via @Arsenal
HAPPY NEW YEAR! HOW ARE YOU FEELING? Ok, ok, I’ll stop the shouting, but I will maintain a quiet energy with the prose because I need you up for the BIG game today.
It’s a huge one, Arsenal takes on Manchester United at home for Arteta’s 3rd game.
I think it’s a stretch to think we’re going to take points from them today. A draw would be excellent work, 3 points would have us all buzzing, but when you look at how their squad is fitness-wise and look at ours, it makes for grim reading.
We are missing a lot of defenders, which is difficult to deal with because even when we’re fully fit, we’re not exactly 90s Milan at the back. There might be some good news with regards to Bellerin who is close to returning, but knowing how fragile he’s been, you’d be hard-pressed to imagine he’ll start.
The manager was keen to impress that the defensive failures at Chelsea; with a very weak backline, were not structural.
“It wasn’t a transition where we had a bad structure or a bad organisation, when we are defending big spaces on equal numbers or are outnumbered – it wasn’t the case at all,”
“We made one half-bad decision [to back off] and these teams, when in space, they punish you, for sure. But the other option is to defend all the time and be there [in defensive areas] and we don’t want that.”
So at the very least, we’ll be prepared to deal with United. They have extremely fast forwards, they’ll probe for counter-attacks and they’ll look to stretch us using width. Arteta only recently tasted a loss against them when he was at City, it was quite a lucky United performance, but OGS had his team of workhorses make last years Champions look very old.
Going forward is where we’ll have to provide something more interesting. Containing their threat won’t be enough, we need to create chances. The good news here is Gabriel might be back in contention, his aggression in the press and all-round threat could be highly valuable to us. I’d also imagine we’ll be seeing a start from Pepe, there has to be some rotation today and that seems like the most obvious place to start. It’s hard to work out what the issue is with the Ivorian because no one will say explicitly, but it reads a blend of work rate and general fitness levels. 3 managers in a row can’t be wrong.
Ceballos is also back in contention, people forget he’s a young player, under a coach that helps him, he might be U21 Championship Dani, so it’s a new start for him.
Xhaka is also fit. Again, not my favourite player, but he’d start in our midfield at the moment. If he doesn’t play, we’ll know he’s off to Berlin. Worry with him is he mails it in as a final fuck you to the fans that booed him.
I mused before the manager started that he’d look for a turnaround project, and it seems he has one, he’s going all out to make Mesut Ozil the star of the show again. Makes sense, he’s used to having lots of #10 like talents to work with at City and on his day, no one can touch Ozil. Additionally, we have no one that gets close to him on the creativity front. We are a more intelligent team with him at his best. The German looks happy on the pitch, he’s put in two dirty shifts, he’ll have another chance to find his level again today and hopefully offer something more decisive.
“Mesut is putting in everything he has and his numbers, physically, have improved so much,”
“On his own he can’t do it. He needs the collective structure, organisation and his teammates. He needs the team to play in a certain way to facilitate his strengths more and more in the game. That’s what we’re trying to do.
“I put him in the team if I see every day that his attitude, desire and understanding of what we’re trying to do is there. The moment that this changes, then he won’t play.”
At the end of the day, he loves living in London, he loves his contract, and he’s a human… he’ll want to be impressing the fans, no one wants to be hated. He might also have the afterlife on his mind, if he tanks another manager, no one will risk giving him the big bucks in 18 months. Wenger didn’t have a machine that worked for him towards the end, Emery couldn’t see past running him into the ground in a shit system… it seems like Arteta has a more thoughtful approach to extracting creativity from him, whilst pushing him to support the system. It’ll be very interesting to see what the physical output looks like today, because he has done a lot of work in a short space of time. Some will say we’ve seen this film before, but maybe with a more elevated thinker in the dugout, it could be a different ending this time.
The main worry I have about today is how another loss will affect morale. Bournemouth was just an unlucky day at the shooting range, the Chelsea game was bad luck with fitness and Mustafi… we really need a result to prove out the hard work and progress. The fans will be buzzing for the game this evening, a classic win would be a great way to start the year, let’s see where we land.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments x
Boom
2
4
3
Trofee
Well I tried
Boo
I’m so glad amateur night is over again for another year.
Happy New Year Pedro!
Happy New Year to the rest of you lot!
So it’s January 1st and the transfer window is open, Xhaka to finally fuck off today? Mustafi?
I guess Ozil for now going nowhere, he really means to milk that contract to the bitter end.
and on his day, no one can touch Ozil
…yeah maybe 4 years ago and even then the ‘his days’ were to few and far between. But we will always have Leicester, i suppose.
“A draw would be excellent work”
Seriously??
Against the most average United side in years, with our ‘genius’ pitting his wits against the totally out of his depth OGS?
Talk about deliberately lowering expectations, if Emery didn’t win a home game against this lot he would have been savaged.
Come on, let’s be honest here, Arteta is a novice manager who needs time but making excuse after excuse before every game is going to stretch your credibility.
Manure is a fast countering team. Rashford and James are very fast runners. We need to keep those two covered even while we are attacking.
If Xhaka is off, hopefully Ceballos is available. We need another player in the midfield who can pass the ball to the attackers. Currently, both Guen and Willock are not ready and Torr has to play the DM roll.
We need a win no matter how we achieve it, to get the monkey off our back, then we will see some way forward.
If certain players want to off it won’t help us as they will not commit in case of injury, so that isn’t good for us.
Our midfield is not contributing goal so if we buy this window we do need somebody who can add a few goals.
We need forwards who can retain the ball, Auba is very poor at doing this.
This is how I see it. Firstly I’m not sure Arteta has said that he wants to make Ozil the centre piece, asked if he wanted to build the team around Ozil , he said no. Looking at the first 2 games under Arteta, our best spells in the games have coincided with Ozil being at his most influential. Bournemouth and Chelsea had to change their formation to counter Ozil’s influence on the game. This sets up a bit of a conundrum regarding Ozil for Arteta.In both games Arteta allowed the opposition to nullify Ozil’s game which also nullified Arsenal’s… Read more »
Ozil has blown out in his last two games under Arteta like he has done a thousand times before previously at Arsenal.
Lasts for around half an hour.
In the long term this is not feasible to have such a player in your side if you are aiming for the top.
But it is what it is. Arsenal at this time don’t have the best team so a flawed player like Ozil still gets indulged.
Happy New Year Pedro.
Not a great post I am afraid. Please for heaven sake stop the agenda driven stuff for Arteta. He is already in our dugout. Doesnt need any more marketing.
We need to win this game at all cost. End of.
How is that a draw enough for Arteta while It is not for Emery?
If I recall correctly Ozil used to get substituted later on in games on a regular basis at Madrid so it’s not just an Arsenal thing, he has always struggled to last the full 90 minutes.
Arteta has to work that into his system, have an option to replace MO from around 60 minutes as a matter of course. Is it worth it? Depends on if he can continue to regularly influence games, if not I expect he’d be dropped pretty quickly.
And yes, GX can do one. No big loss there.
I would be happy to see Auba swapped with Jovic and see Laca sold for a LW like Bailey or a better player.
Bailey — Jovic — Pepe
Ceballos
should be okay I guess for the rest of the season.
Can’t help but feel the narrative would be somewhat different if it wasn’t Arteta in the dugout. ‘Yes we’ve been on a run of bad form, yes we have injuries…but look, this is a very average United side who can look like title contenders one week and relegation candidates the next. We are at home. This squad is top 4 quality and should be able to cope with some injuries. We should be thinking about taking all 3 points today’. If Arteta can set up right (rotate well), keep the team tight as he did against Chelsea and get them… Read more »
Club needs to get through this match and then explode onto the transfer market.
As the weeks pass in January and losses accrue I can see price being ratcheted up.
Football is not about great talk, great attitude with the press or great haircut, it’s about results. If Arteta fails to scrape out a win in his first three games, then even you will soon get tired of spinning the narratives in his favour.
I’d go with MAP as a front line today unless the fitness staff are saying Martinelli should only be used as a sub.
Gives you players like Lacazette and Nelson to bring off the bench and provide legs then.
Need to place some expectation on Pepe today as well. He doesn’t get a pass. Not asking him to win the game for us but he has to work for the team in the way Nelson did against Chelsea. There’s no excuse for laziness.
Kay, you were probably whining it was agenda-driven stuff with Emery, until it was just accurate analysis.
Ishola “Ozil has blown out in his last two games under Arteta like he has done a thousand times before previously at Arsenal.” It depends how you look at it..for Bournemouth and Chelsea to have to totally change their game plan shows the influence he was having in the match .. Teams do not alter their game plan and formation unless they are concerned about something. You say he has continually blown out , but I dont remember him struggling fitness wide under Wenger’s style of play , so he can obviously last the 90 minutes. A lot of Ozil’s… Read more »
Jack Wilshere has only just turned 28 years old… thought he was about 33.
It needs talent to be able to spot your teammate fast in a dense midfield unless the team is fully gelled and players know their teammates positions inside out (a la MC). Our team is not ready yet. Currently, Ozil is the best we have to connect the midfield to the attackers when he is not tired. Let us see what a healthy Caballos can do.
It will be a bonus if we have Martinelli and Ceballos on the bench.
Has Xhaka gone yet?
Did anyone read this about the ref?
https://therefereesword.blogspot.com/2019/12/time-to-move-on.html?m=1
“It will be a bonus if we have Martinelli and Ceballos on the bench.”
The way injuries are mounting up if we can name 7 subs it will be a bonus. If they can be players who can be considered “first” teamers then that’s a huge bonus at the moment.
Pierre
I think you will find with Ozil that the games he does last out are mainly those matches where the wind is in Arsenal’s sails and they have the game won before the later stages of the match. There may be a few examples where this hasn’t been the case but mainly it follows a familiar pattern.
If the opposition are still in the game winning or drawing and are competitive going into the second half Ozil tends to wane.
Arteta needs to have an alternative plan with Ozil on the pitch. Maybe it involves 1-2 with him . Currently no additional protection is on for our playmaker. Hopefully Arteta works out something ,maybe involving some young player or Martineli
Let’s be careful even when we are playing at home. MC just lost to Manure while playing at home.
Blog of adjusted expectations to allow for sauce?
😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
Like someone already pointed out, Pedro’s credibility as an Arsenal blogger is gonna take some serious hammering if he doesn’t back down fast.
Guy is already doing Untold for Arteta.
The craze of desperately trying to be correct😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
I think we’ll be fortunate to escape with a draw today, but I’m more interested in the opening of the transfer window, frankly. Much work required. Indeed, much work is required just to get us looking like a solid outfit much less a top six or top four team. Yes, we need a CB and a CM or two in this window, but it will take three or four windows to build a proper squad, IMO. It’s going to be a long road back to the top four, unfortunately.
Pedro
“Did anyone read this about the ref?”
Sad story..his “friend” is a nasty piece of work , as is Mike Riley.
Pogba not playing this evening. Blessed relief for Little Legs. Total disgrace Pogba’s agent ( Raoli??) is running amok with his antics at Manchester United. And to think we have our own tubby cocksucking cockroach of our own(Raul)- Running our internal affairs. The game is dead – if you allow the likes of Raoli and Raul to influence it. As Cutter excellent links states- the corruption in the game is now endemic. We have to cut them out of the game( and VAR- Another corruption vehicle) At least with Arteta- he is a man of integrity Like me. Solid Post… Read more »
we are getting 3 points today.
Should actually be an easier match tonight if Man U don’t play dirty like those Chelsea thugs. Their fouling stopped us from having any rhythm and completely ruined what could’ve been a great game of entertaining football.
Just another reason to hate Chelsea and that Abramovich cunt even more.
Gentle, I’ve spent 13 years listening to people tell me about the blogs credibility. Not going to start paying attention to warnings 3 games into a new managers tenure.
Pedro, thanks a million for your consistent input to the blog and all the best for 2020.
pogba is kicking up a storm at utd, they are there for the taking and we should honestly secure a result today.
Thanks Micheal!
Can someone explain to me why someone would spend time commenting on a blog where they question the creditability of the author?
1. Putting expectations on Ozil will end in tears, i hope for Artertas sake its not the case he has been misinterpreted.
2. With ceballos on the pitch ozil will appear better because there will be 2 technical players when one is nullified the other will do his thing. Lets see if The Saucy one will play both.
3. 2-1 to the arsenal
Im telling you this for free!
Pogba’s been looking to get out of ManU for a while now – the only question is where he goes when he does move.
Madrid? Can’t see them coughing up £100 million for Pogba and £60 million for Auba all in Jan.
I have a good feeling that Arteta will get a lot more out of Ceballos.
Just think he might look at him playing a David Silva type role.
The more I think about it the more the rumored interest in Buendia makes sense as well adding hard work and technical ability to the wide area. Can see it playing out in a similar way to when Bernardo Silva plays that RM position at City. Industrious, dropping into CAM etc.
Massive goal for Villa. As it stands, they’re three points behind us on 21, two above the bottom three. We’re on 24, five above West Ham in 18th. Awful campaign under Emery. Raul is responsible for this for not sacking him in November. Need points ASAP
PedroJanuary 1, 2020 12:42:39
Gentle, I’ve spent 13 years listening to people tell me about the blogs credibility. Not going to start paying attention to warnings 3 games into a new managers tenure.
Wenger must have been thinking along these lines in 2008, see how it ended.
You heard it here 1st!
Hi everyone. Long time lurker. Thought I’ll say hi. Happy new years to everyone. Artetas appointment has got me fired up again and excited to be a gooner. Don’t care if he takes time. A short term solution like Ancelotti would have got me all nauseous and turned Arsenal into a superficial entitiy. Looking forward to tonight’s game. Cheers!
Can’t see them coughing up £100 million for Pogba and £60 million for Auba all in Jan.
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Can’t see us selling him this month. He’ll stay just in case we win the Europa Cup and then he’ll sign a new contract with us, if not then he’ll leave on July 1st.
Gentlebris/Bamford It’s important to recognise how low in confidence the team was when Arteta arrived. If it was just a matter of bringing confidence to the team, then one would expect results and performances would be immediate. However, what we have is a group of players who have their 3rd manager in a month , who all have different ideas and tactics. We have a group of players that have been coached so poorly over the previous 18 months that they have to go back to basics in passing, positioning and general game management. So let’s hang back for a… Read more »
Marc
“Can someone explain to me why someone would spend time commenting on a blog where they question the creditability of the author?”
I’m not sure , but can someone explain to me why someone( you) would spend time commenting on someone on a blog where they question where they question the creditability of the author?
‘Maybe one thing that I’ve picked up straight away is that when nobody’s pressing you, you don’t need to pass the ball. What you can do is just get the ball, drive the ball forward a bit and wait for someone to come to you, commit a player, then pass it.’ -Saka on the hype machine for Arteta. In all the years Saka spent in the Arsenal academy, what exactly was he taught if he wasn’t aware of the basic methods of passing the ball before the great Arteta arrived? These kids too have mastered the dark art of football… Read more »
Arteta ?! I think he’ll keep us up .
Gentlebris wanted Arsenal to hire Mourinho, don’t expect him to give Arteta any breather ☺️
“Did anyone read this about the ref?“
Snowflake justice at its finest, Pedro. Makes one wonder how long before blogs like this one will be victimized because of some of the content, which for the most part is pure banter.
Jack Grealish at it again. Such an entertaining player.
Afternoon Grovers, Feel sorry for that ref. In this day and age he probably would have been better off being guilty of rogering the dog. Equality for all and all that. You have people dressed up in gimp dog costumes at Gay pride events being walked around on leads, yeah, really appropriate for the watching public and attending children…… and with Trans species now becoming a thing where people genuinely identify as animals it won’t be long before beastiality is recognised as a sexual preference, such is the weird direction the left are taking us. Why should he lose his… Read more »
“” However, what we have is a group of players who have their 3rd manager in a month , who all have different ideas and tactics. We have a group of players that have been coached so poorly over the previous 18 months that they have to go back to basics in passing, positioning and general game management.”” It’s so painfully fucking obvious right ? Yet so many on here are ignoring the facts The team is on the floor – we have seen some serious improvement – saka comes out and basically tells us he hasn’t had basic coaching… Read more »
Pierre
Because most of us engage with others and reply or discuss what they’ve said. If we don’t it’s just a load of people just making statements.
Happy new year Le grove
Pedro, This is exactly how PGMOL works. They react to media story looking on how to save themselves rather being honest, open and transparent. They will lie, bully, threaten, smear. Somebody posted a link on Twitter to a website that he has no affiliation to that review the games from a retired professional referee perapective. The website showed for every referees the mistakes they made. PGMOL threaten him with an injunction, unfortunately for them his girlfriend was a lawyer for a big cabinet who told them in non uncertain terms that it was a gross overreach and that if things… Read more »
I’m sure cesc appeal is having difficulty with all this praise of Mesut Ozil in the media .
He’s posted 4 comments this morning without once mentioning Ozil .
I’m sure he will back to normal once the negativity returns towards Ozil as he will be able to return to his favourite pastime of Ozil bashing.
Who has scouted Pepe??? Don’t tell me we signed him through Raul’s contact book. Did Pepe help out the defense in Lilli? We can’t have someone who doesn’t play when we don’t have the ball.
Ref sounds like a stone cold loser. Still actively virtue signalling about how woke he is when the very same groups actively worked to destroy his career. Definition of a cuck.
As Trump and Bojo show, doubling down and refusing to apologise is the only way to win against these people.
At the core of our problems is our beta manager. Unai Emery went to Old Trafford, a team West Ham bossed, and played with fear again. His midfield lacked ambition, he basically rolled with three holding midfielders, opting to push LT into a more advanced position he really can’t play. Xhaka is Xhaka, you know what you’re going to get and it’s always a different variant of beige. We all love Matteo, but he can’t do it all himself. I really felt for the attack, Auba was dropping into our own penalty box at times to create for the forward… Read more »
Harsh Vladdy.
No sympathy for the ref.
Don’t send stupid shit to people when you hold a public position in a multi-billion pound global sports organisation.
And don’t cry foul when shit you send to people is leaked to the press.
Basically, don’t send stupid shit to people and you’ll be fine.
Harsh world, Ernest.
“We have a group of players that have been coached so poorly over the previous 18 months that they have to go back to basics in passing, positioning and general game management.” Pierre, what about a group of players who were poorly coached for fucking YEARS under Wenger??? The Arteta excuses are an absolute embarrassment. Jesus Christ. You’ve got Pedro going all out with not fit enough, injured players etc etc, none of which were allowed to excuse Emery. It’s becoming absolutely farcical it really is. Why don’t people just admit that actually despite Emery being woeful for us the… Read more »
Nelson
Raul was definitely involved. Think Emery wanted Zaha. Club wanted Pépé because he’s younger
Just a reminder that we got 9 points from the same three matches last year. But 2 would apparently show how good the new manager is.
And Villa are now within three points of us.
We are building a team to fight relegation around Özil.
Match Stats
Manchester United Arsenal
54.8 Possession % 45.2
4 Shots on target 5
16 Shots 10
631 Touches 563
440 Passes 364
15 Tackles 19
7 Clearances 14
8 Corners 7
2 Offsides 4
4 Yellow cards 2
18 Fouls conceded 13
Some hilarious bollocks written this morning to absolve Arteta of responsibility for the next six months.
Same tools as Emery but confidence or something, which is bizarre considering managers are continually ditched mid-season because that’s consistently the easiest thing to remedy.
Think Emery wanted Zaha. Club wanted Pépé
—————–
We didn’t fuckin’ need either of them, we needed bloody defenders!!
“on his day, no one can touch Ozil. ”
Bizarre.
This statement would only make sense if you a) hadn’t watched Arsenal since 2015, or b) meant to say no one else in the Arsenal squad can touch him, which would at least be arguable. City, for instance, have two players in the same position who are miles better, and one of them (Silva) is almost three years older than Ozil!
Match Stats
Manchester United Arsenal
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You can see the future?
The Arteta excuses are an absolute embarrassment. Jesus Christ.
Benny
The excuses are laughable and what you’ll expect from a 3 year old.
After hyping Arteta and Ozil, it takes Bournemouth and Chelsea 30 mins to take neutralize Ozil.
Funny how when Emery was in charge, the story was Emery was clueless and didn’t know how to manage big players now Pierre is suggesting Arteta play Ozil deeper (something that he would have screamed against if Emery is in charge.)
I like that from what I’ve seen so far Arteta has a clear picture of how he wants to play and it’s exciting in the moments it’s worked.
On the other hand, yeah, it is a bit ridiculous how far some people flip the script and say one minute this is a top 4 squad and then suddenly it isn’t.
Emery did need to go though.
Danny
That was our match against Man UTD at the old toilet.
See the report Pedro wrote after that game and now that we have UTD home, a draw that wasn’t good enough away is suddenly ok at home.
Talk about agendas.
Paulinho
What an amazing top 4 quality squad, eh?
Narrowly missed out on 4th (as everyone was continually reminded) made it to a European final. Big summer of spending. A bad 2-3 months with Emery and they are total write offs…what immense, immense quality these lads must be.
A point would be a bonus is going to be the cry until May.
I like how what are in essence complete concessions that this squad is not good enough are being dressed up as something else now.
‘Emery did need to go though’
Without question.
I don’t see why some people can’t just concede that Emery needing to go and the squad not being good enough can coexist.
‘If Arteta had a pre season and had a nice chunk of money to spend on players then criticism could be deemed as justified.’ Exactly the reason I’m not expecting more than just one win in his first three games which include two home games, Pierre. Brendan came in at Leicester and won his first two league games, no preseason, no new players. OGS came him at United and won games for fun, no preseason, no new players. What is really annoying is someone trying to tell us that’s okay to lose another home game after just losing to Chelsea… Read more »
Mooys is struggling today.
Vladdy P
I agree with you that Emery needed to go but like you say, the 180 turn around is so amusing.
Emery came into a club with over paid prima donna’s, and his poor English didn’t help matters and some went all out against him
Mourinho and Ancelotti didn’t have pre seasons with their squads and have won some games yet excuses are being made for Arteta.
Dream, Pierre I don’t really want to get bogged down in an argument over Emery again, but some of you continue to misrepresent what happened under Emery and what has happened since. One, Emery managed Arsenal for a total of 51 PL weeks and had Arsenal in 6th place or better in 50 of those 51 weeks. He was dismissed after a 2-2 draw to Southampton, a result that caused us to slip to 8th place. Since that time, we’ve won one of seven PL matches and have slipped to 12th place. Two, Arsenal players had plenty of confidence under… Read more »
We conceded 2 goals against Chelsea -one due to a howler from Leno and another due to a mistake from Mustafi who has always been horrendous and was on the pitch only because Chambers got injured. I thought most of you would be happy with the performance but doesn’t look like to be the case.
don’t doubt team commitment
worry about ref … arsenal has v hih fouls per card ratio eg < 2x leicester
sceptical about Var
lets flush the manure to celebrate a new year
Cesc – Yep, when the squad was “top four (third place to some) quality” there was no disclaimer about the type of squad it was or it being conditional to vision of a particular manager.
Now Arteta walks in and all of a sudden these shiny, robust tools look a little rusty and in need of an urgent upgrade.
I believe Arteta would do well but he would need his own players so I won’t judge him till next season.
Top 4 quality squad that hasn’t been a top 4 side in 4 years. Makes sense.
“I thought most of you would be happy with the performance but doesn’t look like to be the case.”
Were you drunk and asleep for the second half?
TR7
I was happy with the performance but football is a result business.
Xhaka’s stupid foul against Brighton and Aubameyang’s penalty miss cost of top 4 last season but who got the blame?
I could bring games this season and last that were lost due to players mistake but Pedro, Pierre, Valentin and co blamed Emery for them so players mistakes are not a valid excuse for some people.
Paulinho
I suppose at least now most fans are on board with the idea that a massive squad overhaul are needed…sorry, squad development.
By the start of next season you really want to see a new RB, two new CBs, two new bodies in midfield and a new forward (maybe more if Aubameyang does leave). That would be core buys as well without even considering your Martinelli type scouts, or Fraser/Deulofeu type squad buys.
Even the games we didn’t lose under Emery were questioned.
Horrible xG, look at the trend, you don’t understand sexy new statistics, we can’t rely on our strikers finishing the only chance they get all game because it’s unsustainable in the long-term … Then a super slick pivot to “we don’t need to create a lot of chances under Arteta because our strikers are elite finishers.”
I really love this blog, but I mean, come on..
So many excuses for the Special Sauce one.
Lose today and the next game is Palace away. I can already smell the excuses being cooked for that.
‘I believe Arteta would do well but he would need his own players so I won’t judge him till next season’ I mean he has to be judged a bit. He can’t just be given the next 5 months off. I completely agree he needs players as this squad is so far from the intensity and technical levels necessary to play the kind of football he wants to. There are some positive signs. Intensity was better. I really liked to compactness, Emery had the team so spaced out it was incredibly frustrating. Torriera is playing much better and our CBs… Read more »
“By the start of next season you really want to see a new RB, two new CBs, two new bodies in midfield ”
Yep, just a little tweak here or there to build on this uber-talented squad. Project upgrade to suit the vision.
Regarding Ozil,
Personally I would rather we move Ozil on due to his age and wage, but the last 2 games he’s been pretty good. To get the best out of him perhaps we need to plan to take him off around the 60 min mark every game or even alternate games where he comes off the bench around the 60 min mark where he’s fresh and can have a bigger influence against the opponent who are starting to get tired?