Match Autopsy v Liverpool (away).

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Love a good four goal margin defeat at Liverpool we do.

[Xhaka Can’t]

The first 13 minutes were the best.

[Letters]

Our comedy defending doesn’t work well against good teams. Who knew?
The equaliser really needs comedy sound FX.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Mod Party. :scarf:

[Globalgunner]

Is there a cure for what we got?

[LDG]

Any lack of movement in the transfer window and during the summer will show you what this club are about.

You can’t wag a finger at Emery when he’s working with the shite that Wenger lined up at the back. He needs time to build his own side, if he is allowed to do so. As Arsenal fans we need to be careful of falling into the manager merry-go-round.

This was expected. And you can’t moan when you know what’s coming.

Liverpool are a very good side, who not so long ago (under Klopp) looked in the same shape as us....

Shit result mind

[Chippy]

Any lack of movement in the transfer window and during the summer will show you what this club are about.

You can’t wag a finger at Emery when he’s working with the shite that Wenger lined up at the back. He needs time to build his own side, if he is allowed to do so. As Arsenal fans we need to be careful of falling into the manager merry-go-round.

This was expected. And you can’t moan when you know what’s coming.

Liverpool are a very good side, who not so long ago (under Klopp) looked in the same shape as us....

Shit result mind
We were lied to when we moved to the Emirates.
We will NEVER compete with the top four financially.
The board are wankers who do not have the fans and clubs best interest at heart.
RIP AFC.

[Chippy]

Any lack of movement in the transfer window and during the summer will show you what this club are about.

You can’t wag a finger at Emery when he’s working with the shite that Wenger lined up at the back. He needs time to build his own side, if he is allowed to do so. As Arsenal fans we need to be careful of falling into the manager merry-go-round.

This was expected. And you can’t moan when you know what’s coming.

Liverpool are a very good side, who not so long ago (under Klopp) looked in the same shape as us....

Shit result mind

In addition, your comment about Emery working with Wengers defenders, didn't Emery bring in Leno, Sokratis and Lichsteiner? Piss poor additions.

[LDG]

In addition, your comment about Emery working with Wengers defenders, didn't Emery bring in Leno, Sokratis and Lichsteiner? Piss poor additions.

I dunno. Did he? I thought they were pretty much in before he arrived? Leno possibly?

[Letters]

We were lied to when we moved to the Emirates.
We will NEVER compete with the top four financially.
The board are wankers who do not have the fans and clubs best interest at heart.
RIP AFC.
Agree about the board but why can’t we compete financially?
We have the stadium, the fanbase and the status to compete.
Obviously we can’t do much about teams propped up by billionaires.
Moving stadium was the only option in terms of competing.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

In my mind Guendouzi is the only one that was more specifically his signing. Even with how good Sokratis and Torreira have been....it hasn't been enough.

I do wonder what Emery said to the board when they laid out their expectations including finishing top 4. Yes okay no worries? Or you're having a fuhking laugh....top 4 with this squad!??

[AFC Leveller]

We are such a comedy side when it comes to defending. The first and second goals were so bad and embarrassing I wanted to cry. Then we give away two silly pels and make it even worse. If you add the terrible defending at OT, last week against the scum and Southampton you see that we are really really shit at defending.

Apart from the silly goals I thought out CM were too negative with the ball and didn't show any bravery on the ball. Torreira trying to pass it back cost us the second goal. He is usually a forward passer of the ball but today he was swept aside.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

In addition, your comment about Emery working with Wengers defenders, didn't Emery bring in Leno, Sokratis and Lichsteiner? Piss poor additions.

Lichsteiner,Leno, Sokratis, Guendozi and Torriera were all signed under the Emery era with him taking pictures and saying he wanted them at the club.

If we give him praise for Torriera it's only fair he cops the blame for the other poor excuses for top players.

[fakeyank]

Lichsteiner,Leno, Sokratis, Guendozi and Torriera were all signed under the Emery era with him taking pictures and saying he wanted them at the club.

If we give him praise for Torriera it's only fair he cops the blame for the other poor excuses for top players.:gp:

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[SMatthews]

We were lied to when we moved to the Emirates.
We will NEVER compete with the top four financially.
The board are wankers who do not have the fans and clubs best interest at heart.
RIP AFC.

RIP :lol: Get a grip of yourself man. No board in the world has the fans or clubs best interest at heart. They are businesses.

Liverpool haven’t got to where they are through spending money like City or Chelsea. It was clever selling and reinvestment. Utd have spent hundreds of millions and haven’t got close to winning the league in years. How have Tottenham improved? Chelsea don’t even spend like they used to.

Defence and midfield need an overhaul. Time to get smart with purchases and reselling, along with good management.

[Mac76]

Lichsteiner,Leno, Sokratis, Guendozi and Torriera were all signed under the Emery era with him taking pictures and saying he wanted them at the club.

If we give him praise for Torriera it's only fair he cops the blame for the other poor excuses for top players.

Sorry i thought we all thought Sokratis was a good signing...? Which he is btw - haven't seen today's (mis)match but even if he played a part he's generally been very good. Let's not fall into the gutter press habit of changing facts to suit the headline, eh...

[Chippy]

Sorry i thought we all thought Sokratis was a good signing...? Which he is btw - haven't seen today's (mis)match but even if he played a part he's generally been very good. Let's not fall into the gutter press habit of changing facts to suit the headline, eh...
We are not changing facts brother, our defence is like a sieve.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

RIP :lol: Get a grip of yourself man. No board in the world has the fans or clubs best interest at heart. They are businesses.

Liverpool haven’t got to where they are through spending money like City or Chelsea. It was clever selling and reinvestment. Utd have spent hundreds of millions and haven’t got close to winning the league in years. How have Tottenham improved? Chelsea don’t even spend like they used to. ............................

I'm not going to go through a needless back & forth on this.

The best I was able to bring up was transfer spending from 92-2017:

1.Chelsea- £1.7b
2.Man City £1.45b
3 Man U £1.3b
4 Liverpool £1.29b
5 Spuds £1.06b
6 Arsenal £833m
7 Newcastle £769m
8 Everton £584m

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/635788/Premier-League-biggest-spending-clubs-ever-sportgalleries


Inflation is not included, as that would have probably put us a few more spots down- definitely below the Toon.


The point is, with the way we've been "investing" in our team we deserve to be where we are- and so do Liverpool with the way they've been investing in theirs even without mega selloffs.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Sorry i thought we all thought Sokratis was a good signing...? Which he is btw - haven't seen today's (mis)match but even if he played a part he's generally been very good. Let's not fall into the gutter press habit of changing facts to suit the headline, eh...

Sokratis is bog standard, I've never rated him and never will.

Is he better than Mustafi? Yeah, but that's nothing to be proud of if you call yourself a professional footballer.

[SMatthews]

What has 1992 got to do with 2018? :lol: if you don’t want a back and forth (neither do I about meaningless net spending etc), then at least post up something worthwhile to make a point.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

What has 1992 got to do with 2018? :lol: if you don’t want a back and forth (neither do I about meaningless net spending etc), then at least post up something worthwhile to make a point.

Do you really need to be spoon fed on everything?

You said:


No board in the world has the fans or clubs best interest at heart. They are businesses.

That was nonsense and brings back the silly arguments we use to have on this board ( 04- 12) where we would have a back and forth on whether spending on the team or club creates value for shareholders. I'm not going to google deloitte for you but you'll notice that minnows like Citeh, Chelsea and the Spuds forced themselves into the top 10 richest clubs in the world by MARKET VALUE by doing just that.


Liverpool haven’t got to where they are through spending money like City or Chelsea. It was clever selling and reinvestment.

So please, after the figures I've just shown you, kindly explain how they have "sold/re-invested" more cleverly than everyone else? Or how have they not been spending money like City or Chelsea? They are the 3rd highest spenders in the period I've shown you and have exactly how many Titles to boast about in that 26 year period?

Or is your argument that they have been clever and cautious in reinvesting money made from transfers recently- lets see.

In 17/18, after and even before the Coutinho transfer, Liverpool were spending big on players. At the end of the season they received from the sale of Coutinho and all other players £161m after having spent £151m (remember Coutinho transfer was in Jan this year). Net profit 10m.

However, this season they made £15m on transfers but "cautious" Pool still spent £160m on new players. Net Loss 145 million. So what exactly is unChelselike or unCitehlike about this level of spending?

They've spent more than anyone this season and are on course to win the title. Guess who spent the most last season? Citeh did by a mile (£285m) and won the league. Man U spent £185m (the 2nd highest amount) and came 2nd.

Now my argument is not that spending will guarantee you the Title, unless Leicester would have never won it the year they did. What I am saying though is without a doubt it helps a lot and specifically in this argument it hurts no one, shareholders or fans , and thats because big teams still gain value even without major trophies but not without the entertainment that world class players provide- as this is all showbiz or do we really need Vince Mcmahon to explain this to us.

[selassie]

We are not changing facts brother, our defence is like a sieve.

Our Defence is a complete mess, no better than last season, arguably worse. We literally cannot keep a clean sheet home or away.

TBH, given the definite outs we have and the uncertainty surrounding the likes of Ozil, Kos etc, we have a massive job to do rebuilding this squad. Sven, Raul & Emery are really going to need to earn their corn to rebuild the squad, lots of work to do.

[Marc Overmars]

A predictable trouncing. Anyone who thought we’d offer up some resistance were deluding themselves.

We cannot defend, plain and simple. Stood absolutely no chance against a team who are flying and likely to win the league.

It’s embarrasing how much work Emery has to do.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

And just to buttress the point on how if the Fan's expectations are met it is almost always a good thing for the shareholders- I just remembered Mourinho's sacking and what happened the next day to Man U's share price.

https://talksport.com/football/462580/jose-mourinho-sacked-manchester-uniteds-share-price/

To summarize for those who can't be bothered to read- before Jose got the sack, some "gurus" complained that Man U could not afford to sack him as they'd have to pay £24m as his severance- so to them it wasn't the financially smart thing to do as how would Man U make this money back? Where would they find it?

Oh well, the Markets responded the very next day (without Solskjaer kicking a ball) as the Glazers became richer by a £120 million as investors loved the sacking.

This game is about entertainment, and anything that is pissing off the fans and causing empty stadiums will affect the owners. Simple.

[SMatthews]

Or is your argument that they have been clever and cautious in reinvesting money made from transfers recently- lets see.

There you go. Not sure what all that other nonsense was about. You’re stuck in this outdated net spend argument. Player amortisation is the reality.

[Ralpheroo72]

Saw this coming a mile off, our defence and midfield are woeful.

[KSE Comedy Club]

The result was obvious, didn’t expect anything less.

The manner of deafest however, is where the problem lies. A pathetic embarrassment of professional football.

And Emery, for all his tactical nous, fucked up with the initial team selection and subs last night. Horrifically in fact.

[Gooner23]

A predictable trouncing. Anyone who thought we’d offer up some resistance were deluding themselves.

We cannot defend, plain and simple. Stood absolutely no chance against a team who are flying and likely to win the league.

It’s embarrasing how much work Emery has to do.

Emery needs better players but also has to take some measure of responsibility for the ease at which our defence is bypassed.

[Marc Overmars]

He definitely needs more of his own players to effectively implement whatever system it is he wants, but even with what we’ve got we shouldn’t be this bad.

I don’t want to come down like a ton of bricks on him because he’s at the start of the rebuilding process, but some of what we’re seeing is unnacceptable by any standards.

We saw under Wenger how scarring these kind of defeats can be. He has to get a grip on things at the back before it gets any worse.

[selassie]

RIP :lol: Get a grip of yourself man. No board in the world has the fans or clubs best interest at heart. They are businesses.

Liverpool haven’t got to where they are through spending money like City or Chelsea. It was clever selling and reinvestment. Utd have spent hundreds of millions and haven’t got close to winning the league in years. How have Tottenham improved? Chelsea don’t even spend like they used to.

Defence and midfield need an overhaul. Time to get smart with purchases and reselling, along with good management.

:gp:

Totally agree.

[Özim]

Shocker of a performance today, defence is an absolute disgrace to be honest, I'd get rid of the lot and start again, they're just not good enough, the way we score and then concede a minute or two later is embarrassing. We played a quality side today and whilst we've got away with mistakes like this earlier on in the season against inferior sides, against top sides you don't.

As for the decisions, we gave away two penalties which even if they were harsh we shouldn't have given away (Sokratis was poor today) and Xhaka should have been red carded in which case it could have been even worse.

Emery has inherited an average squad and has a lot of work to do, he's done the best with what he's got but in truth he really needs some money to rebuild this team, though I doubt he'll get any.

Fact is though, you can't work with players that just aren't good enough and we have quite a few of those, he needs better players.

Emery has done as well as he could, he's has made mistakes as well but overall he's done a decent job, there's the odd decision in there like making Ramsey captain today (what was that about), but in truth he wasn't given enough money in the summer and was left with a terrible defence and midfield which he couldn't fix in on transfer window with only 60-70 million to spend.

Make no mistakes this is all down to the fact we allowed this club to go down the pan by indulging a guy who didn't have a clue for years.

[Globalgunner]

Shocker of a performance today, defence is an absolute disgrace to be honest, I'd get rid of the lot and start again, they're just not good enough, the way we score and then concede a minute or two later is embarrassing. We played a quality side today and whilst we've got away with mistakes like this earlier on in the season against inferior sides, against top sides you don't.

As for the decisions, we gave away two penalties which even if they were harsh we shouldn't have given away (Sokratis was poor today) and Xhaka should have been red carded in which case it could have been even worse.

Emery has inherited an average squad and has a lot of work to do, he's done the best with what he's got but in truth he really needs some money to rebuild this team, though I doubt he'll get any.

Fact is though, you can't work with players that just aren't good enough and we have quite a few of those, he needs better players.

Emery has done as well as he could, he's has made mistakes as well but overall he's done a decent job, there's the odd decision in there like making Ramsey captain today (what was that about), but in truth he wasn't given enough money in the summer and was left with a terrible defence and midfield which he couldn't fix in on transfer window with only 60-70 million to spend.

Make no mistakes this is all down to the fact we allowed this club to go down the pan by indulging a guy who didn't have a clue for years.

I agree with most of what you say except the question of how bad our players are. Correct me if I am wrong, but who else has Pool tanked 5-1 this season. Mustafi and co are not excellent but these are players who could do a good job at Palace, Cardiff, Everton etc and not fall into a discombobulated shambles anytime they are under pressure. Our players remind me of the cartoon characters who when they hear fire run helter skelter, hands in the air until they bump into each other and knock each other out. We simply fall to pieces anytime a dangerous player runs into our box. It has been so since 2006 thereabouts. Its as if Boro Primorac and co never left. I swear if our players were pilots they would run out of the cockpit at the first sign of an alarm and ask the passengers for help.

When will we develop an equanimity as a team even under pressure. Not one where our defenders belt the ball in panic against each other or straight to opposition players. I rarely see other teams in any league panic collectively the way we do. If its something that has been left behind by Wengers non ability to train defence, then its like a virus that affects new players if they come in singles. No matter what Emery may be telling them to do, they revert to Wenger type as soon as something bad happens. I see only 2 solutions, get rid of Mustafi, Kos, Monreal because they are mentally and physically lost as a cause. Get a whole new defence not tainted with our last 5 years of training, either that or get a consultant like George Graham in behind the scenes, quietly so as not to embarrass the new coach. Get them drilled, get their minds right. 6 months should have been enough for Emery to change these players but it seems all he has done has passed straight through them with no tangible effect. Secondly, the midfield is where defence begins. Xhaka is pure walking excrement, as bad as I have ever seen. As bad as Denilson who would jog when opposition players are running at our box. He offers no protection to his team, the introduction of Torrierra has made him worse it seems. When pressure comes he simply is not there.

Emery also has to take a lot of blame, some things you can see and wonder if a pro coach cant see them. Laca and Auba are toothless without each other. Why split them up?. What did Ramsey offer yesterday that Laca would not have given and more. The man is losing me with each game, i'm afraid.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Yesterday even our better players were poor. Torreira was horrific for the first two goals and Sokratis was indifferent.

Don't think we can dismiss how bad we were with simply stating this is still a Wenger team. Only 2 Wenger guys were in that back 5 by the end and this team is now organised by another manager.

We need serious investment but that was evident from the summer to me......hence why I wanted us to sign a top draw goalkeeper and CB.

[Letters]

Make no mistakes this is all down to the fact we allowed this club to go down the pan by indulging a guy who didn't have a clue for years.

So, just to be clear. Getting 38 points from 20 games is a manager “doing the best he could”
But getting 37 points from 20 games (last season) was a manager who didn’t have a clue.

:lol:

[Globalgunner]

So, just to be clear. Getting 38 points from 20 games is a manager “doing the best he could”
But getting 37 points from 20 games (last season) was a manager who didn’t have a clue.

:lol:

You just cant help yourself can you Letters. Wenger is/was pure gash. No comparison with any entity, living or dead can make him look good. We are in the here and now. Emery may not be the solution, however Wenger never was. An anchor on his own club for more than a decade.

[SMatthews]

So, just to be clear. Getting 38 points from 20 games is a manager “doing the best he could”
But getting 37 points from 20 games (last season) was a manager who didn’t have a clue.

:lol:

Wenger wasn’t useless or an idiot. But the key difference is he built the team that ultimately dropped out of the top four, while Emery is trying to rebuild using many of the dodgy tools left behind.

[selassie]

Shocker of a performance today, defence is an absolute disgrace to be honest, I'd get rid of the lot and start again, they're just not good enough, the way we score and then concede a minute or two later is embarrassing. We played a quality side today and whilst we've got away with mistakes like this earlier on in the season against inferior sides, against top sides you don't.

As for the decisions, we gave away two penalties which even if they were harsh we shouldn't have given away (Sokratis was poor today) and Xhaka should have been red carded in which case it could have been even worse.

Emery has inherited an average squad and has a lot of work to do, he's done the best with what he's got but in truth he really needs some money to rebuild this team, though I doubt he'll get any.

Fact is though, you can't work with players that just aren't good enough and we have quite a few of those, he needs better players.

Emery has done as well as he could, he's has made mistakes as well but overall he's done a decent job, there's the odd decision in there like making Ramsey captain today (what was that about), but in truth he wasn't given enough money in the summer and was left with a terrible defence and midfield which he couldn't fix in on transfer window with only 60-70 million to spend.

Make no mistakes this is all down to the fact we allowed this club to go down the pan by indulging a guy who didn't have a clue for years.

Totally agree, the damage was done quite some time ago, mainly via a horrific transfer policy. Yes we have made the odd decent signing, but we have made a lot of dud signings of which some of them have cost a fair bit of money. Not only have our purchases been bad, our sales have been bad too. Continually allowing first team players to run down their contracts added to the fact we have handed out big contracts and wages to players who simply are not good enough for a team challenging for a CL spot.

Emery has done quite well up until recently, the cracks were always there but we rode our luck a fair bit.

Ill be honest, I’m worried about how we are going to sort out this mess of a squad we have, I’m worried we don’t have the funds to improve the team sufficiently. If we don’t have the funds then Emery is going to need to develop some of our Youth and integrate them into the team. I don’t think a transfer policy of bringing in waning over 30’s is the way to go!

[Letters]

Wenger wasn’t useless or an idiot. But the key difference is he built the team that ultimately dropped out of the top four, while Emery is trying to rebuild using many of the dodgy tools left behind.

No argument there, just amused at the way Zim and others have such polarised opinions.
No ability to think with any subtlety.

I’m not sure what to make of our squad. We are generally scoring enough but our defence is nowhere near good enough. I don’t think the whole squad needs rebuilding and I was hoping that with the defence the issue was largely coaching but there does seem to be a real lack of quality there, certainly in depth. Work to be done but while we are miles away from a title winning squad I don’t think we are more than a few key signings away from a top 4 spot and we can push on from there. We really need to sort out the captain situation. We really haven’t had a decent captain since Vieira. Wasn’t Ramsey captain yesterday and he’s leaving.

Emery gets a free pass this season but what he does in the summer and how we do next year will tell us more about what he is made of.

[Marc Overmars]

If Emery isn't given the money he will have next to no chance of achieving anything meaningful here. The competition is too strong.

You only have to look at Pochettino and Spurs to see how far good coaching will go. The fact they're as strong as they are is down to him, lets just thank our lucky stars they're lumbered with the stadium and can't spend money.

Get your wallet out Kroenke you stingy cunt.

[Mac76]

Surely Kronke can do the maths and see if Emery doesn't improve the squad in January we'll end up 6th at best and won't get near winning the Europa lge either, we should get what we can for Ramsey now and maybe shift Ozil (though only because of his wages and that Emery doesn't seem to get on with him, plus i'm assuming we're stuck with Mhki for now) We need at least one decent CB and a good winger too

[SMatthews]

No argument there, just amused at the way Zim and others have such polarised opinions.
No ability to think with any subtlety.

I’m not sure what to make of our squad. We are generally scoring enough but our defence is nowhere near good enough. I don’t think the whole squad needs rebuilding and I was hoping that with the defence the issue was largely coaching but there does seem to be a real lack of quality there, certainly in depth. Work to be done but while we are miles away from a title winning squad I don’t think we are more than a few key signings away from a top 4 spot and we can push on from there. We really need to sort out the captain situation. We really haven’t had a decent captain since Vieira. Wasn’t Ramsey captain yesterday and he’s leaving.

Emery gets a free pass this season but what he does in the summer and how we do next year will tell us more about what he is made of.

There’s a lot of work to do with this squad. Ramsey and Ozil will go. Mikhi isn’t up to much, neither is Iwobi. Xhaka would be a decent squad player, nothing more. Guendozi has got a lot to learn. Elneny is another one that will go. Which doesn’t leave much in the midfield department. We can still nab a top four spot but not long term with this lot.

Judgement passed on Emery will depend on what resources are given to Sven and co to go out and find players of quality. If they aren’t, we should expect more the same.

[fakeyank]

If Emery isn't given the money he will have next to no chance of achieving anything meaningful here. The competition is too strong.

You only have to look at Pochettino and Spurs to see how far good coaching will go. The fact they're as strong as they are is down to him, lets just thank our lucky stars they're lumbered with the stadium and can't spend money.

Get your wallet out Kroenke you stingy cunt.

:gp:

I think good coaching and tactics can take you very far. Spurs are an example and so was the Leicester team that won the league. I think we have decent players who should be doing better than how we have played in recent weeks.

[Mac76]

:gp:

I think good coaching and tactics can take you very far. Spurs are an example and so was the Leicester team that won the league. I think we have decent players who should be doing better than how we have played in recent weeks.

I'm not sure, mustafi and Xhaka both have self destruct switches, mhki is rubbish, iwobi not good enough, lichtsteiner is League 1 material, Ramsey will start to switch off the nearer it gets to him leaving, and i could go on - we need more quality without doubt, and a more cohesive squad, Wenger really fucked us

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

That's one of the things I can't give Emery a pass on. We were perhaps forced into it this weekend but the absolute faith shown in Mustafi and Xhaka are not things that we can blame on other things. Mustafi is one of the few players this season that has never been dropped and such is his faith in Xhaka's mere presence he's played him in the back line what must be approaching several times by now.

[SMatthews]

Who else would replace Xhaka? Elneny? No. Ramsey? He’s shown he can’t play there for years. Guendouzi? A 19 year old won’t cut it every week. AMN? Not long back from injury and completely unproven. Xhaka and Torreira is as good as it gets for now. Xhaka hasn’t been bad all season. But neither is he a long term, first team solution. He’s played in defence mostly as a last option, and he deserves praise for his willingness to play in multiple positions.

[Mac76]

That's one of the things I can't give Emery a pass on. We were perhaps forced into it this weekend but the absolute faith shown in Mustafi and Xhaka are not things that we can blame on other things. Mustafi is one of the few players this season that has never been dropped and such is his faith in Xhaka's mere presence he's played him in the back line what must be approaching several times by now.

Yeah agreed on Mustafi, i think Emery is fooled by stats that say he passes accurately, never mind that all those passes tend to be short sideways ones that don't create anything and sometimes put our other players under pressure...

[AFC Leveller]

Arsenal have conceded more goals this season than Wolves, Leicester, Watford, West Ham, Brighton, Palace, and Newcastle

[Globalgunner]

I think Emery actually dropped Mustafi at HT against Pool, so maybe he is not so sentimental after all. Problem is who does he bring on Koscielny, who is the poster boy of Wengers. "I buy what i like, rather than whats best" era. I still believe training can improve these Wenger buys, but 6 months has not improved them 1 jot so who knows. I think Emery has realised now how deep a hole he is in. We must get players in this TW or we will find it hard to even hold on to that 6th position.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

I think Emery actually dropped Mustafi at HT against Pool, so maybe he is not so sentimental after all. Problem is who does he bring on Koscielny, who is the poster boy of Wengers. "I buy what i like, rather than whats best" era. I still believe training can improve these Wenger buys, but 6 months has not improved them 1 jot so who knows. I think Emery has realised now how deep a hole he is in. We must get players in this TW or we will find it hard to even hold on to that 6th position.

He is sentimental with players which is proven by the fact that he always finds a way to incorporate a Mustafi or Xhaka no matter what formation he is playing or even how match-fit they are.

I think its natural for everyone to have "favourites" but its just his favourites are pretty crappy

Back to the defence, I'm not sure why we are still debating why they turned out such a performance, they've been doing this all season and the stats scream this loud and clear.

I'm going to say this, we need to change our whole back four as soon as possible as all our defenders ( except maybe Monreal) are not good enough for a a top 4 team. In fact how many of them are starting in their national team let alone making the squads?

The whole world knows we have stopped taking defending seriously, Pool did exactly what Man U did to us only that they are way better. We really messed up this summer as Emery/Sven just recruited 2 more deadweights to add to this long list of duds we've been ammassing.

We need to take defending seriously and invest in it , and this time it has to be about quality, real obvious quality- no matter the price.

Once we get this right, a back 4 we can trust and a manager who doesn't tinker unecesarrily with them- then I'm sure we'd start competing for meaningful trophies and not the discarded ones.

It's funny how fast we've forgotten our past.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I think Emery actually dropped Mustafi at HT against Pool, so maybe he is not so sentimental after all. Problem is who does he bring on Koscielny, who is the poster boy of Wengers. "I buy what i like, rather than whats best" era. I still believe training can improve these Wenger buys, but 6 months has not improved them 1 jot so who knows. I think Emery has realised now how deep a hole he is in. We must get players in this TW or we will find it hard to even hold on to that 6th position.
Make no mistake. Mustafi came off because of concerns for his fitness.

[Mac76]

Make no mistake. Mustafi came off because of concerns for his fitness.

yes - he's not fit to wear the red and white shirt :lol: