'Pretender' Kylian Mbappe is the French version of Marcus Rashford

Kylian Mbappe was rotten against Liverpool, whose fans want more credit for beating Real Madrid.

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Mbappe = Rashford
Is Mbappe the French version of Rashford? Looks disinterested, check; putting minimal effort in, check; dropped by his national team manager, check; doesn’t look like he is enjoying himself, check.

I know Mbappe is a wonderful player but I think the biggest mistake he made was going to PSG. It’s a club that ruined Neymar by allowing him to basically do what he wanted and Mbappe eventually started to follow suit. Even towards the end there was talk that he had an input into the team selection and manager.

Messi and Ronaldo are the standard for great players and both have one thing in common, football comes first. You can say what you want about Ronaldo being a bit of a pre Madonna but throughout his career he has dedicated himself to his sport and Messi is just Messi.

At the moment Mbappe doesn’t look as he is going to reach that level. We had glimpses of what he is capable of in the WC final but they have been few and far between. He is 25 now, the new two years will determine if he is just another pretender or is he the real deal.
Ken, Cork, Ireland

READ: Mbappe destroyed by Real Madrid press – the five biggest insults of ‘scared’ and ‘clumsy’ star

Champions League ponderings
A few quick things on the Champions League.

Six of the top eight play each other in the next round of fixtures: Leverkusen v Inter, Dortmund v Barcelona, and Arsenal v Monaco. Fifth place Atalanta host Real Madrid. I think those last two games in January could be a lot of fun. I’ve probably ruined that now.

Why does a European crowd cheering a goal sound so different to an English crowd doing the same? There’s a visceral depth to it.

Ta,
Gary AVFC, Oxford (Hoping 9th and 24th don’t stay as they are)

Getting giddy after that
I said I would take two draws…! But that was some performance… ‘bare bones’ (really) or not…

Kelleher.. I’ve said it before – No idea why we signed Mamardashvilli. – Could we sell Alli and keep Kweev..? (no idea how you spell the short version). He is outstanding/ Macca said he played more games than Alli last year.. I really don’t think Alisson should just automatically walk back into the team. Kelleher has proved himself and deserves to be between the sticks.

Conor Bradley was immense. really really good. Bye Trent.. good luck playing for the ego boys. (I love Trent but sunshine and ego aside.. why would you!)

Hope Ibou is ok.

Fantastic display for 90min.

Superb everyone involved.

Who knew bald Dutchmen from less quality leagues could be so good…
Al – LFC – Very happy – Getting a little giddy.. and actually looking forward to Sunday!

MORE LIVERPOOL REACTION FROM F365
???? Arne Slot’s Liverpool have actually beaten zero Proper Teams so far this season
???? Liverpool fans demand credit for beating ‘bare bones’ Real Madrid

Somebody has a sense of humour…
I’m a Liverpool fan, and I thought the Will Ford piece about how Liverpool haven’t beaten anyone yet was quite funny, although I think he’s missed a trick.

I’m surprised he didn’t point out that Liverpool haven’t managed to even get a point against any team above them in the table yet, either in the Premier League or in Europe.

And they might not manage it all season.
Dara O’Reilly, London

Then there’s Lee…
Will Ford’s latest piece of journalism surely had to be a troll post?

Saying Liverpool have yet to beat any good teams has to be a joke for sure.

It’s lose lose for Liverpool and their fans at the moment. If Liverpool win it’s because the other team aren’t that good apparently. But if they don’t win it’s because Liverpool have found their natural level again?

So far Liverpool have beaten the reigning champions league holders, the reigning FA Cup holders, the reigning Bundesliga, the biggest spenders in the Premier League…and done it pretty easily and convincingly.

I get the impression from wills rage bait (and yes I clearly took said bait) that if Liverpool won every game of the season he would find a reason for it to be unimpressive and take credit away from them at the same time.

Man City and arsenal have also been playing and getting poor results against teams of the same or lower ability and standing so why is unimpressive that Liverpool are doing what nobody else is doing?

I imagine Will is a person who also refers to Liverpool title win as the COVID asterisk win despite it only affecting 25% of the season and never refers to City’s win the year after as an asterisk despite it being entirely a COVID season.

Anyway, if we win the title this year nobody will remember anything beside the win anyway.
Lee

Why do Liverpool fans want credit?
Why do some fans feel the need to seek validation when their team is jogging along nicely? I know it’s not all fans, and the fans of bigger clubs tend to sucked in more, and obviously the muppets who write in seeking validation are a special type of muppet.

But when yer team is top of the league, top of the Champions League thing, in a season where nobody was sure what was going to happen, and what may yet happen, just enjoy it and stop writing in with the whataboutery, makes the mailbox more tedious than normal.
Mel – Dublin, Berlin, Athlone Town

Let’s have some Villa
To save everyone from moaning Liverpool fans (who, judging by their locations, probably think Anfield is one of Slot’s coaching team), some thoughts from the Villa game last night:

First the disallowed goal at the end: fair enough really; Emery said only English refs would allow that, not even sure that’s true tbh? Di Gregorio making such a meal of it did make me think it wasn’t as sure a thing as it looked but no complaints. Just nice to see Diego Carlos causing havoc in someone else’s penalty area for once tbfh.

Result was fair – when both sides want a draw and a clean sheet from the off, 0-0 is usually what happens. The attacking at both ends was a bit wet; Digne hitting the bar and the Emi save makes it 1-1 in not quites.

Good points: Bailey is starting to look good again – telling Digne to back off from the free kick was a good sign of his confidence, despite his actual fk being fking woeful. Digne himself was great again, Conceicao was by far the best player on the pitch but his only real effective moments were when he went through the middle or the other flank. Emi brilliant when required, obviously we have to pretend he wasn’t because Arsenal fans will get angry, but there we are.

Defence actually looked good for the first time in ages, and without Konsa there, even more remarkably – which relates to the biggest good point of all: Kamara is Back Back Back, and thank Christ. A fully fledged grown-up is back in our midfield at last, and as if by magic, we’ve started catching teams offside again.

And a big thank you to Lucy Ward, who for some reason has become the British media’s Villa correspondent. A commentator who doesn’t think all of our black players are Ollie Watkins would have been a step up really; but an analyst who can quickly get into the detail of the individual vs collective costs and benefits of selecting Matty Cash and Andre Onana, why selling Diaby was a bigger problem than selling Luiz, the point of Ross Barkley, etc etc is the sort of analysis that Villa fans usually have to talk to Villa fans for.

I know this sounds a bit ‘I’m an ally!’ patronising, but honestly 2 years ago every pundit in the land was telling us to stop being mean to Steven Gerrard, and our TV pundits of choice were Lee Hendrie overdosing on Burberry, and Andy Hinchcliffe banging on about Mark Draper or whatever. So more of LW please.

Bad points: Rogers is knackered, he’s the most talented player in the squad; was coughing throughout the whole game so might have been ill? But he definitely needs a rest. Tielemans was pretty average, set piece delivery was whack and the usual lack of legs after 60 mins would have been punished against a team in better shape. Some of Juve’s midfield is more agricultural than I expected; with a bit more silk in there they would have capitalised on the sloppy passing from the back that keeps sinking us in league games.

Also that ‘Villans’ tifo that looks like Guy Fawkes on the toilet? No more of that please.

We’ve got Chelsea next and City in a month, we should chuck those and rest tired players; then in between it’s Brentford Southampton, Forest and Leipzig, we need 3 wins and a draw from those really.

(Btw, whichever of Man Utd’s Tory LinkedIn bros is responsible for transfers atm should be sending Porto as much money as possible in January, because Conceicao looks absolutely perfect for Amorim’s 3-4-3 thing.)
Neil Raines UTV