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Liverpool star ‘awful’ to ‘useful’ under Arne Slot as Zirkzee goal sparks Hojlund defence
By EditorF365,
1 day ago
Arne Slot instructs his Liverpool players from the touchline.
One Liverpool player has gone from ‘awful’ to ‘useful’ in one game under Arne Slot and we should all leave Rasmus Hojlund alone.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com .
Gravenberch ‘home comforts’ Admittedly I was very vocal, very critical, perhaps very very harsh about how awful I thought Ryan Gravenberch was for virtually the entirety of our last campaign. One opening fixture and a small clutch of preseason games will not for a Liverpool career make, but quite incredibly the lad seems to have made some massive strides over the summer, appearing confident, sharp, dare I say competent and useful even.
Might it be the home comforts of having a compatriot as gaffer ? Benefits of a full preseason ? Finding some footing and familiarity on Merseyside ? Whatever the possible explanations I hope this isn’t just fleeting mirage, that he can continue to improve and contribute; and if he does, crikey, long may it continue.
Don’t want to get ahead of myself as this is early doors and we were facing a promoted side, and he himself will know he isn’t quite Zubimendi (or Wijnaldum even)… but if the remit calls for an agile, technical sitter, comfortable receiving passes close to our own goal under duress, then dribbling and/or distributing on the quick turn, Gravenberch could yet develop into something very viable for us couldn’t he ? Eric, Los Angeles CA
Support for Raya So many Arsenal fans are anti Raya and in love with Ramsdale. I can’t deny that I too am a Ramsdale fan but Raya’s catching ability last season won me over. Yesterday his reflexes and charge of his defenders won my support even further. Raya and Harvetz have strengthened Arsenal further and I can’t understand why fellow supporters can’t see that. Chris, Croydon
An Alternative Radical Take on the United v Fulham Game The wonders of modern technology are so amazing that we can now see completely different versions of the same football match! Take for instance the Man United v Fulham game. Jason Soutar clearly saw a repeat of last year’s opening game v Wolves – where United were woeful, outplayed, and extremely fortunate to win by a goal.
In that game, Wolves had 23 shots to United’s 15, and 6 on target, to United’s 3. They matched United for possession, had more touches on the ball, and had an xG of 2.49 compared to 1.53 from Man United.
Miraculously, I saw a game yesterday where United had an xG of 2.72 to Fulham’s 0.48, had 55% possession, 5 shots on target to Fulham’s 2, and more shots overall. In fact United bettered Fulham on almost every stat. I felt a bit aggrieved that we hadn’t scored at least 2 more goals.
Statistics aside, it was a game where Fulham had spells, especially at the start, but for much of the game, United controlled the tempo, bossed the midfield, won possession back high up the pitch, and created a number of opportunities from open play that weren’t just counter-attacking moves (this was true against City last week as well). Onana made one save – from well taken shot from well outside the box. Traore did his bursting through with pace thing early in the game but thereafter was effectively shut out. All 3 new recruits acquitted themselves well. Zirkzee’s goal was elegantly taken and Mazraoui had a very controlled game. Casemiro seems closer to the 22-23 version than the hologram we had last year.
It was far from vintage – United were susceptible to the counter, Rashford is still a long way from his effective best, Amad didn’t have a great game, and there was rustiness all around. The finishing especially is a concern. Leno saved 3 one-on-one opportunities and Garnacho had a miss of the season candidate. Maguire had a case for being United’s best player, which tells you something.
But this is not a team that’s going to get outplayed week in and week out by mid table and even bottom teams, relying on moments of individual brilliance to get points. If you’ve seen some of the pre-season or the community shield, there are signs that there’s a lot more control in possession, and more intricate and incisive play in the attacking third. And the bench strength and options will allow Ten Hag to be tactically more fluid based on the situation. But hey, why waste a good narrative! ‘Man United are slowly getting better’ is not going to get the clicks, is it? Ved Sen, MUFC
Leave Hojlund alone Jason Soutar throws a couple of barbs towards Hojlund in his match report including, “Joshua Zirkzee did what Rasmus Hojlund could not do for Man Utd” & “If only Hojlund had him (RvN as a coach) this time last year”. No doubt Will Ford guffawed heartily when he also wrote in his 10 Flops of the Season Contender’s article “Rasmus Hojlund missed out on the accolade last season by the skin of his teeth with two goals in his last two Premier League games of the season” What is this narrative be peddled and who is responsible for making it up?
Hojlund had an xG of 6.97 in the league last season (according to the PL FF stats for reference) and scored 10 goals i.e. he over-performed in terms of finishing. The team didn’t create enough chances for him in general, but he made the right runs and finished most of the chances he had. I can think of one, maybe two at most, opportunities where I thought he could have done better but, other than that, he worked hard and couldn’t have done much more for a young player in his debut season in the PL.
Naturally delighted for Zirkzee to score on his debut, and it’s great we will have two of Europe’s top youngest strikers playing for us when Hojlund comes back from injury. Let’s not forget Hojlund was the top scorer in the CL group stages last season, even though we struggled and got knocked out early with our tail firmly between our legs, finishing 3 goals behind Kane and Mbappe whose teams both went deep and only one goal behind Haaland.
Knock this negativity (and frankly nonsense) about Hojlund in the head please. Many thanks in advance. Garey Vance, MUFC
McTominay impact United spend the whole pre season revamping their squad and coming up with new tactical masterplans before reverting to Ten Hag’s most reliable tactic – chuck on McTominay to change the game. He came on, they scored.
United’s leggy Scotch blonde came to the rescue once again. You cant teach that type of impact. Scott McTominay just is.
If you judge Scotty McT on paper he’s a very good PL footballer and a starter for most teams outside the biggish 8. But if you judge him by his impact for United his value is way higher. Think of all the overpriced duds united have signed since Fergie and slung onto the pitch in the later stages of games, desperate for goals, and yet they saunter around Old Trafford like impotent giraffes and do nothing.
It’s hard to believe that the new united bean counters are willing to let McTominay go. They must be out of their minds. Ben
‘Business as usual at Goodison’ “Ashley Young gets sent off and Everton end the game with Holgate and Keane in defence.”
Seriously, what is the fucking actual fucking point of Everton? Dyche, fuck off, if you’re still giving contracts to 38 yr old cart horses and picking Keane and Holgate then just get fucked.
Business as usual at Goodison, hopefully we can bury Keane, Holgate and Young under all the rubble when we leave.
Every season more shit, so glad I don’t pay for it anymore. Hold tight my blue brothers…… Fat Man
VAR nonsense I’m very intrigued by the VAR changes this year. It seems like they’ve made some sensible changes, though they’re still sending refs to the monitor which makes absolutely no sense to me.
I’ll go through some of the VAR decisions later but I thought it was worth calling out the ref in United’s game for a really good performance. We love berating the officials so it’s only fair to occasionally praise the good stuff. There you go Robert Jones, you can go ahead and frame this.
On to the weekend’s nonsense:
1 – Schar “headbutt” on Brereton Diaz. Given on the pitch as a red he definitely makes a motion to headbutt him and I’m pretty sure there was contact. As such, it’s not getting overturned in a million years. Embarrassing from Brereton Diaz but he’s gone in there to wind up Schar and caught him hook line and sinker so embarrassing for him too. Red card? Yes. Do we want to see reds for that sort of thing? No, not really but I’d rather we didn’t see stupid defenders rise to the baiting.
2 – Havertz gets choked out. Not a red in the pitch but this one suggests the bar for overturning is super high. Obviously aggressive, almost choke slammed Havertz which was funny but seemed to put weight on Havertz throat which is probably quite dangers (gotta watch out for that hyoid). I think a red should’ve been recommended. If it was Casemiro he’d have been off. Bar too high for this one which is weird because…
3 – Everton penalty. Given on the pitch and overturned by referee after review on mystery screen. When I first looked at this on my phone bia social media I thought there was conclusively no contact. Having just watched it on the telly I can see DCL make contact with the defender but I’m not convinced there’s enough evidence to say DCL instigated the contacted. The defender slides in recklessly and DCL seems to just be controlling the ball and moving his body at the same time. I understand the argument I just don’t think this was clear and obvious. Bar set too low for this one. Seemed to be the opposite to the above example and…
4 – West Ham pen given on pitch, confirmed/not overturned by VAR. lots of contact between defender and forward on this one. Tiny amount of contact in the ball with have a certain section saying it’s a fair challenge. Fun fact: playing the ball isn’t enough to qualify it as a fair challenge (learn the rules yeh?). I think this is one that doesn’t get overturned either way and both sides would feel hard done by if on the end of it. For what it’s worth, I thought it was a ropey tackle and a foul by the defender but not enough to be disturbed by the decision going the other way.
In summary, watching MOTD I noted four possible instances of VAR misuse and in 2 VAR was correctly applied. In the Arsenal game I personally think the player should have been red carded on review. I’m not an expert on the law of choking in football matches, though I assume it’s generally frowned upon. And I think the bar for overturning in the Everton game was set too low.
Generally though, I thought it was mostly decent and not too controversial this weekend.
Apropos of nothing the same player that choked Havertz also seems to have grabbed Jesus’ bum, which is at best a bit weird. Ash Metcalfe
AI headlines Notwithstanding the headlines on F365, football headlines now reek of AI generated tests to spill the optimal level of false intrigue and subsequently the right amount of fluff to engender scrolling.
‘Arsenal to add “world class superstar” after Snub’
Followed by 900 words where no new information is shared, then one line from Bruce Rioch at a golfing event 2022 saying he would love it if Arsenal signed Mbappé as he is a “world class superstar”. Oh, and the “snub”? Because Zidane didn’t move to Arsenal in 2000.
Newsnow is crammed to the brim with such homogenous headlines and zero supporting editorial. Who can be proud of a job creating such guff?
What a sham! Surely this is all created by Gen Ai, tested at scale and pumped into the digital ether.
I doubt that even the quotes are real because nobody speak this way in real life.
Let’s hope for a return to daily news headlines rather than 24-hour bluster cycles. Alexander
Promoted three optimism If we’re doing pre-season prediction rules (Bob, LFC) here’s one I’d love to bring in – no one is allowed to just unthinkingly nominate the promoted sides for relegation.
I get it, newly promoted teams are fresh meat, they’re always likely to start the Summer with less quality. But, it’s not actually true that most of them go down. Even including last season’s clean sweep 15 of the last 30 promoted teams stayed up.
There’s also an (erroneous) tendency to rate “new teams” as likelier to go down. Everyone had Luton as nailed on for 20th, but we really should have expected them to out-perform Sheffield United and Burnley. Yo-yo teams, promoted with their parachute money, are twice as likely to go straight back down as newbies (11 of the last 17 of whom have stayed up). Getting promoted without that extra broadcast money usually means something special is happening off the pitch (at Ipswich that’s McKenna by the way).
For me, quite a lot of the 2023-24 cast look potentially vulnerable. Everton and Forest still look messy off the pitch, Fulham, Brentford and Brighton feel like they might be nearing the end of good cycles. Wolves and Bournemouth have both lost key men. There’s opportunities for one of the promoted sides to usurp at least a couple of them.
I’m hopeful it’ll be my lot, Ipswich, who have unbelievable momentum, have recruited ambitiously and have an absolute star of the manager. Wouldn’t bet against Southampton either (Leicester’s financial troubles might be too big to overcome). Jack S, Morsy and McKenna’s Men are Going Up Again
French Man Utd For Manchester United, you can also do a quality French team:
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