Season autopsy v Newcastle

[IBK]

Lokonga obviously has a lot of potential and is still young so I am sitting on the fence with him....however he didn't really add anything to the team this season. The issue with Tavares is due to Tierney being quite injury prone Tavares got a lot of minutes. That isn't a bad thing per say, but his performances on the whole were not up to scratch, he's not good enough for a team with ambition for a top 3/4 finish. He is not only raw, but lacks the basics of what is required. Don't forget Saka broke through as a full back and his performance level was high from start to finish, that's the standard of a top club.

Tavares may well improve, but I wouldn't feel comfortable having him in the team for important games next season.

Fair enough, but he hasn't been as bad as some seem to think - and I am hopeful that his consistency in defence will improve.

[Marc Overmars]

Tavares has no composure and I’m not surprised we’ve been linked with that Scottish kid who’s playing in Italy. If there’s one thing we know about Arteta is that he isn’t afraid to make bold decisions with players who aren’t doing it for him. Wouldn’t be surprised if he was sent out on loan. For all the talk about our shape etc being better, we still conceded more goals than last year and a lot of that was due to erratic and careless defending.

[Mac76]

yeah Tavares has a long way to go before he should be starting for us again in any game that counts

[IBK]

Tavares has no composure and I’m not surprised we’ve been linked with that Scottish kid who’s playing in Italy. If there’s one thing we know about Arteta is that he isn’t afraid to make bold decisions with players who aren’t doing it for him. Wouldn’t be surprised if he was sent out on loan. For all the talk about our shape etc being better, we still conceded more goals than last year and a lot of that was due to erratic and careless defending.

Yep agreed - and there is no doubt (a) that he is very raw, and (b) that relying on Tavares alone where (frustratingly given his talent) we have a crock as first choice LB is not what we should be doing next season.

Re our defence more generally, I'm not sure your analysis is quite on the money. The reality is that we had our first choice back 5 available only 10 times last season, and when we did we looked secure. Partey's absence also screwed our system and affected our defensive shape. I think Nuno suffered from playing often in a makeshift system. This is not to excuse his mistakes, but more to say that its a shame for him that he was so exposed as I'm certain that wasn't the plan. Ironically, we often looked better going forwards when he played...

[selassie]

Fair enough, but he hasn't been as bad as some seem to think - and I am hopeful that his consistency in defence will improve.

Yeah to be fair he actually looked half decent when he initially played for us, though he was still raw. He just seems to have regressed, maybe confidence? He is still young though so can improve, but he has to be getting the basics right first.

[IBK]

Yeah to be fair he actually looked half decent when he initially played for us, though he was still raw. He just seems to have regressed, maybe confidence? He is still young though so can improve, but he has to be getting the basics right first.

Yep - but strangely he was one of our better players against Spurs and Newcastle too (although admittedly a very low bar). Didn't watch the Everton game...