When the teams are officially announced an hour before kick-off, that's by far the most stressful part of the job as you frantically try to work out the formation and make sure you have enough information about the players.

Does the detail matter? Do you really care where a player was born, his height, his number of appearances, previous clubs?

Perhaps not - probably 80 per cent of the information I research is never used - but it's there as a comfort blanket just in case.

Correct pronunciation is also a challenge to overcome in these games.

Luckily, for the next game of the tour, San Jose Earthquakes provide a really handy guide to pronouncing the names of their players. And it's something of a relief that their number 11, Qazaishvili, is simply known as Vako - which is a clear result!

Of course, you could always go down the Paddy Crerand route and write the names phonetically. Bailly is written Bye-EE by Pat and Matic is Mat-Itch.

That's a golden rule of commentating. Do whatever works for you!

The opinions expressed in this article are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Manchester United.

Attachments

  • Original document
  • Permalink

Disclaimer

Manchester United plc published this content on 21 July 2018 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 21 July 2018 15:42:03 UTC