Read what I said again petal. I said I didn't think your domination of the midfield was down to Gerrard. As he was as pedestrian as ever, it wasn't him closing down the Arsenal players, he was doing his usual strolling around, you crowded them out by over loading the area, hardly rocket science.
Fully deserved. But when your senior defender continues to make mistakes and you carry passengers, this is what you get.
Sadly, there's so much truth in that. Imo, there are far too many people on here who don't seem to differentiate between those sort of games and the reality on the pitch. I cringe every time I read someone saying "get rid of a,b,c,d,and e and bring in 5 others. It's this wholesale change around that's got us in the mess in the first place. Doing it again won't solve anything.
The difference being I want a player who's first instinct is to look forward and I never complain about a player attempting a pass forward....I do have issues with any player trying to control and dribble away from their own box thirty seconds before half time when surrounded by opposition in Markovic's defence he did little else wrong all game and I fully accept he needs time to adjust to the pace of the Prem. Nevertheless it was a schoolboy error. As for the Skrtel header...the ball should never have been anywhere near the box, Skrtel was never going to get to that from a standing start (I suppose he should have been standing in the Kop so he could get a run at it?). We all know JS that you have Gerrard and Skrtel marked down as 0 out of 10 every game....that's even before kick off but in all seriousness they were both decent enough yesterday that scapegoating (whoops) them is neither fair or accurate. The only real criticism that should be levelled at individual players from yesterday should be aimed at Jones and probably Kolo who were both way below the required standard.
For the tactical setup to dominate the midfield Why are people questioning the injury time? It should have been longer, Skrtel was down for the nine minutes alone
I was surprised that Wenger did nothing to counter it tbh. Not sure it was #tacticalgenius from Rodgers either, as he merely stuck with the formation that he tried and worked for him at Bournemouth, it wasn't like he created it for Arsenal. I still think that Markovic at WB is an accident waiting to happen like. Again, I'm surprised that Wenger didn't adjust his set up to try and exploit the area in behind him and draw Sakho across. You were good value for a point if I'm being honest, but Arsenal were achitects of their own downfall and should have seen that game out @ 1-2.
I don't think Marko and Hendo were playing WB, I think they were just part of a midfield four that were tracking back like they would had there been a FB behind them. I agree though, this system is a accident waiting to happen. I can't stand three at the back. We deserved the lead IMO and we let them back into it first.
That's a bit grudging, Tobes. In performance level we were more than good value for all three. Unfortunately it's only goals that count.
I watched the game live and then listened to Talksport this morning and wondered if I'd seen the same game. First half you were the better side as Arsenal offered little, but then neither did you in terms of a goal threat until Coutinho's strike. Arsenal's set piece equaliser was against the run of play. However 2nd half, Arsenal kept you quiet took the lead and then were managing the game well until the last 10 when they decided to retreat and allow you to come onto them with 10 men! Aside from a couple of decent efforts late on you'd created little in the way of real chances and most of the efforts on goal were speculative and weak. It was a decent team performance that lacked a real cutting edge and you were still as porous as a swiss cheese at the back. Todgers post match comment that it was a better performance than the 5-1 last season was off the scale delusion
^ it was a shocker that one. Good job there's nothing actually in his head, as it could have been really nasty
That's exactly what i said when i saw it. He does have have a small ball bearing inside that they put in there to rattle around and let him know he's still conscious
Do you reckon it was snide? I wasn't sure watching it in real time and then on the replay, I gave him the benefit as the alternative would have been a very ugly act.
