Relegation is a genuine concern we should have right now. We don't have a winnable game, even by a very generous definition of winnable, until February.
Screw it. Just start playing Chambers and Holding as the two CBs. I thought Luiz might be decent for us, but I'll hold my hand up and say I was mistaken. As for central MF --- ********ifIknow. It's a mess. I still think Torreira needs to play and probably Guendouzi most of the time, but I have no idea what Willock is being told to do and he often seems as confused as I am. Xhaka? Dunno about him either although he does possess that lovely combination of being painfully slow and one footed --- so there's that.
I kind of agree with you except that I think after this match, it's pretty obvious that the only midfielder we currently have who can pass is Xhaka. As long as you have Torreira buzzing around alongside him I think you can mitigate his weaknesses (and I think Torreira was better today) but without Xhaka we genuinely don't have any other players who can switch play or punish presses with intelligent passing (and occasionally deep) passing progression, and that's partly why our possession is so horrific right now. At all costs, we have to figure out a way to build a midfield that can hold onto the ball and progress it, or else we will--and I'm being genuine when I say this--be in a relegation fight. So Xhaka, Torreira, and probably Guendouzi for me, maybe switched out for Ozil at the 10. But there's no way you can have two strikers up front right now because it's just piling pressure onto our CBs. And I agree, we should be playing Holding and Chambers, there isn't a chance they're worse than what's happening right now.
Chambers is gosh awful so sorry that isn't the solution. With this team there are so many glaring weakness and liabilities that it's hard to mix and mash formations and tactics because they don't fit or play organized or even competently as a unit. CBs and MF is a mess. That's the heart of the issue, if you are getting so much pressure up the middle because MF cannot possess, pass or have no speed or cannot read the game your dead in the water. When you have CBs who get routinely turned when its 1 vs 3 and can't pressure, tackle, defend, lose aerial battles constantly lose track of runners then your dead in the water. Even with saying that on paper we should be good enough to beat Brighton, Southampton, Norwich and Crystal Palace but we aren't. Which means based on this current run since the international break our season is effectively over. That includes the EL for next year. Our only hope is to not be relegated and I'm not even joking.
Torreira is still playing too high up the pitch imo. I know it's the in thing that is being asked of CMs to do but you have to have an organized and precise press and a good understanding with the midfield partner to cover for you. We have neither. I'd rather he stayed in closer contact to the back four so we don't have to see sequence after sequence of the mids rushing back after getting caught up high. Xhaka is too slow to recover - he is a good final third entry passer so I would still probably want him doing that. Our CBs are not good enough 1v1 to be left unprotected. Also, FFS play Tierney and Bellerin from minute 1 and build on that. I'd like to see Holding get a good run of games, he was in good form before he got injured. And sit Willock down. He might be a good late sub when we need legs but I really don't see what he brings to the table as the third mid.
We need to hire a top manager immediately Ted had the good point that levy sold out his principles with Jose as simple revenue protection We are in free fall now One of the worst teams in the league Emergency steps required
Don't be so sure... Arsenal have conceded 82 shots in three games this season against Watford, Southampton and Brighton. In the same games they had just 31 shots themselves.That is truly staggering, especially when you consider two of the games were at home. What an inexplicable mess.— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) December 6, 2019
Chambers was really good as a DM. Why aren't we playing him there? Not sure what formation we can run with, maybe a 4-2-3-1 Tierney, Luiz, Holding, Bellerin Chambers, Torreira Pepe, Ozil, Saka/one of the other kids Auba Honestly, at this point try anything. Hot mess at the back and need to try and sure things up some how.
My thoughts on this hot mess echo @orbinho and others Many of the issues are people just not doing their jobs properly and general confusion so that coordination is low. That said, I think things should be simpler to get our best players on the field in their best positions where they know how to do stuff. 1. Play Auba at 9 with Laca in the rotation. Two up front doesn't work because neither is a genuine pressing forward, and neither can play as a hybrid 10 like a Griezmann. 2. Play a genuine right winger who will do a share of pressing and defensive work, but also takeons. i.e. Pepe 3. Play someone at left wing to stretch the play but who will do a lot of hard work 4. Play a genuine midfield 3 - either with Ozil or with 3 CMs 5. Play Tierney - Kola is just defensively terrible but Tierney looks like a physical beast 6. Play on the break. We have the players for it - and then we can defend deeper and not commit lots of players forward. I would dump Xhaka and have Ozil, Luiz & Douzi as the player to spring us forward.
I still follow the Warriors even though they have the worst record in the NBA, they have an excuse for being bad and they have found a stud at small forward with the 41st pick in the draft. But I can't take this anymore, I need a break. I'm signing off until things turn around.
Well, I got to make more match threads (2) than I expected (1). At least I got to do them for the big teams. What a mess
Chambers is awful as a right back, absolutely. We don't have enough evidence to say if he'd be awful as a center back. But I say let's find out. As others have noted, he'd be hard pressed to be worse than the confederacy of dunces we're currently rotating through as CBs.
I understand this argument. But I just don't see our passing or possession as being that much better in the MF with vs without Xhaka. I'm willing to be persuaded if you show me the numbers, but weren't we out-possessed on our home park by Brighton last night? At this point, I'm resigned to just going with the most mobile hard running CMs we can throw out there.
I'd trot out this lineup for the next match. Send a message and go full Europa/League Cup with the squad Leno Bellerin Holding Chambers Tierney Willock Torriera AMN Pepe Martinelli Saka The worst that could happen is they lose like they did vs Brighton. Best case - no ones job is safe.
I am sorry but that is a suicide squad imo. The middle will get exposed hard. The front three will likely be inconsistent at best because they are all so young or adapting.
Really good? Fulham conceded the most goals in all the PL last year and they got Relegated he played CB on many occasions. Chambers is awful and shouldn't see a starting PL lineup. But so are so many of our defenders and Midfielders so were screwed.
Are you trying to get us relegated? This lineup would be hard pressed to be top 4 in the championship.