Mails: United won’t finish above Liverpool

Mails: United won’t finish above Liverpool

Send your thoughts into theeditor@football365.com, and make ’em good.

666
From Winners and Losers: “On Sunday, Tottenham players made 666 sprints, the highest in any Premier League game this season. ”

So it turns out Spurs have sold their soul to the devil… They’re only going to go and win it all now!
Ben, London

Spurs will struggle later on
While the Spurs result against City is undeniably impressive, I can’t help but think people are going overboard (much like they did last season) about how good they are as a team.

City may well have flattered to deceive for the second consecutive season. Pep seems to inspire collective awe but is this team really much improved on last seasons version? A much less heralded and much more mocked coach also highlighted flaws in City’s approach in mid week – with far less resources than Poch has at his disposal.

Poch teams have form when it comes to dropping off at the end of the season. Reading about Eriksen flogging himself to death in Winners and Losers doesn’t fill me with confidence that Poch will be able to inspire a strong finish to this season. I realise Spurs have improved their squad but this is more than cancelled out by champs league commitments and not having another injury free fluke season.

People are rightly pointing out Liverpools (very obvious) flaws but surely exhaustion must be a huge flaw in Spurs approach? Along with a failure of nerve it was surely one of the reasons for Spurs implosion at the end of last season.
Adam, LFC, London (Payets goal brought back Kinky memories for me too)

United to finish above Liverpool? Pah
I step away from the mailbox for a few weeks and come back to:

“ Of course I know we probably won’t win the title and we’ll probably lose to United and Jose and his band of b**tards will probably finish above us”

David Burzio, what the f*ck are you on about? Please enlighten me to what you have seen over the first seven league games of the season that makes you think that Liverpool will a) lose to United and b) United will finish above Liverpool. With that said there is no doubt Ibrahimovic will score on Liverpool, I’d bet my mortage on it, but they will not win. United is skin deep with a bunch of overpaid primadonna’s on the pitch and on the touchline.

Listen here lads someone has to be champions at the end of the season it might as well be Liverpool. This is not a Brendan Rodgers team. Liverpool is not reliant on one player. Liverpool is making goals like no Liverpool team I’ve ever watched. This Liverpool team is professional and clinical. Even though Liverpool is still leaking goals it’s not the same kind of goals they were leaking in the past were Lovren would get pushed over and Skrtel couldn’t get out of his own way. While set pieces are an issue, it is something that can be worked out on the training ground.

Let this be said, no football team in the history of the game has ever “made a statement” in September. The only people who make statements in September are media journalists.

Watching the Liverpool v Swansea game this weekend Shaka Hislop said at half time that the second half would be a test of Liverpool’s title credentials. The tone was that the full time conversation would be that Liverpool was just not quite. But lo and behold Liverpool dug deep, away from home at a place that they have gotten much from over the years, and they came away with three deserved points. Needless to say the full time conversation was focused more on Francesco Guidolin future, but that’s the way I want it.

There will be no exotic trips around Europe for Liverpool this season. While that makes me sad, I smile at the prospect of not playing two/three times a week and relish the reduced work load this season. It did wonders for the Champions of last season.

Last word: I thought not coming for crosses and not be dominate in his box is the exact reason we wanted Mignolet sacked? Why should I be compelled to “give Karius time”? I’m fairly certain Karius first piece of action in each game he has started has been to pick the ball out of his net. I thought that was Mignolet stuff?

Here’s to Karius finding his stride in time for United!
Brian (Liverpool are going to win the league) LFC

The handball rule is fine
I have to disagree about today’s email about handball. I think the current rule is fine (more or less). A foul for handball should only called be if it is deliberate. I think people forget the reason for the rule. It’s not that hands are nasty and evil and should never touch the ball. The reason you are not allowed to use your hands is because of the control they give you. It’s why shoulders are fine, but hands are not. If its accidental then you’re not using that control. So why is an accidental handball seen as worse than an accidental shoulderball? The player has the same amount of control (if its truly accidental) its just a slightly different part of the body.

Think about it, in what way has the player gained an unfair advantage if the ball accidentally hits his hand? If a ball is blasted at my hand from 4 yards, something I physically could not stop if I tried, in what way is that an “unfair” advantage? There’s nothing unfair about it. If the player was shooting on goal, and it hits my hand (which I am powerless to stop) then he’s missed. His mistake. You cannot give free kicks or penalties for things that a player has no control over. That would be unfair. The indirect free kick rule would be a nightmare. players with nothing on would just try to boot the ball into the opponents hand.

I understand yesterdays goal being frustrating and if it bothers people that much, then that can be the change to the rule. Any goal scored off a players hand is disallowed. That problem is solved.

The handball rule is fine, if we just accept that its not the end of the world if a ball hits a hand. Enforcing it consistenly? Now that would be nice.
Mike, LFC, Dubai

 

A complaining Leicester fan? Ha!
Did we really have a Leicester fan talking about cheating and feigning injury? How many penalties did Vardy win last year by throwing himself into the opponent? We thankfully saw the refs send him off for it last year and he’s already been caught at this season– though when he called the ref a c’nt for catching him at it he escaped without caution – pretty clear case for bringing the game into disrepute, no? LCFC Champions of England (well done and all that) wouldn’t even be a thing without one of the greatest lying filthy port drinking b*stards to grace the premier league.

The Mustafi situation, is no different to 99% of all injuries, where no player needs to stay down, roll about – if you ever play football with no ref and no phyisos and no coaches no one ever stays down. Usually because you’ve the pitched booked for an hour and don’t want to waste time but also because nobody cares to indulge you like they do footballers! I get it’s a bit embarrassing to see him jump up what with that big knot on his forehead from the elbow but you only get freekicks if you stay down, just as Vardy only gets penalties if he goes do under contact. It’s the ref’s call but you have to pantomime it out for them. Personally I’d much rather see retrospective action for quite obvious disrespect to the ref than any impossible means of gauging how long a player is allowed to stay down for or how injured they are.

Oh and yeah, the ball hit his hand – the ref couldn’t have missed it and saw it was not deliberate, that being the rules and all, which is probably why Arsenal (correctly) didn’t get a couple of penalties when it struck the hand of Will Keane earlier in the game. If you knew the rules of the game you’d appreciate that there is no point a player admitting the ball hit his hand when its perfectly acceptable in the game and one of the reasons we have referees is to make the distinction.
Bri Belfast Gooner (It was extremely fortunate, no doubt but if the Ox didn’t touch it couldn’t have been offside)

Oh, Alex, bless you. You made me smile today.

You start by having a moan at Arsenal players rolling about and seemingly getting a dodgy offside handball goal and then finish your email with ‘I understand that retrospective punishments for these sort of things will never happen, but it bothers me sometimes that I follow a sport where every single player seems to be such a cheating, lying, filthy b**tard, and this is considered normal and acceptable’ . It was when you signed off your email with ‘Alex (LCFC – Champions of England)’ that I laughed.

I suspect you weren’t so uncomfortable with the lying and cheating last season when Huth and Morgan were gleefully wrestling people to the ground and Vardy was throwing himself to the floor whenever he went within yards of the penalty box?? I am afraid the Premiership League circus is full of your so called cheating, lying, filthy b**stards, but you might want to put your stones away when you stand in your glass house.
Tim (didn’t take Arsenal long to go back to their usual ‘Arsenal-ness), Beds

In response to Alex (LCFC – Champions of England), regarding cheats in football, I’d advise him to watch a lowlights reel of the true and honest Jamie Vardy (and pals) last season as they flung themselves to 13 penalties. 5 more than the next most awarded.

I too abhor cheats but it looked more to me like an accidental ball to hand, not exactly Kos sneakily punching it in – his eyes were pretty much closed so it was an instinctive reaction. Also, who in their right mind would see the ball go in the net for a last gasp winner then hold their hands up and say “Sorry ref, it hit my hand, scrub that one off”. They’d be pilloried by their team-mates, fans and manager alike.

Ironically, watching the replay its clear when one of the Burnley defenders leaps he is trying to swing his hand to block the cross. Watch again.

Here’s a question for the mailbox.. does it still count as cheating if you blatantly attempt a handball but fail at it? I’d say yes.
Alay (Deliberate cheating sucks, I hate it, even when one of ours does it), N15 Gooner

Alex (LCFC – Champions of England) writing to complain of cheats and cheating behaviour.

Jamie Vardy.

That is all.
Ian(penalty winner extraordinaire),Ely

However Alex the Leicester fan has amused me with his presumably (very) youthful ire.
Arsenal got lucky. Once. We may get lucky again we may not.
Last season Leicester’s good old plucky cor blimey luv a duck English diver (plus a genuinely good defence and team spirit) won them the league with 13 penalties…
(Thirteen)
That’s all.
Cheer up.
You won the league. In colour HD TV.
Tell that to a Tottenham Fan.
/ Ed Crick

Chelsea tactics
An interesting discussion in the last mail box about Chelsea’s tactics. I have a slightly different perspective.

We’ve been waiting since the beginning of the season for the 3 man central defence to turn up (welcome), and as noted, Luiz is a good addition in a 3 as opposed to a 2 given his passing, foot skills, and relatively respectable pace.

But I do wonder about how playing a 3-5 man defence with two defensive midfielders in front of it will work against less inept teams than Hull. Conte is clearly a cautious man (being Italian and all), but there’s a lot of perspiration and not a lot of inspiration in this rope-a-dope counter-attacking strategy.

Expecting Kante or Matic to play defence split passes when you have Cesc on the bench seems a bit bizarre (and a bit redundant on the defensive midfield side as Kante is clearly worth two players already).

If Conte really doesn’t fancy Fabregas (each to his own, I guess) then surely a player like Loftus Cheek would appear to be a better option than Matic. Then at least the ball might actually reach Hazard and Costa.

Finally, a quick shout out to Tim Sherwood – his half time analysis of the Spuds/City game was exceptional. Apparently, he would have subbed off Otamendi, put Kolarov in at centre back, and moved Stones into 6 (i.e. midfield)…genius !!
Matthew (ITFC)

Oh, Villa
Oh Villa. This is getting a bit embarrassing now, isn’t it?

As I think about the situation Villa are in, I am reminded of the brilliant Arctic Monkey’s song ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’. For those not familiar, it’s a song about a lady who dreams of her youth, as she’s getting old and everything is turning to shit and she has to come to terms with her new life. The song contains such lines as “Landed in a very common crisis” and “Nothing’s as pretty as the past, though”, both of which seem to fit with my rather tenuous comparison here.

Another way in which this song reminds me of Villa’s current situation (yes, I’m running with it, get on board), is that the names of managers being linked with us, the dodgy, PFM types who in the past we wouldn’t have had to entertain due to our reputation and standing, are suddenly in the running.  You know the types, the ones who sit around drinking their cheap lager (or pint of wine) in the bar eyeing up the talent, the type that you wouldn’t be surprised to be implicated in a newspaper sting scandal, who had longed for a crack at you, but that thankfully in the past you didn’t have to touch. Now we’ve let ourselves go and aren’t what we once were, to the point where we have no better options and our self-esteem is at rock bottom, and they know it.

So who’s it going to be? Allardyce is 11/2, but surely it’s too soon for him to be working again? Bruce? Warnock? Pearson? Steve Evans? Even bloody Tim bloody Sherwood is being mentioned, I despair. At least if it is Allardyce, there’s no one with more Championship experience in our squad than him to dictate the way we play. Actually, how many seasons has Ross McCormack had in the Championship?

“The best you ever had, is just a memory…”

Quite.
Mike (AVFC), London.

Loving La Liga
Since the vast majority of mails you seem to get involve the premier league, I thought I’d give my thoughts on another enthralling weekend in La Liga, which, in the opinion of many, is dull and uncompetitive with Real Madrid and Barcelona hammering everyone every week with the odd hiccup every now and again. How wrong that is.

Real have now drawn 3 consecutive games, vs Villarreal, Las Palmas and Eibar, and look short of ideas in attack, with Ronaldo particularly guilty of this. Barcelona have been beaten again, 4-3, and are making a habit of losing to Celta in Vigo. Pique was simultaneously their best defender, midfielder and striker which reflects badly on Neymar and Suarez, while Ter Stegen was guilty of some ludicrous buffoonery, trying to chip a Celta attacker inside his own box at 3-2 down.

Atletico continue their frankly nonsensical defensive record of just 2 goals conceded this season with a 2-0 win over Valencia, in which they missed 2 penalties, which is becoming a worrying habit, after Griezmann missed again vs Bayern in midweek. They were also missing, on my opinion, the best defender in the world in Diego Godín and had no problem keeping out Valencia’s attack.

Sevilla needed a last minute winner to see off the impressive Alaves, Villarreal join Real and Atletico in remaining unbeaten, while Athletic Bilbao missed the chance to go joint top after blowing a 1-0 lead to concede twice in the final 10 minutes to lose to Malaga.

This mail has been longer than anticipated but I hope I’ve proven that La Liga, like the Premier League is indeed competitive and everyone is capable of causing an upset
Dan, Dublin

Hipster England
The England mails will inevitably start trickling in as the week progresses so why not kick things off right now. Gareth Southgate doesn’t seem at all interested in having the job permanently so why didn’t he just do something quite unique that his short tenure will be remembered by? Call up the likes of Clucas, Cork, Livermore and Adam Smith. They surely can’t be any worse than the likes of Cahill, Henderson and Rooney.
Greg Tric, Nairobi.

Asking the important questions
Just a quick question to anyone who knows the answer, how is Giuseppe Rossi only 29?

Many thanks,
Lawrence

Pointless Paco
Anyone who follows La Liga will know Barça have had a stuttering start so far this season, no more than their recent 4-3 loss to Celta Viga (starting corner taker extraordinaire Iago Aspas).
Now Barça lose a few of these games every year and while in isolation the result surprises, over 38 games there’s no surprise, but one thing got me in this match, the complete pointlessness of the Paco Alcacer signing this summer.

Rotating the squad following their CL match mid-week, Alcacer only managed the bench, and further only came on at 81′ despite Barça trailing since 22′. Prior to the Summer Barça had the MSN plus two young forwards who both came through the Spanish youth teams in Sandro & Munir, plus Arda Turan.

In came Denis Suarez (sensible, versatile, cheap through buy-back) and the £30m Alcacer. Comfortably weaker than their starting XI, didn’t add depth as Munir went in the opposite direction & Sandro was allowed to leave as well. I will accept that he is probably better than the two youths but it screams of having money burning a hole in your pocket.

Based on the Celta game, a different kind of player was needed, and it turned out it was Pique. Grabbing two goals by being a nuisance and significantly taller than most of the team. Now I’m not saying they should have been in for Zlatan (again), but what does Paco actually add to the team? Surely they would have been better off bringing in a big centre forward rather than using your CB and then conceding again whilst chasing?

They don’t need an out-and-out goalscorer so they get quite a lot of freedom in that regard.

I guess all this boils down to; how does Barça, a team with their assets, spend £30m and still end up with Piqué as their best offensive outlet? Whilst also conceding 4?

Baffling.
KC (imagine them bringing carroll off the bench for the last 15)

Holy cow
Just read Media watch. Can’t believe no one at The Sun came up with the headline “Turf Moo”.
Paul, TUFC