Chelsea v Liverpool like ‘two drunken idiots trying to land punches’

Chelsea v Liverpool was not a fun watch. Or it was. And we also have mails on the current lack of passion from Manchester United.

Send any mails to theeditor@football365.com

Almost beautiful for Chelsea
At this point, you can only really applaud Chelsea’s commitment to not scoring.
James (Chelsea and Fleet), Gravesend

Drunk mail
That’s the worst quality of football I can remember seeing in a Chelsea v Liverpool game. Chelsea just about deserved to win, but no points should be awarded to either team for such a piss poor effort.

It was like watching two drunken idiots trying to land punches but falling on their arses.
Aidan, Lfc (top 4 is looking very unlikely)

It was like schoolboy football
Four PL games on Tuesday night and you just KNEW the worst to watch would be Chelsea v Liverpool.

They didn’t disappoint.

I had R5L on rather than the usual G Nev/Carra co-comms sh*te whilst watching the game on telly but was surprised to hear a view at half time that this game had been, and I quote (somewhat depressingly) “end-to-end stuff”.

It was. But only in the context of a match between 10–14-year-olds. A complete absence of quality, no obvious structure, just lots of players rushing after a ball with no coherent plan. Shots on goal by accident rather than by design.

I’d suggest this. In 2023, the definition of two mid-table teams, at the tail end of a season where neither has a cat in Hell’s chance of obtaining either a European place or any hope of silverware, then this game was/is the perfect example.

In short, utter pants.

Respectfully, and I do mean that, Chelsea and ‘Pool fans should be very, very worried.

And if you don’t believe me, I give you Arsenal, Newcastle, Brentford, Villa, and Brighton.
Mark (Sorry Spurs fans but your team is f*cked as well) MCFC

READ: Chelsea v Liverpool was truly El Sh*tico but toothless is easier to fix than clueless

Boehly or Venky’s
Interesting fork in the road coming for Chelsea.

Version A – Boely was standing behind Potter but becoming increasingly worried by everything. Nagelsmann unexpectedly becomes available. See you later, Graham, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Nagelsmann is in place for the Real Madrid game – ruthless, but probably understandable.

Version B – Anti-Potter noise reaches a crescendo, and Boehly folds i) without a new man ready to go, ii) nothing to play for in the league, and ii) with a temp put in charge for the Champions League, which probably would be worse than leaving Potter in place. Amateur hour has come to Stamford Bridge – Venky’s on steroids.

If Nagelsmann rocks up on his skateboard, it’s Version A or some variant…if nothing, it’s B. Happy days.
Matthew (ITFC)

Are Chelsea really a more attractive prospect than Spurs?
I mean if you take the Roman years out of the equation, Spurs are the more successful club – more European trophies, more league titles, more FA Cups etc.

They were the bigger club, now have a much bigger stadium and despite also being without a manager – have a much better chance of landing Champions League football next season.

I’m no business expert but the sheer amount of money being pumped into Chelsea only to yield a midtable finish cannot be a good thing so whoever becomes manager will have a heck of a job on their hands.

The biggest problem with football is we very often make judgements about a club based on who they were, not who they are or who they are likely to be in the future.

Chelsea have an identity crisis. Are they the club who won just one title in their first 100 years? Are they still this European behemoth of the Roman years? Or are they a club whose future will be paying over the odds in a bid to return to the glory years which will land them in the poor house?

I don’t know but things don’t look nearly as bad over at Spurs. The right managerial appointment could well cure many of Spurs’ ills as much of their current infrastructure has set them up for relative success.

I don’t think Chelsea’s problems will be fixed by simply changing the manager. The stadium is too small. The fans are used to success so are becoming increasingly impatient. And the infrastructure that was there, and more importantly worked, in the Abramovic years has been ripped apart.

Put it this way – if you ask a fan of any other London team which club they are more worried about facing and very few will pick Chelsea over Spurs.

I almost feel sorry for them.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Unai it
Emery isn’t a bad manager eh?
Paul

..With every passing week, Gerrard is looking like a terrible manager.
Adam Halliday, Villa Fan ( win The Europa League next season ? ), Sunny Saigon

Jobs for the Moyes boys
Good afternoon football people, just a quick one on David Moyes and his ill-fated stint at United, his biggest downfall in my eyes was sacking the entire United backroom staff and appointing his Everton mates. The United staff knew the players, were use to winning and knew the winning Fergie formula yet he brings in a team use to firefighting relegation.

Lastly, when you sit Rio and Vidic down and tell them to watch a video of Phil Jagielka to get the finer points of defending you really do lose the respect of the players rather sharpish.
Paul Murphy, Manchester

Ten Hag, Ten Warning Flags
I did this when I questioned the godfather of German football. A certain brilliant manager called Ralf Rangnick. I’ ll call a turd when I see one, not because I harbour any hate towards some managers, I’ll simply look at the results , the reaction, and adaptation.

What I fail to see is any reaction towards ten Hag. I question how good he is when he keeps playing teams and fielding 10 players every match. What is Weghorst even doing ? This isn’t his level, when Pep didn’t have a striker , he adapted the system and won the league. I honestly don’t understand how Weghorst even plays. I’d auge ten Hag to play with people who can actually play football instead of wasting everyone’s time knowing it’s going to be 10v11 for 60 odd minutes.

This circles back to my main point, why is Ten Hag getting praised for this shit show? How immune has he become, despite some horrendous mistakes. Nobody seems to question his decision making.All we keep hearing and reading is how he has transformed Man U , and how brilliant he is. But all I see is a wannabe, he has no clue and can’t control a dressing room. I’d say get rid ut luckily for him he has actually won something, as meaningless as the Carabao is.
Dave(Ten Hugs later, and I still don’t like it), Somewhere

Man Utd perspective
Allow me Tim, to add some context to your narratives.

After 27 games in 2021-2022, Manchester United still had to play Manchester City, Spurs, Liverpool, Leicester, Arsenal, Brighton and Chelsea in 11 games. They only won 3 more games that season and had been knocked out of all the cups. After 27 games in 2022-2023, they only have Brentford, Chelsea and Tottenham to play in the top 10, plus still in 3 competitions and already won a cup.

After 27 games last year, Manchester United were 2 points ahead of Arsenal and 5 points ahead of Spurs. They had played 3 and 2 more games than those rivals respectively. After 27 games this year, Spurs are tied on 50 points with Manchester and Newcastle United. They have played 2 more games than both rivals.

I think it’s clear to see why there is a “narrative”.
Rob O
P.S. In control means that if you win your games, nothing anyone else does matters. Manchester United and Newcastle are in fully in control. Spurs are not.

Man Utd need the passion back
The celebration police are going to hate this one but no-one likes you anyway.

All E10H needs to do to fix this utd right now is show them some highlights of the early season win against Liverpool. Then show some of the passionless highlights of recent games including the Liverpool reverse and the Newcastle loss.

In that first game against Liverpool the stand out difference which has not been matched since was the defensive togetherness and attitude whereby they all celebrated every tackle, blocked shot and clearance as a team.

And for a great recent example, just look at Dan Burn’s highlight reel from the utd game. Anthony did him early on and Burn brought him down. I thought “we’re in here”. But then Dan got the better of Anthony and others on the next couple of occasions and celebrated every small win with a fist pump or double fist pump with the crowd. It may seem irrelevant to winning a football game but a confident Anthony or Sancho should be skipping round Dan Burn all day. Instead he had them both beaten in their own heads and the crowd were the extra player on the pitch. There’s a reason only one side has won at Newcastle and that’s the atmosphere of the crowd (plus they are a decent and well managed footballing side as well).

Utd have the toughest run in of all sides in the league with their cup runs meaning we have 2 games every week still. Without getting that support from the crowd we are not going to finish strongly. However, 3 home fixtures to come gives a great opportunity to get the crowd behind us and build some momentum and player confidence that some of them desperately need. The next 3 games are not our toughest left but I think they could be the most important in deciding how we finish.
Jon, Cape Town (Losses of Casemiro, Eriksen, Garnacho are adding up in a time when you need to be able to rotate)

…I used to play with this Brazilian guy. Far and away the best player I ever saw on a football field. He could do everything. He had a first touch like Berbatov, was big and strong like Pogba, you simply could not get the ball off him. He’d always show up late, sub in, score a couple of goals, then sub out again and have a cigarette!

The problem was, if his team was losing, say 0-2 down with 20 minutes to go, he just gave up. He stopped running, start complaining about the bad passes from his teammates and the bad calls from the ref. It was like playing with a man down and eventually players didn’t want him in the side, talented as he was.

United and ETH had the stones to get rid of Ronaldo when he became toxic, and from what I can see, Fernades is going the same way. the problem is, as Captain, he seems to be dragging other players down that rabbit hole with him. Regardless of what team you are, if half your team is phoning it in, you will not win Premier League games.

ETH has some big decisions to make before this season unravels. That lack of passion that was so prominent at the beginning of the season is creeping back. Bear in mind that about half his ideal starting XI are around 30 years of age, maybe, in particular Fernandes, they are gassed. Trouble is, there is no fresh blood in sight. Time to hand the armband to Casemiro?
Adidasmufc (How United are above Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs so late in the season is beyond my comprehension)

Money can’t ruin the PL; money made the PL
I just had to laugh at Rami, Manchester’s mailbox entry this morning, bemoaning how money is “actually making the Premier League a worse league in terms of quality”, citing the period of 2004-2010 as ‘the good old days’, talking about how players like Vidic (6m), Evra (6m), Alonso (10m), Cech (7m) and Robben (12m) are examples of “picking up youngsters from Europe/South America and developing them into top players”. The idea that PL clubs weren’t buying the same profile of player during that time period is laughable (i.e. PL clubs have always bought emerging talent at European clubs + turned them into recognized stars before they move off to Spain/Italy/retirement leagues).

Mainly I just wish someone at F365 would go back and find the equivalent mails from that time period, when Mailbox contributors would talk about how disgusting it is for clubs to be spending obscene amounts of money on Shevchenko (30m), Drogba (25m), Rooney (30m), Robinho (40m), harkening back to the ‘good old days’ of the mid-90’s. At which point there was no F365 mailbox, but presumably people in pubs etc were grumbling about how overpriced transfers were and how things were better back in the ‘good old days’ of the early-80’s, when footballers were fairly valued… and so on.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland

Actually…
In response to Rami, Manchester’s email.

Brighton.

Yours sincerely,
Niallo, Gooner, Uibh Fháilí