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Rob’s rugby tip
THERE is a lot of balls talked about the difference between English football and the game on the continent, but Wigan manager Roberto Martinez picks two of them to cast new light on the differing philosophies.
“It shocked me when I first came to England as a player how it is a completely different approach,” he said. “In Spain, there is a lot of basketball and that influences football in terms of possession. Rugby is a big influence here, you can see that in certain moves designed to get territorial advantage, putting the ball into areas where you can get dead-ball situations. There is no right or wrong. If you score you are right. If you don’t, you aren’t.”
This intelligent analysis came just moments after being asked by a local radio reporter if tomorrow’s opponents Arsenal would miss the banned Emmanuel Adebayor.