Leave Tracking Back To The Grunts...
The British football fan is a strange beast at the best of times; often more like a manic depressive who has mislaid his lithium than a rational sentient animal and this week has been the perfect illustration of their lunacy.
To many it would seem the worst crime a footballer can commit isn't to fail to score, miss a header or kick a goalkeeper in the neck - no, the worst thing a player can do is Not Track Back.
Tracking Back has somehow become wrapped up in commitment to the game, to the club, to the player's level of masculinity even.
Now, while you need your defensive players, your midfield disrupters and holding men to track back, surely the most creative players should not be asked to chase back to regain possession. It's what the other nine outfielders are there to do.
We've seen Ronaldo take a fearful slagging this week for his failure to bust a gut to get back, but this is madness. Any old potato can do that side of the game but you need your best and most creative players concentrating on breaking down defences and scoring goals. Considering the fact that the shiny Portuguese kid has knocked in around 60 in two seasons clearly shows this is what he's good at. Would he have scored as many if he was in his own half trying to get the ball back down by the corner flag? Surely you want players to work where they are most effective. When Ronaldo loses possession it's up to the defenders to get it back - that's their job.
We don't criticise lumbering defenders for not being able to dribble, do we? No-one accuses a defender of not tracking forward. But for some reason the flair player must also be required to be a water carrier as well as a mercurial wizard.
This feels like part of that very British disease which considers level of work-rate over and above anything else. The one that runs around most wins.
Running around a lot for many fans and managers at both club and international level has become the definition by which a good player is judged. Failure to track back means he's lazy, which for many years was also a by-word for foreign. Johnny Foreigner is a slacker you see, prone to dossing around and not keen on sweating out his pre-match bottle of brandy by running 100 yards towards his own goal to get a ball back. Probably likes lifting shirts as well. Running = Being A Man y'see.
You will still get a feeling of that below the surface in the criticism of the likes of Ronaldo; that somehow he lacks the moral courage or grit to run towards his own goal like a jack rabbit on speed, get the ball and knock it long like some mythical English hero like Bryan Robson would have done. Indeed, Captain Marvel's whole schtick was based around a lunatic level of running and physicality which frequently meant he was often injured, having lost an arm tackling someone by the corner flag in a pointless display of bravado and machismo. Robson's work-rate throughout his career was always lauded even though his consequent injuries deprived the side of any work at all for weeks at a time. But people couldn't see past the sweat and grind.
As long as I've been alive, the flair players have all had this Not Tracking Back criticism. They used to accuse Charlie George of it in the early 70s. His manager just thought Charlie couldn't be arsed to do what Frank McLintock could do, but anyone with their mind not in neutral realised that Charlie was a genius whose talents were wasted doing the hod-carrying. In fact, almost any flair player in Britain at one time or another has been accused of lacking work rate and Not Tracking Back.
How has work-rate become elevated to the status of supreme illustration of commitment to the cause? Is it because your thickest fan just wants to see a lot of movement because he confuses skill with energy?
I remember sometime in the late 80s seeing Liverpool's rotund midfielder Jan Molby destroy Middlesbrough with a display of incisive passing. He barely strayed outside of the centre circle but totally dictated the game. Afterwards as we were leaving a bloke behind me said 'How did we let that fat **** do that? He doesn't even run around much?' Presumably if Molby had run around more and made less killer passes, this bloke would have respected him more. See, it's always been like this. It's nothing new. But it is still insane.
Ronaldo attracts much criticism, some of it justified, but to want him to leave the club because you're outraged at his refusal to Not Track Back, is madness especially when you've got Paul Scholes on hand to do a two-footed tackle on an advancing player's neck.
Work rate isn't everything for any player, it's how effective he is in the work that he does that counts. Any fool can run around a lot.
To demand your world-class creative player to work like the grunt labour is like being outraged that Bob Dylan has come round your house and played you 'Highway 61 Revisited' instead of doing the washing up. 'I can't believe it - you've just performed a work of genius and never lifted a finger to help in the kitchen. Shocking work Bob. Get out!'
But it won't change. This country seems to worship perspiration over inspiration and is cynical about creativity that seems to come without graft. Maybe it's the protestant work ethic deeply ingrained or maybe it's just a tradition we can't get beyond but either way, it is one of British football's ugliest traits.
What an amazing strike by Ronaldo 
Holy $hit is all I can say to that. Absolute stunner. Ferdinand and Vidic looked very good together. Lets hope both of them can stay fit and United's defensive woes should disappear. United! 
