Sunderland: David Moyes Dropped Didier Ndong Against Burnley Because He Wanted ‘More Britishness’ In Midfield

Chris Wright

20th, March 2017

3 Comments

moyes-sunderland-britishness

Rock bottom of the Premier League, Sunderland once again went into Saturday’s game against Burnley desperately needing to take something from the fixture.

They managed a 0-0 draw at the Stadium of Light but David Moyes was criticised for his selection after dropping Didier Ndong to the bench in favour of Jack Rodwell, thus stodging up his midfield in an attempt to hamper the Clarets.

Asked after the game by the Sunderland Echo about his decision to drop Ndong, Moyes used an odd choice of wording to explain the call:

I decided I wanted Jack (Rodwell) and Gibbo (Darron Gibson) together.

I thought the game might suit more Britishness in the middle of the pitch.

Ah yes, ‘Britishness’ – i.e, non-skill-related attributes that can only be accurately measured in ‘bags’ by people like Paul Merson: fire, steel, backbone, bottle, passion, pointing at things and shouting. Not like them airy-fairy foreigners.

Sounds suspiciously like Moyes is implementing Brexit football.

Indeed, thanks to Rory Fallow of the Wise Men Say podcast, we can confirm that this is the first time Moyes has fixated on the non-existent notion of ‘Britishness’ when organising his teams.

In fact, the bloke is always bloody banging on about it…

Forgive our cynicism here, but isn’t ‘Britishness’ the exact thing that’s been holding British football back for the past 40/50 years?