based on the fact that slot barely used anyone unless the game was complete a dead rubber and when he did risk an away game they went out of the cup so he really stopped using anyone. These guys are not that good yet. They look good against kids but they are boys playing like boys in an adult game. Slot barely gave Elliott a game. I don't see him dropping a 27 year old in unless they are a serious adult level player. I simply don't see any of the current crop being as good as say jones and frankly if jones came up with slot I sincerely doubt he would have got a go as klopp was incredibly patient with him. Even today the same gsme issues crop up.
Arteta is full of hot air. I think he says a bunch of things without thinking. I wouldn't take anything he says personally.
Harsh, but not too wrong with Elliott and Jones. I think they'll give Elliott another year to change things around, but there's shades of Shaquiri (without that stunning left foot) for me in that both can complement a winning team, but ask them to go out and lead the kids in a cup tie and they sink to the lower level rather than raise the boat on a higher tide. Jones is too slow to play alongside Macca, IMO. The midfield relies on Szobbo running 13/14k every game, and that's a lot. We need another one of those to share Szobbo's load. A young Hendo would have been perfect. Or, God knows, a young Gerrard - but that's asking a lot.
Don't get confused on Sunday ,Arteta is the one on top. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Slot confirms Bradley will start v Arsenal ahead of TAA and would have started v Chelsea if he was fit. Sounds like TAA will have to deal with odd sub appearance before he leaves - good management, plan for the future to make sure Bradley gets his minutes
Slots press conference are great. Always easier when you’re winning but has a decent sense of humour. Talking about no one knows where Trent is going.. well we all do but can’t wait as not confirmed Then little pun about one club seems to be getting lot of high profile free transfers, maybe it’s a Trent… I mean trend. comes across really well
Well Alonso to Real manager won’t surprise anyone. It could be the beginning of a long and successful reign or it could go the other way.
It's a pity this fixture is a dead rubber because, towards the beginning of the season, I really thought this could have potentially been a title-decider. Before a ball had been kicked, I had City winning it, us finishing second and Liverpool third. But I thought you'd be up there or thereabouts. Unfortunately (for us), you've won the league with ease and deservedly so. Just a shame we couldn't have put up more of a challenge, especially with how we've performed for the last two seasons. I'm hoping we can get a result on Sunday because I want us to try to finish the season strong. But if we don't, I'd feel pretty indifferent as I know we're relatively safe for a top-5 spot (due to the other teams around us needing to play each other and also requiring virtually every result left to go against us). I'm mostly looking ahead to the Summer and also preparation for the 25/26 season. Truthfully though, I really don't know what to expect and whether this club will actually win major honours under this manager. We've had a pretty good team for 3 years now - and to not win anything whatsoever? Not even a League Cup or FA Cup? Well, I don't know how many more times the players can 'go again' before they start losing faith in Arteta's ideas. Feels like next season could be his last if things don't go to plan. Will also be interesting to see how active you guys will be in the Summer and the expectations for next season. I also expect City to make a comeback, Chelsea will get stronger, Newcastle will improve their squad too...find it hard to believe Spurs and Man Utd will be this bad again. it's not gonna get any easier competition wise. Interesting times ahead for everyone. But I have a nasty feeling that we've missed our window of opportunity to win the league over the last few years and it's only downhill from here.
No doubting you guys need a CF but even then, Arteta needs to get away from this obsession he has with trying to win games 1-0 via a set piece which is how things come across the last 6 months. Id imagine both teams will be wanting a win for bragging rights, but do wonder if Arsenal will be feeling sorry for themselves after going out knowing best they can do is finish 2nd again. I think if we get an early goal it could go to 2/3-0 quite quickly. depends how motivated everyone is. No doubt Arsenal be up there again as the core of the squad is decent enough - Arteta is yet to have a campaign where hasn’t just focussed on 1 trophy when gets to crunch time though. City will be there or there abouts next year. Newcastle if keep hold of Isak and midfield and add a couple cheksea I have no idea, they’ll be similar to now I think. They’ll give teams a tough game but then also go on poor runs. They seem to have real lack of leadership in that team.
I think you've highlighted one of my main issues with him. He's yet to show any evidence that he can balance/juggle multiple competitions at once. And part of that is down to his refusal to use the entirety of the squad available to him (a squad he has created may I add) and also insisting on using first-team players every game. He either underutilises players or overutilises them. It's concerning that, after 5 years, he's still not able to wrap his head around how to do this. I appreciate he's elevated us from a side that was struggling to be a top-4 side for 7 years to now 3 seasons of consecutive CL qualification, got us to the latter stages of the Champions League etc. But the top players need trophies and ours won't stay for much longer if we continue to be nearly men. One way or another, we need to deliver trophies before everything disintegrates and we're back to rebuilding all over again. So yeah, next season will be a critical one.
The majority of your team is pretty young and you seem willing to spend, so I see no reason why you shouldn't be thereabours for a couple of years, especially if you strengthen in the right places. Tbh, for me your biggest issue seems to be mentality, which I think was (one of) our problems until Klopp sorted it out. That starts with the manager. If he can sort his and the teams mentality out, then you can be a real force.
I disagree, you can't expect even the best players to lead a team of youngsters when there's no quality around them. That cup game is on Slot but he's not the first new manager to not realise that you can't make too many changes in the FA Cup. Elliott imo it's already a quality player but he doesn't fit in to the way Slot wants to play, he's a willing runner but can't cover the ground quickly. Again though this is on Slot as there were plenty of games where we needed craft not effort and if used correctly Elliott could be a huge asset tactically. I hope the new management team are learning quickly because other teams will improve and we won't win the league again without changing tactics at times and rotating more.
Well I don't think either are in the bracket that we need and I'd be confident they could happily spend their career at midtable or lower midtbale prem. I've said my bit on both, you all know why.
I want us to win today against Arsenal. We are the Champions, we are at home and we don’t need to give them any kind of psychological boost to take into the summer. They will be hurting after the PSG game and will want to take something from this game. Let’s show them our quality and win the game
