[Mikus LFC]

And guess who’s got the early kick off again after the international break? It’s ok, it’s only, *checks notes*, Man City away 🙄

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[Mikus LFC]

Wonderful game of football.

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[Mikus LFC]

Yeh, think Chelsea have taken a lot of confidence from that Spurs game. Very entertaining game with both sides looking like scoring each time they attack.

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[Mikus LFC]

City’s squad players still so strong and just fit seamlessly into the team when there are changes.

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[Mikus LFC]

I bet you’d have done better under them though Ed than you are now and those managers had all won big trophies in the leagues they’d managed in. Either way, I think a lot of damage was done with the strategy after Ferguson left. Interesting you mention Mourinho. I actually remember thinking years ago even before Fergie left that Mourinho would have been a good successor to Ferguson. If he’d taken over *directly* from Ferguson and had the love from the club that they wanted him I honestly think he would have done quite well. When you did appoint him, you never really wanted him, and you’d lost some big players or players getting past their peak and you’d made some desperate signings imo. It was never going to be a great success under those circumstances.

Ever since Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal have all been trying to play the long term game, none of them have won a major trophy. And it can’t just be because of Pep. Arsenal were still a long way off City last year, maybe not in points, but mentally.

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[Mikus LFC]

But Ed, in recent years, there are times when the likes of Ancelotti, Tuchel, and Enriquez have been available. You’ll just have to wait now until the next one becomes available. As for Klopp, he was clearly a charismatic figure and great communicator who was bound to be successful here.

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[Mikus LFC]

Arsenal didn’t have a good enough defence last season to win the league. And Liverpools off season was well documented. So in that context I think the bar was low. As I said before, what’s exacerbated things for Ten Hag are his signings haven’t been good enough. Such signings should act as a spring board, but in this case they haven’t. Hence he’s under pressure. Utd can continue to tick over for the moment much like they did at times under Ole. But a couple more bad defeats could make things unsustainable.

As for the future, I think Man Utd need to appoint more charismatic managers with experience of managing big players, galvanising dressing rooms whilst still obviously having the tactical nous. They need to abandon these long term pipe dreams of developing a load of kids into playing total football.

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[Mikus LFC]

As I said at the start of the season, last season Man Utd didn’t score enough goals and conceded too many. This season, they are the only team to have a negative goal difference in the top 10, with them again not scoring enough, and conceding too many. Nothing much has changed for me. A change in manager will probably happen at some point, but will it be the right one?

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[Mikus LFC]

Think Carragher has just argued similar in his latest column that VAR should be limited to goal line technology and automated offsides, which is probably about right for me.

The problem is if the original idea was only to flag up howlers that a referee missed or the old “clear and obvious”, who defines what is a clear and obvious fault that has been missed? Because the VAR officials have the availability of the replays, imo it pushes them to re-referee the game. But with a screen far away you’re still further away from reality, particularly when you start looking at slow mos. Unless it is an incident the referee or assistant hasn’t seen, say an off the ball incident, just leave it. For me, it’s still unlikely that the officials are going to miss a blatant foul so we need to stop fearing we’re going to have a big injustice. As I said some time ago, we need to use the technology, not let the technology use us, which I think is what has happened.

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[Mikus LFC]

The quick fix is to bring in a nice manager who can “get them playing with a smile on their face again” which is code for bringing in a soft touch who will let them do what they want.

But if they can get someone like that Ed, if they’re clever about it, they can keep some players onside for a bit, then ruthlessly offload them at the next transfer window and bring in someone else better. Even if you have to take a big loss on them. That’s how the club can move forward. What has really exacerbated the situation for Ten Hag is that the new players signed who could have potentially frozen/pushed others out have not been good enough and Ten Hag now has little to no options left to turn things around so is feeling the pressure. One can sympathise for him to a degree, but then you can’t just blame the club, you have to know roughly what you’re walking into and the challenges you’re going to face at a big club. It’s a two way street.

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[Mikus LFC]

There’s got to be someone out there Ed who could lift these players and is a good man manager even if they’re not top drawer.

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[Mikus LFC]

Didn’t see the game, but overall Utd look they did at the end of Ole’s reign where they’re just rudderlessly ticking over imo. They’ll still win the odd game, but to me there doesn’t seem to be a defined strategy, so I just don’t think you know what you’re going to get.

For me the jig is up with Ten Hag, there’s just no obvious candidate to take over. I’d bring in an interim manager who is a good man manager in the same way Chelsea appointed Guus Hiddink some years ago.

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[Mikus LFC]

Spurs went for broke. Very entertaining but I think Chelsea should have been well clear earlier than they were. Compare and contrast the start of the game to the end of the game.

Ange looks somewhere between Rodgers and Klopp.

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[Mikus LFC]

Bigger test now. Spurs surely going to have to be more conservative now. But can they play that way?

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[Mikus LFC]

All in all, have the decisions been that terrible? Thing is, you’ve got the commentary team and the pundits disagreeing about some of the decisions. So what exactly *is* the right VAR decision?

Big test for Spurs now both tonight and in upcoming games with some big injuries picked up tonight and a suspension.

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[Mikus LFC]

VAR lads have got their work cut out tonight.

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[Mikus LFC]

Indeed Ed, I just don’t know what you do with him. There’s clearly talent there, but at the moment he looks like an expensive impact player who comes on later in a game. I think we saw today why he generally doesn’t start games.

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[Mikus LFC]

If they have the technology for goal line technology can it not be extended to the touch line?

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[Mikus LFC]

I just don’t think Nunez can be relied upon starting centrally in a 433 system. It also seems to force Salah and others too far wide where they’re not as effective. I think we saw this at times last season. Had Klopp felt he could have started Diaz with Nunez on the bench to come on later, we’d have probably won this comfortably.

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[Mikus LFC]

I think Salah or Jota would have been better down the middle. I think we’ve sacrificed both of them for Nunez who I’m afraid just can’t be relied upon, even if he does score the odd screamer. Also, if Diaz was going to play today, why wait until the 83rd minute before he came on??

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