Mails: Why isn’t Wenger picking Xhaka?

Mails: Why isn’t Wenger picking Xhaka?

Keep those Mails coming to theeditor@football365.com…

Why you’d rather be Martial
Just to clarify, I don’t think F365 are biased against United, simply because you have written something I don’t agree with.

That being said, I really don’t agree with the article comparing Martial unfavourably to Winks. Obviously his late winner vs. a local rival on his Premier League debut is a big story, and it was great seeing someone who clearly cared. However, Martial scored a (let’s get it out in the open, better) goal on his debut vs. a local rival, and we have also seen him celebrate wildly with the fans (after a late winner vs. Everton at Wembley). He has already been an integral part of a side that actually won something, as oppose to Winks, who has barely played any senior football.

While his current form is poor (although not even that bad when considered alongside the rest of the United squad), Martial has already given United fans some great moments, and as such, he earns significantly more than Winks. This is because he has already proven capable of producing at a high level (the strength of his debut campaign has been hidden slightly by the emergence of Rashford, but it really was a pretty good start to his United career) in a bang average United side, and is quite rightly regarded as one of the most exciting young players in the country. Surely the article is a bit knee jerk – as the article states, Winks has barely played! In their respective form continues for the rest of the season, fair enough, but right now?

So, who would I rather be? Don’t get me wrong, Winks clearly had the better weekend and will rightly be in high spirits, but it seems a bit harsh to just wipe the slate with Martial, as if he won’t reach the heights of last season ever again? I’d take an FA Cup winners medal, a Goldenboy award, scoring important (and often excellent) goals for a full season, and appearing for my country (in a home tournament no less) to scoring on my Premier League debut vs. a local rival (which Martial also did).
Jack (Not making an apology for being a Martial fanboy – confident he will begin firing again soon) Manchester

Ramsey deserves another chance, but with Xhaka
I know many have mailed in to express their disgust at Aaron Ramsey’s performance at Old Trafford. While he was poor, he was played out of position on the left wing and was predictably ineffectual. And yes, Wenger does have a thing for Ramsey, but not without a good reason.

The world knows that Arsenal don’t have a 25 league goals a season striker. And so we need goals from the midfield. It explains the pursuit of Mkhitaryan and Mahrez over the summer, wide players who scored double digit goals last season, and can provide creativity from out wide. And Wenger persisted with Walcott over the summer knowing that he has a 20 goal season within him. The fact that Iwobi has had a role to play this season is due to his technical ability from out wide, despite his relative lack of goals, and of course the absence of a Mkhitaryan who might have sidelined him.

But Arsenal had built their attack with Alexis upfront as he can drop in between the lines and allow midfield runners like Walcott and Ozil to get beyond the lines. At some point during the season, we also saw Coquelin make advanced runs into the box(he didn’t score, mind).At that time, I thought that this system was built with Xhaka and Ramsey in mind, with Xhaka replacing Cazorla and providing long diagonals to Walcott from deep, while Ramsey plays box to box and makes runs into the penalty box.

Some say he is not good enough. But with Cazorla injured, I hope that for the next game at home to Bournemouth, we play the Xhaka-Ramsey combination. On paper, it seems to work, but we must start implementing the system. For we cant be reliant on Cazorla forever. If the Ramsey experiment fails, we make the call to sell him and replace him with a Cazorla lite player like Isco or use a fit Jack Wilshere.
Akshay B, Kochi

Some Liverpool flops gone good
I thoroughly enjoyed Storey’s latest Top 10 effort on Premier League flops enjoying a renaissance in Europe. This is despite the fact I had plans to pen an email along similar lines when I found the time amidst the litany of Cape Town summer activities on offer (probably only in 2017 then).

I still get a pleasurable surge of neuron activity when I recognise a name like Iago Falque’s from his failed time at Spurs during my perusing the results from the European leagues. Putting on my Liverpool-tinted shades I posit another few names to add to the list:

Sebastien Coates: Deemed not good enough at first Liverpool and then Sunderland the man with the name of a failed 18th century playwright washed up on the shores of Portugal and is enjoying a starting berth at Sporting Lisbon and partnering Diego Godin at the heart of Uruguay’s defence.

Peter Gulacsi; I have my doubts whether he ever started for Liverpool but he was a fixture at reserve level for a few years. he joined the Red Bull’s of Leipzig and now sits pretty atop of the Bundesliga and as an added bonus has inherited Gabor Kiraly’s baggy trousers between the poles for Hungary.

Mikel San Jose: Another academy prospect brought in during Rafa’s revolution, he never progressed beyond the fringes of the first team but has has gone on to star for Athletic Bilbao resulting in a Spain call-up.

What about supporters of other clubs: Are their any players that have been happily moved off your books only to impress in Europe?
Osric the Brave (Dani Pacheco for Ballon D’or!), Cape Town

You can’t compare Giroud’s role to basketball
In response to CJ regarding Giroud and his lack of enthusiasm for being a super-sub or impact sub, using basketball as comparison. Although I do like to see parallels between different sports, and how one can use the knowledge of another to enhance performance (although hearing moneyball ever hurts my soul), I do think that with football and basketball subs the differences are too wide for it to really work as a comparison.

Firstly, and perhaps not quite so notable, is the number of players on pitch/court at any one time. To be the 6th best player in a basketball team sounds about twice as good as being the 12th best footballer (I know with different positions this doesn’t really work, but whatever). Smaller sides mean that when you are on, you’re fairly central to the play, you’re still getting a decent amount of exposure and action.

However, the main reason as to why I think a footballer wouldn’t embrace this role in the same way a basketball player might, is the substitution rule in each sport and how they differ. In football, you’re permitted 3 changes and 3 changes only, which means that a manager will usually only use them in the 2nd half (although we all secretly love a rare first half tactical substitution which normally means a side/particular player is already writing themselves into Daniel Storey’s ‘losers’ column), as they just can’t risk wasting a sub before they need to, and it’s not always guaranteed they’ll use all three. In basketball however, rolling substitutes mean that if you are the illustrious 6th player, you’re getting on. Always. Probably in the first half, in fact, so there isn’t quite the same amount of shame attached as to the man under a big coat on a bench for 75 minutes. You’re getting more guaranteed game time, and more action when you do get on, as mentioned above.

There are other reasons, too (that’s right, I’ve not finished yet), the lack of choice for a top basketball player being one. A player of Olivier Giroud’s standing could move to any number of teams, in any number of leagues throughout Europe and be competing for silverware. If he’s not playing, why not try a new challenge? Conversely basketball has one league worth playing in with a limited number of teams, so in essence the team has more power in that regard. There’s also the international scene to consider. Giroud probably worries how being an impact sub will compromise his position in the French national side, something basketball players probably (unless I’ve hugely underestimated the pride attached to representing Team USA) don’t care too much about.

To summarise in one sentence which I’m sure some people have probably done already: they’re different sports with different rules.
Mike (AVFC), London

Please stop blaming the foreigns
Popular 2016 theory: I can’t advance in my job and others can’t find a job because we keep bringing in foreigners to do the same job we do.

Yes Tony and Sean, Jurgen, Josep and Mauricio are foreign but that’s not why you currently manage mid-table teams and don’t get praise while they do… might be something to do with this thing called winning trophies and challenging for titles (and the Championship title (Dyche) and Championship runner up (Pulis) doesn’t quite sound so sexy).

Deary me this does reek of Allardyce’s “i’m more suited to coaching Real Madrid” talk. We all know what happened when he got his chance at coaching a big team. Sounds like Pulis and Dyche have joined Big Sam in a pint of wine. Great to have ambitions but let’s not blame the foreigners, they’ve made the league more exciting.
Ross “yeah I used brackets inside a bracket” Coughlan

A very happy Baggie
This is how it feels to be Albion
This is how it feels to be small
We’re in the Premier League
Where the f#*k are Villa and Wolves

We know what we are, we know what we are pride of the Midlands we know what we are.

And before Villa fans get shouty about the European cup Forest have two of them does it make them bigger than the Villa???

Finally… To who ever… He’s won more than you he’s won more than you Darren Fletcher he’s won more than you.
Ben (and we’ve got Tony Pulis) the Baggie

And some West Brom vs Burnley thoughts
*It’s a bit of a mystery why James Morrison’s career never took off. Good technique, good passer, scores his share of goals – you’d have expected clubs higher up the table to come in for him. But I don’t remember any serious transfer sagas with his name attached. Maybe other clubs have seen flaws, or maybe he’s just been happy at West Brom. If the latter, bravo to him, and bravo to the Baggies for signing and keeping him.

*How good was Salomón Rondón last night? That was the most complete performance by a target man this season. His shooting and passing statistics are up from last year, and he looks more confident overall. Let’s see more.

*I have a soft spot for Ben Mee. Last time Burnley were up, he played mostly at left back, and although only an average defender, he was an absolute cross-blocking machine. But he just hasn’t been up to the challenge at centre-half this year. That has to be Burnley’s number one transfer priority in January.

*If the Clarets’ road stats get any worse, they’ll be visible from space. We’re now at shots 31-124, shots on target 6-47, goals 1-13. How bad was it last night? Chris Brunt was doing tricks and flicks. And there were actually pro-Pulis chants at The Hawthorns.

*Don’t look now, but West Brom are in ninth place, with Hull and Watford their next two opponents.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA

Our man in Japan
It’s not over yet!

Zweigen Kanazawa went into Sunday’s match needing to win and hope FC Gifu and Kitakyushu both lost in order to escape the relegation zone entirely, while a draw, depending on other results, might be enough to move them into the relegation playoff spot.

Sapporo is cold and far away, and 33,000 people turned up to see the home team try to clinch the title. Most teams in J2 average about 5,000 spectators.

Gifu conceded two goals but quickly equalised both times to go in 2-2 with Tokyo Verdy at half time. Kitakyushu and Zweigen were both goalless in their matches, so positions hadn’t changed and Zweigen were still in the automatic relegation spot.

Early in the second half, Gifu scored twice to secure their safety and remove themselves from the equation. The other games remained scoreless until Kitakyushu conceded two quick goals, and then one more later to lose 3-0. They were left hoping for a late Sapporo goal, but it never came. Zweigen’s defence held firm, the keeper made a few good saves, and the game finished 0-0.

Kitakyushu finished bottom, and that point for Zweigen earned them another shot at survival in the form of a two-legged playoff against the runners-up in J3, Tochigi, who went down last year. (This year’s J3 champions, Oita Trinita, last year became the first team to lose the relegation playoff). Zweigen have been in the bottom three all season, and to continue the theme of making things difficult that’s run throughout this year, the first leg is away and the home leg will be played in the neighbouring prefecture, Toyama, because of construction work at the stadium in Kanazawa.
James T, Kanazawa, Japan

You can’t trust polls anymore
Can we stop having polls as to who the best player/number 10 in the league is because even as a Liverpool fan if I have to see Coutinho with 22% more of the vote than Kevin de Bruyne and 14% more than Hazard again I may slip into an irreversible depression.

Come on people!! He’s very good but let’s try to be even slightly objective from time to time shall we.
Karl, Dublin