Yes, there has been one or two mistakes, but I feel they were mostly down to him getting his fitness and match sharpness back. One thing is not in question: Against the goons he had his best game for us so far. We can probably assume that this is partly due to playing against his old club and partly due to having 50,000 people booing your every touch, but if it was also a side effect of making him captain then I'm all for him retaining the armband.
One thing is for sure: Modric is not up to the job. Love him as I do, he made a massive mistake by allowing Ferdinand, the ref and the lino to have a cozy little chat duiring the aftermath of the Nani debacle those few weeks ago. As far as I can see, little Modders is far to much of a nice guy to handle the pressure of modern captaincy.
"Yes Mr Referee, you're probably quite right, I expect the ball was over our line. What's that? Go away? Yes of course sir, let me just take my players with me."As far as I can see, in the modern game a captain's responsibilities are thus:
- Command respect through talent, loyalty, experience or fear
- Put a rocket up your team-mate's backsides when required
- Hassle the ref to go easy on your team whenever possible
- Hassle the ref to penalise the opposition whenever possible
Personally, I don't understand why Modders was chosen over VDV in the first place, as he is suitably tempermental too. Hopefully he's one for the future, but failing that I'd back Gallas to step in - particularly if it continues to bring his game up a level.
Can't see this being universally popular though, so how do people feel about it?
