“It’s clear that regardless of personnel, Ruben Amorim will not shift from his 3-4-2-1 even if the pope were to force him,” notes Paul Vickers. “This got me thinking: has there ever been a case of players actively defying a manager’s instructions, not by downing tools and giving up, but by taking up self-devised, alternative tactics and positions that they consider better suited to their abilities and the needs of the team? And what was the outcome of any such defiant player self-management in terms of the immediate result and then the subsequent fate of the manager and the players?”
A cracking question, to which we’ve received plenty of answers, so let’s proceed directly to The Insubordination Files.
Brazil v Uruguay, World Cup final round, 1950
“In the moments prior to the last match of the 1950 World Cup, effectively the final, the Uruguay coach Juan López informed his team that their best chance of surviving the powerful offensive line of Brazil would come through adopting a defensive strategy,” writes David Ekstrand. “After he left, the captain Obdulio Varela stood up and addressed the team himself, saying ‘Juancito is a good man, but today, he is wrong. If we play defensively against Brazil, our fate will be no different from Spain [6-1] or Sweden [7-1].’ Varela then delivered an emotional speech about how they should defy the odds and not be intimidated by fans or the opposing team. The speech, as was later confirmed, played a huge part in the outcome of this legendary game.”
Roma v Chelsea, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round, 1965-66
“In 1965, Terry Venables ignored the instructions of Chelsea manager Tommy Docherty in a second leg European tie against Roma,” writes David Warriston. “El Tel instructed Marvin Hinton to play as a sweeper instead of following the Doc’s plan for Chelsea to play their normal domestic system. The 0-0 result was fine – Chelsea went through 4-1 on aggregate – but within a year Venables was transferred to Spurs with a clash of personalities being a factor.”
Benfica v Manchester United, European Cup quarter-final, 1965-66
“There was the famous instance of George Best’s half time apology to Matt Busby (‘Sorry, boss’) in a European Cup match at Benfica,” writes Geoff Wignall. “Contrary to instructions to keep things tight, with United protecting a 3-2 lead from the first leg, Best ran riot and United were 3-0 up after 14 minutes. End result: 5-1, 8-3 on aggregate.”
Borussia Mönchengladbach v FC Koln, DFB-Pokal final, 1972-73
“In the 1973 German Cup final, Borussia Mönchengladbach were up against local rivals Koln,” begins Alex von Fintel. “Gladbach and Germany legend Günter Netzer was off to Real Madrid at the end of the season and had been left on the bench for what he had hoped would be a victorious farewell. Despite the fans shouting his name, and his team hanging on with the score 1-1, manager Hennes Weisweiler didn’t bring Netzer on. So before extra-time Netzer went to the linesman and took care of things himself – coming on and scoring the winning goal!”
According to the great Uli Hesse, Netzer had originally declined to go on at half-time and then changed his mind before extra-time. There’s more detail in this ESPN article.
France (2006 and 2010 World Cups)
“France were pretty dire in the first two games of the 2006 World Cup, which was probably down to the hapless management of Raymond Domenech,” opines Tom Parternoster-Howe. “Fortunately, just about the only decent thing Domenech did in his time as coach was to persuade Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Claude Makélélé to come out of retirement in 2005, ensuring France’s qualification. Draws with Switzerland and South Korea in their first two games in Germany left France needing a win against Togo to qualify. At some point – either before the Togo game or the last-16 match against Spain – the players stopped listening to Domenech and started organising things for themselves.
“Zidane was rumoured to be the driving force behind this, and if you see his coaching career, it seems highly plausible. The results and performances improved significantly. Victories over Spain, Brazil and Portugal took France to a final against Italy, and we all know what happened there. It’s fair to say that Zidane used his head throughout the tournament. It worked out pretty well for Domenech too; his contract was extended to 2010. There was another player mutiny there, but that one didn’t work out quite as well, probably because the behavioural matters overrode the tactical.”
Ajax v Manchester United, Europa League final, 2016-17
Manchester United beat Ajax 2-0 in Stockholm to win their second trophy in José Mourinho’s first season at Old Trafford. The second goal, scored by Henrikh Mkhitaryan just after half-time, came as a result of Ander Herrera going rogue. Mourinho had instructed Mkhitarayan to stay 30 yards from goal when United won a corner, mainly because his pace would help stop any Ajax counter-attacks at source. But he had been booked in the first half, so Herrera – whose role was to stand in front of the goalkeeper – told Mkhitaryan to swap places when United won their first corner of the second half. Mourinho started to chunter, wondering what was going on … until Mkhitaryan hooked Marouane Fellaini’s header into the net to make it 2-0. Herrera explained his logic after the game to Mourinho, who later called him “one of the smartest players” he had managed.
Long throws: the origin story
“Long throws are all the rage these days,” begins Ed Warren. “Who, if anyone, pioneered the use of the long throw into the six-yard box?”
“I am old enough to remember Ian Hutchinson launching throws into the opposition box in the 1970s with his windmill arm technique,” writes Pete Tomlin. “Chelsea’s winning goal in the 1970 FA Cup replay was scored by David Webb from one of his throws.
“Another early proponent of the long throw was Bobby Woodruff, who played for Wolves, Cardiff and Newport. There are reports of his ‘feared long throw’ in the mid 1960s. In the 1970s the BBC ran a televised competition to see who had the longest throw. Woodruff reached the final but was beaten by Malcolm MacDonald.
“However, the earliest reference to long throws that I have found goes back much further. Apparently in the summer of 1933, when Bill Shankly was still a young player, he used to practice throwing balls over a row of houses, asking the boys of the village to retrieve them for him. This helped him to develop what was described as his ‘unique long throw-in’. He later placed great importance on training throw-ins when manager of Liverpool.”
An even earlier early-season pitch invasion
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at early-season pitch invasions, with Oldham Athletic (19 August 2023) the clubhouse leader. Not any more!
“There was a huge pitch invasion when Preston scored a late winner to beat local rivals Blackpool in the Carabao Cup in 2013,” writes Jeff Stephens. “This was the second game of the season, played on 5 August.” Amid the chaos a steward was trampled by a police horse and a number of people were arrested.
Knowledge archive
“In a recent Portuguese league game, Porto were reduced to 10 men against Arouca when Martim Fernandes was sent off after 48 minutes. Porto then scored three goals to win the game 4-0. Has this ever happened before?” asks Pedro Barbieri.
We had a similar question in 2021, when Bayern Munich won by the same scoreline against VfB Stuttgart – except all four of their goals were scored with 10 men. Here’s a snippet of what we said back then.
We haven’t been able to top Bayern’s 4-0 win, but there are still plenty of examples worth mentioning of 10 men overcoming 11. Let’s start at Stamford Bridge in April 2006. The leaders and champions, Chelsea, had dropped five points in the previous three games and were in danger of being caught by Manchester United. They were in even more trouble when, after going a goal down, they had Maniche sent off. The response was awesome. With Didier Drogba at his most unplayable, Chelsea’s 10 men battered West Ham 4-1, and went on to win the title at a canter.
There are two other comebacks that spring immediately to mind. Yugoslavia were 3-0 down against Slovenia at Euro 2000 when Sinisa Mihajlovic got himself sent off. A fairytale win for Slovenia, who were playing their first game at a major tournament, looked inevitable. Maybe that was the problem: when Yugoslavia got one back, Slovenia started to panic, and the match finished in a pulsating 3-3 draw.
Can you help?
“On Saturday, Jeremy Ngakia scored twice for Watford to take his career goals total to three from 116 senior club appearances,” begins Peter Skilton. “Excluding players who scored only once, has anybody with 100+ appearances managed a higher percentage of their career goals in a single match?”
“Mircea Lucescu played for Romania against Cyprus in 1966, and then managed Romania against Cyprus in 2025, 59 years later. Have any other people in football history participated in the same fixture more than half a century apart?” asks Ben.
“Two games and 27 days after West Ham won 3-0 at Nottingham Forest, they sacked the winning manager (Graham Potter) to replace him with the losing manager (Nuno Espírito Santo). Has that ever happened so soon after the initial match?” asks David Sims.
“Liverpool won seven games in succession and have now lost three in a row. Has a team won more than seven in a row to be followed by three successive defeats or more?” asks George Jones.
