3-0. Deflected strike from Bowen goes in. No idea what was said at half time but we’ve been completely asleep this half.
Terrible performance. Not good enough. We need better back ups to Saka and Martinelli. Trossard and Nelson are too big of a drop off.
Our defending and midfield structure (or lack of) has been a bigger issue. Zinchenko, White, Gabriel, all been poor, whereas Jorginho, Havertz and Vieira have been non-existent. Just not good enough.
Yeah having both Haverts and Viera in midfield is a terrible plan. You get a complete lack of intensity from both.
I think Havertz, Vieira and Jorginho were ok in the first half. The biggest problem has been we've been utterly dreadful out wide. 2nd half midfield has collapsed - that is true.
By the way, I'm not just basing this off tonight because I've said it before, however, I want to reiterate. I realise Arteta's improved us a lot, but he still has some big question marks about our cup competition record. Since winning the FA Cup in 2020, we've exited early out of all the cups early - apart from in 2022, where we got to the League Cup semi finals and lost to eventual winners Liverpool. The bottom line is he can't keep getting let off the hook for early cup exits. We need to be looking to go deep in these competitions, we can't keep writing them off.
The buck stops with the manager and the manager has either signed/decided to play these players. He has to be held accountable for our rubbish cup record since 2020.
Never bough that. Ultimately it's about the players. They are good enough , but the application tonight was simply not there.
Odegaard gets a meaningless goal in the 96th minute for what is effectively the last kick of the game. FT. 3-1. Out of the League Cup. 2nd loss of the season. I'm not devastated, as it is only the League Cup, but I wanted us to go far in this competition. So to exit so tepidly is a huge disappointment, as I felt we had a strong chance of winning it this season. Hopefully it's a reality check that our squad depth isn't as good as people think it is. On to Newcastle away.
And whose job is it to motivate and get the best out of the players at their disposal? You're letting Arteta off the hook too easily here.
He's not on the hook. though. We're doing really well and losing a fairly meaningless game isn't going to worry me. If we saw this against Newcastle I would be far more concerned. Never good to see such useless performances by talented players like Trossard and Gabriel, but I just dont think the players care about this tournament.
We haven't won the League Cup since 1993. This isn't a meaningless game. It was a chance to win a trophy and we got knocked out with a whimper. Now, obviously it's the least important trophy of the 4 competitions we were in - hence why I'm not fuming about getting KO'd - however, I want us to try and win every game we can. So to exit in the fashion we did is extremely disappointing. Let's hope for a response against Newcastle.
