I couldn't believe (well yes I could) how bad we were first half. Completely flat. Explain to me what anyone sees in Holding? he is awful. Second half with Kolisnac sub....right away different game. Much,much more threatening, higher tempo and bossing the game. Actually saw some nice one touch ball movement reminiscent of the Arsenal of old. Theo needs to be sold for scrap money. Major Kudos to Alexis (and yes I am eating crow after pseudo bad mouthing him last week) for his work ethic and skill. Somebody lit a fire under this teams ass at the half talk and I doubt VERY MUCH it was AW. This came from a player, an emerging leader on the team perhaps (Alexi, Kolisnac) not sure who. Any guesses?
Watching the game on replay on now But one thing I must say that our fans really sucked.. It is probably one of the most least talked about issues but the fan support is piss poor It never bodes well for players
I'm as #WengerOut as anyone but what evidence is there to this? First half was bad because of the traditional issues spacing and Alexis' roy of the rovers. Its like they didn't work on this formation at all...
Holding looked bad but everyone looked bad the first half. He's looked good in almost every other match. He tried to make some plays offensively (not his game) and was caught out. I don't fault him for forcing something offensively when we were so inept. He looks better in a 4 back. Ramsey has taken a lot of heat for his poor positioning in the system, but I'm thinking it's orders from AW. El Neny was left by himself as much as Xhaka had been. Although this time it was Iwobi playing so far forward. MEL isn't terrible, but he isn't good enough to control the midfield solo. He was much better once he had Iwobi & AMN playing closer.
I don't love Friedel but he has some relevant knowledge. I can't think of anyone worse than Lalas. Maybe Tommy Smythe?
Looked like a 433. Maitland-Niles movement... We good with 3 CMs. Wenger needs to wake up. RIP Rob Holding tho
Twellman is pretty bad. I remember he was on sportsnation a few months ago and he just never shut up and constantly talked over everyone. It was really obvious the other hosts could not stand him.
I've made this point a couple of times. Arsenal are essentially playing a 3-5-2 with Ozil as the 10 (look at his heat maps) and Arsene wants the 8 to commit to the offense, i.e., he wants the midfield triangle to play point behind when Arsenal are in possession. It does open the team up to counter attacks, but the it's virtually the same thing Pep is doing at City with Fernandinho behind de Bruyne and Silva, unfortunately Xhaka is not in the same class defensively as Fernandinho.
Just watched the match. Good win for the Arsenal. Just a few observations: • such an Arsenal goal to concede • WTF is Holding doing? I like the dude. He was horrible. Is he instructed to lead the attack? Good grief, stay back and defend. • aside from the goal, Alexis was very poor • Kola is the man! Ball comes to him and he calmly smashes it into the back of the net • I know Arsenal players want to pass, pass, pass but it looked like the over the top passes looked more dangerous It was a good start to Europa league and I'm glad a lot of second string players got to play. The away fans were phenomenal. I could rarely hear the home fans.
He's good enough defensively but he isn't ready to be the defensive leader or the guy that handles all our play out of the back/build-up play but for some insane reason that was what was asked of him last night. Elneny deferring the ball to him I can possibly understand but Per and Monreal did it time and time again too, enough that they have to have been instructed too. Henry spoke about that in the studio a few weeks ago. Apparently he had asked Arsene why he kept playing Ramsey in the two-man midfield as he ends up being a little bit of everywhere and Arsene had responded "that's why I play him there". It's just not the way Arsene does things anymore. What really annoyed me though was this "Oh we got a freekick, lets take it quick and string together a few passes" idea. We had Giroud on the pitch ffs, why not try to occasionally lob a ball in there to him?
Catching up on all the news from yesterday... I love all the shock and surprise about how Koln fans ended up in the home seats -- Arsenal fan interest is lukewarm and people were happy to sell their tickets. Where's the shock? Arsenal shouldn't have been so stingy with the away allocation in the first place. I also saw Gab Marcotti noting that Koln "failed to discourage their fans from traveling." Who cares?? Good for Koln, seems like they have some awesome fans.