German quick-thinking rewarded.

A look at the weekend's football

“Watch their quick corners,” Sir Alex Ferguson warned his Manchester United players before kick-off against Roma at Stadio Olimpico in 2007. “They get the ball back quickly.” Michael Carrick said afterwards that he felt Roma picked their ball-boys “after sprint trials”. At Roma corners, the nearest ball-boy would race to the nearest ball, exploiting the multi-ball system, put it down for the corner, and Francesco Totti would run in and crash the ball into the area, trying to catch United it out.

Fast forward to the Nations League in Dortmund to Noel Urbaniack, German ball-boy, rapid response unit and new Die Mannschaft favourite. Italy’s Gianluigi Donnarumma was yards off his line talking to his defence and the ref last night after Germany won a corner. The 15-year-old Urbaniak recycled the ball swiftly to Joshua Kimmich for a quick corner and Jamal Musiala applied the poacher’s touch. Echoes of Trent Alexander-Arnold/Divock Origi against Barcelona in 2019. Germany eventually went on to the Nations League semis and Urbaniack went home with a match-ball signed by a grateful Kimmich, Musiala and the other players.

Joshua Kimmich and Jamal Musiala. Photo: Christina Pahnke - sampics/Getty.

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It’s confusing in this international week to know which games in Europe belong to which competitions. England are starting their World Cup qualifiers, Scotland were tumbling out of Nations League League A while France, Germany, Portugal and Spain were getting into the semi-finals of the Nations League. What wasn’t confusing was the sheer commitment to the Nations League by the likes of Michael Olise, Kimmich, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lamine Yamal. The competition has effectively replaced friendlies in every sense.

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From Nations League to National League. What a fantastic job Dean Brennan is doing at Barnet. The National League leaders are hurtling inexorably towards League Two. They’re 14 points clear of second-placed York City with seven games remaining (York have eight). People can talk about squad sizes and budgets but so much comes down to a manager’s strength of personality driving a collection of good characters onwards and upwards. The charismatic Irishman is doing exactly that. He’s not only rallying hearts. Brennan also works on the minds with his “waves” training drill learned from watching Jurgen Klopp. It’s basically a quick transition move – the team must get a shot off within six seconds of turning the ball over – and it's clearly proving very effective.

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Talking of the upwardly mobile, many congratulations to Robbie Savage. There’s always been a slight sensitivity to Savage. He doesn’t feel properly appreciated. Maybe it all dates back to being released from Manchester United and watching the Class of 92 march on. But Savage enjoyed a good career as a hard-working, occasionally spiky midfielder, represented Wales on 39 occasions and subsequently remade his name as a pundit. But it is as a manager that Savage will now be proud. His coaching ability was questioned but he has guided Macclesfield Town to the Northern Premier League Premier Division title with six games to spare. Savage was very close to his father Colin, who passed away in 2012 with the dementia-type illness, Pick’s disease. Colin would be incredibly proud of his son’s achievements. Player, pundit, manager.

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Talking of slightly under-appreciated characters, Sean Dyche was in at talkSPORT yesterday, doing a two-hour special with his friend, Jonny Owen, the broadcaster and film-maker. I was in the building, we had a brief catch-up and Dyche looked and sounded thoroughly reinvigorated and ready to resume management. Dyche invariably sounds enthused. His successor at Everton, David Moyes, has done a magnificent job, lifting them from one point above the relegation zone to 17 points clear. But it should never be forgotten how Dyche’s positivity, determination and other management strengths kept Everton up for two seasons in tough times of ownership doubts and points deductions. He’s a good, under-rated manager, whose Burnley teams pressed long before it became fashionable (and Ian Rush’s Liverpool could easily argue they were doing it decades ago). Even if the football’s far from thrilling, Dyche’s a safe pair of hands. And he’ll be back in football soon.

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Dan James’ vibrant performance for Wales in their 3-1 win over Kazakhstan was uplifting not only for Craig Bellamy and the team’s supporters. Leeds United fans will hope that James takes that form into the Championship run-in. He’s not scored in seven games for Leeds nor made an assist in three. Overall, James is enjoying a good season at Leeds with 10 goals and nine assists. They just need him to resume adding to those figures. He's a confidence player, and that’s why Daniel Farke’s people skills have been so important. And Bellamy’s.

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Bellamy’s old club-mate, Steven Gerrard, was back captaining Liverpool at Anfield again, playing for Liverpool legends against Chelsea’s in a fnd-raiser for the LFC Foundation. Gerrard, 44, was back pinging passes around again, back tackling and grafting. Total commitment. When he commits to something, he does so fully, whether a tackle or a job. When his agent asked me to ghost Gerrard’s first autobiography in 2006, I agreed as long he would be fully open, not always easy for a player still employed at a club. I went to Gerrard’s house and hardly had I turned the tape on than he told me how much he earned, how close he was to joining Chelsea and which coaches he had issues with. Total honesty. He gave me 20 hours on tape. I gave him a 100,000-word manuscript and he changed only four things, nothing major. When Gerrard commits to something, he’s all in.

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Brede Hangeland made some good tackles and interceptions in his six seasons at Fulham and in 91 appearances for Norway across 12 years. Now a respected pundit and Norway’s assistant coach, the 43-year-old Hangeland calmly intervened when a fan ran across the pitch, evaded stewards and tried to reach Erling Haaland, who was sitting on the bench in Moldova. As the fan tried to pull an object from his pocket (probably a phone), Hangeland wasn’t taking any chances and stopped the pitch invader getting near Haaland.

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One of the many joys of football reporting has been going into the press room at West Ham United and catching up with Colin Hart, the legendary boxing journalist, huge Hammers fan and just a lovely man. Colin was always a balanced judge of West Ham, a mix of passion and wily old perspective - one of the reasons why his boxing reporting was so good and so widely respected. Colin cared about the people he wrote about, and they cared about him which is why the boxing world joined the sports-writing community in mourning his passing on Friday, aged 89. RIP.