Mails: Can anybody explain Jesse Lingard?
Date published: Monday 31st October 2016 11:06
If you have anything to say on any subject, mail us at theeditor@football365.com
Sell Coutinho if we can get silly money…
If Barcelona and PSG are interested in Coutinho and prepared to pay Suarez-esque money to get him, I sincerely hope we sell him.
He is in fantastic form right now but when he isn’t playing well, his go-to tactic of repeatedly cutting in from the left and shooting isn’t particularly effective, and it doesn’t turn the game around or get the team to play better. I find Firmino, Mane and Sturridge to all be better ‘enablers’ than Coutinho.
Coutinho will want to eventually play in La Liga, hes not going to retire on Merseyside, it’s crucial to pick the right moment to sell. My dream scenario is he has a great season, we sell him this summer to Barca, and replace him with some star playmaker who prefers to unlock defenses rather than bypass them by shooting from 20 yards.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland
A conspiracy
Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton all won while playing wonderful attacking football. It seems like the whole universe is mocking United fans.
Kay
Why is Lingard playing?
We all keep mentioning how Rooney and Fellaini shouldn’t play (justifiably so) and how Mkhitaryan is not playing but one thing everyone (except me) including all English soccer pundits fail to talk about is the role of Lingard in the team.
This boy is just woeful and does not justify inclusion in any top-flight team whatsoever. What is this that Mourinho sees in training that we don’t see on match day? Lingard’s continued playing highlights Man U’s malaise over the years. How possibly does such a limited and clueless player start ahead of Martial on the left or even Micky? This is a player who rarely scores, rarely assists, can’t beat a defender, is tactically inept, weak physically and cannot be relied to step up on the big occasion. How does he get to start ahead of the players mentioned and even ahead of Memphis or Young???
I would even sacrifice him and play Carrick so that Herrera and Pogba have more freedom.
Finally, what exactly is Lingard’s position? Is he a winger? Is he a number 10? Is he a striker? He is so limited and one dimensional that I forgot what he actually specializes in.
Finally, Is Mourinho setting the team to fail so that he builds his own team? I am honestly having health issues digesting the idea that one of the best playmakers in Europe in Mkhitaryan is not good enough for Man U. I don’t buy the Mou BS of the guy not being 100% ready for the high intensity games of the EPL. How about giving him 20 minutes each game then to build that gradually? But then how about playing him in Cup competitions because that is not “EPL intensity”.
Are our squads being selected by Sir Bobby or the Board? It id not adding up at all. Since Fergie left there are ludicrous selections which creates the impression that managers are either not in control or have lost it. Who shall redeem us?
Abner, Nakuru-Kenya
Feeling really quite calm…
I find it funny how teams are already being crowned or seen to be part of a title race in October. There’s so much football left to play this season. Certain teams have already gone through peaks and troughs and the season has barely started. Of course, I’d rather my team was top of the league.
As a Man Utd fan (I bet you guessed that straightaway), I couldn’t be calmer post our failure to beat Burnley. On another day, one of the chances would have sneaked in and we would be talking about a dominant display and a reinvigorating win. But I choose to look at the bigger picture. We cannot focus on the short-term. Man Utd won’t win the league this season (Jose says what he has to say, it doesn’t mean he truly believes it) and top four is not out of reach. Expecting the team to win or be in a title race just because we spent loads of money is nonsensical. 3-4 players don’t make a team and we are still building cohesion. What has been more encouraging this season is how threatening we can look and how we can also be solid and compact when needed, that too with youngish players spread across the team. You need to be able to be both if you want to win titles. Gung ho approach can win you cups, not leagues.
I think Jose is being patient and still tinkering and finding out about his players because he knows he has time. I think the fans will give him the time and will continue to push the team with noise and passion (no boos a la Emirates or Stamford Bridge at Old Trafford). I know it’s tough to see our beloved rivals from a different city, a few miles away, playing like we used to play. But looking at the age and promise of our squad, I think next year is…oh for… Are we Liverpool??
Monty (hope is a b*tch), MUFC
Oh Jose…
It seems to me that Jose’s downfall has been orchestrated by the very people who made him.
On his arrival to the Premier League, his youth and arrogance gave the media everything they needed as he became their soundbite darling. He used the media for his own means, as is often discussed, distracting bad results away from his players. In return the media got a nice headline.
Since his return and maybe since his Real Madrid days the media have worked out that the sour faced, complaining, graying Jose produces a better headline. His mistakes are now amplified in a way that perhaps Pep’s aren’t as its simply a better story.
To me it seems like his deal with the devil has come back to bite him on the arse.
Will, CFC, Manchester – Jose I’ve got a spare sofa going if you aren’t happy, we can watch re-runs of 04/05
Dear Guy,
Surely Zlatan and Pogba deserve the same patience afforded to Rooney. Maybe write back in after say…2.5 years of constant under-performance?
John (Agrees with the MC’s squad selection) Australia
These are halcyon days for United fans
I thought I would try to stick up for the three post-Fergie Manchester Utd managers and to counter the idea that they have all been failures. In terms of the history of Manchester Utd they have each been qualified successes.
The problem for them all is following Sir Alex. There can be little doubt that once you take in his success in Scotland he is the greatest manager ever from these shores (with arguments to be made for Clough, Shankley and Paisley). Fergie’s reign at Utd has skewed people’s view of the club and what should be expected from its managers. The facts are that before Ferguson got the job Utd had won seven league titles, six FA Cups and one European Cup, hardly the work of a superpower.
Fergie is one of only three managers ever to win the league with Utd. 22 managers have held the job (20 if you exclude people doing the job twice) which means 19 managerial spells haven’t won the league. Moyes, LVG and Jose fitting in so far.
However, it is in average league finishes that the three post-Fergie managers really show their performance. Before the appointment of Ferguson, Manchester Utd’s average league finish was 13th. If we assume Jose’s Utd will finish the season in their current position the average since Fergie retired is 6th, substantially higher than the pre-Fergie average. Even taking into account Ferguson’s period of success, Utd’s average league finish in their entire history is 11th.
In the cups, the boys are again doing well. Pre-Fergie Manchester Utd won six FA Cups in 83 seasons at an average of one every 14 years. In the post-Fergie era Utd have delivered an FA Cup every three years so far, with Jose yet to enter. In the League Cup the post-Fergie boys are keeping up. Utd never won the League Cup before Fergie and they haven’t won it since, but Jose is still in.
So, in summary, Moyes, LVG and Jose have won FA Cups at a rate five times faster than Utd pre-Fergie, they average finishing seven places higher and have won the same amount of League Cups. In relative terms these are halcyon days for Utd fans and they should be basking in the glory.
Micki Attridge
Very, very happy with Conte’s Chelsea
As a Chelsea fan, I have to say I am absolutely delighted with the performance against a very good Southampton side. Azpilicueta, Luiz and Cahill look solid at the back and are giving Courtois more protection in this new system 3-4-3 or 5-3-2 depending on your mood. Can I just say though – what on earth has Conte done to Victor Moses? This is a guy who looked like an average winger certain to end up getting 15 games a season for Stoke or Palace for the rest of his career (no offense intended to either club). Instead, he has been transformed into a highly energetic, defensively sound but counter-attacking wing-back. While not quite the next incarnation of Dani Alves, credit to him, he has been absolutely outstanding in the last four games. This got me thinking – is it just a case of Conte getting a system that suits a players attributes, or is it more of an indication of how quick to discard certain players Jose Mourinho is? Moses is not a world beater, but it just goes to show under the right manager and in the right system he is able to contrinute and excel…this has got me thinking wistfully about some of the finer players that Mourinho let go – De Bruyne, Salah and Schurle to name but a few. Is he really just too quick to bin players?
Anyhow – really didn’t mean to think about Jose again – this season is all about Conte and what he is doing with the current squad. Diego has his mojo back and is looking really disciplined, Hazard is revelling in a free-ish role, Moses and Alonso are solid defensively and great counter-attacking and Matic looks to have found a great brother in arms in Kante. And please, don’t forget David Luiz. Apparently fifth-choice centre-half, he has come back to the club, settled in nicely and been tactically disciplined under Conte and even more of a leader than Cahill. AND AND AND – Mikel has barely played! I’m giddy with excitement if this continues…
Really, dare I see it – a clearing-out of players was not needed, just a fresh way of thinking and a drive to succeed….
Lee Madden
Big-ups for David Luiz and Football365
Four games, Four clean sheets in the league for Big Dave and Chelsea.
I was not alone in my reservation about Chelsea re-signing the sideshow that is David Luiz. When he left for PSG we lost a cult hero but also a fairly erratic defender who seemed not only to have a massive error in every game but also a rater frequent propensity for dishing out some fairly unsavoury challenges. He then went on to become the perfect ambassador for the ‘pashun’ brigade at the 2014 world cup but then showed that no matter how well you sing your national anthem it wont win a football match against the German machine.
After helping his new French/Qatari employers knock the blues out of the Champions League twice along comes a surprise move in the late summer of 2016. A return to his former club. The press and football aristocracy labelled him a joke defender and Conte’s 427th choice as a centre back signing.
But credit where it’s due. I admit I thought it was a mistake and after the Arsenal and Liverpool games it looked like it might go sour but Big Dave’s return to the Bridge has been phenomenal. Helped by a masterful tactical switch to a back three and the superb form of Marcos A. and Victor M. at wing back and it all seems to be coming up Dave at Chelsea at the moment. Against the Saints the Chelsea defence never looked in trouble at all. They restricted an in form Southampton side to one shot on target and inflicted their first home defeat in eight months. All marshalled by Big Dave who some in the press would have you believe is a walking disaster as a defender.
Admitedly there is still plenty of time for lots of egg on face in the rest of the season. But hey no one will remember this anyway.
Credit also to F365 for singing his praises for the several months now and it is time for the traditional print media to take a look at the excellent work on this website and try to learn a thing or two about proper opinion and analysis. Mediawatch is pretty funny too. (Sucking up to the MC must get me published… Right?)
A last note if I do get published this will be, I think, the first mail I have had published on F365 since Robbie Fowler wiggled his bum suggestively at Graeme Le Saux in 1999. Has anyone else had such a large gap between emails being published?
Simon, Woking
Who has actually improved?
Much has been made about what teams have improved this term but how much have they really improved point wise from last season.
*Only bookies’ seven top favs have been picked*
Man City last season after 10 games – 22 points – this season 23 points (+1)
Arsenal last season after 10 games – 22 points – this season 23 points (+1)
LPool last season after 10 games – 14 points – this season 23 points (+9)
Chelsea last season after 10 games – 11 points – this season 22 points (+11)
Spurs last season after 10 games – 17 points – this season 20 points (+ 3)
Man Utd last season after 10 games – 20 points – this season 15 points (-5)
Leicester City last season after 10 games – 19 points – this season 12 points (-7)
*Yes I was bored*
Mitch
Depressing weekend thoughts from Ed
* Crystal Palace are f###ed. Well, not yet, but they aren’t far away following three defeats in a row and four games without a win. Their remaining fixtures before Christmas are Burnley (a), Manchester City (h), Swansea City (a), Southampton (h), Hull City (a), Manchester United (h) and Chelsea (a). Seven games, from which they could take some points, but could just as easily end up with none having been either outclassed (by Manchester City, Southampton and Chelsea) or outworked by teams with a greater ability to harness their desperation (everyone else).
* Well done to Liverpool for their deserved win. They were the better side by a country mile, although it would have taken something outstanding for them to not take advantage of such generously awful (and awfully generous) defending. Liverpool just overwhelmed the Eagles, who didn’t have an answer.
* In the Championship, top scorer is Dwight Gayle, with 11 goals; in third place is Glenn Murray with nine goals. These two were sold for a combined £15m over the past two seasons, with Pardew preferring to use Connor Wickham or Fraizer Campbell as back-up to Christian Benteke. Adding their PL goals this season to Benteke’s three, the trio have three goals between them. I’m pleased for Gayle and Murray, I really am, honestly.
Elsewhere in the second tier, I couldn’t help wondering if Blackburn Rovers fans had a brief moment of nostalgia seeing someone called Gallagher score for them.
* Miguel Sanchez asked what I thought about Christian Benteke. I agree with him that Benteke appears to lack confidence at the moment. As conventional wisdom goes, the problem is not goals drying up, but chances, and he’s had some good scoring chances in the last couple of games, forcing saves and striking the woodwork, so it’s not as though he’s gone missing. A dry spell and one poor penalty do not make him a bad player, although the sooner he’s back to scoring form the better off Palace will be.
I do think that Palace’s tactics, while designed to play to his strengths, are also hindering him. The Eagles are very one-dimensional at times, with teams knowing where they want the ball to eventually end up. Palace also dropped Andros Townsend to the bench, in favour of Chung-yong Lee, presumably to have a more diligent defender out wide, even at the expense of Townsend’s guile in attack. This may also be linked to Townsend and Joel Ward having a massive argument on the field during the defeat to West Ham United.
* Alan Pardew said “conceding from set plays is unusual for us, and it’s something we need to address”.
In fact, Palace have conceded seven of their 16 goals from set-pieces, and of those goals, all bar one (against Middlesbrough) have come in games they didn’t win (1D 5L). 7/16 is less than half, but enough of a problem that “unusual” is inaccurate.
He also complained about the refereeing, but Andre Marriner wasn’t playing in the Palace defence. If he had been, it might have been a different story. Also, the Palace blog Red & Blue Army pointed out before the game that Liverpool have a worse time of it with ‘Dre than Palace do.
In a nutshell, this is why Pardew has no chance whatsoever of a seat at English football’s top table. I’d be very surprised if the biggest clubs weren’t keeping tabs on the performances and conduct of ambitious managers, and Pardew’s insistence on deflection and failure to address basic shortcomings – that are his job to sort out – are, for better or worse, keeping him where he is.
Also, the fact that Palace have now won just five of their last 32 games, all the while he’s tossing around phrases like “something we need to address”, is massively irritating. If you wouldn’t mind, Alan; if you get a minute, Alan; if it’s not too much trouble, Alan; if you can find a moment in your busy schedule of cosy interviews, Alan. It’s getting far beyond a joke, and the sooner he gets told to make like a tree and f##k off the better.
That might be a bit of an overreaction. I don’t agree with sacking managers without giving them a fair chance, however Pardew has had longer than many others and yet hasn’t managed to address the problems when the ar$e fell out of last season. This has gone far beyond a bump in the road and is looking ominously like a sinkhole.
* The other baffling thing is that despite some rotten performances by his team this season, Alan Pardew has never been F365’s Early Loser, which this week is Jose Mourinho. If that’s not an English manager being given an easier ride than a foreign, I don’t know what is.
Ed Quoththeraven
Weekend thoughts from Peter G
Scary from Chelsea, and what a pleasure to see Nemanja Matic back in form. At the moment there’s an imbalance in their defence, with the right side (Willian-Pedro/Moses/Azpilicueta) looking notably stronger than the left (Hazard/Marcos Alonso/Cahill). Southampton played into their hands, attacking the stronger side 43% to 33%. It’ll be interesting to see if others go after their left side deliberately.
Watford-Hull City was a glorious affair, no midfield defence allowed, in which the winners took 23 shots, got 0 on target, and still won. Highlight was watching Nordin Amrabat running at Sam Clucas again and again in the biggest mismatch since Agincourt. Walter Mazzarri finally figured out that 3-5-2 was a waste of time in this kind of donnybrook, and changed to 4-3-3 with Daryl Janmaat coming off the bench. It was Janmaat’s cross that led to Michael Dawson’s own goal, for which the word ‘heartbreaking’ is about five levels too low. The Hornets have now registered three consecutive clean sheets by virtue of the time-honored strategy of having their opponents be a bit cr*p.
For Sunderland it wasn’t so much heartbreaking as soul-destroying. It would be ridiculous to blame the defeat on one player, but let’s do it anyway: Adnan Januzaj. He came on and immediately failed to track Kieran Gibbs on the run that led to Arsenal’s second goal. Then he let Gibbs go again, leading to a corner which led to his committing a foul which led to another corner and the third goal. Then Gibbs got loose a third time (although Wahbi Khazri might have been equally at fault) and the fourth goal went in. Apologies to Arsenal fans for having doubted the Gunners in this game.
Winty is writing better than ever, but two things. 1) Shkodran Mustafi showing ‘leadership and composure’? Maybe, but he also was beaten badly twice in the second half, one nearly resulting in an excellent chance and the other leading to the Cech penalty. 2) Agree 100% on José Mourinho; back in February 2015 the MC kindly published my letter suggesting he was no longer a great manager. But if Tom Heaton doesn’t play out of his skin, United cruise 3-0 and we’re all saying how the team is gelling again.
Winston Reid is a poor man’s Laurent Koscielny: he’s smooth and assured, then drops a clanger. He was excellent against Everton until his giveaway and slow reactions led to Lukaku’s goal. And we need to talk about Mark Noble, who this season has somehow become a totally different and less valuable player. According to Whoscored.com, he’s at a career low in every single significant defensive stat: tackles, interceptions, clearances, blocks. On the positive side, his fouls committed are a career low as well, and his pass completion percentage is a career high – but his key passes are a career low too, and he has zero goals and assists. So he’s just a guy who passes the ball around, and that’s not good enough for West Ham right now.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA
Things that annoy this fella…
It’s Monday morning, the woman opposite me in the office is burping like a pig from a trailer park, and my back is knackered from attempting an overhead kick in last night’s pub league game- to answer your question, it was a perfectly weighted long ball, I was alone in the box and instead of trying to glance it into the net with a backwards header, I envisaged the post-game backslaps and hurrahs and tried the spectacular- result? Didn’t get nearly far enough off the ground, fell on my arse, swingin and missin the ball with both legs, instead deftly chesting the ball into the defender’s path to clear away. Wonderful.
SO, I’m feeling a tad grouchy this morning and as I started catching up with a bit of F365 reading, there are a few things that grind my gears, feel free to respond with your own!
– Referring to Pep’s time at Citeh as his ‘revolution’.
– Saying a player has ‘snubbed’ another club – just conjures up images of John Cleese in Life of Brian, when Brian asks to join the People’s Front of Judea, Cleese replying with, ‘No, p*** off’.
– Gratuitous use of ‘fighting’ and ‘battling’ for a player’s signature as if all club reps are in the same negotiating room having some sort of epic slow-mo 300-style brawl (which would actually be brilliant).
– Like F365, use of the word ‘revealed’ when said revelation is already common knowledge, or worse, the article reveals the square root of f**k all.
– Mourinho being shortened to Mou. No. Stop it. In fact, scratch that – any unnecessary abbreviating of names, especially when the person’s full name is not yet that well-known.
– Players coming forward after leaving a club to say they strongly disagreed with coach’s methods, tactics, etc etc. Obviously didn’t feel strongly enough to say so while still at the club eh?
– Joey Barton. Just Joey Barton.
* Upturn in mood as I remember that NUFC are sitting atop the Championship…that and seeing the news about Steve Bruce and his novels, with his son apparently trying to deny that Brucey wrote em, before Daddy ‘exclusively reveals’ that yep, he wrote em. Really made me smile.*
Enjoy your Monday!
Jon (More Mou, More Problems), NUFC, Guangzhou, China
Being sent from Coventry…
I have been a Coventry City fan for 30 years and other than the FA Cup (I was one when we won this) I have never seen my club finish higher than 7th but have seen the heartbreak of two relegations and administration.
What has made this worse is the players that have left the club, the ones that hurt the most were Dion Dublin, Darren Huckerby, Gary McAllister, Robbie Keane, Mustapha Hadji, Callum Wilson, Aron Gunnarsson and John Aloisi.
Safe to say anyone that has read about the last ten years at Coventry City will know it has been an utter shambles under the wonderful ownership of hedge fund SISU.
I’m sure a few people will be aware of the story of Real Oviedo (http://promoovertime.com/a-touching-story-of-how-global-football-community-saved-small-spanish-club-from-extinction/) a club that was saved by the fans, this is something I thought could work at Coventry but a recent request by the supporters group to have a meeting to discuss a possible fan lead takeover was rejected by SISU.
What is worse is that even though the FA can see the club is being stripped of every possible asset and are a season and a half from having no stadium to play in, they don’t seem bothered at all and no action is being taken with SISU.
If SISU ever do decide to sell up and a Real Oviedo situation arises then I hope the community at F365 can chuck in a few quid each and help us.
Not really sure what the point in this email was but it’s always nice to have a moan.
Sam
How it works
So Ian asked why Football365 focused on Arsenal, and the MC duly responded with ‘we pick a game to cover’.
On a weekend where we had Tottenham vs Leicester, Chevs vs Soton, Man Utd playing, Liverpool also playing, you decided to cover Arsenal v Sunderland. I really have to question your decision making and judgement.
Dave (Ian really did have a point, maybe, just maybe F365 is biased), Somewhere
MC – We have pieces on Manchester United and Chelsea; Liverpool was impractical because of low staffing levels and I think we probably made the right decision to ignore Spurs v Leicester. All games will be covered in Winners and Losers.
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