Ander Herrera, the glorious little b*stard…

Ander Herrera, the glorious little b*stard…

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

All hail Herrera!
So, that’s why Ander Herrera’s sending off in the FA Cup essentially decided the tie. Perhaps the Kante comparisons aren’t *that* ludicrous.

As for the others, Fellaini was enormous, Rashford wonderful, Bailly an absolute beast…

And our old mate Diego; the number of times he goes from mortally wounded to standing up in a matter of seconds tells me he’s basically Wolverine.
Sean Peter-Budge

…Herrera is better than Kante. Said it, got battered by this mailbox. Now I say it again. You may come at me again suckers.

Great team performance!
James, Cape Town

…I’m sure you will get a lot of these (Yeah, quite a few. MC) but Herrera > Kante.

James, Cape Town was right after all..
Anuj (Tounge firmly in cheek)

…When you refer to Ander as a ‘glorious bastard’ in 16 conclusions, and you will, can you please refer to him as a ‘Basqard’ or ‘Basquard’ (I prefer the former). He’s from the Basque country and I’m kind of pleased with my word play.
Wayne, Manchester.

Best of both worlds
This was a Mourinho team. Four defenders with three deep midfielders and wingers told to track back. No out and out striker and plenty of talk about no motivation in the PL and Europe to come.

This was an United team. Two academy graduates tasked with leading the line, a midfield bastard told to shackle the most creative player on the pitch and a superstar left out on the bench as part of a plan.

This was a vintage Mourinho performance. Start strong, target the opponents with petty niggling fouls, roll over and break play whenever you can, get an early goal to calm the nerves and keep hassling and hurrying the opposition into mistakes. Add to your lead and close out with nine defenders across your box.

This was a vintage United performance. Countering with pace and guile , getting lucky with the referee, early goal from youth product, get the crowd behind you with feisty tackles and stand firm.

Amazing what the result is when you dovetail the two. Mourinho may not be the answer to this club’s malaise but he’s definitely the man who is capable of restoring United to the top of their perch. 16 conclusions rightly doffed their hat to his tactical nous. This plan didn’t work at the Bridge; but it worked wonders here and he deserves the credit

That boy Rashford was immense and proof that patience comes good. Anyone who picks Pogba over Herrera for captain needs to have his noggin examined ; us United fans have been crying out for a Keano replacement and we’ve got ourselves a bastard to love . Bailly and Rojo were brilliant in their no-nonsense approach to Costa while Valencia and Darmian carried out instructions to a tee.

I don’t care about the title race but boy can we have some more of this please? That aggression in the first half kept having me look for Keano in the centre of the park to figure out where the hell was the drive and aggression coming from!?
Budhaditya Banerjee
Mourinho masterclass
Mou is back!…. Weird feeling now that it’s not a masterclass for Chelsea… I don’t like it.

Credit where it’s due, we were thoroughly outplayed. I thought Conte missed a trick not bringing on Batshuayi to hold up the ball once it became clear that we weren’t going to evade their press.

Herrera marshalled Hazard very well, but he did foul him a LOT. Probably deserved to be punished a bit more.

It may have been handball, but Luiz was genuinely done for pace by a bright and lively Rashford. He was amazing on the night. The Lingard handshake however……
Sood CFC (did anyone else notice it’s also BORINIII season)

Darmian credit
Nothing in 16 conclusions about Darmian’s excellent performance yesterday. Playing on the left of a back three (has he ever played more than a few consecutive 90 minutes in the same position? He suffers by being so versatile) his tactical astuteness allowed him to mark Pedro out of the game, intercept countless times whilst stepping up into central midfield to offer options. He’s not Herrera though so nobody noticed. Good player, deserves credit for doing his job well.

Also, a defence without Smalling and Jones doesn’t have any brainfarts, bad positioning or stupid fouls.

United played like Atletico Madrid circa 2014 CL semi final (Mourinho learning from defeat) let Luiz have the ball and wait for a mistake. Still don’t like Mourinho though.
Eddie ‘Darmians Are Forever’ MUFC

Handball hullabaloo
I’m all for F365’s irreverent, contrarian non-mainstream narrative viewpoints but I’m not sure about 16 Conclusions suggestion that Herrera’s ‘handball’ is a pointless argument. To suggest that it simply ‘accelerated the inevitable’ is quite the statement.

Chelsea had started poorly but the game was all of 7 minutes old at that point. A pattern of play was barely established. To suggest otherwise is to ignore countless games we can all think of where one team has started poorly, rode their luck then gradually taken control and won out.

The first goal in games often sets the pattern by giving one side something to defend and hold on to. A team that is tactically set up to spoil and snatch something, somehow is only allowed to continue to do and emboldened to do so by grabbing that goal early.

A team that has the potential to ‘lose its legs’ with fatigue from playing too many games recently is clearly going to benefit from being able to sit, defend and counter.

A Mourinho team especially wants to do just that after all.

Most teams in the EPL these days are at their most vulnerable when the game ‘transitions’, ie a turnover of the ball, because they are often out of their defensive shape as they look to create. So Herrera being able to ‘win’ the ball high up the field and attack a more open Chelsea team is crucial to that.

The evidence this season suggests that United have struggled to break down teams and win at home whether playing well or poorly, creating chances or not so there was absolutely no ‘inevitibility’ about their scoring.

None of this is to say that Herrera’s handball is the most egregious incorrect decision I’ve ever seen or suggest that United get favourable decisions but equally you can’t just dismiss it as being unimportant.

What was more interesting however was the fact that for the first time this season Chelsea had a few injuries to their backline – still only 2 with 1 further positional change as a result. Having no European football is a huge bonus but more so because it typically reduces the opportunity for disruptive injuries rather than reduced playing time in and of itself. Chelsea have been remarkably fortunate in that regard this season.

Regards,
Lindsay Bell, Dublin.

United: the new Liverpool
What a decent days sport we had yesterday. I particularly enjoyed watching the football and finally seeing the new Liverpool. And I dont mean because they ground out another result against a tough team away from home. No, I mean the “new” Liverpool: Manchester United.

United are 15 points behind Chelsea. 18 points behind before kick off. Yet their fans are celebrating in a way I haven’t seen since Fergie used to be there and win titles and stuff.

I couldn’t help but think back to the 2010-11 season. Into the final few months of the season and there are United, top of the league. They were off to Anfield to play 6th placed Liverpool. A team 18 points behind them. 6th place? 18 points behind? Does any of this sound familiar yet?

Liverpool strolled to an easy victory, winning by a two goal margin. Their fans celebrated wildly. They proclaimed their then-manager (Kenny Dalglish) a tactical genius. Does any of this sound familiar yet?

Of course, it made no real difference to the seasons outcome. The team top of the league that day went on to win it and the team who started in 6th ended the season there. Funnily enough, their manager even picked up a league cup during his stint there too (a “mickey-mouse” trophy I believe it was referred to by fans of a certain Mancunian team at the time).

So, £150m to turn United into the 2000’s Liverpool. It’s deeply impressive. I think with another £150m there’s no doubt Jose could turn them into the 90’s Liverpool, genius that he is and all.
Smiddy (15 points! It’s still making me chuckle now lol)

In defence of Mark Hughes
When I saw that Stoke had beaten Hull 3-1 I was mildly surprised by the backlash to the win. Yes, a win. You would think that a 3-1 victory would be interpreted as reasoning for Mark Hughes to keep his job, not the opposite. How silly I was to assume that. Not long after their victory Daniel Storey had written an article criticising Hughes. Unfortunately 3 consecutive top half finishes is not enough in the eyes of Daniel and many others, as Stoke have “no identity”. This argument is suitably vague. Apparently, to happily support a football team they have to have “identity”. The requirement to having an identity is playing one particular style, like long ball or possession. You can argue that Stoke did have an ‘identity’ – the counter attacking, long ball football they played under Pulis. However it must also be mentioned they large factions of the Stoke support were dissatisfied towards the end of Pulis’s reign. So what, Stoke are supposed to resort back to long ball again? Arguably the football they are playing under Hughes is more entertaining than what came before him, as shown by the 3-1 win they just had.

What’s more ridiculous is the insinuation that the onus is on the owners to ensure that the manager makes the team have an identity. Why they would give a sh*t about whether Stoke have an ‘identity’ or not is beyond me. Given that they have invested hundreds of millions of pounds into the club you would expect they would be more focused on the work Hughes has done keeping Stoke in a stable position. Yes they have failed to progress very far into the domestic cups, but in the eyes of an owner that is not the end of the world. These days the vast majority of the revenue generated is in the Premier League, not the cups, so you can understand the decision to prioritize the league. What many fans need to understand is that in owning a football club you are making a massive investment. So you can forgive the owners for tolerating 3 top half finishes for fear of throwing all that away. The harsh reality is that football is a business, and it will be treated as such whether the fans like it or not.

I support two clubs – West Ham and Brighton. Please don’t pigeon hole me into the ‘be careful what you wish for’ camp, because that is not what I’m saying. For WHUFC I have no regrets about the loss of Allardyce. Unlike Hughes he did not lead the club to any top half finishes, and generally the football was dull. Last season under Bilic was terrific, and at least the football is not as boring as Allardyce this season. I cannot stress enough how much I would like to see Brighton in the EPL, and if that came at a cost of having no ‘identity’ I would take it every day of the week.

The crux of what I’m saying is that calls to sack a man who, at worst, has met the expectations set for him by his employers, are completely unreasonable and unjustified.
Kiwi

Massive result for Reds
Did Liverpool seriously score by getting a set piece, putting it in the mixer, winning a flick on and then finishing at the back post? It’s the actual twilight zone. Origi also scored a similar goal which was flagged offside sadly. It’s still mental to see them score a goal like that against a team as disciplined, organised and massive as West Brom.

Firmino looks a bit weird but he’s bloody brilliant. I’d also love to get inside his head and understand why he loves taking his shirt off when he scores when he knows he’ll get booked.

In the heat of the game I didn’t think the Moreno miss was that awful but when you realise just how open Firmino and Can were on his right he should be very embarrassed. He pressed excellently to win the ball and should’ve put the game to bed with a simple pass.

Emre Can and Mignolet were just excellent today. Can in particular was just magnificent and made his physical presence really count in the centre. On the other side I think games like this aren’t made for Milner or Clyne; either has enough attacking prowess to really make things happen in 1 on 1 situations out wide. Playing against a team so compact makes those wide areas very important and you don’t often feel like either player can do much when high up the pitch.

An absolutely massive result. A part of me thinks seven more points might be enough for 4th place given Man Utd and Arsenal’s remaining fixtures. This close to the end of the season timing is so key; winning this game will deflate the United and Arsenal players who all still have to play having seen us win.
Minty, LFC

Weekend musings
*It’s a while since we’ve seen a side as relentless as Spurs. Up 3-0 early in the second half they still went for the throat, and although they missed a month’s worth of chances, it was absolutely no contest. Bournemouth were too passive from the off – you can’t sit back against Spurs unless you’re very good or very lucky. I don’t know what it’ll take to keep Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham, but if I were Daniel Levy I’d go with anything up to 49.99% of the club.

*Thrilling tactical battle in the Potteries. Mark Hughes went 3-4-2-1 with Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri behind the striker, which is brilliant in attack but not so brilliant in defence if one of your two central midfielders is Charlie Adam. Marco Silva’s 4-5-1/4-4-1-1 controlled the midfield and Hull deservedly equalised early in the second half. With Hull pushing for a second, Hughes took Adam out, moved Marc Muniesa from the back line into central midfield, and brought in both Jonathan Walters and Peter Crouch for a 4-4-2. It changed the flow of the match, and Walters and Crouch combined for the winner. Another excellent match by Bruno Martins Indi, by the way.

*April is the Borini-est month, unless it’s May. Fabulous Fabio has now scored 43.75% of his Premier League goals on 15 April or later.

*Paul Clement finally changed his system, but waited until he was behind to do it. Trailing 0-1 around the hour mark, he switched from 4-5-1 to a diamond with Gylfi Sigurdsson at the tip and Borja Bastón joining Fernando Llorente. Walter Mazzarri responded by sending in an extra central defender and digging a trench. Sigurdsson, poor most of the afternoon, wasted the two best chances and Heurelho Gomes claimed all the necessary crosses. Five games left.

*As one who has repeatedly written in to call José Mourinho yesterday’s man, my thorough apologies. What a classic. United even committed five fewer fouls than Chelsea.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA

Wenger out
That mail on Sunday from Global Gooner was comedy gold! Too much excrement to wade through but I’ll respond to Arsene’s lamentable PR agent as follows:

1. These “dreadful squads” Arsene has had to work with were assembled by….Oh right. Him!

2. Leicester won the PL with a wage bill under £80m. Wenger was waxing lyrical about finishing 4th with a wage bill of over £135m since 2013. Carry on digging.

3. If only he coulda got players like Suarez. Oh wait: Arsene did try and “bid” for Suarez and he instructed the CEO to make that laughable bid. Nope, still not his fault eh!

4. “Master of extracting value from his squads”. Sure. If spending almost £100m over summer to be in 7th place is expert management! Or if deciding Kante was too costly at £30m and spending £36m on Xhaka instead 😂😂 Even Brewster was better at spending millions than this charlatan 🙄

5. He couldn’t beat Leicester to a league title with a squad containing Sanchez, Ozil, a £200m wage bill, and total control.

6. He gets destroyed by Fat Sam, Pulis, Klopp, and Pochettino is giving him a master class in management. Oh right, MoPo is working with a Galactico budget (roughly half Arsene’s) eh!

Honest to God, next time Arsene takes a dump, be sure to write in and tell us he’s worked miracles producing sweet-tasting organic Nutella. Makes perfect sense!
Stewie Griffin (We cannot compete with Fat Sam’s pie money)