It was quite the scene watching Real Madrid pick Liverpool to pieces last night… and once again, really highlighted the job we need to do this summer in the transfer market.
Madrid controlled the press, they were obviously extrememly efficient in midfield with Kroos and Modric pulling strings, and they moved the ball accurately at speed.
Who in our team, bar Xhaka on a very, very good day, could pick out Vinicius with a 2 yard advantage on Trent?
The most impressive part for me was how Madrid played around Liverpool and demoralised them. That really is the key to beating big teams with intelligent pressing, you play around them a few times early in the game and make them doubt themselves. Madrid did it with some beautiful one touch football and Klopp didn’t have an answer.
That sort of football from Arsenal can only really come when we have our best starting 11 out with the correct players in the right positions.
Arsenal need to start shaping our squad with players that can do things like the Madrid side can. An obvious statement, but if the direction we’re taking is highly technical, then we need highly technical players with the right physical attributes to be able to do that.
Currently, we have a good idea that can operate with certain players in the right mood. Take a few players our and we’re in a desperate situation.
We need more Smith Rowe like talents, his addition to the squad has been absolutely crucial. Without his intelligent running and quick passing, everyone drops a level. Odegaard is a fine player, but he was taken out of the Liverpool game with ease when there weren’t other creators around him
Technical means intelligence as well. I don’t believe for a minute Arteta didn’t have Trent down as a weakness, but he didn’t have players on the pitch that could execute a plan to take advantage. Madrid players don’t need a week to deliver on an plan, Liverpool don’t… Arsenal players aren’t smart enough to operate to a high level on short notice.
Auba and Lacazette don’t play well together, we have to give up that game and start playing the names that click on the pitch. If we’re playing Auba as the 9, we have to build technicians around him. We can’t try and have it every which way to appease the big names. It doesn’t work. Lacazette has good link-up play but limited threat in front of goal, Auba is deadly but won’t run the line or link-up. It’s a nightmare of our own making… but let’s be clear on Auba, he gave us the season we feared we’d have if he didn’t sign up for 3 years (no goal threat). Who saw that coming?
We also need to make decisions on the defence next season. If you need to be world class with the ball at your feet to survive in the Arsenal defence, let’s shape our squad that way and make sure we have players that are comortable playing a high risk game.
William Saliba is still very raw, he’s ony a kid, but his game is what we need from a centre back. He’s in the top 3 for ball recoveries, no one has run past him this season, and he can move with the ball at his feet. He needs to be in the four next season. What is the point in David Luiz next year? What is he preserving for us? If the coaching staff are looking at him, thinking he’s keeping us stable, and we’re 10th, it feels like they’re under-analysing the problem. None of the senior players are keeping us in the mix this year and none of them have a resale value. What’s more… the surgery… it’s a big fuck off siren… he’s old, fitness does not get any better. Old players that are injured all the time are not fun to be around at the training ground. Arteta can attest to that, not many people were huge fans of the man he was at the back end of his injury ravaged Arsenal career.
We should be experimenting for the future, not doubling down on a past that has had us 8th and now 10th or possibly lower this season. Calculate our unforced errors this season, look at the average age of where they come from, and you’ll find it’s probably over the age of 25. If you take even half those errors out of the system, we’re in the top 4 right now… but you have to have the guts to do that, and there are huge question marks over whether our coaching stuff is ruthless enough to make moves like that. If your most crucial players cost you the most points because of errors… then your squad is built to fail. The footballing equation can’t be ‘we play better with that person in the squad, but they regularly cost us games.’ That’s like building an electric car that thrills with 0-60 at 2 seconds… but regularly explodes and kills its passengers.
Arsenal will get to the end goal a lot quicker if we just do the difficult work now. At the moment, we’re the guy having one more beer before they hit the diet… we’re delaying the inevitable.
If there is one thing we’ve learned this season, it’s that players with a future to play for are far more hungry than those that don’t. Willian has no special qualities that are relevant to the now. David Luiz might be a great big game player, but if every 4 games he serves up a howler that costs us 3 points, what’s the fucking point? Our prestige names are fair weather. Who would I prefer as my #9 in a one on one with my house on the line? Auba. Who would I prefer over a 90… I’m not far off saying Martinelli this season.
Here’s the thing though, most of this post is directed at Arteta… it should NOT be that way.
‘He’s a bad manager but a good coach’ is something I hear at lot and I absolutely agree.
You could be a good coder, doesn’t mean you’d make a good CEO. All the brightest young managers in world football have brilliant systems built around their weaknesses. Nagelsmann is not a manager, he’s a coach, and he’s surrounded by people that know how to extract the most out of him. Marco Rose will not be handling the vision of a Dortmund when he’s hired there. There are so, so few true managers in world football right now because it’s an outrageous amount of responsibility to bestow on someone. We bestowed that on a novice.
We should have a strong technical director running the show. Edu should be the bad guy making the tough decisions. Arteta should be able to shrug and say, ‘I just work with what I am given’… it is farsical that a 39 year old is given so much power for delivering so little.
But here’s the thing, you don’t want Edu running things, nor does Vinai, which is why he promoted Arteta. When that sort of weakness runs through the clubs leadership, it’s absolutely clear why we are where we are right now. Too many people are learning on the job. Edu and Arteta should not be sharing roles. The blending of swimlanes makes it hard to see who is doing what. Arteta should coach, Edu should be building the squad. That said, I’m not saying we can’t succeed. I’m just saying we’re building out an unsustainable model based on the hope that one person can do it all… that’s not future proof. Might not even be now proof.
This summer is going to be massive. All three of the leadership trifecta have jobs on the line. KSE are unlikely to foot another rebuild bill. We’ll have to make money before we can spend. We’ll likely have to improve the level of our squad on lower wages. We’ll likely have to move a historic amount of talent both ways and keep stability in the first team.
A huge ask. If they pull it off, then I’ll back the fuck away…
One way to make the summer a little easier would be to win the Europa League, more on that tomorrow night.
Rr
Psg made it to the final last season I think they have the mental strength to win it this year and have probably two players in neymar and mbappe who are game changing players.
Man city could win it but they are more mentally fragile imo.
What a goal from Chelsea. Chilwell walks the ball into the net. 2 – 0
PSG missing Marquinhos, Di Maria, Kurzawa, Verrati, Florenzi, Paredes, Rafinha…
Habesha
Lewa is out for the second leg as well
Love a good snow match… especially when it’s 85 degrees F here… 30 degrees C.
Makes me laugh… whoaaa big miss.
Ronaldo will be raging watching this tonight, Porto are so fucking average.
Total mismatch. Chavs aren’t even that good.
London
Yup it’s feasible PSG win it.
Chelsea could sneak in and steal it. They’re keeping clean sheets at the moment, something very useful at this stage of the competition. They’re my second favourites after City.
Oh here comes Rafinha…
God I hope not.. If Chelski.. sneak out a CL trophy… I will be physically ill.
That was a fun match… to watch. Had a little bit of everything.
Karim
Oh that changes things. PSG now the firm favourites. But Bayern deserved at least a draw out of this. They had too many shots and couldn’t make them count.
PSG are too dependent on Mbappe in the big games for my liking though. Sooner or later a team being held by individuals will get found out. Bayern had 31 shots with 12 on target. It might have worked this time but it is not a great pla hoping the opposition fluff their lines.
Real Madrid can definitely win the comp, have probably the most seasoned group out of the lot still left and have the quality in midfield in particular to control games.
Beat Liverpool fairly comfortably yesterday.
Vinicius Jr is a real handful when he’s switched on.
Fuck Bayern! (and I don’t like PSG either)
Allegri rumoured to return to Juve
Great result for PSG.
Yes Bayern dominated but PSG played it perfectly, sit back and soak up the pressure and hit on the counter.
They’ll be more proactive at home, Verratti was a big miss tonight for them in midfield.
Bayern going to win this thing, truly the dominant team, and for better finishing could have been 5-3.
psg will fold as usual, along with pup and the other oiler machine..
Damn I hate those clubs.
Now onto our club, who starts at the cb’s?
Radio
Pirlo’s a goner surely?
Worse showing in Europe and a fight for top 4, forget the title.
Pirlo.. sadly probably gonna get the axe.. Too bad.. Not much of a manager. Amazing Player though.. Still love the dude.
Habesha
Yep. Never thought Bayern would be that good without their two top strikers. They could have won it on any other night and the tie is all but over imo.
Credit to Paris though, they were very good too. Exciting game next week.
Hope we do the job come tomorrow night now.
So Slavia Prague have absences.
Only one first team CB available and reports that they will have to draft a midfielder into their central defence. Also reports that their first choice GK is unlikely to play either.
Over to you Arteta. Do the necessary.
Karim
Based on tonight’s showing I wouldn’t completely write off Bayern They have a lot of bottle. Better finishing tonight and they win this game. If veratti is back though it will be next to impossible in my opinion.
Anyway our team is so far back I don’t know if we are even playing the same sport. Even getting CL will show us up as it stands unless we get better players. I think we will make it through this round. I don’t know about SF though.
Wenger eagle
Beating Napoli earlier saved Pirlo I think. Like Arteta, Pirlo was brought in for a project.
I think people aren’t giving psg the credit they deserve they were clinical lethal and immensely efficent on the counter.
Though bayern had a lot of chances most of them were shots at bodies in the box. Psg had the clearest cut chances imo and played bayern like a fiddle tonight.
RR
But what was the need for a project when you are dominating the seria a and making it to finals and semi finals of champions league?
I actually fancy Bayern to go through on today’s showing. That’s the best I’ve seen them this opposition considered. I still don’t think they’ll win it simply haven’t been consistent enough this season.
Radio
No way Bayern stand any chance next week without Lewadonwski.
The tie is done
Having read the Lewis Ambrose tactics column over at Arseblog, I’m feeling very pessimistic about our prospects against Slavia Prague. They look to be very effective at a high press and excellent at shutting off passing lanes for teams that like to build from the back: exactly the kind of side we do badly against.
Paris always tend to struggle in second legs, especially at home. Remember even Barcelona had a chance the other week after their disastrous first leg.
But having someone like Navas is a big plus for psg, and Bayern will miss Gnabry and Lewa a lot again.
Words on a blog
They are absolute minnows don’t even know what league they play for but wouldn’t be surpised if they are a collection of part time plumbers and carpenters.
We will blow them out of the water
London gunner,
really hope you’re right – but have to admit I’m feeling jittery!
Amazingly Slavia Prague play in the Czech Republic. Who knew?
Bertie
And what’s the name of their league, no googling 😉
So who’s expecting to see KT back this season? It’s not looking good and I think that puts a bit debt in our Europa league ambitions.
Does Saka get chucked back there now?
Bertie Mee I think that Arsenal’s Youth Academy under Mertesacker has been improving recently its scouting of young players. According to Jeorge Bird interview which I listened to the concern is/has been the calibre of coaching at the club. The question which needs to be asked are Steve Bould [U23] and Gillard [U18] the right coaches to operate at those levels? I appreciate that Steve Bould is a loyal servant of the club, but I wonder just how effective he is as a coach. He has worked with Wenger over many years. You would have assumed that he might have… Read more »
London
Think Juve owners wanted more entertaining football at cut-price. Ronaldo was meant to be the last big purchase and their big swing at the champions League.
Sarriball was meant to usher in this era but he bottled it after some bad results. Pirlo, supported by some older heads, was brought in to carry on the project. It appears the owners’ confidence in this project have also waned.
Frankly, I didn’t see their football as boring. I always saw it as solid, organised and sometimes entertaining.
Personally I’m not interested in Slavia. Small club from a small league. Unless we’re robbed by the refs there’s no excuse for us not going through this tie. I know Leicester and rangers came unstuck but that’s their problem. If we have any semblance of ambition to sit at the big boy table in football then we must be able to beat tiny Eastern European teams over two legs.
Back when we were actually a decent team, I vaguely recall us smashing Slavia 6-0 in one game
This is not a team we should be respecting. We need to just get the job done and dispose of them
Arsenal are a mid table club
Don’t see any changes or improvement in the next couple of seasons under this current regime
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9444387/Emmanuel-Petit-hammers-Arsenal-brutal-rant-recruitment-player-attitudes-Arteta.html Always liked Petit as a player and mostly what he has to say these days. In the above article he is spot on and what many of us repeated say here:. I say: “Arsenal is a retirement home for wayward players and shithouse coaches with poor CVs and hopeless rookie manager who repeatedly makes the same mistakes.” Can we beast Slavia Prague ? Will certain players turn up? Will Arteta play not to lose with the handbrake firmly on and or give up away goals? I’ll be watching at 6am tomorrow morning as I’m not staying up until 2am… Read more »
Quote from Arteta:
“Mikel Arteta says Arsenal’s abject defeat by Liverpool was a much-needed ‘punch in the face’ and was ‘good to come back to reality’ as Gunners look to win the Europa League this season”
So what about the other 11 loses? Were they light jabs?
Complete joke of a manager way too far out of his depth and Pedro being the life guard that can never quite get the water wings to the sinking generational manager and coach.
Leaked kit for next season:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9444801/Arsenals-leaked-new-home-shirt-new-home-shirt-2021-22-compared-Ajax.html
If only we could play like Ajax.
Or have Erik ten Hag as our manager and Rangnick/Overmars as DoF with Bergkamp as AMs and forwards’ coach.
Stuff that dreams are made of for other clubs and never us.
If anyone is getting the sack, it won’t be vinai or edu. It will be arteta. The other two have been their job. Edu in particular has overseen the purchase of Gabriel, partey, mari, martinelli, cedric and willian and runnarson. Raul paid 8m to get mari here for a one season loan which cost more than to buy him. Edu paid 2 mill for the loan of odegaard, and 2 mill for the purchase of runnarson who should have been scouted better. William is the only flop but he did not cost anything and was a good gamble on paper.… Read more »
Interesting:
https://salarysport.com/football/eredivisie/afc-ajax/
So we don’t have kola, mustafi, ozil, sok, leictsteiner, and mkhi but we still have dross to get rid off? Now either every player we have is shit or we are doing something very wrong.
Combination of both Gons:
A few shit players and Arteta is doing too many things wrong.
Nailed it gonsterous
Great comments Tony
“Arteta on the other hand has mismanaged players and really fought to give auba a new contract( which made sense last season and I think any manager would have done it), ”
But the contract should be tied to performance:
– # of goals
– # of assists
– # of games played
– help the team to gain Europa games.
It will gey messy today
You heard it here 1st!
Nelson
Sadly Arteta and the club’s hierarchy doesn’t do accountability like normal clubs and well run businesses.
If we did, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now.
Sly
“Great comments Tony”
Thanks Sly.
I’m curious about the LB position against Slavia
Most people (myself included) think Saka will be LB but my hunch is this is a mistake as he’s so important to our attack.
Personally I’d gamble on a less than ideal Soares LB and Chambers RB instead so that we can play Pepe, ESR, Saka as our attacking unit. Not sure who I’d choose at CF, probably Laca this time.
Soares and chambers is clearly not ideal but my hunch is the pay off to our attack will outweigh any cost to our defense so I’d roll that dice
“Who in our team, bar Xhaka on a very, very good day, could pick out Vinicius with a 2 yard advantage on Trent?”
OMG! OMG!!! Is this blog an Arteta-Xhaka newsletter now??????
Pedro, you think only Xhaka can hace that kind of passing accuracy? Haven’t you seen 98 out of Xhaka’s passes are backpasses? and, the rest two are sideways? haven’t you? Which Arsenal are you watching for the last 4 years?
This Arteta style of defensive and stale football has polluted the football understanding of ppl here. They have started falling for that style, believing that is gold standard. This is exactly why they (you guys here) cannot appreciate Ceballos. Ceballos is a footballer is capable of making that kind of a pass 8 out of 10 times ONLY IF ARTETA the donkey gives him a free hand. Poor Ceballos is stuck in this Arsenal rut of Arteta-Xhaka quicksand.
China Agreed but play ESR centrally and Odegaard with Partey feeding the front 3 you stated. Let Odegaard do the Xhaka duties only far better and then Partey should have less ground to cover. That way Odegaard doesn’t lessen ESR’s play as it does when ESR plays on the left to accommodate Odegaard centrally. Cedric doesn’t link up as well on the left as he does on the right. Maybe play Gabriel as LB. Keep Saka on the left to track back when necessary and play Pepe on the right as he’s linked with Cedric well before. Chambers is a… Read more »
“Who in our team, bar Xhaka on a very, very good day, could pick out Vinicius with a 2 yard advantage on Trent?”
More a case of Vinicius running on to the pass from TK than him picking out Vinicius.
Tony Kroos is top quality so he gets the plaudits but by far the more difficult skill was on the part of the striker.
Tony – lol. On reflection I was a bot harsh yesterday and obviously getting the nasty spike that seems to emanate from this blog.
bit
So my apologies
No problem Northbanker we all let our emotions run off when we’re so stressed from the incompetence we keep witnessing.
Then there are the C-19 constant threats controlling lives.
Totally understandable.
Feel free to discuss super-woofers as much as you like, my friend. All over my head but I do have a very nice set of 4 Sonos speakers installed in my kitchen ceiling when I extended it.. All was great until Sonos stopped their app from being linked to iTunes, where all my music is stored. It seems I now need to switch to Google Play or use Spotify
Tony and Northbanker These audio-related discussions are cool. I’ve still got my vinyl and hi-fi. Mostly technics stuff with a Marantz amp and some large but dodgy-ish Sony speakers which, to coin a phrase, are all about the bass, not the treble. I think the deck needs a new stylus however. Turning to tonight’s game, I know little about Slavia although I have seen them play through a haze of Pilsen in Prague in the early 90s. Very chic kit – a bit like Feyenoord’s. It was a dour nil-nil against Viktoria Zizkov I believe but the hangover went to… Read more »
Tony
I totally agree with your analysis there
Only I’d have Pepe and Saka swapping. Also swapping with ESR too
Keeps them guessing and harnesses all 3 of their varying attributes in different ways
You want Pepe as close to the striker as poss. He should be our second highest contributor for goals with his leve of finishing.
Northbanker I’m a big Sonos fan. As speakers they punch well above their price range. In our family room I use the new Arc under the TV then directly opposite I situated the Move as its base. As you move the Move around the room it changes the sound dynamics with the Arc and so you can apply the sound to specific directions with different listening experiences. I use Tidal here for music because sadly we can’t get Qobuz. Crazy because we used to. B&W WiFi speakers play HiRes files the best but cost triple the amount of the best… Read more »
Now he blames others for his nastiness, just like he likes accusing others of negativity, his self awarenes is hilarious
Wiglaf
That was my point of having ESR as the CF. He, of the 3, can glide around going deep to collect while Pepe and Saka interchange dragging CBs with them.
If they can be fluid with each other we have a good chance of goals.
Kroenkephobe
I’ll drop a post tomorrow morning my time re your HiFi. I find myself smiling because the brands you mentioned I also had in the late 70s.
In its price range Technics was a much loved brand.
Im also an expert on sound systems, nothing comes close to my
Goldstar TW-P41 Boombox, AM/FM Stereo with Dual Cassette Recorder
Instant pantie remover
Im telling yiu for free!
Munching on my toast have just listened to a quick debate on Sky Sports which followed on from Gary Nevilles comments on MNF
The view very much is that Arteta has lost the dressing room and what Neville called the front 6 have downed tools.
The debate also touched on the near enough impossible position that Arsenal finds itself in when trying to move on these six their contracts, their age and above all the depressed marked makes it not just difficult but it’s going to cost a wedge.
Tony Ajax can afford to pay significantly lower wages in Holland for two reasons. Firstly, because their primary objective is and has been for decades to focus on their youth programme and therefore in the knowledge that their best players will leave and go elsewhere. Second the Domestic League in Holland is relatively weak and therefore finishing at the top is relatively easy compared with EPL where there is far more competition. Arsenal’s current problem is that their wage bill has been designed for a club competing at the top of EPL and playing in Champions League. Unfortunately we are… Read more »
With regards to Martinelli and Saliba and possibly Mavropanos if they were with a CL club they would be playing regularly. Shows just what a fuck up of a club we have become. We instead rearrange the aging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Terraloon
Players downing tools, always says more about the players, than it does about the manager
Moving players on this summer is going to be more difficult than some people seem to think, there’s a good chance we’re stuck with the bulk of this squad
Players need to drop their egos, put their petty squabbles to one side, and start playing for the shirt, there’s still plenty to play for this season
Wiglaf
ESR at forward, now I’ve heard it all. When he drops deep, we will be left with no forwards. Haven’t we had enough experiments? Why not play players in their original position, they can cover other positions for back up.
This is Wenger and his idea of putting alexis up top.
Won’t be surprised if we see Azeez on the bench tonight going by his Instagram story.
Chambers was hung out to dry in the Liverpool game and as he proved previously he is far and away a better right back than Bellerin…Yet Arteta brings back one if his favourites as soon as “the pressure is on”…Similarly instead of slotting ESR back into the number 10 slot given Odergaard’s injury…he goes back to Willian…When WILL ARTETA LEARN.. He refuses to start Martinelli although he has thankfully finally noticed that Aubamayang does not merit a starting berth based on current form. I’d like to think that their last performance…or rather their lack of one…means that Arsenal start this… Read more »