Spuds Milk Cup Reaction

[Marc Overmars]

Played ok in patches and should have scored at least once, but I never felt like we had control of that game in the same way we did a few weeks ago. Spurs were comfortable, which was the most disappointing thing.

Our play in the final third was atrocious at times, certain players are really making no case for themselves to be in the team.

A lot of games to come over the next few weeks and we're playing catch up in the league. Need to find that winning touch again and fast.

[Gooner23]

In isolation very disappointing to lose, especially given the opponents. But in the bigger picture it may not be the worst thing to avoid another 2 games. Squad is stretched thin with Emery not trusting certain players and the injuries mounting up. Priority has to be Europa League and the Prem as we need Champs league footy to invest in the squad.

On the game itself it was one of those that could have gone either way, we had as many chances as them but fluffed our lines. We ran out of steam and ideas though which was worrying. The usual candidates fucking up at the most crucial moments. Mhiki and Iwobi just lack the required quality. AMN had a shocker and Monreal looked well off the pace, never thought I'd find myself missing Kolasinac!

[Özim]

Always disappointing to lose to Spurs and two defeats in a row and very patchy form recently.

Think we have some real problem areas in the team which can only be fixed with signings, defence, wing area and replacing Xhaka are all things we must do.

Lots of work to be done, we need to reverse these results as the wheels could really come off otherwise, been a good season prior to this.

[Letters]

Nice to see Arsenal getting into the Christmas spirit by doing something to help the homeless

:rimshot:

Disappointing. Not a competition I care much about but we are losing momentum and some of the performances of late have not been good.
Need to get going again.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Always disappointing to lose to Spurs and two defeats in a row and very patchy form recently.

Think we have some real problem areas in the team which can only be fixed with signings, defence, wing area and replacing Xhaka are all things we must do.

Lots of work to be done, we need to reverse these results as the wheels could really come off otherwise, been a good season prior to this.Xhaka is more likely to get an extension than sold. Emery loves and trusts him.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Gutted to go out to those turds. The chances missed is becoming a recurring theme. Best part was seeing Ali hit on the head with the bottle.

Least I didn’t have to pay 65 quid plus too!

[Marc Overmars]

I think Emery should be starting Lacazette over the Christmas period. I don’t mind if it’s with or without Auba, because frankly he looks pretty gassed.

Get Ozil back in the team as well, the alternatives are not justifying his non-selection.

[Chippy]

Xhaka is more likely to get an extension than sold. Emery loves and trusts him.
Which is quite worrying. Wenger had his favourites and stuck by them. Let's hope Emery is better than that.

[Chippy]

Always disappointing to lose to Spurs and two defeats in a row and very patchy form recently.

Think we have some real problem areas in the team which can only be fixed with signings, defence, wing area and replacing Xhaka are all things we must do.

Lots of work to be done, we need to reverse these results as the wheels could really come off otherwise, been a good season prior to this.
Agreed. We need to be honest and realise that Iwobi, AMN, Xhaka, Mustafi, Miki are just not good enough. Wenger left the club in a right mess.

[Mac76]

Obviously didn't want to lose, but the league win was more important and both spuds and chelsea now have two extra big games against each other which hopefully will bring some cards and injuries

We're a mess though, injuries, suspensions etc haven't helped but some players are seriously falling ahort, agree we should have scored and that's also a worry

I kind of wish he'd played a reserves team so our first team had the night off and not been part of the loss, but anyway let's just forget it and move on

[SMatthews]

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.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

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.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Which is quite worrying. Wenger had his favourites and stuck by them. Let's hope Emery is better than that.
He seems to like Xhaka and Mustafi more than Wenger!

[SMatthews]

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.

[Marc Overmars]

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.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

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.

[AFC Leveller]

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.

[Chippy]

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.
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.

[Marc Overmars]

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.

[SMatthews]

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.

[Özim]

We're somewhat hindered but that new wage rule, I'm not sure Liverpool were affected by that so they were able to invest, on top of that they managed to sell 1 or 2 players for mega money, something we won't be able to do as we don't have players of huge value.

To be honest Wenger left us in a right state, we also should have got rid of him a few years ago when these new rules weren't in place but we were so slow to react we're paying for it now.

We can still free up some wages if we don't qualify for the CL by losing Ramsey, Xhaka, Mustafi, Mhiki, Iwobi and of course Ozil (maybe even Koscielny and Cech) if we could find a buyer for those guys (which may be a problem in itself), but we're not in an ideal situation.

Agree with the comment that there's a lot of quality in the top 4 and that's going to make it hard for us to break into it. We have a chance in the Europa league of course but Chelsea are still in there as well which is a worry.

[Letters]

:lol: Textbook

[SMatthews]

We’re obviously not selling 7-8 players in one go.

[Gooner23]

No, but over the course of 2-3 transfer windows I would hope to see the majority of underperformers and old guard moved on. Can't see many takers for Ozil though, at the wages he's on I reckon he'll just sit it out.

I was thinking about the squad and there's very few players I'd be really gutted to see leave, Torreira, Laca, Auba, Guendozi and Bellerin is really about it.

[Özim]

:lol: Textbook

Is it? I'd say it's a fact to be honest.

[Özim]

We’re obviously not selling 7-8 players in one go.

Maybe we won't, but that's what we need to do, especially if we don't qualify for the CL (but even if we do, there's quite a few players just not up to scratch). I know we have been on a very good run, but at the same time our weaknesses have also been there for all to see even when we have won.

Emery is doing the best he can with limited resources and the average squad left behind by the previous manager.

[Mac76]

there's very few players I'd be really gutted to see leave, Torreira, Laca, Auba, Guendozi and Bellerin is really about it.

i'd add Holding and Sokratis to that, also Nacho though i know he's getting on

[fakeyank]

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11675/11586962/tottenhams-danny-rose-enjoyed-silencing-arsenal-in-carabao-cup

We need to start reacting like a top team rather than like Spurs from 10 years ago when winning a game against us was a once in a lifetime achievement.

[Marc Overmars]

I kind of agree that we tend to go overboard on the social media celebrations but that’s just the age we live in.

If you have to wait until the end of the season to see if you can celebrate then you’re probably never going to derive any joy from watching football, or playing football for that matter.

[SMatthews]

Exactly. Footballers posting pictures of themselves on social media shocker.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11675/11586962/tottenhams-danny-rose-enjoyed-silencing-arsenal-in-carabao-cup

We need to start reacting like a top team rather than like Spurs from 10 years ago when winning a game against us was a once in a lifetime achievement.

That's acting like a top team? Sounds like personal grievances to me.

[AFC Leveller]

That loss to Saints could be costly come May. We were level with Chelsea and with a decent looking Festive fixtures we had a real chance of breaking into the top 4 and cementing our place.
I like what Emery is doing and the way he has handled the coaching side. We have a lot of average players and the defence is still a problem for us and that's why we probably won't finish top 4.

[fakeyank]

That's acting like a top team? Sounds like personal grievances to me.

I am saying we need to act like one so that players like Rose cant rub a loss like yesterday in. We had a great win against spurs a few weeks ago but the players really outdid themselves in celebrating that win. I know its the social media age but we really need to calm the F down till we actually win something.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

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.

Why what?

[Özim]

That loss to Saints could be costly come May. We were level with Chelsea and with a decent looking Festive fixtures we had a real chance of breaking into the top 4 and cementing our place.
I like what Emery is doing and the way he has handled the coaching side. We have a lot of average players and the defence is still a problem for us and that's why we probably won't finish top 4.

Yeah agreed, top 4 is a tough ask because as you say we have a lot of average players, missing out on top 4 really affects our ability to recruit, not so much in terms of money to spend, but in terms of wages we can outlay, that's unles we get rid of a fair few of those average players which may be hard.

I've always said the squad left to Emery was average, he had a lot of work to do to get it up to scratch and he's done some good work so far, just needs to get rid of the deadwood as soon as he can and replace them with decent quality.

[Letters]

I've always said the squad left to Emery was average.
And you've always been wrong.
You have very dim view of our previous manager and he managed to get them to finish 6th, and that was his worst season. They're not average in the context of the Premier League.
They're not good enough to seriously challenge, obviously, there is work to do, but we know that. They're good enough to have a chance of top 4 I reckon.

[Özim]

And you've always been wrong.
You have very dim view of our previous manager and he managed to get them to finish 6th, and that was his worst season. They're not average in the context of the Premier League.
They're not good enough to seriously challenge, obviously, there is work to do, but we know that. They're good enough to have a chance of top 4 I reckon.

Bar Lacazette and Aubameyang, the Wenger lot are average, there's no oustanding quality in there (you cold argue Ozil is quality but he's so inconsistent). The rest are average, average defenders, average midfielders, no top quality, how many players do you see interesting big clubs these days?

[Letters]

People who don't understand what average means :bow:

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Don't think there's a Burnley thread so posting this here....

I have a ticket for the game tomorrow, but I've had to go away. Imassume I can transfer it to another member? If anyone wants it let me know. I don't want anything for it.

[Globalgunner]

Don't think there's a Burnley thread so posting this here....

I have a ticket for the game tomorrow, but I've had to go away. Imassume I can transfer it to another member? If anyone wants it let me know. I don't want anything for it.

Fakeyank......another excuse for some airmiles here!

[SMatthews]

And you've always been wrong.
You have very dim view of our previous manager and he managed to get them to finish 6th, and that was his worst season. They're not average in the context of the Premier League.
They're not good enough to seriously challenge, obviously, there is work to do, but we know that. They're good enough to have a chance of top 4 I reckon.

Seen in the context of the top 6, which is the level of our club, our squad is average.

[fakeyank]

Fakeyank......another excuse for some airmiles here!

:haha:

I need a visa for UK or else I could be there on short notice! :lol:

[Globalgunner]

Its ok. If we lost, Letters would blame you for it anyways

[Marc Overmars]

Seen in the context of the top 6, which is the level of our club, our squad is average.

Definitely.

Pointless comparing us to the riff-raff of this league. The big 6 is the only measuring stick we should be using if we have any designs of one day challenging for the title again.