There is a complete lack of class in the attack IMO That said, if they have the summer to work on their structures that will help
It's a small sample size but I think I'm with you on that one. And I like Leno too fwiw. If the thing about our money is true (and maybe even if it isn't) I'm wondering if we'll sell one of them for money and pick up Tim Krul/Ben Foster, etc for free.
My son once said I was gonna drag him all over north Georgia. Me: "Kids, we're going on another hike Saturday!" Daughter: "Uh, I have to work Saturday, remember?" Son: "I have two blisters from yesterday's hike." Daughter: "This isn't another one of those stupid sports-team karma things again, is it?" Me: "There are more important things in life than work and bodies heal. Now get me the exact same clothes you wore yesterday cause I gotta wash those. We don't want to jinx gameday, er... family time. Hooray for nature!
i don't feel like a aubameyang/lacazette/pepe* front 3 is terri-bad. getting the ball out of the back 7 seems to be the bigger issue. we seem to need to wait for xhaka to find a cutting pass to get the ball out and, as you addressed in another thread, against certain teams, his limitations cuts that off and we are dead in the water. *pepe still doesn't seem able to gel with the team but his ability to take the ball for a run really seem to help when we need to get the ball out of the back when we're trying to kill the clock like today. i feel like it's going to take multiple summers to get the right pieces in place to be able to run whatever system arteta wants to implement. hopefully, he gets the time to do so.
let the know the importance of the needs of the many. and that we appreciate their sacrifice. up the . . um, hike!
there's some talent there but, man, is it poorly built. it doesn't feel like there's rhyme or reasons to the it and just some numbers slapped together. like old school, like, madden-type games where you just see, "well, he's an 89 and so clearly better than the guy who is 87." and some of the talents we have had has been ruined by horrible coaching and man management of regimes past.
Yes! I was saying exactly that to another arse fan friend of mine. And it’s what left me feeling somewhat non-plussed about our result.
I like Pepe, but his signing still doesn't make any sense to me. The only reasonable explanation I can muster is that they expected to sell one of Auba/Laca last summer and didn't.
Gonna disagree with you there. Running two strikers in a 4-3-3 is not good. Auba has done commendable work on the wing but that's just not his true position. Obviously Arteta is adapting to who his best personnel are, but trying to fit Laca and Auba into the same team together has been rough since the beginning. I'm a known Pepe hater from the perspective of his transfer fee being wildly too high compared to his actual scarcity value. I don't think he's done anything this season to disabuse me of the notion that he's going to bust. He is inclined to dribble his way out of problems, but that's not really what you want from a wide forward in a 4-3-3? His technique is good but not incredible IMO. He isn't fast enough for the league, and that means he's limited to playing as a cut-back inside forward on the right, as opposed to being able to play on the left side as well. We've seen a couple times--mostly in that West Ham game--that if he gets to his spot on the edge of the penalty area, he can do damage. But based on his other matches it seems like he is easily redirected and moved off his spot, and he doesn't really help in build-up further back on the pitch either. He's also going to be the lowest work-rate defender on the pitch whenever he's on, which I don't necessarily have a problem with so long as he's bringing real value on the attacking end. But he isn't doing that, and I don't think he fits into the shape of a team that Arteta wants going forward. That he's getting beaten to playing time by the likes of Reiss Nelson, at age 25, really tells you everything. Bust.
It's fine to hate on Pepe for whatever reason, but Nelson didn't beat him to anything; Pepe started and played 90 minutes yesterday.
Pepe is gonna be good, we don’t use him right nelson and saka are gonna be great, saka is miles ahead but nelson has a good work ethic and seems to be better the more confident he is
Yesterday's match and a comment by Amy Lawrence, prompted me to make a new poll thread. FYI... https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/poll-which-song-after-home-victories.2110643/
Duncan Alexander from Totally Football podcast says about yesterday's match... Lowest % possession every recorded by Arsenal in the EPL First time Arsenal won a match with only 3 shots Biggest gap in # of shots between Arsenal and opponent 24-3 = 21
The shot differential must be a record for Arsenal being outshot. The United game in 2017, when Arsenal had 33 shots to United’s 8, but lost 3-1 on quick counters still hurts. DeGeahad 14 saves in that game. I don’t remember what the possession differential was, but it was big.
Very clearly not talking about yesterday exclusively. My general point is that he's featured inconsistently in both Arteta and Emery's starting lineups and was being beaten to starting spots by both Nelson and Saka under Arteta for a while at the beginning of Arteta's tenure. He offers less than Saka, an academy player who is seven years younger than him. We paid 20m more for him than Chelsea paid for Pulisic, a player who is playing at a significantly higher level than Pepe and is four years younger than him. He's playing one of the easiest positions in which to tactically adapt from league to league, as the case of Pulisic, as well as countless other wingers/inside forwards makes obvious. We will know definitively by next year but all signs point to him not having a major impact on the success of this club going forward. For 70m pounds, I'd call that a bust.
Vieira kick out against Ruud, with 3 feet of space between them, immediate red. but Mane? Nothing. I seriously hate everything about Liverpool.
Wingers are one of the more fungible (if not the most fungible) positions in football. There's a lot of talented wingers, and a lot of good young wingers who just need tactical development, which is relatively easy to do for wingers provided they have good work ethic. Spending 70m on a winger who has one elite year in a mid-tier league at the age of 24, and who also doesn't seem to possess the pace or work rate to really excel at a higher level, seems like a bad bet, is all I'm saying
He has more starts in 2020 than Aubameyang. Seems like he's earned Arteta's trust a bit. Or the board is demanding that Arteta play him - either makes sense. Pepe was a dumb buy and the money could have been spent better elsewhere, but he's been fine.
what impressed me was how patient he was getting that shot/the bounce to line up. we have had multiple older senior team players who would have just snatched at the ball in a rush and send the ball into row Z. saka was the same way with his goal from the right side in the other game - didn't rush the shot and didn't try to kill the ball, just guided it into the net.
I guess it makes sense...a foreigner, a Frenchman, came into the league and showed everyone how behind they were: play-style wise, nutrition, fitness regimes, and tried to hold everyone to a high moral standard. No wonder there’s an Arsenal vendetta.