Liverpool panic is over as quartet put down ‘bang average’ Man City and retire overhyped De Bruyne
The Liverpool hysteria has subsided and a comfortable stroll at ‘bang average’ Manchester City can be properly savoured thanks to three unsung heroes.
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FAO: Liverpool fans
Southampton fan here, just watching Liverpool’s lead pass our points total for the season.
I get why some of you felt things were slipping away after you drew a game. In recent times, City would have gone on a 15 game winning streak and you’d lose the league by those two points. They’d maybe even pull that prank where they concede first on the final day before winning 4-1. But this time, you’re honestly fine. There is no Arsenal machine.
Rob (try and enjoy it, yeah?)
What a difference a weekend makes
OK, I’m not scared any more.
Hodge
Man City fans 30 seconds into the game. Do they want to sing about the treble? No. Do they want to sing about 4 leagues in a row? No. Do they want to sing about 100 points in a season? No. Do they want to sing about Steven Gerrard? Yep. I guess money really can’t buy class lads.
That was nothing like the Anfield game in that Man City looked entirely toothless. Doku and Savinho are both the classic all fart no poo wingers; love to beat a man. Zero idea what to do when it actually happens. Maybe Haaland as a central target would’ve made them look better today but they looked clueless and our right and left back have both been made to look defensively suspect this season. Post Robinho I’ve never seen such a bang average version of City. Can’t believe they’re even in contention for the top 4 because that was one of the easiest away wins we’ll record all season.
Mo Salah is great, but I can’t help but love Curtis Jones. He’s so good under pressure, always trying to be creative and he scores one which is just offside and does he hang his head or does he rile up his team mates and keep them focussed. Klopp always talked about the leaders in the old team and it’s great to know he’s around the place. He’s so much better than people give him credit for. I really see a future where him, Bellingham, Foden and Rice are the keys for England.
11 points clear. What an absolutely perfect weekend.
Minty, LFC
I don’t know if it’s an age thing or a Slot tactical thing but I have had such a calmness watching our games this season. Not that that’s necessarily a better experience, I f**king loved the emotional journey that Klopp’s teams took me on.
Anyway, things are looking good. As I said in Thursday’s mailbox, a point away at Villa is not too shabby. Unfortunately, we’ve almost all been conditioned to believe that any dropped points are catastrophic due to the crazy points totals of the past few years coupled with hysterical media coverage.
Looking forward to Wednesday’s match with a strong Newcastle!
James Outram, Wirral
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Well.
Drop points. Panic. Its Arsenals. Yadda yadda….
Some weekend that.
This, this is why we love it coz you just have no idea whats gonna happen.
Apart from Stewie, Stewie knows.
Al – LFC happy days.
One step closer; no more, no less.
Aidan, Lfc
Delightful
Hoping that silences the naysayers, particularly in our own fans, realising that draws away to Everton and Villa aren’t the disastrous results that they thought.
Since when did people expect a team to win every game?! Guys, this isn’t Citeh we’re against, it’s a strikerless Arsenal.
I said before this 5 game run (Newcastle being the last) that I’d be ecstatic with 10 points, we could end up with 11! That’s an incredible performance.
Salah gets the plaudits, but bugger me, Konate and VVD were imperious today. Their wingers had our full backs on toast but we managed the game due to our centre backs.
Magnificent result.
David (Are the wheels coming off still? How’s the bottling going?) Molby, Shrewsbury
Messi’s heir
I would’ve loved to have seen Maradona more , in a time when refs were giving him zero protection his innate ability was wonderous . Even the Malvinas could not make me not love him .
Was he better than Leo Messi ?
I did see Messi maintain more than a decade at consistently elite levels . You cannot be a great of the game if you don’t perform consistently high , season upon season, Messi did that .
Now Mo Salah has performed consistently since 2017 – 2025 for Liverpool , I say he is in front of Kylian as Messi’s heir as the greatest player ‘since Messi’.
Which is different from saying he is as good as Messi .
How much wealth will LFC gain from being Champions ? Enough to tie down their captain , their talisman , sign a Zubimendi and a Robertson replacement ?
Nick a Swedish striker from the Magpies ? Get Rodrygo Goes to replace Mo .
United fans won’t thank me for saying this but striking while the Arne Iron is hot could take Liverpool a ways in front of that 20 -20 vision .
Peter ( still a title race in spain ) Andalucia
Don’t rule out Arsenal!
Not quite sure why folks condemn Arsenal’s chances due to an “11-point lead”. If Arsenal win their game in hand, it’s back to 8points … And there’s still 1/3 of the season to go, surely it’s a little early to declare the end of Arsenal’s chances?
Or maybe it’s just typical click-bait hyperbole from sports journos lol…
And btw, did I see correctly? Everton’s been above Man U for 1 week already, and had the peno been given, it would have been a bigger gap. Given how Everton were flirting with relegation earlier, and how well they’ve done since Moyes returned, did Man U appoint the wrong replacement manager? Asking for a friend…
Gab YNWA (PS Man U didn’t knock us off the perch… we fell off ourselves… just as Man U are falling off the perch ever further now. Hope it doesn’t take you 30 years to win the next EPL title… we know, it’s painful.)
A message from Howard Webb
We have a right go at refs when they make mistakes, so it’s only right we acknowledge when they do well. I thought Anthony Taylor did really well in the City/Liverpool game.
Admittedly, the VAR not awarding Villa a penalty and taking Everton’s away were both highly questionable if not wrong showing that there are clearly still issues, but the fact that Sunday afternoon’s game passed with no major incident was really refreshing.
Hope everyone’s keeping well!
Stu, Southampton
Not my GOAT
Many years ago, I wrote into this mailbox to make the case that Kevin “the prince” De Bruyne was an overrated player. The media were calling him the best player in premier league history and I found this to be a bizarre advertising spin by Sky etc to justify the price of a subscription. I made this point on the basis that in his greatest individual season, De Bruyne equaled the assist record of Thiery Henry and Muzzy Izzet. The Izzet, Henry, De Bruyne record of 20 assists in a season is nothing to belittle. However, I always felt that if De Bruyne was the best ever in the league, his numbers should have been much higher given the team he played in were scoring 100 goals or so a season.
Kevin’s Declinye isn’t getting much attention, but it must be said that if these are his last months in the best league, it’s been a damp squib ending to a period which won’t have many great moments to really remember. Those big moments never really came did they? I’m talking those individual moments where he made something from nothing. No Agueeeero or Kompany goal for sky to use to create a sense of spectacle or magic around the new season or run in.
I can’t see him on The Overlap laughing manically about how he had to battle in moments against great players. I can’t see him talking about great battles against opponents of equal stature because he was part of a team that was overwhelmingly better than everything around them for so long. I’m sure city will be back to destroy what’s left of the game, but I’m so incredibly glad that the hype machine around De Bruyne is fading.
With 11 games to go, Mo Salah is on 16 assists and 25 goals. If he breaks that assist record and goes over 30 goals, then by the standards of the hype machine, he should be viewed as the greatest of them all.
Jamie, Eire
Blaming the coach
Supporting a club is more than a little like being in a cult. The leadership or players don’t love you like you think they do. In fact, they don’t care about you at all, other than how you can serve their ego. Yet people will die in a ditch over their misguided beliefs. (Shout out to people on United forums who have tried to claim Bruno is the best AM in the PL.)
Billionaires can be idiots too, as demonstrated by (maybe correctly) sacking a manager who was mid open heart surgery and replacing him with one that required very different types of players. Arrogance or ignorance, I don’t know which. Possibly both and more.
There is no money to change the squad, now or in the summer, so belief it will suddenly get better is misguided.
Amorim is not the second coming. It’s possible he’s actually a naughty boy. Pre-season is great but it’s not longer than 3 months and we’ve seen zero progress so far.
For all his sticking to principles, he’s shown an impressive inability to coach them. Give him his ideal squad and I’m sure he’d be great, but so would everyone. You can’t tell me a good manager can’t coach a player like Dalot or Bruno to follow fairly basic instructions while playing in basically their favoured positions. You also won’t tell me that you can’t get at least a serviceable forward out of Højlund as we’ve seen that he can be during that lovely period when he made runs and people actually passed to him.
Obsession with training is fine, but give me a player that is lazy on the training pitch but delivers in matches any day of the week.
A willingness to play youth is something I will always be fond of. And you won’t tell me that even an unready but position-suited youngster wouldn’t be better than someone like Casemiro in that midfield.
I have no hope. I have no belief in Amorim or the owners. I have belief in a number of players but I have no trust that this manager will use them effectively, or that any of them will be at the club in a year.
One last thing then. For the last 18 months, while Shaw has been injured, Rashford was crying out for a left back who could overlap and support. Then United buy one but let him go on loan. It’s like when Liverpool signed Suarez as the perfect partner for Torres only to sell Torres. Moments of pure genius.
Badwolf
Blaming the players
I read a lot of narrative out there that changing the manager won’t solve anything because it’s the same players that have let every manager down.
But this is patently untrue. The squad is totally different since ETH came in, and has changed a lot even since his first season. In his first season only Martinez, Dalot, Casemiro, Eriksen and Fernandes in the current squad regularly started! Maguire was there and Garnacho was coming through otherwise EVERYONE else is new.
It’s not the players – who show mostly before they come to Utd and increasingly after as well that they are good players.
It’s the CLUB. Varane said recently that at Madrid they really protected the players in what is a mega pressure environment but they don’t at Utd. The players need to feel safe to perform. At Utd they don’t. Simple as that. Why? I don’t know. But it’s clear.
New manager. New players. Same rubbish results always. Unless the new management are going to manage the club better than the Glazers and Woodward did and recognise the need for a positive and safe culture throughout, there will only be further decline. Unfortunately the signs on this are only really negative.
I’m a Utd fan, but I’d take relegation if it means getting the Glazers out of the club and hopefully they have to sell for much less. In the long term it will be better than keeping them as hopefully someone who actually cares to make the ‘football’ club (not just the money) successful will come in.
Nishul Saperia
Blaming everyone
I haven’t sent a mail in for ages, I wanted to see what happened with Ten Hag being replaced by Amorim and Ineos having time to implement some new ideas.
They’re an absolute shit show and it won’t improve. Cost cutting and the dogs breakfast that is/was Dan Ashworth!! What’s that about?
As for Amorim, I’m struggling to be on board. The system he plays could have us line up with attack minded players wide and in the 3 central attacking spots (5) but week after week we line up with defensive players out wide (Dalot and Mazroui or Dorgu) leaving Bruno, Hojlund and one other, Amad or Zirkzee as an attacking force…..3…..pathetic, who’s scoring the goals Ruben?
Rashford, Antony and Sancho are more use to us out on loan…..wow !
MoTD flashed up a stat last night we’d scored 1 first half goal in the last 17 games….and it was a penalty.
This system is crap. Our players are crap. Our owners are crap. I don’t believe Ten Hag, Amorim etc are crap they’re clearly good managers, none of them are going to thrive in this atmosphere.
Bruno wasting his peak years in this side is a travesty, I’m baffled how he hasn’t chucked a transfer request in.
Which players have come and kicked on?
Apparently Sancho was a wrongun with a crappy attitude and if the club knew it and signed him it says a lot. If they didn’t know and signed him, it says even more, scouting and background checks through anyone who knows him could have prevented that one easily, and if a club isn’t getting the easy things right it has a serious problem.
We’ll finish 15th and we’ll have to wait and hope for improvement next season, but we won’t be holding our collective breaths…
Gibbo (MUFC – down under)
System shenanigans
Two simple questions as a response to the suggestion that Ruben Amorim should ditch his own tried-and-trusted tactics to move to a system that will suit these players – why would he do that, and what difference would it make?
He was brought in because he has a specific system and tactics, with a clear vision of how he wants his team to play. Good players should be able to adapt and play any system, you are welcome to convince me otherwise. The system isn’t to blame for individual errors or lack of quality in front of goal, something which has plagued us for years regardless of formation.
Don’t give me the nonsense that 3 at the back can’t work in England – Conte won the league with Chelsea using 3 at the back, setting PL records at the time. Don’t give me the nonsense that Amorim’s system only worked in a “farmers league” – Sporting tanked Man City, beat Spurs and put Arsenal out of Europe during Amorim’s tenure. A lot of Italian teams still play 3 at back successfully. Even the most successful English national team in decades played 3 at the back!
A reminder, Amorim has only signed one player (Dorgu), who looked excellent against Everton and gave us much needed attacking impetus down the left. If all/some of these “legacy” players aren’t good enough to adapt to his system then he’s going to get players in who will. Don’t worry your pretty little heads about our league results, as long as we stay up then no problem. I guarantee we’ll pick up some decent results in the matches we’re not expected to win. It’s all about next season now.
In terms of what difference a change in system would make, well given these players played like a bunch of cloggers a lot of the time with 4 at the back, hence why we had to hire Amorim, why would we want to watch that sh*tshow again? What purpose would it serve, when it’s better to get any players that he is retaining to learn his system through experience? Pep, for instance, did not move away from his system/style when things weren’t going well this season, and nor should he. There are, however, some tweaks I can see him making and he will work that out over time. Have my own ideas of what he could do but will send them to him privately on a postcard, instead of airing them in public and giving away future tactical secrets.
Put simply, why should Amorim start coaching a different system, largely unused throughout his coaching career, to a collective of players who have already shown that they still have the propensity to balls things up regardless of systems or coaches? Exactly, he shouldn’t.
Garey (invert the attacking triumvirate and move to two up top you say?) Vance, MUFC
The Penalty
Thoughts re. the penalty incident at Goodison.
PGMOL confirmed in their statement that the penalty was for the foul by Maguire – presumably the “contact” where it appeared Young went over Maguire’s leg.
That wasn’t a foul. Young dived (not some of his best work, either, and he’ll be disappointed when he watches the replay). Having awarded a penalty for the “trip” by Maguire, it was legitimate to overturn it as a clear and obvious error.
The ref did not award a penalty for de Ligt “pulling” Young’s shirt (which, incidentally, he didn’t do, he momentarily held the shirt and Young probably wasn’t even aware of it – if he had been, he’d of dived sooner… and probably in the right direction to accurately simulate being pulled over). If the ref had given a penalty for that, it probably wouldn’t have been overturned.
I’d agree that that one was arguably technically a foul that may have been given elsewhere on the pitch… you know, just like the two similar tangles in the other penalty area where Maguire went down, ahem, easily without get a pen from either the referee or the VAR. Just like the hundreds of holds that happen in the area at literally every corner in professional football and never result in a penalty… Any fan of another team who thinks that merited a penalty that would ordinarily be given against their team and they’d say “yeah, fair enough” isn’t being honest.
He was sent to the monitor to re-evaluate the clearly non-foul. He wasn’t sent to the monitor to assess if there was some other foul (ie. By de Ligt, that the VAR thought was worthy of a penalty). Presumably because having seen the footage the VAR was content that there was no other foul, but possibly because they just weren’t reviewing generally. Either way, justice was served.
There’s no conspiracy here people…
Having said that, ugh, what a brutal experience watching that dross…
Andy (MUFC)
Let’s get this straight.
Madley made the right call.
There’s four pieces of contact on Ashley Young, all of which combine to deny him getting to the ball first.
He gives the pen, correct call.
VAR, run by a guy fresh into the league and already clocking up multiple errors tells him to go have another look.
Shows him a “selection of angles” not including the one with the biggest shirt pull.
He defers to a junior official, rather than having the courage of his own decision making??
Spineless or corrupt- take your pick.
Then to top it off you’ve got Utd fans ( those who watch Garnacho and Fernandes deliver Oscar worthy performances weekly) having the audacity to say, no foul because Young didn’t dive properly! Mental.
Games gone.
Ian, EFC (btw Utd are absolutely terrible..it’s hilarious)
I’ve seen enough. From United being allowed just one more kick to let them win Vs Brighton to Nunez vs Spurs and now the crime against football that was Evertons cancelled penalty on Saturday. PGMOL is corrupt and actively working to influence the outcome of games through VAR.
But under whose direction? Who are the paymasters?
I don’t see enough evidence to accuse one club owner: I think it’s the TV companies. Broadcasters are encouraging (generously, I suspect) pgmol to intervene, undermine referees (even the one that took paid work from the state owners od Manchester City) and generate outrage and controversy to drive up ratings and advertising revenue. Prove me wrong.
Kind regards
S.E