One chap in the mailbox doesn't get what all the fuss is about when it comes to Raheem Sterling. Plus, Liverpool fans are worried about Daniel Sturridge's latest setback...
We have some conclusions on a very enjoyable England performance, praise for Nathaniel Clyne, Equatorial Guinea, Yorkshire v Scotland and logic working out for all...
Papiss Cisse takes a free kick during th
If you have anything to say on any subject, mail us at theeditor@football365.com
Whoop Whoop
I woke up to some exciting news this morning. Great news in fact. Fantastic if you're a Liverpool fan, genuinely couldn't be happier. Have you guessed what it is yet? Yes, that's right. Liverpool have found a solution to their striker woes, they've finally had the Eureka moment we've been waiting for all season. They are to take Origi back early from his loan to Lille by, you guessed it, giving them a load more money. You can see why I'm excited by this can't you? Origi has scored two league goals from open play this season. TWO GOALS! That's two more than any of our uninjured strikers. Roll out the red carpet for this prolific goal machine, this new messiah.
Tom, brackets out on loan, LFC
Weekend Preview
Bad news for Liverpool: Daniel Sturridge will miss six more weeks through injury.
Good news for Liverpool: Crystal Palace will be able to field a full-strength team and still have Neil Warnock as their manager.
Regards,
Ed Quoth the Raven, CPFC the Glaziers, Notts
No Pudding Until You Eat Your Meat, Arsene
So we're now being linked with Isco and Benzema?
This all smacks of the Pink Floyd line 'How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?'
Someone needs to tell Wenger his job is to manage the wellbeing of the club and the squad. That means signing a centre-back and a defensive midfielder, so poor old Per isn't left watching in horror as Nacho loses yet another runner, so Nacho can finally be relieved of playing a role he patently isn't fit for and he can play left-back when Gibbs is sidelined for his routine three months and so Flamini can be told to go away.
I appreciate Wenger probably finds recruiting defensive players boring but needs must.
In short - Arsene - no pudding, 'til yer eat your meat!
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London
Vision > Logic
Just been catching up on today's mailboxes after being busy with actual work all day, and was surprised that nobody responded to Dave M's comment about 'how playing an attacking midfielder at the holding point of a diamond doesn't work against good opposition'.
The name, beard, and all round dreaminess of one-time attacking midfielder Andrea Pirlo springs to mind. Pretty sure he seemed to do OK at this deep lying playmaker business after Carlo Mazzone decided it might be a good idea.
Liam (too hipster for brackets)
Where Have All The Defenders Gone?
While pondering over the recent (one and a third of a season but let's not be too critical) slump in Utd's performances, I was thinking back to the league-winning Utd sides of the past (mid to late 90s, early 2000s, late 2000s). Two things that stood out (1) while the current attacking talent is considered 'world class', it's nowhere near as potent as those sides who had goals spread across the frontmen, the wingers and the midfield and (2) it's shameful to see how bad the defence is in comparison.
In a bid to reassure myself that the latter is not such a big deal I tried to put together the names of the squads that had a quality defensive unit in the PL and couldn't come up with too many (Southampton, Chelsea...). Again, there seemed to be a remarkable lack of examples over the recent seasons...but I didn't want to solely rely on my fading memory and hindsight hampered by my 'rose tinted glasses' so I decided to look at the PL stats from 2003-04 (Arsenal's 'invincibles' season) onwards...
Average goals conceded by the Top 3 during the season
2003-04 30.3
2004-05 25.7
2005-06 27.0
2006-07 26.0
2010-11 34.3
2011-12 37.0
2012-13 38.7
2013-14 38.0
Basically, the top three were conceding less than 0.7 goals a game then but today that ratio has gone up to more than a goal a game. Interestingly, the total goals conceded by all the 20 PL teams hasn't changed drastically. Avg 1.33 per game in 2004 to 1.38 per game in 2014. Now this seem counter-intuitive especially considering the focus on 'single and double pivots' of late...DM seems to be the solution to all problems nowadays. But even against that background, teams are nowadays scoring more against the Top Three than over the past decade...I am not sure if any of the other mailbox readers had any logical explanations for this or for the general lack of quality defenders in the PL. Thought will throw this up since the international break continues to pass at a glacial pace.
Mahendra Bisht (Why is the F365 banner blue, shouldn't it be green?)...Mumbai
Don't Know Much About Geography
Hate to be pedantic and p*** on someone's parade but Alex, Manchester team contains a number of players who weren't actually born in Lancashire.
Steven Gerrard
Wayne Rooney
Kevin Nolan
Leighton Baimes
Ross Barkley
Ricky Lambert
Joey Barton
Martin Kelly
All players who were born in Liverpool or Merseyside.
Phil Jagielka
Wes Brown
Stephen Bywater
All born in Greater Manchester.
I'll give you Leon Osman, but that hardly makes up a team.
Neil, LFC, USA
Oh Malky...
Ched Evans haterz, FIFA critics, Suarez vilifiers, Rooney Rule advocates, your boys took one hell of a beating. Malky 'Bantz' Mackay is back in management. I look forward to another 12 chapters of Dostoevsky being read out in the mailbox. Just as we have all iterated towards the idea that just because a non-repentant man serves his punishment for a vile crime, he may not necessarily be allowed directly back onto the perch he vacated, football tests our moral boundaries again by employing someone who has in no way redeemed himself as the figurehead for a football club. Surely a game which is stamping out racism and homophobia cannot put this moronic racist uncle back in charge of a football club, can it?
Adam, LFC