You know what to do – read this mailbox and then send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com
Is this Jose’s last chance?
Does anybody else feel that Jose is quite aware that this United gig is his last chance of salvaging his reputation and is making a conscious effort to win the fans over? I presume everyone has seen the gif of him *apologizing* to the Stretford End – and I nearly fell off my chair when I watched that!
Jose Mourinho Apologizing To The Stretford End For Defeat Against Chelsea. #Legend. #MUFC.#MUFCvMCFC #MUNMCI pic.twitter.com/ViPQNQprtx
— Sir Ravindra Jadeja (@SirJadeja) October 26, 2016
His constant references to the enthusiasm and support shown by the fans, his toned-down media comments after the usual Jose sh*thousery during the Chelsea match – even going so far as to apologise in the programme notes – they’re all very unlike Jose.
And oh what delicious irony that the one player he felt fit to sell to wannabe rivals during that season because he did not fit his work ethos is now saving his bacon on a weekly basis. Apart from that boy Rashford, and brief cameos by Lingard and Martial – the little Spanish duo of Herrera and Mata have been comfortably the best creative players since the season started. Herrera should now be starting every game instead of that giant Brussels sprout.
Everyone has always associated Jose __with a distinct lack of attacking identity in his title-winning teams saying he’s always preferred to build from the back. That might be the reason that Zlatan and Pogba are struggling to fit in – but to expect United to suddenly play swashbuckling carefree football is a bit too much to ask under Jose. It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how Jose balances this bunch of talented but directionless players __with his usual ego and personality on/off the field.
Budhaditya
Jose saved himself with that team
Think some very basic strategy went into Jose’s decision regarding his team selection.
There were four possible scenarios (a bit simple but not possible to completely disagree I hope)
1. Both play strong teams. Man Utd lose 2-0.
2. Both play weak teams. Man Utd lose 2-0.
3. Man Utd play a strong team, but City play a weak team. Man Utd win 1-0.
4. Man Utd play a weak team but City play a strong team. Man Utd lose 3-0.
On this basis, Guardiola should’ve been able to predict that Mourinho would play a strong team, as it is the scenario which both minimises his loses and gives him the best chance of succeeding. It’s probably a reflection of Man City’s priorities that Pep still fielded a weak team with this in mind. It’s also quite clever because by fielding a weaker team he gave Mourinho nothing but downside; win, and people write it off as you beat the Man City B Team. But lose, or win through luck and the pressure continues to mount on Mourinho as it raises more questions than it answers.
One may argue that Pep used his subs to try and win the game, but he was risking Sterling, who is rarely injured, and an out of form Aguero for less than 45 minutes (if the game went to extra time) and they would have had two breaks in that short stint of play anyway. It’s arguably a good gamble to give Aguero some confidence or give Sterling the chance to turn the game on its head against tired legs.
Wish Liverpool had got Man Utd in the next round. After the last game between us was so rubbish a knock-out game would inevitably be more fun.
Minty, LFC
Poor Henrikh
Has Henrikh Mkhitaryan taken Wilfried Zaha’s lucky spot at Carrington?
Chris MUFC
…The situation with Mkhitaryan has already become a joke. He’s travelled with the squad for tonight’s game and failed to make the bench yet again. This is a £26m player. Are we seriously looking at his Man Utd career being over after 45 f**king minutes? Even Memphis Depay has made the bench tonight, and we can all agree that Mourinho seems to f**king hate him as well. At least we know Morgan Schneiderlein is still alive…
HarryB
…It was really nice thinking you were just what our static midfield of 2015/16 needed, whilst it lasted. I hope you enjoy your your new club, take Morgan with you, he deserves better as well.
Yours,
Manchester United Fans
Should Pogba be able to play ‘out of position’?
I agree with Chris’s mail ‘When did footballers become so inflexible?’ to a certain extent.
I think players should be able to play in pretty much every position. But, if you’re up against someone who specialises in that position and you don’t, at one of the highest levels of football, then you’re going to have a hard time of it, no matter if you’re the most expensive player in the world. I think Pogba should be able to do the defensive midfielder job, and will certainly adapt given time, but I’m assuming they didn’t buy him to do that. They would have tried to buy Kante, surely?
Alex (LCFC, Champions of England)
United still awful cheaters
Are we just plain ignoring the fact that there were TWO clear fouls in the lead up to Man United’s goal and it simply should not have stood? The second foul was borderline assault. Check out Mike Dean’s dismissal of the City appeals!!! Textbook Dean.
To me, Man United looked as awful and tedious as ever.
Brad Smith
Oh Micki (Attridge), you’re so wrong, you’re so wrong you blow my mind…
Long-time reader, first-time writer and big fan of the mailbox…
Mailbox regular Micki Attrige’s A long (and good) assessment of Tottenham stirred me to write. Yes, I bit!
Lots to pick over but for brevity’s sake let’s focus on the spurious and outrageous claim of a ‘foul press’ being employed systematically throughout the club. Utter b*ll*cks!
Pulling the shirt of an opponent who has ‘broken through the first line of defence’ is going to get you an automatic yellow, why make it a working policy? Bit high-risk really don’t you think? Or, conveniently for Micki’s false proposition, Pochettino knows the opposition will choose a different player the next time they ‘break through’ so Spurs can ‘spread the fouls’.
Players from all teams assess the risk when their lines are broken commit a foul based on whether they can afford a yellow, this is not unique to Spurs.
Putting your arm out as you shield the ball…nope, never seen a player do that in all my years playing and watching. Wait…
No defence of the elbow in the face. That was 100% deliberate and a bit of pro (or not so pro) payback as Arter had been giving it out himself most of the afternoon in what was a fiercely contested midfield with lots of naughty from both sides. But that’s all it was, Sissoko thought he could subtly land one on Arter under the guise of the tussle caused by Arter’s delaying tactics. He succeeded (on the day) and rightly the player/club accepts the punishment as he was clearly guilty. Part of an extended club policy spanning the youth system? Stop it! That’s about as likely as Jack (a whole 90 mins being dominated by Wanyama) Wilshere receiving a hero’s welcome at WHL or, indeed, him winning a pub quiz.
Tenuously linking these things and giving them a catchy name doesn’t make a valid theory, thankfully. I’ve come to the conclusion Micki was taking the mickey.
Sometimes you gotta call bullsh*t even when you know it’s wind-up.
Great site, great contributors (even Micki), love it. Keep up the good work!
SpurOfSweden (if you publish I will use my dark-web powers to propel your SEO ranking – or something like that)
Lucas Perez is no success…yet
I know F365 rarely publishes rebuttals, but if you’re interested I’d like to answer Matt, AFC on Lucas Perez. He’s exactly right that Lucas has two goals and two assists, and maybe I shouldn’t have left them out. But one of those goals was a penalty, and both goals came against Nottingham Forest, who have the second-worst defense in the Championship. As for the assists, both were against a completely beaten Ludogorets in the final 10 minutes, a game in which he remained on the bench until Arsenal were up 4-0.
I don’t know if Matt got to see Arsenal’s Tuesday evening EFL Cup match against Reading. One of the reasons I watched it was to see how Lucas would fare in a starting role. He was pretty ordinary, and was replaced by one of Arsenal’s youngsters while the game was still in the balance. So I’ll stand by the view that he’s done little in other competitions to earn more league time.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA (but very much thanks for the kind words, too)
Tears and fears
Like a lot of people living through their sixth decade I have had my ups and downs in life, joy and sadness with the odd tear or two. But I can only recall ever shedding a tear once about football before today – when I shed another small one.
The first time was hearing about the death of Bobby Moore, not because he was a football legend or won the World Cup, but because of a simple, humble act of kindness when I was a kid. We were on hols and having a kick around on the beach with dad when I blasted the ball past him and onto a couple sunbathing a short distance up the beach. As usual my dad suggested I go and apologise and ask for the ball back, but before I had chance the bloke got up and returned the ball. I was really worried and mumbled an apology as instructed. The man told me not to worry and focus on taking penalties like Jimmy Greaves and asked if he could show me how. He proceeded to put a few past dad, who then told us he was tired and for us to go and cool down in the sea. He and the bloke then sat down and talked for about half an hour about sport and stuff and parted as two friends. As you can guess I hadn’t a clue who he was until dad ambled over and told me.
I shed a tear when he died because he had been kind to my dad and they both died of the same thing, too young and not that far apart in terms of time.
I shed another today on reading of the death of Carlos Alberto, the man who scored the most iconic goal in football history, a man who captained the best team in history, that played the best football in history – largely forgotten. I shed a tear because another connection to long forgotten blue skies, green grass and the simple joy of the game has gone.
I feel old and tired and I shed a tear for myself because the game is not longer the same and I don’t love it anymore.
Paul the Owl
Obscure own goals please…
Okay, following on from Nick’s article, let’s have a mailbox classic: best own goals. Preferably ones outside the mainstream to keep it interesting (hipster).
I’ll get the ball rolling with Jenkinson’s OG in a pre-season friendly (sorry, I mean Emirates cup match), wonderful because you never see own goals like that, in act they’re rarely even the offending players’ fault, but this 100% was.
Enjoy:
KC (looking forward to those from the Swiss fourth tier)
A brief question on mailbox etiquette from an incredibly handsome and well-spoken gentleman
Not really one worthy of publishing, more just a general question if you have time to respond. (I’m assuming you offer personal responses as part of your fine service?)
My question is: Are the bold headings at the start of each mailbox entry decided by the correspondent or does the compiler assign what they deem to be an appropriate headline?
A little bit of both – Ed.
My line of enquiry has been triggered by two recent mails published on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon respectively. On Tuesday, Adway appeared to answer this age old question submitting his mail Don’t look back in anger and subsequently referencing his chosen title in his mail. On Wednesday however Micki Attridge’s mail was titled A long (and good) assessment of Tottenham leaving me to only assume that Micki is incredibly confident in his own mailboxing ability, unless there is indeed some form of divine compiler intervention going on.
If you do publish my mail, all of my fellow readers will have fun trying to guess if the title to this entry was reader or compiler chosen and wouldn’t that be fun for everybody!
Also, how does it work with hyperlinks? Do we do those ourselves? Do you pick what would be good to hyperlink or should I just put a link in brackets after this for you to format? I always enjoy this video for example:
It works exactly like that – Ed
Also, also, how does it work with names? Once somebody uses a name and bracket combination is that then locked for nobody else to use again? do you keep a list of contributors? Is there anything that stops me from signing off this mail Ed Quoththeraven?
Ed Quoththeraven (Love your work Ed/me)
We trust you. And who would ever pretend to be Ed? – Ed
PS do you think Eoin, Dublin from Tuesday’s AM mailbox was meant to be a play on Dion Dublin?
We do hope so – Ed
PPS. having read this back this has probably just been a monumental waste of both my time and yours (however it just seemed a shame to delete without sending). Love the site, keep up the great work.
Chris, Sutton