Latics diary: modern squad football makes man of the match seem dated

I wouldn’t have chosen Latics’ Josh Hawkes as my man of the match for his two goals and action man performance in Saturday’s 3-0 win against Newport County, but the official match sponsors did.

Similarly, I did not give any of the Oldham players top marks out of 10 for their contributions despite their clear superiority in the game.

The reason I didn’t pick Hawkes and didn’t give any Latics player a 10 is that I’ve put “man of the match” and “marks out of 10” in the bin.

Man of the match is going in the bin because, in today’s game, individuality and virtuosity are out, and the team ethic is in, from the top of the tree to the bottom.

Football’s last day as a sport of individual brilliance was one of its best days: when Argentina beat France in the World Cup final in Qatar in December 2022. Kylian Mbappé scored a hat-trick in that match – only the second in a World Cup final, and the first since 1966 – and yet came second in the MotM contest because Lionel Messi, after a career of hogging the ball and the headlines, dragged an otherwise comme ci comme ça Argentina side to the trophy.

Last season’s search for a Ballon d’Or winner was messy (sorry not sorry) for a reason: there are no stand-out players anymore. This is partly to do with the recent memory of Messi and Ronaldo (no one in today’s game will end up remotely close to them in the pantheon), and partly to do with the rejection of the idea that one player can contribute so much more than the others to a football team.

Micky Mellon’s Latics are at the leading edge of the trend. Maybe not the actual leading edge, but not far behind. They are all about the collective. Man of the match at Oldham and everywhere else has had its day. We all loved watching Jose Baxter, Dylan Bahamboula, Gary Harkins and Jack Byrne, but it could be a while before we see the next box of tricks playing in front of midfield but behind a front line. Latics are far more interesting right now.

As for marks out of 10…when was the last time you played in a football match? I last played walking football maybe a couple of years ago. My last 11-a-side happened in about 1990 or 1991, for Our Lady’s School in Royton. I played my best football next door at Ss Aidan & Oswald primary in the 1980s.

It’s just doesn’t seem right for me to pass judgment like that, in stark numbers. I can judge what I see in a game and write it up, but I can’t just pluck numbers out of the air to assign praise and blame. Marks out of 10 given by people like me are just not credible and are therefore going in the bin with man of the match.