I don't know how you do that against a side who have basically, to continue the analogy, run at 100m pace for half the marathon.Originally Posted by IBK
We just don't have the squad to keep up with them for that long. I think we all knew it from the start.
I've been waiting for someone to say this - i did think about it a little, but let's be honest the danger came from the other flank with Mitoma and Estupinian
If you want to know if Tierney did ok or not, i noted Mitoma was on the right for Brighton earlier on in the first half, perhaps De Zerbi thought Tierney would be a weakness...
...clearly not, as Mitoma swapped flanks and on that side in the second half he trashed us
tbh Brighton probably would have gone ahead earlier if it had been Mitoma v Zinchenko
The thing is, we did actually give ourselves the best possible chance to win it. We went out of all the cups early and were left with a game a week and only one goal.
We let ourselves down and I believe we could have done more in this run-in, regardless of what City have done. From the position we were in to not even take it to the final day and also possibly now finish a sizeable distance from City is quite shit whichever way you want to look at it.
yes, but none of us expected us to get as far as we did, when Citeh beat us at the Etihad that was supposed to be that, but then they slipped up and we won about 7 games in a row
no matter how many times you repeat the 'Citeh are a machine' argument, for me that is not enough of a reason, given how close we got
if we'd beaten Saints and West Ham - just those two games - we'd have 5 more points
those results had nothing to do with Citeh, they were the result of inexperience, both Arteta's and the squad
ok, so Citeh's players have more experience and wouldn't psychologically slip up like that, I get it
it's just frustrating to know we had the ability and with a bit more guile, mainly on Artea's part, we could have got there
So I was curious as to whether 12 hours on I’d feel any different from yesterday
I don’t….all this stuff about reacting to the Everton result is a pathetic excuse. What’s more illuminating is that we’ve lost three times in a row at home to Brighton and if anything have moved further away from neutralising the threat they carry.
This is not a case of holding your hands up and saying they were better on the day…it’s examining why that was the case they didn’t do anything they haven’t done all season. Which suggests that a) Arteta got it wrong with his tactics or B) The players just weren’t up for it or C) Both
Arteta is quite right to apologise, we aren’t some provincial club that punched above its weight we are one of the biggest clubs in England….standards should always be high and there should be hell to pay when they are not met. Yesterday was a game where I genuinely felt ashamed of every player on the pitch….they simply did not try. They didn’t like being kicked about and just gave up.
The thing is the more I look back on it the more I see tactical failings
Arteta bemoans the second half performance but it was clear to see that holding the high line wasn’t working because both Enciso and Mitoma were quick enough to hold their runs so as to not be caught offside from long balls into them but equally quick enough to outpace the defence. Now granted White was flummoxed by Mitoma even when we did drop deep and that should call into question whether we should persist with him at right back.
A player like Xhaka is completely useless to you in games like this, Jorginho and Partey should have started. Partey to double up on Mitoma and bully him. Jorginho to play the kind of passes Brighton were playing to put our attacking players in.
I don’t buy that we didn’t have the personnel to win comfortably yesterday
I'm disappointed we haven't pushed them a bit harder, but I think we just ran out of steam.
We all knew that we don't have the squad depth of City and that injuries would hurt us and that's exactly what's happened.
There are definitely individual games where we should have done better, but I'd suggest those are mitigated by some excellent wins. Overall it's been a good effort from where we were last season. I'm disappointed, although not surprised, we haven't finished the job. We should have taken it to the final day though. That Newcastle result was fantastic and showed that we were trying to keep going. I still think the Everton result probably got in their heads. I think we all knew the game was up after that.
I don't think there is such a debate about Zinchenko v Tierney defensively, but what Zin does by coming inside is provide another passing outlet - helping us retain and recycle the ball. So its not about Tierney per se - its whether in the system Arteta plays we rely on Zinchenko's ability to keep possession - which I think we do.
Of course it's all hypothetical and open to interpretation, but IMO the reason we find Brighton difficult to play against is that they are good both at keeping possession and breaking at speed. I think that Zin helps us retain the ball. Mitoma is a fine player and I agree that he destroyed Ben White in the second half but Zin helps us offensively - Tierney had only 6 or 7 touches in the first half IIRC.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Perhaps - but maybe a slightly more judicious use of the players we have available might have helped. Like I say, player quality and squad size has been an issue for us. All hindsight now of course, but we have certainly blown up over the past month...
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Keown's thoughts - similar to mine, talks about squad depth and how the Everton game would have made us a bit flat.
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