Match Day Thread Arsenal v Liverpool

We bought Suarez, Coutinho, Sterling, Sakho, Mignolet & Henderson without CL so....

EDIT: Forgot about Sturridge...

 

Yup, our transfer targets the year before last when we didn't have CL were Henri Ryan, Diego Costa and willian as well... We definitely target better players without CL.. Which is even more annoying why we targeted lower prem players this year though

hopefully we go back to that and go for people like pjanic, Vietto, Lacazette etc...

 

Mignolet and Henderson we could have easily got without European football. But the others I'll give you.

We just have to hope we cling onto 5th or win the FA cup so that we have some European football to offer, or we'll be looking at more Lallana's

 

dreadful performance from everyone except mignolet, as funny as it sounds. i dont know why brendan insists on starting games like this without a PROPER STRIKER. it puts unfair pressure on the likes of sterling and coutinho. neither arent exactly prolific goalscorers so wtf is br thinking? lucas was pathetic today as well, the lazy ****. doesnt track back and help the defenders, nor does he help hendo in transition play, just stands there like matth does at the garden centre looking like a tit. never passes forward, only sideways, that is if he doesnt give the ball away

 

We got Lallana AFTER getting CL football though? I don't see what having CL football has to offer with signing more players of Lallana's ability?

 

Moreno isn't great going forward either though. Least he's young so time is on his side

 

I suspect you misread that lol

He was saying the Lallana type signings are the negatives

 

Thats the point I made originally. We wasted our chance to get better players when we went for the Lallana's last summer. Thats why we need to hang onto any European football we can get this year, if we don't have it then our targets are likely to be similar to Lovren and Lallana.

The few quality players we have been able to sign have been cast offs from big European clubs. Yes they're great signings but we got lucky with them, lucky the price was so low and that they've worked out. Luck is not the basis for a successful transfer policy.

 

Sorry but cast offs?

Robben is a cast off

Alonso is now a cast off

Sanchez is a cast off too

Cmon lads

We signed 3 southampton players for 49 million pounds and did not get one first team player in that

Add badontelly to that and rodgers is doing exactly what got benetiz the sack

If his results end up fa cup winners but 7th what do you do... And that might be best case who knows?

 

The basis of the team and the club are the players. We have to get the best players and then the best team and system to play.

Did we buy the best players available within our not inconsiderable budget?

Or did we squander most of the money on players who only had a good season and would not play in most top teams?

Looking at the big picture, are we back to square one? I.e at the same position when Rodgers took over a Dalglish team. Or better than that, with a promising team that will eventually bring us the title?

Has this season shown Rodgers up as a manager of promise but not quite up there with the likes of guardiola, ancelotti klopp Mourinho Wenger or even Van Gaal ? When he came up against the top teams, his performance has been really poor. His matches in the champions league and his tactics were dreadful. Average teams were made to appear like Barcelona when playing against us. At home, our matches this season against the top teams were just embarrassing: United arsenal Chelsea, confirming what we all knew, that it was Suarez who drove the team and nearly brought us the title and not the manager.

We are all complaining that this and that player is not good enough. Hand on heart can we say that Rodgers is that manager who will bring us that title? If we are honest we will say no.

 

The big picture verses being on the roller coaster is my view. As a fan you have to get on that roller coaster as the matches come and live the ups and downs

But.... You also have to stand back and look at the big picture

In the big picture I am long since on record about rodgers. When his teams are allowed play they play when they are dominated they cannot get the ball or do much

We can point to city game, sure we won with two great strikes but in fact it was about 50/50 with huge space left for lallana and coutinho to play in and still we created little real

The reality is we paid 49 mil for reserves to southampton and out best signing was can by a mile who's been playing out of position for that

Our transfers for 4 windows have been trash that shows where we are really and for that I am still still waiting to hear what heads will roll

 

I'm not a fan of Skrtel but to his credit, he's done well in the centre. Having said that, we still would have got battered.

I remember Rodgers being smug about not needing a defensive coach - he got his a*se handed to him by two quality managers in Wenger and LvG.

Hendo is not captain material - give the captaincy to Sakho and make Can vice. Two players who actually try to drive this team forward.

 

Our midfield is painful, and has been since Alonso and Mash left.

However, there was a period when we were on top and our attack finally created chances. Get Sterling, Marko and Coutinho up the pitch and there was more movement - I know MArko will get pelters but his pace and movement caused far more issues. Having said that, he needs to be doing better but badly needs a confidence boost.

 

For me when you go out with the kind of set up we did we were lucky not to concede earlier but of course then we failed to convert two chances up their end

It is a litany of players in wrong positions cover errors of the transfer system

Sterling up front.... No replacement for suarez. Two strikers sat on bench that Leicester prob would not play

Can at rcb... Filling in actualy leading the whole line making a difference, trying to get it up the pitch

Henderson at rwb, earlier rwb up at to, Johnson sat on bench, can filled in two. Rodgers is so scared of moreno near his pen area he never considered at switch to 4 at back despite it not working now for 4/5 games

Takes best cm out of cm area

No sturridge, again not fit no badontelly

Skertl out, justly imo.... Line retreats 10 yards and it's down to can to drive it up????

Keeper rooted to line, cbs obviously worried about ball over top... He could have them up the pitch he fails to get out where the better keepers do

And the list of basics goes on

We should have gone 4-1-2-1-2 yesterday at minimum or 4-3-3 if no forwards

That sadly means Johnson in beside toure and move can to cm

Allen I am sorry to the believers is not up to a top game as he takes an age to get it in and turned and he's too light

But who knows arsenal prob would have won 9 out of 10 cos we have no forwards!!

 

We spent £120m and the squad looks weak.

 

On the one side it is not as weak as it was

On the other hand it is very unbalanced and lacks top 4 punch

There are a lot of gaps as evidenced by the amount of guys now rejected by rodgers and who won't get a game

I mean one possibility as scary as it might sound was lovern toure sahko with can who he's had out at rwb start there to keep henderson in right slot

All though this 3-4-3 rodgers has never had a real solid right side but for whatever reason we have persisted even when the thing was figured out and the best assets up top negated

 

We played terrible tbh. Toure was picked to bring leadership, but what he brings in telling people and what he brings in actual footballing ability is very low today, he was a massive downfall from the beginning.

Putting Allen and Lucas in the middle is only gonna end one and that's zero attack. Lucas was clearly lacking match fitness and it showed.

Markovic, Sterling and Coutinho played terribly. Sterling didn't get a lot of support but when he got the ball he lost it immediately and was poor. Coutinho was terrible and offered nothing, type of performance where he should be taken off after half an hour, that bad. Markovic looked rusty but the pass to Sterling summed him up.

Against Blackburn we have to go back to 4-3-3 as we only have two center backs who can play as a three. I do like 3-4-3 but when you end up putting random players in positions just to make it fit then you have a problem.

-----------------Ming
Manq-Lovren------Sakho-Moreno
---------------Lucas/Allen
---------Henderson--Coutinho
Sterling----Sturridge---Markovic

 

To be fair to Lucas, Toure and Marko - they haven't played a lot of football recently so rustiness was expected.

 

Sturridge and Coutinho were barely getting a look in at CL clubs though. Sakho to in fact.