A couple of days out the mixer and something massive happens, best described by Boreham Wood’s boss Luke Garrard.
“They’re the best team I have ever faced in my career. You look at the two side they put out, they’re frightening. They were here to put on a show for their new manager. Killer, ruthless – they were ready to hit us with every blow they could.”
GET IN FUTURE, here we are!
I didn’t watch the game, but I can tell you, I watched the goals and they were fun. Nelson and Auba dropping a couple of pearlers. Amazing that Emery took the squad back to training for a session after.
Someone asked me about the hammering Wenger took for overtraining, asking if it were the same for Emery. Absolutely, our new manager is taking the same risks as our old manager did when it comes to overloading the players in preseason. The difference here is Emery has complex ideas he needs to communicate to his players and he needs to do that on the training pitch. He can’t really afford to do that slowly because he has to keep himself in the job and he has to prove to the world he’s great.
We might see the impact of the preseason with injuries, particularly because his strength and conditioning coach is an unknown quantity and one would expect he’s likely as crazy to deal with as Carcedo. Keeping players fit heading into December is imperative. We’ve seen Wenger bollocks seasons time and time again because he’d use the same players over and over again at the start of the season, then they’d die in December, get ravaged by injuries, then recover in March for the top 4 chase. Hopefully we’ll avoid that.
I guess that’s where my main concerns lie with Emery and the whole of the new setup. No one has Premier League experience. Players run faster for longer in our league, pound for pound the quality is superior to the other leagues in Europe, there are also more games played over a longer period of time. No break either. No one has really experienced that in the new regime bar the old players he kept around.
That’s why I worry about Sokratis, Lichtsteiner and the new contract for Xhaka. Those are three players who are dreadfully slow. You can’t get away with a lack of mobility in the Premier League, so it’ll be very interesting to see if those moves were an ‘experience’ oversight, or I’m just not clued into the new plan.
Anyway, a great start for Emery, with plenty of hard work still to come. So good to see the players showing off for the new coach.
The World Cup was quite the spectacle. Olivier Giroud bagged the biggest trophy without landing a single shot on target through the whole tournament. Good for him, fuck the haters, we still love him even if he is CHELSEA SCUM. The game wasn’t quite as one-sided as the score, but when it came down to it, France just has an incredible squad of talent who can sit in second gear and still score 4 goals.
The big news for me is Mbappe is now the new king of world football. He scored in the final as a teenager, he looks unbelievably comfortable on the biggest stage, and I think he’s just seen off Ronaldo and Messi. He’s the new king in town. It was funny listening to commentators talking about his rise in the World Cup like he was some unknown dropping a worldie from the second division.
‘You’ll remember the name’
… for fucks sake lads, he went to PSG for £163m last summer, we’re pretty fucking aware of who he is.
I’m pleased for him regardless, and furious at Arsenal for not paying off his parents with the big dollars.
Interesting that France win the World Cup without a single Arsenal player. A sad indictment of the banter years.
There’s not much else in the news about Arsenal, we hired a new physio from Port Adelaide, Darren Burgess hiring in some friends after unfairly firing Colin Lewin. Sociedad is in for Monreal, a move I hope doesn’t happen. Lucas Perez wants to stay at Arsenal to work under Emery. Ospina is in the sights of Napoli, let’s pray that goes through.
Right, that’s me done. See ya’ll tomorrow.
DM
Tro4phy
Now
Tr4phy
FFS
Yeah, Sokratis was quite slow against Boreham Wood. The lady sat behind me (she commentated loudly throughout the duration of the game) said: “That Sokratis boy’s surely a big lad!” Maybe shedding a couple of pounds will make him more mobile?
didn’t see our pre-season game just the goals
Gr8th
The feeling in my gut when you see that Sokratis can keep up with a Boreham Wood striker running past him. I hope that it was nerves and not that he can’t hold of a player of that caliber. He looked weak and slow in the game. Chambers and Holding need to step it up big time if Sokratis fall flat.
Pedro
Regarding over training, surely the squad will have an advantage as almost none of them figured in the WC.
Also, to be fair, our injury crises over the years – especially the austerity years- always had more to do with squad depth and the lack of it at arsenal, than anything else.
Remember midweek CL ties with Song as a n emergency CB?
Earlier this morning I posed questions about the goalkeeper position at Arsenal. We can assume that Leno will be first string and I suggested that Ospina should be sold with Martinez who is home grown and now aged 25 elevated as second string with Cech as third string and mentor to other two goalkeepers. What has not been discussed until now is the makeup of our squad where we need 25 registered players with no more than 17 being non home grown. At the moment there are just 9 home grown players over 21 on the books, which are: Martinez… Read more »
Thanks, Pedro for raising my question about ‘over-training’. Maybe Wenger didn’t over-train, maybe he just over-played players who were tired?
Time will tell.
We should absolutely play 4-3-3 and by the looks of it Emery agrees with me. It’s the best formation for our current players to fulfill their potential to the maximum. We cannot afford to play with 2 midfielders if one of them is Xhaka. Simple as. Now when Torreira will be playing next to him and will be holding his hand the whole time, jury could safely have it’s final word on the Swiss. He might as well look a player, who knows?! Imo Ramsey signing da thing is an absolute necessity and from what we’ve heard FROM HIS OWN… Read more »
“As good as young TH was, at 19 he wasn’t regarded globally as a world beater and heir to the throne of best player in the world.’
There was no Twitter and ITKs then. Social media has influenced football beyond words
The over training argument is a speculative one.
None of us are fitness experts, so we don’t know.
What we do know is this: If you go into a season with a relatively small squad playing CL and PL games, your options for rotation are limited. As a result you rotate less, and therefore get injuries.
I am leaning towards 433 formation too with Xhaka Torr and Ramsey if he stays. I think it’s very balanced and has the potential to deliver.
Put either of Ozil or Mikitaryan on one side and play a proper winger on the other side (if we sign any) if no use both ozil and Miki on the wings. Auba/Laca through the middle
karimJuly 16, 2018 10:18:18 Commiserations Josip and Ivan, Croatia proved they were worthy finalists and could have won it on another day given the circumstances. Been drinking and partying all night, great atmosphere ( no hooligans where I was ), only shiny happy people, great times ! Now I can forget that damn 2006 final !!! Thanks all for the kind words ! London The French may be arrogant and snobby at times but you definitely deserve the ” muscular cunt ” tag you once got, you’re so full of shit it’s not even funny. Champions du monde, mon frère… Read more »
“Muscular Cunt”
LOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Effing hell this is priceless!!!
Arsenal are employing AFL (Aussie rules) fitness staff, recently adding a second member to the team from Port Adelaide Football Club. The system there is quite different in that the off season is where they really concentrate on bringing up the fitness base of the players. The off season is almost as long as the actual season. It’s quite different from the football off season which is quite short. I can tell you that our high performance man, Burguss, is very much technology and data driven and he will be closely monitoring individual training loads. The risk is that pushing… Read more »
Still early days and training is very much part of pre-season. Somewhat premature to be discussing over-training at this,point, especially when you consider that Emery likely knows he’s inherited a squad that lacked fundamentals. If he continues to do the same into the season then there could be room for some concern. Early days, leave it be as the team looks for an identity.
Stop being Pedro, Pedro.
Over the past 15/20 years so many aspects of Football have changed. Can you imagine just how good the stars back then would have been if they had the opportunity to play on the flawless pitches of today. As I said yesterday, you cannot compare Henry with M’bappe. M’bappe still has a long way to go to even get close to TH14. @ mysticleaves Neymar is a bad egg and a liability. He may be able to juggle a ball and look flash, but if someone said to me who would you want, Neymar or M’bappe, I would have no… Read more »
Bad egg, true but can be contained as was shown in Barca. Psg were stupid to undress in front of Neymar the way they did.
If he goes to Madrid, he won’t be leader. Will still be Perez and the fans. He will score more goals and assist more than Mbappe. He will sell you shirts and is a marketing behemoth. No brainer really
But I totally get that you would choose Neymar, tats your opinion.
*Mbappe
Reverting back to my earlier post it is clear to me that Arsenal are unlikely to offload any home grown players apart from Jenkinson and Akpom. Realistically we need to keep as many on the books to meet our quota. It is also unclear at this stage which players in our squad are likely to be our EPL starting X1. If we assume that we play a 4-2-3-1 formation then I would expect that our starting lineup would be: LENO BELLERIN SOKRATIS MUSTAFI MONREAL/KOLASINAC TORREIRA/XHAKA RAMSEY MKHITARYAN OZIL AUBAMEYANG LACAZETTE The two positions which may be still open for discussion… Read more »
Don’t see over training being an issue most of the players we have have been on holiday while others have been training and playing at a world cup. It’s just catch up. Also the links to Gomes just won’t go away.
ES, I doubt that Emery will use Ramsey as a partner of Torreira or Xhaka in the 2 in front of our defence and then have a CAM as well. It brings us back to the Wenger times where we had Coq and Ramsey partnership with Ozil in front. We were playing such drab football it’s unreal. And we were so weak. Great scenario would be Xhaka out, Nzonzi in, but it cannot happen so I’d try the Ramsey in front of Xhaka and Torreira formation. Doesn’t look like we are getting a winger so Ozil on one side and… Read more »
Auba could supposedly be used in a wing position in Mikki’s place but we’ll see. It’s too early days. Fact is that Mikki can play decent in a lot of positions in attack, Auba from the looks of it, is not just a tap-in merchant or he wouldn’t have done well on the flanks. His first goal vs borehamwood was special.
So where were we at: Auba can be used as a CF (hopefully) and winger, Lacazette will be eager to have a better campaign than last one, Mikki can play decent everywhere in attack, and Ozil is just Ozil.
Also Ramsey will sign it’s like Özil all over again it’s being dragged out because his agent is probably hoping to see if someone anyone is interested in him and if not he’ll sign. Much like Özil you can probably be damn sure if they had the chance of leaving they’d probably would have. But decent clubs are buying up the Freds and the Jorginho’s and the Fabinho’s of this world and no one seems to want Ramsey so he’ll stay
Leaving aside the views expressed on Le Grove about both Ramsey and Xhaka I don’t see either of these players leaving. Following what I have written earlier we cannot afford to lose Ramsey as we are already short of home grown players. I think that it is likely that Ospina will leave. Also I don’t see any room in our squad next season for Campbell, Jenkinson and Akpom. Much has been discussed about lack of width in our squad. For this reason I see both Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan playing in starting eleven with Welbeck and Peres operating as backup. Whilst… Read more »
If Ramsey goes Andre Homes could be the replacement. At 15m quoted on the papers it could be daylight robbery!
CV in all positions from World Cup 2018
https://metro.co.uk/2018/07/16/world-cup-2018-team-tournament-luka-modric-leads-way-even-though-france-claimed-victory-moscow-7709623/
Not sure if it would have been over training after the game, more likely Emery saw some things he didn’t like or wanted to work on and was making sure they were dealt with straight away.
Pedro “I guess that’s where my main concerns lie with Emery and the whole of the new setup. No one has Premier League experience. Players run faster for longer in our league, pound for pound the quality is superior to the other leagues in Europe, there are also more games played over a longer period of time. No break either. No one has really experienced that in the new regime bar the old players he kept around.” I think your thinking here is a bit narrow, Pedro. Your insinuation would’ve held water 20 years ago, but not in this globalised… Read more »
Yeah complaining about over training when we’ve been ill prepared for the start of the season year after year is a bit lame. I mean I’m assuming that it’s just the way he works his squad in preseason normally
Some players are vastly overrated on here simply because they do not play for Arsenal.
When you watch a player week in week out it is easy to pick apart the weaknesses in their games. Fred is nothing special as a footballer and we shall see that once the season begins. I have witnessed enough of this bigging up of players based on their price tags and 7 times out of 10 they do not match the hype.
Also wasn’t it reported that Emery had delivered some comprehensive presentation to Gazidis on the players etc and so I think he will know exactly what he’s getting in for.
We missed a few chances yesterday, were guilty of overplaying and let them in a couple of times stupidly, more likely he was getting them down to the training centre to highlight those things right away.
No-one has answered the question Pedro posed in his headline title. Does pace pose a problem and the mention of my old chum Xjaka and Big Papa Papastathopoulos. I wouldn’t worry about the Licht so much as he is only back-up. The first two mentioned are seen as first team starters at this stage it seems. Looks like system is going to be heavily relied upon. Unai will have to earn his corn here. Also you would hope that unlike Wenger Unai will have no qualms in dropping players that are seen originally as first team starters but at a… Read more »
Have you seen much of Fred receding? My point was that if you were to listen to some Arsenal fans talk about Ramsey you’d swear he was one of the best midfielders around and with a year left negotiations going slow on a new contract you’d imagine he’d be a bargain for someone right? But teams seem to be buying Fred and Jorginho and Fabinho and Fabian etc instead with no one seemingly interested in Aaron. If he ends up staying it’s not because we’re his first choice likely we’re his only decent choice
Is Sokratis actually that slow?
France deserved to win, they maybe a nation of arseholes but those arseholes sure know how to play football.
We all of course do not know the answers to so many questions at this early stage. Be forewarned though Unai will hit problems at some point and sooner than some may think as some on here seem to portray him as the best thing since sliced bread. That’s fully understandable though. It’s the relief for so many at the escape from Wenger’s clutches at the club. But he will hit problems and I hope he shows a ruthless streak to remedy those problems and in a quick and decisive manner which Wenger on many occasions seemed unable to due… Read more »
“Does pace pose a problem and the mention of my old chum Xhaka and Big Papa Papastathopoulos. I wouldn’t worry about the Licht so much as he is only back-up. The first two mentioned are seen as first team starters at this stage it seems.” Show me one team that has sprinters in their starting 11. Every team has a slower player. I think the focus should be on Xhaka’s slow mentality as opposed the physicality. Physically there fuck all that can be improved to Xhaka’s pace. I’ve made a couple of reference to Emery’s PSG in the past: Motta,… Read more »
Hey I like Emery but there’s nothing to suggest he can just wave a magic wand and make us good defensively which is why I wanted more reinforcements in that area. We’re putting our trust in Emery who if you look at Sevilla and PSG wasn’t really known as a defensive type of manager whereas we should be putting our trust in Sven who can target certain types of defenders that we need
Cesc Appeal “Is Sokratis actually that slow?” It’s only pre-season of course but that play where he went to ground and went in for a sliding challenge well on his highlights video of last season for Dortmund they were of course showing only sliding challenges that were successful and came off for him. But even some of those winning sliding challenges you were thinking to yourself why did he go in like that? Why not stay on your feet? Some poster suggested poor positional play and judgement. Could be perhaps. But also players slide in for challenges sometimes when they… Read more »
Marko why do u always say with so much authority that no one is in for a player..are u an agent?? Are you Ramsey’s agent?? What makes you so sure no one is in for me?? Ramsey is a player that is rated highly not just by Arsenal fans, this notion that only Arsenal fans and Wenger rate Ramsey is false on every level. And yes i watched Fred play in the Champions league last season and i was not impressed in the slightest, he struggled to impose himself in games and did not really stand out as a top… Read more »
With football continuing to evolve into a money-powered sport, I wonder if this new Arsenal will catch on. I consider us lucky we were able to land a lethal striker for £56million while others are spending hundreds of millions of pounds for the same amount of talent. pretty soon world class will start to cost triple digit millions, which begs the question: will Arsenal follow suit or will they get left behind (again) and start scrounging for scraps?
I’ve made a couple of reference to Emery’s PSG in the past: Motta, who when fit, played 30 games in 16/17 considering how fragile he is and made 21 apps last season.
Motta much like a William Carvalho is slow yes but an actual DM who sits deep. Xhaka can’t tackle and doesn’t necessarily sit deep and stay there so the comparison isn’t fair and again Emery isn’t a miracle worker and Xhaka will have to change his game to be like Motta
It was unfortunate that both yesterday’s WC Final and the Wimbledon Mens singles final were influenced by poor officiating. As for the penalty, I’m sorry, it wasn’t a penalty. Any top referee could have seen that and the fact that Nestor Pitana took so long to come to a decision, shows how poor he was. At Wimbledon, Novak was in a commanding position two sets to love up, but in the third set, as Anderson started to make a fight of it, Djokovic played his usual gamesmanship card. Extending time between points.Bouncing the ball numerous times to delay the point.… Read more »
I know we have some doubters on here but i am really hoping the Nzonzi rumors are true. I do not want Emery to have to put all his eggs in the Xhaka basket or hope that Elneney can up the physical part of is game.
There are rumors we are interested in Kingsley Coman
Just so you know, I am a stickler for rules………..whatever the sport.
I think the N’Zonzi boat has passed.
If it ever appeared truly on the horizon at all.
As long as we have a partner for Sokratis who is quick, he’ll be fine and will complement them. We’ve long been missing a CB who has been happy to stay back and to defend his heart out and put his body on the line. Sokratis is a defender first, and I’m happy to have him in our squad. He’s not an attack minded ball playing defender like Maguire. Don’t criticise him for not being something we knew already about when we opened negotiations with him. The guy has hardly played and people are complaining… honestly, cut the team some… Read more »
Marko why do u always say with so much authority that no one is in for a player..are u an agent?? Are you Ramsey’s agent?? What makes you so sure no one is in for me?? In this day and age you’d hear something anything. Do you think Ozil signed a new deal with us because he turned down other clubs and because he loves the club? Aaron is the same he’s said that he’d like to play in Spain do you think he’d turn down a move to a Barca or Madrid to stay with us? When you watch… Read more »
As for cycling, what’s the bloody point.
50% of cyclists are asthmatic.
Give them all an inhaler!
That would sort out the king of the mountains.
Anyone know what formation we played?
“So you haven’t watched him week in week out but you’re formulating an opinion anyway. You know more than United’s scouts? Maybe”
I do not think United do much scouting if i am being honest ..all they need is a whiff of City interest and they are all over him.
Knowing you Marko if we had signed Fred you would have made a song and dance about him not getting a single minute in the world cup. You would have used that as a base to question him. You are always difficult to please when it comes to Arsenal signings
Leeds Gunner
It is all speculation at this point about players and points are made about weaknesses or so-called weaknesses in players when in previous clubs.
Let’s not kid on that Sokratis is a nailed on good purchase. No-one knows at this point.
Ramsey is a player that is rated highly not just by Arsenal fans, this notion that only Arsenal fans and Wenger rate Ramsey is false on every level. Yeah then why hasn’t anyone ever tried to sign him? I mean I think he’s exactly like Wilshere in the sense that for years Arsenal fans have put these players on a pedestal and made it sound like they’re great talents and I don’t know how many times we heard that Wilshere could play or would interest big clubs in Europe like Juve or Milan or PSG or whoever and lo and… Read more »
Nzonzi interest is still very much on make no mistake about that. Now the world cup is over expect it to even gather more pace
I do not think United do much scouting if i am being honest ..all they need is a whiff of City interest and they are all over him.
So you know more than United AND City’s scouts?
Knowing you Marko if we had signed Fred you would have made a song and dance about him not getting a single minute in the world cup.
Now I would have been happy with him I’m happy with the Torreira signing
‘As for the penalty, I’m sorry, it wasn’t a penalty.’
Nothing to be sorry about,you’re absolutely on point
might be the first time seeing agree on something,might not even happen again but the ref made too many questionable calls on a FINAL of a word cup
Croatia trounced Argentina in the group stage,an Argentine Referee takes center stage in the final between France and Croatia
No conspiracy.
Leeds Don’t stop questioning the club just because a new manager and new set-up is in place. This new manager and new set-up have to prove they are the real deal and then the questioning will ease off. This honeymoon period is all fine and dandy but the real deal starts soon enough and then we can make real judgements on Emery and the others in the new set-up. And Arsenal fans are fully entitled to continue to ask hard questions of the club until they show they are back on the right path. And this will only be revealed… Read more »
“Now I would have been happy with him I’m happy with the Torreira signing”
I don’t get the comparison…Torriera played a good number of minutes in the world cup and i hope for Fred’s sake you are not mistaking him for a defensively minded midfielder
“Croatia trounced Argentina in the group stage,an Argentine Referee takes center stage in the final between France and Croatia”
Both countries in the final actually trashed Argentina. in fact i dare say if a vendetta is what you are alluding to the France trashing was much more damaging to Argentina than the Croatia trashing
Nzonzi won’t be joining us, he would have been a replacement for Xhaka who had since committed his long term future to the club
The young lad Guendouzi is also a CM, so hard to see another CM coming in which is fine for me.
Still think we have more signing to make, probably a winger
I don’t get the comparison…Torriera played a good number of minutes in the world cup and i hope for Fred’s sake you are not mistaking him for a defensively minded midfielder
What are you talking about? I’m not comparing the two you were making a claim that no matter what I’d find a reason to complain had Fred signed for us or anyone for that matter which I responded that I wouldn’t have and I was happy with Torreira
Nzonzi won’t be joining us, he would have been a replacement for Xhaka who had since committed his long term future to the club
Would have replaced him in the starting 11 yes but not remotely close to playing the same role
“”What are you talking about? I’m not comparing the two you were making a claim that no matter what I’d find a reason to complain had Fred signed for us or anyone for that matter which I responded that I wouldn’t have and I was happy with Torreira””
Oh thought u were comparing both signings ..my bad.
We were not in the market for a midfielder in the Fred mold anyway..so we should not have been anywhere near that transfer and thankfully we weren’t
Guendouzi is 19 with all his appearences coming in Frances second division he’s not a first team option this season. He’ll play Carling cup and that’s it
Is it stupid to suggest Nketiah is a more effective CF than Welbeck? Hoping the former gets some minutes in the cups/EL. The latter is mediocre at best.
We could really use a winger to compliment Auba and Laca, both of whom are great finishers, imo.
Still not convinced by our defenders. Sokratis will be under the microscope in the first few games of the season. A couple of defensive howlers and his confidence could tank.
Pace is a big worry. Xhaka is a major liability when he gives the ball away.
We were not in the market for a midfielder in the Fred mold anyway..so we should not have been anywhere near that transfer and thankfully we weren’t
I wasn’t making a case for signing him I was making a point about all these midfielders being on the move and no one tried for Ramsey. Maybe he’s not as good as we think
Absolutely still need another CB and a winger. While I’d like another midfielder like Nzonzi or Ndombele a CB and a winger is a must. Got no LW in the squad and an injury to Mhiki and who plays RW? Reiss Nelson? Ozil isn’t a winger and either is Welbeck or Iwobi. Have zero wingers in the squad thanks Arsene
All this talk of pace all over the pitch is actually pretty funny. How many footballers playing professionally are truly fast.
One might think Xhaka is a 45 year old who get beaten for pace every single time he steps foot on the pitch
One might think Xhaka is a 45 year old who get beaten for pace every single time he steps foot on the pitch
I mean…
My issue with centre backs is not whether they are individually defective but how they work in combination. Clearly Mustafi and Koscielny did not work particularly well together last season, which explains Wenger’s indecision over playing 2/3 centre backs and using during season 10 different players at the back. Sokratis has been recruited as an experienced centre back as well as being good in communication and leadership department. Time will tell whether his pace is a problem. You should not base it on just one game. He played on Saturday alongside Mavropanos who by all accounts did well. This combination… Read more »
One might think Xhaka is a 45 year old who get beaten for pace every single time he steps foot on the pitch
…actually that is a pretty accurate description. Well done.
Marko
I do not think that Arsenal will buy a winger this summer unless we find the
right player at the right price.
If we play Lacazette up front then we will play Aubameyang alongside Ozil and
Mkhitaryan behind him. Welbeck or Iwobi will be options to play as subs in
front four.
When you discuss wingers you should not forget that Bellerin is a right wing
back and has plenty of pace.
Monaco the only team to actually put in a bid for Golovin. The ITK’s had us believe his transfer to Chelsea was done and dusted.
As for the Sokratis talk, i was never behind that signing and i will still maintain my reservations.
When you discuss wingers you should not forget that Bellerin is a right wing
back and has plenty of pace.
What does that have to do with our lack of wingers? If I was him I’d be more concerned with improving my form as a RB
Ronaldo in his first season at RM had it all
https://mobile.twitter.com/ronaldocomps/status/1018211830286733312/video/1
Emiratesstroller “My issue with centre backs is not whether they are individually defective but how they work in combination. Sokratis has been recruited as an experienced centre back as well as being good in communication and leadership department. Time will tell whether his pace is a problem. You should not base it on just one game.” While I agree with you that a partnership can enable a good defence the comments on Sokratis are not based on one pre-season game against Boreham Wood. That would be daft. What was pointed out was that Sokratis was seen to frequently go to… Read more »
” Croatia trounced Argentina in the group stage,an Argentine Referee takes center stage in the final between France and Croatia. No conspiracy ”
France got an Argentine ref v Uruguay and an Uruguayan one v Belgium, a few days after we beat their respective national teams.
No conspiracy
Loving the way the French team and the thousands of people I partied with last night put Sanmi’s stinking theories to bed.
Not saying everything is/will be rosy in my country but it certainly shows that it’s possible to assimilate people from various ( not opposed ) cultures within a common society.
My final words on the issue.
Unless ramsey is played in the attacking third then there is no reason to keep him at the club. I watched smith – rowe at the weekend and I am convinced he will do a much better job in centre mid than Ramsey…. AMN also gives more to the role than Ramsey..they are both very comfortable in the role. If Emery plays/tries him as the CAM then fair enough.. I can see the reasoning behind that as ramsey has energy desire and hunger to get into the box which in turn can create space for lacazette and aubamayang… But as… Read more »
karim,
I know you’re cool, but not the right time to brag since it’s been on every news channel throughout the globe how your policemen are forced to use tear gas in an effort to stop people from destroying buildings, looting, throwing stones at the police, etc across all France. 2 dead people, 500 arrested, 850 cars vandalized, 100 000 police officers and 44 000 firemen out on the streets.
I hope things are normal now.
Raptora
I received tear gas in ’98 in Paris for no reason ( we wanted to watch the final on a giant screen at the Eiffel Tower and they charged for the fuck of it ), our men in blue are also rather trigger-happy you know.
95 % of the country had the time of their life but you choose to focus on the unavoidable end of the party looting by a few cavemen .
Sad
Meat Pie. Sausage Roll.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRk99G1BvB8
Says a lot about the news channel, really
pace is not a trademark of defenders. tackling and winning balls is the necessity. Pace is just an added bonus. No team has 11 players with pace. They just complement each other. some slag players off before a ball is even kicked. I’ll be happy if we sign a winger but if we don’t, I’m cool with what we have.
Linked to Bentancur.
Errrrr nah thanks.
Re younger CR7, since we are at this stage comparing players to a 19 yo Mbappe, but as a whole we should not be comparing players by age since what separates the great football players from the rest – their consistency for an extended period of years. The players who are great at 19 yo might not make the step up and fall from high. Mbappe is a top player already, anyone can see that. But so was considered Martial. He didn’t really progress and that’s what people are hoping that will happen to young Kylian. Our Wilshere didn’t really… Read more »
Karim
Congrats to Les Bleus et to you! The better team won. France scored two superb goals in the second half to put the tie to bed. But the first half was very disputed (I think Croatia were more threatening and dominant then), and the penalty was debatable. France played and won like Italy in 1982! Well done, there is so much talent in this French team. I was no fan of Deschamps before the tournament, but I have to say that he impressed me. Enjoy, victory is sweet, while defeat is hard… 😉
Nzonzi had a very solid and competent game yesterday. I like him, he’s tall, athletic and good with the ball.
Josip
Just re-watched it ( in better conditions ) and I agree with you.
Like you said the other day, Deschamps learned his trade in Turin and it shows..
Surely, we’ll show more panache as years go by.
Flattery aside, your national team is a joy to watch, they were technically brilliant as usual.
To think my local team Sochaux didn’t play Perisic once in his 2-year term over there…
Hope you guys win it one day !
“Motta much like a William Carvalho is slow yes but an actual DM who sits deep. Xhaka can’t tackle and doesn’t necessarily sit deep and stay there so the comparison isn’t fair and again Emery isn’t a miracle worker and Xhaka will have to change his game to be like Motta” More specifically, Motta’s biggest attribute was turning the ball over – high completion pass rate and positional awareness. Don’t know about you, but I think this is definitely something Xhaka can improve on. With Torreria in there (and Ramsey) I think his lack of athleticism should be covered, similarly… Read more »
Cheers Karim!
We played our best game, in the final, simple… 🙂
I didn’t know the Perisic story in Sochaux. Un-be-lie-va-ble!!!
France is an incredibly gifted nation when it comes to football but I always have the impression that there’s less popular passion for the game compared to England, Italy, Spain, etc. (except of course when France is world champion). I can’t explain why.
Good win on saturday, great start for Emery. Im not going to bother discussing individuals, as the opposition were dreadful, that said Eddie NKetiah is an impressive player. He seems to have been able to adapt and step up every time he plays at the next level, and he is more than just a goalscorer. Im not sure the loan system works so well for more attacking players. Managers in the UK are under so much pressure to succeed that they dont play kids often, and drop them if they dont perform for 45 minutes. I would keep NKetiah &… Read more »
Motta could put his foot in.
Pretty tough player.