watching Ozil play reminds of that time when my 30 year old coach decided to play 5 v 5 in our 8th grade game...
Should have left Laca on to try for his hattrick. Sub Chambers or Holding for Xhaka and go 3-4-3. Tired Laca has a better chance to score than a fresh Welbeck.
We've given ourselves a good platform for the away leg. But giving up that away goal to them is the reason this tie isn't exactly out of reach for them. We damn well better go to Moscow with a plan to score goals rather than just park the bus for 90 minutes. Anyway, VERY good result boys. Onward....
We’re through.... CSKA isn’t good, physical, nothing. Whose next? Who do we need to worry about? Can we end up facing Marseille? Is Athletico the only other big dog left?
Right If we get to final ... anything can happen But atleti is damn good squad and experienced in Europe... will need some magic...
Offensively Arsenal are beginning to gel with the new men. They were superb tonight. Sanchez is a distant memory - the attack and midfield are more coherent without him.
In terms of holy shit the scorpion goal was more impressive but that said, if they were in training and got 10 chances to replicate that goal, im confident that Ramsey could replicate that shot at least 7/10 times where as I think Giroud only hits that 3/10 times max. Ramseys was amazing composure and technical skill.
Great attacking performance last night, could and should have had a few more. I can't see where CSKA have enough to come back from here unless they're hiding some really good players for some unknown reason. They will be obliged to go for it in the home leg and an early goal for us on the counter will absolutely kill the tie. Ramsey's second Hopefully Lacazette will get another run-out as sub on Sunday to get him a bit fitter, he was flagging a little before he was taken off. A maximum of 11 games from here until the end of the season, I expect minimal unenforced changes to the line-up (bar Aubameyang playing in the league matches) to keep the confidence high for the Europa League ties. If only someone could calm our centre backs down, Mustafi hooking the ball back into the danger area when it was easier to kick it away from goal and Koscielny compounding that mistake by barrelling into their player to give away the free-kick was the height of stupidity last night. Kick it out for a throw in the first place and we'd probably have kept a clean sheet as well. COYG!!!
Agreed. Pretty much every game I'm talking to the defenders on my TV to just get it out for chrissake. BUT that's generally Quixotic of me, in that the Arsenal Way of late (and many other top teams as well) is to calmly play the ball out of defense, on the floor, which increases your chance of possession. But of course, if you're not perfect in doing that every time, you've increased your chances of turnover in a super dangerous location. I'm admittedly old school about this issue. Sounds like you are too.
New thread is up https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/wh...rsenal-vs-southampton-gameday-thread.2082454/ Also, Arsenal.com's fan poll had Ozil as MOTM @66%, followed by Ramsey @29%. I think that's fair but I thought Ramsey would be a closer 2nd. Clearly those 2 were the stand outs on the night. If only they can replicated that again. And again.
Most definitely old school. I'll be playing left-back today and I will definitely be booting out for a throw if I find myself in that position! Seriously though, I don't mind the players trying to play out from the back, as they are obviously all very skilled professionals, but he wasn't even doing that. He hooked it back over his shoulder into the middle of our penalty area. There is no excuse for that, that kind of thing and diving into challenges all the time just suggests that Mustafi panics too much under pressure, not a trait you want to see in any of your players at the top level, let alone one in such a crucial position as centre back.
Ramsey needs to play in the centre of the three attacking midfielders behind the striker, not as one of the two deeper central midfielders. Do that and you maximise his strengths which is making runs into the box. He'd score a shed-load of goals from that position. In his current position get a proper defensive midfielder, a quick, nimble, tackler who lives for breaking up the play a la Makalele, Kante, Gilberto, Fernandinho etc. They are out there! That would go a long way to shoring up the defence. One good buy and one positional switch sorts out a good portion of the problems in this team imho.