony Martial before him, for whatever reason we are not seeing it on a consistent basis.

Whether it’s the United shirt weighing too heavy on his shoulders or he’s just not good enough, he looks unhappy. But when he leaves United, it won’t be for a better place.

Pep Guardiola’s run is no short-term dip 

Pep Guardiola must have exhausted his knowledge by now. He has suffered a proper punch on the nose with City’s run. One win in ten, this is more than a blip.

I can guarantee as a player I never experienced that, and it will be a very strange experience to a group that are serial winners. 

Pep Guardiola has suffered a proper punch on the nose with City’s run – it’s more than a blip

They haven’t lost their individual ability but en masse they appear to have lost the intensity

In a successful team, the mantra is always ‘don’t panic, don’t do anything different, let’s do things that have brought us success in the past’. 

Quite rightly, Pep will be saying the same. They haven’t lost their individual ability but en masse they appear to have lost the intensity at which they usually play when they don’t have the ball. 

As a collective they need to get that extra half a yard back because at the moment teams are breaking their press too easily and they look vulnerable.

To beat this Manchester United may give a temporary lift but I’m not sure it would be a true indicator of any great progress or corner turned.