My macro view of the state of things:
- We have the 6th best squad in England
- We have the joint 3rd best 1st X1 (= with Utd, Totnum and Chelsea)
- We lost 1-3 at home and that hurts
- Our season’s priority (including another summer’s transfer window) is to rebuild, find a new identity and get back to being a top four side
How’s it going?
- In his first window, Emery bought two defenders, two defensive midfielders and a goalie
- Our defence is as bad as ever BUT….when was the last time Monreal, Kos, Sok and Bell had a run of games? Exactly
- Holding was looking good
- Emery certainly got things right against Totnum and The Chavs in the league
Last night:
- It is not a good way to start the weekend by losing 1-3 at home in The Cup, and I don’t care who that is against
- We started the night with a back four of M-N, Kos, Sok and Kol. That lasted 29 minutes.
- The opposition then scored in the 31st and 33rd, thus allowing them to sit back and counter against a defence that very soon went and lost its other CB.
Could it have been different?
- Mmmm, maybe, but realistically we’re looking at the first half hour and our inability to score first
- I think we set up without enough in the middle ie against Chelsea we had Granit, Terry and Ouzi, with just Ramsey supplying a front two of Auba and Laca
- Auba is not a bloody winger, he is an elite goal hanger 🙄
The Drama Queens
- Post match I had a very rare sniff around other blogs. Dear God, I promise that will be the last time
- Things were very bright post Spuds and Chavs, so surely a reasonable level of reaction to last night shouldn’t be too much to ask
My feelings
- Our attacking midfielders are Mesut, Ramsey, Iwobi, Danny and Mhki
- Only one of those has top two teams level quality to set up Auba and Laca
- Emery doesn’t like that player. At all
- I do get concerns over his work rate, and we also know Ramsey is off. While I’m just about ok with Mesut being off loaded as well given the manager’s view, this presents a HUGE challenge. He needs to find two Terrier level age/price/quality players to fill the Ramsey/Mesut hole and that is a very, very big hole
- We’re now left with just the League and Europa, which given my previously stated season’s objectives is not bad as we’re free from any distractions. Chelsea are the bookies Europa favourites and we can beat them.
Ok, I’m bored of this now. We have free weekends. Enjoy.
Mickydidit89
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
If it was all about running around at ninety miles an hour then Elneny should be picked every time over Ozil………………
Our collective quality improved so much when Ozil came on; he was more likely to lose the ball than anyone else because he was the one more willing to have it as we needed his level of passing skill to find a way to get us back on level terms.
Crap night, really good read, thanks Micky.
Excellent summary of the situation, Micky.
I was edging towards drama queen but you’ve pulled me back from the brink.
It really went tits up without Big Sok, didn’t it.
you’d think it was a different team from the one that beat chelsea.
micky dear – no major dramas,except for my grandson who is a you-know-who supporter. I puke each time I go to his room. The worst part is the pathetic me trying to convince the lad that Arsenal is the better team. is is fuck. I think I will support you-know-who, at least the boy will be happy. Mind you, he is happy today, coming over soon to rub it in no doubt.
Not totally sure but the third goal was slightly Ozil’s fault, he failed to track the man after he lost the pass from Lacazette that lead to Man United possession and a goal, the game against Southampton, their winning goal was as a result of Ozil losing the ball in the middle and failing to track his man, the Brighton game, the corner that lead to their goal, Ozil was at the edge of the box and failed to run after the man who started the counter. The guy is a liability with his wages and he needs to go
ozil needs to go. he is a liability. well, one of us Anthont knows feck all about football.
arsenal were playing through the middle again, we have been down this road before we need to be down the wings getting the ball over or long balls through the middle lets play football for results not training ground stuff. may I make a suggestion all arsenal including the manager & watch the tape of last nights match. the reason we beat Chelsea like we did because they never tried to stop us.
You used the analytical scalpel well, Micky, and all agreed. 🙂
The brain says stick with Emery, give him 18 months and let’s see how we will be at the start of 2020. The gut/heart says this is not going to go well.
How did we manage in just a week to have MU play us like we played Chelsea at our own home of football? Now we were attacking and leaving space behind us which cost us badly. A lot has been said of Emery’s tactical approach, but he gets it ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in equal amounts (and the score alone seems to justify these valuations). I thought we mentally dealt badly with the Sok injury and they punished us very soon after that – game over. Let’s say/hope that in 12 months time, Emery has a defence/team that can deal with such setbacks.
It was clear that MU had set up Mourinho style and play us on the counter/rebound as much as possible. We really struggled to get behind their lines: Iwobi had most effect from the left and AMN didn’t do too bad from the right, but through the middle, with two attackers who are not strong in the air but mainly deadly on the ground, we were totally ineffective. It forced us to commit Granit and Torreira too far forward and we really paid for this. Ramsey had a good game in many aspects but, as others have pointed out, he is no Mesut; and I agree with LB that we looked much better when Ozil was on (it bloody did not help, though, that Emery also still had on Ramsey AND brought on another ball runner in Guendouzi as they all wanted to have the ball/be were the ball is constantly). I really did not understand why Iwobi was taken off. Yes his final ball is still not great but at least he got us through the lines and we scored the only goal as a result of it; with Mesut on I reckon Iwobi would have continued to be effective as he was an additional attacking danger which pulled out the Manure defence.
Final comment is regarding playing Auba and Laca. Why leave Ozil out for apparent lack of work rate/ effectiveness in the ‘pressing game’ but still play Auba? How many times did he lose the ball as a field player? For me, Auba is the ideal super-sub, or lone-frontman if indeed we were to play with such a position, but he really is limited in all other departments. Laca on the other hand is immense and can play in any system, but we need more field players who can score to just play with Laca to start with, and that is why Emery seems to be forced to play both of them to mostly little effect.
Final, final comment is that it could have been very different if we had kept our CBs on the pitch together but it was not to be. And we were also unlucky in the MU box when the ball kept falling in favour for them rather than us. But that’s football. Luckily, we are playing again on Tuesday and a win would make us forget this shitty defeat.
Morning all, thanks for the post Micky … I haven’t had a loo around blogdom so I can’t judge the over-reaction … but I can imagine it 🙂
The modern game is all about marginal gains … squeezing every scintilla of advantage out of the players, that is why ball playing keepers are here to stay … it’s adding another footballer to the field of play. Whilst being an admirer of Mesut’s brilliance with the ball at his feet, I am disappointed at his refusal to do what the manager (and a lot of suppporters) want ….and that is to contribute when we don’t have the ball.
One of the things I do at games is to just focus on one player to see how they react in different phases of the game. I used to do this with Theo and I can tell you categorically that although he ran around a lot, he managed to avoid getting involved in any of the ‘dirty stuff’ when it came to defending or winning the ball back.
I watched Mesut closely last night. He was exactly the same. He is uncompromising. He will not try harder. Worse, he does this thing when he gets tackled or loses the ball, or plays a bad pass … he wanders around making it look like no one understands him and feeling sorry for himself. He’s a genius compared to a player like James Milner, but he could learn a lot from his attitude … and which one of those two is likely to be holding a EPL winners medal at the end of the season?
As wonderful a footballer as Özil is, I also think we need to look in a different direction. The problem we have, as Micky mentioned in the post, is who do we fill the gap with?
We do have some promising youngsters coming through but if they were anywhere near ready then surely now would be a good time to integrate them into the squad. It’s actually a shame Nelson is out on loan as I’d love to see him and Smith-Rowe involved. Iwobi is getting a lot of game time but just doesn’t seem to be improving in terms of end product.
The other option would be the transfer market but according to reports we don’t have two pennies to run together. That’s a big worry knowing that we still need to sort out the CB position, we may need another GK (although I like the youngsters we have), and we still need to plug the sub RB hole as Lichtsteiner was only a stop-gap and surely AMN will want to play in midfield.
Still lots of work for Emery to do personnel wise before we see exactly what he’s all about.
Despite what I’ve said above I’d actually like to see Özil in the side every week for the rest of the PL season. If we are looking to the future, which we should be, then what is the point in playing Ramsey? Give Özil the games to either show he can play in this team, or so you can get him playing to a level where we might actually be able to sell him. I’d also get Mavropanos, one of the young GK’s, Smith-Rowe, and Willock involved.
The problem is though that while ever 4th place seems a possible target, Emery is going to have to play his best 11.
Hi Rasputin
You either do what Wenger did, embrace and fully trust Mesut Ozil and tell him to go and enjoy himself and produce attacking pass after attacking pass, and assist after assist, or you try to mould him into something that he simply isn’t. Why convert a Lamborghini into Landrover Defender? Emery really does not get Ozil and that is a major problem for us, as we will now struggle to keep attracting the calibre of him going forward with Arsene gone. In twelve months time we could well be without Emery and Ozil and the slide downwards may be dizzying.
I think we are starting to see just how tough a job Wenger left behind.
Hi Total, I’m a big believer in one rule for all .. otherwise you eventually breed resentment and that leads to player power. As I have repeatedly said, I don’t want Mesut to be a defender or stop any of his attacking play … I want him to stop being a prima donna and do a job for the other 50% of the game. He could if he wanted. He doesn’t have to pull out of chasing after a 50/50 ball. Look at Guendouzi, he puts a shift in defensively … so does Lacazette. I agree with Micky that Auba is wasted out wide, we need to find a way of getting him to play closer to Laca.
It’s amazing how the first goal scored can be the difference between a Chelsea performance and a United performance. We can talk tactics all day, but ultimately, the aim is to be the first to get the ball in the back of the net so that you can implement your own game plan and cause the other side to change theirs.
We should all remember that the team played brilliantly against the chavs without Ozil. In that game, every player worked his socks off and we took our chances. It wasn’t Mesut’s fault we lost yesterday. We missed chances we should have scored, their keeper had a worldy and we lost our two best CB’s. As the tone of the post says … we should not overreact.
Exactly so FGG. Up until they scored the first (against the run of play) even the numpties commentating were saying we were by far the better team.
Those of you who want all our efforts focused on attack must accept that the strategy leaves us open to the swift counter attack … and that’s exactly what happened yesterday. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have scored the second if Sokrates would have still been on the pitch, Mustafi was nowhere when the goal was scored, he had 2 attackers to cover, so he should have just chosen the nearest to the direction of the cross … instead he moved inbetween the two and Lingarde had a free shot on goal.
Rasp, he is no prima donna. He always runs into space to be available and produce the next attacking move. He is always thinking were the space, opponents, and opportunities are. Such players are as rare as grey hairs in Emery’s proud head-covering. leave him alone, love him, let him be and he will produce the goods. Try to mould him and it will end in tears. Genius is not mouldable.
Now I like Guenouzi going forward. He reminds me a bit of Ruud Gullit when he first came to the scene: lovely style, good vision and one or two passes a game are good. BUT he is no midfielder and his defending ability is as bad as I have ever seen at Arsenal. Like you I like to watch a player and if you judge Guendouzi’s positioning, reading of the game (he really only watches the ball and does not look around him when ‘defending’) and technical defending, you will notice that he is a liability in midfield. He is young and will learn but I doubt he will ever become a well-rounded midfielder and he should be played in front of Xhaka-Torreira, either in the hole (but Mesut is much more effective there) or on the wings imo.
Agreed Rasp. I hope we don’t become a team who look for a new manager after every defeat. Emery needs time and some new players.
As for Özil, there are plenty of players in the PL who do can do amazing things with the ball but still do what’s good for the team without it. I watched Bernardo Silva have an unbelievable game against Liverpool recently and he never stopped sprinting for 90 minutes. For me, there is no excuse not to get back in shape quickly when the opposition have the ball, and with the way the game has developed with the press and the pace of it, nobody can afford to carry a player.
I don’t think Emery needs to waste his time trying to get Özil to change. He should just look at him as he is and decide wether or not he fits in with what he’s trying to do. At the moment, its fair to say it looks like he doesn’t want him.
Hi again Total. If you’re telling me Mesut is better defensively than Mesut then I’m shocked. Space never scored a goal or played a killer pass. I get it that Mesut positions himself so as to cut out passing opportunities, but that won’t win the ball back, closing down players, forcing an error and tackling win the ball back. I’m sorry, but any player who stays on the ground waving his arms in the air looking plaintively at the ref rather than trying to win the ball back is a prima donna in my book.
Arsenal never carried Ozil but Mesut often carried Arsenal, FGGs. That is what you are failing to see.
No Rasp, I am saying that Guendouzi is also lousy at defending and that effort shouldn’t be overvalued. It is one of the reasons that England has never mastered the world or European stages in over 50 years.
Total,
We disagree on this one. I like Özil, but you obviously hold him in much higher esteem than I do. If he was the genius you claim then we would all see it and there wouldn’t even be a debate. A great footballer, but I can’t think of many big games where he’s carried our football club.
Thanks Micky for that considerable and constructive effort.
“Lambourghinis, Landrover Defenders”……the crux currently is ” Emery does not get Ozil…….Aubang…….Cech…….Xhaka……..even Terrier sometimes.
He doesn’t get, YET, some of the makeup of his squad ( and for that matter, week by week, sometimes they don’t get him). The indelible markings of the AW era are proving hard to rub out, and (sadly) we will all need to accept that when we said he will need three windows, it was a truth we cannot ignore ( even if we hoped, prayed, believed in miracles, for better).
Still, cheer up, a weekend without footie will be like a vegan January or a month without alcohol. Now there’s cheerful!!
Every top level manager has systems and tactics that he thinks works best, pep has his possession based, passing variations of tiki taka, Klopp has his gen-gen press, Sarri his Sarri ball. For this system and tactics to work you need the sort of players who understand them and are suitable for the system you want to implement. Emery has always had teams which is always about the collective not based on one player that’s why it never worked for him with the Neymar issue because he expected the team to be built around him and Emery just doesn’t do that. Mourinhos issue with man United is that his system didnt particularly dior the players he had amongst other this it was either the players or the manager. Emery’s issue is slightly different, most of the players except Ozil are trying to buy into what he is trying to do but a few of them as talented as they are are not suitable for this collective pressing system eg özil while being a fine player but unsuitable for the system and that’s why at 300,000 pounds a week he is a liability. He or the manager need to leave and at this point I would rather have the manager stay for 3-4 transfer windows to get the sort of players he needs and let go of a few not cutting it ( Mustafi, Xhaka, Cech,)
FGG, Happy to disagree with you; it is what blogging is all about. The club signed Ozil on a new deal and paid him a lot of money for it. He was the PL king of assist and king of the key pass for many a season, and surely the plan was to build a team around him during his best career years. Then they let Wenger go and contracted Emery to take over, and by the looks of it he was not told to work around the man they signed up for a lot of money. It saddens me that Unai is not getting Ozil/ accepting him as he is and do a Wenger on him (trust, love, freedom), but it looks like you, Rasp and many others believe he is doing the right thing with the genial German. Fair enough. 🙂
Morning All,
That was a chastening watch.
My tuppence worth …
It is not true we were brilliant against Chelsea, we were efficient. Brilliant is when we play Wengerball with pace, grace and brio.
I do not agree that we are better without Ozil. Ozil should be the first name on the team sheet because football is entertainment and he is a magician. Some games he will be anonymous but that is the way of genius, even DB 10 had poor games making little impact. Was Dennis expected to tackle or waste his energy back-tracking? Is Ronaldo or Neymar?
It is not “one size fits all” in a team, we need many different skill sets.
Is it Ozil’s fault the opposition scores when he loses the ball 60 yards from his own goal?
I think fingers should be pointed at the defenders, and here is the crux of the matter. If we had a first choice defence we would win more games.
If Özil was on £150k a week I don’t think there would be as much of an issue. As BR has said, you need all types to make a successful squad. In some games we need Özil (home matches mainly!) whereas in others a Ramsey would work best. The problem is that with a new manager coming in on some type of budget, he must look at that £350k and think he could get 2 or 3 players that would give better balance to the squad. If the rest of the team was solid and almost complete then we’d all want Özil hanging for his talent, but I just wonder if at the moment we have too many holes in the squad to warrant paying him the money we do.
I don’t think Ramsey and Ozil can play in the same team, they get in each other’s way … they did last night. It is clear that Ramsey fits in better with the system UE wants to play, I’m very sorry he’s leaving. He can be a driving force in games, If he was staying I’d put a case for building a team around Ramsey over Ozil …. he’s just not that type of character. If you’re gong to build a team around a player, he must be a leader.
Sokratis left the field injured and on came Mustafi, two goals in two minutes – and the game was effectively over.
Our defense is shockingly deficient especially since we lost Holding.
Here are our remaining PL fixtures
Cardiff City. h
Manchester C a
Huddersfield a
Southampton h
Bournemouth h
Tottenham a
Manchester U h
Wolves a
Newcastle h
Everton a
Watford a
Crystal Palace h
Leicester a
Brighton h
Burnley a
The positive thing is that in our final 15 games we only play top 6 teams on 3 occasions – but I still firmly believe that our most likely final position will be 6th.
In the off season we will lose Ramsey and possibly Ozil and replacing them with players at their level will be out of our price range – which could doom us to mediocrity.
No drama here just my honest feelings.
Ornestein reporting we just bid for perisic. Loan with a 35 mil option to buy. Have they a defender lying about as well? We could add a pound to that 35 mil as well 😊
“Was Dennis expected to tackle or waste his energy back-tracking?”
Check……….could be check mate.
Well Rasp, I can agree with you on one thing, at least. Mesut and Aaron don’t play comfortably in the same team. (Never did even in an AW team!) One is an energetic, late into the box, occasional goal scoring attacking midfielder. The other is a creative genius who needs to play centrally between the forward and midfield lines.
When Mesut came on last night, he was immediately found in a much deeper position, taking the ball from defenders and trying to create with very little movement off the ball from those ahead. (Agree with the comment about losing the ball two thirds up the field, and then being blamed for the goal!) Mesut needs strong defensive water carriers behind him in the Premier League – Matic last night, Fernandiho, Vieira and Petit in our heyday (perhaps has always done so, when you look at the World Cup winning German squad), then, like DB10 conjures up the magic.
Wish him well, but not concerned at Ramsey’s departure. Will be surprised if he holds a fixed position in that squad, but, like TH and Fabregas will probably win things….and of course there’s the money.
Therein lies the problem though doesn’t it LBG? We don’t have the type of strong water carriers you speak of to allow Mesut to go do his thing. I’m not sure we ever have whilst he’s been at the club. For that reason I don’t believe he’s ever been right for us. A great player in the wrong place.
If you look at it from Emery’s point of view, do you go out and buy 3 or 4 powerhouses at considerable cost (which would take time as well as money and Özil is currently 30 years old), or do you say bye bye to a player who is eating a large chunk of your wage budget every week and build more of a team that doesn’t necessarily have 1 focal point?
If Özil was 25 and in peak form this would be an entirely different conundrum, but he’s not.
LB, Dennis played in another era, the game has moved on. Actually you’ve got a very short memory because Dennis not only tracked back .. and he had a really nasty side to him and was never afraid to get stuck in. Check mate to me I think
I’m not sure you can compare DB10 and MÖ10 as the Dutchman played in a 442. Would anyone really care about Mesuts workrate if he was the second striker? It’s only the fact he plays in midfield areas that people talk about tracking back. Maybe that’s a way back into the side for him? I can’t see us switching to a 442 though!
I don’t actually think there is too much wrong with this Emery side at the moment other than injuries. The CB problems have not only disrupted the defence, but by moving Xhaka into the back 3 or 4 it has also effected a midfield which was really starting to gel. The Sokratis/Koscielny partnership was starting to show some signs of improvement and the Xhaka/Torreira duo were really complimenting each other and giving us a solid base in the middle. It seems to be the same old story for us but I’d be excited to see a good run of games with those central areas intact.
What on earth has having ‘a nasty side’ got to do with being a good footballer?
My memory is fine, there is no way Bergkamp used to track back anymore than Ozil does.
They were, and are, cherries on the cake, they will give you something special where others can’t.
Arsenal could have played until next Friday and not scored, Ozil was the only one capable of finding a way through, as it happens for all the times he tried in the short time that he was on the field he unfortunately lost the ball which led to a goal. Shit happens but I for one still admire him for trying.
I know you like to have the last word, so go on and tell us how miserable life is.
Tut tut LB, back to your old tricks again I see … deliberately misinterpreting what another blogger says. Dennis was a warrior, he was brave and hard and led from the front.He was twice the player Mesut is. He was a complete player, no flaws in his game. He also knew a bit about the dark side which stopped opposition players trying to bully him in the way they do Mesut … any clearer now 🙂
And as for being miserable, I think you’ll find I have been consistently upbeat about supporting the new manager … unlike others who are just waiting for an opportunity to find fault. UE’s job would be far easier if he hadn’t inherited such a mess and a squad of players who weren’t prepared to give their all for the shirt.
Cheers Micky
Couple of points
Firstly, Mesut is a genius who is been treated unfairly. He is living proof that skinny men with suspected anaemia can make a difference. The great English poet William Wordsworth was a sickly child constantly out for a duck but despite his crap batting average he went on to become a Lord of Literature. Penning remarkable quotes as “The child is father of the man” If Wordsworth had been bigger boned and constantly fifty not out, he would probably have beaten his kids and become famous for the quote “I don’t know who Botham’s father is”
In further defence of Ozil, especially to his non frenzied running style, people may not know that modern Turks carry about 20% Mongolian DNA. This is why on the football pitch he gives the impression that he would look more comfortable on a Horse.
As for Drama Queens, they do not know the meaning of the term.
A real Drama Queen doesn’t throw his toys out of the pram when during the game Kolasinac’s weight problems cost us a goal. The real essence of such behaviour is to use reverse psychology to achieve your aims.
When I wanted out of my first marriage I would get upset during a fabulous holiday or when she had cooked me a lovely meal etc. Not to give the game away i was very supportive when she would argue with her mother or had a ruck with her boss, encouraging her to do more of it.
in some ways Emery is behaving like a misguided drama queen with Ozil and may pay the price for it?
Not to be misunderstood, may i say Emery is doing a sterling job and has my full support. I just wish with the Ozil case he would make up and buy him a horse.
🙂 well at least it flushed you out Terry … 🙂
I was just quoting you Rasp, if there was confusion it was the lack of clarity in your comment.
Hi Terry,
Good to see you back on AA, a belated Happy New Year to you and yours.
Hi Eddie how are you? well I hope.
Well I’ve clarified it for you now LB… blogging would be very boring if we all picked one another up continually for sloppy phrasing don’t you think?
FGG, Torreira and Xhaka love to carry water and they can help Mesut with the creative stuff too. Why on earth does Emery not play these three week in week out?! In front of Mesut, Laca is happy to work hard naturally, and so do full backs Nacho/Kola and Bels. The real problem is a lack of quality on the wings up-front. Iwobi is making progress but not the full article as yet. Mkhi is okay there but not great and Auba is wasted there.
My hope is that Emery will play Ozil regularly once he has added a quality winger. I think it is ludicrous to state that we cannot afford to play ‘the luxury player’ Ozil at Arsenal. Our team is crying out for the return of the king of creativity, key attacking passes and assists. As Terry said, give the man a horse and whisper sweet things into its ears.
Agreed Rasp shame emery doesn’t think so
I have no idea what you’re referring to Fred?
Building the side around ramsey
That mess of a squad still win 3 FA cups, so probably isn’t all that after all
Total,
We’ve tried the 433 with Özil as part of the middle 3 and it just hasn’t worked. Certainly against the better sides. Our 2 get overrun in midfield and we end up getting hammered on the counter. One thing about Emery is he has produced performances and results against the big sides this season. It’s the consistency that’s let us down. We’ve drawn with Liverpool and United and beat Chelsea and Spurs. That’s a lot better than we had under Wenger in recent times. You could argue that we didn’t have Torreira in those sides but is he really enough next to Xhaka to stop the problems that arose under Arsene?
To avoid those issues we’d probably have to play either a 3412 or a 4312. We don’t have enough CB’s to play 3412 with the injury situation of the last few months. The 4312 could possibly work as it did against Chelsea but the big thing about that performance was how well we hounded without the ball. Ramsey does do that better than Özil.
It may actually be the case that Özil comes back into the side once our injury situation sorts itself out. He was playing earlier in the season and may well get a chance again once Emery has Xhaka, Koscielny and Sokratis in the same team. Maybe it’s just that Emery doesn’t like the prospect of playing him without the solidity behind him. Having said that, yesterday would’ve been the perfect time to stick him in but for some reason Emery went with Iwobi and Ramsey in a 433. I get the impression Emery is still unsure of how to best utilise the current crop of players and we will have plenty of questions still unanswered heading into next season.
One thing I will say though is I’m enjoying this season far more than the last 2 and it’s exciting to see where we are heading. People think we could head into mediocrity but I’d rather we risk that with the prospect of moving forward than just continue to be stale like we were under Wenger.
Eddie & Terry. Fantastic. 🙂 😀
Eddie. You cannot become a Spud, you do not look like an ape
Some excellent comments today, whether I agree or not. Thank you.
FGG, good comment. The problem is that Xhaka-Torreira-Ozil has not been Unai’s first choice and has not been tried enough.
I would play 4-2-3-1 with Xhaka-Torreira naturally deeper and Iwobi/Guendouzi-Ozil-Mkhi/Rambo in the ‘3’ and Laca alone up-front, With Iwobi and Guendouzi not ready yet and Mkhi out injured (and Welbeck out as well) we really need to get experienced firepower on the wing. It looks like Unai is after this too. The 3 have duties to both help Xhaka/Torreira to rule the midfield AND support Laca in attack. Ozil will revel in this system.
Total,
No Auba? He’s a guy who has scored nearly a goal a game over the last 3 or 4 seasons. That’s difficult to leave out. This brings me on to one of my issues with Özil and Iwobi. A player can have all the talent in the world, but you need end product to really make a difference at this level. Lingard is a perfect example of a little prick who seems to do very little but somehow scores big goals in big games. Iwobi is the complete opposite, and you could argue that Özil is someone who also seems to save his best for games against teams that we would expect to beat anyway.
Auba is hugely efficient where it matters and that is something we need more of. I’d much rather take a player like Auba who does nothing else but score goals, over a player like Özil who does nothing else but create chances. You could argue that the pair of them in the same side would be the way to go, but you seem to be suggesting that that isn’t the case.
I’m struggling to see how us getting a winger in and playing 4231 with Özil as the 10 is anything different from the failed system we’ve tried before. We’ve had it with the quality and work rate of Sanchez in the side and it still didn’t really work. It seems to be putting a lot of pressure on our CM and CB and I’m not convinced we’ve improved enough in that area for it to suddenly be a revelation.
Great summary Micky.
Some superb….and some ridiculous comments today..
I think we would have won if Sokratis had not gone off injured.
I could not understand why Dick took off Iwobi for Ozil and brought on Douzi for Kos, meaning Xhaka went to centre back. We would have been much better balanced if it was Ozil for Ramsey and then Monreal for Kos, leaving Iwobi on as the only player who posed any danger by running at the Man U defence, Ozil to be the creator and with a proper centre back to stop the counter attacks.
I missed Fred in the upper tier again
Right for me it’s not difficult.
If Ozil starts as a team we don’t have to commit men forward as much. He takes the ball from deeper positions and passes and moves his way up the pitch working with wide men, one midfielder and a centre forward, his ability to find space for himself to receive again means we as a team have time to build up the pitch, join in and still go and offer a threat. Think Laca coming deep for ball and then turning to get back in box. This is especially useful against the packed defence we so often face. But that’s not to say he can’t play quickly when needed, given space he can move it as necessary. He is a player like Cantona, Cesc and Bergkamp (is even throw Le Tissier and Hoddle in there) they have pictures in their heads before the ball even gets to them they know the best pass to play instinctively half a second before anyone else on the pitch. They have their own in built metronome and create time for themselves.
If we need full backs to join in they can as midfielders can cover from deep. And this is how it was earlier in the season with both Xhaka and Torreira moving to flanks to fill gaps.
Ramsey for all his qualities rarely receives the ball deep, played up behind Laca most of last night, ahead of PEA and Iwobi in many occasions. That means our midfield had to go further up pitch, which meant when our full backs did join in we were left very short at the back.
Last night if we were pressing it didn’t work, they played out far too easily onnumerous occasions when Sok and Kos were on and when they were off.
When were the crowd the best judge of a player or decisions on the pitch?
I nearly threw something at my TV last night when with fifteen minutes to go Xhaka received ball 30 yards from goal and the crowd look “shooooot” and the ball sailed 30 yards over the cross bar when we had time to play a pass or two.
Also I know people don’t always like statistics, but I find WhoScored quite an interesting website, especially for heat maps and touches/passes/tackles as I sometimes like to look to see if matches my reading of the game, couple of surprises, couple of unsurprising.
Ramsey’s heat map shows him spending the majority of time around ManUre’s box (shouldn’t forget this is based on touches).
As for players leading Arsenal in tackles:
Unsurprising to see Lacazette leading on 5 with Torreira, based on performance and workmate rather than his position, next is Kola and Maitland-Niles, again expected due to position, next is perhaps the biggest surprise……….
I’ll leave those curious to go and look for themselves:
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1351198/LiveStatistics/England-FA-Cup-2018-2019-Arsenal-Manchester-United
FGG, I like Auba as a supersub especially when there is more space for him to operate in. I prefer Laca. Auba’s in-field play is frustrating as he loses the ball far too many times.
Sanchez was a very selfish, frustrating player and definitely not a winger imo. Having said that, Ozil made him a much better player than he was.
Great comments, GiE. Nothing to add.
I just want 4 defenders not named Mustafi to play 10 games in a row, together. That’s is really, just some good old fashioned D, where the guys can learn about each others tendencies, and gain some confidence.
But will the Arsenal do it? Really do not have faith at this point that this is going to happen, either through the transfer window or from our academy.
If Emery does not do this, it will not matter how many goals Laca, Auba and others score- it….just….won’t.
I missed you to ants, chas banned me from the upper tier
The gunners must fly into the tackle like som e teams. Otherwise being the good guys doesn’t bring any reward.
The gunners are vulnerable to the counter attack as Wolves and especially the rfs have shown repeatedly.
Read the Norwegian is favourite to be boss. As Nevill said he has been winning . The problem is can he sustain the winning run.
He is due a blip very soon .
Then we shall se the feel good feeling dissipate.
Eddie
Here’s a photo for your wall 🙂
We can do better than that Chas
As a Spud, our Eddie will need a brand new boyfriend
Best trawl some Full Kit Wankers for possible candidates
Morning All,
8.13. Bit young for a lady of Eddie’s maturity?
OH YES, that’s our man
ROLF. Can’t he be the new AA logo? 🙂
Transplant
Good to read your words yesterday, although, good luck with this:
“Not to be misunderstood” 🙂
I’m not sure age would be the first criteria used to swipe left.
😀 😀
There is a New and hastily written post