Pogba, Ander Herrera another Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard?

Keep those weekend emails coming to theeditor@football365.com…

Klopp truly dug himself out of a hole
I know the Klopp bashing has been fun over the last week and the narrative was intense in the first 45 minutes against Stoke. However (as the early winner points out), Klopp’s substitutions rectified his first half mistake. Is it possible they were pre-planned as was Coutinho’s removal against Bournemouth?

Klopp surely knows Coutinho is our most important player in the run-in, doubly so now that Mané is out. As such he could be trying to limit Coutinho’s time on the field to prevent fatigue. Since flying the Brazilians back on a private jet from the international break, Coutinho has played just 184 mins despite Liverpool having three games in eight days. They’ve taken seven points from those games, not a bad return all things considered.
Ziggy

The sad decline of Leyton Orient
If anyone hasn’t seen the Leyton Orient fan’s appeal on behalf of The Arsenal, cheer yourself up and go and watch it.

On a more serious note, I urge anyone that can spare a quid or two to give to the Leyton Orient Fans Trust who are setting up a fund for the purpose of reviving the club after the almost inevitable Administration. The link is https://www.gofundme.com/saveorient

If there’s any real meaning/ romance/ purpose of football clubs anymore, beyond trying to sell you something, it’s to be found in clubs like Orient and if they disappear we’ll all be poorer for it.
Matt, AFC

I love Ander Herrera, but…
I can understand Paul, Man Utd‘s shock at my inclusion of Herrera as not fit for a starting place in the United team, however let me try to justify what I can see may have been a slightly controversial statement.

I love Herrera for his tenacity, energy and all roundness. He is our “bastard”, and he performs it with aplomb. He is a jack of all trades who will always do you a job, sometimes a great one, but do I think he is a key feature in a new look Utd next season – No, not at least if we insist on a 4-2-3-1. Herrera was brought in primarily as an offensive player remember, but has found himself pushed further down the pitch because we have apparently better options up there now, which is debatable on current performances, and we have no, I mean zero, defensive specialists in our midfield. And haven’t for a long time. Fletcher (meh) and Keano being the two most recent.

Herrera has turned in some great displays this season, I am not questioning that, however he is not a defensive specialist, but seems a lot better at it than what we have. Carrick is getting on, Fellaini finds defensive responsibilities tough as it requires not maiming someone to get the ball back, and is usually used as an offensive battering ram both at Utd and Everton before that. That is Herrera’s competition. Is Herrera good enough to start in the current united team? Yes, because we have nobody currently better than him, but does that mean we can’t buy somebody better in the summer or switch up our formation? No.

We have a £90 million asset/problem, that is currently misfiring a little because he doesn’t have Marchisio, Vidal, Pirlo or Khedira beside him and a formation that I don’t think suits him. Deschamp destroyed Pogba with a 4-2-3-1 and Mourinho is doing the same. Like it or lump it that asset must be accommodated. Pogba won’t be in the 3 behind the striker, so must be in a 2 behind that 3. Is Herrera the man to take united forward as our “Kante”, the cleaning machine that allows Pogba to flourish? Not likely, and really united should change to a 4-3-3. Maybe a new mystery midfielder in that middle 3 with Pogba and Herrera, and Mata, Mkhitaryan and Martial being the top 3 after Ibra moves on either this season or next. I loved C Okudo, London (MUFC) summary of Martial, and think he could thrive up top, would also give us insane pace on the break.

Would I keep him in the squad? Of course, I love the little fella, but is he the cure to allow Pogba flourish and instill confidence in our centre halves, I am not so sure, with our current formation at least.

Did I manage to squirm my way out of that one?
Rowan

An Arsenal fan admits: This Tottenham team are great
Tell yer what, this Tottenham team are really good. The really remind me on the exciting but now forgotten Arsenal team of 07/08. Blew a massive chance to win the league, now only remembered as bottlers, perma-crocs and successes for other teams. For Dembele, Dier Erikson, Alli, Kane, see Fabregas, Rosicky, Song, Hleb, van Persie, Adebayor.

The moral of this story, is that if you don’t win anything with peak exciting young teams then they become lost in long narratives of mediocrity. Some parts of this Gooner would be happy for Spurs if they do pip Chelsea to the league this year. If they don’t I will genuinely feel for them.

Their wage bill is small, and their stadium bill big. Remind you of anything? If they don’t win this year the stars will see flirtatious glances from Manchester to Madrid. Big question for Daniel Levy, can he keep this manager and group of players to hang around for long?
James Gooner

Lucas deserves our respect
Brian, LFC should have a little more respect for Lucas.

Lucas was hated by fans. I remember a few times under Benitez when Alonso was subbed for Lucas there were audible groans from the entire crowd (incidentally where I used to sit there were lads who would tell you off if you bitched about a player during the game…”not during the game la”)

He rode through that and became a brilliant reader of the game and an excellent defensive midfielder. The first full season under Kenny people forget we had top four form until he got injured. The form was horrendous after he was injured and sadly he missed most of that season. Keep in mind that team was total shite and bore some old dross from the Hodgson reign.

He deserves huge respect because he could use have crumbled under such adversity and pressure but instead he never spoke to the media, never complained and got on with doing a damn fine job when he was at his peak.

I accept what little pace he had is all but gone but there’s a good reason he’s so well respected. He still has a magnificent game in him too, Kane was firmly in his pocket just a couple months ago.
Minty, LFC

Trippier for England
Kieran Trippier is surely ahead of Nathaniel Clyne in the pecking order for England right now? Honestly, he’s so underrated because he is second choice behind the best right-back in the league.

Honest question, is Trippier the best back up right-back in world football right now? Other contenders would be Leichsteiner, Kimmich, Phil Bardsley…
Paddy, Ireland

I enjoyed a Football365 feature
I don’t get to read F365 as much as I used to due to a busier life but just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your Most Improved Players feature the other day – particularly because you didn’t feel the need to put whoscored ratings in every paragraph to justify the selections; it was just observation.

Stats unquestionably have their place in football and can be fascinating to study, and I certainly don’t want F365 to turn into Garth Crooks, blustering out baseless opinion with no fact to back it up. However, I do some of the lists that are just numbers compiled by a whoscored statician a bit boring. More of this please!

One correction tho – given how bad last year was for him, surely Callum Chambers is the most improved member of the Middlesborough squad? He’s actually being trusted to start Prem games!

Keep up the great work.
Alex, Leeds

Use your bloody eyes too
I know how ‘PFM’ and ‘anti-laptop’ this sounds, but I still think it is right, so I will say it anyway.

If you have watched a lot of football and need to resort to statistics to decide which of two, say, Premier League strikers is ‘better’*, then you just don’t know enough about football.

There are too many variables for statistics to give any absolutes in a sport where there are very few absolutes anyway. [That is either the best or worst sentence I have ever written.]

Statistics have their place, but using them to decide if Harry Kane, exists is better than x, y or z other player is nonsense.

* A group of us playing a quiz machine in London in the noughties were asked to answer the question A Lion B Tiger C Leopard D Cheetah – Which one of these animals is better? I give you this anecdote at no extra cost.
Alex Stokoe, Newcastle upon Tyne

Feel free to report them. We ban them from each story when we see it, but that’s Facebook
Can you please erase those Muppets who keep going on about the money they’re making from home. They’re doing my head in and making me close 365 down early.

Please, please, please get rid of them. Erase their comments as they have nothing to do with football and more to do with spam (possibly scam!).

Report them to Action Fraud…020 123 2040!

365…This is an an exceptional football website, get rid of these sad gits !
Chris, Croydon