Chelsea and Xabi Alonso an ‘odd match’ as Klopp comparison made
One Liverpool fan is switching allegiance to Chelsea while others are despairing of Arne Slot in the wake of the Xabi Alonso news.
We also have more VAR mails but we stick them down the bottom because bored. Mail us at theeditor@football365.com
Switching allegiances
Sick!
Darren, Dublin
YNWA -> KTBFFH
Alonso and Chelsea are a curious match
After the full-blown rants of fellow LFC fans have settled down into rumblings about Alonso heading to Chelsea; my two rupees (has no real value, how effed are Indians under the current regime) on the appointment is that – it’s just weird.
Under the BlueCo leadership, I am not even sure if the Chelsea fans know what the club’s footballing soul is anymore (happy to hear from the Chelsea fan base); but the leadership has hired and fired managers with the strategic acumen of the lad trying to cook in Ratatouille before Remy the rat becomes his cooking brain – absolutely clueless.
Alonso on the other hand seems a very Klopp-cloth cut manager (Not from a persona or footballing POV, relatively early to make THAT comparison) but from a working style POV. The Madrid debacle shows it – a manager who could excel if the management has a footballing direction to take the club ahead for instead of relying on new shiny signings – An approach both Madrid and Chelsea rely on.
It really looks like an odd match; like that couple who are looked upon sceptically by their entire social circle; waiting for the opportunity to say “I told you they weren’t going to make it”.
Anyway Chelsea should be an interesting watch next season from a case study POV that I may gloat in the future if I am proved correct.
But as an LFC fan who am I to throw stones at someone else’s glass house when my own club is divided between mutiny from the players; disgust from the fans and disbelief from the ex-players and pundits.
Mihir Nair. LFC. (Will be genuinely shocked if Arne gets another window of signing shiny players instead of getting the sack)
What are your Liverpool intentions, Mr Slot?
I think the Slot situation can be easily dealt with (solved for a better option is another issue altogether). You just simply ask him outright what his intentions are as far as playing style. If they are to attempt to play a more progressive attacking style more in the tradition of the club and he can give some proof of how he will do this and why exactly he clearly hasn’t been, then maybe (only maybe) give him next season to put this into practice.
If he says anything that suggests he is planning on persisting with the style of play of the last 2 seasons – then bin him. Now. Simple as. Elite alternative options may be limited but literally anyone else could do what he/the team has served up this season. Not been good enough. Next manager please. This is Liverpool.
Other fans may get annoyed by such phrases but it is a simple fact. They are, along with Real, Barcelona, PSG, Bayern and Man U – in the top 5 or 6 elite clubs of world football and always have been. An undeniable fact. Is Slot even a top 20 manager? Hasn’t looked like it has it.
Shunt LFC
Moyes out!
It’s groundhog day for us at Everton again.
Awful safety-first negative football, a rigid 4-2-3-1 at all times, abysmal treatment of young players, refusal to rotate or change his favourites, players out of position constantly, defeatist mentality in anything approaching a big game, pathetic attitude towards the cups, saying we ‘aren’t ready for Europe’ just after losing 3-1 at home to a newly promoted team who have now got a good chance of it (presumably all that time in the Championship made them ready for it), teams with young, progressive, attacking managers outplaying us in our own stadium. Moyes has to go.
Since we beat Chelsea, it’s no wins from 6 games. The total bottling of a European place has been quite something and gone under the radar thanks to Spurs but we were 2 points off Liverpool in fifth when we played them at home. They’re terrible and were there for the taking, so what actually happened was entirely predictable with Moyes as manager.
He did some really good stuff in his first spell with us and although I didn’t really want him back, he’s done a job of stabilising us but it’s quite clear he’s yesterday’s man and has hit his self-imposed glass-ceiling. It seems like a lot of the fans are turning now and it’ll be interesting to see what the owners do this summer. If all they’re looking for is staying in the league and maybe a quick sale for a return on their investment then he’ll stay, but if they’ve got any kind of ambition, they need to be thanking him for his work and moving him on and going all out to try and tempt an Iraola or Glasner if at all possible. They might think other clubs are better options right now but maybe the new stadium and potential of the club could sway them.
Unless you’re happy chugging along in 12th place and going out the cups early then at some point you have to twist and now seems to be the right time. You still get the ‘be careful what you wish for’ brigade and yes, we could end up like West Ham but its also quite possible that a new manager gets us playing some good football and looking up the league.
I’d be interested to know what people outside the club think though as the common thing among other fans when I say he’s got to go is one of surprise and they think he’s doing a good job, which I can’t really fathom, but maybe I’m just being blinkered.
Thoughts?
Sam
READ: Everton stupid to mock Moyes ‘clamour’ when Iraola and Glasner are right there
Angry at the ‘Ammers
Don’t normally write in but I woke up this morning and I’m so angry about the West Ham game yesterday evening.
I’m angry at two things, Nuno for putting up that inexplicable line up and the fanbase/media who have been saying all season that Wilson should start because he scores goals.
1) Too many times this year Nuno has tinkered with the team when we have proven time and time again we cannot play any formation other than a 4-4-2 with this team. He inverted our full-backs in one of the most important games of the season and decided to do the same thing yesterday with Disasi and Tobido- who should have just fouled Barnes and taken the yellow. Arsenal and City are an exception and from those two games we got 1 point.
2) I am sick at having to explain to fellow West Ham fans that Wilson has no legs and cannot play a full 90 minutes. Yet if you look at Twitter, or in the papers it’s everywhere. He wasn’t our worst player yesterday, that’s a long list and he isn’t near the top of it. But him starting removes so much from our game; he can’t press, can’t challenge aerials, can’t make runs and can’t hold up the ball. So much of the fanbase have spent the last 3 months blaming Pablo, the same guys who booed Mavro last year I imagine- I’m not expecting them to learn from this.
Why oh why did Nuno choose this game to listen to the fans and play Wilson- it’s mental. I don’t believe we’ll get a miracle from Spurs and based on yesterday’s performance Nuno would only choose to play Hermanson at RW if we do go into next Sunday’s game with a chance.
Rant over.
Mike
It’s VAR from over
Johnny Nic’s article is missing one thing. Introducing VAR checks for corners means one thing: adverts at every 3rd corner awarded.
I was watching some sport recently, might have even been football, and there were in-match adverts. Shrink the screen, show the ad. This just gives the opportunity to not even have shrink the screen for 10 seconds.
Seems like the perfect way to get ads in.
Oh and of course, don’t get me started on conspiracies of people being able to influence decisions for betting reasons. And before you scoff, if people can gamble of whether Donald Trump is gonna drop a load of bombs on another country 30 minutes before it happens and win $millions, then being able to nobble the FA or FIFA over a few corners or penalties is hardly beyond the realms of fantasy.
Top level football is dying as a sport, but as I lose any emotional attachment to the new players coming through, I’m finding myself being more drawn to the humans further down the chain who don’t try to exist in a perfect world. I’ll be following Worthing and Horsham far more closely next season than the Premier League. Why? Well, as a Liverpool supporter seeing absolutely no irony in this, it means more when it’s relatable.
Rob, Hove
…Watched Lewandowski’s last game for Barca on Sunday evening, versus Betis (or ex-prem all-stars if you prefer, and Isco – what a player). Some cracking goals, Cancelo’s probably the pick of the litter. But the decision to award Betis a pen makes the Celtic one v Motherwell look cast-iron. Isco literally kicks the floor, with clear space between his and anyone else’s legs. This was AFTER the intervention of el VAR too (who were checking an on-field offside call initially – my cat could see he was onside, and she was asleep at the time). Defies any logic whatsoever.
Also highlights the most worrying aspect of VAR for me, namely, it’s turning already pretty ropey modern refs into flat out terrible wastes of space. Jarred Gillett is the PL poster boy for this phenomenon IMO, which is doubly concerning as he was brought over after being seen as a masterful operator in this brave new world – remember the game where we all got to hear him and his ongoing convo with A-League VAR during a game? Compare and contrast that with yesterday’s freeform jazz approach. Something has to be done about this mess, but it won’t be.
RHT/TS x
(Bellerin’s barnet/tache combo is natty AF)
…Every time a general election rolls round you hear a familiar refrain from a certain kind of voter: “We don’t know what any of the parties stand for anymore!”. This is really just ignorance dressed up as moral outrage because it’s perfectly easy to find out what a party stands for if you simply go to the trouble of reading a manifesto or just following the daily news. A similar performative exasperation is played out in the TV studios every time there’s a controversial handball decision: “The problem is” says Gary or Michah or Alan “no-one seems to know what the rules are these days”.
Yes, they do. They’re all written down and, actually, they’re not that complicated. You might not like them (I don’t) but to pretend they’re unclear or somehow unobtainable is the worst kind of laziness, especially from pundits who are paid a king’s ransom to share their ‘expert’ opinions on the game.
Matt Pitt
