Tuesday 25 December 2012

Review - "Doctor Who: Oswin's Big Break"

While the return of Clara Oswin Oswald was beyond obvious in both conceptualisation and execution, this latest episode of Doctor Who provided plenty enough evidence that being obvious isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Moreover, more evidence was provided towards the idea that Steven Moffat is clearly much more comfortable writing The Doctor than he is any of his companions. Amy centric episodes tended to weary in the middle, and Rory centric episodes wore off somewhere around the middle to settle back on Amy, so Christmas specials and their innate focus on The Doctor himself under Moffat makes a welcome change.

The character of Oswin, presented in this episode as the new companion, is worthy of a lot of attention. Practically every companion since Rose Tyler has been particularly loud, balshy and confident in order to fit the modern stereotype of women. None were more so than Amy Pond; a character with precious little purpose than to ask questions loudly and blatantly, to the Doctor’s face, that the audience are undoubtedly curious of.  In the vast majority of ways, Oswin continues to fit the mould of the modern woman, despite being introduced in Victorian Britain. Instantly, there are questions raised over whether or not she fits in that world and rightly so. She doesn’t. She’s a modern female stereotype amongst a world of the downtrodden service centre that was Victorian females.

The evolution of The Doctor as well is not intrinsically logical. Where is River Song will also be a question raised, though I am extremely glad to see exactly none of her personally. Firstly, it’s very different, and very welcome, to see The Doctor with friends who care about him, though I’d have rather not seen Sherlock Holmes compared with a Silurian woman. It just seemed rather pointless and unnecessary. That said, the Silurian, the Sontaran, and the Human are all pleasant characters who enhance the story and add their own personalities to it. The only real question is the reasoning behind the Sontaran’s presence.

A question raised in the story, probably another one raised purely to answer, is to the nature of The Doctor’s renewed apathy, but fans of the series are unlikely to wonder. Even so, it’s answered later on. This is an interesting, if expected part of the story. Unnecessary answers are given to questions only the characters ask, but a Christmas special is a very good opportunity to attract new fans, so it’s vital to the story. What matters most of that The Doctor’s innate character comes out in his sense of curiosity and his methods by which he masks himself. To live on a cloud is nothing short of genius.

The plot itself missed only a proper conclusion. A section at the end seemed rather tacked on, like the Arthur Conan Doyle discussion, to make up for time. It could have ended earlier, or at least had a more sensible victory section, but it was a momentary blip on an otherwise enjoyable performance by all comers. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Oswin, but I think everybody is looking forward to that.

Saturday 15 December 2012

Match Report - "15-12-12 Liverpool vs Aston Villa"

Lambert win the tactical battle on this one through a clear knowledge of Rodgers, Liverpool and, more importantly, Suarez.

The tactics for his defense were simple. When the ball was in Liverpool's half, Benteke and the midfield were very energetic, maintaining high pressure to worry Agger and, particularly, Skrtel. Skrtel did not have a good game against Benteke. Typically Skrtel does act as more of a Sweeper, but this time he was often left entirely exposed by Johnson and Agger.

In the Villa half, the Villa team sat deep in a 5-4-1, denying Gerrard and Suarez space between the lines due to the extra man at the back and forcing the ball wide, where Liverpool's wide men had no choice but to cross towards Suarez. This was tactically astute. Chelsea beat Barcelona in much the same way, knowing that a cross towards a quick, short dribbler is horribly ineffective.

Though unlikely to be tactical, Shelvey seemingly made a point of coming inside, getting into the same positions that Gerrard and Suarez were aiming for, but this hindered rather than helped. While Shelvey is a better header of the ball, it resulted in less space in the middle and Downing then had to cover the entire left flank. This left Skrtel even more exposed against Benteke when the ball broke quickly.

Halfway through the first half, Shelvey and Sterling were swapped over, which seemed a strange move to make for Rodgers. With the ball being played wide, Sterling was on his stronger foot to cross for Shelvey, who could head the ball. The other way around was never going to work, but perhaps this was an attempt to get Glen Johnson more involved in the game.

Defensively, Benteke ran Liverpool ragged, and the poor positional discipline of the Liverpool players resulted in a lot of frustration being added to this. For Benteke's first goal, Suarez had received the ball on the half way line, tried to break free by back hell dribbling, and lost the ball. After that, it broke quickly, Allen lost his man and Benteke put the ball past Reina from range. Reina was either unsighted or his knees buckled, but either way, he should have stopped that ball.

The second goal was remarkably similar. The ball goes in to Benteke, who drifts wide. Skrtel follows, while Agger tries to cut off the pass. At this point Allen is marking Weimann, but sees Downing overlapping Skrtel into the middle and decides to let his man go. Once again, the man Allen loses is the one who scores.

This, quite simply, was a goal conceded through fear from Martin Skrtel. If he had let Downing take over marking Benteke, he could have easily been into position to stop the pass, but he had clearly been instructed, as a tall, physical defender, to stick to the tall, physical striker. It didn't work out. Allen loses his man, and the rest is a very smart finish.

The third goal once again features fear from Martin Skrtel, only this time he was terrified of making a tackle. Benteke got into his head good and proper.

Where did Liverpool go wrong? Well there are many small ways. Johnson was too obvious. Sterling as well. Both tried to go wide and cross to nobody, or jinked inside and passed safe. Downing was much more inventive, and was the best player Liverpool had on the pitch by far. Lucas was never sure whether to get on Benteke or not, and Allen was peripheral in attack and absent in defence. Gerrard, once again, proved a shadow of his former self. The presence of Henderson, a late second half sub for the still recovering Lucas, worked in Liverpool's favour, given that he and Allen then started to hold in tandem, limiting space for Benteke and providing Skrtel with some actual support, but it was far too late.

Liverpool dominated the match, but were forced into taking half chances due to excellent defending and goalkeeper positioning. When the ball went the other way, their midfield abandoned the defence, and Shelvey in particular offered nothing to the Liverpool cause. Overall though, Rodgers made some poor choices, particularly bringing on Joe Cole to offer width when what they needed was speed down the middle to try and catch the Villa defence off guard. Lambert won the tactical match-up this time, and the win, in the end, was well deserved.