Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday or maybe Sunday
Saturday
one of big concerns about Arteta, that he to an extent can curb players' attacking instincts
You can tell the difference in a game, like last night, when he's told the team to be attacking - we nearly score twice in the first five minutes - then other times it's clear they've been told to focus on possession and we end up in the horseshoe of death.
So I’ve seen stuff that said he was specifically against the signing of Mikel Merino
What seemed less clear was whether he was against signing that particular player or signing any player in that position
Who knows…in many ways who cares. Even if the club held an inquest into this season, it probably would be less than transparent
Last edited by HCZ_Reborn; 08-05-2025 at 01:52 PM.
Ah so the speculation is that Edu was also unhappy that we sold the Nigerian lad whose name escapes me, to United
But it seems to be as much that Edu was unhappy with his agent who was pushing for the move
Edit - only ethnically Nigerian, born in Denmark and represents Denmark at under 21 level
Last edited by HCZ_Reborn; 08-05-2025 at 01:53 PM.
Injuries and a drop in form from many of our leading players has definitely played a part in the stalling of our progress this season. As has Arteta and our poor recruitment over the past year.
The make up of the squad is too defensive with a lack of quality in attacking areas, this is Arteta's squad so the blame lies with him.
We absolutely have to nail this window this summer IMO, if we don't we could quite easily fall back into the chasing pack which has appeared to happen this season.
I agree that we should not settle for second best, money has been spent and we have performed well over the past few seasons, so the expectations are to now win the big prizes. This is honestly where I am at now.
https://youtu.be/64pJCG9C3kM?si=-VA-Fz1Jm1WHLFU-
Though their is a lot I disagree with when it comes to his conclusions, I think the analysis of tactics in both games are good and I definitely agree with the end where he identifies the weak players/positions in our team.
Yeah I don’t believe we were the better team so I think he starts from a false premise. I never felt there was ever more than a few minutes over the 180 where they weren’t in control of the tie. Plus if you go through 3-1 on aggregate, unless you’ve benefited from outrageously poor refereeing (I don’t think the refereeing was great in either game but certainly not that it made any particular difference).
I'd say it was fairly even, overall. First 20 minutes of the first leg we were getting a spanking but after that we got back in to it and could have scored a couple - they could have scored more too of course.
Second leg we were dominant in the first 20 minutes, after that it was more even. But the main difference, as he says, is they put the ball in the net and we didn't.
A fairly useful skill in football.
Overall we held our own. This wasn't like the Barca games back in the day when we were hanging on for dear life, or the Bayern ones where we got our arses handed to us.
Though I agree with you, I can't help but compare the 2 legs of tie with the previous 2 legs of the Madrid game.
On that night we also had a keeper that was on form and we didn't score with our first few chances.
However, almost at no point in the 2 legs did I feel we wouldn't score, or we'd lose, and I doubt we created as many chances in those 2 legs than we did against PSG.
So it's strange that one never felt comfortable during the games in the PSG tie. There was just something so despondent about the way the team approached both legs of the tie, especially the first leg that was pretty shocking.
It was like there was no plan at all for PSG getting an early goal, almost like Artera prepared them to win 1- nil or nothing, and once that possibility was ruled out they started playing on like Zombies and crumbled under the pressure. They obviously repeated the same mistake in the 2nd leg despite the excellent example set by Barca and Inter in the 2 legs before our game which they must have watched.
Last edited by 21_GOONER_SALUTE; 09-05-2025 at 02:05 PM.