Today! Not the norm. I would take Guendozi any day over present day Ozil. Unfortunately, I am not the coach. And I'll repeat, the coach should watch this game a few more times. They need change. I'm not sure if they have the bodies to make the changes, but that is what is required.
Guendouzi has been poor this season and isn’t offering much at all. In an attempt to balance the team, we need to drop Lacazette. He offers nothing to the team.
Guendouzi is averaging 1 successful tackle every 110 minutes this season. Ozil is averaging 1 successful tackle every 143 minutes. Not really a huge difference.
So lets say they play a 4-4-2 ( I know its just an approximation). Auba and Lacazette up top, with Ozil as a left wing (attacking mid). As someone said, Lacazette is sort of redundant in this set up, and we should be a 4-5-1 with 2 Dmids because our defense is shaky. And I have seen lineups that seem to imply we were in a 4-5-1 with 2 d-mids. But we aren't. More of a 4-3-3. Then the backline looks like Kolasinac-Mustafi-Luiz-Chambers, with both fullbacks pushing up to add width to the attack.. That leaves Xhaka and Guendouzi as holding mids, and Willock doing God knows what. Guendouzi is way too soft to play as a d-mid. The outside backs get caught out trying to provide width in the attack, and BANG: Norwich looks like Barcelona springing a counter attack. Our personnel needs attention; but much of this can be fixed. We can be a mid table side and not one bound for relegation with the players we have.
...do you really think this team is relegation-bound? The form is bad, but sheesh. We made a European final 6 months ago, we're not getting relegated.
I didn't get to see the game live because of the fine german DIY traditions of Putz, Feinputz and Farbe However I was quite worried when I saw that lineup. LT is the only midfielder we have who provides genuine defensive pressure with his mobility - at least when he was in form. Yet he doesn't play and we have Xhaka at 8? Douzy seems wildly out of form right now. It is just to easy to slice through that midfield.
So, our total xG for the last 3 league matches is: 0.9 @ Lester 1.6+pen @Soton 1.0+pen @Norwich Not sure what exactly that tells us, except maybe that Soton was a crazy, breathtaking, wide-open match at times.
Yes of course we are. But if only the analytics were that simplistic. Mighty Leicester had 1.4 xG when they beat us, which is less that the 1.6 we had vs Soton, which was a draw. There's obviously a whole lot more to it than just tracking total xG per game.
You can't mix xG numbers between games. Leicester is a much better defensive team than Southampton and Arsenal's xG against them was only 0.9.
Per game xG numbers should also be taken with a grain of salt. Crazy stuff can happen in a single game, and ninety minutes isn't a huge sample size to begin with. More important to look at rolling averages and trends.
We have drawn 3 matches to all 3 relegation level teams 2-2 Watford 2-2 Southampton 2-2 Norwich After seeing those results we undeservedly scratched off a point against the first two and deservedly a draw yesterday. Norwich team which is mostly domestic players from the home islands are so slow and plodding but they took their chances and scored. Every player on the field starting played poorly with the exception of Lenoand Aubameyang. Xhaka was ok and so was Ozil. Everybody else was horrid, to very poor to bad. There needs to be major changes lineup wise vs Brighton or we are relegation bound soon and that's not hyperbole.