Very unlucky result and still proud of the lads - My thoughts on Arsenal game

Red card was justified from what I have seen, I am somewhat underwhelmed by the team at this point, every season I have a level of optimism at the start which generally keeps going until the last 5 or 6 games, I have none of that at this time and considering the shape of the team I'm not sure that's gonna change. I find Steve's perch high up in the stands a bit odd as well, nearly as odd as his in denial hairstyle, it feels as if he distances himself from the players at the most critical time of the week for a head coach or manager, in some respects he may just as well be in an office watching 4 or 5 screens with the camera feeds and a telephone. For me today was not so much that we showed some resilience or defensive resolve it was that this Arsenal side were not that good on this day, I worry that this is going to be a difficult season and that we should have gone for Austin straight off rather than Mitrovic because without a striker or strikers that are going to score 18 plus goals in the premier league you are in the dogfight for survival from the start, Steve needs to get this team sorted and win at least one of the next 3 games or the mood will swing to doom again.I was a guest of a law firm last season for a couple of matches and after one we were lucky to have Nobby Solano come into the box and talk with us for 10 minutes, he said then that the main problem with the team was a lack of quality, loads of effort but not enough quality and until the ethos of the club changes and they invest in the quality of the squad then the result is just going to be the same struggle each season just to stay in the Premier League, while the better teams are shopping at the equivalents of Harrods Ashley is still rooting around in the bargain bin at the Co-op.

 

One up front only works if you're good in my opinion.

If you have low possession and one up front you're wasting your time.

 

This for me we need to go 4-4-2 with the players we have. Not one game so far this season have we played well for a good patch of the game. Clinging on for dear life against many was ok I suppose but we setup to defend from the off in both that game and arsenal. Where as other teams are going for it against top teams and that puts them on the back foot a bit. Our discipline is a big big problem atm and I blame captain calm colo for that. He is not captain material and wally seems to be up in the clouds until he needs to come down. It's not a dig at the moment just we have problems to sort big style.

 

And for the record we are top of the disciplinary league atm. It's early days but we have already picked up 11 yellows and 2 reds.

 

People are trying to convince themselves everything is ok and we're wonderful at defending, however we are actually crap in all areas including discipline


I highly recommend people actually watch all four games again because we should have lost all 4 and created very little

 

Discipline is shocking. Needs fixing asap, everything else comes 2nd. You cannot play football games with a man down on the regular. It's complete bullshit.

That's half of our games this season we played more than 60 min with 10 men. What do you expect? And surprise, we lost both games.

 

Most of them were yesterday and most were probably for fouls on Coquelin.

 

They all count and were all fouls, however Arsenal go down at the slightest touch but we weren't learning.

 

The sending off was such a load of **** he's watching the ball what's he supposed to do just leave it.

Jesus man we've been asking for a bit of fight from our players and commitment in wanting to win the ball, when we get it he's slated.

It was clumsy and definitely deserves a yellow mind. People saying if it happened on one of our players we'd be screaming for a red of course we're biased towards our players... Christ if anybody comes in the vicinity of Wijnaldum or Thauvin I'll be calling for a card.

However if you put that tackle into a non-game with two teams say Leicester and Bournemouth for example and it was that Wilson (I think) that had done the tackle on a Leicester player, everybody would be saying clumsy yellow.

I'm still optimistic things are looking much improved from last season and even though we haven't won yet I'm enjoying watching the games more this season compared with last years.

Sissoko needs to start giving more of a **** and chasing opposition players down through to many times in the second half Thauvin was over running him to get to a player with the ball because he was just standing there like a spare prick.

 

Firstly it was a red card whether you think so ir not, secondly fight is required but not in a physical way and you're simply telling yourself were improved from last season.

 

I ignore the majority of what you say because it's a constant stream of negative dribble, this is another prime example... It wasn't a red card, it was at most a yellow a deserved yellow at most because he's looking at the ball and attempting to take it when it comes down. Or are you suggesting now that we should remove aiming to control the ball from above as well?

 

You can ignore all you like and think im negative but in my opinion most football fans have no idea what's happening with their own team because they allow their heart to rule their brain.


The most irritating this about fans like
you is that if it was the other way around you would be on here arguing why it was red.

 

Thauvin never touched him, he won free kicks with being touched on a few occasions, go and post on the Sunderland board, we all know you are a mackem and a WUM.

 

It was definitely red.

 

Thauvin tackle was a yellow card all day...
We lost the plot yesterday

 

It wasn't a definite red at all - It wasn't a smart challenge but there was nothing malicious about it, and a yellow would have been far more appropriate.

The replays have made it look far worse by slowing it down. It was a 50/50 challenge.

Sissoko's yellow card was also bullshit, and Chambers was being a little bit and obviously play acting.

 

That's the problem with fans, hypocritical when it comes to there own team.

Look at Mbemba, referee lets him off with a booking when he barged into Sanchez, and for some inexplicable reason he does exactly the same thing a few minutes later and to his surprise gets booked. No discipline and simple stupidity.

 

Trade for Monty?

 

You're failure to accept what I say is responsible for your small minded rejection.

 

What I'm struggling with is a formation that wasn't working for Pardew, failed miserably with Carver and has been stuck with again by McLaren. Anita/Colback should not be in the same team, Anita deserves to play ahead of Ginger Jack, but playing both makes it quite negative. We start all matches on the backfoot, in my opinion, playing Pardew's favoured counter-attack, when we should have seen Steve bring a new identity to the side.

Southampton today changed things - they've had a stuttering start, so went with two wingers and scored three. Helps playing against 10 men, which our opponents are discovering, but 3-0 is all it will say end of the season. We have Thauvin, Aarons, Wijnaldum, Sissoko and - maybe - Obertan who can play wide. We have a very good couple of players in De Jong and Perez who are being squeezed into matches, when either could be playing off or with a front man then it's making less sense.

I'd like us to put some foundations down for 4-4-2 and see how it goes. I'd like us to attack with 4-3-3. But I'm a bit bored of this 4-2-3-1 that we have neither the talent nor temperament to play.