George Elek on... the wrong men in No.10
The art and science of Scienza, Szmodics... and where they should play
The 2026/27 EFL season is underway and I managed to watch seven live games. This is what you do when your very understanding wife takes the kids to her parents for the weekend. At least, this is what I do.
We kicked off on Friday night with Wolves 2-2 Blackburn at the Volley South, on the Bermondsey Beer Mile, for the NTT20 season launch party with 50-odd pod ultras. An excellent evening with great people, great goals and late penalty drama – what more could you ask for?
At Saturday lunchtime, I attended Oxford 2-2 MK Dons on my own after my dad made the last-minute call to watch it from his sofa. A worrying symptom of modern football? Certainly, but it did ensure I wasn’t beholden to his regular offer of a lift to the station, which would have meant leaving before full-time, which would have meant being somewhere on the Oxford ring-road for Ciaron Brown’s last-minute equaliser rather than right behind it.
The joys of an iPad with data meant I could watch the first half of Middlesbrough 2-1 Lincoln on the train, then the dramatic second half on my sofa, where I remained throughout Sheffield United 0-0 Birmingham. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t spend some of this stalemate playing the Ultimate Premier League Grid Quiz. Can someone make one of these for each EFL division? Thanks in advance.
A short trip to Vicarage Road on Sunday, to see Watford 2-1 Southampton, preceded an attempt to watch Burnley 2-2 West Ham at The Railway in Bushey (what an establishment that is, by the way) on a small outdoor TV with the sun behind it. We saw the goals and not much more.
Finally I was back on the sofa for Cardiff 1-1 Wrexham on Monday night, taking me to five draws out of seven and four with an injury-time equaliser. Given that Boro’s winner also came at the death, these wonderful leagues announced their return in some style.
There was something in the two games I attended that picked at a thread which has been dangling in my mind for a while now. Let’s pull on the thread.
Attention, all teams who like to get the ball down and play through opponents: please stop playing 4-2-3-1. And, more importantly, please stop putting your technical ball-carrier in the no.10 role.
I’ll explain.
