Chelsea or Man Utd the most stupid in Mauricio Pochettino farce?
If Man Utd donāt take the gift horse being offered by Chelsea, are they equally as stupid? Plus, thoughts on the Big Eight and moreā¦
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A race to the bottom?
If United donāt immediately sack ETH and miss out on appointing Poch once again, who do you reckon is more stupid? Chelsea for sacking Poch or United for not hiring Poch?
Adeel
A pair of emails seven hours apartā
I know yāall want Poch to come to Man Utd, but arenāt you looking past the obvious. Poch linking up with Kane and Dier as the next part of the Munich master plan to turn into Das Tottenham. Wouldnāt it be great to see both of them reunited and missing out on trophies together again?
Gaurav MUFC Amsterdam (putting a tenner on this)
ā¦Wait what? Kompany to Bayern!
There goes my tenner.
Gaurav MUFC AmsterdamĀ
Get the Chelsea owners out
We must rid the club of American owners. As a life long fan over 70 years the club has sunk to an all-time low.
You cannot keep rocking the boat, stability is required to steady the ship. The kit for next season has American influence all over it.
Just look at Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool long-term managers in the past, foundations set.
Vic a disappointed Chelsea fan
MORE ON THE CHELSEA SH*TSHOW FROM F365:
š Predicting 10 more Chelsea mistakes this summer: McKenna, Jackson, āthe next Enzoā andā¦
š Ranking Todd Boehly mistakes at Chelsea: Sacking Pochettino storms to top spot of 17
š Pochettino blamed for injuries by Chelsea chiefs as players speak out over āprimitiveā but brutal training
American pleads for less criticism of American
Why does F365 insist on continuing to headline Boehly as responsible for the Chelsea mess? Itās a rhetorical question ā heās starkly American and didnāt help himself by saying some stupid things right off the bat about how European football should adopt ideas typically found in American sports.
But most people who closely follow the club have been reporting for a while now that the power mainly lies with Eghbali now ā and itās widely reported that Boehly wanted to keep Pochettino but Eghbali was the one who forced him out.
Within England, thereās seemingly a borderline obsession with criticising American investment in their football that is clearly borne out of the historical insularity of (Y)Our Leagueā¢, in general. FSG/Kroenke Sports have always been (even now, still) grouped together with the Glazers when overtime weāve seen the former two are wholly more competent than the latter ā and Boehly is clearly the most American name despite Eghbali basically also being American. So blame Boehly for everything so Will Ford can get clicks on his article?
MAW, LA Gooner (Not defending Boehly, per se, but this overplayed narrative is Mediawatch-level.)
Chelsea are the Premier League champions
So as the water calms following Cityās fourth title in a row, and for what it matters yes, they probably cheated in the past, but even as a Man United supporter, I can still appreciate how good Pep and his players are. Though due to the 115, I am a bit meh whenever they do win. If I did support City, I would just want to get the whole thing out of the way, receive any punishment forthcoming, and move on as it is likely that for several years there have not been any shenanigans.
But moving onto the league champions that really matters. The current champions of the Premier League are Chelsea. How? Well Leeds were the champions on day one of the PL back in 1992 until they lost to Middlesbrough who therefore took over as champions until they lost to Southampton etc etc.
So, 32 years later, Chelsea went back to the top after they beat Brighton. Amazingly Chelsea have been top at the end of the season six times, and get this, Man City have never spent even one day at the top of the league that really matters, a feat even Norwich and Sunderland have managed.
Kinda looking forward to the Cup Final, though of course with a bit of dread too.
Ged Biglin
A deep dive into Man Utd stats
Paul inspired me to take a deep dive into the stats of this and last year, to see what or where United went wrong. Data sourced from Whoscored. 23/24 (22/23).
Attacking:
Goals ā 57 ā 9th. (One worse than last year ā ranked 7th )
Shots PG ā 14.5 ā 7th (1.1 worse than last year ā ranked 5th)
Shot on Target ā 5.1 ā 8th ( .6 worse than last year ā ranked 3rd)
Shots ā 550 ā 7th (43 worse than last year ā ranked fifth)
XG ā 61.1 ā 11th (6.82 worse than last year ranked 6th
XG/shot- 0.11 ā 18th (Same as last year ā ranked 9th)
Defense:
Goals Against ā 58 ā 4th (13 more than last year ā ranked 3rd)
Shots conceded PG ā 17.6 ā 2nd (4.9 worse than last year ā ranked 12th)
Goals Against ā 58 ā 4th (13 more than last year ā ranked 3rd)
XG goal Difference ā -4.1 ā 11th (+7.82 better than last year ā ranked 18th)
Possession:
Possession ā 50.4 ā 9th (3.4% less than last year ā ranked 6th)
Pass % ā 82.7% ā 7th (.4 better than last year ā ranked 7th)
Fouls against ā 8.9 ā 19th (1.1 better than last year ā ranked 20th)
AVG Rating ā 6.69 ā 9th (.08 worse than last year ā ranked 4th)
Summary:
In an attacking sense, United are very similar to where they were last year. The addition of Hojlund was meant to be a boost, but his failure to score until Dec 26th, Rashfordās dip in form, and Martial ceasing to exist meant there was no room for improvement. McT and Mainoo help plug some of the gaps. Hojlundās 10 goals in 12 games since he scored in late December does bode well for the future if they can service him.
Defensively, they are just one position worse off than last year. That said, they have conceded a lot more goals and a lot of shots more than last season. I would put this down to the chopping and changing of the backline, and lower quality personnel, both due to injuries. A lack of control coming out of, and ahead of the defense seems to be playing a part here as well. Some may lean towards the tactical change, but their XG GD actually went down. Onanaās brilliance also aided in keeping that number lower.
Possession lends credence to this as their accuracy has gone up but overall total possession has gone down. Despite some struggles, Casimiro was ranked 15th best for CMās on Whoscored by avg rating for players with 15+ appearances (6.92 ā 7.03 all comps). Mainoo was in 27th(6.80) if you wondered. Eriksson has clearly lost his legs, and his passing and control have been sorely missed since last year.
Oddly, with Garnacho, Rashford, Antony and co, United are one of the least fouled teams in the league somehow ā ranking 19th and 20th over the past two years. (Too honest perhaps, or maybe too easy to take the ball from?)
All-in-all, Unitedās dip this year for me comes down to lacking more control in the center of the park and Casemiro having to do more than last year while also aging somewhat(But not as much as people proclaim- 7.17 avg rating last year). Their attack is still being rather blunt, but a big part for their league decline seems to have to go to the improvements of sides around them as the Avg rating shows, and defensive injuries. LFC and Spursā revivals, and Villaās rebirth have added more competition for United to compete with as they continue their transition.
So if United stick with ETH, add to the attacking line, continue the improvements of Hojlund, Garnacho, Diallo, and hopefully Rashford, while also adding a tempo controlling midfielder and destroyer, along with defenders who can stay fit, I anticipate they will have a much better year next year.
Calvino (It also seems when United players make a mistake, they are highlighted more than most others. Onanaās made less mistakes leading to goal than Raya, Allisson or Martinez for example)
š£TO THE COMMENTS! Can Ten Hag really still be the future for Man Utd? Join the debate here
Thoughts on theā¦ermā¦Big Eight, is it now?
So now that the season is done, I thought Iād offer my thoughts on the top 8. This season was the first one where I got Sky Sports (and the extra one for a while), so I watched a lot more live games than ever before. I have to say I really did enjoy it.
As a subscriber to random Netflixās etc it was nice to have a reason to say, the thing I want to watch is on now, so Iām sitting down to watch it, instead of having to wait til the kids go to bed, or justify to myself why I am not doing household jobs. Usually that was reserved for international tournaments and FA Cup/Champions League.
Manchester City: Well done to them I guess. Not easy to keep a team motivated to win 4 on the bounce. Coped well without some of the big players out through injury but Iād love to see (obviously without wishing misfortune on anyone really) how they would do with a long term absence of Rodri. I assume the magician that is Pep would just make Stones into an able replacement after a few games and march on. Man Utd and Chelseaās scatter gun recruitment shows that money isnāt the only reason for success and Pep really must take a lot of credit. This surely canāt continue, right?
Arsenal: Iāve seen a lot of criticism of them not winning the league, with the draw at City being the one where they should have stamped their authority on things (fair comment) but they really have come a long way and have rehabilitated their reputation, which was for a long term, soft purists who couldnāt do the dirty work to win a league. Genuinely went toe to toe with a behemoth and came damn close to winning. Lots to be pleased about and optimistic for next season.
Liverpool: And so its over. Again Iāve seen lots of contradictory criticism that Klopp should have won more in his time but also his players arenāt as good as everyone says they are. As he leaves now I think his impact on Liverpool has been remarkable. No more can people mock Liverpool for never having won the Premier League (shout about covid asterisks all you want). I wasnāt a huge fan of him personally but opposition fans arenāt supposed to like really good managers, and I did like how his teams played, and thatās the main thing. Interesting summer/new season to come, hopefully theyāll go right off the boil and my team can take advantage š
Aston Villa: Congrats to them, the dark horses. Interesting to see their form go off a little towards the end. I wonder how much is fatigue after a long season and how much will be other teams getting the measure of them a little better, time will tell. Amazing story for them and theyāll have a blast in the Champions League, where I really hope they get a more generous draw than Newcastle got this season.
Spurs: Mental stuff from start to finish really. Could be great next season, might all go to shit. Will be fun for the neutrals at a minimum.
Chelsea: Had a bad feeling a few weeks ago that they were getting good just in time to make a surge up the table and so they did. Got really lucky with the purchase of Cole Palmer, they would have been bottom half of the table otherwise and Poch would have been sacked months ago. His sacking at this stage seems crazy now that he has a bit of momentum behind him, but delighted really that Chelsea continue to throw darts at a board full of decisions with their eyes closed.
Newcastle: A challenging season where I would have been happy with top 6 at the start (so they didnāt fall too short). The big new signings were a bit of a disaster (the little ones were pretty good though), but hopefully they come good on a long enough timeline. I did daydream a bit of how it would have gone had we spent the Tonali money on Palmer (I know we werenāt in for him, but neither were Chelsea until they were).
Howe has done a fine job and did well not to unravel under the pressure he was under midway through the season. The next season will be a big one for him, as the top 4/6 places look more competitive than ever, the injury excuses wonāt cut it anymore and the owners will surely be looking for tangible signs of progress. I am optimistic though, that with a bit of support (and hopefully holding onto Isak and Bruno) heāll do well again. Really hope they get into the Europa Conference though at the expense of Man U, itāll make a big difference to their continued evolution and would provide an achievable pathway to a bit of Silverware.
Man United: Yikes, what a season. Awful, indefensible goal difference, and behind Newcastle for the first time ever in the Premier League era. Injuries didnāt help but Villa, Newcastle, Spurs and Chelsea all had injuries of their own. Still managed to win quite a lot though. With Fernandes on the pitch they are scrappy but effective, without him thoughā¦ not pretty. With a full squad and a better structure above Ten Hag there is cause for optimism but not sure Ten Hag will be there to see it all blossom, especially now with Poch lurking in the background.
Have a good summer mailboxers.
Derek from Dundalk
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Atalanta-fastic
To be honest I (perhaps ignorantly) expected Leverkusen to have the upper hand in the final. The unbeaten streak, the confidence, the utter refusal to give up ā just look at their last-minute goals this season. They were invincible, but that air of invincibility was punctured within twenty minutes of the Europa League final.
Atalanta were brilliant. So aggressive, so switched on, so intense. It was like Leverkusen were playing with 10 men at times ā Atalanta were a swarm that wouldnāt give up. It was damn impressive.
It would be insulting not to mention Lookman ā the first, he just wanted it more. The second, delightfully nutmegged and hit the perfect finish. His third ā well, we knew as soon as received the ball, heād score didnāt we? Just slammed it in. As soon as he got the ball, we knew heād find the net.
What a night for him. A truly outstanding performance that had me up off my sofa not just once, but twice. We talk about big game players, well an unexpected one tonight.
It was a sensational show in a huge game for not just player, but club too. I always thought my favourite Europa final performance was Falcaoās but Lookman has taken that crown ā well done to the guy, for Atalanta heās practically immortal now and can you imagine how fucking great that must feel?
Jack, 29, London (hi fellow F365 mailboxes! Hope all is well with you and youāre doing ok)
ā¦āFootballers cannot thrive in this country because every day is a fight ā mentally and physically.
See how much better Bellingham is, see how well Sancho plays when at Dortmund.
This country you have to hire extra security when you play away, the media are up your arse and every interviews all about your career and how well you are doing.
After seeing Mola kick ass last night you have to ask why this stupid country is so detrimental to football careers.
Fat Man (last night is the player we all saw at Goodison but clearly this country not make young players flourish ā go abroad, all of you, this country doesnāt like building itās own, it just like spending shit loads of cash on someone from another country)
ā
