Yeah, I think that’s the right way to look at it - he’s piqued interest, eliminated any mediate panic and bought some breathing space. Maybe enough that we don’t need to have the Arteta in / out debate after every single match? Break the season down into blocks and review it after every 10 games or something?Originally Posted by Letters
Last edited by I am invisible; 30-10-2021 at 03:31 PM.
Really think we’ve stumbled onto something with this 442 - it’s a great fit for this group of players. All the partnerships look good - Auba-Laca, Partey-Sambi, Gabriel-White, ESR-Tavares / Tierney, Saka-Tomi - and there’s also a lot of flex there: Tomi can give us 3 at the back, Laca can either be an extra striker or an extra midfielder, ESR and Saka can be either wingers or extra midfielders, Tavares could play as a winger / wingback, Saka can play wingback.
Interesting that we all thought Ødegaard and ESR would be fighting it out for the same spot - as it turns out it looks like ESR is competing with Martinelli and Ødegaard is competing with Lacazette!
It raised a few eyebrows when we spent most of our summer budget on a keeper and 3 defenders, but I think we’re starting to see why now. The defence needed to be rebuilt.
Last season’s defence could defend well, but they couldn’t play high and that seriously stretched our midfield and isolated our attack. It also needed midfielders to constantly drop back to get moves started.
This year’s defence has the athleticism and recovery pace to play high and they can also distribute (some of them can even take the ball for a walk if they need to) and there’s far less distance between front and back, and we no longer need midfielders to drop back to get things started. It’s debatable whether we even need a deep passer like Xhaka at all in midfield now we have Ramsdale, White and Tomi showering balls around (Gabriel’s distribution looks like it’s come on a level too this year).
it is pretty impressive how quickly they have synced together. Of todays team only Gabriel played last year. Ramsdale has added personality to the keeping position. he appears confident and is confident. confident keeper gives confidence to the rest of the team as has been said earlier.
It raised a few eyebrows when we spent most of our summer budget on a keeper and 3 defenders, but I think we’re starting to see why now. The defence needed to be rebuilt.
Last season’s defence could defend well, but they couldn’t play high and that seriously stretched our midfield and isolated our attack. It also needed midfielders to constantly drop back to get moves started.
This year’s defence has the athleticism and recovery pace to play high and they can also distribute (some of them can even take the ball for a walk if they need to) and there’s far less distance between front and back, and we no longer need midfielders to drop back to get things started. It’s debatable whether we even need a deep passer like Xhaka at all in midfield now we have Ramsdale, White and Tomi showering balls around (Gabriel’s distribution looks like it’s come on a level too this year).
i still dont know where this team is though. 3 points behind city but in reality miles behind. so perhaps the league table can lie for a bit.
one thing though for definite.. spurs are hopeless.
We’re doing ok - let’s leave it at that for now. I’m trying not to have to many expectations for this season beyond wanting to see progress and an identity develop. We’ve just brought in half a new starting XI, all 21-23yos, and that makes us the youngest team in the league - games like Villa and spurs would be great every week, but the reality is it’s going to take this group of players a while before they gain enough experience to know how to deal with different types of opponent, different playing conditions, disruption to momentum (like international breaks), dips in form, etc. I expect we’ll see a few more peaks and troughs yet.
Right now we’re a 1:3 / 1:4 team in terms of really good performances - by the end of the season I think a reasonable target is to have moved that closer to 1:2. Then over the course of next season, if we have another summer like the last one, I think we can start thinking about pushing closer to the kind of consistency that your Liverpools and Citys show. If we’ve timed it well then hopefully it will all coincide with those sides starting to break up and being in transition.
Last edited by I am invisible; 30-10-2021 at 06:12 PM.
Yesterday was a good result, but our performance aside from the first 20 minutes or so still leaves me thinking we are a "work in progress". We look pretty decent defensively now and Ramsdale has been a superb signing. Midfield still leaves big question marks for me and I'm not convinced we are consistent enough offensively. Despite that, we are on a good run now and firmly in the mix for a top 4 battle with Man Utd, West Ham and i guess Spurs and Leicester. I'm still sitting on the fence...but the signs are a lot more positive now.
Spurs????
We’re absolutely still a WIP - this team only really came together about 7 games ago (9 inc. cups), and it’s made up of a hell of a lot of young players. There’s going to a lot of peaks and troughs to come still.
Consistency will happen when it happens - if we’re very lucky then all of these new / young players will maintain this current form and never look back, but more likely we’ll work towards consistency over the next year or two. The important thing for me right now is being able to see direction and intent: what are we trying to do? Where are we going with this? How are we trying to do it? Those things at least need to be clear every game from now on, even if it doesn’t always come off.
Watford at home next which should be fairly straight forward but 3 of the following 4 games are away to Liverpool, United and Everton.
Looking forward to seeing what we can do there now the team is somewhat settled.
We'll get nothing at Anfield and I'm OK with that so long as we don't get thumped. We're still very much a work in progress, they're a level above us.
Utd Away, we always struggle there but a point is possible. Should be looking to win at Everton.
2 of the next 3 games are home to Watford and Newcastle, only 3 league games in November so we could be ending that month pretty well.
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