I watched Match of the Day 2 on Sunday evening. I don't usually pay much attention to the post-match analysis because it's always the same old tired rubbish (was it or wasn't it a penalty? who cares?), but one brief exchange in the discussion following the Man Utd vs Swansea game made me sit up and take notice. I have transcribed the interesting bit, but if you want to watch it for yourself, it's here:
http://bbc.in/2edQwB3 - it starts at about 57 minutes in...
Mark Chapman: No Chris Smalling. Before the game, Mourinho said he doesn’t feel he can play 100% with his pain, and he also said that Luke Shaw told him on the morning that he couldn’t play. After the game, he said, ‘In every sport they play at the highest level, how many times do you play when you are not 100%? I have a friend who is a big tennis player, he remembers more the times he played with pain than the times he played without pain. That is what I mean. It is a cultural thing for some and that’s not my culture.’
Alan Shearer: Well, in my experience, very very rarely are you ever 100% fit when you go out onto a football pitch and play, whether you have to take anti-inflammatories to get out and play or what. But very rarely are you 100% fit.
MC: Is that a message to some to toughen up?
Danny Murphy: I’m surprised at Smalling because obviously playing with him, he was a tough lad. He must be in some trouble but that is a message from Mourinho, that doesn’t sound good. I’m with Al. I physically wouldn’t be able to get about if I didn’t…
AS: The one thing I would say is that when he was at Chelsea the first time, he had warriors – Drogba, Terry, Lampard, Makelele, Cech, all these guys that you would never ever question anything like that. And he is becoming more and more vocal, Mourinho, in actually digging his players out in public and that was very rare in his first time at Chelsea. So I think yes, the game has moved on, even from his first time, players are paid a hell of a lot more money, they don’t have to put themselves under pressure and stress to go out and play and he might have to face that fact.
It's a "cultural thing", eh? Shame that Shearer interrupted Murphy before he had a chance to say what it is that he needed to do to be physically able to get about.
Follow-up story here:
http://bbc.in/2fTa539
