This is the problem of going down once you go down you have to stay down. You need to put the doubt in the refs head.
What really pisses me off though is on here our own fans criticising our players that stay down accusing them of 'play acting when anyone with the remotest knowledge of such instance’s can understand the player is actually fucking hurt. Munoz being a classic example.
Sometimes a player goes down after actually being brought down and felt something. Salah is one that wouldn’t go down without reason yet the refs gave him nothing (perhaps he got back up quickly as possible?).
This ‘debate’ that we have started now is for me uncalled for, disrespectful, distasteful, unnecessary, …, I hope it stops soon. It’s for the authorities and officials to deal with as they are all completely bent there’s not much chance of that happening. The question is how should we respond. As Jaffod says the club should say more as it’s our players who will be the ones getting injured because of it!
I have a go at the opposition players for doing it, I’d be a hypocrite if i don’t say anything or pretend not to notice when our own players do it. Quite often the side with man on the floor refuses to kick it out of play. That says a lot.
Players go down, get nothing, a minute or less later they are back running around like nothing has happened. I am not talking about contact or when a player might have fallen awkwardly and then they require some kind of treatment . I see players on all teams that go down after doing a triple jump action 
I actually thought Barcola was pretty good yesterday, he just didn’t see enough of the ball. Gakpo was poor, Wirtz was OK. No more than that.
Apart from their goal, Alisson and Van Dijk did well, Jacquet had another solid game, Araujo and Kerkez had good games, Trey did well, Mac Allister was our best player but should have buried his header, Isak did alright but like Barcola wasn’t involved enough.
As Roy Keane would put it, “That’s his job!”
Making up for it would be if he went forward and scored the equaliser.
I absolutely love Ali but these brain farts of his are starting to become more frequent.
I think this Arsenal side remind me of peak Mourihno, because they clearly have some talented players, but they are set up to play like relegation strugglers: Park the bus, endless shithousery and hope to get something on the break or for the opposition to make a mistake.
I’m just glad that I’m not an Arsenal fan and have to watch this garbage every week.
Incidentally, the squad and Iraola are both on a learning curve, but I am actually enjoying watching us this season. Any annoyance has come from the usual sources (PGMOL) but I appreciate what the lads are doing on the pitch.
I’d say that one influential player could be enough. But yeah, these last years, we lost Milner, then Hendo, and finally Trent. Three English internationals with a high standing in the game who had a word with the ref when necessary. Whether we like it or not, this had an influence on games.
Currently, we are totally deprived from that. With a bit of luck, Trey could evolve into someone like that, but we are still far away from that point.
Agreed I’ve not turned us off in disgust this season so far
Actually did switch off Villarreal for 5 minutes.
If Palace get relegated, and by the looks of it they’re well on their way, we could be in for Wharton.
I felt all our starting line up played well it was just the realism Infront of goal that was lacking.
If it hadn’t been for a fuck up from a goal kick we would have managed a draw probably.
I would have liked to see Gakpo and Barcola switching or maybe even Rio on for Gakpo. Even so I’d go again with that team.
1st half Barcola and Wirtz were quite good, Gakpo not so much.
Alissons bad ball(again) put unexpected pressure on us which could have been cleared by Virgil but wasn’t, other than that Virgil was pretty good as was Jaquet and Araujo.
Trey and MacAllister were very good and Isak didn’t see enough of the ball to do much.
Kerkez hasn’t lived up to the billing so far, if he doesn’t improve this season i think we’ll end up needing a new LB.
not to be too corny…but i think you need to change from a doubter to a believer
Arujo and VVD may have had more touches in the box than Isak…and yes there is something to have to deal with there…but they also havent scored as many as Isak this season…so there is that aswell.
let him float around the edges of the game…and sometimes it will look horrible…but when it works, it works…hes a quality striker, on TV and in the flesh, you can see the absolute quality he brings.
thats the issue that stats will never come to grips with…
to borrow a Jazz saying… sometimes its not the notes you play, but its the notes you dont play that count…
Just reading through the thread and others may comment on this but I saw it and wanted to give my view, as this stat does not really tell the right story.
First of all, Arsenal are the best defensive side in the Prem and they have been for some time. Second, they pile all the dark arts of top of that, so they are one of the worst teams you can play against as they are almost anti-football, going over at will and spoiling the whole game. Third, they were aided by a very obliging referee, who was happy to give them almost unlimited free kicks all day long.
On our end, even with all this, Wirtz had a great free kick that hit the bar. Fine margins. MacAllister - a player who is usually good in the air, especially for his smallish stature - missed a fairly straightforward one and should have scored. And then Isak was pulled back very clearly, when he was moving in to nod it home. A very clear penalty was not given, and inexplicably, with all the cameras and VAR, neither was the ref called over to the monitor to have another look.
I thought we did ok, under the circumstances. We looked the better side. We lost our way a bit when Nyoni came off, and a lot has been said, and more will be said as we go, about finding the best midfield balance and dropping some big names.
Overall, we remain a work in progress, but I really like the fight we are showing. Ultimately we will likely fall short in the league this year, but so long as we don’t drop off too dramatically I.e. miss the CL, I can live with that, provided we are seeing signs of progress.
Still, at this early stage nothing is conceded and we fight on.
While I agree its early days, and that usually its the attack that takes longer to fix in a rebuild, I am still concerned about the seeming lack of cutting edge in our attacking design and patterns of play.
And it comes down mostly to Wirtz. We have to GIVE HIM THE FVCKING BALL!!!
It doesn’t matter what the stats say about turnover, we have to give him the ball, not once, not when we’ve dressed up the ball a bit, but asap when he’s open.
Those stats don’t tell you that he who takes the most risk, is the one more likely to generate turnovers. Yamal will have more turnovers than Rodri. Its the nature of the game, his role and where he recieves the ball..
Mo Salah’s gone now. We have to hand over the reins to Wirtz.
A few weeks ago Uli Hoeness went on his eternal rant about Wirtz. I don’t often agree with him, but when he said the problem was that LFC was treating him on the field like any other player, I thought he was dead right!
Replacing him yesterday with Koumas was madness!!! I like Koumas, God bless him, but he’s not of this level…
We spent so much time in the 2hf just crossing the ball. Where is the clever design of play and movement? I’m just not seeing it atm…
Late to the post match party here, but I don’t understand those that say we played poorly outside of 25-30 minutes. Arsenal are the defending champions and, despite their dark arts and shitty football, are very good, especially defending a lead. We were never going to play free flowing football and completely dominate. I thought we played well and were very unlucky not to get a result. I see Arsenal fans saying they could have scored another if they really wanted to but were confident they could defend the lead. I am not sure about the former. They proved the latter, albeit with some help from the referee. I cannot understand how the pull on Isak is not a penalty. I completely understand if the on-field ref missed it but for VAR to not have the referee take a look is scandalous. There is rarely a more obvious penalty. Same VAR as Doku kick to Macca game…come on. I also agree that we got worse when Trey went off. Maybe that is because we were frantic and trying to equalize, but we were objectively worse when Dom came on for him. Trey IMHO has given the manager a huge selection headache moving forward. If we want to continue with a 2-man midfield, he provides a balance we do not have in any other midfielder. The middle of the park needs reshaping, and that likely means selling one of Macca, Grav, or Dom. I think Macca fits Iraola’s system and we are seeing that in his performances. I’d give him a contract and sell Grav. Then we can bring in a Camara type. Like that balance much better.
TIA had a long article about Madley’s history of shafting Liverpool and the fist pump with Gabriel after warning him about his yellow card count for the next match, basically he wasn’t going to give a yellow and after that he should not be anywhere near Liverpool matches in future.
Very true. Especially in the case of avant garde Free Jazz.
I do not think it is. He was bought as a difference maker. £100m plus to run games and break down exactly this kind of side. More than a year in we are still talking about adaption. Like I say. I like the lad. I want it to work but so far it is not working. If you put Dom there we might get more.
But that’s not how it works in real life outside of Playstation…Its a function of multiple external factors around him…
I have never played football on the Playstation so no idea! I agree its a system but big players take a game, grab it, have moments. He looks lost.
I thought there was a spell last season where he and Ekitike looked to be forming a very good link-up, unfortunately Ekitike got injured and put stop to that.