Merino had a terrible game, was peripheral for most of it and doesn't have legs so cannot lead the press. It meant we got pegged back with no out ball because he dropped so deep. The youngster could've given us some legs up top and provided an out ball, all we eded up doing is hoofing the ball out and conceding back possession. Arteta has previous, there have been loads of games in the past where we were 3 goals up and he didn't bring kids on, I don't believe for a second there was any scenario where the youngster would've come on yesterday, which brings me back to my question, why put him on the bench at all then ???
Jay, the only thing that matters is the league table and for all of our failures we are still top ... with points spare. So we can fail all the big tests, it doesn't matter, so long as we don't fail the other tests and stay top. And no doubt someone will say the other contenders will improve, thats true, but then, so will we. I only rate our performances this season as a 6 out of 10 at best.
I agree that Merino was poor. Eze was terrible. Zubimendi was bullied. Saliba and Gabriel had their poorest games of the season. I don’t think adding our young striker to the mix would have helped. We were off. The effect of pressure IMO.
Sorry HH, but I don't agree with you at all. Harriman-Annous was only added to the squad because we had literally no-one else. And it wasn't exactly ideal conditions to throw a 17 year old on in a game like this. Playing at home against Brighton in the Carabao Cup is NOT the same as playing away at the 3rd/4th best side currently with an intimidating atmosphere. The only attackers we had on the bench were him, 15-year old Dowman and 18-year old Nwaneri, whose ball retention isn't the best and that was what we needed in the final 10 minutes. Merino pissed me off in the final 10 minutes because he dropped back into midfield when we were under pressure when we needed him to be a focal point to pin their CBs and to stop the waves of Sunderland pressure, but we were really limited with our options to change things. Arteta maybe could have brought on Harriman-Annous, but I'm not going to lambast him for not bringing him on because the reasons/context for not doing it were perfectly valid too. It is what it is. From minute 45 - minute 75, I was very happy with what I saw and I know what we're capable of. I'm confident we'll get better as the season goes on and once more attackers make their way back to full fitness.
He was on the bench because we don't have any other fit strikers. He played against Brighton a couple of weeks ago, so he's clearly in Arteta's plans. Yesterday was not the game to throw him into when we needed to defend, which Merino is much better at, albeit we didn't have a pacey forward that we could provide an out ball to. You have to remember that this kid only signed a professional contract in the summer. He's 17 and learning his trade. Merino was far from terrible, and like I said, he came very close to winning it at the end.
Think back to the game, we were defending for our lives toward the end of the game, Rice got the ball on the left hand side of our half, just outside our box I think. He literally kicked the ball past a group of Sunderland players and tried to sprint to the ball, he had no chance, there were 4 or so Sunderland players there. He was then lost and out of position and visibly shattered and couldn't run back. This is because we had no out ball. We needed legs up top and we had none.
Eh? Zubimendi had a very good game I thought, especially in the second half. I thought he was brilliant in the second half actually. Unlucky to not score, too.
You missed my point. If we do exactly as we have done, fail the big tests but pass the others, as we have done up until now, we will win the league if we remain top.
Pinkie, you watched the game, we didn't need Merino dropping back to defend, thats what caused us the problems, us defending deep. If you are good enough you are old enough, as Dowman has already proved at 15 and as HA showed against Brighton in the cup. We would've gained more having legs up top than having our CF drop deep to defend. Dropping deep invites pressure and pressure leads to mistakes being made and mistakes lead to conceding goals.
Depends what you mean by 'fail the big tests'. I still think we are capable of winning most of our games against the top sides, even if we don't win all of them. Our remaining fixtures against the probable top-5/6 teams are: Liverpool (H) Chelsea (H & A) Man City (A) Man Utd (H) Spurs (H & A) We will need to win some of those. Drawing away to Chelsea and City is perfectly acceptable, but we should be looking to win the rest really. Especially the home matches.
If Arteta had brought HA on and we'd lost that game, Hothead would be lambasting him for throwing a 17 year old inexperienced striker on and claiming he should have kept Merino on so that he could defend. This is what pisses me off about HH and Jayram, they are so quick to jump on our players and manager and look for the ultra pessimistic negatives. Yesterday was a tough game and Sunderland deserved their point. Yes there are things we could have done better, but this is football. Not every week is going to be perfect and as fans we have to understand that. Overall, I'm really pleased with what I've seen this season. Yesterday was complicated by so many injuries to our forwards, on another day we could have been out of sight. We take our point from this game, go through the international break and hopefully come back with a stronger squad to face Spurs.
We did lack an out ball, but It simply wasn't the game to throw HA into. If we'd have had more fit forwards it would have been the perfect game to bring Martinelli on and turn them around.
We are unbeaten in 14 games and had won 10 in a row. Our overall form since the loss to Liverpool is 12 wins and 2 draws. We had 9 clean sheets in a row, equalling a club record that was there since 1903. The run we've been on, considering the injury crisis in attack and the constant chopping/changing, has been outstanding. And no matter what happens today between Liverpool and Man City, we are still top of the league and will be when we come back from the international break. There's still a lot of football to be played, but I'm proud of what we've done so far.
30 minutes doesn't make a good game IMO. I thought he was really poor in the first half and literally run over in the last 20 minutes of the game.
Well I don't agree. If players are not good enough to play they should not be on the bench then. All you are asking him to do is come on and do the only thing he knows how to do - play as a CF. Make runs, show for the ball, hold the ball up and bring others into the game, we are not asking him to find a solution to quantum gravity. Not having an out ball cost us, so I would rather throw a 17 year old on who has boundless energy and who can at least help us than accept Merino dropping deep and adding to our problems. and its not like if the youngster made a mistake it would be punished - he's furthest away from our goal !
Zubi had a good game, he was probably one of the best players out there and was unlucky not to score. He got kicked about by the Sunderland players, but he did not get bullied. Very unlucky to get booked, let alone even a foul for the free kick that led to their first goal. It wasn't the pressure that led to this game being a draw, it was the combo of no fit strikers, combined with a very good Sunderland team.
That was true of 2 of the last 3 seasons. Your point relies on the other teams not improving. I think Liverpool, City and Chelsea all have a better chance of winning the league this year than we do.
I am not overly fussed about us dropping points, looking at the big picture we are in a fantastic position and as I keep saying, we are not even playing yet !!
