Mails: Sell Coutinho? We need players, not money

You know what to do. Read this lovely mailbox and then e-mail us at theeditor@football365.com

 

Liverpool need players, not cash
I understand the view that he’s great when he’s good but a bit one-trick when he’s not, but he’s having less and less not-good games, and he’s reducing the amount of cut-inside-and-shoot-for-a-worldie attempts too. He’s getting better, most importantly at pressing, passing and the slightly ineffable quality top midfielders have of knowing where your teammates will be before they get there. Apart from that, the number of chances created and taken by the players around him has made those worldie attempts a forgivable indulgence rather than a source of frustration, at least in my view. I am not in favour of a sale simply because his market value is potentially quite large.

That said, I do understand that ultimately every player has a price, and whilst I agree that Coutinho is almost certainly going to end up in La Liga within the next four years or so (barring an unlikely run of consecutive titles and/or several European triumphs by Liverpool), selling him purely for money’s sake makes no sense. It’s all about the context of the sale.

Liverpool look good right now, but like Klopp said, we look good in October, that’s all. It means nothing so far. Selling Coutinho for any price, even a ridiculous Pogba-like one, should only be an option for us if we’re in the Champion’s League next season and have stayed in the title race for at least a little bit past Christmas.

If we do that we’ll probably be able to attract a player of sufficient quality to replace Coutinho as a first-choice attacking midfielder, what with the clear signs of improvement, European nights and the chance to work with Klopp on offer. If we don’t hit that level, we need to keep Coutinho (assuming he doesn’t force a move) to have another crack next season.

In short, selling Coutinho because he had a good season won’t be good enough. We should only sell if the club has a good enough season too.
Matt, LFC

 

…You’ll probably get a few of these, but sell Coutinho? Oliver Dziggel, Geneva, Switzerland, are you mad? Liverpool bought him for £8.5m. How many £8.5m players do you have to go through before unearthing one as good as Coutinho? We are not a team who can either afford or attract the players when they have fully developed into £50m-plus signings.

Coutinho, at times, has been frustrating. He does have a tendency to shoot from range when the team is under performing. That is becoming less frequent now with a team that has movement and gives him options and, regardless, he should not be blamed for the failures of a team. He shoots because he has the ability to score screamers. He often has done to nick us the points when we haven’t quite deserved them.

I’m a football fan, not a money-ball fan. I want to see us keep our best players for as long as possible, not take joy in getting big fees for them. I couldn’t give a stuff about that side of the game. Losing Suarez for stupid money was still losing Suarez.

Whilst I’m on a rant, a few other quick observations:

* Could Arsenal fans stop going on about their injured defenders in the Liverpool game. Liverpool only had two of their starting back four available for that game too.

* Ed Quoth the Raven – the problem with Benteke teams is you have to play to his strengths and that means one-dimensional football. Still hard to stop but gives the opposition the defensive game plan in advance.

* Can people stop comparing 2016/17 Liverpool with 2013/14 Liverpool. It’s lazy and pretty wide of the mark.
Saminho (no Halloween puns? Boo)

 

…Can I remind Oliver what happened the last time we sold a player for Suarez-esque money? (It was Suarez). How well did that work out? How much did that benefit the team? Why on earth would we sell a player who is making the team tick when we have absolutely no financial imperative to do so? We made a profit in the last window, so it’s not like we’re desperate for the money. We need to be doing the exact opposite of this. We need to be fighting clubs like Barca and Real to keep hold of our top stars. Man United proved with De Gea that you it is possible to hold onto your top players, even if they have their head turned.

As for criticising Coutinho and his tendency to drift out of games or shoot from wide, can we remember he is 24 years old! He is nowhere near his peak and can learn under Klopp and become and even better player.

As for this mythical playmaker that we sign, it’s that easy is it? just sign some star playmaker? Who is this player? Why does he want to come to Liverpool? If he is an upgrade on Coutinho, why are Barcelona not signing him instead? And how attractive is it for a player to sign for a club who has just sold one of their stars?

We have done with Coutinho what we did with Suarez. Taken a punt on a player, got him for cheap and allowed him to develop into a star player. If we sell him now, we are right back to where we started. We must keep him at all costs and convince him that he can win trophies at Liverpool. If he puts his foot down and demands to leave, fine, we sell him then. But selling him just because we’d get a few quid for him would be madness.
Mike, LFC, Dubai

 

…What is going on with some LFC fans at the moment? Oliver in this morning’s mailbox is one of a fair few I have heard saying that we should let Coutinho go at the end of this season provided we get a solid transfer fee. The theory goes that Klopp will replace him with a younger, improved model, as if that is what always happens when Klopp or LFC replace players. As John Henry once famously said, “What are they smoking?”.

The little magician has been an absolute joy to watch this season, probably our best player. It is early days yet, but he appears to have finally nailed the three most important skills he has previously been called out on. The lad has maintained a consistent high performance level, contributed regular goals and added more tackles and pressing. In doing so he is now looking the kind of true match winner that all good teams need to make them great.

Say LFC get £75m selling him, which player do these muppets think we are going to buy with the cash that will raise our current level? The best of the top-priced players won’t want to come when you are selling the players they want to line up with. If they are dreaming of us shopping for 2-3 unpolished diamonds then I would argue we have the cash to compete for them already.

More important however is the simple fact that if you want to win titles you don’t regularly sell your best players. Last two times we have sold a world-class player of the back of their best season for us were Alonso and Suarez, the resultant drops were 2nd to 7th for Xabi and 2nd to 6th for Luis. We genuinely have some momentum and quality at the moment, why are people already planning how to spoil it?
Simon (it’ll never be our year if we keep selling worldies), Liverpool

 

Should Henrikh be sent back to Germany…for a week?
This Henrikh Mkhitaryan case has got me thinking – there are certain players that seem to be wasting their careers and their peak years at certain clubs.

I wonder if there’s a way of preventing clubs from freezing players out. I don’t really like the way Debuchy is being treated at Arsenal for example.

Is there not a way of forcing Premier League clubs to loan out players to other international leagues if they are not being considered for that weekend’s fixtures?

This temp player model could see the likes of Debuchy being loaned out to a French club for that weekend or Mkhitaryan return to Germany for a week. The rule is you only get the player for that week and you have to cover that week’s wages.

Maybe to up the excitement these temp signings aren’t revealed until the actual match day in the stadium in the way wrestlers are announced in a Royal Rumble.

I concede there are probably a whole bunch of issues with this idea – I just can’t stand to see talent wasted such as with Mkhitaryan and Debuchy. People forget what a crucial role he played in defending the FA Cup a couple of years ago.

And for the critics – don’t just shoot down the idea – suggest some solutions of your own.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

 

United have winners, Jose
So, Jose has no winners in his current squad? Let’s have a look at what the current squad have won in their careers. I’m ignoring the FA Cup as it was won last season so most of the squad would have a medal from that.

De Gea: Premier League, Europa League, Super Cup.
Valencia: Premier League.
Smalling: Premier League.
Blind: Eredivisie.
Pogba: Serie A.
Mata: Champions League.
Zlatan: Five different league titles, Super Cup, Club Word Cup.

Now let’s look at players who have found playing time hard to come by (in the case of one impossible to come by) under Jose:

Carrick: Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup.
Rooney: Premier League, Champions League, League Cup, Club World Cup.
Schweinsteiger: World Cup, Bundesliga, Champions League, Club World Cup.

And on top of that there are various different cup competitions in various countries.

Doesn’t quite stand up to scrutiny does it? Granted it may not be quite as an illustrious list as previous United squads, but it’s not like we have no winners in the squad. Just need to get them actually winning some games.
Chris (insert witty comment here) MUFC

 

Pulis is just a cheap Jose
Was going through Winners and Losers and noticed the tweet from the official West Brom handle. F365 calls it being Pulised.

However, it reminded me of another manager keen to promote such a tactic of three hard-tackling, positionally disciplined Central Midfielders. Midfielders whose sole job was to either win the ball in the final third or form a screen in front of the defense. This manager, who called it ‘The Trivote’, insisted on playing it at all his clubs, even if it meant leaving out or re-positioning great players (such as Kaka and Ozil), or even if he didn’t have the right players for it.

For Evans, Brunt and Fletcher, read Alonso, Diarra and Khedira (Ramos has also filled in).
For Tony Pulis, read Jose Mourinho.

Jose Mourinho, the rich man’s Tony Pulis.
Girish, AFC, Chennai

 

Let them eat cake…
OK, I’ll bite…Micki Attridge, I call BS…your argument holds no water and I’l prove it to you. First of all, comparing managers before Sir Alex and managers after him is an exercise in futility. Yes, before the mighty Sir Alex, United were a mid-table team but he came in and declared his intention of knocking Liverpool off their f@cking perch, which he did. Now, after upgrading Man United to champions and a team fighting for titles, you want to tell me that after Sir Alex we should all be content with United returning to a mid-table team? Coz that’s what they were before Sir Alex? That’s preposterous!

Man United is a huge club with a huge fanbase and it’s actually the third-richest club on the face of the planet. We used to be number one but that was during Sir Alex Ferguson’s days. So you’re telling us that United should now be content with being yet another run-of-the-mill mid-table team with limited finances and struggling on the pitch? That’s bullsh!t…you’re just like the clueless French ruler who once told hungry people asking for bread to eat cake.
Keg Baridi, Nairobi, Kenya

 

Poogs and ‘trying to be too clever’
My gf was away this weekend, so I had a bit of Saturday afternoon tele time to myself to watch the football pundits watching football. I watched the BT version and there were a few things which, truth be told, p****d me off and F365 today has reignited those feelings.

Firstly, Savage. I’m not his biggest fan, however, grumpy Jon (More Mou, More Problems), NUFC, Guangzhou, China would have been apoplectic if he’d caught the show. Rather than referring to Mark Pougatch as ‘Mark’ he seems to be calling him ‘Poogs’. EH? I really didn’t get this. Nobody else called him that. I doubt nobody else ever has, but why shorten his name? It’s Mark.

The other thing, and relating to Johnny Nic’s article this morning, the aforementioned Sav/Vag couldn’t fathom City’s defensive layout, looking utterly perplexed (this was in the first five minutes when presumably City hadn’t lost the ball). Knappers (Harry Redknapp to you and me) chipped in, with no irony, “if you don’t get it Sav, how can those players?” before following up with “sometimes managers are just trying to be too clever” with the clear insinuation that Guards (Pep Guardiola) was being too clever and that this was likely to completely fail in the face of the simplicity of Pulls (Tony Pulis). By the end of the match, both were absolutely creaming themselves over City, but that two-minute period really hacked my gusset.

It was almost as though they had forgotten that these players work with Pep day in/day out, have a strategy to play to and are learning how to play it in every match. And there was me thinking that ex-pros were employed because they know how football works?! Gah.
Rob, London

 

The Pardew Excuse Index
In response to Ed from this morning’s mailbox, I believe you’ll find “the referee gave Liverpool a penalty last season” under article 27C of the Pardew Excuse Index. It’s one of the final entries in the Referees sub-section, preceding a particularly entertaining section on Grass.

Any Palace fans looking for some Saturday afternoon fun (because Alan won’t provide you much) should check out the Excuse Generator at http://www.alanpardewsrandomexcusegenerator.com/

As happened with those silly Newcastle fans, you should expect to be reminded that you’re lucky to have Alan and really, you couldn’t expect to get anyone in who could do a better job.

I believe there is a now-disused protest website that Palace fans could find useful. Their banners were even red and blue, which is handy.
Greg (The grass was too green), NUFC

 

Pards still has his fan club…
Why must you keep putting me in the unenviable position of defending Alan Pardew?!

Ed has his pitchfork out again after we lost to Liverpool, a team sitting joint top of the league, and now apparently we’re f**ked. I think the last time Ed had us in this position and needing to get rid of Pardew was after the defeat to Tottenham. We then went unbeaten in the league until the visit of West Ham, nearly two months later. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand the dislike people have about Pardew, I’m personally not too bothered about him, but this shouldn’t be allowed to cloud judgement.

Winners and Losers has Palace bottom of a table since Jurgen Klopp took over, how disappointing, I wonder how we fare in a table of matches played between 10 and 13 degrees Celsius or in a table of matches where the other team wore less than 15% yellow on their socks. There is of course one table that matters and here is how we have fared under Pardew:

2014/15 – We finished 10th, Pardew took us from 18th.
2015/16 – We finished 15th. Well that is obviously worse. Hold on though, we also reached the FA Cup Final. Last time we did that? 26 years ago.
2016/17 – We’re currently 12th.

I don’t mind fair and constructive criticism but I get pretty bored of the fans that wait for some negative results to start with the same old spiel again. Yes, Dwight Gayle and Glenn Murray are scoring goals in the Championship. Neither were quite good enough for us in the Premier League, Gayle in particular struggles when playing as a lone striker. Selling him contributed to strengthening the rest of the squad. I doubt we would get more than an out of date Easter Egg for Frazier Campbell. And I think Townsend was actually dropped because he stated he preferred to play on the right, but Pardew preferred Wilf for the Liverpool game.

Look, our recent managers include Tony Pulis, Ian Holloway and Neil Warnock. Warnock was in charge as recently as 2014. So maybe I afford Pardew a little more patience than I should but is he really that bad? He has streaks of results, we had an unbeaten streak in September and now a losing streak in October. I just find it odd that fans that must remember miserable cold nights in administration, with players being sold from under us or not even being paid and the team running on fumes, chuck their toys out of the pram so quickly.
Ant, CPFC

 

F365 isn’t a fanzine
Dave and Ian (who don’t sound like the most dynamic pairing) have both wrote in complaining about the decision to primarily cover Arsenal this weekend.

I think this is a bit unreasonable for two reasons. Firstly, the website is free and most of us log onto it everyday – pretty good value and the f365 guys have plenty of goodwill to cover the matches they see fit.

Secondly, there is A LOT of football content out there and if I want to read stuff about the Liverpool game it’s very easy to do so on other sites (while waiting eagerly for W&L and Mediawatch).

So I don’t sound like too much of a suck up, one area that f365 could improve on is the suggested pages that pop up on the advertising bots. Bearing in mind f365’s stance on how women are portrayed in the press, it is a little disconcerting to see, on the f365 site today, a link to a story in the Star about a woman who ‘shocks her guests’ by doing something ‘explicit’ with a bottle.

I realise f365 don’t pick these stories but advertising is a key source of revenue and the ads are associated with the site so I think it is something f365 needs to own?

It’s also on my work computer and the adverts aren’t the best look when someone drops by my desk.
Adam, London, LFC (there’s no point lying about it, no one drops by my desk)

 

…Just a quick post guys to say keep up the good work. This complaining of people that you focused on the Arsenal-Sunderland game is ridiculous. I’m a Liverpool fan and obviously appreciate your coverage and subsequent articles on my team, but I’m not going to get upset at you for picking a different team. I don’t see Watford or Burnley fans giving out when they aren’t covered. Your website is what’s good about football. Don’t change.
Miguel Sanchez, LFC, Eire (Robbie Fowler as your next hero piece?)

 

Bias? It would make no sense…
I can’t quite fathom what these readers think the point would be in F365 being biased? It’s not like the league is decided by an election and any column inches devoted to a club is going to influence votes, and even if that were the case Arsenal would win anyway because of their ability to mobilise their Twitter followers.

Not everything to do with football is a competition, your club hasn’t lost any more points by not being featured on F365’s homepage and I don’t think there are going to be tonnes of Spurs fans defecting because this way they’d get more precious content on a Monday morning.

I’m an Arsenal fan (so obviously biased) but have read articles on Mourinho, Winners and Losers, Conte, Everton and the always delightful Mediawatch today, and just the one devoted to Arsenal. Maybe just read all the other pieces available, you might actually enjoy them.

Although if you’re emailing in to complain about bias to a football website then you probably find it difficult to enjoy anything at all.
Chris