At least we won't go below spurs

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Originally Posted by Peter

I think we all know what arteta hoped he could get out of him. And that he hasn't seen it yet.

It's all down to sterling himself. He is a fine player, comfortably good enough to provide a real threat for us if he can get himself properly fit and focused.

We have to wait and see if he has another season in him. Or has he just had enough and all we've done is replaced Willian.

I agree it is to early to judge. But if he isn't contributing by Christmas then it hasn't really been worth the gamble.

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?din's injury, and MnM's, has meant we've been all over the shop, having to play a sort of forfahtoo with Kai and Leo as twin false 9s. It's taken a while for Gabby M to get back to top form which, thank Ganpati, he now has {though it's coincided with Leo losing his.}

We haven't been able to actually play the Dec-MnM-?din MF with Cala as the inverted LB in a box defence, MnM being a GX style left-8, with his ability to win duels, interchange with Dec and use his height both at set pieces and for hoofs upfield meaning the opponents have to worry about both him and Kai as outlets and having Gabby, ?din and B to win the 2nd ball when one of the big two win the first.

We saw the best of Gabby when he had GX and Zinny playing every match and MnM and Cala are upgrades - they just need to learn to play with each other. {As Arseblog said, MnM and ?din have that understanding already from their season together in Spain.}

When we have all that working, then we can see what Raheem gives us as an option from the bench to try to mix things up.

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

Nelson can't play

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Bit 'armless when he's blindsided but should have taken 111 as his squad number.

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

This is a well-balanced and reasonable argument. It has absolutely no ****ing place on awimb

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I am a little disappointed with myself there :-)

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

?din's injury, and MnM's, has meant we've been all over the shop, having to play a sort of forfahtoo with Kai and Leo as twin false 9s. It's taken a while for Gabby M to get back to top form which, thank Ganpati, he now has {though it's coincided with Leo losing his.}

We haven't been able to actually play the Dec-MnM-?din MF with Cala as the inverted LB in a box defence, MnM being a GX style left-8, with his ability to win duels, interchange with Dec and use his height both at set pieces and for hoofs upfield meaning the opponents have to worry about both him and Kai as outlets and having Gabby, ?din and B to win the 2nd ball when one of the big two win the first.

We saw the best of Gabby when he had GX and Zinny playing every match and MnM and Cala are upgrades - they just need to learn to play with each other. {As Arseblog said, MnM and ?din have that understanding already from their season together in Spain.}

When we have all that working, then we can see what Raheem gives us as an option from the bench to try to mix things up.

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I don't necessarily disagree with any of that, although I am still not convinced that Merino is quite so significant in our plans as others seem to. Partey and Rice are fine players and if Merino is capable of providing better performances than those two, I will be very impressed indeed. And he will have proved to be an incredible bargain.

My biggest issue is this feeling around the squad that Arteta's approach requires everything to be just right, and everyone to be fit and available. If you want to win the league you have to be able to find different ways to win games and different ways to approach games. We are improving on this, but it does feel as though a few unplanned absences throws us out of sync a little too much.

As you say above, all of those players linking as planned would be nice, but we shouldn't need all of that just to be able to get a decent performance out of Sterling. Or anyone else.

And now the rumours are that White faces a spell out of the side :-( a very important piece of our often devastating right flank.

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Originally Posted by Peter

I am a little disappointed with myself there :-)

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I know you recognise standards

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

I know you recognise standards

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Of course I do. I have spent a lifetime failing to meet them :-)

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Originally Posted by Peter

I don't necessarily disagree with any of that, although I am still not convinced that Merino is quite so significant in our plans as others seem to. Partey and Rice are fine players and if Merino is capable of providing better performances than those two, I will be very impressed indeed. And he will have proved to be an incredible bargain.

My biggest issue is this feeling around the squad that Arteta's approach requires everything to be just right, and everyone to be fit and available. If you want to win the league you have to be able to find different ways to win games and different ways to approach games. We are improving on this, but it does feel as though a few unplanned absences throws us out of sync a little too much.

As you say above, all of those players linking as planned would be nice, but we shouldn't need all of that just to be able to get a decent performance out of Sterling. Or anyone else.

And now the rumours are that White faces a spell out of the side :-( a very important piece of our often devastating right flank.

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I've heard anything from 8-12 weeks for White. I suspect it's a meniscus injury, ex of mine was skiing after 4 weeks, so hopefully not as long as 12 weeks.

The 1st 45 against Liverpool, I thought Merino was excellent. Definitely a talent, just might take a while to settle. Lets not forget, Pires was pretty average for his 1st 6 months.