Hilarity at Mr Sulky Choppy Klopp continues in the Mailbox

Those who do not support Liverpool have very much enjoyed the Klopp fall-out from Sunday. Send your own views on any subject to theeditor@football365.com

Liverpool bullies have a weakness
I have watched Liverpool demolish several teams over recent years with performances which have left me utterly flabbergasted as to how Klopp and his staff manage to create such a well drilled and ridiculously fit and motivated team that can produce super human performances week in week out. I couldn’t see how Liverpool could be beaten. They had no apparent weaknesses. But they did – and do – of course (Dean Smith’s Aston Villa’s comprehensive deconstruction of the pressing game the case in point which most other managers bar Conte seem to have ignored).

But perhaps the most ‘hidden in plain sight’ weakness came during the Spurs game. They simply do not like it up ‘em! Life is great when everything is going well, when you’re getting all the praise from your team of Liverpool-puppet pundits, spouting the propaganda needed to sow the seeds of doubt in your next opponents, having them scurry off into a collective defensive mush and brain fart their way through 90+ minutes.

And then Conte has the balls to set his team up to beat them, and their manager (especially their manager), their fans and their butt-licking team of pundits all behave like a bunch of spoilt entitled children when their bully-boy (sorry, but the pressing part of the Liverpool approach is horrible to watch – a game of forced mistakes, no more sophisticated than that of the school playground, and a lot like when your much older brother holds you at arms length whilst you furiously swing with no chance of connecting) game plan goes awry and they don’t get their own way. It’s hilarious to watch and I for one look forward to more of the same from Mr Sulky Choppy Klopp and Co.

BTW, what did Klopp put in his post-match/pre-interview cup of tea on Sunday?
Ally, London

Actually, they are angels
Funny you should ask, Ryan of Bermuda, but yeah, relatively speaking Klopp’s Liverpool are angels. Five fair play awards in a row. That’s a record. The previous one was two.

The straight reds during our time are the Robertson (sure), the Mane high boot on Ederson (unlucky and not a challenge) and Allison handling outside the box. So it’s the first dangerous play card.

More than that, if you watch Liverpool, you’ll notice they mostly use a lot of what I’ll call block tackles: staying upright and not going to ground. That and simply rushing opposition players into mistakes does most of the work.

So, yes, thank you for pointing out how ridiculously angelic the Reds have been.
Andrew M, London

See above
Ryan, Bermuda, please do not poke the hornet’s nest like that!

You know full well certain Liverpool types will indeed try to claim their team are angels.

Don’t you know that everybody who ever pulls on that all-red strip instantly ranks amongst the most decent, honest and honourable human beings that ever walked the Earth!

These titans of men are up there with Gandhi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama when it comes to nobility, moral fibre and generosity of spirit! Whenever these Gods among men bend over, us lesser mortals are treated to a warm and dazzling burst of sunshine from their back passages. Liverpool players are incapable of foul play. They do not cheat. Ever! They merely “give the referee a decision to make”. Duh!

In all seriousness, there is nothing quite like seeing Liverpool get f**ked over by a couple of contentious refereeing decisions, leading to a couple of dropped points and then sitting back to savour the inevitable and unseemly collective online fanbase (and Jurgen Klopp) have the mother of all meltdowns over it. It is truly glorious and nothing compares to it. This one has been a doozy. Thank you Tottenham Hotspur/Paul Tierney for this most unexpected early Christmas present!

Merry Christmas, one and all!
Lee, No Angel

Referee fixes?
As the dust settles (?) after Sunday’s game the focus of attention should be on the use of the VAR. Talk of ‘clear and obvious’ or ‘contentious’ decisions is frankly pointless. These are comparative expressions that mean nothing and are subjective. So how about this, at any time during the match if a referee is going to give a card, of any colour, to a player in an incident HE HAS SEEN he MUST review it at the pitch-side monitor before awarding the card. Only in the case where his view may have been obstructed should the VAR then say ‘you need to take another look’. Yes, this might make the game a bit stop-start but it puts the decision making with the on-field officials. Probably not a perfect solution but something needs to happen.
Ian Ramsden, New Brighton

…Dont often write in but when i saw the mail from Turiyo Damascene about officials I had to, “The ref made some bad calls but everyone makes mistakes” yes we all make mistakes but not ones that impact so many people from financial to their actual health, jumping is why Andrew Robertson is not currently in a hospital or coming out of surgery for a potential career ending surgery that is not a mistake like forgetting a bag of shopping or bringing an umbrella with you to the shops.

Why are we so scared to call these officials out when they do a bad job, the excuse “they suffer abuse”, they get shouted at because they are so bad at their jobs that is why, if you look in Europe you will notice they do not have half the issues with bad calls and mistakes as the English game, we need key changes to the system and that would be one similar to rugby where we can hear the officials talking to one another and to the players.
Johnny, Brentford FC Fan

Can we leave Ole alone now?
On the back of Badwolf slagging off Ole for loaning players out, not playing youth players, and the loss of Angel Gomes (because he scored a goal in the French cup against a Ligue 2 side, bringing his tally to 2 goals and zero assists in 14 appearances for Lille).

Using Gomes as an example, let’s just accept Badwolf’s implication that 2 goal contributions in 14, for the team that currently sits in 11th in Ligue Un, by a player who has actually only appeared in 28% of that team’s league fixtures and has been on the pitch for approx 25% of their league minutes is a major loss (though I’m not getting strong “one that got away” vibes just yet).

After signing for Lille he (checks notes), was immediately sent out on loan for a season – a cardinal sin when Ole dies it but, seemingly was just the thing that set Angel off on the path to his current status as a world beater (a masterstroke by then manager Christophe Galtier).

Ole didn’t work out for United. Everyone had a good laugh at him and the club but the moment’s passed. Making up new sticks to beat him with is just distasteful.
Andy (MUFC)

…Odd how Ole is gone and he is still able to garner comments in the mailbox.

So Badwolf wants us to lament Angel Gomes’s decision to move to Lille where it has taken five months to register his first goal instead of sticking around at age 21 to be Bruno’s understudy at Utd .

He also thinks Heaton ( ex academy by the way) who just arrived and is 3rd choice is the reason, Henderson , who wants to leave because he isn’t undisputed first choice having lost out on the battle last year with an improved De Gea

He honestly can’t remember Perreira and Lingard (both academy) being all shades of awful for six months and has also missed the games this season where Lingard has lost us a game against Young boys and Won games against .

He can’t contemplate why Williams has been allowed to go and get valuable game time at Norwich on his preferred side instead of being shoe horned in on the right where he was uncomfortable last year.

He feels Ole shouldn’t get credit for Mctominay because he was already there but turns around to complain that he didn’t use Elanga and Amad despite giving their debuts and using them as much as he could in dead rubbers and Europa cup games.

He also gave Shoretire his debut at 17 , Hannibal has been in the U-23s and has unfortunately missed out on more chances due to mis-timed injuries .

He feels loans for Levitt and Garner are pointless even though this is a tactic that a club like Chelsea used to give players valuable experience and thinks they should instead have stayed and fought with Matic and Mata for less than 800 minutes of football combined.

Tuanzebe I grant you should have played more but even when he got the chance didn’t inspire confidence the game against sheffield united springs to mind.

Youth in the United squad is a balancing act. At the very least 7or 8 players got their first chances or debut (remember astana) under Ole. The issue is that with the high expectations of the support, the players have to grasp any opportunity they get to impress (those who did stayed in the team.

Anyway Ramgnick is here now, United will start playing 11 players who were born just outside Old trafford every week.
Timi, MUFC

How far are Arsenal away?
I tend to zone in and out when Merson speaks (“they won’t be playing on Boxing Day” was said at least six times tonight) but he was being positive about Arsenal so I listened.

For a long time “we’ve been “a few world class players” away from challenging. However, tonight Merse, while naming all our young players said “they could be the next United”. I took this as a reference to the class of ‘92 and their abundance of young talent.

As it stands I can only see a somewhat immediate need for a real top class striker in this team and a mid term need for the same calibre of central midfielder. It’s conceivable that our goalkeeper, defence and attacking midfield could remain unchanged for the next 6-7 years.

That United team Merson mentioned would sign 1-2 big names a season max. Is this where Arteta is taking Arsenal? I’m really excited to see.
James, Kent

Why should AFCON take the brunt?
Let me ask David-Toronto a question; why should AFCON bear the burden of acting in the best interest of the players?

Seriously, these best league competitions in the world are not postponing games, in fact one such league (the best one?) has decided to go ahead, despite this global outbreak, and play their games. They have almost picked at random which games before now were postponed, jeopardising the integrity of the competition, not to mention putting the playing staff at risk.

Furthermore, David, AFCON has already changed to a June/July tournament format to go along with the European summer, which greatly benefits the teams and African players who play there, so they don’t miss a chunk of the season. However, because of that globally occuring pandemic you mentioned, this current tournament had to be postponed, to now. So to further postpone it would bring financial hardship upon an already financially burdened organisation.

And there’s the rub, the reason the Premier League, and Champions League, and Euro 2020 weren’t canceled at any point throughout the pandemic, and why games had to persevere when all logic dictated they couldn’t, or shouldn’t. When some games were played in different countries, or closed stadiums, and all sense of fair competition went out the window, because to postpone would lose the competition’s money. And the European competitions have a lot more money to lose than CAF. Yet, they aren’t expected to postpone their January games for this globally occuring wave.

AFCON absolutely shouldn’t go ahead because of covid reasons, but has as much right to go ahead as other competitions do. And to suggest it should be postponed for player safety reasons, when said players will just have to play anyway but in a different country is moronic.
Neill, Ireland