Where was Liverpool’s ‘new midget’ as Germany lost to France?

Florian Wirtz would not have impressed many poor Liverpool fans v France, while we also have views on Reece James, Arsenal, Spurs and Bruno Fernandes.

Send your views on any subject to theeditor@football365.com

It gets Wirtz
Feel for the Liverpool fans tuning in to the Germany v France reserves game to see their new midget in action, but he didn’t even get on the pitch, poor lad!!! It’s poor form from Nagelsmann if you ask me. The less said about Gnabry’s new barnet the better too.
RHT/TS

Why Reece James?
Full disclosure, I don’t watch England qualifiers anymore. The last game I saw in person was wally in the brolly. I’m now at a stage of life where I’m time poor and quite frankly England vs Andorra isn’t making it.

It’s interesting that Tuchel is coming with his Chelsea favourites, especially as they aren’t overly excellent. Reece James is an odd one for me. Only getting in because Tuchel has worked with him before and not on merit.

He is good of course, when he plays, but what’s the point of picking him? It reminds me of when Ledley King kept being picked for England when fit at Carragher’s expense. Eventually Carragher retired from international football which was fair. Carragher may not have been has good as King but Carragher was regularly playing in the later stages of the Champions League and was racking up hundreds of appearances for Liverpool.

Southgate really was good about thinking about a team dynamic in his squads. I really don’t fancy Tuchel as England manager at all but whatever. I don’t fancy half of England games anyway.
Alex, South London

READ: England player ratings v Andorra: Palmer poor while Madueke shines as Tuchel’s only shining light

This Arsenal fan does not want to be in Spurs’ shoes
What on earth have I just read? ‘Ange was a good coach for Tottenham who sacrificed the league for a cup win (you know deep down Arsenal fans wish Arteta could do this).’

I absolutely do not wish Arteta could do this. I don’t want to be in the Europa League. Can we stop pretending he hasn’t been backed. Spurs have spent more on their team than Arsenal in both the last two years and the last 5. They’re not some overachieving team. Ange did no sacrifice the league. They were just shit. Did they sacrifice top 4 last season too? Because that’s how long they’ve been dreadful for. It’s not just “Oh, actually lads forget about the league we will just win the EL”. No, you’ve been horrendous in the league and you got lucky.

I genuinely can’t stress enough how little I care about the Europa League. I hate when Arsenal are in it. It just bores me. I only care that it brings CL football. The trophy itself doesn’t move me. It’s embarrassing because it means we are mediocre if we are competing in it. Aside from that, the standard of teams that now compete in it is so bad. There genuinely doesn’t seem to be much difference between the EL and Conference League.

I don’t dislike Spurs at all. I think they have a very solid team and should be challenging for top 4. Injuries absolutely ruined them at times but it’s still not good enough. I’m an Irish Arsenal fan so never really have to be around Spurs, so I wanted them to beat United. Their gloating towards Arsenal fans is exactly what they should do but it doesn’t bother me at all. I could not deal with football if Arsenal came 17th and won the EL. I would despise the entire team I think and want Arteta gone. I’m not sure if I’m the exception here but whatever.
Dion, Arsenal & Donegal

European changes coming?
Hi James the exiled gooner. Didn’t Arsenal lose their one Europa cup final of just a few years ago? Bow down to Spurs European dominance of north London gooners.

I can’t see UEFA keeping the lower European cups the same format for long. England will dominate them. Roma won the first Conference league after Spurs being forced to give away a 3 0 loss in the group stage due to covid cases. Won 2 of the other three.

The Europa league without the champions league drop outs really undermines it. Spurs and United, when not shit, should be good enough to be a Europa league final with the CL drop outs, but adding in City, Sporting, June, Monaco, Brest (snigger) should have seen the Spurs and united of last year cleared out.

Five teams from the PL in the CL also really undermines it too. That’s a quarter of the league. You exclude promoted teams and it’s nearly a third. Its too many. Its meant to be an earned privilege to even play in it and a bloody magnificence to win it from there. Not scrape in 5th, or wherever, tank your league form so you scrape your way through by being slightly less tired.
Alex, South London

Man Utd and Ten Hag groupthink
Given that nobody seems to really care about the football that’s on right now (and fair enough) I figure it will be a slow mail day, so what better time to challenge a bit of accepted football wisdom.

Some comments just from yesterday’s mailbox:

A few lucky games to win a trophy don’t mask a season of underperforming – it’s like nobody learnt anything from Man Utd and Ten Hag.
James (Gooner exiled in the North East)

and we avoided the ETH trap of keeping the wrong guy for (understandable) emotional reasons.

In short, ManU made the wrong call after the FA Cup, but it doesn’t follow that Spurs made the right one.

Pundits, media and both mailboxers and commenters below the line all just fire this out, everyone nods and agrees, and it all moves on.

But let’s really investigate that claim, that United were clearly and definitively wrong to not sack Ten Hag after winning the FA Cup.
The obvious counter is going to be “they spent money on his signings, then sacked him. Should have sacked him in the summer and brought in the new manager then”.

What’s the basis for that claim? The new manager bounce from Amorin? Watching United fly up the table after getting rid of the Ten Hag anchor holding them back?

Amorin in the Premier League W7 D6 L14. No cup wins, lost in the Europa League to the guy that just lost his job.

For anyone to stroke their metaphorical beard, nod and pronounce right now sacking Ten Hag was right and is proven now, I’d say hasn’t thought it through. It’s far too early to say if that’s true.

What if this season wasn’t just Amorin being stubborn, and after yet another transfer window and season of playing the only formation he knows, it turns out it wasn’t taking over in mid season that was the issue – it’s the fact Amorin can’t do it at United, and they finish 15th again – will everyone still think it was a great idea to sack Ten Hag?

People saying sacking Ten Hag was definitely the right thing to do seem to be basing that on “United weren’t doing great in the league, rubbish players were being signed for loadsa money and 8th is not an acceptable league position”.

Not on the fact that United are now 15th at the end of the season, the current manager has lost over 50% of the Premier League games he’s managed and doesn’t look like he’s got a Scooby on how to manage in the Premier League, and they are now losing Cup Finals to Spurs. Sounds like a definite upgrade to me. Great decision.

The “backing” for the decision being wrong is some theory that Ruben would have come in between seasons, and smashed it having had a full preseason and his own signings. Based on the evidence of this season, that’s a pretty confident claim based on nothing.

You could equally argue that once United stuck with Ten Hag – firing him was the wrong decision. They should have stuck it out at least until the end of the season. United backed him in the window, but didn’t give him time to do anything with those players.

And just for one last cliche – one Antipodean for another, and a Liverpool fan having an unnecessary dig at an Arsenal fan this year.

Turns out Levy also thought Spurs season was less successful than Arsenal’s. Thanks for moving so swiftly to shut up that nonsense Danny boy!

Look at James getting all giddy after Arteta has Arsenal where Spurs were under Poch. You know, challenging for the league without actually getting there, and not quite winning trophies. I guess at least Poch got Spurs to a final in the CL rather than a semi final.
Dixon “Football is over, put the cricket on” Hunt

Still talking about Bruno
Whoa, hold on a minute-to everyone out there, my intention wasn’t to bash Bruno in any way (I did say he was world class didn’t I?). I simply meant that fans do not react positively to his physical display when losing or when things aren’t going his way (the arm waving and the sorry face).

His qualities as a player (defensive or attacking capabilities) are undeniable and it is clear (as the stats show) he is among the top midfielders in the league. His effort is shown in every game he plays and he has very few “off days” (compare this with Palmer, Odegard who are highly inconsistent when it comes to team effort).

I meant to say that he is not appealing (“handsome “) enough to fans watching the game because his physical display suggests someone who is helpless or someone who doesn’t have any qualities to save his team despite having them.

The reality is that he is a very good player (his teammates on the pitch and the coach definitely see this), however the perception you (the fan) get from watching him is that of a loser seeking your mercy.

There is a certain beauty in football. I can see I rubbed some people the wrong way by using the word handsome in Bruno’s case but deep down you know I meant to use the word in the football galaxy.

Lastly Vieira, Keane, Gattuso even Gerrard and Lampard weren’t handsome – it’s the way they displayed themselves on the pitch that was so appealing to the football fan, a display that made the fan desire to see more.
Jamo, Nairobi (Man’s Vogue? – my heart almost stopped)

The P team
Angelo Peruzzi

Puyol Pique Passarella Stuart Pearce

Manu Petit Pirlo

Platini

Robert Pires Pele Puskas

Subs: Pagliuca, Petrescu, Popescu, Platt, Podolski

Coach: Bob Paisley
Nick, LFC, YNWA

The M team
Makelele not being in the ‘M team,’ is wild.

Honourable mention to Mahrez too.
Izzy