If you have a contribution to make, drop us a line at theeditor@football365.com....
Rafa's Strange Priority
My football management career is limited to Football Manager, so I've got no professional experience whatsoever let alone trying to get my team to take on the defending champions in one of the hardest leagues in the world. However I do know that, when faced with statistically one of the toughest away fixtures of the season, I shouldn't be wasting my/my staff's time trying to compile a dossier of perceived injustices against the wily old fox just down the road who also happens to be my biggest rival for the league.
In a weekend which really should have seen Liverfool stretch their lead at the top, it has turned into a depressing mortification that has loaded the guns of Rafa's detractors with plenty of ammo.
What I would give to be privy on the thoughts of a manager whom I once assumed was pre-occupied with nothing but football. I guess by following up with another blast, he must think going out all-guns blazing Texas style would please his owners.
Aaron (take me home, Utd road)
And He Has Previous For This Sort Of Thing Backfiring
As a Liverpool fan it pains me to do this, but I have to concede that this weekend could not have gone any better for United. Rafa's rant on Friday was measured and considered in tone, and therefore was not the same as Keegan completely losing it a few years ago, but the end result is the same - United have gained confidence while Liverpool have started to unravel. This is not the first time Rafa's attempt to unsettle someone has backfired though - he tried it on Drogba before last year's Champs League semi by calling him a diver, and Drogba ended up scoring to help put us out (diving in celebration to boot).
Rafa also tried it on with our owners (to hurry through signings) which nearly led to our club imploding, but it seems that those two experiences weren't enough so he's now decided to take on the biggest bully in the playground and has had his shorts pulled down for a thorough spanking in front of the entire school.
Morgan Goford
Smugness United
To the Top Dogs at F365. And the Mailbox Compiler.
Man Utd fans have on various occasions in the past, certainly in this mailbox, shown themselves up to be rather smug. And that's being polite.
I would suggest though, that if ever there was a weekend where they are justified in their smugness, this would be it.
The turning point of the season? Looks like it.
Beano, Kent
Summing Up
I have just a few points to make which i think have been solidified by
yesterdays implosion at Old Trafford.
1. You cannot play the best teams in Europe with 2 at the back, relying solely on your full backs to provide the width further up the pitch
2. The coach responsible for set piece play should receive 10 public lashes as well as those players involved
3. Drogba should have been sold in the summer, we would be lucky to trade him for a cup of tea and a sandwich now
4. Deco is a waste of space
I'm off to research time travel so i can go back to the summer when Abramovich bought Ballack and Shevchenko, and convince him maybe this Mourinho guy knows what he is doing and can handle the clubs transfers and he is not such a bad guy after all.
That is all
Dave, Cork
Is This Scolari's Problem?
Quick theory for you: Scolari has no idea what to do with forwards.
It's only now with Chelsea that he's been found out but think about it. With Brazil this deficiency was masked by an uncharacteristically defensive outlook and having Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho in the squad.
Even Steve McClaren would have got goals and success from that front line, especially at Japorea (the worst World Cup, in terms of team quality, for ages). When he was doing a very good job of coaching Portugal, people could sympathetically blame the lack of goals from up front, that stopped Portugal winning at least one trophy, on the distinctly average Pauleta, Helder Postiga and Nuno Gomes, rather than the coach's limitations in that department.
At Chelsea, Scolari might not have the most complementary bunch of forwards but he certainly has talent, and the worst aspect of Chelsea's awful display yesterday was how toothless they were up front. Drogba was worse than he was in his first, maligned, year in England. He should have been hauled off after he shanked Chelsea's best chance out for a throw in behind where he took the shot and struggled to contain his amusement. If he had been then maybe Anelka wouldn't have spurned their next best chance with an air kick.
Chelsea's best spell this year has come with Anelka up front, but Scolari's reluctance to remove Drogba or at least move him out of position confined the league's top scorer to a withdrawn midfield position. Was Scolari unwilling to do this because he didn't want to upset Drogba, or because he didn't know how to make Chelsea more threatening? Either reason is damning.
William O'Doherty
And Where Now Liverpool?
With Arsenal relegated to a footnote and Chelsea nowhere near their start-of-season form, it looks as though the league run in will be a two horse race between England's most decorated two clubs.
Following yesterday's game, the argument was put to me that it's United's to lose on the basis that "who from the Liverpool team would get in the United one?". Or, to put it another way, "pick a starting 11 from both clubs". As is the nature of such questions, there is no definitive answer. But the undertaking of the task alone is instructive - various permutations of formation and personnel illustrates that United have the stronger squad.
Both clubs face difficult Champions League ties, yet both are slight favourites to progress. But, could elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Madrid, coupled with United getting passed Inter, be Liverpool's best hope of a first league title in 19 years?
Dave Dineen
All Around The World
Now I'm all for the Premiership attracting fans from around the world, be it China, Senegal, India or Mongolia. They add a diversity of experience to the game which sometimes allows us little Englanders to see it in a whole new light, reshaping our love of the game we have exported around the world.
But those same fans don't half talk a load of gonads sometimes.
Excitable United fan Vineet says in this morning's mailbox: "The Reception Tevez got sent goosebumps all over!! Cannot see that happening anywhere else in the Premiership!"
Really Vineet? So you didn't see Keggy Keegle's emotion return to St James's? Or the reception Jermain Defoe got at White Hart Lane the other night? Or the applause for Eduardo by the usually mute Arsenal fans on his return?
Obviously not, because you have, like so many others before you, simply bought into the whole over-sentimental Manchester United 'Theatre of Dreams' branding which is about as authentic as a Thai hooker's tits.
I won't go on a rant because it's not your fault...the marketing machinery of a club like United is so pervasive that you can't be blamed for being suckered into the hyperbole. But really, fans getting up for a game against their closest rivals over the past few years - it's not much to write home about.
After all, I've been to Old Trafford twice and you could have heard a pin drop.
Rob Davies
Those Northern Pansies
I wanted to write in response to Kevin Davies assertion that the Arsenal players screamed to get the Bolton Players booked. What a load of old tosh. I was at the game and the supposed hard men of Bolton all went down like sacks of s**t at the slightest touch. It seemed that, on the rare occasion they actually had possession in our half, they would hit the deck as soon as they lost the ball and would feign injury to get play stopped. Davies was one of the main culprits and there were others.
They've got a reputation for being hard, but actually they're just s**t players that play dirty to make up for a lack of technical ability. I hope they get relegated.
Antony(can't think of anything to write her) ,North London
Also Wanting Stoke To Go Down
Reading Nick Smith's mail about Stoke and their horrendous tactics that they employed against Liverpool on Saturday night reminded me exactly the same use of tactics they used at West Ham just after Xmas. They were horrible to watch and as soon as they took an early lead I knew it was going to happen.
Every Delap throw in took at least 30 seconds as he dried the ball on his shirt, then luzzed it only to be headed away every time by the excellent Upson and Collins. Every throw in their own half, every time the ref gave fouls against the bumbling Cole, every single goal kick that Sorenson took a minute over every time, it was the worst case of time wasting I have ever seen.
To top it off, when they got their just desserts in the shape of the hilarious red card and our 88th minute winner, suddenly Sorenson was rushing everything, and the ref even booked one of our players for time wasting! Incredibly the ref even gave them 4 minutes stoppage time, which seems a bit mental considering they were getting the time back that they so blatantly wasted! On a freezing cold December day the last thing you want is the most talent less set of players wasting yours and your team's time!
(In fairness their support is quite good) At least Hull and the Baggies have had a go at teams!
Mike (loving the sales of the squad players, makes me hopeful that Greeno and co are staying put...for now), WHUFC, Essex
But Stoke's Fans Aren't Taking This Quietly
Watching the Liverpool centre halves lump it over the midfield for the last half hour on Saturday got me thinking- are Liverpool the new Stoke City?
Peter Collings, the only person in Dublin daft enough to actually support Stoke
...I've been watching the last few weeks on F365 with some amusement as to the comments made about my team, Stoke City. Most seem to be along the lines of 'dour Stoke', ' long ball merchants', 'cant wait until they get relegated and take their brand of football away from the Premier League' etc etc, you get the gist.
1. It's our first season in the top flight so have to play to our strengths. West Brom may try the passing game (although that wasn't evident in their game at the Britannia Stadium) but its going to get them relegated.
2. We've played well at home, in fact we were much better than the league leaders on Saturday who were dreadful, despite F365's description of us as 'dour'.
3. A lot of football played by some of the bigger teams this season has been fairly poor. Chelsea yesterday were as good as Liverpool on Saturday.
4. Go through what Stoke have been through in the last 20 years and you'll appreciate your team being in the top flight a whole lot more. Lets face it, its easy to criticize a less successful team when you've picked a team who are one of the most successful in the country and yet somehow you've never made it to their ground, you know who you are you little tinkers ;)
Stokies are having the time of their lives at the moment football wise, we just bought a good genuine left sided midfielder for less than Frank Lampard's pie stash, we may get Beattie, we've got the best squad we've had in a generation, promotion has meant we've finally got a big telly at the Britannia, the Brit is packed out every home game with hostile, noisy fans and unlike the moaning 'supporters' of the big four we know how to have a good time...people slagging us off? Like water off a ducks back. Duck. Love it.
Stokie Julian
A Complaint
I can't believe F365 published a letter about a German football player with some Stan Boardman type pointless WW2 reference. Can you please not encourage cavemen like Paul Hammack so he can get back to texting his opinions to the Daily Star.
What a really horrible person, I bet he drives a van.
Leighton "3 in a row" Taylor
It's A Good Question
Watching MOTD2 last night and seeing Defoe line up against Tottenham it brought around an interesting, if not very bizarre question to my mind. Theoretically, Mr Defoe could have played against Wigan 4 times over the course of one season (in the league alone), being twice for Pompey and then twice for Spurs.
My question then is, does anyone know what the most amount of games one player has played against another team in a single league season?
By my reckoning, Berbatov is on for 3 times against Sunderland this season but this is far too much of a statistical question for me to work out!
Ben, Guildford
The And Finally We Never Tire Of
The obvious reason why Lampard didn't roll around like Ronaldo...
The pitch is only 105m long!
Ger Scully AFC, Ireland
