He works? :unsure:
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Aye, the issue is a lot to do with mentality, more so than it being an ability issue because these players have shown us that they can comfortably compete against the other teams in this top 6 group.
The sad thing is we will probably lose at Burnley at the weekend, not because we are not as good as them but because we'll just turn up expecting to stroll to victory.
MaxZIMus:bow:
The great leader has arrived :bow:
The issue is having an idiot for a manager.
Who knew that if we started our best players in their best positions we stood a better chance of getting a decent performance? Pure coincidence the only other time we tried it this season we also put in a good performance.
Who could have guessed that if we upped the tempo and moved the ball forward we could put the opponent under pressure?
The performance against the spuds was little more that what the fans have been demanding all along. Team selection, formation, tactics, style of play. That's the team that should have been starting all season, bar injuries. Those are the tactics we should have been playing all season. And I'd go as far as to say - let Lacazette play for 90 mins FFS! That's one little improvement that could be made to what was already obvious, to what the fans could already see and to what Wenger seems to only be slowly figuring out.
There's a 99.9% chance this is another in our long list of false dawns and Wenger will be back to picking the wrong team, playing the wrong tactics and treating us all to tippy tappy when we play Burnley. And if we don't do well as a result the pundits may say it's a mentality issue with the players, but it will be more about mental issues with the manager.
As much as it was a very good win on Saturday, it was a one off and any side can pull off a win against a top side as a one off, this doesn't really prove we're good enough, what would is a consistent run and challenging for the big prizes.
The squad isn't good enough for a title challenge IMO, that's very much down to the manager of course with his weird decisions and tactics, but it's also down to personnel, this team doesn't have the ingredients to win titles if the other teams are in a good stable place, Man City are light years ahead right now, better team, better manager and better football, it's night and day.
Liverpool get one off wins against top sides and so far it hasn't proved they are title contenders at all. Alongside a new manager we need a few new players and a bit more fight/desire and leadership.
Let's not forget we were also at home, away from home results have been dreadful, in addition two of our best players on Saturday, Ozil and Sanchez will be gone next summer leaving us with a pretty weak looking team, in reality we're building towards nothing and not playing for anything this season either (other than the Europa) unless you count the Europa league which I'm not convinced we'll win.
Seeing two players who are leaving being our star performers really doesn't make you feel great, probably nice for their potential new clubs to be seeing what they'll be getting next summer for free though.
I disagree about the squad not being good enough.
I think we have a decent group of defenders, for once we have options up front
I think arguably wed only need to improve the midfield with a decent manager.
Yeah Sanchez and Ozil are probably going but add a Kondogbia to the outfit and push someone like Ramsey further forward and with a decent manager with a game plan we’d be challenging
We finally wait for a good attack and now they're leaving:lol:
Although I'm not arsed about ozil, I do find it ironic though.
Fair enough.
The defence is OK but too easily exposed, I'd bring a quality CB in and bring some decent full back competition, keeper is past it IMO so a new keeper would be needed, someone we can build a team with, Cech is ageing anyway.
Up front with Sanchez going, we're left with Lacazette with Giroud as a backup, the rest are quite frankly useless.
Midfield is pretty weak, we need someone tough in there, a DM and a winger or two to replace Ozil.
I'm not convinced Ramsey is the answer, he's had years and really only had one good season, good player when he plays but he's not really a worldie.
I think there's a lot of hype about our squad, but the holes are exposed on a regular basis which is surely more meaningful then when it all works in the odd game.
Once Sanchez and Ozil leave our attack is basically shot, so that's our attack, midfield, defence and keeper that need patchig up and that's not going to happen in a month of Sundays, it'll take quite a while to sort all that out with the amount we'd need to spend, compared to Man City our squad looks weak IMO (and that's who we're competing with at the end of the day)
City have multiple £30-£50m players in every position, not to mention arguably the best coach in the game. No one is comparing favourably to them this season by the looks of it.
Excellent analysis on MNF
Analysed our high press and how Tottenhams overaggressive approach led to their downfall. Really enjoyed that.
If we'd spent the money we have more wisely we'd be a whole lot closer then, you don't have to spend the amount of money they have to compete, but you do have to spend wisely.
We've wasted millions on the wrong players and face losing 80 million worth of talent for nothing in the summer, the wages, the transfer fees etc add that to the money we could have added on top of that and we'd be well placed.
Of course now it's a different story, two star players walking away for free, an ageing past it keeper, an ageing defence (Monreal, Koscielny, Metersacker), a non existen midfield and soon a non existent attack reliant on one player.
It could have been very different, but lack of planning, poor allocation of funds and lack of spending have cost us dearly, we don't even have that many decent young players.
Did anybody see the extensive coverage of the big London derby in the Standard today?
No?
Me neither.
Mugabe steps down :bow:
Come on Letters, do the honourable thing :bow:
are we bringing out a DVD of this performance though?