Oh damn, there’s me just minding my own business on the net of inter, I click newsnow, jump in on a story about Emery using Lacazette and Auba together…
“If the ball is in play, you press. If play stops, you reposition yourself.”
“For me, the 4-1-4-1 is the system which facilitates that type of pressing. The 4-4-2 is designed more and more for zonal positioning. It’s less aggressive, but is more difficult to get past. That’s the case with Marcelino’s teams, Quique Sanchez Flores’ teams, Saint-Étienne when we last played them…
“I am not ruling out the possibility of a 4-4-2. That’s not the idea that I privilege, but if it allows me to be more competitive, then I’ll go towards it without hesitating. We sometimes used it in Sevilla. I would put Banega in a playmaker position, and have him move to the second striker position without the ball.
“With two strong, physical players behind him, it provided me with the necessary cohesion to press.
“In my case, the idea was not to win the ball back and counter as quickly as possible, but rather to equip ourselves once we had the ball. What Guardiola’s Barcelona did magnificently.
“We win the ball off of them, but those bastards always won it back. And Pep is doing it with City now. High pressure and win the ball back to start again once in position.”
Too far?
Please. We’ve been in solitary confinement for 10 years trying to make something out of stickmen illustrations. Emery has just dropped in with full-on Pixar like clarity.
I wrote at some point in the last 10 years that one of my challenges with Wenger was that he was never able to explain what went wrong, you’d get more clarity from him on Japanese philosophical musings about plant life than you would about why we couldn’t keep it tight in the second half against Newcastle away with a 4 goal cushion.
I always mused, if he can’t articulate what went wrong, how the fuck is he going to solve the issue?
Therein lay the problem. The manager didn’t know what the problem was, that’s why he always tried to fix it doing batshit crazy things.
The great things about Emery is he’s going to survey the wreckage of our squad and he’ll piece together a system that works for it. I’m very interested to see how quickly he can do that.
One of the things I’ve always been told about Arsenal is that the treatment of the players is next level, they are mollycoddled to the point of rolling out the cotton wall for a post-match wrap-up. I think there’s going to be a huge shock to the collective system in preseason.
Familiar faces gone, replaced with characters who know they don’t have 10 years and the protection of Wenger. The likelihood is that every single one of the staff entering in July will be gone within 5 years because that’s just the nature of the beast these days. If Emery fails, he’ll be shipped out sharpishly, if he bosses his tenure like a hero, he’ll jump back on the merry-go-round of European football.
That short-term view means there’s no time for feelings. Hard decisions will be made rapidly, new approaches will be implemented instantly, and we’ll see pretty quickly how the squad reacts to the new regime. The first year is a free pass, Emery will likely do a lot of experimenting. He’ll have to learn the pace of the league, he’ll gain first-hand experience what it’s like to play through the Christmas fixture list, and he’ll deal with playing in a league that has more than 4 good teams.
There might have to be some harsh decisions happen early without all the data needed. The transfer window shuts on August 9th this year, so there’s very little time to get to know the squad before he makes big decisions about who to move on.
My gut feeling is he’s going to sell at least one big name player, and I have a feeling that’ll be Aaron Ramsey. I’m not sure where we’re going to spend big, but I’d like to think it’s on a keeper. Or a holding midfielder. Or a centre back,
The club is already trying to give the mentality of the setup a lick of winnertivity. Apparently we’re close to signing Swiss veteran Stephan Lichtsteiner. The 34-year-old would be coming in at reserve right back. Sure, he’s old, but he’s not here to play 50 games next season. Hector Bellerin is almost never injured, but having a legend of the game sitting behind him to coach, mentor and step in for a few games is a smart move in my opinion. Also, having a reserve right back who is a right back would be nice. ALSO ALSO, he’s come from a regime that deals in complex ideas and strict dicipline. This move might be dull, but it’s shrewd.
Jack Wilshere is talking about new chapters on his Instagram feed, his agents are hawking him around Europe and the Premier League. As much as the love story with Jack is one I wanted to continue, the cold hard facts don’t paint him in the best light. He contributed very little this season, he’s often broken, you can’t build anything around him because he’s always a moment away from a year on the sidelines. Like Santi, it’s hard to not see that there’s better value to be had with other players. Jack will be wanting £110k a week. He clocked 2000 odd minutes this season, landed 6 assists and 2 goals. That’s a pretty poor return. So good luck to him, hopefully he finds his spark again.
We’ll also be needing some experience at centre back, because Koscielny is not going to be in good shape, Per Mertesacker has retired, Mustafi isn’t good enough, and we have a whole group of very inexperienced hopefuls behind him.
Lots to do, but back to my original point, finally someone who knows what they’re doing there to take care of it all.
Also, before I go, remember this: Emery sold Soldado to spurs for £30m. #NeverForget
No they need to press more
They are pulling back
Not their game
Bale time!
Guns of SF
They need to prepare for Real’s second wave; their bench.
They can’t sustain the energies they are expending.
Fuckin’ Bale!
That’s outrageous
Doesn’t get better than that.
Told you Bale time !
Zidane’s reaction says everything
another fluke
That goal deserves to be the winning goal so we can play it over and over again.
Karius is only fit for the scrapheap
it was always going to come down to Madrid’s bench
All in 4K stupendo.
Firminho needs to do something
Liverpool look ordinary now. The emotional wind in their sails is all gone.
That goal has sucked the life out of Liverpool.
Liverpool will be stronger next season with Naby Keita and possibly Fekir coming in.
Poor mane
Doing all the attacking he needs support
Liverpool need to put on all attackers it’s already the 72nd and minute
Ronaldo is slow, getting old.
One has to admire the spirit that Klopp’s teams exhibit.
There will be lots of mitigating explanations should they lose this game…of anyone cares to listen.
If real Madrid win this match Ronaldo will have more ballon dors than Messi
Is bales goal the best champions league goal of all time…
The fact hekind of paused in the air and just hung there
Great goalkeeping again!!
Karius is so damn useless
Liverpoll better open their wallet and spend that 100 million to get a top keeper.
He saw that ball ALL THE WAY
My goodness.
That is the end of Karius at Liverpool
Karius is gone.
Karius should be castrated with a table knife.
He got away with one of those against Roma at home.
He’s done.
School park goalkeeping.
Pickfordesque
Karius goodbye
Will be cut in a few mins
Karius haha what a clown.
Said it before, huge liability for pool having such dreadful keepers.
Karius should get a new job, goalkeeping is simply not for him.
Almunia has met his match and then some!
Who was telling me a few weeks ago that Karius had improved massively and was a genuine top keeper?
He was cheap, he’s never inspired confidence, and has been an error machine since day one.
Happy for Bale though, making a mockery of those ungrateful rm cunts booing him in the bernabeu.
Elmo
may have been me how wrong I was.
Hope he doesn’t live in Merseyside,he will be robbed by the
time he gets home.
How fucking funny!
This spectacularly out-does Almunia’s Paris nightmare.
Goalie has had a nightmare lol
Guns of SF
“Karius goodbye
Will be cut in a few mins”
Wenger wouldn’t cut him though..If her were making that call.
I can hear that well-worn Wenger goalkeeper speech again.
He persistent with a buffoon goalkeeper in Almunia for ages at the expense of the team.
Wenger will absolutely try to rehash Karius.
Almunia’s Paris nightmare
—————————–
That’s a bit unfair.
Firmino major bottle job.
3 mins injury time, lol
Wenger wouldn’t hurt the feeling of Karius. It’s all about values
“Almunia’s Paris nightmare
—————————–
That’s a bit unfair.’
What in at she world was that.
Almunia had a nightmare of helm street proportion in Paris.
It was a clown show. He couldn’t protect his near post TWICE.
This confirms my theory, klopp isn’t as great as people think, it has all been MoSalah,
Agreed WE, how can you not appreciate what Bale brings to your team. My only issue is his injury problems, which has kept his overall output and status as one of the very best down
Wenger is calling Sven to go sign karius ha ha
He still thinks he is manager
Klarius is a shocker. Single handedly lost that game.
Gutted for salah
Must be the worst feeling
Almunia had a nightmare
——————-
Yeah I know but don’t forget he wasn’t our no.1 back then, he didn’t start the match etc
“This confirms my theory, klopp isn’t as great as people think, it has all been MoSalah,’
Nonsense
Liverpool lost because their bench is not deep.
They lost to a wonder strike that’s worthy off a game winner.
They lost because the goalie was horrible.
You can blame Klopp for Karius since he brought him to Liverpool, nothing else is on him.
He’s one the best 3-5 managers in world football currently.
Lol, Zidane ruffling Marcelos hair – pure joy in his eyes.
Wenger would have persisted with Karius, just to drive the fans wild and have reasons to distract blame from himself.
Liverpool fans are notoriously very forgiving
Karius may still stand a chance
Wenger would be right on the phone putting in an offer for Karius…
Real the champions league specialists
Liverpool did well to get there, shame Ramos had to literally leave his mark on another final and filth up the best player on the pitch and cheat RM to gain another tainted victory.
Dissenter
“Liverpool fans are notoriously very forgiving
Karius may still stand a chance”
Doubt it.
It’s not like it is even uncharacteristic.
He was very lucky against Roma at home when he did the exact same thing but that time got away with it.
That error we just saw has to be caterogised. It wasn’t even pub football levels of bad. It was more like junior U15s level of football bad.
The manner with which Liverpool crumbled just cos your best player is off, tells you the whole story.
Take out any player from city, and the difference is marginal.
The entire pool hope lies on Salah, that’s lack of coaching acumen.
Remembered dortmund crashed bcos Gotze was out too.
I don’t think Karius is good enough even for the Uzbekistan league.
Excluding Seaman, what is the worst keeper blunder in a European Final
i don’t think any of the lpool players went to console Karius after the game
“The manner with which Liverpool crumbled just cos your best player is off, tells you the whole story.”
Are you sure you watched the match?
Liverpool lost to 2 goal keeping errors and a wonder goal.
Bale’s overhead looked clumsy..
well done zidane for winning UCL 3 times in a row (Never done before ever, not even twice in a row) with the same players JOSE, RAFA and ANCHELOTTI had. They don’t like to mention the transfer ban.
They dont want to praise you, or give you ratings, probably because you’re an Arab. Oh well, haters gonna hate!
This competition is completely devaluated at this stage. Joke of a tournament. I agree with Redtruth. Bring back the European cup format.
If Bale leaves… er … he’s going to cost a few quid. Wonder if they’ll recoup their purchase price.
Wtf?…
Anyway, roll on the world cup. This might get you all in the mood:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44184286
You aint winning nothing with no bootleg keeper.
WE need to address the Cech situation.
Kari-Arse
Marko
Liverpool are fine mate, they’re getting sexy links to Fekir yea?
As I said….they can buy all the Fekirs they want, they don’t have a GK.
Samni
Did you actually watch this match ?
Redtruth.
Gareth bales overhead looked clumsy.
He’s fucking 6’1”” and weighs 13 odd stone.
He’s never going to look like Nureyev.
😉
Not as if Pool will over run City or United in the league next season or is their run to the final making peeps forget they came 4th two seasons in a roll?
Pool might just concentrate on cup runs. They won’t do nothing in the league. Will huff and puff as always but in the end might still end up 4th next season.
And I don’t think Zidane is a better coach than Klopp but give me his calmness on the touch line over the jumping up and down antics of people like Klopp and Conte.
Like Del Bosque once said (not verbatim) “I don’t need to be jumping up and down like a clown to get my point across or celebrate a win”
New GK will be top of pools list, surely.
They can attract the best that are available and Klopp would be a pig-headed fool to not capitalise on that fact and make it his priority. The club won’t let him ignore it anyway.
Interesting to see who makes the “better” signing compared to Arsenal – if they sign one that is…
Loyka
How’s their record vs Man U & Man City?
Clumsy ?
Ye Gods you get some ridiculous posts on here. Unbelievable
It was an extraordinary goal .
Ramos changed the game with a cynical, intentional foul.
I like Liverpool in general but I can’t write anything positive about them tonight. Lots of good will and a decent defensive effort, but that’s about it. They were outplayed by an average Real Madrid team. They were tactically naive and technically so inferior to Madrid. And that joke of a goal keeper. Disappointed by Klopp and really impressed by Zidane. I wish we could hire him.
Liverpool are fine mate, they’re getting sexy links to Fekir yea?As I said….they can buy all the Fekirs they want, they don’t have a GK.
Little heel nipper you. I’m sure they’ll be fine Charles Keita in the bag Fekir strongly linked links to Alisson and Donnarumma suggests they’re aware that they need a keeper. I’d be more worried about what we do who do we target. Certainly not shopping in the same aisle as Liverpool
None of the ex-player called Ramos out on his dirt.
Bottlers.
Salah out of the World Cup.
Absolute cunt is Ramos, should be booed every minute of every match in Russia.
Loyika
You won’t be too taken with Emery then.
He is known for getting animated on the touchline and he only calmed down at PSG because most of the matches involved with them they knew they had won the game before kick-off.
Different at Arsenal and you will see him get very agitated and animated.
Zinedine Zidane as a Manager:
3 Seasons
149 Games
104 Wins
70% Win%
8 Finals
8 Wins
Champions League
FIFA Club World Cup
UEFA Super Cup
La Liga
Supercopa De España
First manager in HISTORY to win 3 consecutive UCL. ✅
Liverpool won Fuck all.
@ Ishola I don’t think Unai will have too many games to show his antics next season (unless its in bollocking the players to get things right and play the way he wants) Next season is a gimme for him and he should concentrate more on getting his points across in training than jumping up and down on the side lines. @ Reliable!? What has their record against United and Citeh in games gotten them? Zilch! Sweet FA!! Absolutely nothing. 4th 2 season in a roll doesn’t show they will do anything better next season apart from in the cups.… Read more »
29 years on,still losing the big games,fucking hilarious..
Happy st Thomas day all gooners.
lol Loyika
You obviously don’t know Emery from the past.
He’ll be jumping around with the best of them.
Something you will have to put up with eh
How is next season a gimme Loyika?
What do you mean by gimme?
Aubergine
Almost as bad as that loser wenger
Aubergine
Funny people would find it unjust that a player disolcates another players shoulder.
You aren’t the brightest spark are you
yet again the bindippers fails to live up to the media hype,so glad they failed again,would never have heard the end of it.
kudos to Zidane and Rmadrid who have made the CL their bitch.
Marko
You’re daft as a brush, absolutely fawning over paper links that Liverpool and co. get, but you sit dismissing links to players for us? absolute weirdo.
Emil Forsberg, Seri, Rabiot, Dembele, Sokratis, Koulibaly, Leno et al all linked to Arsenal but it’s dimissed by you. Instead using the very same tenuous links of other clubs to somehow signal superiority.
To be fair Alan pardrew would have won that final with the real Madrid have.
Zidane doesn’t deserve such strong plaudits
@ Ishola “Gimme” in the sense that I would not expect any expectations put on him besides trying to get his philosophy across to the players and see whom he can work with and whom to send on their way in his second season. If we do well, fair enough, if we don’t fair enough as well, as he will need a season of adaptation. As for him jumping up and down. Guess will have to endure it. But give me a cool Carlo or Zinadine on the touchline any day over that. But it is what it is I… Read more »
@ LG Pardew? Now your joking. Its like saying Walrus could have won the treble with the Barca team Pep had (as they were basically the best players at that time) Or “Wally with the Brolly Steve Mclaren could have won the WC with the Spanish team that won it. Zizou ain’t as good as Pep and Jose (in terms of coaching) but lets not take anything away from what he has achieved (especially this season) Do you think Benitez (good manager that he is) could have done this treble of UCLs? Some Managers just find them selves at the… Read more »
People really having a go at Ramos? Lol behave, he didn’t go for the dislocation.
He manhandled Salah the same way every fan would want their CB to deal with the opponents biggest threat. If Mustafi did tat to him I’d be saying good lad, shame he got injured in the process
Northern turnip,
You’ve never played the game to any decent standard to spout the utter bollocks you come out with. Thick cunt.