We’re back to focusing on Man Utd in the Mailbox, although there is plenty of Arsenal and Liverpool too.
Send your mails to theeditor@football365.com
What is a Zirkzee?
People keep asking the question “what is Joshua Zirkzee?”. I think I have the answer sussed…
“Shit at football”.
Lewis, Busby Way
Amorim in trouble already
Amorim is starting at Utd on Nov 11th and TBH I already fear for him with the players he has to work with. His game is apparently high energy, high line, possession and pressing.
Can you imagine the likes of Rashford adhering to that, can you imagine that defence pushing up on a high line? One thing is certain, if he wants to play that way he needs to get rid of Rashford, Dalot, Shaw and probably Fernandes. They just won’t run or put in that effort required. They have shown that already across a 3 or 4 managers.
Ken, Cork, Ireland
Man Utd must not sign Amorim XI
We are reading this morning that Amorim is looking at signing four players from his former club. United should learn from mistakes in the recent past under Erik ten Hag.
Ten Hag’s greatest mistake was his persistence with signing Ajax, Dutch and his past players while his top two coaches were both Dutch. That was an epitomic recipe for disaster and we are all witnesses to what happened at United.
Football is called the world game not only because it is played all over the world but, more so, because most clubs have a plethora of players, coaching and administrative staff as well as fans from all over the world. United will benefit from signing the best available and affordable player for the position irrespective of their club, nationality, allegiance to and/or previous relationship with the Manager.
I am via Footballe365 suggesting to INEOS to consider stopping this ineffective practice. We cannot keep changing Managers so United’s senior management team should take the necessary actions to ensure that clear past mistakes are not repeated. That will create a clear path to success for our beloved Man United. We have to get back to where we used to be and do so soonest with strategic signings.
Professor (Dr) David Achanfuo Yeboah
MORE ON MAN UTD FROM F365:
👉 16 Conclusions on Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea: Garnacho, Caicedo, pathetic Martinez and more
👉 Ruben Amorim ‘rinsed’ Bruno Fernandes as Man Utd urged to sack off eight
👉 Man Utd staff ‘can’t wait to leave every day’ as ‘poisonous’ mood sweeps the club
Er, buy a striker or two?
Just a quick letter to say it is not possible for the big teams to be good all the time and ultimately it is good for the league when the lesser big teams win.
Strikers win you football games. Bournemouth have not missed Domo. Liverpool and City have good pools of attacking talent Julian Alvarez has not been missed at all. But look across the attacks of United, Arsenal & Chelsea and it doesn’t scream elite or even numerous. All three of those teams could do with a couple more good or very good strikers.
That is pretty straightforward.
Peter ( Valencia & its area is very flat & at sea level nearly) Andalucia
Chill the f*** out, Will
Reading Will Ford’s article today made me think this: can Will please chill the f*** out? Anything Will writes regarding Arsenal seems to be over the top and borders on hysteria. It’s almost like he’s actually Stewie Griffin himself (he is, isn’t he?). I’m not suggesting that Will cannot write what he wants to but my God now it makes me throw up just seeing his name under the article.
Anyway, Arsenal’s title challenge seems to have imploded but I implore that fans remain level headed. It’s not the end of the world. Teams can have bad games/seasons and not too long ago even this site had contributors saying it would be almost impossible to challenge Man City 3 years in a row.
Arsenal obviously miss Odegaard a lot and it looks like the team need time to work a few issues out and yes Arsenal have been quite bad in the last 2-3 games. But! Please don’t ignore the progress that Arsenal and Arteta have made throughout his tenure.
It takes more than planning, strategy and consistent effort to win the league. A certain amount of luck is always a requirement to become a champion and Arsenal certainly haven’t seen much luck in clutch events this season, much the opposite.
Stanley Hudson
A (hopefully) measured Arsenal response
In response to Mat (and no doubt others will similarly take up arms) on what a ‘reasonable’ Arsenal fan’s response is, the answer is ‘Get rid of Arteta, are you mad?’.
I feel there has been a lot of push to anoint Arteta some arch-villain/Mourinho-lite/hubris monster on the decline recently because the papers/media cycle love a narrative and everything is now and loud. We even had articles from the Guardian asking if we were ‘too entitled’.
But if you take a bit of a step back, what Arteta has achieved in the last 5 years at Arsenal has been exceptional. From an afterthought to the main event. A still relatively young team punching at a level we’ve not had since 2004. Genuine heavyweights, losing on fine margins to a City team that gave easily the second best club side of the PL era (I rate Klopp’s Liverpool team that highly) almost nothing (thanks to the egregious off-field cheating combined with an exceptional manager).
Arteta has in the past two years given us the two best seasons of football since 2004 (and let’s not call it unexciting, some of the stuff we played at the end of last season was peerless in the league). When we’re on, we can blow any team out of the water.
Looking past the media hysteria, if you actually watch him in an interview, he’s no sourpuss or arsehole, he’s perfectly nice and engaged. Yeh, he’s an oddball, with a slightly unsettling intensity, but let’s be clear, you cannot be at the top level without this (unless you have charisma off the charts like Ancelotti). Nothing he says or does that is controversial wasn’t said or done a million times by other coaches. But the media and frothing ‘engagement’ fan accounts want a bogeyman and have settled on him.
He has an unbelievable amount of rope left, especially as the start to this season has a million mitigations (really tough fixtures, three games down to 10 men, losing our talismanic captain and creator).
Are there areas of improvement? Sure, he has always gone pragmatic a bit too quickly, we’d like to see a bit more ambition with substitutions and our dependence on key players is always a risk.
But you’re talking still about someone 5 years into his career. No-one comes out fully formed.
And who would replace him? I can’t see anyone who can offer as much (ok, maybe if Pep wanted to ditch City as they hopefully go down in deserved PGMOL flames).
Ask any Arsenal fan at the beginning of the season and they’d say ‘Challenge for the league and get to the last 4 in Champions League’ is a requirement and ‘Win league or CL’ and we’ll be dancing in the streets.
Maybe if we’re 15pts back in February and knocked out the CL we might start asking bigger questions, but 7pts back so early, with everything that has happened? With CL going swimmingly? No chance.
As for ‘focus on the FA cup’? Come on now.
Tom, Leyton
What has Arteta actually done?
I don’t really care about Arsenal, but I’ve been fascinated by the Arteta fanboying on this site.
They’ve been good for a couple of years but the David vs Goliath narrative is a bit much considering just how many squillions they have (Man City vs Arsenal = Elon Musk vs Bill Gates of the footy world).
In terms of their genius…really?
They’ve spent a huge amount of money – and clearly, a decent chunk of it (mainly the big amounts) has not been spent wisely. Havertz, Jesus, Zinchenko, and Pepe to name a few.
In fact, out of their top ten transfers ever, only Rice looks great…but at £100m, is surely not “great” value. Ben White as a centre-back for £50m…to then be converted to England’s 4-5th best right back – good player, but again, good value?
Arsenal have always done well at finding the diamonds in the rough (Bergkamp, Henry, Vieira, etc), and that continues to this day (Saliba, Odegaard, etc) complementing the homegrown lads. Plus ça change as a certain Frenchman might say.
In terms of tactics, I can’t be the only one who feels it’s all a bit Pep-light. Possession out the back, inverted wing backs, converting centre-backs to wing-backs, buying Jesus as a centre forward and then playing him as a winger…all a year or two after Pep first did it.
Ultimately, Arsenal have spent a sh#t tonne of money and are competitive. Congrats!!
Win something and then maybe the plaudits will follow…in the meantime, St Totteringham’s Day should again be a great day in the calendar.
Matthew (ITFC – just one win…it’s not too much to ask)
In defence of managers
*Sigh*
When will I ever learn to just *not* click into the John Nicholson articles?
I’m an adult now. A mature one, I think. I should know by now that John Nicholson’s articles are written to drive the average football fan bonkers, generating delicious clicks through his patented style of writing that’s half doom-mongering telling you that football only exists to make you sad, (like everything else in the world), and half patronising, telling you how pathetic it is that you’re emotionally invested in it anyway.
His latest rant, which is a re-hash of a very similar rant from earlier in the year, when Klopp resigned, is his eye-roll at how much importance fans put on managers.
“They’re just millionaires who don’t care one bit about you or your club, they’re just passing through and picking up a pay cheque… why do you even care?”
It’s the classic John Nicholson ‘too cool’ argument. The bully in a schoolyard who makes fun of people for having the audacity to care about something.
Yes, many of these managers are ‘passing through’, and yes, they’re largely doing it for the nice pay cheque that comes with it, but the reasons for the attachment are simple: People admire leaders.
People all over the world have institutions and communities that they are part of and they are passionate about. That could be a football team, it could be a social club, it could be a big company or a small family. In any of these communities people are passionate about their success. When you’re part of something bigger than yourself (even as a fan) it’s one of the great delights of life. When things go badly, it’s awful… but when things are going well, there’s nothing better.
When someone comes along, who makes the promise of making those good times last, or making them better than they’ve ever been… how could that not be attractive? When that someone delivers on that promise, like Klopp at Liverpool, how could they not be treated as a hero? How could that not generate such a strong connection? What does it matter if they’re only passing through or if they’re picking up a big pay-cheque – that doesn’t mean they can’t be passionate about the job they are trying to do.
As a Spurs fan, having Ange come in has reinvigorated my Spurs fandom. Is he perfect? No. But does he have a vision and a plan to bring good times back to Spurs after years of dreariness? Yes he has. He’s made watching Spurs fun again. How could Spurs fans, who love following the club, not be attached to that?
So, against JN’s better judgement, i’ll happily continue to admire managers who make an impact, and if I’ve any sense, next time… I won’t bother clicking the article!
Andy, THFC, Eire
DEY DO DOH DON’T DEY DOH?
In a playful nod to the scouse accent and its unique expressions, the fictional trio in Harry Enfield and Chums, Barry, Gary and Terry (or Bazza, Gazza and Tezza as they’d likely be known between friends and family) came up with a classic phrase that resonates with Liverpool fans today.
Calm down calm down or “Eh? Eh? Eh? Nope…
LIVERPOOL STAR TO LEAVE screams the headline, and the eternal question predictably arises media-wide: ‘How are they going to cope without him next season?’
Well, the answer is simple. They do though don’t they though!
Rewind the clock, and between 2018 and 2024 some major departures tested Liverpool’s ability to keep up the momentum (and with the City juggernaut) that was building throughout the club.
Philippe Coutinho (2018)
Sold to Barcelona for a record £142 million, Coutinho’s departure marked a turning point.
Liverpool relied more on a front three of Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, and Mohamed Salah. This allowed the attack to be less dependent on one playmaker and instead operate as a more cohesive unit with dynamic movement and high pressing.
The investment and tactical adjustment paid off. Liverpool went on to reach the 2018 Champions League final and won it the following year, also claiming their first Premier League title in 30 years in the 2019-2020 season. Their defence became a strength, conceding the fewest goals in the 2018-2019 Premier League season and setting the foundation for an all-around, dominant team.
Sadio Mané (2022)
Well known for his relentless pressing and goal-scoring, Mané was sold for a paltry £35m and his exit saw Liverpool bring in Darwin Núñez and Luis Díaz as they evolved to a more dynamic attack. Liverpool had lost a versatile forward and a key figure in their pressing game. Mané’s partnership with Salah and Firmino had been instrumental in Liverpool’s successes, and his departure was a blow to both Liverpool’s attack and their team ethos.
The acquisitions of Diogo Jota, Darwin Núñez, and later Cody Gakpo brought in a younger and versatile forward line.
Without Mané’s high-intensity press and fluid movement, Klopp adjusted to using more combinations in attack. Liverpool’s form was mixed immediately following Mané’s departure, but the new forward line began to settle by late 2023 and Liverpool would go on to fight for trophies on all 4 fronts. Ultimately, the nearing of Klopp’s departure brought inconsistent results, and they only won the League Cup.
Fabinho (2023)
Sold to Al-Ittihad for £40 million, Fabinho’s exit ended his tenure as Liverpool’s primary defensive midfielder. His departure, alongside Jordan Henderson’s move, led Liverpool to revamp the midfield, bringing in Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai. This shift led to a more attacking and forward-thinking midfield structure and Liverpool’s approach to selling key players while reinvesting strategically has sustained their competitive edge, even after losing influential talents.
Jurgen Klopp (retired 2024)
Klopp’s intense, counter-pressing tactics and his ability to create strong team cohesion were pivotal to Liverpool’s successes, and without a manager who could deliver a similar impact, the club was forecast to struggle to retain its status as a top competitor in European football.
His departure was likened to the exit of the legendary Bill Shankly, leaving a legacy so significant that it would not just be challenging for successors to replicate, but nye on impossible. There was a flurry of articles, and rival fans ( along with many esteemed journos ) clambered on the bandwagon that has since teetered on rims and spectacularly flown off a cliff as it rounded a corner Wile E Coyote style!
And so, we end with the new gaffer. Arne Martijn Slot, who took over as manager of Feyenoord in 2021. Under his guidance, Feyenoord won the KNVB Cup and finished as runners-up in the Eredivisie in the 2021-2022 season. The following season, he led the team to victory in the league, showcasing his ability to develop players and implement an effective tactical system that emphasizes possession and high pressing.
No one outside Liverpool gave him a hope. ‘Who the heck are Feyenoord? ‘ or ‘It’s a farmer’s league… LFC will finish mid table ‘ they cried.
So far so good for the manager at the top of the Premier League, second in the Champions League and through to the fourth round of the fizzy drink cup. Yes it’s too early to make any substantial claims, but Slot is quietly going about his business of keeping LFC in the headlines, for all the right reasons.
But for the relentless pursuit of success from Manchester’s blue side (we can discount the red side for years to come) it’s quite conceivable that LFC would have several more titles in the bag.
But ask any scouser how they keep rebuilding and continuing on an upward trajectory since the dark days of Hodgson and Rogers, and you’ll get one reply.
DEY DO DOH DON’T DEY DOH !!
PaulieScribes, UTFR, Planet Earth
Reds under the radar
Seems (happily) that we (Liverpool) are still (thankfully) somewhat under the radar, in the greater scheme of things.
Mainly thanks to Manchester Utd in full breakdown and Arteta and City.
Absolutely fabulous news all over the place.
Nearly half way through this ‘toughest 12 games ever’ period (hopefully not jinxing tomorrow Leverkusen/Xabi welcome). And that’s without Alisson/Jota both pretty massive misses and 3 players who may or may not leave in Jan / June (there’s been far more talk of that than our title credentials)
Just wonderful to be an LFC fan right now
In truth I do’nt think we will win and maybe no one really does which is why the lack of title talk.. but as 1 pundit (maybe Merse was it..?) put it recently,
Is Arsenal’s title challenge over already…?
“At the start of the season you had 38 games and a level playing field and City were faves
Would you take a bet that said Arsenal to win the league ….but…… I give you only 28 games and I will give City a 5pt head start..
There are not many people taking that bet right?
But that is the reality of where things are right now
It’s all madness really.
However, no one is surely as happy as my 4 Forest supporting mates.. Hi Mitch, Pink, Clacky and Rob.
Some ride that is – am almost excited for them as I am for LFC.
Al – loving it so far (wondering what Wyness has to say…? !!! 😉 )
On Liverpool, Amorim, 3-4-3 and Trent
Quick response to Badwolf’s surprise that Liverpool weren’t keen on Amorim due to his 3-4-3 formation, due to it seeming to suit Trent perfectly. This was explained at the time: Liverpool’s youth academy and recruitment has all been done to mirror the first team squad. The club estimates to have several hundred million pounds’ worth of players in the pipeline. The logic was that hiring a coach who played a markedly different system would be both a risk at first-team level and also jeopardize the youth team approach.
As much as it would hurt to lose Trent on a free transfer, there is as much transfer profit to be lost through poor transition of the academy to a new coaching set-up. It’s also not guaranteed that Amorim’s 3-4-3 would have been successful at LFC and suited Trent perfectly, and worth remembering that things are going pretty well so far under Slot.
On the subject of Trent, as much as I loathe Real Madrid and think it would be better/safer for him to continue at LFC, I wouldn’t hold it against him if he decided to go to Spain. That said, his “I want to win the Balon d’Or” comments would make his proposed Real Madrid move preposterous. If Trent thinks that he has a better chance of winning the Balon d’Or at Real Madrid despite the fact that he would be playing (checks squad list) ‘4th fiddle’ to Vinicius Mbappe and Bellingham, not to mention other superstars they’ll inevitably sign in summers to come, he is delusional.
I would be pointing out to Trent that LFC was a strong enough platform for Mané and Virgil to both finish second in the Balon d’Or voting. If you go further back, it was enough of a platform for Torres and Gerrard to finish third. Reminder: he wouldn’t even finish third among only Real Madrid players if he signed for them. Food for thought, I’d hope.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland
Time to come clean!
Is it possible for all F365 readers to vote as to whether there should be an amnesty for F365 to come clean and admit to who their fake contributors are.
We have all known for some time that Barry Fox and Stewie Griffin are not real, but who are the others? Does F365 have a pretend contributor for every team and perhaps two for the “big 6”? F365 showed their ManU hand today with Garey Vance and Badwolf. Garey swings tremendously between reasoned, if sometimes acceptably biased, opinion and batshit mental. However today’s attempt at “hilarious” banter, whereby he had Utd finishing 3rd in a top 4 minus Liverpool was pitiful.
I have been a little slow in replying as I’ve spent most of the day trawling through the hundreds of emails and comments in search of Badwolf’s, “Utd should play 3-4-3, they’re perfectly suited to it” by promoting a 17 year old left back, with zero appearances to date.
Either these people are fake or fantastic examples of how blind loyalty affects our judgement. Which is it?
Howard (am sure both were ETH in only a week ago) Jones
(The truth is that they are all real…at least as far as people under those names mail in. I cannot guarantee that they are actual fans of the clubs claimed but our hands are clean – Ed)
