All the latest from the 2pm BST kick-off at Bramall LaneNorwood: ‘Fergie told me I’d get here. I don’t know if he meant it’Email Daniel your thoughts or tweet @DanielHarris 1.53pm BST “I think there will be many more penalties in the coming season, not just because of VAR, but also because of the rule changes,” says Jon. “Some forwards will deliberately start kicking the ball at any loose defender hands and arms in the area. VAR will also cause minor fouls off the ball to be punished, such as Bayern’s penalty yesterday.”Yes, agreed – though isn’t the rule change because of VAR? As far as the second element goes, I’d change the penalty law entirely: if an infringement denies a goalscoring opportunity anywhere on the pitch, penalty; in an infringement in the box doesn’t deny a goalscoring opportunity, direct free-kick. Related: Make football great again: five cosmetic tips for the beautiful game | Daniel Harris 1.50pm BST Graeme Souness loves Zaha. I wonder how the rest of his career will pan out – he has the talent to play in the Champions League, but Palace can afford to price him out of moves. That’s got to be annoying, but on the plus side, he’s still handy for Tasty Jerk. 1.44pm BST Roy Hodgson says Wilfried Zaha has trained well and that his team need to match United for heart and aggression while remaining calm. He’s looking forward to the atmosphere. He also says that you need to get bodies out wide to counter United’s overlapping centre-backs – how they combat the inherent problems with the 3-5-2- formation – and that they can’t be in two places at once, which leaves them vulnerable to the counter. 1.42pm BST Brian Deane is wearing a light brown three-piece suit – from Burton or River Island, I trust. It’s like the 90s never ended. 1.36pm BST Sky’s interviewer just asked Chris Wilder where his head was at. Naturally, he responded with “GOT A TEXT!” so she told him to “stop being so muggy.” 1.32pm BST “I’ve been thinking there might actually be more penalties this season,” emails Patrick Cullen, “due to the use of VAR. Can I take it you disagree, or will Palace be using a different penalty taker?”That’s a good point. I’m sure Palace will be sticking with their man, but perhaps he might do as well for the reason you give. 1.30pm BST And I say that as someone who doesn’t like 3-5-2 on the basis that you can’t just forget about the corners of the pitch if you want to be good. But if you want to make it difficult, that’s a different thing. 1.29pm BST A hypothesis: for a team seeking to survive, 3-5-2 is the best formation. They don’t get outnumbered in midfield, they’ve got two strikers to take advantage of any attacking aggro they can cause, and the men to defend the box. If a team is good enough to go around the sides and between wing-back and centre-back, so be it. 1.24pm BST Funnily enough, the Shamen perpetrated one of my linguistic hates, in Ebeneezer Goode. This verse is an absolute bazzer . except for the bit where “mischievous” becomes “mischievious”.“You can see that he’s mischievous, mysterious and deviousWhen he circulates amongst the people in the placeBut once you know he’s fun, and something of a geniusHe gives a grin that goes around from face to face to faceBackwards and then forwards, forwards and then backwards‘Eezer is the geezer who loves to muscle inThat’s about the time the crowd all shout the name of ‘EezerAs he’s kotcheled in the corner, laughing by the bass bin.” 1.22pm BST “Are we to expect The Shamen and the Sky Strikers at half-time,” wonders Gary Naylor. Mr C is busy, so I believe they’ve hired Marcus Brigstocke. 1.12pm BST Sky have just shown some of this little ripper (yes, caveats, but a ripper nonetheless). 1.11pm BST Simple enough teams, then: United are unchanged, while Palace bring back Zaha, who replaces Ayew. 1.08pm BST Sheffield United (an unarguable 3-5-2): Henderson; Basham, Egan, O’Connell; Baldock, Lundstram, Norwood, Fleck, Stevens; McGoldrick, Robinson. Subs: Moore, Jagielka, Osborn, Besic, Freeman, McBurnie, Freeman.Crystal Palace (a Paulo Coelho-influenced 4-4-2): Guaita; Ward, Kelly, Dann, Van Aanholt; Townsend, McArthur, Milijoevic, Meyer; Benteke, Zaha. Subs: Hennessey, Cahill, Schlupp, McCarthy, Kouyate, Wickham, Ayew. 10.10am BST Football is about so many things beyond football that to bang on about football sometimes feels gauche. Most of the time, the 90 minutes are a disappointment, and we don’t keep coming back on the off-chance that this time they won’t be. As such, how well a team does or doesn’t do isn’t the most important thing about it, so to chunter about Sheffield United finally being back in the Premier League is to ignore the multitude of other things going on, both at Bramall Lane and elsewhere. Except Sheffield United being back in the Premier League is a huge deal, and today is a huge fixture. Continue readingreadfullarticle
