Match Day Thread Arsenal (A) 24/02 - 14:05

I've not seen the game so can't judge him on today. I admire your defence of Saints players; I've done it myself.

However, do you really think Jack is a good CB? I've said since he first started getting games, that he's not that good. We too often seem to have red and white tinted glasses if the player is one of our youngsters. My Dad used to rave when Jack would make a saving tackle under Puel, yet fail to see his own poor positioning led him to have to do that.

I don't bash players, but I think Jack isn't good enough. Doesn't mean he should be battered every game by fans, I agree, but he isn't a good CB.

 

Genuinely I do. I think there's a very good player in there. He remonds a little bit of john stones in terms of playing style. Him and yoshida a couple of years back played so well together but they've hardly played together since. It's been up and down since then but I still believe he is a good player.

But the crowd are starting to turn on him like the players I mentioned above and I don't think it's helping his performances. He hasn't been particularly error prone in the past so I worry it's having a bit of an effect on him.

 

Fair enough. We conceded a lot of goals with those two as CB.

I think he's very casual (possibly unprofessional in his attitude, if what Beefy says is true) and loses position too easily. If he was still 19/20, then I'd say I agree, but he's not.

 

Result pretty much as expected. For the first goal, Lacazette was about a yard offside, what was the lino doing? Second goal was poor defending collectively. After that I feared a rout, so hats off to Ralph for making positive changes at HT, rather than damage limitation.

Positives;

The manager’s attitude

Yan Valery - what a player he’s going to be

Matt Targett - could have had two goals with a bit more luck

JWP - Made his presence felt in a more positive 2nd half; loved how he struck his volley, even if it went yards wide; last season he’d have brought that down, composed himself, and the chance would have gone.

Bednarek - we have one PL standard CB.

 

This for me aswell, he seems to try and walk out like he’s the best player on the pitch and ****s up a lot because of it. Hoedt got slated for being too casual but he is far better on the ball for me than Stephens and I’ve seen very few people say it with Stephens.

 

And I basically think the same about Hoedt. But apparently it's not scapegoating when Hoedt gets criticised.

Double standards.

 

I don't rate either.... what's the word for more than one scapegoat? A herd?

 

Ha ha ha.

They’re both crap, but Stephens actually looks/acts like he cares.

 

Yeah, I can forgive errors. Standing out of position and ball-watching at length isn't an error. It's a failure to do your job.

 

I’ve tried to be positive, this season and last. But at this point we are just stinking out the league really. 6 minutes in and we concede a pathetic goal like that.

I remember watching West Brom in their last few seasons in the PL was very depressing, I wasn’t thinking “someone put them out of their misery”, but we are 100% down there. And even now, they have Jrod who is miles better than long/austin/Obafemi combined. Another strange decision to add to seasons of them.

I’ll be amazed if we stay up. Not the managers fault, but too much ****e in the squad.

(I will never stop backing and supporting at the stadium, but just voicing how I feel walking away from that)

 

I'm not arguing their ability. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions. Good or bad. And if they disagree with my opinions, fine.

My issue is the hypocrisy. Someone can't sit there and happily criticise a player on a regular basis who they don't rate - but then accuse others of ganging up and scapegoating on a player who they do rate. People aren't just randomly picking Stephens' name out of hat, and throwing stick his way as a result.

 

Lets hope Fulham try and play and not park the bus like Cardiff. Then we might stand a chance of getting 3 pts. I'm not hopeful though

 

I think the big difference between them really is arrogance. (Perceived or not)

Stephens is slightly better than Hoedt, but gets given a lot more slack as he doesn’t act like a monumental bell end.
All fans can get behind someone that appears to care.
I personally think he is better than Hoedt. After a season in the championship next year, I think he’ll be a really good CB. Hoedt would struggle in league one imo.

Doesn’t make him good enough for right now, though. **** knows where Yoshida is the last couple of games.

 

Frustrates the hell out of me - if we`d beaten Cardiff twice, rather than the opposite, we`d be on the beach already. The trials of being a Saints fan!

 

Guessing the first goal wasn't offside then?

Convinced it was, thought I'd be coming back to 'bet you want var now' posts

Thought we started well for twenty minutes or so then after the second goal they battered us for the rest of the half and we were lucky to not concede again.

Second half we again started brightly before they started to take control again, we had our moments going forward but as per were shocking at the back.

Shame for Obafemi to go off, rushed back perhaps? He looked bright too, hope it's not a recurring thing.

Am I allowed to say Jack isn't a PL cb yet? As he clearly isn't (and won't ever be imo).

Ref was appalling as is pretty #standard these days.

Poor away end at the Emirates imo, the stand is nowhere near steep enough and even in row 18 couldn't see **** all at the other end of the pitch.

The home crowd as well

 

Let’s look on the positive - we gained, albeit marginally on Cardiff this weekend. Roll on Wednesday & hopefully back out of bottom 3.

 

Yep. We’re a little more like Man City than people realise.

 

Yes, but you need to beat the teams lower than us in the table. We will probably pick up some unexpected points but Cardiff will too. Every point we loose will also encourage Cardiff and the other teams around us so we need to win.

Also, Fulham's Achilles heel is their defence so if we can't score against them, I don't hold out much hope against other teams.

 

To be honest, I disagree. I'd be quite happy for Fulham to come and park the bus. Because, quite simply, they aren't good enough to. They could park three buses, and I still expect them to leave massive gaps between each one.

If Fulham have anything about them, it's at the other end of the field. It's why their wins are 3-2 and 4-2, not 1-0. So if they come to park the bus, they're limiting what little threat they actually have.

If Fulham attack us, they could easily win a high-scoring rollercoaster of a match.

 

We had some good phases, especially start of the game, after their first goal and the beginning of the second half when we changed the shape. Obafemi going off really made our attack weak as we had no pace to play in behind and El Younoussi who is a waste of a player on the pitch.

Valery was very decent as was the midfield, but I still can’t get over how poor our squad is overall, and how naive/arrogant/stingy/not-a-pot-to-piss-in the board were for the transfer window, and I’ll continue to blame this for poor results.

Onto the ultimate showdown on Wednesday. Up the Saints