Reply With QuoteYes, and our league placing dropped lower each season..... if UE gets us back into the top 4 he deserves at least 1 more season.Originally Posted by Burney
The last two seasons in which he won an FA Cup, you mean?
Yes, and our league placing dropped lower each season..... if UE gets us back into the top 4 he deserves at least 1 more season.
Northern Monkey ... who can't upload a bleeding Avatar
How do you rate the FA Cup, btw, and how did you rate it at the time? I'm not suggesting you are one of those who see it as no more than a day out, but I don't recall too many enthusiasms about it overall.
I really liked it, and drank bubbly all summer to celebrate.
Did I care about it? Yes.How do you rate the FA Cup, btw, and how did you rate it at the time? I'm not suggesting you are one of those who see it as no more than a day out, but I don't recall too many enthusiasms about it overall.
I really liked it, and drank bubbly all summer to celebrate.
Would I have swapped it for fourth place? Maybe.
Did I enjoy beating Chelsea? Absolutely.
Do I regard it as a far more significant achievement than an improvement from 6th to 5th in the League, plus getting stuffed by Chelsea in the EL Final? Absolutely.
Saw Erik ten Hag being linked with us from next season
Bruce Rioch got us back up to 4th. He'd left the back 5/6 alone, and been happy to work with the added creativity that DB10 and Platt brought, while having a top form IWWW, Parlour and Merse.He had a clear philosophy when he arrived, we were going to play a high line and press to get the ball back as quickly as possible. And as I recall it resulted in a 20 some game undefeated run, not sure I remember very many people calling for his head then and all of the Unai haters were strangely quiet. You couldn't find AFC East for the life of you back then.
I'm guessing that the back four injuries put that to rest and he tried 3 at the back etc etc and it all went a bit wrong after that. He still doesn't have his first choice back four (I would argue he has only one of them) and he's trying to play younger players as the dross he was left by Wenger simply isn't good enough and as a result there are going to be issues with continuity, team selection etc as he tries to get it right.
But the main point is that I don't want to be Chelsea, we should be bigger than a club that chops and changes every time it starts to go wrong. All Arsenal managers deserve 2-3 years at least to prove themselves and then if it doesn't work we move on. I strongly expect that people like AFC East were calling for Wenger's head in 2001 and lambasted him for fielding a team without any English players because it went against the traditions blah, blah, blah.
Ferguson was almost sacked early on at Man Utd, Wenger received no shortage of criticism in 2000/2001 - and as I said, let's remember we improved marginally last year and are currently fourth, ahead of Tottenham and Chelsea.
We were basically a top CM and goal-scoring winger away from a title challenge. But we fücked him out the door so we could get AW.
Luiz is a carthorse who has made Papa Sok worse. Torreira would have been fine for AW, esp with Rambo and Ozil, but Dick doesn't like him cos he's too small.
Pepe's taking up a space which, had he not cost a fortune, would be to Saka or Nelson. If Xhaka can't defend, why play him not Ozil?
Ceballos's spot could go to Willock or AMN. What worries me most is that if we had a better manager, he'd get more out of what looks like a great generation of kids.
A different manager might not even play the kids.... especially if he thought he would get the sack after 1 season. teh only reason chelsea are playing kids is because they have to and Lampard isn't under any pressure
Northern Monkey ... who can't upload a bleeding Avatar
I'm just saying that Saka, Nelson, Willock, Smith-Rowe and AMN given a chance in MF (now we've HB coming back, Chambers showing he can play there and AMN having learnt the skills to beat a man and make goals out wide after his experience at FB) would learn to play better football under a better coach.
If we'd been playing Torreira at DM with Willock further forward, Willock would have scored that one Torreira put over. He's got a bit of the Rambos/Freddies about him in the way he arrives late into space in the box.
We need MF creativity, but Xhaka can't play defensively, Torreira's not an 8/10, we let Rambo leave and dropped Ozil despite the fact he's no worse defensively than Xhaka, who we've made captain.
Pepe so far doesn't look any better than Saka or Nelson and Willock could be a top level MF. But I'm biased. I just don't like Dick for replacing AW.
Yes, exactly. This is the subtext in virtually every criticism of Unai. And it is not only unfair on Unai it is stupid, sentimental and revisionism of the highest order.
Nothing that has happened since Wenger left indicates that it was the wrong move. Neville was spot on last night; we aren't playing well but at least the players are trying which is more than you could say about the latter years of Wenger's tenure. Watching Ramsey try a stupid flick and then stroll back after giving it away is not something I miss. Nor the 8-2 and 6-0 pastings.
Unai may or may not work out, but either way the club has moved forward.
What about the fact that we're giving away needless goals because we try to play the ball out from the box after goal kicks?
What about the fact that we're not seeing those great team goals finished off with a Rambo backheel or kung-fu lob over the 'keeper?
What about the fact that we don't do the sexy in MF? That the only creativity we have is when Auba and Laca pass to each other?
I don't mind being a EL-level side as long as we score some sexy goals. Auba's on fire, but where's the sexy MF Wengerball?
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