The one ‘ridiculous’ mistake Amorim keeps repeating which could ‘cost’ him his job at Man Utd

Manchester United have been ‘not good’ and ’embarrassing at times’ but the Ruben Amorim sack calls continue because of one game – and his ‘ridiculous’ subs.

We have bits on Arsenal and Crystal Palace too.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

United on track

Before the season started I wrote in saying how I’d be very happy if United reached the second international break with 12 points. Well so far we’ve had two terrible performances against City and Brentford, two good performances against Arsenal and Sunderland, two half and half performances against Fulham and Burnley, then one sort of good but also sort of not performance against Chelsea. A properly mixed bag resulting in 10 points.

I’m not happy with that but given the fine margins involved I am content for the moment. If Bruno scores that penalty against Fulham or Collins is sent off in the Brentford game (as Webb has now admitted should have happened) then perhaps we’d be where I wanted. No amount of whataboutery could put a positive spin on this season so far though I think it’s reasonable to say United are within the margins of error for my preseason expectations.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not good and have been embarrassing at times, but outside of the Grimsby result I don’t think there is enough to seriously consider a managerial change at the moment. I think much of the despair from fans and the pressure on Amorim is linked with that cup exit which will linger and even grow until a decent run of form is achieved.

Speaking of which, the next yardstick I suggested preseason was around 30 points by Christmas. Beyond the next game away at Liverpool where I expect no points (regardless of their tiny blip in form they are massive favourites for the win) there will be 9 league games to achieve this. So at minimum its 5 wins and a few draws to stay within the margin of error of +/- one result. There are some particularly tough games in that run (Spurs, Palace, and Bournemouth) but the whole league is tough so if Amorim can’t get it done now he likely never will.

He made a few subtle changes to his system against Sunderland with an almost 4-4-2 formation out of possession which may help going forward. However, the centre back subs are getting a bit ridiculous now. I wouldn’t mind if there was any perceivable advantage. De Ligt has been great in the central role but is a lost and panicking mess whenever he’s asked to be a wide centre back. Why then keep moving him out there just so you can bring on Harry Maguire instantly making the defence significantly slower and more vulnerable? More than systems or formations or whatever its those kind of decisions that will cost us late goal and perhaps ultimately Amorim’s job.
Dave, Manchester

Unacceptable indeed

So Arsenal, the team that has had its captain missing through injury for basically the entire season, alongside several other important players (Havertz, Hincapie, Madueke, Jesus, and now Rice), while playing arguably the most difficult schedule to start the season has “all the cards stacked in their favor”?

The defending champions and the serial champions prior to them haven’t “clicked” but the team at the top of the table despite their injuries and tough schedule should’ve seen off the competition by week 6 of 38… because of net spend (we never talk wages though)? Ha!

Some real comedy in the mailbox. The title race will be fun this season. Big fun!

Cheers,
Deen (AFC, USA)

I am registered to a lot of Arsenal sites on Facebook. It’s so sad how many Liverpool fans are on them harking on about Champions League success and Arsenal’s runners up record and Arsenal being ‘ bottlers!’ so what are they so worried about? I shouldn’t respond but I do referring to Liverpool being runners up fifteen times to Arsenal’s eleven but ho hum. The biggest bottlers were Liverpool in1989 at ‘Fortress’ Anfield! It’s only seven games in! The title has a long way to go.

By the way, my opinion of Gyõkeres is he does a fine job in creating space for his teammates. I’m very happy with him!
Chris, Croydon 

Two points to make

Dear Editor,

Two small points to make having read the mailbox.

1) Badwolf.  A penalty kick is awarded if the foul starts outside the box and continues into the penalty area.  Which is precisely what happened in the Arsenal v WHam game and probably why ‘contentious’ hasn’t really been used to describe the incident.

2) Seems to me that Stewie is to The F365 Mailbox as that shirtless front row celebrator is to Newcastle home games.  Did it once and made us all laugh and now can’t go a game without charging in to remind us all he still exists.

Football fans, I mean really.
Alexander

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Hotspur schadenfreude

Taking advantage of the mailbox interlull I am going to write some tongue in cheek stuff about the battle to become league champions 25-26 .

Around the time a Rodri shaped spanner fell into City’s works last season I wrote in saying how Spurs fans would find it pretty funny if after Pep’s team collapses the scousers were to sneak in and pip Arsenal to the post come May . And behold , though Hospur fans laughter was somewhat subdued from where I was listening .

While the rest of us , riled by a properly nasty state backed team monopolising the premier landscape, were simply happy to see different coloured ribbons adorning the trophy.

Well I’ll be damned if we are not in the shoe were to be on the other foot territory and exceedingly early though it is the surprise as I see it would be City somehow roaring through the points and snatching the league from Gunner fingertips .

Or even a Lucho at PSG style coming together at Liverpool FC .

Anyway , that’s my tuppence worth .

Enjoy Tommy’s England .
Peter Andalucia .

Danger UXB

Dear Football365,

Similar to shin splints and unexploded World War II bombs, bogey teams were a real phenomenon in the 1990s but at some point in the intervening years, they fell away from the forefront of our collective thoughts. However, Everton appear to have brought the idea back: according to the Athletic, they have only won three times after conceding the first goal in the past few years, and all three of those have been against Crystal Palace. Happy to help, I guess.

Despite the efforts of F365 and other parts of the football media, most people connected to Palace believe becoming a top four club is a bit of a pipe dream, but meaningfully reducing the gap between Palace and the top four is an admirable, achievable goal. This was brought into sharp focus, because if Palace were a top four club, David Moyes wouldn’t have been able to beat them.

A curious game at the This Means Bramley-Moore Stadium, in that neutrals probably enjoyed it more than fans of either team, who will have mixed feelings about how their respective sides played. Crystal Palace completely dominated Everton for significant periods of the game, but only went in 1-0 up at half time against an Everton team booed off by their fans, then tired significantly in the second half, lost their composure, and ended up losing. The Toffees meanwhile, came out for the second half with a different setup (helped by some very effective substitutes), played their way into the game and came away with all three points.

Like all winning teams, Everton’s winner had an element of fortune about it, but there’s no doubt Jack Grealish was in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing, when the ball rebounded off him into the goal. Bit of a rubbish way for the unbeaten run to come to an end but that’s just how it goes sometimes. I don’t think the defeat suggests anything too drastic needs to change for Palace, you can’t plan for players missing gilt-edged chances provided they keep creating chances, and you can’t plan to completely prevent players getting tired, only to mitigate the effects of their fatigue on the rest of the team. It says a lot about how far Palace have come that losing one game is newsworthy.
Ed Quoththeraven