Time to hand over to the Poynton prince, Dominic Booth.

Manchester City to appoint Hugo Viana as sporting director

Rob Kelly gets in touch too: “A thought for the blog – perhaps England’s players just aren’t that good. How many of them could we say are good enough to change games when we’re up against it? It’s all very well looking brilliant for Arsenal/City/Liverpool when you’ve got Haaland, Odegard or VVD to controlling the game but when these guys play for England, suddenly the onus is on them – and as we saw in the summer, they don’t really know how to react.

“It’s all a bit of a worry with Kane’s star seemingly fading. How often have his predatory instincts bailed us out over the past eight years? Without him, I wonder if we even have a genuinely world class player who can take the team up a level and turn a very poor defeat into a narrow, undeserved win. Bellingham seems to be the best hope on that front but he’s still quite young.

“I’ve also got a theory on whether we really ought to be using ‘lesser’ players from smaller clubs who actually have to take responsibility week in, week out, but I’ll leave that for another day.”

Krishna gets in touch: “Should an animated logo of a knee-jerk replace the Three Lions. The general public, fans and even experienced reporters appear too quick to condemn or deify a manager after just one unfavorable/ positive result.”

“And also the whole narrative of “England lost” taking centrestage is depriving the Greece team the accolades they deserve – more so given the difficult mental trauma thay played the game with (probably that is what made them go that extra mile and win it for Georgie).”

The second point is well made.

She blinded me with science.

Unlike last season when their 20.8 shots-per-game average was the highest in the league, Liverpool’s high xG this season is not so much due to shot volume. Slot’s Liverpool have averaged 15.3 shots a game in the Premier League, only averaging fewer under Klopp in 2018-19 (15.1). It was busy at both ends for Liverpool in 2023-24 as their 10.9 shots faced last season was their highest average under Klopp. That’s come down to 9.1 this season.

Are they looking after the ball better now, as Slot wanted them to? Liverpool average 570.1 passes a game in the Premier League this season, lower than every full Klopp season. However, although they are attempting fewer passes, their accuracy (86.6%) is higher than in any league campaign under the German. Liverpool’s average possession of 60.3% is their lowest since 2015-16 but is still the third highest in the Premier League this season behind only Manchester City (63.5%) and Tottenham (62.4%).

WSL record appearance-maker Jordan Nobbs interview here:

You have to give yourself a pat on the back. You’re not sitting there counting the number of games you have played. But I think I did see how hard I had worked to get there. I want to enjoy those in football and not just let them pass by.

Lee Carsley decides to end his job interview.

A Stateside view of Jurgen Klopp’s new job.

Peter Cormack 1946-2024

Last night’s Football Weekly – it was recorded last night – is here.

Should the game have gone ahead?

Some quotes from Dominic Solanke, who came on against Greece and set up Jude Bellingham’s goal.

It was good, it would have been a lot better if we managed to get the win tonight, but it didn’t quite go to plan. We didn’t play how we wanted to. I am over the moon to be out there, last time was a long time ago so a lot has happened since then but I was happy to be out there.

It was amazing, every cap for your country you need to cherish it because there is so much competition, so it is another cap.”

On our day we are good enough to beat anyone, we have got good players all over the pitch. Some games are difficult, we didn’t quite manage to get it right. We are lucky enough to have another game in a few days so we have a chance to go out there and get a win. We need to rest and recover and go again.

Jacob Steinberg was unsparing with his ratings from Wembley.

Elsewhere, great win for Ireland in Finland. If you can, try and find Robbie Brady’s goal. Here he is speaking in Helsinki.

Then, that very odd press conference from Lee Carsley:

“I was quite surprised after the last camp in terms of the job’s mine and it’s mine to lose and all the rest of it,” the 50-year-old said. “My remit has been clear. I’m doing three camps, there’s three games left and then hopefully I’ll be going back to the 21s. It’s had almost no impact.”

Carsley, who stepped into the senior role following Gareth Southgate’s departure, was asked to clarify his comments on three more occasions. “I said at the start I wouldn’t rule myself in or out,” he continued. “That’s still the case. I’m more than comfortable in my position, where I am. The remit was clear. I’m comfortable and confident with that. After the first camp I didn’t get too excited or believe too much. I’m very aware that this job is one of the best jobs in the world.”

Let’s start with Barney Ronay’s withering verdict.

No doubt Carsley has the best intentions with these games, one of them being to try and get the England job by making people like him and think he’s a new thing. But this was also the most shapeless, weirdly arrogant attempt to reinvent the basic notion of international football against a team that can actually play.

Preamble