Herrera new Keane? Stewart is new Gerrard…

Herrera new Keane? Stewart is new Gerrard…

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The next Harry Kane
One more entrant for today’s losers section – Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Or have we just accepted he never really existed?
Richard, Manchester.

Ander who?
I would just like to write in a mail questioning the amount of love/hate mail Herrera has received the past few weeks, I just can’t understand it? Don’t misinterpreted what I am saying, he’s a good to average PL player nothing more nothing less.

From being a little talked about squad player, he has had two good performances all season (Liverpool, Arsenal) both draws, BOTH DRAWS. Now all of a sudden he is the rebirth of Roy Keane, a midfield general, striking fear into opponents? He hasn’t scored, he has one assist (goals and assists shouldn’t define a player, but he has more cards than contributions to goals)

Just please stop embarrassing yourselves with this talk. Talking stupid yellows and trying to be a hard man don’t make you a world class player, (in fact he has missed games for precisely this) I wouldn’t even rate him in United’s top 3 midfielders. The ‘non-stop feisty midfielder closing everyone down’ is that not the role of most midfielders? So please do not compare him to Keane, Scholes or Veria ever, don’t even put them in the same sentence. He is 25/26 and done nothing his whole career only warm a bench, a few good games don’t make a great player.

It’s like a Liverpool fan looking at Kevin Stewart and saying he has become Steven Gerrard on the back of 2 good games that they didn’t even win.
Dal (he is not feisty because he’s good, he’s feisty because he is Spanish) Luimneach

 

Ozil the flat-track bully
The United vs Arsenal game is exactly the sort of game why people will question Ozil. Yes he is a good player but ‘world class’ (whatever that really means) no chance. He went missing for pretty much the entire game. I actually forgot he was playing at one point when the ball got passed to him in the second half.

He reminds me of the kid that was great in the playground but when we played the knuckle dragging school from down the road he’d ‘forget’ his kit.

As good as he can be I believe he is the easiest ‘star’ player to mark out of a game if the opposing manager gives him that sort of attention. If you give him no room at all he will disappear, truly great players know how to deal with this and usually make an impact in big games.
Jimmy (Bullying a flat track bully) Spain

Twelfth man of the year
Having watched the Man Utd vs Arsenal game and being very irritated watching Giroud power in an equalising header not long after coming on, my thoughts actually turned to basketball (something I’ve been watching lately maybe because both Man U and Charlton are making my eyes bleed).

In the NBA they have a regular 6th man of the year award, something given to those players who provide a real spark off the bench, put pressure on other teams, and lead the ‘second string’ whilst the starters get a rest. This is often a very important role in any team that has hopes of winning the championship. Jamal Crawford has won this award 3 times, having the some of the best ball handling skills ever seen in the NBA, and hot shooting from 3 point range. He was star material at one point, but wasn’t always able to take his game to that higher level. However, he’s embraced his role as a 6th man and mentions many times how he studies teams whilst sitting on the bench and works to exploit what he sees before coming on.

NBA teams consistently recognise the need for a good 6th man, many players embrace that role, and the league even has an award for those who do it the best. Having seen Giroud score such an important header away at Old Trafford when his team hasn’t played well but still managed to get a point, and then barely celebrate because he’s no longer the main starting man made me wonder about this. For many years Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was Utd’s 12th man, the super-sub who frequently changed games and in recent years there was Javier Hernandez, although the little pea would consistently want to start and in the end didn’t accept this role. Other players who swiftly moved on in recent memory so that they could start were Edin Dzeko,

However, for Arsenal that one single point was very very important both for momentum, and how important it could be at the end of the season. Managers are always screaming out for players that are able to be their super-subs, and change the game coming off the bench, especially when the team is down. Why is it that in football players who have a chance at this role do not consistently embrace it and work for the better of the team when they need that spark of the bench that eventually can push the entire collective to another level?

This turned out a bit longer than I expected, but is starting every game really more important than playing only 20-30 minutes at the business end of many games? Especially when your team really needs the depth you provide? And is there more that leagues or temas could do to recognise the importance of such players, by providing some kind of recognition for it?
CJ (G Nev can you come to the Valley please?)

This was almost disastrous for Arsenal
It’s almost sweet that Arsenal think they were displaying title-winning credentials by not losing at Old Trafford on Saturday. So, you, a big title contender who hasn’t won the league in over a decade and finally looking like you have a team capable of withstanding a tough campaign, get outplayed for almost 90mins with practically no attempts on goal, by a team who’s been lurching from crisis to crisis, be it defensive, injury, midfield, striking, managerial,…etc. (did I miss any part of the team or the club?) and this is a positive result for you??

I think this was almost disastrous for Arsenal. To be thoroughly outplayed like that should be properly criticised, but instead Arsenal are actually Winners this week (hahaha Utd are Losers)! Wow, if I were an Arsenal fan, I would feel sick at that condescending description. The only reason you displayed “title-winning credentials by not losing” is because Utd made you look utterly cr*p. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Finally, Utd, who actually dominated the game and were deeply unlucky not to win (only in the sense that you should win if you dominate a game) seem to come out with almost no positives apart from some players playing well. And apparently, the fact that our makeshift defence and outstanding midfield (on the day) reduced Arsenal to sideways passes and panicky back passes and Sanchez to a moaning little frustrated child (Arsenal’s Herrera I guess) counts for nothing.
Monty (I missed the days when we used to be bitter at not winning games rather than at losing them), MUFC

A relieved Liverpool fan
I mostly lurk in the mailbox ie enjoy reading but don’t contribute but I decided to this week for one simple reason and that’s to say as a Liverpool fan I am glad we are no longer top of the table. We were set a test on Saturday and while we didn’t fail it we didn’t pass it either. I am surprised more hasn’t been made of this? Chelsea went to Southampton a few weeks back and won comfortably 2-0. The point I am trying to make (badly) is that people were acting over the last few weeks as though the league were already won by Liverpool. Now it’s Chelsea’s turn to feel that heat. It’s so tight this year (Top 5 separated by 4 points? Insane!) that one game where you don’t win could see you fall 3-4 places. One of these 5 teams won’t even qualify for the CL next season let alone win the league. Chelsea now have a couple of tough games coming up so their stay at the top will probably be short lived. No one is running away with the league this year. Pretty sure there could be 3 or even 4 teams in with a shout right down to the last one or two games.
Derek, LFC, Dublin.

Give Pardew time (until the end of the season, anyway…)
Somehow we’re still 7/1 to be relegated. The bookmaker I regularly use having us on the same odds as a Tony Pulis team and with six other teams more likely to drop in to the best league in the world (getting it in early). There is obviously still a long way to go and games against Swansea and Hull will give us a much better idea of how we measure up. The clamour for instant success in our culture inevitably leads to managers to be sacked for a lot less than what old Chunky is currently serving up. A lot of reasonable Palace fans at the start of the season were prepared to caveat the second half of last season and give Pardew until the end of the year with the signings and proposed change of style. He is not far off that amount of time now and we are seeing some positives but the negatives seem to be indicative of a manager not self-aware enough to recognise his own mistakes.

Saturday brought probably the worst attempt at defending a set piece we’ve seen. One of those times that I can honestly say I would have been able to do better. Literally just standing on the corner of the six yard box was all it would have taken. That no player on the pitch recognised this shows a lack of concentration, that the management seemingly have not spent the past few weeks on defending set pieces shows a lack of recognition for previous mistakes. Maybe they aren’t seen as mistakes or they aren’t good enough to prevent through coaching. I suspect it is because Pardew sees them as individual mistakes that cannot be prepared for.

I’m sure Steve Parish is prepared to give Pardew time. I wouldn’t necessarily argue with him, over the course of the season the quality of the squad should push them up the table. But I would like to think that he is scouting young, progressive, tactically fluent managers now. And that he continue to do so whatever the form or the points gained. Pardew is and has been a divisive figure in most, if not all the, clubs he has worked for. I would much prefer the whole club and community felt represented and be in a worse league position than having to constantly debate the pros and cons of one man. So, come the end of the season, whether we’re in 5th or 20th place I’d like to see someone like Tony Popovic, an actual fans favourite, come in. Someone we can all get behind. I’m willing to give Pardew this season, for me he earned it with the Cup Final and I’m also not a fan of the short term fix. We’ve had enough of those in the past to know they don’t work.
Ant, CPFC

Viva cup runs
Liverpool should have smashed us on Saturday and a point was completely underserved but quite simply I couldn’t care less.

As a saint’s fan, we’ve got a huge game in Europe this week where a win will virtually guarantee us a place in the knockouts. For a lot of teams, progression in the second tier of European football would be no big deal and something to actively avoid. For us it would represent a huge achievement and a demonstration of how far the club has come in the last 5 years.

We’ve got some decent squad depth, but I have a sneaking suspicion that juggling so many games and the resultant recovery time needed means we’ve never quite able to play our strongest side consistently. So, given the choice between league performances and cup runs, I’m all for cup runs this year.
Tom Saints (Who knows, with a favourable draw and a bit of luck we’re certainly capable of going the distance in Europe)

Erm…
Weird one but I wondered what other clubs send fans who are members of the club.

I finally got my membership pack this year and have to say I’m really impressed – membership pack contained a neck warmer – really useful when out running and Ray Parlour’s autobiography which I was going to buy and now don’t have to.

What do other fans get in their packs and how does it compare with the Arsenal?
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Schoolboy error
Starting to think Mahrez has decided to use the old schoolyard tactic of just not passing to Vardy.

Vardy must have taken his lunch or called him names!

Cheers,
Cormac, Galway