Mikel Arteta has an entire week with his players, the longest gap of time between games since he joined the club. That means more recovery time for the players, more time to spend talking through ideas, and plenty of practice for whatever the plan is against Chris Wilders excellent Sheffield United outfit this weekend.
One of the main challenges the coaching staff will be dealing with is the loss of Auba, our most lethal player. Overall, one of the issues we’ve had for a while is the lack of shared responsibilities when it comes to goal-scoring duties. This was Arteta.
“They now have to make a step forward now he is not able to contribute to the team with goals.
“Someone else has to do it and I want to see that reaction too.”
My hope is that as we move closer to the vision of the new regime, goals will start to be more evenly distributed.
There are a few players I’d love to see step up to the plate, one of them is Gabriel Martinelli. He has a monstrous opportunity ahead of him. He’s Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus, so I’m intrigued to see what the manager does to the structure of the team to unleash him. My guess is he’ll slip into the left of the front three and just replace Auba. He’s more of a natural presser though, so maybe the temptation might be to have him lead through the middle.
Another player who should start offering up more goals is Nicolas Pepe. We’ve seen flashes of what he’s capable of, but he really needs to double down and focus on more consistent delivery. He can be a bit ponderous at times. His casual nature can come across like he’s not bothered, I’m hoping a bit more urgency in his game and the added responsibility over the next 3 games will see him rise to the occasion.
When it comes to our midfield, it’s hard to see where the goals will come from. Torreira finds good positions sometimes, but when he’s too far forward he struggles to make up ground, he’s thrived playing in a smaller area of the pitch. Same can be said of Xhaka, though it has been noted that he’s powered through on the overlap twice in two games. Matteo and Ceballos both have limited productivity, and Ozil has rarely shown much of a gift for goal scoring.
It seems I have talked myself out of this, let’s just hope the front three can offer something otherwise we’re in trouble.
In defence, there appears to be movement. Mavrapanos has been sent out on loan. Sven Mislintat came back in for the player, but Nurnberg appears to have won the race for the Greek defender. Everyone loved him when he joined, but he’s been well off the pace since. Hopefully, a stint in Germany can help with his fitness and confidence.
The player we’re all desperate to see the back of is Mustafi. Sport is a brutal job, but he’s quite simply not good enough and no amount of coaching is going to save a player that stopped being hungry. He’s certainly a lesson in what £90k a week contract can do to a persons appetite for success. Galatasaray, regularly a saving grace for persona non grata in the Premier League, are rumoured to be interested in reinvigorating his career. Good luck to them.
The worry I have with exiting these defenders is we’re left very short through the middle. We’ll be relying on two 30+ centre backs, and the fitness of Rob Holding. Feels very, very risky… which is why I suspect there will be some sort of cover on loan. I just hope it’s not Jerome Boateng, who is hilariously being courted by Ivan Gazidis.
ESPN ran some analysis on bad reffing this season, it had Arsenal down 9 points.
I DON’T WANT TO BE A VICTIM BUT COME ON FEEL SORRY FOR US.
The reffing was pretty bad at the Palace game and it was atrocious at the Chelsea game. I don’t understand how they run the associations. What are they looking at? Who is bringing them patterns of bad behaviour that go on? Like, how can this tactical fouling thing still be an issue? Shouldn’t the refs make a statement to clubs and say that they’ll be dropping red cards as a deterrent. If we’re using VAR, can’t someone update a live iWatch table that tells refs how many tactical fouls a player or a team have dropped in a game? These problems we have in the game seem fairly simple to solve, but when the problem is given to Mike Riley, he comes up with the most bizarre ways of fixing them.
I still maintain the refs should be accountable to press. I also think we should hear them justify decisions. It works in the NFL, it brings the fans into the decisions.
Right, that’s the blog done, jump on board for the latest podcast with Alex who occasionally blogs on here. I bought a new mic, the sound is pretty damn crisp. Let me know what you think in the comments!
DM
Tr4phy
2
Tr4phy
4th
Damn!
You got the knack DM.
Morning
Morning All.
As much as ppl hate untold arsenal, but it has absolutely not evened out for us over the last 15 years so. Especially when it comes to the games that matter. Some appalling decisions in games against the top 6 part the last 15 years. We are going to struggle to score in the next 3 games. We can expect at least one goal from a Kolasinac cut back /cross but that’s about it. We are gonna have rely on luiz and Sokratis or some sort of a set piece to score the other 2 goals to get something from… Read more »
Milan interested in Boateng TFFT! Oh dear we miss out on him! Time to look eslewhere. We have no cover at CB now that everone is injured/not good enough/out on loan – we have to spend on a quality young CB with prospects (and potential re-sale value if it doesn’t work out) not loaning another dinosaur with a huge wage package.
Goals will come with Pepe and Martinelli but more goals will be conceded with out adequate CB coverage.
“The reffing was pretty bad at the Palace game”
lol at last.
(someone has read one of my posts…)
Goal and assists productivity from our four midfield starters has been the main reason we are where we are in the tables. People like to talk about the Emery effect and how he’s destroyed players’ confidence( he did), but the fact is other clubs have been through similar upheavals yet still their midfielders have been pulling their weight. Pogba and Mc Tominay , both injured now, have scored and assisted more in 2000 minutes of PL play( 3 goals and 3assists) than Guen, LT , Xhaka and Ozil in 5000 minutes ( I goal , 4 assists) Tottenham fired their… Read more »
Pepe and Marti are doing OK.
Laca and Ozil need to step forward!
One gets paid 350k a week and cant hit a barn door, the other, supposedly our CF, has scored six away (league) goals since he joined in 2017.
Drop Lacashite…play Saka left, Pepe right and Marti in the middle. Fuck Ozil, give DaniC a go in behind them.
If we are also going to sell Mustafi this window then Im pretty confidence we’ll be looking to get at least one defender in. Edu’s choice will surely be someone young and talented but considering our current situation a short term loan for someone like Boateng does not seem too outlandish. Top 5 defender in his prime . Looks to have lost his pace due to consistent injuries but if he is coming in on a 6 month loan to provide cover if our top defensive targets arent available in this window I’ll take it. As Demiral is out of… Read more »
No needs for Auba when we have Granité. lol
There are a multitude of issues with the current squad. Pedro highlights the lack of goalscoring options in absence of Aubameyang. That has been crystal clear all season. Aubameyang has scored 50% of all goals in EPL so his absence for three games is going to be a serious hole to fill. Lacazette has underperformed all season if compared with last two seasons and frankly he needs to raise his game. The midfield as I have highlighted all season has made minimal impact both in goals scored and also in assists. They have managed just one goal in EPL in… Read more »
Qustion:
Has anyone seen Soumare play? Would he be a good addition to the squad?
To clarify two points:
1. Aubameyang has scored 14 out of 29 goals in EPL this season.
2. Our midfield has managed just one goal [Torreira] and five assists!
*Question… fucking hell..
Although we dominated the play against palace in the first 35 minutes , a lot of our passing in the midfield area was negative. The very good goal Arsenal scored was a consequence of Luiz being positive in his passing and finding Ozil ,who in turn laid it off to Lacazette who passed to Aubameyang to score. Torreira and Xhaka were very negative in their passing between the lines whereas Luiz was prepared to take the risk and try and take out palace’s midfield. It is pointless playing Ozil if they don’t pass the ball to him , they may… Read more »
Boo-hoo. It’s all the nasty referees fault.
It’s got nothing at all with us being bang average with a striker (Lacazette) who can’t score, an ‘assist machine’ (Ozil) who can’t assist and a midfielder (Xhaka) who can’t dominate.
Pierre
Ozil is a very talented footballer, but the problem is that he does not take responsibility in both goal assist or scoring department. If you are going to
start with him that element needs to improve.
Frankly I doubt that he has got it within him to do so.
I agree that Martinelli has done really well and to be honest Pepe has actually done okay if you cut through the ‘flop’ noise. We will want a lot more but he actually hasn’t done that badly given the circumstances. As RGG said above really Lacazette and Ozil need to contribute more. Both have been awful for the most of the season and Arteta has given them a fresh start. They need to contribute a lot more if they continue to get starts. All feels a bit pointless though. With this squad (particularly midfield) you can only achieve so much.… Read more »
Pedro, you mentioned almost all of our attaching Power.
But, what about Laca? Wasn’t he brought to score goals, or am I mistaken?
@Left Ball : only 1 yellow card this weekend for the butchers and cheaters of Palace.
Just saying…
Focussing on midfield we have four players in the squad who play either in
central or attacking midfield.
Combined Ceballos [2], Guendouzi [1], Ozil [1] and Willock [0] have managed 4
assists and collectively they have not managed a single goal.
That dearth of contribution does not merit first team selection and explains why we are struggling in most of our games.
When you know that Lego Hair has convince Granité to stay, you can fear the worst for this summer…
ES
I personally feel that having Aubamayang out of the team could help us.
Lacazette and Martinelli will offer a different threat and maybe Pepe will start to take more responsibility.
As for Ozil……….I don’t think so.
ES What about Xhaka? Isn’t he a CM? He sure as hell isn’t a defensive midfielder that’s for sure. He does have a nice floated ball to the left wing on occasion though. Our midfield is relegation level. Our Cam has 1 assist and 0 goals in 12 games this season, if there’s any other starting Cam in the league that’s performing worse than that he should be ashamed of himself. People (some) only rate them because of their name or because they play for Arsenal, doubt there’s many other teams in the prem who would even consider taking any… Read more »
“When it comes to our midfield, it’s hard to see where the goals will come from” And yet somehow people didn’t see this as a huge problem at the start of the season. I warned fans on here for at least two years how fucked we would be without Ramsey, because we had literally no one to score goals from deeper positions or make off the ball runs, and everyone was so blase about it. Even being injury prone look at his stats the last few years. We could do with them now, and next year as well. We need… Read more »
ManCity are out to destroy Henry’s records…up next the all time assist record if 20…KDB is on track to absolutely smash it
Kind of shocking that ‘flop-contacts-transfer’ Ceballos still has the most contribution from our midfield given he’s regarded as being disappointing, has appeared sporadically, it was his first season in the EPL, as a loan and he’s been injured for a while now.
Not a defence of Ceballos, more highlighting the shocking nature of our ‘Top 4 quality’ midfield.
Arteta must see the issue in midfield .all it would take is one player who can go past players and open up the middle , we don’t have that athlete the middle of the park is more of an issue than the defence. We do not have a goal threat from the middle of the park, historically we have always had goal scoring midfielders as it is a must pires ,younberg ,viera petit ,cesc and Ramsey would give you 4-10 goals a season each and some of those players would get you 12-14 goals each and they would all carry… Read more »
As was the case in the summer, the only hope of building some depth to our passing game is just playing Ceballos game in game out, and hoping he can forge some understanding with Pepe, so we can get Pepe on the ball more in those areas just outside the box.
Sport is a brutal job, but he’s quite simply not good enough and no amount of coaching is going to save a player that stopped being hungry. He’s certainly a lesson in what £90k a week contract can do to a persons appetite for success” To be fair he’s always been mediocre. People way overinflated his ability because he was associated with the German NT the year they won the WC even though he hardly featured. He also came from a league with a much different style than the EPL. We paid more for him than Bayern paid for Hummels(which… Read more »
Scoring goals hasn’t been our problem over the last few years, conceding goals has been. Arteta is addressing the areas that need addressing, one goal conceded in 3 games is confirmation of this. To do this he has the team playing risk free football, At the moment the balance isn’t right but it is the right way to go as the amount of chances we were conceding was a serious problem. If we only score on average one goal per game and concede 0.5 a game until the end of the season, that’ll do for me . Fans are getting… Read more »
Pierre “Fans are getting hung up about not scoring, not creating , midfielders not scoring but they need to make up their mind what they want .If they want us to concede less chances/goals then they have to accept that we are not going to go hung ho when we are attacking , hence less chances created and less goals scored .As I said , if Ozil isn’t getting on the ball because our midfielders are being told to play risk free football to eliminate mistakes , then dont play him in certain games .” Why do you think people… Read more »
Pepe does it from the wing and causes havoc when he beats say two players and most of our dangerous play is currently being generated by him as he can beat the press .if we had say a PEPE in the middle it would open up Laca and free more space for him and he would no doubt start scoring , currently other teams no we have no goal threat from the middle .Our midfielders rarely if ever advance into the opponents box and none of our midfielders can shoot or be dangerous from just outside the box meaning we… Read more »
“Fans are getting hung up about not scoring, not creating , midfielders not scoring but they need to make up their mind what they want .” and rightly so as we need to buy the players who can do both ,the current options can not do this , it is clearly not about risk free football , it is about not having the players with the right attributes to be able to play risk free football and penetrate offensively
Yes guys, the ball has to be passed to our CAM, he doesn’t need to go for it or request for it and make something happen, he has to be given the ball to shine…
Or
We’re hung up on scoring and assisting because the manager is rectifying the defensive issues so no need to expect much from our attacking players, not like other trams don’t do the two at the same time
Shaun I agree with you, we do not have that dynamic midfielder who can beat players and drive forward, hence the sideways passing , another thing we as fans have got to be honest, if we had the opportunity to have KDB, any of the silvas, maddison, grealish, instead of our own ozil, would not take it. He still has flashes of brilliance but not consistent enough, and one thing he lacks in the modern game is energy and it’s not an age thing because messi and Ronaldo are both older but still have the energy and zest to influence… Read more »
We need to get Ceballos firing on all cylinders to provide some thrust from midfield.
I can barely watch old Arsenal clips of Overmars, Pires, Cesc, Ljungberg, Hleb, Vierra, Parlour, Rocky, Chippy, Geordie, Brady etc surging forward, creating havoc for the opposition and creating/taking chances – too depressing!
* Brady – so good I mentioned him twice!
I mean I like what Arteta is doing in getting us to be more compact and structurally more sound but his is where the limitations of the players set in. Slow CBs and slow midfielders with no engine (apart from Torreira but he’s still not great at covering large spaces) and no striker we can just lump it long to means that we have to sacrifice too much of our transition play just to not concede 30 shots on goal. As soon as our opponents stop giving us space to let Luiz play it out from the back we’re useless,… Read more »
Alex From the previous post, As much as the Kroenkes are the worst owners in the league after Mike Ashley, we have spent quite a lot on transfers for a couple of years now but it’s been on totally shit or not fit for purpose tyoe of players Perez Mustafi Xhaka Chambers This was summer 2015 i think, over 100 million blown on absolute average players and therein lies the problem, those in charge of transfers have made dumb decision after dumb decision with regards incomings… Same can be said of last summer, rather than fix the defence, we went… Read more »
We got Koscienly in 2010 if I’m not mistaken and he’s been the best defender we’ve had since and even he wasn’t that great..We’ve not had a good enough defender in more than a decade and that tells you something about our recruitment….And that’s before we talk about our non existent midfield
Paulinho “I warned fans on here for at least two years how fucked we would be without Ramsey, because we had literally no one to score goals from deeper positions or make off the ball runs” The last thing Arsenal have needed for the last 2 years is a central midfielder who spends half the time in the opposition box . Arteta is at long last rectifying this ongoing lack of midfield discipline that wenger and Emery allowed to the detriment of the team. Arteta hasn’t got the balance right as yet but he is going the right way about… Read more »
Batistua
How is Chambers still a ‘not a fit for purpose player’ after watching the exploits of this season.
Been our 3rd best player this season.
Talk about stubbornness.
How Far is Tierney from fitness? 2 months?
Wasi
Well he’s injured for the next 6-9 months for starters.
Shouldn’t be a starter for a serious team competing for top 4 or better anyway, fine as a backup though when fit.
Batistuta
“We’re hung up on scoring and assisting because the manager is rectifying the defensive issues so no need to expect much from our attacking players, not like other teams don’t do the two at the same time”
Other teams didn’t concede 30 chances to a bottom of the league side or 20/25 chances at home to teams like palace , wolves, Southampton and Brighton.
Arteta is doing what Emery should have done 18 months ago and addressed our defensive issues , instead Emery doubled our problems in those areas.
Play Ceballos or Dozi(as a sub) to replace ozil it will instantly change the dynamics of the team for the better, they can move with the ball and
pressure the opponent from the front(with ozil the opponent knows he wont be tackling so they run with the ball)
Im telling you this for free!
I’m willing Arteta to be a success but it’s hard to look past the ‘lets build a team around Xhaka and Ozil.’
Fred
” Get some players in with some athleticism and actual quality and we can expect both less goals conceded and more scored. It really is that simple.”
200 spent plus 2 loan deals for midfielders, what’s gone wrong then Fred .
Why haven’t Raul, vinaii and Edu addressed this” lack of athleticism and quality. ”
Last season Emery decided that Ramsey wasn’t t that player as he benched him continuously and decided that Torreira was the box to box player we needed.
Pierre – Dear lord, you’re so dense. Can’t see the forest for the trees. Paul Scholes spent half his time in the opposition box at his peak. Again, you’re making the daft mistake most made over the years of assuming every space left on the counter is punished, when it isn’t if you attack with conviction and quality. We’ve been dragged time and time again this season because this pitiful lot keep losing the ball in advanced areas and we get countered. Arteta making us play risk free is because we don’t have players like Ramsey that consistently attack with… Read more »
Arsenal need a minimum of 2 technical players to retain the ball and create chances(to keep teams from running at us) it solves a big part of the defensive issues.
Pepe and Kola are struggling to take the ball to the final third through the flanks. The ball possession at the flanks around the centre line is markedly clumsy this season. There seems to be no respite from the frustrating display of possession-loss in these areas. High balls to them from MF and CBs are too few. Even if there is one, Pepe and Auba invariably screws up near the corner post. Surprisingly, Kola is marginally cleaner around this area. This is a tough problem to sort out because improvement in this involves individual ball-play. Rather, chances of pushing crosses… Read more »
“Marko
Yes we have possession , but to turn them into clear cut chances the players have to take risks .To take risks means you leave spaces behind, and I think Arteta is more concerned with not leaving spaces behind to leave us open to the counter .”
Seems you like agree with me here Pierre.
Paulinho
You’re rewriting history regarding Ramsey.
To think that he never gave the ball away or we didn’t leave massive holes through midfield when he made his 20/ 30 runs into the box per game is laughable.
Our best midfield over the most recent period was coquelin and cazorla because they were not rampaging forward , Ramsey was played on the right for a reason .
None of us needs to be a £5m a year coach to recognise the basic weaknesses of our two key midfielders. Ozil is technically gifted but singularly unmotivated and lacking commitment. He plays about one game in five where he leaves a mark and for the remainder, he is a disnterested and peripheral influence. He does not score goals. Xhaka is not good enough for the Premier League – he cannot tackle, cannot mark, lacks moblity and spatial awareness and his passing is weak and ineffective. He does not score goals. Pedro rightly says football is a brutal game. Maybe… Read more »
Pierre – Again you are missing the bigger picture.
Who gives a shit if you have to deal with a counter every now and then. If overall you have the opposition on the back foot, hanging on, creating chances, you win the game. The idea top sides go out with this ridiculous ‘oh, we can’t countered, let’s sit back’ is laughable.
Putting Cazorla as an example of some sort of defensive protection is beyond dumb. Ramsey was played right midfield specifically to add defensive steel to that lightweight duo.
“I’m willing Arteta to be a success but it’s hard to look past the ‘lets build a team around Xhaka and Ozil.’“
I mean I’d look past it given it’s never been stated, and in fact the opposite has been. That being there second someone doesn’t give what’s required they’re out the side’.
Paulinho
“Seems you like agree with me here Pierre”
I was the making point that Arteta is addressing our problems , the last thing he would want at this present time is for one of our central midfielders to go glory hunting as Ramsey was inclined to do.
Paulinho
Our world didn’t end because your idol Ramsey left, he wasn’t fit enough to play for the club like numerous others previously. The poor choice was drafting in Ceballos to fill his boots, apples replacing oranges.
“chances of pushing crosses from flanks of final third to the box have to be taken. This is possible if the wingers get long balls from MF/CB.”
This season is screwed anyways playing from the back. Why not mandate the CBs, DMs and CMs play 5 long balls to flanks every game?
The last two years we have had mangers who do not have a clue about defensive shape or the requirement of defensive shape required in the Prem .As much as Ozil is talented and he is and is really trying at the moment , he still has flashes of brilliance , but how many times have we sat there and thought go on Ozil beat that player and that team is opened up only for him to be brushed off the ball . the purest game now requires a physicality Ozil does not process and it does not help that… Read more »
Why not mandate the CBs, DMs and CMs play 5 long balls EACH to flanks every game?
Charlie – And buying your idol Xhaka, and giving your idol Ozil a new contract, and giving too much playing time to player you think we should build our team around, Guendouzi.
Everything I said about Ramsey in relation to our squad has been spot on. Deal with it.
Paulinho “Pierre – Again you are missing the bigger picture.Who gives a shit if you have to deal with a counter every now and then. If overall you have the opposition on the back foot, hanging on, creating chances, you win the game. The idea top sides go out with this ridiculous ‘oh, we can’t countered, let’s sit back’ is laughable.” “A counter every now and then” is not what was happening was it . What was happening for the last 4 years since cazorla and coquelin were split up is we were leaving a massive hole in central midfield… Read more »
Paulinho
I don’t have an idol in the squad, difference being you’ve continually painted murals of the sun shining out Ramsey’s arse.
Everything you’ve said has been spot on? What? That selling a goal getting midfielder would leave us without a……goal getting midfielder? You really put the full beams on that one.
Ramsey leaving wasn’t an issue, his replacement has been. Deal with that instead of trying to retell the story as a ‘woes without Rambo’.
Our goal scoring is abysmal.
Now the only scorer has got himself red carded we are in a right mess.
Laca goals isn’t scoring and Pepe want one touch too many.
We will struggle to win the next three games.
Sorry state we are in.
Meanwhile the board pass the biscuits around.
“I’m willing Arteta to be a success but it’s hard to look past the ‘lets build a team around Xhaka and Ozil.”
@Left, please, you need to put a little bit more faith in (Pedro’s) the Chosen One, thanks.
“He will bring in the players he needs and dispose of players that are surplus to requirements.”
So it’s all to do with player personnel, and you agree we don’t have any one in midfield that can impact the game enough going forward to any meaningful level.
What happens when we try and to be expansive next season and start conceding chances and goals. These new players have to actually be good enough to make opening up a viable tactic long term.
“That selling a goal getting midfielder would leave us without a……goal getting midfielder? ”
Yeah, because it’s so easy isn’t it buying a goal scoring midfielder. It’s not like they are rare or anything. It’s not as if factoring how difficult it actually is to buy those players came into my thinking when coming to the conclusion we were fucked without Ramsey for the foreseeable.
Pierre “200 spent plus 2 loan deals for midfielders, what’s gone wrong then Fred . Why haven’t Raul, vinaii and Edu addressed this” lack of athleticism and quality. ”Last season Emery decided that Ramsey wasn’t t that player as he benched him continuously and decided that Torreira was the box to box player we needed” Pierre, when you have a whole squad to rebuild 200m doesn’t get you very far. Doesn’t help when you have a Cam raking in 18m a year doing nothing and refusing to leave, doesn’t help when many of your senior players are paid so much… Read more »
Paulinho
Happen to disagree there, you think it would’ve been a real difficult task to replace Ramsey’s 900 minutes he’s managed this season in a league half as quick?
You’ve done this as long as I’ve been reading, totally overrate the input and claim him a rare bird.
Who is the “Ramsey” in the other top clubs in the prem?
Paulinho “What happens when we try and to be expansive next season and start conceding chances and goals. .” We wont , because Arteta is devising a system where we wont be open to the counter , like bringing in the full backs to supplement the midfield or pushing a central defender into midfield. It’s in it’s infancy at the moment , it doesnt just happen after a month on charge without a pre season . You would have to be pretty stupid to expect us to be more solid defensively and playing open attacking expansive football, all within 4… Read more »
“Who is the “Ramsey” in the other top clubs in the prem?”
You said the mistake we made was not replacing him with a goal scoring midfielder and now you’re downplaying the importance of a goal-scoring midfielder.
Make your mind up.
Paulinho
No I’m not downplaying the importance, I’m dismissing the notion Ramsey is a rare bird in the game. You keep up.
Keep up and answer the question of who is “Ramsey” in the other top clubs in the league?
Charlie – You’ve tied yourself in knots again.
There is no Ramsey in other top sides.
So he is indeed a ‘rare bird’.
Fred
“Pierre, when you have a whole squad to rebuild 200m doesn’t get you very far.”
It can buy you 2 quality and athletic midfielders and a couple of central defenders .
We have spent the money in areas that wasn’t a priority.
Aaron Rmasey: 64 goals in 11 seasons at Arsenal (369 games).
Roughly 6 goals a season, banging them in so he was..
Mostly, he’s an injured bird.
Even if they did have one, we wouldn’t be able to buy them.
Paulinho
I’ve tied no knots at all, you’re just trying to back away from what I’ve said because it unpicks your hero worship.
There’s no Ramsey in other sides, but we’re fucked for not having him anymore? And he’s really hard to replace?
Makes loads of sense.
Jim – Top goal scoring central midfielder in our history. Yep, he kind of was when fully fit.
Chatting like the man was Frank Lampard! lol!
Charlie – So why was our mistake not replacing him with a goal-scoring midfielder?
It’s sometimes more fun reading than participating. Go on, lads!
Paulinho
Because our goal scoring options, particularly in midfield, diminished. Fairly straightforward.
How can you for-tell is being fucked when Ramsey leaves, then claim no other side has a Ramsey, and claim him a hard replacement. Makes no sense.
If the other sides don’t have a Ramsey, then what do they have? The answer to that is how you replace Ramsey…..which is apparently really hard.
Pierre It depends on who is available no? Maybe they felt we got better deals in other positions and that we could manage with Xhaka, who is in his prime and apparently captain material and Ozil because we couldn’t shift him. We bought a couple of CBs, completely wrong profile and we went cheap and old instead of investing in the future. We have Saliba coming in the summer and he has all the qualities we’re looking for there so small steps. We also significantly lowered our wage bill last summer which was absolutely vital. I’m not saying our transfer… Read more »
Charlie – Your argument is daft, as per, because City have elite technical play-makers that can score and Liverpool have three elite hard-working forwards and midfielders that can go box to box.
You said Ceballos was mistake because he wasn’t like for like then contradict yourself saying there are different ways to skin a cat.
@Paulinho –
11/12: Games – 44 Goals – 3
12/13: Games – 47 Goals – 2
13/14: Games – 34 Goals – 16
14/15: Games – 41 Goals – 10
15/16: Games – 40 Goals – 6
16/17: Games – 32 Goals – 4
17/18: Games 32 Goals – 11
18/19: Games 40 Goals – 6
3 decent seasons in 8. And those seasons were decent nothing special.
“Because our goal scoring options, particularly in midfield, diminished. Fairly straightforward.”
So straightforward, yet had problems with recognising the importance of it, then recognised the importance of it, and then dismissed the importance of it.
Bore off Jim. Tedious.
Count the assists as well for a laugh.
Paulinho
Frail argument when you’ve got to resort to a ‘look at them’ of the two best sides in the league who are levels above the rest – they’re stacked with players? You don’t say.
How about the actual rivals?
Spurs, United, Chelsea….Leicester even. How do they skin the cat without Aaron Ramsey? Answers on a postcard.
“Roughly 6 goals a season, banging them in so he was..”
When you consider the amount of time Ramsey spent in the opposition box , that is a very poor return .
Players like Lampard and Gerrard knew when to go and when to stay and were very rarely caught out of position.
Ramsey didn’t give a toss whether we needed to protect a lead or not , he would often be seen trying to get on the scoresheet in the last 5 minutes when we should have been protecting a lead .
Charlie – Does Tom need to post those stats again? Scroll back, have a look.
Look Paulinho you are bias to anything Aaron Ramsey and have been for years on here, its pretty obvious to any frequent poster, just admit it and move on.