#AgainstModernFootball - pundits

It’s not often that the preamble is better, certainly more compelling, than the amble itself, but that was the case on Monday night. Jurgen Klopp visited Sky Sports to talk all things tactics, Liverpool, footballing philosophy in general. The German had the sport’s great and good, including Jamie Carragher in the studio, fawning over him. It was arguably the television moment of the Premier League season so far. Then came Burnley against Watford.

Never before has Sky Sports’ audience dipped so dramatically before kick-off has even taken place, illustrating how Klopp has utterly charmed English football with his Cheshire cat grin and endearing turn of phrase. It also exposed how mundane and decidedly dull analysis of the sport has become.

Monday Night Football is the gold standard in terms of Premier League broadcasting, with Carragher and Gary Neville football’s dynamic duo with a giant iPad to play with. Elsewhere, football punditry isn’t up to such a high level. Klopp’s television appearance on Monday served to underline that.

Take Robbie Savage, for instance. The former Blackburn and Wales midfielder has become human clickbait since his move into broadcasting. At his best, he is the single biggest cause of hair loss among Premier League fans, and his worst he is the sport’s equivalent of Katie Hopkins. Everything is either incredible or a disgrace. There is no in-between. Savage must find tiring, at least as tiring as it is to watch or listen to him.

But Savage is the product of the 21st century’s media climate. Those who shout loudest are heard, regardless of what they are shouting. Shock-merchants, like Savage or Chris Sutton, are infuriating and sometimes even damaging to the sport, but at least they provide entertainment. Just like American news channels who broadcast car chases, networks know that by putting such figures on air viewers are unlikely to turn off.

Worse than that are pundits who offer nothing. Like Thierry Henry, who for all his obvious wit and charm is a quite atrocious football pundit. For someone who played at the very top of the sport for over a decade, it’s remarkable just how little insight the Frenchman is able to provide. He looks nice, has a warm, natural smile and probably smiles nice too, but pundits aren’t judged on their appearance, as much as Savage seemingly thinks they are.

So many expected Henry to be just as good at picking apart the game as he was at playing it, signing a £24 million deal to appear on Sky Sports for six years, but in punditry terms he’s more Karl Henry than Thierry Henry.

Then there’s Phil Neville, a man who not so long ago found himself at the centre of one of English football’s most compelling stories in a decade. He had a front row seat for the demise of David Moyes at Manchester United and the club’s struggle to step out from the shadow of Sir Alex Ferguson, and yet offers just as much (or little) insight as someone who had been watching the whole thing on TV.

But has anyone dragged down the profession of television punditry like Michael Owen has? If television personalities deal in the currency of soundbites the former Liverpool and Man Utd striker is essentially a street jester raking in coins for doing (or rather saying) stupid things. “When Manchester City don’t score, they hardly ever win,” was Owen’s verdict on Manuel Pellegrini side’s struggles last season, also claiming that Pep Guardiola’s appointment at the Etihad Stadium would give the club a “fresh set of impetus.”

Every so often, though, a fresh face stumbles across a television studio, making us question the entire punditry industry. Slaven Bilic was that face at Euro 2016, not just keeping viewers tuned in between commercial breaks by climbing on tables and shouting down Ian Wright, but by offering a genuine insight into what we were watching. It was refreshing, but it shouldn’t be. This should be the general standard across the board.

If a pundit is neither entertaining or insightful what are they truly bringing? Too many fall into such a category. Of course, television punditry isn’t easy, and that is often under appreciated, but Klopp’s charming, perceptive and captivating appearance on Monday Night Football highlighted the dross normally served to us all. We should demand better. Modern football deserves more.