An ugly, scrappy midfield heavy game, that’s what you get this time of year, especially between two sides chasing after every ball.
Not much between the two sides except finishing. They only had three chances all night and scored two. Only the second time we’ve failed to score all season so nothing to worry about there. We’re where we should be with this team right now.
We are understanbly pondering signings for next month but if we don’t make top 4 or win the Europa last summers transfer policy will really look daft.
He seems to like Xhaka and Mustafi more than Wenger!Originally Posted by Chippy
Every manager has their favourites. That’s just the truth.
At the moment there is no-one better in the squad to replace Xhaka. Play him as a central defender and it won’t work. Aside from him in CM there is Elneny, Ramsey, a 19-year-old and an unproven AMN.
I actually don’t think Xhaka has been that bad this season. I’m no fan of his but I think he managed to settle down somewhat during the unbeaten run.
Under no circumstances should he be playing CB though, that’s just asking for disaster and so far that’s whats happening.
Xhaka was managing to affect the game in good and bad ways despite playing as a CB but it really is a position we should never have seen him play in and takes the faith I've seen in him by any manager to a new high.
I actually didn't think he was especially a problem against Southampton.
Koscielny and our inability to defend is the prominent concern though.
Xhaka is the best passer of the ball we have in the team. The way he kept putting it on AMN's foot from 40 yards was our only outlet at times.
His quality off the ball is the problem.
Why? That comment always makes me laugh because didnt Fulham spend £100m last year? There is so much revenue from TV etc, that should not be an excuse. Back the Manager.
I do think we need to spend because Spurs and Chelsea clearly have an edge. Emery has generally done well with what he’s got but we’ve been playing catch up all season. The consistency of the top 4 now is making it really difficult to break in, there’s never been such a spread of quality amongst all the top sides. If we finish 4th (or win the EL) then Emery deserves a big pat on the back and some big money to work with.
Last edited by Marc Overmars; 20-12-2018 at 07:44 AM.
Emery’s managed the shit out of this team from day one. . So far he’s got the absolute maximum out of the squad available to him - as unbalanced as it is. He’s used Xhaka correctly and we’ve seen a better player because of it. Defence was always going to be a problem, so there’s very little surprise there. Around the midway point of Klopp’s first season Liverpool started to feel the pace of the effort he was after - I get the feeling we are starting to go through the same thing. Moving into this much faster style of play isn’t going to happen smoothly overnight. Will Emery get big money to spend to make this his own squad? Jury’s out on that one.
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