Is Bruno Fernandes ‘getting sent off on purpose’ to force Erik ten Hag out of Man Utd? It is certainly one explanation for those red cards and performances.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.
Worse than Moyes
So I just saw a stat this morning that confirmed since Ten Haag joined United in summer 2022, that no Premier League club has conceded 3 or more goals in a match in all competitions than United. Everton can defend better than United and so can Bournemouth.
If he can’t even coach his team how to do basic defending and the importance of it and actually try and improve it, what’s the point of keeping him? How is he getting backed to this degree, is he holding one of the owners’ family hostage in his basement or something?
It’s quite fascinating how he still has the job. I think Moyes honestly did a better job given the circumstances he took over in from Ferguson. Another stat was 1 win in the last 10 European games which is honestly so bloody poor, but not surprising at this point. They haven’t even been against the best of European teams either.
I’m pretty sure Fernandes is getting sent off on purpose at this point in an attempt for ten Haag to royally f**k off. Call me a bad fan, but at this point, the more losses and draws the better so he can leave.
As I said in my previous post he’s peaked as a manager in producing a team who are decent in the domestic cups only, which is maybe 10-15 games in a season max? He’s got no clue what he’s doing and can’t implement a consistent team whatsoever. My only point of defense for him is that some of the players are crap and just have a rubbish attitude in general, which we have seen other managers struggle to deal with as well.
Rami, Dubai
MORE ON THE MAN UTD MESS FROM F365
👉 Big Weekend: Aston Villa v Man Utd, Ten Hag’s last dance, Palace, Johnson, Real Madrid
👉 Man Utd to ‘pull trigger’ on ‘Erik one Hag’ after Aston Villa defeat to send him ‘back to Rotterdam’
👉 Man Utd legend Scholes still can’t believe Ten Hag spent £200m on rubbish over England pair
2-0 is the most dangerous lead
Last season, when Galatasaray scored to from 3-1 down to 3-2, I knew the equaliser was coming and of course it did. I can’t be arsed counting the amount of two goal leads United have thrown away under Ten Hag but it feels like a lot. Forget about United’s history, fans of any competent team can feel relatively relaxed when they go two goals up. Fans of Manchester United still have to sweat.
I saw a lot of Pool fans getting anxious about their owners over the summer due to their quiet transfer window but because, at least for the moment, it looks like they’ve got a decent manager in charge, those worriers have quietened down. They were complaining about the ownership before Klopp as well but the German and his thick rims made sure they didn’t need to complain for several years.
The point is that people can talk about Berrada, Wilcox and Ashworth but they’re going to make very little difference to what happens on the pitch. It’s about getting the best attainable manager. 6 wins in 21 games for Ten Hag. It’s not him.
Eamonn, Dublin
Ten Hag’s last hoorah
Ten Haag oh Ten Haag… I want to say it was great but it’s just been totally confusing.
Your “tactics” don’t make sense. It’s a mix of possession, counter attacking, pragmatic football which are all conflicting systems.
It’s just awful and boring to watch. We don’t press, we don’t keep a high line, our players don’t move to make angles available for the pass, it’s just turgid.
Your transfer policy was naive for the physicality of the premiership and your love of dutch baded players was weird.
Since your on borrowed time, let’s make the last couple of games fun. Balls to the wall all out attack. I have some ideas (1) bench Fernandez for Zirkzee (2) Play Rasmus upfront (3) Garnacho on the right and Rashford on the left (4) pair Mainoo and Uguarte together.
We can’t defend anyway so let’s just lean into scoring more goals than the other team.
Manc in SA
Please don’t go
Watching the Porto Vs MUFC match. Lovely to see Porto go ahead. THFC are at risk of losing the ‘Banter Club’ trophy.
#ETH IN
#Glazers IN
#Jimbo IN
#Laugh IN
Yours
Branmasterflash
Great header from Maguire.
Hopefully buys Erik some more time.
Branmasterflash
What happens?
After the backseat Champions League undercards of the week just gone, I’ve tonight’s Biscuithands vs Biscottihands title card at the Dragao streaming in my background right now… just an incredible bout of tragi-comedy to savor and behold, no matter the evening’s outcome. For my streaming dollar this has been apex entertainment, knotted 2-2 at HT as I send this and who knows what happens second half.
Just a day ago Sky had reported Ten Hag likely lives on even if they don’t come away with both results against Porto and Villa, so long as performances are good / better. Well what happens if they manage results against either or both, but performances continue to look as they do ?
Eric, Los Angeles CA
READ NEXT: Premier League sack race: Man Utd boss Ten Hag on borrowed time after Spurs, Porto shambles
A lovely Newcastle mail
I’ve been writing to you lot for many years. In the meantime, I’ve shared my love of football and Newcastle United with my family, and it’s taken, in large part. I’m taking my 25-year-old nephew, whose family I lived with when he was in high school — he played winger, then keeper for a state championship team in North Carolina — and my 17- and 18-year-old sons to Newcastle for the Brighton match this month. The adults are planning to get tattoos. It’s a trip I’ve waited a long time to make, and I pray God we win. I’ve seen my club play a few friendlies in the US, and once in the UEFA Cup at Lisbon, but I’ve never seen us win in person.
I hope to meet up with Geordie Ray the night before the match. You may know him from the eponymous UK Subs song. I know him from Lisbon, where he dragged my ex-wife and I onto the club-travel coach to protect us from possible abuse on the metro back to the hotel (which he happily shared) after our loss. He and his mates, delighted to find an American couple who’d come to Portugal to watch their club, bought us drinks until we were hammered. Ray spilled a beer on my wife, for which he has never stopped apologizing, bless him. Legend.
Late last night, my older boy, Eli, who just started at uni, as you lot might say, told me that he had watched United’s 4-4 draw with Arsenal from 2011, famously closed by a proper thunderb*stard from the late, great Cheik Tiote. I told him he should definitely watch our 1996 5-0 victory over Manchester United, and he replied that he already had. My heart grew three sizes that day.
So I watched the entirety of the Arsenal match and have paused the ManU match at times to write this letter in the early morning. Football in the Premier League looks very different now, particularly from 1996, but quick north-south passes reversing the field of play has always been a recipe for success. Everything was slower back then, even if there were more long balls from the keeper. Players got more time on the ball. And they tucked their shirts, as was the style at the time. [brandishes onion]
Supporters of some clubs have league triumphs and cup wins to celebrate. But rewatching and reliving these matches has me pretty emotional. The Arsenal match was probably Joey Barton’s finest for Newcastle, though he had some good ones, the insufferable prick. He wound Arsenal up to the breaking point, and more than skated the edge of a red himself. I’m pretty sure David Ginola was smoking cigarettes on the regular when he was that good. Remarkable. And I’d completely forgotten that David Beckham played in that match, a delightful fact to rediscover. The Batty-Butt confrontation was hilarious when I first saw it, and it still is. I always found it surprising that Butt signed for us after that; he was a good servant too. And it’s also oddly nice to consider how completely David Batty disappeared once he’d retired. Reportedly, he doesn’t even watch football.
All my warm fuzzies aside: just before halftime of the 5-0 match, the referee gave an indirect free kick for non-contact obstruction. I can’t even remember the last time I saw that happen. The law is still on the books, so why is it never called?
Chris C, Toon Army DC
The real problem with the Champions League
I’d just like to throw in a little sideline about what I think is increasingly becoming a problem with the Champions League, and it’s not the new, sh*t format.
Over the last decade or so, many of Europe’s lesser leagues have become dominated by single clubs, be it RB Salzburg in Austria, Young Boys in Switzerland or the likes of Celtic and Shaktar (which does go back further, but still). The issue is, these teams are following the football trends of the day. Play a high line and dominate possession. The Champions League money flows in creating a financial disparity which only widens the divide and voila, they’re the Man City of their country.
The problem for the Champions League is, these high-line, possession heavy sides then come along and play the actual Man City. Or Real. Or Bayern. And they have absolutely no idea how to play when they’ve got to sit in a low block and have less than 30% possession. They then get absolutely shellacked by four, five, six or whatever, only to bank the cash, maintain the gap domestically, and do it all again next season.
Feels kinda pointless.
Lewis, Busby Way
I was just reading Tickner’s article proposing ways to improve Champions’ League league stage: Five ‘new’ Champions League formats that would be better than the current sh*tshow.
I was thinking the other day that there is a solution, which is a sort-of halfway house between the current setup and Tickner’s first proposal, which would a) keep the extra guaranteed games that UEFA seem to want, b) introduce more “jeopardy” (which F365 seem to place so much importance on), but also c) avoid causing too many dead rubbers near the end between teams who can’t qualify.
This solution is simple: the top 8 teams go straight through still, and the teams in spots [9,24] still play off, BUT the play-off is a one-off game at the home ground of the team who finished between 9th and 16th. This way, it actually matters (unlike the current setup) whether you finish in the [9,16] bracket or the [17,24] bracket.
I look forward to picking up my share of the proceeds after you forward this idea to UEFA and they adopt it from next season onwards.
Lauro, KFC
Graham Simons, Gooner suggests the CL should be a one-off knockout tournament. I’m sure he’d have said the same thing if Arsenal had gone out on penalties to Atalanta in the first round of the tournament, rather than scraping a draw.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland
VAR got in the way
Enough deliriously happy words have been said about the Villa result, it still feels like a cheese dream. As has been said elsewhere, on that day 6 years ago we were yeeting cabbages at Steve Bruce and now we have beaten Bayen in the Champions League. Bonkers.
Anyway, to Al’s point in the previous mailbox, yes, VAR did boil my piss:
Rightly or wrongly Pau Torres goal wasn’t flagged by the linesman so VAR had to intervene didn’t it. Yes, I know he was offside. Still. Sod VAR. Moment ruined.
Watkins gets bundled over while through on goal. Had to be a straight red. This time VAR can’t be bothered to intervene. Nice one. If there was no VAR I could understand the ref not seeing it correctly but… Come on…
Then, for the goal, I didn’t think it was offside nor did the linesman. One glance at a replay shows he wasn’t. I didn’t celebrate a second time, I was too annoyed we need some uptight, bureaucratic cockroach from miles away take ten minutes to decide if are allowed to celebrate or not.
It is a plague on all of our houses. Sick of it. I know I’m in the minority nowadays but I am emotionally mature enough to put up with referee mistakes. Especially if everything were transparent, open and honest regarding those mistakes rather than the cabal of secretive rules overlords that are the PGMOL with the communication skills of a particularly sulky teenager.
I’m pleased to say though that nothing will erase my memories of that goal going in… It was beyond belief and will make me smile for years to come.
Funstar (Duran on the bench? 1-0 up already mate) Andy
P.S. Emi Martinez is my spirit animal.
Love for Andras
What a great email from András, Sweden. Like a John Berryman poem. I didn’t understand a word of it but somehow still understood its purity, wisdom and eternal truth.
Matt Pitt
And the man himself
Danny P, sorry! It was probably all the typos… Right?
Rob, I did not know. One camera? Really? Why do they only use one? There are tons around, why aren’t they using them all? It makes no sense. The algorithms to analyze multiple frames are super simple and fast, you don’t need a supercomputer to do that. A half decent PC will do fine, since you only need a few seconds to go through, not the whole game. With all the money the Prem has, and all the cameras running all the time anyways, it’d be a piece of cake to put together a fairly automatic system, which could even automatically find the ball in every frame (even if the ball has no chip in it). The only input from the VAR referee would be limited to specify from which time point to which time point the analysis should be carried out.
Though you can bet your mortgage the PGMOL would find ways to cock even that up. InVARiably. Sorry. I will see myself out.
András, Sweden
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