Ole’s at the wheel of a parked bus? The Mailbox calls nonsense…

Mail us some thoughts/opinions/ideas to theeditor@football365.com

Ole’s at the wheel (of a parked bus)
I see LVG has been giving his tuppenceworth about Solskjaer’s United, claiming that both Jose and Ole park the bus with the difference being that Ole is winning. Now as much as Jose had my support for the majority of his tenure, we all surely remember the progress, I call nonsense on this observation by the big-balled Dutchman. There are a number of differences between Ole and Jose’s approach, as explained below.

When defending, Ole’s team presses high more often whereas Jose’s United retreated into their half, presumably to get into a good defensive shape and not leave any gaps i.e. less risk. This had a disadvantage given it allowed teams to get plenty of the ball and find a passing-rhythm, with teams such as Brighton and Southampton passing it around us like they were Brazil circa 1970. No disrespect intended to the south coast, I do not want to initiate a north-south coast feud as we’ve lost enough good rappers to such fool-heartedness, just that these were the two matches this season that stick in my head for us starting slow and looking lethargic without the ball. Pressing high with energy leaves gaps but it allows you to win the ball higher up the pitch and does not let the opponents settle. High risk but high reward.

In terms of attacking, Jose’s team usually took its foot off the pedal when one or (heaven forbid) two up, hoping the other team would press forward and leave gaps to exploit on the counter. Ole clearly wants us to push on and score more when we go ahead. As a result we have scored 2.2 goals per match in the league since Ole took over, whereas under Jose we scored 1.7 this season, 1.8 last season and 1.4 the first season. Both approaches come with their own risks, defending a one goal lead is risky as there is always a chance the other team will score, but they manage risk differently. Perhaps the most important difference is that the players seem to have more freedom to express themselves now, which is probably why they are happier. Although Ole’s man-management style also seems to have worked better so far.

Naturally, it’s horses for courses. Against PSG, for instance, we knew we would have to defend deep and hit them on the break. LVG used the term “park the bus” but people seem to have lost sight of what the phrase actually means and just use it as a stick to beat the opposition with. It means sitting in and defending for the majority of the game, without attacking, hoping to draw or nick a goal to win the match – see Barca vs Inter in 2010 for an example. It is not the same as playing counter-attacking football. We scored 3 goals against PSG away and had as many shots on target as them, though we had very little of the ball. If that’s parking the bus then we should park a big old triple-decker like that every week.
Garey (have made peace with the fact it is finally their year) Vance, MUFC

Mailbox magic
I read this morning mailbox and I was like, ‘Wow!’. We now have a magician or rather mentalist in our midst.

To be able to read the mind of someone you are in contact with is mind blowing, but JC, CFC, Bristol ability to read Sarri’s mind from miles away without any sort of contact is nothing short of astronomical. Now that is real magic.
Nelson, Lagos (You really need to start a mailbox mediawatch)

Callum Hudson-Odoi
How can fellow Chelsea fans think that putting Hudson-Odoi into a team with low morale, previously battered by City and Bournemouth be a good idea? It beggars belief.
He’s had a good couple of games against mid-low level opposition for England and in the Europa League and suddenly he’s the second coming. It seems English fans never learn.
Sarri in my opinion, has made the correct call by playing him in second string games and I believe we’ll see a lot more of him in the premier League next season. Done.
On another note, if optional mic’s for refs are brought into the game, can we have optional commentary too? I need to put the Guy Mowbrays of this world into Room 101.
Baz (Remember Mickey Owen was busted by 30) Dublin

Spurs’ new stadium
I have to say that Spurs’ new stadium looks pretty bloody fantastic rendering one of our chants about our neighbours redundant. So I suggest new lyrics.

We won the league at White Hart Lane.
We won the league at White Hart Lane.
We won the league at that stadium, which is actually quite nice really and has a craft brewery.
We won the league at White Hart Lane.

You’re welcome fellow gooners.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Some Alex solidarity
Benjamin and Alex from this morning mailbox, you are highly Machiavellian people. How could you imagine supporters from on club could go to another stadium just to sabotage the home team?!

For those of you not fluent in French, this article on the french counterpart of this web site (is it even related?) presents a funny fact that happened two weeks ago in ligue 1. Around 50 supporters from FC Nantes, disallowed to attend to their own team’s game, went to Angers SCO’s game and interrupted the match with smoke bomb and stuff. Ironically enough, they then pulled a banner out saying ‘who’s going to pay the fine?’

The french league is still trying to sort the event out. Obviously FC Nantes cannot be held responsible for the behavior of 50 individuals and Angers SCO will most likely be fined for being unable to enforce security in their own stadium. Ok, Angers should, somehow, have been able to keep the smoke bomb out of the stadium but what if those ‘supporters’ had just went full racist instead? Shoud Angers be punished?

How is that fair in any way?
Alex cannot be more right, you cannot supplant the punishment on the group from the individual.

Racism in football
I’m firmly in the camp of a zero tolerance approach to racism in football, and feel that if blanket punishments were given out to clubs/nations and their fans, we would see an immediate decrease in racist behaviour within stadiums.

Not to undermine the seriousness of racist behaviour, but if you allow me for a second to compare it to a school classroom. Say a teacher sticks on a video under the condition of good behaviour throughout. If one or two kids start misbehaving, s/he turns it off and makes the kids get back to work. Everyone in the class knows who the responsible parties are for ending their fun, and the ‘guilty’ parties are aware of the consequences of their actions and how ther behaviour affects not only themselves, but others.

Similarly, if I was at – or even watching at home – an Ireland game, and racist chanting occured, I would welcome such punishment in order to eradicate this behaviour from the game. Sure, if Ireland got kicked out of the Euros it would be dissappointing, but I’d be willing to make a tiny ‘sacrifice’ of my happiness in the hopes that it would help in the long term. Plus, should something like that happen, especially in a small place like Ireland, the identity of the guilty party/parties would get out, and – while I abhore the social media abuse/death threat lynch mob which would surely follow in this current climate – a whole nation annoyed at some idiots for racially abusing football players would surely teach them a lesson.

Which brings me to my final point, the suggestion of rival fans tricking the authorities with regards to racism/crowd trouble. As far fetched as it is, it also seems a bit stupid. There is nothing to stop anyone doing this now, so why aren’t home sections of games filled with rival fans hurling abuse? Because the punishment is individual. But heres the thing, the people who do this now are usually identified, then punished. So say more severe, blanket punishments were introduced, a small identification check (you could even make ID’s mandatory with all tickets if they aren’t already) of the guilty parties would surely still commence, and I imagine would could easily tell whether they were genuine fans or rival fans, based on housing address, social media profiles etc. and then that country/club is then punished. You would hardly expect that the type of ‘fans’ (e.g. Irish) who would pretend to support another club/country in order to get them punished for racial abuse to be a casual fan, with no links to supporting Ireland that a background check would not turn up, such as previous gmaes, address, tattoos, social media’s etc. Besides, if something like this started happening in response harsher punishments introduced to tackle racism, then the problems goes far beyond that of a football ground!
Néill, Ireland

This might be an unpopular opinion but I thought I’d mail in anyway. Following the events in Montenegro – black mountain no less – the subject of playing behind closed doors has been raised again. Some have said this is unfair to the majority of fans, plus the players, that don’t engage in the abuse, which is a reasonable point. The thing is, if it is always a minority or handful of idiots hurling abuse why do we, the majority, allow it happen? Perhaps we should be punished because we don’t do enough ourselves. By not confronting the abusers and remaining passive are we not enabling that type of behaviour? Now I know it’s not easy to stand up to bullies, especially as an individual versus an angry group of men. I would unlikely do so myself but there are reasons for this. I’m mixed-race, have brown skin and I’ve learned to tread very carefully in racially sensitive situations. If I was to say something, regardless of how civil or reasonable I was, I would most likely make the situation worse but also put myself at risk of abuse or violence. So, through a combination of fear, cowardice and self-preservation I have never confronted anyone being racist at a football match. Admittedly it doesn’t happen much but it’s always memorable.

I went to a Bolton match as a neutral once and listened to a nearby cluster of fans racially abuse the opposition and even their own player, their best player even. Of course, they cheered rapturously when Nathan Blake scored the game’s only goal, his 21st of the season and a beauty, but continued to abuse him and others for the rest of the game.

Four of us went to watch the game, all male. One friend was supporting the away team and he went to join his fellow West Brom fans. As we couldn’t get away tickets for ourselves we randomly chose a turnstile and place to stand. Myself, and my two friends, one black and one white with waist length blond hair were spat at from behind throughout the game. I didn’t hear any of the neighbouring fans calling out the abhorrent vocal and physical behaviour of their fellow supporters. Maybe there were some but we were too scared to turn around let alone leave, move to another part of the terrace or approach a steward or police officer. Now I don’t blame the other fans for not getting involved because they knew, one way or another, the abusers would be more than happy for a fight even with their own fans. A week or so after the game I saw a local TV programme about tackling racism in football and a police officer stood on the terrace at Burnden Park, a few feet above where we were, saying this was notoriously the worst part of the ground. We were perhaps unlucky choosing that area to watch the game but why do we, the majority, allow or enable things like this to happen? Football has become a realm where anti-social behaviour that wouldn’t be tolerated in the wider world happily resides, which is ironic considering how popular and mainstream the game is.

Perhaps if we did ban all spectators we would be more likely to do something. The rightfully aggrieved fans that have committed no crime would probably march the streets or petition to stop the abuse. Being denied access to something unfairly might spark a change in the dynamic. At the moment the bullies are winning. It’s clear that governing bodies, stadium staff, players, campaigners and so on are not having the desired effect, despite their efforts. Would you be more likely to say something to someone if you knew the next game could be behind closed doors with no chance of a refund on your ticket or flights? I would more likely say something if I knew I had the backing of the majority in the moment. Perhaps only saying we abhor racism after the fact is part of the problem. Should the England team walk off the pitch? What if the captain of Montenegro had taken his team off the pitch, refusing to play if his opponents were racially abused? The majority would then turn on the handful of idiots to stop that kind of behaviour. For now, the minority know they can still get away with it, possibly enabled by us, which probably empowers them more. They have strength in their much smaller numbers. Perhaps we, the majority, need to be braver and actually stand up to racism.
CP, Cambridge

What’s a suitable punishment for International Teams whose supporters chant racist abuse? A fine isn’t any good as most FA’s are loaded. Playing behind closed doors punishes the away team as much as the home team and a point deduction or bans leave the door open to an abuse of the system.

Well why not make International teams found guilty play all their matches away from home for the duration of the competition i.e. qualifiers, Nations League etc? I don’t mean play at a Nuetral ground, I mean play at their opponents ground. This penalises the team becasue they don’t have any support, penalises the supporters as they don’t get to watch their team and penalises their FA as they now have to fork out for the cost of more away matches and don’t get any Macth Day / TV Revenue etc.

You could go one step further and say for repeat offenders they have to pick up the bill for the re-arranged matches.
Matt (can’t see a fault in that but will no doubt be proved wrong) Cambridge

For those worried about harsh sanctions bringing people into the wrong end to try and encourage punishment, I think the solutions simple. Crowd policing. As in, policing, by the crowd.
If the guy next to you is doing monkey chants, walk over to the steward and get them to do something about it.
UEFA wouldn’t punish nations for single offenders providing its obvious that the country is doing something about it. At the moment people don’t want to put themselves out there to stop the chanting, but maybe when their country’s fate is on the line, they might be more motivated.
KC (or do something a little bit more than telling a steward) 

When to finally call it a day
Loved the feature on Park/Sunday league football this morning, certainly raised some valid points on making a return to playing the game we all love so much. What I would like to ask however, is at what stage any of your readership decided to finally call it a day on playing. I’m 42 years old now and have been lucky enough and blessed to have experienced quite a lot in amateur, semi-pro and eventually military football. As a goalkeeper Ive been, elbowed, head butted, two footed when claiming the ball at a players feet, even just blatantly punched when claiming a corner (all Sunday League I might add). Despite all this, I love it.

I love watching, I love playing and I worry greatly that with each game now my body gives up a little bit more. The Mrs is growing weary with every grunt and sigh as I make any movement for the whole week following a game. This season Ive called time on my playing career on at least 4 occasions , only to get awarded man of the match in the pub afterwards, so you naturally think to yourself, maybe I can still keep up with ‘the kids’. Apart from those poor souls who had to give it up due to serious injury, could I please ask the others, the ones with an option, when and what it took for them to finally hang the boots up.

Cheers.
Healy 74 Mins (If my email is luckily enough to printed could you please put my name below it to claim eternal bragging rights in the pub.)

Steven Chicken’s latest was very relevant to me, and he is in the same boat as me and another friend, AND we all live near Leeds now as well. If we get a few more early 30’s, slightly overweight and awkward people together we could have the worst 5-a-side team ever to “grace” Yorkshire going! The post match pint would be fun though. Could even write a few articles about it, although my incompetence really doesn’t need advertising… Football 365 Fighting Mongooses here we come!
Nathan PFC

Initially I was going to write in about the racism discussion surrounding football, but being a white guy living in rural Devon, I thought better of it and instead thought I’d respond to Steven Chicken’s article about the search for friendly, non-competitive football.

When I joined a new school at around ten years old, it’s safe to say I wasn’t the most confident or outgoing of children. There were several reasons — I was gangly (still am), I wore glasses (still do), and had rubbish hair (debatable). But football quickly became a way to build new friendships.

But I never really played competitively. I actively avoided playing for local league sides despite my mum’s best efforts, as I enjoyed kickabouts in the village park with my friends much more. It was in that park, playing an assortment of weird games, that I honed my skills and developed the spirit in which I felt the game should be played; honestly, in a jovial manner and with a smile. Even at this age, I think I was innately aware of the toxicity surrounding grassroots competitive football.

When I got to the age of 18, those kickabouts dried up completely and I had to either give up playing or finally dive into competitive football. I went for the latter, joining a five-a-side team in Plymouth with a group of friends. There are definitely fond memories — the occasional victory (we were genuinely dreadful for the most part), beers after each game, new friendships galvanised — but the unsavoury stuff sticks in one’s craw, even years later.

There was all the usual stuff, such as unnecessarily bad challenges, abusive language towards referees and the like. I expected and could even tolerate some of that. But some of the verbal abuse was oddly personal and often I got the brunt of it. Why? Because I wear glasses.

It says a lot about the pathetic, juvenile mentality surrounding the grassroots game that AS ADULTS you would ever think to mock someone for such a thing. I actually had someone scream ‘EXPELLIARMUS!’ in my face on a football pitch, as a man in my 20s. While admittedly a funny anecdote… What the hell is that?!

No wonder people drift out of the game as an adult. It also highlights the importance of programmes like the FA Mars Just Play programme, which promotes recreational, non-competitive games of football in a fun environment. (Sadly, when an effort was made to bring the programme to my hometown, there were only three people who turned up for the opening session.)

Now 32 and knackered through injuries / drinking way too much / generally abandoning all forms of good health, I stick to my weekly kickabout with a rag-tag group of friends who meet each Wednesday with the same purpose; to have a fun, well-fought game minus the aggro.

Steven definitely isn’t alone in wanting this — I consider myself extremely lucky to have found such a game, otherwise I’d probably have given up playing years ago.
Tom, Devon, NUFC (Harry Potter gags are a part of life if you have brown hair and glasses, apparently)

Sadio Mane for Gareth Bale? Yes please.
Is it just me or would any other Liverpool fans quite like a Bale for Mane swap deal, if we are indeed going to sell this summer? I like Mane lots but if he wants to go and get booed by his own teams’ fans in Madrid you can’t really talk him out of it.

I think Bale can speak English so perhaps the press would lay off him here too.
Minty, LFC