How can we win CL with these awful defences?

How can we win CL with these awful defences?

Watch Man United and mail us for a Friday Mailbox at theeditor@football365.com

Question of the day
Are people writing to fútbol365 in el buzon to complain about La Liga after Leicester (15th) knocked out Sevilla (3rd)?
Guillaume, Paris

You can’t win CL without a decent defence
The question isn’t whether Guardiola or Wenger deserves more criticism.

They both do, though I would add at least Pep’s won the thing.

What they’re both guilty of is thinking you can win the competition without a decent defence.

If you’re solid at the back, anything can happen.

My original point is the only season we ever looked solid at the back, we got to the final. Rather than learn this lesson, Wenger chooses to forget all that, get his players to operate in their normal way and hope for the best.

We reached and won two Cup Winners’ Cup finals due to the fact Graham’s team realised sometimes the defence is better than you and you have to respond accordingly.

It’s also worth noting that en route to the ’06 final, we beat Real – the club that’s won the competition more times than anyone, so I find this argument that the reason we’ve not gone further in recent years is down to our bad luck at drawing Bayern and Barca galling.

It isn’t bad luck if you patently don’t have a plan or any idea of how you’re going to beat a team that’s much better than you.

Arsenal really aren’t that far from a brighter future under a new manager. Wenger has done wonders taking us 75% of the way there but to get that remaining 25% we’re going to need a manager that concedes sometimes the opposition is better and finds a way to beat them.

It won’t just be Chelsea that hate the thought of Arsenal actually appointing one of Europe’s top coaches, Europe’s top clubs will too.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

We need a pragmatic Pep
As a City fan, much as I love seeing the mental, schizophrenic nature of our club; brilliant one minute, abject the next, I do wonder if a bit of pragmatism and suss is needed. Even with Pep, the old ‘typical City’ traits still remain, becoming the first team to score five goals in the first leg in Europe’s elite competition and yet going out. Well done Blues, we’re the gift that keeps on giving.

As much as he was rightly criticised for the stagnant nature of last season, Manuel Pellegrini had at least the foresight and intelligence to play square players in square holes. Fernando has disappeared under the radar, yet last year he was a much under-rated holding midfielder, forming a solid bond with Yaya and Fernandinho which let KDB, Silva and Sterling run free. We had a proper shot-stopper in net, rather than the ‘false number 1’ as a 5live caller described Bravo a few weeks ago, and hell, even a physical non-ball playing defender in Mangala had a certain shy, retiring Swede in his pocket during the PSG game.

Yes, we tossed away the FA Cup and league, but in doing so, Pellegrini kept his players fresh, whilst Pep virtually played the same team four times in ten days against Huddersfield, Sunderland, Stoke and Boro. Is it any wonder why in the first half against Monaco we looked sluggish? In addition, the temptation to buy Lukaku or Aubameyang and take the Real Madrid lucre for Aguero grows increasingly large with every mis-hit in front of goal, followed by the inevitable shrug of the shoulders from the Argentinian.

Of course, we should give Pep at least another half a season to bring in who he wants during the next transfer window, and it’s satisfying I guess being in the FA Youth Cup final for the 22nd year running or whatever, but it’s time for the manager to swallow his pride, show some of that pragmatism, and dare I say is, do a boring, sane but successful Leicester?
Ben MCFC

Pep got it right; he could not rely on that defence
What a great game between Monaco and Manchester City. It’s really interesting that both legs have been dominated in the first half by Monaco and then in the second by Man City. I guess the high intensity playing style of Jardim’s side cannot be maintained over 90 minutes.

What I want to talk about is the decision to field an attacking line-up by Guardiola. At half time, Ferdinand and Dunne were lambasting Guardiola’s decision to not go out and try to defend the lead. This seems to be a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. Unai Emery was criticized for going out to defend a lead against Barcelona and gifting them the ball.

I think Guardiola made the right choice. As you saw in the PSG game, giving a team with such attacking quality the ball is going to result in you conceding a lot of goals. Monaco are not as good as Barcelona going forward, but City’s defense is much, much worse than PSG’s. A lot of top tier teams are unbalanced nowadays. They boast an extremely dangerous attacking corps and plenty of creativity in midfield, but their defenders are not on the same level. This makes it hard for them to go out and defend a lead, as you are employing a game plan which suits your worst players (the defense) instead of allowing your best qualities to shine.

City were going to concede goals regardless of what tactical approach Pep took, because that back line is awful. Two transfer windows have passed and Kolarov is still a center -ack? I understand that top tier defenders are hard to come by these days, but I assume someone like Harry Maguire or Jonny Evans has got to be a better option than that. The game plan was to go out and score. The first half was fantastic for Monaco, but there are no excuses to how many chances Aguero missed. Sane was amazing last night, putting in ball after ball but Aguero’s finishing was awful. It got to a point that Sane started shooting from tight angles rather than cut it back for his teammates. In the end, Guardiola’s attacking lineup was the correct option. No one could have forseen such a master class from Monaco in the first half and such poor finishing from City in the second.
Carlos Jimenez

Gutted but not worried about Man City exit
Afternoon all, working a later shift so couldn’t make the morning mailbox. Just had a read, so predictable.

A gloating red, better hope you don’t get Rostov’ed tonight pal.

A bitter Arsenal fan, wouldn’t be F365 without at least one of those. We have won the Champions League as many times as you, despite only being in it for five seasons.

You can sort of take it to a point from Chelsea, Liverpool or United as they have actually won it. Not Arsenal you got to final once and bottled it and have bottled it ever since.

Last year we got to the semi-finals and lost by one goal to the eventual champions and serial winners Real Madrid.

However you know it’s bad when Sir Peter G aka the mailboxer’s mailboxer is putting you down.

Yes we were crap. Very crap. In the first half especially. I was gutted after the match as that’s the dream gone for another year.

However I’m not worried. Pep has a plan and a way to play, we simply don’t have the players to do that defensively.

So throw another few hundred million at it and we will get it right eventually. Maybe take half that Monaco team for good measure.

The most glaringly obvious thing last night was the full backs, we need new younger ones so badly.

The guys have served us well but their time is up. So bye Clichy and thanks for everything, See you later “Sacary Banga”, you did a job.

All in all last night was poor, everyone knows our defence wouldn’t hold out, but even the attackers we poor last night.

I read Mr Storey’s piece after the game, good read, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, Pep picked an attacking team because he thought that is what was needed.

Turns out we probably needed only one of Silva or KDB, with Toure playing alongside Fernandinho. I’m not gonna batter Pep over it, because the guy knows what he wants and I’m confident in time he will succeed.

I’d rather be in the Champions League than not, so I’ll take the rough with the smooth.
DANNY B – MCR – MCFC

That gloating Red gets a kicking
Decent Man Utd fans like Harry Boulton must despair when children like you decide to pipe up. Well done on using an example from the last century to show why your own club have a winning mentality. You should show it more often now, maybe then you wouldn’t have been absent from the Champions League. The winning mentality may be bred over generations, but it’s also lost with one underqualified managerial appointment, as your ‘Chosen One’ shows. And “you can’t buy class” – very true, you and your manager are clear evidence of this. Nor can you buy a spot in the top four for £150m in one transfer window, it seems.

I particularly enjoyed ‘good luck in the race for fourth!’ – it may have been a better diss if it hadn’t come from sixth place and seven points further back.
Neil Weatherston Sharma, Edinburgh

…Please Rob, stop mails like that. Considering that we aren’t even IN the competition they just got kicked out of, we are not in a position to gloat and celebrate their exit. They are also still ABOVE us in the league table and have actually won the damn thing more recently than we have. Therefore, stop it. You make all of us sound like prats.
CJ (How many times have Man Utd lost in the Champions League early doors?)

One amongst many…
Chris – you’ll find the F365 community a pretty helpful bunch, so I am sure I will be one amongst many to offer you some help with your stupid question.

The team losing 10-2 deserves more criticism than the team drawing 6-6. Much more.

Happy to help.
Andreas Hunter, St Albans

…Chris, Croydon: “Who deserves more criticism?”

That’ll be the team that loses by an eight-goal margin, rather than the one who goes out on away goals. Until ‘having a go’ becomes the real quiz, we’ll keep using the newfangled metric of ‘goals’ to determine levels of crapness.

Happy to clear that one up for you fella!
Greg, London

When your missus makes goals happen
Your piece on breakaway goals brings back memories of a despicable act perpetrated by girlfriend when I took her to Highbury in 1995 to watch an Arsenal/Liverpool game. She is from Watford originally and not long before the first game we ever went to together was a fairly drab 0-0 draw between Watford and Millwall at Vicarage Road and the Highbury game was only her second ever professional match.

Anyway, we’re sat in the middle of the North Bank and the game is late into the second half and still no score and my beloved pipes up loudly saying “bloody hell, that’s two games you’ve taken me to now and I haven’t seen a goal yet!”

Right on cue, McManaman takes the ball the length of the field and squares it for a Fowler tap-in and a 1-0 away win for them. Needless to say the Arsenal fans within earshot were looking daggers at us for this outrageous piece of jinxing and I personally could barely speak to her for several hours afterwards

To make matters worse, several years later me and some mates are at home watching Arsenal playing at Anfield on the telly – again late on in a tight match – and my (by this time) wife walks in and says “Hey, remember that time at Highbury when I moaned about seeing no goals just before Liverpool scored. Wouldn’t it be funny if…?” Sure enough the free kick they had been lining up at the time goes in (Xabi Alonso I think – fury has blurred my memory) and my mates fall about the place helpless with laughter.

I do have some perspective on these things, so I remain a happily married man. Nevertheless whenever Arsenal are in a tight spot my missus is reminded about her responsibilities and is under strict instructions to shut her pie-hole.
Rob, Bristol Gooner (Hoping the lazy Leicester/Arsenal Champions League comparisons are done now)

It’s not about years but miles on the clock
I really enjoyed the mail from Rob, LFC, Wales and have spoke about this many times with friends. I do like your view of cutting it abroad and I do believe media pressure plays a part on a player’s performance and development, however I think when discussing peak years we need to look at it from a slightly different angle.

We have two cars, both have done 100,000 miles, the first car done it in one year, the second in 10 years. At the end of the day they both have clocked up 100,000 miles. This is the same thing with players. If we take two players you mentioned; Rooney and Vardy, and assess their peak years, Rooney’s would be between 2009 – 2014 (apologies but arbitrary stat of goals scored) and Vardy’s being the last season or two. Rooney was 22-27; Vardy 28-30. Crucially and going back to my car analogy, the start of their peak years was around the 250 – 300 appearance mark, 100,000 miles if you will.

Rooney gained more playing experience at a very young age and I believe the “10,000 hours of practice” quote has some strength in this matter. I checked with some of the other names on the list (Owen, Bergkamp, Ian Wright, etc) and they seemed to hit their peak around 250 – 350 games.

For player longevity, just look at the way these players play. Rooney has worked himself into the ground and ran here, there and everywhere. His body has clocked up around 15 years of elite level training and competition; that is a lot. Now Vardy has only had say five years of this. In effect, Vardy is currently playing with a body that has gone through five years of training… a 22/23 year old. I think this is why players seem to peak at different ages.

It’s the elite level training and competition which drags the body down. I play rugby at an amateur level. We have a player who has clocked up over 1,200 appearances, in his late 40’s/early 50’s and still going strong. A premiership rugby player’s career is around the 300-400 games mark.

Be interested to hear other people’s views on this.
Adam

Absolutely condoning illegal streaming
Why all the sanctimonious ‘I don’t condone illegal streaming,’ caveats in every letter about the subject?

Well, excuse my French but f*ck that! I fully condone and indeed encourage streaming. But isn’t it theft you say? Good, I say.

Let’s be clear, the people that own and run the corporations your stealing from are the same people that will rip you off at any opportunity, perpetuating a cycle of enrichment at your expense; they are the same people that lie to you every day in the papers and on the news, to sell you wars and justify the suffering of millions; the same people that would hack the phone of a murdered 13 year old for a couple of salacious headlines.

And you want to tell me that paying them is the moral option? Pay them for a product they supply on a monopoly basis?

In this instance, stealing is the only moral option you have if you want to watch the game.

Believe it or not after reading the above, I’m not a communist or a conspiracy theorist, if anything, I’m appealing to moral capitalism. Every purchase is a vote and every vote is a moral choice. Conversely, my disgust and moral outrage is best represented by an act of theft.

Viva la revolution motherf**kers…
Matt, AFC (You’ve got to print this otherwise you’re clearly CIA shills, or something like that)

Blacks with their stacks
I’ve no idea how journalism works but I figure there’s a good chance you have an index of some sort.

Is there any chance we could see some sort of article/paragraph in Mediawatch detailing all the footballers who’ve been lambasted by the press for being too flash with their cash? I’m curious to see how many non-black players have had their integrity questioned because I can’t think of any. Lukaku, Depay, Sterling anyway. Bendtner and Bentley maybe? I dunno.
Eamonn Young

(We don’t have an official index but we have been doing this for long enough to know how this sh*t works – Ed)