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Majority of Britain thinks Labour have mishandled economy – why didn’t they change course?

Fools’ gold

TODAY skint Britain will be battered by rises in just about every bill you can imagine.

Your energy, mobile, broadband and road tax will go up. Water will soar. So will council tax. Even the TV licence no one should have to pay is rising.

Head-and-shoulders portrait of Keir Starmer.
Getty
The vast majority of Britain thinks Labour have mishandled economy – why didn’t they change course?[/caption]

And that’s before the price hikes inevitable as firms scramble to survive today’s increases in their business rates, the minimum wage and, from next Monday, employers’ National Insurance.

Tomorrow, incredibly, things will get worse. Labour has failed to convince Donald Trump to exempt us from his brainless tariffs.

These will hammer our exporters, while retaliating will punish consumers here.

We wish this catalogue of catastrophe was an April Fool’s joke. We’re certainly all treated like fools.

And while some of this was beyond the Government’s control, much wasn’t.

Labour mistook the fragile but recovering economy the Tories left them for one from which they could still extract a few more billion to hand to the unions.

Now they are reduced to slashing benefits and the public sector while crushing the productive private sector with record taxes.

Growth forecasts are dire.

The vast majority of Britain thinks Labour have mishandled the economy, including their own voters.

Why didn’t they change course?

Boats denial

NOT one people smuggler is deterred by Keir Starmer issuing grave threats to ­camera or convening a summit.

They are too busy laughing at his Home Secretary blaming the vast surge in small boats under her on better weather.

Besides, this scandal is not caused by the gangs the PM affects to target.

You cannot make life here irresistible to rootless young men — with free hotels, food, clothes, NHS care and a near-guarantee they’ll stay forever — then blame the criminals supplying dinghies.

Migrants at Calais celebrated Labour winning power. One told The Sun this Government is “nice”.

It scrapped the Rwanda deterrent they genuinely feared. Now, posing as refugees, they are lining up for the red-carpet treatment.

If they were certain to be instantly deported — back to France, say, by return boat — the lure would vanish overnight and the crisis with it.

The Left is wilfully blind to the real problem, which it has made far worse.

Town haul

YOU may struggle to pay your council tax but 3,900 Town Hall penpushers won’t.

A record number now trouser £100,000-plus, with 1,092 topping £150,000.

Meanwhile your services worsen and your roads fall to bits.
Ring to complain and you can expect to wait forever in a queue.

Still, at least “your call is very important” to them.

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How Pep Guardiola used genius midfield diamond masterclass to break Bournemouth’s press and seal FA Cup semi-final spot

MANCHESTER CITY came from behind to beat Bournemouth 2-1 and seal an FA Cup semi-final spot.

Goals from Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush sealed another appearance at Wembley for Pep Guardiola’s men.

Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City.
Getty
Pep Guardiola’s tactical masterclass helped Man City beat Bournemouth 2-1[/caption]
Manchester City players celebrating a goal.
Getty
City are in another FA Cup semi-final thanks to their comeback win[/caption]

The Man City gaffer unleashed some amazing tactical decisions that brought the best out of several stars.

In the latest episode of SunSport’s Tactics Exposed, our expert DEAN SCOGGINS explains what City did to make the final four once more…

LIFE O’REILLY

We shouldn’t forget Nico O’Reilly is a Number 10. So to play him at left-back was a bold thing from Pep – but it was for a variety of reasons.

One was that Khusanov had been booked so he was the obvious one to take off.

The second is it put Ruben Dias on his natural right-hand side and meant Gvardiol came in as the left centre-back.

It meant Nunes on the right and O’Reilly on the left like wing-backs, with Kovacic dropping in the gap.

Illustration of Nico O'Reilly's 30 touches during a Bournemouth vs Man City game.
Nico O’Reilly had a game-changing performance from the bench
Illustration of a soccer tactical graphic showing player positions.
Then ace had the run of the left flank thanks to his clever teammates

It took away some of O’Reilly’s defensive responsibilities and became like a 3-4-2-1. It really confused Bournemouth. 

He’s got a great touch and went charging up the left, with most of those touches in the attacking half.

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There’s an argument for him to play there in the league as Pep’s always used full-backs as a weapon.

There’s no reason he can’t play there, he gave City more balance. He took the pressure off Nunes on the other side and they had an out-ball that went the other way.

PRESSURE MAKES DIAMONDS

City created a diamond in midfield. Kovacic dropped back between the two centre-backs.

You then bring two people in very narrow, which combats Bournemouth because they press you really narrow.

What City did was get De Bruyne to go on Cook, who was the full-back, and bring him into the middle of the field.

Gundogan does the same, bringing the midfield in, and that left O’Reilly with all that space up the left-hand side.

Illustration of Man City vs Bournemouth football formation.
Man City’s players formed a clever midfield diamond
Soccer game screenshot showing passing plays.
It drew Bournemouth defenders into narrow positions

Pep told Grealish to come inside and don’t worry about the ball, because City were getting so much joy with O’Reilly.

It was a tactical masterclass from Pep at half-time. Absolutely brilliant.

He got his experienced players to carry that out and free up the young kid down the left.

Silva is a tactical genius. He’s the one who carries out these little things on the field that go unnoticed.

OMAR GOD

We don’t know how long Haaland will be out but what a replacement to have.

I want to focus on Marmoush’s run for his goal, it’s absolutely amazing. O’Reilly plays a high-quality pass.

But Marmoush goes the opposite way to where you’d expect him to go.

As a defender, they had no idea which one of the two was going to pick him up – and nobody did.

Marmoush went backwards, which opened up this big space and nobody went with him. And the finish was good too.

Those little darting runs he makes around the edge of the area, he’s so dangerous. 

Soccer player Marmoush attempting a shot on goal.
Omar Marmoush made an amazing run for his strike
Illustration of Man City's average player positions in the first and second halves of a game against Bournemouth.
City’s half-time tweak allowed Marmoush and others to get forward more

So impressive. I love him as a player and can’t wait to see more of him.

In a tactic where you’ve got Haaland and one or two others, it suits him down to the ground.

Someone like Foden is in there working hard, it gives him more freedom to play closer to Haaland.

But with the striker injured, Marmoush is also a ready-made replacement. I don’t care where he plays – as long as he’s on the pitch.

He was outsourcing Harry Kane in the first half of the Germany season, which is no mean feat.

He’ll just get better, City get a lot of chances. They create a lot and he’s playing for Pep so the sky’s the limit.

THE LONG HAAL

City played it long, and it was slightly different to what I thought. It was Ederson into Haaland, but they did it cleverly because he should have had a first-half hat-trick.

City went over Bournemouth’s midfield early on and it worked really well.

They split the centre-backs on the edge of the box, Ederson gave it to one then received it and went long.

So it wasn’t long straight away, it was like a one-two. Pep also told Haaland to not stay central and create an angle for Ederson.

It also creates space for others joining in for the second ball. It was very direct and Haaland got a lot of joy.

Illustration of a soccer play with player movements indicated by arrows.
Ederson’s long passes worked a treat against Bournemouth’s press
Illustration of a soccer pass from Adams to Haaland.
Haaland looked to drift wide and take advantage of Bournemouth errors

However, he looks a little off at the moment, he normally puts chances away.

More teams are direct now. Ederson is so good, he’s picking out a five-yard square he’s going to land the ball in.

That’s where Haaland’s going to be and you can play off him there.

The midfielders and attackers supporting the striker had to work their socks off.

It wouldn’t have been unfair if City had been 3-1 up at half-time.

NUNES GOT COOKED

He was a real issue. He was hitting this blind ball into midfield.

Lewis Cook was marking De Bruyne and bravely left him to move towards Nunes. 

Before he’s even completed his pass, Cook intercepts it for the Bournemouth goal.

It was really poor from Nunes, but he also had the chance to make up for it afterwards by just doing a simple defender’s job.

He takes a look over his shoulder, sees Kluivert and switches off.

In that split second, Brooks plays the ball behind and Kluivert goes blindside of him.

Illustration of a soccer play showing Nunes and Cook.
Matheus Nunes had a shocker as his lazy pass ended up in a Cherries goal
Soccer game analysis showing Nunes passing to Kluivert.
The midfielder, playing at right-back, couldn’t even do the defensive basics

It’s not far, just get across and cover. It wasn’t even midfield defending, let alone proper defending. It was terrible stuff.

Thankfully for Nunes, he’s got a genius manager. But I’m still not sure what he is.

I don’t know if he’s a midfielder, a 10, a winger. He’s certainly not a full back. City have to address that.

Tactically they’re all in the right position but it’s that instinct in those positions that’s not quite right.

Gvardiol plays in a way that he can push into the number 10 position as an inverted full-back.

He moved into a left centre-back position yesterday and did a brilliant job so he’s the utility defender.

Go and get a right-back, Pep. I’d love to see this shape a bit more, maybe even against Man United next week.

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