I actually watched the majority of that twice over the weekend. Another not clicking game - where (if MacAllister and Gravenberch are more in tune with each other's spaces to cover - like last year - we don't probably end up chasing and then maybe win ugly or draw. Some tweaking by Slot need to get into effect. As far as Isak and Wirtz go - neither were the problem. (As for Mo - he's old enough to realize that in a game where we/he are not exactly sparkling, he shouldn't be taking all those shots on when he isn;t forcing the keeper into saves. Pass to someone. The Isak comments are a bit silly. In furtherance of that theory, when you are not getting the kind of service that produces a raft of chances and goals, you start to sometimes snap at things. (hell, even the best strikers ever sometimes snapped at chances and missed them) And As noted below by B.A
I disagree ( let's say we take Chiesa as a stand-in for Diogo) we still needed to replace Darwin who wouldn't have been playing anyway.
This has been my one troubling sight this year - despite the gloomier faces around me. Why are so many people rushing and fluffing what should be reasonably easy passes??? Some serious uptuning drills are required to get these guys in sync. If we cut that problem out, I think most others will resolve themselves - it's the coughing up the ball that is killing the flow and control psychology we used to have and leading to nervier and more restrictive play IMO.
Mama is left footed, I could not put my finger on it when I was watchibg the game. His adjustments to some back passes from Virgil I am confused, how is my comnent "Isak heads over" silly? That was exactly what happened.
I meant the cumulative of comment. I was adding you into the fact that it was sat alsongside one of those silly derogatory comments to a simple random miss. My apologies. I see now it was just a part of the actual commentary of the game!
A few weeks is a long time in football ...... Last season our right side was a key reason (maybe THE key reason) we won the PL and came within a pen shootout of getting to the CL Final. Ten games in to this season, our right side is widely regarded as useless going forward and a huge liability in defending. The biggest change? we lost Trent -- who got shit for being a lousy defender, and for having a lousy attitude. Football, eh?
he was a lousy defender. I don't think that's in doubt. But we don't have anybody on the team that can progress the ball like him. That's the issue.
I could be wrong but think part of the reason Sboz was played there was that he can play many long/medium passes (at above average) but the movement of the team was too hap-hazard for him to make much effect or have the options....
I'd start Salah in the next game, because it's Manure and he usually had a field day...... Right now, I'd be dropping Mac or Gakpo for Wirtz. Uncertain of fitness of Isak/ so Ekiteke and Joey for Ibou
They needed another forward. You can't wage a successful season with 3 forwards and only Chiesa and Rio as subs.
Considering Frimpong and Wirtz can also play on the frontline I’d disagree. One could have also just kept Nunez. Last point: if Salah is going to be this anonymous, Slot has to sit him. Is it just the one goal from open play this year?
Darwin not playing is a Slot problem. He clearly had value for the side and it shows up in the lack of tracking back and ballwinning from the front line. Plus you could make the argument that Wirtz can rotate with Gakpo on the left making him the Diaz replacement and Ekitike the Darwin replacement.
You don't have to tell me - I would have ben playing him all the time despite the naysayers who seemed to think that 4 or 5 ballooned shots equated to 30-somethign of them. Nor would I have sold him.
Well I’ve been traveling and so once I’d seen that we lost this game didn’t try to re-watch. But today I’m sitting in an airport and so watched the game. I agree it sucks that we lost, and that this is three games in a row, but I am frankly not that worried yet. There are some big issues that we still have to address: Why are we weak at RB and CB? I’d argue that we went too offensive on our FB additions this summer. This seems to be a bigger issue at RB going forward. As much as I’d like Bradley to be our person there, I’m not convinced so far. Frimpong is really just a cheap Salah replacement (who we might have bought as part of the package for Wirtz). I also think we are really seeing the negative impact of letting Quansah go and not replacing him. This is why we are seeing Gravenberch sliding back, and also maybe why we are seeing Szoboszlai at RB so often. Neither of these positions are perfect - we need to address these to truly exploit the talents of our team… Finally, Salah, clearly is off his game right now… Some good things I saw: Mamardashvilli is going to be a good replacement for Alisson - if he can develop his close control. He made a number of outstanding saves, his control of the area is really good, and he made some outstanding distributions (his passes to breaking attackers are quite impressive - nearly 50m throws right onto the on-running attacker) I don’t get the overall angst about Wirtz and Isak…? Maybe not so much on the board, but there is clearly some briefing going on in the media with these two. Both played among the best games they have since they joined this year. Would I have liked to see them link up better (yes), but what I saw from this last game was better integration than I have seen so far. This game was an attacking duel, and Chelsea were slightly more lucky than we were… The Caicedo goal was a “worldy” and MacAllister did get burned, but that sort of thing happens. I wasn’t too happy with the ragged end of the game, but we were not dramatically outclassed in this game. We have some work, but I don’t see fundamental flaws that will keep us out of the top four by the end of the season. We do need some adjustments to maximize our effectiveness - which hopefully means we aren’t just thinking about top four, but instead are vying for a PL repeat…
Wirtz is doing a lot of things very well but zero has clicked so far in terms of G/A. still looks to me that the intensity of the game is throwing him off balance / concentration.
I don’t think we’ll ever see Wirtz as dominant as he was the BL these last two years unless we build a team around him. But I was much more satisfied with his integration into the passing of the team this last game than I have seen so far this year. Eventually, when he’s 25-28, if we’ve kept him around that long, I fully expect he’ll be integral in our midfield. We just need to give him some time to integrate into the passing play of the team. Once he gets in, he’s going to be massive. Yes, he touches the ball too many times right now, but he’ll get used to that. Once he figures out what he can get away with, then his creativity and vision are going to shine…
Earlier this week I saw stats indicating that Wirtz was tied with Grealish for creating the most scoring chances (21). So I think despite what our eyes are telling us it seems Wirtz is still well involved during our games . I'm not so much worried re Wirtz but more keeping my fingers crossed that we don't suffer any more injuries at cb.
It's as if some guys are not fully focused. Early in the game (1st 5 minutes) Mac gets into a midfield scrap where a breaking ball breaks a bit too far - in a CL final at 1-1 with 10 mins to go and us dominating he prob realizes that he can;t effectively take control of this fighter bouncing ball in that space with two guys coming to crowd him and that if he instead swings his left leg and lobs it forward to the final third that suddenly then Gakpo and Isak are maybe causing a danger to Chelsea. Similarly a minute later, Salah gets into a similar thing (with a bit more space and the possibility of control - but he's on his own defensive third of field line and so he decides to get rid - but whatever he decides he decides to not pas it to us but an opponent, needlessly.) Third and worst of the three (least dangerous position, because we wer facing into the loss of ball, but nonetheless it was Virg) - he's engaged in a couple of passes with either gakpo or Kerkez and then inexplicably he just passes it to the guy who was beside the guy who gave it to him.... This kind of weird (for these guys) thing has been happening a lot and I think it's just a matter of time before it settles out. probably the number of different guys has something to do with it... Without this kind of thing i don;t think a lot of the chances we have had against us happen - as we are helping to create a majority of them. So, I'm with Hubba-Bubba's calmer analysis of all this.
Absolutely agreed. He can become what Firmino was for us. Not the stand-out sizzler always - but the smart glue holding it together.... i have no worries for any of Ekiteke, Isak or Wirtz.
I have never seen us put so many balls out straight to touch. That's not a talent issue, that's a nobody knows where each other are issue. Which makes sense when you completely overhaul the side. But it's still worrisome that there has been no real sign of improvement. Would argue the Chelsea match was our worst performance of the season so far. But I have to have faith that Slot will figure it out no other choice. That's what I'm hanging my hat on. On the bright side Arsenal are now the hunted rather than the hunter. The way the media are building them up and putting us down makes me smile, the pressure is all on them now and we know how they've handled it in the past. Now maybe we aren't able to get our act together in time and don't pressure them, but if we can just put together a decent runt of performances this all changes real quick. channeling my best Begbie impression NOW NONE OF YOU C*** GET HURT IN F** USELESS INTERNATIONALS
for me that goes to the Brentford game. we were woeful for long long stretches. not a great thing to debate mind you ..... (btw "a decent runt of performances" is a great Freudian slip )