NOTE: The location of this post has been moved and the thread title (which was previously Wenger is Leaving) has been manipulated by a notorious pro-Wenger moderator. What was previously a message that contained no profanity and made a comment on a real life event has now been manipulated by a deliberately provocative title. An old and crude propaganda and censorship technique.
NOTE: The location of this post has been moved and the thread title (which was previously Wenger is Leaving) has been manipulated by a notorious pro-Wenger moderator. What was previously a message that contained no profanity and made a comment on a real life event has now been manipulated by a deliberately provocative title. An old and crude propaganda and censorship technique.
Seriously, I’d be very wary about using that Villa result as any kind of blueprint to follow for the moment - if Liverpool start consistently losing games in the same manner then fair enough, but odds are it was just a freak result, and the next team that tries that against them will get annihilated.
Sure, some of the matches that the likes of Leeds, Leicester, etc have been involved in have been exciting... but they’ve also been utter chaos! One week you’re spanking City, the next you’re getting embarrassed by David Moyes from a zoom call! I’m not convinced there’s a great deal of thought or planning behind any of it - it just looks like the usual craziness you get in the first 10 weeks of any season before it settles into a rhythm.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as eager as the next Arsenal fan to see us playing more dominant, exciting, attacking football, but I really think we need to stick with the plan and build towards it in a more structured way: get the defensive side of things nailed down first and then start layering it on from there. I’ll admit that I’d like to get started on it pretty damned quickly now we’ve signed Gabriel and Partey - I really think those two were the big missing pieces - but maybe we should let Partey actually unpack before we start building teams around him? He’s only been in the country for about 6 days, and I’d be surprised if he’s taken part in more than 2 or 3 training sessions in that time (one of which was likely a meet-and-greet) - would be great to see him feature at some point today, but I really don’t think it would be shocking or unreasonable if he didn’t...
The Villa game had one very simple message - if you have ambition and don't fear the other side, and also of course play very well, you can beat these teams
if we go in acting all fearful again with an overly defensive lineup that doesn't give Citeh's defence anything to think about, we may as well forfeit the game without playing it
i'd go with a 4 3 3, something like this:
Leno
Bellerin Holding Gabriel AMN
Ceballos Partey Elneny
Pepe Auba Saka