Forget Stan. What are Sven, Raul and Vinai bringing to Arsenal in 2019?

by .

Well, yesterday’s post certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. I think a lot of people felt that was mostly aimed at Emery. It wasn’t, I think the challenges we have with the club moving forward are about the whole team. A few people screamed that I’d always straight up blame Wenger for what happened on the pitch back in the day, but was affording Emery different treatment. That’s because Emery is a coach, not a demigod.

The biggest concern that all Arsenal fans should have moving into this year is the lasting impact of the Ivan Gazidis signings in the club. He’d been making face-saving decisions all over the football club because his MO was about self-preservation. Don’t rock the boat. Do enough to get you by. Go with the mainstream view of what looks good, never put your neck on the line.

The big question is this: Who will put their neck on the line to move Arsenal forward?

Think about how easy it is to take the job at Arsenal. We have a bigger turnover than Liverpool, one that is about to get bigger, without any real success to talk about. The fans still pay for the season tickets, Adidas are about to pay out a fortune on a new shirt deal, the Premier League gravy train just keeps on rolling on, and we’re doing all this without Champions League football. Incredible.

Stan has two big clubs on his books. Arsenal, arguably one the greatest brands in European football… and the LA Rams, a nothing team that moved from St. Louis. The Kroenke’s invested mega money into the American club. One of their guys is on record as saying something to the tune of ‘we knew we had to invest, because folk from LA aren’t going to pay to watch a substandard product.’

So what did they do? They hired in a bright young innovative coach to lead the team. They’ve made powerful backroom hires. They’re adding big names and excitement to their team sheet. They are making an unbelievable effort to make that team the crown jewel. It’s an absolute investment, because they know that there’s no history there like there is in North London.

Meanwhile, over here, there’s Arsenal. The MO has been keeping the trains running. He will never invest a penny of his own into taking us to the next level because there’s no benefit to him. The big question then becomes this: What is the expectation of his staff?

Will he have Raul and Vinai banging down the door for LA like investment? Or, like we’ve seen with Ivan, will it be a put up and shut up? If the person that runs the show has no desire to dominate, rewards a culture of low risk and obedience, what hope do we have?

Well, the hope goes back to what we spoke about yesterday. We need to accept that we’re tier two. We need to be grateful that at the very least, Stan allows the club to put back in what we earn. We need to try something new. The approach at the moment feels like we’re waiting for a miracle to happen, instead of making our own miracles come to fruition.

This point becomes even more important now David Ornstein confirmed the ‘we’re skint’ intel I shared 6 weeks ago.

We need to make our way back the Champions League. We’re not going to do that hiring in hacks that are past their prime. We’re not going to do that blowing huge amounts of money on players that don’t fit the mold. Again, I ask this question, if the club truly believed in Mesut Ozil, why is Unai Emery alienating him? Not that I disagree, I’ve never thought he was fit for purpose, but what was the football strategy that allowed us to get to that point?

Anyway, the thing to watch for next year is whether the new management are for real. Raul has come from the most prestigious club in the world. A nasty club. A club that does dirty things to get whatever they want. Their wage bill is hideous, almost double that of Manchester City. No wonder they dominate, they can have whoever they want. The manager is almost an irrelevance, even Enrique won the Champions League there. Raul is not a tried and true scrapper like the Dortmund CEO. He’s never had to properly hire a manager before. He hasn’t had to innovate, so what is he going to do at Arsenal to help us out think, scout and perform our much smaller resource pool?

Sven for all intents and purposes was exactly the sort of hire we wanted. In charge of ferreting out some of the roughest diamonds in world football and turning in De Beers profits. We know he has it in him to bring all the boys to the yard, but the question remains is this: What is his remit? I can get on-board with Matty G and Torriera like signings, but what is going on with Gary Cahill and Ever Banega? Are those guys kicking us onto the next level? I highly doubt it, so wouldn’t it be worth investing our limited budget in players that have room to grow like Dortmund did so well? Should we be planning for next season this January, versus making average crap shots with players that really aren’t that great?

Then there’s Vinai. Clearly a very talented man, but he’s 37 years old. He has been gifted an outrageous opp at Arsenal. It is unheard of to give someone that young so much power. But at what cost to Arsenal fans? Is he an Ivan protegé? What did he agree to land the job? Will he have the guts to move us forward, or will he be preaching self-sustaining as a football strategy for the next ten years.

Arsenal need to wake up. They need to focus on a way forward. They need to be bold. The problem statement is simple: how do Arsenal succeed with the resources on offer?

Remember the resources are MASSIVE. 3rd highest net spenders in the league (bigger net spend than Madrid since 2010). 9th largest wage bill in Europe. Growing turnover. We have a huge stadium, mostly full attendance, unreal training facilities and the backdrop of the greatest city in the world. If Atleti, Roma, Juve and Liverpool can make CL finals, so can we. No more excuses. No more mediocrity.

The answer to the problem statement cannot be the direction we’re heading right now. It’s not innovative, it’s not bearing fruit (nor will it), and it’s a very long way off being sustainable.

Happy New Year, enjoy the Fulham game. 🔴⚪️

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Boomslang

Here

Boomslang

For

Boomslang

The

Boomslang

Trofee

TallestTiz

Damn it

It was a cake walk today and I bottled it like the spuds

Kayciey

Happy New Year Grovers. I hope you are all well.

Graham62

The gauge of a good manager is how they adapt when things conspire against them. Injuries and ongoing player disputes have resulted in a definite downturn,although to be honest it has been blatantly obvious these past few weeks that we have been an accident waiting to happen. Emery may have thought he knew the English game inside out but, from afar, things can always look and feel slightly different. Lacazette must start tonight. We need him. Auba needs him because, without him, he is too lightweight. Fulham have improved under Ranieri, so won’t be easy. I’d take a win of… Read more »

Gelbs

Let’s face it…. Emery is just a ‘yes’ man, and happy to go along with whatever shit Sven and Saul pull out. Fucking joke of a Club. They’ve spent a lot down the years, but now don’t believe in doing so. Having two prats scraping the barrel and buying players for you, and expecting you to work with them. I sure as shit wouldn’t put up with that! I’d rather buy my own players! Do people honestly think that Emery would sign the right players, anyway?? Like Wenger…. If you gave him 200 million to spend this Jan and in… Read more »

Pierre

At this present time ,the most important thing is to win football matches …we have fulham, Blackpool and West ham coming up and we need to see positive results and performances.

The rest is insignificant because the fans will turn very quickly….good results will buy the manager and his backroom staff time.

bad results and performances in those 3 games and they could well lose the fan base and then the pressure becomes massive on the manager,players and club.

TallestTiz

What!?
Chelsea asking for £40 million for Hudson Odoi?

Arsenal has to step up our player valuation. We need to work things out

The fan base can help a lot by not being overly negative about our players. Pundits who spout shit on TV should get the hit back that our players are just good.

They’re good for other teams, not just good for Arsenal standard

But the way our fans castigate our own players make it feel like they’re dogshit and can’t even kick a ball. No thanks to Wenger and Gazidis anyways.

TR7

Time to put Lacazzete back in the starting line up and use Ozil in all games except in away games against tough physical opponents. Let’s see whether Emery is the kind of manager who learns from his mistakes and makes amends.

Josip Skoblar

What an utter disgrace…
Swansea City charging mascots Premier League prices http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46526716

Josip Skoblar

Happy New Year to all!

Nelson

With this s-s model, I think Vinai is very important. He has to get us more sponsorship deals. Adidas is a good start. Look for some big insurance company, drug company, car company, etc.
As for the football side of thing, I’ll repeat this one sentence. Our club lives and dies with Auba outscoring the opposition. For that to happen, he’ll need Laca to be his “#10 and striking partner”. Laca can buildup the attack and create room for him.

Ivan

Happy nes year grovers and best wishes. I was really disappointed with Emery hire when happened. Now when i got a better picture of him im baffeled how many of you wrote him off so quickly. He didnt do much wrong till now, was proactive with allmost everything he did and in a bit bemused how quickly most of you turned on him after Lpool result. Now one thing i noticed here that most of English fans here for some reason have problem seeing context of this rather tricky situation we are at the moment. First – constant debate about… Read more »

Ivan

Sry for bad grammar, had one too many last night.

Grimlar

If you want to know why Arsenal dont have a lot of money to spend, £50 million a year lost because of no Champions League, £18 million a year for Ozils wages and so on. That would go quite a long way towards a couple more transfers. As for the older players, I dont object to them provided they bring something to the club, Lichtsteiner and Sokratis were brought in to deal with short term problems, ie no backup for Bellerin, and Koscielny injured. I think they have also helped make the change of culture that Emery was trying to… Read more »

Tee

Pedro

A few people screamed that I’d always straight up blame Wenger for what happened on the pitch back in the day, but was affording Emery different treatment.

The reverse is the case here.

It’s clear like a sunny day that you dislike Emery’s appointment and you don’t shy away from attacking him.

Stop using the Wenger mantra to hide your hatred for Emery. You stated point blank he is not the next level. So, stop acting like you have been supporting him. Good riddance

Arteta is your man.

Pierre

Ivan “First off all there are balls in current setup. Emery treatment of Ozil and Ramsey prime example” What about the treatment of Lacazette…don’t be surprised if he is first out of the door ,he is a very saleable commodity as Emery appears to have lost confidence in him. You say there is “balls in the set up” ..I’m not so sure. let’s look at Lacazette and ozil……. Is it a coincidence that our results and performances are poor when they are not in the side and better when they both start. …maybe ,maybe not. To me ,it does appear… Read more »

Leftsidesanch

It didnt take a genius to work out that we would do nothing of note in the transfer window this month.

There is a distinct lack of ambition at Arsenal and the situation in their eyes probably isn’t close to panic levels and desperation where they feel signings are needed.

From a fan pov we need to start consistently winning again and then take care of Chelsea at home this month.

Dr Emil schaffhausen

Wow !?! Forget Stan !! I surprised by how many people on here are happy with Kroenke owning the club . I personally think it’s a disaster, we are in a gradual decline as a club , under this self sustainable model we are using we will never win a major trophy again , are assets are decreasing, we have no players of any great value and the gap will only keep getting bigger. Kroenke just stays invisible, says nothing , some might say his absence is respecting the club , letting the club operate without his interference, I think… Read more »

Un na naai

Pedro you don’t half blow with the wind mate It was kroenke and gazidis all along. Yes, weneger wad past it but it didn’t matter wether he stayed or went. The writing was always on the wall. The ONLY way to get our club back or at the very least, what we want from the owner of OUR CLUB is to stay away. Cancel your membership. Cancel your season ticket. Don’t but the merchandise. The only place that wrinkly old corpse will feel our fury is in his wallet All those mugs flying planes over stadiums missed the point entirely.… Read more »

Un na naai

Tr7

Fuck ozil. The googley eyed creep. Why reward his failure?? What difference will he make? Give me Ramsey and iwobi any day

Voetstoots

Wie is jy, Boomslang? 👊🍻👍

Edu

I always like le grove but disagree with his analysis re :Kroenke. We play Fulham today- who are owned by another Yank, He has spent 100 million on players this season and tried to buy Wembley for half a billion. There are ubiquitous USA owners in the Prem And the narrative is : we have the only one who will not invest in the club? This in my opinion is tosh, BILLIONAIRES INVEST ALL THE TIME, How do they become billionaires? by nicking a few million here and there? In many ways – he is the perfect owner: he doesn’t… Read more »

Pierre

Un
“All those mugs flying planes over stadiums missed the point entirely. It wasn’t enough to just get rid of wenger. He was NEVER the main issue. We are seeing this now.”

Absolutely

Not quite in agreement with you regarding iwobi and Ramsey but yeah , I regard you as a proper fan who will wear his heart on his sleeve…

Pierre

If we could put Ozil’s intelligence and composure and mix it with iwobi’s attitude and work rate and then mix it with Ramsey’s aggression and willingness to make things happen in the box …you would have the player we need.

I suppose Gerrard or Lampard epitomize the above characteristics in a player.

Gelbs

Wenger WAS the main issue. All these morons saying that Kroenke etc was holding Wenger back and now Emery. Wenger influenced the board by not wanting to spend. And when they did… Ozil – £40 mil Sanchez £35 mil Mustafi £35 mil Xhaka £35 mil Lacazette £50 mil Aubameyang £60 mil That’s almost half a team. You telling me, that under a proper manager, that money spent (whether or not the players were good enough doesn’t matter), isn’t enough to win a Title, or at least challenge?? Arsenal should have a quality team by now. Bearing in mind you throw… Read more »

Gelbs

Oh, and David Luiz cost the same amount give or take, as Mustafi. Hardly a great defender, but went back to Chelsea and won the Title straight away under Conte. Look at Chelsea’s defence under Conte, too. Hardly world-class players were they?? Still managed to win the League comfortably. People really talk some fucking shit. Acting as if Wenger wanted to of spent even more on top-class players if he was allowed. Yeah, right! Same as Emery. Give him 200 million to spend. I bet he wouldn’t spend half of that, and if he did, I doubt it be enough… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

As I wrote last night Arsenal’s transfer and contractural policies in recent years have been absolute garbage with very few good decisions. This morning I reviewed on transfermarkt our recent transfers both in and out and frankly they were shocking. Far too often we recruited so-called bargains which turned out to be complete duds. Just take a look at the season when we recruited the memorable Viviano and Kallstrom!! Then I look at the number of players who have been undersold or in some cases allowed to run down their contracts. In the first category you have players like Szczesny… Read more »

Gelbs

Can go on if you like? How much did Salah and Mane cost Liverpool?? Firmino?? Same prices as the ones above. Wenger wouldn’t win the League with those players. And even if he did or could, the argument is destroyed anyway, purely because the cunt would never of been in for them in the first place!

Valentin

@Pierre, I agree, Emery is a power hungry petty man. His treatment of Hatem Ben Arfa at PSG was mean. Lucas Mourra made clear during his interview what he thought of Emery. Blaming Özil and Lacazette when they are the one who gave us those victory is a coward attitude. Like he said himself during his interview, he lost his PSG job because of players influence. (I think his bad results in the Champion’s league played a bigger role). So he is now trying to ingrate himself with some players such as Aubameyang (Miki before his injury) and isolate others… Read more »

Globalgunner

Opinions, opinions, opinions. Some claim now that Wenger was never the issue, while the monstrous entrails of his calamitous last years are still here with us. The man who given 2 options will always choose the worst Gervinho instead of Hazard. Check Koscielny instead of Cahill.. Check Sanogo instead of any other footballer Kroenke may not be a football lovers first choice but he has hardly stopped the club from spending. Problem is Wenger kept buying crap. we have been regressing long before Kroenke became majority owner in 2012. Opinions…..Some here are still pining for Wilshere, some hoping Ramsey will… Read more »

Leon

What will Sven, Raul and Vinai bring to Arsenal in 2019? Well, if Leno, Lichsteiner, Sokratis and Emery is anything to go by then very little will be brought to Arsenal in 2019. I agree with so many on here and elsewhere – nothing has changed at Arsenal. In fact, as quoted by sky sports our defence has become worse under Emery and with current poor form we will concede 7 more than last season and how did that finish for us? Emery is to blame for that – not Kroenke or Wenger or anyone else but Emery. He is… Read more »

Dan

Globalgunner, err yeah so Kroenke had nothing to do with why we spent £11M on Gervinho instead of £30M on Hazard?. Of course Wenger played along with it but to say that it was all his fault is rather dumb, he was clearly working within KSE skinflint budget.

kc

If the Rams get the Bears next week they’re done. Good offense mixed with trick plays is fun to watch, but defense is what wins championships.

Dan

Emery to blame not Kroenke?.

I despair – our fans are some of the thickest in world football.

RIP Arsenal.

Pierre

Gelbs un made the comment “. It wasn’t enough to just get rid of wenger. He was NEVER the main issue. We are seeing this now.”I I’m afraid you have got your knickers in a twist because you didn’t read the comment correctly. He wasn’t in any way absolving wenger from any blame ,he was making the point that by getting rid of wenger doesn’t cure the problem …. We all knew that wenger’s time was up and no one wants him back and you can come up with as many figures you like to prove that we had equal… Read more »

HighburyLegend

Lol Valentin, welcome mate, no place left on Untold ?
You’re a psg fan, so I won’t have any interest in the shit you say.

Thomas

@Un na naai

“All those mugs flying planes over stadiums missed the point entirely. It wasn’t enough to just get rid of wenger. He was NEVER the main issue. We are seeing this now.”

___

Very disengenious. He was a big enough issue to warrant flying planes. He was absolutely diabolical in signing players towards the end. So much money wasted on complete crap.

Gelbs

Maybe you should scroll up, Dan? See my points. Have fun winning against that…

Gelbs

The thing is, the Club have spent and wasted so much money on shit down the years, they’re probably worried about doing it again! Which is why they’ve got Sven in etc.

Gelbs

Pierre, my points are in general. These pricks that are trying to say that Wenger was let down by Kroenke and was why he failed as a manager down the years, as he had his ‘hands-tied’, when it isn’t true. As we’re seeing with Emery. The more money Wenger/Club spent, the worse he got!

Dan

Who gave Wenger the new contracts and allowed him to continue despite never getting us anywhere near a title, sh*tting ourselves in Europe every season and losing 8-2 6-0 5-1 etc etc.

Guess who?, I’ll give you a clue – he wears a toupee, looks like he’s had a stroke and owns a string of mediocre sports franchises.

Nah lets ignore that and blame Wenger again.. RIP Arsenal

Jamie

A game at home against relegation fodder is tailor-made for Ozil. He’ll pad his ‘chances created’ stats, and his fanboys will dine out on his performance today until mid-Feb.

Calling it early.

Gelbs

The only way you could absolve Wenger from any blame, would be if all the crap players bought down the years, were done over his head, whereas Wenger himself, wanted to buy better players. More money or not, lol. Though I doubt that was ever the case! Though, I do believe a lot of his signings down the past few years weren’t his as such. But even if the above was true, he still should of done better. Remember it took him NINE years to win a trophy!

Pierre

Gelbs All the top clubs have wasted money on shit over the years ,Liverpool wasted the saurez money ,Tottenham have bought a couple of crap centre forwards, man utd ((where do I start ), city and Chelsea have made fewer mistakes mainly because they could buy at the top end of the market and if it didn’t work out ,they went out and spent another fortune . If course ,that’s not to say Liverpool and Tottenham have eventually got it right after 20 years of trying but their trophy cabinet is still gathering dust unlike Arsenal’s despite buying ,in your… Read more »

Nelson

Arsenal has too many negative fans. What is so good for the club by making all those negative comments. As I have mentioned yesterday. Lpool fans deserve their success because they are united. If the fans want to influence the owner and the board, a united voice will have a much better chance.

Jamie

Dan – The year we bought Gervinho, Wenger also went on his mad trolley dash. We signed Gervinho £11m (donkey), Santos £6m (donkey), Per £11m (average), Arteta £11m (average player, but who knew he’d be the 2nd coming of Pep as a manager a few short years later), Ox £12m (useless player), Ju-yeong Park £6m!! (who?), Jenko, Joel Campbell, Thomas Eisfeld £2m. Total buys: £59m We also sold Cesc £30m, Nasri £25m, Clichy £7m, Eboue, JET, Traore, Arshavin & Bendtner loans £3m. Total sales: £65m We could have easily afforded the £30m for Hazard by not buying Gervinho, Ox, Park,… Read more »

Pierre

Jamie
You are correct ,it is perfect for Ozil….so let’s hope he plays along with Lacazette and Aubamayang and we get a much needed win .

Jamie

Correction, Eboue was sold for £3m to Galatasaray.

Micheal

Of course Wenger is to blame for the shambolic transfers and ludicrous contract issues. But the owner of the club allowed this to happen. The owner could have stepped in, the owner could have fired Wenger and the owner could have appointed grown-ups to run the club’s finances and footballing. He did nothing.

If your child behaves badly, is it the child’s fault. Or the parent who allows the kid to behave badly ?

Kroenke is the disease at the heart of Arsenal.

Jamie

Kroenke might be a plague, but he isn’t responsible for passing on Hazard for Gervinho, Ox, Park, Jenko, Campbell and Eisfeld. That was completely down to Wenger, and even his most ardent supporters know it.

Apportion blame and credit where it’s due.

Pierre

Gelbs “The only way you could absolve Wenger from any blame” No one is absolving wenger from any blame but it’s fair to say that it is easier to managers football club at the top level if you don’t have to sell your top players as we had to do for a number of years from around the time of our stadium move. It’s also fair to say that Wenger could have used the funds more wisely when we did have money available and that is when the owner should have stepped in and recruited people to deal with wages,contracts… Read more »

Gelbs

Pierre, Of course other clubs have wasted a shit load of money. Point I’m making is, according to some, Wenger was (and still is!) a great manager. If he was so great, why couldn’t he win more trophies, particularly when spending more money?? Great managers get by. Or even just ‘top’ managers, have their moments, even if it’s a one off. Take Simeone at Atletico. He still managed to win the League in 2014, despite fighting against Barcelona and Real. He won the League at the Nou Camp, too! Plus, he made two CL Finals. More than Wenger has done… Read more »

Dan

I don’t know how much more simply I can put it, I am not interested in Wenger, the man should not have been in the job and with an ambitious owner would not have been.

But that is the point really, Wenger is not the owner (maj. shareholder) of Arsenal FC, you can keep pointing at Wenger’s mistakes but that is futile because without the backing of KSE he would not have been there to make those mistakes.

Wenger was just a symptom of the Kroenke disease.

Don T

Never forget Wenger bought Stephanov Cygan Silvestre Squallaci Santos Gervinho Chamakh Debuchy Xhaka Mustafi dont anyone say they were not Wenger players

We havent challenged for the title for 15 years, We cant be classed as a big club

Gelbs

Yeah. But look at United, too…. They lost Ronaldo, Tevez etc, and still won the League in 2011 and reached the CL Final! That was with arguably, Ferguson’s worst United team! Great managers build teams, even if it takes a few years. Three FA Cups in over ten years, is an appalling statistic for a so-called ‘amazing’ manager, lol.

Tom

Both Wenger and Kroenke have killed this club. Emery has been at the club 6 months and is getting attacked. Wenger should have been sacked a decade ago. Under Wenger the club was in terminal decline.But Kroenke backed him. The damage Wenger did will take years to repair

Pierre

Gelbs You have mentioned Simeone who I agree has been punching above his weight ..I would say apart from last season Arsenal were where they deserved to be considering the amount of investment the club has put in compared to some others. I have said previously( and was ridiculed on here) that our recent history of 3 trophies in 4 years could possibly be our most successful period in the next 20 years and fans may look back in the future and wonder who these strange WOBS were, that they would be so ignorant to believe that only winning the… Read more »

kc

Here we go with the Wenger apologists trying to rewrite history again. Yawn. How does a symptom of a disease show up before the disease itself? Mind-boggling.

azed

First day of 2019 and Pierre is lying already.

Ozil did not play in the wins against Westham, Fulham, Bournemouth, Huddersfield and Spurs . He didn’t play at UTD also.

Dissenter

Pierre cannot stop lying and spinning
Happy 2019 to all

Paul Mc Daid

Has Steve Bould been sacked yet ?

Rambo Ramsey

What is with this embarrassing Laca love-in?

I don’t recall anyone whinging when Laca was the preferred starter at the beginning of the season and Auba was either played wide or benched.

azed

“What is with this embarrassing Laca love-in?”

It’s from the Wenger lovers finding ways of bashing Emery.

Al

Apart from him being completely finished, another great thing about the sacking of Wenger is that it completely removed the boards/Kronkes shield.

Now they are exposed as wenger is not here to take all the blame and hopefully now we will see a whole lot more fans holding them accountable.

Rambo Ramsey

Obviously Pierre’s new year resolution is to take his trolling to the next level.

Pierre

Azed I don’t know why I bother replying to your lying accusation but I Will. I know that Ozil never played in the West ham ,fulham, United Bournemouth and Tottenham game ……I made the point that Lacazette and Ozil played almost all of the games starting with Cardiff( which was after the West ham game) and ending with the wolves game ( which was before the Bournemouth,united,spurs game) ….as for the Fulham game ,Lacazette player in that game and not ozil which is why I said almost all.. I will gladly accept your apology when you realise your error and… Read more »

Pierre

And Huddersfield was after the wolves game.

Champagne charlie

“It’s from the Wenger lovers finding ways of bashing Emery.“

So you have the opinion Laca should start and finish games without being a “wenger lover”?

What an odd little view some have on here, always a path drawn back to Wenger. Move on with your lives

Lars

“the backdrop of the greatest city in the world”
Britbongs are hilarious.
I’d rather live in Mogadishu.
Less chance of getting stabbed:)

Micheal

Leno, Sokratis, Koscielny, Mustafi, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Iwobi, Lacazette, Aubameyang

Subs: Cech, Elneny, Ramsey, Torreira, Lichtsteiner, Nketiah, Saka

azed

Pierre

What happened to the games before Cardiff and after Wolves? Don’t they count because Ozil didn’t play in?

You are trying to pass the message that we win when Ozil plays which is a big lie.

Hitman

Great couple of posts Peddlers.
Feels like the club is at a cross roads. Moment of truth. It’s more important that the leadership starts performing.
Imporovement in performance off pitch is more important than on it.
Let’s face it we ain’t going to get any success on the pitch for a while until the backroom get their act together in terms of finance and signings.

Nelson

It is 3 CBs , 2 wing backs with Iwobi supporting La and Auba.
I like this lineup.
1. No Licht
2. Laca and Auba playing together
3. Kola as wing back

Bamford10

3-4-3 again. I don’t get it. Why? Why play Koscielny at all? Also, we have no creative midfielder of any kind in there.

I have been defending Emery, but I think he is getting his selections wrong, is stuck in a rut, is a little confused at the moment.

Samesong

Liking this Ricardo Perriera. Happy new year peeps.

Batistuta

Club staff apparently each got a mail today, something along the lines of low budgets and prudent spending in January.

What exactly are our Cash reserves for?

Mark King

“All those mugs flying planes over stadiums missed the point entirely. ”

Twat

scotsgooner

wtf is wrong with sicknote ozil?????

Bob

3 centre backs against Fulham at home. emery is to negative

Nelson

@Bamford10

It has been awhile our best attack is through Kola. Auba plays better with wingers.

Micheal

“wtf is wrong with sicknote ozil?????”

Saka, Nketiah and Elneny are better players !

Dissenter

Emery is showing that he’s incapable of learning from his mistakes.
I don’t get his love in with Koschelny.

Nelson

@Bob

For me, this is our best formation. Although we have 3 men at the back, but we have two (wingers/wing backs). Our strikers works better with wingers.

Bob

3 centre backs at home to Fulham? the club and the league is to big for this Europa league man.

Freddie Ljungberg

We only have 3 CBs available so we’re forced to play Kos, it’s either him or Licht. Who is this creative midfielder we should be playing? Mikhi injured, Ozil who the fuck knows and Ramsey is not especially creative. Who’s left? ESR? Dangerous to play our only 2 goal threats all the time so understandable that Laca is rested sometimes or comes on against tired legs, our problem is that we have no one else that can score or create anything. If the no budget bullshit in January is true and we’re not actively looking to sell Ozil, Ramsey and… Read more »

azed

Pierre

Also the claim that Emery picks on Lacazette is bullshit

Aubameyang was substituted against WestHam, Cardiff, Newcastle, Everton, Watford, Crystal Palace, Liverpool both games, Bournemouth,

He didn’t start vs Leicester

Out of 20 EPL, Aubameyang has been substituted in 10 of the games which is 50% but you and Valentin can keep pushing the he doesn’t like Lacazette theory.

azed

Bamford and Dissenter

Would you guys rather he play the Lich or Xhaka in defence?

Nelson

@Bob
Both Koscielny and Mustafi are not 100%. If they were fully fit, then we could go with 2 CBs. But then, we should not have both FB’s bombing up at the same time. I still think that this formation is best with the current available players

Kay

I think this is the best possible lineup given the circumstances.
What option does Emery have for back 3?
Lich instead of Kos?

Ramsey maybe instead of Iwobi but we need someone to run at players and unfortunately Iwobi is the best we have for it.

TallestTiz

Considering who we have fit in the club, this is our best set up IMO.

Some fans talk like they don’t understand anything about football.

Follow handball ffs!!

Kay

Look at the bench and all of a sudden we find our squad to be wafer thin.

We should absolutely be getting 2 players min if we are to challenge for top 4.

Wrap up this game with a clean sheet FFS

Leftsidesanch

Fat chance of a clean sheet today.

Leftsidesanch

Also ironic that people are using Emerys supposed treatment of Laca as a way to dig at him. Where was this when he was getting subbed at the 70th minute in a lot of the games last season.

Keep it consistent.

Upstate Gooner

Micheal
“Saka, Nketiah, Elneny are all better than Ozil”… You owe me a new phone as mine is covered in coffee and spit. It’s only January 1st but we already have a quote of the year. Lay of crack, mate.

Nelson

I start to understand Emery. Torreira looked very tired last game while Guen didn’t play. He replaces Torr with Guen. Xhaka is so slow that he’ll never get tired. Iwobi has good chemistry with Kola. I am expecting our attack to mainly going through that channel. All we need is Auba to pick up all those low crosses deliver by Kola.

Bamford10

Agree that Kola as wingback has been effective, but I don’t think that means you have to play 3-4-3 every match.

I don’t know; maybe this is the best he can put out there given what he has. Not inspiring.

Upstate Gooner

Valentin and Pierre
Some very good points.

Jamie
Dude, enough with this Gervinho vs Hazard crap. Nothing is a sure thing when it comes to transfers. Do you think Inter knew that Coutinho will be a 150mil player when they sold him to Pool for peanuts? If only I had that Sports Almanac, I’d be like Bif. Classic case of coulda, woulda, shoulda. You know who grandma would be if she had a dick? A grandpa.

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