Barcelona are like John Wick; Rio is like a ‘socially awkward kid’ on commentary

Do TNT/BT/Setanta or whatever they call themselves these days listen to feedback? Rio Ferdinand gets another kicking.

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Barca, eh!
What a match! ´‘Twas a bit worrying how Inter scored with all their attempts, but this Barça team is beginning to remind me of John Wick: they don’t know that they should have died a long time ago.
Bolo (Abuja) FC Barcelona

READ: Arsenal ‘dream’ fights main character battle vs absurd Barcelona star Lamine Yamal

Does anybody like Rio Ferdinand?
I know there’s been a lot of abuse directed at Rio Ferdinand’s commentary, so it would be childish of my to join in, but what the hell. He sounds like a socially awkward kid whose mum has written down some conversation starters for his first day of school. You can actively hear him trying.

Do TNT/BT/Setanta or whatever they call themselves these days listen to feedback?

Also, I refuse to believe that anyone on this earth likes those pitch-level cameras. Watching the ball ricochet off 9 shins or looking up at someone taking a throw in.
Si, (proper old man gripes) LFC

Premier League teams of the season ahoy
Ahhhh, go on then Howard. I’ve got a bit of time over lunch… To be clear, I haven’t watched every single game this season, so this is partly on feels. Apologies if I haven’t picked your club’s player(s) that may deserve a spot.

GK – Matz Sels. Yep, nothing to see here. He’s been rather bloody good.

RB – Ola Aina. In a tricky season for RBs Trent might be the obvious choice, and he has been good, but Aina has been better imo. Munoz would be a shout but he’s more RWB.

LB – Milos Kerkez. Tough one this, but he just edges it. Robinson hasn’t been great of late and I can’t forgive Cucurella for wearing the wrong boots v Spurs.

CB – Van Dijk. He just is. Gabriel’s recent injury is probably why I’ve left him out…

CB – Nikola Milenkovic. Heads everything. Almost impassable. Been incredibly solid. Pops up with a goal. Murillo can feel a little unlucky.

CM – Alexis Mac Allister. Quietly gone about his business with an 8/10 most weeks. Scored some lovely goals.

CM – Bruno Guimaraes. I just don’t think Newcastle are the same without him. Which says everything. Youri’s been decent, but I can’t put him in ahead of either of these two.

CAM – Morgan Gibbs-White. I want to throw Rogers in here as this is where he has been most effective, but I’ll give Gibbs-White the edge. Makes Forest tick and is great fun to watch. Could be either/or though.

RW – Mo Salah. Yeah. Him.

CF – Al Isak. Above Wood for all round game, above JPM for consistency, and above Haaland for games missed.

LW – Morgan Rogers/Matheus Cunha/Justin Kluivert/Anthony Elanga/Luis Diaz. I don’t mind, you choose who to shoehorn in.

Again, I apologise to you all.

Ta,
Gary AVFC, Oxford (Angry at wanting Forest to lose on Thursday)

…Here you go, team of the season:

Raya; Aina, Gabriel, Van Dijk, Robinson; Rice, Tonali, Tielemans; Salah, Isak, Cunha

Probably should have gone with Bruno instead of Tielemans tbh, but if I’m picking a Wolves player, I’m picking a Villa player.
Neil Raines

Lies, damned lies and…
I’ve got no skin in the game when it comes to Arteta, so criticise him all you like. But I do draw the line with appalling use of statistics, as presented by Saigon Adam.

“Arteta’s 6 years league positions: (8-8-5-2-2-2): Average League Position : 4.5th
Wenger’s last 6 years league positions : (6-5-2-3-4-4): Average League Position : 4th”

Taking Arteta’s achievement of taking a club that was on its knees from 8th to 3 consecutive second place finishes and saying this is worse than 6 seasons where they only finished 2nd once, is a Trump-level misrepresentation of the facts. Back to maths class for you Adam.
Mike, LFC, Dubai

Keep the set-piece coach, not Arteta
…writing for a friend lol

“Just dawned on me… If arsenal are so good at set pieces, be it from a corner or freekick and scores a high proportion of goals from them, and they still can’t win that many games, it just means Arteta is not a very good coach, because he is NOT the setpiece coach.

In short, take away the setpieces that are not coached by him, Arsenal is a very average team.”

Or put another way, isn’t the most effective way to improve Arsenal, to keep the set piece coach and replace Arteta?!?

But of course, as an lfc fan, I’d rather Arsenal keep Arteta 😊 one competitor down 😈
Gab Ynwa

Stop publishing Stewie
It’s very unfair of you to post every single wasted word of the Stewie Griffin obsession with Arsenal. You would never post this drivel normally (as we see by comments like ‘I have been sending emails for years and never got posted’) – he is a troll with some real issues. He has nothing valid to say yet you post his content and not other more worthy content.

Why do you do that? Why is the rule different for Stewie compared to all other senders of content?

It really does make you lose faith in people when this deliberate enforcement of rules to moderate content get ignored constantly to affect people needlessly. Stewie is a troll, and I believe seriously unhinged to show this level of disgust for people he does not know, a level of irrationality that’s getting worse and you’re feeding that.

Show some morals would you!
Joe

Celebrate good times…come on
A few writers have sent mails to complain how horrible it is to watch Liverpool win a title and that watching us celebrate makes them feel very bad.

They didn’t quite say it that way but that is definitely what they meant.

The thing is, I think it’s fair game. Who does love watching their rivals win? Nobody does. Also both Arsenal and City fans this season have been victims of the celebration police, some of whom were Liverpool fans so if you want to sign up to the force I think that’s fair game.

I think the difference though is on those other occasions you were celebrating single games (which to be clear I think is great. We should all celebrate every win. That’s what sport is about) whereas Liverpool were celebrating a title win the first of which the fans were actually allowed to attend so I think the fact they might have been a bit exuberant celebrating is ok.

But just to be clear I don’t think celebration police should exist at all. When Everton scored the equaliser against us and celebrated I saw it and thought – this is what football should be. The absolute highs and the miserable lows. Let’s not push the passion out of football. I’m not saying you have to enjoy your opponents celebrating, but it seems to kill the spirit of the game to police someones enjoyment.

FYI Arsenal fans I thought you played well against PSG, they’re the best team in it this year followed by Inter (Barca are too leaky for me), you can still win and should you do so I’d hope you win your first Champions League.
Lee

Give Amorim time…
Badwolf, I won’t get into the revisionist delusion you’re clearly experiencing. Building some sort of Arthurian legend around a football manager, especially one as unremarkable as Ten Hag, seems like something logic would have little effect on. So, if it makes you happy, have fun with it.

What I can’t reconcile is your view on Amorim. When you’ve gone to such great lengths to rationalise Ten Hag failings, made excuses for him, explained away defeat after defeat, given a never ending amount of slack. How do you go from years of that to ‘I’m certain Amorim is a disaster’ after such a short period of time?

In a similar way to Ole, ETH having a relatively good start (fastest to 20 wins, as you mentioned) wasn’t a good indicator of his future success. It thus seems intelligent not to equate Amorim’s start with his future prospects at United.

Perhaps you were just so invested in ETH that his successor was always going be less than, no matter who they were. For me though giving a manager a fair crack before making judgment is reasonable. Constantly reassessing my opinions in light of more evidence and changing context is wise.

I’ve seen enough encouraging signs from his teams to warrant patience and enough speculation to be confident the club are targeting the right kind of players to help the manager. I have concerns but they are minor for now and I don’t see any major red flags that could justify his dismissal at this stage.

Those who came before were given ample time, control, and influence to show their worth and ultimately were found lacking. When Amorim has had the same opportunity then we’ll be able to see more clearly if he is good enough but we’re still a long way from that being the case.
Dave, Manchester

In partial defence of Aluko
Following in from Paul McDevitt’s mail earlier I don’t think he understands the circumstances of Eni Aluko’s comments.

It should be noted that Ian Wright’s name was introduced into the conversation by whoever was interviewing her for Radio 4, and not by Aluko. She later said ‘you used Ian as an example’.

As Aluko has studied law, she probably ought to have known better than to make any comments specific to an individual, and said something like ‘I don’t want to talk about Ian specifically’ and just stated her general opinion on the matter.

So, not Aluko’s fault that Ian Wright got mentioned but she could have dealt with the issue better.
A, LFC, Montreal

…I suppose I should start by saying that I haven’t seen a lot of Eni Aluko’s punditry, but what I have seen hasn’t been terrific. However, this is fairly typical of punditry in general. We all have a favourites, and we all have the ones we don’t like (I haven’t missed Jermaine Jenas at all, he was staggeringly bland and a great exponent of stating the bleedin’ obvious), so I think it is safe to say that most football fans don’t really have high expectations of at least half the people that get paid a fortune to talk bollocks about football. And maybe, she talks more bollocks than most. Maybe.

I do, however, think that the response to what she said is ridiculous, and that she is, for some reason, being thrown under the bus. Trying to get a direct quote of what she said that has got her into trouble is strangely difficult, but it appears to be this:

“I think Ian Wright is a brilliant broadcaster, he’s been a huge supporter of the women’s game, but I do think we need to be mindful that the space doesn’t get taken up by men. There’s still a lack of opportunities for women.”

Can anyone tell me, really, what is unreasonable about that? She clearly compliments Ian Wright, and doesn’t criticise him at all. Whether or not you agree with what she is saying isn’t that important, the point she is making is perfectly reasonable.

She has been forced into an apology that is unnecessary, and for Ian Wright not to accept it is churlish and mean, and it’s hard not to conclude that this is a storm in a teacup created by our beloved press, and Aluko is an easy target. I am not saying that this is necessarily an example of some sort of bias in action, but I am struggling to understand why Aluko’s career appears to be in tatters when you look at what she actually said.

I am very disappointed with Wright, he had an opportunity to shut this down and chose not to take it, and as a man who experienced prejudice throughout his career, he might have taken a more understanding and diplomatic line towards a young black woman trying to forge a path for women’s representation in football. I think he has let himself down badly, and has been influenced by Britain’s beloved gutter press, who, as we know, have a habit of trying to tear down “uppity” successful black footballers.

Aluko spoke clumsily, and I am sure she regrets this, but the idea that she attacked Wright is a tabloid invention. It’s all very ugly, and no-one wins here. What a shame.
Mat (basking in the glow of Sunday)