Manchester United ‘shouldn’t be happy with band aid victory’ after Amorim’s Everton abomination | OneFootball

Manchester United beating Palace ‘had some SERIOUS caveats attached. And Thomas Frank and Arne Slot show why there will not be another Carlo Ancelotti.

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Red letter

Just to reply to Mat’s mail in Monday afternoon’s (or late morning here!) mailbox about Paqueta sending off.

Specifically Mat mentions ‘Jarred Bowen as captain was oddly passive about the whole thing’ , which having seen (only) the highlights I tend to agree with – he wan;t really getting involved at all.

If anything the Liverpool goalkeeper Allison was the one player trying to get him to shut up and f**k off away from the referee! I presume this is because they are both Brazilian and speak the same language and have maybe been in international squads together, and therefore Allison didn’t want to see him get himself sent off.

I appreciate that Paqueta has raised the investigation into his off field activities and lack of psychological support as issues. I do not know if this was meant to be mitigation for his sending off and I also do not know how this may have affected him.

In my mind Allison shouldn’t get involved if an opponent is going to get  / wants to be sent off if it is going to give his struggling team something of an advantage!

Anyway, Sunday’s result offers some temporary sense of relief at least, let’s hope we can back it up against Sunderland on Wednesday. A, LFC, Montreal.

Some Manchester United caveats

Good Day

Just some responses to today’s mailbox. Firstly Mr Garey Vance. He says that Amorim used his halftime talk to inspire urgency. Fair point but that undermines the “whole coaching them all week” point you made. What was he coaching them? Because it wasn’t urgency against a team that played in Europe on Thursday. We were the team who looked like we had played in midweek such was our apparent apathy and lack of urgency. Why do we need to sacrifice a whole half for the manager to get this team to do what he had a whole week to prepare for?

Also if looking at your bench and choosing the only non-youth team player who can play striker because of an injury is management then I’m expecting a call up any day now. I will concede that the Mount pick was good but again those two goals came from two moments of individual genius from dead ball situations. Like I said up until the 76th-ish minute the only touch we had in the opposition box was Zirkzee’s goal.

And this domination you’re talking about was not part of the game I watched because we were under siege in the last ten minutes or so and Opta (however much weight you’d like to give them) showed that except for 15 minutes, it was Palace who were the more threatening team. We were lucky not to be 3-0 down at half time with Mateta just squeezing one wide and that Palace shot from a long throw in that went straight at Lammens.

Sorry mate. I really do want to celebrate a United win but this win had some SERIOUS caveats attached to it and we as United fans shouldn’t be happy with a band aid victory after that Everton defeat where Amorim REFUSED to change shape and left us with 5 at the back against ten men.

Andreas Hasle makes some excellent points and I agree with almost his whole email. One thing I absolutely agree has to be changed in the PL and football in general is the after shot tackle as he mentions about Konsa. How a player is allowed to absolutely plough into an attacker and face no censure after the player has taken his shot is completely ridiculous. I don’t know why it’s allowed and honestly it’s ridiculous and dangerous. But I suppose asking for refereeing consistency and accountability is tilting at windmills in the extreme

All the respect in the world to Ed and my fellow mailboxers. Have a great week Disgruntled (Anonymous as is my right. Thank you very much) RSA 

Why there might never be another Ancelotti

Tommy Frank. As I watched his soon to be last days at Brentford, all wild-eyed, furiously chewing gum but completely relaxed, half listening to whichever coach was talking in his ear, total master of his wee domain – bored even – I thought he looks ready for ‘The Step Up’.

Fast forward to now, and he’s a nervous wreck who looks like he has actually physically shrunk. Confusion written all over his face at Spence & Roadrunner ignoring him. STARTING with damage limitation as his NLD masterplan. Picking a fight with the fans for god’s sake!

Arne Slot, despite finally beating someone (a self flagellating West Ham, wonder how much Paqueta had on his red card…), is still only visible because of his bald dome just about breaking the surface of the deep end.

Or Spain, where Xabi Alonso is having to deal with used to be mustard manchild Vini Jr leading a dressing room revolt because….ummm……he’s a spoilt little pr*ck?

Different levels of prior achievement to land their jobs, and different records thus far, but all catapulted waaaaaaay higher than their last jobs, and all struggling.

(Convoluted) point is, seems to me that football’s impatient culture in 2025 is in danger of preventing a new generation of managers becoming an Ancelotti, or a Sacchi, or a ‘insert elder statesman of choice here’.

Even Arsenal, who have displayed a ton of patience with Legohead as he slowly and painfully learned what to do with attacking players, like the ape in 2001 finally lobbing that femur into the air – which, coincidentally, he resembled on the touchline v Chelsea as they dropped two points, squealing and windmilling away – doesn’t really count here given the levels of wedge deployed to provide him with 4,629 players for every position with which to inch towards winning something significant. Anything Mikel. Please.

Football is eating itself anyway, as anything of value tends to when the big money ghouls and their front men appear to pillage and ruin it (hi Gianni!), but if there’s no managers allowed to develop a bit of gravitas and experience before taking the big jobs, or even – heaven forbid – when IN said jobs, we’ll be in an even sorrier state IMO. Thoughts? RHT/TS x

(Remember though, it’s only a game – perspective people. I just heard that greedy, nicotine stained, fascist pr*ck Farage citing The Nolan Principles on t’wireless. F**k the f**k off you lying, disingenuous, brass-necked, racist c***)

Toon turning point

What a win on Saturday for Newcastle. Everton were poor but this version of Newcastle hasn’t shown up on the road for so long. I wondered before the game if having two away matches back-to-back would help – all other recent losses away have been followed by a home match, so the tired line was repeated about ‘putting things right’ which you can’t do by retreating back to your comfort zone. We’ll never know but psychologically I wonder if going straight to another hostile stadium and tough opponent was what changed the mentality from seeking comfort to sharpening focus.

The Pope decision being taken out of Howe’s hands due to injury was helpful. Burn being trusted at CB showed us again that he is an outstanding defender in the right position, but that cannot be full back where Hall was excellent and brings so much to the attack that Burn cannot. Thiaw is just in that kind of form top CBs can get into – imperious in defence but in the right place in attack – peak Van Dijk, Dias & Gabriel have shown how much impact that kind of defender can have at both ends of the pitch, we have to keep him fit.

Miley took a lot of ball playing stress off Bruno who looked like Home Bruno in this outing. I wasn’t reading too much into Tonali not playing as he needs a rest but if Bruno is left to do all the playmaking we’ve seen that doesn’t work, Miley helped balance that and Joelinton was very impressive in the 2nd half. Now we know we can rotate in midfield we need to see more of it.

Woltemade’s finish was filthy, but like the City game he played better overall, had more chances and if anything looks more of a threat than those earlier games where he was scoring maybe from one chance. And Elanga gave what was comfortably his best performance. He should have done better with that first chance in the first few seconds of the game, but tactically he was very good and that was key to a very good team performance. Getting his first assist will help I’m sure.

Only downside is how dependent we are on Hall and Livramento staying fit in order to play as we did against Everton and against City. Lovely when they are together but if either is out our other options at FB cannot offer the same mobility, drive and dynamism. We need another left back as Burn should not be the first choice back up.

What I love about Howe is that he does change things. He might wait a bit too long and he seems reactive rather than proactive, but he will adapt. Contrast that with Amorim who won’t change a thing regardless of circumstances and I can only give my opinion that Howe will outlast Amorim as a top coach. I wrote in a couple of weeks ago saying this period will make or break the season and Howe’s reputation and I stand by that, but we’ve got a home match against a Spurs team who are at a very low ebb tomorrow, win that and its three league wins back-to-back, with another home game against Burnley at the weekend. James, Leeds

Moises and the burning bush

I felt sorry for Gary Lineker when he lost his cushy gig at the Beeb. MOTD isn’t the same without his charm. Just like Two and a Half Men wasn’t the same after Charlie Sheen was fired for using Tiger’s Blood and erm, WINNING.

But Lineker’s comments regarding Caicedo’s deserved red card is absolute codswallop. I now understand why his “disciplinary” record is so spotless. Back in his days, being thuggish and brutish was an acceptable means of showing your presence on the field. I felt sick to my stomach reading his bizarre comments. I now understand why they fired his @$$… Muthama Gitonga, Nyeri (Mount Kenya)

The Wolves referee

This may not hit home with a lot of readers but I actually thought the referee had a decent game on Sunday.

He let a lot of the play go, ignored lots of Villa (and Wolves) players falling to the floor and had the bottle to ignore VAR calling for a red card where there blatantly wasn’t one.

For what it’s worth it was a foul in the build up to Villa goal but there was also lots of other Wolves players who could have closed down and didn’t.