YEAH this reminds me more of last year's team than this year's. Trying to manage a 1-0 win and only by the skin of our teeth, or the luck of the Irish, have we been able to... so far that is. Even when we were 3-2 up on Pool in 2T, we still kept going for it I recall.
Tomiyasu is maybe the defender I have the most confidence in. He's awesome. Edit: Actually it's a close call between him and Saliba. Which is also an astonishing development this year.
FT BOD 0-1 ARS A result we didn't really deserve. A game won largely on luck. Luck from a fairly random ricochet on the only goal and from the many wayward shots their attackers would love to have back. Nice that we went to play on Arctic Astroturf and preserved our perfect record. But a rather drab, disappointing, unconvincing performance. The best I can say is... onward!
just to be clear . . . are you suggesting that a grown ass man with 323 first-team games under his belt - and spent a chunk of it learning under diego simeone in la liga - who has such a unique set of skills that we broke the piggy bank to buy him for 45M straight - no payment, no conditions - is better at said unique set of skills than a 22 year old with 110 first-team games to his name - mostly in the jupiter league - that we bought for 17M to be an understudy? in case, i didn't understand that correctly.
100% agree. one of those undeserving win. it really should have been 2-0 to bodo glimt if pellegrino and espejord hadn't botched fairly high percentage chances and we didn't get a lucky bounce. i'll take it (and run away)!!!
i wonder how much of it is just "so many games" tired and how much is a mental/physical let-off after a gigantic game and win. we also struggled to string passes together or make any kind of incisive pass on that surface or gauge their passes to break up play.
Easy there Mr. Snark. If I was a 22YO trying to prove himself (or coach of said 22YO), I wouldn't think it a good idea to play in a way that increases the risk of coughing up the ball in dangerous spots. Which he has demonstrated more than a few times sadly. And this advice is especially true if you're not as supremely talented or experienced as the guy ahead of you in the pecking order. p.s. I know you love to have petty arguments but how about we just agree to leave it there. You've expressed your view and I mine.
i've seen numbers off and on (not for this match) but, man, while i sort of get the vague concept, it's always been over my head. :-/
I didn’t watch this game but I’m a firm believer in the emotional hangover after big matches. And we had two BIG PL matches in a row.
PSV up 3-0 on Zurich already in the first half. Next two are against them. Get a win and a draw and Arsenal's final match against Zurich won't matter, play pre-teens for all anyone cares. Anything less than that would still need a win against Zurich to guarantee winning the group and avoiding the extra round against a 3rd place CL club (which could be Barca)
you know what's always funny to me? you feel so free to throw out garbage like "mr snark" and "you love petty argument" but the minute somebody else checks you on anything, you cry up a storm about how people are so sensitive when you are simply JKLOL'ing () or they are offensive and rude. and, no, of course, you're never ever wrong, the other party has simply misunderstood and, really, they should now let it go. it's damn near comical. i mean, he is playing the partey role and doing the things asked of that role: be an outlet. that one (fairly significant) giveaway was from winning the ball back and not moving it on quick enough rather than receiving the ball from back before turning and moving it on. literally, the only way he can get at all better at it is to do it. and, of the people on the squad, he's the only one that really has it in his bag to even develop.
Say it ain't so! Yeah, a pale comparison to our last match (LFC). I was mostly curious about whether they out xG'd us, which is how it felt to me. But from this particular estimate that was not the case. It was basically a dead heat.
new stats like xG or WAR (in baseball) are just beyond my ability to wrap my head around for some odd reason. like, i get the vague concept and can roll with them but full understanding just goes, "WHOOOOOSH!"
He's had quite a few notable, dangerous cough-up's or sloppy passes from what I recall. Today's could've easily cost us points. In-match, I commented that we saw the 2 sides of Sambi in that play: good & bad. I don't have a clip to look at RN but I think the bad/risky bit was him not properly shielding or getting rid of the ball when a man was tight on him. And no I do NOT want him to learn on the job in that type of situation (just outside our box?) or game state. I suspect his boss feels likewise. I've had the same complaint for others. Wilshere used to drive me absolutely nuts. Not only would he invite turnovers, he would invite injury, which is what ultimately killed his career. And I think you'll agree that Partey does a better job of what Sambi was trying to do, or should've done, in that play. And my impression of Partey in general is that he moves the ball on more quickly rather than dwelling on it and risking a turnover. True? p.s. I could've quoted or replied to the top part of your post, but that likely would've just induced you to continue sarcastic hyperbolic tropes that believe me are as annoying to me as my stubborn posts are apparently to you. Peace and love.
But in all seriousness, yeah, an ugly win. Definitely seemed to be a hangover from the Liverpool match. I'd also add that Bodo have a history of making it tough on opponents at their park, and we saw why. They're very organized and defensively sound.
This is doing exactly the thing from which you claim to be abstaining. Way to take the high road. Peace and love, tho.
right. and, again, in-match, that play was not lokonga receiving the ball from the defense and dawdling on it before losing it. he'd just won the ball from an opponent in a dangerous area and had yet to be able to move it on. would it be better had he gotten rid of it faster? sure. but he also didn't have complete control of the ball after winning it and was working on it. do i agree that partey does or would do a better job than lokongao? 100%. again, had you paid any attention to a point you disagree with instead of moaning about how mean i was, you might have actually noted the point that our 29 year old 45M starter with 300 games should be better than his 22 year old 17M understudy with 100 games to his name. i also expect gabriel jesus to be better at forward play than folarin balogun and martin odegaard to be better than catalin cirjan. i wouldn't expect them to be starters otherwise. but we need someone to be able to take that role besides partey since he's shown to be unreliable for availability. and of the people on our team, lokonga is the most likely candidate to be able to handle that role/task, which he did well multiple times during the game. they all have to play and do those tasks in-game to learn at some point: saliba did it on loan and martinelli did it with us last year.
Win ugly, win pretty, just win. That is all. Wonder if the astro turf had much to do with this. Agree with the emotional hangover comment earlier, will be interesting to see if we come out breathing fire against Leeds.