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Best lockdown game yet?
Was it just me who saw Porto go 1-0 up and then think ‘Juventus need 3 to win, this is almost set up for Cristiano Ronaldo to score a hat trick, sealing it with a free kick’?
Well that never happened and it will be a iconic night in a Champions League rich history for FC Porto, just a shame that there were no fans inside to embrace that atmosphere and the spectacle on show. I’d say that was the best game behind closed doors I’ve seen so far during Lockdown, but what are the mailboxers favourite ‘Lockdown Game’ so far?
Mikey, CFC
…F***ing hell. That’s what football is supposed to look like.
Minty, LFC
Blaming Carra
I blame Jamie Carragher. He’s a legend at the club and a good pundit but it is only since his comments on being sick of hearing the excuse of how Liverpool are missing Virgil van Dijk to explain their current implosion that I’ve seen this narrative gain traction.
Liverpool are not missing Virgil van Dijk or if you’ll let me rephrase his absence is not the reason for the mess they are now in. How can I say that with total confidence? Because van Dijk has been missing since the 17th October (Matchday 5) and yet Liverpool on Christmas Day after Matchday 14 were top of the table, 10 games unbeaten since the Villa debacle, and having just beaten Crystal Palace 7-0 away. At around the time, F365 had a column saying Liverpool were making what could’ve been an interesting season boring because they looked so imperious. That is not a team that collapsed after one injury as the narrative has somehow become. This is not Manchester United after Rio Ferdinand got suspended in 2003 going from top by a point after 21 games to 15 points behind Arsenal by the end of the season – Roy Keane forgot being part of that side when he was saying Liverpool were bad champions and that this isn’t what big teams do.
Rather it is a team that has collapsed because of an almost unprecedented injury crisis to a whole host of players, particularly around centreback, which has had a huge knock-on impact across the team. You combine that with a comparatively small squad and a heavily truncated season then this is the perhaps not inevitable consequence but certainly a likely outcome. Rio Ferdinand was perfectly correct when he said a few weeks ago that no team could sustain this level of injuries and compete for the Top 4 – and no Leicester have not suffered equally as is clearly demonstrated by various data, and no Aguero and de Bruyne being missing is not the same when you can still call on Silva, Jesus, Sterling, Torres, Foden, Mahr ez etc.
It shouldn’t need repeating but having all senior centre backs go out with a season-ending injuries is ridiculous. Both first-choice midfielders were then drafted in to play centre-back with both subsequently getting injured but more importantly they were missed in midfield as they were crucial in Liverpool’s pressing game which wins the ball high and early and provides the space for the front-three to do their work. Because of further long-term injuries suffered by Keita, Shaqiri, Thiago , Oxlaide-Chamberlain that left just Wijnaldum, Milner (who got injured) and a kid in Jones as centre-midfield options and the loss of Jota who had been key in Liverpool maintaining form further compounded things leaving Origi as the only other attacking option available resulting in an ability to adquately rotate anywhere across the pitch in what is the most compact and exhaustingly scheduled season in memory.
Are Liverpool given a pass by any/all of this? Of course not. Their own decisions have played a key role in these outcomes. The front three, in particular, have been run into the ground over the past few years, the decision to go with a small squad with just three senior centre-backs at the start of the season has proven disastrous, the refusal/inability to sign anyone let alone the defender so painfully needed until the last day of the transfer window was crazy and even with all those injuries the current run of home form especially is still inexcusable as they can call on far greater resources than many of the teams that have beaten them.
But let’s not pretend this is a team missing 1-2 key players with a few others absent for a couple of games as Fred and others seem to think or at least wants to argue.
Lindsay, Dublin
Blaming Klopp
We all have our theories as to why Liverpool have fallen off the pace this season. My theory is that Klopp is the problem.
Liverpool is Klopp’s third managerial stint. He’s been consistent in his previous two roles in that he stays 7 full seasons.
At Mainz 05 in the beginning there was constant improvement, leading to promotion in his third full season in charge, and two 11th place finishes over the next two seasons. However, in his sixth season Mainz 05 were relegated and he left at the end of his seventh season after failing to win promotion (in the interests of transparency, Mainz were relegated with just 4 fewer points than had gotten them to 11th the season before).
Dortmund followed a similar pattern, two seasons of improvement before reaching his goal at the end of the third. A second league title and two second place finishes followed, before everything started to fall apart in his 7th season. They flirted with relegation before Klopp announced he was leaving and results started to improve again.
Klopp is in his sixth season in charge of Liverpool. It’s quite possible that his coaching/man management methods just stop being effective after 6 or 7 years.
A lot of this is tongue in cheek I admit, but I suspect it is a combination of a number of issues. Players are tired, team leaders are missing, Klopp’s energy is starting to wear off, and they just aren’t getting the bounce at the moment. It happens unfortunately.
That being said, with Löw’s announcement today, Klopp will probably be tempted back to Germany. In my opinion Klopp and Hans-Dieter Flick will be the managers of Germany and Bayern Munich at the start of next season, the only question is which one of them is where.
Jerry
Anything but Liverpool…
Ryan, I guarantee you absolutely no one has missed the point about City’s net spend *klaxon sounds loudly*. Once more why net spend is a farce: Chelsea somehow got their money back for Morata; Liverpool made £100m+ on Coutinho; City sold Sane for a loss. It really says more about the circumstances and strategy of the negotiation than it does about quality of a football player or team.
Now that’s out of the way, I think it’s interesting that you apply your logic that spend = dominance only to Man City. Using your source United’s spend has been only 8% smaller than City’s. You could re-write your email pretty much word for word just replacing ‘City’ for ‘United’ . And yet United’s similar spending but comparative lack of success disproves the direct link between the two – as you yourself point out was the case in the 90s.
Bristol Blue (Ah yes the cost of full backs – the unbiased measure of any squad! Now try it again with strikers. Or re-bought academy products who left for free)
On Man United goalkeepers
IP (he’s one of our own)
Your mail probably wont get as much response as it should because you are talking about goalkeepers rather than strikers but I will respond.
Please stop talking c*ap
‘He pulled off saves and delivered performances the likes of which I’ve never seen before’ – I presume you started watching football around 2014? What a ridiculous statement. That is like saying Jamie Vardy has scored better goals than Henry. Just watch a compilation of saves from Premier League Years and you will see hundreds.
‘When United were looking to replace Van Der Sar, they searched for a keeper with a similar profile – calm, languid’ – van der sar was not calm and languid, there are famous pictures of him screaming in vidic’s face’
‘(before Pep and Ederson completely changed what it meant for a keeper to be a ball player)’ whilst IP is agreeing with many peoples opinion of Pep and Ederson I think this is BS, Neuer before them was a much better ball player and he always said he only tried his best to match Schmeichel’s distribution.
‘ what is sure is that this defence needs a keeper more in the mould of Schmeichel than VdS. His vocal nature and confidence in his abilities is supreme, and this will no doubt lead to some criticism down the line, but if he can give the backline a much-needed kick up the arse when they fall asleep, United will no doubt be better for it.’ This is literally the biggest insult i have ever heard towards VdS, he was vocal and confident and never let his defenders relax. They were always kicking their backline up the arse which is why they were world class.
To be clear, I am not writing in to say de Gea isn’t a great shot stopper. He is and he has been since he signed for Utd as a 20 GK with great potential, he grew into the role of one of the best shot stoppers in the world but he never grew into the role of one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
Ederson was a great passer/distributor of the ball but never a truly world class goalkeeper. His goalkeeping worked because of a great team in front of him and a specific tactical plan. De Gea is exactly what David James or Shay Given would have been if they played for big clubs and nothing more.
Please, please, please never compare him to Peter Schmeichel or VdS again.
Tom, Tractor Boy in Switzerland
Turning the transfer ban around
After reading about the UCL clubs not being able to purchase players from each other, could this be a good thing for clubs outside the UCL elite?
The “lesser” clubs should band together in a similar way to the European Clubs Association.
If UCL clubs can only buy from these “lesser” clubs, come to an agreement where there will be a tax of say, 50%, on UCL clubs buying players from this new group. UCL club wants to buy Harry Kane, fine then, pay Spurs £150m asking price, but require the purchasing club to pay £75m into a fund that gets distributed among the member clubs.
Why not go the other way as well, tax of 50% on purchasing players from UCL clubs – cut off the supply to the UCL clubs and also the “get-out” for players stuck at UCL clubs who will need to inflate their squads.
Bring in some rules not allowing under-age players to move, not allowing play for their nations, etc and you choke the talent out of the UCL clubs.
Brian
The right prick
Always really enjoy the Prick of the Week article and how much it ruffles feathers (come on people, ‘prick’ is such a mild, yet incredibly cathartic insult) but this week in particular is an utter banger on Agnelli. What. A. Prick.
Also, always there for a takedown of golf. Good stuff.
I might also suggest if Premier League material runs dry, taking a run at some of the silly buggers going on at FIFA (CAF, Trinidad and Tobago FA) although that probably crosses the line into ‘Proper Bastard of the Week’ and potential lawsuits so maybe have a chat with the lawyers at F365 towers first.
Tom [Redacted] Walthamstow
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