Does Gerrard really deserve prestigious Gers job?

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Gerrard and Gers
General consensus, and especially that of John Nicholson, seems to be that Gerrard and Rangers are a good fit: It’s a good first for him, and his knowledge English academies (most notably Liverpool) could help him to snag some good young prospects. Fair enough.

However if Rangers are as big of a club as JN makes out, do we think Gerrard is deserving of this job? And if so, why? What has Gerrard done in coaching that say, Ryan Giggs hasn’t? Giggs was labelled arrogant on this site (by this site?) for (apparently) thinking he deserved a Premier League gig but it’s not odd that Gerrard walks in a Rangers? Are Swansea and Stoke bigger clubs than Rangers? Are West Brom? Mr Nicholson does not paint it so.

So, assuming that Rangers are a big club, and taking into account that there wasn’t much uproar when Neville walked in to the Valencia gig for similar reasons, what is that people didn’t like about Giggs wanting his first job to be with a team like Swansea or Stoke? Was his reputation tarnished as LVG’s assistant? Does he lack ‘footballing intelligence’ in some people’s eyes? Or do we just not care about Scotland?
ThaiWolf, HK

Still not happy
As a United fan of over 30 years, I would like to say that this is the most underwhelmed I have ever been by a second place finish in the Premier League, irrespective of what happens in the FA Cup Final.

This was summed up perfectly yesterday by the reliance on Fellaini to come off the bench and bounce a speculative header off his mop-top and into the net. I read in one paper that it was a ‘clever backwards header’, no it wasn’t, just look at Fellaini’s face as he turns to see where it went, pure hope followed by surprise as it snuck into the corner. Javier Hernandez scored one of his early United goals with a clever backwards header, where his head actually moved in the direction the ball ended up going in, Fellaini’s was luck.

We started the season at a sprint but it was an easy run of fixtures and confidence was flowing, I still felt uneasy that we hadn’t really been tested and then the draw with Liverpool ignited a stuttering run into the New Year and City were out of sight. The confidence seemed to drain out of the players, confusion about their roles perhaps? Whatever it was, it’s still there and despite the fact that we’ve beaten Liverpool, Chelsea, City, Tottenham and Arsenal recently, we’re playing frankly pretty poor football and grinding out wins rather than swaggering to them. Unfortunately, this is peak Mourinho, win at all costs, effective, dour football and I doubt it will stop until he leaves.

I expect that Mourinho will stay for another year at least, spend the GDP of a small country in the summer and hopefully we play some better football next year, I’m not holding my breath though.

Cheers,
Paul, Man Utd

Xhaka can
I don’t understand Souness or the entire Sky Sports panel slamming Granit Xhaka.

I have always thought Xhaka was an immense player. Sure, he had a dip in form towards the middle of the season and was culpable for a number of goals the team conceded, however he was immense with Switzerland in the Euros and I think, under a new, more disciplined manager, we will truly be seeing the best of him.

Some stats provided by the wonderful Arseblog (particularly 7amKickoff) show that Granit Xhaka is first in the league with passes in the opposition’s half, followed by Kevin de Bruyne. Perhaps he has not created as many opportunities as de Bruyne but that is a given considering he is a defensive midfielder first and foremost. Another interesting stat to point out is that Xhaka is 2nd amongs all non-goalkeepers with 173 accurate long balls.

Sure, he’s not been the best at times and could definitely do better. However there are numbers to support his case that he could be an integral piece in the future manager’s plans.
Malcolm, (proud of Arsenal’s C Team yesterday) AFC

…We’ve had quite a few Liverpool fans in the mailbox in recent days complaining about their lack of penalties in the league. Furthermore, we had Paul Murphy from Manchester crowing about the result from yesterday. What struck me was how the TV talking points during coverage impact people’s perception of the game. Spent 15 minutes berating Xhaka and people quickly believe he had a ‘mare of a game – despite being one of Arsenal’s tidiest players and providing the assist for the goal.

More importantly, what was not talked about….the clear foul on Nelson which gave Man Utd possession was only shown once and Alan Smith’s only contribution was that the Arsenal players should have made more of a fuss to the referee?! Then Maitland-Niles is scythed down by Sanchez in the box, clear penalty but nothing given.

Let’s be clear – Man United got lucky yesterday against what was basically Arsenal’s reserve team. If the above incidents had been the other way around, Mourinho may well have exploded.
Pete, Shropham

Arsene for England?
Manc in SA’s mail suggesting Wenger would be a good fit as England manager is so full of fallacies that I’m not sure where to begin.

Here is as good a place as any I guess…

“Arsenal’s squad is average at best and they have been for a while. However, Wenger has kept Arsenal fairly competitive and entertaining to watch, while under increasingly hostile media environment.”

I’m afraid you’ve put the horse before the cart here. In the last 5 years Wenger has overseen a significant decline in performance levels and has done more to decrease Arsenal’s competitiveness than improve it. Entertaining to watch? I guess that depends on who you support. Entertaining for rivals of Arsenal perhaps, watching a team pass aimlessly then fall over themselves in defence could be seen as amusing to some. And that hostile media environment, that’s the cart before the horse. That environment has been created in reaction to the performances of Wenger’s team and management, not in spite of it.

“He understands the English setup, he typically promotes youngsters…”

Arsene’s inclination towards bedding in youth players has vastly diminished in recent years. Bellerin and Iwobi are the only regulars that I can think of, Chambers also to some extent, and none of them have been a resounding success by any stretch of the imagination. Simply shoving young players into the team does not make a manager good at developing them. Anyway, yesterday’s team sheet was far more about protecting senior players for the game against Atletico than giving youth a chance.

“…he plays a system that works…”

No he doesn’t.
Michael, AFC

…In response to Manc in SA (never been an Arsenal fan but Wenger earned my respect), Arsene for England? Are you kidding? I’m Australian and even I wouldn’t want to subject England fans to that.

The real question is: What’s worse – being comfortably and deservedly beaten 2-0 or running rings around the opposition, having >60% possession, having 3 dozen shots on goal and yet somehow contriving to lose the match?

Also imagine the tabloids having Arsene in their sights. As it is he’s lost a lot of respect and reputation. Imagine how much worse it would be for him after England’s inevitable 2nd round exit in the Euros.

I and many others have tremendous respect for Arsene due to how he revolutionised football in England, due to the success and glory he facilitated at Arsenal in the first half of his tenure with the club with some of the most spectacular football the world has ever seen and the fact that he at least kept us amongst the big boys for most of the second half of his tenure despite financial constraints. But he has become an anachronism. Several modern managers, such as Poch and Klopp, have passed him by with far more dynamic and flexible styles of football.

I believe Arsene is finished at the highest level of football. He’d do a decent job with a mid table side or a top side in a less cut throat league like in Denmark or France but he cannot keep up at the most elite level.
Vish (AFC), Mumbai

… *Consistently qualifies for major tournaments – Check
*Boosts bang average players reputations to “world class” category – Check
*Gets supporters hopes up only to outdo previous embarrassments with interest – Check
*Forever holds a torch for Jack Wilshire The Greatest Midfielder Of All Time™ – Check
*Refuses to leave job through sheer stubbornness and arrogance only to be pushed – Check
Manc in SA, I think I speak for every England fan when I say that we’d rather not have a more expensive version of Hodgson as England Manager thanks.
Anthony (Personally think Southgate’s doing a decent job), Kilburn

Life as a Gooner
In the past week we’ve had a draw that felt like a defeat and a defeat that felt like a draw.

Supporting Arsenal sure is weird these days.
Graham Simons, Gooner, (Build around the youngsters I say), Norf London

…At the risk of sounding like a d***, I can’t help but chuckle at the
thought of Wenger’s sole trophy in his final season at Arsenal being the
one that was presented to him by Sir Alex at Old Trafford this past weekend.
Ash ( It would be nice if he could win another come May)

Red Devils revisionism
I’ve seen a lot of coverage in media outlets about the gesture of Manchester United towards Arsene Wenger yesterday and I just wanted to remind everyone that this is still the club where the current manager of the team called Wenger a “voyeur” and the fans that so graciously applauded him yesterday regularly used to sing “sit down you paedophile” at him.

Just because you hand over a shiny silver pot doesn’t absolve you of your previous sins, you’re still a disgusting bunch if you think that song was just “banter”.
Stew, London

Liverpool expectations
To answer Steve’s question, “Would we be happy with a CL semi final and a top 4 finish?”

Answering that now: no. We’re in such a strong position in the tie that to go out now would be gutting. Let’s be honest, when you’re in the semi-final you start to think about winning the trophy and if we don’t win it now, of course I’ll be disappointed (to be clear, I don’t expect us to win, I’ll just be disappointed if we don’t).

That’s looking at it now though. At the start of the season I’d have bitten your hand off for top 4 and a CL semi final. The last 20 years of being a Liverpool fan have brought a hell of a lot of disappointment, so all you can ask for is to improve year on year. Of course, a trophy would be great and in time we’ll need to win one, but looking at the squad, we’re not in a position to expect to win anything. We were better at the end of Klopp’s first season than we were at the start, we were better still at the end of his second and no one could argue that we haven’t improved again.

There’s plenty of reason for optimism for the future, with the squad set to be improved and plenty of young players ready to kick on. You could maybe argue that Klopp needs to win something by the end of next season but for now consolidating top 4, improving the squad and a thrilling cup run is absolutely fine by me.
Mike, LFC, Dubai

…In answer to Steve, Amsterdam‘s question: Absolutely. Every day yes.

Partly because it reaffirms our position in the pecking order but also because it represents progress.

But the thing is this; sometimes life isn’t about the logic models of progress but the realizing of doors opening to a brave new world. We need to put the ghosts of the last 10 years (I.e. nearly winning things but for the slips and misses) to bed and actually finish something.

And if we do, then things get exponentially better to the point that the logic model explodes. We might start to get our first choices in the transfer market; ‘do you want to come and play joy-filled footy with Klopp’s Champions League winners?’ Or even better; ‘do you want to stay Mo?’

But yes. Top 4 and CL Semi-finalists is still pretty cool.
Barry, Cape Town

Decisions, decisions
As one of the “whinging reds” referred to by a number of mailboxers, can I say that I am very firmly in the corner of Ryan, Liverpool and agree that whilst “these things even themselves out over a season” , it’s when they occur that is more significant. And I’ll be the first to admit that recent mistakes have gone in our favour but could also catalogue the many many times they went against us at critical times. Indirect free kicks going straight in, penalties given for fouls outside the box, hand balls not given, offsides given when clearly on side, and these are all in finals or semi-finals, never mind ordinary League or Cup games!

And so could probably every supporter of every team (well not the finals bit)! It’s the way we are, we don’t mention the one’s for, just the one’s against. And having scoured the mailbox, I couldn’t find any mails apologizing for a decision going in someones favour, just millions (tend to exaggerate at times) bemoaning their bad luck followed by as many “just get over it” responses.

So just let us have our whinge, your turn will come, and James Todoroski, try to remember the goal Liverpool had disallowed at the Etihad in 2013/14, clearly onside and had LFC won that game, there would be no Gerrard/Demba Ba song for you to sing at the Premier League Darts.
Howard (don’t mention Ronnie Goodlass, Alan Hansen or Stephane Henchoz) Jones

Hope for Hammers
As sad as it would be for Patrice Evra, West Ham being relegated whilst managed by David Moyes, and having moved to their shiny new stadium to break into the top 6, would be delicious.

Please please please…
Chris MUFC

No fear of the drop
A great game yesterday and a relief to get 3 points, but I can’t help but feel a bit dejected about Southampton full stop. It just hasn’t been much fun supporting them for the last 2 years and we now have a team largely without character, that much talent and a bang average manager. Which has led me to largely accepting relegation several weeks ago and while we may scrape survival, I’m not sure if I’d be that upset if we didn’t.

Football teams go in cycles and in my early Saint’s child supporting days I saw several midtable years (98/99 -> 04/05). The odd flirt with rotation, an FA Cup final yet also the twilight years of Matt Le Tissier and the last games at the Dell. Hardly spectacular, but as a kid surrounded by largely Saints supporting friends, it didn’t exactly matter.

Following a decent playoff run in 2006/7, the Dark Years truly came as we fell down to League 1 and were generally awful while also facing financial ruin. Not the best time to be a fan and I admit to not going to many games while (to my deepest shame) superficially supporting United because they actually won things and tended to be on TV.

At some point, the only way you can go is up and from 10/11 with the League Cup Trophy and a playoff charge led by good old Rickie Lambert ; it’s been a golden age. Eight years of almost continual upwards movement with a likeable team playing great football. There was an opportunity around the 14/15 or 15/16 season to double down and invest in the squad having made Europe. To pay players more to keep them, add a bit of squad depth and genuinely cement ourselves as a top 7 team.

Instead we sold all our players to Liverpool and Spurs and find ourselves in the current mess of just being bang average (at best). Which leads back to where I started. To have good times as a fan, you almost have to have bad times and I don’t think the previous 8 years would have been so amazing without the poor years before.

So, I’m not really sure I’d want to spend the next 4-5 years floating lower mid table, scraping 40 points year on year before eventually going down. Instead, a few years in the Championship (which is an awesome entertaining league) stripping out the dross while re-building a young, adventurous squad before having another Premier League adventure may well prove a far more entertaining journey.
Tom, Saints

Flying Eagles
A fifth of the season had passed before we got our first point, scored our first goal. In February our injury list was described by a manager with decades in the game as the worst he could remember. 12 first teamers were out, including Zaha, Sakho and Loftus-Cheek. Yes, we will keep mentioning this because it highlights the job that Roy Hodgson has done this season. He doesn’t even have the January signings boost that Allardyce had the previous season. We signed Sorloth, Rakip and Jach this January. Exactly.

So to see him serenaded down the tunnel this weekend as we virtually secured our 6th successive season in the top flight with our biggest ever Premier League victory was the high that all the lows deserved. I could go on and on about pretty much every player from Saturday, it was one of those. Ward blocking on the line. RLC, PVA or Jimmy Mac scoring. Another win and a clean sheet for Tomkins and Sakho. Zaha being just too good for you. But really, for me one moment stood out and brought a lump to the throat.

Standing on the Holmesdale when the ref, Mike ‘play on’ Dean awarded a penalty in front of us, gave me a great view of the interactions between the players. First it was Van Aanholt, putting his arm around Benteke and leading him to the penalty spot as the crowd chanted his name. Then it was Luka standing down and handing over the ball. Please just bloody score. The ball hits the net and leads to our whole team celebrating the fifth goal in a 5-0 win like it was a last minute winner. All huddled around a £30 million record signing who has scored 2 goals all season. When he broke from the huddle, Benteke very deliberately turned back to the crowd and gave us a little thumbs up, a little gesture of appreciation that had more than a few of us welling up. It was almost like redemption, for that Bournemouth penalty debacle, for various other misses over or wide of that goal, when we thought he’d scored but De Gea had other ideas.

That is why I go to football. At the moment at Palace, there is a very real connection between players and fans. When Luka missed a last minute penalty that would have seen us beat Man City, a disappointed, dejected crowd sung his name. You could see the emotion on his face, he later thanked us for it and scored the next game. Zaha thrives off the love he receives every week, a big smile on his face on Saturday as we told Leicester how good he is. I actually meant for this mail to be quite brief. Oh well, I guess the point is this, sometimes being a football fan is delightful.
Ant, CPFC

…On Saturday Crystal Palace and Grantham Town both won, on Sunday I saw an unlikely double bill of Early Man and Richard Herring’s Oh Frig I’m 50. My weekend > yours.

*That was Crystal Palace’s biggest win in the top flight since before I was born. What an absolutely superb performance. Ahead of Hotspur v Watford the Eagles are up to 11th, which is probably around where they should be based on their squad compared to other teams’. Above Brighton, at least.

*Palace lined up in their strikerless 4-4-2 formation, with Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend nominally up top but actually buzzing all across the line. By drifting wide it created space in the middle for a midfielder to step forward, and in Ruben Loftus-Cheek, they have someone capable of moving up in the way that Frank Lampard used to do for Chelsea. As much as it’s a PFM cliché to work the channels, by doing exactly that in recent weeks Zaha and Townsend have caused problems for defences as full-backs and centre-backs get themselves in a tangle. It’s similar to an NFL wide receiver running a seam pattern, intended to unlock a zonal defence by finding the edges of two defenders’ areas of responsibility and causing confusion.

*While Zaha made City’s defence dance to his tune on Saturday, it was also a game for some of his less heralded teammates to shine. This was another clean sheet for Mamadou Sakho and James Tomkins in central defence; Tomkins has arguably been Palace’s player of the season, in terms of how he has been a consistently good defender alongside a revolving cast of fellow centre-backs. James McArthur has been a reliable presence in midfield for a few seasons, so it was good to see him on the scoresheet. Joel Ward, perhaps under the most pressure of anyone for his place in the team, caught the eye early on with a goalline clearance to deny Jamie Vardy, with it only being slightly churlish to suggest that he wouldn’t have needed to do it if he hadn’t been paying the City ace onside.

*On Sunday there were some tweets doing the rounds suggesting Marc Albrighton should not have been sent off. They were all from a subsection of Watford fans who had presumably watched Match of the Day having finished their paper round, but still, it was annoying. It was a cynical foul by Albrighton, who can have no complaints, and yet, somehow didn’t leave the field immediately. Didn’t players used to be punished for that?

*At the risk of painting Christian Benteke as a modern day Ade Akinbiyi, it was great to see him score that penalty. His goalscoring form has been dreadful and it can’t help his confidence that he’s been sat on the bench as a strikerless side looks far better without him. However, by all accounts, he has continued to work hard both in training and during games, and there is little ill will towards him, only frustration.

It’s also worth pointing out to anyone who only saw the highlights on Match of the Day that although he was the one fouled, it took the combined efforts of Zaha, Patrick van Aanholt and Luka Milivojevic to persuade Benteke to take the penalty. I suspect this would not have happened in a closer game, but still nice to see.

*While plenty of media types are calling Palace as safe, many fans remember Oldham in 1993 and are aware that it’s still perfectly feasible that we can still go down. FiveThirtyEight.com says we have less than 1% chance of relegation but until it’s officially safe it’s basically nailed on.

Despite this, to even have a chance after our awful start to the season, means Roy Hodgson deserves a hell of a lot of credit. He has brought the team through a horrific injury crisis and conducted himself in an incredibly dignified manner.

*The Holmesdale Ultras held up banners on Saturday urging Tracey Crouch to rethink her position on safe standing at football matches. Didn’t know why she was so opposed to it, but then I realised she’s the MP for Chatham, and there’s no reasoning with people from Chatham.

(yes, I know it’s Chatham and Aylesford, and that she’s from Ashford)
Ed Quoththeraven

Oldham and ‘Dale ding-dong
Some very good analysis this morning but I would like to draw attention to this coming weekend’s League 1 relegation scrap.

Two famous Lancastrian towns in Oldham and Rochdale will be slugging it out. Latics away at Northampton and Dale entertaining play off chasing Charlton. There are genuine fears amongst both sets of supporters that relegation could trigger the financial death knell and the importance of these games, to both towns, cannot be overstated.

Having always retained a little soft spot for Oldham I’ll be in their camp and hope they can summon survival with a reprise of the famous chant from the Joe Royle glory days.

Meat Pie, Sausage Roll. Come on Oldham, give us a goal.
Richard, Manchester.

Hug a Potter
That grammatical take-down of Crooks via Mark Hughes is glorious.

Your only mistake is not considering that perhaps both possible scenarios are true. Maybe all the Stoke fans really want this season is a little affection…
Tom, Walthamstow

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