The 20/21 Season

We're so shot shy. Some of the approach play has been promising but we can't convert it into shots. Pepe refusing the use his right foot anything is especially annoying.

Saka has been really good

we should be winning this match.

Two comical goals from Leicester's perspective but a decently comfortable night for us.

Luton or Liverpool away in the next round.

scraped in some goals eventually

So basically Liverpool away twice in 7 days?

Jay29 wrote:Two comical goals from Leicester's perspective but a decently comfortable night for us.

Luton or Liverpool away in the next round.

didn't Luton lose to Man Utd last night

You're right. Sorry, should be Lincoln.

Good
More chances for 2nd strings to test themselves

Liverpool tonight lads.

Team:

Leno; Holding, Luiz, Tierney; Bellerin, El Neny, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles; Willian, Lacazette, Aubameyang

Elneny Xhaka eh? Yikes.

Sri wrote:Elneny Xhaka eh? Yikes.

Bossing possession

complete lack of possession so far with no ability to get through the midfield.

Looks like long ball over the top and down the wing is plan A

Xhaka against pressing......
Willians first touch came on 38mins i think when he tracked back to stop robertson from crossing. I dont think he has had more than 5 touches in the first half. Liverpool are basically playing a 5-5 formation. Quick passing can break them easily but there effective pressings needs to be undone by quick incisive one touch passing three passes and we are through (just like first goal)......by god i miss Cazorla

Good teams will struggle against a press this good.

Maybe Ceballos can come on and help but it's difficult when you have Holding in the backline and Xhaka spending all half facing his own goal.

Arsenal's gameplan against high blocks has been consistent. Pass around the back until an opening appears and then transition it forward when there's space. But tonight it hasn't been executed very well.

Unless Arteta can make a miracle change at half-time, I'll be happy to escape with a narrow defeat.

Why would we play Tierney (FB) and Niles (WB) on the same side leaving the midfield half empty

Tierney isn't playing full back. He's playing LCB. AMN plays WB but he comes inside when we're in possession.

Well we were lucky to have it be only 3-1.
Positioning, passing, personnel and tactics are all bad. We kind of remind me of Stoke from about 10 years ago. Just missing someone to break legs in a tackle. We can not even get close to the goal in buildup with our only option being a long ball over the top.

It would have made a lot more sense to move Auba upfront and Saka at LW if our plan really was to feed the ball into the space.

I guess Arteta has a lot more to learn. Specially about in-game management

Anyways, we really really do need Aouar and Partey. Both not just one.

Good effort but meh. Too soon to be expecting us to take on Liverpool at Anfield.

Second half Tierney played by the left touchline during the build-up to help us play out and we passed with more positivity. We got into Liverpool's half more but didn't commit too many numbers to attack (Tierney barely crossed the half-way line, for example) and struggled for chances. Laca had one great chance but we were feeding off scraps. Won't win many games if we're doing that.

Playing with more positivity was fine but it left gaps. I think Liverpool could have killed the game sooner than they did.

The takeaway I guess is that some players aren't good enough on the ball for these games. Holding was a liability on the ball, Xhaka and Elneny had their limitations exposed, and Maitland-Niles' loose technique was a problem.

Generally, this team battles more under Arteta but I still feel like they're too timid. Like they're painfully aware of their weaknesses and are shit scared of exposing them.

Also leaving Ceballos out was questionable. He has the ability to play around pressure and carry the ball through the press while Xhaka and Elneny are painfully slow and one-footed.

This was expected anyway
Still having mobile target man can help massively for these sort of games
But hey toughest away game is out of the way

More important to our season will be developing a game model,effective agaunst bottom half teams to collect maximum points

Thats how final position in the league will be determined

RG mentioned Arteta still has a lot to learn about in-game management i couldn't agree more. Why is he so against playing Auba up top? That second half was crying out for a Auba through the middle Pepe on the right and Saka left with Ceballos playing it in behind their high line.

But alas, we all knew we are not there yet. It's just infuriating because we actually could have gotten something out of the game had we come out more confident from the start, and not fearing Liverpool. Jesus christ they're just 11 men, not gods.

Sina wrote:This was expected anyway
Still having mobile target man can help massively for these sort of games
But hey toughest away game is out of the way

More important to our season will be developing a game model,effective agaunst bottom half teams to collect maximum points

Thats how final position in the league will be determined

true but we also need to start beating top teams in big games. We've got the toughest fixture out of them all out of the way, so let's see improvement and some wins now actually

Got a feeling Arteta just doesn't fancy Pepe, I don't know what's up with him but dude can't play tactically very well, not at least to Arteta instruction.

well it seems the only way you can get the best out of him is if you play a counter attacking style where he is more of a second striker coming in from the left like in Lille.


if Pepe doesn't do shit, Martinelli can easily replace him when he gets back

i genuinely believe if there's one thing that might detriment Arteta's Project it's the team system in relation to his personnel.

He needs to get it right and be flexible, can't be stubborn like Pep. First of all needs to get the players in he wants, and throw away that back 3 idea, our midfield was non-existent last night