Champions League 2016-17

[DIEHARD]

Come on Sevilla

I went to the Europa league game the infamous battered by ****s with batons fiasco. I was so drunk didn't even realise what was going on.

I do remember though what a dump of a stadium

 

[mightyspur]

How fat does Nasri look?!

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Leicester are lucky Sevilla are suffering major injuries in defence.

 

[yiddopaul]

On 4 shots on target. Do you think that is a sustainable conversion rate? How many against Sunderland? Lowly Boro? How much of a threat did we pose to United away? And how much did our threat pin liverpool back? ALL RECENT.

Oh I'm not denying we need back up for Kane. But we have goals throughout the team. Son, Eriksen, Dele, are all more than capable of scoring. We have the players to do it, what we need is form consistency. Right now, we are not playing at our best. That happens to all/most teams. We will get better as the season goes on. Hopefully the positive display against Fulham is the confidence boost we needed. We've been here before and we always kick on.

 

[Ionman34]

How fat does Nasri look?!

BEEFCAKE!!!

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Oh I'm not denying we need back up for Kane. But we have goals throughout the team. Son, Eriksen, Dele, are all more than capable of scoring. We have the players to do it, what we need is form consistency. Right now, we are not playing at our best. That happens to all/most teams. We will get better as the season goes on. Hopefully the positive display against Fulham is the confidence boost we needed. We've been here before and we always kick on.

All our front players are quite one-paced. It's a killer.

 

[heelspurs]

Oh I'm not denying we need back up for Kane. But we have goals throughout the team. Son, Eriksen, Dele, are all more than capable of scoring. We have the players to do it, what we need is form consistency. Right now, we are not playing at our best. That happens to all/most teams. We will get better as the season goes on. Hopefully the positive display against Fulham is the confidence boost we needed. We've been here before and we always kick on.

Apparently we disagree. I believe that each one of those players is easily, and yes I said easily, able to be taken out of the game in our current setup. None, not one player on our team can create their own goal. That is true threat. And we lack the collective pace to pose a different type of threat.

If you listen to Pep's interview he was spot on, "if you let us play we are very dangerous". Teams that can match us to some degree physically can very easily shut us down and make us look like amateurs. For instance Everton, Monaco, leverkusen, liverpool, city, utd, etc etc. Other teams have to let us play so we look good because we are organized and disciplined. But force us to color outside the lines and our players can't do it. And the worrying part is that it is so easy to do because each of our players has at least 1 glaring weakness to exploit.

Not knocking our players but this is just the facts of where we fit into the financial/recruitment food chain. And Poch is betting on mitigating these weaknesses through team and tactical group development. Which I love and judging by other supporters reactions they love this development as well. What we achieve as a club we will have properly earned it.

 

[mightyspur]

Apparently we disagree. I believe that each one of those players is easily, and yes I said easily, able to be taken out of the game in our current setup. None, not one player on our team can create their own goal. That is true threat. And we lack the collective pace to pose a different type of threat.

If you listen to Pep's interview he was spot on, "if you let us play we are very dangerous". Teams that can match us to some degree physically can very easily shut us down and make us look like amateurs. For instance Everton, Monaco, leverkusen, liverpool, city, utd, etc etc. Other teams have to let us play so we look good because we are organized and disciplined. But force us to color outside the lines and our players can't do it. And the worrying part is that it is so easy to do because each of our players has at least 1 glaring weakness to exploit.

Not knocking our players but this is just the facts of where we fit into the financial/recruitment food chain. And Poch is betting on mitigating these weaknesses through team and tactical group development. Which I love and judging by other supporters reactions they love this development as well. What we achieve as a club we will have properly earned it.

What exactly are you basing that on, because I've seen Kane, Son, Deli and Eriksen all create out of seemingly nothing. It doesn't happen often, granted but the same would be true for near on every player in the world save for the exceptional few, Messi, Bale etc. So I'm not sure why it's overly important?

 

[heelspurs]

What exactly are you basing that on, because I've seen Kane, Son, Deli and Eriksen all create out of seemingly nothing. It doesn't happen often, granted but the same would be true for near on every player in the world save for the exceptional few, Messi, Bale etc. So I'm not sure why it's overly important?

So, we just crashed out of Europe which provides a perfect backdrop for my reply. Admittedly, if you take my bolded statement in its strictest interpretation then yes only a few players in the top 5 leagues would satisfy that standard; messi, neymar, suarez, bale, costa, hazard, robben, douglas costa, Liverpool 3, and a few others. But as you point out that is an unfair standard and not my intent.

All of these 'threatening' players have a technical deficiency. Obvious statement as there is no perfect player. But to compensate they all have an exceptional skill that helps them to succeed or gets them out of trouble. Our players have no exceptional skill ( save for Dembele's retention and possibly Harry's shooting) and have glaring deficiencies. Our most complete players are Toby and, for me, Winks. Toby is fantastic and seems solid all around but he is a defender. Winks thus far seems a '7' in all areas. He has no exceptional skill but in the short time we have seen him he has also shown no weaknesses. Our front 4 are not of a similar level.

If you look at tonight all of Harry, Son, and Eriksen had multiple simple chances against a decent (well coached but not top) team and it came to nothing. How many would Hazard have scored tonight? Mane? Mane would have had 7 from all the breaks we spurned. Just look at how much more dangerous we looked when Son, who for me is a squad player, came on. All because he is direct and has some bit of pace. And he can't dribble and needs 7 sitters to convert. Alli's success is a function of a well oiled team and not an overabundance of precocious talent. I said before the season and I thought all of last season that Dele needed to be technically better...he is not. Eriksen is a very good player and with the right players around him his talent will flourish.

 

[TheChosenOne]

So...

4-0 win tonight and Arsenal march on ?

 

[Johnny J]

So, we just crashed out of Europe which provides a perfect backdrop for my reply. Admittedly, if you take my bolded statement in its strictest interpretation then yes only a few players in the top 5 leagues would satisfy that standard; messi, neymar, suarez, bale, costa, hazard, robben, douglas costa, Liverpool 3, and a few others. But as you point out that is an unfair standard and not my intent.

All of these 'threatening' players have a technical deficiency. Obvious statement as there is no perfect player. But to compensate they all have an exceptional skill that helps them to succeed or gets them out of trouble. Our players have no exceptional skill ( save for Dembele's retention and possibly Harry's shooting) and have glaring deficiencies. Our most complete players are Toby and, for me, Winks. Toby is fantastic and seems solid all around but he is a defender. Winks thus far seems a '7' in all areas. He has no exceptional skill but in the short time we have seen him he has also shown no weaknesses. Our front 4 are not of a similar level.

If you look at tonight all of Harry, Son, and Eriksen had multiple simple chances against a decent (well coached but not top) team and it came to nothing. How many would Hazard have scored tonight? Mane? Mane would have had 7 from all the breaks we spurned. Just look at how much more dangerous we looked when Son, who for me is a squad player, came on. All because he is direct and has some bit of pace. And he can't dribble and needs 7 sitters to convert. Alli's success is a function of a well oiled team and not an overabundance of precocious talent. I said before the season and I thought all of last season that Dele needed to be technically better...he is not. Eriksen is a very good player and with the right players around him his talent will flourish.

Kane possibly has exceptional shooting skills?!

 

[TheChosenOne]

I sincerely hope that Sky don't think they are commentating on behalf of an audience that is rooting for a Woolwich win.

I reckon more people are looking to see them get severely stuffed and skewered.

 

[Johnny J]

Is the Arsenal game not on the radio anywhere?!

 

[DIEHARD]

Decent goal and we'll deserved unfortunately

 

[UpTownSpur]

Walcott's on a one man mission to save Wenger as he knows he can blag another 100k a week contract from him.

 

[Pellshek]

Every time you feel tempted to complain about an English ref, just watch the CL - or La Liga, or Serie A - and thank your lucky stars instead.

 

[DIEHARD]

Every time you feel tempted to complain about an English ref, just watch the CL - or La Liga, or Serie A - and thank your lucky stars instead.

That's why I laugh when people complain about our refs

 

[Cornpattbuck]

Has Neuer been spending time at the Man City Goalkeeping Academy?! Duck!

 

[Shea]

Another heroic out of CL on their sheilds night for Arsenal that will spark their customary great run til the end of the season?

 

[yankspurs]

Arsenal starting to play well now that they are already pretty much out of the tournament? Hmm, where have I seen this movie before? Oh yeah, every fucking season. Like clockwork. Here comes the annual turnaround by woolwich.