WHY SAY ANYTHING?

José Mourinho has decided that the loss against Huddersfield Town was entirely the fault of his players. He is right, to an extent, in that it is they who take to the pitch and, therefore, they who have the major say in how the game is going to be played and whether or not they will win.

He is also right if they fail to carry out his instructions and leave the field having lost the game.

He is wrong to think that, by publicly blaming the players, it makes him in some way safer in his job.

Now that may not be what he is thinking but, if it isn’t, why express your opinions to the waiting press? Why try to shift the blame away from himself? There is no reason other than to perpetuate the idea, as he once did with Chelsea, that he is a great manager so nothing that ever goes wrong could possibly be his fault.

At the end of the day, if the players weren’t sufficiently motivated for this game, then that is the manager’s fault. If the selected team wasn’t good enough to beat Huddersfield which, on the day they weren’t, then that is also the manager’s fault.

If a player is allowed to speak to the media and make comments with which Mourinho takes issue, then that is also the manager’s fault.

Mourinho is, undoubtedly, a great manager. His collection of trophies proves that. He is a great coach and, more often than not, gets his tactics right for the big games. Unfortunately for him, he occasionally gets his tactics wrong for the “smaller” games and this is what happened against Huddersfield, despite what he may say. Yes, his team had an “off day”, but guess where the buck stops José!

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The Sunday Supplement is now officially a joke. This morning’s programme, hosted by serial bore, Neil Ashton, was obviously broadcast from the Sky Sports créche where three sets of parents, in town for a shopping trip, had left their children to be cared for by Sky.

The usual old heads were missing and football was discussed by kids who probably weren’t even born the last time Liverpool won the league title.

Expecting people of this age to discuss a subject as far-reaching and deep as football when their experience of the game doesn’t even stretch as far back as Eric Cantona’s winner in the 1996 FA Cup final, is totally ridiculous.

The other aspect of the programme which has changed is their apparent over-exuberance for racial equality. The three families who left their kids in the hands of Sky Sports were all, for some reason, Asian.

Not that this is any cause for complaint, it just seems a radical move away from the norm and is even stranger given the fact that Asia is hardly renowned for producing world-beating football teams, (or even players for that matter), so why would they have opinions that would be of any interest to anybody, particularly at such a young age!

That aside, this programme is just a vehicle for people who obviously weren’t good enough to become professional footballers to be given the opportunity to talk about the game they can’t play.

The problem is that, as is usually the case, not only can’t they play the game, they struggle to talk coherently about it, frequently stating the absolutely obvious. Failed footballers are in no position to write about the professional game, never mind talk about it. Not at this level anyway.

The old adage, “it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove any doubt,” is particularly relevant in their case

Cricket Writers On TV, hosted by ex-international cricketer Paul Allott and virtually always populated by writers who are ex-professional cricketers is the stellar opposite.

With eloquence and knowledge guests discuss the game with a deep rooted enthusiasm borne of years playing the game at the highest level.

Not only are they fully qualified to write about the game, they are also fully qualified to talk about the game and make for far more interesting listening than the football version of the programme.

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And finally. Stubborn-old-man got one over on dead-Dutchman-walking at Goodison Park as Arsenal came back, from yet another Wayne Rooney goal down, to win 2-5.

Barring some kind of divine intervention, that result should see the dead Dutchman ceasing to walk.

Hopefully Everton won’t do anything stupid like re-appoint David Moyes! They wouldn’t, would they?

At White Hart Wembley Spurs took an early lead against Liverpool through Harry Kane and then doubled it before the 15th minute.

Liverpool fought back only to give away a poor goal on the stroke of half-time. so the score at the break was 3-1 to Tottenham.

In the second half Harry Kane scored his second and Spurs’ fourth which, if the tribulations at Goodison Park are anything to go by, should pile some pressure on Jürgen Klopp, but probably won’t.