Two months after football in Germany resumed after the spring lockdown, the Bundesliga acting as pathfinder for other leagues seeking ways of staging marches amid a pandemic, the statistics were revealing some unusual features.
Away teams were more successful – unsurprising, given the empty stadiums, with no hostile home supporters. Less expected was that the number of clear defensive errors had soared.
Five months after that tentative resumption, with almost every league now back up and running, the tendency for slipshod defending seems more and more pronounced. It is spreading across elite club football.
What happened on Sunday in the Premier League was startling: the finest club side in Europe for most of 2019-20, Liverpool, shipped seven goals at Aston Villa.
That rout had begun when television viewers were still checking whether what they had just watched, broadcast from Old Trafford, was true. It was: Manchester United beaten 6-1 at home by Tottenham Hotspur.
While those eye-catching results were being compiled, Bayern Munich, who won a Treble only a few weeks ago, were busy conceding three goals at home to Hertha Berlin. Bayern have let in seven in their last two games.
United, Liverpool and Bayern. Look through the list of the world’s most expensive defenders, and these clubs all feature among the buyers.
Lucas Hernandez, the France international, is the costliest footballer ever to join a German club, although Bayern doubt the wisdom of that investment. He cost €80 million ($94m).
United’s Harry Maguire and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk cost even more. They were both on site, uncomfortably burdened with their price-tags, for record-breaking events (for Spurs and Villa) at the weekend.
Ambitious clubs invest so heavily in central defenders because ambitious managers demand such a range of qualities from the leaders of a back line.
They must, as ever, command, contain their opponents, and, these days, jump up to win aerial challenges while keeping their arms as close as possible to their torsos and hips, lest they fall foul of stringent new guidelines on handball.
Above all they must be bold, and sure-footed enough to pass precisely, long and short, while under a heavy opposition press, something Eric Bailly – drafted in by United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to partner Maguire – failed to do against Spurs. His ball out from his own penalty area, intended for Nemanja Matic, invited Harry Kane to pounce for Tottenham’s third goal.
The same instincts put Liverpool in trouble from the start against Villa, the goalkeeper Adrian assuming that, with the ball at his feet in open play, his first responsibility was to pass to one of his ball-playing centre-backs, even while he was liable to be aggressively closed down.
Adrian looked for Joe Gomez, and his pass was imprecise: It effectively gave Villa their early lead.
Villa would go on to shred a Liverpool defence that has been carefully constructed to master the most demanding extremes of defensive excellence.
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Aston Villa v Liverpool player ratings
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Liverpool’s back four are required, without the ball, to maintain a very high line, close to the halfway line.
With the ball, when they regain possession within 18 metres of their own goal, they look for the most positive pass, with an emphasis on speed, and a rapid transition.
Their expertise in both areas made them the most brilliant counter-attacking team in 2019-20 while keeping the tightest defence in the Premier League, well ahead of Manchester City, whose collective spending on defenders in the last three seasons has eclipsed everybody else’s.
“We have to take risks,” said Klopp after the heaviest defeat of his five years in English football. “But we have to protect the risks. We didn’t. Pretty much everyone made massive mistakes around the goals. They [Villa] were quicker of mind.”
Villa’s was a studied destruction, a combination of aggressive pressing and readiness to exploit the space behind Klopp’s high line. They chose a good day.
Sadio Mane was absent, which deprived Liverpool of the striker who best defends from the front. Goalkeeper Alisson was injured: Adrian seldom resembles a like-for-like deputy.
A theory from Germany, where they first noted the higher ratio of goals from obvious defensive lapses in post-Covid football, is that the lack of a crowd, rather than eliminating distraction, actually hinders a defender’s concentration, the silence a stimulus for moments of doziness.
A plausible theory across the elite level is that a shorter pre-season, because of the rescheduled calendar, has left inadequate time for defenders to practice the detailed drills a back line need to ensure the positional discipline that ‘risk’ strategies, as Klopp calls them, function.
It is also possible that the pursuit of a higher and higher defensive line, a fashionable tactic over the last decade, may have reached the end of its usefulness, and that, like sky-high fees for defenders, and extraordinarily high scorelines, it is due a reality check.
Profile of Udrive
Date started: March 2016
Founder: Hasib Khan
Based: Dubai
Employees: 40
Amount raised (to date): $3.25m – $750,000 seed funding in 2017 and a Seed round of $2.5m last year. Raised $1.3m from Eureeca investors in January 2021 as part of a Series A round with a $5m target.
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
The biogs
Name: Zinah Madi
Occupation: Co-founder of Dots and links
Nationality: Syrian
Family: Married, Mother of Tala, 18, Sharif, 14, Kareem, 2
Favourite Quote: “There is only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything.”
Name: Razan Nabulsi
Occupation: Co-founder of Dots and Links
Nationality: Jordanian
Family: Married, Mother of Yahya, 3.5
Favourite Quote: A Chinese proverb that says: “Be not afraid of moving slowly, be afraid only of standing still.”
The Bio
Amal likes watching Japanese animation movies and Manga - her favourite is The Ancient Magus Bride
She is the eldest of 11 children, and has four brothers and six sisters.
Her dream is to meet with all of her friends online from around the world who supported her work throughout the years
Her favourite meal is pizza and stuffed vine leaves
She ams to improve her English and learn Japanese, which many animated programmes originate in
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
PROFILE OF STARZPLAY
Date started: 2014
Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand
Number of employees: 125
Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
MATCH INFO
English Premiership semi-finals
Saracens 57
Wasps 33
Exeter Chiefs 36
Newcastle Falcons 5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHakbah%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENaif%20AbuSaida%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESaudi%20Arabia%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E22%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24200%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Epre-Series%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EGlobal%20Ventures%20and%20Aditum%20Investment%20Management%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
11 cabbie-recommended restaurants and dishes to try in Abu Dhabi
Iqbal Restaurant behind Wendy’s on Hamdan Street for the chicken karahi (Dh14)
Pathemari in Navy Gate for prawn biryani (from Dh12 to Dh35)
Abu Al Nasar near Abu Dhabi Mall, for biryani (from Dh12 to Dh20)
Bonna Annee at Navy Gate for Ethiopian food (the Bonna Annee special costs Dh42 and comes with a mix of six house stews – key wet, minchet abesh, kekel, meser be sega, tibs fir fir and shiro).
Al Habasha in Tanker Mai for Ethiopian food (tibs, a hearty stew with meat, is a popular dish; here it costs Dh36.75 for lamb and beef versions)
Himalayan Restaurant in Mussaffa for Nepalese (the momos and chowmein noodles are best-selling items, and go for between Dh14 and Dh20)
Makalu in Mussaffa for Nepalese (get the chicken curry or chicken fry for Dh11)
Al Shaheen Cafeteria near Guardian Towers for a quick morning bite, especially the egg sandwich in paratha (Dh3.50)
Pinky Food Restaurant in Tanker Mai for tilapia
Tasty Zone for Nepalese-style noodles (Dh15)
Ibrahimi for Pakistani food (a quarter chicken tikka with roti costs Dh16)
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Recipe: Spirulina Coconut Brothie
Ingredients
1 tbsp Spirulina powder
1 banana
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (full fat preferable)
1 tbsp fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
½ cup fresh spinach leaves
½ cup vegan broth
2 crushed ice cubes (optional)
Method
Blend all the ingredients together on high in a high-speed blender until smooth and creamy.
