The stick I send his way has been due to the sometimes thick decisions he makes on the passing front. Choice 1: Lay the ball back 10 foot to my wing back, find space and go again. Choice 2: try and dance past 7 players in the box and run the ball out of play. He has started to pass more and full credit to him last night I counted at least 3 that were completed (To be fair my back was to the pitch as I was giving the Arsenal fans tons of abuse)
I agree he is showing signs of improvement, I just still sometimes find his good moments too separate from one another to rate him as highly as others.
I agree 100%. However I will say that last night he was better than he's been for a while however even with that improvement last night he was a shadow the performance Miggy put in last night so well done to him.
It was pretty simple for me. ASM is either dangerous, or a magnet for defenders. When our other attackers have been Wood, Almiron or Murphy, there's almost zero threat aside from the very rare glimpse (vs Palace). So they just swarm ASM and aren't bothered about the rest. The issue Arsenal had was the return of Wilson, who's also a very real threat. Wilson's movement alongside their concern over ASM meant we were able to be almost overwhelming in attack. I daresay Eddie has realised how little threat Wood actually is. Hopefully he'll be sold to one of the Champ teams or one of those coming up.
I have a better idea for Wood. Lets put him to work behind the bar in the Leazes lower concourse on match days
If ASM keeps passing more he'll be a great asset because it's often he gets marked by like 3 players, and if he passes a the right time at least he creates space for someone else.
I think you could really see he was playing differently. His 1st thought was always.. head up, am I better off passing? I think I could physically see the cogs turning, it seemed to slow him down a bit. Not necessarily a bad thing but looked like he needs to find a rhythm and actually you could see that coming as the 1st half wore on. If he can get that pass and move thing down then use the trickery right at the decisive moment then he'll be a proper weapon. Main thing is you can see the impact of their coaching on him so I reckon he's trying hard to take it on board.
And don't forget whose pass it was that set Joe running down the line to cross for the first goal. With good coaching he will improve in a number of ways although I doubt we will ever see him back tracking and defending to any great extent.
Some bang on comments guys! My take - ASM clearly had a great game. I thought that he was making better choices than of late, and just looked sharper. I'd agree that he's trying and looks to be listening to coaching. I had previously thought we should part ways in the summer, but now I'm thinking again. Whilst Longstaff also had a well-above-average game, I thought that's probably the best he'll ever be. Maybe that's hard. IMO he's got little attacking threat and just doesn't seem to have a turn of pace to make something happen. There might be a lot more in him - I'm sure Eddie is a good judge. Callum Wilson had a fabulous game and could have scored three. His natural power in the box was genuinely good to see. If he could do that more often we'd have a great striker. Bruno, for him, had an average game - and he was once again his world class self. Precision finish. His quality is truly top grade. He dominated midfield, where all our lads played well. He'll help Brazil win the world cup. His dad was in the crowd, and properly moved by hearing the crowd sing about his son. Targett was great, and was ably supported by our other defenders. He was solid and no-nonsense as he's been been the whole time he's been here. Sign Targett at the 1st moment we get. Good defensive unit. Great midfield performance. But I think our front line could be improved in the summer. We didn't have a great free kick taker on the pitch last night or a striker who scores with his head. But outlay is required to do this. A great night, the best I've seen us perform for a very long time. The fans really did massively contribute to an amazing night - the worldwide sky audience would have noted the magnificence of a stadium looking like that. Sky would have been in awe at what their cameras picked up. As an additional bonus, the chubby tat-shop owner will be kicking himself that he could have been part of nights like that if he hadn't been so unambitious and employed people who knew what they were doing. His loss. Brilliant night.
