Woohoo!!! 200 posts in a matchday thread. I never thought I'd see this day again on the Arsenal forum. Does this mean there's hope yet? Or are we just witnessing the final big exhale of a dying corpse?
Not for me. Those two are the ones we have to keep in order to maintain the competitiveness we have while we rebuild the rest of the squad.
Agreed, unless the price is crazy. Good forwards can cover up a lot of shortcomings. As evidence, see this entire season.
Yeah this. I was more bullish on Emery than some during the year. We faced quite a bit of adversity throughout the season, but until the last six weeks we hadn't allowed bad results or bad performances to compound into a tailspin against us. Well, at the very least that streak has ran out. I wouldn't look twice if Emery were fired tomorrow but still I wouldn't do it, personally. I don't know who we'd get on a meager budget, which would be getting smaller considering that we'd end up having to pay off Emery himself for another year. The difference between Wenger and Emery is that Wenger was the problem. But even calling this season a failure which at this point it pretty clearly is, you can say on Emery's behalf is that he isn't the problem. The downside of that is that he isn't the solution either. So we have to be looking somewhere else for that. The big question is, who should the fans and presumptive players look to in terms of being able to carry the club forward? My best guess is Edu, who isn't even at the club yet but I do suspect that is our best bath forward.
Yeah, we don't hear very much about that any more, how Ozil runs the hardest and the farthest of all the players. I don't think that's been true for at least 2-3 years.
I don't necessarily believe the 40MM GBP number, but it's a bad thing anyway because I don't think Ornstein would have reported it if the club didn't want it to be circulated. In any event, I do think it can be done with the money we have. I think we'll have to buy relatively cheap players from Central America, France, Spain and Germany for between 5-25MM GBP per. Eg, in the last year or so we have acquired or are going to acquire Guendouzi, Alexis Claude-Maurice and Martinelli from Brazil for between 7-10MM per. I also think we have assets on the books who we need to do a good job of realizing our value in. Chambers, Xhaka, Mustafi and Iwobi are probably worth 20MM GBP each (and Iwobi more). I don't think it's outlandish to think that we could generate 80-100MM GBP from player sales. It's hard to separate our lack of money from our poor management in general because the two issues are closely intertwined but to the extent that you could I think that the poor management is a bigger situation at the moment. For me at least it's the most immediate problem.
Nah, it's just morphed into the main topic people still want to use BigSoccer for... the transfer thread!
Wow. I didn’t think that we would win this game from the beginning, so I’m not that surprised. But, honest question, what exactly did Emery do wrong in the game? I thought the line-up was good. He played both Auba and Laca from the start, which gave us the best chance at scoring. He played Ozil for some creativity, which we lacked. Who would you have played that didn’t play? Tactically and strategically, I thought we were set up fine. In the first half, Kola was free many times, and Pedro was a nonfactor because he had to mark him or leave him wide open, which he did many times. I thought we had a good first half. The game switched when they scored. Girlie scored a great goal. The players turned off, and the second goal killed the game. But Emery's subs were positive, and one of them scored! I get that the result sucked. But the players play the game. I don’t really see what Emery did that was wrong and deserves the bulk of the criticism. What would you all have changed that materially would have made a difference?
Points -Arsenal embarrassed 4 goals -ozil like playing a man dwn Emery tatics not to lose w two CDMs. No runs into the box no crosses. Just hold ball and hope hazard was thinking of RM transfer. -The lil terrier was walking ala S. American style during the second goal. He is not in epl guy. And faded as Season progressed. I'll take the kid over him.
Season a complete failure right? Ill take my chances w Vieira nex year. Out mustafi Ozil, xhaxa, welbeck, Chambers , Holden, jenkins, mavropanos, Litch, welbeck, kolasanic. If we gonna choke and lose. I'll go with the youngsters instead and Abu ,/ Laca.
Yeah, this. People talk like its some ridiculous Emery brainstorm that our tactical plan is get Kolasinac on the overlap and cut back. That's not some kind of failing MENSA move by Emery, we're doing that because we don't have many options available and that's the one we've got left. We don't have Ramsey or Bellerin, who we could at least hope were creating penetration down the middle and right. We should have some ideas for Plan B in the midfield but we don't. Moe, Suarez, Ramsey, Ozil and to some extent Xhaka aren't helping us. We've had to go with Torreira, Guendouzi and Xhaka and we've been exposed when they run out of gas. That's basically been Emery's problem for the last two months. My biggest gripe with Emery isn't any particular result but the whole tailspin. It would have been nice if we could have gotten 10 points out of 18 instead of four. It would have been nice to figure out a way to beat Chelsea without Loftus-Cheek, Hudson-Odoi and Kante hobbling around. Emery didn't create the problem, but it's the manager's job to find a way to put your best foot forward in the face of adversity and Emery's got to take some legit heat for not doing that.
Yeah, that's right, we need to buy a lot of players. I suspect we'll have a considerably smaller squad next year than we have now (or maybe not obv I really don't know). But the key thing is that we can play and rely on whoever we do have. We're at a tough game away at City or Everton next year and we don't have any better options than we have now, fcuk it, play Joe Willock and live with whatever mistakes he makes. Just like we lived with Guendouzi's mistakes this year. There have been a few, but that really wasn't one of our bigger problems, and you can see the path to getting better.
This club is embaressing I am Now never going to defend emery. He may have limited choice but at least change the team up
All we needed was 1 good CB, and 1 good RB and we finish 4th comfortably. Bellerin's injury really ********ed us, having no decent CB cover absolutely killed us (Mustafi shouldn't ever have started) and another mid because Ramseys body is very unreliable. But proper preparation prevents piss poor performance. And our squad is not set up to succeed.
Tbh all the clips of mandem laughing and enjoying themselves at training infuriate me. People are right to point out Ozil in this match, we had our foot on Chelsea's throat, we gave up one shit break in the midfield, and never got control of the game again. Ozil was on E 20 minutes in, the second goal broke or creator. He dropped to his knees, our maestro didn't believe he could create 2 chances. That basically says everything about what he has left in him. I can't put this match on Emery, his plan was effective, he put his most senior line up available. Managed Torreria's season and minutes. If the players can't be men and pros and play with conviction standing on the finish line with a trophy is up for grabs well... What can a manager do? I was ready to take of Ozil at 50 minutes but that is a subjective call that I can't be overly critical about. I don't know what I'm going to do with Arsenal if I'm honest.
Sell Holding? Really? Holding and Bellerin were about the only two bright spots of our defense this season. Mavropanos needs a loan, not to be sold. He's still too young. I would keep Chambers and play a defense that looks like this assuming we sign a LB. I'm going to use my two dream signings based on our status as a Europa League Club. Tierney----Saliba(Chambers) ----- Holding (Sokratis) ---- Bellerin (Youth Team RB). I would genuinely like the bin the entire defense (bar Chambers, Holding, and Bellerin), but I don't think it's possible. On that note, we might as well give Saka, Amaechi, Willock, Smith Rowe, Nelson, and John-Jules a run out next season. See if they are good enough to make it. Give Bielik a chance as well.
We have to establish an identity Kilo has his press and 433 Why not copy them? Buy players who can score in transition with pace Capable wide players? Cms who can show physicality and technique They are out there. Look how good even sissoko has been for Tottenham? He was awful but they changed his role and he excelled Wijnaldum is another, strong and a good passer and capable of taking a shot When is the last time arsenal had a cm who can score and defend with physicality? Ramsey is gone
This interesting reddit post kind of illustrates Arsenal's identity problems Very interesting analysis on Özil's role in the Final. It goes against the narrative that he was "shit" so it will be discounted but having watched the game again, I sort of agree with ithttps://t.co/8NOxpj6tTQ— You Are My Arsenal (@YouAreMyArsenal) June 2, 2019
Bolded. Me too. Nothing can be fixed while the team leaks so many goals because then game states will always work against us - especially as we are no longer a possession oriented side.