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Ramsdale this, Raya that. We’re still unbeaten in the PL, suck on that.
Smith Rowe RCM and Havertz CF vs Sheffield if Jesus is not available 🙏
Reality is Odegaard RCM even if he stinks it up 4x in a row and Nketiah doing nothing for 80 minutes at striker.
I think Smith Rowe would cook in there
I think the current conversation around Odegaard isn’t really representative of what’s happening. I don’t actually think he’s in particularly bad form. His shooting hasn’t been good but he also overperformed here last season, so regression is expected. He’s given possession away cheaply a few times but occasionally did that last season too.
I’d argue that our inability to be technically secure enough as a team to create sustained pressure means that we’re just not spending a lot of time in a game state that suits his strengths. And the problem here is that when we’re not compressed in the opposition 3rd where he’s sitting in the pockets, he offers little else beyond his decent pressing. It’s the same thing with Jorginho and Zinny, they both like controlled game states and suffer without it, but none of these three are particularly good at helping the team to regain that game state when we lose it (at least zinny and Jorginho can try via 1st phase buildup, an option Odegaard doesn’t have).
Like we see Kai as a tactical choice to play a certain way, Odegaard must be viewed the same. He’s not a “fits every style” type player like Saliba, Rice and Saka are. But when the game suits him, he’s unbelievably good
I love Odegaard but if he isn’t a “fit every style” style player, he has no business being captain. When we’re under the pump and need stability, the guy with the armband is the first guy the boys look to. I won’t be surprised if we see Rice take up that mantle further down the line.
Fair point about the over-performing last season which is a credit to Martin himself firstly and I agree that he’s not actually in a bad form, just less effective.
problem here is that when we’re not compressed in the opposition 3rd where he’s sitting in the pockets, he offers little else beyond his decent pressing.
I feel like this is another consequence of Martin being so good last season. A lot of fans have said that teams have mostly worked out Arsenal towards the latter part of last season, hence why Mikel’s experimentations this season.
One of the key elements to Arsenal’s attacking flair was the connection between Ode and Saka - this was particularly effect at the early to mid parts of the season. However as mentioned, teams kind of found out this mostly successful recipe and doubled on Saka and man marked Ode to harass him as much as possible.
Also it’s important to consider that this Arsenal team haven’t even fully synchronized and firing in all cylinders yet this season. If Arsenal can reach the similar peak form from last season, I think it will also positively coincide with Martin’s form going up.
Like we see Kai as a tactical choice to play a certain way, Odegaard must be viewed the same.
Again it’s a fair point and I do agree with it but the only caveat and drawback to this is that Ode is the captain. Generally dropping a captain isn’t ideal and last thing Mikel needs right now is more media outlets creating hyperbolic drama.
Somehow you’ve made the problem with Odegaard sound like praise for him. So Odegaard is needed (insanely, his primary role as a #10) to help us keep the opponent under pressure, but it’s not something he can initiate himself - you need to have a magician of a DM in Partey for that. And he is not the most creative player. And his goalscoring last season was unsustainable. And this is the player we are building our team around?
I wanted to type something similar. Odegaard’s lackluster form has more to do with the people around him. That LCM position has been a big problem point because of which we have not been able to create that sustained pressure that we have seen last season.
The good thing about Odegaard is we just need to make a few tactical adjustments and we could get the best out of him at the cost of game control.
Have to move on from TP5 soon, mans becoming a liability with his absences and injury records.
Kimmich doesn’t have a good relationship with Tuchel…
i would love it and i think i deserve
kimmich as a lone 6… i refuse to be there.
Pivot with Rice in a 4231/442, Saka and Martinelli unleashed on the break with Odegaard in the classic 10. I will most certainly be there.
We could have sold him for some money in the Summer. We can forget that, now.
Hojlund Premier League 007, I’ll be there
Takehiro Tomiyasu you have rocked my world
Anyone else think we weren’t as under the cosh last night as they made out? Seemed like TNT commentary wanted to will it into existence. Apart from that one big chance I wasn’t really that nervy throughout the whole time Sevilla were ‘chasing’ an equaliser.
We were on the backfoot after the goal for about 10-15 minutes. Then it was straightforward
Were we even really on the back foot though?
Yes
Yeah they were desperately trying to sell that Sevilla were all over us, at one point the woman was literally talking about arsenal being on the back foot as martinelli casually had the ball on the edge of their box.
I think they were just trying to make a game of it. They’re describing the game they wish was happening rather than the game that is actually happening.
im seeing lots of sevilla fans and neutrals saying it was a even game and that there was little between both teams…how?!
I am personally excited for a season of “Raya vs Ramsdale blame off” in this sub. We’re going to see levels of factionalism unheard of since Özil was stinking up the joint
Michael Owen was right last night that Raya is the goalkeeper with the most spotlight on him atm. Not just because he’s a keeper for Arsenal but also who he replaced as well. Everything he does is overanalysed.
Ederson & Allison also have dodgy moments that they get away with regularly but never gets mentioned. Vicario made some hospital passes the other night that if Fulham had better attackers would’ve punished him for. Again mostly silence on that.
Somehow my take that we needed ESR instead of one of Eddie/Kai/Trossard for counterattacking yesterday is not landing well.
I understand the defensive questions surround ESR but we lost all attacking initiative after Saka and Jesus went off, with Martinelli tired. It was Rice attempting to carry the ball the few opportunities we had.
ESR is not even defensively bad. People finding excuses for why he is not playing.
Reminder that Ramsdale > Raya
Get over it. Support our players ffs.
Ramsdale is not one of our players?
So is raya?
Both garnacho and martinelli had one on ones last night. One player helped his team to a win in spain, and one player had to rely on Harry maguire to compensate his mistakes at home to Copenhagen.
Martinelli is literally what United fans think garnacho is
martinelli had 2 one on ones and missed the one of them that was comparable to Garnacho’s one in difficulty.
And no, united fans know that Martinelli is above Garnacho, they are just saying that he has similar potential (he is 3 years younger) so this is a strawman.
And i’m saying it while believing that Garnacho won’t be as good as martinelli is
woke up at 5am after having a dream tekkerz guru was our new manager.
The thing with a young squad is it’s not guaranteed that there will be a continuous improvement over time. In our squad, compared to last year, the only one who has shown reasonable improvement has been Saliba. Maybe Big Gabi at a push.The rest have stagnated or regressed. But yet we are joint 2nd in the PL. That can be explained by a couple of things
1)The inclusion of one Declan Rice, who in my biased view has been the player of the season so far in the PL.
- The defence( excluding the GK) has been pretty good. The mistakes are a lot lesser compared to last season.
So what clearly, needs to improve is everyone playing in front of Rice. There seems a lack of cohesion between the forward line. Probably, with everyone fit now, that will happen in a couple of weeks.
It’s pretty likely that a young squad proves, though. Be patient
Good morning Takehiro Tomiyasu nation
I mean fuck United, but that Onana penalty save is pretty good. You can see how much it means to the guy in his reactions afterward. Been a tough start for him for what is probably a dream situation to be in (playing for United).
That penalty was absolutely shit
I thought it was an awful penalty.