Mails: Is Mkhitaryan’s the best offside goal ever?

Mails: Is Mkhitaryan’s the best offside goal ever?

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Mkhi
Oh Mkhi you’re so fine,
You’re so fine I spilled my wine.
It’s Christmas!

That’s all!
Dave, BAC

 

To quote my all time favorite comedian Robin Williams:

Henrikh Mickitaryan is a self opening pinada. He is a gift.
Kel, MUFC (Merry Xmas F365 family)

Good times are back boyos, thanks for sticking with us through the hard times, we bringin sexy back.
Cortez(Matt Stead is the Carrick of F365)MUFC, Botswana

The best offside goal ever?
I would like to nominate Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s magical, sublime, and out-of-this-world backheel goal against Sunderland as the best offside goal…ever. In the history of the game. Any dispute? What’s that? …yeah, I didn’t think so.
Keg Baridi (Happy New Year Folks-yeah, in a few days) Nairobi, Kenya

 

Is it time?
At risk of ticking off Guy S (possibly Cortez too), after today’s performance is it safe to say Rooney is not needed anymore? Not to say we must all of a sudden sod him off but I don’t think his name and history is good enough anymore to keep him starting games.
Saladinho (Henrikh Mkhitaryan or René Higuita?)

An unhappy Chelsea fan
– Normally, after another of our wins leading to another record consecutive wins, I’d normally be cocky but today let me say for the record that I’m not a fan of the Matic-Fabregas midfield axis. It means the rest of the team need to put in 2X shift to get us over the line. (cue, second half of 14-15). Our midfield performance last night was one of the poorest I’ve seen all season.

– Barring a golden spell (honeymoon?) in the fall of 2014, the midfield pair has been absolutely poor. Part of it is to do with fact that both can be dribbled past easily, which is how the two players are by nature. What still baffles me is how Emenalo and co. thought it was good enough to mount another title challenge, especially in the “3”rd season of Jose Mourinho. (now add 2+2 and you’ll find out why we had that season last year).

– Thankfully Antonio Conte is not an idiot. The 3 man defense was the key not to concede a goal (plus Cortouis in imperious form) against Bournemouth. David Luiz in particular was absolutely brilliant. Comfortably the best defender in the PL for me at this stage along with perhaps the spurs Belgian center backs!

– The good thing is, only a suspension/injury to Kante will mean we’re to see the midfield pairing again (and I hope we’re done with either of that for the season). That brings me to a point, Chelsea do not even have the best squad in the division. Antonio has temporarily stitched the holes in the suit that has been apparent for years. But stitches can only hold on for so long, new cloth is definitely needed in some parts of the suit. Notably in central midfield (yes, Matic has been good but I’d love a Veratti like upgrade in that position) and defense (a center back, a left back/wing back cover). If something can be found in January market good, else Emenalo better start scouting for the summer.

– How good were Hazard and Pedro last night? Difficult to pick a man of the match. I’m going for Pedro because Hazard will have games like these more often than Pedro. And I like Pedro.

– Willian continues to frustrate me and dare I say many Chelsea fans. His close control, tight space dribbling and bringing the ball out of the box in a counter attack is top class. Only that after doing all this it there is cow dung instead of brains in his head. His decision making after doing all the hard work is so poor that I want to pick out all his hair one by one when I see him fluff a shot or make a ridiculous tight angled pass. I hope Willian improves in his decision making. Everything else about him is good.
Aravind, Chelsea Fan.

Arsene Wenger, bad at tactics
Could it be possible that Wenger has a clear philosophy, a unique ability to spot talent and a forward-looking attitude in terms of training but the worst in-game management and tactical knowledge of any Premier League manager? That’s not rhetorical – genuinely, is it possible to be so obscenely skilled in every area of football management except tactics that your other strengths just carry you through to fourth place? If Arsenal do win the league this year it will be because Wenger has assembled a side so talented, and has given these players enough freedom that they win it in spite of truly God-awful tactical approaches to individual games.

Just look at the West Brom game. The mistakes are so mind-boggling I’m completely baffled as to how Wenger even came up with his game plan:

1. Tony Pulis organizes his sides to play extremely compact and positionally disciplined and then to counterpress fiercely outside their own box. To beat him you need to play with width, to both bypass the mass of players in the middle with crosses and to stretch the play to create gaps between all those defenders/defensive midfielders/defensive wingers/defensive forwards/more defenders/lawn furniture/fleet of double decker buses/even more defenders.

What does Wenger do? He plays two inside forwards, Alexis and Iwobi, and seems to have instructed his two fullbacks to cut inside constantly. Arsenal decided to solve the problem of a packed defence by shoving as many bodies into the middle as possible. How does that make any rational sense? Honestly, what on Earth was he thinking?

2. Tony Pulis plays incredibly deep, preferring his sides to win the ball outside the box and then launch counter attacks with long balls or quick breakaways usually involving one guy bursting forward and passing to Rondon. Wenger therefore decides to play two defensive midfielders. To do what? Break up the incisive passing play in the middle of the park? Fletcher and Yacob interchanging like Iniesti and Xavi? Why did he do that? Why?

3. The single most confusing thing of all. Part of Wenger’s brain seems to know that using fast wide players delivering crosses to an aerially adept centre-forward is a good bet to beat West Brom. So he plays Giroud. But the he plays no wide midfielders and instructs his full backs to cut in. So you play Giroud, bravely deciding to move your prolific striker out left, but then you provide him absolutely no service. Arsenal won the game from a beautiful ball over the top from Özil and a nutso header from Giroud where he seems to both cushion the ball and impart power onto it. It’s a brilliant goal, but not one that seems to have resulted from any plan from Wenger. Just two really talented players combining, and doing what should have been done all game.

This mail is way too long already so to sum up – Wenger bizarre tactical decisions are not like Guardiola having his playmaker drop behind the defence or Conte re-purposing a hard-working winger as a full back. When the best managers do thing like that, it initially looks really weird but then you see how it works and think “that’s why he’s a manager making millions and I’m a mildly drunk marketer writing a novel into the letters page of a football website on my holiday.” Wenger’s decisions are just flat out strange, but somehow his ability to spot players and instil creative energy and intelligence into his players seem to compensate for this. Odd situation all round.
Harry, Munich

Nowhere near the title
Just another example to add to my unpublished mails from last week. Make that 14 points now that Arsenal have picked up in the dying moments of a match.

Because they’ve won, they’ll act like it’s three points well earned and “nothing to see here, tut tut”. The fact is, Arsenal nearly let another match slip away against an opponent that they clearly should’ve beaten.

So when the next loss comes, and fans complain about the “media narrative”, let this and the other 4 matches they nearly pissed away be the evidence to the contrary.

Arsenal are nowhere near deserving of a mention in title race.
Jeff, Pittsburgh

 

Pulisball
Apparently west brom had 24% possession at Arsenal. Does anyone know if this includes all the time they were wasting? Otherwise I can’t understand how it was that high. I barely even noticed how well foster played because I was too busy losing my sh*t, from the first minute onwards, as he spent a seeming weeks positioning the ball for every goal kick.

West brom have done well to be 3rd in the table of teams who probably weren’t going to win the league but does any west brom fan actually enjoy watching that kind of approach?

Aside from the time wasting Pulis has clearly decided the play for 0-0 in all the games against the top 6. I quite enjoy watching a team break down a well organised defence and as an arsenal fan am quite used to it but surely west brom should at least “have a go” at some point. There seemed to be absolutely no intent to even try and create something.

I’m delighted that they lost and that I don’t have to watch them again until March. Maybe by then they will have their 40 points and decided to let everyone enjoy the game just a little bit.
James

 

Boxing Day thoughts
*I don’t have anything new or profound to say about Zlatan Ibrahimovic; I just want to see him play and play and play. I’m sure a lot of strikers would have scored that second goal, and maybe a few would also have set up the first the way he did. But he does things so cleanly, simply, and naturally. Long may he thrive at Manchester United.

*Sam Allardyce’s first game with Crystal Palace was hardly an advertisement for the greatest league in the world, but it wasn’t all his fault. Watford showed absolutely zero imagination, and not a whole lot of skill either. But Palace were obviously playing for the 1-0 in the second half, and that has a habit of not working out. “Respect the point” is one of Big Sam’s favorite sayings, but we follow football for love, not respect, and three points are a lot more loveable than one.

*I never want any club to lose a good player, but right now Romelu Lukaku is wasted at Everton. They’re a great club, but as things stand he won’t flourish there. At least they didn’t pretend he was Sam Vokes this time.

*Middlesbrough fans have been upset with Aitor Karanka for not playing Adama Traoré, and they’re going to be a tiny bit more upset after the loss to Burnley. In the second half, when Boro’s extra man in midfield was starting to tell, that added quality on the wing might have turned the tide. They didn’t need him against Swansea, but Burnley actually know how to defend.

*I’m all for tactical flexibility, but Eddie Howe was thinking way too hard when he played three at the back to match Chelsea’s formation. If the other side has better players, you have to do your thing, not theirs. The setup robbed Bournemouth of their greatest strength, attack on the wings. And it’s never a good idea to leave Simon Francis exposed.

*It’s a good thing Christmas has come and gone, because when Lamine Koné sent 83kg plowing into that beautiful man Juan Mata, he took himself off Santa’s list for the foreseeable future.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA (Is Didier Ndong up off the floor yet?)

And some Palace thoughts
What’s Christmas without being forced to listen to someone overstaying their welcome and offering their opinions on subjects you’re not interested in? At least this is less contentious than Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn or Donald J Trump.

*Crystal Palace probably deserved to win against Watford, but ultimately, any game against a team higher in the table than we are that we get something from is a positive. Also, the gap increased between Palace and the bottom three. Baby steps and all that.

*The combination of players for the Eagles’ goal made for interesting viewing. Andros Townsend, a player who had been out of the side for a couple of games, setting up Yohan Cabaye for the goal. Cabaye was an important player in Alan Pardew’s Newcastle United side, and when they had a stellar season he was at the heart of what went well. Similarly, he was a marquee signing for Pardew at Palace, but has been out of sorts for a while.

Both players were given an opportunity to turn over a new leaf, and both played much better than they have been previously.

*Wilfried Zaha was once again Palace’s best player. Football provides moments of joy for every fan, whether it’s thunderb*st*rd shots, crunching tackles or tiki-taka passing. Personally, I’ve always enjoyed tricky wingers – they’re arguably the only type of footballers who combine the skills of the modern game with the direct, one-on-one battles of the early origins of organised association football.

A new manager was arguably the best chance the Eagles had of keeping Zaha, as there’s an incentive for him to stick around while the club is looking up the table.

*If football matches were Christmas dinners, Christian Benteke’s penalty was the joke out of a cracker – weak, and something you knew was coming.

*Sam Allardyce starts at Selhurst Park with a good run of fixtures to get his team and squad organised in the way he wants. The Watford game had some encouraging signs, largely because the team didn’t concede from set pieces (other than the penalty, I mean), or turn a comfortable lead into a miserable defeat.

Next up for Crystal Palace are the Arsenal, then Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup, and then Swansea City. That’s two games, against vastly different opposition, for Allardyce to refine his tactics, but where arguably the performance (both individual and collective) are more important than the result, in time for a massive six-pointer against City.

*Well done to Troy Deeney on his century of goals. You can always rely on Palace to help opponents break a losing or scoreless streak.

*Ultimately, it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, but not quite as good as I’d hoped. Just like Christmas always was.
Ed Quoththeraven

Ghosts of league tables past
This interesting feature (and direction to the excellent “statto” website) got me thinking, is there a league table captured at a point in time, not necessarily Christmas, which readers can identify with as being significant in their lives?

For me, it’s in the 1987-88 season.  A season where bizarrely there was a 21-team top flight division.  Yes, 21 divided by 2 doesn’t work out so every team got a random weekend off throughout the season.  Think about that happening today.

Anyway, this was my first year getting into football, and Liverpool, flush with new signings Barnes, Beardsley & Aldridge to replace Rush, ridiculously ruled the league this year.  And I am no Liverpool fan, but feel the need to highlight just how dominant they were on 24th Jan 1988:

17 points clear of 2nd place with almost double the goal difference, and still unbeaten?

Amazing.

Credit given to this awesome team, (called “the best he’d ever seen” by the great Sir Tom Finney later that season after demolishing Forest 5-0)………..hardly any it seems.

I can only think the reason is that the European ban denied this Liverpool side from competing (and surely winning at least one) European Cup in this era, but this to me, is an extraordinary league table.
Chrismcam

But how are Atalanta doing?
I just wanted to provide an update on my Italian team, Atalanta, as Serie A enters its winter break.

They’re still flying high in 6th, just three points off 3rd and six points off 2nd place. When I wrote in about them before, they were on a superb run that came to an end thanks to the combined might of Juventus and everyone on the Internet writing about how well Atalanta had been doing (oops). They also lost to Udinese before drawing with Milan and beating Empoli with a late winner.

My prediction for 2017 is that they’ll win a pathetic amount of games, plummet down the table, and narrowly avoid relegation while the manager talks himself up for the national team job. That’s normal, right?

Thanks to everyone for the interesting mails. Hope you all have a good Christmas and New Year.

Regards,
James T, Kanazawa, Japan