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Blaming Ole on Van De Beek
I’ll admit it, at times I’ve been Ole out. As a short-term replacement once the Mourinho train inevitably went off the rails, at least I could understand the reasoning. Bring in a fan favorite to mollify the seething fans/frothing media, someone you could pay relatively cheaply (to counter the tens of millions pounds wasted on manager buyouts paid out since 2013). Checks out.
I couldn’t help but see it as absurd that Manchester United would then give this manager, a man no other top 20 team in the world would even consider as a candidate, the permanent gig. But with Tuchel and Pochetino no longer options, and Allegri’s style of play making the dark days of Van Gaal/Mourinho seem downright exciting, we’re stuck with him. There’s no saviour waiting in the wings to return us to our former glory.
No doubt he’s been undermined by the revolting owners (currently revelling in their Super Bowl win, ugh) and that odious snake oil salesman Ed Woodward. The Sancho folly, no CDM or CB being brought in, etc, all have been unnecessary hurdles for Ole and his unbalanced squad. Let us never forget though that it was Ole’s idiocy that saw Lukaku benched, become estranged, and then sold for a loss(!!!!). Not replaced, and now one of the world’s best strikers, wait until he comes to City for 90 million pounds and bangs in goals for fun. That’s a whole other story, though.
Surely, the worst indignity the “don’t-park-in-Sir-Alex’s-spot-in-the-carpark” Babyfaced Assassin has been forced to endure is having Donny Van De Beek forced on him. He didn’t even specifically ask for him, can you believe it? Maybe this was because Van De Beek wasn’t considered an option as he was locked-in to a move to Real Madrid until a freak pandemic crushed the Spanish economy. Real Madrid were quite familiar with the player as they watched him lead Ajax past them in the round of 16 of the 18/19 Champions League, subsequently making it as far the Semi-Finals.
Having a major Real Madrid target into United’s lap is a heaven-sent miracle. Van De Beek is an excellent player with endless potential- versatile, gets forward while remaining positionally disciplined, and has displayed this pedigree at the highest level of european competition.
In 141 Eredivisie and Champions league games, the now 23 year old contributed 33 goals and 27 assists from midfield.
If Real Madrid’s confidence in the player isn’t enough, maybe you have forgotten Edwin van der Sar, Ajax’s masterful CEO and former United legend’s heartfelt letter about the transfer. Regarding Donny “…Shortly after his debut, he became one of our best. Especially the last couple of years were amazing. Like you, we pride ourselves on being one of the best at developing talent and giving young players a shot at the highest level. You could say your new star is the embodiment of that pride. Please take good care of our Donny, and help him dream.”
How have we taken advantage of this unprecedented windall? By integrating him into the team, or maybe God forbid making tactical adjustments to get our best players on the field at the same time? Anyone following United post 2013 knows better.
It’s been a complete disaster. Ole had explicitly demanded Jack Graelish (far more expensive, his club had no interest in selling him, and is a completely different style of player, but who’s counting?). So like a petulant child, refusing to play with his christmas present because it was the wrong color, Ole has done everything possible to alienate the player. He wasn’t on Ole’s list so Ole has done nothing short of completely destroying his confidence as a result.
He has been denied a steady run of games at any point, usually coming in for garbage time, or the occasional cup tie. Has Ole not read his scouting report? He is a central midfielder, yes he has played as #10, but is equally adept as part of a midfield 3, and has experience as one of the midfield 2 in our preferred 4-2-3-1. Last season he was often the deepest-lying of Ajax’s midfielder’s allowing him to show off his long-range passing. Ole’s idiocy has even seen him played on the wing? (wtf?)
Does he lack the defensive nous to join the hallowed ranks of recent Manchester United deep-lying midfielders? (anyone else remember the Ji-Sung Park/Rafael pairing, Pogba sure does) He averaged 2.2 tackles a game last year versus United’s only archetypical CDM Nemanja Matic’s 2.6. We got a couple of great years from Matic (another gift dropped in our laps) but his legs are gone.
If we have to suffer through Pogba’s unique take on the role of “defensive midfield”, where tracking back is optional, his lack of skill and effort as a defender is evident, and losing the ball in dangerous positions is an every-game occurrence, surely Donny could be given a chance?
I’ve watched Pogba since he was 16, he undoubtedly once possessed world-class potential, and can still be great when he’s arsed to, yet Bruno has made him redundant. He’s injury prone, has a year left on his deal, and publically humiliated the club by having his pig mouthpiece demand his exit mid-season. Why indulge him when we have a ready made replacement waiting in the wings to be blooded. If we can get 30 million pounds from some poor club, consider us lucky. Equally likely no one will want him and we re-sign him to a crazy contract (ie De Gea).
United play well when Fernandes is on the pitch. Ole seems determined to only utilize Van De Beek as an understudy/replacement for Fernandes. Who knows what kind of understanding they could come to when played consistently together. Why not build around a world-class 25 year old attacking midfielder, and 23 year heralded CM who has proven his worth in the final rounds of the Champions League? Bring in an excellent CDM to complete the trio, and complement our existing talented midfielders who have a future at United like McTominay and Fred.
Our treatment of Van De Beek has not gone unnoticed and will nor will it be without consequences. Dutch greats are calling for him to flee before ruining his World Cup chances. Our reputation as a club, particularly when it relates to transfers, becomes even more farcical. Other players (particularly his Dutch teammates) will think twice before joining our dysfunctional circus of a club.
Get over it Ole. Make it work. On merit alone, Van de Beek is far more deserving of his place at United than you are at the moment.
Rory, MUFC
…Decided to watch the United v United FA Cup clash last night, 90 minutes of 0-0 later I felt a bit disappointed, of course Manchester United would go on to win the game in extra time but overall it was not quite the clash I expected, I suppose when I think FA Cup and this matchup I think back to Paulo Di Canio scoring against Fabien Barthez, iconic cup moment that, trying to play the “look Paulo, it is offside, you should stop now” play, great nostalgic memories that.
The one thing I did takeaway from the match however was Donny Van de Beek, I just feel sorry for him, his time at United has been awful so far for him, mainly because I do not feel Ole knows what to do with him within this side, it also makes you wonder when you had Bruno Fernandes in the XI, why purchase Van de Beek in the first place? squad depth maybe, but at that fee, his talent, it is an interesting one to ponder, I could easily see him leaving come the summer similar to how Angel Di Maria did and succeeding elsewhere, it would be great to see the smile return to his face, see that playstyle that contributed to the incredible Ajax side he was part of and just to see the Donny that many neutral fans know, saw and loved.
Mikey, CFC
In defence of West Ham
As I watch the closing moments of an underwhelming West Ham being knocked out of the cup by an underwhelming Man Utd I feel compelled to write in. I suspect you’ll get a lot of mails about how bad West Ham were so I thought I’d offer a half-defence of the team.
We went into the game without our main (and only) striker, who wasn’t even a striker until about 12 months ago. The replacement striker, who it needs to be stated is not actually a striker, had to go off injured. Our best centre back had to go off injured too, and then the guy who replaced him had to be subbed due to concussion.
Yes, the first half was poor from West Ham, but we limited Man Utd to very few chances. In the second half despite having to make 3 subs due to injury and having to put an 18 year old up front, we kept the ball a lot better and actually looked fairly comfortable in an away game at Old Trafford against a vastly superior team. Rashford, Greenwood, Van De Beek and Martial were kept quiet.
In the end we conceded a goal on the break as we were trying to push for a winner in extra time. I realise neutrals probably won’t see it this way as it was a boring game but as a West Ham fan I actually thought the effort was good from the players considering the circumstances, particularly Rice and Soucek who look absolutely knackered having played almost every minute in the league this season. Man Utd on the other hand should be seriously concerned that they laboured to a narrow victory against a heavily depleted and tired West Ham team.
If there is a finger of blame to be pointed on the West Ham side it shouldn’t be pointed at Moyes or the players. It was evident this season with the fixture pile up that having a deep squad was going to be even more important than usual, and yet we went into the season with one of the thinnest squads in the league, and the blame for that should be placed on David Sullivan’s mismanagement of transfer policy over the last few years at the club. Even in the most recent window we sold two senior players and only brought one in (on loan at that), so the squad if anything got thinner at the time when it needed reinforcements desperately. I feel we’ve thrown away an opportunity this season, can’t see us finishing in the top 6 now we’ve got injuries piling up, despite the huge effort the players are clearly putting in. I’m disappointed but I can’t say I’m surprised.
Jamie, A West Ham fan, London
Let’s hear it for the keepers
I’d like to know what my fellow mailboxers might think of the idea of an ‘on call’ goalkeeper pundit, available at the drop of the proverbial ball to a commentator / co comms to sort out the absolutely terrible understanding of the position amongst anyone but goalkeepers themselves, of which there are very few television personalities or pundits. I would see this operating much like the ex referees (read: backer upper), utilised so as to garner a better understanding of a role not many of those watching have ever fulfilled.
Only this evening I was left reeling about the lack of praise forthcoming for Fabianski after his keeping out of Lindelof’s deflected header from close range. It was an absolute feat of reaction speed, athleticism and composure often sorely misunderstood / underappreciated by those who have never attempted even half a lunchtime of being ‘in goals’.
Peace and prosperity in these inclement times.
B (MUFC)
And so we come quickly again to Liverpool…
Kevin, (Crew) nearly hit the nail on the head but then demonstrated that he was a “banter” merchant instead.
Liverpool were a long ball team. He’s absolutely right about that. We would play long balls from defense into attack and cut teams up.
What he must’ve failed to miss is that Liverpool were also a pressing team. We would win the ball on the edge of your box and score.
What he also managed to miss was that we were a cut down the wing team. The full backs would break into space, create overloads and then cut back to attackers in space in the box.
I could go on with about the five other classic ways we scored goals but I won’t bore you all. The point is that Liverpool had worked out a lot of different ways to cut the cake. It’s why we finished two consecutive seasons with 97 and then 99 points. Any team can win a random game of football; weird things happen in every game that affect results. But very few teams can win 30 games of football in a single season. Even fewer can do so twice.
Jonathan Wilson touched on this quite well in one of his articles in the Guardian. Liverpool are a deeply interconnected team. Without Gomez and VVD we have lost not just our two best central defenders but also our ability to play the long ball attack. But without this attack we are a bit more predictable when we have the ball because we break down the wings a lot more but teams can gamble and have men ready to be in these areas thus negating our ability to overload. Suddenly we have lost two of our best attacks.
In addition losing Jota means that none of the front three are getting a rest. At the end of a game they have sprinted so many times that they must be exhausted by now. They might be physcially tired or they could just as likely be mentally tired. These are professional athletes who do a bit more thinking than your average Sunday League specialist. They’re constantly thinking about where they should be positioned and whether a pressing trigger has been engaged. There is also a complacency risk; everyone knows they’re going to start every week so there’s less pressure to perform.
On this last point I think there’s a big slice of this now; the team were top of the league (I think) when Jota got injured but our form really fell away after his injury. Maybe he would’ve given us the unpredictability to help beat a few more sides in January and the rest that some of the other front 3 would have benefited from.
Overall I’m pretty relaxed because now we are the wounded animal. Teams will be more confident and aggressive against us and most aren’t going to have the talent to kill us like Man City did. Our results will pick up as injuries ease and next season we will be back to full strength and hopefully it will be a more normal season without the congestion we have seen since March.
Minty, LFC
Liverpool peaked for 18 months
Just watching MNF highlights there.
Carragher saying Liverpool have been playing outstanding football for three years now. Liverpool fans making excuses for their players because they were at the pinnacle of football for years.
This is of course all nonsense. This Liverpool squad peaked for 18 months. This Liverpool we are seeing now has reared its ugly head just as long as the world class Liverpool.
They finished 4th on the last day of the season in 2018. They were superb the following season coming second with record points and winning the Champions league. The following season they bolt out of the traps and realistically had the league won by Christmas.
From the start of the 2018/19 season to January 2020 they were amazing. The last few months of their title winning season they were poor. Absolutely schooled by Atletico, well beaten in the cup by Chelsea and limped over the finish line after embarrassing loses in the end of the league.
Klopp raised these players above everyone else for 18 months. That’s no mean feat. But they’re not some Premier League Dynasty coming to the end of their dominance. They didn’t win back-to-back titles. They didn’t win a treble, they didn’t do a double. They didn’t finish the season with record goals scored or conceded, record points. They simply join Man Utd, Blackburn, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Leicester as Premier League winners.
Don’t blame their fans for thinking this. They have always lived in a fairy tale land. With their “This means more” nonsense when they won the league. To Klopp saying “We won’t defend the title, we will attack it”
I’ve seen an 80-year-old with no teeth attack a well-done steak with more success. They are a good team but this shouldn’t come as a complete shock to people who actually watch Liverpool.
Bryan (thanks for your help Chief)
Liverpool had all the luck
I had fun reading the expected replies to my email a few days ago, & things haven’t exactly gotten better for pool! Thrashed by City, and 3rd consecutive loss at home, has had deluded pool fans rolling out the usual excuses: injuries, rona, lack of crowds (like Anfield is the only empty stadium – until recently, their problems were away from home, where theoretically lack of crowds should’ve helped them!?), the cold, Saddam Hussein, Dr Faucci etc. etc.
But aren’t you all missing the obvious explanation: this is as good as you are, without Lady Luck permanently residing at Anfield.
The last 2-3 seasons you had so much phenomenal luck, that it simply couldn’t last, it was unsustainable. I’m not gonna go through the long list of serendipitous wins last year, or the year before (remember the last minute winner against Everton where VVD skied shot, dropped on top of the hapless Pickford, only for the worst striker ever to play for pool, Origi, to tap it in). Or the fluky CL win against my beloved Spurs, with a joke of a penalty in the 3rd minute, followed by Spurs outplaying them for the next 85 minutes, only for the aforementioned Origi to score against the run of play again. Not forgetting the semis, if it wasn’t for Ousmane (more like Ousless!) Dembele missing an empty goal from 8 yards, thus keeping the score at 3-0 to Barca, only for them to freeze at Anfield, remembering the previous year’s exit at the hands of Roma, after leading the 1st leg by 3 goals.
Of course nothing will ever convince the average Liverpool fan, of their more than fair share of luck, both on & off the pitch (virtually no serious injuries to key players, for best part of 3 years), but the sensible & objective ones would agree. I know a couple myself, & they both agree that they had a few “charmed” years.
They don’t quite think, this is as good as they are, but they also don’t believe last 2 years points hauls were realistic reflections of their superiority. They believe the truth is somewhere in between.
Given that the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, and specially Man Utd, have young teams who’ll only get better (not the case with Liverpool – most star players are, if not ready to retire, definitely past their peak age), and City will still be a force, it’s gonna be very tough for Liverpool to win another title in the near future.
Welcome to PL’s one-off winners club, current members Blackburn, Leicester, & now Liverpool.
Fred (wish we hadn’t beaten West Brom, so Jose would already be sacked!?), London
And now they are pleading poverty?
One of the funnier things to witness this season was how the chest thumping and exclamations of ’10 years of dominance’ completely disappeared from the Liverpool fans’ discourse. Understandable given their form but I’ve been prodding my scouse mates all season, taking the piss, and now just get a grim acceptance or agreement with my jibes, it’s incredibly gratifying. However, after a storm of excuses a narrative is beginning to settle into the Liverpool fan base to explain away their regression which even their reasonable fans are peddling. In general terms it’s ‘they cannot compete financially with the elite clubs’ and thus by proxy and myth ‘that their dramatic rise and now fall is part of a plucky story of a team doing it differently and breaking the status quo but shining too bright’. This is actually, and unsurprisingly, absolute bollocks.
They can’t compete with the financial elite yet are in the top 10 clubs in the world when measured by turnover.
They don’t throw money around on players yet are in the top 10 clubs in the world when measured by transfer spend over the last 10 years.
They can’t compete with City/United on the big players yet have spent over £65m on one player twice, something City have yet to do.
They can’t afford players to flop and just replace them like city, yet £55m Keita and £40m Benteke are playing loads of games for Liverpool aren’t they
They can’t get the same quality of player because they don’t pay as much, yet Joto, Fabinho, Salah, Mane, Firmino, and Ox all cost between £35m and £40m
There are like 50,000 professional clubs worldwide, Liverpool are in the top 1% of the 1% of the 1%. They’re basically Mark Zuckerberg, sitting alone on with a red face and a quivering lip, sobbing his heart out because Bezos and Musk have got their own rockets. So please stop it, grow up, you big billionaire babies.
Dave, Manchester
…Michael, Ireland, you do realize that Fenway Sports Group has a net worth of more than $6 billion, and John Henry alone is worth of $2.6 Billion, right? That he owns Liverpool, purchased $300 million for and now worth 2.2 billion, as well as the Boston Red Sox, purchased for $380 and now worth $3.3 Billion. And John Henry didn’t make his money giving puppies to orphans, he made it through a hedge fund.
Liverpool is not some plucky underdog that defied all the odds to beat the big bad Russian Oligarch or oil rich Arabs. They spend just as much money on player wages as any club outside of Barca or Real Madrid, and if their ownership chose to, they could easily spend as much money on transfers as any other team in the world. Why Liverpool fans so consistently point to their “net spend” as proof of how great their ownership is baffles me. Don’t you think that if they decided to actually put a little extra money into the club, you would have won a title sooner? Or if they would have decided to say “fuck it, $80 for Dayot Upamecano may be a slight over pay, but we need a CB”, you would have been able to put up a slightly stronger title defense. It is not your money Liverpool fans, you should be furious that FSG did not spend.
Jurgen Klopp is incredible. He is the only manager who has been able to give Pep any consistent trouble, and with all that he has accomplished, he would be well within his rights to be publicly asking why he has not been better backed by ownership. Michael, you are completely right to stand up for Klopp, but to try to claim that Liverpool doesnt have the financial ability to match up with the rest of the big 6 is pathetic. Remember this next summer at the end of the transfer window when Liverpool hasn’t done anything to refresh their squad because they couldn’t get anyone to overpay them for Salah or Mane.
Ryan, MCFC
Man City have built that attack on a budget
Another day, another mailbox critique of Man City by using that common metric of expenditure: number of £50million defenders. Why is it I wonder that this is exclusively trotted out for Man City and no one else? Much like Liverpool and United are criticised for the biggest single transfer fee for a defender, or Liverpool and Chelsea are criticised for the biggest fee for a goalkeeper. Could it be tribal bias? It’s boring, lazy, and limited. It’s limited in that it literally ignores the entire attacking half of the team.
And it turns out that City have a pretty good attack. Top scorers in each of the last 3 seasons and setting the PL record for goals scored in 2017/18. Sure, they had Aguero for some of those years but he is sadly becoming increasingly injury prone (he has the same number of PL appearances this season as Van Dijk). Pep has had to come up with alternative sources of goals. And no, that hasn’t just meant “another £50million signing”. He’s converted Raheem Sterling from a good player with famously little end product into literally a 20 goal a season man; in KDB’s absence this season Pep has pushed Ilkay Gundogan up to do a passable impersonation of peak Yaya Toure; Phil Foden is developing nicely; I could go on. My point is that this is player development, not recruitment.
Pep hasn’t actually spent that much on non-defence at City: Gundogan, Sane, Jesus, Nolito (remember him?), B Silva, Mahrez, Rodri, Torres. Transfermarkt make that a total (gross spend because I’m not a complete tool) spend of £315million since 2016. Sure, he inherited some good players (which top manager hasn’t?) but they had just scraped a 4th place finish, and he vastly improved those who were already there.
Compare to non-defence spend for Liverpool for the same period: Wijnaldum, Mane, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Salah, Fabinho, Shaqiri, Keita, Minamino, Thiago, Jota = £309million. Virtually identical. Both teams have had a similar number of signings, pretty good success rates, and reasonable overall spend, especially when compared to other teams over the same period:
Arsenal: £345million
United: £447million
Chelsea: £539million. Oof.
My point is, Pep has done an excellent job in forging the league’s best attack though good management rather than exorbitant spend. Meanwhile the defence has had too many expensive turkeys, but it’s actually been City’s attack which has carried the team to so much success over recent years (this season being the exception). If you only judge people by their area of worst performance, then of course everyone will look bad, and you’ll also miss half the picture.
Bristol Blue
Sean Dyche is a fraud
Burnley lose to Championship Bournemouth.
Burnley beat Liverpool at Anfield.
This is why I get so annoyed when I hear managers like Dyche get credit.
All very well motivating your team to play well against a big team. But no chance when you are favourites. Joke manager. Call me bitter, but really enjoyed that result tonight.
That is why you will never manage a big club Sean.
Ade (7 is coming) Guildford
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