So Gunners, would you take Pep or Klopp?

So Gunners, would you take Pep or Klopp?

We are limping through the week. Mail us at theeditor@football365.com if you have anything to add.

Which manager would you want?
Okay, international week calls for a new game, I know it’s not Friday but how does this sound…

Real Madrid get a little giddy, sack Zidane and appoint the manager of your team as their new coach. Looking at the Premier League table as it stands (other leagues can be taken into account), you are allowed the manager from a league club within three places of yours, up or down the league.

For example, being a Liverpool fan, I would take Pep over Conte and Wenger.
Jimmy (Sounds like a rubbish game but the Arsenal fans’ answers will be interesting) Spain

Every other league is intriguing
As someone who tries as much as possible (time permitting) to keep up with football on the continent, I think this season seems to be great outside of England as well as in it. In every major league there is plenty of intrigue.

In Germany, unfathomably Bayern are not 12 points clear even though we’re now in November. For all those people who said anyone could win the league with Bayern as a stick with which to beat Pep, this provides at least a smudge of evidence to the contrary. For all the social media hype about how great they are, Dortmund actually find themselves in fifth, although they’ve scored lots of goals and are still, for all intents and purposes, bloody fun to watch, with a manager who I think may be destined for a big money contract with a Premier League team down the line (although, apart from the money, I don’t understand why a manager would want to leave them). The big surprise is RB Leipzig, who are unbeaten, level on points with Bayern, and enemy number 1 in the country.

In Italy things are slightly more routine with Juve sitting four points clear at the top. Roma seem to share lots of similarities with Liverpool, with insane pace up top, lots of chances and goals, becoming one of the entertainers of the league, and led by Chelsea reject Mo Salah. I’m most intrigued by the fortunes of the two Milan clubs. AC Milan, after years in the wilderness (a lesson to be learned from this for United maybe?), they are in the middle of a resurgence led by youthful exuberance, which seems to be the complete antithesis of the club of the last five or six years that was full of big-name stars in the twilight of their careers. Inter seem to be completely imploding, having sacked De Boer three months into the job, and lie in 9th. There is also an extraordinary spat between their ‘Ultras’ and captain Mauro Icardi, who has retained the armband and continues to score plenty of goals for them (would love to see him in England). He is not the quickest nor tallest, but always seems to find himself in space in the box, and knows how to finish. Shame the club are a bit of a shambles.

In Spain, business as usual as it’s a Real-Barca top two. Having watched them this year, despite the results I don’t think either team are at the level of previous years, with Barcelona in particular struggling at times due to some excessive rotation from Luis Enrique. He did a similar job in the season they won the Champions League with MSN, so perhaps some football similar to that beckons in the new year (neutrals can hope). Villareal continue to mix it with the big boys, and Valencia have shown why Gary Neville may not have been wholly to blame for their struggles last year as they continue their wretched form. The best story so far, though, can only be down to one man. Corner specialist Iago Aspas has outscored Ronaldo, Bale, and Neymar this season.

Oh, and Mario Balotelli’s Nice are three points clear at the top of Ligue Un.

Sorry if this is excessive and/or boring but football – bloody love it!
Martin, Brighton

Some international football thoughts
– Do English football fans dislike international football because they’re bad at it? Or because qualifying is predictable because,
y’know, by most standards they’re actually quite good. I ask because on dozens of websites this week, I am reading ‘Premier League come back, save us from international football!’ in everything from comments sections to headline articles.

– I find the above interesting because, for one, England are playing Scotland in two days and nobody seems to care. England have a new (probably temporary) manager, and nobody seems to care. England have some good players, in form, and nobody is speculating about how this should work…

– I’m Irish, and we are not going to have a good time this weekend against Austria, I think. We have a few injuries (Ward, McCarthy, Long) and we don’t have a deep pool of talent to choose from anyway, but I am still looking forward to watching the match. I’m interested to see what system we go with because of who is available and missing, but also because I love the camaraderie of being in a group watching a match and having everyone cheer the same way. I don’t have any Austrian friends, you see…

– On the squad – if everyone is fit, I think a 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 could work. We have natural wing backs in Coleman and Brady, three good CMs in Hendrick, Arter and McCarthy, and some decent attackers in Walters and Long. In the absence of a few of these, it still strikes me as our best option to get players behind the ball and strangle the game. I’ll be happy with a point. With a full squad and in Dublin, I’d be more hopeful.

– Two Dundalk players are in the squad – that is an incredible achievement. I can’t remember the last time a League of Ireland player played for Ireland – perhaps the Mailbox can answer that – but I’d love to see Daryl Horgan, in particular, make an appearance. As an aside, my local side Cork City just beat Dundalk in the FAI Cup Final and ran them pretty close in the league until a defeat a few weeks ago. Here’s hoping for one step better next season.

– Finally, and maybe this might start some debate, if the disillusion with international football qualifiers really is an issue, how do we fix it? For me, the real issue is the frequent short breaks at the start of the season. I say, scrap the September break that comes 3/4 games into the PL season and make the October one last for longer. No extra time needed, no extra games played – but instead of frequent breaks for a short international period, we could end up with a 2/3 week break where international sides can play a few games in succession, build momentum and create a mini-tournament buzz? Could do it again in, say, March or June and see if it helps boost interest.

Please, tell me why I’m stupid…
Kevin, LFC, Cork

Let’s make England v Scotland great again
I take note of your plea for mails due to the International break and indeed to Micki Attridge’s comment about a certain England-Scotland game coming up which appears to lack interest.

I grew up loving the home Internationals and in particular the longest and, at times, the most bitter rivalry in international football history. Winning against Scotland was more important than my domestic club’s achievements back then (maybe because Arsenal were no more than a cup side in those days?).

England playing Scotland in this so called interlude is a chance to renew the passion both the Scots and the English always used to show for this fixture whether it was a ‘friendly’ or a qualifier!

Let’s remember for us England fans and you Scottish fans this is a derby that historically has outweighed all our domestic derbies. What’s changed?

I am looking forward to this game with a hope of getting one over on you Jocks and that Jimmy Cranky MP of yours. I trust you lot feel the same towards us!

Let’s both go for it!
Chris, Croydon

Games to watch this weekend
Okay, the doomsday scenario has happened but last time I checked this was a football site so I’d like to look ahead to the games that are going to interest me over the course of the international week most of us will not get to watch most of them on TV and they may not be on a dodgy channel at your local pub so get cosy with your laptop I’m going to take this by continent.

South America
Brazil vs Argentina – two of the biggest countries and rivals in the sport going head to head and Brazil can put Argentina in serious trouble by winning this. Needs no hype. Also worth seeing Chile v Colombia, Colombia vs Argentina and Uruguay vs Chile.

North and Central America
This game happens every other week it seems but really we can’t look past USA vs Mexico which is always the biggest grudge match over there and it may be the last one before the wall is builtv(sorry for bringing that up).

Europe
To be honest this time there aren’t as many big games there is obviously Eng vs Scotland primarily for historical reasons but France vs Sweden is massive as that’s one of the toughest group (the Dutch are in it too) and one of these teams may likely be watching on TV.

Asia and Oceania
At a push S Korea vs S Arabia

Africa
South Africa vs Senegal
Nigeria vs Algeria
Morroco vs Cote D vorie
Egyypt vs Ghana

Only one team will qualify from each group and by some quirk of fate the two main contenders in most of the groups are up against each other. There will probably be a lot of familiar faces – Nigeria vs Algeria has Iwobi Iheanacho, Mikel, Mahrez and Slimani playing.

If you’re a hipster, take a chance on watching some of these games, it will probably be better than what’s going on in the real world.
Timi, MUFC

My favourite Rafa thing
I love Rafa the tactician and thought I’d weigh in a little.

My favourite tactical thing he ever did was in the Juventus game when we won’t the Champions League. He started off with a team that looked like a 4-5-1 but in fact played 3-5-2…by the time Juventus realised and worked out what to do they were 2-0 down.

His favourite result is definitely 1-0. Rafa firmly believed that winning by an odd goal was the sign of a strong team; he is almost more obsessed with the process than the end result and the result implies control over a game.

I often wonder who will survive this Newcastle team if they do get promoted this season. I’d wager that at least six regular starters would be gone within two seasons as he brought in better players and developed the club more.
Minty, LFC

Herrera dropped? Don’t make me set something on fire
Yeah …. Ander Herrera is “entirely attack-minded” isn’t he?

It’s not like he’s been out best performer since being re-introduced to the first team, or that he was man of the match in shutting out the most potent attacking home team in the league this season

What more does he have to do to keep his position in the team, he’s basically re-invented himself as a DM, to allow Pogba more chance to roam, the only problem with this is that against the bigger teams, we could still do with a 3rd midfielder who will keep their position so that Pogba isn’t having to do half the defensive work, and who can hit a pass from deep so that Pogba can keep moving forward with the play ahead of him.

We may have a number of players capable of playing in the #10 role, but our system isn’t setup to get the most out of that position, we don’t have the movement in behind the defenders, or players making overlapping runs to allow a #10 to pick out space and thread a pass, so yes, Rooney definitely needs to be dropped, because he sure as hell can’t play as a #9 anymore.

I swear if we drop Herrera again I’m going to set something on fire, what more does he have to do to keep a place in the team?
Moz

All just a little bit of history repeating itself
The Simpsons predicted Donald Trump’s historic election victory in 2000. In that episode, Lisa, Bart Simpson’s sister, was the first female president and she apparently inherited quite a budget crunch from her predecessor, making America bankrupt.

Looking back in history, whenever the US electorate makes a positive change in the leadership, there always follows a backlash by white conservatives trying to “reclaim” their land. After Americans elected the first African American to be their president, what has now followed is white conservatives lashing back by electing the most bigoted person to be their president. Make America Great Again is a code for make America white again.

Now back to the football. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a crazy person. He goes to a new club and they win the title the same season, almost always. His first stints in Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and PSG were followed by a title the same year. He’s like a talisman who seems to attract shiny trophies like a magnet.

My final point is that President Barrack Obama was elected in 2008 and 2012 and was sworn in in January 2009 and 2013 respectively. Man United won the titles in 2009 and 2013. I would suggest that Degsy takes my not so subtle hint, and anyone else there who wants to earn easy money to bet on Man United winning the 2016/17 English Premiership Title. Thank me later.
Keg Baridi, Nairobi, Kenya
PS. Print this mail and read it in May 2017 and hail me as the new Nostradamus. Or not. I’m simply studying history.

Down with that sort of thing
Hey you. Yes you. I see you writing. Stop it.

No, Big Sam isn’t Donald Trump, Rui Faria isn’t like Mike Pence. Klopp isn’t Bernie Sanders and Steve Bruce most certainly isn’t Hillary Clinton. Brexit and President Trump aren’t analogous with the status quo being upset ie. Leicster winning the league and the Pep Fraudiola kurfuffle isn’t symbolic of the widening divide between the liberal elite and the views of the common man.

So step away from the computer. Put down the tablet. Please stop writing your timeliness pieces, as I don’t fancy scrolling past them all on my Twitter feed.

It must be hard to type with the massive straw hands I’ve given you anyway.
Jamie R, Dublin

Can it get any worse?
International break and I thought I’d share the state of my past week.

I’m a Chicago White Sox baseball fan and watched our home city rivals win their first World Series in 108 years.

Donald Trump was just elected the next president of my country.

And to top it all off Swansea City just played their worst game I’ve seen in a long time and I greatly fear being relegated. Apparently my American compatriots are doing a first class job of ensuring it happens.

What next…oh ffs I just spilled beer on myself. Not even my own beer.
Dave in Chicago (if Allen scores again for Wales all is forgotten)