2018 Preseason

Discussion in 'Arsenal' started by crazy150, Jul 14, 2018.

  1. Cannon

    Cannon Member

    Arsenal
    United States
    Sep 2, 2001
    Washington, DC metro
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Iwobi scores and we win 6-5! Much better pks than last time from all our boys.
     
  2. total_football

    total_football Member+

    Apr 2, 2002
    Chicago
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Some ways that was a classic late era Wenger game really poor from MF, Bellerin was bad, really bad finishing .

    Actually didn’t mind the announcers.

    What was Ramsey’s injury ?
     
  3. crazy150

    crazy150 Member+

    Aug 27, 2006
    North Cuba
    I guess the coach decided it was time for a little PK practice after the last showing—lol.

    Overall, it wasn’t a bad performance but not great.

    The takeaways from me were:

    1) the press still needs a lot of work. I’m not sure we will see it fully until the second third of the season or later.

    2) we need better wide play bc our fullbacks can’t be that far up the pitch that often until the quick press is effective to give them recovery time. Every time we turned it over we got burned down the flanks.

    3) lacazette has to play. Whether that means auba out wide or 4-4-2 or whatever. He’s too good to be on the bench.

    4) duzy might be for real. He had 1-2 moments and I think he still needs some coaching on getting caught with the ball, but he held up well against a pretty strong Chelsea midfield. His passing was crisp, direct and decisive. Until torreira and xhaka get up to speed, we may see him start a few games especially if Ramsey is hurt.

    5) ozil is still the master. I didn’t count, but I know he had a fistful of key passes. Nice to see him play the full 90 and take the “final” penalty. He definitely took his ozil-breaks, but turned it up when the opportunities arose.
     
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  4. crazy150

    crazy150 Member+

    Aug 27, 2006
    North Cuba
    What was so bad from MF? It was Smith-row, elneny and duzy. Hardly a Wenger era midfield.

    Smith wasn’t good and we missed Ramsey. Would have liked to see him put ozil there and Nelson or iwobi out wide instead of smith. But I think he wanted to see ozil out wide.
     
  5. Cannon

    Cannon Member

    Arsenal
    United States
    Sep 2, 2001
    Washington, DC metro
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm hoping that once Torreira gets up to speed, Ozil moves off wing and into #10 spot, etc that we can play a real pressing game. If we don't get it up and running until that late in season than we're going to get ripped apart again at the back.
    I think both Bellerin and Sead are average at defending for a team hoping to end better than 7th. Bellerin's attacking talents were wasted until Ozil started switching sides and drifting into middle. Sead is a giveaway threat constantly and he was directly responsible for both goals in previous 2 games.
    I'd like to see him play at least after the Chelsea game because he looks raw but closer than I'd hoped.
     
  6. SaratogaGooner

    Nov 23, 2009
    Clifton Park NY
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Only saw the second half and left the pub at 88th minute so missed the fireworks. Prior to late in the game though thought we were pretty generic. What has changed? We look identical to last year? Sorry. Nothing dropped my jaw today.
     
  7. flyerhawk

    flyerhawk Member

    Feb 5, 2006
    Hoboken NJ
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I was pretty impressed with Guendozi's play. He still has to work on not getting caught trying to collect the ball but otherwise he looked very promising in that game. Some really promising distribution.

    Bellerin looks like he has lost a step or 2 which is really bad.
     
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  8. gunner0007

    gunner0007 Member+

    Jul 19, 2005
    Bahamas
    I'm pretty excited after watching us yesterday. Although we have a ton to work on, I think we have at least something to build on, and we didn't even have our starting midfield. I mean in my opinion our midfield controlled the game and the midfield we have, none of them are starters. To me the midfield was the highlight of our team. And that's saying something. When is the last time we controlled a game? I'm sorry but I don't quite remember. When is the last time we had players playing forward passes from deep and breaking lines? When is the last time we pressed and won the ball back?

    I think both defense and attack need working on the most, but we have had some interesting combinations up top. And watching the speed in which we broke as well was fun to watch. I'm just excited to see this team learn and get better this year.
     
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  9. flyerhawk

    flyerhawk Member

    Feb 5, 2006
    Hoboken NJ
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Anyone able to catch the game today?
     
  10. maskito

    maskito Member+

    Jan 14, 2006
    Minneapolis
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I missed the first 10 minutes, but caught the rest.

    Overall, we controlled the match, but our defense still looks really shaky. We gave up possession in defense, struggled to mark, but our offense is really clicking, and never needed to get above 2nd gear.

    A few specifics I think are worth mentioning:
    Mhiki was probably the most impressive offensive player to me. He came on in the second half and seemed to always be open, made great runs, great distribution, and took some solid shots. The commentators were discussing whether he makes our preferred starting lineup. He certainly played today like he deserves it, imo.

    Torreira didn’t do much to impress me, but it’s his first match and I don’t expect him in form yet.

    Leno was stabilizing in back. Felt good about him, especially with the defensive errors to deal with in front of him.

    I really, really liked Guendouzi again. Seeing him on the field in the second half with Elneny in midfield, the kid easily looked far more composed and had much better confidence and distribution of the two. I’m starting to expect he will get serious minutes this season. If so, that’s a tidy bit of business.
     
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  11. The Foo Fighter

    The Foo Fighter Member+

    Mar 15, 2011
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So who opens up the first match thread? We are a week out now.

    For me, this is my starting XI for next Sunday. Sorry if any of the picks seem crazy...


    --------------------Auba-------------------
    Ozil-----------------------------------Micki
    ---------Xhaka----------Ramsey-------
    ------------------Torreira------------------
    Ainsley-----------------------------Bellerin
    -------------Sokratis---Mustafi-----------
    --------------------Leno---------------------

    With that being said, I could easily see Emery going with Guendouzi over Torreira just because of how many minutes he has gotten in preseason and how good he has looked. I could also see Emery going with Holding and Chambers in the back. They've gotten a lot of minutes as well. I bet Cech starts over Leno.
     
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  12. BIGHMW

    BIGHMW Member+

    Oct 10, 2010
    Port Townsend, WA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No, it wasn't on TV, but I watched the highlights through the Arsenal FB page, clearly I was impressed by the hustle and daringness that Reiss Nelson showed on the putback of the rebound off the shot after Alex Iwobi hit the post on the initial shot.

    But I would have to think that I couldn't really tell if Nelson was onside or not, it was close, would that be a reviewable play during PL play We'll find out one week from tomorrow against City (WE GET THE DEFENDING CHAMPS!!!)

    Also, Auba looked composed on the second goal, nestled it just inside the far post, on a great feed from Laca after Elneny's initial run in the box was snuffed out by the Lazio defense, Auba looks in good form in my limited viewership (US-based Gooner speaking) of the preseason (including his hat trick against Boreham Wood, also off of YouTube), I'm ready for the Premier League season to get underway for us, here's to hoping City and Chel$ki beat the crap out of one another tomorrow in the Community Shield match so City will be easy pickins for us when they arrive at The Emirates, COYF'n'G!!!

     
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  13. BIGHMW

    BIGHMW Member+

    Oct 10, 2010
    Port Townsend, WA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They look good in those away kits don't they??? BY FAR the best of the three outfield players' kits for this season, with the alternate (green) goalkeeper kit coming in a very close second, I wasn't too impressed with (obviously) the home strip, this season's third strip is OK but clearly the away strip (the navy blue one) is definitely a keeper, if I had to downsize my Puma kit collection, it would be the 2016-17 red home and gold away strips, along with both last year's (2017-18) and this years away strips (both in different shades of blue) and finally this season's green goalkeeper strip.
     
  14. BIGHMW

    BIGHMW Member+

    Oct 10, 2010
    Port Townsend, WA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As per tradition, I made Cindy Margolis yet another personalized Arsenal home strip of her own for her to "don" this Premier League season, she gave me a like on her Facebook page:

    Arsenal 2018-19 Cindy Margolis - Home Kit.jpg
     
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  15. MilesW

    MilesW Member+

    Aug 26, 2010
    Chicago, IL
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Oh
     
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  16. crazy150

    crazy150 Member+

    Aug 27, 2006
    North Cuba
    Thread up https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/arsenal-v-city-matchday-1.2085886/

    This was my lineup as well, but I have the same doubts on playing both xhaka and torriera bc they both looked behind against Lazio.
     
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  17. thebigman

    thebigman Member+

    May 25, 2006
    Birmingham
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Lmao
     
  18. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I dunno. I welcome that man-on-man experiment.
     
  19. NorthBank

    NorthBank Member+

    Arsenal; NYRB
    United States
    Mar 29, 2006
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This. Ozil's & AMN's were notable. I wonder if we practiced PK's since the Atletico choke.
     
  20. The Foo Fighter

    The Foo Fighter Member+

    Mar 15, 2011
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The behind the scenes videos they have been releasing seem to make it seem like players have practiced PKs a bit this summer.
     

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