Nice to see you around @Cannon. Your running commentary reminded me of the old days, when one of us would provide this for the folks stuck at work behind a firewall that prohibited streaming.
Just watched the match back, not so carefully and on a small screen, so take these w/ a few grains of salt... Man Elneny's hair grew quickly! ... then I realized it was the new kid Guendouzi. They have similar gaits so I could be forgiven. Once I got a close-up of him, I sure hope he cuts his hair... reminds me too much of David Luiz. Gag. First half: The more things change the more things stay the same, i.e. we dominate possession and go into locker room 0-1. Smith-Rowe with a glorious goal. Smith who? Another wunderkind... what are the chances of him coming good? Paltry crowd! What happened to that massive Asian support for Arsenal? Reminded me of Red Bull Arena. Speaking of that, Jonathan Yardley was the back-up PBP guy on MSG for NYRB last year. He's not bad at all, just try to avoid seeing him in person... looks like a 20 year-old geek. I liked when he blurted out "Yikes!" after Chambers did one of his classic FUBARs. Kolasinac was our only player to get a full 90. But why? I guess we can assume he's under serious consideration... which I'm fine with. OK, many of the PK's were poor (we really should practice that) but Cech saving 50% of the PK's against him... go figure!
I took the fact that Kolasinac went 90 was an indication that Arsenal have no depth a FB on this trip. Re the youngsters, I thought Guedouzi's distribution was quite good, but he was dispossessed a little to often for the position he was playing. In addition, while Smith-Rowe and Nelson had some very nice moments, including Smith-Rowe's goal, I thought they both drifted out of the game at times. Given their age, this isn't particularly surprising.
While it was mainly a run-out to get some fitness, it was good to see a few of the young players getting a go. Obviously the highlight was Smith-Rowe's goal and his overall performance wasn't bad from the highlights I saw. I watched him a couple of times on the U18's run to the FA Youth Cup final last season and he was easily the most impressive player in the Arsenal youth team. Emery has had good things to say about him, so let's hope we see him get a run in the League Cup/Europa League squads this season and see how he goes. Guendouzi looked neat and tidy in possession, but wants too much time in defensive positions. He's only young and he'll learn. Holding's defending for the Atletico goal was very poor, letting the guy who crossed it to the byline when he had him going back away from the goal initially. He should know better. I'm hoping that Nelson will push on this season. After seeing him in the League Cup/Europa League last season I wasn't overly impressed given the hype around him. I realise he was being played as a wing-back for much of that which isn't his natural position, so hopefully he'll get a run further forward and develop the confidence to take on his man more often. At least one more game for the young players to impress in against PSG before the manager will want to have a more first-eleven looking side for the Chelsea and Lazio matches before the first game of the league season so good luck to them.
Did you watch the game or just the highlights? Guenduzi—ugh can we have a nickname for this kid? Duzy? I’m going with that. Anyway, he was great in the game. Atlético gave him space much of the time, but he was so quick and decisive and played with his head up—was brilliant. Every time he received the ball, it was touch, turn and pass or drive forward with pace. He only made like 2 backward passes I think. Obviously I doubt he’s ready for full Prem action, but I think it’s clear he will dominate the B-team midfield. Iirc, @casoccerdad47 he only lost the ball twice fairly—once in their goal buildup and another off a throw in. Considering he touched the ball more than any other player, that’s not terrible. A couple of other times he was fouled but the ref didn’t call—he will have to learn to manage that better especially in the prem. I also thought Nelson was great in the first half, but hard to tell if it was just his speed advantage over the defenders or more. Anyway, I haven’t been this excited for the youth since the old carling cup days. @NorthBank i noticed yardley too. He wasn’t bad actually. It was funny the reaction to chambers lofted pass out of the box. Also, his reaction to Ramsey’s dribbling in front of cech was good stuff too. Also, how do we pronounce Nketiah? I’ve been saying “in-ket-ti-eh” but they were saying “ne-ka-tia”. Speaking of cech—wow, in that tight shirt and rugby hat he looks right out off of a rugby league team. Has he been pounding the gym since Leno came aboard or what?
I did count the loss on the uncalled foul as being dispossessed, but that's a factor in games, not every foul is given. He also lost the ball once when he received a pass from the defense under pressure and tried to turn. Maybe that was a time for one of those much maligned back passes. I'm not saying I didn't like what I saw from him, I did. As a first preseason game for a 19 year old it was a very good performance, but he has a couple of things to work on. You don't want your 6 to lose the ball, period. This issue could be straightened out by the next game. If not, he has time to develop.
How was his defensive coverage? If he can move the ball like he did in the video against PL competition, I would rather see him in the game as a sub than ElNeny. ElNeny has his positives but I saw more beautiful passes by Duzy in that single game highlight video then I have seen from ElNeny his entire time at Arsenal.
His defensive positioning was relatively good, but I don't remember any tackles or interceptions. However, it was a funny game without a lot of takeaways by either side,
Sure, he definitely has work to do I agree. And on the no call I agree as well, just saying that for evaluation I wouldn’t count that one against him. He just needs the experience to adapt to different refs. Nothing to note defensively in the game really. We had 75% possession while he was in and most of atletico’s came down the wings I think. The only notable things were holding getting beaten, chambers weird pass out of the back and Ramsey’s walkabout in front of cech. I think duzy will mainly see time on the cup squad this season unless we have injury issues, but so far I like what I see. He’s also 6’1” I think which means he is our tallest midfielder. If we can bulk him up he could be quite the force in midfield.
This has to be the worst uniform I've ever seen. Other than the time I saw a minor league team wear pink camo.
I really dont see that. We have had some real shit ones. If the pants had been dark it would have been better.
His passing range is similar to Xhaka's, so it may be Xhaka that needs to watch his back. In the Atletico game he was clearly playing as the 6. I found it interesting that when paired with Elneny it looked as though he was playing as the 8. I also thought we saw more from him defensively today.
Agreed...the ball over the top to release Auba in the build up to our 1st goal was something we expect from Xhaka so i think you are right. this kid is still 19 but he was also a PSG youth product (probably left bc of the stiff competition in their midfield) and is also a France u19 intl so he has skills. it's only preseason but u can see what he is capable of
Indeed. If he can tighten up his defensive skills, he might just be stellar. Edit: I realize he's very young and still not the finished article. The question I have is why did his prior club(s) let him go? Is there anything on the "psychological" side that they didn't like?? Otherwise, I'm pretty bullish on him.
Perhaps but Torreria played similarly its really about the role you are asked to play and how well you execute it. I would prefer him in the middle than in front of the defense although he seemed to cycle the ball very well.
Torreira will likely be playing in the front of the defense this year, with Xhaka in the middle, so if you prefer Goundouzi in the middle it would be in the Xhaka role.
I did just see some highlights of the first game, but I saw the full 90 minutes of the second game where he looked pretty good. He kept it simple for the most part and did all the basics well. I'm sure we'll see him in League Cup/Europa League matches where I'll be able to get a better feel for what he's about being in the stadium and not subject to the camera angles the director gives me. Good to see Ozil back and linking up with Aubameyang for the first goal, good for Lacazette looking sharp and getting a couple too. The kids that came on for the second half all did well I think so it was a good run out for the squad. It looks like Nelson and Smith-Rowe have done enough to be in the LC/EL squads this season, I'm counting Maitland-Niles in the first team squad from now on as designated backup/competition for Torreira. Hopefully Lichtsteiner, Torreira and Xhaka will all be back for the lest two pre-season matches so we can get an idea of what the manager's first XI might look like.
Even if they are all back today the Chelsea game is Wednesday, so they won't feature in that game. Maybe they will play against Lazio.
Starting Lineup for Chelsea... Bellerin Mustafi Socratis Kiolasinac Elneny Ramsey Guendouzi Ozil Mikhitatrian Aubameyang So this is possibly how we will look against city i would imagine.