Trey-Macca pivot. Perfectly balanced. Trey as the deeper CM and providing defensive cover and passes from the deep. Macca being the slightly more advanced of the duo and providing those crunching tackles and the late runs into the box. Szobo and Gravenberch needs to take a look and learn from how the duo performed against one of the best midfield pivots in the league. The team certainly didn’t miss them at all.
Wirtz looking more lively than before. Was involved in everything good in the first half
Araujo and Jacquet doing reasonably well in their first meeting against Arsenal.
The bad/concerning :
The midfield pivot choices. It could be a case of Szobo being slightly unfit but upon coming on, we lost all control of the midfield. Szobo’s passes were quite underhit, he couldn’t be the screen at the midfield, his set-pieces so far this season hasn’t been good at all. Him coming on meant that Macca needs to drop back and be less effective. All he could only do is run and tbh, it wasn’t too effective either. Szobo and Gravenberch are in danger of being at the bench for a long time and I cannot see them being too happy being benched for a 19 year old kid.
GK Situation. It seems like Ali has lost quite a fair bit of concentration and distribution from the back. Needs to buck up more. Marma is a good shot stopper but is pretty uncomfortable with his feet. Might need to pray very hard that Brughmans is an Alisson regen.
Kerkez. Had a torrid first 15 minutes but got better in the end. Needs to support his winger more and learn how to fucking cross properly.
Our crosses today are pretty sad. They are largely underhit and do not have a lot of swerve to it.
Set-piece. Did fuck all with it bar for the Wirtz shot on the cross bar. We really need to practice more on set-pieces.
Haven’t read the comments yet but just watched the game. First half I thought was the best I’ve seen us under AI. Terribly sloppy goal to give away - I’ve hated that Virg pass to the keeper right next to him move for ages I don’t think it ever creates space for us and when it goes wrong it is disastrous. Also think Araujo needed to get back to mark Havertz there.
Very noticeable that when Dom came on in place of Nyoni (who was probably shattered) that we looked far less fluid. Nyoni and Wirtz worked well and, while Isak got involved more, his touch was disappointing.
All in all I think we played better today than we did in the corresponding 1-0 fixture last year and there are lots of positive signs. I just hate how we (Macca excepted) allow the cheaty Arsenal cunts - Timber, Gabriel, Havertz chief amongst them - to dive and foul all over the place. We have to get tougher. Everytime a 50-50 or even 40-60 decision went against Arsenal they got in the refs face whereas we were constantly looking grateful and surprised even when we got fouls called. The hypocrisy of Havertz having a go at Alexis when he had been constantly simulating - had we been stronger calling out his theatrics I think Arsenal would have ended up with a sending off or two. I also strongly dislike shaking hands with these cunts afterwards. They are cheats. The likes of Isak should have told Timber and Gabriel what they are and to get fucked. Personally I’d celebrate any football (or non football) misfortune to befall Arteta and many of his team. They are a cancer on what football used to be and seek to play as little football as they can while turning it into a pantomime type of grid iron.
Baffled anyone’s questioning that it’s a penalty, he impedes play. Do it anywhere else on the pitch he gives a foul. And Madley loves giving fouls. Guy had a sweepstake on second half.
its all a bit meh to me, feels like overall its not a bad setback to have this early in the peice…looking at the bigger picture.
cant help but feel the overall narative needs to be one of slow and steadt progress, get to within a few points of the top and the expectations grow to a point where maybe Iraola has to sacrafice a few experimental projects and sessions…
just feel long term this result might even be preferable.
even from an Arsenal bigger picture, the more ingrained to thier antifootball they become, the harder it will be as a club, for them to become more progressive.
right now they are the most effective team in England… but they are far away from being a team that looks like creating a dynasty, not impossible for them, but the longer they play this kinda aggressive, rigid kind of ‘anti’ football, the better for competing clubs…if you know my angle…
They ain’t winning the European Cup anytime soon on the trajectory they are following.
A 1-0 loss to the side at the top of the table is probably an accurate reflection of where we are as a side. We have played City, Arsenal, Brighton, and Brentford, four of the top 5 excluding ourselves in the first 9 - and Chelsea holds no terrors. It is a better side than it was in August, and the pathways to improvement are actually fairly obvious.
I am absolutely content to watch the next couple of months unfold, I had minimal expectations coming into the season, really just securing a Champions League spot. But I am starting to sense more of an upside.
I have very little doubt that in the PL, we play against 12 men, and unfortunately the 12th is the one opponent that we cannot complain or moan about. I am sure that the organisation that runs the 12th group have an agenda against LFC. And, I think it stems from the era of Shanks, Paisley, Dalgleish successes. We definitely get the worst of them to ref our games, and the funny thing is, they are in some serious competition as to who is the worst.
We didn’t deserve to lose, the after taste was more of deep frustration especially with the ref
YNWA
It was a very clever shirt pull that had its effect when Isak was in the air. If it had been when Isak was launching he’d probably of gone down ‘naturally’. If the ref sees that anywhere else on the pitch it’s normally a yellow card (at least if it’s one of our players pulling).
We had 2 other possible penalties.
Still we aren’t aggressive enough, don’t attack the ball enough. This gives the ref the opportunity to say there wasn’t enough to justify a penalty.
I’m also not happy with our lackluster efforts at putting on pressure when VVD plays a long ball. Gakpo looks like he can not be bothered. I mean the ball is in the air for ages and the only players near challenging for it were in yellow. Gakpo, Isak and Barcola are still far to far up field. Even if they are close they make no challenge so there’s no second ball for our midfield to fight for.
This has to be our biggest worry. You cannot win without scoring and that requires shots on target. We need more aggression imo our forwards don’t even look like they want the ball whilst Nyoni and Macca are working their socks off.
Continuing I cannot see how any other starting midfield than Nyoni and Macca can be contemplated at the moment.