Man Utd have a ‘puppy’ that should never wear the shirt again… | OneFootball

There’s plenty more on the decisions of the officials but some of the Manchester United players need a kicking.

Keep sending your mails on all subjects to theeditor@football365.com

Diogo Dalot should never play for Man Utd again What is Dalot doing? He’s been around for ages but has he actually showed any development? He seems to be involved a lot; a lot of balls go to him and he just f**ks em all up! simple! He shouldn’t be that involved. And he shouldn’t have been United go to RB year in year out for ages. No one represents United of past few seasons quite like him; always there, you feel like he’s not all that bad but he just never learn and develop to be anything more.

Don’t like the analogy but he is kinda like a puppy you take to the park; just jumping with a lot of enthusiasm from this flower to the next all excited; but not much thinking and focus there.

Ipswich and then City; he just races around and at this point, not having a real presence in defense is just part of his character and charm.

Towards the end of first half of City game; he just stood there offside waiting for the ball. Everybody could see he was a mile offside; dude what are you thinking? take a step back! where is his focus? why is he always in rush?

Don’t get me started on Dorgu. He’s practically the same and he’s definitely not LB and he’s definitely not all that good to play attack in a big team. Trying to shift him will be stuff of a whole summer worth of gossip. Honestly, replacing him with Mazraoui wasn’t that hard of a decision! why didn’t Carrick do it?

And lastly Sesko has to start. Trying to jam all of those creative wingers [or sth] into the line-up smacks of Carrick trying too hard to be clever. On the pitch, they kinda just run into each other. But Sesko can be a great asset and should start every game so he can turn into something. He definitely can be a superstar! but more likely outcome will be trying to secure him a loan a few years down the line!

Anyway, Sesko being flanked by Rashford and Amad can come good; while having great rotation options off the bench. Karen Asad

…The morning after the night before and I’m still seething about that game..the levels of incompetence from the officials is beyond a joke at this point but the level of incompetence from players paid a king’s ransom to play for Man Utd is absolutely mind boggling…

Dalot should never be allowed wear the shirt again he has been a liability since he first joined and has never got any better. Can’t cross a ball at all and total lack of in-game awareness of positioning. Patrick Dorgu the same. Just not good enough for a club that’s striving to get back to the top.

Bruno done his usual thing against top opponents, once the going got tough he disappeared and was also lucky to get away with what he tried to do to Foden…Foden’s reaction was over the top but looked worse than it was..2 yellows would have been more appropriate I think myself..

I had the pleasure of watching the arsenal/Sunderland game and it was a proper battle…best game I’ve seen in a long time and I was really impressed by Arsenal’s approach…simply because it reminded me so much of the old United teams…they can play football but if you want a battle they will give you one too…I really can’t see past them coming anywhere else but top come may.

Someone raised a point a while ago about United being a mid table club now and unfortunately I think they are right…mid table rate players being bought at mid table prices…it used to be for everyone else in the league playing man u was their cup final for the season…sadly it’s now us playing the rest of the “top six” thats our cup finals for the season…we can mock spurs all we like but at the end of the day we have no clue how much further we have to fall yet after failing to take advantage of the nice opening fixtures we’ve already blown.. Tom, Eire

Welcome to our world, Man Utd Sigh, it’s one of those ultra-rare occasions when a big red club gets a refereeing decision it doesn’t like. Sky Sports News is already in full crisis mode, the Mailbox here will be full of conspiracy theories about how one of the three most accommodated clubs in football history is apparently a victim.

Meanwhile the other 89 clubs in the league look on with bemusement at the rampant hysteria about something that happens most weeks. Gav, Edinburgh

Karma Police As a City fan, that was never a goal. But in a world where Mark Goldbridge exists, anything that makes him cry is alright by me. Get in! Marc, Bolton

By any other name… I only clocked today that PGMOL rebranded themselves as ProRef this season.

It’s like that time Hermes rebranded itself as Evri, but the next day my parcel still got dumped in a bin four miles away from my house… Andy (MUFC)

They haven’t even said it’s wrong! In a statement, Pro Ref said: “It was established that Enzo Fernandez did not play the ball and therefore that makes any offside offence subjective. However, on this occasion, the VAR did not recognise the likely impact of his position and should have recommended an on-field review”

So PGMOL Pro Refs stance doesn’t even go so far as to say it was the wrong call. All it says is all subjective calls should be put to the on field ref and they didn’t.

And there’s no way of knowing what the onfield ref would have done, because we have all seen bat-sh*t mental bizarre interpretations, and no small number of instances where the VAR has either only given one disproportionate angle, or pre-faced the decision with a commentary that is hugely influential.

It’s all pointless gibberish and circular statements, where everyone makes conclusions that aren’t actually accurate. You’re left with some fans saying it proves the decision was wrong (it doesn’t say that); others saying it proves VAR is corrupt; and yet more saying it proves inconsistency in decisions when there wasn’t even a decision to be consistent with.

The only people who are engaged by this are the god awful people who enjoy putting powerpoints together, and the even worse collection of wrong-uns who enjoy sitting through them.

The days pre-VAR and we’d have had a far more prosaic debate of ‘was he offside’, and the likely outcome that the lino would have raised his flag and got a decision 3mm incorrect against Haaland.

But apparently all this bland doublespeak is better than an incorrect decision? I’m not convinced. What we can know for sure though is Rich and Caroline will mail in, with proof-positive that all those refs born from within the M25 that were hired last season, are far better than the old lot who have returned since August; That the United game that was at the heart of the Mike Dean controversy last week, and the United game from this week’s controversy, categorically and provably confirms an anti-Arsenal bias. Tom G

More fanmail for ‘old’ football Interesting mails over the past few days about football just not having ‘it’ anymore. I actually think the reason is really simple. Before VAR the most consequential people involved in results were the players. Since VAR it is the officials.

If we’re honest, the reason that the set-piece shenanigans of last season are so awful isn’t what the players are doing but how the officials have dealt with it. Namely: they haven’t. Nine times out of ten it’s an obvious foul, but then one time it’s okay and no one can articulate why. Back in the day, the melee would just happen, and you had to get on with it. But VAR forces us all to acknowledge the officials’ decisions are not only inconsistent but arbitrary. And unlike before when it was understandable, now they have replays, slow motion and we still are forced to suffer.

The Haaland goal is an excellent example. Enzo Fernandez dives and misses a header by a millimeter, pulling the CB and GK into different decisions and positions. This is something that absolutely could have been missed pre-VAR, and I’d be fine with it. It’s a fast sport, officials have a tough role.

But today they don’t. They have time to literally watch it 10 times, and even go and read the rules before making a decision if they’re unsure. And. They. Still. Got. It. Wrong.

I can’t love a sport that is like that. Before VAR today’s result would have been about the football played by footballers. Instead, today’s result is about the incompetence of the officials. Ryan, Bermuda (Carrick gone by Christmas regardless)

Walking away from football I never thought this day would come…but i think I’m done with football! Now this isn’t the knee jerk reaction of some United fan throwing his toys out the pram. Far from it, I’m actually an Arsenal fan.

I am very outspoken about how var is currently used and the threshold of “clear and obvious” when every single goal gets reviewed.

I can accept that the 115 charges are complicated and will likely never get resolved, i can understand the view that Haarland was onside (but don’t really buy the computer generated “proof” what is the final for me is that the goal was correctly ruled out (potentially for the wrong reason) on the pitch and some one sat in front of a monitor can over rule the ref and decide to not even get the ref to review the footage!

For me i feel VAR has opened the flood gates to the possibilities of outright corruption and feel that i can no longer watch the sport i love. Michael Gabell

…Micheal Oliver took nearly ten seconds to give a drop ball to City because no city player came near him. Is he stupid. Yes obviously. I saw him repeatedly with his 5,4,3 etc hands and yet he allows a 10 second break for when he f***ed up. And if fernandez( in an offside position wasn’t trying to either score or put Martinez off ) then the rules don’t count anymore irrespective of how it could be seen that a toenail stabbed out to deflect a cross (after he had kicked it) could overrule.

I’m lucky, my free sky subscription ends in 45 days. I will not be renewing it. I don’t want to watch such shite. Ps I’m a Liverpool fan and hated everything about his game. Go figure how bad it is. Tony Clarke

Perspective on Spurs please! So many fans haven’t got clue about football logistics.

Money spent is irrelevant if players aren’t the best or given time to gel. When the American owners bought Chelsea 4 years ago they spent more money than the other 19 Premier League clubs combined yet they won nothing.

They didn’t even come close to winning. In 4 years they’ve spent more than £2 billion and they’ve not been anywhere near to winning the league. Even under spurs fanboy Pochettino who finished 6th with them but actually spent most of the season between 10th and 14th. The same thing has happened at Manchester United. They have history, prestige and wealth to attract the best players in the world and they’ve spent 3 times more than Tottenham since Ferguson left but didn’t give some of their managers a chance to build.

Arsenal gave a chance to Arteta and stuck by him when their fans were screaming for his head. They called him the Spanish apprentice. The first two seasons he spent it below mid table then finishing 8th twice. Third season he lost the first 3 games and they could easily have sacked him but they didn’t because they believed building a team takes time.

And there were similarities. Arteta inherited an expensive but crap striker like Lacazette who scored 1 goal a season and had to leave Ozil out of the squad and he was on 3 times the Richarlison wages.

He had to sell many of his underperfoming players on the cheap and that didn’t happen in one or two transfer windows but in 5 or 6 because you can only sell players who want or agree to be sold.

He also made many mistakes.

A lot of patience got them where they are now. I believe we have a better manager than Arteta who plays attractive football which we all want without compromising the defence like Ange did. But he needs time. At least more than one season.

Also, all the Arteta out boys, and we all have mates who were…knobs.

Love and snogs Sexy Davey A, Broxbourne

Liverpool: Can’t be arsed There’s so much said about the mark of champions but this weekend you’ve got to say that Arsenal and Man City both showed they have it whilst Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd really floundered.

We played a Fulham without a win in three and failed to put any pressure on them. Instead we flounced around like the points were destined to come to us. The contrast with how we played against Atletico Madrid was so stark but it showed everything wrong with us; we are a team who could go hard to win every game but choose not to or, worse, think they don’t have to.

The game itself was too p***-poor to render worthy of any specific comments but my God it’s depressing watching Liverpool sometimes.

Watch us give Spurs their first win of the season on Tuesday. Minty, LFC

Patience please I know watching the Fulham match (and most matches this season) has been frustrating, but lets remember Iraola at Bournemouth. He started with 0 wins, 3 draws, 6 defeats. Just 0.33 PPG. After he had got things working his way, there was a big improvement. In the next 29 games they got 45 points, or 1.55 points per game, almost a 5 fold increase.

So Liverpool may have started slow, with 1.5ppg at the moment. That may continue, and we’ll be sitting after 9 games on around 14 points. But then the upturn in form will come. Based on history, and maths, we’ll see a 4.7x improvement. That will lead to an impressive 7.05ppg, allowing Liverpool to win the league with an historic 218 points.

It’s simple maths. Just be patient. Mike, LFC, Dubai

Sunderland v Arsenal was good, mind After a relatively slow start between Sunderland and Arsenal the game resulted in a physical contest that was highly entertaining and extremely exciting and reminded me of a good old fashioned game of competive football. It was like the games Arsenal played against Man Utd over twenty years ago where both teams were going hell for leather and both playing for the title. Arsenal now are playing for the title again and Sunderland are playing to repeat and potentially progress from their successful previous seasons.

As an Arsenal supporter it didn’t do my blood pressure much good but I must say Sunderland were outstanding and Arsenal had to be at their very best to beat them. Arsenal took charge of the first half but Sunderland’s defence was very tight and Arsenal were limited with chances but just needed a decent finish from Saka or Havertz to take charge.

Sunderland were more open in the second half and subsequently pushed Arsenal back. Arsenal players appeared to be slow on the ball and didn’t look so comfortable in their build up play. However, that was down to how organised Sunderland’s defence was in their positioning and closing Arsenal down. It was difficult to take an eye off the game because one didn’t know what was going to happen next in whoever’s favour.

I was concerned about the long throws because I remember when I played football in my youth my brother was able to launch the ball very accurately into the box to cause trouble. And indeed, Sunderlands long throws suggested to me they might get something out of them. And low and behold, a penalty. My initial view was that it was a penalty but having viewed it numerous times it definitely was not. Having listened to Arteta after the game, I totally agreed with him but I thought: oh dear, you’re going to get slated for being a whinger! That of course is because of his reputation, which I feel he’s moved on from. Somebody already wrote in criticising his annoyance. Before people do jump on the wagon whether you like him or not, just take into consideration that he wanted to discuss the quality of the game and praise Sunderland’s quality and his own teams performance in beating them rather than a refereeing blunder!

A couple of final comments, Brobbey is superb and gave the Arsenal defence much more trouble than Rogers the other week. Also, Raya is something else. When he has anything to do he does it immaculately i.e. shot stopping, ball distribution, command of his area and in particular catching.

A cracking, old fashioned physical game of football with skill and passion. Chris, Croydon