Mails: Sympathy for drunken Rooney here…

Mails: Sympathy for drunken Rooney here…

If you have anything to say on any subject, mail us at theeditor@football365.com

Hailing Alexis
Alexis Sanchez is the best international footballer in the world. Discuss.

Can’t think of another player that carries his country so much and to such achievement as Sanchez does with Chile. Seeing his reaction to Chile giving away a penalty as well, I doubt there’s a player who takes defeat of his country as personally either. England players could learn more than a few things from the human dynamo.

Rumour has it he swam back from Chile yesterday to keep his fitness up.
Brad Smith

A joke for the regulars
Anyone else picture Guy S compiling a list of Rooney’s drinking stats to prove that he had seven pints and six shots and was still LESS drunk than 10 other Premier League midfielders?
Martin, LFC

Sympathy for Rooney
I used to think that Rooney is a joke but that’s because I unabashedly and unconditionally supports LFC.

Now I think the English mainstream media is the biggest joke of them all.
Veni, Singapore (leave poor Shrek alone)

…We all grow up wanting to be a footballer but looking at the latest supposed ‘scandal’ about Rooney has led me to think that maybe this wasn’t the dream after all.

If you can’t get drunk at a wedding when you don’t have work for three days that seems completely absurd.
Jordan (He should still retire from international football and join LA Galaxy though) Johnson

…This was an actual quote from a piece in the rag disguised as a newspaper that is The S*n about Wayne Rooney written today after his drunken antics: ‘The father of three’s future at Manchester United looks bleaker than ever with only 20 months remaining on his £300,000-per-week contract.’

That is all.
Ben LFC in Bristol (still in love with Jurgen)

Two quick things
You’re the caretaker England manager. You’ve won one game. You could be about to get offered the job and you’ve got a game against one of the best three teams on earth before any decision will be made. Do the words, “Must not lose” go through your head over and above all else? Perhaps this explains the approach to the game, entirely about self preservation, in my opinion. That said, if he’s tactically astute enough to do that and execute the plan correctly then he might just do alright.

Daniel Storey; that Gazza article – bloody hell. I personally don’t think you’ll top the ones you wrote on Shearer and Lineker but this most recent one was both excellent and sad and definitely came close.
Minty, LFC

Sticking up for Ander
I have to take issue with the current beating of Herrera in the mailbox – Alex London (See Gerrard’s Red card) so according to Alex sliding across a player to block a clearance then being stamped on is his own fault because what? I don’t understand where the hell Alex is coming from here, he didn’t attempt to kick Gerrard he simply tried to block the ball and a petulant over-the-hill has-been deemed it necessary to stamp on him, damn you Herrera for trying to play football.

As for Dier and his big man veiled threats, grow up I’ve watched the supposed elbow countless times and he doesn’t ‘deliberately’ elbow him at all. Herrera is an underrated gem in a miss firing United side and fans from other teams seem hell bent on making him out to be the Devil incarnate, let’s all laud Costa for his complete ba**ardry because his a big ugly bustling centre forward who likes to ‘put it abart a bit’ Herrera has made a couple of mistimed tackles and been stamped on and he is suddenly a snide sh*t. Well I for one am glad he is our snide sh*t and long may he anchor the United midfield allowing Pogba freedom to do Pogba stuff.
Paul Murphy, Manchester (I realise my accurate description of Gerrard may offend a few Stevie Me fans)

We need to talk about Messi
Having a scroll on Twitter after a long day at work and see a few tweets of Messi scoring an outrageous free-kick THIS INTERNATIONAL WEEK.

I look back on F365 to check whether I have missed an article and a quick look at a few mailboxes to see if anyone has noticed this work of art but nothing. I rely on you fine people for my football knowledge and frankly YOU HAVE LET ME DOWN.

As far as I can tell there was not a peep. This makes me very sad indeed. WHAT HAS HAPPENED?

If such a goal is not worthy of at least an acknowledgement then you are all football haters! HATERS!

0-0, 25 yards plus out, big wall and a giant green Ospina (who incidentlly looks like he has been dipped in radioactive silly putty) facing the Messiah then ping…

The radioactive cat offers a heroic, full stretch dive making the strike look even more beautiful but Ospina’s efforts are to no avail…

TOP BIN!

I especially loved the way the ball caressed the crossbar before nestling in the back of the net.

Goal was awesome even for Messi.
H, (maybe it kissed rather than caressed. Whatever, it was DAMN FINE SEXY and we need to talk about it)

Jesus is our saviour
Gabriel, that is.

After scoring 33 in the first 11 games, City have scored just 10 in the subsequent 8. With clean sheets looking few and far between due to a back four who – despite a highly demanding system – are struggling to keep silly errors to a minimum, the ability to convert a higher percentage of chances created will be absolutely crucial in determining the outcome of Gaurdiola’s first season in the big bad English Premier League.

Whilst it may be pointing out the obvious – despite the brilliance of Aguero and De Bruyne – Aguero, KDB and one of Nolito/Sterling/Sane don’t yet possess the same goal threat as Henry, Messi, Villa/Ibrahimovich or Lewadowski, Robben, Ribery/Douglas Costa in Gaurdiola teams gone by.

The Guardiola method is heavily reliant on his team capitalising on the additional chances that his system delivers. Yet you would struggle to see anyone other than Aguero hitting or exceeding 10-12 Premier League goals this season from the ‘front three’.

Defensively, if the team fails to convert a high enough percentage of these chances (and loses out on a winner sports bonus), with the space in behind that the ‘Gaurdiola way’ leaves, City will be susceptible to dropping points. Perhaps too many to win the league *AND meet the minimum requirements for progression in Europe.

Due to this there’s immense pressure on Aguero to bare the brunt of the goalscoring burden with KDB often deployed – in the league at least – in a deeper, more creative role and Iheanacho still developing and adapting to the demands of Gaurdiola to be involved in the game throughout rather than in the box alone.

Gabriel Jesus comes in in January with a professional record of just over a goal every 1.5 games and whilst he won’t be expected to hit the ground running, whether he does or doesn’t may well be the difference between City winning the league and City losing out to those without the brilliant distraction of European football.
Josh

Neville above Jack, please
Glad to see Phil Neville back on the ladder, now if you could just take Jack Wilshere off it until he actually does something decent…
Rob, Guangzhou

What about Jamaal?
Having had another international break and the latest World Cup ladder, it got me thinking about my team (Newcastle)’s potential England players should we come back up.

Dwight Gayle is banging in goals but it’s hard to justify his inclusion if he doesn’t do it in the Premier League.

Jonjo Shelvey is playing out of his skin (just ask Ian Holloway) and assuming his current FA hearing is a lot of hot air (please!!) then he brings something to a midfield that lots of English players don’t – aggressive forward passing. There’s a reason we look so much better with him playing. He’s still young and unfashionable, but he offers something in terms of style that no other CM we have does.

That then brings me to CB, and although I agree that John Stones is a certain starter, his partner is less so. If only there was another young, English centre-back famed for leadership and commanding the box…luckily there is and Jamaal Lascelles has been excellent for Newcastle over the past nine months and made captain at the age of 22 (now 23). He’s still learning, but with Rafa coaching him he’s only going to get better.

Yes, he’s playing in the Championship but he was excellent in the last 10 games of last season in the Premier League (when Newcastle’s form was as good as anyone’s, shame we were miles off the pace) and fingers crossed should be in the Premier League next season. Surely he’s more interesting for the squad than Jagielka or Phil Jones?
James (NUFC)

One eternal delight is just cruel
Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this, but for me the eternal delight of watching the away end erupt is topped by away fans celebrating a ‘goal’ that turns out to be off target. Usually an effort that is fractionally wide and hits the outside of the net – it looks from some angles as if it’s gone in (and it’s usually the away fans who are stuck miles away from the action are and have the worst view). Their initial celebration is invariably followed by an embarrassed silence (and sitting down again as quickly as possible) when they realise it wasn’t actually a goal – which is in turn followed by massive ridicule from the home fans. Magic.
Dave Horgan, Dublin

More football crushes
I was going to write a long mail on my football crush, Gilles Grimandi, before realising that, far from a crush, he’s actually the love of my life (after Pirlo) as he’s still one of my favourite ever Arsenal players.

As a crush is a brief intense obsession, I thought I would instead list some of the players I have been convinced would be brilliant players (telling everyone about them, why they are so good etc.) only for them to turn out not to be so.

Jussie – I doubt many have heard of him but he was a Brazilian who played mainly in France about fifteen years ago. I saw him single-handedly destroy PSG when playing for Lens in one of the best performances I have ever witnessed. I then signed him on every Fifa and Championship Manager game despite low ratings and tried to build teams round him. Turned out you couldn’t.

Zoltan Gera – I’m not 100% why. It’s probably the name. Can’t ever remember seeing him play well but I did buy him cheap in Fantasy Football and he got me a few points.

Bryan Ruiz – He played an absolute blinder against Arsenal once. Tall, languid, excellent technique: I was convinced he was the new Cruyff. Turns out he was more Jordi than Johan.

Steed Malbranque – “Technically he’s brilliant.” This almost became a catchphrase so often I was forced to defend him after another poor performance. He once scored a beautiful controlled volley after the ball hung in the air for ages and that basically convinced me he was the next Maradona.

Looking back it seems I have a thing for average Fulham players.
John (JP 4 GG) Porter

McAteer clarification
To clarify for CP, Cambridge, regarding the bananaloppy disk classic, I was about five or six at the time. Apologies for the confusion and to the postie who found that envelope. I’m still sh*te at choosing gifts.
Paul, LFC, Mönchengladbach

Anybody want to share Sherwood stories?
Any Swindon Town fans in here? Whatever is going on there is fantastic. Tim Sherwood is clearly a gift from the football gods.
Brian (Can’t wait for Tim Sherwood’s ‘Portrait of an Icon’ piece) LFC