Did anyone actually win between Liverpool and Spurs?

Matt Stead

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

 

A matter of time
How long before Mourinho claims that Chelsea’s title win is down to him?
Adonis Stevenson, AFC

 

Fabregas should have started
It was a game which I felt Chelsea got disheartened by that Roberto Carlos-esque wonderkick by Brady. After that goal Chelsea seemed to stop playing freely and was making too many mistakes especially in defence. Last time I sent a mail regarding the high crosses which were troubling Chelsea defense and it resurfaced again today. The Ginger Mourinho surely took notice of it.

This was a game where Fabregas should have started. Burnley was always going to be tight and let us keep the ball. We needed that extra quality in midfield to thread those cescy passes. Matic was all over the place and a defensive midfielder was a luxury.

I hope this is just a blip and Chelsea will be in full flow against Swansea for my first ever match going in Stamford Bridge.
Sreekanth, Germany

 

Timekeeping
I’ll admit that this is unlikely to be the biggest talking point of the weekend but I wondered if anyone else noticed this in the Burnley vs Chelsea match.

The referee, Kevin Friend, had decided there would be 4 minutes of injury time. Burnley were understandably happy with the score at 1-1 and were taking their time over things. Twice in injury time, Friend held up his arms to indicate that he had stopped the watch to show the Burnley players that their time wasting was pointless but then after precisely 94 minutes and 1 second he blew for full time.

We could draw a number of conclusions from this, some about the referee that are not very polite, but I’ll stick to the simple one, time wasting is definitely worthwhile.
Josh, LFC

 

Liverpool are not winners, says Liverpool fan
I’m writing this in anticipation of Liverpool being listed as Winners in your usual Winners & Losers column, a concept I’m having difficulty with. Its been well documented how Liverpool perform against the bigger clubs, and then underperform against the relegation fighters, as typified by our results from Man City on December 28th to Saturday’s result against Spurs. This of course, has been the typical Liverpool season in the past 6-7 years.

What I’m querying is – why should they be lauded as ‘Winners’ on any weekend for doing the same thing over and over? Arsenal have been perennial failures for the past 12 years, and I certainly don’t class them as ‘Winners’, so why should Liverpool? Put a consistent runs of wins together for a change and maybe then the issue can be revisited, but until this happens, they’re not doing anything that hasn’t been done year in, year out by previous Liverpool teams.

And yes, I am a Liverpool fan. Albeit a disgruntled one
Conor Murphy
Ireland

 

Tottenham need tactical flexibility
Firstly, congratulations to Liverpool for a well-deserved victory but Tottenham played into their hands. As highlighted in 16 conclusions, this was a game and performance that again highlighted the one dimensional nature and the key deficiencies of this Spurs team and the outcome was sadly quite predictable.

As a Spurs fan I have nothing but admiration and unwavering support for Pochettino. He has taken us to a new level and to be even mentioned as title challengers still feels slightly surreal given where we have been for most of my lifetime. However, to move up a level and be real title challengers we need more tactical flexibility.

The team Pochettino has built only seems to know how to play one way and our approach is to go toe to toe with every opponent and try to impose ourselves in order to dominate the game. This approach sees us play a very high defensive line and always look to retain and dominate possession by playing out from the back. Against weaker sides and at home against the better sides where even they take a slightly more defensive approach we can do this, the problem comes away from home.

Better sides at home also try to impose themselves and dominate resulting in them pressing and hounding us. This is a recipe for disaster when you play a high line and always look to play out from the back as if you lose the ball the opponent is either close to goal or has lots of space to run into.

The game at Liverpool was a case in point. No doubt the individual errors contributed to the goals, but they did so in part because the high line meant those mistakes immediately resulted in Liverpool having almost a clear run on goal. Equivalent mistakes with a different set up may not have been as costly as with more men covering or a deeper line, when Liverpool won the ball it may not have immediately led to a very presentable chance to score.

The tactical flexibility shown by great managers like Ferguson and Mourinho in the big games is what is needed to take Spurs to the next level. Setting up the team differently to negate the opponent and find a different way to grind out results and win without dominating possession. Learn how to do that and Spurs can become real title challengers.
Steve B, THFC, Chicago

 

Weekend summary
*Sunderland aren’t exactly back to square one, but they’re certainly no farther than square two. The solid defense against Spurs and Crystal Palace was nowhere to be found against Southampton, with both John O’Shea and Lamine Koné considerably short of standard. Adnan Januzaj started well, but in adversity went back to falling down and complaining about it. Darron Gibson did little in his first start. The most damning thing one can say is that they missed Jack Rodwell.

*Lots of good news for the Saints, though. Back in his best position for the first time in ages, Dusan Tadic was an excellent number ten. He has to play there in the cup final. Manolo Gabbiadini is getting himself into excellent positions, and although he won’t finish all his chances, he’s shown enough to suggest he’s a reliable threat. If Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling play as scrappily as they did against Watford, they’re in for some very big headaches.

*West Ham-West Brom was all you could hope for, a lovely little donnybrook. Disputed goals, desperate defending, players all over the floor without serious injuries, a broken linesman’s flag, a stoppage-time equalizer, and a large dose of utter chaos. Nacer Chadli pulled off a brilliant double, nutmegging a defender with the right foot then scoring through the keeper’s legs with the left. Manuel Lanzini countered with a double of his own: an outside-the-box right-footed smash off the crossbar leading to one goal, and an outside-the-box left-footed smash that went directly in for a second. Winston Reid got away with a yellow for one of the most cold-blooded challenges since Richard III, and the game ended quite appropriately with Slaven Bilic trying to destroy a microphone. It’s the greatest league in the world.

*You can’t accuse Sam Allardyce of playing for a point at Stoke City. After a fairly passive first half, Palace came out aggressively, and the winning goal for the Potters came on a semi-counterattack. First impressions say Luka Milivojevic is a tidy passer, but short of the destroyer Palace need. And stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Andros Townsend repeatedly threatened to do something marvelous but never did. Lee Grant was pretty much untested, and Stoke look ready to claim another ninth-place trophy.

*As 0-0’s go, Middlesbrough-Everton was a minor classic. Adama Traoré dribbled by everybody in the stadium at least three times, Victor Valdés and Joel Robles sparkled in goal, Tom Davies continued to look very impressive indeed, and Mike Dean came out of his shell to signal two special Deanvantages. Boro grind out more single points than the Calgary Stampeders, and I still pick them to stay up.

*Going into the match at Anfield, Christian Eriksen had averaged 18.8 successful forward passes per game. Against Liverpool he completed three.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA

 

Lovely stat
It is now an entire Lord Of The Rings trilogy and two episodes of Corrie since Leicester scored in the league.

It may be time to worry.
John, Ennis

 

More Leicester
Well that was f#$king depressing. Same old sh*t, different week. I’ve watched enough of us (unfortunately) and our rivals recently to say with confidence that we are the worst side in the division. How on earth has this happened? And can Claudio save us? At this point it’s hard to imagine he can, but sacking him would be like throwing your beloved family pet in the canal because it took a sh*t in your living room.

The chorus of discontent is growing louder and the abyss is getting ever closer. I’m straining every sinew to keep myself from uttering those dreaded words but plenty of others are way past it already.

Football really can be a cruel game and I hate that it can make me feel like this. Maybe everything will be fine tomorrow. Except it won’t because every media outlet will be chucking in their 10 pence worth and will be ripping us to shreds. We thoroughly deserve it too.
Jamie, LCFC

 

Just about this time last year, the mailbox was flooded and filled with emails along the general lines of “it can’t happen, can it?”.

This was on the back of Leicester’s unlikely march to the summit of the league and subsequently winning it.

12 months later and we are thinking the same thing, “it can’t happen, can it?”.

In a nutshell, Leicester are f***ked. One point above the bottom three, Hull playing with momentum, 5 defeats on the spin, goals dried up, manager with no apparent plan on how to fix it, players who in my opinion have massively let the manager down, poor recruitment in the summer and winter to avoid this happening (forget Kante, the biggest loss this summer was Steve Walsh the scout), it’s all adding up to one massive cluster*ck.

I can’t see them getting out of this. It would be sad to see them go straight down after last year’s heroics, but such is the position they find themselves in.

In Ireland this often happens in the All Ireland GAA Championship. Team wins, team celebrates for 6 months, unsurprisingly team not near winning the following year, team learns and comes back stronger. Big difference is that there is no relegation.

If Leicester go down, you would fear for them bouncing back. You could see plenty of players leaving, and the manager.

If I had to pick 3 to go down, it would be Leicester, Palace and Sunderland.

Ultimately though I think that Leicester are exactly where they should be, last year was the anomaly, not this one.
DC, BAC

ps Delighted for Robbie Brady.

 

A corner tactic
So I’ve had a random thought for a while about an alternative approach to defending corners. I am hoping someone else can point out why my batsh*t mental idea is actually batsh*t mental.

At the moment people favour one of two systems; zonal marking or man to man. Obviously some managers mix up a flavour of the two but the issues are always the same; attacking players pack together to make proper marking hard and then organise their runs so that the defending players can’t keep track. The other main issue that the attack players get a run on it and get a higher leap as a result.

So how about this as an alternative – have a couple of players to mark the near post (because 90% of corners go here anyway if you watch Liverpool) but have pretty much every other defender line up on the goal line. When the ball comes in the players should be able to read the flight and the relevant few can run and attack the ball whilst the others can either continue to cover the goal line or move out to mark people that might get second balls from flick ons etc.

This tactic could also free up the goalkeeper to only worry about one side of the goal, as he does for free kicks. The keeper starts off central and then once the ball comes in the keeper either shouts and claims it or backs onto his line, lets the defenders run forward to deal with it but half his goal line is protected by 2/3 players thus meaning he has less space to worry about.

Why won’t it work? Is it a co-ordination issue?
Minty, LFC

 

How to deal with China
After reading how Axel Witsel recently turned down a move for Juventus for a big money move to China and how Chinese clubs are set to offer young English talent £800,000 a week, Is it time for UEFA to intervene? While taking players aged 30 plus is not a major issue surely the threat of young players being taken is a concern.

Here’s an idea: How about UEFA bring in a rule that if you are European and do not play in a European League you cannot be considered for selection by your national side? This will suit older players who will probably have retired from international football. Younger players who always dream of playing for their country will have to seriously consider the big money move as they know they will fear missing out on playing in a European championship or World Cup while also facing the anger of their respective nation as they will have effectively announced their international retirement while in their prime.

It is similar to New Zealand Rugby’s Policy in not selecting players for the national team who play overseas.

Is it fair on the players? Probably not
Is it good for the fans and the clubs? Yes
Is it good for UEFA? Yes
Is it good for China? No
But what about European players in the MLS? Yes, a handful of these maybe affected but if they were any good they would be playing in Europe.

Cormac
Dubai, THFC

 

Hart v Bravo
I’ve been watching with interest the struggles of Claudio Bravo at Manchester City and the way in which it has been portrayed in the media. I would not begin to argue that Bravo has not struggled – he absolutely has for a variety of reasons no doubt but the press seem incapable of separating two decisions. Even the normally excellent Daniel Taylor at the Guardian has penned a piece arguing for Joe Hart’s inclusion in Guardiola’s thinking next season despite the fact he’s hardly been excellent in Torino.

The point I’d like to make ahead of the Man City game is this – there are two very distinct decisions that Pep had to make that are related, but not the same. Decision 1 : is Joe Hart good enough for Guardiola’s vision of Manchester City? Given that Hart, personality aside, has been firmly in the “good, not great” bracket for 4 – 5 years, you’d have to say no. He has not shown either consistency or elite level ability that would suggest that he is one of the best 5 – 7 goal keepers in the world and has easily been behind De Gea, Courtois, Lloris and probably Petr Cech in England alone.

Given that Guardiola is probably aiming to make City an elite level club, he presumably thought that he cannot carry a non-elite player in a critical position. Add to the fact that Joe Hart is probably not suited to being a ball playing goal-keeper and boom – simple, and correct decision. End of Story for the Joe Hart debate.

Decision 2 : “who to replace him with”. On one view, he has clearly got this wrong – Bravo has failed to deliver on what was expected of him and been both poor at the basics and seemingly failed to adapt to the English league. I think this is fairly clear cut, however, this is hind-sight. On the face of it, bringing one of, if not the best ball playing goal-keepers in the world with experience at the highest level for the best team in the world during the least 5 years seems a no-brainer.

Bravo has won multiple titles as captain of his national country, been named in La Liga team of the seaon, won the league, champions league and other domestic and international cup competitions. While it may not have worked out so far, the guy has played Seventeen league games for City. SEVENTEEN. It is absolutely crazy to write him off by looking at a sample of less than 4% of the league games he has played in his career.

Anyhow, the point is this. Joe Hart is a good goalkeeper who, when playing to his maximum, is probably not good enough for an elite level club and Guardiola was right to move him on. Bravo is an elite level goal-keeper who is playing below his maximum and, at the moment, it looks like Guardiola replaced Hart with the wrong player, albeit on a very small sample size of evidence.

That said, Hart is English and beats his chest occasionally, so Guardiola must be a fraud for making a logical, rather than emotional decision, right?

Best,
Lee

 

Why won’t Match of the Day step up?
I’ll start this by saying I enjoy Match of the Day and think the quality of punditry has improved quite a bit recently- however one section this game left me fairly pissed off.

After the ‘controversial’ West Ham vs. West Brom Slaven Bilic gave a post match interview claiming the officiating was ‘awful’ and Michael Oliver was ‘very very bad.’ Match of the Day when assessing these decisions seemed to show that Oliver and his team got them mostly right. Yet rather than call out Bilic for his comments the general consensus was that they felt sorry for Bilic.

Why is our media so loath to criticise or challenge managers when they make demonstrably wrong statements? Are they worried about offending them and getting banned? Are they too close to the managers, exchanging info and access for deferential coverage?

One of the best things about F365 is it’s willingness to be frank- if Mourinho, Wenger or even Dyche are talking bollocks, you’ll say it’s bollocks. I just wish some of the more ‘mainstream’ sports media would step up and take the same approach.
Charlie H

ps- that Jonny Howson goal on Saturday was a bit special wasn’t it? Check it out if you haven’t already.

 

Two thoughts
What a phenomenal set of goals this month. Really happy Giroud won too. Despite the inevitable luck involved, it was unlike any goal I have ever seen. Giroud is actually one of my favourite players. Seems reasonably down to earth and when his confidence is high one of the most natural goal scorers of the last decade. Can’t help but feel in the days of 4-4-2 in the 90s where strikers at top teams generally had a partner, he would have been universally regarded as a premier league great.

It’s time you either started lavishing praise on Paul Clement in the same way you have been Silva or started apologising profusely to the entire Swansea team. For understandable reasons regarding certain moron sections of the media you were hesitant to criticise Bob Bradley, adamant that the Swansea side, particularly the defence, was a championship team and Bradley didn’t stand a chance. I think both of those assumptions have proved to be incorrect. Now either Clement is performing miracles or you were lying about the standard of players. Hopefully Winners and Losers will address this…
Howard.