16 Conclusions BEFORE Man City v Tottenham

We decided not to include any more Russian stuff. It was all getting a bit Trumpy. Mail theeditor@football365.com

 

16 Conclusions BEFORE Man City v Tottenham
1. Tottenham are the form team in the Premier League.
2. Tottenham have rediscovered the vibe that made them almost unplayable at times last season.
3. Tottenham are getting back to full strength, with Dele Alli on fire, Harry Kane coming off a hat-trick and Christian Eriksen fully up to speed.
4. Tottenham have the two best wing-backs in the Premier League at present.
5. After ten straight wins at the start of the season, City have had a mid-table record at best ever since.
6. City have the worst record of any top-six team against the others.
7. City were so awful in the second half against Everton it’s hard to imagine them getting a result against Hull.
8. All the City defence needs replacing, except possibly Stones and he’s still prone to rash moves.
9. Guardiola has lost it so bad he is even playing Zabaleta in midfield. Zabaleta!
10. Tottenham not only ended Chelsea’s winning streak, they did so comfortably and with some panache.
11. Tottenham are consistently destroying decent teams, e.g. West Brom last weekend.
12. Tottenham concede very few goals and have the league’s best central defender in Toby Alderweireld.
13. Most pundits think Tottenham will win.
14. Tottenham won the fixture 2-1 last season.
15. Tottenham have already won the reverse fixture this season, handing a much more confident city a beating far more comprehensive than the 2-0 scoreline suggests.
16. Put £10 on City. Because it’s Tottenham and that’s what happens.

You’re welcome.
Andrew Warmington, THFC

 

So very funny
How will Spurs cope without two standouts from the first half of the season, Jan Vertonghen and Mike Dean?
Brian (Go Ghana) LFC

 

A defence of Guardiola
Bit late perhaps, but wanted to give my thoughts about Pep and response to the quite bizarre attacks in the earlier mailboxes.

First of all, I like Pep as a manager. I also like Klopp, Wenger and Conte to name a few. What seems to be the common nominator (to me at least) is a strong belief how they want their team should play the game whether it’s Klopp’s strong pressing and lightning fast attacks or Pep’s passing domination. If you don’t personally agree with it, then fine. Like few years back in John Nicholson articles he critisized Barcelona style finding it boring. I found Barcelona fascinating but that’s beside the point. To me, it’s fine to find some styles enjoyable and some not. Some of us like Pink floyd and some…errr Justin Bieber.

What I do find baffling is perceiving Guardiola somehow arrogant. When has Pep ever said he thinks he is somehow special? When has he ever wiggled his own tail taking credit for all good happening in Barcelona or in Bayern? In fact, Mister Guardiola to me seems to be workaholic/perfectionist, finding always flaws in his own tactics and the way his teams plays always trying to improve (perceived as putting square blocks in round holes when it goes wrong.). It’s the media and fans of his earlier teams that has labeled Guardiola great manager, not himself. He seems to invest so much in the game that he is abject and in bad mood after losing in press conferences.

Other thing that annoys me is seeing him now a failure bashing his decisions during the season. He is a man of vision (again, whether you agree if it’s a good vision or not) and although he has some players that suit his way of playing and naturally adapt to his style, to a sensible follower, it was obvious it will be harder than in Barcelona or in Bayern where there wasn’t obvious flaws like in City. I don’t think anybody claims he is perfect. He should have replaced the aging fullbacks and getting injury prone Gundongan was always a risk. But still he is two points better off than City was last season and still in Champions League. How that is seen as terrible failure for Pep during his first season is quite a mystery. He is doing okay. Not great, not bad. Let’s at least wait until the end of season before this needless bashing goes on.
Matti Katara, Helsinki

 

Hoping Pep fails…but not like this
I feel Pep’s work at Barcelona is a bit overlooked. Firstly, he turned things around for their B team and won the title in his first/only season. Then he promoted some of those youth players to the first team and got rid of Ronaldinho, Deco etc Can you imagine the balls and foresight it took to do that? The Barca he took over was nothing like the Barca he ended the season with or became in the next few years and I think it’s not as simple as ‘he had Xavi, Iniesta and Messi’. There was an excellent documentary on Sky recently that told Pep’s story at Barca and it was really interesting, I already thought he was great but my respect grew for him after that.

Personally, as a United fan, I want him to fail. However I want him to fail on his own terms – with his ‘philosophy’ biting him in the arse. I don’t want the media to play a part in bringing him down because he doesn’t deserve that and it makes our country look like dicks to the rest of Europe (again). It also provides an excuse. Let’s just let it play out naturally…let him keep thinking Zabaleta is Xavi and Toure is 27 and let’s all just enjoy the show.

– Liverpool had three luminous shirts around Martial as soon as he got the ball, I don’t know how anyone but Messi is supposed to play football like that. F**k you Klopp for making Jose bring out Fellaini, and f**k you for it working.
Silvio Dante

 

Where’s the stick for David Moyes?
While the media have been busy this season laying into Bob Bradley for being American, Guardiola for not winning the league yet and Mourinho for living in a hotel it seems most outlets having been turning a blind eye to good old Davey ‘British’ Moyes.

Joint bottom of the league, announced that they were in a relegation fight after the first game, constantly slagging off his own players, then asks them to perform and take responsibility, telling anyone who’ll listen about the financial constraints – it’s truly inspirational stuff. While it’s hardly the best squad in the Premier league let’s not forget these are the same players that lost only one game (to Leicester) in the final 11 matches of 2015/16 to avoid relegation. And maybe if he had given the chairman/board the slightest glimmer of hope in the past six months they would be more inclined to take a punt in the transfer window rather prepare for the cost of his £5m pay-off, appointing another manager and the relegation that could follow.

With every interview/press conference bemoaning his paper-thin squad, lack of quality and calls for his players to take responsibility, It strikes me that he’s begging to sacked rather than have a relegation on his already tarnished CV. And despite all this, when they do pull the trigger I’ve no doubt ‘Arry, Merse and co will tell us he never had a chance, they weren’t his players and something about time, stability and Everton.
Danny, Lancaster (Feeling sorry for SUFC fans, they’ve always seemed like a good bunch)

 

Thank you Xabi
Between an intriguing article on Russia and the reaction to it, the African Cup of Nations and the muted reaction to some surprise FA Cup results (Congrats Sutton!) your morning story highlighted the impending retirement of the great Xabi Alonso. I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge what a talent he is.

Bar the Premier League, he has won everything in every league he’s played in. I loved everything about him while at Liverpool, the way he pinged passes around, his Hollywood passes that always came off and just the fact that he made everything look so easy and enjoyable. Istanbul was Istanbul, he was immense in 08/09 when perhaps the greatest Utd team in Premiership history (big statement I know) beat Liverpool to the title, was pivotal alongside Gerrard and Mascherano but for me it was the big games in 04/05. I still remember him dominating the Derby against Everton. He was phenomenal. For me though it was his performance against the Gunners at Anfield. There were three outstanding goals in that game, a thunderbastard from Mellor to win the game, a complete team goal from Vieria but for me it was Alonso’s goal. A beautiful finish into the top corner from outside the box assisted by Gerrard. Still makes me smile when watching it. So cheers Xabi for creating those wonderful memories.

Thanks,
Miguel Sanchez, LFC, Eire (Future portrait of an icon piece on Xabi Alonso! I’ll even write it for you!)

 

Which players should move positions?
A, hopefully, new topic to discuss that has always intrigued me is players playing out of position or I should say out of his best position. When a player is played out of position and he isn’t performing it seems so blatantly obvious to your (Jens) layman whereas your manager would accuse the reporter/fan of not understanding the game and we’d all be told he’s doing a ‘job’ for the team.

I am a Dundee United fan (don’t worry you’ll get a mainstream comparison in a second) and everyone would tell you how great Stuart Armstrong was playing for us in central midfield. Great engine, box-to-box, always made great use of the ball and intelligent with it. Dundee United fans were disappoint he went to Celtic when he looked good enough for the EPL if he continued to develop. As it went, he was played out wide for Celtic and looked terrible as he’s not a great dribbler and when faced with one-on-ones. This season he is reborn under Brenden Rodgers in central midfield and is scoring with regularity. Very similar to Aaron Ramsey’s situation at Arsenal. Don’t forgot how good he looked for Wales centrally/Becomes the worst player ever to play for Arsenal from out wide.

I therefore put it to the mailbox to suggest a player at their club currently playing out of position who would improve by moving. Another one I believe is how much better Liverpool and Firmino look when he’s playing centrally.
CulturedPeg

 

Clarification on loan players
Daniel MUFC Belfast this morning
alluded to the loan of Kingsly Comam being allowed to play against parent club Juventus a blunder. Actually it is not a blunder. UEFA has quite strict guidelines that stipulate that one club cannot influence another club on team selection (this includes loan players). Any such agreement in place between clubs that states “x player cannot play against us” is null and void in the context of an official UEFA match (ie Champions Leauge or Europa League).

This is quite different from the rule in the Premier League which states that clubs are not allowed to field players against their parent club unless it’s in a cup competition.

There was some coverage of this a few years ago when Courtois was allowed to play against Chelsea. I can’t remember if Chelsea kicked up a fuss or not, but Courtois played and Atletico Madrid won.

So, in short, it was not a blunder on Juventus’ behalf.

Hope this helps.
Benji

 

Let’s have some nutters
Apart from the happy Hammer enjoying ‘The Pony-tailed Punisher’s’ moment of genius, it wasn’t the most fun Mailbox to tread. Now, I know a lot of fans do love the politics surrounding football but for others, it’s now not much more than light entertainment. (Gone are my where I actually cried at losses) While pondering this I realised there are very few ‘characters’ left in the EPL. I mean types like Suarez, Barton, Balotelli, you know….nutters. Yes they’re immature brats but their on & off-field antics are a brilliant added dimension to my love of the sport. I’m no footballing nerd so can someone suggest a nutter from each current team or perhaps an EPL ‘nutter’ 11?? (Including past greats as Cantona, wise, Bellamy etc)

I look forward to seeing the results, if any, & I can go back to chuckling gently over my daily mailbox. Keep up the good work F365. The best site and the best visitors/comments by far!
Joe, Plastic ‘Pool fan in Cambs

 

Predicting Mediawatch
While (sadly) reading M***** S*****’s piece of “journalism” about foreign managers last night, one thought occurred to me:

“The boys and girl(s?) at F365 are going to have a field day with this one.”

And you didn’t disappoint.

Nice work kids!
Jay

 

Ed’s FA Cup thoughts
* What a night of upset victories! Sutton United! Lincoln City! Crystal Palace!

I make no apologies for the creakiness of that joke, not least because a couple of years ago I did a similar one about Liverpool and someone wrote in thinking I was being serious.

* Had Bolton Wanderers beaten their Premier League opponents, their game against Manchester City would have been screened by the BBC. However, since they lost, they have rightly decided not to show a run of the mill clash between two Premier League sides. Instead, they’ll be showing Manchester United’s 57th (I think) consecutive FA Cup game. It’s comforting, in this uncertain world, that some things remain constant.

* For Sam Allardyce, the next round is the perfect get-out: a game no one expects Palace to win, so he can play the reserves (all six of them), lose, and ‘focus on the Premier League’ like many of us suspect he wanted to do all along.

He appears to have inherited his predecessor’s knack for Captain Obvious statements, with his assertion that he needs his players to “play better” Must be something in the South London water.

Allardyce spoke before the game about his fear of losing his perfect record of never being relegated. Personally, I don’t care what his motivation is, as long as it’s motivating him to drag the club I support kicking and screaming away from the relegation battle. He does, however, need to do a lot of work to win over a lot of fans. As Iain MacIntosh tweeted during last night’s game, after Wanderers scored there was a lot of vocalised unrest amongst the home fans. Well, those who’d gone, it was a much lower crowd than a typical league game (only 7,000 or so in).

* This was not a vintage performance by any stretch of the imagination, but a win is a win, and there is some confidence to be taken from the performance: Loic Remy playing an hour; Christian Benteke ended his goal drought and now has double figures for the season; Andros Townsend not being completely dreadful; Mathieu Flamini making a tangible positive contribution.

* Next up for Palace is a home game against Everton, in the Andy ‘Andrew’ Johnson derby. The Toffees were absolutely magnificent against Manchester City, but have had their disappointing moments as well. I mean, they’ll still beat the Eagles, but there’s something to cling to.

* Lincoln City’s goal last night against Ipswich Town was magnificent, even if the Tractor Boys were Palace-esque in their ability to concede a goal from one of their own attacking free-kicks (this is how Burnley beat Palace). Most Palace fans will be cheering on the Imps in the next run, as they’re facing Brighton & Hove Albion.

It was a pleasure seeing the camera shots from the roof showing the Lincoln cathedral. I live about 30 miles southwest of Lincoln, and probably go there for a day out once a year. You really can see the cathedral from miles around.
Ed Quoththeraven

 

The magic of the Punt
In reply to ‘Andrew, Amsterdam’, who asked for the thoughts of other readers on the lack of FA cup coverage on F365 and in the media generally, I must admit that personally I am glad to see the back of the increasingly stale FA cup third round. However my main issue with his mail was the assertion that Cheeky Punt is a feature that ‘needs to be stopped sharpish’.

A mentally ill, alcoholic, gambling addict Degsy may be, but it still remains my favourite feature on this site, and an invaluable aide when selecting my phenomenally unsuccessful weekly coupon.
JT, CFC (Having said that, come on Plymouth)

 

Trying not to moan about a free site
Dear Sarah, Matt, John, Toby, Nick and all the rest of the F365 team (I haven’t missed anyone out I hope)

I’m very much on your side when it comes to moaning about the site and its content however I think Andrew, Amsterdam might have a point. I run my own (very small) business so understand that you need to cater to an audience rather than provide a public service so I thought the most constructive way to deal with this is simply tell you what I would read.

You’re quite right, I wouldn’t read a write up of the individual matches, but…I would read a summary of all the cup action if it were packed into one article; I’d read any opinion piece on the matches; I’d read an article on a relevant club (Lincoln/ Sutton/ Plymouth etc.) done in the style of an ‘Icons’ piece – could be a guest article farmed out to a local blogger, ‘Our correspondent in: Lincoln’ type thing. Basically the only thing I’m unlikely to read is a match report. Opinion pieces, reviews etc would generate plenty of clicks from me and I bet I’m not the only one. Maybe there is more of an audience than you think?
Matt, AFC

(Maybe. But the central point is that we have three members of staff – you missed out Dan, who is now crying – and we really do not have the resources to produce any more original content. Our freelancers get paid a pittance or not at all. If there are people out there who can write to a high standard about Lincoln and Sutton for free, then they are currently hiding from us – Ed)