Antony at right-back, and there’s only one manager for Man Utd: Gary O’Neil
The Mailbox brings forth some ideas for Manchester United involving the Wolves manager and a rubbish right-winger playing in defence. Also: Chelsea; VAR; Liverpool’s misfortune with refs…
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
O’Neil for United
Stabilized Bournemouth – allowing them to build on with a more progressive manager – which they are currently doing.
Has more than stabilized Wolves given the nature of his appointment and what preceded it. They also have more goals than Manchester United with worse players. And actually just look like a better team this season – and very possibly dropped 4 out of a 6 pointer with United who has the latter points gap to an absurd referee / “laws of the game” decision.
Gary O’Neil is undoubtedly the man for this current United job. And if United fans are unhappy with this current reality then dig in cause it’s tough times ahead.
MAW, LA Gooner (He’s also British – so there’s that, too.)
We all want to see this
I want to see Antony played in a Zinchenko like role on the right side of United’s defense.
I may be enjoying my Christmas time off a little too much today.
Jess, Tampa
Zinchenko needs help
Over the last few games many Arsenal fans have been laying into Zinchenko for weak defending. Sure he’s no defender BUT he needs cover…Gabriel gave him nothing of the sort against such a class player as Salah (who rips proper LB’s to pieces on a regular basis!).
However, Saka, Martinelli and as i’ve just commented, Gabriel, are not pulling their weight. Football is a team game. Arsenal are doing very well to be where we are and deservedly so too.
My issue is that do not make Zinchenko of everything that goes wrong for Arsenal.
Chris, Croydon
Everton injustice
Onana has the ball smashed into his arm from less than a few meters, a ball that was clearly going over the bar.
Where’s Onana’s arm/hand meant to be there???
Then the referee utterly crumbles as several City players surrounded him demanding a penalty and gives it.
Why are we even bothering anymore? That’s a serious question.
TX Bill (that was a handball but Rodri’s two seasons ago wasn’t??) EFC
VAR challenges
Apologies if I’m repeating the ideas of others, but how about VAR remains available in games, but it’s not applied by the officials for every incident, it’s only the Manager or Captain has to ask for a review of an incident. Perhaps each team gets a maximum of two challenges per game to review offsides/goal decisions/penalties/red card offences. If a challenge is upheld, they keep two challenges, if it’s rejected, they lose a challenge.
It’ll add a new and exciting element to games – the risk and reward of challenging decisions.
This style of technological intervention in sport seems to work reasonably well in cricket and tennis, so, how about we try a compromise before chucking it in the bin? In this scenario the teams and players are empowered by VAR decisions and authority is taken out of the hands of officials.
Shields up.
Jonno McSchmonno
…Following John Nicholson’s recent article, I made mention of the “finite reviews” idea. The idea, like Cricket and American Football, that a team should be able to contest a handful of decisions in a game which replaces VAR “for-all”, with the coach/captain able to make a review at any time (even in play) leading to the referee consulting the monitor and makes “errors” a part of the game rather than a pariah of it.
In my mention, I stated (several times) that, as fun as it would be, football fans couldn’t handle it and that we will always strive towards a utopia that physically cannot be achieved – the utopia that our team gets all the decisions “right” including those that aren’t errors but are just subjective that we disagree with (looking at you, LeBron Odegaard). However, as the dust settled overnight and I spent far too much time pondering, I started to wonder. Does it actually have legs?
Hear me out, let’s say the process is:
Two reviews per game
The captain can approach the ref, and the manager can approach the 4th official at any time – always politely
Play continues until the next stoppage, unless (as with a disallowed goal) the game has already stopped
The referee then approaches a moniter and is provided camera angles and footage of the incident at hand (removing the risk of a Luis Diaz-style miscommunication because the referee always makes the call)
As with current VAR, if the decision is overturned and your review successful, the play will revert back to the incorrect call and you keep your review
But, and this is the important bit, a referee can remove a review from a team for unsporting behaviour at any time
“What’s the benefit thought, Haz?” I hear you cry. Wellllllll…
Put simply, all of a sudden coaches and players themselves have to see incidents very differently. Was that call *that* obvious? So clear that you’re going to risk a review, no? Then it’s understandable the referee made the decision they did then and everyone accepts it wasn’t clear.
Also though, by adding that last part of the process, the process protects referees more. Arteta run out of his box to throw gang signs? Lost a review mate. Klopp wags his gnashers so close to the 4th official’s face they can smell his lunch? Lost a review chum. Pep kicking bottles at his opponents accidentally again? Goodbye one of your 2nd half reviews. 7 players surrounding the referee? If it even happens (see next point), you’ve lost a review team.
Lastly, referees are no longer the focal point for each and every call. Thought that was clearly a pen? Holler at your captain. Thought that tackle was really high? Wink at your manager.
I know, I know… still we would want 100% accuracy that will never be achieved but I don’t see much wrong.
Harold E Hooler (Most importantly, glad to have you back John. All the best on the continued recovery)
Read more: John Nicholson: VAR does not need ‘tweaking’; fans need to vote with their feet
Mad-ueke
I really hope that Madueke gets more of a run out after the last couple of games. He was probably Chelsea’s best player last year (not much competition), and his energy, speed, commitment and decent finishing put him above Chelsea’s other attackers.
He may not be a big glamorous signing, but rumours of him being sold off really erked me. He seems such a Poch player, but perhaps no one really has a clue what a Poch player looks like anymore.
Will CFC (Enjoying the battle for 10th, Why haven’t Bohley and Co been arrested for gross negligence yet?)
I got five on it
As we hit the end of 2023, and my positivity swells with the smorgasbord of wonderful entertaining football over the last 4 days and those games still to come in the next 5, I’m left looking at a league table that has me salivating more than my dining table had me, over the last 3 days.
As it currently stands, on a very specific and scientific metric of “give everyone 3 points for their games in hand”, there are currently 4 points separating the top 5 clubs in the country and, interestingly only a 10-goal swing from highest to lowest goal difference among them. Elite football in this nation has rarely of late, looked so ready and ripe for drama and I am 100% here it. I’m so happy I could cry.
Go back 10 years, and using the same (very scientific, of course) metric that I’ve used for this current table, you have to go as far back as 2013/14 for anything remotely as close and even then it was 6 points and a 20-goal swing from highest to lowest goal difference in that group.
22/23 – 14 points seperated 1st and 5th, with a 7 point gap from 3rd to 2nd
21/22 – 9 points seperated 1st and 5th, with 3 point gaps in 3 places
20/21 – 7 points seperated 1st and 5th, with a 4 point gap from 4th to 5th
19/20 – 25 points seperated 1st and 5th, with a 16 point gap from 1st to 2nd
18/19 – 13 points seperated 1st and 5th, with a 6 point gap from 1st to 2nd
17/18 – 21 points seperated 1st and 5th, with a 13 point gap from 1st to 2nd
16/17 – 10 points seperated 1st and 5th, with a 6 point gap from 1st to 2nd
15/16 – 8 points seperated 1st and 5th, with a 4 point gap from 4th to 5th
14/15 – 13 points seperated 1st and 5th, with a 7 point gap from 2nd to 3rd
13/14 – 6 points seperated 1st and 5th, with a 3 point gap from 3rd to 4th
(And in the three years before 2013, the gap was a minimum of 9, so I don’t think I’m being super selective with stats here)
I’m being droll about my metric but I really think it’s fair to say that not only do these 5 clubs sit within a tighter knit than we’ve seen in workable memory at the half way point of the season (IE: a significant portion of the league has retired and moved on since), but that all 5 clubs are playing entertaining, beautiful and (best of all) flawed football which sets us fair to possibly even having 3 clubs mathematically in the hunt come May.
I just KNEW 2024 was gonna be a good’n.
Harold E Hooler
(P.S: There does seem to be a slow-walk to relegation being tied up by the final day but the lord does give’th and take’th away in equal measure)
Brazilian Bull
I’ve just checked and realised that Steve Bull actually scored 18 hat-tricks for Wolves! Sure he got zero for England but still…so the critique that it was harsh to compare Steve Bull to Gabriel Jesus is completely justified, and I would like to apologise to Steve Bull (and his family, as well as Wolves fans) for desecrating the memory of Steve Bull by comparing him to Jesus. Jesus couldn’t hit those numbers on FIFA 23.
I think “the Brazilian Rebrov” sounds more apt.
Stewie Griffin (Kudus v Zinchenko should be “interesting”! Oh and Arteta should absolutely try and sign Pacqueta in summer, clearly the extra creative outlet that team needs)
Villa weren’t all that
Following on from Bagpuss, it was the same on the Amazon commentary. Apparently Villa were “great value” for their 2-0 lead at half time. They’d had 2 shots on goal, one of which was actually a cross that went in, and that was it. They hadn’t been carving us open, it wasn’t like watching Brazil.
It annoys me how much the scoreline dictates the narrative rather than the actual game. It was clear there’d be goals for both teams in that game, certainly within the first 5 minutes if not before it kicked off. Both teams had makeshift defences and were missing key defensive midfielders whilst fielding first choice attacks.
“Fragile Man Utd shoot themselves in the foot twice whilst playing alright” is a far more accurate, if less hyperbolic, summation of the first 45.
Enjoyed it though, which has been a rare occurrence this season.
Lewis, Busby Way
Roman curse
The Roman’s used to curse those who had wronged them and wrote these curses on tablets, believing that if they inscribed the words then what was written would happen. These tablets were known as defixiones.
Every time I hear of a Chelsea loss I think that Roman Ambramovich must have written his own modern day Roman Curse. One that comes to mind is Vilbia’s curse: “Qui mihi Vilbiam involavit sic liquat comodo aqua. Ell[…] muta qui eam involavit.” Which translates as “May the person who carried off Vilbia from me become liquid as the water. May she who has so obscenely devoured her be struck dumb.”
I find it truly fascinating that after 20 odd years, no fans group has spoken out about how the UK Government appropriated the private assets of an individual and sold it for several billion pounds and said person is not allowed to have a single penny. Yes Russia invaded Ukraine, yes that was a horrible act, yes Roman Ambramovich is Russian, yes he is associated with Vladimir Putin but was it fair? It’s one thing declaring him not to be a fit owner (I wonder what we think of countries that carried out extra judicial killings – a point for another day) thereby forcing him to sell and giving him his money.
I understand that Ambramovich has said that the money for the sale of HIS club must be distributed to victims of war not just Ukrainian but Russian too. I guess Chelsea will continue to struggle until Roman is made whole. I must admit my great schadenfreude throughout the mess that is Chelsea Football Club.
Zam in Zim
Penalty inquest continues
Damola, Bremen, just because an inaccurate television announcer says that Odegaard was reaching down to break his fall – and you would prefer to believe it – doesn’t make it true. Odegaard wasn’t trying to break his fall. In fact, he wasn’t falling at all; you can tell because his hand never touched the ground. Heck, I’m convinced I saw him tracking the ball with his eyes as he moved his hand into the way.
You don’t hear me whining about how the Toon should have had a penalty when a defender’s hand kept the ball out against Nottingham Forest. The graceful thing to do is admit you got a freebie, then move on.
Chris Wood’s hat trick was phenomenal. Where was that when he was playing for us?
Also, I found Matt Stead’s piece pretty entertaining, meself.
Chris C, Toon Army DC
Liverpool fan wants to pick their refs
Watching the goal disallowed for Harvey Elliott in the Burnley game was frustrating. I am tearing my hair out on why would Salah be deemed offside just because he is in the way of the goal.
Firstly Salah was not even in the way of the goal, he was just in front of the Keeper. He had no interaction with the ball or obstruction of the keeper. Even if he wasn’t there, it was a clear goal. Trafford had no chance of saving that. So if Salah has no involvement in the creation of goal, why should he be deemed offside or insight of the keeper?
Why do referees have their own interpretation of how a goal should be given. I second Klopp who said later about the. disallowed goal that “only someone who hasn’t played football will disallow that goal.” This rule clearly needs to change. Liverpool have been absolutely unlucky in terms of VAR calls this last few weeks with Odegaard handball and now this.
I think even the Nunez nudge for the Gakpo goal was too soft to be given a foul.
It’s just ridiculous how a perfectly legitimate goal is chalked off due to some stupid technicality of the referee interpretation. I can’t comprehend why this rule still stands? Referees in England make an absolute mockery of how to not interfere with the game.
Screw Tierney who didn’t overturn the VAR. I simply think he’s biased against LFC and should not referee LFC games anymore.
Tejas (Asking for lucky VAR calls this new year from Santa)
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