Mails: Your favourite opposition goal?

Daniel Storey

Keep those Friday mails coming to theeditor@football365.com…

 

This title race really could be brilliant
This season is shaping up to be potentially the best we’ve had in years. Sir Alex Ferguson said there are 5 contenders for the title, I think there are six (he forgot Chelsea).

No one is clear favourite. Manchester City are favourite but there’s something flimsy about them. Pep hasn’t managed to get rid of that vulnerability yet. They’re like a beautiful car that a badly maintained road full of potholes will break.

Liverpool? Yes, sure – Klopp has been great so far. But there again, when it comes to the crunch, would you fancy them in a death fight against United or Chelsea?

Arsenal – very similar to Liverpool. Beautiful team, doesn’t need much to be derailed. Plus we’ve had proof that despite the much=vaunted coverage in all positions, they still depend on Cazorla and if he’s injured, they’ll struggle.

Spurs – I agree with one mailboxer who said that they rely too much on the fitness and not enough on the creative playmaking. Can a team of athletes win the Premier League? Possibly.

Chelsea – the dark horses. Have had some horrible games but maybe that was just Conte bedding in. When their main men are on form, they look the best in the league.

Man Utd – really hard to read. So much depends on Mourinho rather than the players. It seems that Mourinho can set up his team to win, and they respond, but half the time either he doesn’t seem to be arsed, or there’s some other problem. This is not the early-Chelsea Mourinho at work here. This one has lost something. The flame occasionally flickers but seems to be out sometimes.

In any case, we have a great collection of very different, top-profile managers and we should enjoy that. In fact, this year, the managers are more exciting than the players!
Mike, Auckland Blue, CFC

 

Your weekly ‘games of the week’ mail
Sunderland – Arsenal: A real test for Arsenal, for if ever a game screamed crazy surprise result, this is it. The Gunners are expected to win convincingly, but they haven’t been sharp in the league lately, and the Black Cats have made things hard for them in recent meetings. Granit Xhaka will be missing, and if Santi Cazorla is missing as well, Sunderland might be hard to break down. David Moyes can only dream of an Adama Traoré, but Wahbi Khazri and maybe Duncan Watmore can cause the visitors some problems on the counterattack. I guessed right last week on Burnley-Everton, so I’ll guess again and say this’ll be a tight game.

Stat: Arsenal lead the league in shot conversion percentage, at 14.6%. Sunderland are last, at 7.0%.

Watford – Hull City: More bad news for Hull, with Robert Snodgrass now out for a month. But a switch to 3-5-2 produced a win in the EFL Cup against Bristol City, and that looks like the call here. The Tigers sat back early at home to Stoke and were punished, so all the more reason to be aggressive against Watford’s shaky defense, particularly left-sided center-half Miguel Britos. Isaac Success, the Hornets’ best winger, is injured, so Walter Mazzarri may stay with his 3-5-2 as well. But I’d like to see him try 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 with Odion Ighalo playing from the left, which could pin back Ahmed Elmohamady and put Harry Maguire under the cosh.

Stat: Odion Ighalo has taken the most shots for Watford. José Holebas, a defender/wingback, is second.

Crystal Palace – Liverpool: Last year Crystal Palace won at Anfield, and only lost to a calamitous keeper error and a stoppage-time penalty at Selhurst Park. The world is waiting for the matchup between Wilfried Zaha and James Milner, but if the Reds are at their best, Zaha won’t have the opportunities. Palace haven’t overused the long ball to Christian Benteke, but might change their mind to avoid the Liverpool press. If so, the real question will be how the team will set up to receive second balls while staying solid in midfield. Also, Palace are pressing more now than in the past – they might very well go toe to toe early on.

Stat (look away, Ed): Christian Benteke has played 624 minutes and recorded one tackle.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA

 

RIP Vine
With the demise of Vine, I’ve been thinking about what I’ll do for quick goals catch ups when I’m out. This led to thinking about clips of football that have resonated.

My two that stand out:
* Henry smashing that goal in aagains Man City at Highbury from the angle of the box. The touch to set the shot and then the rocket to the top corner. My memory is the slow-motion replay which showed the ball completing only 1 full revolution on its journey…the first time I’d seen that.

* Casillas at the 2010 World Cup. I think it was a group stage game and he’d gotten away with something that didn’t end up in a goal but very nearly did. He puffed his cheeks out and then blew air out as you do when you’re relieved…but the walls of his cheeks wobbled in a really weird way. Spent much of the last 6 years trying to work out the biomechanics of that clip.

Anyone got specific football vines that keep looping in their heads?
Rich (definitely sounded less crazy in my head), AFC, London

 

How to get your mails published (this is actually pretty funny)
It’s been six years since a friend introduced me to this site, my life has never been the same, and it has remained the most stable aspect of my daily routine. It creates additional intrigue and anticipation to football, since you know any weird action during a match ( eg the Gerrard slip) will be shredded to pieces in the mailbox. You just can’t wait for the match to end so you can read the mailbox, 16 conclusions, or some really weird J. Nicholson article (the mailbox is more interesting than some actual football). This brings me to the topic, “how do you get your mail published?”. I wish to help other readers who are desperate to get a mail published the following tips:

* Write on the trending topic in the previous mailbox. It doesn’t matter how interesting your write up is, if u put it in on a day that the mailbox is in Rooney mood, please you’d have to check the waste bin.
* reply to a previous controversial mail. Whenever you see a weird provocative mail (a Liverpool fan writing about Utd, or arsenal about spurs), quickly reply and rant about how wrong the previous mail is.
* sprinkle your post with some stats from whoscored.com or some other weird stat.
* don’t write too plain. A sarcastic statement here and there would do.
* use some ugly words with asterisk here and there
* when there is a trend involving videos (own goal, best overhead kick, worst goal etc). Quickly get to youtube and get some weird videos and rant about how the site could think another video is more righteous than yours.
* whenever the sites write one of those articles like… “top 10 PL players whose spouse are pink”. Write in belating the site for excluding a certain foreigner and how you think the foreigner should top the list.
* write to attack some of the site editor’s article with some stupid accusations.
* write to say how you love some of the icons in the icon series and that you would buy the series book for your ailing father once it’s out.
* the site is obsessed with anything PFM. So depending on your choice. Write a belating article on any PFM and you are good to go.
* do not write a long mail unless your name contains an “Ed”
* begin your mail with “long time reader, first time writer ”
* the easiest time to get your mail published is during the international break, and before an England match.
* write an emotional mail on a “slow news day”, about how the site saved your soul when your dad died.
* write an obviously flawed mail about a rival team and see how some “Einsteins” will come attacking you with facts and stats.

The above are tips I gathered from experience, am sure some more knowledgeable mailboxers can add to it.
Teejay, Lagos (football365 is a lifestyle)

 

Some West Ham home truths
This is going to sound provocative and patronising but I still think it needs saying. I think West Ham’s issue with their new stadium is they are a small club and their ground needs to host big club’s games.

While we went from 38,500 to more than 60,000 when moving to the Emirates – we’ve been a big club since the 1930s. It took a while to settle in and some will no doubt prefer Highbury but I think most Arsenal fans understand why we left and can see that it was the right thing to do.

Contrast this to West Ham. They’ve never won a league, haven’t won meaningful silverware since 1980 and a small proportion of their fans are utter morons. They don’t seem to understand they are mere tenants and can be chucked out and seem to be ungrateful sods.

This club has also taken enough money out of the public purse and now they want more so they can increase security!

West Ham have been given what Wimbledon are dying for – the chance to return home – for them it was from East Ham to West Ham. As far as I am concerned, they have forgotten they don’t own that stadium – it’s owned by the public and the public are well within their rights to turf them out.

At first I loved the idea of another huge London stadium dedicated largely to football like the Emirates, Wembley and the soon to be built Spurs ground but given the location of the stadium and the increasing popularity of American sports how about giving over the area to US sports over a number of weekends with American football taking place in the London stadium on a Saturday, baseball on a Sunday and the Copperbox hosting NBA. You could make shedloads from the hipsters in the local area and there wouldn’t be any violence either.

It’s always sad to see a small minority spoil it for the rest, but this minority with their homophobic chanting and hooliganism cannot be ignored anymore – it’s time London stadium stopped blowing bubbles.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

 

All the best teams are b*stards
The mail about Herrera got me thinking. I disagreed with a number of things Micki said – particularly that attacking midfield options of Eriksen/Lamela/Alli/Son/N’Koudou/Sissoko represents prioritising physicality over creativity – but I have to say the so-called ‘foul press’ wasn’t one of them. Spurs are now a right bunch of b*stards to play against, and I for one applaud them for it. For too long we’ve had cotton wool football, been regularly bullied on the pitch and suffered from a great deal of naivety. We now have a hard-nosed group who f*cking hate losing, and will play shrewd and incredibly annoying football (from the opposition’s perspective).

We are still an incredibly young and inexperienced team, which is still finding the balance between aggressive football and aggression. Let us also not forget that there is still a relatively young and inexperienced manager in charge of the group, who is still finding his own balance. But as for assessments (of more than the past two games): it’s certainly been a hot and cold season thus far (with probably more cold than hot) but we are unbeaten, one point off the top and in with a great shout at qualifying from our CL group.

All the best teams are b*stards; the trick is to combine that with our rock-solid defence and scoring lots of goals (which we’ve shown we can do already). Fairly sure we can stomach a few draws and the occasional semi-loss of control without getting too concerned.
Alex G, THFC (cheeky January bid for Mkhitaryan, anyone?)

 

What’s your favourite opposition goal?
Its a Friday so i thought why not, let’s have a go…

Like most supporters, I never want my team to concede, as it could mean they might lose. Sometimes though, and it’s a rare (maybe not so rare) sometimes…my team concedes a goal that is so wondrous, beautiful even, that i let out an involuntary disbelieving OMFG what an effin goal sort of a groan

As a Liverpool fan, over the years I’ve let out a fair few of these involuntary reflex groans. Vardy’s volley, Henry waltzing through the defence making them look like school kids before placing the ball past Jerzy, Drogba’s chest, turn and half-volley from outside the area in 2006, to name a few.

Even most Liverpool supporters have to agree that those are some painfully brilliantly goals…. but for me the goal that gets me every time, has to be Tony Yeboah.

From a Lukic goal kick the ball ends up with Tony Dorigo. He plays it in the air to Rod Wallace, who with his back to goal heads to Yeboah. Yeboah shuffles to the right, adjusts his position and then smashes a volley in off the bar, leaving David James Helpless. What makes it even better is that it had so much power that as it comes down off the bar, it bounces back up, hits the top of the net and bounces around a couple more times. ‘‘uurgghh OMFG – what a f***in’ goal!!’

So my question to all the F365ers out there is, which goals have left you in a confused state of joy and despair as you’ve watched your team let in a goal from the heavens?
Amo Singh

 

A niche one about Australian fans in Thailand
Australians who intend to go to Bangkok to support their team in the World Cup qualifier next month will face an unusual and potentially dangerous situation. According to reports on the BBC and Japan Today, since Thailand is officially in the midst of a mourning period, spectators have been instructed to wear dark colours and to refrain from cheering, singing or celebrating, or even showing which team they are actually supporting.

It’s not clear exactly how this will affect the visiting supporters but given Thailand’s notoriously strict laws regarding its monarchy and the reputation of Thai prisons (I’m sure you’re all familiar with Banged Up Abroad), is it worth the risk going to the match? And have any Mailboxers ever taken risks to support their team?
James T, Kanazawa, Japan

 

Good to know
I woke up, shat myself. Woke up, shat myself. Woke up, shat myself and then I died.
Max