At what point do Liverpool accept Darwin Nunez won’t be the striker they need?
The Mailbox reacts to a mad night at Anfield which offered further proof that Darwin Nunez won’t cut it as a top-class striker. But maybe he might make a midfielder? Also: that penalty; Arsenal fans; and a use for Jadon Sancho…
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
New Year madness
Where to start?
Ref was all over the place. Decent start I thought but got overwhelmed. Wrong decisions for both teams.
A match Liverpool should’ve won 5-0 ended up increasing my average heart rate of the day to a not healthy number.
This was always going to be the problem if we didn’t take advantage of the fast start, which we didn’t. The penalty miss reminded me of the Leicester game a while back. Honestly thought we were going to lose after that.
Nunez has been and remains one of my favorite players ever. Why? I don’t know… could’ve had 3, ended up having 0. But he just looks so damn good on the pitch, powerful and quick. If he learns to finish, my god.
In the end the right result, though the second penalty should’ve been overturned and yellow to Jota. Not sure why he dived there, could’ve scored. Spared me a few minutes of elevated heart rate mind you but still. VAR should’ve done its job there. Clear and obvious to me.
Nik (top of the league, hello 2024), Paris
Darwin’s evolution
My new yr wasn’t happy til 3 pts were secured tonight and the toon put to the sword. Incidentally I wondered to myself at a scoreless halftime whether Eddie Howe could take our 9 and joelinton him into an 8, as he sure as hell will finish his stint amassing more offsides, more woodwork struck, more dissent, more clear chances spurned (and just perhaps, as silver lining, more assists too) than he ever will find the back of a net for his time at our football club.
The spotlight glaring off his big blank forehead will only burn ever brighter and I really think what’s been said in some quarters will soon be said in all corners with certain frankness– that we simply deserve better and he deserves pastures anew. Klopp, brilliant as he is, might just be in denial on this.
Eric, Los Angeles CA (on that note maybe Howe can do the reverse and morph Gravenberch into a forward as well… b/c he’s equally lost and inept in the middle of the park much as our striker is up front… but hey happy new yr to all)
Jog on, Jota
I switched on for the last few mins of the Liverpool Newcastle game last night just in time to see the Jota ‘penalty’.
I hope for his sake that his children, or Mother was not watching, as that was cheating plain and simple.
I’m as competitive as they come, but to see somebody stoop that low just to win a penalty disgusts me, especially when he had a clear chance to stick it in the net.
Shameful.
Chris (on a hill, somewhere)
Dubravka got off lightly
I can’t believe Conclusion nr. 14. It should have been a penalty AND a red card. Jota is well past the keeper when the keeper tries to bring Jota down. Jota is unbalanced by the foul, but thinks he can still score. The ball is running away from the goal and Jota then realises he might not be able to score from an ever tighter angle. He then decides not to try to stay on his feet, but drops to the floor, as every single player does nowadays, knowing that the var will award the penalty if the referee doesn’t (indeed, the var encourages diving if there was any kind of contact; slow mo replays will ensure the attacker gets the advantage). As the keeper made no attempt to win the ball, the rules say it should have been a penalty and a red card. I agreed with the other 15 conclusions, by the way.
G Thomas, Breda
Wishful thinking
I assume Liverpool fans will stop complaining about var and refs now? Probably not but then again they conveniently forget how often things go in their favour.
Won’t be surprised if a Newcastle player gets sent off in the last 3 minutes plus stoppage.
Anthony, Dublin
…We all need to remember, you can only criticise referees and VAR, when it is your team losing, whether decisions are correct or not. Nevermind when obvious faults in systematic processes are clearly identified in issues with other teams. It only counts if it affects me. F*** off Eddie.
Adam, LFC, Belfast.
…I am sure that the mailbox will be inundated with people complaining about the two penalties in the Liverpool game yesterday. Yes, both players dived to some degree (Jota especially) but there was clear contact on both occasions, which is no doubt why VAR didn’t intervene. Both of these things can be true simultaneously, which doesn’t mean it wasn’t a penalty (something the notoriously impartial Gary Neville seemed incapable of comprehending).
Also, any Newcastle fan questioning the decisions needs to explain how they were any different from the penalty Isak won against Forest less than seven days ago, or start their message with “I am being a massive hypocrite, but…”
Matt D, London
Joe go
Joelinton has just pulled back a Liverpool player. Anthony Taylor has played (a very good) advantage. The ball eventually goes out and there’s no booking for Joelinton. Mike Dean on comms says it’s because he didn’t stop an attack. But that’s only because the ref played an advantage; it was a still a cynical pull back.
I don’t understand. I don’t want to get onto officials but that is plain weird.
Stu, Southampton
Who goes where?
As I said earlier in season arsenal won’t be winning a title because they lack the mentality to go on extended runs and handle pressure.
So the top two is least interesting part since in my humble opinion it’ll be city top Liverpool second. I’d love to say Liverpool top but I think it’s a season too soon for us and we’re not as consistent as you need to be to fight off city. Theyre about to go on their usual 10-15 game bullshit winning streak as always and we are about to lose our best two performers in recent weeks to international competition. Maybe next year.
But who will finish 4th? Arsenal will be third. There’s genuinely 6 or 7 teams who could finish in top 4. I’d love it to be villa since Emery won’t put up the same pitiful efforts that Newcastle and United did. I can only assume United realised they won’t finish top 4 next year so tried to fuck up the coefficient so 4th doesn’t get champs league next year.
So villa would be my preferred choice, however, they too haven’t been in a sustained race like this for quite a while so I imagine they will tail off at some point. Spurs are just as likely to win 5-0 as they are to lose 5-0. So who’s left ? West ham? Brighton?
Will everton evade the evil fa forcing them to play shit so they get relegated just like they were forced to breach financial rules? Seriously everton fans knock it off with the pink card fa mafia nonsense. It’s not a conspiracy, you got caught breaking the rules, admitted breaking the rules and got punished for breaking the rules.
It’s gonna be an interesting second half of season.
Lee
Stray shots
I know Arsenal fans are struggling with the new year’s hangover (a great Stewie tribute from Dom, and then some late-stage Stewie himself) but let’s not try and attack other teams players to try and make yourself feel better.
I refer to Syfq’s generally quite good Arsenal email (6 Stewies out of 10) where he needs to use Tsimikas as an example of a bad left back backup covered by there being a decent midfield. Which… mean. Also completely botches the comparison in two ways.
Number one: Liverpool’s inverted fullback is on the right. So it’s Gomez or Bradley inverting into midfield and being supported by real defensive midfielders like, uh, the natural number 10, Mac Allister.
But also two: Tsimikas is pretty damn good. Not as good as Robertson, but then Robbo is in a “best ever Liverpool left back” and “best in the world” conversation. Though he might have slipped in the latter. Tsimi, on the other hand is merely really really solid. If Robertson did not exist, he would not be the first place we’d be looking to spend money in our defence.
In short (four paragraphs later) Tsimikas looked fine because he’s a good, senior experienced pro. Unfortunately, he’s a good, senior, experienced, injured pro at the moment, so instead we get to Gomez do his best out there. Which is surprisingly good.
Andrew M, Streatham.
Arsenal fan mail
I emailed in when Jurrien Timber got injured predicting Arsenal would finish second or third. However, I didn’t expect to be slipping away from the title race by the end of December. And, it might sound dramatic to make such a judgement with half a season to go, but, the margin for error is too tight in a league with City. But, I have to say, Arsenal have been really good this season, up until the past two league games. The recency bias coming in from the haters/fans is questionable at least. And, as much as the lack of converting chances before that was noticeable, those two recent defeats felt like they came out of nowhere. Even in the defeats to Villa and Newcastle we played well overall and got somewhat robbed in both.
On fans/haters, I agree with Stewie Griffin on the sluggishness, predictability, etc. But, boy, does he like good straw man. I guess he doesn’t count Xhaka as a key player from last season. Also, Arteta addressed improving on Zinchenko with the purchase of Timber. I don’t know if you can call Alonso a much needed replacement for Arteta right now, or even next season, as I don’t see Arteta as being a problem up to this point. In the way Stewie criticizes the fanbase for being complacent I think we have far too many reactionary fans. Hearing that “artetaout” was trending on twitter (that’s what I’m still calling it) was just astounding. Oh, and Stewie, stop patting yourself on the back for calling for things lots of fans were calling for way back, or for pointing out your anxieties came earlier than others’ when you simply can’t see or control every detail of how things turn out in sport. Every time I read his mails I just see a 40-year-old virgin who spends most of his time using spreadsheets. Although, if you can’t cope with inverted fullbacks then I’m guessing you must be well over 50. Mate, I think you might need to diversify your hobbies and interests as it’s clearly not doing you any good supporting Arsenal.
Anyway, I really hope our fanbase can stick together and stick with the boys, who, quite frankly, really look like they need a January break. I’m not making excuses. I’m just saying the Arsenal of the last two games was one I hadn’t previously seen this season. I reckon Arsenal now have a better chance of winning the Champions League than the Premier League. I mean, we technically wouldn’t have to win another match to lift the trophy. So, there’s that.
Simon, Norf London Gooner
Read more: Premier League winners and losers: Arsenal and awful Antony receive a New Year’s lashing
Gooners aren’t the problem
There’s a lot to unpack from our latest failure against Fulham but I want to address one repeated accusation that you-know-who keeps making in the mailbox: Arsenal fans are to blame because they continuosly accept failure and mediocrity and because they think Wenger is a flawless higher being.
This is demonstrably false. Unless you have serious memory issues you should be able to recall the Wenger In/Out debate that split the fanbase. There was an enormous number of Arsenal fans that got sick of Wenger and wanted him gone, including some that regularly attended home games. In fact there were groups of match-going fans dedicated to getting rid of Wenger that kept hoisting banners that called for Wenger to leave. A quick google search will confirm all this but evidently that may be beyond some mailbox contributors.
Secondly, there are plenty of Arsenal fans out there that got tired of the “top 4 is an achievement mentality” and the decline of the club’s competitiveness during the 2010s. Anyone who actually spent time in Arsenal circles online and offline would know this. Every season was rife with enraged Gooners saying things like “it’s Groundhog day”, “it’s the hope that kills you” and the admittedly hilarious “spend some f****** money”. Personally I got sick and tired of Wenger in the second half of the 2010s by which point it was obvious that Wenger was incapable of keeping up with the changes of the modern game.
It’s because of this anger, declining attendances and protests at the stadium that we finally improved and transformed from a hopeless side languishing in 10th place to somewhat competitive near the top of the table. Sacking Emery, who lacked English skills at the time and had us playing dire football not too dissimilar to the Fulham game, is exactly the kind of ruthlessness that Stewie demands.
Almost all Arsenal fans will agree that the current squad has deficiencies and Arteta has made transfer errors. There’s plenty of anger and frustration at the manager’s and the players’ performance in recent weeks. So this idea that Gooners are acting all hunky dory about the club is simply wrong. As usual Stewie is creating an illusion for himself to knock down. He’s fighting ghosts. Arsene Wenger left the club ages ago
and Stewie still keeps mentioning him even though Wenger is completely irrelevant now. Emery wasn’t the right man for us at the time and he needed to further his skills before returning to England so we sacked him. It can’t be so hard to understand these things.
Stewie only gets printed here because his views are outrageous and they elicit reactions. He quite clearly doesn’t spend time with actual Arsenal fans. He represents the decline in mailbox quality and the decline of fandom in the modern footballing age. I look forward to the smart-arse replies saying “bUt yOu ArE rEspOndInG to sTeWiE so yoU aRe FeeDiNg iT”. Yeah how dare I try to address a problem about the quality of this website.
Vish (AFC), Melbourne, Aus
Great(er) expectations
Two days, two clubs with particularly inflated egos continue to see what appeared to be a great season start to falter.
Arsenal tepidly fall to Fulham with a 2nd of back-to-back losses, one at home to a club on good form and one away to a club on, well, less so. Both what they would call “winnable” games, neither particularly justifiable by outside factors.
Newcastle lose comfortably at Anfield with a scoreline that particularly flatters them. No shame in losing at Anfield of course but they now sit firmly in “begging on a win territory” with 6 points from a possible 21 since PSG nicked a draw in the Champions League.
What do both clubs have in common? Other than a shared dislike of each other over the last 18 months. They share the additional weight of moving targets and I wonder if there’s not some possibility either (or both) might not be too far from making a new plan in panic, “planic” if you will.
Arsenal 2 years ago could easily have said that success for them under Arteta looks like competing for titles and being back in the Champions League. Coming so close to actually winning one last year, and then relatively comfortably coming out their group in Europe has changed that view for those outside the club and for many inside the club leading to relative disappointment for back-to-back losses in a Season where even City have had back-to-back losses.
Newcastle by the same margin. I feel, would have said success looks like getting into the Champions league and sitting at the top table, a task they would have expected to take some time but instead was relatively comfortably managed within 18 months of the take over in January 2022 followed by an early and ego-buffering tanking of a European giant in the group stages.
In both cases, if on 2nd January 2022 you’d told the wider football discourse where both would sit on 2nd January 2024 you’d have got cries of “not a chance”, I am very confident of this however following last season, this Christmas period now feels like a huge step back for both.
So to bring in my 3rd example of inflated expectations as a conclusion, if in 2018 you’d told Tottenham fans that they’d reach a Champions League final and then sack their most consistent and arguably successful manager (no actual trophy of course, but there’s a case) within 6 months of that, you may well of been on the receiving end of some mockery.
Are Arsenal’s owners and Newcastle’s owners likely to follow such drastic madness? I’ll say that personally I don’t see it…… yet.
Harold E Hooler (A happy new year to all, may 2024 be filled with happiness and joy and your club be successful while your rivals falter)
How to make use of Sancho
Has football become so complicated nowadays? Is it now a case of how much money you have to spend (waste?) that prevents people from just making common sense decisions? Or am I just over-simplifying things? Take the Sancho, Antony, man united situation as an example. Sancho, an expensive player (both fee and wages) training with the kids as a result of a falling out with the manager. A decent enough winger if the fees are to be believed. Antony, an expensive player (both fee and wages) criticised from all quarters for not being good enough, a one-trick pony etc. Why not let Sancho train with Antony, hopefully improving Antony’s game and variations? Meaning Sancho serves a purpose at the club while it is paying his wages and Antony gets the chance to improve his skills, which helps man united if it all pans out. Too simplistic?
Heavy-D, Cape Town.
Hands and feet
Given that Barry remembers 1988, it’s possible that he played hockey back then, and hasn’t really looked at the rules since. From the rules of hockey:
It is not always an offence if the ball hits the foot, hand or body of a field player. The player only commits an offence if they gain an advantage or if they position themselves with the intention of stopping the ball in this way.
Remove “foot” and “body” and you’d have a pretty good rule for football.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
