The main issue is the midfield. Everything else flows from there. You fix that, you will likely fix the midfield. These are the kind of games when Rice is limited if there's no one else with passing ability in there. He should ideally be higher up the field.
For the most part Arsenal play well.But the most frustrating thing about this Arsenal side is their inability to change things up when it's not going well.No change in tactics, no substituting underperforming players, no trust in players outside the first 11.— Orbinho (@Orbinho) February 22, 2024
Young team, manager not super experienced, against a team that's really well coached, and made it super difficult to get the ball into Odegaard.
This is one of the more frustrating aspects of Arteta. Porto were playing so tightly packed (30 yds between their front line and the back line) close to the midfield line, there was a ton of space behind the defense. Our offense rarely, if ever, looked to exploit that space with through balls or diagonal runs. He continued to have Arsenal circulate the ball out wide or force it into extremely tight spaces in the middle. It played right into Porto's hands.
For 2nd leg, we need Havertz up top and Jorge in midfield. Bring on Trossard for Martinelli later in the game.
Arsenal win two matches 11-0 with the same lineup: This is the way! Arsenal lose 0-1 with the same lineup: ¡Revolución! Pretty clear that Arteta values his players being comfortable and well drilled in a system over making tactical tweaks for a particular opponent. Maybe this hurts him more in Europe, Porto can afford to take their eye off the league and focus on a gameplan that works against what Arteta will predictably deploy.
The EPL is a vastly overrated league in the minds of the fans and players. My theory, especially with a young team like ours, is that people hear the noise more and are more affected by it. Fans and players alike expect teams to roll over in a one off. Every post game, players are told how tough this league is, that it's the toughest in the world the best in the world. Then on talk shows, and media they're told how great they are, how good the team is, how tough the league is. It's human to have a letdown. However, to expect that Porto was going to be food is just not how it works. Especially for a team as currently constituted, and a club historically not good in Europe. That's just not how it works. Porto manager is better then many managers in the league, with a vastly experienced European squad with pedigree. Respectfully, but Moyes is garbage, and Kompany is a yute. Taking anything from those two games into Porto is just not logical IMO. Each game in Europe is it's own thing. This isn't the EPL
I don't think Moyes or Kompany put a ton of effort into training specifically for Arsenal. Something like sit deep, play a low block, hit them on the counter. Getting points off Arsenal is unlikely, better to focus on other matches. Porto sit 3rd in a 3 team league, they could have circled this match weeks ago. In fairness to Arteta, better to drop this match than one in the league, he still has a 2nd leg to recover.
The last part of the last sentence isn't fair given that we were without Jesus, Zinchenko, Tomiyasu, and Partey.
I agree with much (definitely not all) of what you said. But keep in mind, we also beat Klopp in this run-up and utterly stifled them too are far as chances. So we were "taking" a bit more into this match than just the two smashings.
Highly doubt it. The criticism I agree with is that I think this was a match Jorginho should've started to give us more midfield control and allow Ødegaard and Havertz to push into more dangerous advanced positions more often. But we also know Jorginho has been struggling with some foot issues, so maybe that played into Arteta's thinking. I dunno.
I'm sure YOU were, but in general the attitude I saw on social media, which is 99% morons but still, was we are going to just roll them into a spliff. IMO this current social media era is more prone to affect players that are not experienced. That's all.
Sure. Should've clarified. Yeah, a lot of fans were being waaaay too optimistic. Completely agree. But I really don't think the players took Porto lightly. I think we just played poorly and they played really well with what they wanted to do. Arteta has been on the end of a couple of poor CL performances to take anyone lightly and I'm sure he would've conveyed that to the squad. Maybe as you imply, they didn't listen, but I dunno. What I saw looked like a lot of nerves rather than complacency.
This seems true. And it’s not great. Very few teams other than the outlier Citeh can make that stubborn idealism work. I had two main thoughts today about Porto. The first one being disappointment that we couldn’t solve the problem tactically in-match. And I don’t tend to think that kind of solution would be all about substitutions, but more about changing our style of play. The good old Plan B concept.
And this was the second main thought I had today. We could’ve use somebody like Sanchez last night. Saka and Martinelli we’re trying, but largely failing. Even Pep now has a one-on-one improviser like Doku. Clive Palmer thought we especially missed Jesus at Porto.
Yeah I also think that he went for the defensive setup to just grab the draw and then unleash the hounds at home. I hope that happens because I agree they did look nervous, some early misplaced passes, etc. Gotta just win at home, 2-0 and keep it moving.
It’s not about league quality @DutchCane its about a lack of experience from the manager and team in a European away game we should win at home but stop being naive away play a double pivot if you need a result away etc
Ten years ago I’d have agreed with you, but the premier league is the best league in the world now, and it’s by a lot. This result had nothing at all to do with relative strength of league, and even less to do with the perception of that.
Shit, I would have agreed before COVID. Covid killed European football. The Premier League is the Super League and it’s not close. Madrid is the only club that can compete and is set up to compete, imo. And they had to destroy La Liga to do that.
After Newcastle, Mikel was asked about how we were able to bounce back after the Porto failure, and he said basically "At Porto, we were ourselves and brave on defense, but not on offense... that was the difference"
Saw someone this morning on a review complaining about him "missing sitters" and yet he scored one today and should have had a penalty. I swear Kai could score a hatty in the CL final to win us the trophy and people will still shit on him and say "oh but he should have scored 4".