You were bad no doubts, if you'd had a go at us like most other teams we would probably have struggled.
We've been poor against teams that press and attack so you may have had some joy if you had gone for it. We played well but I'm not so sure we've turned a corner.
Rodgers had you tactically set up the right way, by play Lallana and Coutinho (I think) in attacking midfield. Means Flamini was outnumbered in the first half. You murdered us and should have had at least 3-4 goals. After half time Wenger told Welbeck and Sanchez to tuck in and that gave us more midfield control. Both teams I feel are still searching for their best form. Liverpool deserved to win but you don't always get what you deserve in football.
Mert and Monreal didn't even jump for that header and there is **** all Wenger can do about that. He said how disappointing that was in the post match interview. We had plenty of defenders on the pitch and enough men to deal with the corner. If you get beaten to a header then fair enough, but to not even jump is criminal. As I said though, Wenger should not take the blame for that.
Poor result against a team that is really struggling in the league, whether they were home or not. I really don't understand at what point we will up it. We struggled against a Liverpool team that is a shadow of it's former self of last season, they weren't exactly amazing or anything. As Mikaela mentioned Sktel scoring against us again, you could quite easily change his name to anyone else and that person would have scored, it was our static defence that contributed to it. This is quickly becoming a season to forget unless we pull up our socks and get some results under our belt during the Christmas period.
I understand what you're saying here Piskie, as individual players should be held responsible for individual mistakes, but that's removing them from the whole picture. These are Wenger's players, using Wenger's tactics, in Wenger's system, having been trained by Wenger, who's been at the club for a long time. If the same mistakes are being made and the same problems keep arising, then it's hard not to attribute a fairly large slice of the blame to the manager. If Mertesacker, for example, isn't doing a good enough job (I'm not saying this is true, just picking him from the comment), then what options do you have available to deal with the issue? You can't put someone else in there, as you started the season with far too few players in that position. January will allow Wenger an opportunity to resolve this issue, somewhat at least, but is it one that he'll take?
To be honest guys, it was only fair your defenders allowed Skrtel to score. As he let Debuchy (5 ft 10 in) out jump him, Skrtel being 6 ft 3 in, to score your 1st goal.
That's the issue with Skrtel.. he is like a Vermaelen clone. Scores plenty of goals but cannot defend for toffee. You have to ask yourself if the amount of goals he is responsible for is counterbalanced by the amount he scores...
Mertesacker reminds me a bit of Peter Crouch, he just doesn't seem to be that good in the air for a player his size
I completely agree. People raved about how many goals he scored last season, but he also managed to set a new record for the amount of own goals in a season. The guy is useless, but he is company of even more useless defenders.
Still have no idea why your lot sold Agger... I think Liverpool will improve as an attacking force once Sturridge is back but you need to buy defenders, same as us.
Jesus, Mertesacker is a disgrace. Cowering from the ball instead of throwing himself in front of it. Say what you will about JT or Carragher, but they, aswell as the Arsenal defenders of old, Adams, Keown etc, would have thrown themselves in front of that ball and blocked it with any part of their body possible. And wtf is Monreal doing standing 8ft away from the nearest Liverpool player?
Mert has been badly exposed without Kos. Bloody Kos even made Chambers look good at CB earlier in the season. After Alexis, he is our second best player.
Mertesacker balanced with Kos is a great player. Put him alongside another slow player in Chambers (well, slow-ish) and his flaws are highlighted. The guy needs to rest and have his bezzie back, he's not suddenly a bad player. Was a proper **** performance all round. We've some amazing individuals in our squad that I really like but, for some reason, but this is my least favourite "team" for ages.
Wenger simply can't get them playing on the same wavelength. There is no clear philosophy with this team compared to previous Wenger teams. We have a lot of quick players who are perfect to play counter attacking football, yet Wenger want's them to play his possession based game, and there now too many players who give away the ball for fun.
Funnily enough, but I agree with that statement. Indivdually, we have some terrific players and probably our best team for ages on paper. But this season, we've been playing like a team of 11 Igors Stepanov's. Everytime we seem to be turning a corner, we end up back at sh1t lane. Where is the confidence of this team? They really are a strange bunch.
Wenger says it may have been the 5-1 drubbing of last season that was on the players minds. FFS how many more lame excuses can this guy dream up !
Yeah, I didn't like hearing that. Wenger talks about mental strength, but if the team was still affected by last year's result then it's not a very good example of what Wenger is trying to eschew.
