Man Utd ‘looming over’ Liverpool, Spursy Arsenal and more mails…

Thank you for your contributions. Keep them coming to [email protected]…

 

Spursy Arsenal
We are suffering at the moment and the players and new management team at Arsenal need to look long and hard at each other.

Mikel has been the new manager for a few months and changed some things, but what has not changed is our ability to see out a game. Football is simple here, if in the last minute your team is unable to win it, do not lose it. Keep the ball away from your penalty box and ensure the other team cannot get a clear enough on goal, or as Brighton did play an easy one two for a winning goal.

It is my often repeated rant that the Arsenal footballing culture must change, physically (we look lightweight) emotionally (no one plays with open passion) and mentally we do not look strong enough.

If we continue like this footballing mediocrity awaits
Tony Laforce, Hackney

 

Wow, Arsenal are more than a bit spursy, aren’t they?
Gareth (LFC)

 

Howe is he still in a job?
I assume the fashionable Bournemouth manager’s full name is Eddie Howe The Hell Is He Still In a Job? He has failed in the transfer market more than any of his contemporaries in the bottom half of the table (Ibe, Solanke), probably with less resources to ‘waste’ too. He hasn’t evolved the defence from the stalwarts that came through the leagues, aside from Ake, and seems averse to the idea of clean-sheets, the most vital commodity in the bottom reaches of the league.

He lucked out a couple of season’s ago when Fraser and Wilson dove-tailed so well, and has built up an almost infallible reputation in the media- certainly compared to more ‘pragmatic’ coaches like Dyche or Allardyce or Hodgson anyway. Even during the commentary, Jermaine Jenas was loathe to criticise Howe for Bournemouth’s poor form, as if it was sacrilegious or something.

I know we are still in exceptional times, but most clubs would have broken the emergency glass for a new manager by now. Howe is young and English though isn’t he, that alone is enough to stick with him.
Brian, Wexford

 

What’s happened to Sessegnon?
As a Fulham fan who watched the lad burst onto the scene, I can’t help but be disappointed at his lack of progression at Spurs. We could hardly hope to keep hold of such a precocious talent following our relegation, and I had reservations that Spurs was the best place to nurture and develop him, but he doesn’t get game time and seems to have regressed. I really have high expectations of him, and would have hoped he would be challenging for the Euro squad, but unfortunately that’s now only possible in another universe.

I would be interested to hear from Spurs fans as to how they view him and his predicament. I can imagine Jose will have the finger pointed at him, what with his infamy regarding youth prospects, but maybe there are other factors Spurs fans see that I haven’t. It’s just a shame that his huge potential doesn’t appear invested in.

As a side note, can City, United, Chelsea, Leicester, Spurs, someone, anyone please get their s*** together and start challenging Liverpool? I have historically found myself sympathetic to Liverpool, having been an underdog for most of my life, but now they are nearing the title, at a canter, their fans are far more insufferable than I ever remember City, United or Chelsea ever being. Liverpool fans have a reputation for being bad losers, but bad winners is somehow worse. I’m looking at you johnnywicky. Shades of Tom Cruise on Oprah.

God help us if they win another one next year to equal Man Utd.
Rudi, Where’s Dempsey’s Statue?, SW6

 

A myopic Spurs view
I’m sorry but what planet is Paulo on? “Spurs were allowed to score a goal, United committed lots of fouls with no cautions”? Did he actually watch the match? I think when talking of cautions your own Eric Lamela and his blonde highlights were a tad fortunate not to be carded for a late industrial challenge on McTominay, as for the “soft penalty” it may have been soft but it was also “a penalty”. Your myopic view of past Spurs United games is quite something it’s hardly the refs fault that even when we gave you a 3 goal head start your collective arses went and you lost the match, it’s hardly the refs fault that historically Spurs had a weaker spine than Tony Harts Morf. Still smarting over a disallowed goal which crossed the line? ONE GOAL FFS get over yourself Paulo.

On to the game, I thought we controlled most of it with the drink’s breaks giving Spurs a chance to re-group, De Gea needs to really pull his finger out as again that was a shocking attempt at saving a ball hit almost straight at him and the less said about McGuire and his lack of pace. I’m happy enough with a draw but felt we did enough to get the 3 points, I think Pogba and Fernandes could be a real force together for us. Dan James used as an impact sub when defenders are tired is probably the way forward for the lad. All in all not a ruinous draw just a slight setback.
Paul Murphy
Manchester (the United Penalty myth is pathetic)

 

Manyoofactured hyperbole
I enjoyed the contribution from JohnnyWicky in the mailbox. He asserts that he had to  control his laughter and clean up coffee he had spit onto the floor though it is not clear if these acts are related.

Does the spitting of coffee attest to the failure to control laughter? Drinking coffee at 9pm certainly might account for the highly stimulated tone of the rest of the contribution. Is the repeated use of Manyoo ever not amusing?

It’s possible of course that the coffee had been there awhile and Mr Wicky merely took the opportunity to clean it up in the wake of Maguire’s calamity. “Hmm, I’m laughing so much I better get this under control. Nothing supports better laughter control than cleaning up a cold puddle of coffee during the first half of only the 4th televised premier league game in 3 months!”

Or perhaps the hyperbolic incident was Manyoofactured by the lad, flushed with excitement at being allowed to stay up late and “cleaning up the coffe I spilled” a good deal more grown-up sounding than “I was off my tits on Tangfastics and I wet myself when Slabhead done a stupid and Mummy Wicky made me clean up my wee puddle”
Pete W, Maldon.

 

As a United fan, I am really not sure if Maguire is better than Chris Smalling.
Shehzad Ghias, mufc 

 

United still looming over Liverpool
I read some of the contributions with a smile on my face today. The one titled Harry Maguire – Man Utd’s own Andy Carroll made me laugh.

Why can’t Liverpool fans enjoy their 1st Premier League title without bringing United into it. Especially as they are still behind us in the titles that matter…Top flight League Championships….

Is that howls of European League titles I hear coming from across the East Lancs…

Poor lads. We do loom over them…
James. Man U forever.

 

Why aren’t they fit?
Something has been puzzling me in the build up to, and since the commencement of, the return of the Premier League. There is a running narrative about players not being fit. I’ve heard commentators talk about injuries potentially being more likely due to this lack of fitness. My question is: Why aren’t players fit?

Nothing has stopped players training in lockdown. I presume the vast majority have indoor gyms, weights, bikes etc. At a minimum, they have gardens. Exercise has been permitted outdoors since day one, so runs, sprints, etc. have all been possible. The return of the Premier League has come as no surprise. We have been building to it for a long time. Surely long enough that the players can return in good shape.

The main crux of the argument seems to be that they need game time. This is the bit I just don’t understand. Premier League clubs have teams of physios and sports scientists. Yet there’s no way they can put together a training regime, that replicates the jogging and sprints that form a part of a Premier League game? No ways that the range of fitness exercises the players can do are enough to get them in good shape? The theory seems to suggest that the daily, highly specific training players are able to do isn’t that relevant. What gets you fit is running around a pitch for 90 minutes.

This doesn’t seem to crop up in other sports. Players who are out for extended periods in cricket or rugby talk about being fully fit and ready to hit the ground running. Football always seems to suggest players need games.

Now I’m coming to this from a place of total ignorance. So my questions are genuine questions. I’m not saying:  ‘God, these pathetic footballers, why aren’t they fit?’ It’s more like: ‘I’m genuinely interested, what is it about football that prevents you from being fit enough, without playing actual games?’ There must be some physios or sports scientists who read the mailbox. Anyone able to answer this?
Mike, LFC, London

 

Is it only about the glamour?
Amidst all the jollity and hype about the £300k a week Premiership players returning to (largely meaningless) action, here’s something you may have missed.

From next season, prize money for the early rounds for the FA Cup will be halved (yes, halved), and also reduced for the Trophy and the Vase. So the lower league and grass roots clubs – who’ve received literally nothing from the FA (just in some cases a bringing forward of moneys already due) – will collectively have to take a significant cut in income, on top of everything else.

Thanks, Football Association. You really don’t give a monkeys about anyone other than the glamour boys, do you?
Alan, Chester FC

 

The Bundesliga’s ‘pack of dogs’
I hate to say it as a Dortmund fan, but the way Bayern Munich are playing, they are going to demolish all on their path. They are playing the football they did before Pep took over. Fast passing, fast pressure, they just zip passes. Its not tikitaka, it’s not boring, its fast passed, exquisite football.If its true that the Bayern coach is temporary, he is to me one of the best out there, and if teams like Man U, Chelsea, etc need a real winner Hans-Dieter Flick’s name has to be in the conversation. They are just a pack of dogs working tirelessly, winning every ball. You don’t even know who the star is, it’s a team game. Every player in possession will get double marked,  but also instill discipline throughout the system. He has to be nominated as the best manager of fifa.
Dave(he hasn’t done it on a wet Tuesday night in Stoke), Somewhere