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Jose is the last of a dying breed
Dear Editor,
As an Arsenal fan who lived through the big ups and big downs of Wenger, I can see exactly what is happening with Jose Mourinho. Like Wenger, Jose was a master in his day and also like Wenger, he has turned into a dinosaur. That is because football management has moved on. Old managers like Jose and Arsene (and Hughes and Pulis and Moyes et al) all had a set way of playing. If that way was successful, they would then be able to purchase more players that fitted that way and be successful (or not be able to buy players and watch their team crash and burn, such as Moyes and Hughes)
Now football managers don’t buy players any more, the club buys them and so have to develop tactics that bring the best out of the players that are provided for them. They therefore need to change and adapt how they play to suit the opposition as well as the players they have available. The likes of Pep, Klopp, Emery and Poch do this very well, the likes of Jose just cannot cope with this change.
Football has moved on, Jose needs to join Mr Wenger in retirement.
Now watch Utd win 3-0 tonight.
Rgds,
Tim ‘leave Jose alone, I backed Utd to finish bottom half at 80\1’ Benson
A not fully informed, but cannot resist, dig at Hodgson
Hi,
Full disclosure, i’m a Liverpool fan, and I will always carry a dislike of Roy Hodgson. Thus having looked at the circumstances (but not the actual game) of Palace’s 3-1 defeat to Brighton last night I thought i’d presumptuously call this some ‘Classic Roy’.
So, at 1-0 down Palace are given the advantage of playing v 10 men due to Duffy’s red card. By half-time the score is 3-0 to Brighton and the home side have also used 2 of their 3 substitutes. Now bearing in mind, as they have done alot in recent weeks I believe, Palace have played without a natural centre forward, it takes Roy until the hour mark to make any change at all (also Brighton having used their final sub 10 minutes earlier), bringing on Sorloth, then swapping a midfielder for a midfielder on 73 and not even bothering to use his final substitution. All this against a side that played for 65 mins+ with 10 men and had used it’s last sub with still over 40 mins to play.
Like I said, I didn’t even see the game, but it just reads like quintessential Hodgson. Ohh my Roy Toy.
Cheers, Bobby. (PS – ‘Warhammer’.)
United have more money than Floyd Mayweather
Hello,
In one of his many recent musings/excuses, Jose Mourinho was bemoaning the fact that teams like Spurs no longer sold players to teams like Manchester United as they no longer really need the money.
While this is largely true, that ignores the fact that United have more money than Floyd Mayweather and can, in theory, go and buy players for whatever price is quoted, or whatever the wage (see Sanchez A.).
Now, what if I told you (or Jose if you are reading, hi Jose), that there was a big, powerful English international striker, who is in form and stands tall at 6ft plus.
He leads the line, and does a hell of a lot more besides, and is currently scoring at a rate of a little better than 1 in 2.
I have no doubt that his club would consider a medium to large pile of cash on the table in January.
Oh, and he is not cup tied for the Champions League.
Yes, I think United should sign Callum Wilson.
He fits in a 4-3-3, fits the mould of a Jose player.
I think it would be perfect.
And think of the #hashtags or whateter Woodwards metric is, of United having another England striker in their squad.
But then again, would he take a step down?
DC, BAC
Arsenal are going to lose 3-0
Having just read the 5 big questions, it just hit me…. We’re going to lose 3-0 aren’t we.
Park is gonna somehow come back along with two own goals. It seems no matter how good we are in the build up to these games, we always seem to choke at OT. Arsenal fans desperately need to hammer Utd (and I mean do a city on them) in order to vanquish the hideous demons of 28/08/11.
But it’s not going to happen. If we get a 2-1 or any kind of win I’ll be delighted, but in order to rekindle the real hope (not the kind that Wenger became the ultimate killing machine of) we need to beat them round the place like an unhappy clown beats his underperforming monkey.
Adam L (Not even allowing myself a moment of excitement in the build up) Gooner in France.
The Kenyan derby
Today evening Manchester United clash with Arsenal, to F365 readers this a match like any other two teams trying to get their groove back after a few years of misadventure but in Kenya its a whole different matter. Its the match,match you are not allowed to miss. It may not carry as much importance and media hype as it did a decade back but remains a major feature in the calendar.
At the peak of the rivalry that coincided with the dominance of the two teams, thousands of miles away, emotions were not far away punctuated by fights, maiming and deaths. The week leading to the game, the game was the major topic of discussion in the whole country. Talk shows, news bulletins, political speeches, religious meetings all had to have undertones about the match. That week the country would be painted by the respective replica shirts, no self respecting fanatic would fail to have a replica shirt.
During the 2005 fa cup final, a tense final that had succeeded a tense week it all blew out. I was in a boarding high school then and Manchester united had contrived to throw away chance after chance to win the match, which they subsequently lost through a shootout. Goading started in earnest, which escalated in a war of words and in less than an hour an all out brawl had ensued in the school premises between the two factions. Police had to come in in the dead of the night to prevent further damage to school properties and injuries to student. We were sent home indefinitely over Manchester united and Arsenal. Across the country people had committed suicide, business premises destroyed, relationships broken, individuals stabbed and for one week we had to live with the aftermath.
The stakes may not be as high as they were in 2005, other teams have come in and changed the perspective, but its still the biggest match around and emotions will run high tonight.
Okembo, Arsenal Kenya
It’s his bloody job
A big part of a manager’s job is to motivate his players. Mourinho certainly isn’t spending his time coaching or devising tactics, so it’s kind of hard to understand exactly what he is doing. As others have said, the fact that the entire team is affected by this malaise means fingers have to be pointed at those above them. Given the number of players he’s purchased, you’d expect that they at least would buy in to his philosophy, but they seem to mostly sit on the bench. Clearly the players either hate Mourinho or hate the system (or both), and it’s down to him to find a way to solve the issue. Change the system, be nice to the players, I don’t know, I’m not a football manager.
Also, the idea that your Sunday league team were all committed and had fun therefore players should too is utter, utter bollocks. You play in a Sunday league team with mates, there’s basically no pressure on you, it isn’t your job, you don’t have to do it. Professionals have to play, they don’t get much choice who they play with and can’t do much about who they play for once they’ve signed a contract. Because it’s their job, they are doing it every day. Stop thinking of it like you playing football, and more like you doing your job (and not in the “if I elbowed someone at work I’d be sacked” kind of way). I imagine in most jobs you work best when you’re happy. Mourinho clearly isn’t keeping anyone happy, and the team is suffering for it
Finally, plenty of players on other teams are active on social media. Hector Bellerin is constantly posting pictures of himself in bucket hats and open Hawaiian shirts (he’s a good follow), but he’s having a cracking season so far. I, for one, am all for it. I think it’s good for fans to see that players are real people, although it’s clearly not doing as much to stop the abuse hurling as I thought it might.
So if Mourinho can bask in the glory of his team succeding (which he does, more than most), he can bloody well accept responsibility for his team failing.
Ross, AFC London (we’ll lose now, won’t we?)
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Get this off my chest…
I know everyone has had their say on JM, but this has been bugging me for sometime and then reading this morning’s mailbox, it jogged my memory.
I spotted it in in Kerry Culchie’s comment, and it reads:
“Mourinho wanted some shiny new toys last summer and his daddy said “NO, play with the expensive toys I already bought you, you ungrateful little shit!”
Which follows with:
“…namely that he’s built his reputation on being primarily defensively strong. This played out last year when United came second in the league, conceding just 28 goals in total with only 12 of those coming from open play”.
Something is amiss here. Last year Utd came second, with a pretty tight defence and this season, THOSE SAME DEFENDERS are now shite. He wanted some new spangly defenders, why is this then? Have your current ones become shite over the summer? They got you to second last year, now they can’t defend for toffee, hmmmm….
I can see why the board are refusing to indulge him. As Jonny Nic said, maybe he heeds to look closer to home…
Paul, Londinium.
Sour grapes?
I think Alex T has answered a lot of his own questions in his email, having a moan about a point and then almost talking himself out of each one, it’s as if you don’t actually believe what you’re typing, Alex?
Let’s start from the top – “Week in week out City romp teams, with apparent ease”. I assure you it is not easy, but you kind of contradict your point in your very next sentence by understanding “they are world class and have a host of brilliant players” which I think is a good enough reason to be better than most. By definition being better should end up with more positive results.
Then apparently “City only function due to their wingers”. You’ve obviously not watched a lot of our games, Alex. If our wingers don’t get you, our central players such as KDB, Bernardo and the majestic David Silva will. You also dismiss the fact that our wingers have so much space as if it is gifted. There is space (not neccissarily out wide!) because our tactician manager figures out how to create that space by dominating the ball, with technically gited players in every position and creating mistakes and opportunities for our whole team to exploit.
Expanding further on the above paragraph, the space that we most often exploit is in fact that between full back and central defender which kind of messes around with your “open acres” out wide theory. Google “Vulnerable channels and Guardiola’s 20 zones theory” and you’ll understand how we play the way we do and create the chances we do. Essentially it has the pitch broken down and when a player moves into a zone it should theoretically give them at least two passing options. Think about it, having two passing options most of the time you have the ball is insane. Which begs the question why has no other manager picked up on this? The answer is, they have but it is extremely difficult to stop.
Moving away from how we attack for a moment but a lot of people seem to be overlooking how excellent we’ve been (bar the odd game versus Lyon!) in defence this season. When tested we’ve in the most part handled it without the usual calamity. We all know about how much of a difference Ederson has made to how we play but Aymeric Laporte has to go down as one of the best January transfer window buys of all time, the guy is still yet to lose a game in the Premier League. John Stones has also gone up a level and is keeping our club captain on the bench as well as Otamendi (in lst seasons Prem Team of the Season). Last night was the first time we conceded a goal in open play in the league for three months.
Next you’re asking why more teams don’t go two up top versus City? I’d say why don’t any teams play two up top against anyone? Can you name me five teams that play two up top on a regular basis? It’s not just a tactic deployed against us, it’s pretty much standard everywhere to have one central striker with forwards either wide or behind.
In your final paragraph you then state “Pep has mastered and easily understood how every team defends and attacks in England”. Alex, you’ve unravelled. Man does job to the best of his ability and gets results shocker. I think topping our CL group at the moment doesn’t really translate to a struggle but I’d caveat your point that by playing the best teams from the other countries in Europe is sometimes a little trickier than playing Southampton at home.
Finally “It’s really becoming a waste of time”. Now this just sounds like sour grapes, mate. It’s not a waste of time, that defeatist attitude will get you nowhere will it? Just ask our opposition, apparently they’re just bending over every week!
Out of interest, was it boring when United pissed the league by 18 points in 1999-00? Or when they won 13 of the first 20 Premier Leagues? Didn’t hear this bleating then.
Mark, M32 Blue
The depths of footballing despair and back…
Less than a year ago Bayern were reportedly interested in Ralph Hassenhuttl. Now he’s our manager.
Saints, you have led me to the depths of footballing despair since the summer of 2016. Poor manager selection, poor transfer activity, poor style of football turning us into a globule of nothingness left circling the drain before an inevitable relegation (this year, nest year, year after. It was coming at some point).
And then you did this. You employed someone who wants to play exciting football, at pace on the front foot. Someone coveted in Europe. You employed Alpen Klopp.
I love you, you beautiful b*****d.
Jon Tucker, Southampton (Watch Redmond explode)
