O’Neill to Man Utd with ‘Amorim’s race run’ as progress (?) is assessed; Saka ‘holding back’ Arsenal | OneFootball

One reader claims Man Utd should appoint Martin O’Neill with Ruben Amorim reaching the end of the line at Old Trafford in your first Mailbox of the new year.

While the progress at Old Trafford under Amorim is assessed, Bukayo Saka gets a kicking, praise for a quality Mailbox, Arsenal vs Aston Villa and lots more.

Assessing Man Utd progress so far this season…

The Wolves game was a very frustrating watch, even though I had a feeling they were going to give us a tougher game than the table suggests. At the end of the game the only apt phrase I could think of was, “what the f*ck was that?”. But I’m not here to dissect a (piss) poor performance, these are to be expected when a team is being built – if this was going to be straightforward then we’d already be competing for the big silverware instead of floundering for over a decade. Instead, I am here to assess the progress we have made up to this halfway point of the season i.e. the long-term results.

In terms of our attack, we are showing signs of being up there with the best of them – only Arsenal and City have scored more. The fact that we spent a decent amount of money on our attack in the summer means this is not a coincidence, and the underlying stats (expected goals) help show that the system and style of play is leading to a healthy number of chances being created. It feels like Sesko and Cunha still have gears to find, which is an exciting prospect. The two who have been playing CM have definitely contributed (9 goals and 10 assists between them). Bruno is just doing Bruno, but Casemiro’s form has been a pleasant surprise. In terms of the WBs, Dalot takes a lot of stick at times but he has produced this season (1 goal and 5 assists – just about as good as any other FB/WB in the league), and Dorgu seems to finally be finding his feet in the PL. Our set-pieces have been on point too.

On the flipside, we haven’t been as strong in defence as only 6 teams have conceded more than us. Instinctively I think are we getting caught out of shape too often or is there an issue around the balance of the team. I can’t exactly deep dive into the stats as I don’t work at this for a living but looking at the high level numbers available, the outlier seems to be goals conceded from open play (15 vs 10) and counter attacks (4 vs 1), not set piece goals conceded (9 vs 8) when compared to the average of teams above us (ignoring penalties and OGs which are negligible). Therefore, on the face of it, this suggests Ruby hasn’t got the balance right yet in transition and/or defence.

Interestingly however (for the nerd in me anyway), a comparison can be made with Palace who employ a reasonably similar shape (3 at the back, wingbacks and 2 in CM). They have conceded 9 fewer goals (20) – only 7 of these have come from open play and only 1 on the counterattack, suggesting this type of system can work in terms of defence. So, whether it’s a personnel issue (individual mistakes) and/or a tweak to the system, Ruby would do worse than look to Palace for some of the answers in defence.

Overall, it’s an A for effort in attack but a D in defence. Yet sitting 6th at the halfway point (assuming Sunderland don’t do any damage against City) is not too shabby and would have been acceptable to any supporter at the start of the season. Yes, we could have picked up more points and could be inexplicably sitting second in the table. I could have also won the Euromillions and sunning myself somewhere exotic in the world instead of freezing my xmas walnuts off in a wintery UK. But the universe is not ready for any of those things to happen right now – this is year 1 of a rebuild so be patient and see where we end up and, in the meantime, I’ll keep wasting money on the lottery. Garey (one of these days Rodney, we’ll be champions again) Vance, MUFC

Martin O’Neill???

On this rather sleepy and flu-filled NY eve an article about MU scouting for a replacement caught my eye (Man Utd ‘begin work on plans’ to replace Ruben Amorim with PL boss ‘leading the race’ – Football365). I found myself half praying this to be true. I don’t want to be that fan that is constantly calling for change, constantly highlighting the managers shortcomings and overlooking their strengths – but it does feel like Amorim’s race is run.

He keeps making the same mistakes; for a copy of the Everton game this season, see the Lyon game from last season. You might argue that we won against Lyon, but it was in spite of the managers decision making, not because of it. His decision to marginalise some of the playing staff is now biting us on the backside – the likes of Zirkzee, Malacia and Mainoo could have been important for this period (i.e. during AFCON) but because they have had virtually no minutes up till now they don’t have the match sharpness or rhythm to their game.

Amorim may well be a good coach, but this job has come too early for him. The fact that he admits he would do 75% of things differently, means he is only getting 25% of things right – that’s not good enough. Especially when you consider this might be one of the best collection of players we have had since Fergie departed, second only to Mourinho’s side. The decision to revert to 3-4-3 felt like a backwards step last night and the performance was evidence of that.

Anyways, in terms of the article, it seems that Glasner is seen as a safe bet. I can see why; he is out of contract soon, he’s won silverware on the continent and at his current club, he knows how to manage the demands of the league and European football, the rhythm and intensity of the PL is not new to him and generally speaking his stock is at an all-time high. If he can bring Guehi along with him that would make the scousers really lose their heads – we would all get a kick out of that.

Another name has recently come to mind as well, a certain Martin O’Neill. I am not sure he is a name that some fans or Sir Jim would approve, but there is something about Martin that reminds me very much of Ferguson. He has had success north of the border, he knows the game and the English league well, he strikes me as being less rigid in the way he see’s the game (certainly when compared to Amorim), at one point in the early 2000’s he was considered as a replacement for the Great Scot himself. Ibrahim Khalid

Amorim’s press conferences & interviews sound like defeat

Watching Ruben Amorim’s press conferences lately, I keep thinking less about tactics and more about tone, and not in a good way. Too often, his interviews sound like a manager making excuses instead of setting standards.

It reminds me of a boss I had at McDonald’s. On paper, he was fine. He knew the systems, followed the manual, and checked all the boxes. But his team talks before a rush were dreadful. Everything was framed around what might go wrong, who needed to be careful, and why today would be difficult. You didn’t feel motivated; you felt prepared for failure. Unsurprisingly, shifts with him always felt harder than necessary.

That’s the same feeling Amorim’s media appearances give off. There’s a constant lowering of expectations, a subtle sense of limitation. We’re not quite there, this will be difficult, we must be realistic. Honesty is fine, but elite football isn’t a therapy session. At some point, messaging influences mindset, and mindset affects performance.

People love to say players don’t listen to press conferences. That’s nonsense. They hear the tone, absorb the narrative, and it seeps into the dressing room whether anyone admits it or not. You don’t need Mourinho-era bravado, but you do need conviction. Right now, Amorim often sounds like someone hoping to survive rather than take charge.

At McDonald’s, the difference between a bad shift and a good one was often just a manager who spoke like we could handle it. In football, the margins are thinner, the stakes higher and sounding like you’re already managing the explanation before and after kick-off is rarely the mark of a side about to surprise anyone. Gaptoothfreak, Man. Utd., New York (New Year, Same old C*nt)

Man Utd are suddenly shit again?

So, Man Utd are suddenly shit again are they? Actually they are not. We finished 15th last season and lost to almost everyone. We were a shambles in goal, defence, midfield and attack and maybe had a decent 30 min spell of play 1 game in every 5.

Fast forward half a season and we’re in 6th and deservedly so. We’ve had quite a few decent wins and we’ve had some disappointing draws and losses.

To go from 15th last season with no real hope to being 6th and actually seeing us play some decent football more often than not is already more progress than any realistic fan could have hoped for this year. We pose a very real attacking threat against anyone even with Sesko not coming to the party. Our build up play and passing is very good in spells and our keeper is a massive upgrade. Our midfield is clearly in need of improvement and our defence is still leaking way too many goals but so what. Last season we were shit with absolutely no hope. This season we are up there just behind the actual decent teams having made some very clear improvement and also having some very clear areas we need to improve.

Last season people were saying we need to get rid of the whole squad, now we’re in a position where 2 or 3 players could really make a difference to us taking the next step forwards.

We are not title contenders, we are not even Champions league contenders but we are improving and often entertaining for the right reasons. I have enjoyed watching utd more this season than any for a long time so I will take our current state right now. I will accept (reluctantly and with much swearing at TV) shitty performances against Everton and Wolves and whoever else for now and I just hope we maybe get one extra midfielder this transfer window, get our injured defenders back, get our AFCON players back and hopefully see some slight improvement to the end of the season that we can build on next year.

Happy New Year to you all, whoever you support, I hope you enjoy the rest of the season (except for games against us). Jon, Cape Town

We Were Young, We Were Free

We were all young once, even if you barely recall it, and I am sure depending upon the decade/era we all had it far better/worse than everyone else, or indeed the culture, which obviously was THE greatest because of course it was.

But football? I grew up in the 70s and 80s and as such all I knew was that Man City were shit. Obviously we hadn’t been (Europe, Titles, and so on), but we didn’t have the internet then, and I didn’t have a football family so it was glimpses in the news, and The Pink newspaper on a Saturday evening to read. That was it. I did go to the odd game here and there, but never quite ‘got it’.

But what else did I know ‘to be true’? What did my innocent child mind think was the truth irrespective of whether it was or not? Off the top of my head:

Manchester United were awesome. Leeds United were dirty shithouses. Wolverhampton Wanderers were amazing. Cloughie was a God. There were only two teams in Spain. Seriously. Just two. Italy may have had a couple more than that. No other country had any. Liverpool always had a great midfield. Everton were pretty good. Had no idea that there were more than two divisions. If you were a footballer you could do literally anything. Football fans always smelled of Bovril and cigarettes. If it all kicked off, as a kid you were safe. Had no clue racism and homophobia was an actual thing. Clubs’ history didn’t exist because that was during the dinosaur times. Everybody ate pies at football. We’re footballers actually paid money to play? I honestly had no clue.

I can’t have been the only kid to think these things? My father had disappeared when I was young, so had no bias, no indoctrination, nothing (just as well as he was a Man Utd fan). Just mates who liked playing footy at the weekend and after school.

So, please Mailboxers, tell me I was not alone thinking these things (or similar depending upon your decade/upbringing). Mike D

Johnno’s email – F1 banter

Very Generous of Johnno to start considering Arteta as being hired because he was what it takes to win it.

Unai Emery isn’t a perfectly decent manager; he’s an excellent manager. He’s Aeons beyond Arteta. £675m net spend in 5 years for Arsenal and only an FA Cup Trophy to show for it. £65m net spend for Villa over the same period, in which Emery has taken a Villa side from battling relegation to top 3 this season and competitive in cup competitions. He’s won trophies at every club he’s been at, including the same trophy with two different clubs; he’s won a championship in France – he’s probably going to win a trophy this season with Villa, albeit it won’t be the league.

Emery took over from a longstanding club legend and improved on the league finish in his first season – look at his squad available to him and the squad available to Arteta – let me know which of those players would get into today’s team. Emery got Arsenal to a European final; Arteta couldn’t even get past Villareal (Emery won it that year with them). Emery should have been given the time that Arteta has been afforded and the transfer budget to match – Arsenal would have likely won considerably more than they have in the last few years.

I’d take Unai Emery at Leeds over Arteta any day of the week. Man City will win the league this season, and as disappointing as that will be, it’ll be funny because Arteta will be the nearly man, yet again. Arteta isn’t a born winner. He’s Stirling Moss – an expert at being the runner up. Mat, Leeds

More Villa/Arsenal notes…

Hi,

Just my x conclusions on the Villa/Arsenal game.

First half villa definitely shaded it in every way. Better chances, defending competently and Martinez winding up the crowd. Marvellous.

The game turned on Arsenal battering our best midfielder in the game (Onana) meaning he had to go off. It’s not a surprise we then struggled in set pieces and lost our defensive screen that was working so well. Arsenal fans booing the referee was genuinely mental. They committed TWICE as many fouls as we did. If we are accused of going down too easily I refer you to Gabriel going down like a sack of spuds in an arial battle with… checks notes… 4’2” Emi Buendia. I saw Benduia in Sainsbury’s once. He’s tiny.

Second half a mistake (another one…) by Martinez let Arsenal in and we struggled after that as it bouyed the home team and the crowd. Small margins and all that Scott Parker nonsense. Arsenal did indeed then ’smell blood’ as Arteta put it and put us to the sword.

Lastly, let’s not forget the background to Arsenal/City/Liverpool/Chelsea. Our bench cost roughly £70 million. Or roughly one Eze. When they have almost another £200m worth of players on the bench it is a mismatch like 90% of the games Arsenal and the others play. Every Villa fan I have spoken to (I don’t deal in social media noise) found the talk of a title challenge either confusing or hilarious. No one took it seriously for this very reason. No one can compete with this, built in, financial imbalance over a whole season. You can point to Leicester but that was 10 years ago and the gap has widened even more considerably since then.

I’m just hoping morale doesn’t drop in the Villa camp and we can have as fun a season as we have had so far! Funstar Andy

Having watched the Arsenal – Villa match repeatedly, I can confidently say that Saka is holding back Arsenal at the moment. Most Arsenal attacks have always come from the right side where Saka plays. However, Saka wants to dribble, shoot or pass backwards. In yesterday’s game, Trossard was moving the ball faster and releasing it even faster. No wonder, Villa could not cope with the second half intensity, and Gyokeres was getting service. All the four goals originated from the left hand side. This is the way to break down low-block and stubborn teams. With Saka dilly dallying, the defenders have ample time to close shop.I hope he learns from this game. Yiembe, Mombasa

Lovely mailbox on Wednesday…

Quick annual reminder that Traore, Djimi has a champions league winners medal which is basically the gold standard proof that anyone can achieve anything in life.

Lovely mailbox today.

Sara HTFC, life is short. Change and support someone good.

Seamus, you’ve got a point but assuming a foreign or female ref is above corruption is flawed. Even if referees signed up to full transparency and you could go read their WhatsApp and see who they voted for there still might be endemic bias. A separate and disconnected VAR team would be a dream we’ll never get unless the PGMOL does get caught up in a proper cheating scandal. It’d be a nice start though.

Mark MCFC and Doug AFC, great emails. More like it please.

Mathew (ITFC) I think the rumours are that we spoke to Semenyo and didn’t bid. I presume he favoured a move to Man City so we didn’t bother. Sad though he’s a star. Liverpool fans would adore him.

Happy new year all! Minty, LFC

Nice to see the call for quality contributions from mailboxers being followed by a cracking NYE mailbox.

In response to the query from “Sara HTFC til I die” re. whether it’s acceptable to change clubs, it’s a hard ‘No’ from me.  Your allegiance to the new club would be forever tainted (unless you didn’t really love the old club in which case nothing matters anyway).

Had a mate at school who switched from Spurs to Arsenal.  They  felt they couldn’t fully support their new club, took dogs abuse for years, and got really tetchy if you mentioned the switch because they knew they’d fked up.  This is an egregious example but I think it applies to others. Aidan, Lfc (appreciate this is easy for a plastic ‘big club’ fan to say.   Hope y’all have a great NYE)

Thoughts on Semenyo and Liverpool

Matthew ITFC asks why Semenyo would opt for the “wingers’ graveyard” of Man City when Liverpool are in need of wide players. If it was the choice between those two clubs, I’m sure being racially abused by a Liverpool fan on the opening day of this season might have some influence on his decision. Darren, LFC, Dublin

Consistency…

Mark,

You imply that as your star player makes mistakes then it’s fine for referees to also make errors. Whilst correct of course, it is also fair to point out that there are a large number of errors where the refs come to the wrong conclusion despite having access to slow motion replays etc. As a Liverpool fan (but absolutely irrelevant to my point) I have had some frustration with some of the missed chances this term, but I would absolutely expect them to do better if having shot wide they got the opportunity to have another go with less pressure. So no, it’s not the same. David