Liverpool in ‘comedy week’ as £30m star ‘better’ than Wirtz as Arsenal ‘totally vilified’, Man Utd lauded | OneFootball

The Mailbox returns with Liverpool in ‘another comedy week’, while Manchester United are hailed for doing something Arsenal were ‘totally vilified’ for…

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com…

Cherki is ‘better’ than Liverpool’s ‘wafty German ballerina’…

I did tell y’all that Cherki was a better player than the wafty German ballerina before the season started, especially when you get millions in change, plus Timmy Reindeer, for price of one Teutonic goal shy lightweight.

When you chuck in the fact that all that shite they bought in the summer looks like it might be a contributing factor to missing out on Semenyo too, it’s another comedy week for This Means More FC.

Really enjoying AFCON too so far, only spoilt somewhat by the Egyptian manchild’s cheating to get a pen v SA. Just need Legohead to continue his annual f**kupery, and 2026 is looking like great fun. HNY all! RHT/TS x

But Wirtz ‘looked very smooth’ vs Wolves…

Wirtz looked very smooth today. Was a real pleasure to watch him glide in and out of spaces and his touch and ideas are really in a different class to the majority of players I watch on a regular basis.

I read an article about how since joining Liverpool he’s added something like 5-7kg of lean muscle to help him adapt and the way he drove through the center to score really showed the benefits of that work starting to be reaped.

Big shoutout to Kerkez who has finally remembered how to play football and is starting to look like a player again. I honestly don’t know who will start out of Bradley and Frimpong when they’re both fit but they are both quality players. I think Frimpong’s dart past a couple and cut back for the first goal was a hint that he could really help to break through a low block in a very different way to Trent.

Having proper finishers in the centre like Ekitike and Isak will be essential to making the new plan work I suspect.

Of course we conceded in the second half and proceeded to look jittery against a team that literally nobody has jittered against all season. It’s so weird how nervous we look the minute we concede these days; most of this team had crazy “points from losing positions” stats under Klopp and Slot so it’s a shame they’ve lost that mindset.

We look dangerous going forwards but we look sketchy defensively. It adds up to being fun to watch for a lot of neutrals but pretty nerve wracking when you actually want Liverpool to win. Minty, LFC

Different rules for Manchester United and Arsenal…

Arsenal played ManU on match day 1 at Old Trafford and won 1-0. Arsenal was slated for their negative football while defending their lead. ManU was hailed for playing attacking football with a desire to win.

Yesterday, Boxing Day, was match day 18 and ManU played Newcastle at Old Trafford. ManU players defended for their lives to preserve the 1-0 scoreline. They were hailed as gallant defenders despite the shots that kept raining at their goal.

Why the different views for Man Utd and Arsenal so totally vilified? Yiembe, Mombasa

‘Mildly optimistic’ about Man Utd…

Tonight you saw Man Utd win a match they shouldn’t have won with 1/2 a team. First time in 3 1/2 years they’ve actually managed to “cross the line”. And Ruben changed the formation to fit the players! Who thought Dorgu was so good? I’m now mildly optimistic. Tony

No luck for Eddie Howe…

What a frustrating match yesterday for Toon supporters. First things first: it was a fantastic goal from Patrick Dorgu, good enough to win any match. Especially against a club that often can’t score in a brothel.

I can’t blame the result on the refereeing. But whose dick does Eddie Howe have to suck to get a break? Tonali got booked for a less extreme version of Chalobah’s assault and battery on Gordon on Tuesday. When Chalobah did it, it wasn’t even a foul. So why was it a booking in a different match and fifty yards from goal? And as I’ve said here many times, intent should have no bearing on penalty decisions. Advantage is the proper criterion.

Leaving my disappointment aside, it seemed that nobody was bothering to look out for Dorgu, who stopped play three or four times over putative head injuries. I’ve been trying to decide who the worst POS in the situation was:

– The referee for not noticing that Dorgu had gone down holding his head so many times? He has an obligation to protect the players on the pitch.

– Amorim, for leaving a player on the pitch despite four head injuries? That’s just shameful.

– The Man Utd medical staff, for failing to overrule Amorim and protect Dorgu from long-term consequences?

– Or was it Dorgu himself? Because at one point early in the second half, I announced that faking head injuries might not prove to be the best way of keeping all three points (I was wrong!) I suspect that only the shot to the face had any actual effect on him and the rest of the injuries were feigned. (And has Amorim encouraged him to cheat?)

If a player goes down holding his head that many times, it’s clear that he’s either cheating or in danger. In neither case should they remain on the pitch. And if players and coaches continue to fake head injuries, a likely consequence is that the protections in place will become less effective.

I think that when play stops for a possible head injury, the player should leave the pitch for an actual neuro exam by an actual physician. The PGMOL should also conduct post-match reviews to 1) identify players faking head injuries that stop play and suspend them retroactively, and 2) hold referees accountable for failures to protect players. In the long run, it would be in the players’ best interests. Chris C, Toon Army DC

How to fix VAR…

Wow! Great email about the circular and fundamentally flawed VAR process. Indeed, does an auditor need to know a particular job in order to audit it successfully? I’d say, not necessarily. In this context, VAR isn’t even auditing; they’re trying to catch those “clear and obvious” errors. A total novice who knows next to nothing about football could do it. I’d argue, they would do it better. They would be paid less, there’d be nearly zero training burden and they would just sit there, keep quiet until something mind-bogglingly clear is missed by the pitch referees. Even “clear and obvious” becomes easier to define when the VAR is not a referees. Make it like jury duty. “And today we have Wendy from Grimsby on VAR duties”, and the camera cuts to Wendy in Stockley Park rummaging through her handbag for her readers.

Before VAR was introduced, I was interested to see how often it would be engaged. I expected maybe once every 3 to 5 games. What a total fool I was.

On another topic, I enjoy Stewie’s emails. I always read them to the end. I always chuckle at the nicknames. What kind of person doesn’t enjoy mean nicknames?! Just the recipients, I would’ve thought. Stop trying to censor the guy. Hesh (LFC) P.S. I even laugh at “This Means More FC”. So deliciously childish and petty

Love actually…

Rather than spending another 2-3 hours attempting to compose an email worthy of inclusion in this hallowed Mailbox I’d just like to extend my appreciation to everyone in F365 Towers for continuing to keep this community of open expression open for business!

I’ve been an avid reader for over 20 years throughout some massive ups in life (marriage, kids, Utd winning the league) to some very difficult lows (family deaths, Liverpool winning the league) and throughout it all F365 has been a constant bastion of support and camaraderie.

Happy Christmas one and all, please keep up the good work. Cheers.