Manchester United revel in Murtough madness as Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all panic

Manchester United enjoyed watching Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool scramble for deadline day deals almost as much as beating Leicester.

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Broken window
Your honor Judge S Winterburn, I would like to present the prosecutions case that F365 did slander Arsenal FC’s summer 2022 transfer window, with their non inclusion in their winners of summer 2022 section written by Mr Matthew Stead at 11.48 am on Thursday 1st September.

I request that you direct F365 and their distinguished employee Mr Matthew Stead to print a full and frank apology to Arsenal FC’s summer 2022 transfer window for the following reasons.

Exhibit A
I present to you Jesus, Arsenal FC’s summer 2022 transfer window delivered divine assistance to a football attack previously described as slow and shambolic. An attack, it pains me to recall, which was previously led by Alexander Lacazette a once classy premier league striker whose mobility had been reduced to that of a 3 wheeled dustbin.

Jesus was cheaper the Mr D Nunez of Liverpool & Mr A Isak of Newcastle both of whom I argue he is a better striker than on account of being the son of a Brazilian.

Exhibit B
Summer transfer window 2022 also delivered Arsenal FC a left back, potential defensive midfielder and potential left 8 wrapped up in the blond haired Adonis that is Alexander Zinchenko. He along with Jesus have brought Arsenal FC the mysterious winning mentality last seen at Arsenal in 2014.

The losers of the summer 2022 transfer window: Liverpool, Manchester United and more

Zinchenko’s dynamism and versatility have taken Arsenal FC’s attack to another level. Mr G Martinelli is currently auditioning to be the next Arsenal player to move to Spain for a silly amount of money. While Mr G Xhaka is proving to be a box to box goal scoring machine. Nobody is more confused by this than I, your honor.

Exhibit C
Departures, now I will admit that Arsenal FC have had the trousers pulled down by many a football club again this summer in regards to transfer fees (Fulham FC for Leno, I mean you?!?). The fact remains that the last of the unwanted players have left Arsenal. Mainland Niles, Torerra, Bellerin are all gone. Shrinking the wage bill and creating space for new players.

Exhibit D
I will end my case with a glance at the premier league table where Arsenal are first, at the top, numero uno… I would continue but have just received a £100 fine from the celebration police. Finish with the reminder that 12 months ago Arsenal were 17th.

I rest my case in the certain knowledge that you will not let this crime against Arsenal FC’s summer 2022 transfer window stand.
Croydon Gooner (Can we just accept the league table is going to finish as it currently is and stop the season?)

The Murtough madness era
I was watching us win our third game in a row last night, while salivating at the prospect of Casemiro and Antony coming into our starting eleven, and it struck me that this is by far the most positive state the club has been in since Sir Alex retired.

Our new centre back has just been named player of the month, Jadon Sancho is becoming the game-changing signing I always knew he would be, Malacia continues to be a revelation at left back and even Scott Mctominay looks a player transformed.

I must admit I felt a certain sense of smugness watching Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal scramble around on deadline day trying to plug the holes in their squads with panic-signings, to varying degrees of success.

Meanwhile Murtough and Ten Hag have quietly spent the summer methodically  transforming our squad. Lingard, Pogba, Matic, Mata, Cavani have all gone. Malacia, Martinez, Antony, Eriksen, Casemiro have all come in. I still have to pinch myself at that last name: Casemiro now plays for Man Utd.

Take a look at our starting 11s from last season compared to now. For our new starting 11 I’ve based it on players like Casemiro and Antony being settled in:

Last season

De Gea

Dalot Maguire Lindelof Shaw

Fred Mctominay

Sancho Bruno Rashford

Ronaldo

This season

De Gea

Dalot Varane Martinez Malacia

Eriksen Casemiro

Antony Bruno Sancho

Martial

That’s over half the first 11 improved upon. Not to mention Dalot and Martial, players who have improved tenfold under Erik. This is now a side in which Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t make the first 11, some may even argue he is now our third choice striker.

Talk of Man Utd’s demise was premature. We are now in the Murtough Madness era, and my word is it fun.
Super Sancho

Erik’s at the wheel
There is no less intelligent decision than the half-time email. But I have to say, watching Manchester United show consistent patterns of play, disciplined positioning without the ball and cohesive pressing – is this the ‘coaching’ we’ve heard other teams have had all this time?

Probably lost the match 4-1, but this 45 mins has me convinced, ETH for life.
Ryan, Bermuda

Seller’s remorse
Another relatively comfortable performance with a very nicely worked goal, solid defending and good midfield work including by the much maligned McTominay who has really done well since the change in centre backs.

Yes, Rashford needs to keep growing into the striker role, but on the whole, huge improvement in attitude and performance and with the stellar signings, we have real cause for positivity and excitement as we build a roll.

Now, with the window slamming shut, and a lot of good and curious business taking place across the league – and particularly prompted by another big performance from one who got away in Evans – I had a question for the mailbox.

What player do you most regret selling or letting go cheap?

For me it is is Evans. He always seems to play well, is a proper defender who puts his body on the line but also is always in the right place. If we had kept him, rather than Smalling, then I think we would have had a very different few years.

Unless Fat Man makes an appearance to offer for Everton I’m not sure there is another active fan for them here, so I will offer maybe Rodwell or Barkley for Everton as both were going places… before they went places.

Over to you, mailbox. Who do you regret letting go?
Badwolf 

Wherefore art thou, Romeu?
Goodbye Oriol Romeu, an absolute Saints legend, and a true professional. The Premier League record holder for most yellow cards, 63, without a red – and in only 239 games. Will continue to play in red and white at Girona. Thanks for everything.
Rob, London (Who will we bet on now for first yellow card?)

The kids are all right
As a Liverpool supporter I am really enjoying seeing the young players, namely Carvalho and Elliot not only being given plenty of game time, but also thriving in the responsibility.

With Harvey Elliot it isn’t much of a surprise as he started well last season before getting a bad injury, and he has started this season extremely well and looks our most accomplished midfielder at the moment.

Fabio Carvalho has been exceptional as well from the bench, and now starting to show some end product.  Hopefully he continues to get some game time when other players start coming back to fitness.

Not just the youngsters, but it’s great to see Bobby Firmino also hitting some form.  In his last two games he has matched Jadon Sancho’s entire season output from last season (3 goals, 3 assists).  Darwin Nunez will have a problem getting in the team, and maybe a derby against Everton might not be the game for him anyway.

Of course, slightly disappointed in the start we have made this season, as Man City look like they will win the League by about 20 points with Haaland bagging 40 league goals, but the recent performances of Elliot, carvalho and Bobby have made me smile.

regards
Kevin

Added time
I’m not going to bother arguing if it should have been added or not since that’s actually just misdirection.

The thing everyone should be discussing is – why does everyone believe only Liverpool were allowed to play in those extra 8 minutes?

As far as I’m aware the referee didn’t give Newcastle an order to not attack or keep possession and did in fact allow both teams the same opportunity to use the added time to their advantage.

Added time is not an advantage to either time, I don’t know why it always gets painted that way. Even when United used to get infinity added to the clock under fergie…so what? Play to the whistle. Those minutes are added so that both teams can use them.

Newcastle chose to try and run them down while Liverpool chose to launch one desperate and poor hail Mary after another, which unfortunately for Newcastle, paid off.

The time is there, it’s up to you how you use it.
Lee 

I’m not surprised at the questions about the time on the end of the Liverpool match but I think we need to use some common sense to look at this.

The referee called for a minimum of 5 minutes of added time. For the sake of my email lets ignore it should’ve been more. The goal itself was scored at 97:08 which is 2:08 past the minimum of 5 minutes put on the clock.

If we pick up the action just past the 90th minute mark when Carvalho put the out the ball does not go back into play until 90:23  (+ 0:23).  The ball again goes back out at 92:30 for Pope to receive treatment and only goes back into play again at 94:02 (+1:32,  Total +1:55). The ball again goes out at 94:51 when Gomez hits the ball over the goal and goes back into play at 95:29 (+0:38, Total 2:33). The ball goes out for the corner that scores the goal at 96:35.

Even if we ignore the two goal kicks that took 1:01, the time played by the Referee to get to the corner kick was 1:35 which is in line with the time it took to treat the ‘injured’ Pope. And there’s no way in heck a game should be stopped when an attacking team has a corner, the 2:08 between the end of the minimum of injury time and the goal is well in line with what was actually due to be played.

So ultimately grumble all you want, the goal came in a reasonably explainable amount of extra time based on the time wasting by Pope getting the ball back in and being treated for his injury. Ultimately even if the time on the ground was a strategy meant to waste time with the idea that a referee will not add on as much time as is truly wasted or there were genuine injuries, there should be no complaint about the time played and anybody doing so isn’t being genuine.

Now bring on the derby where I anticipate we’ll see plenty more injuries and time wasting from minute one.
Mark LFC   

Daft excluder
It’s been niggling me for a while now but I do wish they would stop players laying on the floor behind a wall at free kicks.

I get why they do it but surely it’s obstruction? There’s no attempt to play the ball. If your are attacking, couldn’t you squeeze a player into the wall and get them to walk back wards to fall over the ‘draft excluser’ – would that be a stone wall pen?
Tom