Leno is to blame again. He has a visual of the field and delivers pass again to dangerous area. He is not a top 14 world keeper.
It's Arteta's fault. He needs to figure out how to play out from the back without risking that happening.
This is what it should look like when a good team plays a bad team. Sure, two of our goals were a combination of quality strikes from distance allied to bad goalkeeping or defending, respectively, and the third was from a corner. We didn’t create a bunch of obvious clear cut chances. Also, sure, we gifted them one again. Even still, just producing a normal stat line against a bad team is more evidence that we are finally traveling in the right direction.
Stephen A: You know I love good underlying metrics. Skip: Yes you do. Stephen: No one is more a fan of shot metrics, and the shot metrics at Arsenal are getting better. Skip: Yes they are. Stephen A: BUT The BUT is there appears to be a huge tactical issue in how we're playing out from the back. It's cool to dogpile on Xhaka and Luiz and Ceballos. Look at where the opposition players are though. Players are receiving the ball facing the goal, and the entire team is being pressed, and every opposition player knows exactly where to go. The buildup has gotten so predictable that opposition players can time challenges. That's not on Leno or Xhaka or Luiz or anyone else. It's on Arteta to fix that, because this is a fatal weakness.
This insane desire to ALWAYS build from the back is now consistently costing us goals and needs to be immediately rectified because we gave them a goal and 2 really good chances from sloppy defensive passes. On the positive note, Ode and Neny only score bangers.
Yes, the lead should be safe so Arteta should be able to rotate. And yet I fully expect Xhaka, Willian and Luiz to start and Martinelli to be left on the bench.
I don't get it. Willian contributing Is actually a bad thing. But Arteta has his favorites clearly. I'm worried for a romp vs Spurs.
Just watched. Yet another Arsenal roller coaster drama. In 1T we were quite dominant. And Odegaard quite prominent (not just the goal). I loved how we were at it... right from the off. With urgency, aggression, winning 50/50's, pressing & smothering them. But we squandered several good chances, shoulda been up by 2 or 3, and so at HT I worried that just one stupid mistake from us and... Sure enough we gifted them their equalizer that way. At that point I was thinking we'd do well to get away with a draw plus an away goal. Then out of nowhere Gabriel appears with a funky header to put us back in the lead. Followed by a rare bit of individual brilliance by Mo Neny. And we come back home with +2 GD and 3 away goals. Perhaps contrary to what some of you might think I thought this was Odegaard's best game for us... by some measure. Bellerin & Willian were good in 1T but fell off in 2T, especially Willian. We made hard work of it, and that may haunt us a bit for the NLD, but I'll take it. In fact, it's just what I asked for at the top. Onward...
i agree with you on leno being at fault. he once again passed it to an onrushing midfielder who had his back to play and was pressured. i think that is one of the effects of arteta trying to get a keeper who is uncomfortable with ball at feet to play in that way. it will take time for leno to learn to make the correct decision in such a situation. he will make the right choices sometimes but will also make a mistake. i don't keep up with world football enough to have an opinion on whether he is "top 14 world keeper" but he is unquestionably a top tier keeper.
Im undecided on the Leno gaffs here. Is he making poor decisions because he has bad game IQ? Is he making those passes because Arteta said you make those passes because thats what we do. His teammates shouldn't be making those runs towards him thats for sure. The Xhaka one and now this, its a problem. Its either gameplan or keeper stupidity. Its nothing else.
This. IMHO Leno is a large net positive for our team. Sure he has some questionable pass choices when we're playing it out, but otherwise he's very consistent, which is what you want in a player and especially a keeper. Not to mention that he's single-handedly earned us many points. We still have some holes in our XI that need to be filled/upgraded, but GK isn't one of them. My concern in this area is about our #2, not our #1.
Leno is definitely a great goalkeeper. Unfortunately, one of his weakness is playing out from the back.