We have mails about the best players as well as more on Jose Mourinho, Liverpool and more. Mail us at theeditor@football365.com
Best player in the Premier League?
I was in a shocking mood this morning but am feeling a bit better now (I ‘found’ some rhubarb and custard sweets in another office) so I decided to go all positive __with a rundown of who could legitimately claim to be the best player in the Premier League at the moment. My criteria was that the list shouldn’t be padded out, it should only contain those who could make a sensible case for being number one;
1. Sergio Aguero – absolutely revels in scoring goals, any type of goals, for the sheer joy of scoring. He must be fantastic to play __with as he will make passes look good and basically give out free assists by turning simple passes into goals. Makes great runs to create space for others. Filthy goals to minutes ratio.
2. Coutinho – only turned 24 in June, that seems incredible. Either he is simply developing in line with his age or he is really benefitting from Klopp (probably a bit of both) but he is starting to stand half a shoulder higher than a very good Liverpool team. Many pointed to Lallana and Wijnaldum’s absences from the draw with Utd but it was probably more to do with the blunting effect on the attack of moving Coutinho to midfield. He is versatile and increasingly dependable.
3. Kevin De Bruyne – Probably the key to the title race. City really missed him when he got injured last season. Links everything together. His range of passing is exceptional but he can also finish. He is hardworking but also a ‘flair’ player. I have never seen him have an off day, he is the opposite of a form/ streaky player. Consistent excellence.
4. Mesut Ozil – As close to Dennis Bergkamp as you can get without being Mitchel Dennis Bergkamp. Classy. Does stuff that you believe that only he could do. Added goals this season (although I still cannot forgive him for not scoring in the last minute of the World Cup semi-final in 2014…it should have been 8-0 not 7-1!) and his assists are legend. His eye for a pass is wonderful and balance exceptional.
5. Eden Hazard – on form it could be Eden. He is beautiful to watch. One of those players that glides over the pitch. His control is exceptional, his pace as deceptive as it is destructive. Can hit them from anywhere and deliver a dead ball like no one else. When on form.
6. Diego Costa – of all the people on the list Costa is the one I fear the most from an opposition view. He is brutal to play against, especially when he is focused on himself rather than the opposition. Whenever your team plays someone you look down your teamlist first (why the f*ck has he picked him?) and then look down the other team and secretly hope one or two are out. with Chelsea it is Costa for me. He plays up to on his own but is as good as two men. He occupies centre-backs like no one else, scores all manner of different goals and distracts to allow others to play.
If that isn’t the PFA shortlist this year then I’m President Trump. Interesting to note they all signed for fat fees except Coutinho…maybe money does talk.
For me – it is De Bruyne but Costa is the one I would fear the most.
Micki Attridge
Except…
We need to talk about Firmino.
He is the best player in the league.
Gough, LFC, Dublin
Best player in the PL?
- Philippe Coutino
- Roberto Firmino
- Sergio Aguero
- Kevin De Bruyne
- Eden Hazard
- Mesut Ozil
- Diego Costa
Jose’s behaviour is appalling
Now, maybe I am over-reacting a bit but the recent behaviour of Jose has been fairly shocking, even by his standards. Smalling and Shaw were called out for saying that they were not fit enough to play. Shaw is still on the way back from a horror leg break (if anyone is unsure of the physical and psychological impacts of such an injury, just think of Aaron Ramsey and how long it took him to fully recover and get back to his best) Then there is the treatment of Henrikh Mkhitaryan. One of the most effective players in Europe last season, he was creating goals with disgusting ease. He has been hampered by injury and is taking time to adjust to the league (as happens with many players in new leagues) but surely the constant criticism from a manager who has barely given him a chance is not helping. He has started one game and come off the bench in five more. He is not exactly been given a chance to show what he can do, especially in a team that was, until yesterday, struggling to put a coherent performance together.
So at what point does Jose get called out on this? He has history of throwing his players under the bus but it seems to be his only response to adversity. Would it be acceptable in any other workplace environment to do this. Because, despite the massive sums of money that is supposed to make everything tolerable and fair-game, it is a workplace. If a your manager made the same announcements about you in the staff room, HR would be waiting for him when he got back to his desk.
Which leads to the question of what exactly is wrong with Mourinho?
Kev (it will come down to him or the squad again…and he will lose again)
There will be blood!
I must take issue with Ted’s assertion that players should not play unless they are 100% fit or as near as possible – while I take the point that you will have cover and should use the squad in a balanced manner, I don’t believe that Jose was suggesting players play while injured. What he is challenging is the idea that it is the players ruling themselves out of playing as opposed to the medical staff.
To me, it suggests mental weakness and a willingness to ‘hide’, something that Jose rightly says is not befitting Manchester United. As the past three years have proved without question is that there is no hiding place when playing for a big club like United. While I’m willing to cut Shaw some slack given that he is likely to be carrying some mental scars from last year, what is Smalling’s excuse? That he had a knock? We ended up playing Phil Jones for 90mins for crying out loud – was Jones (no games in forever) somehow more match fit than Smalling? I doubt it. He was hungrier though, and that is the type of attitude required. When you read stories that players just don’t fancy it, you begin to question the character required.
Football isn’t just about ability, it’s about having the mental fortitude, cojones if you will, to run through those brick walls when your body won’t let you. Look at the way Klopp deals with Sturridge and you get the idea.
Conrad Wiacek, MUFC
Exasperated with the pundits
Did nobody else watch Danny Murphy and Alan Shearer talking about Swansea’s lack of effort and think to themselves, these guys really know their sh#t?
3-0 down at half time and their advice to the Swansea players was to come out in the second half and get some yellow cards! They said it with a straight face too. Shearer made the point and then Murphy repeated it a minute later. Swansea needed to show the fans that they cared and the best way to do so was to get some yellow cards. They kind of backtracked a little and said the players needed to get stuck in a little more but is it any wonder English football culture continues to stand still when pundits spout such rubbish on national television.
Just a few minutes previously, Shearer moaned over about 30 seconds of clips showing how Swansea players needed to put a shift in. He said shift around 20 times in 30 seconds, presumably a new record, even for him. It was at this moment I found myself feeling like I was in the Newcastle dressing in late April 2009 and I realised then why Newcastle got relegated and why Joey Barton lost his head against Liverpool. He was just showing he cares by putting a shift in and collecting yellow cards, there’s no other way to do it.
The worst part of this whole sorry episode is that I used to like Murphy.
As an aside, I also enjoyed Shearer salivating over Pogba’s finish saying something along the lines of, “great hit…it had everything…power, technique…spin”. Chappers, possibly realising that Shearer was talking through his hole, asked him how spin affected the shot. Seeing he’d been caught in the act, Shearer just ignored the question and produced some more clichés.
A fine few moments of viewing which made me feel better about skipping the punditry section every other week.
Paul, Seoul
…A note about MOTD2 last night – following highlights of the Liverpool and Utd shellackings, 80-90% of the analysis focused on Watford and Swansea; specifically, that none of their players ran around enough for Shearer’s and Murphy’s liking.
No discussion of what makes Liverpool so good at bunching up and playing one touch passes to get through tight defences, nor the technical mismatch between Swansea’s defence vs Rooney, Zlatan, Mata, Pogba. No mention of failings in skill that caused Watford/Swansea passes, shots, tackles, headers to go astray.
The only whiff of technique analysis was for Pogba’s thunderb**tard, where Mark Chapman manfully tried to drag some insightful blood out of the geordie stone. Result: ‘It was like a five iron!’ Er, cheers?
So there we have it, This Is Still England. Be as crap as you like, just make sure you run around a lot and get booked if you’re losing. We can keep rearranging the training cones on the deck of St George’s Park, but this is why our players and managers are still so average at football: we’re just not interested enough in actually kicking the ball.
(Shearer was right about the Arsenal goal though. Can we have the old offside rule back yet?)
Neil Raines, AVFC
Liverpool fans…let’s have it
Remarkable restraint from our fans in the mailbox this morning. Not sure why we’re not allowed to get carried away. Is it self-preservation or a desire to not be seen as a deluded Liverpool fan?
We’re clear at the top of the league after having arguably the hardest start of any team.
We can’t stop scoring. Insatiable. We are literally insatiable.
We’re so poor defensively, right? Well, last weekend was the first time we’d conceded from open play in a very long time. This is not 13/14 levels of back and forth insanity.
People keep saying Spurs can be in a title race. Last time I checked they conceded eight fewer goals but scored 15 fewer to boot. They won’t be anywhere near us at the end of the season.
We’re not reliant on one player for goals. Mane, Firmino and Coutinho are all tied on six goals each. Teams will have a hard time stopping our goal threat when it comes from so many players.
City have a massive expectation in the Champions League now they have Guardiola. What will be their primary focus? This week has shown they might not have the legs to compete on all fronts.
We have Jürgen Klopp.
Let yourself enjoy it, for crying out loud.
Kris, LFC, Manchester
Of course we should still sell Coutinho
I was surprised to see someone writing in to ask whether to still sell Philippe Coutinho after the 6-1 yesterday. Of course I still think so. Changing one’s mind is a good thing at times (ahem Guy S!) But on the other side of the spectrum, an opinion that expires after a few days and one result, is probably an opinion that didn’t need to be shared. The football media could do with taking note of that.
There’s nothing about a 6-1 win that could convince me to change my mind about Coutinho – my doubt with him is when the team is struggling to break a team down when it’s 0-0 or we’re losing. I’d rather have an Ozil-type (as an example of style) number 10 that passes incisively than Coutinho. And I’d rather have 70m+ GBP if someone overvalues him sufficiently this summer.
Oliver (and Sturridge is still our best player) Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland
Is lunchtime a problem for energetic players?
It was a good game but anyone watching Arsenal-Tottenham yesterday would be forgiven for thinking both teams weren’t exactly at the top of their game, many players a bit off the pace a bit resulting in slightly disjointed performances.
Given the form of both teams, particularly Arsenal, it seemed a bit strange. It can’t be down to how long they had to recover from mid-week (it was a Sunday game after all). So what was it?
It might just be a coincidence, but I am reading a book on sleep at the moment by one of the pioneers and leaders in sleep patterns for pro-athletes, who worked for Man United under Ferguson and at Arsenal (as well as Real, team Sky cycling etc.). He has a part around circadian rhythm which we have all heard of. According to most research, at 10AM we are at our highest alertness, at 2PM we reach optimal coordination, by 3.30PM we have peak reaction times and at 5PM we reach out ultimate cardiovascular efficiency and muscle strength.
This is hard-wired into all of us due to evolution. It made me think that maybe at 12PM, we just aren’t ready for the high intensity football of the Premier League. Our body has not yet reached its optimal in terms of physically and fitness but we do have higher awareness.
Does this mean defenders and goalkeepers are at their best at 12PM as they need to be alert but wingers and midfielders, who generally have more physical exertion, suffer? Are players likely to cover more ground in the 5PM kick-offs as their bodies are at their peak fitness?
I started thinking about doing the research then realised I doubt I have the access to the information nor the time to conduct such a study. But it would be interesting to see if this has an effect on players during a match.
There is also a part about whether you are a morning or evening person being genetic. Does this mean some players are naturally further into their circadian rhythm by the 12PM kick-off? Monreal for example, was excellent. Does he just enjoy his mornings a bit more than other players?
Food for thought, I’m just sorry I don’t have any actual answers for you…
Rob A (apparently Sir Alex pioneered the importance of sleep ahead of Wenger’s diet changes etc.) AFC
One more thing on Arsenal: We haven’t been any good
I enjoyed Dan Storey’s 16 conclusions yesterday, but form an Arsenal perspective one thing was missing: There have now been quite a few games we we haven’t been very good, at all.
I am fully on board with the idea that we’re challenging for the title, and our strength in depth means that this year is different to others. I’ll discount the first two games as half the squad was on holiday, but Southampton, Burnley, Boro, Ludogarets away and now Spurs are all games where we haven’t clicked going forward.
It is great to see we haven’t lost any of those, and indeed we’ve won most of them. but we have been taking our chances efficiently, and I’m not sure that will last. Indeed yesterday we regressed to our error-prone mean in front of goal. I’m also unsure why our opposition are less clinical than they were last year.
If we beat Manchester utd after the internationals, or even don’t lose, then all is well. But what if we continue having games like these, where refereeing decisions regress to our usual bad luck (avoided this season). What if Santi’s achilles doesn’t heal, what if Xhaka takes time to integrate, what if Coquelin continues to play like a fifth wheel, what if Iwobi’s and Ox’s poor form does not avert. What if these stodgy games and hair raising defensive moments become norm?
Maybe I’m asking too much for us to have a settled flowing system in place in November already. However the worry still nags that even though Arsene now spends well in the championship, his less prescriptive management style puts him behind Conte, Klopp, Pep and Poch? Really wish we hadn’t been served with a two-week gap in proper football for me to stew on all this.
James Gooner
Mail from our Bournemouth fan
I am an avid reader of football365 and I love the mailbox (who doesn’t?).
I think Bournemouth fans such as myself find ourselves in a unique position. Last season we had a siege mentality, it was us, the ‘plucky underdogs’ against everyone else and it worked really well. We stayed up despite overwhelming odds (injury crisis etc.) and did so by winning the games we played against other bottom-half teams. This season however we so far have an very bad record against other bottom-half teams. We’ve lost five games, three against teams in the bottom half (Middlesbrough, West Ham and Sunderland.. Sunderland!! – the shame is almost too great). This got me thinking about why. I think I may have answer.
Despite the fact that we are the only club (except Swansea I think, and they’ve had a while longer than us) who are in our first ever stint in the top flight, the siege mentality and “it’s only Bournemouth” attitude seems to have somewhat dissipated. Our performances against Everton, Hull and Tottenham were assured and we all started thinking that tenth or better was a reasonable prospect.
On Saturday, Sunderland fans were singing “Mickey Mouse club” but their players obviously didn’t get the memo. They played against us like they would against a ‘big team’. They looked like they were playing a cup final and indeed they were. By comparison we looked like ‘November Arsenal’, tons of possession, some great chances fashioned, 18 shots on goal but still lost.
I think the same applied to Middlesbrough. The big difference of course is that we are not Arsenal or another big club and despite playing some lovely football and seeming like we were in a strong position we’re now only two points above the relegation zone with a very tough run of fixtures from now until Christmas. We could end up having the second season syndrome without looking like it was going to happen and that’s quite odd.
Of course we are still punching way above our weight and if we do go down then I don’t think it’ll be the end of the world for us. We have won some massive games against some of the best clubs in the country and indeed the world (We beat two Champions League winners last season!). Whichever way you look at it, it ain’t bad for a ‘Mickey Mouse’ club. Eddie Howe will always be our softly spoken messiah and the fact that we managed to win games with a back four that cost about 50p speaks volumes about his abilities as a manager.
I would love us to stay up and forge a legacy as I feel we’ve played well enough to deserve it but who knows…Maybe we’ll be back in League One in a couple of seasons. I think we’re all immensely proud of our team and there is no ill-feeling even when we don’t perform at our best. Maybe that feel-good factor is actually detrimental at this stage. I think it all ties in to my main point though and that is this:
We aren’t good enough to nail the big teams, but the smaller teams play against us as if we are and nick wins. I fear this could be our undoing. It would be a real shame for the best side we’ve ever had to fade away this season but it seems like a strong possibility unless we regain some of that siege mentality that carried us through last season.
Sorry for the rambling length of this.
Paul
When should a club plan for promotion/relegation?
I’m assuming there will be a backlash to this morning’s Liverpool circle jerk, so here is something for anyone not interested in bickering…
Jon, NUFC in the morning mailbox said he was pleased with Newcastle’s summer transfer business because “they were the right signings for the league [they] would be playing in.” However, is this the right tactic for a club that reasonably expects to change division at the end of the season (as Newcastle clearly did)?
What I’m getting at is how many of the signings made by Newcastle would be useful in the Premier League? As Jon states, Gayle ‘didn’t cut it’ in the Premier League, and I remember Grant Hanley being terrible in the top division (despite his goal against us). Since (I assume) they are not on a one-year contract, will Newcastle be able to offload them if they get promoted, or will the players suddenly elevate their performances to a Premier League standard? Obviously players performances can suddenly improve, and Hanley was only young when he was last in the top division, but it can’t be banked on.
I’m not trying to put a dampener on Newcastle’s season; they have been generally excellent and the fans are quite rightly enjoying it after the shambles of last season. It is just a wider point that interests me (hasn’t ever really been relevant as a Man United fan), so I thought I’d open it up to the mailbox – for teams with a realistic chance of moving divisions at the end of the season, what is the ideal squad mix (current division vs. likely division next season)?
Obviously the primary concern will always be winning the next game, regardless of league or competition, but solid planning would help ease what could be a turbulent period. So are clubs ever right to count their chickens before they’ve hatched?
Jack (International breaks really need to do one) Manchester
Poppies and Iron Maiden
Totally agree with John Nicholson’s article on poppies being a political symbol. I would go further and say they contravene Fifa’s political and religious policies, in that war – which JN correctly identifies as being political – invariably involves religion. However, I feel he has attempted to plagiarise Iron Maiden with the rather odd line, “I have no desire to oil the jaws of war and feed it with our babies”. Are not the jaws of war ‘them’, rather than ‘it’?
The line he wanted (shown here in context with the preceding line) is thus:
‘[As the reasons for the carnage eat their meat and lick their gravy,]
We oil the jaws of the war machine and feed it with our babies’
It is indeed a fantastic couplet and quite apt for the article he wrote.
Mort Snort, Saint
Imagine the explosion
Props to Johnny Nic, bang on article.
On a side note, how quickly (because I don’t think it’s a matter of ‘if’) do you think the world would end if Raheem Sterling didn’t wear a poppy armband/shirt?
John (Seriously feared for Phil Jones life with Zlatans fly kick celebration!) Australia
Mediawatch kicking itself for not spotting this…
From Mediawatch, quoting the Mail talking about Liverpool: ‘Only Manchester United have managed to hold them goalless so far’.
Sorry Burnley, it turns out we all imagined that 2-0 victory against Liverpool at home on the 20th of August. Even if it wasn’t burned into my memory as the oddest performance so far this season, I could have found out about it by searching the internet for ‘Liverpool scores 2016’ and clicking the actual first result.
I can’t believe those clowns at the Mail get paid for what they do.
Matt (we’ll miss Mane in January) LFC