Freddie – Arsenal’s Secret Sauce?

September 28, 2019

Can anyone remember the last time we had such a good crop of home-grown young players?

I’ve been wracking my brains (doesn’t take long) and I’d have to go all the way back to the George Graham era, when the likes of Rocastle, Thomas, Merson, Adams, Hayes, Davis and yes, even Perry Groves all came through together.

Prior to that it’s probably the wonderful Dublin connection that brought us O’Leary, Brady and Stapleton all at the same time in the early 1970s

We have had many “promising” youngsters over the years who shine for a while but seldom make the grade (Frimpong, Traore, Akpom, Hoyte… add your own suggestions).

Some one-offs have broken through (Gibbs, Wilshere) but there has not been – until now – that sense of a unit of contemporary players who have come through the Academy together and all look capable of commanding a first team place.

A reasonable question is why now?

Have we just been lucky? Have our junior talent scouts upped their game? Has coaching improved at the Academy? Is there something in the water?

It’s a tough one to answer without detailed inside knowledge, but Rasp made an interesting comment on Wednesday as we all basked in the satisfaction of thrashing Notts Forest. He said: “I’m beginning to love Freddie as a coach as much as I did as a player … he must take a lot of credit for the emerging players after his work in the academy … our next Arsenal manager? …. is it too early to hope?”

Leaving aside whether Freddie Ljungberg could be a future Head Coach for us, can he take credit (or at least share the credit) for the development of players like Willock, Nelson, Saka, Smith-Rowe, Nketieh and others?

The former red-haired one joined as an Academy coach on July 12th2016, working under Andries Jonker. At that time the young stars now breaking into our first team were aged 15 or 16, so they most certainly would have worked with Freddie and built a rapport with him. And they would have known enough about him to grasp what an Arsenal legend he is.

However, the story is not that simple. Because by March 2017 Freddie was gone. Jonker was lured away to be the new manager of Vfl Wolfsburg and he took the Fredster with him. Freddie’s spell with the Academy was just eight and a half months.

Things didn’t work out for Jonker at Wolfsburg. Within six months of arriving he was given the chop along with his coaching team, including Ljungberg. But Arsenal had obviously liked what they’d seen when Freddie was at the Academy and he was soon back as Under 23 coach, starting in June last year. A year after that he was promoted to the first team coaching set-up.

So yes, Freddie can take some credit for having influenced the current crop of young Gunners. Certainly the continuity for them of having been coached by him at youth level and now at senior level must have its advantages.

But perhaps the overlooked man in all this is Andries Jonker, who has not had a job since getting the boot at Wolfsburg. It is generally accepted  within Arsenal that it was Jonker who completely overhauled our Academy coaching structure when he arrived at the start of the 2014/15 season.

He changed the way players were educated within the club, which meant they could spend more time at the training ground in each other’s company. He was also instrumental in the building of the new training facilities at Hale End, where three pitches were put aside exclusively for Academy use.

So really it’s Jonker, not Freddie who is the secret sauce behind the emergence of our new generation, even though Freddie was one of the ingredients in that sauce.

If you have an alternative theory as to why the new crop are doing so well, I’d love to hear it.

And also, what do you feel about the Academy now being in the hands of the BFG? To answer my own question, I couldn’t be more thrilled. Per Mertesacker was one of the most intelligent players (and men) we have had at the club for years, as well as being an outstanding defender, a great captain and apparently a figure who was liked and respected by all. If he can build on the Jonker (and Freddie) foundations, then our Academy should be able to provide a conveyer belt of future first teamers for years to come.

RockyLives

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Emery Bored … Already?

September 16, 2019

We were dire against Watford. No two ways about it. We made them look like the top four pretenders whereas we performed like we were in bottom of the league form.

Apart from the heroics from Leno and the pure class of Aubameyang, pretty much every other players scored less than 5 out of 10. So much so that there were too many choices for any individual to become the scapegoat. Inevitably the focus was directed at the manager – for his tactics, his team selection, and glaringly for his inability to coach the players to play out from the back after 15 months in charge.

The combined value of our players was three times that of Watford and yet, on the day, they put in a team performance that was greater than the sum of its parts – we certainly didn’t.

Here are some of the views expressed by bloggers yesterday …

From Rasp:

Emery it seems is like the later Arsene …his vision of how we should play is more important than the three points … tell that to the thousands of away fans who had the life sucked out of them when the first goal was conceded.

It was abundantly clear that our players had no faith in their ability to play out from the back .. you could feel the nerves.

Any decent, pragmatic manager would have sent out the instruction (probably at half time) that it wasn’t working therefore the keeper would kick the ball out to the flanks and our midfield should get tight on their players to gain first or second ball … but no, we gave the game away shamelessly.

GoonerB’s take:

As Rasp points out there are hallmarks of the latter AW with Emery. On top of what Rasp mentions there seems to be that trait of repeating the same things that are getting us into trouble. Bad formations with players out of position and not complimenting each other and then substitutions that dont alter the imbalance.

Arsene we can let it go with because he once was the prince amongst princes and the best of the best but simply the game moved on from him and he wasnt able to see it and react to it.

The board basically held out too long and we regressed as a club. Emery is younger and supposed to be that dynamic modern coach but I have reached the conclusion that he is not right for us.

LBG says:

Dick the insistence on ALWAYS playing out from the back does not work with these players, and even Man City dont do that. Adapt to the “quality” of your players. Stop making politician type comments and excuses. Percentage football is required at present .

Kelsey’s thoughts:

So far this season – in just five games – we’ve allowed 96 shots on goal, more than any other team in the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga, or Ligue 1 (via @ollysailor). That is shockingly bad, and when you throw in the fact that since Unai Emery took over we’ve conceded 10 penalties, more than any other team, there are alarm bells going off all over the place for me.(from arseblog)

Those stats are absolutely shocking and Emery must take a proportion of the blame.This is at best mid table form despite spending a shedload of money’

RockyLives:

I’m not ready to write off UE yet, but in addition to the ‘playing out from the back’ problem, his substitutions yesterday were mystifying and only made us worse.

Willock and Nelson are not yet ready for intense first team football such as yesterday’s – they need to be eased in as late subs and in Europa League/Caribou Cup games etc.

Aaron’s hard hitting stats:

Facts:

Arsenal are on pace to concede 60.8 goals this year.

Have played 13% of their games.

Conceded more shots than any team in the top leagues of Europe.

Know this, we are playing the worst defense I have seen the Arsenal play in a very long time. Emery has been in charge for 16 months and is continuing the run of play that the Arsenal exhibited during the season’s final games.

The question has been asked to death: what is Emery’s plan with no defense?

Sue’s response:

Aaron.. I saw an article earlier, about Unai’s time at Valencia (super cup v Real Madrid 2008/9 2nd leg)
Valencia were 1-0 up, Real were then down to 10 … but levelled. They then saw red again, so down to 9 men.. yet the score went from 1-1 to 1-4!!!! They ended up losing 4-2 (& losing overall) and that was with David Silva, David Villa & Juan Mata!! You couldn’t make it up!!!!

Not a great article & it didn’t fill me with confidence!! Also, it was on about him parking the bus from the 50th minute, with a slender 1-0 lead and pretty much always surrendering leads.

A balance to the debate from Fatgingergooner:

Even though I’ve done this above in previous comments, part of me does wonder if it’s a little unfair to question what Emery’s style is when at the same time we are asking him to forget his style because the players are not good enough to implement it. If Emery is only the coach, as seems to be the case, then is it fair for us to chastise him for playing out from the back?

Should he just forget his whole ethos of possession football and control because the club haven’t given him good enough players? Im not convinced the blame lies solely at his feet. It’s not as if Pep took over City and transformed their existing CB’s into world class, ball playing defenders. He got rid of any players who couldn’t do it and bought ones who could. Surely it’s too much to ask Emery to come in and transform 30 year old defenders.

They are what they are. I think it’s up to the club to provide him with the correct tools that allow him to get the best results. I’m not convinced that’s the case at the moment, so I will still give him a bit of slack on that front.

Before the game, the jury was out on Unai for most supporters … after Sunday, many are now questioning whether he is the right man for the job.

But should we even be having this debate when negativity is the last thing we want transmitted to the players?

The atmosphere at The Emirates this season has been better than for many years – we need to get behind the team, get behind the players and leave it to those above Emery to manage him and rectify the glaring problems that Watford exposed.

What do you think?

Rasp

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No Lacazette – but Welbeck is back

September 15, 2019

Finally, the Premier League is back, after the oh so boring International break!

Our 5th game of the season, is a trip to Vicarage Road, to face a Watford side, who are bottom of the table. After 3 losses & 1 draw, they decided to give Javi Gracia his P45 & reappoint Quique Sanchez Flores – who managed them during the 2015-16 season.

Unai Emery is familar with him, having both managed in La Liga. This will be their 8th meeting and what makes it even more interesting is QSF has 3 wins to UE’s 1… with the other 3 draws…

Since Watford’s return to the PL, after an 8 year absence, we have faced them 8 times – winning 6 & losing 2, GF – 18  GA – 5.

They also beat us in the 6th round of the FA Cup with QSF as their manager!

Watford team news – Troy Deeney is still recovering from knee surgery, so will not face the team his son supports.

Etienne Capoue is a doubt, through illness.

Rob Holding is back in full training, but doubt he will feature, what with being absent for so long.

Tierney & Bellerin are closing in on a return..

Willock had a calf problem, but is expected to be ok, as is Xhaka & Torreira.

As we all know, Welbeck was released at the end of last season and Watford signed him, so I’m just waiting for him to come back and haunt us, just like many others have previously.

Danny Welbeck made 88 appearances for us, finding the back of the net 16 times. One of my favourites was the last gasp winner against Leicester! But who could forget his goals against the Mancs – brilliant!! Will always think highly of him. He’s now played twice for Watford, but has yet to score…….

Watford are desperate for points & having changed managers, performances & results usually improve.. we need to get back to winning ways, after a disappointing loss & draw in our last 2 games. So it’s all set up to be a very interesting encounter!

Lacazette has been ruled out until next month, due to an ongoing problem with his left ankle. This is a huge blow, having scored 2 goals already this season…….. this will make for an interesting line-up.

Peaches here – I would start Reiss Nelson on the wing and put Aubamayang up top ……….. let’s see what Emery chooses.

The team I’m expecting to see is : –

Ref – Anthony Taylor

Assistants – Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn

4th Offical – Peter Bankes

Var – Chris Kavanagh Ass Var – Daniel Cook

Not going to predict a score, as I’m usually pants at it. I just hope we play well, Pepe scores & we win COYG

By Mrs Kolasinac

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How Does Unai’s 2019 Arsenal Compare to Arsene’s 2017 Arsenal?

September 12, 2019

Ahead of our 5th game of the season, where are we compared to Arsene’s last season (2017)?

I’m looking at 9 main factors in trying to decide how much of a better path we’re on compared to when Arsene left. Make no mistake, this is probably an examination of Arsenal under Unai Emery as anything else. It’s early in the season and maybe we can revisit this at the next interlull to help time move on. Sorry to RA in particular for not having this ready for this morning’s post (I had a couple too many margaritas last night !!). Sorry too if I’ve missed anyone!! Hopefully not !! So

Goalkeeper and Defence

2017 –  Cech, Ospina, Bellerin, Debuchy, Gibbs, Monreal, Mertesacker, Mustafi , Gabriel, Koscielny

Grade  – 6/10. Merts was a bit of a loss, Nacho will be too.

2019 – Leno, Martinez, Bellerin, AMN, Kolasinac, Holding, Sokratis, Luis, Chambers, Tierney

Grade 7/10. Leno is (will be) an upgrade, Holding is better than anyone else we had and we have a little better overall quality in the middle and Tierney should also be a good upgrade.

Midfield

2017 – Ozil, Elneney, Ramsey, Xhaka, Coquelin,  AMN, Wilshere

Grade – 6/10. Obviously very affected by injury (didn’t even include Santi) but overall, where can you see any ball winning coming from? However also obviously very creative.

2019 – Ozil, Xhaka, Ceballos, Willock, Torreira, Guendouzi

Grade: 7.5/10. Definitely more strength and tenacity defensively but also with plenty of creativity. Even if you’d argue there was more going forward in 2017, it’s hard to create without the ball.

Forwards

2017 – Giroud, Iwobi, Oxlade, Sanchez, Walcott, Welbeck, Lucas.

Grade:  6.5/10. Obviously Sanchez was dangerous and Giroud was a huge weapon in the air but we hardly used it !! Not enough quality wide and very one dimensional as far as goal threat.

2019 – Auba, Laca, Pepe, Nelson, Martinelli

Grade:  8.5/10. There’s a lot of firepower in this group. Probably not quite deep enough but wide players are much better in my opinion.

Management Team

2017 – Wenger, Bould, Gazidis, Law.

Grade – 4/10. This group oversaw a steady decline in player quality and mentality which I think when you compare it to this year, is very stark.

2019 – Emery, Ljungberg, Edu, Sanehlli, Vinai V

Grade: 7.5/10. Mostly based on this summer transfer window but also the team just seems a little more steely and solid. It’s early but I also think we should bear in mind the losses of Bellerin and Holding last season at a time when we were on a very good run.

Ownership

2017 – Kroenke, Usmanov, Fanshare

Grade:  4/10. Did very little to help a sinking ship. Is it the fact that now KSE knows putting its own money in will reap benefits back to them alone? (This is also a great subject for a later post that I’d like to tackle !!)

2019 – Kroenke

Grade: 7/10: Got to give credit where it’s due. At least for right now. Substantial improvement

Mental Strength

2017 – Arsene talked a lot about it but who would you say showed a good mentality from all of the 2017 lists? For me, Nacho, Ramsey, Coquelin, Wilshere and Alexis would be the only ones I would want in my squad today for their mentality.

Grade: 3/10: Stemming from the manager I believe this has been the biggest failure at Arsenal during the later Wenger years. A team crying out for leaders, there were none.

2019 – I’d pick Leno, Holding, Sokratis, Luis, Ceballos, Willock, Guendouzi, Auba, Laca, for sure as players I think have a great mental presence on the field. I’d probably take Torreira and I’d imagine Tierney too but I’m not sure.

Grade: 5.5/10: Substantial improvements here. There are 3 or 4 players that need to be moved  on before I would rate us higher and an addition or two would help.

Defensive Ability 2019

Grade: 5/10. I am starting to understand better the massive correlation between a good defence and a solid defensive midfield. Until we fix that issue, our defenders are almost over achievers.

Attacking Strength 2019

Grade: 9/10. Similarly to our defenders, attackers allowed to play freely without fear of losing possession leading to goals being conceded will be better with good midfielders.

Fear Factor 2019

I think teams facing the current Arsenal team see a different proposition to a couple of years ago. I think we’re going to win a few games through not being intimidated that we wouldn’t have before. I’m not sure we’ll intimidate too many at first but hopefully once our front 3 get firing, that’s possible too.

Summary:  I’m not saying everything is rosy in the garden, far from it. But from a more stable ownership model through better overall management to an overall more balanced and athletic squad, I think we’re on the right track. What do you think?

Mike M

 

 

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It’s Time To Bring Ashley Cole In From The Cold.

September 5, 2019

Ashley Cole has announced his retirement from playing yet there doesn’t seem to be much interest in goonerdom. I find that incredibly sad.

What happened that resulted in a player of his calibre, that came through our ranks, to be so overlooked by the gooners fan base.

Well I want to revisit the alleged crime, call it a cold case if you like, to see if there has been a miscarriage of justice. I feel there has been, and have felt this for a while now, especially in light of other later events with other players.

Ashley was arguably the worlds best left back for 4-5 years at his peak, which included him playing in the famous red and white. Not only that, he was one of our own and an invincible.

The following analysis is based upon the generally accepted version of events and the publisher accepts no responsibility in regard to any unconfirmed falsified aspects of the said generally accepted version.

“The court invites the prosecution to make its opening statement”

“Well your honour, Mr Cole joined Chelsea, a rival, and wrote a book that was critical of certain aspects of the club (Arsenal’s) contract negotiating team. These 2 factors have infuriated the fan base and now any relationship between Mr Cole and the Arsenal fan base is irreconcilable. The prosecution Sue’s for divorce”

“And now the court invites the defence to make its opening statement”.

“Well your honour’ you see Mr Cole didn’t actually write the book but agreed to have his name attached to it. It was explained to him by the publisher that certain things should be exaggerated more as it was better for sales. In addition Mr Cole really wanted to stay at Arsenal, the club he grew up at and loved, so much so that he agreed to a lower wage than he was being offered elsewhere. He thought he had a gentleman’s agreement but was shocked when the club negotiators reneged on the agreement. He felt incredibly hurt and didn’t feel the club truly wanted him to stay. At this point he decided it would be best to move on”.

Personally I feel Ashley has been overly maligned  by some margin, especially considering what a special player he was for us in such a special period.

The book was most likely ghost written and more poor judgement on Ashley’s part in my opinion. He will not be the first or last footballer to fall foul of making a wrong call based on poor advice of those around him.

Can we really not also see how hurt he would have been that after agreeing to stay on wages less than he could get elsewhere,  just because he loved the club that had brought him up, to find that they didn’t value him quite so highly and were happy to go back on their verbal agreement.

Ashley was probably the first of the modern generation footballers, at Arsenal, to have a high profile fall out with the fans, but I feel this case needs revisiting.

The crime now, so many years on, seems so much less, and in reality I feel the club’s negotiators were far more culpable for that situation and that fallout than the player himself.

It is time to bring Ashley in from the cold and for the fans to show Ashley the love again. We need to treat him as the legend he is. He deserves a place in the stand at the Emirates and he deserves the applause and appreciation from us all.

The defence rests its case.

GoonerB

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Do We Just Blindly Trust Unai Emery?

September 4, 2019

The “Opinion” Connundrum

We had a fantastic discussion yesterday on the question of Unai and Granit Xhaka related to how fans feel about them. FGG and I went back and forth, many others chipped in and in the end it seems there’s a fairly broad spectrum of opinion. Obviously that’s what a blog is for and on this particular site, almost always discussion and differences of opinion are respectful. So it seems discussion wise we’re on the right track. So what about the subjects of our discussion? Some of the points raised in the discussion were along the lines of:

“Should we be criticizing our own players/manager?”

“At what point is it disloyal as fans to criticize our players/manager?”

“Do we back them through thick and thin, even if we see an issue with their performance?”

All of which are legitimate questions. It got me thinking, when was the last time I felt like being critical of our players/manager (before Sunday !!)? I came up with during the last 2 years of Arsene’s reign when I got to the point of despair with his blind belief in his players’ ethic which it seemed obvious to most everyone else, was severely lacking. Anyone who watched Adams, Bould, Vieira, Parlour, Freddie, Santi but to name a few will know what I’m talking about.

I got to the point where I just couldn’t trust AW anymore because I believed he was too close to the technicalities of his management to see the more simple picture, which was – play your best players who will do the job you tell them to, no matter what their name or “status”. Also find a Captain that will lead by example and demand those players do what they need to. I think most people would agree that this was in fact the case and the reason he had to go.

So here’s the question: Do we just blindly trust Unai and not take our players to task. I think everyone would say no to that so where is the line? At what point is it ok to question, criticize, hold accountable? Obviously I’ve reached my tipping point with Xhaka and yet, although Unai keeps picking him, I am not there yet with the manager. It will probably take a while for that but I feel it’s ok to question him at this point.

I know we’re just fans and we don’t have all the technical information, nor see the players in training every day so is there a point that allows us to voice our opinion if it’s not necessarily positive or even downright negative. I’ll not be a hypocrite here and admit I had a few choice words for people who have criticized Wenger, Fizman, the Kroenke’s over the years because I always thought there was more to the picture. So what do you all think? Are there rules for this or do we just have to agree that we all see it differently?

Mike M

 

 

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Does Unai Emery Have The X Factor? (Where X = Xhaka)

September 3, 2019

There is a growing feeling amongst supporters that the new ‘Weakest Link’ in the Arsenal team is the seemingly un-droppable Granit Xhaka.

The two opposing views as to whether Unai was culpable for only drawing against spurs are summed up in these comments:

fatgingergooner 

I seem to be in the minority again in that I’m struggling to blame Emery for the result or performance yesterday. It was 2 individual mistakes that led to their goals so is Unai supposed to foresee that? It’s easy to say Xhaka shouldn’t have started after a poor showing but it was only a week ago that people were hoping he’d be in the team for the Liverpool game because of his added experience.

As for tactics, it’s very difficult to protect the back 4 adequately when you’ve gone 1 and then 2 goals behind. We were chasing the game for large parts and that has to be taken into consideration when assessing our defensive frailties. I also thought Son was very clever playing between the lines and he was exploiting the gaps we were leaving.

If anything, Emery did well tactically in the second half as he saw that we were too open and struggling to maintain attacks and so he brought on Ceballos and Mkhitaryan which gave us another body in midfield and resulted in us camping in their half for much of the second period. It was only after we equalised that the players eased off a little and allowed Spurs some late glimpses of goal.

I think the disallowed goal took the wind out of our sails a little and maybe we tired after trying so hard to get level.

I’d be interested to hear what people think Emery should’ve done differently yesterday as the line up looked solid and the formation was probably the correct one, and he made some good calls during the match to help us get level. Given that we don’t have a world class CB or HM player in the squad, I don’t see much else Emery could’ve done with that starting line up.

Mike M

@FGG. Hope you’re ok with me disagreeing fairly strongly here but if the manager picks someone that the general fanbase keeps saying isn’t good enough and he directly gives a goal away that cost 2 pts. isn’t he responsible?

He’s had a year, has seen enough of Xhaka and I’m not sure about your assertion that many people wanted him to play against Liverpool but I will defer if that’s true.

However Xhaka reverted to type and let his team mates and manager down. It’s noble of you to try to defend him but it’s frankly indefensible. As far as subs go. Ceballos was a no brainer at 2-1 down and Laca was injured.

For me, especially in the fact that he left today, bringing on Miki ahead of Nelson or Willock was bizarre at best. Again, I don’t want to sound obtuse here but I thought it was a ridiculous substitution. He played wide left and with no assists and 1 goal in his last 16 matches (again I stand to be corrected !!) he did exactly as expected – nothing substantive.

I’ll just say this. If you picked an Arsenal team solely on performances this season, Willock has to start, probably along with Guendouzi. If you say Xhaka too, I’d give you that but I think Ceballos or Torreira would have been worth a punt (as if you didn’t know how I felt !!). Sorry if it sounds a little blunt but I’m tired of the excuses for Xhaka of oh well he made a mistake. He almost always makes a mistake, luckily for him, his team mates often bail him out. It’s time to move on from him.

So what do you think? Has Unai inhertited Arsene’s Xhaka blindness? Would we have won if Xhaka hadn’t been on the pitch? Do we know more than experienced professional managers? … Over to you …

Rasp

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Arsenal’s 12th Man Needs a Better Song …

August 31, 2019

We need a new anthem.

Something Rasp mentioned the other day about how he wasn’t very keen on the chant of “stand up if you hate Totnum”, got me thinking. Rasp said:

Something that really wound me up at The Emirates on Saturday happened when we were probably only 20 minutes into the game – the ‘stand up if you hate totnum’ chant started up.

I find it pretty juvenile at the best of times, and it’s disrespectful to the players on the pitch. I just wanted to concentrate on watching the game. It’s usually brought out when there’s not much happening. This time it died down quite quickly, but it was started a couple of times more during the game and was met with the same indifference.

I started to think about the different songs and chants that we hear at the Emirates but also around the other grounds. I would assert that some are more positive, and really grip you, making the hairs on the back of your neck stir.

These songs sweep you along and change the mood in the stadium to a positively Arsenal one that must surely rub off on the players.

I agreed with Rasp that “the stand up if you hate Totnum” had more of a negative feel to it. I am not saying it should be binned entirely, but more that it should be used less often and at the appropriate times.

I have also never been too keen on the “come on Arsenal, come on Arsenal” chant. It just sounds a bit feeble and insipid in its tone to me.

Also invariably it comes out at a time when we are either losing a game or drawing in a game we should be winning. With this chant we are urging the players to shift up a gear, but I never feel it is an entirely inspiring chant.

Back to the main point in the title, and I believe the Emirates needs a new anthem. Something positive that seeps through the stadium infecting every Arsenal fan and player. Something that says to the opposition fans and players “we are the mighty Arsenal, and you have entered our den”.

 

 

The kind of chant I feel we are missing out on is one that starts in a slower more haunting way for one verse and then once repeated it builds up in pace to a crescendo ending with the whole stadium chanting “Arsenal,”Arsenal”.

West Ham have ” I’m forever blowing bubbles”, Liverpool have “you’ll never walk alone”, Southampton have “oh when the Saints, go marching in”, and dare I say it Totnum have their own identical version of the latter which I hate to admit is quite haunting and rousing.

I would like to hear from all A.A’ers about how they feel about our chants and songs. Which ones do you like and dislike?

More than this though I want you to seek out your inner Mozart and help us come up with something new. There must be some budding Beethoven’s and Tchaikovsky’s out there that can do this. Let’s start the ball rolling and create a pandemic in goonerdom.

I have my personal choice but will leave that till later and see if anyone else chooses my option…..I’m more of a Des O’Connor than Mozart anyway…… In the meantime, over to you gooners.

Gooner B

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Does Guendouzi Do It For You?

August 27, 2019

Emery said this about Guendouzi in his pre-match conference for the Liverpool game:

Matteo is very young but he has talent, his talent is to adapt to what we need. We are working tactically and individually, a lot on videos and a lot on the pitch. It’s a big challenge for me and him to achieve a big level here. Last year his process was very good but we miss a lot with him to achieve big moments.

Really, really I am very optimistic with him because he has this talent. We can improve other things, physically – we are working in the gym – his mentality. He has potential right now to help us achieve the best performance.

After the game, Emery praised Willock but also said that Douzi had a good match.

I thought that Douzi had an “OK” game. He ran a lot, he had a lot of passes but he (and Sokratis) were beaten for the Matip goal on a corner kick and he did not have one shot on target, not one key pass. Douzi is only 20 and we shouldn’t be too harsh on him but it is clear to see that there is a lot of room for improvement. I think for him, it is about:

  1. Becoming more effective with his running and his passing
  2. Being tactially more aware on defensive, transition and offensive phases
  3. Becoming stronger physically as well

Torreira, Willock and Guendouzi have fantastic attitude and also a great desire to run and work hard for the team. They are young and full of energy but none of them is a DM as of now and they need to play with someone who is more sound defensively. If we are playing in a double pivot (DM-MC), then none of them can play together unless Torreira is confined to a DM role and none of them should play with Xhaka. So what is our best available DM-MC pair?

Now back to Douzi – I think he is a well liked players and fans – but should he command a starting spot for EPL games? Wouldn’t it be wiser to help him grow as a player by playing him in Cup Games and then giving him some game time in the EPL as a sub?

Back to you…Does Douzi do it for you? Here are somes stats for you to help you make up your mind: https://www.premierleague.com/players/50512/Matteo-Guendouzi/stats?co=1&se=274

RC78

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Enough of Your Moaning … Now For The Positivity

August 26, 2019

There were mixed reactions to Arsenal’s loss to Liverpool at the weekend, but most subscribed to the ‘work in progress’ theory and looked for the positives … here are some of the more constructive appraisals:

Kelsey:

Many are now blaming Emery for his team selection (debatable) and tactics but if he is to be a top manager for us he will hopefully have learnt something and the key areas where to strengthen. Luiz was stupid but you see that in every game. In all probability without pulling Salah’s shirt, he still would have scored

Xhaka again didn’t stamp any authority on the game and Monreal yet again got caught out of position.

Maybe Pepe should have scored but he will be awesome and no mean task to make your debut at Anfield.

We were always second best but one can’t fault our work rate.

fatgingergooner:

The first goal is always key in these games. If Pepe had scored when through then this could’ve been a different story, but to concede just before and just after half time will kill any side. It’s even worse when you gift them the goals.

I thought our shape was actually ok. We played a diamond with Ceballos at the point and Xhaka deep. Yes, we were very narrow and allowed their full backs space, but actually they didn’t test Leno really from the crosses that came in and it was other parts of our overall play that cost us.

Pepe was fantastic and if you don’t get excited watching him and Auba linking together then I don’t know what to say. I really hope we see the trio soon with Lacazette coming in to see what we can really do. His finishing needs work but his running and eye for pass were on show again.

Willock was outstanding and looks every bit a new star in our midfield and exactly what we need. What’s not to love about his energy, composure and ability. Love him.

Geundouzi’s energy was also a joy but he lacks a bit of refinement. Hopefully that will come with experience and I think his and Willock energy just takes a bit of pressure off Xhaka. Before the first goal I actually thought the midfield 3 were giving us good protection and we looked pretty good until that Pepe miss and set piece lapse in concentration.

Pat7:

Yes, we gave away the wings but did well protecting our centre and the crosses and I’d say we had the best of chances in the first half. I’m not sure if we were back to full concentration when Luiz saw Salah slip in and grabbed his shirt. I can’t blame him for that. Despite the rule change with VAR all players are still grabbing shirts and it will take time to get this habit out of their game, especially one that’s been playing the whole of his career like that!

So, 2-0 down and then 3. At this point I thought we looked doomed to another bashing with half hour to go but not sure whether Pool lost the desire a bit knowing the game was won or maybe they tired too – maybe a bit of both.

We played out the game and our heads didn’t drop, gained a bit more confidence and got a consolation, one back. I thought on the day we were just not as well oiled or confident as them. We have 3 first teamers waiting to join the crew and I look forward to a better match next time, maybe with better tactics by then if all goes well.

RockyLives:

Another thing to bear is mind is that ‘Pool had pretty much their strongest team on the pitch yesterday.

It’s quite likely that UE’s strongest team later in the season will be something like:

Leno
Bellerin-Holding-Luiz-Tierney
Torreira-Ceballos*-Guendouzi/Willock
Pepe-Lacazette-Aubameyang

GoonerB:

The positives from this game were as follows:

1. we can see that we have the depth and variety to change things from our bench, and Pepe I think will soon start to terrorise teams.

2. Willock indeed looks a great BTB player completely suited to the EPL and with quality as well. Scarily (good for us) he will also improve further.

3. We have some great players individually and I feel this will be a stronger EPL campaign for us overall. We should have enough to beat most of the teams that we should beat with less banana skins.

4. Torreira has again shown he has an eye for goal and the ability to drive forwards in addition to his tackling and defensive tenacity. He looks another great potential BTB player, but this raises the conundrum of who plays the holding midfield position to allow him to play to his peak.

So all in all, an away loss to the team that only lost one game last season and whose home ground has been the proverbial fortress is not a disaster.

We’d all have taken a loss at Anfield if we get the 3 points this weekend wouldn’t we?

Rasp

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