Vieira has to start against Everton, especially as they'll pack it up in the wide positions.
Contributed coming off twice in a row now. Havertz, it's just so awkward.
Hopefully he can pub something in the League Cup.
Vieira has to start against Everton, especially as they'll pack it up in the wide positions.
Contributed coming off twice in a row now. Havertz, it's just so awkward.
Hopefully he can pub something in the League Cup.
Agreed, Vieira is a must to start, Arteta needs to man up and admit he's bought a turkeyOriginally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
So-so game but a great ending, the Emirates was REALLY loud at the end
The way Jesus fooled the defender and keeper was a joy to watch and great to see Rice get off the mark with such an important goal
I actually thought Rice was really good, barely put a foot wrong and was quite instrumental in trying to push us forward to find a winner. He takes responsibility and I love that about him.
Havertz I just have no idea what his role is. He’s not a bad player but it’s a square peg in a round hole. His confidence is probably shot too as I’m sure he’s aware of the negativity around him.
Overall that was a brilliant win but we need to back that up with a commanding performance and win at Neverton. We must make a change or 2 because it’s not really happening for Saka and Martinelli either.
Agree with that, I definitely think Trossard should start ahead of Martinelli in the next game as well as Vieira in for Havertz
I’m getting to the point where I’m tired of stating who should play, Arteta will carry on regardless of common sense. It’s hard to know with Martinelli how much of it is him underperforming and how much of it is not getting the ball from Havertz.
As far as I’m concerned the system as well as the starting line up is wrong. The fact that we have conceded four goals in three home games, three goals direct from counter attacks and one from a corner that resulted from a counter attack suggests that the high line isn’t working….and that we are not doing well enough in possession to avoid giving the ball away and setting ourselves up to be countered.
Away from home we aren’t so adventurous but perhaps with that you can see that the goals aren’t coming either, which means we need to approach play in a different way. I do think players like Saka, Martinelli and Jesus are the type of players who would benefit from us being able to soak up pressure and play on the break. The defence works better if we sit deeper and the only thing missing would be the conduit linking defence and attack.
I thought we weren’t as hap hazard with the high line yesterday. Their goal was just a good goal, granted White should have been more proactive but it’s not a straightforward task stopping Rashford when he’s running directly at you with space to cut in. It was the lazy pass from Havertz which fucked that up for us to begin with. The margins were so fine with the Garnacho goal but I guess you have to give credit to Gabriel there because his body shape looked very deliberate in making him offside.
I actually felt like we let United have a lot more of the ball than they anticipated. They’re a counter attacking team and didn’t really have much guile at all to break us down when they had high possession periods.
It’s a strange one because even though we concede more goals than we should I actually think we’re quite good defensively, which to be fair is probably more down to the individuals rather than the system.
For me once again it is up front where we come up short and without the slice of luck for Rice’s goal we would be talking about another disappointing afternoon.
Last edited by Marc Overmars; 04-09-2023 at 08:09 AM.
I was disappointed with their goal. We had 2 defenders on Rashford and for both of them to let him cut inside like that was a bit poor. Good finish though.
I don’t disagree but still the facts speak for themselves that we make ourselves vulnerable to the counter attack. I don’t think we are good enough in possession nor does playing inverted fullbacks help, White forced Rashford to cut inside but when he had Saliba covering he should have been more proactive.
The defence in terms of individuals is fine. Gabriel and Saliba are good defenders, I think White is good as well he’s just not a fullback. I think United’s main attacks came down the left and White got better as the game went on but evidently none of their players are passing much to Anthony as I think Zinchenko would have been roasted.
It’s fine pushing up if you’ve got two midfielders comfortable on the ball. For all my criticism of Rice (which I don’t see as criticism, he hasn’t done anything wrong I just don’t think he’s the right midfielder for us) he doesn’t give the ball away much, but someone like Havertz will. It’s not even a case of being dispossessed it’s a case of being too casual with passing, he’s guilty of it, Odegaard is guilty of it and Saka is guilty of it.
You swap out Havertz for Vieira and I don’t think that problem goes away. United are defensively turd, and Ten Haag decided to make things even easier for us by bringing Maguire and Evans on. But the reason I suggest going to a more counter attacking style isn’t just to avoid conceding goals but I think the players we have will thrive attacking wise if they are operating in more space. It’s too easy to crowd us out. Of course the limitations are that you have to rely on teams like Fulham who come looking for a point to be a bit more adventurous, but I just don’t think we have the attacking players to play in front of teams…..Havertz aside we don’t have players good in the air or are good at holding up the ball and playing him in central midfield tends to negate that anyway.
Him cutting inside was I think a feature not a bug, the point of the inverted full back is to keep players narrow rather than letting them cross or get in behind the defence. But when he had Saliba covering him, White should have pushed up to stop Rashford getting away the shot
I think this sometimes, we're so slow and ponderous in attack, Martinelli and Saka are always up against 2 or 3 defenders when trying to get the ball in - it was also partly why Pepe never got to shine, he's very much a counter-attacking player
But Arteta wants to play a different way
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