It’s time to do the unthinkable and drop Zlatan

It’s time to do the unthinkable and drop Zlatan

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com to finish the week strong. You can do it. I believe in you.

Time to drop Zlatan
I know it sounds crazy but buying a Verrati or a new Carrick is not the answer. It is not that Herrera, Pogba, Carrick lack a speed of thought and are unable to pick the pass quickly. It is that we dont have a striker or runners in that zone to pass to.

Ibra is great. However, when it comes to speed, he is a Rooney. No wonder our challenges continue from last year.

The way to beat teams in this league is to have a quick transition. That is critical to catch teams out. Drop Ibra. Play Martial, Mkhitaryan and Rashford as your front three. You will see a vastly improved scoreline.

The one game we did that was in the FA cup and we did really well. Bring Ibra on in the second half and then hope for his magic to kick in. If he starts, the team keeps playing keep ball till he gets up the pitch and every defender is in place.
Sudarsan Ravi

 

What about Tammy?
I understand that in this bonkers age of football economics we are living in, £40million isn’t going to get you the quality of Zinidine Zidane (£46m) in 2001. However why would Chelsea entertain the thought of purchasing Celtic’s Moussa Dembele for this amount or any amount when they already have his equivalent?

Abraham, 28 league appearances, 16 goals. 19 years old.

Dembele, 21 league appearances, 9 goals. 20 years old.

The juxtaposition of their team’s fortunes is plain to see; Celtic are on course to win a weak SPL by a landslide and Bristol City are essentially in a relegation battle. Despite this Abraham is sitting second in the top scorer’s chart in a league which is much more competitive compared to the one north of the border.

Given their ages, both players have enormous potential but I cannot fathom why Chelsea would risk 40% of their reported summer transfer budget when they have a similar player already on their books who could come into the squad without the burden of an obscene price tag and not be expected to hit the ground running.

I really hope this was “fake news” that coincided with Dembele’s visit to a knee specialist in London in order to generate some excitement in an uninspiring deadline day. Surely Abraham is a safer, low risk option?
MB – (I live with two Celtic fans and discussing this has been unbearable)

 

Signing Kante over Messi
I’m a bit late on this, but I’m a Liverpool season ticket holder, and was at Anfield on Tuesday night. After seeing that, I would genuinely choose to sign Kante above any other player for Liverpool right now, and that includes Messi, Neymar, Aguero, Griezmann etc etc. The guy is a machine, the most effective player I’ve seen at Anfield in many a year, and a pleasure to watch (albeit perhaps it’s taken me two days to find the grace to say that).

Lucky lucky Chelsea, or smart-in-the-transfer-market Chelsea, depending on how you look at it.
Andy, North Wales

Revisionism
Mediawatch has touched on this already but this constant revision of expectations for teams and managers, particularly Mourinho, is driving me a bit mad. I believe that they should be judged by their pre season expectations so in order to help, here is my definitive guide on how all of these “world class” managers should be judged. What are their minimum requirements, and where should their clubs finish based on their reputations.

Mourinho: Minimum Requirement (MR): Challenging for the title. Based on Reputation (BOR) Challenging for the title.

Given the astronomical money spent, and his reputation as one of the worlds best coaches, he needs to put in a decent title challenge. As it happens, he is falling way short and a top four finish for him without any kind of challenge should be viewed as a poor season. If he wants to be seen as the worlds best he needs to win the league and missing out on the Champions League would be nothing short of an embarrassment.

Conte: (MR) Comfortable Europa League finish (BOR) Challenging for Top four.

A team in disarray after Mourinho’s failings, I think at the start of the year Chelsea would have taken a fifth placed finish. Conte’s reputation had them dreaming of a Champions League spot but what he has achieved so far is sensational. Leicester have made any future teams title achievements look slightly underwhelming but make no mistake if he wins the league he has been bloody extraordinary.

Wenger: (MR) Challenging for the title. (BOR) Challenging for title.

Similar to Mourinho he is viewed as one of the worlds finest coaches and a comfortable top 4 finish is now not enough to stop his reputation slipping. He’s done the hard bit, all the top four finishes whilst having to sell all his best players but now is time for Wenger to deliver. Despite the endless debates, any rational football fans can see that Wenger will go down as one of the best ever however if he wants to be a serious candidate to be hitting the top spots in my imaginary list, he needs to win the Premier League and Champions League before he retires. Yes it’s a tough ask, but if he’s that good, he will do it.

Guardiola: (MR) Challenging for the title. (BOR) Win the league.

When he came to City the general consensus was that he was the best coach in world football. The best coach in world football plus a shedload of cash should equal a league title. I am a huge Guardiola fan and this does seem slightly unfair but it has been a really underwhelming season so far given the expectations. He’s too good not to get them into the top 4 but even a comfortable Champions League qualification will see his stock slip for now.

Pochettino: (MR) Comfortable Europa League finish. (BOR) Challenging for the top four.

It is a credit to Pochettino that Spurs have lofty targets because given the budget he is working with, they should not be getting into the Champions League. Failure to do so should not damage his reputation too much, and if he manages to pull it off he’s doing a sensational job.

Jurgen Klopp: (MR) Top four challenge. (BOR) Top four finish.

Given where Liverpool sit in the picking order, i.e. behind Utd, Arsenal, City and Chelsea, finishing outside the top four should not be the end of the world. However, and I say this as a fan of Klopp, he has an undeserved reputation as one of the best in the world, and if he wants to be in that category he has to finish at least fourth. Just a reminder that Liverpool came 8th last year. Behind West Ham and Southampton. Yes he didn’t start the season but they were 3 points off the top 4 when he joined. People in the mailbox recently had been saying they would rather him than Guardiola or Wenger. If Klopp wants to be seen at their level then he needs to qualify for the Champions League for at least two or three years in a row. A failure to do so this year should see his lofty reputation slide significantly.
Tom Goldenballs

If Liverpool beat Hull…
We could be second and 7 points behind the “champions elect” despite having a hellish January.

The panic button seems to have been pressed a little to enthusiastically methinks…
H, (we’ll probably go and cock it up now just to make me look like a dumass)

Justice for Ringo Starr
If only Arsenal were as versatile and reliable as Ringo. If he was that shit, why did all three of the Beatles record their first solo albums with Ringo on drums? Massively underrated drummer – ask anyone who’s ever sat behind a kit. The Beatles would never have become the band they were if they’d kept Pete Best.
Antony B. N London

Big Weekend‘s little brother
Crystal Palace-Sunderland. Here’s a vote of confidence: Sunderland are only three points behind Palace, yet Ladbroke’s have Palace 2/1 to go down and Sunderland 1/7. To be honest, it’s hard to disagree. Bryan Oviedo, Darron Gibson, Joleon Lescott are unlikely to be called The Transformers any time soon. But let’s be positive: Didier Ndong is in form, the side showed spirit in the draw with Tottenham, and over the years the Black Cats have manifested at least eighteen lives. We’ll probably see the same 5-3-2 as against Spurs, but maybe they’ll press a bit from the start to disrupt a side whose confidence may still be a bit fragile. Palace absolutely need three points here, so Big Sam is likely to return to four at the back and a more attacking approach than against Bournemouth. Wilfried Zaha looked lively on his return from Africa, and will test Oviedo (or Javier Manquillo) and Jason Denayer on Sunderland’s left.

Stat: If Jack Rodwell starts, and Sunderland fail to win, the curse will have reached 38 games, a full season of starts without a single victory.

Watford-Burnley. Nothing like a visit to the Emirates to get your side out of the doldrums. But getting three points against the worst away team in the league requires a different approach. A key may be how much Etienne Capoue can contribute in attack; he’d been ineffective before the Arsenal game. New boy Mauro Zarate may be just the man to give them a little extra thrust behind the strikers. Burnley’s last three visits were to Tottenham, Man City, and Arsenal, and they were competitive all three matches, so a second away point for the Clarets wouldn’t be a shock. Moreover, one of their best performances this season was in September against the Hornets. Both goals in a 2-0 victory came from corner kicks, and Watford conceded that way against Stoke a few weeks ago. Robbie Brady adds a bit of quality, although defence is what Burnley live by, and he’ll need to improve that part of his game.

Stat: As has been the case most of the season, Watford are top of the league in fouls committed (14.5/game), and the gap between them and second-place Manchester United is bigger than the gap between any other two places.

Hull City-Liverpool. The season starts here for both sides. With the schedule crunch almost past, and pride restored against Chelsea, the Reds can concentrate on qualifying for the Champions League. Hull City have let go two of their best players and brought in half a new XI, and by beating the drop Marco Silva can show us exactly how much of a magician/genius/stud he is. (“Bit of all right,” says my wife Louise.) He’s not a bus-parker by any means, so the side will have to keep their shape while operating their quick short-passing style, with Tom Huddlestone in outstanding form. Andrew Robertson played some of his best defence ever against Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Sadio Mané is up next. Liverpool should have the first-choice XI available for the first time in ages, and although City have been excellent since Silva blew into town, I have a feeling the Reds’ quality will win out.

Stat: Liverpool are last in the league in aerial duel percentage, at 42.9%.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA

Look out for Peter G’s latest statistical musings this afternoon. It’s on Arsenal…

A worried Bournemouth fan
Been a Bournemouth fan man and boy, thrilled by the ride up, but worried about the way down.  I was quite content to watch us play some good football in league 1, partly selfishly, I could rock up on a Saturday and buy a ticket and enjoy the game, now I can’t buy a ticket for love or money, even if they are available, because I ‘don’t have the points from last season’; so promotion to the premier league left me conflicted, fantastic, super , great to see the club at the pinnacle of the sport, but the risk, what if we failed, but if we did fail I’d be able to get a ticket again when all the other fans disappeared to wherever they came from when we were sh*t.

I didn’t really appreciate on the way up how much was being spent, we didn’t buy a lot of players, when Eddie came back from Burnley, I think we only bought Matt Ritchie that January, and then I think the summer spending was balanced, Grabban went to Norwich, Wilson came in from Coventry, anyway money was getting spent, as the last year in the championship showed with the highest losses recorded for any team in that division and a nice big fine to make it even better.

There are rumours that the finances are once again a bit ropey, which I hope aren’t true and is hard to understand given the riches of the premier league, but then again the reserve team put out against Millwall in the FA cup was GBP44M (players accumulated since promotion to the top flight), and it failed, is Eddie Howe a tremendously talented coach but in general a terrible buyer of talent, Callum Wilson was a great buy, Matt Ritchie possibly the greatest buy, Mark Pugh, Harry Arter, Steve Cook, wins but how many wins recently, may be you just win some and lose some, and he won when the players were costing 4k now they’re costing 14M the losses are harder to take.

In the premiership years a lot of money spent, but not a lot spent on the defence, Tyrong Mings stands out, early buy, highly rated, but looks like a great athlete rather than a great footballer and his time in the first team is maybe bearing that out, 8M and he wasn’t even making the bench until Ake went back to Chelsea.

Despite what Harry Redknapp thinks we’re in the relegation battle now, our defence has always been a bit iffy in the premier league, I was starting to believe (Daniel Storey?) that maybe Steve Cook is less Private Louden Downey from a few good men (always looking to Simon Francis and Tommy Elphick to be his Hal Dawson) and may be more a potential England defender, why not? He has great touch has scored some corking goals, reasonable pace, great commitment, you look around at Jagielka and Cahill and you think, are they any better, could be Cookie?

Cook aside the defence is sh*te, Boruc is just good enough not to get dropped, pulls off a save once every three matches, Begovic would have been a fantastic addition, I guess that shows at least they’re trying, maybe land him in the summer if we survive.  In the points table we’re 14th 7 clear of relegation positions, in the form table we’re 15th and that feels kind of ok, but we lost to Crystal Palace, Hull, Burnley, Sunderland and Middlesbrough and that feels less ok, last three games since Ake left, loss to Hull, draw with Watford and loss to Crystal Place to give them their first win under BFS.

So what do you think?
Steven (Is Baily Cargill the answer?) AFCB

 

Rafa the gaffer
You may have noticed a very familiar story develop on Tyneside over the past month, with Fat Man Mike Ashley refusing the indulge Rafa in making two more signings. Much to Rafa’s annoyance, as he admitted following Wednesday night’s poor performance against QPR

A whole host of attainable players were mooted. Townsend’s return looking the most likely, but links to Modou Barrow, Ruben Loftus Cheek, Fabian Delph and Tom Cleverley also made a degree of sense. Rumour has it that Ashley has been decidedly unimpressed with Rafa’s transfer dealings since the summer and refused to invest any more into the squad. Much in the same way as the top six in the premier league were unable to strengthen, the January window only really exists to fix glaring deficiencies in the squad (Everton) or as a means to buy your way out of a relegation fight (Palace). Neither of which apply to Newcastle.

Which throws up an interesting dilemma. Ostensibly our squad is the best in the championship and should be more than enough to get us promoted. But Wednesday’s draw with QPR was eye opening. There’s a large section of the squad in which Rafa has absolutely no faith, many of whom are his own signings. Sels, Hanley, Lazaar never get a look in and the rift with Mitrovic is becoming more and more apparent, with Gouffran now seemingly ahead of him in the striking pecking order.

For what it’s worth i’m completely ambivalent about not signing anybody. Townsend’s stock has certainly fallen since his first stint and Palace appeared to be holding us to ransom. The fact remains that if Rafa feels he needs a £15m winger to secure promotion then he probably isn’t making the most of what’s at his disposal. However it is worrying that Graham Carr has suddenly reanimated and Ashley again appears to be taking a more active role. We all know how this one ends.
JC (With McLaren and his Derby team winning at St.James Park. That’s how it ends) NUFC

A message from Gillingham
I know Gillingham don’t get much coverage on here, but I’d just like to extend my gratitude to Bondz N’Gala for his service to the club after leaving earlier today. He’s a shoe-in for Player of the season, we never lost a game with him in the side or even conceded a goal. He always gave 100%, loyal servant to the club. Wish him all the best.
James Vortkamp-Tong, GFC, Brighton

Yes, we’re having that discussion: Lampard v Gerrard v Scholes v Vieira v Alonso v Keane
Chatting to my mate last night about the Frank Lampard retiring situation we both agreed that he was one of the best the Premier League has had and being gentlemen in our mid 30’s with mid 50’s hairlines we both agreed that we’ve seen some absolute brilliant CM’s in the Premier League era. Lampard, Gerrard, Vieira, Scholes, Keane, Alonso to name a few. As always with these conversations we got around to who was the best.

My mate is an Arsenal fan and immediately jumped for Vieira. League Championships, The Invincibles, FA Cups and of course the World Cup and European Championships. I punted for Gerrard however and was immediately shot down. “Sure he didnt win the league” was my mates reponse and I tried to explain my reasoning.

Lets take the best CMs there have been. Hopefully you all agree that Keane Scholes Gerrard Lampard and Vieira might be the best the PL has seen (be glad to be proved wrong fellow mailboxers).

All apart from Gerrard have won the league, however could the rest have done it for Liverpool what Gerrard did? I mean those matches where he literally grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and hauled his team over the line. Yes he played with some cracking footballers but for every Torres there was an Ngog, for ever Suarez a Nunez and for every Carragher a Traore.

Taking Gerrard out and replacing him with one of the others? Could Scholes have done it while being in CM with Lucas? Could Vieira have done it while trying to get on the end of an Mark Gonzalez cross? I dont think so. Further to that imagine if he had signed for one of the others? Playing balls into Henry instead of Crouch or powering through the Manchester United midfield?

Had Gerrard signed for one of the others ( nearly did with Chelsea) I think that team would have been unstoppable both domestically and in European competition. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe it was always Gerrards passion for the shirt that made him play the way he did and maybe he wouldn’t have been able to transfer thst passion to another club?

Anyway was just wondering how fellow footy fans feel about it? Obviously all would have taken Gerrard into their team but could Keano have ran the midfield with Bruno Cheyrou? I think not…

Preparing for Backlash
Robbie, Dundalk FC, Eire.(Well aware that Keano ran a midfield with Matty Holland and Jason McAteer, theres that damn passion again for you)

 

Portrait of Frank Lampard
I have been an ardent reader of the website for the past few years and never before have I been compelled to write in despite the many occasions that my blood has boiled while reading some cringe worthy opinions in the mailbox. However, I get the feeling that Mr. Storey (congratulations on your award!) will not do Lampard justice by publishing a ‘portrait of an icon’ piece on him whereas for me, he will be the greatest ever. Therefore, here is the portrait of my icon.

I started supporting Chelsea in 2006 as a 13 year old, which was probably around the time when football really started catching on in India. Everyone around me was a Manchester United supporter; such was the strength of their marketing machine. I had recently watched the World Cup and been enamored by the performances of Micheal Ballack and it was a combination of his transfer to the Premier League and my desperation to find the best club that was not United (I hate resorting to the norm) that made me settle on Chelsea.

Once I started watching every game and properly supporting the club, which was probably around 2008, I forgot all about Ballack. I’m not sure whether it was his dedication, his lung busting runs into the box, the smart short one-twos he played around the field or his tendency to score game changing goals that fascinated me but it was Lampard who truly kept me engaged with the club. His 20 goal a season record astonished me and I was truly disappointed when he was unable to match his yearly norm. To make 164 consecutive appearances is not easy and when you find out it was Frank-the-consummate-professional’s record, it hardly seems surprising.

This was a man born into football – his father was a West Ham and England great, his uncle was Harry Redknapp (wheeler dealer extraordinaire) – and yet what defined him was his hard working approach to the game. He spent hours after practice, doing sprints, practicing his shooting and working on everything he felt he needed to improve because in his own words he wasn’t the most gifted footballer – “I was never that quick as a kid, so I had to get quicker. I trained hard. I was never that player who could roll out and relax, like Michael or Stevie, who were natural.”

Yet somehow, I felt he downplayed his greatest gift that honestly not many people realised. He was always the smartest man on the field. People credit Xavi and Iniesta for their beautiful tiki taka and movement and but Lampard based his entire career on smart movement. On the ball, he always kept his head up and knew where his teammates were and off the ball, he was always 3-4 passes ahead of the game showing up where spaces seemed to materialize perfectly for his arrival.

In addition, when he did get the ball, he had enough ability to send passes like this. He had incredible vision, something that his goals often took the gloss off. I remember the semi-final vs. Barcelona (the one that we won) and he had created two of the most important goals that we had scored. For the first one, he dispossessed Messi (yup just casually stating that) to send a magnificent chipped ball for an onrushing Ramires and for the second, the same pair combined only this time, it was glorious through ball followed by one of the greatest finishes I have seen.

He kept an excellent image off the field and continued to do so over the years despite so many of his colleagues and best friends traversing that familiar track of celebrity gone wild (there was a 9-11 incident I vaguely remember reading about but that was before I watched football so I am going to conveniently ignore it). Yet, I’ll remember him for the time that he called into a radio station to publically dispute a claim that he had been mistreating his daughters and converted his home into a bachelor pad. He had been silently taking considerable stick for a long time but when the rumors had reached to talking about his daughter, he unabashedly set the record straight.

I wish I had been a supporter when he scored those goals against Bolton to win the title, I truly would have lost my mind. My father called me up asking if I was feeling well yesterday and I was surprised because I had not indicated to him that I was unwell at all. He told me, Lampard retired today, I assumed you bummed off work to sit at home and watch YouTube videos of him whist gorging on ice cream. That’s what he meant to me, that’s what he meant to every Chelsea fan. To any of us, there is no debate about Lampard vs. Gerrard. One was the greatest player of his club ever, whilst the other slipped up when he had the chance to do the same. So, thank you for everything Frank Lampard. We will truly cherish the memories.
Reuben Dony, India

You know what to do
I live in a small town called Yateley in North Hampshire. There is a young lad who lives here called Freddie Hunt, who has a brain tumour. His particular tumour is not treatable in this country and can only be treated in the USA.

The whole community rallied together when he was diagnosed at the end of last year and we raised in excess of £200,000 by having hair shaved, hosting a charity football match, cake sales, school mufti days etc etc and a big appeal on a local radio station.

Freddie and his family flew yesterday to Arizona to begin treatment and we all have our fingers crossed. Unfortunately the day before they flew, the estimated bill was upped to £320,000 (due to a different procedure being required cue to the complication of the tumour).

We need to find this extra money in the next 9 days so cake sales and t-shirts won’t really cut it now. We are trying to spread the net as widely as possible to see if there is anyone that can help Freddie and his family by raising awareness. QPR and the wider football community have been brilliant in helping to date but we are crossing our fingers there is that one person out there who can make a real difference to the life of this little boy and his family.

If anyone would like to help please feel free to pass anyone onto me (via F365) or directly via #togetherforfreddie or by searching on Facebook for Yateley Together For Freddie.

Thanks for reading. We are desperately trying to do all we can in a very short space of time.

All the best
Matthew Barlow