Leeds Utd V Arsenal

Ignore those ratings mate, they leave them open for anyone to vote for just a few minutes. It’s common for people to vote 10 for everyone in their own team and 0 for the opposition, it’s the worst rating system you’ll ever see

 

An amazing stat that should shut the mouth of some pundits like Keown and Agbonlahor who say we cant defend. Actually we’re better at defending than anyone oh and we attack the hell out of teams too

 

The only defensive stats that matter are for the league you’re currently in. Doesn’t matter much if it was good enough in the championship.

Our defensive record was never based on a great ‘defence’ but by dominating possession. Our defenders are good at pressing but largely selected for ball playing ability over defensive ability. Issues for us tend to be:

where we concede possession with so many players up the pitch - we always give up chances on the break... premier sides are better at taking advantage of it. I’d say this is a strategy thing rather than a ‘defence’ issue per se. Quality players given room to run in will damage most defences.

secondly we’ve been poor on set pieces.

 

We played some great football but that was the poorest Arsenal team I’ve ever seen, we deserved to come away with a 3-0 win. I’d be very concerned if I was an Arsenal fan.

 

I still think Koch is a very good player and a decent replacement for White. He'll improve the more he settles in - new country, new system etc.

It'll be a real test for him next up against Calvert-Lewin, and then Abrahams. It's never easy in this division, but let's not write him off just yet.

 

yeh arsenal were rank... bunch of individuals

 

Ive questioned him defensively. Didn’t do much wrong defensively yesterday that I saw... had little to do really. Couldn’t hit a barn door with a banjo with the ball at his feet, though which is normally his strength!

 

I agree, if we’d have got White for the reported fee we offered would we have still got Raphinha or Llorente. Koch isn’t the finished article yet, neither was White I know but Koch looks to have something about him.

 

Just read this elsewhere, so I will repeat on here, if someone had told me 12 months ago we would be totally out playing Arsenal and deserving all 3 points, I would have thought I was dreaming.

 

Koch seems to be the best player on the pitch by far or the worst player on the pitch by far. Nothing inbetween.

Needs consistency in his game and he will be fine.

He seems like an unlucky player. When he makes a mistake it has usually ended up in our net.

 

If you liken Koch to White please remember that this is the Premier League not the Championship and we have seen White have a few howlers at this level so far. Koch made 2 bad passes yesterday that came straight back at our defence and we luckily got away with it, but overall he was solid and a clean sheet against Arsenal is a result. Cooper almost cost us with rash or misstimed tackles almost a penalty too. Koch is a German International but a you g kid who is now playing against top strikers here in England every week

 

Agreed Doc. Also, our best CB pairing this season was Koch/Ayling. The fullbacks in that match at Villa were Dallas and Alioski. Clean sheet, even without Phillips protecting the back 4.

Some are too quick to get on a new player's back. When Llorente finally starts and makes a couple of mistakes no doubt he'll get the same treatment.

 

Bielsa when talking about Phillips being missed said the Villa game without him was the best he has seen us play considering the opposition and players doing what was asked.

He then added a but... He said we haven’t another player who covers like Phillips but can still change a game with an attacking pass like he does. I think that showed with Koch yesterday. Koch did his defending well, he did his defensive passes neat and tidy but when trying to ping a ball forward it was wasted.

 

A good shout re Koch pinging passes. The last time it happened where his long range passing was off was the last time it was peeing down on that heavy pitch with passes coming up short in the bog. Yesterday was the same so maybe Bielsa should play Llorente in heavy rain

 

Deluded?

 

He definitely needs gravity to get him back on earth does GravityGooner, the knob