It’s Freddie time + The shortlist problem (Long Read)

by .

The new temporary era of Freddie Ljungberg starts today and I have to be absolutely honest… I am VERY excited.

He’s making smart moves, Per Mertesacker is his assistant, he might be bringing Gilberto in for a helping hand, and he told the Arsenal.com team he was all about putting smiles back on the faces of players.

Freddie has gone on the record as saying he thinks players are happier when they’re playing exciting football, we know he was raised on some of most explosive attacking football the world has ever seen, so maybe we’re about to witness Wengerball 2.0.

He has the opportunity to make a claim for the job, to do well, he’s going to have thread the needle of some very tricky situations with the players and the football. Here are some items he’ll be looking to clarify.

The Xhaka thing:

There will be a blank slate for Granit Xhaka. It’ll be very interesting to see how a man with a more attacking vision sees the Swiss. A lot of the ‘he’s highly rated from within’ leaves me aghast. It doesn’t make sense that a player with so little discipline and so many errors in his game could be seen as this absolute essential to the team… but I guess we’ll find out. If he’s in the side, what is he doing and how are they going to protect the team against his bad habits?

Pressing:

Freddie likes high octane pressing. So did Wenger and Emery. No one can keep it going for longer than 3 games. How will Freddie discipline the team to press consistently, or at least in strategic moments during the game? There are big question marks as to whether his first-team forwards are even capable of this. Is Auba going to turn into that sort of player at 29? Does Lacazette have the stamina to do that? Or might the coach pull a wild card and start his younger players. He’s far more likely to get the sort of behaviour he wants our of Saka and Martinelli.

Pepe:

Our very one-footed wide man has looked pretty poor most of the season. It’s hard to move into a tough situation and perform and he certainly hasn’t managed to raise his game. He looks shot of all confidence, but maybe a new coach with a more exciting vision could spark something in him that we haven’t seen yet. He’s certainly not a bad player. If Conte could get Victor Moses firing, then there is hope for Pepe.

Transitions:

Our short game from the keeper has been slow, ineffective and quite frankly embarrassing. We struggle to transition out of defence most of the time, then if the ball makes into midfield, the gaps between the attack are monstrous. Freddie is going to have to get in the weeds with some real basics here, because we don’t move the ball through the phases with any sort of consistency. How is Freddie going to look at this problem, will he go more direct? Will he shorten the passing lanes? Will he bin the short passes out the back? I’m very interested to see how quickly he can impact the way we move the ball. I’m also hoping that we start playing through the middle again with some exciting one-touch combination passing.

The same in reverse. We often have no real shape when we’re hit on the counter-attack or even just under sustained pressure. Midfield is our biggest problem, the two deepest players, whoever they are, offer very little protection to the defence, either by taking up positions that are too deep, or just not being present in the right places. We do not defend as a unit, it’s a lot to expect in a few games, but it’d be nice to see some thinking go into action there.

It’s not really worth hitting you with the management stuff because it’s all very early stages, but I think one thing is clear from listening to Josh K, they will be overjoyed if Freddie can take things until the end of the season. Better choices will be on the market then and Edu, Huss, Raul and Vinnai can take their time over a decision.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, there really is no plan on the manager and we’re accruing a shortlist now because no one was thinking about exiting Emery this season. A staggering oversight when you consider that a proper club would have booted Emery in the summer. The football was quite clearly going nowhere, all the data pointed to total regression, and behind the scenes things were just as dire. Zero control. The bus driver running team motivation talks perfectly captured the managers’ approach. My point here, even if you truly believed in miracles, you’d at least get a backup list of names just in case.

The more worrying point for me about the shortlist that’s emerging is there’s no rhyme or reason to the candidates that we’re looking at. Nuno is a counter-attacking specialist that doesn’t believe in pointless possession. Allegri is the ultimate ‘get the job done’ pragmatist that builds systems around the tools he has at his disposal. Brendan Rodgers is a high pressing possession-based practitioner. Arteta will be Manchester City like entertaining possession-based attacking football. There’s no theme here, which likely means Edu doesn’t have a plan that he’s executing against.

If the club doesn’t know what it wants to be, how are they judging candidates? Your strategy can’t be a manager, because if that’s the case, your costs are huge every time you hire in a new philosophy. Chelsea, up until lately, always had deeply pragmatic managers that played a certain way. AVB, Conte, Mourinho are all cut from the same cloth. Barcelona always hire in specialists in of attacking based possession football because that’s their DNA, but beyond that, those values Cruyff instilled give the club stability. Every layer of the club believes the same thing. Every coach plays the same way. The scouting network knows what they are looking for. The fitness coaches know how to plan.

There’s a lot of talk about The Arsenal Way and whether that exists. It doesn’t. Edu is supposed to define what that is so we can build out talent that maps to the vision. My view is we should be a youthful execution of high octane pressing and intelligent possession-based football. We should be the most exciting team to watch in the world. We will never compete at the higher levels for elite adult talent, so we’ll have to grow it, or attract players like Martinelli and Guendouzi and ask them to give the first part of their careers to Arsenal. Young players need minutes and elite coaching. If we set a clear vision, it’d give clear parameters on the type of coach we need. It wouldn also focus what you’re looking for.

  • Someone open to a longer-term project
  • A manager happy to work on a budget
  • Someone who can work with data analysts and support staff
  • A person that can galvanise, not divide a backroom and a squad
  • A clear communicator
  • Someone that loves coaching
  • Has a clear-eyed vision of where the game is going and how to keep up
  • Someone with patience, because they’d be working with younger kids
  • Someone with examples of how they’ve developed players
  • A vision of how to implement a pressing regime
  • A view of football that’s exciting

It would dictate the sort of fitness approach we’d need, it’d give the scouts a very clear brief for who and where they should be looking for talent, and it’d be a clear message to the fans… this project is not for now, we are building out Arsenal to be a Champions League final four outfit in 5 years. Bear with us, this is going to be spectacular.

The ‘cast the net wide’ and see what we like approach isn’t purposeful. When you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can be easily seduced by cheap Powerpoint presentations, great Wikipedia pages, and the sweet charms of Raul who can definitely vouch. We are better than that. I hope as the club push on in this process they get a little more specific about what they want, because a warm body won’t cut it. Not for the next hire.

One managerial story that I do find amusing is the Brendan Rodgers one. We all know he’d be desperate to move to a top club again. He’s doing a great job at Leicester, a club I feel is his level… but my point of raising this particular story is that he’s on the back page of one of the red tops with a headline alluding to Arsenal being his dream job. That is poor judgement to let anyone go off the record for you in such a blatant way. I wonder if that’ll impact the focus of his players, it looks very much like the mistake Marco Silva made when he was desperate for the Everton job despite being under contract at Watford. Didn’t end well there. Confidence is fragile at a football club, if the players think you’re purring over another job, things can go south very quickly.

Anyway, a huge day for Freddie, Per Mertesacker and the fans. I cannot wait to see what the sexiest man in management has to offer us.

Right, jump into our podcast before the game, it’s a cracker. We talk about Raul, managers, problems with Emery and our favourite targets. You can bypass the cost by giving it a 5* in iTunes.

See you in the comments!

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TR7

Freddie talks a good game

TR7

Hoping to see Martinelli back in starting 11

Jeff

The Freddie interview in case you haven’t seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdU0acmEaR4

Pierre

Ishola “Would you care to tell us why you over-rated last season’s unbeaten run so highly?” You still don’t get it , you shouldn’t take everything so literally .As you know , I never rated Emery after watching the first couple of games, the know nothing’s thought it was due to my perceived allegiance to Wenger. .However, going 22 games unbeaten isn’t to be sniffed at, as has been proved by our recent poor run against basically the same level of sides that we were beating 12 months ago. It was always my opinion that our unbeaten run was largely… Read more »

Ishola70

Yes we’ve got it Pierre.

You were setting Emery up for the fail.

How grand of you.

And the Wenger stuff is nonsense btw.

Pierre

TR7
Freddie and Martinelli have/had very similar traits in their game .

Ishola70

Temporary?

Our Freddie?

Ok perhaps so.

Bojangles

What’s going on here.

Good post Pedro. An honest assessment without once mentioning the man with the hair.

Really hope Freddie hits the ground running, a tough ask with only a couple of trainings under the belt.

Spanishdave

An ideal game today for Freddie but only had the squad a couple of days.
Not excited about Mertz as an assistant he was slow as a player and not a reliable player .
Let’s get the team smiling again is a start

Pierre

Ishola
You should have said ” the INEVITABLE fail”, as only the more perceptive ones knew it ea coming ……..unlike you..

Ishola70

Norwich haven’t won two EPL games in a row this season.

They come off a rare EPL win at Everton.

Losing to Norwich is a bad result.

But Arsenal have been quite rotten on the road in EPL for a good long time.

50/50 in whether Arsenal get the win today.

CG

A Super Sunday awaits and PedRo has served up a sensational start to the proceedings.

Truly magnificent effort.
Some contradictory bits – which I will off course touch upon later. But he is 85% spot on today.

But in the meantime many many thanks.

(How we could do with someone like PedRo in the PR department of the club.)

Ishola70

Pierre
“You should have said ” the INEVITABLE fail”, as only the more perceptive ones knew it ea coming ……..unlike you..”

Right that would tie in with me saying when he was first appointed that I didn’t expect much from him.

Got ya.

Pierre

Please Pedro no photos of Freddie in his Calvin Klein’s.

Will get Tony waaaaaaay too excited .

Leftsidesanch

We need to start getting points away and points altogether. Hopefully the players who have been dreadful too start with a good performance this afternoon.

TR7

My preferred Arsenal starting 11

Leno
Bellerin Chambers Holding Tiernney
Torreira Luiz
Ozil
Auba Laca Martinelli

Let’s see how Freddie lines our starting 11 up.

Pierre

TR7
That’ll do for me

Moray

Can’t wait to see what happens today.

A big boost from all the players on the pitch, I am guessing.

Freddie looking great in a suit on the touchline…

TR7

Pierre

Yes, Freddie was a smart player. He used to time his runs perfectly. Martinelli plays further up the pitch but he too is an intelligent player,his movement inside the box is good. I don’t know why Emery sidelined Martinelli when he was the one who put his faith in the player and gave him good game time early on.

Guns of Hackney

Today will be a walkover. Cue:

Freddy should be boss full time.

The following game:

Freddy is a cunt.

THIS is the Arsenal way.

Danny S

Pierre

We do still have wengers dna in our play. It’s why the defence is so shit.

Unfortunately emery didn’t know how to mask it with attack.

CG

If Fred is the answer this has to be the team
Attack them Canaries.
Man Utd even smashed them .

Leno

Bellerin Holding sok Tierney
Iwobi, Ozil, AMN ,Pepe
PEA/Laca

Bojangles

Think maybe we’ll see Luiz instead of Holding and Pepe for Martinelli… Or Lava.

Bojangles

Or even Laca

Samir

CG

Would be shocked to see Iwobi start for us today mate!

CG

Just testing Samir
Just testing that you are paying attention.

Wasi

Pepe to score today.

Danny S

It should be Pepe, Ozil, martinelli and auba/laca up front.

I’m still not convinced you can shoehorn both into the side, and if you do I’m of the opinion that laca should go wide due to is superior work rate and auba just sit on the shoulder of the last man.

Bojangles

Have we bought back Iwob

Un na naai

Champagne Charlie

Are you still dead against Rodgers then it has his Leicester form softened your views at all?

Moray

Put Luiz and Guen in CM. The opposition won’t kno who is supposed to mark whom.

Freddie Ljungberg

CG Don’t think Everton will let us borrow Iwobi for today, AMN isn’t a midfielder either, he’s barely a footballer ffs. Pepe Auba Martinelli/Saka For me up top, no more of this squeezing in both our strikers at the same time nonsense, only time that’s ok is if we’re chasing a game in the last 20 minutes. Is Bellerin even fit, he had a hamstring problem if I remember correctly Chambers Luiz Holding Tierney Maybe Sok for Holding if he’s still not up to speed. our midfield is a shambles no matter who plays so not sure what to do… Read more »

Leftsidesanch

Pepe needs to get in the side.

Mark

I’m not sure where this plan B is meant to come from? During Arsenal’s long run last season without defeat were execs meant to be tapping up managers as replacements? When then ? After the Baku disaster ? Senior team execs are desperate to show stability and very few teams including Real Madrid are currently projecting one result sackings . No club wants to sack mid season and most Arsenal supporters were prepared to give Unai one more season. The surprise to everyone was his falling of a cliff. This was not evident at the start of this season. Managers… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

Just checked and Bellerin Holding Luiz and Mustafi are all doubtful to be playing due to injuries. Doesn’t leave many choices if all of them are missing.

Another Sok masterclass incoming then…

Ceballos is also out with injury so Ozil has to put on his big boy pants if he can find them if we’re going with a CAM today.

Champagne charlie

Un

Not dead against, but more because of the poor appointment of Emery prior than his good start to his time at Leicester.

I don’t rate him as a coach to take us to where we ultimately want to be, and he’s not what I’d consider someone for the interim. So he fills a queer void. I have my own preference for how I’d like to see us navigated and he’s not my flavour.

HillWood

Freddie will spit roast Delia this afternoon

CG

UN

Stop this Rogers thing.

Missed the boat here: he cant keeping walking out of clubs for better jobs.

Thats treachery.

Reading Swansea, Celtic and now Leicester?

the man is a brilliant coach but he is inherently disloyal

how can he ask players to be loyal – when he clearly is not?

Chalk him off the list.

And Don’t we want fine Art returning at the Arsenal?
He was loyal- he took a pay cut to Join us!

Moray

We desperately need leadership on and off the pitch. Let’s see what can be done.

Þorkell Einarsson

there is a tinkel in my stomach today, not a good sign but I am counting
on Martinelli and özil .. and auba !!

HillWood

Not sure how the club can have vision when the board are all 100 years old and waiting for cataract operations

Samir

Have a feeling Freddie will start Willock ; He was a big part of his team for the U23s, did a great job.

…………Leno………….
Bellerin–Chambers–Luiz–Tierney
………….Torreira–Willock…………
…….Pepe–Ozil–Auba
…………..Laca…………

David Smith

Really hope they consider Freddie if he merits it in the summer

CG

Norwich 2 Arsenal 2
Wolves 1 Sheff Utd 2
Leicester 1 Everton 1
Man Utd 3 Villa 2

And you wont be far too away.

Alexanderhenry

Pedro

Your list illustrating how the next arsenal manager needs to work resembles the way a manager of Southampton or Crystal Palace might need to work.

Since when did arsenal become such a small club?

China1

Logos article Pedro

My only gripe is the mention of aiming for a champions league final. Finals shouldn’t be the target – winning should be the target!

Losing CL finals is one of the most painful footballing experiences ever regardless of the huge achievement in getting there

Tbh it hurts less to lose a semi or a quarter final than a final. Took me 2 weeks to get over the 2006 final

Bad times…

China1

And yeah I don’t think it’s the case that we can’t compete for too players

If we have a couple of good seasons in the league and CL the finances and prestige will be there. We can’t get AAA players tomorrow in all likelihood but if the club does well in the years to come we can

Liverpool have demonstrated the roadmap from average to elite in a few years

CG

Alex H

“”””Since when did arsenal become such a small club?”””””

The moment Arsene Wenger left the Huddersfield turn off on the M1 South bound.

Shrinking ever since.

Alexanderhenry

China 1

Liverpool have demonstrated the roadmap from average to elite in a few years.

Hmm.. It’s taken them more like 30 years.

The big difference was when they were bought by the Fenway group.

sleeping giant

I can’t agree with the Rogers dismissal here. . The concept of home grown is overrated but I have been saying for years this is the finest home grown coach since Ferguson. It may be a low bar, but this guy has proven time and again to be an outstanding manager. And this is not overreaction to his Leicester performance..this dates back to Swansea. I may get stick for saying it, but I believe he is a borderline great coach, he has dealt with adversity(a huge plus) and I think his real achievements will be in the future, given the… Read more »

Ernest Reed

Whomever Arsenal get to come in, they had better command respect because from stories circulating from various sources, the real issues may in fact lie with the players themselves. Some of them certainly are in need of a swift boot to their rears as their behaviour was flat out unprofessional.

A lot of big names are being tossed around, but an obvious question comes to mind – why would anyone want to manage this Arsenal team? The reality may be that Arsenal are just not that attractive to the big names.

Nelson

We don’t have players like the Pool to play an efftecive high pressing game. Auba, Pepe, Ozil, Saka,Guen and Xhaka, all can’t press effectively. It is a No No if you do a partial pressing like what Emery did. He asked Torr to do the high pressing. You need the whole team to do the high pressing to be effective. Otherwise, the midfield would be all over the place. The two players in our team who can do high pressing are Martinelli and Willock. We’ll need two more of those in the midfield to play like Loserpool. For now, I… Read more »

theskywalker

Arteta? A mediocre midfielder with no experience in managing even a school team! Yes,he is Pep’s side kick and as a Spaniard,Pep will say nice things! Vieira was a fearsome midfielder, a leader in his Arsenal days. But let Josh Kroenke as he says should take time to look for the potential coach. Freddie can at least manage for 3 months. Fresh thinking in the New Year.

theskywalker

Vieira was a fearsome midfielder, a leader in his Arsenal days,than Arteta ever was . But let Josh Kroenke as he says should take time to look for the potential coach. Freddie can at least manage for 3 months. Fresh thinking in the New Year.

Un na naai

CG

Wind it in. I like Rodgers. He’s doing very very well and we are being linked with him. Naturally it will arouse some curiosity. I don’t see us paying £14m for him, poch is almost certainly looking to take a break and Arteta is looking like he’s clearly the front runner but it’s as worth discussing as any of the bullshit on here.

Danny

Just been going through some old programmes and remembered I went to an Arsenal away game against Norwich in 1983.
We lost 3-1………

bennydevito

We became a small club after years of being the banter club and the butt of all jokes defensively culminating in being dumped into the EL by Wenger leaving us 6th in the league.

Anyway, thankfully Wenger the original clown is no longer with us and the clown apprentice that was Emery has also left the building.

Onto today, I fancy a euphoric 4 nil win with Pepe to score a couple a d put in a man of the match performance.

Emiratesstroller

Let’s be honest Ljungberg supported by Mertesacker cannot do a worse job than his predecessor Emery. What Ljungberg needs to do is play attacking and direct football and play to our strengths and not our weaknesses. Arsenal has attacking players in its squad who are amongst the best in EPL but they need delivery. Everyone knows by now that Arsenal’s achilles heel is the defensive department of our game so the starting point needs to be”discipline, “organisation” and above all” concentration.” The goalkeeper [Leno] needs to stop his short goal kick passes, the centre backs need to move the ball… Read more »

CG

UN

Ill take it on board- I was not quelling the debate- apologies if you thought I was-just observing that the man is albeit clearly talented an inherently disloyal man.

He comes to Arsenal and Real Madrid come calling – he will depart.

Celtic fans detest him- and he won every trophy going there.

Says an awful lot

bennydevito

Great post Pedro, I’ll get round to the podcast tonight.

habesha gooner

“Arteta will be Manchester City like
entertaining possession-based attacking football.” Pedro I know arteta’s hair is sexy but Is there an alternate universe where you have seen him manage one game let alone him managing an entertaining possession-based attacking football? How do you know enlighten us please.

Cesc Appeal

Looking forward to today. Really want Ljungberg to do well. He looks at this club like a fan, you can hear it in his words, that should translate to the players. You play for the shirt is one of the first things he said to them. I’d like him to have the confidence to send out the team he wants to and not think he has to keep some consistency and send out the most obvious choices. I want to see Martinelli start today. I want to see Chambers get a go at CB because I think he’s earned it.… Read more »

bennydevito

CGDecember 1, 2019    10:13:12 UN Stop this Rogers thing. Missed the boat here: he cant keeping walking out of clubs for better jobs. Thats treachery. Reading Swansea, Celtic and now Leicester? the man is a brilliant coach but he is inherently disloyal how can he ask players to be loyal – when he clearly is not? Chalk him off the list. And Don’t we want fine Art returning at the Arsenal? He was loyal- he took a pay cut to Join us! >>>>> Agree 100%. What’s to stop Rogers leaving us in the lurch 1 year down the line after… Read more »

Nelson

Rhys Jagger Emery wanted Zaha. The board decided on Pepe. In fact, Emery wanted two of his former Sevilla midfielders and was given Torr and Guen instead. Emery wanted to keep Iwobi, Monreal and Kos but the board traded them away. But Emery and his assistants also had major weakness. After 18 months, they still can’t train the players to play out from the back. Of course, trying to train PapaSok was almost impossible. Emery misused Torr and Xhaka in midfield was a major mistake. He can’t integrate Pepe was also a failure. He created a fight with Ozil. He… Read more »

Danny

Is Auba going to turn into that sort of player at 29?
———————–
Pedro, he’s over 30.

GillespieRoadNoMore

Just plundering the management hierarchy of Ajax would be one way to achieve a youth oriented culture, Overmars has Arsenal DNA already.

Un na naai

CG

No need to apologise to me mate. All good but I disagree that all Celtic fans despise him. I’ve got a lot of Glaswegian Celtic fans in my family and that think he’s great. Better than Neil Lennon.

Benny.
Yeah he may well leave us for a better club but he’d have to be a success first and I’d not begrudge him that if he offers up anything as good as what spurs were getting off Poch.
You think Pep is loyal to city? The coaching world is a fucking merry go round in the modern world.

Pierre

Rhys
“There is no argument on earth which can contend that Emery could possibly win one Europa League, let alone three back-to-back, being a know-nothing, ignorant bullshitter without a scintilla of coaching knowledge. ”

To be honest, the last few weeks he has been giving a fantastic impression of “being a know-nothing, ignorant bullshitter without a scintilla of coaching knowledge. ” , don’t you think ?

Edu me a favour

“ It was always my opinion that our unbeaten run was largely due to the team still having Wenger’s DNA in their play .As soon as the clowns philosophy took hold , the quality of the football deteriorated.” I agree with this. We were still our usual flat track bully selves during this run. And then we fell off a cliff after being pushed by emery. Not expecting too much from today’s game. Hoping Freddie does away with playing out the back and the back 3. If it’s high octane pressing he’s after , he’s only going to get that… Read more »

Danny
Un na naai

NelsonDecember 1, 2019 11:46:23 Rhys JaggerEmery wanted Zaha. The board decided on Pepe. In fact, Emery wanted two of his former Sevilla midfielders and was given Torr and Guen instead. Emery wanted to keep Iwobi, Monreal and Kos but the board traded them away. Nelson So instead of being a grown up he sabotaged the team and misused everyone available. He was never the right man for arsenal. There is absolutely no reason why this squad should not be up there with Leicester and Chelsea this season and we aren’t because of emery. Rodgers and Poch are doing a lot… Read more »

Edu me a favour

Pedro

I’ll ask you again

Why is Rhys jaggar allowed back on this blog ??? He used openly racist language towards black footballers on here – you clearly binned him and now he’s back ?

Why have you let him back on here ?

Un na naai

Edu me a favourDecember 1, 2019 11:58:41
“ It was always my opinion that our unbeaten run was largely due to the team still having Wenger’s DNA in their play .As soon as the clowns philosophy took hold , the quality of the football deteriorated.”I agree with this. We were still our usual flat track bully selves during this run. And then we fell off a cliff after being pushed by emery.

I concur.
The whoopings we dished out to Leicester and Fulham were classic wenger football and a world away from anything Emery can muster.

That Dreamcast Kid

can’t wait for a manager that can finally communicate and be as honest as possible

no more bullshit dodging or gibberish waffle ahaha

Guns of Brixton

Freddie needs to get hair implants.

Then dye his hair red.

That would be a legend move. The shithousery it ll cause in the Managerial world.

That Dreamcast Kid

Get Bergkamp in too lads it’s okay he doesn’t have to fly just leave him at Colney on European away games.

CG

Playboy Josh “””“Our process is already underway. It’s going to be led by Raul, Vinai, Edu & Huss here internally. I look forward to getting with them & working closely with them throughout this process””” We are snookered then: Put 5 Prized Pillocks together in a room- guarantee they will pick another one! This sorry lot some who came up with the Clown with their first process. And indeed they even wanted to extend his contract post Baku They wont go and find the best guy- someone who actually wants to win at all costs or even challenge them…. They… Read more »

That Dreamcast Kid

Guns of Brixton the sleeve tattoo itself is edgy enough for modern day management

Ernest Reed

English may not have been Emery’s best language, but reading what some of you write on here daily, English isn’t yours either. At least Emery tried.

timothy chitty

Fantastic post Rhys Jaggar..

That Dreamcast Kid

CG I may be having premature ejaculation but I’m content enough with the backroom setup of former players that way the new generation can understand the actual culture and pride of the club. The history and what it actually means to play for the shirt.

These days it feels too soulless and cynical. I just want to feel the excitement again and togetherness again.

Victoria Concordia Crescit

Pierre

Ernie
And failed ……..miserably.

Edu me a favour

“ English may not have been Emery’s best language, but reading what some of you write on here daily, English isn’t yours either. At least Emery tried.”

What’s this got to do with how badly he failed at Arsenal ?

Ishola70

The unbeaten run wasn’t even impressive when looked at more deeply. Home form apart which in itself doesn’t mark a truly good team Arsenal didn’t play an away side that finished in the top ten half of the table and the run was littered with second tier europa league games and some beer cup matches. And it is ironic if people are saying that this over-rated run had Wenger DNA in it because I distinctly remember many stating the performances not actually very good for enough of the matches and it was a case of churning out results. So instead… Read more »

Ishola70

And what a load of tosh written by the Wengrites on here last night about no need for pressing. Arsenal have clearly suffered for being shit off the ball now for well over a decade and these Wenger lovers have the bare faced cheek to state that there isn’t any need to work off the ball and the nasty man Emery was evil to try to implement it. Newsflash Arsenal suffered for years and years under Wenger for being shit off the ball and the club could have gone onto better things if not being so shit off the ball.… Read more »

That Dreamcast Kid

I think Pierre meant the Fulham match where we got our groove to play one touch counter attacking footy. Remember that Ramsey goal? From back to front with Ozil involved in that play too.

That was orgasmic one of the few happy memories of last season.

Ishola70

It was like fucking Untold on here last night.

Absolute trash Wenger talk.

Ernest Reed

The man tried and yes, he did fail in his role – but accountability lies more with the same cast of characters that ultimately tuned out Wenger as well, the players.

I dont think that it actually matters who they bring in, if you have the same toxic group of players then nothing will change.

That Dreamcast Kid

Yeah as if the only way to defend is to press eh?

Try to mark the space instead? Control the space for passes instead? Don’t have to run around headless chicken-like trying to hunt down their men.

That Dreamcast Kid

Come on Ishola70 I’m sick and tired of all the negativity for a long long time a bit of balance and some spoon of sugar won’t hurt lad.

Ishola70

More shit.

It’s called working off the ball whether it’s press or anticipating or whatever you want to term it.

It all falls under working off the ball.

And Arsenal have been shit at it for well over a decade.

Ishola70

Brother we can look to be positive for the future yes but certain people also need to be called out for the shit they spew in the present.

And it’s all Wenger related.

Why don’t they fuck off and become FIFA groupies.

That Dreamcast Kid

When the Emery stink still wasn’t sinking in yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYUjH23uCEE

Un na naai

Ishola70December 1, 2019 12:29:04
It was like fucking Untold on here last night.Absolute trash Wenger talk.

Boohoo snowflake. Still the greatest manager we’ve ever had and still better at his worst than anything we’ve had since

That Dreamcast Kid

Ah yeah Ishola70 and off the ball movements are what we are sorely lacking anyway in defense and attack.

So someone that are class at it managing this squad now will improve I’m sure.

I’m just a bit optimistic again due to the potential of this squad that’s all.

Leon

The problem – the real problem is the Arsenal board and management system. What exactly does Edu do? And Raul Sanhelli ? Josh Kroenke talks about getting back to basics and having fun? I really don’t understand this at all. They are paid tens of thousands of pounds a week to kick a ball around and doing what they enjoy and they are not having fun ? The Arsenal ownership and management are a complete and utter joke. What has Sanhelli done to benefit Arsenal? Paid 70 million for a player that we didn’t need. And what exactly does Edu… Read more »

Edu me a favour

“ So instead of keep slobbering over Arsene Wenger the more likely scenario is that the team responded to a period to a new face in charge coupled with a nice run of fixtures.”

Who’s slobbering over wenger ?

At the start of last season We were crap , flat track bullies as per – like we’re we’re under wenger – as soon as emeryball took over we were shit

Hardly a ringing endorsement for wenger was it

Gentlebris

‘There’s no theme here, which likely means Edu doesn’t have a plan that he’s executing against.’ You have to know that the shortlists you have seen are all fake, the media dreamed them up. I have my doubts but I think Josh has a clear idea of what he wants to do with Arsenal. He’s in charge now, and I feel he’s inclined to prove that the Kroenkes American family are capable of fulfilling the potentials of a big British football club. I knew why they crawled a bit on firing Emery even before Josh gave the reasons, Emery is… Read more »

China1

Alex it hasn’t taken them 30 years They yoyod for 30 years with no clearly defined or sustained progress outside of a single one off CL run and one or two decent league runs They have otherwise been nothing other than an afterthought at the upper end of world football The last handful of years is when they turned a corner and kicked on in seriousness. They almost won the league under Rogers and then within a few years of Klopp appear to have developed a genuinely elite team rather than just a good team punching above their weight This… Read more »

Paulinho

Gotta laugh at Flores getting sacked.

Said at the time it was a laughable nonsense appointment. Supposed ‘defensive’ coach yet still conceding bucketfuls.

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