So why does Torreira keeps getting dropped or played like an auxillary player and played out of position. Particularly when it appears we do not have another player like him? Would it not be better to pair him with one of Guendouzi or Xhaka? I thought Torreira would add more bite to the middle of the park. Just worrisome, the ease with which we keep getting over run by the lower teams..
The manager can make so much difference to most players. I know we all bandy around bullshit phrases like "for £1m a month they should run their guts out every week" but the truth is that a lot won't for the wrong person. Sunday league football... same team of players. First year we had an absolute git of a manager. Nonsensical team choices, no morale, all of us playing were mates but it was just depressing. We finished 7th in the mIddlesex div 2. Next season we have a top guy in place. Everyone a lot happier, we enjoy playing football and we finish 2nd. All because of the effect of a decent manager who we wanted to listen to and follow the instructions of. You could take most of our XI and one by one, insert them into liverpool's XI and they wouldn't look out of place. One by one slowly introduce Liverpool's first XI into our team under Emery and tehy would have turned to ****. Yes, we have some absolute gash players (Xhaka et al) who need replacing, but we can fix so much just with the proper training, tactics and man-management... and having a team of players who want to play.
I was reading your article and nodding approvingly, until you went a bit far by saying most of our players will not look out of place in Liverpool's first X1. Come on mehn, I mean come on!! Are you having us on? Hopefully none of the Liverpool fans will come on to this board and read your comment!
Hi a Liverpool fan here i actually take Cinis point , though he may have exaggerated a tad , as i have previously pointed out in other discussions that not many people rated our players that highly when we signed them and our Captain (Henderson) is widely derided . Players always perform better when everyone knows what they are expected to do and they are playing with confidence and obviously the opposite applies . The Leicester team that won the league had Wes Morgan and Huth as CBs and Danny Drinkwater in midfield which rather proves the point
That's what I was saying to you the other day. The players need proper coaching, and our lot just need to go right back to basics. Defending from the front. Pressing the ball. Working as a unit. Not backing off attackers etc. We've got a talented enough squad, but the players have lost their way over the last couple of seasons and are directionless. As you say, you don't need a squad full of superstars to succeed, but they do all need to know their jobs and work for the team. As with Leicester, and Greece at the Euros a few years ago.
You don't , or at least shouldn't , need coaching to know that you should not back off a forward to give him enough space and time to bring a ball down , turn round and then move forward and shoot thats not coaching that is just stating the bleeding obvious
But it is coaching though, the team seem to have lost their ability to perform even the basics. They need somebody to come in and galvanise them and get them working as a unit. As I said, they are not poor players, but they really have lost their way currently.
Think our difference is that you consider it coaching & i consider it shouting at them "do your ****ing jobs "
I tell you now that you would have heard Klopp yelling at them yesterday all the way to that backward area you live in .
Te be fair, Emery was pretty vocal on the touchline and always looked like he was giving instructions. Shame nobody knew what the **** he was going on about though
It is difficult to know what players have been asked to do under Emery. I think we have been pressing far too high up the field, and defending too deep. I was worried when Emery came in whether tactics that worked with second tier clubs in Spain would work in England at Arsenal. I don't think we can logically work out what players are doing, or have ben asked to do, which is why I have such a problem with players being condemned individually.
Which of your current crop would you say plays like they belong at CL level? I obviously don't watch an awful lot of you, but from what I can see, only Auba, Lacazette and Leno are of the requisite level. I'd add Bellerin to that small list but he is constantly injured. Then I'd say Guendouzi and Holding have the potential to reach that level but aren't there just yet. As for the rest of your squad? Either unproven even at PL level or simply not good enough. Not having a dig. I think we are currently in a similar predicament whereby a number of our players have quietly drifted off the CL rung either through age, injury or disinterest, yet Spurs fans tend to still speak about our squad as if its overall quality hasn't changed since 2 years ago. Of our bunch, Kane, Son and the newly reinvigorated Alli are comfortably CL quality. So is Vertonghen but age is against him now. Then we - like you - can look at the rest of the squad as a group either unproven at PL level or simply not good enough. At what point do you hold your hands up and admit that your recruitment policy has been broken for years now and as such improved coaching will only get you so far?
The recruitment has been very hit and miss. Leno, Guendouzi, Torriera, Martinelli, and Tierney all look like decent players, but Sokratis, Lichstiener have been poor and Pepe has done nothing yet. What we still really lack is a commanding CB. We've got Saliba coming in next season, but he's still only potential. I don't think there's many though that couldn't play CL football, for me again as I say it comes down to the coaching. This squad has enough talent, but they are just utterly directionless at the moment.
One thing we lack which Liverpool have in abundance is natural leaders all over the pack.. right through the spine of the team.. You can talk talent (which only gets you thus far), but without leadership and getting team dynamics right you will get no where.. Can you see any leaders in our team? Nope me neither! You cannot coach leadership, its either you have it or you dont!
Agree with that. Coaching players to defend as a unit, defend from the front, press the ball, track runners, engage attackers on the edge of the box etc can all be worked on. But natural leadership skills are innate and we don't really have any.
Is that true though? Fans have been saying this about Arsenal since 2009. I mean I look at both Auba and Laca and think they could be leaders. Guendouzi has had a poor run of form latley but he always wants the ball. He's the most responsible players we have - the kid does not hide on the pitch just keeps running and fighting. He's a natural leader.(too young to be a captain though) Leno also.
We are in serious trouble.. We need a big name manager to galvanise this team.. Don't know wher the next 3points is coming from at the moment...
