Don't give Arteta any funds in January imo

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Originally Posted by 7sisters

Leo?s been absolute litter this season. Always so reliable off the bench. I?ve no idea what?s gone wrong there.

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Going back to the start of the season, he had a face on him at Villa. Wonder if he has had the hump all season about something.

My bigger concern is Odegaard. He is horribly out of form and way, way below his best.

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Originally Posted by Peter

Going back to the start of the season, he had a face on him at Villa. Wonder if he has had the hump all season about something.

My bigger concern is Odegaard. He is horribly out of form and way, way below his best.

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Ode is suffering from missing the start of the season and, imo, is struggling to get back up to speed. Penalty aside, I thought he was much better against United than of recent.

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Originally Posted by 7sisters

He has been fairly unfortunate with injuries tbf. Nketiah isnt starting at Palace, ESR is no longer a starter for Fulham, Balogun hasn?t played for Monaco since October, you guessed it, injured. Likewise, Nelson at Fulham, also crocked.
The Kroenkes must seriously be questioning why we spaffed ?100m on Vieira, Merino and Calafiori at this point. I wouldn?t blame them.
We had a clear need for a striker, Havertz, for all is faults isnt one, his game lies elsewhere.
Rice is being wasted out of position and the Sterling gamble looks to be a horrid punt.
I?m sure it?ll improve when our key players return but we?re in dire need of a good midfield playmaker and someone a bit more clinical up top, although knowing our form, we?ll probably look to buy Jackson from Chelsea on the cheap 😁

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Vieira was a dud but you can see the talent. You can see what they saw. I think it is still too early to write off Merino and Calafiori.

We don't have the right balance in midfield. Partey and Rice both want to play in the same position. Jorginho is not really up to the physical side of the game anymore. Merino is a more natural fit alongside one of those three but, quite frankly, isn't as good as them. Playing Rice and Partey together wastes Rice in a rather strange role. Rice is not a natural replacement for the others at the base of midfield. He offers so much in most areas of the game but he is not at their technical level in possession.

This is kind of where our problems start. It slows down possession at source, which slows down the following phases. And it tends to make us more predictable in the last third, and more reliant on Odegaard to create something.

I think we are probably done with Jesus, so we need a striker. And we are going to need at least one midfielder. And a wide forward. That is a lot of money, and will have to wait until the summer.

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Originally Posted by PSRB

Based on our mounting injuries, I may get my wish and see him playing at CF.

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He has made one or two really good fa?ao runs in the past couple of games and he really ought to do it more often. One can only wonder why he doesn't.

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Originally Posted by PSRB

Actually thought the ref had a decent game until the penalty

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The penalty was a genuinely shocking decision. What makes it worse is that established wisdom seems to suggest that VAR wouldn't have overturned it..... but then with VAR around the ref almost certainly wouldn't have given it.

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Originally Posted by Peter

Vieira was a dud but you can see the talent. You can see what they saw. I think it is still too early to write off Merino and Calafiori.

We don't have the right balance in midfield. Partey and Rice both want to play in the same position. Jorginho is not really up to the physical side of the game anymore. Merino is a more natural fit alongside one of those three but, quite frankly, isn't as good as them. Playing Rice and Partey together wastes Rice in a rather strange role. Rice is not a natural replacement for the others at the base of midfield. He offers so much in most areas of the game but he is not at their technical level in possession.

This is kind of where our problems start. It slows down possession at source, which slows down the following phases. And it tends to make us more predictable in the last third, and more reliant on Odegaard to create something.

I think we are probably done with Jesus, so we need a striker. And we are going to need at least one midfielder. And a wide forward. That is a lot of money, and will have to wait until the summer.

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Merino is terrible for slowing down possession, everything is sideways at best.

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Originally Posted by Peter

Vieira was a dud but you can see the talent. You can see what they saw. I think it is still too early to write off Merino and Calafiori.

We don't have the right balance in midfield. Partey and Rice both want to play in the same position. Jorginho is not really up to the physical side of the game anymore. Merino is a more natural fit alongside one of those three but, quite frankly, isn't as good as them. Playing Rice and Partey together wastes Rice in a rather strange role. Rice is not a natural replacement for the others at the base of midfield. He offers so much in most areas of the game but he is not at their technical level in possession.

This is kind of where our problems start. It slows down possession at source, which slows down the following phases. And it tends to make us more predictable in the last third, and more reliant on Odegaard to create something.

I think we are probably done with Jesus, so we need a striker. And we are going to need at least one midfielder. And a wide forward. That is a lot of money, and will have to wait until the summer.

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Control means competence, which leads to predictability.

A good, viable target upfront solves one problem just as it naturally would create others. I do like to think though that our defence would be good enough to deal with occasionally playing on the fly, especially if said striker was providing plenty of goals and assists. Looked at properly, his job is to make everybody else look good.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Control means competence, which leads to predictability.

A good, viable target upfront solves one problem just as it naturally would create others. I do like to think though that our defence would be good enough to deal with occasionally playing on the fly, especially if said striker was providing plenty of goals and assists. Looked at properly, his job is to make everybody else look good.

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The primary function for establishing control is retaining possession. This requires movement off the ball and the creation of angles. That movement involves people leaving their position. The first thing that happens when a team gets tense and concerned is players stop moving and stay in their position, concerning themselves with ensuring that if it goes tits up it wont be down their flank.

This is also what people mean when they speak of bravery. Our constant time wasting at all restarts, 'game management' , niggle and wind up doesnt speak of control or bravery. It is fear and concern.

Our problem is that when Arteta tries to bring these additional things into our game they come in at the expense of something else. And that isn't what he intends. I do wonder if it down to over coaching- attempting to script passages of play and reducing the sense of judgement that players need to employ in a game. We see it a lot these days.

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Originally Posted by PSRB

Merino is terrible for slowing down possession, everything is sideways at best.

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he's no Elneny

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Originally Posted by Peter

The primary function for establishing control is retaining possession. This requires movement off the ball and the creation of angles. That movement involves people leaving their position. The first thing that happens when a team gets tense and concerned is players stop moving and stay in their position, concerning themselves with ensuring that if it goes tits up it wont be down their flank.

This is also what people mean when they speak of bravery. Our constant time wasting at all restarts, 'game management' , niggle and wind up doesnt speak of control or bravery. It is fear and concern.

Our problem is that when Arteta tries to bring these additional things into our game they come in at the expense of something else. And that isn't what he intends. I do wonder if it down to over coaching- attempting to script passages of play and reducing the sense of judgement that players need to employ in a game. We see it a lot these days.

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In this day and age, test cricket captains are still criticised for their field placings; surely commentators know that all that is done by committee and studied for weeks prior regarding every batsman and phase of the game and with two or three backup plans! With all the money in football, it must be the same story.

The fear and concern-thing is simply a consequence of decades of trying to keep up with the North-West hegemony. Perfectly understandable and occasionally we actually do it quite well and with some success. As do Chelsea, of course. A young coach like Mikel was always bound to have lots of questions about the game, even for himself. An older manager would know not to ask those questions.

Anyway, I blame Lionel Messi; when I was a nipper, "retaining possession" was called "time-wasting" :-)