Or else they just had no respect for squad numbers. Take a look at the Manchester United team here – if you were picking the numbers out of a hat you’d expect to get more right than the three that they managed (Peter Schmeichel, Denis Irwin and Paul Scholes).
It could be said that it’s kind of like the old Italian and French ‘block’ numbering by position but, even then, Roy Keane wearing 2 makes no sense. Even if it were done right, we’re genuinely stumped as to why this would be the case when the correct info was so readily to hand.
Update: It would appear, from looking at the Arsenal team, that the block system was what was used generally, but clearly the number 2 held some mystical powers which allowed it to buck the trend – Paul Merson was the player to have it for the Gunners. David Seaman has the right number and that’s because they did at least make sure to give the goalkeeper 1, with Remi Garde the only other correct one.
And, while we’re at it – given the subject matter of our other sites – the game’s dealing with kit-clashes wasn’t up to much either:
I’m guessing that this is the PC port, the PlayStation and Saturn versions went with 1-11 albeit in that annoying…
______1______
2___3___4___5
6___7___8___9
___10___11___ method.
LikeLike
Oh no – that system always brings out post-traumatic stress at this end – our manager at U13 and U14 level used that and a team which challenged near the top of the table soon found itself at the other end.
There was one game where we didn’t use it and had this instead:
—2—3—4—
——-5——–
6————–7
—-8—-9—–
——10——
——11——
And we lost 14-0
LikeLike
One reason I can think of Keane taking 2 is because Keane played quite a number of games at RB during 1994-95 season.
LikeLike