I don't know what would be worse -- thinking the likes of Martin Atkinson and Mike Dean know nothing about football, or hearing their conversations and having it proven that they know nothing.
This Hugh Wizzy guy is definitely full of energy. As much as I wanted to turn off his tirade, I found myself watching the entire thing: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunners/co...ctly/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Didn't want to post these pictures but felt I had to. This is Lucas Torreira's emotional reaction to the abuse Granit Xhaka received after his substitution, in tears and inconsolable. Absolute love and respect for his captain. pic.twitter.com/ijKOvwkYx2— Stuart MacFarlane (@Stuart_PhotoAFC) October 28, 2019
Yeah, the biggest thing I don't like about the squad in general is the extent to which the players either genuinely like or at a minimum tolerate Xhaka. It's difficult to convey sometimes the extent to which things are not going well. There are so many things going on in players' lives at any particular time, and most of them are probably going pretty well. It's management's responsibility to make sure the players are properly concentrated on the expectations of the club, so that as adversity occurs, they're ready to make adjustments and overcome. Obviously it's not happening that way for us.
Emery is bad, and we should hope that he is sacked as soon as possible. That said, as much as Emery and Xkaka can be separated (which admittedly is hard to do), Xhaka is straight up cancer on the team. Xhaka might even be a bigger problem than Emery even. And this has nothing to do with yesterday's drama even. In a particularly absurd waste of time I rewatched the Sheffield United match, and some of the things that had been bugging me under the surface became pretty clear in retrospect. Xhaka represents everything about Arsenal that's not working and the cause of pretty much all of our dropped points in the League. His idea of defense is to grab more and run less. He likes to play one touch backward passes in our half which basically guarantee the ball stays in the area the other side is pressing. He can't turn and carry the ball out of pressure. He's sloppy with giveaways in offensive half. He likes the 50 yard thru ball from the middle of our own half that's never on, or rarely amounts to anything if it is. His brain is dialed into drama queen theatrics instead of actually playing the game. Even when he does successfully complete a pass, it's often too slow, and pisses away whatever forward momentum we might have had otherwise. The best thing that can be said for Arsenal at this point is that the problems are pretty narrow. If we can figure out a way to shitcan Emery and Xhaka (and not bring in Mourinho) I think things could turn around for us pretty quick.
I agree that Xhaka is a problem. However, I think Emery is the main problem. Xhaka doesn't pick himself to play every game, Xhaka didn't make himself captain. If Emery doesn't completely botch the selecting a captain process and doesn't force Xhaka into something that very clearly isn't working, none of this happens.
Luckily, Emery had ‘a very good conversation’ with Özil this morning and he’s cancer-free now. Like...is this guy for real?
I've developed a theory, actually it's a conspiracy theory, that Emery isn't playing Ozil because he might actually do something good and force his inclusion in the team. Based on my conspiracy theory, I half expected Ozil to play against Liverpool because no one is likely to look very good.
It’s a cycle now. Ozil has no match fitness so he won’t play well, and Emery will say Ozil isn’t performing given his opportunities.
Yeah, it's like a book I recall from somewhere. Some pilot in some war gets put in these ridiculous no-win situations by his superiors. Can't place the name right now.......
Ozil was a cancer on the club a year or two ago. Then the club took a few nasty radiation treatments, and now he's just a benign tumor.
I thought so too until a week or so ago, but I looked a little closer at the Sheffield United game and came to the conclusion that pretty much every bad aspect of our culture is pretty directly related to Xhaka. Yeah, like I said it's hard to separate them. Over the last week or so, it's becoming increasingly clear that Emery actually wants him, which is completely inexplicable to me. My inclination was to think that the captain thing is a stupid side issue. Then it became clear this was a way to justify playing him and getting the fans off his back, an idea which obviously backfired. In any event, I still don't think it's especially important. I don't think it's especially important that he told the fans to fcuk off or that he threw his shirt away after being substituted. Those are minor compounding issues, compared to the fact that he's playing in the first place. That's the real crime in this situation.
I heard that he is a bit of a brown noser. That would explain why he is on Emery’s good side and why he was made captain. To be fair though, it seems like the players like him as well.
Yea most of the players like him. He was voted as captain and many of them were shocked, tearful and came to his house on Sunday to support him. Now it's clear Laca and Aubameyang have no use for him but that's only 2 players out of a squad of 20+. Xhaka shouldn't be captain and I think he is a bit of a scapegoat just like Mustafi was last year. It's not his fault that Emery stubbornly selects him to start every game to the detriment of the team. Yes Xhaka is not creative, No he isn't a true DM but Emery is misusing him just like he is misusing Pepe and others. Xhaka has gotten much worse under Emery compared to Wenger so I blame the manager for this controversy not Xhaka.