Mails: This is ‘remarkable stuff’ from Man United…

We want to see this move on as much as you. So let’s have some mails about other things please. Mail theeditor@football365.com

 

Get a grip…
Man United and Mourinho have scored 33 goals since the start of the season proper, scoring four goals in a game six times. They’ve drawn just twice, once away to Liverpool and remain undefeated. Tonight made it nine points from nine in the return to the Champions League – three players have been involved in 10 goals, and we’re talking about how unentertaining United are?

Get a grip and crack a smile, this is remarkable stuff.
Adam Jump, Manchester

 

…There seems to be a common narrative about United this season.

Beat teams 4-0 while playing good attacking football? “No lol they are just poor wait till you meet a real team.”

Drop points in a tough away fixture after an exhausting international break? “You see, all the money in the world and they dare to come up with a game plan instead of putting all their attackers in the starting 11. Boring. Negative.” (Agreed at Mourinho should have set his team up differently, but it was more of the team’s failure to capitalise on the space on the counter rather than him saying not to attack, in my opinion)

Beat solid outfits like Leicester and Southampton? “Nah doesn’t count they are supposed to win given the money they have.”

No matter the result, the drove of football PFMs come out, fingers at the keyboard, just waiting. Conte literally ballsed up against a team that couldn’t even string two passes together (ask the raven if you don’t believe me) but no one cares.

It’s gotten really predictable and boring. Anyway since I got you all here, are you guys gonna get FM18? Looks good.
Kel, MUFC

 

…And there you all were saying Jose’s United were boring. Ha! How silly do you all look now…
Harry The Manc

 

Mkhi and Blind playing a game?
Anyone else wondering if Mkhitaryan and Blind are having a competition to see who can play worse without being taken off?
Daniel (Smalling has been Smalling) Cambridge

 

Mourinho the hypocrite
“And there is another situation, maybe I’m guilty of it: I never speak about injuries” – Mourinho.

And this is why I hate this c***. Even when he was manager of my team, Real Madrid, I just hated him. I hate what he stands for. I hate his style of football. I hate his grumpy stupid mug. I hate everything about the guy. Is he serious saying that about injuries? Really?? At the end of last season all he did was talk about missing players through injury. That’s what he alluded to when talking post-match tactics at the weekend. He had Ibra and Pogba against the Pool last year and did the exact same bloody tactic.

I’m so glad he’s struggling along looking for any excuse he can find. At Madrid all he did was try and use this is against them mentality like he did with Chelsea and inter. Worked with Chelsea cos they hadn’t won a league in decades. Worked with Inter because in Italy they love that kinda crap. Doesn’t work with a club as big as Madrid and the players had enough. It shouldn’t fly at United either. Not for a club of their size but hey after a few years of nothing PL wise, and many more to come, the fans will take anything.

Disgusting human being.
Alex (Real Madrid/Liverpool from Dublin)

 

Mourinho is just Blakey
I daresay that given I have not submitted to the hallowed mailbox for a few weeks I have been sorely missed!? With that in mind I should like to pose a question…

Given Der KloppMeister referred to his brand of high-press, full throttle style of football as heavy metal when referencing Wenger’s preference for quiet classical music how does the mailbox fraternity think Jose would refer to his?

A lullaby?

I increasingly visualise Jose as Blakey from On The Buses rolling up in his big red [$$$] bus and laughing maniacally whilst shouting “you can’t beat me, Scousers”. In terms of value it is frightening when you consider the ROI that the second most expensively assembled team (Citeh) ever are serving up versus the first (United). Could Paul Murphy remind us all once more about how entertaining United are. That had me in tears of laughter, that one did!
Gregory Whitehead, LFC

 

Spurs would take Mourinho-style trophy in a heartbeat
Plenty of straw-man arguments and ridiculous analogies coming out in the mailbox yesterday, but the cream of the crop was the casual sexism employed by a couple of contributors. Reducing women to nothing more than trophy wives, notches on bedposts and prostitutes is a real classy way to make your arguments. Top work.

Ah, right, so Real Madrid are better than Liverpool and Manchester United should be a lot better than Tottenham. I think it’s fair to point out that Spurs should therefore be a lot better than Levante, Real Betis and Valencia, given the money spent on transfers and wages for players and manager. It’s interesting that they were so happy with a draw against Real Madrid, when Betis won 1-0 at the Bernabeu, and the other games were 1-1 and 2-2 respectively.

We’re still seeing loads of people saying United fans are trying to minimise the achievements of Spurs and Pochettino – seriously, what achievements? I’m not trolling here, I genuinely want to know which achievements are being referred to. If you’re talking about competing with the richest clubs on a smaller budget then surely Marco Silva is far more deserving of such effusive praise, considering Watford’s operating budget, club stature and recent history.

I’m not buying into this notion that the journey is more important than the destination either. That is only really true if you don’t have a particular destination in mind, but every club in the Premier League is heading for the same destination. If you plan to go and visit the pyramid at Giza but you only make it as far as the airport, are you really going to be satisfied with having had a good journey? If you’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon and set out to do so but fail to make it all the way, are you really going to be satisfied with only having seen the 7th biggest ball of yarn in the world on the journey?

Another reason this doesn’t stand up is that no one really cares about the microcosms of a long-distance event. Does anyone remember which athlete ran the fastest single lap of the 10k at the last Olympics? Or which athlete had the best form in their stride? It’s about getting across the line first. The only time that it makes sense to get so caught up about individual games is if you’re only watching them in isolation, but that’s not what any of the competitions are about; they all have a prize and to say you’re not bothered whether you win it takes away the whole point of the game. People deride professional wrestling – which brands itself as entertainment, not sport – for this, do you really want football to go the same way, where storylines are manufactured for dramatic effect, instead of the right parties winning on merit? Obviously if you can win and win well, like Guardiola’s City are doing right now then it is doubly-satisfying, but if Pep has to grind out the last eight wins with iffy 1-0s then mark my words: he’ll be fine with that.

All these excuses are subtly lowering expectations and providing a nice safety net in case Spurs don’t win anything; never admitting that you’re going all out to win something means that you can play it off as “oh we didn’t really expect to win, we just wanted to have a good time”. The stupid thing is that Spurs have got an excellent squad and a very good manager, and they really could be winning the league or one of the cups, but this aura of style over substance is holding them back. Any fan would (at least secretly) take a Mourinho-style title win in a heartbeat, and if Spurs could have just admitted that then they probably would have already been Premier League champions before now.
Ted, Manchester

 

…To Dan G, THFC, I’m sure the Chelsea fans hated the journey of winning their first ever league title scoring record points and goals.

I’m sure Inter fans hated the journey of winning the treble.

I’m sure the real fans hated scoring over 100 goals and beating Barca to the league for the first time in a number of years.

You get my point. Absolute nonsense!

Jose started managing and having success with a Second Division Portuguese side União de Leiria, taking them to their highest ever league position before going on to win everything with Porto. Thus proving that he’s a winner and going on to manage Chelsea, inter real and Madrid.

So I can’t really understand how saying that Poch has been given a chance at a big club stands up as an argue when trying to say he’s better than Jose. If he was a winner he’d be at a big club already.
Jamie Shore

 

Poch v Jose….fight!
Okay, let’s try to clear up this Jose v Poch business. Firstly, if only there were some way those two could put together 11 players, send them out onto a football pitch and see who wins. Ah. Perhaps we could raincheck this conversation a couple weeks?

To Alex – the very best managers are both proactive and reactive. Pep never had to be reactive when at Barca because he (probably) had the best collection of players as well as the best individual player in history playing for him. At Bayern his record was mixed, at City his record is mixed. Suggesting a bit of reactive might not be bad. Similarly, Jose (and Benitez) have underperformed at the biggest clubs because their negative attitudes translate into the performances. This is why most fans respect Ferguson so much. He did both, depending on the situation and what he had in his squad. And won the lot.

To Dan G – I see what you’re trying for but no. Winning a trophy is both a journey and a destination. By definition if you’re winning the thing you’ve enjoyed yourself along the way – because you’ve largely won at the football. Which is enjoyable. A more appropriate analogy would be you setting off in the morning to get to work, Spurs road is absolutely lovely with vistas and butterflies but unfortunately you break down and get fired. Jose’s on the highway and you arrive on time, experience mo disappointment and get on with your day. Point being: it depends what your goal was. For most of us, it’s getting to work, but if you’re happy enough just enjoying the ride, fair play.

Finally I really think the insane absolute value of players these days distorts the fact that there really isn’t much between the very top level and top level athletes, and certainly not as much as the cost. Mood, injury and frankly luck can mean players with the same ability can perform differently. And further, cost 10x as much as each other. I.e., money isn’t everything. The only way to know if Pochettino would do better with an expensive team is to give him one. Similarly, the only way to know Jose wouldn’t achieve his usual trophy haul with a smaller budget would be to see him try it.
Ryan, Bermuda (Bring on the 28th!)

 

Begsy v Degsy
I haven’t seen reference to this since the weekend but I wondered how the battle of Begsy v Degsy went so I went back and had a look:

Begsy predicted 10 results (getting two correct):

Liverpool v Manchester United – Goals – Under 2.5 goals @ 9/10
Leicester v West Brom – Both teams to score – Yes @ 19/20

Both odds on…

Degsy made nine predictions and got four right:

Burnley v West Ham – Betting: Both teams to score at 39/40 (Sporting Bet)

Manchester City v Stoke City – Betting: Manchester City (-2) to win at 5/4 (Betfair)

Swansea v Huddersfield Town – Betting: Swansea to win at 5/4 (Marathon Bet)

Brighton v Everton – Betting: Half-time result – Draw at 21/20 (Betfred)

All but one odds against.

So, I guess that’s that little experiment ended then?
James, LFC, London