Match Day Thread Arsenal v Leeds United

You missed the others out....the rest all wore the same pair as gruev, you know the ones...called ****

 

gruev was no more pants than anyone else. Actually in the first half the only two players who seemed able to control the ball and give a 10 yard pass to someone wearing the same shirt were him and Gnonto. Then he messed up for their second.

All our midfielders wanted an extra touch… in part because they couldn’t see an option to pass to… so they get closed down and either made a mistake or passed backwards. Thought Stach was the worst of our midfielders today though there wasn’t much in it.

The problem was a collective one.

on reflection I think we’re a side that struggles against an aggressive press…. Last year some bang average championship sides that tried it caused us problems.

 

Thought I’d look at player stats yesterday. Can be misleading due to player positions and gruev being the deepest etc but he was at 92% pass completion yesterday in a team average of 75% - we were mid to high 80’s usually last year.

I’m happy to acknowledge that 91% may have been back to perri

 

Premier league and money is the problem. Those at the top of it have their little cartel and will stick with the as is even though it is obvious the imbalance that has been created will not be surpassed by any other club.
Palace, Brighton and those expected to be mid table are just feeder clubs for those at the top, no realistic chance of competing, us at the bottom will never, too late for that.
When this Euro league was being proposed I thought a golden opportunity was missed to **** all these clubs off to it and out of England's top division making it more competitive and giving Championship clubs coming up a realistic chance.

Rest of the transfer window looks bleak now, any good player will look at that mess yesterday and say 'you know what ?, thanks but I'm off elsewhere'.

 

Very much agree. A few years ago some foreign owner (Blackburn or some team like that) wanted to abolish relegation. Obviously that didnt fly, but they’ve now invented a much more subtle way of ensuring the status quo.

 

Still think we will win the league. Deffo champions league bad day at the office all it was right.

 

Am broken today everyone around me has taken the pizz all Bar codes btw. Can't even defend my team apart from we are trillions of pounds behind Arsenal. We simply were just put in our place. Luckily we wont face them every week atleast one of the toughest games of the season is behind us.

 

They were shocking yesterday. Never turned up. Looked like rabbits in headlights and gave them way too much respect. We should have just gone for it and give them a go. New keeper was shocking - The worst of all the individual performances. I'd swap out to Darlow next game. Seems like a waste of money this lad. Will give him more chances, but so far - shocking.

I genuinely cannot think of a positive thing of this game at all. Even Farkes interview annoyed the **** out of me. He was so laid back and said Arsenal was amazing smiling all the time. Your team just got absolutely hammered 5-0. Please stop smiling and take responsibility for giving them respect, as you clearly did before and after the game. When your leader says that, it’s natural for the team to think the same way.

At least we've got a game next that we could win.. LOL..

If we play like this for Newcastle, then it will be another spanking. At least we are at Elland Road for that one. (At least..)

 

I will bet big money that Arsenal will not win the league this season. We held them pretty easily for half hour and were gradually picking up the pace and getting into it when we messed up and let them score. We almost went straight down the other end to do to them what they did to us , we fluffed our lines. Then we screwed up again and that killed us. So for me they are nowhere near as good as Man City who themselves got turned over, Chelsea, Liverpool. We made Arteta think he was Pep yesterday.

Hoping Farke learnt a big lesson yesterday and gets it sorted otherwise he will get compared to his last 2 visits to the premier league

 

How come Leicester city won the premiership then ? Their value id below .
Leicester City's value depends on what you are asking about; their enterprise value was reported at $781 million (£630 million) in May 2023 by Forbes, while their squad market value is estimated at around €176.45 million according to Transfermarkt

 

Get it snapped up

 

Watched the highlights. Passes looked rushed, as previously commented on. We seemed scared to tackle them and put a foot in, though Stujik at least harried people coming his way. Can't blame the keeper for three of those goals. One through a crowded set of legs, one point blank from a mass of bodies and then the pen. The second he should have come forward and made himself big - Meslier was good at that. Was Piroe on the pitch?

 

Freak season if you remember. Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and Man Utd were all struggling and basically Leicester ended up winning by default. We have never seen a season like that when all the main favourites bombed at different stages of the season and it’s never happened since, except to Man Utd but Arsenal have replaced them after their slump

 

I think before a ball was kicked most people were stating it wasn't a game to start Piroe, it was a close call between Struijk and Bijol , most saying beforehand too, Longstaff should have started, him and Nmecha have the experience and importantly the height to help deal better with the dead ball specialists of the league, no one saying we'd have got something out of the game but the performance could have been less embarrassing.
You look at all the top managers, they pick a team for the opposition, tweek things from game to game, that's why clubs have 25 man squads, Farke's inflexibility will cost him his job, he's on a short leash with the hierarchy, he's just giving them the ammunition they want, wouldn't be surprised if they haven't already contacted Nuno's representative

 

Yet last season he seemed able to pick home and away teams. Why buy new players and not play them? Though tbf they've had little time in training to get used to tactics and each other.

 

I think he will over time and you probably answered your own question. I’m not sure I’ve a seen us make a signing in positions where we have other players and think ‘he walks into the team’ - Stach maybe? And he looked like a squad player at best yesterday!

The guys who’ve been here the longest understand the system. It will be a gradual process to work out who first choice is and like last year it may differ home and away, opponent to opponent

 

Reaction time of a striking slug.

 

It was almost comical for one of the goals, his arm moved to block a shot that had gone past him 5 minutes earlier (I exaggerate slightly)