What is entertainment?

Lots of people have been dismissive of CH due to the perceived lack of entertainment, but what kind of football do people find entertaining? (Lets leave the CH in/out argument for this). Most people seem to think a game is only entertaining if there are lots of goals, as illustrated by MOTD showing these games first, but can defending not be entertaining? Personally, I want to see strong competition, high pressure, strong but fair challenges, commitment, bit of controversy and positive football (not necessarily attacking but wanting to win). Lots of goals doesn't bother me too much, although some is clearly a good thing. Maybe most of all a good crowd atmosphere seems to make a match more entertaining!

 

I think chances make a game entertaining. If you've got two decent sides, then it takes clever play or a bit of skill to make a chance, and generally good finishing to take it. And if the teams are fairly well balanced, then you'd expect a lot of good defending to prevent several chances too. That would be my criteria. If I'm seeing lots of defence-splitting passes, or neat midfield play to create space, and a bit of individual brilliance thrown in too, I'd say I'm entertained. The very best game for me to watch would have all of those things happening often, but sometimes it just takes one or two moments a game for me to say I was entertained.

 

A police car and a screamin' siren
Pneumatic drill and ripped-up concrete
A baby wailing, a stray dog howling
The screech of brakes and lamplight blinking

A smash of glass and the rumble of boots
An electric train and a ripped-up phone booth
Paint-splattered walls and the cry of a tomcat
Lights going out and a kick in the balls

Days of speed and slow-time Mondays
Pissing down with rain on a boring Wednesday
Watching the news and not eating your tea
A freezing cold flat with damp on the walls

Waking up at 6 A.M. on a cool warm morning
Opening the windows and breathing in petrol
An amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yard
Watching the telly and thinking 'bout your holidays

Waking up from bad dreams and smoking cigarettes
Cuddling a warm girl and smelling stale perfume
A hot summer's day and sticky black tarmac
Feeding ducks in the park and wishing you were far away

Two lovers kissing masks a scream of midnight
Two lovers missing the tranquility of solitude
Getting a cab and travelling on buses
Reading the grafitti about slashed-seat affairs

Now THAT'S entertainment

 

I've got tickets to see gigs by Molly Hatchet, Blackberry Smoke, Steel Panther, Foreigner, Clutch, Drive By Truckers and The Eagles - I expect to be entertained at these events. At Carrow Road every fortnight I expect to be either tortured or delighted.

 

It's true and always has been!!

 

Except when it's a 0-0 draw, when nobdy is quite sure which (unless it's the point that keeps us up).

 

Entertained by foreigner???? really, that must be torture

 

Support is by Europe and FM - Europe are one of my favourite bands so it's for them I am going. Saw Foreigner support Journey three years ago - they were damn good actually.

 

Europe, again really? Not my taste, but enjoy

 

Have they all still got the big silly hair, or are they showing their age and now as bald as coots with big bellies?

 

Nah Tony - they are lean, mean and rock harder than many so called "metal" bands.

 

Nice syrups

 

Back to the OP.

It's hard for me to say exactly what I want in terms of entertainment. There is just a kind of fluidity that I love watching. The Swansea vs Man City game had it. Intelligence. There was a kind of intelligence to the play. Under Hughton we never have it. We are ugly and functional and clunk around like a group of 1950s sci-fi robots.

 

Not my kind of music either, but I do remember as a kid in the 80's loving The Final Countdown (like I'm sure a lot of us did) and also remember a song called Rock the Night that I really liked as well. I have a vague memory of the video being shot in a greasy spoon with the drummer air drumming with some bottles of ketchup - or am I going completely mad?

 

I think there have been moments between Fer and Howson which were fantastically fluid and the movement, intelligence and understanding between them was great, but I would agree that we are generally far too rigid and not only is that not particularly exciting, it is also not particularly effective.

 

Intelligent footballers do not lose their intelligence depending on how they are set up. They play the role they are asked to play -- intelligently. I often see a perfectly good and sensible Hughton game plan undermined by unintelligent execution. As RBF said, it comes back to the players themselves. Howson is a good example. Last season he was asked to add to his game by playing a greater part in team defending. To begin with this resulted in him stopping getting forward enough. People immediately blamed Hughton for ordering him not to go forward. The fault was Howson's -- as he said himself at the end of the season. A more intelligent player would have been able to get the balance right much more quickly, seeing when to defend, when to attack. The same can be said about a number of our players. Lack of intelligence drove Capello mad with England, and Hodgson finds himself with the same problem. It's not an uncommon problem -- hence the need for managers to stand on the touchline telling the players what they should be doing. Intelligent players don't need to be told what to do on the pitch.

 

I think you are talking about concentration, not intelligence.

Playing so firmly to structure is through practice and concentration.

Playing with fluidity, movement and reading the game are to do with intelligence.

 

Good post. I agree players have to take much more responsibility for performances and that goes for all clubs not just our. The manager can not be blamed for sloppy individual errors. England are indeed poor because they play in an unintelligent (if you want to call it that) manner. The real reason for people saying Englands passing is rubbish is not because the players are incapable of passing a ball 10 yards, but because the movement is so poor there are far fewer passing options. Intelligent players create space for themselves and their team mates, no manager tells the players not to move as much or anything along those lines. Yes you can set a team up to be disciplined, but the players still have the opportunity to play intelligently and create space.

One of the best teams to watch purely from a footballing point of view at the moment is Munich. They have taken on a passing style of the highest quality but combined it with great athleticism and drive. IMO they are the most attractive footballing side, even though their games are not always the most entertaining, mainly because they are so good they are often not challenged enough.

 

Lots of different things. Delia, bless her heart, in front of the Barclay - just saw it again on TV and everytime I see it the red wine seems to have got stronger. Norwich v Man City a couple of years ago. Arsenal on a good day. Viera against Keene. Liverpool winning the European Cup from an absolutely impossible position. Watching little Wes on one of his better days. The look on Cowling's face when he realised that he had been taken for a twat. Mikeys subsequent rants on the old 606. The old 606 site in it's heyday before the mods got power mad. No disrespect intended to not606. Stuffing the old enemy twice in one season. Lionel Messi. I could go on and on.

 

Actually no, I'm talking about intelligence. Players of limited football intelligence can be trained to be effective through having a structure and discipline imposed on them, coupled with practice. A team of intelligent players can be similarly structured and exhibit the same discipline, but play with fluidity and movement because they better understand the system and how it works, and read the game better. You can't tell me that Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal, Bayern, Barcelons etc etc. play without structure and discipline. Their success is built on precisely those attributes, with intelligent players added.