Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [10th - 12th August 2018]
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 May 2010
- Posts
- 23,091
- Location
- London
Cech has done well in terms of goalkeeping but poor in his decision making when the ball is at his feet.
Other than forgetting to try to save Sterling's shot.
Never happy to lose at home, but there are a lot of positives Arsenal can take from that match.
the biggest disappointment was with our front players, in particular Ozil and Mikhi. There were definite chances for us there which we failed to capitalise on. Considering that attack is the most settled part of the side, you would have hoped the players would be on the same wavelength
the biggest disappointment was with our front players, in particular Ozil and Mikhi. There were definite chances for us there which we failed to capitalise on. Considering that attack is the most settled part of the side, you would have hoped the players would be on the same wavelength
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 May 2010
- Posts
- 23,091
- Location
- London
Other than that yes. But he must have been wrong footed or unsighted to not go for it.
It looked poor on a replay.
He saw it late but you can clearly see him think about diving and then change his mind. No ida what he was thinking tbh.
Just left the match
New manager
Managers first game in prem
New players
Not too bad a start
Within ten monutes of torreira coming on he showed why xhaka should be nowhere near this team
Guendozi has some engine on him! Was all over the pitch hes some buy for us imo
New manager
Managers first game in prem
New players
Not too bad a start
Within ten monutes of torreira coming on he showed why xhaka should be nowhere near this team
Guendozi has some engine on him! Was all over the pitch hes some buy for us imo
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
Not impressive but I've said before I expect change to take time.
One major worry is Ozil, he's always been a guy who doesn't care to make the tackle, to back off. Yes he tracks a couple of runs but he also jogs slow as hell when he could be helping for that first goal. He's never killed himself or pushed himself hard and with his lets be honest, final big contract secured does he have a single reason to try hard now? He can not play and get paid till the end of his contract, no one is going to top it and he now has even less reason to try than before when he never tried that hard anyway.
He was god awful today, he was getting every run wrong, he was missing simple passes, that gift of a chance being passed the ball by the keeper and both his loose touch and I think he told Laca to leave it when he could easily have got it and was onside. The other chance which came through, Ozil was clearly offside and Laca was borderline onside and Ozil didn't leave it for Laca.
Dozy is, interesting, he's very like Luiz in that he does some classy passing but it always feels like classy moments waiting for the absolutely huge impending screw up. Young but, he feels clumsy and nothing screams he's going to be a great player.
Not sure why we didn't start Torreira but he looked fairly classy when he came on, some good passing, good tracking. One moment I loved was in the box our right back and CB were standing off whoever it was inside the box close to the line. Torreira didn't just stand off and passively let them wait to make their move, he closed him down and straight up scared him back out of the box and forced him to pass backwards.
Laca was decent in that he was very physical and closed down well, got called for several fouls that were just really great work and brilliant strength to win the ball back though he also committed a few too many as fouls which pushed the referee into giving the rest as fouls.
I feel both Laca and Auba should have done better with their chances but that's how it goes.
Xhaka was terrible, Sokratis seriously, he leaned out of the line of the ball for both goals, missing them by inches. Lean the other way and we maybe fluke a draw despite being the much worse team. There are a lot of CBs who would have thrown themselves in the way of those shots and done a lot better.
Again I think it's worth noting that most sides take a while to adapt and Arsenal is the team with the longest serving manager and a squad that though it had changes had guys in it who were around for long enough that we had a fairly established style and mentality for a very long time. I think while teams can adapt faster or slower, Arsenal is a side essentially set up to adapt slower than any other side could or would.
Cech.... guy has entirely lost his marbles.
One major worry is Ozil, he's always been a guy who doesn't care to make the tackle, to back off. Yes he tracks a couple of runs but he also jogs slow as hell when he could be helping for that first goal. He's never killed himself or pushed himself hard and with his lets be honest, final big contract secured does he have a single reason to try hard now? He can not play and get paid till the end of his contract, no one is going to top it and he now has even less reason to try than before when he never tried that hard anyway.
He was god awful today, he was getting every run wrong, he was missing simple passes, that gift of a chance being passed the ball by the keeper and both his loose touch and I think he told Laca to leave it when he could easily have got it and was onside. The other chance which came through, Ozil was clearly offside and Laca was borderline onside and Ozil didn't leave it for Laca.
Dozy is, interesting, he's very like Luiz in that he does some classy passing but it always feels like classy moments waiting for the absolutely huge impending screw up. Young but, he feels clumsy and nothing screams he's going to be a great player.
Not sure why we didn't start Torreira but he looked fairly classy when he came on, some good passing, good tracking. One moment I loved was in the box our right back and CB were standing off whoever it was inside the box close to the line. Torreira didn't just stand off and passively let them wait to make their move, he closed him down and straight up scared him back out of the box and forced him to pass backwards.
Laca was decent in that he was very physical and closed down well, got called for several fouls that were just really great work and brilliant strength to win the ball back though he also committed a few too many as fouls which pushed the referee into giving the rest as fouls.
I feel both Laca and Auba should have done better with their chances but that's how it goes.
Xhaka was terrible, Sokratis seriously, he leaned out of the line of the ball for both goals, missing them by inches. Lean the other way and we maybe fluke a draw despite being the much worse team. There are a lot of CBs who would have thrown themselves in the way of those shots and done a lot better.
Again I think it's worth noting that most sides take a while to adapt and Arsenal is the team with the longest serving manager and a squad that though it had changes had guys in it who were around for long enough that we had a fairly established style and mentality for a very long time. I think while teams can adapt faster or slower, Arsenal is a side essentially set up to adapt slower than any other side could or would.
Cech.... guy has entirely lost his marbles.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 1 Dec 2010
- Posts
- 53,734
- Location
- Welling, London
Leno has to start next game imo
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
Yup, either he's good enough or not. I've really never seen him play and reports are mixed. Some say he's decent others say they were very surprised because he's not considered great for what we paid for him. Though quite a few people say he's quite good with his feet and playing it out of goal which is the main stuff Cech got painfully bad today. Ultimately we won't know till we give him a chance, let him settle with the squad and get games. Cech is just, even though I believe our coaching staff sucked and new coaching might make a goalkeeper far stronger Cech is just too old at this point to be worth hoping 6-12 months of better training gets his form back while Leno could be getting games and improving himself for the long term for us.
Torreira as well, assuming it's not a fitness/injury issue, he looked immediately in a completely different class to Xhaka. Like I said, the bit where he chased their guy out of the box was amazing. We have such a passive midfield, have done for years. I mean Xhaka will give away a foul when needed, often when not, but in those positions he sits back and waits for them to make the first move rather than being proactive.
Why hasnt he started him? Seemed like the perfect opportunity to nail down whos the number one...
Caporegime
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2005
- Posts
- 41,255
- Location
- Cornwall
Put Mourinho in charge of Keita and he'd play like Carlton Palmer.
The problem Arsenal have had over last few years is that there are now 5 other teams as good or better than them and competing for the top four, whereas under most of Wengers reign there were only 3. I think getting rid of him was a bad idea unless they were going to give the new manager a load of money and they didn't trust Wenger to spend it. Wenger never really changed, Arsenal just got caught up and passed by the likes of Liverpool and Spurs after years of sitting comfortably somewhere between the top 3 and the rest of the league.
Arsenal faired no better today than the last few days under Wenger and Man City didn't even look as strong as they can be.
Arsenal faired no better today than the last few days under Wenger and Man City didn't even look as strong as they can be.
Last edited:
I think Arsenal fans needed to see something to be encouraged by, maybe a different formation, a different keeper, Laca/Aub both playing, just something surprising. Instead they got the same formation, work rate and frailties they saw under Wenger, even Ozil etc were just as poor. Literally nothing changed which is probably pretty demoralising for their fans going into the next game.
No wonder manages don't get chances way you guys are going on.
It was his first game for arsenal vs a city side that battered all in the league last season excluding us.
He will need time, if anything Leno should have played for them over cech.
He was probably thinking change too much in one go vs City could have ended worse
It was his first game for arsenal vs a city side that battered all in the league last season excluding us.
He will need time, if anything Leno should have played for them over cech.
He was probably thinking change too much in one go vs City could have ended worse
It's going to take time to turn things around at Arsenal and you certainly can't judge Arsenal on today's match - City can turn over any side in Europe on their day. The entire football club had gone stale and there's so much dead wood their that even with City or Utd's spending you couldn't change things over night. Arsenal have some talented forward players, even if they are fair weather players, so you can imagine Emery's first target is just to make the team a bit more resilient and harder to beat and look to gradually replace the dross in that squad. Getting City and then Chelsea as your opening two games was a kick in the nuts though - even before today you wouldn't have been surprised if after 2 games Arsenal hadn't picked up a point and with back to back defeats it can kill that new manager bounce Arsenal would have been hoping for and make turning things around that bit harder.
The keeper decision today was strange though. Given how much work is needed on that squad you don't spend £20m odd on a keeper unless you're bringing him as your clear number 1. If he's not seen as that then he's a waste of money and if he is then why the **** isn't he playing? You have to bring him into the side at some point and if anything City was probably the easiest time to bring him in - he wasn't going to be bombarded with crosses into the box and have opposition players battering him throughout the game.
The keeper decision today was strange though. Given how much work is needed on that squad you don't spend £20m odd on a keeper unless you're bringing him as your clear number 1. If he's not seen as that then he's a waste of money and if he is then why the **** isn't he playing? You have to bring him into the side at some point and if anything City was probably the easiest time to bring him in - he wasn't going to be bombarded with crosses into the box and have opposition players battering him throughout the game.