Is There a Gap Between Football Coverage and How It’s Wanted to Be Consumed?

Slaven Bilic let go of a small sigh and then began. “Look, it’s the first game of the season, and we are already talking about these kinds of decisions,” the West Ham United manager said with frustration at the post-match press conference following his side’s 2-1 loss to Chelsea in the opening round of the Premier League season.

Bilic was only minutes removed from a frenetic and heated London derby at Stamford Bridge. His disappointment was palpable, but as he often is, he was prepared to be open and engaging about his team, interested in discussing the dynamics of a game that had shifted throughout. And yet, his sigh came because no one else seemed to be; three of the first four questions put to him centred on the referee and Diego Costa.

“I’m a manager, I’m not an eagle eye, I’m not Howard Webb,” said Bilic. “I want to talk about the game.”

This writer was at that press conference and was reminded of it this week as Jurgen Klopp so brilliantly held the camera for almost an hour on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.

The Liverpool boss, with Jamie Carragher alongside looking adoringly at him, was both entertaining and insightful as he discussed the themes of his management and his progress at Anfield.

Particularly interesting were his comments on defending from the front—”no playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing situation”—on the split between zonal and man-marking at set pieces, on his idea for stopping and playing through the “No. 6” and on systematic fluidity mattering more than systematic definition.

It was one of the most prominent and respected men in football discussing football—the game itself and not the circus that comes with it; the thing Bilic had wanted to discuss, too.

Klopp on his #LFC squad: “They are full of interest and want to learn.”#MNF https://t.co/UR34uTkYPI

— Sky Sports MNF ⚽️ (@SkySportsMNF) September 26, 2016

That night, the Telegraph’s Jim White called Klopp’s appearance a “masterclass,” and plenty agreed. Search “Klopp MNF” on Twitter and you’ll find little but glowing praise, the underlying message along the lines of I could watch him talk about this for hours.

Sky would have been thrilled, but it gave rise to important questions: Why exactly was an audience so transfixed? Why did this feel so massively different to the norm? Outside this, has there grown a disconnect between the way football is typically covered and presented and the way it’s wanted to be consumed? 

It’s interesting to ponder. For the fan, the weekly coverage of football tends to involve a lot of damning assessments pushed at them. The reaction to a weekend more often than not focuses on those who are struggling; headlines rarely go for nuance; “look what this person said about that person” forms a large portion of hard news; by television, managers are often shown discussing controversy before anything else. 

Is this delivering what’s wanted? This is not intended to be an existential question or an assassination of those who drive the weekly cycle, not at all. This writer is involved in that, and football …

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