Should Man Utd lose to Newcastle on purpose?

A cracking mailbox. Now you know what to do – mail us at theeditor@football365.com with your views.

Lose the Newcastle game on purpose?
Didn’t even watch the West Ham game. I know I sound like a terrible United fan for not watching the games, but do you blame me? It is shite football at the moment, and Jose keeps changing his line-up every game, rotating the team and reducing team chemistry.

Honestly for when we play Newcastle next Saturday, I am sure some of the players are thinking “Maybe we should lose this game on purpose”, because in terms of long-term decision, it would not be a bad idea if it resulted in Jose getting sacked!
Rami, London

History is repeating itself
As a life long Manchester United supporter I feel the need to join those wanting Jose out. I freely admit to being a ‘glory hunter’, I joined the frenzy in 1956 aged seven and have been one ever since.

The current saga following Fergie’s reign has a lot of similarities to that of the end of Sir Matt’s reign.

Wilf McGuinness read David Moyes, both inept and overwhelmed. At least Moyes still has his hair. Sacked.

Frank O’Farrell read Louis van Gaal, both bored the players and crowd to death. Sacked.

Tommy Docherty read Jose Mourinho, both flashy and good for a cup win or so. Hanging on by a thread. At least Docherty’s teams played attacking football. If only we can get Jose to nail the physio’s wife. It would solve the pressing need to sack him.

I went through the post Busby 26-year famine (apart from a few cup wins and a year in the 2nd division) and never once faltered. They got thumped on a regular basis but never gave up the way the current bunch seem to be doing. But I am unable to watch the dross being served up by the Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho teams.

There are a group of ‘managers’ – Moyes, Pardew, Big Sam, Mark Hughes, Neil Warnock etc who continue to be employed, fail, get the big payout and move on to the next club.

My solution for Jose Mourinho is not to sack him but change his duties. Let him keep his salary and have him assume the position of assistant groundsman, Let’s see how long his lasts before hopefully resigning.
Jim (I don’t need novocaine at the dentist, just put on a Man Utd game, be out in seconds).

Bored of the Man United pity party already
Can all the Man U fans chill out on their pity party please? You’ve got a manager who’s lost it and will be sacked soon. That’s it.

You aren’t going bust, you’ve still one of the most talented squads in the country, have no need to sell players to balance the books. One good managerial appointment and you’ll all go back to being smug b**tards.

Ryan asked what Man U fans have done to deserve this in yesterday’s mailbox. Deserve what mate? Being slightly worse at football than you used to be? Try supporting literally any one of the other teams in the country, all of whom have been through worse in the last 20 years.
Adam Shenton
P.S. the tone of this email may have been influenced by the fact it’s 4am and I’ve been up for 90 minutes and counting with my crying baby.

This would be a hard job for Zizou
While the rumours don’t seem to have a whole amount of credibility, the thought of Zidane potentially taking over from Mourinho is getting hard to ignore. Part of me is definitely excited at the prospect. After all, three Champions League wins in a row can hardly be put down to dumb luck – the guy clearly has managerial pedigree, and more importantly, will change the way we play football, hopefully making it more entertaining to watch at the very least.

At the same time, I can’t help but feel like trying to bring Zidane in is yet another typical post-Fergie move by the club. Throw money at a big name, and hope the issues resolve themselves. There’s a lot to fix at United, especially off the pitch, and it seems like the board are hoping that bringing Zidane in will paper over the cracks at least for a while.

Another issue is the significant difference in the squads. At Real, Zidane had some of the finest players in the world in just about every position, while he most certainly won’t at United (except in goal). That’s not to say there isn’t a fair amount of dormant talent in our squad, but it certainly doesn’t match up to what he’s had to work with before. If all the pieces fall into place and Zidane does end up replacing Mourinho mid-season, he should be prepared to have his work cut out for him.
DJ, MUFC India

Good riddance to Ramsey
Frankie, AFC, thank you for so succinctly penning what I’ve been saying for years. Every Arsenal game my mates and I watch Ramsey consistently fail to control a pass, pass simple balls straight out of play, get caught in possession every time he’s even remotely pressed, know he’s going to try a flick if he’s not going to do multiple 180s that lead to another misplaced pass or loss of possession, getting in the lanes of Laca, Auba, Ozil (and Sanchez past). We even have bets on what minute he have his first feck-up – usually it’s as simple as either first touch or second minute!

It is never any coincidence that when he doesn’t play, or leaves the field, that Arsenal are more cohesive and move the ball much quicker, and in particular, Ozil comes to life.

I’ve watched Wolves play twice this year, and every one of their ten outfield players has better control, more accurate passing and faster brains than Ramsey.

Ramsey is the epitome of the schoolyard footballer who’s better than everyone else, and knows it, but fails miserably when he tries those same “skills” on real footballers. Never was and never will be an Arsenal level player, let alone the world beater he clearly thinks he is.

While I agree that worse players have worn the shirt, surely there’s never been a worse player who’s played over 200 games.

And to shake his head at Emery on Saturday at being subbed after a typically useless performance sums up the guy’s high opinion of himself and his very limited abilities.

Let’s hope he goes and good riddance.
NC Gooner (watching Arsenal since 1972)

How good is Bellerin though?
I’ve given the guy a lot of stick over the past couple of seasons so happy to redress the balance now.

Just what has Unai done with Hector Bellerin?

From my vantage point in the North Bank on Saturday, I got a very good view of his block in the area in the first half. It was the sort of defensive block I would have associated with the Arsenal defence of yesteryear but certainly not Hector Bellerin.

I thought he was immense on Saturday – running all day and working so, so hard. He epitomised everything that was good about the performance in a win that was due to hard graft.

Special mention to Iwobi as well, who seems to have rediscovered his mojo and both keepers for collectively recording a second clean sheet.
Graham Simons, Gooner, (Jose, can we have our Lexi back?), Norf London

Feeling happier about Chelsea
Another great game and two superb goals. Definitely would have taken those two results last weekend. The biggest worry for me this season has been Chelsea’s defence, but they handled themselves admirably over the two games. David Luiz, who I criticised a couple of weeks ago, was immense on Saturday. Although I have a feeling that Liverpool’s front three didn’t have things going for them and that any other day they would have scored more, it was good to see the Chelsea defence pass their first serious test since the Arsenal game. I guess now I’m worried about where goals are going to come from! Hazard has an impeccable injury record, but if anything happens to him… I’ve jinxed it now haven’t I?

On an unrelated note, I recommend the new Catalan Independence documentary on Netflix (other streaming services are available), perhaps not particularly football related but it does talk for a bit about the effect Mourinho had in fanning the flames of the independence movement. Anyone else seen it? Were his actions intended to cause the break up of Spain? Or is he just a bit of a dick? Cheers for the memories though…
Juanito

F365: Biased towards Liverpool
No sign of Mo Salah being called a one season wonder yet?

It’s nice that you aren’t biased towards Liverpool at all.
Alan (yes that one)

F365: Biased against Liverpool
As soon as the Liverpool game finished on Saturday and Man City were officially top of the league (but only goal difference) I knew instantly 365 would write a Man City/Guardiola puff piece.

(It was written before the Liverpool game – Ed)

Liverpool may have only drawn but their result is far more important that City’s predictable home win so more worthy of an ‘Early Winners’ article.

(The clue is in the word ‘early’, not ‘best’ or ‘biggest’. And we never do ‘early’ winners/losers on games covered in massive detail by 16 Conclusions – Ed)

Chelsea away is the second most difficult League game Liverpool will have this season after away at City so a draw is a very big result. Liverpool and City have the same points but City should have won all their games as none were against title challengers. Liverpool are still the team to beat this season not City as they’ve won all the games they should have (some which they wouldn’t have won last season too). We need to start judging City’s title credentials when they actually play someone who can realistically beat them so a title rival like either Liverpool or Chelsea in the league especially away from home.

The article however did make me laugh because of this part:

‘City have a clear pattern of play so heavily ingrained on every player, one that is easy to identify but so very difficult to stop. This style has become natural to them, automatic. They know where to be, at what time and why. Pep Guardiola has removed the need to think, and replaced it with instinctive brilliance.’

The loss to Lyon was less than two weeks ago but 365 seem to have forgotten that and how untrue this nonsense is even though it’s already been proven to be incorrect twice this calendar year. Without Guardiola on the sidelines holding the puppet strings City’s players are like headless chickens so are only instinctive, natural and automatic in your dreams 365!
William, Leicester