Liverpool are already five points clear at the top of the Premier League; surely they cannot cock it up from here.
If you’re looking for Arsenal v Manchester City mails, then they will be along soonish; this one is packed with Liverpool, Aston Villa, Chelsea and West Ham.
Send your views on any subject to theeditor@football365.com
Somebody has to say it…
If Liverpool can’t hang on to a five-point lead from here then they are the ultimate bottlers!!
Joe (lfc)
More long balls and more
Interesting analysis on the BBC about Arsenal and City deploying more long balls with Pep obviously being hailed a genius for it. It didn’t talk about the change in goal kick rules which led to a change and counter change in tactics.
The stupid short goal kicks that make you sound like your dad, screaming at the telly to stop prattling around with three players doing short passes in their own 6 yard box was designed to lure teams in on the press so the team could pounce up the pitch. However, the defending team have got wise to it and now they don’t press the goalkeeper or centre backs. The goalkeeper stands there with the ball at their feet looking a centre forward who has no intention of pressing, at all, whilst their team gets back into shape.
Everton did this on Saturday evening when 2 goals down. Until the ball is carried past a point, maybe even the half way line, there is no pressing at all.
It does surprise me when you are losing or time is running out. There is just this passiveness to a game now. I was at Palace Sunderland and that game was a steady flow of passiveness and counter passiveness.
Anyways, for the Saturday game. Great to see Grealish playing like himself again. Bradley gave him a good game (despite being F365’s forgotten man) but eventually he did get through. Looked like Beto pushed Kerkez as he was jumping but Beto is allowed to push anyone apparently.
I thought the ref did well to let it flow. No real VAR dramas so no need to add on the lost VAR time. Maybe press the defence to force the turnovers Jack if you are worried about running out of time. Although I also have never seen a yellow card for taking a quick free kick. Its almost as if there never was a conspiracy against Arsenal…
I don’t know what this drop in concentration is about at 2 nil up but in the second half Liverpool couldn’t string a pass together.
Another anonymous game from Salah where he only managed one goal involvement.
Gravernberch, wow. Are we back to having the best midfield in the world?
Ekitike is looking like a cracker of a player. With the amount of games we’ll play he’ll have loads of games. That competition between him and Isak could be juicy.
Alex, South London
Elliot v Wirtz?
I have no doubt Florian Wirtz is a fine footballer and will do a very good job for us in time, but for me the unfortunate side effect of his arrival is it’s forced us to sort something out for Harvey Elliot. A player both Arne Slot and Jurgen Klopp seem to agree should’ve got more minutes than he’s been given at Liverpool.
Elliot and Wirtz are both the same age – 22 – and Elliot has been in and around the Liverpool first team squad since he was around 16 (still the youngest player to start a game for Liverpool) so the fact that now at 22 we’ve felt the need to spend £100m on an overseas player who you could arguably say was behind Elliot in terms of development until very recently does highlight a problem for us.
Don’t get me wrong Liverpool has been a tough team to break into in recent years – as it should be – and I would imagine when Elliot was signed it was imagined he would either take over from Salah (who at the time would’ve been expected to leave by now) or take on a midfield role after Henderson and Milner. I haven’t forgotten Elliot’s broken ankle in 2021 – when he did start the season in the XI so you do have to wonder if things would’ve been very different.
This isn’t just a Liverpool issue. The England U21 side has won two European Championships back to back – Elliot was in the squad for both – and the England have also won tournaments at U17 and U19 level (twice) in the last decade. So at the ages of about 17-20 our players are better than everyone else’s, yet by the time they’re 20-23 these players are slipping away and our clubs are spending hundreds of millions on foreign players instead.
The PSR rules don’t help as clubs appear incentivised to sell academy players – Jarel Quansah going to Leverkusen for £30m a decent example. Liverpool have got very little wrong in recent years, the only other player you could say has reached a good level elsewhere is Harry Wilson; a good player for sure but was never getting in the side ahead of what we had at the time, or now. But if Elliot ends up leaving the club permanently, especially if Wirtz does end up being a ‘flop’ it will be classed as a big error.
Martin (YNWA)
Emery in bother?
When do we start talking about Emery being in serious trouble? This is atrocious.
Paul
(We start talking about it now – Ed)
Not all Man Utd fans are idiots
I just wanted to take Will Ford to task about his article on Man Utd fans “irrational” Garnacho hatred.
Aside from the notable moments of stupidity identified by Will, there were numerous times where the player or player’s camp took to social media to do something stupid, even under the previous manager (remember Ten Hag reprimanded him, and Bruno publicly called him out?). By all accounts his attitude stank in training at times and he was clearly unwilling to get the head down to try to get a place in Amorim’s line-up, even if he is a traditional winger (see Amad for an example). Wearing a Villa top, another PL team, was the last straw for me. Then he moved to another PL team, so it’s natural some fans will be pi$$ed off with him.
As for the picture with Amad and why we care, the answer is that rational fans and people don’t care. Will uses The S*n, X formerly known as Twitter and Insta (as the kids call it, I think) for evidence. If you only interview the dregs of society from the mental asylum, then don’t be surprised if they give you unhinged responses and smear their own faeces on your microphone, verbal or otherwise.
Garey Vance, MUFC
Maresca out and why
A pathological obsession with the high-press (any pitch, any opponent) which would have befuddled Freud himself. Outfoxed by Amorim. A chess game between Magnus Carlsson and Nigel Farage.
Shambolic substitutions not even quantum computing could decipher.
Small-town coach mentality and over-reaction.
Long-standing issues left unaddressed: being caught in transition; inability to defend headers; set play vulnerabilities.
Honestly, should Chelsea FC let Maresca go? I doubt he’d find gainful employment as a gaffer.
Radu Tomescu, on a vacation in Bucharest
READ: Xavi or Glasner to replace irredeemably bald Maresca? Five Chelsea manager contenders
Let’s talk about Graham Potter
Deja vu all over again….. After finally ridding ourself of the miserable dirge that was David Moyes (nope, still zero regrets on that front), we follow up with a proven failure of a Premier League manager in Loputegui and then the proven failure of a Premier League manager that is Potter. It’s almost as if the owners will only appoint very very available managers who cost them nothing.
Potter is even worse than we feared. A look at how Brighton immediately flourished after he left and the historic failure he was at Chelsea meant we were under no illusions. But the extraordinarily terrible performances (let alone results) after he joined last season were still a shock. Any hope that a summer of Potter being able to bed down his ideas were immediately crushed. More of the same.
He is obsessed with 5-3-2. You couldn’t pick a squad in the premier league less suited to playing 5-3-2. As a result he has somehow managed to achieve what we previously thought was impossible, completely neutralizing Jared, our best player. Our fans player of the season last year, Wan Bissaka, has been missing the last 3 games (stomach ache yesterday according to Potter, sounds like a sh!t bunking off school excuse), with rumors of a dressing room bust up.
The recent switch to a 4-2-3-1 (kind of, but who knows) smacks of desperation. Worse, whatever the formation, the players look like they have absolutely no idea of what they are collectively supposed to be trying to do. We don’t press consistently or hunt in packs and players with the ball are always isolated. It was embarrassing how out coached he was against Palace.
I don’t like to get personal, but the gigantic elephant in the room is James Ward-Prowse. Whilst I could write a dissertation on the subject, let’s just say that he is a gigantic black hole in midfield. He can’t tackle, he doesn’t take up intelligent positions, he doesn’t track anyone, he has a pitiful range of passing and is entirely incapable of playing any attacking pass let alone through balls.
If I hear one more time from commentators that he is tied with Beckham on number of EPL free kick goals I may just go postal. He is such a waste of space that he was sent on loan to Forest last season. Yet somehow, he is demonstrably the first name on Potter’s team sheet and is not only undroppable but also cannot be substituted. I feel like we are being gaslit, it’s completely inexplicable!
Potter needs to go, immediately. It’s fair to say that a large number of fans hope he loses to Moyes next week in the Battle of the Clueless, to expedite his departure. Depressing.
What makes it worse (but also gives some hope for the new manager) is that despite some disastrous transfer decisions (we just spent £20m on a keeper who can’t catch crosses from corners and has already been dropped….), we have plenty of talented players. New left back Dioff has been our best player, Paqueta and Bowen are proven class, Fernandez is one of the most promising youngsters in the league and Wan-B is in the conversation for best one on one defenders (how Spence is chosen for England ahead of him is laughable).
Moreover, our academy continues to be excellent. Our academy team thrives in the EFL Trophy (which beat a full MK Dons team away 5-1 this week). Potts played in every pre season game in CM and looks ready, but hasn’t been seen since. Fearon and Kante must also be very close to midfield first teamers and 20 year old Northern Irishman Callum Marshall is banging them in and runs the channels and presses tirelessly (Calum Wilson anyone??).
It actually reminds me of that period when Spurs spent a couple of years spending big money on cr@p striker after cr@p striker, while one Harry Kane was sitting there all along, running like a madman whenever he came on, with passion for the club pouring out of him. Where are they?? Does Potter even watch their games?? Many genuinely believe that he does not. Instead….. we have JWP nailed on to play 90+ every week, as the ship goes down in flames. This is why I often find myself staring at the wall laughing like a lunatic.
I’ve kept this to playing matters. I just don’t have the energy to talk about our disgusting owners (let alone their nauseating letter to fans midweek). Ugh…
Mike, WHU (2 years since last trophy, feels like 15)
