Arsenal to sign Isak to replace Gyokeres after winning PL; ChatGPT picks better Man Utd XI than Amorim | OneFootball

In a particularly silly Mailbox, Arsenal have been backed to sign Alexander Isak to replace Viktor Gyokeres in a double deal after becoming champions.

Also, ChatGPT has been tasked with selecting Manchester United’s starting XI vs Leeds United, and if you overlook a couple of glaring issues, it has done a better job than Ruben Amorim.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com…

A tale of two managers…

One battle after another is how the embattled Arne Slot is characterising this season, but he’s still in a job, still battling away isn’t he. Meanwhile, Enzo Maresca has collected his P45 under a big stormy blue cloud, and incidentally I’m warmly reminded of Will Ford’s perfidious prediction Slot would be sacked by January 4th (of last year, not this).

At that time, technically two years ago now, I remembering writing in to say nobody would have Maresca at their club, that he was extraordinarily lucky to be at Stamford Bridge. Obviously Maresca’s stock rose and oh how the turn tables and all that, because it became BlueCo who were indeed extraordinarily lucky to have employed Maresca. Because honestly what manager in world football with the proper bonafides / in their right minds / with timely options would want to go and manage Chelsea these days.

The top three look solidly entrenched, so Liverpool and Chelsea are the likeliest two to compete for the final musical chair spot for next season. To me, on balance, it’s a coin flip. Either team could get in, or ffs maybe Sunderland surge to third and push Villa into fourth and wouldn’t that just be incredible for the league and also boil vats of Magpie piss. But between Liverpool and Chelsea at least, it’s very clear which owners I’d rather work for, and while I won’t be baited by all of Will Ford’s low-hanging anti-Liverpool fruit, sometimes I do feel compelled to say something in defence of my club. Eric, Los Angeles CA (But I’m a good sport… even the anti-Liverpool fruit can be nutritious on its day.)

ChatGPT picks a better Man Utd formation (and XI?) than Amorim…

As I watched Amans toys come flying of his pram, one thing he said did intrigue me… who would ChatGPT pick?

So I asked it… “Who would you pick to play for Manchester United against Leeds on 4th January 2026? You can pick whichever formation you think will win.

Manchester United XI (Jan 2026)

Goalkeeper: Andre Onana

Best option for playing through pressure and dealing with Leeds’ press.

Defence:

RB: Diogo Dalot

Reliable, athletic, and disciplined away from home.

CB: Lisandro Martínez

Aggression, leadership, and composure in hostile games.

CB: Matthijs de Ligt

Physical presence to deal with Leeds’ direct play and aerial threat.

LB: Luke Shaw (or long-term replacement if rotated)

Experience and balance on the left side.

Midfield Three:

CDM: Manuel Ugarte

Key for breaking up play and matching Leeds’ intensity.

CM: Kobbie Mainoo

Calm under pressure, helps United keep the ball when Leeds press.

CM: Bruno Fernandes (c)

Energy, leadership, pressing, and chance creation in big away games.

Attack:

RW: Alejandro Garnacho

Direct, fearless, dangerous in transition.

LW: Marcus Rashford (or elite winger signing)

Pace in behind is crucial against Leeds’ aggressive back line.

ST: Rasmus Højlund

Physical, relentless presser, thrives in high-tempo matches.

A few problems with that selection Aman. Back to the drawing board. Joe, London

What if Arsenal signed two new strikers after winning the Premier League…

To fill a bit of a dull no football day, I put together a bingo, or do we just say bingo.

It’s based on the conjecture that if Arsenal were to become Champions, one of the positions they’d strengthen would be at centre foward. How much money would flood into the coffers as winners? Not sure. Perhaps even two centre forwards.

So the first category is a Premier League proven one, Victor is not this. Watkins is not going to be the best value for money, but for sure an upgrade on Gyokeres. What about Oscar Bobb? There are rumours that City could let him leave and at the start of the season he was looking pretty good.

But the most interesting, I reckon, is Isak. He’ll recover from his broken leg, look cool in an Arsenal shirt and would be extremely expensive; stranger things have happened.

The second category is the aged pro to stick ‘em in from all the chances created. This category has to be led by the Polish killer Robert, who I believe could be signed on a free. Yes he is perhaps too old for a week to week prem’ but surely he’d triple Victor’s goals account.

Alvaro Morata? Evidently playing for Francesc Fabregas at Como. Not very good, probably worse than Gyokeres.

Okay, outside the Premier League, look good on paper category: Julian Alvarez at Atletico Madrid could be the answer, he’d be very expensive though gettable, might even be Gunners fans favourite option.

There is Vlahovic, someone Arsenal wanted before they got conned into Gabriel Jesus , at the time Dušan didn’t fancy ‘em apparantly . Could turn out to be another waste of money.

The Nigerian lad in Turkey? Defo better that their current Victor but rumours of dressing room disharmony make it unlikely. Same might be said about Ivan Toney.

X City boy Ferran Torres is an interesting one, some say too many injuries and English football isn’t so kind to players made of granite ,let alone glass.

Whomever is the flavour of the month in the Bundesliga? Hit and miss at best.

If Internazionale win the league then Lautaro Martinez probably becomes ungettable. Rodrygo Goes doesn’t really count unless it’s as well as a centre forward.

No, here is my best shout. He’s called Mikel , so probably Basque . Just as Arsene loved an unheralded french kid, Arteta is fond of a Gipuzkoan.

He’ll play up front for Spain in the summer – probably win the World Cup hence should be bundled off early doors, only going to cost half a Gyok’.

Pros: he fits into the Arsenal system, would have great mates in Raya, Zubimendi , Merino and Arteta . And Oyazabal can fit into the syllables of Gyokeres’ chant :- his name is Mi-Kel Mikel- Oyaza- bal.

Though I do agree Swedish girls look very nice.

A little younger than Merino Zazon but age may be the only negative to seeing Oyazabal with a cannon on his chest next season. Peter (Harry just wouldn’t) Andalucia

Is top-level coaching actually easy?

This is a very random question but how complicated is top level coaching?

I might sound a bit harsh here but if you have a dressing room where very few speak English as a first language and most left school at 16 I assume it’s mostly not Hadron Collider type stuff.

But what is the focus? Does Pep focus on weaknesses to be exploited and then pick a team to achieve that? So the players go out knowing they wanna run down the left more and that’s about it?

I know Henry did that thing about positioning and how Pep at Barca basically was very rigid about positioning until the ball went into the final third. But that still seems fairly simple no? Helps your team be more confident about where people will be in order to exploit space.

Arteta and Howe are obviously focused on tactical fouls as a way of dealing with transition whilst Klopp used to like the idea of counter pressing and creating tactical traps. But again none of this is insanely complicated. So what’s the difference between coaching standards and why did Ferguson get more out of players than Roy Evans, as a distant example? Or is it just about the best players and avoiding too many injuries? Rafa did this clever thing a few times where he set the team up to look like they were playing one formation and then once the game started they’d rapidly switch to something else. A few times in the champions league we scored a couple of early goals and then switched to shut out mode for 150 minutes. So is that just a little bait and switch tactic; you make the other team think you’re playing 4-5-1 but suddenly play 3-5-2 and flood extra players into spaces they’re not expecting. That I can imagine is maybe hard to coach but then maybe not.

There are obviously also glaring errors like Amorim playing a team that was built by ETH for a few years to play 4-5-1 suddenly being forced to play 3-5-2. Angeball is good viewing but basically not very wise it seems.

Other weird things. When Brendan Rogers became Liverpool manager I remember an interview with a player and he spoke positively about how all the sessions involved a ball. Also Ajax do this from at all levels called the 1000 touch work out to make sure their players are all comfortable with the ball at their feet. Maybe on this latter point the really art of coaching is devising training routines that help players deal with real game situations? I recall Klopp coaching attacking routines for this specific reason; take the thought out and people can then be on autopilot and deliver more reliably.

Anyone with some coaching experience please write in and tell me or direct me to some reading material about tactical coaching. Minty, LFC

‘This means meh’

Back to work today. Grabbed my cup of tea and sat down to read the F365 Mailbox before starting the yearly toil. I was hoping to find some delightful emails on Liverpool’s latest malaise to revel in schadenfreude, and so I was initially very disappointed to find nothing there. This after I was also disappointed that there was no mention of it on MOTD last night either, all the pundits were talking about was how well Leeds had done.

Then, I realised, this latest result meant something far more significant. Their lack of form and travails this season have been THE hot topic of debate so far as the decline was so relevant after they somehow managed to win the League last year. But their (lack of) form has now become deliciously irrelevant. Not worthy of comment. This is who they are. “This means more” ™ has become “This means meh” ™ to almost everyone.

Long may it continue! Happy 2026! Colin

But everyone seems to have missed the point. Tickner seems to think it’s ok to sell Johnson for 75% of what Spurs paid for him. Because Spurs ‘don’t play that way anymore’.

Would somebody mind telling me what way Spurs do play? Because I couldn’t tell you and I’m a season ticket holder at WHL.

The basis of the article seems to be that Johnson is a very limited footballer who can only play one way. Okie dokes. That one way did result in a fair few goals last season. Remember goals? They’re nice and somewhat necessary if you’re going to win football matches. Johnson is 24. He has goals and assists under his belt and is coachable.

Oliver Glasner seems to think he might be useful. Perhaps he’s watched the way Johnson combines with Solanke and thinks he could do the same with Mateta. But here’s the thing. Maybe Solanke won’t be injured forever. And maybe Kudus will carry on being the player who’s got 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 11 games. And maybe Solanke x Johnson could have been a thing again later in January when Kudus is even more knackered and looking a lot like second season at West Ham Kudus. But we’ll never know because by then the Mateta – Johnson show will be in full swing. And Spurs will be getting beat 3 – 0 by City with Tel replacing Odobert on 78 minutes.

So thanks for everything Brennan. Sorry a bunch of people got on your back but it seemed to really spur you on. Hope it all works out for you at Palace.

Cheers Andrew, Woodford Green

Don’t do it, Liam…

Brentford v Brentford was almost as bad as Ekitike (and the criminally underused Ngumoha, but only from minute 83, obviously) v Leeds.

Still, got Rosenior v Chelsea fans (an unnerving number of whom are named Jason) to look forward to in 26. Don’t do it Liam, it won’t end well for you and you seem like a nice fella. RHT/TS x

An unimportant observation about Thomas Frank…

Hi Football365,

I don’t support Tottenham Hotspur. I don’t dislike them either. I simply watch football and, as a consequence, occasionally have to look at them.

Unfortunately, this also means looking at Thomas Frank chewing chewing gum.

The open-mouthed, jaw-forward, full-commitment chewing that accompanies every touchline close-up is genuinely repellent. It’s not aggressive, or passionate, or charismatic. It’s just unpleasant. Close your mouth when you’re chewing, for f***’s sake, Thomas. Were you f***ing dragged up?

This has nothing to do with tactics, results, or league position. I would happily sit through any formation known to man if it meant not having to watch a grown adult chew like that on television.

I don’t want analysis. I don’t want debate. I just want it to stop.